Free Republic

Going further than the Treasury Department's tacit support for debanking alleged "hate groups" after the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot, a State Department component that "strengthen[s] resilient democratic societies" developed a more sweeping plan for financially choking off disfavored narratives a month later. The U.S. Agency for International Development wrote a "Disinformation Primer" that appears to have been started in "late 2020," judging by a reference to the most up-to-date "social media initiatives" by Facebook and Twitter "to address disinformation and misinformation."It was still being written at least 10 days into the Biden administration, referring twice to the Jan. 31,...

A Romanian national pleaded guilty on Monday to charges related to his role in a “swatting” ring that targeted dozens of public officials, including a former US president. Going by the aliases “Plank,” “Jonah” and “Cypher,” 26-year-old Thomasz Szabo took part in a years-long conspiracy to place bogus 911 calls, claiming emergencies were taking place at the homes of top government officials, and make bomb threats against government buildings and houses of worship, according to Justice Department. Szabo and a co-conspirator, 21-year-old Serbian national Nemanja Radovanovic, allegedly targeted about 100 people, including members of Congress, governors, cabinet-level executive branch officials...

Yesterday, I [Turley] was notified by the Justice Department confirming that a recent swatting indictment includes the person or persons responsible for my own swatting a year ago. One of the defendants, Thomasz Szabo, was arrested a couple weeks ago. The indictment below charges two foreign nationals: Thomasz Szabo, 26, of Romania, and Nemanja Radovanovic, 21, of Serbia. Szabo and Radovanovic are each charged with one count of conspiracy, 29 counts of threats and false information regarding explosives, and four counts of transmitting threats in interstate and foreign commerce. Their alleged conspiracy began as early as December 2020. It continued...

Impeachment Star Witness Was Aware of Burisma Corruption Ex-Con Hired by D.C. as ‘Violence Interrupter’ Charged with Murder Judicial Watch Confronts the Election Crisis President Trump Echoes Judicial Watch Concerns about Dirty Voter Rolls Turns out that one of the Democrats’ star witnesses in their sham impeachment of President Trump – former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie “Masha” Yovanovitch – seemed to have been shading the truth. Are you at all surprised? We just received 210 pages of records from the State Department showing that Yovanovitch had specifically warned in 2017 about corruption allegations against Burisma Holdings. However, during...

Newsmax and voting technology firm Smartmatic reached a settlement in their defamation lawsuit on Thursday.The last-minute agreement came just as jury selection began in a Delaware courtroom, with opening statements slated for Monday, according to CNN. Details of the settlement remain undisclosed, but Newsmax confirmed the resolution Thursday afternoon.“Newsmax is pleased to announce it has resolved the litigation brought by Smartmatic through a confidential settlement,” the network said in a statement.Smartmatic and Newsmax have reached a settlement in the voting technology company’s election defamation lawsuit against the right-wing news outlet shortly before the case was set to go to trial....

Dec 6, 2021 Left wing organizations are uniting to “Shut Down the Capitol” on December 7, 2021, when Congress returns to session. Broadly organized by “Shut Down DC,” the groups are attempting to force horrific socialist policies before the 2022 elections. Using the highly sophisticated progressive tool Action Network, “Shut Down DC” is openly organizing leftist lunatics to engage in “street blockades surrounding the Capitol”. “Most of us don’t identify as Dems but we ARE angry – and we’re shutting down the Capitol on 12/7,” Shut Down DC tweeted. According to a mass email sent to supporters on Wednesday, the...

The FBI "asked me to facilitate a bribe for her" amounting to $18 million on behalf of foreign government, he says Overstock CEO Dr. Patrick Byrne claimed the had FBI approached him to bribe Hillary Clinton in 2016 as part of a covert sting operation on behalf of former President Obama. Byrne recently explained in a “SteelTruth” interview with Ann Vandersteel how the FBI recruited him to help them carry out their sting operation against Clinton. “I bribed Hillary Clinton with $18 million. I facilitated a bribe for Hillary Clinton on January 14th 2016 right here in this town on...

By Wayne Allyn Root In just the past few hours, we have uncovered perhaps the biggest scandal of the Biden presidency. It turns out Joe Biden never signed anything- no laws, no Executive Orders, no legal documents, nothing. They were all signed by autopen. There were no original signatures. Which makes them all illegal. That makes everything that happened and passed during the past four years null and void. But that brings up the question of the century: If Biden never signed anything, who did? Who was calling the shots? Who was running the country? I know the answer… All...

According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), last year, somebody planted a bomb at the Republican National Committee (RNC) headquarters on January 5 to go off on January 6, the day of the Capitol riot. But the person who was the FBI’s Director of the Washington Field Office on January 6, 2021 told members of Congress last year that he agreed the bomb couldn’t have gone off on January 6 because it had a 60-minute timer on it. “One of the many implausible aspects of the FBI’s pipe bomb narrative is that the device outside the Capitol Hill Club...

Finding links to the Soros family in the Joe Biden White House should come as no surprise. In addition to George’s decades-long meddling in our politics, he spent tens of millions backing Biden and other Democrats in 2020, and Alex got in on the action too, throwing $700,000 at the would-be worst president of the 21st century. As documented in the book The Man Behind the Curtain: Inside the Secret Network for George Soros (2022), George planted his seeds of influence in the Biden White House even before Biden took office. During the transition, the incoming Biden administration assembled “Transition...

Via TGP’s Brian Lupo who is covering the trial from Tampa 1st Update (first day in the court room but the trial’s 2nd day…special thanks to “Jeremy Brown’s Campaign” for filling me in this morning and during breaks) The trial of political prisoner Jeremy Brown has been underway since Monday with jury selection, however, the fireworks began to fly immediately on Tuesday and Wednesday! The Gateway Pundit previously reported on the retired Army Green Beret’s CCTV footage of federal agents offering him a paid informant job on January 6th at his home in December 2020. Brown is asking others to...

One of the two men found dead in a training area of a North Carolina base this week had spent about a dozen of his 19 years in the service assigned to Special Forces and U.S. Army Special Operations Command. Master Sgt. William J. Lavigne II, 37, with the command's headquarters and headquarters company, was found dead Wednesday afternoon in the training area on Fort Bragg, along with a veteran previously assigned to the base, the military said in a statement. "The loss of a soldier is always tragic," Lt. Col. Justin Duvall, commander of USASOC's headquarters and headquarters company,...

President-elect Donald Trump’s victory bodes well for US-Morocco relations. As King Mohamed VI recalled in his statement congratulating Trump on his election win, during his first term, Trump recognized Rabat’s full sovereignty over the disputed territory of Western Sahara. Trump made this recognition with a presidential proclamation on December 10, 2020, in exchange for Morocco reestablishing diplomatic relations with Israel. In his statement, Mohammed VI went on to say that “the Moroccan people will forever be grateful” for this recognition, calling Washington “our longstanding friend and ally.” While Morocco hopes to pick up where it left off in negotiations with...

Merlina the raven is missing. Legend says that unless six ravens are kept at the Tower of London at all times, the kingdom of Britain will fall The Tower of London’s famous 'Queen' raven has been missing for several weeks and is now feared dead. In a statement on Twitter, Tower of London staff said Merlina's continued absence indicated she may have sadly passed away. Merlina, who joined the tower’s flock in 2007, was the "ruler of the roost" and will be missed, the statement said. Legend says that unless six ravens are kept at the Tower of London at...

A new report out from CNN states that federal prosecutors for the DOJ possess a recording that shows former President Donald Trump speaking candidly about "a classified Pentagon document about a potential attack on Iran."CNN is primarily interested in what the existence of this recording means in terms of the DOJ case against Trump. (snip) The meeting was held shortly after the New Yorker published a story stating that following the election in 2020, Milley repeatedly argued against carrying out a strike on Iran and was concerned that Trump "might set in motion a full-scale conflict that was not justified."

Iranian general Qassem Soleymani was a master terrorist who orchestrated atrocities around the world that claimed thousands of lives, including hundreds if not thousands of Americans. That was the default position after President Trump took out Soleymani last week. The Democrats’ furious reaction overlooked realities about the Iranian regime in general and Soleymani in particular. Israel had also targeted the Quds Force commander, but according to the Kuwaiti Al-Jarida, the Obama administration tipped off the Tehran regime. Soleymani emerged unscathed and continued to spearhead the Islamic regime’s military and terrorist operations. Those were funded by criminal activity, and on that...

The encrypted messaging app Telegram has raised over $1 billion by selling bonds to foreign investors, its Russia-born founder Pavel Durov said Tuesday. Durov, 36, wrote on his Telegram channel that the bonds were sold to “some of the largest and most knowledgeable investors from all over the world”. He added that this will allow Telegram to grow “while sticking to its values and remaining independent”. Durov said the funds will fuel the app’s monetisation strategy that was outlined in December, according to which the platform will launch paid services this year.

A former Russian intelligence officer has been sentenced to 18 years' hard labour for treason and espionage. Colonel Alexander Zaporozhsky, 52, was found guilty of passing information about Russian overseas intelligence activities to foreign governments for five years. He was also suspected of revealing the identities of more than 20 Russian US-based spies. Since his retirement in 1997, Mr Zaporozhsky had been working for an American company in the state of Maryland, but he was arrested in Moscow in 2001. The court gave Mr Zaporozhsky a tougher sentence than the 16 years demanded by prosecutors. 'Secrets to CIA' He was...

Iran and Venezuela have grown closer in recent years, as both countries seek to counter the intense pressure campaign that the US has mounted against them. US officials have said that Iran's military presence in Venezuela is growing and that if Iranian missiles start to arrive in the South American country, then the US could step in. Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. US officials have watched warming ties between Iran and Venezuela with concern, expressing alarm over what they say are Iran's military presence in and arms sales to the South American country.The Trump administration's special representative for...