Free Republic

A senior FBI official in the bureau’s Washington field office has been fired after coming under congressional scrutiny for suspected political bias in handling the investigation of Hunter Biden’s computer laptop. The Washington Times learned that Timothy Thibault, an assistant special agent in charge, was forced to leave his post according to two former FBI officials familiar with the situation. Mr. Thibault was seen exiting the bureau’s elevator last Friday escorted by two or three “headquarters-looking types,” according to eyewitness accounts provided to one of the former officials.

Thibault left the agency on Friday – exactly one month after Senator Grassley outed him for his pattern of public partisanship and anti-Trump social media posts. On Tuesday, Thibault’s attorneys released a statement on their client and his career — they basically deny EVERYTHING!

The raid on President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate coincides with developments in the civil lawsuit he filed against Hillary Clinton, Perkins Coie, James Comey, Andrew McCabe, Lisa Page, Peter Strzok and the entire cabal of DOJ, FBI and Clinton campaign operatives via the fake Trump-Russia collusion hoax known as ‘spygate’. It doesn’t take a deep political analyst to look at the 108-page lawsuit, consider the evidence that would be needed to prove the lawsuit at trial, then overlay the timing of the court case and FBI raid to see both the content of the files at Mar-a-Lago and the motives of...

President-elect Donald Trump is now privy to intelligence briefings at his Mar-a-Lago estate as he waits to officially come back to the White House — after promising to clean house at some of the executive branch agencies that dogged him during his first term. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) began to provide Trump, 78, with briefings after his decisive victory earlier this month against Vice President Kamala Harris, the Washington Post first reported. A spokesperson declined to tell The Post specifically whether Trump has received briefings, but confirmed, “ODNI is acting consistent with the tradition, in...

WASHINGTON — The government and publishing titan Penguin Random House exchanged opening salvos in a federal antitrust trial Monday as the U.S. seeks to block the biggest U.S. book publisher from absorbing rival Simon & Schuster. The case comes as a key test of the Biden administration’s antitrust policy. The Justice Department has sued to block the $2.2 billion merger, which would reduce the Big Five U.S. publishers to four. The government’s star witness, bestselling author Stephen King, is expected to testify at Tuesday’s session of the weekslong trial in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. Mr. King’s works are...

Authorities erected barricades around the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) headquarters office in Washington, D.C. over the weekend. The bureau claims it has seen an increase in threats against the FBI and its agents in the wake of the FBI’s raid on former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home last week. Associated Press reporter Mike Balsamo tweeted photos of the new barricades around the FBI headquarters. “With an increasing number of threats against the FBI and agents, including an armed man who tried to breach a field office in Ohio, officials have put up barricades around FBI headquarters in DC. Similar...

Disclaimer: The Kyiv Independent is publishing this investigation to shed light on the alleged abuse of power in the leadership of one wing of the International Legion – a legion created for foreign fighters dedicated to defending Ukraine. The members of the Legion’s unit say that they reported their commanders’ misconduct to Ukrainian law enforcement, the parliament, and President Volodymyr Zelensky’s Office, but saw no proper reaction and thus turned to journalists as a last resort. Soldiers who pointed at the problems within this unit of the Legion claim they received threats for speaking up. For their safety, we do...

Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri was killed at the home of an FBI-wanted Taliban lackey who was once given a platform by the New York Times. The jihadist, one of the planners of the Sept. 11 attacks, was taken out by a CIA drone strike Sunday morning at a Kabul home belonging to senior Taliban official Sirajuddin Haqqani, according to initial reporting by the Gray Lady herself. The publication infamously published an op-ed penned by Haqqani — the leader of the insurgent Haqqani Network in Afghanistan linked to brutal and deadly attacks — to ask for a peace agreement between...

As we reported earlier, author Salman Rushdie was stabbed on Friday morning in Chautauqua, New York where he was about to give a lecture. He was on stage when a man dressed in black rushed onto the stage and began stabbing and beating him.That man has now been identified as Hadi Matar, 24, of Fairview, New Jersey.JUST IN: Author Salman Rushdie's alleged attacker has been identified as 24-year-old Hadi Matar, officials say. Rushdie was stabbed "at least once in the neck and at least once in the abdomen." https://t.co/TML9Ty3QS0 pic.twitter.com/3W3xcZtZUs— ABC News (@ABC) August 12, 2022He was taken down by...

Former President Donald Trump is threatening to file suit against Special Counsel Jack Smith over the August 2022 FBI raid of Mar-a-Lago. Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Smith to lead an independent investigation into Trump's post-presidency handling of classified documents and his actions leading up to the January 6 attack U.S. Capitol attack in November 2022, three months after the former president's South Florida home was searched in relation to the documents case. U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, who was appointed by Trump and has frequently been accused of bias in his favor, dismissed the documents case last week while...

A young mother has been sentenced to 15 years in prison for transmitting videos on Facebook of a protest in Cuba, the latest example of the communist government’s heavy-handed policies to crack down on growing dissent amid worsening economic conditions. Mayelín Rodríguez Prado, 23, was charged with “sedition” and disseminating “enemy propaganda” for publishing videos of a protest in the city of Nuevitas, in the central province of Camaguey, in August 2022. Another 12 demonstrators received sentences between 4 and 14 years in prison under similar charges, according to court documents shared by the Observatorio Cubano de Derechos Humanos, a...

Late on an October morning in a quiet neighborhood near Daytona Beach, Florida. FBI agent Steve Friend sits in his kitchen, fidgeting. He’s a wiry, energetic man, built like a marathoner, not muscled up but exuding fitness, not a sitter. This is not a person meant for desk work, much less staying home all day. But as a whistleblower whose name has been all over media after a complaint about statistical manipulation and other problems in the January 6th investigations, this will be his lot for a while. By that morning, the first rush of news stories about Friend’s case...

Bombshell allegations by FBI Special Agent Steve Friend contained in a whistleblower complaint filed late Wednesday with the Department of Justice inspector general reveal a politicized Washington, DC, FBI field office cooking the books to exaggerate the threat of domestic terrorism, and ­using an “overzealous” January 6 ­investigation to harass conservative Americans and violate their constitutional rights. Friend, 37, a respected 12-year veteran of the FBI and a SWAT team member, was suspended Monday, stripped of his gun and badge, and escorted out of the FBI field office in Daytona Beach, Fla., after complaining to his supervisors about the violations....

Following former President Donald Trump's complaints that President Joe Biden authorized deadly force during the search of Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in 2022, former GOP Representative Liz Cheney of Wyoming urged Republicans in Congress to overcome "cowardice" for "what you know is right." A court filling was unsealed on Tuesday showing briefing notes for the August 2022 Mar-a-Lago raid, which said: "Law enforcement officers of the Department of Justice [DOJ] may use deadly force when necessary." Trump faces 40 felony charges stemming from the search of his Florida residence in which he's accused of keeping classified documents after leaving the White...

The FBI on Tuesday evening issued a rare statement after court documents revealed the Bureau was authorized to use deadly force when it raided Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence in August 2022.Judge Aileen Cannon on Tuesday unsealed numerous motions related to Jack Smith’s classified documents case against Trump.(snip)....The President (Biden) has nothing to do with, and has zero input on, an Ops Plan. This is an internal law enforcement document and a standardized form that FBI lawyers require before engaging in any enforcement operations,” the FBI said.

The president has two faces. Here's one paragraph My support for Israel’s security is long-standing and unwavering—including its right to defend itself against attacks. Over these recent days, Israel has defended its people from indiscriminate rocket attacks launched by the terrorist group Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and the United States is proud of our support for Israel’s Iron-Dome, which intercepted hundreds of rockets and saved countless lives. I commend Prime Minister Yair Lapid and his government’s steady leadership throughout the crisis. Here's the next one The reports of civilian casualties in Gaza are a tragedy, whether by Israeli strikes against Islamic...

President Trump’s team has revealed a highly suspicious comment made by an FBI agent during a meeting at Mar-A-Lago two months before the raid that may very well prove Trump was being set up for a raid. The unprecedented raid on the Florida home of former President Trump continues to bring factors to light concerning all the players including the FBI. This week has already seen matters unfold, starting on Monday with a ruling concerning the warrant used by the FBI to conduct the search. Early on Monday, U.S. Magistrate Bruce Reinhart, the judge who approved the FBI’s search warrant,...

Judge Aileen Cannon on Wednesday unsealed more records related to Jack Smith’s classified documents case against Trump. The newly unsealed documents detail allegations that Jack Smith’s prosecutor Jay Bratt threatened Stanley Woodward, an attorney for Trump’s valet driver Walt Nauta. Jay Bratt tried to bribe Stanley Woodward and threatened him with a sinking judicial nomination if he didn’t get Walt Nauta to testify against Trump. “Upon Mr. Woodward’s arrival at Main Justice, he was led to a conference room where Mr. Bratt awaited with what appeared to be a folder containing information about Mr. Woodward. Mr. Bratt thereupon told Mr....

Special counsel Jack Smith’s team acknowledged Friday that some evidence in the prosecution of former President Donald Trump for hoarding classified documents at his Florida home may not be in the same sequence FBI agents found it when they swept into the Mar-a-Lago compound with a search warrant in August 2022. The concession from prosecutors in a court filing Friday afternoon came after attorneys for one of Trump’s co-defendants asked for a delay in the case because the defense lawyers were having trouble determining precisely where particular documents had come from in the 33 boxes the FBI seized almost two...

Judge Aileen Cannon unsealed a trove of documents Monday that appear to reveal a coordinated effort within the Biden administration to target Donald Trump with political prosecution after he left office. Special Counsel Jack Smith and other federal prosecutors in President Biden’s Department of Justice (DOJ) indicted Trump in June 2023 for allegedly mishandling classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago home. The indictment followed an unprecedented raid on a former president’s home the prior summer. President Biden also retained classified documents after leaving the vice presidency. Yet he was not charged because prosecutors say they believed he would “present himself to...