Free Republic

Forfeiture Action is the Latest Disruption of an Indicted North Korean Official’s Efforts to Generate Revenue for North Korea and its Weapons Program Through Illegal IT Worker Schemes and Cryptocurrency Theft The Department of Justice filed a civil forfeiture complaint today in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia alleging that North Korean information technology (IT) workers obtained illegal employment and amassed millions in cryptocurrency for the benefit of the North Korean government, all as a means of evading U.S. sanctions placed on North Korea. The funds were initially restrained in connection with an April 2023 indictment against...

Since the 2016 elections, politicians, journalists, and many others have raised the alarm about “foreign election influence” and “disinformation,” demanding greater “content moderation” by social media platforms. It is too easy, they argued, for foreign and malign actors to quickly “go viral” at low cost, leaving the good guys unable to correct bad information. We must become more “resilient” to disinformation. It’s now clear that all of that rhetoric was cover for a sweeping censorship effort by the federal government and government contractors. Since December, a small but growing group of journalists, analysts, and researchers have documented the rise of...

A senior Republican on the Senate Judiciary committee is demanding that U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration chief Anne Milgram address allegations of improper hiring and contracting of her past associates. The request Thursday by Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa follows an Associated Press investigation finding that a federal watchdog is investigating whether strict federal rules on no-bid contracting and hiring may have been violated to channel DEA work to Milgram’s associates. “These are serious allegations, and DEA must respond to them and clear the air,” Grassley wrote in a letter sent to Milgram’s office, a copy of which was obtained by...

The Biden administration’s Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) chief is under investigation for allegedly handing no-bid contracts worth millions of dollars to previous colleagues, The Associated Press reported Thursday, citing sources familiar with the probe. The Justice Department’s Office of Inspector General is conducting the investigation after at least a dozen employees, including some of DEA Administrator Anne Milgram’s previous associates, were hired under the contracts, according to the AP. One portion of the probe centers around $4.7 million for “strategic planning and communication” contracts handed to Milgram’s previous colleagues from the New Jersey attorney general’s office and at New York...

Two men working on behalf of the Chinese government’s Ministry of Public Security attempted to bribe an IRS agent in a scheme intended to further Beijing’s harassment of Falun Gong believers, the Justice Department revealed in a criminal complaint unveiled today. The defendants were arrested today in California on charges including acting as unregistered foreign agents, money laundering, and bribery. “The Chinese government has yet again attempted, and failed, to target critics of the PRC here in the United States,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement this afternoon. “The Justice Department will continue to investigate, disrupt, and prosecute...

Ramzan Kadyrov has expressed his outrage at the unfolding events in Moscow, where hundreds of people have come to a popular rally against the possible construction of a mosque. According to him, the Russian land must be defended on a daily basis, and Muslims are also involved in this difficult task. “If all these participants of the rally wholeheartedly have the idea of ​​​​defending Russian land, then go into the trenches with a machine gun,” Ramzan Kadyrov wrote in his Telegram channel.

The United States on Wednesday imposed sanctions on a Hungary-based bank linked to Russia, marking a new low point in Hungary’s relationship with Washington. The U.S. Treasury Department announced the penalties, which will target the International Investment Bank (IIB), a controversial institution located in Budapest with ties to the Russian state. The bank’s presence in Hungary has drawn the ire of Western officials, who fear it could be used for Russian intelligence operations inside Europe. Speaking to reporters in Budapest on Wednesday afternoon, U.S. Ambassador to Hungary David Pressman said Washington had repeatedly shared information with Hungarian counterparts about how...

Senator Bernie Sanders' Vermont office was set ablaze by a suspected arsonist who is on the run. Burlington firefighters were called to the senators office on the third floor of One Church Street around 10:45 am on Friday. Police said an unidentified man entered the vestibule of the office, sprayed an accelerant on the door and set it on fire, reported NBC5.

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - Three people are now facing federal charges for allegedly staging a hate crime during the Colorado Springs mayoral race in 2023. In the early morning hours of April 23, 2023, a burning cross in front a campaign sign for then-candidate Yemi Mobolade was found at the intersection of Union and Fillmore. The sign had been defaced with a racial slur. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Colorado (USAOC) now says the entire scene was a hoax, intended to make citizens think that there was a group of racists in Colorado Springs strongly opposed to...

WASHINGTON – Before the FBI announced it had arrested the suspected leaker of dozens of highly sensitive Ukraine war documents – some of which were created to brief the highest levels of the Pentagon – few would have suspected a 21-year-old National Guardsman as the potential culprit. The FBI nabbed Massachusetts Air National Guardsman Jack Teixeira at his mother’s home Thursday after he was implicated in the biggest national security breach in at least 10 years.

Massachusetts AIr National Guardsman Jack Teixeira, accused of classified document leak. CREDIT: Simon Ateba, TwitterThe big story Thursday was the arrest of 21-year-old Jack Teixeira, a member of the Massachusetts Air National Guard who allegedly leaked more than 100 pages of classified documents that exposed extremely sensitive information from the Pentagon regarding Ukraine, Russia, China, Israel, and documents produced by the Central Intelligence Agency and the National Security Agency.That story changed markedly through the day, though, and the sparse information we have about Teixeira raised major questions about how he could have possibly had access to such a wide-ranging tranche...

A judge on Tuesday sentenced former Massachusetts Air National Guardsman Jack Teixeira to 15 years in prison after he admitted to posting classified military information online. Teixeira, who was 21 when he was arrested in April 2023, pleaded guilty to six charges of willful retention and transmission of national defense information under the Espionage Act in March. Prosecutors have argued the case is "one of the most significant and consequential violations of the Espionage Act in American history." The former national guardsman reportedly uploaded hundreds of pages of sensitive military intelligence, including an assessment of the Russian and Ukrainian militaries,...

The Biden-Harris regime continues to thwart Israel in its war against Iran and its proxy states. On Saturday, The Jerusalem Post reported that two US intelligence documents were leaked to a pro-Iranian operation and then posted on a Telegram account linked to Iran. The documents that were leaked by the Biden-Harris regime to the pro-Iranian operation detailed Israeli plans for a potential strike plan on Iran. Both the US Defense Department and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence declined to comment on the leaked documents. The leak comes at a time when Israel is plotting a retalitory strike...

The State Department grossly mishandled its suspension of scandal-plagued Iran envoy Robert Malley, allowing him to continue accessing classified information and sensitive data after he was disciplined, according to an inspector general report reviewed by the Washington Free Beacon. The department's assistant inspector general gathered congressional staffers Wednesday afternoon for a closed-door briefing on the agency’s missteps after Malley had his security clearance pulled in 2023 for mishandling classified information. The briefing revealed that Malley was permitted to engage in classified activities even after his clearance was pulled, representing a breach of federal protocol, according to attendees. Malley was also...

Pras Michel of the Fugees is seeking a new trial by arguing his former lawyer used artificial intelligence to generate his closing argument before the hip-hop artist was found guilty of helping a foreign national launder millions of dollars in illegitimate contributions to former President Barack Obama’s campaign. Michel was convicted in April after being accused of taking part in an extensive conspiracy to use about $88 million in foreign funds to engage in illegal back-channel lobbying and make unlawful campaign contributions at the direction of the People’s Republic of China. He filed a motion on Monday asking the court...

Nathan Wade, the Georgia lawyer tapped to prosecute former President Donald Trump by his onetime lover, Fulton County prosecutor Fani Willis, had extensive communications with the Biden-Harris White House, new records show. Wade billed the Fulton County office for hours of meetings with the White House, the congressional January 6 committee, and other D.C. officials, according to records obtained by the House Judiciary Committee and released Monday. The committee released a transcript of an interview with Wade, which was compelled by subpoena, in which he said that Willis was preparing to prosecute Trump even before she took office, and that...

A LEADER of climate protesters Extinction Rebellion was last night exposed as a diesel-driving eco­-hypocrite who buys imported food. Gail Bradbrook was shopped by a member of the public who saw her stocking up on Waitrose goods that had travelled thousands of air miles. Gail Bradbrook was exposed as a diesel-driving eco­-hypocrite who buys imported food The hypocrite was spotted by a member of the public who saw her stocking up on Waitrose goods that had travelled thousands of air miles The shopper who spotted her told The Sun: 'She was doing everything Extinction Rebellion tells us not to do'...

Scientists are mad as hell and demand their claims of looming climate catastrophe are taken seriously. That’s the message released Sunday by a loosely federated global network of scientists and academics who plan “high levels of disobedience” to highlight what they say is a planet in decay. Members of Scientist Rebellion told AFP their non-violent actions are timed to coincide with an upcoming report from the U.N.’s climate science advisory panel laying out options for slashing carbon pollution.

A Democratic darling and top fundraiser who had President Biden preside over his nuptials has dished out tens of thousands of dollars to Kamala Harris and other candidates — while the IRS was coming after him for millions in unpaid taxes, The Post has learned. Henry Muñoz, the finance chairman emeritus of the Democratic National Committee, had a whopping $3,497,319 federal income tax lien placed against him in April 2023, IRS records show, along with a $152,411.46 business tax warrant in his home state of Texas.That hasn’t stopped Muñoz, 64, from splashing out out six figures to his fellow Democrats...

Guatemala’s Attorney General is investigating ongoing criminal claims that a number of American tax payer funded non-governmental organizations (NGOs) operating both inside and outside the United States are complicit in the ongoing trafficking, abuse and disappearance of children from its nation, according to an official Guatemalan letter obtained by this investigative columnist. The Guatemalan government is seeking full cooperation from the State of Texas, where the accusations of abuse have been reported, government officials told SaraACarter.com. A letter from Guatemalan Attorney General María Consuelo Porras was sent to Attorney General Ken Paxton on Saturday. Porras asked Paxton for immediate assistance...