Free Republic

FBI officials say they are growing increasingly concerned about a loose network of violent predators who befriend teenagers through popular online platforms and then coerce them into escalating sexual and violent behavior -- pushing victims to create graphic pornography, harm family pets, cut themselves with sharp objects, or even die by suicide.

In May, an American investor tried to sell top German economic officials on an audacious plan to buy a Russian undersea pipeline. Despite years of international friction over the pipeline, he proposed to eventually activate it and deliver natural gas to Germany. The investor, Stephen P. Lynch, had already made the pitch to the Trump administration, which he was betting would want U.S. control over a pivotal piece of energy infrastructure. Now the Germans wanted to hear for themselves about Mr. Lynch’s proposal to lead a takeover of the much-criticized pipeline on the floor of the Baltic Sea, called Nord...

Internet sleuths have already discovered the stunning truth behind a 'UFO' image shared on Capitol Hill yesterday by a Pentagon whistleblower. Former military intelligence official Luis Elizondo spoke before Congress Thursday morning, revealing a never-before-seen image of a cruise ship–sized craft he claimed was spotted hovering 21,000 feet in the air over the western US. The image quickly flooded social media and was debunked in less than 24 hours. Users analyzed the photo and located the object, discovering it was actually a snapshot of two irrigation circles in rural Colorado. Mick West, a British-American science writer and conspiracy theory investigator,...

The FBI botched its investigation of the 2017 congressional baseball shooting — downplaying the gunman’s anti-GOP motives*** The House Judiciary Committee, *** released the scathing, unclassified report on its findings Tuesday after combing through roughly 3,000 case file documents it was given last month on the attack that wounded six, including current House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.), and led to the death of gunman James T. Hodgkinson. “This is the same FBI that can’t tell us who planted the pipe bomb [on Jan. 6, 2021], who can’t tell us who leaked the Dobbs opinion and who can tell us...

Kash Patel said the FBI is leaving the J. Edger Hoover building because it's an unsafe workplace.

A sprawling fentanyl trafficking network stretching from Albuquerque to Salem, Oregon, has been shattered by federal authorities in what’s being called one of the largest operations of its kind in U.S. history. The takedown, made public this week, culminated in a massive sweep across New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, and Oregon. Federal agents with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration seized staggering amounts of contraband: over 4 million fentanyl pills, $4.4 million in cash, 79 pounds of meth, along with heroin, cocaine, and more than 41 firearms, according to records from the U.S. District Court in Albuquerque. At the helm of...

Two nationals of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) made their initial appearances in federal court in Portland, Oregon, and Houston, Texas, yesterday to face charges issued out of the Northern District of California for acting as agents of the Government of the PRC without prior notification to the Attorney General. The defendants, Yuance Chen, 38, a PRC national and legal permanent resident who resides in Happy Valley, Oregon, and Liren “Ryan” Lai, 39, a PRC national who traveled from the PRC to Houston, Texas, on a tourist visa in April 2025, were arrested Friday on a criminal complaint charging...

Now serving a 32-year sentence in the supermax prison at Florence, Colorado, Gowadia confessed in his final statement to the FBI: “What I did was espionage and treason… I shared military secrets with the PRC.” As the U.S. deployed its B-2 Spirit bombers to vaporize Iran’s underground nuclear sites in a high-stakes precision strike, a chilling echo stirred half a world away. On a barren airstrip in western China, a ghostly war machine—eerily similar in shape and scale to the B-2—rolled into view. It wasn’t just mimicry. It was theft, nearly two decades in the making—facilitated by a brilliant Indian-American...

A top adviser to the Joint Chiefs of Staff has been relieved of duty following the discovery of several anti-Israel social media posts. U.S. Army Col. Nathan McCormack was removed from his advisory role on Israel-related matters following the discovery of the posts. According to his LinkedIn profile, McCormack served as the Levant and Egypt branch chief within the Joint Chiefs of Staff’s J5 planning directorate. He reportedly posted several inflammatory comments on his X account, including calling Israel a “death cult” and referring to its government as “Netanyahu and his Judeo-supremacist cronies,” according to the Jewish News Syndicate. A...

New Details on Portland Woman Identified as a Member of Antifa “Militia,” Threatened Agents "The Resistance" is gripped by crippling TDS By Seamus Othot June 20, 2025 Previously sealed court documents have revealed shocking new information about a Portland woman and member of the Antifa New England “militia” arrested in May for allegedly threatening to murder law enforcement officers. [RELATED: Portland Woman Arrested for Alleged Threatening Phone Calls to Border Patrol Agent: DOJ…] The U.S. Department of Justice announced the arrest of 40-year-old Alice Jones on May 15, but provided scant details, only saying that she allegedly threatened the “Supervisory...

US Attorney Alina Habba announced federal charges against Democrat Rep. LaMonica McIver for assaulting ICE agents. “Today my office has charged Congresswoman McIver with violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 111(a)(1) for assaulting, impeding and interfering with law enforcement,” Alina Habba said on Monday evening. ... ICE bodycam footage showed Democrat Rep. LaMonica McIver verbally abusing and physically assaulting federal agents at a detention facility in Newark. Democrat Rep. LaMonica McIver (woman in the red jacket) physically attacked ICE agents at Delaney Hall detention facility in Newark, New Jersey, on Friday. Democrat members of Congress and Newark Mayor...

U.S. Fire that destroyed historic Clayborn Temple in Memphis was intentionally set, investigators say By Updated on: May 21, 2025 / 6:11 PM EDT / CBS/AP The fire that destroyed the Clayborn Temple, a historic Black church in downtown Memphis that was the organizing point for Martin Luther King Jr.'s final campaign in 1968, was intentionally set, investigators said Wednesday. The Memphis Fire Department said the fire on April 28 was started on the interior of the church, and authorities are searching for a person of interest. Memphis Fire Chief Gina Sweat last month described the inside of the church...

In what the FBI is calling an “intentional act of terrorism,” an explosive device inside a car was detonated on Saturday outside the American Reproductive Centers fertility clinic in Palm Springs, California. The explosion, felt more than a mile away from the blast site, killed one person and injured four others, and is being referred to as the “largest bombing ever investigated in Southern California.” Los Angeles FBI field office assistant director Akil Davis said at a news conference on Sunday that the suspect is believed to be 25-year-old Guy Edward Bartkus, whom law enforcement said had “stated in writings...

Benny Johnson @bennyjohnson 🚨BREAKING: President Trump pulls his nomination of Jared Isaacman for NASA administrator. 8:48 PM · May 31, 2025

The judge said a customs officer had acted improperly in stripping Kseniia Petrova, a researcher at Harvard Medical School, of her visa after she failed to declare research samples she was carrying into the country.A federal judge on Wednesday said she would grant bail to Kseniia Petrova, a Russian scientist employed by Harvard University, in an immigration case stemming from Ms. Petrova’s failure to declare scientific samples she was carrying into the country.“There does not seem to be either a factual or legal basis for the immigration officer’s actions” in stripping Ms. Petrova of her visa on Feb. 16, Christina...

A month before President Trump’s inauguration, Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff flew to the United Arab Emirates with two goals: discussing regional issues with the Abu Dhabi royal known as the “spy sheikh,” and attending a cryptocurrency conference. Less than five months later, Witkoff’s son, co-founder of the crypto venture World Liberty Financial, took the stage at a conference in Dubai to announce the company had struck a deal for the sheikh’s company to buy $2 billion of their new cryptocurrency. The expected tens of millions of dollars in annual profits would be split between the Witkoffs and their co-founders—and...

A gang of wealthy 'crypto bros' have been arrested for luring their former business partner to a stunning New York City mansion before torturing him for weeks. The group are accused of kidnapping the 28-year-old Italian man before committing sickening acts on him in the $75,000-per-month rented brownstone in Soho. They alleged to have Tazed him, pistol-whipped him and threatened to carve him up with a chainsaw if he did not give up the millions of dollars in his crypto account. But their plot was foiled when the victim - who has not been named - escaped and flagged down...

Drone warfare once again forced Moscow into lockdown on Wednesday as three of the capital’s four airports abruptly suspended operations. Panic rippled through Domodedovo, Zhukovsky and Sheremetyevo as incoming flights were turned away and departures stalled. Sirens blared as air defences scrambled to intercept the latest wave of Ukrainian drones breaching Russian skies. Mayor Sergei Sobyanin confirmed multiple drones were shot down on approach, with emergency crews deployed to the crash sites. Ukraine launched a large-scale drone offensive overnight, targeting multiple regions in Russia. One since-deleted clip from Oryol shared by a Kremlin-aligned Telegram channel appeared to show a flaming...

In a chaotic scene, roughly two dozen protesters stormed the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s budget reconciliation markup, protesting rumored cuts to Medicare. Despite the shameful and potentially illegal actions of the protestors, Democrats capitalized on the event by thanking the protestors, prompting widespread condemnation. For context, since the January 6 debacle, Democrats have treated the date as if it were a national day of mourning. Despite the broad media support for the dangerous George Floyd riots, far-left pundits in the mainstream media have reduced themselves to hysterics while discussing the events of the Capitol riot. Breaking the news on...

A joke circulating on social media suggests how President Trump could arrest terrorism against Indian Kashmir by jihadist groups based in Pakistan—a country that at its worst actively arms and shelters these terrorists, and at its most benign turns a blind eye. Let Mr. Trump open a large resort in Kashmir, the joke goes. Give him rent-free land on a long lease for golf courses and ski lodges—and then watch how quickly the terrorism falls off. Humor aside, Mr. Trump has helped to calm the region and scored his first major diplomatic achievement. On April 22, terrorists said by India...