Free Republic

A Swiss judge has issued an arrest warrant for the former head of Iran's secret police for his role in the killing of a leading Iranian dissident 16 years ago. Ali Fallahian is charged with masterminding the assassination of Kazem Rajavi, a renowned human rights advocate, near Geneva in April 1990. According to a report in Lausanne-based newspaper Le Matin Dimanche, the international arrest warrant was issued by Swiss investigating magistrate Jacques Antenen on March 20. It called on law enforcement agencies to arrest Fallahian – who for years headed Iran's Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) and is currently...

Vance Boelter pleaded guilty on Thursday to the murders of former Democratic House Speaker Melissa Hortman, one of Minnesota's most consequential legislative leaders, and her husband, Mark, as well as the shooting of state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife. The shocking acts of violence nearly a year ago to the day scarred the state and injected a new level of fear into politics. Boelter, 58, shuffled into the federal courtroom in downtown Minneapolis, wearing orange prison garb, white velcro sneakers and shackles around his ankles. He was unemotional as he told the judge he was of a clear mind...

An Arizona jury convicted a Marine combat veteran who threatened to blow away President Donald Trump with an M16 rifle, saying he would do it with “rounds targeting the head, not the ear.” The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Arizona tells Law & Crime that Rene Ortiz, of Casa Grande, was found guilty on Monday of threats against the president following a four-day trial in Phoenix. His sentencing has not been scheduled yet. Ortiz went on trial this week after being arrested in early 2025 for allegedly hurling assassination threats against Trump in November and December 2024 when...

ALBAWABA- Unconfirmed reports circulating on social media and in several regional media outlets claim that Ahmad Vahidi, commander-in-chief of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), was killed in recent Israeli airstrikes targeting sites in or around Tehran. On Sunday afternoon, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) carried out an airstrike allegedly on a Hezbollah command centre in the Dahiyeh district of Beirut, following earlier rocket fire launched into northern Israel by Hezbollah. In response, Iran declared that Israel had “crossed all red lines” in Lebanon and launched multiple waves of ballistic missile strikes targeting Israeli territory late on Sunday, June 7...

The 22-year-old accused of murdering Charlie Kirk came from a stable family in a thriving town. But that wasn’t enough… That is the lesson of Tyler Robinson. And lurking behind that lesson: the fear that every teenager in America is a would-be Tyler Robinson, always vulnerable to the forces of death and nihilism. “How had he lost so much of his soul?” Utah governor Spencer Cox asked me about Robinson. We were in his office at the state Capitol. He didn’t know what to make of the “meme culture” that Robinson had been a part of, and the flood of...

The two men who were wounded in a shooting during then-presidential candidate Donald Trump's 2024 rally at the Butler Farm Show grounds are suing the United States. James Copenhaver and David Dutch were shot during the attempted assassination of Trump on July 13, 2024, in Butler County, Pennsylvania. Their attorneys filed federal lawsuits against the United States for their "life altering physical and emotional injuries," claiming those injuries were a direct result of negligence on the part of the United States Secret Service. Dutch was shot in the stomach, while Copenhaver was shot twice. The complaints said, "The assassination attempt...

An effort by Tyler Robinson's defense team to keep evidence against their client under wraps failed this week. The judge handling the case refused to restrict cameras from an upcoming hearing. Why does this particular hearing, currently scheduled for next month, matter? Because prosecutors are expected to release a bunch of new evidence against Robinson.Mr. Robinson’s defense has sought to close other hearings in the Utah trial, keep motions and evidence under seal and restrict news coverage of the case, arguing that the intense media attention will lead to negative publicity, prejudicing potential jurors and denying Mr. Robinson’s right to...

A senior Hamas official told Asharq Al-Awsat that Hamas had sent messages to the mediating countries complaining about Israel’s alleged violations of the ceasefire agreement, while reaffirming its commitment to negotiations and efforts to reach a breakthrough in talks on Gaza. The official claimed that the assassination of Hamas military wing commander Izz ad-Din Haddad disrupted the negotiations, and called on the mediators to pressure Israel to halt what Hamas described as daily ceasefire violations. Hamas expressed hope that consultations with the mediators would help formulate a path forward in the talks, which have been postponed until after Eid al-Adha....

Three cheerleaders for Luigi Mangione have followed his trial and advocated for the 28-year-old accused of shooting United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson to death in December 2024. One of those people, 32-year-old Lena Weissbrot, is apparently the daughter of a CVS Healthcare executive, according to a New York Post report. Bloodthirsty Luigi Mangione fangirls unapologetically celebrate CEO’s assassination: ‘F—k Brian Thompson,’ ‘His children are better off without him’. Read today's cover here: https://t.co/WAbr1HDQiD pic.twitter.com/TtsBt751qM— New York Post (@nypost) May 19, 2026The NYPost reported: “Lena Weissbrot, a member of the twisted trio hopelessly devoted to the accused assassin of UnitedHealthcare CEO...

First Daughter Ivanka Trump was targeted for assassination by an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) trained terrorist in a twisted plot to avenge the president taking out his mentor, The Post has learned. Recently captured Mohammad Baqer Saad Dawood Al-Saadi, 32, made a “pledge” to kill Ivanka and even had a blueprint of her Florida home, sources claimed. The Iraqi national was allegedly targeting President Donald Trump’s family in response to the killing of Iranian military chief Qasem Soleimani in a US drone strike in Baghdad six years ago. “After Qasem was killed, he [Al-Saadi] went around telling people ‘we...

A Tennessee man who was jailed for more than a month after refusing to take down a Facebook meme poking fun at the assassination of Charlie Kirk will be paid $850,000 as part of a settlement with officials. Larry Bushart, a 61-year-old retired police officer, spent 37 days behind bars under a $2 million bond before authorities dropped the felony charge against him in October. While in jail, he lost his post-retirement job and missed both his wedding anniversary and the birth of his granddaughter, according to a federal lawsuit Bushart filed against Perry County, Perry County Sheriff Nick Weems...

A neo-Nazi who may have interacted with would-be Donald Trump assassin Thomas Matthew Crooks online revealed himself to be Bjorn Leif Hjelmerud of Norway, The Daily Mail reported. Hjelmerud admitted to being in contact with a “Tom Crooks” YouTube account believed by some to be the 2024 Butler, Pennsylvania, shooter who nearly took the president’s life, the outlet reported citing a text exchange with Hjelmerud. A member of the white supremacist Nordic Resistance Movement, a U.S.-designated terrorist group, Hjelmerud egged on violent comments from “Tom Crooks” about overthrowing the government in a 2020 YouTube comments section. “If a gun and...

With the failed attempt at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner on April 25, there have been seven major attempts to assassinate President Trump since 2016.Let us examine US presidential assassination attempts and attempt to ascertain why President Trump has been the most-targeted president in US history.Historical Timeline of Major Presidential Assassination AttemptsThe following covers confirmed, documented attempts from the Civil War era through the present. Motives are included where established. “Attempt” is defined broadly to include shots fired, credible armed plots, and confirmed murder-for-hire schemes.1865: Abraham Lincoln—AssassinatedShot by John Wilkes Booth at Ford’s Theatre, Washington, D.C., Booth, a Confederate sympathizer...

A new poll revealed that a stunning number of Democrats believe the 2024 assassination attempt on President Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, was staged. Among respondents who identified as Democrats, 42% said they believed that the Butler attempt by would-be assassin Thomas Crooks was fake, according to a YouGov poll. Thirty-four percent believed the recent attempt by suspect Cole Allen at the White House Correspondents Association (WHCA) dinner was also staged. Twenty-six percent said the same of Ryan Routh’s attempt at Trump International Golf Course in West Palm Beach in September 2024. Notably, the poll found that nearly a quarter...

WASHINGTON — Accused White House Correspondents’ Dinner shooter Cole Allen pleaded not guilty at a Monday hearing in DC federal court to charges including attempting to assassinate President Trump. Allen, 31, is also charged with assault on law enforcement, transporting a firearm across state lines to commit a felony and discharging a weapon during a crime of violence. He faces up to life in prison if convicted. Allen’s attorneys have argued that the attack’s occurrence during the annual black-tie gala — which hosted several Trump cabinet officials in addition to the president — should force the recusal of Acting Attorney...

Evocative of that infamous 2019 Washington Post article that described the recently-deceased ISIS killer Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi as an “austere religious scholar” who displayed “canny pragmatism” during his reign of terror, candidate for New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani recently posted a photo to social media showing him cheerily embracing a man by the name of Siraj Wahhaj (real name Jeffrey Kearse), a Muslim imam who has a long history of raising funds for convicted killers with terrorist ideologies, calling the experience “pleasure” and referring to Wahhaj as a “leader” and “pillar” of the community:Today at Masjid At-Taqwa, I had...

President Donald Trump accused House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., of inciting the most recent assassination attempt against him, further escalating his feud with the top Democrat. Trump argued in a Truth Social post on Thursday that Jeffries should be arrested after promoting "warfare" against Republicans just days before the assassination scare at the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner in April. "This lunatic, Hakeem "Low IQ" Jeffries, should be charged with INCITING VIOLENCE!" Trump wrote on social media. He included images of Jeffries standing with a sign displaying the words "maximum warfare" and the faces of Trump and his aide...

Donald Trump has now survived more known assassination attempts than any other U.S. president after Saturday’s shooting in Washington. The gunman arrested at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner is at least the sixth person apprehended while trying to kill Trump since 2016, a Daily Caller News Foundation analysis of media reports and court records found. The number of attempts is higher if counting plots foiled in their early stages, including those by Iran, ISIS terrorists and a Wisconsin cultist. Barack Obama is a close second with five known attempts. Violent actors have made attempts on U.S. presidents’ lives as early...

A Southwest Airlines flight attendant prayed for President Trump’s assassination on social media after a gunman breached security at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. Michele Carpino made the perverse plea on her Facebook page just minutes after news broke that would-be assassin Cole Allen stormed the annual black-tie Washington press bash last Saturday. “Oh please sweet baby Jesus,” Carpino wrote in a since-deleted Facebook post, Libs of TikTok reported. “WE NEED BETTER ASSASSIN’S! [sic],” she commented after Allen was thwarted by Secret Service agents. Carpino has a history of posting disturbing anti-Trump screeds on social media. “One day we will...

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Less than a week after yet another assassination attempt against President Donald Trump, leaders of the Democratic Party pushed back against claims that they are guilty of inciting violence and said anyone who thinks they are should be eliminated by any means necessary. Following accusations that their rhetoric stirred up supporters to commit violent acts against conservatives, prominent Democrats denied engaging in any incitement of political violence and stressed the importance of doing whatever is needed to take out anyone who thinks otherwise. "People who think we incite violence must be taken down," said House Minority Leader...