Free Republic

Donald Trump may have mastered the art of the deal once again, with rumors he will replace Pete Hegseth with Ron DeSantis as his pick to head Defense in exchange for Trump's daughter-in-law Lara getting Florida's open Senate seat. The Florida governor and Trump have reportedly had one-on-one discussions about the move. A GOP source told The Bulwark: 'These discussions are real. It's serious. I can't say it's definitely going to happen, but the governor is receptive and Trump is serious, too.'

What happens when the face of a country’s anti-corruption movement suddenly is investigated for the sort of bribery he once condemned? Ukraine, a U.S. ally and neighboring foe of Russia, is soon to find out. And it’s a case with implications in the United States, where the fallout from the unproven Trump-Russia collusion scandal has engulfed several Ukrainians. The country’s chief corruption prosecutor on Thursday opened an investigation into “suspicions” that Serhiy Leshchenko, a crusading anti-corruption member of Ukraine’s parliament and former investigative journalist, accepted bribes in 2016 from a Russian source that enabled him to buy a luxury condo...

One of the most disturbing scandals of the Hunter Biden saga is the imprisonment without trial of former FBI informant Alexander Smirnov. The Ukrainian-born Israeli-American, who once told his FBI handler about Ukrainian claims of a $10 million bribe to the Bidens, has been languishing in a Los Angeles prison for nine months on charges that he lied to the FBI. Last week, federal prosecutors slapped new tax-evasion charges on Smirnov, 43, which suggests they know their original indictment is too weak for a jury to convict him when he faces trial beginning Jan. 8. Smirnov was one of the...

West made the stunning accusation after the close of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, in an interview with independent journalist Jordan Chariton on the Status Coup News podcast. The two discussed offers to drop out in anticipation of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s anticipated decision to suspend his campaign (in battleground states) and to endorse former President Donald Trump.

A vital witness regarding the Biden clan's ties to CEFC, the CCP-connected energy company, is missing. Last February, Dr. Gal Luft, a retired Israel Defense Forces lieutenant colonel with deep intelligence ties in Washington and Beijing, was arrested as an alleged gun runner. At the time, he claimed the arrest was to stop him from revealing what he knows about the Biden crime family and FBI corruption. Now, Dr. Luft has disappeared entirely. In the early 2000s, Luft formed a think tank called the Institute for Analysis of Global Security (IAGS) that focused on energy innovations and policy. Accordingly, from...

The Justice Department has agreed to pay a total of $2 million to settle legal claims brought by former FBI counterintelligence agent Peter Strzok and former FBI attorney Lisa Page over the DOJ’s release of text messages the pair exchanged. The agreement ends a lawsuit Page brought, but does not fully resolve Strzok’s separate suit, allowing him to continue to press his claims that he was fired in order to please then-President Donald Trump. On Friday, Strzok’s lawyers announced his $1.2 million agreement as attorneys for both sides notified a federal judge in Washington that the privacy-focused portion of that...

The Justice Department has presented Boeing with a plea deal after it accused the airplane manufacturer of violating the terms of a 2021 deferred prosecution agreement that was put in place following two 737 Max crashes in 2018 and 2019. The Justice Department told Boeing it could plead guilty or go to trial, people familiar with the talks confirmed to CBS News. The agreement, which was presented to Boeing on Sunday, would have the company plead guilty to the conspiracy charge it originally faced in 2021. In exchange, Boeing would pay a fine and enter a three-year probationary period, the...

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....

Nicaragua has asked the UN's highest court to halt German weapons sales to Israel at the start of a landmark case. Germany is accused of breaching the UN genocide convention by sending military hardware to Israel and ceasing funding of the UN's aid agency. Berlin rejects the claims and will present a defence to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on Tuesday. In 2023 some 30% of Israel's military equipment purchases came from Germany, totalling €300m ($326m; £257m). The allegations build on a separate case taken by South Africa in January, where judges in the Hague ordered Israel to take...

LIMA - Peru's port authority said it hopes to fix an "administrative error" that gave China's Cosco Shipping exclusivity over operations at the new Chancay megaport. The National Port Authority (APN) said in a statement late on Friday that it has requested the annulment of its own decision in February 2021 that granted Cosco exclusivity, through a judicial process. The authority said the legal process would not affect the port's construction in northern Peru and it still plans to begin operations at the end of the year. "The construction process and the future operation of the Chancay Port Terminal will...

[Video] The FBI is investigating an alleged murder-for-hire plot targeting a federal judge and the special prosecutor involved in an upcoming public corruption trial. HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) -- The attorney under federal investigation in a shocking contract killer case claimed in court on Friday that she was actually the victim of extortion. It’s yet another twist in a sprawling public corruption trial. Defendant Sheri Tanaka remains free on bail after a magistrate judge Friday declined to modify conditions of her pretrial release. She’s one of six people facing trial for bribery-related charges in the corruption case. Pretrial services filed a motion...

"He’s gotta resign. We can’t have somebody who is corrupt and compromised running the Republican Party." Arizona Senate candidate Kari Lake called on the state’s GOP chair Jeff DeWit to resign after a recording emerged of him trying to bribe Lake to stay out of politics for two years. n the recording, first reported by the Daily Mail, DeWit, 51, can be heard asking lake to name her price not to run. “There are very powerful people who want to keep you out,” he can be heard telling her in a conversation recorded last March. He then, after asking her...

The Gateway Pundit reported last March, before Kari Lake announced her bid for U.S. Senate, she revealed that a person sent by “powerful people back East” attempted to bribe her “with a huge salary and a position on a board” to stay out of politics. Lake, however, told the individual to pound sand and then later announced her campaign for Senate with President Trump’s endorsement. Now, Tucson radio host Garrett Lewis reports that two sources close to the matter confirmed to him that it was Arizona GOP Chairman Jeff DeWit. Two sources confirmed to me that AZGOP Chairman @JeffDeWitAZ was...

The latest Rasmussen Reports survey shows that 65% of voters said the situation at our southern border is an "invasion" from Mexico. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tx) took aim at Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas, saying "it's not that Mayorkas is bad at his job. It's that he is openly defying federal law. He is not trying to secure the border. He is instead trying to accelerate illegal immigration. He should be impeached." Rep. Yvette Clarke (D-NY) opposes impeachment "because Secretary Mayorkas is only doing what he must to try to ensure that the MAGA extremists don't seize power in...

Hunter Biden sent his father, President Joe Biden, monthly payments from the bank account he used to receive money from Chinese business associates, newly released bank records show. House Oversight Committee James Comer shared a video Monday on Twitter revealing redacted bank records containing direct payments to Joe Biden from Hunter Biden’s Owasco P.C. bank account. “Today, the House Oversight Committee is releasing subpoenaed bank records that show Hunter Biden’s business entity, Owasco PC, made direct monthly payments to Joe Biden. This wasn’t a payment from Hunter Biden’s personal account but an account for his corporation that received payments from...

By ABC News December 23, 2011 ABC News' Shushannah Walshe and Michael Falcone report: DAVENPORT, Iowa - An Iowa Christian conservative leader who bestowed his highly sought-after endorsement on presidential candidate Rick Santorum this week is now at the center of a controversy over whether he asked for cash in exchange for his public support. Less than 48-hours after receiving the backing of Bob Vander Plaats, the head of the prominent evangelical group The Family Leader, Santorum disclosed that the prominent Iowan told him he needed money to make the most out of the endorsement. And sources familiar with talks...

The DeSantis campaign, a super PAC linked to him and a nonprofit group supporting him together paid $95,000 in recent months to the Family Leader Foundation, an Iowa-based nonprofit led by evangelical leader Bob Vander Plaats, according to campaign finance reports and a document prepared by an Iowa state lawmaker who was helping the Vander Plaats organization raise money for a July 14 presidential candidate forum.

Bob Vander Plaats, an influential evangelical leader in Iowa, endorsed Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Tuesday, giving his campaign a boost as he goes all in to try to win the first state in the presidential primary cycle. "You need a president who's gonna surround themselves with the best and brightest people versus having a hard time attracting them again. And someone who's actually going to do what they say they're going to do. And I just think he's got the spine to do it. And I think he's got the experience to win for us," Vander Plaats said on...

Republican Florida Rep. Anna Paulina Luna stated Wednesday that President Joe Biden is in “big, big trouble” as “more evidence” piles up, and predicted there will be a “vote on impeachment” during the 118th Congress. Luna discussed the “evidence” that she and her fellow Republican colleagues on the committee have brought forward on “Jesse Watters Primetime.” “I’ve been championing this for a while, you know, what we’re seeing coming out now, especially with those screenshots of those checks. It’s very interesting. The more evidence we come out with, the more they want to change the terms and, frankly, Federal Code...

Joe Biden sure made a lot of loans. You will remember that Joe Biden previously got a "loan repayment" of $200,000 from Jim Biden. Of course, no one has seen the documentation of that "loan." The current "loan repayment" originated in China. WASHINGTON—House Committee on Oversight and Accountability Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) today released a video and bank records memorandum revealing how Joe Biden received $40,000 in laundered China money from the account of his brother, James Biden, and his sister-in-law, Sara Biden, in the form of a personal check. And here's how it went down The money trail begins...