Free Republic

WASHINGTON – Former FBI official Nikki Floris broke down in tears outside a federal courtroom Tuesday during a preliminary hearing on charges that she and another ex-bureau official lied to Congress about burying the Hunter Biden laptop story. Floris was seen weeping in a courthouse hallway during a break in the probable cause hearing in the district court for Washington, DC. She and fellow former FBI official, Bradley Benavides, self-surrendered last week and face up to five years in prison if convicted of lying to the House Judiciary Committee in 2023 about their involvement in discrediting stories about the troubled...

Two of the FBI agents most closely identified with the FBI’s politicized operation to smother the Hunter Biden corruption scandal are facing their first taste of accountability. Nikki Floris and Bradley Benavides were charged Friday with allegedly lying to Congress about Hunter Biden’s laptop. ... Floris had been the deputy assistant director of the FBI and “functional head” of the bureau’s Foreign Influence Task Force, which ran a covert operation before the 2020 election called “Round River,” specifically to collect all derogatory reports about Hunter Biden from FBI informants and falsely flag them as “Russian disinformation.” Benavides was the Section...

Russian drone and missile attacks on multiple Ukrainian regions killed at least four people on Saturday night, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a post to social media on Sunday.Ukraine's air force said Russia launched 153 drones along with an unspecified number of cruise missiles into the country in its latest round of attacks. The air force said that 119 drones were shot down or otherwise suppressed, with impacts reported in 15 locations....snip...Zelenskyy has repeatedly criticized the U.S. for failing to ensure an adequate supply of missiles. The Ukrainian leader told ABC News during an interview in Kyiv last week...

WHAT DID SHE DO FOR JOE IN UKRAINE AND WHY IS THIS OFFICIAL PHOTO NOW MISSING FROM THE OBAMA WHITE HOUSE LIBRARY WEBSITE? ≈≈==============≈=========================================== It’s time to fully investigate Michigan Senator Elissa Slotkin for her hidden role in the ongoing conspiracy by Democrat operatives to cover for the crimes Joe Biden committed in Ukraine during his vice presidency. And that conspiracy is, at the very least, behind the two failed impeachment attempts against President Trump during his first term, both of which involved then-Representative Slotkin, who has recently shamed herself with her “deterrence message” that targeted future employment opportunities for...

Two former senior FBI officials were taken into custody Friday after being charged with making false statements to Congress about their roles in the FBI’s investigations into Hunter Biden. Nikki Cole Floris, 46, and Bradley Benavides, 56, both face one count of making false statements in a matter within the jurisdiction of the legislative branch, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1001(a)(2). The charges stem from their 2023 testimony before the House Judiciary Committee in which they allegedly denied their involvement in the FBI’s Hunter Biden investigations, despite evidence to the contrary. The FBI’s affidavit alleges the pair were “actively...

In the shadows of the 2020 election, the U.S. government revoked a Ukrainian witness' visa and prevented him from testifying in the Senate's probe into alleged Biden family corruption on the basis that he might be spreading Russian disinformation even though its own intelligence showed he was an opponent of Russia and rejected Moscow's overtures, bombshell memos released Thursday show. The documents made public by the White House Government Transparency Task Force are the latest pieces of evidence to chronicle how the FBI, the State Department and other federal bodies sought to suffocate a narrative — later proven true —...

COMMENTARY ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED BY WSJ "Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has labeled his military's strikes on Russia's oil infrastructure “the most effective sanctions.” Meanwhile, reports indicate that alongside urging Europe and India to halt purchases of Russian oil, Washington plans to share additional intelligence with Ukraine on Russian refineries, pipelines, and other energy infrastructure. Most discussions about these “sanctions” have focused on their financial implications for Russia. Vladimir Putin relies heavily on corruption and patronage, with oil and gas serving as key revenue streams. Disrupting the flow could force Putin to choose between sustaining the war and maintaining the payouts to...

Speaking to broadcaster Newsmax, the president blamed Volodymyr Zelensky for the war, claiming he – not Vladimir Putin – had 'destroyed' Ukraine. It came after Mr Zelensky resumed attacks on Russian oil refineries after hitting out at Mr Trump's 'betrayal' at a time of intense Russian attacks. In an interview with the Financial Times, the Ukrainian leader said the cutting off of US intelligence sharing and the simultaneous weakening of the Starlink satellite internet service was 'dangerous' for civilians. He added: 'The block [on attacking refineries] is out. We’re done.' 'Well, I think that's a disgrace,' Trump said yesterday, adding...

Newly declassified State Department emails and documents show former U.S. Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch received frequent briefings from top aides on Burisma and Hunter Biden, conflicting with her congressional impeachment testimony. Internal emails also show her deputy in Kyiv believed the Burisma/Biden relationship was adversely affecting U.S. policy. ======================================================================= Former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch, one of the Democrats’ star witnesses in their first impeachment of Donald Trump, received repeated briefings, emails and memos related to the Ukrainian energy company that employed Hunter Biden, according to declassified documents that directly conflict with her and other witnesses’ testimony in the failed...

Ukraine has run out of missiles for the US-made Patriot air defense system, leaving it more vulnerable to Russian ballistic missile attacks, a source familiar with the situation told CNN on Thursday. The stark development comes amid an increasingly bitter public feud between US President Donald Trump and his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky. In recent days, the White House struck a highly criticized deal to import Russian diesel and heaped increasing pressure on Ukraine to halt its strikes on Russia’s oil infrastructure. Zelensky said he felt betrayed by Trump’s deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin and has since announced Ukraine...

Limitations on Ukraine’s access to military-grade Starlink terminals sparked panic among its officials and several U.S. lawmakers In the early hours of Wednesday morning, Denys Sienik, the top Ukrainian diplomat in Washington, D.C., sent a frantic message to U.S. lawmakers: Ukraine was suddenly facing restrictions on its military-grade Starlink terminals, and he didn’t know why. The change, Sienik warned, would give Russia an upper hand in the war and make it tougher for Kyiv to intercept strikes against Ukrainian civilians. By the time Washington’s morning rush hour was under way, other Ukrainian officials were already suspecting the worst: that President...

JoeLange@JoeLange·18hThere’s a reason why Zelensky doesn’t want another election.And it’s the same reason that he doesn’t want to end the war in Ukraine.He’s a really unpopular dictator in Ukraine and would lose an honest election in a landslide and then face justice for his war crimes against his own people.But canceling elections, wasn’t the only thing Zelensky did.He then “suspended” all political parties and then banned them. Otherwise, you would have seen huge uprisings in Ukraine against Zelensky.After that, he consolidated the large TV networks into one that he controlled and also banned the independent networks. He’s been throwing independent...

Volodymyr Zelensky said that he felt betrayed by Donald Trump, and warned the US president was not acting on the "right side of history"."It is a pity that we are losing a strong partner," the Ukrainian leader said on Wednesday amid an escalating public clash with his American counterpart.Relations between Kyiv and the White House have sharply deteriorated after Mr Trump agreed on Friday to waive sanctions on Russia to import diesel.The US president has been pressuring Ukraine to halt its strikes on Russian oil refineries, blaming Kyiv – not the Iran war – for rising energy prices. On Saturday...

...John Solomon’s Just the News published a declassified intelligence summary describing intercepted communications between Ukrainian officials and USAID personnel in Kyiv dating back to late 2022. According to the summary, the plan involved directing hundreds of millions of dollars meant for a Ukrainian infrastructure project toward a very different purpose. The declassified language states that roughly 90 percent of the funds would be routed to the DNC to help fund Joe Biden’s reelection campaign.. .

US threatens to halt arms shipments to Ukraine over attacks on Russian oil refineries – FT The Trump administration is reportedly considering halting the PURL program, through which Ukraine receives US weapons, to pressure Kyiv to stop attacks on Russian oil refineries.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Saturday it was time for Ukraine to get a new president, suggesting Volodymyr Zelenskyy has not done enough to end his country’s war with Russia and blaming him for high diesel prices in the U.S. “I suggest they get a new leader who can make a deal because he could have made many deals and for some reason he never does,” Trump said. The president, who on Friday struck a deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin to buy diesel from Russia in an attempt to address high fuel prices ahead of the U.S....

Donald Trump agreed to buy diesel from Vladimir Putin after Volodymyr Zelensky ignored his requests to stop bombing Russian oil refineries, sources have said. Mr Trump announced on Friday that Putin would "immediately supply more than 300,000 tons of diesel fuel to the American and global marketplace", followed by another 1.5 million tons before the end of the year. The US president is facing pressure from voters over the cost of fuel before November's midterms as diesel prices have soared around 70 per cent since he launched a war against Iran. On Friday, a gallon of diesel cost $6.28, up...

In an exclusive interview with Reuters, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Ukraine will step up attacks on Russian oil refineries in response to Moscow's new policy of airstrikes aimed at forcing people to leave Kyiv and other cities

Russia was behind an arson attack on an Estonian defence company in the capital Tallinn last month, authorities say. Prime Minister Kristen Michal said the attack on Milrem Robotics - which supplies Ukraine with unmanned military vehicles - was ordered by Russian special services, but gave no details. Moscow has been accused of launching sabotage attacks in a number of Nato countries that have been helping Ukraine since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of its neighbour in February 2022. Russia denies such allegations and has been quick to reject the Estonian accusation, too. But EU countries have rushed to Estonia's...

W.H.Grampa@WHGrampa0·18hBOMBSHELL JUST DROPPED — THERE IS NO HIDING THIS ANYMORE Investigative journalist Catherine Herridge just exposed the documents.China was BLACKMAILING the Biden family… and it was sitting in President Biden’s own daily brief.She found the records. She held them up on camera. The evidence is right there.And what did the FBI, CIA, and the entire legacy media do?They buried it. They looked the other way. They protected the regime.This isn’t politics.This isn’t a “scandal.”This is TREASON at the highest level.They knew.They covered it up.And they did it to keep power.No more excuses. No more “conspiracy theories.” The documents are out....