Free Republic

Paul Sperry has an interesting article today citing anonymous sources in/around the Inspector General Michael Horowitz investigation. Much of the information within the report is confirmation of prior research. However, the citations of FBI James Comey implanting an FBI operative into the White House is very specific: At the same time Comey was personally scrutinizing the president during meetings in the White House and phone conversations from the FBI, he had an agent inside the White House working on the Russia investigation, where he reported back to FBI headquarters about Trump and his aides, according to officials familiar with the...

... McAleenan allegedly leaked a nationwide Immigration and Customs Enforcement raid to the media last week, forcing the administration to cancel the extensive undertaking after months of planning. "He has proven his political leanings in his actions, including his campaign contributions," Judd wrote in a Fox News op-ed. "By definition, Kevin McAleenan should be considered anti-Trump."

WASHINGTON — After over 200 years without voting rights, the efforts to allow Washington, DC, to become the 51st state are gaining traction. The House of Representatives has set the first-ever congressional hearing on statehood legislation, and now a majority of the Democrats running for president say they support making DC a state. The House will hold a hearing July 24 for the Washington, D.C. Admission Act, which would put the nation’s capital on even ground with other states, giving it two voting senators and at least one representative. The bill would end “taxation without representation” in DC — a...

This seems particularly unhinged. The media is constantly buzzing about how President Trump is unstable, but McCain’s behavior seems a bit…unusual. Presidential hopeful Senator Amy Klobuchar told a crowd on the campaign trail that the late John McCain muttered the names of dictators as he watched Donald Trump’s inauguration. “John McCain kept reciting to me names of dictators during that speech,” the Minnesota senator said, “because he knew more than any of what we were facing as a nation, he understood it.” She continued: “He knew because he knew this man more than any of us did.” Or it was...

WASHINGTON, DC - JANUARY 20: (L-R) Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) (L) takes a selfie with Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-VT) (R) on the West Front of the U.S. Capitol on January 20, 2017 in Washington, DC. In today's inauguration ceremony Donald J. Trump becomes the 45th president of the United States. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images) (FILE PHOTO by Getty) Sen. John McCain's hatred for President Donald Trump reportedly ran so deep that even during Trump's inauguration in January — which was supposed to be a joyous event given that it...

The late Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) listed off the names of dictators while watching President Trump's inauguration, according to Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.). HuffPost reported that during a campaign event in Iowa, the 2020 Democratic presidential contender told the crowd of more than 200 about sitting next to McCain and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) during Trump's inaugural address. “I sat on that stage between Bernie and John McCain, and John McCain kept reciting to me names of dictators during that speech because he knew more than any of us what we were facing as a nation,” she said. “He understood...

Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz has lost a confidence vote in parliament, removing him from office over a political scandal that brought down his coalition government. The no-confidence motion on May 27 was backed by lawmakers from the Social Democrats and the far-right Freedom Party, which was in coalition with Kurz until the chancellor ended their alliance last week. The political crisis was triggered last week by a 2017 video purportedly showing his vice chancellor, Heinz-Christian Strache, offering contracts to a potential Russian benefactor in exchange for political donations. Strache, with the Freedom Party, announced his resignation from the government on...

BuzzFeed News drew criticism Sunday for publishing an article claiming conservative political pundit Ben Shapiro radicalized a white nationalist who pleaded guilty to defacing a synagogue with Nazi symbolism. “Yes, if there’s one thing I’m known for — as one of the most prominent Orthodox Jews, targets of the alt-right, and critics of the alt-right in America — it’s directing Nazis to attack synagogues,” Shapiro responded to BuzzFeed News. “What garbage.” Nolan Brewer, 21, was sentenced to three years in prison on May 22 for conspiring to violate the civil rights of a synagogue in Indiana, according to the U.S....

The Justice Department has revealed the name of a former U.S. attorney accused of misconduct after Buzzfeed News successfully sued for disclosure of his identity. The Justice Department announced in May 2017 that the since-retired attorney had an affair with a subordinate, created a hostile work environment and possibly violated department policy on sexual harassment. A federal judge ruled in March that public interest superseded government officials’ right to privacy, forcing the Justice Department to disclose last week the attorney in question was Stephen Wigginton, who served as U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Illinois from 2010 to 2015....

The Justice Department released a second copy of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report on Monday evening, following a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by BuzzFeed and the Electronic Privacy and Information Center. The lightly-redacted version of Mueller's report appears to be identical to the 448-page document that was released in April, except it sheds more light on the redactions by explaining why the blacked-out information is exempted from release under FOIA. **SNIP** Along with the report itself, the Justice Department included a letter from senior counsel Vanessa Brinkman addressed to BuzzFeed reporter Jason Leopold, who had filed a FOIA...

FULL TITLE: BuzzFeed News editor takes heat for suggesting Trump would be more outraged if Sri Lanka victims were white A BuzzFeed News world editor faced backlash Sunday for taking a swipe at President Trump while tweeting an article about the attacks in Sri Lanka on Easter. "Suspect we’d be hearing a lot more outrage from Trump and co. if the Christians killed in Sri Lanka were white," Miriam Elder tweeted with a link to BuzzFeed News. Elder’s tweet, as The Washington Examiner reported, received many more comments than likes or retweets. It had received nearly 3,000 replies, 70 retweets...

Whiskey – Tango – Foxtrot !! There has been a widespread media claim for two years that Robert Mueller’s special counsel team never leaked. However, today, while entirely obfuscating the lede aspect to their admission/story, Buzzfeed News outlines how FBI agents assigned to Robert Mueller’s team actually leaked documents from their investigation to the media.This admission is stunning…. I don’t even think Buzzfeed realizes what they are admitting to here. It’s in these paragraphs (emphasis mine):

More than 15 journalists, several U.S. government officials and multiple lawmakers were shown or given the Steele dossier during the 2016 presidential campaign or shortly after. Fusion GPS and Christopher Steele disseminated the dossier far and wide in an apparent attempt to insert the document’s salacious allegations into the media. Newly unsealed court filings show how widespread this effort was. Court documents released last week in a lawsuit involving the Steele dossier revealed new details about the campaign to disseminate the infamous anti-Trump report to the press and within the U.S. government. Much was already known about Fusion GPS and...

David Kramer, the John McCain aide who leaked the discredited Christopher Steele dossier on President Trump, testified in a libel case that he spread the unsubstantiated anti-Trump material all over Washington during the presidential transition. Mr. Kramer, a former State Department official and a Trump detractor, leaked dossier material to the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post’s Fred Hiatt, CNN’s Carl Bernstein, National Public Radio, McClatchy news service and others, he said. But his most momentous meeting was with Ken Bensinger of BuzzFeed. In Washington during the Christmas holidays, he let Mr. Bensinger read the dossier. He then stepped away....

The depositions given by former British spy Christopher Steele and a longtime associate of John McCain must be unsealed, a federal judge said Thursday. U.S. District Court Judge Ursula Ungaro overruled the objections of both Steele and David Kramer to make the depositions public. The pair gave testimony in a lawsuit brought against BuzzFeed in December 2018 by a Russian Internet entrepreneur. The businessman, Aleksej Gubarev, was referenced in the infamous dossier compiled by Steele about President Trump’s alleged connections to Russia. Gubarev objected to BuzzFeed’s publishing of the dossier in January 2017, which accused him of using his companies...

A federal judge in Florida on Thursday ordered the release of depositions given by former British spy Christopher Steele and a longtime associate of late Republican Arizona Sen. John McCain in a lawsuit filed against BuzzFeed regarding Steele’s anti-Trump dossier. U.S. District Court Judge Ursula Ungaro overruled requests by Steele and David Kramer, the former McCain associate, to keep depositions they gave in the BuzzFeed lawsuit under seal. Ungaro dismissed a lawsuit filed against BuzzFeed on Dec. 19, 2018, by Aleksej Gubarev, a Russian businessman accused in the dossier of using his companies to hack into DNC computers.

Michael Cohen painted a very ugly portrait of President Trump in his testimony Wednesday — exactly as you’d expect from a guy whose hopes for the future rest entirely on doing exactly that. Yet he didn’t move the ball an inch when it came to any criminal charges or even on the “collusion” front. Bizarrely, Buzzfeed is claiming the testimony confirms its long-debunked report that Cohen says Trump instructed him to lie to Congress about when negotiations ended for a Trump Tower in Moscow. That would be a crime — but Cohen plainly testified only that he “understood” that the...

Employees at BuzzFeed News announced Tuesday they have voted to unionize with the NewsGuild of New York, claiming in a statement that they have "legitimate grievances about unfair pay disparities, mismanaged pivots and layoffs, weak benefits, skyrocketing health insurance costs, diversity and more." Why it matters: This comes weeks after the company laid off more than 220 employees, or roughly 15% of its workforce, including jobs within its news division. It is a huge blow to BuzzFeed's leadership, which has in the past suggested that it could be a better advocate for employees than a union could be.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) is facing scrutiny over her treatment of congressional staff and her workplace demeanor, just days ahead of her decision about whether she will run for president in 2020. A number of former staffers who worked for Klobuchar spoke anonymously to BuzzFeed News, accusing the senator of often berating staff over small mistakes and creating a hostile work environment. BuzzFeed interviewed eight former aides and reviewed dozens of emails. A spokesperson for Klobuchar did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Hill. BuzzFeed reported that Klobuchar often yelled, threw papers and flung objects and...

“I think your move makes the story less serious and credible[.] I think you damaged its impact,” Tapper wrote to Smith on Jan. 10, 2017, just after BuzzFeed published the dossier in full on its website. ..... “Collegiality wise it was you stepping on my d!ck,” Tapper responded.