Free Republic

Robert Mueller’s investigation into the 2016 presidential election was largely predicated on Russian intelligence having hacked the Democratic National Committee’s servers. Russia’s guilt is such an article of faith among our political class, that a Republican-controlled Congress imposed sanctions and President Trump signed on, substantially worsening relations with an important and potentially dangerous nation. Since those sanctions were imposed, Mueller has issued a report confirming the Russian espionage they were enacted to punish, which the Washington establishment has treated like a sacred document Outside the Acela Corridor, however, one finds more skepticism. A lot of ordinary folks just can’t stop...

Huge crowd and of BLM protesters at Met Gala.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced a new 60-day eviction moratorium in counties where the transmission of COVID-19 is either “substantial” or “high.” The CDC defines a “substantial” or “high” transmission rate as at least 50 COVID-19 cases per 100,000 people over a seven day period. According to the agency, 80.87 percent of US counties are currently experiencing these transmission rates. The new moratorium includes criminal penalties for landlords who turn out tenants in the affected counties. An eviction that “does not result in a death” can result in a fine of up to $100,000 and one...

It’s the first Hawaii hate crime case brought by the feds in 20 years, but U.S. Attorney Kenji Price is hoping to send a strong message about victimizing others because of their race or color. In 2013, Chris Kunzelman and his wife bought a house in Maui’s remote Kahakuloa village despite being warned that neighborhood residents “do not like white people.” Every time a non-Native Hawaiian had tried to view the house, Hawaiian residents from the deeply rooted village of approximately 150 people harassed and threatened them, scaring other potential buyers of the foreclosed property away, according to court documents....

Two Boston School Committee members who reportedly exchanged texts insulting the neighborhood of West Roxbury — disparaging residents as “westie whites” — have resigned. The city released resignation notices from Chair Alex Oliver-Davila and member Lorna Rivera on Tuesday afternoon, along with statements from them both. During a meeting last fall, Oliver-Davila is alleged to have texted Rivera “I hate WR” — West Roxbury — to which Rivera is said to have replied that she is “sick of westie whites” — to which Oliver-Davila said “Me too I really feel Like saying that!!!!”

U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley’s silence on questions about her Boston property and whether she is charging rent during the coronavirus pandemic is becoming deafening. Pressley is one of the leading progressives in Congress but all too often just refuses to respond to non-softball questions — following the Elizabeth Warren school of public relations. One of the latest examples: A press release and press conference last month from her and other members of the “Squad” — Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and Rep. Rashida Talib, D-Mich. — announcing they were re-introducing the “Rent and Mortgage Cancellation Act.” What...

A former Hudson middle school teacher pleaded not guilty Friday to charges she repeatedly raped a 13-year-old girl a decade ago after meeting her at the school where she worked and where the child was a seventh-grader. Caitlin Harding, 37, of Wellesley, was arraigned via Zoom in Middlesex Superior Court on one count of rape of a child by force, three counts of aggravated rape of a child, and six counts of indecent assault and battery of a child under 14.

The former chief financial officer of a Middleborough-based shoe company was federally charged Wednesday and agreed to plead guilty to embezzling about $30 million from the company. Since 2015, Hajjar transferred $15 million in funds stolen from the shoe company to Garza and her company, including a $1.1 million co-op apartment in New York City. He also bought her a Mercedez-Benz, a $60,000 diamond bracelet, a $158,000 diamond ring and other luxury goods, the company said in the lawsuit against Garza. According to the complaint, Hajjar purchased two pairs of earrings that totaled nearly $200,000 and two diamond rings that...

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – With an estimated 4 million Americans behind on rent, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has extended the eviction moratorium imposed during the pandemic until the end of June. The moratorium, which halted evictions for people unable to make their rent payments, was set to run out on Wednesday. But the CDC said it felt families across the country needed more time and relief. The extension was aimed at avoiding having people move in with loved ones or into homeless shelters as the risk of transmission of COVID-19 remains high.

Ghislaine Maxwell — Jeffrey Epstein’s longtime associate accused of recruiting young girls for sex — has been arrested, according to a report. The British socialite, 58, was taken into custody Thursday, NBC News reported. Epstein committed suicide in August while locked up on federal sex trafficking charges.

Hi BOSTON (CBS) – Six former eBay executives and employees are facing federal charges after they allegedly led a cyberstalking campaign against a Natick couple they believed was critical of the company in an online ecommerce newsletter. U.S. Attorney Andrew Lelling said the eBay employees’ harassment included sending the couple “disturbing deliveries” that included a bloody pig mask, a box of live cockroaches, and a funeral wreath. The employees also allegedly sent anonymous threatening messages and traveled to Massachusetts to conduct “covert surveillance” of the victims. “It was a determined, systematic effort of senior employees of a major company to...

As looters were ransacking businesses throughout the city more than a week ago, Mayor Lori Lightfoot and Ald. Raymond Lopez (15th), one of her harshest critics, engaged in an angry and foul-mouthed argument over the city’s handling of the widespread violence. During a conference call with all 50 aldermen on May 31 to discuss the city’s response to the looting, Lopez accused the mayor of being unprepared when looting spread from downtown to the neighborhoods that weekend. Looters pillaged shops throughout the city as peaceful protesters were taking to the streets on the last weekend “When downtown is in lockdown,...

SCOOP @CBSNews obtains @RichardGrenell notification to congress declassified “unmasking list” Flynn between late 2016 and January 2017

Transcript AG Barr exclusive @CBSNews indicates expansion probe “Durham's investigation and US Attorney Jensen, I'm gonna ask him to do some more work on different items as well...I'm gonna wait till all the evidence is, and I get their recommendations as to..how serious it is”

Announces dedicated webpage related to Committee oversight efforts WASHINGTON – The Senate Judiciary Committee, chaired by Senator Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina), today released declassified confidential human source transcripts related to the Crossfire Hurricane operation. In addition to the transcripts, the Committee released other material related to the Committee’s investigation into Department of Justice (DOJ) and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) actions leading up to and during the Crossfire Hurricane operation, including the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrant process. “I’m committed to being as transparent as possible about the circumstances surrounding FISA abuse. The goal is to make sure it...

How to Fix a Drug Scandal” revisits the double whammy Massachusetts’ criminal courts faced when its two most prominent drug-testing labs were shut down and literally thousands of convictions had to subsequently be tossed. What began in January 2013 as one lab chemist’s drug bust expanded into a shocking case of the Attorney General’s Office being charged with knowingly withholding key evidence from the trial judge. Ultimately over 35,000 convictions were overturned. In 2012 Boston’s Hinton Drug Lab chemist Annie Dookhan met the demands of her job by simply not testing drug samples and saying she did. She hoped to...

ALBANY — Gov. Andrew Cuomo ordered a statewide lockdown amid the worsening coronavirus pandemic Friday that will shut down most of the Empire State — including New York City. “I want to be able to say to the people of New York — I did everything we could do,” Cuomo said. “And if everything we do saves just one life, I’ll be happy.” The restrictions take effect Sunday night at 8 p.m. and will: Shut down all non-essential businesses across the state, leaving just grocery stores, pharmacies and other essential operations open Ban all non-solitary outside activity, like outdoor basketball...

About 175 executives were expected at the Biogen leadership conference on Feb. 26. Employees from Biogen locations around the United States and the world reunited with colleagues they don’t often get to see. Within days, though, the Biogen conference would be infamous, identified as an epicenter of the Massachusetts outbreak of Covid-19, with 70 of 92 coronavirus infections in the state linked to the conference as of Tuesday night, including employees and those who came into contact with them. That doesn’t include a cascade of individual cases in Tennessee, North Carolina, Indiana, New Jersey, Washington, D.C., and Norway, and suspected...

An employee of the biotech company at the center of the COVID-19 outbreak in Massachusetts is being criminally investigated after she defied the president’s travel ban and went to China. Of the 328 confirmed cases of the disease in Massachusetts, 30 percent of them are linked back to Cambridge-based Biogen after several employees at a conference held by the company at the Marriott Long Wharf tested positive for the virus and traveled across the country, further spreading the disease. Belmont native Jie Li is being accused of knowing she was sick and of taking medication to bring down her fever...

Just call her Blunder Woman. Gal Gadot’s attempt to cheer up coronavirus isolationists with a celeb-studded cover of John Lennon’s “Imagine” backfired after Twitter users wondered why they couldn’t send money instead. “We’re all in this together,” says the “Wonder Woman” star, 34, at the start of the viral video posted Wednesday to her 38.6-million-fan Instagram page. The 3-minute clip then cuts to a montage of Gadot, Mark Ruffalo, Will Ferrell and other Hollywood elites singing different lyrics to the late Beatle star’s opus, which envisions a world without strife. “Imagine there’s no heaven,” croons Gadot, seemingly wearing little or...