Free Republic

Late on an October morning in a quiet neighborhood near Daytona Beach, Florida. FBI agent Steve Friend sits in his kitchen, fidgeting. He’s a wiry, energetic man, built like a marathoner, not muscled up but exuding fitness, not a sitter. This is not a person meant for desk work, much less staying home all day. But as a whistleblower whose name has been all over media after a complaint about statistical manipulation and other problems in the January 6th investigations, this will be his lot for a while. By that morning, the first rush of news stories about Friend’s case...

On Thursday, New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez launched a major legal offensive in an attempt to address the online risks faced by minors. The lawsuit targeted Meta Platforms, Inc., its CEO Mark Zuckerberg, and associated entities such as Instagram, LLC and Facebook Holdings, LLC. This bold action seeks to prevent the exploitation of children on social media platforms. “Our investigation into Meta’s social media platforms demonstrates that they are not safe spaces for children but rather prime locations for predators to trade child pornography and solicit minors for sex,” Attorney General Torrez said in a statement. “As a career...

A former editor for the left-leaning website The Recount has reportedly been charged with multiple counts of child pornography. According to Massachusetts authorities, 44-year-old Slade Sohmer has pleaded not guilty to two counts of possession of child pornography and two counts of dissemination of child pornography. Sohmer was arrested at his residence in Otis, Mass., on Friday, several weeks after law enforcement obtained a search warrant and confiscated his personal electronic devices.

A BuzzFeed feature story from 2018 about a journalist who told a group of schoolchildren that he was gay was taken down just a day after it was announced that he had been brought up on child pornography charges. Slade Sohmer, 44, the former editor-in-chief of the left-leaning video-driven news site The Recount, was freed on $100,000 bail on Monday after he was charged in Massachusetts court with possessing and disseminating “hundreds of child pornography images and videos.” He has pleaded not guilty to two counts of possession of child pornography and two counts of dissemination of child pornography. In...

A Missouri high school announced it would ban smartphones and smartwatches beginning Monday. Steelville High School made the announcement Thursday on Facebook, claiming it's the school's latest attempt to prevent students from taking photos and videos of each other for social media. The new policy is a roundabout way to prevent child pornography from being filmed in the form of impromptu videos in school bathrooms, according to the principal. ... Student devices will be locked up and returned upon dismissal or they may choose to not bring them at all," Principal Steven Vetter wrote. "Any student who violates this new...

In the week since Biden Supreme Court nominee Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson was questioned about her pattern of reduced sentencing in grisly child pornography cases, two narratives have developed. The first view holds that the question of sentencing, and the implication that Judge Jackson is soft on child pornography offenders, is “disingenuous,” “a smear,” and “meritless to the point of demagoguery.” According to this narrative, such claims distort the rate at which judges routinely depart from the sentencing guidelines and do not distinguish the harm between the production of child pornography and mere possession of it. This view also seems...

Senate Judiciary Committee member Ben Sasse (R-NE) announced Friday night he will vote “no” on Ketanji Brown Jackson’s Supreme Court nomination, threatening the committee’s approval of the judge. If a majority of Judiciary Committee members do not vote to approve Jackson’s nomination, the vote may result in an 11-11 tie between Republicans and Democrats, forwarding her nomination to the Senate floor with additional procedural steps, meaning the nomination does not have the committee’s recommendation, which under other circumstances is often fatal. A full Senate vote could then mean moderate Democrats may oppose Jackson’s nomination because of her record of soft...

Jackson, echoing many legal experts that had come to her defense, noted current sentencing guidelines are outdated and “[lead to extreme disparities in the system,” noting judges are told to take “various aspects” of the case into account beyond the guidelines and offenders face other consequences beyond prison time. The judge emphasized she “make[s] sure that the children’s voices are represented in my sentencing” and tells child pornography offenders about “victim statements” she’s received “so that they will understand what they have done” andto make clear that they “are contributing to child sex abuse.”

"It has come to my attention that your educators are distributing essentially what is child pornography in the classroom. I've spoken to a judge this evening; she's already confirmed that," Shubert said. "So I'm going to give you a simple choice. Either choose to resign from this Board of Education, or you will be charged." While we respect the Mayor's position within the City of Hudson, in accordance with the State laws of Ohio, the supervision of the public schools of this District is the responsibility of the Board of Education. At this time, no Board of Education member has...

Hudson, Ohio mayor Craig Shubert demands all school board members resign or face possible criminal charges over high school course material that he said a judge called "child pornography." “I'm going to give you a simple choice: You either choose to resign or you will be charged

Tallahassee, FL — Before he was arrested, FBI Supervisory Special Agent David Harris, 51, was tasked with investigating crimes against children, including child sexual abuse material, otherwise known as child pornography. Now, many are wondering if he possibly sought out this position of power to further exploit children, as he was charged with multiple crimes against children, including indecency with a child, crimes against nature and sexual battery. Davis, who lived in Prairieville, Louisiana, was arrested over the summer on sexual assault and other charges relating to a number of victims dating as far back as 2016. Now, he has...

Spencer Elden, the man who, as a baby, posed for the iconic cover image to Nirvana’s Nevermind is reportedly suing the band and Kurt Cobain’s estate, claiming he was exploited for the picture. Court documents allege the band “knowingly produced, possessed, and advertised commercial child pornography depicting Spencer, and they knowingly received value in exchange for doing so.” According to Elden, photographer Kirk Weddle took pictures of his naked body “in poses highlighting and emphasizing Spencer’s exposed genitals.” The suit further alleges that Cobain “agreed to redact Spencer’s image by releasing the album with a sticker strategically placed over Spencer’s...

Leftist activists have already been pushing Mastercard, Visa, and others to expand their ban beyond illegal activities, with the eventual goal of demonetarizing opposing political views.Last week, Mastercard, Inc., announced new rules for banks processing credit card payments to pornography websites, designed to combat child pornography and sex trafficking. Unfortunately, for a country whose corporate overlords refuse (or are unable) to distinguish between intrinsic evil and prudential policy judgments, this promising development will likely also serve as a beta test to further attack conservative groups.In December, Mastercard and Visa banned the use of their credit cards on the Pornhub website...

Brett Blomme – a former head of the Cream City LGBTQ+ Foundation which runs a Drag Queen Story Hour program – was arrested on charges of possession of child pornography. Blomme, 38, was taken into custody “following an investigation into multiple uploads of child pornography through a Kik messaging application account in October and November 2020,” according to a statement. A 44-page search warrant filed Friday by a Division of Criminal Investigation (DCI) special agent said investigators found Blomme, using the name “dommasterbb,” uploaded 27 videos and images containing child pornography. Two of the files were uploaded at a Milwaukee...

Ruben A. Verastigui was arrested last night for allegedly soliciting, possessing, and distributing extremely violent child pornography depicting infants being raped by adult men, police say. Prior to his arrest, Verastigui worked for a Republican policy group, and prior to this, worked for establishment Republicans in the Senate. The last tweet he sent before being arrested lauded the 11 Republican Congressmen who joined with Democrats to strip Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of her committee posts. “Between March 2020 and February 2021, an investigation revealed the suspect distributed, received, and possessed images of child pornography,” the D.C. Metropolitan Police said in...

On Sunday morning Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) joined Maria Bartiromo on Sunday Morning Futures. During their discussion Maria Bartiromo asked Senator Johnson about the FBI agent who focuses on child pornography issues. Senator Johnson’s answer should raise some eyebrows! Maria Bartiromo: Connect the dots, if an FBI agent is working on child pornography issues for five years why is he subpoenaing the laptop of Hunter Biden? Is there a connection here? Should this suggest that there is a child pornography issue here on that laptop?

Netflix has been indicted on a criminal charge that alleges the streaming giant promotes “lewd visual material” of a child. The lawsuit centers on the release of the French film “Cuties” that has been mired by controversy since its release last month. A Tyler County, Texas grand jury moved to return an indictment against Netflix on Sept. 23, Fox News confirmed on Tuesday via court documents. The complaint alleges Netflix “knowingly” promoted visual material which “depicts the lewd exhibition of the genitals or pubic area of a clothed or partially clothed child who was younger than 18 years of age...

Kiddie sex is possibly the most controversial topic any movie can examine. Slip anything into your movie about sex involving a child (whether the child is being molested by someone older, or is doing it with another child) and you guarantee plenty of censorship and angry chatter about censorship, not to mention pretentious eggheads trying to make the case that people are taking this way too seriously and kiddie sex totally isn't what the movie's about. Sometimes those pretentious eggheads are right, and the detractors really are focusing too much on one little scene or insinuation to the exclusion of...

We have long accepted, winked, and nodded at the sexualization of children in ways that are different in degree but not in kind. Facing a mountain of backlash for featuring the movie “Cuties” on its platform, Netflix has defended its decision by protesting that, by engaging in soft kiddie porn, the movie means to condemn it. Okay. I am sure claiming good intentions will really chasten the pedophiles and perverts watching 11-year-old girls getting their pants pulled down, twerking on their hands and knees in their underwear, and other pre-pubescent sex simulations.All of the statistics about child sexualization are horrifying....

This article includes clips of young children dressing and dancing sexually.At a time the left has declared that “silence is violence,” Michelle Obama’s silence on Netflix’s controversial movie “Cuties” has not gone unnoticed. It is also undermining her brand as “America’s mom” and chief defender of female empowerment across the globe.No one should doubt the considerable power former first lady Michelle Obama wields within Netflix or the unrivaled cultural influence she has to speak out in defense of preserving girlhood and innocence. Sadly, however, Michelle has a troubling history of celebrating, rather than denouncing, the sexualization of popular culture...