Free Republic

Donald Trump was almost assassinated less than two days ago. Was this a crazy lone wolf or was this a continuation of a pattern, eliminating one’s political opposition, gradually ratcheting up the techniques? Were the agencies charged with protecting the former and likely next president incompetent or deliberately lax in doing their jobs? Hopefully we get answers and accountability post haste. Because if the worst is true, the political left is playing a dangerous game here. A government that attempts to arrest and imprison its political opposition, without success, and faced with an increasingly unpopular and corrupt president in name...

CNN’s moderators for Thursday’s presidential debate have deep ties to former intelligence officials who signed the now-debunked letter claiming Hunter Biden’s laptop had “all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation,” Real Clear Investigations (RCI) reported Wednesday. Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper lied about leaking false information to one of CNN’s moderators, Jake Tapper, about the Trump campaign exchanging information with Russia throughout the election cycle, according to the RCI report. Tapper, failing to inform the public that the information came from a Clinton campaign-funded dossier, the now discredited Steele dossier, disseminated the information in a January...

Just before Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton faced off in their second presidential debate, then-National Intelligence Director James Clapper met in the White House with a small group of advisers to President Obama to hatch a plan to put out a first-of-its-kind intelligence report warning the voting public that "the Russian government" was interfering in the election by allegedly breaching the Clinton campaign’s email system. On Oct. 7, 2016 – just two days before the presidential debate between Trump and Clinton – Clapper issued the unprecedented intelligence advisory with Obama’s personal blessing. It seemed to lend credence to what the...

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, following its victory that resulted in the disbanding of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) “Homeland Intelligence Experts Group,” America First Legal (AFL) is releasing the first tranche of the group’s internal meeting notes, exclusively obtained from litigation. This is the first installment of #DeepStateDiaries, a multi-part series of releases including newly obtained documents.As part 1, newly obtained documents reveal that the advisory committee that included John Brennan and James Clapper discussed ways for DHS to increase efforts to collect intelligence on Americans across the country, including attempting to “get into local communities in a non-threatening...

Former Obama Director of National Intelligence James Clapper says he would not retract the letter he signed about first son Hunter Biden's laptop. In 2020, Clapper along with 51 other officials signed a letter saying that Hunter Biden's "laptop from hell" was Russian disinformation. When Clapper recently was asked if he would retract the letter he signed, he told Fox News in a one word answer, "no."

The Biden administration agreed Friday to shut down a panel of “experts” that included multiple signatories of a letter that dismissed a laptop abandoned by Hunter Biden as Russian disinformation. The Department of Homeland Security agreed to “wind down” the Homeland Intelligence Experts Group in 30 days following litigation from America First Legal, according to court documents. The experts in the group included former CIA Director John Brennan and former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, who signed an October 2020 letter that claimed a bombshell New York Post report about emails from the laptop supposedly abandoned by Hunter Biden...

America First Legal (AFL) is celebrating a victory in its lawsuit on behalf of former Ambassador Ric Grenell against the Biden Administration's “Homeland Intelligence Experts Group.” The Biden Administration has agreed to dissolve this unlawful group and hand over its records to AFL.

A cynical public now expects any accused prominent leftist to remain unindicted, while any non-leftwing target will be indicted, convicted, and jailed—for the same alleged offenses. In 2011, then Homeland Security Advisor to President Obama, John Brennan, swore before Congress that drone-targeted assassination missions near the Pakistani border had not led to “a single collateral death.” That was an obvious lie with grave consequences, given that Brennan was sworn under oath and was one of the top officials in the US national security community. Yet there were no subsequent repercussions. In fact, the opposite occurred. Brennan was subsequently rewarded with...

Remember when dozens of former intelligence officials signed a letter just before the 2020 election proclaiming the Hunter Biden laptop to be "Russian disinformation"? Well, some of the signers of that letter are back, and they've got a new and infuriating demand. That news comes via deep-state stenographer Jennifer Griffin, who will apparently report anything the intelligence community puts out without the slightest hint of context. In fact, you wouldn't even know some of the signers of this new letter also signed the now-debunked Hunter Biden laptop letter if it weren't for conservatives digging into it. ... if I .....

Elon Musk's social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, issued a new warning Wednesday about the left-wing ratings company NewsGuard. In a post on the site, X said it was the latest organization to be targeted by NewsGuard, which has systematically targeted conservative media. "NewsGuard is about to publish a 'report' on misinformation on X. As a for-profit company, they will only share the data that underpins their purported research if you pay," X explained. X then highlighted NewsGuard's strategy in going after the platform — the same strategy it has employed on dozens of other companies. NewsGuard "uses...

During a conversation on CNN, Clapper was asked about General Milley’s recent statements, where Milley speculated that if Trump were to secure a second term, he might incarcerate his opponents. Milley had even mentioned that he could be at the top of such a list. Responding to the report, Clapper stated, “I think there are probably a lot of people that are potentially on such a list. And again, that’s reprehensible.” He further added, “I think General Milley’s comment was he didn’t think President Trump would be re-elected. Well, I’m not so sure about that. So yeah, that’s a real...

Remember James Clapper and John Brennan? It's easy to forget given how much has transpired since both men consistently led the news throughout the Trump administration. At one time, though, their involvement in Crossfire Hurricane, otherwise known as the Russia collusion investigation was really big news. For those less initiated, here's a quick refresher. Clapper was Barack Obama's DNI and has been credibly accused of lying to Congress. Meanwhile, Brennan is Obama's former CIA Director and has been credibly accused of doing the same. Both men lived on cable news after Trump's inauguration, making all kinds of wild, unsubstantiated claims...

Several former intelligence officials who signed a letter suggesting that the Hunter Biden laptop was likely a “Russian information operation” are joining a federal “expert” board handling issues of national security, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced Tuesday.Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, former CIA Director John Brennan and former CIA Operations Officer Paul Kolbe, who will now serve on the board, all signed an October 2020 letter casting doubt on the legitimacy of the Hunter Biden laptop and suggesting its release was a Russian disinformation ploy. The group will advise DHS on intelligence and national security efforts...

Secretary of State Antony Blinken is being investigated by the Committee on the Judiciary and the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence for his prominent role in persuading 51 former intelligence officials to falsely discredit the “New York Post story regarding Hunter Biden’s laptop as supposed Russian disinformation” during the 2020 Presidential election. The intelligence assessment led to a nearly blanket censorship of investigative stories exposing the alleged corruption of President Joe Biden and his family and kept the truth hidden from the American people before the election, according to a letter released Thursday night by the committees and obtained by...

A retired CIA leader coordinated a letter from former intelligence chiefs claiming that Hunter Biden's laptop was Russian disinformation because he wanted to help Joe Biden's presidential campaign. Mike Morell told the House Judiciary Committee that he was asked by Antony Blinken, the Secretary of State - who at the time was a senior member of the Biden campaign - to help discredit the laptop reporting. Morell was a former acting CIA director, serving for two months in 2011 and four months from 2012 to 2013. He retired from the CIA in September 2013. The House Judiciary Committee, led by...

Aformer acting CIA director has admitted to Congress that he organized the letter that falsely portrayed Hunter Biden's laptop as Russian disinformation in an effort to influence the 2020 election in favor of Joe Biden and that he did so at the direction of current Secretary of State Antony Blinken, according to a letter released Thursday by House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan. The extraordinary admission by career intelligence officer Michael J. Morell provides stunning evidence that the now-infamous letter from 51 security officials in October 2021 was not an organic intelligence community initiative but rather a political dirty trick...

In an interview with The Washington Post’s “fact checker,” former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper contends that Politico misled the public about a letter he and 50 other former intel officials signed during the 2020 presidential campaign warning that the New York Post’s Hunter Biden laptop story could be Russian deception. “There was message distortion,” Clapper tells The Washington Post. “All we were doing was raising a yellow flag that this could be Russian disinformation. Politico deliberately distorted what we said. It was clear in paragraph five.” It was not clear, at all. The purpose of the letter, apparent...

A key signer of the open letter that wrongly suggested The Post’s bombshell reporting on Hunter Biden’s emails was part of a “Russian information operation” has accused Politico of distorting “what we said” — more than two years after the fact. Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper tried Monday to tamp down the growing controversy over the letter that he and 50 other ex-spooks signed after The Post first revealed the existence of the first son’s infamous laptop in October 2020. Their public statement, now the subject of investigations by the Republican-led House Judiciary and Intelligence committees, was first...

Two left-wing formerly high-ranking U.S. intelligence officials argue an influential media report about their Trump-bashing accusations related to Hunter Biden’s laptop was … wait for it … fake news. Both James Clapper, former national intelligence director, and Thomas Finger, whose career included a stint as chairman of the National Intelligence Council, trotted out Donald Trump’s favorite trope to distance themselves from their efforts to quash the explosive 2020 story uncovered by the New York Post.

It's now an infamous headline among conservatives and a sore spot for Politico. But at the time, the October 19, 2020, story by Natasha Bertrand had its intended bombshell effect with this headline: "Hunter Biden story is Russian disinfo, dozens of former intel officials say." Now former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper says Politico "deliberately distorted" the letter he and more than 50 others – many of them open Joe Biden supporters – signed. Critics are wondering why the players in the story are speaking out more than two years later – just as House Republicans are investigating the...