Free Republic

Recently there has been an ever increasing drumbeat from the media for a narrative portraying that Donald Trump would be a dangerous dictator if he returned to the White House in 2025, despite not becoming one during his first term. Further undermining the media's "Trump as dictator" narrative was an NBC News article on Monday that presents plans by liberals both in and out of government to curtail "dictator" Trump's power by using the law to thwart him, and hyped a Collusion Hoax peddler as the standard-bearer for that effort.The FIVE writers NBC crammbed into the article, Peter Nicholas, Katherine...

Among those being mentioned for Trump’s defense secretary are Christopher Miller, who served temporarily during his administration, Michael Flynn and Mike Pompeo. WASHINGTON — Donald Trump is sparking fears among those who understand the inner workings of the Pentagon that he would convert the nonpartisan U.S. military into the muscular arm of his political agenda as he makes comments about dictatorship and devalues the checks and balances that underpin the nation’s two-century-old democracy. A circle of appointees independent of Trump’s political operation steered him away from ideas that would have pushed the limits of presidential power in his last term,...

WASHINGTON — U.S. and European officials have begun quietly talking to the Ukrainian government about what possible peace negotiations with Russia might entail to end the war, according to one current senior U.S. official and one former senior U.S. official familiar with the discussions. The conversations have included very broad outlines of what Ukraine might need to give up to reach a deal, the officials said. Some of the talks, which officials described as delicate, took place last month during a meeting of representatives from more than 50 nations supporting Ukraine, including NATO members, known as the Ukraine Defense Contact...

SEOUL, South Korea — Travis King, the U.S. Army private who intentionally ran across the border into North Korea this summer, is back in U.S. custody, an American official said Wednesday, shortly after the isolated East Asian country said it would expel the soldier. “U.S. officials have secured the return of Private Travis King from the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea," Pentagon spokesman Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder said in a statement. He went on to thank the U.S. military personnel who worked to "bring Private King home," as well as the governments of Sweden and China. King, 23, bolted across...

U.S. intelligence officials are watching for any influence campaigns from Russia or China that are aimed at amplifying existing political divisions or stoking unrest among Americans over the indictment of former President Donald Trump, according to two U.S. officials.Officials have been on alert since the indictment was confirmed last week and so far have not seen significant signs of Russian or Chinese interference in the country’s political discourse beyond the efforts that have become standard, the U.S. officials said.But after Trump’s arraignment Tuesday, one of the officials said the intelligence community is watching “very closely” for any signs of such...

A Biden administration official recently told members of Congress that Ukraine has the military capability to retake Crimea, but some officials are concerned any large-scale offensive that threatens Russia’s hold on the peninsula could push Vladimir Putin to use nuclear weapons, say two U.S. officials familiar with the matter. The late November Ukraine briefing to some members of Congress included discussion of the reasons Ukraine will continue to need U.S. weapons and equipment for the foreseeable future. The two officials said a Biden official, when asked during the briefing about continued support for the Ukrainian military and whether it would...

Intelligence shared by the U.S. helped Ukraine sink the Russian cruiser Moskva, U.S. officials told NBC News, confirming an American role in perhaps the most embarrassing blow to Vladimir Putin’s troubled invasion of Ukraine.... The attack happened after Ukrainian forces asked the Americans about a ship sailing in the Black Sea south of Odesa, U.S. officials told NBC News. The U.S. identified it as the Moskva, officials said, and helped confirm its location, after which the Ukrainians targeted the ship.... The U.S. role in the sinking has not been previously reported. But NBC News detailed last month how American intelligence...

As Russia launched its invasion, the U.S. gave Ukrainian forces detailed intelligence about exactly when and where Russian missiles and bombs were intended to strike, prompting Ukraine to move air defenses and aircraft out of harm’s way, current and former U.S. officials told NBC News. That near real-time intelligence-sharing also paved the way for Ukraine to shoot down a Russian transport plane carrying hundreds of troops in the early days of the war, the officials say, helping repel a Russian assault on a key airport near Kyiv. It was part of what American officials call a massive and unprecedented intelligence-sharing...

President Joe Biden was subjected to a right-wing anti-Biden slur during a Christmas Eve call with NORAD's Santa tracker.Biden and the first lady were speaking with families around the country who had called into the North American Aerospace Defense Command to receive an update on Santa's location when one parent ended the conversation by saying: "Let’s go Brandon/The president did not appear to recognize that the phrase is used by the right wing as a euphemism for "f--- Joe Biden," and responded: "Let’s go Brandon, I agree."

A former Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) employee has pleaded guilty to charges related to the leaking of classified information to two journalists, the Justice Department (DOJ) said. Henry Kyle Frese, 31, pleaded guilty on Thursday to the willful transmission of top-secret national defense information to journalists. He faces up to 10 years in prison. Frese was arrested when he arrived to work at a DIA facility in Virginia in October last year where he worked as a counterterrorism analyst. The 31-year-old—who held top-secret government security clearance—was accused of helping the journalists research information on a classified United States government computer...

A former employee of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) was sentenced today to 30 months in prison for leaking classified information to two journalists in 2018 and 2019. “Frese repeatedly passed classified information to a reporter, sometimes in response to her requests, all for personal gain,” said Assistant Attorney General for National Security John C. Demers. “When this information was published, it was shared with all of our nation's adversaries, creating a risk of exceptionally grave harm to the security of this country. His conviction and sentence demonstrate the Department’s commitment to the investigation and prosecution of such betrayals by...

A U.S. Army soldier has been charged with giving classified information to a white supremacist group based in Europe, according to law enforcement and military officials. The soldier is accused of providing information about troops stationed overseas to the Order of Nine Angles, a satanic neo-Nazi group, the officials told NBC News. The charges are expected to be announced Monday afternoon. The Southern Poverty Law Center describes the Order of Nine Angles as "an enigmatic Satanic occult group." Its most extreme adherents "promote human sacrifice, Nazism and Fascism and Aryan myths, and have been reported to praise Adolf Hitler and...

In phone calls to McMaster, Trump told his second national security adviser that he missed him. WASHINGTON — As President Donald Trump began losing confidence in national security adviser John Bolton, whom he fired on Tuesday, he reached out to the man he had fired to give Bolton the job: retired Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster. In phone calls to McMaster — the first of which took place last fall — Trump told his second national security adviser that he missed him, according to two people familiar with the conversations. It’s a sentiment the president has also expressed to White House...

A Defense Intelligence Agency official was arrested Wednesday and charged with leaking classified intelligence information to two journalists, including a reporter he was dating, the Justice Department said. Henry Kyle Frese, 30, was arrested by the FBI when he arrived at work at a DIA facility in Virginia. He was charged with willfully disclosing national defense information. Frese, who has a top secret government security clearance, is alleged to have accessed at least five classified intelligence reports and provided top secret information about another country's weapons systems to the reporter with whom he was having a relationship.

The Department of Justice announced Wednesday that a counterterrorism analyst has been arrested for leaking classified information to members of the media, including one person with whom he was apparently romantically involved.Law enforcement took Defense Intelligence Agency official Henry Kyle Frese, 30, into custody Tuesday morning when he arrived at work. He has been indicted in federal court in Virginia.Frese, who had top-secret clearance, is accused of leaking classified material regarding a foreign nation’s weapons system to two reporters last year and this year.One of the reporters Frese leaked to was involved in a romantic relationship with him at the time and...

When former Coast Guardsman Amanda Wolfe went to the emergency room because her appendix was about to burst in September 2016, she figured her insurance would cover the cost. She had two kinds of insurance — a private plan she paid for and her Veterans Affairs benefits. The emergency appendectomy went well and Wolfe made a speedy recovery. Her private insurance covered most of the more than $20,000 bill for her hospital stay. But six months later, the VA denied her claim for the roughly $2,500 that remained, putting her in an unexpected financial bind. She has been appealing ever...