Free Republic

Former Attorney General Bill Barr did not improperly pressure prosecutors to reduce sentencing recommendations for political activist Roger Stone, according to a new government watchdog report. The exoneration of Barr came more than four years after a deluge of media reports alleging wrongdoing. However, J.P. Cooney, a Justice Department official now serving as Special Counsel Jack Smith’s top deputy, cultivated a politically toxic environment, disseminated baseless conspiracy theories about Trump and his political appointees, and engaged in unprofessional conduct as he oversaw the team making sentencing recommendations, according to the same report. Cooney is mentioned (as the “Fraud and Public...

Massachusetts Sen. Edward Markey is renewing his push to expand the U.S. Supreme Court by adding four seats, less than a day after President Biden announced his support for reforming the high court. Speaking in front of the Court building Thursday, the Democratic senator urged Congress to pass the Judiciary Act, a proposal that would create a 13-justice bench...

For Justice Department employees who had spent weeks contemplating the possibility of two-time federal criminal defendant Donald Trump returning to the presidency, Joe Biden’s decision to drop out and endorse Kamala Harris offered a sense of relief. Former and current Justice Department employees believe that a future president Harris, a former prosecutor, unlike Trump, would respect the norms that have been in place to ensure DOJ independence in the half-century since Watergate. Those fears of another Trump term are central to a new letter endorsing Harris, signed by more than 40 former Justice Department officials who served under presidents of...

<p>FBI Director Christopher Wray has raised doubts as to whether or not Donald Trump was struck by a bullet during the assassination attempt at a Pennsylvania rally earlier this month.</p><p>Wray testified before the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday about the ongoing investigation into the attempt on the former president’s life and the response of law enforcement agencies that day.</p>

For the first time since Donald Trump was indicted in the spring of 2023, he has lost his grip on the news cycle and — temporarily at least — his message. Instead of commanding morning-to-night media attention, the former president and his allies suddenly find themselves reacting to their opponents. It’s an unfamiliar experience for Trump, who has monopolized America’s televisions, newspapers and smartphones for more than 12 months through indictments, primary victories, 34 felony convictions, an assassination attempt and a Republican National Convention at which he was celebrated as a quasi-religious figure. In the three days since President Joe...

The FBI's director has cast doubt on whether Donald Trump was struck by a bullet during the attempt on his life at a Pennsylvania political rally. Christopher Wray was updating Congress about the assassination attempt on Trump in Butler on Wednesday when he made the explosive statement. 'With respect to former President Trump, there’s some question about whether or not it’s a bullet or shrapnel that hit his ear,' Wray said. 'I don't know right now whether that bullet, in addition to causing the grazing, could have landed somewhere else.' Wray was addressing security failures that allowed gunman Thomas Matthew...

he FBI’s director has revealed that investigators still do not know whether it was a bullet or some shrapnel which grazed Donald Trump’s ear during his attempted assassination. Christopher Wray told a marathon session of the US House Judiciary Committee that the FBI was still working to determine exactly what hit the former president’s ear during the shooting. “My understanding is that either it [a bullet] or some shrapnel is what grazed his ear,” he said.

Philanthropist Melinda French Gates said she is endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris. French Gates, who said she has never before endorsed a candidate, said the likely Democratic nominee is the "right candidate, right now" in an interview on "CBS Mornings." "She has believed in women's reproductive freedom from the beginning of her career, and that got rolled back under previous administrations. She knows what society is up against now. She's for paid family medical leave. She's for caregiving ... She has always been outspoken on these topics, and I think she's a woman of our time." On a personal level,...

House Republicans passed a resolution Thursday criticizing Vice President Kamala Harris’ record on immigration as attacks on her work have ramped up since she became the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee—referring to her as the Biden administration’s “border czar”—but their criticisms misinterpret the actual task Harris was given on immigration, which is more narrowly focused on why people immigrate in the first place.

Ever since President Biden’s Sunday announcement that he would not seek re-election, clearly because of age, I keep thinking about Donald Trump’s and JD Vance’s contemptuous reactions to one of the most difficult personal decisions a president has ever made, and what it says about their character.“The Democrats pick a candidate, Crooked Joe Biden, he loses the Debate badly, then panics, and makes mistake after mistake, is told he can’t win, and decide they will pick another candidate, probably Harris,” Trump wrote on social media on Monday. He later added: “It’s not over! Tomorrow Crooked Joe Biden’s going to wake...

CNN senior fact checker Daniel Dale said on Thursday that the media incorrectly labeled Vice President Kamala Harris the “border czar.” Media outlets rushed to erase their own reporting to downplay Harris’ role in managing the border crisis by saying she is solely responsible for addressing “root causes” in Latin American countries. Dale continued with this recent trend by saying the media wrongfully portrayed Harris as the “border czar.”

The ongoing controversy surrounding diversity, equity and inclusion has spilled over into the 2024 presidential race with Vice President Kamala Harris on the path to becoming the Democratic nominee. Earlier this week, Tennessee Republican Rep. Tim Burchett suggested in an interview with CNN’s Manu Raju that President Joe Biden chose Harris as a running mate because she was a Black woman. “100% she is a DEI hire,” Burchett said. Supporters have defended Harris, who, if elected, would become the nation’s first female president. In an interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, UN ambassador Susan Rice called the attacks from Republicans “extremely...

Many conspiracy theorists and far-right commentators are spreading doubts that President Biden is alive after he posted a letter on Sunday resigning from his presidential campaign. The theory is baseless. Mr. Biden, who learned he had Covid on July 17 and has been in isolation since, called into a campaign event for Vice President Kamala Harris on Monday, and the two exchanged praise and playful ba

Former President Donald J. Trump’s penchant for fabrication and hyperbole has long been a core tenet of his bombastic persona and political messaging. Two campaigns, one term in the Oval Office and eight years later, Mr. Trump has loosened his grasp on the facts even more.A comparison of his addresses before the Republican National Convention in 2016 and 2024 demonstrates how his relationship to the truth has changed, offering a glimpse of how he will likely cast himself on the campaign trail as he seeks to reclaim the White House.In 2016, when he accepted the nomination after a bitter primary...

I voted for Haley against Trump in the Virginia primary. I am now for Harris. So I am a Haley voter for Harris. Am I not allowed to say that? Do I not have a right to associate with others saying that? It is sad that Trump-supporting Haley has also become anti-free speech Haley.

On her first foreign trip as Vice President in June 2021, Kamala Harris was tasked with delivering a blunt message in Guatemala City. "I want to be clear to folks in this region who are thinking about making that dangerous trek to the United States-Mexico border: Do not come," she said at a press conference, pausing for effect. "Do not come." Three years later, that sound bite may come to haunt Harris' nascent presidential campaign. Despite her warning, border crossings reached historic highs during the Biden Administration. Republican critics cast the episode as a symbol of Harris’s ineffective tenure as...

Sen. Tom Cotton is proof an Ivy League degree doesn’t guarantee an understanding of basic word definitions. In fact, the Arkansas Republican showed during a Tuesday interview on CNN that he has no idea what the word “coup” means. Here’s the back story: Ever since Joe Biden stepped down as a presidential candidate on Sunday, the Republicans who previously demanded he step down got mad that he stepped down, and claimed it was a “coup.” It’s not. A coup is typically defined as “the violent overthrow or alteration of an existing government by a small group,” and not “delegates of...

The growing undocumented immigrant population in the U.S. will lower the deficit by nearly a trillion dollars over the next decade, according to a study by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). CBO’s projections are based on the net sum of economic activity generated, taxes paid and benefits allotted to the immigrant groups included in the study. The nonpartisan agency estimates a net population increase of 8.7 million such immigrants between 2021 and 2026, averaging an increase of 1.7 million people per year above the pre-2020 average annual net immigration of 200,000. CBO based its projections on the economic effects that...

Unelected globalists at the World Economic Forum (WEF) are calling on governments to usher in “digital IDs” for members of the general public. The WEF argues that “every citizen” should be issued with digital ID as the world prepares for “cashless societies.” The new form of ID is part of the digital public infrastructure (DPI) plan being pushed by the WEF, United Nations (UN), European Union (EU), and Gates Foundation. While it will initially be used for IDs, DPI will be expanded to also support digital payments via central bank digital currency (CBDC). The plan to roll out DPI infrastructure...

Oscar-winning actor George Clooney hailed President Biden as a hero for “saving democracy” and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris — just two weeks after calling on the president to drop out of the election in a scathing op-ed. “President Biden has shown what true leadership is. He’s saving democracy once again. We’re all so excited to do whatever we can to support Vice President Harris in her historic quest,” Clooney told CNN in a statement Tuesday. The 63-year-old actor’s endorsement comes nearly two weeks after he called for a new candidate in an op-ed published in the New York Times...