Free Republic

Supreme Court Justice John Roberts on Wednesday blocked an attempt by Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) to pose questions regarding the so-called “whistleblower” — the individual who sparked the House Democrats’ partisan impeachment inquiry of President Donald Trump — according to reports. Politico and The Hill state Roberts indicated he would oppose reading Paul’s questions, as it is believed he would be forced to name or provide identifying information on the alleged individual. Speaking to reporters following a Republican dinner, Paul signaled he may still fight to have his question read. “It’s still an ongoing process; it may happen tomorrow,” he...

Deputy White House Counsel Patrick Philbin shredded House Intelligence Committee Chairman and lead Impeachment Manager Adam Schiff (D-CA) for his contact with the Ukranian whistleblower, which led to the impeachment inquiry, and eventually the current trial. As it currently sits, we are still in the dark about what role Schiff and his staff played in the whistleblower's inquiry. Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) presented the question on behalf of Sens. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Josh Hawley (R-MO). "Is it true that Shawn Misco and Abigail Grace and the alleged whistleblower were employed by or detailed by the National Security Council in...

There’s a reason Mitch McConnell has been Senate Majority Leader for the past 13 years: He gets the job done. And the biggest part of that job is keeping the GOP caucus, however necessary. At this point, he appears to have pulled off the feat once again.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Gunmen shot dead two protesters in Iraq's southern city of Nassiriya overnight and a Baghdad district became a battlefield on the third day of a drive by security forces to end months of demonstrations against the largely Iran-backed ruling elite. Clashes over the weekend had already killed at least five protesters. Rockets also hit the U.S. embassy compound in Baghdad's fortified Green Zone housing government buildings. Ambassadors of 16 countries in Baghdad including the United States, France and Britain condemned the use of live fire by Iraqi security forces and called for a credible investigation into the...

... It is also entirely possible that the Bidens’ actions, whether or not provably illegal, were so objectively suspicious, so suggestive of corruption, that it was perfectly reasonable for Trump to believe that they should be investigated — and that they could have violated American law, as well as Ukrainian law. The president’s defense has not been given a fair opportunity to prove that. Even though the House impeachment managers are now arguing about Biden corruption allegations in their Senate presentation, the two leaders of the House impeachment inquiry, Adam Schiff and Jerry Nadler, took the position that Republican claims...

The 2020 Democratic candidate with whom the CIA whistleblower had a "professional" tie is Joe Biden, according to intelligence officers and former White House officials. Lawyers for the whistleblower said he had worked only "in the executive branch." The Washington Examiner has established that he is a career CIA analyst who was detailed to the National Security Council at the White House and has since left. On Sept. 26, the New York Times reported that he was a CIA officer. On Oct. 4, the newspaper added that he "was detailed to the National Security Council at one point." Michael Atkinson,...

A source close to the Trump administration informs Breitbart News that Army Lt. Col. Yevgeny Vindman, a senior ethics lawyer for the National Security Council (NSC), is in charge of reviewing all publications by current and former NSC officials. The New York Times reported Sunday evening that Bolton’s draft book manuscript, which had been submitted to the NSC for prepublication review on Dec. 30, alleged that President Trump told Bolton in August 2019 that he wanted to withhold security assistance to Ukraine until it agreed to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden, among others. Bolton’s lawyer, Chuck Cooper, issued a...

By the time the House impeachment managers finally wrapped their opening arguments Friday, it had become painfully clear that their goal in this trial is simply to spend as much national-TV time as they can get denouncing President Trump as a menace to the nation and the world. It’s not about proving their case, or even making a real case for new witnesses and subpoenas; it’s not even about convincing “gettable” Republican senators to vote their way. You can tell by the way the “prosecutors” keep showing their contempt for those Republicans, from Jerry Nadler’s charge the first night that...

Long before Democrats finished making their marathon impeachment case Friday night, momentum had deserted them. The loops of repetition had gone from annoying to unbearable and the wild assertions got even wilder as their talk, talk, talk became a trial of its own. Despite the historic nature of the event, the public voted by staying away. Many gallery seats sat empty, a fact that recalls a gem from the late Yogi Berra that “If the people don’t want to come out to the ballpark, nobody’s gonna stop them.” Still, even a fraudulent impeachment is not a laughing matter and until...

Washington (CNN)President Donald Trump in August told his then-national security adviser John Bolton that he wanted to continue holding military aid to Ukraine until the country helped with investigations into Democrats -- including former Vice President Joe Biden -- the New York Times reported Sunday, citing multiple people's descriptions of an unpublished draft manuscript by Bolton.

Months before a whistleblower complaint that would spark the Democrat effort for impeachment, a shadowy liberal group founded and staffed by Obama administration alums and former Democrat congressional staffers launched an outside investigation into whether President Trump’s allies were seeking “foreign interference” from Ukraine in the 2020 elections. The group, American Oversight, began investigating the issue in May — more than two months before the “whistleblower” filed a complaint alleging Trump was “using the power of his office to solicit interference from a foreign country to investigate one of the President’s main domestic political rivals.” The group’s purpose is to...

While presenting the Democrats' case for impeachment on the Senate floor, lead impeachment manager Adam Schiff (D-CA) kept referencing 17 witnesses who testified during the House impeachment inquiry. But there were 18 of them. Schiff and the Democrats are refusing to release the testimony of Intelligence Community Inspector General Michael Atkinson, and according to Republicans who were present during Atkinson's closed-door testimony, the reason the transcript hasn't been released is because it proves both the whistleblower and House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff did not tell the truth about their contact with each other. Fox News' Maria Bartiromo interviewed Rep. John...

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) revealed Saturday he has drafted motions to subpoena former Vice President Joe Biden, his youngest son Hunter Biden, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-CA), and the so-called “whistleblower.” Hawley will attempt to force a vote on the subpoenas if the Senate approves additional witnesses and documents as part of the upper chamber’s trial. The Missouri Republican’s pledge mirrors one made by Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), who earlier this month threatened to force a vote on subpoenaing Hunter Biden and the so-called “whistleblower” if Republicans grant the Democrats’ demand for more witnesses. Hawley’s motion is likely...

Several days ago we anticipated a potentially important point we hoped would start the impeachment defense for President Donald Trump. Today, attorney Patrick Philbin delivered. The issue is a critical constitutional component that needed emphasis, and it is good to see pundits finally starting to realize the significance. White House Counsel Patrick Philbin explains why House subpoenas were illegitimate: the subpoena power was never authorized; the initiating subpoena power was never voted on. Additionally, and specifically by design, absent a penalty for non-compliance, which factually makes a subpoena a ‘subpoena’, the Executive Branch had no constitutional pathway or process to...

Fox News host Laura Ingraham revealed on her show Wednesday night that last May, the New York Times quashed a story about a White House meeting that took place in January 2016 between Obama administration officials, Ukrainian officials, and the alleged whistleblower, which addressed Hunter Biden's position on the board of Burisma Holdings.

President Trump raised eyebrows on Twitter by sharing a comical image of President Obama spying on him at Trump Tower. Trump posted the image, which shows Obama using a pair of binoculars to eye Trump while hanging outside of his Trump Tower window, without any comment. The photoshopped image appears to date back to early 2017 around the time the president made the claim that Obama had "wiretapped" Trump Tower during the 2016 election.

Newly revealed documents raise questions about the alleged Ukraine whistleblower. Fox News host Laura Ingraham reported Wednesday evening that she obtained a chain of State Department emails stemming from a standard request for comment from New York Times journalist Ken Vogel, whose reporting helped generate scrutiny of Hunter Biden's ties to Ukrainian gas company Burisma. Hunter Biden, 49, is the son of Democratic presidential front-runner Joe Biden, and Republicans have called for him to testify during the Ukraine-related Senate impeachment trial against President Trump. On May 1, 2019, Vogel contacted State Department official Kate Schilling about a story he was...

The America First Action PAC released a timeline of the ongoing “witch hunt” against President Donald Trump on Wednesday. The deeply researched timeline, provided exclusively in advance to Breitbart News, details all of the evidence of federal law enforcement officers, intelligence agencies, and government bureaucrats trying to cripple President Trump’s political campaign and his administration and continues to highlight the present-day efforts by Democrats and their impeachment effort. “Their perverse scheme took the instruments of government designed to protect American democracy and used them to undermine it,” wrote PAC officials in a forthcoming release. They added, it “follows the genesis...

(THIS LINKS WITH THE NEW INFO LAURA INGRAHAM DROPPED TONIGHT - ) VIDEO AT https://video.foxnews.com/v/6125736869001/ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This explains it. Anti-Trump CIA whistleblower Eric Ciaramella filed his second-hand “whistleblower” complaint against President Trump after speaking with Adam Schiff’s team in September. Ciaramella claimed he was concerned about President Trump’s discussion of Hunter Biden during his call with Ukrainian President Zelensky. Now we know why Ciaramella was so concerned. According to White House visitor logs Eric Ciaramella was hosting the January 19, 2016 White House meeting where Ukrainian officials were told to drop the investigation into Hunter Biden. * * * *...

Significant change in Burisma timeline exonerates President TrumpVideo: https://twitter.com/FollowQanon/status/1220139746271408128