Free Republic

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) said this week that she has not gotten a response from the Department of Justice (DOJ) on the potential investigation into her over a migrant webinar she held in February. “I asked them; they haven’t responded to me, but, you know, once again, I’m fully using the First Amendment to inform people of their constitutional rights. They say a lot of things, but I’ve written a formal letter, and they won’t respond,” Ocasio-Cortez told Fox News Digital on Tuesday. She set the deadline for the DOJ to respond by March 5. The New York Democrat said...

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky took to social media Saturday to clarify comments he made during the contentious back-and-forth with President Trump at the White House a day earlier, saying lasting peace in Eastern Europe would be “difficult” without U.S. support. Zelensky, in a lengthy thread on the social platform X, expressed gratitude for the U.S. assistance to Kyiv during Russia’s three-year invasion of his country, reiterated the two nations’ “strategic” partnership and said no one wants peace more than Ukraine. “We’ve been fighting for 3 years, and Ukrainian people need to know that America is on our side,” Zelensky wrote,...

President-elect Trump’s choice for special envoy to Ukraine and Russia, retired Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg, slammed the Russian military missile and drone attack on Christmas Day and said the U.S. is “more resolved than ever to bring peace to the region.” “Christmas should be a time of peace, yet Ukraine was brutally attacked on Christmas Day,” Kellogg wrote Wednesday on social platform X. “Launching large-scale missile and drone attacks on the day of the Lord’s birth is wrong. The world is closely watching actions on both sides. The U.S. is more resolved than ever to bring peace to the region.”

National political correspondent Maggie Haberman signaled Friday that President-elect Trump likely doubled down on Pete Hegseth as his pick to lead the Pentagon after support for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) as an alternative fell short. “What changed was a couple of things. One was… Trump could not find a single person in his orbit, or even really outside of it, who liked this idea of making Ron DeSantis — the governor of Florida — the Defense secretary choice,” she added. DeSantis, Trump’s formal GOP primary rival who was floated as a top contender, said he was “seriously considering” the...

Apple CEO Tim Cook visited Mar-a-Lago on Friday, joining a growing list of tech executives that are seemingly courting President-elect Trump ahead of his return to the White House. The president-elect and Cook had dinner at Trump’s Florida resort in West Palm Beach, multiple outlets reported. The meeting marked their first interaction since their call two months ago. The president-elect said in mid-October during his appearance on Patrick Bet-David’s podcast that the Apple executive talked to him about fines the European Union imposed on the company. “Then two hours ago, three hours ago, he called me,” Trump said. “He said,...

Russia’s Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu warned Kremlin will intensify attacks on Western weapons stored in Ukraine. “We will increase the intensity of attacks on logistics centers and storage bases for Western weapons,” Shoigu said on Tuesday, according to Russian state-owned outlet RIA Novosti. The warning from Shoigu came just as the House passed the $95 billion foreign aid package over the weekend and cleared the Senate Tuesday night. It is now on its way to President Biden’s desk to be signed. Foreign aid for embattled U.S. allies includes $26 billion for Israel and humanitarian aid in Gaza, $8 billion for...

Congressman Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.) had choice words for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Saturday comments, calling him a “maniac” who “needs” to be removed from office. The progressive Democrat initially discussed the Biden administration transferring 1,800 MK84 2,000-pound bombs, 500 MK82 500-pound bombs and 25 F-35A fighter jets to Israel without notifying lawmakers, an arms package reported exclusively by the Washington Post on Friday.

Former Watergate prosecutor Nick Akerman said Wednesday that the gag order recently imposed on former President Trump in his New York hush money trial is “so unusual.” “I think what the viewers have to understand is, this is so unusual,” Akerman told CNN’s Fredricka Whitfield in an interview. “This never happens, in over 50 years of law practice, both as a prosecutor, a defense lawyer. Akerman emphasized the unprecedented nature of how Trump’s case has unfolded, and that his attacks on Judge Juan Merchan could get the former president in “harm’s way.” Not only is the gag order itself unusual,...