Free Republic

After Michael Bloomberg confirmed his run for president on Sunday, the news service that bears his name said it would not “investigate” the billionaire or any of his Democratic rivals. A former editor of his Bloomberg Businessweek title branded the decision “staggering” and said journalists at Bloomberg News “deserve a hell of a lot better than this”. The editor-in-chief, John Micklethwait, announced the new rules in a note to 2,700 journalists and analysts. “There is no point in trying to claim that covering this presidential campaign will be easy for a newsroom that has built up its reputation for independence...

A bridge-building disaster should be incomprehensible in today’s technical world. Humans have been building bridges for centuries. The science should be well sorted out by now — and for the most part, it is. But the National Transportation Safety Board’s investigation of the March 2018 collapse of the FIU pedestrian bridge highlighted basic design flaws and a complete lack of oversight by every single party that had responsibility to either identify the design errors or stop work once it was clear that there was a massive internal failure. We all know “what happened” here. But the “why” is more elusive....

We have conducted an in-depth analysis of Obama-era White House visitor logs, and we have learned a good deal about the people who controversial CIA employee Eric Ciaramella met with while assigned to the White House. Ciaramella reportedly was detailed to the Obama White House in 2015 and returned to the CIA during the Trump administration in 2017. Real Clear Investigations named Ciaramella as possibly being the whistleblower whose complaint sparked impeachment proceedings against President Trump. As reported by the Examiner, Fox News’ legal analyst Gregg Jarrett indicated that a key takeaway was the “reported direct relationship” Ciaramella had with...

Ilhan Omar is in big trouble and she has no one to blame but herself. Fresh off her second divorce in a few short years – what is wrong with the Dems? – she now faces a serious investigation into her alleged abuse of campaign funds. If you recall, Omar misused campaign funds in Minnesota and paid fines for her multiple violations. It appears, at least from the complaint filed by Peter Flaherty, that she is up to the same tricks in Congress. Look, we have rules for a reason and if Omar broke them she should face the consequences....

Democrats are accusing Attorney General William Barr of using the Justice Department to do President Donald Trump's political bidding. Democratic criticism of the attorney general comes amid media reports that a department probe into the FBI's investigation connections between Russia and the Trump 2016 campaign has now become a criminal investigation. Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, accused Barr on Sunday of “weaponizing” the Justice Department. Meanwhile, Senate Democrats have called on Barr to recuse himself from the department's investigation. "Bill Barr, on the president’s behalf, is weaponizing the Justice Department to go after the...

(Acre, Brazil) As more and more countries reveal that President Trump pressured them to intervene in domestic US politics to his advantage, there was major anthropological news today as an isolated tribe – hitherto believed to be uncontacted – asked to speak with the wider world. “It sounded urgent.” Fearing the remote insulated community located deep in the Amazon rainforest was experiencing a catastrophic medical emergency, authorities responded only to learn the tribe just wants President Trump to stop urging them to dig up dirt on big-shot Democrats. “We don’t even know what a Biden is? Dirt? Yes.” They were...

The Justice Department's investigation into the origins of the Russia election interference probe keeps getting unwanted assists from the White House, raising questions of how the department will be able to defend the legitimacy of any of its eventual findings. From the start, the probe has been driven by Attorney General William Barr's suspicions -- critics call them conspiracy theories -- that some of the officials overseeing the counterintelligence investigation of the 2016 Trump campaign may have acted improperly. His embrace of these theories aligns with President Donald Trump's chief grievance that he was the victim of a "deep state"...

WASHINGTON — Federal prosecutors reviewing the origins of the Russia investigation have asked witnesses pointed questions about any anti-Trump bias among former F.B.I. officials who are frequent targets of President Trump and about the earliest steps they took in the Russia inquiry, according to former officials and other people familiar with the review. The prosecutors, led by John H. Durham, the United States attorney in Connecticut, have interviewed about two dozen former and current F.B.I. officials, the people said. Two former senior F.B.I. agents are assisting with the review, the people said.

Megyn Kelly branded disgraced former “Today” host — and her ex-NBC colleague — Matt Lauer a “sexual predator” as she demanded an urgent, independent investigation into the rape and sexual harassment allegations against him, and whether NBC tried to cover them up by killing stories on disgraced Hollywood perv Harvey Weinstein. In her fiery first TV appearance since her NBC talk show was canceled a year ago, Kelly told Fox News that NBC “covered up for one sexual predator, Harvey Weinstein, in order to protect another: Matt Lauer.” She was reacting to allegations in Ronan Farrow’s new book “Catch and...

President Trump defended his personal attorney Rudolph W. Giuliani on Saturday amid reports that federal prosecutors are investigating whether the former New York City mayor broke lobbying laws in his efforts to oust the former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yavonovitch. “So now they are after the legendary ‘crime buster’ and greatest Mayor in the history of NYC, Rudy Giuliani,” Trump tweeted. “He may seem a little rough around the edges sometimes, but he is also a great guy and wonderful lawyer.” In defending Giuliani, Trump revived one of his recurring conspiracy theories that a “Deep State” of entrenched bureaucrats...

During a “press marathon” on Thursday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky addressed the topic of his famous July 25 phone call with President Trump, including one of the “favors” Trump mentioned: to look into “the whole situation” of Ukraine’s role in the 2016 U.S. election. “Donald Trump wasn’t the only presidential candidate whose campaign was boosted by officials of a former Soviet bloc country,” Politico‘s Kenneth Vogel and David Stern wrote in a January 2017 report that has since been cited by multiple administration officials. “Ukrainian government officials tried to help Hillary Clinton and undermine Trump by publicly questioning his fitness...

DOLTON, Illinois, October 10, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) – Even more remains of aborted children have been found in property belonging to the late abortionist Ulrich Klopfer, law enforcement officials announced Wednesday. Klopfer died on September 3 at age 75. For decades he was an abortionist at The Women’s Pavilion in South Bend, Indiana until his medical license was suspended in 2016 for a history of violations including failure to report the rape of a 13-year-old girl. The Sheriff’s Office of Will County, Illinois (where Klopfer had a home) announced last month that a Klopfer family attorney had notified the county coroner’s...

Hillary called the latest investigation of her emails a “real witch hunt.” She could have unironically added “literally.” The former presidential candidate also helpfully pointed out that this “real witch hunt” is unlike the fake news witch hunt aimed at the President. Thanks for the clarification.Posted from: MOTUS A.D.

How does a committed and passionate follower of Islam reconsider his faith and become an outspoken apologist for Christianity? This is a story of being introduced to Jesus through friendships, investigations, dreams, and visions. What follows is a conversation between the late Nabeel Qureshi (@NAQureshi), author of Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus (Third Edition) (Zondervan, 2018)—the first book to win ECPA Christian Book Awards® in both New Author and Non-Fiction categories—and his friend David Wood, who led Nabeel to consider the veracity of the claims of Jesus Christ. The discussion took place in Atlanta, Georgia, during the Evangelical Theological Society’s annual...

I know, I know — many of you are going to tell me I should not distrust all the good, honest, hardworking rank-and-file members of the FBI who played no role in their leadership's treachery. After all, we've been fed that line endlessly by politicians and talking-heads. However, it was those same pols and pundits who told us what a reliably trustworthy cop James Comey was when he was heading up the Hillary email inquiry, and that Robert Mueller was such a straight-arrow professional, one who could be relied on to conduct a fair inquest into Trump's possible Russian collusion....

Robert Mueller, in his current state, should not have been allowed to supervise the Russia collusion investigation. But the greater question is, how long has Robert Mueller been like this? The regulation on the appointment of a Special Counsel.......regulation further provides that the Special Counsel’s responsibilities “shall take first precedence in their professional lives, and that it may be necessary to devote their full time to the investigation, depending on its complexity and the stage of the investigation.” On July 24, 2019, Democrats staged vivid and irrefutable proof that the appointment of Robert Mueller came to violate these principles. Watching...

At a May press conference capping his tenure as special counsel, Robert Mueller emphasized what he called "the central allegation" of the two-year Russia probe. The Russian government, Mueller sternly declared, engaged in "multiple, systematic efforts to interfere in our election, and that allegation deserves the attention of every American." Mueller's comments echoed a January 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA) asserting with "high confidence" that Russia conducted a sweeping 2016 election influence campaign. "I don't think we've ever encountered a more aggressive or direct campaign to interfere in our election process," then-Director of National Intelligence James Clapper told a Senate...

Trump associates who believe they were unfairly maligned in Robert Mueller’s Russia report want lawmakers to ask one question - why? - when the former special counsel testifies July 17. They also allege that Mr. Mueller knew there was no Trump-Russia conspiracy months before the March 22 completion date of his investigation but stayed quiet. Why? They say the report contains pejorative narratives of innocent conduct for which no one was criminally charged. Michael Caputo, media adviser for the Trump campaign, asked on his “Still Standing” podcast, “When did Bob Mueller actually know there was no Russian collusion? “That matters...

Admittedly, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) has been a bit of an enigma since POTUS Donald Trump was elected president. Graham faced off against Trump in the GOP primaries in 2016 but never drew the kind of support that would land him in contention. And for that period of time, he seemed very solidly in the camp of his long-time friend the late Sen. John McCain (RINO-Ariz.), who was so #NeverTrump he made sure the FBI had a copy of the “Steele Dossier” everyone knew was political oppo research by the Clinton campaign and, thus, garbage. But then Graham did a...

Democrats are scrambling quickly. The Steele dossier was used to gain approval from a FISA judge to spy on then-candidate Trump’s political campaign. However, there was never any probable cause which is needed for a judge to sign a warrant meaning a federal law enforcement official lied. The magnitude of using federal law enforcement agencies to surveil a candidate or even an everyday citizen with no legal reason must result in an investigation into the investigators. The Mueller Report proves there was no collusion. The Democratic Party, along with a few others - John Brennan, James Comey, and James Clapper...