Free Republic

Do the Democrats have an anti-Semitism problem? Seems that Rep. Ilhan Omar's "pioneering" on that sick front has drawn other anti-Semites to the party. Daniel Greenfield at Frontline has a report: Just as the Dems were recovering from their anti-Semitism controversy with Rep. Omar, they've got an anti-Semitic bigot with name recognition running for Senate in New Mexico. It's yesterday's lefty heroine, Valerie Plame, covert secret agent and inspiration for James Bond who inspired one of the more unintentionally hilarious lefty Bush era movies (one that Aaron Sorkin would probably like to forget.) Plame was force to apologize after sharing...

Nearly five years after a powerful truck bomb ripped through a U.S. military housing complex in Saudi Arabia – killing 19 Americans and wounding 372 – terrorism charges have been brought against 13 members of the pro-Iran Saudi Hizballah, or “Party of God.” Another, as yet unidentified, person who is linked to the Lebanese Hizballah has also been charged in the attack. According to the indictment returned today by a Federal Grand Jury in Alexandria, Virginia, nine of the fourteen are charged with 46 separate criminal counts including: conspiracy to kill Americans and employees of the United States, to use...

A Republican senator said he would vote to repeal the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act following a scathing report that found serious problems in how the FBI sought to wiretap a former Trump campaign adviser. Utah Sen. Mike Lee, a longtime critic of the FISA program, told One America News Network on Saturday that the audit released last month by Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz was a wake-up call to "stop allowing the American people to be subjected to this type of abuse and manipulation." "We should all be scared to death," Lee said. "We shouldn't rest until FISA is...

Former FBI Director James Comey said President Trump has become a “shrunken, withered figure,” and urged Americans to challenge his actions. Comey outlined the urgency in what he defined as the “fourth, and final, stage,” of dealing with Trump’s rhetorical attacks on his critics as part of an op-ed published Monday in The Washington Post. “What’s it like to be personally and publicly attacked by the president of the United States? Like many others in and out of government, I have some experience,” wrote Comey, who was fired by Trump and has feuded with the president for more than two...

In October 2016, and then on two subsequent occasions, then-FBI Director James Comey lied to the secret court overseeing warrants under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Full stop. Here is that lie: I, the undersigned, having been designated as one of the officials authorized to make the certifications required by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978, as amended, do hereby certify with regard to the [redacted] requested in this verified application targeting Carter W. Page, an agent of the Government of Russia, a foreign power, as follows . . . The foreign intelligence information sought by the authorities requested...

The historic fast-track impeachment of President J. Trump by the House Democrats may re-elect President Trump. The House followed party lines except for 4 Democrat representatives. The House vote is merely the charging document — tantamount to a grand jury indictment. The Senate is the trial court — the jury, the trier of fact.

Presidential historian Doug Wead joined Fox News‘ Molly Line on Thursday morning to discuss the upcoming impeachment trial. (Video below) Line first asked Wead for his take on reports that Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) is “disturbed” over Mitch McConnell’s approach to the trial, which frankly, I see as a non-story. Line asked specifically if Wead thought Murkowski’s position could throw a monkey wrench into McConnell’s plan for a quick trial. The very amiable Wead replied, “I think this is Sen. Murkowski signaling who she is. She’s an establishment Republican…but I don’t think it’s going anywhere and it’s certainly not outrageous...

Senator Lindsey Graham, the Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, joined Maria Bartiromo on Sunday Morning Futures earlier today. ~~Snip~~ Graham promised Maria Bartiromo he will call in EVERY PERSON who signed the bogus Carter Page FISA Warrants. The list includes: James Comey — Then-FBI Director James Comey signed the first three FISA applications on behalf of the FBI Andrew MCabe — Then-Deputy Director Andrew McCabe signed the fourth one Sally Yates — Then-DAG Sally Yates Dana Boente — then Acting DAG Dana Boente and Rod Rosenstein — DAG Rod Rosenstein signed one or more FISA applications on behalf of...

The FISA court has awakened from its deep slumber. Too damned late… and not enough. Finally, the FISA court has awakened from its deep slumber. Too damned late… and not enough. On Tuesday, presiding judge Rosemary Collyer issued an order slamming fired director James Comey’s FBI for presenting “false information,” concealing exculpatory evidence, and misleading the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. But her judicial fix is feckless. She is now demanding that the FBI present the steps it will take to remedy these problems in future surveillance warrant applications. If this is her idea of a solution, it’s a joke. And...

When the Department of Justice inspector general released his report on Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act abuse, coverage focused on the top-line findings contained in the executive summary. Then the news cycle whizzed by, leaving many details discussed throughout the 480-page tome unexplored. One significant gap in media coverage concerns the potential complicity of former FBI Director James Comey in the FISA abuse—a possibility the IG report hints at in several spots. The first suggestion that something was amiss with Comey’s conduct came early in Inspector General Michael Horowitz’s report, when the IG’s office spoke of the methodology underlying the FISA...

United States Attorney John Durham’s criminal investigation into the origins of the FBI’s Russia investigation is reportedly taking a close look at former CIA Director John Brennan. Durham has “requested Mr. Brennan’s emails, call logs and other documents from the C.I.A., according to a person briefed on his inquiry,” The New York Times reported. “He wants to learn what Mr. Brennan told other officials, including the former F.B.I. director James B. Comey, about his and the C.I.A.’s views of a notorious dossier of assertions about Russia and Trump associates.”

Before the first FISA application was signed and submitted mired by the pompous, self-serving serial liar James Comey, who signed three of them, Carter Page wrote Comey a letter telling him he was a government asset working with the CIA and the FBI. If that letter had been presented to the FISA court by Comey, as it should have been, the FISA court never would have approved the Obama administration surveillance of Carter Page and Team Trump. ... If you don’t have a legal foundation to surveil somebody and you keep doing it, is that bad?” Sen. Graham asked Horowitz....

Former FBI Director James Comey and deputy director Andrew McCabe, former CIA Director John Brennan and former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper have lots of things in common. One, they ran the nation's key intelligence and investigatory agencies under former President Barack Obama. They were deeply involved in the "Russian collusion" hoax. And they participated in the surveillance of the Trump campaign and transition. Comey and McCabe both signed applications for Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court warrants requesting surveillance on Trump campaign aide Carter Page. A report by Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz criticized Comey and McCabe's FBI for...

Former Navy SEAL Robert O’Neill bashed former FBI Director James Comey after the release of the Department of Justice inspector general's report on alleged Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act abuses by FBI officials during President Trump's 2016 campaign. Inspector General Michael Horowitz released his report on Dec. 9, following his two-year investigation into the FBI's and the DOJ's use of FISA warrants to surveil Trump’s campaign for evidence of election interference collusion with Russian agents. The report outlined 17 "significant errors or omissions" by FBI officials in the FISA applications to surveil Trump campaign adviser Carter Page but determined political bias...

In a rare public order Tuesday, the chief judge of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court [FISC] strongly criticized the FBI over its surveillance-application process, giving the bureau until Jan. 10 to come up with solutions, in the wake of findings from Justice Department Inspector General Michael E. Horowitz. The order, from the court's presiding judge Rosemary M. Collyer, came just a week after the release of Horowitz's withering report about the wiretapping of former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page, as part of former Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. "The FBI's handling of...

Tucker Carlson reacted Monday to former FBI Director James Comey's rare interview that aired on "Fox News Sunday." "For two long years James Comey played the role of America's moral martyr -- and for two years it had worked for him," said the "Tucker Carlson Tonight" host of Comey's public life since Trump dismissed him as the head of the FBI. Carlson noted Comey became a celebrity after his July 2016 press conference, during which he recommended against charging Hillary Clinton in connection with her email scandal.

The [new IG Report] reveals that Comey told Obama and other officials at a White House Situation Room meeting...that "the FBI was trying to determine whether any U.S. person had worked with the Russians" and that they were looking into "four individuals with some association or connection to the Trump campaign." Others present at the meeting [were Rice, Clapper, and Brennan], none of whom were interviewed for [the new IG Report]. Incredibly, Comey claimed that no one at the meeting "responded or followed up with any questions" (p. 110).

The newly released report by Department of Justice Inspector General Michael Horowitz, along with his groundbreaking testimony before Congress, noted the material failures of the FBI—“not only the operational team, but also of the managers and supervisors, including senior officials, in the chain of command”—with regard to the FISA warrant application on Trump campaign aide Carter Page. The inspector general’s findings were so significant that he recommended the FBI’s “entire chain of command” outlined in his report to the DOJ for “consideration of how to assess and address their performance failures.” According to Horowitz, these failures prevented the Office of...

Regardless of whether you would support or not support the vigorous defense of Michael Flynn, I would hope we would all agree a fulsome discovery of all relevant background material is a cornerstone of justice appropriately applied. With that in mind it is concerning how Attorney General Bill Barr would prefer to keep DOJ conduct against Flynn hidden from public review. Consider… ♦Would it be valuable for Federal Judge Emmet Sullivan to know the FBI was discussing how to “lock in” charges against [Flynn] in a “formal chargeable way”? Would it be valuable for Federal Judge Emmet Sullivan to consider...

In an order released moments ago, Federal Judge Emmet Sullivan has denied all of the Brady requests by the Flynn defense lawyer and summarily rejected the position of defense counsel. Flynn sentencing is scheduled for January 28th, 2020. Judge Sullivan relies heavily on the Mueller report and finds: the case was adequately predicated and authorized by Rod Rosenstein; the original guilty plea to Judge Contreras was appropriately informed; the government followed all appropriate notifications for brady material; the evidence of Flynn’s guilt is accurately demonstrable to the guilty plea Mr. Flynn accepted; and there was no prosecutorial misconduct.