Free Republic

I used to joke, during the recent impeachment trials, that if what Donald Trump had done was “worse than Watergate,” as CNN’s Carl Bernstein said over and over again, then perhaps Watergate wasn’t so bad.At the time, I had a conventional view of the scandal that brought down President Richard M. Nixon — the one taught in history courses, and familiar from All the President’s Men: that due to hubris and paranoia, Nixon had sought to spy on the opposition in an election he won by a landslide, and deserved to go to prison.That narrative has unraveled slowly over the...

“They wanted me to use fear to manipulate people.”So says attorney and legal commentator Preston Moore, who posted a video Saturday saying he was offered, and rejected, $400 by the “Good Information Foundation” to make a video attacking Donald Trump. Moore, who graduated from Harvard Law School and practices for the Georgia-based Beasley Allen law firm, posts daily at a TikTok account, trialbypreston. He focuses on legal news, political news, and personal stories from his own legal practice. He is not a Trump supporter.With 89,000 followers, he has begun to build a significant presence. That, he told Breitbart News, seemed...

Several journalists erroneously tweeted that Stephen K. Bannon was found guilty of contempt of Congress in federal court in Washington, DC, on Thursday afternoon — before closing arguments in the trial. MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell tweeted: “BANNON GUILTY.” His colleague Chris Hayes tweeted “Bannon found guilty,” citing a tweet by CBS News correspondent Scott MacFarlane, who was covering a different case. Kai Ryssdal of Marketplace warned others that they were getting the facts wrong: So, too, did Bannon biographer Joshua Green: O’Donnell apologized for spreading the misinformation about the verdict, as did Hayes, taking down their mistaken tweets: Others also apologized:...

White House spokesperson John Kirby walked back that remark, reassuring Israel that there had been no change in U.S. policy after Sullivan made the error in briefing reporters on Air Force One en route to Israel on Biden’s Middle East trip.The Times of Israel reported:Asked about the potential of reopening the Jerusalem consulate that served Palestinians, Sullivan said that it is the US’s position “that we would like a consulate in East Jerusalem, obviously that requires engagement with the Israeli government, that requires engagement with the Palestinian leadership as well, and we will continue that engagement on this trip.”...Kirby said...

California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) vowed Monday evening to build a “firewall” around California in the form of a state constitutional amendment guaranteeing abortion as a right, after a draft Supreme Court decision reversing Roe v. Wade (1973) leaked. The decision, in the case of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, concerns a Mississippi law passed in 2018 that bans all abortions abortions after the first 15 weeks into pregnancy. The case was heard by the Court last fall. At the time, observers believed that the Court was likely to uphold the Mississippi law, based on the comments of justices...

Nina Jankowicz, the newly-appointed head of the Biden administration’s Disinformation Governance Board, told Congress in October 2020 that she saw no role for the federal government in policing disinformation online. “I do not think government should be in that business,” she said during testimony before the House Intelligence Committee.

Five associates of Hillary Clinton and her campaign are invoking their Fifth Amendment rights and refusing to cooperate with Special Counsel John H. Durham, according a filing in federal court revealed later Friday in Washington, DC. The revelation emerged in a motion filed by Durham to oppose the efforts of defendant Michael Sussmann and the Clinton campaign to withhold some documents from evidence by asserting attorney-client privilege. Sussmann is charged with lying to the FBI in 2016 when he informed the FBI about a fraudulent link between then-candidate Donald Trump and the Russian government via Alfa Bank. Sussmann allegedly presented...

Former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is suddenly the favorite to mount a comeback after current Prime Minister Naftali Bennett lost the majority he needs to hold his coalition together with a key defection on Wednesday. Israel’s government looked set to crumble Wednesday after coalition whip Idit Silman announced she is quitting to form a new government, causing the ruling coalition headed by Prime Minister Naftali Bennett to lose its majority. … Silman, who is a member of Knesset in Bennett’s Yamina party, chose to defect after she clashed with Israel’s Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz over his order to hospitals...

Russia announced sanctions Tuesday on President Joe Biden and several other prominent Americans — including Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, who is known for his international dealmaking and influence-peddling in Ukraine, China, and elsewhere. The sanctions were described by the Russian government as a response to similar sanctions by the Biden administration, which has applied sanctions since Russia invaded Ukraine — after removing some Donald Trump-era sanctions last year. The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said: In response to a series of unprecedented sanctions , starting March 15, the Russian stop list includes, on the basis of reciprocity, President Joe Biden,...

Left-wing ideologue David Brock has launched a “dark money” effort to disbar, publicly shame, and impoverish more than 100 lawyers who participated in filing post-election legal challenges to the 2020 presidential election results. Axios reported the effort, named the “65 Project” because of the number of post-election lawsuits, is funded by anonymous donors and aimschallenges. Axios noted: A dark money group with ties to Democratic Party heavyweights will spend millions this year to expose and try to disbar more than 100 lawyers who worked on Donald Trump’s post-election lawsuits, people involved with the effort tell Axios. Why it matters: The...

The Port of Long Beach is not yet at 24/7 operations, despite President Joe Biden’s promise in October that the crucial cargo facility would be shifting to a round-the-clock schedule to alleviate a backlog of cargo ships that is hurting supply chains. Port of Long Beach Executive Director Mario Cordero revealed in his annual “State of the Port” address on Wednesday that the port facility had not moved to a 24/7 schedule, though he commended Biden for helping start the “conversation”: However, Breitbart News reported at the time, the plan struggled at the outset because there were not enough truckers...

The robbery occurred around 1 a.m., while the two hotel guests were waiting in the hotel’s valet area for an Uber. The two thieves emerged from a dark sedan and took around $100,000 worth of jewelry and other items while threatening the victims at gunpoint, then took off. The robbery is the latest in a series of what the Los Angeles Times has called a spate of “brutal, brazen crimes” across the city.

Vice President Kamala Harris could be the first Supreme Court Justice to have failed the Bar exam — that is, if rumors that President Joe Biden may nominate her to the nation’s highest court are true. For the past several days, speculation has been building that Biden might dispense with the unpopular Harris by “promoting” her to the Supreme Court, to which he has promised to nominate black female justices. He would then replace her with another vice president, possibly Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, assuming that he could pass a majority vote of both houses of Congress, as required.

Prosecutor Thomas Binger made the unusual argument on Monday in a Kenosha, Wisconsin county court that the mob had the “right” to chase Kyle Rittenhouse after he shot Joseph Rosenbaum, and that he had no right to defend himself against them. Binger, delivering his closing argument in the 10-day murder trial, argued that Rittenhouse had provoked the violence that led to the shooting deaths of Joseph Rosenbaum and Anthony Huber, and the severe wounding of Gaige Grosskreutz near midnight on Aug. 25, 2020, during riots that were led by Black Lives Matter demonstrators in the small Midwestern city. Though all...

Last week, a California parole board voted to allow the release of Sirhan Sirhan, the Palestinian immigrant to shot and killed Sen. Robert F. Kennedy. The decision to accept the parole board’s recommendation now goes to the governor — who could be Gov. Gavin Newsom, or a replacement, if Newsom loses the Sep. 14 recall election and does not decide on the parole before he leaves. Early reports about the parole mentioned that members of the Kennedy family supported Sirhan Sirhan’s application. But far more members of the Kennedy family oppose it. The Los Angeles Times reports that they were...

Vogue cover model Paloma Elsesser posted a statement on Saturday that urged people not to post against antisemitism, since it might hurt the Palestinian cause. The post also asserted, misleadingly, that Palestinian leaders are opposed to antisemitism. The UK Daily Mail reported: The plus-sized model, who appeared on the cover of Vogue magazine in January, made the comments as violence flared again between Israelis and Palestinians, and waves of protests around the world sparked angry scenes. Elsesser, 29, posted a statement written by Anna Rajagopal which called on people to think twice before posting about anti-Semitism. The statement said: No...

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) is being criticized for his silence about antisemitic violence on the streets of New York that took place this week as pro-Palestinian demonstrators attacked pro-Israel counter-protesters and Jews nearby. As Breitbart News reported Thursday, pro-Palestinian demonstrators scuffled with pro-Israel demonstrators in Times Square, and drove down heavily-Jewish 47th Street in Manhattan, taunting Jews. One pro-Palestinian demonstrator launched a firework at bystanders, reportedly causing burns to a 55-year-old woman. Pro-Israel demonstrators were beaten in the street, and pro-Palestinian demonstrators spat at diners at a local steakhouse. Fox News added that a Jewish man was chased...

President Joe Biden is undoing several foreign policy successes of the Trump administration for no apparent reason other than radical ideology and political spite. In each case, former President Donald Trump was able to achieve goals that both parties had long claimed to share. And in each case, Biden has not only hurt the interests of the United States, but reduced the leverage that he might otherwise have had to pursue foreign policy goals unique to his administration. Three examples: Border policy: President Trump signed agreements with Central American countries that slowed the flow of migrants. In June 2019, he...

In a San Francisco Chronicle column titled, “Burning and looting in the name of justice will hand election to Trump,” Brown wrote: “The biggest threat to a Democratic election sweep in November isn’t the Republican in the White House, but the demonstrators who are tearing up cities in the name of racial justice.” Noting that new polls showed voters are increasingly worried about crime, Brown said that Democrats were in a “heck of a bind”: If they stand up and condemn the “demonstrators,” the left wing will label them as Trump flunkies and they’ll be in all sorts of trouble....

Democrats are contemplating secession and potential civil war as they game out possible scenarios for a closely contested election, according to a report by Ben Smith in a New York Times column Sunday. The bulk of Smith’s column is devoted to the question of how the media will handle Election Night coverage, given that the result may not be known for weeks. Vote-by-mail, which many states have only recently adopted — ostensibly, to prevent the spread of coronavirus in polling places — could lead to an uncertain result. [...] In one scenario, John Podesta — the former chair of Hillary Clinton’s presidential...