Free Republic

Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) said it is "stunning" to see the disparate way the FBI handling the Hillary Clinton investigation and the probe into the Trump presidential campaign. Goodlatte appeared on FOX News' Sunday Morning Futures with host Maria Bartiromo. Goodlatte said he is scheduling the interview of people like former Attorney General Loretta Lynch, former FBI director James Comey, former Acting Attorney General Sally Yates, Nellie Ohr, Glenn Simpson and others. Goodlatte said if they don't appear voluntarily he would subpoena them.

The pre-hearings attacks, distortions and Hail Marys all collapsed. The table-pounding and hilarious self-owning during the hearings didn't move the needle. And now it appears as though Brett Kavanaugh is more or less a lock to become America's next Supreme Court justice. With Senate Judiciary Committee Democrats failing to land even one substantive body blow against Kavanaugh during multiple marathon sessions -- each of which was interrupted by deranged caterwauling from left-wing activists -- the writing is on the wall. Barring a seismic event, confirmation is all but assured. Let's start with two key red state Democrats whose constituents strongly...

Attorney General Jeff Sessions in a rare statement Thursday said that the Justice Department “will not be improperly influenced by political considerations.” In one of his toughest statements following criticism from President Trump, Sessions defended his leadership of the Justice Department, which has come under increasing attack from the president and his allies.... “While I am Attorney General, the actions of the Department of Justice will not be improperly influenced by political considerations. I demand the highest standards, and where they are not met, I take action,” Sessions said in a direct response to Trump's interview on Fox. “However, no...

Earlier today Senator Lindsey Graham provided a pathway for President Trump to fire Attorney General Jeff Sessions after the mid-term election. To further bolster this likelihood, Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley affirmed he could now make room for a replacement confirmation in the lame-duck congressional session between the November election and January 2019. The statement by Senator Graham is a considerable reversal given his prior admonishment that firing AG Sessions would result in “hell to pay”; and further underlines an increasingly visible acceptance by high-profile republicans that Attorney General Jeff Sessions has been an abysmal failure.

The number-two Democrat in the House, Minority Whip Steny Hoyer of Maryland, has published several statements which are strongly critical of the Obama administration’s betrayal of Israel at the United Nations. Before the vote was cast at the UN, Hoyer urged the President to exercise America’s veto power against the anti-Israel resolution: The resolution, as proposed, seeks to place responsibility for continued conflict fully on Israel and ignores violence and incitement by Palestinians and the Palestinian Authority and Hamas leaderships. Any workable and long-lasting solution to this conflict must come about through direct, bilateral negotiations, and this resolution undermines that...

As a number of FBI investigations into Democrat presidential nominee Hillary Clinton's private email server and the Clinton Foundation continue, with indictments likely looming due to overwhelming evidence, the Republican controlled House is already putting impeachment on the table should Clinton win the White House next Tuesday. Yesterday during an interview on Fox News, Homeland Security Chairman Michael McCaul explained the process. "If the investigation goes forward and it looks like an indictment is pending, at that point in time under the Constitution, the House of Representatives would engage in an impeachment trial. It would go to the Senate and impeachment proceedings...

Republicans in Congress are plotting ways to block the Obama administration from paying insurance companies hundreds of millions of dollars as part of an ObamaCare program. GOP lawmakers say they are looking at “a dozen” options — including a possible provision in the year-end spending bill — to prevent the administration from using an obscure fund within the Treasury Department to pay out massive settlements to insurers. The insurance companies are suing over a shortfall in an ObamaCare program that they say is damaging their businesses. Settling the cases could help insurers deal with losses on the ObamaCare marketplaces, but...

Congress is set to consider new legislation that would block the Obama administration from awarding Iran billions of U.S. taxpayer dollars in what many describe as a ransom payment, according to a copy of the legislation obtained by the Washington Free Beacon. Sen. Marco Rubio (R., Fla.) will introduce on Tuesday new legislation that would prohibit the Obama administration from moving forward with all payments to Iran, according to the bill, which would also force Iran to return billions of dollars in U.S. funds that have already been delivered to Tehran by the White House. Rubio’s bill—a version of which...

Republican lawmakers are expressing annoyance that, although the FBI has passed Congress the documents detailing the investigation into the Clinton email scandal, the documents are not actually readable due to the format in which they were handed over. According to Fox News, the Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman, Republican Chuck Grassley, claimed that documents handed over by the FBI are largely unreadable because they published classified material together with unclassified material, so only a select few have the clearance to read the evidence. …

The Republican Party’s Platform Committee adopted a draft document Tuesday that not only recognizes the unborn child’s “fundamental right to life,” but also calls for defunding Planned Parenthood and states that the GOP will “not fund or subsidize health care which includes abortion coverage.” The draft platform still has to be adopted by the full GOP Convention, which will be held in Cleveland next week. The Platform Committee, which was chaired by Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY) — who has a 100 percent pro-life voting record, according to the National Right to Life Committee — and dominated by social conservatives, adopted...

Attorney General Loretta Lynch is repeatedly deflecting questions about the conclusion of the Justice Department’s investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server. Despite repeated prodding from Republican members of the House Judiciary Committee, Lynch said that as attorney general it would be inappropriate for her to comment on specifics of the investigation. …

"Everything that this president does is kabuki theater."

House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said at his press conference on Wednesday that Congress will “look into” whether Congress can deny former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton access to classified information, if she becomes the presidential nominee, saying, “it’s the least we can do.” […] “I’ve just got to say, from my own experience, you get access to deeply classified material once you leave the convention as the nominee, on a regular basis,” he said. “It’s part of a transition government.”“With no indictment occurring, but a discussion or a call for administrative action, I think it’s the least we can...

During the last few election cycles, Democrats have gleefully watched as the Republican Party ripped itself apart in a battle over ideological purity. But they shouldn’t get too comfortable: Their civil war is upon us, too. In 2010 and 2012, divisive Senate primaries led to unpalatable GOP general-election candidates in Nevada, Delaware, Missouri, Indiana and Colorado — all states that could have elected Republican senators and provided a nearly filibuster-proof majority. Democrats laughed as the GOP shot itself in the foot. Now, in 2016, I have three words for Democrats: Winter is here. Your party is now locked in a...

Missouri lawmakers passed a sweeping expansion of gun rights Friday, allowing people to carry concealed guns without needing permits while also expanding their right to stand and fight against perceived threats. The legislation, which goes to Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon, was among the most prominent measures passed by the Republican-led Legislature on the final day of its annual session. Under the measure, most people could carry concealed guns, even if they haven’t gone through the training now required to get a permit. The legislation would also expand the state’s “castle doctrine” by allowing invited guests such as baby sitters to...

Forty-three Republican senators on Monday joined the legal challenge to President Barack Obama’s actions on immigration, arguing that the president overstepped his constitutional authority in unilaterally expanding programs for immigrants. The White House has countered that Obama had no choice after comprehensive legislation that passed the Senate in 2013 stalled in the GOP-led House. The senators, led by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., filed a friend-of-the-court brief in the case of United States v. Texas. A lawsuit from 26 states, led by Texas, challenges Obama’s actions, with the Supreme Court set to hear arguments later this month and possibly rule...

When President Obama first nominated Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court, Senate Republicans were united in their wall of opposition — no meetings, no hearing, no vote. And while Garland’s path remains a very uphill battle, some Republicans are starting to shift their tone. Two weeks into the nomination fight, 16 Republican senators now say they will meet with Garland — over 25 percent of the GOP caucus — according to a running count by NBC News. That includes senators up for re-election in Blue States, such as New Hampshire’s Kelly Ayotte and Illinois’ Mark Kirk, who will be the...

Sen. Mark Kirk of Illinois on Friday became the first Republican senator to call for an up-or-down vote on Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland, saying on a Chicago radio show that his colleagues ought to “just man up and cast a vote.” That Kirk would be first to break with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and other GOP colleagues, who believe the next president should pick the replacement for Justice Antonin Scalia, is not particularly surprising: Kirk was already one of two Republican senators, with Susan Collins of Maine, to call for hearings.

The conservative Judicial Crisis Network, which plans to spend at least $2 million on an advertising campaign to oppose Judge Merrick Garland’s nomination, says the nominee “has a very liberal view of gun rights.” JCN chief counsel Carrie Severino said in a blog post that Judge Merrick’s record on the bench since 1997 “leads to the conclusion that he would vote to reverse one of Justice Scalia’s most important opinions, D.C. vs. Heller, which affirmed that the Second Amendment confers an individual right to keep and bear arms.” In 2007, a three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit ruled against the...

President Barack Obama said Wednesday he will reveal his Supreme Court nominee to fill the vacancy of the late Justice Antonin Scalia, expecting to choose from a small circle of federal appeals court judges. “I’ve made my decision,” Obama said in an email to supporters early Wednesday. Obama planned to introduce his pick at a Rose Garden ceremony, setting up a showdown with Senate Republicans who have told the White House not to bother filling the vacancy in an election year. In his email, Obama did not identify his choice to replace the Scalia on the nine-member court. But the...