Free Republic

The U.S. intelligence community believes the Kremlin will direct its propaganda efforts to support former President Donald Trump over Vice President Kamala Harris in the election, an intelligence official indicated in a media call Monday. The call was held by the Foreign Malign Influence Center, one of the few arms of the U.S. government devoted to countering foreign propaganda campaigns.

Hunter Biden, the former degenerate crackhead and phallus-obsessed prostitute addict with a penchant for racial slurs, was "one of the strongest voices" urging President Joe Biden, 81, to stay in the race during a special family gathering at Camp David over the weekend. Video President Biden has "long leaned on" his 54-year-old baby boy for advice, but senior aides were understandably surprised when Hunter Biden joined them for meetings at the White House this week to discuss the fallout from the debate. For the time being at least, Joe Biden seems determined to take his son's advice and keep running...

New FBI data confirms previous indications that crime in the U.S. declined significantly in 2023, continuing a post-pandemic trend and belying widespread perceptions that crime is rising. The new fourth-quarter numbers showed a 13% decline in murder in 2023 from 2022, a 6% decline in reported violent crime and a 4% decline in reported property crime. That’s based on data from around 13,000 law enforcement agencies, policing about 82% of the U.S. population, that provided the FBI with quarterly data through December. “It suggests that when we get the final data in October, we will have seen likely the largest...

The Justice Department’s assertions this week that a longtime FBI informant was seeking to “spread misinformation” designed to hurt President Joe Biden after speaking to Russian intelligence operatives has put a new spotlight on an old debate: To what extent, if any, has the Russian government manufactured or amplified unproven allegations of corrupt Ukraine dealings by Joe and Hunter Biden? In a request to revoke his bail, prosecutors said that former informant Alexander Smirnov, charged last week with lying to the FBI in 2020 when he said Joe Biden had received a $5 million bribe, “is actively peddling new lies...

On Thursday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” NBC News Justice and Intelligence Correspondent Ken Dilanian argued that the signatories of the Hunter Biden laptop letter have “been proven correct” by the indictment of Alexander Smirnov because “we know now that Russian intelligence, at least according to the statements of this informant, bolstered somewhat by this indictment, were feeding him information, false information” even though the laptop’s contents “weren’t” made up and “Many of them have been now corroborated.” Dilanian stated, “[T]hose 51 former intelligence officials, they paid a steep price for signing that letter. The House Republicans conducted an investigation....

President Joe Biden lashed out at Robert Hur last week over one particular line in the special counsel's report on his handling of classified documents: that Biden "did not remember, even within several years, when his son Beau died." “How in the hell dare he raise that?” Biden told reporters in an impromptu White House press conference. “Frankly, when I was asked the question, I thought to myself, it wasn’t any of their damn business.” But Hur never asked that question, according to two people familiar with Hur’s five-hour interview with the president over two days last October. It was...

A long-awaited report by special counsel Robert Hur will be made public in the coming days after a yearlong investigation into how classified documents found their way to President Joe Biden’s home and office, according to a senior law enforcement official familiar with the matter. The imminent release of a public report confirms that, as expected, no criminal charges will be filed. It is unclear to what extent the report will criticize Biden or aides regarding their handling of classified material. The Washington Post first reported that the Justice Department is set to release Hur's report shortly. Biden advisers have...

once-robust alliance of federal agencies, tech companies, election officials and researchers that worked together to thwart foreign propaganda and disinformation has fragmented after years of sustained Republican attacks. The GOP offensive started during the 2020 election as public critiques and has since escalated into lawsuits, governmental inquiries and public relations campaigns that have succeeded in stopping almost all coordination between the government and social media platforms.

Dispatch from the Department of Pot-Meets-Kettle. On today's Morning Joe, MSNBC analyst Ken Dilanian hailed federal January 6 trial Judge Tanya Chutkan. Commenting on yesterday's hearing at which Chutkan set a trial date very close to that requested by the special counsel, Dilanian enthused: "It was a remarkable hearing. Where the sort of reality distortion field of the Trump defense in this case kind of came crashing on the shoals of this hard-nosed judge who just wasn't taking any nonsense."We got your "reality distortion field" right here, Dilanian! You're the guy who promoted the Trump-Russia conspiracy theory. Get the rest...

Antony Blinken represents neither the beginning nor the end of the info ops run to convince voters the Hunter Biden laptop was Russian disinformation. Revisiting the contemporaneous coverage of the laptop story in light of last week’s revelations about Blinken reveals the scandal extends far beyond the Biden campaign and involves government agents. Last week, news broke that a former top CIA official, Michael Morell, testified as part of a House Judiciary Committee investigation that Blinken, now-secretary of state and then-Biden campaign senior adviser, had contacted Morell to discuss the New York Post’s Hunter Biden laptop story. Blinken and Morell...

Intelligence shared by the U.S. helped Ukraine sink the Russian cruiser Moskva, U.S. officials told NBC News, confirming an American role in perhaps the most embarrassing blow to Vladimir Putin’s troubled invasion of Ukraine.... The attack happened after Ukrainian forces asked the Americans about a ship sailing in the Black Sea south of Odesa, U.S. officials told NBC News. The U.S. identified it as the Moskva, officials said, and helped confirm its location, after which the Ukrainians targeted the ship.... The U.S. role in the sinking has not been previously reported. But NBC News detailed last month how American intelligence...

U.S. gave Ukrainian forces detailed intelligence about exactly when and where Russian missiles and bombs were intended to strike, prompting Ukraine to move air defenses and aircraft out of harm’s way, current and former U.S. officials told NBC News. That near real-time intelligence-sharing also paved the way for Ukraine to shoot down a Russian transport plane carrying hundreds of troops in the early days of the war, the officials say, helping repel a Russian assault on a key airport near Kyiv. It was part of what American officials call a massive and unprecedented intelligence-sharing operation with a non-NATO partner that...

As Russia launched its invasion, the U.S. gave Ukrainian forces detailed intelligence about exactly when and where Russian missiles and bombs were intended to strike, prompting Ukraine to move air defenses and aircraft out of harm’s way, current and former U.S. officials told NBC News. That near real-time intelligence-sharing also paved the way for Ukraine to shoot down a Russian transport plane carrying hundreds of troops in the early days of the war, the officials say, helping repel a Russian assault on a key airport near Kyiv. It was part of what American officials call a massive and unprecedented intelligence-sharing...

Huge blow to the FBI: Zero guilty verdicts in the case of the alleged plot to kidnap Michigan governor. Not guilty verdict for three, hung jury on the alleged ringleader, per @PeteWilliamsNBC — Ken Dilanian (@KenDilanianNBC) April 8, 2022 Details are just emerging in the last 15 minutes. Not guilty and hung jury. -Adam fox – deadlocked no verdict -Croft – deadlocked, no verdict -Harris – count 1 conspiracy not guilty – count 2 not guilty – count 3 not guilty – count 4 not guilty -Caserta – count 1 not guilty https://t.co/tltQN8MLZA — Ken Dilanian (@KenDilanianNBC) April 8, 2022...

NBC News on Wednesday evening casually admitted that the “intelligence” Biden released claiming Russia was planning a false flag operation as a pretext to invade Ukraine was totally made up. There were also claims of chemical weapons or Russia asking China for help. Apparently it was all made up. https://mobile.twitter.com/tomselliott/status/1512104639528939528

CIA security officers had been negotiating for hours when the person got out of a car holding a gun and was shot by FBI agents. A man who tried to drive into CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia, on Monday was shot by FBI agents after an hourslong standoff, officials said. Two law enforcement officials said the intruder tried to drive into the CIA facility without access at about 6 p.m. ET, and was stopped by armed guards who operate a series of gates. CIA security officers had been negotiating with man and after he repeatedly refused to move, a decision...

For the liberal media, it's not enough to ensure that President Trump leaves office. They also want to cast the gravest kind of doubts about him, literally suggesting that he could be a bought-and-paid-for spy for foreign adversaries! On today's Morning Joe, Joe Scarborough and NBC News national security correspondent Ken Dilanian made these accusations: "National security sources say . . . Donald Trump fits the profile of a classic counter-intelligence risk." A former Bush official says "Donald Trump may well sell secrets . . . some foreign country will put Trump on retainer." And in the most extreme statement...

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump's National Security Council is preparing for "a very professional transition," because it looks like Joe Biden has won the election, national security adviser Robert O'Brien said in comments that aired Monday. His remarks stood in stark contrast to those of the president, who tweeted falsely just before midnight Sunday, "I WON THE ELECTION," as he continued to make baseless claims of widespread fraud. Twitter put a warning label on the tweet, noting that "official sources have called this election differently." The president's top security official, known as a Trump loyalist, offered a different view....

NBC News’ Ken Dilanian curses on live TV amid technical difficulties: “So sorry for the profanity I used on air last hour. I was experiencing some technical difficulties & mistakenly hung up on the control room, though my mic still was on...”

The complaints from President Donald Trump and his allies have been growing louder as the election approaches: Why isn’t the mainstream media covering the Hunter Biden laptop story? Trump and his allies say there is evidence of corruption in emails and documents allegedly found on a laptop belonging to Democrat Joe Biden’s son. They say those and other documents show that Hunter Biden used his father’s influence to enrich himself through business deals in Ukraine and China, and that his father not only facilitated that, but may have benefited financially. But the Wall Street Journal and Fox News — among...