Free Republic

President Trump loves flexing his political muscle, especially in Republican primaries. When businessman and TV personality Mike Lindell secured Trump’s endorsement in the Minnesota governor’s race, he thought the nomination was his. Minnesota House Speaker Lisa Demuth had other plans, winning a crushing victory over Lindell. If Demuth plays her cards right, she may just have a chance of becoming governor. Going into primary day, there were reasons to believe Mike Lindell had the advantage over Lisa Demuth. For starters, many polls showed Lindell ahead. The more glaring advantage was that Lindell received the critical endorsement from President Trump. With...

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison wants Texas to hand over the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer accused of shooting an illegal immigrant in Minneapolis earlier this year — then lying about the circumstances of the confrontation. Ellison filed a lawsuit Tuesday against Texas Gov. Greg Abbott in a bid to compel the Lone Star State to turn over the agent, Christian Castro, to Minnesota authorities. “Christian Castro has been charged with breaking the law in Minnesota,” Ellison told reporters Tuesday. “He must face justice in Minnesota. Gov. Abbott should have granted [Minnesota] Gov. [Tim] Walz’s extradition request long...

Hennepin County prosecutors on Monday morning elaborated on charges filed against four people last week, including former Anoka County Assistant Attorney Andrea Sampson, for allegedly running a "sprawling" sex trafficking scheme over the course of several years. The four were charged with 13 counts each of promoting prostitution of an individual and receiving profits from prostitution. Prosecutors allege 57-year-old Frank Reeves ran the operation with the assistance of Sampson, Viktoriya Komonash, 30, and Katherine Thomes, 36. The group recruited women and posted commercial sex advertisements on a website they owned, then collected money from the victims posted online, prosecutors say....

ANOKA CO., Minn. (FOX 9) - A Minnesota prostitution investigation uncovered the alleged involvement of former Anoka County Assistant Attorney Andrea Sampson, who is accused of maintaining fake companies to hide the profits of a sex trafficking operation. The criminal complaint also names Frank Devone Reeves, described by victims as a "pimp," Viktoriya Sergeyevna Komonash, who victims called a "house mom" and Katherine Michelle Thomes, who investigators say owned and operated the online commercial sex website "Minnesota Erotica Personals." Investigators say Sampson, along with Komonash and Thomes, believed they were in a romantic or sexual relationship with Reeves as they...

Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon is speaking out about what he calls “outrageous” misconduct at Minneapolis polling sites after a conservative political commenter tried to impersonate Minnesota voters. In the video, Cam Higby, a member of the “Justice League,” is dressed in a burqa and using an accent to try to vouch for others. Higby says he was highlighting the state’s vouching laws. He alleges poll workers would let him vote under a random name; the video shows Higby leaving a polling place after being told he needed to sign an oath. The video also shows a worker explaining...

The federal government is refusing to turn over records related to an investigation conducted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement into allegations of immigration fraud by Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., citing a legal exemption for ongoing investigations. Just the News filed a Freedom of Information Act request for the records in January, seeking the records pertaining to any investigations conducted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement into the allegations that Rep. Omar, who represents Minnesota’s 5th Congressional District, married a relative in order to help him remain in the country. Omar has denied the allegations. No court records, DNA evidence, or...

Minnesota state House Speaker Lisa Demuth won the Republican primary for governor, NBC News projects, defeating Trump ally Mike Lindell and setting up a general election matchup against Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar. Demuth’s victory was an upset over Lindell, the MyPillow founder and election conspiracy theorist. Lindell had been leading in limited public polling heading into Election Day, and President Donald Trump endorsed him. But attacks on Lindell from fellow Republicans — including questions about his residency raised by the chairman of the Minnesota Republican Party — hampered his campaign in the final weeks before the primary, as members of...

The director of African American Affairs at Minnesota State University (MSU), Mankato is no longer employed by the university after a federal jury convicted him of a tax fraud scheme prosecutors said generated approximately $387,000 in fraudulent tax refunds. Cortez Hollis worked in the university’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) division, where he led the African American Affairs office. A federal jury found Hollis guilty in June on 20 counts of aiding or assisting in the preparation of false tax returns, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, Hollis owned and...

Hamas wing of the Democratic Party The "Hamas wing of the Democratic Party" (also referred to as the "pro-Hamas wing") is a political epithet and rhetorical device primarily used by conservative commentators and members of the Republican Party in the United States. The phrase emerged in late 2023 following the outbreak of the Oct 7 War and has been used to criticize progressive (and progracist) Democrats, and party policies or candidates overly critical of Israel or sympathetic to / influenced by / accepting Arab "Palestinian" propaganda, on many occasions expressing rationalization of "Palestinian" terror / crimes campaign. ContentsBackground and OriginsUsage...

“First-of-their-kind” transgender dolls — complete with removable genitalia — will debut in some Minnesota classrooms this fall to kids as young as 4 years old. The paper dolls, with gender-neutral names like “Sam,” “Rory,” “Avery” and “Parker,” have removable internal and external genitals, along with more than 100 interchangeable pieces of clothing, accessories and hairstyles — like a trans Mr./Mrs. Potato Head. The goal is for kids to “learn about the different options that exist for who they can be,” according to a therapist at the University of Minnesota Medical School, which spent over half a decade developing the controversial...

One of the largest fraud scandals in Minnesota may involve the family of Ilhan Omar. The far-left congresswoman’s sister used the address of a woman who was business partners with several major convicts in the “Feeding Our Future” scandal, a Daily Wire investigation found. The federal meals scandal is described as the largest public theft in Minnesota history. The statehouse’s House Fraud Prevention and State Agency Oversight Committee is probing the Somali-born congresswoman’s involvement in the scandal, but Democrats in May blocked a subpoena that would require Omar to produce records. Public records in the state, however, may tie Omar’s...

“For the best night’s sleep in the whole wide world, visit mypillow.com” is a jingle that punctuates every hour of Fox News viewing. Now “MyPillow guy” Mike Lindell is changing his tune: for the best governor of Minnesota in the whole wide world, vote Mike Lindell 2026.Lindell is a Trump ally, businessman and election conspiracy theorist. He’s known for his rags-to-riches origin story, rising from a crack cocaine addiction to achieving sobriety and turning to religion. He founded My Pillow in Minnesota in 2004.For readers unfamiliar with Lindell’s political history: before his run for governor, Lindell was sued by a...

The Minnesota man who pleaded guilty to killing a top Democratic lawmaker and her husband was sentenced to spend the rest of his life in prison on Thursday, a little over a year after the political attacks. Vance Boelter, 59, was sentenced to two consecutive life terms plus 40 years in prison after pleading guilty in June to the six counts related to the killings of House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark, and the shootings of state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife Yvette. Fellow lawmakers and survivors of the shooting spoke earlier in the hearing, describing the...

Mike Lindell, the Trump-endorsed Republican candidate for Minnesota governor, drew sharp criticism Wednesday after proposing a six-month amnesty period that would allow illegal immigrants with no other criminal history to register for non-expiring conditional work visas. "I'd like the whole United States to do this, but let's say I did it here in Minnesota," Lindell said in a Tuesday interview. "Six months, all the illegal immigrants would have to go get what's going to be called a conditional work visa." Lindell outlines conditional visa plan Under Lindell's proposal, Minnesota would impose a six-month deportation moratorium while illegal immigrants register, submit...

A disgruntled migrant allegedly gunned down three staffers at his Minnesota apartment block in a crazed rampage after he couldn’t cancel his parking garage contract. Tsegaab Binessu, 30, allegedly shot dead Nansi Fuentes Zambrano, 25, Dena Silcox, 56, and Adam Wilwerding, 43, at the complex in St. Paul, Minnesota, Monday, KSTP reported. Binessu, originally from Ethiopia, wanted to cancel his $65-a-month parking garage contract as he had aspirations to join the Navy, documents seen by the outlet claim.

Less than 24 hours after a triple homicide at a St. Paul apartment complex, prosecutors have charged a tenant with murder.Deputies arrested 30-year-old Tsegaab Binessu in the Iron Range Monday night. He was formally charged Tuesday afternoon with the murders of 25-year-old Nansi Fuentes Zambrano, 56-year-old Dena Silcox and 43-year-old Adam Wilwerding. St. Paul police found those three dead from multiple gunshot wounds at around 4:10 p.m. Monday. Authorities say several people called 911, reportedly hearing screams and gunshots at an apartment complex near the intersection of St. Paul Avenue and West Seventh Street in the city’s Highland Park neighborhood....

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said Tuesday he’s stopping more than $1 billion in federal Medicaid payments to California and Minnesota over suspected fraud. “We are not sending Medicaid dollars out the door until we have confidence that they are being spent lawfully and appropriately,” Kennedy said at an announcement on Tuesday. Kennedy said if California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) want the money to fund low-income healthcare, “they need to provide documentation that these payments are legitimate.” Kennedy blamed the Biden administration and the Democratic leadership in both blue states...

The Minnesota Department of Revenue (MDR) announced last week that two married couples have been charged with a combined 26 felonies after investigators uncovered what authorities describe as a years-long tax fraud scheme. One of the couples, Ali Farah Egal and Fardous Jama Egal, were each charged with seven counts of filing false or fraudulent individual income tax returns. Meanwhile, Abdirisak Abdirahman Abdulle was charged with 10 counts of filing false or fraudulent income tax returns. His wife, Samsam Gatah, was charged with two counts of the same crime. Each count carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison,...

MINNEAPOLIS — Employees at Kings Road Merch say they never expected their jobs to disappear just hours before contract negotiations were set to begin. "This is a place for weirdos and outsiders," said Cesar Esparza, who has worked at the Minneapolis-area merchandise warehouse for 14 years. Kings Road Merch fulfills and ships merchandise for local and national bands. Esparza says the workplace culture changed after Sony acquired the company last July. "Everything went downhill," Esparza said. "Pay. The ability to hire. And just the irresponsibility on Sony's management to even handle any of our discrepancies. They've been completely silent." Inspired...

A coalition of progressive prosecutors promising to target federal immigration agents has amassed a war chest funded by secret donors with the help of left-wing networks. Legal experts said the arrangement is "terribly corrupt" and blurs the lines between legitimate law enforcement and politically motivated prosecutions. The Project for the Fight Against Federal Overreach—or FAFO, an acronym that also stands for "f*ck around and find out" in internet lingo—was formed by two George Soros-funded prosecutors, Philadelphia's Larry Krasner and Mary Moriarty of Hennepin County, Minn., after federal officials shot and killed Renee Good and Alex Pretti as they interfered with...