Free Republic

Convicted child sex offender George Nader visited the White House at least 13 times to meet with President Trump’s then-chief strategist Steve Bannon, records indicate, raising questions about possible gaps in security and judgment. Nader first visited Bannon in the White House in February 2017. His dozen subsequent visits stretched through August, when Bannon was fired after seven months on the job. It's unclear if Nader visited the White House after Bannon left. The Lebanese American businessman, a past consultant for military contractor Blackwater, was known for his links to Saudi and Emirati leaders and secured a $100,000 speaking fee...

Fugitive on run for 16 years wanted in 19 murders, inspired film 'The Departed' LOS ANGELES — James "Whitey" Bulger, a notorious Boston gangster on the FBI's "Ten Most Wanted" list for his alleged role in 19 murders, has been captured near Los Angeles after living on the run for 16 years, authorities said Wednesday. The FBI tweeted his capture along with his girlfriend, Catherine Greig, early Wednesday morning. Santa Monica Police Sgt. Rudy Flores said the agency informed him of the arrest. Bulger, 81, was the leader of the Winter Hill Gang when he fled in January 1995 after...

Fugitive mobster was spotted in London in September, FBI says 01/04/2003 Associated Press BOSTON - The fugitive mobster brother of University of Massachusetts President William Bulger was sighted in London a few months ago, sporting a tan and a gray goatee, the FBI said Friday. A British businessman who had met James "Whitey" Bulger years ago spotted him in September - the most reliable tip on his whereabouts in three years, Boston FBI spokeswoman Gail Marcinkiewicz said. The mobster, a longtime FBI informant, fled in 1995, just before his indictment on charges of racketeering, extortion and drug trafficking. Mr....

Boston mob boss James ‘Whitey’ Bulger, 89, was murdered by a fellow inmate with ties to the mafia in a West Virginia federal prison shortly after he was transferred there. According to one congressman, Mueller and those serving under him in the FBI aided Bulger in eliminating mob competitors and recently Mueller turned over an alleged scheme to pay off women to fabricate sexual assault allegations against him to the FBI. The murder occurred outside of the field of vision of security cameras where Bulger was beaten with a lock in a sock and had his eyes gouged out. The...

What’s another 25 years when you’re already serving a life sentence? Fotios “Freddy” Geas — the ex-Mafia enforcer already serving a life sentence — was given an additional 25 years by a judge Friday for bludgeoning notorious New England crime boss James “Whitey” Bulger to death inside a federal prison in 2018. He pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter and assault resulting in serious bodily injury for the brutal attack on Bulger. Geas had been behind bars since 2011 for multiple crimes, including the 2003 killing of Genovese crime boss Adolfo “Big Al” Bruno. Prosecutors said Geas repeatedly battered the 89-year-old...

Former Attorney General Bill Barr did not improperly pressure prosecutors to reduce sentencing recommendations for political activist Roger Stone, according to a new government watchdog report. The exoneration of Barr came more than four years after a deluge of media reports alleging wrongdoing. However, J.P. Cooney, a Justice Department official now serving as Special Counsel Jack Smith’s top deputy, cultivated a politically toxic environment, disseminated baseless conspiracy theories about Trump and his political appointees, and engaged in unprofessional conduct as he oversaw the team making sentencing recommendations, according to the same report. Cooney is mentioned (as the “Fraud and Public...

<p>Two years ago, Robert Philip Hanssen, 59, a former very senior FBI official with 27 years of service, was sentenced to life in prison. Hanssen had been spying for the Russians and betrayed American intelligence sources and electronics secrets from as early as 1979.</p>

In 2007, Orlando residents were furious to discover that an FBI informant had organized a neo-Nazi rally through one of the city’s mostly black neighborhoods a year earlier. “To come into a predominantly black community, which could have resulted in great harm to the black community? I would hate to be part of a game,” Orlando City Councilwoman Daisy Lynum said at the time, calling for a “full-scale investigation” into the matter. However, an FBI agent testified that his informant participated in the event, but didn’t organize it. The city’s uproar passed without a public investigation, full-scale or otherwise—until now....

Minnesota’s Senate majority leader on Monday called for Education Commissioner Heather Mueller to resign for what he described as “dishonest” statements she made about her agency’s efforts to prevent an estimated $250 million in pandemic fraud. Minnesota’s political world was turned upside down Tuesday when U.S. Attorney Andy Luger announced charges against 48 Minnesotans for allegedly defrauding the federal government’s child nutrition programs of $250 million in a little over 20 months. “These 48 defendants engaged in a brazen scheme of staggering proportions,” Luger said during a press conference, describing the $250 million total as just the “floor” because the...

John “Zip” Connolly is apparently one of those hoodlums who cares what his obituary says about him after he’s dead and gone. At age 82, the infamous ex-FBI agent seems obsessed with clearing at least one indelible stain off his remarkably squalid (even by Boston G-man standards) underworld career. He’d prefer not to have “Mob hitman” in the first sentence of his death notice. There’s not much he can do about the racketeering conviction, or all his tawdry connections to the Bulger Crime Family. But “Mob hitman” is a bit much. Sadly, Zip has failed yet again to remove “assassin”...

MIAMI — A Florida appeals court has overturned the murder conviction for a former FBI agent linked to mobster Whitey Bulger. The 3rd District Court of Appeal ruled Wednesday that former agent John Connolly was improperly convicted and sentenced to 40 years in prison for his role in the 1982 slaying of a gambling executive. A hit man testified that he killed World Jai-Alai President John Callahan after ex-agent Connolly tipped Bulger and others that the executive would implicate them in another death. In the court's new ruling, a panel of judges determined in a 2-1 vote that Connolly's second-degree...

Attorney General Merrick Garland is in trouble. Not just with Republicans, but with Biden. While Republicans are unhappy that AG Garland had been going after Trump and other conservatives, Biden and other Democrats are unhappy at his ineffectiveness. A Politico report from last month cited White House insiders claiming that if Biden wins, Garland won’t get a second term because he didn’t do enough to insulate the Biden family from investigations and that he didn’t move the Trump investigation along fast enough. Biden’s people wanted a Trump trial before the election and Garland failed to give them one. In response...

There’s no way in hell they shouldn’t tell all’.. The FBI is closing the book on the agency’s “corrupt” handling of James “Whitey” Bulger — forever. The feds are refusing to make any further installments of Bulger’s case file public, saying the records are “investigative” and no longer subject to the Freedom of Information Act. “The records responsive to your request are law enforcement records; there is a pending or prospective law enforcement proceeding relevant to these responsive records, and release of the information could reasonably be expected to interfere with enforcement proceedings. Therefore, your request is being administratively closed,”...

From the article: In an interview with The Post, former New York mayor Rudolph W. Giulani — who is now serving as Trump’s lead personal attorney dealing with the special counsel — said the president did not force Cobb to leave. “It was just time for him to go, but he’s still going to be available to us,” Giuliani said. He added that Jay Sekulow, another member of Trump’s legal team, “had the most to do with it.” “Jay felt he need someone that more aggressive,” Giuliani said. “That’s not a criticism of Ty, but it’s just about how we’re...

Lisa Page, the Trump-bashing ex-FBI lawyer who had an affair with a senior official she worked with investigating Russiagate, has split from her husband of 15 years, DailyMail.com can reveal. Divorce papers filed in the District of Columbia Superior Court show the 44-year-old's divorce from non-profit executive Joseph Burrow, 46, was finalized on June 29. Page blamed 'unhappy and irreconcilable differences' when she asked a DC judge to grant her a divorce in May, just days before the anniversary of their 2008 wedding in Naples, Italy. The secret trysts between her and Peter Strzok, one of the Bureau's top counter-intelligence...

Former FBI agent Peter Strzok said Wednesday on MSNBC’s “Deadline” that he believed supporters of former President Donald Trump were “engaging in threats of violence,” while supporters of President Joe Biden were not prone to violence. Strzok said, “My biggest concern is that we have the presumptive Republican nominee for president who has and continues to engage in calls for violence from his supporters. Look, there’s an interesting data point here. Just shortly after the Michigan Supreme Court indicated they weren’t going to take this up, Donald Trump took to Truth Social and lauded their decision, talked about how they...

Despite bipartisan congressional support for examining the FBI's gross mishandling of the post-9/11 anthrax attacks, President Barack Obama is telling Congress that he doesn't want the agency to be scrutinized and held accountable. Dr. Steven Hatfill, one of the innocent victims of the FBI investigation, is preparing to go public with his account of how the Department of Justice (DOJ) violated his rights and tried to ruin his career and reputation. He will be the subject of a forthcoming Atlantic magazine article and will be sitting down for an interview by the NBC "Today Show's" Matt Lauer. The DOJ paid...

A Maine medical licensing board has temporarily suspended the license of a veteran physician for allegedly spreading "misinformation" about COVID-19 as it conducts a 30-day investigation that will require her to undergo a psychological examination.Dr. Meryl Nass, who been a board-licensed internal physician for more than 40 years, was the subject of two complaints based, among other things, on her statements that the vaccines have serious safety issues and are ineffective at stopping infection and transmission of the virus. She called the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention a "criminal agency," pointing out that federal health officials have suppressed the...

Eyebrows were raised last week when it was discovered that Special Counsel Jack Smith had added attorney Michael Dreeben to his legal team.“An interesting detail: Michael Dreeben somehow snuck into Jack Smith’s office. He was Mueller’s appellate guy,” enthused Marcy Wheeler, a proponent of the debunked conspiracy theory that Donald Trump stole the 2016 election by colluding with Russia.Fellow Russia-collusion hoaxer Rachel Maddow of MSNBC ran an entire segment to announce the exciting news that Dreeben is “helming this part of the case,” meaning Smith’s request to the Supreme Court to look at whether American presidents may be prosecuted for...

When hired by MSNBC as a legal analyst Andrew Weissmann, host Ari Melber explained that Weissmann is a “legend” while others heralded his insider perspective on cases. While many disagreed, Weissmann now has the inside scoop on a major defamation lawsuit in Washington, D.C. He is also the defendant. The controversial former aide to Special Counsel Robert Mueller (and NYU law professor) is being sued after declaring that attorney Stefan Passantino coached former Trump aide Cassidy Hutchinson to lie before Congress. Weissmann has long a reliable source for MSNBC in assuring the public that a wide variety of claims against...