Free Republic

Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D-Fla.) was hit with a federal indictment Wednesday, accusing her of stealing $5 million in Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) funds to support her 2021 congressional campaign. Cherfilus-McCormick, who has been under investigation by the House Ethics Committee since December 2023, was indicted by a federal grand jury in Miami and faces up to 53 years in prison if convicted. Using disaster relief funds for self-enrichment is a particularly selfish, cynical crime,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement. “No one is above the law, least of all powerful people who rob taxpayers for personal gain....

WASHINGTON, Nov 19 (Reuters) - A U.S. judge issued an unusual dissenting opinion on Wednesday lambasting an earlier ruling that blocked Texas Republicans from using a new congressional map, saying he had been cut out of the decision-making process by two other judges on a three-judge panel.U.S. Circuit Judge Jerry Smith said in his dissent that he was outraged by Tuesday's decision, which was a major blow for Republicans, in Texas and nationally, who redrew the state's electoral districts at the behest of President Donald Trump.Smith, an appointee of former President Ronald Reagan, was one of three federal judges who...

A lower court order on Texas’ new congressional map has made its way to the high court. It could be the first of several mid-decade redistricting pushes. Texas’ emergency appeal is sure to challenge that conclusion. Indeed, Abbott already declared Tuesday that the redistricting effort had nothing to do with race. But another consideration could be even more consequential for the justices: whether they conclude that the lower court’s action contravenes a longstanding principle that federal courts shouldn’t disturb election rules as the process gets underway.A test for the Purcell PrincipleBrown’s ruling contains a long section addressing the so-called...

Although the legal and clinical definitions may differ, popular conception defines “insanity” as repeating the same behavior and expecting different results. By that definition, leftist voters in New York City, California, and elsewhere recertified themselves as insane last week. Year after year, election after election, voters in “blue” cities and states follow the same recipe that has brought self-imposed economic and demographic decay for decades: bigger government, higher taxes, more regulation, unsustainable benefits, and sprawling public-sector obligations. They keep repeating their behavior, even as jobs evaporate, families leave, and businesses take investment elsewhere. Decades of left-leaning politicians and public policies...

Fox News national correspondent Alexis McAdams reports on the Butler shooting case as former Deputy Asst. Attorney General John Yoo reacts to a new report on Thomas Crooks’ online activity. (Transcribed by TurboScribe.ai. Go Unlimited to remove this message.) New details emerging about the man who attempted to assassinate President Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania. The White House says Americans need to know what happened, and so does the president. There are so many questions out there. And I mean, you know, did he act alone, et cetera? And it's, you know, it's over a year, it's 16 months now....

In the pitch-black, storm-lashed hours before dawn on Independence Day, surging floodwaters ravaged Hunt and Kerr County in central Texas, including the summer camp filled with sleeping children. The catastrophic flooding killed 27 girls and counselors at Camp Mystic. The court filings accuse the camp of failing to move cabins out of flood-prone areas, responding poorly to the emergency, and putting profits ahead of the safety of the girls in their care.. Most of the cabins had been located in FEMA’s 100-year “Special Flood Hazard Area” up until 2013. That’s when the camp petitioned FEMA to remove most of the...

Germany should take over the historically American role of Nato Europe commander, Donald Trump’s envoy to the Western alliance has suggested. Matthew Whitaker, the US ambassador to Nato, said he hoped Germany would one day volunteer for the prestigious role of Supreme Allied Commander Europe. He told the Berlin Security Conference: “I look forward to the day when Germany comes to the United States and says that we’re ready to take over the Supreme Allied Commander position. I think we’re a long way away from that, but I look forward to those discussions.” Since Nato was founded in 1949, the...

DOJ charges Congresswoman Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D-FL) with stealing $5 million in FEMA funds, laundering the proceeds, and then using the money to support her 2021 Congressional campaign. She faces up to 53 years in prison if convicted. According to the indictment, DOJ says: “Cherfilus-McCormick, 46, and her brother Edwin Cherfilus, 51, both of Miramar, worked through their family health-care company on a FEMA-funded COVID-19 vaccination staffing contract in 2021. In July 2021, the company received an overpayment of $5 million in FEMA funds.

Charilie Kirk's Head of Security Speaks Out.(Transcribed by TurboScribe.ai. Go Unlimited to remove this message.) I want to start with chilling new details that have come to light about Charlie Kirk's assassination. Coming from the head of Charlie's security team, this man is Brian Harpole. He sat down with podcaster Sean Ryan for almost three hours, opening up about everything that unfolded that day. He also spoke about the feeling, the feeling that he had in the lead up to September 10, two days before the speaking event at Utah Valley University, the day that Charlie was taken from us...

A federal appeals court has paused a sweeping order that restricts federal immigration agents’ use of force across Chicago and the suburbs following a series of aggressive raids led by Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday agreed to stay an order issued by U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis that sought to rein in agents’ use of tear gas, pepper balls and other crowd control measures against protesters, journalists and others. The court called Ellis “overbroad” and said it would enjoin “an expansive range of defendants” including President Donald Trump, the departments...

In Buffalo, New York, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers arrested an illegal immigrant, Saim Irgi, 39, from Turkey, who resisted officers during his apprehension and attempted to grab one of the officers’ tasers, yelling “Allahu Akbar” as he was forcefully removed from his vehicle. Irgi was taken into custody on November 5, after officers were forced to tase him. He has a violent criminal history, including charges of assault in New Jersey and charges for strangulation, assault, and reckless endangerment in Pennsylvania. ICE Buffalo acting Field Office Director Tammy Marich said in a statement: Saim Irgi is a violent...

President Donald Trump at the U.S.-Saudi Investment Forum in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, said people from Saudi Arabia think Americans are "crazy" for advocating for transgender athletes in women's sports. At the forum, hosted at the Kennedy Center, Trump described being shocked watching a congressman fighting for biological men playing in women's sports, explaining a situation where a biological man broke a women's weightlifting record. "The man was 119 pounds higher than a woman champion, who was a phenomenal champion," Trump said. "Beat her by 119, and he was an average lifter prior to transitioning. A lot of the Saudis...

Even as Zohran Mamdani poses a threat to New York’s Jews, groups like the Anti-Defamation League helped make his victory possible.New Yorkers have elected Zohran Mamdani as their next mayor. His victory raises several questions, but for Jewish New Yorkers, one in particular: What did local and national Jewish organizations do to try to stop a man with Mamdani’s views from rising? Almost nothing, it turns out. Indeed, the Anti-Defamation League and other well-heeled Jewish groups helped to make a candidate like Mamdani possible in myriad almost comically stupid ways, from designing anti-anti-Semitism curricula that actually made people considerably more...

Gov Abbott and Attorney General Paxton appeal federal decision that invalidated new congressional map Gerrymandering has been a staple of the Republic since its beginning. The practice has such a storied tradition that it is named after Elbridge Gerry, one of our founding fathers who served as vice president under President James Madison. For decades, leftists attempted to outlaw partisan gerrymandering. Justice Anthony Kennedy could not make up his mind on the issue, so it languished until he retired. Fortunately for the Constitution, President Trump replaced Justice Kennedy — the Court’s swing vote for over a dozen years — with...

When will the IRS hold CAIR accountable?In Israel, they have something called ‘Pay to Slay’ in which the Palestinian Authority terror group pays Islamic terrorists who are captured while committing terrorist attacks or, if they die, pays their families.Under the first Trump administration, it led to a cutoff of U.S. aid to the PA.CAIR apparently had set up something similar in America.Anti-Israel agitators who spread disruption at US colleges and were punished by authorities were awarded checks for $1,000 by a Muslim nonprofit, The Post has learned.The money was given to students who faced penalties for leading pro-Palestinian protests before...

Bill Gates 'loved' Jeffrey Epstein, but his former wife Melinda banned him from speaking with the convicted sex offender, explosive text messages allege. Several messages from the myriad Epstein files released this month have given an insight into the friendship between the disgraced financier and tech tycoon Gates. Epstein spoke with Gates' adviser in 2017 about a venture that never materialized - partly because the Microsoft founder's spouse wanted them to stop speaking. 'He wants to talk to you but his wife won't let him,' Gates' adviser told Epstein, per CBS News. The adviser followed up with a series of...

Fertility tech solved the ‘problem’ of your body’s physical limitations. Now, a new app has solved that of your mother’s.The year is 2025. You froze your eggs a decade ago, after your live-in boyfriend dumped you on your 30th birthday. You’re about to start your fifteenth round of IVF, and if this one doesn’t work, you have a color-coded list of surrogacy agencies to call. But your parents are pushing 70, and you feel some guilt thinking about the years your kids could have spent with them. Thankfully, former Disney child star Calum Worthy and his company 2wai have an...

Germany, France, Canada, and Belgium are among 12 nations that signed on to the “Declaration on Information Integrity on Climate Change,” documenting the so-called “threats” that free speech and the free press pose to what U.S. President Donald Trump refers to as the climate “con job.”Signed at the United Nations’ COP30, the UN’s annual climate confab, the declaration marks the first time that “information integrity” has been on the docket for COP’s Action Agenda.The rise of independent media, social media, and the internet has created a source of non-establishment news that has elevated legitimate criticism of the so-called man-made climate-change...

🍿CBS BOMBSHELL: Epstein Accuser’s Ghostwriter Spills The Goods – Virginia Giuffre Called Donald Trump Her HERO, Not a Villain. Ghostwriter Amy Wallace, who co-wrote Virginia Giuffre's posthumous memoir "Nobody's Girl," says Giuffre expressed strong support for Donald Trump during their talks. Giuffre believed Trump would release the Epstein files and expose hidden truths. Wallace says Giuffre met Trump several times while working at Mar-a-Lago but admitted he was NOT involved in Epstein's trafficking network. @TheDemocrats desperate scramble to smear President Trump as Epstein’s pervy pal is crashing harder than a Clinton apology tour. Giuffre’s own words, via her ghostwriter Amy...

Grok goes Global with KSA: Announcing our landmark partnership with Saudi Arabia and @HUMAINAI—the first time a country adopts Grok at scale. xAI will build a new generation of hyperscale GPU data centers in the Kingdom, deploying Grok nationwide.