Free Republic

Former Illinois House Speaker Michael J. Madigan, the country’s longest-serving state House leader, has been sentenced to 7.5 years in prison and a $2.5 million fine on corruption convictions. In February, a jury found guilty Madigan of bribery conspiracy, wire fraud and other crimes.

Tennessee Rep. Tim Burchett has alleged that staffers in Joe Biden’s administration engaged in a “cash for clemency” scheme, using an autopen to issue pardons in exchange for financial payoffs. An autopen is a device that mechanically reproduces signatures. On Tuesday, Rep. Burchett appeared on “The Benny Johnson Show” and stated, “You are gonna find staffers that were able to take forms, get them and run them through some sort of bogus legal system, then they auto-penned them.” Burchett said he believes there was a pay-for-pardon scheme happening, and pointed to a historical scandal involving former Tennessee Governor Ray Blanton,...

An autopen is a device that mechanically reproduces signatures. On Tuesday, Rep. Burchett appeared on “The Benny Johnson Show” and stated, “You are gonna find staffers that were able to take forms, get them and run them through some sort of bogus legal system, then they auto-penned them.” Burchett said he believes there was a pay-for-pardon scheme happening, and pointed to a historical scandal involving former Tennessee Governor Ray Blanton, who was implicated in selling pardons in the 1970s. “Tennessee has had a history of this; we had a governor … he sold pardons,” Burchett said. “You can look it...

President Donald Trump is expected to pardon former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, according to a person familiar with the plans.Blagojevich served eight years in prison on charges stemming from his effort to sell Barack Obama's Senate seat after Obama won the 2008 presidential election, until Trump commuted his 14-year sentence in 2020. Why it matters: Trump and Blagojevich have a relationship dating back to 2010, when the former governor appeared on the Trump-hosted "Celebrity Apprentice" after being impeached and removed from office.Blagojevich, who was a Democrat while in office, supported Trump in the 2024 election and attended the Republican National...

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass has decided that fire-ravaged Pacific Palisades will be built by an “outside consultant.” The decision was made without any consultation with local residents or any process of input from those affected. Bass appeared in Pacific Palisades on Monday on an unannounced visit together with “chief recovery officer Steve Soboroff,” whom Bass appointed earlier this month — also without local consultation — and who had been absent. The Los Angeles Times reported that Bass announced her intention to hire a consultant to handle the rebuilding: The city of Los Angeles is planning to hire an outside...

'Multiple colleagues had raised concerns with the speaker’s office about the potential for public disclosure of ‘sexual texts from members who were trying to engage in sexual favors’ with Hutchinson...' Last month, Breitbart News reported that House Speaker Mike Johnson blocked GOP investigators from subpoenaing Cassidy Hutchinson, who was the Democrat-controlled January 6th Commission’s “star witness” in the wake of Jan. 6, 2021. At the time, it wasn’t clear why Johnson was protecting Hutchinson, who was caught changing her testimony during the course of the Jan. 6 Committee hearings. On Thursday, the Washington Post revealed what may have motivated Johnson....

The transfer is the largest yet during the Biden administration. ... In a major development, the Pentagon on Monday announced the transfer 11 Yemeni detainees at Guantanamo Bay to Oman, a move that now leaves only 15 detainees still at the detention facility. "The United States appreciates the willingness of the government of Oman and other partners to support ongoing U.S. efforts focused on responsibly reducing the detainee population and ultimately closing the Guantanamo Bay facility," said a DOD statement. In recent weeks, the Pentagon had transferred out four other detainees from Guantanamo including a detainee who was brought to...

Reps. Thomas Massie and Marjorie Taylor Greene called on Congress Thursday to release the names of current and former members on a secret list of lawmakers that have used taxpayer money to settle sexual harassment claims. “Congress has secretly paid out more than $17 million of your money to quietly settle charges of harassment (sexual and other forms) in Congressional offices,” Massie (R-Ky.) wrote on X. “Don’t you think we should release the names of the Representatives? I do,” he added. Massie’s suggestion was quickly endorsed by Greene (R-Ga.). “Yes. I want to release the congressional sexual slush fund list,”...

President Biden has declared his support for banning sitting members of Congress from trading stock — an eleventh-hour pivot after four years of silence over the controversy. “Nobody in the Congress should be able to make money in the stock market while they’re in the Congress,” Biden told the “More Perfect Union” podcast. “I don’t know how you look your constituents in the eye and know because of the job they gave you, gave you an inside track to make more money,” Biden said, adding: “I think we should be changing the law.” .....

If I wasted people's money like this, I'd be executed. Greg Price @greg_price11 · Follow The Biden admin has spent $3 billion on electric mail trucks. Only 93 have been built. They also spent $7.5B on electric vehicle charging stations. Only 7 have been built. We've covered both of these stories before. In 2021, we covered Biden's plan to roll out these weird new trucks in an effort to save the planet or something. The USPS is rolling out their next gen of delivery trucks and I have questions. If you were in charge of a delivery outfit that had...

Joe Biden has commuted sentences for roughly 1,500 people and granted 39 pardons in the largest single-day act of clemency in modern history, the White House announced Thursday. The commuted sentences were for people released from prison and placed on home confinement during the COVID-19 pandemic who had “successfully reintegrated into their families and communities,” according to the White House statement. “America was built on the promise of possibility and second chances,” a separate statement attributed to Biden said. “As president, I have the great privilege of extending mercy to people who have demonstrated remorse and rehabilitation, restoring opportunity for...

The Executive’s pardon power is meant to be about justice, but Biden’s plans show that he intends to use it to conquer America in the name of leftism. SNIP Joe Biden, who, unlike Sherman, Napoleon, Hannibal, or Caesar, will be forgotten the moment he exits the stage, is nonetheless looking at the scorched earth policy with a keen eye. Biden, the politician who’s never had a job that didn’t come from the government, has contempt for the Republic. For him, America, and in particular the government, is just a vehicle for accumulating power and money. The man is an inveterate...

President Joe Biden caused a stir when he announced on a Sunday evening in early December his intention to pardon his son, Hunter. The pardon itself wasn't particularly surprising — many (myself included) would have found it more surprising had Joe opted not to spare his son on his way out the door at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. The scope of the pardon (spanning close to 11 years, and very specifically harkening back to January 1, 2014, when Joe Biden was still vice president and Hunter was just about to be appointed to the Burisma board)? Now, that definitely raised eyebrows....

What will be Joe Biden's legacy as President? Vice President, and Senator?

Hunter Biden’s Pardon Is All About Protecting Joe Biden, Not His SonBy pardoning his son for more than a decade of potential crimes, the president is protecting himself above all.President Joe Biden didn’t pardon Hunter because he’s a loving father who thinks his drug addict son was treated unfairly by the Justice Department. He pardoned Hunter to help cover up his own crimes, just as he’ll likely pardon other members of his family before he leaves office in January. He’s trying to protect himself, and this is one of the only ways he has left to do it.After all, President...

A presidential pardon notwithstanding, the Biden family may yet face accountability from Congress and the executive branch, government watchdog groups say. In fact, President Joe Biden’s blanket pardon of son Hunter Biden could provide more leverage for Congress to investigate other Biden family members, said Mike Davis, founder of the Article III Project, a conservative legal group. “President Biden’s pardon of his son Hunter means that Hunter can no longer invoke his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination,” Davis, Republicans’ former chief counsel for nominations on the Senate Judiciary Committee, told The Daily Signal in a telephone interview Monday. Hunter Biden...

Last week, Lindy Li, a Democrat megadonor who served on the DNC finance committee, said that no one from the Kamala Harris campaign is taking responsibility for the absolutely massive amount of campaign cash that vanished into thin air in a matter of weeks. Now, she is calling for a formal accounting of where the money went. She claims that certain individuals involved in the Harris campaign became millionaires overnight. She suggests that it was basically a case of friends taking care of other friends. James Carville also recently called for an audit of the Harris campaign. They are both...

Following the news that President Joe Biden pardoned his embattled son, Hunter Biden, despite repeatedly reassuring he would not do so, some Democrats are speaking out against the move. One Democrat governor and one Democrat member of U.S. Congress voiced anger against the pardon, which covered every crime he committed “or may have committed or taken part in” over an 11 year period. Far-left Colorado Governor Jared Polis posted on X: “While as a father I certainly understand President @JoeBiden’s natural desire to help his son by pardoning him, I am disappointed that he put his family ahead of the...

Hunter Biden’s pardon looks a lot like Richard Nixon’s. President Joe Biden’s grant of clemency on Sunday night — an extraordinary political act with extraordinary legal breadth — insulates his son from ever facing federal charges over any crimes he possibly could have committed over the past decade. Experts on pardons said they could think of only one other person who has received a presidential pardon so sweeping in generations: Nixon, who was given a blanket pardon by Gerald Ford in 1974. “I have never seen language like this in a pardon document that purports to pardon offenses that have...

One of the most disturbing scandals of the Hunter Biden saga is the imprisonment without trial of former FBI informant Alexander Smirnov. The Ukrainian-born Israeli-American, who once told his FBI handler about Ukrainian claims of a $10 million bribe to the Bidens, has been languishing in a Los Angeles prison for nine months on charges that he lied to the FBI. Last week, federal prosecutors slapped new tax-evasion charges on Smirnov, 43, which suggests they know their original indictment is too weak for a jury to convict him when he faces trial beginning Jan. 8. Smirnov was one of the...