Free Republic

President Trump's flurry of recent presidential pardons has cost crime victims and taxpayers approximately $1.3 billion in restitution and payments, according to a review by House Judiciary Democrats. The pardons absolved hundreds of convicted criminals from having to pay for damages and restitution caused by their crimes. Victims have not been made whole, the Democrats said — including U.S. taxpayers who must now foot the bill for the millions of dollars in repairs and cleanup from the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the Capitol.The Judiciary Committee Democrats' investigation, led by Rep. Jamie Raskin, a Maryland Democrat, also cited several multi-million...

Residents of Palmetto Bay, Fla., have demanded the resignation of Councilman Stephen Cody, who wrote a post mocking Charlie Kirk’s support for gun rights.One by one, the angry residents who had packed the council chambers on Monday night in Palmetto Bay, Fla., stepped to the podium to express their disgust over online comments that a councilman, Stephen Cody, had made about Charlie Kirk.One man called Mr. Cody’s comments “vile.” Another called them “abnormal and dangerous.” A third man said that the councilman’s Facebook post, which went up a few hours after Mr. Kirk was fatally shot in Utah, “smells like...

Jimmy Kimmel is working with ABC's parent company Disney to bring his late-night show back after it was indefinitely suspended due to his monologue about Charlie Kirk, according to insiders.Three sources with knowledge of the conversations told Variety that compromises are in the works for Jimmy Kimmel Live! to return to television.Sinclair, the media corporation that owns multiple ABC affiliate stations, previously called on the host to apologize and donate to Kirk's organization, Turning Point USA. Another major station owner, Nexstar, also announced it would pull the show from their stations following comments from Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr,...

Already suing newspapers for billions over their reporting, president now cheers removal of late-show hostABC's decision to pull late-show host Jimmy Kimmel off the air marks what observers see as an escalation in a campaign by U.S. President Donald Trump and his allies to pressure media critics into silence. The network announced it was indefinitely pre-empting Jimmy Kimmel Live!, just as taping of the show's Wednesday night episode was about to begin, after Kimmel came under fire for a line in a monologue that referenced the man accused of killing prominent Trump supporter Charlie Kirk. This follows a series of...

“This is misery,” Letterman, 78, said during a panel at the annual event, per Variety. “I feel bad about this.” “We see where this is all going, correct?” he continued. “It’s managed media. And it’s no good. It’s silly. It’s ridiculous. And you can’t go around firing somebody because you’re fearful or trying to suck up to an authoritarian criminal administration in the Oval Office. That’s just not how this works.” “In the world of somebody who is an authoritarian, maybe a dictatorship, sooner or later, everyone is going to be touched,” Letterman added.

Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night show was suspended by ABC on Wednesday following a brief pressure campaign from the Trump administration as well as conservatives in the media, who successfully twisted Kimmel’s words following last week’s assassination of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk. During Jimmy Kimmel Live! on Monday, the comedian criticized conservatives for trying to “score political points” off Kirk’s death. “We hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it,” Kimmel...

President Donald Trump is expected to fire the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia after investigators were unable to find incriminating evidence of mortgage fraud against New York Attorney General Letitia James, according to sources. Federal prosecutors in Virginia had uncovered no clear evidence to prove that James had knowingly committed mortgage fraud when she purchased a home in the state in 2023, ABC News first reported earlier this week, but Trump officials pushed U.S. Attorney Erik Siebert to nevertheless bring criminal charges against her, according to sources.

George Soros has been the go-to bogeyman for the American right — and right-wing leaders around the world — for years. The 95-year-old billionaire has funneled money into causes around the globe, supporting democratic endeavors, immigration efforts and criminal justice reform through his Open Society Foundations, which he founded in 1979. In the intervening decades, Soros, with his large network of progressive causes and opposition to strong-arm governments, has become the target of conspiracy theories in areas that range from Malaysia to his birth country of Hungary, where a so-called “Stop Soros” law made it illegal to aid undocumented immigrants...

BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — Since taking office in January, President Donald Trump has waged an aggressive campaign against the media unlike any in modern U.S. history, making moves similar to those of authoritarian leaders that he has often praised. On Wednesday, Trump cheered ABC’s suspension of Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night show after the comedian made remarks about the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk that criticized the president’s MAGA movement: “Congratulations to ABC for finally having the courage to do what had to be done,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform. It was the latest in a string of attacks...

Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., donned a "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" hat during an interview with CNN on Thursday, after the late-night host's show was pulled. "Congressman, I see you are wearing a hat. What does that hat say?" CNN host John Berman asked the lawmaker, who responded with, "You're damn right I am, John." Disney said Wednesday it was pulling late-night host Jimmy Kimmel's program after the liberal comedian's remarks about the death of Charlie Kirk. "It should shake every American that the president of the United States is out there firing comedians who make fun of him. That is not...

In the context of a discussion of the suspension of Jimmy Kimmel's show and related matters, today's CNN This Morning aired a clip of Rep. Daniel Goldman [D-ActBlue Jeans] calling President Trump a "wannabe mob boss."Meghan Hays, a former Biden aide and a CNN analyst, agreed with Goldman, then proceeded to claim: "We are running dangerously close to state-run media . . . We are losing our democracy. They're dismantling democracy by doing this." Accusing Trump of creating a "state-run media?" That's something of a new line of attack. And a laugh line at that. Even without the likes of...

As President Donald Trump threatens legal action against his adversaries, particularly after Charlie Kirk’s assassination, he’s repeatedly talked about using one federal law: the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, or RICO. Trump wants to bring racketeering charges against left-wing groups he’s accused of promoting violence. Some influential Republicans agree with him and have been pushing to include rioting as one of the crimes that falls under the racketeering statute, a decades-old law once aimed at cracking down on organized crime. Kirk’s death and the resulting calls by influential conservatives to crack down on the left using the federal government’s...

BREAKING: The FCC Chairman is threatening immediate action against Jimmy Kimmel, ABC, and Disney for deliberately misleading the public by claiming Charlie Kirk’s assassin was a MAGA Conservative. Chairman Brendan Carr calls Kimmel’s malicious lies are “truly sick” and says they should result in Kimmel's immediate suspension and may lead to ABC losing its broadcast license. Chairman Carr confirms the agency has a “strong case” to hold Kimmel, ABC, and Disney accountable for spreading dangerous, politically motivated misinformation. "This is a very, very serious issue right now for Disney. We can do this the easy way or the hard way....

ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel insinuated Turning Point USA co-founder Charlie Kirk’s alleged assassin was a member of the "MAGA gang" while mocking President Donald Trump’s response to his death during his show Monday night. The "Jimmy Kimmel Live" host brought up the matter during his monologue and claimed right-wing critics were hitting "new lows" trying to frame the suspect, 22-year-old Utah native Tyler Robinson, as someone who wasn’t "MAGA." "We hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything...

Recently declassified documents indicate that people close to former FBI Director James Comey and Democratic Sen. Adam Schiff were connected to leaks of classified information to prominent reporters designed to portray Donald Trump and his allies as being in league with Russia. Reporters from the New York Times and Washington Post shared a 2018 Pulitzer Prize for articles that used classified leaks to advance the Russigate hoax. Columbia University, Photo by Eileen BarrosoWritten in 2017, the FBI documents expose how selected Washington reporters, including Ellen Nakashima of the Washington Post and Michael Schmidt of the New York Times, scored a...

Left-wing late-night host Jimmy Kimmel has attacked President Donald Trump for mourning the assassination of Charlie Kirk like “how a four-year-old mourns a goldfish.” Kimmel showed his sneering disregard for the president’s empathy during his show on Monday night, alleging Republicans and Trump “are doing everything they can to score political points” from the tragedy. He further made clear his belief Trump and his supporters are somehow “desperately trying to characterize the kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them.”

On Friday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “All In,” MSNBC Senior Reporter Brandy Zadrozny said that there is left-wing extremist content online, “but not that much. It’s pretty hard. On the right, you can find it literally everywhere. It’s just overflowing.” But most of the shooters who came out of these spaces likely “aren’t huge fans of Donald Trump. They’re fans of nothing. They’re fans of extremism. They’re fans of burn it down.” Host Jacob Soboroff asked, “Do you see a common denominator, a common type of politics across or amongst all of these incidents, all of these shooters?” Zadrozny answered, “Yeah,...

A Long Island newspaper was forced to apologize after publishing a graphic Charlie Kirk cartoon slammed as 'unconscionable' and 'despicable'. Newsday removed the offending political illustration from all its platforms and acknowledged an 'error in judgment' after intense backlash from readers. The cartoon depicted an empty blood-splattered chair under a tent labeled 'Charlie Kirk.' An arrow points upwards toward the seat with the caption 'Turning Point USA,' the non-profit organization founded in 2012 by Kirk. The banner above the tent reads 'prove me wrong', which was Kirk's slogan for his college campus political debate events. The illustration was created by...

The New York Times issued a correction Thursday, admitting it had wrongly attributed an antisemitic remark to Charlie Kirk when the late Turning Point USA founder was actually critiquing the comment. As part of its story on where Kirk stood on key political issues in the wake of his assassination, The Times reported Kirk was "repeatedly accused of antisemitism." Kirk was a staunch supporter of Israel and has been praised by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. "An earlier version of this article described incorrectly an antisemitic statement that Charlie Kirk had made on an episode of his podcast. He was...

As editors and reporters in the Chicago Sun-Times/WBEZ newsroom geared up for President Trump’s proclamation earlier this month that he intended to send the National Guard to Chicago, we asked ourselves: How could we possibly cover the deployment of troops and more ICE agents if the operation was large and dispersed? One avenue? Engage the public. (As we published this story, Trump announced that he would be sending the National Guard to Memphis instead. The administration’s anti-immigration operation in Chicago continues.) So interactive developer Andjela Padejski and Chicago Public Media’s AI fellow Mark Chonofsky got to work on a...