Free Republic

The Twitter Files reveal that one of the most common news sources of the Trump era was a scam, making ordinary American political conversations look like Russian spywork ... Ambitious media frauds Stephen Glass and Jayson Blair crippled the reputations of the New Republic and New York Times, respectively, by slipping years of invented news stories into their pages. Thanks to the Twitter Files, we can welcome a new member to their infamous club: Hamilton 68. If one goes by volume alone, this oft-cited neoliberal think-tank that spawned hundreds of fraudulent headlines and TV news segments may go down as...

A left-wing think tank erroneously claiming to track Russian online activity was responsible for thousands of bogus stories asserting the nation’s influence in US politics, according to the latest batch of Twitter Files. The Hamilton 68 “dashboard” was the brainchild of former FBI special agent and MSNBC contributor Clint Watts and operated under the Alliance for Securing Democracy, a think tank founded in 2017 — shortly after former President Trump took office. The ASD Advisory Council included such figures as top Clinton ally John Podesta, Obama-era acting CIA Director Michael Morell, former US Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul, and former...

On Aug. 12, a federal court jury in Alabama fired off an unmistakable message to the media and the D.C. swamp: “Stop lying and stop corrupting our elections. There will be consequences if you don’t.” That message was sent in the form of an $8.2 million verdict for defamation in favor of former Alabama Supreme Court Justice and senatorial candidate Roy Moore against a major Democratic player and his allies.

A federal jury has found that a Democratic super political action committee (PAC) defamed Roy Moore, a former Republican sheriff and U.S. Senate candidate, in a television ad during his failed 2017 U.S. Senate bid in Alabama.The Senate Majority PAC made a false statement about Moore that was defamatory, the verdict, returned on Aug. 12, states. The PAC also published the statement despite knowing it was false or acting “with reckless regard” as to whether the statement was false, the jury said.Jurors also found that the Senate Majority PAC invaded Moore’s privacy.They awarded Moore $8.2 million.“I feel this is vindication...

A federal jury awarded Republican Roy Moore $8.2 million in damages Friday after finding that a Democratic super PAC defamed him in an advertisement during the 2017 U.S. Senate race in Alabama. Conservative Roy Moore had won the Senate primary. Democrats then set out to destroy his candidacy. Jurors found the Senate Majority PAC made false and defamatory statements against Moore in the ad that attempted to capitalize on a sexual misconduct accusation made against Moore during the 2017 race, Yahoo News reports.

Cybersecurity experts who held lucrative Pentagon and homeland security contracts and high-level security clearances are under investigation for potentially abusing their government privileges to aid a 2016 Clinton campaign plot to falsely link Donald Trump to Russia and trigger an FBI investigation of him and his campaign, according to several sources familiar with the work of Special Counsel John Durham. Durham is investigating whether they were involved in a scheme to misuse sensitive, nonpublic Internet data, which they had access to through their government contracts, to dredge up derogatory information on Trump on behalf of the Clinton campaign in 2016...

There are several dozen critical issues that stem from revelations about the DOJ and FBI conduct in/around the Carter Page FISA application (2017) and Steele Dossier writ large; but DOJ official Bruce Ohr still being employed isn’t one of them, and here’s why. (further down) -- Bruce Ohr wasn’t the only non FBI person back-channeling information from corrupt source Christopher Steele into the FBI and Mueller team in 2017. SSCI Vice-Chairman Mark Warner was doing exactly the same thing. Senator Warner was having secret contacts, “would rather not have a paper trail”, with Steele through liaison Adam Waldman, and then...

Wyoming state Sen. Anthony Bouchard, a Republican who has emerged as one of the most high-profile primary challengers to Rep. Liz Cheney, said in a Facebook Live video Thursday he impregnated a 14-year-old girl when he was 18. Bouchard said they later got married with the blessing of her mother, and took care of the child. Bouchard and the girl married when he was 19 and she was 15, the Casper Star-Tribune reported. He added that they got divorced about three years later, and she died by suicide at the age of 20.

eBay Founder Pierre Omidyar is starting a news outlet called First Look Media. In the site's animated video, he describes it as "a new kind of marriage between a technology company and a new kind of newsroom," and that one of its goals will be to "make it easier for journalists to deliver the transformative stories we all need." Omidyar is known as a philanthropist, and has put his money where his mouth is (in this case, he is reportedly investing $250 million in the First Look venture). His Omidyar Network - with its funding of many altruistic initiatives such...

President Trump reminded voters Saturday morning he’d like to block a return to Washington for his former Attorney General Jeff Sessions. “Big Senate Race in Alabama on Tuesday,” Mr. Trumptweeted, while urging voters to back former Auburn football coach Tommy Tuberville in the July 14 primary. “Jeff Sessions is a disaster who has let us all down. We don’t want him back in Washington!” The winner of Alabama’s GOP primary runoff will face Democratic Sen. Doug Jones in November. Mr. Jones rode a torrent of out-of-state money and scandals engulfing his GOP opponent to win a special election in 2017,...

----snip---- It is time for Alabama to have two senators, not one, who represent the core conservative values that our citizens hold dear. It is time for Alabama to have two senators, not one, who support the Trump agenda and the conservative movement our president promotes. It is time for Alabama to have two senators, not one, who believe the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights are the bedrock foundation of our nation and not just an antiquated and outdated list of suggestions. I stand ready to give Alabamians the faithful service and honest representation that Doug Jones has failed...

A New York federal judge has refused to dismiss Roy Moore's $95million defamation lawsuit against Sacha Baron Cohen, Showtime and CBS. Failed U.S. Senate candidate and former Alabama judge Moore claims that Baron Cohen publicly slandered him by suggesting he was a pedophile in a prank on the actor's comedy prank show, Who is America? Moore and his wife Kayla filed the suit in in September 2018. Moore was duped into appearing on a five minute portion of the show, with Baron Cohen pretending to be an Israeli counterterrorism instructor called Erran Morad. In the segment which aired in July...

...Just 10 days before the February 2017 meeting, Jones had incorporated a nonprofit called The Democracy Integrity Project (known internally as TDIP) after huddling with Simpson. The goal of their ongoing project is to “prove” the allegations in the dossier, while digging up new dirt on Trump and feeding it to media outlets, congressional investigators and the FBI to derail his presidency. The work of such opposition research outfits has become a mainstay of Washington journalism. In their book, “Crime in Progress,” Simpson and Fritsch detail their access to top journalists at The New York Times and other influential publications....

The Washington Post was awarded two Pulitzer Prizes on Monday, capturing journalism’s most prestigious honor for its investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election and for its coverage of the 2017 Senate race in Alabama, in which The Post broke the story of sexual misconduct allegations against the Republican candidate, Roy Moore. Both sets of stories exposed secret or undisclosed information and altered America’s political landscape. The Post’s revelations about Russia, including contacts between Russian figures and President Trump’s associates and advisers, helped set the stage for the special counsel’s ongoing investigation of the administration. The Moore stories were...

CENTRAL — A Central pastor who has defied state orders limiting public gatherings during the coronavirus pandemic plans to put the state and city police on legal notice that restrictions on places of worship violate the state and U.S. Constitution and that the governments risk a lawsuit, the pastor's lawyer said Thursday. The Rev. Tony Spell, pastor of Life Tabernacle Church, has continued to hold in-person public services drawing hundreds to his church off Hooper Road even after Gov. John Bel Edwards ordered people to stay home and greatly limited public gatherings and other "non-essential" forms of public life and...

Roy Moore, the former Alabama Supreme Court chief justice and two-time U.S. Senate candidate, will serve as an adviser for a Central pastor, and his church, during expected litigation over the religious leader's defiance of state orders limiting public gatherings to control the spread of the novel coronavirus. Moore and the Rev. Tony Spell said Moore would represent Spell and the church, though it isn't clear yet in what capacity. Moore is a licensed lawyer in Alabama but isn't licensed to practice law in Louisiana. Spell, pastor of Life Tabernacle Church in Central, was cited and arrested Tuesday with six...

Former Sen. Jeff Sessions and onetime Auburn University football coach Tommy Tuberville were neck and neck in the Republican primary race for the Senate on Tuesday night and likely headed for a runoff.

With less than three weeks to go until the primary election on March 3, a new Alabama Daily News poll shows a tight race among Republican contenders for the U.S. Senate. According to the survey of likely Republican voters, if the election were held today, 31% would vote for former U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, 29% would choose former Auburn football coach Tommy Tuberville and 17% would choose Congressman Bradley Byrne. Five percent said they would choose former Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore, and no other candidate registered more than 1%. Sixteen percent of voters said they were undecided.

Great music from Gordon Lightfoot about the "Rainy Day People" who help us instead of hurting us. On Canada's CTV Lloyd Robertson had a conversation with Gordon Lightfoot broadcast in December 2017.... Where do we go after impeachment? In 1998 Bill Clinton opted for military action in Kosovo and Serbia siding with its Muslim population against the Serbs. What will the Trump post-impeachment policy be?.... And back here in the USA Kelli Stewart, John Lamb and other activists taking a stand for the rights of parents in the Kylee Dixon Case in Oregon..... The Middle Finger In The Middle East,...

Scandal-ridden Senate candidate Roy Moore is suing a conservative media outlet for $40 million alleging "fake news," as he runs his second campaign in three years for the same Alabama seat. The Alabama Republican lost to Sen. Doug Jones, D-Ala., in a 2017 special election, after facing multiple accusations during the campaign that he had pursued romantic relationships with teenage girls while he was in his 30s. Moore filed the suit against Washington Examiner on Monday. “Like the people of Alabama, I am sick and tired of ‘fake news’ by media organizations which pretend to print the truth but in...