Free Republic

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison lashed out when asked about his handling of the Minnesota fraud scandal following Vice President JD Vance's threat to refer him to the Justice Department, while pushing back on a widely cited $8 billion figure as only mentioned by those "aligned with the Trump Administration." "That is a false number," Ellison said. "The fact is, is that fraud is always wrong." "Why don't you give me a break, man?" he continued. The comments come as Vance, the head of the Trump administration’s new anti-fraud task force, threatened to press the Justice Department to open an...

Another ex-girlfriend of Graham Platner, the Democratic candidate for Senate in Maine, is shedding light on his private behavior and disputing his claim that he didn’t know that the tattoo of a skull on his chest was a Nazi Totenkopf. Platner’s ex told The New York Post about the conversation she had with him about the tattoo. “As a person who is a leftist, I immediately looked at him and asked him, ‘Is that a Totenkopf?’ and he told me a whole, ‘he will hold this weight forever’ bravado sob story about how it was, but he decided to keep...

I think it's safe to say that the shelf life on the Democrats' shameful "Believe All Women" tactic has expired, considering their near-unified reaction to the latest allegations against Graham Platner ahead of the June 9th Maine primary. Platner is the presumptive Senate nominee for the party, which was rocked by a New York Times report on Thursday, where three former girlfriends recounted what they said was a pattern of controlling, domineering, and allegedly abusive behavior. One who dated him from around 2015 to 2016 alleged a pattern of physical abuse that allegedly involved wrist-jerking, arm-twisting, confinement, shoulder-grabbing to the...

WASHINGTON — Hunter Biden is marking his seventh year of sobriety with a social media blitz that’s taking the internet by storm. Hunter, 56, began posting on his X account last month after years of dormancy, a move so surprising some wondered if the messages were fake. The account proved both genuine and a hit, quickly amassing nearly half a million followers, most of whom have cheered Hunter’s purported honesty and dry sense of humor. After Hunter posted a message celebrating being seven years sober Monday, one user accused him of being the owner of a bag of cocaine left...

Capt. Wendel Penetrante, Capt. Edwin Catubig and Master Chief Petty Officer Thomas Dean Howell were relieved on Wednesday. No specific reason for their firing has been given. The commanding officer, executive officer and senior enlisted leader of a Navy ship repair facility in Yokosuka, Japan, have been fired, service officials announced on Wednesday. Capt. Wendel Penetrante, Capt. Edwin Catubig and Master Chief Petty Officer Thomas Dean Howell were relieved of their duties on Wednesday as commanding officer, executive officer, and command master chief, respectively, a Navy news release says. They were all assigned to the U.S. Naval Ship Repair Facility...

A Washington school superintendent accused of helping cover up several sexual assault allegations at a high school was recorded on body camera as officers led her out of district headquarters in handcuffs and shoved her into a police cruiser. New footage released Friday shows Longview Public Schools Superintendent Karen Cloninger being arrested at district offices following a months long investigation. Investigators alleged she tried to conceal reports of sexual assaults involving Mark Morris High School basketball players in a locker room. The investigation previously led to several players being arrested on rape charges back in February, according to KLOG 100.7....

WASHINGTON — A bipartisan pair of female senators are rolling out new legislation to bar convicted sex criminals from getting taxpayer-funded annuities and retirement pay. Sens. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) have teamed up on the “No Taxpayer-Funded Pensions for Sex Criminals Act” in the aftermath of rape and sexual misconduct accusations that forced Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) to resign last month. “There should be absolutely no room for the tolerance of egregious sex crimes,” Ernst, herself a sexual assault survivor, said in a statement. “Allowing proven predators to continue collecting their pensions on the taxpayer’s dime only...

The House Ethics Committee published a list Monday of all its publicly disclosed sexual misconduct investigations into members stretching back to 1976. The 28 investigations spanned from former Rep. Wayne Hays (D-Ohio) to former Reps. Tony Gonzales (R-Texas) and Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) — both of whom resigned from the House last week. For the latter two, no finding will be made since the committee has lost jurisdiction following their departures. At least half of the probes occurred over the past decade, during which the ethics panel said it “has adopted a more aggressive and robust approach to allegations of sexual...

Rep. Eric Swalwell finally quit Congress on Monday amid accusations of rape and sexual abuses, but the larger scandal is how long he got away with it. Fellow Democrats kept mum for years, though his sleazy behavior toward women has reportedly been long known; nor did the left-leaning media in California or Washington investigate the rumors — even after he notoriously fell for a Chinese “honeypot” agent. Dems plainly only turned on Swalwell in a bid to thin the field in California’s governor race, where two Republicans now lead the nonpartisan “jungle” primary and so might lock out the donkeys...

Top California Democrats have moved to officially strike disgraced union boss Cesar Chavez‘s name from an official state holiday — saying they’ll pass a bill to rename to celebration before the end of the month. Gov. Gavin Newsom said Thursday he’ll support a plan to rebrand March 31 — celebrated since 2000 as Cesar Chavez Day after the labor activist and accused child rapist — as Farmworkers Day. California Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas and Senate President Pro Tem Monique Limón are scrambling to pass the bill before the end of the month. “The farmworkers’ movement was always bigger than just...

As construction nears completion on the long-delayed $850 million Obama Presidential Center, federal tax filings show the Obama Foundation paid CEO Valerie Jarrett $740,000 in 2024 while several former Obama White House officials collected six-figure salaries as foundation executives. The Obama Foundation — which will operate the 19.3-acre center on publicly owned Chicago parkland — paid its CEO more than any other major presidential foundation. Salaries and benefits soared from $18.5 million in 2018 to $43.7 million in 2024, as staffing expanded to 337 employees and annual revenue reached nearly $210 million. Jarrett, one of the Obamas’ closest advisors, took...

The scandal-plagued Obama Presidential Center in Chicago already stirred up plenty of controversy. Now the money trail surrounding it raises even more uncomfortable questions about how former President Barack Obama’s inner circle is cashing in while taxpayers get screwed over. New federal tax filings reveal the staggering salaries flowing through the Obama Foundation as construction of the $850 million Obama Presidential Center in Jackson Park nears completion. The foundation will operate the massive 19.3-acre campus, which sits on publicly owned Chicago parkland. The project includes a museum, an athletic center, and a public library branch. It will not operate as...

In 2019, Governor Newsom promised California that he would fix the state’s failing 911 system. He even spent $450 million to build a new one. But when it came time to turn it on, it did not work. Newsom is now scrapping the plan, the $450M is apparently gone, & he’s going to spend millions more. Meanwhile, Californians remains stuck on the antiquated 911 system due to Governor Newsom’s $450 million 911 scandal. I have written Governor Newsom to get answers, given the FCC’s interest in facilitating transitions to next-gen 911 systems.

A Minnesota fraud scandal is a "canary in the coal mine" for how easily swindles can seep into government systems — including election administration — Republican election attorney Justin Riemer told Fox News Digital. "What you've seen happen in Minnesota and now similar fraudulent schemes in other states, this should be very much a canary in the coal mine for other governmental processes," Riemer told Fox News Digital in a Zoom interview in January. "Which would include our voter registration and election processes. And it's not somehow immune to the type of corruption that we've seen in Minnesota and in...

Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) is reportedly considering a run for Minnesota governor after Gov. Tim Walz (D) announced the end of his reelection campaign, but her track record is a mess of political scandals. Walz, who was the Democrat party’s vice-presidential candidate just over a year ago, dropped out of the race in shame with a Monday morning statement whining over the growing Somali fraud scandal, Breitbart News’s John Nolte detailed. Shortly after the news broke, the New York Times reported that Klobuchar is weighing a bid for gubernatorial office in Walz’s place. The senator confirmed her interest in succeeding...

Walz, who has governed the North Star State since 2019 and presided over the devastating George Floyd riots, was relatively unknown before Harris announced him as her vice presidential nominee in August 2024. He was instantly praised (by journalists) as the paragon of Midwestern charm and “modern masculinity.” Alas, the national spotlight quickly exposed Walz as a bumbling fabulist with a bizarre penchant for fabulous gesticulations on the stump. He lied about serving in combat and being in China during the Tiananmen Square massacre. He disgraced himself on the debate stage next to J.D. Vance. Walz’s exit from the 2026...

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz’s daughter admitted there was “enough truth” to the alleged billion-dollar fraud scandal plaguing the North Star State — as she opened up about her father’s abrupt decision to drop his bid for a third term. Hope Walz appeared on “One Hour Detours” with host John O’Sullivan just hours after her dad announced he was bowing out of the 2026 governor’s race “to kind of get that target off of Minnesota.” “I think there was enough truth to the fraud claim,” the 25-year-old said. However, she then whined that President Trump and his supporters had twisted and...

After the latest wave of exposes made Somali fraud, Democrat state officials from Minnesota to Washington to Maine scrambled to conduct cover-ups and threaten anyone exposing the fraud. The head of Seattle’s Office of Immigrant and Refugee Affairs, Hamdi Mohamed, “the first Somali woman elected in the state”, convened a meeting with Gov. Bob Ferguson, representatives of Attorney General Nick Brown, Seattle City Attorney Erika Evans, as well as other elected officials, who promised to protect Somalis from investigations and enforcement. Mayor-Elect Katie Wilson, a radical leftist, declared that she stands “in solidarity with our Somali and Muslim communities” who...

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz is expected to announce his withdrawal from the 2026 re-election campaign amid increasing scrutiny over fraud allegations, particularly concerning Medicaid programs and Covid-related relief efforts. This decision follows a meeting with Senator Amy Klobuchar and comes in the wake of intensified criticism from Republican lawmakers, who have called for his resignation due to claims of significant fraudulent activity. Federal action has also been triggered, with the SBA suspending thousands of loans linked to suspected fraud in Minnesota. As Walz prepares to address his political future, the implications of these controversies could reshape Minnesota's political landscape moving...

A Texas judge…ordered the release of court documents detailing the divorce of U.S. Senate candidate and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and his wife, state Sen. Angela Paxton, months after she filed citing “biblical grounds.” The disclosures are likely to fuel attacks against Paxton in one of the nation’s most heated Republican primaries as he seeks to unseat Sen. John Cornyn. Whether the divorce details resonate with voters remains to be seen, with the Senate primary set for March 3 next year… which includes Rep. Wesley Hunt. The divorce comes after 38 years of marriage, during which Angela Paxton had...