Free Republic

An anti-Israel activist who served as an expert witness on behalf of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in a recent terrorism trial was hosted for a meeting with senior White House officials, according to visitor logs released by the Obama administration and media reports.Michael Sfard, an anti-Israel activist who has reportedly been paid by the PLO to serve as an expert witness in terrorism trials against it, met in December 2014 with a senior White House National Security Council (NSC) member for a meeting about the Middle East, according to the logs and reports.Sfard, a lawyer, serves as the legal...

Alan J. Steinberg—who served as an adviser to former President George W. Bush—wrote in an opinion piece published this week that he didn’t believe President Donald Trump would be removed from office through impeachment. Steinberg, a former Environmental Protection Agency regional administrator, said that he believed Trump would resign in 2019 in exchange for immunity. “Trump will not be removed from office by the constitutional impeachment and removal process,” Steinberg wrote in The Star-Ledger. “Instead, the self-professed supreme dealmaker will use his presidency as a bargaining chip with federal and state authorities in 2019, agreeing to leave office in exchange...

By Alan J. Steinberg As a "Never Trump" author and governmental veteran, I feel that the most concise and accurate summary of the nightmare of Trumpism was given recently by the renowned conservative historian Max Boot in the Washington Post: "The current GOP still has a few resemblances to the party of old -- it still cuts taxes and supports conservative judges. But a vote for the GOP in November is also a vote for egregious obstruction of justice, rampant conflicts of interest, the demonization of minorities, the debasement of political discourse, the alienation of America's allies, the end of...

An attorney for Trump, Jay Sekulow and his senior counsel Carly Gammill appeared in a Washington D.C. federal court last week to find out when they will be receiving documents related to the Obama unmasking scandal. The ACLJ (American Center For Law and Justice) filed a FOIA lawsuit last summer and they are just now beginning to receive documents. Sekulow revealed the first batch of unmasking documents on his radio show Jay Live on Tuesday. The ACLJ received heavily redacted emails from former US Ambassador to the UN Samantha Power that show unprecedented unmasking and political bias in the final...

The father of the family killed in a fiery Costa Rican plane crash was a senior investor at Bridgewater Associates, the giant hedge fund headed by billionaire Ray Dalio. Bruce Steinberg — who, along with his wife, Irene, and three sons, Zachary, William and Matthew, was among 12 people killed in the charter plane crash on New Year’s Eve — was a senior member of the Connecticut-based fund’s research team. Steinberg, 50, was also a graduate of Columbia Business School. “The Bridgewater family lost Bruce Steinberg (a senior investor at Bridgewater and a wonderful man) and his family in a...

ABC 7 did exactly that to veteran sportscaster Mark Giangreco, suspended without pay for several weeks for calling Donald Trump “this cartoon lunatic” elected by “a country full of simpletons.” Giangreco is technically a sports anchor, but any sportscaster who stuck to the dry recitation of scores and injuries wouldn’t last long on TV. He’s expected to inject his opinions and humor in an appropriate way, except of course when he doesn’t. ABC 7 didn’t say which part of the statement rankled. I’d assume it was the dismissing half their audience as idiots part. Frankly, I’d expect to get in...

Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg struck a defiant tone Wednesday against an executive order signed by President Donald Trump seeking to block federal aid to local governments that do not cooperate with federal authorities to track and report undocumented immigrants. The Sacramento City Council passed an ordinance in 1985 prohibiting city police and other employees from asking about individuals’ immigration status. Steinberg said the city will not reverse course and will remain what is known as a “sanctuary city,” even under the threat of missing out on federal aid. He said the city will begin assessing how much federal revenue is...

Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. That adage has more application than usual in California, where Democrats hold all of the statewide offices and supermajorities in the legislature. They can enact any policies they want, with only the judicial branch offering belated checks on their power. And when I say belated, that’s literally the case with state Senator Rod Wright, whom a jury found guilty in January of committing eight felonies regarding his residency and eligibility for the office he held.Normally, politicians who get that kind of a verdict have the decency to resign. If not, the body in...

Two members of Senate President pro Tem Darrell Steinberg's staff will provide free legal aid to undocumented immigrant children from Central America who have found themselves in Southern California with no parents or family members. Steinberg announced Wednesday that his policy director, Anthony Williams, and senior policy consultant, Margie Estrada, will participate in the Los Angeles County Bar Association's Legal Assistant Project as a part of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, Southern California Chapter "These children face a daunting immigration process in a foreign legal system without any legal representation. A kid is a kid, and should be shown compassion...

Secretary of State John Kerry on Wednesday paid a shiva call to the parents of Max Steinberg, a Los Angeles native IDF soldier who was killed Sunday in Gaza, at the Crowne Palza hotel in Jerusalem. “It’s just a huge statement about a young guy finding a place that he was so passionate about, and giving his all, putting himself on the line,” Kerry told the Steinbergs. “It’s an amazing story.” “How’s your day?” Kerry asked them as he sat down, according to The Jewish Journal. “How’s your day?” Evie Steinberg asked back. “My day’s going better than yours,” he...

Early voting is underway. We’ve got a GOP leadership in Washington looking to sell us out on amnesty and ObamaCare. In Raleigh, we have a state party leadership reportedly looking to toss out opposition to toll roads and ObamaCare, and water down the official stance on amnesty. You can grumble all you want. But the only way to send a message to these people is at the polling place. You’ve got the opportunity, from now until May 6, to do a little RINO-hunting.

OCTOBER 17, 2009 Rajaratnam Surfaced in U.S. Terrorism Probe By EVAN PEREZ and MATTHEW ROSENBERG WASHINGTON—The hedge-fund billionaire charged as part of a vast insider-trading case surfaced in an earlier, separate probe into U.S. fundraising by a Sri Lankan terrorist group, people familiar with the probe said. As part of that investigation, federal agents said they uncovered documents showing that Raj Rajaratnam, founder of the Galleon Group, was among several wealthy Sri Lankans in the U.S. whose donations to a Maryland-based charity made their way to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, according to people familiar with the probe. Raj...

If you're considering going to Wall Street, you should really know what you're getting into. Yes, you will get paid better than average people all over the world. Yes, you will get to learn new things constantly, and yes, you will be involved in important transactions (well, hopefully) and meet interesting clients. However, there is a downside, and it's generally all in your head. A Wall Street veteran, who will remain anonymous, gave us a laundry list of ways working on the Street can actually ruin your life. Wall Streeters have to deal with a distorted sense of money, questions...

The Senate did something this past weekend it hasn't done in four years: passed a budget. The law requires the Senate to pass a budget, but Congress often ignores its own laws. For most of Barack Obama's presidency, a series of continuing resolutions kept the money -- your money -- flowing. Now the Senate wants to add a trillion dollars of new taxes, even more than President Obama seeks. Despite our growing debt, the Senate wants to fund things like the Senate barbershop, which loses a third of a million dollars every year. It's like they live in a...

Wall-Street Craziness Is Back Wolf Richter, Testosterone PitMarch 29, 2013 The craziness on Wall Street, the reckless for-the-moment-only behavior that led to the Financial Crisis, is back. This time it’s Citigroup that is once again concocting “synthetic” securities, like those that had wreaked havoc five years ago. And once again, it’s using them to shuffle off risks through the filters of Wall Street to people who might never know. What bubbled to the surface is that Citigroup is selling synthetic securities that yield 13% to 15% annually—synthetic because they’re based on credit derivatives. Apparently, Citi has a bunch of shipping...

Screen grab.Noted hedge fund manager Stan Druckenmiller, 59, on Friday warned that the U.S. economy is headed for a “storm” that could prove to be far worse than the financial meltdown of 2008.But first, if you’re not familiar with his name, here’s what you need to know: He’s one of the most respected and successful hedge fund managers in the past 30 years.Obviously, you don’t achieve that type of success (or notoriety) on Wall Street by running your mouth. That being said, if Druckenmiller, a former partner of billionaire liberal philanthropist George Soros, is predicting serious economic trouble for the...

Documents obtained by CBS News show that the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) discussed using their covert operation "Fast and Furious" to argue for controversial new rules about gun sales. PICTURES: ATF "Gunwalking" scandal timeline In Fast and Furious, ATF secretly encouraged gun dealers to sell to suspected traffickers for Mexican drug cartels to go after the "big fish." But ATF whistleblowers told CBS News and Congress it was a dangerous practice called "gunwalking," and it put thousands of weapons on the street. Many were used in violent crimes in Mexico. Two were found at the murder...

In an abrupt announcement that caught state and local business officials off guard, cable giant Comcast announced Tuesday that it's closing all of its California call centers, including one in Natomas that employs about 300 workers. Why? That's the tricky question. Earlier in the day, citing the state's "high cost of doing business," a regional Comcast official said the company's Natomas, Livermore and Morgan Hill call centers will be shuttered on Nov. 30. Overall, about 1,000 jobs will be relocated to existing centers in Portland, Seattle and Denver. But hours later, after state Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento,...

Federal agents are investigating Florida House Rep. Richard L. Steinberg, D-Miami Beach, for sending a series of suggestive and harassing text messages to a married Miami female prosecutor, court records show. The dozens of messages, sent over the course of more than three months last fall, were sent from a phone that used software to disguise the number. The victim, Assistant U.S. Attorney Marlene Fernandez-Karavetsos, repeatedly begged the anonymous texter to leave her alone.

Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg said today that it's time to end sparring over competing measures and rally behind Gov. Jerry Brown's tax initiative for the November ballot. The Sacramento Democrat, in what he characterized as a "clarion call," said that Brown's tax initiative appears to be the state's best alternative. Placing competing measures on the ballot could hurt its prospects, he said. "It's time to get behind the governor's tax initiative," Steinberg said. "If you have two or three of them on the ballot at one time, they're all at risk of losing," he said. Brown's proposal would...