Free Republic

The Trump administration’s plan for mass layoffs at the State Department has left much of the workforce exasperated and embittered, tanking morale as extra demands were made to assist U.S. citizens seeking to flee the Middle East amid Israel’s war with Iran, employees say. At the direction of Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the State Department informed Congress in May that it planned to reduce its U.S. workforce by more than 15 percent — almost 2,000 people — as part of a sweeping reorganization intended to streamline what he has called a “bloated bureaucracy that stifles innovation and misallocates scarce...

A Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington Post journalist was arrested and charged after authorities allegedly discovered child porn on his work computer, DC US Attorney Jeanine Pirro announced Friday. Thomas Pham LeGro, a 48-year-old video editor at the news outlet, was taken into custody on Thursday after FBI agents raided his Washington, DC, home and discovered a folder on his work laptop which contained 11 videos depicting child sexual abuse material, according to Pirro’s office.

WaPo had a reporter arrested yesterday and his alleged crimes are quite shocking. Thomas Pham LeGro, 48, made his first appearance today in U.S. District Court for allegedly possessing child pornography. LeGro, a journalist at the Washington Post and resident of the District of Columbia, was arrested yesterday and taken into custody following a search of his home. The charges were announced by U.S. Attorney Jeanine Ferris Pirro. Pirro thanks FBI Assistant Director in Charge Steven J. Jensen and Chief Pamela Smith of the Metropolitan Police Department for their ongoing efforts in this investigation. On June 26, 2025, FBI agents...

A Washington Post editor who was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for his coverage of Senate candidate Roy Moore and his alleged attraction to minor teen girls, was arrested for possessing child pornography. Thomas Pham LeGro, 48, was arrested on Thursday and made his first appearance in US District Court on Friday. According to federal prosecutors, a review of LeGro’s laptop revealed a folder that contained 11 videos depicting child sexual abuse material. Thomas Pham LeGro’s bio at the Washington Post bragged about his coverage of GOP Senate candidate Roy Moore. Recall that Roy Moore was lambasted over his alleged attraction...

For many people, a trip to the airport is simply a means to an end. Whether you're traveling for vacation or business, you'll need to catch your flight in order to get there - and that's where the airport comes in. All airports have the same goal, but any traveler knows that all of them aren't created equally. Some airports are sprawling ecosystems with multiple terminals and acres of space, while others can be traversed entirely on foot. One airport may have more opportunities for scenic views, while others offer better food options. The Washington Post recently ranked the best...

Top officials will brief lawmakers on Thursday amid a political battle over what intelligence reveals about the damage to Iran’s nuclear facilities.The White House plans to limit classified intelligence sharing with Congress after leaks to the press of an early assessment undermined President Donald Trump’s claim that U.S. airstrikes obliterated Iranian nuclear facilities, a senior Trump administration official said, setting the stage for a contentious classified briefing before senators Thursday. Amid a political battle over what the intelligence shows, the White House is expected to send four of its top national security officials to brief lawmakers: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth,...

Mulitple tests conducted in Iraq by Danish and British experts indicate that Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction have finally been discovered, but mainstream news editors either ignored the story Sunday morning or are furiously spinning the news as inconsequential. More than 12 hours after the Fox News Channel, Reuters and the Associated Press carried reports that preliminary tests showed Iraqi mortar shells discovered near Basra contain a deadly liquid blister agent, the New York Times had yet to report the bombshell find on the main page of its Web site – or anywhere in its Sunday morning print edition....

Saudi Arabia has executed a prominent Saudi journalist who was arrested seven years ago and convicted on terrorism and treason chargesA prominent Saudi journalist who was arrested in 2018 and convicted on terrorism and treason charges has been executed, the kingdom said. Activist groups maintain that the charges against him were trumped up. Turki Al-Jasser, who was in his late 40s, was put to death on Saturday, according to the official Saudi Press Agency, after the death penalty was upheld by the nation’s top court. Authorities had raided Al-Jasser's home in 2018, arresting him and seizing his computer and...

Police in Miami-Dade County are seeking former NFL star Antonio Brown for attempted murder related to a shooting at a May celebrity boxing match, the Washington Post reported The warrant was signed by a judge on Wednesday and listed a charge of attempted murder with a firearm. The incident reportedly occurred just after midnight on May 16 in the Little Haiti neighborhood of Miami and Brown had initially been detained by police and released hours later. The warrant, viewed by the outlet, called for Brown to post a $10,000 bond and remain under house arrest.

The Los Angeles Police Department also urged people to steer clear of downtown because burning lithium-ion batteries can release toxic fumes.Waymo has cut off taxi service to parts of Los Angeles after five of its self-driving vehicles were torched during weekend protests about immigration raids.Images Sunday of downtown show Waymo vehicles covered with graffiti. One photo shows protesters waving Mexican and Guatemalan flags while standing atop a Waymo vehicle, while another appears to show a protester hitting the vehicle with a skateboard. The Los Angeles Times reported that some Lime e-scooters also were tossed into the blaze.Waymo confirmed Monday that...

The comments, in an Oval Office meeting with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, were Trump’s clearest indication to date that he was unsure he would be able to quell Russia’s 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine.Ukraine and Russia may need to keep fighting, President Donald Trump said Thursday, comparing the warring nations to squabbling children in what appeared to be a signal that the U.S. leader was losing interest in brokering peace in a conflict he once promised to end in a day. The comments, in an Oval Office meeting with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, were Trump’s clearest indication to date that...

In 2024, a majority — 58 percent — of antisemitic incidents “contained elements related to Israel or Zionism,” according to the Anti-Defamation League’s annual antisemitism report released earlier this year.

Critics say the administration is breaking the law and sidestepping the rulemaking process that presidents of both parties have routinely followed.At the Transportation Department, enforcement of pipeline safety rules has plunged to unprecedented lows since President Donald Trump’s inauguration.Trump recently ordered Energy Department staff to stop enforcing water conservation standards for showerheads and other household appliances. And at one Labor Department division, his appointees have instructed employees to halt most work related to antidiscrimination laws.Across the government, the Trump administration is trying a new tactic for gutting federal rules and policies that the president dislikes: simply stop enforcing them.“The conscious...

A federal appeals court on Friday lifted a block on an executive order from President Donald Trump that seeks to strip union rights from federal workers at dozens of agencies and offices. Trump in March issued an executive order that said that parts of the United States Code that protect federal workers’ rights to organize and collectively bargain would no longer apply to agencies including most or all of the Departments of Treasury, Defense, Veterans Affairs, State and Justice. The executive order covers about two-thirds of the federal workforce, according to the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU), which filed a...

Trump’s presidential blitz is realizing the dreams of conservative intellectuals in the Reagan-Bush era.Imagine a populist president who set out to create, “in the first weeks of his administration, a radically different perception of the presidency.” He could use “far-reaching executive orders” to “give various constituencies throughout the country the immediate conviction that this president, for a change, looks out for them.” The burst of presidential edicts would serve visceral as much as practical purposes: “The nation as a whole needs to be jarred by this newcomer’s determination to protect the country’s vital interests, perhaps by ordering, on national security...

Months after the Trump administration ground U.S. refugee admissions to a halt, the program meant for people fleeing war or political persecution has restarted — but only for one group: White South Africans.Plans are underway to fly approximately 60 Afrikaners to Dulles International Airport on a State Department-chartered plane Monday, with federal and Virginia officials preparing to receive them in a ceremonial news conference, according to documents and emails obtained by The Washington Post, as well as three government officials familiar with the preparations.The arriving families, who are part of a group that President Donald Trump has said face racial...

Letitia James’s lawyer dismissed the allegations as the Trump administration’s “latest act of improper political retribution."NEW YORK — The Justice Department has opened a criminal investigation into real estate transactions involving New York Attorney General Letitia James, according to a person familiar with the case — the first known criminal probe of a law enforcement official who took action against President Donald Trump.A grand jury in the Eastern District of Virginia has issued subpoenas over a mortgage application in which James attested that she intended to make a single-family home in Norfolk her primary residence, said the person, who spoke...

The White House is very concerned with young people’s babymaking. President Donald Trump is considering ideas like a $5,000 “baby bonus” for new moms to encourage a baby boom, a step down from an even more ambitious $5,000 child tax credit idea from Vice President JD Vance, a longtime evangelist for encouraging more kids. “I want more babies in the United States of America,” he declared in his very first public speech as vice president. “Pronatalism,” the belief that the government should directly address America’s falling birth rates, is not inherently conservative, but it’s rapidly gaining momentum in the MAGA...

"Part of the reason why US President Donald Trump dismissed National Security Adviser Michael Waltz was due to behind-the-scenes coordination with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on possible military action against Iran, without the president’s full knowledge or approval, The Washington Post reported on Saturday. According to the report, which cited multiple senior administration officials, tensions between Waltz and Trump had been mounting for weeks. Waltz allegedly worked closely with Netanyahu to prepare military options in advance of a February Oval Office meeting — a move he reportedly made without informing the president. ..."

The CIA plans to cut 1,200 positions, along with thousands more from other parts of the U.S. intelligence community.... The administration recently informed lawmakers on Capitol Hill that it intends to reduce the CIA’s workforce by about 1,200 personnel over several years and cut thousands more from other parts of the U.S. intelligence community, including at the National Security Agency...