Free Republic

U.S. intelligence agencies are closely tracking attempts by foreign adversaries to influence the 2024 election through “deepfakes” or other false information and are ready to alert the public if necessary, officials said Wednesday. A decision to notify the public about attempted election interference by foreign actors would be up to the leaders of the country’s intelligence agencies, including intelligence chief Avril Haines, officials from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, or ODNI, told reporters. The decision to issue a public warning would follow a review by digital forensic experts and intelligence analysts, the ODNI officials said. It would...

California’s COVID numbers are on the rise thanks, in part, to new subvariants, suggesting an earlier-than-normal start to the summer season.The percentage of COVID tests coming back with positive results in the state rose to 5.3% for the week that ended June 3, up from 2.2% the month before. The numbers are still relatively low — last summer’s peak positive test rate was 13.1% — but the increases have the attention of doctors and health officials as the summer travel season begins.“Numbers are definitely going up,” said Dr. Elizabeth Hudson, regional chief of infectious disease at Kaiser Permanente Southern California....

Prosecutors have contended that even though materials were reordered, the boxes still contain the same evidence as when they were taken from Mar-a-Lago.Former President Donald Trump this week filed a motion to dismiss his classified documents case, claiming that officials altered exculpatory evidence.Prosecutors several weeks ago disclosed that the order of materials inside boxes of evidence was moved around.A motion filed by his attorneys late on June 10 asks U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon to scrap the case, which alleges that the former president illegally hoarded classified and top secret materials after leaving office in early 2021.Story continues below advertisementThe...

If you read nothing but posts from conservative influencers on X, you’d be convinced that Donald Trump has already won the 2024 election. The source of this sensationalized optimism comes from public polling data, which shows the former president with leads in key battleground states he needs to win this November. Some surveys also seemingly indicate that traditionally “blue states” like Virginia and Minnesota are in play. With numbers like these and Biden’s approval rating sinking faster than Rachel Levine in a swimming pool, there’s no way Trump can lose, or so the conventional thinking goes. While it’s certainly possible...

A federal judge on Tuesday struck down a 2023 Florida law that blocked gender-affirming care for transgender minors and severely restricted such treatment for adults, calling the statute unconstitutional. Senior Judge Robert Hinkle said the state went too far when it barred transgender minors from being prescribed puberty blockers and hormonal treatments with their parents’ permission. He also stopped the state from requiring that transgender adults receive treatment only from doctors, and not from registered nurses or other qualified medical practitioners. And he barred the state’s ban on online treatment for transgender adults.Hinkle said transgender people are constitutionally entitled to...

In Oakland, California, a startling incident unfolded as a 77-year-old homeowner found himself at the center of a controversial arrest after fatally shooting a robbery suspect. The homeowner, whose identity remains undisclosed, was taken into custody under suspicion of murder following the tragic event that transpired at 98th Avenue and Burr Street in East Oakland on Monday evening. Reports indicate that the homeowner encountered a harrowing situation when two men and a woman arrived at his property in a stolen Infiniti Q40. Eyewitnesses recall observing the trio trespass onto the premises, with one of the men wielding a crowbar. The...

The odds that former President Donald Trump will win back the White House have increased to a record high of 58%, according to political oddsmaker SportsHandle. Its latest election odds tracker of overseas betting on the race shows President Joe Biden trailing badly. His odds of winning reelection are just 39%.The site said that at 58.6%, Trump’s winning odds are the highest he has seen. What’s more, the site showed that Trump has maintained a lead since last October.In an analysis provided to Secrets, SportsHandle said, “Even in the aftermath of Donald Trump’s historic criminal trial, his chances of winning...

First, let’s dispel the myth that Hunter Biden’s conviction on gun charges proves that Joe Biden’s Department of Justice dispenses justice fairly.Democrats contend that Hunter is only facing gun charges because he’s the president’s son. While it’s true lying on a background check is rarely prosecuted, it’s mostly because people tend to avoid confessing in their published memoirs.Indeed, Hunter is exceptionally lucky he’s only facing tax and gun charges. Though, perhaps, lucky is the wrong word.It wasn’t luck, after all, that AG Merrick Garland did basically everything within his power to keep Hunter out of a courtroom. After the Trump...

Then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) arrives with her daughter Alexandra at the Americans for the Arts National Arts Awards in New York City in 2009. (Lucas Jackson/Reuters) HBO empowers the entitled in worshipful documentaries made by the daughter of the former speaker. Alexandra Pelosi is the second-to-last person you’d trust to do a documentary about the January 6 demonstration and its chilling, weaponized aftereffects — including political prisoners and the misuse of the word “insurrection.” As the daughter of Nancy Pelosi, who was Speaker of the House of Representatives during the J6 turmoil, Alexandra has an obvious conflict of...

People recorded Nancy Pelosi and Samuel Alito. The circumstances behind the recordings of the two most prominent Italian-Americans in U.S. public life diverge from that point. “We have responsibility, Terri,” then-Speaker Pelosi told her chief of staff on Jan. 6, 2021. “We did not have any accountability for what was going on there, and we should have. This is ridiculous. You’re gonna ask me in the middle of the thing, when they’ve already breached the inaugural stuff that, ‘Should we call the Capitol Police?’ I mean, ‘the National Guard.’ Why weren’t the National Guard there to begin with?”She privately admits...

While the Biden administration continues prosecuting pro-life Americans, Mark Houck is fighting back in court. Pro-life group 40 Days for Life filed a lawsuit recently against the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) for “[m]alicious/retaliatory prosecution, abuse of process, false arrest and related claims” committed against pro-life advocate and Catholic father of seven Mark Houck. In 2022, Houck was indicted by the DOJ for two alleged violations of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act. Houck was eventually exonerated on the bogus charges Biden officials brought. The lawsuit claims that these charges “were a result of a faulty and...

DETROIT (AP) — An appeals court is raising major questions about the trial of two key figures in a plot to kidnap Michigan’s governor — and putting federal prosecutors on the defensive as the government tries to preserve the extraordinary guilty verdicts.After hearing arguments in May, the court took the uncommon step of asking for more written briefs on the impact of a trial judge’s decision to bar evidence that might have supported claims of entrapment made by Adam Fox and Barry Croft Jr.Fox and Croft are in prison for leading a conspiracy to try to snatch Gov. Gretchen Whitmer...

House Republicans voted Wednesday to hold Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt of Congress for refusing to hand over audio recordings of special counsel Robert Hur’s October interview with President Biden related to his retention of classified documents. Lawmakers approved the contempt measure along party lines, with 216 Republicans in favor and 207 Democrats opposed. Rep. David Joyce (R-Ohio) was the lone dissenting member of his party.

If you take a step back and look at things from a different angle, everything starts to make a lot more sense. Instead of just seeing Hunter Biden as some perverted crackhead who grew up with a silver crack pipe in his mouth, what if we saw him as something more sophisticated, like a well-groomed CIA asset? This twist adds a whole new layer to the long-standing drama around the Biden crime family. Mike Benz, the director of the Foundation For Freedom Online, has been all over this idea. He’s been suggesting for a while that Hunter might be more...

How Did a Small Group Do This?A very interesting study appeared last week by two researchers looking into the pandemic policy response around the world. They are Drs. Eran Bendavid and Chirag Patel of Stanford and Harvard, respectively. Their ambition was straightforward. They wanted to examine the effects of government policy on the virus. In this ambition, after all, researchers have access to an unprecedented amount of information. We have global data on strategies and stringencies. We have global data on infections and mortality. We can look at it all according to the timeline. We have precise dating of stay-at-home...

The Los Angeles City Council officially terminated its vaccination mandate for municipal employees Monday... The council members voted to end the city’s vaccination mandate .. The decision was unanimous, with all present council members voting 13-0 to rescind the mandate, effective retroactively from June 2. This move aligns with actions taken by other Southern California cities and comes more than a year after the city lifted its coronavirus emergency declaration. The ordinance ends the vaccine requirement for current and future city employees and allows those fired or who resigned over the mandate to seek re-employment, ABC 7 reported. The council...

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken condemned Hamas for refusing a UN-backed cease-fire proposal, saying the terror group could have halted the war in Gaza with a single word. Speaking from Qatar on Wednesday, Blinken pointed out that the current proposal is nearly identical to the one Hamas itself proposed last month, accusing the terrorists of prolonging the war just to insert more demands that undermine the ongoing peace talks. “It was a deal that Israel accepted and the world was behind. Hamas could have answered with a single word: ‘Yes,'” Blinken told reporters in Doha. While he did not...

It is time for Jews to avoid visiting or traveling to the City of New York if they aren’t from the area. Do not visit -- and those who must should do so with absolute caution. Jews in NYC are scared and intimidated and do not feel safe. Consider this a travel warning for Jews to avoid New York City. Jews are beaten and intimidated daily in New York City with impunity. Jews change their names on ride-share apps, so they won’t be recognized as Jews, many have taken down their mezuzahs and hide Stars of David as Mayor Eric...

The White House left open the idea that President Joe Biden might commute Hunter Biden’s pending federal sentence following his gun-related conviction. There is no immediate date scheduled for Hunter’s sentencing. A two to three-month delay between conviction and sentencing is typical in the federal system. “As we all know, the sentencing hasn’t even been scheduled yet,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters Wednesday. Joe Biden told ABC News last week that he would not pardon his son.

Masked anti-Israel protesters took over a New York City subway car on Monday and demanded to know if there were any “Zionists” on the train — then warned them: ‘This is your chance to get out.” The sickening moment came after protesters rallied in Union Square Park in Manhattan and held up a banner that read “Long live October 7.” One antisemitic demonstrator at the event yelled that he wished “Hitler was still here” to “wipe out” the Jews. Later, the mob of protesters lit flares and waved flags associated with Hezbollah and Hamas in front of the Nova Music...