Free Republic

The commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard tried Tuesday to assure skeptical and frustrated U.S. senators that she is not attempting to cover up the branch's failure to adequately handle cases of sexual assault and harassment at the service academy in Connecticut. Admiral Linda L. Fagan said she is committed to “transparency and accountability” within the Coast Guard and is trying to cooperate with congressional investigations and provide requested documents while also abiding by the constraints of an ongoing Office of Inspector General investigation and victim privacy concerns. “This is not a cover-up. I am committed to providing documents in...

The Biden administration “strongly opposes” a proposal to raise the pay of junior enlisted service members in the military — even after nearly spending seven times the proposed amount on Ukraine and the broader region’s security. The House Armed Services Committee’s (HASC) draft of the 2025 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) would give all junior troops a pay raise, representing a rough total of $24.4 billion over five years, according to the Congressional Budget Office. The Biden administration said in a statement on Tuesday that it does not support the proposed “significant, permanent” pay hike until it has had a...

The verdict ‘is functionally irrelevant because the corrupt Biden [administration] has already proven that the entire justice system is rigged.’Hunter Biden was found guilty Tuesday on three federal gun charges, but his conviction is no victory for the rule of law. The trial sidestepped the most serious allegations against Biden — and their implications for his president father — while teeing up talking points for Biden supporters to insist the justice system is fair after the left brazenly weaponized the justice system to target former President Donald Trump.President Joe Biden’s son was found guilty of lying on application paperwork while...

The Department of Justice (DOJ) has conducted an internal investigation and allegedly found no evidence of collusion between its officials, including Joe Biden‘s DOJ hatchet man, Matthew Colangelo, and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office. The Gateway Pundit reported in April 2023 that Colangelo was the linchpin in the “get Trump” movement in New York, hired by Bragg’s office in December 2022 to spearhead politically motivated investigations against former President Donald Trump. Bragg’s top prosecutor, Matthew Colangelo, was the Former Acting Associate Attorney General for the U.S. Department of Justice and is a lifelong left-wing activist. Colangelo’s past is littered...

The purpose of convicting Hunter has little to do with the “rule of law” and everything to do with bolstering the left’s justification for likely jailing Trump in July.Left-wing talking heads spent Tuesday morning gloating that the justice system is working just fine after President Joe Biden’s son was convicted on three felony charges. But it’s only because they desperately want to convince the American public that convicting Hunter for the least damning allegations he could be charged with justifies their use of lawfare against former President Donald Trump.Hunter was found guilty for lying on application paperwork while addicted to...

Two individuals have been incarcerated for their roles in forging signatures in Florida during a petition drive related to a pro-abortion ballot measure. The duo has also been charged with election fraud in Kansas, though their activities there do not appear to be abortion measure-related. Jamie Johnson, 47, and George Andrews III, 30, have each been jailed for their alleged roles in the crimes. Andrews has been in custody in Florida since February, while Johnson was apprehended last week in Nebraska. According to WUSF, each faces 20 felony charges in Florida, including charges of criminal use of personal identification information...

Six Russian nationals with potential ties to ISIS have been arrested in New York, Philadelphia and Los Angeles in a coordinated sting by law enforcement. Two ICE officials have told the New York Post they arrested the suspected terrorist affiliates last week after the FBI raised the alarm. The suspects are originally from Tajikistan, and they also have Russian citizenship, according to the Post. Anonymous ICE officials told the newspaper a wiretap revealed one of the suspects talking about bombs. 'Remember the Boston marathon [bombing]? I'm afraid something like that might happen again or worse,' one official told The Post....

GWINNETT COUNTY, Ga. — One person is dead after police said a gunman hijacked a bus from downtown Atlanta with 17 people on board while holding a gun to the bus driver’s head. The incident started at 45 Ivan Allen Jr. Boulevard around 4:30 p.m. Atlanta police said they responded to initial reports of a gunman on the bus that was holding hostages and that there had possibly been a discharge of a weapon. The call then immediately dropped. Atlanta Police Chief Darin Scheirbaum said that 911 then got a second call from a family member of a person on...

Chiquita Brands was ordered Monday by a Florida jury to pay $38.3 million to the families of eight people killed by a right-wing paramilitary group in Colombia, which the banana grower had funded for years during that country's violent civil war. Chiquita had previously acknowledged funding the paramilitary group, pleading guilty in 2007 after the U.S. Department of Justice charged the company with providing payments to what the agency labeled a "terrorist organization." The group, the Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia, or AUC, received payments from Chiquita from about 1997 through 2004, which the company had described as "security payments" during...

Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico delivered his first public remarks since an assassination attempt last month left him in a life-threatening condition. In a 14-minute speech posted on his Facebook page Wednesday, Fico, 59, said he feels "no hatred" toward his would-be assassin, who he said was neither "some madman" nor acting alone. "I forgive him," Fico said, adding that "he was only a messenger of evil and political hatred, which the politically unsuccessful and frustrated opposition developed in Slovakia to unmanageable proportions." The prime minister suggested his pro-Russia, anti-NATO and anti-U.S. stances had made him a target. Fico ended...

Four Democrat leaders were arrested and charged this week with election fraud in Bridgeport, Connecticut. The voter fraud was tied to a 2019 mayoral primary race. Bridgeport City Councilman Alfredo Castillo, Vice Chair of Bridgeport’s Democrat Party Wanda Geter-Pataky were charged with election tampering. Two campaign workers Nilsa Heredia and Josephine Edmonds were charged with election fraud and unlawfully possessing another person’s absentee ballot.

CNN drew criticism online on Saturday after the cable news network described the Israeli military’s rescue of four hostages Saturday as a hostage “release” rather than a “rescue.” The four hostages had been kidnapped by the terrorist group Hamas from the Nova music festival on Oct. 7. The term “hostage release” was shown in CNN’s chyron with the network’s anchor Victor Blackwell using it himself, before making a correction since Hamas did not intentionally release the hostages. After discussing a scheduled press conference by Israeli war cabinet member Benny Gantz, Blackwell said, “That was postponed because of the release today...

President Biden demanded punishment for families who leave guns unlocked Tuesday — in his first public remarks since his son Hunter was convicted of three felonies for illegally owning a gun that another Biden family member tossed into a public dumpster. “It’s time we establish universal background checks — and by the way, and require the safe storage of firearms,” the 81-year-old said at a pro-gun control conference blocks from the White House. “We should hold families responsible if they don’t provide those locks on those guns.” Biden didn’t directly address the guilty verdict against his 54-year-old son while delivering...

Six Russian nationals suspected to have terror ties to ISIS have been arrested in a coordinated sting operation spanning Los Angeles, New York and Philadelphia, The Post can exclusively reveal. Two ICE sources confirmed to The Post they arrested the six people, who hail from Tajikistan, over the last week after the FBI contacted the agency to warn it. Part of the investigation featured a wiretap which revealed one of the now-arrested individuals was talking about bombs, the sources said. “Remember the Boston marathon [bombing]? I’m afraid something like that might happen again or worse,” one of the sources told...

One of the jurors in the Hunter Biden gun trial said the case was heart-wrenching, moments after the guilty verdict was handed down. The 68-year-old juror from Sussex County, Delaware described the case to Fox News but said he didn't buy the story that Hunter went to a 7-Eleven — and said he thought he was probably buying crack-cocaine. "Nobody is above the law, doesn't matter who you are," the juror said.

The Supreme Court is about to drown us in a deluge of explosive and massively consequential decisions involving some of the most controversial issues of the day. Right now, the justices are scrambling to complete blockbusters involving abortion, guns, homelessness, unions, social media, online disinformation, pollution, the administrative state—and, oh yes, hundreds of Jan. 6 prosecutions, including Donald Trump’s. Yet at the moment, there’s a logjam: The court, which likes to wrap up decisions by the end of June, is way behind schedule, releasing just a trickle of minor cases several weeks in a row. Even if it stretches into...

Bidenomics is great. For somebody. I’m not sure whom. But the media has spent months claiming that…Bidenomics is fantasticThe only reason Americans don’t release it is because they’re morons obsessed with the price of foodAfter all the propaganda, the hectoring and the gaslighting, the media finally decides to admit that it’s hopeless because people are very stupid and keep insisting that they need to eat food instead of economic projections.This Politico article is as close to despair as the media gets.President Joe Biden is running out of the tools — and the time — he needs to turn around Americans’...

Convicted felon Hunter Biden, son of President Joe Biden, said he was “disappointed” that a jury held him accountable for gun violations. “I am more grateful today for the love and support I experienced this last week from Melissa, my family, my friends, and my community than I am disappointed by the outcome,” he said in a statement after the verdict. “Recovery is possible by the grace of God, and I am blessed to experience that gift one day at a time,” he said.

Treeper Question:ICTHEMATRIX – […] “Related to the topic of discerning alignment via a question, I would like to sincerely ask you your thoughts on a very real possibility:What are we to make of President Trump’s possible choice of Marco Rubio as his VP?In many columns and pages, you have chronicled the multiple failure points of Senator Rubio…his service within the corrupted Intelligence committee, and his non-MAGA compromises. I fear this could become another massive moment of fatally poor judgement.”The direct issue of the vice presidential pick of Donald Trump is a fun topic often discussed, because it can easily engage...

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) called Hunter Biden’s conviction on federal gun charges “kinda dumb” in a post on the social platform X, minutes after the verdict was announced. Hunter Biden — the second-oldest son of President Biden — was convicted Tuesday afternoon on three federal gun charges. The felony charges alleged President Biden’s son lied about his sobriety when obtaining a gun in 2018, and illegally possessed the gun for 11 days. Hunter Biden’s verdict comes just two weeks after former President Trump was found guilty on all 34 felony counts in his New York hush money trial. Gaetz called...