Free Republic

A company owned by Tim Mynett, the multimillionaire husband of Rep. Ilhan Omar (D., Minn.), failed to pay its fair share of taxes in 2021, according to a tax lien obtained by the Washington Free Beacon. Mynett's company, EStreetCo, accumulated nearly $206,000 in unpaid income, Social Security, and Medicare taxes in 2021, the IRS charged in a tax lien filed against the company in Sonoma County, Calif., in January 2023. Omar, who introduced legislation in February to "make corporations pay their fair share," was married to Mynett when the IRS says the company failed to pay its taxes. In her...

A disgraced FBI official tipped off a Chinese company about a criminal investigation while Hunter Biden was pursuing lucrative deals with the CCP-linked business. The since-convicted FBI official who led counterintelligence efforts in New York leaked information to an affiliate of a Chinese company which was linked to Hunter Biden’s business efforts, according to a DOJ watchdog who concluded the leak tipped the Chinese conglomerate off about the bureau’s criminal investigation.Charles McGonigal, the former special-agent-in-charge of the FBI Counterintelligence Division in New York, leaked information to “Person B” – an unnamed businessman who worked for the Chinese energy conglomerate...

A federal judge ordered the Trump administration on Wednesday to restore about $2.2 billion in federal funding for Harvard University, despite finding the Ivy League school was “plagued by antisemitism.” Regardless of antisemitism concerns, Boston-based District Judge Allison Burroughs ruled the federal grants awarded to Harvard were unlawfully terminated by President Trump. Burroughs, an appointee of former President Barack Obama, determined there was “more than sufficient” evidence indicating the Trump administration “impermissibly retaliated against Harvard for refusing to capitulate to the government’s demands.” The Trump administration “specifically and repeatedly linked the coordinated funding cuts to Harvard’s decision to ‘fight,’” Burroughs...

There appears to be a fair amount of cooperation between China and some of the Central and South American drug cartels. We've known for some time now that China has been supplying cartels with fentanyl and other drugs and drug precursors. Now it appears as though some Chinese interests are actually laundering cartel money through the American financial system.Chinese networks are laundering billions of dollars in drug cartel cash through the U.S. financial system, according to a new report from the Treasury Department.Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network said banks flagged about $312 billion in transactions from suspected Chinese money laundering...

Pastor David E. Taylor, the name-it-and-claim-it faith-healing and prosperity gospel heretic, was arrested yesterday after the FBI enacted coordinated raids on properties connected to his church, the Kingdom of God Global Church, including on his 29,000 square feet “parsonage” that he purchased in 2022 for $8.3M. Along with Taylor, Michelle Branon, 56, the church’s executive director, was also arrested, and the two of them were indicted on charges that they used forced labor to generate millions of dollars in donations. Taylor, who self-identifies as an “apostle”, claims that in 1997 he was “given the keys to the Kingdom of heaven...

Writing elsewhere last month, I suggested that Donald Trump end the National Endowment for Democracy once and for all. Like most so-called “non-governmental organizations,” the NED is in fact an all-governmental organization. It depends absolutely on a subsidy from the state department, i.e., from the federal government, i.e., from the taxpayer, i.e., from you. The NED began life in the Cold War as a way of projecting “soft power” against our Communist adversaries. But as James Piereson noted in February of this year, the NED has undergone a familiar process of mission creep and moral and political entropy. “With the...

FinCEN says Chinese networks moving billions for Mexican cartels also push illicit cash through U.S. real estate, elder care centers, and human trafficking schemes. WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of the Treasury issued a stark warning Thursday that Chinese money laundering networks have become a primary engine driving Mexico-based drug cartels’ expansion into the United States, flagging $312 billion in cartel-linked suspicious transactions and a further $53.7 billion in illicit real estate activity over the past four years. Officials underscored the systemic risks posed by what they described as a sprawling global underground economy.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said Wednesday said she would ask the United States to share the $15 billion it expects to extract from convicted Mexican drug lord Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada with her country's poor. Sinaloa drug cartel co-founder Zambada pleaded guilty in a New York court on Monday to murder and drug trafficking, particularly of fentanyl — a powerful narcotic responsible for tens of thousands of US overdose deaths annually. In pleading guilty, the 77-year-old avoided the possibility of the death penalty but still faces life imprisonment at a sentencing hearing due at a later date. As part of...

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick canceled an Biden administration agreement Monday to distribute billions of dollars for semiconductor research through a nonprofit set up and staffed by former political appointees, according to a letter obtained by The Post. The 2022 CHIPS and Science Act provided for $11 billion in semiconductor research and development funding to be given out by the Commerce Department’s National Semiconductor Technology Center. “Rather than establishing these operations within the Department, however, Biden Administration officials spent significant time, effort, and resources creating an unaccountable, outside entity–Natcast–to administer taxpayer funds,” Lutnick wrote Natcast CEO Deirdre Hanford. Four days before...

“We had so much money it was hard to get it out the door,” a Kamala ally said after the election even as her campaign was still sending out texts to donors begging them to send more cash. “Hi Team, It’s Kamala, The election isn’t what we wanted, but I will never give up the fight,” a post-election text message solicited donors to replace all the money that went out the door. In Jan 2025, even as President Trump was preparing for his inauguration, the ‘Harris Fight Fund’ was still milking recurring donations even though there was nothing left to...

A popular Mexican musician who sang the praises of drug lords was shot dead in a parking lot in the west of the country, police said late Tuesday. Ernesto Barajas, a singer with the group Enigma Norteno, which has four million monthly listeners on Spotify, was gunned down in the city of Zapopan in Jalisco state. He is among several performers of so-called "narco-corridos" — a controversial sub-genre of regional music that celebrates the exploits of infamous drug cartels — to have been killed in recent months. In May, five members of the group Fugitivo were murdered by suspected drug...

EPA Director Lee Zeldin told Miranda Devine, her podcast, that $20 billion was laundered through a network of "pass-through" NGOs from the "Inflation Reduction Act" to groups controlled by former Obama and Biden administration officials. EPA DIRECTOR LEE ZELDIN: When I was going through the confirmation process, this video comes out—it was done through Project Veritas. It was of a Biden EPA employee who was talking about how the agency was “tossing gold bars off the Titanic,” rushing to get billions of dollars out the door before Inauguration Day. He was also talking about the desire to get themselves jobs...

House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan (R-OH) and Rep. Kevin Kiley (R-CA) have demanded that FireAid produce a detailed breakdown of where donations to benefit the victims of the Los Angeles wildfires have gone and that the remaining $25 million out of $100 million donated to the organization be sent directly to LA fire victims. FireAid was organized by Irving Azoff and Shelli Azoff, and claimed to be sending donations directly to fire victims. A letter from Jordan and Kiley stated, "In response to the wildfires, you organized FireAid to raise money for California fire victims. FireAid held a benefit concert...

Turkish newspaper Aydinlik published on Monday the bank accounts of companies based in the UAE involved in the corruption scheme of Volodymyr Zelensky’s and his cronies, in which about USD $50 million are transferred to the Middle Eastern country every month. Since last year, Ukraine has been rocked by allegations of corruption, which can “strike the Kiev government in the very heart,” the newspaper reported, adding that the main problem for Zelensky is that his inner circle is also involved in the corruption case.Zelensky’s closest circle transfers about $50 million a month to the accounts of two companies linked to...

Some people wonder why Trump doesn’t just arrest all the coup plotters (starting at the top) and frog march them on TV for all the world to see. Well, there’s a logical reason for what he’s doing and the way he’s doing it....

The Saudi Al-Hadath news channel reports: "Iran sent messages to Hezbollah last night, stating that it will start channeling additional funds to the organization through various countries around the world, as well as transferring weapons and means of warfare to Lebanon – with the aim of effectively taking control of all parts of the country and establishing a new coalition in Lebanon where Hezbollah is the sovereign."

The Trump administration’s suspension of grants at UCLA totaling $584 million has imperiled research in an array of subjects. Professors at the university said that some researchers rely on the funding to pay their salaries, and the loss of the money could be devastating. Their medical research focuses on potentially lifesaving breakthroughs in cancer treatment, and developing tools to more easily diagnose debilitating diseases. Their studies in mathematics could make online systems more robust and secure. But as the academic year opens, the work of UCLA’s professors in these and many other fields has been imperiled by the Trump administration’s...

Hunter Biden revealed he started a new job working with a nonprofit homeless prevention and tenants' rights group in southern Los Angeles. The former president’s son made the announcement during an interview with "Channel 5" podcaster Andrew Callaghan, which was posted on Tuesday. "I just think there is such an opportunity to be of service right now – and not in, you know, some kind of melodramatic way – but I just, a lot of people that are, you know, getting the s--- beat out of them out there, right here in LA. And there is enormous opportunity for just...

*** A coalition of 20 attorneys general, led by New York AG Letitia James and California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced the lawsuit Monday, arguing that the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s demand that states turn over personal information about SNAP recipients dating back five years, violates privacy laws. SNAP is a federally-funded, state-administered program that provides billions of dollars in food benefits to tens of millions of low-income individuals and families in the United States. The new USDA demands, released last week, require states to provide a list of individuals who have applied or are currently receiving SNAP benefits, in...

Just so everyone is aware, that Canadian Electric bus company that Lee Zeldin was talking about that received $160 million from the Biden administration and then filed bankruptcy? One of the board members is Lorenzo Roccia, a friend and business partner of Hunter Biden. The same guy in emails doing deals with Hunter and his business partners while Hunter was on the board on Amtrak. Also, the company was set up with a U.S. entity incorporated in Delaware and Lorenzo was on a fundraising flyer hosting a fundraiser for Beau Biden when he was running for attorney general. The Biden...