Free Republic

Two associates of Rudy Giuliani made their initial appearance before a federal judge on Thursday, less than 24 hours after they were arrested on campaign finance violations while trying to board an international flight with one-way tickets at Dulles International Airport outside of Washington D.C. Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman appeared in federal court in Alexandria, Va. to face a four-count indictment alleging that they, along with two other co-defendants, conspired to violate a ban on foreign donations and contributions in connection with federal and state elections. The two men remained mostly silent during their appearance before U.S. Magistrate Judge...

A House committee investigating potential surveillance of former Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch is struggling to get records and text messages from Robert Hyde, the GOP congressional candidate who claimed to have her under surveillance, according to emails obtained by NBC News. Hyde, in response, is accusing the House Foreign Affairs Committee of “trying to set me up.” The Foreign Affairs Committee announced in mid-January it would investigate text messages that emerged in the impeachment investigation that showed Hyde provided detailed information about Yovanovitch’s purported whereabouts in Kyiv to Lev Parnas, an indicted associate of Rudy Giuliani. Hyde has said...