Free Republic

Longtime presidential adviser David Axelrod claims 'there hasn't been a major scandal' in the Obama White House – and draws a mix of applause and laughter Longtime Obama administration political insider David Axelrod claimed on Monday that the Obama administration hasn't been tainted by a smidgen of scandal. The surprising boast came during a Q&A at the University of Chicago Institute of Politics, an organization he founded and leads. 'I'm proud of the fact that basically you have had an administration in place for six years in which there hasn’t been a major scandal,' Axelrod said. 'And I think that...

Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber's fiancée, Cylvia Hayes, has confirmed she collected $118,000 in previously undisclosed payments from an out-of-state clean energy group while she was advising the governor on clean energy policy. Clean Economy Development Center of Washington, D.C., paid her $30,000 in 2011 and $88,000 in 2012. The disclosures mean Hayes has collected at least $213,000 in consulting fees since Kitzhaber took office in 2011. She serves as first lady of Oregon.

John Kitzhaber, the Democratic governor of Oregon was sworn into his fourth term of office just last month. But it seems highly unlikely he will be able to survive this month in office. Last October, the Willamette Weekly newspaper published an exposé showing how the governor’s fiancé, Cylvia Hayes, was taking money as a private consultant to environment groups and then pushing their policies in her public role as “First Lady” of the state. Most infamously, she ordered state employees to follow a policy she was being paid $25,000 by an advocacy group to promote. Apparently, some of the money...

NBC Universal tried to save Brian Williams’ job last night—and that’s why he was suspended for six months. The company finally had to stop the bleeding, to halt the hemorrhaging of its own credibility along with that of its franchise player. The brass slowly came to realize that Williams had to be punished, and significantly, for the sin of fabricating a story about his 2003 trip to Iraq. The betting is that with Lester Holt handling “Nightly News” for six months, things will cool off—the country will have moved on to some other outrage—and Williams will be able to return...

The following memo was sent from NBC News President Deborah Turness to NBC news staff on Friday: All, This has been a difficult few days for all of us at NBC News. Yesterday, Brian and I spoke to the Nightly News team. And this morning at the Editorial Exchange, we both addressed the wider group. Brian apologized once again, and specifically expressed how sorry he is for the impact this has had on all of you and on this proud organization.

The waters have been choppy for NBC News in recent years, with its “Today” franchise having ceded ground to ABC’s “Good Morning America” and its Sunday-morning mainstay “Meet the Press” struggling to find a new identity after the death of longtime host Tim Russert. Amidst that chaos, Brian Williams was supposed to be the anchor – in both senses of the word. Now Williams, whose “NBC Nightly News” is the most watched evening newscast in the United States, has added to the challenges facing the NBCUniversal news division. [Snip] What makes Williams’ admission worse, according to one person familiar with...

A Reuters exclusive published Monday explores the conundrum faced by nonprofits that have received money from Jeffrey Epstein, the billionaire financier arrested and convicted for child prostitution. But buried in the report is an insane statement from a Rutgers professor saying that he didn’t think he should return the money… because he didn’t think Epstein did anything all that bad. Professor Robert Trivers told Reuters that Epstein was “a person of integrity who should be given credit for serving time in prison” and for settling civil lawsuits brought by underage girls. ”Did he get an easy deal? Did he buy...

The Manhattan mistress of married “60 Minutes’’ newsman Steve Kroft sent him sexy lingerie photos during their affair, but he insisted she dress low-key — like “Laura Bush” — with him in public to keep things hush-hush, according to newly revealed texts. A source close to Kroft’s lover told The Post that the TV hotshot was “really paranoid about right-wing zealots” finding out about their affair and using the tawdry details to try to destroy his career and CBS. [Snip] Kroft was proud to boast to Goines about his closeness to the leader of the free world — and let...

The Likud party intends to hold a press conference in Tel Aviv Sunday in which it will expose details about “V15 – Victory in 2015,” a campaign it says is using foreign money, and lots of it, to boost Labor and Meretz in the elections. Likud has filed a motion to the Elections Committee, according to which V15 is carrying out an illegal indirect campaign with a connection to Labor and Meretz. V15 is “making criminal use of foreign sources of funding,” adding that the sums involved were “very high” and their sources unknown. Likud's press conference will include MK...

resident Obama’s Attorney General nominee Loretta Lynch was a charter member of an all-black Harvard sorority — and so was Eric Holder’s wife. ... can Lynch as an investigator really be objective when it comes to her predecessor, who is currently in contempt of Congress over Fast and Furious scandal document obstruction and would probably warrant investigation from an unbiased successor? After all, Lynch goes way back with Holder’s wife. “The Xi Tau Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority,

World leaders lavished President Obama and top administration officials with hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of jewels, artwork and other extravagant gifts last year, the State Department disclosed Thursday. Most of the gifts are turned over to the National Archives and Records Administration or the General Services Administration (GSA), though recipients are allowed to retain many for official use or buy them for their personal collections. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton appears to have received the most expensive gift, described as “white gold jewelry with teardrop rubies and diamonds containing a necklace, a bracelet, earrings, and a ring.” Bestowed...

Albany is terrified and in disarray after Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver’s arrest, with lawmakers and insiders fearing he’ll turn on them to save himself. “People are scratching their heads and saying, ‘What did I say the last time I spoke to Shelly?’ ” one veteran Albany lobbyist told The Post on Friday. After Silver’s arrest Thursday, US Attorney Preet Bharara hinted at more to come, telling the public to “stay tuned.” Now legislators are questioning why Silver’s closest Democratic colleagues, including Assembly Majority Leader Joseph Morelle, have pledged support for him instead of calling for his resignation. “They want Shelly to...

Unless you've been living under several rocks, you've heard by now that the New England Patriots were investigated for under-inflating the footballs used during the first half of their 45-7 victory in the AFC Championship game against the Indianapolis Colts. The whole matter has come to be known as "Deflategate" or "Ballghazi," and has dominated the national news this past week.In response to all of this, Rep. Todd Young (R-IN), a Colts fan, published a "Who said it?" quiz on his official website comparing the rhetoric used in DeflateGate with the White House's official response to several scandals during the...

Funeral Mass at St. Ignatius Church on Park Avenue, New York.

A secret plea deal for Britain’s Prince Andrew’s pal Jeffrey Epstein protected the prince and any other high-powered friends who may have used his alleged sex slaves, RadarOnline.com has exclusively learned. Federal prosecutors promised they “will not institute any criminal charges against any potential co-conspirators of Epstein” if the Wall Street money manager pled guilty to two relatively minor state underage sex charges that put him in a local jail for 13 months, the confidential plea agreement obtained by Radar says. A lawsuit filed by four women, who say federal prosecutors illegally ignored them and kept them in the dark...

Now that Prince Andrew has found himself ensnared in the sleazy sex slave story of wealthy degenerate Jeffrey Epstein, Bill Clinton can’t be too far behind. Epstein, who paid teenage girls for naked massages at his Palm Beach, Florida mansion, is a convicted sex offender whose circle of powerful friends has included financiers, celebrities, politicians, and scientists. [Snip] While Clinton was never deposed [in a civil suit against Epstein], lawyers obtained Epstein’s computerized phone directory, which included “e-mail addresses for Clinton along with 21 phone numbers for him, including those for his assistant (Doug Band),” according to a court filing.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) -- A missing Ohio State University football player told his mother in a text message the day he disappeared that concussions had his head messed up, according to a report filed with police.

IRS Accused Of Sharing 2,500 Private Taxpayer Documents With White House By Cheryl K. Chumley November 28, 2014 The Internal Revenue Service may have given thousands of confidential filings from private taxpayers to the White House to review, a lawsuit against the Treasury Department just revealed. The suit, filed against Treasury’s inspector general by Cause of Action, a legal advocacy outfit, reveals a steady stream of communication went on between the White House and the IRS — a potentially “improper” stream, the group alleged, The Daily Caller reported.

The Obama Administration’s IRS scandal is multi-faceted. In addition to the persecution of conservative non-profits by Lois Lerner et al., the question has been percolating for some years whether Obama’s IRS has transferred confidential taxpayer information to Obama’s White House in violation of federal criminal laws. The issue first arose when Austin Goolsbee of the president’s Council of Economic Advisers told reporters that he had information about Koch Industries that could only have come, illegally, from confidential IRS files. When questions were asked, the administration immediately clammed up. Years later, the judicial system may be poised to expose another layer...

CRUDELE: I began investigating when I was told Census data collectors were inventing interviews....and of possible financial mis-doings on contracts, expenses, maybe even pension funds. Four of the six Census regions apparently falsified economic data. Philadelphia, NY, Atlanta, LA, Chicago and Denver Census Offices have million dollar tax-paid budgets w/ little oversight. A couple weeks ago, the whistleblower — Ivan Irizarry, lead scientist at Census’ Demographic Statistical Methods Division — came to me out of frustration. The UofM contract was never put up for competitive bid....and was the most costly and most interesting: Robert Groves, who was picked by President...