Free Republic

Former President Trump called for the immediate release of the "completely unredacted" Mar-a-Lago affidavit in a late night post on Truth Social. Trump said the move would be in the interest of "TRANSPARENCY." "There is no way to justify the unannounced RAID of Mar-a-Lago, the home of the 45th President of the United States (who got more votes, by far, than any sitting President in the history of our Country!), by a very large number of gun toting FBI Agents, and the Department of 'Justice,'" Trump wrote on Truth Social. "But, in the interest of TRANSPARENCY, I call for the...

DOJ *opposes* the release of the underlying FBI affidavit because "it would serve as a roadmap to the government’songoing investigation, providing specific details about its direction and likely course, in a manner that is highly likely to compromise future investigative steps."— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) August 15, 2022I thought Merrick Garland said they wanted to be transparent? Guess that was only until they lost control of the narrative?!? https://t.co/p0PmcWRScf— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) August 15, 2022

Breitbart is facing widespread criticism after the far-right media outlet published the names of FBI agents who carried out the raid of former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home. The conservative outlet published a leaked version of the search warrant that allowed the FBI to execute the raid hours before the document was unsealed Friday evening. Breitbart released a version of the warrant that included the names of the FBI special agent and supervisor agent who signed off on the receipts detailing the documents taken from the Mar-a-Lago residence — prompting widespread criticism that the outlet put a target on the...

According to a recent headline from The New York Times, “the CDC isn’t publishing large portions of the COVID data it collects.” That headline downplays what the article in fact reveals:Two full years into the pandemic, the agency leading the country’s response to the public health emergency has published only a tiny fraction of the data it has collected, several people familiar with the data said.The article says when the Centers for Disease Control “published the first significant data on the effectiveness of boosters in adults younger than 65…it left out the numbers for a huge portion of that population:...

A federal judge has thrown out an obstruction charge against a defendant charged with breaching the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, a ruling that could reverberate across hundreds of cases stemming from the attack on Congress. In a 29-page opinion issued Monday, U.S. District Court Judge Carl Nichols ruled that ambiguities in the federal obstruction law required him to narrow the case against defendant Garret Miller, who is facing multiple felony charges connected to the attack. Under that narrow interpretation, Nichols ruled, defendants can be charged with obstruction only if they directly attempt to affect “a document, record, or other...

The Biden administration has yet to release December border crossing numbers that Customs and Border Protection has circulated internally for at least 10 days, raising concerns on Capitol Hill that the White House is concealing damaging information about the severity of the border crisis. On Jan. 14, CBP submitted the December data in a court filing. Those data revealed 178,840 migrant apprehensions in December, an increase from 173,620 in November. A spokeswoman for CBP told the Washington Free Beacon the December numbers are "scheduled to be released soon," although she did not answer why they were delayed. Congressional Republicans have...

White House press secretary Jen Psaki defended the non-release of visitor logs from President Biden’s Delaware homes Tuesday — despite the fact that the commander-in-chief was in his home state for more than a quarter of all days during his first year in office. The Post asked Psaki at her regular press briefing if the White House’s decision not to make the Delaware logs public still stands after Biden spent long stretches of time at his Wilmington and Rehoboth Beach residences.

Biden said there is 'no federal solution' in call with US governorsPresident Biden’s administration continued to show its difficult relationship with the press on Monday. Biden took calls from governors to discuss ongoing efforts to combat rising COVID-19 cases due to the new omicron variant. After speaking with the governors, Biden addressed White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator Jeffrey Zients as to whether the governors had questions. ...Zients then responded "Good. I think we are going to clear the press first," ushering the press pool out of the room.... ...Biden was later confronted by the press before leaving the White House...

U.S. District Court Judge Carl Nichols has issued a protective order in Steve Bannon's criminal contempt of Congress case, effectively barring him or his lawyers from releasing to the public case material given to them by prosecutors. However, any evidence related to the case that is already in the public sphere or obtained by Bannon outside of the evidentiary discovery process is not subject the judge's ruling. ... ...Bannon and his team had asked the judge not to issue the order, citing what they argue is the public's need to understand the case. But prosecutors told the judge they feared...

At the end of the day, senators care more about protecting themselves and their colleagues from unpredictable, inconvenient floor votes than they do about passing legislation.Official Washington’s conventional wisdom about the Senate filibuster is a fairy tale. It is utterly unmoored from the choices being made by individual senators, party caucuses, and the body as a whole. Every person who has ever told you that the mean, nasty, outdated legislative filibuster is the source of Senate gridlock and the obstacle to common-sense legislating in Congress has either swallowed, or is peddling, a lie. In an op-ed in the Washington Post...

President Biden wrapped up remarks on the state of the economy ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday in approximately 10 minutes Tuesday, then exited stage right with shouted question from reporters ringing in his ears — including “When will you answer our questions, sir?” “Thank you for your time and effort, and I’ll have plenty of time to talk to you later,” Biden said before strolling off the stage at the Executive Office Building next door to the White House. CBS News Radio correspondent Steven Portnoy, the president of the White House Correspondents Association, tweeted that he was the one who...

A U.S. government watchdog on Friday accused the State Department and Pentagon of suppressing information that lawmakers and the public need to understand the collapse of Afghanistan's former government and military and the chaotic U.S. troop pullout. John Sopko, the special inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction (SIGAR), spoke out on Friday after it emerged that many of the routine documents had now been marked as classified.... ...After a review, his agency found only four items meriting redaction, and left the remainder accessible. Noting that Congress tasked him with investigating the collapse of the U.S.-backed Afghan government and military, he said...

White House reporters are protesting after President Joe Biden’s handlers did their best imitation of screaming banshees as they blocked reporters from asking him questions during British Prime Minister Boris Johnson's visit to the White House on Tuesday.

A little-discussed but transformative patient protection policy put into place by the Trump administration is proving to be an extremely effective tool in unwinding the tangled mess of American medical pricing. Under the orders, hospitals must provide the federal government with records on all the prices they negotiate with private insurers.Some hospitals banded together to sue the administration (they lost…twice), and the insurers’ trade association wrote a 57-page letter to the government calling the Transparency Rule “unconstitutional” and insinuating that too much transparency would not be helpful to the average health consumer.Every American should be able to get the health...

A report in Vanity Fair details actions by some members of the U.S. State Department to block efforts to investigate the origins of the coronavirus because the inquiry could open “a can of worms.” An internal memo sent to department heads by Thomas DiNanno, former acting assistant secretary of the State Department’s Bureau of Arms Control, Verification, and Compliance, warned “not to pursue an investigation into the origin of COVID-19.” The “can of worms” in question was the extensive funding by the U.S. government into the Wuhan Virology Lab’s “gain-of-function” virus research. It’s unclear whether DiNanno was concerned that an...

The Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday finalized a rule to end a "secret science" regulation that was imposed under former President Donald Trump that excluded certain studies that didn't make all data publicly available. The agency announced the end of the rule on Wednesday. The move allows the EPA to consider studies that don't make available all data, which is sometimes done to protect privacy. Trump's administration billed the restriction as a transparency measure, but critics argued that it might ultimately do more harm than good for an agency that values such varying scientific data like the EPA. "This action...

The real reason Facebook is so worried? Transparency is a much bigger threat to its business.. It's no secret that Facebook has feelings about the upcoming changes Apple plans to introduce to iOS 14.5. Apple has said it will require developers to request permission from users before they can collect data or track them while they use their apps. That comes after Apple previously required developers to disclose what information they collect with the introduction of privacy nutrition labels in the iOS App Store. Those changes apply to all developers, but Facebook seems to be taking it personally. And, the...

Jen Psaki won't confirm how many kids. Neither will DHS.

A senior-level law enforcement source in the Department of Homeland Security told Breitbart they received verbal orders limiting their ability to speak freely about the growing crisis along the border. The official spoke under the condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to speak on the matter. “The situation with media relations now is night and day compared to the last administration. We have been advised not to speak on immigration issues at the border and to rely on DHS’s Office of Public Affairs and the Whitehouse Press Office to handle messaging.” The verbal order applies to senior law...

For months now, all of the major cruise lines have asked would-be passengers to be patient while they worked through everything from the implementation of protocols to dealings with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. They’ve spoken to us in vague terms about what progress has been made, insisting that when they have answers, so will we. Yet when it comes to actual, solid information, they’ve been incredibly reticent. Not one line has stepped forward to spell out, in detail, how their talks with the CDC are going. Not one line has offered a detailed, comprehensive explanation of exactly...