Free Republic

Washington, D.C. – House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) today called for an investigation into allegations that the Obama Justice Department pressured the FBI to shut down its Clinton Foundation probe during the 2016 presidential election. A recent report issued by the Department of Justice’s Office of the Inspector General contained disturbing information that the Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General, who is the top staff person in the Office of the Deputy Attorney General and advises on all major investigations and policy matters, called former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe to express displeasure that FBI agents were pursuing a...

A federal judge expressed deep skepticism Friday in the bank fraud case brought by special counsel Robert Mueller's office against former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, at one point saying he believes that Mueller's motivation is to oust President Donald Trump from office. Although Mueller's authority has been tested in court before, Friday's hearing was notable for District Judge T.S. Ellis' decision to wade into the divisive political debate around the investigation. "You don't really care about Mr. Manafort's bank fraud," Ellis said to prosecutor Michael Dreeben, at times losing his temper. Ellis said prosecutors were interested in Manafort because...

A federal judge on Friday harshly rebuked Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team during a hearing for ex-Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort – suggesting they lied about the scope of the investigation, are seeking “unfettered power” and are more interested in bringing down the president. "You don't really care about Mr. Manafort,” U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III told Mueller’s team. “You really care about what information Mr. Manafort can give you to lead you to Mr. Trump and an impeachment, or whatever."

ALEXANDRIA, Va. (Reuters) - A federal judge on Friday sharply criticized Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s criminal case in Virginia against President Trump’s former campaign manager, Paul Manafort, and openly questioned whether Mueller exceeded his prosecutorial powers by bringing it. “I don’t see what relationship this indictment has with anything the special counsel is authorized to investigate,” U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis in the Eastern District of Virginia said. At tense hearing at the federal courthouse in Alexandria, Virginia, the judge said Mueller should not have “unfettered power” in his Russia probe and that the charges against Manafort did not arise...

Uzo Asonye, an assistant U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, is joining Mueller’s stable of prosecutors to work as local counsel on the case against Paul Manafort, President Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman who has been indicted on money laundering and bank fraud charges. Asonye worked at the firm O’Melveny & Myers before joining the U.S. attorney’s office in 2010. Asonye donated $900 to Clinton’s presidential campaign from January to April 2008, according to Federal Election Commission records. He has not donated to any other national political campaigns since then. Asonye is just the latest Democrat to join...

Special counsel Robert Mueller on Thursday filed a request for 70 blank subpoenas in the Eastern District of Virginia, where former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort. The two-page filing reveals little, but says that that each subpoena recipient must appear in the Alexandria, Va., courthouse on July 10 to testify in the case. The 70 blank subpoenas amount to 35 total possible subpoenas — in each case, a subpoena is needed for the witness and another is needed for the defense. Court documents filed in April show that Mueller's team was pushing to subpoena 35 witnesses in the trial.

Arizona -(Ammoland.com)- 19-year-old student, Yonsong Zhao, came to the United States from China on a student visa. As of January, 2018, he had been in the country for seven months. As with many people, especially young men, he likes guns. In China, it is nearly impossible to access legal guns. Zhao set about learning what was necessary for him to acquire and legally fire guns in the United States. Given the complexity involved, I am amazed that Zhao appears to have found the various rules, and followed them rigorously. It is well that he did. The authorities were watching him...

Washington, D.C. – House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) today called for an investigation into allegations that the Obama Justice Department pressured the FBI to shut down its Clinton Foundation probe during the 2016 presidential election. A recent report issued by the Department of Justice’s Office of the Inspector General contained disturbing information that the Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General, who is the top staff person in the Office of the Deputy Attorney General and advises on all major investigations and policy matters, called former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe to express displeasure that FBI agents were pursuing a...

Good Evening And Welcome!

The RIC1 facility, which opened in 2012, is approximately 1,100,000 square feet, and its sheer size appears to have created problems for the over 60 firefighters on location. Dinwiddie Fire & EMS Chief Dennis Hale told WTVR that the fire “being in the middle of the building was a significant logistical challenge for the crews to move hose lines that far inside the building through rack storage.” No injuries have been reported and the cause of the incident remains unknown. Whether significant damage was done to equipment or inventory is also not clear at this time. We’ve reached out to...

LYNCHBURG — GOP U.S. Senate candidate Nick Freitas in a debate on Thursday called out rival Corey Stewart’s campaign for making ethnic jokes about his name. Stewart responded that if a little name-calling got under Freitas’ skin, he would be thrashed by Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine should he be the GOP nominee in the general election. The scrap came toward the end of a lively debate at Liberty University featuring Stewart, Freitas and minister E.W. Jackson of Chesapeake, who are competing in the June 12 primary. The candidates discussed foreign policy, defended President Donald Trump and the tax cut he...

President Trump on Thursday nominated Judge A. Marvin Quattlebaum Jr. to a seat on a federal appeals court, looking to give him a promotion just weeks after he won his district judgeship. Mr. Trump first tapped Judge Quattlebaum last year to be a judge in South Carolina, and he was confirmed March 1 on a 69-28 vote. Now Mr. Trump wants him on the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. He was one of nine judicial picks — three for appeals courts, five for district courts and one for the federal claims court — that the White House announced Thursday....

What you’ve heard about us is true: We are big. Liberty University ranks as the largest Christian university in the world, the largest university in Virginia, the second largest non-profit and the fifth largest overall university in the United States. And we’ve grown most explosively during the past decade: from 38,000 enrolled to over 110,000. Our online programs drove that growth, with the rapid spread of high-speed internet making it possible for everyday people to gain a high-quality education at a low-dollar price point. When you have this much growth as fast as we have seen it come, it can...

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) said on Monday that he will vote for CIA Director Mike Pompeo to be the next secretary of State, making him the second Democrat to support Pompeo's nomination. "After meeting with Mike Pompeo, discussing his foreign policy perspectives, & considering his distinguished time as CIA Director & his exemplary career in public service, I will vote to confirm Mike Pompeo to be our next Secretary of State," Manchin said in a tweet. Pompeo likely already had the votes to be confirmed by the full Senate. With Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) expected to oppose him, Pompeo needed...

The anti-gun left has apparently fully embraced that old saying from the late sixties and early seventies: the personal is political. It’s not enough to protest the NRA’s headquarters, call its leaders Nazis and ask how many kids have they killed today in tediously un-original chants. Now they’re attacking their homes and families. National Rifle Association lobbyist Chris Cox says his house was splashed with fake blood — twice. Then, someone made a fake website for his wife’s interior design business, altering images of artwork to show photos of child gun violence victims. Last week, two gun control activists...

The Washington Post has a story today about a handful of far-left gun control activists looking to up the ante by making their protests more personal. They’re doing that by protesting at the home of NRA lobbyist Chris Cox and also by targeting his wife’s interior design business.

Congress’ patience with the Department of Justice is running thin, as they’re dragging their feet in releasing troves of documents relating to the Russia investigation and Hillary Clinton On the latter, the DOJ has appointed a special lawyer to oversee the release of some 3,600 pages of new documents, which has irked some congressional Republicans (via Politico): The Justice Department has appointed a U.S. attorney to oversee the release of documents related to the FBI’s 2016 investigation of Hillary Clinton amid Republican complaints — including from President Donald Trump — that the DOJ is slow-walking their release.Justice Department spokeswoman Sarah...

Washington, DC – Rep. Ron DeSantis (FL-06) today sent a letter, along with several colleagues, to Attorney General Jeff Sessions, FBI Director Christopher Wray, and US Attorney John Huber, asking them to investigate several Obama-era officials for potential violation(s) of federal statutes. These officials include former FBI Director James Comey, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, former Attorney General Loretta Lynch, former Acting Director of the FBI Andrew McCabe, FBI Agent Peter Strzok and FBI Counsel Lisa Page, among others. Read the criminal referral here. The following members have joined DeSantis in this call for equal application of the law:...

Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) said Monday that Fox News should fire Sean Hannity following the revelation that he is a client of President Trump’s personal attorney, Michael Cohen. Hannity has frequently covered stories about Cohen — including the FBI raids on the New York lawyer's home, hotel room and office last week — without revealing his own connection. “I think he is so into this like a pig in the mud he can’t get out of it. And I think he deserves to be fired. His word can never again be trusted,” Connolly said on CNN. Connolly said Hannity’s involvement...

    ~The FReeper Canteen Presents~ Road Trip: Joint Base Langley-Eustis, Virginia Joint Base Langley–Eustis (JBLE), composed of Langley Air Force Base and Fort Eustis, is a United States military joint base located in the greater Hampton Roads area of the Tidewater region of Virginia. The installation is the result of the Base Realignment and Closure, 2005, a Congressional initiative to maximize the operational efficiency of 26 military installations nationwide by combining their support functions, contracts and organizations. Unlike other joint bases that share common perimeters, such as Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst in New Jersey and Joint Base Lewis-McChord in...