Free Republic

An ex-top New York City prosecutor working with Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith on investigations related to former President Donald Trump has given large donations to campaigns for top Democrats, including President Joe Biden, records show. David Rody is one of several veteran attorneys helping to advise Smith, who has overseen two indictments against Trump related to the former president's alleged efforts to challenge the 2020 election and his involvement in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot in 2021, as well as his mishandling of classified documents. Rody, who in 2022 left his role as a partner at the major...

As her popularity reaches new lows, Vice President Kamala Harris is retreating to one of the few places she knows she’ll get a warm reception — Hollywood. Harris and her husband, Douglas Emhoff, are scheduled to participate in a Democratic fundraiser on Monday evening in Los Angeles, according to multiple reports. Deadline said Walt Disney Television head Dana Walden is hosting the event along with her husband, Matt Walden. Proceeds from the fundraiser will go to the Democratic Grassroots Victory Fund, with money allocated to the Democratic National Committee and state party committees, Deadline reported. The vice president’s trip to...

Congress notified that CIA inspector general has received allegations from fund-raiser Imaad Zuberi, including targeting of U.S. lawmakers and misuse of news organization for spy operation. Imaad Zuberi, a major Democratic fundraiser facing 12 years in prison, has filed an extraordinary complaint with the CIA's chief watchdog alleging he witnessed "flagrant problems, abuses, violations of law" while working as an asset for U.S. intelligence, according to documents and interviews. Zuberi, of Los Angeles, recently hired the CIA's retired acting general counsel Robert J. Eatinger Jr. to review his case and help to appeal his conviction on a plea deal with...

NEW YORK — The mystery of where a dirty Democratic fundraiser got the money to lead a lavish lifestyle, fund political campaigns and post a $2 million bond to get out of jail appears to have a Woodstock connection, according to a report published in Wednesday's Wall Street Journal. The newspaper reports that a company run by Norman Hsu, who donated nearly $2 million to Democratic candidates since 2004 — including presidential hopeful Sen. Hillary Clinton — recently received $40 million from a Madison Avenue investment fund run by Joel Rosenman, one of the creators of the fabled Woodstock rock...

Many of the fake documents used by a leading Democratic Party fund-raiser to defraud HSBC and Citigroup Inc were made by his brother-in-law, U.S. prosecutors said on Friday. Authorities arrested and charged Shahin Kashanchi, brother-in-law of indicted fund-raiser Hassan Nemazee, who donated to the presidential campaigns of Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and other leading Democrats over the years. Nemazee pleaded not guilty on Wednesday in Manhattan federal court to defrauding a total of three banks -- Bank of America was the other -- out of $292 million in loan proceeds. "Based on e-mail traffic between Kashanchi and Nemazee, Kashanchi was...

Rahm Emanuel: The House Rahm Built FROM THE ARCHIVES: Rahm Emanuel was seething. He was hurtling down an asphalt road in upstate New York on the 47th trip of his ferocious campaign to win back the House. A lecture, even from his friend James Carville, was the last thing he needed. Carville and pollster Stan Greenberg telling him he had to make each of his handpicked candidates shift from attack mode and strike a conciliatory note in their final campaign ads. "James. No James, YOU LISTEN," Emanuel barked into a cell phone, about to release a string of profane invectives...

John W. Courtney's world collapsed at dinnertime on a Friday in July 2001. That's when he learned from a television newscast that much of the $200,000 that he had saved from his construction job over a 30-year period was lost when his Chicago-area bank was shut down after pursuing a failed strategy of subprime loans. Seven years later, the Vietnam War veteran has yet to recoup $85,000 of his uninsured losses from Superior Bank's failure. And he watches in disbelief as one of the bank's former top officials, billionaire hotel heiress Penny Pritzker, leads the record-breaking fundraising machine of Democratic...

NEW JERSEY MAN GETS JAIL TIME IN CONNECTION WITH ILLEGAL MONEY TRANSFER SCHEME THAT MOVED $100 MILLION TO PAKISTAN -- Fourth of six defendants sentenced in the ICE / IRS investigation -- NEWARK, N.J. - A key player in a scheme to illegally transfer more than $100 million to Pakistan through a New Jersey money transmittal business has been sentenced to nearly four years in prison as a result of an investigation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Umer Darr, a Pakistani native and naturalized U.S. citizen of Bayonne, N.J, was sentenced earlier...

OAK RIDGE - A special meeting of union delegates will be held today to discuss leadership of the Atomic Trades and Labor Council in the wake of Carl "Bubba" Scarbrough's arrest last week on a rape charge. The ATLC, an umbrella organization for 16 different unions, represents about 2,500 hourly workers at the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant and Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Carl Wright, the ATLC's acting president in Scarbrough's absence, said Wednesday that a vote would be taken on whether to place Scarbrough on administrative leave until his case is resolved. Another report was being circulated among union members...

Senate Democrats raised $10 million Tuesday night, providing a crucial influx of cash at their last big fund-raiser before an election that will decide whether they keep their narrow majority. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee began September with less than half the cash on hand of its Republican counterpart. The National Republican Senatorial Committee added to its reported $18 million advantage last week, when President Bush helped it raise at least $8 million more. The money chase didn't seem to be the focus of conversation at the Democrats' Union Station event, however. Senators and donors were discussing Sen. Robert Torricelli's...

O.K., here's the deal, from: Streisand Plans One-Off Comeback for Democrats (Dry heaves alert)Internet Movie Database ^ | August 21, 2002Posted on 08/21/2002 5:11 PM Pacific by Paul Atreides Barbra Streisand is to come out of retirement to help boost America's Democrats. The political activist, a supporter of the Democratic Party, will perform at a fundraiser for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee on September 29 at Hollywood's Kodak Theatre - the new home of the Oscars. Other stars billed to support Streisand on the night include Barry Manilow...more See also, from http://www.dccc.org/press/newsreleases/2002-08-21.658.phtml: PRESS RELEASE August 21, 2002 Stars Align for...