Free Republic

U.S. Sen. Kelly Loeffler, R-Georgia, has turned over personal stock documents and other information to federal authorities amid scrutiny over transactions she allegedly made after attending a January government briefing on the coronavirus, Fox News confirmed Thursday. “Senator Loeffler has forwarded documents and information to DOJ, the SEC, and the Senate Ethics Committee establishing that she and her husband acted entirely appropriately and observed both the letter and the spirit of the law,” a Loeffler spokesperson told Fox, referring to the Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission. “The documents and information demonstrated her and her husband’s lack of...

One of the men facing murder charges in the death of 25-year-old Ahmaud Arbery is a retired chief investigator for the Brunswick District Attorney’s Office. Personnel records obtained by the News4Jax I-TEAM show, for eight of the years Gregory Michael was employed as a chief investigator under District Attorney Jackie Johnson, he had no arrest powers. McMichael told investigators in 2014 he knew he was behind on training hours, but recently discovered he had not had arrest powers since 2006. * snip * In 2018, he fell behind on his training again and was suspended by Georgia POST. Johnson took...

The Georgia man charged with murdering unarmed black jogger Ahmaud Arbery called cops less than two weeks before the fatal shooting to report a man breaking into a nearby home under construction, according to a report. Travis McMichael, 34, called 911 on Feb. 11 to report a break-in at a construction site just two houses away from his home in Brunswick, according to audio obtained by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “We’ve had a string of burglaries,” McMichael told a dispatcher. “I was leaving the neighborhood and I just caught a guy running into a house being built – two houses down...

In the months before the Feb. 23 shooting death of Ahmaud Arbery, residents in the Satilla Shores neighborhood outside Brunswick reported thefts, trespassing and activity they deemed suspicious to police and posted to the neighborhood’s Facebook page and Nextdoor account a description of a man who’d been entering a home under construction, according to police records. Some of the social media posts included security camera footage of the man inside the house, records said. On the night of Feb. 11, Travis McMichael was driving his red pickup truck past the construction site when he spotted someone he deemed suspicious, according...

Maurice Fayne, aka Arkansas Mo, 37, who stars in Love & Hip Hop: Atlanta, was charged with bank fraud for his use of the Small Business Administration's Paycheck Protection Program, created to help struggling businesses weather the coronavirus economic shutdown. The Department of Justice accused Fayne, who's from Dacula, Georgia, of using more than $1.5 million of the small-business relief loan proceeds to purchase $85,000 in jewelry, including a Rolex Presidential watch, a diamond bracelet, a 5.73-carat diamond ring for himself, and to pay $40,000 for child support. Federal agents also searched his home and seized approximately $80,000 in cash,...

When Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp reopened his state for business last month, he was derided as a coronavirus-denier and a veritable murderer. Amid broad concern among public health officials that it was too soon and risked a resurgence of COVID-19 cases and deaths, the Atlantic branded the move “Georgia’s experiment in human sacrifice.” So far at least, that hasn’t happened. While no one can pinpoint why and some think the verdict still under deliberation, the confident predictions that Mr. Kemp, a Republican, had unleashed a calamity on the Peach State appear to be wrong. The novel coronavirus that originated last...

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich advised President Trump on Wednesday to “cut off” ties with the House Intelligence Committee since the chairman, Rep. Adam Schiff, is a “proven liar” about Russian collusion. “We now have documented evidence that, for three years, this guy deliberately and maliciously lied. Why would you cooperate with an Intelligence Committee chairman who is a clear proven liar?” Gingrich told “America’s Newsroom.” “I think the president should just cut him off and say, ‘If you want to give me an Intelligence Committee that I can trust, I’ll work with them, but, this guy is impossible.” He...

In the Ahmaud Arbery case, the media, as always, are theorizing in advance of the data, and they are doing so in service to a divisive racial agenda. The undisputed facts (excluding the inevitably self-interested statements from the men arrested) are as follows: Travis McMichael shot 24-year-old Arbery. The question is whether it was self-defense, manslaughter or murder. Greg and Travis McMichaels (father and son) are white, while Arbery was black. Videos show Arbery entering a home under construction and Arbery inside the construction site. Shortly before Arbery was shot, Greg called 911 to report that “There’s a black male running...

Senate forecast is out and right now Dems have a (somewhat) clear advantage to take control. Here goes: Arizona: McSally hasn’t led a single poll. Trump trails Biden in most polls too so she can’t count on coattails. Dem gain. Colorado: Gardner is down double digits and Trump will Lose CO by double digits. This one is off the board. Dem gain. Maine: Collins is struggling in polling but she knows how to win in Maine. We’ll see. Currently a toss up. Georgia: Internal GOP polling just released shows Biden in the LEAD, albeit within the margin of error. Perdue...

Another Day — Another Trump-hating hate hoaxer This won’t make any national headlines! Rashawn Smith was arrested in Georgia after creating a fake Facebook account pretending to be a Trump-supporting white nationalist terrorist. Via Andy Ngo. WSB-TV reported: The GBI has arrested a man after a post on social media apparently threatening people protesting the shooting death of Ahmaud Arbery has caught the eye of investigators. The GBI tweeted Sunday that it is investigating a Facebook post that contains a threat to future protests connected to Arbery, who would have turned 26 on Friday, but was shot and killed Feb....

""Ahmaud did not take anything from the construction site," the family's lawyers said in a statement. "He did not cause any damage to the property. He remained for a brief period of time and was not instructed by anyone to leave but rather left on his own accord to continue his jog. Ahmaud's actions at this empty home under construction were in no way a felony under Georgia law.""

The autopsy report for Ahmaud Arbery, the 25-year-old who was fatally shot in a Georgia neighborhood, showed that he was shot three times, twice in the chest and once in the hand. The report also concluded Arbery did not have drugs or alcohol in his system, according to a copy of the report obtained by CBS News. Gregory McMichael, 64, and his son Travis, 34, were charged with Arbery's murder 74 days after they chased, shot and killed him on February 23. The McMichaels told police they thought Arbery was a burglary suspect. Arbery's family said he was out for...

The Georgia man who filmed the shooting death of unarmed black jogger Ahmaud Arbery says he’s “not proud” he did so — but he hopes it “helps in the end.” William “Roddie” Bryan, whose cell phone footage of the Feb. 23 incident sparked national outrage, told Good Morning America he has “tons of regrets” over the incident. “Yeah, I wish I hadn’t been there,” Bryan told the ABC-TV show Tuesday.

The Mayor of Atlanta, Keisha Lance Bottoms, is offering up her opinion on the brutal murder of Ahmaud Arbery in Brunswick, Georgia. President Trump’s rhetoric incites violence against black people and there is no leadership at the Department of Justice right now, she says. And, Mayor Bottoms thinks she’s “a pretty great person”. keisha Lance Bottoms is on the shortlist of potential vice-presidential picks for Joe Biden. You need to take anything she says at this point through that lens. When she gives an interview on cable television, as she did Sunday morning with CNN’s Jake Tapper, she is auditioning...

New video appears to show Ahmaud Arbery calmly wandering around the construction site of a new house in Georgia just moments before he was confronted and shot dead, according to reports. Surveillance footage seems to show an inquisitive Arbery, 25, looking around the Brunswick property for just under three minutes before leaving, reported News4Jax, which got the video from the homeowner.

In some ways, it’s unfair to compare California and Georgia, for they are remarkably different. California’s population is 39,512,223 with an average population density of 253.6 per square mile; Georgia’s population is 10,617423 with an average population density of 165 per square mile. California’s largest city, Los Angeles, has 3,990,456 people; Georgia’s largest city, Atlanta, has 523,738 people. Nevertheless, because I haven’t forgotten April 21, when Dana Milbank, of the Washington Post, promised us that “Georgia leads the race to become America’s No. 1 Death Destination,” the two states deserve to be compared. The occasion for Milbank’s article was Governor...

The GBI has arrested a man after a post on social media apparently threatening people protesting the shooting death of Ahmaud Arbery has caught the eye of investigators. The GBI tweeted Sunday that it is investigating a Facebook post that contains a threat to future protests connected to Arbery, who would have turned 26 on Friday, but was shot and killed Feb. 23. On Sunday night, the agency said it had arrested Rashawn Smith, 20, and charged him with dissemination of information relating to terroristic acts. He was taken into custody in Midway, Ga. Police said he created a Facebook...

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Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms addressed unarmed black jogger Ahmaud Arbery being chased and shot dead allegedly by two white men, Gregory and Travis McMichael in Georgia on February 23. Host Jake Tapper said, “The shooting happened back on February 23. Authorities had possession of a now-viral video of the shooting from the beginning. But the murder charges were not filed until this past week after the video emerged online and shocked and outraged millions of Americans. Do you think that the two men were only charged because the video became public?” Lance...

Failed Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams accused President Donald Trump this week of habitually lying during the coronavirus crisis out of “ignorance” and “fear.” “Let’s be clear: Trump lies. He lies out of ignorance. He lies out of fear. He lies out of habit, and yet he is incapable of accepting responsibility or accountability,” Abrams told Complex. Abrams, who is reportedly on the Joe Biden’s short list of potential running mates, said the country needs “a president who will actually tell the truth, take responsibility” like Biden. “He won’t tell us a fairy tale. The fairy tale will fall apart...