Free Republic

FIRST ON THE DAILY SIGNAL: The National Legal and Policy Center (NLPC) is taking aim at Oreo for partnering with an organization promoting a “militant LGBTQ agenda.” The NLPC will release a video Wednesday that begins by citing the names of infamous books on gender and sexuality that have been marketed to young people in public libraries and schools. “‘This Book Is Gay,'” the video narrates. “‘Gender Queer.’ ‘Flamer.’ ‘Lawn Boy.’ Books like these are promoted in our schools and local libraries by PFLAG, and Oreo is supporting them.” PFLAG is an LGBT advocacy organization. “Is your favorite sandwich cookie...

Peter Flaherty, chairman of the National Legal and Policy Center (NLPC) broke his silence after he was arrested and escorted out of the Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting on Saturday in Omaha, Nebraska. The Gateway Pundit reported that Flaherty was removed at the shareholders’ meeting and was charged with “criminal trespass” after criticizing Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett for his support for Bill Gates’ organization and his association with convicted felon Jeffrey Epstein. Bill Gates was also present during the meeting. WATCH: And bill gates was here 30 minutes ago. pic.twitter.com/7UV5F3aggb — Tykoo.eth (@0xTykoo) May 6, 2023 During the first minute...

The Department of Justice has launched a preliminary review into classified documents found at the University of Pennsylvania's Penn Biden Center in Washington, D.C., sources told ABC News. White House Issues First Veto Threat Of New Congress Against… Virginia school shooting: 6-year-old put gun in backpack at home… The Department of Justice has launched a preliminary review into classified documents found at the University of Pennsylvania's Penn Biden Center in Washington, D.C., sources told ABC News. This is a modal window. No compatible source was found for this media. On Location: January 9, 2023 Blood and knife found in missing...

watchdog group is asking the U.S. Education Department to investigate the University of Pennsylvania and its Biden Center, a diplomacy and global engagement initiative named after the Democratic presidential candidate, for accepting millions of dollars in anonymous funds from Chinese donors. The complaint, filed by the National Legal and Policy Center, says that over the past three years, the university has accepted around $22 million in anonymous funding from Chinese sources. That's out of a total of more than $70 million from Chinese donors during that time, the NLPC said. Those significant funds, including the anonymous amounts, rolled in after...

A federal judge has found a witness in contempt for refusing to testify before the grand jury hearing evidence in special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. U.S. District Chief Judge Beryl Howell made the ruling Friday after a sealed hearing to discuss Andrew Miller’s refusal to appear before the grand jury. Miller is a former aide to longtime Trump confidant Roger Stone. Miller’s lawyer Paul Kamenar said after the hearing that Miller was “held in contempt, which we asked him to be in order for us to appeal the judge’s decision...

Since being named special counsel in October 2020, John Durham has investigated or indicted several unscrupulous anti-Trump informants. But he has spared the FBI agents who handled them, raising suspicions he's letting investigators off the hook in his waning investigation of misconduct in the Russiagate probe. In recent court filings, Durham has portrayed the G-men as naive recipients of bad information, tricked into opening improper investigations targeting Donald Trump and obtaining invalid warrants to spy on one of his advisers. But as the cases against the informants have gone to trial, defense lawyers have revealed evidence that cuts against that...

The National Legal and Policy Center (NLPC), filed a seven-page complaint with the Office of Congressional Ethics against U.S. Representative Ilhan Omar for failing to disclose a lucrative book deal she signed in January 2019 in her Annual Financial Disclosure Reports for both 2019 and 2020, the latter which was filed on August 13, 2021. NLPC also alleges that she undervalued the worth of her husband’s political consulting company at less than $1,000 even though she reported that it may generate income up to one million dollars. NLPC also alleges that she omitted disclosing any checking or savings accounts. “NLPC...

A charity run by the wife of Rep. Elijah Cummings received millions from special interest groups and corporations that had business before her husband’s committee and could have been used illegally, according to an IRS complaint filed by an ethics watchdog group. Cummings, 68, a Maryland Democrat, is chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. His wife, Maya Rockeymoore, 48, is the chairman of the Maryland Democratic Party and briefly ran in the state's gubernatorial race last year. The couple married in 2008. Cummings was once heavily in debt — in part due to hefty child support...

An investigation is needed to determine if socialist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the media magnet on the far-left fringe of the Democratic Party, has broken federal campaign finance laws. If convicted of criminal conduct, she could get up to five years in prison for each violation. We don’t know at this point if the New York congresswoman has engaged in improper conduct. But she and her chief of staff and former campaign manager Saikat Chakrabarti are accused of serious charges in a complaint filed with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) by the National Legal and Policy Center. The accusations against Ocasio-Cortez...

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s top aide illegally funneled more than $1 million in campaign donations to two companies he owned, according to a complaint filed Monday with the Federal Elections Commission. Saikat Chakrabarti set up Brand New Congress PAC to collect and bundle donations for newbie politicians including Ms. Ocasio-Cortez. He then diverted more than $1 million into two of his companies that did campaign work, skirting reporting requirements, said the complaint by the National Legal and Policy Center. “These are not minor or technical violations. We are talking about real money here,” said Tom Anderson, director of NLPC’s Government Integrity...

There are few sights these days as pitiable as a corporation acceding to the demands of radical activists on the basis of an ostensibly insensitive comment made by one of its officials or employees. As the script normally dictates, the offending individual steps down, while the company profusely apologizes for its insensitivity and vows to redouble its commitment to “diversity.” That’s what makes Fox News Channel’s refusal to fire political talk show host Tucker Carlson in the face of an activist-triggered advertiser boycott so refreshing. By resisting the speech police, the network just might have set an example for other...

*snip* The little-known Haiti Development Fund, an LLC incorporated in Delaware in August 2010, was created by the Clinton Foundation with an initial endowment of $20 million from shady Canadian mining mogul Frank Giustra and Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim. The Fund was supposed to supply desperately needed seed money to Haitian entrepreneurs after an earthquake devastated the country in January 2010. *snip* “This cries out for an audit or an investigation,” said Ken Boehm, chairman of the National Legal and Policy Center a Virginia-based watchdog group. “Its director was in bankruptcy and there’s almost nothing in the public record showing...

In a 2011 memo published by Wikileaks, Clinton underling Doug Band described how he secured hundreds of thousands of dollars in free travel and gifts for Bill Clinton and his family. While Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton did not disclose any gifts or free travel, as required. The gifts were first reported by Alana Goodman in the Daily Mail: ‘In support of the President’s for-profit activity, we also have solicited and obtained, as appropriate, in-kind services for the President and his family – for personal travel, hospitality, vacation and the like,’ wrote Band in the Nov. 16, 2011 memo...

New York physician Dorothy Ogundu has been sentenced to 1 to 3 years in prison for ripping off City, State and federal programs for a fake health clinic. The Nigerian-born Ogundu was convicted in October on 29 counts, including second-degree grand larceny, forgery in the second degree, and first-degree offering a false instrument for filing. The prosecution was based on information uncovered by the National Legal and Policy Center (NLPC), and made public through a New York Post article in April 2012. The Ogundu exposé was a spinoff of our investigation of Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-NY), who secured a...

In a headline today NJ.com asks the question, "How has Menendez Indictment Affected His Senate Duties?" The story details how Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ) is acting if nothing is wrong, and quotesNLPC Chairman (not executive director) Ken Boehm: A leading Menendez critic said he had no problem with the senator's efforts to carry on as if he did not face criminal charges. "Defendants can act anyway they want," said Ken Boehm, executive director of the National Legal and Policy Center, a Falls Church, Va.-based watchdog group. "I take almost an attitude of, 'It's a free country, he's a free...

The Supreme Court has declined to hear an appeal from Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY) who was seeking to overturn his Censure by the House of Representatives. Lower courts had ruled that they have no jurisdiction over internal workings of the House. Rangel was censured by the by the entire House of Representatives on December 2, 2010 by a vote of 333-79, the first member to be Censured in 27 years. The action was the result, in part, of investigations by NLPC. Among the counts alleged by the Ethics Committee were Rangel’s failure to pay taxes on rental income from...

John Boehner’s Speakership was a setback for Congressional ethics. He backslid on a number of important reforms, and helped to return the Ethics Committee to its traditional role of covering up wrongdoing by incumbent members of Congress. Boehner ally Rep. Charles Dent (R-PA), the Chairman of the Ethics Committee, is currently orchestrating a whitewash of apparent House rules violations related to a junket by ten House members to Azerbaijan in 2013. On July 31, the Ethics Committee announced that it had found “no evidence” that broke House rules. It plans “no further action regarding this matter and considers it...

The New York Times reports that the Justice Department has concluded that there was criminal wrongdoing by General Motors as the company covered-up a deadly ignition switch defect for years. That defect has now been blamed for causing the deaths of at least 104 motorists. While many observers may have been able to come to the conclusion that GM was guilty long before the Justice Department’s recent epiphany, the bigger question now is, what’s next? GM still faces litigation risks as ongoing lawsuits seek justice for the victims’ families that suffered as a result of GM’s criminal actions. Full...

It’s been almost a month since the Wall Street Journal ran an editorial titled “The Menendez Indictment.” We responded in a letter to the editor that has not been published. It’s a safe bet it never will be, so we post it here. The Journal got to the point in its opening paragraph: Ill-defined federal laws now reach into virtually every sphere of human behavior, and thus prosecutors can destroy almost anyone they choose. The recent indictment of Senator Robert Menendez on 14 counts of corruption and “honest services” fraud is a troubling case in point that deserves more...

Here is a letter I sent today to C. Douglas McMillon, Walmart President and CEO: We ask that Walmart end its financial support of Al Sharpton and his organization, the National Action Network (NAN). The cold-blooded murder of two New York City police officers, Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu, follows weeks of Sharpton's vilification of law enforcement personnel. As you know, Walmart has helped bankroll Sharpton for years. Most recently, the company was a sponsor of Sharpton's 60thbirthday party in New York City, which reportedly was a fundraiser for NAN that raised a million dollars. We have repeatedly raised...