Free Republic

West Hollywood City Councilman John Duran said Ed Buck once hung an effigy of him in a park. Some municipal employees said they refused to meet alone with him, and he unnerved two political foes so much at council meetings that sheriff’s deputies accompanied them to their cars afterward. **SNIP** Buck’s political influence has drawn intense criticism, especially from black and LGBTQ activists who believe his status as a white Democratic donor initially insulated him from prosecution and that influential people made excuses for a man whose volatility was on public display for years. Jasmyne Cannick, a black political consultant...

**SNIP** We’ve only just begun to see how far Epstein’s influence reached into the science and technology communities, but what we know so far is disturbing. Harvard University, to which Epstein donated before his guilty plea in 2008, said it hadn’t taken any of his money afterward. He found other ways to donate indirectly, though, including by giving $110,000 to a nonprofit run by Elisa New. (New, as it happens, is married to Larry Summers, the former president of Harvard who publicly wondered in 2005 if women were just innately not equipped for STEM careers.) Harvard professor Joscha Bach was...

Anthony Weiner seems to be jumping back into the dating cesspool. While rumors sensationally swirled last week that the renowned pervert was getting back together with ex-wife Huma Abedin (it turned out he was just moving into the same building), Page Six has learned that he was spotted on what appeared to be a date with a different woman at South Street Seaport on Thursday afternoon. A spy at the Garden Bar said of Weiner — who recently finished a 15-month prison stretch for sexting an underage girl — “This d - - k looks to be on a date. They were touching...

A judge in New York has granted a request from prosecutors to keep secret documents relating to Jeffrey Epstein’s controversial 2008 sexual abuse plea deal, on the grounds that the materials could hamper their investigation of others in the financier’s milieu. The documents, which will be shared with Epstein’s attorneys, are believed to concern not only the deal itself, which allowed Epstein to plead guilty to low-level state solicitation charges, but also a clause that granted immunity to any and all potential co-conspirators and named four women suspected of facilitating or participating in alleged crimes against minors. The documents may...

The day before accused pedophile and wealthy Manhattan financier Jeffrey Epstein was found injured in his jail cell, he was handed a lawsuit from a woman who says he raped her when she was just 15 years old, court documents obtained Monday showed. A New York Deputy Sheriff, Qin Zhang, last Monday personally handed Epstein documents accompanying Jennifer Araoz's lawsuit against the 66-year-old at the Metropolitan Correctional Center where he has been jailed after he was arrested and charged with sex trafficking and conspiracy. The day after Epstein received Araoz's lawsuit, he was found inside his cell, semi-conscious in a...

**SNIP** Maya Rockeymoore’s charity paid over $250,000 in “management fees” to her own for-profit consulting firm between 2013 and 2015, according to audited financial reports for the foundation published by the Daily Caller on Thursday. The payments were made by Rockeymoore’s foundation, the Center for Global Policy Solutions, to her consulting firm, Global Policy Solutions. The two entities also had a cost-sharing agreement in which the foundation covered its own expenses related to any joint projects. IRS law prohibits insiders at nonprofit groups from self-dealing, or using foundation money for their own personal financial benefit. Tax records of nonprofit charities...

<p>NORFOLK, VA. (AP) — THE findings of an investigation into how a racist photo appeared on a yearbook page for Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam are set to be released.</p> <p>Eastern Virginia Medical School plans to make the results of the investigation public at a news conference on Wednesday.</p>

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) suggested in an interview that aired Sunday that impeachment proceeding against President Trump could be used as an oversight tool to gain information that the House has been seeking. Schiff said on CBS's Face the Nation that what could drive impeachment is not the president's conduct in special counsel Robert Mueller's report, but rather how the administration "is engaging in a maximum obstructionism campaign against Congress." "I think that we are seeing more members that recognize that the administration is acting in a lawless fashion, essentially having obstructed justice, is now obstructing Congress...

**SNIP** On Monday, writing in The Washington Post, Schiff said the investigations into Trump and Russia that have prompted presidential ire are far from over, and that even after special counsel Robert Mueller wrapped up his work, Schiff still suspects Trump was susceptible to foreign influence. “The president’s personal financial interest” in a Russian real estate deal that Trump had concealed “and the need for Kremlin approval created an overwhelming conflict of interest,” Schiff said in arguing for the release of counterintelligence information on Trump-Russia dealings. “The president’s deceit about the project, and Russia’s knowledge of it, give Russia something...

It has pained U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to watch how the White House and Justice Department handled Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller’s two-year investigation - particularly U.S. Attorney General William Barr’s actions after the long-awaited report landed. Holder, attorney general from 2009 to 2015 under President Barack Obama, said Barr’s move to summarily absolve the president before releasing the report, both in his summary to Congress and in a press conference this week, is incongruent with the independence expected of that department. “He’s making mistakes. The attorney general of the United States is the people’s lawyer, not the president’s lawyer,”...

Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign chairman argued Thursday that special counsel Robert Mueller's highly anticipated report lays out a "devastating case" against President Trump that Congress should act upon. John Podesta wrote in a Washington Post op-ed that Mueller's partially redacted report shows that Trump campaign operatives knew in advance about releases of stolen Democratic emails obtained by WikiLeaks from Russian intelligence sources. Podesta argued that Mueller's findings were coupled with a clear call for lawmakers to act, as the sitting president cannot be indicted under Justice Department policy but Congress has authority to pursue obstruction of justice investigations.

Mongrel Mob leader Sonny Fatu is making it clear his gang will not be surrendering their guns as mandated by the New Zealand government. On March 20, 2019, Breitbart News reported New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s announcement that “military-style” semiautomatic rifles, “high-capacity” magazines, and certain gun parts were being banned. While making the announcement, Ardern encouraged New Zealand gun owners to go ahead and hand over their firearms. Mongrel Mob leader Fatu told Stuff, “Will gangs get rid of their weapons? No. Because of who we are, we can’t guarantee our own safety.”

Now that special counsel Robert Mueller has completed his investigation, it is tempting to breathe a sigh of relief and assume that our long national nightmare is over. Resist the temptation, the assumption is false. We are not close to the end. Not by a long shot. **SNIP** Getting to the bottom of it would mean a criminal probe of Comey and his former deputy, Andrew McCabe, along with others in the leadership ranks of the FBI. Did they, as it appears, fail to disclose to the court that Clinton’s team commissioned and paid for the Russian dossier and that...

Disgraced politician Anthony Weiner, AKA “Carlos Danger” in online profiles he used for sexting and swapping saucy photos, is at a Bronx halfway house after his early release from prison. And even though he shouldn’t have a cell phone per house rules, a fellow resident of the Fordham Manor house told the Daily News on Monday that inmates in the good graces of staff often get to keep their phones. **SNIP** “I feel like he shouldn’t be out to be honest. He’s a sexual predator, 15-years-old,” the resident said. The resident said he’s a father of two who thinks of...

<p>3 p.m.</p> <p>Virginia Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax is blasting plans by state House Republicans to have a public hearing where Fairfax and the two women who have accused him of sexual assault can testify.</p> <p>Fairfax spokeswoman Lauren Burke issued a statement Friday saying House Republicans were proposing the hearing to distract from their recent votes against ratifying the Equal Rights Amendment, a gender-equality measure. Fairfax also said Republicans want to pursue an unprecedented action "because the accused is a popularly elected Democrat."</p>

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Days after a poll showed Keith Ellison trailing in the race for attorney general following allegations of domestic abuse against him, the Democrat went on the offensive against Republican Doug Wardlow on Thursday, saying his opponent's work for a conservative Christian legal advocacy group against gay rights shows that he has an agenda of discrimination. Ellison issued a statement pointing out that President Donald Trump's administration told the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday that a federal appeals court got the law wrong when it ruled last year against a Michigan funeral home that fired a transgender worker...

Hillary Clinton has given up her security clearance in the wake of the scandal over her handling of secret information on her email server, the Senate Judiciary Committee revealed Friday. Chairman Charles E. Grassley also revealed top Clinton aide Cheryl Mills and four others no longer have clearance [snip]The names of the four additional aides besides Ms. Mills were redacted from the State Department letter that the committee released.

She (Monahan) tweeted this: "Four people, including my supervisor at the time, stated that I came to them after and shared the exact story I shared publicly, I shared multiple text between me and Keith, where I discuss the abuse with him and much more. As I said before, I knew I wouldn't be believed." And this: "I expected everything that has taken place, before I decided to break my silence. I even stated it in my original statement. I showed up for myself & that was a huge piece of my healing." And, this: "My grand baby deserves a...

DFL candidate Keith Ellison continued to deny allegations of domestic abuse Friday night, at times fending off questions from both moderators and opponent Doug Wardlow during the first post-primary debate for Minnesota attorney general hosted by TPT’s “Almanac” public affairs show. Ellison, a six-term member of the U.S. House from Minneapolis, has been accused by former girlfriend Karen Monahan of domestic abuse. She has said he dragged her off a bed by her feet during a fight before they separated in 2016 and alleges years of emotional abuse. During the “Almanac” debate, Ellison said “it simply isn’t true.” **SNIP** Will...

**SNIP** Led by opinion hosts on Fox News, conservative figures looking to call out liberal hypocrisy have seized on accusations by Ellison’s former girlfriend Karen Monahan that he emotionally abused her and, during a 2016 argument, yelled profanities at her and dragged her off a bed. They claim that the national press, while giving ‘round the clock coverage to an allegation that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted a woman when they were both in high school, has ignored Monahan’s more recent claims about Ellison — and so, they argue, has the Democratic Party. “Guess what? Prominent Democrats line up in support, believe...