This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

Two former FBI officials who were punished under the Biden administration for their efforts to expose a protection scheme for first son Hunter Biden now have reached settlements in their lawsuits.

Hunter Biden, of course, faced both gun and tax charge convictions, cases that could have left him behind bars for years.

Then his daddy gave him a get-out-of-jail free card through a presidential pardon that Joe Biden actually signed, unlike many of his pardons that were issued through autopen signatures.

This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

U.S. Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., went ballistic on a reporter Wednesday when she was confronted about her role in the Capitol mayhem of Jan. 6, 2021, and why she did not have the National Guard present to quell violence.

Outside the Capitol, the former speaker of the House was asked by Alison Steinberg of Lindell TV: "Congresswoman Pelosi, are you at all concerned that the January 6th Committee will find you liable for that?

"Are at all concerned about the January 6th Committee finding you liable for that day?

"Why did you refuse the National Guard on January 6th?"

Pelosi, who was obviously disturbed by the questions, snapped at Steinberg.

"SHUT UP!" Pelosi screamed as she pointed her finger at the correspondent.

"I did not refuse the National Guard. The president didn't send it. Why are you coming here with Republican talking points as if you're a serious journalist?"

Steinberg replied: "The American people want to know! We still have questions!"

Pelosi then slithered away and Steinberg turned and offered a slight smile to the camera after being repudiated.

As WorldNetDaily reported in August, former Capitol Police Cheif Steven Sund exposed the failures of the California Democrat in January 2021.

"Ma'am, it is long past time to be honest with the American people," Sund began. "On January 3, I requested National Guard assistance, but your Sergeant at Arms denied it.

"Under federal law (2 U.S.C. §1970), I was prohibited from calling them in without specific approval. That same day, Carol Corbin at the Pentagon offered National Guard support, but I was forced to decline because I lacked the legal authority.

"On January 6, while the Capitol was under attack and despite my repeated calls, your Sergeant at Arms again denied my urgent requests for over 70 agonizing minutes, 'running it up the chain' for your approval.

"When I needed assistance, it was denied," he concluded. "Yet when it suited you, you ordered fencing topped with concertina wire and surrounded the Capitol with thousands of armed National Guard troops."

President Donald Trump himself called attention to Pelosi's failure regarding Jan. 6 security, referring to her as a "certain person."

"You remember I said I offered 10,000 once, remember I said to a certain person, a person who I thought always was highly overrated, not very competent," Trump indicated.

"But I said, 'If you need 'em, we'll give you 10,000 of the military or the National Guard.' They turned me down."

As WorldNetDaily reported in June 2024, an explosive video was posted online in which Pelosi was seen admitting "responsibility" for the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.

"This is ridiculous," Pelosi says in a phone conversation as she's being chauffeured. "You're going to ask me in the middle of the thing when they've already breached the inaugural stuff that should we call the Capitol police, I mean the National Guard? Why weren't the National Guard there to begin with? … And I take responsibility for not having them just prepare for more."

This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

One member of the U.S. Supreme Court, Justice Samuel Alito, has expressed concern that the federal court system is avoiding one issue because it is so charged.

That's parental rights.

"I remain concerned that some federal courts are 'tempt[ed]' to avoid confronting a 'particularly contentious constitutional question': whether a school district violates parents' fundamental rights 'when, without parental knowledge or consent, it encourages a student to transition to a new gender or assists in that process,'" he wrote this week.

He agreed with the majority in denying the petition in the case Lee v. Poudre School District R-1 in Colorado, where leftist state officials long have advocated for, even demanded, pro-LGBT ideologies, on technical grounds.

This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

As President Donald Trump signed an historic Mideast peace deal on Monday securing the release of all remaining Israeli hostages held by the Islamic terror group Hamas, an American journalist is blasting pro-Palestine protesters on U.S. college campuses as "frauds," saying Trump has "freed Palestine."

"For years now, hideous left-wing orcs have been taking over college campuses, marching and rioting in our streets, saying they want peace in the Middle East and they want to free Palestine," said Benny Johnson.

"And President Trump has now freed Palestine. So where are these protesters in their filthy keffiyehs holding up signs of President Trump saying this is our dear leader?

"Where the hell are you? Where'd you go exactly? Did your bullhorns run out of batteries? Where are you like camping out to thank President Trump when he lands back at the airport for ending the war? Isn't that the point? This is what you wanted, right? You wanted the end of the war."

This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

A federal court has delivered a victory to a driver who was stopped by Louisiana police and interrogated on the roadside.

According to a report from the Institute for Justice, the decision came from federal court in the Western District of Louisiana.

That decision said the case brought against the officers and the city of Alexandria will not be dismissed at this point, allowing claims by Mario Rosales and Gracie Lasyones to move forward.

"Mario and Gracie should get to enforce their rights in court, helping protect other motorists' rights, and this ruling is an important step forward," said IJ Attorney Marie Miller. "But there is still work to be done. While Mario and Gracie have overcome one roadblock, they have to wait until later stages of the case to ultimately vindicate their rights with a final judgment. Qualified immunity is delaying justice."

The Alexandria officers are accused of an unconstitutional traffic stop and interrogation.

It happened when, several years ago, the plaintiffs were on the highway and officers pulled them over on "bogus traffic infractions to fish for drug and other crimes,"

"Mario and Gracie were questioned about not just about where they live and work, where they had been, and where they were going, but also about a litany of drugs, past interactions with police, and their feelings about the U.S. Constitution," the IJ said.

The IJ explained, "The officers and their city employer used various tactics to delay proceedings. These included securing a stay of the case based on the criminal prosecution of one of the officers, Jim Lewis, for a crime committed on the job. The court lifted the stay. But then the officers pressed qualified immunity defenses, halting progress in the case again."

Finally, the court ruled against claims of qualified immunity, so the case now can move forward.

However, the case is not yet to the point of vindicating the rights of Mario and Gracie because multiple existing issues could drag in the 5th U.S. District Court of Appeals.

This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

Charlie Kirk, the conservative leader shot dead last month on a Utah campus, will be awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom posthumously on Tuesday, Oct. 14, which would have been his 32nd birthday.

The life and ministry of Kirk, the founder of Turning Point USA, inspired countless Americans and Christians to live lives of truth, sacrifice and courage, especially in the public square.

President Trump announced Friday that Kirk would receive America's highest civilian honor at the White House.

"We're giving him the Presidential Medal of Freedom, which is the highest honor you get outside of the Congressional Medal of Honor," he said. "Erika, his beautiful wife, is going to be here, and a lot of people are going to be here."

This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

President Donald Trump has been working with, or actually on, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky for months now, trying to end the carnage wrought by Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the military conflict it triggered. Thousands have died and entire city centers have been left in rubble.

First Lady Melania Trump also has been working on the conflict, but on another point.

She has been trying to reunite children with their parents.

CBS News explains she has confirmed eight Ukrainian children kept in Russia by the conflict now have been returned and reunited with their families in just the last 24 hours.

More reunifications are pending.

"She also said Russia has agreed to coordinate the return of Ukrainians who were children when they were displaced by the war, but have since turned 18, 'within a short period of time,'" the report said.

The report said when Russia invaded in 2022, the military included in its campaigns the "systematic and forcible abduction of children."

Ukraine's state-run "Bring Kids Back" program charges that more than 19,500 Ukrainian children were targeted.

Melania Trump said she's been working with Putin and his team to reunite the families. She first approached him by letter, the report said.

"Since then, President Putin and I have had an open channel of communication regarding the welfare of these children. For the past three months, both sides have participated in several backchannel meetings and calls, all in good faith. We have agreed to cooperate with each other for the benefit of all people involved in this war. My representative has been working directly with President Putin's team to ensure the safe reunification of children with their families between Russia and Ukraine," she announced on Friday.

This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

One day after the two year anniversary of Hamas' Oct. 7 attack against Israel, President Donald Trump announced a peace deal to free the remaining hostages has finally been accepted.

"I am very proud to announce that Israel and Hamas have both signed off on the first Phase of our Peace Plan," Trump said on Truth Social.

"This means that ALL of the Hostages will be released very soon, and Israel will withdraw their Troops to an agreed upon line as the first steps toward a Strong, Durable, and Everlasting Peace. All Parties will be treated fairly!

"This is a GREAT Day for the Arab and Muslim World, Israel, all surrounding Nations, and the United States of America, and we thank the mediators from Qatar, Egypt, and Turkey, who worked with us to make this Historic and Unprecedented Event happen. BLESSED ARE THE PEACEMAKERS!"

The measure is reportedly set for signing at noon Thursday in Israel.

Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said: "With God's help we will bring them all home."

This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

Jack Smith, the Democrat-appointed special counsel who ran some of the party's lawfare cases against President Donald Trump, deserves to be punished, according to Republicans in Washington.

And, after recent revelations that he spied on the telephone records of multiple GOP senators, several of them are working to see that that includes disbarment.

One investigative reporter has suggested that Smith was collecting information on the GOP senators because, had Kamala Harris been elected, he wanted to pursue further charges against the president and other Republicans.

This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

Colorado's leftist government, run by homosexual Gov. Jared Polis and other Democrats who make up the majority of the legislature, has decided that it's free speech when a licensed counselor tries to convince a client of the benefits of the LGBT lifestyle. That "affirming" advice.

But it's "behavior" when a Christian licensed counselor explains to a client the benefits of attitude adjustments that provide the patient a level of comfort inside his or her own sexual identity. That, Colorado claims, can be censored.

That fight was before the Supreme Court on Tuesday, in a case brought by Christian counselor Kaley Chiles, who explains that the state's one-sided and censorial agenda of leftism actually violates her constitutionally protected right to free speech.

It's been a common tactic for LGBT activists and other leftists across the country to falsely label such counseling "conversion therapy" and then make it illegal to counter their political ideology.

The Supreme Court, at least a "majority" of the justices, seemed "to lean in favor of a Christian counselor challenging bans on LGBTQ+ 'conversion therapy' for kids as a violation of her First Amendment rights," according to a published report.

Colorado already has lost multiple cases at the high court in its campaigns to censor Christians and force them to parrot the state's adopted pro-LGBT ideology. In one case, the justices scolded state officials for their "hostility" to Christians.

Even AP, which leans far left in its politics, admitted the justices, whose decision won't come for some weeks or even months, appeared to choose Chiles' side.

The high court already has ruled that states can ban transition-related health care for "transgender" youth.

Colorado's lawyers insisted that any "treatment" seeking to change "a minor's sexual orientation" is "unsafe and ineffective."

However, studies show that the incident of suicidal ideology is higher for those in the LGBT lifestyle than the general population.

A report at the Daily Signal explained, "Colorado says its law regulates a 'treatment' that is harmful and that violates the state's standard of care. But Kaley Chiles, a Colorado-based counselor, says the law violates her right to free speech by favoring 'the expression of some views over others."

The report noted the wild tangent into which Sonia Sotomayor tried to push the court. She demanded to know whether Chiles encourages her clients to vomit or exposes them to electric shock therapy.

Chiles' lawyers explained she engages in speech with her clients, "voluntary talk therapy."

Leftist judges in Colorado, where the all-Democrat state Supreme Court even tried to throw Donald Trump off the 2024 presidential ballot, claimed the state was right in saying that speech is behavior.

Colorado Solicitor General Shannon Stevenson claimed studies confirm higher rates of suicidality among teens who underwent conversion therapy – but Chiles' lawyer explained those results depend on biased sampling, self-reporting, which is unreliable, and the inappropriate conflation of "aversion therapy," a separate concept entirely, with the misnamed "conversion therapy."

Thomas Jipping, a senior legal fellow in The Heritage Foundation's Edwin Meese III Center for Legal and Judicial Studies, told The Daily Signal, "Under Colorado law, young people may seek a licensed counselor's help to affirm or support their sexual orientation or gender identity, but not to change it or even to better align it with their sex or religious faith. As a direct restriction on speech, this blatant, intentional viewpoint discrimination violates the First Amendment. The kind of 'talk therapy' that plaintiff [Kaley] Chiles uses helps many clients, and Colorado has never offered evidence of any harm."

WND previously reported, "Officials in the leftist state who multiple times have demanded the authority to censor Christians in the state have claimed that the counselors' speech is "behavior," which they say they can regulate. But their agenda is clear in the details of their fight: They insist that no counselor can encourage a patient to consider NOT being LGBT. But promotions of the LGBT lifestyle choices are fully encouraged."

Detractors have called such counseling "conversion therapy" but the misnomer isn't accurate since the counseling actually involves helping patients come to grips with their own reality.

The 3rd and 11th circuit courts already have found such bans suppress protected speech.

Liberty Counsel founder Mat Staver said, "Laws that restrict counselors and clients to only one viewpoint violate the First Amendment. Talk therapy is speech, and the government has no authority to restrict that speech to just one viewpoint. Counseling bans must be struck down nationwide so that people can get the counseling they need. Counselors and clients should have the freedom to choose the counsel of their choice and be free of government censorship."