Week two of the first Trump trial

Because of his ongoing trial [and to be continued for a few weeks], this is a quiet week for Donald Trump. He can only complain and tell lies after hours and on the weekends – well officially. But he has a tendency to yak away for a few minutes or so with his greatest hits of lies and whining after the day in court [or maybe during a break].

In Trump’s hush money trial in New York, Trump continues to rack up the gag order violations – currently at least eleven of them. There was a hearing into the gag order violations but no solution.

Outside the court, Trump continues to ramble on how he is a victim and shouldn’t be on trial. Among his claims:

• Michael “Cohen is a lawyer… and he wasn’t very good in a lot of ways in terms of misrepresentation.” Like many of his former employees, he says the same thing about Cohen. If Cohen was so bad, why wasn’t he fired sooner? This would be called mismanagement.
• “He [Cohen] got in trouble for things that had nothing to do with me.” Cohen was charged with and pleaded guilty to eight criminal charges, including two — “causing an unlawful corporate contribution” and “making an excessive campaign contribution” — that directly relate to the hush money case now being litigated in Manhattan criminal court.
• “… another thing that wasn’t even said was, we never even deducted it as a tax deduction.” Well of course you wouldn’t deduct an illegal act from your taxes as an expense.
• “Very importantly, why didn’t the Federal Elections [Commission] do anything? Federal Elections took a total pass on it. They said essentially nothing was done wrong or they would have done something about it.” The Federal Election Commission staff, in a December 2020 report by the general counsel, said it had found “reason to believe” violations of campaign finance law were made “knowingly and wilfully” by the Trump campaign. The report said that Cohen’s $130,000 payment to Daniels was far in excess of the legal limit for individual contributions of $2,700.
• “It’s all about Election Interference. Sad! …. This is done for purposes of hurting the opponent of the worst president in the history of our country.” According to 5 different polls done over the past years, Trump comes in anywhere between a ranking of 41 to last place at 45. President Biden, in the two most recent polls [others prior came before his presidency] ranks him 14 and 19.

An Arizona grand jury indicted seven attorneys or aides affiliated with Trump’s 2020 presidential campaign as well as 11 Arizona Republicans on felony charges related to their alleged efforts to subvert President Biden’s 2020 victory in the state, according to an announcement by the state attorney general. Those indicted include former Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, attorneys Rudy Giuliani, Jenna Ellis, John Eastman and Christina Bobb, top campaign adviser Boris Epshteyn and former campaign aide Mike Roman. They are accused of allegedly aiding an unsuccessful strategy to award the state’s electoral votes to Trump instead of Biden after the 2020 election. Trump was not charged, but he is described in the indictment as an unindicted co-conspirator.

[Can the bankrupt Giuliani afford a lawyer? You think Trump will do anything to help them somehow? Last I heard, he hasn’t said a word. Why? He doesn’t want to be involved with losers and anyone indicted or is in prison is a loser – except himself.]

A poll from Marist College shows Biden at 51 percent and Trump at 48 percent in a national head-to-head contest. But when you factor in third-party candidates — Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Green Party candidate Jill Stein and independent Cornel West — Biden’s lead goes to five percentage points. An NBC News poll showed a similar dynamic. While Biden trailed by two points head to head (44-46), he led by two points (39-37) when the question included the third-party candidates.

Kennedy is pulling more votes from Trump supports than Biden supporters even though Kennedy is [theoretically] from the left – well his family is. Kennedy’s image among right-leaning voters is vastly superior to his image among left-leaning ones. While Republicans like him 40 percent to 15 percent — a plus-25 split — Democrats dislike him 53-16 — a negative-37 split.

Trump’s “greatest hits” of false claims:

• He created the greatest US economy in US history (not by any metric).
• He passed the biggest tax cut in history (it ranks 8th).
• He did more for Black people than any president than Abraham Lincoln (not by any metric).
• He defeated ISIS in four weeks (it took the United States and coalition partners more than two years after he took office).
• He was the first president to impose tariffs on China (China has faced US tariffs since George Washington first enacted them in 1789).
• He increased government revenue even though he cut taxes (false).

New “hits”:

• He claims Biden was declared ‘incompetent’ to stand trial in documents case (false).
• He claims the US under Biden is a third world country where “a political person uses weaponization against his political opponent” (this from a man who already said he’d go after government employees who went against him during his various trials).
• He claims “The prison population all over the world is at the lowest point… because they’re dumping their prisoners into our country.” (false)
  He claims “They’ve let in 15 million people…” have entered the country “and they’re coming from rough places and dangerous places.” (8.5 million tried to enter the country in the 3.5 years under Biden but less than a quarter actually were allowed in).
• He claims “under Biden, we have a three-year inflation rate of almost 50 percent. Under me, you had no inflation.” (very inflated; cumulative inflation during Trump’s presidency was nearly 8 percent; cumulative inflation during Biden’s presidency was nearly 18.5 percent; of course a chunk of that was because of supply change issues and the like after the pandemic).
• He claims “In February alone, nearly 1 million jobs held by native-born Americans disappeared…” (it was more like 500,000).

[I’m shocked he didn’t say he personally invented the vaccine to cure COVID-19 and personally injected all Americans – whether they liked it or not. ]

More on Trump and Georgia

Donald Trump pleaded not guilty and said he’ll skip a hearing the following week in the case accusing him and others of illegally trying to overturn the results of the 2020 election in Georgia. Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee had set arraignment hearings for Trump and the 18 others charged in the case for Sept. 6. A court filing waiving arraignment means Trump won’t have to show up for that. The decision to skip an in-person appearance averts the dramatic arraignments that have accompanied the three other criminal cases Trump faces, in which Trump has been forced amid tight security into a courtroom and entered “not guilty” pleas before crowds of spectators.

At least two defendants have filed demands for a speedy trial and have asked to be tried separately from others in the case. The judge has set an Oct. 23 trial date for one of them, Kenneth Chesebro, a lawyer who worked on the coordination and execution of a plan to have 16 Georgia Republicans sign a certificate falsely stating that Trump won the state and declaring themselves the state’s “duly elected and qualified” electors.

US District Judge Tanya S. Chutkan has scheduled Trump’s Washington trial on charges of attempting to overturn the 2020 presidential election for March 4, 2024. [Schedule your time off from work then!]

John Eastman, the lawyer allegedly at the center of the unprecedented and outrageous scheme to overthrow the 2020 election, must defend a bar complaint in California that threatens to revoke his law license. At a critical hearing last week in the California bar proceedings, designated legal expert Matthew A. Seligman submitted a 91-page report that strips away any “colorable,” or legally plausible, defense that Eastman was acting in good faith in rendering advice to the now four-times-indicted Trump.

Former Trump advisor John Bolton said of Trump’s mug shot “He could of smiled, he could of been benigned. Instead he looks like a thug.” Republican candidate Nikki Haley says she doesn’t know anyone in America who “…should look at that and feel good about it” while President Joe Biden called him “a handsome guy.”

Trump said “I took a mug shot, which I never heard of the words mug shot, it’s not something they teach you at the Wharton School of Finance.” He graduated in 1968 – I guess he doesn’t remember his schooling. To this day, Trump has never allowed his academic performance there to be made public. [He’s a funny guy, isn’t he?]

“Usually mugshots, people’s faces have a neutral expression, they’re not trying to make an impression,” said an expert but not Trump.

Trump’s stare proved to be just what his campaign needed. His team wasted no time creating t-shirts, hats, mugs and bumper stickers using his mugshot over the words “NEVER SURRENDER.”

In a CBS poll among Trump voters, 71% believes what he says, compared to 63% for family and friends and just 42% for religious leaders. Most conservatives would tend to believe their religious leaders. So this is a bit odd. However, Trump may have been losing support from the Evangelists and other very staunch right wing groups.

A federal judge has determined Rudy Giuliani forfeits the defamation lawsuit from two Georgia election workers against him, a decision that could lead to significant penalties for him. Giuliani recently said he could no longer contest that he made false and defamatory statements about Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss – who are only one group of plaintiffs suing him for defamation related to his work for Trump after the 2020 election. Giuliani said he struggled to maintain his own access to his electronic records – partly because of the cost – and didn’t adequately respond to subpoenas for information from Moss and Freeman as the case moved forward.

Former Trump White House adviser Peter Navarro will not be able to argue before a jury at his contempt of Congress trial in early September that Trump asserted privilege to shield him from a House January 6 committee subpoena, US District Judge Amit P. Mehta ruled. Mehta announced the ruling after holding an evidentiary hearing recently during which Navarro testified about alleged assertions from Trump. Navarro’s criminal case was brought by the Justice Department in June 2022.

Trump has already started to work on his economic plans once he wins the election. Trump has taken to describing as the creation of a “ring around the U.S. economy,” could represent a massive escalation of global economic chaos, surpassing the international trade discord that marked much of his first administration. He is already thinking of a 10% tariff on everything coming in.

Failed Republican gubernatorial candidate Tudor Dixon said Trump advised her to “talk differently about abortion,” as she took a hard-line approach on the issue during her bid to unseat Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer last year.

Posted elsewhere:

• The “billionaire” who hides his tax returns
• The “genius” who hides his college grades
• The “businessman” who bankrupts casinos
• The “playboy” who pays for sex
• The “philanthropist” who defrauds a charity
• The “patriot” who dodged the draft
• The “innocent man” who wont testify
• The “father” who lusts after his own daughter
• The “US President” who follows Putin’s orders
• The “candidate” who doesn’t debate

No, Trump didn’t break the mug shot camera

So Donald Trump becomes the president to have his “mug shot” taken as part of his indictment in the state of Georgia legal mess.

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has asked a judge to set a trial date of March 4, 2024, for Trump and his 18 co-defendants – a proposal that would put the candidate on trial a day before he competes in the Super Tuesday primary contests. Willis also asked to schedule arraignments for the defendants for the week of September 5, according to a court filing, and says the proposed dates “do not conflict” with Trump’s other criminal cases.

The Fulton County election subversion case marks the first time release conditions for Donald Trump have included a cash bond at $200,000 and a prohibition on intimidation through social media. He’s going to have a hard time trying not to say anything in the media about the case for 6+ months or risk a loss of $200,000 plus jail time!

Former Georgia GOP chairman David Shafer, who was charged in the Fulton County election subversion indictment and led the state’s delegation of fake electors, said in a court filing that he and the other fake electors “acted at the direction of” Trump. With the filing, Shafer is attempting to move his case from state to federal court. Good luck there David.

Former Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark is seeking to move the entire Fulton County 2020 election subversion prosecution in Georgia to federal court and has asked the judge to let him avoid turning himself in to local authorities. With the submission to the US District Court of the Northern District of Georgia, Clark is raising similar arguments as Trump White House chief of staff co-defendant Mark Meadows, claiming that his status as a federal officer when he engaged in the alleged conduct that led to the charges requires the dismissal of the charges against him. [BTW, this would be similar to where Trump is being charge in New York under state charges. Trump was the so-called president at the time when that happened.] Both were rejected by the judge.

Former Trump’s ex-attorney John Eastman said that he was ethically required to advocate for Trump as a lawyer even though he and Trump were filing false information about votes in a federal court case that sought to block Georgia’s election result. As a court officer, Eastman could of refused what Trump asked knowing it was probably illegal.

Trump posted on social media that despite having won Georgia in 2016, doing a “fantastic job” as president and earning millions more votes in 2020 than he did in 2016 and more votes than a sitting president had ever received before, he had “shockingly, ‘LOST’ Georgia… All this despite winning nearby Alabama and South Carolina in Record Setting Landslides.” His claim that he won South Carolina and Alabama in record landslides is not even close to true.

Franklin D. Roosevelt won South Carolina by about 96 percentage points in 1932 and then topped it with a margin of about 97 points in 1936. Before Roosevelt, Democratic candidates won South Carolina by more than 82 points in all eight presidential elections from 1900 through 1928. Roosevelt, who earned a roughly 74-point victory in the state in 1936 and never had an Alabama margin less than 63 points between 1932 and 1944. Woodrow Wilson’s margins in the state also exceeded 50 points in both 1912 and 1916. Trump? Trump won South Carolina in 2020 by about 11.7 percentage points. Trump won Alabama in 2020 by about 25.5 percentage points. Both states were less than in 2016.

Some charges against Trump and his co-defendants require a minimum amount of time in prison. If Trump is convicted, not even Republican Gov. Brian Kemp from Georgia, with whom Trump has publicly feuded since his 2020 election loss, can pardon him of his crimes. Unlike many other states where the power of pardon rests with the governor, Georgia is also unique in that pardons are the domain of a commission appointed by the governor. According to Georgia pardon application guidelines, “a person must have completed all sentence(s) at least five years prior to applying,” and “cannot have any pending charges,” among other requirements.

Even Trump’s recorded booking weight has come under scrutiny. Trump’s booking record declared the former president’s height to be 6-foot-3 and his weight 215 pounds — nearly 30 pounds lighter than his disclosed weight at the time of his last official White House physical.

Trump skipped the first Republican presidential primary debate in Milwaukee and instead plans to post a pre-recorded interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson that will be released that night. Carlson has started a show on X, formerly called Twitter, but Trump has his Truth Social, a rival to X. It ended up on X.

In that interview, Trump suggested that the United States could see intensifying political violence, saying in a new interview that tensions in the country were reaching a boiling point. [Yes, and he has helped in adding tensions with his rhetoric.]

Trump has hit out at his once-beloved Fox News for using unflattering photos of him, including one of him looking “orange” and with his “chin pulled back”. He also accused the right-wing cable network of failing to show polling data “where I am beating [Joe] Biden, by a lot.” [A recent poll has Biden leading by 1%.]

Trump has bragged he has a “close to 100 per cent” chance of beating Biden if he faces him in the 2024 US presidential election. Trump is facing a maximum of 55 years in prison if found guilty of the four criminal charges against him related to the 6 January Capitol riot and his alleged plot to stay in power — also mocked his closest rival for the Republican nomination Ron DeSantis, who he is leading in the polls by more than 40 points.

Carlos de Oliveira, the Mar-a-Lago property manager, pleaded not guilty to multiple obstruction-related offenses tied to Trump’s alleged unlawful retention of documents after leaving office, including classified material at Trump’s Florida resort. De Oliveira asked for a trial by jury and attorneys said the discovery process should get underway in the coming weeks.

How low can you go? Rudy Giuliani can’t pay his legal bills. He made millions years ago. Trump paid a $320,000 bill already [which is surprising]. Offering $325 for a personal greeting on Cameo. Trying to sell his Manhattan joint for $6.5 million. Buying it?

[I could see Trump saying for every dollar he brings in through a PAC for a week, 10 cents would go to help poor Rudy and then give him nothing.]

Trump has also organized a dinner to help Giuliani with his lack of wealth.

Giuliani is paying some company $20,000 per month for electronic storage of his files. He is having the files stored in a readily-accessible form, so presumably in a searchable database format of some sort.

So Giuliani has claimed he is broke but still managed to come in with a private jet and a bit of an entourage.

While at hit, Trump uses his campaign jet – not a private executive jet – to fly in with his entourage. Now the campaign donors know where there money is going.

The federal grand jury in Washington that helped investigate Trump’s alleged mishandling of classified documents has ended, special counsel Jack Smith said in a court filing, which laid out new details about how the probe quietly expanded to look at alleged cover-up efforts. The 12-page filing by one of Smith’s deputies, David Harbach, comes as prosecutors and defense lawyers are sparring over the use of two grand juries to investigate Trump’s alleged hoarding of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago, his home and private club. Trump is charged with illegally retaining national defense information after leaving the White House and obstructing government efforts to retrieve the material.

Trump ultimately responsible for the insurrection

Link to the Trump Insurrection Committee’s final report [don’t print unless you want to at 845 pages!].

The House select committee investigating the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol has concluded that Donald Trump was ultimately responsible for the Trump Insurrection, laying out for the public and the Justice Department a trove of evidence for why he should be prosecuted for multiple crimes. They also recommends barring Trump from holding office again. Barring Trump from further public office is one of 11 recommendations the committee is making as a result of its investigation.

The final report includes allegations that Trump “oversaw” the legally dubious effort to put forward fake slates of electors in seven states he lost, arguing that the evidence shows he actively worked to “transmit false Electoral College ballots to Congress and the National Archives” despite concerns among his lawyers that doing so could be unlawful.

The recommendation is among the conclusions of the panel’s final report, a comprehensive overview of the bipartisan panel’s findings on how Trump and his allies sought to overturn the 2020 presidential election.

The summary describes in extensive detail how Trump tried to overpower, pressure and cajole anyone who wasn’t willing to help him overturn his election defeat – while knowing that many of his schemes were unlawful. His relentless arm-twisting included election administrators in key states, senior Justice Department leaders, state lawmakers, and others. The report even suggests possible witness tampering with the committee’s investigation.

The House committee lays out a number of criminal statutes it believes were violated in the plots to stave off Trump’s defeat and says there’s evidence for criminal referrals to the Justice Department for Trump, Trump attorney John Eastman and “others.” The report summary says there’s evidence to pursue Trump on multiple crimes, including obstruction of an official proceeding, conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to make false statements, assisting or aiding an insurrection, conspiring to injure or impede an officer and seditious conspiracy.

The committee outlines 17 findings from its investigation that underpin its reasoning for criminal referrals, including that Trump knew the fraud allegations he was pushing were false and continued to amplify them anyway. “President Trump’s decision to declare victory falsely on election night and, unlawfully, to call for the vote counting to stop, was not a spontaneous decision. It was premeditated,” the summary states.

The committee says it gathered evidence indicating that Trump “raised roughly one quarter of a billion dollars in fundraising efforts between the election and January 6th. Those solicitations persistently claimed and referred to election fraud that did not exist.”

The committee says it also has the evidence to refer Eastman on the obstruction charge, and it names him as a co-conspirator in other alleged criminal activity lawmakers have gathered evidence on. In addition, several others are named as being participants in the conspiracies the committee is linking to Trump, including then-DOJ attorney Jeffrey Clark and Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows, as well as Trump-tied lawyers Kenneth Chesebro and Rudy Giuliani.

The select committee is referring several Republican lawmakers who refused to cooperate with the investigation to the House Ethics Committee. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, as well as Reps. Jim Jordan of Ohio, Scott Perry of Pennsylvania and Andy Biggs of Arizona, could all face possible sanctions for their refusal to comply with committee subpoenas.

The January 6 committee identifies a little known pro-Trump attorney as being the original architect of the legally dubious fake electors plan: Kenneth Chesebro. Conservative attorney John Eastman authored a now-infamous memo detailing step-for-step how then-Vice President Mike Pence could theoretically overturn the 2020 election results. But the committee points to Chesebro, a known associate of Eastman, as being responsible for creating the fake electors plot.

“The fake elector plan emerged from a series of legal memorandum written by an outside legal advisor to the Trump Campaign: Kenneth Chesebro,” the report says. It was previously known that Chesebro was involved in the fake electors scheme, but the committee’s conclusion about his leadership role is new.

“These folks don’t get it that when they come after me, people who love freedom rally around me. It strengthens me. What doesn’t kill me makes me stronger,” Trump responded to the potential charges on Truth Social. “The Fake charges made by the highly partisan Unselect Committee of January 6th have already been submitted, prosecuted, and tried in the form of Impeachment Hoax # 2. I WON convincingly. Double Jeopardy anyone!” Double jeopardy???

“The people understand that the Democratic Bureau of Investigation, the DBI, are out to keep me from running for president because they know I’ll win and that this whole business of prosecuting me is just like impeachment was — a partisan attempt to sideline me and the Republican Party.” We assume he means the FBI. Surprisingly he didn’t say something like “the greatest hoax in history” or maybe “the greatest hoax in the universe”. The Plutonians and the Martians would of objected.

Norm Eisen, a senior fellow in governance studies at The Brookings Institution, says that there’s enough there for the committee to refer Trump for charges on a conspiracy to defraud the United States, under 18 U.S.C. 371 in the federal criminal code. In addition, Eisen believes that Trump’s actions just ahead of the Capitol attack, in which he encouraged a crowd he knew was armed to go to the Capitol building to stop the certification of election results, may have violated 18. U.S.C. 1512, by being part of a conspiracy to use force to prevent an official proceeding.

Trump’s former attorney Michael Cohen said that he believes Trump thought about using classified documents to extort the United States government or give them over to North Korea, Saudi Arabia and Iran. “I believe he was going to use it for two things, one to extort the United States government in these indictments and potential incarcerations by stating, ‘I have documents that involve national security, and that are detrimental to the national security of the country,'” Cohen said.

Stefan Passantino, the top ethics attorney in the Trump White House, is a lawyer who allegedly advised his then-client, former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson, to tell the committee that she did not recall details that she did. Trump’s Save America political action committee funded Passantino and his law firm Elections LLC, including paying for his representation of Hutchinson. The committee report notes the lawyer did not tell his client who was paying for the legal services.

The House Ways and Means Committee voted 24 to 16 to release Trump’s tax returns, capping a protracted legal and political battle that began when Trump was in the Oval Office. Democrats have for more than three years pushed to make Trump’s tax returns public, and the documents were finally made available to the Ways and Means Committee late last month after the Supreme Court denied a last attempt by Trump to withhold the records. Some portions of the tax returns will be kept internal. An articles showed that Trump paid just US$750 in federal income taxes in 2017 and 2018. For someone who’s salary was $400,000 per year and probably paid for nothing as the government paid his expenses, you wonder how he paid so little in federal taxes.

“This unprecedented leak by lameduck Democrats is proof they are playing a political game they are losing,” his campaign said in a statement. “If this injustice can happen to President Trump, it can happen to all Americans without cause.” Except about all Americans aren’t hiding behind teams of lawyers who are to block their tax returns from going public and about all of them have nothing to hide.

There is little-known provision in the IRS’s internal rules that has mandated tax audits for sitting presidents since 1977. The panel found that the program was effectively dormant under the Trump administration.

“Our concern is that, if taken, this committee action will set a terrible precedent that unleashes a dangerous new political weapon that reaches far beyond the former president,” said one Republican. More like if Trump had nothing to hide, he should of released his taxes prior and during his term.

Remember the Trump’s NFT trading cards? Just days after the $99 cards were worth $330. Trump had sold 4500 trading cards – so almost $450,000.

Happy Holidays!

Trump will be forced to answer questions

Donald Trump must answer questions under oath in New York state’s civil investigation into his business practices, Judge Arthur Engoron ruled. In addition, his two eldest children, Ivanka and Donald Trump Jr., to comply with subpoenas issued in December by New York Attorney General Letitia James. Trump and his two children must sit for depositions within 21 days, Engoron said following a two-hour hearing with lawyers for the Trumps and James’ office.

John Eastman, a law professor who worked with Trump, has turned over thousands of pages of emails to the House select committee investigating the Trump Insurrection but is withholding thousands of others. Eastman helped craft Trump’s false argument that the 2020 election was stolen, has turned over nearly 8,000 pages of emails to the committee while holding back about 11,000 pages because it is what he calls privileged material. Eastman still has to sort through an additional 48,000 pages.

Eastman previously refused to provide information to the House when it subpoenaed him directly for testimony and documents. He had claimed his Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination as a response to nearly 150 questions and to his document subpoena.

President Joe Biden has rejected a request by Trump to shield White House visitor logs from the committee investigating the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, including appointments for individuals granted entry to the White House complex that day. White House counsel Dana Remus wrote Biden has determined that asserting executive privilege “is not in the best interests of the United States, and therefore is not justified, as to these records and portions of records.”

At a taped message in South Korea, Trump alleged that a recent “return to escalation” that has seen North Korean leader Kim Jong Un launch missile tests would “never have happened if I were president.” Ya? North Korea restarted their testing in 2019.

Trump’s long-time accounting firm, Mazars, informed the Trump Organization last week that it should no longer rely on nearly 10 years’ worth of financial statements and that they would no longer be their accountants, citing a conflict of interest. “We have come to this conclusion based, in part, upon the filings made by the New York Attorney General on January 18, 2022, our own investigation, and information received from internal and external sources,” Mazars wrote in a letter to the Trump Organization chief legal officer, advising them to no longer rely on financial statements ending June 2011 through June 2020. Mazars included a two-page introduction that stated Trump was responsible for valuations, but they noted that in many ways they did not comply with US accounting rules.

Right away, a Trump Organization spokesman said “Mazars’ work was performed in accordance with all applicable accounting standards and principles and that such statements of financial condition do not contain any material discrepancies… This confirmation effectively renders the investigations by the DA and AG moot.” What confirmation? Mazars said the ten years are unreliable!

The House Oversight Committee is asking the General Services Administration to consider terminating the lease for the Trump International Hotel in Washington, DC, before Trump’s business can sell it, in light of allegations that the Trump Organization submitted false financial statements to the federal government. The Democratic-led committee said false statements or certifications may constitute a breach of the lease of the Old Post Office, the historic, government-owned building the Trump Hotel occupies.

How much that the Trump and his people are a bunch of liars? Pointing to a “June 30, 2014 Statement of Financial Condition” he that said he was worth $5.8 billion. But when Trump declared his candidacy in 2015 [so maybe a year later], he said that a “Summary of Net Worth as of June 30, 2014″ put his total wealth at $8.7 billion. Almost $3 billion more. A month after that, Trump’s campaign put out another statement on his wealth saying “As of this date, Mr. Trump’s net worth is in excess of TEN BILLION DOLLARS.” Forbes estimates Trump’s wealth as of September 2021 has a net worth of $2.5 billion. If so, where did $7.5 billion in 7 years? They also estimated he was worth maybe $4.5 billion in 2015.

My Pillow CEO, US election fraud conspiracy theorist and staunch Trump supporter Mike Lindell, as well as a truck full of “10,000 pillows,” were denied entry into Canada this week while trying to join the Siege of Ottawa protesters. Lindell and a fringe broadcast videographer were enroute to Ottawa to distribute “pillows and Bibles” to convoy protesters. Lindell was with one truck. No way enough to fill 10,000 pillows as well as bibles and there are not even that many protesters. Lindell was turned back because he was not fully vaccinated [I don’t think he even has a vaccination] and did not have a negative PCR test in hand. The US trucker did not have a valid pre-arrival PCR test either.

“We’ve been on we’ve been trying to get my trucks into Canada… we’ve been trying to get to Ottawa,” Lindell said in a video posted to his media website. “The trucker) has been waiting on this permit that they made up out of the blue, this new permit thing,” he said. Lindell denied he was blocked at the border. Ya. Sure.

Mark Finchem, the Arizona secretary of state candidate backed by Trump, spread dangerous misinformation about the COVID-19 pandemic on social media, calling the vaccine a “crime against humanity,” implying it was a “bio-weapon” and sharing an article last August that suggested COVID-19 did not exist in the Canadian province of Alberta.

Republican and Republican-leaning voters are about evenly split between wanting their party to nominate Trump again [50%] or wanting a different candidate [49%]. A majority of Republicans [54%] favored Trump, compared with 38% of Republican-leaning independents. Continued support for the former president within the GOP is also particularly strong among White voters without a college degree [60%] and those who falsely claim Biden’s 2020 victory was illegitimate [64%].

Biden isn’t doing as well either in the survey, conducted in January and February for SSRS, which found that 45% of Democratic and Democratic-leaning voters wanted to see the party renominate Biden in 2024, while 51% preferred a different candidate. There’s more support in the party for Biden among voters 45 and older [52% of whom want to see him as the nominee again], voters of color [55%] and voters without a college degree [51%]. There’s also a gap between the 48% of self-identified Democrats who want to see Biden renominated and the third of Democratic-leaning independents who felt the same.