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. ]

Trump booted from Colorado ballot, other states could follow

The Colorado Supreme Court removed Donald Trump from the state’s 2024 ballot, ruling that he isn’t an eligible presidential candidate because of the 14^th Amendment’s “insurrectionist ban.” The ruling was 4-3 and will be placed on hold pending appeal until January 4^th.

In November, a Colorado judge issued a ruling that concluded that Trump “engaged in an insurrection” on that day — but the decision fell just short of removing Trump from the state’s 2024 ballot based on the 14^th Amendment’s insurrectionist ban. The Colorado decision is expected to be appealed to the US Supreme Court, regardless of the ruling.

[The ruling says the primary ballot. It’s like saying you are guilty of killing someone. So you can’t run in the primary but no problem for the actual November election.]

Surprisingly or not, Republican candidates Ron DeSantis, Nikki Haley and Vivek Ramaswamy are all siding with Trump even though they could have an easier time winning the nomination if Trump was out. Haley did give the excuse that she wanted to win fair and square. The other two didn’t give much of a reason. Chris Christie and Asa Hutchinson, both longtime anti-Trumpers were in favor of the decision.

Some Republican’s are bashing the court because they are “unelected”. Not true. The governor appoints them but they still have to win state-wide elections. You would figure the Republicans would want judges with no affiliation [i.e. unbiased].

[In a Democrat leaning state, the Republicans would probably bash the court because of there are more Democrat judges than Republicans. Have they heard of the US Supreme Court?]

Trump’s lawyers asked the Supreme Court to reject special counsel Jack Smith’s request to bypass a federal appeals court and take up the case deciding if Trump, as a president, is immune from charges related to election subversion efforts after his 2020 loss to Joe Biden. The move echoed what Trump’s legal strategy has been in all of his criminal cases to date – to delay the proceedings, ideally beyond the 2024 election.

[While he was president at the time, he was the outgoing president as he had lost the election.]

There is a recording of a call by Trump made to two Michigan county officials in 2020, urging them not to certify the election results from Detroit. The call was previously known and condemned at the time by election experts and Michigan Democrats, who said it was a stunning attempt by a sitting president to pressure local officials to interfere with an election. RNC chairwoman Ronna McDaniel, who was also on the call told the officials, regarding the certification: “Do not sign it. … We will get you attorneys.”

Trump asked, “How can anybody sign” the election certification “when you have more votes than people,” referring to his false claim that large numbers of dead people voted in Michigan. 878,102 people voted for Trump in Wayne County [which includes Detroit], which had a population of over 1.7 million, according to the US Census Bureau.

Laughably, Trump campaign spokesperson/lackey Steven Cheung said in a statement that “all of President Trump’s actions were taken in furtherance of his duty as President of the United States to faithfully take care of the laws and ensure election integrity.”

[Could this lead to another indictment?]

Trump quoted Russian President Vladimir Putin to attack President Joe Biden as a “threat to democracy” and doubled down on language condemned for its ties to White supremacist rhetoric, saying at a campaign event in New Hampshire that immigrants are “poisoning the blood of our country.” Trump said “Even Vladimir Putin … says that Biden’s — and this is a quote – ‘politically motivated persecution of his political rival is very good for Russia because it shows the rottenness of the American political system, which cannot pretend to teach others about democracy.’” Trump also praised two other authoritarian foreign leaders, calling Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban “highly respected” and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un “very nice.”

When asked about it, Republican nominee, Ron DeSantis, said he didn’t hear about it. Sure Ronnie.

[With Trump, the US is heading more and more to the far right.]

Trump is asking a federal appeals court to reconsider its decision earlier this month largely upholding the gag order issued against him in his federal election subversion case. Trump, in a filing to the US DC Circuit Court of Appeals, asked the three-judge panel that handled the issue to either rehear it or for the issue to be considered en banc, meaning the case would be heard by the full court. Trump’s attorneys also asked the court to temporarily freeze the gag order while it considers their request for the case to be reheard.

Trump said at a rally pushing back on recent criticism that his rhetoric has echoed Adolf Hitler, telling a crowd in Iowa that he’s never read “Mein Kampf.” This was regarding his comments about immigrants “poisoning the blood of our country” sounding a bit like the Nazis.

[This coming from a man that has lied constantly.]

In an 1990 Vanity Fair report, Ivana Trump told her lawyer her ex-husband Donald use to keep Hitler speeches beside bed. Yikes.

Trump and Donald Trump Jr. have come to the defense of a one time social media influencer, Douglass Mackey, who has been convicted of election interference and has a well-known history of pushing deeply racist, antisemitic, anti-Muslim and homophobic content online. Trump accused President Biden of seeking to jail Mackey for “sharing a joking meme about Hillary Clinton several years ago. Nobody ever heard of anything like that.” Nope.

Mackey’s Twitter account at the time featured a slew of hateful content and he was ranked as 107th in a list of “election influencers” in the runup to the 2016 election, according to an analysis conducted by the MIT Media Lab. Mackey was charged seven days after Biden took office and convicted earlier this year. He was sentenced to seven months in prison but is currently out pending an appeal of his case.

In his New York fraud case, Judge Arthur Engoron issued a written ruling denying Trump’s request for a verdict in his favor in a lawsuit brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James. Engoron wrote that the “most glaring” flaw of Trump’s argument was to assume that the testimony provided by Eli Bartov, an accounting professor at New York University, and other expert witnesses would be accepted by the court as “true and accurate…. Bartov is a tenured professor, but the only thing his testimony proves is that for a million or so dollars, some experts will say whatever you want them to say,” Engoron wrote. Bartov was paid $900,000 for his testimony.

Bartov said there was “no evidence whatsoever of any accounting fraud.” But Engoron, in his ruling, noted that he had already ruled that there were “numerous obvious errors” in Trump’s financial statements. “By doggedly attempting to justify every misstatement, Professor Bartov lost all credibility,” the judge wrote. Trump took to his defense, calling Engoron’s comments about Bartov a “great insult to a man of impeccable character and qualifications” as he excoriated the judge’s decision.

A federal appeals court has rejected former Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows’ attempt to move his Georgia election interference criminal case to federal court. The opinion of the three-judge panel of the 11th US Circuit Court of Appeals, delivered by a conservative jurist who appointed to the court by former President George W. Bush.

Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, the two Georgia election workers who won a nearly $150 million verdict against Trump’s former lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, for defamation, have sued him again, asking a federal judge to permanently prohibit him from lying about them. Giuliani has since declared bankruptcy.

Trump losing allies

Donald Trump’s former chief of staff, Mark Meadows, was granted immunity by special counsel Jack Smith and has met with federal prosecutors multiple times in their investigation into the efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election. Meadows told investigators he did not believe the election was stolen and that Trump was being “dishonest” in claiming victory shortly after polls closed in 2020. While the exact terms of Meadows’ deal with prosecutors are not clear, similar deals traditionally allow a person with knowledge about an ongoing investigation immunity from prosecution if they cooperate fully with investigators, including by giving testimony under oath.

[This also means that Meadow’s book is filled with lies – as we all knew. Will the book be pulled? Thrown into the $5 book bins? Will buyers burn their books or ask for some type of refund?]

In a slew of court filings, attorneys for Trump filed several motions asking the judge overseeing the election subversion case in Washington, DC, to dismiss the charges against the former president on grounds that, among other things, they violate his First Amendment rights and are the product of a “selective and vindictive prosecution.” “Countless millions believe, as President Trump consistently has and currently does, that fraud and irregularities pervaded the 2020 Presidential Election,” his attorneys wrote. “As the indictment itself alleges, President Trump gave voice to these concerns and demanded that politicians in a position to restore integrity to our elections not just talk about the problem, but investigate and resolve it.” [Good luck there.]

In the $250 million lawsuit by New York Attorney General Letitia James, Trump’s former attorney and “fixer” Michael Cohen testified Tuesday he and former Trump Org. CFO Allen Weisselberg would manipulate the statements of financial conditions, the documents at the center of the civil fraud trial, based on what Trump wanted his net worth to reflect. Cohen testified that Trump would tell him and Weisselberg what he wanted his total net worth to be.

“He has a horrible record,” Trump said outside the courtroom as he exited for a lunch break. “It’s not going to end up very good for him. We’re not worried at all about his testimony.”

[This goes back to previous comments that Trump has said. If the individual did such a lousy job, why was the individual part of his team for so long and not fired immediately?]

Ivanka Trump must take the witness stand in the civil fraud case against her father, her brothers and their family business, Judge Arthur Engoron rule. The ruling came weeks into the trial of New York Attorney General Letitia James’ lawsuit against Trump, sons Don Jr. and Eric, the Trump Organization and some executives. Ivanka Trump’s lawyer had told the judge that state lawyers “just don’t have jurisdiction over her.”

The Republican National Committee was caught off guard when Trump’s campaign announced that it would hold a counter programming event the same night as the third RNC debate, just down the road from the Miami arena where other Republican candidates would be facing off. The decision to host what appears to be a competing event in the same area has rubbed some Republicans the wrong way.

Allies close to Trump attempted to justify the decision, pointing to Trump’s public frustration that the RNC is continuing to hold debates despite the wide margin he has over the rest of the field. Earlier this month, Trump’s top campaign advisers called on the RNC to “immediately cancel the upcoming debate in Miami and end all future debates in order to refocus its manpower and money” on defeating Democrats in 2024.

[Trump and his huge ego things he won the nomination – so why bother having a debate. So much for democracy. Very authoritarian.]

Former Trump campaign lawyer Jenna Ellis pleaded guilty in the Georgia election subversion case and will cooperate with Fulton County prosecutors – the third guilty plea in the past week. At an unscheduled hearing in Atlanta, Ellis pleaded guilty to one count of aiding and abetting false statements, a felony stemming from the election lies that Ellis and other Trump lawyers peddled to Georgia lawmakers in December 2020. She was sentenced to five years of probation and ordered to pay $5,000 in restitution. Ellis has agreed to testify on behalf of the prosecution at future trials.

Ellis delivered a tearful statement to the judge pleading guilty, disavowing her participation in Trump’s unprecedented attempts to overturn the 2020 election. “If I knew then what I knew now, I would have declined to represent Donald Trump in these post-election challenges,” she said before the judge.

[More like she wanted to be famous or have plenty of money because she knew this would keep her busy. Expect Trump to after her – maybe saying she was never his lawyer! See below.]

The plea from Ellis implicated former Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani in a state crime – lying to Georgia legislators by peddling false voter-fraud theories. This comes one week after Kenneth Chesebro implicated Giuliani in the fake electors scheme that tried to subvert the Electoral College process. Giuliani denies wrongdoing. Ellis admitted that she “intentionally aided and abetted” Giuliani and another Trump lawyer, Ray Smith, in “in knowingly, wilfully, and unlawfully making … false statements to members of the Georgia Senate.”

Trump claimed Sidney Powell was “never” his attorney after she pleaded guilty in the Georgia election subversion case. Despite Trump’s claims, Powell was briefly an official member of Trump’s legal team in 2020, and Trump stayed in contact with her on election-related matters even after she was ousted from his campaign. “MS. POWELL WAS NOT MY ATTORNEY, AND NEVER WAS. In fact, she would have been conflicted.” She went on to file frivolous lawsuits across the country, in hopes of overturning the election results.

Trump’s attempt to distance himself from Powell comes after she agreed to cooperate with Fulton County prosecutors and testify against her co-defendants in the case, potentially including Trump. Trump publicly announced on November 15, 2020, that he “added” Powell to his “truly great team” of lawyers working on the election.

Trump was abruptly called to the witness stand and then fined $10,000 after the judge in his civil fraud trial said Trump had violated a gag order. It was the second time in less than a week that Trump was penalized for his out-of-court comments. Before imposing the latest fine, Judge Arthur Engoron summoned Trump from the defense table to testify about his comment to reporters hours earlier about “a person who’s very partisan sitting alongside” the judge.

Mar-a-Lago member and Australian billionaire Anthony Pratt said then-President Trump told him about his private calls with the leaders of Ukraine and Iraq. Reports revealed previously unknown recordings of Pratt candidly recalling his conversations with Trump – and build on existing allegations that Trump overshared sensitive government material.

At a speech in New Hampshire, Trump said:

• Trump declaring that there were no terrorist attacks in the US during his presidency: Justice Department alleged that a mass murder in New York City in 2017, which killed eight people and injured others, was a terrorist attack carried out in support of ISIS. As well, Justice Department also alleged that a 2019 attack by an extremist member of Saudi Arabia’s military, which killed three US service members and injured others at a military base in Florida.
• Trump claimed that Nikki Haley had proposed the US to take in a large number of refugees from Gaza: Haley never said anywhere in her comments on CNN that she wanted the US to take in refugees from Gaza.
  [Of course there were others but these are the major lies.]

Trump was mostly quiet this week, a rarity

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee ruled that Donald Trump and 16 of his co-defendants won’t have to go to trial in October with two defendants who have sought a speedy trial, effectively denying an Atlanta-area prosecutor’s bid to try all 19 together in the sprawling criminal case alleging interference in Georgia’s 2020 presidential election. He could move to sever additional cases but said for now that former Trump campaign attorneys Kenneth Chesebro and Sidney Powell will stand trial beginning Oct. 23. He did not issue a trial date for Trump and 16 other associates, but he denied a bid by former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and others seeking to pause proceedings while their efforts to move their cases to federal court play out.

Justice Department prosecutors want US District Judge Tanya Chutkan to reel in Trump’s public statements in the federal 2020 election interference case, asking Chutkan to place a court order limiting what he can say. The Justice Department says the order is needed to protect the integrity of his trial in March. Trump has already been ordered not to intimidate potential witnesses or talk to them about the facts of the case. In making their argument, prosecutors pointed to false public statements Trump previously made around the 2020 vote “to erode public faith in the administration of the election and intimidate individuals who refuted his lies.”

Recently, Trump’s legal team asked Chutkan to recuse herself, citing comments that she made in cases involving January 6, 2021, rioters. Chutkan has long been outspoken about the riot at the Capitol – calling the violence an assault on American democracy and warning of future danger from political violence. But Smith’s team argued that Trump had taken the judge’s comments “out of context”.

In a speech in the hot bed of South Dakota, Trump accused his possible 2024 opponent, President Joe Biden, of ordering his indictment on 91 charges across four criminal cases as a form of election interference. “I don’t think there’s ever been a darkness around our nation like there is now,” Trump said, in a dystopian speech in which he accused Democrats of allowing an “invasion” of migrants over the southern border and of trying to restart COVID “hysteria.” His authoritarian style speeches are the darkness in the nation. Hysteria? Where?

A Republican election lawyer, Jason Torchinsky, with ties to three of Trump’s GOP primary opponents has joined a crowded field of individuals and groups exploring whether Trump can be kept off the ballot for his role in fomenting the violent attack on the US Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. [Trump will claim that it is a witch hunt that three leading opponents are out to get him.]

X [formerly Twitter} turned over at least 32 direct messages from Trump’s account to special counsel Jack Smith earlier this year as part of the federal election subversion investigation. In seeking the messages, prosecutors specifically argued that Trump posed a risk of tampering with evidence. Much of Trump’s efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss played out publicly, including on Trump’s X account, where he promoted bogus claims of mass fraud and urged government officials to disrupt certification of the results. But investigators were also able to access private records associated with the account, though it is not clear exactly how the messages have informed the investigation.

Trump claims he doesn’t know who gave Dr. Anthony Fauci a presidential commendation that Trump awarded him. On January 19, 2021, Trump awarded Fauci and 51 other people who served on the Operation Warp Speed task force during the COVID-19 pandemic presidential commendations. Later Trump and other Republicans came after Fauci for what they claimed that Fauci caused problems.

Alyssa Farah Griffin, who was Trump’s White House communications director, said that these commendations would not have been awarded in Trump’s name without his approval. Stephanie Grisham, who served as Trump’s White House press secretary and communications director in 2019 and 2020 and then as first lady Melania Trump’s chief of staff into 2021, said the same thing.

Trump said that he discussed pardoning himself in the final days of his presidency but dismissed the option to do so. “I said, ‘The last thing I’d ever do is give myself a pardon,’” the former president said. The concept of a president pardoning himself has never been tested. Trump wasn’t charged with any crimes while in office.

Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, came to criticizing Trump’s conduct said that “we need to leave the negativity of the past behind us” as she promoted herself as the exemplar of a new generation of leadership. [Haley keeps on flip flopping. Pro-Trump one week, anti-Trump the next.]

A recent poll says that only 28% of Republicans thought Biden legitimately won sufficient votes to win the 2020 election. In another poll, not surprisingly, most Republicans think Biden is involved with his son’s dealings.

Trump has hit out at Meghan, Duchess of Sussex and accused her of treating the late Queen Elizabeth with “disrespect” and admitted he “disagrees so much” with the way she and husband Prince Harry have conducted themselves since stepping down as senior royals and moving to the US three years ago. Ahead of the Trump’s election victory in 2016, Meghan branded Trump “divisive” and “misogynistic”. “I’d love to debate her. I would love it. I disagree so much with what they’re doing.” He has no issue of debating her who is not in politics but not his fellow Republican nominees? His anger never ends….

Trump says he wants to testify – should be fun

Donald Trump says that he wants to testify at the trial in Fulton County. [You think he will? He is a narcissist with this huge ego. So that part says he will. However, his lawyers will tell him not to do as he has a very good chance of perjuring himself or get out of line.]

The Fulton County district attorney’s office said it’s planned a four months-long trial with more than 150 witnesses, while defense attorneys for two of the defendants, pro-Trump lawyers Kenneth Chesebro and Sidney Powell, argued their cases should be severed from the other defendants.

The state judge presiding over Trump’s election subversion case, Scott McAfee, denied the motion for Chesebro and Powell – who have both filed to hold a speedy trial – to sever their cases from each other, but he was skeptical of the district attorney’s desire to hold a trial for all 19 defendants beginning next month.

[To make sure they have enough room, maybe hold the trial at the Atlanta–Fulton County Stadium.]

An Atlanta-area special grand jury that spent months investigating alleged 2020 election interference in Georgia by Trump and his allies agreed Trump should be indicted in the case and also recommended charging one of Trump’s closest associates, Sen. Lindsey Graham, and 37 other people — a far larger group than a prosecutor ultimately charged. The recommendations were contained in a 26-page final report presented in January to Fulton County District Attorney Fani T. Willis and made public by a judge.

Special counsel Jack Smith [“Saint Jack” to some] is still pursuing his investigation into efforts to overturn the 2020 election a month after indicting Trump for orchestrating a broad conspiracy to remain in power. Smith is focusing on how money raised off baseless claims of voter fraud was used to fund attempts to breach voting equipment in several states won by President Biden.

Prosecutors have focused their questions on the role of former Trump lawyer Sidney Powell. Powell’s non-profit, Defending the Republic, hired forensics firms that ultimately accessed voting equipment in four swing states won by Biden: Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Arizona.

Trump trade adviser Peter Navarro has been convicted of contempt of Congress for two charges for not complying to a subpoena from the House select committee investigating the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol. Each charges carries a range of 30 days to a year [very unlikely] plus a fine. Navarro will already said [not surprisingly] that he will appeal.

Just before his press conference after the announcement, Navarro had a slight run-in with an anti-Trump demonstrator where he tried twice to pull down her sign. [She may have been hoping that he’d grab her which could lead to an assault charge – all this on camera.]

Former Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows has filed his notice of appeal to the US 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in his bid to move his Georgia criminal case to federal court. “When questioned about the scope of his authority, Meadows was unable to explain the limits of his authority, other than his inability to stump for the President or work on behalf of the campaign,” the judge wrote, saying he would give Meadows’ testimony on that topic “less weight” than the other evidence. Jones also cited Meadows’ acknowledgement that the lawyers he included in an infamous 2021 phone call with Georgia’s secretary of state were working for Trump or his campaign — not the government.

A liberal group filed a lawsuit to bar Trump from the primary ballot in Colorado, arguing he is ineligible to run for the White House again under a rarely used clause in the US Constitution aimed at candidates who have supported an “insurrection.” The lawsuit, citing the 14th Amendment, is likely the initial step in a legal challenge that seems destined for the US Supreme Court. The complaint was filed on behalf of six Republican and unaffiliated Colorado voters by the group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.

South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem endorsed Trump at a campaign rally in her home state. There are rumors going around that she is hoping that Trump pick her as his vice presidential running mate when he wins the nomination. This of course goes against the norm as the running mate tends to be from a state where it could flip to either party and where possible from the other side of the country where the presidential candidate is from. Picking Noem would be twice against the norm as Pence was from Indiana and more conservative than Trump [or Noem].

Rudy Giuliani, the former New York mayor and onetime attorney to Trump, owes an estimated $5 million in legal fees, a debt that Giuliani hopes to eat into at a fundraiser at Trump’s Bedminster golf club. Giuliani is expected to take in more than $1 million for his legal defense fund at a $100,000-a-plate fundraiser hosted by Trump. It is the first of two fundraisers Trump is expected to sponsor for Giuliani. There are estimates that Giuliani has lost between $10-$20 million in business because of his work for Trump.

Mar-a-Lago IT worker Yuscil Taveras has struck a cooperation agreement with the special counsel’s office in the federal case over Trump’s handling of classified documents, Taveras’ former defense attorney said in a new court filing.

Taveras struck the deal with prosecutors after he was threatened with prosecution, defense attorney Stanley Woodward wrote in the filing. Taveras is referred to in the filing and in the superseding indictment as “Trump Employee 4.”

Federal Judge Lewis Kaplan ruled that the jury hearing E. Jean Carroll’s defamation lawsuit will only need to decide how much money Trump will have to pay her, after the judge found him was liable for making defamatory statements. Kaplan said that a federal jury’s verdict earlier this year against Trump will carry over to the defamation case set to go to trial in January involving statements Trump made in 2019 about Carroll’s sexual assault allegations.

Carroll, a former magazine columnist, alleged Trump raped her in a Bergdorf Goodman department store in the mid-1990s and then defamed her when he denied her claim. In May 2023, after a two-week trial, a jury found Trump sexually abused Carroll and defamed her when he said in 2022 that he didn’t rape her, didn’t know her, and that she wasn’t his “type.” In that case, the jury awarded Carroll $5 million in damages.

So President Biden visited Maui and Florida and didn’t throw paper towels at anyone.

Trump’s media start-up, Truth Social, back in announced in October 2021 that it planned to merge with a Miami-based company called Digital World Acquisition and would close within 12 to 18 months. With the $300 million Digital World had already raised from investors, Trump Media & Technology Group, creator of the pro-Trump social network Truth Social, pledged then that the merger would create a tech titan worth $875 million at the start and, depending on the stock’s performance, up to $1.7 billion later.

With the merger stalled for months, Digital World is fast approaching a Sept. 8 deadline for the merger to close and has scheduled a shareholder meeting in hopes of getting enough votes to extend the deadline another year. If the vote fails, Digital World will be required by law to liquidate and return $300 million to its shareholders, leaving Trump’s company with nothing from the transaction. Digital World’s share price, which peaked in its first hours at $175, has since fallen to about $14.

Digital World’s efforts to merge with Trump Media have been troubled almost from the start:

• allegations that it began its conversations with Trump’s company before they were permitted under SPAC rules
• the company agreed to pay an $18 million settlement to resolve charges that it had misled investors and given false information to the Securities and Exchange Commission
• its chief executive was terminated by the board
• a former board member was arrested on charges of insider trading

Trump indicted for a fourth time

Donald Trump and 18 allies were indicted in Georgia over their efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss in the state, with prosecutors using a statute normally associated with mobsters to accuse Trump, lawyers and other aides of a “criminal enterprise” to keep him in power. The nearly 100-page indictment details dozens of acts by Trump or his allies to undo his defeat, including beseeching Georgia’s Republican secretary of state to find enough votes for him to win the battleground state; harassing an election worker who faced false claims of fraud; and attempting to persuade Georgia lawmakers to ignore the will of voters and appoint a new slate of electoral college electors favorable to Trump.

The indictment from Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis included 18 defendants in addition to Trump, 41 charges in total and 30 unindicted co-conspirators.

The charge, a violation of the Georgia Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, or RICO, acts as an umbrella over several allegedly criminal actions the group took to advance their so-called enterprise. Willis alleged that the 19 co-defendants “engaged in a criminal racketeering enterprise to overturn Georgia’s presidential election result.” RICO was created under the Nixon administration and is generally used against the Mafia and similar organizations. Unlike federal RICO charges, state charges in Georgia just require two charges to be found guilt under RICO. In addition those found guilty via RICO don’t have to have a direct connection from the head of the enterprise. For example, defendant C got his orders from defendant B who got it from defendant A but defendant C never communicated with defendant A.

Other defendants include former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows; Trump attorney and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani; and a Trump administration Justice Department official, Jeffrey Clark, who advanced Trump’s efforts to undo his election loss in Georgia. Other lawyers who supported legally dubious ideas aimed at overturning the results, including John Eastman, Sidney Powell and Kenneth Chesebro, were also charged.

Willis said the defendants would be permitted to voluntarily surrender by noon Aug. 25. She also said she plans to seek a trial date within six months and that she intends to try the defendants collectively.

In one particularly brazen episode, it also outlines a plot involving one of his lawyers to access voting machines in a rural Georgia county and steal data from a voting machine company.

In Jan. 2, 2021, in call in which Trump urged Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to “find” the 11,780 votes needed to overturn his election loss. That call, prosecutors said, violated a Georgia law against soliciting a public official to violate their oath. It also charges Trump with making false statements and writings for a series of claims he made to Raffensperger and other state election officials, including that up to 300,000 ballots “were dropped mysteriously into the rolls” in the 2020 election, that more than 4,500 people voted who weren’t on registration lists and that a Fulton County election worker, Ruby Freeman, was a “professional vote scammer.”

Negotiations between Trump’s lawyers and Willis’ office over the details of his surrender are expected to continue. This means Trump’s surrender is expected before the August 25 deadline.

Trump’s attorneys slammed the indictment, saying in a statement that the grand jury presentation was “one sided” [aren’t they supposed to be?] and the events of Monday “shocking and absurd.” [Shocking? I think they knew what they did. Absurd? Up to them to prove that.]

Republican allies once again quickly rallied to Trump’s defence. “Americans see through this desperate sham,” House Speaker Kevin McCarthy wrote on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.

Of those Republicans running for the presidential nomination, Asa Hutchinson said the indictment was legitimate. Former Vice-President Mike Pence couldn’t figure out where he stood with his comments and the rest said the indictment was politically related. Surprisingly Chris Christie said indicting Trump wasn’t necessary because of the federal indictment but the other 18 co-defendants deserve it.

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 Republican presidential 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.

Not surprisingly, the Trump campaign came out with an ad that targets Willis with dishonesty, racist [!!!], high crime in Atlanta [it’s gone down] and other comments. [I’m wondering how the judge in this trial will handle that.]

Names, photographs, social media profiles and even the home addresses purportedly belonging to members of the Fulton County grand jury that voted to indict former Trump and 18 co-defendants are circulating on social media – with experts saying that some anonymous users are calling for violence against them. The names being circulated on these sites appear to match the names of at least 13 of the 26 grand jurors that served on the panel in Fulton County. It’s unclear if those names are the actual grand jurors or just people with the same name. Some addresses appear to be wrong. The FBI is now investigating. [I am guessing those calling for violence against the grand jury are right wing. I would take the country to court for the breach.]

There have been ongoing problems with overcrowding in the Fulton County Jail where Trump and co-defendants could reside briefly, along with violence, overflowing toilets and faulty air conditioning. The sheriff called the environment a “humanitarian crisis” last month when the Justice Department opened an investigation after an inmate was found dead, covered in bedbugs and lice. And the building is falling apart, a point the sheriff tried to illustrate to county leaders by collecting hundreds of weapons fashioned from chunks of the crumbling walls and loading them into four wheelbarrows his deputies rolled into a public meeting last year.

[Well, maybe instead of building a wall to block out migrants from coming into the US from the south, maybe he should use money to spend on fixing up the jails and prisons to hold some of America’s most dangerous better.]

Trump urged US District Judge Tanya Chutkan in Washington, DC, to reject special counsel Jack Smith’s criminal election subversion case proposal for a January 2024 trial, saying he “seeks a trial calendar more rapid than most no-document misdemeanors, requesting just four months from the beginning of discovery to jury selection.” “The government’s objective is clear: to deny President Trump and his counsel a fair ability to prepare for trial. The Court should deny the government’s request,” lawyers for Trump wrote.

Can this apply to Trump? Two prominent conservative scholars have added their voices — and, more important, their extensive analysis of the relevant historical record — in support of this argument. They conclude that Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, which was adopted after the Civil War to prohibit former federal officeholders who joined the Confederacy from holding office again, applies broadly to any “insurrection or rebellion” against the United States and not solely to the South’s secession from the Union.

Trump may not attend the first GOP debate to be held in Milwaukee on Fox News. He has been throwing out different ideas for his own counter programming during the debate, including sitting down with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson and calling into the different cable news shows. Trump has publicly floated skipping either one or both of the first two Republican presidential primary debates and has repeatedly pointed to his commanding lead in the polls as one reason he is hesitant to share the stage with his GOP challengers. [More like if he doesn’t show up in a debate, he can’t really harm himself. Or he’s a coward.]

There are rumors floating around that Trump may give himself up at the same time as the GOP debate. Fox News is broadcasting the debate. Other major networks won’t be. They can all switch to Trump at the court house while Fox News is stuck with the debate.

At an Iowa fair where Florida “governor” Ron DeSantis was campaigning, Trump comes in with a group of Florida congressmen, pass out MAGA hats [surprised they didn’t charge] and left within two hours. In between, he completely ignored greeting Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds who is a Republican. Beyond criticizing Reynolds, Trump has alienated prominent Iowa conservatives such as evangelical leader Bob Vander Plaats. Steve Deace, a well-known Iowa talk show host, also endorsed DeSantis just ahead of his fair visit.

A Trumpian said “Trump is the master of trolling”. That’s not a good thing.

A group of former GOP federal judges have filed a legal brief to push for Trump’s Trump Insurrection trial to begin in January. This is to get a proper speedy trial as all Americans want for their own trial. Some of the judges were quite conservative. Not surprisingly government lawyers have no comment and the Trump legal team objects. The judges are using the Speedy Trial Act and by January, Trump will be past the so-called deadline to have a speedy trial.

Trump handed three more charges

Donald Trump faces new charges in a case accusing him of illegally possessing classified documents, with prosecutors alleging that he asked a staffer to delete camera footage at his Florida estate in an effort to obstruct a federal investigation. The indictment includes new counts of obstruction and wilful retention of national defense information, adding fresh detail to an indictment issued last month against Trump and a close aide. The additional charges came as a surprise given the escalating anticipation of a possible additional indictment in Washington over his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.

Not surprising, after the latest charges Trump went oh his usual social rampages about the charges, special counsel Jack Smith’s, and the Department of Justice. He said, when elected [not if], he will fire Smith [good old revenge] as well as a good chunk of the department. Legal experts are suggesting that they will ask the judge in charge of the case to delay the May 2024 date even further because of the extra charges.

Lawyers for Trump met with prosecutors from Smith’s office, more than a week after Trump said he received a letter from the Justice Department telling him he could face criminal charges in connection with his efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

Florida “governor” Ron DeSantis has said that if he is elected president, he will pardon Trump as an 80 year old shouldn’t be in prison and it doesn’t look good for the image of America around the world. [Well, neither does having Trump in politics.] He compared pardoning Trump to pardoning Richard Nixon [at least in age) except Nixon wasn’t close to 80 when he left office and he didn’t have the mounting charges in multiple indictments that Trump has.

Rudy Giuliani, who served as a lawyer for Trump, is no longer contesting as a legal matter that he made false and defamatory statements about two former Georgia election workers — but argues in a new court filing that what amounted to false claims about vote-rigging in the 2020 presidential election was constitutionally protected speech and did not damage the workers.

Former Trump administration Chief of Staff, Mark Meadows, joked about the baseless claim that large numbers of votes were fraudulently cast in the names of dead people in the days before the then-White House chief of staff participated in a phone call in which Trump alleged there were close to 5,000 dead voters in Georgia and urged Brad Raffensperger, Georgia’s secretary of state, to overturn the 2020 election there. In a text message that has been scrutinized by federal prosecutors, Meadows wrote to a White House lawyer that his son, Atlanta-area attorney Blake Meadows, had been probing possible fraud and had found only a handful of possible votes cast in dead voters’ names, far short of what Trump was alleging.

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 is really out there…..

Donald Trump, at his first speech at the America First Policy Institute since leaving Washington in 2021, outlined a hardline and harsh criminal justice agenda for the Republican Party, praising China’s justice system for prosecuting drug dealers with quick trials, pushing for the death penalty for drug dealers and arguing the federal government should circumvent governors to use the National Guard to fight crime [if that is even legal].

Trump, in no shocker, did call the House select committee investigating the attack the “unselect committee of political hacks and thugs”, went after the two Republicans on the committee, and the committee “really wants to damage me so I can no longer go back to work for you.” As well, still claiming he won the 2020 election – give it a rest already. “I won a second time, did much better a second time. Did a lot better. Did a lot better.” He, at one point, calling police officers his heroes but never mentioned those who died at the Trump Insurrection.

Trump struck a dour tone throughout the speech, painting a picture of a country riddled with crime, drugs and homelessness. “We are a failing nation,” Trump said. He said the same thing in 2017. So I guess 4 years under his rule didn’t change much. “There is no longer respect for the law and there certainly is no order. Our country is now a cesspool of crime.”

Other Republicans say that if he doesn’t stop talking about the 2020 “big lie” and instead talk about what really matter, the GOP may not get the expected wins in 2022 and 2024.

The interest in the 25th Amendment and activities following the Capitol attack comes after former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson testified last month about a “large concern” that the Cabinet and then-Vice President Mike Pence could attempt to remove Trump from office. “There was a large concern of the 25th Amendment potentially being invoked, and there were concerns about what would happen in the Senate if it was,” Hutchinson testified.

But Mark Short, former chief of staff to Pence, said that he doesn’t “recall there being any serious conversation” about invoking the 25th Amendment, saying that using it would have been impractical. “The reality is there was 10 days left in the administration,” Short said.

Pence will sound very much like a White House hopeful looking to lead his party beyond Trump when he touts his “freedom agenda” for the Republican Party in a speech in Washington. At a poke primarily to Trump, “Some people may choose to focus on the past,” Pence’s planned remarks read. “But I believe conservatives must focus on the future.”

Former Chief of Staff, Mark Meadows, in an interview said Trump requested that 10,000 troops will be ready if needed. Former acting Secretary of Defence Chris Miller said that was never asked. Subsequently, Republicans blamed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi who has no control over the troops.

Text messages for Trump’s acting homeland security secretary Chad Wolf and acting deputy secretary Ken Cuccinelli are missing for a key period leading up to the Jan. 6, 2021, Trump Insurrection.

Now it’s the Justice Department is investigating Trump’s actions as part of its criminal probe of efforts to overturn the 2020 election results. Prosecutors who are questioning witnesses before a grand jury — including two top aides to Pence — have asked in recent days about conversations with Trump, his lawyers, and others in his inner circle who sought to substitute Trump allies for certified electors from some states Joe Biden won. BTW, Hutchinson is cooperating with the DOJ probe.

The prosecutors have asked hours of detailed questions about meetings Trump led in December 2020 and January 2021; his pressure campaign on Pence to overturn the election; and what instructions Trump gave his lawyers and advisers about fake electors and sending electors back to the states. Some of the questions focused directly on the extent of Trump’s involvement in the fake-elector effort led by his outside lawyers, including John Eastman and Rudy Giuliani.

Justice Department prosecutors are preparing to fight in court to force former White House officials to testify about Trump’s conversations and actions around January 6. At issue are claims of executive privilege that prosecutors expect Trump to make in order to shield some information from the federal grand jury as the criminal investigation moves deeper into the ranks of White House officials who directly interacted with Trump.

Attorney General Merrick Garland has made clear in public remarks that Trump is not beyond the reach of the investigation because of his status as a former president.  He has also stressed they are taking care to “get this right.” But he’s been in charge for 18 months and has done what?

Not a good sign for Trump when conservative New York Post rails against him. And then The Wall Street Journal. They are both owned by former friend Rupert Murdoch. Would Trump do his usual and go after the publications or Murdoch like he goes after anyone who is against him?

Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Robin Vos said Trump called him very recently [!!!] as part of a fresh effort to decertify the state’s 2020 presidential election results. Seriously? 20 months later, Trump is still complaining? On his social media platform Truth Social, Trump hailed the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruling as “Great” and “a time to act!” without specifying how. “Robin, don’t let the voters of Wisconsin down!” Trump wrote. He wrote as if Vos was doing something for him.

The Department of Homeland Security’s watchdog has launched a criminal probe into the Secret Service’s erased text messages from around the time of the Jan. 6, 2021, Trump Insurrection.

While none are officially in the race, but possibly joining Trump [if he stops his teasing] include former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley, Florida “governor” Rick DeSantis and even Pence.

Major blow to Trump by Meadows aide

At the beginning of the Trump Insurrection, on January 6, 2021, Trump was informed that some of the protesters in the crowd outside the White House had weapons, but he told officials to “let my people in” and march to the Capitol, testified Cassidy Hutchinson, who was a special assistant to former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows. Hutchinson depicted Trump flailing in anger and prone to violent outbursts as the window to overturn his election loss closed and as aides sought to rein in his impulses. Told by security officials that it wasn’t safe to go to the Capitol after he addressed his supporters, he lunged toward the steering wheel of the presidential SUV, she said.

Hutchinson quoted Trump as directing his staff, in profane terms, to take away the metal detectors, known as magnetometers or mags, that he thought would slow down supporters who’d gathered in Washington. In videotaped testimony played before the committee, she said Trump said words to the effect of: “‘I don’t f-in’ care that they have weapons,'” Hutchinson recalled Trump saying. “‘They’re not here to hurt me. Take the f-in’ mags away. Let my people in. They can march to the Capitol from here.'” [So Trump wanted to make it easier for the rioters to get in by removing the metal detectors.]

“Her Fake story that I tried to grab the steering wheel of the White House Limousine in order to steer it to the Capitol Building is ‘sick’ and fraudulent,” Trump said after. He also called her a “total phony” and “bad news.”

Hutchinson said she entered a room and noticed ketchup dripping down a wall and broken porcelain. Trump, it turned out, had thrown his lunch across the wall in disgust over an article where then US attorney general William Barr said the Justice Department had not found evidence of voter fraud that could have affected the election outcome. Trump also denied Hutchinson’s testimony that he threw food and plates.

One of people who may have been trying to influence Hutchinson’s testimony did so at the behest of Meadows. [Story not complete.]

Jan. 6 committee vice chairwoman, Rep. Liz Cheney, says witnesses connected to the Trump administration or campaign have told the committee they have been contacted by former colleagues and others prior to testifying about ‘doing the right thing’ and being loyal. No threats but this is witness tampering.

Some conservative newspapers including the Washington Examiner stunned the right when they chose to go after Trump and his administration after Hutchinson’s testimony.

The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection issued a subpoena to former White House counsel Pat Cipollone after blockbuster testimony from a former aide identified the lawyer as having firsthand knowledge of potential criminal activity in the Trump White House.

Plans to make Trump’s media company public appear to have hit another roadblock. Digital World Acquisition Corp. — the special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) that has agreed to merge with Trump Media & Technology Group — said in a regulatory filing that its board members have received subpoenas from a federal grand jury in the Southern District of New York related to due diligence regarding the deal. Shares of the blank-check company plunged nearly 10% on the news.

Rep. Mary E. Miller, from Illinois, called the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn the nationwide right to abortion established nearly 50 years ago in Roe v. Wade a “victory for white life,” which was met with cheers at a rally held by Trump. Later, after plenty of complaints, Miller misread her prepared speech and was supposed to declare the divisive court ruling a victory for the “right to life.” How can you mess up by saying “white” instead of “right to”? We know where her allegiance lies. Trump was smiling and people were clapping.

Federal agents seized the cellphone of John Eastman, a lawyer who pushed false claims that mass voter fraud tainted the 2020 election and who urged Trump and other Republicans to block Joe Biden from becoming president.