Can Trump pay his big bill?

Donald Trump doesn’t have the cash he needs to stop the state of New York from potentially seizing his assets. He’s asking the court — an institution he’s shown little but contempt for — for a bit of mercy. In a court filing, Trump’s lawyers laid out the stark economic reality facing the leading Republican candidate for president. His team spent “countless hours” negotiating with some 30 entities that could finance the roughly half-a-billion-dollar bond he’s on the hook for. But none would take the deal.

If Trump doesn’t pony up the $500 million or so he needs to set aside, pending his appeal of last month’s order against him for ill-gotten gains on his properties, Judge Arthur Engoron says the judgment may be enforced, and New York Attorney General Letitia James can start seizing Trump’s properties and selling them to pay down what he owes.

The New York attorney general’s office has filed judgments in Westchester County, the first indication that the state is preparing to try to seize Trump’s golf course and private estate north of Manhattan, known as Seven Springs. State lawyers entered the judgments with the clerk’s office in Westchester County on March 6, just one week after Judge Arthur Engoron made official his $464 million decision against Trump, his sons Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, and the Trump Organization.

The judgment is already entered in New York city where Trump’s properties including Trump Tower, his penthouse at Trump Tower, 40 Wall Street, his hotel abutting Central Park, and numerous apartment buildings are located.

Trump invoked a dual loyalty trope by claiming Jews who vote for Democrats hate Israel. “Any Jewish person that votes for Democrats hates their religion,” Trump said in an interview with Sebastian Gorka, a former Trump administration official, on Gorka’s web show. “They hate everything about Israel, and they should be ashamed of themselves, because Israel will be destroyed,” Trump continued, going on to discuss Iran’s nuclear ambitions. The remarks echoed a trope that American Jews have split loyalties to the U.S. and Israel.

[He is aiming at the Jewish population because 70% of voters in the 2020 elections voted for President Biden. Notice that he hasn’t gone after other minorities like this – although he hasn’t gone after Muslims in a little while.]

[And to add to the craziness….]

“President Trump is right — the Democrat Party has turned into a full-blown anti-Israel, anti-Semitic, pro-terrorist cabal,” Trump campaign press secretary Karoline Leavitt said.

[She really has been drinking the Kool-Aid after losing her election in the House elections in 2022 and before that working as an intern for Fox.]

Trump warned hat if he were to lose the 2024 election, it would be a “bloodbath” for the US auto industry and the country. “We’re going to put a 100% tariff on every single car that comes across the line, and you’re not going to be able to sell those guys if I get elected,” Trump said during a rally in Ohio. “Now, if I don’t get elected, it’s going to be a bloodbath for the whole – that’s gonna be the least of it. It’s going to be a bloodbath for the country. That’ll be the least of it.”

[So Trump is getting desperate? Threatening an industry? Where would he threaten next? Does he think other countries won’t do the same on American made goods?]

On the morning of January 6, 2021, in a last-ditch bid to overturn his election loss, Trump told then-Vice President Mike Pence that his decision to uphold his constitutional duty and certify the results later that day would be “a political career killer,” according to an unnamed witness who overheard part of the call.

Trump came a step closer to reaping a major windfall from his social media firm after investors in a blank-check acquisition company approved a tie-up currently worth about $5.7 billion. The deal values Trump’s majority stake in the company that holds his app Truth Social at about $3.3 billion. The windfall could prove vital as Trump grapples with the financial fallout of a string of legal cases against him.

[However, while Trump will have that stake, it will be quite a while before he actually has it all.]

It is a bit bad when Nikki Haley, who is not a candidate for the Republican party anymore, garnered 108,000 votes [18%] in the Arizona primary. No response from the Trump campaign.

Trump is expected to enlist Paul Manafort, the former campaign manager he pardoned, as a campaign adviser later this year.

[No one will be shocked if he hires others who have been convicted and I’m sure some who never were in politics.]

Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. refused to delay prison time for Peter Navarro, a former senior aide to Trump, as he appeals his conviction for refusing to testify before Congress about his involvement in efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election. Roberts, who oversees emergency requests from the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit, said he saw no basis to disagree with an appeals court ruling that Navarro must serve time while his appeal is underway. Navarro was sentenced in January to four months after a jury convicted him on two counts of contempt of Congress.

Trump suffered arguably his worst loss[es] in any criminal matter recently when, in his New York trial for alleged falsification of business records, Judge Juan M. Merchan ruled against him in virtually all of his motions to exclude evidence.

US District Judge Aileen M. Cannon ordered the defense lawyers and the prosecutors in the case to file submissions outlining proposed jury instructions based on two scenarios, each of which badly misstates the law and facts of the case, according to legal experts. She has given the sides two weeks to craft jury instructions around competing interpretations of the Presidential Records Act, often referred to as the PRA. While the law says presidential records belong to the public and are to be turned over to the National Archives and Records Administration at the end of a presidency, Trump’s lawyers have argued the PRA gave Trump the right to keep classified materials as his personal property.

Trump filed yet another lawsuit against the news media, accusing ABC News and George Stephanopoulos of defamation over assertions the anchor made in a combative interview. In an interview on “This Week,” Stephanopoulos pressed Republican Rep. Nancy Mace, a rape survivor, over her continued support of Trump after a jury found he sexually abused writer E. Jean Carroll in 1996, awarding her $88 million for battery and defamation. Stephanopoulos asserted multiple times in the interview with Mace that Trump had “raped” Carroll. “You endorsed Donald Trump for president. Judges and two separate juries have found him liable for rape and for defaming the victim of that rape. How do you square your endorsement of Donald Trump with the testimony that we just saw?” Stephanopoulos asked Mace. The South Carolina Republican defended her support of the former president, arguing that the jury decision was merely in a civil case.

According to February 2024 statistics, Truth Social has so far had 8.9 million sign-ups, of which Trump has 6.7 million followers. X, by comparison, has more than half a billion monthly users, according to Elon Musk.

A pro-Trump lawyer, Stefanie Lambert, who tried to overturn the 2020 election was arrested after a court hearing about her recent leak of internal emails belonging to Dominion Voting Systems. There was an existing arrest warrant for Lambert stemming from her failure to appear at recent court hearings in her separate criminal case in Michigan, where she was charged with conspiring to seize voting machines after the 2020 election.

Pence doesn’t endorse Trump

Former Vice President Mike Pence said he “cannot in good conscience” endorse presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump, a stunning repudiation of his former running mate and the president he served with. “Donald Trump is pursuing and articulating an agenda that is at odds with the conservative agenda that we governed on during our four years. That’s why I cannot in good conscience endorse Donald Trump in this campaign,” Pence said.

[“…at odds with the conservative agenda that we governed on during our four years.” Huh? There is little to no difference between Trump’s first reign and what he is proposing. At “press time”, no response from Trump but if Trump follows his usual response, he will mention disloyalty as well as something like he did a bad job as Vice-President.]

The judge, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee, overseeing the Georgia 2020 election interference case dismissed some of the charges against Trump and others, but the rest of the sweeping racketeering indictment remains intact. The judge wrote in an order that six of the counts in the indictment must be quashed, including three against Trump. But he left in place other counts — including 10 facing Trump — and said prosecutors could seek a new indictment on the charges he dismissed.

Trump suggested he was open to making cuts to Social Security and Medicare after opposing touching the entitlement programs. These two programs for senior citizens are generally consider untouchable by almost all politicians. Trump campaign spokeswoman later said that Trump was “clearly talking about cutting waste, not entitlements.” That same spokeswoman says it is Biden who won’t protect entitlement programs when Biden has already said prior “Not on my watch” about cutting them.

[Trump seems to have quite a few spokespeople. I wonder if some need time off after all the running around to clarify statements Trump have said in a day.]

When Trump was president, his administration’s budget proposals included spending cuts to Social Security, primarily by targeting disability benefits, and Medicare, largely by reducing provider payments. Trump also signalled in an interview with CNBC in 2020 that he was open to cutting federal entitlements to reduce the federal deficit.

Without any changes, Social Security’s combined trust funds are set to run dry in 2034, at which time the program’s continuing income from taxes will only be able to cover 80% of benefits owed. Medicare’s hospital insurance trust fund, known as Medicare Part A, will only be able to pay scheduled benefits in full until 2031.

Attorneys for Trump want to delay the start of his upcoming New York criminal trial until the US Supreme Court weighs in on presidential immunity, according to a new motion – a ruling that may not come until late June. The criminal trial related to hush money payments made during the 2016 presidential campaign to adult film star Stormy Daniels is scheduled to begin with jury selection on March 25.

[Unsure what has got to do with the other. Trump was never the president at any time during the trial or now. So immunity isn’t related.]

Recently, Trump met with the parents of a nursing student whose alleged killer was an undocumented immigrant. Trump has suggested hard-line immigration proposals, including a mass deportation of undocumented immigrants.

[Unsure, but would of Trump visited the parents if they were Republicans? Current statistics said that undocumented immigrant are not a large factor in the number of murders in the US. Between that and pushing Republicans in Congress to vote against the border deal, Trump and his cronies will still put the blame on the Democrats. Remember that Trump said no deal is better that the deal the Democrats put forward. Do you think Republican voters will remember this in November?]

“He [Trump] thought [Vladimir] Putin was an OK guy and Kim [Jong Un] was an OK guy — that we had pushed North Korea into a corner,” retired Gen. John Kelly, who served as Trump’s chief of staff, said. “To him, it was like we were goading these guys. ‘If we didn’t have NATO, then Putin wouldn’t be doing these things.’”

Trump said, “Well, but Hitler did some good things.” Kelly said, “Well, what?” And Trump said, “Well, [Hitler] rebuilt the economy.” But what did he do with that rebuilt economy? He turned it against his own people and against the world. Kelly said, “Sir, you can never say anything good about the guy. Nothing.”

“There’s nobody that’s better, smarter or a better leader than Viktor Orbán,” Trump said of the Hungarian president who visited Mar-A-Lago recently, adding, “He’s the boss and he’s a great leader, fantastic leader. In Europe and around the world, they respect him.”

[I don’t think many respect him. He’s another authoritarian leader like Trump.]

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee, overseeing the Georgia election interference case against Trump and his allies ruled that Fulton County District Attorney Fani T. Willis may continue with the prosecution but only if Nathan Wade, the lead prosecutor she appointed and had a romantic relationship with, exits the case. The judge wrote that the defendants “failed to meet their burden” in proving that Willis’s relationship with Wade — along with allegations that she was financially enriched through trips the two took together — was enough of a “conflict of interest” to merit her removal from the case. Wade resigned later on.

Trump asked Elon Musk last summer whether the billionaire industrialist would be interested in buying Trump’s failed social network Truth Social.

Trump, who is only a few years younger than President Biden, has said several times that he doesn’t think Biden is “too old” to be president but he did recently release a digital only add poking fun at Biden with comments Biden has said about his age.

[As you know Trump is the one to talk. Saying Mercedes instead of his wife’s name Melania. How could he mix that up? He’s also said the wrong name (maybe on purpose) for others including Nancy Pelosi. Also note that Trump doesn’t have a lot of campaign cash on hand. Some going to his legal defence. Maybe he will use his own money…. Hah!]

Trump mocked Biden’s stutter at a campaign rally in Rome, Ga., the latest in a series of insults he has hurled at his rival but one that disability advocates regard as a demeaning form of bullying.

[Do you ever see Biden knock any physical characteristics of Trump like being orange or overweight or his little hands? His mental capacity is a different story. And just what group hasn’t Trump demeaned except Christian whites?]

The Republican National Committee began laying off dozens of staffers, days after Trump’s handpicked team took the reins of the organization. The layoffs affect staffers across multiple departments. The cuts also go beyond senior staff to vendors and mid-level employees. Vendor contracts will likely be cut as well. Some staff who were asked to resign could reapply for jobs at the organization.

“If you get rid of TikTok, Facebook and Zuckerschmuck will double their business,” Trump said in a post on his platform, Truth Social, racistly referring to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg. He called Facebook “a true enemy of the people” but didn’t explain his reasoning. While in office, Trump wanted to expel TikTok from the US [because they are owned by ByteDance of China]. Now that Biden is pushing to expel them, Trump is having second thoughts.

“The thing I don’t like is that without TikTok, you can make Facebook bigger, and I consider Facebook to be an enemy of the people, along with a lot of the media,” Trump told CNBC before US markets opened. Meta [owner of Facebook] stock dropped 5% at one point. “I think Facebook has been very dishonest. I think Facebook has been very bad for our country, especially when it comes to elections.”

[I’m on Facebook. I really didn’t see anything on the platform that was directed more at Trump or the Republicans than the Democrats. It’s not like you will see something like huge banner saying “Vote for Biden” or “Down with Trump” on every page. Another lie.]

TikTok is one of the world’s most popular social media apps and is used by roughly 170 million Americans.

Kellyanne Conway [remember her?] is a lobbyist for TikTok. Trump also supposedly has a major donor who owns a small chunk of TikTok.

[That major donor would be a good reason why Trump did an about face and now supports TikTok.]

In the House of Representatives, Trump “lost” the vote as 352 voted for a TikTok ban and just 65 were against [50 Democrats, 15 Republicans]. It may be harder in the Senate.

Trump said last month he would consider imposing a tariff upward of 60% on all Chinese imports if he regains the presidency. As president, Trump imposed tariffs of 25% on $50 billion of Chinese goods in June 2018.

[Trump’s buddy, President Xi won’t be too happy.]

Threats, lies, and Trump

Wow. What a week compared to the last one.

The Supreme Court said that it will decide whether Donald Trump’s name can appear on primary election ballots, scheduling arguments in early February in a case that will have a major impact on this year’s presidential election.

While the states of Maine and Colorado have reason for kicking Trump off the ballot because of the 14th Amendment, Missouri and maybe Florida are looking for ways to kick off President Joe Biden from their ballots but for no reasons that can be considered legal. While Trump’s 14th Amendment issue will be decided by the Supreme Court [see above], Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft has his reasons.

Ashcroft said that he’s “let an invasion unstopped into our country from the border.” Vice President Kamala Harris, he added, “supported people that were rebelling against the U.S. government during the riots in 2020,” referring to racial justice protests in the wake of George Floyd’s murder. I don’t think those are in the same leagues as what Trump did and nobody is trying to impeach [for now] Biden and it isn’t a crime either – you can’t get arrested.

So now Trump has gone into threats: Trump has long vowed to prosecute Biden if Trump wins November’s election and the two trade places. He upped the stakes dramatically, contending that if criminal charges against him aren’t dropped, any current and future ex-presidents also could be prosecuted. “I feel that as a president, you have to have immunity, very simple,” Trump said after a court hearing where a panel of three federal judges seemed deeply skeptical of his attorneys’ arguments that presidents have immunity from prosecution for official business. “It’s the opening of a Pandora’s box and it’s a very, very sad thing that’s happened with this whole situation.”

Trump said Biden might not be the only one targeted. Former President Barack Obama could end up being prosecuted, he said, citing Obama administration drone strikes in the Middle East that killed a US citizen who was identified as a leader of the terrorist group al-Qaida and that man’s 16-year-old son, also a US citizen. In court, Trump’s attorney suggested that former President George W. Bush could be prosecuted for providing false information that launched the Iraq War.

[Well, good luck on this. Any court will probably throw out any of these charges. Trump just doesn’t get it. What he is primarily charged for is that while he was in his reign, he did things that were illegal and had nothing to do with running the country, but instead benefited himself. No other president has ever asked a governor to find thousands of jobs, for example.]

So in his New York fraud case, Trump wanted to speak at the closing arguments. New York Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron said he would allow it as long as he stuck to the case and not make it a campaign speech, go after political opponents, go after him or his court staff, etc. Trump decided to decline. Smart move as he probably would of perjured himself at one point. But he then claims that the judge did not allow him to do his closing argument. In the same rant, he claims that legal experts are already saying that what has happened to him will be in all the legal books in the future. Yes, not for how he was basically crucified by the justice system and the Biden administration together but how he was unbelievable and a narcissist.

Trump’s attorney Christopher Kise wrapped up his remarks just before the morning break, arguing that New York Attorney General Letitia James was “weaponizing a consumer protection statute never before used in this context… You just cannot allow the attorney general to pursue a victimless fraud and impose the corporate death penalty.”

[Next time, don’t defraud the government and banking institutions, among others.]

Kise said in his summation that Trump is “a person who has been the heart of the fabric of the commercial real estate industry” in New York for 50 years and echoed Trump’s claims that the case was politically motivated.

[So Trump has been frauding the city for 50 years.]

New York Attorney General Letitia James is now seeking a $370 million penalty against Trump and his company instead of the $250 million the state sought when it filed a civil fraud lawsuit in 2022, according to a court filing.

Oh, Judge Engoron received a bomb threat to his Long Island home early morning hours, just hours before closing arguments were set to begin in the $370 million civil fraud trial against Trump, his company and others.

Biden detailed the events of January 6, 2021, Trump Insurrection, at a rally describing a “violent mob” that was “whipped up by lies from a defeated former president.” Trump’s actions that day “were among the worst derelictions of duty by any president in American history… Losers are taught to concede when they lose. And he’s a loser,” Biden said to cheers. Biden cast Trump’s actions and the events of January 6 as “an attempt to overturn a free and fair election by force of violence.”

He warned broadly that Trump’s movement – “the same movement” of January 6 – “isn’t just trying to rewrite history on January 6, they were trying to determine to erase history and your future,” he said, pointing to efforts to ban books, deny the right to vote, and “destroying diversity, equality and inclusion all across America. Harboring hate and replacing hope with anger and resentment.”

Why it took Trump so long to do this: A far-right news site, reposting on Truth Social the false claim that Haley is not constitutionally eligible to be president because her parents were not US citizens when she was born in South Carolina. This specious claim flies in the face of the 14th amendment, which says people born in the US are automatically citizens. The amendment says nothing about the parents. Of course Trump will ignore what the amendment says. He is already doing it regarding his immunity legal cases. Trump has previously made claims about birther rights regarding “Lyin’” Ted Cruz, Kamala Harris, Barrack Obama, etc.

“So many mistakes were made. See, there was something I think could have been negotiated, to be honest with you,” Trump said at a campaign event in Newton, Iowa. “I think you could have negotiated that. All the people died. So many people died.” Trump did not say how he would have prevented the conflict, which he also called “so horrible but so fascinating… It was, I don’t know, it was just different,” Trump said of the war. “I just find it – I’m so attracted to seeing it.”’

[Negotiated? After Nikki Haley left out slavery just days earlier, do you think there was any chance of negotiations around 165 years ago? Would Lincoln agree to maybe a percentage of blacks would still be slaves but not the others? Slavery was the biggest reason that there was a civil war then. There has been, however, a growing movement among the right to rewrite history saying slavery was not a major issue for the civil war. Attracted? You are generally attracted to another person for example but not war and bloodshed.]

“Just a few days ago, the defeated former president was asked about the recent shooting in Iowa. …. You know what his response was?,” he said. “‘We have to get over it,’ end of quote,’” said Biden in South Carolina.

Trump claimed that the stock market is up because he is leading in the polls.

[And if he were trailing in the polls then the stock market would be crashing. Trump has been leading most polls (against Biden) for the last little while. To say that it is because he’s leading is hogwash.]

Trump feels sorry for the “J6 hostages”. Who are they? It is what he calls the January 6 Trump Insurrectionists who have been arrested and sentenced in courts. A former leader of the right-wing extremist group Proud Boys was sentenced to 22 years in prison for his role in the Trump Insurrection.

Trump opened his first rally of his 2024 presidential campaign with a popular recording of the J6 Prison Choir — riot defendants singing “The Star-Spangled Banner” recorded over a phone line from jail, interspersed with Trump reciting the Pledge of Allegiance.

“They suffered enough” said Trump. How did they suffer? If you want to have suffered prisoners, stay in a Russian prison in Siberia.

[If Trump gets in, and hopefully not, he will probably order each state to name schools and/or streets after each of the “hostages” if they are released – assuming Trump pardons them if he wins the election.]

Trump has now invented a new “front” in his claims against Biden. “When there’s a [economic] crash, I hope it’s going to be during this next 12 months because I don’t want to be Herbert Hoover. The one president – I just don’t want to be Herbert Hoover,” Trump said. The stock market crashed during Hoover’s first year in office in 1929.

[Is Trump wishing for a crash? Maybe he will ask some of his buddies to help in it. Of course, there is no indication that the economy is tanking. It isn’t. It is just another lie that will be added to his other lies. Expect him to say in future rallies that the country is already in a recession. It isn’t. Either he doesn’t know the definition of a recession or he does but doesn’t care.]

The House Democrats on the Committee on Oversight and Accountability released a bombshell report on the extent of Trump’s financial haul is astounding. “President Trump’s businesses received, at a minimum, $7.8 million in foreign payments from at least 20 countries during his presidency. These included payments from foreign governments and foreign government-owned or -controlled entities to properties owned by Donald Trump.”

Countries such as China, Saudi Arabia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Malaysia, Albania and Kosovo “spent — often lavishly — on apartments and hotel stays at Trump’s properties personally enriching Trump [in his reign] while he made foreign policy decisions connected to their policy agendas with far-reaching ramifications for the United States.” [All very upstanding countries.]

[This doesn’t include the millions of dollars pocketed by his daughter and son-in-law, Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, while they were in the White House.]

Republican Kevin McCarthy, who went on to become House speaker, had called January 6 the “saddest day” he ever had in Congress. But McCarthy retired last month he endorsed Trump for president and said he would consider joining his cabinet.

Trump has proposed imposing unprecedented new tariffs on trillions of dollars worth of imports and deporting undocumented workers on a vast scale to decrease inflation that has already come down quite a bit. Experts are already saying that these moves would actually increase prices as if a tariff is increased on items with little to no US made equivalent, prices will go up. With less [undocumented] workers, who exactly will pick crops in US fields? Most of your typical unemployment Americans are looking for a job that pays more than a burger flipper. The lack of workers will increase prices and will also result in crops thrown out. The increase in prices will then be passed onto the consumers.

[Are they all undocumented? Some are but many aren’t.]

Melania Trump’s mother died recently. So what did Donald do? Busy with his campaigning. What a nice son-in-law. [Sarcastic.] Some of his lame followers on social media were complaining that his closing arguments in the New York fraud case should have been delayed? If he was campaigning the days between her passing and the court case, why delay the court case?

In a video on Trump’s social platform, in 1946 the narrator said “God created Trump.” So he is higher than Bishops, Archbishops and maybe even the Pope?

Former Vice President Mike Pence denounced the debunked conspiracy theory that the FBI instigated the January 6, 2021, Trump Insurrection. Pence said “We’ve been assured again and again that it was not the case…. I just must tell you, having been there that day, to see people literally breaking windows, ransacking the Capitol, it just infuriated me. I remember thinking ‘not this, not here, not at the United States Capitol”.

Trump criticized late Sen. John McCain for standing in the way of Republicans’ efforts to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, known colloquially as Obamacare. Trump is behind the times as most Americans want the ACA. Trump also mocks McCain’s war injury while on campaign.

[Remember this: Republicans asked if they wanted to get rid of Obamacare and most said yes. When asked about ACA, those who said yest about Obamacare said no to ACA.]

Trump can be sued for the insurrection

Lawsuits against Donald Trump brought by Capitol Police officers and Democratic lawmakers over the US Capitol riot [a.k.a. Trump Insurrection], can move forward, a federal appeals court ruled. A three-judge panel of the US Circuit Court of Appeals denied Trump’s request to dismiss the lawsuits that accuse him of inciting the violent mob on Jan. 6, 2021. But the court said it’s ruling was not the final word on whether presidential immunity shields the Republican from liability in the case and said the judges express “no view on the ultimate merits of the claims” against Trump.

A New York appellate court has reinstated a gag order prohibiting Trump and attorneys from making public statements about the court staff in the ongoing $250 million civil fraud trial. Judge Arthur Engoron originally issued the order barring Trump from making public statements about court staff after Trump made numerous comments about a clerk, who Trump says is biased against him.

Trump had urged a New York appeals court to continue to pause the gag order against him, saying that threats to the judge and his law clerk do not “justify” limiting Trump’s constitutional right to defend himself. Lawyers for the New York attorney general’s office and the court last week urged the appeals court to put the gag order back in place following “serious and credible” threats that have inundated Judge Arthur Engoron’s chambers since the trial began in October.

“At base, the disturbing behavior engaged in by anonymous, third-party actors towards the judge and Principal Law Clerk publicly presiding over an extremely polarizing and high-profile trial merits appropriate security measures,” Trump’s attorneys wrote.

[Ummm. Trump has followers. If he says for them to dance naked on 5th Avenue in Toronto, they would. This is incitement.]

New York court officials have knocked down Trump’s angry social media claims that the wife of Engoron, who’s presiding over his civil fraud trial, has been posting anti-Trump rhetoric on X. Engoron’s wife does not have an X – formerly Twitter – account, according to a spokesperson for the state court system.

[I guess he will do anything to say that the judge (or his wife) is biased. His followers will believe him whether or not it is true. Even if the judge’s wife said something negative, it doesn’t mean her opinion counts in how he judges. Next Trump will say the pet gets angry (bark, hiss) when the Trump name is mentioned.]

The federal judge, Judge Tanya Chutkan, overseeing Trump’s election subversion case in Washington, denied Trump’s effort to subpoena records from the House select committee that investigated the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol. Trump’s attorneys had claimed in their motion to subpoena records from the committee, its Chairman Bennie Thompson, and others that the committee and federal officials withheld some materials related to the investigation. Thompson has defended his panel’s archival process. He said this summer that the committee wasn’t required to keep all of the records it amassed during the months long investigation.

Trump’s legal team is seeking a trove of classified documents from the Justice Department as it prepares to argue at his upcoming criminal trial that he was right to doubt the results of the 2020 election. The approach will bring Trump’s continued political broadside against his loss of the presidency into court as Trump alleges a vast government conspiracy against him, all as he seeks to retake the White House. Trump’s defense team is asking for information from several past government investigations, including around the election results and about the recent classified documents probe into his former Vice President Mike Pence. He says these records could be exculpatory, helping in his defense, if they show some agencies exploring election interference in 2020.

Trump’s renewed focus on repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act, known colloquially as Obamacare, has alarmed some Republicans scarred by the GOP’s failure to deliver on promises to dismantle the law and who view the issue as a political loser with the American people.

A Nevada state-level criminal investigation into the fake electors plot intended to overturn Joe Biden’s 2020 election win is ramping up with prosecutors securing the cooperation of a key witness, even as some of those who served as pro-Trump electors remain politically active ahead of the 2024 election. Kenneth Chesebro, a lawyer who helped orchestrate the fake electors plot across multiple states, has agreed to sit down with Nevada investigators in hopes of avoiding prosecution there.

Americans for Prosperity, the political arm of the powerful Koch network [a.k.a. Koch brothers], formally endorsed Nikki Haley’s presidential campaign, promising to commit its nationwide coalition of activists — and virtually unlimited funds — to helping Haley defeat Trump in the GOP primary contest. AFP has roughly %75 million available. A Trump lackey responded by saying Americans for Prosperity is the “the political arm of the China-first, America-last movement.” They didn’t seem to mind when the Koch network previously endorsed them.

A former server at the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster has filed a lawsuit against the club in New Jersey, alleging that she was sexually harassed by her manager and then pressured to sign an illegal non-disclosure agreement by Alina Habba, who is now an attorney for Trump. The woman, Alice Bianco, alleged in the lawsuit that she was given “very short uniform skirts” to wear by her boss Pavel Melichar. Bianco, who was 21 at the time, alleged that Melichar, who was in his mid-50s, showered her with gifts and coerced her to engage in sex in exchange for “protection” and job security.

Brian Swensen formally resigned from his role as national political director for the Vivek Ramaswamy campaign recently and has joined the Trump campaign. Not a good sign for Ramaswamy. Earlier this month, Brandon Goodyear, the Ramaswamy team’s director of content, stepped away from the campaign.

Ryan Fournier, a co-founder of the political organization Students for Trump, was arrested and charged with assault on November 21 in North Carolina after allegedly hitting a woman with a gun. Fournier was charged with misdemeanor assault on a female and assault with a deadly weapon and was released on a $2,500 bond later that day, the documents say. He is accused of grabbing a woman by her arm and hitting her in the forehead with a firearm.

The continuing legal mess

The campaign to use the US Constitution’s “insurrection” clause to bar Donald Trump from running for the White House again enters a new phase this week as hearings begin in two states on lawsuits that might end up reaching the US Supreme Court. A week-long hearing on one lawsuit to bar Trump from the ballot in Colorado, while oral arguments are scheduled before the Minnesota Supreme Court on an effort to kick the Republican former president off the ballot in that state.

[Any state that wants Trump off the ballot could make it harder for Trump to win the presidency. Of course he will complain that the election was stolen, Department of Justice out to get him, etc. Of course this could also give room for a third party candidate such as the dreadful Robert F. Kennedy Jr winning some votes.]

US District Judge Tanya S. Chutkan has reimposed a gag order on Trump’s public statements in advance of his trial on charges of conspiring to subvert the results of the 2020 election. The restrictions that the judge put back in place were ones she had lifted nine days earlier to give Trump and US prosecutors more time to argue whether the gag was unconstitutional, as attorneys for the former president had claimed. Trump can now ask a higher court for an emergency stay pending appeal, but in the meantime he is bound by Chutkan’s limits.

Trump’s legal team asked Chutkan to delay a trial scheduled to take place in March — during the heat of the GOP primary race — as the legal system works through his bid to get the case dismissed on the grounds that he’s immune from prosecution on any actions he took while president. His attorneys also this week asked a judge in Florida to delay the trial in a case over the ex-president’s handling of classified documents until after November’s election.

In his New York state fraud case, Trump is expected to testify on Monday, November 6th and probably last until at least Tuesday if not Wednesday. His adult sons testified this past week.

In 2014, Trump placed a $1 billion bid to buy the NFL’s Buffalo Bills but eventually didn’t have the winning bid. In offering to buy the Bills, Trump cited his net worth as over $8 billion in an initial offer letter but never provided his financial statements. His then-lawyer Michael Cohen told the bankers that Trump wouldn’t release his financial records until told he was “the final bidder.”

“Trump has little chance of being approved by the NFL,” given that he had owned casinos and had a role in the rival USFL’s 1980s antitrust suit against the NFL, then-Morgan Stanley executive K. Don Cornwell wrote to colleagues in April 2014. The NFL was also suspicious that Trump claimed a net worth of over $8 billion. “He probably does have the dough… but never know the real facts with him,” said an investment banker. New York Attorney General Letitia James accuses Trump of deceiving banks, insurers and others by giving them financial statements that massively inflated the values of his assets.

A banking expert, Michiel McCarty, testified that Donald Trump and his company benefited more than $168 million by obtaining favorable loan terms on transactions where Trump personally guaranteed the loans. McCarty analyzed the lending documents related to transactions at issue in this case for the following Trump Organization properties: 40 Wall Street in New York, The Doral Golf Resort & Spa in Florida [almost half the total], Trump International Hotel & Tower in Chicago, and the Old Post Office project in Washington DC.

Trump’s attorney Chris Kise argued repeatedly in objections that the expert should not be permitted to suggest what loan rate Trump Org. could have gotten because no trial evidence has shown the lenders would have changed the loan terms if they knew Trump’s net worth was inflated based on the asset valuation in his financial statements.

Donald Trump Jr testified that his knowledge of economics is from a post high school course. He relied on his accountants and was not involved with the preparations of financial statements for his father, even though he signed them as a trustee of his father’s trust.

A higher court denied Ivanka Trump’s request to postpone her upcoming testimony in her father’s civil fraud trial, shortly after she claimed she’d suffer “undue hardship” if forced to appear during a school week. “Ms. Trump, who resides in Florida with her three minor children, will suffer undue hardship if a stay is denied and she is required to testify at trial in New York in the middle of a school week, in a case she has already been dismissed from, before her appeal is heard,” her attorney argued in part in an appeal.

Trump said that Mike Pence should endorse his bid for the White House after his former vice president dropped out of the race for the Republican nomination earlier in the day. “Because I had a great successful presidency, and he was the vice president, he should endorse me,” said Trump. Yet almost 3 years prior, Trump tweeted that Pence “didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution.” During the GOP primary, Trump lashed out Pence, calling him “delusional” and “not a very good person.” A former aide to Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows told the House January 6 committee last year that Trump had suggested to Meadows that he approved of the “Hang Mike Pence” chants.

Regarding Pence, Trump said in a speech: “People in politics can be very disloyal. I’ve never seen anything like it.” Because he doesn’t remember. He probably has early dementia.

Meanwhile, in another sign of early dementia, remember how he’d say that he would drain the swamp if elected in 2016 and of course never did because he didn’t know what he was draining? He said in Iowa recently that he will “build the swamp” and then backtracked after that.

In a rally in Iowa, Trump is starting to rewrite history. During his 2015-2016 campaign, he said that Mexico will pay for the wall. Mexico didn’t but the US paid an estimated $16 billion. Now Trump said Mexico would pay for “a piece” of the wall. They didn’t pay a cent. Later, Trump tweaked his rhetoric at one point late in the campaign, claiming that Mexico would reimburse the US for the wall, he declared it would be a complete reimbursement. They didn’t pay a cent. In early 2020, he claimed that “redemption money” from undocumented immigrants was paying for the wall, which wasn’t true even if he was talking about remittance payments as some experts guessed. Later in 2020, he claimed that some sort of “border tax” was about to start paying for the project, though that was baseless too.

He has also confused people and locations. Such as beating President Obama in 2016 when it was Hilary Clinton or mixing up the leaders of Hungary and Turkey.

Saw on the Washington Post web site about Chutkan’s gag order on Trump:

“It is impossible to keep his orange mouth shut.

Better chances of George Santos becoming president at the 2024 election.”

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 Insurrection pre-trial ramps up

US District Judge Tanya Chutkan denied a request from Trump’s legal team for a deadline extension over the handling of evidence in the 2020 election subversion case. Special counsel Jack Smith’s team asked Chutkan to quickly set limits on what Trump’s team can do with the evidence that will be shared with them. Their request pointed to a post by Trump on Truth Social [“If you go after me, I’m coming after you!”] from earlier in the day to argue that the former president has a habit of speaking publicly about the details of the various legal proceedings he’s facing. Lawyers for Trump requested more time to weigh in on what restrictions should be imposed.

Trump’s attorney John Lauro made at Trump’s arraignment stressing that the defense would not be able to propose a trial date or expected length, as the judge has requested, until they had a chance to review the scope of evidence involved in the case.

Chutkan overseeing Trump’s prosecution for allegedly criminally conspiring to overturn Joe Biden’s election victory said that while every American has a First Amendment right to free speech, it is “not absolute” and that even the former president’s campaign statements must yield to protecting the integrity of the judicial process. Chutkan said that “the fact that he is running a political campaign” will have no bearing on her decisions and “must yield to the orderly administration of justice.”

“If that means he can’t say exactly what he wants to say about witnesses in this case, then that’s how it’s going to be… To the extent your client wants to make statements on the internet, they have to always yield to witness security and witness safety…. I caution you and your client to take special care in your public statements about this case… I will take whatever measures are necessary to safeguard the integrity of these proceedings.”

[Do you really think Trump will stay quiet about the case? Nah. I have a better chance of becoming President of the US than him keeping quiet.]

“The fake charges put forth in their sham indictment are an outrageous criminalization of political speech. … They’re trying to make it illegal to question the results of a bad election. It was a very bad election,” Trump said at an Alabama Republican Party fundraiser, who refuses to accept he lost the 2020 election and regularly promotes election conspiracy theories, told the crowd in a roughly 50-minute speech. “Every time they file an indictment we go way up in the polls.” Um. No. A slight drop.

And in another post, Trump says “politically unbiased nearby State of West Virginia”. Unbiased? How did he determine that? West Virginia is a Republican state. Then he adds “Impossible to get a fair trial in Washington, D.C., which is 95% anti-Trump, and for which I have called for a Federal TAKEOVER”. Oh does that mean he wants a coup d’état for the city’s government.

“These insults are so phony, these insults are juvenile. That is not the way a great nation should be conducting itself. That is not the way the president of the United States should be conducting himself,” Florida “governor” Ron DeSantis said in his continuing flip-flop an interview. DeSantis said elsewhere that the “theories” put out by Trump and his associates following the 2020 election were “unsubstantiated” and “did not prove to be true.” But DeSantis branded the latest indictment against Trump as “politically motivated.”

“Of course he lost,” DeSantis said an interview with NBC News. “Joe Biden’s the president.” But he also recently said it was not an insurrection but a “protest” that “ended up devolving, you know, in a way that was unfortunate.” I don’t think there was any protesting at all from the beginning at the Trump Insurrection. “If, on the other hand, the election is not about Jan. 20, 2025, but Jan. 6, 2021, or what document was left by the toilet at Mar-a-Lago, if it’s a referendum on that, we are going to lose.”

A federal judge demanded an explanation from ex-Trump Lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, as to why he conceded in court that he made false and defamatory statements about two Georgia election workers after the 2020 election but hasn’t forfeited their lawsuit against him. The judge is considering severe sanctions for Giuliani over the Georgia defamation case. Following Giuliani’s concessions, the judge ordered him to pay more of the two workers’ legal fees after previously ordering him to pay them $90,000.

“WOW, it’s finally happened! Liddle’ Mike Pence, a man who was about to be ousted as Governor Indiana until I came along and made him V.P., has gone to the Dark Side,” Trump wrote. This after Pence has started to ramp up criticism of Trump after his third indictment.

Judge Lewis Kaplan said that Trump had not proven that E. Jean Carroll’s statements on CNN the day after the jury awarded her $5 million after finding that Trump sexually abused Carroll and defamed her were false or “not at least substantially true,” which is the legal standard. She has dismissed Trump’s counter defamation lawsuit against Carroll. The judge previously rejected Trump’s request for a new trial.

The Justice Department has reversed course and said it no longer believes that Trump should be entitled to immunity for his response to Carroll’s accusation of sexual assault, allowing the civil lawsuit to move forward to trial in January.

[Trump keeps on losing court cases. Exactly who has he hired to litigate? High school students? They are either not advising him well or he is ignoring their advice. I think the latter.]

The magistrate judge in the federal court in Fort Pierce, Florida formally accepted the latest not-guilty plea of Trump, who told the judge in court papers last week that he is not guilty and waived his right to appear at the hearing in person.

Trump’s valet, Walt Nauta, appeared before a judge on Thursday and pleaded not guilty to conspiring with Trump to obstruct the investigation into his possession of classified documents at his Florida estate.

Property manager of Mar-a-Lago, Carlos De Oliveira, was again unable to enter a plea in the case because he still hasn’t secured a Florida-based attorney, which is required under local court rules.

The 16 Michigan Republicans who served as fake electors in 2020 have pleaded not guilty to the first-of-their-kind felony charges stemming from the Trump-backed election subversion plot. The group of GOP activists were hit with state charges last month over their role in Trump’s seven-state plan to subvert the Electoral College and overturn the 2020 election results by supplanting lawful Democratic electors with fake Republican electors.

Each of the fake Michigan electors were charged with eight state felonies, including forgery, conspiracy to commit election law forgery, and publishing a counterfeit record. Some have indicated that they will claim Trump won the election. [Did they know he won the election prior to the election results?]

Three Michigan allies of Trump, including a former Republican state attorney general candidate, were charged in connection with an effort to illegally access and tamper with voting machines in the state after the 2020 election. Attorney Matthew DePerno was charged with undue possession of a voting machine and conspiracy, while Daire Rendon, a former Republican state representative, was charged with conspiracy to commit undue possession of a voting machine and false pretenses, special prosecutor D.J. Hilson announced in a news release. Then Stefanie Lambert Junttila was also charged who allegedly took part in a conspiracy to seize and access voting machines in Michigan after the 2020 election is now facing four state-level criminal charges.

Trump and other prominent Michigan Republican figures repeatedly peddled baseless conspiracy theories about massive fraud in Detroit and supposedly rigged voting machines that manipulated the results in rural Michigan counties. They took action after some of their allies unsuccessfully urged Trump in December 2020 to sign an executive order directing the military to seize voting machines.

Trump’s joint fundraising committee raised $53.9 million over the first six months of the year, it spent more than $52 million in the same period, the reports show. Trump’s Save America PAC had more than $100 million at the beginning of last year. It now has only about $3.6 million in cash on hand after it became the vehicle used to pay millions of dollars in legal bills for Trump, his aides and his associates. Trump’s super PAC, Make America Great Again Inc., reported that it had raised more than $13 million over the first six months of this year and had about $30 million in cash on hand at the end of the reporting period. But the group sent $12.2 million to the Save America leadership PAC.

Trump claims that Former President Bill Clinton was agonizing over his indictment. How did he know? Did he set up spy cameras?

Here’s a though: What will Trump do if he loses the Republican primaries? Go after the GOP establishment, I’m sure. Multiple lawsuits.

A little note: This blogue only gives the best of what I can find during the week [or so] about anything from Trump. I don’t go into too much details unless a rare slow week.

It wasn’t a good week for Trump

Donald Trump has been indicted for the third time on criminal charges by a federal grand jury in a case that strikes at Trump’s efforts to remain in the White House after losing the 2020 election and undermine the long-held American tradition of a peaceful transfer of presidential power.

As part of special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation, Trump was charged with:

• Conspiracy to defraud the United States
• Conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding
• Obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding
• Conspiracy against rights

“For more than two months following election day on November 3, 2020, the defendant spread lies that there had been outcome-determinative fraud in the election and that he had actually won…. These claims were false, and the Defendant knew they were false… But the defendant disseminated them anyway – to make his knowingly false claims appear legitimate, create an intense atmosphere of mistrust and anger, and erode public faith in the administration of the election.”

In between the election and the Trump Insurrection, Trump urged local election officials to undo voting results in their states, pressured Pence to halt the certification of electoral votes and falsely claimed that the election had been stolen — a notion repeatedly rejected by judges. Among those lies, prosecutors say, were claims that more than 10,000 dead voters had voted in Georgia along with tens of thousands of double votes in Nevada. Each claim had been rebutted by courts or state or federal officials, the indictment says.

It didn’t take long for his backers to start complaining in the media about the counts, Smith himself, the Department of Justice, Hunter Biden [not relevant to this indictment] and others.

Florida “governor” Ron DeSantis is still strangely backing his chief rival for the Republican nominee by saying “A DC jury would indict a ham sandwich and convict a ham sandwich if it was a Republican ham sandwich”. Is DeSantis saying already that juries are already not impartial even before they are picked? Next time you have a ham sandwich, you may want to ask the sandwich which side of politics do they prefer to be eaten by.

However, former Vice President Mike Pence said “The president was surrounded by a group of crackpot lawyers”.

Former Attorney General Bill Barr undermined a key pillar of Trump’s defense in the special counsel’s probe into 2020 election interference, saying that Trump “knew well he lost the election.” He also described Trump’s alleged actions as detailed in the indictment as “nauseating” and “despicable,” and “someone who engaged in that kind of bullying about a process that is fundamental to our system and to our self-government shouldn’t be anywhere near the Oval Office.”

Florida “governor” Ron DeSantis has often tried to hedge, refusing to acknowledge that the election was fairly conducted. In his response, DeSantis did not mention Trump by name — saying merely that such theories were “unsubstantiated.” Bit “all those theories that were put out did not prove to be true.”

Smith wants a faster trial and will probably ask for a trial date in early 2024.

Six un-indicted co-conspirators were included in the filing. Among the six are four unnamed attorneys who allegedly aided Trump in his effort to subvert the 2020 election. Also included is one unnamed Justice Department official who “attempted to use the Justice Department to open sham election crime investigations and influence state legislatures with knowingly false claims of election fraud.” The indictment also mentions an unnamed “political consultant who helped implement a plan to submit fraudulent slates of presidential electors to obstruct the certification proceeding.”

A conviction in this case, or any other, would not prevent Trump from pursuing the White House or serving as president, though Trump as president could theoretically appoint an attorney general to dismiss the charges or potentially try to pardon himself.

When Trump was indicted and accused of trying to subvert the results of the 2020 presidential election, he found himself in the unenviable company of defendants charged under a criminal statute dating to the Reconstruction era. The statute, Section 241 of Title 18 of the U.S. Code, was originally adopted as part of the Enforcement Act of 1870. It was the first in a series of measures known as the Ku Klux Klan Acts designed to protect rights guaranteed by the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments, collectively called the Reconstruction Amendments. Section 241 makes it a crime to “conspire to injure, oppress, threaten, or intimidate any person” exercising a right protected by the Constitution or federal law.

Here’s the link to the full text of the indictment. [Unsure if the contents will make you cheer or fall asleep fast!]

Trump defense lawyer, John Lauro, said prosecutors cannot prove Trump truly “believed” he’d lost his 2020 presidential re-election, ensuring a not-guilty verdict.

A recent poll said that 35% would vote for Trump even if convicted and still 28% if in prison! Meanwhile, 70% of Republicans still think President Joe Biden lost the election.

About three dozen House Democrats, led by Rep. Adam B. Schiff, are calling for televising the federal trials of Trump on charges related to the 2020 election and the retention of classified documents.

Meanwhile, Trump pleaded not guilty to the new charges special counsel Jack Smith brought against him in the case alleging mishandling of classified documents from his time in the White House. These are related to how security camera footage was removed even after the original court order.

Prosecutors in Georgia are investigating efforts by Trump and his allies to reverse his election loss to Biden there. The district attorney of Fulton County is expected to announce charging decisions within weeks.

A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit Trump filed against CNN in which Trump claimed that references in news articles or by the network’s hosts to his efforts to overturn the 2020 election as “the Big Lie” were tantamount to comparing him to Adolf Hitler. Trump had been seeking punitive damages of $475 million in the federal lawsuit filed last October in South Florida, claiming the references hurt his reputation and political career.

Trump’s campaign released a video which attacks Smith, New York Attorney General Letitia James, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and dubs the group the “Fraud Squad.”

Classified documents trial moves forward

District Judge Aileen Cannon has set an initial date for the criminal trial of Donald Trump in regard to allegedly mishandled classified documents to begin in mid-August, but the date will most likely be pushed back because of legal issues including how to handle classified documents.

The latest excuses [of many] regarding why he kept classified documents over a year after he left office?

• He was reading them. [I’m wondering if the FBI teams found Big Mac’s special sauce stains on them.]
• He’s claiming the papers he had were newspaper and magazine articles.
• He wanted to pull out “all sorts of things, golf shirts, clothing, pants, shoes,” interspersed with papers in his boxes.

“A defiant 9-year-old,” is what former Attorney General William Barr compared his former boss, Trump, to. “If true, that conduct was a flagrant crime that cannot be excused…. He will always put his own interests and gratifying his own ego ahead of everything else, including the country’s interests. There’s no question about it.… Our country can’t be a therapy session for, you know, a troubled man like this.”

Trump’s former secretary of defense, Mark Esper, said that the revelations in the indictment jeopardize national security, although he was careful to add the “if the allegations are true” caveat to his answer. “If the allegations are true that it contained information about our nation’s security, about our vulnerabilities, about other items, it could be quite harmful to the nation…. No one is above the law.”

“I think we need to let the courts do their job. And let this case work its way through our judicial system,” Mike Pence said to one network but was with Trump calling it politically charged [etc.] on another. Another flip flopper.

The judge in the classified documents case agreed to prosecutors’ request that neither Trump nor his co-defendant, Walt Nauta, should be allowed to talk about information handed over to their lawyers as part of the discovery process – an expected ruling but nonetheless significant given Trump’s penchant for sharing things on social media.

Trump who, when in office, repeatedly defended naming the base after Fort Bragg [recently renamed Fort Liberty] as well as defending other bases named to honor former Confederate officers. Trump even threatened to veto the bipartisan defense funding bill Congress passed in 2020 that included renaming military bases that bore the name of Confederate generals. Did he? No. Another thing he said he would do and didn’t. The bases while he was in office did get changed.

The efforts of John Eastman, an ex-attorney for Trump, to convince then-Vice President Mike Pence that he could interfere with Congress’ certification of the 2020 election results will be the subject of several days of attorney ethics proceedings set to begin in a Los Angeles courtroom. Disciplinary attorneys for the California Bar will be asking the court to disbar Eastman for that and other conduct related to the 2020 election advocacy he did for Trump.

The FBI, mindful of not wanting to appear partisan, had for months held off on launching a formal investigation into Trump’s role in efforts to subvert the 2020 election, though the episode doesn’t appear to have significantly hampered prosecutors’ ability to look at Trump for federal crimes in the past two years. Shortly after the January 6, 2021, the Trump Insurrection, top Justice Department and FBI officials dismissed as premature a plan to investigate Trump allies as part of its probe and initially held off on naming him as a target.

Several aides for Trump reportedly floated South Carolina Republican Congressman Nancy Mace as a possible running mate for him in 2024, a pick that would potentially give him an inside lane on several of his South Carolina-based rivals in the race and bolster support in the state ahead of its crucial February primaries.

Hey… A quiet week

Donald Trump’s legal team offered its most detailed public defense yet of the former president’s conduct in the classified documents case now being investigated by a special counsel — arguing that the Justice Department should be ordered to “stand down” on the probe. The unusual 10-page letter seeks to pull the legislative branch further into the classified documents case, in which federal prosecutors have convened a grand jury to hear evidence into whether Trump or those close to him mishandled classified documents or obstructed government efforts to retrieve them.

The grand jury has been hearing testimony from dozens of witnesses in recent months, including Trump’s own lawyer Evan Corcoran. The letter is notable in two ways — first, as a detailed argument for the case to be dropped, a request lodged not with the investigators but with elected officials. Second, it focuses mostly on Trump’s alleged conduct before — not after — a May subpoena demanded he return classified documents kept after his presidency.

Trump will face a civil trial over allegations that he raped E. Jean Carroll, a writer and former magazine columnist, nearly three decades ago. The trial centering on Carroll’s accusations, which began with jury selection in Manhattan, comes at a moment of immense legal and investigative scrutiny for Trump.

Trump has lost an emergency attempt to block former Vice President Mike Pence from testifying about their direct conversations, in the latest boost to a federal criminal investigation examining Trump’s and others’ actions after the 2020 election. Trump has repeatedly tried and failed to close off some answers from witnesses close to him in the special counsel’s investigation. This latest order from the DC Circuit Court of Appeals likely will usher in Pence’s grand jury testimony quickly – an unprecedented development in modern presidential history.