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. ]

Week one of the first Trump trial

Early Friday afternoon in week one of the hush trial in New York City, the six alternate jurors were selected for the first trial of Donald Jonathan Trump.

[He hates when his middle name is used, so I used it!]

After some legal matter such as whether Trump can be used as a witness, the trial should begin on Monday in the second week.

[Trump testifying could be harmful for him as he obviously has a history of exaggeration and lies. If he takes the stand there will be plenty of side-bars to decide whether some (or most) if his testimony will be allowed or stricken.]

The prosecutor is introducing a motion to sanction Trump for his three social media posts they allege violate the judge’s gag order. The prosecutor told the judge they are seeking permission to hold Trump in contempt for violating the gag order and sanction Trump $1,000 for each of the three posts that violate the order. The prosecutor also said that prosecutors want the judge to take down the three posts and to remind the defendant that “further violations could result in jail time.” The judge hasn’t decided on this yet. At one point in the first week, Trump ignored the gag order seven times.

[Normally $3,000 should be “chicken feed” for him but with all his legal expenses.]

Judge Merchan said he will hold a hearing on the district attorney’s motion to sanction Trump for his social media posts, according to pool reports.

Seems Trump was bored in the first week of the trial during jury selection. It was reported that Trump actually dozed off during the first day. After the reporter mentioned it publicly, Trump gave the reporter a look.

Trump wants to take part in sidebars, which could put him very close to jurors. Defendants rarely get involved in sidebars with judges during jury selection.

Trump’s attorney asked the district attorney’s office to share the first three witnesses they plan to call, noting that opening arguments and the first witness testimony could begin very soon. The Assistant District Attorney refused but acknowledged that courtesy is often extended. But because Trump has been posting on social media about their witnesses, he said with a shrug, “We’re not telling him who the witnesses are.” Merchan said he couldn’t fault prosecutors for that. Trump visibly shook his head over the exchange.

Evidence that will be allowed:

• Judge Juan Merchan said he will allow a series of National Enquirer stories attacking Trump’s opponents into evidence.
• Testimony from Karen McDougal will also be allowed, but Merchan said it is not necessary for the jury to hear that Trump continued his affair with McDougal while his wife, Melania Trump, was pregnant and after she gave birth. McDougal is a model and actress who has said she had a months long affair with Trump in 2006 and was paid $150,000 to keep quiet about it by the National Enquirer. Trump has denied the affair.
• Merchan will allow testimony of former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen’s guilty plea to campaign finance violations with the proper foundation. He said prosecutors cannot tie that guilty plea to Trump.

What will not be allowed:

• Merchan said he still believes the “Access Hollywood” video in which Trump brags about groping women should not be shown to jurors because it’s so prejudicial.
• The judge also denied prosecutors’ request to bring into evidence the allegations of sexual assault against Trump that came out after the “Access Hollywood” tape. He said he will not allow Trump to be prejudiced by a “rumor.”
• Merchan additionally said he doesn’t think the deposition of E. Jean Carroll, who accused Trump of sexual assault, should be brought in because it would be “building in a trial into a trial.”

Barron Trump’s graduation is on a court day but Merchan hasn’t decided to allow Trump to go to it. Although that’s later in May.

[Trump will probably go berserk if he can’t. Although knowing enough of him, he’d do campaigning as well.]

Remember how Trump was complaining that he couldn’t get a fair trial in heavily Democrat leaning New York City? Trump was asked what he thought of the first seven jurors selected. He answered to ask him again in two months [when the trial could be over]. So he’s not complaining now about a fair trial.

[Of course if he loses, he will bring up the unfair trial crap and if he wins, he won’t mention the unfairness. Note that his illegal activities related to this trial took place in New York City. So where else can it be done?]

While he is in court and can’t get out of being there, Trump’s vice-president candidates are on TV and radio trying to help him. They are J.D. Vance, Elise Stefanik, Doug Burgum [a long shot as from a small state and mostly unknown], and Vivek Ramaswamy.

[With some of the candidates, they could hurt him more than help.]

At some rally in some small town in Pennsylvania, Trump said “Gettysburg, what an amazing, horrible, just incredible, classy, terrible thing, really beautiful. I kinda went there, but had the wrong address. Robert E Lee a war hero that wasn’t captured, loser on the hill, but we miss him, really a great guy, believe me.”

[Lee was a war hero and “really a great guy, believe me” – Trump is that old to know him? The GOP were always ranting about President Biden’s age.]

The Supreme Court seemed deeply divided over a challenge to a federal law that prosecutors used to charge more than 350 people who were part of the Trump Insurrection mob that attacked the US Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Several conservatives expressed concern about giving prosecutors broad power that they suggested would allow the government to target peaceful protesters or hecklers who disrupt a court proceeding.

The court’s ruling, likely to land in late June, has the potential to undo the convictions and sentences of those who have gone to trial or pleaded guilty, and upend the charges still pending for many more. It could also clear Trump of some charges.

[So the justices want those disturbing the court to be allowed to?]

Jimmy Kimmel delivered another monologue making fun of Trump. The morning after, Trump claimed that at the Academy Awards in March, it was Kimmel, not Al Pacino, who said should of said “and the Oscar goes to” or at least “and the winner is.” Kimmel was the host that night. See here. [particularly at about 47 seconds in. “In fairness to our former President, many stable geniuses confuse me with Al Pacino….,” Kimmel wrote late that afternoon on Twitter.

[Can’t Trump get this right? Did he or have someone to verify the message sent? I guess not.]
Trump’s campaign is asking Republican candidates and committees using his name and likeness who fundraise to give at least 5% of what they raise to the campaign. Trump’s campaign managers, Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita, said in a letter dated April 15, “Beginning tomorrow, we ask that all candidates and committees who choose to use President Trump’s name, image, and likeness split a minimum of 5% of all fundraising solicitations to Trump National Committee JFC…”

[You think anyone will give more than 5%?]

The LA Times goofed, claiming a “typographical error” when in the obituary for OJ Simpson, Donald Trump’s name was used instead. “Long before the city woke up on a fall morning in 2017, Trump walked out of Lovelock Correctional Center outside Reno, a free man for the first time in nine years,” the Times’ obituary read. “He didn’t go far, moving into a 5,000-square-foot home in Las Vegas with a Bentley in the driveway.”

Voting technology company Smartmatic and the far-right network One America News said that they had settled a defamation lawsuit stemming from the outlet’s lies about the 2020 election. Because of a confidential agreement, no details were revealed. Smartmatic filed its lawsuit against OAN in 2021, alleging that the right-wing conspiracy network “victimized” the company and spread lies about its role in the 2020 election to “increase viewership and revenue.”

The DJT stock continues to drop at one point. Maybe related to the fact that they began selling 2.1 million more shares which diluted the stock [which reduces Trump’s percentage in the company] and then announced they want to go into streaming as well. Streaming a notoriously cost-intensive business in which media behemoths like Disney have struggled to turn a profit. Since the height of DJT stock, it has dropped 70% as of April 16th but over the past three days, it has shot up a bit.

It is suggested that its streaming network could host live news, religious programming and family-friendly shows, movies and documentaries that “has been cancelled, is at risk of cancellation, or is being suppressed on other platforms and services.”

[So I guess content could include Beverley Hillbillies, Dukes of Hazard, moonshine experts, a cookie show on how to make deep fried Oreos….]
Trump repeatedly ranted about wind power during a fundraising dinner with oil and gas industry executives recently, claiming that the renewable-energy source is unreliable, unattractive and bad for the environment.

[Talking about sucking up. Just remember that he was pushing dirty and environmentally unfriendly coal when it was being used less and less. How anyone can think that renewable-energy source is bad for the environment must be crazy. He is.]

Only it now came out that disgraced former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in December after being ordered to pay $148 million for falsely accusing two poll workers of cheating in the 2020 election. This week, the former Trump attorney sat for an hours-long deposition behind closed doors in the case, as his creditors seek to recover their money — with his treasure trove of assets revealing how they might be paid.

Finally a real quite week

The US Supreme Court said it will review the Colorado Supreme Court’s unprecedented decision removing former Donald Trump from that state’s ballot. The court scheduled oral arguments for February 8. Trump remains on the ballot as the lower-court ruling disqualifying him has been put on hold pending Supreme Court action.

A group of House Democrats is demanding Justice Clarence Thomas recuse himself from a case stemming from the Colorado ruling disqualifying Trump from holding office, citing past efforts by Thomas’ wife to reverse the 2020 election results. In a letter sent by eight Democrats on Thursday to Thomas, the lawmakers argue his wife, Virginia “Ginni” Thomas’ role in the January 6, 2021, “Stop the Steal” rally that she attended make it “unthinkable” the conservative justice could be impartial in deciding whether the event constituted an insurrection.

Special counsel Jack Smith pushed back against Trump’s assertions that the prosecutor should be held in contempt for submitting filings while the federal election interference case is paused, calling accusations that he was intentionally violating a court order “false” and “baseless.” “The Court has held that there is a substantial public interest in the fair and prompt resolution of this case,” prosecutors wrote.

The New York attorney general, Letitia James, is seeking more than $370 million from Trump and his co-defendants and to bar Trump from doing business in the state, according to a post-trial brief filed in Trump’s civil fraud trial.

The Democrats “have weaponized the system.” Trump said at a rally in Iowa, this coming from the man who already wants to use the Department of Justice, FBI and others to go after his enemies once he is elected. He also says Democrats “are signing up” migrants to vote and these same migrants hate the US. If they hate the US, why would you want to migrate to that country? He also claims that Democratic donors are helping out Nikki Haley.

[And how come he hasn’t given Haley a nickname yet?]

Trump has only escalated his apocalyptic descriptions of America and its ostensible future under another President Biden term. “Our border has been erased. Criminals are running wild in our Democrat-run cities. And thanks to crooked Joe’s breathtaking weakness, the world is going up in flames… The whole world is up in flames.” He also told his audience that “the communists, Marxists and fascists are going hard after Catholics” and that Democrats “want people to take your children and do things with your children that are not even speakable.” Biden and “the far-left lunatics,” he said, are “willing to violate the US Constitution at levels never seen before,” adding that “we’re very close” to World War III.

[Everything in the paragraph above were just threats with no actual proof. In comparison, when Biden was talking about Trump and what Biden has said has is what Trump would say he would do or comment about – such as the dictatorship, accused migrants of “poisoning the blood” of the nation, calling enemies vermin and using the Department of Justice and other parts of the federal government to go after Trump’s opponents.]

[When Trump took over in 2016, many people who worked the various federal government departments left their jobs as they wouldn’t work for Trump. Expect a sequel to this if Trump wins in November. However, many celebrities claimed that they would move out of the US when Trump won in November of 2015, but very few did.]

Rumors floating that Nikki Haley [assuming she doesn’t get the nomination] could be pushed as Trump’s running mate in the next election by the GOP party. But Stephen Bannon and Donald Trump Jr. have stated that having Haley would be bad for the party.

“Why did American Disaster Liz Cheney … ILLEGALLY DELETE & DESTROY most of the evidence, and related items, from the January 6th Committee of Political Thugs and Misfits….” Trump and his allies have simply invented the claim that he requested 10,000 troops before the Jan. 6 Trump Insurrection attack on the Capitol, twisting an offhand comment into a supposed order to the Pentagon.

He “floated the idea of having 10,000 National Guardsmen deployed to protect him and his supporters from any supposed threats by left-wing counter protesters,” the report from the January 6 committee said. To mobilize 10,000-20,000 Guardsmen, he would have had to contact the Governors of other States and they would have had to then give orders, or he would have had to federalize the Guardsmen from those States.

Some of the documentation related Jeffrey Epstein case which had Trump as one of his clients – as well as Price Andrew and President Bill Clinton – is starting to ruffle the feathers of the right wing. Former Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani, Donald Trump Jr. and political allies such as Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene all posted about the release on social media, warning of a cover-up of alleged Epstein conspirators. Maybe they think most of the people on the list of clients are right wing perverts. I guess Taylor Greene may not have been clients but I wouldn’t be surprised about Giuliani, and like father like son for Donald Trump Jr. Why else would you warn of conspiracies or cover-ups?

As it was a quite week in Trumpland, here are some statistics that could shock you at least a bit – or not:

When The Washington Post and University of Maryland asked in December 2021 whether Biden was legitimately elected, 69 percent of Americans said he was. Now, that’s down to 62 percent. Slightly fewer Republicans today [31 percent] say Biden’s election was legitimate compared with 2021 [39 percent]. More than one-third of Americans, or 36 percent, do not accept Biden’s victory as legitimate.

Older Americans are slightly more likely than younger ones to say Biden was legitimately elected, as are voters with college degrees. About 3 in 10 people who get most of their information from Fox News think Biden won legitimately in 2020.

57 percent or Americans, say the Justice Department is “holding Trump accountable under the law like anyone else” by prosecuting him. A fifth of Republicans agree; the vast majority [77 percent] believe Trump is being targeted for political reasons, as he has repeatedly claimed without evidence.

Most Americans, 55 percent, believe the storming of the US Capitol on Jan. 6 was “an attack on democracy that should never be forgotten,” with majorities of Democrats and independents holding this view. But most Republicans and Trump voters reject this view.

More than 7 in 10 Republicans say that too much is being made of the attack and that it is “time to move on.” Fewer than 2 in 10 (18 percent) of Republicans say Jan. 6 protesters were “mostly violent,” dipping from 26 percent in 2021. Currently, 77 percent of Democrats and 54 percent of independents say the protesters were mostly violent, little changed from 2021.

Just over a quarter of Americans are confident that Trump will accept the results of the election if he loses the next presidential race, while 65 percent think President Biden will. A 71 percent majority of Americans are not confident Trump will accept losing in 2024, which is more than twice the share who say this of Biden. Nearly half of Republicans doubt Trump will accept the election if he loses, rising to 73 percent among independents and 93 percent of Democrats.

The Post-UMD poll finds that 55 percent of Republicans think legal punishments for the people who broke into the Capitol have been “fair” or “not harsh enough,” though that is down from 64 percent in 2021. Seven in 10 independents and about 9 in 10 Democrats say punishments have been fair or insufficient.

Two years ago, 60 percent of Americans overall said Trump bears “a great deal” or “a good amount” of responsibility for the attack; now, 53 percent do. Again, Republicans are driving that change — 14 percent assign him a great or good amount of culpability, about half as many as did in 2021 [27 percent].

A 56 percent majority of Americans say Trump is probably guilty of a criminal conspiracy to overturn the 2020 election results through false claims of voter fraud, including 40 percent who believe he is “definitely guilty.” Republicans are less united than Democrats. Nearly 9 in 10 Democrats believe Trump is guilty, while nearly 7 in 10 Republicans think he is innocent. Among independents, nearly twice as many think Trump is guilty as think he is innocent.

Even though most Americans believe Trump is guilty, the poll finds that fewer than half, 46 percent, say his actions related to Jan. 6 Trump Insurrection should disqualify him from the presidency. An additional 17 percent say Trump’s actions cast doubt on his fitness to serve, while 33 percent say they are not relevant.

Humor time:

After his speech in Iowa on Friday, Trump could be nominated for an Emmy prime time comedy special award for next year. A laugh a minute.

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.

America’s Mayor declares bankruptcy

Outside of his recent judgment against him for $148 million, the former “America’s Mayor”, Rudy Giuliani, owes an estimated $153 million in existing and potential debts including almost $1 million in federal and state taxes. Some say his total debt could go as high as $500 million.

Giuliani’s former lawyer Robert Costello sued him for nearly US$1.4 million in unpaid legal bills. Giuliani claimed he never received them. The case is pending.

He has numerous other court cases pending including Hunter Biden suing him.

Giuliani is also being sued by a woman who said she worked for him. She alleges he owed her nearly US$2 million in unpaid wages and coerced her into sex.

Another lawsuit involves a man who claims Giuliani defamed him after he slapped the ex-mayor on the back at a supermarket. Giuliani has denied the woman’s claims.

He owes another $387,000 to a firm that has shepherded him through disbarment proceedings in New York and Washington stemming from his efforts to keep Donald Trump in power.

Other creditors include Smartmatic and an employee of Dominion Voting Systems. He faces lawsuits for claiming both voting-machine companies flipped votes from Trump to Biden in the 2020 election.

There are nearly 20 creditors that are owed money.

Citing bank records and other information, Giuliani had gone from having about US$1.2 million in the bank and US$40,000 in credit card debt in January 2018 to about US$288,000 in cash and US$110,000 credit debt in February 2019.

He also has hawked autographed 9/11 shirts for $911.

He has appeared on Cameo, a service where celebrities record short videos for profit. Giuliani was charging $325 for his greetings, though a recent check shows they’re “temporarily unavailable.”

[Disgraced George Santos is charging $500 for a personalized video on Cameo and there is a chance he could exceed his $174,000 salary he had while working in Congress.]

In September, Trump hosted a $100,000-a-plate fundraiser for Giuliani at his Bedminster, New Jersey, golf club. The event was expected to raise more than $1 million for Giuliani’s legal bills. [Ten plates?]

At one time he asked for third-party donations to pay a $300,000 bill to the electronic discovery firm.

Declaring bankruptcy likely won’t erase the $148 million verdict. Bankruptcy law doesn’t allow for the dissolution of debts that come from a “wilful and malicious injury” inflicted on someone else.

His assets are up to $10 million including his Manhattan apartment he tried to sell for $6.5 million and dropped the price to $6.1 million.
He also failed to sell his Palm Beach, Florida residence for $3.3 million.

He had a once-lavish lifestyle with a $230,000-a-month spending habit, six houses and 11 country club memberships.

[At this point, we don’t know if Giuliani has hid some of his wealth somewhere privately where the authorities and his lawyers may not know of.]

One of Trump’s legal battles is heading to the Supreme Court

Special counsel Jack Smith asked the Supreme Court to decide whether Donald Trump has any immunity from criminal prosecution for alleged crimes he committed while in office – the first time that the high court will weigh in on the historic prosecution of Trump. The extraordinary request is an attempt by Smith to keep the election subversion trial – currently scheduled for early March – on track. Smith is asking the Supreme Court to take the rare step of skipping a federal appeals court and quickly decide a fundamental issue of the case against Trump.

But Federal Judge Tanya Chutkan overseeing Donald Trump’s 2020 election interference case has temporarily paused all procedural deadlines while appeals over a major issue play out – which could lead to his March 2024 trial date being pushed back. The judge acknowledged that she no longer has jurisdiction over aspects of the criminal case while the DC Circuit Court of Appeals considers whether Trump is immune and can be tried.

Smith’s team has asked the court to review Judge Chutkan’s ruling that as a former president, Trump is not immune from the election subversion prosecution case brought in Washington DC. Lawyers for Trump have argued that Trump’s alleged actions over the 2020 election results were part of his official duties at the time and therefore he is protected by presidential immunity. If the court rules against Smith, it could cause problems in this case and another.

A New York appellate court rejected Trump’s challenge of the gag order in his civil fraud trial. Trump’s attorneys petitioned the court over the gag order that bars him and the attorneys from speaking publicly about Judge Arthur Engoron’s court staff. In rejecting the challenge, the appeals court said Trump didn’t use the proper legal vehicle to challenge the gag order and sanctions. The appellate court in another order also rejected a Trump request to allow his legal team to seek a review of the gag order by the Court of Appeals, New York’s highest court.

Trump said he has decided against testifying for a second time at his New York civil fraud trial claiming that he “very successfully & conclusively” testified last month and saw no need to appear again. He was expected to add more testimony this past week. When he was questioned by the state lawyers who are suing him, he often responded with lengthy diatribes. Trump’s verbose answers irked the judge, who repeatedly asked Trump to keep his answers short. “This is not a political rally,” the judge said. Had Trump returned to the stand Monday, his defence lawyers would have led the questioning, but state lawyers could have cross-examined him.

[Trump’s lawyers may try to ask the Supreme Court but I suspect they won’t even hear it (if they are really smart). If you got nothing to hide, then you would testify. If your first round of testimony didn’t go well, you wouldn’t want to testify.]

A federal appeals court rejected Trump’s use of presidential immunity in a bid to dismiss a civil defamation lawsuit brought by former magazine columnist E. Jean Carroll. The judges found that Trump waived using presidential immunity as a defense by not raising it earlier in the litigation over Carroll’s claim that Trump defamed her when, as president, he denied her allegations of sexual assault. The appeals court also affirmed the lower court’s ruling by Judge Kaplan that rejected Trump’s motion for summary judgment.

[Not really surprising as well as the assault happened way before his reign (of terror).]

Trump’s ex-lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, has lost his defamation to two women in Georgia. They were election workers. One was paid $16/hour and the other one was a volunteer. After Giuliani accused them of some shenanigans that he could never prove, they were harassed by him verbally and then by followers of Trump. Throughout the whole time since his accusations, Giuliani said he would show proof of what they did. [We are still waiting!]

Of course he doesn’t have the money. He can’t pay his legal bills. He probably will go bankrupt first. He probably can’t afford an appeal. He probably won’t be able to pay his alimony [3 wives].

[His buddy, Trump, claims to be a billionaire but probably won’t give Giuliani a nickel because Trump likes to throw people under a steamroller while he rolls over them a few times. Donnie was a co-conspirator.]

Trump characterized warnings that his victory in 2024 would represent a threat to democracy as a “hoax” and “Democrat misinformation.” He said in a speech hosted by the New York Young Republican Club that President Joe Biden “is the real threat to democracy.” He said “We call it now the threat-to-democracy hoax, because that’s what it is.”

[This is the man who claimed he would become a dictator on day one of his second reign. He also suggested even a third term which is against the constitution and even scrap parts of the constitution (that he doesn’t like). As well, this from a man who wants to weaponize the Department of Justice and others to go after those who went against him.]

“They think the threat-to-democracy hoax will save Biden from having created the worst inflation in our country’s history, a fragile economy that may soon end in a depression.”

[The inflation came right after his reign when the nation was at least shut down while his administration could not figure out how to handle the pandemic. The world was looking for the US for leadership. Instead the world got turmoil. And of course he knows nothing. Inflation was a whopping 20% in the late 1940s, 15% around the 1980s and about 9% in 2022. The “worst inflation”? Source.]

While on Fox, Trump made 24 false or iffy claims. A good chuckle. Some of the comments by users are quite funny.

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 found guilty of fraud

Judge Arthur Engoron ruled that Donald Trump committed fraud for years while building the real estate empire that catapulted him to fame and the White House, and he ordered some of Trump’s companies removed from his control and dissolved.

The judge, ruling in a civil lawsuit brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James, found that Trump and his company deceived banks, insurers and others by massively overvaluing his assets and exaggerating his net worth on paperwork used in making deals and securing loans.

Trump, in a series of statements, railed against the decision, calling it “un-American” and part of an ongoing plot to damage his campaign to return to the White House.

One of the properties in the fraud was his 40 Wall Street building. On 9/11, Trump wasn’t concerned or upset about what happened about his building. Instead he rambled that prior to the building of the World Trade Center, 40 Wall Street was [he claimed] the tallest building in New York. When the attack occurred, he was boasting that 40 Wall Street was back on top. Who cares about what happened. A real estate company valued 40 Wall Street at $250 million, while the Trump Org. has it listed as $735 million. Why would anyone believe his company over an independent evaluation? This is just one of many properties with over evaluation.

US District Judge Tanya Chutkan said she won’t recuse herself from Trump’s 2020 election interference case in Washington, rejecting Trump’s claims that her past comments raise doubts about whether she can be fair. Chutkan, who was nominated to the bench by President Barack Obama and was randomly assigned to Trump’s case, said in her written decision that she sees no reason to step aside. There’s a high bar for recusal, and legal experts had widely considered Trump’s request to be a long shot aimed at undermining the legitimacy of the case publicly that could only sour the relationship between the judge and the defense in court. Trump’s lawyers will use this issue as one reason for an appeal.

Trump’s attorneys argued in a court filing that a gag order requested by special counsel Jack Smith in the federal 2020 election interference case is unconstitutional, overly broad and an effort to censor the former president during the 2024 presidential race. “The Proposed Gag Order is nothing more than an obvious attempt by the Biden Administration to unlawfully silence its most prominent political opponent,” Trump’s attorneys said in the response. Trump is asking Chutkan to deny the prosecutor’s request for a gag order entirely, requesting a hearing on the matter.

Trump-era Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark cannot move his Georgia election subversion case from state to federal court. The ruling from US District Judge Steve Jones is the latest blow to the Georgia defendants who are trying to move their state prosecutions into the federal system, where they could get more favorable trial conditions or increase their chances of getting the criminal charges dropped altogether by invoking immunity protections for US government officials. Jones already rejected a similar request from Mark Meadows, who was Trump’s chief of staff in 2020 and was also charged in the Georgia indictment.

Bail bondsman Scott Hall is the first defendant in the case brought by the Fulton County district attorney’s office to take a plea agreement with prosecutors. The agreement, entered in Fulton County Superior Court, recommends a sentence of five years probation. Hall was accused of conspiring to unlawfully access voter data and ballot counting machines at the Coffee County election office on January 7, 2021. He spent hours inside a restricted area of the election office when voting systems were breached, which was connected to efforts by pro-Trump conspiracy theorists to find voter fraud.

In an impassioned and at times furious speech, departing Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Mark Milley defiantly proclaimed that the US military does not swear an oath to a “wannabe dictator.” It was a bitter and pointed swipe that appeared unmistakably targeted at Trump, who has in recent days accused Milley of “treason” and suggested that he should be put to death for his conduct surrounding Trump’s bid in 2021 to remain in office despite losing the presidential election.

Trump has called his 2024 opponent Ron DeSantis a “wheelchair over the cliff kind of guy” for supporting then-Rep. Paul Ryan’s 2012 plans to partially privatize Medicare but enthusiastically supported the same plan, which would have partially privatized the program and critics argued turned it into a voucher system.

“In fact, it’s probably going to be better. And you’re gonna have a stronger system,” Trump said in August 2012. In dozens of appearances from Trump on Fox News and CNBC after the pick of Ryan in 2012 – Trump did not criticize Ryan’s plan and only spoke positively about the congressman.

Continuing from last weeks new about former Trump layer, Rudy Giuliani, former White House communications director Alyssa Farah Griffin has said that Giuliani was known to be a “liability” within the Trump administration – after he was accused of sexually assaulting a White House aide on the Trump Insurrection day. Griffin said that it was an open secret that Giuliani was a “wild card” who would often show up drunk to the White House and that women were warned to stay away from him.

Her comments came after Cassidy Hutchinson, a former aide to Trump’s former Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and a star witness before the January 6 committee, accused Giuliani of sexually assaulting her on the day of the insurrection. In an excerpt from her upcoming book called Enough, Hutchinson, 27, wrote that Giuliani, 79, put his hand “under my blazer, then my skirt” backstage at a rally before a mob of Trump supporters stormed the US Capitol.

In more Giuliani news, Hunter Biden filed a civil lawsuit against Giuliani and his former attorney, claiming they caused “total annihilation” of his digital privacy and violated federal and state computer privacy laws through their alleged efforts to hack his devices. In the lawsuit filed in federal court in California, Hunter Biden accuses Giuliani and Robert Costello of spending years “hacking into, tampering with, manipulating, copying, disseminating, and generally obsessing over data that they were given that was taken or stolen from” his devices.

With the Taylor Swift/Travis Kelce thing going on and they both have plenty of followers, it could be a bit of trouble for Trump. She is for openly standing up against Donald Trump and for abortion rights. He, for appearing in coronavirus vaccine ads and taking a knee during the national anthem, the highest-profile White NFL player to do so. Just from Swift attending that single Kansas City Chiefs game, Kelce’s merchandise sales jumped 400 percent. Swift put out one Instagram story last week urging her fans to register to vote, Vote.org reported, and participation on the site jumped 1,226 percent in the next hour. All these youngsters [of voting age] who were not expected to vote in the election may change their mind. BTW, on X/Twitter she has 450 million [!] followers worldwide.

It was a busier week for Giuliani than Trump

Donald Trump said that he received counsel from numerous people shortly after the 2020 election but that it was his decision to push the false claims he won the presidency and try to overturn the results. “I was listening to different people, and when I added it all up, the election was rigged.” He didn’t listen to his attorneys who told him he lost the election because he didn’t respect them.

“You hire them [layers], you’ve never met these people, you get a recommendation, they turn out to be RINOs [Republicans in name only], or they turn out to be not so good. In many cases, I didn’t respect them,” Trump said. “But I did respect others. I respected many others that said the election was rigged.” [So basically, he made up his mind beforehand and he ignored lawyers who knew whether what he and his cronies were doing were legal and if you don’t respect them, why were they kept? This is a common theme from Trump: If he doesn’t like them or respect them (as he claims), he still keeps them on.]

Trump is claiming he isn’t nervous about going to prison because the indictments are a political witch hunt. Yes some how, even right wing politicians from Georgia are out to get him. Maybe he’ll claim that since Georgia is close to Florida that they want him out so Rick DeSantis can be the Republican nominee. And remember: Anything Trump says, take it with a grain of salt. On too many times he has said something that wasn’t true or at best fixed to the way he likes hit. Remember the crying people when he was campaigning a few years ago?

Trump recently hosted an event for his former lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, with access to the intimate dinner going for $100,000 a seat. The fundraiser hosted by Trump’s sons is set to follow a similar pattern — a small, candlelight dinner capped at about 20 people with seats going for $100,000. Why would you cap it at twenty and did twenty show up? If 20 did buy and the money supposedly all went to Giuliani, it could wipe his debt to his lawyer’s law firm.

Giuliani’s former attorney has filed a lawsuit against him, alleging that he owes more than $1.3 million in unpaid legal fees. In a legal document, Robert Costello and his firm, Davidoff Hutcher & Citron LLP, said Giuliani had so far paid only $214,000 of what he owed for more than three years’ worth of legal representation, leaving $1.36 million outstanding.

Oh and Giuliani claimed Queen Elizabeth II offered him a knighthood which he turned down. But according to the rules, non-UK citizens can be considered for an honour for their work within the UK. What did Rudy do?

Giuliani has failed to pay more than $132,000 in sanctions he faces for failing to respond to parts of a lawsuit from two Georgia election workers. In addition, US District Judge Beryl Howell ordered Giuliani to pay an additional $104,000 to Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, a mother and daughter he defamed, for additional legal fees they’ve incurred because of his failure to respond to parts of their lawsuit.

Meanwhile, Giuliani either was invited or didn’t go to the 9/11 memorial ceremonies – or couldn’t afford it.

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