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.

Your typical Trump week

Donald Trump is claiming that the country is better off having no bill for the border rather than a deal being finalized between the Senate Republicans and Democrats. But Trump would prefer to block the deal for his own political gains. Two Republicans would push to have Republican House Leader mike Johnson ousted if the bill is passed. Trump also says that he is 100% certain that terrorists could cross the border with the new deal.

[So with the new bill, supposedly there would be a cap of 5,000 migrants entering a week. If Trump claims that terrorists would cross under the new deal, wouldn’t the same terrorists (or more) cross when there is no cap?]

[The Oklahoma Republican Party approved a resolution over the weekend condemning and censuring Sen. James Lankford, the state’s senior senator, for his role in the ongoing bipartisan border negotiations in Congress.]

Trump is making a push to shore up support from a historically Democratic voting bloc: union workers by meeting with members of the Teamsters union’s leadership as well as rank-and-file members in a roundtable discussion at their headquarters in Washington. The group, which represents 1.3 million workers including technicians, film and television workers and law enforcement officials, has yet to endorse in the 2024 election but backed President Joe Biden in 2020.

The Teamsters had extended an invite to all presidential candidates to meet with them; however, Trump said it would be a “waste” of their time to meet with his Republican challenger Nikki Haley. Meanwhile a vice-president-at-large member of the Teamsters has said that the chances of the union endorsing Trump is next to zero. He blame Trump for using scabs in the government while he was president, his participation in the Trump Insurrection, he previous dealings with the Teamsters weren’t good for them, etc. Of course, the Teamsters voting for them doesn’t mean they will all vote for Biden.

Trump said that if he is re-elected, he would not reappoint Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, accusing Powell of considering rate cuts to give Democrats an advantage in the 2024 elections. “It looks to me like he’s trying to lower interest rates for the sake of maybe getting people elected, I don’t know… I think he’s going to do something to probably help the Democrats,” Trump said.

Trump accused Powell of being “political,” adding to years of verbal attacks since Trump nominated him for Fed chair in 2017. Powell was reappointed by President Joe Biden in 2021. The Fed chair cannot be fired, but the president is responsible for nominating a candidate every four years for Congress’ approval.

[It seems everyone is out to get him. Department of Justice, various states, Federal Reserve Chair, …. If the weather goes bad at a rally, he’d start blaming the National Weather Service saying they did something to cause the bad weather.]

Attorney Roberta Kaplan, lawyer for E. Jean Carroll but not in this case, said Trump threw papers across a table and stormed off during a deposition at Mar-a-Lago after learning that his legal team had agreed to provide her lunch. Trump requested that they work through a lunch break because he believed the deposition was “a waste of my time.” Kaplan detailed the end of the deposition when she was set to leave, saying that Trump told her: “See you next Tuesday” – a phrase that is often used as a derogatory euphemism directed at women.

The former chief financial officer of the Trump Organization, Allen Weisselberg, is in talks to potentially plead guilty to a perjury charge related to a civil investigation into the real estate company’s finances. In 2022, he pleaded guilty to 15 criminal charges related to tax fraud and served 100 days in New York City’s Rikers Island jail. He testified at the criminal tax fraud trial of two Trump Organization entities, which were convicted and fined.

All those Republicans who are sucking up to Trump [instead of backing Haley] even though Trump has said nasty thing about them including: Nancy Mace [“terrible person”], Elise Stefanik, Ron DeSantis, Marco Rubio, Lyin’ Ted Cruz.

Related to sucking up, Bernie Moreno, a Republican businessman running for the US Senate in Ohio, once said there was “no scenario” in which he would support Trump. He’s called Trump a “fake Republican” who stokes “hatred and fear” and suggested that Trump’s popularity is the result of “ignorance in our society.” But Moreno has since come to praise Trump and earned his endorsement.

After the 2020 election, the president of the far-right network One America News sent an email to former Trump campaign lawyer Sidney Powell, with a spreadsheet claiming to contain passwords of employees from the voting technology company Smartmatic, according to court filings. The existence of the spreadsheet was recently disclosed by Smartmatic, which is suing OAN for defamation.

Lawyers from Smartmatic said with that the email and the attached spreadsheet, they suggest OAN executives “may have engaged in criminal activities” because they “appear to have violated state and federal laws regarding data privacy.” The court records don’t say how OAN obtained the spreadsheet, or whether the supposed Smartmatic passwords were authentic.

A former conservative federal appellate judge, J. Michael Luttig, is urging the Supreme Court to keep Trump off the ballot, arguing Trump’s effort to cling to power after his 2020 election loss was “broader” than South Carolina’s secession from the US that triggered the Civil War.

Former Trump national security adviser John Bolton believe dictators around the world view former Trump as a “laughing fool”.

Charles Littlejohn , the man who stole and leaked Trump and thousands of other’s tax records has been sentenced to five years in prison.

Trump has $56 million on hand but has to spend money battling Nikki Haley instead of saving the money to eventually battle President Biden.

Two of Trump’s committees, Save America leadership PAC and the Make America Great Again PAC, spent $55.6 million on legal bills in 2023, including $29.9 million in the second half of the year, according to the new reports.

Two of Trump’s political action committees spent nearly $29 million combined on legal fees during the last six months of 2023. In all, Save America PAC and Make America Great Again PAC spent more than $50 million of contributors’ money on legal expenses last year, according to FEC records.

In a November Marquette Law School national poll asking whether Biden and Trump are “too old to be president,” a 57 percent majority said this describes Biden “very well” compared with 23 percent for Trump. Eighty percent said that describes Biden at least somewhat well, compared with 51 percent who said that of Trump.

IT systems belonging to the Fulton County, Georgia government have been disrupted by a cyberattack. Outages are affecting the county’s VoIP phone systems, as well as its court and tax systems. It is the same courts as where Trump’s trial is taking place.

[You think any Trump followers caused it? It is a cyberattack and not ransomware.]

An adage that seems especially appropriate: “For Republicans, life begins at conception and ends at birth.”

[They are “pro-life” only in that they want to make sure that unwanted children are “born”, but not that the necessities of life are provided to them once they leave the womb. But still vote for them.]

Another busy week in Trumpland

Busy again in Trumpland and he didn’t say much. Mostly legal stuff.

Maine barred Donald Trump from the primary ballot, becoming the second state to block him from running again because of his actions before and during the Jan. 6, 2021 [a.k.a. Trump Insurrection], attack on the US Capitol. The decision by Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows [a Democrat] is sure to be appealed. The Colorado Supreme Court last week found Trump could not appear on the ballot in that state under a part of the US Constitution that prevents insurrectionists from holding office. The Colorado Republican Party has asked the US Supreme Court to review the case, which could resolve for all states whether Trump can run again.

But Maine has different rules. Maine is a winner takes all state and Trump won them all in 2020. A lot of what will be determine is the exact interpretation of the 14th Amendment which hasn’t really been used in about 150 years.

[Trump won’t care as much about Colorado compared to Maine. So it is a different fight than Colorado and potentially Oregon and other states. Of course the other GOP nominees/morons will back Trump. How dumb. They are scared of him and yet don’t take advantage of removing him from the ballot.]

California has already ruled that they won’t block him because of the Trump Insurrection.

The Supreme Court said it will not immediately take up a plea by special counsel Jack Smith to rule on whether Trump can be prosecuted for his actions to overturn the 2020 election results. The ruling is a win for Trump and his lawyers, who have sought repeatedly to delay this and other criminal cases against him as he seeks to reclaim the White House in 2024. It averts a swift ruling from the nation’s highest court that could have definitively turned aside his claims of immunity and pushed the case toward a trial scheduled to start on March 4^th. The issue will now be decided by the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, which has signalled it will decide the case by January 9^th.

US Justice Department prosecutors say they want to prevent Trump from sowing disinformation and claiming he’s a victim of political persecution as part of his defense in his 2020 election subversion trial in federal court. In a new court filing, prosecutors laid out some of the crucial parameters that prosecutors with special counsel Jack Smith’s office are seeking as they continue to prepare to face a jury at Trump’s upcoming criminal trial.

“The Court should not permit the defendant to turn the courtroom into a forum in which he propagates irrelevant disinformation, and should reject his attempt to inject politics into this proceeding,” prosecutors wrote. The prosecutors say Trump may be trying to politicize the trial to convince jurors to ignore the facts of the case and acquit him because they disagree with the prosecution – not based on any legal standard.
The Michigan Supreme Court has rejected an attempt to remove Trump from the 2024 ballot based on the US Constitution’s “insurrectionist ban.” The outcome contrasts with the recent ruling from the Colorado Supreme Court, which kicked Trump off its primary ballot because of his role in the January 6^th Capitol riot [a.k.a. Trump Insurrection].

[I guess each court has their interpretations. Should be decided by the stacked right wing Supreme Court. If they tossed Roe Vs Wade, this should be an easy one.]

This is like Groundhog Day. In a series of comments during Christmas eve and Christmas day, Trump went on a tirade going after just about anyone who has gone against him [well, except judges, I wonder why!]. He went and ranted with the usual claims and false lies and then ended with “World Leaders, both good and bad, but none of which are as evil and ‘sick’ as the THUGS we have inside our Country.” In a final slam at President Biden and special counsel Jack Smith, Trump wrote, “MAY THEY ROT IN HELL. AGAIN, MERRY CHRISTMAS!” In comparison, all the other candidates sent out normal tweets.

Police in Denver said they are investigating incidents directed at Colorado Supreme Court justices and providing extra patrols around their homes in Denver following the court’s decision to remove Trump from the state’s presidential primary ballot. Officers responded to the home of one justice on Thursday evening, but police said it appeared to be a “hoax report.”

Trump compared himself to anti-apartheid activist Nelson Mandela in New Hampshire as he cast himself as the victim of federal and state prosecutors he alleges are targeting him and his businesses for political reasons. [Yes. Everyone out to get him.]

At a poke to Trump’s previous calls, a president would be prohibited from withdrawing from NATO without the approval of two-thirds of the Senate or separate legislation passed by Congress. With how tight the Senate has been, getting past two-thirds would be close to impossible.

Lawyers for Trump say he may testify at a mid-January civil trial set to decide how much he owes a columnist, E. Jean Carroll, for defaming her after she said he sexually abused her three decades ago in a Manhattan luxury department store. Carroll is planning to testify at the trial, slated to start January 16^th, about how her life has been affected and threats she has faced since Trump claimed that he never knew her and that she was making false accusations against him.

[With the amount of time and lawyer fees racking up, he should of quietly settled with her. Right now, it could cost him over $15 million and possibly whatever her lawyers have racked up in addition to his.]

Two days before the January 6 Trump Insurrection, the Trump campaign’s plan to use fake electors to block President-elect Joe Biden from taking office faced a potentially crippling hiccup: The fake elector certificates from two critical battleground states were stuck in the mail. So, Trump campaign operatives [headed by Matt Morgan] scrambled to fly copies of the phony certificates from Michigan and Wisconsin to the nation’s capital, relying on a haphazard chain of couriers, as well as help from two Republicans in Congress [Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and an unnamed Pennsylvania congressman], to try to get the documents to then-Vice President Mike Pence while he presided over the Electoral College certification. These details largely come from pro-Trump attorney Kenneth Chesebro, who pleaded guilty in October to a felony conspiracy charge.

In the technology corner: 1.5 billion records belonging to Real Estate Wealth Network, a New York-based real estate training platform, were leaked. The records included real estate ownership data for millions of individuals, including some high-profile clients such as Elon Musk, Donald Trump, and Nancy Pelosi.

With the GOP presidential primaries just about to start, many Republicans aren’t certain that votes will be counted correctly in their contest, as pessimism spreads about the future of both the Democratic and Republican parties, according to a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. About one-third of Republicans say they have a “great deal” or “quite a bit” of confidence that votes in the Republican primary elections and caucuses will be counted correctly. About three in 10 Republicans report a “moderate” amount of confidence, and 32 per cent say they have “only a little” or “none at all.”

[This is nothing but Trump’s lies from the previous elections extending into the upcoming election cycle. Trump has already laid the groundwork that the votes won’t be counted correctly.]

[I can imagine what would happen if Trump lost the Republican nomination to Nikki Haley [or by some fluke Ron DeSantis].

A bit of humor:

  My son is taking part in a social experiment. He must wear a “Trump 2024” t-shirt for two weeks and report how people reacted.

  On day one, he was spit on, cursed at, bitten by a dog and had a bottle thrown at him.

I am curious to know what happens when he leaves his home…. or will he.

Should be fun in about 44 weeks.

Happy New Year.

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.

Maybe the swamp should be emptied

For once, Donald Trump may be right – but it is his party.

There is almost a civil war between factions of the Republican Party.

We probably knew it could get bad when there was the Tea Party faction that eventually morphed to include some of the troublemakers/far-right members that are now holding up congress from doing its work.

Matt Gaetz really started it all by chucking Kevin McCarthy as the House Speaker and many Republican followed his misguided lead and did overthrow McCarthy’s reign.

The Democrats did not vote to keep McCarthy around, but why would they? The Republicans haven’t done anything to help the Democrats govern and then McCarthy agreed to open an impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden – who could be charge with offences that do not even meet the minimum standards of how a President can be impeached. But the Republicans love revenge after their hero, Trump, was indicted twice.

Did the Democrats make a mistake in not keeping McCarthy? Now, I’m not even sure McCarthy would want the job back. I don’t blame him.

Meanwhile, McCarthy blamed the Democrats for not helping him keep his job. The Democrats are not his party.

I think quite a few Republicans are thinking about the big mistake they made.

While the Republicans decided what to do, Republican Patrick McHenry took the job as an interim speaker. But he doesn’t want the job permanently or even an extension with extra responsibilities.

So the Republicans within their party voted in Steve Scalise. But he dropped out at least because of health issues.

So the vote went to Jim Jordan.

Yes the same Jim Jordan who was one of the quite a few election deniers and didn’t think the Trump Insurrection of January 6 wasn’t much more than a peaceful gathering. He is very pro-Trump. So who will be pulling the strings?

For the first vote on October 17^th, Scalise failed to secure a win.

For the second vote on October 18^th, Scalise failed to secure a win and did worse.

He was told that if he tries a third vote, he will lose badly. An embarrassment.

So they are stuck with no idea who should be speaker.

The far right – led by Matt Gaetz, Marjorie Taylor Greene and others – will most likely block anyone they don’t like. They are holding the mostly [proper word?] moderate factions of the party from voting in somewhere.

Depending on the attendance in the House at the time of the vote, the nominee can only loose three or maybe four Republicans votes [assuming no “Present” or abstaining votes] since the difference between the seats for the two parties is nine [again, depends on the attendance prior to the vote].

To go really crazy, at least one Republican’s spouse received death threats in at least voice mail. Wow.

[Unsure how any politician or his/her immediate family could not keep their addresses and phone numbers public.]

Meanwhile, we are just a few weeks away from another possible shutdown – and a Speaker of the House must be installed by then.

Should be fun.

[It is bad enough that they kept George Santos with all his illegal activities. If the party had a larger majority he’d be gone and charged and maybe in prison. But this is the Republican Party.]

Still Trump has legal problems

“That is not fraud. That is real estate,” is what Donald Trump lawyer Alina Habba said regarding Trump’s fraud case in New York. However, it is not legal to list a lower than evaluated price for the purpose of evading taxes.

[It’s not like you can tell the taxman that you made $20,000 less than what your year end tax slip says.]

Among the allegations were that Trump claimed his Trump Tower apartment in Manhattan — a three-story penthouse replete with gold-plated fixtures — was nearly three times its actual size and worth an astounding US$327 million. No apartment in New York City has ever sold for close to that amount. Trump valued Mar-a-Lago as high as US$739 million — more than 10 times a more reasonable estimate of its worth.

New York appeals court Associate Justice, Peter Moulton, rejected Trump’s attempt to stop the ongoing $250 million civil fraud trial, but temporarily halted the process of breaking up Trump’s businesses.

Jeff McConney, also a co-defendant of Donald Trump, Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr., testified as the first week of the civil fraud trial came to an end. The former controller of the Trump Organization says that Eric Trump directed him to make certain decisions that led to the inflated valuations of several Trump properties.

Trump said he will testify at his civil trial, while speaking just outside the court room during a break in proceedings. “Yes, I will. At the appropriate time I will be” testifying, he responded when asked. Trump is expected to testify later in the trial, and he is on the witness list for both the state and his own legal team.

Trump, in a press conference called New York Attorney General Letitia James, a racist attorney general because “she would get Trump before knew anything about me” and said she was after him even after she lost the governor’s race as if she is fixated on sending him to prison. The banks “can’t believe they are involved”. All this coordinated between the Attorney general of New York, the prosecutors and the Department of Justice. “They try to damage me…. This never happened before where a President of the United States leaves office and gets indicted and the reason why I got indicted was that I ran.” Yes everyone is out to get him. He claimed Biden has been sitting around taking a sunshine.

In the mean time, he played golf how many times during his term?

James is seeking to bar Trump from doing business in the state.

The Supreme Court said that it will not take up a long shot challenge to Trump’s eligibility to run for president because of his alleged role in the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol [a.k.a. Trump Insurrection]. The case was brought by John Anthony Castro, a little-known candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, who sued Trump earlier this year in an effort to disqualify him from running for president and holding the office “given his alleged provision of aid or comfort to the convicted criminals and insurrectionist that violently attacked our United States Capitol on January 6, 2021.” The case was denied without any comment or recorded vote. Too bad.

Judge Arthur Engoron rebuked Trump after Trump attacked his clerk in a social media post and forbade the parties from making any future comments about his staff. “This morning one of the defendants posted on (a) social media account a disparaging untrue and personally identifying post about a member of my staff. Although I have since ordered the post deleted and apparently it was, it was also emailed out to millions of other recipients,” the judge said in court.

Trump posted attacked Engoron’s clerk, claiming she was a “girlfriend” to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, and showing a picture of the two of them together. “How disgraceful!” Trump wrote. “This case should be dismissed immediately…. The person that works with him. She’s screaming into his ear almost every time we ask a question. A disgrace. It’s a disgrace.”

Lawyers for Trump have asked a judge to postpone his classified documents trial until after next year’s presidential election, saying they have not received all the records they need to review to prepare his defence. The trial on charges of illegally hoarding classified documents, among four criminal cases Trump is facing, is currently scheduled for May 20, 2024, in Florida. Trump’s lawyers urged US District Judge Aileen Cannon to push back the trial until at least mid-November 2024. The presidential election is set for Nov. 5, 2024.

Trump endorsed [far] right wing Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan’s bid for speaker of the House but also after he expressed openness to temporarily serving in the role himself. Even if he could, I don’t think Trump could get all the GOP to agree.

Where have we heard this before: Trump allegedly discussed potentially sensitive information about US nuclear submarines with a member of his Mar-a-Lago resort with Australian billionaire Anthony Pratt in 2021. Pratt then mentioned the information to at least 40 0thers including three former Australian Prime Ministers, some current Australian politicians, his staff and others. The allegations were not included in special counsel Jack Smith’s indictment of Trump over his handling of classified documents. But the incident was reported to and investigated by Smith’s team.

[I can see Trump saying that as President (he was a former President at the time, not the same) he is allowed to disclose whatever he wants to whomever he wants. Just like claiming he can declassify any document (with his mind).]

No, Trump didn’t break the mug shot camera

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Trump 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.”

The lies of Donald John Trump

Unless you just came back from Mars or was stuck in a jungle, on a boat with no communication or in a desert, Donald Trump was indicted and will be at a Washington court to plead guilty [hah!] or innocent.

Here are the 21 lies that are mentioned in the indictment:

• The lie that fraud changed the outcome of the 2020 election, that Trump “had actually won,” and that the election was “stolen.” (Pages 1 and 40-41 of the indictment)
• The lie that fake pro-Trump Electoral College electors in seven states were legitimate electors. (Pages 5 and 26)
• The lie that the Justice Department had identified significant concerns that may have affected the outcome of the election. (Pages 6 and 27)
• The lie that Pence had the power to reject Biden’s electoral votes. (Pages 6, 32-38)
• The lie that “the Vice President and I are in total agreement that the Vice President has the power to act.” (Page 36)
• The lie that Georgia had thousands of ballots cast in the names of dead people. (Pages 8 and 16)
• The lie that Pennsylvania had 205,000 more votes than voters. (Pages 8 and 20)
• The lie that there had been a suspicious “dump” of votes in Detroit, Michigan. (Pages 9 and 17)
• The lie that Nevada had tens of thousands of double votes and other fraud. (Page 9)
• The lie that more than 30,000 non-citizens had voted in Arizona. (Pages 9 and 11)
• The lie that voting machines in swing states had switched votes from Trump to Biden. (Page 9)
• The lie that Dominion machines had been involved in “massive election fraud.” (Page 12)
• The lie that “a substantial number of non-citizens, non-residents, and dead people had voted fraudulently in Arizona.” (Page 10)
• The lie that Fulton County, Georgia elections workers had engaged in “ballot stuffing.” (Pages 13 and 14)
• The lie that thousands of out-of-state voters cast ballots in Georgia. (Page 16)
• The lie that Brad Raffensperger “was unwilling, or unable,” to address Trump’s claims about a “‘ballots under table’ scam, ballot destruction, out of state ‘voters’, dead voters, and more.” (Page 16)
• The lie that there was substantial fraud in Wisconsin and that the state had tens of thousands of unlawful votes. (Page 21)
• The lie that Wisconsin had more votes counted than it had actual voters. (Page 21)
• The lie that the election was “corrupt.” (Page 28)
• The lie that Trump won every state by hundreds of thousands of votes. (Page 34)
• The lie that Pennsylvania “want[s] to recertify.” (Page 38)