Trump supporters and conspiracy theory - Part 2

[Rick Plant]

So the so called "billionaire" needs the RNC to pay his legal bills for him. Why can't the "billionaire" pay for his own legal fees?

Trump gets RNC to pay legal bills as New York prosecutors continue criminal probe

Former President Donald Trump is facing criminal probes from prosecutors in New York, but he's getting help paying his legal bills from the Republican National Committee.

The Washington Post reports that the RNC "is paying some personal legal bills for former president Donald Trump, spending party funds to pay a lawyer representing Trump in investigations into his financial practices in New York."

Specifically, the RNC made payments totaling more than $120,000 just last month to the law firm of Ronald Fischetti, whom Trump hired in April.

In a statement given to the Post, the RNC defended its decision to foot the bill for Trump's legal expenses.

"As a leader of our party, defending President Trump and his record of achievement is critical to the GOP," the committee said. "It is entirely appropriate for the RNC to continue assisting in fighting back against the Democrats' never ending witch hunt and attacks on him."

Trump's businesses are facing scrutiny from both New York Attorney General Letitia James and Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr.

https://www.rawstory.com/trump-legal-bills-rnc/

[Rick Plant]

Just more harassment, abuse, and violent acts from these MAGA Trump supporters. Click the link to watch the video.

Trump supporter smacks phone out of woman's hand -- and is immediately hauled off by airport police
https://www.rawstory.com/trump-supporter-arrested-2655777954/

[Rick Plant]

More criminal election fraud from Trump's stooges trying to steal Georgia. More evidence keeps on coming out. Meadows needs to be locked up along with the rest of them. 

Mark Meadows used his private Gmail account to pressure Georgia officials to undo Trump’s loss



ABC News chief Washington correspondent Jonathan Karl on Tuesday explained why the Gmail account of Donald Trump's former chief of staff Mark Meadows may provide critical evidence for the House select committee to investigate the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

During an appearance on CNN, Karl explained his interest in Meadows to anchor John Berman, saying part of the backstory behind Trump's notorious phone call pressuring Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to "find 11,780 votes."

Meadows reportedly voiced frustration when he finally connected on the phone to a Raffensperger deputy.

"We've been trying to reach out to you 18 different times, and you've ignored our inquiries," Meadows reportedly complained.

Initially, Raffensperger's office was mystified, but then they figured out what had been going on.

"Raffensperger himself had been receiving text messages from a Gmail account, Mark Meadows' Gmail account, that he thought was certainly a prank," Karl said. "You know, his number had been put out on the internet, he'd been getting all kinds of prank calls, so Mark Meadows was reaching out to a top official in Georgia on a private Gmail account."

"What else was going on where his private Gmail account?" he wondered. "He was at the intersection of everything."

"What else was Mark Meadows up to?" Karl asked.

"Will we ever find out?" Berman asked. "He will fight this appearance as long as he possibly can, citing executive privilege."

Watch:

[Rick Plant]

Donald Trump called these neo nazi white supremacists "very fine people".

Charlottesville defendants found liable for civil conspiracy and ordered to pay millions in damages



Returning a verdict against dozens of white supremacist leaders and organizations who organized Unite the Right, a Virginia jury has awarded more than $25 million in damages to nine plaintiffs who were injured in the violence during the chaotic rally that ended with a car attack by James Fields.

The defendants were found liable in four of six counts, including a Virginia state conspiracy claim that they subjected the plaintiffs to racial, religious or ethnic harassment or violence. But the mixed-race jury deadlocked on a major claim in the civil case against the organizers, whether they engaged in a conspiracy to commit racially motivated violence.

The plaintiffs presented evidence over the course of the four-week trial showing that the defendants meticulously planned the Unite the Right rally on the digital chat platform Discord. While the ostensible reason for the rally was to support two Confederate monuments slated for removal in Charlottesville, the organizers' private communications revealed that their true inspiration was a violent rally four months earlier in Berkeley, Calif. and that they hoped to bait left-wing opponents into the streets, and as primary organizer Jason Kessler put it, "fight this shit out."

The evidence showed that Kessler quickly reached out to Matthew Heimbach, an avowed fascist and antisemite who led the Traditionalist Worker Party and had already organized a coalition of "hard right" white supremacist groups that included League of the South, the National Socialist Movement and Vanguard America. All the organizations sent members to Charlottesville, and the leader of Vanguard America wound up providing a shield to Fields before he drove his car into counter-protesters.

After securing a commitment from Spencer — then the most famous figure in the alt-right movement that emerged on the coattails of Donald Trump's 2016 election — for the headlining speaker slot, Kessler wrote in a phone text: "We are raising an army, my liege, for free speech but the cracking of skulls, if it comes to it." The plaintiffs also presented evidence that Elliot Kline, both a lieutenant to Spencer and a leader of Identity Evropa, organized Unite the Right alongside Kessler. Kline's former girlfriend, Samantha Froelich, testified that he was obsessed with exterminating Jews, saying he would "gas the kikes forever." Robert "Azzmador" Ray, a contributing writer for the neo-Nazi website Daily Stormer, mentioned in a Discord chat in the month prior to Unite the Right that had "just got done with an hourlong chat with some of the organizers and I feel better about the thing. The plan is the same: Gas the kikes." After macing counter-protesters at the Aug. 11 torch march, Ray reported to his fellow neo-Nazis: "I personally literally gassed half a dozen kikes."

Counsel for the defendants argued that Fields car attack was not reasonably foreseeable or intended by the defendants, who anticipated only pushing and shoving, or, at most, fist fights, but the jury evidently didn't buy it. The defendants all testified that they did not know Fields and had not seen him prior to his appearance at the Aug. 12, 2017 rally.

Plaintiff Natalie Romero was injured in Fields' car attack, which left her with a fractured skull, a cleft lip, persistent headaches and trouble maintaining balance. Romero and co-plaintiff Devin Willis were among a small group of University of Virginia students who linked arms around a statue of Thomas Jefferson during a torch march in which white nationalists made monkey noises at them and threw lit torches at their feet while macing, punching and kicking others. All the plaintiffs, who include a pastor, a landscaper, a paralegal who recently passed the bar exam, testified that they have been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of physical injuries or emotional distress.

As she and a dozen or so counter-protesters linked arms around statue, Romero described the sound of the approaching torch marchers as "almost like thunder, like the earth was growling." She recalled that they chanted "Blood and soil" and "White power."

"There's another that I hate repeating," Romero testified. "I like, hear it in my nightmares. If my phone buzzes, I hear the same cadence, the 'You will not replace us.' That one is just so terrifying to hear the whole time."

https://www.rawstory.com/charlottesville-trial-verdict/

[Rick Plant]

Somehow the Guy Who Tried to Steal Arizona for Trump Is Now Broke
Doug Logan, the CEO of Cyber Ninjas, says he’s $2 milllion in debt.

Everyone thought the Cyber Ninjas were in it for the money.

The Republican-controlled Arizona Senate picked the Florida-based company to run the sham recount of votes in Maricopa County earlier this year, despite their having zero experience running election audits.

The company’s efforts were so amateurish that even the Republican-led Maricopa Board of Supervisors labeled them a bunch of “grifters and con artists.”

But it turns out that even though a variety of conspiracy-loving groups raised almost $6 million to fund the audit, that money hasn’t made its way to the Cyber Ninjas.

This week the company’s CEO Doug Logan said that rather than making him rich, the sham Maricopa County recount left him $2 million in debt.

That’s almost one dollar of debt for every one of the 2.1 million ballots that the Cyber Ninjas recounted during the bogus audit that was conducted over the space of five months earlier this year.

Logan made the claim to Nick Moseder, a long-time election truther who has been spreading disinformation about vote-rigging and other baseless election conspiracies for months on his social media channels, including a show he hosted on YouTube before he was banned from the platform.

Moseder, on his Telegram channel, recounted a conversation he had recently with Logan, claiming that the Cyber Ninjas CEO has been left in deep financial trouble as a result of the Arizona recount.

“While many people got VERY RICH off of the AZ audit, Doug Logan is over 2 million dollars in debt, with no other means of income,” Moseder wrote. “I believe he was anticipating more audits to make up for his losses and kept being reassured, ‘don’t worry about the money, America has your back.’”

Moseder also revealed that Logan’s wife gave birth to the couple’s 12th child recently.

“I personally think it’s a tragedy that Doug Logan sacrificed months with his pregnant wife and 11 kids (now 12) to put his business and reputation on the line,” Moseder wrote. “All of that work, risk, and sacrifice to have come out the other side being called a traitor, and to be 2.1 million dollars in debt, with a business whose reputation will forever be branded ‘right-wing conspiracy company.’”

The news of Logan’s claimed financial ruin will come as a surprise to many, given that back in July, Logan himself issued a press release listing the donors who collectively have coughed up $5.7 million to fund the charade.

Recently released Senate account records show that the recount cost $9 million before the cost of  Cyber Ninjas’ involvement is taken into account.

From the beginning, Logan and his company were widely ridiculed and mocked for indulging conspiracy theories and for the shambolic way the recount was conducted.

At the same time, however, Trump supporters were willing to donate large amounts of cash to fund what they believed was a process that would somehow overturn the 2020 election results—though that was never legally possible.

In the end, the Cyber Ninjas report found that President Joe Biden won Maricopa county by more votes than the official count said—and it wasn’t long before Cyber Ninjas and Logan were the ones being attacked with the CEO claiming he was inundated with messages from Trump supporters blasting him for “not doing enough” to overturn the election.

The audit was funded initially by $150,000 from the Arizona Senate, which also covered the costs of renting the venue for the recount, the Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Phoenix, and the security required to protect the ballots around the clock.

But the vast majority of the funding came from right-wing figures who had embraced the Big Lie and conspiracy theories about how the election was stolen.

People like MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, Overstock.com founder Patrick Byrne, and pro-Trump lawyer Lin Wood were all involved, either giving money towards the recount or helping get members of the public to donate to the fundraising effort.

Logan’s revelation that he has been left in millions of dollars worth of debt will likely raise questions about where all that money has gone.

But it seems that some people aren’t done donating money to this cause. Moseder reported that many people had contacted him about where they could donate money to help Logan.

Logan reportedly told Moseder that people should donate to the fundraising campaign established by Christina Bobb, the One America News reporter who was given unfettered access to the recount when reporters from other outlets were barred.

“Christina Bobb’s fund would be the best one to use since the other organizations have mostly moved on to other things, or simply have not been willing to be transparent,” Logan told Moseder.

Logan did not respond to VICE News’ request for comment on his financial situation but an automatic email response said he was currently “out of the office celebrating the birth of my latest daughter.”

Logan’s personal financial situation has also been in the news lately. Last week the Sarasota Herald-Tribune reported that on Jan 25, Logan cleared a 30-year mortgage on his $455,000 house, less than four years after taking out the loan. The report also highlighted that this was the same date that his company’s $100,000 emergency pandemic relief loan was forgiven by the government.

https://www.vice.com/en/article/y3vdjk/cyber-ninja-ceo-doug-logan-in-debt

[Rick Plant]

Donnie's just doing what he does best....lying. But his lies are always easily refuted with facts. And he had to falsely brag again "how great he was" when he did nothing. The oil reserve was less when he disgracefully left office but was higher when he started.     

Trump issues stunningly false statement criticizing Biden for ‘attack’ on US oil reserves

Donald Trump, the disgraced, former president who is reportedly planning a third campaign, on Tuesday released an exceptionally false statement criticizing President Joe Biden for taking action to combat increasing gas and home heating oil prices.

President Biden Tuesday morning announced he has authorized 50 million barrels of oil to be sold from the U.S. Strategic Oil Reserves, a move that should help lower oil and gas prices that have risen because of OPEC+ policies. Biden is making the move in conjunction with similar moves by five other countries: China, India, Japan, South Korea and the U.K.

“We expect the industry to be passing through these savings to consumers as quickly as possible," a White House official said, as The Wall Street Journal reports.

“The president stands ready to take additional action, if needed, and is prepared to use his full authorities working in coordination with the rest of the world to maintain adequate supply as we exit the pandemic," the White House added.

Trump, in a statement released to the press, outright lied about Biden's move, and about his own performance and that of other U.S. Presidents.

“For decades our Country's very important Strategic Oil Reserves were low or virtually empty in that no President wanted to pay the price of filling them up. I filled them up three years ago, right to the top, when oil prices were very low. Those reserves are meant to be used for serious emergencies, like war, and nothing else," Trump falsely claimed.

As The New York Times' Peter Baker notes, the Strategic Oil Reserves (technically the Strategic Petroleum Reserve,) were far from empty when Trump took office, but they were far less full when he left:

Strategic Petroleum Reserve on the day Trump took office: 695 million barrels

Strategic Petroleum Reserve on the day Trump left office: 638 million barrels

https://eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=PET&s=WCSSTUS1&f=W

That's not the only lie Trump told.

The Strategic Petroleum Reserve is authorized to hold up to 714 million barrels (in 2009 it was 727 million barrels), so they were nearly full when Trump took office. He also exposed his ignorance about how the federal government "buys" the oil. The oil is effectively traded to the government as payment (royalties) for drilling leases so presidents not wanting to "pay the price of filling them up" is false as well.

Here's a graph from the U.S. government showing how many barrels of oil are in the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserves, starting in 1980. At no time were they "low or virtually empty," not ever. The chart is highlighted to indicate the day Trump was sworn in to office:



The Reserves have been tapped about 20 times since they were first created in 1975, including to reduce the deficit in 1996 and 1997, in 2011 during the Arab Spring, and as loans to oil companies.

[Rick Plant]

Veteran who infiltrated Three Percenters says leaders asked if he was ready to kill



Speaking to MSNBC's Nicolle Wallace, an Army veteran who infiltrated the Three Percenters militia described what he uncovered.

Kristofer Goldsmith, CEO of Sparverius, said that his goal has been to make militia groups "so paranoid that they can't function."

"So, after the election, I was doing things that some other veterans were doing and joining these extremist organizations," said Goldsmith. "Now I was joining them because I wanted to know what they were planning. And I joined the Three Percenters. During the screening, using basically my real profile as an Iraq veteran as background, they're asking me questions about my weapon system, my secondary, meaning my handgun, how I was prepared to use it. What I would do in different tactical scenarios. They specifically asked, and I made recordings because these people are idiots, they were explicitly asking would you kill someone from Antifa or Black Lives Matter. This wasn't an anomaly."

When Goldsmith joined the group, he sought out the Georgia chapter, which he explained was, at one time, the largest and most active militia in the United States.

He recalled another session that he recorded where they asked Goldsmith what his "threat intelligence reports look like in November and ahead of Jan. 6." He said that he's seen that people like Alex Jones have been called into Congress, but he hasn't seen people like Nick Fuentes and the America First PAC, "who were literally riding in an armored fake Humvee all around the country and practicing these insurrections at state capitals trying to intimidate members of those local legislators and governors to overturn the election."

Jan. 6 didn't come out of nowhere, he explained, it was planned in the open. Some actions were plotted on Facebook before they were kicked off.

"My goal and organizations like we the veterans and Veterans for American Ideals of Human Rights are to knock these people off-center," Goldsmith continued. "They have gone unopposed if for years. They've been talking about the violence out in the open, and nobody's done anything. Well, now it's time to engage these people, and you know, I'm not going to go out in the street with a weapon dressing like I did in Iraq, because I'm not an idiot. I can do all this from my home and other veterans who are interested, I would encourage them to do the same. What we want to do is make these groups so paranoid that they can't function."

Wallace was surprised that law enforcement isn't among those working to bring down these militia groups. Goldsmith explained that law enforcement officials are living in a fantasy land, pretending that militias that want to bring down the government have a First Amendment right to do so.

"They have been basically made afraid," Goldsmith said of the law enforcement. "And especially with the Trump administration and Bill Barr's Department of the Justice. Law enforcement was afraid to watch these folks like I did. I'm not a law enforcement official. I can go and buddy up to these people online. Make a fake profile. A fake gab account. and just copy and paste repeat their rhetoric. So, they think I'm one of them then you know, a few days go by of silence and the next thing you know, there are conversations that I recorded."

See the conversation below: