Trump supporters and conspiracy theory - Part 2

[Rick Plant]

Lincoln Project slams GOP's 'violence and domestic terror tactics' in scathing new ad

The Lincoln Project has laid out a roadmap to defeat Republican candidates in key congressional races in next year's midterms.

The PAC set up by current and former Republicans who oppose Donald Trump says the GOP cannot be reformed and must be defeated to preserve American democracy, and the group's latest ad points the way, reported Florida Politics.

"The Republicans know what they’re doing,” says the ad's narrator, listing the GOP's opposition to coronavirus safety measures and its seeming embrace of "violence and domestic terror tactics."

“Republican leaders have turned their backs on America — putting power and ambition above service," said co-founder Reed Galen. "They’ve spent this year implementing an authoritarian political agenda in an effort to subvert democracy in 2022 and 2024."

Watch the ad below:

[Rick Plant]

Time to indict the Trump Crime Family.

Trump Org fleeced Americans for $1.7 billion while in office: David Cay Johnston

Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist David Cay Johnston has calculated how much money flowed through Donald Trump's businesses while serving as president — and has reached a startling total figure.

CNN's Brianna Keilar interviewed Johnston about his new book, The Big Cheat: How Donald Trump Fleeced America and Enriched Himself and His Family.

"A new book is pulling back the curtain on how much former President Trump enriched himself and his family while he was in office, finding that nearly $1.7 billion in revenue flowed through him and his organizations during his four years as commander-in-chief," Keilar reported.

She described the book as "the most complete picture we've seen of this."

"Tell us how much Donald Trump profited — and how you were able to get to this number," Keilar asked.

"Well, Donald Trump had to disclose his finances as president, all top federal officials do," Johnston replied. "Now, several of them filed very incomplete and misleading forms. Donald, in fact, asked through his lawyers if he could file financial disclosures without signing under penalty of perjury. He was told, no, you have to sign under penalty of perjury."

He explained that of the more than $1.7 billion in question, much of it came from taxpayers.

"Donald did everything he could to make sure the taxpayers were putting money into his businesses," he noted. "Hundreds of millions of dollars."

In addition to his business interests making money, Trump has also received large amounts of donations.

"You know, you also talk about it, just before the 2020 election and on his way out the door with stop the steal fundraising, he rakes in $500 million," Keilar noted. "He spends less than $9 million on lawyers, the rest of that money, he can use how?"

"Oh, he can spend it on himself," Johnston replied.

"I expect that once he is indicted in Manhattan and perhaps other jurisdictions, a lot of that money will go to criminal defense lawyers," he explained.

"Really fascinating," Keilar said.

Watch:

[Rick Plant]

This is huge!

Trump called insurrectionists at Willard Hotel hours before Jan 6 riot: report



New information is being reported on Donald Trump's role in the hours leading up to the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

"Sources have told the Guardian that just hours before the deadly attack on the U.S. Capitol this year, Donald Trump made several calls from the White House to top lieutenants at the Willard Hotel in Washington to discuss ways to stop or delay the certification of Joe Biden’s election win from taking place on 6 January," The Guardian reported Tuesday.

Even though Republicans lost the 2020 election, Trump said on Jan. 6 that it was important for the GOP to hold the White House despite losing.

"THE REPUBLICAN PARTY AND, MORE IMPORTANTLY, OUR COUNTRY, NEEDS THE PRESIDENCY MORE THAN EVER BEFORE - THE POWER OF THE VETO. STAY STRONG!" Trump tweeted in all capital letters on the morning of Jan. 6.

The Guardian explained why their new reporting is significant.

"Trump’s remarks reveal a direct line from the White House and the command center at the Willard," the newspaper reported. "The conversations also show Trump’s thoughts appear to be in line with the motivations of the pro-Trump mob that carried out the Capitol attack. He phoned his lieutenants at the Willard sometime between the late evening on 5 January and the early hours of 6 January after becoming furious at Pence for refusing to do him a final favor."

Read the full report:

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/nov/30/donald-trump-called-capitol-riot-aides-first-thing

[Rick Plant]

Trump attorney goes down in flames after judge asks hypothetical question on executive privilege

Justin Clark, an attorney for Donald Trump, reportedly struggled on Tuesday after an appeals court judge asked him why the former president has more authority than the current president when it comes to decisions about executive privilege.

During a hearing in federal court, Clark argued that Trump should be allowed to invoke executive privilege to prevent the Jan. 6 committee from viewing documents related to the attack on the U.S. Capitol.

"Is there a circumstance where the former president ever gets to make this sort of call?" Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson reportedly asked Trump's attorneys.

Judge Patricia Ann Millett presented a hypothetical in which the current president needed to use the former president's documents for national security reasons.

"Wow. Trump lawyer Justin Clark just stepped in it with Judge Millett," justice correspondent Andrew Feinberg reported. "He's telling her that a former president could sue to stop a current president from using a previous administration's records to conduct foreign policy and national security decision-making."

"Clark can't give Millett a situation in which he thinks a court could let a current president use those documents under her hypothetical," Feinberg added.

A judge has previously rejected Trump's attempts to use executive privilege to keep his documents hidden.

https://www.rawstory.com/donald-trump-executive-privilege/

[Rick Plant]

Trump trying to 'run out the clock' with privilege claims to 'cover up potentially criminal conduct': Legal experts

Donald Trump and his allies are trying to "run out the clock" on the Jan. 6 insurrection by claiming executive privilege, and investigators are concerned the courts might let them get away with stalling.

Steve Bannon has already been indicted on contempt charges for refusing to comply with a House select committee subpoena, and investigators are especially interested in speaking to former Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark about his conversations with the former president, reported the Washington Post.

“I’m very interested in what kind of plans he was advancing to thwart the presidential election and who he had talked to about those plans,” said Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), a member of the committee.

Clark had a unique vantage point on those efforts to undermine a free and fair election, according to legal experts, and could provide evidence that Trump took part in a criminal conspiracy to defraud the United States, in addition to seditious conspiracy or attempted coercion of government employees into carrying out political activity.

The former Justice Department official might be able to "clearly implicate Trump in any number of conspiratorial crimes,” said former prosecutor Glenn Kirschner, adding that the former president was claiming executive privilege to “cover up potentially criminal conduct.”

President Joe Biden has declined Trump's requests for executive privilege, but the former president is arguing in court that his position allows him to invoke it even after leaving office, which could take months and months to resolve.

“Their goal is obviously to run out the clock before the American people get the truth,” Raskin said. “We’re in a race against the clock here.”

But Raskin said the committee would continue its work while the matter got resolved -- although a court could deal a devastating blow to their work by siding with the twice-impeached one-term president.

"We believe that categorical defiance of congressional subpoenas are a major threat to the rule of law,” Raskin said. “We will not tolerate people simply declaring themselves above the law.”

https://www.rawstory.com/donald-trump-jan-6-2655889258/

[Rick Plant]

Trump campaign 'drained' dying man’s bank account after he gave $500: David Cay Johnston



While some of former president Donald Trump's supporters simply "hate America," others can be described as "victims," according to Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist David Cay Johnston.

Johnston appeared on MSNBC on Tuesday to discuss his new book, The Big Cheat: How Donald Trump Fleeced America and Enriched Himself and His Family. In the book, Johnston calculated that $1.7 billion in revenue flowed through Trump and his organizations during his four years as commander-in-chief.

MSNBC host Jason Johnson asked Johnston whether those who are still giving money to Trump should be considered "victims" or "volunteers."

"I figure at this point, if you're getting fleeced by Donald Trump, there's but so many times somebody can send you an email that says: 'I'm a prince in a foreign country. Please send me 20,000.' If you fall for it three times, don't you almost deserve it?" the MSNBC host asked.

Johnston responded with a specific example.

"There certainly are people I describe in the book who are victims, like a dying man who sent $500, half of his income for the month, and then the Trump campaign tapped his bank account until they drained it, and they did this to many, many, many people," Johnston said.

He added that many of Trump's supporters "have simply come to hate America" and are "very unhappy," pointing to the fact that the bottom 90 percent of Americans had a smaller income in 2019 than in 1973.

"So a lot of people are really unhappy about the conditions in America, and they see Donald as their savior, even though he has no capacity to do that," Johnston said. "He's really out just to line his pockets, his family's pockets, and in his administration, encourage others, including two cabinet secretaries I write about, to use the government to enrich themselves and their families, rather than serving the public in a position of trust."

Johnston said the goal of the book is tying together "loose threads" of news reports from Trump's presidency to "create a tapestry" that allows people to see "how they were doing this, what they were doing, why it's inimical to your interests, and most importantly ... there are actually solutions to this that I lay out."

"Since Donald Trump left office, it's very clear that what he's doing is he's become America's beggar in chief," Johnston added. "That's how he makes his living, and he's going to need a lot of it once he's indicted to pay criminal defense lawyers."

Watch below:

[Rick Plant]

Look who was actually involved in voter fraud!

Trump supporter arrested after allegedly casting multiple ballots in Florida



A registered Republican and apparent supporter of former president Donald Trump has been arrested and charged with casting more than one ballot in an election.

Joan Halstead, a 72-year-old resident of the Villages, was booked into the Sumter County jail on Monday evening, according to Villages-News.com. She was released a few hours later after posting $2,000 bond.

In Florida, casting more than one ballot in an election is a third-degree felony, punishable by up to five years on prison.

According to Halstead's Facebook page, she is a Trump supporter.

On Jan. 19, one day before President Joe Biden's inauguration, Halstead posted a meme featuring a "Trump 2020: Keep America Great" flag and the words, "You don't have the balls to share because you're afraid to offend your snowflake friends."

"His list of accomplishments, even while being persecuted daily, are amazing," Halstead wrote above the meme.

Villages-News.com reports that Halstead filed paperwork in October indicating that she planned to run for Sumter County School Board.

"However, Halstead, a former special education teacher in the Scranton (Pennsylvania) Public School District, later withdrew her candidacy in the non-partisan school board race," the site reported. "Sumter County voter records indicated she registered as a Republican on June 29, 2020."

https://www.rawstory.com/donald-trump-2655894381/