Trump supporters and conspiracy theory - Part 2

[Rick Plant]

Things are moving fast in Georgia against Criminal Donald. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis requested a special grand jury on January 20th to aid her investigation into Criminal Donald's coup attempt to steal the state of Georgia from President Joe Biden. And just four days later, she was granted her request for this special grand jury to probe into Criminal Donald's scheme to overturn the will of the American people. Lindsey Graham must be not be sleeping well since he was on the phone pressuring Georgia officials to overturn an election that Criminal Donald lost. When it's all said and done, these treasonous anti American traitors will all be indicted and locked away behind bars where they belong.       

Georgia prosecutor requests special grand jury in Trump election probe
Fulton County DA Fani Willis said some witnesses have refused to cooperate without subpoenas. A special grand jury would have the power to subpoena witnesses.

January 20, 2022
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/georgia-da-asks-special-grand-jury-trump-election-probe-n1287773

Georgia prosecutor granted special grand jury in Trump election probe
A special grand jury will have the power to subpoena witnesses in an investigation that’s focusing on any “coordinated attempts to unlawfully alter the outcome of the 2020 elections" in Georgia.

January 24, 2022
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/georgia-prosecutor-granted-special-grand-jury-trump-election-interference-probe-n1287946

[Rick Plant]

'Clearly forgery': Watergate lawyer says Trump adviser Boris Epshteyn badly incriminated himself on live TV



Former Watergate attorney Jill Wine-Banks explained to MSNBC's Ari Melber that Republicans who signed onto a false document claiming to be an elector when they weren't and then submitted to the government is a crime.

While discussing the fake electors scheme on Monday, Melber played a clip of former President Donald Trump's campaign adviser, Boris Epshteyn, who effectively admitted to being part of the 2020 elector conspiracy on live television.

"Yes, I was part of the process to make sure there were alternate electors for when, as we hoped, the challenges to the seated electors would be heard and be successful," he confessed.

Reacting to this, Wine-Banks said she certainly would love to be the lawyer on the other side of his case, implying that it would be an easy win. Responding to Epshteyn, she said that he didn't do it legally because you can't create a fake slate of electors. It's fraud, she explained, and a conspiracy to interfere with the election, conspiracy to interfere with an official congressional proceeding, and conspiracy to commit forgery within the federal laws and state laws.

"You noted that two of the states caveated their forgeries by saying 'this is only good in the event that the legitimate slate of Democratic electors fails,'" she reclled. "Then we become the electors. But the other states all said we are the dually elected electors. That is clearly forgery. And there is a forgery statute not for forging money, which is normally how you think of forgery, but for other government-related documents."

Melber then played a clip of Epshteyn on Steve Bannon's show, trying to clean up the MSNBC interview.

"All I did was very calmly, methodically walk through the law," he claimed. "As the legal team, it was our job to make sure every constituency was covered. So, hence the process that was undertaken. It was loud and clear on MSNBC that, one, President Trump won the election. Two, that it was stolen. Three, a legal case was laid out."

Wine-Banks shot down every point he tried to make.

"There was no contingency in existence," she said to Epshteyn's claims. "It was clear who won the votes in that state. We have a rule where we count the votes of the people. Not the people who wanted it to be somebody else. But if you vote, your vote gets counted. You vote for an elector and only that elector can represent you and cast the ballot at the Electoral College. We should amend the Electoral College Act. We should eliminate the Electoral College. We have ways of communicating that do not require the Electoral College as it was set up in a time there weren't the official communication methods that we now have. But even under the laws now, there was nothing legal about what they did. And the elector slates were certified or ascertained, is the official word, were ascertained by each state, signed off by the governor, and sent officially to the Congress to be counted."

Wine-Banks closed by explaining specifics of how this case is somewhat similar to the plots in the Watergate scandal.

See the discussion below:

[Rick Plant]

'As corrupt as it comes': Damning evidence puts Trump at risk in quickly moving criminal investigation



MSNBC's Mika Brzezinski said the audio from Donald Trump's call to Georgia election officials never loses its power to shock.

In fact, the "Morning Joe" co-host said, the recording -- which is now a key piece of evidence that will be heard by a grand jury -- has only gotten worse with time.

"The investigation into whether or not President Trump tried to overturn his defeat in that state -- spoiler alert, he did, so I think we got that," said panelist Jonathan Lemire. "That phone call obviously is going to be the center of this. He hits the specific vote total that he needed to overturn the result, he's leaning on a fellow Republican, secretary of state Brad Raffensperger, there. A lot of legal experts have suggested that this case poses more legal peril to him than some of the others circulating, those in New York, there's an indication Washington, D.C. might investigate his words leading up to the insurrection."

"This is something to watch carefully," he added. "The next step will be subpoenas, whether or not Trump himself or those around him, some of the aides in the White House that day, including Mark Meadows, maybe they will get them, will they be forced to testify? That we will find out in the spring."

The evidence shows Trump tried to get losing results overturned in a number of states, but Brzezinski said nothing has emerged that's quite as egregious as the Georgia call.

"You know, that phone call gets worse with time, if it's possible," she said. "I mean, it was bad when we first heard it, but hearing him say, you know, you can simply say that you recalculated -- I mean, my God, as corrupt as it comes."

[Rick Plant]

New York Attorney General Letitia James says Trump Organization misled banks, tax officials



The New York attorney general’s office told a court late Tuesday that its investigators had uncovered evidence that former President Donald Trump’s company used “fraudulent or misleading” asset valuations to get loans and tax benefits.

The court filing said that state authorities haven’t yet decided whether to bring a civil lawsuit in connection with the allegations but that investigators need to question Trump and his two eldest children as part of the inquiry.

Trump and his lawyers say the investigation is politically motivated.

In the court documents, Attorney General Letitia James’ office gave its most detailed accounting yet of a long-running investigation of allegations that Trump's company exaggerated the value of assets to get favorable loan terms or misstated what land was worth to slash its tax burden.

The Trump Organization, it said, had overstated the value of land donations made in New York and California on paperwork submitted to the IRS to justify several million dollars in tax deductions.

The company misreported the size of Trump's Manhattan penthouse, saying it was nearly three times its actual size – a difference in value of about $200 million, James' office said, citing deposition testimony from Trump's longtime financial chief Allen Weisselberg, who was charged last year with tax fraud in a parallel criminal investigation.

AG wants court to compel Trumps to testify

James’ office detailed its findings in a court motion seeking to force Trump, his daughter Ivanka Trump and his son Donald Trump Jr. to comply with subpoenas seeking their testimony.

Investigators, the court papers said, had “developed significant additional evidence indicating that the Trump Organization used fraudulent or misleading asset valuations to obtain a host of economic benefits, including loans, insurance coverage, and tax deductions."

Messages seeking comment were left with lawyers for the Trumps.

Trump's legal team has sought to block the subpoenas, calling them “an unprecedented and unconstitutional maneuver." They say James is improperly attempting to obtain testimony that could be used in the parallel criminal investigation, which is being overseen by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.

Trump sued James in federal court last month, seeking to put an end to her investigation. In the suit, his lawyers claimed the attorney general, a Democrat, had violated the Republican’s constitutional rights in a “thinly-veiled effort to publicly malign Trump and his associates.”

In the past, the former president has decried James’ investigation and Bragg's inquiry as part of a “witch hunt."

Significant evidence' of 'fraudulently valued assets'

In a statement late Tuesday, James' office said it hasn't decided whether to pursue legal action, but it said the evidence gathered so far shows the investigation should proceed unimpeded.

“For more than two years, the Trump Organization has used delay tactics and litigation in an attempt to thwart a legitimate investigation into its financial dealings,” James said. “Thus far in our investigation, we have uncovered significant evidence that suggests Donald J. Trump and the Trump Organization falsely and fraudulently valued multiple assets and misrepresented those values to financial institutions for economic benefit."

Although James’ civil investigation is separate from the criminal investigation, her office has been involved in both, dispatching several lawyers to work side-by-side with prosecutors from the Manhattan D.A.’s office.

James’ office said that under state law, it could seek ”a broad range of remedies” against companies found to have committed commercial fraud, “including revoking a license to conduct business within the state, moving to have an officer or director removed from board of directors, and restitution and disgorgement of ill-gotten gains.”

What the court papers detail

In the court papers, James’ office said evidence shows Trump’s company:

Listed his Seven Springs estate north of New York City as being worth $291 million, based on the dubious assumption that it could reap $161 million from building nine luxury homes.

Added a “brand premium” of 15% to 30% to the value of some properties because they carried the Trump name, despite financial statements explicitly stating they didn't incorporate brand value.

Inflated the value of a suburban New York golf club by millions of dollars by counting fees for memberships that weren’t sold or were never paid.

Valued a Park Avenue condominium tower at $350 million based on proceeds it could reap from unsold units, even though many of those apartments were likely to sell for less because they were covered by rent stabilization laws.
Valued an apartment being rented to Ivanka Trump as high as $25 million, even though she had an option to buy it for $8.5 million.

Said in documents that its stake in an office building, 40 Wall Street, was worth $525 million to $602 million – two to three times the estimate reached by appraisers working for the lender Capital One.

One judge has sided with James on an earlier request to question another Trump son, Trump Organization executive Eric Trump, who ultimately sat for a deposition but declined to answer some questions.

Last year, the Manhattan district attorney brought tax fraud charges against the Trump Organization and Weisselberg, its longtime chief financial officer.

Weisselberg pleaded not guilty to charges alleging he and the company evaded taxes on lucrative fringe benefits paid to executives.

Both investigations are at least partly related to allegations in news reports and by Trump’s former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, that Trump had a history of misrepresenting the value of assets.

The disclosures about the attorney general's investigation came the same day as Trump ally Rudy Giuliani and other members of the legal team that had sought to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election were subpoenaed by a House committee investigating the U.S. Capitol insurrection.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2022/01/19/new-york-ag-says-trumps-company-misled-banks-tax-officials/6575841001/

[Rick Plant]

DOJ confirms probe of fake Trump electoral certificates: 'Our prosecutors are looking' at referrals



The Department of Justice confirmed for the first time Tuesday that federal prosecutors are investigating fake pro-Trump electoral certificates submitted by Republicans in several states in December 2020.
The certificates were submitted to the National Archives by GOP electors in Georgia, Arizona, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Nevada and New Mexico.

Trump campaign officials, led by the former president's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, reportedly oversaw efforts to put forward the fake electors. Last week, a former Trump aide appeared on national TV and admitted to his role in organizing the fake electoral certificates.

At least two state attorneys general have said they referred investigations into the fake electoral certificates to the Department of Justice. Michigan AG Dana Nessel, a Democrat, has said she believes those responsible for the fake electoral certificates violated multiple state and federal laws.

On Tuesday, Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco told CNN: "We've received those referrals. Our prosecutors are looking at those and I can't say anything more on ongoing investigations."

"Monaco did not go into detail about what else prosecutors are looking at from the partisan attempt to subvert the 2020 vote count," CNN reported. "She said that, more broadly, the Justice Department was 'going to follow the facts and the law, wherever they lead, to address conduct of any kind and at any level that is part of an assault on our democracy.' This is the first time that the Justice Department has commented on requests from lawmakers and state officials that the it investigate the fake certifications."

Read the full story:
https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/25/politics/fake-trump-electoral-certificates-justice-department/index.html


Lies about the 2020 election propel Arizona bills aimed at combating non-existent fraud



Cheered on by an enthusiastic crowd that espoused conspiracy theories about fraud in the 2020 presidential vote and touted the largely debunked findings of the so-called Maricopa County “audit,” the Senate Government Committee on Monday advanced a slew of bills aimed at curbing or alleviating concerns about election fraud in Arizona, despite little evidence of such incidents.

The committee passed seven bills that proponents described as measures that would prevent fraud in future elections. The legislation included laws mandating counter-fraud security measures, probes into people who can’t prove their citizenship when they register to vote, reviews of election equipment, prohibiting all-mail balloting, changing mandatory recount rules and requiring images of all ballots to be posted online.

All seven of the bills passed on party-line votes, with the committee’s four Republicans voting in favor and its Democratic members in opposition.

Dozens of advocates of the proposed laws packed the committee hearing room at the Senate, many of them making wild, baseless claims about the 2020 election or espousing conspiracy theories about the vote, such as that the count included many counterfeit ballots or illegally cast votes, throughout the four-hour hearing.

One woman, for example, claimed that county election officials didn’t send her an early ballot in 2020 because she’d voted for Trump four years earlier. Several people cited the thoroughly debunked “Sharpiegate” allegations, which held that election officials intentionally gave Trump supporters markers that bled through the paper on their ballots in order to invalidate their votes. Republican Attorney General Mark Brnovich investigated the claims and found them to be without merit.

Many of the speakers said they’d worked on the “audit” that Senate President Karen Fann ordered for the 2020 election in Maricopa County. The findings of the review, which was led by unqualified companies and individuals who had been heavily involved in the effort to falsely portray the election as rigged against former President Donald Trump, have been largely debunked and discredited.

Among the speakers who falsely claimed the 2020 election was marred by fraud was Republican gubernatorial hopeful Kari Lake, who has made bogus claims about the last election a centerpiece of her campaign.

“I’m worried about what happened to President Trump happening to me,” Lake told the committee. “This last election was shady, it was shoddy, it was corrupt, and our vote was taken from us.”

The overwhelming majority of the speakers supported the bills, though some questioned the motivation behind them.

“Conspiracy theories do not take away from the fact that our election processes are already safe and secure. The passage of this bill will sow the seeds of distrust in our democratic processes,” said Dana Allmond, an Oro Valley woman who is running for the state House of Representatives as an independent, of a bill that would require counties to post digital images of voted ballots online.

Sen. Martin Quezada, a Glendale Democrat, noted that more than a half dozen lawsuits alleging fraud or misconduct in the 2020 election were filed, and all were thrown out for a lack of evidence. Even Fann’s “audit” concluded that Biden had more votes than Trump, he said.

“Saying that the election was stolen — I mean that’s great for a campaign speech, but that’s not reality,” Quezada said.

Several of the bills included measures that were part of last year’s state budget but were later thrown out by the Arizona Supreme Court on the grounds that they violated the single-subject provision of the state constitution.

One of those was Senate Bill 1120. The bill, sponsored by Sen. Sonny Borrelli, R-Lake Havasu City, would require that if counties opt to use anti-fraud security measures on their ballots, they must use ballots that have specific types of features, such as watermarks, holographic foil, special inks, microprinting or others.

Conspiracy theorists claimed without a shred of evidence that counterfeit ballots were inserted into Maricopa County’s count in 2020, and the audit at one point inspected ballots for bamboo fibers and secret watermarks. Some claimed that ballots were printed on different types of paper, potentially signifying fraud, though no evidence of such problems has actually emerged.

“Any illegal ballot that gets injected into the system suppresses a legal vote,” Borrelli said.

Jennifer Marson, executive director of the Arizona Association of Counties, said county election officials had concerns about implementation and logistics. She said counties would need a way to ensure that ballots complied with the 17 approved counter-fraud measures, and that they would need money to ensure their machines could read the new ballots. She also said it was concerning that the paper is only available from one vendor, an issue that Quezada raised as well.

Two of the bills, both sponsored by committee chairwoman Kelly Townsend, R-Apache Junction, dealt with the issue of “federal-only” voters. State law requires people to prove their U.S. citizenship when registering to vote. But that requirement does not exist in federal law. As a result, people who can’t provide proof of citizenship can register to vote only in federal races, but not in state-level or other elections in Arizona. There are roughly 23,000 federal-only voters in Arizona.

Townsend’s Senate Bill 1012 would require the Secretary of State’s Office to provide the Attorney General’s Office and a legislative designee with access to the state’s voter registration database so they can investigate federal-only voters, and would require each county to submit an annual report to the legislature regarding those voters. Anyone who is found to have knowingly registered to vote despite not being eligible would be referred to the attorney general and the county attorney. Doing so is already a crime under state law.

Senate Bill 1013, also sponsored by Townsend, would attempt to eliminate the requirement that Arizona register federal-only voters by mandating that the secretary of state ask the U.S. Election Assistance Commission to include Arizona’s proof-of-citizenship requirement on federal voter registration forms for the state.

Just because federal-only voters don’t prove their citizenship doesn’t necessarily mean they’re not U.S. citizens; it only means that they haven’t provided the proof of citizenship needed to vote in state-level elections. Election officials also check driver’s license records, jury duty questionnaires, Social Security records, foreign identifications and other records to determine citizenship for voters who submit federal-only registration forms. Like other voters, federal-only voters need identification in order to vote in person or request an early ballot.

Of the nearly 23,000 federal-only voters in Arizona, 7,628 cast ballots in the 2020 general election, according to the Secretary of State’s Office.

Sen. Wendy Rogers, a Flagstaff Republican who has been a leading proponent of bogus election fraud claims, filled in on the committee in place of Sen. J.D. Mesnard, and was there to vote on one of her bills that the committee advanced.

Rogers’ Senate Bill 1133 would prohibit cities and school districts from conducting all-mail elections. State law has permitted mail-only balloting in off-year elections — the only elections in which the practice is permitted here — for nearly 30 years, though the issue attracted renewed attention from critics last year due to concerns over mail-in voting that were largely spurred by false allegations Trump made during his 2020 campa

Senate Bill 1008 would loosen the rules for when a full recount of a race must be conducted. Currently, state law only mandates a recount if the margin of victory is within either one-tenth of a percentage point, or within 10-200 votes, depending on what kind of race it is. The bill, sponsored by Sen Michelle Ugenti-Rita, would lower the threshold to a half percentage point.

Had the proposed threshold been in place in 2020, the state would have had to recount the presidential race, which President Joe Biden won by 10,457 votes.

Like the other bills the committee heard on Monday, SB1008 passed on a party-line vote, with the panel’s four Republican members voting in favor and the three Democrats voting against it.

Gov. Doug Ducey is supportive of expanding the recount threshold, his staff told reporters earlier this month. The governor rarely takes a position on legislation until he’s acted on it, and has repeatedly defended the security and integrity of Arizona’s election system, though he hasn’t closed the door to changes to the law.

Ugenti-Rita ran a similar bill last year, but that legislation died when Townsend, who’d initially supported the proposal, voted against it after Ugenti-Rita killed one of her election bills in committee. Townsend “killed it out of spite,” Ugenti-Rita told the Arizona Mirror.

Ugenti-Rita was optimistic about her bill’s chances this year.

“With the governor’s support and with the impact that bill can have on future elections that are very close, I think it’s going to garner the same level of support,” she said, adding, “I can’t guarantee.”

As to whether Ducey will support other election measures, chief of staff Daniel Ruiz told reporters that the governor will let that process play out in the legislature.

“The governor’s going to prioritize adjusting the recount threshold,” he said.

Senate Bill 1119 would require counties to make available to the public digital images of all ballots cast in an election. Those ballots would have to be searchable by precinct.

“We vote in private but we count in public,” said Borrelli, the bill’s sponsor, who emphasized that people would be unable to tie ballots to individual voters.

Townsend said the bill would reduce conspiracy theories by making the tally publicly available. She said Maricopa County’s ballot tabulation machines, which are provided by Dominion Voting Systems, already have the capability of creating digital images of the ballots.

Marson said the counties had some concerns they hoped to see addressed. One of their concerns was that they be released from any legal liabilities that may arise. She noted that some people sign their names or even write their names and addresses on ballots, which would eliminate the secrecy of their ballots. But the counties don’t want to redact anything, she said, which could give people the impression that they were hiding something.

“Redaction is tough. Redaction is a whole other ball of wax that’s not really contemplated right now. We don’t want to be in the business of redaction,” Marson said.

Sen. Teresa Hatathlie, D-Coal Mine Canyon, said the counties would have to engage in voter education if the bill passes into law to ensure that people know any personal information they write on their ballots will be made public.

That bill didn’t get any Democratic backing on the committee but had support from an unlikely source, former Maricopa County Recorder Adrian Fontes. Fontes, a Democrat who is now running for secretary of state, issued a statement earlier this month supporting an identical proposal sponsored in the House by Rep. Mark Finchem.

Fontes said that, although Finchem and other right-wing election conspiracy theorists believe the measure will “find their invisible smoking gun to prove election fraud,” it will actually do the opposite.

“To be able to have a visual record of a ballot, while still respecting the privacy of voters, is a great way to improve transparency and accountability in our state elections. This will make it harder not easier for right-wing conspiracy theorists to sow doubt about our elections,” he said in a written statement backing the bill.

Several committee members left before they’d finished with the day’s agenda, depriving the committee of a quorum and forcing Townsend to hold several bills for hearings next week. In addition to the committee’s regularly scheduled hearing on Monday, she said she hopes to hold an additional special hearing to help get through all the legislation she wants to hear.

Arizona Mirror is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Arizona Mirror maintains editorial independence.

https://www.azmirror.com/2022/01/25/lies-about-the-2020-election-propel-bills-aimed-at-combating-non-existent-fraud/

[Rick Plant]

Trump DOJ investigation statement contains two key revelations: former FBI official



Former FBI Deputy Assistant Director Peter Strzok explained two key revelations in an exclusive CNN interview with Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco.

"Major news this morning in a story that CNN broke overnight," CNN's John Berman reported. "For the first time, the Department of Justice is publicly acknowledging that it is looking into a specific aspect of the plot from high-level Donald Trump allies to overturn the 2020 election."

"We learned that federal prosecutors are reviewing the fake electoral college certifications from 2020 that falsely declared former President Trump the winner of seven states, states that he lost," he explained.

"The fake electoral certifications were signed by Trump allies, who falsely claimed to be the rightful electors in Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Georgia, and Wisconsin."

For analysis, Berman and co-host Brianna Keilar interviewed Strzok.

Berman noted Monacco's "carefully chosen words."

"How do you read it?" Berman asked.

"Well, absolutely. You know, in my experience, any time the Department of Justice or FBI makes a comment on an ongoing investigation, particularly at a high level, those words are very carefully chosen and they're very closely scrutinized," Strzok replied. "Certainly, when you hear them coming from the deputy attorney general herself, I have no doubt that the intention and the plan to do that was probably — went up to the attorney general and certainly the office of the attorney general."

"And it's important when you're looking at a statement like that to read it very carefully and there are two things I see in there." he explained. "One, prosecutors are looking at it. What that means to me is they are examining the allegations, they're looking at federal law, they're seeing what the elements of the particular crimes that might be involved are and are looking where the evidence falls and doesn't fall."

"And the second thing, the last point is she says she can't comment anymore on ongoing investigations. That means exactly what it says, that means right now there are investigations — plural — that are open and ongoing within the Department of Justice about this matter," he explained. "So that's a very significant event and to me it indicates just how high the level of investigation is now going within DOJ."

Watch:

[Rick Plant]

'The brazenness is shocking': Former Trump security official stunned by new coup memo revelations



During an interview with CNN's Tom Foreman this week, Christopher Krebs, who served as Director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency under former President Donald Trump, tore into the draft executive order that was meant to execute a coup and overturn the results of the 2020 election.

"It reads like a fictional thriller," said Foreman. "The inauguration postponed, voting machines seized by the military and Donald Trump's time extended by weeks. The December 2020 draft executive order could have triggered all of that if it had been signed and enacted before Joe Biden's win was certified."

Foreman characterized it as "a patchwork of conspiracy theories and dubious legal arguments previously pushed by Team Trump."

"The sheer brazenness and illegality of it all is shocking," said Krebs. "This is a violation of a restriction on using federal troops for domestic law enforcement action."

"We don't know who wrote the draft executive order," said Foreman. "There are a lot of rumors. We don't know why it was never signed or if it was seriously considered. But it fits into the desperate maneuvers by Team Trump to deny the unequivocal loss at the polls, even if this paper was not worth the paper it was written on."

Watch below: