Trump supporters and conspiracy theory - Part 2

[Rick Plant]

Just another example of Trump's racist violent anti American cult.

‘You should be hung!’ How Trump supporters drove two Georgia election workers into hiding



Former president Donald Trump and his supporters demonized and terrorized two rank-and-file elections workers in Georgia for months over a conspiracy theory alleging they had pulled fake ballots from suitcases at a ballot-counting center.

Wandrea “Shaye” Moss is a clerical worker for the Fulton County elections office, while her mother Ruby Freeman was a temporary worker counting ballots.

In early December, Trump's campaign falsely alleged — based on a video that went viral in right-wing media — that the two Black women had pulled fake ballots from suitcases hidden under tables at Atlanta's State Farm Arena after the Nov. 3 election.

The claim — heavily amplified by Trump himself and his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani — led to Moss and Freeman being inundated with hundreds of death threats, including many laced with racial slurs, according to Reuters. Strangers showed up at their houses and banged on their doors, driving them into hiding and forcing them to take elaborate measures to conceal their identities. But they couldn't afford personal security protection, and the county wouldn't pay for it.

"The threats hurled at Freeman and Moss are part of a broader campaign of fear against election administrators that has been chronicled by Reuters this year," the report states. "The story of Moss and Freeman shows how some of the top members of the Trump camp – including the incumbent president himself – conducted an intensive effort to publicly demonize individual election workers in the pursuit of overturning the election. Some of these targets – including the top election officials in Georgia, Pennsylvania and Arizona – are notable political figures in their states. Others, like Moss and Freeman, have been rank-and-file workers. Moss’s full-time job pays about $36,000 a year. Freeman’s temp gig paid $16 an hour."

After Freeman was first identified by Trump's campaign, she made a series of 911 calls, telling dispatchers that she had gotten a flood of threats.

“It’s scary because they’re saying stuff like, ‘We’re coming to get you. We are coming to get you,'" Freeman told a dispatcher.

“Lord Jesus, where’s the police?” she asked a dispatcher two days later. “I don’t know who keeps coming to my door. Please help me."

At one point, Freeman showed a police officer 428 emails and text messages on her cell phone, almost all of them threats, but no one was ever prosecuted. That figure doesn't include the threats the pair received via social media.

“The c*on c***s should be locked up for voter fraud!!!” one person wrote on the right-wing social media platform Parler.

“She should be shot,” others wrote on Facebook. “YOU SHOULD BE HUNG OR SHOT FOR YOUR CRIMES."

The threats only increased after Trump mentioned Moss and Freeman during his infamous Jan. 2 phone call with Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, and they continued through the summer.

Although some election workers — including Fulton County Elections Director Richard Barron — have chosen to quit due to threats from Trump supporters, Moss reported is staying.

"As a single mom, she needs the paycheck and the health insurance," according to Reuters.

Read the full story:

https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-election-threats-georgia/

[Rick Plant]

Former Trump officials are 'disgusted' after learning he endangered their health

CNN's Jim Acosta said on Wednesday that officials who worked in the Trump White House reached out to him to share their feelings about revelations that he concealed a positive COVID-19 test from them last fall.

Discussing the bombshell claims about Trump's positive COVID test made by former chief of staff Mark Meadows, Acosta said that many former Trump officials were not pleased to hear that their one-time boss endangered their physical health.

"I can tell you from talking to former senior White House officials, there are a number of them who were disgusted by this," he said. "That was the word used by one senior white house official I spoke with earlier today."

Acosta went on to link Trump's reckless behavior with his administration's overall response to the COVID-19 pandemic, which so far has killed more than 780,000 Americans.

"It just goes back to what we all saw, you know, in real time throughout Trump's handling of the coronavirus, from when he was downplaying testing, to telling people that they can inject themselves with disinfectants, to saying it was a miracle it would all go away," he said. "He was essentially patient zero in our disinformation pandemic and as it turns out may have been patient zero in an outbreak at the White House."

Watch the video below:

[Rick Plant]

'Could have killed one of our colleagues': Former Trump official rips him for hiding positive COVID test



Former Trump White House official Alyssa Farah on Wednesday shredded her one-time boss for concealing his positive test for the novel coronavirus last fall.

Appearing on CNN, Farah told Jake Tapper that she was stunned to learn from former Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows that Trump had tested positive for the virus days ahead of his first debate with President Joe Biden and decided against informing his staff members.

"Very few things shock me and this revelation shocked me," she said.

Farah went on to explain that she had not been informed of Trump's positive COVID-19 test, and accused the former president of recklessly endangering his own staff members.

"This demonstrates a flagrant lack of regard for public health and for the well-being of others," she said. "At this time in the White House, I had staffers who were pregnant. I had one who is a multi-time cancer survivor. Plenty of people in the West Wing over 65. We could have killed one of our colleagues and instead they decided to not tell anyone, putting every one of us at risk."

Watch the video below:

[Rick Plant]

Sounds like Criminal Donald could be using this social media company as a scam just to raise billions of dollars.



Donald Trump's new social media company has missed a deadline for launching an invitation-only beta version of the platform.

Nevertheless, Truth Social is reportedly seeking to raise an additional $1 billion by selling stock to hedge funds at a price several times higher than its original valuation of $10 per share.

"It is not unusual for tech companies to miss their own deadlines for product releases," CNBC reported Wednesday. "But the November launch date that Trump Media & Technology Group set for 'Truth Social' was the first clear test of whether the company could deliver on its promises to investors who bought stock in (Digital World Acquisition Corp.)."

Trump's company, Trump Media & Technology Group, is merging with Digital World Acquisition Corp. to create the Truth Social platform.

In an announcement in October, Trump Media & Technology Group said: "TRUTH Social is now available for PreOrder in the Apple App store. TRUTH Social plans to begin its Beta Launch for invited guests in November 2021. A nationwide rollout is expected in the first quarter of 2022. Those who are interested in joining TRUTH Social may now visit www.truthsocial.com to sign up for the invite list.”

But CNBC reports that "as of Wednesday, the Truth Social website was still just a landing site and a sign up form to be on the 'waiting list.' It does not appear to have changed since it was first launched in October, and has a privacy policy dated Sept. 20."

Meanwhile, the company's stock price had plunged from a high of $175 after the merger was announced, to $44 per share on Wednesday. However, Reuters reported that the company is seeking to raise an additional $1 billion based on the higher stock price.

"Trump Media & Technology Group, which has yet to roll out the social media app it says it is developing, already stands to receive $293 million if its deal to list in New York through a merger with blank-check firm Digital World Acquisition Corp (DWAC.O) is completed," Reuters reported. "The deal valued Trump Media at $875 million, including debt. Trump Media is now seeking to raise up to an additional $1 billion at a valuation of close to $3 billion, to reflect Digital World's share rally after Trump supporters and day traders snapped up the stock, the sources said."

Reuters called it "the clearest indication yet that Trump and the Digital World dealmakers are seeking to capitalize on the market euphoria around their venture, which has so far been fueled by its ambitious goals rather than a business that is up and running."

Trump reportedly has been personally involved in the effort to raise another $1 billion.

"He has been calling some investors to ask them to make a commitment ... of more than $100 million," Reuters reported. "Investors attending the road show were shown a demo from the planned social media app, called TRUTH Social, which looked like a Twitter feed, the sources said."

https://www.rawstory.com/trump-truth-social-2655906550/

[Rick Plant]

QAnon Followers Rush to Defend Donald Trump After Pilot Testifies He Was on Jeffrey Epstein's Jet
https://www.newsweek.com/qanon-followers-defend-donald-trump-jeffrey-epstein-plane-ghislaine-maxwell-trial-1654823

[Rick Plant]

Trump and the GOP has given their violent radical right wing base the green light to cause more extreme violence in the United States. The GOP protected Criminal Donald and refused to impeach him for inciting an insurrection, they downplayed 1/6, supported the violent insurrectionist traitors, refused to hold Rep. Paul Gosar accountable for posting violent a meme against AOC, and used murderer Kyle Rittenhouse as their poster boy. Their actions and hate especially Ted Cruz calling for Texas to secede is pushing these violent groups to commit more acts of violence.

'I see a war coming,' says militia leader with Colorado GOP ties




A prominent Colorado Republican activist on Tuesday urged fellow conservatives to reject political violence and extremism, even as he claimed that the country is under threat from communist tyranny and on a path towards “civil war.”

John Tiegen, a Marine veteran from Colorado Springs and founder of the United American Defense Force, made the comments on a “Giving Tuesday” livestream hosted by FEC United, the fringe activist group with which the UADF is affiliated.

Speaking to an audience of fellow conservatives, Tiegen acknowledged the support for extremist violence that exists among some on the right, and warned of the dangers of such views.

“We need to get rid of the extremist ideology, we really do,” Tiegen said. “For UADF, a lot of people want to go to civil war, they want to have conflict. You don’t want it.”

But Tiegen, who urged conservatives to set aside their “minor differences” and unite to oppose government overreach in schools and the economy, also predicted that violence will erupt if conservatives aren’t victorious.

“I see a war coming, if we don’t stand together,” Tiegen said. “And trust me, you don’t want to see it. A lot of veterans — I’ve seen it — there are some veterans that pray for it here in the U.S., which is stupid.”

The UADF, founded by Tiegen in the wake of nationwide 2020 protests over police violence, bills itself as a “humanitarian aid organization” with a “parallel mission” of armed defense. Tiegen regularly posted images of group members training and posing with firearms before his social media accounts were eventually suspended late last year.

Tiegen and the UADF organized the October 2020 “Patriot Muster” rally in downtown Denver, which turned deadly when a man was fatally shot by a security guard employed by a local news station.

FEC United was founded by far-right conspiracy theorist Joe Oltmann, a former digital marketing executive from Douglas County who has been instrumental in pushing debunked claims relating to Denver-based Dominion Voting Systems and the integrity of the 2020 election. Oltmann is a defendant in a defamation lawsuit filed by a former Dominion employee.

Kristi Burton Brown, currently the chair of the Colorado Republican Party, served as FEC United’s president as recently as November 2020, according to testimony from Oltmann. Burton Brown was elected state GOP chair in March 2021.

The group has spread a wide variety of false and misleading information relating to the election, the COVID-19 pandemic, “critical race theory” in schools and more.

On Tuesday’s livestream, Tiegen and other right-wing activists celebrated the victories won last month by Republican candidates in local school board elections in Colorado and beyond, and delivered stark warnings about the threat posed by communism, which FEC United’s Stephanie Wheeler said was backed in the U.S. by “foreign entities” with “deep pockets.”

Tiegen urged conservatives who oppose measures like pandemic-related public health restrictions to “be a force to be reckoned with.”

“We are being forced into communism, forced into a tyrannical dictatorship,” he said. “It’s just going to get worse. … There has to be a line, there has to be a limit. I’ve already reached it. I’m not going no more.”

“This is a last stand that we’re kind of doing,” Tiegen added. “We have to — we took a lot back here in Colorado on the education side, so that’s a good start. But … you have to stand together if you truly want to fight back.”

https://www.rawstory.com/i-see-a-war-coming-says-militia-leader-with-colorado-gop-ties/

[Rick Plant]

Mark Meadows deeply involved in behind-the-scenes efforts to overturn Trump election loss: sources

Former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows worked behind the scenes to connect national security officials with Donald Trump allies who were working to overturn the November 2020 election, according to a new report.

Multiple sources, including former Trump officials and others with direct knowledge of the efforts, told CNN that Meadows tried to get top government officials to investigate baseless conspiracy theories promoted by Mike Flynn, Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell and passed along YouTube videos and other conspiratorial materials that he didn't quite believe himself.

"These, and other actions Meadows took on behalf of Trump, sources say, were not necessarily driven by his strong belief in the validity of these claims," CNN reported, "but instead by his desire to please a president who was hyper-focused on injecting baseless conspiracy theories of election fraud into official government channels."

Meadows, who has indicated he would cooperate with the House select committee investigation of the Jan. 6 riot, tried to enlist Justice Department officials in the effort to undo Trump's election loss, and he also contacted officials at several national security agencies to share baseless claims that China hacked the presidential election using thermostats to change results in voting machines, according to two sources.

"According to one of those sources, Meadows reached out to officials at the FBI, Pentagon, National Security Council and Office of the Director of National Intelligence to tell them about election fraud claims, including the China thermostat allegation, which Flynn and Powell had been pushing," CNN reported. "Meadows also pressured acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen to have Justice Department officials investigate baseless claims that votes were changed by people in Italy using satellites. He acted as a go-between for Giuliani's team which was pushing the same debunked theory."

Meadows tried to set up a meeting between Flynn and intelligence officials to discuss the China thermostat theory, according to one source, although he pushed back on efforts by Powell to get herself named special counsel to investigate alleged voter fraud during one Dec. 18 meeting at the White House.

He also sided with White House officials and lawyers against Powell and Flynn's idea of declaring a state of emergency so the federal government could seize voting equipment in certain states.

Other Trump allies undertook similar efforts to enlist top government officials, but Meadows stands out among those due to his leading role in the White House.

"Meadows was perpetually enabling this insane stuff and was too scared to stand up to Trump," said one source who attended multiple meetings with Meadows at the White House and other agencies. "He was scared to say 'no' to anyone."

https://www.rawstory.com/mark-meadows-jan-6-2655911650/


Georgia election workers sue pro-Trump website over false claims that led to racist threats

Two election workers in Georgia have sued a right-wing conspiracy website that falsely accused them of manipulating ballots to ensure Donald Trump's loss in the state.

Ruby Freeman and her daughter Shaye Moss sued the Gateway Pundit website, which is run by twin brothers Jim and Joseph Hoft, after they were targeted with death threats, unwanted pizza delivery orders and racist harassment after the website pushed debunked claims that the two women “pulled out suitcases full of ballots and began counting those ballots without election monitors in the room," reported the New York Times.

“I want the defendants to know that my daughter and I are real people who deserve justice, and I never want them to do this to anyone else,” Freeman said in a statement.

Trump and his allies promoted claims, based on a misleadingly spliced segment of surveillance video that Moss, who still works for the Fulton County elections board, and her mother, a temporary employee during the 2020 election, had helped pull 18,000 fraudulent ballots from a suitcase and illegally fed them into the voting machines.

The false claims led to a flood of threats, which drove the elections workers into hiding.

An investigation by the Georgia secretary of state's office found the women did nothing wrong and were legally counting ballots.

https://www.rawstory.com/jim-hoft-gateway-pundit/


Trump 'Kraken' lawyers ordered to pay $175K in sanctions for 'profound abuse of judicial process'

A federal judge in Michigan on Thursday ordered former president Donald Trump's "Kraken" lawyers — including Sidney Powell and L. Lin Wood — to pay more than $175,000 in sanctions for filing a conspiracy theory-laden lawsuit seeking to overturn the state's 2020 election results.

"This lawsuit represents a historic and profound abuse of the judicial process," U.S. District Judge Linda V. Parker wrote when she initially approved the sanctions in August.

Parker ordered Trump's attorneys to pay legal costs incurred by Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, and the city of Detroit in defending against their lawsuit, which alleged that an international cabal worked to steal the election away from the former president. Parker gave the defendants 14 days to submit their time and expense records, but Trump's attorneys later challenged the city's requested amount of $182,192.

In her decision Thursday, Parker lowered the city's amount by roughly $29,000, to $153,285.62. Trump's lawyers did not challenge the amount of $21,964.75 submitted by Whitmer and Benson, meaning they'll have to pay a total of $175,250.37 in sanctions.

In her decision, Parker noted that many of Trump's lawyers "seek donations from the public to fund lawsuits like this one," adding that they "have the ability to pay this sanction."

In addition to Powell and Wood, the other Trump lawyers involved in the lawsuit were Howard Kleinhendler, Gregory Rohl, Stefanie Lynn Junttila, Emily Newman, Julia Z. Haller, Brandon Johnson, and Scott Hagerstrom.

The attorneys are "jointly and severally" liable for the sanctions, meaning that while each is on the hook for the full amount, the total to be paid is $175,250.37, regardless of who forks over the money.

Read Parker's full decision here.

https://www.rawstory.com/sidney-powell-sanctions/