Trump supporters and conspiracy theory - Part 2

[Rick Plant]

Time to impeach Clarence Thomas!  His wife took part in a criminal conspiracy to overthrow a U.S. election and he voted to prevent the Jan 6th committee from getting Criminal Donald's White House documents and archives.   

'Truly extraordinary level of corruption': Legal experts weigh in on Ginni Thomas' texts to Mark Meadows



Legal experts were shocked on Thursday about revelations that the Select Committee to Investigate the Jan. 6 Attack on the U.S. Capitol obtained text messages sent between Ginny Thomas, wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, and then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows.

Watergate reporter Bob Woodward reported on Thursday, "Virginia Thomas, a conservative activist married to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, repeatedly pressed White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows to pursue unrelenting efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election in a series of urgent text exchanges in the critical weeks after the vote, according to copies of the messages obtained by The Washington Post and CBS News."

The story was matched by CNN.

"The messages – 29 in all – reveal an extraordinary pipeline between Virginia Thomas, who goes by Ginni, and President Donald Trump’s top aide during a period when Trump and his allies were vowing to go to the Supreme Court in an effort to negate the election results," The Post reported. "The messages, which do not directly reference Justice Thomas or the Supreme Court, show for the first time how Ginni Thomas used her access to Trump’s inner circle to promote and seek to guide the president’s strategy to overturn the election results – and how receptive and grateful Meadows said he was to receive her advice."

Robert Costa, who co-wrote The Post story with Woodward, wrote. "Woodward and I both see this as an unprecedented entanglement between a top official in the Exec Branch and the spouse of a Justice. They are privately discussing strategy, lawyers, managing WH staff, and conspiracy theories."

Legal experts quickly weighed in on the bombshell reporting, which came as Clarence Thomas may or may not still be hospitalized.

Adam Blickstein, who worked in public affairs for the Department of Justice, alluded to the situation when he noted, "We now have more information about Ginny Thomas' illegal attempt to overturn the 2020 election than we do about Clarence Thomas' current medical condition."

"One of the most important questions in politics right now: what did Clarence Thomas know, and when did he know it?" he asked.

Election law lawyer Rick Hasen described it as "astounding" and political scientist Norman Ornstein responded, "Clarence Thomas should resign."

Attorney and Daily Beast columnist Wajahat Ali did not think Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) should wait for Thomas to resign, counseling that "Democrats should impeach Clarence Thomas." Former public defender Kumar Roa agreed, saying "Impeach Clarence Thomas."

The watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) said, "this seems like a big deal."

"The Supreme Court voted 8-1 that Trump couldn't block the Jan 6th committee from getting docs. The one vote against was Clarence Thomas. Mark Meadows turned over texts from Thomas's wife Ginni Thomas urging efforts to overturn the election. What else was afraid would come out?" CREW wondered.

Former Southern District of New York prosecutor Richard Signorelli wondered if Ginni Thomas referenced her husband in the text messages.

"She is nuts. I would bet that the 'best friend' reference in her texts is her husband," he said.



Jane Mayer, who profiled Ginni Thomas in January for The New Yorker, agreed.

"After talking with her 'best friend,' which is how the Thomases refer to one another, Justice Thomas's wife militates relentlessly for the president's chief of staff to overturn a presidential election," Mayer wrote.

Slate legal correspondent Mark Joseph Stern was shocked when he went through the text messages.

"Ginni Thomas urged Mark Meadows to overturn the 2020 election by any means necessary—while her husband was ruling on cases attempting to overturn the election. A truly extraordinary level of corruption," he wrote. "Look at the absolutely deranged conspiracy theories Ginni Thomas pushed. Fringe doesn’t begin to cover it. She promoted conspiracy theories from a Sandy Hook truther plus QAnon stuff."



https://www.rawstory.com/ginni-thomas-texts-mark-meadows/

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/ginni-thomas-texts-2020-election_n_623ced1be4b030e7392cc089

[Rick Plant]

Clarence had an extended hospital stay right when this bombshell news report was about to come out. It's clearly obvious Clarence was trying to protect his wife from criminal prosecution which is why he voted to block the January 6th Committee from obtaining Donnie's White House archives and documents. Looks like Amanda Carpenter agrees with me. I wonder if it was Mark Meadows who turned over the Ginni Thomas texts when he briefly was cooperating with the Jan 6th Committee or if another Trump world figure provided these golden nuggets to the committee. With this amazing information coming out, you can bet there is even more bombshell info that will be revealed during the 1/6 House committee televised hearings this Spring.   

Former Ted Cruz staffer highlights Clarence Thomas' suspicious actions around his wife's texts



On Thursday, following the bombshell report that the House Select Committee investigating the January 6 Capitol insurrection has obtained private communications between former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and far-right activist Ginni Thomas, former Ted Cruz staffer Amanda Carpenter said that Thomas' wife, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, has some explaining to do about his recent decisions.

In particular, Carpenter noted, Thomas needs to clarify why he was the only member of the Supreme Court to vote against dismissing former President Donald Trump's challenge to the National Archives turning over these communications to Congress in the first place — which raises the possibility that his ruling was at least in part to shield his wife from investigation.

Question. Given that Justice Thomas did not write a dissent explaining his vote to block release of January 6th documents, which would include his wife's texts, doesn't he need to offer some substantial explanation now?

I understand that people want him to resign/recuse/whatever now, but let's look at his specific actions and how they relate, and what gaps there are. (Aside from his unexplained hospitalization.)

1) ) Ginni was lobbying the WH on a specific legal matter (making Powell "face" of Trump fraud team) that goes to the heart of Jan 6

2) That goes beyond her role as a generic activist and into issues her husband specifically considered and ruled upon in a manner to protect Ginni.

I understand that people want to focus on the "Whooo that Ginni Thomas is nuts!" angle but that ain't it. Those two items are what matter.

Here is that passage from the Costa-Woodward story I am focusing on:



It's also worth emphasizing Thomas was the *lone dissent* when SCOTUS authorized the National Archives to release documents. The only one. Even the Trump-appointed judges said yes. And he never explained why.

https://twitter.com/amandacarpenter/status/1507132950927880195

[Richard Smith]

Nice spin. Mark Pomerantz is one of the top prosecutors in the country, a white collar crime expert and the guy who brought down the mob and John Gotti, said Criminal Donald is guilty of multiple felonies. Donnie's  crimes are written in black and white in his financial documents which is why he was trying so hard to keep it all hidden. Massive public pressure is now being put on Bragg to prosecute Criminal Donald for his multiple felonies. Bragg would be in dereliction of duty not to indict. Donnie will be sitting inside of a jail cell for either his financial crimes, election fraud, or his treasonous coup attempt. There's so many avenues where this criminal will be doing hard time for his crimes     

LOL.  Too bad that he resigned in disgrace.  Trump is triumphant again!  Imagine celebrating "massive public pressure" to prosecute someone instead of neutral application of the law.  Shameful.  These Stasi-like political investigation are designed to promote the careers of radicals.  Time and again they fail due to lack of evidence.  They are driven purely by political bias.   

[Rick Plant]

There are 'legitimate questions' over 'unhinged election conspiracy nut' Ginni Thomas influencing her husband: conservative



Reacting to a Washington Post report on texts exchanged between Ginni Thomas, wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, and White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows conspiring to overturn the 2020 election, conservative commentator Amanda Carpenter asserted that both the Supreme Court justice and his wife have a lot of questions that need answering -- and she provided a bevy of them for investigators to ask.

Bluntly calling Ginni Thomas an "unhinged 2020 election conspiracy nut," Carpenter, who previously served as an advisor to Sen. Ted Crux (R-TX), claimed that it appears that she unduly influenced her husband to rule against turning over Donald Trump documents to Congress because she would be implicated.

Writing, "Ginni Thomas was lobbying the president’s chief of staff to pursue an extremely dubious specific course of action that almost certainly would have ended up being argued before the Supreme Court," she added, "Does this represent a conflict of interest for Justice Thomas that would have warranted his recusal from any Jan. 6th-related case?"

Seeking answers, she continued, "Given the revelation of Mrs. Thomas’s direct communications with the White House chief of staff lobbying on specific legal matters relating to Jan. 6th, an explanation seems warranted."

"Why, exactly, did Justice Thomas believe that White House communications related to Jan. 6th deserved to be shielded? Was this a constitutional decision or a personal one? This is a legitimate question," Carpenter wrote before adding, "It is important to note that the only reason these communications were publicly revealed is that they were among the thousands of messages Meadows turned over to the committee. Meaning: They were not in the tranche of documents the National Archives provided the committee."

"But did Justice Thomas know where his wife’s text messages with the White House chief of staff would turn up? Did he know that they would not be part of the National Archives material? This brings us close to the core question: What knowledge did Justice Thomas have about his wife’s activities related to Jan. 6th, particularly related to legal challenges to the election that were extremely likely to come before the Supreme Court?" she asked.

After touching on Meadows' complicity, which also needs to be investigated, the conservative columnist asked, "Should the Department of Justice pursue any kind of criminal charges, one would expect a challenge that could go before the Supreme Court. What then?"

According to Carpenter, no one should expect that Thomas to respond to questions about the reasoning for his vote, writing, "Maybe there are innocent explanations for what went on," but an investigation is needed to remove a new cloud that hangs over the Supreme Court.

"At the end of the day, these questions aren’t just about the Thomases. They’re also about the Supreme Court as an institution—its integrity and the public perception of its integrity. And anyone who cares about protecting the Court’s credibility should be interested in finding out the answers," she concluded.

https://www.rawstory.com/ginni-thomas-texts/

[Rick Plant]

Ginni Thomas-Mark Meadows texts expose the Christian nationalism that fueled the Jan. 6 insurrection: religious scholars

The shocking texts between Ginni Thomas and White House chief of staff Mark Meadows reveal the key role that Christian nationalism played in the efforts to overturn Donald Trump's election loss, according to experts on America's Christian right.

Meadows promised the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas that “King of Kings” would ultimately “triumph” in a "fight against good versus evil," and allow Trump to remain president despite his election loss, and Washington Post columnist Greg Sargent said the exchange was crucial to understanding the insurrection.

"We haven’t paid enough attention to the role of right-wing Christian nationalism in driving Trump’s effort to destroy our political order," Sargent wrote, "and in the abandonment of democracy among some on the right more broadly."

Many on the Christian right believe that Trump was "anointed" by God to fulfill their "goal of restoring the United States as a Christian nation," according to religious scholar Sarah Posner, and the former reality TV star became the unlikely focus for their hopes.

"In this narrative, Trump — despite his glaring and repugnant personal imperfections — became the vessel to carry out the struggle to defeat various godless and secularist infestations of the idealized Christian nation, from the woke to globalists to communists to the 'deep state,'" Sargent wrote.

Right-wing Christians justified the violence carried out on Jan. 6 as necessary to their "holy war against an illegitimate state," Posner argued, and she said Meadows and Thomas both saw themselves as "soldiers in this spiritual battle."

The movement is inherently violent, according to Robert Jones, the founder and CEO of Public Religion Research Institute, who said right-wing Christians see their fight as existential.

“It is a violent reclamation movement,” Jones said. “If we’re going to move into the promise of a multireligious, multiethnic democracy, these forces are going to have to be confronted.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/03/25/joe-scarborough-ginni-thomas-mark-meadows-texts/

[Rick Plant]

Deposition dates set for Trump and his two oldest sons in civil fraud suit



On Friday, Law & Crime reported that deposition dates have been set for former President Donald Trump and his two oldest sons, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, in a civil fraud suit.

"In a jointly filed status update, attorneys for both of the parties revealed that the former president will sit for deposition this summer on June 16. His adult sons will take the hot seat a little more than a month earlier, with Eric Trump slated to testify on May 12, 2022 and Donald Trump, Jr. on May 10, 2022," reported Adam Klasfeld. “'Defendants have not yet offered a deposition date for Ivanka Trump,' the status update states. 'The parties are meeting and conferring concerning the locations and logistics of these depositions.'"

Former President Trump, Eric Trump and Don Jr. have depositions scheduled within months in a lawsuit accusing the family and their company of promoting a pyramid scheme, a new filing indicates.

Ivanka's deposition has not yet been set.

Story soon, @lawcrimenews



https://twitter.com/KlasfeldReports/status/1507460671805399041

The depositions are part of a class-action suit against the Trump family that alleges they promoted a pyramid scheme called the American Communications Network, "conn[ing] each of these victims into giving up hundreds or thousands of dollars".

Pyramid schemes are based on members constantly recruiting new members below them and charging them money that funnels up to the original founders of the scheme, all while not producing anything of value or producing something nominal that doesn't actually provide the bulk of the company's income. These schemes are illegal and drain money from the vast majority of people who pay in.

https://lawandcrime.com/federal-court/deposition-dates-set-for-donald-trump-and-two-of-his-adult-children-in-lawsuit-accusing-them-of-promoting-a-pyramid-scheme/

[Rick Plant]

Donald Trump is Putin's partner in crime. Donnie did everything Putin told him to do and Donnie defended every action Putin made including the invasion of Ukraine where Donnie called him a "genius". Donnie was caught stealing top secret classified Intel documents from the White House and taking them to Florida which is illegal. One has to wonder if Donnie shared any of that information with Putin. Something we need to be thinking about.     

Trump's long history of siding with Putin against Ukraine memorialized in brutal CNN story



Donald Trump's history with Vladimir Putin was the focus of a new story by CNN's Marshall Cohen.

"The Russian invasion of Ukraine didn’t just happen out of nowhere," he noted. "Russian President Vladimir Putin has ratcheted up tensions with the West for the better part of the last decade – he annexed Crimea, meddled in US elections, poisoned an ex-spy on British soil, and more. Nearly every step of the way, former President Donald Trump parroted Kremlin talking points, excused Russian aggression and sometimes even embraced it outright."

Trump's views on Russia have persisted even after he left office following his 2020 loss to Joe Biden.

"Experts say Trump’s actions weakened Ukraine, divided NATO, emboldened Putin and helped get us to where we are today. And even with Trump no longer in office, his impact lives on in the form of Putin-friendly commentary in conservative media and from some Republican lawmakers," he wrote.

Cohen noted Trump sided with Russia even before he was president, following Putin's invasion of Crimea in 2014.

"Within weeks, Trump praised Putin for how he handled the takeover of Crimea and predicted that “the rest of Ukraine will fall … fairly quickly.” Echoing Kremlin propaganda, Trump said in a TV interview that the Crimean people “would rather be with Russia,” a position he also pushed in private," he wrote. "When Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine shot down a commercial airliner in 2014, killing 298 people, Trump sowed doubt about Russia’s involvement. He embraced Putin’s denials, even after US and European officials publicly concluded that Russia was complicit."

Cohen also explained how Trump smeared Ukraine.

"Throughout his presidency, Trump pushed a litany of false claims about Ukraine – in public and private. He rarely missed an opportunity to criticize the country," he wrote. "Trump’s biggest lie was about the 2016 election. He rejected the reality that Russia interfered to help him win. Instead, he falsely claimed it was Ukraine who meddled, and that he was the victim. These lies, which he repeated dozens of times, were a double boon to the Kremlin: they downplayed Russia’s brazen attack on US democracy, while simultaneously smearing Ukraine. These views quickly became the party line for GOP lawmakers and conservative pundits, even though top Russia experts like Fiona Hill publicly warned that it was all Russian propaganda."

THREAD: Putin's attack on Ukraine has been brewing for years. Along the way, Trump parroted Kremlin propaganda, excused Russian aggression & emboldened Putin. Memories are short — so here's my roundup of 4 things to remember about Trump, Ukraine, and Putin

(1) Trump took Russia's side when the Ukraine conflict began in 2014. He praised Putin for invading Crimea. He said Crimea was Russian. And during the 2016 campaign, Paul Manafort was collaborating with a Russian spy on a secret plan for Trump to help Russia control the Donbas.

(2) Trump had a mixed record on arming Ukraine. Trump later withheld $400m in military aid for political reasons, risking Ukraine's defenses for his own personal gain.



(3) Trump led an anti-Ukraine smear campaign. This was a double whammy. Trump excused & denied Russia's brazen attack on the US election in 2016. He then pushed the lie that it was Ukraine who actually meddled. Pure Kremlin propaganda, coming from the WH. This emboldened Putin.

Watch Video:https://twitter.com/MarshallCohen/status/1507769902832181252

(4) Trump repeatedly undermined Zelensky. The Trump/Ukraine affair had so many examples of Trump and his cronies strong-arming Zelensky — a political novice who was looking for help & support from the US in his nation's war against Russia. Instead, he got hostility & chaos. /END



https://twitter.com/MarshallCohen/status/1507769911334088708

President Zelenskyy sure has no use for Criminal Donald. Check out the look on his face. Then look at Criminal Donald sitting there disengaged with that stupid look on his face probably daydreaming about his puppet master Putin. We know where Donnie's loyalty lies, it's not with the United States, Ukraine, our allies, or democracy.....it's with Russia and Vladimir Putin. Donnie's words and actions have proven it to the world. And sadly, many in the GOP share the same views of Putin with Donnie. That's why the GOP needs to be defeated in every election. 31 Senate Republicans just voted against military aid for Ukraine which has a direct impact on our democracy and our national security. Those Republicans voted for Russia and Putin. They voted against America, Ukraine, and our allies.   

Here's a list of the 31 Republican traitors who voted against America and Ukraine. When these Republican traitors are up for re-election, make sure to vote them out and have your friends and family do the same. These traitors have no business being in the Senate when they refuse to defend our national security and our allies during a critical war. These same GOP traitors voted "yes" for a $1 trillion tax cut for billionaires and corporations in 2017, but voted "no" in March 2022 for $13 billion military aid to defend America against a murderous dictator. Vote them all out!

Full List of 31 Republicans Who Voted Against Military Aid for Ukraine
https://www.newsweek.com/full-list-31-republicans-voted-against-military-aid-ukraine-1687052