Trump supporters and conspiracy theory - Part 2

[Rick Plant]

‘It’s pretty disturbing’: Videos show Trump aides taking suspicious boxes to other golf properties

Online videos have prompted new calls to search Donald Trump's other properties for classified materials, but investigators may not have enough evidence yet to obtain a warrant.

The FBI searched Mar-a-Lago last month and seized boxes of top-secret documents, and videos that circulated over the weekend raised suspicions that other materials may have been carted to other properties owned by the former president.

However, NBC News correspondent Ken Dilanian told "Morning Joe" that's not enough to trigger a search.

"Obviously, we don't know the inner workings of this investigation, but what's required is more than just a theory that some evidence might be at a place," Dilanian said. "They need actual hard evidence and in the case of this Mar-a-Lago search, they had witnesses who were telling them that not only was there classified information there, but that they were misled, they were lied to essentially by the Trump side, and that's all blacked out in the affidavit, but we're aware that it exists, and they used that to go to a judge and say, 'Judge, we need to do a search.'"

"A search is a very intrusive thing," he continued. "You're trampling someone's Fourth Amendment rights for good reason. You have evidence of a crime at this location. Absent that, like, for example, there's a social media theory going around. There's some video of Trump aides loading boxes on to a private jet heading for Bedminster, and I have to say, I mean, when I first saw that on Twitter over the weekend, I thought, oh, another conspiracy theory."

"The more you look at it, the more it's pretty disturbing," Dilanian added. "The banker boxes are the same kinds of boxes that the classified documents were found in. Absent any other kinds of evidence, they would need witnesses telling them, yes, there were classified documents in the boxes and they were taken to Bedminster. They're not just going to do it based on a video or a theory."

Watch:

[Rick Plant]

Phones taken by Justice Department as they roll out 40 subpoenas of Trump allies involved in fake electors scheme



The New York Times reported Monday afternoon that at least 40 subpoenas have been filed for allies of former President Donald Trump over the attempt to overthrow the 2020 election using the fake electors.

At least two of Trump's top advisers had their phones taken by the FBI, sources told the Times. Boris Epshteyn, a Russian-American Republican political strategist who served as a strategic adviser to Trump's 2020 campaign was one of those who had to surrender his phone. The other was Mike Roman an opposition researcher who worked for Trump from 2017 to 2018. He went on to work on the campaign, and became the person who handed off the envelope of fake electors to be given to Vice President Mike Pence.

The Times described it as an indication that the Justice Department's case is escalating after slow movement for the past several months.

Dan Scavino, Trump’s former social media director is also among those who got a subpoena from the case.

Former New York Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik was another subpoenaed. He was on the team with Rudy Giuliani and helping with the so-called "war room" on Jan. 6 at the Willard Hotel.

Some of the information, the Times explained, was asking about activities around the Save America PAC, which has been the main source of funding for Trump since leaving office.

Read the full report here

[Rick Plant]

Exclusive: Michael Cohen says Berman's book confirms his allegations — and demands the former US attorney be prosecuted



Donald Trump's former lawyer Michael Cohen has long said that he was disproportionately targeted by the Justice Department and the Department of Corrections after it became clear he would no longer cover for his former client.

Former U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Geoffrey Berman, has spoken to Congress, and publicly after he was shoved out of the Justice Department by former Attorney Bill Barr, after refusing to go after allegedly innocent people tied to former President Barack Obama. But another foe of Trump ultimately became Cohen.

An excerpt of Berman's book, "Holding the Line," scheduled to be released on Tuesday, alleges that the SDNY was going after Cohen even after Cohen agreed to plead guilty. While Cohen has pleaded guilty to nebulous tax charges, he maintains that the crimes cited in his plea he was innocent of.

"When Bill Barr took over as U.S. Attorney General, in February 2019, six months after Cohen's guilty plea, he not only tried to kill the ongoing investigations we were engaged in, but incredibly, he suggested that Cohen's conviction on campaign finance charges should be reversed," Berman wrote in the book. "Barr summoned my deputy who was overseeing the Cohen case, in late February to challenge the basis of Cohen's plea as well as the reasoning behind pursuing similar campaign finance charges against other individuals. He was told to cease all investigative work on the campaign finance allegations until main Justice determined there was a legal basis for the campaign finance charges to which Cohen pled guilty and until Barr determined there was a sufficient federal interest in pursuing charges against others."

They are allegations that Cohen details in his upcoming book Revenge: How Donald Trump Weaponized the Department of Justice Against his Critics, scheduled to be published Oct. 11, 2022.

An excerpt of the book shared with Raw Story, cites Berman, saying that the DOJ and SDNY are all supposed to act independently.

"Which is why Trump attempted to get Geoffrey Berman, the head of the criminal division, to resign; which he refused," the book excerpt explains. "The question needing to be asked is: why would the president of the United States be so focused on this one facet of the Justice Department other than for the reason that it was the court prosecuting my case? The answer is he wouldn't."

Berman recused himself from Cohen's case, but Trump said that it wasn't enough, Cohen's book details. "Since Trump appointed Berman to his possession he believed that Berman owed him loyalty, which included acquiescing to Trump's desire to silence me through incarceration."

Even after Cohen was sent to prison to serve his sentence, he was given a house arrest option due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As a non-violent offender, he could be on an ankle monitor and serve out his sentence from there. The Department of Corrections attempted to mandate that if he was under house arrest he could not speak out, write a book or do any interviews. Cohen refused and took them to court saying it was a violation of his First Amendment rights. He won and ultimately spent his time speaking out on everything that he knows about Trump.

Speaking to Raw Story, Cohen said that Berman's book "validates what I have been continuously saying as well as the premise of my upcoming book Revenge. Berman's failure to disclose what was occurring under his watch as head of the SDNY is at the least unethical and the most illegal. Berman needs to be questioned, indicted and prosecuted for his behavior; or lack thereof."

Berman explained, "the directive Bill Barr gave my deputy, which was amplified that same day by a follow-up call from Edward O'Callaghan, that was explicit. Not a single investigative step could be taken, not a single document in our possession could be reviewed. And if main Justice decided in the end that there was no legal basis for the charges, well, the attorney general of the United States would then direct us to dismiss the campaign finance guilty pleas of Michael Cohen, the man who implicated the attorney general's boss, the president."

The campaign finance charges were legitimate ones according to experts, but they would normally have been applied to the campaign and/or the candidate.

"Barr's posture here raises obvious questions," Berman said. "Did he think dropping the campaign finance charges would bolster Trump's defense against impeachment charges? Was he trying to ensure no other Trump associates or employees would be charged with making hush money payments or perhaps flip on the president? Was the goal to ensure that the president could not be charged after leaving office? Was it part of an effort to undo the entire series of investigations and prosecutions over the past two years of those in the president's orbit? Michael Cohen, Roger Stone, Michael Flynn?"

The book then goes on to detail that the prosecution of Cohen and former Rep. Chris Collins (R-NY) prompted the DOJ to order that former President Barack Obama's White House counsel be indicted for a crime he never committed. He was ultimately acquitted, but only after paying for a legal defense and having his name dragged through right-wing news sites.

Trump's Justice Department directed the SDNY not only to reevaluate the basis of Cohen's plea and they wanted SDNY to stop investigating anybody involved in those crimes committed by the Trump campaign to try to cover up evidence of alleged affairs, MSNBC's Rachel Maddow explained. "SDNY also was contacted by Trump's Justice Department, senior officials, and they were told that they needed to get rid of all mentions of 'Individual-1' in the Michael Cohen indictment. SDNY said no to that, they resisted. But SDNY officials did take out of the Michael Cohen related court filings the most direct language they had in those filings saying what role Trump played in those crimes."

As Berman described it, the information was being finalized after Cohen agreed to plead guilty. The documents were about 40 pages long and identified Individual-1 as acting in concert with Cohen. It was obvious that it was Trump, but Edward O'Callaghan called Robert Kuzami demanding to know why the indictment was so long and detailed.

"He argued that now that Cohen was pleading guilty," the book says. "'We don't need all this description,' he responded. 'What exactly are you concerned about?' O'Callaghan proceeded to identify specific allegations he wanted to be removed, almost all of which referenced Individual-1. Donald Trump. It quickly became apparent that contrary to what O'Callaghan professed, it wasn't the length or the detail of the document that concerned him. It was any mention of Individual-. Khuzami and O'Callaghan went through a handful of these allegations, some of which he agreed to strike, others he did not. Sensing this was going to be a long process, he told O'Callaghan he was now aware of his concerns and the team would remove certain nonessential details."

The book continues: "They stayed up most of the night. The revised information in Cohen's case was now 21 pages, down from 40. It removed certain allegations, including allegations that Individual-1 acted in concert with and coordinated with Cohen on the illegal campaign contributions. The information now alleged that Cohen acted in concert and coordinated with, quote, one or more members of the campaign. So, Individual-1, Donald Trump... 'he did this stuff with Donald Trump' becomes 'he did this stuff with someone from the campaign.' The specific mentions of Cohen committing this crime, this federal felony in concert with and coordinating with Trump in the commission of the crime, those specific references were taken out of this court filing to not mention Trump specifically. And the investigators on that case were also directed by main Justice that they needed to stop investigating anybody other than Michael Cohen for these crimes."

Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) announced Monday evening that the Senate Judiciary Committee would be holding an investigation on the details in the book. They'll specifically seek documents involving Cohen, the John Kerry case and former Obama White House counsel Gregory Craig's case.

https://www.rawstory.com/michael-cohen-geoffrey-berman/



Legal experts demand action after bombshell book details rampant DOJ corruption



It shouldn't be a surprise that corruption was running rampant throughout the government of Donald Trump. The last six years have been filled with stories about ethics problems by Cabinet officials, political retaliation, self-protection, political promotion and more.

Washington Post reporter Carol Leonnig addressed Republicans grappling with Trump's scandals, saying, "this is a person that has crossed so many lines: legal, ethical, moral, every line you can imagine, presidential norms be damned. Every single things we can think of."

Another scandal was revealed with the publication of Geoffrey Berman's book, scheduled to be released on Tuesday. Already, the Senate Judiciary Committee chair, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL), has announced that they will hold a hearing to investigate the allegations outlined in the book and specifically cited the cases Berman says Attorney General Bill Barr and Donald Trump interfered with.

Attorney General Merrick Garland's spokesperson, Anthony Coley, confirmed receipt of Durbin's letter and declined to comment further. Berman has already stated that he’ll “be happy to cooperate with any congressional inquiry”

Lawyer and commentator Tom Cushing noted that the Senate better move quickly.

Reacting to the news Monday evening, former US Attorney Glenn Kirschner said outright that it was time to prosecute Bill Barr.

"As a former career DOJ prosecutor, Bill Barr’s corruption/weaponization of DOJ to protect Trump and persecute Trump’s critics make me want to f’ing scream!" he wrote. "This abuse by Barr et al. must be addressed."

Ethics czar for George W. Bush, Richard Painter, spoke to the intervention of Trump attempting to stop further investigations into possible secret political spending for hush money payments.

"U.S. Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman was fired because his investigations got too close to Trump. A president may NOT remove a federal officer in order to obstruct justice. That's a crime and should be charged as such," Painter wrote.

Civil rights lawyer Sherrilyn Ifill wondered if it was the reason that Barr has been playing as if he's a "real lawyer" in Trump's stolen documents scandal.

"Because he knew Berman’s book wld further confirm Barr’s disgraceful conduct as AG?" she asked. "Still, needed to hear this and Berman revelations re: targeted DOJ investigations before now.

Read More Here: https://twitter.com/glennkirschner2/status/1569520957475405824

[Rick Plant]

'Democracy dies in book deals': Maggie Haberman criticized for withholding latest bombshell



The New York Times’ Maggie Haberman reported on Donald Trump’s presidency extensively during his four years in the White House, and she does some more Trump-related reporting in her forthcoming book, “Confidence Man: The Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking of America.” According to CNN, one of revelations in the book (which has an October 4 release date on Amazon) is that after Trump lost the 2020 presidential election, he declared, “I’m just not going to leave.” And some Trump critics are wondering why Haberman didn’t report that statement earlier.

Before the 2020 election, MAGA Republicans accused “Real Time” host Bill Maher of having “Trump derangement syndrome” when he warned repeatedly that Trump would refuse to admit defeat and try to stay in the White House if he lost the election. But sure enough, Trump lost the election and did exactly what Maher feared he would do. And Haberman, in “Confidence Man,” cites an example of the type of behavior that Maher and other Trump critics predicted.

CNN’s Jeremy Herb reports, “Trump’s insistence that he would not be leaving the White House, which has not been previously reported, adds new detail to the chaotic post-election period in which Trump’s refusal to accept his defeat and numerous efforts to overturn the election result led to the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol by pro-Trump rioters.”

CNN’s reporting on “Confidence Man” is receiving a lot of discussion on Twitter.

Former MSNBC host Keith Olbermann was vehemently critical of Haberman, posting, “Oh good, another fact, vital to the safety and continuation of the nation, that @maggieNYT withheld from the public for many months if not a year-and-a-half so she could put it in her f*****g book.”

Similarly, Dean Baker, a senior economist at the Center for Economic and Policy Research, tweeted, “If the NYT was a serious paper, Haberman would be fired on the spot for this. She did not do her job: full stop. This would be like a cop watching someone shoot a person right in front of them, and then just walking away and doing nothing.”

Author John Pavlovitz wrote, “Maggie Haberman is another in a long line of people who were willing to let democracy die on the altar of a book deal.”

@DenaePFA posted, “She's not really a reporter if she's not reporting on it at the time. She's an access novelist.” And @Concerned4410 tweeted, “Yes we know this. He said when asked by reporters would he peacefully transfer power as all other presidents have . . .his reply. . We will see. . ‘If I lose it will only be because of FRAUD’. . . You see. . He admitted his crime before it happened.”

@HogsRUs, responding to Olbermann and Baker’s tweets, wrote, “Spot On. @maggieNYT is employed as a reporter by the NYT. The information that she gathers on topics the newspaper pays her to cover belongs to the NYT. If not, then the NYT may as well just let her sit in her office at the paper and work on her books all day.”

@Jkornack made a scathing analogy and and tweeted, “To sustain the analogy, the cop would witness the murder, walk away, and then — rather than doing nothing — would sell the story to a publisher and would be invited by cable news outlets to promote the publication to maximize personal profit at the expense of society.”

Read More Here: https://twitter.com/johnpavlovitz/status/1569295152719577090



Merrick Garland lulled Trumpworld 'into a false sense of security' — and is now hitting the gas: prosecutor



On Monday's edition of CNN's "The Situation Room," Palm Beach County Attorney Dave Aronberg reacted to the news that 40 participants in the fake Trump electors scheme have received Justice Department subpoenas for their records.

"Just how much of an escalation does this represent in this overall investigation?" asked anchor Wolf Blitzer.

"A big one, Wolf," said Aronberg. "Now we know what Steve Bannon was referring to when he said publicly that there were 35 MAGA leaders who had their homes raided. We couldn't figure out what he meant, because that would have been out in the public and we didn't see that. Well, what he did was confuse search warrants with subpoenas. But, still, subpoenas are a big deal. And the timing is not a coincidence ... this comes right before the 60-day quiet period before the midterm elections when DOJ tries not to influence an election. That's why this all came all at once."

"But the fact that Bannon and other MAGA leaders seem shocked that this happened shows to me that Merrick Garland has lulled many in Trumpworld into a false sense of security," continued Aronberg. "This is the kind of slow build that Attorney General Garland has been known for in his prosecutorial career. It's like that boiling frog that doesn't realize the temperature has been turned up until too late."

Nor were Trump's allies alone in being blindsided by Garland's new investigatory actions, noted Aronberg — it caught Democrats who believed he was slow-walking any actions on Trump off guard.

"We heard some members of the January 6th Select Committee and other Democrats were critical of the tack Merrick Garland was taking," said Aronberg. "They believe he was too slow to look into former President Trump and his allies. It's pretty clear from the latest subpoena action that they are looking at a wide range of people who were in the former president's orbit. And, to your point, that people may lie but documents don't, they're seeking a wide range of documents from these folks that they are subpoenaing, and in some cases they are also seeking testimony."

Watch:

[Rick Plant]

Senate Judiciary announces investigation into Trump DOJ for serious ethical breaches



Former Barack Obama counsel Gregory Craig was indicted by Donald Trump's Justice Department, and according to a new book by a former prosecutor at the Southern District of New York, the case was all part of a partisan plot ahead of the election. The alleged directive came straight from the top: Donald Trump.

MSNBC's Rachel Maddow got a copy of the book, wich begins with Geoffrey Berman saying that he was told that as a Republican he needed to "take one for the team" and do the indictments against Democrats to "even the score."

"My lead deputy, Robert Khuzami, recieved an urgent phone call from a top official at the U.S. Department of Justice," Berman's book begins. "The [2018] midterm elections were less than two months away. The results would determine not just which party would control the House and Senate, but also if the next two years of the Trump presidency would be plagued by investigations. He spoke with a high-level Trump political appointee at the Justice Department. His message was unambiguous. It was time for me, Geoffrey Berman, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York and lifelong Republican, it was time for me to take one for the home team."

Khuzami came into Berman's office, "You're not going to believe the conversation I just had with Ed O'Callaghan, before sharing the details. The top leadership at DOJ wanted me to bring criminal charges against a private attorney who had once been President Barack Obama's White House counsel and they wanted me to bring those charges before Election Day."

"You have got to be f'ing kidding me," Berman recalled saying.

"I wish," he said, "but no."

He said there was no evidence of any law that he'd broken. O'Callaghan kept reminding Khuzami that the SDNY had already prosecuted two high-profile Trump loyalists: Rep. Chris Collins (R-NY) and former Trump fixer Michael Cohen. "It's time for you guys to even things out," O'Callaghan said.

Berman refused. He was then fired — and fired loudly. Now he's speaking out, saying that Bill Barr, Jeffrey Rosen, Ed O'Callaghan and Rich Donoghue all used the Justice Department to fight Trump opponents or anyone even associated with Democrats.

The book goes on and on about ethical breaches, illegal behavior and details that could end in disbarring several lawyers.

Monday evening, the Senate Judiciary Committee announced that it would be conducting a hearing into the accusations included in the Berman book.

Berman told Maddow that he's certain that there will be documents to prove what was done.

See the report on Judiciary Chair Dick Durbin's (D-IL) intentions here:

https://www.rawstory.com/trump-justice-department-accusations/



'Trump turned the DOJ into his own personal law firm': Republican US Attorney tells all in new bombshell book



Speaking to MSNBC's Rachel Maddow on Monday evening, hours before his book was scheduled to drop, Geoffrey Berman sounded the alarm on a wide-reaching ethics scandal that reaches all the way to the top of the Justice Department and to former President Donald Trump.

This is just another in the growing list of illegal or unethical behavior by Trump's DOJ being uncovered by investigations and whistleblowers willing to come forward.

Berman explained one of the main reasons he stayed in his position as long as he did: If Bill Barr got rid of him, there wouldn't be anyone left who could be trusted to "hold the line."

"So, I was very noisy. I told the entire country what I thought Barr was doing and how he crossed the line," Berman said about being shoved out at the time. "And I think because of that very noisy exit, as you said, Audrey Strauss took over as acting U.S. Attorney, and she's a person of the highest integrity. And an icon of the New York Bar."

Berman also appeared before Congress to sound the alarm at the time and talked to the ethics department to ask what he could say publicly. He said they shut him up, which he said he found "frustrating" because he couldn't tell the whole story. His new book has only recently been vetted and approved by the DOJ.

He went on to say that he isn't certain whether or not something illegal happened. Legal analysts will likely take up that mantle and do the research.

"But I can tell you, it violated all the norms and traditions of the Department of Justice, which is supposed to be independent from politics," said Berman. "Trump turned the department into his own personal law firm. He put in people who would do his bidding. And they would, you know, target Trump's political enemies and assist Trump's friends. And it was a disgrace. And that's what I kind of detail in the book. Several instances of that."

During his tenure, Berman was close to indicting Steve Bannon for the "We Build the Wall" case. Trump ultimately pardoned Bannon and ended the federal probe. The New York state courts have taken up that case and Bannon has been indicted. The other case involves Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman and the Ukraine investigation.

The book, "Holding the Line," will be available for purchase Tuesday.

See the interview below:

[Rick Plant]

‘Looks like basic fraud’: Feds unraveling fake electors scheme because it may be easiest crime to prosecute

The Justice Department has issued dozens of subpoenas and seized at least two phones related to Donald Trump's fake electors scheme, which represents a substantial escalation in the criminal probe against the former president and his efforts to remain in office.

Investigators targeted Trump adviser Boris Epshteyn, who had already been subpoenaed by the House select committee, and Timothy Parlatore, an attorney for former New York City police commissioner Bernard Kerik, and NBC News correspondent Ken Dilanian explained to MSNBC's "Morning Joe" the significance of these new developments.

"These subpoenas went to all sorts of people associated with the Trump campaign," Dilanian said. "We haven't confirmed all the names, but one of the persons whose phone was seized was a guy named Boris Epshteyn, a key Trump insider, and a lawyer named Timothy Parlatore, who represents Bernard Kerik. He told me he represents Donald Trump in this matter. He characterized the subpoena as very broad, basically seeking anything and everything about the Trump campaign and efforts to overturn the 2020 election, which he called investigating fraud, and also, efforts to raise money for that 'Stop the Steal' movement that led up to the Jan. 6 insurrection."

"So it's a really broad-based set of activity that looks like it's coming just before the 60-day window, the quiet period where the Justice Department doesn't like to do things before the election," Dilanian added. "Again, I have said this before, it's not clear they're going to apply that here. Donald Trump is not on the ballot, although he does loom large over politics. It's a major escalation into an investigation that a lot of critics wondered where was the Justice Department on this. We have seen a lot from the Jan. 6 Committee. The Justice Department is showing up in a big way here."

The focus on fake electors also indicates that the Justice Department considers that scheme to be the easiest element of the conspiracy to commit sedition to prosecute, Dilanian said.

"I would say that's one of three major focuses, but it's an important one, and what we've seen from the Georgia state investigation into that fake elector scheme is that at least that prosecutor down there thinks that's a really fruitful area to look at," Dilanian said. "The potential crimes there are very clear, maybe more clear than perhaps this rather vague, you know, obstruction of Congress issue that is at issue with the question of the Jan. 6 insurrection itself and whether Trump had complicity in that."

"The fake elector scheme looks like basic fraud, and that is a focus of the Justice Department," Dilanian added. "Another interesting focus in recent weeks that's emerged is this focus on raising money for the 'Stop the Steal' movement, a lot of which, you know, didn't really go to political activity, apparently, or that's the allegation. You know, is there a massive con there of the people who are pouring money into the effort by people who knew there wasn't fraud but who were raising money on the idea that there was fraud. Both of those two things are the kind of cases that prosecutors bring all the time in different context, and so, yeah, I think those are very fruitful areas for the Justice Department."

Watch:

[Rick Plant]

Mike Flynn elected to local GOP leadership in Florida — and will work as a poll watcher: report



On Monday, The Daily Beast reported that Michael Flynn, former President Donald Trump's short-lived first National Security Adviser and notorious conspiracy theorist, was just elected to a local GOP leadership position in Sarasota, Florida.

"On Thursday evening, Flynn was one of several dozen new members of the local Republican executive committee elected by voice vote at the Morgan Family Community Center in North Port, Florida," reported Michael Daly. "As if that were not scary enough, they also elected James Hoel, a local leader of the Proud Boys."

"Hoel and fellow Proud Boy Nicholas Radovich were active in the Aug. 23 Sarasota County School Board election that saw a longstanding 3-2 liberal majority become a 4-1 conspiracy minority," noted the report. "Radovich showed up at the victory party in a Proud Boys hat and T-shirt and flashed a white power sign during a group picture. The one re-elected incumbent conservative, Bridget Ziegler, subsequently denounced the Proud Boys as a 'menace.'"

Flynn, who was reportedly pushed to run by local GOP activist Conni Brunni, will also get to work as a poll watcher in upcoming elections, according to the report: "I also am volunteering to be a poll watcher in the upcoming elections, particularly in this county, in the state of Florida," he said on Steve Bannon's podcast. This comes after it was revealed that Miami-Dade County in south Florida allowed a Proud Boy to work a polling station in the recent primary.

Flynn previously served as a general and head of the Defense Intelligence Agency before joining the Trump administration. He was swiftly fired as National Security Adviser and later prosecuted for lying to DOJ officials about his contacts with the Russian foreign minister. He was subsequently given a pardon by Trump.

Since then, he has become a prominent activist in the QAnon conspiracy movement, which holds that Trump is secretly fighting to save America from a shadowy group of pedophile cannibals who control the nation behind the scenes. At one of their gatherings, he even endorsed the violent overthrow of the U.S. government by the military, similar to the coup that occurred in Myanmar, although he later tried to deny he had supported this idea when faced with press scrutiny.

Read More Here: https://www.thedailybeast.com/making-michael-flynn-a-sarasota-poll-watcher-is-lunacy

[Rick Plant]

Trump's DOJ ordered investigations of his enemies based on his tweets: former US attorney



Appearing on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" on Tuesday morning, former U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Geoffrey Berman revealed that orders came down from Donald Trump's Department of Justice to investigate his enemies within hours of the former president launching an attack on his target on Twitter.

Case in point, he told the Morning Joe panel, was former Secretary of State John Kerry.

"So was it ever verbal to you from Bill Barr or some deputy attorney general under Bill Barr, hey, let's take a look at John Kerry," Morning Joe regular Mike Barnicle asked.

"Let me tell you what happened with John Kerry," Berman replied with a smirk. "President Trump attacks John Kerry in two tweets saying that Kerry engaged in possible illegal conversations with Iranian officials regarding the Iran nuclear deal. The very next day, the Trump Justice Department refers to the Southern District of New York the John Kerry criminal case."

"Two tweets from the president and the John Kerry criminal case becomes a priority for the Department of Justice," he added for emphasis.

"When you say referred, how did they refer it, by paper, by phone call, how did they do it?" Barnicle pressed.

"Initially, it was a meeting at the National Security Division within the Department of Justice followed up by, you know, phone calls," he elaborated. "And the statute they wanted us to use was enacted in 1799 and had never been successfully prosecuted. So for about 220 years, this criminal statute had been on the books, and not a single conviction, so we investigated it and John Kerry was entirely innocent, and but yet the Justice Department pushed us and pushed us and pushed us and when I declined, Bill Barr did not take no for an answer. He referred the case to another district and, fortunately, that district didn't charge John Kerry either."

Watch: