Trump supporters and conspiracy theory - Part 2

[Rick Plant]

CNN staffers enraged at CEO's move to crush internal dissent over Trump town hall



CNN is reeling from overwhelmingly negative reviews of last week's town hall with former President Donald Trump at St. Anselm College in New Hampshire, during which he aggressively talked over moderator Kaitlan Collins, told a series of lies too fast to fact-check, and spoke to a hand-picked audience of hardcore Republicans who, while they were instructed not to boo the former president, were allowed to cheer and laugh as he mocked author E. Jean Carroll's account of how he allegedly raped her.

Now, according to The Daily Beast's Confider newsletter, CNN's chief Chris Licht is trying to force employees to toe the company line about it — and his threats and heavy-handedness are beginning to anger staffers.

The drama began after CNN reporter Oliver Darcy publicly criticized the town hall.

"Less than a year after Brian Stelter was shown the door, Oliver Darcy’s reported dressing down is an inflection point that CNN talent, executives, and staffers who spoke with Confider over the last few days said has marked an especially dark chapter of Licht’s now yearlong tenure," reported Lachlan Cartwright and Justin Baragona. "As Puck first reported, Licht pulled aside Darcy and his Reliable Sources editor Jon Passantino to scold the pair for their newsletter’s highly critical coverage of the town hall’s 'spectacle of lies' aired by CNN—an internal version of the intensely negative reviews that incensed Licht. The meeting took place shortly after a Thursday morning editorial call in which Licht unsubtly took a swipe at Darcy. Puck’s sources claimed the media reporter was 'visibly shaken' after the meeting because Licht and other execs had 'put the fear of God into him' and told him his coverage was 'too emotional.'"

According to the report, Licht's allies then went behind everyone's back to anonymously tell other news outlets that the rest of the staff was angry at Darcy — which upset staffers because in fact, many of them agreed with Darcy.

"While CNN employees were already troubled by the CEO’s actions after Puck’s story on Friday, it was a Fox News Digital follow-up article, in which an anonymous Licht ally claimed CNN staffers were 'appalled' by Darcy, that appears to have been a bridge too far for many," said the report. "'People are really bothered,' one CNN executive told Confider, noting that their phone had been ringing off the hook from network employees 'flipping out' over the situation. 'I heard zero complaints about Darcy’s newsletter—in fact, the opposite. People were glad someone was calling this out,' a CNN on-air personality added. 'And it’s a terrible look that he’s being muzzled or intimidated simply for saying what everyone is thinking. He’s not in PR. He’s a journalist.'"

The report continued that as all this was going on, Licht is meeting with Tim Alberta of The Atlantic for a media profile: "Alberta was in the audience for the Trump town hall, which was described to Confider as 'our Chernobyl' by one CNN staffer, as network spin doctors work overtime hoping to generate a glowing profile of the boss."

Licht himself has publicly come out in defense of the town hall's format, saying that "While we all may have been uncomfortable hearing people clapping" for the mockery of an alleged rape survivor, "that was also an important part of the story" and the people who did it represent "a large swath of America."

Read More Here: https://www.thedailybeast.com/inside-the-cnn-meltdown-over-its-town-hall-disaster

[Rick Plant]

Lawsuit against Giuliani could also reveal money laundering, Ukraine meddling and Trump's election fraud: accuser



A new lawsuit was filed Monday against Rudy Giuliani alleging wage theft, sexual harassment, money laundering, selling of pardons, and a number of other accusations by former staffer Noelle Dunphy. Giuliani responded by saying that she had never worked for him.

"Now the lawsuit, to be clear, it's about Rudolph Giuliani as described, luring this woman, who he finds attractive into working for him, promising her to pay her a million dollars a year, which he can't pay her right now because he's trying to hide money from his wife while he's in divorce proceedings," described MSNBC host Lawrence O'Donnell during his Monday evening show. "And if she just waits until the divorce is over, which is way more than the year in the story that is told, then she will be paid retroactively all the money that she's owed."

Dunphy's lawyer, Justin Kelton, explained that for conversations outside of the ones that Ms. Dunphy recorded, there were witnesses that they'd already spoken to or would speak to so they could cooperate. He specifically mentioned Lev Parnas, who was released from prison in February. He also noted that Dunphy was given some "smaller cash payments so that they would not be traceable."

"The cases about these labor law violations and denial of wages, it's about sexual harassment in the workplace, it is about sexual assault in the workplace in this case," O'Donnell characterized. "All of this other information is packed into this lawsuit for, among other reasons, to actually prove that she did work for Giuliani because Giuliani apparently is saying she was never an employee."

O'Donnell explained that the excuse is that if she never worked for him, then workplace sexual harassment laws don't apply. Kelton called it "absurd." Given the detail that Dunphy has, particularly the recordings, it makes it fairly clear that she was an employee, the lawyer explained.

While there are recordings, another piece of information that Dunphy has are about 23,000 emails from members of Trump's inner circle as well as others like Fox News hosts.

"There's a lot on them," the lawyer explained. Over "23,000 emails, there's a lot. A lot of the emails are expressly marked as confidential or not for disclosure or distribution. Keep in mind that at the time—"

O'Donnell cut him off to ask if it would be relevant to the case to reveal emails that were about Donald Trump and Kelton said that some might be relevant.

Discussing the case, O'Donnell had a question for Andrew Weissmann, the former senior prosecutor for special counsel Robert Mueller's team, about some of the allegations and details in the court filing. He specifically asked if someone in the Southern District of New York would be flipping to the pages to read about the money laundering allegations.

"Absolutely!" Weissmann explained. "So, the things that you covered already which are about the recordings and emails are going to be — I'm 100 percent certain — is going to be of interest to state and federal prosecutors for the reasons you laid out. I was particularly interested in paragraph 96, where there's a description of the emails and who they are either to, from, or about. And it includes Rupert Murdoch, Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson and it also seems to include a lot of allegations that are relevant to what Rudy Giuliani was doing in Ukraine. There is a discussion of a presidential candidate in Ukraine and a number of the lawyers who were involved in Ukraine activities who were helping Giuliani. So, that is something that people are going to be, I think, very interested in."

He also mentioned electronics and whether there were any emails that Dunphy has that were deleted from Giuliani's communications.

Watch:

[Rick Plant]

Giuliani accuser could be 'credible witness' in larger probe of Trump World: Dem strategist
https://www.rawstory.com/giuliani-2660279205/

[Rick Plant]

Donald Trump is a joke. He was a laughing stock around the world, especially to foreign leaders, and the only foreign leaders that Donnie embraced were murderous dictators who used him for a fool to advance their nefarious agenda.   

Look at that moron below with his fake cheesy grin holding the hand of Kim Jung Un. A total clown and an embarrassment to the United States as foreign leaders always mocked and laughed at Trump.   


Trump trolled with video of leaders mocking him as he claims world ‘didn’t laugh’ at US when he was president
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-world-leaders-video-president-b1884944.html

World leaders laugh as Trump boasts of his achievements
https://apnews.com/article/821dafb0b18a4dadb086216c08067df3

Trump leaves NATO summit early after video shows leaders laughing at him
https://www.theweek.in/news/world/2019/12/04/trump-to-leave-nato-summit-early-after-video-shows-leaders-laughing-at-him.html


'Laughing fool' Trump was a joke to foreign leaders – according to his own former national security adviser



Former National Security Adviser John Bolton laid into former President Donald Trump on "CNN This Morning" Tuesday in discussion with Kaitlan Collins.

The discussion centered largely on comments Trump made about foreign policy and the Russian invasion of Ukraine during CNN's controversial St. Anselm College town hall last Wednesday, which Collins moderated.

"You once said that he barely knew where Ukraine was," said Collins. "And his notion that — one thing he repeated that night as well is he said, if he was in office, that Putin would not have invaded Ukraine."

"Yeah," said Bolton. "Trump has this impression that foreign leaders, especially adversaries, hold him in high regard, that he's got a good relationship with Xi Jinping, Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong-un. I believe they think he's a laughing fool. And the idea that somehow his presence in office would have deterred Putin is flatly wrong. If anything, if Trump had won a second term and done what I think he intended to do, which is get out of NATO, Putin would have just waited and let him do it, and even the weakening of NATO would have made it a lot easier for the Russians to have prevailed."

The conversation also turned to Trump's comments about the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol — which Bolton had more harsh words for.

"Another comment Trump made speaking of the rule of law last Wednesday night is, he left the door open to pardoning people who were charged with assaulting cops on January 6th, the Proud Boys convicted of seditious conspiracy," said Collins. "What did you make of him saying that he would consider pardoning most of them?"

"I think it's virtually treasonous for the president to say he would pardon people who were trying to disrupt the work of Congress," said Bolton. "It's another example why he's not fit to be president. If anybody wants to know what a Trump administration would look like, if he's pardoning the people who rioted on January 6th, that's all you need to know."

Watch:

[Rick Plant]

You know things are going bad for Donnie when his own defense lawyer quits. 


Key Trump attorney says he’s departing legal team as Mar-a-Lago probe intensifies



WASHINGTON (AP) — A key lawyer for former President Donald Trump said Wednesday that he was leaving the legal team, a move that comes as a special counsel investigation into the retention of classified documents shows signs of being in its final stages.

Timothy Parlatore told The Associated Press that his departure had nothing to do with Trump and was not a reflection on his view of the Justice Department’s investigation, which he has long called misguided and overly aggressive, or on the strength of the government’s evidence. He said he believed he had served Trump well.

Other lawyers, including former Justice Department prosecutor James Trusty, are continuing to represent Trump in Washington investigations.

CNN earlier reported Parlatore’s departure.

Parlatore has long been a key member of the team representing Trump in an investigation by Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith into the possession of hundreds of classified documents at the former president’s Florida home, Mar-a-Lago as well as into possible efforts to obstruct that probe.

A grand jury over the last several months has heard from a broad array of witnesses close to Trump. Federal prosecutors in March questioned another of Trump’s lawyers, M. Evan Corcoran, before the grand jury after successfully piercing attorney-client privilege. Parlatore testified voluntarily in December about efforts to recover classified documents in response to government demands.

Last month, Parlatore and other lawyers for Trump issued a letter to the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Mike Turner, laying out a series of defense arguments of Trump and saying that the Justice Department should be “ordered to stand down” in its investigation.

Besides the Mar-a-Lago probe, Smith has also been investigating efforts by Trump and his allies to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, with former Vice President Mike Pence among the grand jury witnesses in that probe. Manhattan prosecutors charged Trump in March arising from hush-money payments made to a porn star who said he had an extramarital sexual encounter with her years earlier.

In Georgia, prosecutors in Fulton County are expected to announce in coming months the results of an investigation into attempts to subvert Trump’s election loss to President Joe Biden in that state.

https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-justice-department-maralago-jack-smith-9e43e4a9e3a02d64606c5fea38d07108



Trump lawyer abruptly leaves his defense team



Former President Donald Trump's legal defense team is now down one lawyer.

CNN reports that attorney Tim Parlatore abruptly decided to step down as a Trump defense lawyer this week, although he insists that his decision is personal and not related to any issues related to his work for the former president.

"Parlatore’s departure became official Tuesday, though it had been rumored for several weeks among the former president’s inner circle," reports CNN. "The high-profile departure comes as special counsel Jack Smith appears to be in the final stretch of investigations into the possible mishandling of classified documents and efforts to obstruct the 2020 election."

Trump currently faces a slew of legal problems, including a civil lawsuit over allegedly fraudulent business practices from New York Attorney General Letitia James; criminal charges related to his hush-money payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels; two different investigations into his efforts to illegally remain in power after losing the 2020 election to President Joe Biden; and an investigation into his decision to stash top-secret government documents at his Mar-a-Lago resort.

Read More Here: https://www.cnn.com/2023/05/17/politics/timothy-parlatore-trump-legal-team/index.html



Trump lawyer's resignation was 'the culmination of weeks of frustration': report



Attorney Tim Parlatore abruptly decided to step down as a Trump defense lawyer this week, and now reporter Hugo Lowell of The Guardian is starting to fill in some details about the reasons for his resignation.

Writing on Twitter, Lowell reports that Parlatore's letter was "the culmination of weeks of frustration over how he felt he was hamstrung" in trying to do his job in defending the former president in special counsel Jack Smith's investigation of his handling of top-secret government documents.

Lowell then wrote a follow-up tweet specifying that Parlatore felt a keen sense of frustration at longtime Trump ally Boris Epshteyn's presence on the defense team.

"Parlatore has been frustrated with Boris Epshteyn for a long time and went down with Jim Trusty to Mar-a-Lago weeks ago to ask Trump that Boris be cut out of the MAL docs case," writes Lowell. "But Boris, a longtime trusted adviser to Trump, ended up outlasting him."

Trump currently faces a slew of legal problems, including a civil lawsuit over allegedly fraudulent business practices from New York Attorney General Letitia James; criminal charges related to his hush-money payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels; two different investigations into his efforts to illegally remain in power after losing the 2020 election to President Joe Biden; and an investigation into his decision to stash top-secret government documents at his Mar-a-Lago resort.

Read More Here: https://twitter.com/hugolowell/status/1658878055626965012

[Rick Plant]

Manhattan prosecutors get a little more specific on Trump hush money charges
https://www.msnbc.com/deadline-white-house/deadline-legal-blog/trump-hush-money-charges-bragg-rcna84860

[Rick Plant]

New reports on Trump's docs reveal a felony and possible espionage charge: legal experts

CNN reported new evidence revealed in the special counsel’s investigation of Donald Trump's document scandal. Now legal experts are explaining just how bad it is for the former president.

According to a National Archives letter to Trump on May 16, the staff intends to provide special counsel Jack Smith 16 records that would reveal the White House advisers were taught the appropriate way to declassify documents.

“The 16 records in question all reflect communications involving close presidential advisers, some of them directed to you personally, concerning whether, why, and how you should declassify certain classified records,” acting Archivist Debra Steidel Wall wrote to Trump in a letter obtained by CNN.

This isn't the first time that Trump has failed to scapegoat others for the documents that ended up at Mar-a-Lago. Top Trump adviser Kash Patel told a far-right outlet that the General Services Administration (GSA) packed up Trump's boxes, and they were the ones who somehow forced Trump to steal the documents. Not long after, the GSA released a letter saying that they required the staff to sign off on the contents in the boxes.

Posting the CNN report on Twitter, former Republican Ethics Czar for George W. Bush, Richard Painter, explained that it's an example of Trump lying to the federal government, a breach of 18 U.S.C 1001. "Yet another felony," said Painter.

National security lawyer Mark Zaid said that Trump's "awareness" of the classification process goes to Trump's state of mind, "which is what criminal cases are generally about."

Speaking to MSNBC's Alex Wagner, Zaid explained that the case has never been about the mishandling of national defense information or classified documents. It's about the Espionage Act. Mishandling classified information is a fairly frequent occurrence, he said, noting that he wouldn't be surprised if every president since Reagan (and likely before that) had done it.

"I see all the time, in my cases. What's at issue here is that, as you reported and CNN had reported, Trump and his inner circle were told how to properly classified and de-classified information. And I will say even further, because I independently verified it, that they were instructed in the days and weeks before leaving the White House for the transition on how to pack up the documents so as not to take classified information."

He pointed to the obstruction piece of the case as being another problem for Trump. If leaks are to be believed, Zaid said, "Trump not only mishandled the information but also sought to hide it from the U.S. government and obstruct the investigation by deliberately acting on that, as well as giving instructions to others possibly, even his lawyers, as to where the move the documents around Mar-a-Lago."

It was reported on Wednesday morning that one of Trump's top lawyers, Timothy Parlatore, was leaving Trump's legal team. Parlatore testified before the grand jury in Dec. 2022, which put him in a conflict, where he would be serving as a witness and a lawyer in the same case. Parlatore claimed it was an unrelated issue.

The reason Parlatore might have been called in to testify before the grand jury is that he was the lawyer that organized the searches for additional documents at Trump Tower, Mar-a-Lago, Bedminster, a Palm Beach office, and the storage unit in Florida.

Attorney-client privilege has a key exception to it. The privilege can be eliminated if the service of the lawyer was for the purpose of engaging in a crime or fraud. It isn't even necessary that the lawyer know they're part of the crime or fraud.

Watch video in link: https://www.rawstory.com/trump-documents-felony-espionage-lawyers/