Trump supporters and conspiracy theory - Part 2

[Rick Plant]

How the Republican Party's deal with Trump is leading to chaos in Georgia GOP elections



As the Republican Primary in Georgia approaches, it's clear that former Sen. David Perdue (R-GA) doesn't appear to be doing well. His poll numbers are in the gutter, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution revealed. The former senator lost after the 2020 election led to a Trump-supporter boycott of the Jan. 2021 runoff. He along with his GOP colleague Kelly Loeffler lost their jobs.

Donald Trump has gotten involved as Gov. Brian Kemp (R-GA) tries to get reelected in November. As Vanity Fair explained, the revenge plan isn't working out the way he thought. After Kemp refused to hand the 2020 election to Trump, the stage was set for a rematch between what Trump viewed as a traitor and a hand-picked Trump ally.

Perdue announced he was running in the name of Trumpism, but he has failed to gain traction after being kicked out of office. Trump's choice may have been a loyalist, but he failed to factor in other issues voters appear to have with Perdue. The former senator even quietly tried to get non-Trump voters to come in and rescue him. Now, Perdue has cut campaign ads and Trump is reportedly furious. He's already decided that he wants nothing to do with Perdue and is refusing to go to Georgia to help.

When phoning into a Perdue rally, Trump told the crowd that if they didn't vote for Perdue it will be a disaster for the GOP with Kemp at the top of the ticket. There's a reason for that, and it is entirely Donald Trump's fault. Trump has spent two long years trying to bring down Kemp. So, if Kemp is the candidate chosen, Trump supporters aren't likely to come out for Kemp.

Meanwhile, Trump's chosen candidate Herschel Walker has proven to be just as big of a disaster. Georgia Republicans admit they expect he'll lose. Walker has a past that doesn't appear to have been vetted before he got the support of the party. Then he was caught lying about it. It's unknown how the endorsement from the GOP happened. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) may have trusted Trump's recommendation or it could have been Senate campaign committee leader Rick Scott (R-FL). With one bad news story after another, Walker's poll numbers grow worse as the November election nears.

It's unclear if Trump will drop Walker the way that he did with Perdue, but McConnell and Scott have already chosen their candidate.

When Trump left the White House early on Jan. 20, 2021, the first thing he did was speak to GOP chair Ronna Romney McDaniel, telling her that he was done with the Republican Party. In the book "Betrayal," written by ABC News correspondent Jonathan Karl, Trump threatened to start his own political party to rival the GOP.

"Donald Trump was in no mood for small talk or nostalgic goodbyes," Karl wrote. "He got right to the point. He told her he was leaving the Republican Party and would be creating his own political party. The president's son, Donald Trump Jr., was also on the phone. The younger Trump had been relentlessly denigrating the RNC for being insufficiently loyal to Trump. In fact, at the January 6 rally before the Capitol Riot, the younger Trump all but declared that the old Republican Party didn't exist anymore."

"You cannot do that," McDaniel told Trump. "If you do, we will lose forever."

"Exactly. You lose forever without me," Trump responded. "I don't care."

McDaniel threatened to stop paying the legal bills of the president as he was going into court losses. They would also destroy his carefully curated email list of millions of Trump supporters tracked all over the country.

"It's a list Trump had used to generate money by renting it to candidates at a steep cost," Karl writes. "The list generated so much money that party officials estimated that it was worth about $100 million."

Trump backed down on his threat, agreeing to stay in the GOP, but what has happened in wake of the fight is that he has managed to destroy the GOP from the inside out, particularly in Georgia where his 2020 election war made the GOP governor unpopular and his hand-picked candidates have failed to garner support.

https://www.rawstory.com/republican-party-deal-trump-leading-chaos/

[Rick Plant]

Donnie is like the old senile man yelling outside in his front yard, except Donnie yells online about imaginary voter fraud. He's a washed up loser and even his own voters don't care about his "endorsements". They end up voting for the rival candidate instead.     

Some Republicans are now fleeing from Trump's election fraud claims



By and large, Republicans are ignoring Donald Trump's claims that there is election fraud in Pennsylvania that is preventing Dr. Mehmet Oz from claiming victory over David McCormick and Politico's David Siders is reporting that GOP lawmakers are increasingly moving on from echoing Trump's belief that every election that doesn't go there way is tainted.

As it stands now, Pennsylvania Republicans are furious with Trump after he criticized the fact that the GOP Senate primary has no clear winner yet by proclaiming on Truth Social, "The Pennsylvania Oz race is ridiculous. How long does it take to count votes. France, same day all paper, had VERIFIED numbers in evening. U.S. is a laughingstock on Elections. Stop FINDING VOTES in PENNSYLVANIA! RIGGED?”

As Siders notes, Trump's raving is a voice in the wilderness as lawmakers are not taking up his latest conspiracy theory and are finding his complaints about election tampering are growing old and stale.

"Donald Trump has been lying about voter fraud for so long that his impugning of yet another election seemed almost inevitable. What was more revealing was that, for the first time, Republicans appeared not to be listening," Siders wrote before adding, "Trump’s earliest effort to graft his 2020 complaints onto ballot counting in a midterm primary is falling flat. MAGA hard-liners who’ve lost primaries in other states in recent weeks have not contested the results. And when the primary calendar turns to Georgia on Tuesday, Trump’s election conspiracy crusade is likely to take another hit."

According to Christopher Nicholas, a Pennsylvania campaign consultant, "No one’s paying any attention to it.”

Jason Shepherd, the ex-chair of the Republican Party in Georgia’s Cobb County, added that Trump's appeal is also waning, telling Politico, "I think the shine has gone off a bit,” and that an endorsement from Trump "is not going to be the end-all and be-all.”

According to one former Trump adviser, candidates like Oz and McCormick are smart to not echo Trump's latest conspiracy theory.

"Nobody wants to be viewed as a sore loser and make allegations they can’t sustain," they suggested. "They’re both intelligent guys. They’re both sane guys, and neither of them wants to embarrass himself.”

Siders' report continued, "But for Republican candidates this cycle, the difference between 2022 and 2020, said John Thomas, a Republican strategist working on House campaigns across the country, is that 'we’re just not seeing it where people hang on his every word.' He advises his candidates to watch Tucker Carlson every night to 'be in tune' with the electorate, not Trump on Truth Social, the platform on which Trump suggested the Pennsylvania election might be 'rigged.'"

You can read more here:

https://www.politico.com/news/2022/05/22/republicans-ignored-trumps-election-lies-00034242


Georgia Republican: Trump's endorsement 'used to look like a freight train but now is just a Matchbox car'



Georgia Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan (R) said that more and more Republicans are standing up to former President Donald Trump as his endorsement power fades.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported on Sunday that Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R) is expected to win his primary race this week despite Trump's endorsement of challenger David Perdue. The former president blames Kemp for his 2020 presidential election loss in Georgia.

"Even as polls show Kemp is poised to rout former U.S. Sen. David Perdue in Tuesday’s primary, the governor must still face the wrath of the former president throughout what’s expected to be a bruising November matchup against Democrat Stacey Abrams," the paper noted. "Kemp has so far navigated that balance delicately. He tells audiences he isn’t worried about what “other people say about me” without directly mentioning Trump. And he’s taken pains to avoid further antagonizing Trump by heaping compliments on his conservative policies."

Georgia Republicans are now wondering if Trump will try to torpedo Kemp's November election. But Duncan, a Republican, said that he isn't worried because Trump's endorsement is no longer the "golden ticket" that it used to be.

“Every day there’s more and more folks that have the confidence to walk out in front of what used to look like a freight train but now is just a Matchbox car,” Duncan said.

https://www.ajc.com/politics/kemp-poised-for-a-big-win-tuesday-but-trumps-shadow-looms-large/P5MX2MTYAJESJPOZM22MMCCE5Q/


Harangued by Trump, Georgia's governor poised to rebuke him in midterm vote: analysis



(Reuters) - There may be no politician that Donald Trump wants to see ousted more than Georgia's Republican governor, Brian Kemp, who defied the then-president's demand to overturn the state's 2020 U.S. presidential election results that narrowly helped Joe Biden win the White House.

Trump has endorsed more than 150 candidates in this year's U.S. congressional elections, seeking to deepen his imprint on the Republican Party and remove any adversaries from its ranks.

But Kemp appears poised to deal Trump his biggest rebuke of the midterm elections thus far in Tuesday's Georgia primary to choose a Republican nominee for governor. The governor has built a massive lead in polling and fundraising over Trump's hand-picked Republican challenger, former U.S. Senator David Perdue.

Opinion polls show Kemp well above the 50% threshold required to win the nomination outright, avoiding a June runoff, with Perdue trailing far behind.

Kemp's success to date, despite a constant fusillade of insults from Trump, provides a potential roadmap for other Republicans eager to move past the former president's divisive obsession with the outcome of the 2020 election without alienating his still-substantial base of voters.

"I don't know if there's any politician in America who has been harangued by the former president like Brian Kemp," Eric Tanenblatt, a longtime Republican strategist, said. "His victory will hopefully make Republicans step back and say: I don't need to be so fearful."

Since his split with Trump, Kemp has struck a careful balance when it comes to election integrity, which has become an animating issue for Republicans in the wake of Trump's false claims that voter fraud cost him the election.

While he refused to entertain Trump's conspiracy theories, Kemp still helped enact one of the country's most sweeping set of voting restrictions four months after the 2020 election.

"Established Republican politicians don't necessarily need to listen to (Trump) all the time," said Audra Gillespie, a political science professor at Emory University in Atlanta. "Donald Trump is not omniscient or omnipotent, even in a party where he holds a lot of sway."

As he has surged toward the finish line, Kemp has picked up the support of other Republicans who have been the targets of Trump's ire and, perhaps, see an opportunity for payback.

Former Vice President Mike Pence, who broke with Trump over the former president's effort to block the certification of Biden's election, will appear alongside Kemp at an election-eve rally on Monday. Arizona Governor Doug Ducey and former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie also campaigned with Kemp in recent weeks.

Kemp has embraced other core Republican priorities, signing bills limiting abortions and expanding gun rights while reopening the state early in the coronavirus pandemic.

Republican strategists say Kemp's emphasis on the issues exciting Trump voters, without embracing the former president himself, could hold lessons for other Republicans fearful of Trump's anger.

"Trumpism is not going to die, but Trump's influence is going to wane," said Douglas Heye, a Republican consultant.

The race shows that putting Trump's grievances about the 2020 election at the core of a campaign, as Perdue has done, is not enough on its own to prevail, even in a Republican primary.

"Elections are about the future, not the past," Tanenblatt said.

Kemp has also mostly declined to engage in a war of words with Trump, even as the former president has showered him with a barrage of attacks for months.

On the campaign trail, Kemp avoids mentioning Trump's name, instead touting his own record and attacking the presumptive Democratic nominee, Stacey Abrams.

"He never went after Trump on all of this election stuff," said Jay Williams, a Georgia-based Republican strategist. "He's stayed focused on his race and not made it about Trump."

Not every Republican enjoys the advantages that Kemp does as an incumbent governor with a legislative majority. He has also benefited from Perdue's weakness as a candidate, analysts said.

© Reuters

[Rick Plant]

Private emails reveal how Trump's far-right lawyer ended up on a government election commission



CNN obtained emails revealing former President Donald Trump was pushing the appointment of his lawyer Cleta Mitchell to the federal election advisory board.

According to the emails, conservatives were working well before the Nov. 2020 election to get his hand-picked person on the Election Assistance Commission, which is supposed to be an independent agency that gives election guidelines for states.

Mitchell was one of those who participated in Trump's infamous phone call where he demanded that Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R-GA) "find" 11,780 votes so that he could win the Georgia election.

The story of how she was appointed to that board "underscores how a core faction of Republicans has focused on pushing unsupported claims of widespread voter fraud even before Trump convinced much of the Republican Party to buy into his election lies that the 2020 election had been stolen," CNN wrote.

Raffensperger, along with Republican Gov. Brian Kemp, is facing well-funded allies of Trump's in a GOP primary that will reveal the extent to which the former president can control the voters after his "big lie" election conspiracy. Polls still indicate that the overwhelming majority (70 percent) of Republican voters believe that the 2020 election was won by Trump.

An Atlanta Journal-Constitution/University of Georgia poll revealed that 45 percent of GOP primary voters indicated they would prefer to vote for a candidate that had Trump's endorsement. It might explain why Trump's hand-picked candidate, disgraced Sen. David Perdue (R-GA) is failing with just 27 percent of the vote as of April.

"According to the House committee investigating the insurrection and a Washington Post report disclosing White House records, Trump also spoke with Mitchell on the evening of Jan. 6, 2021," said CNN.

Mitchell left her law firm after the Trump Georgia call that was recorded and sent to the media. Now, however, she gets to influence election policy inside the government after her boss was voted out of office. She was appointed after an appointment to a government group developing civil rights policy and civil rights enforcement of the law.

"The emails obtained by CNN show how conservatives on the civil rights commission worked for months to gain a Republican appointment to the election advisory board," said CNN. "After two Trump appointments in 2020 gave the civil rights commission a 4-4 partisan split, the conservatives threatened to stop the commission’s work in a bid for concessions – including a Republican election board appointment – in exchange for approving the civil rights commission’s new Democratic chair."

“I made it plain to her we could stop the business of the commission if we were not treated fairly, and fairness is all we want,” wrote Trump-appointed civil rights commissioner J. Christian Adams. He was the one who pushed the addition of Mitchell.

Adams is no stranger to claims of voter fraud when there aren't any. In fact, he was part of Trump's "election integrity commission" that aimed to find 3 million undocumented "Mexicans" who voted illegally. They never did and Trump ended the commission. A commissioner later revealed that they found no evidence of voter fraud.

When CNN asked for comment, Adams claimed the conservative appointment could work because the rules required the vote to be bipartisan "and that needed to be fixed."

“We had the votes to get it done, and we got it done,” he said. “Cleta Mitchell has been a breath of fresh air on the advisory board already. Too often insiders don’t hear outside perspectives so I am thrilled that she is bringing diverse viewpoints that the advisory board might have not heard before.”

The chief of the commission admitted she wasn't pleased with the appointment.

Mitchell is now using language around election "confidence" to justify election restrictions. There are people who feel bad, after buying into the 2020 "big lie." Thus the law should cater to the feelings of the minority and restrict the votes of the majority of voters.

“We need to make this as transparent as possible to restore confidence in the voting systems,” she said. “I think this is probably one of the biggest challenges that we face in elections today.”

In Aug. 2020, Adams pushed voter fraud claims before the election had even been conducted. He told former Trump chief of staff Mark MEadows on Nov. 9, 2020, that Mitchell offered to start a non-profit group “to deal with raising money and paying for the cyber portion" of the election fraud claims. "She offered to do it if necessary.”

Adams then tried to have Democratic colleague Michael Yaki removed from the commission. At the time, Yaki was pushing a plan to ensure that the U.S. Postal Service meet mail-in-ballot deadlines because it might be "incapable" of doing so, the emails show. The rest of the commission blocked him from doing anything about it.

“My question is how does he get UNDONE from the EAC oversight commission? How does that get revoked and replaced?” Adams asked in another email to Meadows.

"The Republicans on the Civil Rights Commission discovered in the fall of 2020 that appointments to the election advisory board were supposed to be bipartisan, but both were Democrats. They also found that the commissioners had never voted on the current appointments, the emails show," said CNN.

So, Republicans sent a letter from the GOP Civil Rights commission asking the Election Assistance Commission to question the legitimacy of the Democratic appointees.

“There are significant doubts that this ‘appointment’ was actually an appointment that followed our Commission’s regular procedures,” they wrote in the letter.

It was only after Joe Biden took over that the Civil Rights commissioners began renegotiating the rules for the next appointment to the election commission.

“If we were to appoint Commissioner Adams to the EAC there would be some pretty significant public blow back,” wrote a communications aide.

By July 2021 the GOP chairs put Mitchell and Adams in as their two candidates. The Democrats chose Mitchell over Adams. Then they raised ethical concerns about Mitchell. She serves on Adams' election integrity organization. The general counsel of the commission declared there was no conflict and there shouldn't be any kind of outside investigation.

Read the full report at CNN:

https://www.cnn.com/2022/05/22/politics/cleta-mitchell-trump-federal-election-advisory-board/index.html

[Rick Plant]

PA Republican officials are furious with Trump



Pennsylvania Republicans and election officials are growing increasingly furious with Donald Trump over his attacks on the vote-counting in the exceedingly close GOP Senate primary race between Dr. Mehmet Oz and David McCormick, reports the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

With election results from last Tuesday likely headed to a recount, the former president has raged at the state while urging Oz, whom he endorsed, to just declare victory and move on.

In one blast since election day, the former president has raged on his Truth Social social media platform, "The Pennsylvania Oz race is ridiculous. How long does it take to count votes. France, same day all paper, had VERIFIED numbers in evening. U.S. is a laughingstock on Elections. Stop FINDING VOTES in PENNSYLVANIA! RIGGED?”

That has Republicans in the state shaking their heads and worrying that he will also interfere with the vote counts in November causing even more headaches for them.

According to the Post Gazette, "In the too-close-to-call Republican Senate primary race in Pennsylvania, the aura of former President Donald Trump and his claims of election legitimacy, once again hang over the state," adding, "The dynamic reflects how, following the precedent set in 2020, close elections may face scrutiny and doubt even when there is no evidence to support wrongdoing or error. Election officials in Pennsylvania are girding for similar complaints in November but fear there are few ways to combat deliberate misinformation and rising political toxicity."

After noting, "Republicans in Pennsylvania have recoiled at language from Mr. Trump that they say could undermine the legitimacy of the party’s nominee in the November vote," the Post Gazette's Colby Itkowitz and Rosalind Helderman spoke with Seth Bluestein, a Republican city commissioner in Philadelphia who expressed dismay with Trump's meddling.

“It’s concerning because it’s statements like that that lead to threats against election officials. It’s the same game plan he used in 2020, so I’m not surprised,” he explained. “The most important thing we can do is be as transparent as possible, continue to build those relationships so there is a degree of trust between us and the people observing the election.”

Jackie Kulback, chairwoman of the Cambria County Republicans, admitted that she thought there was some "mischief" in the 2020 presidential election vote counting but that she sees no problem with R Tuesday's primary election.

“All I can say is from my vantage point, I could not have been prouder of my election board and every person who was working. I saw a group of people who were truly diligent and trying to do what was right,” she confessed.

Dave Ball, chairman of the Washington County Republicans, was less circumspect when addressing Trump's complaints.

“I’m flabbergasted. When somebody who advocates that everybody needs to get their votes out and their opponents are cheating, and now he is talking about his own party?” he complained.“When the president says let’s cut it off here because I like the number here, so let’s stop, I don’t understand the point of making statements like that.”

You can read more here:

https://www.post-gazette.com/news/politics-state/2022/05/22/trump-assails-election-pennsylvania-officials-gird-november/stories/202205220080


GOP governors hatched a plan to undercut Trump's interference in elections: report



While there is not a preponderance of evidence that Republican governors are making efforts to stop their colleagues in the legislatures from tampering with election returns, the Washington Post is reporting they did meet in November to hatch a plan to keep Donald Trump from coming after their own jobs with primary challengers.

With the former president currently enduring a mixed bag of his endorsees both winning (Pennsylvania's Doug Mastriano) and losing (Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-NC) their primary bids, the report states GOP governors met back in November to make plans to protect their own.

According to the WaPo's Annie Linskey, Josh Dawsey, Michael Scherer and Matthew Brown, the meeting involved agreeing to set aside funds to push back at what was termed Trump's "vendetta tour" stemming from his anger over his loss of the 2020 presidential election.

The report states "...the Republican Governors Association decided to spend millions of dollars in primaries, an unusual step for an organization that typically reserves its cash for general election matchups against Democrats," before adding that the primary election to be held on Tuesday in Georgia involving Trump nemesis Gov. Brian Kemp was central to their efforts.

"The RGA invested some $5 million in Georgia, according to a person familiar with the group’s outlays, who like others spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe sensitive details. A parade of Republican governors and luminaries have lined up to protect Kemp. And former vice president Mike Pence, who once served as governor of Indiana, will appear with Kemp on Monday — setting the stage for Pence’s most direct confrontation yet against Trump in the midterms," the WaPo is reporting.

RGA Co-Chairman Doug Ducey, now serving as Arizona's governor, was blunt about the group's plans to put Trump's obsession with his 2020 loss in the past, explaining, "The focus is on 2022. I don’t believe we should spend one more moment talking about 2020.”

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R), who serves as co-chair of the RGA 2022 fundraising arm, added, "This is just not the best use of our money. We would much rather use it just in races against Democrats. But it was made necessary because Donald Trump decided on the vendetta tour this year and so we need to make sure we protect these folks who are the objects of his vengeance.”

"The clash has brought into focus an extraordinary battle over the future direction of the GOP that extends well beyond Georgia. On one side is an aggrieved former president who retains widespread loyalty in the party from voters. On the other, conservative governors who align with Trump on many issues but have grown tired of his election claims, which post-election audits have shown to be false," the report adds.

You can read more here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/05/22/trump-kemp-perdue-georgia/


Trump to blame for 'embarrassing' end of David Perdue's political career: Mitch McConnell adviser



During a panel discussion on Sunday morning's CNN's "State of the Union," a close adviser to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell claimed that Donald Trump can be held personally responsible for former Sen. David Perdue's political career coming to an embarrassing end.

Speaking with host Dana Bash, GOP consultant Scott Jennings claimed he saw no path for Perdue to be successful in his race to unseat Georgia's Republican Gov. Brian Kemp and that Trump is to blame.

With Perdue headed to certain defeat according to a Fox News poll, Jennings claimed Perdue deserved better and that Trump's insistence that he run against Kemp instead for his old seat in the Senate that he lost due to Trump's meddling was a terrible idea.

After co-panelist and former Trump administration spokesperson Alyssa Farah Griffin stated "Donald Trump's biggest issue that he's facing is that he's making endorsements based on grievance and his own personal vendettas versus who is electable, a good candidate and able to win in a general election," Jennings jumped in.

"Governors' races are often about competency and likability" Jennings explained. "Kemp is competent and likable. David Perdue .... it's sad here. Donald Trump cost him his Senate seat and now Donald Trump has not helped him win this governor's race."

"His career is going to end with two really embarrassing losses with Donald Trump involved in them," Jennings added. "Good for Brian Kemp who stayed the course and showed what you can do when you have a real record to run on and you don't have to kowtow to this and you don't have to change yourself -- be who you are and that authenticity has carried him."

Watch:

[Rick Plant]

These radical MAGA evangelicals don't believe in a separation of church and state, they want to enforce their laws on Americans based on their extreme radical religion. Not only that, a woman running for Governor named Kandiss Taylor, said she will execute officials for not following what they demand. The GOP are full blown fascists. These cultists are absolutely nuts especially the ones in the Boebert video below.       

Ron Filipkowski @RonFilipkowski

GA Gov candidate Kandiss Taylor says she will execute Sheriffs by firing squad if they don’t “do the will of the people. I don’t mind handcuffing them either .. The Constitution says when you commit treason, it’s death by firing squad. I didn’t write it - it’s in there.”

Watch: https://twitter.com/RonFilipkowski/status/1528443821293461505


Ron Filipkowski @RonFilipkowski

GA GOP Gov candidate Kandiss Taylor today: “We’re gonna do a political rally and we’re gonna honor Jesus .. They’re not gonna tell us ‘separation of church and state.’ We are the church! We run this state! .. The church runs the state of Georgia!”

Watch: https://twitter.com/RonFilipkowski/status/1528441681191788544


Ron Filipkowski @RonFilipkowski

Lauren Boebert at the ‘Rally for Life’ this week in front of Sup Ct: “Thank you, father God, that these Justices have wisdom and revelation and knowledge of you .. God bless our Justices, and I plead the blood of Jesus over this town and over this nation.”

Watch: https://twitter.com/RonFilipkowski/status/1528373717830598658

[Rick Plant]

Jan. 6 panel will reveal bombshell evidence against Trump in six public hearings -- starting and ending in prime time



The House Select Committee investigating the January 6th Capitol riots will hold six public hearings next month to reveal evidence that Donald Trump and his allies broke the law in their efforts to overturn the 2020 election results.

A draft schedule shows the first and last of those hearings would be staged in television prime time, and the panel's attorneys will explain the unlawful scheme by the former president and his allies to reverse his election loss up to and including the Jan. 6 insurrection, reported The Guardian.

“We want to paint a picture as clear as possible as to what occurred,” said committee chairman Bennie Thompson (D-MS). “The public needs to know what to think. We just have to show clearly what happened on Jan. 6.”

The panel has already accused Trump of breaking multiple federal laws in his attempt to remain in the White House, and the hearings -- starting and ending with 8 p.m. hearings on June 9 and June 23 -- will explain how investigators reached those conclusions.

The select committee will also stage 10 a.m. hearings on June 13, 15, 16 and 21.

A committee member will lead each of the hearings, but top investigative lawyers who understand the evidence will primarily question the witnesses, most of whom have been subpoenaed, and they will also present texts, photos and videos detailing the attempt to overturn the presidential election.

The hearings will cover the White House-led effort to send fake electors to Congress, seize voting machines and delay the certification of Joe Biden's election win, and they will also address the "Stop the Steal" rally organized by Ali Alexander that led to the Capitol riot.

The panel also intends to show why Trump deliberately misled rallygoers by saying he would march with them to the Capitol and why he resisted requests to call them off after his supporters became violent.

The final hearing will connect Trump's political plan for Jan. 6 with violence carried out by the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys, which the Select Committee believes will show the former president led a criminal conspiracy, and they believe the evidence is so compelling that they may rearrange the schedule to present those findings first.

https://www.rawstory.com/jan-6-investigation-2657371721/

[Rick Plant]

Allen Weisselberg drubbed in Manhattan DA filing after trying to scapegoat Michael Cohen for his indictment



In the just-released 129-page court filing from the Manhattan District Attorney's Office, prosecutors go through the claims made by Trump Org. CFO Allen Weisselberg as a reason to escape any accountability for his involvement in tax fraud.

This is part of the ongoing investigation on whether the Trump Org. falsified tax documents and loan information over many years.

Weisselberg's argument against the DA is predicated on the idea that Michael Cohen testified to the grand jury about Weisselberg as part of his revenge campaign. However, Cohen never testified to the grand jury.

Ironically, the case references the hush-money payments facilitated by Weisselberg and former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen -- though Cohen's name is redacted, Cohen told Raw Story.



"Weisselberg testified in a federal grand jury in connection to federal campaign finance charges stemming from the so-called 'hush money' payments that Weisselberg and [redacted] facilitated on the eve of a national presidential election, on behalf of then-candidate Trump, in order to quash a story about Trump’s extra-marital affair with an adult-film actress," the DA's documents say, confirming the affair of adult film star Stormy Daniels.

In the second count of the filing, the prosecutors reject Weisselberg's claim that they learned all of their information from the federal government in an effort to charge Weisselberg. The problem, the prosecutors explain, is they actually didn't. They say that even if they did get the information from Cohen, it didn't violate anything because it involves completely different and unrelated cases.

"A defendant (who was granted immunity in a separate, unrelated investigation years earlier) cannot even claim that the person against whom he gave immunized testimony has, in turn, testified in the subsequent case against the defendant," the document says.

In the third point, prosecutors reply to the claim that Cohen's vengeance against Weisselberg is what is leading the court to go after him. Here again, Cohen's name is redacted.

"First, Weisselberg’s argument that [Cohen] was tainted by a desire to obtain revenge against Weisselberg because Weisselberg’s immunized testimony led to [Cohen's] indictment and conviction finds no non-speculative support in the record," said the documents. "To advance his argument, Weisselberg asks this Court to infer that [Cohen] was aware of the fact of the federal testimony; assumed, without knowing, that it reflected negatively on him; and then essentially retaliated against Weisselberg by 'cooperating' with the Office’s investigation."

They explain that they took copious notes at every interview, but at no point could Weisselberg point to evidence that proves Cohen has it out for him.

"On the contrary, when asked about his motivation for providing information to investigators, [Cohen] rejected the idea that he was motivated by anger at Weisselberg’s testimony, and explained that he 'didn’t want to be a scapegoat for [Trump’s] dirty deeds,'" said the document.

They noted that Cohen has a book, has done many interviews, and operating his own podcast and the only thing that Weisselberg can point to that illustrates Cohen is out to destroy him are a few tweets prior to the indictment -- and none of them show a "vengeful motive for Cohen" to speak to the prosecutors about him.

At one point in the court document, the DA notes that Weisselberg has a record of the grand jury testimony and at no point does Cohen appear.



“Weisselberg fails and fails miserably in his vengeful witness defense in the fact that I never testified before the grand jury against him," said Cohen in a statement to Raw Story. "Mr. Shinerock’s opposition papers clearly demonstrate that the Trump methodology of lying and blaming others only works for Trump; all others get jail time."

“This might be the right time for Weisselberg to think about cooperating," he added.

https://www.rawstory.com/allen-weisselberg-michael-cohen-manhattan/

[Rick Plant]

Here comes the next big thing for right wingers to try and use to continue their war on public school education.

‘Social and Emotional Learning’ (SEL) is going to become the new ‘CRT.’

Don’t say I didn’t warn you ahead of time.