Trump's world....

[DBP66]

16 hours ago, concha said:

Politics aside, there's just no denying this guy is a total piece of shit as a human being.

Hunter Biden privately SETTLES with baby mama over child support payments for their four-year-old daughter: President's son's contributions drop from $20K to $5K a month and daughter cannot use family name

sort of like Trump....just not as bad...😉

[DBP66]

and the lies keep rolling....🙄

‘It was bravado’: Trump says he wasn’t holding up classified documents in 2021 meeting

3.5k

Shelby Talcott

Updated Tue, June 27, 2023 at 9:03 PM EDT

 

 

The News

Former President Donald Trump insisted on Tuesday that he was not showing off classified documents in an audio clip first published by CNN in which he referred to “highly confidential” material and “secret information” that he could no longer declassify.

“I would say it was bravado, if you want to know the truth, it was bravado,” Trump said in an interview aboard his plane with Semafor and ABC News. “I was talking and just holding up papers and talking about them, but I had no documents. I didn’t have any documents.”

The latest comments suggested a new potential legal argument from the former president: That he was overselling the material he was showing to an aide and people working on a biography of former chief of staff Mark Meadows in the recording, a transcript of which featured heavily in his recent federal indictment.

 

“I just held up a whole pile of — my desk is loaded up with papers. I have papers from 25 different things,” he said, adding he kept relevant news articles about topics like Iran on hand.

At one point, Trump gestured to the seat next to him on the plane, where a stack of various papers — newspapers, copies of his speech, printouts of articles — sat. He grabbed some from the pile and placed them in front of him, moving them around as he spoke and offering up a physical reenactment of what he said was occurring on the audio tape.

Asked about his use of the word “plans” during a Fox News interview earlier Tuesday to describe some items he may have highlighted in the 2021 meeting, Trump insisted he was referring to “building plans” and plans for golf courses strewn about his desk.

“Did I use the word plans?” he said. “What I’m referring to is magazines, newspapers, plans of buildings. I had plans of buildings. You know, building plans? I had plans of a golf course.”

Asked if he had any regrets about his handling of classified documents, Trump said he did not.

“No, I have no regrets,” he said. “I didn't have a classified document. There was no classified document on my desk.”

Asked whether the audio would affect whether he considers a plea deal, Trump said he was confident that the government’s use of the Espionage Act to prosecute him would fail and repeated unverified accusations against President Biden before ending the interview.

“Frankly, that you even ask a question like that's a disgrace,” he said. “So let's end it.”

Room for Disagreement

National security attorney Bradley Moss told Semafor that a “bravado” defense, in which Trump claimed he was exaggerating the importance of papers that were not actually classified, could be a difficult sell in court.

“One, they’re not charging him with retaining that document,” he said in a text message. “Two, the relevance of the comments in the audio are they speak to Trump’s intent and awareness of the limitations on his ability to have and share classified records. And three, I have no reason to believe Smith would have included this issue without getting clarifying testimony from the various witnesses.”

Know More

Special counsel Jack Smith indicted Trump earlier this month on charges he mishandled classified documents after leaving office and obstructed the government’s investigation. Trump has pleaded not guilty to the charges and accused the Justice Department of targeting him for political purposes. His prosecution, as well as that of one of his aides, Walt Nauta, is being overseen by Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee, in federal court in Miami. The Justice Department last week asked that the trial be delayed until December.

On Monday, CNN published an audio recording of a previously reported 2021 conversation in which Trump discussed secret Pentagon documents with a book publisher and writer. “These are the papers,” he says in the tape. Trump told Fox News’ Bret Baier in an interview that aired last week that he had been referring to newspaper and magazine stories, comments the new recording appeared to undercut.

Step Back

The classified documents prosecution is one of multiple legal threats Trump is staring down as he mounts his third bid for president. He has been charged by New York District Attorney Alvin Bragg in connection with alleged hush-money payments made during his 2016 campaign. Smith is also presiding over the Justice Department investigation into Trump’s actions surrounding the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot, while Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is investigating efforts by Trump and his allies to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia.

[DBP66]

Christie labels Trump ‘the cheapest S.O.B I’ve ever met in my life’

 

Christie labels Trump ‘the cheapest S.O.B I’ve ever met in my life’

38

Nick Robertson

Updated Wed, June 28, 2023 at 10:34 AM EDT

 

 

Republican presidential candidate Chris Christie had harsh words for former President Trump on Tuesday, calling him out for reportedly pointing donations toward a fund Trump’s used for paying legal fees.

“[Trump is] the cheapest S.O.B. I’ve ever met in my life,” the former New Jersey governor said of the former president in a Politico interview.

“What Donald Trump is good at is spending other people’s money,” he added.

Trump’s Save America PAC spent at least $3 million of its funds paying Trump’s lawyers and is paying for the lawyers for some witnesses in the classified documents case, multiple news outlets reported last year. The hired legal firm reportedly donated more than $120,000 to the PAC, according to The Washington Post.

 

Christie in the Politico interview called the reported diversion of funds to Save America instead of a traditional campaign account deceptive, but in character for the former president.

“This is a billionaire who refused to pay his lawyers with his own personal money, and instead, men and women out there who believe in him and wanted [him] to be elected president are donating money to try to forward his candidacy … and he’s diverting that money to pay his own legal fees,” Christie said.

“He should take a pledge today to instruct his campaign to no longer spend any public money on his legal fees,” Christie added. “He is the richest candidate in this race, yet he is using public money to pay his legal fees. He should be ashamed of himself.”

The former New Jersey governor is ramping up his attacks on Trump, a one-time ally during the 2020 campaign. Christie is one of the staunchest critics of Trump in the packed GOP primary field, hoping to find a path to a nomination as the anti-Trump candidate.

Christie and Trump have traded personal insults in recent days, with Trump calling Christie overweight and Christie lashing back, and Christie criticizing Trump earlier this month for the federal indictment the former president faces of 37 charges related to mishandling classified information.

Christie joined the race for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination in early June, a late start in a field that is already a dozen strong, and is focusing campaign efforts in the early primary state of New Hampshire.

He has found limited success, with recent polls out of New Hampshire placing him third, behind Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. A New Hampshire Journal poll this month gave Christie 9 percent support, trailing Trump’s 47 percent and DeSantis’s 13.

[DBP66]

Top Trump campaign aide identified as key individual in classified docs indictment: Sources

 

 

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993

KATHERINE FAULDERS, JOHN SANTUCCI and ALEXANDER MALLIN

Wed, June 28, 2023 at 8:06 PM EDT

 

 

One of the top advisers on Donald Trump's 2024 campaign is among the individuals identified but not named by special counsel Jack Smith in his indictment against the former president for allegedly mishandling classified documents after leaving the White House and obstructing the government's efforts to retrieve them, sources familiar with the matter told ABC News.

Susie Wiles, one of Trump's most trusted advisers leading his second reelection effort, is the individual singled out in Smith's indictment as the "PAC Representative" who Trump is alleged to have shown a classified map to in August or September of 2021, sources said.

Trump, in the indictment, is alleged to have shown the classified map of an unidentified country to Wiles while discussing a military operation that Trump said "was not going well," while adding that he "should not be showing the map" to her and "not to get too close."

MORE: Trump weighs in on recording of him showing off 'secret' government info: 'It's bravado'

"Jack Smith and the Special Counsel’s investigation is openly engaging in outright election interference and meddling by attacking one of the leaders of President Trump’s re-election campaign," a Trump campaign spokesperson told ABC News. "This sham investigation by Joe Biden and his weaponized DOJ are clearly designed to inflict maximum political damage and to prevent President Trump ... from reclaiming the White House."

A spokesperson for the special counsel's office declined to comment. The Justice Department and the White House have both denied any political interference in the special counsel's investigation.

The alleged exchange between Trump and Wiles is the second of two instances detailed by prosecutors in the indictment showing how Trump allegedly disclosed classified information in private meetings after leaving the White House. The first was a July 2021 audio recording, obtained by ABC News earlier this week, in which Trump is heard showing people what he describes as a "secret" and "highly confidential" document relating to Iran.

ABC News has reported the meeting involved people who were helping Trump's former chief of staff, Mark Meadows, with his memoir, according to sources. Smith's team has spoken to the meeting's attendees, which included the writers helping Meadows with his book and at least two aides to Trump, according to sources.

 

PHOTO: In this Aug. 8, 2022, file photo, Susie Wiles, a lobbyist and seasoned Republican strategist who ran Donald Trump's successful 2016 Florida effort, is shown. (Adam C. Smith/Tampa Bay Times via ZUMA Press via Newscom, FILE)

Trump has repeatedly denied wrongdoing and continues to claim he was not showing off classified documents, as he seems to be doing during the meeting, according to an audio recording of the meeting.

"I would say it's bravado," Trump told ABC News Tuesday about his conversation in the recording. "If you want to know the truth, it was bravado. I was talking about just holding up papers and talking about, but I have no documents. I didn't have any documents."

It does not appear, based on the indictment, that Trump was charged specifically for his retention of either the Iran document or the classified map shown to the person identified as Wiles. Rather, the two instances speak to what Smith's prosecutors see as Trump's state of mind in how he handled and sometimes shared classified materials in his possession after leaving the White House, sources said, as well as his alleged efforts to subvert the government’s efforts to get the documents back.

If the identification of Wiles by sources is accurate, it also raises the prospect that should Trump's case go to trial prior to the 2024 election, one of the top figures leading his reelection bid could be called to testify as a key witness. Wiles, who previously helped lead Trump’s now-GOP primary opponent Ron DeSantis’s two campaigns for governor, is seen as one of Trump's most trusted confidants.

She also led Trump’s campaign operations in Florida in 2016, and was later CEO of Trump's Save America political action committee.

While Trump has not named a 2024 campaign manager, Wiles, along with Chris LaCivita and Brian Jack, are the team steering the campaign's efforts. including all spending, fundraising and infrastructure.

Sources have also further identified some of the other figures mentioned by Smith's team in the indictment. Hayley Harrison and Molly Michael are said to be "Trump Employee 1" and "Trump Employee 2," respectively. The indictment details their text messages back and forth about moving Trump's boxes out of the business center as his Mar-a-Lago estate to create room for staff to work.

Michael, whose name was previously reported as an individual identified in the indictment, is Trump's former executive assistant who no longer works for him, while Harrison is currently an aide to Trump's wife, Melania Trump.

"There is still a little room in the shower where his other stuff is. Is it only his papers he cares about?" Trump Employee 1, identified by sources as Harrison, wrote Trump Employee 2, identified by sources as Michael, according to the indictment. "There's some other stuff in there that are not papers. Could that go to storage? Or does he want everything in there on property."

According to the indictment, Trump's longtime aide Walt Nauta and Trump Employee 2, identified by sources as Michael, exchanged text messages between November 2021 and January 2022 about bringing boxes from the storage room to Trump's residence so he could personally review their contents. In one instance in December 2021, Nauta texted Trump Employee 2 about finding that several of Trump's boxes had fallen on the floor with their contents spilled, and sent a photo to her whose image included a document with visible classification markings.

Nauta was charged alongside Trump earlier this month with conspiracy to obstruct justice and making false statements.

Nauta and Trump Employee 2, identified by sources as Michael, exchanged messages back and forth about the status of Trump's review of the boxes, and on Dec. 29, 2021, Trump Employee 2 texted "Trump Representative 1," who sources say is former Trump lawyer Alex Cannon, to provide him an update, according to the indictment. Cannon was in touch with the National Archives and responsible for facilitating the initial transfer of 15 boxes from Mar-a-Lago back to the National Archives in January 2022.

None of the people named by sources as being individuals described in the indictment are accused of any wrongdoing.

The next hearing in the case is scheduled for mid-July to address the handling of classified materials in the trial.

Trump, who earlier this month pleaded not guilty to all the charges outlined in Smith's indictment, has dismissed the special counsel's probe as a politically motivated witch hunt.

[golfaddict1]

😂 👍🏻

[On2whls]

2 minutes ago, golfaddict1 said:

😂 👍🏻

If Hack Smith, or any of his admirers really believe his catchphrase “make America Lawful Again” was actually executed to the letter of the law, I wonder what percentage of the population would either be on trial or in jail.   It’s amusing watching this whole process. 😂😂😂😂

[World Citizen]

1 hour ago, On2whls said:

If Hack Smith, or any of his admirers really believe his catchphrase “make America Lawful Again” was actually executed to the letter of the law, I wonder what percentage of the population would either be on trial or in jail.   It’s amusing watching this whole process. 😂😂😂😂

What is amusing?  And why get his name wrong?  Does he have admirers?  

[On2whls]

9 hours ago, World Citizen said:

What is amusing?

Watching how one man influenced so many to self expose expose the latent hatred that is their guiding light☺️

 

9 hours ago, World Citizen said:

And why get his name wrong?

Did I do that? How careless to mistype.  Perhaps I should have my freedom of speech revoked.  

 

9 hours ago, World Citizen said:

Does he have admirers?  

Maybe I shouldn’t watch any mainstream news any more. I’ve seen a lot of adulation for the guy. 

[DBP66]

Former Trump press secretary says he showed classified documents to people on Mar-a-Lago dining patio

 

Former Trump press secretary says he showed classified documents to people on Mar-a-Lago dining patio

5.8k

Julia Shapero

Tue, July 4, 2023 at 12:26 PM EDT

 

 

Former White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham said Saturday that she saw former President Trump show classified documents to people at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida.

“I watched him show documents to people at Mar-a-Lago on the dining room patio,” Grisham, who served as Trump’s chief spokesperson from July 2019 to April 2020, said in an interview on MSNBC. “So, he has no respect for classified information, never did.”

Trump pleaded not guilty last month to 37 counts related to his alleged mishandling of classified documents and his efforts to block the federal government from recovering them.

The federal indictment against the former president featured a partial transcript of a recording of a July 2021 meeting at his Bedminster, N.J., golf club in which Trump appeared to show off a classified Pentagon document that he had taken with him from the White House.

Since the recording was obtained and aired by CNN last week, Trump has claimed that he was not actually holding the classified document referred to in the audio and suggested the recording exonerates him.

“I would say it was bravado; if you want to know the truth, it was bravado,” Trump said in an interview with Semafor and ABC News. “I was talking and just holding up papers and talking about them, but I had no documents. I didn’t have any documents.”

On the recording, the former president can be heard discussing the “highly confidential” and “secret information” with an author and book publisher working on a memoir of former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows.

Trump also acknowledges in the recording that he could have declassified the materials when he was president but no longer could, undercutting his previous arguments that he had declassified the documents that remained in his possession after leaving the White House.

[DBP66]

What a f*in clown Trump is....with NO CLASS at all...he's a low-life POS....who needs to go to jail....yesterday

In the post, Mr Trump's post signed off with another image, this time of a flag, with the caption: "F**k Biden and f**k you for voting for him."

NO...fuck the morons who support a POS like you Donny....🙄

[Crusader12-0]

Meanwhile, Biden showered with his daughter, sniffs children and denies the existence of his grand daughter. They’re all scum. You won’t make it very far in politics if you don’t lie, cheat and steal. 

[DBP66]

Donald Trump Must Face E. Jean Carroll Defamation Suit as DOJ Reverses Course

463

Erik Larson

Tue, July 11, 2023 at 5:54 PM EDT

 

 

(Bloomberg) -- Donald Trump was dealt a blow in E. Jean Carroll’s remaining lawsuit against him after the US Justice Department reversed a crucial opinion that sought to protect the former president from the case, all but assuring the matter will go to trial in January.

The new opinion by the Biden administration, outlined in a letter filed Tuesday in federal court in Manhattan, determined that Trump no longer qualifies for government-employee immunity and can be sued for remarks he made about Carroll while serving in an official capacity while he was president in 2019.

 

The move is a reversal of a previous department opinion that concluded Trump was protected by the Westfall Act, which bars civil suits against employees of the federal government over claims that relate to their official duties. The DOJ revisited the issue after an appeals court clarified that workers are only protected by the law if their actions were intended to help the US government.

Trump has argued that he was acting in the interests of the American people when he made the allegedly defamatory remarks, saying he needed to speak out against Carroll in order to maintain the trust of Americans.

Carroll sued Trump for defamation after he called her a liar from the White House and accused her of fabricating the alleged assault in order to sell a book she’d written. He also allegedly demeaned her by saying she was not his “type” and suggested her claim was politically motivated.

In May, a unanimous jury in New York found Trump liable for sexually abusing Carroll during an alleged attack in a department store dressing room in 1996, awarding her $5 million in damages. Trump is appealing.

Trials Coming

The DOJ’s reversal on the Westfall Act exemption removes a final barrier to a defamation trial set for January, one of at least four Trump faces in the next year as he campaigns for a return to the White House in 2024.

New York state’s $250 million fraud suit against Trump and his company is set for trial in October, while a criminal case by Special Counsel Jack Smith accusing Trump of withholding classified documents could go to a jury as soon as December. The Manhattan district attorney’s case accusing Trump of falsifying business records to conceal a hush-money payment is set for trial in March.

In its letter Tuesday, the Justice Department concluded there isn’t enough evidence to find that Trump was acting within the scope of his employment as president when he allegedly defamed Carroll.

“Here, although the statements themselves were made in a work context, the allegations that prompted the statements related to a purely personal incident: an alleged sexual assault that occurred decades prior to Mr. Trump’s Presidency,” the US said. “That sexual assault was obviously not job-related.”

Alina Habba, a lawyer for Trump, didn’t immediately respond to a message seeking comment on the filing.

“We are grateful that the Department of Justice has reconsidered its position,” Carroll’s lawyer Roberta Kaplan said. “We have always believed that Donald Trump made his defamatory statements about our client in June 2019 out of personal animus, ill will, and spite, and not as President of the United States.”

Citing Trump Statements

The government cited recent statements Trump made about Carroll as reason to undermine his version of events, including remarks he made about her at a CNN town hall, calling her case a “hoax” and suggesting it was part of a “political conspiracy.”

“These post-Presidency statements, which were not before the Department during the original scope certification in this case, tend to undermine the claim that the former President made very similar statements at issue in Carroll I out of a desire to serve the government,” the department said.

[concha]

🤣

MSNBC's Mika Brzezinski blames 80-year-old Biden's STAFF for making him look old: Argues his aides should be making sure he doesn't fall over and should be controlling his schedule

[DBP66]

FBI Director Wray calls Republican charges of FBI bias 'insane'

“The FBI has no interest in protecting anyone politically,” Christopher Wray tells Congress.

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3.5k

Jon Ward

·Chief National Correspondent

Wed, July 12, 2023 at 6:17 PM EDT

 

 

FBI Director Christopher Wray on Wednesday repudiated Republican claims that the nation’s top law enforcement agency is being used in a political manner to discriminate against conservatives, and also criticized mistakes made at the FBI under his predecessor, James Comey.

“The FBI has no interest in protecting anyone politically,” Wray told the House Judiciary Committee during more than three hours of testimony.

 

FBI Director Christopher Wray listens to committee chairman Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, at a House Judiciary Committee on oversight of the FBI on Capitol Hill on Wednesday. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

Wray also said that the FBI is “absolutely not” engaged in “weaponizing” government resources against Americans. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, has created a special subcommittee to examine what he has labeled as the “weaponization of the federal government.”

"You have personally worked to weaponize the FBI against conservatives,” Rep. Harriet Hageman, R-Wyo., told Wray.

Wray, a longtime member of the Federalist Society — a conservative legal group — scoffed. “The idea that I'm biased against conservatives seems somewhat insane to me, given my own personal background,” he replied.

Republicans blame Wray for mistakes made under his predecessor

 

Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, speaks to reporters on Capitol Hill on April 25. (Julia Nikhinson/Reuters)

Nonetheless, Republicans on the committee lobbed a wide array of charges against Wray and the FBI, often focusing on problems at the FBI that took place under Wray’s predecessor, James Comey, who was fired by former President Donald Trump in 2017.

Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, recounted the story of a former FBI lawyer who was sentenced to 12 months' probation in 2021, for altering an email as part of a search warrant application during the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.

“As director of the FBI, those are the facts of the FBI under your watch,” Roy said.

“No, no, sir, it's important: Not under my watch,” Wray told Roy.

[golfaddict1]

What’s his fake handicap again?   😂 

That’s a wicked shank chip from that close a distance to the green.  
 

 

[concha]

[DBP66]

Georgia Supreme Court dismisses Trump bid to shut down Fulton County probe

 

Marco Bello/Reuters

2.6k

Marshall Cohen

Mon, July 17, 2023 at 6:41 PM EDT

 

 

The Georgia Supreme Court on Monday dismissed a long shot legal bid from former President Donald Trump to essentially shut down the Fulton County criminal probe into his attempts to overturn his 2020 election defeat in Georgia.

The court said in a five-page opinion that Trump hadn’t demonstrated the “extraordinary circumstances” that would require their intervention at this time. Trump had asked the Georgia justices to throw out the wide array of evidence collected so far in the Fulton County investigation and to block state prosecutors from ever using that material in any future criminal or civil proceedings.

“(Trump) has not shown that this case presents one of those extremely rare circumstances in which this Court’s original jurisdiction should be invoked, and therefore, the petition is dismissed,” the ruling said.

The decision was unanimous. Eight of the nine members of the Georgia Supreme Court were appointed by Republican governors.

Trump has other legal challenges related to the Fulton County criminal investigation that are still pending. He has denied wrongdoing and claims that the prosecutors are only investigating him because they want to undermine his 2024 presidential campaign.

Charging decisions are expected soon in the investigation, which is led by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis. The probe has zeroed in on the attempts by Trump and his allies to pressure Georgia election officials, state lawmakers, the governor and related federal prosecutors into helping him overturn the results in Georgia, which he lost by less than 12,000 votes out of 5 million ballots cast.

Trump’s legal challenges also sought a court order blocking Willis, an elected Democrat, from participating in any further proceedings related to the criminal investigation. The Georgia Supreme Court said Monday that Trump’s petition to the high court “has not presented … either the facts or the law necessary to mandate Willis’s disqualification by this Court at this time on this record.”

Willis’ office declined to comment on the ruling. CNN has reached out to Trump’s lawyers for comment.

The investigation crossed a major milestone last week, with the swearing-in of a new grand jury that has the power to approve potential indictments. Willis has indicated that this could happen as soon as soon as next month. A special purpose grand jury in Fulton County previously heard evidence from 75 witnesses, including Trump White House officials, former Trump lawyers and advisers, Georgia officials and election experts.

State prosecutors are also scrutinizing Trump’s attempts to subvert the Electoral College with a slate of “fake electors” in Georgia, as well as efforts by some Trump allies to breach voting systems in the state while they fruitlessly tried to prove there was massive fraud.

[DBP66]

[concha]

[DBP66]

Looks like reality is winning...he's a three-time loser....😉

Special counsel informs Trump he is target in probe of efforts to overturn 2020 election

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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13.7k

KATHERINE FAULDERS, JOHN SANTUCCI, ALEXANDER MALLIN and LUKE BARR

Tue, July 18, 2023 at 9:27 AM EDT

 

 

Special counsel Jack Smith has informed former President Donald Trump by letter that he is a target in his investigation into efforts to overturn the 2020 election, sources familiar with the matter tell ABC News.

Trump also confirmed the development in a post on his Truth Social platform.

The letter, which sources said was transmitted to Trump's attorneys in recent days, indicates that yet another indictment of the former president could be imminent -- though it is not immediately clear what kind of charges he could ultimately face.

Target letters are typically given to subjects in a criminal investigation to put them on notice that they are facing the prospect of indictment.

Trump similarly received a target letter from Smith before he was indicted by a grand jury in Florida for his alleged mishandling of classified documents after leaving the White House and his alleged efforts to obstruct the government's investigation.

Smith took control of the sprawling Justice Department investigation into the failed efforts by Trump and his allies to thwart his election loss upon his appointment as special counsel in November of last year, and in recent months dozens of witnesses have appeared to testify before a federal grand jury in Washington, D.C.

According to sources, prosecutors have questioned witnesses specifically about the efforts to put forward false slates of so-called false electors that were to have cast electoral college votes during the certification for Trump in key swing states that he lost to President Joe Biden.

 

PHOTO: Former President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump takes the stage during the Turning Point Action Conference in West Palm Beach, Florida, July 15, 2023. (Marco Bello/Reuters)

Investigators have also sought information on Trump's actions and his state of mind in the days leading up to and on Jan. 6, 2021, when thousands of Trump supporters attacked the U.S. Capitol, temporarily disrupting the certification and causing lawmakers and former Vice President Pence to flee the building.

Trump was indicted last month on 37 criminal counts related to his handling of classified materials, after Smith's prosecutors said he repeatedly refused to return hundreds of documents containing classified information ranging from U.S. nuclear secrets to the nation's defense capabilities. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

The former president has also pleaded not guilty to a 34-count indictment from the Manhattan district attorney charging him with falsifying business records in connection with a hush money payment made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels days before the 2016 presidential election.

[DBP66]

Feds interview Wisconsin's top election official in 2020 probe

 

Molly Beck, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Tue, July 18, 2023 at 1:33 PM EDT

 

 

MADISON - Wisconsin's top election official was interviewed in April by federal authorities probing former President Donald Trump's effort to subvert the outcome of the 2020 election leading up to the 2021 U.S. Capitol insurrection.

Wisconsin Elections Commission administrator Meagan Wolfe is at least the third election official in this battleground state to be interviewed by Special Counsel Jack Smith's team about the last presidential election, when Trump and his allies carried out a disinformation campaign about Wisconsin's system of elections that resulted in unsuccessful Republican efforts to implement new voting restrictions and to dismantle the state elections agency Wolfe leads.

Wolfe's interview with U.S. Department of Justice and FBI was conducted around the same time the FBI and federal investigators working for Smith interviewed the top election officials in Madison and Milwaukee.

"In April 2023, the U.S. Department of Justice Special Counsel Jack Smith subpoenaed WEC Administrator Meagan Wolfe to be interviewed in the inquiry regarding the events surrounding Jan. 6, 2021," WEC spokesman Riley Vetterkind said in a statement.

 

"Administrator Wolfe cooperated with the subpoena and appeared in person before DOJ and Federal Bureau of Investigation officials in April. Due to this being an ongoing federal investigation, we are unable to provide further information."

Trump confirmed Tuesday that he is a target of the federal investigation into the insurrection and could be indicted over the attack. In a written statement, Trump said Smith has given him this week to appear before a grand jury and that "almost always means an arrest and indictment."

The former president did not say whether he would appear before the grand jury and did not detail what specific charges may be pending. Trump said his attorneys spoke to him Sunday night about Smith's target letter and said the prosecutor gave him four days to report to the grand jury.

Trump lost Wisconsin by about 21,000 votes in 2020 to President Joe Biden but has sought to undermine the election results, including by pushing conspiracy theories about the race. The outcome has been confirmed by recounts he paid for in Dane and Milwaukee counties, court rulings, a nonpartisan state audit and a study by a prominent conservative group.

Trump's focus on Milwaukee as part of his effort to cast doubt on the election results have continued since he recently announced a bid to retake the White House.

[DBP66]

Lock their lying asses up for a long time....nutty Trumpers...they're fake Americans!

Michigan charges 16 fake electors for Donald Trump with election law and forgery felonies

• 
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  Election 2020 Fraud Michigan

  FILE - A protester waves a Trump flag during rally organized by a group called Election Integrity Fund and Force at the Michigan State Capitol, Tuesday, Oct. 12, 2021, in Lansing, Mich. Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel has charged 16 Republicans Tuesday, July 18, 2023, with multiple felonies after they are alleged to have submitted false certificates stating they were the state’s presidential electors despite Joe Biden’s 154,000-vote victory in 2020. The group includes Republican National Committeewoman Kathy Berden and Meshawn Maddock, former co-chair of the Michigan Republican Party. (Jake May/The Flint Journal via AP, File)

   

 

8.5k

JOEY CAPPELLETTI

Updated Tue, July 18, 2023 at 7:14 PM EDT

 

 

LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Michigan’s attorney general filed felony charges Tuesday against 16 Republicans who acted as fake electors for then-President Donald Trump in 2020, accusing them of submitting false certificates that confirmed they were legitimate electors despite Joe Biden’s victory in the state.

Attorney General Dana Nessel, a Democrat, announced Tuesday that all 16 people would face eight criminal charges, including forgery and conspiracy to commit election forgery. The top charges carry a maximum penalty of 14 years in prison.

The group includes the head of the Republican National Committee’s chapter in Michigan, Kathy Berden, as well as the former co-chair of the Michigan Republican Party, Meshawn Maddock, and Shelby Township Clerk Stan Grot.

In seven battleground states, including Michigan, supporters of Trump signed certificates that falsely stated he won their states, not Biden. The fake certificates were ignored, but the attempt has been subject to investigations, including by the House committee that investigated the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

“The false electors’ actions undermined the public’s faith in the integrity of our elections and, we believe, also plainly violated the laws by which we administer our elections in Michigan,” Nessel said in a statement.

The 16 individuals are set to appear for arraignment in Ingham County at a date provided to each by the court, according to Nessel's office.

Phone and email messages seeking comment Tuesday from several of the people charged were not immediately returned.

One of those charged, John Haggard, 82, of Charlevoix, told The Detroit News on Tuesday that he he didn’t believe he did anything wrong.

“Did I do anything illegal? No,” Haggard said.

GOP state Sen. Ed McBroom, who chaired a GOP-led Senate panel to investigate Michigan’s 2020 presidential election that found no wrongdoing, said he previously spoke with one of the fake electors. It was clear, McBroom said, that the effort was organized by “people who put themselves in a position of authority and posing themselves as the ones who knew what they were doing."

“They were wrong,” McBroom told The Associated Press. “And other people followed them when they shouldn’t have.”

Berden and Mayra Rodriguez, a Michigan lawyer who was also charged Tuesday, were both questioned by congressional investigators as part of the U.S. House panel’s investigation into the Jan. 6 insurrection.

In January of last year, Nessel asked federal prosecutors to open a criminal investigation into the 16 Republicans.

“Obviously this is part of a much bigger conspiracy,” she said at the time.

Electors are people appointed to represent voters in presidential elections. The winner of the popular vote in each state determines which party’s electors are sent to the Electoral College, which meets in December after the election to certify the outcome.

False Electoral College certificates were also submitted declaring Trump the winner of Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, New Mexico, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

Investigations are underway in some other states that submitted fake electors, but not all.

A Georgia prosecutor investigating possible illegal meddling in the 2020 election has agreed to immunity deals with at least eight fake electors. And Arizona’s Democratic attorney general is in the very early stages of a probe. Nevada’s attorney general, also a Democrat, has said he won’t bring charges, while Wisconsin has no active investigation and the attorney general has deferred to the U.S. Justice Department.

There is no apparent investigation in Pennsylvania and former Attorney General Josh Shapiro, who is now governor, said he didn’t believe there was evidence the actions of the fake electors met the legal standards for forgery.

A group of other Trump allies in Michigan, including former GOP attorney general candidate Matthew DePerno, are facing potential criminal charges related to attempts to gain access to voting machines after the 2020 election.

According to documents released last year by Nessel’s office, five vote tabulators were taken from Roscommon and Missaukee counties in northern Michigan, and Barry County in western Michigan. The tabulators were subsequently broken into and “tests” were performed on the equipment.

A grand jury was convened in March at the request of a special prosecutor to consider indictments, according to court records. The special prosecutor, D.J. Hilson, wrote in May in a court document that “a charging decision is ready to be made.”

[golfaddict1]

@I AM IRONMAN 

“sweet fancy Moses”  😂 

 

[concha]

 

[World Citizen]

30 minutes ago, concha said: