Trump's world....

[DBP66]

Leave to the Republicans to look like idiots once again....🤡

 

Senate votes to support Finland and Sweden joining NATO

 

Senate votes to support Finland and Sweden joining NATO

 

TRISH TURNER and ALLISON PECORIN

Wed, August 3, 2022 at 8:25 PM

 

 

The U.S. Senate approved a resolution Wednesday evening to support Finland and Sweden in joining NATO -- a crucial step in the quest of the two countries to join the 30-member alliance.

The Senate voted 95-1, with Missouri Republican Sen. Josh Hawley voting no and Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., voting "present."

The vote comes several weeks after the Senate Foreign Relations Committee approved admitting Finland and Sweden into NATO. Lawmakers were working to approve the matter before their August break.

Finland and Sweden announced their decision to formally join NATO within days of each other in May, ending long-held positions of neutrality in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. They simultaneously submitted their applications on May 18.

All 30 NATO members must ratify the accession of the two countries. Seven countries remain.

 

During Wednesday's vote, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., took a veiled swipe at Paul and Hawley in a floor speech, saying, "Their accession will make NATO stronger and America more secure. If any senator is looking for a defensible excuse to vote no, I wish them good luck."

Hawley aligned himself with former President Donald Trump, saying the U.S. could devote more funds and firepower to NATO "or do what we need to do to deter Asia and China. We cannot do both."

Paul has always worked to keep the U.S. out of foreign conflicts. He offered an amendment that most rejected seeking to ensure that Congress' role in authorizing military force would not be usurped by the NATO pact's common defense commitment, known as Article 5.

 

PHOTO: Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer poses for a photo with an official delegation from Finland and Sweden in his office in Washington, Aug. 3, 2022. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., applauded the Senate's vote, saying on Twitter that it is "all the more urgent given [Russian President Vladimir] Putin's barbaric, immoral and unjustified war in Ukraine."

President Joe Biden thanked a number of senators, including Schumer and McConnell, for moving the ratification process along quickly.

"This historic vote sends an important signal of the sustained, bipartisan U.S. commitment to NATO, and to ensuring our Alliance is prepared to meet the challenges of today and tomorrow," the president said in a statement.

[Nolebull813]

I guess they milked all they could from the Ukraine money laundering scheme, they are prepping for a new scam with Finland. 
 

 

[DBP66]

9 minutes ago, Nolebull813 said:

I guess they milked all they could from the Ukraine money laundering scheme, they are prepping for a new scam with Finland. 
 

 

LOL...scam?...like when Trump blackmailed Ukraine and got impeached for it??....🙄

[Nolebull813]

5 minutes ago, DBP66 said:

LOL...scam?...like when Trump blackmailed Ukraine and got impeached for it??....🙄

Blackmail was when Biden withheld funds until they fired the guy looking into his family’s corruption. Or was that a right wing conspiracy too? 🤡

[DBP66]

4 hours ago, Nolebull813 said:

Blackmail was when Biden withheld funds until they fired the guy looking into his family’s corruption. Or was that a right wing conspiracy too? 🤡

LOL....Biden didn't and couldn't have withheld money from our ally...he wanted to make sure the corrupt A.G. was removed before getting U.S. $$....it was all common knowledge....unless you believe Trumps lies...like you do...you eat them up like candy...🤡

[DBP66]

[DBP66]

Trump Leaves RNC Ensnared In Criminal Probes Of His Coup Attempt

 

 

S.V. Date

Thu, August 4, 2022 at 7:14 PM

 

 

 

Then-President Donald Trump speaks at a 2017 fundraising breakfast at a restaurant in New York City. (Photo: MANDEL NGAN via Getty Images)

Then-President Donald Trump speaks at a 2017 fundraising breakfast at a restaurant in New York City. (Photo: MANDEL NGAN via Getty Images)

Donald Trump cost his party the House, the White House and the Senate in a single presidential term, and now his coup attempt on his way out the door has ensnared the Republican National Committee in state and federal criminal investigations.

Six months after the party excommunicated the two GOP members of the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol for serving on that panel, a series of subpoenas and search warrants, as well as videotaped testimony shown during recent public hearings, offer a clearer explanation for the RNC’s actions: fury about having its role in Trump’s plot revealed.

“Everything about what I hear about the activities of people, from the president on down, was ill-advised at best,” said one RNC member attending the group’s closed-door meeting in Chicago this week, speaking on condition of anonymity.

“If you’re one of the RNC members that participated in that, at the very least, it’s expensive,” said Steve Duprey, a former RNC member from New Hampshire who lost his seat for being insufficiently loyal to Trump. “It’s a great cautionary tale.”

RNC officials declined to respond to HuffPost queries on the topic.

But even in January, on the eve of the committee’s unprecedented resolution censuring longtime Republican Reps. Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, of Wyoming and Illinois, respectively, one top RNC member told HuffPost the committee was upset that its own members were getting caught up in the House probe.

“They’re going after RNC members and staff, and they’re going to have to get lawyers,” the member said on condition of anonymity. “There’s a lot of anger built up.”

The details of the RNC’s involvement were vague at the time, but became clearer as the Jan. 6 committee’s public hearings began two months ago. The June 21 hearing ― which focused on the fake elector scheme that Trump and his campaign pushed as part of his illegal and unconstitutional attempt to hold on to power ― featured a clip of RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel, in which she revealed that Trump himself had asked her for help with the fake electors, and that she had honored his request.

“He turned the call over to Mr. Eastman, who then proceeded to talk about the importance of the RNC helping the campaign gather these contingent electors,” McDaniel says in the committee’s clip of her videotaped deposition, referring to Trump outside lawyer and coup proponent John Eastman. “We were just helping them.”

McDaniel claimed in her testimony that the Trump elector slates were only being prepared in case legal challenges in those states went Trump’s way. However, the committee showed an excerpt from one of Eastman’s emails in which he made clear that his plan was for Mike Pence, Trump’s vice president, to cite the existence of “competing” slates in order to simply declare Trump the winner.

“The fact that we have multiple slates of electors demonstrates the uncertainty of either. That should be enough,” Eastman’s email read.

The committee then showed testimony from Trump campaign staff and outside allies who said they felt misled.

Andrew Hitt, one of Trump’s fake electors from Wisconsin and a former RNC member, said he and others never would have gone along with the plan, had they been told the truth. “It would have been using our electors in ways that we weren’t told about and we wouldn’t have supported,” he told committee investigators.

Since those hearings, it has become obvious that prosecutors are also interested in the fake elector scheme.

The FBI obtained search warrants for the phones of Nevada state GOP Chairman Michael McDonald and state committeeman James DeGraffenreid. And federal prosecutors issued subpoenas for Georgia state chair and RNC member David Shafer, as well as others associated with the fake elector scheme in that state, Michigan and Arizona. Shafer also received notification from Georgia prosecutors that he is considered a target of its probe in Fulton County.

“You don’t want to get a subject letter, but you sure as hell don’t want to get a target letter,” Duprey said.

In all, six current RNC members and two former members are among the 59 Trump “electors” who falsely asserted on official documents that they were “duly certified” voting members of the Electoral College. In fact, they had no standing to cast those ballots because Trump had lost those five states: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada and Wisconsin. (The RNC consists of three members from every state, the District of Columbia and five overseas territories: the chair of each local party, and one male and one female committee member.)

Trump electors in Pennsylvania and New Mexico also filled out electoral ballot certifications and sent them to the National Archives, but their documents included language stating that they would only be electors if a court order or another official proceeding made Trump the winner of their states.

The RNC continues to pay some of Trump’s legal bills regarding the New York state investigation into his business practices, but it is unclear whether the group has any intention of paying legal costs for the fake electors, including the half dozen current RNC members.

One of those six, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said he was not aware of any such effort.

Trump, despite losing the election by 7 million votes nationally and 306-232 in the Electoral College, became the first U.S. president in more than two centuries of elections to refuse to hand over power peacefully. His incitement of the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol ― his last-ditch attempt to remain in office ― killed five people, including one police officer. It also injured another 140 officers and led to four police suicides.

Nevertheless, Trump remains the dominant figure in the Republican Party and is openly speaking about running for the presidency again in 2024.

In statements on his personal social media platform, Trump has continued to lie about the election and the Jan. 6 committee’s work, calling it a “hoax” similar to previous investigations into his 2016 campaign’s acceptance of Russian assistance and his attempt to extort Ukraine into helping his 2020 campaign.

 

[DBP66]

Reality is hard to deal with when you're a Trumper.....

Donald Trump's legal team in contact with Justice Dept. officials in Jan. 6 inquiry

 

 

David Jackson and Kevin Johnson, USA TODAY

Thu, August 4, 2022 at 9:15 PM

 

 

 

Former President Donald Trump addresses attendees during the Turning Point USA Student Action Summit, Saturday, July 23, 2022, in Tampa, Fla. (AP Photo/Phelan M. Ebenhack)

WASHINGTON – Former President Donald Trump's legal team has been in contact with Justice Department officials involved in the Capitol attack investigation in an apparent attempt to block access to conversations with his former top aides, two people familiar with the inquiry said Thursday.

The disclosure comes as the federal criminal inquiry appears to have ramped up in recent weeks as subpoenas have been issued to former Trump White House officials and aides to former Vice President Mike Pence.

Trump's political team issued a statement condemning the Justice actions, saying "there is clearly a concerted effort to undermine the vital, Constitutionally-rooted Executive and Attorney-Client Privileges." He characterized the Justice investigation and other inquiries as a "partisan, political persecution."

CNN first reported on what it described as talks "around whether Trump would be able to shield conversations he had while he was president from federal investigators."

Trump is expected to claim executive privilege should the Justice Department seek details of presidential conversations with aides and members of the White House Counsel's Office.

Former White House counsel Pat Cipollone has been subpoenaed by a federal grand jury investigating the Capitol attack and the campaign to overturn the 2020 election, a person familiar with the matter said earlier this week.

The Justice Department's action involving Cipollone follows the former White House official's testimony last month before the House committee in its separate examination of the Jan. 6, 2021 attack.

Cipollone urged then-President Donald Trump to intervene as rioters stormed the Capitol and defended Justice Department officials in rejecting Trump's demands to pursue false allegations of election fraud.

The Justice Department has declined comment on the subjects of the subpoenas and any contact with Trump's legal team.

Cipollone is the most senior known member of the Trump White House to be called before the grand jury, a significant step in the federal investigation.

 

White House counsel Pat Cipollone departs the U.S. Capitol following defense arguments in the impeachment trial of President Donald Trump on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, in Washington on Jan. 25, 2020. Cipollone, Donald Trump’s former White House counsel, has agreed to testify before the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, according to a person briefed on the matter. More

Top aides to former Vice President Mike Pence, including chief of staff Marc Short, have already appeared before the grand jury.

“How can any future President ever have private conversations with his attorneys, counselors, and other senior advisors if any such advisor is forced, either during or after the Presidency, in front of an Unselect Committee or other entity, and be forced to reveal those privileged, confidential discussions?" the Trump statement said.

The statement added: "President Trump will not be deterred by witch hunts or kangaroo courts from continuing to defend and fight for America, our Constitution, and the Truth."

Trump is not only dealing with aspects of a Justice Department inquiry. He is a focus of a separate criminal investigation in Georgia, where an Atlanta-area prosecutor is leading a wide ranging inquiry into election interference.

The examination includes Trump's January 2021 call to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in which he urged the state's top election official to "find" enough votes for Trump to win the state's 2020 presidential election.

[concha]

 

RCP House Map: GOP 222, Dems 181, TU 32 | Pick Up Range: GOP +9 to +41

 

[DBP66]

16 minutes ago, concha said:

 

RCP House Map: GOP 222, Dems 181, TU 32 | Pick Up Range: GOP +9 to +41

 

LOL...down to +9 now and you're still excited Don?....🤡

So Trumps lawyers are talking with the D.O.J....what do you think those conversations are about Don?...what say you??.....😉

[DBP66]

 

Trump PAC pushing election fraud claims paid $60K to Melania Trump fashion designer

 

Jared Gans

Fri, August 5, 2022 at 11:52 AM

 

 

Former President Trump’s Save America PAC, which he launched after the 2020 presidential election to challenge the results and raise money for candidates he supports, paid $60,000 to a fashion designer known for styling former first lady Melania Trump, according to Federal Elections Commission (FEC) filings.

The filings show the PAC made four payments to Herve Pierre Braillard for “strategy consulting,” paying him $6,000 on April 7 and $18,000 on May 4, June 3 and June 24.

Braillard is a French American designer who styled Melania Trump while she served as first lady. He had also styled other first ladies including Hillary Clinton, Laura Bush and Michelle Obama, according to USA Today.

Save America PAC did not immediately return a request from The Hill for comment about what the payments were for.

The FEC forbids candidate PACs from spending money on personal items, but Save America is a leadership PAC, which has fewer restrictions.

The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection has criticized Save America PAC for raising millions of dollars for election fraud claims that it knew were false. People were encouraged to make donations for an election defense fund, but two former Trump aides testified before the committee that the fund did not exist and was a marketing tactic.

 

and his brainwashed clowns will keep sending him money to defend a lie....😪

[DBP66]

Donald Trump said White House doctor 'loved looking at my body' as he boasts about his health in CPAC speech

 

 

Alia Shoaib

Sun, August 7, 2022 at 5:52 AM

 

 

 

Former U.S. President Donald Trump applauds upon arrival at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) at the Hilton Anatole on August 06, 2022 in Dallas, Texas.Brandon Bell/Getty Images

• Donald Trump boasted about his health during a speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Dallas.

• Despite his age and weight, Trump consistently claims to be extremely healthy and vigorous.

• Last year Trump said the only thing that would stop him from running in 2024 would be a "bad call from a doctor."

Former President Donald Trump said that former White House doctor Ronny Jackson loved looking at his body, while speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Dallas, Texas, on Saturday.

"He was the White House doctor. He was a great doctor. He was an admiral, a doctor, and now he's a congressman," Trump said while Jackson looked on from the audience.

 

"I said, 'which is the best if you had your choice?' and he sort of indicated doctor because he loved looking at my body. It was so strong and powerful."

Trump also claimed that Jackson told him that he was "the healthiest president that ever lived."

 

Jackson said in 2018 that while Trump was overall healthy for his age, he had advised him to lose 10 to 15 pounds. 

Jackson, a former rear admiral in the US Navy, served as physician to the President from 2013 to 2018 under Barack Obama and Donald Trump. In 2020 he became a GOP congressman for Texas.

He has been a vocal supporter of Trump and attended the "Stop the Steal" rally at the White House Ellipse on January 6, 2021.

Jackson made comments speculating about then-Presidential candidate Biden's cognitive health on Twitter in 2020, prompting Obama to write him a letter expressing his "disappointment."

Jackson has publicly praised Trump's health in recent months, claiming that he is in the top 10% of everyone his age and suggesting he might have lived to be 200 years old if he had a healthier diet.

He is one of several Trump allies who have tried to make the case that he is a healthy and energetic 76-year-old in comparison with 79-year-old President Joe Biden.

Other Trump supporters have expressed concern that he might be too unhealthy to run for president in 2024, some citing his diet and well-documented love of fast food.

Last year Trump said the only thing that would stop him from running in 2024 would be a "bad call from a doctor."

 

 

[DBP66]

justice is being served.....

'Under siege': Trump says FBI raided Mar-a-Lago

 

 

Christopher Wilson

·Senior Writer

Mon, August 8, 2022 at 7:27 PM

 

 

 

Former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Fla. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

Former President Donald Trump said Monday evening that the Federal Bureau of Investigation had conducted a raid of his Florida home.

“These are dark times for our Nation, as my beautiful home, Mar-A-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida is currently under siege, raided and occupied by a large group of FBI agents,” Trump said in a statement posted to Truth Social, his social media website, calling it “prosecutorial misconduct” and an attempt by Democrats to hurt a possible 2024 presidential bid.

The Justice Department is investigating Trump’s actions in relation to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. The then president’s efforts to overturn Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 election have also been the focus of the House Jan. 6 select committee’s investigation. In May, a federal grand jury also began investigating whether Trump had mishandled classified documents, including taking 15 boxes of materials to the Florida resort.

 

Monday’s raid was first reported by Florida Politics — which said the FBI had executed a search warrant and left the premises — minutes before Trump posted his statement about it.

“They even broke into my safe!” Trump said in the statement, comparing the latest events to the Watergate break-in. Trump also lamented that his former opponent in the 2016 presidential race, Hillary Clinton, “was allowed to delete and acid wash 33,000 E-mails AFTER they were subpoenaed by Congress.” An FBI investigation into Clinton’s handling of the emails recommended that the former secretary of state not be charged with a crime, and an internal State Department investigation cleared her of wrongdoing.

Trump concluded by writing, “I will continue to fight for the Great American People!”

[Nolebull813]

Wow has there even been a weaponization of the FBI to take out political enemies as there is now? Just like the 2 years and 20 democrat investigators trying to come up with the fake Russia hoax this will turn up nothing. It’s just fodder for left wing media for the next week. Nothing burger with cheese 

[concha]

9 minutes ago, Nolebull813 said:

Wow has there even been a weaponization of the FBI to take out political enemies as there is now? Just like the 2 years and 20 democrat investigators trying to come up with the fake Russia hoax this will turn up nothing. It’s just fodder for left wing media for the next week. Nothing burger with cheese 

 

LMAO

They've really stepped on their dicks (again) big time.  The optics of this are so bad it's comical.  And the messaging made available to Trump and RNC is priceless.

 

[DBP66]

2 minutes ago, concha said:

 

LMAO

They've really stepped on their dicks (again) big time.  The optics of this are so bad it's comical.  And the messaging made available to Trump and RNC is priceless.

 

[concha]

20 minutes ago, DBP66 said:

 

I know, right?

Talk about a motivator and Yuge talking point for the Republicans.

The hypocrisy and stupidity of this is epic.  A giant effing "I told you so". 

[On2whls]

2 hours ago, concha said:

 

LMAO

They've really stepped on their dicks (again) big time.  The optics of this are so bad it's comical.  And the messaging made available to Trump and RNC is priceless.

 

I think Garland may have watched too many episodes of Hogans Heroes.  The whole thing seems like Colonel Klink and Seargent Schulzt turning over the barracks lol. 
 

[DBP66]

8 hours ago, concha said:

 

I know, right?

Talk about a motivator and Yuge talking point for the Republicans.

The hypocrisy and stupidity of this is epic.  A giant effing "I told you so". 

[DBP66]

8 hours ago, concha said:

 

I know, right?

Talk about a motivator and Yuge talking point for the Republicans.

The hypocrisy and stupidity of this is epic.  A giant effing "I told you so". 

[DBP66]

Lawyers received instructions to secure Trump's document room months before the FBI search at Mar-a-Lago: report

Hannah Getahun

Mon, August 8, 2022 at 11:16 PM

 

 

 

Former President Donald Trump speaks to supporters at a rally on April 2, 2022, near Washington, Michigan.Scott Olson/Getty Images

• Former President Trump met with investigators months before the FBI search on Monday, sources told CNN.

• Investigators asked where Trump stored his documents and attorneys showed them a basement room.

• After the meeting, Trump's attorneys received a letter asking to secure the room, sources told CNN.

Months before the raid on his Mar-a-Lago residence, former President Donald Trump's lawyers recieved instructions to "secure the room" in which he stored his documents, sources told CNN.

The sources told CNN aides added a padlock in order to secure the room.

On Monday, Trump confirmed reports that the FBI executed a search warrant at his Palm Beach, Florida, residence.

Sources told ABC News the search was related to 15 boxes of documents Trump took from the White House to Mar-a-Lago resort following the end of his presidency. During the FBI's search Monday morning, the agency was verifying that no other documents were still at the resort after the National Archives retrieved the documents in February, a source told CNN.

Investigators met with Trump's lawyers at Mar-a-Lago months ago to evaluate the documents Trump had taken during his time at the White House, CNN reported. Trump was also present during the meeting, albeit momentarily, sources told CNN.

The CNN report does not specify when exactly investigators met with Trump, but said Trump aides were interviewed about the documents by the FBI in April and May.

During Monday's search of his office, Trump was at Trump Tower in New York City.

After investigators asked to see where Trump stored his documents, attorneys for the former president took investigators to the basement room at Mar-a-Lago. Days later, the attorneys received a letter asking to lock that same room, sources told CNN. The report does not mention who sent the letter.

Representatives for Trump did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

[DBP66]

Feds likely obtained 'pulverizing' amount of evidence ahead of searching Trump's Mar-a-Lago home, legal experts say

 

Feds likely obtained 'pulverizing' amount of evidence ahead of searching Trump's Mar-a-Lago home, legal experts say

 

Azmi Haroun,Darren Samuelsohn,Laura Italiano,Katherine Tangalakis-Lippert,C. Ryan Barber

Mon, August 8, 2022 at 11:12 PM

 

 

 

Former President Donald Trump at a "Save America" rally in Waukesha, Wisconsin, on Friday.AP Photo/Morry Gash

• It's not an easy task to secure a federal search warrant against a former US president.

• Legal experts told Insider that agents must prove a high degree of probable cause.

• A former federal prosecutor, Gene Rossi, told Insider that Donald Trump was "in deep legal trouble."

For months, as new details emerged about the end of the Trump administration, the Justice Department confronted criticism over its slow, cautious approach to investigating the former president.

Again and again, Attorney General Merrick Garland met that criticism with what has almost become his personal mantra: The Justice Department, he says, will follow the "facts and the law."

 

On Monday, the facts and the law led FBI agents to former President Donald Trump's home.

Trump confirmed Monday that federal agents had executed a search warrant at his South Florida estate, Mar-a-Lago, in a search that several news outlets later reported was related to whether he mishandled classified government documents.

Regardless of the raid's focus, legal experts quickly reached a consensus about it: A pile of evidence must have backed up the warrant authorizing the search.

"There's every reason to think that there's a plus factor in the quantum and quantity of evidence that the government already had to support probable cause in this case, knowing that they would be besieged with criticism in some quarters that this is politically motivated," said David Laufman, a former top official in the Justice Department's national security division who prosecuted cases involving allegations of mishandling classified documents.

"If I were a senior department official who reviewed this prior to pulling the trigger on presenting an affidavit to a magistrate judge, I would've wanted a sufficient quality and quantity of evidence that was so pulverizing in its effect to simply neutralize any arguments to the contrary," said Laufman, now a partner at the law firm Wiggin and Dana LLP.

Indeed, for a deliberate Justice Department keen to turn the page from the politicization of the Trump era, the raid of Mar-a-Lago most likely required reviews at the highest levels and convincing evidence supporting a finding of probable cause, legal experts said.

"I cannot imagine the amount of probable cause set forth in a search warrant's supporting FBI affidavit of Trump's Florida home," said Gene Rossi, a former federal prosecutor from Northern Virginia. He added in an email to Insider that the number of "review levels" for the search warrant "must have been enormous, including by Trump's FBI appointee Christopher Wray."

The search unfolded months after the National Archives confirmed, in February, that many records Trump left behind had been torn and taped back together — and that the former president had taken boxes of documents to his resort that the federal government needed to retrieve. Earlier Monday, Axios published photographs — obtained by the New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman — showing documents in a toilet bowl that White House staff suspected were flushed by Trump.

Trump developed a reputation while in office as a notorious destroyer of documents and displayed a penchant for ripping presidential documents and leaving them for staffers to patch up, according to a report from Politico. Historians grew concerned over his tenure that his presidential records would be poorly preserved or destroyed — potentially violating the Presidential Records Act.

The 1970s law requires presidents and White House staff members to preserve official documents and communications — including gifts received in office, letters, emails, text messages, and social-media posts — and turn those items over to the Archives at the end of a president's term.

"Trump is in deep legal trouble," Rossi said.

For Trump, an inquiry into whether he mishandled classified material represents just one of several areas of legal risk. Trump, who was at Trump Tower in New York City during the search, is also facing scrutiny over his efforts to overturn his loss in the 2020 election to Joe Biden. At the same time, New York's attorney general, Letitia James, is investigating his business, an inquiry she said had uncovered evidence that the Trump Organization engaged in "fraudulent or misleading" practices.

In response to the search, Trump alleged Monday that the move resulted from "prosecutorial misconduct" and the "weaponization of the Justice System."

"Such an assault could only take place in broken, Third-World Countries," Trump said in a prepared statement. "Sadly, America has now become one of those broken Countries, corrupt at a level not seen before."

Trump was expected to make such claims in the event of heightened scrutiny or criminal charges. His assertion that Mar-a-Lago was "under siege, raided, and occupied by a large group of FBI agents" drew a rebuke from Trump's former personal attorney turned critic Michael Cohen.

"It's never good when the FBI raids your property," Cohen told Insider. Cohen knows that personally. In 2018, the FBI raided Cohen's Rockefeller Center office and his nearby Manhattan hotel room.

Trump lashed out angrily then, too, similarly likening the FBI's raid of Cohen's locations to a break-in.

"Despite Donald's repetitive claims that the FBI agents knock down doors and ransack properties, it is another lie as they are professional and courteous," Cohen said Monday night, adding that Trump "knew that they were coming for me."

An FBI representative declined to comment on the search.

In an email to Insider, former US Attorney Barbara McQuade stressed that for the FBI to obtain a search warrant, it would've needed to satisfy a federal judge that there was probable cause a specific crime had occurred at Mar-a-Lago.

"Search warrants," she said, "usually come toward the end of an investigation because they require a showing of probable cause and because they tend to tip off the suspect that they are under investigation."

[DBP66]

The clowns coming to his rescue....🤡

Fox News Is Having a Nuclear Meltdown Over the Feds Raiding Mar-a-Lago

 

 

Ryan Bort

Mon, August 8, 2022 at 11:01 PM

 

 

 

Mar-a-Lago - Credit: (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

The FBI raided Donald Trump’s estate in Palm Beach on Monday, reportedly in search of any leftover classified documents he may have taken from the White House. The search began in the morning, but didn’t make the news until later, when the former president announced the “prosecutorial misconduct” just in time for Fox News’ primetime propaganda lineup to have a collective conniption over the Justice Department spending the day at Mar-a-Lago.

Jesse Watters set the tone early, ranting about how the Justice Department is giving Democrats a pass while going after poor, innocent Trump. Dana Loesch, the former National Rifle Association spokesperson, agreed. “There’s more evidence to implicate the Bidens than there is for the Trumps,” she claimed. “Everything they’ve accused the former first family of, it seems like it’s the Bidens that have done it.” (Loesch did not point to anything indicating Biden absconded from the White House with classified documents.)

The other common right-wing reaction to the raid suggested FBI needs a complete overhaul, starting at the top. “I don’t see how this guy has any credibility whatsoever,” Watters said of FBI Director Chris Wray. “He’s got to go.” (Watters did not seem to care that Wray was appointed not by the radical Democrats, but by Trump himself.)

Will Cain, who filled in for Tucker Carlson on Tucker Carlson Tonight, cast the raid in historical terms, wondering if it marked a “seminal moment” that “generations will look back on and ask, ‘Was this a moment we broke apart or we were able to come together?'”

 

Cain then asked whether there was an “evidentiary” or “legal” basis for the raid, or if it was simply a “partisan witch hunt.” (Cain mentioned that Trump allegedly took classified documents from the White House to Mar-a-Lago almost immediately before wondering if there was any basis for the search.)

Fox News was even able to wrangle a few members of Trump’s family to comment on the raid. Lara Trump said she didn’t see any issue with the former president potentially stealing classified documents from the White House. “My father-in-law, as anybody knows who’s been around him a lot, loves to save things like newspaper clippings, magazine clippings, photographs — documents that he had every authority to take from the White House,” she explained to Cain before transitioning into a rant about Hillary Clinton’s emails.

Her husband, Trump’s son Eric, made the same point to Sean Hannity an hour later. “My father always kept press clippings, newspaper articles, pictures, notes from us,” he said. “He had boxes. He moved out of the White House. He’s very collaborative. If you want to search for anything, come right ahead. It was an open-door policy, and all of a sudden 30 agents descend upon Mar-a-Lago?”

The Trumps likening classified documents to press clippings may have been amusing, but others suggested a more terrifying response. Russ Voght of the Center for Renewing America told Laura Ingraham that Republicans need to “dismantle the FBI into a thousand bits” and “prepare for a church style commission next year if given a Republican majority.”

“When we get power back, it’s time to hold everyone accountable,” Ingraham added. “The military leadership, the civilian leadership, the civil service, those in Congress who have abused their power — all of them have to be held accountable.”

The raid has stirred up such a frenzy on Fox News and throughout the right-wing media ecosystem because it gives conservatives an excuse to do the thing they love to do more than anything else in the world, outside of maybe making it harder for people to get insulin: Paint themselves as victims. Trump’s entire ethos revolves around the idea that he, a white man born into wealth and handed every advantage in life, has been wronged by society. Republicans have gladly taken after their leader — and as Fox News’ primetime programming on Monday made clear, they’re willing to use the Justice Department executing a search warrant on a man suspected of committing a crime as the latest piece of evidence that conservatives are under assault by an unjust system.

“Make no mistake,” Hannity warned, “if you are associated with Donald Trump in any way, you better cross all your I’s and dot all your T’s, because they’re coming for you with the full force of the federal government.”

[Nolebull813]

Leave it to the fat slob 66 to cheerlead corruption as long as it’s pointed towards his political enemies. But as soon as it’s pointed the other way, this pussy will be the first to cry about it 

[DBP66]

20 minutes ago, Nolebull813 said:

Leave it to the fat slob 66 to cheerlead corruption as long as it’s pointed towards his political enemies. But as soon as it’s pointed the other way, this pussy will be the first to cry about it 

I cheerlead for justice...you got it twisted champ....🤡