Barr & Trump's soiled reputations

    Elie Honing leads with Barr's embarrassing, corrupt and revealing texts:

    https://cafe.com/elies-note/note-from-elie-bill-barrs-revisionist-bs/

    And then there's Barr's dishonest book promotion tour:

     

    First, as a warmup, here's a piece I wrote last week about Barr's image rehab effort. /2https://t.co/W9qgqMIcdf

    — Elie Honig (@eliehonig) March 7, 2022

     

    Trump immediately declares Barr stupid, which is one way he always gives his accomplices more cred - by criticizing them the must be honest. But no, both Barr and Trump are lying, self-serving shits. As is Bolton, but at least he served more of a purpose. Wait for Pompeo to get going. Who else?

    Comments

    Lincoln Project people still trying to do their part, I see:


    Packing the courts with motherfuckera was always part of the grift.


    Bill Barr roll call of infamy


    Barr resigned Dec 23 - he owns this.


    The Bulwark's stance on the two laid out clear as a bell:


    Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio arrested this morning in his underwear in Miami for conspiracy in connection with the J6 insurrection. From NBC6. pic.twitter.com/NDX6wNoO0T

    — Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) March 8, 2022

    Just in: Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio is indicted. DOJ says the charges include conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding and obstruction of an official proceeding, plus assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers and destruction of government property.

    — Carrie Johnson (@johnson_carrie) March 8, 2022


    Tarrio is not charged with taking part in the breach of the Capitol, but court papers say he led planning and stayed in touch with other members of the Proud Boys during their activity on Jan. 6, 2021.

    — Carrie Johnson (@johnson_carrie) March 8, 2022

    Prosecutors say he will make an initial appearance in court later today in Miami.

    — Carrie Johnson (@johnson_carrie) March 8, 2022

    We cannot rest until all of Trump's insurrectionist, traitorous foot soldiers face justice

    Henry “Enrique” Tarrio, a leader of the right-wing extremist Proud Boys, has been indicted on a conspiracy charge in the Capitol attack.#TrumpCoupAttempthttps://t.co/NblO5Hgc2q

    — Democratic Coalition (@TheDemCoalition) March 8, 2022

    The new allegations in the Tarrio indictment change the entire scope of their Jan. 6 involvement — no more tiptoeing around the premeditated aspect of storming the Capitol.

    The Proud Boys and their allies had plans in front of them, well before the 6th, to occupy the Capitol. https://t.co/JMNfJPBByZ pic.twitter.com/g2yuRl4GhC

    — Andy Campbell (@AndyBCampbell) March 8, 2022

    Former Proud Boys Leader Indicted in Jan. 6 Investigation https://t.co/2Nf4HJILhj

    — Jeffrey Levin (@jilevin) March 8, 2022

    The DOJ is moving up the ladder with the indictment of Proud Boys leader Henry “Enrique” Tarrio. DOJ alleges that "Tarrio and his co-defendants...conspired to corruptly obstruct, influence, and impede an official proceeding, the certification of the Electoral College vote." https://t.co/TXwDOi8Fru

    — KBK (@Kempo50) March 8, 2022

    ^ got to admit , can't get it out of my mind that if a black guy or an Antifa radical was arrested like that, being told to strip to his undies, we'd never hear the end of the humiliating racist bastard cops thing. (Though I will acknowledge that his tribe is probably bitching a blue streak on the internet somewhere about it, after all they are big players in victim olympics and "ACAB" too.)


    this article on the first Jan. 6 trial makes clear how much work and time it takes to collect evidence and defend challenged charges if the defense lawyers are good ones

    kudos to the traitor's son for secretly recording his old man. THAT'S a PATRIOT! FBI Involved @nytimes https://t.co/U6ppKLfevU

    — Zack (@ZackEmery) March 9, 2022

    and that's for someone who was actually on the Capitol grounds. Throw in a pandemic delaying things.

    You can't "lock em up" based on accusations in the media or by opposing politicians, that's not the way our system works. If people have the money to pay lawyers and the stamina to have charges hanging over their head while they are challenged, they might just be able to do that to the end of their lives. (Those without the money and/or stamina take the plea deal.)

    Yeah, reputation is the thing that is the punishment in the meantime, justly or not. (Hence the common line once an accused is exonerated "where does xxx go to get their reputation back?")

    Just sayin'


    so Merrick Garland finally addresses those NCD-types:

    NEW: Merrick Garland says that the Capitol riot inquiry “is the most urgent investigation in the history of the Justice Department.”https://t.co/MXZ65fIgZF

    — Jerry Dunleavy (@JerryDunleavy) March 10, 2022

    I guess it all depends what your definition of "urgent" is. There's legal system "urgent", and then there's lynch-em-now we-all-know-they're-enemies-and-criminals "urgent", with which it's likely you lose the case....


    now here's where I as a taxpayer would support some defunding of "police" 



    It's all Pence's fault. (Perhaps wishing what he calls "the people" would have actually been successful at hanging him?)

    Trump told the Washington Examiner that he has preemptively dismissed Pence as a potential running mate because he doesn’t think “the people would accept it.” https://t.co/GfFPEEQIhA

    — VANITY FAIR (@VanityFair) March 16, 2022



    WTF?


    Project Veritas October surprise still surprising

    https://digbysblog.net/2022/03/20/this-is-a-journalist/


    two more years, could get interesting -


    she clearly thinks they will not select him as candidate, just using him as a cash cow -

    Maggie Haberman also retweeted - 

     



    John Dean says (found retweeted by that evil supporter of law and order and policing, Peter Moskos)


    I would remind that Bannon got discovery in being indicted for not obeying a Congressional subpoena, and has used that to pass on gov/trial-related infot o other Jan 6 participants (and more important Trump, Rudy, etc.).  
















    hmmm



    also

    Trump claims grocery stores in the United States “don’t have bread.” pic.twitter.com/bJfhF0JNRu

    — PatriotTakes (@patriottakes) March 30, 2022




    Chairman Schiff on Trump's new Putin request: "At least he's consistent — consistently immoral and unpatriotic to be appealing to Putin at a time when Russia is killing Ukrainians, once again, for dirt on his opponents." @NBCNews

    — Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) March 31, 2022


    Mike Pence's big 2024 rehab tour features him talking tough about Putin to gain distance from Trump. So let's not let them memory-hole Pence's neck-deep involvement in the Ukraine scandal or his slimy apologetics for Trump's Putinism. Here's a refresher:https://t.co/VB9KwOGkGb

    — Greg Sargent (@ThePlumLineGS) March 31, 2022

    Two lamps. Nice chairs. Choice words about Trump’s treasonous support of Putin is 10/10 @MarkWarner pic.twitter.com/GiHPc2NCXu

    — Room Rater (@ratemyskyperoom) March 31, 2022

    Former US president asks America’s greatest enemy - a war criminal and tyrant - to help him destroy the presidency of his successor after his own coup attempt failed.

    That’s literally the story.
    https://t.co/zlWIxJ7aZz

    — Nick Knudsen (@NickKnudsenUS) March 31, 2022

    Trump is “recapitulating all his most egregious scandals — from ‘Russia, if you’re listening’ to ‘I would like you to do us a favor’ — multiplied by a factor of genocide.” — @SykesCharlie, describing the “sheer revolting awfulness” of Trump’s latest outrageous plea to Putin: https://t.co/2rFsO4nhUp

    — Laurence Tribe (@tribelaw) March 31, 2022

    USA stands with Ukraine
    UK stands with Ukraine
    France stands with Ukraine
    Germany stands with Ukraine
    Italy stands with Ukraine
    Canada stands with Ukraine
    Spain stands with Ukraine
    Poland stands with Ukraine

    Trump stands with Putin.

    — Stephen Groves (@stephengrovesjr) March 31, 2022

    When is the damn GOP going to admit that trump is a traitor and an insurrectionist. Calling putin, the world's butcher, fo a favor during putin's killing of Ukrainian babies is just an example of how terrible trump is.

    — American Veteran (@amvetsupport) March 31, 2022

    Opinion: Forget what you heard. The DOJ’s Jan. 6 probe is moving at a good pace.

    By Randall D. Eliason Contributing columnist @ WashingtonPost.com, today at 3:20 p.m. EDT

    For months, critics of the Justice Department’s investigation into the events of Jan. 6, 2021, have complained that prosecutors appeared to be focusing only on the rioters at the Capitol and not on higher-level targets. Then this week, we learned that over the past two months prosecutors have issued subpoenas to a number of individuals involved in planning, funding and executing the “Save America” rally, including people close to then-President Donald Trump. The response from the critics has been a mixture of professed relief that something is finally happening and continued complaints that the entire process is still moving too slowly.

    I think these critics continue to have it wrong. All indications are that the Justice Department is pursuing this massive, unprecedented investigation methodically and aggressively. I’d argue that the progress has been impressively fast. And now, a little more than a year into the investigation, things are unfolding at an increasingly rapid clip.

    There are hard truths behind the old saying about the wheels of justice grinding slowly. Large criminal investigations such as this involve the painstaking process of gathering massive amounts of evidence, assembling successful cases against lower-level participants, persuading them to cooperate, and using that to build progressively more serious cases against higher-level actors. Many of these steps involve reluctant defendants, defense attorneys, judges and court calendars, and they take time.

    All indications are that the Jan. 6 investigation is following this classic “up the ladder” model. Initially, we heard primarily about the prosecutions of hundreds of individual rioters. More recently, larger conspiracy indictments of members of the militia groups the Oath Keepers and the Proud Boys brought more serious charges against individuals who played key roles in planning the assault on the Capitol. And now we have news of grand jury subpoenas directed at even higher-level targets, providing additional evidence of the investigative work that is going on out of public view. These are all signs of a large, complex investigation proceeding about as we should expect.

    Hopes for fast action at the very top of the ladder were raised this week when U.S. District Judge David O. Carter, hearing a civil case involving efforts to obtain emails from former Trump attorney John Eastman, ruled that it was “more likely than not” Trump himself had committed crimes attempting to overturn the election. I’ve seen even some lawyers suggest that the Justice Department could now simply take the judge’s ruling to the grand jury and get an indictment next week. But that’s not how any of this works.

    Sure, getting an indictment is relatively easy if that’s your only goal; the standard is only probable cause. But prosecutors may seek an indictment only if they believe they have evidence that would likely convince a unanimous jury of guilt beyond a reasonable doubt in a trial where that evidence would be subject to challenge and witnesses subject to cross-examination.

    Convincing a judge in a civil hearing that a crime “more likely than not” occurred is a walk in the park compared with convicting a defendant at trial. No competent prosecutor would claim that Carter’s ruling means they now have enough to indict. And Carter relied only on information already publicly available, not on some new bombshell evidence. So while his finding was noteworthy, it provides no basis for the Justice Department to abandon its methodical investigation and suddenly rush to indict [....]


    Opinion: Trump’s lies are failing ​in Georgia. That’s good news for all of us.

    By Greg Sargent Columnist @WashingtonPost.com, today at 11:15 a.m. EDT

    We’re at a hinge point in our politics: In the coming weeks, we will get a clearer sense of the influence that Donald Trump wields over GOP primaries. Nowhere is this more pressing than in Georgia, where Trump has staked a great deal on his endorsements of a slate of Trumpist candidates who are challenging establishment Republican incumbents.

    Trump’s candidates may be in trouble, and some observers are interpreting as a sign of his weakening hold on the GOP. But something else is on the ballot, too: Whether running on a vow to subvert future election losses by any means necessary will be a political winner for Republicans going forward.

    In a new report on the Georgia primaries, NPR finds that Republicans in the state have little confidence that Trump’s candidate for governor will prevail. Trump has endorsed former senator David Perdue, who is running a primary challenge to sitting Gov. Brian Kemp.

    Trump endorsed Perdue for the express reason that Kemp refused to help Trump steal the 2020 election. But Perdue “lags behind Kemp in fundraising and polling,” reports NPR, and Georgia Republicans say Kemp appears likely to hang on.

    That’s because Kemp is still seen as conservative, due to things like his opposition to covid-19 mandates and his support for Georgia’s voter suppression law. Republican voters appear to think Kemp delivered for them, despite refusing to irredeemably corrupt himself on Trump’s behalf. Indeed, as Josh Kraushaar reports, Perdue is trailing Kemp even though most GOP voters do know Trump endorsed him, a clear sign his 2020 lies may be falling flat.

    If Perdue loses, it will be a comeuppance for one of the sleaziest political hustlers we’ve seen in some time. Perdue’s argument basically amounts to pitching himself as more willing than Kemp to debase himself and corrupt our democracy for the Trumpist cause [....]


    13-D DoJ chess - heading off the wack right-wing judges

     (i.e. this is likely why Garland's huge efforts are so quiet, painfully (and slowly) methodical, and still fraught with peril - even the absurd can sink a ship if not careful)


    DoJ Jan6 explainer


    Our useless FEC (rules largely open to be broken, if any unlikely punishment it's way after and way less than the rewards for breaking the rules)

    But hey, Hillary ran a bad campaign - should've hit some foreign countries up for cash to get her out on the circuit, support more insurgent Facebook campaigns.

    Galling that she & the DNC just had to cough up $140k for mislabeling activities, while the Republicans have made big aport of illegal slush funds tunneling money from one shell corp to another and getting illegal support from corps like Cambridge Analytica as well as direct or indirect from fireign governments in the tens or hundreds of millions. And then there are candidates ignoring residency laws with various games.

     

     


    From Saturday's rally:


    p.s. He got booed for not knowing the local lingo:


    Trump gets attention for saying he lost election

    BY KELSEY CAROLAN - 04/05/22 3:53 PM ET

    If he keeps doing it, that would be his greatest flip-flop yet, YUGE!


    I figure she feels she's got to do something like this because if he ever gets some power back, it's off to Putin's gulag for her:



    strikes me as: I wannabe like Trump

    is more about role model than politics


    Barr is a fuckwad thread, autobiography edition .



    Longer thread, good stuff.




    As Marcy notes, Ali is not "cooperating" - he's simply complying but passing along the same bullshit story he's been peddling for a year. It's like saying Eric Trump "cooperated" by showing up & pleading the Fifth over 500 times. Journalism is so sloppy these days. Which is what let's Barr pass off inane BS to rehab his shitted-on reputation w/o the press properly bringing up details of just how badly Barr ran over the law in 2 blatantly corrupt years.


    legal eagle Colin Kalmbacher at "Law & Crime" reporting:




    Liz Warren vs. Mitch on Clarence Thomas:


    Compare and contrast: styles of Presidenting



    Twitter trending - Piers Morgan - Television host Piers Morgan shares a clip from an 'explosive' upcoming interview with Donald Trump in which the former president can be seen ending the conversation early and walking off set

    etc.

     


    Reed Galen of Lincoln Project:


    Piers gave The Sun an "exclusive" with a bit more juicy stuff:



    ‘I’ve Had It With This Guy’: G.O.P. Leaders Privately Blasted Trump After Jan. 6

    In the days after the attack, Representative Kevin McCarthy planned to tell Mr. Trump to resign. Senator Mitch McConnell told allies impeachment was warranted. But their fury faded fast.

    By Alexander Burns and Jonathan Martin April 21, 2022, 5:01 a.m. ET

    In the days after the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol building, the two top Republicans in Congress, Representative Kevin McCarthy and Senator Mitch McConnell, told associates they believed President Trump was responsible for inciting the deadly riot and vowed to drive him from politics. Mr. McCarthy went so far as to say he would push Mr. Trump to resign immediately: “I’ve had it with this guy,” he told a group of Republican leaders.

    But within weeks both men backed off an all-out fight with Mr. Trump because they feared retribution from him and his political movement. Their drive to act faded fast as it became clear it would mean difficult votes that would put them at odds with most of their colleagues.

    “I didn’t get to be leader by voting with five people in the conference,” Mr. McConnell, the Senate Republican leader, told a friend.

    The confidential expressions of outrage from Mr. McCarthy and Mr. McConnell, which have not been previously reported, illustrate the immense gulf between what Republican leaders say privately about Mr. Trump and their public deference to a man whose hold on the party has gone virtually unchallenged for half a decade.

    The leaders’ swift retreat in January 2021 represented a capitulation at a moment of extraordinary political weakness for Mr. Trump — perhaps the last and best chance for mainstream Republicans to reclaim control of their party from a leader who had stoked an insurrection against American democracy itself.

    This account of the private discussions among Republican leaders in the days after the Jan. 6 attack is adapted from a new book, “This Will Not Pass: Trump, Biden and the Battle for America’s Future,” which draws on hundreds of interviews with lawmakers and officials, and contemporaneous records of pivotal moments in the 2020 presidential campaign.

    Mr. McConnell’s office declined to comment. Mark Bednar, a spokesman for Mr. McCarthy, denied that the Republican leader told colleagues he would push Mr. Trump to leave office. “McCarthy never said he’d call Trump to say he should resign,” Mr. Bednar said.

    No one embodies the stark accommodation to Mr. Trump more than Mr. McCarthy, a 57-year-old Californian who has long had his sights set on becoming speaker of the House. In public after Jan. 6, Mr. McCarthy issued a careful rebuke of Mr. Trump, saying that he “bears responsibility” for the mob that tried to stop Congress from officially certifying the president’s loss. But he declined to condemn him in sterner language.

    In private, Mr. McCarthy went much further.

    On a phone call with several other top House Republicans on Jan. 8, Mr. McCarthy said Mr. Trump’s conduct on Jan. 6 had been “atrocious and totally wrong.” He faulted the president for “inciting people” to attack the Capitol, saying that Mr. Trump’s remarks at a rally on the National Mall that day were “not right by any shape or any form.”

    During that conversation, Mr. McCarthy inquired about the mechanism for invoking the 25th Amendment — the process whereby the vice president and members of the cabinet can remove a president from office — before concluding that was not a viable option. Mr. McCarthy, who was among those who objected to the election results, was uncertain and indecisive, fretting that the Democratic drive to impeach Mr. Trump would “put more fuel on the fire” of the country’s divisions.

    But Mr. McCarthy’s resolve seemed to harden as the gravity of the attack — and the potential political fallout for his party — sank in. Two members of Mr. Trump’s cabinet had quit their posts after the attack and several moderate Republican governors had called for the president’s resignation. Video clips of the riot kept surfacing online, making the raw brutality of the attack ever more vivid in the public mind.

    On Jan. 10, Mr. McCarthy spoke again with the leadership team and this time he had a plan in mind.

    The Democrats were driving hard at an impeachment resolution, Mr. McCarthy said, and they would have the votes to pass it. Now he planned to call Mr. Trump and tell him it was time for him to go.

    “What he did is unacceptable. Nobody can defend that and nobody should defend it,” he told the group.

    Mr. McCarthy said he would tell Mr. Trump of the impeachment resolution: “I think this will pass, and it would be my recommendation you should resign.”

    McCarthy contemplated a total break with Mr. Trump and his most extreme supporters.

    During the same Jan. 10 conversation when he said he would call on Mr. Trump to resign, Mr. McCarthy told other G.O.P. leaders he wished the big tech companies would strip some Republican lawmakers of their social media accounts, as Twitter and Facebook had done with Mr. Trump. Members such as Lauren Boebert of Colorado had done so much to stoke paranoia about the 2020 election and made offensive comments online about the Capitol attack.

    “We can’t put up with that,” Mr. McCarthy said, adding, “Can’t they take their Twitter accounts away, too?”

    Mr. McCarthy “never said that particular members should be removed from Twitter,” Mr. Bednar said.

    Other Republican leaders in the House agreed with Mr. McCarthy that the president’s behavior deserved swift punishment. Representative Steve Scalise of Louisiana, the second-ranking House Republican, said on one call that it was time for the G.O.P. to contemplate a “post-Trump Republican House,” while Representative Tom Emmer of Minnesota, the head of the party’s House campaign committee, suggested censuring Mr. Trump.

    Yet none of the men followed through on their tough talk in those private conversations.

    In the following days, Mr. McCarthy heard from some Republican lawmakers who advised against confronting Mr. Trump. In one group conversation, Representative Bill Johnson of Ohio cautioned that conservative voters back home “go ballistic” in response to criticism of Mr. Trump, demanding that Republicans instead train their denunciations on Democrats, such as Hillary Clinton and Hunter Biden [....]


    McCarthy & Cheney tapes


    Rick Wilson:


    Kinzinger rubbing it in:


    For a party that says it's against homosexuality, they spend a lot of time sucking each others' dicks. Just sayin'...



    meanwhile Trump keeping himself busy tonight digging holes at a Heritage conference (retweeted by Rick Wilson)


    Trump will think they picked those two just to piss him off. enlightened


    CIRCUS STARTS IN JUST A FEW HOURS -



    Trumpies vs. Desantis fans on culture wars? not exactly a pretty look for the GOP -

     



    ^ note NBC title: Jan. 6 revelations will 'blow the roof off the House,' Rep. Jamie Raskin says. The Jan. 6 committee plans to hold hearings in June and aims to have a report out about their investigation by the end of the summer or early fall, Raskin said.


    MTG=>IDR, WTF?



    aiyeeee, PROJECTION!cheeky


    Donald Trump held in contempt for not complying with New York subpoena

    Twitter events, 15 minutes ago, lots of coverage at link

    On Monday, New York Judge Arthur F. Engoron held former president Donald Trump in contempt for failing to comply with a subpoena related to state attorney general Letitia James' investigation into the Trump Organization. Trump was ordered to turn over materials sought by James and will be fined $10,000 per day until he does so, according to The New York Times.


    here's the beginning of the NYT article; I note it could be a nothingburger once again if his lawyers do a good job of handling it

    By Jonah E. BromwichBen Protess and William K. Rashbaum

    April 25, 2022Updated 1:24 p.m. ET

    A New York judge on Monday held Donald J. Trump in contempt of court for failing to turn over documents to the state’s attorney general, an extraordinary rebuke of the former president.

    The judge, Arthur F. Engoron, ordered Mr. Trump to comply with a subpoena seeking records and assessed a fine of $10,000 per day until he satisfied the court’s requirements. In essence, the judge concluded that Mr. Trump had failed to cooperate with the attorney general, Letitia James, and follow the court’s orders.

    “Mr. Trump: I know you take your business seriously, and I take mine seriously,” said Justice Engoron of State Supreme Court in Manhattan, before he held Mr. Trump in contempt and banged his gavel.

    Lawyers for Mr. Trump had argued that they conducted a thorough search for the records being sought by investigators and found no new documents to provide. But Justice Engoron decided that Mr. Trump’s lawyers had not provided sufficient detail about how they searched for records.

    The contempt order could be short lived. If Alina Habba, one of Mr. Trump’s lawyers, files a sworn statement detailing every step that was taken to locate potential documents, the judge might be satisfied, lawyers close to the case said. Ms. Habba said after the hearing ended that she intended to file such a statement, potentially by the end of the day.

    Ms. Habba also said she intended to appeal the ruling.

    At the hearing, Justice Engoron objected to an earlier statement from Mr. Trump’s lawyers regarding their efforts to search for documents, calling it “woefully insufficient” and “boilerplate.”

    It failed, he said, to outline “what, who, where, when and how any search was conducted.”

    The ruling — and Justice Engoron’s comments — represent a significant victory for Ms. James, whose office is conducting a civil investigation into whether Mr. Trump falsely inflated the value of his assets in annual financial statements.

    In January, Ms. James, [....]


    CNN exclusive - Mark Meadows’ 2,319 text messages reveal Trump’s inner circle communications before and after January 6


    "Marshall Lawn", eh? MtG ain't the smartest cookie on the block.


    If you made her up as a character for a fictional product,  no one would believe it. Too simplistic, pure ditz, only knows how to ape or mime the narrative and when in trouble with that makes ridiculous shit up like about space lasers, Jews and wildfires. Nearly the whole GOP caucus is embarrassed of her and wish she would go away and that's really saying something! She is like those people still going to Trump rallies wearing T-shirts with Jackie O and Lady Di, thinking they are still alive, not smart enough to even get Qanon conspiracies straight, she represents those Trump fans that Mary Trump describes her uncle as despising and looking down on. Lauren Brobert is light years street smart/savvier than her but sometimes gets carried away acting childishly goofy in a sandbox with Margerie, same for Gaetz. What boggles my mind is what the voters must be like in her district to send her to the House for them--is it all a joke to them, is that it?

    I'll stop now cheeky


    ah, confirmation of my intuition -


    there's a new nickname for Trump trending on Twitter: "Velveeta Voldemort"



    After Marcy gave him shit, Tribe is learning - we already see how Meadows communicated with everyone on Jan 6. If he's indicted on a little crime, he'll use discovery to pass info to others, including Trump. They all act like a crime family. The court case against Weissenwhatever leading to Trump died because Weissenwhatevers assistant took the fall, claiming he thought all the undeclared tax bennies and gifts were legal, that he just didn't understand, letting his 2 superiors off the hook for blatantly illegal tax practices. Straight out of The Godfather.





    FWIW #DementiaDon currently trending on Twitter, stemming from reaction to his Nebraska rally






    NEW: Mark Esper recounts Trump asking the stunned SecDef if the government could fire missiles into Mexico and then pretend it wasn’t the US who did it in his new memoir https://t.co/eINzwh4gI4

    — Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) May 5, 2022

    note Twitter thread continues with summary of article


    early March ot this year in a speech to GOP donors


    as a reminder, a list of others in his cabinet who complained similarly by Sept. 2018 

    ‘Idiot,’ ‘Dope,’ ‘Moron’: How Trump’s aides have insulted the boss



    One of the ugliest right-wing lies about Jan. 6 is imploding. By Greg Sargent @ WashingtonPost.com. Today at 11:13 a.m. ET. Is an excellent summary, including links to all the recent finds/scoops by NYTimes, re: FBI, Epps. etc.

     


    having some fun pointing out Trump grifting, chapter 2,926:


    leaked emails from Trump's lawyer show blueprint for 2024 coup - Greg Sargent @ WaPo - 

     

     



    White House chief of staff burned papers and used encrypted Signal to hide comms, but Hillary's emails...

    https://www.politico.com/news/2022/05/26/meadows-burned-papers-meeting-s...


     


    Eastman claims made up over & over


    #TrumpIsANationalDisgrace trending today





    Brexit was Trumpery's twin, a Putin production to some extent playing off local conservative nationalism.
    A few years later "mistake to leave" is now polling just below 50% as the plurality opinion aside from London & Scotland, which have it as "hell yeah it was a mistake". (I think they've forgotten about N. Ireland now). "Don't know" still scoring in the teens - will need a few more shortages, truck lineups at the Chunnel and dumbass feeble comments coming out of Westminster to turn them around - war rebound be damned, Boris' Churchill accent won't save him this time.




    amazingly blatant, at least Leona only voiced the tax quote privately


    Alternate Mueller Report

    (Weismann team documents what they weren't allowed to say)

    https://www.emptywheel.net/2022/06/03/four-stories-from-andrew-weissmann...




    see whole thread

    Stewart Rhodes' attorney says Rhodes and Tarrio met only briefly and fleetingly in underground parking garage at 400 N. Capitol St in DC on Jan 5, 2021

    But superseding indictment says meeting lasted 30 minutes ====> pic.twitter.com/CqskBlNCjc

    — Scott MacFarlane (@MacFarlaneNews) June 6, 2022

     


    Liz Cheney:

    "You know, we are not in a situation where former President Trump has expressed any sense of remorse about what happened...We are in fact in a situation where he continues to use even more extreme language...And so, people must pay attention." https://t.co/RaI49kYEiP

    — Bill Kristol (@BillKristol) June 5, 2022


    and the genius The Donald thought he could manipulate Bob:


    Funny that you put Trump and Barr on equal footing here but we learn tonight that Ivanka thinks Barr is far more trustworthy than dear old dad. surprise

     


    Barr was involved in Iran-Contra, resigned days before the coup w/o stopping it, kept Trump from being charged w Russiagate and buried the Ukrainian extortion, plus set up Durham for a long vindictive witch-hunt, etc. Don't think either is trustworthy.



    The former president, responding to videotaped testimony played at the Jan. 6 hearing, said Ivanka Trump had been “checked out” and was not involved in studying the election results.

     By Maggie Haberman @NYTimes.com


    Maggie Haberman on hearing point


    Coup response breakdown


    ratings! yuge! laugh

    and making that joke made me think: bodes well for Liz Cheney's future in politics?




    how Meidas is using the info



    now trending on Twitter: #LockHimUp


    Laurence Tribe:




    Fox's reputation never matters -
    No matter how bad they lie, their audience keeps rallying around their craptastic "fair & balanced" illusion


    Durham also getting worse, if possible...
    An investigator who'll run around the world investigating based on some whispers, but when has the people & documents for the investigation close, can't be bothered - if they don't fit his preferred narrative.



    Cambridge Analytica lives on



    Lincoln Project going with playing up how Trump was okay with Pence being killed or whatever:





    just for fun



    Trump's Jan6 false flag attempt

     



    Nearly 6 In 10 Americans Want Trump Charged For Insurrection: Poll

    The ABC News/Ipsos poll also found that 60% of those surveyed believed the House select committee is conducting a "fair and impartial" investigation.

    @ HuffPost, Jun 19, 2022, 07:30 PM EDT



    a reminder that Kanye West's publicist was a major part of harassing the now famous Ruby Freeman

    So much for the 'black community' thing.

    How many ways does one have to point out that everything is not about racism before people stop it?



    a dozen Feds raid Jeffrey Clark's home pre-dawn while he stands outside in his pajamas


    also


    actually DOJ subpoenas galore today, mass quantities of subpoenas about fake electors allover the country

    So per WaPo, NYT, KLAS reports,

    Subpoenas were reportedly issued today related to Trump fake elector scheme to:

    David Shafer, chair of Georgia GOP

    Brad Carver, Georgia GOP

    Thomas Lane, Trump cmpgn aide in Arizona & New Mexico

    Shawn Flynn, Trump cmpgn aide in Michigan

    — Laura Rozen (@lrozen) June 23, 2022


    A handful of Michigan Republicans were served subpoenas today after they tried to enter the Capitol in December 2020 to falsely certify that Donald Trump won the election. They were escorted that day by several current Republican Representatives.https://t.co/3fodLSASRL

    — MI House Democrats (@MIHouseDems) June 23, 2022

    Rachel Maddow is reporting that multiple Federal Grand Jury subpoenas have been served in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin and other States, regarding the Alternate Electors submitted to the National Archives in the 2020 election.

    — Your other Grandma Beverly Blake (@Beverlylovesboi) June 23, 2022


    the pertinent excerpt from Seth Abramson (groaning mega-thread, ready to crash):


    picture from today's public hearing:






    love it! this is the way to fight a troll of that kind.






    Seth's thread for Thurs Jan6 hearings



    Grifting as bad as the worst televangelists of the past:




    btw, Ali Alexander wanted very much to testify in public to the Jan. 6 committee but they denied him. And nobody knows who the surprise witness Tues. will be:







    reaction from a politically-moderate expert on cops


    Interesting side discussion to above on the Secret Service:

    finally, great point that the word "secret" has a meaning wink



    "who spoke on the condition of anonymity due to an ongoing investigation"

    I suspect we often don't hear more because of the underlined! Any decent lawyer would tell their client that loose lips sink ships, STFU.


    DoJ & Jan6 committee also telling them that. Ppl keep complaining Garland's not doing anything cuz his team's not blabbing to media. And with hundreds of witnesses and unlocking phones, it takes a long time.


    How Dan Rather sees today's proceedings:



    Ah, interesting here, Maggie is basically saying here that Hutchinson was not a source of hers for all the leaks she got during the Trump presidency, that others were but are not as brave:


    WOW Rep. Nadler to House Judiciary Twitter account on Twitter:

    I found that because I saw this quote tweet:


    How the Jan. 6 panel's star witness drew a roadmap for Trump’s culpability

    Cassidy Hutchinson wasn’t a household name before Tuesday, but it seems unlikely she’ll remain in obscurity after her testimony.

    By KYLE CHENEY and NICHOLAS WU @ Politico.com, 06/28/2022 06:14 PM EDT

    The Jan. 6 select committee made a big bet on Cassidy Hutchinson. She delivered on Tuesday — and then some.

    With what may prove the most damning testimony about a sitting president’s actions in American history, the former right hand of ex-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows stitched together every element of the panel’s case against Donald Trump. The Capitol riot committee has painted the former president’s potential criminal culpability for his effort to overturn the election in stark hues: investigators have portrayed Trump fuming atop an increasingly conspiracy-addled West Wing and working to corrupt the peaceful transfer of power at any cost.

    Yet it was their sixth hearing that most clearly cast Trump as a uniquely pernicious force, thanks to a soft-spoken but bell-clear witness [....]

    edit to add:

    Law and Order | Opinion | Did Cassidy Hutchinson Just Hand the Jan. 6 Committee Its ‘Smoking Gun’?

    Donald Trump’s determination to lead his armed followers to march on the Capitol demonstrates the state of mind necessary to prove crimes such as incitement and obstruction.

    by RENATO MARIOTTI @ Politico Magazine, 06/28/2022 07:11 PM EDT Renato Mariotti is the Legal Affairs Columnist for POLITICO Magazine. He is a former federal prosecutor and host of the “On Topic” podcast.

    Anyone who has paid attention during Donald Trump’s presidency knows that “explosive” revelations don’t always mean that legal consequences will follow. But Cassidy Hutchinson’s testimony Tuesday actually moved the ball forward significantly toward a potential criminal prosecution of the former president.

    Up until today, the most damning evidence we’ve seen publicly has been the actions of the crooked lawyers advising Trump, like John Eastman, Rudy Giuliani and Jeffrey Clark. I’ve previously written that they are the “weak link” for Trump because they made false statements to the government and face potential charges connected to those false statements. DOJ often charges false statements, and they are straightforward cases to prove.

    But what makes today’s testimony from Hutchinson, an aide to former Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, different is that it included damning testimony that gives us a window into Trump’s state of mind that would be admissible in court against Trump. Hutchinson was present for conversations involving the president on Jan. 6 in which he clearly announced his disregard for potential violence by his supporters, and she heard firsthand from people who described the president’s fury at being told he could not lead his followers on their march to the Capitol where the presidential vote was to be certified.

    As I’ve explained previously, it could be difficult to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Trump had the “corrupt” state of mind needed to convict him, for example, of obstructing an official proceeding.

    In addition, a prosecution of Trump for inciting violence would face a serious First Amendment hurdle [....]




    "But several [Trump aides] also expressed concern about the committee’s suggestion that someone close to Mr. Trump has tried to tamper with or intimidate the committee’s witnesses...Such interference could be prosecuted criminally." https://t.co/Kl4RgYXRPf

    — Bill Kristol (@BillKristol) June 29, 2022

    2. "Cheney revealed evidence of Trump's inner circle reaching out to witnesses...The Justice Department has a history of bringing felony charges against people who have allegedly tampered with witnesses in congressional investigations."https://t.co/puDaXkkUw5 #axiossneakpeek

    — Bill Kristol (@BillKristol) June 29, 2022


    It’s the crime AND the cover-up.

    — Republicans against Trumpism (@RpsAgainstTrump) June 29, 2022

    This tweet didn’t age well. https://t.co/JeQGNsa3Zm

    — Republicans against Trumpism (@RpsAgainstTrump) June 29, 2022

    Mulvaney predictions:


    From Former @WhiteHouse45 ​Deputy Press Secretary, Trump 2020 spox, etc.





    Liz Cheney:


    Seditious conspiracy:



    Trump coordinated activities





    a few days earlier he retweeted this from a colleague


    Cheney hones Trump indictment msg



    ETTD. A bit more on what they were doing. Chesebro should be interesting.



    interesting that the Committee tweeted a clip of Kinzinger on Colbert's show



    THEY SNAGGED HIM!





    Memory lane - forgot this

    Nice that the powers that be will act on a lie just in case - makes disinfo easier.




    WaPo fluffs Trump again (what *do* they get out of acting like his PR team? I thought he & Bezos were supposed to be enemies)

     




    Henry didn't mind a few minutes of fame I noticed - never too old to play a lap dog.


    Well it takes one to know a much worse one. I definitely thought that the quote was in the spirit of the title of your thread. They all thought he coulda been a contender and he turned out to be such an incredible gobsmacking village idiot. I think of Rex Tillerson as another example of the syndrome - what was he even thinking taking that job?


    Lay down with the pigs and all that...

    Actually i think Rex Tillerson is one of the very few to come out looking a bit morally consistent during this whole debacle. Sure he could've been more forceful, but he got fired for all the right reasons. Not sure what he was thinking, but didn't seem to be padded on 3 sides of the aisle like say Mike "true Patriot Flynn working for several governments at once.

    But whatever Barbara wassername (Walters) retrieved of Henry's reputation he blew it all to hell.

     


    At this rate, there's a danger of running out of people he approves of:

     


    A lot of attention has been paid by the J6 Committee to the Proud Boys' role that day.

    The Oath Keepers' participation and history are far more interesting.

    — JJ MacNab (@jjmacnab) July 11, 2022

    (see thread)

     


    excellent point by Marcie:

    calling them white supremacist never really did sit right with me. Sure, there are some but it's inaccurate, doesn't get you to the truth and full understanding. Oathkeepers especially have more of a libertarian extremist thing going on.


    Everyone loves this non-racist non-offensive "white privileged male" or "white supremacists" or other coined terms to point out the burr in the butt of humanity without which we:d all be (oops, "you all'd be") hunky dory. Of course sometimes that s enlarged to including the white enabling bitchez, no offense I'm sure, so maybe pared down a bit. (But y'all be allies for the battle for abortion, don't y'all worry - 50%, ya know)


    GUEST ESSAY: I Was Betrayed by President Trump

    By Aquilino Gonell @ NYTimes.com, July 10, 2022

    Mr. Gonell is a sergeant in the Capitol Police and was injured during the Jan. 6 riot.




    Bannon in big trouble:


    People jump on Bolton, missing the rather important point that Trump did prepare a rather ingenious complex coup that's taken 1 1/2 years to unravel *by good luck*




    btw Liz Cheney's taken a lead role in the House hearings for months w/o anyone fretting that she's not terribly likeable. How can that be?




    obviously admired the grift -


    The butt-dial heard round the world...

    from Newsgluteusmaximus


    good one for the history books


    Black cop who shot white rioter in country saddled by systemic racism

    ...cleared of wrongdoing by the Justice Department and the Capitol Police. In announcing its decision not to charge him, the Justice Department said in April that investigators had examined video, physical evidence from the scene, autopsy results and statements from the officer involved, as well as other officers and witnesses....


    Ivana Trump dead at 73


    StB/KGB agent? How'd Ivana get to travel so easily when most of Czechoslovakia was locked down post-'68 Spring?
    https://sicem365.com/forums/7/topics/80411
    Fake ski credentials - any "Olympics" ability, or simply a honey trap?
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivana_Trump#Early_life_and_education
    Seems she helped groom her new asset well -
    https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jan/29/trump-russia-asset-claim...



    How Trump underperformed

    (no fraud excuse needed)


    that is so interesting, as Barr suggested about PA, and then the Roll Call study

    Beyond Pennsylvania, a statistical analysis from Roll Call found that Trump underperformed the average GOP candidate in other states such as Georgia, Florida, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio, Texas, and Wisconsin.

    these are important swing states or swingy ones at the very least SO the question for me is WHY DOES TRUMP and his fans have such a hold on so many in the GOP, why are so many so afraid to go against him? He's literally a loser! At the bottom of the party, not at the top, but so many still treat him like a leader.


    It was never about reason and logic. They started planning victimhood & "stabbed in the back" back in Aug/Sept - facts don't derail the plan.





    For both the #ACAB crew and the1/6 gang -

    I love this building. Love what it represents. Love my ancestors for building it (against their will)
    I'm honored to be tasked with protecting it. Great day all #SaturdayVibes pic.twitter.com/yzXeZPUvUL

    — Harry A Dunn (@libradunn) July 16, 2022

    not to mention the Amerika haters and a special reminder for all of you who were making the presumption on 1/6 that they were welcoming protesters because they were white Trump supporters (note #goodtrouble in his twitter handle description)



    Needed to be said. Sick of the hypocrisy about rioting. He didn't use the "cry of the unheard" excuse, though he could have. The 1/6 rioters at least had an ideology about being cheated and a goal to rectify that beyond than just looting the local designer sneaker store


    Jesus youre giving Jan6 dumbtards a lot of credit. Many of the George Floyd/triumvirate protesters felt cheated and violated and thought they were striking back at police and enabling city/corporate structures - and you can arguably say there are enough disturbing cases of unjustifiable police brutality, even if as a percentage it's not as bad as promoted.
    But stolen election? It was all bullshit - in dozens of lost court cases, contemporary reporting, etc. - these fuckers were totally deluded or full of criminal partisan intent, and you're acting as if they had a point, being stoked up for treason, versus angry about purer human injustice (even though yes, someone trying to kill someone & their children over months easily deserves to die in a confrontation).
    I live in a country where there are maybe 1/100th the asshole police encounters that America deals with - it's not unreasonable to be pissed off, even if burning store fronts isn't a constructive way to channel it (they *could* try getting out the vote...). Of course it's turned into wilding, part with the irrationality that's arisen with the pandemic, usual "don't tell me what to do" American attitudes, and the Trump "breaking all precedents and conventions is okay if you're winning 24x7". But dumb uneducated fuckers raging at the Capitol because they can't read a newspaper/online decent news source in 2022 but instead have to get all their news from liars is just not an easy defend. Getting pissed because a black guy gets a knee put on his neck til he dies is a much more obvious and undeniable humane trigger, as is anger at a woman sleeping who gets bullets through her from a mistaken police search, or a black guy chased down a country lane by 3 vigialante rednecks in pickups (yes, with Rodney King we could note he had a long police chase and the trial showed multiple times where King didn't just give up and stop resisting, but it still didn't make it terribly acceptable the extent he was beaten).


    Byrne & batshit crazy



    copying NYTimes' Ray Epps story here so I can delete it from the InTheNews menu

     


    It's hugely shocking that the Secret Service wouldn't take Jan 6 as an obvious crisis for which to hold internal performance & procedure reviews on any communications and situational response - instead just go ahead with supposed plans.
    It's also shocking that they just proceed along like they're their own untouchable entity, no need to respond to Congress or the Administration beyond contemptuous non-answers. Similar to why Hillary's team expected no help from the FBI in 2016 - they had their internal culture, and fuck her. But don't think the Secret Service gets through this without a huge shakeup.


    (The) Anonymous:


    Wittes long DoJ splainer


    Women's J6 support group



    thread of 9 versions

    and a reply


    From Braveheart to Benny Hill in 2.7 secs.


    The more serious Hawley-bashing that's also viral:






    Sarah herself in June

    at the same time, she retweeted this by former Trump staffer Chris Krebs:


    more Murtagh:

    I think what Dems need to take away from this is that uncynical support of law enforcement is still very much a part of the GOP (and law enforcement officers know it, too!)

     


    Trump currently at AZ rally, the meme is victimhood forever

    Trump: "A friend of mine recently said that I was the most persecuted person in the history of our country ... I thought about it, and I felt, you know, he may very well be right" pic.twitter.com/pjGdAx7ZBi

    — Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) July 23, 2022

    hilarious point (maybe it's the arena's nod to Ivana?)

    um, they are playing the Undertaker's music to warm up the crowd before Trump's rally in Arizona pic.twitter.com/DM3efmNoOd

    — Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) July 23, 2022


    Like Mary Trump, Maggie notices the sick syndrome when she sees it:


    My druthers is that Kinzinger shouldn't feed the trolls, but then again, what do I know?




    Pence’s Security Agents Feared for Their Lives, Official Recounts

    By The New York Times•July 22, 2022

    An anonymous White House official testified to the Jan. 6 committee that Secret Service agents protecting Mike Pence grew fearful as rioters drew near. The committee masked the official’s voice.


    Liz Cheney on Fox News today:


    That was a pretty mild interrupt. She got to speak no prob. A later one was a bit worse, but still, not designed to stop her.


    Jan 7 Ginni reflectin'

    from Crooks 'n Liars head & Mother Jones

    David Corn & Karoli were on this real time 

    Ron Filipkowski was tweeting out real time what Trump was up to Dec 18.


    So be prepared...




    Bannon's election fraud audio


    Interesting that Biden is choosing to gingerly start commenting now:


    in current speech after coming out of isolation


    It's a contest -


    "It was the best of Covid; it was the worst of Covid" - move over, Charles, rapsters gotta rhyme to bust....




    I only have one thing to add to presenting this tweet:

    That if the panel doesn't investigate the white supremacy inside the Secret Service, that in itself will be more proof that white supremacy is built into our system! See how that works? angry


    Pages

    Latest Comments