Trump on Trial

Color me skeptical.

Ivana Trump mysteriously died falling down a staircase?  There were no witnesses?  Just as her ex-husband #2 (out of 4) is facing sworn depositions in New York and Georgia and faces the very real possibility of being subpoenaed by the January 6 committee?

Seems a little coincidental, doesn't it?  So he could claim bereavement and avoid testifying?  Or am I overstating the depths to which he'd stoop?

Edit: How about this.  Today, July 15, Letitia James, New York's Attorney General, starts taking depositions in her suit against the Trump Organization for tax fraud.  Ivana Trump was, at one point, a manager & bookkeeper for the TO's flagship NY property, the Trump Tower.

Who'd like to bet whether she was on the witness list?

Ivana Trump died of blunt force trauma to her torso.

From a fall down stairs.

Hmmm. Having trouble picturing that.

Quote :

Trump, Donald Jr and Ivanka were supposed to be questioned Friday as part of a New York civil investigation into their business dealings.

But the New York state attorney general’s office postponed the depositions as a result of Ivana Trump’s death. New dates for the depositions weren’t immediately set.

Ivana did not die in vain.

Next most-expendable: Eric.

Tonight’s January 6th Committee hearing talked a lot about Donald Trump waiting for Mike Pence to overturn the election.

Not a word about Donald Trump waiting for his mob to execute Pence and/or Nancy Pelosi so he could declare martial law.

That was a glaring omission for me.

Fox News just aborted a report on Trump’s culpability on January 6.  Bret Baier was saying Trump bears responsibility for the riot, when suddenly that segment was replaced in the middle of Baier talking by a taped report on Dave Chappelle having to change venues in Minneapolis. Hmmm, do ya suppose somebody in the control room received a phone call?
https://video.foxnews.com/v/6309859148112#sp=show-clips

Jamie Raskin is impatient with DOJ for their apparently glacially-slow indictment of Trump and his Trumpettes. But you can kinda see why Merrick Garland has to move carefully -- the old saying "if you're going to shoot the king, don't miss" -- plus his own history with Trump & McConnell, stealing his SCOTUS seat out from under him -- means he has to avoid any appearance of sour grapes.  Biden's appointment of him as AG was probably a mistake.  He should have gone with somebody more aggressive, somebody more partisan, someone with a taste for Republican blood.

The 2022 elections, which start in a mere two months, mean Garland has to put somebody's nuts on the table pretty soon, or else his ability to do so will be compromised.  He's said that the ORC announcing his candidacy for 2024 won't affect his decision to indict him, but there's more to the seditious conspiracy, a lot more, than one dildo.

The FBI raided Mar-A-Lago today in an unannounced raid.

In order to do that, they had to have probable cause, enough to convince a judge that evidence for a specific crime was at Mar-A-Lago. It’ll be interesting to see what they were looking for and what they found.

Ex-President’s home raided by the FBI.

Unbelievable.

I have a speculation on what was seized. Reports are the FBI was after classified documents that Trump had taken to Mar-A-Lago and refused to turn over.

I think it was more than just love letters from Kim Jun Un. Those wouldn’t rise to the level of a very public unannounced raid on a former president's home....

Here’s what makes sense to me. Trump’s phone records during the 187-minute insurrection at the Capitol are known to be missing. I suspect he has notes on which Republican Senators he spoke to, what he promised them, and what they promised him in return. Trump could very well have been holding these phone records as blackmail against these Congressmen, to keep them from coming out against him, or exposing what they know.

Yeah, entirely plausible.  And important enough that the FBI would break into his safe.

Kevin McCarthy is losing his mind. Tucker Carlson is losing his mind. Other Republicans are livid.

Why? Their asses are now on the hot seat.

DOJ has a rule (guideline?) that they won’t move on a candidate within 90 days of an election. Today is 92 days to the mid-terms.

Plus, Trump was in NY for a deposition, so MAL was unoccupied except by a skeleton Secret Service crew. Coincidental? I doubt it.

Fox News and sources even further right are characterizing the execution of a duly-authorized search warrant as "a raid" and an unlawful search-and-seizure and another purely-political witch hunt.

Despite all the facts that the FBI had to have gotten signoff from a federal magistrate by showing probable cause, and likely had to go up the whole chain of command to AG Merrick Garland and FBI head Christopher Wray, due to the subject of the search.

So, fact-free news, nothing unusual about that.

But... it does give me pause.  If evidence of wrongdoing is found in these papers, if a crime has been documented, and if Trump is charged with some felony... will Fox News then come to their senses?  What will it take for them and the MAGA-blogosphere to realize their guy is a crook?

NY's AG is about to indict him.  GA's DA is about to indict him.  The Federal AG is about to indict him.  In all he has well over a dozen likely criminal charges coming his way...  will ANY OF THIS sway his rabid Trumpettes?

And these bozos are not even hiding the fact that law-and-order takes a back seat to their vision of the cult-of-personality.

Steven Crowder wrote:

“If a Republican gets in, investigate everybody, raid everybody,” he added. “Use all of it. I don’t care if we become Nicaragua at this point.”

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/civil-war-fbi-raid-mar-a-lago-trump_n_62f2ac63e4b0f9d8c0213dbf
That should give Republicans the shudders.

Cognizance of guilt.  Trump claimed his Fifth Amendment privilege repeatedly -- over 440 times in six hours, over once per minute -- during his deposition in Letitia James's civil trial for real estate fraud.

That's all the prosecutor needs in his other criminal trial on tax fraud and bank fraud to make a case of conspiracy to commit fraud, which is even more serious than accidental fraud.

Ha! Hoisted with his own petard!

"I know it in my heart, and I know it in my spirit, that Trump has never lied about anything!"
https://www.cnn.com/videos/us/2022/08/10/trump-supporters-palm-beach-pkg-kaye-nr-ldn-vpx.cnn/video/playlists/this-week-in-politics/

I guess(?) that's better than knowing something with your head?

What is this -- some kind of Stockholm Syndrome?  I mean, what causes somebody, somebody competent enough to dress themselves and speak in coherent words, to spout such obviously-false undeniably counter-factual statements?

Okay, I got it. It's a religion thing.

Quote :

Have you ever noticed how close Trump is to Jesus? It's uncanny! We consulted over two theologians we found on YouTube, one of whom calls himself the Third Eagle of the Apocalypse, and we asked them to lay out for us all the similarities between our glorious savior Trump and Jesus Christ.

Here are ten coincidences:

1. Both used to be in construction before beginning their public careers. - Uncanny!

2. Both of them will be returning any day now. - Admittedly one of these is more likely to happen than the other.

3. Jesus made America, Trump made America great again. - Jesus created the world and founded America, and Trump brought it back from the brink of destruction.

4. They were both Republicans. - Obviously.

5. Jesus died and came back three days later - Trump went to Walter Reed with a cold and came back in glory. - The exact same thing! Uncanny!

6. A lot of Trump's supporters denied him afterward. - Sad! Not good!

7. Both of them are well-known for their great humility. - Trump has the best humility, everyone says so.

8. Trump feeds the hungry with the excellent taco bowls at the Trump Tower Grill. - It's just like creating food out of nothing.

9. Both were crucified, though admittedly Trump's was just by the media. - It still hurt, ok?

10. Both of them are the mortal enemy of Democrats. - Democrats hate Trump. You know who else they hate? God. That's right.

The Trump = Jesus memes are hard to tell if they're serious, sarcastic, or just deeply, deeply weird.

Where in the bible does Jesus say, "I like to grab women by the pussy"? "I could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and I wouldn't lose any votes"? "Mexicans are rapists"?

Merrick Garland is going to unseal the search warrant. We'll get to see exactly what they were looking for, and hopefully what they found.

No more "witch hunt." No more "fishing expedition." No more "family photos and press clippings."

NoCoPilot wrote:

NoCoPilot wrote:

We've danced around this issue for over four years, but it's starting to get real.

How many crimes will Trump be charged with?

1. Election interference in Georgia.  Carries a 20-year sentence.  Fulton County DA Fani Willis has hired a successful racketeering prosecutor, and the case seems like a slam-dunk since Trump was caught on tape not once, but TWICE trying to overturn the election results in GA.
   
2. Imperiling Congress.  Eric Swalwell sued Trump for inciting a riot that imperiled his safety.  Experts say the case is strong, using the precedent of the 1871 Ku Klux Klan Act.  Another Rep Bennie Thompson filed a similar suit last week, and potentially all 535 members of Congress could do the same (or at least the 271 Democrats).  If the suits weren't consolidated this could potentially drain huge resources from the ex-president's legal team.
   
3. Tax evasion, bank fraud and insurance fraud.  Though so-far tight lipped, we know Manhattan DA Cyrus Vance has gotten Trump's records from Deutschebank, and in that million-plus page datadump are known to be numerous financial crimes. Many of these carry long incarceration penalties used against Mafia bosses.
   
4. More tax evasion, bank fraud and insurance fraud. New York AG Letitia James is investigating two properties under her jurisdiction that appear to have been improperly reported.
   
5. Obstruction of the Russia probe.  Under new AG Merrick Garland, the ten instances of obstruction of justice detailed in the Mueller probe could be (probably will be?) reopened as criminal prosecutions.
   
6. Hooker hush money.  Cyrus Vance's investigation of illegal campaign expenditures used to silence Stephanie Clifford and Karen McDougal continues.
   
7. Incitement to riot.  DCAG Karl Racine is looking into charging Trump with illegal speech for the January 6 rally-riot.  Up to 6 months in prison for this misdemeanor.
   
8. Illegal use of inauguration funds.  Racine's office is also still probing illegal expenditures, profiteering and possible illegal foreign donations to Trump's inauguration in 2017.
   
9. Defamation lawsuits. Trump still faces two lawsuits for defamation of character from E. Jean Carroll and Summer Zervos.
   
10. Inheritance lawsuit.  Trump's niece Mary Trump still has an active lawsuit over his mishandling of her father's estate.
    
11. Possible lawsuits from charged rioters.  Though none have been filed yet, it's been speculated that rioters charged in the January 6 insurrection could sue Trump for his encouragement in their crimes.
    
12. Corrupt pardons. There is a provision in the law to claw back pardons given corruptly.  It could be invoked in several of Trump's pardons, 85% of which were to benefit himself and his legal problems.
    

https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/12/politics/list-investigations-trump/index.html

Let's not forget:

• Emoluments Clause. Renting rooms in the Trump Hotel to visiting dignitaries, for instance.
  
• Presidential Records Preservation Act. You can't flush the evidence, honey.
  
• Retaliation. Michael Cohen is suing because his home confinement was illegally terminated over his book.
  
• Election fraud. Trump spearheaded the unconstitutional submission of fake electors to the Electoral College.
  
• Seditious conspiracy. Might be the hardest one to prove, but it's also the most consequential.
  

Add espionage. That's one pretty serious.

What's most amusing is that when Trump took documents that he wasn't supposed to, the question of whether or not they were classified is irrelevant The Espionage Act was created before modern concepts of classification existed, and it doesn't mention the subject. And Trump's lawyer signed an inventory of what the FBI removed from Mar A Lago, and thus conceded that Trump is actually guilty of at least some charges.

NoCoPilot wrote:

Leticia James is getting closer to deposing various Trumps and Trumpettes in the NY case against the TO.  Like his university, like his steaks, like his casinos, like his wine, his real estate business is about to be closed down.

The Trump Org is gonna go tits up in the fall.  The Donald will still be able to raise billions from his followers and foreign influence-buyers, but once he declares candidacy for 2024 the FEC imposes strict regulations on who can give and what he can do with the money.

Trump had more than 300 classified documents in his possession. Someone needs to tell him he's not president anymore (his lawsuit asking the DOJ to return them was filed as "President Trump.")

In addition, he reportedly went through the documents personally, himself, to decide which to give the Federal Archives in January. That means he knowingly kept 150 documents that were clearly marked "classified" even AFTER the archives told him to return everything.

If tax evasion and bank fraud don't get him, the espionage act wil.

He really is a very stupid man.

NoCoPilot wrote:

Merrick Garland is going to unseal the search warrant. We'll get to see exactly what they were looking for, and hopefully what they found.

Judge Bruce Reinhart is going to unseal the unredacted part of the search warrant affidavit tomorrow.  It should tell us what basis the DOJ used for determining an on-premise search was required.

Could be devastating for the ORC.  Or it could be redacted to nothing but black bars, who knows.  We already know there was at least one "mole" inside M-A-L who alerted the FBI to boxes-and-boxes of classified material squirreled away in Trump's basement that he masturbated to every night.  Undoubtedly they'll protect that individual(s) identity.

Everything else, so far as I can guess, should be releasable.

Trump is going batshit crazy trying to figure out who ratted him out. If they find him/her, look for another individual to fall down a flight of stairs.

Yikes.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-mar-a-lago-search-affidavit_n_6307d8e9e4b01068e1490237
Even Fox News is excoriating the ex-president for his reckless behavior.