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Donald J. Trump After the White House - Page 21
Josephine Harvey

Donald Trump embraced familiar fearmongering rhetoric about migrants on Fox News on Thursday, warning against accepting Haitian asylum-seekers because “many of those people will probably have AIDS.” The former president made the comments during a discussion about immigration with host Sean Hannity, who said he was all for “legal immigration,” but asked if it was wrong to require a “security check to make sure you don’t have radical associations,” a COVID-19 test and proof that you “won’t be a financial burden on the American people.” Trump said he supported those measures and brought up “one other thing that nobody talks about.” more...
Ryan Lucas

An interim report from the Senate Judiciary Committee provides the most detailed look yet at former President Donald Trump's attempts to enlist the Justice Department in his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

The report from the panel's Democratic majority documents the chaotic final weeks of Trump's presidency following his loss to Joe Biden, and how Trump tried to force Justice Department officials to help him keep his grip on power. Department leaders ultimately resisted Trump's pressure, but it took threats of mass resignations across the department to get him to back down. more...
Trump is at it again; Trump is trying obstruction justice. How many times will Trump break the law and they let him of the hook? If no one is above the law, why does Trump keep getting pass, after, after pass?

Bob Brigham

President Donald Trump's efforts to keep former staff from testifying before the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol was praised on Newsmax on Wednesday night. The actions, which former federal prosecutor Glenn Kirschner described as a criminal conspiracy to obstruct Congress, were praised by Greg Stinchfield. "You know folks, the left will not give up on going after President Trump," Stinchfield said in reference to the former president. more...
Trump is at it again; Trump is trying obstruction justice. How many times will Trump break the law and they let him of the hook? If no one is above the law, why does Trump keep getting pass, after, after pass?

Sarah K. Burris

The Jan. 6 congressional committee filed subpoenas for top aides and former advisers to ex-President Donald Trump followed by a group of 11 additional subpoenas. Behind the scenes, the former president is encouraging those folks to defy the subpoenas, Politico's Betsy Woodruff reported Thursday. It comes despite warnings that it could put them in the crosshairs of the Justice Department.

Woodruff viewed a letter that Trump's lawyers are sending to those subpoenaed, incorrectly claiming that everything they're being asked is protected by executive privilege.

President Joe Biden indicated that he won't allow the use of executive privilege to cover anything involving Jan. 6. But even if Biden was willing to, he couldn't, according to past Supreme Court decision in Nixon v. Administrator of General Services, which ruled that "the privilege is not for the benefit of the President as an individual, but for the benefit of the Republic." more...
By Mark Joseph Stern

The intellectual ringleaders of Donald Trump’s failed coup are finally facing the threat of serious consequences for their integral roles in the legal plot to overturn the 2020 election. No lawyers did more than John Eastman and Jeffrey Bossert Clark to try to hand Trump an unearned second term. Eastman developed and promoted the theory that Vice President Mike Pence could reject Joe Biden’s victory, then endorsed it at the Jan. 6 rally that fomented the insurrection. Clark urged his Justice Department superiors to pressure several legislatures into awarding their electoral votes to Trump even though Biden carried their states. Both men remain practicing attorneys. more...
Analysis by Chris Cillizza, CNN Editor-at-large

(CNN) Donald Trump takes tremendous pride in being rich. Just ask him. "I'm really rich," he said in his presidential announcement speech back in 2015. Which is still true! But, according to the newly-released rankings from Forbes magazine, Trump is no longer one of the 400 richest people in America. It's the first time in more than two decades that Trump has not made the Forbes 400.

Trump, with a net worth of $2.5 billion, missed making the list by roughly $400 million. His net worth is the same as last year, according to Forbes, but a significant comedown from where he was at the start of his presidency. In 2016, Trump was worth $3.7 billion, according to Forbes. That dropped to $3.1 billion in 2017 and held there for 2018 and 2019. more...
Dylan Stableford·Senior Writer

If former President Donald Trump runs and wins back the White House in 2024, his second term in office will be all about "revenge," his former press secretary said Monday.

In an interview with ABC News' George Stephanopoulos, Stephanie Grisham said that the former president's administration often held back in pursuing retribution against his perceived political enemies because he was seeking reelection.

"I want to just warn people that once he takes office, if he were to win, he doesn't have to worry about reelection anymore," Grisham said. "He will be about revenge. He will probably have some pretty draconian policies." more...
Alia Shoaib

Former President Donald Trump claimed that he did more for religion than anybody else while he was president. "Nobody has done more for Christianity or for evangelicals or for religion itself than I have," Trump said in an interview on the show FlashPoint on The Victory Channel, a Christian TV network.

He referenced "getting rid of the Johnson Amendment" which he said was a "very bad thing." The Johnson Amendment is a provision to the US tax code which prohibits non-profit organizations from endorsing or opposing political candidates, or risk losing their tax-exempt status. more...
Reuters

Former U.S. President Donald Trump asked a federal judge in Florida on Friday to ask Twitter to restore his account, which the company removed in January citing a risk of incitement of violence.

Trump filed a request for preliminary injunction against Twitter in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, arguing the social media company was “coerced” by members of the U.S. Congress to suspend his account.

Twitter and several other social media platforms banned Trump from their services after a mob of his supporters attacked the U.S. Capitol in a deadly riot on Jan. 6. more...
John Wright

A Marine who spoke at former president Donald Trump's rally in Georgia last weekend lied about pulling a baby over a wall in Afghanistan, according to a military spokesperson.

Lance Cpl. Hunter Clark, who's under investigation for taking part in political activities by speaking at the Trump rally, claimed he was the Marine shown in a viral video lifting the child over the wall at the Kabul airport.

"We're also honored to be joined by one of the Marines who bravely served in Kabul during the withdrawal — and helped evacuate children over ... the airport wall. You saw him. He did a great job," Trump said in introducing Clark, calling him a "handsome guy." more...
By Holmes Lybrand, Tara Subramaniam and Greg Clary, CNN

Washington (CNN) During a rally in Georgia over the weekend, former President Donald Trump invited Lance Cpl. Hunter Clark to the stage, implying he was the Marine in a viral video who lifted a child over a wall at the airport in Kabul, Afghanistan.

"We're also honored to be joined by one of the Marines who bravely served in Kabul during the withdrawal," Trump said, "and helped evacuate children over ... the airport wall. You saw him. He did a great job."

Clark told the audience Saturday: "I am the guy that pulled the baby over the wall and it's definitely probably one of the greatest things I've ever done in my entire life." Clark then thanked the audience for their support before leaving the stage. Problem is, the Marine Corps says it wasn't Clark in the video. more...
According to the New Yorker, the alleged existence of a separate ledger for Trump has caught the eye of legal insiders.
By Josephine Harvey

A detail in the indictment of Allen Weisselberg, the longtime chief financial officer of the Trump Organization, has caught the eye of legal experts who say it could be bad news for former President Donald Trump, according to a New Yorker report published Wednesday.

Prosecutors at the Manhattan district attorney’s office charged both Weisselberg and the Trump Organization in July, alleging a 15-year scheme to defraud tax authorities to heavily compensate certain executives at the company off the books. more...
“These aren’t leaders of a political movement, they’re leaders of a cult. And they kill,” progressive PAC MeidasTouch says about its #TrumpCultKills spot.
By Lee Moran

Progressive PAC MeidasTouch calls out the “malignant force” of the GOP in its blistering new ad. The 2 1/2-minute spot, released Wednesday, slams the Republican Party for becoming a “misguided personality cult” in honor of ex-President Donald Trump.

The video highlights Trump’s catastrophic mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic, noting how some GOP governors continue to “recklessly” ignore facts and sacrifice lives “in the callous pursuit of votes.” more...
What is Trump trying to hide? The coup attempt maybe.

The former president hopes to block the release of White House records; plus
Nicola Slawson

Donald Trump is preparing to sue to block the release of White House records from his administration to the House select committee scrutinizing the 6 January attack on the Capitol by claiming executive privilege.

Trump’s moves to try to resist the committee, informed by a source familiar with his planning, are likely to lead to constitutional clashes in court that would test the power of Congress’s oversight authority over the executive branch. more...
Three club members played ‘secret role’ in making decisions at Veterans agency, probe finds
John Bowden

A joint investigation by the House committees on Oversight and Veterans’ Affairs found that three members of former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort improperly influenced decisions at the Department of Veterans Affairs, the committee chairs announced on Monday.

Those accused included Ike Perlmutter, CEO emeritus of Marvel Entertainment, who was alleged to have along with the others formed an advisory committee to manage VA policy and frequently interacted with VA employees while improperly shielding their activities from oversight.

In a news release, Oversight Committee chairwoman Rep Carolyn Maloney and Veterans’ Affairs chair Rep Mark Takano alleged that the three men “violated the law and sought to exert improper influence over government officials to further their own personal interests”. more...
Brad Reed

CNN host Jake Tapper on Monday warned that former President Donald Trump likely isn't done trying to overthrow the constitutional order of the United States government.

While discussing Trump's remarks over the weekend at a Georgia rally, in which he doubled down on his false claims about the 2020 election, Tapper said it sounded as though the former president is gearing up for a 2024 run at the White House in which he once again would not accept the election results if he lost. more...
Sarah K. Burris

Former Republican strategist Steve Schmidt is wondering why the strategy memo that President Donald Trump's legal adviser crafted to overthrow the government is not a bigger deal.

Revealed in the book Peril by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa, the memo outlined a plan for Vice President Mike Pence to stop the congressional acceptance of the Electoral College votes for the 2020 presidential race and throw the election back to GOP state legislatures. more...
Brian Murphy once led the DHS intelligence branch.
By Lucien Bruggeman andJosh Margolin

A former senior Department of Homeland Security official who once accused the Trump administration of politicizing intelligence said Sunday that a return of President Donald Trump to the White House in 2024 "would be a disaster" for the U.S. intelligence community.

"(Former President Trump) has denigrated the intelligence community, he puts out disinformation -- and that's an existential threat to democracy and he is one of the best at putting it out and hurting this country," Brian Murphy, who once led the DHS intelligence branch, said Sunday in an exclusive interview on ABC's "This Week" with George Stephanopoulos. more...
ABC News

George Stephanopoulos interviews Brian Murphy, the former DHS acting under secretary for intelligence, on "This Week." video...
By Darragh Roche

Arizona Governor Doug Ducey has said there will be "no decertification" of the state's 2020 presidential election results following an audit in Maricopa County that was highly anticipated by supporters of former President Donald Trump.

Ducey, who is a Republican, took to Twitter on Friday to say the election outcome would not be decertified and that the law did not allow for decertification despite demands from Trump. more...
Top voting official Brad Raffensperger dismayed that the former president uses his lies to fundraise
Martin Pengelly

The top election official in Georgia, a Republican, said Donald Trump unequivocally lost the state in 2020, a day before a rally there on Saturday night at which Trump is set to repeat baseless accusations of voter fraud. On the eve of the rally in Perry, Brad Raffensperger told the Washington Examiner: “He’s going to come, and he’s going to say what he’s going to say, but he knows in his heart that he lost.”

Last January, the Georgia secretary of state resisted pressure from Trump to “find 11,780 votes” and thereby overturn Joe Biden’s win in the state. The phone call in which Trump made that demand is at the heart of an investigation in Fulton county. more...
The National Archives has identified hundreds of pages of relevant documents, which will be sent to Biden and Trump lawyers.
By MYAH WARD

The White House said Friday that President Joe Biden will not invoke executive privilege on his predecessor’s behalf to shield any Trump White House records from the House’s Jan. 6 committee investigating the Capitol insurrection. White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters that the Trump administration hasn’t reached out to suggest protecting any of the records and that they don’t have regular communication with former President Donald Trump or his team.  more...
Travis Gettys

Donald Trump continues to insist the 2020 election was stolen from him, even after a draft report from the Arizona "forensic audit" shows, once again, he was beaten by Joe Biden. more...
Colby Hall

Why many thousands of Haitians ended up at the US-Mexico border
Whoopi Goldberg signs four-year deal with ABC to stay on The View

Former President Donald Trump continued his baseless and disproven claims that he lost the 2020 general election to President Joe Biden due to election fraud. In a statement released late Wednesday, he directed his unique brand of political bile at two Republican Senators, Mike Lee and Lindsey Graham, who were each loyal allies to the White House during Trump’s one term. more...
U.S. leaders took pains to manage what they considered the president's volatile moods and erratic behavior, according to the forthcoming book Peril
By Aaron Parsley

The nation's top military official grew alarmed about President Donald Trump's White House and took steps to avoid clashing with China in the final months of his volatile administration, according to a forthcoming book.

The new details come from Peril, by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa, which describes scenes of anxiety and fear over Trump's behavior.

But it's the descriptions of what Gen. Mark A. Milley did that have drawn sharp responses from Republican lawmakers and Trump himself, though Milley has downplayed his actions as not undercutting the president or civilian control of the military. more...
Lawsuit alleges Mary Trump and NYT ‘were motivated by personal vendetta’ against him and a desire to push political agenda
Associated Press

Former US president Donald Trump has sued his estranged niece and The New York Times over a 2018 story about his family’s wealth and tax practices that was partly based on confidential documents she provided to the newspaper’s reporters.

Trump’s lawsuit, filed in state court in New York on Tuesday, accuses Mary Trump of breaching a settlement agreement by disclosing tax records she received in a dispute over family patriarch Fred Trump’s estate. more...
By Paul LeBlanc, CNN

Washington (CNN) Officials working for then-President Donald Trump's reelection campaign were aware that the voting machine claims being pushed by pro-Trump attorneys were baseless, court documents obtained by The New York Times show.

The documents -- which were filed last week as part of a defamation lawsuit from a former employee of Dominion Voting Systems -- reveal that the Trump campaign's then-deputy director of communications, Zach Parkinson, had reached out to campaign staffers on November 13 asking them to "substantiate or debunk" claims related to Dominion, the Times reported Tuesday. more...

(CNN) John Eastman, a conservative lawyer working with then-President Donald Trump's legal team, outlined in a two-page memo a scheme to try to persuade then-Vice President Mike Pence to subvert the Constitution and throw out the 2020 election results on January 6. The memo was obtained by The Washington Post's Bob Woodward and Robert Costa, the authors of "Peril," and which was subsequently obtained by CNN. Read the memo: more...
Sarah K. Burris

Former acting Solicitor General Neal Katyal noted that one of the things he learned about former President Donald Trump over the past several years of investigations is that the scams he ran for his businesses were similar to those he ran while leading the United States.

Dr. Jason Johnson on MSNBC explained that a recent report revealed additional evidence against the Trump Organization was discovered in a "co-conspirator's basement" recently. It only adds to the mountains of documents and information recovered about the president's former business. more...
Exclusive: Documents suggest Russia launched secret multi-agency effort to interfere in US democracy
Luke Harding, Julian Borger and Dan Sabbagh

Vladimir Putin personally authorised a secret spy agency operation to support a “mentally unstable” Donald Trump in the 2016 US presidential election during a closed session of Russia’s national security council, according to what are assessed to be leaked Kremlin documents. The key meeting took place on 22 January 2016, the papers suggest, with the Russian president, his spy chiefs and senior ministers all present.

They agreed a Trump White House would help secure Moscow’s strategic objectives, among them “social turmoil” in the US and a weakening of the American president’s negotiating position. Russia’s three spy agencies were ordered to find practical ways to support Trump, in a decree appearing to bear Putin’s signature. more...
Christo Aivalis

Donald Trump reportedly was crying like a baby when it became clear Pence would not listen to him regarding the plot to stay in power. video...
Trump sides with the people who broke the law and who committed sedition and insurrection against America.

Bethany Dawson

Donald Trump says his "heart is with those standing for rioters" as police are on high alert for a right-wing rally in Washington DC on Saturday. The 'Justice for the J6' riot rally is framed as a solidarity movement for the 560 people arrested in connection with the January 6 insurrection at the Capitol. On his website, Donald Trump proclaimed his support and continued to peddle the falsehood that the 2020 election was rigged. more...
Trump is more like the son of devil than the son of god.

The billboard prompted some disbelief online.
Bethania Palma

In mid-September 2021, social media users were surprised by a photograph of a billboard that contained a biblical quote that appeared to compare former U.S. President Donald Trump to Jesus, the central figure of the Christian religion.

According to the Chattanooga Times Free Press, the billboard was on Highway 27 in the city of Fort Oglethorpe, which is in Georgia, but was removed on Sept. 13, 2021. It contained a portion of a prophetic Bible verse from the book of Isaiah, and a picture of Trump, leading some to conclude that the billboard likened Trump with a deity, if not Jesus. more...
Trump sides with the people who committed sedition and insurrection against America.

Dan Mangan, Kevin Breuninger

Former President Donald Trump, who was impeached for inciting the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, on Thursday condemned the criminal prosecution of hundreds of his supporters who were part of the mob that invaded the Capitol that day.

Trump’s statement that those people are being “persecuted” came as police in Washington prepared for Saturday’s planned “Justice for J6” rally outside the Capitol, which is being held to support the defendants. more...
Analysis by Chris Cillizza, CNN Editor-at-large

(CNN) It is 100% true that Joe Biden won the 2020 election. And that Donald Trump lost it. Unfortunately, in recent months, the Big Lie -- that Trump somehow was defrauded out of the election -- has gained increasing amounts of traction, according to a new CNN poll.

In January, 59% said they have confidence that elections in this country reflect the will of the people, while 40% said they lacked that confidence. Today? A majority of Americans -- 52% -- say they do not have confidence that elections reflect the will of the people, while 48% say they do. more...
"I can assure you that was said by lots of Republican members of Congress," former Rep. Barbara Comstock tells CNN
By Brad Reed

Former Rep. Barbara Comstock, R-Va., on Tuesday said that she understood why Gen. Mark Milley tried to prevent former President Donald Trump from launching last-minute military strikes in a desperate bid to stay in power.

While speaking with CNN's Anderson Cooper, Comstock explained that she agreed with Milley's assessment that Trump was in a dangerous mental state following his defeat in the 2020 presidential election. more...
By Julia Manchester

Former President Trump's insistence on spreading unfounded claims of election fraud is threatening to hurt the Republican Party in the upcoming 2021 and 2022 elections.

The growing concerns among some Republicans come after Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) handily beat back an effort to recall him in California, where registered Democrats made up a disproportionately high number of mail-in votes. more...
Analysis by Chris Cillizza, CNN Editor-at-large

(CNN) Donald Trump is, at root, just an overgrown kid. And not in any good way. Trump's childishness shines through in an excerpt from the soon-to-be released book by authors Bob Woodward and Robert Costa detailing the then-President's attempts to cajole then-Vice President Mike Pence into overturning the 2020 election.

Here's the key passage -- picking up at Pence's refusal to do Trump's bidding: "When Pence did not budge, Trump turned on him. "'No, no, no!' Trump shouted, according to the authors. 'You don't understand, Mike. You can do this. I don't want to be your friend anymore if you don't do this.'" more...
By Rob Kuznia, Bob Ortega and Casey Tolan, CNN

(CNN) When the election office led by Lisa Deeley first came under attack from then-President Donald Trump last year, it was more than a month before Election Day. Deeley, the chair of Philadelphia's three-member election commission and a Democrat, watched from home as Trump falsely claimed during the first 2020 presidential debate that poll watchers had already been turned away at early voting centers in Philadelphia. "Bad things happen in Philadelphia," Trump said. more...
Alia Shoaib

Most people can vividly recall where they were the moment they heard about the terrorist attacks in New York City on 11 September 2001. Donald Trump is no different. Over the years, the former president has extensively described his memories of the day, including that he helped first responders and lost "hundreds" of friends in the attack. Many of his claims lack evidence and don't hold up to scrutiny. more...
Trump plans to provide commentary for a boxing match on Saturday, the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks
By John Wright

Former president Donald Trump on Tuesday night claimed he was pulled to safety by "two big firemen" after 9/11 when he "heard creaks" at Ground Zero and predicted a nearby building would collapse — which it never did.

"We were hearing creaks, I've never forgotten it, it was I think the United States Steel Building it was called at the time, and it's 50 stories tall, and we heard creaks," Trump told Newsmax. "I said 'that building is going to come down,' and two big firemen grabbed me, and grabbed other people, and they just moved out of that area. Never came down but I never heard a noise like that. And it was a scary situation, but the job they did was so incredible, the first responders." more...
David Edwards

Former President Donald Trump credited himself after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to block a Texas law that places bounties on women who have had abortions after 6 weeks of pregnancy.

In an interview that is set to air next weekend on Sinclair television stations, host Sharyl Attkisson noted that many people are blaming Trump because he appointed two anti-abortion justices to the high court. more...
By Jenni Fink

Members of the public pushed members of former President Donald Trump's cabinet to remove him from office in the wake of the Capitol riot, according to emails that were recently released. Trump faced harsh scrutiny from both Democrats and Republicans after the January 6 insurrection for encouraging the behavior by pushing the message that the election was stolen from him. The House of Representatives passed a resolution urging former Vice President Mike Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment, which would remove Trump from office and make him the interim president until President Joe Biden's inauguration. more...
The Fulton County investigators have interviewed state elections officials about attempts to overturn Georgia’s election results by President Trump and Senator Lindsey Graham.
Jose Pagliery Political Investigations Reporter, Asawin Suebsaeng Senior Political Reporter

A local criminal investigation into then-President Donald Trump’s attempt to meddle with Georgia’s 2020 election recount is inching forward, as Fulton County investigators have interviewed elections officials and received documents from the agency, according to three people with direct knowledge of the probe. “They’ve asked us for documents, they’ve talked to some of our folks, and we’ll cooperate fully,” Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger told The Daily Beast this week. more...
Alia Shoaib

Former president Donald Trump complained about Catholics and Jews who did not vote for him in the 2020 election despite all he did for their communities. Trump made the comments in a campaigning call on Thursday organized by the religious group Intercessors for America.

"I did a lot for the Catholics. And I don't know, you know, I'm a little bit surprised that we didn't do better with the Catholic vote," Trump said. "I think now they would give us their vote. I think we got about 50% of the vote. And yet, we did a lot for the Catholic vote. So we'll have to talk to them. We're gonna have to meet with the Catholics." more...
Another Trump Organization executive to appear before NY grand jury as prosecutors probe former President's business
By Paula Reid, Kara Scannell and Erica Orden, CNN

(CNN) The Trump Organization's corporate director of security is expected to appear before a grand jury on Thursday in Manhattan, where prosecutors are investigating former President Donald Trump's business, according to a person familiar with the matter.

The executive, Matthew Calamari Jr., was served a subpoena to testify, and he is expected to appear to answer questions before the grand jury, the source said. Calamari Jr. is the son of the company's chief operating officer, a longtime Trump deputy who is also under scrutiny by prosecutors in the Manhattan district attorney's office. The Wall Street Journal was first to report on Calamari Jr.'s expected grand jury testimony. more...
Sinéad Baker

Ann Coulter sided with President Joe Biden over Donald Trump in the Afghanistan withdrawal. She tweeted that Biden kept "a promise Trump made, but then abandoned when he got to office." "Trump REPEATEDLY demanded that we bring our soldiers home, but only President Biden had the balls to do it," she said. more...
Trump supporters attacked Congress — and Republicans are still scared of them.
By Hayes Brown, MSNBC Opinion Columnist

Former President Donald Trump’s staunchest Republican loyalists in the House have spent months downplaying the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. But we now also know many of them were scared of the Trump-supporting mob and desperately appealed to the president for help.

I’d say many of them are still scared. They’re scared that betraying their once and future king will draw the eyes of the mob back on them. They’re scared of what will happen to their jobs and power if that happens. And that fear has blinded them to the actual danger their inaction and silence are enabling. more...
David Edwards

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) was caught on camera admitting that President Joe Biden received "7 million more popular votes" to defeat former President Donald Trump. The admission was made as part of a recording that was released on Wednesday by Lauren Windsor. In the video, Johnson says that there's nothing that Republicans could have done on Jan. 6 to stop the election from being certified.

"What the president should have done," Johnson explained, "and he'd be in a much better position today, had he just, when the Electoral College voted, said, 'I don't agree with it, I think there's still fraud, but I accept the results of the constitutional process and the Electoral College vote, OK?" more...
As Republicans in Wisconsin pursue an unneeded audit, the former House speaker stated plainly that Donald Trump legitimately lost.
By Josephine Harvey

Former House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said Monday that it’s clear President Joe Biden won the 2020 election — and that his predecessor Donald Trump’s electoral fraud claims are false — as Republicans in Ryan’s home state push for an unnecessary audit of the vote nearly 10 months later.

“It was not rigged. It was not stolen. Donald Trump lost the election. Joe Biden won the election. It’s really clear,” the former GOP leader said in an interview with WISN 12 News published Tuesday. more...
The former president minimized the now-deceased terrorist just a couple weeks before the 20th anniversary of 9/11 and the same day a dozen Americans were killed in Kabul.
Justin Baragona

On the same morning that at least 12 U.S. service members were killed in a bloody terror attack in Kabul, former President Donald Trump suggested Osama bin Laden wasn’t a big deal and only “had one hit.”

Calling into conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt’s show on Thursday morning, Trump doubled down on his recent claims that the Taliban wouldn’t have quickly taken over Afghanistan following American troop withdrawal if he were still in charge. (Trump negotiated the original peace deal with the Taliban in February 2020, which included a May 1 withdrawal date and the release of 5,000 Taliban prisoners.) more...
By Whitney Wild and Chandelis Duster, CNN

(CNN) Seven US Capitol Police officers are suing former President Donald Trump, Stop the Steal rally organizers and members of far-right extremist groups, accusing them of spreading lies, using White supremacist sentiments to attempt to overthrow the 2020 election, and ultimately bearing responsibility for the riot that injured more than 140 officers on January 6.

"Plaintiffs and their fellow law enforcement officers risked their lives to defend the Capitol from a violent, mass attack — an attack provoked, aided, and joined by Defendants in an unlawful effort to use force, intimidation, and threats to prevent Congress from certifying the results of the 2020 Presidential election," says the lawsuit, which was filed Thursday in US District Court for the District of Columbia. more...
Alana Wise

Nine attorneys aligned with former President Donald Trump who filed an unsuccessful lawsuit challenging Michigan's 2020 presidential election results will have to pay financial penalties and face other punitive actions for their legal effort, a district court judge ruled on Wednesday. "This lawsuit represents a historic and profound abuse of the judicial process," U.S. District Judge Linda Parker wrote in her scathing decision on the case. more...
The Trump Organization has more than $590 million of debt coming due within the next four years
By Tom Boggioni

According to a report from Intelligencer's Eve Peyser, former president Donald Trump is juggling a multitude of schemes to raise much-needed cash since leaving office with a mountain of debt looming in his very near future.

A report from Bloomberg (subscription required) in July stated that "The Trump Organization has more than $590 million of debt coming due within the next four years with more than half personally guaranteed by Trump. This includes $100 million on Trump Tower in Manhattan maturing next year and $125 million due in 2023 for the Trump Doral golf resort near Miami," and that the former president is unlikely to find a financial partner willing to help him refinance his debt load. more...
Analysis by Chris Cillizza, CNN Editor-at-large

(CNN) About halfway through Donald Trump's speech in Alabama on Saturday night, something remarkable happened. As Trump told the crowd that he would "recommend" they get the Covid-19 vaccine, people started to boo. video...
Kelsey Vlamis

A former national security official blamed the Trump administration and Stephen Miller's "racist hysteria" for impeding the visa application process for Afghans who worked with the US.

Olivia Troye worked as the homeland security and counterterrorism adviser to Vice President Mike Pence. In a Twitter thread Friday, she blasted the Trump administration for its handling of the Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) programs that provide a path to US residency for locals who worked with the US government in Afghanistan. more...
Pro Publica

In the months after President Donald Trump signed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act in December 2017, some tax professionals grew giddy as they discovered opportunities for their clients inside a law that already slashed rates for corporations and wealthy individuals.

At a May 2018 conference of financial advisers, one wealth planner told the room that a key provision of the new law “leaves a gaping hole in the tax code." As he put it, “The goal by the end of the presentation today is to make you guys the bus drivers, or the truck drivers, to drive right through that hole with your clients."

Among the tax-saving opportunities offered by the law: Taxes on profits from certain types of businesses were cut dramatically, while the rate on salaries those businesses paid was reduced only slightly. more...
Analysis by Stephen Collinson, CNN

(CNN) A burst of new disclosures exposing the extraordinary efforts by ex-President Donald Trump to steal power after his election defeat constitute a grave warning about the future and his potential bid to recapture the White House. The audacity of the former President's attempts to subvert the law by weaponizing the Justice Department not only underscores how close the United States came to a full blown constitutional crisis this year. It also emphasizes that any attempt by Trump to use a war chest already worth $100 million to try to recapture the White House in 2024 would represent a mortal threat to democracy and the rule of law from a leader who was undeterred even by his own first impeachment. New revelations emerging from Senate testimony, about a Trump Justice Department loyalist's alleged behind-the-scenes efforts to call into question elections in states the ex-President lost, also render the continued GOP whitewashing of history about Trump's crimes against the Constitution even more blatant and dangerous. more...
By Devan Cole, CNN

Washington (CNN) Senate Judiciary Chairman Dick Durbin said Sunday that former acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen revealed in testimony this weekend "frightening" information about what had occurred at the Justice Department during the waning days of the Trump administration. "He told us a lot, seven hours of testimony. And I might quickly add: this was done on a bipartisan basis -- Democratic staff and Republican legal staff asking questions during this period of time," Durbin, a Democrat from Illinois, told CNN's Dana Bash on "State of the Union" of the panel's interview with the former DOJ official. "It really is important that we ask these questions, because what was going on in the Department of Justice was frightening from a constitutional point of view," he added. "To think that (former Attorney General) Bill Barr left, resigned after he announced he didn't see irregularities in the election, and then his replacement was under extraordinary pressure -- the President of the United States, even to the point where they were talking about replacing him, that pressure was on." more...
Analysis by Zachary B. Wolf, CNN

(CNN) President Donald Trump -- back in the final days of his presidency -- didn't exactly make a secret of his effort to overturn the election he'd just lost and so it's very easy to get tired of thinking about it, now that he's out of office and his official powers have been clipped. But in addition to the lies he was spreading all along, we continue to learn new and disturbing details about his obstinate and pernicious efforts to poison the system from within, which included an "Apprentice"-style showdown between two top Justice Department officials at the White House and threats of resignation. more...
By Marshall Cohen, Jason Morris and Christopher Hickey, CNN

Washington (CNN) – Prosecutors in Georgia are still investigating whether former President Donald Trump broke any laws when he tried to overturn his 2020 defeat in the hotly contested state. The probe ramped up earlier this year, with a grand jury convening in Atlanta. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has said the criminal investigation includes potential “solicitation of election fraud, the making of false statements to state and local governmental bodies, conspiracy, racketeering, violation of oath of office and any involvement in violence or threats related to the election’s administration.” more...
A newly released memo shows that Trump told the acting attorney general: ‘Just say the election was corrupt [and] leave the rest to me and the [Republican] congressmen’
Robert Reich

On Friday, the House oversight committee released notes of a 27 December telephone call from Trump to then acting attorney general Jeffrey Rosen, in which Trump told Rosen: “Just say the election was corrupt + leave the rest to me and the R congressmen.” The notes were taken by Richard Donoghue, Rosen’s deputy, who was also on the call. The release of these notes has barely made a stir. The weekend news was filled with more immediate things – infrastructure! The Delta strain! Inflation! Wildfires! In light of everything else going on, Trump’s bizarre efforts in the last weeks of his presidency seem wearily irrelevant. Didn’t we already know how desperate he was? In a word, no. This revelation is hugely important. more...
Some party leaders blamed the former president in the charged moments after the insurrection – but are now embarking on a campaign of revisionism
Hugo Lowell

Top Republicans in Congress are embarking on a new campaign of revisionism seven months after the attack on the Capitol, absolving Donald Trump of responsibility and blaming the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, for the 6 January insurrection perpetrated by a mob of Trump supporters. Some House and Senate Republican leaders stated in the charged moments immediately following the attack that Trump was squarely to blame, and amid blood and shattered glass at the US Capitol, some even considered his removal. “The president bears responsibility,” the House Republican leader, Kevin McCarthy, said of Trump at the time, demanding that he “accept his share of responsibility”. more...
Analysis by Stephen Collinson, CNN

(CNN) Donald Trump now has a $100 million weapon to wield against US democracy. The defeated and disgraced ex-President's huge war chest, nearly all amassed within six months of leaving office, was built on his ravenous calls for cash from supporters bought into his delusional lie that the 2020 election was stolen. It is the latest sign, along with trips to win his favor by GOP candidates and his party's incessant efforts to wipe the history of his crimes against the Constitution, that Trump's threat to basic political freedoms is far from over. more...
The ex-president has built an arsenal of groups staffed with ex-officials and loyalists seemingly aimed at sustaining his political hopes for a comeback
Peter Stone

Donald Trump’s penchant for turning his political and legal troubles into fundraising schemes has long been recognized, but the former US president’s money hustling tricks seem to have expanded since his defeat by Joe Biden, prompting new scrutiny and criticism from campaign finance watchdogs and legal analysts. Critics note Trump has built an arsenal of political committees and nonprofit groups, staffed with dozens of ex-administration officials and loyalists, which seem aimed at sustaining his political hopes for a comeback, and exacting revenge on Republican congressional critics. These groups have been aggressive in raising money through at times misleading appeals to the party base which polls show share Trump’s false views he lost the White House due to fraud. more...
Alia Shoaib

It is unclear what Donald Trump did with his salary from his last 6 months in office, which he promised to donate, according to The Washington Post. While in office Donald Trump pledged to give away all of his $400,000 annual presidential salary. For the first three and a half of his presidency, he donated the money to federal agencies. The Washington Post said it surveyed all major federal agencies and none reported receiving anything from Trump after a gift in July 2020. The paper said it could not account for the the last $220,000 of his salary. more...
Martin Pengelly

Donald Trump insisted on Saturday that when he told senior justice department officials to “Just say that the election was corrupt [and] leave the rest to me”, he was not attempting to subvert US democracy, but to “uphold the integrity and honesty of elections and the sanctity of our vote”. Trump at a rally in Sarasota earlier this month. Trump has fought hard to keep his tax returns from public view. The former president’s restatement of his lie that his defeat by Joe Biden was the result of electoral fraud came a day after Washington was rocked by news of his December call with acting attorney general Jeffrey Rosen and Richard Donoghue, a senior DoJ official. Trump’s pressure on federal and state officials to overturn his national defeat and state losses to Biden has been well documented. Cases mounted by his campaign claiming electoral fraud were repeatedly thrown out of court. more...
Andrew Solender Forbes Staff

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) on Sunday said there is “no doubt” former President Donald Trump instigated the rioters who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, making her one of just a handful of Republicans still willing to highlight Trump’s culpability in the incident. more...
By Scott Wong

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) on Thursday repeated his claims that Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and the Democrats should be faulted for the violent insurrection carried out by a pro-Trump mob. It's an argument McCarthy and Republicans have kept going back to this week as four police officers have publicly called them out for not accepting responsibility for the Jan. 6 attack, which led to five deaths and 140 officers injured. The four officers testified on Tuesday that reckless words and actions by former President Trump and his GOP allies were to blame for the Jan. 6 attack. more...
Tom Porter

Former President Donald Trump, in an at times contradictory statement, responded to the release of documents that showed him pressuring officials at the Justice Department to subvert last year's election. In the statement released on Saturday, Trump denied that the documents showed that he sought to overturn last year's election while repeating the baseless voter fraud claims that have been central to his bid to delegitimize Joe Biden's win. The documents were released by the House Oversight Committee Friday. They contained hand-written notes of a call between former Acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen and Donald Trump on December 27 taken by Rosen's deputy, Richard Donoghue, who was also present on the call. more...
By Fredreka Schouten, CNN

(CNN) Donald Trump's political organization entered July with nearly $102 million in cash reserves -- an unprecedented war chest at this stage in the election cycle for a former president, according to new figures. Trump's fundraising haul speaks to his continued ability to raise money from small-dollar donors online, as he trumpets baseless claims that election fraud led to his loss last year. Trump's team said 3.2 million contributions flowed into the former President's political committees during the first six months of the year. more...
Dan Mangan, Kevin Breuninger

The income tax returns of former President Donald Trump must be released by the IRS to Congress, the Department of Justice said Friday. The DOJ’s Office of Legal Counsel said the Democratic-led House Ways and Means Committee had made a request with a legitimate legislative purpose to see Trump’s tax returns, with a stated objective of assessing how the IRS audits presidents’ tax returns. That 39-page opinion is a reversal of an opinion by the same office, during the Trump administration, which had backed the IRS’ refusal to give the committee Trump’s returns. more...
The Trump way if you cannot win fair then lie, cheat and steal.

By Eric Tucker | AP

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump urged senior Justice Department officials to declare the 2020 election results “corrupt” in a December phone call, according to handwritten notes from one of the participants in the conversation. The notes of the Dec. 27 call, released Friday by the House Oversight Committee, underscore the lengths to which Trump went to try to overturn the results of the election and to elicit the support of law enforcement officials and other government leaders in that effort. Emails released last month show that Trump and his allies in the last weeks of his presidency pressured the Justice Department to investigate unsubstantiated claims of widespread 2020 election fraud, and the department’s inspector general is looking into whether department officials tried to subvert the results. more...
The Trump way if you cannot win fair then lie, cheat and steal.
By Jeremy Herb, CNN

(CNN) Former President Donald Trump pressured acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen to declare that the election was corrupt in an attempt to help Republican members of Congress try to overturn the election result, according to notes of a December 2020 call Trump held with Rosen and acting deputy attorney general Richard Donoghue. During the December 27, 2020, call, Trump pressured Rosen and Donoghue to falsely declare the election "illegal" and "corrupt" even after the Justice Department had not uncovered evidence of widespread voter fraud. "Just say that the election was corrupt + leave the rest to me and the R. Congressmen," Trump said on the call, according to Donoghue's notes. more...
The ex-president’s refusal to accept defeat is taking a toll on the party in a key battleground state.
By NOLAN D. MCCASKILL

Joe Biden defeated Donald Trump by more than 150,000 votes in Michigan last November. Trump and the Michigan Republican Party still aren’t over it. The outcome — and the former president’s obsessive efforts to dispute it — has left the state party in disarray, raising questions about the GOP’s focus as it looks to unseat Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in a top battleground state next year. “From a staff and leadership perspective, I don’t know that top-notch professionals would want to go into this quagmire,” said Jeff Timmer, a former Michigan GOP executive director who opposed Trump. “Unless you’re going to talk crazy talk, they don’t want you there.” more...
Trump AKA Bunker boy is the pussy he was the one hiding in the bunker not the capitol police.

Donald Trump has expressed anger that the officers blamed him for the riot he clearly inspired and speculated they were being used as pawns by Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Asawin Suebsaeng Senior Political Reporter, Sam Brodey Congressional Reporter

In the months since the U.S. Capitol assault, Donald Trump has led the GOP efforts to distort and dismiss the realities of the anti-democratic and deadly riot that the former president himself instigated. In his retelling, Ashli Babbitt—who was shot and killed trying to enter the House chamber on Jan. 6—wasn’t so much a rioter as she was an “innocent, wonderful, incredible woman.” And, in Trump’s mind, some of the police officers who defended the Capitol that day aren’t the real heroes, calling them liberal “pussies” who loathe MAGA, and outliers within a broadly pro-Trump law enforcement community. more...
By Mychael Schnell

A top ethics watchdog is calling on the Justice Department to open an investigation into former President Trump and his one-time chief of staff Mark Meadows , saying the two tried to “weaponize” the department as part of a larger campaign to overturn the 2020 election results. The Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) sent a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland and FBI Director Christopher Wray on Thursday requesting a probe that looks into whether Trump and Meadows tried to pressure the Justice Department into reversing the electoral vote. more...
By Max Greenwood

Former President Trump lashed out at Senate Republicans on Thursday after the upper chamber voted to take up debate on a bipartisan infrastructure package, accusing Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and “RINOs,” short for "Republicans in name only," of surrendering to Democrats. “Under the weak leadership of Mitch McConnell, Senate Republicans continue to lose,” Trump said in a statement. “He lost Arizona, he lost Georgia, he ignored Election Fraud and he doesn’t fight.” “Now he’s giving Democrats everything they want and getting nothing in return,” he continued. “No deal is better than a bad deal. Fight for America, not for special interests and Radical Democrats. RINOs are ruining America, right alongside Communist Democrats.”  more...
John Haltiwanger

Retired Lt. Gen. Russel Honoré, who was tasked by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi with conducting a review of the US Capitol's security after January 6, on Tuesday said President Donald Trump's White House was "complicit" in orchestrating the insurrection. "It's my personal opinion that the executive branch was complicit in the planning and the delayed response that occurred in bringing in more federal assistance to the Capitol that day," Honoré said during an MSNBC appearance, underscoring that this conclusion was not reached as a result of the security review he spearheaded. more...
Sonam Sheth

Capitol Police Officer Aquinilo Gonell on Tuesday said it was "pathetic" that former President Donald Trump claimed the rioters who stormed the Capitol on January 6 were a "loving crowd." Gonell was one of four witnesses who testified at the first hearing for the special committee Congress created to investigate the deadly insurrection. At one point, Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney, who is one of two Republicans serving on the committee, asked Gonell what he thought about former President Donald Trump's claim that there was "a lot of love" among rioters who stormed the Capitol. more...
Evelyn Blackwell

Representative Liz Cheney, Republican of Wyoming, issued a defiant challenge to her own party on Tuesday as a special House committee began its inquiry into the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, saying that the riot would remain a “cancer on our constitutional republic” if Congress failed to hold accountable those who were responsible. In stern opening remarks, Ms. Cheney, one of just two House Republicans willing to serve on the panel, dared her colleagues to support a full investigation into the worst attack on Congress in centuries. “Will we be so blinded by partisanship that we throw away the miracle of America?” Ms. Cheney asked. “Do we hate our political adversaries more than we love our country and revere our Constitution?” more...
Erin Burnett Out Front

Vice Chairman of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, Bill Gates, reacts to former President Donald Trump's rant about subpoenaing network routers used by Maricopa County's election division. Source: CNN. video...
Analysis by Stephen Collinson, CNN

(CNN) Ex-President Donald Trump's big lie came full circle on Saturday as he traveled to Arizona to dangerously seize on the false fruits of a sham election "audit" precipitated by his own discredited claims the 2020 election was stolen. On a late afternoon of delusion and incitement, Trump offered a preview of how he could exploit grievances of millions of supporters who buy his lies about voter fraud to power a possible new presidential run in the future. His speech underscored the nation's split reality over last November's election — the real one in which he lost and President Joe Biden was fairly elected and the nonsensical but powerful one that he sells to his supporters. more...
Wealthy investor is charged with secretly acting as foreign agent for United Arab Emirates
By JOSH GERSTEIN

Tom Barrack, a wealthy private-equity investor and Trump 2017 inaugural chair who now faces criminal charges of secretly acting as a foreign agent in the U.S. for the United Arab Emirates, was set to be released on bail Friday after prosecutors and his defense reached an agreement for him to pledge $250 million to secure his future appearance. The deal spares Barrack — who was arrested Tuesday in the Los Angeles area — from the prospect of spending the weekend in jail and of being transferred in government custody to Brooklyn, N.Y., where the indictment in the case was brought. more...
By Celine Castronuovo

Former President Trump’s leadership PAC has not yet used any of the roughly $75 million raised to help finance election reviews, The Washington Post reported Thursday. The PAC was formed after the 2020 election to help fund the Trump team's efforts to challenge results. Yet people familiar with the PAC’s finances told the news outlet that the committee has held onto much of the money, while a portion has been used to pay for some of Trump’s expenses, including travel and legal costs, as well as staff pay. more...
Dan Mangan

A U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agent has been arrested for allegedly participating in the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol by supporters of then-President Donald Trump. The agent, Mark Sami Ibrahim, allegedly flashed his badge and a DEA-issued handgun during the riot while posing for photos with those items. Photos of him doing so are included in a court filing. Authorities said he entered the restricted area around the Capitol and also climbed on the Peace Memorial at the foot of Capitol Hill. more...
The indictment also charges Barrack with obstruction of justice and making multiple false statements.
By Pete Williams, Tom Winter and Andrew Blankstein

Tom Barrack, who chaired former President Donald Trump’s 2017 inaugural committee, was arrested Tuesday on charges that he unlawfully influenced the foreign policy positions of the campaign and administration to advance the interests of the United Arab Emirates, the Justice Department said. In a seven-count indictment, unsealed in a New York federal court, Barrack, 74, and two others are accused of "acting and conspiring to act as agents" of the United Arab Emirates between April 2016 and April 2018. Barrack was also charged with obstruction of justice and making multiple false statements to federal law enforcement agents. more...
By John Haltiwanger, Sonam Sheth

Former President Donald Trump has repeatedly claimed that he has no financial interests in Russia. "Russia has never tried to use leverage over me," he tweeted in January 2017. "I HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH RUSSIA - NO DEALS, NO LOANS, NO NOTHING!" But a glimpse at his actions over the last few decades paints a quite different picture, one that shows a concerted effort by the real-estate mogul to lay a foundation for the Trump name in the heart of Moscow. more...
A document believed to be from the Kremlin cryptically refers to “certain events” that happened during Trump’s “non-official visits to Russian Federation territory.”
Jamie Ross

For years, there have been whispers that the Russian government holds compromising materials on Donald Trump. Now, an alleged leak from the heart of the Kremlin appears to show them boasting about “kompromat.” The supposed leak obtained by The Guardian reportedly claims that President Vladimir Putin personally approved a nefarious plan to throw Russia’s support behind Trump’s 2016 campaign. The document states that Putin, his spy chiefs, and top ministers agreed that a victory for a “mentally unstable” Trump would permanently weaken the United States. more...
Exclusive: Documents suggest Russia launched secret multi-agency effort to interfere in US democracy
Luke Harding, Julian Borger and Dan Sabbagh

Vladimir Putin personally authorised a secret spy agency operation to support a “mentally unstable” Donald Trump in the 2016 US presidential election during a closed session of Russia’s national security council, according to what are assessed to be leaked Kremlin documents. The key meeting took place on 22 January 2016, the papers suggest, with the Russian president, his spy chiefs and senior ministers all present. They agreed a Trump White House would help secure Moscow’s strategic objectives, among them “social turmoil” in the US and a weakening of the American president’s negotiating position. more...
Matthew Brown | USA TODAY

WASHINGTON – The highest-ranking U.S. officer, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley, and other top military leaders made informal plans to stop a coup by former President Donald Trump and his allies in the run-up to the 2020 presidential election, according to excerpts from a new book "I Alone Can Fix It," written by Washington Post reporters Carol Leonnig and Philip Rucker, describes how Milley and others feared Trump might take unconstitutional actions should he lose. CNN first reported on this excerpt. more...
CNN

The top US military officer, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Mark Milley, was so shaken that then-President Donald Trump and his allies might attempt a coup or take other dangerous or illegal measures after the November election that Milley and other top officials informally planned for different ways to stop Trump, according to excerpts of an upcoming book obtained by CNN. more...
By Ben Jacobs

General Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, likened Donald Trump’s effort to hold on to power after the 2020 election to Adolf Hitler, saying the president was preaching “the gospel of the Führer” with his lies about the election being stolen, according to a new book by two Washington Post reporters. more...
As if living through 2020 wasn't enough, now we have to read about it. Seriously, though, some of these books about Trump and the pandemic are actually worth the pain.
Harry Siegel, Lachlan Cartwright, Malcolm Jones

The thing about these yuge Trump books dropping now is that, unlike the ones that appeared in 2017, they’re not only re-telling a story we just lived through, but one that was widely understood as it happened as a chronicle of an inept and overwhelmed administration. In Trump’s final year, there were fewer and fewer alleged “adults in the room” to watch over a crew of climbers and toadies more or less making it up as they went along in service of an emotionally mercurial, morally crass, and intellectually limited president—who, despite all that, lost narrowly enough, in his mind at least, to deny that reality and could easily have not lost at all if events had played out a little differently. more...
By Jamie Gangel, Jeremy Herb, Marshall Cohen and Elizabeth Stuart, CNN

Washington (CNN) The top US military officer, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Mark Milley, was so shaken that then-President Donald Trump and his allies might attempt a coup or take other dangerous or illegal measures after the November election that Milley and other top officials informally planned for different ways to stop Trump, according to excerpts of an upcoming book obtained by CNN. more...
New Day

CNN anchors fact check Former President Trump's 12 lies during a single Fox News interview. The fallacies were pointed out by CNN's Marshall Cohen reporting. vidoe...
By Daniel Dale

(CNN) He's still repeating his favorite old lies, those eternal chestnuts about the size of the trade deficit with China and the legitimacy of the Russia investigation and how many immigrants show up for their court hearings. But former President Donald Trump's current dishonesty is overwhelmingly focused on a single subject: the 2020 election he lost eight months ago but won't stop lying that he won. In a rambling Sunday address to the Conservative Political Action Conference in Dallas, Trump returned again and again to election-related lies -- some of them detailed and wrong, most of them vague and wrong. What can you even say about claims so disconnected from reality? Here's a brief fact check of eight of them. more...
By Melissa Quinn, Cassidy McDonald, Nicole Sganga, Stefan Becket

Lawyers for the Trump Organization and one of its top executives pleaded not guilty to a slew of charges in a lower Manhattan courtroom on Thursday, as prosecutors alleged a 16-year scheme of brazen fraud and tax evasion by former President Donald Trump's namesake company. A grand jury returned a 15-count indictment against the Trump Organization and Allen Weisselberg, its chief financial officer, late Wednesday evening. Prosecutors from the Manhattan District Attorney's Office detailed the alleged crimes at Thursday's initial court appearance and in the 25-page indictment filed in state court. more...
By Amy Sherman

Trump’s claim that the election was not legitimate is contradicted by mounting evidence from election experts. No evidence has emerged to reverse the election results in any state. A June report by a Republican-led state Senate committee in Michigan found no evidence of widespread or systemic fraud. Trump’s claims are based on distortions and mischaracterizations. more...
Annika Kim Constantino, Dan Mangan

The offices of the Manhattan District Attorney and New York Attorney General have obtained indictments against the Trump Organization and its longtime finance chief Allen Weisselberg, two people familiar with the matter told NBC News. The indictments against the organization and Weisselberg, handed up by a New York grand jury, are expected to be unsealed in court Thursday afternoon in Manhattan, a Trump representative told NBC. Weisselberg is expected to surrender Thursday morning, The Washington Post reported earlier, citing sources. The Post said he is expected to be arraigned in front of a state judge later that day. The Trump Organization is also expected to be arraigned. more...

Former President Trump has begun to publicly campaign against Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, but will his endorsement of her GOP challenger hold any weight? In the latest episode of The Point, CNN's Chris Cillizza explains how Murkowski's Senate race is a proxy fight for the war between the Republican establishment and Trump's Republican Party. video...
Analysis by Stephen Collinson, CNN

(CNN) Former President Donald Trump is facing a wall of accountability and truth as new revelations and investigations expose his abuses of power, delusional lies about the election and business conduct to ever greater scrutiny. Just consider what has taken place over the last several days: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Monday announced a House Select Committee to investigate the January 6 insurrection Trump incited. Details in new books about Trump's misconduct in office underscore the depth of his autocratic threat. A stunning report revealed that former Attorney General William Barr thought his voter fraud claims were "bull---," shattering Trump's voter fraud lies. more...
By Erica Orden and Kara Scannell, CNN

(CNN) The Manhattan district attorney's office is expected to charge former President Donald Trump's namesake company and its chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg, as soon as Thursday with tax crimes in connection with an array of perks and benefits awarded to employees, a person familiar with the matter tells CNN. Though Trump faced multiple federal and state prosecutorial inquiries during his administration, the district attorney's indictment would be the first to charge his company, the Trump Organization, with allegedly criminal conduct. Trump himself isn't expected to be charged, his lawyer has said. more...
Newsroom

Congressman Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) gives his thoughts on the state of the Republican Party, speaking truth, and former President Donald Trump as he hits the road again at rallies. video...
By Nicole Sganga, Melissa Quinn, Stefan Becket

Washington — Ronald Fischetti, a lawyer representing former President Trump in his stand-off with New York prosecutors, expects the Manhattan District Attorney's Office to bring criminal charges against Mr. Trump's company, the Trump Organization, in the coming days, but told CBS News he does not foresee charges against the former president himself. During a virtual meeting with prosecutors last Thursday morning, Fischetti said he asked Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. for details on the charges that are under consideration. "I asked specifically, 'Are any of these charges related to Donald Trump?' And the answer was no," Fischetti told CBS News on Tuesday. more...
By Kara Scannell, Erica Orden and Sonia Moghe, CNN

New York (CNN) New York prosecutors investigating the Trump Organization are scrutinizing cash bonuses as part of their focus on whether the company failed to pay taxes on benefits provided to some of its employees, people familiar with the matter say. The interest in cash payments, which has not been previously reported, is part of investigators' look at whether executives and the company failed to pay appropriate taxes on benefits, including school tuition, cars and rent-free apartments, the people said. It's not clear who received the bonuses or how much they totaled. The Manhattan district attorney's office and the New York attorney general's office have been investigating the Trump Organization and its employees for potential tax-related frauds, and charges could come as soon as this week, CNN has reported. more...
New York prosecutors may soon bring indictment against Trump Organization tied to perks for top executives
David Smith

Donald Trump is facing a potentially crippling financial and political blow as state prosecutors consider filing criminal charges against his family business this week. Prosecutors in New York could soon bring an indictment against the Trump Organization related to the taxation of lucrative perks that it gave to top executives, such as use of apartments, cars and school tuition. The 45th president is not expected to be personally charged but the legal drama could bankrupt his company by damaging its relationships with banks and other business partners, as well as clouding his political comeback. Ron Fischetti, a lawyer for the Trump Organization, held a virtual meeting with prosecutors last Thursday for about 90 minutes in an effort to dissuade them from pursuing criminal charges against the company. more...
Ex-president calls for action to stop ‘delegitimizing of democracy’ during redistricting fundraiser
barack obama speaks at biden rally
Guardian staff and agencies

Barack Obama said on Monday that his successor in office, Donald Trump, violated a “core tenet” of democracy when he made up a “bunch of hooey” about last year’s election and refused to concede he lost. Speaking at his first virtual fundraiser since the 2020 election, the former Democratic president said former Republican president’s claims undermined the legitimacy of US elections and helped lead to other anti-democratic measures such as efforts to suppress the vote. “What we saw was my successor, the former president, violate that core tenet that you count the votes and then declare a winner – and fabricate and make up a whole bunch of hooey,” Obama said. Trump has continued to falsely claim that his defeat was the result of widespread fraud, which has been rejected by multiple courts, state election officials and members of his own administration. more...
"Jesus Christ would have to come down and tell me that Biden won before I would ever believe it," one Trump supporter said at the former president's first rally of 2021.
Kadia Goba | BuzzFeed News

WELLINGTON, Ohio — When Rep. Jim Jordan took the stage at Donald Trump’s first post-presidential rally, he trumpeted the former president’s possible 2024 election bid. And then someone screamed “2021!” The fantasy that Trump could reclaim the White House later this year (some named August 2021 as the time) was a common theme among the droves of attendees at the “Save America” rally Saturday in Wellington, Ohio. It’s not going to happen, and explanations for why it could are rooted in lies and misinformation. But some people think he never stopped being president. “Honestly I think he won,” Anita Lee, 45, who happened to be visiting from St. Louis, Missouri, told BuzzFeed News. “He’s our true president and I don’t think he’s eligible in 2024.” more...
Axios

Former Attorney General Bill Barr said the Justice Department always knew Trump's claims of election fraud were "bullsh*t," according to an excerpt from journalist Jonathan Karl's upcoming book published in the The Atlantic.

Why it matters: Barr's new comments come as Trump continues to propagate the lie that the 2020 election was "rigged." Republicans in swing states now are conducting "audits" of election ballots based on false conspiracies about the election.

Flashback: Last December, Barr told the AP: "To date, we have not seen fraud on a scale that could have affected a different outcome in the election." That comment infuriated then-President Trump, Barr told the Atlantic. “How the f*ck could you do this to me? Why did you say it?” Trump asked Barr. Barr responded that he said it because it was true. “You must hate Trump. You must hate Trump," Trump said, referring to himself in the 3rd person, according to Barr. more...
After six months of relative hibernation, the former president is reentering the campaign fray. It will likely get messy.
By MERIDITH MCGRAW and JAMES ARKIN

Former President Donald Trump is bronzed, rested and politically bloodthirsty. Having spent months in semi-retirement after his election loss in 2020, Trump is set this weekend to kick off a series of political events. Aides and confidants say the goal is to boost his standing in anticipation of a possible future run and to scratch that never-soothed itch he has for publicity. But it’s also to exact some revenge. more...
DHS's top counterterrorism official told members of Congress about the departments concerns in a private briefing.
By BETSY WOODRUFF SWAN

The conspiracy theory that Donald Trump will be reinstated as president in August has sparked concerns at the Department of Homeland Security, a top official there told members of Congress on Wednesday. The exchange came in a members-only briefing that John Cohen, the department’s top counterterrorism official, gave to the House Committee on Homeland Security. Three people familiar with the briefing described it to POLITICO. They requested anonymity to discuss the private conversation. more...
Donald Trump with Bill Barr in 2019. In Barr, Trump appeared to find someone almost entirely aligned with the idea of doing his bidding.
Peter Stone

New investigations will examine the scale of wrongdoing – and experts say there could be more revelations of abuse to come. Donald Trump never did much to hide his dangerous belief that the US justice department and the attorneys general who helmed it should serve as his own personal lawyers and follow his political orders, regardless of norms and the law. Former senior DoJ officials say the former president aggressively prodded his attorneys general to go after his enemies, protect his friends and his interests, and these moves succeeded with alarming results until Trump’s last few months in office. But now with Joe Biden sitting in the Oval Office, Merrick Garland as attorney general and Democrats controlling Congress, more and more revelations are emerging about just how far Trump’s justice department went rogue. New inquiries have been set up to investigate the scale of wrongdoing. more...
Analysis by Stephen Collinson, CNN

(CNN) The Republican Party has turned to another page in the authoritarian playbook as it whitewashes the history of Donald Trump's presidency. It's as if the fawning over Vladimir Putin never happened. Or Trump's assurance that Covid-19 would simply "go away" never passed his lips. Trump's acolytes have, meanwhile, rebranded the worst assault in American democracy in modern times into a January 6 tourist jaunt as they seek to cleanse the reputation of the former President who told rioters to "fight like Hell" and, months later, still holds enormous sway over the GOP. Trump and conservative propaganda media are also assailing Dr. Anthony Fauci to expunge the ex-President's neglect of a pandemic that killed hundreds of thousands of Americans on his watch. more...
The former president's aides and emissaries pressed Justice Department leaders to join legal challenges to the vote.
By JOSH GERSTEIN

Top Justice Department officials derisively dismissed a series of last-ditch efforts by then-President Donald Trump’s aides and emissaries to get DOJ lawyers and the FBI to investigate outlandish election fraud claims in the waning weeks of Trump’s presidency, newly-released emails show. The emails — made public by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee — detail the Justice Department’s response to attempts by Trump’s chief of staff Mark Meadows to get investigators to look at bizarre allegations in a YouTube video where a former intelligence officer named Brad Johnson asserted that individuals in Italy were manipulating votes in the U.S. through satellites. more...
By Whitney Wild, Jeremy Herb, Lauren Fox, Zachary Cohen and Ryan Nobles, CNN

(CNN) New emails from Justice Department and White House officials show how President Donald Trump's allies pressured then-acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen to consider false and outlandish allegations that the 2020 election had been stolen at the same time that Rosen was being elevated to lead the Justice Department in December 2020. The emails show how Trump's White House assistant, chief of staff and other allies pressured the Justice Department to investigate claims of voter fraud in the 2020 election -- and how Trump directed allies to push Rosen to join the legal effort to challenge the election result, according to a batch of emails released by Democrats on the House Oversight Committee on Tuesday. The documents also offer a window into how Rosen dealt with the political pressure coming from the White House. more...

(CNN) New emails from Justice Department and White House officials show how President Donald Trump's allies pressured then-acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen to consider false and outlandish allegations that the 2020 election had been stolen. The documents were released Tuesday by the House Oversight Committee. Read the documents here: more...
By Evan Perez and Chandelis Duster, CNN

(CNN) John Demers, the Trump-appointed head of the Justice Department's national security division, is leaving at the end of the month as planned, a person briefed on the matter told CNN Monday. The national security division plays a large role in leak investigations and was involved in the records seizures that have become public involving members of the media, and lawmakers. The Biden administration's nominee, Matt Olsen, is awaiting Senate approval. Demers has emerged as a key figure in the widening scandal over the Justice Department's pursuit of records from journalists and political opponents as part of a leak investigation. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer on Sunday demanded Senate Republicans join Democrats to subpoena Demers, as well as Trump-era Attorneys General Jeff Sessions and William Barr, following the revelations. more...
Joe Biden and Merrick Garland are acting like Donald Trump was a crazy dream. But the threat to American democracy will only get worse the longer we ignore it.
By Dahlia Lithwick

Things are supposed to feel better now—better than they felt during the Trump administration, at least. The Biden administration and the Justice Department appear hellbent on restoring the (appearance of) normalcy, boring us to death, and getting past the days of a citizenry held captive to madcap tweets. That’s why the administration is focusing on infrastructure, COVID relief, economic recovery, and the workaday acts of governance. Except that alongside these acts of sleepy normalcy we see constant reminders of where we have been and where we are still heading. In the past few days we have learned—among other object horrors—that Donald Trump’s Justice Department seized metadata records for members of the House Intelligence Committee and their families, whom it suspected of leaking. We learned that Trump supporters have been leveling crippling death threats against state election workers. We learned that White House counsel Don McGahn had been instructed to fire Robert Mueller. We learned that in 2019, Rudy Giuliani, acting in his capacity as Trump’s personal lawyer, pressed Ukraine to announce baseless investigations about alleged Ukrainian meddling in the 2016 election. more...
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