Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

After dobbs, women are no longer free.

There are more Russians standing up to Putin than Republicans.

The lights are all blinking red.

Books are my comfort food!

We will not go back.

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

It’s all just conspiracy shit beamed down from the mothership.

Speaker Mike Johnson is a vile traitor to the House and the Constitution.

Celebrate the fucking wins.

So many bastards, so little time.

I did not have this on my fuck 2025 bingo card.

T R E 4 5 O N

You would normally have to try pretty hard to self-incriminate this badly.

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

So very ready.

Today’s gop: why go just far enough when too far is right there?

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

Jesus watching the most hateful people claiming to be his followers

When they say they are pro-life, they do not mean yours.

Their boy Ron is an empty plastic cup that will never know pudding.

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

Republicans do not pay their debts.

These are not very smart people, and things got out of hand.

You are here: Home / Balloon Juice / Trump Crime Cartel Open Thread: They *Commissioned* A Documentary!

Trump Crime Cartel Open Thread: They *Commissioned* A Documentary!

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Once again ignoring the infamous Stringer Bell Rule: “Is you taking notes on a criminal f*cking conspiracy?”.

Per Rolling Stone:

The Jan. 6 committee has subpoenaed documentary filmmaker Alex Holder in regard to footage and interviews Holder and his team shot while following former President Donald Trump and his inner circle throughout the 2020 presidential campaign. Holder’s company, AJH Films, confirmed to Rolling Stone on Tuesday that he has been subpoenaed, will sit for an interview with the panel on Thursday, and has “fully complied with all of the committee’s requests.”…

In some of the highest ranks of the Trumpworld diaspora — including among several who testified before the Jan. 6 committee — news of the documentarian cooperating with the congressional panel (and also potentially having reams of behind-the-scenes footage of Trump’s crusade to nullify the 2020 election) came as a bizarre surprise. “What the fuck is this?” a former top Trump 2020 official messaged Rolling Stone on Tuesday after seeing the Politico item…

In other words: many of the people actually running Trump’s reelection operation are now saying they somehow had zero clue that an entire documentary was being filmed largely about Trump and his reelection campaign. And now the fruits of that doc are being mined for evidence by the congressional committee investigating Trump and his multi-pronged efforts to shred the American democratic order…

A source familiar with the production of Holder’s documentary, titled Unprecedented, told Rolling Stone that the film was conceptualized and coordinated directly with the Trump family, and that senior campaign staff was not involved in approving participants or in decisions regarding what subject matter would be included in the film. The source, who is knowledgeable about the project and its scope, detailed that Holder had extensive access to Trump campaign activities, including filming behind the scenes at campaign events and traveling with documentary subjects…

As a filmmaker, Holder is best known for his documentary Keep Quiet, which covered far-right Hungarian politician Csanad Szagedi’s fall from power. Szagedi was the deputy head of Hungary’s radical nationalist Jobbik party, and after years of catering to anti-semitic groups was forced to resign when his own Jewish ancestry became public knowledge…

If this were fiction, any respectable editor would’ve red-penciled that nugget. But, hey — this was Prince Jared, Master of Networking!

Scheduled for release this summer by ‘a major streaming service’!


Bring all the popcorn!

Reader Interactions

161Comments

  2. 2.

    pluky

    Can one get a Pulitzer for footage published as the result of a Congressional subpoena?

  4. 4.

    Ramalama

    I so want everyone to make this movie popular and call it “Unpresidented” instead.

  5. 5.

    Gin & Tonic

    British filmmaker, who would like to be able to visit the US from time to time in the future, complies with subpoena.

  7. 7.

    The Moar You Know

    A source familiar with the production of Holder’s documentary, titled Unprecedented, told Rolling Stone that the film was conceptualized and coordinated directly with the Trump family

    NOW he’s going to fuckin jail.  Is it a Jared production?  Don Junior?  Maybe Kimberly!  The possibilities for fail are endless with that crew.

  11. 11.

    lollipopguild

    Trump was going to win and this film would have been the icing on the cake showing him in charge as he won a second term.

  12. 12.

    Ella in New Mexico

    If this were fiction, any respectable editor would’ve red-penciled that nugget. But, hey — this was Prince Jared, Master of Networking!

    First thing out of my mouth when I read about this was IT HAD TO BE FUCKING JARED

    That guy. What price will he pay for this I wonder?

  14. 14.

    Steeplejack

    Sounds like it certainly will be a legacy project for Mr. Trump!

    Cinéma vérité documentarians have long known that their subjects can quickly become used to the presence of an unobtrusive camera and basically forget that it’s there. Also, in the hectic media environment of the White House—not to say chaotic, in Trump’s case—staffers may assume that anybody who is there is working on a legitimate project, maybe just something that they’re not personally up to speed on. Definitely a target-rich environment.

    And, possibly to forestall some whining from the Trump camp, this is from a 2011 New York Times article about An American Family, the 1973 PBS documentary about the Loud family of Santa Barbara, CA:

    For the viewing public, the controversy surrounding An American Family doubled as a crash course in media literacy. The Louds, in claiming that the material had been edited to emphasize the negative, called attention to how nonfiction narratives are fashioned. Some critics argued that the camera’s presence encouraged the subjects to perform. Some even said it invalidated the project. That line of reasoning, as [producer Craig] Gilbert has pointed out, would invalidate all documentaries. It also discounts the role of performance in everyday life, and the potential function of the camera as a catalyst, not simply an observer.

  16. 16.

    different-church-lady

    They… don’t… even… understand… that… they’re… doing… anything… wrong.

  18. 18.

    dmsilev

    Of course there were (video)tapes, and of course it was Jared.

    If I may commit a linguistic sin, schadenhubris needs to become a word.

  19. 19.

    Baud

    I hope the video is filmed like The Office, with action interspersed with interviews.

  22. 22.

    different-church-lady

    I worked on the docu series about the young mayor of Fall River, Massachusetts. One of the first things the director said to us was, “Keep in mind, anything we do could be subpoenaed at any moment.”

  25. 25.

    Delk

    Proud Boys, now Trump—who else had a film crew following them? Please, please, please be Ginni.

  27. 27.

    mrmoshpotato

    So – the orange manbaby dumbass was surprised that a documentarian found interesting footage in what was filmed?

    Interesting…  ETA – does he understand how documentaries are created?

    Dump is also a manbaby dumbass.

  28. 28.

    zhena gogolia

    It’s interesting that these auteurs keep getting caught up in the process.

  31. 31.

    mrmoshpotato

    Also – can we go back to “pig-facing” the Kremlin’s orange fascist shitstain?  It’s still disgusting to see his traitorous face (that’ll never change).

  33. 33.

    raven

    Georgia businessman Mike Collins defeated his Trump-endorsed rival, self-described “Black Donald Trump” Vernon Jones, in the GOP’s 10th Congressional District primary on Tuesday night, according to the Associated Press. With 50 percent of the votes counted just before 9 p.m., Jones, a former Democrat turned “Stop the Steal” rally speaker, was trailing Collins by more than 50 points in the solidly red district. His shellacking comes on the heels of Trump-backed David Perdue’s loss to Brian Kemp in the Georgia GOP gubernatorial primary.

  38. 38.

    mrmoshpotato

    In other words: many of the people actually running Trump’s reelection operation are now saying they somehow had zero clue that an entire documentary was being filmed largely about Trump and his reelection campaign.

    Holy clueless idiots, Batman!

    And now the fruits of that doc are being mined for evidence by the congressional committee investigating Trump and his multi-pronged efforts to shred the American democratic order…

    And I hope parts of the footage can be used to slap some of these idiots upside the head.  Probably not, but I do hope morons go to prison.

  39. 39.

    Baud

    This hasn’t received enough Nelson Muntz’s ha-ha’s.

    Szagedi was the deputy head of Hungary’s radical nationalist Jobbik party, and after years of catering to anti-semitic groups was forced to resign when his own Jewish ancestry became public knowledge…

  40. 40.

    SpaceUnit

    Trump thought the finished version of this documentary would include a laugh track for every occasion he orders a crime.

  41. 41.

    Scout211

    You mean that Ivanka is two-faced!? What?!

    nymag.com/intelligencer/2022/06/before-jan-6-ivanka-said-trump-should-continue-to-fight.html

    In recent weeks, Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump have tried to distance themselves from the election conspiracies circulating in thelast throes of the Trump White House — to the point that Trump claimed his eldest daughter had “checked out” on the matter by December 2020. But on Tuesday, the New York Times reported that for more than a month after the election, she urged her father to “continue to fight until every legal remedy is exhausted” because people were questioning “the sanctity of our elections.”

    Ivanka’s self-contradictory quotes are from a documentary recorded during the last days of the Trump administration by filmmaker Alex Holder, part of which was seen by the Times. On Tuesday, the House committee investigating the Capitol riot subpoenaed Holder for his recordings from the project, which also features interviews with Donald Trump, Mike Pence, and Jared Kushner. Holder is expected to be interviewed during the next public hearing on Thursday.

  42. 42.

    mrmoshpotato

    Bring all the popcorn!

    Now I want one of those big cans of cheddar, butter, and caramel corn.

  45. 45.

    Baud

    @Scout211:

    Holder is expected to be interviewed during the next public hearing on Thursday.

     

    Good. His British accent will add gravitas to the hearings.

  47. 47.

    Ken

    many of the people actually running Trump’s reelection operation are now saying they somehow had zero clue that an entire documentary was being filmed

    Nothing but the best people.

    In an earlier thread, someone pointed out this isn’t unprecedented – there was that author who basically camped in the White House taking notes during the first months of Trump’s administration. No one questioned his presence because everyone assumed someone else had OK’d it.

  48. 48.

    geg6

    @Steeplejack:

    Never forget that the most glorious time of his life was when he was a reality tv “star.”  He loooooooves getting that bloated thing he calls a face on camera and is very used to it.  Thanks Mark Burnett!

  51. 51.

    mrmoshpotato

    @geg6: Never forget that the most glorious time of his life was when he was a reality tv “star.” He loooooooves getting that bloated thing he calls a face on camera and is very used to it. Thanks Mark Burnett!

    I just say Dump’s an attention whore who’s fucked in the head.

  52. 52.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    Incredible. Only Trump’s super bigly galaxy brain could’ve thought it was a brilliant idea to film this. Why the fuck didn’t they tell Holder’s film company to destroy the film video evidence long before now? I’m glad they didn’t, but it does boggle my mind

    Edit: Thanks raven. It’s all digital now

  58. 58.

    Immanentize

    They all thought they would win. That they would achieve their ends.

    This documentary was going to be their Triumph of the Will.

  59. 59.

    Elizabelle

    Finally.  NY Times: South Dakota Removes Its Attorney General After Fatal Crash

    Jason Ravnsborg, who killed a man with his car in 2020, was removed from office after the State Senate voted to convict him. He was impeached by the House in April.

    Mr. Ravnsborg, a Republican, was convicted by the Senate of two charges: committing crimes that caused someone’s death, and malfeasance for misleading law enforcement and abusing the powers of his office. A conviction required support from two-thirds of South Dakota’s Senate, which is dominated by Republicans.

    …. The Senate also voted to bar Mr. Ravnsborg, who had said this month he would not run for re-election, from ever serving in public office in the state.

    … In September 2020, Mr. Ravnsborg called 911 to report that he had hit something, possibly a deer, with his car while traveling at night on a rural highway. The next day, when Mr. Ravnsborg and others surveyed the scene where the collision had occurred, they saw that the car had struck Joe Boever, 55, who had been walking along the highway near Highmore, S.D.

    Mr. Ravnsborg pleaded no contest to two misdemeanor charges in connection with the crash, and was fined but did not serve jail time. Prosecutors who testified before a legislative committee said they did not have evidence to support more serious charges.

  60. 60.

    NutmegAgain

    When do those of us in the cheap seats get to see this material? Huh? Huh?  looks a lot more exciting than more Law & Order reruns.

  65. 65.

    geg6

    @ian:

    I’d say it’s both.  Because white Gopees in Georgia are loathe to vote for a Black man and Trump keeps picking these stupid, vile Black men because he thinks all Black people are stupid and vile so all the Black people will automatically vote for the Black guy.

    Yes, I truly believe this is the case.

  67. 67.

    Immanentize

    @Elizabelle: Fi.NAL.EEE.

    the detail that settled it was that the poor guy, who ended up in that jerks windshield? His eyeglasses were found in the AG’s car! Imagine for a moment how they got there.

  69. 69.

    Percysowner

    Well now that the Republican Party has torched, salted and burned Reagan’s 11th Commandment “Thou Shalt Not Speak Ill Of Any Fellow Republican” maybe the sharper knives in the drawer should institute “Thou Shalt Not Record Any Doing of Crime”. I mean Jeeze! You would think what happened to Tricky Dick would have kept them on their toes, but NOO, they have to have their “legacy” recorded for history. What a bunch of Dumb F*cks.

  70. 70.

    Mike in NC

    Donald J. Trump Sr. Is the biggest fucking asshole alive today whose name isn’t Putin.

  72. 72.

    sdhays

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: I can’t really call it a plot twist when it’s really just that Wolf guy all over again. They gave him free reign to wander about the White House interviewing people with Tramp’s blessing and encouragement and were shocked when he wrote about what all those awful people were doing and saying about each other.

    I mean, at this point I assume at least 50% of the people bumbling around the Tramp campaign were recording everything they saw and heard, either to make money or send to the foreign intelligence service of their choice.

  74. 74.

    Anne Laurie

    @Ken: In an earlier thread, someone pointed out this isn’t unprecedented – there was that author who basically camped in the White House taking notes during the first months of Trump’s administration. No one questioned his presence because everyone assumed someone else had OK’d it.

    That was Michael Wolff.  IIRC, there was an *enormous* hue & cry among Trump’s henchmen about Wolff’s ‘access’ when his first book came out — that was the one where he claimed Trump never intended to win, and Melania was ‘sobbing’ on election night because she’d been promised it was all a front.  Which didn’t keep Wolff from eking out two more Trump books, with some of the details based on what he’d gleaned from hanging around the WH *after* the first book was published!

  77. 77.

    raven

    @geg6: Yea because the white Trumpers who got beat in the primaries had nothing to do with the many democrats who crossed over. See Raffensberger and Kemp.

  78. 78.

    Cameron

    @Geminid: I keep thinking of Blackadder whenever I hear about any of their cunning plans.  With Jared as Baldrick, of course.

  80. 80.

    raven

    @Baud: Yea I saw that yesterday. I didn’t know w ray qualified as a fish. I’ve got video of my having  quite a fight with about a 40 pounder in the surf last year, I can’t imagine what that took but I did notice, even thought they said “reeled” there were no pics of his gear.

  81. 81.

    BC in Illinois

    No one questioned his presence because everyone assumed someone else had OK’d it.

    I learned that trick in junior high school, 60 years ago. If I carried a piece of paper, folded in half, nobody assumed that I was skipping class. Everyone assumed that I was on an errand or an assignment or something. The trick was the piece of paper, folded in half.

    . . . everyone assumed someone else had OK’d it.

    I did get kicked out of the backstage of the girls’ Home Ec fashion show, which was supposed to be limited to the female half of the school. But I had my piece of paper, folded in half.

  83. 83.

    Elizabelle

    @Immanentize:  Yes.  His face came through the windshield, poor man. Ravnsborg settled with Mr. Boever’s widow; undisclosed amount.

    Politico:

    The convictions required a two-thirds majority. Senators mustered the bare minimum of 24 votes to convict Ravnsborg on the first charge … The malfeasance charge — Ravnsborg also asked investigators what data could be found on his cellphone, among other things — sailed through with 31 votes.
    Votes to bar Ravnsborg from future office, taken on both counts, were unanimous.
    … Ravnsborg is the first official to be impeached and convicted in South Dakota history.
    …  Prosecuting attorneys probed Ravnsborg’s alleged misstatements during the aftermath of the crash, including that he never drove excessively over the speed limit, that he had reached out to Boever’s family to offer his condolence, and that he had not been browsing his phone during his drive home.
    The prosecution played a series of video clips during their closing arguments that showed Ravnsborg’s shifting account of his phone use during interviews with criminal investigators. The attorney general at first outright denied he had been using his phone while driving, but then acknowledged he had been looking at his phone minutes before the crash. When it was time for senators to speak, several noted an accident reconstruction that found Ravnsborg’s car had veered entirely out of its lane, in contrast to his initial statement that he was in the middle of the road at the time of impact.

  84. 84.

    catclub

    @Steeplejack: ​
    &nbsp

    ;possibly to forestall some whining from the Trump camp

    Cannot be done.

    so I predict trump will say it was set up by Obama and Hillary to bug his white house.

  88. 88.

    karen marie

    the people actually running Individual-1’s reelection operation are now saying they somehow had zero clue that an entire documentary was being filmed largely about Individual-1 and his reelection campaign.

    I scared my cat when I screamed as I read this.

    What a bunch of fucking maroons.

  89. 89.

    NotMax

    ‘@BC in Illinois

    Reminded of the story of the guys who showed up at Abercrombie & Fitch (back when it was a posh sportsmen outfitting store) in rolled up shirtsleeves and crisply pressed trousers, with pads in breast pockets and a pencil behind an ear, and casually walked off with a canoe.

  90. 90.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Elizabelle:

    Prosecuting attorneys probed Ravnsborg’s alleged misstatements during the aftermath of the crash, including that he never drove excessively over the speed limit, that he had reached out to Boever’s family to offer his condolence, and that he had not been browsing his phone during his drive home.

    So he lied about reaching out to the Boever family? What a dick

  93. 93.

    different-church-lady

    @Gin & Tonic: 1) I value my anonymity. A lot.
    2) He gave absolutely zero clues about being guilty while he was on camera with us. Nothing even vaguely sinister occurred. There are no juicy stories to share (other than the fact that I drove in a rather more reckless fashion following him around on election day than I would ordinarilly…)
    3) It’s possible he is such a sociopath that he could be guilty as hell and still come off completely innocent. In the end I was left with no idea.​​​​

  94. 94.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Huh. O’Donnell reporting that the Senate has voted to “move forward” with the gun safety bill, which I take to mean they’ve gotten it past the filibuster and it will go to a floor vote. I thought they were going to poison-pill it. Fourteen Republicans voted to advance it, including McConnell and Cornyn.

  96. 96.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Senate Judiciary Committee @JudiciaryDems 24s

    BREAKING: After a bipartisan group of Senators released bill text to help protect America’s children and communities from the gun violence epidemic, the Senate has voted 64-34 to advance S.2938, a legislative vehicle for the bipartisan gun safety and mental health legislation.

  98. 98.

    Ken

    @NutmegAgain: When do those of us in the cheap seats get to see this material?

    Everyone’s making jokes about tapes, what with the Watergate anniversary, but the recordings would be digital. So anyone with access could upload them. I don’t think we’ll be that lucky, though.

  99. 99.

    Wyatt Salamanca

    Nothing is sweeter than the prospect of Trump being done in by his own monumental narcissism. Can’t wait to see the video on Thursday.

  100. 100.

    Barbara

    This is funny. But seriously, anyone involved in a campaign really should expect that anything they say might be recorded somehow by someone. Remember the 47%!

  101. 101.

    a thousand flouncing lurkers (was fidelio)

    @Percysowner: No, we want them to record their crimes. It makes things much easier for the prosecutors, and harder for their apologists. See Nixon and his recordings, which were simply done for convenient record-keeping.

  102. 102.

    Ken

    @different-church-lady: He gave absolutely zero clues about being guilty while he was on camera with us.

    I thought you were talking about Ravnsborg until I followed the links back. Pity, I was about to snark about his ability to feel guilt.

  104. 104.

    lurker

    @raven:  @sab:  @raven:  @Immanentize:  @raven:  @Immanentize:

    seems like there might be some snark involved here, but…

    I saw what Maddow reported last night (generally watch a delayed on-demand version) about Bowers, and the key thing was that he reported essentially in real time to the public what the TFG minions were doing in terms of pressure – which he received as AZ speaker of the house.  I know a little about him from slight familiarity with AZ politics – definitely not a fan.  However, a la Cheney the younger and the Kinzinger heir, it seems like we need to make a point of providing some praise and support for politicians who do the right thing – that behavior is in short supply pretty much everywhere, and has been in most places for most of history.

     

    Anyway, my two cents.  Hoping to see some stuff on the hearings when I catch up on the day later tonight…

  106. 106.

    azlib

    Reminds me of Nixon’s tapes which were revealed as an aside by Alexander Butterfield during one of the Senate hearings.

  108. 108.

    Barbara

    @Elizabelle: ​I forgot that the victim’s glasses were found inside the AG’s car, making it hard to believe he didn’t know he had hit a man. He just tried to brazen it out.

  109. 109.

    SFBayAreaGal

    Does anyone know how the Committee knew about the filming of Trump and Company?

  110. 110.

    James E Powell

    @lurker:

    The Republicans on the J6 committee & the ones who are going on record to support the case against Trump are necessary to reduce the impression that it’s just Democrats bitching about Trump.

  113. 113.

    Anne Laurie

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): I wonder how exactly he got access to WH grounds if he wasn’t supposed to be there

    Wolff had access to the White House, originally, because he was an “old friend” (useful acquaintance) from Trump’s days as a NYC real-estate hustler.

    Once he’d started camping out on a couch just outside the Oval Office, nobody in the new crowd dared risk saying anything about this snarky dude cracking rude jokes — he *might* be important enough that Trump wanted him there.  At the very least, in a contest between some lowly WH intern and a big-name NY media guy, everyone knew who Trump would choose to believe.

    And (again, IIRC — not gonna bother googling) after Wolff’s first book and the related (bad for Trump) publicity… nobody wanted to be in Wolff’s cross-hairs, because there was already reason to believe Trump was gonna be a one-term president, possibly because he’d be in jail (or at least living in a country without an extradiction treaty).

    IMO, what historians are going to highlight about the Trump regency is how chaotic the whole thing was.  Nobody ever knew for sure what was going on, everybody was lying to each other and/or to themselves, and the guy at the center of the whole conspiracy was a black hole of narcissism and dishonesty.  Even Trump himself doesn’t seem to have had a clear idea of what was going on!

  114. 114.

    Almost Retired

    @geg6:  I hope that history regards Mark Burnett as the Leni Riefenstahl of our time.  Only less artistically effective.

  115. 115.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    This was funny, from teh Maddow program tonight:

    Maddow Blog @MaddowBlog

    Sen. Ron Johnson so much didn’t want to talk to reporters about his office trying to pass fake elector lists to the vice president’s office that he tried to pretend he was on the phone

    I’d like to nominate the reporter who says, “No, you’re not, I can see your screen” for Pulitzer. Or at least buy him a couple of jars.

  116. 116.

    Fake Irishman

    @Immanentize:

    yep. Also remember that this vote was just to start debate on the shell of a house bill that will be gutted and amended. There’s not a final agreement yet and there are tons of amendments and one more vote to get 60 for cloture on debate before a theoretical final passage.
    So there’s real chance something gets done, but a long way to go.

  117. 117.

    Ken

    @SFBayAreaGal: Does anyone know how the Committee knew about the filming of Trump and Company?

    I’m hoping Jared accidentally mentioned it in his testimony.

    In terms of our overused “lazy writers” trope, it’s a sure thing.

  118. 118.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Kornacki announces that Mo Brooks did not debase himself enough in the mad pursuit to regain Donald trump’s favor. He lost his run-off race for the R nomination. Let the sad trombone ring out.

  119. 119.

    James E Powell

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    The FTFNYT has a soft-focus article about the woman who beat Brooks, praising her for her “savvy” in sucking up to Trump. She strikes me as a bog standard right-wing a hole.

  120. 120.

    Layer8Problem

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:  Senator Johnson whips out the paper bag he has for emergencies and yanks it over his head.  “HAH!  Now you can’t see me!  So long suckers!! BWAH-HAH-HAH-HAH!”  Hilarity ensues as the senator runs down the street at great speed, caroming off lampposts.

  121. 121.

    Suzanne

    I am on this weird vacation — spent the first few days of it with my in-laws, so stressful — and I am just dreading going back to real life. I have never been the type to want to go off-grid, but this pandemic and the entire Trump admin has really broken me. How much does it cost to secede from society?

  123. 123.

    Scout211

    @SFBayAreaGal:

    newsweek.com/donald-trump-inner-circle-footage-january-6-committee-1717793

    A little more background in this article. It’s unclear who leaked the existence of the documentary but it sounds like Holder couldn’t release it until recently.

    Edited for clarity

    Holder said footage for a documentary titled Unprecedented was originally purchased by an unspecified streaming service last year and is scheduled to be released in three parts this summer. Previously, due to the sale of the footage, Holder said he had no legal authority to release the material or publicly discuss its contents—adding that he “maintained full editorial control” and was never compensated by Trump, his family or the former president’s staff.

     

    Other content reportedly includes “unparalleled access and exclusive interviews” with Trump himself, as well as with his children Ivanka, Eric and Donald, Jr. Jared Kushner and former Vice President Mike Pence are also involved.

    Featured footage takes place at the White House, Mar-a-Lago and at behind-the-scenes events on the campaign trail. It also provides before-and-after interviews following the events of January 6, Holder said..

  124. 124.

    stinger

    @Suzanne: Hang in there. Little kids can now get the covid vaccine, and the January 6 hearings are going extremely well. There is reason for hope!

  125. 125.

    NotMax

    ‘@Suzanne

    How much does it cost to secede from society?

    As the old saying has it, if you have to ask you can’t afford it.

    ;)

  127. 127.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @TaMara: ​
      At least Nixon kept control of his tapes. These clowns let outside parties in to film them criming.

  131. 131.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    interesting, I’ve been wondering about the schedule. I think their flexibility has been a strength

    CNN @CNN 2h

    Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) says evidence may require additional January 6 hearings. On being open to hearing from Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI), he added, “the organized hit on the election implied the collection of these counterfeit electors.”

    I think it was Adam Schiff who said the other day, “We know more today than we did last week”. I wonder if these tapes are what they know now, or if there’s even more they didn’t know a week ago.

  132. 132.

    Suzanne

    @NotMax:

    As the old saying has it, if you have to ask you can’t afford it. 

    I know I can’t afford it, that’s one of the things that makes modern capitalism/the death of democracy so terrifying!

    I just wish I had hope that my kids’ lives would be better, you know? I don’t, and that is exhausting on a deep level.

  133. 133.

    Ben Cisco

    @James E Powell:

    She strikes me as a bog standard right-wing a hole.

    This is an accurate take. UA Law grad, tossed integrity in the trash to hitch her wagon to Lump. Campaign commercials and billboards touting his endorsement.

    At least Brooks told the truth about Orangemandius a couple of times. Britt never will.

    My state falls a little further…

  139. 139.

    Ruckus

    @different-church-lady: 
    One wonders if they really are that pompous, that arrogant, that entitled, or just that plain fucking stupid to not understand that professionally filming your crimes might just be a step too far at the end of the day, especially a crime as big as this one.

  140. 140.

    Medicine Man

    Doubtless already said in this thread, but these mopes needed to learn the Stringer Bell rule of note–taking during a criminal conspiracy.

  141. 141.

    Ruckus

    @dmsilev:

    schadenhubris

    A good word, worthy of the moment for sure, but.

    The concept, the balls, just the out of the park temerity, would this word actually define this? It seems like just one word can never be descriptive enough of this entire crew of morons, idiots, dipshits, assholes, pricks and their hangers on.

  143. 143.

    Ruckus

    @Anne Laurie:

    “Even Trump himself doesn’t seem to have had a clear idea of what was going on!”

    He never actually does. He has a smidgen that it is or isn’t going in his direction, but an actual idea? None. He was born a fuck up, he’s remained one his entire life, he ain’t changing now.

  144. 144.

    sukabi

    @different-church-lady: yes they do, they’ve just suffered no real consequences so far, and they were convinced their plot would be successful. This was a documentary to show everyone just how f’n smart they were….which it does….who else thinks to document their crime spree?

  145. 145.

    zhena gogolia

    @lurker:

    However, a la Cheney the younger and the Kinzinger heir, it seems like we need to make a point of providing some praise and support for politicians who do the right thing – that behavior is in short supply pretty much everywhere

    Thank you. This simple point seems to escape a lot of people here.

  146. 146.

    Bruce K in ATH-GR

    @zhena gogolia: Fine, they get a cookie. But they’re disqualified from the top-shelf gourmet cookies, because they’re still trying to turn America into a theocratic police state, even if their scruples force them to stop short of an actual violent coup.

  147. 147.

    EmbraceYourInnerCrone

    @NotMax: yup. Act as if you have every right to be where you are and have the right props. A hard hat and metal clipboard along with button down shirt and a tie. Of course it is more likely for the ruse to work if you are a white male…

  148. 148.

    Booger

    To be clear, when Stringer Bell first set up the ‘co-op,’ IIRC it was stated that meetings would follow Roberts Rules of Order. So having meeting minutes would be a given. He clearly didn’t think that part through, probably because he was attending a community college and not an Ivy like Jared, our other favorite fictional criminal mastermind.

  149. 149.

    EmbraceYourInnerCrone

    @Suzanne: I spent a week off work, away from home, including weekends helping my daughter and son in law with their baby. It was exhausting because she has colic but the best most relaxing week in forever. So hard to go back to work.

  151. 151.

    Steeplejack

    @satby:

    Yes! Happy birthday, Cole.

    Also the birthday of (possibly former) commenters Juice Box and Jay C.

    ETA: Morning thread up now.

  153. 153.

    Paul in KY

    The Nazis also documented, with typical Teutonic thouroughness, their many atrocities.

  155. 155.

    moops

    They were fine filming because they thought they were not doing anything illegal.  Politics is a contact sport and they were playing for keeps and other vapid rationalizations.   It was a legal battle, a PR battle, but it is all fair in a war like this.  If they prevailed this would be the gutsy story about their recovery from a loss in the Electoral College that was saved by the scrappy White House team.  They thought they were the underdog heroes of this story.

     

    Nobody said the word ‘coup’ or ‘sedition’  and these chuckleheads thought it was like quid pro quo and if you never say it then it is all up for debate.

  156. 156.

    Medicine Man

    @Paul in KY: I’ve wondered about that before and I don’t think it is a product of Teutonic efficiency. All the fash may be united in their desires, but the trigger-pullers want their marching orders in writing, so they can’t be easily thrown under the bus (bad apples, etc.). The higher-ups love their plausible deniability too much to be trustworthy.

  158. 158.

    J R in WV

    @sdhays:

    I mean, at this point I assume at least 50% of the people bumbling around the Tramp campaign were recording everything they saw and heard, either to make money or send to the foreign intelligence service of their choice.

    Or one more reason to record everything around you in the White House… to protect yourself when the indictments fly around those gormless fools heads. May be a more popular reason than “foreign intelligence” agencies. But I like your train of thought.

  159. 159.

    J R in WV

    @BC in Illinois: ​
     

    In one spell of my IT career I was a contractor on a team working for a local natural gas pipeline corp. At times we worked 60 hours a week, at other times we had almost nothing to do for up to a couple of weeks at a time.

    I quickly figured out that someone walking around with a big folder with a legal pad and some documents hanging out of it was never perceived as someone without enough work to do.

    I was perceived as someone gathering data for my analysis and design work. Hourly rate was the same, and I got to visit and chat with the many other professional IT folks working on a major national gas pipeline company.

    Finally after my primary task was way past completed, I begged my project manager for a firm out date. Feb 1st Wife and I left for a 6 week visit in FLA with my parents. They very much wanted me around — just in case something went wrong with the conversion system my team had built.

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