Trump Crime Cartel

Monday Morning Open Thread: You Can’t Scare Me, I’ve Seen The GOP Death Cultists in Action

by Anne Laurie| October 30, 20237:14 am| 79 Comments

This post is in: Biden Administration in Action, Foreign Affairs, Proud to Be A Democrat, Trump Crime Cartel

Brandon Johnson possibly crafts the creepiest Halloween costume, using old clothes, stilts and papier-mâché
[?? spiritwalker]pic.twitter.com/aZ2Tv8cM4K

— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) October 27, 2023

You wanna see creepy?...

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Monday Morning Open Thread: You Can’t Scare Me, I’ve Seen The GOP Death Cultists in ActionPost + Comments (79)

Late Night Open Thread: Losing His Meagre Moiety of Marbles*

by Anne Laurie| October 25, 20231:36 am| 93 Comments

This post is in: 2024 Elections, Republicans in Disarray!, Trump Crime Cartel

Spoken like someone who will try – again – to steal an election. https://t.co/rxSj5xPMfU

— Stephen Hayes (@stephenfhayes) October 23, 2023

Mr. Charles P. Pierce, at Esquire, blesses us with a report so that I don’t have to show you more video clips:

It is now beyond hopeless to expect the elite political press to cover what is plainly happening before its eyes as regards Fulton County (Ga.) Inmate No. P01135809, the frontrunner for the Republican nomination for president of the United States. On Monday, he went up to New Hampshire to put in his papers for that state’s primary. In connection with this, he gave a speech in Derry. During this speech, he provided more convincing evidence that he is out of his freaking mind. To wit…

“I’m for us! You know how you spell “us,” right? You spell “us” “U-S!” I just picked that up. Has anyone ever thought of that? I just picked that up, couple of days I’m reading, and it said “us,” and I said, you know, you think about it, “us” equals “U-S!” Isn’t that … Now if we say something genius they’ll never say it…

…So the leading Republican candidate for president got up in public with his frontal lobes apparently leaking out of his ears, and you will not find a single account of this speech that states this obvious fact clearly and without equivocation. This, of course, is happening in a campaign in which the president’s age is considered to be a live and important issue in the upcoming election. But the former president’s obvious Olympic downhill of a cognitive decline is treated as an ugly side of his eccentric political persona. Each fable or fabrication is debunked—or “fact-checked”—as an individual aberrant moment, and not as cumulative evidence that his chandelier is winking out, one bulb at a time.

Domestic Terrorists Open Thread: Mark Meadows’ Turn in the Barrel

by Anne Laurie| October 24, 20238:41 pm| 144 Comments

This post is in: Jan 6: Insurrection, Open Threads, Republican Venality, Republicans in Disarray!, Trump Crime Cartel

🚨 🚨🚨 BREAKING 🚨🚨🚨

Jack Smith granted Mark Meadows IMMUNITY earlier this year in EXCHANGE for his testimony. This is one of the biggest developments in any case thus far. https://t.co/7nYIWaoTyS

— Mueller, She Wrote (@MuellerSheWrote) October 24, 2023

Former President Donald Trump’s final chief of staff in the White House, Mark Meadows, has spoken with special counsel Jack Smith’s team at least three times this year, including once before a federal grand jury, which came only after Smith granted Meadows immunity to testify under oath, according to sources familiar with the matter.

The sources said Meadows informed Smith’s team that he repeatedly told Trump in the weeks after the 2020 presidential election that the allegations of significant voting fraud coming to them were baseless, a striking break from Trump’s prolific rhetoric regarding the election.

According to the sources, Meadows also told the federal investigators Trump was being “dishonest” with the public when he first claimed to have won the election only hours after polls closed on Nov. 3, 2020, before final results were in.

“Obviously we didn’t win,” a source quoted Meadows as telling Smith’s team in hindsight.

Trump has called Meadows, one of the former president’s closest and highest-ranking aides in the White House, a “special friend” and “a great chief of staff — as good as it gets.”.

The descriptions of what Meadows allegedly told investigators shed further light on the evidence Smith’s team has amassed as it prosecutes Trump for allegedly trying to unlawfully retain power and “spread lies” about the 2020 election. The descriptions also expose how far Trump loyalists like Meadows have gone to support and defend Trump…

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Meadows told investigators he believes the Justice Department was taking allegations of fraud seriously, properly investigating them, and doing all they could to find legitimate cases of fraud — and he told investigators he relayed all that to Trump a few weeks after the election, the sources said.

Similarly — as described by sources to ABC News — despite Meadows telling investigators that Giuliani never produced evidence of significant fraud in the election, his book refers to Giuliani’s efforts to expose “the fraud, and the dirty tricks on election night.”

“The people who rigged this election knew that eventually, these irregularities would come to light … [So] they conducted the operation, then attacked anyone who dared ask questions about what they had done,” his book says.

Meadows went even further while promoting his book on right-wing media in November 2021. When asked by a podcast host if he believes the outcome of the 2020 election was fraudulent, Meadows responded, “I do believe that there are a number of fraudulent states … I’ve seen at least illegal activity in Pennsylvania [and] in Georgia” — referring to two key states that clinched the White House for Biden.

Under the penalty of perjury, Meadows offered a vastly different assessment to Smith’s investigators, telling them he’s never seen any evidence of fraud that would undermine the election’s outcome, according to what sources told ABC News…

Is Nil Nisi Bonum considered a defense under law?

I would like to point out that for at least FOUR MONTHS – likely longer – NONE of us knew that Meadows had been granted immunity by Jack Smith. Please keep that in mind the next time you ask the DoJ to "do something".

They are. They have been. And they will continue to do so.

— Mueller, She Wrote (@MuellerSheWrote) October 24, 2023

I’ll tell you this, nobody had to talk Mark Meadows into cooperating. No arm twisting there. As soon as he found out Cassidy Hutchinson flipped he was ready to camp out overnight waiting for the Special Counsel to open up like he was trying to get Springsteen tickets in 1985.

— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) October 24, 2023

Mark Meadows is a seditionist.
Lock him up. pic.twitter.com/kN6ovLuJj1

— voteblue2024🗳️💙🇺🇸🇺🇦🟧🟦🌊 (@lflorepolitics) October 24, 2023

If Murphy the Trickster God decides to be very good to us:

If I were Ginni Thomas I’d be looking for a damn good criminal lawyer right about now. pic.twitter.com/0ymkF1X6Uq

— Hey, Dave! (is boosted!) (@davegreenidge57) October 24, 2023

Ginni wrote states over 30 letters offering to meet and show them how to overturn the 2020 vote outcome. She asked Mark Meadows to make Sidney Powell "The lead and face" of the insurrection. Her husband makes election rulings and she's charged with nothing.
Make it make sense. pic.twitter.com/XBhMqSd6v1

— Brown Eyed Susan🟧🟦 (@smc429) October 23, 2023

Domestic Terrorists Open Thread: Mark Meadows’ Turn in the BarrelPost + Comments (144)

Another lawyer getting another plea deal

by David Anderson| October 24, 20239:27 am| 88 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads, Republican Crime Syndicate, Trump Crime Cartel

And yet another lawyer, this one an expert on traffic citation law, is getting a plea deal for couping in Georgia. Only the best people!

Open Thread

Another lawyer getting another plea dealPost + Comments (88)

Foreign Affairs Open Thread: Australian Nepo-Baby Discusses America’s Worst Nepo-Baby

by Anne Laurie| October 23, 20236:15 pm| 194 Comments

This post is in: Foreign Affairs, Open Threads, Trump Crime Cartel, All Too Normal, Lock Him Up...Lock Them All Up

https://t.co/9svEW2USXP

Nearly two weeks ago, media reported that Donald Trump reportedly revealed information about U.S. nuclear submarine capabilities to Australian billionaire Anthony Pratt. And on Sunday, 60 Minutes Australia played recordings of secret tapes where Pratt… pic.twitter.com/VWCWCf0Wsg

— Isabel Santos 🟧🟦🌊🌊🟦📙 (@Busyisaworkshop) October 22, 2023

Mr. Pierce, at Esquire, sums it up:

The Cardboard King sings songs of graft.

The Australian version of 60 Minutes ran an interesting segment on Anthony Pratt, who used to talk cardboard and national security secrets down at Mar-a-Lago with Fulton County (Ga.) Inmate No. P01135809. It adds to the bargeload of evidence that the former president* is a) very corrupt, b) very reckless, and c) very disgusting…

Per Rolling Stone, here’s the Ginger Tintin his own self — “Billionaire Brags About Trump Sharing Secret Information With Him”

…[O]n Sunday, 60 Minutes Australia played recordings of secret tapes where Pratt disclosed other non-public information Trump shared with him, including information about U.S. military operations in Iraq and Trump’s conversations with the presidents of Iraq and Ukraine.

According to Pratt, Trump shared a lot with him, such as information about U.S. bombings in Iraq before they were publicly reported. “I hadn’t even heard it, it hadn’t even been on the news yet, and he said, ‘I just bombed Iraq today,’” Pratt said Trump told him…

[Full 16min clip at the link]

“He’s outrageous. He just says whatever the fuck he wants, and he loves to shock people,” Pratt, a businessman with a reported net worth of $9 billion, said of Trump. Pratt is listed as a potential witness to testify against Trump in a case brought by special counsel Jack Smith regarding his mishandling of classified information, and he reportedly shared information with prosecutors about Trump revealing to him sensitive intelligence regarding U.S. nuclear submarines, including how many warheads the subs usually carry and how close they could get to Russian submarines before they are detected.

Pratt also bragged on tape that Trump shared with him some of the contents of a private conversation with then-president of Iraq Barham Salih. According to Pratt: “[Trump] said, ‘I just bombed Iraq today, and the president of Iraq called me up and said, ‘You just leveled my city.’ And I said to him, ‘OK, what are you going to do about it?’”…

The billionaire said of Trump, “He knows exactly what to say and what not to say so that he avoids jail, but gets so close to it that it looks to everyone like he’s breaking the law. Like he won’t go up to someone and say, ‘I want you to kill someone.’ He’ll say, he’ll send someone, to tell someone, to kill someone.”…

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Pratt, a member of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club, courted Trump to garner influence, even paying an inflated cost of $1 million on tickets to a the Palm Beach club’s New Year’s Eve gala — far above the actual $50,000 cost per ticket, a witness told prosecutors, according to The New York Times. Pratt also tried to get close to Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Guiliani, paying him almost a million dollars to attend Pratt’s 60th birthday. The appearance was later cancelled due to Covid, but Pratt said on the recording that Guiliani calls him regularly. “Now he rings me once a week,” the Times reported Pratt as saying on the recordings.

“Rudy is someone that I hope will be useful one day,” Pratt said on tape. “Plus I just think he’s cool. It’s not all just sort of like seat of the pants shit. I think that [Trump] and Rudy are like that, and they’re plotting all this out.”

Now the NYTimes is on the story, more in sorrow than anger:

… Their interactions were ultimately swept up in one of the two federal criminal cases that the special counsel Jack Smith brought against Mr. Trump. Prosecutors have interviewed Mr. Pratt in the case in which Mr. Trump is charged with taking classified documents with him from the White House when he left office and obstructing efforts to retrieve them. Mr. Pratt is listed as a potential witness who could testify against Mr. Trump at a trial next year…

New details of how an American president and an Australian billionaire bonded over their mutual self-interest help to document the transactional ethos of the Trump presidency, and show how Mr. Trump melded his White House with his personal business in a way that, according to prosecutors, had ramifications for national security.

Mr. Pratt was hardly the only favor seeker circling Mar-a-Lago, which became the fulcrum of the president’s two overlapping worlds, and a marketplace of sorts where favors, secrets and opportunities to lobby the president over clubhouse burgers were treated as currency. But Mr. Pratt, who rode in Mr. Trump’s motorcade and attended a White House state dinner, played the game better than most…

In a statement, a spokesman for Mr. Trump condemned prosecutors and said the information was coming from “sources which totally lack proper context and relevant information.”…

(Does Maggie Haberman share a byline? Are a bear’s sanitary facilities located conveniently to its woodland demesne?)

If I’m reading the SMH article correctly, Pratt *does* seem to be the kind of billionaire TFG aspired to be: more Rupert Murdoch, less Fredo Corleone. Doesn’t seem to be good for his own image back home, though:

Anthony Pratt, the Australian billionaire who says Trump revealed to him sensitive information about submarines, reportedly paid Rudy Giuliani "about a million bucks" to attend Pratt’s birthday party. https://t.co/RPTwn6YbFN

— Seth Hettena (@seth_hettena) October 22, 2023

Foreign Affairs Open Thread: Australian Nepo-Baby Discusses America’s Worst Nepo-BabyPost + Comments (194)

And another lawyer pleads guilty for couping

by David Anderson| October 20, 202312:35 pm| 227 Comments

This post is in: Republican Crime Syndicate, Trump Crime Cartel

MSNBC reports that Ken Chesebro has also pleaded guilty to couping in Georgia.

Kenneth Chesebro on Friday pleaded guilty in the Georgia election interference case, the day after Sidney Powell did the same.

The lawyers charged in the sprawling racketeering case were set to be the first to face trial. Now, three of Donald Trump’s 18 co-defendants have pleaded guilty, following Scott Hall‘s plea last month.

Much like Powell, the plea deal requires full testimony but no jail time.

And another lawyer pleads guilty for coupingPost + Comments (227)

Powell Pleads guilty

by David Anderson| October 19, 202310:15 am| 171 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads, Trump Crime Cartel, Trump Indictments

CNN reports that Sidney Powell, one of the intellectual featherweights behind the coup pled guilty today in Georgia:

Sidney Powell has pleaded guilty in the Georgia election subversion case, one day before her trial was set to start.

Fulton County prosecutors are recommending a sentence of six years probation. Powell will also be required to testify at future trials and write an apology letter to the citizens of Georgia.

As part of her guilty plea, Powell is admitting her role in the January 2021 breach of election systems in rural Coffee County, Georgia.

I would have hoped for jail time but if probation and likely getting disbarred is the cost of getting a cooperative witness, good enough.

Powell Pleads guiltyPost + Comments (171)

Incompetence, fear, or corruption? why not all three?

Republicans seem to think life begins at the candlelight dinner the night before.

Stamping your little feets and demanding that they see how important you are? Not working anymore.

Republicans don’t lie to be believed, they lie to be repeated.

I was promised a recession.

You are so fucked. Still, I wish you the best of luck.

I was confident that someone would point it out and thought why not me.

Republican speaker of the house Mike Johnson is the bland and smiling face of evil.

The lights are all blinking red.

Cole is on a roll !

If you are still in the gop, you are either an extremist yourself, or in bed with those who are.

Let’s show the world that autocracy can be defeated.

It’s easy to sit in safety and prescribe what other people should be doing.

Marge, god is saying you’re stupid.

He really is that stupid.

Wow, I can’t imagine what it was like to comment in morse code.

Chutkan laughs. Lauro sits back down.

A sufficient plurality of insane, greedy people can tank any democratic system ever devised, apparently.

Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.

It’s not hopeless, and we’re not helpless.

You can’t attract Republican voters. You can only out organize them.

It’s pointless to bring up problems that can only be solved with a time machine.

Putting aside our relentless self-interest because the moral imperative is crystal clear.

Let there be snark.

Monday Morning Open Thread: You Can’t Scare Me, I’ve Seen The GOP Death Cultists in Action

Late Night Open Thread: Losing His Meagre Moiety of Marbles*

Domestic Terrorists Open Thread: Mark Meadows’ Turn in the Barrel

Another lawyer getting another plea deal

Foreign Affairs Open Thread: Australian Nepo-Baby Discusses America’s Worst Nepo-Baby

And another lawyer pleads guilty for couping

Powell Pleads guilty