Tom of Temecula
Tom of Temecula's JournalTrump escalates attacks on prosecutors, says Democrats run 'a Gestapo administration'
Former president Donald Trump escalated his attacks on prosecutors at a private luncheon here Saturday, referring to special counsel Jack Smith with an expletive and accusing Democrats of “running a Gestapo administration,” according to audio provided by a Republican donor.
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He called Smith — who is prosecuting federal cases involving Trump’s handling of classified documents and his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol — a “f---ing a--hole.” He continued to mock another prosecutor, District Attorney Fani T. Willis (D) of Georgia’s Fulton County, for her past relationship with former special prosecutor Nathan Wade, calling her “Mrs. Wade” and “a real beauty.” The former president also told the crowd at his Mar-a-Lago Club that he was surprised when he got indicted.
“Once I got indicted, I said holy s---, I just got indicted. Me, I got indicted. In fact, Lara, if she knew I got indicted, she probably wouldn’t have joined the family,” he said, referring to the wife of his son Eric. “I got indicted like Alphonse and like all these people,” a reference to the gangster Al Capone.
Trump — who faces 88 criminal charges in four separate state and federal cases — has made attacks on prosecutors a central part of his bid for a return to the White House and has repeatedly claimed without evidence that he is the victim of a weaponized legal system. Saturday’s remarks illustrated the central role his legal cases are playing in his bid to return to the White House for a second term, even in a private setting.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/05/04/trump-indictments-attacks-democrats-gestapo/
Trump complained donors aren't giving him enough cash to get a picture taken with him
At the same donor luncheon at his Mar-a-Lago resort on Saturday where Donald Trump swore at President Joe Biden, special counsel Jack Smith and attacked his other perceived foes, the former president also complained he wasn't raising enough cash from the attending wealthy donors.
Buried deep in a Washington Post report of the former president's profanity-laden speech where he ranted about Biden's "Gestapo" and called the DOJ's Smith a “f-----g a--hole,” is a note that the former was not happy about having to have his picture taken with so many attendees. Add to that, he also let some of his guests know they weren't coughing up enough cash.
According to the Post, "About 400 people who gave at least $40,000 each attended, according to people familiar with the planning who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe a private event. He spoke for about 90 minutes, and the remarks veered widely," before pointing out Trump's complaints.
"At another point, he complained about having to take so many pictures with donors and told people in the crowd that if they didn’t get a picture, it was because they didn’t give enough money," the report continued. "He also claimed that a wedding at the property got preference over the donors because the wedding was paying more per person to be there."
https://www.rawstory.com/trump-donor-cash/
'Spotlight the sleaze': Trump prosecutors are 'captivating the jury' in hush money trial
According to multiple legal observers, prosecutors overseeing the 34-felony count hush money trial of Donald Trump in a Manhattan courtroom are doing an excellent job of getting the jury's attention after two weeks of testimony.
With the testimony of former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker and ex-White House aide Hope Hicks, members of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's office have brought to the forefront the more lurid elements of the case that involves not only paying off adult film star Stormy Daniels before the 2016 presidential election, but also how the former president worked hand-in-hand with Pecker to smear his rivals.
According to a report from the New York Times, a prosecution strategy to "spotlight the sleaze" is paying off for the prosecution. "By foregrounding the conspiracy, prosecutors are captivating the jury while laying a foundation for evidence about the business records to emerge. As soon as next week, prosecutors are expected to begin connecting the dots between the smut and the substance," the Times is reporting. According to Marc F. Scholl, who worked for decades in the Manhattan district attorney’s office, "It was a smart way to start the case."
Former federal prosecutor Steven M. Cohen agreed, telling the Times, "The fundamental truth is that you take your witnesses as you find them, and inevitably the sleazy, unethical and dubious conduct that was carried out by the witnesses will leave them vulnerable to attack by the defense. But those witnesses will no doubt be quick to remind the jury that they were not the authors of that conduct. Mr. Trump was.”
https://www.rawstory.com/trump-hush-money-sleaze/
Ivanka Trump Is Plotting Her Return To The White House
All the media talk about Ivanka Trump breaking with her father and distancing from her father turned out not to be true, The daughter of the ex-president has always played the willing to assist corporate media with PR and spin that suggested that she was different from her father, or a stabilizing and moderating force,
The truth which was reported by Tara Palmeri at Puck paints a much different picture: Now, with the campaign in high gear, Ivanka is “warming to the idea of trying to be helpful” again, I’m told by a person familiar with her thinking. “[She’s] privately not ruling out having some sort of role,” this person continued. “She’s not like ‘Hell no’ anymore.”
The role itself, and her potential involvement with the campaign, remains unclear. Ivanka has been quietly surveying members of her inner circle about when it might make sense to re-engage with the campaign—and even whether to take a job in the administration if Trump wins.
She’s been advised to wait until the Republican convention, in mid-July, so as to avoid the news cycle around her father’s trial—the first of four currently on the docket. But the chatter surrounding her inquiries appears to be a trial balloon, of sorts, telegraphing what is likely to be a gradual re-entry into Trump’s political orbit. “After a longstanding position of ruling it out, she’s more open to it,” said the source familiar with her thinking. “It’s getting more real, it’s revving up.”
https://www.thedailypoliticususa.com/p/ivanka-trump-is-plotting-her-return
Trump Tries To Say Words, But The Wrong Ones Pour Out
Unemployment has been low for over two years now. President Joe Biden has created a whopping 15.3 million jobs. In contrast, Trump left office in disgrace with a negative job number. Negative. Trump was asked at the courthouse what he would do to create jobs; then he went off topic to talk about the border, among other things, none of which are job-related.
"What's my plan for jobs, you say?" Trump asked. "My plan for jobs is to drill baby drill, to bring energy down, to close up the border, to get rid of all the criminals that are being allowed into our country. You know, our country is being inundated with criminals from all over the world."
"The jail populations from all over the world are way down because they're driving them into America," the former President, who is out on bail, falsely said. "They're dropping them off in the good old U.S.A., and they're taking them out of mental institutions, and they're taking them out of jails from all over the world, not just South America. And all of this, all of this is greatly affecting our country, and very negatively," he insisted. "No, we're going to make America great again. Thank you very much."
Nothing he mentioned will create jobs. He's a doddering old fool, and as far as policy, Aaron Rupar writes, "many of his statements on core policy issues are so garbled and gassy they don't even qualify as lies. It's like interacting with a chatbot programmed by a fascist parrot."
https://crooksandliars.com/2024/05/trump-tries-say-words-wrong-ones-pour-out
SEC charges Trump Media auditor with 'massive fraud' on hundreds of companies, imposes lifetime ban
The auditing firm for Trump Media and the auditor’s owner were charged Friday with “massive fraud” by the Securities and Exchange Commission for accounting work that affected more than 1,500 SEC filings, the federal regulator announced.
The auditor, BF Borgers CPA, and its owner, Benjamin Borgers, have agreed to be permanently suspended from practicing as accountants before the SEC, and also agreed to pay a combined $14 million in civil penalties, without admitting or denying the allegations, the SEC said.
The agency, calling BF Borgers a “sham audit mill,” said the company and its owner “deliberately systematically failed to conduct” audits and quarterly reviews incorporated in more than 1,500 SEC filings from January 2021 through June 2023 in accordance with Public Company Accounting Oversight Board standards.
The SEC said the Lakewood, Colorado-based auditor lied to clients by saying its work complied with PCAOB standards, fabricated audit documents to make it seem that the work did comply with those standards, and falsely claims in audit reports included in more than 500 public company SEC filings that the firm’s audits complied with such standards.
https://twitter.com/axidentaliberal/status/1786609234567627170
https://www.cnbc.com/2024/05/03/trump-media-auditor-charged-by-sec-with-massive-fraud-permanently-barred-from-public-company-audits.html
'Fix this': House Republicans spread theory Mike Johnson just outlawed the New Testament
House Republicans Thursday spread a conspiracy theory that Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) this week made the Bible's New Testament illegal. Reps Eli Crane (R-AZ) and Matt Gaetz (R-FL) both shared on X a conversation between Tucker Carlson, the former Fox News pundit the Southern Poverty Law Center warns has descended into radical extremism, and Charlie Kirk, the activist for former President Donald Trump with a reported history of pushing "right-wing hoaxes."
"Did the House of Representatives just make parts of the Bible illegal?" Kirk tweeted Wednesday night. "Yes," Carlson replied Thursday morning. "The New Testament." Crane then picked up the baton and ran with it by casting blame on Johnson. "Worst part is that 4 of us went to the Speaker’s Office hours before the vote asking him to fix this," Crane wrote in a message shared by Gaetz. "He told us he would, but then brought it to the Floor as is."
Kirk's question arrived hours after the House of Representative passed the Antisemitism Awareness Act designed to combat the problem on college campuses by directing the Education Department to use the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance's definition of the term.
Critics of the legislation include the American Civil Liberties Union, which argues federal law already prohibits antisemitic discrimination and the bill could chill students' free speech, and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) who told followers it would see Christians arrested for their faith.
https://www.rawstory.com/republican-conspiracy-theory-2668132598/
Scowling Trump tosses file in front of lawyer questioning witness about evidence tampering
Donald Trump started the 11th day of his criminal trial clearly peeved with his lawyer. From inside the courtroom, Raw Story observed Donald Trump throwing a file in front his lawyer, Emil Bove, as he questioned an investigator about his messages taken from his ex-attorney Michael Cohen''s cell phone. The former president pointed at the file while scowling and declining to make eye contact.
Then-lawyer Cohen had been working full-time for the Trump Organization and was negotiating the 2016 payments to women alleging they'd had an affair with Trump. Among the things Cohen did was record conversations he had with Trump and the lawyer who represented the women.
Among the things Cohen did was record conversations he had with Trump and the lawyer who represented the women. According to legal analysts in the courtroom, Bove was asking investigator Douglas Daus about whether Cohen's phone could have been tampered with or data modified.
Just Security fellow Adam Klasfeld explained that it is "an uncommonly thorough cross-examination for this type of witness. Bove has been seeking to poke holes in the chain of custody and type of extraction used on the phone to acquire the evidence."
https://www.rawstory.com/trump-trial-2668144326/
Michael Cohen's Secret Tapes Spell Trump's Doom in Hush-Money Trial
Courtroom revelations from Michael Cohen’s secretly recorded conversations with Donald Trump appear to have just blown his former boss’s legal defense out of the water.
“I need to open up a company for the transfer about our friend David,” Cohen said in part of the tape, according to reporters who attended Trump’s hush-money trial on Thursday. Cohen was referring to Trump in the third person by his documented pseudonym in the agreement, David Dennison.
That shell company would become Essential Consultants LLC, which Cohen used to pass along the $130,000 hush-money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels, whom Trump allegedly began an affair with in 2008.
In another section of the tape, Cohen informs Trump that he had “spoken to Allen Weisselberg about how to set the whole thing up,” referring to the former Trump Organization CFO. Trump responded that he’d like to be kept in the loop. “Let me know what’s happening, OK?” Trump was heard saying.
https://newrepublic.com/post/181239/michael-cohen-tapes-trump-hush-money-trial
Stephen Colbert Mocks Trump For Having 1 Fan Outside The Courthouse
Stephen Colbert pointed out that Trump’s spirits had to be lifted because he had one supporter outside the courthouse. Colbert said:
I am not surprised that these people are in a good mood it was a beautiful spring day here in New York City like 10 out of 10 warm sunny a perfect day for Donald Trump to be stuck in a courtroom freezing his drowsy balls off, but you know what to be fair he somebody’s little boy. I’m sure his spirits were buoyed by the show of force today from his legion of MAGA supporters downtown in Manhattan here because when he arrived today he was greeted to the courthouse by a single fan.
The biggest story out of the trial continues to be Trump’s Adventures in Slumberland, and his team seems a little concerned because today Trump’s eyes were closed at the start of the testimony but his lawyers seemed acutely aware of how important his consciousness is to their case and kept glancing over at his client. Eventually, they’re just going to have to put him on a baby monitor.
Trump’s fans aren’t showing up. No matter how much Trump tries to scare them into believing that his legal troubles are about them, Donald Trump’s supporters aren’t buying it. They aren’t showing up at the courthouse and massively protesting. They aren’t revealing that they are willing to take it to the streets. Trump’s lack of a supportive presence may be a sign of how much his star has waned.
https://www.politicususa.com/2024/05/03/stephen-colbert-mocks-trump-for-having-1-fan-outside-the-courthouse.html
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