Month: May 2021

Categories
Congress GOP

Liz Cheney Is Already Getting Payback On Kevin McCarthy For Booting Her From GOP Leadership

It’s been just three days since House Republicans — led by Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) — unceremoniously stripped Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) of her post as the third-highest ranking member of the House GOP ranks and then replaced her with Trump loyalist Elise Stefanik (R-NY).

However, in that 72 hours, Cheney has made it clear that she will not stop speaking out about the dangers of allowing failed, one-term former President Donald Trump to return as the Republican presidential nominee in 2024, remarking:

“Right now, I am very focused on making sure that our party becomes again a party that stands for truth and stands for fundamental principles that are conservative and mostly stands for the Constitution. And I won’t let a former president or anybody else unravel the democracy. Whatever it takes.”

And now Cheney is aiming her fire at McCarthy, insisting that he should indeed be subpoenaed by the newly-minted commission that will investigate what transpired on January 6, 2021 when pro-Trump rioters staged an insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

Cheney was asked by Jon Karl of ABC News:

“Should Kevin Mccarthy be willing to speak, testify before that commission? After all, he is one of the few people that we know of that was actually talking to Donald Trump while the attack was taking place.”

In what must have been an incredibly satisfying moment of payback, Cheney replied:

“He absolutely should, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he were subpoenaed.”

In other words, Cheney is urging Democrats on the 1/6 committee to demand that McCarthy testify. And since he was one of the few people who spoke with Trump on the phone during the violent uprising at the Capitol, McCarthy might just be able to provide details that would sink the Donald once and for all.

Kevin McCarthy and his top lieutenants in House leadership may have thought they could oust Liz Cheney and go about their business as if nothing had changed. But the Wyoming Republican is letting it be known she still has some surprises in store for the people who pushed her overboard.

Categories
Joe Biden Supreme Court

Biden May Not Have To Wait Long To Appoint His First Supreme Court Justice

Ever since Donald Trump appointed Amy Coney Barrett to the U.S. Supreme Court in the closing days of his presidency before losing the 2020 election to Joe Biden, many have wondered whether or not the high court is now tilted to the right for decades.

But based on a report from Politico, Biden may be appointing his first justice very soon, provided that one of the court’s most senior members decides to retire later this year:

“Justice Stephen Breyer is 82 and Democrats are a single Senate seat away from ceding control back to Republicans. It’s a familiar and uncomfortable bind for a party that barely nudged former Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg to retire the last time they controlled both the Senate and the White House — then watched the Supreme Court veer to the right.”

No one is actively urging Breyer to step down from the court, but there are some in Congress who wonder if he wants his replacement to be appointed by a Democratic or Republican president, with Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) remarking:

“He is well familiar with the way judicial appointments work, and I believe strongly he has in mind the best interests of the country and will make the right decision. There are political realities that I hope judges will perceive.”

Another Democratic senator said it would be ideal if Breyer does decide to leave the court now while the Senate has a 50-50 split and Vice President Kamala Harris can make sure a replacement is confirmed:

“It’s self-evident that if you care at all about the balance of power on the Supreme Court then you have to not hang on until the very last moment. He should enjoy his retirement and allow us to put in a talented younger jurist that can serve for decades.”

While debate over whether or not Breyer would be wise to leave the court now continues, President Biden has made it clear that he’s open to the idea of expanding its membership from nine justices to several more, appointing a bipartisan commission to study what changes should be made to the highest court in the land. He has also made it clear that his first nominee will be a black woman, which would be a historic first.

Meanwhile, we’ll all just have to wait and see what Justice Breyer decides.

 

Categories
Congress Corruption Crime

Michael Cohen Just Got Some Major Payback On Matt Gaetz

Back in February of 2019, a day before Michael Cohen was set to testify to the House Oversight Committee about business deals and hush money payoffs he made to women former President Donald Trump had extramarital affairs with, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) sent out a threatening tweet:

Hey @MichaelCohen212 – Do your wife & father-in-law know about your girlfriends? Maybe tonight would be a good time for that chat. I wonder if she’ll remain faithful when you’re in prison. She’s about to learn a lot…— Matt Gaetz (@mattgaetz) February 26, 2019

That tweet got Gaetz in hot water with the House Ethics Committee, which later admonished him, Politico reported in August of 2020:

“While the 10-member panel determined that the Florida Republican’s ‘actions did not reflect creditably upon the House of Representatives,’ the committee also concluded in its report that he ‘did not violate witness tampering and obstruction of Congress laws’ and declined to issue more severe sanctions against the Florida Republican.”

Gaetz later deleted the controversial tweet and apologized for posting it, although few believed his apology was the least bit sincere.

Now we fast-forward to 2021, and Gaetz is the one under the microscope, facing the prospect of serving the rest of his life in federal prison for trafficking a 17-year-old girl and paying for some of the assignations via the Venmo mobile payment app, meaning he left a record of all his financial transactions.

Gaetz is also getting hit with some enormous payback from Cohen, with the ex-president’s former attorney sending a few tweets that are clearly aimed at the Florida congressman:

Ouch! Now that’s some masterful trolling by Cohen, who has paid his debt to society and noted that he’s eager to help prosecutors who are working to indict the Donald on a laundry list of charges that include fraud and money laundering.

So, Matt, how does it feel to be hit with a giant dose of karma right as your former wingman is cooperating with the feds and spilling his guts about your dirty secrets?

 

Categories
Corruption Crime Donald Trump The Trump Adminstration

New Developments In The Case Against Rudy Suggest The DOJ Has Evidence Of Multiple Crimes

A little over two weeks ago, you probably recall, the FBI raided the home and office of Donald Trump’s personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, seizing his electronic devices and sending a clear message that the former New York City mayor is on the Justice Department’s radar screen in a major way.

There are reports federal prosecutors already have evidence that proves Giuliani illegally took money from foreign governments such as Russia and Ukraine. If they can prove that, Rudy is looking at spending a few years in federal prison, which at his age could conceivably be a death sentence.

Now, however, we know now that the DOJ is investigating Giuliani for other, more serious crimes which also trace back to his connections in Ukraine.

On Wednesday, The Daily Beast reported that the feds are taking a long look at a dossier Giuliani had cooked up in an attempt to smear Joe Biden during the height of the 2020 election:

“In late 2019 during the Trump-Ukraine scandal, The New Yorker, which obtained a copy of the dossier, described one of its allegations as a byzantine conspiracy theory in which the U.S.-backed creation of NABU— Ukraine’s anti-corruption prosecutors—in 2014 was somehow a scheme concocted by Ambassador Yovanovitch and Deputy Assistant Secretary of State George Kent to prevent Ukraine from investigating the Bidens. In another allegation described by the magazine, the dossier casts right wing boogeyman and liberal philanthropist George Soros as the orchestrator of Yovanovitch’s appointment as U.S. ambassador in Kyiv.”

The dossier, however, did manage to make its rounds inside the Trump administration, where it was discussed and debated, then dismissed as worthless:

“According to one former Trump White House official, those in the White House who examined the pages and interview notes in 2019 almost across-the-board dubbed the research “amateurish” and unhelpful, with Trump officials discussing amongst themselves how they believed it was unlikely that anyone, foreign or American, would agree to pay Giuliani to produce this—if only because of the utterly shoddy nature of the work.”

The fact that none of those White House advisers reported Giuliani’s bogus dossier to the FBI or other law enforcement agency also places them in significant legal jeopardy. And it’s safe to assume they’ll be glad to sell out Rudy to save their own hides. Provided, that is, Giuliani doesn’t feed them to prosecutors first.

What a nasty mess Rudy and his pals have gotten themselves into. Here’s hoping they all go to prison for a very long time.

 

Categories
Crime Donald Trump The Trump Adminstration

New York AG Tish James Puts Trump On Notice About His Many Alleged Crimes

New York Attorney General Tish James has been on a roll lately when it comes to her ongoing investigation of Donald Trump and his many alleged crimes.

Not long ago, a judge in the Empire State ruled the Trump Organization has to turn over records involving a property that’s currently the subject of a civil investigation by the AG’s office, according to the Washington Post:

“The documents and communications at issue could help investigators answer questions about a conservation easement that was granted several years ago at the Seven Springs estate in suburban New York’s Westchester Country, a move that netted President Trump’s company a $21 million tax deduction. The materials, which Trump’s lawyers had sought to shield, include messages exchanged between an engineer and a land-use lawyer who worked on Trump’s behalf.”

Additionally, James released a letter she and 15 other state attorneys general had sent to White House Counsel Pat Cipollone before the Trump administration came to an abrupty end reminding the White House they were required to “preserve and maintain” all records — including tweets, notes from private conversations, and emails from private servers that might have been used to conduct government work:

“The Trump Administration shouldn’t have to be told that they need to comply with the law and keep all records of official business, but the last four years have shown that the president needs to be constantly reminded what the law is and how he must comply with it. Even the president’s tweets, the private conversations he had with Russian President Putin, and Ivanka’s private email server must be archived. Every bit of this information belongs to the American people and the White House cannot deprive the public of this information.”

The letter from James to the White House counsel is particularly important because it means that every member of the administration was been placed on notice: If you destroy anything at all, you will be a party to obstruction of justice, which just so happens to be a felony.

But the letter is even more significant because it makes clear that James and many of her associates in other states are actively investigating and could charge Trump and his associates with crimes they committed while conducting their “official” duties.

The biggest danger to Donald Trump has never been from federal charges or courts. It’s the states that will be handing down indictments against the president, his family, his business, and members of his administration. And no presidential pardon can exonerate any of the guilty parties. They will have to stand before the bar of justice and answer for their crimes.

Be afraid, Donald. Be very afraid.