Month: January 2023

Categories
Crime Donald Trump The Trump Organization

Trump’s Attorneys Claim The Trump Organization Can’t Be Sued Because It Doesn’t Actually Exist

In a desperate, last-ditch effort to try and get around a $250 million fraud lawsuit filed by New York Attorney General Letitia James, attorneys for failed former president Donald Trump asserted in a Thursday evening filing that the Trump Organization cannot be sued because it actually isn’t a legal entity.

Business Insider reports that the filing reads like a “nose-thumbing response” to the lawsuit from James.

“To the extent a response is required, Defendant specifically denies the definitions of “Trump Organization” and “Defendants,” reads Donald Trump’s response to the lawsuit, one of 16 answers filed late Thursday night.

“While the shorthand “Trump Organization” is utilized by Defendants for branding and business purposes, no entity as such exists for legal purposes,” Donald Trump’s response continues, using language that is repeated throughout his 300-page filing and throughout the similarly-lengthy 15 filings of his fellow defendants.

While the strategy is creative, it’s not likely to work because the lawsuit doesn’t seek to charge the Trump Organization.

New York’s lawsuit does not specifically sue anything called ‘Trump Organization.’ New York’s lawsuit names Donald Trump, Donald Trump, Jr., Ivanka Trump, Eric Trump, former company CFO Allen Weisselberg and its former payroll executive Jeffrey McConney. It also names 10 entities under the Trump Organization umbrella — including ‘The Trump Organization, Inc.,’ a registered corporation in New York since 1981.

The filing also contains repeated denials that the Trump Organization has done anything illegal, despite overwhelming evidence already provided by James that suggests otherwise and has already led to a judgement against the company.

Thursday night’s batch of responses briefly address these claims, repeating such blanket denials as “Defendant has not engaged in repeated fraudulent or illegal acts or otherwise demonstrated persistent fraud or illegality in the carrying on, conducting or transacting of business.”

James’ lawsuit would permanently ban the disgraced ex-president, Don Jr., Ivanka, and Eric Trump from ever doing business in New York, which is where the company is headquartered and a majority of Trump properties are located.

A trial in the matter is set for October in Manhattan.

Categories
Congress GOP

MT Greene’s Attempt To ‘Legislate’ Gets Defeated By One Of The Largest Margins In History

Now that she has the full support and backing of Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy, who said earlier this week that he will “always take care of her,” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) is trying to act like a responsible legislator and try to pass legislation.

However, her first attempt at that endeavor didn’t go very well on Thursday, as an amendment she introduced regarding the sale of oil from the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) went down in flames, losing by one of the largest margins in the history of Congress.

According to HuffPost:

New House rules put in place by the Republican majority allow any lawmaker to offer an amendment. The Hill reported that led to some 140 amendments being proposed for a bill regarding the use of the strategic petroleum reserve. Greene’s proposed amendment would have forbidden President Joe Biden from selling oil from the reserve.

The conspiracy theorist ― who spoke last year at a white nationalist event ― was joined by just 13 others as the amendment failed 14-418.

418 to 14. Wow! That’s about as lopsided of a margin as you’ll ever see in the House of Representatives, and it’s indicative of a much larger trend taking place now that Republicans run the House: Amendments and bills that have no chance of passing being introduced so someone can claim credit as proof that he or she is doing their job.

Some even suggested that Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO), who was once best friends with Greene, was clearly trying to troll Greene with this tweet:

That was followed by other online mockery aimed directly at the Georgia Republican, who was reminded that she’s not very good at pretending to be anything other than a punchline.

https://twitter.com/alice_radley/status/1618784312341704706?s=20&t=0Nni94RqK-aGjrvWUIZUOg
https://twitter.com/GaryLegum/status/1618794763519676416?s=20&t=cE4gj2r0AMa6TthjqRnboA

For her next feat, perhaps Marge can pull a rabbit out of her ass and pretend she’s finally accomplished something.

Categories
Congress GOP Social Media

Matt Gaetz Attempts To Troll Adam Schiff And Only Succeeds In Owning Himself

Even though he isn’t the least bit skilled at online trolling, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) decided he’d try to do so at the expense of Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), who wasn’t reappointed to the House Intelligence Committee by Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy simply because Schiff speaks his mind and was the lead House manager for the first impeachment of disgraced, twice-impeached former president Donald Trump.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) let McCarthy know what he thought of his refusal to appoint Schiff and Eric Swalwell (D-CA) to the Intelligence Committee in a letter, noting:

“It is my understanding that you intend to break with the longstanding House tradition of deference to the minority party Intelligence Committee recommendations and deny seats to Ranking Member Schiff and Representative Swalwell. The denial of seats to duly elected Members of the House Democratic Caucus runs counter to the serious and sober mission of the Intelligence Committee.”

McCarthy’s recalcitrance is bad politics, bad optics, and bad for the national security of the United States.

Gaetz, however, who remains under investigation for allegedly taking an underage girl across state lines, having sex with her, and then paying her to remain silent, couldn’t resist adding his voice to the matter, posting this in response to a tweet asking what Schiff’s pronouns are.

If Gaetz had bothered to do a simple Google search, he would have learned that “removed” isn’t a pronoun. According to Dictionary.com, it’s a verb. In some instances, it can be a noun or an adjective, but it’s not a pronoun and never will be. But hey, why let basic knowledge of the English language stand in the way of a social media burn?

But that’s not all Rapey McForehead (a.k.a. Gaetz) neglected to take under consideration before he completely owned himself for the entire internet to see. And it didn’t take long before others have Gaetz a dose of his own medicine.

https://twitter.com/CherokeeBlood10/status/1618306282439708675?s=20&t=b2o8JdJxkLaX6kpRR9179Q

Categories
Crime Donald Trump Elections

Tuesday Decision By Georgia DA Should Terrify Trump And His Attorneys

A decision announced in court Tuesday by Fulton County, Georgia District Attorney Fani Willis is certain to alarm disgraced former president Donald Trump and his attorneys.

According to CNN, Willis said that a special grand jury impaneled to investigate Trump and some of his allies in their attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 election in the Peach State has recommended indictments for “multiple” defendants and the release those names and the charges against them is “imminent.”

“Decisions are imminent,” Willis told Judge Robert McBurney. We want to make sure that everyone is treated fairly, and we think for future defendants to be treated fairly it’s not appropriate at this time to have this report released.”

Donald Wakeford, Fulton County’s chief senior assistant district attorney, echoed Willis’ remarks:

“We think immediately releasing before the district attorney has even had an opportunity to address publicly whether there will be charges or not – because there has not been a meaningful enough amount of time to assess it – is dangerous. It’s dangerous to the people who may or may not be named in the report for various reasons. It’s also a disservice to the witnesses who came to the grand jury and spoke the truth to the grand jury.”

The judge agreed, promising there would be “no rash decisions.”

“No one’s going to wake up with the court having disclosed the report on the front page of a newspaper.”

Why is this such bad news for Trump and others, including Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) who also allegedly tried to get Georgia election officials to “find” additional votes for the failed ex-president? Simple: If no criminal charges were planned, the report could be made public without any delay.

What happens next? Willis will have to decide if she wants to pursue charges against those identified by the grand jury. And that’s where things could get dicey for Trump, CNN notes.

Willis has previously said she could pursue Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) charges in this case, which would allow prosecutors to bring charges against multiple defendants and make the case that Trump and his allies were part of a criminal enterprise.

Racketeering charges also carry enhanced penalties that could send those charged — if convicted — to decades in a Georgia prison.

Things are about to get very interesting who played a part in trying to overturn the will of the voters, and every eye is now on the state of Georgia.

Categories
Congress GOP Kevin McCarthy

Hakeem Jeffries Just Put Kevin McCarthy On Notice

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) has just put Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) on notice regarding committee assignments, and if McCarthy ignores the warning it could well make his tenure as Speaker shorter than he ever imagined.

The Washington Post reports that Jeffries wrote McCarthy to let him know he was recommending Reps. Adam B. Schiff and Eric Swalwell be reappointed to the House Intelligence Committee, which Schiff once chaired.

In a letter dated Saturday, Jeffries argued that McCarthy has no justifiable reason not to accept his appointments of Schiff, who served as chairman of the Intelligence panel until Republicans took control of the chamber, and Swalwell.

In his letter, Jeffries writes:

“It is my understanding that you intend to break with the longstanding House tradition of deference to the minority party Intelligence Committee recommendations and deny seats to Ranking Member Schiff and Representative Swalwell. The denial of seats to duly elected Members of the House Democratic Caucus runs counter to the serious and sober mission of the Intelligence Committee.”

McCarthy has said he will not place Schiff and Swalwell on the Intelligence Committee, seeking to exact revenge on Democrats for removing Reps. Paul Gosar (AZ) and Marjorie Taylor Greene (GA) from committee assignments. But as Jeffries notes in his letter, both Gosar and Greene were removed by a vote of the full House.

Greene and Gosar were removed “after a bipartisan vote of the House found them unfit to serve on standing committees for directly inciting violence against their colleagues. It does not serve as precedent or justification for the removal of Representatives Schiff and Swalwell, given that they have never exhibited violent thoughts or behavior.”

Jeffries also pointed out that McCarthy had no problem appointing “serial fraudster” George Santos (R-NY) to committees despite the fact that he is facing multiple investigations, including from the House Ethics Committee and may also be subjected to criminal prosecution for lying in order to win his congressional seat.

If McCarthy insists on refusing to seat Schiff and Swalwell, Democrats could call for a motion to vacate, a procedure which would result in a formal vote to remove McCarthy from the Speaker’s chair. Considering that McCarthy only holds a slim majority in the House, such a move could further weaken him.