Author: Andrew Bradford

Proud progressive journalist and political adviser living behind enemy lines in Red America.

Categories
Crime Donald Trump

Manhattan DA Lining Up Witnesses To Testify Against Trump At Upcoming Trial: Report

Based on a new report from Bess Levin of Vanity Fair and confirmed by reporting from Reuters, it now appears that Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. is moving along at a rapid pace with his investigation of failed, one-term former President Donald Trump and is lining up witnesses who will testify against Trump along with others who will help explain to a jury the exact crimes Trump and his company, the Trump Organization, may have committed.

According to Levin:

“In the last several months, the D.A. has brought on the attorney who put John Gotti and other white-collar criminals behind bars, has reportedly been working to flip the Trump Organizations longtime CFO, and, most crucially, obtained Trump’s much sought-after tax returns, documents that the Queens-born real estate developer has gone to such extreme lengths to keep secret that some people have gotten the impression they contain extremely incriminating information.

“Now, Vance’s office has taken the next step in its criminal investigation: finding people who can explain to a jury why Trump is a possible crook.”

Specifically, Vance is looking for bankers, bookkeepers, and real estate experts who can help shed light on how Trump may have broken the law by inflating the value of his real estate holdings in order to get large loans from banks while simultaneously devaluing those same properties when paying taxes on them. Those two acts alone would constitute bank and tax fraud.

Prosecutors in Vance’s office also hope to present witnesses who have first-hand experience working on deals made by Trump to explain documents and how that data proves specific criminal acts by the former president and his company.

There’s also the matter of Trump’s tax returns, eight years of which Vance obtained thanks to a ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court. It has long been believed that those returns are the Rosetta Stone that will unlock the secrets of how Trump has shifted and hidden money over the decades in an effort to skirt accountability and give the illusion that his net worth is larger than it actually is. Those returns may also contain proof of financial ties to countries and entities in nations hostile to the United States such as Russia and China.

And don’t forget about Trump’s former attorney, Michael Cohen, who is expected to be a star witness against his former client:

“As for Cohen, whose credibility will surely be challenged by whatever lawyers Trump manages to scrounge up, said that “unfortunately for Trump, I have backed up each and every question posed by the district attorney’s office [with] documentary evidence.” If Vance’s team can corroborate Cohen’s testimony, Brodsky told Reuters, that would be “very powerful before a jury.” The government, he said, “loves people who plead guilty to crimes, take the stand and say,…‘I participated in a crime with that person sitting right there at the defense table, Donald J. Trump.'”

Evidence and witnesses are the key to any criminal case. It sounds like Vance has plenty of both, which is very bad news for Donald Trump.

 

Categories
Elections Justice Department Voting Rights

DOJ Preparing To Take Action Against Georgia For Their Voter Suppression Law

Now that we once again have a U.S. Attorney General who believes in protecting the Constitution and the rights of all Americans, the Department of Justice is once again working to make sure that all of us have an equal voice in deciding who represents us and makes the laws that govern our nation.

According to multiple reports, the DOJ under AG Merrick Garland is giving serious considering to suing the state of Georgia for the package of voter suppression restrictions that were signed into law Thursday evening by Governor Brian Kemp (R).

CNN White House correspondent Arlette Saenz reports that President Joe Biden was asked about whether or not the DOJ would indeed challenge voting restrictions in the Peach State:

That’s not all the president had to say on the matter, according to the New York Daily News:

President Biden took blistering aim Friday at Georgia Republicans and suggested they could face Justice Department scrutiny for enacting an ‘outrageous’ law that places ‘Jim Crow’-like restrictions on voting in the critical swing state.

“Biden also told reporters later in the day that Justice Department intervention could be warranted.

“’We don’t know quite exactly what we can do at this point. The Justice Department’s taking a look as well,’ he said.”

A lawsuit has already been filed in Georgia by several civil rights groups. The Justice Department could either join that action or file its own lawsuit to block implementation of the voting restrictions and eventually have them ruled unconstitutional and therefore illegal.

The Biden administration also continues to push for passage of the For the People Act in the U.S. Senate. While Republicans are expected to try and delay a vote on the bill by using the filibuster, it increasingly looks like Senate Democrats will overhaul the filibuster rules so that the voting rights bill can reach the Senate floor for a vote. With the Senate currently divided 50-50 among the two parties, a tie vote would allow Vice President Kamala Harris to cast the deciding vote that would make the For the People Act the law of the land.

The DOJ needs to fight the Georgia voting restrictions and get them overturned. If Republicans cannot win elections without cheating, then they should disband their party and admit they’re bereft of any real ideology other than repression.

 

Categories
Elections GOP Polls

Ron DeSantis’ Political Future Looks More Uncertain Than Ever

There was a time not so long ago when Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis was seen by many in the GOP as a rising star who might even have a chance at one day becoming president of the United States.

But those days are long gone. DeSantis has repeatedly mishandled the COVID pandemic in his state, causing his support among senior citizens (a key voting block in the Sunshine State) to wane right as he’s gearing up to seek a second term in office next year.

And now more bad news has arrived for DeSantis in the form of a poll from St. Pete Polls which shows him running dead even with the likely Democratic nominee, Florida Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried.

According to the poll — which was commissioned by Florida Politics — DeSantis looks vulnerable:

“The poll found the incumbent Republican Governor and the potential Democratic challenger both taking about 45% of the vote. A close look shows DeSantis winning 45.2% to Fried’s 44.6%, a difference far smaller than the survey’s 2.2% margin of error.

“The poll finds DeSantis holding 76% Republican support, while Fried has less than 72% among Democrats, showing the incumbent performing better with his own base. But 46% of independents favor Fried, compared to 42% who prefer DeSantis.”

In a closely divided state like Florida, independent voters are the key to winning, and they favor Fried, which is very bad news for DeSantis, who has also been an ardent and vocal supporter of failed, one-term former President Donald Trump. Trump is not seen positively in much of the country, especially among independent voters or the elderly. That raises a larger question: With Trump now calling Florida his home and holed up at Mar-a-Lago, could DeSantis’ connections to the former president be politically detrimental to him as he seeks reelection?

If Fried does indeed announce a run for governor and become the Democratic nominee, she would be a formidable opponent for DeSantis, whose popularity is falling.

Even though the 2022 election is still over a year and a half away, polls are clearly showing that DeSantis can be beaten. And given his own propensity for making the wrong decision no matter the issue, his popularity will likely continue to decrease.

Florida may be on the verge of turning blue. That’s very bad news for the entire Republican Party.

 

Categories
Crime Donald Trump Donald Trump Jr.

Donald And Don Jr. Having To Lawyer Up As Insurrection Lawsuit Against Them Draws Closer

Failed, one-term former President Donald Trump (along with his eldest son, Donald Trump Jr.) is facing even more legal problems and is now having to lawyer up as the result of a civil lawsuit filed by Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) earlier this month.

The lawsuit, the Washington Post reported on March 5, would hold the former president and his son liable for the injuries and destruction that resulted from their incitement of the insurrection which took place at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.:

“Swalwell … alleged the former president and his fellow speakers at a rally near the White House that day were directly responsible for mobilizing a crowd of tens of thousands of pro-Trump supporters to march on the Capitol and priming them for violence.

“The lawsuit claims the (Trumps) violated the Reconstruction-era Ku Klux Klan Act by conspiring to violently interfere in Congress’s constitutional duties and failing to act to stop the mob. It also accuses them of multiple counts of negligence under both federal and D.C. law, aiding and abetting, and infliction of emotional distress.”

And that has led the two Trumps to seek cover by acquiring one of the few attorneys willing to represent them, according to The Daily Beast:

“Former President Donald Trump, as well as his eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., have retained attorney Jesse Binnall to represent each of them.

“Binnall, a Republican attorney based in Virginia, previously represented former Trump national security adviser Mike Flynn, alongside attorney Sidney Powell, after prosecutors charged him with lying to the FBI about his communications with Russia’s ambassador to the U.S.”

Be sure and note what that second paragraph references regarding Binnall’s former client: Mike Flynn, who pled guilty to lying under oath and had to be pardoned by Trump in the final days of his administration. Flynn is still facing penalties from the Department of Defense for accepting large sums of money from Russia to attend a dinner in Moscow and sit next to Russian President/mass murderer Vladimir Putin. That alone suggests that Binnall isn’t exactly the sort of lawyer who makes the A-list of legal minds.

More recently, Binnall made a fool of himself by working for Trump’s 2020 campaign in their pointless lawsuits seeking to overturn the will of the American voters:

“Binnall filed a lawsuit in Nevada on behalf of the Trump campaign which sought to overturn President Joe Biden’s electoral victory there, and he has also repped Defending the Republic, a legal group founded in part by Powell, in a defamation suit filed by Dominion Voting Systems.”

In other words, Binnall is a loser who associates himself with cases he cannot possibly win. Apparently, some attorneys prefer to be on the losing side of every issue.

The Swalwell lawsuit is a clear and present legal danger to Trump and Don Jr. Let’s hope they lose and wind up having to answer for the domestic terrorism that took place back in January.

 

Categories
Gun Crime Gun Nuts U.S. Senate WTF?!

Ted Cruz’s Solution To The Mass Shooting Problem: Imprison The Mentally Ill

Now that the problem of mass shootings and gun violence are back on the front page as a result of what transpired in Boulder, Colorado, on Monday, the debate has begun once again on the issue of sensible gun control.

During a Senate hearing on Tuesday, there was a great deal of talk about possibly banning assault weapons such as the one used by the Boulder shooter, strengthening background checks for gun buyers, and other reforms that have sadly been discussed thousands of times before whenever innocent people are slain by a weapon of mass murder.

But something Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) said during the hearing was especially chilling, not only because it suggested just how deeply in debt Cruz is to the gun lobby, but also because it called for putting people with mental illness into prison if they are caught with a gun.

Specifically, Cruz remarked:

“The senator from Connecticut knows that is false, and he knows that’s false, because Sen. [Chuck] Grassley and I together introduced legislation … targeted at violent criminals, targeted at felons, targeted at fugitives, targeted at those with serious mental disease to stop them from getting firearms and put them in prison when they try to illegally buy guns.”

So now mental illness will be a crime instead of a disease? On antidepressants? You can buy a gun, but you’ll be sent to prison if you do under Cruz’s deeply flawed logic.

Also, Cruz’s comments completely ignore the real problem that exists in this country: There’s too many damn guns! Does anyone actually believe that more guns is the answer to the problem of gun violence? That’s absurd! It makes no damn sense whatsoever. But it does allow Cruz and his GOP colleagues to continually suck on the teat of big gunmakers who are only too happy to buy U.S. senators if that’s what it takes for them to remain in business. Apparently, money trumps human life when it comes to Cruz and his ilk.

If Republicans cannot rationally discuss the gun problem in this country, maybe it’s time we make them the permanent minority party.