Category: Donald Trump

Categories
Crime Donald Trump The Trump Organization

Trump Ordered To Testify Under Oath In New York Fraud Investigation

Failed, one-term, twice-impeached former President Donald Trump has been notified that he will have to sit for a sworn deposition in the civil fraud case against him in New York.

The Washington Post reports:

New York Attorney General Letitia James is seeking a deposition from former president Donald Trump early next year as part of her investigation into potential fraud inside the Trump Organization, according to people familiar with the matter.

James has requested to take his testimony on Jan. 7 at her New York office as part of a civil investigation into whether Trump’s company committed financial fraud in the valuations of properties to different entities, according to the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the inquiry is ongoing.

One of the people familiar with the investigation said James is examining whether widespread fraud “permeated the Trump Organization.”

Notified of the deposition date, a spokesperson for the Trump Organization used one of the ex-president’s favorite invocations whenever he’s being investigated:

“This is another political witch-hunt,” the statement said, noting that James is running for governor next year. “The only focus of the New York AG is to investigate Trump, all for her own political ambitions … This political prosecution is illegal, unethical and is a travesty to our great state and legal system.”

James is clearly turning up the heat on Trump, who is also under criminal investigation by Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. Vance suspects Trump and his company inflated the value of real estate assets in order to get larger loans from lenders and later devalued those same properties to avoid paying the required taxes. Bank and tax fraud are just two of the crimes under investigation by Vance.

The former president’s son, Eric, has given a deposition in the fraud investigation being conducted by James. He originally refused to sit for a deposition but later relented. That deposition was given in October of last year, shortly before American voters booted the Donald Trump from the White House and replaced him with President Joe Biden.

The danger of Trump giving a deposition cannot be overstated, according to biographer Tim O’Brien, who has written extensively about the ex-president:

“He can’t be scripted, and he’s injudicious, and he often doesn’t understand that the process is about events and facts, rather than being performance art.”

Categories
Donald Trump Elections

Adam Schiff: The 1/6 Committee Has Information Linking Trump To The Attempted Election Coup

According to Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), the House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack has information which directly ties former President Donald Trump to attempted 2020 election coup.

Schiff was a guest on “The Rachel Maddow Show,” and was asked by Maddow:

“It appears from a discussion in the recent deposition that there was White House metadata on that letter to Georgia officials suggesting that the letter to those Georgia officials might have originated in the White House, that this might not be just a Jeff Clark problem, it might be a Trump White House problem. Is that your understanding of that situation? Are those the implications of that metadata? Do we have this the right way around?”

That letter, you may recall, specifically urged Georgia election officials to appoint new electors who would then overturn the results of the balloting in the Peach State.

Schiff told Maddow:

“I think that you do on the basis of what the committee has disclosed about the questions we posed to Mr. Clark, that there was metadata indicating a White House role of some kind or communication through the White House of some kind. This is exactly why we need these witnesses to testify so we can understand what part of this plot to overturn the election was the White House involved in, what part was the president personally involved in, what expectation was there that the last-ditch effort might involve violence against the Capitol to delay or obstruct the certification of the elector results?”

If that metadata connects the White House to actions to overturn the election and the storming of the Capitol, it would prove that as president Donald Trump was using his powers to subvert the will of the American people so he could remain in office, which is a crime and could also disqualify him from ever holding any federal office in the future. His plans for a 2024 presidential run would be over.

If the Jan. 6 committee does indeed uncover evidence of Trump’s alleged attempt to subvert democracy, the Justice Department needs to act decisively and charge the ex-president with crimes against the United States.

 

Categories
Donald Trump Elections GOP

Georgia Lt. Gov. Urges Trump To Keep His ‘Traveling Circus’ Out Of State’s 2022 Gubernatorial Race

At the urging of failed, one-term former President Donald Trump, ex-Georgia Sen. David Perdue (R) will announce his candidacy to be the 2022 GOP nominee for governor of the state of Georgia today, a direct slap in the face of current Gov. Brian Kemp (R), who is seeking reelection for a second term in office.

Perdue’s challenge to Kemp has set off panic within the Georgia Republican Party, with Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan going on CNN Monday morning and begging Trump to stay out of the state’s politics, which would likely hand the state to likely Democratic nominee, Stacey Abrams.

Duncan told CNN host John Berman:

“Brian Kemp is probably Georgia’s most conservative governor in history. He has done everything he needs to do. We’ve cut taxes, we’ve increased teacher pay, we’ve navigated through a pandemic, we’ve got $6 billion in a rainy day fund and, quite honestly, David Perdue should know better than this. He’s the only one to blame for losing his last election to Jon Ossoff and he ran the worst campaign ever — and that’s his fault not Brian Kemp’s or Geoff Duncan’s or any other Republican’s fault.”

That led Berman to ask this about why Perdue would challenge the incumbent Kemp:

“What issue do you see him running on? I mean, what do you think he big issue for him is then?”

Duncan responded:

“It appears early on he will try to carry Donald Trump’s water on the conspiracy stuff and that seems to be the only tail wind he’s got, it’s unfortunate. We what much this play out all across the country. But look, his is a short-term sugar high, it will wear off. The quicker we take our medicine as Republicans and move on and focus on the next election, the next opportunity to lead this country, the quicker we are going to get the White House back, the Senate back, the House back and have opportunities to put our conservative leadership on display.”

Duncan then added:

“We don’t need the traveling circus of Donald Trump to stay here in Georgia. We need it to stay down in Mar-a-Lago, working on his handicap playing golf and let us be conservatives here in Georgia and move forward.”

Is there any chance Trump will heed Duncan’s pleadings? Of course not! The petty former president has an ax to grind and his ego has to be satiated.

Here’s the video from CNN:

Categories
Capitol Insurrection Donald Trump Elections QAnon

Former FBI Official Warns: Jan. 6 Will ‘Pale In Comparison’ To What Trumpers Have Planned For 2022

A former FBI counterterrorism official Frank Figliuzzi said Monday that what he already sees on the horizon for the 2022 midterm elections will make the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection “pale in comparison.”

Appearing on MSNBC, Figliuzzi warned:

“You know, about a year ago, if you had asked me about this … I would have called this what intelligence officials call an over the horizon threat — something that’s coming, something we should be aware of and think about as a future threat. But the horizon is here. This has been a dress rehearsal for at least a year for radical extremism.”

Noting that QAnon Republicans are taking over at the local and state level which is incredibly dangerous, Figliuzzi continued:

“He’s (Trump) putting his people in place. People who are moderate, reasonable Republicans have already announced, ‘I’m out, I’m out of Congress, I’m out of the governor’s office. I’m out.’ Now we see people like [David] Perdue in Georgia who will be involved in the primary. Why? President Trump needs his guy in Georgia.”

From a national security perspective, Figliuzzi said, the threat the nation faces in 2022 “is going to make the Jan. 6 riot pale in comparison.”

The Justice Department, he concluded, needs to get active, and fast:

“We need DOJ to step it up. I have been the voice of reason with regard to those who say they are taking too slow at DOJ, with regard to the insurrection investigation. I am the guy that says, ‘No, 700 defendants is not slow. They are doing a great job.'”

Categories
Donald Trump Viral Video WTF?!

Donald The ‘Drunk Uncle’ Crashes A Wedding To Call US Military Leader A ‘F**king Idiot’

In a viral video that’s making its way around the internet, failed, one-term former President Donald Trump crashed a wedding and began making unhinged remarks that reminded the country why we voted his sorry ass out of office.

The video shows Trump attacking Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the nation’s top military leader, referencing a conversation Trump alleges he had with Milley:

“$70 million planes. You mean you think it’s cheaper to leave it there so they can have it than it is to fill it up with a half a tank of gas and fly it into Pakistan or fly it back to our country?”

Mocking Milley’s voice, he claimed the general told him:

“Yes sir, I think it’s cheaper, sir.”

Trump then tells the wedding guests:

“That’s when I realized he was a fucking idiot.”

A few minutes later, Trump again raises the issue of the 2020 election:

“The mail-in ballots, it was just horrible. The insurrection took place on Election Day, and the rest was a protest, and what they should be investigating is the election, not what took place that day, because the reason they had the protest was because of the election. It’s very simple.”

Yeah, it’s very simple, all right: Donald Trump is a deranged old man who needs to go easy into that good night and leave us all the hell alone.

Here’s the clip: