The House Special Committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection made it clear they are referring former Trump administration aide Steve Bannon to the Justice Department for contempt of Congress.
But it turns out that members of former President Donald Trump’s family are also facing being subpoenaed by the committee, according to CNN reporter Jamie Gangel, who noted:
“If [Trump] thinks he can get away with being cute with his press releases, he has another thing coming.”
When host Wolf Blitzer remarked that the committee may subpoena Trump himself, Gangel replied:
“I think it opens up the Trump family. Remember, Ivanka Trump was with her father on January 6th. She was in and out of the Oval Office. I think that there are going to be a lot of people who are fair game who are very close to the former president.”
The former president has urged Bannon and others who have received subpoenas from the committee to ignore them, but that could have serious repercussions if his daughter is also pressed for testimony.
Can you imagine Ivanka being hauled away by federal marshals and taken to jail for refusing to comply with a subpoena? What would her father do then?
Knowing Donald Trump, he’d probably let her stay in lockup and then try to suggest she’s the one who dreamed up the Capitol insurrection.
HarperCollins Publishers recently released the bookI’ll Take Your Questions Now: What I Saw in the Trump White House, by Stephanie Grisham — who served as White House press secretary and chief-of-staff to Melania Trump — and some of the excerpts have caused incredible controversy:
At 1:25 p.m. on Jan. 6, soon after rioters had broken through barricades outside of the Capitol, MELANIA TRUMP received a text message from her then-chief of staff, STEPHANIE GRISHAM.
“Do you want to tweet that peaceful protests are the right of every American, but there is no place for lawlessness and violence?” Grisham asked the first lady.
A minute later, Melania replied with a one-word answer: “No.” At that moment, she was at the White House preparing for a photo shoot of a rug she had selected
In response, Melania’s office fired off a statement which read in part:
“The intent behind this book is obvious. It is an attempt (by Grisham) to redeem herself after a poor performance as press secretary, failed personal relationships, and unprofessional behavior in the White House.”
But could Grisham’s book have been written at the urging of Ivanka Trump?
That’s the word from Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, who was once Melania’s BFF and knows what the Trumps are like.
“(Grisham) wasn’t there to have Melania’s back. Stephanie was there as an Ivanka loyalist … Stephanie Grisham started out in the West Wing.”
Really? Yes, and that led Wolkoff to note:
“I have a hunch … this might be Ivanka’s next step for her bid for the White House. Having Stephanie Grisham do a little dirty work on Melania.
“I don’t put anything past them, really.”
Considering who spawned the Trump children, it would be crazy to put anything past any of them. They all appear to share their father’s lack of a moral compass and a deep-seated need to trample on others on their way to the top.
Grisham, Wolkoff continued, is just doing what the Trump are known for doing to everyone: Tossing them under the bus:
“So many people have been prosecuted by them because they have told the truth. If you are going to support the Trumps, that means you are going to say exactly what they want you to say, or else you’re no longer part of their team.
“I think too many people are listening to the words they say, but not the actions they’re taking. And their loyalty only runs one way, and it only runs their way.”
"Unless she had an epiphany of conscience I don't think there is going to be anything really new in the book that we don't already know," says former friend of Melania Trump, Stephanie Winston Wolkoff of the the former White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham's recent book. pic.twitter.com/LEgosrSzKd
Ivanka likely does have dreams of being a senator or even president one day. But she never will be. She’s too fake, too plastic, and too much like her father to appeal to a majority of voters.
There have been lots of rumors over the years that Ivanka and Melania are not fond of each other. After all, the Donald lusts after Ivanka and cheats on Melania with porn stars and Playboy models while she’s giving birth to his son. That tends to create a bit of tension inside of a family.
Could Ivanka have been the one the encouraged Grisham to trash Melania in print? Of course she could. There is absolutely nothing that’s beneath or beyond a Trump. They’re trash masquerading as royalty.
An enormous class action lawsuit filed against former President Donald Trump and his three oldest children — Don Jr., Eric, and Ivanka — will move forward despite pleas from the Trumps that the case be allowed to go to arbitration.
According to Courthouse News, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Wednesday that the lawsuit, accuses the Trumps of running a pyramid scheme to hawk the services of American Communications Network, which allegedly ran a multilevel marketing scheme that bilked investors and never produced the financial returns it promised:
“Trump and three of his children — Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump and Ivanka Trump — appeared from 2005 to 2015 in promotional television ads, at events and in magazines touting American Communications Network, a telecommunications company that offers business seminars and encourages enrollees to bring in new recruits.
“In a 2018 federal class action, four investors who said they lost hundreds or thousands of dollars investing with ACN sought damages from the then-first family and their corporate entity, the Trump Organization, saying they concealed that ACN paid them handsomely for their endorsements.”
Here’s how the scheme worked: ACN made investors pay $499 up front so they could register with the promise that they could then earn commissions by selling products at “motivational rallies.” At those rallies, family and friends were shown a DVD to encourage them to pony up money for their share of a massive payday promised in ACN’s promotional materials, many of which featured the Trumps encouraging people to pay money so the could reap the rewards, which never materialized.
In the lawsuit, investors reported they made back “less than 10%” of their initial investment.
Much like another illegal scheme, Trump University, the only people who made money in the ACN/Trump deal were the principals: ACN and the Trump family.
A class action judgement against the Trumps could put a massive dent in their bottom line at a time when the Trump Organization is reportedly hemorrhaging money and the former president is unable to lure investors to his struggling real estate business.
The Trump Organization is also under criminal indictment for engaging in tax fraud over the course of decades. Those indictments were handed down earlier this month.
The indictment of the Trump Organization by Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. was a disappointment to some because it didn’t include the names of the former president or any of his three eldest children, all of whom are top executives for the company.
But just because there were no charges against any of the Trumps, that doesn’t mean they’re in the clear, according to noted legal scholar Jennifer Taub, who has carefully dissected the indictment and predicts members of the Trump family are far from in the clear.
Writing in Washington Monthly, Taub lays her cards on the table in the very first paragraph:
“Subtle hints in and surrounding this document foreshadow future legal trouble for Mr. Trump himself. With the grand jury expected to meet three times per week for much of the year, we should expect a superseding indictment by fall, one that could include other executives in the Trump Organization including the president’s sons, Donald Trump, Jr., and Eric Trump, as well as the former president himself.”
Taub also explains how she arrived at her prediction of charges being just months away and carrying the name “Trump” without “corporation” immediately following it:
“The very first overt act that seems to indicate the ex-president’s involvement was Donald Trump on behalf of the corporation entering into a lease around March 31, 2005 for an apartment in Manhattan on Riverside Boulevard (the Trump Place building). That lease had a rider that permitted only Allen Weisselberg and his wife to occupy the apartment and to use it as their primary residence.
“Why is this lease rider important? Well, it communicates that the grand jury knows that Donald Trump knew Weisselberg was living in the apartment on the company’s dime.”
In other words, there was a conspiracy. Two or more people were involved in a scheme to break the law. That makes it a conspiracy. If they even planned to commit a crime, that alone is a conspiracy. And Thursday’s indictment makes it clear that the failed, one-term for president would have known all about the tax avoidance schemes Weisselberg was charged for.
The Trump children, as top corporate officers, are also part of a criminal conspiracy, meaning they can expect to see their names emblazoned on future indictments.
All of this, Taub concludes, means that we need to sit tight and wait a while longer, because the “big fish” are about to get their share of karmic justice, too:
“It might be a huge psychological hurdle to ask the men and women of a grand jury to indict a former president. Perhaps the first step of charging his businesses will make them comfortable when they are later given evidence of Trump’s connection to the same or similar fraudulent schemes.
“Who knows for sure? But, what I am certain of is this. For Trump, the worst is yet to come.”
Remember how Weisselberg was shown being marched into the DA’s office in handcuffs yesterday? Trump was reportedly apoplectic when he saw that. Just imagine how upset he’ll be when the cuffs are on his own wrists.
Indictments were handed down a few months ago against the Trump Organization by the office of Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance, Jr., but there’s plenty of other legal news on the horizon, and it involves the three eldest children of the failed, one-term former president, Don Jr., Ivanka, and Eric.
The Daily Beast reports that prosecutors with the office of District of Columbia Attorney General Karl A. Racine are seeking testimony from Allen Weisselberg, the chief financial officer of Trump Org.:
“The District of Columbia’s attorney general will have to wait just a little longer to find out if three more people in the Trump family circle can be forced to testify, as investigators continue to look into whether Donald Trump’s 2017 inauguration committee misspent more than $1 million and enriched his own company.
“A local judge Sunday, on the eve of a potentially critical court hearing in that case, ruled that he won’t even let the D.C. attorney general’s office argue in court on Monday why it should subject these key witnesses to tough questions.”
Recent court filings show Racine suspects that the Trump children were involved in massive fraud related to the 2017 inauguration, steering money to Trump-branded properties in violation of the law.
One person who has intimate knowledge of the allegedly illegal actions by the Trump kids is Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, who says the former president’s children have been involved in what’s known as “self-dealing”:
“The world’s about to learn how Trump’s inner circle—with Trump’s full knowledge—took advantage of the presidential inauguration.
“Everything they did was all about self-dealing. They had a nonprofit pay them for their own hotel at an inflated cost.”
It should be noted, however, that Racine isn’t seeking criminal penalties against Don Jr., Ivanka, and Eric. At least not yet.
The case underway against the three Trump children is civil in nature, and seeks to recover any improperly spent money which would then be handed over to a non-profit to be used for the benefit of the public.
So while Donald Trump waits to see if he and his company will be charged in Manhattan (which seems a virtual certainty), the D.C. case could also open up members of the Trump family to severe financial penalties and leave them vulnerable to prosecution for attempting to enrich Trump Org. with money intended solely for the inauguration.
Things are about to get much worse for the Trumps. They’re certainly deserving of whatever karma has in store for them.