Tag: 2020 Election

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Crime Elections GOP Justice Department

Jack Smith Looking At Recordings Of Ted Cruz Discussing How To Overturn The 2020 Election

Justice Department Special Counsel Jack Smith is about to have some important new evidence as he continues to investigate the plot to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.

According to CNN, Smith is interested in tapes of Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) conspiring to help former president Donald Trump illegally remain in office.


Special Counsel Jack Smith has expressed interest in audio tapes recorded by former Fox News producer Abby Grossberg while she worked at the right-wing network, her lawyer said.

Grossberg attorney Gerry Filippatos told CNN on Wednesday that he has given a spreadsheet to the special counsel’s team, detailing the nearly 90 audiotapes in Grossberg’s possession. Talks are underway for a subpoena, so Grossberg can turn over the material to Smith’s team of federal prosecutors, who are investigating efforts by former President Donald Trump and his allies to overturn the 2020 election.

[…]

In a related development, MSNBC on Tuesday aired a new snippet of one of Grossberg’s tapes. The previously undisclosed audio featured Republican Sen. Ted Cruz talking with Fox News host Maria Bartiromo about his plans to delay Congress’ certification of Joe Biden’s victory on January 6, 2021.

In the taped conversation with Bartiromo, Cruz outlines a plan for delaying the certification by establishing a “commission” to further investigate claims of voter fraud. The Texas senator had proposed a commission in a press release on the same day as the audio recording.

That could wind up resulting in Smith charging Cruz with multiple felonies for conspiring to keep Trump in office, even after it was clear that Joe Biden was the clear victor in both the popular and electoral vote.

In the tape Smith has obtained, Cruz can be heard telling Bartiromo, “As we were looking at this January 6 certification, all of the options that were being discussed were problematic. And so I wanted to find a path that was consistent with the Constitution and the law and that address these very real serious claims.”

According to Cruz, what he said on the tape is no big deal, posting on Twitter:

“This @msnbc [clown] is breathlessly reporting that I ‘secretly’ said in a phone call … the EXACT same thing I said on national television the next morning! And then said again on the Senate floor four days later.”

 

Categories
Crime Donald Trump Elections GOP

Fani Willis Claps Back Hard At Jim Jordan: ‘You Lack A Basic Understanding Of The Law’

Fulton County, Georgia District Attorney Fani Willis has had quite enough of the petty threats and other distractions from House Judiciary Committee chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH), and she’s responding to his childish actions by reminding him that his knowledge of the law is tenuous at best.

Jordan has repeatedly accused Willis of trying to “interfere” in the 2024 election by charging former president Donald Trump as part of a racketeering conspiracy to overturn the results of balloting in the Peach State as part of the 2020 election, which Trump lost in an electoral landslide.

Focusing on a letter Jordan sent in August, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports, Willis accused the congressman of using “inaccurate information and misleading statements” for his own political gain.

“Its obvious purpose is to obstruct a Georgia criminal proceeding and to advance outrageous misrepresentations,” Willis said in response to Jordan’s letter. “As I make clear below, there is no justification in the Constitution for Congress to interfere with a state criminal matter, as you attempt to do.”

Willis also noted that Jordan was legally ignorant.

“Your letter makes clear that you lack a basic understanding of the law, its practice and the ethical obligations of attorneys generally and prosecutors specifically.”

It should be noted that Jordan never sat for the bar exam in his home state and has never actually practiced law, as MSNBC host Lawrence O’Donnell noted in a brutal takedown of the Ohio Republican earlier this year.

“An Ohioan who is a graduate of Capital University Law School, but has never passed the bar exam – so is not a lawyer – Congressman Jim Jordan got a reply to his letter from Harvard Law School graduate Alvin Bragg, the district attorney of Manhattan.”

“Alvin Bragg’s reply letter to Jim Jordan is the single most humiliating letter ever received by a chairman of the House Judiciary Committee – every one of whom has known much more about the law than Jim Jordan.”

Jim Jordan is a sycophantic jackass who wants to advance his political career when he isn’t busy serving as Donald Trump’s full-time fluffer. He’s an embarrassment to his party, the Congress, and the United States.

 

Categories
Crime Donald Trump Elections

Bombshell Report: Trump Knew Giuliani Was Drunk While Giving Him ‘Legal Advice’ – Which Destroys Donald’s Defense

The main defense being used by failed former president Donald Trump to shield himself from criminal charges related to efforts to overturn the 2020 election results is that he was merely acting on the advice of legal counsel.

But what if one of the people giving Trump legal advice was intoxicated? And what if the ex-president knew that but continued to let one of attorneys guide his decisions?

Thanks to a blockbuster report from Rolling Stone, we now know that Trump was indeed listening closely to what his personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani told him, despite the fact that several people allege Guiliani was drunk most of the time while dispensing legal guidance.

Some witnesses told (Special Counsel Jack) Smith’s team that they saw Giuliani consuming significant quantities of alcohol; some told the special counsel’s office that they could clearly smell alcohol on Giuliani’s breath, including on election night, and that they noticed distinct changes in his demeanor from hours prior, the sources tell Rolling Stone.

Some have already told investigators that they were directly aware of moments when Trump had talked to others about Giuliani’s drinking, and that Trump spoke negatively about his then-top lawyer’s alcohol consumption. (Trump is known for being a longtime teetotaler.)

That would mean that the “advice of counsel” ploy being used by Trump is no longer valid, according to Mitchell Epner, a former Assistant United States Attorney for the District of New Jersey:

“In order to rely upon an advice of counsel defense, the defendant has to, number one, have made full disclosure of all material facts to the attorney. That requires that the attorney understands what’s being told to them. If you know that your attorney is drunk, that does not count as making full disclosure of all material facts.”

Former federal prosecutor Glenn Kirschner noted on MSNBC that Trump might have taken bad advice from an inebriated Guiliani as a “cover” to engage in illegal activities.

“Is he taking the advice from somebody who everyone in the room knows is drunk?” Kirschner asked. “If you’re taking advice from a thoughtful, sober, learned counsel, that, you know, might give you some protection on the advice of counsel front. But if you’re taking advice from, you know, from the town drunk sitting in the public square yelling at the clouds, you’re not going to have much of an advice of counsel defense.”

Kirschner added, “These are not salacious issues and I think more fundamentally, on the advice of counsel defense, I also think it is really hard for Donald Trump to pursue that when his counsel are his co-defendants in the Jan. 6 trial. They’re his unindicted co-defendants and there is no advice of co-defendant offense. So, that also complicated the advice of counsel defense that Donald Trump might otherwise have.”

Donnie might want to start thinking about a plea deal with Jack Smith.

 

Categories
Crime Elections GOP Whining

Lindsey Graham Tries To Defend Trump From Indictment And Steps Into A Steaming Pile Of Irony

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) went on Fox “News” Monday evening and did his best impression of Henny Penny, declaring that the sky was definitely falling if disgraced former president Donald Trump wound up being indicted in the state of Georgia for trying to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

Appearing with Fox host Jesse Watters, Graham whined that the legal problems facing Trump were “unfair.”

“The American people can decide whether they want him to be president or not,” Graham declared. “This should be decided at the ballot box, not a bunch of liberal jurisdictions trying to put the man in jail.”

As HuffPost notes, many couldn’t help but wonder if Graham fully appreciated the irony of his words.

Users on … Twitter said deciding Trump’s fate at the ballot box was “sorta the point here.”

 

Categories
Elections The Trump Adminstration WTF?!

Melania Asked If She’d Get A Budget And Staff After She Left The White House

Donald and Melania Trump are now Floridians, residing at the former president’s Mar-a-Lago resort.

But according to CNN, before her husband left office, the former first lady wanted to know if she could get more goodies and have taxpayers foot the bill for them:

“In mid-November, as President Donald Trump railed against the election results, his wife, first lady Melania Trump publicly agreed with his sentiments. But privately, a handful of days after the final state tally, the first lady tasked an emissary with discreetly finding out what was available to her in terms of budget and staff allocation for post-White House life.”

Budget and staff? Really? Haven’t she and her husband fleeced the Treasury out of enough money already?

The answer to Melania’s query came back quickly:

“The short answer is no. While there are post-presidential perks for such things for the outgoing commander in chief, budgets to set up an official office and staff and cover some travel costs, there is nothing from the government for any first lady, save a paltry $20,000-a-year pension, which is paid out only if her husband dies.”

All of this led to some interesting commentary on Twitter:

As the old saying reminds us, A grifter is always gonna grift.