Tag: Congress

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Congress Donald Trump

The Donald’s Former Accounting Firm Just Handed His Financial Records To Congress

Despite his countless legal maneuvers to keep it from happening, failed, one-term, twice-impeached former president Donald Trump now has to watch as his financial records are handed over to congressional Democrats, a development which must have him seething.

According to The New York Times, Mazars USA has given the records to a key House committee:

“After a yearslong legal fight, the House Oversight Committee has received a first trove of documents from the firm, which recently entered into a legal settlement agreeing to produce a range of financial documents from several years before Mr. Trump took office and during his early presidency. Mazars said in February it could no longer stand behind a decade of annual financial statements it had prepared for the Trump Organization.”

The chair of the committee, Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) confirmed that Mazars was indeed cooperating and providing documents:

“We’re reviewing them. Mazars is being very cooperative.”

Maloney also noted that her committee was the only one in Congress to obtain any of the Mazars documents.

The Times also notes that news of the document handover has been a long time coming:

“The Oversight Committee has been in a lengthy struggle to obtain financial documents from Mr. Trump as part of its investigation into allegations of conflicts of interest, inadequate financial disclosures and violations of the emoluments clauses of the Constitution, which bar the president from receiving profits from a domestic or foreign government other than his official compensation. In 2019, Michael D. Cohen, Mr. Trump’s former personal attorney, testified before the committee that Mr. Trump’s financial statements had falsely represented the former president’s assets and liabilities and that Mr. Trump had ‘inflated his total assets when it served his purposes’ and, at other times, ‘deflated his assets to reduce his real estate taxes.'”

The agreement between Mazars and the Oversight Committee specifies “that Mazars must turn over any documents between 2014 and 2018 that indicate any false or undisclosed information about Mr. Trump’s assets, income or liabilities; communications related to any potential concerns that financial information provided by Mr. Trump’s companies was inaccurate; documents from November 2016 to 2018 related to the Old Post Office Building, a federal property in Washington that Mr. Trump’s company converted into a hotel through a lease deal; and documents from 2017 and 2018 related to relationships between Mr. Trump’s businesses and foreign states.”


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Capitol Insurrection Congress January 6

January 6 Committee ‘Won’t Be Quiet’ In The Weeks Leading Up To Midterm Elections: Report

The House Select Committee investigating the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol is making it clear they will not let the November midterm elections keep them from holding hearings and releasing new findings in the weeks leading up to the November 8 balloting.

Damaging new revelations could be a big problem for Republicans, who have seen their polling lead vanish in recent weeks at the same time President Joe Biden and congressional Democrats are polling strongly and could wind up keeping control of both houses of Congress.

According to Axios, Jan. 6 committee chairman Bennie Thompson (D-MS) is signaling that there will be no pullback by the panel:

Thompson told Axios the panel does not want to be “perceived as a partisan committee … we’ve been fairly free of those kind of complaints, and we would not want to interfere with the election.”

But he said the time between an expected Sept. 28 hearing and the election “won’t be a quiet period.” He also said that “the goal is to have … some information pushed out, obviously, before the November election.” The panel may release its interim report in that window.

Committee member Jamie Raskin (D-MD) said Republicans will complain no matter what happens in the hearings:

“There are those partisans of former President Trump that will denounce anything we do, so we’re not going to jump through hoops to please people who will call anything we do partisan.”

The biggest fear for Republicans: Damaging new information coming out of the hearings that would put the issue forefront in the minds of voters right as they’re headed to the polls.

The panel’s highly publicized public hearings over the summer dredged up events Republicans would sooner forget, searing them into the public consciousness in a way they hadn’t been since early 2021. New revelations could return concerns to the forefront of voters’ minds.

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Congress GOP

Eric Swalwell Has The Perfect Comeback When Lauren Boebert Claims He’s Intimidated By Her

For some unknown reason, Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) is under the impression that anyone who avoids her must be intimidated by her.

But why would anyone be the least bit intimidated by the vacuous congresswoman who needed multiple tries to pass the GED exam and proves on a daily basis just how clueless she is?

HuffPost reports that Boebert said during an interview with failed GOP presidential candidate Mike Huckabee that she doesn’t understand why Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) doesn’t want to have anything to do with her:

Boebert packed in as many insults as she could against Swalwell in an interview with former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee on his TBN talk show.

Boebert called Swalwell — a la kindergarten — “Eric Smells Not So Well.”

“I’ve actually tried to have conversations with Eric Smells Not So Well. It doesn’t really work out. He bee-lines away from me. And so maybe I’m intimidating.”

But rather than getting angry, Swalwell got even, referencing a scene from the 2009 movie “He’s Just Not That Into You” where one character tells the other, “Don’t call him. He doesn’t like you.”

Twitter quickly gave Swalwell a social media standing ovation and heaped scorn on Bobo:

https://twitter.com/eduboltito/status/1548475021248499717?s=20&t=M8SXr5xJQWnwDx4V7vwGMw

https://twitter.com/bobclendenin/status/1548474866940030977?s=20&t=22WSZZ53BdpcyOYMKxn_GQ
 

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Capitol Insurrection Congress Donald Trump January 6

Partial Focus Of Tuesday’s J6 Hearing: Members Of Congress Who Conspired With Trump – Report

When the House Select Committee investigating the January 6, 2021 insurrection at the Capitol convenes again tomorrow at 1 p.m. for a public hearing, part of their focus will be to identify the Republican members of Congress who conspired with former president Donald Trump to try and overturn the results of the 2020 election.

Aides to the Jan. 6 committee told reporters during a phone call Monday afternoon that of specific interest to the committee is to lay out how some in the GOP actively assisted Trump in his harebrained scheme to subvert the will of the voters by pressuring then-vice president Mike Pence to refuse certification of the Electoral College votes.

Hugo Lowell of The Guardian notes that there will also be extensive testimony on the nexus between Trump and domestic terrorist groups such as the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers:

The House January 6 select committee is expected to make the case at its seventh hearing Tuesday that Donald Trump gave the signal to the extremist groups that stormed the Capitol to target and obstruct the congressional certification of Joe Biden’s electoral college win.

The panel will zero in on a pivotal tweet sent by the former president in the early hours of the morning on 19 December 2020, according to sources close to the inquiry who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the forthcoming hearing.

“Big protest in D.C. on January 6th,” Trump said in the tweet. “Be there, will be wild!”

That tweet, the committee contends, led domestic terror groups to begin actively planning for Jan. 6. The panel plans to show a detailed chronology of what happened after Trump’s marching orders had been issued on social media:

On 20 December 2020, prosecutors have said, the former Proud Boys national chairman Enrique Tarrio created an encrypted group chat called “MOSD Leaders Group” – described by Tarrio as a “national rally planning” committee that included his top lieutenants.

Top members of the Oath Keepers militia group led by Stewart Rhodes, who have also been indicted for seditious conspiracy, made similar plans as they prepared to obstruct the congressional certification of Biden’s election win, the panel intends to show.

The select committee will then focus on how the Oath Keepers stockpiled weapons and created an armed quick reaction force ready to deploy to the Capitol, and how the group ended up as the security detail for far-right activist Roger Stone and other Trump allies.

What members of Congress will likely hear their names called by the committee on Tuesday? Sens. Ted Cruz (R-TX), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), and Josh Hawley (R-MO), along with Reps. Jim Jordan (R-OH), Devin Nunes (R-CA), Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), and Lauren Boebert (R-CO), although others may also be mentioned as co-conspirators who could be facing criminal referral the Justice Department and punishment from the Senate and House Ethics committees.

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Congress GOP Gun Crime

WATCH Katie Porter Shut Down A GOP Witness At A Hearing On Guns

California Democratic Congresswoman Katie Porter masterfully handled a witness testifying for Republicans on the issue of gun control, making it clear that she wasn’t about to be steamrolled and lied to.

Amy Swearer of the right-wing Heritage Foundation was appearing before the House Oversight Committee, and she immediately suggested Porter had incorrectly accused her of perjury regarding legislation on assault weapons:

“Would you like the explanation?” Swearer asked Porter, to which the congresswoman replied:

“I have not yielded, Ms. Swearer.”

Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ) squawked that Swearer had not been allowed to answer, but he was promptly ruled out of order by the committee chair.

Swearer then got even angrier:

“I have been accused of falsely testifying under oath and I would like to address it!”

Porter:

“Earlier today, you testified you hope this is the last time you have to testify before this Congress. For the sake of our nation and the integrity of this Congress, I do too.”

The witness responded:

“I said after a mass shooting. Trying to figure out how to solve a problem that we are heavily invested in solving.
“How dare you.”

Once again, Porter had the perfect comeback:

“Reclaiming my time. How dare you misstate the law.”

Seething, Swearen hissed:

“How dare you ask questions that you do not even want the answer to.”

Rather than let Swearen continue, Porter told her:

“Ms. Swearer, I’m moving on.”