Tag: Crime

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Crime The Trump Adminstration

Steve Bannon Forced To Surrender To Authorities On Criminal Charges In New York: Report

 

Already facing a two-year prison term in federal prison after being found guilty for contempt of Congress, Steve Bannon, a former political strategist for failed ex-president Donald Trump, will surrender to New York authorities on Thursday for his role in an alleged scheme to defraud contributors to a $25 million fundraising effort for building a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border.

According to The Washington Post:

The precise details of the state case could not be confirmed Tuesday evening. But people familiar with the situation, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sealed indictment, suggested the prosecution will likely mirror aspects of the federal case in which Bannon was pardoned.

In that indictment, prosecutors alleged that Bannon and several others defrauded contributors to a private, $25 million fundraising effort, called “We Build the Wall,” taking funds that donors were told would support construction of a barrier along the U.S.-Mexico border.

Shortly after news broke of the latest indictment against Bannon, he lashed out in statement which reads in part, “The Soros-backed DA has now decided to pursue phony charges against me 60 days before the midterm election because WarRoom is the major source of the MAGA grassroots movement. The SDNY did the exact same thing in August 2020 to try to take me out of the election. It didn’t work then, it certainly won’t work now.”

Ironically, Bannon was pardoned by Trump on federal charges connected to the “We Build the Wall” fundraising scheme, but that pardon doesn’t protect him from being indicted and put on trial in New York. Bannon pleaded not guilty to those charges, which included allegations that he had personally pocketed $1 million of the donated funds.

Bannon may also be in further legal jeopardy for his role in the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol. His name has come up frequently during the public hearings being conducted by the House Select Committee investigating Jan. 6.

Here’s more on Bannon’s contempt of Congress conviction:

Categories
Crime GOP Sex Scandals

‘Methodical’ Prosecutor Preparing Airtight Case Against Matt Gaetz – Indictments Expected After Midterms

Despite the legal cloud hanging over him, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) won his primary on Tuesday and will be on the ballot in November. He is also expected to win re-election.

But that victory will likely be pyrrhic, as a new report from The Daily Beast reveals the main federal prosecutor working on the sex trafficking case against Gaetz is being incredibly “methodical” and is expected to unseal any indictments against the congressman after the midterm elections.

Lyle Mazin, a criminal defense attorney who represents a witness in the case, told The Daily Beast that the quiet should not be misconstrued as reluctance on the part of Roger Handberg, a federal prosecutor who led the local team conducting the investigation and now leads the Florida Middle District U.S. Attorney’s Office.

“He’s methodical. He doesn’t let anything go,” Mazin said. “If you’re going after a monster, you have to get it right—especially when you have a bunch of Trump supporters who’ll come after you.”

Indictments and plea deals have already been reached with key figures in the sex trafficking probe, and the person who can do the most damage to Gaetz — former Seminole County tax collector Joel Greenberg, who is known as Gaetz’s “wingman” — continues to provide a road map that investigators are following as they get closer to charging the congressman.

Any charges, however, won’t be filed before the election on November 8:

That day, if it comes, is likely still months off. Two attorneys said prosecutors will take extreme steps to avoid the appearance of interfering with the midterms, and expected any announcements involving Gaetz would likely come several weeks after the November election.

The slow nature of the investigation has frustrated some who are cooperating with prosecutors, though they say they remain optimistic the delay will result in making sure Gaetz pays the price for his alleged crimes:

“We know for a fact that there are dozens of other actors who were involved in drug-fueled sex parties with underage girls and other criminal financial schemes. If at the end of the day only two or three people are held to account by the feds, that would be a real miscarriage of justice and transparency,” said David Bear, an Orlando attorney who has advised several people who would consider themselves victims of Greenberg’s abuse of power while in office.

 

After he was victorious on Tuesday, Gaetz told family and friends he expected to win in November and return to the House where he would be part of a group of “Republicans with a will to fight and a backbone.”

But even if he is re-elected, Gaetz is facing a “fight” that will take a hell of a lot more than backbone and fiery rhetoric to win.

 

Categories
Crime Donald Trump Espionage National Security The Trump Adminstration

18 Former Trump Officials Say His ‘Standing Order’ On Declassifying Top Secret Documents Is BS

According to disgraced, one-term former president Donald Trump, he had a “standing order” that stipulated any classified documents he took from the Oval Office to the White House residence residence, meaning it wasn’t improper or illegal for him to have thousands of top secret files at his Mar-a-Lago resort because he had already declassified them.

But 18 former officials who served in the Trump administration, no order was ever issued and the ex-president is lying yet again, according to a report from CNN.

“Nothing approaching an order that foolish was ever given,” said John Kelly, who served as Trump’s chief of staff for 17 months from 2017 to 2019. “And I can’t imagine anyone that worked at the White House after me that would have simply shrugged their shoulders and allowed that order to go forward without dying in the ditch trying to stop it.”

Mick Mulvaney, who succeeded Kelly as acting White House chief of staff, also dismissed the idea and told CNN he was “not aware of a general standing order” during his tenure.

A senior White House official dubbed Trump’s assertion of automatic declassification “total nonsense,” adding, “If that’s true, where is the order with his signature on it? If that were the case, there would have been tremendous pushback from the Intel Community and DoD, which would almost certainly have become known to Intel and Armed Services Committees on the Hill.”

Another fact that directly undercuts Trump’s claim of a “standing order” of declassification according to David Laufman, the former chief of the Justice Department’s counterintelligence division, is that “Programs and officials would have been notified. There is no evidence they were.”

Multiple sources said they believed that Trump’s claim the documents were declassified was nothing more than a transparent attempt to try to defend himself for taking the documents to Mar-a-Lago.

“There is a process to declassify, the president can’t just wave a magic wand,” a former senior Trump White House official said.

Meanwhile, Trump and his ragtag collection of so-called “attorneys” are trying to get the affidavit used to obtain the search warrant unsealed without any redactions, a move that could threaten the lives of federal law enforcement officials and jeopardize the ongoing Justice Department investigation of whether or not the former president violated the Espionage Act.

A federal magistrate said Thursday that the DOJ has until Thursday, Aug. 25 to submit a redacted version of the affidavit which he will then rule on.

Categories
Civil Rights Crime Justice Department

Kyle Rittenhouse Facing Federal Charges As DOJ Is Called On To Review Case

Accused Kenosha shooter Kyle Rittenhouse was found not guilty by a jury of his peers today, with NBC News reporting:

Rittenhouse was charged with reckless homicide in the slaying of Joseph Rosenbaum, 36, and intentional homicide in the death of Anthony Huber, 26.

He also faced a charge of attempted intentional homicide for severely wounding Gaige Grosskreutz, a 27-year-old paramedic from suburban Milwaukee who was there that night volunteering his medical services, and two counts of recklessly endangering safety.

But Rittenhouse is not in the clear legally. He could still face federal charges, and the Justice Department is being called on review the case and see if he should be charged.

Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, tweeted out a call for the DOJ to take a close look at Rittenhouse:


Specifically, Rittenhouse could face being charged with federal civil rights violations and a hate crime. That decision will have to be made by the DOJ, and it could impact future cases of this type when protesters are targeted by those who disagree with them.

So while Kyle Rittenhouse may be in the clear for the moment, there’s a very good chance he’s going to be back in court very soon, and his luck will eventually run out.