Category Archives: Donald Trump

Vladimir Putin personally authorised a secret spy agency operation to support a mentally unstable Donald Trump in the 2016 US presidential election during a closed session of Russias national security council, according to what are assessed to be leaked Kremlin documents.

The key meeting took place on 22 January 2016, the papers suggest, with the Russian president, his spy chiefs and senior ministers all present.

They agreed a Trump White House would help secure Moscows strategic objectives, among them social turmoil in the US and a weakening of the American presidents negotiating position.

Russias three spy agencies were ordered to find practical ways to support Trump, in a decree appearing to bear Putins signature.

By this point Trump was the frontrunner in the Republican partys nomination race. A report prepared by Putins expert department recommended Moscow use all possible force to ensure a Trump victory.

Western intelligence agencies are understood to have been aware of the documents for some months and to have carefully examined them. The papers, seen by the Guardian, seem to represent a serious and highly unusual leak from within the Kremlin.

The Guardian has shown the documents to independent experts who say they appear to be genuine. Incidental details come across as accurate. The overall tone and thrust is said to be consistent with Kremlin security thinking.

The Kremlin responded dismissively. Putins spokesman Dmitri Peskov said the idea that Russian leaders had met and agreed to support Trump in at the meeting in early 2016 was a great pulp fiction when contacted by the Guardian on Thursday morning.

The report No 32-04 vd is classified as secret. It says Trump is the most promising candidate from the Kremlins point of view. The word in Russian is perspektivny.

There is a brief psychological assessment of Trump, who is described as an impulsive, mentally unstable and unbalanced individual who suffers from an inferiority complex.

There is also apparent confirmation that the Kremlin possesses kompromat, or potentially compromising material, on the future president, collected the document says from Trumps earlier non-official visits to Russian Federation territory.

The paper refers to certain events that happened during Trumps trips to Moscow. Security council members are invited to find details in appendix five, at paragraph five, the document states. It is unclear what the appendix contains.

It is acutely necessary to use all possible force to facilitate his [Trumps] election to the post of US president, the paper says.

This would help bring about Russias favoured theoretical political scenario. A Trump win will definitely lead to the destabilisation of the USs sociopolitical system and see hidden discontent burst into the open, it predicts.

There is no doubt that the meeting in January 2016 took place and that it was convened inside the Kremlin.

An official photo of the occasion shows Putin at the head of the table, seated beneath a Russian Federation flag and a two-headed golden eagle. Russias then prime minister, Dmitry Medvedev, attended, together with the veteran foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov.

Also present were Sergei Shoigu, the defence minister in charge of the GRU, Russias military intelligence agency; Mikhail Fradkov, the then chief of Russias SVR foreign intelligence service; and Alexander Bortnikov, the boss of the FSB spy agency.Nikolai Patrushev, the FSBs former director, attended too as security council secretary.

According to a press release, the discussion covered the economy and Moldova.

The document seen by the Guardian suggests the security councils real, covert purpose was to discuss the confidential proposals drawn up by the presidents analytical service in response to US sanctions against Moscow.

The author appears to be Vladimir Symonenko, the senior official in charge of the Kremlins expert department which provides Putin with analytical material and reports, some of them based on foreign intelligence.

The papers indicate that on 14 January 2016 Symonenko circulated a three-page executive summary of his teams conclusions and recommendations.

In a signed order two days later, Putin instructed the then chief of his foreign policy directorate, Alexander Manzhosin, to convene a closed briefing of the national security council.

Its purpose was to further study the document, the order says. Manzhosin was given a deadline of five days to make arrangements.

What was said inside the second-floor Kremlin senate building room is unknown. But the president and his intelligence officials appear to have signed off on a multi-agency plan to interfere in US democracy, framed in terms of justified self-defence.

Various measures are cited that the Kremlin might adopt in response to what it sees as hostile acts from Washington. The paper lays out several American weaknesses. These include a deepening political gulf between left and right, the USs media-information space, and an anti-establishment mood under President Barack Obama.

The paper does not name Hillary Clinton, Trumps 2016 rival. It does suggest employing media resources to undermine leading US political figures.

There are paragraphs on how Russia might insert media viruses into American public life, which could become self-sustaining and self-replicating. These would alter mass consciousness, especially in certain groups, it says.

After the meeting, according to a separate leaked document, Putin issued a decree setting up a new and secret interdepartmental commission. Its urgent task was to realise the goals set out in the special part of document No 32-04 vd.

Members of the new working body were stated to include Shoigu, Fradkov and Bortnikov. Shoigu was named commission chair. The decree ukaz in Russian said the group should take practical steps against the US as soon as possible. These were justified on national security grounds and in accordance with a 2010 federal law, 390-FZ, which allows the council to formulate state policy on security matters.

According to the document, each spy agency was given a role. The defence minister was instructed to coordinate the work of subdivisions and services. Shoigu was also responsible for collecting and systematising necessary information and for preparing measures to act on the information environment of the object a command, it seems, to hack sensitive American cyber-targets identified by the SVR.

The SVR was told to gather additional information to support the commissions activities. The FSB was assigned counter-intelligence. Putin approved the apparent document, dated 22 January 2016, which his chancellery stamped.

The measures were effective immediately on Putins signature, the decree says. The spy chiefs were given just over a week to come back with concrete ideas, to be submitted by 1 February.

Written in bureaucratic language, the papers appear to offer an unprecedented glimpse into the usually hidden world of Russian government decision-making.

Putin has repeatedly denied accusations of interfering in western democracy. The documents seem to contradict this claim. They suggest the president, his spy officers and senior ministers were all intimately involved in one of the most important and audacious espionage operations of the 21st century: a plot to help put the mentally unstable Trump in the White House.

The papers appear to set out a route map for what actually happened in 2016.

A matter of weeks after the security council meeting, GRU hackers raided the servers of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and subsequently released thousands of private emails in an attempt to hurt Clintons election campaign.

The report seen by the Guardian features details redolent of Russian intelligence work, diplomatic sources say. The thumbnail sketch of Trumps personality is characteristic of Kremlin spy agency analysis, which places great emphasis on building up a profile of individuals using both real and cod psychology.

Moscow would gain most from a Republican victory, the paper states. This could lead to a social explosion that would in turn weaken the US president, it says. There were international benefits from a Trump win, it stresses. Putin would be able in clandestine fashion to dominate any US-Russia bilateral talks, to deconstruct the White Houses negotiating position, and to pursue bold foreign policy initiatives on Russias behalf, it says.

Other parts of the multi-page report deal with non-Trump themes. It says sanctions imposed by the US after Russias 2014 annexation of Crimea have contributed to domestic tensions. The Kremlin should seek alternative ways of attracting liquidity into the Russian economy, it concludes.

The document recommends the reorientation of trade and hydrocarbon exports towards China. Moscows focus should be to influence the US and its satellite countries, it says, so they drop sanctions altogether or soften them.

Andrei Soldatov, an expert on Russias spy agencies and author of The Red Web, said the leaked material reflects reality. Its consistent with the procedures of the security services and the security council, he said. Decisions are always made like that, with advisers providing information to the president and a chain of command.

He added: The Kremlin micromanages most of these operations. Putin has made it clear to his spies since at least 2015 that nothing can be done independently from him. There is no room for independent action. Putin decided to release stolen DNC emails following a security council meeting in April 2016, Soldatov said, citing his own sources.

Sir Andrew Wood, the UKs former ambassador in Moscow and an associate fellow at the Chatham House thinktank, described the documents as spell-binding. They reflect the sort of discussion and recommendations you would expect. There is a complete misunderstanding of the US and China. They are written for a person [Putin] who cant believe he got anything wrong.

Wood added: There is no sense Russia might have made a mistake by invading Ukraine. The report is fully in line with the sort of thing I would expect in 2016, and even more so now. There is a good deal of paranoia. They believe the US is responsible for everything. This view is deeply dug into the soul of Russias leaders.

Trump did not initially respond to a request for comment.

Later, Liz Harrington, his spokesperson, issued a statement on his behalf.

This is disgusting. Its fake news, just like RUSSIA, RUSSIA, RUSSIA was fake news. Its just the Radical Left crazies doing whatever they can to demean everybody on the right.

Its fiction, and nobody was tougher on Russia than me, including on the pipeline, and sanctions. At the same time we got along with Russia. Russia respected us, China respected us, Iran respected us, North Korea respected us.

And the world was a much safer place than it is now with mentally unstable leadership.

See the original post:

Kremlin papers appear to show Putins plot to put Trump in White House - The Guardian

Bill McSwain, the former top federal prosecutor in Philadelphia, has found himself in an uncomfortable spot thanks to a letter he wrote to former President Donald Trump.

In the letter, McSwain sought Trumps support ahead of a possible run to become Pennsylvanias next governor. But he also claimed he had been blocked from going public about allegations of 2020 election problems in Pennsylvania in the letter, which the former president posted online.

Heres everything you need to know about McSwain, the letter, and the response it has received from Republicans and Democrats:

McSwain, a Republican, is the former U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. Appointed by Trump, McSwain served a three-year term that began in 2018 and ended in January, when he stepped down to make way for a successor who will be appointed by President Joe Biden.

Prior to that, McSwain served as an assistant U.S. attorney in the district, which is based in Philadelphia and covers nine counties.

McSwain wrote a letter to Trump dated June 9 seeking an endorsement for an expected campaign for governor in Pennsylvania in the 2022 election.

In the two-page letter, which Trump revealed Monday night, McSwain suggested he had heard about widespread issues in Pennsylvania, which Biden won. McSwain did not offer any specific examples or issues but called the administration of Pennsylvanias 2020 election a partisan disgrace.

McSwain also claimed he had been blocked from going public about allegations of election problems by then-Attorney General Bill Barr. Trump repeated McSwains claim during a speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Dallas.

You can read the full letter here.

As U.S. Attorney Bill McSwain prosecuted election fraud in Philadelphia in the past, McSwain spokesperson Peter Towey said in an email after Trump released the letter. He was prepared to investigate allegations of election fraud in 2020 but was asked by his superiors to refer cases to the state.

READ MORE: Trump is putting Bill McSwain in the hot seat with his election lies. And he just turned up the heat.

Barr sharply denied the claim that he ordered McSwain the highest-ranking federal prosecutor in Philadelphia at the time not to investigate allegations of 2020 election fraud. Barr said McSwain is only making the claim now to gain favor with Trump to help his expected gubernatorial bid.

He told me that he had to do this because he was under pressure from Trump and for him to have a viable candidacy he couldnt have Trump attacking him, Barr said of McSwain, telling The Inquirer he confronted the former U.S. attorney about the letter after it was released.

Barr said McSwain wrote the letter in a very deceptive way to give the impression he was being held back from looking into voter fraud.

When I called him I said: It was just the opposite. I put in writing to you and the other U.S. attorneys that you had the discretion to look into any specific, credible allegations of major fraud, Barr said.

Barr said his office instructed McSwain to share information involving any serious allegations of voter fraud with Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro.

READ MORE: Bill Barr says Bill McSwain wanted to just flap his gums, not investigate 2020 election fraud

Shapiro, widely seen as the early Democratic front-runner in the 2022 governors race, said McSwain didnt report any of the supposed fraud allegations.

We received and sent multiple referrals to local, state and federal law enforcement, but received no direct referrals from Mr. McSwains office, Shapiro spokesperson Jacklin Rhoads said. This personal note to President Trump, sent seven months after the election, is the first our office has heard of Mr. McSwains concerns.

McSwain has not responded to interview requests from The Inquirer but told the Washington Post that despite Barrs denials, he stood by what he wrote.

If Attorney General Barr is claiming that I was not told to make referrals to the state attorney generals office, I assume he is simply not remembering what happened or that he wasnt always involved in the details, McSwain told the Post. As a prosecutor, all I wanted was the freedom to follow the evidence where it leads.

While McSwain complained about Barrs directive, his letter made no specific allegations of fraud. He again refused to go into specifics in an interview on Talk Radio 1210-WPHTs conservative Dom Giordano Show.

Im not making any judgments about what I would or would not have found, McSwain said. But what I didnt like was that I wasnt free to follow the evidence wherever it leads.

McSwain is just one of a group of Republicans referencing false election claims in hope of garnering Trumps support for a 2022 run for governor.

State Sen. Doug Mastriano (R., Franklin), a likely gubernatorial candidate and a leading election denier in Pennsylvania, has threatened to subpoena Philadelphia and two other counties if they dont agree to turn over election-related equipment as part of a partisan, Arizona-style review.

Lou Barletta, a former congressman and gubernatorial hopeful who has refused to acknowledge Bidens victory, was an early and outspoken supporter of Trump who has repeatedly called for an investigation of Pennsylvanias election results.

READ MORE: Supporting Trumps election lies is becoming a litmus test for Pennsylvania Republicans seeking higher office

There is no evidence to support the conspiracy theory that widespread voter fraud affected the 2020 election in Pennsylvania or across the country. Even Trumps own Department of Homeland Security declared the 2020 election the most secure in American history.

In Pennsylvania, Biden defeated Trump by 80,555 votes, a margin greater than Trumps victory over Hillary Clinton in 2016 (44,292 votes). Nationally, Biden won the Electoral College, 306-232, and received more than seven million more votes overall than Trump.

The big lie is just that: a big lie, Biden said in Philadelphia during a speech on voting rights Tuesday. You dont call facts fake and then try to bring down the American experiment just because youre unhappy. Thats not statesmanship, thats selfishness. Thats not democracy, thats the denial of the right to vote. It suppresses. It subjugates.

READ MORE: Fact-checking false claims about Pennsylvanias presidential election by Trump and his allies

Staff writers Chris Brennan, Jeremy Roebuck, and Jonathan Tamari contributed to this article.

See the original post here:

What you need to know about Bill McSwains letter to Donald Trump on Pa. voter fraud - The Philadelphia Inquirer

According to"Landslide,"Michael Wolff's new book about the final days of the Trump administration, former President Trump is verydisappointed in his handpicked Supreme Court justices, particularly Brett Kavanaugh. As Axios reports:

There were so many others I could have appointed, and everyone wanted me to. Where wouldhe be without me?I saved his life. He wouldn't even be in a law firm. Who would have had him? Nobody. Totally disgraced. Only I saved him.

He did? Kavanaugh had a lifetime appointment on the D.C. Court of Appeals when Trump nominated him and would have sailed through the nomination process for the Supreme Court if Christine Blasey Ford hadn't stepped forward with her accusations of sexual assault when they were high school students. Trump has reportedly claimedthat Republican senators begged him to pull the nomination saying,"Cut him loose, sir, cut him loose. He's killing us, Kavanaugh." Trump supposedly responded, "I can't do that," telling Wolff,"I went through that thing and fought like hell for Kavanaugh and I saved his life, and I saved his career. At great expense to myself ... okay? I fought for that guy and kept him."

Yes, this sounds so much like Trump. Everyone knows his word is his bond and he's loyal as the day is long. Wolff also quotes Trump as saying:

I don't want anything... but I am very disappointed in him, in his ruling. I can'tbelieve what's happening. I'm very disappointed in Kavanaugh. I just told you something I haven't told a lot of people. In retrospect, he just hasn't had the courage you need to be a great justice. I'm basing this on more than just the election.

Since the election seems to literally be the only thing Trumpcan thinkabout it's hard to know what else he might be referring to. It's likely that there has been some grumbling, among those who have made pilgrimages to kiss the ring,that Kavanaugh has not voted with the far-right justices in every case, as they appointed him to do. Trump doesn't care about that unless it affects him personally, of course, but he considers "his justices" to have been placed on the court to do what they're told and he doesn't like it when they are perceived to have deviated from their orders.

But let's face it, his carping is really about the election. Back in September, Trump made his expectations clear:

His rationalefor pushing through Amy Coney Barrett so close to the election was to ensure there were enough votes to decide the contestfor him, as he made even clearer a few days later:

I think this [election] will end up in the Supreme Court. And I think it's very important that we have nine justices. This scam that the Democrats are pulling it's a scam the scam will be before the United States Supreme Court. And I think having a 4-4 situation is not a good situation, if you get that. I don't know that you'd get that. I think it should be 8-0 or 9-0. But just in case it would be more political than it should be, I think it's very important to have a ninth justice.

He assumed "his justices" would take up any election case and would naturally vote in his favor, regardless of the facts or the circumstances. They owed him.

None of Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani's post-election lawsuits made it up the ladder to the court, because they were all garbage. But before the electionKavanaugh was notably amenableto Trump's arguments about mail-in votes being counted after the election, in a Wisconsin case in which the court affirmed a lower court ruling that the state Supreme Court could not extend the deadline. He also looked favorably on an ideapercolating in right-wing legal circles for some time about who gets to decide election cases. Slate's Mark Joseph Sternraised the alarmabout a footnote in Kavanaugh's concurrence, in which he endorsed a notoriously extreme argument from theBush v.Gore case:

William Rehnquist, joined by Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas tried to overturn the Florida Supreme Court's interpretation of the state's own election law. As a rule, state Supreme Courts get final say over the meaning of their own state laws. But Rehnquist, Scalia, and Thomas argued that SCOTUS must review their decisions to ensure they comply with the "intent of the legislature." In other words, the Supreme Courtgets to be a Supreme Board of Electionsthat substitutes state courts' interpretation of state law with its own subjective view of a legislature's "intent."

Anthony Kennedy and Sandra Day O'Connor refused to sign on to that at the time, andChief Justice John Robertsdidn't go along with itthis time around either. But it's fair to ask if the new Trump majority of Thomas, Alito, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh and Barrett would. Considering Roberts' hardline views on voting rights, he might, in the end, throw his lot in with them on this too.

There was alot of chatter around the election about whether or not stateelection officers and courts have the authority to administer elections. We've recently seen state legislatures take action against the secretaries of state and nonpartisan election officials. If the Supreme Court sees fit to make itself the final arbiter of the states' election laws, it's entirely possible that this court would be open to letting GOP legislatures capriciously change the laws to their advantage or even overturn elections. It's almost certain that any new voting rights laws passed in this Congress will find a hostile majority when cases make their way through the court. It wouldnot be surprising if this SupremeCourt was very good for Trump and his movementover the next few years.

Not that it matters, as far as the right-wing justices and their backersare concerned. They wouldn't actually be doing it for Donald Trump, even if he might benefit from it and even though he inspired all this drastic action based upon the Big Lie in the first place. The Republican legal community always saw the big opportunity ithad in Trump, and ruthlessly exploited it. Former White House counsel Don McGahn, Leonard Leo of the Federalist Society and their most cynical ally, Sen.Mitch McConnell, recognized that they could remake the federal courts and use them to secure power, even as a declining electoralminority. Little did they know that Trump's loss and the Big Lie that followed would supercharge that plan the way it has.

Trump may be unhappy with "his justices," but that's because he never understood that he wasn't using them.They were using him, and they are perfectly happywith how it's turned out so far.

Read the rest here:

Donald Trump's angry at Brett Kavanaugh but this court is a huge win for the far right - Salon

Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley was reportedly worried that Donald Trump might declare war on Iran as part of a last-ditch attempt to overturn his election loss, according to a New Yorker report on Thursday.

Miley was "engaged in an alarmed effort to ensure that Trump did not embark on a military conflict with Iran as part of his quixotic campaign to overturn the results of the 2020 election and remain in power," journalist Susan B. Glasser wrote. "Trump had a circle of Iran hawks around him and was close with the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu," she continued, "who was also urging the Administration to act against Iran after it was clear that Trump had lost the election."

The report stems from a forthcoming book by Glasser and her husband, New York Times reporter Peter Baker. It echoes bombshell allegationsinanother forthcoming book bytwo Washington Post reporters.

According to Glasser, the former president had floated the idea of engaging militarily with Iran on a number of occasions during his final months in the presidency. His proposals, the book's authors wrote, reflected Trump's seeming willingness "to do anything to stay in power."

During one meeting in which the president was not present, Milley pressed former Vice President Mike Pence on "why they were so intent on attacking [Iran]."

Pence reportedly answered: "Because they are evil."

In another episode, after weeks of the former president "pushing for a missile strike in response to various provocations against U.S. interests in the region" following his election loss, Milley told Trump point-blank: "If you do this, you're gonna have a f---ing war."

By early January, it appeared, Trump had been successfully subdued when former National Security Adviser Robert O'Brien and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo both told the former president in a White House meeting that they were against military action. Walking Trump through the potential pros and cons of a military engagement, Pompeo and O'Brien told the former president that "too late to hit them."

Last month, the New York Times revealed that in early 2020 Netanyahu had given the former president a "hit list" of Iranian targets for him to consider. One of these targets, a suspected nuclear production plant, was in fact the very factory that the U.S. attacked with a drone strike in June.

U.S. tensions with Iran already simmering under former President Obama were significantly exacerbated during the Trump administration. On top of withdrawing from the Iranian nuclear deal back in 2018, Trump applied severe sanctions on the country, which have proven to be crippling to Iran's economy. In January of 2020, Trump also ordered the assassination of Iran's top general, Qassem Soleimani a move that nearly engaged the U.S. in a full-fledged war.

Read more:

Mike Pence and Benjamin Netanyahu pushed Donald Trump to bomb Iran after losing the election: rpt - Salon

As a New York criminal investigation continues after bringing tax fraud charges against Donald Trumps business and a top executive, other prosecutors in Georgia, Washington DC and New York have inquiries under way that could also yield serious charges against Trump and his company, according to former prosecutors and public records.

For example, a Georgia district attorney is leading a wide ranging criminal probe into Trumps infamous call on 2 January to Georgias secretary of state beseeching him to find 11,780 votes to block Joe Bidens presidential election win there.

Meanwhile, separate prosecutors in New York and Washington DC are scrutinizing whether Trumps businesses benefited illegally during his 2017 inauguration. The Washington attorney general has sued the inaugural committee, the Trump International Hotel in DC and the Trump Organization alleging they schemed to make exorbitant and unlawful payments of over $1 million to Trumps DC hotel which hosted some inaugural events.

Further, Trump could be ensnared in a federal criminal investigation of his former personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, who Trump tapped to dig up dirt on Biden in Ukraine during the campaign. Giuliani is being investigated reportedly for possible violations of foreign lobbying laws that require registration, and for his role in Trumps firing of the US ambassador there in 2019.

On yet another legal front, Trump is facing several civil lawsuits, including one from writer E Jean Carroll, whose 2019 memoir alleged Trump once raped her. After Trump accused her of lying to sell books, Carroll filed a defamation lawsuit.

Former justice department prosecutors say these inquiries and lawsuits increase legal pressures on Trump, even as Manhattan district attorney Cyrus Vance and New York attorney general Letitia James investigates more allegations of illegal acts by Trumps business besides the June tax fraud charges against the Trump organization and its chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg, a scheme that allegedly gave him free cars, rent and other perks for years.

Trump denounced the New York charges as a political ploy by Democrats, and has attacked the others as witch-hunts. Weisselberg and the Trump Organization on July 1 both pled not guilty to the tax fraud charges.

But this cast of wide-ranging inquiries and lawsuits pose huge legal headaches for Trump and look far more serious than many others Trump has dodged over decades, say former prosecutors.

The current threats are more numerous and more serious than ever before and its hard to imagine that his good luck will continue, Michael Bromwich, an ex- prosecutor and former inspector general at the Justice Department, said in an interview.

Trump hates playing defense, which explains his baseless suit earlier this week against the major tech companies. We are very likely to see many more shoes dropping over the foreseeable future and Trump knows it. He has never more desperately needed top legal talent, and thats not who he has representing him.

Other justice department veterans foresee multiple legal travails for Trump.

Donald Trump is now facing more than a dozen separate civil lawsuits and criminal investigations, with more matters likely to follow, said Phillip Halpern, a former California prosecutor who spent three decades focused on corruption cases.

Halpern added that the criminal inquiries in Georgia, New York and Washington have the potential to drastically impact Trumps historical legacy, and result in his or various family members, associates, and attorneys spending considerable time in jail.

Halpern stressed that the civil lawsuits and the New York investigation by Vance and James carry the potential for sizable personal monetary penalties, and could subject Trumps companies to massive penalties.

These legal threats vary in risk to Trump, but the inquiry into Trumps call pressuring Georgia secretary of state Brad Raffensperger to reverse Bidens win, bears watching.

The district attorney leading that inquiry, Fani Willis, has written that prosecutors are examining potential violations of Georgia law prohibiting the solicitation of election fraud, the making of false statements to state and local governmental bodies, conspiracy, racketeering, violation of oath of office and any involvement in violence or threats related to the elections administration.

Cathy Cox, a former Georgia secretary of state and Dean of Mercer University School of Law, said that the Fulton county inquiry is nothing to take lightly.

Cox stressed that Willis is experienced with Georgias expansive Rico [Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act] law, she has a record of using it successfully in high-profile cases, and shes engaged the states undisputed Rico expert, attorney John Floyd, to assist her. Those factors ramp this case up even further in terms of its potential for serious criminal charges.

Moreover, Trumps business faces legal jeopardy from inquiries into spending by his inaugural committee that were separately launched by federal prosecutors in New York and by Washington attorney general Karl Racine. Racine has deposed Donald Trump Jr and Ivanka Trump, which could create other problems for the Trump family if they didnt answer truthfully.

In a court filing, Racines office stated that Trump Jrs testimony raised further questions about the nature of an invoice related to the inauguration and revealed evidence that defendants had not yet produced to the district.

More legal headaches for Trump may arise from the expanding inquiry into Giuliani, whose New York home and office were raided in April by federal agents who seized 10 electronic devices including cell phones and computers.

The inquiry is reportedly focused on Giulianis role in Trumps firing of US ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch in May 2019, a move pushed by Giuliani and two Soviet-born associates indicted earlier on charges of campaign finance violations and a central issue in Trumps first impeachment.

Giuliani is under investigation to determine if he broke the Foreign Agents Registration Act requiring those who lobby the US government on behalf of foreign officials to register with the DoJ.

Giuliani has denied doing anything unlawful.

Looking ahead, ex-DoJ officials say that the detailed charges now brought against the Trump Organization and its chief financial officer could presage more legal problems for Trumps business.

The thoroughness and highly factual nature of the indictments give a lot of information about the deeply inappropriate practices of Trumps business, said Donald Ayer, a former deputy attorney general at the justice department in the George HW Bush administration. There is no particular reason to think that such inappropriate practices were confined to dealings with Allen Weisselberg.

Yet some former prosecutors predict that as his legal problems mount, Trump and his supporters will milk the inquiries for political gain.

Trump uses his legal problems to reinforce his image as an outsider (and) to fire up his base, said Barbara McQuade, a professor from practice at the University of Michigan Law School and ex-US attorney for the eastern district of Michigan.

She added: But for those who care about the rule of law, it is important to hold accountable individuals who engage in illegal activity, even former presidents.

See more here:

Legal threats to Donald Trump more serious than ever before, experts say - The Guardian

Its July 2021, and the former president is still baselessly insisting that he won the 2020 election. Meanwhile, the Republicans who broke with Trump on his voting-fraud claims are still facing consequences.

Every weekday evening, our editors guide you through the biggest stories of the day, help you discover new ideas, and surprise you with moments of delight. Subscribe to get this delivered to your inbox.

Its July 2021, and former President Donald Trump is still baselessly insisting that he won the 2020 election. Meanwhile, the Republicans who broke with Trump on his voting-fraud claims are still facing consequences.

Donald Trump isnt letting it go. Yesterday, at a Conservative Political Action Conference event in Texas, the former president repeatedly told a cheering crowd that the 2020 election had been stolen from him.

Ahead of the 2022 midterm elections, that lie, along with other false allegations of voter fraud, forms a centerpiece of Republican strategy.

The conservatives who have broken with the former president on his fraud claims are having trouble finding their place in a Trump-controlled party.

Further reading: Foxs Tucker Carlson is peddling a warped version of patriotism from a fake log cabin.

The news in three sentences:

(1) Cubans are protesting en masse, with President Joe Biden offering his support. (2) A Florida-based doctor is being held as a suspect in the assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Mose. (3) Israel is offering COVID-19 vaccine booster shots to severely imunocompromised adults.

Tonights Atlantic-approved activity:

Sally Rooneys new novel is due out this fall. While you wait, revisit the Hulu adaptation of her last book, Normal People. The series appeared on our list of 25 great half-hour shows worth your time.

A break from the news:

Snails are helping archaeologists make sense of a 180-foot drawing of a naked man found on a hillside in England.

Every weekday evening, our editors guide you through the biggest stories of the day, help you discover new ideas, and surprise you with moments of delight. Subscribe to get this delivered to your inbox.

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Donald Trump Isnt Letting It Go - The Atlantic

Donald Trump has a long history of suddenly pretending not to know people once its clear they could get him in serious trouble, despite indisputable evidence that he knows them quite well. Campaign adviser George Papadopoulos, who Trump openly praised to The Washington Post? After Papadopoulos was convicted of lying to the FBI about interactions with Russians, Trump told Fox News, I never even talked to the guy. I didnt know who he was.Matthew Whitaker, the guy the then president apparently wanted to do his bidding at the Justice Department (before Bill Barr came along)? Once it became clear that Trump seemingly wanted to use Whitaker to shut down Robert Mueller, Trump claimed, I dont know Matt Whitaker, even though theyd reportedly met more than a dozen times. Campaign manager Paul Manafort? After he was convicted and sentenced to prison, Trump said he didnt know Manafort well. Prince Andrew? I dont know him.Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman? Never even heard of [him]. Lev Parnas? I dont even know who this man is. Anyway, you get the idea.

So really, its not at all surprising that Trump appears to be putting some distance between himself and Allen Weisselberg, the Trump Organization CFO charged alongside the company this month, given the possibility of Weisselberg suddenly flipping and informing on Trump, or simply making the company look bad with a guilty conviction. Shortly after being terminated as director of Trumps Scottish golf club, Weisselberg has been removed from leadership roles at dozens of Trump Organization subsidiaries. Per The Washington Post:

The changes were made Thursday and Friday, a week after a grand jury in Manhattanindicted Weisselberg on 15felony counts, including grand larceny and tax fraud. Weisselberg was accused by New York prosecutors of helping run a 15-year scheme to evade income taxes by concealing executives salariesincluding more than $1.7million of his own incomefrom tax authorities. [The] subsidiaries included a holding company that owns many Trump businesses, a corporate entity that handles payroll for many Trump employees, and evena Trump project in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., that went bust more than a decade ago.

Previously, Weisselberg had shared the leadership of these companies with one of former president Donald Trumps adult sons or, in the case of the Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Fla., with Trump himself. Now, records show, the Trump family members are left in charge. The removal of Weisselbergs name from these corporate filings could avoid questions from regulators, lenders, or vendors by leaving out the name of an indicted executive.

As former federal prosecutor Daniel Zelenko told The Wall Street Journal, its not generally realistic for a company to keep a CFO in place after a criminal indictment. How are insurers and lenders going to rely on what the CFO tells them? said Zelenko. It creates a lot of challenges for a company continuing to do business.

For now Weisselberg, who has been accused of evading $900,000 in taxes on more than $1.7 million of income, largely through fringe benefits that were never reported to the IRS, like cars, an apartment, and private school tuition, remains employed by the parent company, and a person familiar with the matter told The Washington Post, hes going to remain there. Weisselberg, who, like the Trump Organization, pleaded not guilty to all the charges, has also indicated that he will not cooperate with prosecutors against the ex-president.

On the other hand, hes facing more than a decade in prison if convicted. And as former federal prosecutorCynthia AlksnetoldMSNBC last week, The jury will hate [Weisselberg]. Hes not going to have a jury of people who go to MAGA rallies, hes going to have a cross section of people who live in Manhattan, who do pay Manhattan taxes, who dont get free Mercedes, who dont have somebody else paying for their childrens education and not have tax ramifications for that. So I think he will be a very hated defendant, Mr. Weisselberg, and Im sure his defense attorneys have told him so. Meanwhile, as former U.S. attorneyPreet Bhararaopined, I am optimistic hell be convicted. The law is fairly clear on what is income & what is taxable. Hes a sophisticated executive; mistake is implausible. The company booked much of it as income. And juries hate rich tax cheats. So its not out of the realm of possibility that Weisselberg is at least considering a scenario in which he cuts a deal, and that Trump will one day, in the not too distant future, claim of a man whos worked for his company for decades: Never heard of him.

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The Trump Organization Desperately Tries to Distance Itself From Its Criminally Indicted CFO - Vanity Fair

In one of Donald Trumps many attempts to steal the 2020 election, the former president called on the Supreme Court to take up his cause and fraudulently overturn Joe Bidens victory. Given that Trump, by appointing Justices Brett Kavanaugh, Neil Gorsuch, and Amy Coney Barrett, established the high courts 63 conservative majority, he presumably hoped the bench would remain loyal to him. But after the court declined to take up cases seeking to invalidate election results in multiple states, Trump channeled his rage at Kavanaugh, according to Michael Wolffs upcoming book, Landslide: The Final Days of the Trump Presidency.

Im very disappointed in Kavanaugh, Trump remarked in an interview with Wolff, per an excerpt. He just hasnt had the courage you need to be a great justice. Trump, who stood by Kavanaugh while the latter faced sexual-misconduct allegations during his confirmation process, added, Where would [Kavanaugh] be without me? I saved his life. He wouldnt even be in a law firm. Who would have had him? Nobody. Totally disgraced. Only I saved him.

Wolff also told Britains Channel 4 News this week that people close to Trump thought the former president was losing his mind. Virtually everyone around Trumpwere not talking Democrats here, were talking Trump aides, intimates, and supporterseveryone believes he has gone off his rocker, Wolff said. I mean, lets not put too fine a point here: They believe he is crazy. He continued: At the same time, he commands a, if not a majority of the country, a very, very substantial minority comes to believe that this election is stolen and whose support for him ever hardens.

Wolffs promotional tour has been sweeping, with regular excerpts and interviews shedding light on what the author says are the inner workings of Trumpworld. And it has gone on parallel to another bout of press for a similar Trump book: Washington Post reporters Philip Rucker and Carol Leonnigs I Alone Can Fix It: Donald J. Trumps Catastrophic Final Year, which, along with a slew of upcoming releases, indicates our collective inability to look away from the train wreck that was the previous administration. In an excerpt from the latter, to be published on Tuesday, Rucker and Leonnig reported that, among other things, some in Trumps circle were concerned about the drinking habits of Trumps former personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani: Some people thought Giuliani may have been drinking too much and suggested to [campaign manager Bill]Stepien that he go talk to the former New York mayor.

A similar characterization has come from Wolff, who described the Trump-Giuliani relationship during a Tuesday appearance on CNN. Within days of November 3rd, [Trump] is absolutely alone, and he is fighting this effort to overturn the electionwhich would be one of the biggest legal efforts in the history of American jurisprudence, Wolff said. Its just him and Rudy Giuliani, who ismost of the time, franklydrunk. In Landslide, Trumpworld figures remark on Giulianis drinking. Giuliani was, many around Trump believed, always buzzed if not, in the phrase Steve Bannon made famous in the Trump White House, hopelessly in the mumble tank, writes Wolff, according to an excerpt published by Insider. (Giuliani's longtime personal assistant did not immediately respond to Insiders request for comment.) Many believed [Giuliani] had the beginnings of senility: focus issues, memory problems, simple logic failures. A vast disorganization of papers and files and tech malfunctions followed in his wake.

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Trump Is Very Disappointed in Brett Kavanaugh for Not Helping Him Steal the Election - Vanity Fair

President BidenJoe BidenDemocrats reach deal on .5T price tag for infrastructure bill Texas family arrested for role in Capitol riot Key Senate Democrats undecided on Biden's ATF nominee MORE has made a habit of not talking too much about his predecessor, former President TrumpDonald TrumpTexas family arrested for role in Capitol riot Poll: McAuliffe holds 2-point lead over Youngkin in Virginia governor's race On The Money: Inflation spike puts Biden on defensive | Senate Democrats hit spending speed bumps | Larry Summers huddles with WH team MORE.

That changed big time on Tuesday, when Biden gave a spirited voting rights speech in Philadelphia. Biden didnt mention Trump by name but repeatedly criticized the man he unseated as president, slamming him for the big lie that the 2020 election was stolen.

We continue to see an example of human nature at its worst. Something darker and more sinister, Biden said in remarks from the Philadelphia speech directed toward Trump and his allies.

In America, if you lose, you accept the results. You follow the Constitution. You try again. You dont call facts fake and then try to bring down the American experiment because you are unhappy, he added in some of his more critical remarks toward Trump since he won office.

Thats not statesmanship, thats selfishness. Thats not democracy, thats a denial of the right to vote, he continued, calling the denial of free and fair elections un-American.

It was a rare attack on Trump from Biden, who seemingly has sought to turn the page on his predecessor.

Since taking office, Biden has made a habit of refraining from speaking about Trump, a strategy that some political observers say has been largely effective and on brand for Bidens messaging. But some Democrats say it may be necessary to bring Trump back into the fold as next years midterm elections draw closer.

As much as President Biden may prefer otherwise, theres no choice but to make Trump and the GOP the foil, said Democratic strategist Christy Setzer. Trump and his supporters including the vast majority of congressional Republicans are fighting to take down democracy for good.

There are heroes and there are villains in that story, and unless we create a narrative about it, voters wont know who is whom, she added. Advice for Biden and co.: Take the fight to them square-on. Dont mince words and dont think youll ever get credit for being bipartisan. Just do whats right.

Trump has been a powerful driver and fundraiser for Democrats who ran against him and his policies in both 2018 and 2020. When Biden ran for president, he repeatedly attacked Trump, saying the only reason he was running for the White House was to end the Trump presidency. He also centered his primary campaign on the argument that he was the Democrat best placed to defeat Trump, arguing it was too important a race to pass up and too important a contest for Democrats to nominate a riskier nominee.

But since taking office, Biden has largely sworn off the Trump talk, even generally avoiding the subject during the former presidents second impeachment trial earlier this year.

Last week, on the six-month anniversary of the insurrection on the Capitol, there was also no mention of Trump or even the former president.

Im tired of talking about Donald Trump, Biden said during a CNN town hall in February. For four years, all thats been in the news is Trump. For the next four years, I want to make sure the news is the American people.

The only time the president has talked about Trump is when he is asked about him point-blank by reporters during news conferences, including earlier this month when the former presidents top associate was indicted on tax fraud charges.

Some strategists say Bidens messaging on all things Trump has been pitch-perfect and that he should continue the same tack.

I dont know if he sees the value in giving oxygen to Donald Trump, said Democratic strategist Joel Payne. I know his election was about turning the page of the last four years, and giving additional light to Trump would be at loggerheads with that.

Another Democratic strategist, Jamal Simmons, said Biden should highlight how he has made government function again without mentioning the four tumultuous years of Trump.

Its a long way to 2022, but today Id expect Biden to talk about making government work for all Americans, with vaccines in arms, money in pockets and a growing economy, Simmons said.

Bidens approval rating has remained steady in recent months. A recent Gallup poll found 56 percent of Americans approve of his job performance, up 2 points from May. The approval ratings are largely reflective of his response to the COVID-19 pandemic and his handling of the economy.

Still, one of the lingering questions about the midterms is whether Democrats can hang on to independent and Republican voters, particularly in the suburbs. While Biden defeated Trump in the presidential race, Republicans gained seats in the House indicating ticket-splitting by some voters.

William Howell, a professor at the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy, said that Biden likely views talking about Trump as counterproductive to advancing his agenda.

I think hes trying as best he can to fix the publics attention on the work that lies ahead. There are huge challenges that the country faces, and weve got to find ways to productively meet them, Howell said. Stoking Democratic outrage while sticking it in the eye of Republicans, I dont think he sees that as a productive pathway forward.

Philippe Reines, the veteran political operative who served as Hillary ClintonHillary Diane Rodham ClintonYoungkin skipping Virginia gubernatorial debate over moderator's donation Jill Biden teaming with 'Sesame Street' to help military families discuss race with children McCarthy, GOP face a delicate dance on Jan. 6 committee MOREs longtime senior adviser, said no decisions need to be made yet because the race is still 16 months away.

So even if the president and his team decide to engage, it likely wont be evident until 2022, he said.

Ultimately, its not a binary choice. Theres a sweet spot somewhere in between, Reines said. The Biden campaign found it in 2020. They will find it again in 2022. And they will have something new they didnt last year: a record of significant and important accomplishments. Whats-his-names accomplishments were pathetic and criminal.

As a result, in 2018 he lost the House, Reines added, signaling his own optimism about 2022.

Morgan Chalfant contributed.

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Biden takes big break from habit of avoiding Trump talk | TheHill - The Hill

To many Americans, Brad Raffensperger is one of the heroes of the 2020 election. Georgias secretary of state, who is a conservative Republican, refused then-President Donald Trumps direct pleas to find the votes that would overturn his defeat in the state. Ive shown that Im willing to stand in the gap, Raffensperger told me last week, and Ill make sure that we have honest elections.

As he bids for a second term as Georgias top election administrator, however, Raffensperger is not so much standing in the gap as he is falling through it. A Trump loyalist in Congress, Representative Jody Hice, is challenging him in a primary with the former presidents enthusiastic endorsement, and the state Republican Party voted last month to censure him over his handling of the election. GOP strategists in the state give Raffensperger no chance of prevailing in next Mays primary.

I would literally bet my house on it. Hes not going to win it, Jay Williams, a Republican consultant in Georgia unaffiliated with either candidate, told me. Another operative, speaking anonymously to avoid conflicts in the race, offered a similar assessment: His goose was cooked the day Georgias presidential-election margin was 12,000 votes and Trump turned on him.

Besides the one at Foggy Bottom, secretaries of state are not supposed to be famous. The job at the state level isnt high-stakes diplomacy but mostly mundane administration. Before Raffensperger, the last secretary of state to find the national spotlight was Katherine Harris, whose handling (or mishandling, depending on ones perspective) of the disputed 2000 election in Florida earned her a few punch lines on Saturday Night Live and two unremarkable terms in Congress.

Yet after Trumps postelection attempt to cling to power last yearand his ongoing and rancorous claims that the election was stolenthe office has taken on added importance. Secretaries of state will be and are the defenders of democracy, Jena Griswold, Colorados secretary of state, told me. Griswold is the chair of the Democratic Association of Secretaries of State, a national campaign organization that is significantly expanding its operations this year as the party gears up for a handful of crucial elections in 2022. The secretaries elected next year will oversee elections in 2024, and Democrats are prioritizing races in presidential battlegrounds such as Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, and Arizona, where the incumbent, Democrat Katie Hobbs, is forgoing a reelection bid to run for governor instead. The associations budget in 2020 was about $2 million; next year, its hoping to spend as much as $10 milliona sign of how urgent Democrats believe these races are.

With its higher profile, the secretary-of-state post has become more attractive to ambitious politicians in both parties. The declared candidates in Arizona include a Republican state legislator who was photographed near the Capitol after rioters breached police lines on January 6. Two other GOP contenders have introduced bills to restrict voting options and to make it easier for the state legislature to overturn presidential-election results.

In Georgia, Hice is making the unusual decision to give up a safe seat in the House that hes held for four terms to challenge Raffenspergertaking the opposite path that Harris did nearly two decades ago. A former Baptist pastor and talk-radio host, Hice joined the House Freedom Caucus in Congress but hasnt drawn much of a following beyond his district, east of Atlanta. He told me he had given no thought to running for secretary of state before last fall. This has never, ever, ever been on my radar, he said. It just came about due to the horrendous debacle of our election.

Hice denied that Trump asked him to run, but he has acknowledged that he called the former president before he declared his candidacy, and on the morning he launched his campaign, Trump issued a gushing statement offering his complete and total endorsement. Hice faults Raffensperger for his decision to send every registered Georgia voter an application for an absentee ballot before the primary last yeara decision Democrats viewed as a no-brainer during the pandemic.

Hice, who voted with a majority of House Republicans to object to the certification of presidential-election results in Arizona and Pennsylvania, boasted to me that he had been the tip of the spear in raising alarms about Georgias 2020 election and opposing Democratic efforts to expand voter access. I asked whether he believed that Trump had won the state last year. I certainly have my opinions about that, he replied. Pressed as to what those opinions were, he said, We need to investigate and find out. I do not believe we had fair elections in Georgia. One of Hices supporters, Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, was more direct in saying that Trump had won. I believe he did, she told me. Ive lived in Georgia my entire life. I know my state, and it has not turned blue.

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Perhaps the most important question in the primary is how Hice would respond if he were secretary of state in 2024, and Trump, running to reclaim the White House, tried to pressure him to overturn another Democratic win in Georgia. Would he stand firm as Raffensperger did? I do not think Jody Hice is anybodys puppet, Representative Austin Scott, another Georgia Republican who has endorsed Hice, told me. The GOP operative I spoke with wasnt so sure, however. Theres no evidence to suggest that hed be his own man, the strategist said. Theres no evidence to suggest that hed think for himself. When I put the question to Hice, he didnt answer directly. Trump wouldn't need to call me, he said. I will abide by the law and abide by the Constitution, and when there are issues of potential fraud, and mismanagement in elections, we will investigate. That's the job of the secretary of state, which Raffensperger did not do.

If hes elected, Hice may find theres not much he can legally do after ballots are cast. Much of the offices power comes before an election, in overseeing the vote. Afterward, the secretary is merely responsible for certifying ballots counted in local jurisdictions and overseeing recounts if needed. Moreover, as part of Georgias contentious new election law, Republicans in the state legislature have already stripped the secretary of state of some of the offices remaining powers by replacing him as chair of the state election board with a leader appointed by lawmakers.

Democrats, fresh off their victories in the presidential race and Georgias two Senate runoffs in January, are hoping to win the secretary of states office for themselves and foreclose postelection shenanigans. Bee Nguyen, a state legislator who holds the Atlanta seat once occupied by Stacey Abrams, declared her candidacy in May and is seen as a formidable contender. The daughter of Vietnamese refugees, Nguyen would be the first Asian American elected to statewide political office in Georgia; she took the lead in knocking down Trumps false charges about the election late last year. Abrams, who is likely to make a second run for governor, and the newly elected Senator Raphael Warnock could both be on the ballot, helping to juice Democratic turnout.

Hice undoubtedly offers Democrats a richer target than Raffensperger, and his vulnerability in a general election goes beyond the perception that he would do Trumps bidding. The congressman wrote a 2012 book that contains long, derogatory passages about gays and Muslims; he compares the push for same-sex marriage to incest and bestiality and asserts that Islam does not deserve First Amendment protection. In 2014, he told a local newspaper that he didnt have a problem with women running for office as long as the womans within the authority of her husband. More recently, he was one of 21 House Republicans who voted against awarding congressional gold medals to the Capitol Police who protected lawmakers during the attack on January 6.

Raffensperger is trying to get back in his partys good graces by defending the new law that Republican legislators passed in response to an election that he insists was fair and honest. The law bars the secretary of state from sending out mass applications for absentee ballots in the way that he did last year, and even Raffensperger says the provisions stripping power from his office are retribution for how he handled the election fallout. Still, he says he supports the law overall, particularly its requirement of photo IDs for mailed ballots. When theres a bill thats 100 pages, therell be some items that you dont support, Raffensperger told me. Hes criticized the Biden administration for challenging the law in court, joining other Republicans in accusing Abrams and her allies of spreading misinformation and lies.

Im the most conservative secretary of state thats ever been elected in Georgia, he told me, as if to remind the voters who elected him in 2018 of why they did. Raffensperger endorsed Trump early in his bid for the presidency; while serving in the state legislature, Raffensperger was a right-wing irritant of the establishment party leaders.

For the moment, though, none of that matters, and he cuts a lonely figure in Georgia. Targeted by Trump and abandoned by the state party, Raffensperger has no prominent Republicans publicly in his corner, nor even much of a campaign apparatus. When I emailed the address listed on his campaign website to ask for an interview, my inquiry did not go to a volunteer or a spokesperson but to Raffensperger himself, who answered directly. The most revealing part of our half-hour conversation came at the end, when I asked him who else could speak on his behalfsurrogates, allies, etc. Raffensperger paused for a few seconds and then chuckled nervously. His supporters, he explained, are very private people who probably wouldnt want to talk publicly. He produced no names.

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Trump's Revenge on Brad Raffensperger in Georgia - The Atlantic