Category Archives: Donald Trump

The question of Donald Trumps relationship with the Kremlin has surfaced once again, this time in a new book by veteran US journalist Craig Unger. The book, American Kompromat, claims that the former US commander-in-chief was cultivated as a Russian intelligence asset for more than four decades.

Its not the first time this has been reported. In 2017 the former Moscow correspondent for The Guardian Luke Harding published a book: Collusion: Secret Meetings, Dirty Money, and How Russia Helped Donald Trump Win, which propounded roughly the same idea that Trump had been courted for years after marrying his first wife, Ivana Zelnickova, a model from Czechoslovakia. And then theres the Christopher Steele dossier, published in 2017 with its allegations of honey-trap blackmail and bizarre sexual practices. Although this came with a big handle-with-care caveat.

Could it really be true that one of Washingtons bitterest adversaries would have a stooge at the very top of its ranks? To consider this question its important to understand the distinction between an asset and an agent (or spy).

Former KGB major, Yuri Shvets, who appears to be Ungers key source, compares Trump to the infamous Cambridge Five a group of ideologically motivated agents in the heart of the British establishment, who willingly and systematically supplied the Soviet Union with state secrets over several decades to advance the communist cause. When you compare their story with that of the former US president, something looks wrong.

During Trumps tenure, NATO turned its heels towards Russia, and the Magnitsky Act has made life very difficult for a lot of powerful Russians by targeting their assets in the west. British intelligence has reclassified Russia as a tier one threat, putting it on at least equal footing to transnational terrorism.

Meanwhile, in 2018, the US expelled more than 60 Russian officials after identifying them as intelligence officers. To put it bluntly, any gains Russia might have achieved through Trumps good offices are far outweighed by the strategic, economic, and counterintelligence realities that have emerged during his presidency.

Assets in intelligence jargon, can mean anything from full-blown agents (people who knowingly offer their countrys secrets to a foreign intelligence agency) to those who might serve some use along the way. But they are far more likely to be at the more casual end of that spectrum. To identify and handle agents, intelligence officers need to expand their social circles (to meet more people in sensitive positions), find private safe houses and develop plausible cover stories to explain why they are meeting.

On the other hand, making friends with a masseuse who gives massages to oligarchs while they gossip about Kremlin affairs could represent a perfect asset. An elderly babushka who attends dissident rallies and owns a private B&B? Perfect asset. An overworked secretary who arranges scientific conferences in China? Perfect asset.

Few assets ever become spies proper. The simple proposition would you like to work for our intelligence agency? is never an easy sell. If a source panics or overreacts, they might tell the authorities. At which point, that relationship is either swiftly ended, or the asset becomes a counterintelligence pawn, playing the intelligence officer at his or her own game. When one overly eager Russian officer tried to recruit an American diplomat a few years ago, he made the mistake of playing his cards too early. The result? The diplomat reported the encounter, and the FBI then set up their own meeting with the Russian, turning the game back on him.

As such, an intelligence officer never asks a useful asset to become an agent unless theyre confident of a positive answer. In many cases, an asset doesnt even know theyre an asset. In whats known as tradecraft in the world of espionage, its often better to let assets exist in blissful ignorance of the intelligence officers intentions, trading friendly favours and gossip. That isnt really espionage, its just business.

Just look at Carter Page, one of Trumps former foreign policy advisers. Despite his strong pro-Kremlin views, despite living in Moscow in 2004, and despite being a target of Russian intelligence, there is no evidence that Page crossed the threshold. Russian intelligence officers certainly attempted to cultivate Page, but even the Mueller report couldnt determine whether or not he was a full-blown agent.

But why should he be? Carter was a fan of Putin, so Russian officers could bank on him taking the Kremlins interests straight to Trumps team even without explicit instruction. He neednt be anything more than a friend, and the Russians neednt risk asking for anything more.

Now compare this to the allegations levied against the 45th president. According to Unger, once Trump came on to the KGBs radar in 1977, he was fed a cocktail of flattery and subtle manipulation, which is nothing new for asset cultivation. The Steele dossier, largely discredited, made allegations of blackmail, which fits within the Russian proclivity for seeking out compromising information about their targets.

But any Russian intelligence officer would need to consider whether Trump really cares enough about kompromat and Russian money. Indeed, why enrol him as an agent of influence a move that carries enormous consequences for both parties when Russia could opt for a convenient friend in Washington?

In reality, even if Russia sees Trump as an asset, were not talking about Trump being a new Kim Philby (of Cambridge Five fame). Were talking about Trump being a self-interested businessman whos happy to do a favour if it works to his own best interests and that includes staying out of jail. Theres no evidence that Trump knowingly associated with any Russian intelligence officers. And theres a big distinction between making the wrong kind of friends and committing treason.

Simply put, an agent is a partner for life, whereas an asset is a friend with benefits. And, most likely, if Trump has been one of the two, its the latter.

Follow this link:

Donald Trump spying allegations: more likely useful idiot than Putin's agent - The Conversation UK

Donald Trump attends a rally in support of ultimately unsuccessful Georgia Republicans David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler on December 5, in Valdosta, Georgia.

Donald Trumps reelection campaign, which never received a cent from the former president, moved an estimated $2.8 million of donor money into the Trump Organizationincluding at least $81,000 since Trump lost the election.

In addition, one of the campaigns joint-fundraising committees, which collects money in partnership with the Republican Party, shifted about $4.3 million of donor money into Trumps business from January 20, 2017, to December 31, 2020at least $331,000 of which came after the election.

The money covered the cost of rent, airfare, lodging and other expenses. All the payments are laid out in filings the campaign submitted to the Federal Election Commission. Representatives for the Trump Organization, the Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Two days after the election, on November 5, the joint-fundraising committee paid $11,000 to Trumps hotel empire. A week laterafter the Associated Press, Fox News and other major media outlets had already called the race for Joe Bidenthe same committee put another $294,000 into Trumps hotel business to rent space, order catering and pay for lodging. The campaign pitched in additional change$110 that had been earmarked for recount efforts on November 16, another $220 the following day and $189 more the day after that.

On November 19, the campaign paid $31,000 for air travel to a company named DT Endeavor LLC. Five days later, the joint-fundraising committee paid the same entity $39,000. Forbes did not include those payments in its overall total of money moving into Trumps empire, since its not 100% clear that the former president owns DT Endeavor LLC. There are strong indications that he does, though. The federal filings list the address for the DT Endeavor LLC as Trump Tower in one spot and Mar-a-Lago in another. Trump also owns an aviation company with an almost identical name, DT Endeavor I LLC.

Whether or not Trump owns DT Endeavor LLC, he certainly controls several other companies collecting money from the campaign. On November 20, one of Trumps joint-fundraising committees paid $20,000 to his hotel outfit.

Less than a week after that, the campaign paid $3,000 in rent to Trump Restaurants LLC, which the former president owns outright. That company appears to be connected to a souvenir stand in the basement of Trump Tower.

On December 1, nearly a month after the election, the campaign handed over $38,000 in rent to Trump Tower Commercial LLC, the company through which Trump owns his stake in the famous Fifth Avenue tower. Fifteen days later, the campaign sent another $3,000 to Trump Restaurants LLC and added $38,000 more for Trump Tower Commercial LLC. In all, the postelection payments from the campaign and its joint-fundraising committee add up to $413,000or $484,000, if you include the money that flowed into DT Endeavor LLC, according to a review of the filings.

Thats not a life-changing amount of money for Trump, who is worth an estimated $2.5 billion. But it would be for most people, including many of the donors who chipped in to support Trumps campaign.

Read more here:

Trump Shifted Campaign-Donor Money Into His Private Business After Losing The Election - Forbes

President Donald Trump speaks during a press conference at the White House on Feb. 16, 2017. Trump berated the media repeatedly, calling CNN, The New York Times and other outlets "dishonest" and "very fake news" for reporting unfavorable stories about him. (Photo by Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty Images)

[Editors Note: STEVEN HARPER is a fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers]

Opening Statement

The answer led the House of Representatives to impeach then President Donald Trump by the largest bipartisan vote in American history. Today we continue the process of holding him accountable for incitement of insurrection against the government of the United States. The Trump Insurrection led directly to at least five deaths, injuries to 140 law enforcement officers and a scar on the heart of our democracy.

So that we all operate from the same set of indisputable facts, lets watch four short videos overviewing the events of January 6, starting with Just Securitys 10-minute excerpt of Trumps 70-minute speech, which ignited an insurrection that Trump had fomented for months. Notice the mobs reaction as Trump spoke line after incendiary line.

The second video is the Washington Posts 14-minute encapsulation of the 41 minutes that followed Trumps diatribe.

RELATED: Democracy & Government

BY Steven Harper | February 1, 2021

The third video, taken by a reporter for The New Yorker, is a view from inside the mob.

The fourth and final video comes from the bodycam of a law enforcement officer trying to protect the citadel of democracy that day. Watch the mob beat him with hockey sticks and flagpoles ripped from the temporary presidential inauguration structure.

Everything that you just saw and heard actually indisputably happened on January 6, 2021 in the United States of America. How did it come to this?

The story begins six months earlier.

Let the evidence speak for itself.

But Trump wasnt willing to abide by the judicial branchs reaffirmation of his election loss. As court after court rejected his claims, he was pursuing a final backup plan an attack on the legislative branch that, if successful, would nullify the will of the voters and all of his courtroom losses. The Trump Insurrection targeted January 6 when a joint session of Congress would certify President-elect Joseph Bidens win.

In mid-December, Trump began actively promoting the Save America Stop the Steal rally. Look at this sample of his tweets:

Trying desperately to create a false cloud over the election outcome in at least one swing state, Trump focused on Georgia. On January 2, he called Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger a Trump supporter who had contributed to the campaign. Listen as he pressured Raffensperger to reverse the will of Georgia voters and threatened criminal prosecution if Raffensperger failed to comply:

And now lets listen to what Raffensperger a Trump supporter told him.

Getting nowhere with Raffensperger, the Trump Insurrection plan moved forward. On January 3, the day after his call with Raffensperger, he replied to a #StoptheSteal tweet from one of the rally organizers.

At the same time, Trump was pressuring Vice President Mike Pence relentlessly. He wanted Pence to defy the Constitution and, as presiding officer of the January 6 joint session, block final congressional certification of the election.

Danger was in the air. As Trump was tweeting on January 3, the US Capitol Police warned of the potential for violence at the rally, with Congress itself as the target.

On January 4, the National Park Service increased the crowd estimate on the rally permit from 5,000 to 30,000. The US Capitol Police chief asked for permission to put the National Guard on emergency standby, but was denied.

And take a look at the unusual memo that Acting Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller whom Trump had installed shortly after every major news organization had called the election in Bidens favor issued that day to his secretary of the army. It required Millers personal authorization before the DC National Guard could employ riot control agents and other tactics, including ballistic protection equipment such as helmets and body armor.

January 5 was a busy day:

On the morning of January 6 Trump Insurrection Day he got an early start with a tweet at 8:17 a.m. that put Pence in the crosshairs.

Later that morning, Pence told Trump that he would not comply with his unconstitutional demand to overturn the election. As Trump prepared to speak at the rally, his surrogates warmed up the crowd actively promoting insurrection. Look at the video:

Now that you have the context of the timeline, lets watch and listen to key excerpts from Trumps speech again. It began shortly before noon.

At 1:26 p.m. less than 30 minutes after Trumps speech had ended his mob had already reached the Capitol and the US Capitol Police ordered the evacuation of the complex.

At 1:34 p.m. DC Mayor Muriel Bowser asked the secretary of the army for more federal help to deal with the mob. Almost an hour later, Acting Defense Secretary Miller still had not approved the request.

At 1:49 p.m. Trump was so proud that his incitement had succeeded, he retweeted a video of his speech.

Trump didnt appear publicly until 4:17 p.m. three hours after the attack began. Rather than condemn his insurrectionists, he tweeted a video to the mob, saying: I know your pain. I know youre hurt. We had an election that was stolen from us. It was a landslide election and everyone knows it, especially the other sideIts a very tough period of time. Theres never been a time like this where such a thing happened where they could take it away from all of us from me, from you, from our country. This was a fraudulent election, but we cant play into the hands of these people. We have to have peace. So go home. We love you. Youre very special. Youve seen what happens. You see the way others are treated that are so bad and so evil.

And at 6:01 p.m. Trump tweeted: These are the things and events that happen when a sacred landslide election victory is so unceremoniously & viciously stripped away from great patriots who have been badly & unfairly treated for so long. Go home with love & in peace. Remember this day forever!

Now lets hear live testimony from law enforcement witnesses:

Mike Pence didnt have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution, giving States a chance to certify a corrected set of facts, not the fraudulent or inaccurate ones which they were asked to previously certify. USA demands the truth!

Heres a clip showing the crowd chanting Hang Mike Pence, the mobs makeshift gallows, and Goodmans heroism.

Lets also hear from these elected representatives and their staffs:

At 7:00 p.m., dozens of police officers had been injured in the Trump Insurrection, and people had died when Sen. Lee got another call intended for Sen. Tuberville. This time, Rudy Giuliani called the same wrong number that Trump had called when he mistakenly reached Sen. Lee five hours earlier. Giuliani left this message on Sen. Lees phone:

Sen. Tuberville? Or I should say Coach Tuberville. This is Rudy Giuliani, the presidents lawyer. Im calling you because I want to discuss with you how theyre trying to rush this hearing and how we need you, our Republican friends, to try to just slow it down so we can get these legislatures to get more information to you. I know theyre reconvening at 8 tonight, but itthe only strategy we can follow is to object to numerous states and raise issues so that we get ourselves into tomorrow ideally until the end of tomorrow.

Now lets hear from elected representatives reflecting on what happened that day:

Lets look at a video excerpt of his January 19 speech from the Senate floor:

The mob was fed lies. What were the lies? And since he used the passive voice, who fed those lies to the mob?

They were provoked by the president and other powerful people. How did Trump provoke the mob? And who are the other powerful people he referenced?

And they tried to use fear and violence to stop a specific proceeding of the first branch of the federal government which they did not like. Is that how American democracy is supposed to work after an election?

What blowback has he received from Trump and fellow Republicans after making that statement?

On January 6, 2021 a violent mob attacked the United States Capitol to obstruct the process of our democracy and stop the counting of presidential electoral votes. This insurrection caused injury, death and destruction in the most sacred space in our Republic.

Much more will become clear in coming days and weeks, but what we know now is enough. The President of the United States summoned this mob, assembled the mob, and lit the flame of this attack. Everything that followed was his doing. None of this would have happened without the President. The President could have immediately and forcefully intervened to stop the violence. He did not. There has never been a greater betrayal by a President of the United States of his office and his oath to the Constitution.

What blowback has she received from Trump and fellow Republicans after telling the truth and voting to impeach Trump?

What recriminations have the other nine Republicans in the House endured since joining with Rep. Cheney in voting to impeach Trump?

This time the Trump Insurrection failed. But America cant risk a sequel. After a successful attack on democracy, no one is left to hold the perpetrators accountable.

So now you know the answer to the question How did this happen in America? But you also know that theres a more urgent one: Are there enough Republicans in the Senate willing to keep it from happening again?

Listen to Steven Harper and Bill Moyers in Conversation. December 10, 2020

Visit link:

The Long Read The Trial of Donald Trump BillMoyers.com - BillMoyers.com

Trump planned to pull out about 9,500 of the roughly 34,500 US troops stationed in Germany.

The German government on Friday welcomed President Joe Bidens decision to formally halt the planned withdrawal of US troops from Germany, arguing the troops stationing there is in our mutual interest.

Last year, then-President Donald Trump announced he was going to pull out about 9,500 of the roughly 34,500 US troops stationed in Germany, but the withdrawal never actually began.

Biden said Thursday the pullout would be halted until defence secretary Lloyd Austin reviews Americas troop presence around the globe.

The German government welcomes this announcement, Chancellor Angela Merkels spokesman, Steffen Seibert, told reporters in Berlin. He said: We will remain in contact with the new American administration on its further plans.

We have always been convinced that the stationing of American troops here in Germany serves European and transatlantic security, and so is in our mutual interest, Seibert said. We very much value this close, decades-long cooperation with the Americans forces that are stationed in Germany.

Asked whether Germany would make any concrete offers to persuade the US not to withdraw troops, Seibert said Berlin will follow developments but how these reviews go is an internal American matter.

The US has several key military facilities in Germany, including Ramstein Air Base, the headquarters for US European Command and US Africa Command, and Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, the largest American military hospital outside the United States.

Trumps order met resistance from Congress as well as from within the military, which has long relied on Germany as a key ally and base of operations.

Trump announced the troop cuts after repeatedly accusing Germany of not paying enough for its own defence, calling the longtime NATO ally delinquent for failing to spend 2 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP) on defence, a benchmark that alliance members have pledged to work towards.

See original here:

Germany hails Bidens move to halt Trump-ordered troop cuts - Al Jazeera English

Other staff members, including those brought in to help with executions, also spread tips to their colleagues about how they could avoid quarantines and skirt public health guidance from the federal government and Indiana health officials.

The executions at the end of Donald Trumps presidency, completed in a short window over a few weeks, likely acted as a superspreader event, according to the records reviewed by AP. It was something health experts warned could happen when the Justice Department insisted on resuming executions during a pandemic.

___

Its impossible to know precisely who introduced the infections and how they started to spread, in part because prisons officials didnt consistently do contact tracing and havent been fully transparent about the number of cases. But medical experts say its likely the executioners and support staff, many of whom traveled from prisons in other states with their own virus outbreaks, triggered or contributed both in the Terre Haute penitentiary and beyond the prison walls.

Of the 47 people on death row, 33 tested positive between Dec. 16 and Dec. 20, becoming infected soon after the executions of Alfred Bourgeois on Dec. 11 and Brandon Bernard on Dec. 10, according to Colorado-based attorney Madeline Cohen, who compiled the names of those who tested positive by reaching out to other federal death row lawyers. Other lawyers, as well as activists in contact with death row inmates, also told AP they were told a large numbers of death row inmates tested positive in mid-December.

In addition, at least a dozen other people, including execution team members, media witnesses and a spiritual adviser, tested positive within the incubation period of the virus, meeting the criteria of a superspreader event, in which one or more individuals trigger an outbreak that spreads to many others outside their circle of acquaintances. The tally could be far higher, but without contact tracing its impossible to be sure.

Active inmate cases at the Indiana penitentiary also spiked from just three on Nov. 19 the day Orlando Cordia Hall was put to death to 406 on Dec. 29, which was 18 days after Bourgeois execution, according to Bureau of Prisons data. The data includes the inmates at the high-security penitentiary, though the Bureau of Prisons has never said whether it included death row inmates in that count.

In all, 726 of the approximately 1,200 inmates at the United States Penitentiary at Terre Haute have tested positive for COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic, according to Bureau of Prisons data. Of them, 692 have recovered.

___

Advocates and lawyers for the inmates, a Zen Buddhist priest who was a spiritual adviser for one prisoner, and even the families of some of the victims fought to delay the executions until after the pandemic. Their requests were rebuffed repeatedly and their litigation failed. And some got sick.

Witnesses, who were required to wear masks, watched from behind glass in small rooms where it often wasnt possible to stand six feet apart. They were taken to and from the death-chamber building in vans, where proper social distancing often wasnt possible. Passengers frequently had to wait in the vans for an hour or more, with windows rolled up and little ventilation, before being permitted to enter the execution-chamber building. And in at least one case, the witnesses were locked inside the execution chamber for more than four hours with little ventilation and no social distancing.

Prison staff told their colleagues they should first get on planes, go back to their homes and then they could take a test, according to two people familiar with the matter. If they were positive, they said, they could just quarantine and wouldnt be stuck in Terre Haute for two weeks, said the people, who could not publicly discuss the private conversations and spoke to AP on condition of anonymity.

Following Halls execution in November, only six members of the execution team opted to get coronavirus tests before they left Terre Haute, the Justice Department said in a court filing. The agency said they all tested negative. But days later, eight members of the team tested positive for the virus. Five of the staff members who had tested positive were brought back to Terre Haute for more executions a few weeks later.

Yusuf Ahmed Nur, the spiritual adviser for Hall, stood just feet away inside the execution chamber when Hall was executed on Nov. 19. He tested positive for the virus days later.

Writing about the experience, Nur said he knew he would be putting himself at risk, but that Hall had asked him to be at his side when he was put to death. He, and Halls family, felt obliged to be there.

I could not say no to a man who would soon be killed, Nur wrote. That I contracted COVID-19 in the process was collateral damage of executions during a pandemic.

Later, two journalists tested positive for the virus after witnessing other executions in early December, then had contact with activists and their own loved ones, who later tested positive as well. Despite being informed of the diagnoses, the Bureau of Prisons knowingly withheld the information from other media witnesses and decided not to initiate any contact tracing efforts.

___

By mid-December, prison officials said that both Corey Johnson and Dustin Higgs were sick. They were the last two prisoners to be executed, just days before President Joe Biden took office.

Death row was put on lockdown after their results, inmates told Ashley Kincaid Eve, a lawyer and anti-death penalty activist. But even though they had also tested positive, she said Higgs and Johnson were still moved around the prison potentially infecting guards accompanying them so they could use phones and email to speak with their lawyers and families as their execution dates approached. Eve said prisons officials may have worried a court would delay the executions on constitutional ground if that access was denied.

In response to questions from the AP, the Bureau of Prisons said staff members who dont experience symptoms are clear to work and that they have their temperatures taken and are asked about symptoms before reporting for duty. (The AP has previously reported that staff members at other prisons were cleared with normal temperatures even when thermometers showed hypothermic readings.)

The agency said it also conducts contact training in accordance with federal guidance and that if staff are circumventing this guidance, we are not aware.

Officials said staff members were required to participate in contact tracing if they met the criteria for it and agency officials couldnt compel employees to be tested.

We cannot force staff members to take tests, nor does the CDC recommend testing of asymptomatic individuals, an agency spokesperson said, referring to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The union for Terre Haute employees declined to comment, saying it did not want to get into the public fray of this whole issue.

Elsewhere, union officials have long complained about the spread of the coronavirus through the federal prison system, as well as a lack of personal protective equipment and room to isolate infected inmates. Some of those issues have been alleviated, but containing the virus continues to be a concern at many facilities.

___

No more executions have yet been scheduled under Biden. The Bureau of Prisons has repeatedly refused to say how many other people have tested positive for the coronavirus after the last several executions. And the agency would not answer questions about the specific reasoning for withholding the information from the public, instead directing the AP to file a public records request.

The Bureau of Prisons said it also took extensive efforts to mitigate the transmission of the virus, including limiting the number of media witnesses and adding an extra van for the witnesses to space them out.

It has argued witnesses were informed social distancing may not be possible in the execution chamber and that witnesses and others were required to wear masks and were offered additional protective equipment, like gowns and face shields. The agency also refused to answer questions about whether Director Michael Carvajal or any other senior leaders raised concerns about executing 13 people during a worldwide pandemic that has killed more than 450,000 in the U.S.

Still, it appears their own protocols werent followed. After a federal judge ordered the Bureau of Prisons to ensure masks were worn during executions in January, the executioner and U.S. marshal in the death chamber removed their masks during one of the executions, appearing to violate the judges order. The agency argued they needed to do so to communicate clearly and that they only removed their masks for a short time and disputes that it violated the order.

___

In a Nov. 24 court filing on the spread of COVID at Terre Haute, Joe Goldenson, a public health expert on the spread of disease behind bars, said hundreds of staff participated in one way or another at each execution, including around 40 people on execution teams and those on 50-person specialized security teams who traveled from other prisons nationwide. He said he had warned earlier that executions were likely to become a superspreader.

Medical and public health experts repeatedly called on the Justice Department to delay executions, arguing the setup at prisons made them especially vulnerable to outbreaks, including because social distancing was impossible and health care substandard.

These are the type of high-risk superspreader events that the (American Medical Association) and (the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) have been warning against throughout the pandemic, James L. Madara, the executive vice president of the AMA, wrote to the Department of Justice on Jan. 11, just before the last three federal executions were carried out.

___

Tarm reported from Chicago and Sisak reported from New York.

_____

On Twitter, follow Michael Tarm at twitter.com/mtarm, Michael Balsamo at http://www.twitter.com/MikeBalsamo1 and Michael Sisak at twitter.com/mikesisak.

The rest is here:

Federal executions at end of Donald Trumps term were likely COVID-19 super-spreading events - The Boston Globe

WASHINGTON (AP) Former President Donald Trump has parted ways with his lead impeachment lawyers just over a week before his Senate trial is set to begin, two people familiar with the situation said Saturday.

Butch Bowers and Deborah Barbier, both South Carolina lawyers, are no longer with Trumps defense team. One of the people described the parting as a mutual decision that reflected a difference of opinion on the direction of the case. Both insisted on anonymity to discuss private conversations.

One said new additions to the legal team were expected to be announced in a day or two.

The upheaval injects fresh uncertainty into the makeup and strategy of Trumps defense team as he prepares to face charges that he incited the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. However, all but five Senate Republicans this week voted in favor of an effort to dismiss the trial before it even started, making clear a conviction of the former president is unlikely regardless of his defense team.

Greg Harris and Johnny Gasser, two former federal prosecutors from South Carolina, are also off the team, one of the people said.

According to a different person with knowledge of the legal hires, Bowers and Barbier left the team because Trump wanted them to use a defense that relied on allegations of election fraud, and the lawyers were not willing to do so. The person was not authorized to speak publicly about the situation and requested anonymity.

Trump has struggled to find attorneys willing to defend him after becoming the first president in history to be impeached twice. He is set to stand trial the week of Feb. 8 on a charge that he incited his supporters to storm Congress before President Joe Bidens inauguration in an attempt to halt the peaceful transition of power.

After numerous attorneys who defended him previously declined to take on the case, Trump was introduced to Bowers by one of his closest allies in the Senate, South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham.

Bowers, a familiar figure in Republican legal circles, had years of experience representing elected officials and political candidates, including then-South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford against a failed impeachment effort that morphed into an ethics probe.

Bowers and Barbier did not immediately return messages seeking comment Saturday evening.

Republicans and Trump aides have made clear that they intend to make a simple argument in the trial: Trumps trial is unconstitutional because he is no longer in office.

While Republicans in Washington had seemed eager to part ways with Trump after the deadly events of Jan. 6, they have since eased off of their criticism, weary of angering the former presidents loyal voter base.

CNN was first to report the departure of the lawyers.

____

Associated Press writer Meg Kinnard in Columbia, South Carolina, contributed to this report.

Visit link:

Trump parts with impeachment lawyers a week before trial - The Associated Press

Millions of Americans 88.7 million of them, to be precise have been waking up for the last three weeks with an unfamiliar sense of emptiness. Reaching for their phones for their accustomed fix of outrage and bemusement, an erratically capitalized, eccentrically punctuated guide to the obsessions and grievances that would drive the days news cycle, they are forced to acknowledge that the once unthinkable has occurred: @RealDonaldTrump is really gone for good from Twitter.

And not just Twitter: The man whose office refers to him as 45th President Donald J. Trump has been almost entirely silent in public since Jan. 20, when he became what the rest of the country knows as former President Trump. No raucous rallies featuring two-minute hates against the media. No impromptu tarmac question-and-answer sessions with reporters. No rambling phone chats with Fox News hosts, the ones that sometimes went on so long the interviewers had to gently cut him off by reminding him of how busy he must be. Even the 2024 campaign that he was widely expected to launch on Jan. 21 hasnt gotten off the ground, except for the part that involves raising money.

The once ubiquitous Trump has been plotting out his political future, Politico wrote not long after he went into his Florida exile. But without a social media loudspeaker through which to tease his plans, few know what to expect next, including his own former aides.

One person who has heard from Trump is the QAnon congresswoman, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., who bragged about receiving a GREAT call from Trump on Saturday, as she faced calls for her resignation or removal from Congress in light of conspiratorial and anti-Semitic rantings that keep coming to light. She didnt specify what was great about the call, and Trump hasnt commented publicly.

The obvious explanation for Trumps unaccustomed reticence is that he is busy preparing his defense for his upcoming impeachment trial in the Senate. Part of his preparations involved replacing one set of lawyers over the weekend with new ones, including a former Pennsylvania district attorney best known for declining to prosecute actor Bill Cosby over allegations he drugged and sexually assaulted a woman, allegations that resurfaced years later and resulted in Cosbys conviction.

Story continues

Consistent with his refusal to concede defeat, Trump reportedly wants to base his defense on his own bogus claims that he actually won reelection, rather than the procedural argument that his impeachment was mooted when he left office. That is a claim that 45 Republican senators have already signaled they accept, which would give him an automatic acquittal. The case that the election was stolen from him by Democrats was raised in dozens of lawsuits filed by his campaign and other Republican officials in November and December and has been uniformly rejected in the courts. He will almost certainly be acquitted anyway it takes 67 senators for a conviction but for Trumps lawyers to try to make the case could just as easily call attention to how flimsy it was in the first place.

But theres not much evidence of activity on that front. Where are the investigators fanning out across the country looking for the legendary hordes of deceased citizens who cast votes on Nov. 3? The subpoenas for the Dominion voting machines that in Trumps fantasies were rigged against him? (His bulldog defender, Rudy Giuliani, has been sued for defamation by Dominion for an eye-catching $1.3 billion, which might largely have foreclosed that line of inquiry.) Indeed, Trumps insistent claim that the election was stolen from him which his supporters took as signifying license to steal it back by invading the Capitol is central to the case against him. Raising it as a defense runs the paradoxical risk of making the accusation seem more credible.

Another possible explanation for Trumps silence is that he is, belatedly, discovering the virtues of discretion particularly now that he no longer enjoys the immunities and perks of office, such as having the Department of Justice to do his bidding. The writer E. Jean Carroll, who claims Trump raped her in a New York department store dressing room years ago, is suing him for defamation because in denying her accusation he called her a liar. Under Attorney General William Barr, the Department of Justice undertook to defend the suit, but the Biden administration might not be so compliant.

Or maybe its just that Trump hasnt yet found a form of expression as convenient and congenial as Twitter. It is no exaggeration that Trumps political career owes as much to Twitter as to The Apprentice. He understood, better than any other political figure, that he could use that platform to reach voters directly, without the expense of buying TV commercials or the inconvenience of media fact-checkers or the awkward constraints of grammar or logic. It was a venue for him to feed his insatiable desire for approval (Do you think Putin will be going to The Miss Universe Pageant in November in Moscow - if so, will he become my new best friend? he tweeted on June 18, 2013) and to boast about his television ratings, approval ratings, IQ, money, golf game (Just won The Club Championship at Trump International Golf Club in Palm Beach) and even his hair (retweeting a fan who wrote that his hair is magnificent. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise.)

But above all, Twitters staccato, telegraphic style is the perfect medium for Trumps preferred form of discourse, the insult that gains force by sheer repetition, rather than, say, plausibility. Trump gleefully pursued grudges and resentments against enemies including Barack Obama, who was the subject of fully 1,686 of his posts nearly one out of 30 as recently as Dec. 30; Hillary Clinton (887, of which 366 refer to her as Crooked Hillary); Rosie ODonnell (66); and Fox News (348, which sequentially chart his delight at being interviewed on air, appreciation for their obsequious coverage and, more recently, outrage toward anchors he considered insufficiently fawning). The New York Times has compiled a comprehensive list of the hundreds of people, organizations, places and ideas Trump insulted on Twitter from when he declared his candidacy, in 2015, through Jan. 19, 2021, running alphabetically from ABC News (knowingly have a sick and biased AGENDA) through Kim Jong-un (I would NEVER call him short and fat), to media proprietor Mort Zuckerman (a dopey clown). You cant put out a press release under the letterhead of 45th President Trump just to insult Whoopi Goldberg (never had what it took), or maybe you can, but it lacks the emotional satisfaction of sending out a tweet and watching the likes and retweets pile up by the thousands.

In fact, as with so many things about Trump, an explanation rooted in the mans personality may be the simplest and closest to the truth, the implicit point of Mary Trumps biography of her estranged uncle, Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the Worlds Most Dangerous Man. Mary Trump, a mental health professional herself, describes the 45th president as unstable, cruel, vain, greedy and as numerous armchair psychologists have discerned narcissistic, a personality type that reacts with rage and/or hurt withdrawal to any form of rejection. And what could be a greater rejection than losing a presidential election?

Author Laurence Leamer, a Palm Beach resident who wrote the 2019 book Mar-a-Lago: Inside the Gates of Power at Donald Trumps Presidential Palace, told the Associated Press that Trumps interest since leaving Washington is having sycophants stroke his ego.

He goes through his days and people tell him hes fantastic, hes great, hes unbelievable thats what he wants, Leamer said.

Its worth remembering that during the campaign Trump promised that if he lost, youll never see me again. Not many people believed him, but maybe we should have taken him at his word.

____

Read more from Yahoo News:

Originally published February 2, 2021, 11:14 AM

Continue reading here:

When will we hear from Donald Trump again? - Yahoo News

After the invasion of the US Capitol by a mob, the certification of the election and Joe Biden's inauguration, you'd think it would be hard to find media organisations still peddling fake claims about a stolen election.

Almost everyone at Fox News has distanced themselves from the claims, even if some hosts persisted right up until the Capitol riots.

But that isn't the case at two of America's fringe news organisations, One America News Network (OAN) and Newsmax.

Guests and hosts on those networks have still been pushing the election misinformation backed by former president Donald Trump.

Covering a Biden Presidency presents a huge challenge for these media outlets, which at times promoted an alternate reality.

But the 'MAGA'-aligned cable news upstarts a nod to Donald Trump's oft-used slogan "make America great again" will be keen to find a way to continue the spectacular rise in audience and influence they've seen in the past 12 months.

In March last year, there was an extraordinary question asked to then-president Trump in the White House Press Briefing room:

"Is it alarming that major media players, just to oppose you, are siding with foreign state propaganda, Islamic radicals, and Latin gangs and cartels, and they work right here out of the White House with direct access to you and your team?"

This question, asked by a journalist holding a legitimate press pass, brought a smile to the face of Mr Trump.

It was not, however, a surprise to him, given the source: Chanel Rion, White House correspondent for OAN.

At the time she was building a reputation for taking Trump's side on every issue, and providing the President with opportunities to sound off at his political enemies while he was meant to be answering questions.

At a subsequent briefing she asked Mr Trump this question:

"Two-thousand, four-hundred and five Americans have died from coronavirus in the last 60 days. Meanwhile, you have 2,369 children who are killed by their mothers through elective abortions each day. That's 16-and-a-half thousand children killed every week... Do you agree with states who are placing coronavirus victims above elective abortions?"

It was the first time many Americans had heard of OAN, which launched in 2013.

Despite its low budget, it had distinguished itself by amplifying every pro-Trump conspiracy theory it could find.

Subscribe to Matt Bevan's ABC News podcast about how Donald Trump changed the United States and the world.

Listen

Mr Trump assisted their reach by amplifying their stories on Twitter at any opportunity.

He also took a particular interest in Newsmax, which despite a history of being a reputable news network had become known as a landing ground for news personalities unable to find work at Fox.

By 2020, they were running shows by ex-Fox News host Bill O'Reilly and ex-ABC News America political editor Mark Halperin, who were both exiled due to sexual misconduct scandals.

They were also the home of Spicer & Co, hosted by the bumbling former Trump press secretary Sean Spicer.

As the 2020 election approached, Mr Trump began tweeting regularly that his followers should abandon Fox News for Newsmax and OAN, who up until this point had mainly found audiences on YouTube.

It wasn't particularly effective.

Fox News has an average primetime audience of 3.6 million Americans, meanwhile Newsmax was struggling to break 100,000 viewers (OAN has said it can't afford to sign up to get viewership data from TV ratings companies).

Though their content leaned further to the right than Fox News, they struggled to differentiate themselves enough to gain an audience.

While Fox News remained tethered in some sense to the reality that Joe Biden had defeated President Trump, OAN and Newsmax attached themselves to the conspiracy theory spread by Mr Trump and his attorney, Rudy Giuliani, that the election had been stolen by massive fraud.

Newsmax's top host, Greg Kelly, reached an audience of more than a million in his primetime slot, briefly out-rating Fox News.

OAN claimed to have seen a 40 per cent rise in viewership following the election.

It wasn't confined to traditional linear television though.

Their web content reached an even larger audience, posted on outlets like YouTube and Facebook and shared farther and wider than ever before.

Their reach became so significant that YouTube decided to censor some of their reports, arguing that they were spreading dangerous misinformation.

While the frenzy of post-election conspiracy theories seems to have cooled, bringing down their audience penetration with it, they successfully announced themselves as the home of unabashedly pro-Trump news content.

For years there has been speculation about whether a post-presidency Donald Trump may seek to gain a more permanent foothold in news media.

With his significant following across America, a Trump-branded TV network has been discussed, with the idea floated of a takeover or partnership between Mr Trump and either OAN or Newsmax.

Robert Herring Sr, the owner of OAN, denied the Trump family had been in talks with him about a partnership or acquisition.

Chris Ruddy, the owner of Newsmax, said that he has not closed the door on such a possibility.

But Mr Trump may be more interested in going it alone, reportedly suggesting that a Trump-branded subscription streaming service may be the best way of capitalising on his enormous national support.

Since leaving office, Mr Trump has been uncharacteristically quiet.

Despite his permanent ban from Twitter, he still has the option of calling friends at Fox, OAN or Newsmax to give his perspective on politics yet he has largely resisted flooding the airwaves just yet.

OAN and Newsmax may or may not be looking to do a deal with Mr Trump to give them exclusive access to his thoughts, feelings and supporters, but they are almost certainly hoping that he will break his silence soon.

They need something to talk about.

Go here to read the rest:

The US media organisations loyal to Donald Trump could struggle to find the same oxygen under President Joe Biden - ABC News

City leaders in Frostproof, a small town in Florida where officials boast former President TrumpDonald TrumpGraham shoots down request for Merrick Garland confirmation hearing Feb. 8 Trump lawyer to make First Amendment case at impeachment trial Biden faces crossroads on virus relief bill MORE has previously enjoyed an overwhelming amount of support from local voters, have declared the first week of February Donald J. Trump week.

According to a local NBC affiliate station, the citys leaders decided to greenlight the declaration, under which the first six days of Black History Month will fall under the new designation, at a meeting on Monday.

The town has a population of roughly 3,180 people, of which more than 90 percent belong to non-Hispanic white and Hispanic white ethnic groups, according to 2018 figuresprovided byData USA.

Polk County,where the city lies, went for Trump heavily in the 2016 presidential election, with 55.4 of the countys voters backing the Republican.

The proclamation claimed Trump won more than 75 percent of the town's vote.

Former President Donald J. Trump was overwhelmingly supported, and received 76.43% of the votes in Frostproof, Florida, Precinct 537, won the state of Florida twice and received more votes than any incumbent in United States History, the proclamation states, according to a copy obtained by the local outlet.

The brief measure also boasts of employmentnumbers under the previous administration and growth in manufacturing jobs.

Austin Gravley, a member of the Frostproof City Council, told the news station the proclamationis the"first of its kind and said he was proud to be a part of the effort.

According to the outlet, the move comes weeks after a GOP state representative, Anthony Sabatini, also drew attention for proposing to rename the U.S. Highway 27 in Florida to President Donald J. Trump Highway.

The rest is here:

Leaders of Florida town declare first week of February 'Donald J. Trump week' | TheHill - The Hill

SportsPulse: USA TODAY Sports' Nancy Armour asks Tom Brady if he thinks Black athletes have an equal amount of leeway when broaching political and controversial topics as white athletes do. USA TODAY

Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady evaded a question about whether he's gotten a pass from criticism forsporting a Donald Trump hat in his locker in 2015 because he is white.

In a Jan. 26segment on Fox Sports, analyst Shannon Sharpe was critical of Brady's brief support of Trump. The six-time Super Bowl champion later backpedaled on his support of Trump, dismissing any political-oriented questions during the former president's campaign trail and presidency over the last four years. But Sharpe said Brady was given a pass as a white athlete that a Black athlete like LeBron James wouldn't have gotten.

"Lets just say for sake of argument, LeBron James says my friend is Minister (Louis) Farrakhan," Sharpe said, referring to the controversial Nation of Islam leader."How would America react? Blacks have always had to be very, very quiet about who our friends are. ...LeBron James can never say, a prominent black athlete can never say, Minister Farrakhan is just my friend. Theyd try to cancel anybody with the just mere mention of Mister Farrakhans name. Because we like Tom Brady."

Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady playing against the Kansas City Chiefs in November.(Photo: Kim Klement, USA TODAY Sports)

Brady, in response to a question by USA TODAY Sports columnist Nancy Armour on a Super Bowl news conference Monday, dodged a direct answer.

"I'm not sure how to respond to hypothetical like that," Brady said over Zoomduring Super Bowl media availability. "I hope everyone canwe're in this position like I am to, again, try to be the best I can be every day as an athlete, as a player, as a person in my community, for my team and so forth, so yeah, I'm not sure what else."

In Sharpe's initial comments on Fox Sports, he said: "I understood what Tom was for a very, very long time. He put that hat in there for a reason. 'Letting you know that I support my friend, Donald Trump, and no matter what he says, I support him.' ... If we like somebody, were more forgiving of their actions. Were more forgiving of their words, their deeds. If we dont like you, we will go to heaven and earth, well go back 15 years."

Autoplay

Show Thumbnails

Show Captions

See the original post here:

Tom Brady dodges question about getting pass for supporting Trump because he is white - USA TODAY