Trump 63: Fani Makes It Four (Indictments)

[47of74]

10 minutes ago, Xan said:

They might shelter him for a while out of gratefulness for favors.  After all, he blocked the UN Security Council resolution on Yemen.  He vetoed a bipartisan congressional resolution to end Saudi support against Yemen.  He had Pompeo remove Saudi Arabia from a blacklist regarding child soldiers.  He blocked bills to end arms sales and resumed the sales of bombs to Saudi Arabia.  He looked the other way when they killed Khashoggi.  He supported their blockade of Qatar.  He praised MBS when he rounded up royal family members in Riyadh. 

I hate the Saudi government.  There.  I said it.  It was either that or stroke out trying to keep that bottled up.

I see Meadows tried some horseshit today and it didn't go the way he wanted.

 

[fraurosena]

Yes!!

https://x.com/reallyamerican1/status/1694075217306366090?s=46&t=7O1wybM-4H6EjOmNEULL4A

Text:

As per an order issued by Fulton County Judge Scott McAfee, the trial of Donald J. Trump and his 18 co-defendants will be televised.

Numerous devices were identified as acceptable to transmit the case which is sure to draw international audiences, including television cameras, cell phones, and laptops.
 

(PS, anyone else having trouble embedding tweets with an IPhone? It works just fine on my other devices, so I don’t get it)

[GreyhoundFan]

[GreyhoundFan]

The article that is linked in the tweet is not behind a paywall.  You can also see both pieces of "art" in all their glory.

 

[Xan]

Here are those painting.  In the first one, they misspelled "righteous".  They need to decide whether he's Jesus or James Bond.  Pick one, Trumpies!  He can't be both.

Spoiler

 

Edited August 23, 2023 by Xan

[GreyhoundFan]

[GreyhoundFan]

"Trump gravitates to fringe figures despite efforts to limit their influence"

Quote

On Aug. 13, former president Donald Trump spent the day at his New Jersey golf club with former congressional candidate Laura Loomer, whose history of offensive and inflammatory comments led to her being banned by social media platforms and shunned by other Republicans.

Advisers and lawyers spent days last week talking him out of a news conference to tout a report compiling old and unsubstantiated allegations of election fraud in the 2020 election — more than 100 pages prepared by staffer Liz Harrington, who was the former editor in chief of Stephen K. Bannon’s “War Room” website. The former president spends more time with another staffer, former One America News anchor Natalie Harp, than almost anyone else in his orbit and her omnipresence has at times annoyed many of his other aides, according to people close to Trump, who like others spoke on the condition of anonymity to reveal internal details.

And on occasion, Trump is again taking advice from figures such as Roger Stone and Dick Morris, a former top adviser to President Bill Clinton who was ousted over a prostitution scandal.

Trump’s current presidential campaign in some ways is more professionalized and orderly than his past operations — so far not besmirched by as much infighting, sudden staff firings and other drama. He has attracted a series of respected GOP strategists who have run successful campaigns and his team has worked behind the scenes with savvy operatives to shape primary rules, GOP officials say.

But the candidate is still finding himself drawn to fringe figures, outside the formal chain of command, who reinforce — and encourage — his most pugilistic impulses.

“I read in disbelief at some of the people he’s brought back, but he likes the sycophants, he likes people telling him how great he is and all the rest,” said John F. Kelly, one of his former White House chiefs of staff. “Particularly now, when he’s really under assault, and justifiably so. He would for sure want to surround himself with people telling him how great he is. He always wants the people around who say, ‘Yes, sir, you are the smartest, you are the genius.’”

The dynamic is especially pronounced as indictments against the former president have piled up — 91 charges across four criminal cases in state and federal courts. In particular, special counsel Jack Smith’s allegations that Trump fraudulently tried to overturn the 2020 election have renewed Trump’s eagerness to dig into the claim that he always believed the election was stolen — and still does. And his strategy to not give back classified documents to the government — which has prompted a separate Smith prosecution in Florida — came in part from an outside legal adviser who disagreed with Trump’s lawyers.

“I love when his fangs come out,” Morris said in an interview, adding that Trump had internalized many of the ideas of their mutual mentor and fixer-lawyer, the late Roy Cohn. “Including the idea of ‘permanent offense.’ It’s very important and runs through all of my thinking, too.”

Steven Cheung, a Trump campaign spokesman, said the former president “has surrounded himself with the best team in history and everyone is working to ensure he retakes the White House.” He added: “Any suggestion otherwise is nothing more than false rumors that have no basis in reality and come from people who have no idea what’s going on.”

Fresh off a visit with the New York Young Republican Club on Aug. 11, Loomer was planning to return home to Florida when her friend, a law clerk for a firm representing multiple defendants in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, asked if she wanted to tag along on a visit to Trump’s golf club in Bedminster, N.J.

Loomer had never visited Bedminster before, and she knew there was a chance she’d get to see Trump. She hadn’t packed another outfit, so she bought a new fuchsia bodycon dress before driving to the club and buying a public ticket to a LIV Golf tournament. When Trump approached a rope line of fans to shake hands and sign Make America Great Again hats, one of his aides pointed out Loomer in the crowd.

“Where’s Laura?” Trump shouted, turning around to see her, according to video of the encounter reviewed by The Washington Post. “I love you,” he told her. Then, turning to Harp, he said: “Would you do me a favor? Get her a pass.”

Loomer has a history of derogatory and provocative remarks — particularly against Muslims — that has led to her being banned from social media platforms and being ostracized by other Republicans. Loomer has denied being a white supremacist or anti-Muslim, describing herself as a “free speech absolutist.” She has publicly feuded with Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), who publicly warned Trump against hiring Loomer to work on his reelection campaign. She lost a congressional primary in Florida last year and got her start in right-wing circles working for the conservative undercover camera group Project Veritas. Loomer is viewed by some of Trump’s aides as too extreme to work for him. The super PAC backing Ron DeSantis promptly used a clip of Loomer with Trump in an attack ad that premiered last week.

But Trump invited her up to his private box and spent much of the day with her, posing for photos as he showed off his golf course. In recent months, she has increasingly been on Trump’s radar for her cutting attacks on DeSantis, the Florida governor who is one of Trump’s 2024 challengers — particularly after she unearthed research against DeSantis that was viewed as helpful by some of Trump’s aides.

“At the end of the day, it doesn’t really matter who on his team likes me, because President Trump loves me,” Loomer said in an interview. “It really, honestly, doesn’t matter what anybody else thinks.”

Harp is a relatively recent addition to Trump’s orbit but is nearly always with him, advisers say. Other Trump aides view her as a problematic figure among his advisers for her unwavering devotion to her boss and lack of discernment. She follows Trump around — even on the golf course on a cart equipped with a laptop and sometimes a printer. She often is just outside his office, advisers say, and seeks to travel with him. She stands at such attention when he walks into a room that other aides have joked about it for months, people close to Trump say.

Advisers say she often hands him news articles and social media posts that he would not see otherwise (sometimes promoting false claims of election fraud) and takes dictations to post on Truth Social — which are sometimes published without vetting from senior aides. For example, some Trump aides were caught off guard by a long statement he posted announcing he had received a target letter in the Jan. 6 investigation. Harp did not respond to a request for comment.

When other aides have repeatedly complained about the former TV anchor to Trump, he has defended her and argued that she is smart and works hard. Efforts to get her to “go through the chain of command have failed, failed, failed,” said one Trump adviser.

Unlike some of Trump’s other informal advisers, Harp and Harrington are on the campaign payroll. Harp is often the bridge to figures such as Loomer, according to four Trump advisers.

Harrington wrote the 100-page report on election fraud for Trump to share publicly — even as Trump is facing criminal charges for his efforts to overturn the 2020 election. While her presence around Trump has dwindled in recent months — and lawyers and advisers were able to at least temporarily quash the release of the report after days of fighting — she still provides reinforcement to him that the election was stolen. She continued to argue in favor of releasing the report last week, even as other advisers and lawyers argued against it, according to Trump advisers.

“It is kind of odd The Washington Post, which espouses conspiracy theories such as the 2016 Election was stolen by Russia, Russia, Russia, and unsubstantiated claims like Joe Biden got 81 million votes, the most in history, wants people thrown in prison for fighting against an election that was actually stolen,” Harrington said in a statement that propagated unsupported claims. “Rather than spend all its energy smearing people who pursue the truth, maybe The Post could start covering the news, instead of covering it up. But I won’t hold my breath.”

Biden won more than 81 million votes nationally, according to results certified in each state.

Outside his official team of lawyers, Trump has increasingly relied on Tom Fitton, the head of the conservative group Judicial Watch, for legal advice. Fitton, who is not a lawyer, was among those who advised Trump that he could legally keep documents with classification markings that he took with him from the White House to his Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Fla., and urged him to fight the Justice Department on the matter, The Post has previously reported. Fitton told The Post that Trump has always sought “a lot of creative input” on issues as he deals with them.

“I don’t know why it would be surprising that someone like President Trump — or, frankly, any other national leader — would want to talk to the head of a group that’s one of the largest and most effective watchdog groups in the country,” Fitton said. “It’s like, why would it be concerning that someone wants to talk to the head of the ACLU about issues concerning policy and law? More national leaders would do well to look at what Judicial Watch is doing in our approach to government corruption issues.”

Morris also often urges Trump to attack others — and often shares ideas about campaign and policy messaging with Trump’s campaign advisers and speechwriters.

One person close to the former president said the campaign was better served in focusing on leveraging these figures productively and to his campaign’s advantage rather than trying to act as a gatekeeper. For example, some advisers have spoken privately with Stone about the advice he is giving Trump. Stone did not respond to requests for comment.

Stone was among the loyalists pardoned by Trump at the end of his presidency after he was convicted by a federal jury in Washington of lying during his September 2017 testimony to the House Intelligence Committee about his role in the 2016 Trump campaign’s efforts to learn about Democratic computer files hacked by Russia and made public by WikiLeaks. Stone was sentenced to three years and four months in prison. He was also involved with efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election, as captured by a Danish camera crew for a documentary on Trump’s longest-serving political adviser called “A Storm Foretold.”

Despite Stone’s political and legal baggage, he and Trump have been in regular touch in recent months, and Stone recently flew with Trump on his private plane. Four Trump advisers said Stone is also in touch with Trump’s team, and they view him as a more constructive figure than many of the others and an often savvy political thinker.

Bannon, the former White House strategist who fell out with Trump in 2018 but began advising him informally again in 2020, said Trump views his outside network as a way to “get a feel for what people are thinking and feeling.” He said that Loomer and others should be seen less as advisers than as “fighters who can always be pointed downrange.”

Because Trump now has the strongest campaign team he’s ever had, Bannon said, his reliance on such outside figures isn’t as pronounced as it could be. “I’m quite impressed that he’s not just reaching out all the time for outside stuff,” Bannon said.

It is difficult to know exactly who is on Trump’s payroll, because many payments are made through consultants. Advisers say Stone, Morris, Loomer and others are not being paid.

In the past, Trump has been willing to associate with far-right figures who have promoted hate and extreme ideology. He had dinner last year with far-right activist Nick Fuentes and Ye, the rapper formerly known as Kanye West, who have made white-nationalist and antisemitic comments, and came under fire when anti-Muslim activist Brigitte Gabriel visited the White House for a meeting with Trump’s legislative aides early in his term. And at the end of his presidency, after the 2020 election, even some of his most loyal aides were astounded to see lawyer and conspiracy theorist Sidney Powell on the White House grounds repeatedly.

“Do you know how much time you spend as a Trump adviser dealing with crazy people?” said one Trump adviser. But another noted, for example, that Morris’s ideas “aren’t always crazy” but are usually “self-serving or ill-timed.”

Kelly said the goal in the White House was to keep fringe figures out of Trump’s ear “at least during business hours.”

Morris — Cohn’s cousin who was fired from the Clinton White House after tabloid reports of a relationship with a $200-an-hour prostitute — has sometimes annoyed some of Trump’s aides with his aggressive and self-promotional approach, who say he regularly dials Trump’s speechwriters, top political advisers and the president himself. But Trump takes at least some of his calls, these people said, and has told his team to keep in touch with Morris, who has been spotted at Mar-a-Lago on multiple occasions. Morris has told others he speaks to Trump frequently — though some close to Trump say the contact has dwindled some in recent months.

“Morris and Stone — both of them believe in the permanent offense,” said Doug Schoen, a pollster and former senior political adviser to Clinton. “What it means is that you pick up the phone at 8 a.m. and say, ‘Here is what you should say today, Donald, and here’s what you should do.' Because Trump’s theory is you control the dialogue even if you are wrong and people don’t like it because you’re in the dialogue and other Republicans aren’t.”

Trump has unsuccessfully tried to bring some of these fringe figures onto his campaign in a more formal capacity.

Earlier this year, Trump met with Loomer and invited her to work on his campaign, but the offer was scuttled after it was reported in April by the New York Times. While sitting with her this month, he reposted several of Loomer’s messages on X, the website formerly known as Twitter.

“You work hard and you are a very opinionated lady, I have to tell you that,” Trump said in a video Loomer posted to X. “And in my opinion, I like that.”

 

 

[47of74]

47 minutes ago, GreyhoundFan said:

And muricas mayor was only mayor until December that year after which Bloomberg took over. 

[thoughtful]

Smiling mug shots - um, OK.

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/trump-mug-shot-gallery.html

Spoiler

 

[Xan]

Donny just can't shut up.  He reposted something from Burt Jones about the "corrupt Atlanta cabal" and he slapped this up on Truth Social as well:

Spoiler

I doubt any "sparks will fly".  He's just trying to drum up interest.

[onekidanddone]

3 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

Is this even legal? Shouldn’t he have a no contact order with all the other defendants. Looks to me this is a way to keep Rudy under control and strong arming him to not flip

[Xan]

Donny's not supposed to talk to co-defendants except through a lawyer.  I doubt anyone will call him on it though.

[front hugs > duggs]

How has there been NOBODY who has told him how to spell stolen!?!?!?

[thoughtful]

25 minutes ago, front hugs > duggs said:

How has there been NOBODY who has told him how to spell stolen!?!?!?

He's Donald Trump - he's probably been told many times, but refuses to learn.

[Xan]

I think he knows it is spelled incorrectly.  He's leaving it there so the Trumpies can relate.  "Those awful liberals just think they're smarter than everybody else!  Even our president misspells words!"

Tonight he said that Pence was lying about Trump wanting to put himself above the Constitution.  Wouldn't that be interfering with the testimony of a witness?  Can't the judge either put his rank ass in jail or else make him go to house arrest with no social media??  Then again, that would be Cannon and she's not about to step on his toes.

[Botkinetti]

15 hours ago, Xan said:

Here are those painting.  In the first one, they misspelled "righteous".  They need to decide whether he's Jesus or James Bond.  Pick one, Trumpies!  He can't be both.

  Reveal hidden contents

 

I am laughing at how gigantic the hands are in both paintings as trump’s insecurity about his small hands is well known.

[GreyhoundFan]

Quote

It was a night to destroy your T.V. as the leading Republican candidate for President, Donald John Trump, skipped the first Republican Primary debate in Wisconsin on the eve of his first mugshot to join former biggest cable TV show host Tucker Carlson on X, a former social media app with dignity. 

Things got weird real fast in this sad attempt by both "men" to get back at their former employer Fox.

Trump led off the evening by going right after former Governor of Arkansas Asa Hutchinson, a candidate who has no chance of winning the nomination, by calling him "Ada" Hutchinson, in a typical 9-year old insult from Trump. Hey look, he called Asa by a woman's name! Hilarious. 

Then things quickly got down to business as Tucker asked Trump about the prospect of a civil war and the possibility of an assassination attempt by Democrats: "they tried to put you in prison for the rest of your life, that's not working, so like, don't they have to kill you now?"

Trump responded to the question by calling Democrats, "savage animals." "They're people that are sick."

Then Tucker inexplicably brought up Jeffrey Epstein, claiming that Bill Barr lied about the cause of his death. A visibly uncomfortable Trump tried multiple times to change the subject, but Tucker kept pressing Trump on his forensic analysis of the death of Jeffrey Epstein. "Do you think it's possible that Epstein was killed? He was Killed. I think."

Seeing the opportunity to appear presidential, Trump seized the awkward moment to proclaim his desire to be "a President for everybody." Then he picked the literal next 30 seconds to reaffirm his statement that Democrats "are savages." "They hate America." 

The conversation then quickly moved to the current President, Joe Biden, where Trump attempted multiple times to weirdly suggest that Biden wouldn't make it to 2024.

"I don't think he'll make it to the gate."

Trump wouldn't let it go. Suggesting 3 more times that Biden wouldn't be the nominee. So much so that Tucker asked who he would like to run against. Trump said it wouldn't be Kamala, claiming "her moments are almost as bad as his," and then made a weird racist comment that Kamala, "speaks in rhyme." 

Tucker asked if California Governor Gavin Newsom could be the nominee given Trump's assertion that Biden wouldn't be, and Trump took the predictable opportunity to trash California, stating that Democrat run cities are all dangerous, while Republican run cities are totally safe. Conveniently forgetting that the cities with most violent crime are in red states.

Trump then spent the next fifteen minutes pontificating about laundry machines, as he is frequently want to do, and making bizarre dick jokes about China's airport runways having tremendous length and girth. 

Trump concluded the interview by calling Mitch McConnell a "bad guy" who only gets things done by paying people, and that Stacy Abrams should have been arrested for claiming she had won her failed race for Georgia Governor; parroting the Republican line that his indictment is a free speech issue and merely about him questioning the election results, not the whole, you know, attempting to force through fake electors and phony electronic ballots while pressuring his VP to decertify the election in Congress. 

He then called Fulton County D.A. Fani Willis, "Fanny Willis" and said "she's getting killed" in the polls.

Speaking of Pence, Trump just couldn't help mentioning his most loyal acolyte who literally almost died for him in the January 6th insurrection. Trump claimed Pence was on board with his scheme to decertify the election results, and that it could legally be done, except that the "RINO's got together with the Democrats" and passed a law AFTER the election to prevent him from doing that. 

He claimed he had asked constitutional lawyers, "so in other words you're saying I was right, you could do it," and they had responded, "yes you could do it. In other words, they took the voting act and they redid it, so the Vice President no longer has the power to do what I said he could do."

No such law was ever passed by Congress, and neither Pence nor anyone in Congress has ever claimed officially that the Vice President has the constitutional authority to decertify the election result once it gets to Congress. 

All in all it was an evening to forget. Trump made no headway in taking on either his Republican primary opponents or President Biden, who clearly wasn't watching; spending his time trolling Trump's opponents and releasing an ad during the GOP debate. 

 

 

[GreyhoundFan]

He's hoping for more violence.

 

[Becky]

17 minutes ago, GreyhoundFan said:

He's hoping for more violence.

 

Love.  How many times does he say that in this clip?  This is a very damaged man who had obviously never experienced love in any way, shape, or form.  

[fraurosena]

For all his bravado, things are not going well for Trump today.

PS: he'd also be devastated if he were to find out that over here there were actually a couple of news items about the Republican debate (not very positive I should add), but his "interview" with Tucker Carlson has been completely ignored. 

[Audrey2]

My guess is another lawyer who's in it for the ego because we all know Trump will stiff him in the end.

[fraurosena]

Oh boy, Fani Willis wants to go to trial in October. Of this year. 

Also love that she managed to call Chesebro's bluff, who asked for a speedy trial.

Edited August 24, 2023 by fraurosena

[fraurosena]

Mark Meadows has surrendered.

 

[fraurosena]

He hopes the views for his arrest will be even biglier.

 

Edited August 24, 2023 by fraurosena

[fraurosena]

Well duh.