Part XVIII: Indicted Again!

Indicted Again! 

__________ 

“Just say that the election was corrupt and leave the rest to me and the Republican congressmen.” 

President Trump

__________ 

Special Prosecutor Jack Smith.

 

ONCE AGAIN, we start another lengthy post, knowing that election deniers have overrun the GOP like kudzu  – and with the same level of awareness one might expect from any humble plant. 

 

Happy to testify against Donald Trump. 

August 1, 2023: Donald Trump’s legal problems increased dramatically today, when the Department of Justice unveiled its second criminal indictment against him, and the third, overall. He now faces four additional felony charges, related to one authoritarian goal. Trump and his co-conspirators (there are six) set out to “defraud” the United States and steal the last presidential election. 

 

NOTE ON METHODOLOGY: We are still using orange highlights in honor of Donald’s favorite skin toner. That’s just our kind of joke. As for all names of individuals in bold, and groups, these are people who know President Trump, or his pals, were lying about the “Stolen Election,” etc. We DO NOT use Democrats as witnesses, except in the very rarest of cases. So, who knew Trump was lying? Start with an entire grand jury, throw in Trump’s own attorney general, Bill Barr, add Vice President Pence, the Director of National Intelligence, and plenty more. 

 

As soon as news broke, Trump allies began squealing that the “fix” was in. They demanded to know why Special Prosecutor Jack Smith had filed in Washington D.C., a jurisdiction where jurors might be less favorable to the man from Mar-a-Lago. 

Sorry, MAGA folks. This is how courts work. Both grand juries and regular juries are impaneled in jurisdictions where crimes are alleged to have occurred. Burglarize a home in Hays, Kansas, and go to trial in Hays. Get caught on a rolling stop in the Village of Glendale, Ohio – how sadly does this blogger know – and pay your stupid fine in the village Mayor’s Court. 

Trump is charged in Washington D.C. because he was living in the White House when his alleged crimes occurred. 

(See how easy this is!) 

 

Nevertheless, Trump-loving Republicans, showing – as we have said – the same level of awareness as an invasive vine, began howling about how we should all ignore the Sixth Amendment and have cases against defendants they love tried in places where the defendants live now. 

Such as Florida. 

In that jurisdiction, Trump lovers are more numerous, and might give Donald a better chance with juries – and also lawyers could go to the beach on weekends, which would be fun for Trump over-taxed attorneys. 

(Also: I am thinking Alina Habba would look hot in a bikini.) 

Habba, second from left, brings the cleavage to Mar-a-Lago.

 

We should also point out that almost every potential witness cited in today’s indictment either worked for President Trump during his time in office, works for him now, or was/still is a Republican. 

All have testified, before the grand jury, under oath. 

Several co-conspirators (currently unindicted) have also provided “testimony,” if you want to call it that, by pleading the Fifth – that is invoking the right not to incriminate themselves – hundreds of times. 

(The MAGA crowd would go berserk if Hunter Biden did the same.) 

 

We also know that in an interview on CBS today, former Attorney General Bill Barr said he would be delighted to testify against Donald J. Trump when the former president comes to trial. (We might also be wise to remember that Trump’s first attorney general, Jeff Sessions, had to announce that he would not break the law to help Trump during the Mueller investigation.) 

Mr. Barr has already testified before a congressional panel. Today, he said again that “on three occasions at least,” he told Trump, “in no uncertain terms, that there was no evidence of fraud that would have changed the outcome” of the last presidential election. Trump fans should ponder that. 

 

To subvert election results. 

Mr. Trump stands accused of spending more than two months (November 4, 2020-January 6, 2021) spreading lies and claiming there had been “outcome-determinative” fraud in the voting. “These claims were false,” according to the indictment, “and the Defendant knew that they were false.” 

Trump had a right to claim the election was stolen – even to lie – and did so with the confidence of a practiced con-artist. 

He had a right to demand recounts, and a right to challenge voting results in court. And he did. 

His efforts to change the outcome of the vote in multiple state and federal courts were, however, “universally unsuccessful.” 

According to the indictment, even before all the votes were counted and recorded, “the Defendant” began to pursue “unlawful means” to discount legal votes and subvert the results. Three unique conspiracies were hatched in an effort to alter the outcome. All “targeted a bedrock function” of the U.S. government – determining the true winners in all federal elections. Trump and “co-conspirators, known and unknown to the grand jury ” turned to the use of “dishonesty, fraud, and deceit.” 

We know, for example, that film of Trump ally Roger Stone has been uncovered. In this case, we can watch as Mr. Stone outlines a plan for contesting the results of the 2020 election. He can be seen and heard laying out the plot on November 5, two days before Biden was declared victor. 

 

We also know that the worst members of Team Trump rose to power during Donald’s four years in office, because only the worst of the worst would cater to his criminal inclinations. Stone, a seven-time felon, and Steve Bannon, who snagged a Golden Pardon from Trump and avoided a felony conviction of his own, were plotting to trick the MAGA folks into believing the election was stolen. And this before they had a shred of proof of any stealing. Their “winning” strategy was always going to involve pushing the “Big Lie.” 

In this new case, six unindicted co-conspirators are listed, but not named. All could be charged at a later date.

 

Five were quickly identified by the free press: 

Co-Conspirator 1: Rudy Giuliani. 

Co-Conspirator 2: Professor John Eastman, constitutional scholar. 

Co-Conspirator 3: Sidney Powell, Team Trump lawyer. 

Co-Conspirator 4. Jeffrey Clark, former Deputy Assistant Attorney General with the Department of Justice. 

Co-Conspirator 5: Kenneth Chesebro, Team Trump lawyer. 

Co-Conspirator 6: Possibly Boris Epshteyn (according to The New York Times), another lawyer. 

(Co-conspirators #1-5 were next indicted in a separate Georgia investigation.) 

 

We should further note that the Electoral Count Act of 1887 lays out rules for certifying and counting electoral votes. For more than 130 years the ECA allowed for a peaceful and orderly process to determine the winner of presidential elections. Trump and his allies stand accused of trying to sabotage that law. 

 

“These claims were false, and the Defendant knew they were false.” 

According to prosecutors, “the Defendant” and his co-conspirators “used knowingly false claims of election fraud” to pressure state legislators and elected officials to “subvert” the true voting results. That is, the plotters intended to move electoral votes from Biden’s winning column to Trump’s losing one. 

In pursuit of this end, “fraudulent slates of electors” were organized in seven states, making this a widespread conspiracy. (Those states: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.) 

As the indictment explains: 

The Defendant and his accomplices attempted to use the power and authority of the Justice Department to conduct sham election crime investigations and to send a letter to the targeted states that falsely claimed [emphasis added, unless otherwise noted] that the Justice Department had identified significant concerns that may have impacted the election outcome[.]

 

The Defendant and his co-conspirators tried to enlist Vice President Mike Pence in their plot to “fraudulently alter the election results.” 

The Defendant, Donald John Trump, made “dozens of specific claims” about supposed fraud in key states. “These claims were false, and the Defendant knew they were false.” 

The Defendant’s Vice President – who personally stood to gain by remaining in office as part of the Defendant’s ticket and whom the Defendant asked to study fraudulent allegations – told the Defendant that he had conducted the studies and found no evidence of “outcome-determinative fraud.” 

Senior leaders at the Department of Justice told Trump that his claims of widespread voter fraud were false. 

So did the Director of National Intelligence. 

The Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency assured the Defendant there was no evidence of significant fraud. When the head of that agency – a Trump appointee – refused to say the election had been rigged, Trump fired him for his honesty. 

“Senior White House attorneys,” chosen by the “Defendant,” told Trump that he had lost the election, and not because of fraud. They informed him that his presidency would end on January 20, 2021. 

(Any American can read this indictment, if they wish to be informed.) 

 

The indictment further charges that, “The Defendant’s knowingly false statements were integral to his criminal plans to defeat the federal government function, obstruct the certification, and interfere with others’ right to vote and have their votes counted.” 

For example, Trump claimed 10,000 dead people had voted in Georgia. That was false. 

The Defendant said that “there had been 205,000 more votes than voters in Pennsylvania.” That was false. 

The Defendant insisted there had been “a suspicious vote dump in Detroit, Michigan.” His attorney general had already explained to him why “this was false.” Trump’s allies in the Michigan legislature also told him such claims were untrue. 

The Defendant claimed 30,000 non-citizens had voted in Arizona. His campaign manager “explained to him that such claims were false.” 

Trump insisted that the voting machines in key states had been rigged. He was told by top officials that such claims were false. 

The Defendant is apparently a moron. (Okay, the blogger made that one up for fun. But it fits.) 

On November 13, 2020, Trump’s top campaign advisors told him he had lost Arizona, and his hopes for a second term were kaput. 

 

“A strategy to use knowing deceit.” 

The next day, Co-Conspirator 1 announced he would “spearhead” efforts to challenge results. This would be Rudy Giuliani. “From that point on, the Defendant and his co-conspirators executed a strategy to use knowing deceit in the targeted states to impair, obstruct, and defeat the federal government function,” the accurate counting of the popular vote, followed by the electoral votes. 

Rudy has since been disbarred in two jurisdictions. He has also lost a defamation case, lodged against him by two Georgia poll workers, whom he falsely accused of helping rig that state’s vote. 

Trump also claimed the two poll workers rigged the vote. A whole bunch of people told him the Georgia vote was not rigged. That would include Attorney General Bill Barr, his replacement, Acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen, Gov. Brian Kemp of Georgia, and others. 

 

BLOGGER’S NOTE: As of March 14, 2024, we know the two Georgia poll workers won their defamation suit. They were asking for somewhere between $15.5 and $43 million in damages. 

We should also point out how weak Team Trump’s “evidence” of voter fraud was from the start. Jenna Ellis, who helped push the “Big Lie,” was forced to give a deposition in Rudy’s defamation case. She decided that the best course of action was to tell the whole truth and nothing but… WTF! … She plead the Fifth 308 times. 

Still, she was a slacker compared to a second Trump lawyer, Ray Stallings Smith III, who worked hard to overturn fair voting results in Georgia. He hit the 400-mark while invoking the right not to incriminate his lawyer self. 

Unimpressed by Rudy’s defense, and disgusted by the antics of President Trump’s pals, the jury came back with an award of $148.2 million. 

 

Now, back to the indictment filed by Special Prosecutor Smith: 

On November 22, 2020, Mr. Trump and Mr. Giuliani called Rusty Bowers, the Arizona Speaker of the House, and made multiple false claims of voter fraud in that state. The Speaker asked for evidence of such claims, which Giuliani “did not have, but claimed he would provide.” 

He never did, never has – and the blogger is predicting – never will. 

On December 1, 2020, Giuliani met with Bowers. When asked again to provide evidence of fraud, Giuliani “responded with words to the effect, ‘We don’t have the evidence, but we have lots of theories.” 

(You can’t alter election results on the basis of “theories.”) 

 

On the morning of January 4, 2021, Co-Conspirator 2, Professor John Eastman, called Mr. Bowers and urged him to call the Arizona House into special session and convince lawmakers to “decertify the state’s legitimate electors.” The Speaker told Dr. Eastman that state investigations had uncovered no proof of significant voter fraud. Eastman “conceded that he ‘[didn’t] know enough about the facts on the ground.’” Regardless, he wanted the Arizona House of Representatives to vote to decertify results and then “let the courts sort it out.” 

(On January 6, 2021, during his speech to a large crowd in Washington D.C., Trump again insisted that 36,000 non-citizens had voted in Arizona – not even using the same number he had used before.)

 

On November 16, 2020, the Defendant involved Co-Conspirator 3, Sidney Powell, in the plot, suggesting “bullet points” critical of a “certain voting machine company,” which we now know to be Dominion Voting Systems. Powell responded nine minutes later, explaining that these points should be included in every future claim of voter fraud, so significant that “THE ENTIRE ELECTION … BE SET ASIDE” in Pennsylvania and Georgia. On November 25, Powell filed a lawsuit in Georgia claiming that “massive election fraud” had occurred in that state, “accomplished through the voting machine company’s election software and hardware.” 

The Defendant, Donald J. Trump, had already admitted to others that Powell’s claims sounded “crazy.” 

(As we shall see, in the Georgia state indictment, aimed at Mr. Trump and eighteen co-conspirators, Powell is one of the eighteen.) 

(As of today, we know Sidney has already pled guilty in that case.) 

 

On December 3, 2020, Giuliani met with the Judiciary Subcommittee of the Georgia State Senate, “with the intention of misleading state senators” into blocking the certification of the Georgia electors pledged to vote for Joseph R. Biden. Rudy claimed again that 10,000 dead people had voted in the state. 

A senior advisor to the Defendant notified the Defendant’s White House Chief of Staff that the “actual number was 12.” 

(Slightly less than the 10,000 claimed.) 

 

We now know that that advisor was Blake Meadows, White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows’ son. 

During the presentation to the Georgia Senate subcommittee, Co-Conspirator 1 played a “misleading excerpt of a video recording of ballot-counting at the State Farm Arena in Atlanta and insinuated that it showed election workers counting ‘suitcases’ of illegal ballots.” 

This is one of the claims Giuliani made that got him sued for defamation, in the case he has since lost. 

Also on December 3, then-President Trump claimed that ballot stuffing had been proven in Georgia. “Plenty more coming,” the president tweeted, “but this alone leads to an easy win of the State!” 

The Georgia Secretary of State shot down this claim on December 4, and again on December 7, just to be sure. 

(Trump didn’t care.) 

 

On December 8, 2020, Trump called the Georgia Attorney General, and asked him to help overturn state returns. That is: he was suborning election fraud. “The Georgia Attorney General told the Defendant that officials had investigated various claims of election fraud in the state and were not seeing evidence to support them.” 

All these Georgians were Republicans, and had worked to help Trump win the 2020 vote in their state. 

The president’s problem was that all of them, and many other elected Republican officials cared about the rule of law. 

 

“It’s tough to own any of this.” 

That same day, “a Senior Campaign Advisor – who spoke with the Defendant on a daily basis and had informed him on multiple occasions that various fraud claims were untrue,” told Trump that Giuliani’s claims were garbage. 

In an email, that advisor wrote, 

When our research and campaign legal team can’t back up any of the claims made by our Elite Strike Force Legal Team, you can see why we’re 0-32 on our cases. I’ll obviously hustle to help on all fronts, but it’s tough to own any of this when it’s all just conspiracy shit beamed down from the mothership. 

 

BLOGGER’S NOTE: The term, “Elite Strike Force” was coined by Ms. Ellis, a lawyer for the 2020 Trump campaign. Also included in that “Force,” along with Ellis, were Co-Conspirator 1, and Co-Conspirator 3, Giuliani, and Powell. Since that time, we know Ellis has admitted to telling multiple lies about the “Stolen Election.” 

 

On December 10, 2020, we know that Giuliani tried again to change the Georgia election results – this time meeting with the Georgia House of Representatives’ Government Affairs Committee. He played the same doctored video tape, featuring the “suitcase” full of votes, insisted it showed “voter fraud right in front of people’s eyes,” and that this fraud was “the tip of the iceberg.” 

Giuliani cited the two poll workers by name. He accused them of “quite obviously surreptitiously passing around USB ports as if they are vials of heroin or cocaine.” 

Thereafter, the indictment notes, “the two election workers received numerous death threats.” 

In court, as part of the defamation case she and her daughter filed, Ruby Freeman, one of the workers, both of whom are African American, explained that she received so many death threats the F.B.I. suggested she move. There were racist threats, of course, and calls for her to be lynched. 

One caller – Freeman received so many threats her phone crashed – said they fantasized about hearing Ruby’s neck snap. 

MAGA days? A lynching in the 1920s.

In a meeting on December 15, the Defendant summoned the Acting Attorney General, and other top officials at DOJ to an Oval Office meeting. Those officials told the president that Rudy was full of beans. 

Attorney General Bill Barr had already resigned, after refusing a request by the Defendant to break the law. 

That same day, a verification of voter signatures in Cobb County, Georgia was being conducted. White House Chief of Staff Meadows, who was observing the process, notified the Defendant that Georgia officials were “conducting themselves in an exemplary fashion.” If fraud existed, Meadows said, they would find it. Trump tweeted instead, “that the Georgia officials administering the signature verification process were trying to hide evidence of election fraud and were ‘[t]errible people!’” 

(A reasonable person would deduce that the Defendant was a giant dick.) 

 

“I have a much better link.” 

On December 27, Trump pressed the Acting U.S. Attorney General and the Acting U.S. Deputy Assistant Attorney General to support his unfounded claims of voter fraud in Georgia. They told him he was full of beans. 

On December 31, the Defendant put a fitting end to the year. He signed a “verification affirming false election fraud allegations made on his behalf in a lawsuit filed in his name against the Georgia Governor.” 

Meanwhile, Eastman was admitting in an email that he and Trump had “been made aware that some of the allegations (and evidence proffered by the experts) has been inaccurate,” and that signing a new affirmation claiming voter fraud “with that knowledge…would not be accurate.” Eastman and Trump “caused the Defendant’s signed verification to be filed nonetheless.” 

In a 62-minute phone call on January 2, 2021, the Defendant pressured the Georgia Secretary of State to “find” 11,780 votes, just one more than needed to give him the “win” of the popular vote in that state. When Secretary Brad Raffensberger (another Republican who had supported the Trump campaign) destroyed the claim that the two poll workers had counted tens of thousands of votes illegally, he offered the president a link to prove his case. 

“I don’t care about a link, I don’t need it. I have a much … I have a much better link,” Trump responded. 

We’ve already covered this call; but for over an hour, Trump continued to make the same ludicrous claims that investigators had already disproven. For example, he said that 5,000 dead people had voted in Georgia. Secretary Raffensperger said they had found evidence of… 

Two. 

The following day, after the free press broke the story about the call, the Defendant claimed in a tweet that Raffensperger had been “unwilling, or unable, to answer questions such as the ‘ballots under table’ scam, ballot destruction, out of state ‘voters,’ dead voters, and more. He has no clue!” 

(Listen to the call for yourself, below. Raffensperger has testified under oath.) 

 

(On January 6, in a speech delivered in Washington D.C., just before a mob was unleashed to attack the Capitol, Trump claimed that 10,300 dead people had voted in Georgia – changing the number again.) 

 

“As legislative leaders, we will follow the law.” 

The indictment turned next to similar efforts to overturn a fair vote in Michigan. There’s more you can read for yourself. But a few highlights should suffice: 

Trump said “batches” of votes were brought in, late at night in Detroit, on Election Night, “and nobody knew where they came from.” On November 20, the Majority Leader of the Michigan Senate informed the Defendant “that he had lost Michigan not because of fraud, but because the Defendant had underperformed with certain voter populations in the state. The Majority Leader and Michigan Speaker of the House issued a statement following that meeting, noting, “We have not yet been made aware of any information [emphasis added] that would change the outcome of the election in Michigan and as legislative leaders, we will follow the law and follow the normal process regarding Michigan’s electors, just as we have said throughout this election.” 

On December 1, 2020, Trump raised the matter of the “vote dump” in Michigan with then-Attorney General Barr. Barr informed the Defendant “there was no indication of fraud in Detroit.” 

The next day, Trump made a knowingly false statement that in Michigan, in the morning hours of November 4, “a vote dump of 149,772 votes came in unexpectedly. We were winning by a lot. That batch was received in horror. Nobody knows anything about it. … It’s corrupt. Detroit is corrupt. I have a lot of friends in Detroit. They know it. But Detroit is totally corrupt.” 

(Having “friends in Detroit” is not enough to prove a case in court.) 

 

On December 4, Co-Conspirator 1 called the Michigan House Speaker. Giuliani said that Georgia officials were likely to change the certification of their state’s electoral votes, insisted that “they don’t just have the right to do it but the obligation,” and added, “Help me get this done in Michigan.” 

Rudy was lying. Again. 

Georgia lawmakers had no such plan. 

On December 7, Giuliani texted the Michigan Senate Majority Leader. “So I need you to pass a joint resolution from the Michigan legislature that states that, “the election is in dispute,” and the slate of electors already submitted should be withdrawn. 

(Rudy was pressing Republican leaders to break the law.) 

 

“But I love our republic, too.” 

On December 14, Michigan certified its electoral votes for Mr. Biden. The Michigan Speaker of the House made it plain. No evidence had been uncovered to justify the plotters’ claims. 

I fought hard for President Trump [the Speaker explained]. Nobody wanted him to win more than me. I think he’s done an incredible job. But I love our republic, too. I can’t fathom risking our norms, traditions and institutions to pass a resolution retroactively changing the electors for Trump, simply because some think there may have been enough widespread fraud to give him the win. That’s unprecedented … [and] I fear we’d lose our country forever. This truly would bring mutual assured destruction for every future election in regards to the Electoral College, and I can’t stand for that. I won’t.

 

(On January 6, 2021, Trump would once again assert that tens of thousands of illegal votes had been counted in Detroit. That made the crowd listening to his speech mad – and off to storm Capitol Hill they went.) 

 

“No way to defend it.” 

In Pennsylvania, we had more of the same. According to the federal indictment, Trump pushed multiple false claims about voter fraud in Philadelphia, maligning a Republican City Commissioner. That commissioner and members of his family were subjected to a torrent of death threats. 

(Trump didn’t care.)

 

Giuliani claimed that Pennsylvania had issued 1.8 million absentee ballots, but 2.5 million were returned! Privately a Trump campaign staffer admitted that this claim was “just wrong,” and there was “no way to defend it.” 

The Deputy Campaign Manager responded, “We have been saying this for a while. It’s very frustrating.” 

On December 31, 2020, and again on January 3, 2021, Trump raised a claim with top DOJ officials, insisting there had been 205,000 more votes in Pennsylvania than there were voters. 

They told him he was full of beans. 

(On January 6, Trump would stir up the mob that attacked the Capitol, again repeating the false “205,000 more votes” claim.) 

Team Trump was taking another series of lumps in Wisconsin. On November 29, 2020, the results of a recount of two heavily Democratic counties in that state, paid for by the Trump campaign, showed Biden gaining votes. 

(Team Trump spent $3 million on the recount – which is comical.) 

 

On December 21, the Defendant called on the Wisconsin legislature to overturn election results and keep President-elect Biden from taking office. 

On December 27, top officials at DOJ told Trump he was still full of beans, regarding his claims of voter fraud in Wisconsin. 

(Trump wasn’t fazed. On January 6, 2021, in his fiery speech to supporters in D.C., he insisted again that the election in Wisconsin had been stolen.) 

Unable to convince state officials to overturn the fair vote, the Defendant and his misfit band, 

developed a new plan: to marshal individuals who would have served as the Defendant’s electors, had he won the popular vote, in seven targeted states … and cause those individuals to make and send to the Vice President and Congress false certifications that they were legitimate electors.

 

The indictment alleges that the submission of these “fraudulent slates would create a fake controversy” and “position the Vice President – presiding on January 6 [2021] as President of the Senate – to supplant legitimate electors with the Defendant’s fake electors and certify the Defendant as president.” 

 

UPDATE: Today, we know that Wisconsin’s ten fake electors have admitted that Mr. Biden won the popular vote in their state. Andrew Hitt, former head of the Republican Party in the state, and one of those “fakes” sat for an interview with 60 Minutes. Among other key points, he admitted he and the others were “tricked” into signing false documents. He was deeply involved in the state’s election and did not believe there had been fraud. Finally, he said he signed the documents – declaring he and the others were legitimate electors – out of “sheer terror” if he didn’t. “Can you imagine the repercussions on myself, my family,” he added. 

When Anderson Cooper, the host, asked if he feared for his safety, Hitt had no doubt. “If my lawyer is right,” he explained, “and the whole reason Trump loses Wisconsin is because of me, I would be scared to death.” 

(See: List of people threatened with death at end of this post.) 

 

“Deprive Biden of electoral votes.” 

This plan was the brainchild of Co-Conspirator 5, Kenneth Chesebro, and evolved slowly from a legal attempt to preserve Trump’s right to challenge results in state and federal courts, into a “corrupt plan.” 

(Chesebro has since pled guilty to a felony in the Georgia case.) 

 

On December 6, 2020, the “Fraudulent Elector Memorandum,” as prosecutors label it, laid out a new strategy. 

Defendant’s electors in six purportedly “contested” states (Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin) should meet and mimic as best as possible the actions of the legitimate Biden electors, and that on January 6, the Vice President should open and count the fraudulent votes, setting up a fake controversy that would derail the proper certification of Biden as president-elect.

 

In some states, Co-Conspirator 5 admitted it would be “virtually impossible” to successfully “take the same steps as the legitimate electors because state law required formal participation in the process by state officials, or access to official resources.”  

(This they would not have. So, f**k it! Just ignore the law!) 

 

In fact, Mr. Chesebro admitted that the U.S. Supreme Court would almost certainly reject the idea that Pence could just pick and choose which electoral votes to count. He was not concerned. Submitting fake electoral votes would focus attention on claims that the election had been “stolen.” It would confuse the American people. Even better, it would “buy the Trump campaign more time to win litigation that would deprive Biden of electoral votes and/or add to Trump’s column.” 

Chesebro wasn’t interested in whether or not the popular vote had been verified in the seven contested states. His focus was “messaging.” If Team Trump could create enough confusion, he suggested, 

I believe that what can be achieved on Jan. 6 is not simply to keep Biden below 270 electoral votes [the number required to be elected]. It seems feasible that the vote count can be conducted so that at no point will Trump be behind in the electoral vote count unless and until Biden can obtain a favorable decision from the Supreme Court upholding the Electoral Count Act as constitutional, or otherwise recognizing the power of Congress (and not the president of the Senate) to count the votes. 

 

In a word, the plan was about creating “confusion.” Trickery would win the day, not the voice of the people. 

The plan was expanded to include New Mexico, “which the Defendant had lost by more than ten percent of the popular vote.” 

On December 6, Dr. Eastman called the Chairwoman of the Republican National Committee “to ensure that the plan was in motion. He wanted the RNC to help gather electors in targeted states but “falsely represented to her that such electors’ votes would be used only if ongoing litigation in one of the states changed the results [emphasis added, unless otherwise noted] in the Defendant’s favor.” 

That never happened; but the plotters proceeded with their plot. 

“After the RNC Chairwoman consulted the Campaign and heard that work on gathering electors was underway, she called and reported this information to the Defendant [Trump], who responded approvingly.” 

On December 7, 2020, Giuliani spoke with Co-Conspirator 6, an as yet unnamed political consultant, and details were worked out to line up lawyers to assist “in the fraudulent elector effort in the targeted states.” 

 

“It could appear treasonous for the AZ electors to vote.” 

The next day Co-Conspirator 5 put in a call to the Arizona attorney who had been suggested in Co-Conspirator 6’s email, as willing to help. That attorney admitted that the plan was for Arizona’s fake electors to send in their votes “even though the votes aren’t legal under federal law  – because they’re not signed by the Governor.” 

Nevertheless, the slate of fakes would give members of Congress cover to “fight about whether they should be counted on January 6^th.” 

Even the Arizona lawyer seemed nervous. “Kind of wild/creative,” he called the plan, but he didn’t see any harm, “legally at least.” The idea would be to raise a smokescreen behind which the plotters could further their plot. The plan was to file a petition with the Supreme Court [the indictment doesn’t say whether it was the Arizona or U.S. Supreme Court, but seems to mean the former], “as a pretext to claim that litigation was pending in the state.” At least one of the “provisional electors” in Arizona contacted Giuliani. He or she warned that “it could appear treasonous for the AZ electors to vote Monday if there is no pending court proceeding…” 

On December 12, a new problem arose. The “fake electors” in Pennsylvania had “expressed concern about signing certificates representing themselves as legitimate electors.” Giuliani told them not to worry. Their “certificates would be used only if the Defendant succeeded in litigation.” 

(That never happened.) 

 

Discussion followed about including language to that effect in the alternate certifications – but a “Campaign official” warned against it, saying that “if it gets out we changed the language for PA it could snowball.” Several of the Defendant’s electors now refused to participate in the plan. 

(Scratch your noggins, Trump fans – figure out what they figured out.) 

 

On December 13, in another email, Chesebro admitted that successful litigation wouldn’t be required. In the indictment, prosecutors assert, “the plan [now] was to falsely present the fraudulent slates as an alternative to the legitimate slates” before Congress on January 6. 

At this point, all kinds of Team Trump members began to sweat. A “Senior Advisor” expressed concern about the plan. The “Deputy Campaign Manager responded, “Here’s the thing the way this has morphed it’s a crazy plan so I don’t know who wants to put their name on it.” 

The Senior Advisor replied: “Certifying illegal votes.” 

Prosecutors further  note: “In turn, the participants in the group text message refused to have a statement regarding electors attributed to their names because none of them could ‘stand by it.’” 

(None of them, MAGA Heads!) 

 

On December 14, “the Defendant’s Campaign filed an election challenge suit in New Mexico at 11:54 a.m., six minutes before the noon deadline, “as a pretext so that there was pending litigation there at the time the fraudulent electors voted.” 

At noon that day the real electors met in their respective states and cast their votes. Trump had 232. 

Biden had 306. 

(Biden’s margins of victory in the popular vote in the contested states were as follows: 10,457 in Arizona, 11,799 in Georgia, 154,188 in Michigan, 33,596 in Nevada, 99,720 in New Mexico, 80,555 in Pennsylvania, and 20,682 in Wisconsin.) 

The “fake electors” met that same day and cast “fake votes,” and gave each other “fake high fives,” even though (and here, I’m being serious), as predicted, in most cases they “were unable to satisfy the legal requirements.” 

The fake certificates were then “mailed to the President of the Senate, the Archivist of the United States, and others.” 

The “fake electors” had been lied to about how their votes would be used. 

 

Trump enlists Jeffrey Clark, at DOJ, to join the plot. 

With the “fake electors” plan looking to be constructed on quicksand, in late December, President Trump “attempted to use the Justice Department to make knowingly false claims of election fraud to officials in the targeted states through a formal letter under the Acting Attorney General’s signature, thus giving the Defendant’s lies the backing of the federal government.” 

(AG Barr had already resigned rather than have any part of this plot.)

Attorney General Bill Barr, left, with the president.
Three times in December 2020, he told his boss there was no real voter fraud.

 

On December 22, 2020, Trump met secretly with Co-Conspirator 4, Jeffrey Clark. Four days later, Clark lied to Acting AG Jeffrey Rosen, his superior, and claimed the meeting at the White House had been “unplanned.” Clark was told not to have further unauthorized contacts with the White House. 

Clark said he would not. 

Ha, ha. That didn’t last. 

The next morning, Clark called the Defendant’s cell phone and they talked for three minutes. That afternoon, Trump called the Acting AG and Acting Deputy AG and said he had been told, Clark “is great. I should put him in.” 

That is: replace Rosen with Clark. 

On December 27, 2020, the Acting Deputy Attorney General, Richard Donoghue, “told the Defendant that the Justice Department could not and would not change the outcome of the election.” 

Trump responded, “Just say that the election was corrupt and leave the rest to me and the Republican congressmen.” 

(Seriously, let Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and that sorry crew decide the election.) 

 

On December 28, Co-Conspirator 4 (Clark) sent a draft letter to top DOJ officials, proposing that they sign, and send the letter to state officials in Georgia. Among several false claims, the letter would say that “two valid slates of electors” had gathered at the proper locations on December 14 and cast votes. This, prosecutors explain, would be “using the authority of the Justice Department to falsely present the fraudulent electors as a valid alternative to the legitimate electors.” 

(For Trump’s clueless fans that would be “weaponizing” the Department of Justice.) 

(Trump and his clueless fans say they hate that.) 

 

On December 31, the Defendant again summoned top DOJ officers to the White House, and again raised the same claims of election fraud which they had discredited, and which no courts had been able to find. 

On January 2, 2021, Co-Conspirator Clark tried to coerce top DOJ officials into signing the Georgia letter – which they deemed chock full of lies. 

On January 3, Clark sent out an edited version. No longer would the DOJ say it had “concerns.” Now the letter would state that there was “evidence of significant irregularities that may have impacted the outcome of the election in multiple States….” 

(No such evidence has ever been proven in any U.S. court.) 

 

That same morning, Clark met in secret with Trump and accepted an officer to become Acting Attorney General. 

Later that day, Clark met with a Deputy White House Counsel. In December that counsel had informed the president that “there is no world, there is no option in which you do not leave the White House” on January 20. The Counsel informed Clark that there was no evidence of “outcome-determinative fraud” in the recent election. 

If Trump tried to remain in office, there would be “riots in every major city in the United States.” 

Clark replied, “Well, that’s why there’s an Insurrection Act.” 

(If Americans got killed or injured, Clark didn’t care.) 

 

Soon after, Clark met with Acting Attorney General Rosen and informed him that he would be replacing him. Rosen said he would not accept being fired by a subordinate and scheduled a meeting with Trump that evening. 

 

Thirteen honest men. 

At the meeting on the evening of January 3, Rosen, Donoghue, another top DOJ official, and three top White House counsels met with Trump. The DOJ officials told the president they would resign, as would six other top officers at DOJ rather than agree to sign the letter or serve under Clark. The White House legal team agreed there was no basis for firing Rosen and replacing him with Clark. 

Here, at least, we have twelve honest men – almost all Trump appointees or Trump lawyers, if not all. 

Trump relented, only because he had a backup plan.

 

From that point on, the plot morphed again. Now the Defendant would increase pressure on the Vice President, in an effort to get him to agree to count the electoral votes in such a way as to deliver the Defendant the win. 

The thirteenth honest man was Mike Pence. 

Vice President Mike Pence.

On December 19, 2020, the Defendant had already called upon supporters to descend on Washington D.C. on January 6, predicting, “Be there, will be wild!” 

On December 23, Trump had re-tweeted a memo titled “Operation ‘Pence’ Card,” which falsely asserted that the VP could unilaterally disqualify the votes of legitimate electors from six states. 

That same day, Dr. Eastman circulated a memorandum claiming that seven states had submitted two valid slates of electors. Pence should declare that there was no way to decide which slates were acceptable, and so all of those states’ votes would have to be ignored. With that, Eastman wrote, “Pence then gavels President Trump as re-elected.” To say the least, it was a bold plan. 

(To put it plainly: it was flagrantly illegal.) 

 

In December and early January, the Defendant repeatedly spoke to VP Pence in private phone calls – and like a Chatty Cathy doll – kept repeating the same false claims. On Christmas Day, Pence called the Defendant to wish him a “Merry Christmas.” Trump again pressed him to toss out enough electoral votes to gift him the win. 

“Nope,” said Pence. 

On January 1, the Defendant called Pence and berated him for opposing a lawsuit seeking to uphold the idea that the VP could reject certain electoral votes. “You’re too honest,” Trump complained. 

(No one ever said that about Donald, not even his mom.) 

 

On January 3, Trump again told his VP that he had “the absolute right to reject electoral votes and the ability to overturn the election.” 

Pence pointed out that “a federal appeals court had rejected the lawsuit making that claim the previous day.” 

On January 4, President Trump called Pence into a meeting, with Co-Conspirator 2 [Eastman], as well as two members of the Vice President’s team. During that meeting Trump again repeated false claims of election fraud. (Pence has contemporaneous notes.) Trump said he had “won every state.” He brought up the 205,000 votes, more than voters, in Pennsylvania again. At one point, Pence asked Eastman if his theory was even legally defensible. “Well, nobody’s tested it before,” Eastman replied. 

The VP then told the Defendant, “Did you hear that? Even your own counsel is not saying that I have that authority.” 

“That’s okay, I prefer the other suggestion,” Trump replied – meaning the idea that Pence could unilaterally reject electoral votes. 

In yet another meeting on January 5, Eastman admitted that if the U.S. Supreme Court were to review the argument (that the VP could reject electoral votes) “it would be unanimously rejected.” 

At 11:06 a.m., that day, Trump tweeted, “The Vice President has the power to reject fraudulently chosen electors.” 

 

“We hear you (and love you) from the Oval Office.” 

At 5:05 p.m. he tweeted again: “Washington is being inundated with people who don’t want to see an election victory stolen. … Our Country has had enough, they won’t take it anymore! We hear you (and love you) from the Oval Office.” 

Pence and Trump had a private meeting that evening. Pence said he wouldn’t do the president’s bidding. “Defendant grew frustrated and told the Vice President that the Defendant would have to publicly criticize him.” 

The VP’s Chief of Staff alerted Pence’s Secret Service detail, warning that the VP could be in danger the following day. 

(Trump didn’t care if what he said would place Pence in danger.) 

 

Trump told aides that evening that the crowd on January 6 was going to be “angry.” Soon after, he issued a false statement. “The Vice President and I are in total agreement that the Vice President has the power to act.” 

(That’s what’s known as a “blatant lie.”) 

 

“You’re allowed to go by very different rules.” 

On January 6, at 11:15 a.m., Trump called Pence once again, and pressured him to throw out what prosecutors describe as “Biden’s legitimate electoral votes.” Pence again refused. From that point on, the Defendant would repeatedly claim that the VP had failed to perform his constitutional duty. 

During speeches at the “Save America Rally,” Giuliani falsely told the crowd, we “have letters from five legislatures begging us” to send elector slates back to them for review. 

(That was also a lie.) 

 

Trump, himself, during his speech that day, claimed falsely that the Pennsylvania legislature wanted “to recertify their votes. They want to recertify. But the only way that can happen is if Mike Pence agrees to send it back.” 

Trump further stated that regular rules no longer applied. “And fraud,” he said, “breaks up everything, doesn’t it? When you catch somebody in a fraud, you’re allowed to go by very different rules.” 

Soon after, the violent attack on Congress began. 

(To that point no significant voter fraud had ever been proven in court.) 

To this very day, March 20, 2024,

 

1,237 days

since the 2020 election, no serious fraud ever has. 

 

At 2:13 p.m. on January 6, the mob of Trump supporters broke through police lines and came close to seizing control of the Capitol. The Defendant’s advisors informed him that a riot was in progress, and that the building had been breached. When the Defendant was urged to issue a calming message, he refused. 

Instead, he remarked repeatedly, that “the people at the Capitol were angry because the election had been stolen.” 

Trump rejected calls from his White House Chief Counsel, a Deputy White House Counsel, his Chief of Staff, a Deputy Chief of Staff, and a Senior Advisor to call for the rioters to leave the Capitol. 

As late as 4:17 p.m., Trump was still repeating “the knowingly false claim” that “we had an election stolen from us.” The Defendant later remarked, “See, this is what happens when they try to steal an election. These people are angry. These people are really angry about it. This is what happens.” 

At 6:01 p.m. he 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.” He did add, anticlimactically, “Go home with love & in peace.” 

Then, “Remember this day forever!” 

(In infamy, surely.) 

 

That evening Trump tried to exploit the violence, placing calls to two U.S. senators (one of which went awry). He was still hoping they could thwart the final vote. 

Co-Conspirator 1 placed six additional calls to assorted lawmakers. He wanted them to stall the vote, at least “until the end of tomorrow.” In one of those calls, Giuliani repeated several false claims – even saying that illegal immigrants had “voted in substantial numbers in Arizona.” 

He insisted that in Georgia, 65,000 underaged people had voted. 

(Georgia election officials had already told President Trump that was untrue.) 

 

“One more relatively minor violation.” 

As late as 11:44 p.m., in the wake of the attack on Capitol Hill, Co-Conspirator 2 was still emailing the VP – and asking Pence to break the law. “I implore you,” Dr. Eastman wrote, “to consider one more relatively minor violation [of the Electoral Count Act] and adjourn for 10 days to allow the legislatures to finish their investigations, as well as to allow a full forensic audit of the massive amount of illegal activity that has occurred here.” 

Not so much as a fragment of this imaginary “massive amount of illegal activity” has ever been proven in court. 

As a result, the former President of the United States, Donald John Trump, stands indicted on four more felony counts. 

 

“Shouldn’t be anywhere near the Oval Office.” 

August 3: To know Trump is to fear him and what he might do if he returns to office. In an interview on CNN, as summarized in Vanity Fair, his former Attorney General, Bill Barr, rips the former president. Speaking to Kaitlan Collins, Barr says his old boss “knew well he lost the election” in 2020. Barr also says he believes Special Counsel Jack Smith has probably piled up plenty of evidence, regarding a conspiracy to overturn the results of that election. “We’re only seeing the tip of the iceberg on this,” Barr tells Collins. “I think there is a lot more to come, and I think they have a lot more evidence as to President Trump’s state of mind.” 

“As the indictment says, they are not attacking his First Amendment right,” Barr continues. “He can say whatever he wants, he can even lie. He can even tell people that the election was stolen when he knew better. But that does not protect you from entering into a conspiracy.” He calls Trump’s conduct, as described in the indictment, “nauseating” and “despicable,” adding that “someone who engaged in that kind of bullying [of other elected officials] about a process that is fundamental to our system and to our self-government shouldn’t be anywhere near the Oval Office.” 

Former Vice President Mike Pence is no more charitable in describing the nature of the plot that was to have culminated on January 6. During an interview with Fox News, he was blunt. The real plan was to overturn the results of the election. “Let’s be clear on this point,” he told Martha MacCallum. “It wasn’t that they asked for a pause. The president specifically asked me, and his gaggle of crackpot lawyers [emphasis added, unless otherwise noted] asked me, to literally reject votes which would have resulted in the issue being turned over to the House of Representatives and chaos would have ensued.” 

Mr. Pence admits he is not sure it can be proved “beyond a reasonable doubt” that Mr. Trump broke the law – that he was part of an active conspiracy. He does say the goal was clear. He was asked by his boss to overturn the results of the 2020 election. He was being asked to steal the vote. 

In a similar vein, Sen. Lisa Murkowski reacts to news that Donald has been indicted for a third time. First, she defends her vote to impeach him in January 2021. “Additional evidence presented since then,” she explains, “including by the January 6 Commission, has only reinforced that the former President played a key role in instigating the riots, resulting in physical violence and desecration of the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.” 

Of course, she adds, Trump is “innocent until proven guilty.” But she urges all thoughtful Americans to read the indictment “to understand the very serious allegations being made in this case.” 

(Trump fans aren’t really all that big on reading.) 

 

August 4: Donald handles the situation with his usual maturity, issuing a warning to all who dare oppose him. 

Such as judges, juries, and potential witnesses. 

On Truth Social, he “truths” this gem: 

“IF YOU GO AFTER ME, I’M COMING AFTER YOU!” 

(A reasonable person, understanding the rule of law, would be appalled.) 

 

Then he goes with this zany, authoritarian idea: 

  

“Liddle Mike Pence.” 

August 5: On Truth Social, Trump decides to trash another member of his administration, former Vice President Mike Pence. Mr. Pence had recently warned that Trump was not fit to serve again as president. As anyone could have predicted, Trump let rip with another juvenile insult: 

WOW, it’s finally happened! Liddle’ Mike Pence, a man who was about to be ousted as Governor Indiana until I came along and made him V.P., has gone to the Dark Side. I never told a newly emboldened (not based on his 2% poll numbers!) Pence to put me above the Constitution, or that Mike was “too honest.” He’s delusional, and now he wants to show he’s a tough guy.  

 

Felonious sex crimes! 

August 7: Trump’s legal troubles multiply on other fronts, as well. We learn that the former president needs some new lawyers – and not the kind who are going to get sanctioned and/or indicted. A federal judge throws out Donald’s countersuit against E. Jean Carroll, who sued him for defamation after he repeatedly called her a liar. The central issue was her claim that Donald had raped her in a dressing room in New York City almost thirty years ago. The jury (in what was a civil case) found Trump guilty of “sexual assault,” but not rape, and awarded Ms. Carroll $5 million in damages. 

Donald has millions of dopes who donate to his 2024 presidential campaign, which actually means they end up paying his legal bills. So he sued Carroll for damaging his pristine, do-no-wrong reputation. The former president wanted her to pay damages to him, but the judge told him nope. 

His lawyer, Alina Habba, called it a “flawed decision,” and said she and Donald’s other legal wizards would appeal. 

Ms. Habba has already been sanctioned by one judge for filing a stupid lawsuit; so now she may be going for two. 

(In that first case, Team Trump had to fork over $938,000.) 

Money down the drain.

  

“The difference between Ms. Carroll’s allegedly defamatory statements – that Mr. Trump ‘raped’ her as defined in the New York Penal Law – and the ‘truth’ – that Mr. Trump forcibly digitally penetrated Ms. Carroll – are minimal,” Judge Lewis A. Kaplan wrote in Monday’s ruling. 

“Both are felonious sex crimes.” 

(Can we register Trump as a sex offender?) 

 

FUN FACT: With Donald, there’s always proof somewhere that he changes his mind more often than a toddler changes direction in a playroom brimming with toys. Back in the day, when he was president, and hated the free press for reporting on everything he said – he made it clear what he thought about defamation laws in this country. He wanted to make it easier to sue people, for example, reporters he didn’t like. 

As he explained: 

“We are going to take a strong look at our country’s libel laws, so that when somebody says something that is false and defamatory about someone, that person will have meaningful recourse in our courts,” he told reporters gathered at the end of a White House cabinet meeting.

 

“Our current libel laws are a sham and a disgrace and do not represent American values or American fairness.” 

(Well, eat those words, Donald!) 

 

Kari Lake denies another election – in Ohio. 

August 8 – Special Election Day: In an attempt to trick the people of Ohio, GOP lawmakers decide to hold a special election, at a cost of $25 million. Voters will have one decision to make, to vote “yes,” or “no” on Issue 1. If Issue 1 passes, the way the state constitution is amended will change, altering the system in place for more than a century. No longer will citizens decide on adding amendments by majority rule. If Issue 1 is adopted, it will require 60% of voters to approve any amendment. 

First, we should note that Issue 1 gets trampled; 57% of voters choose “no.” Only 43% vote “yes.” 

And, coming in November, will be an issue to amend the Ohio Constitution and protect a woman’s right to choose. 

How, you may wonder, does this relate to the general topic of stolen elections? Thanks for asking. Kari Lake, Imaginary Governor of Arizona, had previously visited Ohio in an effort to drum up support for the “yes” side. 

As is her unvarying style, she refused to accept election results. Lake immediately said the election was rigged – which is fun – since elections in Ohio are run currently by Republican elected officials. 

Kari never said the 2020 election in Ohio was rigged, when Trump carried the state by eight points. 

Nor was the election rigged in 2022, when J.D. Vance, endorsed by Donald himself, won a six-year term in the U.S. Senate. 

(Only elections that Republicans lose are rigged.) 

 

A First Amendment defense? 

August 9: Wednesday night, the former president makes an appearance on Newsmax, and tells host Eric Bolling all about how wrong it is he’s being indicted for trying to steal the last presidential election. 

Bolling’s job is not to ask probing questions, but to let viewers listen to Trump rant, and fill their heads with pudding. 

At one point, Donald angrily insists, “I believe I won that election by many, many votes, many, many hundreds of thousands of votes. That’s what I think.” 

(What Donald “thinks” does not = proof in court.) 

 

If you’re paying strict attention, it’s noteworthy how Trump phrases this claim. He’s now hedging his comments – to say, “that’s what I think.” He’s looking at using a First Amendment defense in his forthcoming trial, related to the Jack Smith federal indictment. If he expresses his views as an opinion (as here), it may help. He can claim he didn’t try to overturn the 2020 election results illegally, because he really, really, really, really believed he won. Because who could resist his tangerine-tinted charms! 

Bolling doesn’t care if what Trump has said is twaddle. But he has to come back after a commercial break. “All right, folks, now just to note: Newsmax has accepted the election results as legal and final.”  

The channel is already being sued for defamation, after spreading the lie that Dominion Voting Systems were critical to rigging the election. So Bolling has to avoid stepping on another legal land mine. 

(This blogger is willing to bet that Newsmax is going to lose.) 

 

“Force is the first law?” 

August 12: Speaking alongside Trump at the Iowa State Fair on Saturday, Rep. Matt Gaetz had another great idea on how to save America. And save Donald’s lard ass, and maybe his own. 

Gaetz told a crowd that Democrats were “weaponizing” the justice system. He said they were going after “patriotic Americans who love this nation.” He and Donald, he added, were having a wonderful time at the fair – corndogs and such – and schmoozing with the crowd. “But we know that only through force do we make any change in a corrupt town like Washington D.C.” For good measure, he told the MAGA Heads that the government is coming for them, too!! 

Maybe some Iowan in a MAGA cap will be indicted for making a butter sculpture of a cow, but this blogger doubts it. 

Beware the butter cow!

Plus, Matt might want to remember what Adolf Hitler once said, when stirring the Nazi mobs: “Force is the first law.” 

(I’m sorry to say this, but Gaetz strikes me as the conscienceless type who would have joined the SS during World War II, because he would have liked the way he looked in a crisp black uniform, with death’s head symbols on cap and collar.)

 

It’s also worth remembering, that during the January 6 Committee hearings, three different witnesses (all under oath), who worked in the Trump White House, said that in the waning days of Donald’s presidency, Gaetz has a request. Fearing he could be charged for breaking the law to try to keep Trump in office – and for a matter involving alleged sex trafficking of a minor – Matt requested a blanket pardon. 

Matt, however, denies it – but not under oath. 

As for Candidate Trump, he spent a part of the day “truthing” on his personal vanity social media site, Truth Social (similar to the old Soviet newspaper, Pravda, which meant in Russia, “truth”). 

Donald wanted to attack the Georgia prosecutor who he had heard was likely to have a grand jury indict his fat ass in the coming week. 

I hear that RACIST Fulton County (Atlanta) District Attorney “Phoney” Fani Willis, who weakly presides over one of the deadliest communities in the U.S., with thousands of murderers, violent criminals & gang members roaming the streets while going untried, free, & are treated with “kid gloves,” is using a potential indictment of me, and other innocent people, as a campaign and fundraising CON JOB, all based on a PERFECT PHONE CALL, AS PRESIDENT, CHALLENGING ELECTION FRAUD – MY DUTY & RIGHT!  

District Attorney Willis.

“Republicans should never let honesty be mistaken for weakness.” 

Meanwhile, Donald is sure to add another name to the list of people he hates, after they testify under oath. 

Georgia Lt. Governor Geoff Duncan tells a reporter for CNN that he can confirm he has been “requested to testify before the Fulton County grand jury on Tuesday.” He adds that he is looking “forward to answering their questions around the 2020 election.” Then, in what should sound an ominous note for members of Team Trump who already find themselves in legal jeopardy, he adds, “Republicans should never let honesty be mistaken for weakness.” 

Journalist George Chidi has also been asked to testify. On December 14, 2020, he stumbled into a secret meeting of Republicans pretending to be Georgia’s real Electoral College voters. Chidi first realized something might be afoot when a source who usually liked to talk, buzzed past in the hall of the state capital, as if he had never seen the reporter, and disappeared into Room 216. 

Chidi had a hunch something was up, turned the knob himself, and stepped inside. What he saw, and simultaneously live streamed from his phone, were six to ten people who reacted with alarm to his presence. As the source, a young Republican activist named C.J. Pearson, bustled wordlessly out of the room, Mr. Chidi asked what was going on. 

“Education,” someone said. 

What, in fact, he had interrupted was what had been meant to remain secret: a meeting of Georgia’s alternate slate of electors (fakes, really), who would pledge their votes to the Orange God, in hopes of bamboozling the bozos who love Trump more than they love the rule of law. 

 

“A national security threat to the United States of America.” 

Meanwhile: A touch of hope. GOP presidential candidate Will Hurd (who has zero chance of winning the party nomination) also showed up in Iowa to campaign. In a radio interview he described the former president, and the head of his party, as “a liar … a loser and … a national security threat to the United States of America, and we need to be honest about that.”  

 

Addendum: Multiple Death Threats. 

August 13, 2023: With former President Trump continuing to attack judges, prosecutors and witnesses who might indict, try, or testify against him in multiple investigations, worries abound. 

In Georgia, where a fresh indictment seems likely, state election official Gabriel Sterling speaks his mind. He’s afraid there will be violence. “It’s not going to mean organized things,” he said Sunday. “It’s not going to be a bunch of conspirators together. It’s going to be one probably mentally unstable individual who’s going to be radicalized through this process and that’s my biggest concern through this.” 

Sterling is a Republican. 

Trump is what worries him most. 

We won’t know this until later, but Fani Willis, the Fulton County District Attorney, will become the target of non-stop death threats. On October 30, 2023, Arthur Ray Hanson II, an Alabama man and fan of Trump, will be arrested for threatening both Willis and Sheriff Pat Labat, who takes the infamous mug shot of Trump. 

 

“When you charge Trump on that fourth indictment, anytime you’re alone, be looking over your shoulder,” Hanson allegedly warns Ms. Willis. 

As for Labat, Hanson had this to say: “If you take a mug shot of the president and you’re the reason it happened, some bad (expletive)’s gonna happen to you,” and “You gonna get (expletive) up you keep (expletive) with my president.” 

As these cases play out against Trump – innocent until proven guilty, of course  – death threats have become a common element of the equation. Trump doesn’t care. In the same way, we learn that another right-wing genius, James W. Clark, decided he was going to send bomb threats to Arizona election officials, because it was pissing him off to see Republicans keep losing state elections. 

In the wake of Trump’s loss in 2020, Clark warned that if the attorney general did not resign “her” office within 48 hours an “explosive device impacted in her personal space will be detonated.” 

Besides being morally wrong, Clark was wrong – because the attorney general at the time was a Republican gentleman. 

Nor was Clark the only Trump-loving nut to have gone after Arizona officials. In April 2023, Mark A. Rissi, of Hiawatha, Iowa, pled guilty to having threatened both AG Mark Brnovich and Clint Hickman, of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors. First, in December 2021, had come this cheery voicemail greeting: 

This message is for Attorney General Mark Brnovich . . . . I’m a victim of a crime. My family is a victim of a crime. My extended family is a victim of a crime. That crime was the theft of the 2020 election. The election that was fraudulent across the state of Arizona, that the Attorney General knows was fraudulent, that the Attorney General has images of the conspirators deleting election fraud data from the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors computer system. Do your job, Brnovich, or you will hang with those [expletive] in the end. We will see to it. Torches and pitchforks. That’s your future, [expletive]. Do your job.

 

Then, a few months later, came a message for Mr. Hickman: 

Hello Mr. Hickman, I am glad that you are standing up for democracy and want to place your hand on the Bible and say that the election was honest and fair. I really appreciate that. When we come to lynch your stupid lying Commie [expletive], you’ll remember that you lied on the [expletive] Bible, you piece of [expletive]. You’re gonna die, you piece of [expletive]. We’re going to hang you. We’re going to hang you.

 

Both Brnovich and Hickman are Republicans. 

And we’re not done yet! Judge Tanya Chutkan, who will be overseeing one of the four trials involving Mr. Trump, was allegedly threatened by a Texas woman, Abigail Jo Shry.

“You are in our sights, we want to kill you,” Shry reportedly said in one voice mail. “Trump doesn’t get elected in 2024, we are coming to kill you, so tread lightly, b****.” 

 

Trump has never condemned those making death threats. 

So, let’s end this post with a list of just some of the people who have been threatened with death, simply for doing their jobs – but crossing Donald J. Trump, as he describes it, in some way. 

1.     Richard Barron, Fulton County, Georgia election official (singled out by Trump).

2.     Jocelyn Benson, Michigan Secretary of State.

3.     Seth Bluestein, deputy to Al Schmidt (below), who got anti-Semitic threats.

4.     Kathy Boockvar, Pennsylvania Secretary of State; like many on this list, she had to go into hiding.

5.     Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich (as described above).

6.     Dr. Eric Coomer, security director for Dominion Voting Systems.

7.     Judge Tanya Chutkan (as described).

8.     Ruby Freeman, low-level Georgia poll worker.

9.     Jordan Fuchs, deputy to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.

10. Jena Griswold, Colorado Secretary of State.

11. Clint Hickman, Maricopa County Board of Supervisors (as above).

12. Katie Hobbs, then-Arizona Secretary of State.

13. Ralph Jones, Fulton County registration chief.

14. Governor Brian Kemp of Georgia.

15. Kemp’s wife (not previously mentioned in any of my posts).

16. Kemp’s daughter

17. His other daughter

18. And…his other daughter

19. Christopher Krebs, head of the Department of Homeland Security’s cybersecurity unit (a Trump appointee).

20. Sheriff Pat Labat (as above).

21. Antonio Luna, employee of the Maricopa County, Arizona Elections Department.

22. Staci McElyea and other workers in the Nevada Secretary of State’s office.

23. Rep. Pete Meijer, who voted to impeach Trump.

24. Gen. Mark Milley, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

25. Shaye Moss, low-level Georgia poll worker, who got racist threats, as did her son.

26. Ms. Moss’s 14-year-old son.

27. Vice President Mike Pence.

28. Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.

29. Secretary Raffensperger’s wife, who also got sexualized threats.

30. Secretary Raffensperger’s daughter.

31. Al Schmidt, Philadelphia city commissioner, a Republican singled out by Trump.

32. Schmidt’s wife.

33. Schmidt’s children.

34. Also, the other Philadelphia commissioner.

35. And the other, other city commissioner.

36. A senior election official for the City of Philadelphia.

37. Leslie Stahl, interviewer on 60 Minutes.

38. Gabriel Sterling, chief operating officer for Georgia Secretary of State.

39. Janice Winfrey, Detroit city clerk.

40. Milwaukee’s city election commissioner, Claire Woodall-Vogg.

41. Unnamed Arizona voting official (now wearing body armor).

42. Unnamed young Georgia poll worker.

43. Unnamed members of the Fulton County, Georgia voter education and outreach staff.

44. Unnamed workers at twelve Georgia polling places, prior to a special election, (bomb threat).

45. Twenty-three members of the Georgia grand jury that recommended indicting Trump. (The vote was 23-0.)

46. Unnamed Michigan electors, who voted to certify electoral votes for Biden.

47. Unnamed workers at the Vermont state election office.

48. Unnamed F.B.I. agents in Cincinnati (an armed man shows up at their office and is killed in a shootout).

49. President Joseph R. Biden Jr. 

 

ABC News has previously done an interesting story, featuring 54 acts of violence, inspired by Trump. 

The Reuters News Agency even tracked down two dozen threateners  – and found that most were unrepentant. 

Also unrepentant, this guy: