Part XII: The Four Indictments of the Apocalypse (Steps 1009-1129)

Part XII: The Four Indictments of the Apocalypse.

(Steps #1009 – 1129.)

__________  

“We don’t take an oath to a tribe. We don’t take an oath to a religion. We don’t take an oath to a king, or queen, or a tyrant or a dictator. And we don’t take an oath to a wannabe dictator. 

Former Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff  General Mark Milley.

__________

General Milley.

  

UNLESS Donald J. Trump can stall off all four trials until he gets reelected and pardons himself, the end of his sorry saga will be written in state or federal court. On one side will stand the former president and the sycophants and sleazy enablers who deign to support him in his torrent of lies. 

On the other: We have the U.S. Constitution, and the rule of law. 

Judges will issue rulings. Witnesses will be sworn and questioned. Evidence of all types will be presented. Defense lawyers will match wits with prosecutors. The former president, I predict, will duck testifying in all four trials like he ducked military service with imaginary sore feet. The man deals in imaginary bone spurs and lies. 

If forced to take the stand, we can expect the Orange Dumpling to invoke his Fifth Amendment right not to incriminate himself. 

(Or, perhaps, he’ll be raptured away.)

 ___

 

Since this post was first written (I’m editing it in October 2024), we know that the former president and his minions have stalled out three of the four cases he could have faced. We did predict – correctly – that he would not risk giving testimony in his New York hush money trial. He said he would. He didn’t. We now know that the judge in the Mar-a-Lago documents case seems to have closed it down almost completely; but it could still be revived on appeal, but only after the election – and a President Trump could order the Department of Justice to shut the show down. 

The Georgia case is on hold, and the second federal case, involving alleged attempts to steal the 2020 election – by Mr. Trump – may be back on track soon. Meanwhile, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that sentencing in the hush money trial can proceed on September 18. 

(Nope! Sentencing has been delayed until November 26, after the election.) 

 

A year ago, here was where matters stood: 

1009-1010. August 2023: Most Americans now know that Mr. Trump faces a quartet of trials, two state, and two at the federal level, in cases filed by Special Prosecutor Jack Smith. In the first of two, Smith accuses the former president of obstruction of justice, witness intimidation, and perjury, related to the mishandling of highly classified documents kept at Mar-a-Lago. In the second, Smith alleges that Mr. Trump engaged in a wide-ranging conspiracy to steal the 2020 election. 

(There are at least two co-defendants in the documents case.) 

(There are six unindicted co-conspirators in the federal conspiracy case.) 

 

There is also the Georgia suit, filed in state court, accusing the former president of similar election fraud, but including (originally) eighteen co-defendants.  

Finally, we have his indictment in Manhattan, regarding 34 felony counts of business records fraud. This was in many regards a replay of the case that sent Donald’s personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, off to prison in 2018. 

Perhaps you have forgotten: Mr. Cohen was convicted of multiple violations of election law during the 2016 campaign. Those violations involved illegal payoffs – which everyone on Team Trump tried to cover up. One check went to Stormy Daniels, a porn star, who was ready to dish on Donald, with whom she once slept. A second went to Karen McDougall, a Playboy Bunny who had carried on a ten-month affair with Trump (while he was married to Melania, later First Lady of these United States). The final bribe went to a doorman at Trump Tower New York, who claimed he knew about a housekeeper at the Tower, who had been impregnated by Donald, himself.

Stormy got $130,000.
Cohen got jail time.

(That last claim of a pregnancy may be in dispute; the fact of the payoff is not.) 

(We have counted some of these steps in other posts, and do not count them again.)

 

1011. Trump would have been indicted, too, in 2018, save for one salient fact. By the time evidence detonated under Cohen’s feet, Trump had been elected President of the United States. Protocols at the Department of Justice hold that a sitting president cannot be indicted unless first impeached and removed from office. 

For fun, the guy pictured below, was identified in the Cohen case as “Unindicted Co-Conspirator 1.” 

1012. We should also keep in mind: Cohen was locked up for more than thirteen months for crimes committed in service to Donald J. Trump. 

 

Latest news from the police blotter. 

Now that we are up to speed, regarding Mr. Trump’s indictments, let’s see how Team Trump has been faring in court.  

(This should provide a sense of how the trials might play out.) 

 

We are covering the Mar-a-Lago documents indictment separately, because this set of posts is all about stolen elections and voter fraud – most of which remains completely unproven. But even in the documents case legal developments once seemed ominous, if you worshipped at the feet of Mr. Trump. 

1013. Prosecutors say that they have video evidence and witness testimony that indicate, if nothing else, that the former president engaged in obstruction of justice. Donald did his best to make sure that classified documents that he said he didn’t have remained hidden when investigators came looking. Then, when investigators found documents that he did have, Donald said that those documents had been planted. That didn’t make sense. So Donald said, “f**k it,” and gave lying another whirl. Now he claimed that he had issued a standing order to declassify all of the documents he had – but had claimed he didn’t – using his telepathic powers. 

1014. Sadly for the Orange Dumpling, several employees told prosecutors that he had ordered them to move secret documents about, like boxes in a giant shell game, to keep them out of investigators’ reach. 

1015. On August 22, 2023, some weeks after the indictment was filed in the case, another employee, “Employee 4,” at the Florida club/home changed lawyers and admitted he had been asked by other defendants to obstruct justice and destroy video evidence. As ABC put it, “Employee 4” had retracted “prior false testimony,” and provided “new information that implicated the former president.” 

More than a year has now passed and the judge, appointed by Trump, has slow walked the trail almost off a cliff. 

Donald could declassify documents while taking a Mar-a-Lago dump!

 

(If Trump wins re-election, he is likely to use his powers to kill the case for good.) 

(Not as in “good” for the rule of law.) 

(As in kill it forever, without Trump and his co-defendants facing justice.) 

 

Of course, the former president is handling his snowballing legal problems with exactly the type of maturity we have come to expect. Before hopping his private jet to fly to Atlanta for booking – in the Georgia election fraud case (see: Part XI) – he posted on Truth Social that he was about “to get ARRESTED by a Radical Left, Lowlife District Attorney, Fani Willis, for A PERFECT PHONE CALL, and having the audacity to challenge a RIGGED & STOLLEN ELECTION. THE EVIDENCE IS IRREFUTABLE! ARREST TIME: 7:30 P.M.” 

Only, the evidence wasn’t irrefutable – and that’s an immovable fact. At that point, the case was still sealed, and there was no evidence to refute. 

As of October 15, 2024, when I edit this post, 

1,442 days have passed 

since Trump lost to Joe Biden.

 

No court, state or federal, has ever found proof that significant voter fraud allowed anyone to rig or steal the last presidential election. 

Indeed, all Team Trump has to show for efforts to prove fraud is an unbroken trail of legal wreckage. 

 

Nevertheless, Mr. Blogger must report that he remains on Trump’s innumerable mailing lists. Now that we have a mugshot of Donald, he has been notified that he can get a FREE T-SHIRT with his hero’s visage glowering from the front. It’s a cheap looking garment, emblazoned with the bold phrase: “NEVER SURRENDER!” 

But it’s FREE! 

If the blogger will donate $47 (get it – Trump dreams of being the 47^th president), the blogger can get that dish rag FREE. 

 

To be honest, the blogger is baffled by such math; but for the MAGA faithful it makes perfect sense. 

 

Patriotism: two groups of Americans killing each other. 

1016. No one today can know what will happen in the courts in coming months – if anything – but Trump lovers seem prepared to spill buckets of blood, if he should not prevail. Sarah Palin has suggested that patriotic Americans will not stand for seeing Donald sent to the slammer. Civil war will explode, she says, proving that her definition of patriotism is “two groups of Americans killing each other.” 

1017. Imaginary Arizona Governor Kari Lake, Queen of the Election Deniers, is all in on mayhem and mutilation, if it will save Mr. Trump. She posted his mugshot and warned, “This is a look that says, ‘Retribution is coming.’ Just wait.” 

1018. On Fox News, Jesse Watters helped his audience visualize what “retribution” would look like if Donald secured a second term. Watters claimed to be horrified by the way Democrats persecuted the former president, and kept getting search warrants from judges, lining up witnesses, and gathering evidence of crimes. Also getting plea deals from co-conspirators in multiple instances. 

Happily, he assured viewers, Donald was going to win the 2024 election. Then he’d “Make America Great Again.” 

1019. First, he would “pardon himself immediately,” Jesse said. Then he’d “unleash hell” on his enemies. 

1020. Based on this blogger’s understanding of the law, the U.S. Supreme Court would rule against the idea that a person can pardon him- or herself. But we can never know until the fat justice sings. 

1021. Ever the clueless nitwit, Watters suggested that Trump 47, having pardoned himself, would have no choice but to start locking up everyone who had ever blocked his path to unlimited power. “This is only the beginning of politicians putting other politicians and their families in prison,” he claimed. “Sad that we had to go down this road. But this is where we are, and we have to finish it.” 

I think what Jesse was hoping for was Putin-style retribution, where you can shoot down planes if your political enemies are aboard. 

 

Speaking of nitwits, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (who played a bit part in the plot to steal the 2020 election for Trump 45), decided to post a mugshot of her own, mimicking that of the Orange God. (This blogger is wondering if he can get a FREE t-shirt, by donating $1 million to her campaign.) 

1022. Trump has other defenders, equally ill-informed. On Twitter (now: “X”), Brigitte Gabriel, who has nearly a million followers, making her a Priestess in the MAGA Cult, insisted, “No one actually believes President Trump committed any crimes. I’ve spoken to several liberal friends and relatives who admit Trump is clearly innocent and being targeted.” 

1023. That’s a fair example of the incisive commentary we can expect on “X,” but since the blogger is not a nitwit, himself, he checks a few polls. In a survey conducted in July 2023,  even before the last two indictments were filed, 51% of Americans said they believed Trump had done “something illegal.” 

Another 27% thought his actions were “unethical.” 

Only 19% thought Donald was innocent, and wanted to start a civil war to prove they were patriots of the killing style.

 

Gabriel often pictures Trump in costumes like this.
(If it's not a cult, I don't know what it is.)

 

1024. August 28, 2023: In Atlanta, Georgia, Trump’s mugshot goes up on a wall in a minority neighborhood, after an artist uses multiple cans of spray paint and several hours to complete his work. 

Fox News and other right-wing media outlets are thrilled, and post the painting, half done. They claim that it shows African Americans love Donald Trump, and can hardly wait until he’s president again, and can start inviting noted white supremacist Nick Fuentes back to Mar-a-Lago for conclave and fun. The completed picture is a different matter. So, yes, here we have real “Fake News.”

 

Meanwhile, the MAGA folk are clamoring for whatever diet pills or supplements their svelte Orange God uses. According to self-reporting, which Trump was allowed at booking, the 77-year-old stands six feet, three inches, and weighs 215. 

(I hereby self-report that I weigh 170 pounds, like when I was in the Marines.)

 

The blogger - when he was young and fit.

  

Real voter fraud, at last! 

1025. In the meantime, the blogger continues his hunt for serious voter fraud that might have affected the 2020 election. (Or any other recent election.) Here in Ohio, we finally have real fraud to report! James Saunders has been sentenced to spend the next three years in prison, for crookery of an egregious sort. In 2020 Saunders voted twice, once in Ohio, and once in Florida. 

That was so much fun, he did it again in 2022, because…he was sure Democrats were going to cheat. 

Bummer, MAGA folks! Saunders is one of yours, a registered Republican, an attorney, and a big Trump fan. 

 

August 29, 2023: I might not ever win the MEGA Millions lottery; but today is my lucky day. I have received a fantastic offer, one I cannot resist. If I send $24.99 to proudpatriots.com, I can get a mint condition trading card, showing Donald John Trump’s mugshot. If I send in twice as much, I will get three cards – one free! Or I can splurge, and triple my payment and get five cards – two free!! I will also get the warm feeling of being a true patriot, and will know I am standing up against commie Democrats, who want to raise taxes on suffering billionaires. 

 

“A moral compass more like an axe murderer.” 

1026. Clearly, former Georgia Lt. Governor Geoff Duncan, a Republican, won’t be splurging on these collectible gems. On CNN, he offers a brutal assessment of the former president. “He’s got a moral compass more like an axe murderer than a president,” Duncan says. “We need to do something right here, right now. This is either our pivot point or our last gasp as Republicans,” he adds. 

 

1027. August 30, 2023: In a civil case, U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell rules that Rudy Giuliani is responsible for defaming two Georgia poll workers. Rudy claimed that Ruby Freeman and her daughter, “Shaye” Moss, stole tens of thousands of votes, causing Trump to lose that state’s electoral votes in 2020. Not only could he not prove that complaint, Mr. Giuliani decided not to turn over all the documents the plaintiffs’ lawyers demanded in discovery, probably because it would have opened him up to criminal charges. So, Rudy loses by default. 

 

Dodging investigators for going on two years. 

In even more court news, Peter Navarro, who has been dodging investigators for going on two years, gets hammered by the judge presiding over his case. Navarro has claimed that he does not have to turn over information demanded by congressional investigators, regarding the events of January 6, 2021. 

Because President Trump said he didn’t. 

1028. U.S. District Judge Amit Metha says Peter must stand trial for refusing to testify in any way, shape, or form, including pleading the Fifth. That’s the go-to tactic of Team Trump members called by any court to testify under oath.

 

Navarro claims innocence. Won't testify, though.

 

1029. Same day: Mark Rissi, a 65-year-old Iowa egg farmer, suffers personal defeat in court. A member in good standing of the MAGA Cult, he sent death threats to officials in Arizona – where he believed elections were being stolen. Rissi was too dumb to know that the Republican governor, the Republican attorney general, and the Republican Speaker of the House had said no elections were stolen. On Wednesday, he learned that he won’t be voting for Trump in 2024, as he will be enjoying jailhouse lodgings for the next 30 months.

 

Sending ricin to the White House. 

At this humble blog, we try to hunt down truth in any way we can. So we would never deny that our side has its own share of nuts. What we don’t have is a leader who encourages our nuts. 

Our nuts must surely include a woman who sent deadly ricin to Trump while he was in office. She gets a sentence of twenty-one years in prison, which she earned. She’s a Canadian, so maybe she’s not technically “ours,” but to make our point, she will do. 

We also had the Chicago woman who threatened Donald and his son Barron, and got arrested as she deserved. 

Then there was the New York man who warned in three phone calls that he planned to crack Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s skull with a baseball bat. He got off with three months, but may have to reimburse Rep. Greene for the $66,632 she spent to add fencing and extra security at her home. 

It’s unacceptable, on any level, to make such threats – and when you prove the case, yes, lock them up. 

Still, it’s fun to remember that Greene is the same lawmaker who said if she and Steve Bannon had been leading the January 6, 2021, attack on Capitol Hill, the people in the mob would have come armed. She’s both a victim at the hands of blue nuts, and a nut of the bright red MAGA style.

(We counted this example before; so we continue to lead MAGA folks to the Truth,

by simple, simple steps.) 

 

In other news, U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan shoots down the former president’s hopes of postponing his federal trial on felony charges, related to his attempt to steal the 2020 election, until after the 2024 election. 

Trump’s lawyers argue that a perfect time for the trial would be sometime in … oooh … how about April 2026? 

(For real, that’s not one of my jokes.)

  

1030. Judge C. assures attorneys for Team Trump that that dodo isn’t going to fly. Would preparing for trial interrupt Mr. Trump’s “schedule,” as his lawyers claim – that schedule including running for President of the United States? 

Too bad. 

“Setting a trial date does not depend and should not depend on the defendant’s personal and professional obligations,” Chutkan says. “Mr. Trump, like any defendant, will have to make the trial date work regardless of his schedule.” So, March 4, 2024, it is. The former president commences howling on Truth Social about how unfair the judge is, treating him like an ordinary citizen – and claims his legal team will appeal the trial date. Someone has to inform Donald. A trial date cannot be appealed. 

1031. Trump surrogates also start barking about a trial date so close to the GOP primaries. “Election interference,” they scream. Donald screams, too. Prosecutors note that attorneys for the former president have been aware of grand jury proceedings, related to this case, since August 2022. 

And if you ever wonder why these cases drag out – consider Navarro (above), who has been fighting to avoid testifying for two years. 

 

UPDATE (October 15, 2024): Obviously, the start of the trial before Judge Chutkan has been postponed. Team Trump lawyers posited a new legal argument and filed an appeal. Their new position: You can’t touch a president, even a former president, because a president has absolute immunity from criminal charges, unless first impeached, and then removed by a vote in the U.S. Senate. An appeals court shot down the “absolute immunity” idea; so Team Trump appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, which heard the case on April 22, 2024, and ruled in August 2024. 

(The high court essentially sent the case back to Judge Chutkan.)

 

Now, back to last August 2023, we go: 

 

“COUNTRY DESTROYING Scum.” 

1032. There are plenty of nuts of all kinds in the political realm; and that means people like Trump should be careful what they say. (And, of course, he isn’t.) Down in Texas, another crazy person decides to save America by threatening to kill Judge Chutkan. As a kind of Cult bonus, the crazy lady includes a few racist slurs. 

1033. August 31, 2023: In another legal setback for Team Trump, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp makes it clear. He won’t be approving any commission to remove Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis from the case she has filed. Unlike Trump, the governor believes in the “rule of law.” 

1034. We should note: Trump will have every chance to prove his innocence in court. He can even testify under oath! 

1035. In the meantime, he rages on Truth Social, after he misses a golf tournament at his course in Scotland, because of all his court dates. The poor dope says he’s stuck at home, fighting “off the Crazed Radical Left Lunatics, Communists, Marxists, and Fascists.” He adds, for emphasis:

 

I wouldn’t want to be in Europe and watch this COUNTRY DESTROYING Scum work their disgusting and illegal “magic” on unsuspecting Republican “leaders” who just don’t think it is appropriate to Fight Fire With Fire. BUT WE WILL WIN. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!

 

“Scum?” 

“Fire with fire?” 

Donald would like to bring a flamethrower to court. 

 

1036. Same day: Here, at this bountifully researched blog, we do not argue that voter fraud does not occur. We do point out that no significant fraud has been found in recent years – certainly not in 2020 – and we know Team Trump has searched. We also hasten to point out that when fraud does occur, it’s divided between the two parties, with independents often spicing up the mix. 

Case in point: David Cole of Madison, Alabama. The Madison Man is a prolific voter, voting often, in multiple jurisdictions, and voting in places where he’s not exactly living. Plus, he’s a Republican, and a member of the Alabama legislature! On Tuesday, Cole was booked into the Madison County jail, posted $2,500 bond, and went home. Probably to ponder where he’d vote in the next election. 

And how many times. 

 

September 1, 2023: Speaking of indictments – and fraud (election fraud in this case) – HuffPost has reported:

 

Fulton County Judge Scott McAfee, who is overseeing the mammoth case against Trump and 18 co-defendants, said the use of recording equipment would not “disrupt the administration of justice.” All hearings and trials will be broadcast on the court’s YouTube channel, and members of the media will be allowed to use their computers and phones inside the courtroom as long as they do not record the trial. The press pool will be allowed to film for any television, radio or photography needs.

 

As for this blogger, he will be glued to the TV when time comes. In fact, he is willing to take friendly bets – that Trump’s lawyers won’t dare put him on the stand. If they do, he will spontaneously combust. 

 

“I don’t know how you can’t reach that conclusion.” 

Then again, Tucker Carlson has a new theory – and if proven correct, Donald will escape all his earthly problems at one fell swoop. 

According to Tucker, who can never tell a lie, unless cameras are rolling – the new Democratic plot to stop Trump from regaining his seat in the Oval Office is to kill him. According to Carlson, “permanent Washington,” which consists of “both parties,” has decided to dispose of Donald once and for all. “We’re speeding toward assassination, obviously, and no one will say that,” Tucker tells Adam Carolla. “I don’t know how you can’t reach that conclusion.” 

In the spirit of Carlson-style nonsense, I am going to put out my own theory, and hope right-wing dupes will start reading my blog, and I will make billions. (I will give away free t-shirts if you donate $75 to my retirement fund. Get it? I will soon be 75, and could use a little extra income.) I don’t know how you “can’t reach that conclusion,” either, the one I’m about to make up. 

We know the former First Lady has not been seen much in public lately, certainly not by her tubby hubby’s side. That’s because the CIA has been keeping her in a dark site, and she’s being trained in all the ways to kill a human blob and make it look like suicide. She’ll start making salads for Donald. She’ll tempt him, by promising that if he loses twenty pounds, she might have sex with him again. She’ll reel him in like a manatee. But she’ll have painted his lettuce with deadly levels of thallium. 

You heard it here first! Because, like Tucker, I made that sh*t up. 

 

FUN FACT: Once again, this seems like a good place to remind everyone that Fox News got hammered in court after helping spread the lie about Dominion Voting Machines rigging the 2020 election. 

Cost of those lies, in a defamation suit: $787.5 million. 

$787.5 million

  

1037. One reason Fox had to cough up that tall stack of green: Emails Carlson sent to his producer showed he didn’t actually believe the election was stolen. He just pretended he did, to protect his high ratings. 

 

In other news, it should be clear by now to even the most imperceptive Trump fan that their god-hero can’t keep his trap shut. You may recall that he lost a defamation case involving E. Jean Carroll, who accused him of rape. The jury voted 9-0 (it was a civil case) and awarded Ms. Carroll $5 million. They agreed that Trump had committed sexual assault. Trump started screaming about how rape and sexual assault weren’t the same, and defamed Ms. Carroll some more. 

1038. The judge in the first case ruled that Trump had defamed her again, and the only issue to be decided in a new jury trial is how much the Pussy-Grabber-in-Chief will have to pay this time around. 

 

Death threats and a “wannabee dictator.” 

1039. September 8, 2023: In July, we learned that sixteen “fake electors” in Michigan, who played minor roles in the Trump plot to steal the 2020 election, had been hit with felony charges. Today, we are reminded of exactly what they thought they were doing. Namely, the bidding of President Trump and his lawyers. 

In a Dec. 16, 2020, radio interview Meshawn Maddock, one of the individuals now charged, told her right-wing host,

 

I’m an elector for Donald Trump from the Michigan Republican Party. I, along with the other 15 electors, were guided by legal minds – attorneys for our president, some very incredible constitutional attorneys – I’ve never in my whole life appreciated legal minds and attorneys before.

 

Maddock went on to call these lawyers “incredible minds,” adding,

 

[F]rom what I understand, you know, you have the federal constitutional law, and then you have state statutes, and they’re two different things. So, what we did along with seven other states, really send in dueling electors, and that will be there before, you know, a federal constitutional attorney, and it’ll be before Mike Pence and Congress to make that decision.

 

1040. So, when the electors go to court, they’ll be able to argue (not necessarily convincingly) that they were acting on orders from the president, himself. Well, save for the fact that they didn’t complete all the legal steps required under Michigan law – since they voted secretly, in the basement of the GOP headquarters for the state. That, and the inconvenient fact that they weren’t elected, at all. 

 

1041. September 29, 2023: The outgoing Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (and a possible witness against Trump in at least one of the indictments), Gen. Mark Milley, reacts to a Truth Social posting by the former president. That was the one saying that Milley had committed treason, and in times past would have merited death. Milley told reporters he had in fact been receiving death threats and said he was taking necessary precautions to protect his family. 

1042. Then, in a speech to an audience gathered to honor him at his retirement after four decades of service, Milley pointed out that members of the Armed Forces take an oath to uphold the U.S. Constitution. See if you can figure out who he thinks is the “wannabee dictator.”

 

We don’t take an oath to a tribe. We don’t take an oath to a religion. We don’t take an oath to a king, or queen, or a tyrant or a dictator. And we don’t take an oath to a wannabe dictator. We don’t take an oath to an individual. We take an oath to the Constitution, and we take an oath to the idea that is America, and we’re willing to die to protect it. 

 

A “coup in search of a legal theory.” 

1043. October 2, 2023: The U.S. Supreme Court denies Professor John Eastman’s efforts to vacate lower court rulings requiring him to give up requested emails to investigators in Congress. Eastman is also under indictment in Georgia, for his alleged role in the plot to commit election fraud in that state and others. This additional evidence, which requires him to turn over documents, is unlikely to help any of the Team Trump  defendants – since Eastman wanted desperately to keep it out of trial. 

A lower court found that Eastman provided tenuous “legal” justification for President Trump’s efforts to frustrate the results of the 2020 election, saying he was part of a “coup in search of a legal theory.” 

1044. On a “humorous” note, Justice Clarence Thomas had no choice but to recuse himself from the Supreme Court case, since some of Eastman’s emails involved contacts with Ginni Thomas, Clarence’s election-denying wife. 

 

1045. Same day: Team Trump racks up another $187,000 loss, plus the expense of taking a case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. That could not have been cheap; but we know Team Trump’s game is to keep fooling supporters into donating to pay the bills. At issue was an appeal by Ernest Walker and Gary Fielder. The Team Trump duo had “filed a lawsuit in Colorado accusing voting equipment company Dominion Voting Systems, Meta’s Facebook and the Center for Tech and Civic Life nonprofit organization of working to steal the [2020] election from Trump.” 

1046. A judge in Colorado dismissed the suit and ordered the two lawyers to pay the legal fees of the parties they had sued. 

Namely: $187,000. 

So Walker and Fielder carried their fight all the way to the high court, only to have their suit snuffed again.

 

Team Trump, and Donald himself, have long claimed Dominion helped rig the machines in 2020, thereby cheating him of a win. Dominion and other targets of “Stolen Election” lies have since compiled an impressive winning streak in defamation cases. As mentioned: the blockbuster $787.5 million loss suffered by Fox News. 

Also the case filed and won by Dr. Eric Coomer, against One America News Network (OAN). 

And the defamation cases filed against OAN, and against Rudy Giuliani by Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss. 

And the defamation suit filed by E. Jean Carroll, who prevailed in a civil case, after Trump called her a liar when she accused him of rape. (The statute of limitations had run out on any chance to file a criminal case.) 

Then there was the sequel to that trial because Donald couldn’t keep his fat trap shut. Stung by his initial loss in court, and all but tagged as a sexual predator (had it been a criminal case, he would be), he continued to call Ms. Carroll a liar. His right-wing fans tried to bury his accuser under an avalanche of hate and death threats. So she sued his orange ass again. 

In fact, during the second trial, the former president still couldn’t help himself. He attacked Carroll repeatedly in speeches and on his private social media platform, the inaptly named “Truth Social.” 

This time, an appalled jury considered the damage Donald had done, and awarded the plaintiff $83.3 million, in an effort to get the man to shut up. Once again, it was a civil case. Once again, it was not necessary that Ms. Carroll convince every member of the jury of the justice of her suit. 

Donald paid – or rather, his supporters paid – hefty fees to a battery of lawyers – and a new jury voted, 9-0, to toast his buns. 

(We have listed and numbered these steps before.) 

 

“I mean wtf.” 

It’s unlikely that their record in court will improve anytime soon, regarding right-wing news outlets that bolstered claims of a great Trump victory in his last race for office. In supporting his lies they defamed multiple individuals and companies, and additional cases are percolating in the courts. Two, in particular, amuse this blogger. One involves Dominion (again) suing Newsmax (again), after Newsmax claimed the company stole millions of votes – then couldn’t back up that claim. Then there’s the case of Smartmatic, which supplied voting machine software, also suing Fox (again). 

If you missed the details of the Fox News Network’s loss to Dominion, you missed all the fun. The network’s First Amendment defense was blown to bits when Dominion showed that even hosts at Fox – including that arch-sneak Tucker Carlson – didn’t believe the tall tales they had been selling to MAGA chumps. After Sidney Powell, a Team Trump lawyer, appeared on Fox and talked about how Dominion machines had been rigged by Hugo Chavez, the deceased former dictator of Venezuela, alarm bells began dinging. 

1047. Fox host Dana Perino sent this message to a colleague: “Where the hell did they even get this Venezuela tie to dominion? I mean wtf.” 

1048. More than once, Powell’s claims, which the network was happily broadcasting, were described as “nuts,” and once, by a Fox executive, as “MIND BLOWINGLY NUTS.” 

So, why air them? 

1049. Carlson made the motivation clear in a message to his bloviating pal, Sean Hannity. After an on-air colleague tweeted that there was no evidence of voting machines being compromised, Carlson erupted. “Please get her fired,” he said. “Seriously. The [Fox] stock price is going down. Not a joke.” 

(Definitely not a joke, if you believe in Truth, above stock prices.) 

 

1050. We should also report that last summer a federal judge allowed a defamation suit against the makers of the movie “2000 Mules” to advance. A plaintiff who legally delivered five ballots to a drop box, for himself and family members, had been portrayed in that film as one of those “mules,” and claims to have suffered damage as a result. The Atlanta Constitution-Journal explains:

 

The lawsuit by Mark Andrews says “2000 Mules” damaged his reputation and intimidated him by using a clip from surveillance video as the narrator says: “What you are seeing is a crime. These are fraudulent votes.”

 

A state investigation found that Andrews followed Georgia law [emphasis added] when he delivered ballots for his three adult children, his wife and himself. State law allows voters, family members or caregivers of disabled voters to drop off ballots.

 

U.S. District Judge Steven Grimberg questioned why it was permissible for the movie to publicly accuse Andrews of breaking the law.

 

“Mr. Andrews was just voting. He’s not a candidate. He’s not a celebrity,” Grimberg said. “... The narrator didn’t say, ‘I think this is a crime.’ The narrator said, ‘What you’re watching is a crime.’”

 

Attorneys for the defendants, who include conservative moviemaker Dinesh D’Souza and True the Vote, said they were stating an opinion, which would be protected First Amendment free press and free speech. “The film is opinion, based on disclosed facts,” said Joseph Larsen, who represents True the Vote, a Texas-based organization that collaborated on the film. “The premise,” Larsen told the court, “is that you can’t trust the government to begin with.” 

That part about not trusting the government may be true – but it doesn’t do Mr. Andrews any good if you can’t trust filmmakers either. 

1051. The “disclosed facts” are that he and his wife both lived in fear after his image was used in the film – and used again in a book of the same name. That, despite the fact that by the time the book came out he had been cleared of all wrongdoing by the Georgia State Election Board. 

 

The dread “Obama judge?”

1052. We should also point out: Judge Grimberg is not the dread “Obama judge” of right-wing lore. In April 2019, he was nominated for a seat on the federal bench by President Donald J. Trump. 

1053. In similar fashion, Judge Scott McAfee has ruled that the election-related racketeering case in Georgia – featuring lead defendant Donald John Trump – will be televised. Who is McAfee? While attending the University of Georgia, he joined the Federalist Society and was elected treasurer of the Law Republicans. Later, he worked as a state prosecutor, a federal prosecutor, and finally, inspector general of Georgia. So it’s going to be difficult for Team Trump to paint McAfee as some kind of biased leftist. Members of the Federalist Society have a strict conservative view. 

1054. The bad news for Trump? Members of the Federalist Society have a strict conservative view. So far, those whom he appointed to the federal bench have proven staunch in upholding the rule of law as they interpret it. And for that, we can all be grateful. 

So far.

 

1055. We can also report that when former Attorney General Bill Barr was asked, under oath, when testifying before Congress, what he thought about the veracity of the claims made in “2000 Mules,” he first let out a laugh. The film, he added more seriously, was “indefensible.” 

So there’s that. 

 

1056. October 10, 2023: Team Trump suffers another legal blow. In Georgia, prosecutors argue, and the judge agrees, that Kenneth Chesebro cannot shield his “fake electors” memos under client-attorney privilege because: 

Blunder #1: He shared them widely. 

Blunder #2: They were political in nature, not legal. 

Blunder #3: Even if they had been legal, the crime-fraud exception would prevail. 

In other words: More evidence for the prosecution! 

 

1057. Also today, Special Prosecutor Smith files a motion in Washington D.C., in the election conspiracy case, to protect potential jurors from…Donald J. Trump. 

Smith argues:

 

In this case, the Court should exercise its discretion to streamline jury selection through the use of a jury questionnaire. At the same time, in light of the public attention that is expected, and the defendant’s record of using public social media platforms in an intimidating manner – further evinced by events in a separate trial in New York last week – the Court should implement several of the standard measures frequently used in this District to protect the jury, and impose additional clear guidelines for use of information regarding potential jurors.

 

There are other good reasons in this case for the Court to impose these restrictions and enforce this District’s standard prohibition against publicizing jurors’ identities. Chief among them is the defendant’s continued use of social media as a weapon of intimidation in court proceedings. In addition to the record before the Court … just last week the defendant escalated his conduct and publicly attacked the trial judge’s law clerk in his pending civil fraud trial in New York State Supreme Court. The defendant did so by reposting on his Truth Social account – which has 6.4 million followers – a photograph of the law clerk and a United States Senator with the baseless caption, “[Senator’s] girlfriend, [Clerk], is running this case against me. How disgraceful! This case should be dismissed immediately!” As a result, the judge in that case was forced to issue an oral order that no party speak publicly about members of the court staff.

 

1058. Trump was fined $5,000 in that New York civil case after he failed to take down a social media post, which the judge ruled had threatened the safety of his clerk. When Donald failed to comply the judge fined him again – another $10,000. If he were anyone else, Donald would have spent a night or two in jail for contempt. 

(Once again, death threats against the clerk followed.)

 

(See: Part X, Step 866, for list of individuals threatened by Trump and his supporters.) 

 

1059. The blogger uncovers meaty evidence of voter fraud, with the perpetrator getting seven months in prison. Douglass Mackey, a “social influencer,” hatched a scheme in 2016 to depress the vote for … Hillary Clinton. 

Mackey is MAGA! 

His plan, played out via Twitter, was to trick people into believing they could vote by text. At least 4,900 people fell for the ploy. That’s more voter fraud than Team Trump has been able to prove in court in all the days since the last presidential election – and not for lack of trying.

  

He wouldn’t recognize her if she sat next to him in a church pew. 

October 19, 2023: Sidney Powell, a second defendant in the Georgia election fraud case, agrees to a plea deal. She admits to committing half a dozen misdemeanors and will spend the next six years on probation, but does avoid prison. She also agrees to pay fines in the sum of $8,700. Plus, she will have to testify truthfully against the remaining defendants under oath – including this guy: 

  

October 20: Realizing, in the face of Ms. Powell’s decision to accept a deal, that he’s in jeopardy, Chesebro becomes the third defendant in the Georgia case to take a deal. He cops to one felony and dodges conviction on six more. As with Ms. Powell, he must testify truthfully about what he knows when called as a prosecution witness in the trial to come – and he knows a great deal. 

(We don’t renumber steps if we have included them before.) 

 

1066. On October 22, Trump takes time out from his Sunday Bible studies (we’re joking) to post on Truth Social, insisting that Sidney Powell was never his lawyer. This comes after news she has flipped in the Georgia case. Suddenly, the former president wants his loyal fans to know that he wouldn’t recognize Powell if she sat down beside him in a church pew – assuming Donald sat down in church at all. 

1067. He insists: “Despite the Fake News reports to the contrary, and without even reaching out to ask the Trump Campaign, MS. POWELL WAS NOT MY ATTORNEY, AND NEVER WAS. In fact, she would have been conflicted.” Yes, conflicted. Because she was definitely Gen. Michael T. Flynn’s lawyer, who got a Golden Pardon from Trump just before Donnie bolted from the White House. 

1068. Trump also claimed that Ms. Powell was “one of millions and millions of people who thought, and in ever increasing numbers still think, correctly, that the 2020 Presidential Election was RIGGED & STOLLEN, AND OUR COUNTRY IS BEING ABSOLUTELY DESTROYED BECAUSE OF IT!!!” 

1069. The problems with that denial were manifold. But let’s quote Donald’s own words, recorded for posterity on November 14, 2020, when Twitter was Twitter. In those days, here’s what he had to say:

 

I look forward to Mayor Giuliani spearheading the legal effort to defend OUR RIGHT to FREE and FAIR ELECTIONS! Rudy Giuliani, Joseph diGenova, Victoria Toensing, Sidney Powell and Jenna Ellis, a truly great team, added to our other wonderful lawyers and representatives.

 

We are repeating points already  made, but that “great team” has suffered grievously since being drawn into the Trump orbit. Ellis is a convicted felon – with her felony committed in service to President Trump. Powell has admitted to breaking six different laws in Georgia, as part of a plot to steal electoral votes for Trump. As for Rudy, he’s still a defendant in the Georgia case. Plus, he lost a defamation suit, involving lying about stolen votes in Georgia, and he lost his license to practice law in New York. Then he lost his license to practice in Washington D.C. Now his lawyers have sued him, grumbling that Rudy has failed to pay them the nearly $1.4 million he owes. 

Indeed, a truly “great team.” 

 

Biden is “WEAPONIZING” the Department of Justice! 

For even more fun, Donald is always screaming about how Biden is “WEAPONIZING” the Department of Justice. 

1070. There was a happier time, in December 2020, when Trump floated the wild idea of having the Department of Justice appoint Powell – that’s right, Sidney Powell!!! – as a special counsel. He wanted to make her his own version of Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller, only with none of the scruples. 

Yep. He wanted to weaponize the DOJ.

 

1071. As for diGenova, he made headlines in the wake of Donald’s thumping defeat in 2020, when he called for the execution of Chris Krebs, another Trump appointee. Mr. Krebs, along with a group of other top election security leaders, insisted that evidence showed the election had been the “most secure” in U.S. history. 

1072. We also learned that diGenova and his wife, Victoria Toensing, were central to the effort to find dirt on Hunter Biden and his dad, Joe, in Ukraine, in the runup to that election. You might call it a noble effort if you loved Trump. You’d be ill-informed if you did. 

1073. While sniffing about in Ukraine, Joe and Victoria worked closely with Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, to uncover the “truth.” Parnas and Fruman later earned solid stays in the federal prison system. 

(Team Trump: Felons abound!) 

 

1074. Not to mention: diGenova and Toensing spent part of their time working to “uncover corruption” in Ukraine by simultaneously working to keep the Ukrainian oligarch Dmytro Firtash from being extradited to the United States. 

1075. To give you a sense of what kind of character Firtash is, he’s no longer welcome in Ukraine, and lives in Austria. For fun, he’s out on bail, as he uses his vast wealth to delay legal efforts to send him to the U.S. for trial. Bail, you say? The Austrian judge in his case set it at $174 million in 2017. Firtash was first indicted, for money laundering, by the U.S. government in 2014. 

1076. The fact that a really, really rich person can drag a case out for a decade, if he has enough dough, tells you why Trump wants to drag out all four of his criminal indictments, while also having supporters foot the tab. 

Not to mention: Donald believes, if reelected, he will once again have the power to pardon himself! 

 

1077. October 31: As for the matter of significant voter fraud, which Republicans continually claim is rampant, let’s consider how top GOP governors are doing, as it pertains to cleaning up this abomination. For example: Glenn Youngkin in Virginia. Having taken office in 2022, Gov. Youngkin unleashed his fraud hunters, who quickly managed to purge from voting rolls three thousand, four hundred (3,400) illegal voters! 

Um… 

Actually, Team Youngkin removed three thousand, four hundred (3,400) legal voters from the roles – and now must admit that blunder. 

 

1078. It seemed, to this blogger, that if you were making mistakes of that magnitude, it might be important to check how much voter fraud there actually was to be found in the State of Virginia. So off I went to the website for the Heritage Foundation, a decidedly right-wing source. They listed one (1) case of proven duplicate voting in the 2020 election in that state. 

Jonathan Meade West Sr., that one proven two-time voter, is an “unabashed conservative,” proving that if voter fraud does occur both sides have fools who indulge. Mr. Meade was fined $500, and required to pay $96 in court costs. 

 

If Republicans win: Fair election. 

The “Virginia” search kicked me over to a story about a West Virginia man who voted by absentee ballot in two states, West Virginia and Florida – and netted a $1,000 fine. Only that story didn’t specify who Richard Fox, of Fayette County, voted for. So the blogger dug around a little more. 

1079. It turned out that West Virginia Secretary of State Mac Warner believes the 2020 election was stolen, nationally, but believes West Virginia elections are safe. He’s also running to be the next governor of that bright red state. 

In fact, here’s how to tell an election was “stolen” these days. If a Republican (one who likes Trump) wins, the vote totals are legit and the Democratic plot to turn us into a godless communist nation has been thwarted. If a Democrat wins – even in a state where Republicans control voting machinery – the election was stolen. The winning Democrat must be a pedophile, and one who wants to harvest the blood of babies. Good QAnon stuff! 

Anyway, back to the Heritage Foundation website we go – only to find that West Virginia had successfully prosecuted a measly nine voter fraud cases since 2020, including one young woman who voted illegally, from Utah, for her father. He was running for mayor of Harpers Ferry. All efforts to find a story that would tell if her dad, Wayne Bishop, was a Democrat or a Republican, failed. But after five or six stories about his plans for the city – but no mention of his party – the blogger gave up. 

 

1080. It seemed like a good idea to check for cases in Florida, next, since Gov. Ron DeSantis wanted to be elected president and clean up all the “massive voter fraud” that Republicans howl about every day. The Heritage Foundation’s updated list shows 22 convictions since 2020, in all elections, in that state. Many of those cases involve felons who voted or tried to register to vote; but part of their confusion had to do with the fact that a new Florida law granted felons (under most circumstances) a chance to reclaim their voting rights. 

The most egregious example of voter fraud involved Devin King and Jordan Daniels, who tried to submit at least 500 fake voter registration requests – but when I checked they weren’t motivated by politics. They hoped to steal voter identities and reap financial gain. 

Meanwhile, we should remind readers that Florida has had to drop multiple charges of voter fraud, involving ineligible felons trying to vote – after it turned out that the state had issued them … voter registration cards. 

 

“Like vermin within the confines of our country.” 

1082. November 11, 2023: At another bonkers rally in New Hampshire, three-time presidential candidate Donald Trump declares himself “a proud election denier,” which is at least the truth for once. 

Then, he goes with a little Nazi-style language. If elected, he tells the crowd, “We pledge to you that we will root out the communists, Marxists, fascists, and the radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country.” 

1083. This, then, is where Donald wants to take us in a second term. In real life, we call upon exterminators to rid our homes of vermin. Hitler and other top Nazi leaders referred to “kikes” as “maggots,” and turned on the gas. 

 

1084. Nor are Germans the only ones to justify inhuman treatment of others, by dehumanizing victims first. We’ve done it ourselves. At Sand Creek in 1864, American soldiers cut down dozens of Cheyenne and Arapaho people – mostly women and children. Yet the commander of those soldiers was not apologetic, regarding the slaughter of toddlers and babes in arms. “Nits make lice,” he explained. 

It is to that kind of thinking that Trump now increasingly makes appeal. This blogger would argue that Donald is a very sick man and needs help.

Sand Creek - Artist: Brent Learned.

 

Not enough neo-Nazis to carry the vote. 

Speaking of Nazis, we learned again that where election deniers are involved, no margin of defeat is enough to convince them they lost. Recently, Mark Finchem (who came up short in a 2022 race to become the Arizona Secretary of State, then insisted the vote was rigged) invited election-denying Gabrielle Hanson to join him on his podcast. 

1085. Ms. Hanson, running to be the next mayor of Franklin, Tennessee, had lost a “squeaker,” by a 4-1 vote margin. 

Unfazed by the grim fact that she earned a mere 20% of the vote, Hanson cried bloody political murder.

 

1086. Finchem invited her for a chat, and agreed that cheating had to have been involved. No way did that lopsided result have anything to do with reports that Hanson had been hanging around with white supremacists and neo-Nazis – and when asked refused to disown the groups. “Elections belong to the people,” Finchem assured Hanson. (He was right for once!) “They don’t belong to some government bureaucracy. And what you’re describing, madam, is not an election. It’s a selection that was preset before anybody ever walked into that election booth.” 

It is true. Neo-Nazis, a repulsive segment of “the people,” do vote in elections, but there just weren’t enough haters in Franklin to carry Ms. Hanson to a win. 

(You figure Hanson locked up the pro-prostitution vote, however, since in the 90s she had pleaded guilty to promoting … um … prostitution.) 

1087. At any rate, Finchem was so sure Hanson had been cheated that he told her she was a victim of “fifth-generation warfare,” a term coined by General Michael T. Flynn. That fool again! He’s the guy who wanted to overturn the results of the 2020 election, by sending the military into blue states and organizing new votes. Also, he claimed Democrats stole votes by hacking thermostats.

 

Anyway, the voter tallies in the mayoral race were as follows: 

Ken Moore                 12,822

Gabrielle Hanson         3,322 

 

“We are just going to stay in power.” 

1088. In the matter of the Georgia indictment of Trump and his friends for trying to steal the state’s 2020 election, video of Jenna Ellis offering testimony that might be used against the conspirators, leaks. According to Ellis, Dan Scavino, a senior aide to Mr. Trump (and his former caddy) told her, after the 2020 election, that Trump was “not going to leave” the White House. 

In particular, she recalled a conversation at the White House Christmas Party, weeks after the election was decided. With the U.S. Supreme Court having just tossed the last significant suit filed by Team Trump lawyers, Ellis admitted any legal ability to challenge election results “was essentially over.”  

Scavino was unconcerned.

 

“And he said to me, in a kind of excited tone, ‘Well, we don’t care, and we’re not going to leave,’” Ellis said of the alleged Dec. 19 conversation with Scavino. “And I said, ‘What do you mean?’ And he said ‘Well, the boss,’ meaning President Trump – and everyone understood ‘the boss,’ that’s what we all called him – he said, ‘The boss is not going to leave under any circumstances. We are just going to stay in power.’”

 

Ellis continued, “And I said to him, ‘Well, it doesn’t quite work that way, you realize?’ and he said, ‘We don’t care.’”

 

(This is what happens when you make your caddy a top advisor.) 

 

1089. Parts of Sidney Powell’s proffer (a defendant’s offer to give prosecutors testimony that will bolster their case, in return for immunity, or a reduced sentence of their own) also leaked. Powell could be seen admitting that she regularly communicated with Trump, in weeks after the election. She had a plan, she explained for the federal government to seize voting machines in several states – even though she admitted she didn’t know much about election law. 

Still, Powell continued to claim that Trump won the election. In the leaked video she can be heard explaining, “Did I know anything about election law? No. But I understand fraud from having been a prosecutor for ten years, and knew generally what the fraud suit should be if the evidence showed what I thought it showed.” 

1090. In the end, the evidence didn’t show what she “thought it showed,” and there’s the infernal issue that roils the country to this day. 

 

“The Court… concludes that Trump incited an insurrection.” 

November 17, 2023: Trump lawyers score a limited “win” in Colorado. Judge Sarah B. Wallace rules against efforts to keep Donald off the Republican primary ballot in 2024. That effort rests on the argument that the former president is disqualified as a result of his insurrectionist actions leading up to the January 6, 2021, attack. Under the Fourteenth Amendment, ratified three years after the American Civil War, anyone who has taken an oath to uphold the U.S. Constitution, and then “engaged in insurrection” is ineligible to hold federal office again. 

The MAGA folk cheered the news in lusty fashion. Then details about what the judge had said began to penetrate their craniums.

 

1091. In a 102-page ruling, Wallace explained: “The Court concludes … that Trump incited an insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021 and therefore ‘engaged’ in insurrection within the meaning of Section 3 of the 14th Amendment.”

 

But Wallace ultimately sided with a legal theory, put forward by several conservative scholars and cited by Trump’s attorneys, holding that Section 3’s reference [in that amendment] to individuals who have “taken an oath … as an officer of the United States” does not include the presidency.

 

“After considering the arguments on both sides, the Court is persuaded that ‘officers of the United States’ did not include the President of the United States,” Wallace wrote. “It appears to the Court that for whatever reason the drafters of Section 3 did not intend to include a person who had only taken the Presidential Oath.”

 

Trump naturally crowed about his “big win;” but he didn’t win because he was innocent. He won because no one in 1868 who helped draft the Fourteenth Amendment considered how to handle a president gone rogue. 

 

1092. Thanksgiving Weekend, 2023: Team Trump continues to suffer repeated lumps in the courts. Donald has been hit with partial gag orders in two cases, as his incendiary attacks on judges, judges’ clerks, witnesses who might testify against him, and random pedestrians walking past courthouses, fuel clouds of death threats. 

Still, he was in a “thanksgiving” mood over the weekend, and took to Truth Social to talk about all the blessings he and Melania… 

Nope. Donald let rip:

 

Happy Thanksgiving to ALL, including the Racist & Incompetent Attorney General of New York State, Letitia “Peekaboo” James, who has let Murder and Violent Crime FLOURISH, and Businesses FLEE; The Radical Left Trump Hating Judge, a “PSYCHO,” Arthur Engoron, who Criminally Defrauded the State of New York, & ME, by purposely Valuing my Assets at a “tiny” Fraction of what they are really worth in order to convict me of Fraud before even a Trial, or seeing any PROOF, & using his Politically Biased and Corrupt Campaign Finance Violator, Chief Clerk Allison Greenfield, to sit by his side on the “Bench” and tell him what to do; & Crooked Joe Biden, who has WEAPPONIZED his Department of Injustice against his Political Opponent, and allowed our Country to go to HELL; & all the other Radical Left Lunatics, Communist, Fascists, Marxists, Democrats, & RINOS, who are seriously looking to DESTROY OUR COUNTRY. Have No Fear, however, we will WIN the Presidential Election of 2024, & MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!

 

1093. So, if you’re Allison Greenfield, do you suddenly need police protection – because some angry MAGA fool might come looking? 

 

1094. Let’s not forget David Depape, the right-wing nut who broke into former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s home in October 2022. She wasn’t home, but her husband was. He heard the intruder, called the police, and confronted him in the kitchen. The attacker struck 82-year-old Paul Pelosi in the head with a hammer and sent him to the hospital. 

(Trump thought that was funny and joked about it – because he’s a dick.) 

(To hear a chilling call, listen to DePape, speaking from jail.) 

 

“I would break her kneecaps.” 

DePape recently admitted that he had planned to take Mrs. Pelosi hostage and use her as leverage to stop what he imagined was a wide-ranging liberal conspiracy. That plot, he told the jury, involved persecuting Mr. Trump and denying him victory in 2020. DePape said he planned to interrogate his hostage, while filming his work – and wearing a unicorn costume, which for some reason he had brought along. “If she lied,” he admitted, “I would break her kneecaps.”

 

 

1095. Certainly, Trump has stirred up the worst of his followers to attack before. (See: January 6, 2021). Also consider the sheer magnitude of the hatred the former president continues to foster. After right-wing types “doxed” her online, revealing her personal information, Ms. Greenfield received hundreds of harassing and threatening voice messages. These were transcribed and filled 275 pages, single-spaced. Throw in all kinds of antisemitic insults, 20 to 30 calls daily on her cell phone, and 50 messages per day on her email and social media accounts, and you can see why a gag order aimed at Mr. Trump was issued temporarily in the case. 

So the clerk, so, too, the judge.

 

1096. According to Charles Hollon, a New York court officer-captain assigned to the Judicial Threats Assessment Unit, Judge Arthur Engoron has also been targeted. “On a daily basis, the judge and his staff are being inundated with hundreds of harassing and threatening phone calls, voicemail messages, and emails,” Hollon said in a court filing, asking for a previous gag order, declared too broad, to be reinstated. 

The mere volume of attacks required Threats Assessment to “constantly reassess and evaluate” the security protections already in place, in order “to ensure the safety of the judge and those around him.” 

 

1097. November 27, 2023: We have another recount of an election, to see how accurate voting results in this country are. In the contest to be the sheriff of Caddo Parish, Louisiana, the first count of votes showed Henry Whitehorn, the Democrat, with a one-vote lead over John Nickelson, the Republican. In any election so close, a recount is automatic. So a recount it was. John gained three votes… 

But Henry also gained three. 

The final results: 

Whitehorn:    21,624

Nickelson:      21,623 

(This recount, for reasons related to Louisiana law, covered only 7,000 mail-in ballots. Once again, there are no signs of rigging.) 

 

1098. Alice Bianco, a former server at Trump’s golf course in New Jersey files a lawsuit claiming sexual harassment by her supervisor. She faced retaliation when she complained and says she was finally forced “to engage in sex as a quid pro quo for continued employment and ‘protection.’”  

1099-1100. For once, Donald was not involved in the mistreatment of the female plaintiff. Still, the story pertains to our over-arching argument in two key regards. First, Ms. Bianco, who was only twenty-one at the time of the alleged acts, says she was tricked into signing a Non-Disclosure Agreement (an NDA). Trump has long favored requiring employees to sign NDA’s – for reasons that I suspect even the MAGA folk might grasp. Second, the lawyer who allegedly tricked the young server is Alina Habba, now the pretty face defending Donald in several courts. 

 

He put “my life as well as the lives of my fellow officers in danger.” 

1101. December 1, 2023: A three-judge decision, by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, has upheld a lower court ruling. A lawsuit filed against former President Trump can proceed. At issue: can he be held liable for civil damages, for “inciting a riot” on January 6. (See: December 29, below.) 

As the Washington Post explains:

 

“When a first-term President opts to seek a second term, his campaign to win re-election is not an official presidential act,” Chief Judge Sri Srinivasan wrote for the three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. “The Office of the Presidency as an institution is agnostic about who will occupy it next.”

 

As for the feelings of James Blassingame, a police officer injured during the attack on the U.S. Capitol, and one of the plaintiffs, he was blunt. Frankly, he was sick of Mr. Trump’s unending lies:

 

More than two years later, it is unnerving to hear the same fabrications and dangerous rhetoric that put my life as well as the lives of my fellow officers in danger on January 6, 2021. I hope our case will assist with helping put our democracy back on the right track; making it crystal clear that no person, regardless of title or position of stature, is above the rule of law.

 

One of the judges who ruled in this latest case was appointed by President Obama. (Sound of Trump fans loading their weapons).

 

1102. A second, Judge Gregory G. Katsas, was appointed by Donald J. Trump. (Sound of MAGA folks scratching their heads.) 

Katsas ruled that “when the President speaks at campaign events … he normally does so in a private capacity.” That is: outside of his duties as an officer of the government. 

1103. The third judge was first elevated to the federal bench by St. Ronald of Reagan, in September 1983. 

 

1104. Same day: We also learn that Kenneth Chesebro is under investigation in Nevada, related to the plot to create “fake electors” for that state, as part of the grand scheme to f**king steal the 2020 election. 

He has seen the writing on the cell wall, and agreed to sit down with investigators and save his ass. He is expected to testify before a Nevada grand jury, to help determine if charges against other members of Team Trump should be filed. And! He’s scheduled to sit down with investigators in Arizona, another state where prosecutors are studying the “fake electors” plan.

 

1105. Amy Tarkanian, a former Nevada state GOP chairwoman who once supported Trump, now calls MAGA a threat to democracy. She has said she hopes her state will join others in bringing the fake electors and those who organized the wide-ranging conspiracy to justice. “You want to make sure that everyone sees that these people are spreading lies and it’s malicious,” she added. “And that this is something that could affect the outcomes of future elections, and it has to be stopped.” 

1106. When pinned down by a CNN reporter, one of Nevada’s six fake electors – who may all face charges – admitted he now believes Mr. Biden is the real president and did win his state. 

 

1107. In fact, Special Prosecutor Jack Smith has already compelled two of Nevada’s “fakes” to testify under limited immunity. Whatever they said would not be used against them. If they lied to the grand jury, however, they’d be hit with perjury charges. Now, if you love Trump, you think CNN is “Fake News,” and your eyes glaze over at the mere sight of the network’s iconic initials. But here’s what CNN said at the time, with derisive comments added by the blogger at no additional charge:

 

The two Nevada Trump electors who were given the limited immunity – the state’s Republican Party Chairman Michael McDonald and another Nevada GOP official, Jim DeGraffenreid – both testified before the grand jury last week.

 

(Jim is the slow learner who now admits Biden won his state.)

 

 

At least two more grand jury witnesses this week had insight into the fake electors scheme, including Gary Michael Brown, a 2020 Trump campaign election day operations official, who had told campaign staff he delivered fake elector votes for Trump to Congress from battleground states. Brown previously never responded to House Select Committee investigators who tried to reach him in their separate investigation. Attorneys representing the witnesses declined to comment to CNN.

 

McDonald and DeGraffenreid had also declined to answer questions about the fake electors scheme in the House inquiry. (McDonald did tell reporters that the FBI seized his phone as part of the federal probe related to efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

 

The two Nevada fakes who testified recently spoke to the grand jury about the actions of Nevada’s former GOP attorney general Adam Laxalt, and Jesse Binnall, a lawyer who worked for the Trump campaign in Nevada. Laxalt and Binnall both appeared at a press conference in mid-November 2020 to tout a lawsuit challenging the presidential election results and spreading claims of election fraud.

 

“Donald Trump won the state of Nevada after you account for the fraud and irregularities that occurred in the election,” said Binnall, who was one of the lawyers who brought a failed lawsuit [emphasis added] on behalf of the GOP electors in Nevada.

 

“Adam Laxalt has never been contacted by the special counsel,” Robert Uithoven, a Laxalt spokesman, told CNN.

 

Binnall declined comment.

 

(When you don’t have a good defense: Decline comment.) 

 

Fake electors have been indicted in three states. 

1108. December 6, 2023: With Christmas fast approaching, grim news continues to pile up for the election deniers’ tribe. In Nevada, a grand jury lowers the boom on the six fake electors. Those six include McDonald, DeGraffenreid, Clark County Republican Party Chair Jesse Law, state party Vice Chair Jim Hindle, and two lesser knowns, Shawn Meehan, and Eileen Rice. 

All six are set to stand trial, on March 4, 2024, on felony charges. (See: update, below.) Their crime: submitting forged ballots. If convicted the defendants would face a minimum of one year in prison on each charge – unless they plead down. 

Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford, a Democrat, explained in a statement:

 

When the efforts to undermine faith in our democracy began after the 2020 election, I made it clear that I would do everything in my power to defend the institutions of our nation and our state. We cannot allow attacks on democracy to go unchallenged. Today’s indictments are the product of a long and thorough investigation, and as we pursue this prosecution, I am confident that our judicial system will see justice done.

 

As the Nevada Independent explains, the six fakes referred to themselves as “duly elected and qualified electors” in paperwork submitted to the National Archives, which serves as the repository for official electoral votes. By comparison, the fake electors in New Mexico and Pennsylvania “included caveats in their paperwork, saying the votes would only count if they won trials surrounding the 2020 election.”  

(They didn’t.) 

 

1109. So, if you were counting, you would know that the following fake electors in three states find themselves bogged down (and mostly indicted) in the courts: 

Nevada:            6

Georgia:           8

Michigan:        15

 

(We have subtracted eight fakes in Georgia, and one in Michigan, who have already agreed to plea deals.) 

 

1110: Governor Joe Lombardo, a Republican, agreed with a bill passed by the Nevada legislature to make it a crime for anyone who participated in “creating a false slate of presidential electors, serving in a false slate of presidential electors or conspiring to create or serve in a false slate of presidential electors.” But he vetoed it on grounds that the penalties were too harsh. 

UPDATE (March 17, 2024): Oh, for the love of god! When I check back on the Nevada trial, I learn that a judge has rescheduled the trial for January 13, 2025. So we won’t know until after the next election, if these six defendants were guilty of trying to help overturn the fair results of the last presidential election. 

F**k.

 

BLOGGER’S NOTE: If Trump wins a second term, he can likely shield himself from all legal jeopardy. Meanwhile, state cases may advance – and we will learn just how the plot to steal the 2020 election was run – at his urging – for his benefit – to the everlasting detriment of democracy and the American people. 

 

1111. December 15,2023: If there’s an overarching lesson from the ongoing story of Donald and the Deniers – which would be a great title for a Wes Anderson film – it’s that you had better hope you don’t get dragged into court and have to defend your lies. Today, a jury decides that Rudy Giuliani caused enormous harm to two Georgia poll workers he accused of stealing tens of thousands of votes. 

1112. Trump defamed the same two women, Ruby Freeman, and Shaye Moss – and I would predict they’ll be suing him soon. 

(As of October 16, 2024, that prediction has not come true.) 

 

The mother and daughter pair ended up targets of a torrent of death threats and racist comments, and Ruby had to move out of her home for safety and stay with a friend. Then, when her name ended up on a hit list – kept by one of the January 6 rioters – she had to move again. Meanwhile, the F.B.I. investigated the actions of the two women during the election and found no wrongdoing. 

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation also cleared the pair. 

And two recounts of the votes in Fulton County, where they worked, verified the original machine count. 

There were no “tens of thousands” of stolen votes. 

Yet, Rudy lied and lied – and Donald, too – and the jury came away from what they heard repulsed. They awarded the victims $75 million in punitive damages. They added $16.2 million in compensatory damages for Ms. Freeman, and $16.9 million for Ms. Moss, her daughter. Then they awarded each of the plaintiffs an additional $20 million to make up for emotional suffering. 

Or $148.2 million in all. 

 

1113. December 16, 2023: Nothing says “I have faith in American institutions,” quite like quoting Vladimir Putin. The Russian psychopath shouldn’t be quoted on how to make Borscht – let alone American democracy – and that’s assuming you’d ever want to eat soup made from beets. Trump, of course, doesn’t have a problem showing love for authoritarian killers, and does so again. 

At a rally in New Hampshire, he tells the crowd:

 

Even Vladimir Putin says that Biden’s – and this is a quote – “politically motivated persecution of his political rival is very good for Russia, because it shows the rottenness of the American political system, which cannot pretend to teach others about democracy.”

 

So, you know, we talk about democracy, but the whole world is watching the persecution of a political opponent that’s kicking his ass. It’s an amazing thing. And they’re all laughing at us.

 

1114. Yes. That’s probably true, but not in the way Mr. Trump intends. Putin is the guy known most recently for having an airplane shot down, with one of his main political rivals onboard. 

1115. December 18, 2023: Rudy Giuliani’s fall from grace reached what seemed to be its nadir, three days ago. Only, no. Rudy left the courtroom, having been ordered to pay two Georgia poll workers $148.2 million in damages, and said he regretted nothing he had said previously, and once again insisted the women did steal votes. Today, lawyers for Freeman and Moss sued him again. 

(Three days later, Rudy files for bankruptcy.) 

 

“A core constitutional function.” 

1116. December 19, 2023: In a 4-3 decision, the Colorado Supreme Court rules that Donald Trump is ineligible to run for president, under the Fourteenth Amendment. That amendment bans all individuals who take an oath to support the U.S. Constitution, but later engage in insurrection. 

Mr. Blogger is skeptical. He does not believe the U.S. Supreme Court will want to wade into this trap – and thinks they will overrule the Colorado decision. That doesn’t mean, however, that Trump is blameless. He did instigate the attack on January 6, 2021, but all words have shades of meaning, and a “riot” may not be the same as an “insurrection.” In fact, a lawyer for Mr. Trump, Scott Gessler, made that very point, insisting the attack was more of a “riot” than the other. 

Justice William W. Hood III saw it differently. “Why isn’t it enough that a violent mob breached the Capitol when Congress was performing a core constitutional function?” he wondered. “In some ways, that seems like a poster child for insurrection.”

Chief Justice Brian D. Boatright found himself in the minority. In dissent, he argued that the constitutional questions involved in this case were too complex to be solved in a state hearing. 

1117. Justice Carlos Samour, also writing in dissent, sided with Trump’s lawyers – you might say. He did not believe Trump should be barred from running. But he didn’t seem to feel Trump was innocent either. “Our government cannot deprive someone of the right to hold public office without due process of law,” he wrote. “Even if we are convinced that a candidate committed horrible acts in the past – dare I say, engaged in insurrection – there must be procedural due process before we can declare that individual disqualified from holding public office.”

 

1118. Naturally, House Republican Conference Chair Elise Stefanik blasted the “four partisan Democratic operatives on the Colorado Supreme Court,” which was an interesting, albeit myopic view of the matter. All seven judges on the court were appointed by Democratic governors. So it’s not a bunch of partisan judges out to get poor Donald. It’s a question of what the authors of the Fourteenth Amendment had in mind, three years after the Civil War, and did the former president intend to overthrow the U.S. government? Seven top judges could not agree. 

 

1119. December 20, 2023: Donald Trump who never hesitates to tell a lie if he thinks his followers will swallow it, lays down another. First, Laura Loomer, a failed Republican candidate for Congress, and an election denier in her own right, accuses Judge Arthur Engoron of reserving a seat in court for his son, in the Trump family civil fraud trial. Ian Engoron, she complains, “may be financially benefitting” as a “Democratic activist” at a New York law firm. 

Loomer then adds a red arrow to a picture from the trial, pointing out Ian, on her social media feed. 

LIE #1. 

1120. Loomer’s story is picked up by then-Congressman George Santos, the most prolific liar to disgrace the halls of the U.S. Capitol in decades. Santos responds: “Laura’s findings are significant, and I have flagged them for my colleagues on the Oversight Committee to investigate further and determine if there is any misconduct that would result in a monetary benefit to the judge’s son.” 

LIE #2. 

1121. Trump picks up the story, and “re-truths” Loomer’s and Santos’s lies on Truth Social, and does so twice, just to be sure. 

LIES #3 and #4. 

Sadly, Ben Kochman, a reporter for the New York Post, is  compelled to admit: “Hey, that’s me in the picture. And I’m not Judge Engoron’s son.”

 (Loomer, Santos, and Trump bring the “Fake News!”) 

 

1122. December 21, 2023: Team Trump loses in court again, this time in Wisconsin. A lawsuit filed against the ten “fake electors” from that state – who claimed to have been duly chosen, is settled – but only after the ten fakes admit that Joseph Biden won the popular vote in their state in 2020.  

 

Joe Biden’s “mental decline” turns out to be… 

1123. December 22, 2023: If you ever wanted to see a right-wing lie get blown to bits, seconds after it spilled from right-wing lips, you could do no better than to watch a recent clip from Joe Rogan’s show. 

In the clip, Joe goes on and on about all the proof he has of President Biden’s “mental decline.” He and his guest agree there’s no way this man should run for office again. By way of proof, Rogan provides a clip of Mr. Biden talking about airports during the American Revolution. 

I mean, Jesus, does Joe B. really not know that there were no airplanes flying cover for George Washington and the Continental Army? 

Then, Joe R. gets a brutal fact check, which you should all definitely watch.

 

1124. For extra fun, please note the phrases, “rammed the ramparts,” and “took over the airports from Cornwallis of Yorktown,” which spilled from – indeed, indeed – the lips of the President of the United States. 

DONALD F**KING TRUMP! 

 

Christmas 2023: You can’t say Donald Trump forgets to offer best wishes to all on special holidays. Today, we have this heartfelt post, in keeping with the spirit of the season, on Truth Social:

 

Merry Christmas to all, including Crooked Joe Biden’s ONLY HOPE, Deranged Jack Smith, the out of control Lunatic who just hired outside attorneys, fresh from the SWAMP (unprecedented!), to help him with his poorly executed WITCH HUNT against “TRUMP” and “MAGA.” Included also are World Leaders, both good and bad, but none of which are as evil and “sick” as the THUGS we have inside our Country who, with their Open Borders, INFLATION, Afghanistan Surrender, Green New Scam, High Taxes, No Energy Independence, Woke Military, Russia/Ukraine, Israel/Iran, All Electric Car Lunacy, and so much more, are looking to destroy our once great USA. MAY THEY ROT IN HELL. AGAIN, MERRY CHRISTMAS! 

1125. December 26: Last week’s ruling by the Colorado Supreme Court, barring Trump from the primary ballot in that state, has fueled an explosion in death threats against the four judges who ruled against the Orange Dumpling from Mar-a-Lago. The Denver Police Department is investigating and will continue working with local, state, and federal law enforcement partners. The F.B.I. has also said it is working with Denver department. 

1126. Some on social media have called for the justices to be killed. Others have posted the office email addresses, phone numbers, office addresses, and photos of the four justices. And Mr. Trump has posted about the decision on his Truth Social platform more than twenty times. Some responses to his posts include violent rhetoric – but Trump has not condemned such language. 

(Trump is happy to have his foes living in fear for their lives.) 

 

“The legitimate process had not been followed.” 

1127. December 27, 2023: While Trump fans were busy loading their new Christmas assault rifles, developments elsewhere escaped their view. In Michigan, where sixteen fake electors were indicted for their part in the plot to steal the 2020 election, one has agreed to a plea deal. James Renner, 77, has had charges dropped in return for cooperation.

 

According to a recording of Renner’s interview with the state attorney general’s office obtained by the New York Times, he told the office he realized he and the others allegedly involved acted improperly after looking at testimony from the [U.S.] House’s probe into the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack.

 

“I can’t overemphasize how once I read the information in the J6 transcripts how upset I was that the legitimate process had not been followed,” Renner told the state’s attorney general’s office, according to the Times. “I felt that I had been walked into a situation that I shouldn’t have ever been involved in.”

 

Renner, a former state trooper and retired businessman, was put onto the roster of electors in December 2020 after being contacted by the head of Clinton County, Michigan’s, Republican Party when two others dropped out [emphasis added] days before Dec. 14, 2020, the Times reported.

 

Renner knew almost nothing about the legal steps required to cast electoral votes and went along with what higher-ups in the GOP said he should do. To say he felt “betrayed is an understatement.”

 

1128. December 29, 2023: A three-judge panel for the U.S. District Court in Washington D.C. rules, 3-0, that former president Donald Trump does not have immunity from lawsuits filed against him by police officers and others injured or harmed on January 6, 2021. The case was first brought just eight months after the attack, by seven officers injured that day. 

1129. They also name a number of defendants, including Roger Stone, and leaders of the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers. 

 

A criminal gums the wheels of justice with cash. 

NEW YEAR’S EVE – 2023: Once again, we have to admit, the last six months of 2023 have been good for Donald J. Trump. True, no judge in any venue has found evidence to prove the former president innocent of attempting to overturn the results of the 2020 election – or innocent of raping a victim and then defaming her – or innocent in the matter of massive business fraud – or innocent of hiding classified documents in his sock drawer at Mar-a-Lago and then obstructing justice. 

Nope. None of that. 

But Trump’s million dollar lawyers have managed to drag out almost every court battle, to the point that Mr. Trump could well be dead before most of the charges against him ever go to trial. 

(Live long, and prosper, Mr. Trump, and yay, million dollar lawyers!)