Part XIII: This Tree Has a lot of Nuts (Steps 1130-1214)

Part XIII: This Tree Has a lot of Nuts.

(Steps #1130 – 1214.)

__________ 

“I think you have to take Trump seriously, because he poses the gravest threat to democracy that we’ve ever seen.” 

Ty Cobb, former Trump impeachment lawyer.

__________

AS GOOD AMERICANS, we must do our share to aid the dangerously lost and confused in the ceaseless search for Truth. 

We must help free the good MAGA folk – who are tens of millions – from the clutches of the political equivalent of the Hale-Popp cult. We must help them slip off their matching sneakers before it’s too late.

You won't have to kill yourself when a comet comes along.
You'll just have to pay $399 for these babies.

In this, our thirteenth post in a series, we again do our best to lead the lost out of the political woods to safe haven, step by simple step. 

Really simple steps. 

The evidence, dear MAGA folk, is voluminous. Your Orange God, the man I prefer to call the Orange Dumpling from Mar-a-Lago, is a stupendous, shameless, unapologetic, prolific liar.

___ 

 

1130. January 2, 2024: Once again, where serious, rigged voting is concerned, we learn that in the 2020 election, there wasn’t any.

 

Focus, MAGA folks! 

According to Ken Block, whose company was tasked with tracking down proof of massive fraud, he couldn’t. He told the man who paid him what he found – a heaping plate of “nothing burgers” (to steal a phrase). He told the man’s chief of staff. Mr. Block examined all serious claims made by others of voter fraud, found them wanting, and relayed those results. 

Who hired him? President Donald J. Trump. As the new year dawned, Mr. Block was sounding warning:

My company’s contract with the campaign obligated us to deliver evidence of voter fraud that could be defended in a court of law. The small amount of voter  fraud I found was bipartisan [emphasis added throughout], with about as many Republicans casting duplicate votes as Democrats.

 

This is a crime of privilege: Those with two homes sometimes take two bites of the electoral apple.

 

There were also small numbers of deceased voters. Still, nothing emerged that could provide a solid basis for a legal challenge to an election result in any of the states we evaluated.

 

“If voter fraud had impacted the 2020 election, it would already have been proven,” Mr. Block explained. “Maintaining the lies undermines faith in the foundation of our democracy.” 

(Donald doesn’t care.) 

 

1131. January 5: At a rally in Mason City, Iowa, Trump tells his loving supporters that they must be ready to “guard the vote,” and stop “bags of crap” from going to the polls in the coming election. We are curious how his supporters will decide which voters are “bags of crap,” and which voters want to make America Great Again, and can be allowed to pass unmolested in their stylish red ball caps. 

Trump rambles on about how the last election was stolen. Then he sounds an ominous note. “We’re not going to let it happen again,” he says. “You should all stay in those voting booths. You should stay there and watch it. If you see bags of crap coming into the voting areas, you’ve got to stop it. You can’t let it happen, because these guys are crooked as hell. They know how to cheat.” 

(See: Ken Block, above.) 

 

He suggests that his supporters be prepared in November to go into Democratic cities to “guard the vote.” 

1132. “We will fight for America like no one has ever fought before,” he promises. “2024 is our final battle.” 

(Is this a call for blood?) 

 

1133. January 6: It’s 4:17 a.m. and the blogger can’t sleep. He checks out a story about one of the defendants in the Georgia case, alleging election fraud by Trump and his co-conspirators. It turns out Harrison Floyd III recently attempted to barrel past F.B.I. agents after they arrived at his apartment to serve a subpoena in a separate federal indictment. That’s the other case related to Team Trump’s efforts to steal the 2020 election. Floyd was wanted for testimony. 

He’s not charged in that federal matter. But when local police came to arrest him, on an assault charge, for ramming into the agents, Floyd, an Iraq War veteran, admitted he had considered grabbing one visitor’s gun. 

1134. You can even watch video of him getting arrested. Keen-eyed observers notice that the subpoena, which can be seen as police leaf through the pages, asks for all of Floyd’s contacts with Trump, Trump lawyers, and any comments linked to Ruby Freeman or Shaye Moss. He will also be asked about communications with Stephen Lee and Trevian Kutti, two others charged in the Georgia indictment. 

 

1135. January 8: The Second Circuit Court of Appeals in New York has denied Donald Trump’s claim that he should be granted immunity from E. Jean Carroll’s second lawsuit, accusing him of defamation. 

Carroll has already won a $5 million judgement, regarding Donald’s defamatory comments, while he was president, after which he defamed her again, when he was no longer tucked away in the White House. 

Now she’s suing him again.

 “To faithfully execute the laws.” 

January 9: Former President Trump showed up in court today to watch a hearing before a federal appeals court. Donald’s lawyers were insisting that he has immunity from prosecution for crimes he might have committed while president, because he was never impeached and removed from office. 

The three judges proved skeptical, although, to their credit, none mimicked Trump’s lawyer, John Lauro, using a Darth Vader voice. 

1136. “In your view,” barring impeachment, Judge Florence Pan asked, “could a President sell pardons” at the very end of his term, and waltz out the White House, waving a thick wad of thousand dollar bills, before Congress could act? 

(I added the “thick wad” part – Judge Pan only asked about selling pardons.) 

 

1137. The judges also had to wonder. Would it be possible for a president to order Seal Team 6 to assassinate a victorious opponent at 11:45 a.m., on that opponent’s Inauguration Day, with fifteen minutes remaining in the loser’s term in office? Could the loser dance down Pennsylvania Avenue, and say, “Well, can’t touch me now. I was president when I ordered that cold blooded murder, but Congress didn’t have time to impeach and remove me, so I’m home free!” 

1138. This blogger is not a trained lawyer, but he is not a moron. Lauro’s argument was moronic. So, let’s try an even more extreme example. Suppose Trump killed an attractive young female aide, after he grabbed her private parts, and she said she’d tell. Could he order an unscrupulous toady like Stephen Miller to cut up the body with a bone saw, put them in plastic bags, weight the bags, and dump them in the Potomac River? Suppose that crime was not discovered until a month after the president left office. Was Lauro arguing that a hypothetical Trump could not be charged? 

Yes. 

Not unless hypothetical Donald was first hypothetically impeached and hypothetically removed from office. 

Although, in that scenario, Congress would have to hypothetically reconvene, using its time travel skills.

 

1139. Judge Karen LeCraft Henderson, first appointed to the federal bench by President Ronald Reagan, was skeptical. Wouldn’t it be “paradoxical,” she asked, if the Constitution required every president to take an oath to “faithfully execute the laws,” yet the position Lauro was trying to map out would permit that same person to break the laws with impunity, unless impeached? 

1140. Even better, the judges pointed out that during Trump’ second impeachment, his lawyers said, in essence, “No need to impeach Donald now! He can be held liable in court for any crimes he might have committed while president.” Again, this blogger is no lawyer, but it would appear Donald was screwed. 

Trump listens to the three judges.

 

“The gravest threat to democracy that we’ve ever seen.” 

If you follow current events zealously (which can lead to depression and drug and alcohol use), you know who Ty Cobb is. 

(Well, you don’t; because you don’t want to be depressed.) 

(Leave it to the blogger.) 

 

1141. This Ty Cobb is Donald’s former lawyer, a man who helped save his punk ass during the Mueller investigation. 

Cobb now warns that we should take his old boss seriously when he speaks about being a dictator if reelected, but only on “Day 1.” 

“I think you have to take Trump seriously,” he says, “because he poses the gravest threat to democracy that we’ve ever seen.” 

Reacting to Team Trump’s argument of an unindictable president – named Don – Cobb tells a CNN host, “I think the, you know, lack of accountability that he desires – which Putin has, the ayatollah has, Xi has – as you alluded to, you know, I think that he may want an America that is like that.” 

(That is: Like the men who run Russian, Iran, and China.) 

 

1142. January 12, : Team Trump whiffs again in court, after suing The New York Times and three of the paper’s reporters. Their alleged sin: Publishing a Pulitzer Prize-winning series about Donald’s finances. Such as: Paying zero federal income taxes, year after year. 

Trump was demanding $100 million in damages. His crack team of expensive lawyers managed to get him 0 dollars. Plus, the judge ordered Trump to reimburse the paper and the reporters $392,648 for legal expenses. 

 

“Not just for the republic itself, but also the president.” 

January 15: Iowa caucus goers are set to crowd meetings and pick the GOP nominee they want to see run for president in 2024. Trump is expected to score an easy win. Meanwhile, Sen. Mike Lee of Utah has said he will back Donald in his third run, as he did in 2016 and 2020. 

1143. This is interesting because emails and phone communications from January 2021 show what Sen. Lee thought about the attack on Capitol Hill. In an exchange of messages with Trump lawyer Cleta Mitchell, Sen. Lee warns, beforehand, that “January 6” is a “dangerous idea.” Then he adds, “Not just for the republic itself, but also the president.” 

1144. In a series of voice mails he begs National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien not to resign his post until Biden takes over. Lee has just received a call from Rudy Giuliani, who he describes as “walking malpractice.” He knows what Rudy is up to and it involves overturning the results of the 2020 election. 

But Lee is all in on Trump 2024, which shows you the level of character we can expect in the modern GOP – about as much as you’d see from a cucumber. 

 

1145. February 1, 2024: It is revealed today that Mr. Trump has spent $50 million on his legal defenses. Much of that cash has been donated – to the billionaire – by ordinary supporters, struggling to make ends meet. 

1146. February 5: Allen H. Weisselberg, former Chief Financial Officer for the Trump Organization, is in a legal jam once more. He’s working on another plea deal (his second) to admit perjuring himself (again) during Trump’s recent business fraud trial. Weisselberg ran into problems when he insisted that he knew nothing about the bizarre mismeasurement of a Trump penthouse in New York City. Those were the “measurements” that turned an impressive 11,000 square feet of living space into a triple-sized, 30,000 square foot monster. Donald could then claim a much higher valuation on his property, and get better terms on a loan. 

It was proof again, that Mr. Trump only hires people who will lie for him when required – which is often. 

Or people who can’t tell a ruler from a yardstick. 

 

February 6:  Mr. Trump takes a fresh judicial kick in the crotch. The former president and his high-priced legal team had previously thrown up a claim that a president could not be sued for defamation, or charged for any crimes committed while president because… um …the Founding Fathers said so. This strikes me funny, because I taught American history for 33 years, and I’ve read James Madison’s Notes on Debates in the Federal Convention, and The Federalist Papers, and I’ve even watched the cartoon, “How a Bill Becomes a Law.” I’ve seen Hamilton, too, and don’t remember the part where the Founding Fathers agreed, in 1787, “Hey, what we really need is a chief executive with unfettered power.”

 

1147. To say that a three-judge panel from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia was similarly unimpressed would be an understatement. In a unanimous, 57-page ruling, they blew the former president’s legal arguments to sprinkles. Noting that a district court had already denied Mr. Trump’s contention that he was immune from prosecution, the panel affirmed that decision. 

They further explained:

 

For the purpose of this criminal case, former President Trump has become citizen Trump, with all of the defenses of any other criminal defendant. But any executive immunity that may have protected him while he served as president no longer protects him against this prosecution.

 

If you haven’t been following along with developments in Special Prosecutor Jack Smith’s federal indictment, the one charging Trump with conspiracy to commit election fraud, this latest ruling lays out the basic charge. I have dropped case citations and added paragraph breaks to make it easier to follow. 

As explained:

 

The Indictment alleges that former President Trump understood that he had lost the election and that the election results were legitimate [emphasis added, unless otherwise noted] but that he nevertheless was determined to remain in power. He then conspired with others to cast doubt on the election’s outcome and contrived to have himself declared the winner.

 

The Indictment charges that he and his co-conspirators allegedly advanced their goal through five primary means:

 

First, “they used knowingly false claims of election fraud” to attempt to persuade state legislators and election officials to change each state’s electoral votes in former President Trump’s favor. For example, he and his allies falsely “declared that more than ten thousand dead voters had voted in Georgia”; “that there had been 205,000 more votes than voters in Pennsylvania”; “that more than 30,000 non-citizens had voted in Arizona”; and “that voting machines ... had switched votes from [Trump] to Biden.”

 

1148-1149. For any MAGA folks reading along, all of those claims and hundreds more like them, have been debunked, some by recounts, some by Republican governors or election officials, all the rest by judges of various state and federal kinds.

 

Second, then-President Trump and his co-conspirators “organized fraudulent slates of electors in seven targeted states…”

 

Third, then-President Trump and his co-conspirators pressed officials at the Department of Justice “to conduct sham election crime investigations and to send a letter to the targeted states that falsely claimed that the Justice Department had identified significant concerns that may have impacted the election outcome.”

 

1150-1151. Top officials at Trump’s DOJ, including Attorney General Bill Barr, his replacement, Acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen, and eight other assistant AG’s, can testify to the truth of the second and third accusations in the Smith indictment. So, it’s easy to see why the former president was anxious to have the court rule that he was immune from being tried for any crimes.

 

Fourth, then-President Trump and his co-conspirators attempted to convince then-Vice President Mike Pence to “use his ceremonial role at the January 6 certification proceeding to fraudulently alter the election results.” When the Vice President rebuffed them, [Mr. Trump] stirred his base of supporters to increase pressure on the Vice President.

 

Fifth, and finally, from the January 6 rally, thousands of his supporters, “including individuals who had traveled to Washington and to the Capitol at [his] direction” swarmed the United States Capitol, causing “violence and chaos” that required the Congress to temporarily halt the election certification proceeding. At that point, he and his co-conspirators “exploited the disruption by redoubling efforts to levy false claims of election fraud and convince Members of Congress to further delay the certification.” 

 

“Attempting to usurp the reins of government.” 

As the three-judge panel noted, Team Trump had already been thumped in a lower court, when the judge rejected a

 

claim of executive immunity from criminal prosecution, holding that “[f]ormer Presidents enjoy no special conditions on their federal criminal liability.” [The district court] concluded that the “Constitution’s text, structure, and history do not support” the existence of such an immunity, and that it “would betray the public interest” to grant a former President “a categorical exemption from criminal liability” for allegedly “attempting to usurp the reins of government.”

 

Lawyers for the former president had argued that he was immune from prosecution for all “official acts undertaken as President, a category, Trump contended, that included all of the conduct alleged in the [Smith] indictment.” 

The three judges weren’t buying. 

It is true: courts have ruled that presidents are immune from “civil liability” in regard to their “official acts, defined to include any conduct falling within the outer perimeter of [their] official responsibility.” 

On the other hand, “Both sitting and former Presidents remain civilly liable for private conduct.” 

(Some examples have been counted as steps before; so we don’t renumber them.) 

 

FOR EXAMPLE: In 1998, President Bill Clinton was forced to give a deposition as part of a lawsuit filed by Paula Jones, alleging sexual harassment, prior to his election to the highest office. If you have forgotten (as this blogger did), Ms. Jones dropped her lawsuit, but not until it was agreed she would receive $850,000. 

No president should be above the law.

At any rate, back to Donald and his immunity defense: 

1152. “When considering the issue of Presidential immunity,” however, the judges explained, “the Supreme Court has been careful to note that its holdings on civil liability do not carry over to criminal prosecutions.”

 

Former President Trump’s claimed immunity would have us extend the framework for Presidential civil immunity to criminal cases and decide for the first time that a former President is categorically immune from federal criminal prosecution for any act conceivably within the outer perimeter of his executive responsibility.

 

Trump’s lawyers had been arguing, in essence, that neither state nor federal prosecutors, nor state or federal courts, could sit in judgment “over a President’s official acts.” The judges were polite enough not to refer to such claims as “mumbo jumbo.” But in legal terms, they were saying that they were. 

 

“No officer of the law may set that law at defiance.” 

1153. We know that former President Trump doesn’t like to read unless someone hands him a glowing article about himself. If he had been reading along, at this point, he’d have been sweating.

 

No man in this country [the court ruled] is so high that he is above the law. No officer of the law may set that law at defiance with impunity. All the officers of the government, from the highest to the lowest, are creatures of the law and are bound to obey it. It is the only supreme power in our system of government, and every man who by accepting office participates in its functions is only the more strongly bound to submit to that supremacy, and to observe the limitations which it imposes upon the exercise of the authority which it gives.

 

1154. In plain English, the structure of the U.S. Constitution makes it clear. The president is bound by law, regarding any criminal conduct, and cannot ignore the law when it suits his purposes. 

Of course, if you wanted to dive deep into an ocean of idiocy, and ignore what the judges said, you could go to “X,” formerly known as Twitter, and see what apologists for Mr. Trump, and Trump himself, were saying. According to Defendant Donald, “the prospect of potential post-Presidency criminal liability” would inhibit a sitting President’s ability to act “fearlessly and impartially,” citing the “especially sensitive duties” of the President and the need for “bold and unhesitating action.” 

The blogger is not a dimwit. So he ignores the ranting class on social media and keeps reading the court documents. He is retired, and has all day. 

Plus, he’s in avid pursuit of Truth. 

 

1155. The judges note, for example, that unambiguous evidence showed former presidents were well aware they might face prosecution for crimes committed while in office. President Gerald Ford felt it necessary to pardon his predecessor, Richard M. Nixon. Otherwise, Nixon would have been brought to trial without doubt. Trump himself clearly understood the peril, during the Mueller investigation, when he advanced the novel claim that he could pardon himself.

(Consciousness of guilt.) 

 

1156. Still, the torpedo that sank Mr. Trump’s boat – that he could not be prosecuted because he had been impeached, but not convicted – had been fired by Donald’s own lawyers. During his second impeachment his attorneys had argued the polar opposite. Charged for inciting an insurrection, but tried only after he left office, “his counsel argued that instead of [a] post-Presidency impeachment, the appropriate vehicle for investigation, prosecution, and punishment is the courts, as [w]e have a judicial process and an investigative process  …  to which no former officeholder is immune.” 

1157. You might even say, the three judges delivered a “burn” to Trump and his legal team. They noted, that in rejecting his claim of absolute immunity, the district court had observed, “Every President will face difficult decisions; whether to intentionally commit a federal crime should not be one of them.” 

 

“To unlawfully overstay his term as President.” 

1158. In the case of Mr. Trump, he stood accused of violating the most fundamental rules of a functioning democracy.

 

The Indictment alleges that the assertedly official actions at issue here were undertaken by former President Trump in furtherance of a conspiracy to unlawfully overstay his term as President and to displace his duly elected successor. That alleged conduct violated the constitutionally established design for determining the results of the Presidential election as well as the Electoral Count Act of 1887, neither of which establishes a role for the President in counting and certifying the Electoral College votes.

 

1159. Rather, the judges explained, “Upon the expiration of the time for which he is elected, a former president returns to the mass of the people again and the power of the Executive Branch vests in the newly elected President.” It is the duty of any president to “ensure that executive power vests in the new President at the constitutionally appointed time.” 

Which even the MAGA folks, if they were awake on January 6, 2021, must understand, Trump did not wish to do. 

1160. “The public has a strong interest in the foundational principle of our government that the will of the people, as expressed in the Electoral College vote, determines who will serve as President,” the judges added.

 

Former President Trump’s alleged efforts to remain in power despite losing the 2020 election were, if proven, an unprecedented assault on the structure of our government. He allegedly injected himself into a process in which the President has no role – the counting and certifying of the Electoral College votes – thereby undermining constitutionally established procedures and the will of the Congress.

  

“The most fundamental check on executive power.” 

1161. The appeals court detailed the danger, should any president be granted complete immunity from crimes he might commit:

 

We cannot accept former President Trump’s claim that a President has unbounded authority to commit crimes that would neutralize the most fundamental check on executive power, the recognition and implementation of election results. … We cannot accept that the office of the Presidency places its former occupants above the law for all time thereafter.

 

After citing various supporting examples of the Founding Fathers’ thinking, the panel explains that they are rejecting Trump’s immunity claim. “Accordingly, the order of the district court is AFFIRMED.”

 

FUN FACT: We even learn, by reading the court’s decision, that in Great Britain – from whence the Founding Fathers copied most of their principles of government and law – that impeachment could lead to a variety of criminal penalties. These included “fines, imprisonment, and even execution.” 

(Trump’s lawyers immediately appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.) 

 

1162. February 8, 2024: Former Trump Economic Advisor Peter Navarro is ordered to report to prison.

Navarro plays the victim card for reporters.

 

1163. Meanwhile, Rudy Giuliani, “America’s Mayor” says he’s declaring bankruptcy, in part, because the Trump 2020 campaign and the Republican National Committee failed to pay him $2 million he was owed for his fine legal work. Most of that work involved trying to help overturn the results of the election. 

 

February 9: It appears Team Trump is going to score a rare victory in court. The U.S. Supreme Court appears reluctant to allow Colorado to kick the former president off the ballot in the Republican primary – which might have led to his being kicked off in the general election. The blogger will not be surprised by such a development. He is surprised by Mr. Trump’s reaction. Suddenly, Donald says listening to court deliberations has been “a beautiful thing.” 

Previously, he has complained that the nine justices lacked courage, and has spent most of the last three years describing judges in lower courts, who are holding hearings regarding his many alleged crimes, as “lunatics.”

 

1164. February 15: Newsmax is compelled to publish a story about True the Vote – which had advanced all kinds of accusations that ended up in the dopey film “2,000 Mules.” 

If you’ve never watched that film, wild claims are made regarding ballot harvesting and human “mules” carrying boxcar loads of bogus ballots to drop-off boxes. True the Vote said they had massive evidence to prove their case. Election officials in Georgia went to court to get their hands on all the proof. 

(Let’s go – let’s catch these illegal-voting rascals!) 

 

Now, Newsmax (where hosts routinely bought and amplified such lies) has to report that True the Nothing can’t provide any verification at all.

 

1165. “Once again,” a disgusted official in Georgia says, “True the Vote has proven itself untrustworthy and unable to provide a shred of evidence for a single one of their fairy-tale allegations.” 

Where Newsmax comes in, as we have already noted, the company had to settle one defamation case, filed by a worker for Dominion Voting Systems. The right-wing outlet currently faces a massive lawsuit, filed by Dominion itself, which is scheduled to go to trial in late September.

 

“Weaklings and cowards.” 

1166. The judge in Trump’s business fraud trial rules that the illegal practices of the Trump Organization merit penalties in the sum of $354 million and a three-year ban on conducting business in the state. Donald also owes interest on that sum – another $100 million.  

February 19, 2024: You may already know that Team Trump lawyers are working hard to sully the reputation of Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis. It has been alleged, for example, that she hired her lover to work on the case against Trump and his eighteen co-conspirators – paid him handsomely – because he’s handsome – and that she and her paramour benefited financially from such an arrangement. 

God knows Trump would never stoop so low as to try to benefit financially from … well, everything.  

(At the very least, Willis is guilty of boneheaded behavior.) 

 

1167. Four individuals who have been indicted in the Georgia case have already taken plea deals. The question then is what would happen if former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows began to talk? 

A relevant question, then, would be: “How does one go about earning large piles of dollars in the face of legal travail?” 

Meadows is keeping mum about all his court battles. Meanwhile, he’s getting paid $847,000, as a senior partner at the Conservative Partnership Institute, a non-profit group with headquarters in Washington D.C. It’s a sweet salary – but you know he has to know it’s sure to end if it turns out he has been helping the feds build a case against the Orange God. Mr.

 1168. Trump knows it, too. Last October, he issued a none too subtle warning in a social media post. Would Meadows really take a plea deal? “Some people would make that deal,” Mr. Sneakers mused, “but they are weaklings and cowards [emphasis added], and so bad for the future [sic] our Failing Nation.” 

Then he added, with a hint of menace, “I don’t think that Mark Meadows is one of them, but who really knows?”

(Cue the death threats – if it turns out he is.) 

 

1169. According to Robert Draper, Meadows was granted limited immunity in the federal case, alleging election fraud by the former president. Chief Judge James E. Boasberg of the District Court in D.C. reluctantly agreed, believing Meadows would otherwise invoke the Fifth Amendment to every query. 

Draper has also had access to 2,319 text messages that attorneys for Mr. Meadows handed over to the House January 6 committee, back in December 2021. 

Meadows - pointing at the other felons.

 “He doesn’t want to do anything.” 

1170. Other details from Draper’s story may prove relevant at trial. Mike Mulvaney, who served as White House chief of staff before Meadows, said “the worst piece of advice” he ever gave President Trump, was to pick Meadows as his replacement. Mark, he says, couldn’t bring himself to tell the boss anything he didn’t want to hear. 

1171. In a similar vein, Alyssa Farah Griffin, the former White House communications director, told investigators, “Meadows didn’t know what was going on in 90 percent of the building.” Then she added, he “always told the president what he wanted to hear. And when he didn’t have the answer that the president wanted, he would go out and try to make that answer a reality.” 

I should also note that Mr. Draper has offered up several examples to indicate who knew what, when, where, and how, on January 6, 2021, as violence exploded on Capitol Hill. If you are a big Trump fan, this goes to a separate matter – where it helps to be blind to the Truth, if you want to keep believing in Don. 

That is: Who really did the rioting on January 6, and did President Trump get plenty of warnings about stopping it?

 

We now know all of these messages, and more, went to Meadows that day: 

1172. Rep. William Timmons (R-S.C.) texted, “The president needs to stop this ASAP.” 

Meadows: “We are doing it.”

 

1173. Rep. Chip Roy (R-Tx.): “Fix this now.” 

Meadows: “We are.”

 

1174. Donald Trump Jr.: “He’s got to condem [sic] this [expletive].” 

Meadows: “I am pushing hard. I agree.”

 

1175. Sean Hannity: “Can he make a statement?” 

Meadows: “On it.”

 

1176. Both Cassidy Hutchinson, Meadows’ top aide, and White House Chief Counsel Pat Cipollone, have testified that when they beseeched Meadows to convince Trump to call off the rioters, Meadows replied, “He doesn’t want to do anything.” 

(The rioters were serving the purpose Trump hoped they would.) 

 

1177. Same day: Donald decides to comment on the untimely death of Russian dissident Alexei Navalny, who was serving time in a Siberian prison camp. Navalny had escaped death before, including an attempt by agents of Vladimir Putin to kill him. After gaining control of his luggage before a flight he had booked, they painted the seams of his underwear with a deadly nerve agent. Navalny became gravely ill, recovered, and continued to protest, even after that near fatal experience. So Putin had him arrested and jailed under increasingly harsh conditions. 

What did the purported former leader of the Free World have to say? Did Trump stand up for human rights? Did he condemn the murderous Russian leader? Nope. He made Navalny’s death all about himself. 

“The sudden death of Alexei Navalny has made me more and more aware of what is happening in our Country,” he squealed on Truth Social. He was a victim, just like Navalny, with “Radical Left Politicians, Prosecutors, and Judges” all out to get him – just because he tried to break 91 laws. 

Putin always takes care of his critics.

 

1178. February 20, 2024: Seven Team Trump lawyers learn another lesson, regarding lying in service to Donald J. Trump. The U.S. Supreme Court rejects their challenge to a lower court order, requiring them to repay the State of Michigan for filing a stupid lawsuit claiming election fraud in that state. 

The bill for filing a suit without merit: $150,000, with Sidney Powell, L. Lin Wood and others coughing up the dough. (On a “positive note,” an appeals court did previously reduce the bill by $25,000.) 

Still, let’s be clear. The claims made in Michigan were worse than garbage. Biden won in 2020 by 154,000 votes. 

 

1179. Same day: The judge who has been overseeing the case of Peter Navarro has tired of all the legal shenanigans. As Politico explains:

 

A federal judge threatened Tuesday to hold former Trump White House adviser Peter Navarro in contempt of court for defying her order to return dozens – and perhaps hundreds – of presidential records to the National Archives.

 

“It is clear that Defendant continues to possess Presidential records that have not been produced to their rightful owner, the United States,” U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly wrote in a six-page opinion after reviewing a subset of records Navarro had argued were his personal documents and did not need to be returned to the government.

 

Navarro has until March 21 to produce the records. Since he earned his initial jail sentence after refusing to comply with a subpoena, you figure Navarro possesses information no member of  Team Trump wishes to see revealed. 

 

1180. Feb. 21: The MAGA faithful are not known for being avid readers of the Washington Post; but we do gain valuable insights into the “Stolen Election” Myth, if we read what Post reporters discover.

Today, we have an article on Don Bolduc, who ran for a seat in the U.S. Senate from New Hampshire in 2022. Bolduc got clobbered in the end, but did leave an interesting trail as an election-denying Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. It all depended on what voters he was hoping to woo.

 

In August, he told a cheering audience of Republican primary voters that “Trump won the election.” In September, after winning that primary, he went on cable news to say that “President Biden is the legitimate president of this country” and that “the election was not stolen.”

 

Then he flipped back the other way. In a general election debate in October, Bolduc suggested that there was, in fact, rampant fraud in his state.

 

“We need to make sure that school buses loaded with people at the polls don’t come in and vote,” he said. Some in the audience chuckled. “You can laugh about it,” he added, “but people in New Hampshire aren’t laughing about it.”

 

That claim, which involved thousands of Massachusetts people supposedly being bussed into New Hampshire to vote in 2020, has never held up. 

Bolduc sat down with reporters last week and admitted what most purveyors of the “Stolen Election” Myth secretly know. “I do believe there was fraud,” he said. “That’s something that can’t be disputed, but at the end of the day, I played a political game, right? So then I decided no more political games. I’m going to say what I honestly believe, and that is the election wasn’t stolen [emphasis added].” 

(Thanks. We already had that figured out.) 

 

1181. As always, Mr. Blogger is avid in pursuit of the Truth. Could it be that there were busloads, and he just missed the caravan? 

It did turn out that Scott Kudrick, a Massachusetts business owner, with property in New Hampshire, was found guilty of voter fraud. Sadly, for the believe-anything MAGA folk, Kudrick voted illegally in the Republican primary in 2020, despite not living in New Hampshire. He was sentenced to 180 days in jail – with sentence suspended if he stayed out of trouble for two years. 

Five other scofflaws were listed in the story, nailed for double voting in two states in 2016, 2018, and 2022. 

1182. Then I found another case, where the criminal, Robert Bell, voted Republican twice, and proudly admitted his crime in an interview with Project Veritas, a right-wing media operation. 

(Project Veritas supposedly wants to clean up the way America votes.) 

 

1183. Meanwhile, recent investigations reveal that multiple meat packing companies, in Ohio, Tennessee, and other ruby red states have been employing minors as young as thirteen, to perform dangerous jobs, that Americans don’t care to do – including adults. One 16-year-old in a Mississippi slaughterhouse was killed when he was sucked into a machine that he was cleaning. 

At a chicken plant in Kidron, Ohio, most of the minors working illegally happened to be from Guatemala. 

 

1184. February 22, 2024: The Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court, Judge Tom Parker, hands down a ruling that frozen embryos are people, and therefore have all the legal protections afforded to children – putting invitro fertilization efforts in all kinds of legal jeopardy. 

Meanwhile, Justice Parker has embraced the Seven Mountains Mandate, “the idea that America was founded explicitly as a Christian nation – and that Christians should control the seven key areas of American life, including media, business, education, and government.” 

Also: family, and religion – which is perfectly fine; plus arts and entertainment – which is dicey. 

Parker, for example, now boasts that the Alabama Supreme Court has adopted a “”theologically based view of the sanctity of life.” 

As in when Jeremiah and all the other prophets laid out their detailed positions on invitro fertilization and reproductive rights. As in, when Sarah managed to produce her first child at age 90, namely Isaac; and Abraham, the dad, was “ninety years old and nine.” See, for example, the in depth “science” discussed at great length, regarding spilled semen, in Leviticus 15: 1-18. 

Justice Parker also made it clear who he wanted to see controlling the government – apparently for all of our goods. “God created government, and the fact that we have let it go into the possession of others, it’s heartbreaking,” he said. “That’s why he is calling and equipping people to step back into these mountains right now.” 

 

“Assholes come and go. But America is here to stay.” 

1185. At a meeting of state governors, Chris Sununu of New Hampshire offered up a bit of hope for the GOP, regarding the Orange Dumpling. “It won’t be his party forever. Right? It just won’t. At some point, Donald Trump won’t be here forever,” he told his colleagues. 

He puzzled it out further, adding, “Let me put it a different way: Assholes come and go. But America is here to stay.” 

 

UPDATE (October 19, 2024): Sununu has since said he is supporting Trump, after his choice for GOP nominee for president, Nikki Haley, failed in the primaries. So, Assholes come…and politicians, for their own survival, endorse them?” 

 

1186. February 23, 2024: Jack Posobiec showed up at the Conservative Political Action Conference and announced a new plan for American government – assuming Donald can win a second term. Video of his heartwarming words went viral after the right-wing activist said he wanted to end democracy and finish the mission of Jan. 6 (where rioting failed) and install a God-first government.  

“Welcome to the end of democracy. We are here to overthrow it completely,” he told attendees. “We didn’t get all the way there on Jan. 6, but we will endeavor to get rid of it.” 

1187. Theocracy, anyone! I know the Puritans tried this in Massachusetts in 1630. If you don’t know, they founded their government on a strict interpretation of the Bible, which meant whipping Baptists for following the “wrong” form of the sacrament, and executing Quakers for challenging Puritan doctrine. Hanging witches was also approved, and execution for gays, as well.

Mary Dyer, a Quaker woman, is led to her execution.

 

1188. In fact, Puritans believed in forcing persons know to have had premarital sex to marry, sometimes whipping them first. They followed Bible tenets even regarding the length of men’s hair, put people who criticized their ministers in the stocks, fined citizens for using profanity, and even forbid the celebration of Christmas, which celebration is nowhere suggested in the Good Book. 

So there you were. The first “War on Christmas,” as Trump and the right-wing howlers liked to say, back in 2016. 

(Today, that “War” is forgotten, and we are taught to live in fear of transgenders!)

 

1189. Posobiec has since insisted his comments were satirical; but he has also warned he wants to destroy the Democrats’ version of democracy. “After we burn that swamp to the ground,” he says, “we will establish the new American republic on its ashes, and our first order of business will be righteous retribution for those who betrayed America.” 

Ah, righteous retribution. 

1190. Can we go full-on Old Testament and start stoning adulterers again? That would solve our Trump Problem forever. 

 

Donald’s “enemy within.” 

1191. Meanwhile, Donald the Serial Adulterer speaks at a symposium organized by the National Religious Broadcasters association. He tells his audience that the future of the country is at stake, as it was when Allied forces landed on D-Day and went on to crush the Nazis. 

“Today we are in another struggle for survival of our nation,” he warned. “This time the greatest threat is not from the outside of our country, I really believe this: it’s from within.” 

How then defeat this Evil? 

“I am here today,” he continued, “because I know that to achieve victory in this fight, just like in the battles of the past, we still need the hand of our Lord, and the grace of Almighty God.” 

“Christians, they can’t afford to sit on the sidelines in this fight. The radical left is coming after all of us because they know that our allegiance is not to them. Our allegiance is to our country and our allegiance is to our Creator.” 

And who better to lead a righteous battle than a guy who lies to the American people every day? God’s Chosen One: The Orange Dumpling. 

(Do we ever see the Dumpling in church?) 

 

1192. February 23, 2024: In other news, a federal judge rules that election denier extraordinaire Mike Lindell must pay $5 million to a software designer who won a bet. Lindell had offered that pretty sum to anyone who could disprove his “evidence” that the voting machines in 2020 were rigged. 

Robert Zeidman took up the challenge and quickly proved that Mike’s “evidence” wasn’t even related to 2020, and most of it was computer gibberish. A panel of judges refused to rule for Zeidman, so he went to arbitration – as per the rules of the contest. A three-person arbitration panel upheld Zeidman’s work. Mike was peddling nonsense and would have to pay. 

 

February 27, 2024: Trump’s lawyers continue to get pummeled in the courts. First, you had Michael Cohen, in 2018, who went to jail for paying off women who slept with Donald, to keep them quiet. Recently, we have lawyers who pleaded guilty to crimes (Sidney Powell), gave up their licenses to practice law (L. Lin Wood), got stuck with the bill for bringing forward stupid lawsuits (nine lawyers), and admitted to rampant lying when insisting the 2020 election was stolen (Jenna Ellis). You had another lawyer get sued for defamation and lose $148.2 million (Rudy Giuliani). Then you had lawyers pleading the Fifth when under investigation (Dr. John Eastman) and lawyers getting hit with the “crime-fraud” exception, during criminal investigations. (Evan Corcoran). 

That is, a lawyer can be forced to testify about interactions with a client, if a judge believes that client (Donald) may be plotting fresh crimes and frauds. (Corcoran, at least, is not suspected of wrongdoing.) 

Finally, you have lawyers who lose monster damage suits, costing Donald hundreds of millions (Alina Habba). 

(We have counted all of these before, so this is just a summary.) 

 

“Trump doesn’t have to get courts to declare him the winner.” 

Today, we bring you Kenneth Chesebro, a lawyer who needs no introduction, a man who has already confessed to some of his crimes. Having been indicted in the Georgia election fraud case, Chesebro knew the evidence against him was damning (as it is for Donald). So he copped to a felony, and avoided six more. We know that in court, with a conservative judge in charge, Chesebro agreed to testify truthfully when asked about the plot to steal the 2020 election for Trump. 

Chesebro already has one felony.

After agreeing to the deal, “The Cheese” was asked to come north, to Michigan, where the plot had also been in fevered play, and testify truthfully about what he knew. Investigators began by asking if he had ever used Twitter (now “X”), or any other social media platforms under fake names. 

Oh, no, never, “Cheese” assured his questioners. From now on, he was going to tell the truth! No more felonies for him! 

1193. Then CNN did something interesting – which is why having a free press is critical. They managed to identify a Twitter account, listed under the name “BadgerPundit,” and show that Mr. Pundit was Mr. Chesebro, one and the same. Lawyers for “Cheese” have admitted that “BadgerPundit” was their client’s account, only insisting it wasn’t really so bad. He was just “spitballing” ideas at the time, ideas, such as: How can we overturn the legitimate results of the 2020 election?

BadgerPundit?

 

On November 7, 2020, Chesebro/Badger explained that there was an obvious way for Trump to win, even though he lost by seven million votes. “You don’t get the big picture,” he assured his followers. “Trump doesn’t have to get courts to declare him the winner of the vote. He just needs to convince Republican legislatures that the election was systematically rigged, but it’s impossible to run it again, so they should appoint electors instead.”  

1194. When questioned by investigators, Mr. Chesebro said he always believed Vice President Mike Pence would have to count the electoral votes if the courts kept ruling against Team Trump. But it turns out that Mr. Badger tweeted at least fifty times, after Trump lost the election, saying that Mr. Pence could count whatever electoral votes he liked, including the fake ones Cheese Badger and others were trying to put in play. 

1195. In fact, The Atlantic had reported on a story in September 2020, explaining how a source admitted there was an idea afloat – that alternate electors could be used to overturn any Trump loss. Mr. Chesebro told Michigan investigators he had never heard of that story or that dastardly plan. Yet, on the day the story was published, Cheese Badger tweeted about it and defended the idea. 

(That’s a lot of lying, MAGA folks.)

 

 

February 27, 2024: It’s not like we quote sports casters very often to support points we are trying to make. In this instance, however, Bob Costas hits the nail on the head with a baseball bat. 

Donald is, he says, “by far the most disgraceful figure in modern presidential history. You have to be in a toxic cult to believe that Trump has ever been emotionally, psychologically, intellectually, or ethically fit to be POTUS.” 

Costas “goes on to say the real people with TDS (Trump Derangement Syndrome) are his voters.” 

(Normally, the blogger sticks to proven facts; he just likes this quote.) 

(We won’t number it as a step toward the Truth, because it’s just opinion.) 

 

1196. February 28, 2024: Rudy Giuliani’s penalty in a defamation case against two Georgia poll workers is reduced by a judge to only $145,969,000. So a rare “win” for a man who was a happy to do the dirty work as a Team Trump lawyer. 

On the other hand, the judge ruled that money the two plaintiffs in the suit against Giuliani had already won in another lawsuit, against right-wing cable news channel OAN should be counted towards the damages they suffered. 

Now we know how much OAN paid for lying about the “Stolen Election.” That tab: $2,331,000. 

 

1197. March 2, 2024: Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, the longshot GOP primary candidate for president, was asked today if she believed Donald Trump would follow the Constitution if elected again. Her answer: “I don’t know. I mean, you always want to think someone will, but I don’t know.” 

Not reassuring. 

(Trump likes to refer to Haley now as “Birdbrain,” or “Braindead.”) 

 

1198. March 4: Team Trump lawyers continue to rack up losses in court. In this case, Jim Troupis and Chesebro settle a lawsuit and agree to release documents related to their efforts, and the efforts of other – dare we say “plotters” – to set up a slate of fake electors for the State of Wisconsin, following the 2020 election. 

1199. You probably missed this story, as the blogger did at the time. On March 7, we can now report, Donald failed miserably in his effort to sue the company run by Christopher Steele – of the famous “Steele Dossier.” That was the report, revealed during the 2016 campaign, which accused Trump of cavorting with Russian prostitutes, and engaging in various forms of questionable fun “golden showers,” for example. So, the former president had filed for damages. 

And he lost again. 

And I think we can also say that Donald had his dopey followers donate enough to pay for the failed legal fight. 

The British courts have ruled that Trump must pay £300,000 (and possibly more) to offset legal expenses for Steele and his company. 

In U.S. figures: $393,000. 

 

1200. During a campaign rally on March 8, Trump tells a crowd that he’s not the only one who believes he was robbed of victory in 2020. “Eighty-two percent of the country understands that it was a rigged election,” he claims. 

Can you believe that! 

This blogger can’t. A more realistic number, 30% of respondents, in a poll earlier this year, said Biden’s election was “probably not legitimate (14%) or “definitely not legitimate” (16%). 

So, just short of 82%. 

 

1201. We all know that Republicans everywhere are devoted to rooting out voter fraud, and that is exactly why today they have chosen Mark Harris as candidate for Congress from the Eight District in North Carolina. 

This is quite impressive, since Harris was last seen running for Congress in North Carolina’s Ninth District in 2018. And lo, and behold, did he win! And then his own son, and others testified against him, and it was shown that actual massive voter fraud had occurred, with hundreds of ballots being stolen, and it was made clear that Team Harris was behind the whole scheme. 

And the GOP did dump his ass. And a new election was held. And a different Republican took Harris’s place on the ticket. And won. For real! Yet, like a zombie, Harris proved nearly impossible to kill. He rose from the political manure pile, to be nominated again, and now he promises, if elected (fraudulently, or not), to go to D.C.,  and do his best to help the Orange Dumplin’ “Drain the Swamp.” 

 

Can you figure it out? 

1202. March 10, 2024: If you’ve never heard of Ken Block, and you love Donald Trump more than roly-poly panda bear babies, listen up. Mr. Block was hired by Team Trump, shortly after the 2020 election, and tasked with tracking down all the election fraud the president was insisting had occurred. 

(I use mockery, because Trump is not only dangerous – he’s a buffoon.) 

Mocking Trump's patriotism, for example, is easy.

 

In early December 2020, for instance, Mr. Block received a “tip” that 700,000 people in Wisconsin had voted twice. He says he quickly discovered that Team Trump lawyers were working with incomplete data, and the double voters were “nothing of the sort.” 

Block was well paid for his efforts, but turned up no evidence to support the claims Donald was making (and still makes) regarding the “Stolen Election.” Less frequently, he likes to speak of it as a “Sacred Landslide” victory that was stolen. 

1203. But Team Trump leaders, and Donald, himself, decided not to reveal Block’s findings. 

So: You would have to read Block’s book, Disproven, to get to the bottom of a very deep ocean of Big Lies. 

1204. The book is out now, and Block can show the invoice he still has, revealing that he was paid $800,000 for his sleuthing. (A second investigator was reportedly paid $1,000,000, and also turned up nothing more than shadows of rumors of imaginary hordes of illegal voters.) Block also tells reporters that he demanded to be paid upfront, since Trump was known to refuse to pay contractors. 

1205. He also writes that while there were honest lawyers working for Trump, they were under a great deal of pressure to come up with proof of fraud that wasn’t there. As for people like Giuliani, he says, “They just wanted to impugn the election results by filing lawsuits they must have known were false.” 

 

1206. March 11, 2024: In another new book, coming out soon, we learn that Donald once told his White House chief of staff, Gen. John Kelly, that Hitler “did some good things.” Kelly wondered what. 

“Well, rebuilt the economy,” the president said.

Nazis just doing a few "good things."

 

In a review in The Hill, we learn that Trump “admired Nazi officers’ loyalty to Hitler, lamenting that [he] was not able to maintain the same level of loyalty” were U.S. military leaders were involved. 

“He truly believed,” Kelly writes, that “when he brought us generals in, that we would be loyal – that we would do anything he wanted us to do.” 

 

1207. March 15: The Republican Party in North Carolina is running another “stellar” candidate, this time for superintendent of the public schools. A little digging reveals that Michelle Morrow called for the execution of former President Barack Obama, and President-Elect Biden in 2020. 

She had so much fun fantasizing about hangings that she added Hillary Clinton and Sen. Chuck Schumer to the list of people she wanted to see dangling from ropes. 

(So: Mark Harris isn’t the worst North Carolina Republicans have to offer!) 

 

Defamation is failing. 

1208. March 18: After appearing at a hearing in Washington D.C., Team Trump lawyer Stefanie Lambert is arrested on a bench warrant. Lambert is in D.C., representing Patrick Byrne, CEO of Overstock.com., in another defamation suit filed by Dominion Voting Systems. That suit was filed after Byrne – you can probably guess – claimed the company rigged the 2020 election. 

The Team Trump record in defamation suits so far: 

0 wins

12 losses

First, and foremost, in terms of damages, Fox News loses to Dominion, after claiming that company rigged the vote – and agrees to pay $787.5 million. 

Second: Rudy Giuliani loses to two Georgia poll workers he defamed, Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, as mentioned above, Step #1196. 

Third: One America News also loses a lawsuit, filed by Freeman and Moss, and has to pay $2.3 million. 

Fourth: One America is required to pay Dr. Eric Coomer, who works for Dominion, also for defaming him. 

Fifth: So is Newsmax. 

Sixth: One America is also forced to settle a suit filed by Smartmatic.

 

Seventh: Mike Lindell of MyPillow fame, has to pay court costs (so far) to Smartmatic, in another defamation suit. 

Eighth: Kari Lake, Imaginary Governor of Arizona, gets smoked in court after defaming Arizona election official Stephen Richer, a fellow Republican. 

Ninth: Donald loses a defamation suit to E. Jean Carroll, who has accused him of rape. The jury awards her five million dollars. 

Tenth: Donald can’t help himself, and defames Carroll again. A second jury awards her $83.3 million. 

Eleventh (added in September 2024): Coomer wins a partial victory against an election-denying, right-wing, Colorado activist, Joseph Oltmann – who must pay him $1,000 per day until he provides court-ordered evidence. 

You know: Proof the 2020 election was rigged. 

 

Twelfth (added October 10, 2024): Gateway Pundit settles a lawsuit with Moss and Freeman. Details of the settlement are kept secret, but you know the right-wing website lost. The Pundit, and its owners had previously tried to get out of the muck it created, by declaring bankruptcy. 

A judge in Florida described the legal maneuver as a bad faith filing, “reflect(ing) the use of bankruptcy as a pure litigation tactic.” 

As for all the lying they had done, Jim Hoft, the founder of Gateway Pundit, and his twin brother Joe had to admit in a statement two days later what multiple investigations had already shown:

 

Georgia officials concluded that there was no widespread voter fraud by election workers who counted ballots at the State Farm Arena in November 2020. The results of this investigation indicate that Ruby Freeman and Wandrea ‘Shaye’ Moss did not engage in ballot fraud or criminal misconduct while working at State Farm Arena on election night.

 

1209. As for Ms. Lambert – mentioned above – the Michigan attorney is a suspect in the plot to steal that state’s electoral votes in 2020, and hand them over to Donald J. Trump with a smooch. Lips or ass, no difference. 

She is suspected of handling fake electoral ballots which were sent to the U.S. Senate, National Archives, and others, and had been dodging arrest for weeks, knowing authorities wanted her fingerprints. 

 

“A concerned friend.” 

1210. March 19, 2024: The Trump club in Bedminster, New Jersey has settled a lawsuit for $82,500, after a young waitress named Alice Bianco claimed she was tricked into an unfair hush-money deal (for $15,000) after being sexually harassed and assaulted by a supervisor. For once, Donald is not implicated. 

Yay, Donald! 

What makes this result especially noteworthy is that the settlement language expressly excludes the Team Trump lawyer accused of tricking Bianco into accepting that first lousy deal. According to court documents, “parties agree that Alina Habba is not a party to this release.” 

As The New Republic explains,

 

This could prove dangerous for Habba, because according to the original lawsuit, she posed as a concerned friend to Bianco and offered her free legal advice [emphasis added] about how to proceed regarding the harassment. But Habba quickly turned around, leveraging the relationship and “fraudulently inducing” Bianco to “quickly agree to unconscionable and illegal terms” – and ingratiating herself with Trump in the process, according to the lawsuit.

 

“My client is certainly considering suing her for fraud,” Bianco’s lawyer Nancy Erika Smith told the [Daily] Beast last week. She said she was already in touch with Habba’s personal attorney.

 

Bianco ended up signing an NDA [non-disclosure agreement] and was paid $15,000 “on the condition she never mention the harassment to anyone, not even another lawyer. If she did, she would lose it all and owe the club $1,000 a day.” 

(Team Trump loves NDAs. Silence in court is beautiful.) 

 

1211. Bianco soon realized she’d be taxed on the settlement. So she reached out to Habba for more free advice, only to learn that her “friend” was now representing … Donald J. Trump … and getting paid the big bucks. 

1212. The Bedminster club now insists that Habba was not representing its interests during the original negotiations, but has been unable to explain why Habba was tasked with delivering the $15,000 check. 

(Habba is exactly the type of lawyer Donald loves to hire.)

Trump got to eat cake with his lawyer, Alina Habba.

 

1213. March 20, 2024: A bipartisan effort in the U.S. Senate has advanced a bill to increase protection for state and local judges, after a surge in death threats since 2021. The Countering Threats and Attacks on Our Judges Act would provide federal funds and technical assistance to protect the courts. 

Trump, of course, has done more to fuel the upsurge in threats against members of the judicial branch, at both the state and federal levels. He’s an incredibly dangerous individual, and so we continue to offer up simple steps, one following on the other, in an effort to help the MAGA folks see Truth – and escape from the cult to which the belong. 

1214. See, for example, this video, below: