DDT Leads the GOP, Faces Charges

[Breaking news: First Citizens BancShares of Raleigh (NC) is purchasing the commercial segment of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB). Its 17 branches will reopen on March 27 under the new name. The purchase price for $72 billion assets was $16.5 billion.  SVB’s private banking business was not included; FDIC is still looking for a buyer. FDIC expects to lose about $20 billion, losses funded by insured banks.]

Thirty years ago, the Waco Branch Davidians declared war on the U.S. government. On February 28, 1993, officers tried to enter the compound in Waco (TX) to arrest its leader for stockpiling illegal weapons, including machine guns. The Davidians shot at them, killing four officers and wounding 16 others. During a 51-day standoff, the FBI tried to negotiate a peace surrender before it raided the compound 51 days later. Occupants set fires inside, and by the conclusion 75 people, including 25 children, died.

Far-right groups have invoked this event to justify anti-government violence. On the second anniversary of the deaths at Waco, April 19, 1995, Timothy McVeigh blew up a federal building in Oklahoma City, murdering 168 people, including 19 children. Six years later, McVeigh said, “Waco started this war… The only way they’re going to get the message is, quote, with a body count.”

On March 25, 2023, Deposed Donald Trump (DDT) flew into the Waco regional airport, stood on the tarmac where he attacked and threatened his opposition, and then flew out. John Santucci, ABC journalist/producer, tweeted:

“I haven’t watched a Trump event in sometime… But here’s the difference between 2015 and now… In 2015 Trump talked about people’s problems… This rally is all of his problems.”

Nothing about the rally was unpredictable: in presenting himself the victim, DDT called himself the “most innocent man in the history of the country” when he assailed investigators and prosecutors of his crimes. He rejected Texas elected GOP officials—Sen. Ted Cruz, Gov. Greg Abbott, etc.—who have not yet endorsed him. He ridiculed Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a possibly opponent for DDT’s candidacy and repeated his story of DeSantis begging for his endorsement in 2018. According to DDT, the investigations into him are “the central issue of our time.” Forget war, crime, inflation, and the other issues that Republicans have run on in the past.

Arguably the most reprehensive part of the rally was the presentation of insurrectionists as heroes in a video of the January 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol accompanied by rendition of “The Star-Spangled Banner” sung by the newly incorporated J6 choir, insurrection prisoners in the Washington, D.C. jail.

CNN has an extensive list of DDT’s lies in his speech. One notable statement is that he “completed” the wall on the southern border.

Twenty years ago, people were holding their breath about George W. Bush starting a war. His preemptive attack on Iraq lasted over seven years. This past week, DDT whipped his AGA followers into a frenzy, hoping for another war to support him. He declared, with no evidence, that he would be “arrested” for his part in paying $130,000 to Stormy Daniels to not talk about a relationship with him. Furious, he called his followers to “TAKE OUR NATION BACK!”

All week long MAGA folk raged, but the grand jury meetings were called off until this coming week. The media endlessly addressed the possibilities surrounding a potential indictment with conservative responders defending their leader. House GOP members tried to drag Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg into hearings, and former VP Mike Pence, who previously blamed DDT for his part in the insurrection, flipflopped to echo the Republicans in their declaration that DDT was being persecuted on the basis of politics. DDT called Bragg a “SOROS BACKED ANIMAL” and his former lawyer/fixer a “CONVICTED NUT JOB.”   Artificial intelligence demonstrated its dangers when fake videos of New York cops arrested DDT circulated on the internet. All this with no case but a wonderful device for DDT to raise more money.  

As DDT incites violence among his followers, he personally threatened it himself with a post of him with a baseball bat next to Bragg. Legal expert Norm Eisen tweeted:

“Threatening a prosecutor is a crime in NY. In fact MULTIPLE crimes: Harassment in the first degree NYPL 240.25; menacing in the second degree NYPL 120.14; stalking in the fourth or third degree NYPL 120.45 & 120.50 And that’s just for starters….”

Joe Tacopina, DDT’s lawyer in the case, criticized him for online attacks against Bragg:

“I’m not his social media consultant. I think that was an ill-advised post that one of his social media people put up & he quickly took down.”

The post has been pulled, but the internet has a long memory. Before DDT went to Waco, he warned of “potential death & destruction” if charges were filed against him. Soon afterwards, Bragg received a letter with non-hazardous white powder among other death threats. The postmark was Orlando (FL).

Bragg might not be able to convict DDT in the Stormy Daniels case, only a misdemeanor unless the money is connected to campaign funds. Yet Michael Cohen went to prison for having handed the funds over to her. Robert Costello, DDT loyalist and formal legal advisers, thought he could save DDT by smearing Cohen to the grand jury, and Cohen isn’t the only witness in the case. 

Other cases, however, might be worse for DDT:

In E. Jean Carroll’s rape/defamation cases against DDT, the federal judge has ordered that the jurors be anonymous. He made the decision without a request, stating that this treatment was unusual and “most often” reserved for “terrorism and organized crime cases.” His justification was DDT’s long history of attempting to intimidate courts, witnesses, and even individual jurors. The trial is scheduled for April 25.

The issue with finding classified documents in DDT’s possession looks darker after a judge told his lawyer, Evan Corcoran, that he had to testify because the crime/fraud condition erased the attorney-client privilege. Even worse, Corcoran had to turn over his documents and tapes of conversations with DDT. According to reports, DDT told Corcoran to write the sworn affidavit in June 2022 lying about no more classified documents were at Mar-a-Lago. A judge determined that DDT “intentionally concealed” his having the additional classified documents from Corcoran. Over 100 more documents were found two months later. The charge could be obstruction of justice because DDT blocked the FBI from finding them.

Despite DDT’s attempts to block any charges in Fulton County, the grand jury heard three telephone calls from DDT to Georgia’s elected officials, urging them to overturn the state’s popular vote for the 2020 presidential election in his favor. This case includes racketeering and conspiracy charges used for organized criminals that could carry long prison sentences. DDT has filed a motion to have the county’s DA Fani Willis disqualified.  

Before the House was turned over to Republicans last January, the members of the January 6 investigative committee gave its findings to the DOJ, that has appointed Jack Smith as a special counsel to continue this investigation. A federal judge rejected DDT’s claims of executive privilege and ordered DDT’s former chief of staff Mark Meadows and other officials receiving subpoenas from Jack Smith to testify before the DOJ grand jury. Other subpoenas went to DDT’s former Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe, his former national security adviser Robert O’Brien, former top aide Stephen Miller, and former deputy chief of staff and social media director Dan Scavino; former DDT aides Nick Luna and John McEntee; and former DHS official Ken Cuccinelli. Meadows was present with DDT for the telephone calls to Georgia officials and in the White House on January 6. DDT will likely appeal the ruling.

And then there are the investigations into Trump’s business behavior in New York and the securities investigation into Truth Social’s merger with DWAC.

The report from the New York Times describes the leader beloved by MAGA:

“In the last 28 months, former President Donald J. Trump has been voted out of the White House, impeached for his role in the Capitol riot and criticized for marching many of his fellow Republicans off an electoral cliff in the 2022 midterms with his drumbeat of election-fraud lies. He dined at home with a white supremacist in November. He called for the termination of the Constitution in December… He vowed to make retribution a hallmark of a second term in the White House in March. He has embraced the QAnon conspiracy theory movement, described President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia as a genius and used a gay joke to mock a fellow Republican. He has become the target of four criminal investigations, including one in New York that he warned might result in ‘potential death & destruction.’”

Twenty years ago, people were holding their breath about George W. Bush starting a war. The war in the U.S. is now all about DDT. David Remnick wrote:    

“Trump lives in a state of constant auto-excitement. If he is not at the center of things, he is dead.”

DDT Ideas for U.S., Crimes

With no evidence, Deposed Donald Trump (DDT) claims that he’ll be arrested this Tuesday, but he’s scheduled a rally in Waco (TX) next Saturday. Leading officials may be torn about their allegiance; Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) has already endorsed Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who hasn’t yet declared his candidacy. DDT endorsed Texas Gov. Greg Abbott last year, but he’s keeping quiet. Meanwhile DDT is telling protesters to “take our nation back.” With all the business to be taken care of before an indictment, Tuesday is a very likely time, but Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg is working with law enforcement to orchestrate protection against violence.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) said, “I don’t think people should protest this stuff.” He added about DDT’s statements, “He’s not talking in a harmful way.” McCarthy then condemned the investigation into DDT’s possible crimes.

The case is about DDT paying hush money in 2016 to Stormy Daniels to keep her quiet about his sexual relationship with her. Even the majority of Republicans, 73 percent, believe a politician running for or in office commits a crime to pay someone money to stay silent about something they think might damage their election’s outcome. More of the GOP respondents, 76 percent, thought failing to report hush money from campaign funds was criminal. Yet when presented with an example, such as DDT’s paying for Daniels’ silence, only 45 percent of Republicans found his doing this was “very” or “somewhat” serious. Over a third of the GOP respondents didn’t consider it serious although doing so was a crime, according to their answers. The conservative media seems to have been successful in suppressing DDT’s payment because 40 percent of Republicans polled said they’d never heard of it.

One glitch for DDT may be his new lawyer, Joe Tacopina.  Viral on the cable media, he has the same brash attitude as DDT. On Ari Melber’s MSNBC program, he tried to grab a paper from Melber with notes from DDT’s claim that he knew nothing about the payoff. With complete confidence, Tacopina assured his audience that a falsehood isn’t a “lie” unless it’s under oath. In the past,he represented such DDT allies as former New York police commissioner, Bernard Kerik, claiming the man’s innocence. Kerik pled guilty to tax fraud and other charges in 2007.

Tacopina consulted with Daniels on the same issue that’s going to court, previously refusing to discuss the matter because he had “an attorney-client privilege that attaches even to a consultation,” which creates a conflict of interest for him. He may have trouble backing down on the claim that Daniels was his “client.” Tacopina’s “defense” of DDT, that he was a victim of extortion, is also problematic, according to former prosecutor Andrew Weissmann in a tweet:

“That is an admission he paid $ (which he had been denying) and the $ was not for legal fees (the cover story). Because the NY criminal case reportedly focuses on the crime of making false business records—his ‘defense’ is a confession.”

If or when DDT is indicted isn’t known, nor are specific charges. Paying hush money is only a misdemeanor, but doing so as part of a political campaign moves the crime up to a felony. The news of the payoff became public in 2018 when DDT admitted he told his lawyer, Michael Cohen, to be reimbursed for the $130,000 given Daniels. DDT was accused of a coverup because the loan to Cohen had not been included in earlier disclosures. Cohen pleaded guilty to charges regarding the payment, implicated DDT as the person behind the payment plot, and went to prison for his guilt.

Last Thursday, DDT again gave his allegiance to Russia in calling the U.S. “the greatest threat to western civilization” and saying Russia is the victim of U.S. aggression. According to DDT, “the State Department, the defense bureaucracy, the intelligence services, and all of the rest need to be completely overhauled and reconstituted.” His goal is to fire everyone who disagree with him. John Bolton, DDT’s former national security director, stated that DDT would have taken the U.S. out of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) if he were reelected in 2020. Retired Marine Gen. John F. Kelly, one of DDT’s former chiefs of staff, said “one of the most difficult tasks he faced with Trump was trying to stop him from pulling out of NATO.” DDT said the U.S. “foreign policy establishment” lied about Russia because wants to “pull the world into a conflict with a nuclear armed Russia.”

In a response to a series of questions from Tucker Carlson, DDT also called for a “regime change.”

Last Friday, a judge ruled that DDT’s attorney Evan Corcoran must provide more testimony about DDT’s handling of classified documents. The lawyer had hoped to escape testifying with the “attorney-client privilege” reason, but the judge said that DOJ prosecutors met the threshold for a crime-fraud exception. Corcoran had prepared a document declaring that no more classified materials were at Mar-a-Lago in June 2022 but directed another of DDT’s lawyers to sign the declaration. Using a warrant, the government found another 100 classified documents two months later.

Corcoran appeared before the grand jury earlier but refused to answer many questions. Last March, a California-based federal judge determined that John Eastman, another of DDT’s lawyers, and DDT likely committed crimes in trying to overturn the 2020 presidential election. Eastman is currently facing disciplinary action from the state bar which could cause him to lose his law license.

At least two dozen more people from Mar-a-Lago resort staff to DDT’s inner circle have been subpoenaed to testify before a federal grand jury probing DDT’s retention of classified documents. Some of them are staff members seen on security camera footage moving boxes from a storage room with DDT’s aide Walt Nauta. DDT’s entities are paying for counsel for many of the Mar-a-Lago staffers.

Members of the Fulton County (GA) grand jury investigating DDT’s and his allies’ meddling in the 2020 election reported a third telephone call from DDT, this one trying to force then-state House Speaker David Ralston to call a special session intended to reject Georgia’s official election tallies. Ralston died last fall, but jurors heard the audio of the call. In the ten-minute call, DDT asked Ralston who could stop him from holding a special session. Ralston said, “A federal judge, that’s who.” He cut off DDT by saying, “I will do everything in my power that I think is appropriate.”

The federal government is searching for more gifts to the government that DDT and his family kept while he was in the White House. Over 100 gifts worth almost $300,000 weren’t reported to the government in violation of federal law, and two are still missing. They are golf clubs from the Japanese prime minister worth $7,000 and a life-size painting of DDT from El Salvador’s president. A report found the disclosure failures “were much broader than previously known.”

The 15-page report of undisclosed gifts from Democrats on the House Oversight Committee shows many of them came from countries that are not U.S. allies or have a thorny relationship with the U.S. They include 16 gifts from Saudi Arabia worth over $48,000, 17 from India worth over $17,000, and at least five gifts from China. Other gifts could also be missing; DDT reported no gifts during his last year in the White House. DDT told his advisers that all gifts while he was in the White House are his alone and do not belong to the government, despite the law. Any official wishing to keep a gift valued over $415 must pay for its full value, but gifts must still be reported.

DDT may have also violated domestic gifting laws by keeping a $6,000 Mac Pro laptop that Apple CEO Tim Cook gave the federal government. In 2021, one of DDT’s aides said they couldn’t find it, but later he listed the computer among the gifts he kept. The report identified over 100 unreported gifts with a value of over $250,000, finding the disclosure failures “were much broader than previously known.”

The House Oversight Committee, in charge of finding the gifts, has closed an examination of how DDT’s hotels financially benefitted from his election since the Republicans took charge. Previously, the committee reported that foreign government officials spent hundreds of thousands of dollars during a few months in their attempt to influence DDT while staying at his Washington hotel. He also charged Secret Service agents as much as $1,185 per night, almost five times the $240 rate, for 40 hotel trips from 2017 through 2021. The committee chair, James Comer (R-KY), said he’s using the committee’s resources to investigate “money the Bidens received from China,” presumably referencing business deals with President Joe Biden’s son Hunter and brother James.

DDT’s 2020 campaign hired an outside research firm to prove his lies about election fraud but didn’t release the findings because the firm couldn’t find any proof for DDT’s theories that he was the election winner. About a dozen people worked on the project in the last weeks of 2020 before the January 6 insurrection. They looked at undocumented migrants, ballot harvesting, machine tampering, voter turnout anomalies—every conspiracy theory possible. A few states had voting anomalies, but these weren’t significant enough to make a difference in the election winner. The company’s findings didn’t stop DDT and his chief of staff Mark Meadows from claiming that DDT won the election.

Bank Solutions, More Troubles for DDT

This afternoon, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen announced a fix for the collapse of SVB and New York-chartered Signature Bank, specializing in banking services to law firms, which the state seized. Because banks have a systemic risk from customer panic, the government is using funds from FDIC, recovered by a special assessment on banks, and another fund established for foreign exchange stabilization to establish an emergency lending program for eligible banks, one-year cash loans to keep them from being forced to sell their portfolio. SVB lost $2 billion last week’s sales before the government seized the bank. Senior management from the two named banks has been removed.

This action would not have been necessary if not for GOP deregulation in the last administration. Financial guru Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) said:

“President Trump and congressional Republicans’ decision to roll back Dodd-Frank’s ‘too big to fail’ rules for banks like SVB—reducing both oversight and capital requirements—contributed to a costly collapse.”

In 2018, the GOP-controlled Congress ignored warnings from experts and advocacy groups and passed laws weakening crisis regulations for banks with assets between $50 billion and $250 billion after the 2008 financial crisis for banks. Only banks with over $250 billion in assets are required to have enhanced liquidity mandates and more frequent stress tests; SVB had $212 billion. Rep, Katie Porter (D-CA), another financial expert, tweeted, “The collapse of Silicon Valley Bank was totally avoidable.” She said she warned of the reckless risks in the deregulation bill. SVV spent over one-half million dollars lobbying to push the law permitting them to collapse.

It’s Sunday! News about the cult leader of the evangelicals and white supremacists.

Among multiple legal cases facing DDT, the criminal one from Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg regarding hush money paid to Stormy Daniels (left) may be most imminent. Prosecutors questioned at least six witnesses before a grand jury, and Bragg offered DDT the opportunity to testify, usually indicating an indictment. Potential defendants in New York may answer questions before they are indicted. DDT’s former lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen has met with the DA’s prosecutors several times this year. After convicting DDT’s company, the Trump Organization, Bragg, along with New York AG Letitia James, is looking into how DDT valued his assets to obtain loans and avoid higher taxes. James’ investigation is civil, but Bragg can file criminal charges.

DDT claimed, “NEVER HAD AN AFFAIR,” but he gave Daniels $130,000 in exchange for her not talking to reporters. Cohen facilitated the payment “in coordination with, and at the direction of, a candidate for federal office”; the Trump Organization reimbursed Cohen $420,000 to cover his taxes. A furious DDT also called her “Horse Face.”

 DDT’s trials are beginning to collide, and his struggle to delay them until the midst of the presidential season in 2024 is offending judges.   By Wednesday, his lawyers must explain who they tried to play off two New York judges by double-booking trials in an intention to delay both of them. DDT already pushed his potential 2023 trial into January 2024 with the conflict of James’ trial over his alleged lies about property evaluation. Another trial he is trying to delay comes from bilked investors after he hawked a bad investment for a faulty videophone. Attorneys are also trying to delay a Florida case about DDT’s mishandling of classified records.

In another fake excuse for avoiding trials, DDT claimed the hush money case is a federal lawsuit, but it concerns a possible felony violating state election law. He also claims that the statute of limitations has expired, but that limitation may have ended with his residency transfer from New York to Florida.

A judge rejected DDT’s claim of “categorical immunity” in several civil lawsuits from his actions and statements on January 6, 2021 insurrection. The ruling stated that DDT’s plea to his supporters to “fight like hell” to illegally keep him in the White House was not part of his official responsibilities as an elected president. The DOJ, which does not take part in these lawsuits, have stated that a president’s personal or political statements can be a subject for civil liability.

The Fulton County (GA) investigation of people attempting to overturn the 2020 presidential election is getting close enough that it’s hitting nerves. Self-identified law and order Republicans in the state are proposing bills giving statewide oversight on local prosecutors with their ability to remove them from office. The state Senate has passed a bill 32-24 for a commission able to rid themselves of “elected district attorneys or solicitors-general” for a variety of reasons including “willful misconduct” or “failure to carry out duties.” Commissioners would be appointed by the governor, lieutenant governor, and the legislators, aka Republicans. The lieutenant governor is a target of the investigation. Fulton County DA Fani Willis summarized the bill:

“There should be local control until we don’t like who the locals choose.”

State senators called the Black woman “racist” and “emotional,” and DDT, a subject of the probe, echoed the racist accusation. He is pushing the legislature to pass the legislation.

Last Thursday, DDT’s and special counsel Jack Smith’s attorneys battled in court about whether DDT’s defense attorney Evan Corcoran must answer more questions before a DOJ grand jury about his interactions with DDT in the handling of classified documents. Corcoran’s discussion with DDT may have been exempt from client-layer confidentiality if it was an attempt to plan a crime or fraud.

Colorado Supreme Court’s Office of Attorney Regulation Counsel censured DDT’s former attorney Jenna Ellis for violating a professional conduct rule when she lied about the “stolen” 2020 presidential election, especially in “a representative capacity.” She remains “in good standing,” but she testified before the Fulton County grand jury.

Stefan Passantino, DDT’s White House ethics lawyer, is facing a call for disbarment by the District of Columbia after accusations that he tried to persuade staffer Cassidy Hutchinson to say “I don’t recall” to all questions from House January 6 investigators. Passantino, who coordinated her legal defense, told her to withhold behind-the-scenes White House information, didn’t tell her who was financing his representation, and promised the unemployed woman a job in DDT’s circle in exchange for “Trump loyalty.” He also violated client confidentiality by telling a reporter about her testimony with two of his law firm partners despite her “repeatedly and forcefully” ordering him not to do so. Earlier, Passantino lied to government ethics officials about DDT’s payment to Stormy Daniels.

DDT may be performing at smaller venues because he doesn’t pay his bills. Since he left the White House, DDT paid local first responders for working a DDT rally in only one of 30 counties contacted by The Daily Beast DDT. The unpaid tab runs over $2 million. Before he went to the White House, DDT was known for not paying his bills, sometimes even causing family businesses to close, as shown by at least 60 lawsuits with hundreds of liens, judgments, and other government filings.

In February, the FEC turned down a Freedom of Information Act request for DDT’s “recount” expenses after the 2020 election—because the FEC is currently looking into the matter. After DDT lost the election, he raised tens of millions of dollars to block the “stolen” election, but that money didn’t go to recounts. He spent much of the money on himself with another large portion moved to his MAGA PAC. In the past two years, the PAC’s highest paid vendor, receiving the majority of its payments from the “recount” fund, was 2M Document Management and Imaging, created two months after DDT left office to handle document production and review in connection with congressional subpoenas. Donors paid the company $6.2 million, two thirds of it from the “recount” firm. The company’s founder, Matthew Clarke, said, “We didn’t do any, like, recount work.”

The more people who run against DDT for president in the 2024 primaries, the better chance he has of being the candidate because the GOP determines their choice based on plurality, not majority. A question, however, is what happens if he loses the primary but decides to run for president anyway. An analysis of “sore loser” laws indicates a likely loss for him if he does so. These laws restrict losing candidates from running in the general election for the same office in the primary, even for a different party or no party. They apply to presidential candidates in 28 states, 20 of them that DDT won in 2016 or 2020 which have 225 electoral votes—83 percent of those needed for a majority. Texas alone has 40 electoral votes. The Supreme Court affirmed sore loser laws in Storer v. Brown (1974) for candidates other than presidential, and lower courts have upheld these laws. Further analysis here.

https://www.rawstory.com/donald-trump-book-2659570595/      DDT’s latest money-making scheme is selling a coffee-table book costing $99 with 150 letters from world leaders and celebrities. He apparently thinks they are admirers—like Richard Nixon. Letters to Trump is from Winning Team Publisher, co-founded by DDT’s son Donald Trump Jr. He may not have gotten permission to reprint the letters: Jay Leno’s production company claimed:

“Jay did not release, nor authorize any use of any letter to Mr. Trump. The principle that the writers of the letters, not the recipients, retain the copyright has been ‘well-established in copyright law’ for hundreds of years according to Jane C. Ginsburg, professor of literary and artistic property Law at Columbia University School of Law in New York.”

Another lawsuit may be on the horizon.

MAGA’s Cult Leader in Court

In 2016, the U.S. elected its first president who paid a porn star to cover up an alleged affair, a man accused of sexually assaulting at least 23 women, refusing to pay his workers, and cheating older people out of their pensions. A new grand jury has been convened in New York to evaluate the role of former Dictator Donald Trump (DDT) in the hush money payments to Stormy Daniels.  And DDT has also built up an amazing dossier of alleged crimes.

DDT has been involved in at least 3,500 lawsuits, most of them considered frivolous and most of which he lost. A recent one is his $49 million lawsuit against Bob Woodward for using interview tapes in Rage, the book about DDT, with the claim that the tapes could not be used in The Trump Tapes audiobook, released last October. Once again, DDT depicts himself as the victim for political purposes. In mid-January, a federal judge fined DDT and his lawyer Alina Habba almost $1 million for their “continuing pattern of misuse of the courts.” At that time, 59 percent of the voters believed that DDT broke the law while he was in office, and 56 percent support DOJ filing charges against him for the January 6 insurrection.

Even former allies, such as Steve Bannon, have turned against DDT. Michael Wolff’s book Siege: Trump under Fire reports Bannon’s prediction that investigations into DDT’s finances will show that DDT is “a crooked business guy and one worth $50 million instead of $10 billion.” About DDT, Bannon said, “Just another scumbag.” 

DDT has become very nervous about the outcome of the Fulton County (GA) grand jury making recommendations on indictments about pressure to “find” more votes in the state to create a win for DDT. Indictments for illegally soliciting election fraud, interfering in election administrators’ work, and participating in a criminal conspiracy would need to go to another grand jury, but DDT’s rants show his fear of the process.

Proud Boys on trial for seditious conspiracy plan to subpoena DDT as a witness for the defense. They claim that DDT ordered them to storm the Capitol on January 6, 2021. Attorneys argue that DDT called on the insurrectionists to “stand back and stand by” in the 2020 presidential debate, and the Proud Boys were following his order.

An appeals court ruled that DDT must pay $110,000 to New York Attorney General Letitia James’ office because he refused to comply with subpoenas in her probe of his financial dealings. James has a $250 million lawsuit against DDT, his children Eric, Ivanka, and Donald Jr, and the family real estate company for “staggering” fraud which includes allegedly overvaluing company assets for loan, insurance, and tax benefits.

In answers given to James, DDT and his children lied, denying “facts they have admitted in other proceedings,” things “plainly within their knowledge,” and defenses “repeatedly rejected by this Court as frivolous and without merit,” according to a letter from James’ office to New York Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron. Footage released from last summer’s deposition reveals DDT asserting his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination about 400 times in almost four hours. As usual, DDT called the situation “very unfair.”

In a 300-page document that he swore under oath was the truth, DDT lied about not being the Trump Organization president during his time in the White House after earlier testifying he was an “inactive president.” He also declared he didn’t have a financial stake in a partnership with the real estate Vornado, again earlier testifying that he did. As a last resort, DDT’s lawyer Alina Habba claimed that the Trump Organization doesn’t exist.

Donor money to DDT’s 2016 campaign also paid for a nondisclosure agreement settlement–$450,000—to a former campaign aide who claimed she was targeted by another campaign member. The settlement invalidates all the nondisclosure agreements by hundreds of officials in DDT’s first presidential race. The plaintiff received $25,000 with the remainder going to legal fees and other costs. NDAs are a common DDT tactic used as a club. The aide has another lawsuit regarding sexual discrimination against a superior on the campaign.

Last week, a judge ruled that two fired FBI employees, Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, can depose DDT and FBI Director Christopher Wray, in separate lawsuits claiming they were targeted for retribution in the investigation of Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election. Attorneys for Strzok and Page can question DDT and Wray under oath, according to the judge. Strzok is asking for reinstatement to his job and back pay, stating that DDT accepted partisan political speech by federal employees if it praises DDT and attacks his opponents.  

M. Evan Corcoran, one of DDT’s lawyers, now has his own lawyer to protect himself from the DOJ investigation into DDT’s fraud keeping classified documents. Prosecutors have asked a federal judge for the “crime-fraud exception,” alleging that Corcoran and DDT claimed attorney-client privilege, to further a crime. Corcoran gave the FBI over 30 classified documents in June 2022 and drafted that statement that no more were at Mar-a-Lago after a “diligent search.” The FBI’s search two months later found over 100 more classified documents there after DDT defied a subpoena. Three DDT lawyers—Corcoran, Christina Bobb, and Alina Habba—have been compelled to appear before a grand jury about these documents.

The mortgage on DDT’s 72-story tower at 40 Wall Street in Manhattan has been placed on a lender watchlist because of rising vacancies and costs. At his most valuable skyscraper, the vacancy rate climbed to almost 18 percent in the third quarter of 2022, and expenses increased 11 percent since 2015 when he took out the mortgage, now $126.5 million. Its holder Wells Fargo & Co., asked “for a status of leasing developments.” Office values, also worsened by the pandemic, have declined in lower Manhattan for several years.

Last year, DDT refinanced the $100 million debt on Fifth Avenue’s Trump Tower. His vacancy there might be higher if DDT didn’t rent space to his PAC Make America Great Again for $37,541.67 per month even if staffers don’t regularly use the office space. For several months, the PAC also paid the Trump Organization $3,000 per month for a retail kiosk in the tower’s lobby when it was closed.

Other ongoing litigation:  

• E. Jean Carroll: Battery and defamation.
• Mary Trump (DDT’s niece): Fraud for cheating her out of her inheritance.
• Doe v. The Trump Corporation Class Action: DDT allegedly scamming investors into paying for worthless business opportunities.
• Reps. Karen Bass et al. Incitement Suit for Jan. 6 Capitol Attack: Ten House members suing DDT, Rudy Giuliani, and two right-wing militia groups for conspiring to forcibly prevent Congress from counting Electoral College votes on January 6.
• Eric Swalwell Incitement Suit for Jan. 6 Riots: Also for interfering with the votes in a lawsuit against DDT, Giuliani, Donald Trump Jr., and Rep. Mo Brooks as well as violating DC criminal codes on incitement, encouraging the rioters’ violent conduct, and intentionally inflicting emotional distress on congressional members.
• Capitol Police Suit for Jan. 6 Riots (3 different ones): Suing for physical and emotional injuries.
• Metropolitan Police Suit over the Jan. 6 Riots
• NAACP’s Legal Defense Fund Voting Rights Case for Post-Election Actions: Violations of the Voting Rights Act and Ku Klux Klan Act by attempts to overturn the 2020 election.
• DC AG Incitement Criminal Investigation: A probe into incitement of violence.
• Westchester, New York Criminal Investigation of Trump Organization Golf Course: A probe into lying about property values to reduce taxes.

Last year, DDT took $10 million from donations to his PAC for his legal bills, $6 million more than the previous year. Some of the $16 million was to represent witnesses in investigations about DDT’s lies about a stolen election, but $10 million directly represented DDT and his company in lawsuits. Now that DDT is a declared presidential candidate, campaign finance experts are questioning the legality of DDT using the PAC to pay for his personal legal bills. Payments by a PAC exceeding the contribution limit of $3,300 per individual are illegal contributions to the candidate. The biggest payment to a law firm last year was $3 million to a Florida firm involved in the Mar-a-Lago documents case. Another $2 million went to Habba’s firm, representing DDT in several lawsuits including the one brought by E. Jean Carroll and another for DDT’s suit against the New York Times for reporting on DDT’s tax returns.

DDT’s fundraising has been far weaker than in the past, only $9.5 million in the last six weeks of 2022. In four weeks, he spent over $5 million. His campaign reported $3 million at the end of the year, compared to over $19 million at the same time in his 2020 election cycle, and, unlike four years, he will face a highly competitive primary.  

Next week, DDT will give the keynote speech at CPAC 2023 in Maryland. Other presidential candidates will likely be also speaking at the event, and he’ll definitely be trying to out-lie them.

DDT Struggles with Campaign Opening

Once upon a time, the media wouldn’t even use the word “lie” when reporting on former Dictator Donald Trump (DDT) despite the 30,000+ lies he told while in office. Those days are over according to the Time headline, “Trump Delivers Bitter Speech Filled With Falsehoods in New Hampshire.”

DDT kicked off his 2024 presidential campaign with his keynote speech at the GOP annual conference when he “pushed false claims about his own electoral losses and suggested foreign leaders shared his doubts about the outcome of the 2020 vote.” He also defended the “fringe benefits” that he provided the Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg, benefits that put the CFO in prison on 15 felony counts. A possible new meme: “Every day in Joe Biden’s America is a cruel April Fools Day.” In 2016, DDT lost New Hampshire by one-third of a point; his loss in 2020 was seven points. 

Yet DDT is 12 points behind Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis with New Hampshire’s likely GOP primary voters. Heading to South Carolina, DDT said, “I don’t think we have competition this time… We are so far ahead in the polls.” The specter of DeSantis may have been the reason he ranted against transgender rights and critical race theory in South Carolina, tossing in terms like “left-wing radical racists,” “perverts,” and “Marxist hands” as threats to “our children.”

In South Carolina, the rally was missing the state GOP chairman, five GOP U.S. representatives from the state, U.S. Senator Tim Scott who could also run for president, and another potential candidate, Nikki Haley who served as governor before DDT appointed her UN ambassador. DDT’s team had refused to promise them that showing up would not be an endorsement.

The big change in his campaigning includes smaller venues, a high school gymnasium in New Hampshire and a group of 200 at the South Carolina capitol.

Ben Jacobs wrote about DDT’s problem with self-branding  as he tries to be an incumbent and an insurgent. Yet he’s neither—and looks weak, lacking in energy and a coherent message. His meandering speeches didn’t help as he moved from the Taliban’s treatment of dogs to how he’s a millionaire real estate developer but not much of a cook. Next to somewhat moderate Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), DDT denounced RINOs, and the crowd later heckled Graham. Immediately after the January 6, 2021 insurrection, Graham announced he was through with DDT before almost immediately returning to the fold. Next to Gov. Henry McMaster, he denounced electric vehicles that provided jobs, with McMaster’s help, for over 70,000 people in the state.  

DDT’s rants are repeats about the possible release of the report from the Fulton County (GA) to the public. His three-page meltdown on Truth Social included accusations of “Marxists, communists, racists, and RINOs” and repeated lies about a rigged election and “stuffing Ballots, all caught live on tape.” He concluded with the falsehood that “The Election in Georgia was rigged and stollen [sic]. We have all the evidence needed. That is the crime!”

In addition to some in DDT’s base questioning his 2024 run, he also faces at least five criminal and civil investigations about his behavior before and during his time in the White House as well as his continued strident demands to overturn Joe Biden’s presidential election. Interviews with 59 of the 168 RNC members reveal dozens who don’t want DDT to be the 2024 candidate; only four provided complete endorsements of him.

Former DDT associates are also in trouble. Lawyer John Eastman, who created DDT’s illegal rationale for overturning the 2020 election, faces possible disbarment, losing his law license, and 11 disciplinary counts by the California State Bar for pushing lies about election fraud. Some of those lies were testimony to a Georgia state Senate panel in early December. Last year, the FBI executed a search warrant and seized his phone, and last summer he invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination before the Fulton County grand jury. In testimony before the House January 6 investigative committee, he invoked the Fifth about 100 times.

In the contempt charge against a former DDT aide Peter Navarro, another co-conspirator to overturn the election, DDT waited until a week before Navarro’s trial was scheduled to begin on January 30 to support Navarro’s claim that DDT wanted him to declare executive privilege in not testifying. DDT’s communication created an indefinite delay in the trial while the court’s arguments wrangle about Navarro’s immunity.

Traditionally tightwad DDT donated $1 million from his Save America PAC to Arizona’s circus election “audit” intended to overturn the election in that state. He attempted to hide the source, moving money to allied group Conservative Partnership Institute (CPI) and then to a shell company, American Voting Rights Foundation (AVRF) newly registered in Delaware, which gave the funds to contractors and people involved in the audit. The $1 million was the only donation AVRF, controlled by CPI entities, has ever received. Top CPI officials include DDT’s former chief of staff Mark Meadows and other senior DDI insiders. DDT had given Meadows $1 million for CPI soon after the January 6 insurrection.

The GOP vice-chair of the Maricopa County board of supervisors, Bill Gates, said he was “disappointed, but not surprised” at the source of the funding for the Maricopa County audit. Arizona law prevents electoral candidates from funding vote recounts which must be financed with taxpayer dollars, a purpose the Cyber Ninjas served. Gates said, “It is highly hypocritical for the Arizona state senate to have allowed the audit to be funded in this fashion.” He added that the $1 million was funded by small donations to DDT’s PAC with no transparency.

New records reported by an Arizona newspaper show DDT receiving direct updates from people in the audit at the coliseum and his allies pressuring the lead contractor on the timing of reporting the findings. Cyber Ninjas founder Doug Logan used to private messaging system to discuss taking secret donations from DDT.

New York AG Letitia James’ civil lawsuit accusing DDT and his family of widespread bank and tax fraud uses the state’s Executive Law 63 (12) which DDT has been unable to refute. Shut down by judicial threats to sanction his lawyers, DDT dropped two lawsuits against James, one in Florida and the other in New York. The law empowers James to stop any business from “repeated fraudulent or illegal acts,” seeking potentially lucrative damages and canceling its official business certificate. James has asked for $250+ million, revoking Trump Organization’s business credentials, and a ban on it from borrowing from banks in the state. Another New York AG used the same law to take down the for-profit scam of Trump University. A law professor said that DDT’s only defense is claiming everyone lies about real estate values.

DDT has hired another top trial attorney, Joe Tacopina, to attack Mark Pomerantz for writing in his resignation letter to Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg that DDT was “guilty of numerous felony violations.”

Because DDT hates to lose, he lied and said he won the Senior Club Championship at his golf courses in West Palm Beach although he couldn’t play the first round. He was attending the funeral of Lynette “Diamond” Hardaway. DDT counted a strong round two days before the tournament began for his claim of a five-point lead on the second day, better than any players posted in the first round the day before. DDT posted his magnificent win on Truth Social and used it to explain why he wouldn’t need a physical exam: winning at golf is “MUCH tougher.”

Last week, the media addressed the probability that DDT would return to Facebook after Meta lifted the two year suspension following his incitement of the January 6 insurrection. A major reason would be to get donations, especially after his big donors aren’t enthusiastic about him. Even with small donors, FB may satisfy DDT’s needs after recent shifts in donations. A GOP campaign worker said that investment returns for advertising in 2020 could be as high as 200 percent. Two years later it was 80 to 90 percent, and midterm candidates in 2022 “struggled to raise money online,” according to veteran GOP digital operative Eric Wilson. He said the FB has moved from a “golden goose” for DDT to a “bronze goose,” especially if Meta shuts down DDT if he displays the same abuse of the social media platform as other two years ago.

Even without DDT’s leaving his Truth Social for Facebook, people on DDT’s social media are complaining about the ads on the venue. Because major advertisers avoid Truth Social, users are exposed to ads described as “miracle cures, scams, and fake merchandise,” as the New York Times wrote. GOP donors financed Truth Social with $37 million, and the platform goes through $1.7 million each month along with problems with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Online marketer Maxwell Finn, spending over $150,000 for ads called the platform “frustrating” and “bare bones,” lacking even basic functionality.

DDT’s return to FB means more election conspiracy theories and QAnon content, possibly driving off those who don’t tolerate extremism. Until then, I’ll enjoy some of the beauty that people share on Facebook, such as this photograph sent by a friend in Alaska—Seattle on a cloudy day.

 

DDT, the Terrible … Very Bad Week

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis had a bad week: a federal judge ruled that DeSantis violated the state constitution’s free speech rights by dismissing Hillsborough County State Attorney Andrew Warren for declaring he would not prosecute women having abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy, illegal in the state. Another reason for suspending the prosecutor was Warren’s refusal to criminally charging anyone providing gender-affirming to transgender patients. Florida has no state law regarding the issue. Judge Robert Hinkle wrote, “A governor cannot properly suspend a state attorney based on policy differences, and Warren has “prosecutorial discretion” in all cases.

The U.S. Constitution prevents a federal court from reinstatement of the twice-elected Democratic county attorney, however, and DeSantis’ Communications Director Taryn Fenske stated the governor won the case, that the judge upheld the governor’s “decision to suspend Andrew Warren from office for neglect of duty and incompetence.” The judge actually wrote that he found “not a hint of misconduct by Mr. Warren.”

Another Florida politician had a much worse week than DeSantis. A federal judge ordered Deposed Donald Trump (DDT) and his attorneys to pay $1 million in penalties for a frivolous lawsuit accusing Hillary Clinton, the Democratic National Committee, and others identified as DDT’s enemies in engaging in racketeering and creating a huge conspiracy against him. DDT and his attorneys had used the RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations) Act passed to prosecute the Mafia for the lawsuit and demanded over $72 million in damages. DDT’s lawyer Alina Habba suggested on TV that the government had planted evidence during its search for classified documents at Mar-a-Lago in August 2022.

DDT claimed Clinton and the DNC conspired with senior FBI officials and others before the 2016 election to construct a connection between DDT’s campaign and Russia to politically damage him. In September, the case was dismissed, and in November, DDT was ordered to pay thousands of dollars because a defendant requested sanctions. The $1 million came from a group of the remaining defendants, including Clinton, also requesting sanctions. Among other criticisms, the judge found that “the pleadings here were abusive litigation tactics … to advance a political narrative.” 

Examining other lawsuits filed by DDT, the judge ruled:

“Trump is a prolific and sophisticated litigant who is repeatedly using the courts to seek revenge on political adversaries. He is the mastermind of strategic abuse of the judicial process. He knew full well the impact of his actions.”

When the case was assigned to Judge Donald Middlebrooks, DDT wanted to drop the lawsuit, but Habba suggested he push forward. DDT has now dropped his lawsuit against New York AG Letitia James, also overseen by Middlebrooks who cited it as “vexatious” litigation. DDT wants the lawyers to pay the entire $1 million.

New York State Supreme Court Justice Robert R. Reed also rebuked DDT in his lawsuit against his niece Mary Trump about a 20-year privacy agreement regarding DDT’s financial records. DDT claimed Trump violated a “confidentiality clause prohibiting all family members” from making the documents public. New York Times reporters used some of Trump’s documents for their Pulitzer Prize-winning report in 2019 about his financial dealings. Two DDT attorneys, Habba and Michael Madaio, each asserted that the reporters ordered Trump to provide them with information. The judge asked the lawyers:

“You used the word ordered again. What authority did they exercise over her, such that she, a grown woman, licensed clinical psychologist, could be compelled by Sue Craig to take any action?”

Trump’s attorney Anne Champion argued Trump could end the agreement because it didn’t list any date for termination. Champion also cited a decision from a state judge allowing a book to be published despite DDT’s younger brother Robert Trump opposition using the same family contract.

In DDT’s deposition for E. Jean Carroll’s lawsuit against him for sexual assault, he identified a photo of Carroll as Marla Maples. He said, “That’s Marla, yeah. That’s my wife.” His lawyer Alina Habba said, “No, that’s Carroll.” When the news about the assault was made public, DDT had said about Carroll, “She’s not my type.” Millions want to elect DDT as their next president, a man who DDT can’t tell the difference between the woman he allegedly sexually assaulted and one of his ex-wives.

Discovery in LIV’s antitrust lawsuit in California against PGA Tour shows that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has been paying DDT millions of dollars a year for the past two years through the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund (PIF) which owns 93 percent of the organization. MBS picks up 100 percent of the expenses for the league. A strong supporter of the new league, DDT makes prominent appearances at its events and urges PGA players to sign with LIV Golf. PIF declared it doesn’t have to reveal anything because it is an “organ of the Saudi state” and protected by “foreign sovereign immunity.” The news started on the sports pages of USA Today. 

The friendship between DDT’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and MBS paid off too when Kushner received a secret $1.8 bailout for his company after a visit to MBS in 2018. The question was raised regarding a sale of U.S. national security secrets. In 2018, Washington Post columnist and U.S. resident Jamal Khashoggi was lured into a Saudi embassy, tortured, dissected, and burned. Reports indicated DDT knew about MBS’ role in the killing, but Saudi was excused for the horrific death. Classified documents discovered at Mar-a-Lago last August included nuclear secrets related to the Iranian nuclear program, according to many reports, information of interest to MBS.

DDT’s plans to return to Facebook and Twitter can doom his own business endeavor, the social media platform Truth Social. This week, his campaign wrote Meta, FB’s parent, asking for the restoration of DDT’s account, and Twitter’s owner, Elon Musk, already restored DDT’s account on that platform. Facebook’s ban was for only two years and expired on January 7. Truth Social has failed to pay vendors on time and lost several top executives and board members; DDT’s development projects and condo sales have dried up; and his hotel revenue plummeted during the pandemic.

Initially, shares in Truth Social skyrocketed until they dropped after the Securities and Exchange Commission began their investigation into its parent company. DDT’s company can’t access the huge amounts of investor money until the probe into its merger with another company is finished. The value of shares is tied to the level of DDT’s activity on Truth Social, down to $15 late last year from $97. DDT has an agreement with Truth Social that his postings cannot be in any other location for at least six hours, but the rules don’t apply to content related to political messaging, political fundraising, or get-out-the-vote efforts—DDT’s red meat for his audience.

DDT also lost out in the will of his first wife, Ivana Trump, to the nanny. Trump left most of her estate to their three children—Donald Jr., Ivanka, and Eric—but her former nanny got the $1 million Miami Beach (FL) condo and the dog. DDT did receive co-control of her assets with the three children that included a Czech Republic property, a French property, and her gold-covered Upper East Side townhouse selling for $26.5 million.

Special counsel Jack Smith, investigating DDT, is probing the source of payments for his officials’ lawyer fees, one of them the attorney who urged former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson to lie to the House January 6 investigative committee. The lawyer, also DDT’s attorney, would not tell Cassidy who was paying his fees. Cassidy fired the lawyer after he tried to persuade her to lie under oath.

A serious loss for a conservative presidential contender are votes from evangelical Christians.  Although they compose only 18 percent of the U.S. population, their voters were largely responsible for electing DDT in 2016. Now he’s turned on them, ranting about their disloyalty and blaming them for the GOP underperforming in the 2022 midterm election. Last November, evangelicals started searching for options to DDT as president. Mike Evans, an evangelical advisor to DDT who supported him in both his elections, said that DDT “used” evangelicals. 

“We had to close our mouths and eyes when he said things that horrified us. I cannot do that anymore.”

Texas evangelical pastor Robert Jeffress, who interviewed evangelical and possible presidential candidate Mike Pence, said that he’ll probably endorse DDT—just not now—but that Pence will be a “strong contender.” Forty-nine percent of Republican primary voters said they would support DDT in 2024, and 54 percent of evangelical voters said they would support him in 2024. That’s a big drop, however, from the 84 percent of evangelicals who voted for him in 2016, and DeSantis and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo are also pandering to evangelicals.

The Christian right is losing some of its clout as the U.S. grows less religious because of distaste for Republicans’ merging of religious social conservatism with politics, largely from its attachment to DDT. In 2021, half those surveyed think evangelical leaders’ support of DDT hurt the church’s credibility, and 25 percent said this connection turned them against participating in religion.

Lloyd Green summarizes DDT’s problems:

“His ‘campaign event’ this week was a dud, his legal woes are growing and his cronies are viciously infighting.”

Hovering above DDT’s other problems is the Fulton County (GA) court hearing this coming Tuesday and the possibility of criminal charges against DDT.

More Trouble for DDT in December

The public can see Deposed Donald Trump’s (DDT) personal tax returns for 2015 to 2020 and business returns for eight years after a vote by the House Ways and Means Committee. All elected presidents since Richard Nixon have voluntarily made public their income taxes, but House members had to struggle in court for several years to obtain those of DDT. The returns will be redacted to protect business people with whom he dealt.

One startling committee revelation is that the required presidential audit of DDT’s taxes failed to occur for two years while he was in office. The first audit was started only after the House members insisted on seeing the returns, but only one person was assigned to the job. The audit was never completed. DDT talked about investigating his enemies with the IRS, and former FBI director James B. Comey and Deputy Director Andrew G. McCabe, who DDT considered enemies, suffered invasive audits.  

The committee also obtained administrative files and paperwork which could include IRS officials’ notes or audits of DDT’s returns to determine the extent of IRS scrutiny and whether it would change after he was elected in 2016. The taxes may ascertain whether DDT had any entanglements impacting his decisions while he was in office. About 1,100 electronic files of these documents show the agency failed aggressive examination of a difficult wealthy taxpayer with complex returns.  

In 2020 and 2017, DDT declared no income; 2019 showed $3 million and 2018, $23 million, provided by an inheritance from his father, Fred Trump. That income came from over $14 million in gains from the sale of his father’s 1970s investment in the Brooklyn housing development of Starrett City.  DDT’s major tax accounting tricks were sheltering his income by declaring losses. In the six years between 2015 and 2020, the self-proclaimed wealthy man paid under $2.5 million in taxes, which includes the $1 million he paid on taxable income of $23 million, a four-percent tax rate. 

The bipartisan congressional Joint Committee on Taxation found dozens of red flags requiring more investigation. In transactions with his children, DDT received tens of thousands of dollars annually in interest income from three of his grown children—Jr., Ivanka, and Eric—described as personal loans to them which could have been “disguised gifts” to evade gift taxes that his children could write off as interest payments to their father. DDT’s may have received insurance proceeds to settle fraud claims against the Trump University, but he deducted $21 million he paid. He also charged personal expenses as business expenses. Other flags were the $26 million in nine years that he wrote off to unidentified consultants. In 2015 DDT declared $76 million loss in his “other income” category helping him end up $30 million in the hole. DDT’s tax returns were filed jointly with his wife, Melania, creating the possibility that she could also be sued for tax fraud.

Ways and Means Committee member Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-TX) said:

“Trump claimed tens of millions of dollars in losses and credits without the type of substantiation an ordinary taxpayer would likely provide.”

The report reveals that DDT lost money on real estate ventures and other businesses with actual income from interest on his investments. Many people said they voted for DDT in 2016 because he was such a good businessman: his tax returns show what a failure he is.

After selling out and doubling in price on the second day of sales, DDT’s SUPERHERO NFT’s have plummeted in value by 72 percent loss in only one week. The number of cards sold on the OpenSea website also dropped from a high of 6,661 on December 17 to 260 on December 23. The failure made DDT claim that the project wasn’t for money, just for fun. 

In another failure, DDT lost his lawsuit attempting to keep New York AG Letitia James from “requesting, demanding, possessing or disclosing” amendments to his trust in connection with her fraud case. U.S. District Judge Donald Middlebooks in Florida wrote:

“The Trump Organization has already been found guilty by a New-York jury of several counts of tax fraud. To now impede a civil Enforcement Action by the New York Attorney General would be unprecedented and contrary to the interests of the people of New York.”

After DDT filed his lawsuit, Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron ordered a court-appointed monitor to watch over the Trump Organization pending a trial about tax fraud slated for next year. James hopes to bar DDT and the family members in her suit from serving as officer or director in any New York corporation. Despite DDT’s claims of political motivation for lawsuits against him, several courts have denied his claims. Middlebrooks also denied DDT’s motion for a preliminary injunction, asserting he would lose his lawsuit. The judge wrote:

“The rule of law is undermined by the toxic combination of political fundraising with legal fees paid by political action committees, reckless and factually untrue statements by lawyers at rallies and in the media, and efforts to advance a political narrative through lawsuits without factual basis or any cognizable legal theory. Lawyers are enabling this behavior…. Additional sanctions may be appropriate.”

DDT’s Trump Organization was found guilty of all nine counts of tax fraud, and the Trump Payroll Corporation was convicted on another eight counts. Executives received benefits in exchange for untaxed income. DDT was not on trial, but prosecutors tied him to illegal financial activity by pointing out he signed documents for a cut in pay in exchange for plum benefits which should have been taxed. Sentencing is scheduled for January 13.    

To avoid current and future lawsuits, including possible criminal charges from the DOJ, DDT tried to declare presidential immunity but thus far failed. The DC Circuit Court is considering any immunity from liability after a lower judge ruled DDT lacks immunity because his actions are purely political. This civil case concerns three lawsuits filed last year by House members and police officers claiming DDTD prompted his supporters to attack. The appeals court has asked DOJ to weigh in on the issue.

DDT’s attorneys must be getting nervous; they turned in more classified documents in early December found in a private external storage facility in West Palm Beach (FL) near Mar-a-Lago. The documents came from a Washington, D.C. federal office building. In June, one of DDT’s attorneys stated he had no more classified documents before a search warrant uncovered 300 classified documents. Attorneys hired a third party to search four of DDT’s properties for more classified materials.

The classified documents came from a Washington, D.C. federal office building. According to emails, DDT staffers and the federal General Services Administration shipped over 3,000 pounds from Northern Virginia to the Florida storage unit in September 2021. The GSA had helped DDT’s team “secure the storage unit at a private facility in West Palm Beach on July 21, 2021,” 18 months after DDT left the White House.

Attorneys ordered at least three searches after a federal judge pushed them to guarantee they had fully complied with a May grand jury subpoena to turn over all documents with classified markings. The legal team also employed an outside company to search DDT’s Bedminster (NJ) golf club and New York Trump Tower as well as one other property. No classified materials were found in New Jersey and New York. Chief U.S. District Judge Beryl A. Howell told DDT’s legal team to keep searching but didn’t give directions for the process. DDT has lied to his own attorneys about the contents of boxes taken from Mar-a-Lago.

Part of DDT’s ongoing difficulties may come from his lack of qualified advisers. With no senior aide full time, he uses novice sycophants to praise him and give him positive news articles, online posts, etc. Possibly short of money, his current staff tried unsuccessfully to obtain lifetime rent at Mar-a-Lago for the office he created for himself above the club’s ballroom.

One of DDT’s recent scandals was his dinner on November 22 at Mar-a-Lago with anti-Semitic Kanye West and white Christian nationalist 24-year-old Nick Fuentes. Currently, Fuentes is building a large “incel” group of angry men advocating violence against women. Incel, “involuntary celibate,” is the philosophy of men blaming feminist women for disempowering them and denying them sex. The men’s beliefs have led to a number of murders.

Fuentes advocates “burning women alive” when they’re convicted of crimes and wants to gain control with a return to burning witches as in the medieval period. Women are now casting spells, molesting children in schools, and raping men while falsely accusing them of raping women, according to Fuentes. Almost a year ago, he founded Cozy.tv, an “anti-gay, anti-woman, anti-Black, [and] antisemitic” streaming platform that promotes males beating their female partners because females aren’t “as rational as men.” Politicians should spread the incel message among men with the promise to “destroy feminism.”  

DDT has hit a seven-year low in polling with 31 percent favorable views and 59 percent unfavorable opinions. Independents have a 25 percent favorable view compared to 62 percent unfavorable. The 20 percent of Republicans who see DDT unfavorably is the lowest since March 2016.

Winter Solstice 2022, Worst Week for DDT?

[Corrected version for December 23, 2022, blog post]

December 21, the 2022 winter solstice, is the day of the year with the least daylight for the northern hemisphere with the exact solstice time at 4:48 ET, sunset. The darkness of the longest night might be comparable to the darkness of ignorance across the U.S.: one-fourth of its people believe the sun orbits the Earth, over one-third don’t know in which century the American Revolution occurred, and over half believe Adolf Hitler gained his power in a coup although he was actually elected. As the light begins to increase in the U.S., perhaps people will learn more about the danger of Deposed Donald Trump (DDT) and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, prime presidential candidates for 2024.

Disasters for DDT this past week bracketed solstice, beginning with the tenth and last House January 6 investigative committee public hearing and continuing later in the week with the release of the committee’s final report and information about DDT’s taxes.  

On December 19, 2022, the committee summarized the first nine hearings and released the criminal charges against DDT that committee members unanimously recommended to the Department of Justice: obstructing an official proceeding, conspiracy to defraud the government, making knowingly and willfully materially false statement to the federal government, and inciting or assisting an insurrection. In addition, the committee refers four congressional members “for appropriate sanction by the House Ethics Committee for failure to comply with lawful subpoenas.” House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) is one who defied a subpoena from the committee.

 The committee gave evidence that Stefan Passantino, DDT’s former White House top ethics attorney, told Cassidy Hutchinson, an aide to former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, to testify under oath that she couldn’t recall details and keep her answers to “seven words or less.” He refused to tell her that funding for her legal bills came from DDT’s Save America PAC and kept urging her to show “loyalty” and “focus on protecting the President,” promising her “a really good job in Trump world.” Hutchinson was a valuable witness with information about DDT’s state of mind and actions before and on January 6, 2021. Before she testified, she exchanged Passantino for a new lawyer. Meadows also wrote Hutchinson trying to persuade her to be “loyal” and “protect” DDT because “we’re a family.”

U.S. District Court Chief Judge Beryl Howell also unsealed a June opinion stating that several communications among Rep. Scott Perry (R-PA), lawyer John Eastman, and attempted election-overturner DOJ lawyer Jeffrey Clark, and his aide Ken Klukowski are not privileged.   

Under oath, Fox’s Sean Hannity, DDT’s close friend, admitted he didn’t believe DDT won the 2020 election “for one second” but always pushed the lie of DDT’s victory on his show, like other Fox “opinion” hosts did. In his May 2022 deposition, DDT’s former lawyer Rudy Giuliani also admitted he didn’t believe the rigged voting machines lies.

On Wednesday, the committee released its 154-page executive summary of the investigation following an 17-month probe with over 1,200 witness interviews, hundreds of thousands of documents, the issuance of more than 100 subpoenas, and public hearings. It preceded the release of the final 845-page report documenting how DDT has continued to spread lies about his winning the election despite warnings from his family members, Cabinet members, and campaign officials that he should stop. Former White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnamy and national security adviser Robert O’Brien tried to talk DDT out of his rigged Dominion voting machines conspiracy theory. DDT campaign manager Bill Stepian said he locked his door to keep out DDT allies trying to promote the stolen-election claims, one of them Giuliani.

DDT’s lies ignited the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, and urged right-wingers, including a number of hate groups, to keep him in the Oval Office. Court cases about his lies supported by supporters, including far-right media, involve lies about rigged voting machines, “dead voters,” and voting numbers pushing recounts. Conservative states passed laws based on the election fraud lies attempting to destroy democratic processes. DDT’s lies also endangered lives of election voters and created a majority of election officials who believe his lies in many areas of the country.

Other findings:

DDT was central cause of the January 6 insurrection; none of the events of that day “would have happened without him.” The entire White House senior staff wanted “a Presidential statement” to persuade rioters to leave the Capitol. “Scared” Kevin McCarthy, House GOP Minority Leader from California, called Jared Kushner begging for his help to persuade DDT to call of those invading the Capitol.

DDT wanted 10,000 troops to protect himself so that he could march to the Capitol on January 6.

 The attack was “foreseeable”: law enforcement failed.

The RNC knew DDT’s claims about a stolen election were lies but still sought donations using the false claimd, receiving millions of dollars. DDT and the RNC received $250 million after the election, primarily from small donors who believed the lie that their money would help “stop the steal.”

DDT tried to talk to Georgia’s Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger 18 times to overturn Joe Biden’s legal victory in the state.

While DDT continued to claim over 10,000 dead Georgians voted in the 2020 presidential election, his Chief of Staff Mark Meadows said that his son had found a scant “12 obituaries and 6 other possibles depending on the Voter roll acuracy [sic].”

The plan to overturn election in states by ignoring the legal vote and appointing fake DDT electors moved ahead shortly after the election with hundreds of outreaches by DDT loyalists—68 meetings, attempted or connected phone calls or text messages at state or local officials; 18 prominent public remarks targeting the officials; and 125 social media posts mostly from DDT.

Over 30 witnesses invoked their Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination, going so far as to refuse to give their ages. Others such as Meadows and former adviser Steve Bannon wouldn’t be questioned at all.

The hearing was largely about DDT, but the report provided 11 reform proposals to democratically and peacefully transition the presidency between elections—a failure in 2021:

14th Amendment: ban DDT from holding public office because he “engaged in insurrection.” Congress is asked to consider “creating a formal mechanism for evaluating whether to bar” individuals in the report from holding government office under the constitutional statute. In the House, 41 members introduced a bill to block DDT from holding office under 14^th Amendment provisions, ratified in 1868.

Subpoena enforcement: grant Congress greater powers to use federal courts in enforcing its own subpoenas after several high-profile DDT allies refused the committee’s subpoenas.

Protection for poll workers: create steeper penalties for threats to election workers and safeguards protecting their identities.

Tougher oversight of the Capitol Police: improve preparedness of the force through congressional “regular and rigorous oversight” and routine hearings in which the Capitol Police Board testifies as well as assuring “full funding for critical security measures.”  

Role of media: scrutinize “policies of media companies … radicalizing their consumers, including by provoking people to attack their own country” to lessen people galvanized by incorrect information

Insurrection Act: “evaluate all such evidence, and consider tasks posed for future elections” after Oath Keepers’ members called on DDT to deploy armed militia or federal troops to stay in office.

National Special Security Event: make the counting of electoral votes on January 6 a national special security event with increased security protections and advance planning and preparation for the proceedings.

Electoral Count Act: reform the Electoral Count Act of 1887 to protect future presidential elections from being by declaring that the vice president only counts votes and that the number of votes to object a state’s electoral votes increases from one from each the House and the Senate to one-fifth of each chamber.

Combating violent extremism: adopt “whole-of-government strategies” to deal with the violent threat “posed by all extremist groups” and recommend greater information sharing “on a timely basis” on intelligence and law enforcement agencies.

More severe penalties for obstructing the transfer of power: expand federal criminal statutes aimed at punishing victim tampering to include those who try to obstruct, influence or impede the counting of Electoral College votes on January 6.

Accountability measures: go beyond formal recommendations that the DOJ investigate DDT and his key ally, John Eastman, of specific federal crimes and evaluate other DDT allies’ activities “to ensure criminal or civil accountability for anyone engaging in misconduct described” in the document. Further to urge courts and local bar associations to disqualify those in the legal profession participating in efforts to undermine democratic institutions and ask the DOJ to ensuring that agency employees avoid “campaign-related activities.”

Dahlia Lithwick pointed out one lamentable omission in the final report: Supreme Court justice Clarence Thomas and his wife, Ginni, got off the hook. No mention was made of Thomas’ refusal to recuse himself from cases involving the insurrection in which his wife both participated and held a vested interest in the outcome.

Clarence and Ginni Thomas were ultimately untouchable for the Jan. 6 investigators for the same reason they are untouchable for purposes of Supreme Court ethics reform: When you’re a justice, they let you do it. And when you are delivering long-sought victories, even ethical Never Trumpers like Liz Cheney will let you do whatever it takes to deliver the goods.

Tomorrow: DDT’s taxes and more disasters for him this week.

Standard Time Returns Morning Light, DDT Brings Dark

Tomorrow brings a “gift”—an additional hour to the day. The end of daylight savings time “springs back” the time, and people go through another jetlag. Last March, the Senate used a fast-track process to unanimously pass a bill retaining daylight savings year-round, keeping sunrise as late as 9:30 am in some parts of the U.S., according to this map. The House didn’t move the bill. In another 17 legislative days, the Sunshine Protection Act expires with the shift to the 118^th Congress.

Nineteen states and more people prefer daylight savings for the norm, sending children to school in the dark but encouraging shoppers in later afternoon light. In 1974, then-President Nixon signed a bill for permanent daylight savings time to save gas; the new law was so disliked that it was overturned nine months later by then-President Ford. No matter how government changes time, Ali Güler, associate professor of biology at the University of Virginia, said it best: “We cannot stretch the day.”   

According to scientists, the healthiest setting for people is standard time using morning light to reset “our whole internal clock with what goes on in the world around us.” That light maintains circadian rhythms, sleep-wake cycles, and overall health, keeping a person permanently aligned. Time-change disturbs cardiac functions, metabolic processes, and hormone fluctuations. An excellent explanation of the importance to health by standard time.

Life is darker for Deposed Donald Trump (DDT) as he searches for solutions to his multiple legal problems, the latest protection with a presidential candidacy. Using inflation and rejection of democracy, Republicans may retake Congress in 2022. According to his advisers, DDT hopes to take credit for the GOP win and declare his 2024 campaign on November 14.

Stalling has not worked in one of DDT’s lawsuits. The man who brags about never settling lawsuits has settled one with protesters alleging assault at the Trump Tower in 2015 by security guards. The amount of the settlement was not released, but plaintiffs are satisfied, according to their attorney. Attorneys from both sides stated that “the parties all agree that the plaintiffs in the action, and all people, have a right to engage in peaceful protest on public sidewalks.” DDT did not participate in the physical assault on five New Yorkers of Mexican descent, but plaintiffs alleged he should have known the security guard would have behaved in a “negligent or reckless manner.”

DDT claimed he knew nothing about the protest or his guard’s actions, but his former lawyer/fixer Michael Cohen said he told DDT about the protesters. DDT told his head of security, Keith Schiller, “Get rid of them.” Later Schiller told DDT, “I took the sign. He grabbed me, so I hit him across the side of the head.” DDT said, “Good.” Although he said he knew nothing about what happened, he said that Schiller “did nothing wrong.”  

More of DDT’s legal problems:

The House January 6 investigative committee has refused to change the November 14 date for DDT to testify, according to a subpoena. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) has said she thinks that DDT isn’t “man enough” to show up. The committee already gave DDT an additional week to provide subpoenaed documents connected to the January 6 insurrection which were due on November 4.

The House Oversight Committee wants the return of more items from DDT—expensive gifts such as golf clubs, diamond earrings, and the infamous soccer ball from Russian president Vladimir Putin, dozens of presents collectively worth over $50,000 and each worth over $415. Over that sum, the giftee must pay for them. DDT is unable to understand that the gifts were official presented to the president of the United States, not the individual Donald Trump.  

The Manhattan DA’s criminal case against the Trump Organization moved ahead for tax fraud because the company allegedly paid executives with gifts and other “off- the books” compensation to avoid paying taxes on the income. A conviction could result in up to $1.6 million in fines and cause creditors and business partners less likely to work with them. DDT’s lawyers blame former CFO Allen Weisselberg, 75, while still paying him part of his $1 million annual salary. If Weisselberg doesn’t cooperate in this trial, he receives an additional decade to his five-month prison sentence after pleading guilty. His benefits included a luxury apartment, several Mercedes Benzes, a city parking place, and his grandchildren’s private school tuition.

During the trial’s opening arguments, the judge sent jurors out of the room for 15 minutes to caution lawyers not to explain the law after they claimed the case was only cheating on personal income taxes. Lawyers tried to confuse jurors by stating that Weisselberg “acted solely for his own benefit.”

A separate pending civil lawsuit by New York AG Letitia James accuses DDT and his business, family members, and associates of fraudulently inflating or deflating the stated value of their assets for financial gain. This lawsuit could cause harsher punishments than the Manhattan case, including business certificates for the business canceled in New York, DDT and his children banned from leading New York businesses, and a $250 million fine. James also referred evidence of alleged criminal activity to the DOJ and IRS for further investigation.

A New York judge blocked the Trump Organization from transferring funds to DDT’s new business, Trump Organization II, established in Delaware to shield the assets from “ongoing fraudulent activity or deceptive activity.” In another order, the judge guaranteed the demand by appointing a monitor. DDT called on his supporters to protest in possibly more violence.

DDT filed his second lawsuit against Letitia James for bias and “great harm” against him although his own lawyers strongly opposed filing the suit, calling it frivolous. Filed in Florida, DDT’s case searches for friendlier judges and accuses James of trespassing on DDT’s right to privacy in Florida. DDT’s complaint in a federal court in New York was already dismissed.

DDT, his two older sons, and his company face a 2018 class action lawsuit for an alleged scam with multi-level marketing company ACN that paid them $8.8 million. The case accuses the Trumps of racketeering, unfair competition, deceptive trade practices, negligent misrepresentation, and dissemination of untrue and misleading business statements.

Other DDT lawsuits and investigations: two DOJ probes regarding his handling of White House documents and efforts to overturn the 2020 election; a Fulton County (GA) probe into DDT’s attempts to overturn that state’s election; E. Jean Carroll’s defamation case based on her accusation of DDT’s raping her; and multiple lawsuits from lawmakers and police offers seeking to hold him liable for the January 6 attack.

The Washington Post, Politico, and other news outlets accessed eight emails from John Eastman, DDT’s former lawyer who orchestrated the overturn strategy of the 2020 election, because public court documents led to an active link to the Dropbox file where they were stored. The emails revealed the scheme persuading SCOTUS Justice Clarence Thomas to block the 2020 presidential election results by making the public think the results were illegitimate. Although Thomas’ wife was part of overturning the election, Thomas’ involvement is unknown.

The DOJ offered immunity to Kash Patel, DDT’s ally and one-time staffer for Truth Social CEO Devin Nunes, to testify before a grand jury about DDT’s handling of the 11,000 documents seized from Mar-a-Lago last August. A DDT loyalist, Patel won’t intentionally incriminate him at this time, but this agreement requires him to testify under oath about DDT’s claim he “declassified” documents. Patel declared DDT said they were declassified instead of following the legal procedure. In court filings, DDT’s lawyers refused to assert that DDT definitely declassified the documents. In Patel’s October appearance before the grand jury, he used the Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination but can no longer do this if he wants immunity. According to John Bolton, DDT’s national security adviser until DDT fired him in September 2019, said, “There was never a standing order to declassify things.”

A top-notch national security prosecutor, David Raskin, joined the DOJ investigation of classified documents seized from Mar-a-Lago. Raskin already won a guilty plea in the case of a former FBI analyst taking over 300 classified materials to her home, including documents about al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden’s associate. The DOJ may also unseal DDT’s grand jury filing, deciding by November 15.

DDT shifted $20 million from his Save America leadership PAC to a new DDT-aligned super PAC called Make America Great Again and another pro-DDT super PAC tossed $8.9 million into the MAGA PAC. A former veteran campaign finance lawyer surmised that DDT is avoiding laws preventing him from spending his personal stash on a 2024 presidential run. DDT has to make any transfers before declaring himself a candidate, and the scheme may still be illegal in the end.

After maintaining silence for a few days after the vicious attack on Paul Pelosi, the House Speaker’s husband, DDT smeared him, possibly to divert the media from his own problems. DDT doesn’t even have to make up his own lies; he just uses the ones from the millions of QAnon conspiracy theorists. His details are disproved by the video from the Capitol Police’s security cameras, but that hasn’t stopped him or the other liars.

SCOTUS Chief Justice John Roberts gave DDT one temporary victory, a temporary stay for providing DDT’s IRS returns to a House committee until the Supreme Court had made a ruling. DDT has stalled since 2019, and the Washington D.C. Circuit Court had ordered him to turn them over.

DDT’s Troubles Multiply

The House January 6 investigative committee has issued a formal subpoena for testimony and documents from Deposed Donald Trump (DDT): November 4 is the deadline for materials related to DDT’s efforts to overturn the election, and November 14 is the closing date for his testimony. Part of the 10-page statement from Chair Bennie Thompson (D-MS) and vice chair Liz Cheney (R-WY):

“As demonstrated in our hearings, we have assembled overwhelming evidence, including from dozens of your former appointees and staff, that you personally orchestrated and oversaw a multipart effort to overturn the 2020 presidential election and to obstruct the peaceful transition of power.”

Steve Bannon’s four-month prison sentence for refusing a subpoena, the first conviction for contempt of Congress, is an example if DDT doesn’t show up. Bannon is upset about even a light sentence from a DDT-appointed judge for his crime and called it “radically partisan.” Supposedly DDT told advisers he’d be willing to testify live before the committee, but they don’t expect him to follow through.

DDT can delay the subpoenas through the courts as he usually does, “testify” by using the Fifth Amendment not to answer which incriminates him, refuse the subpoena in contempt of court making him look like a coward, or answer questions—which has a one percent of doing. Any one of the four leaves him open to criminal proceedings.

Nineteen categories of document requests including communications with Roger Stone, former Secret Service agent Anthony Ornato, attorneys John Eastman and Sidney Powell, Rep. Scott Perry (R-PA), and over a dozen other officials, associates, and members of extremist groups such as the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers. The committee also wants the “information sufficient to identify every telephone or other communications device” DDT used from November 3, 2020, to January 20, 2021 and specifies communications conducted on Signal—an encrypted phone messaging application—on any personal devices, or any communications conducted by any other means.

Some of DDT’s alleged actions in the committee’s three-page letter to him:

“Purposely and maliciously disseminating false allegations of fraud,” “attempting to corrupt the Department of Justice,” “illegally pressuring state officials and legislators,” “orchestrating and overseeing” the fake-electors scheme,” “corruptly pressuring your own Vice President,” “pressuring Members of Congress to object to valid slates of electors from several states,” “filing false information, under oath, in federal court,” and summoning and deploying his followers “knowing they were angry and some were armed.”

“In short, you were at the center of the first and only effort by any U.S. President to overturn an election and obstruct the peaceful transition of power, ultimately culminating in a bloody attack on our own Capitol and on the Congress itself.”

Requesting a president to testify before Congress is not unprecedented. After they left office, John Quincy Adams, John Tyler, Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, Herbert Hoover, Harry Truman, and Gerald Ford testified. President Richard Nixon provided evidence in response to congressional subpoenas, and sitting presidents Abraham Clinton and Bill Clinton testified. President Roosevelt explained:

“An ex-President is merely a citizen of the United States, like any other citizen, and it is his plain duty to try to help this committee or respond to its invitation.”

The public now knows that some of the highly sensitive documents seized left lying around at Mar-a-Lago included intelligence about Iran and China, one about Iran’s missile program, that could expose methods of gathering information necessary to keep hidden. Leaks could cause retaliation against the U.S. Some of the documents are so sensitive that FBI personnel and DOJ attorneys “required additional clearances before they were permitted to review certain documents.” Classified documents are still missing, according to the National Archives. Maybe at his Bedminster golf resort?  

Fox network compared these materials to “mementos” and compared them to “overdue library books.” DDT has returned to the National Archives and the FBI of trying to frame him by planting the documents.

No criminal referral to the DOJ has been issued—yet. But the DOJ doesn’t have to have a recommendation from Congress to indict DDT.

DDT is also squabbling with his own “special master,” Raymond Dearie, about whether a few records are “personal” and “privileged.” In a phone call with both sides, Dearie said he didn’t understand how DDT could claim records are in both categories. DDT claims that documents, including immigration policies, are his personal property, but the DOJ disagrees. The agency asserts that all documentary materials created or received by a president, his staff, or his office in the course of official activities are government property and thus should go to the National Archives. Dearie said that DDT’s legal team hadn’t provided substance to explain his claims. DOJ said that a former president cannot use executive privilege to keep executive branch materials from executive branch criminal investigators. DDT hadn’t designated documents as personal while in the White House.

After reviewing hundreds of attorney John Eastman’s emails, which he claimed were “privileged,” U.S. District Court Judge David Carter determined the committee may have some of them because they were “sufficiently related to and in furtherance of a conspiracy to defraud the United States.” One email informed DDT that some of his allegations and voter fraud “evidence” in the Georgia election lawsuit were wrong. Last March, Carter had ruled that DDT and Eastman “launched a campaign to overturn a democratic election, an action unprecedented in American history.”

DDT knew there was no stolen election, no huge voter fraud. Yet he has lied for two years and fed the same lies to his chosen candidates. Much to the frustration of GOP leadership, he warns Republicans against early and mail-in voting, telling them to wait until Election Day to cast their ballots. According to Carter, Eastman cannot keep confidential communication private because they were part of an attempt to commit a crime or fraud. Carter concluded the communications were to further illegal conduct.

One of the emails from former White House lawyer Eric Herschmann responded to a comment about his edits in Eastman’s emails:

“I will review now. I didn’t send John edits, I explained that I was concerned about the President signing a verification about facts that may not be sustainable upon detailed scrutiny.” 

The newly-revealed emails confirm that DDT signed a court statement under oath, verifying his lies about voter fraud. The bogus “evidence” was used to push the insurrection, incite violence used in attempts to overturn the election, and elect DDT’s chosen candidates in the primary. Other documents prove that DDT’s lawsuits in swing states were only to delay the Electoral College results certification, not for legal relief.

DDT has used his Truth Social to lambast the judiciary. He called Carter a “partisan hack” and judges in John Durham’s inability to find DDT’s supposed truth “biased.” To Republicans, all their failures are a fraud. After DDT quietly sat for a deposition in the E. Jean Carroll defamation trial, he reposted pieces from Rumble to smear her and repeated the insults about her that led to the defamation lawsuit, leading to more proof for Carroll’s claims.

Considering Tony Ornato a “person of interest,”the House committee plans to interview the former Secret Service official and then White House Deputy Chief of Staff, despite his resignation from the government.  resigned after stalling on a second interview. The concerns were whether Secret Service agents refused to drive DDT to the Capitol on January 6 and the accusation that DDT’s supporters were armed at the rally. Documents support these claims that the Secret Service denied in more lies to federal investigators.

In a newly released audio from by journalist Bob Woodward, DDT claims better rapport with world leaders who are “tougher and meaner.” He talked about liking Russian President Vladimir Putin and gets along well with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan although he commented that people say he’s a “horrible guy.”

For almost two hours, DDT rehashed his whining lies Saturday during a rally at the fairgrounds in Robstown (TX), including the “stolen election” and plans to sue the Pulitzer Prize board because of its 2018 awards for reporting the Russian interference. He’s having trouble finding venues for his rants: GOP operatives fear he’s alienating some voters, and the numbers at his rallies have been shrinking.

AG Letitia James finally served DDT for a $250 million lawsuit in New York state after he avoided process servers for three weeks. She finally got a court order permitting her to send them electronically. Oral arguments are set for October 31 to determine if the Trump Organization immediately needs an independent financial monitor that he appoints and oversees. DDT is also trying to shelter his assets by forming a new business, Trump Organization II, and possibly move it out of state. His lawyer Alina Habba has failed in moving the case to Manhattan’s Commercial Division. 

An early employee of Trump Media & Technology Group’s (TMTG) Will Wilkerson stated that DDT, who already had 90 percent of shares in the parent company for Truth Social, pressured executives to give their shares to his wife, Melania Trump, despite their losses in taxes. He fired one of them who refused. Both DDT’s sons, Donald Jr. and Eric, book equity from TMTG employees. CEO Devin Nunes, formerly DDT’s congressional leaker with no technological experience, also caused employees to quit because he berated them and brought in loyalists.

 The editorial board of Rupert Murdoch’s very conservative Wall Street Journal wrote that DDT should be held to account for his attack on democracy. A conservative voter posted her comment about the GOP: “Where is the honor? Where is the integrity?”