The Cult Chaos of DDT

Update about the police raid on a small Kansas newspaper: Joan Meyer, the newspaper’s co-owner, collapsed and died after police took her computer and router from her home. They also photographed her son’s bank statements and left her home in a mess. The weekly newspaper reported that the 98-year-old was “in good health for her age”; the raid, which was likely illegal, contributed to her death. A federal law blocks “searching and seizing materials from journalists,” according to the newspaper, and requires authorities to subpoena materials. Eric Meyer, the woman’s son, compared the raids of his newspaper to those conducted by repressive government regimes.

The police claim that they can use a warrant if they suspect criminal activity and that the newspaper asked the state for the “victim’s” driver’s license records. Evidence permitting any exemption to the protection of journalist from searches must be on the affidavit for obtaining the search warrant, according to the newspaper, which petitioned Marion County District court for that affidavit. Within ten days, the newspaper must either receive it or have the request denied. The newspaper stated it checked in state public records after receiving a tip but did not report the story and contacted the police about the tip.

Deposed Donald Trump (DDT) has made an amazing reversal, declaring six times within 30 seconds the idea of a stolen election was just his “opinion.” For almost three years, he declared he has proof while he lost 60 court cases, made telephone calls demanding more votes, wildly claimed destroyed ballots, etc. DDT’s lawyer John Lauro appears to believe his client’s denial of a stolen election can keep him from conviction. Jessica Levinson explains why Lauro is wrong:  

“Smith alleges in the indictment that Trump illegally: (1) pressured state election officials to declare that Trump won the states they represent (even though he did not); (2) attempted to send “fake electors” to vote in the Electoral College (even though they had no power to vote); (3) tried to get members of the Justice Department to endorse the idea that there was election fraud (even though there was not); (4) sought to get then-Vice President Mike Pence to refuse to certify the Electoral College votes (even though he had no constitutional authority to do so); and (5) supported an angry mob who attempted to prevent the certification of the Electoral College.”

DDT can be convicted on all these charges—conspiries to obstruct an official proceeding, defraud the government, and violate civil rights—without showing whether DDT knew he lost the 2020 election. Smith must, however, prove that DDT acted with criminal intent by showing that VP Mike Pence had no authority to reject his constitutional duties by refusing to certify the Electoral College vote and fake electors had no authority to cast their votes on January 6, 2021.

Smith’s indictment lists eight categories of officials, agencies, and institutions, including DDT-trusted sources and closest allies, who frequently told him his claims of a rigged election were false. GOP state lawmakers and officials such as governors and secretaries of state gave him evidence.

Last week, another leading media story centered around a November 18, 2020 memo from DDT lawyer Kenneth Chesebro, identified as Co-Conspirator 5 in special counsel Jack Smith’s indictment of DDT, outlining strategy to overturn the 2020 presidential election. He said it would fail, but he wanted to buy time so that DDT could win his court cases. DDT followed Chesebro’s idea of persuading six swing states to pick fake electors for DDT and have court cases to overturn Joe Biden’s election. Winning these cases, DDT would have electors ready to vote if Pence didn’t allow Electoral College voting. Soon after the memo, Chesebro laid out the directions to establish the “alternative” electors.  

In an attempt to give his plan veracity, Chesebro used a “gross representation” of a law treatise by noted constitutional law scholar Lawrence Tribe regarding congressional limitations in writing that Pence could flout the Electoral Count Act. Tribe stated that Chesebro helped him as a research assistant in the “the very parts of [Tribe’s] treatise” that the DDT lawyer then “misused.” He fully described “Chesebro’s pivotal role in laying the groundwork for ‘a coup in search of a legal theory.’”   

Another ring in this week’s media circus was Judge Tanya Chutkan’s ruling on DDT’s attacks on witnesses. Chutkan said that DDT’s political campaign has no bearing on the case and he should keep his defense “in this courtroom, not on the internet.” She gave no gag order but cautioned him and his lawyers to “take special care” that their public statements in the case could not be seen as intimidating witnesses or prejudicing potential jurors. She added that more “inflammatory statements” could speed up the deadline for a trial, something that DDT desperately wants to avoid.

After Chutkan’s ruling, DDT said that no one will shut him up. His lawyer John Lauro is already trying to cover for him by saying judges and prosecutors will be more lenient with DDT because “of there being sort of a campaign going on.”

Smith’s proposed trial date of January 2, 2024, has made DDT furious. He complained about the trial’s date’s proximity to the January 15 Iowa GOP caucuses—and still says the trial should be after the 2024 election if at all. Chutkan set August 28 for a hearing to determine the trial date. DDT already has five trials between October 2023 and May 2024.

In Fulton County (GA), DA Fani Willis plans to present information from the investigations about DDT and his associates trying to overturn the election on Tuesday. She has text messages and emails proving that DDT’s legal team tried to “access sensitive voting software” from 2020 voting machines in Coffee County in a fruitless search for election fraud.

A grand jury make make multiple indictments under the state’s expansive anti-racketeering statutes allowing charges for both in-state wrongdoing and activities in other states with criminal intent in Georgia. Willis described her probe as “multistate, coordinated efforts to influence the results of the November 2020 elections in Georgia and elsewhere.” Last year, at least 18 people were told they were targets of the investigation, but the state has no requirement to notify people in advance.

DDT’s 2024 campaign is airing an attack video toward Willis, Smith, and other prosecutors. It claims, with no evidence, that Willis “got caught hiding a relationship with a gang member she was prosecuting,” a lie that DDT pushed in his August 8 campaign appearance in New Hampshire. Willis’ only response was to email her staff, directing them to “not comment in any way on the ad or any of the negativity.”

Also in the past week:

DDT is angry that Jack Smith forced Twitter to hand over records from DDT’s accounts. Musk also must pay $350,000 in fines because of the missed court-ordered deadline. DDT used Twitter until after the insurrection, providing a rich trove of messages to prove Smith’s charges. The indictment describes DDT used Twitter to instill in his followers “the false expectation” that Pence could flout the constitution by not allowing the Electoral College count. For seven months, the judge kept the request sealed for fear that DDT would engage in obstructive conduct or flee prosecution.

Smith is also investigating possible fraud in DDT’s PAC, obtaining millions in donations supposedly going into an election defense fund for legal fees to overturn the 2020 presidential election. The fund never existed.

In October 2021, DDT’s adviser Boris Epshteyn was arrested for inappropriately touching two women in Arizona while working to overturn the 2020 election results in the state. His arrest was hushed up and multiple charges dropped.

DDT bitterly rails about how his opponent “put him on trial,” but during the 2016 campaign, he constantly led chants of “Lock her up!” against Hillary Clinton. For months, he also called for the DOJ to “indict” Biden—with no evidence.

DDT is a private citizen but considers himself entitled. He wants a private SCIF (Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility) at his residences so he can look at classified documents at home where he allegedly mishandled these secrets.   

DDT used “America First” as part of his campaign but prefers to be in southern France, yet he’s unpopular in the country. He also attacked the women who played in the World Cup and celebrated their defeat. DDT favors Russian President Vladimir Putin as a “leader unlike what we have in this country” and complains about the world’s lack of respect for the U.S. Since he left the White House, however, surveys show the increasingly positive international perspective toward the U.S.  According to a Gallup report, U.S. leadership had “largely rebounded from the record-low ratings observed during the Trump administration.”

According to bully DDT, Chris Christie is a “fat pig,” especially after Christie called DDT on his lies about his “wall.” DDT wrote he “built almost 500 Miles of Wall” although admitting some of it was replacement. In four years, DDT constructed 453 miles with only 47 miles in places where a wall had not existed, a total of 771 miles of barrier in the 1,954 miles of the southwestern border. DDT’s failed 2016 campaign promises: missing 1,283 miles, and no payment from Mexico.

Smugglers and migrants have climbed over DDT’s wall, tunneled under them, and cut holes through them with cheap equipment. Some of it has just fallen over. Debris pushing against the wall during monsoon season knocked down parts of them. Yet Republicans want to pay more bilions of dollars for more walls.  

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.