Trump Administration - Festering Skidmarks

[andydp]

Shocked, SHOCKED !! Pres Trump would do this sort of financial rigamarole to his loyal donors.


Trump Moved More Than $1 Million From His Political Groups To His Private Business After Losing The Election


Donald Trump never stopped raising funds from his supporters after the 2020 presidential race. His companies, meanwhile, continued to charge his political outfits for goods and services. As a result, the former president has been able to convert about $1.3 million of donor money into business revenue since he lost the 2020 election, according to a review of the latest federal filings.

In case you can't figure out the rest, here's the article.


www.forbes.com/sites/danalexander/2022/06/26/trump-moved-more-than-1-million-from-his-political-groups-to-his-private-business-after-losing-the-election/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=news_tab&sh=490870df955c&fbclid=IwAR0_LT-S2Z8iVsGlQdVJbmrFB7k5Pd1GWR26th0gTvK-ZMEkkr-c92KfY48

[LFC]

Why does this corrupt piece of shit even have a job? And his attempted rehabilitation campaign makes me want to puke.

Mulvaney’s Still Trying To Convince Us He Isn’t Just An Ex-Trump Stooge

Mick Mulvaney, the Trump White House chief of staff-turned-CBS pundit, put out yet another op-ed yesterday about the House Jan. 6 Committee’s hearings, this time urging Republicans to “pay attention” to the hearings because Mulvaney is a Very Serious Man With Serious Takes That Should Be Taken Seriously.

“Clinging firmly to a belief based on false or incomplete information can lead to disastrous results,” Mulvaney wrote.

Excellent point, Mick!

[pnwguy]

Jul 6, 2022 13:09:12 GMT LFC said:

Why does this corrupt piece of shit even have a job? And his attempted rehabilitation campaign makes me want to puke.

Yes, but you keep thinking Trump lost.  That is not possible.  In fact, Jesus descended into his White House bedroom and appeared to Trump in the guise of a pageant queen, telling him not to give up the grift fight, and that he had won by 8 million votes.  His duty to God and Country was to battle on to snatch America from the jaws of Satan Biden.

[goldenvalley]

Hmm two FBI employees that Trump hates are being investigated by the IRS. Coincidence?

Among tax lawyers, the most invasive type of random audit carried out by the I.R.S. is known, only partly jokingly, as “an autopsy without the benefit of death.”

The odds of being selected for that audit in any given year are tiny — out of nearly 153 million individual returns filed for 2017, for example, the I.R.S. targeted about 5,000, or roughly one out of 30,600.

One of the few who received a bureaucratic letter with the news that his 2017 return would be under intensive scrutiny was James B. Comey, who had been fired as F.B.I. director that year by President Donald J. Trump. Furious over what he saw as Mr. Comey’s lack of loyalty and his pursuit of the Russia investigation, Mr. Trump had continued to rail against him even after his dismissal, accusing him of treason, calling for his prosecution and publicly complaining about the money Mr. Comey received for a book after his dismissal.

Among those who were chosen to have their 2019 returns scrutinized was the man who had been Mr. Comey’s deputy at the bureau: Andrew G. McCabe, who served several months as acting F.B.I. director after Mr. Comey’s firing.

Mr. McCabe was later dismissed by the Trump Justice Department after its watchdog accused him of misleading internal F.B.I. investigators. Like Mr. Comey, he had come to be perceived as an enemy by Mr. Trump, who assailed him, accused him of treason and raised questions about his finances long after pushing for his dismissal and prosecution, a pattern that continued even after Mr. Trump lost the 2020 election and began trying to overturn the results.

[LFC]

Jul 7, 2022 0:34:09 GMT goldenvalley said:

Hmm two FBI employees that Trump hates are being investigated by the IRS. Coincidence?

Remember when Republicans accused Obama of using the IRS to punish his political enemies? Once again, every accusation is a confession.

[LFC]

The gullible sheeple continue to get sheared as they clamor to see their Dear Leader.

On Thursday, The New York Times reported that former President Donald Trump is now holding campaign-style rallies — even though he isn't yet running for anything — and charging his supporters huge sums of money to just come and see him speak as part of the "American Freedom Tour."

"The fees aren’t going to Trump’s political action committee, his $100 million war chest. This event was not a Trump rally, where attendance is free," reported by Josh Dawsey, Isaac Arnsdorf, and Sarah Fowler. "Instead, it was a for-profit show, more like a rock concert. The proceeds benefit Trump personally as part of a multimillion dollar deal to speak at the events, according to two people familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations."

"The program ... is the work of a longtime motivational-speaker promoter with a trail of bankruptcy filings and business disputes across the country. A Trump adviser said very little vetting was done on the organizers," said the report. "A spokesman for the tour, Republican media consultant Larry Ward, said the 2020 election inspired the new business venture. 'The tour was inspired by a nation of disappointed voters and a love for President Donald J. Trump,' he said. Ward declined to discuss Trump’s financial deal."

[pnwguy]

Jul 7, 2022 18:32:20 GMT LFC said:

The gullible sheeple continue to get sheared as they clamor to see their Dear Leader.

Hitler obviously left money on the table by not charging admission fees for his rallies at Nuremberg.  No doubt Dumpster thinks he was a loser for not cashing in on his celebrity. But he probably approved of the Nazi's recovery of dental gold at the crematoriums.  "That was good business."

[LFC]

The IRS has asked the Inspector General to investigate the magical audits of Comey and McCabe.

The Internal Revenue Service commissioner has requested that the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration investigate how ex-FBI leaders James Comey and Andrew McCabe were both subjected to a very rare intensive audit, the tax agency said on Thursday.

Commissioner Charlies Rettig, who led the agency during Comey and McCabe’s audits and who was appointed by ex-President Donald Trump, reached out to the IG’s office “personally” to look into the matter, according to the IRS.

The moves came a day after the New York Times reported that Comey and McCabe, some of Trump’s biggest foes, were both selected for an intensive tax audit called the National Research Program in 2019 and 2021, respectively.

Very few Americans ever have to face the program; only a few thousand people get chosen each year.

Comey and McCabe told the Times that they were unaware that the other had dealt with the same audit until they were contacted about it by a reporter.

The IRS has denied the notion that the two former FBI officials had been deliberately targeted, and said that Rettig has no role in that audit selection process.

“Commissioner Rettig is not involved in individual audits or taxpayer cases; those are handled by career civil servants,” the agency said after the news broke this week. “As IRS commissioner, he has never been in contact with the White House –- in either administration –- on IRS enforcement or individual taxpayer matters.”

McCabe, who previously called for an investigation into the matter, told CNN on Thursday that the IRS had taken “the right step” by reaching out to the inspector general.

“But let’s see if the IG moves on it and then makes their findings public,” he added.

Whoever is responsible within the IRS needs to be fired and prosecuted for abuse of power. We know Trump is responsible for giving the order (because seriously who else would it be) but he can't reasonably be impeached yet again.

[LFC]

But, but, but ... HUNTER BIDEN!

Two New York residents were charged with illegally using funds from Chinese and Singaporean investors to donate $600,000 to then-President Donald Trump's re-election campaign in 2017, prosecutors said on Monday.

The scheme was part of an effort by Sherry Li and Lianbo Wang to showcase political connections as they sought funds to build a China-themed park in upstate New York, prosecutors said, adding that they raised $27 million in investment, but never completed the project.

Li called the park "Chinese Disneyland," according to a complaint filed in federal court in Brooklyn.

Prosecutors said Li and Wang made contributions in their own names to a committee hosting a fundraiser for Trump on June 28, 2017, but that the funds came from 12 foreign donors the pair had charged $93,000 each to attend the event with them.

[LFC]

Another Trumper Tantrum as he threatens to sue everybody calling out The Big Lie for definition of character.

I guess he’ll have to come for the rest of us, too.

Donald Trump said today that he plans to sue CNN for defamation, claiming the network and digital news outlet has been defaming him since the 2016 election. And he takes specific and particular issue with use of the term “Big Lie,” a phrase which nearly every mainstream news outlet in America has used as short hand for his attempted coup since the 2020 election.

Trump put out a statement through his Save America PAC today, saying he’s “notified CNN” of his “intent to file a lawsuit over their repeated defamatory statements against me.” He also said he does, in fact, plan to go after other media outlets.

“I will also be commencing actions against other media outlets who have defamed me and defrauded the public regarding the overwhelming evidence of fraud throughout the 2020 Election. I will never stop fighting for the truth and for the future of our Country!”

Which, okay. Best of luck.

In a 282-page letter that Trump’s lawyers sent to CNN executives on July 21, the ex-president’s attorneys warned the network to retract or correct a bunch of online articles and comments made on live television. The lawyers detailed dozens and dozens of statements and published pieces they deemed defamatory, taking issue with the use of phrases like “lies,” “Big Lie,” “false narratives” and “baseless theories” to describe Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

The letter would actually be kind of comical if it weren’t so cartoonish. Taking a page from the handbooks of literal fifth graders first learning to write an essay, Trump’s lawyers outline the “Webster’s Dictionary” definition of a “lie” to argue that Trump’s “comments are not lies” because “he subjectively believes that the results of the 2020 presidential election turned on fraudulent voting activity in several key states.”

You can read the full letter yourself here if you’re a masochist, but it essentially just repeats the same thing over and over as it outlines all the times in the past two years CNN has used the word “lie.”

Wow. Lawyers were paid to research and write this. They must have been thrilled.

[LFC]

Speaking of lawyers getting paid, the RNC has been paying a bunch of Trump's personal legal bills. They just threatened to cut him off if he announces plans to run in 2024 BEFORE the 2022 election. Isn't that interesting. They appear to have leverage over him with just a few million dollars. I would think that would be chump change to a real billionaire.

Republican leaders who worry that Donald Trump could hurt their midterm chances by announcing a presidential run too soon are hoping he'll be dissuaded from doing so by the prospect of losing hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal payments, according to an RNC official.

Since October 2021, the Republican National Committee has paid nearly $2 million to law firms representing Trump as part of his defense against personal litigation and government investigations.

But an RNC official told ABC News that as soon as Trump would announce he is running for president, the payments would stop because the party has a "neutrality policy" that prohibits it from taking sides in the presidential primary.

In January, RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel said, "The party has to stay neutral."

"I'm not telling anybody to run or not to run in 2024," she added. However she has since reaffirmed that Trump "still leads the party."

RNC officials would not comment on the record for this story. Representatives for Trump also declined to comment.

[LFC]

As much as I loathe Bannon and Kushner it does make me smile to think of them kneecapping bully and political weathervane Chris Christie.

It was days before the 2016 election and Steve Bannon was in a “panic.”

Chris Christie was about to get on a plane with then-candidate Donald Trump and was thought to be positioning himself to be chief of staff, and Bannon wanted to derail that possibility as quickly as he could, according to excerpts of Jared Kushner’s new book reviewed by The Daily Beast.

So, he called in Donald Trump’s son-in-law to help.

“We’ve got to keep him off [the plane],” Kushner recalled Bannon telling him.

The conversation continued, with Bannon calling Trump’s White House transition efforts—at that time led by the former New Jersey governor—a “train wreck,” while decrying his appetite for “anti-Trump establishment types.”

“Chris is politically radioactive,” Bannon declared, citing the infamous 2013 “Bridgegate” scandal in New Jersey. He added that Trump “shouldn’t have to carry his baggage.”

[goldenvalley]

If you want a stomach turning long read this weekend take a look at The Secret History of Family Separation in The Atlantic.

It’s been said of other Trump-era projects that the administration’s incompetence mitigated its malevolence; here, the opposite happened. A flagrant failure to prepare meant that courts, detention centers, and children’s shelters became dangerously overwhelmed; that parents and children were lost to each other, sometimes many states apart; that four years later, some families are still separated—and that even many of those who have been reunited have suffered irreparable harm.

 This article is far too long and detailed to adequately excerpt it.  We should all read it to see what monsters were in the Trump Administration, including Trump when it came to undocumented immigration.  Trump, Sessions, Stephen Miller, and a bunch of others created their Zero Tolerance Policy, which Trump himself called Family Separation, with absolutely no interest in ever doing anything but punishing people for crossing the Southern border by removing their children permanently.  Again I have to ask why those who were appalled by this within the administration and who kept pointing out technical barriers that required a delay in implementation did not go public with what they knew.  We sometimes wonder how Germany which was seen as advanced, civilized, and cultured became Nazi Germany.  Here's how it happens. 

[LFC]

Aug 7, 2022 14:18:13 GMT goldenvalley said:

Trump, Sessions, Stephen Miller, and a bunch of others created their Zero Tolerance Policy, which Trump himself called Family Separation, with absolutely no interest in ever doing anything but punishing people for crossing the Southern border by removing their children permanently.  Again I have to ask why those who were appalled by this within the administration and who kept pointing out technical barriers that required a delay in implementation did not go public with what they knew.  We sometimes wonder how Germany which was seen as advanced, civilized, and cultured became Nazi Germany.  Here's how it happens. 

I haven't read this yet but want to mention that this also happens because we have a mass of people who can use their perverse and twisted form of Christianity as an excuse for anything. Hell, this type of behavior makes them feel righteous! As an aside I'd also just like to note that the words on the SS belt buckles translated to "God Is With Us." Sound too familiar?

[LFC]

Oh, Rudy. You were Trump's bitch AND Putin's bitch. Now you're just a little lonely bitch.

Rudy Giuliani had his travel expenses covered by an indicted Ukrainian oligarch’s company as he sought dirt on President Biden, the New York Times reported this week.

It’s a bombshell that requires us to think back, before the election overthrow attempt, before two impeachments, to 2019, when Giuliani was gallivanting around former Soviet states seeking ways to smear Trump’s likely opponent.

The revelation of who was paying his bills would have been shocking — if not entirely surprising — at the time. It remains shocking today. But, if anything, much of the coverage of it is understated.

The point isn’t only that Giuliani’s paymaster is under federal indictment. Rather, it’s who the oligarch — Dmytro Firtash — is.

The Times reported that Firtash’s firm paid thousands of dollars for Giuliani’s travel in summer 2019, including for a stay at the Ritz London and for private flights.

Giuliani and Firtash have issued similar responses to the Times’ report: Giuliani, via an attorney, claims that the former mayor had “no idea” the oligarch was funding the trips. A Firtash representative told the Times that the oligarch was unaware, too, claiming the payments were due to an “inadvertent error” and that Firtash did not authorize the transactions.

The implication of the cash flows, as the New Republic noted, is that a pro-Kremlin oligarch paid for Giuliani’s efforts to dig up dirt on former President Trump’s political opponent at the time: Joe Biden.

A close look at Firtash and allegations around his past connections and dealings sheds more light on who financed Giuliani’s summer 2019 activities.

[LFC]

More on Trumpies flushing White House records they were legally required to keep down the toilets.

While President Trump was in office, staff in the White House residence periodically discovered wads of printed paper clogging a toilet — and believed the president had flushed pieces of paper, Maggie Haberman scoops in her forthcoming book, "Confidence Man."

Why it matters: The revelation by Haberman, whose coverage as a New York Times White House correspondent was followed obsessively by Trump, adds a vivid new dimension to his lapses in preserving government documents. Axios was provided an exclusive first look at some of her reporting.

Haberman reports Trump has told people that since leaving office, he has remained in contact with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un — whose "love letters," as Trump once called them, were among documents the National Archives retrieved from Mar-a-Lago.

[LFC]

Raise your hand if you're shocked. Anybody? Hello?

Former President Donald Trump once asked why American generals weren’t more like Nazis, according to a report. A New Yorker article examining how the Pentagon handled the national security threat “posed by their own Commander-in-Chief” published Monday includes a staggering exchange which allegedly took place between Trump and his White House Chief of Staff John Kelly, a former U.S. Marine Corps general. “You fucking generals, why can’t you be like the German generals?” Trump allegedly once asked Kelly. When Kelly asked which German generals Trump was referring to, the then-president answered: “The German generals in World War II.” Kelly is said to have pointed out to Trump that Hitler’s generals tried to kill their führer “three times and almost pulled it off,” but Trump was said to disagree. “No, no, no, they were totally loyal to him,” Trump allegedly said of Hitler’s generals.

[Bact PhD]

Aug 8, 2022 21:16:33 GMT LFC said:

Raise your hand if you're shocked. Anybody? Hello?

Former President Donald Trump once asked why American generals weren’t more like Nazis, according to a report. A New Yorker article examining how the Pentagon handled the national security threat “posed by their own Commander-in-Chief” published Monday includes a staggering exchange which allegedly took place between Trump and his White House Chief of Staff John Kelly, a former U.S. Marine Corps general. “You fucking generals, why can’t you be like the German generals?” Trump allegedly once asked Kelly. When Kelly asked which German generals Trump was referring to, the then-president answered: “The German generals in World War II.” Kelly is said to have pointed out to Trump that Hitler’s generals tried to kill their führer “three times and almost pulled it off,” but Trump was said to disagree. “No, no, no, they were totally loyal to him,” Trump allegedly said of Hitler’s generals.

Moreover, weren’t the Germans 0-2 in wars fought in the 20th century?

[LFC]

Aug 8, 2022 22:05:56 GMT Bact PhD said:

Moreover, weren’t the Germans 0-2 in wars fought in the 20th century?

I guess that's what you get when you're "just following orders."

[goldenvalley]

FBI executes search warrant at Mar A Lago...according to...

Trump?
Third World behavior?  Like attempted coups?

[pnwguy]

Aug 8, 2022 23:05:19 GMT goldenvalley said:

FBI executes search warrant at Mar A Lago...according to...

Trump?
Third World behavior?  Like attempted coups?

If only it was an arrest warrant.  Fingers crossed for the future.

[LFC]

Aug 8, 2022 14:24:23 GMT LFC said:

Oh, Rudy. You were Trump's bitch AND Putin's bitch. Now you're just a little lonely bitch.

Nothing suspicious about this. Nope, nothing at all.

Rudy Giuliani paid for recent international travel “with cash,” Georgia prosecutors said as part of an argument to prevent the Trump consigliere from wiggling out of testimony this week.

Giuliani purportedly paid cash for travel to Rome and Zurich during the week from July 22 to July 29.

It comes days after the New York Times reported that a company belonging to Dmitry Firtash, a Ukrainian oligarch tied to Russian attempts to muscle in on the European gas trade, paid for Giuliani’s travel three summers ago — in 2019. Then, Giuliani flew on Firtash’s dime to Spain and from the Dominican Republic to the U.S.

Both men said they were unaware of the arrangement.

Prosecutors with Fulton County DA Fani Willis’s office made the statement while trying to push back against an argument from Giuliani that, due to an unspecified recent medical procedure, he would be unable to fly to Atlanta for testimony before the grand jury.

“We will provide alternate transportation including bus or train if your client maintains that he is unable to fly,” wrote Deputy District Attorney Will Wooten in an email to Giuliani attorney Robert Costello.

Prosecutors also attached a tweet that Giuliani sent on Aug. 1, saying that he was “having fun” in the 603 — a New Hampshire area code.

Both the allegedly cash-paid travel and the tweet took place after Giuliani’s medical procedure, prosecutors say.

Giuliani’s spending habits have received prosecutorial attention, including over the payments from Firtash’s company. It’s not clear why Giuliani purportedly chose to pay in cash for the flights.

[LFC]

Aug 8, 2022 23:05:19 GMT goldenvalley said:

FBI executes search warrant at Mar A Lago...

[goldenvalley]

Aug 8, 2022 23:31:55 GMT LFC said:

Aug 8, 2022 23:05:19 GMT goldenvalley said:

FBI executes search warrant at Mar A Lago...

Great find! Let's not get too excited though.  It could a long time before we see anything further on whatever prompted the warrant.

[AnBr]