Trump Administration - Festering Skidmarks

[LFC]

I, for one, have no problems believing that he really is this insane.

Former President Donald Trump reportedly believes he's going to be "reinstated" as president within the next two months.

According to New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman, "Trump has been telling a number of people he's in contact with that he expects he will get reinstated by August" because the widely criticized "audit" he's backing in Arizona will show he actually won the 2020 presidential election.

"He is not putting out statements about the 'audits' in states just for the sake of it," Haberman reports. "He's been laser focused on them, according to several people who've spoken with him."

[AnBr]

Trump's underwhelming blog ends with an embarrassing whimper

[goldenvalley]

Jun 2, 2021 17:12:08 GMT AnBr said:

Trump's underwhelming blog ends with an embarrassing whimper

Parscal set it up? Sounded like it was a low rent blog that needed to be sought out.  That's very different for people who are accustomed to the words getting beamed into their Twitter and Parlor accounts...they don't have to look for it there and it's easy to share.  

[andydp]

Jun 2, 2021 17:12:08 GMT AnBr said:

Trump's underwhelming blog ends with an embarrassing whimper

"Don't cry for him all you MAGAs, he fleeced you for the startup." **

Sung to: Don't cry for me Argentina

[LFC]

He has mauled the Trump brand and it shows in the prices of Trump branded condos. I suspect there are people buying them up and just waiting for the building to take down any mention of Trump, like others have done, to gets prices back up.

Former President Donald Trump's once-sprawling real estate business has taken a major hit ever since he got into politics, and the Associated Press has found that Trump-branded condos are now selling at steep discounts because so many people refuse to live in them.

According to the AP, condos in Trump buildings are now the targets of "bargain hunters" across the United States, as the twice-impeached one-term former president's deep unpopularity in urban areas has made prospective buyers reluctant to live in them.

"Fifty percent of the people wouldn't want to live in a Trump building for any reason... but then there are guys like me," bargain-hunting car dealer Lou Sollecito tells the AP. "It's a super buy."

The AP conducted a broad analysis of 4,000 Trump properties and found that "prices for some condos and hotel rooms available for purchase have dropped by one-third or more," which it describes as a "plunge that outpaces drops in many similar buildings, leaving units for sale in Trump buildings to be had for hundreds of thousands to up to a million dollars less than they would have gone for years ago."

The AP acknowledges that it may not be entirely possible to pin the plunging property prices solely on Trump's political rhetoric and actions, but it notes that "things got real bad" for Trump properties right after he incited a violent mob to attack the United States Capitol building on January 6th.

Or as Ondel Hylton, a senior content director at real estate price tracking website CityRealty, tells the AP: "I have never seen buildings plummet so dramatically."

[goldenvalley]

Jun 4, 2021 19:37:36 GMT LFC said:

He has mauled the Trump brand and it shows in the prices of Trump branded condos. I suspect there are people buying them up and just waiting for the building to take down any mention of Trump, like others have done, to gets prices back up.

Former President Donald Trump's once-sprawling real estate business has taken a major hit ever since he got into politics, and the Associated Press has found that Trump-branded condos are now selling at steep discounts because so many people refuse to live in them.

According to the AP, condos in Trump buildings are now the targets of "bargain hunters" across the United States, as the twice-impeached one-term former president's deep unpopularity in urban areas has made prospective buyers reluctant to live in them.

"Fifty percent of the people wouldn't want to live in a Trump building for any reason... but then there are guys like me," bargain-hunting car dealer Lou Sollecito tells the AP. "It's a super buy."

The AP conducted a broad analysis of 4,000 Trump properties and found that "prices for some condos and hotel rooms available for purchase have dropped by one-third or more," which it describes as a "plunge that outpaces drops in many similar buildings, leaving units for sale in Trump buildings to be had for hundreds of thousands to up to a million dollars less than they would have gone for years ago."

The AP acknowledges that it may not be entirely possible to pin the plunging property prices solely on Trump's political rhetoric and actions, but it notes that "things got real bad" for Trump properties right after he incited a violent mob to attack the United States Capitol building on January 6th.

Or as Ondel Hylton, a senior content director at real estate price tracking website CityRealty, tells the AP: "I have never seen buildings plummet so dramatically."

Is part of this because people across the country are fleeing the city and seeking more space in suburban areas.  Who was looking for a condo in a big building in the last year but those bargain seekers?

[LFC]

An IG says that Lafayette Square wasn't cleared for Trump's photo op. I call bullshit. I'm sure there were plenty of people in the dark about what was happening but even from the IG's report it's clear that Barr knew that the square was supposed to be cleared. If anything it convinces me that this was all put in motion well in advance and Barr was deeply involved.

A new report from the inspector general of the U.S. park police paints a chaotic picture of law enforcement formulating a plan to clear Lafayette Square in Washington D.C. and put up higher fencing amid protests last summer, a scheme foiled by poor coordination, unauthorized use of tear gas and a surprise visit by President Donald Trump.

The episode has become one of the most iconic images of the Black Lives Matter protests that roiled D.C. last summer, as protesters were brutally removed from the square shortly before Trump took a photo in front of St. John’s Episcopal Church holding a Bible aloft. Some reporting suggested that then-Attorney General Bill Barr ordered the area be cleared so Trump could take that photo.

The new report from USPP IG Mark Greenblatt found that the square wasn’t cleared for Trump’s photo-op or at Barr’s command — rather, Greenblatt said, plans were already in motion on June 1, 2020 to clear out protesters and ring the park with higher, anti-scale fencing to separate officers and protesters.

At around 6:10 p.m., the report details, Barr stopped by the park, immediately provoking protesters who recognized him. The USPP operations commander told Barr that the area was unsafe, and asked him to move further from the crowd. Barr asked why a crowd remained on H Street, saying that he thought the protesters would be gone by that point.

The operations commander told Greenblatt’s team that Barr asked: “Are these people still going to be here when POTUS comes out?”

The operations commander, who hadn’t known that Trump was planning a visit, responded: “Are you freaking kidding me?” according to the report. He then hung his head and walked away. Barr left the park, and the operations commander maintained that Barr did not instruct him to clear the area.

The USPP incident commander too said that the plan was in motion before Barr’s arrival, and that his visit did not alter the operation or timeline.

“This plan doesn’t get developed in 2 minutes,” he said, per the report. “[The Attorney General] might be a very important guy in the government, he’s just not my boss.”

[LFC]

The House Judiciary Committee released a transcript of Don McGahn's testimony. He basically testified that Trump was repeatedly attempting to break the law and much of his own pushback was self-preservation.

The House Judiciary Committee has released the transcript of the closed-door June 4 hearing with Don McGahn, revealing how the former White House counsel reacted to President Trump’s demands with disgust, refusal, and, eventually, attempts to iron things out.

The interview shows how McGahn worried that firing Robert Mueller would implicate himself in obstruction of justice, and how he declined repeated orders from the former president out of concern that following them could expose either himself or Trump to criminal liability.

While Committee Chair Jerry Nadler said in a press release that McGahn had provided “substantial new information,” much of the testimony rehashed the Mueller report and was constrained by the ground rules set by the Justice Department for McGahn’s testimony.

The testimony “gives us a fresh look at how dangerously close President Trump brought us to, in Mr. McGahn’s words, the ‘point of no return,’” Nadler said.

But in McGahn’s downplaying of Trump’s motivations, and spin of other episodes where Trump sought to obstruct Mueller’s probe, McGahn often tried to resist the conclusions Mueller made about Trump’s conduct, though he would consistently concede that the facts in the report were accurate.

When questioned by a Republican lawyer for the House, McGahn denied that any of the conduct discussed in the Mueller report violated the law in his view.

[goldenvalley]

Jun 10, 2021 14:22:04 GMT LFC said:

The House Judiciary Committee released a transcript of Don McGahn's testimony. He basically testified that Trump was repeatedly attempting to break the law and much of his own pushback was self-preservation.

The House Judiciary Committee has released the transcript of the closed-door June 4 hearing with Don McGahn, revealing how the former White House counsel reacted to President Trump’s demands with disgust, refusal, and, eventually, attempts to iron things out.

The interview shows how McGahn worried that firing Robert Mueller would implicate himself in obstruction of justice, and how he declined repeated orders from the former president out of concern that following them could expose either himself or Trump to criminal liability.

While Committee Chair Jerry Nadler said in a press release that McGahn had provided “substantial new information,” much of the testimony rehashed the Mueller report and was constrained by the ground rules set by the Justice Department for McGahn’s testimony.

The testimony “gives us a fresh look at how dangerously close President Trump brought us to, in Mr. McGahn’s words, the ‘point of no return,’” Nadler said.

But in McGahn’s downplaying of Trump’s motivations, and spin of other episodes where Trump sought to obstruct Mueller’s probe, McGahn often tried to resist the conclusions Mueller made about Trump’s conduct, though he would consistently concede that the facts in the report were accurate.

When questioned by a Republican lawyer for the House, McGahn denied that any of the conduct discussed in the Mueller report violated the law in his view.

What I find baffling is the failure to draw attention to this as it was happening.  Did McGahn so value his job title that he just wanted to stay on in the job and convinced himself he was a bulwark against the then President's self destructive and illegal impulses?  Did he owe loyalty to the office of the Presidency and not to the people of the United States?  Actually a duty to be loyal to the office should entail calling out attempted obstruction of justice.  That preserves the office.  The man and the office are not the same thing.

[goldenvalley]

Jun 10, 2021 14:18:17 GMT LFC said:

An IG says that Lafayette Square wasn't cleared for Trump's photo op. I call bullshit. I'm sure there were plenty of people in the dark about what was happening but even from the IG's report it's clear that Barr knew that the square was supposed to be cleared. If anything it convinces me that this was all put in motion well in advance and Barr was deeply involved.

A new report from the inspector general of the U.S. park police paints a chaotic picture of law enforcement formulating a plan to clear Lafayette Square in Washington D.C. and put up higher fencing amid protests last summer, a scheme foiled by poor coordination, unauthorized use of tear gas and a surprise visit by President Donald Trump.

The episode has become one of the most iconic images of the Black Lives Matter protests that roiled D.C. last summer, as protesters were brutally removed from the square shortly before Trump took a photo in front of St. John’s Episcopal Church holding a Bible aloft. Some reporting suggested that then-Attorney General Bill Barr ordered the area be cleared so Trump could take that photo.

The new report from USPP IG Mark Greenblatt found that the square wasn’t cleared for Trump’s photo-op or at Barr’s command — rather, Greenblatt said, plans were already in motion on June 1, 2020 to clear out protesters and ring the park with higher, anti-scale fencing to separate officers and protesters.

At around 6:10 p.m., the report details, Barr stopped by the park, immediately provoking protesters who recognized him. The USPP operations commander told Barr that the area was unsafe, and asked him to move further from the crowd. Barr asked why a crowd remained on H Street, saying that he thought the protesters would be gone by that point.

The operations commander told Greenblatt’s team that Barr asked: “Are these people still going to be here when POTUS comes out?”

The operations commander, who hadn’t known that Trump was planning a visit, responded: “Are you freaking kidding me?” according to the report. He then hung his head and walked away. Barr left the park, and the operations commander maintained that Barr did not instruct him to clear the area.

The USPP incident commander too said that the plan was in motion before Barr’s arrival, and that his visit did not alter the operation or timeline.

“This plan doesn’t get developed in 2 minutes,” he said, per the report. “[The Attorney General] might be a very important guy in the government, he’s just not my boss.”

The Washington Post article on this sheds a little light.  But I agree with LFC that the White House at least knew the fencing operation was to take place that evening and maybe even orchestrated it somehow.

 The report found that preparations to clear the protesters and erect a fence began two days before the park clearing. But the idea may have gained greater urgency on the morning of June 1, in a meeting Trump held in the Oval Office with his chief of staff, military advisers, Attorney General William P. Barr and other law enforcement officials. The Washington Post has previously reported that Trump was furious at reporting that revealed he had been taken to an emergency bunker on the first night of protests that previous Friday night and the poor impression created that he had no control over the protests consuming key downtown areas in the nation’s capital, according to multiple law enforcement sources and Trump advisers, who spoke on the condition of anonymity at the time due to the sensitivity of the incident.

The group agreed the Park Police and supporting teams of law enforcement officers would extend the perimeter and gradually push protesters further away from the White House and St. John’s Church, which had been vandalized the previous night. By midday, Trump was working with close confidants on a plan to project his control over the city by walking across Lafayette Square outside the White House and over to the church, the Trump advisers said at the time.

The Park Service people deny that news of Trump's plans didn't change their own plans or move up the time schedule, of course.  By some amazing coincidence:

... At 6:32 p.m. on June 1, Park Police officers joined by Arlington County Police and Secret Service officers began clearing H Street on the north side of the park.

Twelve minutes later, Trump began speaking in the White House Rose Garden. “What happened last night was a total disgrace,” the president said. “As we speak, I am dispatching thousands and thousands of heavily armed soldiers, military personnel and law enforcement officers to stop the rioting, looting, vandalism, assaults and the wanton destruction of property.”

The thumping of munitions and wailing of sirens could be heard in the background as Trump spoke.

[LFC]

We all know that Trump weaponized the DOJ as both a defensive weapon to hide his crimes and an offensive weapon to attack his political opposition, we just don't know how egregious it really was. Here's another data point where Attorney General Beauregard Sessions subpoenaed Apple for data of House Intelligence Committee Democrats who were investigating him.

Prosecutors in the Trump administration Justice Department subpoenaed Apple for data from the accounts of House Intelligence Committee Democrats – including Chairman Adam Schiff – along with their staff and family members as part of a leak investigation, an Intelligence Committee official and a source familiar with the matter confirmed to CNN.

Rep. Eric Swalwell of California, another Democrat on the committee, told CNN’s Don Lemon on Thursday evening that he was notified that his data had been seized as part of the probe as well.

The prosecutors, the New York Times first reported, were looking for the sources behind news stories about contacts between Russia and Trump associates.

The leak hunt began with the FBI sending a subpoena to Apple in February 2018, which included a gag order, seeking metadata on more than 100 accounts as part of an investigation into the disclosure of classified information, the person familiar with the matter said.

The gag order was renewed three times before it expired this year and Apple notified the customers. The House Intelligence Committee determined that along with members of the panel and staff, the dragnet collected the records of family members, including at least one minor, the person said.

Records seized included those from staff members who had nothing to do with issues related to Russia or former FBI Director James Comey, including Schiff’s personal office staff, a House Intelligence Committee source told CNN.

Sessions should be hung for treason over this one. This is unforgivable treachery against our democracy. Schiff is calling for an inquiry but I think the DOJ needs to open a case directly against Sessions.

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) on Thursday decried the latest example of the “weaponization” of the Trump Justice Department against the former president’s political enemies after The New York Times reported that the agency had subpoenaed Apple for metadata on some Democratic lawmakers, their aides and family members.

“It violates, I think, the separation of powers, but it also makes the Department of Justice a fully owned subsidiary of the president’s personal legal interests,” Schiff said in an MSNBC interview urging for an inquiry into the matter late Thursday.

Committee officials and two other people briefed on the inquiry told the Times that the records of at least a dozen people tied to the committee were seized in 2017 and early 2018, including those of Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) who is now its chairman.

During a CNN interview on Thursday, Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) said he had also been notified that his data had been subpoenaed. The records of a minor were also reportedly subpoenaed.

“I believe they were targeted punitively, not for any reason in law but because Donald Trump identified Chairman Schiff and members of the committee as an enemy of his,” Swalwell said of the committee members targeted in the investigation.

[jackd]

While the actions of the DOJ may have been contemptible, they may also have been legal. I'm guessing they needed judicial approval for issuance of the subpoenas. If they were chasing leaks of classified information, the FISA court may have been involved.

[Deleted]

Jun 11, 2021 16:44:17 GMT jackd said:

While the actions of the DOJ may have been contemptible, they may also have been legal. I'm guessing they needed judicial approval for issuance of the subpoenas. If they were chasing leaks of classified information, the FISA court may have been involved.

Initiation of the investigation might be been predicated on cause, however dubious. Its continuation after the investigators found nothing post extensive search, especially reopening the investigation, and the breadth of it, smacks of political vendetta. 

[LFC]

Schumer and Durbin want to drag both Sessions's scrawny little ass and Barr's big fat ass in to testify under oath.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) are demanding answers from former Attorney General Bill Barr and other top Trump-era Justice Department officials on the former administration’s secret seizing of several Democrats’ metadata.

“This appalling politicization of the Department of Justice by Donald Trump and his sycophants must be investigated immediately by both the DOJ Inspector General and Congress,” Schumer and Durbin, who also serves as Senate Judiciary Committee chair, declared in a joint statement on Friday.

“Former Attorneys General Barr and [Jeff] Sessions and other officials who were involved must testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee under oath,” they continued. “If they refuse, they are subject to being subpoenaed and compelled to testify under oath.”

The Democrats vowed that the committee would “vigorously investigate this abuse of power,” and called on the Justice Department to provide more information on the explosive revelations, which were first reported by the New York Times on Thursday night.

“This issue should not be partisan; under the Constitution, Congress is a co-equal branch of government and must be protected from an overreaching executive, and we expect that our Republican colleagues will join us in getting to the bottom of this serious matter,” Schumer and Durbin said.

I guess we know where the real Deep State has been all along. What a shock.

[Deleted]

The topic name suggest there's some end to it. Premature.

[Traveler]

I can kind of understand Garland's reluctance to pursue anything dump DOJ malfeasance as being a bad precedent. Like the Barr instructions on the Mueller Report. That precednet horse left the barn long ago.

[Deleted]

Oh yes, the subsequent Republican Administration is going to observe the polite norms and rules. After all someone would let them know it's customary to do so and they would gladly comply.

I can't understand Garland's reluctance. If the practices of the previous DOJ were gravely injurious to the United States then remedies should be sought without political calculations. Not addressing this issue invites more egregious violations in the future.

The rest about departmental or executive privilege is just bureaucratic nonsense.

[goldenvalley]

Jun 11, 2021 19:20:41 GMT Traveler said:

I can kind of understand Garland's reluctance to pursue anything dump DOJ malfeasance as being a bad precedent. Like the Barr instructions on the Mueller Report. That precednet horse left the barn long ago.

I can see the argument that the optics are that of one gang going after the other gang when the presidency shifts from one party to the other.  And there is something to that...the appearance that one party is sane and focused on doing the business of governing, not the business of revenge and pay back.

On the other hand there are people out there ready to do violence on behalf of one party or person...more people than I thought could possibly exist, plus a lot of other people without violent proclivities but just as willing to damage and subvert the government through almost any means possible.  In this situation, calling it out and using legal means to do so is a decent course of action.

[Bact PhD]

Jun 11, 2021 19:54:36 GMT goldenvalley said:

Jun 11, 2021 19:20:41 GMT Traveler said:

On the other hand there are people out there ready to do violence on behalf of one party or person...more people than I thought could possibly exist, plus a lot of other people without violent proclivities but just as willing to damage and subvert the government through almost any means possible.  In this situation, calling it out and using legal means to do so is a decent course of action.

…and that first phrase changes the calculus significantly. As long as the proportion of those willing to carry out violent acts on behalf of a given person/party/cause is extremely small and kept in some sort of check, norms work and work well. Unfortunately, once that proportion hits some sort of critical mass, all bets are off; it’s every man for himself (so to speak).

[LFC]

Pelosi and Schumer have called out Trump's Deep State for their assault on democracy.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) on Sunday decried the Trump administration’s secret seizing of Apple data records of House Intelligence Committee Chair Adam Schiff (D-CA) and Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) as going “even beyond Richard Nixon.”

“Richard Nixon had an enemy’s list,” Pelosi said. “This is about undermining the rule of law.”

Pelosi then took aim at former Attorneys General Bill Barr and Jeff Sessions, who denied knowledge of the secret subpoenas targeting Democratic lawmakers as part of a leaks probe during the Trump administration.

The House speaker, who previously described the secret subpoenas as an “egregious assault on our democracy” by the Trump administration, also echoed calls by her colleagues in Democratic leadership demanding that the former attorneys general testify under oath.

“It is beyond belief. So, we will have to have them come under oath to testify about that,” Pelosi said. “Now, how could it be that undermining the rule of law, undermining the separation of power of the executive branch and the legislative branch, and having these just data mining is something new in terms of where technology has taken us, but not new in terms of something that should never have happened?”

Pelosi argued that although the DOJ inspector general’s investigation into the seizure of the lawmakers and reporters’ data by the previous administration is “very important,” it is “not a substitute” for what Congress must do.

“I know that the Senate has called for some review,” Pelosi said. “We will certainly have that in the House of Representatives.”

The DOJ also targeted former Trump White House counsel Don McGahn and his wife. WTF?

Apple notified former Trump White House counsel Don McGahn and his wife last month that the Justice Department secretly subpoenaed information about their accounts in February 2018, while McGahn served as White House counsel under the Trump administration, according to the New York Times on Sunday.

The Justice Department reportedly barred Apple from informing McGahn and his wife about the secret subpoena at the time.

It is unclear what the FBI was probing, nor whether the former White House counsel was a specific focus.

Susan Collins, being Susan Collins, puts the actual Deep State snooping on Congressional Democrats on a level playing field with the leak of this outrageous act because of course she does. What a f***ing tool.

Collins first outlined the “two serious allegations” that the Trump-era leak probe brings up.

“One has to do with whether or not there was a leak of classified information by members of Congress,” Collins said. “But the second, which is also important is: has the Justice Department abused its power by going after members of Congress or the press for partisan, political purposes?”

[LFC]

We've already seen that Trump's Deep State has acted reprehensibly and was a real threat to democracy. At least they didn't obey all of his fascist dictatorial commands but imagine the next time around when more pliable and even "helpful" people are placed in these roles.

New emails detailed by CNN and the New York Times show how former President Donald Trump raced to begin a pressure campaign on the eventual replacement to then-Attorney General Bill Barr, pushing the new top official to boost his false claims of election fraud even before announcing that Barr would step down.

The Times first reported that Trump sent an email via his assistant to Jeffrey Rosen, the incoming acting attorney general, that contained documents which he said showed evidence of election fraud in northern Michigan, even after similar claims had already been tossed out by a federal judge just a week before in a lawsuit filed by one of Trump’s personal attorneys.

Details from the emails, were revealed on Wednesday morning after investigators on the House Oversight Committee sent a letter to the Department of Justice last month requesting documents relating to President Trump’s efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election prior to the Jan. 6 Capitol attack.

Two weeks after the northern Michigan correspondence, Trump followed up with another email through an assistant, that included a draft of a brief that Trump wanted the Justice Department to file to the Supreme Court that argued that state officials in Georgia, Michigan, Wisconsin, Arizona, Nevada and Pennsylvania had used the pandemic to unconstitutionally revise or violate their own election laws and weaken election security, among other claims.

Trump’s effort to pressure the incoming acting attorney general arrived in Rosen’s inbox around the same time that Trump’s chief of staff Mark Meadows was asking Rosen to examine unfounded conspiracy theories about the election.

The documents provide insight into how Rosen managed the intensifying pressure to submit to examining the big lie advanced by Trump and his allies as Meadows reportedly pressed him about investigating a conspiracy theory that people in Italy had used military technology and satellites to remotely switch votes for Trump to votes for President Joe Biden.

Rosen made clear to his top deputy in one message that he would have nothing to do with the Italy conspiracy theory.

“I learned that Johnson is working with Rudy Giuliani, who regarded my comments as an ‘insult,’” Rosen wrote in the email. “Asked if I would reconsider, I flatly refused, said I would not be giving any special treatment to Giuliani or any of his ‘witnesses’, and reaffirmed yet again that I will not talk to Giuliani about any of this.”

[andydp]

Speaking by phone yesterday to Hannity...



Trump finally admits 'we didn't win' pres­i­dential election

More than seven months after losing the election to Joe Biden, former President Donald Trump took one step closer to finally conceding defeat, although there was a caveat.

"We didn't win, but let's see what happens on that," Trump said in a phone interview Wednesday night with Fox News’ Sean Hannity

Trump has cast doubt on the election results by repeatedly making false claims about widespread fraud, which polls suggest have resonated with a majority of Republicans

The ex-president has been keeping a close eye on an ongoing election audit in Arizona that has no formal legal authority and cannot change the results of the presidential election


www.mynews13.com/fl/orlando/politics/2021/06/17/trump-finally-admits--we-didn-t-win--presidential-election?fbclid=IwAR1D586okOSil3BwGaH3YBcggn2hcqa5R0y5au2GhdAE1beMIZ5ZydpY2J0

[goldenvalley]

Jun 18, 2021 19:49:23 GMT andydp said:

Speaking by phone yesterday to Hannity...



Trump finally admits 'we didn't win' pres­i­dential election

More than seven months after losing the election to Joe Biden, former President Donald Trump took one step closer to finally conceding defeat, although there was a caveat.

"We didn't win, but let's see what happens on that," Trump said in a phone interview Wednesday night with Fox News’ Sean Hannity

Trump has cast doubt on the election results by repeatedly making false claims about widespread fraud, which polls suggest have resonated with a majority of Republicans

The ex-president has been keeping a close eye on an ongoing election audit in Arizona that has no formal legal authority and cannot change the results of the presidential election


www.mynews13.com/fl/orlando/politics/2021/06/17/trump-finally-admits--we-didn-t-win--presidential-election?fbclid=IwAR1D586okOSil3BwGaH3YBcggn2hcqa5R0y5au2GhdAE1beMIZ5ZydpY2J0

It doesn't matter what he says.  He ignited a fire and it's burning way beyond his control.  And this is probably just Trump flapping his jaw anyway.  When he realizes what he said, he'll just retract and say he was joking.  And My Pillow man and Mike Flynn etc will carry on anyway.

[jackd]

Yup, they booed Mike Pence in Orlando today and drowned him out with cries of "traitor".

[Bact PhD]

I wasn’t sure whether to put this beaut here, in the “Assault on…Reality” thread, or the “…Lost Its Mind” thread. Soooo many options…

I admit, I hadn’t heard about this one (paywalled)

www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/italygate-michele-edwards-meadows-trump/2021/06/19/2f6314d2-d05f-11eb-8014-2f3926ca24d9_story.html

Late last December, as President Donald Trump pressed senior officials to find proof of election fraud, White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows emailed acting attorney general Jeffrey Rosen a letter detailing an outlandish theory of how an Italian defense contractor had conspired with U.S. intelligence to rig the 2020 presidential contest.


The letter, which was among records released by Congress this past week, was printed under the letterhead of USAerospace Partners, a little-known Virginia aviation company. In early January, a second Virginia firm, the Institute for Good Governance, and a partner organization released a statement from an Italian attorney who claimed that a hacker had admitted involvement in the supposed conspiracy theory.


According to the conspiracy theory known as “Italygate,” people working for the Italian defense contractor, in coordination with senior CIA officials, used military satellites to switch votes from Trump to Joe Biden and swing the result of the election.


Though her name was not mentioned in either document, both Virginia organizations are led by Michele Roosevelt Edwards, according to state corporate filings reviewed by The Washington Post. Edwards is a former Republican congressional candidate who built a reputation as an advocate for the Somali people and as someone who could negotiate with warlords and pirates in the war-torn region.


Edwards was formerly known as Michele Ballarin but changed her name last year, court records show. In 2013, The Post’s magazine explored how Edwards, once a struggling single mom, had reinvented herself as a business executive and then as a well-connected horse-country socialite who cultivated ties with senior Somali officials.

[snip]

The discovery of the role Edwards’s two firms had in spreading the Italygate conspiracy theory, as well as the roles others played, sheds new light on its origins and on how the claims made their way from feverish online speculation to some of the most powerful figures in the government. As Trump refused to concede defeat, his die-hard supporters pushed the conspiracy theory on social media and other channels as part of an effort to discredit Biden’s presidency that continues today.

Prosecutors in Rome told The Post that they are now investigating whether false claims were made against the Italian defense contractor. The prosecutor’s office said it was examining “various subjects, both Italian and non-Italian.” A conservative Italian news site owned by a politician who has written about Italygate reported this month that the politician and Edwards are among those under investigation.


Italygate appears to be partly rooted in a news article published on Dec. 1 by the Italian newspaper La Verità. In the article, Daniele Capezzone, a reporter and TV commentator described as “the Sean Hannity of the Italian press” by some Italygate proponents, wrote that Trump’s team was investigating whether an official in the U.S. Embassy in Rome conspired with an unnamed Italian defense contractor to manipulate the U.S. election.


Bradley Johnson, a Virginia-based commentator on intelligence matters who says he is a retired senior CIA officer, then advanced a version of the theory in a video interview recorded on Dec. 5 and later posted online. Johnson identified the defense contractor involved as Leonardo, an Italian firm that was coincidentally in the news that day because two men had been arrested in an unrelated hacking case involving the company.


Leonardo did not respond to questions from The Post.


Johnson cited Capezzone as his source. But Capezzone told The Post in an email that he did not identify Leonardo as the contractor in his reporting, and said that Johnson had not contacted him.

And Meadows was ALL IN on it:

On Dec. 29, Meadows sent Rosen the letter from Edwards’s company, USAerospace Partners. The letter was written in Italian and signed by Carlo Goria, who was identified in past news releases as a company contact. USAerospace said last year that it was interested in buying the troubled Italian airline Alitalia, and suggested it would “make Alitalia great again.”


Goria did not respond to messages. In a story published Saturday, Talking Points Memo reported that, in a brief interview, Edwards denied any knowledge of the letter.


Several current and former Trump advisers said they were shocked that Meadows would pass along such a fantastical conspiracy theory, but one former senior administration official said Meadows “bought into some of the more bizarre claims and would push them to the president as well.” The official spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations.


It was not clear from the emails released by Congress how Meadows obtained the USAerospace letter. A spokesman for Meadows declined to comment.


On New Year’s Day, Meadows sent Rosen a link to a video of Johnson, who has said he served as a CIA station chief, discussing Italygate. On Jan. 4, Zack held the conference call with supporters, the audio of which was posted online. Zack told The Post that the call was with volunteers for her Florida-based nonprofit, Nations in Action.


There’s a lot more. You really can’t make this shit up.