Trump’s conspiracy extends well beyond what is cited in the charges

So Donald Trump is finally being charged as the mob leader he has been for many years. It’s about time.

Trump’s father, who told him that he could either be a killer or a loser, and his later father figure, Roy Cohn, who taught him the dark Machiavellian arts, would be proud as putsch, er, punch.

When I heard that among the 41 felony counts in the 98-page indictment, Trump is being charged with conspiring to make a public official break his oath of office (technically speaking, with “Solicitation of Violation of Oath by Public Officer” ), that stood out. In a larger sense, Donald Trump has asked all his followers to renege on their duties as citizens of a democratic republic.

….(snip)….

But Trump’s conspiracy to falsify the Georgia vote count, as heinous and as blatant as it was, pales in comparison to his ongoing and highly successful effort to train a sizable chunk of the American public to despise their own government, to hate the free press, to dehumanize their political opponents, not to take even the most basic precautions in a public health emergency and to embrace all kinds of dangerous conspiracy theories.

Trump’s co-conspirators in this larger scheme go well beyond the 18 people indicted this week and their 30 or so unindicted co-conspirators. They include dark money–funded Republican members of Congress, a number of Republican governors who are avidly experimenting with autocracy at the state level, the Federalist Society-approved majority on the Supreme Court, and the Fox News­-Newsmax-OAN propaganda triad. ……………..(more)

https://www.salon.com/2023/08/16/donald-real-conspiracy-its-much-larger-than-even-fani-willis-imagines/

Trump’s world is falling apart.

Despite a virtually unified Republican front howling that all of the indictments are political hit jobs, the percentage of Americans who believe Trump and team committed real crimes keeps increasing. That number only goes up from here. At this point I have little doubt that Trump will stand trial, almost certainly in Washington, possibly in Georgia, and definitely in NY (unless that trial is pushed back to make room for others) well before the election. Coverage of actual trials will overpower the screams of partisan political spin doctors. Millions of Americans may be immune to actual facts, but millions more are not. It will only get worse for Trump.as more evidence emerges.

The Georgia indictments have pierced a false sense of invulnerability that once surrounded Trump. There were two main factors that previously had propped that up. One was fear of widespread civic unrest ensuing if the legal system made any serious moves toward jailing Trump. That damn has broken. That bluff has been called, and even if there actually was any substance to those fears which have not as yet materialized, the question is moot. The Rubicon has been crossed, there is no turning back, Trump is now being prosecuted to the full extent of the law.

It matters that Trump is facing RICO indictments in Georgia. It frames him as the boss of a criminal enterprise, which is exactly what he is. That framing will permeate all of Trump’s legal travails from here on out, because it resonates as fundamentally true. For a one time President who wanted to fill his cabinet with players who looked like they chosen by central casting, he has become the one obviously drawn from that pool. And everything he does and says now reinforces his crime boss stereotyping. He can’t help himself, Trump was born to play that role.

Georgia matters for another reason, one that many have commented on before. Trump faces State , not federal , charges in Georgia, and so do all of his conspirators. There are many, and over a dozen of them have already been named and indicted wit him. That aura of invulnerability that Trump once had was largely built on the power he held to pardon accomplices who remained loyal to him. Even out of office Trump vowed to regain that office and with it that power. His grip on the GOP base was so strong that most Republicans who sought the presidency for themselves instead still pledged to pardon Trump and associates once in office.

None of that matters in Georgia, and everyone knows it. Even the Republican Party in Georgia is not reliably under Trump’s thumb. It will not change the laws in order to save him. That means that the pressure is on full force for Trump’s associates to flip on him, and to do so soon. The minimum charge for a RICO conviction in Georgia is a 5 year prison sentence, to be served in a State, not a Federal, prison. No pardons are even theoretically possible under Georgia State law, before a convict serves his or her time. Once the flipping begins Trump’s entire conspiracy will be exposed to the bare bones with irrefutable hard evidence. Lots of former Trump loyalists have all of the receipts. Any week now it becomes every “man” for “himself”

Am I ever surprised . . . Trump calls off his Monday press conference (You knew he would)

The former president said his lawyers would instead put “Irrefutable & Overwhelming evidence” in their legal filings over his latest indictment.

Former President Donald Trump will no longer hold a news conference nor release a supposed extensive report that he previously said would clear him and his allies of wrongdoing in the wake of his latest indictment by a Georgia grand jury, he said on Thursday.

“Rather than releasing the Report on the Rigged & Stolen Georgia 2020 Presidential Election on Monday, my lawyers would prefer putting this, I believe, Irrefutable & Overwhelming evidence of Election Fraud & Irregularities in formal Legal Filings as we fight to dismiss this disgraceful Indictment by a publicity & campaign finance seeking D.A., who sadly presides over a record breaking Murder & Violent Crime area, Atlanta. Therefore, the News Conference is no longer necessary!”

Read more: https://www.politico.com/news/2023/08/17/donald-trump-calls-off-press-conference-where-he-said-he-would-share-report-on-georgia-election-fraud-claims-00111785

Dumbass preacher is “nervous” at being swept up in Trump’s conspiracy

Pastor Stephen Lee hasn’t had a very good week (and that’s a good thing).

“I can tell you that he’s nervous,” Lee’s attorney, David Shestokas, told The Daily Beast in an exclusive interview.

“Anybody charged with a crime that serious—a five-year mandatory minimum, and a possible 20-year maximum—is not going to sleep easy at night, regardless of whatever comfort and counseling I’m able to offer,” Shestokas said, referring to the penalty for violating Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act. “But even under those circumstances, I certainly have no guarantees for him.”

On Monday, a Fulton County, Georgia grand jury indicted Lee, a police chaplain living in the Chicago area, alongside Donald Trump and 17 others for a laundry list of election-related crimes related to the 2020 election. Lee, 70, is facing additional counts on top of the RICO charge, including conspiracy to solicit false statements and writings, criminal attempt to influence witnesses, and influencing witnesses.

Lee is accused of trying to pressure a temporary election worker, Ruby Freeman, to confess to a slew of bogus assertions by Trump, Rudy Giuliani, and other MAGA-world luminaries, that Freeman and her daughter, who are Black, surreptitiously introduced suitcases stuffed with thousands of fake ballots into the counting process to help Joe Biden. Trump referenced Freeman over and over during his infamous Jan. 2, 2021 phone call with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a fellow Republican, in which he exhorted Raffensperger to “find” enough local votes to undo Biden’s win. Freeman was “a professional vote scammer and hustler,” Trump lied, calling the 60-something Freeman a “known political operative.”

Lots more at:

https://www.thedailybeast.com/nervous-pastor-stephen-lee-swept-up-in-trumps-georgia-indictment

Trump stabs Giuliani and Ellis in the back . . . which is what he usually does

Donald Trump has a superpower: He gets people to believe he gives a crap about them and that if they work hard for his interests and exhibit loyalty, he will do the same for them in return.

And—this is key—Trump gets them to ignore the legion of broken, unpaid, and abandoned former contractors, employees, and allies he’s consistently left behind. Somehow, he convinces the next suckers that they’re different.

But Trump will never change, and he has now stabbed two more of his closest allies in the back.  

Trump has fashioned himself after a mob boss, but those guys are generally smart—they make sure to keep anyone who might testify against them either happy or dead. We can stipulate that Trump hasn’t resorted to murdering his enemies, but he could at the very least take care of those with access to his damning secrets. For example, he could pay the legal bills of all his indicted co-conspirators, making sure they remain dependent on him for their freedom.

Remember, according to Trump, he is worth “TEN BILLION DOLLARS.” He should have no problem paying those bills. While the full extent of his actual fortune is obviously far less, one would presume that someone who can afford a private full-size passenger jet could also afford to shell out a few million to pay his co-conspirators’ legal bills. It’s simple self-preservation: If they can’t afford to pay their bills, their likelihood of turning into the state’s witness is exponentially higher.

But of course Trump won’t do that.

First we have attorney Jenna Ellis, who pushed every crackpot theory in pursuit of Trump’s Big Lie effort to overturn the 2020 presidential election. Back in March, she was publicly censured by the Colorado state bar, admitting in a sworn statement that she had “knowingly engage[d]” in conduct involving “dishonesty, fraud, deceit, or misrepresentation.”

“The parties agree that Respondent, through her conduct, undermined the American public’s confidence in the presidential election, violating her duty of candor to the public,” read the censure document. “Finally, the parties agree that two aggravators apply—Respondent had a selfish motive and she engaged in a pattern of misconduct—while one factor, her lack of prior discipline, mitigates her misconduct.”

Ellis being Ellis, she immediately then lied about the agreement on Twitter. But despite her years of service to Trump, she was cut off because she now supports Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in the Republican presidential primary.

In response, Ellis created a crowdfunding page to raise money for her legal defense. It has raised around $35,000 so far, enough for maybe 100 hours of cheap legal representation; half that for a top-level criminal defense lawyer. We’re talking one or two weeks’ worth. Still, this fundraising elicited the ire of fellow Trump grifter Laura Loomer, who posted the most hilarious screed on Twitter.

For the last several months, she has been attacking Donald Trump online with @TeamDeSantis. She betrayed Donald Trump (I personally think she intentionally sabotaged him because I can’t fathom how anyone can be as stupid as she is) and decided to support @RonDeSantis instead.

She has been attacking Donald Trump online for having his PAC pay his legal fees, even though his supporters are more than happy to donate to the cause. Jenna has called Trump supporters GRIFTERS and she’s been Retweeting other DeSantis supporters who attack Donald Trump.

Now she is crying online begging Trump supporters to donate to her legal defense fund.

This woman is vile. She’s a liar, and she doesn’t deserve your sympathy, your prayers, your forgiveness or your money.

Again, a smart criminal would pay her legal bills to shut her trap. By cutting her off and publicly attacking her, what rationale does she have for going to trial? She’ll sing whatever hymn Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis needs her to sing.

At least one conservative outlet, Hot Air, noticed Trump’s abhorrent behavior to a former ally. In a story headlined, “She got indicted because she helped Trump and in return he abandons her,” conservative author David Strom wrote, “I find Trump’s abandonment of Ellis and the joy that his supporters have for her being hung out to dry disgusting. Ellis has committed the ultimate sin, which is being a ‘traitor’ to Trump by not being a full-throated supporter of his 2024 campaign.”

“Trump hires a lot of traitors, apparently, since almost everybody he has ever hired has been accused of being one at some point,” Strom quipped.

Now, the assumption had been that Ellis was the only co-conspirator cut off from Trump’s legal financial support. Indeed, of all the co-conspirators, she was the one most vocally supportive of DeSantis.

But nope, Trump even backstabbed his most loyal lieutenant: Rudy Giuliani. CNN has thequally hilarious story.

“With his attorney in tow, Rudy Giuliani traveled to Mar-a-Lago in recent months on a mission to make a personal and desperate appeal to former President Donald Trump to pay his legal bills,” reported CNN. “By going in person, a source familiar with the matter told CNN, Giuliani and his lawyer Robert Costello believed they could explain face-to-face why Trump needed to assist his former attorney with his ballooning legal bills.”

Ha ha ha, the naivety!

“Giuliani and Costello traveled to Florida in late April where they had two meetings with Trump to discuss Giuliani’s seven-figure legal fees, making several pitches about how paying Giuliani’s bills was ultimately in Trump’s best interest,” CNN further reported. “But the former president, who is notoriously strict about dipping into his own coffers, didn’t seem very interested.”

We can all guess what Giuliani, a former prosecutor, told Trump: ”If I can’t afford my legal bills, I will have no choice but to plead out, and they’re going to want something in return!” In response, Trump yawned and essentially shooed him away.

After we all get a good laugh at Giuliani’s expense, let’s remember that he knew Trump had a long history of backstabbing people around him. He just thought he’d be different.

Trump will keep doing that. He still has lawyers representing him, thinking that they’ll get paid for their work, that they’re somehow different from all the other lawyers Trump has stiffed. He still has foot soldiers at his properties slinking around the bushes conspiring on their boss’ behalf, thinking they’ll be protected and rewarded for their service.

It’s like the cliché action movie “you have failed me” trope, when the evil villain kills one of his henchmen for “failing him” and some new dumbass steps up after a “don’t you fail me” warning. Those movie scenes always seem so implausible, yet Trump somehow pulls it off in real life. New people will step up to bask in Trump’s orbit, unaware that they too will someday feel the shiv in their back.

Trump prepares for his big press conference

 

Pic of the Moment

 

Meanwhile — in Trump World, it’s all falling apart.

Despite a virtually unified Republican front howling that all of the indictments are political hit jobs, the percentage of Americans who believe Trump and team committed real crimes keeps increasing. That number only goes up from here. At this point I have little doubt that Trump will stand trial well before the election, almost certainly in Washington, possibly in Georgia, and definitely in NY (unless that trial is pushed back to make room for others) . Coverage of actual trials will overpower the screams of partisan political spin doctors. Millions of Americans may be immune to actual facts, but millions more are not. It will only get worse for Trump.as more evidence emerges.

The Georgia indictments have pierced a false sense of invulnerability that once surrounded Trump. There were two main factors that previously had propped that up.

  • One was fear of widespread civic unrest ensuing if the legal system made any serious moves toward jailing Trump. That dam has broken. That bluff has been called, and even if there actually was any substance to those fears which have not as yet materialized, the question is moot.  The Rubicon has been crossed, there is no turning back, Trump is now being prosecuted to the full extent of the law.
  • It matters that Trump is facing RICO indictments in Georgia. It frames him as the boss of a criminal enterprise, which is exactly what he is. That framing will permeate all of Trump’s legal travails from here on out, because it resonates as fundamentally true. For a one time President who wanted to fill his cabinet with players who looked like they chosen by central casting, he has become the one obviously drawn from that pool. And everything he does and says now reinforces his crime boss stereotyping. He can’t help himself, Trump was born to play that role.

    Georgia matters for another reason, one that many have commented on before. Trump faces State , not federal , charges in Georgia, and so do all of his conspirators. There are many, and over a dozen of them have already been named and indicted with him. That aura of invulnerability that Trump once had was largely built on the power he held to pardon accomplices who remained loyal to him. Even out of office Trump vowed to regain that office and with it that power. His grip on the GOP base was so strong that most Republicans who sought the presidency for themselves instead still pledged to pardon Trump and associates once in office.

    None of that matters in Georgia, and everyone knows it. Even the Republican Party in Georgia is not reliably under Trump’s thumb. It will not change the laws in order to save him. That means that the pressure is on full force for Trump’s associates to flip on him, and to do so soon. The minimum charge for a RICO conviction in Georgia is a 5 year prison sentence, to be served in a State, not a Federal, prison. No pardons are even possible under Georgia State law, before a convict serves his or her time. Once the flipping begins Trump’s entire conspiracy will be exposed to the bare bones with irrefutable hard evidence. Lots of former Trump loyalists have all of the receipts. Any week now it becomes every “man” for “himself”