Trump lashes out at Gov. Doug Ducey following certification

[admin]

John Kelly goes on the record to confirm several disturbing stories about Trump
by Jake Tapper
CNN Anchor and Chief Washington Correspondent
Updated 5:58 PM EDT, Mon October 2, 2023

John Kelly, the longest-serving White House chief of staff for Donald Trump, offered his harshest criticism yet of the former president in an exclusive statement to CNN.

Kelly set the record straight with on-the-record confirmation of a number of damning stories about statements Trump made behind closed doors attacking US service members and veterans, listing a number of objectionable comments Kelly witnessed Trump make firsthand.

“What can I add that has not already been said?” Kelly said, when asked if he wanted to weigh in on his former boss in light of recent comments made by other former Trump officials. “A person that thinks those who defend their country in uniform, or are shot down or seriously wounded in combat, or spend years being tortured as POWs are all ‘suckers’ because ‘there is nothing in it for them.’ A person that did not want to be seen in the presence of military amputees because ‘it doesn’t look good for me.’ A person who demonstrated open contempt for a Gold Star family – for all Gold Star families – on TV during the 2016 campaign, and rants that our most precious heroes who gave their lives in America’s defense are ‘losers’ and wouldn’t visit their graves in France.

“A person who is not truthful regarding his position on the protection of unborn life, on women, on minorities, on evangelical Christians, on Jews, on working men and women,” Kelly continued. “A person that has no idea what America stands for and has no idea what America is all about. A person who cavalierly suggests that a selfless warrior who has served his country for 40 years in peacetime and war should lose his life for treason – in expectation that someone will take action. A person who admires autocrats and murderous dictators. A person that has nothing but contempt for our democratic institutions, our Constitution, and the rule of law.

“There is nothing more that can be said,” Kelly concluded. “God help us.”

In the statement, Kelly is confirming, on the record, a number of details in a 2020 story in The Atlantic by editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg, including Trump turning to Kelly on Memorial Day 2017, as they stood among those killed in Afghanistan and Iraq in Section 60 at Arlington National Cemetery, and saying, “I don’t get it. What was in it for them?”

Those details also include Trump’s inability to understand why the American public respects former prisoners of war and those shot down in combat. Then-candidate Trump of course said in front of a crowd in 2015 that former Vietnam POW Sen. John McCain, an Arizona Republican, was “not a war hero. He was a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren’t captured.” But behind closed doors, sources told Goldberg, this lack of understanding went on to cause Trump to repeatedly call McCain a “loser” and to refer to former President George H. W. Bush, who was also shot down as a Navy pilot in World War II, as a “loser.”

CNN reached out to the Trump campaign Monday afternoon, telling officials there that a former administration official had confirmed, on the record, a number of details about the 2020 Atlantic story, without naming Kelly, and seeking comment. The Trump campaign responded by insulting the character and credibility of retired Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman General Mark Milley, who had nothing to do with this story.

The Atlantic article also described Trump’s 2018 visit to France for the centennial anniversary of the end of World War I, where, according to several senior staff members, Trump said he did not want to visit the graves of American soldiers buried in the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery near Paris because, “Why should I go to that cemetery? It’s filled with losers.” During that same trip to France, the article reported, Trump said the 1,800 US Marines killed in the Belleau Wood were “suckers” for getting killed.

And Kelly’s statement adds context to a story in the book “The Divider: Trump in the White House, 2017-2021,” by Susan Glasser and Peter Baker, in which Trump, after a separate trip to France in 2017, tells Kelly he wants no wounded veterans in a military parade he’s trying to have planned in his honor. Inspired by the Bastille Day parade, except for the section of the parade featuring wounded French veterans in wheelchairs, Trump tells Kelly, “Look, I don’t want any wounded guys in the parade.”

“Those are the heroes,” Kelly said. “In our society, there’s only one group of people who are more heroic than they are – and they are buried over in Arlington.”

“I don’t want them,” Trump said. “It doesn’t look good for me.”

The story squares with another recent story from Goldberg in The Atlantic, a profile of retired Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley, in which Trump does not react well to seeing severely wounded Army Captain Luis Avila singing “God Bless America” at a welcome event for the new chairman. “Why do you bring people like that here? No one wants to see that, the wounded.”

Kelly’s statement also refers to a remark Trump made in response to that same article, which describes Milley, in the closing days of the Trump presidency in 2020, receiving intelligence that the Chinese military feared Trump was about to order a military strike on it. Milley, in a call authorized by Trump administration officials, reassured his Chinese counterparts that such a strike was not going to happen.

That call was first reported in 2021 in the book “Peril” by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa, but Trump said this past week on his social media site that the call was “an act so egregious that, in times gone by, the punishment would have been DEATH.”

Asked for reaction to the suggestion that he deserves execution, Milley told Norah O’Donnell of “60 Minutes” that he wouldn’t “comment directly on those, those things. But I can tell you that this military, this soldier, me, will never turn our back on that Constitution.”

Kelly’s statement to CNN comes days after former Trump White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson sat down with CNN in an interview promoting her new book, “Enough,” and warned the public that “Donald Trump is the most grave threat we will face to our democracy in our lifetime, and potentially in American history.”

“Enough,” interestingly, contains a scene in which Hutchinson and then-White House communications director Alyssa Farah Griffin push back against Goldberg’s 2020 story. Griffin issued a statement to The Atlantic after that story posted denying the report.

Reached for comment over the weekend, Griffin said, “Despite publicly praising the military and claiming to be the most pro-military president, there’s a demonstrable record of Trump bashing the most decorated service members in our country, from Gen. Mattis to Kelly to Milley, to criticizing the wounded or deceased like John McCain. Donald Trump will fundamentally never understand service the way those who have actually served in uniform will, and it’s one of the countless reasons he’s unfit to be commander in chief.”

No other presidential candidate in history has had so many detractors from his inner circle. His former secretary of defense, Mark Esper, told CNN in November 2022, “I think he’s unfit for office. … He puts himself before country. His actions are all about him and not about the country. And then, of course, I believe he has integrity and character issues as well.”

Trump’s former attorney general, Bill Barr, told CBS in June that “he is a consummate narcissist. And he constantly engages in reckless conduct. … He will always put his own interests, and gratifying his own ego, ahead of everything else, including the country’s interests. Our country can’t, you know, can’t be a therapy session for you know, a troubled man like this.”

CNN’s Kristen Holmes contributed to this story.

[admin]

Trump Mar-a-Lago LIE Comes Back to HAUNT HIM [A multi-billionaire? A Forbes 400 billionaire? No way. Underneath it he's a 100 millionaire.]
by Michael Popok
MeidasTouch
Oct 5, 2023

Popok can’t take Trump’s lawyers’ lying to the people about how much his “trophy” properties are worth anymore. In his Hot Take, Michael Popok who has lived and practiced law in Florida and New York and visited Mar-a-Lago back in the day, explains why the trial team of Habba and Kise are “undereducated” when they discuss Trump’s businesses and his properties value, starting with Mar a Lago.”



Transcript

This is Michael Popok LegalAF. I can't take it anymore. That's why I had to put on these glasses today. I can't take the lying in the opening statements for the fraud trial of the century against Donald Trump and all the Trumpers that just started this week. finally it's here. I say finally it's here, it's only been a year. Leticia James brought her case in September of last year. she's trying her case -- at least the remaining parts of it -- she's already won on summary judgment now -- and they keep lying at every turn, the lawyers for Donald Trump -- Alina Habba -- understood -- Chris Kise -- whatever happened to you? -- about the value of Donald Trump's property and businesses. It's just lies. And I'm finally going to blow it up here. And I'm going to use Mar-a-Lago as an example. From a practicing Florida lawyer, and in New York, I'm uniquely qualified, I believe, and having lived in Palm Beach County, to talk about Mar-A-Lago land use and zoning restrictions that make that property not worth anywhere close to what Donald Trump's lawyers just said in their opening statement. I'm going to explain it here, right now, one place, Meidastouch, on a hot-take, another Popok hot-take.

Let's start with why I'm so fired up this morning over the lying. And I'm going to make an admission. Having watched Donald Trump in action since I was a young man, all the way till now, in his business practices -- I lived in New Jersey -- I watched him operate the casinos -- lived in New York -- watched them operate not a development company -- that's putting it nicely -- I would not call Donald Trump a successful real estate developer. You know who can call him a successful real estate developer? People that don't know him well, like Chris Kise and Alina Habba, and don't know what he's all about, and are being paid to say whatever they're saying. He is at best, in his family, a moderately successful real estate management firm and licensing firm about his name. He really doesn't build buildings, and never has, from the ground up, right? From a a giant hole -- you know, of a foundation, you know, below the surface of the earth, all the way to a Topper on the top of a building. That's not really Donald Trump. His father built a lot of apartment buildings in Queens, which is another section of New York, but not a New York developer, or even a worldwide developer. When you see Donald Trump's name emblazoned on buildings in brass or gold, it's likely a licensing deal, where he had very little role in the look and feel of the building. But they paid him a dollar amount in order to put his name on the building. That's called a licensing fee. Maybe he manages the building. Maybe he just looked at some of the furniture, fabric, and electrics, and said yeah, I like those, I don't like those. Use this furniture, not that furniture. That's it. But building a building? That means going to a bank, and getting a construction loan, a series of loans at different phases of the building, as it comes out of the ground. Or multiple houses across a plot of land. That he's not known for. Underneath the fraud that created this multi-billionaire is a reasonably commonplace 100 millionaire that has that business underneath. There's a reason that Donald Trump became an anchor or a host of the Celebrity Apprentice. Name for me -- I did this on another hot-take -- name for me -- I'll give you time -- the amount of successful billionaire real estate developers sitting in New York, or other places, that would think to host a reality TV show, or did? None. The reason Donald Trump did, is he was on the balls of his ass financially, having gone through three bankruptcies, including bankrupting a casino in Atlantic City, and being put on an allowance by the bankruptcy judge, and so he didn't have that much money. He had grandiose theories about himself, and mythology about himself, and big spending habits for him and his family, but a billionaire? A multi-billionaire? A Forbes 400 billionaire? No way. So that's the fraud, right? The avarice and greed of Donald Trump? Underneath it he's a 100 millionaire. But he doesn't like that, so he pumps it up 10 times, 50 times, 100 times, on his financial statement, and he did it -- let me give the example of Mar-a-Lago, once and for all from somebody that's actually visited Mar-a-Lago.

Salty our producer, can we get arrows? Okay. I've been there, and I remember the deal, because I lived in Palm Beach County when this happened. And I watched it. Mar-a-Lago was sort of a falling down mansion, right? -- like a Gray Gardens type mansion -- that was owned, I think, by the Post family, if I'm getting my numbers right, my math right. Palm Beach, the island of Palm Beach, the municipality of Palm Beach, which is on the beach itself, didn't know what to do with it. And Donald Trump came in, and for like no money -- I forget the purchase price, but it was really low I don't know if it was 5 million or 10 million. [10 million] I think it was even less than that. And he wanted to live there, but he also wanted to redevelop it as a club. It wasn't a club, it was a private home. And Palm Beach County has a bunch of clubs, and they didn't really want anymore. And they didn't want him living at it. So he had to make a series of commitments -- deed restrictions -- in the development of Mar-a-Lago, in order to get approved to live there. If he didn't, if he just wanted to tear it down, and put up something else, he probably could have put up a single family mansion. You know, it's 15 acres, so it was a big piece of property. But they weren't going to let him put like 15 homes on there. I mean, they might have at the time, 40 years ago, maybe, but he didn't want to do that. He wanted to keep the mansion, he wanted to do it on the cheap -- refurbish it as a club private club, and then live in it. And they were like "eh, living in it, we don't like the living in it part." Palm Beach County and Palm Beach itself, the city, and he, agreed to a bunch of deed restrictions about the development of the property, which lowered tremendously the ultimate value of that property. Indeed, restrictions in the real estate world, we say, it runs with the land. You can't get rid of them. And you can't get rid of, it's very hard to get rid of zoning and land use restrictions that you've agreed on as a condition of letting you buy the building. And that's what Palm Beach is all hot and bothered about. Palm Beach's current council, or commissioner, was probably like "thank God he's not coming before us right now, there's no way we would agree to do any of these things." The only way for that piece of 15 acres, which is arguably, you know, near the beach, and valuable, to have the value ascribed to it by Donald Trump and his lawyers, who don't know real estate at all, in their opening statement, would be if there were no deed restrictions, and no conservation easements. Meaning, Donald Trump got a tremendous tax break, because he said most of the 15 acres was going to be conserved as green space, not developed, which was a big sigh of relief to people in Palm Beach, because this isle of Palm Beach, they all have like gazillion dollar, tens of millions of dollars of homes. And they didn't want 15 new homes to come on the market, developed by Donald Trump, with a giant black and gold Donald Trump sign, and they certainly didn't want a tower of, you know, 30 40, 50 stories of condos, with hundreds of condominiums flooding the market, lowering their property value, and putting lots of people on the roads and infrastructure of Palm Beach. I mean they like their little enclave. And there used to be a joke that if they could roll up -- there's a two bridges that go between Palm Beach, the island, the rich enclave, sort of the Beverly Hills of that area, and West Palm Beach, where the working class lived and worked, that they could roll up the bridges at night, they would. But they can't. That's why, if you go to Palm Beach itself, the municipal beach, there's no place to go to the bathroom. There's no place to get a sandwich or a soda. Because they don't want the public to be there soiling their beaches, spoiling their pristine beaches. They want to walk out of their condos, or their houses, go to the beach, and go back, and not have to see anybody. And so that's the place that said, "you want to live there, that's weird. You got to give us all these restrictions." And that lowers the value.

Yes, I will agree with Alina Habba, that if you could use the property for its highest and best use, without regard to zoning law, land use law, deed restrictions, tax restrictions, and easements -- just all those things -- and you could develop the property freely, for whatever the land use and zoning -- or no land use and zoning -- would allow you, if you could just cram 30 houses on there to develop -- even though there's at least a one acre requirement per building lot -- if you could just put up a hundred story building in the middle of Palm Beach County -- although you never could -- if you could do all of that, it could be worth a billion dollars. Or if -- to use her phrase in the opening statement -- there's a buyer for it at a billion dollars -- that's real estate, not fraud. No, that's fraud. Because if anybody's paying a billion dollars for a property that's worth 50 million, then they're hoping that Donald Trump gets back into office, and they're trying to curry favor, and that's what Judge Engoron said in his summary judgment ruling in favor of the New York attorney general just last Tuesday, finding at the heart of the case that there has a been persistent fraud perpetrated by Donald Trump, and all the others, for years, that's put hundreds of millions of dollars in his pocket. It overinflated his net worth by billions of dollars. And he said, "yes" -- in a footnote -- "you might be able to find the hypothetical Saudi Arabian, or somebody from Dubai, or somebody from China, to buy the property at some rate that's not tied to the market, not tied to the buy and sell of the market, but that probably would be for influence pedaling, and influence buying, more than property value."

And that's where we are.

So there's two different Mar-a-Lagos. There's the fantasy Mar-a-Lago of Donald Trump, and his lawyers' creation, that exists in a universe of his own, without a town council, or commissioner, making land use and zoning regulations. Without a land use and zoning map. Or book, or code, that governs and regulates land use and zoning in Palm Beach County. Without a master plan, as they call it in Florida. Without deed restrictions that you've agreed to in order to live on the property. Without -- you can see all the things I've got to leave out -- without conservation easements that you've granted in order to lower your taxes, and promise that you'll keep the green space. If you could get that, if you had all of that, sure, 15 Acres in Palm Beach County, a prime location, not right on the beach, but off the beach, sure, it has value. It's probably several hundred million dollars.

I'll give you an example. 10 years ago a piece of dirt, just dirt, and this is 10 years ago, in Miami, off Brickle, on the water, to be used for a giant Tower, went for $50 million. And then they put a giant gazillion dollar building on it 70 stories high, and made themselves a billion dollars. So $50 million didn't really mean much. So yes, if you could develop 15 acres, without regard to law, zoning easements, deed restrictions, or anything else, it could be worth a lot more money than what it's currently worth. But then if you layer back on all of the restrictions I've just outlined, which which reduce, reduce, reduce the value, the use of the property, the appraised value of the property, down, down, down, then you're down to the 50 or 60 or $70 million, or whatever it is that the New York attorney general has subscribed to it. I'm not going down as low as the 18 or 20 million that the Palm Beach County Tax Assessor's office has assigned to it, cuz I'll be frank -- I lived in Palm Beach County. I've had houses that have been assessed. And in in Miami Dade County, the property assessor is usually behind the market. The market is usually a bit hotter than the property assessor. It could be off by up to 50%. But that's not what the New York attorney general is saying. We're not using the appraised value. And Engoron is saying, "I'm not using the appraised value of the assessor's office." They're using other math that gets it to about 50 to 60 million -- maybe 70 million tops. But not 780 million, right? Not the entire amount that Fox News just paid Dominion voting machines for their defamation. That amount. That's the amount of the miss between the value of what the property is really worth, of what Donald Trump and his people, in their opening statement, say it's worth.

And that's the fraud, right? Because he didn't want to be a 100 millionaire. He wanted to be a multi-billionaire, and beat his daddy. Because his daddy was a 100 millionaire -- Freddy Trump, right? -- when they were performing their own frauds back then. But that didn't content him. And since he had all his financial ruins, and all his financial difficulties, and his bankruptcies, he had to take the Celebrity Apprentice job to pump up his brand, to emblazon it, and stick it on buildings, on licensing deals -- not construction deals -- not development deals. And that is the fraud, and the PT Barnum, and the Bamboozle, of Donald Trump. And it always has been. And people that live and work in New York, that know him, and know people that know him, know that. It's just the American people who didn't know it, because he didn't let them know it. Because he didn't let them have his tax returns, or any of his financial disclosures, before he ran. There's a reason for that.

Think back. Why didn't Donald Trump, why wasn't he more transparent about his finances when he ran? We're seeing why he wasn't. Because it was all a big giant house of cards, a Ponzi scheme, built up on defrauding banks, and making them give him more money, to pump up his net worth than it was really worth.

I'm tired of hearing about Mar-a-Lago, and the property that exists in Donald Trump's mind, freed of any restrictions, zoning law, land use law, Master plans, easements, conservation easements, or anything else, where he can just, in a fantasy world, put up a 100 story tower, like he's developing in Dubai, and not on the Isle of Palm Beach. Or he can develop hundreds of houses in a place where you can only develop, tops, probably about ten.

So don't you be fooled. I'm not going to blow smoke or sunshine on hot-takes. I bring them to you about every hour on the Meidastouch Network, exclusively, one place, right here. And then on Wednesdays and Saturdays, if you didn't already know, I co-founded and co-anchor the leading podcast at the intersection -- talk about real estate -- the valuable corner of law, justice, and politics. I do it with co-anchors Saturday and Wednesdays. We put it on audio podcast platforms. And you can follow me on all things social media at MsPopok.

Until the next hot-take, till the next Legal AF, this is Michael Popok, reporting.

[admin]

Trump Gives Nuclear Secrets to Anthony Pratt
by Nicolle Wallace
Deadline: White House [4PM] 10/6/2023
MSNBC
Oct 6, 2023



Transcript

[Nicolle Wallace] hi there everyone. we made it it's Friday, and it's 4:00 in New York. a conversation
one spring evening at a ritzy private club in South Florida between an Australian businessman and a former
president is now the subject of blockbuster brand new investigative reporting. it is an episode that fits
into a years-long damning fact pattern for one Donald J Trump -- that is his
incredibly reckless and cavalier handling of the country's most sensitive National Security Secrets. ABC News was
the very first to report this: quote "former President Trump allegedly discussed potentially sensitive
information about U.S. nuclear submarines with a member of his mar-a-lago Club. it
was an Australian billionaire who then allegedly shared the information with scores of others, including more than a
dozen foreign officials, several of his own employees, and a handful of journalists. that is according to sources
familiar with the matter." the billionaire is named Anthony Pratt. you can see him right here in this 2018 photo from the
Sydney morning herald. he's at mar-a-lago in the photo. he reportedly spoke to prosecutors and FBI agents about his
conversation with the ex-president. here's what he told them according to ABC News: quote "Pratt described how
looking to make conversation with Trump during a meeting at mar-al-Lago in April of 2012, he brought up the American
submarine fleet which the two had discussed before. Pratt told Trump he believed Australia should start buying
its submarines from the US, to which an excited Trump, leaning toward Pratt as if
to be discreet, then told Pratt two pieces of information about U.S.
submarines: the supposed exact number of nuclear warheads they routinely carry,
and exactly how close they supposedly can get to a Russian submarine without being
detected. Pratt reportedly described Trump's remarks to at least 45
other people, including six journalists, 11 of his employees, and 10 Australian officials. while it is unclear if what
Trump said was true, investigators reportedly asked Pratt not to repeat what Trump told
him. the episode could wind up playing a critical role in the classified documents case currently set to go to
trial in May of 2024, with Trump facing 40 felony counts related to retaining
National Defense information ,and obstruction of Justice. the New York Times reports
that Mr Pratt's name does not appear in the indictment accusing Trump of illegally holding on to nearly three
dozen classified documents after he left office, and then conspiring with two of
his aides at mar-a-lago to obstruct the government's attempts to get them back. but the account that Trump discussed
some of the country's most sensitive nuclear secrets with him in a cavalier fashion could help prosecutors establish
that the former president had a long habit of recklessly handling classified information.

an ex American president
discussing nuclear submarine secrets with a businessman at Mar-a-Lago is where we, in surreal fashion, begin the
broadcast today, with some of our favorite reporters and friends: ABC News Chief Washington correspondent, and the
author of the upcoming brand new book, "Tired of winning: Donald Trump and the end of the grand old party," Jonathan Karl is
with us. also joining us is former FBI Counter Intelligence agent Peter Strzok with me at the table, for the hour. MSNBC
legal analyst Andrew Weissman, a former top official with the justice department,

Jonathan Karl: this would
be, you know the proverbial pick your cliche, dumped in the shredder if you
pitched it as a Netflix show, tossed out if it were the plotline of your
first novel by an agent who said this would never happen, just take me
through one, what ABC reports, and two what In your assessment is the most significant piece
of this.

[Jonathan Karl] well it's significant this is part of the documents investigation and
this story as far as we know has nothing to do with an actual document it gets to what is really at the heart of that case
which what you just spoke about and that is how Trump treated our nation's most
sensitive military secrets and it's hard to imagine Secrets more sensitive than
the capabilities of our nuclear AR all uh so uh what what we know Jack Smith
has spoken to this Australian billionaire on two occasions um and that
he has described how Trump explained to him the details at least what he purported to be the details on the
capabilities of our nuclear subs including that particularly sensitive piece of information which is how close
a an American nuclear sub can get to a Russian sub without being detected and
what what's remarkable to me besides Trump boasting and you know wanting to impress this Australian billionaire uh
with this tale is that uh in our reporting as soon as that meeting is
over I mean literally minutes after the meeting is over Pratt is overheard
telling others at maral Lago what Trump had just told him now I think this is an underappreciated part of the story that
means that the special counsil is talking to a maral Lago employee who who
uh not only is detailing what they witnessed but also uh in our reporting
told the special counsel that he was Disturbed uh by the fact uh that that
this information had been shared and was now suddenly being talked about right there you know uh presumably on the
patio uh at maral Lago uh so again not you know it doesn't this is nothing
about documents there's no suggestion that he was waving around a document but clearly the special councils
prosecutors saw this as significant and uh and directly related to their case
about Trump's uh handling of of our secrets not just our documents uh but
but America's most sensitive Secrets I mean John car well let me first ask you this were do are you able to answer
whether or not any submarines or Personnel were endangered by Trump sharing this information uh honestly no
I mean one one thing that that that's clear is we we again we don't know if this information that Trump was relaying
uh was accurate but we do know that it would so concerned the special counsel
that when they spoke to uh to Anthony Pratt they asked him not to repeat the
information now that was a little late he had already as you detailed uh shared it with some
45 people including three former Australian Prime Ministers so we so we
don't know we we don't know but um clearly it was highly sensitive
information and it was widely uh disseminated and and by the way you know
Pratt is somebody who became a member at maral Lago only after Donald Trump
became president uh and clearly used that membership to good effect I mean we
saw you know obviously he went to a state dinner at the white house uh he you know Trump came uh and and did did
an event at a new Factory that his company was opening uh in Ohio um so you
know we don't know that that that this got into the wrong hands uh but but it certainly got into a lot of foreign
hands specifically Australian hands well I mean I think you're getting it um a question that's loomed over what we know
about the maralago documents case since the beginning and I understand from SM investigators and lawyers that it's not
essential to prove motive but there's always been a big question what was his motive for keeping this stuff it seems that your reporting offer is a pretty
good theory business yeah I mean you know and the question here was he just
trying to you know make himself seem like a big shot you know here I'm the former president I can tell you the most secret stuff lean in you know I'm going
to tell you exactly what our nuclear subs do uh what did he what did he want out of Pratt who knows it it doesn't
really necessarily matter what his motive was the uh what what the special
counsel has uh on covered here is that the information was disseminated and
disseminated pretty widely uh you know we know the 45 uh people that Pratt
either spoke to about it or emailed about it which also by the way suggests that the special counsel has had also
got a hold of Pratt's emails um uh but but I mean who did those people uh tell
about I mean obviously you have a chain effect the stuff is now out there so is Pratt um John car a witness against
Trump in the trial well we we don't know yet he's he has as I mentioned he's he's
spoken to investigators twice at least twice um I would think that uh it's
highly likely that he would be a witness in this trial I don't it seems that this was a a piece of
information a string of great interest to the special counsel John let me put
you on the spot I mean I remember the day I remember where I was when um National Security staff started calling
me after Trump was in the oval with lavro and what they were backgrounding me or or or or telling me or trying to
reassure the Press was that they hadn't given him everything that that he'd only compromise a portion of the known Intel
because they hadn't armed him with everything ahead of lavro to me that proves knowledge of the recklessness
with which Trump handled Declassified information and there's always been this sort of sham excuse structure over it
well he can declassify anything he didn't I mean what it gave La was still classified and it they go through the
declassification after I mean if if the special Council were to want to
establish a yearslong pattern of trump disclosing State Secrets um at a point
where he either wasn't supposed to or it wasn't the plan or it hadn't been Declassified in a manner to protect us
sources and methods and US allies sources and methods the Litany of witnesses is 10 pages long is that
underway I mean it seems that they are focused uh from everything have seen on
the post-presidency period um but clearly and by the way you know your conversation also illustrates another
fact which is early on at the time of that Oval Office meeting with lavro and with kislak the Russian Ambassador and
those incredible photos by the way of that meeting which were released by the Russians um uh because the Russians had
their photographer on board and there was no American Press in there of course or anything like that um that was at a
time when um you know Trump had some pretty serious people that he had put in
place uh uh you know in terms of of running our intelligence agencies by the time you got to year four uh Rick
grenell was uh the acting uh Director of National Intelligence Rick Corell you
know essentially uh simply a political operative troll uh uh for uh for for the
Trump wing of the Republican party is suddenly has the single most important position in intelligence that's not
somebody that's holding anything uh back from the president out of fear it's going to be disseminated cash Patel uh
of course having a very high position at the National Security Council at that point and then later as the chief of
staff uh to the Secretary of Defense it became a very different a trump White House by the end but but I think that
there is another thing that you get at here Nicole which is the documents are one
thing but Trump was privy to information
that was you know he was the president of the United States by definition he he had access to the most sensitive Secrets
One thing I'll give you another little sneak preview on the book um on when
when when Donald Trump came to Washington for his inauguration in 2017 the day before uh he was sworn in he was
briefed uh something that's never been disclosed before but he was briefed on the nuclear football which of course is
something uh that would always be with him but but how it works what the operation is and
I'm told he took great interest uh you know Trump was not one that really liked to be brief about briefed about much of
anything but on this I'm told he took great interest in everything he could
find out about the nuclear football how it works you know that's of course the thing that goes with the president so
you can you know uh launch a nuclear attack in in in in in an emergency um he
took that knowledge with him he may not he may may or may not have had documents related to any of that but that is
knowledge that he took with him when he left the White House John carlot had two of his favorite words in it right
nuclear and football um yes what what what else can you tell us about his Keen
interest in his briefing about the nuclear football because it makes you know it makes again some of the excuses
that were that Trump's conduct and I'm thinking about his menacing tweets about Kim Jong-un you know oh he doesn't know
what he's doing it sounds like he knew exactly what he was capable of if he paid close attention wrapped attention
to the briefing on the nuclear football yeah I I I think it is the one area that Trump was keenly focused on from the
start it's something about it that captured his imagination and he often spoke about his uncle uh at MIT uh a
nuclear physicist and he would he would lecture uh his his own top military
advisers and tell them I know more about nuclear than you do I know more about nuclear than anybody there's there's
there's another scene uh uh that that I've described in in in a previous in a
previous book of of trump having getting a briefing from from the uh from his Pentagon leadership about the Pentagon
budget and uh he just gets off on a tangent uh about about nukes um and and
at one point starts yelling at um at at this point um you know I think Dunford
was the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mattis was the Secretary of Defense and he's he's y yelling at them
saying I know more about nuclear than you do I know more than you do and you know what it is one thing he really did
pay attention to not just that first briefing on the nuclear football um but but he had a Fascination about that
which may explain in part why he brought those documents to Mar Lago Andrew Weisman there are a million
things to say um but while I peel my jaw off the table um tell me what you think
Jack Smith's interest is in Mr Pratt sure um so it's it's useful to think of
this in and of itself unrelated to the criminal case because there's and Pete's
going to I'm sure talk to you because of his what he's done in his career the just the the fact that the dni the
intelligence Community this is their worst nightmare um we've been talking so
much about as Jonathan said about documents being retrieved from Mar Lago but the information is still in
someone's head and the um intelligence Community as we know
from uh what happened right after the search is doing its own intelligence
assessment this this is the nightmare scenario um and um you know this is one
piece of information and you can see it chaining out and that is they're going to follow that to the ends of the Earth
you cannot think of anything and you're saying they're going to follow it to the ends of the Earth as part of an Intel
spill assessment exactly um they need need to know where any piece of
information and as Pete knows very well maral Lago was a honey pot um and so to
sit there and say it's only to the Australians it's not um there are many many more people there um and that's the
thing that the Intel Community has got to be all over um but that's hard they're going to be doing a total chain
of custody essentially but then there is the criminal component this this is but
this is I just want to make sure my view is this is horrendous um it is so detrimental to
our national security regardless if there ever was a criminal case right with respect to the criminal case it by
the way is if all of the reporting is accurate it is a crime to give over
information that is classified that is National Defense information it doesn't have to be a document it's enough of
it's the information doesn't have to be reified in a piece of paper um there are
many ways that this can still be Rel to the trial even though it's not charged
in the indictment um it certainly is going to be relevant to sentencing if uh Donald Trump is convicted because it is
a more serious offense um if you are actually disseminating the information
than just the risk of dissemination but it's also relevant to so many things that you were talking about which is if
Donald Trump were to say this is a mistake or no harm no foul I was keeping it under a locking key this is directly
relevant to refute that it goes to sort of motive it goes to intent absence of mistake all sorts of ways that the
government can use this it's not at all surprising though that you would not see
this particular witness's name in an indictment that would you would rarely want to out that in an indictment um but
it is evidence that could be very relevant to the case um Pete I want to bring you in on this um and I'm just
thinking of all the conversations I've had since the court approv search of Maraga with Sue Gordon where what what
Andrew is getting at is is is I think the sole crushing element of anyone who's worked in the intelligence
agencies also when you work in government um a skip isn't to it's not just for looking at documents it's for
having any conversation about anything that's secret you know we've talked about some of these things in the
context of what you do with paper but but you know to what Jonathan's to what John's reporting gets at to what
Andrew's talking about it's the knowledge and disseminating the knowledge with a businessman from
Australia that endangers the lives of intelligence agents assets and
allies and Nicole that's right I mean look there is no search warrant that is going to recover material that you have
in your memory there's no Men In Black Magic Pen that erases the knowledge that you have from the job so whatever might
be recovered documentary uh in documentary form that is never going to get to the things that Trump will always
carry around in his head and you know look it's very recent it's very current it's within the past several years there's a reason Joe Biden when he
became president said the tradition of giving ex-presidents intelligence briefings I am not going to do for
Donald Trump because I see that as a threat I see that as a security problem I mean I do want to touch a little bit
investigatively Jonathan mitching this a bit what's really important about this conversation is much like the
conversation about Mark Millie and the Iran War plans it was a conversation that occurred after Trump left the
presidency legally investigatively there's a huge difference as much as he was a security risk legally he can do
that as much as we don't like it but once he's left the presidency he does not have the authority to continue
talking about classified information so this is yet another post-presidency example whether or not it's chargeable
verbal disclosures of classified information can present particular challenges but it certainly creates a
pattern of activity and it speaks to motive but from a national security perspective you're right it's potentially devastating it is putting
our entire nuclear Triad at risk nuclear deterrence that we relied on for 75 years the most sensitive component of
that is our nuclear submarine force and by detailing that he is putting soldiers
at risk he is putting our national security at risk and know by the way every single Ally in the world not just
the Australians every nation in the world who is watching this in the event
of another Trump Administration how many of them are going to want to share sensitive intelligence with the United
States of America and this you know we haven't even touched on the efforts and the money and the resources that Russia
and China and every hostile Nation undoubtedly is putting into penetrating Marl Lago millions of dollars over years
to develop human sources to develop technical sources apparently that they can listen sitting on the balcony of the
ballroom of mar Lago to hear somebody relay classified information that the ex president of the United States just
shared with them so it's horrible from a national security perspective it just demonstrates an absolute lack of
understanding on the former president about or care for the National Security of the United States for the men and
women out there defending it and I just I don't know how many examples of this we're going to need
before the majority of the population says enough we can't ever have this man near a national security matter let
alone classified information again Pete you you're getting it so much of what is so Central here that that what what Jack
Smith charges in the Iran document is something that was classified at the time and Trump is no longer president so
it's a Smoking Gun in terms of proving all the elements of the crime of illegally retaining National Defense
information um I I have this section I'm going to sneak in a break and then I'm going to play it for all of you on the
other side no one's going anywhere um also when we come back the house speakers race is on Donald Trump is in
the middle of it again John Carl's new book also features some extraordinary exclusive new reporting on the last time
this happened the last speaker's race when Kevin McCarthy struggled more than a dozen times I think he got up to 15
times to win the vote what Donald Trump who was watching it all unfold from Mar Lago was actually plotting behind the
scenes plus what members of the Congressional committee investigating the Insurrection are warning about today
about the next potential house Speaker what they say about Jim Jordan's involvement and that I wanted to attack
Iran isn't it amazing I have a big pile of papers this thing just came up
look this was him they presented me this this is off the Record but they
presented me this this was him this was the defense department and
him we looked at some this was him this wasn't done by me this was him all sorts
of stuff it's pages long look wait a minute let's see
here these are the this was done by the military given to
me um I think we can probably get we we'll have to see yeah we'll have to try
to de she as president I could have deified now I can't you know but this
is I mean Pete the the clip just drips with so many incriminating statements there that he knows he's hanging on to
something that's still classified that he knows that when he was president he could have Declassified it and did not
um it gets to your point of sort of the power of these post-presidential um spills and leaks of classified
material right and you know it's certainly compelling because it's in his voice and an intimate setting it's a
great recording you can understand what he's saying but again this it's all these events speak to sort of the
question that you raised earlier why is he doing it and I think the reality is there are a variety of motives one with
the Millie Iran document it certainly appears that he was upset at Millie that he was trying to get back at him so he
wields this classified as something that he can use against other people so when
you look at this recent the the submar and alleged information that appears to me to be just a kind of G is isn't this
neat I'm 8 years old and nuclear is interesting to me and I know more about it than anybody else and I'm going to
show by disclosing this classified information and have some sort of ego gratification that I know all about it
so I think there are business reasons he does it I think there are political reasons that he keeps it I think that
there are potentially just straight ego reasons that he maintains all of it so you have this just toxic cocktail of
motivations and the problem is it's transparent to everybody it is transparent to a trained Russian
intelligence officer it is transparent to Vladimir Putin it is transparent to she it is transparent to anybody who is
trained in eliciting information how to get it out of Donald Trump and as a national security professional that is
what keeps all of us and you know current former lives awake at night because he is such an easy Mark and we
only are aware of the things that have made it into the media I am certain there are many many other instances that
we don't know about and that is the sort of thing thing that these damage assessments and risk assessments are
ongoing and trying to figure out and I worry may never get a complete picture of what has happened yeah and I mean
John to your point when you put um Rick grenell who you described as an operative and a troll accurately um you
you've operationalized the the conduct um I I we only have you um because we
got a peek at some extraordinary new reporting in your new book and I don't want to miss the chance to ask you about
it let me um Let me let me read from from the excerpt an excerpt released today from
the book tired of winning Donald Trump in the end of the grand old party you report that Trump had actually plotted
to be speaker back in January while he was publicly supporting Kevin McCarthy while Trump was soaking up the speaker
election drama from maral Lago you write this quote when on the seventh ballot Republican representative Matt Gat stood
up and announced his vote for speaker Donald John Trump the former president was mildly amused until that is he saw
the final vote tally being broadcast on all the networks the house clerk read off the vote totals at the end of the
round The Honorable Donald J Trump of Florida has received one laughter could be heard throughout the house chamber
Kates for his part realized that his stunt was embarrassing the ex-president who received just a single vote in more
than one round and stopped nominating him but the former president couldn't kick the idea that maybe he could win
the speaker election you add that Trump quote told at least two people the real problem was that Gates had not formally
nominated him for speaker if Republicans realized he was a real candidate for speaker Trump thought they would have
overwhelmingly voted for him so the next time around Gates formally nominated Trump for speaker the result one vote um
I hope you're ready you're gonna get the Billy treatment there's nothing worse than revealing through meticulous
investigative journalism that he was humiliated by the size of anything yeah
and and this was an outright humiliation it was in the 14th round and what I was
told is uh that that Gates absolutely did that at Trump's Direction one of my
sources said Trump proactively asked him directly asked him put my name in
nomination the other uh that he made it clear and Gates ran it by him before doing it and and then you got and that
one vote of course was Matt Gates that was the one vote he got so now you're seeing you know Trump once again I know
that this still stings that experience most of us have forgotten that Trump got one vote back in January so much has
happened since but he has not forgotten that and and that's why suddenly you see him now uh reinserting himself into this
race for speaker he's endorsing Jim Jordan but he's also uh suggesting uh
that he'd be willing to serve on a temporary basis uh as speaker and talking about how he will come up to
Capitol Hill uh to to help sort this thing all out next week we'll see if that really happens I I have my doubts
um but uh you know an extraordinary uh scene one one other aspect of this uh
Nicole is that for months uh people on the trump in the Trump wing of the party
you know outside influencers people like Steve Bannon had been pushing this idea that Donald Trump should be speaker of
the house and Trump had no interest in it at all why would he want to be up in Congress that's you know nothing but
then as he saw the drama unfold as one person said you know he he saw it this
could be the greatest reality TV show you know Celebrity Apprentice with a big ass Gabel that's when he suddenly
realized uh that this could be worth doing and then again one vote it would
be funny if it wasn't so sick and sad I mean there is a little legal problem though Andrew Weissman rule 26 of the
current GOP house rules prevents people under criminal indictment from serving in leadership I mean I guess they could
always change the rules for him they did go along with the Insurrection yeah but I mean how humiliating is that that you
would have a party that would change the rules to say it's okay if you're under indictment um that you can now be house
Speaker I mean they already have a George Santos problem um so yeah you got to let Santos stay if you change the
rules right yeah I mean this is I mean it's it's really un unspeakable um but
but just to Jonathan's reporting and again assuming the accuracy I think one
thing it's it's important for people to understand is I think as you know from your government experience when you are
in the intelligence community and you are given access to information that is
top secret and top secret compartmented information the kinds of things that we know are charged in the maralago
documents case um that may be the case here uh
uh this level and this sense of responsibility that you have um I still
remember the first time I was given that information um in a skiff I I wish I
didn't know it I was so concerned about not
inadvertently saying un it exactly um the idea that you would be Cavalier with
information that it it's it's not just about the safety of our military of
people in the State Department of assets overseas who are working with the government it's our safety um there's so
many things that the government does that keeps us safe um there's a reason
for that level of classification and it it's just to me it's I I can't get my
head around the idea of somebody who receives that who
doesn't understand its significance...

[admin]

Trump’s legal adviser Jenna Ellis in 2016 called him an ‘idiot’ and said his supporters didn’t care about ‘facts or logic’
by Andrew Kaczynski, Em Steck and Nathan McDermott
CNN
Updated 11:41 PM EST, Wed November 18, 2020

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Jenna Ellis has been one of President Donald Trump’s most ardent defenders since joining his campaign as a legal adviser and surrogate a year ago, but in early 2016 she was one of his toughest critics and deeply opposed his candidacy, according to a CNN KFile review of statements she made on her official Facebook page and in local Colorado radio appearances.

Ellis, an attorney and former law professor from Colorado, repeatedly slammed then-candidate Trump as an “idiot,” who was “boorish and arrogant,” and a “bully” whose words could not be trusted as factually accurate. She called comments he made about women “disgusting,” and suggested he was not a “real Christian.”

In one March 2016 Facebook post, Ellis said Trump’s values were “not American,” linking to a post that called Trump an “American fascist.” She praised Mitt Romney for speaking out against Trump, referring to him as “Drumpf,” – a nickname coined by comedian John Oliver after a biographer revealed Trump’s ancestor changed the family’s surname from Drumpf to Trump.

“Why should we rest our highest office in America, on a man who fundamentally goes back and forth and really cannot be trusted to be consistent or accurate in anything,” Ellis said in one April 2016 radio appearance.

In March 2016, Ellis attacked Trump supporters in a Facebook post for not caring that the Republican candidate was “unethical, corrupt, lying, criminal, dirtbag.”

In another post, she said his supporters didn’t care about the truth.

“I could spend a full-time job just responding to the ridiculously illogical, inconsistent, and blatantly stupid arguments supporting Trump,” she wrote in March 2016. “But here’s the thing: his supporters DON’T CARE about facts or logic. They aren’t seeking truth. Trump probably could shoot someone in the middle of NYC and not lose support. And this is the cumulative reason why this nation is in such terrible shape: We don’t have truth seekers; we have narcissists.”

In a statement to CNN on Wednesday, Ellis said, “It’s no secret that I did not support Donald Trump early in the primary process in 2015, like many others who didn’t know him, and I’ve always been straightforward with my opinions and I’ve always admitted when my opinion changes. I am glad to have learned that I was completely wrong about Trump back then and I’ve said that over and over publicly, as I saw him keeping his promises, and then eventually getting to know him personally.

“I appreciate KFILE showing clearly through past statements that I think for myself, and that my mind was changed based on fact and personal knowledge. President Trump is a sincere Christian, the best president in modern history, and made and kept his promises to the American people. I am proud to stand with him and his goals for the future of this country and all of its citizens,” she said.

In another Facebook post from 2015, Ellis, a conservative evangelical Christian, compared Trump to a “last days” bible verse and shared a post calling Trump “without love,” “treacherous,” “abusive” and “unholy.”

In a radio appearance from February 2016, she contended that Trump was not a genuine Christian because he was incapable of seeking forgiveness or repentance.

In another Facebook post from February 2016, Ellis criticized Trump’s attacks on the media and his wanting to change libel laws, linking to a Washington Post story that said Trump’s intent was “to destroy American democracy.”

“Trump cannot handle criticism,” she wrote. “This is insanely dangerous to the fundamental American value and inalienable right to freedom of speech.” She reiterated the belief on a radio show from February 2016 where she said Trump was “one of the greatest threats to our liberty” by seeking stricter libel laws.

In the same radio interview from February 2016, Ellis suggested that the GOP could engineer a brokered Republican convention to stop Trump from becoming the party’s nominee and compared it to the Electoral College.

“Trump absolutely should not be the GOP nominee,” she said.

Now, Ellis, who came around to supporting Trump in the 2016 general election after he became the nominee, acts as a top surrogate for Trump in media appearances, backing his baseless claims that he won the 2020 presidential election and helping lead the campaign’s longshot legal challenges to overturn the 2020 election results.

“President Trump is absolutely right to keep all legal options on the table as we evaluate results. He is committed to protecting election integrity and defending the Constitution. We are a nation of rules, not rulers,” Ellis tweeted the day after the election. She frequently retweets the President’s false claims on the election results and voter fraud and has refused to acknowledge President-elect Joe Biden.

[admin]

Ex-Chief of Staff Mark Meadows granted immunity, tells special counsel he warned Trump about 2020 claims: Meadows said Trump was "dishonest" on election night, according to sources.
by Katherine Faulders, Mike Levine, and Alexander Mallin
abc news
October 24, 2023, 4:11 PM

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Former President Donald Trump's final chief of staff in the White House, Mark Meadows, has spoken with special counsel Jack Smith's team at least three times this year, including once before a federal grand jury, which came only after Smith granted Meadows immunity to testify under oath, according to sources familiar with the matter.

The sources said Meadows informed Smith's team that he repeatedly told Trump in the weeks after the 2020 presidential election that the allegations of significant voting fraud coming to them were baseless, a striking break from Trump's prolific rhetoric regarding the election.

According to the sources, Meadows also told the federal investigators Trump was being "dishonest" with the public when he first claimed to have won the election only hours after polls closed on Nov. 3, 2020, before final results were in.

"Obviously we didn't win," a source quoted Meadows as telling Smith's team in hindsight.

Trump has called Meadows, one of the former president's closest and highest-ranking aides in the White House, a "special friend" and "a great chief of staff -- as good as it gets."

The descriptions of what Meadows allegedly told investigators shed further light on the evidence Smith's team has amassed as it prosecutes Trump for allegedly trying to unlawfully retain power and "spread lies" about the 2020 election. The descriptions also expose how far Trump loyalists like Meadows have gone to support and defend Trump.

Sources told ABC News that Smith's investigators were keenly interested in questioning Meadows about election-related conversations he had with Trump during his final months in office, and whether Meadows actually believed some of the claims he included in a book he published after Trump left office -- a book that promised to "correct the record" on Trump.

ABC News has identified several assertions in the book that appear to be contradicted by what Meadows allegedly told investigators behind closed doors.

According to Meadows' book, the election was "stolen" and "rigged" with help from "allies in the liberal media," who ignored "actual evidence of fraud, right there in plain sight for anyone to access and analyze."

But, as described to ABC News, Meadows privately told Smith's investigators that -- to this day -- he has yet to see any evidence of fraud that would have kept now-president Joe Biden from the White House, and he told them he agrees with a government assessment at the time that the 2020 presidential election was the most secure election in U.S. history.

'We did win this election'

Trump was already questioning the integrity of the election months before Election Day. Then, within hours of polls closing on Nov. 3, 2020 -- as Trump was beginning to lose key states -- Trump claimed on national TV that it was all "a major fraud."

"Frankly, we did win this election," Trump declared.

Meadows told investigators earlier this year that he's long believed Trump was being dishonest when he made that statement, given the fact that votes were still being counted and the results from several states were not in yet.

Nevertheless, public testimony has shown that in the weeks after the election, Meadows helped Trump vet allegations of fraud that were making their way to Trump from people like Rudy Giuliani, whom Trump put in charge of legal efforts to keep Trump in the White House.

But Meadows said that by mid-December, he privately informed Trump that Giuliani hadn't produced any evidence to back up the many allegations he was making, sources said. Then-attorney general Bill Barr also informed Trump and Meadows in an Oval Office meeting that allegations of election fraud were "not panning out," as Barr recounted in testimony to Congress last year.

Meadows has said publicly that he believed "a number of allegations" still warranted "further investigation," and that he "hadn't reached a conclusion" on the election overall by late December.

Also by then, Trump had run out of legal options. When the U.S. Supreme Court on Dec. 11, 2020, denied his final court challenge, Trump told Meadows something to the effect of, "Then that's the end," or, "So that's it," Meadows recalled to investigators, according to sources.

Still, Trump wouldn't back down, insisting there was widespread fraud but that the Justice Department wasn't "looking for it," Barr recalled.

While speaking with investigators, Meadows was specifically asked if Trump ever acknowledged to him that he'd lost the election. Meadows told investigators he never heard Trump say that, according to sources.

On Jan. 2, 2021, Meadows helped set up the now-infamous phone call between Trump and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensberger, during which Trump pressed Raffensberger to "find 11,780 votes ... because we won the state."

Meadows has said publicly that he essentially introduced everyone on the call -- which is corroborated by transcripts of the call that were made public -- and he has said he was simply trying to help them resolve a dispute over Georgia's election results.

On the call, Trump mentioned allegations of fraudulent ballots hidden in suitcases, which the Justice Department had already taken "a hard look at" and debunked, according to Barr's testimony.

As described to ABC News, Meadows told Smith's investigators that, around that time, there were many times he wanted to resign over concerns that the way certain allegations of fraud were being handled could have a negative impact -- but he ultimately didn't leave because he wanted to help ensure a peaceful transfer of power.

'Sheer volume of falsehoods'

Aided by a ghostwriter, Meadows published his book, "The Chief's Chief," nearly a year after Trump left office.

"[T]he sheer volume of falsehoods that have been published about the president's time in the White House is astounding," the book says. "I consider this book a small opportunity to correct the record."

Trump even promoted the book himself, issuing a statement in December 2021 saying the book "rightfully spends much time talking about the large-scale Election Fraud that took place ... also known as the Crime of the Century."

But sources told ABC News that when speaking with Smith's investigators, Meadows conceded that he doesn't actually believe some of the statements in his book.

According to the sources, Meadows told investigators that he doesn't agree with what's in his book when it says "our many referrals to the Department of Justice were not seriously investigated."

Meadows told investigators he believes the Justice Department was taking allegations of fraud seriously, properly investigating them, and doing all they could to find legitimate cases of fraud -- and he told investigators he relayed all that to Trump a few weeks after the election, the sources said.

Similarly -- as described by sources to ABC News -- despite Meadows telling investigators that Giuliani never produced evidence of significant fraud in the election, his book refers to Giuliani's efforts to expose "the fraud, and the dirty tricks on election night."

"The people who rigged this election knew that eventually, these irregularities would come to light ... [So] they conducted the operation, then attacked anyone who dared ask questions about what they had done," his book says.

Meadows went even further while promoting his book on right-wing media in November 2021. When asked by a podcast host if he believes the outcome of the 2020 election was fraudulent, Meadows responded, "I do believe that there are a number of fraudulent states ... I've seen at least illegal activity in Pennsylvania [and] in Georgia" -- referring to two key states that clinched the White House for Biden.

Under the penalty of perjury, Meadows offered a vastly different assessment to Smith's investigators, telling them he's never seen any evidence of fraud that would undermine the election's outcome, according to what sources told ABC News.

'I guess these people are more upset'

The final report by the U.S. House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attacks on the U.S. Capitol accused Meadows of including "a number of intentional falsehoods" in his book, but the committee's report focused on allegations about Trump's actions on that fateful day, not claims about the election more broadly.

Portions of what Meadows told investigators appear to align with broader testimony that other top White House aides, including former Meadows assistant Cassidy Hutchinson, provided to the House committee, describing a president seemingly hesitant to take decisive action to stop the violent mob on Jan. 6, 2021.

Sources said Meadows confirmed that at one point, as the riots were unfolding, Trump got on a call with then-House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy, and told McCarthy, "I guess these people are more upset than you are."

However, according to what Meadows told investigators, Trump seemed to grow increasingly concerned as he learned more about what was transpiring at the Capitol, and Trump was visibly shaken when he heard that someone had been shot there, sources said.

Trump supporter Ashli Babbitt was fatally shot when she tried to break through a barricaded entrance near the House chamber. Other Trump supporters sustained fatal injuries that day, and a law enforcement officer died after trying to defend the Capitol.

Meadows has not been charged in Smith's federal case, he has been charged -- along with Trump, Giuliani and 16 others -- by authorities in Georgia for allegedly trying to overturn the election results in that state. Four of those charged have already pleaded guilty and agreed to testify for the prosecution, while the others, including Meadows, Trump and Giuliani, have pleaded not guilty and are awaiting trial.

Meadows sought to have the Georgia case against him moved to federal court, but that effort was denied. He is now appealing that decision.

From 2013 to 2020, Meadows represented North Carolina in Congress, where he also led the conservative House Freedom Caucus for two years.

Under the immunity order from Smith's team, the information Meadows provided to the grand jury earlier this year can't be used against him in a federal prosecution.

Trump has pleaded not guilty in the election-related federal case against him.

In response to these developments, a spokesperson for Trump's presidential campaign said in a statement, "Wrongful, unethical leaks throughout these Biden witch-hunts only underscore how detrimental these empty cases are to our Democracy and System of Justice and how vital it is for President Trump's First Amendment rights to not be infringed upon by un-Constitutional gag orders. Transparency and free speech are the only way to combat murky gossip."

"President Trump will not be deterred by Crooked Joe Biden's election interference and will continue to focus on winning back the White House and Making America Great Again," the spokesperson added.

A spokesperson for Smith and an attorney for Meadows declined to comment to ABC News for this story.

[admin]

Trump-loving Lawyer Michigan attorney, Stefanie Lambert CAUGHT RED-HANDED, Massive SCAM Revealed [She instructed the head of Cyber Ninjas an amateur forensic company hired by Arizona Republicans, to lie and say there was fraud and fake ballots used in Arizona when there wasn’t any.]
by Michael Popok
MeidasTouch
Oct 29, 2023

When MAGA does not have real evidence to support their “fraud in the election” led to Trump losing theory, they literally just forge it. Michael Popok of Legal AF reports on the prime example Michigan attorney, Stefanie Lambert, who’s been indicted. New text messages just revealed indicate that she instructed the head of Cyber Ninjas an amateur forensic company hired by Arizona Republicans, to lie and say there was fraud and fake ballots used in Arizona when there wasn’t any.



Transcript

this is Michael popok legal AF you know
what Maga does when they can't find
fraud in the election and they're trying
to make the argument there was outcome
determinative fraud that gave the
election of Joe Biden part of the big
lie or or the Big Fix or whatever you
like to call it you just make up the
evidence if you can't find fraud just
say there's fraud put it in your report
and have that publicized that's almost
as good if not good enough and that's
what we now have prime example Stephanie
Lampert Stephanie Lampert a
michigan-based lawyer but her nefarious
activities ranged far and wide from her
home territory she was an influence a
negative influence in Arizona Michigan
Georgia and Pennsylvania leading the
cause to try to find fraud in the
election did it on her own behalf and on
behalf of the Republican Party the Trump
campaign and the like she's been
indicted in Michigan but now what we
have coming to light is her close
relationship and her attempts to
influence and pressure Doug Logan the
founder of cyber Ninjas the company out
of Florida that had never done an
election audit before who was hired
through Lampert by the Arizona
Republicans back in 2020 to do a fraud
it what we called a fraud audit by the
way just to cut to the chase they found
no outcome determinative fraud that
would have given the election to Joe
Biden instead of to Donald Trump none
whatsoever but of course Stephanie
Lambert doesn't like that if she's
commissioned
and paying hundreds of thousands of
dollars of a report and she's basically
promised what the outcome would be she
needs the outcome to say there was fraud
in the election so text messages have
now just been revealed just now just you
know two and a half years later that
show when you take away the attempt the
uh the futile attempt to put black uh
electronic tape over over the text now
that we have apps that can actually take
that tape off we know what they said and
what they said is is Lampert telling
Logan you've got to find fraud in
Maricopa County there's got to be fraud
say that there was fraud in the election
in Maricopa County and Logan pushing
back and saying uh I I can't do that
because it's not true and Lampert
writing back you're killing me you need
to do this why because she's raised
hundreds of thousands if not millions of
dollars to put in Doug Logan's pocket
from various financers such as Patrick
burn the head of overstock.com close
friend of Donald Trump who actually was
in the White House and in the Oval
Office promoting the overthrow of our
Constitution and the seizing of voting
machines and then there's this very
shady character named Eric specken Eric
specken who uh heads an entity that he's
named specken forensics and specken
forensics is a uh crackpot snake oil
salesman type forensic company that's
been debunked and uh wherever it goes
but this is the company that Lampert
frequently tried to use in lawsuits that
she filed to claim fraud in the election
when she couldn't get Doug Logan and
cyber ninjas to follow the script that
she had written to find fraud in the
election she'd bring in Eric specken
Eric specken he'll find fraud in fact
she tried to get Logan to hire specken
in the waning days of when he had to
deliver his his report to the Arizona uh
Congress people Arizona State House
Republicans and Logan said I'm at the
final I'm doing the final report here I
can't bring in spren and then there's
also emails and text where spren and
Logan had a had a conversation by text
Ex change and spren had nothing new to
offer even he the fraud finder the fraud
Hunter had no fraud to report at least
in Arizona to Doug Logan but this is
what happens when you have have a
ridiculous hypothesis that is wrong what
is right is what the head of our cyber
security uh um for the US government
said about the election that it was the
most um fraud-free election and secure
election from an Integrity standpoint in
the history of the United States that's
Chris Krebs and what did Donald Trump
say when or do when he heard that did he
Pat the guy on the back the guy that was
the head of his cyber security no he
fired
him because he's not following the
script
next okay but but the script is phony
it's false it it's it's running on a
fake and false hypothesis and when other
people even Doug Logan at Cyber ninjas
who was getting paid depending basically
dependent upon him finding fraud said I
can't go that far there's no fraud in
Arizona so Hampton says you're killing
me you got to find it it's gotten so bad
for Stephanie Lampert
that when um she actually accused in a
lawsuit a company called XR Vision this
is like a mini Dominion voting systems
against Fox News in that defamation case
she accused XR vision of New York of
allowing their machines to be used for
voter fraud and lied and and pleadings
filed in court on that XR Vision sued
her for um defamation and damages and
who is her expert she tried to bring in
you know the one she's got on retainer
the one who'll Say Anything Eric spren
I'm not even sure this that sounds like
a madeup name doesn't that sound like a
name that came out of a Scrabble bag is
that is there a real person name if we
run that backwards does that say does
that name say something else I I don't
know but this is the craziness and all
these people monkeying around with our
democracy and with the the gears of our
democracy and throwing monkey wrenches
into it uh you know have got to be
brought to task and maybe not just by
Michigan fonny Willis take a look at
these text messages that have now been
revealed Jack Smith take a look these
are bad bad people she's so bad that she
was caught dissembling voting machines
themselves in her hotel room in Detroit
like she took a voting machine and
started tearing it apart I don't know
looking for fraud somewhere in there
like some sort of DED Inspector Gadget
you know this is the problem and this is
why people have been so upset that the
states didn't jump on top of this and
kind of waited for the Gen 6 committee
and waited for Jack Smith to do his job
but they have a job to do the Secretary
of States of each state the Battleground
States especially have a job to do here
the attorney generals of each state have
a job to do or the County Prosecutors or
city prosecutors have a job to do it's
it can't all be on the feds you know
they've got bigger fish to fry but other
people have to be held accountable the
fake electors in every every state they
should be prosecuted the the ring
leaders uh like like uh this particular
person this lawyer Stephanie Lampert
prosecuted which she is in Michigan and
now this new evidence has come out
should be uh the prosecutors in Georgia
and in the other Battleground states of
Michigan Pennsylvania in uh uh Michigan
Georgia and Pennsylvania she'll look
closer now at Stephanie Lampert based on
the revelation of this new text messages
we'll continue to bring this kind of uh
Sunshine sunlight uh to this um this
problem of allowing people in our
society to walk the streets free when
they had a hand in trying to overthrow
our democracy just like the Jan 6
insurrectionist just like just like all
the people in the close in the close
company of Donald Trump and these people
as well will continue to follow it on
the mightest touch Network only here on
YouTube uh I do this about about every
day if not every half an hour on hot
taks just like this one we pull it all
together in a twice weekly show we call
Legal a I co-founded it and co-anchor it
on Wednesdays and on Saturdays 800 PM
eastern time um and then everywhere you
can get your audio podcast give me a
thumbs up if you like this particular
story or stories like this one analysis
like this one we don't blow smoker
Sunshine here we're here to tell you the
facts based on our analysis being in my
case 32 years a trial lawyer nationally
in cour houses and courtrooms just like
the ones that I report on until my next
hot take until my next legal AF this is
Michael popok legal AF

********************

Previously hidden Cyber Ninjas texts revealed in Republic records lawsuit over 'audit'
by Robert Anglen and Ryan Randazzo
Arizona republic
October 23, 2023 at 7:36 PM

A digital backdoor is allowing the public to read more than 1,400 text messages that Cyber Ninjas CEO Doug Logan has tried for years to hide.

The newly deciphered messages come to light more than two years after The Arizona Republic filed a lawsuit seeking communications surrounding the Arizona Senate's "audit."

The messages reveal communications between Logan and Michigan lawyer Stefanie Lambert, who led a campaign to access voting software in several swing states in her effort to help overturn the 2020 election on behalf of former President Donald Trump.

Lambert and Logan discussed "audit" funding, voting machines and concerns raised by then-Senate President Karen Fann about what they should allow the public to know.

Fann, who as the Arizona Senate president authorized a review of 2.1 million ballots in Maricopa County in 2020, wanted to keep quiet the funding of the "audit," according to the newly revealed messages.

"She doesn't want the Senate to look bad for not properly funding it," Logan messaged Lambert in July 2021, as he was struggling to pay for the election review that had gone on longer than originally planned.

"She wanted us to fund raise quietly, through other organizations," Logan continued.

Lambert, who was criminally charged for her election-related efforts in Michigan, criticized Fann's stealthiness.

"So she prefers that it fails? Or that you go bankrupt?!" Lambert responded.

The previously hidden messages include a link to a fundraising site that allowed people to donate directly to Logan, which he called "kind of sketchy." The site still is available on the Wayback Machine on Internet Archives.

A map on the site highlighted Arizona, Georgia, Michigan and Pennsylvania, four states where Trump allies sought to get hold of voting machine data and had false electors sign documents claiming he won the 2020 election.

The fundraising site was set up by former Michigan attorney general candidate Matt DePerno, who was also charged in Michigan with Lambert and others over the voting-machine breaches. He has pleaded not guilty and says the investigation is politically motivated.

The 1,484 messages were hidden by Cyber Ninjas' CEO Logan and his attorneys in their responses to The Republic's lawsuit.

The redactions were uncovered by a team of data analysts called The Audit Guys, who have reviewed material Logan sent to a public "reading room" in response to a judge's orders.

While some of the messages appear to reveal unflattering details of the recount effort, it remains unclear why Logan has decided to attempt to withhold them this long.

Logan and Lambert did not respond Monday to requests for comment on the redacted messages.

Logan or his legal team have provided various justifications for blacking out the messages, including footnotes such as “impacts relationship in a legal manner” or “term ramifications to (Cyber Ninjas)” on the documents they submitted in the case.

Logan, who worked with Lambert to access voting machine data in Georgia, Michigan and Pennsylvania, also claimed some documents were protected by attorney-client privlege.

Lambert had no official role in the "audit" and was not Cyber Ninjas' lawyer during the ballot review.

Republican lawmakers in the Arizona Senate enabled Cyber Ninjas' so-called audit of the Maricopa County 2020 election that Trump allies used in their multistate efforts to sow mistrust in election processes.

The Republic sued the Arizona Senate and Cyber Ninjas in 2021 for financial and communications records about the partisan "audit."

Fann, R-Prescott, and Sen. Warren Petersen, R-Gilbert, oversaw Cyber Ninjas' work.

Fann could not be reached for comment Monday.

How the records came to light

Judges have repeatedly ruled in The Republic's favor and ordered Logan to turn over all audit-related communications. The Senate also was ordered to turn over troves of communication related to the audit with some exceptions.

Logan, however, has defied those orders. He continued to hold back records even after a judge in January 2022 issued $50,000-a-day sanctions against Cyber Ninjas for not complying with orders.

Logan turned over thousands of messages that were either partially or entirely blacked out, or redacted, for questionable reasons.

Logan has tried to redact more than 1,400 messages with Lambert, but he or his legal team submitted the documents in a format that made it possible to undo the redactions and expose the underlying messages he was attempting to conceal.

The previously redacted messages are the digital equivalent of using a dark marker to black out text on a sheet of paper, which is still readable if the paper is held up to a light.

The Audit Guys assisted The Republic with removing the redactions. Previously, the group built software to untangle and organize the messages, which had been submitted in various formats and out of sequence.

The Audit Guys have long challenged Logan's ballot review as "fiction" and after an exhaustive analysis of data in 2021 concluded that Logan's "results" were wildly inaccurate and made up.

The Audit Guys are Larry Moore, the founder of Boston-based election technology company Clear Ballot Group; Benny White, a prominent Pima County Republican data analyst; and Tim Halvorsen, Clear Ballot's retired chief technology officer.

Their stated mission is to "debunk election disinformation and confront those who use their power to spread it." They were interested in the messages between Logan and Lambert because of their coordinated efforts across the country following Trump's loss.

Who is Michigan attorney Stefanie Lambert?

A Michigan grand jury in August indicted Lambert on multiple conspiracy charges, including "undue possession" of a voting machine.

Lambert also is one of 30 unnamed and unindicted co-conspirators a Georgia grand jury accused of participating in a sweeping election conspiracy. Trump and 18 of his allies were charged in the case.

Lambert, who pleaded not guilty in Michigan, said all the cases were politically motivated. Logan was named in both cases but has not faced charges.

Records show Lambert exchanged more than 2,400 text messages with Logan during the "audit," more than any other person he messaged while leading the effort.

Previously released text messages and court records show Lambert tapped Logan to analyze voting equipment in battleground states shortly after the Nov. 3, 2020, election.

Prosecutors with the Michigan Attorney General's Office say Logan was involved in taking apart five voting machines from three Michigan counties while holed up in a Detroit-area hotel room in April 2021 — just days after the Arizona Senate hired him to lead the "audit."

Text messages show Logan texted Lambert nearly every day — often dozens of times — from March 2021, before the Arizona ballot review began, to January 2022, months after it ended. Court records show Logan and Lambert were in contact even earlier.

Logan and Lambert discussed their Michigan election investigation, the Department of Justice, "audit" fundraising, Dominion voting machines and putting "liberal companies funding communism out of business," according to earlier texts obtained by The Republic.

Why did The Republic sue for the Cyber Ninjas audit communications?

The Republic is fighting for the records to provide the public a better understanding of the unprecedented "audit" of the election, which involved the Senate issuing subpoenas to the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors and moving election equipment and about 2.1 million ballots to the Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum for inspection by private contractors.

The hand count was supposed to take a few weeks and cost taxpayers $150,000. It ultimately took months and so far has cost Arizona more than $5.5 million.

Logan said at a Sept. 24, 2021, Senate hearing the hand count showed President Joe Biden beat Trump in Maricopa County, and the numbers closely matched the county's certified election results from November. Logan's reports skimmed over the outcomes and focused on perceived voting irregularities.

But Logan privately admitted in text messages obtained by The Republic that he couldn't make sense of his own numbers, which he called "screwy."

Robert Anglen is an investigative reporter for The Republic. Reach him at robert.anglen@arizonarepublic.com or 602-444-8694. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter: @robertanglen.

Reach reporter Ryan Randazzo at ryan.randazzo@arizonarepublic.com or 602-444-4331. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter @UtilityReporter.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Hidden Arizona 'audit' text messages between Cyber Ninjas, Trump ally

************************

How to see the hidden text messages Cyber Ninjas CEO Doug Logan blacked out
by Robert Anglen and Ryan Randazzo
Arizona Republic
Published 6:01 am MT Oct 28, 2023 Updated 6:01 am MT Oct 28, 2023

Cyber Ninjas CEO Doug Logan attempted to block public view of more than 1,400 texts he traded with a Michigan lawyer tied to data breaches in four states.

He blacked out texts, but The Arizona Republic was able to digitally remove his redactions and view the messages.

We wanted to share the method we used with you.

The hidden texts were among 39,000 messages Logan has released in response to a public records lawsuit filed by The Republic in 2021 for all communications related to the Arizona "audit."

The "audit" has so far cost taxpayers about $5.5 million. The Arizona Senate hired Logan to lead a hand count of 2.1 million ballots cast in Maricopa County's 2020 election. Former Senate President Karen Fann in 2021 said the review was non-partisan and had nothing to do with Donald Trump or overturning the election.

Texts, however, reveal Trump's allies and lawyers were involved in nearly every facet of the "audit." The texts showed that Logan was enlisted as part of a coordinated effort to overturn election results in several swing states, including Georgia, Michigan and Pennsylvania.

How to uncover Cyber Ninjas' hidden texts

People who want to remove the redactions from Doug Logan’s text messages can start by downloading his redacted messages from the public “reading room” that lawyers for the Arizona Senate created.

This public website includes all of the documents the Senate and Cyber Ninjas have turned over in response to public records cases.

This is the link to the reading room: https://web.tresorit.com/l/XMN4J#pqSHHqcq_c_eP90cdWcdSg.

It contains tens of thousands of documents within various folders, dated from when the submissions were made. Not all can be unredacted.

The messages with Michigan lawyer Stefanie Lambert are in a folder submitted July 26 and can be found here: https://web.tresorit.com/l/XMN4J#pqSHHq ... CJp7JD8Jrt.

The PDF document can be downloaded.

By using PDF editing software such as Adobe Acrobat, users may open that document, click on the black boxes that hide the messages between Logan and Lambert, then delete them.

Robert Anglen is an investigative reporter for The Republic. Reach him at robert.anglen@arizonarepublic.com or 602-444-8694. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter: @robertanglen.

Reach reporter Ryan Randazzo atryan.randazzo@arizonarepublic.com or 602-444-4331. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter:@UtilityReporter.

[admin]

Robert Card’s [Maine Mass Shooter, 2023] X (Twitter) Account Shows ‘Likes’ on Politics [Card followed and/or liked posts by X’s CEO, Elon Musk, and Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban as well as a professor who studies terrorism and a number of prominent conservative politicians and pundits, including Donald Trump Jr. and Tucker Carlson.]
by Jessica McBride
Heavy.com
Updated Oct 27, 2023 at 9:47pm
https://heavy.com/news/robert-card-x-twitter-politics/


Robert Card X photo

Robert Card, the person of interest in the mass shooting in Lewiston, Maine, on October 25, 2023 liked a number of political posts on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Heavy reviewed the page shortly before it was suspended by X. It shows that Card followed and/or liked posts by X’s CEO, Elon Musk, and Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban as well as a professor who studies terrorism and a number of prominent conservative politicians and pundits, including Donald Trump Jr. and Tucker Carlson. He also liked and shared posts by CNBC, as well as posts on finance.

Card was found deceased of a self-inflicted gunshot wound on October 27, 2023, the Associated Press reported.

In March, he liked a tweet by Trump that read, “Given the incredible rise of trans/non-binary mass shooters in the last few years… by far the largest group committing as a percentage of population… maybe, rather than talking about guns we should be talking about lunatics pushing their gender affirming bulls*** on our kids?”

Card’s X page was at @RobertC20041800. Heavy recorded a video of Card’s post likes:

[x]

Card is a U.S. military veteran who had recent mental health issues, according to an internal law enforcement alert. He was still at large as of Thursday morning, October 26, 2023.

Speaking in a press conference, the Maine governor, Janet Mills, said that 18 people had died and 13 more were wounded in the attack. She pledged the community’s support for the victims and their families and said law enforcement is working hard to find Card.

You can read a round-up of the victims here. The first victim named was a grandfather and retired Sears mechanic named Bob Violette, who ran a youth bowling league.

[x]
Bob Violette, the first of the Lewiston, Maine, shooting victims named.

“Law Enforcement is attempting to locate Robert Card 4/4/1983, as a person of interest regarding the mass shooting at Schemengees Bar and Sparetime Recreation this evening. CARD should be considered armed and dangerous. Please contact law enforcement if you are aware of his whereabouts,” Lewiston police wrote on Facebook.

[x]
NavyBrat @_NavyBrat
Robert Card's FB account was shut down earlier this evening. It was a matter time before X shut down his account on the platform.

Breaking news 24/7
@aliifil1
#BREAKING | @X has just suspended the suspected account of Maine Mass Shooter Robert Card @RobertC20041800
@RobertC20041800
@RobertC20041800
Account suspended
X suspends accounts that violate the Our Rules.

10:28 PM Oct 25, 2023

Here’s what you need to know:

Robert Card Reposted a CNBC Story on Joe Biden & Brittney Griner: ‘Mass Murderer for a WNBA Player’

[x]
RobertCard
Robert Card reposted
Jim Cramer@jimcramer Mar 13
All day today you will hear short or under invested bears tell you how last night's fed actions did nothing or hurt finance and the country. Go read the story of the Odyssey, the part about the sirens. Be Ulysses because they are wrong

CNBC@CNBC Dec 8, 2022
WNBA star Brittney Griner released from Russian custody after 10 months, Biden says

RobertCard @RobertC20041800 Dec 8, 2022
Mass murderer for a wnba player great job keep up the good work

Robert Card X reply

Card reposted a CNBC story on X that was headlined, “WNBA star Brittney Griner released from Russian custody after 10 months, Biden says.”

Under it, he wrote on X, “Mass murderer for a wnba player great job keep up the good work.”

He had liked a number of posts of CNBC stories. The only post on his X page was a repost of a tweet from CNBC’s Jim Cramer that read, “All day today you will hear short or under invested bears tell you how last night’s fed actions did nothing or hurt finance and the country. Go read the story of the Odyssey, the part about the sirens. Be Ulysses because they are wrong.”

The law enforcement alert said that Card “is a trained firearms instructor believed to be in the Army Reserve stationed out of Saco, Maine.”

According to law enforcement, the alert says, “Card recently reported mental health issues to include hearing voices and threats to shoot up the National Guard Base in Saco, ME. Card was also reported to have been committed to mental health facility for two weeks during summer 2023 and subsequently released.”

Robert Card Followed a MAGA Page, Elon Musk & a Professor Who Studies ‘Muslim Politics’ & ‘Terrorism’

[x]
RobertCard

Tucker Carlson@TuckerCarlson Mar 28
The trans movement, it turns out, is the mirror image of Christianity, and therefore its natural enemy. People who believe they're God can't stand to be reminded that they're not.

DonaldTrump Jr. @DonaldJTrumpJr Mar 27
Given the incredible rise of trans/non-binary mass shooters in the last few years...by far the largest group committing as a percentage of population...maybe, rather than talking about guns we should be talking about lunatics pushing their gender affirming bullshit on our kids?

Dinesch D'Souza @DineshDSouza Mar 28
Ban assault weapons? Well, cars kill more people than guns do. But we blame the drivers. We don't ban large or fast cars. We understand that cars, like guns, don't act by themselves. The blame lies with the people who operate these mechanical devices. Common sense 101

Robert Card X likes

Card followed only a few accounts on X. They included a MAGA page called Proud Patriots, Elon Musk, Mark Cuban, CNBC, Joe Rogan and “@ProfAsifNawaz,” whose page says he is an “Assistant Professor of International Affairs & History @UMaine, Terrorism, International Conflict, Muslim Politics.” The professor’s name is Asif Nawaz.

[x]
Keagan Ilvonen
@Keagan
Who is @ProfAsifNawaz and why was this the first follower of thE Lewiston, ME shooter? Someone who studies terrorism...
10:16 PM Oct 25, 2023

Nawaz’s biography says: “His research focuses on countering violent extremism and the organizational dynamics of terrorism, such as lethality and longevity of terrorist groups. Dr. Nawaz specializes in the Middle Eastern and South Asian politics and his research utilizes interdisciplinary approaches to study the democratic attitudes and the rise of political Islam and terrorism in the Muslim world.”

According to NBC News, Card “studied engineering at the University of Maine about 20 years ago,” from 2001 to 2004.

Card liked a post by former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, a Republican, that read, “President Biden has already caused record inflation. Now, his reckless refusal to negotiate could lead to a first-ever default. I am prepared to clear my calendar. Mr. President, what are you afraid of?”

He also liked a video by former Fox News host Tucker Carlson. The caption on the post read, “The trans movement, it turns out, is the mirror image of Christianity, and therefore its natural enemy. People who believe they’re God can’t stand to be reminded that they’re not.”

Card also liked a post by conservative commentator Dinesh D’Souza that read, “An assault weapons? Well, cars kill more people than guns do. But we blame the drivers. We don’t ban large or fast cars. We understand that cars, like guns, don’t act by themselves. The blame lies with the people who operate these mechanical devices. Common sense 101.”

He liked a comment Musk made to a post by Joe Biden in which the X owner wrote, “Umm … the banks are melting.” Card liked another reply by Musk that read, “I used to think Bannon was smart & evil, but now I realize I was wrong about the first part.”

He also liked a post by Mohamed A. El-Erian, the president of Queen’s College, who wrote, “#Markets continue to price in #FederalReserve rate cuts, contradicting the Fed’s projections and yesterday’s explicit statements by Chair Powell If anything, the extent of the cuts has deepened post the Chair’s press conference Sets up an interesting reconciliation process ahead.”

Card also liked a post by a conservative page named Catturd [@catturd2, in fact, was part of a small cadre of major conservative influencers (including Tim Young, Lavern Spicer, and Raheem J. Kassam) -- Who Is @Catturd2, the Sh-tposting King of MAGA Twitter?, by Miles Klee, Rolling Stone] that read,

Good morning …When you don’t have the will of The People … you cheat, lie, fudge numbers, force lockdowns, illegally change election laws, run out of ink, make sure the voting machines don’t work in Republican areas only, hire 2000 mules, call voter ID racist, shut down counting on election night, do ballot dumps in the middle of the night which miraculously have 99% Democrat votes, have your propaganda communist media lie for you, count for weeks until you get your candidate to pull ahead then immediately shutdown counting, and arrest your political opponents to win.

To be clear, Card liked the above posts. He did not write them.

He liked a post by a man named Daniel Baranowski, who defines himself as an “ultra MAGA conservative” and who wrote, sharing a picture of Musk: “This man spent $44 billion to buy Twitter so you and I can openly communicate! And the Democrats are LIVID.”

Jessica McBride is a news reporter covering breaking news, politics and crime for Heavy. She is a former reporter for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and Waukesha Freeman newspapers in Wisconsin and is a senior journalism instructor at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee. More about Jessica McBride

[admin]

Jenna Ellis and Sidney Powell Captured on Tape Spilling to Prosecutors: Jenna Ellis was told at a White House Christmas party that “the boss” was not planning to leave office “under any circumstances,” she told prosecutors.
by AJ McDougall
DailyBeast
Published Nov. 13, 2023 7:40PM EST

As Rudy Giuliani worked to keep Donald Trump in power after the 2020 presidential election, he became frustrated with some of his alleged co-conspirators, one of them recently told prosecutors in Fulton County, Georgia, according to ABC News. At one “really ugly” meeting, Sidney Powell reportedly recalled, Giuliani erupted at her, calling her “a bitch.”

“There was a big shouting match in which Rudy called me every name in the book and I was the worst lawyer he’d ever seen in his life,” Powell said. “There were no circumstances under which he'd work with me on anything.”

The revelation is one of several shared with prosecutors by Powell and another former Trump lawyer, Jenna Ellis, both of whom recently took plea deals as part of a sprawling racketeering conspiracy case that saw them charged alongside the former president and 16 of his other allies.

The subsequent proffer sessions, an opportunity for individuals to tell the government what they know about an investigation, were recorded, with portions of footage obtained by ABC News on Monday.

[x]
ABC News@ABC
EXCLUSIVE: ABC News has obtained video from Georgia prosecutors' interview with ex-Trump attorney Jenna Ellis, in which Ellis tells them she was personally informed by a top Trump adviser that Trump was "not going to leave" the White House — despite losing the 2020 election.… Show more
3:12 PM · Nov 13, 2023

Giuliani’s meltdown was just one of several explosive details shared by Powell and Ellis as they outlined their efforts to flip the election result. In one Oct. 23 session, Ellis said she approached then-top aide Dan Scavino at the 2020 White House Christmas party to apologize for her lackluster legal challenges, only for Scavino to stop her.

“And he said to me, in a kind of excited tone, ‘Well, we don't care, and we’re not going to leave,” Ellis said. “And I said, ‘What do you mean?’ And he said ‘Well, the boss,’ meaning President Trump—and everyone understood ‘the boss,’ that’s what we all called him—he said, ‘The boss is not going to leave under any circumstances. We are just going to stay in power.’”

She continued: “And I said to him, ‘Well, it doesn’t quite work that way, you realize?’ and he said, ‘We don’t care.’”

Ellis said that both she and Scavino had consumed alcohol prior to having the conversation, but that she didn’t believe it had affected either his state or her memory of the episode, ABC News reported. Scavino was not charged in Georgia’s racketeering indictment.

The lawyer’s recollection of the conversation is one of the clearest first-hand examples of conspiracy yet known to have been given to the government as it attempts to prove Trump scrambled to unlawfully reverse the election result.

An attorney for Trump, who has denied wrongdoing in the Fulton County case, called the “purported private conversation” described by Ellis “absolutely meaningless” in a statement to the network.

"The only salient fact to this nonsense line of inquiry is that President Trump left the White House on January 20, 2021, and returned to Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida,” Steve Sadow said. “If this is the type of bogus, ridiculous ‘evidence’ DA Willis intends to rely upon, it is one more reason that this political, travesty [sic] of a case must be dismissed.”

Attorneys for Powell and Ellis declined to comment to ABC News, while Scavino and a spokesperson for the Fulton County District Attorney did not respond to requests for comment. A lawyer for Ellis, Frank Hogue, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that his legal team didn’t leak the video to ABC News as they’d never received a copy of it.

Sources close to the matter told the newspaper that the footage of the proffer sessions were sent to the attorneys for all the remaining defendants in the case as part of the discovery process.

As of Monday, four of the 19 defendants in the Fulton County case had accepted plea deals—Ellis, Powell, attorney Kenneth Chesebro, and bail bondsman Scott Graham Hall. Ellis tearfully pleaded guilty to one felony count of aiding and abetting false statements and writings, while Powell pleaded to six misdemeanors.

Both women were able to duck prison sentences, instead being handed multiple years of probation and hefty fines. Under the terms of their agreements, they will also have to write apology letters to the people of Georgia, and testify truthfully against their co-defendants, including Trump.

Prosecutors have reportedly discussed the possibility of deals with up to half a dozen other defendants in the case.

[admin]

Trump Echoes Hitler's Words on the Campaign Trail
by MeidasTouchNetwork
11/13/23



[Hitler] I will get rid of the "Communist" "Vermin"

[Trump] I will get rid of the "Communist" "Vermin"

[Hitler] I will take care of the "Enemy Within"

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House Calendar No. __
118TH CONGRESS
1st Session
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
REPORT 118-

IN THE MATTER OF ALLEGATIONS RELATING TO REPRESENTATIVE GEORGE SANTOS

REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON ETHICS

November 16, 2023.—Referred to the House Calendar and ordered to be printed.

U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE
WASHINGTON: 2023

ADOPTED BY THE COMMITTEE ON ETHICS ON NOVEMBER 14, 2023

118TH CONGRESS, 1ST SESSION
U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
COMMITTEE ON ETHICS

IN THE MATTER OF ALLEGATIONS RELATING TO REPRESENTATIVE GEORGE SANTOS

NOVEMBER 14, 2023

Mr. GUEST, from the Committee on Ethics, submitted the following
REPORT

COMMITTEE ON ETHICS

MICHAEL GUEST, Mississippi, Chairman
DAVID P. JOYCE, Ohio
JOHN H. RUTHERFORD, Florida
ANDREW R. GARBARINO, New York
MICHELLE FISCHBACH, Minnesota
SUSAN WILD, Pennsylvania, Ranking Member
VERONICA ESCOBAR, Texas
MARK DeSAULNIER, California
DEBORAH K. ROSS, North Carolina
GLENN F. IVEY, Maryland

REPORT STAFF

Thomas A. Rust, Chief Counsel/Staff Director
Brittney Pescatore, Director of Investigations
Keelie Broom, Counsel to the Chairman
David Arrojo, Counsel to the Ranking Member
Janet M. Foster, Senior Counsel
Sydney R. Bellwoar, Counsel
Christine E. Gwinn, Counsel
Melissa Chong, Counsel
Jennifer Seeba, Counsel
Caroline Taylor, Investigator
Peyton Wilmer, Investigative Clerk

LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL

November 16, 2023

The Honorable Kevin F. McCumber
Acting Clerk, House of Representatives
H-154, The Capitol
Washington, DC 20515

Dear Mr. McCumber:

Pursuant to clauses 3(a)(2) and 3(b) of Rule XI of the Rules of the House of Representatives, we herewith transmit the attached report, “In the Matter of Allegations Relating to Representative George Santos.”

Sincerely,

Michael Guest, Chairman

Susan Wild, Ranking Member

CONTENTS

I. FINDINGS..................................................................1
II. PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND........................................... 2
III. STATEMENT UNDER HOUSE RULE XIII, CLAUSE 3(C) ............... 3
APPENDIX A: REPORT OF THE INVESTIGATIVE SUBCOMMITTEE

118TH CONGRESS, 1ST SESSION
U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
COMMITTEE ON ETHICS

IN THE MATTER OF ALLEGATIONS RELATING TO REPRESENTATIVE GEORGE SANTOS

November 14, 2023

Mr. GUEST, from the Committee on Ethics, submitted the following

REPORT

In accordance with House Rule XI, clauses 3(a)(2) and 3(b), the Committee on Ethics (Committee) hereby submits the following Report to the House of Representatives:

I. FINDINGS

On November 14, 2023, the Committee unanimously voted to adopt the Report of the Investigative Subcommittee (ISC), which is enclosed as Appendix A. The Committee also unanimously voted, pursuant to Committee Rule 28, to refer to the Department of Justice (DOJ) substantial evidence that Representative Santos: knowingly caused his campaign committee to file false or incomplete reports with the Federal Election Commission; used campaign funds for personal purposes; engaged in fraudulent conduct in connection with RedStone Strategies LLC; and engaged in knowing and willful violations of the Ethics in Government Act as it relates to his Financial Disclosure (FD) Statements filed with the House.

Amid a deferral request from DOJ and Representative Santos’ obfuscation and delay, the ISC expeditiously compiled a voluminous record consisting of over 170,000 pages of documents and testimony from dozens of witnesses, including financial statements, contemporaneous communications, and other materials. That record demonstrated the breadth of Representative Santos’ misconduct. As discussed in the ISC’s Report:

Representative Santos sought to fraudulently exploit every aspect of his House candidacy for his own personal financial profit.

He blatantly stole from his campaign.

He deceived donors into providing what they thought were contributions to his campaign but were in fact payments for his personal benefit.

He reported fictitious loans to his political committees to induce donors and party committees to make further contributions to his campaign – and then diverted more campaign money to himself as purported “repayments” of those fictitious loans.

He used his connections to high value donors and other political campaigns to obtain additional funds for himself through fraudulent or otherwise questionable business dealings.

And he sustained all of this through a constant series of lies to his constituents, donors, and staff about his background and experience.1 [ISC Report at 4.]

Representative Santos continues to flout his statutory financial disclosure obligations and has failed to correct countless errors and omissions in his past FD Statements, despite being repeatedly reminded by the ISC and the Committee of his requirement to do so.

The ISC also found that, despite his attempts to blame others for much of the misconduct, Representative Santos was a knowing and active participant in the wrongdoing. Particularly troubling was Representative Santos’ lack of candor during the investigation itself.

At the outset of the review, Representative Santos was given an opportunity, pursuant to Committee Rule 17(b), to submit a signed written statement responding to the allegations raised in a complaint filed by his fellow Members; he did not do so. The ISC requested that he provide all documents and information responsive to its Request for Information; he did not do so. The ISC asked him to voluntarily testify; he did not do so. The ISC also provided him the opportunity, pursuant to Committee Rule 19(b)(3), to provide a statement under oath, but he did not do so. Representative Santos’ repeated public statements that he would like to prove his innocence and is cooperating with the ISC’s investigation are belied by his consistent failure to meaningfully cooperate with the ISC’s review.

The ISC and the Committee have now completed their review of the allegations and charges and have amassed overwhelming evidence of his misconduct. This evidence is summarized in the ISC’s Report.2 [Consistent with Committee Rule 25, the Report includes any evidence that could be considered substantially favorable to Representative Santos.]

II. PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

On November 9, 2023, the ISC transmitted a Report to the Committee summarizing its findings, which include substantial evidence that Representative Santos violated federal criminal laws and other standards of conduct within the Committee’s jurisdiction. Based on the unique and unprecedented circumstances in this case, the ISC unanimously determined that the Committee’s duty to safeguard the integrity of the House and the interests of justice warranted the immediate disclosure of its findings and recommended that the Committee refer evidence to DOJ. The ISC further recommended that the Committee adopt its Report and publicly condemn Representative Santos for his conduct, which the ISC found to be beneath the dignity of the office and to have brought severe discredit upon the House.

The ISC was in regular contact with DOJ to ensure that its investigation did not unduly interfere with the ongoing prosecution of Representative Santos. Those communications led the ISC to delay its review at multiple stages of the investigation and to forgo certain investigative steps.

The Committee agreed with the ISC’s recommendation that these findings should be disclosed immediately, and evidence referred to DOJ. The Committee’s referral to DOJ includes evidence of alleged violations beyond those Representative Santos is currently charged with in the pending criminal matter. Committee and House Rules provide a process by which the ISC can bring formal charges through a Statement of Alleged Violations, which would then be subject to a lengthy trial-like public adjudication and sanctions hearing by the Committee, after which the Committee can make a recommendation to the full House. Given Representative Santos’ failure to meaningfully engage with the Committee to date, proceeding with that adjudicatory process would only provide Representative Santos with further opportunity to delay any accountability for his actions and could risk interfering with the ongoing criminal prosecution. The ISC thus chose to report its findings to the Committee, pursuant to Committee Rule 19(g), and the Committee has decided to send that Report to the full House, pursuant to Committee Rule 21(a).

The Committee encourages all Members of the House to carefully read the ISC’s Report, which details grave and pervasive campaign finance violations and fraudulent activity by Representative Santos, and take any action they deem appropriate and necessary, based on the ISC’s findings, to fulfill the House’s Constitutional mandate to police the conduct of its Members.

III. STATEMENT UNDER HOUSE RULE XIII, CLAUSE 3(C)

The Committee made no special oversight findings in this Report. No budget statement is submitted. No funding is authorized by any measure in this Report.