Mega-Thread: Trump Focused Discussion

[postman1782]

https://www.politico.com/news/magazi...t-cop-00060556

So, Michael Fanone took many recordings with people he met with after January 6th. He has records of him with Kevin McCarthy, Lindsay Graham, his Union Leader in DC.

He had fellow cops threatening him after January 6th because they supported Trump.

[Breccia]

WaPo reports that--

"Paywall."

Fine, here's everything.

The probably final public hearing of the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol is expected to highlight newly obtained Secret Service records showing how Trump was repeatedly alerted to brewing violence that day, and he still sought to stoke the conflict, according to three people briefed on the records.

The committee plans to share in Thursday’s hearing new video footage and internal Secret Service emails that appear to corroborate parts of the most startling inside accounts of that day, said the people briefed, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive internal records. Former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson testified in June that Trump was briefed on Jan. 6 that some of his supporters were armed for battle, demanded they be allowed into his rally and insisted he wanted to lead them on their march to the Capitol.

Surveillance footage the committee plans to share was taken near the Ellipse that morning before Trump’s speech and shows throngs of his supporters clustered just outside the corralled area for his “Stop the Steal” rally. Secret Service officers screened those entering who sought to get closer to the stage. Law enforcement officials who were monitoring video that morning spotted Trump supporters with plastic shields, bulletproof vests and other paramilitary gear, and some in the Secret Service concluded they stayed outside the rally area to avoid having their weapons confiscated, according to people familiar with the new records.

Other internal emails likely to be revealed at the hearing further buttress accounts about staff members warning Trump about the risk and then the reality of violence that day, as he continued to press nervous Secret Service agents to take him to the Capitol to join his supporters marching there, the three people said. After being alerted to violence erupting at the Capitol when he returned to the White House, Trump tweeted criticism of Vice President Mike Pence for not blocking the certification of the election, whipping up supporters who had already trampled over security barricades and were battling police to break into the halls of Congress.

The newly obtained Secret Service records are just part of a larger hearing in which the committee hopes to summarize and remind the American public of all the ways Trump is said to have played a central role in fomenting a violent insurrection at the Capitol, one of the most brutal attacks on democracy in U.S. history, according to multiple people briefed on the evidence and committee plan. While the committee’s previous hearings took center stage over several weeks this summer, the committee is trying to revive interest in its probe and deliver what it has privately called its “closing arguments” about past and ongoing threats to democracy as voters prepare to cast ballots next month in the midterm elections.

The hearing aims to highlight new evidence gathered by investigators that corroborates the committee’s key findings about Trump and the Jan. 6 insurrection, according to the people briefed: that he sought to rile up his supporters to help block the certification of Joe Biden’s electoral victory; used his bully pulpit to encourage a fiery showdown at the Capitol; and then refused to budge to help rescue thousands of lawmakers, staff members and police officers on Capitol Hill who were either fleeing or fighting for their lives that afternoon.

It’s unclear, however, if the new material will shed any light on a particularly dramatic part of Hutchinson’s testimony, in which she recounted a senior Secret Service official telling her that Trump had erupted in anger and lunged at the lead security agent in his motorcade when told he could not go to the Capitol.

One email the committee has obtained highlights the level of alarm inside Secret Service headquarters on Jan. 6 about the possibility that Trump would get his wish to head to the Capitol — and join a melee in progress.

By 1 p.m. Eastern time that day, according to police testimony, hand-to-hand combat between protesters and officers was breaking out on the steps and platforms immediately outside the Capitol. The Secret Service had just then offered to send reinforcements to help an overwhelmed U.S. Capitol Police force, according to texts and testimony from then-Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund.

The new correspondence obtained by the committee shows that while Trump was still speaking to his supporters and announcing he was going to the Capitol, Secret Service personnel in charge of transportation and field operations scrambled to try to secure a safe motorcade route for the president and his entourage, two people briefed on the records said. The Secret Service staff members sought D.C. police help to block intersections. But with tens of thousands of protesters in downtown Washington, and D.C. police being dispatched to help Capitol Police with protesters breaking through barricades, D.C. police declined the Secret Service’s request.

About 1:10 p.m., Trump had left the Ellipse in his motorcade after finishing his speech and demanded to go to the Capitol. Trump’s detail leader, Bobby Engel, riding with Trump in his sport utility vehicle, told an enraged Trump that they were heading back to the White House and it was not safe to take him to the Capitol, The Washington Post previously reported.

“We don’t have the assets,” Engel told Trump of the inability to secure safe passage for his motorcade, according to a Secret Service official briefed on Engel’s account. By about 1:20 p.m., Trump was back at the White House.

One of the committee’s newly obtained documents shows that sometime between 1:30 and 2 p.m., a senior Secret Service supervisor for protective operations emailed Engel with an urgent update and seeking to know if Trump’s plan to go to the Capitol was successfully quashed. It came after a tumultuous hour for the Secret Service detail, which had effectively ignored a command from the president.

Even with Trump back at the White House, Secret Service headquarters wanted to be sure the president was staying put. The supervisor, Ronald L. Rowe, warned Engel that the situation was rapidly devolving at the Capitol and sought Engel’s confirmation he was not considering taking Trump there, according to a senior law enforcement official familiar with the records turned over to the committee. Rowe urged Engel to call him.

Rowe declined to comment, but Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said Rowe’s email reflected the larger agency’s position: Trump’s idea of going to the Capitol was a non-starter.

In other internal emails, agents relayed reports that Trump was angry about being told he couldn’t go to the Capitol.

Some of the information, the people briefed said, calls into question the previous testimony of Engel and Anthony Ornato, then a Secret Service leader who was serving in an unprecedented political role of White House deputy chief of staff. Both men told the committee in closed-door depositions that they could not recall certain events relayed by other witnesses, including Trump’s demand that the Secret Service let armed people into his rally.

After Hutchinson testified that Ornato told her that Trump had lunged at Engel inside the sport utility vehicle they were traveling in, anonymous Secret Service sources said that Engel and Ornato disputed any altercation occurred and were prepared to say so under oath. The committee has not yet re-interviewed the two men, as lawmakers sifted through the additional trove of Secret Service records. Ornato and Engel, through a Secret Service spokesman, declined to comment.

The vast trove of records turned over to the Jan. 6 committee is the result of an ironic twist of events, according to the people briefed on the documents. The same Secret Service that permanently deleted agents’ texts from Jan. 6 and the surrounding days amid congressional requests last year has now provided to the committee this large volume of internal communications from the same time period. Voluntarily, the agency has turned over every record it kept of logistical planning, security concerns and private discussions related to the scheduled protests and president’s movements.

This extensive sharing of records — more than 1 million pages’ worth and many which the committee did not specifically request — followed a period when the Secret Service came under fire for executing an agencywide destruction of all texts exchanged from agents phones in that key period. Federal regulations mandate the preservation of government records, and the Secret Service’s deletion of these records prompted a federal investigation into the failure to do so. The texts were wiped from agents’ phones as part of a Secret Service-wide update of employees phones that began in January 2021. Secret Service officials have said the mass deletion of reams of potential evidence was unintentional, and the agency’s telephone provider has concluded those texts are now impossible to recover.

The committee had considered sharing a portion of its videotaped interview with Ornato at a previous hearing and it’s unclear if lawmakers will do so Thursday. In one portion of his interview, according to two people briefed on his account, Ornato described briefing White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows the afternoon of Jan. 6 about detailed reports of violence breaking out at the Capitol, as well as police officers being transported to a hospital. The committee learned from other witnesses that Meadows then briefed Trump.

The hearing could build out the evidence that Trump took steps to ratchet up the conflict at the Capitol, despite being warned of escalating violence. Lawmakers on the committee have grown particularly suspicious about the agency’s transparency with congressional investigators as they’ve struggled to obtain some information they requested over a year ago.

The committee’s hearing Thursday, probably its final one before the release of its report, will also illuminate how associates of Trump — including chief strategist Stephen K. Bannon and Roger Stone, a longtime friend and onetime adviser — planned on declaring victory regardless of the outcome of the 2020 presidential election, The Post previously reported. The House select committee intends to show video footage of Stone recorded by Danish filmmakers during the weeks before the Jan. 6 violence.

Another portion of this week’s hearing is expected to focus on the continuing threat of domestic extremism and political violence spawned by efforts to overturn the 2020 election, according to a person familiar with the matter.

The committee has continued interviewing witnesses in the lead-up to the final hearing, and it interviewed Virginia “Ginni” Thomas, the conservative activist and wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, last month. It’s unclear whether the committee will use any of Thomas’s interview, which was only transcribed and not videotaped or recorded, Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) said recently in an interview on MSNBC.

Emphasis mine. Not only did Trump know there was violence, he did nothing to stop it, and wanted to be there to see it, or be part of it.

Trump is a traitor.

[Edge-]

https://www.politico.com/news/magazi...t-cop-00060556

So, Michael Fanone took many recordings with people he met with after January 6th. He has records of him with Kevin McCarthy, Lindsay Graham, his Union Leader in DC.

He had fellow cops threatening him after January 6th because they supported Trump.

What an absolute boss. If only conservatives in America were actually open to listening to one of the law enforcement they so loudly and proudly shriek about supporting.

And they love to fly that stupid, racist flag. I think they just might like flags.

- - - Updated - - -

https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/12/us/tr...per/index.html

A Minnesota man who claimed Antifa set fire to his camper during the political unrest of 2020 because he had displayed a Trump campaign flag admitted to staging the event and committing insurance fraud, the Justice Department announced Tuesday.

Burning down your trailer and committing insurance fraud to own the libs!

“Mr. Molla was obviously remorseful during his federal plea hearing today,” Ryan Garry, Molla’s attorney, told CNN via email Tuesday. “It’s easy for the general public to look down on him, without knowing what was going on in his life, and cast immediate judgement. Mr. Molla is a wonderful husband and father who made a mistake that he sincerely regrets. Unlike many others, he has accepted full responsibility for his actions and is sorry for what happened.”

His attorney is right, it is easy to look down on this liar who burned his own property, blamed it on a largely fictional political "opponent", and then broke the law by committing insurance fraud.

[Breccia]

I think they just might like flags.

"It's not about the flag! It's about the meaning! It represents an ideal which I show respect to by showing respect to that flag!"
"So, following that line of thinking, if someone were to kneel during the anth--"
"UNACCETPABLE!"

In other Trump news, arguably the most Trumpian headline is Trump appeals judge’s decision to toss lawsuit against Hillary Clinton , but not just because it's Trump being a fat orange petty hypocrite by going after a political rival and trying to expand what "defamation" is but only for other people.

It's because of this:

Court records show the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida received Trump’s appeal Tuesday but flagged filing deficiencies in the appeal, including at least one missing signature.

It's routinely embarrassing how bad his legal team is. At, like, everything. Speaking of which, the NYTimes goes out of their way to spell out how Trump's lawyer Bobb is, erm, okay you know how some people say certain villains are sympathetic and others disagree? We've reached that stage.

In the past two years, Ms. Bobb has emerged as one of his truest of true believers, embracing conspiracy theories with a fervor that has at times seemed over the top even to her colleagues, according to interviews with a dozen people who have worked with her over the past several years.

Ms. Bobb has not been shy about expressing her opinions on conservative news outlets, speaking expansively about the court-authorized F.B.I. search and her low opinion of those who executed it.

“I don’t believe that there was any classified material in there, though I’m sure the F.B.I. will say that there is,” she said in an interview with the conservative activist Dinesh D’Souza two days after the warrant was executed.

Another conservative activist, Mike Farris, asked if she was concerned by the Justice Department’s aggressive approach.

“I’m not too worried about it,” she replied. “They are all a bunch of cowards; they don’t have anything.”

Ms. Bobb was present in the pro-Trump “command center” at the Willard Hotel in Washington before the Capitol attack, along with Rudolph W. Giuliani and other Trump stalwarts.

She acted as Mr. Giuliani’s go-between with state officials in Arizona and helped fund-raise for a recount in Maricopa County that Republican leaders called a “sham.” She drafted a memo and participated in meetings to discuss a plan to appoint alternate slates of electors to reverse legitimate state election results. And Ms. Bobb created the computer file used to draft a proposal, never carried out, for Mr. Trump to issue an executive order for the federal government to seize voting machines.

So, yeah, Bobb is a cultist, one of the frothiest of the rabid fanbase. A true believer and a Trump, well borderline fanatic.

And yet...

Trump was in the midst of an escalating clash with the Justice Department about documents he had taken with him from the White House at the end of his term. The lawyer, M. Evan Corcoran, met Ms. Bobb at the president’s residence and private club in Florida and asked her to sign a statement for the department that the Trump legal team had conducted a “diligent search” of Mar-a-Lago and found only a few files that had not been returned to the government.

Ms. Bobb, a 39-year-old lawyer juggling amorphous roles in her new job, was being asked to take a step that neither Mr. Trump nor other members of the legal team were willing to take — so she looked before leaping.

“Wait a minute — I don’t know you,” Ms. Bobb replied to Mr. Corcoran’s request, according to a person to whom she later recounted the episode. She later complained that she did not have a full grasp of what was going on around her when she signed the document, according to two people who have heard her account.

Ms. Bobb, who relentlessly promoted falsehoods about the 2020 election as an on-air host for the far-right One America News Network, eventually signed her name. But she insisted on adding a written caveat before giving it to a senior Justice Department official on June 3: “The above statements are true and correct to the best of my knowledge.”

"Oh, no! Magneto had a family before he murdered all those innocent people!"

Well, it's worse than that. Bobb was demonstrably not just one of Trump's hardest-corest supporters, but also, a valuable employee. Trump destroyed her anyhow. They didn't just throw her to the wolves, they slathered her in gravy first. I'm no longer concerned that some poor clueless sap was fooled, anyone working for Trump knows what they're getting into, and she wanted that so badly, she did things she knew were questionable even by rabid fanbase standards. You don't get to kill both your parents then plead for mercy because you're an orphan. The issue here, is how Team Trump treats even their most useful and loyal members. Badly. On purpose.

For the record, I don't think "to the best of my knowledge" counts as a "get out of indictment free" clause. She's not saying "someone snuck those classified documents into Trump's basement without my knowledge". She signed the form having not looked at all.

So what is the escape exit? Another tried and true Trump and/or mafia classic: taking everyone down with you.

On Friday, Ms. Bobb sat for a voluntary interview with Justice Department lawyers in Washington, according to three people familiar with the situation. She told them that another Trump lawyer, Boris Epshteyn, contacted her the night before she signed the attestation and connected her with Mr. Corcoran. Ms. Bobb, who was living in Florida, was told that she needed to go to Mar-a-Lago the next day to deal with an unspecified legal matter for Mr. Trump.

In her meeting with the department — a development reported by NBC News on Monday — Ms. Bobb, who was accompanied by her criminal defense lawyer, John Lauro, emphasized that she was working as part of a team rather than as a solo actor when she signed the statement attesting to the return of all the documents, the people said.

Mr. Corcoran, she told the Justice Department, had walked her through how he had conducted a search of a storage facility at Mar-a-Lago for the documents. She said she had believed at the time she signed the attestation in June that it was accurate, according to a person with knowledge of the situation.

This goes to what I asked @cubby for help with multiple times. If I lie to my lawyer, and that lawyer accepts my lie and signs the court form with a lie on it, what happens? Well, the answer right now appears to be "conspiracy to obstruct justice". Asking someone to lie to the feds for you has got to be a crime, whether they do it or not. It's illegal for me to hire an assassin even if they shoot the wrong target or miss.

But it's not just Trump having all the fun in court. Let's talk about Denis Molla.

He's fucked.

Burning your own stuff down, blame BLM, commit insurance fraud and then setup a GoFundMe to guilt people into giving money? Must be a day of the week that ends in y the Qanon insanity crowd.

Molla pled guilty to a bunch of fraud-related issues. He defecated his (cough) he defaced his own property and blamed it on BLM Antifa Biden Pizzagate Clinton, then not only charged his insurance $61,000 -- actually he charged them $300,000 but only got $61,000 and I'm just guessing the insurance company wants it back -- but also started a GoFundMe for another $17,000. That's wire fraud.

Molla submitted multiple insurance claims seeking coverage for the damage to his garage, camper, vehicles, and residence caused by the fire. When Molla’s insurance company denied some of those claims, Molla submitted a written complaint to the insurance company claiming that it was defrauding him and threatened to report the company to the Department of Commerce and to the Attorney General.

"I'm going to guess 'vehicles' = both pickup trucks."

What an amazingly coincidental lucky guess, how on earth did you do it?

So, Molla now has a bunch of damaged goods, didn't get the money to fix them all, will almost certainly have to repay the rest of it with money he doesn't have, I'm legit surprised he wasn't charged with arson too, and then go to jail for a few years. Hopefully the thoughts of his loving family will keep him warm, almost as warm as the fire he started on his own property on purpose and then blamed some black people.

The fire was Sept 23, 2020. This article from Sept 24, 2020 shows he didn't even paint the symbols correctly. The story also says

He gave chase but abandoned the pursuit after realizing he was still in his boxer shorts. But one of the people he chased dropped a matchbox, which Dennis collected before heading back inside to warn the family.

which is what I would say, if I wanted to explain my fingerprints on the "murder weapon".

"Wait, his kids were in the house that he set fire to himself?"

I mean, you act like this was a well-thought-out plan or something. Also I didn't mention the four puppies in the garage which--

"OH MY GOD."

Yeah, from now on, whenever someone says "Well this one Democrat did XXX therefore XXX is what Democrats do" I want you to bring up Denis Molla, who set his house, trucks, and garage on fire, in which were his wife, both children (one a baby), and four puppies. And then say "You really want to judge a group by its extremists, that's fine by me".

- - - Updated - - -

"It’s easy for the general public to look down on him, without knowing what was going on in his life, and cast immediate judgement."

Oh shit, Edge- beat me to it. But, Mr. Garry The Lawyer sir, set the garage on fire with four puppies in it. Then lied to the cops about three black dudes. I think it's 100% safe to cast judgement on that.

[Edge-]

https://forward.com/culture/520949/t...-antisemitism/

And Tucker Carlson is stanning for Kanye's deep mental illness and antisemetism. Unsurprising.

[Breccia]

This article uses mandatory public filings to conclude that MTG bought into TMTG, possibly by accident given the initials, and lost about $38,000 doing so.

According to a periodic transaction report filed by Greene, she bought between $15,001 and $50,000 worth of DWAC stock on Oct. 22, 2021. Congressional stock tracking website CapitolTrades.com reports she bought her shares for $94.20 (which was the stock’s closing price that day), which would imply that Greene owns anywhere from 159.2 shares to 530 shares.

If it’s the latter, based on how low DWAC’s stock was trading on Wednesday afternoon, $50,000 worth of shares Greene bought last year would now be worth as little as $12,000. And if DWAC were to dissolve itself and pay investors just $10 a share, her loss could be as high as $44,700. Even if Greene had purchased the minimum amount possible within the range she reported, her shares today would be worth less than $3,700—a loss of more than $11,000.

[Poopymonster]

This article uses mandatory public filings to conclude that MTG bought into TMTG, possibly by accident given the initials, and lost about $38,000 doing so.

Speaking of Marjorie: The Gauche, are we supposed to stone this good upright Christian woman who is getting a divorce?
I didn't write the book, just asking.

[Shkar]

This article uses mandatory public filings to conclude that MTG bought into TMTG, possibly by accident given the initials, and lost about $38,000 doing so.

Not a big deal, Wizards of the Coast will make that up with a couple dozen of their $999 30th Anniversary packs.

*Notices the thread title*

Oh, nevermind. Sucks to be a believer, I guess?

[Breccia]

Sucks to be a believer, I guess?

Multiple articles I've read have cited multiple members of the rabid fanbase who at least claim they've sunk their life savings into this.

So, yes.

[Ripster42]

This article uses mandatory public filings to conclude that MTG bought into TMTG, possibly by accident given the initials, and lost about $38,000 doing so.

Is she finally getting a salary this year though? I remember last year's salary was devoted entirely to fines.

[Edge-]

https://twitter.com/EricKleefeld/sta...38761358946305

People on Fox New think the economy is so bad they spend $28 on lunch at Taco Bell.

The internet instantly wonders how on earth this is possible unless you're ordering for like 3 people.

Don't take financial advice from someone who spends $28 on a Taco Bell lunch for one.

[Breccia]

spend $28 on lunch at Taco Bell.

Also known as "a lethal dose"

[Edge-]

Also known as "a lethal dose"

Honestly, I don't understand how $28 in Taco Bell for a single person can be anything but a lethal dose. That much sand consumed in one sitting (yes, I know they took the sand out of their beef) surely has serious health risks.

[Edge-]

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/r...after-subpoena

But after another interview, the Post reports, the witness described being directed by Trump to move boxes.

Elsewhere in the story, the Post cites “witness accounts” that point to Trump ordering the boxes to be moved. Video footage obtained by prosecutors purportedly corroborates the testimony about the boxes’ movement.

It’s a potentially significant development in the case, showing that Trump may not only have refused to comply with the subpoena, but moved boxes away from the government’s area of focus.

So if Trump tried to hide the boxes after the NARA requested their records back (they're the NARA's, the federal governments, not Trumps), and after receiving a law subpoena for them which he lied about a second time after lying to the NARA.

That sounds like, I dunno, super duper illegal?

[fwc577]

https://twitter.com/EricKleefeld/sta...38761358946305

People on Fox New think the economy is so bad they spend $28 on lunch at Taco Bell.

The internet instantly wonders how on earth this is possible unless you're ordering for like 3 people.

Don't take financial advice from someone who spends $28 on a Taco Bell lunch for one.

As a regular connoisseur of the bell from the southern border, I will tell you what I would buy if someone handed me $28 and said, spend it all now and give me back change, all food is yours:

2 Grilled Cheese Burrito Box Deluxes

--2x Grilled Cheese Burritos
--2x Chalupa Supreme
--2x Doritos Loco Taco
--2x Nachos w/ Cheese
--2x Baja Blast

2 Cinnamon Twists

12 Pack of Cinnabon Delight Combos

The total for me would be $27.45

If anyone was wondering, that's about 4,500 calories.

[gondrin]

https://twitter.com/EricKleefeld/sta...38761358946305

People on Fox New think the economy is so bad they spend $28 on lunch at Taco Bell.

The internet instantly wonders how on earth this is possible unless you're ordering for like 3 people.

Don't take financial advice from someone who spends $28 on a Taco Bell lunch for one.

Ok, he could have gotten a large pizza, drink, a stuffed cheezy bread AND one other side for that price.

[fwc577]

It costs us like $60 for a family of 4. Not an outrageous amount either.

My advice, get the app. Everything is cheaper in the app.

Chalupa is like $4.50 for one or $5 for a box that includes like a burrito, taco, side, and a drink.

The My Cravings Box for example, is $5

And you get to choose:

1 Specialty: Chalupa or Cheesy Gordita Crunch or Crunchwrap Supreme or Black Bean Chalupa Supreme or Black Bean Crunchwrap Supreme

1 Classic: Crunchy Taco or Beefy 5-Layer Burrito or Bean Burrito or Spicy Potato Soft Taco or Nacho Cheese Doritos Locos Taco or Soft Taco

1 Side: Chips and Cheese, Cinnamon Twists, or Fiesta Potatos

1 Drink

- - - Updated - - -

Ok, he could have gotten a large pizza, drink, a stuffed cheezy bread AND one other side for that price.

Oh man, don't get me started on the Dominos.

$28 right now, I would buy:

Medium Handtossed Pepperoni

Garlic Bread Twists

Chocolate Lava Crunch Cakes

Specialty Chicken Sweet BBQ Bacon

2-Liter of Coke

- - - Updated - - -

If I'm being honest though. I think the talks of inflation are overblown.

Yes, I've seen prices go up on many things as far as groceries and staples are concerned. However, I still buy most of my shit on sale and when you buy shit on sale, there hasn't been a whole ton of inflation.

It sucks that like the TV Dinners I like are now 3 / $9 instead of $4 / $10. It sucks that 12-packs of soda went from 4/$12 to 3/$13. But it hasn't totally killed my budgeting. Most likely because I don't eat out for almost like every meal. I know going out to restaurants is getting more pricy but that shit is honestly not THAT different either but when you eat out every single day, it will seem bad.

[Kaleredar]

https://twitter.com/EricKleefeld/sta...38761358946305

People on Fox New think the economy is so bad they spend $28 on lunch at Taco Bell.

The internet instantly wonders how on earth this is possible unless you're ordering for like 3 people.

Don't take financial advice from someone who spends $28 on a Taco Bell lunch for one.

…So their current digs on Biden are that Taco Bell is expensive and making fun of a phone call where he comforted his troubled son.

[Cthulhu 2020]

So Trump's entire plan for Jan 6th was to block the confirmation of Biden using political violence from his followers, then used his own influence to "save" all of the lawmakers who were the target of violence and reinstate himself as president? And it all got ruined because his motorcade refused to take him to the capitol building? Among other things.

Man, reality is always stranger than fiction.

[Breccia]

Trump must testify in the rape/defamation suit.

Completing those depositions -- which already have been delayed for years -- would impose no undue burden on Mr. Trump. The defendant should not be permitted to run the clock out on plaintiff's attempt to gain a remedy for what allegedly was a serious wrong.

-- the judge

That sounds like, I dunno, super duper illegal?

Pfft. You sound like literally everyone who's commented so far.

Former federal prosecutor Renato Mariotti noted in a Twitter thread, during the employee's first interview, he lied to the FBI, denying handling documents. His story changed during the second interview."

"The employee is unlikely to be charged if he continues to cooperate. But his testimony suggests that Trump tried to keep documents from the DOJ, which had already served a grand jury subpoena for the documents *before* the employee was ordered to move them," Mariotti explained. "This testimony, combined with other facts (such as the false certification to the DOJ) suggests an effort to hide the documents from the federal government. This evidence is an aggravating factor that could weigh in favor of charging Trump."

Former federal prosecutor Richard Signorelli agreed.

"This increases the chance of Trump being indicted after the upcoming election unless [AG Merrick] Garland is dead set against it," Signorelli wrote.

Former Pentagon special counsel Ryan Goodman thought it could also influence a future jury.

"Astonishing level of evidence. That would convince jurors," he wrote.

Goodman noted the story said the testimony was corroborated by security footage.

Former Mueller prosecutor Andrew Weissmann said, "Between this and the testimony of Alex Cannon (to name just two recent developments) Trump's MAL goose is cooked. As I have oft said, the issue is no longer the proof, but DOJ's will."

Harvard Law's Laurence Tribe wrote, "Day by day the evidence that proves Trump personally orchestrated the theft and concealment of top secret documents becomes stronger. Any shadow of a doubt about his guilt is rapidly vanishing."

Trump Threatened to Out Confidential Sources From Russia Investigation

Trump in the final days of his presidency repeatedly threatened to out government sources involved in the Trump-Russia investigation, an anti-Deep State revenge fantasy he still obsesses over to this day, according to two former senior Trump aides and another person familiar with the matter.

One of these sources tells Rolling Stone that in the days after the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, the then-president, sometimes while brandishing pieces of paper, would loudly complain that none of the identifying facts in the highly sensitive Russia documents should be blacked-out. Trump would insist, the source says, that it should “all be out there” so that the American people could see the truth of who “did it” to the president.

Ultimately, top intelligence officials and other Trump lieutenants talked him out of publicizing the sources’ identities before he left the White House, the sources say. Instead, Trump’s team bargained him down to vetting a series of heavily redacted reports that they argued would help safeguard the work and safety of Russia-related informants.

But a third source familiar with the situation says that this obsession with outing the confidential sources is ongoing. The former president, the source says, still sporadically talks about the need to get “the names” out into the public record.

I believe it's not just possible, but likely, that Trump, well-known petty petty person, took documents specifically related to this threat, as we've heard multiple reports that there are known human sources in there.

The number of Republicans who believe Trump’s 'big lie' has fallen since the Jan. 6 hearings

The--

"Is it zero yet?"

Um...no.

"Then it's still too high, and everyone who still believes it is a traitor who can fuck right off."

Speaking of:

Judge sentences entire Texas family for role in Jan. 6 attacks

"Well, I feel better."

Prosecutors asked the judge to sentence parents Dawn and Thomas Munn to one month in prison. A sentence of 21 days in jail was recommended for the couple's three adult children.

In court on Wednesday, Howell stopped short of prison time for the children, according to CBS correspondent Scott MacFarlane.

Kristi Munn received 3 years probation with home detention. Josh Munn and Kayli Munn also received three years probation but avoided home detention.Judge sentences entire Texas family for role in Jan. 6 attacks

"They plead out? Good. So they admit their guilt."

Um...

Before her sentencing, Dawn Munn ranted that she deserved answers about the 2020 election.

"I do not understand why our election is not secure," she told the judge.

"This is not the kind of remorse that indicates some assurance that they're not going to engage [again]," [the judge replied]

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Tied into the ongoing debate about Twitter and free speech --

"Um, it's not a debate. Twitter isn't the government."

See, that's the thing. The emerging alt-right talking point is "companies are as powerful as the government, so it should still apply".

"Wasn't giving companies more money and more power basically a Republican ideal?"

Yes. But they're still bitchy little hypocrites when their own actions turn against them. In this delightfully dense OP ED, the author laments PayPal charging a $2,500 fine for people who spread misinformation. Then goes onto say that, because PayPal is imposing crime-like penalties, they should be treated as the government.

"Um...the PayPal thing was an error. They said so three days ago. What is this author on about?"

Yeah, I guess he couldn't find a better example?

"Doesn't it completely deflate his point if he has no actual examples?"

I did say delightfully dense. But I expect this narrative to continue. YouTube, Twitter, anyone except platforms they own, their blocking of people will be framed as "effectively government actions" despite, you know, them not being a government.

Fortunately, this argument is so dumb even I already have a reply to it: if you want XXX to be treated like the government, you should pay them taxes. Otherwise, they don't work for you. Our government does work for us, that's why we pay them. So unless you're actually paying Twitter's (or whoever's) salary yourself, they're not the government, they're a private body. Just one you disagree with.

And until that day happens, until you start paying taxes to Twitter, TikTok, Reddit or whoever, until you declare them to be a government, that means the real government can't stop them from expressing their point of view. Because you argued that companies are people too for decades, now they're acting like it.