Mega-Thread: Trump Focused Discussion

[Benggaul]

We're still a year out. Don't take current polls as signifying much, though definitely don't get complacent either.

Don't take ANY polls as signifying anything. As I've remarked before (and as we've seen even as recently as the Ohio polls) they are vastly out of touch with reality and have been for a decade at least.

[Breccia]

The Hollywood Reporter, um, reports, that Truth Social has publicly filed earnings!

"Yeah! Time to see how much money Trump is raking in! Christ, why do you write me as so fucking stupid? Even I know where this is going."

Shut up. Anyhow, in the entire year 2022, Trump took in $1.4 million in sales, but spent $50 million to do it.

In the first half of 2023, Trump took in $2.3 million in sales, but spent $23 million to do it. Yes, that is better. No, that's not helping nearly enough.

The financial situation of TMTG is such that “TMTG’s independent registered public accounting firm has indicated that TMTG’s financial condition raises substantial doubt as to its ability to continue as a going concern,” according to the filing.

In a frank assessment of its business, the filing says that “as of June 30, 2023, and December 31, 2022, management has substantial doubt that TMTG will have sufficient funds to meet its liabilities as they fall due, including liabilities related to promissory notes previously issued by TMTG,” and that “TMTG believes that it may be difficult to raise additional funds through traditional financing sources in the absence of material progress toward completing its merger with Digital World.”

The filing indicates that, if TMTG is unable to complete the merger with DWAC, and receive the pot of money on the line, it may not survive.

While TMTG was valued at $875 million when the merger with DWAC was first announced, Trump revealed in his latest financial disclosure form that his controlling stake is valued at between $5-$25 million.

There's nothing here we didn't suspect, but this is public admission that Trump is, again, a failure of a businessman. But, hey, I doubt this is fraud. How bad would things have to be that they'd lie and say they only lost $70 million?

[Edge-]

https://abcnews.go.com/US/boss-leave...y?id=104831939

Ellis, in her proffer session, informed prosecutors that senior Trump White House official Dan Scavino told her "the boss" would refuse to leave the White House despite losing the election, and alluded to two other instances she said were "relevant" to prosecutors -- but appeared to be prevented from disclosing those in the video portions obtained by ABC News due to attorney-client privilege, which hindered portions of her proffer.

Powell, meanwhile, explained to prosecutors her plans for seizing voting machines nationwide and claimed that she frequently communicated with Trump during her efforts to overturn the 2020 election -- though both now claim she was never his attorney.

In the session, Powell reiterated the false assertion that Trump won the election -- but acknowledged in the video that she didn't know much about election law to begin with.

"Did I know anything about election law? No," she told Fulton County prosecutors. "But I understand fraud from having been a prosecutor for 10 years, and knew generally what the fraud suit should be if the evidence showed what I thought it showed."

Getting some leaks from the flippers and...rofl.

[Breccia]

"both now claim she was never his attorney"

Well she is under oath. If she was working for him, she'd want as much protection as possible and would have handed over proof of employment by now.

I do hope she realizes how badly fucked she is.

[Surfd]

This still goes here.

Maryanne Trump Barry, Trump's older sister, has passed at the age of 86, almost certainly of natural causes.

Wonder if Trump will try to have her interred on one of his golf courses for Tax breaks like he did with his first wife.

- - - Updated - - -

https://www.currentaffairs.org/2023/...uild-the-camps

I'm inclined to take them seriously at their word.

Only Trump would literally attempt to get a head start on his third Impeachment before he's even secured the office. I mean, no way whatever this shit is wouldn't be completely illegal as well as violating the constitution seven ways from Sunday.

[Belize]

Skimming the Trump v Biden general election polls on 538, it looks like Trump has the lead. Vegas currently has it at about a tie (Maybe? Some sites give Trump a big edge) while Biden had a big lead in Aug. How concerned should I be?

Polls also said Republicans would win in a landslide for the 2023 elections and ohio enshrined abortion and weed.

Polls are flawed, it should be pretty obvious.

[Templar 331]

Is there even a point to polls? Why should i care what other people vote for?

[Breccia]

In the ongoing Speaker struggle--

"Wrong thread."

Nope. The NYTimes dug up some of Johnson's old FB posts.

In 2015, Mr. Johnson, who would announce his first run for Congress the next year, wrote that he was horrified as he watched Mr. Trump’s debate performance with his wife and children.

“What bothered me most was watching the face of my exceptional 10 yr old son, Jack, at one point when he looked over at me with a sort of confused disappointment, as the leader of all polls boasted about calling a woman a ‘fat pig.’”

In one of the most famous exchanges from that debate, Megyn Kelly, a moderator and then a Fox News host, asked Mr. Trump about his history of referring to women as “fat pigs, dogs, slobs and disgusting animals.”

“Only Rosie O’Donnell,” Mr. Trump responded. He added that the country’s problem was political correctness, something he didn’t have time for.

Mr. Johnson was horrified.

“Can you imagine the noble, selfless characters of Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Lincoln or Reagan carrying on like Trump did last night?” wrote Mr. Johnson, an evangelical Christian. He noted that voters needed to demand a “much higher level of virtue and decency” than what he had just witnessed.

Obviously, his tune changed as soon as Trump started winning. Because Johnson doesn't have values. He's a coward. Good to know the concern of his about-to-be-voting-age son and any moral/ethical/historical issues he had are handwaved in the face of the fat fucking felon who runs his party.

[Edge-]

In the ongoing Speaker struggle--

"Wrong thread."

Nope. The NYTimes dug up some of Johnson's old FB posts.



Obviously, his tune changed as soon as Trump started winning. Because Johnson doesn't have values. He's a coward. Good to know the concern of his about-to-be-voting-age son and any moral/ethical/historical issues he had are handwaved in the face of the fat fucking felon who runs his party.

While he's still shit (but fun to listen to), Rick Wilson's book, "Everything Trump Touches Dies" is largely still aptly named.

- - - Updated - - -

https://thehill.com/regulation/court...cy-protective/

Fulton County prosecutors filed an emergency request for a protective order in the Georgia election subversion case Tuesday after recorded statements made by multiple defendants as part of their plea deals were made public.

On Monday, ABC News and The Washington Post published footage of the proffer sessions, which showed the four defendants who pleaded guilty being questioned by prosecutors about their involvement in various efforts to overturn the 2020 election results.

Prosecutors said the footage was turned over to the remaining defendants as part of discovery, urging the court to impose restrictions on how the defendants can disclose the materials.

“The release of these confidential video recordings is clearly intended to intimidate witnesses in this case, subjecting them to harassment and threats prior to trial, constitutes indirect communication about the facts of this case with codefendants and witnesses, and obstructs the administration of justice, in violation of the conditions of release imposed on each defendant,” prosecutors wrote in their motion.

To prevent further disclosure, prosecutors said they will not provide videos of any proffer sessions to defendants moving forward.

Uh oh, seems like the defense (that'd be Donald and crew) may have been behind leaking the videos we were laughing about earlier.

“Instead, defendants must come to the District Attorney’s Office to view confidential video recordings of proffers. They may take notes, but they will be prohibited from creating any recordings or reproductions,” prosecutors wrote in the filing.

Honestly, this is reasonable. Donald and his crew are children, and have consistently proven that they cannot be trusted to live up to their word or act in good faith. Supervised review of materials to ensure their improper release is a prudent and practical step to take.

[Myradin]

Who needs a "higher level of virtue and decency" when can just win and enact whatever crazy ideas you want?

[Shadowferal]

[DarkTZeratul]

This isn't even anything new, people were pointing out the rhetorical similarities back in 2016.

[Edge-]

https://themessenger.com/politics/tr...g-judge-mcafee

"No one associated with the defense wishes for any parties, counsel or potential witnesses in relation to this action to be subject to any harassment, much less any harm, as a result of any use of the discovery materials," Gillen wrote.

"However, the State has proffered no evidence which could be relied upon to grant its proposed order restricting the defense’s use of discovery materials," Gillen added in the filing that he said represented the views of Trump, pro-Trump lawyers Ray Smith and Robert Cheeley, Georgia state Sen. Shawn Still and former Coffee County GOP chief Cathly Latham.

"Surely my client, who has a long history of violating court orders and attempting to intimidate witnesses, would never want to intimidate anyone or cause them to be harassed despite having done so hundreds of times before."

One day these judges will stop treating Donald and his crew with kid gloves, one day.

[Shadowferal]

Georgia Judge Schedules Emergency Hearing in Trump RICO Case Following Video Leaks

The Georgia judge presiding over the election-racketeering case against former President Donald Trump and others scheduled an emergency hearing for Wednesday afternoon following the public release of confidential video evidence.

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee scheduled the hearing for 1:30 p.m. Wednesday in a two-page order issued Tuesday afternoon.

McAfee's order quickly followed a motion by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis' office seeking the emergency hearing and a protective order covering evidence in the case in the wake of reporting from ABC News and the Washington Post on Monday that included videos from the four people who recorded interviews as part of their guilty plea deals.

"The release of these confidential video recordings is clearly intended to intimidate witnesses in this case, subjecting them to harassment and threats prior to trial, constitutes indirect communication about the facts of this case with codefendants and witnesses, and obstructs the administration of justice, in violation of the conditions of release imposed on each defendant," Willis' prosecutors wrote in their Tuesday request for the hearing and the protective order.

We'll see what happens.

[Edge-]

While he's still shit (but fun to listen to), Rick Wilson's book, "Everything Trump Touches Dies" is largely still aptly named.

- - - Updated - - -

https://thehill.com/regulation/court...cy-protective/



Uh oh, seems like the defense (that'd be Donald and crew) may have been behind leaking the videos we were laughing about earlier.



Honestly, this is reasonable. Donald and his crew are children, and have consistently proven that they cannot be trusted to live up to their word or act in good faith. Supervised review of materials to ensure their improper release is a prudent and practical step to take.

Update on this: https://thehill.com/regulation/court...witness-video/

An attorney for one of former President Trump’s co-defendants in Georgia admitted to providing proffer videos of defendants who pled guilty to a media outlet, a stunning revelation that came during an emergency court hearing Wednesday afternoon.

Attorney Jonathan Miller, who is representing former Coffee County election supervisor Misty Hampton, did not name the outlet and said he leaked the footage in the name of transparency.

“In being transparent with the court and to make sure that nobody else gets blamed for what happened – and so that I can go to sleep well tonight – judge, I did release those videos to one outlet,” Miller said. “And in all candor, I need the court to know that.”

ABC News was the first outlet to publish the videos on Monday, followed by The Washington Post, which showed four defendants who pleaded guilty in the election interference case – ex-Trump lawyers Jenna Ellis, Sidney Powell and Kenneth Chesebro, plus former Georgia bail bondsman Scott Hall – interviewing with state prosecutors.

How utterly shocking one of the Trump co-defendants lawyers was behind the improper release. It's almost like nobody in the Trump orbit can be trusted to participate honestly and in good faith.

How unexpected.

- - - Updated - - -

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/11/15/trum...mony-leak.html

A Georgia judge said Wednesday he will issue a protective order barring the public release of sensitive evidence exchanged between prosecutors and lawyers representing former President Donald Trump and his co-defendants in their election interference criminal cases in that state.

“Until we decide what’s going to be relevant and admissible, this case should be tried and not in the court of public opinion,” said Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee at a hearing on the proposed order.

The order was sought by prosecutors, and agreed to by most of the defense teams on Wednesday, after the recent leak to a media outlet of videos containing confidential interviews two co-defendants, the attorneys Jenna Ellis and Sidney Powell, gave prosecutors as part of their agreements to plead guilty.

At Wednesday’s hearing, the attorney Jonathan Miller, who is representing the defendant Misty Hampton, told McAfee that he gave the videos to “one media outlet.”

Miller said the public had the right to know what Ellis and Powell had told the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office, arguing that the statements they made “help my client.”

Nathan Wade, a prosecutor, told McAfee the DA’s office will designate what evidence is considered “sensitive,” and therefore subject to the protective order, “and what’s not.”

Sensitive information would include any so-called proffer videos of the kind recorded of Ellis and Powell and any other defendant who agrees to cooperate with prosecutions, along with confidential business records, personal identifying information, and “additional things that I think just by their very nature makes sense to be confidential,” Wade said.

Tom Clyde, a lawyer for a group of media companies, argued against the protective order, saying it was not justified by Georgia law.

Clyde said that a key issue in the case — the legitimacy of the 2020 election — is “extremely significant in public importance,” and that certain evidence related to it should not be subject to an order automatically barring its release to the public.

Trump and the other defendants after charged with crimes related to their efforts to reverse his electoral loss to President Joe Biden in Georgia.

Everything needs to be child-proofed for these people.

[Gorsameth]

Update on this: https://thehill.com/regulation/court...witness-video/



How utterly shocking one of the Trump co-defendants lawyers was behind the improper release. It's almost like nobody in the Trump orbit can be trusted to participate honestly and in good faith.

How unexpected.

- - - Updated - - -

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/11/15/trum...mony-leak.html



Everything needs to be child-proofed for these people.

Wonder if this could get a follow-up with potential disciplinary action against the lawyer who leaked.

As for the "media" complaining they don't get to air out everything, anything that is actually relevant will no doubt be made public when the actual trials happen. The constant need of the media to demand everything all the time no matter the consequences or whole will get hurt as a result is tiring.

[Edge-]

https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2023/11/15/p...est/index.html

onald Trump is asking for a mistrial in his civil fraud case alleging the judge who will decide the case is biased against him.

Trump’s attorneys filed a motion Wednesday, saying “ the evidence of apparent and actual bias is tangible and overwhelming.”

The motion cites Judge Arthur Engoron and his law clerk, who has been the subject of multiple complaints from Trump’s attorneys and the former president himself, resulting in a gag order from the judge.

And there it is. Obviously it's a bad faith effort after weeks spent antagonizing the judge and his clerk and other participants, and Engoron has already made it clear he has no interest in wasting time on this bullshit.

It would be less sad and pathetic if Donald and his crew weren't so transparently predictable. Boring.

[Breccia]

"and so that I can go to sleep well tonight"

Bullshit. You didn't admit shit because you have morals or ethics. People with morals an ethics wouldn't be defending Team Trump. You just knew you were going to get caught.

Also:

Trump abandons his bid to move his New York hush-money criminal case from state to federal court

The attempt was almost assuredly going to fail, as based on its lack of results so far.

Trump’s lawyers first asked to move the case to federal court in May, arguing that some of Trump’s alleged conduct amounted to official duties because it occurred in 2017 while he was president. That included checks he purportedly wrote while sitting in the Oval Office.

They appealed in June after U.S. District Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein ruled that Trump had failed to meet a high legal bar to move the case.

U.S. law allows criminal prosecutions to be moved from state to federal court if they involve actions taken by federal government officials as part of their official duties. Hellerstein ruled that the hush-money case involved a personal matter, not presidential duties.

Trump’s lawyers gave notice that they were dropping the appeal a day before a deadline to file paperwork with the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals stating why they felt Hellerstein’s ruling should be overturned.

They said they were doing so with prejudice, meaning Trump will not be able to change his mind.

Chalk up yet another loss for absolute immunity. Turns out, writing a $130,000 check to your whore...well, one of them, Trump has several, including his wife and my Rep. Elise Stefanik...isn't protected by the Constitution.

Since I'm feeling extra vindictive this morning, let's add another one.

Rudy Giuliani Calls for the Democratic Party To Be Abolished

"On what grounds?"

That he's a senile old man who's going to jail.

"Okay, but what did he say were the grounds of destroying the party?"

In an interview with journalist Dan Ball on Wednesday for his show Real America, which airs on far-right, pro-Trump channel One America News (OAN), Giuliani praised the Republican Party as "a patriotic conservative movement" and blasted the Democratic Party as a self-serving organization.

"Political parties do their best job when they serve the country, not when the country is serving them," Giuliani told Ball, as shown in a clip shared on X, formerly known as Twitter, by OAN.

"Right now the Republican Party is a means to an objective, if you want to get there through conservative party, independent party... gosh, if you want to be a Democrat and vote Republican," he continued.

"I think you got to get rid of the Democrat Party, I think it's become too corrupt at the top," the former Trump lawyer added. "They probably should get rid of it if they're not hypocrites. Think of all the statues they take down because of slavery and whatever. Nobody had more to do with slavery than the Democrat Party, they were the architects of it."

"When he says--"

Yeah, don't bring logic into this. This is projection strong enough to beam into space and tag nearby planets. Not only is Trump in court for various crimes -- I literally just posted about one of them -- and not only are there multiple court cases to throw Trump off the ballot because he is a traitor, something we haven't seen in...since the Civil War, I think?...Trump has made it clear that he both has and will continue to use the WH as an office of personal benefit and revenge.

“His policies are not centered around improving the lives of his supporters or Americans in general, it’s centered around consolidating power for Trump, and that way he can wield it to enact that revenge on anyone he deems as an enemy,” said Sarah Matthews, a former Trump White House and campaign press aide who resigned over the Jan. 6 riots.

“And that is what is scary, and I wish that was penetrating through more in the minds of voters,” Matthews added.

Trump has gone on to say he wants the DOJ and FBi defunded, wanted his own JCOS Chair executed, etc.

[Resurgo]

Should this go here? Or the insurrection thread??

https://apnews.com/article/fake-elec...61aafb55bf20b9

Looks like Nevada is investigating too? I thought they didn’t think they had the right laws on the books to pursue this?

[Breccia]

Allow me to summarize how it went for Trump's accountant on the stand:

"Trump's values are bigly and yuge and perfect."
"But these two values are off from each other by a literal order of magnitude."
"Estimated current value is not an exact science." <-- this one is actually an exact quote
"Are you being paid for your testimony?"
"Yes."
"How much?"
"I don't know. It's split between several people."
"How much total, then?"
"I don't know."
"What percent of that has been paid by now?"
"I don't know."
"Well, how much do you charge per hour?"
"$925."
"And how many hours?"
"I don't know."
"So you don't know if you've been paid or if you're going to be paid or how much you're going to be paid. Is there anything you do know?"

And at this point, I'll start quoting real words really said and remind you, this is Trump's expert witness.

"It's certainly a red flag for me," testified the expert, Jason Flemmons, referring to an internal Trump Organization spreadsheet from 2016 displayed on overhead screens in the lower Manhattan courtroom.

"I'd want to know more," Flemmons said of the spreadsheet, in which Trump claimed some $200 million in ready cash. State officials say those millions were actually locked in a partnership that Trump did not have sole authority to withdraw from.

"It's a red flag?" the judge in the non-jury trial, state Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron, cut in.

Okay, see that summarized back and forth above? Some of those questions came from the judge. The judge seems bewildered that Trump would send a witness that provided no help at all.

"Based on my expertise," Flemmons answered, "I would have a lot of questions about it," he said, adding "This is a rather glaring issue."

The not-so-ready cash was just one of nearly a dozen net-worth red flags identified Wednesday by Flemmons. A former fraud enforcer for the Securities and Exchange Commission, Flemmons had begun testifying on Trump's behalf on Tuesday when he described the broad wiggle room allowed in estimating net worth.

New York's attorney general, Letitia James, has alleged that over the past decade, Trump's annual net-worth statements fraudulently exaggerated his worth by as much as $3.6 billion a year, allowing him to reap at least $250 million in otherwise unavailable profits and interest-rate savings.

Led through a decade of statements and underlying internal Trump Org spreadsheets by the defense lawyer Jesus Suarez, Flemmons described numerous "discrepancies" and "inconsistencies."

These included Trump tripling the actual square footage of his Manhattan penthouse, secretly adding a Trump "brand premium" to his total worth, and inflating the value of Trump Park Avenue by valuing rent-stabilized condo units at market rate.

But Flemmons deflected blame for these discrepancies onto that old Trump stalking horse: the outside accountant.

It was the accountant's obligation, Flemmons testified Wednesday, to catch discrepancies and not the responsibility of the person signing the statement or attesting to its truth, as Trump or his sons have done every year for the past decade.

"That's why you have outside accountants involved in this process," Flemmons said.

The fat orange text is, of course, why he was paid and put on the stand. Flemmons is claiming that Trump could have signed basically anything and not commit a crime, despite a fraudulent official form he ordered, he directed, and he signed. Misquoting the NY AG, you can't ask your accountant to make shit up on your taxes, and not get in trouble when you file the forms.

Flemmons seems to be on a mission, with questionable results at best, not to protect Trump Org but to protect Trump personally by inventing case law.

Immediately after Flemmons testified that the values made no sense and Trump Org's own people were why, this is Trump's witness by the way, Trump naturally demanded the charges be dismissed.

"He filed for--"

No no, he went on Truth Social.

In fact, the numbers are low, or very conservative, the exact opposite of what this ridiculous RIGGED case is all about. THE FRAUD IS BY THE JUDGE & A.G. (Mar-a-Lago & more!) NOT BY ME!!!

- - - Updated - - -

Attorney representing Lake in election challenge admits he might not have been qualified

Well, as long as that's her biggest problem, I'm sure she can recover.

The State Bar of Arizona is investigating Kari Lake’s election challenge attorneys

Uh oh.

The two attorneys who represented Kari Lake in her failed attempt to overturn the results of Arizona’s 2022 gubernatorial election are being investigated by the State Bar of Arizona.

Bryan Blehm, a Scottsdale divorce lawyer, and Kurt Olsen, an employment attorney from Washington, D.C., have bla bla bla bla fraud.

The State Bar is in the process of investigating two charges brought against Olsen and one charge aimed at Blehm related to their conduct in the election challenge trials, State Bar spokesperson Taylor Tasler told the Arizona Mirror.

No further public information is available in either of the cases, Tasler told the Mirror, but the investigations have the potential to lead to both attorneys being disbarred.

But in Blehm’s response letter to the Bar investigation, which was shared on the social media site X, he refers to a post he made accusing the chief justice of the Arizona Supreme Court of creating a task force to counter disinformation in 2019 at the request of what he calls the “national security state” in an effort to stop legitimate election fraud cases following the 2020 election.

Well, I'm sure more qualified, capable attorneys will leap to her defense after that news.