Tag: Donald Trump

A former Fox exec blasted the network for peddling Trump’s election-fraud claims and airing anti-mask comments, saying he knows Rupert Murdoch doesn’t buy into its coverage

A former Fox executive has blasted Fox News, saying that not even the network’s longtime proprietor Rupert Murdoch believes its coverage.

In an op-ed published Sunday by The Daily Beast, Preston Padden, who served as president of network distribution at the Fox Broadcasting Company for seven years, wrote that Fox News is a TV channel “that no reasonable person would believe.”

Padden wrote that Fox News had perpetuated former President Donald Trump’s “wild and false claims” that the 2020 election was stolen from him and that Fox’s decision to question masks had contributed to “the unnecessary deaths of many Americans” during the COVID-19 pandemic. Continue reading.

Trump appears to acknowledge tax schemes while questioning whether alleged violations are crimes

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Former president Donald Trump lashed out at Manhattan prosecutors Saturday night for indicting his organization and its chief financial officer for tax fraud, calling it “prosecutorial misconduct” in his most extensive comments on the charges since they were unsealed Thursday.

As Trump criticized the investigation, he appeared to acknowledge the tax schemes while questioning whether the alleged violations were in fact crimes.

“They go after good, hard-working people for not paying taxes on a company car,” he said at a rally in Sarasota, Fla. “You didn’t pay tax on the car or a company apartment. You used an apartment because you need an apartment because you have to travel too far where your house is. You didn’t pay tax. Or education for your grandchildren. I don’t even know. Do you have to? Does anybody know the answer to that stuff?” Continue reading.

Eric Trump gets pilloried after giving away the game about the Trump Org indictment on live TV

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The Trump Organization and its Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg found themselves in hot water this week when the Manhattan DA revealed an indictment alleging a pattern of criminal financial conduct dating back more than a decade.

While it comes as no surprise that the Trump Organization remains a major topic of discussion today, legal experts, observers, and Twitter users are also puzzled by the public comments about the matter from one person who probably should have been silent: Eric Trump.

Under normal circumstances, people under the heat of criminal investigation are well-advised to refrain from making any remarks about the matter. But the former president’s son didn’t heed that counsel. Continue reading.

BUSTED: Arizona official was told to ‘stop the counting’ during blitz by Trump, Giuliani and GOP chair

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Donald Trump is under investigation in Georgia for his caught-on-tape efforts to pressure Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to “find” 12,000 votes to overturn the election in the Peach State. A bombshell new report by The Arizona Republic documents a parallel effort to overturn the election results in Arizona.

“Then-President Donald Trump tried to speak directly with the chair of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors in the weeks after the November 2020 election as his allies sought to change the election results in a state he narrowly lost to Democrat Joe Biden. New records obtained by The Arizona Republic reveal the behind-the scenes efforts by Trump, his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, and state GOP Chair Kelli Ward to pressure the county supervisors, who make up the elected body that oversees elections in the state’s most populous county,” the newspaper reported.

“Much of the attention from Trump’s allies was focused on Supervisor Clint Hickman, the 56-year-old lifelong Republican from a prominent West Valley family that runs an egg company. At the time, Hickman chaired the five-member Republican-controlled board, a position that gave him the power to set agendas, hold hearings on the election process, and certify — or delay — the 2020 election results,” the newspaper explained. Continue reading.

Trump Is Said to Have Called Arizona Official After Election Loss

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Donald Trump tried to reach the top Republican in metropolitan Phoenix as his allies were trying to overturn the state’s 2020 results, according to the official, who said he did not pick up the calls.

President Donald J. Trump twice sought to talk on the phone with the Republican leader of Arizona’s most populous county last winter as the Trump campaign and its allies tried unsuccessfully to reverse Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s narrow victory in the state’s presidential contest, according to the Republican official and records obtained by The Arizona Republic, a Phoenix newspaper.

But the leader, Clint Hickman, then the chairman of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, said in an interview on Friday that he let the calls — made in late December and early January — go to voice mail and did not return them. “I told people, ‘Please don’t have the president call me,’” he said.

At the time, Mr. Hickman was being pressed by the state Republican Party chairwoman and Mr. Trump’s lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani to investigate claims of fraud in the county’s election, which Mr. Biden had won by about 45,000 votes. Continue reading.

The Memo: Dangers intensify for Trump as Vance brings charges

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The legal and political dangers facing former President Trump became a lot more real Thursday, when his closest lieutenant in running his businesses, Allen Weisselberg, gave himself up to prosecutors at dawn.

Weisselberg, along with the Trump Organization, was formally charged in court a few hours later. He was brought into court handcuffed. 

The 15-count indictment alleges that Weisselberg committed grand larceny and tax fraud, and that the Trump Organization was complicit in many of those offenses.  Continue reading.

Trump Impeachment Lawyer Made Deal That Sprung Cosby From Prison

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Bill Cosby was released from prison yesterday despite his 2018 conviction on three counts of aggravated indecent assault and a 2019 verdict that upheld that ruling. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court overturned Cosby’s conviction on a technicality, and barred him from further prosecution.

“Bill Cosby has been publicly accused of raping, drugging, coercing or sexually assaulting as many as 60 women in all since 1965,” The Wrap reported in 2018. USA Today that year published a “complete list of the 60 Bill Cosby accusers and their reactions to his prison sentence.”

In 2005 Montgomery County, Pennsylvania District Attorney Bruce Castor reached a deal with Bill Cosby, essentially forcing him to reveal information that could allow him to lose a civil lawsuit. In exchange, Castor claims, he promised Cosby he would not be prosecuted. Continue reading.

Fox News cuts off Trump after he derails ‘border’ press conference with election rant

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Fox News on Wednesday cut off a broadcast of former President Donald Trump’s visit to the border after he began ranting about the 2020 presidential election.

Although Fox News had heavily promoted the former president’s trip to Texas throughout the day, the network decided to cancel the president’s press conference about a minute after he claimed the voting system in America is a “disaster.”

“We had an election where we did much better than we did the first time and amazingly we lost,” Trump complained while sitting next to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R). “I just want to thank the people of Texas because we won in a landslide. It wasn’t even close.” Continue reading.

Bush speechwriter reveals the key detail that is missing from Trump’s statements on company indictments

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Writing for The Atlantic on Thursday, David Frum, the former speechwriter to President George W. Bush, noted that Donald Trump doesn’t even appear to be trying to defend himself publicly or claim he is innocent.

Looking at speeches and statements pushed out by the former president, Frum noticed that all they do is attack other people, they never proclaim innocence. 

“An early indication that things may end badly for Trump is the statement released today from the Trump Organization,” he explained. Continue reading.

Released Capitol rioter who wants to ‘play for all the marbles’ stockpiled weapons while awaiting trial

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Federal prosecutors are seeking to revoke the pre-trial release of a former police officer charged in the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection, after he purchased 34 guns. Investigators also found a partially assembled pipe bomb at his home.

Thomas Robertson, a former police officer in Rocky Mount, Va., was ordered by a judge not to possess guns following his arrest on several charges stemming from the insurrection, including felony disruption of an official proceeding and misdemeanor disorderly conduct in a restricted building. Robertson and another Rocky Mount officer, Jacob Fracker, were fired in the wake of their arrests after they posted photos of themselves inside the Capitol on social media.

Prosecutors filed a motion to revoke Robertson’s release on Wednesday, after FBI agents served a search warrant at his home, where they found the pipe bomb inside a box labeled “booby trap” in addition to numerous boxes of ammunition. Authorities also tracked online gun purchases made by Robertson, who was allegedly storing his arsenal at a local firearms dealership. Continue reading.