Category: Trump Administration

Mike Lindell invites Chinese Communist Party to ‘cyber symposium’ for ‘gladiator fight’ on election

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MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell on Monday said that he would invite the Chinese Communist Party to a cyber symposium to prove that it had attacked the United States by stealing the 2020 election for President Joe Biden.

“We’re in a race against time here,” Lindell told host Steve Bannon on Real America’s Voice. “One of the things that we’re going [to do] is a cyber forensic election symposium. We’re bringing all of our evidence to a big venue I haven’t announced yet.”

Lindell said that “any cyber guy that’s got credentials in the country, we’re going to bring them there.” Continue reading.

‘They’re not making this up!’ CNN host corners former Bush AG for questioning reports of Trump DOJ spying

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CNN’s Jim Sciutto on Monday put former Bush Attorney General Alberto Gonzales in the hot seat after he seemed to cast doubt on reports that the Trump Department of Justice aggressively subpoenaed records from both politicians and journalists.

While Gonzales acknowledged it would be “really troubling” if the allegations of spying on political rivals were true, he cautioned that a fuller investigation is needed before making conclusions based on current reporting.

“Some of the facts here, again, are bizarre, amazing,” he said. “I don’t know whether or not the reporting is completely accurate because of that reason. Frankly, I am hoping the reporting is inaccurate.” Continue reading.

Scathing Pennsylvania paper editorial slams far-right Republicans for pushing ‘disgraceful’ election ‘audit’

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Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election, his campaign had no problem with legitimate bipartisan recounts in Pennsylvania, Arizona, Georgia and other states that he won — and those recounts confirmed his victory. But the partisan, overtly pro-Trump GOP “audits” now being conducted in Arizona and other states are not legitimate recounts, and the editorial board of the York Dispatch in York, Pennsylvania slams State Sen. Doug Mastriano, a far-right Republican, and his allies for pushing for such an “audit” in the Keystone State.

In a scathing editorial published on June 14, the Dispatch’s editorial board writes, “It will come as small surprise to anyone following the 2020 elections and their sorry aftermath that one of the ringleaders is State Sen. Doug Mastriano. The freshman Republican from Franklin County has worked tirelessly this past year to disenfranchise his own constituents in service to disgraced, disgraceful former President Donald Trump.”

The Dispatch’s editorial board continues, “It was Mastriano, recall, who orchestrated a post-election Gettysburg panel last November to trumpet unfounded allegations of voter fraud from Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani and others; who called for Pennsylvania’s legislature to overturn Trump’s loss in the state; who plotted with Trump more than a dozen times in the weeks after the president’s overwhelming electoral defeat; who was in the nation’s capital on January 6 along with thousands of other Trump-obsessed insurgents; and who has backed a variety of politically motivated, unnecessary voting restrictions.” Continue reading.

CNN reporter targeted by Trump DOJ breaks her silence — and says she wants answers

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CNN Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr on Monday broke her silence about revelations that the United States Department of Justice under former President Donald Trump issued sweeping subpoenas for her phone records.

While talking with hosts Briana Keilar and John Berman, Starr said she was “dumbfounded” by the broad scope of the subpoena issued for her records.

“We have no idea why the Justice Department snuck into my life,” she said. “They went out, in secret court proceedings last year, they went after some 30,000 of my emails and phone records, and not just my work email, my work phone, they went after my personal accounts, my personal email, and my personal phone… they wanted all of it. And I was not allowed to know about it.” Continue reading.

‘I didn’t take an oath to defend Donald Trump’: Rep. Tom Rice tests whether Republican voters will support a conservative who crossed Trump

MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. — Republican Rep. Tom Rice of South Carolina has been a reliable conservative during his five terms in Congress, and he was a strong supporter of President Donald Trump and his agenda.

As a member of the House Ways and Means Committee, Rice helped draft what became the party’s hallmark 2017 tax cut legislation. He supported building a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. He supported Trump’s tariffs on Chinese goods. He defended Trump during his first impeachment, saying “he has been the target of an astounding barrage of lies, deceit, and corruption.” And he objected to certifying the 2020 election results from Pennsylvania and Arizona that Trump falsely said were fraudulent.

But on Jan. 13, Rice shocked Washington and voters here in a district that includes coastal communities that thrive on tourism and rural areas focused on farming: He voted to impeach Trump on charges he incited the deadly Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. Continue reading.

Apple Tells Ex-White House Counsel That Trump DOJ Sought His Records In 2018: Reports

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The reported disclosure reveals the Justice Department’s extraordinary move to investigate Don McGahn as he served as Trump’s top lawyer.

Apple informed former White House counsel Don McGahn and his wife last month that their records were sought by the Justice Department in February 2018 while McGahn was still serving as then-President Donald Trump’s top lawyer, The New York Times and CNN reported Sunday.

The U.S. government barred Apple from telling McGahn about the move at the time, two people briefed on the matter told the Times. The Justice Department’s move to subpoena information about McGahn and his wife was under a nondisclosure order until May, CNN reported. 

Apple’s reported disclosure exposes an extraordinary move by the Justice Department to subpoena records of a then-current White House counsel. Continue reading.

‘Exploited the crazies’: How the GOP used Trump’s election lies to hide the fact that they’re losing power

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According to a report from the Guardian’s Sam Levine, Republicans who have always dabbled in playing to the red meat crowd are now ramping up their efforts to use that voting bloc to remain in power by disrupting and questioning election results.

Faced with changing demographics and states — – notably Arizona and Georgia — that were once reliably Republican but are now sending Democrats to Congress, Republicans are looking for ways to stop the bleeding as their power melts away.

According to Levine, Donald Trump just gave them the roadmap by blatantly saying the election was stolen from him — which has been well-received by more than just conservative extremists. Continue reading.

How Trump kids’ futures are in full decline now that he’s out of office

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In a biting column for the Daily Beast, Molly Jong-Fast notes that talk of a Trump family political dynasty has all but disappeared since Donald Trump lost the 2020 presidential election and his children are sliding into increasing irrelevance.

As Jong-Fast notes, it wasn’t that long ago when Ivanka Trump was going to use the family name and her father’s popularity with a rabid right-wing base to challenge Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) for his U.S. Senate seat, Lara Trump — wife of Trump son Eric — was looking at an open North Carolina Senate seat and Don Jr. was going to run for office — somewhere.

Six months after the brutal Trump re-election loss none of those races are happening as Trump’s star has fallen and he has taken his kids down with him. Continue reading.

Sessions joins Barr in pleading ignorance about Trump DOJ spying – is Rosenstein the guy or are they setting him up?

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Former Attorney General Jeff Sessions late Friday afternoon announced that he too, just like former Attorney General Bill Barr, had no idea the Dept. of Justice was spying on at least two top House Democrats on the Intelligence Committee. The scandal has shaken both the DOJ and the general public so broadly the Inspector General – less than 24 hours after The New York Times bombshell dropped – announced a wide-ranging internal investigation.

The track records of both Barr and Sessions when it comes to telling the truth – even under oath – are questionable at best and subject to interpretation.

Are they setting former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein up to take the fall? Or was it Rosenstein all along? Or both – were they all in on spying on Democrats? Continue reading.

‘Trump was an unabated crime wave’: ex-prosecutor lists the atrocities

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Donald Trump has legal exposure for a “crime wave” committed while serving as president of the United State, a former federal prosecutor explained on MSNBC on Friday.

Glenn Kirschner told MSNBC anchor Ali Velshi “Donald Trump was an unabated crime wave as president.”

“Even before he became president he committed campaign finance violations with Michael Cohen, for which Michael Cohen went to prison,” he reminded. “Ali, then once he took office he could tick through the felony crimes that we can prove based on the information that has been publicly reported alone, whether it’s the bribery and extortion of President Zelenskiy, the ten counts of obstruction of justice meticulously documented by Bob Mueller in volume 2 of the Trump-Russia report for which Bob Mueller famously testified Donald Trump could be prosecuted upon leaving office.” Continue reading.