Trump Administration 7 , CD3 DFL

‘Helmet boy’ Capitol insurrectionist demands plea deal in ‘off the rails’ hearing: ‘Can I get an offer?’

The Capitol insurrectionist who became known as “helmet boy” — after being captured on video using a riot helmet to smash a window to the Speaker’s Lobby during the Jan. 6 riot — demanded a plea bargain from prosecutors during an “off the rails” court appearance on Wednesday.

Zach AZach Alam, who remains in jail, spoke over his attorney and demanded to represent himself, at one point directly asking a federal prosecutor assigned to the case, “Can I get a deal?” according to a live report from Scott MacFarlane, an investigative reporter for Washington, D.C.’s NBC affiliate.

Alam said he was making an “offer” — for prosecutors to drop all charges — before demanding, “Make me a counteroffer.” Continue reading.

Mike Lindell offers $5 million election ‘bounty’ in desperate attempt to hype ‘cyber symposium’

MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell claimed on Wednesday that he will pay $5 million to anyone who attends his cyber symposium and can prove that data in his possession did not come from the 2020 election.

During an appearance on Real America’s Voice, Lindell presented strict rules for winning the $5 million bounty. He said that participants would need to be invited to his August “cyber symposium” in Sioux Falls to be qualified.

“I want it to be the most-watched event ever,” he told host Steve Bannon. Continue reading.

Pelosi rejects Jordan, Banks for Jan. 6 committee

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Wednesday rejected two of the Republican picks — Reps. Jim Jordan (Ohio) and Jim Banks (Ind.) — for the Jan. 6 select committee.

Both GOP lawmakers are staunch allies of former President Trump, and both had voted in January against certifying President Biden‘s election victory.

In a statement, Pelosi said Democrats in her caucus had raised specific objections to Jordan and Banks “and the impact their appointments may have on the integrity of the investigation.” Continue reading.

How Thomas Barrack’s alleged illegal lobbying shaped Trump’s policies in the Gulf

Writing in Fortune magazine two weeks before the 2016 election, Donald Trump’s old friend and fundraiser, Thomas J. Barrack, outlined a new U.S. policy for the Middle East. The “best hope” for America and the Arab world, he said, was U.S. support for the new, “brilliant young leaders” in places such as the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.

Barrack, who would soon become head of the president-elect’s inaugural committee, was already acting on behalf of one of those leaders, Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohamed bin Zayed, the de facto ruler of the United Arab Emirates, according to a federal indictment unsealed against him in California on Tuesday.

Charged with failing to register as a foreign agent and lying to the FBI, Barrack allegedly used his close relationship with Trump to push UAE-sought actions on both the campaign and during the first two years of the administration. The Fortune op-ed was the product of direct input from Emirati officials, the indictment alleges. Continue reading.

COVID-19 recession: One of America’s deepest downturns was also its shortest after bailout-driven bounceback

Thanks to a roaring economy, plunging joblessness and a consumer spending spree, it probably won’t come as a surprise that the COVID-19 recession is officially over.

We didn’t know this, formally, however, until July 19, 2021, when a group of America’s top economists determined that the pandemic recession ended two months after it began, making it the shortest downturn on record.

As an economist who has written a macroeconomics textbook, I was eagerly waiting to know the official dates. This is in part because I recently asked my Boston University MBA students to make guesses, and we all wanted to know who was closest to the mark. While many of my students ended up nailing it, I was off by a month. Continue reading.

Milley to Trump: “I don’t expect you to understand”

The new book by The Wall Street Journal’s Michael Bender — “Frankly, We Did Win This Election: The Inside Story of How Trump Lost” — pinpoints the moment that the relationship between former President Trump and Joint Chiefs Chairman Mark Milley began to disintegrate.

It came last year during a fiery Oval Office confrontation over Milley’s public apology for appearing in a photo op with Trump at St. John’s Church:

“Why did you apologize?” Trump asked him. “That’s weak.”

“Not where I come from,” Milley said. “It had nothing to do with you. It had to do with me and the uniform and the apolitical tradition of the United States military.”

DEA agent trespassed at Capitol on Jan. 6 and lied about it, prosecutors say

A Drug Enforcement Administration special agent trespassed with his government-issued firearm on the Capitol grounds Jan. 6 and then lied about his actions, according to federal prosecutors.

Mark Ibrahim, who was arrested Tuesday, is not accused of entering the Capitolbuilding. Prosecutors say he entered the restricted grounds around the building shortly after barricades were torn down by the mob and then repeatedly showed off his badge and gun to other protesters. He then falsely claimed he was there to help the FBI, prosecutors say.

According to the court record, Ibrahim, of Orange County, Calif., arrived at the Capitol just after 1 p.m. Jan. 6 and was there when the barricades around the building were torn down. He appears in several photographs inside the collapsed barricades, near the Senate steps. About 3 p.m., he filmed a video of himself on the Peace Monument outside the building. Ibrahim took personal leave to attend the Jan. 6 rally, the government said. He was released Tuesday until a hearing in September. Continue reading.

Trump blew campaign cash by paying MyPillow CEO to make an ad for him — and it was an epic disaster

One of the many stories to come out of the 2020 presidential campaign was that President Donald Trump blew through $1.1 billion and didn’t move the needle in his polling.

Carol Leonnig and Philip Rucker’s new book, I Alone Can Fix It, details a bizarre bet between disgraced former campaign manager Brad Parscale and MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell over who was better at creating campaign ads.

According to the book, Trump was fascinated with the “deal” he thought Lindell was getting for ads on Fox News. Candidates theoretically are supposed to be given the lowest ad rate, and cable news advertising is notoriously cheaper than networks. Continue reading.

Texas Republican Urges Election Audit — In Counties Biden Won

Texas state Rep. Steve Toth (R) on Monday announced that he had filed legislation calling for a “forensic audit” of the state’s 2020 election results.

Former President Donald Trump won Texas in 2020 by nearly six percentage points despite ultimately losing the national electoral college and popular vote to President Joe Biden.

Toth’s bill, the “Texas Voter Confidence Act,” would not audit all of the 11 million-plus votes that were cast in the state. Instead, the legislation calls for an audit in “every precinct in each county with a population of 415,000 or more.”

This would disproportionately target counties that voted for Biden. Continue reading.

Trump official slashed salary of newly hired virologist because he was jealous he was making more money

At a time that Americans needed a smart and stable government, Donald Trump’s COVID-19 Task Force was overwhelmed with petty squabbles.

According to the new book by Philip Rucker and Carol Leonnig, I, Alone Can Fix It, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar was preoccupied with the salaries of the people on the task force.

Dr Stephen Hahn, who joined as the FDA commissioner in Dec. 2019, had a morning call with the purpose of “navigating task-force personalities and political land mines.” The last thing anyone wanted was for the typical Trump White House drama to interfere with protecting the country from the impending pandemic. Continue reading.

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