July 7, 2021

IVANKA TRUMP IS PROBABLY NEXT ON THE CHOPPING BLOCK: FORMER FEDERAL PROSECUTOR

As you’ve no doubt heard by now, last week the Trump Organization and its longtime CFO, Allen Weisselberg, were hit with a slew of criminal charges, including conspiracy, grand larceny, and multiple counts of tax fraud and falsifying records, all of which they pleaded not guilty to. Clearly this is extremely bad news for not just the company, which former executives believe is going to be “destroy[ed],” and Weisselberg, who faces more than a decade in prison if convicted on all charges, but the entire Trump clan too. While Donald Trump is obviously the first name that comes to mind when envisioning a scenario in which a Trump family member is sentenced to time in prison, according to numerous experts, his adult children should be extremely concerned as well, starting with his favorite offspring: Ivanka Trump.

Appearing on MSNBC on Monday, former federal prosecutor Cynthia Alksne told host Alicia Menendez that last week’s charges were merely “an opening salvo,” and that the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office has sent a message that (1) Weisselberg should really, really consider flipping and cooperating against the Trumps, and (2) Cyrus Vance Jr. is just getting started. “Prosecutors went to an amazing amount of effort to show Weisselberg ‘we have everything we need,’ and they’re really not only pressuring him to flip, but the amount of detail in this indictment tells me that they’re trying to tell other people you have got to flip, because ‘we have everything; we have the double books. We know what you told your tax accountants was a lie. We know that we’re gonna be able to prove these cases,’” Alksne told Menendez. “So I think...first it’s Weisselberg and [then] there are a lot of other people mentioned, ‘individual number one’ or ‘person X signed’ or ‘person Y signed.’ Those people who are mentioned in the indictment, I would expect they’re next and then it builds.” Asked how she would proceed if she were prosecuting the case and “had access to the years of hidden records kept by the Trump Organization,” Alksne said, “I would focus [the investigation] on the kids. Apparently they’ve had some testimony by the comptroller; in the state of New York that means they’ve essentially given him immunity. So I would focus on the kids. My guess is [COO Matthew] Calamari is kind of easy picking and that there are similar ways to give money for the kids. We’ve heard a lot of this reporting about Ivanka Trump getting consulting fees, ‘consulting fees’ for things that she may or may not have done. That looks to me like the next place, but we’ll just have to see.”


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https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2021/07/ivanka-trump-next-for-manhattan-da

July 7, 2021

Trump is suing Mark Zuckerberg and Jack Dorsey. Here's why they shouldn't worry

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Trump's suits continue a trend that began during his presidency: Throwing the book against companies he perceives to be a threat to his political brand. Last spring, while he was still in office, Trump signed an executive order aimed at "preventing online censorship" and seeking to expand legal liability for tech companies.

But the tech companies are legally permitted to run their platforms as they see fit, and courts have dismissed a string of similar lawsuits. Facebook, Twitter and YouTube all cited the potential for future incitement of violence or risks to public safety following the Capitol riot in announcing their decisions to remove Trump's accounts.

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The push to bring legal action against tech platforms over bias allegations has spread nationwide. In May, Florida passed a law allowing politicians that have been suspended or removed from social media to sue those companies.

But the effort has run up against the realities of current law — and the Constitution. Last week, a federal judge blocked Florida's law from going into effect, saying government attempts to force social media companies to host political speech violates the First Amendment. (Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has vowed to appeal.)

*snip*

https://www.cnn.com/2021/07/07/tech/trump-zuckerberg-dorsey-lawsuit/index.html

July 7, 2021

The Trump kids look likely to turn on their dad - and I suspect Ivanka will go first

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Trump’s children, to be clear, haven’t been charged with anything yet. However, they have a lot to be worried about. As Donald Trump’s biographer said recently, one reason Weisselberg is in trouble is that he was allegedly paid as an employee and a nonemployee contractor – allowing various tax write-offs. A New York Times investigation reported that Ivanka Trump was similarly paid more than $700,000 (£500,000) in consulting fees while also collecting a salary as a full-time employee of the Trump Organization. It is likely Eric and Don Jr had similar arrangements in place – we only know for sure about Ivanka because she had to disclose the payments when she gave herself a job at the White House.

If any of the Trump kids are going to turn on their dad, my money is squarely on Ivanka. Indeed, she already seems to be distancing herself strategically from her no-longer-particularly-useful father. A couple of weeks ago, for example, there were reports that Trump’s complaints about the “stolen” 2020 election were driving Ivanka and Jared Kushner away. These reported leaks about Javanka are not new phenomena – they happened frequently throughout Trump’s presidency, leading some to suspect it was a PR tactic by a couple keen to remain in the good graces of liberals as well as the Maga crowd.

While Ivanka appears to be coolly attempting to control her own narrative behind the scenes, Donald Jr and Eric reacted to the Trump Organization criminal charges by having histrionics on camera. Eric Trump told Newsmax last week that “Don, Ivanka and I live really nice, clean lives”. Meanwhile, Don Jr posted a 13-minute video on Facebook calling the charges against his dad “banana-republic stuff”. He also (rather unhelpfully) acknowledged that the allegations Trump paid for Weisselberg’s grandchildren’s school fees were true. “My dad did that,” he said, because he is a “good guy”. A “good guy” who probably wishes he raised smarter kids. With children like these, who needs enemies?

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https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/jul/06/the-trump-kids-look-likely-to-turn-on-their-dad-and-i-suspect-ivanka-will-go-first

July 6, 2021

Jan. 6 Defendant Allegedly Blabbed To Undercover Fed About Riot, Jailbreak Scheme

A new defendant in the Jan. 6 Capitol attack case needs better friends.

According to court records filed over last week and recently unsealed, Fi Duong spilled some incriminating evidence to an undercover FBI employee — a source he was introduced to by an undercover Metropolitan Police Department employee he’d met at the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.

In addition to the Capitol attack itself, Duong allegedly spoke at length to the undercover FBI employee about making Molotov cocktails, and even mused about breaking Jan. 6 defendants out of custody.

“I was right in front when they smashed the doors,” he allegedly bragged to the FBI employee in a late-March conversation, according to an FBI agent’s affidavit. “I also got footage of the Capital Police [sic] shooting the rubber bullets at us.”

*snippy*

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/jan-6-defendant-allegedly-blabbed-to-undercover-fed-about-riot-jailbreak-scheme

July 4, 2021

Jimmy, Rosalynn Carter mark 75 years of 'full partnership'

https://apnews.com/article/rosalynn-carter-lifestyle-religion-government-and-politics-680befbfed51cfa661f83f11d20f4609


ATLANTA (AP) — The young midshipman needed a date one evening while he was home from the U.S. Naval Academy, so his younger sister paired him with a family friend who already had a crush.

Nearly eight decades later, Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter are still together in the same tiny town where they were born, grew up and had that first outing. In between, they’ve traveled the world as Naval officer and military spouse, American president and first lady, and finally as human rights and public health ambassadors.

“It’s a full partnership,” the 39th president told The Associated Press during a joint interview ahead of the couple’s 75th wedding anniversary on July 7.

It will be another milestone for the longest-married presidential couple in American history. At 96, Carter also is the longest-lived of the 45 men who’ve served as chief executive. Yet even having reached that pinnacle, Carter has said often since leaving the Oval Office in 1981 that the most important decision he ever made wasn’t as head of state, commander in chief or even executive officer of a nuclear submarine in the early years of the Cold War.

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July 4, 2021

Cats know when things aren't kosher.....

So funny.

I am in an argument with my roommate. Nothing big. Just we have both retreated to our bedrooms. So I just go peeking out and our collective 4 cats are all sitting in the living room at full attention watching both bedroom doors. I guess they are betting who is gonna crack first.

June 30, 2021

NYT January 6th. Day of Rage:

https://www.nytimes.com/video/us/politics/100000007606996/capitol-riot-trump-supporters.html?campaign_id=190&emc=edit_ufn_20210630&instance_id=34276&nl=updates-from-the-newsroom®i_id=115282278&segment_id=62226&te=1&user_id=da73c3011ce3b37bd466a74bb7dcf9b4

June 29, 2021

Derek Chauvin Closing In On Federal Plea Deal, Sources Tell WCCO

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — Multiple sources tell WCCO that federal prosecutors are in talks with former Minneapolis Police officer Derek Chauvin about a possible plea deal. They say Chauvin is close to reaching a deal, and that is what he was likely referring to when he made a cryptic comment to the family of George Floyd during his sentencing last week.

“Due to legal matters, I’m not able to give a full formal statement … I give my condolences to the Floyd family, there’s gonna be some other information in the future that will be of interest and I hope these will give you some peace of mind,” Chauvin said prior to his sentencing.

Sources suggest Chauvin was likely referring to a plea deal in the federal case against him. As part of a possible plea deal Chauvin would have to publicly explain what he did to Floyd and why.

That was, of course, the question that Floyd’s brother poignantly asked of Chauvin at the sentencing.

*snip*

https://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2021/06/28/derek-chauvin-closing-in-on-federal-plea-deal-sources-tell-wcco/

June 29, 2021

IT SURE SOUNDS LIKE IVANKA TRUMP LIED UNDER OATH TO CRIMINAL INVESTIGATORS (Not me...headline)

f you paid any attention over the course of the last several years, you know that Donald Trump and his family famously have trouble telling the truth, which is another way of saying they‘re total liars. Trump himself, for instance, told 30,573 lies as president, and God knows how many since leaving the White House. Melania Trump claimed to have graduated from college with a bachelor’s degree in architecture, which of course never actually happened. Eric Trump insisted the Trump Organization stopped doing international business when his dad became president, a certified pants-on-fire statement. In April, it emerged that Donald Trump Jr. seemingly lied to prosecutors investigating the 2016 inauguration—and according to a new report, his sister Ivanka Trump may have too.

Per Mother Jones reporter David Corn, during a December 2020 deposition, the ex-president’s eldest daughter was asked by the D.C. attorney general’s office if she had any “involvement in the process of planning the inauguration.” (D.C. attorney general Karl Racine sued the Trump Organization, the Trump International Hotel, and Trump’s 2016 inaugural committee in January 2020, alleging the groups funneled large amounts of inauguration cash into the first family’s pockets via the hotel.) Ivanka, who was an executive at the Trump Organization before becoming a senior presidential adviser, reportedly responded under oath, “I really didn’t have an involvement,” adding that if her “opinion was solicited,” she “would give feedback to my father or to anyone who asked my perspective or opinion.” That, she claimed, was that.

But according to documents obtained According to Mother Jones, Kushner responded the following day, writing, “Thanks, Stephanie—looks like it’s going to be a special event! So glad you are involved!” Ivanka Trump responded later that day, writing: “As mentioned, my interest in hosting [the dinner or reception for women entrepreneurs] depends on the quality and theme of the event.” She asked Winston Wolkoff to coordinate with with Abigail Klem and Rosemary Young, who served as the president and marketing head, respectively, of Ivanka’s company, saying, “It would be great to have a cross section of industry and also invite top female cabinet members and lawmakers.” In the email, Ivanka also said she would be happy to assist Winston Wolkoff if she ran into any problems coordinating with Reince Priebus, Trump’s soon-to-be White House chief of staff, and Katie Walsh, Priebus’s deputy: “please let me know if you don’t get the direction that you need from Reince and Katie and I will step in,” she wrote. by Mother Jones, that does not actually appear to be true! Instead, it seems that the former first daughter was intimately involved in the decision-making for various aspects of the inauguration:

*snip*

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2021/06/ivanka-trump-dc-deposition-lies

June 29, 2021

Former daughter-in-law of Trump Organization officer says she's prepared to testify to grand jury

Washington (CNN)The former daughter-in-law of a Trump Organization officer said Monday evening that she is prepared to testify before a grand jury convened by Manhattan's top prosecutor as part of the investigation into former President Donald Trump's sprawling company.

Jennifer Weisselberg -- a former ballet dancer who was married to Barry, the son of Allen Weisselberg, the chief financial officer of the Trump Organization -- told CNN's Erin Burnett on "OutFront" that "we're prepared, and we are getting prepared" to testify before the panel.

Weisselberg declined to say whether she'd been formally asked to testify, and didn't offer a potential date or time.
Prosecutors in the Manhattan district attorney's office are likely to announce charges against Allen Weisselberg as soon as this week, people familiar with the matter told CNN. He is under scrutiny for benefits he received, including a company-funded apartment and car.

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https://www.cnn.com/2021/06/28/politics/jennifer-weisselberg-trump-organization-cnntv/index.html