https://twitter.com/PopularLiberal/status/1698837038571647102
Popular Liberal 🇺🇸
@PopularLiberal

WOW: I greatly appreciate when ex-Republicans speak out against the prejudice present in the Republican party and acknowledge its negative implications. This individual, who used to identify as conservative, shares that he renounced his affiliation with the Republican party after witnessing racism directed towards Barack Obama. Moreover, they witnessed instances where Republicans obstructed legislation beneficial for the nation, solely with the intention of undermining the former president. If you support this viewpoint, please show your agreement by engaging with the video: like, comment, and share.🤚🏽#WeAreBlue1 #wtpBLUE
7:14 PM · Sep 4, 2023

There's a 1 minute video behind his comment that seemed worthy of passing on
The video got me more than their comment

Ignoring all the other felony convictions of members of Trump Org or Campaign ...

Letitia James, AG of NY, began her investigation of Trump in 2018.

Feb 2018 Federal court approves $25 million Trump University settlement
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/federal-court-approves-25-million-trump-university-settlement-n845181

A federal court approved a $25 million settlement with students who said they were duped by Donald Trump and his now-defunct Trump University.

August 2018, Trump lawyer Cohen pleads guilty to a variety of crimes - many linked to Trump hush money payments.
https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/michael-cohen-pleads-guilty-manhattan-federal-court-eight-counts-including-criminal-tax

In 2018 Trump organization is also under investigation that results in convictions for 17 felonies including tax fraud in Dec 2022 and a $1.6 mil fine.
https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/13/politics/trump-org-sentencing/index.html

https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/trumps-alleged-hush-money-payments-path-criminal-charges-2023-04-04/

AUGUST 2019
Cyrus Vance, the Manhattan District Attorney at the time, issues a subpoena to the Trump Organization - Trump's family real estate company - for records of hush money payments.

In Nov 2019, EJ Carroll sued Trump for defamation. A second suit resulted in an award of damages in 2023 for $5 mil for in part, Trump raping/sexually abusing EJ Carroll.
https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/e-jean-carroll-sued-trump-defamation-last-resort-blame-statute-ncna1077321

In Nov-Dec 2019, Trump Charity Foundation is shut down, Trump ordered to pay $2 million to charities.
https://ag.ny.gov/press-release/2019/donald-j-trump-pays-court-ordered-2-million-illegally-using-trump-foundation

https://apnews.com/article/trump-georgia-election-investigation-2020-willis-d625354d03e871306c44ff386f1ff88e#:~:text=Fulton%20County%20District%20Attorney%20Fani%20Willis%20has%20been%20investigating%20since,a%20grand%20jury%20next%20month.

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has been investigating since early 2021 whether Trump and his allies broke any laws as they tried to overturn his narrow election loss in Georgia to Democrat Joe Biden.

As of Jan 6, 2021, Trump lost 61 of 62 election lawsuits
https://www.usatoday.com/in-depth/news/politics/elections/2021/01/06/trumps-failed-efforts-overturn-election-numbers/4130307001/
Trump won a trivial case that affected a few votes in PA on showing ID more than 3 days after the election.

The investigation into what occurred in the Capitol Jan 6th, 2021 began that day. I don't think I need to provide a link for that. More than 1,000 have been charged with more than half convicted (some with sedition) so far with many cases still outstanding.

June 2021: Court Suspends Trump lawyer Giuliani’s Law License, Citing Trump Election Lies
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/24/nyregion/giuliani-law-license-suspended-trump.html

https://apnews.com/article/trump-documents-investigation-timeline-087f0c9a8368bb983a16b67dd31dcd4c

On or about May 6, 2021: Realizing that some documents from Trump’s presidency may be missing, the National Archives asks that he turn over any presidential records he may have kept upon leaving the White House. The agency makes subsequent, repeated demands.

and that led to the 40 or so indictments of Trump this year.

August 2022, Trump CFO, Allen Weisselberg pleads guilty to 15 tax and fraud crimes from an investigation started in 2018

Sept 2022 New York AG Letitia James files $250M lawsuit against Trump for defrauding lenders, others
https://abcnews.go.com/US/york-ag-letitia-james-files-250m-lawsuit-trump/story?id=90240332

Nearly five years after the above started or transpired:
Nov 15, 2022 Trump announces he's running for President in 2024
https://www.npr.org/2022/11/15/1137052704/trump-2024-president-campaign

Clearly, all these DoJ people were clairvoyant

https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=YY-CzKmVgVc&feature=youtu.be&ab_channel=AtlantaJournal-Constitution

Atlanta Journal Constitution interview with Fani Willis on Trump Probe

In April of 2023, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis talked with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution about the timeline of her investigation into former president Donald Trump and whether he tried to illegally overturn election results in Georgia in 2020

2nd Grand Jury convenes in May to review the report, hear witnesses, etc

Testimony starts in early June

EDIT: I returned to this thread to read the comments and ran into a significant issue.

I cut and pasted the above from youtube for this video

The thread title was the title of the video which now reads "2022 Interview: Fulton DA clarifies timeline for witness testimony in Trump probe" (bolded part added)

The bolded 2023 in the comments above has been switched to 2022.
The election date she refers to in the video was May 24 of 2022. There is no election on May 24, 2023.

The video was posted a few hours ago on the Atlanta Journal Constitution Youtube channel.

I apologize for the confusion. I would disregard this or look at it for historical reference

https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/20982370/indictment-final-unsigned.pdf

Here's AG James claim
https://ag.ny.gov/sites/default/files/tto_complaint.pdf

Beyond Zurich insurance, just a quick scan of AG James claim reveals other areas of criminal concern for Weisselberg:

Paragraph 56-57

56. Similarly, the engagement letters specifically obligated the Trump Organization to
provide Mazars with “access to all information of which you are aware [that] is relevant to the
preparation and fair presentation of the financial statement, such as records, documentation, and
other matters,” and made clear that Mr. Weisselberg, as the Trump Organization’s CFO, was
responsible for “the selection and application of accounting principles,” and for “establishing and
maintaining internal controls.” The engagement letters similarly obligated the Trump
Organization to “mak[e] all financial records and related information available to [Mazars] and
for the accuracy and completeness of that information.”

57. In addition to the engagement letters, for each year from 2011 to 2020, Mr.
Weisselberg as CFO of the Trump Organization signed a representation letter submitted by the
Trump Organization to Mazars in connection with Mazars’s actual issuance of the completed
Statement of Financial Condition. In the letter, Mr. Weisselberg represented that the Trump
Organization was “responsible for the information provided to Mazars for each annual
compilation,” and that the information was “presented fairly and accurately in all material
respects.”

Paragraph 61

61. As noted, Mr. Trump or the Trustees would prepare valuations and data for the
Statement, which Mazars (or for 2021, Whitley Penn) would then compile. Each year the Trump
Organization personnel (including Mr. Weisselberg and Mr. McConney) would prepare a
supporting data spreadsheet containing the valuations for the Statement and backup material
supporting those valuations. Mazars (or for 2021, Whitley Penn) then compiled that information
into financial-statement format.

Paragraph 212:

212. What is more, during the course of the 2019 valuation of Trump Tower, Mr.
Weisselberg systematically rejected numerous valuations that would have reached values
between $161 million and $224 million less than the prior year’s $732 million valuation.
Multiple draft valuations were prepared by the junior employee charged with preparing the
Statement using other, more recent Plaza District transactions with much higher capitalization
rates of 4.65% and higher--but Mr. Weisselberg systematically rejected all of those market data
points and decided to use a less recent, but much more favorable, 2.67% rate from the 666 Fifth
Avenue sale to push the value north of $800 million.

paragraph 320

320. For the years 2017 to 2021, the Trump Organization purported to use the
“stabilized net operating income” and claimed in supporting spreadsheets that the NOI figures to
derive the values for the properties came from audited financial statements. Those statements
were false and misleading. In reality, the Trump Organization, at the direction of Allen
Weisselberg, frequently used unaudited reports and then adjusted them to suit its own purposes
by adding millions of dollars in net operating income to the figures.

All look like they're within the statute of limitations for a NY felony.
Insurance Fraud, bank fraud and tax crimes.

No wonder he needs a criminal lawyer.
And therefore, he's very susceptible to being flipped.
Trump has some significant liability too ... if they can flip Weisselberg ..

Weisselberg gets out of Riker's on April 19, 2023
https://a073-ils-web.nyc.gov/inmatelookup/pages/home/home.jsf

The Daily Beast article:
https://www.thedailybeast.com/why-the-trump-org-suddenly-fired-its-jailed-money-man-allen-weisselbergs-lawyer
identifies Weisselberg's new lawyer as Seth L. Rosenberg and says “Mr. Weisselberg’s decision to change lawyers was entirely his own, a decision which I understand Mr. Weisselberg made in consultation with his family after the conclusion of the trial.”

Here's Seth's bio
https://www.martindale.com/attorney/seth-l-rosenberg-464028/

For more than twenty-five years Seth L. Rosenberg has specialized in defending white-collar criminal cases and litigating complex civil disputes.
...
At Clayman & Rosenberg LLP Seth has represented individuals and institutions in state and federal criminal investigations throughout the United States, and defended them against a wide range of charges including securities fraud, financial and health care fraud, embezzlement, money laundering, political integrity issues and many others. He also has appeared before the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the Federal Election Commission and other regulatory bodies.

Let's recap for a second:
Wesseilberg, according to Riker's inmate records, gets out of jail on April 19, 2023
He's done with his 15 crimes that he pleaded guilty to.

So after that case and 15 convictions and after Trump org was nailed for financial crimes, why does Weisselberg still need a criminal lawyer specialized in white collar crime?

It's a rhetorical question.

He's still got a criminal problem hanging over him so those actions corroborate the media report that Bragg pressured him to flip.

Bragg declined the Stormy case last year. And he declined aspects of the Trump investigation.
ex NY State prosecutor Pomerantz's book and interviews lay that out.

There were two key problems with the Stormy case according to Pomerantz.
1. It relied heavily on a felon convicted of lying - Cohen
2. It needed a related felony to lift the Stormy payoff misdemeanor to a felony. The only one that seemed plausible to pursue was a Federal campaign finance felony that would require a precedent to lift a state misdemeanor to a felony in conjunction with a federal felony as opposed to a state felony. There were Trump felonies at the state level alleged by AG James but they lacked witnesses needed to cut through the complex bookkeeping in court.

Something changed Bragg's mind.
Some wondered if it was Pomerantz's book. But the book didn't solve the issues with the case. If it did anything, it laid them out for all to see.

Weisselberg flipping solves both problems with the Stormy case.
1, He shores up Cohen as a witness (though they also have Pecker, Stormy's & McDougall's lawyer, Stormy & McDougall)
2. He helps the felonies AG James referred to Manhattan prosecutors at the state level so they don't need to achieve a precedent of tying to a federal FEC felony.

And Weisselberg obviously helps NY State prosecute Trump for his other financial crimes identified by AG James. And maybe helps the IRS who Trump confirmed were after him.

Something of substance changed. Weisselberg flipping explains all of it.

One other very notable pattern:
Before Michael Cohen and Cassidy Hutchinson flipped, they fired their lawyer being paid for by Trump - like Weisselberg did. (The media is behind on this. Weisselberg fired these lawyers a while ago. From Daily Beast article “Mr. Weisselberg’s decision to change lawyers was entirely his own, a decision which I understand Mr. Weisselberg made in consultation with his family after the conclusion of the trial.” Weisselberg pleaded guilty in August 2022)

Another notable pattern possibly broken:
Trump has been strangely quiet. They were posting about it on Truth Social last evening. Trump likes to get out in front of stories ... or kill them quickly .... I wondered about a crazy 2 am posting. But all I see and hear are crickets.

It is possible something else is happening with Weisselberg. If I had to bet on it, I'd bet that Weisselberg flipped.

First of all, it has been documented that AG Barr squashed many of the efforts to investigate Trump at SDNY. They fired Berman. Nothing was coming out of there while Trump was President. Who here thinks Trump would feel it was too illegal to scuttle or sabotage their evidence while his folks were in charge?

If Bragg's case was dead after Costello testified, why bring Pecker back two days ago for rebuttal of Costello?
Bragg wouldn't have bothered if the Stormy case was dead. Two days ago, the Stormy case was not dead.

For another reason: they allegedly determined Trump CFO Weisselberg lied to them since he was sentenced. They can go back at Weisselberg to flip him and appear to have been pressuring him as documented in a NYT article of Feb 2nd, 2023 (just after the Grand Jury reconvened for Stormy's case). Trump copmplained about them pressuring Weisselberg in March. Weisselberg can shore up Cohen's testimony big time. He signed some of those checks and did the bookkeeping. If Weisselberg gets caught lying, he goes to prison for a long time.

For another reason, the way they're talking about the case in the article in the top post isn't the only way it can be looked at:
https://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/trump-write-hush-money-payments-article-1.3980656
To elevate the misdemeanor to a felony, instead of a FEC felony violation, they could get him on a state felony for tax evasion so they wouldn't need to make the precedent of trying to lift a state misdemeanor with a federal felony. If Trump expensed those Stormy payments, he might be liable for the state taxes he saved with those expenses. If it is more than $3,000 in taxes as it is likely to be with Stormy's and McDougals payments, that's a NY State felony. So Stormy's misdemeanor might be lifted to a felony with a state tax felony. The article in the top post did not mention that.

As well, who would want to rely on a federal conviction of Trump? Next time the GOP steal the White House, Trump will be pardoned.

And if they flipped Weisselberg, they've got AG Letitia James criminal referrals for insurance and bank fraud they can go after him for. I suspect that same Grand Jury met on those last Thursday and are meeting again this Thursday - they're not meeting on the Stormy case tomorrow but they're still meeting.

There was a bunch of evidence against Trump pulled together after Bragg took office. They criminally convicted Weisselberg & Trump org. They got Trump's tax returns. NY AG Letitia James filed her civil claims for $250 mil with the assistance of Bragg's office. And then AG James made her IRS and criminal referrals. All that had little to nothing to do with Stormy. It is more than merely plausible Bragg has been able to piece together a felony there that Stormy's expenses tie to.

Again, Bragg's career is on the line as is the safety of his family and co-workers. With all the above going on, it is very premature to count him out. In fact, in light of the above, it seem foolish to dismiss his efforts.

Source: Time

... I was used by Trump and his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani in ways that helped pave the way for Putin to invade Ukraine, my native land. If Trump and Giuliani’s plans had worked, the Ukrainians might not have had the necessary weapons, medical equipment, and other supplies they needed to fight back.
...
My connection to Trump came through Giuliani, with whom I had done business, and through the large campaign donations I had made to Trump’s campaign. Giuliani, who desperately wanted to be Secretary of State, recruited me to help him further Trump’s interests overseas. I had no official position, but my primary task was to be their go-between with Ukrainian and Russian oligarchs and government officials. In retrospect, I concluded that my real job was to help undermine and destabilize the Ukrainian government.
...
Trump and Giuliani argued that Ukraine’s leaders were corrupt and anti-American, but I believe there were other reasons Trump had it in for them. He viewed them as political enemies who had supported Hillary Clinton in 2016, hurting his feelings and engaging his unquenchable thirst for revenge. Trump also hated the Ukrainian government because Putin did. Some have said that Putin has compromising information on Trump, regarding money laundering or prostitutes, but those theories are promoted by people who did not know Trump well. I never saw evidence of that kind. Rather, I think the Russian leader had a lot in common with Trump’s father, Fred. Both men were authoritarian leaders who valued ruthlessness and considered it the only way to succeed. I first met Fred when I was selling condos in Brooklyn as a kid and he and Putin struck me the same way. Both men had immense effects on Donald Trump.
...
Trump acted on his hatred of Ukraine as he tried to improve his re-election chances in 2020. The plan that Giuliani and Trump put into operation was simple. Giuliani sent me to collect compromising information that the Eastern European oligarchs had on Hunter Biden’s activities in Ukraine to use against Joe Biden. It was also my job to convince the new Ukrainian government to announce an official investigation into Hunter Biden. If they didn’t, the U.S. would not send Trump or Vice President Mike Pence to Zelensky’s inauguration, threatening Zelensky’s domestic stature and his ability to stand up to Putin. Trump also paused much needed military aid for Ukraine while he tried to get Zelensky to open the Biden investigation.



Read more: https://time.com/6255090/lev-parnas-giuliani-trump-ukraine/

---

He goes on to complain the Republicans denying military support for Ukraine are helping Putin.

A bunch here did not surprise. It confirms what many thought.

I guess Gym Jordan won't want to hear from Lev Parnas in his Hunter Biden hearings ...

Presented for those who might be interested ...

Source: Youtube 11 Alive channel

From Youtube 11 Alive Channel

Georgia DA Fani Willis briefly answers a few questions about the Grand Jury report that is about to be partially released.



Read more: &ab_channel=11Alive

---

DA Fani Willis says that the judge listened to the arguments she made representing the state and she was "very pleased with the order" (the judge's decision)

Source: NBC News

Twitter suspended several high-profile journalists Thursday evening who have been covering the company and Elon Musk.

The suspensions come a day after Twitter changed its policies around accounts that track private jets, including one owned by Elon Musk.

The accounts of Ryan Mac of The New York Times, Donie O'Sullivan of CNN, Drew Harwell of The Washington Post, Matt Binder of Mashable, Micah Lee of The Intercept and independent journalists Aaron Rupar and Tony Webster had all been suspended as of Thursday evening.

It was not immediately clear why their accounts were suspended.

The Twitter account for Mastodon, a platform billed as an alternative, was also suspended early Thursday evening.

Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/social-media/twitter-suspends-journalists-covering-elon-musk-company-rcna62032

---

So much for Elon's freedom of speech claim ...