CRIMES felony 3

1/22 in honor of 1/6

merri ok

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jan 6 comm DOJ criminal contempt of congress?

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an 8 25

MS NOW anchor Jen Psaki pulled no punches at the disreputable slate of Republicans facing voters Tuesday night— some of them already toppled by their own voters as primaries extended into the night.

“Former Democratic congressman Eric Swalwell … is important because especially when you look at the Republican races we are watching tonight,’ said Psaki on her Wednesday The Briefing with Jen Psaki show. “Swalwell, as we all know, faced massive pressure to resign from his seat amid a flurry of sexual assault allegations. And even though Swalwell denied those allegations, officials … consider[ed] these allegations serious enough to universally push to show Swalwell the exit. Now, compare that to how it has gone for Republican congressman Cory Mills.”

Mills was running for reelection in Florida’s 7th Congressional district Wednesday, despite the fact that he is being investigated by the House Ethics Committee, investigated for allegations that he assaulted a former girlfriend and allegations of stolen valor for obtaining a bronze star on false pretenses, as well as allegations of financial misconduct.

“Unlike Swalwell, Mills has not been pressured to resign his seat to drop out of the race. None of that. President Trump even endorsed him in February after most of those allegations, I would note, were already public,” said Psaki.

But Trump's endorsement did nothing to help the scandal plagued Mills as the Associated Press projected Mills losing to Republican challenger, Ryan Elijah.

“It's really important to remember that it was not the Republican Party that did that. It wasn't Republican leadership. It wasn't Donald Trump — certainly not. It wasn't [House Speaker] Mike Johnson, wasn't any of them. It was the voters.”

But the Mills race wasn’t the wildest in Florida, said Psaki, referring to the state's 19th congressional district, where 10 Trump loyalists were fighting for the GOP primary Wednesday night.

“Two of them are convicted felons -- I am not making that detail up. And guess what? Both of them were pardoned by President Trump,” said Psaki, referring to John Strand, a J-6 rioter who was photographed pushing past Capitol Police officers to enter the capitol and disrupt the 2020 election. Strand later texted, “we stormed the capitol. It was insane.”

“Thank God the other convicted felon who was pardoned by Trump running in Florida’s 19th district is former New York congressman Chris Collins. And you may remember this guy, because he resigned from Congress in 2019 and pleaded guilty to insider trading and lying to the FBI,” Psaki said.

Trump pardoned Collins a year later, giving the former legislator the opportunity to sell his cozy relationship with Trump to voters.

But then there’s former North Carolina congressman Madison Cawthorn, who was also was running in Florida’s 19th district, even as polling showed him behind Wednesday night.

“A few years ago, Cawthorn faced his own allegations of sexually aggressive behavior from multiple women. Cawthorn denied those allegations, but ended up losing his seat to none other than Chuck Edwards, who just ended his own campaign for Congress this month after he faced his own sexual harassment allegations, which he also denied,” said Psaki.

“What a Grand Old Party,” said Psaki. “Indeed, you cannot make this up.”

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11 25

AP News

https://apnews.com › article › sex-crimes-south-carolina-lawmaker-rj-may-81901be6f700f24a99ba3346086f8b61

Prosecutors say Republican SC lawmaker used 'joebidennnn69' to send ...

Jun 13, 2025COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — A Republican member of the South Carolina House who prosecutors say used the screen name "joebidennnn69" has been arrested and charged with 10 counts of distributing sexual abuse material involving children. RJ May was arrested at his Lexington County home after a lengthy investigation and was ordered Thursday by a federal judge to remain jailed until his trial. The ...

South Carolina Public Radio

https://www.southcarolinapublicradio.org › sc-news › 2025-06-11 › sc-gop-lawmaker-rj-may-arrested-in-lexington-county-custody

SC Republican Rep. RJ May arrested in Lexington County

Jun 11, 2025South Carolina Republican lawmaker RJ May was arrested Wednesday and booked into the Lexington County Detention Center, jail records show. May was first elected to the S.C. House in 2020 and represents part of Lexington County. He is a co-founder of the hardline House Freedom

an 11 25

Aide to Republican state senator arrested for burning a house with 2 people inside: report

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Fox averts its eyes from former employee Homan reportedly receiving a bag of cash

Written by Matt Gertz

Research contributions from Harrison Ray

Updated 09/22/25

Fox News has yet to address on-air the recent reports that White House border czar Tom Homan, while working as a contributor for the network in September 2024, accepted a bag of cash from undercover FBI agents as part of a corruption investigation which was subsequently closed under the Trump administration.

MSNBC reported on Saturday:

In an undercover operation last year, the FBI recorded Tom Homan, now the White House border czar, accepting $50,000 in cash after indicating he could help the agents — who were posing as business executives — win government contracts in a second Trump administration, according to multiple people familiar with the probe and internal documents reviewed by MSNBC.

The FBI and the Justice Department planned to wait to see whether Homan would deliver on his alleged promise once he became the nation’s top immigration official. But the case indefinitely stalled soon after Donald Trump became president again in January, according to six sources familiar with the matter. In recent weeks, Trump appointees officially closed the investigation, after FBI Director Kash Patel requested a status update on the case, two of the people said.

It’s unclear what reasons FBI and Justice Department officials gave for shutting down the investigation. But a Trump Justice Department appointee called the case a “deep state” probe in early 2025 and no further investigative steps were taken, the sources say.

The federal investigation was launched in western Texas in the summer of 2024 after a subject in a separate investigation claimed Homan was soliciting payments in exchange for awarding contracts should Trump win the presidential election, according to an internal Justice Department summary of the probe reviewed by MSNBC and people familiar with the case.

The handoff, according to MSNBC, came on September 20, 2024, while Homan was making frequent appearances on Fox as a paid network contributor in which he promoted Trump’s xenophobic positions. Homan had joined Fox after retiring as ICE’s acting director in 2018, a position in which he reportedly served as the “intellectual ‘father’” of the Trump administration’s depraved family separation policy.

The New York Times and ABC News subsequently confirmed MSNBC’s reporting, with the Times adding the detail that the cash payment had been “made inside a bag from the food chain Cava.”

Notably, in their statements to the outlets, FBI Director Kash Patel, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, and White House deputy press secretary Abigail Jackson did not deny the reporting that Homan had been recorded taking a bag of cash from undercover agents. Instead, they claimed that the Justice Department had not uncovered evidence of illicit activity when it closed the investigation.

But MSNBC’s legal experts concluded that while Homan’s “actions didn’t clearly fit under a standard bribery charge” because neither he nor Trump were in office at the time, further investigation was warranted to determine whether he would continue accepting bags of cash once he was a public official. (A lesser charge would have been possible based on his promise to commit the crime, and MSNBC reported that “several FBI and Justice officials believed that they had a strong criminal case.”)

To state the obvious: Fox would be covering this story if it implicated a Democratic official and administration. But as of posting time (noon ET), the network has not mentioned it.

Homan is the lynchpin of the right’s anti-immigrant strategy. He makes regular appearances on Fox and throughout the MAGA media ecosystem, helping them churn out propaganda in support of Trump’s cruel, unlawful, and increasingly unpopular mass deportation policies.

Homan is a loyal member of the Trump team, and so its other members are uninterested in whether he was taking bags of cash in exchange for promises of future favors. Former Fox host Megyn Kelly made this explicit, responding to the MSNBC scoop over the weekend by posting, “We DO NOT CARE. Don’t bother [Homan] he’s a national treasure.”

Fox’s stable of propagandists apparently agree. The network regularly shields from its viewers information that reflects poorly on Trump, the policies he supports, and the administration he assembled. A recording of their former colleague accepting a bag of cash is apparently no different.

{Update (9/22/25, 3:10 p.m.):* White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt was asked about the Homan probe during her briefing, which Fox carried live in its 1 p.m. hour. Leavitt responded that Homan “never took the $50,000 that you're referring to, so you should get your facts straight.” After the briefing concluded, Fox anchor Gillian Turner asked Fox political correspondent Byron York about the exchange. York called Leavitt’s denial “huge” and a “clear conflict” with what was reported elsewhere.}:

MMA //

### Fox contributor Tom Homan is the “intellectual ‘father’” of family separation

08/08/22

### With “Border Czar” Tom Homan, Trump restarts the revolving door between Fox and his administration

11/12/24

### Inside the alliance between right-wing media and Trump “Border Czar” Tom Homan

08/07/25

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trump doj lets gop off, also eric adams quit pro quo 3 25

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an 4 25

Trump criticized on Thursday a court ruling against Marine Le Pen, the leader of France's far-right, who was found guilty of embezzling millions of euros from the European Parliament.

“The Witch Hunt against Marine Le Pen is another example of European Leftists using Lawfare to silence Free Speech, and censor their Political Opponent, this time going to so far as to put that Opponent in prison,” Trump wrote in a late-night post on his social platform Truth Social.

“It is the same ‘playbook’ that was used against me by a group of Lunatics and Losers,” the president added.

Le Pen was sentenced to four years in prison, with two years suspended, and is also facing a five-year ban on holding office, which takes effect immediately. This restriction would bar her from running in the 2027 presidential election in France, an election she was expected to win, unless she succeeds in appealing her conviction.

Trump's statement about the French politician's case came the same day global stock markets plummeted in response to his decision to impose a series of sweeping global tariffs.

“I don’t know Marine Le Pen, but do appreciate how hard she worked for so many years,” Trump further said in his post, crediting the leader for suffering losses, but continuing her politics.

"And now, just before what would be a Big Victory, they get her on a minor charge that she probably knew nothing about—Sounds like a ‘bookkeeping’ error to me," he added.

The court determined that Le Pen and around twenty other co-defendants exploited the European Parliament as a source of income, misappropriating almost $5 million in parliamentary funds. This misuse allegedly took place over an 11-year span during a time when her party’s finances were critically low.

Tech billionaire and Department of Government Efficiency head Elon Musk endorsed the president's post about Le Pen's case on his own social platform X.

"Free Le Pen!" he wrote, along with a screenshot of Trump's Truth Social post.

---

// bb

MAGA judge Michele Fiore convicted of stealing $70k from fallen cop's memorial fund for plastic surgery and daughter's wedding

tina-peters-ex-colorado-clerk-tells-judge-prison-wont-work-out-because-she-needs-a-magnetic-mattress-video

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bb 8 24

david Dempsey's "brutal" attacks on police officers earned him one of the longest sentences so far handed down to the Trump supporters who sacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan 6, 2021. Sentencing him to 20 years imprisonment, senior D.C. District Judge Royce Lamberth described Dempsey's actions as "exceptionally egregious" and nearly resulting in a "bloodbath" in Congress.

Footage showing him lashing out, throwing projectiles at officers and using other people in the crowd as "scaffolding" was shown in court. Prosecutors cast him as "political violence personified"—a violence they said was directed against officers trying to keep the surging mob out of the building. In one attack, he swung a metal bar at an officer, breaking his helmet.

Dempsey had also attacked political enemies at earlier protests, the judge said, further warranting the lengthy jail term.

Before receiving his sentence, Dempsey groveled to the court, speaking of his "profound sense of regret" and apologizing to victims and other officers in attendance. After he learned he would not be getting leniency, however, he flashed the white power "OK" sign in court when bailiffs moved to take him away. Numerous observers at the scene reported the gesture, including NBC News's Ryan J. Reilly.

David Dempsey in footage from the Jan 6 riots.

On the Jan 6 high score chart, Dempsey lands at #2 after Henry "Enrique" Tarrio, the Proud Boy leader who scored a 22-year sentence. Oath Keeper Stewart Rhodes and Proud Boy Ethan Nordean were sentenced to 18 years, Proud Boy Joe Biggs to 15 years, and Proud Boy Zacahry Schwartz to 14 years.

Previously:

• 5 years in jail for Jan 6 rioter who injured cop

• Self-pitying Capitol rioter Rachel Powell, headed for prison, shows no remorse in CNN interview

• Former Proud Boy leader Henry 'Enrique' Tarrio sentenced to 22 years in prison

• Georgia lawyer off to jail for his part in Capitol Hill riot

• Seven year sentence for Jan 6 rioter described as 'one-man wrecking ball'

---

Sen. Menendez found guilty on corruption charges

an 7 24

===

Arizona Charges Giuliani and Other Trump Allies in Election Interference Case

Those charged included Boris Epshteyn, a top legal strategist for Donald Trump, and fake electors who acted on Mr. Trump’s behalf in Arizona after the 2020 election.

By Danny Hakim and Maggie Haberman

Published April 24, 2024

Updated April 25, 2024,

Rudolph W. Giuliani, Mark Meadows, and a number of others who advised Donald J. Trump during the 2020 election were indicted in Arizona on Wednesday, along with all of the fake electors who acted on Mr. Trump’s behalf there to try to keep him in power despite his loss in the state.

Boris Epshteyn, one of Mr. Trump’s top legal strategists, was also among those indicted, a complication for Mr. Trump’s defense in the criminal trial that began this week in Manhattan over hush money payments made to a porn star, Stormy Daniels.

The indictment includes conspiracy, fraud and forgery charges, related to alleged attempts by the defendants to change the 2020 election results. Arizona is the fourth swing state to bring an elections case involving the activities of the Trump campaign in 2020, but only the second after Georgia to go beyond the fake electors whom the campaign deployed in swing states lost by Mr. Trump.

The former president, who is seeking another term, was also named an unindicted co-conspirator in the Arizona case.

“I understand for some of you today didn’t come fast enough, and I know I’ll be criticized by others for conducting this investigation at all,” Kris Mayes, Arizona’s Democratic attorney general, said in a recorded statement. “But as I have stated before and will say here again today, I will not allow American democracy to be undermined. It’s too important.”

Thumbnail of page 1

Read the Arizona Election Indictment

Arizona on Wednesday indicted Rudolph W. Giuliani, Mark Meadows and a number of others who advised Donald J. Trump during the 2020 election, as well as the fake electors who acted on Mr. Trump’s behalf to try to keep him in power despite his loss in the state. Here is the indictment.

READ DOCUMENT 58 PAGES

Mr. Giuliani is Mr. Trump’s former personal lawyer; Mr. Meadows was the White House chief of staff at the time of the 2020 election. They were among a number of defendants whose names were redacted from the indictment, though it was clear from the context and the descriptions who they were. For example, the passage referencing Mr. Giuliani, the former mayor of New York City, said among other things that he was known as “the mayor.”

A Guide to the Various Trump Investigations

Confused about the inquiries and legal cases involving former President Donald Trump? We’re here to help.

Key Inquiries: Trump faces several investigations at both the state and the federal levels, into matters related to his business and political careers.

Case Tracker: Keep track of the developments in the criminal cases involving the former president.

What if Trump Is Convicted?: Will any of the proceedings hinder Trump’s presidential campaign? Here is what we know, and what we don’t know.

Trump on Trial Newsletter: Sign up here to get the latest news and analysis on the cases in New York, Florida, Georgia and Washington, D.C.

Some parts of the indictment did not refer to Mr. Trump by name, instead referring to the “defendants’ attempts to declare Unindicted Coconspirator 1 and Pence the winners of the 2020 Presidential Election.”

Also indicted were Mike Roman, a Trump campaign operative in 2020, John Eastman, an architect of the fake electors plan, and two other lawyers who advised Mr. Trump and his 2020 campaign: Jenna Ellis and Christina Bobb.

The indictment lays out a series of alleged efforts by the defendants to overturn Arizona’s election results. They are accused of pressuring “officials responsible for certifying election results to encourage them to change the election results,” including the governor, the legislature and the Maricopa Board of Supervisors.

In all, 35 people who acted as fake electors in Georgia, Michigan, Nevada and now Arizona face criminal charges for signing certificates in 2020 falsely stating that Mr. Trump had won their state’s electoral votes.

Mr. Giuliani, Mr. Meadows, Mr. Roman and Mr. Eastman now face charges in two states, Georgia and Arizona. Ms. Ellis has already pleaded guilty to a felony in Georgia.

Among those charged in Arizona are some who served as top Republican Party officials there during the 2020 election, including Kelli Ward, a former state party chairwoman, and Greg Safsten, who at the time was executive director of the state party. Two state senators, Anthony Kern and Jake Hoffman, now also face charges.

Some of the people who held themselves out to be Trump electors in states that he lost in 2020 have adamantly insisted that they were acting legally. After Dr. Ward and other fake electors gathered in Phoenix that December, she wrote in a social media post that “we are the electors who represent the legal voters of Arizona!” As recently as late last year, Mr. Kern said that “there’s no such thing as fake electors.”

Late Wednesday, Charles Burnham, a lawyer for Mr. Eastman, said: “The phenomenon of partisan lawfare grows more troubling by the day. Professor Eastman is innocent of criminal conduct in Arizona or any other place and will fight these charges as he has all the other unjust accusations leveled against him.”

Ted Goodman, a spokesman for Mr. Giuliani, said: “The continued weaponization of our justice system should concern every American as it does permanent, irrevocable harm to the country.”

Mr. Hoffman said in a social media post that he was “innocent of any crime,” adding that “I will vigorously defend myself, and I look forward to the day when I am vindicated of this disgusting political persecution.”

Mr. Epshteyn was a constant presence during Mr. Trump’s civil trial in January on charges that he had defamed the New York writer E. Jean Carroll. He joined Mr. Trump at the defense table when Mr. Trump’s lawyer in the case went to the bench for sidebars.

But Mr. Epshteyn has not been in New York for the current criminal case. He has described himself as an “in-house counsel” to Mr. Trump and has been something of a quarterback for the various legal teams working on the former president’s defenses in four criminal cases. He usually speaks with Mr. Trump several times a day.

Mr. Epshteyn has been arrested twice in Arizona over the last 10 years, once in 2014 for assault after a bar fight, in which he pleaded guilty and the conviction was set aside, and again in 2021, after he was accused of inappropriately touching two women. In that case, he pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct, received probation and a fine, and the conviction again was set aside.

Mr. Epshteyn did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Election deniers have not fared well at the polls in Arizona, but they maintain a grip on the state’s Republican Party. In January, the party installed a hard-right Trump supporter, Gina Swoboda, as its new leader; Ms. Swoboda runs a nonprofit group that has falsely claimed to have found huge discrepancies in voting records in a number of states. Kari Lake, a fervent backer of Mr. Trump and his false election claims, was the party’s candidate for governor in 2022 (she lost) and is the leading Republican candidate for a U.S. Senate seat this year.

The Arizona Republican Party, in a statement, called the indictment “a blatant and unprecedented abuse of prosecutorial power, aimed solely at distracting the public” ahead of the 2024 election.

The United States Supreme Court rejected an appeal on Monday that challenged the state’s electronic voting machines. The case was brought by Ms. Lake and Mark Finchem, who lost a 2022 race for Arizona secretary of state.

Having slates of people claiming to be electors for Mr. Trump was an integral part of the effort to keep him in office after his loss at the polls in 2020. Mr. Trump and his allies sought to block or delay congressional certification of Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s victory, hoping that Mr. Trump’s allies in the House and Senate might then consider a challenge to the validity of the results in a number of battleground states like Arizona and Michigan — and then accept the pro-Trump electors from those states as valid.

In addition to the state cases, Mr. Trump is facing election interference charges himself in the Georgia case and in a federal case brought by Jack Smith, the special prosecutor appointed by the Department of Justice.

Mr. Trump has long made a strategy of falsely claiming election fraud. After he was defeated in the 2016 Iowa caucus, he said that Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, the winner of that contest, “illegally stole it.” And after Mr. Trump received fewer votes nationwide in 2016 than Hillary Clinton did, he said that he had actually won the popular vote “if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally.”

Faced with criminal charges in the state elections inquiries, some of Mr. Trump’s allies and advisers have backtracked from his 2020 claims.

“Biden was elected, the process was followed,” Kenneth Chesebro, an architect of the fake elector plan, told investigators in Michigan last year. Mr. Chesebro has emerged as a key witness in the state prosecutions.

James Renner, a former Michigan state trooper who was a last-minute substitution as a fake elector in that state, expressed regret last year to investigators, saying that he “had been walked into a situation that I shouldn’t have ever been involved in.” Charges against him were dropped as part of a cooperation agreement with the office of Dana Nessel, Michigan’s attorney general, a Democrat.

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Florida 'Don’t Say Gay' lawmaker sentenced to prison in federal fraud case - Alternet.org

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rhodes, wolverine and baked alaska jailed:

3 sent 7 plus yrs 12 22

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not sure where to put this

'The facts didn’t add up': Retailers blasted after admitting most losses not due to shoplifting - Alternet.org

chris hayes congr testimony 6 yr old # so during trump? and was for losses for all reasons

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an 11 23

anything more than 2 is too complicated? he has oxford degree

. Senator John Kennedy (R-LA) met an unexpected answer on Tuesday after pushing a GOP talking point that suggests Democratic-run cities are the most dangerous and Chicago is the most violent.

“Why do you think that Chicago has become America’s largest outdoor shooting range?” Senator Kennedy asked Dr. Megan Ranney, Dean of the Yale School of Public Health, during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on the intersection of U.S. gun violence and public health, according to C-SPAN. “Do you think it’s because of Chicago citizens who have no criminal record? But who have lawfully a gun in their home for protection, or perhaps for hunting? Or do you think it’s because of a finite group of criminals who have rap sheets as long as King Kong’s arm?”

Dr. Ranney, who is an expert in gun violence and co-founded the American Foundation for Firearm Injury Reduction in Medicine (AFFIRM) at the Aspen Institute, gave Senator Kennedy an answer he did not appear to appreciate.

“So Mississippi, Louisiana, and Missouri actually have higher firearm death rates. Obviously, there’s –” Dr. Ranney replied before Kennedy interrupted her.

“What about Chicago?” the Senator from Louisiana asked, trying to move back to his focus on the Windy City.

“So I don’t live in Chicago. It’s not my primary area of research,” Ranney replied.

“You don’t have an opinion on that?” Kennedy continued.

“I think there’s easy access to firearms combined with environmental conditions, lack of great education. There have actually been studies showing that when you green vacant lots and repair abandoned buildings in urban neighborhoods, you see decreases in gunshots and violence as well as in stress and depression in the neighborhoods around them,” said Ranney, who has also served as a professor of emergency medicine and as an ER physician.

“No disrespect, doc,” Kennedy replied, not looking at Dr. Ranney, “but that sounds a lot like word salad to me.”

Despite Senator Kennedy’s focus on Chicago, that city doesn’t even make list of the top 15 most dangerous cities in America. According to a report in Forbes, they are (in ranked order):

St. Louis, Missouri

Birmingham, Alabama

Baltimore, Maryland

Memphis, Tennessee

Detroit, Michigan

Cleveland, Ohio

New Orleans, Louisiana

Shreveport, Louisiana

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Little Rock, Arkansas

Oakland, California

Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Kansas City, Missouri

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Richmond, Virginia

Forbes also listed the 5 Worst Cities for Mass Shootings in the US. Chicago is not on that list either:

Boulder, Colorado

San Jose, California

Indianapolis, Indiana

Atlanta, Georgia

Colorado Springs, Colorado

“Cities and states run by Republicans do not actually have less crime,” The New York Times reported in August. “Consider DeSantis’s state, Florida. Its homicide rate was roughly 50 percent higher than New York’s in 2021. Florida’s two most populous cities, Jacksonville and Miami, each had a homicide rate more than double New York City’s last year, even though both had Republican mayors.”

Watch Senator Kennedy below or at this link.

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felony convictions 3% and

an 5 23

the verdict is in after several days of deliberation by the jury in the long federal trial against the Proud Boys.

According to Politico's Kyle Cheney, the verdict is a mixed bag for the men, but one main part is that the jury believed that the government prosecutors proved seditious conspiracy for all but recruit Dominic Pezzola. All of the men were guilty of obstruction of Congress, however.

Lawfare editor Roger Parloff has been in the courtroom every day, live-tweeting his observations at key moments in the trial. Throughout deliberations, he detailed the requests from the jury, giving the public an insight into the thoughts behind those working toward the verdict.

The trial began Jan. 12 and took 62 days before the deliberations began. Parloff explained that the 10-count indictment carries a 20-year maximum prison term if the five men are on trial. They're made up of four Proud Boys leaders and one soldier.

"The top count is seditious conspiracy, which carries a 20-year maximum prison term," explained Parloff. "Prosecutors allege that the defendants conspired 'to oppose by force the authority of the government of the United States' or 'by force to prevent, hinder or delay the execution of any law of the United States.' Specifically, their alleged goal was to 'oppose the lawful transfer of presidential power by force.'"

Those five men areEthan Nordean, a leader on the ground;podcaster and Alex Jones favorite Joe Biggs, Zachary Rehl, who led the Pennsylvania chapter, and Enrique Tarrio, the national chair and leader on Jan. 6. The "soldier" was recruit Dominic Pezzola.

The main cooperating Proud Boy was Matthew Greene, who detailed the movements of the men both before and during the assault on the Capitol.

According to the Lawfare write-up, Parloff thinks that the government prosecutors have adequately proven their case.

they've argued it wasn't necessary for the Proud Boys to have a detailed plan to prove they conspired together to bring down the government.

"As Department of Justice attorney Conor Mulroe caustically put it at one point, the charge is not seditious plan; the charge is seditious conspiracy. And as long as there is an agreement—even an unspoken and implicit one—to achieve an unlawful objective, that’s sufficient," he said. "The shared objective, the government alleges, was the goal of stopping the certification of the election by any means necessary, up to and including force. The jury instructions, approved by U.S. District Judge Timothy J. Kelly of the District of Columbia, seem to accommodate the government’s theory."

At one point in the trial, the Proud Boys said that they**wanted to call Donald Trump to testify. Biggs announced in Feb. Trump would swoop in to save them. It never happened. Since then, however, tarrio has borrowed language from Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), saying that the jailed militants were the victims of President Joe Biden's weaponization of government.The arrests of the men happened before Biden was sworn in. In fact, their trial also began before Biden was sworn in, indicating that the previous GOP-led Justice Department was behind the prosecutions of the militia members.

Now Tarrio blames Trump, saying that he's going to end up taking the fall for the former president.

“It was Donald Trump’s words. It was his motivation. It was his anger that caused what occurred on January 6th in your amazing and beautiful city,” said Nayib Hassan, a lawyer for Tarrio during closing arguments, according to Politico

---

12 22

1 min on ---? 17 counts?

https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/fox-news-neglected-cover-trump-organizations-multiple-convictions-tax-fraud-0

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no lnx

https://www.alternet.org/news-politics/steve-bannon-2659601759/

the U.S. Dept. of Justice has announced a twelve-count indictment charging Ho Wan Kwok with crimes including wire fraud, securities fraud, bank fraud, and money laundering in what it alleges is a more than “$1 Billion Dollar Fraud Conspiracy.” Kwok, who uses numerous alias including Guo Wengui, was arrested Wednesday morning.

Last year The Daily Beast referred to Kwok as Steve Bannon’s “Sugar Daddy,” reporting the Chinese businessman would “have to pay massive contempt fines for moving the yacht where federal agents busted Steve Bannon in 2020.”

“The financier famed for bankrolling some of Steve Bannon’s best-known ventures, as well as the far-right strategist’s jet-setting lifestyle, is in deep trouble for steering a $28 million yacht—the same boat where federal agents arrested Bannon in 2020—out of American waters.”

Bannon is Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign chairman, who later became his White House Chief Strategist, and was named Senior Counselor to the President. After his exit from the Trump White House Bannon returned to the far-right wing website Breitbart, which he infamously once bragged was “the platform for the alt-right.” Today, Bannon runs the far-right extremist podcast, Bannon’s War Room.

The New Yorker last year published an article on Kwok titled, “How a Tycoon Linked to Chinese Intelligence Became a Darling of Trump Republicans.” It mentions Bannon 38 times.

READ MORE: George Santos: Drag Queen, Congressman, Yacht Broker – FBI Investigating Role in $19 Million Sale Between Donors

According to The Daily Beast, that best-known venture is the “supposed consulate for the ‘New Federal State of China,’ declared by ex-White House strategist Stephen Bannon and his flamboyant Chinese patron, fugitive businessman Guo Wengui,” also known as Ho Wan Kwok.

“Since 2017,” The Daily Beast adds, Kwok “has lived in luxury, setting up residence in a $68 million Central Park penthouse and underwriting numerous right-wing projects, from nonprofits with Bannon to dodgy media operations to bogus COVID-19 studies to would-be Twitter competitor GETTR.”

ABC News adds that “Bannon is currently being prosecuted by the Manhattan district attorney for defrauding donors to the We Build the Wall online fundraising campaign.”

Last year NewsNation profiled Kwok in a segment about “Billionaires pulling the strings in US elections.”

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---

https://www.dallasnews.com/news/politics/2022/08/26/former-texas-rep-steve-stockmans-arrest-surfaces-as-feds-build-case-against-trump-ally/

paywall

no lnx

Politics

Former Texas Rep. Steve Stockman’s arrest surfaces as feds build case against Trump ally

Attorneys building a case against Barrack argue Stockman’s arrest is relevant.

U.S. Rep. Steve Stockman (standing) of Friendswood and musician Ted Nugent, a National Rifle...

By Emily Caldwell

Aug 26, 2022

WASHINGTON — The arrest timeline of former Houston-area Republican U.S. Rep. Steve Stockman, convicted in 2018 in a complex corruption scheme that involved misusing charitable funds, may be used as evidence by U.S. attorneys building a case against Trump allyTom Barrack.

Barrack, a private equity investor and close friend of former President Donald Trump, will go on trial with a business associate in September on charges ofillegally lobbying Trump on behalf of the United Arab Emirates.

In a brief submitted before Barrack’s trial, attorneys said they intend to introduce evidence showing that Barrack and his associate were directed, by the UAE, to meet with and advocate for the appointment of Stockman to the position of U.S. ambassador to the UAE, but were unable to because of Stockman’s arrest on March 16, 2017.

The attorneys argued that Stockman’s “arrest is relevant because it explains why the Defendants were not able to fulfill this request, despite agreeing to do so.”

“Without this information, the jury may mistakenly conclude that the Defendants willingly refused to follow through on the UAE’s direction, when, in fact, circumstances beyond their control deprived them of the opportunity to do so,” the attorneys wrote.

Though Stockman’s name has been redacted from the public brief, text describing him as a former congressman and his arrest date are clearly visible, and Stockman had, in the weeks before his arrest, indicated he was highly interested in securing the UAE ambassador position.

The 74-year-old Barrack, who was chairman of Trump’s 2017 inaugural fund, and his associate Matthew Grimes, 27, were arrested in July.

Both men have pleaded not guilty to charges of secretly advancing the UAE’s interests, at the direction of senior UAE officials, by influencing Trump’s 2016 campaign foreign policy positions and U.S. government stances during the first half of Trump’s presidency.

In 2018, Stockman was convicted in federal court of masterminding a wide-ranging fraud scheme, using significant charitable donations from big-shot conservative donors to cover campaign debts and personal expenses. He was found guilty of all but one of the 24 counts brought against him, including fraud, money laundering and violating federal election law.

In late 2020, Trump commuted the remainder of Stockman’s 10-year prison sentence, prompting his release from the Federal Correctional Institution, a low-security facility in Beaumont. His family had been worried about his health after he contracted COVID-19 while incarcerated.

Emily Caldwell

Emily Caldwell. Emily Caldwell is covering politics in Washington for The Dallas Morning News. She is from College Station, Texas, and graduated from The University of Texas at Austin in 2021 with degrees in journalism and Latin American studies. She spent a number of years at The Daily Texan, UT's student newspaper, and was the editor-in-chief her senior year.

emily.caldwell@dallasnews.com

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55 crimes

https://www.alternet.org/2022/09/watchdog-staggering-donald-trump-accusations/

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https://www.joemygod.com/2022/09/oath-keepers-lawyer-arrested-on-conspiracy-charges/

Washington Post reports:

An attorney for the Oath Keepers who was with the group’s founder, Stewart Rhodes, outside the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, was arrested Thursday in Texas on charges related to the attack on Congress, federal prosecutors announced.

Kellye SoRelle, 43, was arrested in Junction, Tex., and is scheduled to make an initial appearance Thursday afternoon before a federal judge in Austin, according to the U.S. attorney’s office for Washington.

SoRelle was charged in an indictment returned Wednesday on four counts — conspiracy, obstruction of a federal proceeding, tampering with documents and misdemeanor trespassing in a restricted building or grounds — prosecutors said.

Read the full article. SoRelle last appeared on JMG in January 2022 when she declared herself to be the new leader of the Oath Keepers after the arrest of Stewart Rhodes. SoRelle is a failed candidate for the Texas House, finishing third in the 2020 GOP primary.

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see 13 anno

https://www.alternet.org/2022/03/trump-investigations/

State and federal investigators across the country are still working to untangle Donald Trump's web of improprieties, pursuing a multitude of investigations that offer differing levels of promise in the legal arena. Currently, Trump faces nineteen active inquiries, although much of his focus has been devoted to just four. Let's take a deeper look at the four cases he has strenuously worked to extinguish at every turn.

In Manhattan, one probe is showing signs of letting up, all but dashing hopes that the president and many of his business associates will face criminal charges for their work in the Trump Organization. Still, the president is struggling to fend off a civil suit led by New York's attorney general. He also remains under state and federal scrutiny over his role in fomenting the January 6 Capitol riot and attempting to overturn the 2020 presidential election.

Last month, Salon provided a status update on all of these probes, but since then, many have developed in ways that bring greater clarity to the possible extent of Trump's corruption.

Washington, D.C.

Let's start with the January 6 select committee, which on Wednesday publicly declared, for the first time ever, that it has enough evidence to believe that Trump violated multiple election laws in his crusade to reverse in the 2020 election.

"The Select Committee also has a good-faith basis for concluding that the President and members of his Campaign engaged in a criminal conspiracy to defraud the United States," the panel wrote in Wednesday court filing.

The declaration is by far the closest that the committee has come to laying out potential charges against the former president, putting all the more pressure on U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, who is actually defending Trump in several lawsuits, to take up the case.

The committee's court filing is largely a product of evidence gathered around ex-Trump legal advisor John Eastman, now notorious for concocting a specious scheme to have former Vice President Mike Pence reject certain electoral votes on the basis of Trump's election fraud claims. Perhaps the most damning piece of evidence in the filing, according to CNN, is a January 2021 email exchange between Eastman and Greg Jacob, then a top lawyer for Pence, who aggressively pushed back on Eastman's plan, arguing that it had no basis in constitutional law.

"I have run down every legal trail placed before me to its conclusion, and I respectfully conclude that as a legal framework, it is a results-oriented position that you would never support if attempted by the opposition, and essentially entirely made up," Jacob wrote to Eastman at the time. "And thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege."

Eastman responded: "The 'siege' is because YOU and your boss did not do what was necessary to allow this to be aired in a public way so the American people can see for themselves what happened."

While the committee did recommend any charges, Norm Eisen, a senior fellow in governance studies at the Brookings Institution, told Salon that he believes the panel's recent filing portends poorly for Trump.

"I have taken the view – and I think this filing reinforces that view … that there's an adequate basis here for charging," Einstein said in an interview. "The evidence seems to be evolving in that direction. And this is another step in that direction."

Apart from Eastman, the committee also homed in a new coterie of Trump associates this week, subpoenaing six conservative lawyers who played key roles in Trump's failed campaign to reinstall himself as the president. Among them are Cleta Mitchell, a former Oklahoma state representative; former Kansas Attorney General Phillip Kline; Christina Bobb, a host on the pro-Trump One America News network; and three low-profile attorneys: Kenneth Chesebrom, Katherine Friess, and Kurt Olsen.

"The six individuals we've subpoenaed today all have knowledge related to those matters and will help the Select Committee better understand all the various strategies employed to potentially affect the outcome of the election," select committee Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Mo, said on Tuesday. "We expect these witnesses to join the hundreds who have cooperated with the Select Committee as we work to provide the American people with answers about the violence of January 6th and its causes."

According to the panel's findings, Mitchell was on a call with Trump when he pressured the Georgia secretary of state to "find" just enough votes in Fulton County to tip the election in his favor. Kline, meanwhile, helped convene a meeting between the former president and 300 state legislators "in an attempt to disseminate purported evidence of election fraud," according to The New York Times. Friess, Chesebro, and Olsen allegedly liaised in similar capacities, drafting directives to have federal agencies seize voting machines and ginning up spurious legal theories about how the Electoral College could be reshuffled in Trump's favor.

Just this past quarter, the select panel reportedly spent $1.6 million dollars on its sweeping investigation, according to ABC News, indicating that the probe's activities are ramping up, with nearly 600 interviews and over 75 subpoenas. Still, the panel remains bedeviled by Trump's most uncooperative associates.

Last week, former Trump advisor Kimberly Guilfoyle abruptly ended a deposition with the committee midway through due to alleged ambiguity around the meeting's ground rules, as CBS News reported.

"Kim balked and said this isn't my understanding," one person familiar with the exchange told the outlet. Another person described Guilfoyle as "outraged" since she apparently thought the meeting would not amount to a formal deposition.

And this week, Roger Stone, Trump's former campaign advisor, filed a lawsuit against the panel in a move to block them from gaining access to his text and phone call logs. Stone is one of at least nineteen potential witnesses using the courts to stonewall the select committee's subpoenas, according to the Times.

Meanwhile, Ivanka Trump, the former president's daughter, is reportedly in talks with the committee, which has yet to issue her a subpoena, over the possibility of sitting down to provide testimony, according to the Times. Ex-Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani, who may be verging on bankruptcy, is reportedly in a similar position, weighing whether to participate in an informal interview or a deposition.

Albany, New York

As Trump and his associates remain embroiled in an escalating probe on Capitol Hill, they are also facing an aggressive civil inquiry in Albany, New York, where the state's attorney general, Letitia James, is uncovering more evidence around possible fraud that ran rampant within the Trump Organization.

Last month, New York Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron ruled that Trump, Donald Trump, Jr., and Ivanka Trump must agree to answer James' questions under oath, a significant victory for James' office, which had issued subpoenas to all three of them back in December and January. James' probe is specifically interested in the family business' accounting practices, which may have allowed the former president to overvalue and undervalue certain assets for tax, insurance, and lending reasons.

During Engoron's virtual hearing, the Times reported, Trump's lawyers reportedly grew so furious with the proceeding that the judge and his clerk had to call time-outs on several occasions, often "raising their hands in the shape of a T."

Trump, for his part, has repeatedly tarred James' probe as being politically biased. But Engoron said that the former president's claims "completely misses the mark," noting that the attorney general has found "copious evidence of possible financial fraud."

On Friday, Trump, who has appealed the ruling, successfully delayed the case by several months, pushing his appeals hearing to May.

Engoron's ruling came about a week after Trump's accounting firm, Mazars USA, claimed that ten years' worth of the Trump Organization's financial statements could not be relied upon.

"While we have not concluded that the various financial statements, as a whole, contain material discrepancies, based upon the totality of the circumstances, we believe our advice to you to no longer rely upon those financial statements is appropriate," the company wrote.

Further, Mazars has dropped the former president as a client, citing a "conflict of interest."

Manhattan, New York

Though James' probe is no doubt ramping up, Trump appears to be weaseling his way out of a parallel criminal probe led by newly-elected Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.

Bragg, who is also looking into the Trump Organization's finances, recently replaced former Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr., who last July formally indicted the Trump Organization as well Allen Weisselberg, the company's ex-chief financial officer, for allegedly running a 15-year employee tax evasion scheme.

Many saw that indictment as an indication that the case was progressing swiftly. But last week, two of Bragg's prosecutors abruptly resigned from their roles in the investigation, casting an unexpected pall over the case's general outlook.

According to the Times, their resignation came on the heels of a month-long pause in presenting evidence to a grand jury, the second one to be impaneled in the case. The prosecutors, Carey R. Dunne and Mark F. Pomerantz, reportedly held strong doubts about the case under Bragg, who allegedly took weeks to read their memos and often delayed meetings with both prosecutors despite the jury's looming expiration date in April, according to the Post. Bragg also reportedly raised doubts about pursuing Trump himself.

Last month, a spokesperson for Bragg disputed any speculation that the district attorney is not interested in the case, but has declined to provide any more details.

"We are grateful for their service," Bragg's spokeswoman, Danielle Filson, said of Dunne and Pomerantz. She added that the probe remains "ongoing."

Atlanta, Georgia

Trump's civil and criminal probes in New York will likely be a long shot. But the former president is also facing another election probe in Atlanta, Georgia, which some commentators have said is the dark horse amongst all of the investigations.

The probe, led by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, stems from a call made by Donald Trump in January 2021 to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. During the call, first leaked by the Post, the former president asked the state official to "find" just enough votes cast in Fulton County to tip the 2020 election in his favor. That request was widely seen as an attempt to pressure Raffensperger into breaking multiple federal laws by depriving his own state of a free and fair election. (In the end, Raffensperbger refused to take Trumps' request.)

Last February, Willis opened a formal inquiry into the call, calling it a matter of "high priority."

In her letter at the time, she wrote that the probe "includes, but is not limited to, potential violations of Georgia law prohibiting the solicitation of election fraud, the making of false statements to state and local government bodies, conspiracy, racketeering, violation of oath of office and any involvement in violence or threats related to the election's administration."

Since then, Willis has convened a special grand jury, and has said that the investigation will heat up over the summer.

"There's a possibility that after two months we'll have all the information we need to press forward," she told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution last month. "There's a possibility that, after week one, that some appellate issue will come and there's a halt," Willis told the Georgia newspaper."

Willis added: "But what I do think is within a year we will have all the information that we need."

The District attorney has also said that Trump will not be protected by presidential immunity, even if the call was made during his presidency.

It remains unclear whether Willis will ultimately charge Trump, though Eisen, the senior fellow at Brookings, said that hers is a "powerful potential case."

"We already have the most compelling evidence there, which is the tape of the Raffensperger call," he said, referring to his October analysis on the matter. "Georgia law…does not allow a candidate who has lost an election to say, 'Can you just find 11,780 votes that do not exist?' Nor does it permit you to use the weight of office and the kinds of veiled and not-so-veiled threats of coercion that can be heard on that tape to attempt to eliminate the legitimate outcome of an election."

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https://www.alternet.org/2022/02/marco-rubio/

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https://www.alternet.org/2022/02/george-conway-donald-trump/

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https://www.alternet.org/2022/01/oath-keepers/

U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) is working to detain Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes following the release of text messages he allegedly sent that detailed his intentions for Jan. 6.

As Rhodes prepares for trial in connection with the sedition conspiracy case alleging that he and members of the far-right extremist organization conspired to halt the certification of President Joe Biden's victory. On Thursday, January 20, lawyers for the federal government released a memo in district court with details about the evidence in the case and Rhodes alleged involvement.

“The weight of the evidence of Rhodes’s dangerousness is immense,” the lawyers said in their memo. Text messages Rhodes sent are at the center of the investigation.

According to Rolling Stone, Rhodes “'spearheaded' the conspiracy to block the peaceful transfer of power." The government also wrote that Rhodes needs to be detained to 'protect the community, ensure his return to court, and safeguard the integrity of evidence and the proceedings.'”

"The filing offers choice new details, including a text Rhodes allegedly sent a co-conspirator on Christmas Day 2020, discussing their plan to intimidate Congress on Trump’s behalf during the proceedings on Jan. 6: 'The only chance we/he has is if we scare the shit out of them,” Rhodes wrote, “and convince them it will be torches and pitchforks time if they don’t do the right thing.'”

Lawyers also highlighted messages that detailed Rhodes' promotion of violence. “From November 2020 through January 2021,” it states, “Rhodes regularly used the terms ‘civil war’ and ‘revolution’ to describe the necessary path forward.”

The latest report follows the Justice Department's press release on Jan. 13 detailing the charges being brought against the Oath Keepers. According to court documents, Rhodes, a resident of Grandbury, Texas, and Edward Vallejo, of Phoenix, Ariz., are facing charges in connection with the events leading up to the Capitol insurrection.

In addition to Rhodes and Vallejo, the nine other members of the far-right group include: "Thomas Caldwell, 67, of Berryville, Virginia; Joseph Hackett, 51, of Sarasota, Florida; Kenneth Harrelson, 41, of Titusville, Florida; Joshua James, 34, of Arab, Alabama; Kelly Meggs, 52, of Dunnellon, Florida; Roberto Minuta, 37, of Prosper, Texas ; David Moerschel, 44, of Punta Gorda, Florida; Brian Ulrich, 44, of Guyton, Georgia, and Jessica Watkins, 39, of Woodstock, Ohio. In addition to the earlier charges filed against them, they now face additional counts for seditious conspiracy and other offenses."

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2 teams, one looking for peolsi] said cvil war inevitable, bought $10K arms, cache QRF

A right-wing talking point about Jan. 6 just completely collapsed after indictment of the Oath Keepers

https://www.alternet.org/2022/01/oath-keepers-sedition/

An Oath Keepers billboard in Pine River, Minnesota in July 2015, Wikimedia Commons minuteman]

Alex Henderson January 13, 2022

Stewart Rhodes, founder of the far-right militia group the Oath Keepers, has been charged with seditious conspiracyas part of the U.S. Department of Justice’s probe of the January 6, 2021 insurrection. Washington Post reporters Spencer S. Hsu and Devlin Barrett have described the 56-year-old Rhodes as “the most high-profile person charged in the investigation so far.” And according to Never Trump conservative Amanda Carpenter, Rhodes’ arrest explodes a MAGA talking about the violence that occurred during the Capitol riot.

Ten others were charged along with Rhodes.

Carpenter, who is known for her commentary on CNN and her articles for The Bulwark, notes that “Trump defenders” have been claiming that the January 6, 2021 violence wasn’t an insurrection “because people like Rhodes had not been charged yet.”

“That talking point is out the window now,” Carpenter emphasized in a Twitter thread. “Sedition is being charged.”

READ: One sentence from the Supreme Court's ruling against an OSHA vaccine rule reveals its upside-down logic]

Carpenter, who once served as communications director for Sen. Ted Cruz but now criticizes him for being a Trump apologist, observed:

The Washington Post’s Dave Weigel also believes that Rhodes’ arrest totally discredits a flawed MAGA talking point. Weigel tweeted:

Fox News’ Brit Hume has argued, “Let's base our view on whether 1/6 was an ‘insurrection" on whether those arrested are charged with insurrection. So far, none has been.” And blogger Marcy Wheeler explained why Hume’s reasoning doesn’t hold up:

Christian Vanderbrouk likewise noted that the lack of sedition charges had been a popular right-wing, Jan. 6 apologist talking point:

Here are some more reactions to Rhodes’ arrest for seditious conspiracy:[twt]

FROM YOUR SITE ARTICLES

'I fear the next election cycle': Former Oath Keepers spokesman ... ›

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