donald jr

see trump kids

SEE 2 bak general in the meme wars, tp kirk pal

see arab tag mbs mbz

see klepto kaki

120 bak

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// trump tower mtg

Other meetings

Gulf states emissary

In August 2016, Donald Trump Jr. had a meeting with an emissary representing Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman and Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the de facto ruler of the United Arab Emirates. The envoy offered help to the Trump presidential campaign.^[107] The meeting included Lebanese-American businessman George Nader, Joel Zamel, an Israeli specialist in social media manipulation, and American businessman Erik Prince.^{[108][107][109][110}]

Los Angeles based Emirati real-estate developer, Rashid al-Malik, who is close to Prince Mohammed and one of Trump's aides, is being investigated for running an illegal influence scheme. A whistle-blower has also accused the UAE of using cyberespionage techniques from former American operatives to spy on US citizens.^[111]

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Right-wing media figures exploit anti-immigrant riots in Ireland to demonize migrants and Muslims, and attack legal immigration

Steve Bannon, Tucker Carlson, and others pushed the “great replacement” conspiracy theory and falsely portrayed immigrants as threats to public safety

WRITTEN BY JOHN KNEFEL

RESEARCH CONTRIBUTIONS FROM JACINA HOLLINS-BORGES, SOPHIE LAWTON & JACK WHEATLEY

PUBLISHED 11/30/23

Right-wing media figures reacted to anti-immigrant riots in Ireland by demonizing Muslims, falsely accusing migrants of being a risk to public safety and attacking the very idea of legal immigration. Their response is an escalation of the xenophobic rhetoric that right-wing media frequently direct at unauthorized migration, and is a clear attempt to push for policies that would drastically reduce legal immigration levels.

The riots in Dublin were sparked after early reports on November 23 that an Irish citizen who allegedly stabbed five people, including three children, was believed to have been born abroad — thus highlighting the suspect’s perceived foreignness. Subsequent reporting found that although the alleged attacker was apparently born in Algeria, he has lived in Ireland for at least 20 years, according to Irish authorities. Numerous studies have found that increased levels of immigration do not cause a rise in crime rates either in the United States or European countries.

This manufactured panic and demonization of a marginalized group echoes a similar episode from last week, when Fox News invented a terrorism scare over a car crash at the U.S.-Canada border and used the nonexistent plot to paint Muslims, Arabs, Palestinians, and their supporters as the culprits, only to retract its reporting hours later. Anti-Muslim hate incidents have also skyrocketed during Israel’s bombardment and invasion of the Gaza Strip after Hamas’ attack on October 7.

Former Trump adviser Steve Bannon exploited the Dublin attack to spread his anti-immigrant message across multiple platforms, including his own War Room podcast as well as Tucker Carlson’s show on X (formerly Twitter) and Donald Trump Jr.’s streaming show on Rumble, a far-right competitor to YouTube. In several of these segments, Bannon and his interlocutors endorsed versions of the racist “great replacement” conspiracy theory, which holds that liberal elites are attempting to change the demographics of white-majority countries through mass migration from the Global South to maintain political and economic dominance.

Prior to Fox News’ firing of Carlson, he was the network’s — and perhaps the entire country’s — most visible proponent of the great replacement theory. During Bannon’s appearance on Carlson’s show on November 27, both figures pushed openly nativist bigotry alongside the racist conspiracy theory.

Bannon referred to migrants to the United States and Ireland as “alien invaders,” adding that Irish politicians have “sold out the sovereignty of the Irish” and that the riots were “natural blowback.”

“The Irish government is trying to replace the population of Ireland with people from the Third World, obviously,” Carlson responded. “But why? What's the justification for that?”

“You talk about the great replacement theory and people are — oh, you know, people get very upset when you talk about it, but just look at the math,” Bannon answered.

“It’s not a theory,” Carlson interjected.

“This has happened across Europe,” Bannon continued. “It's happened in Germany.”

“In 100 years, there'll be a minority of Irish people in Ireland,” Carlson said. “That's a big change, and it's on purpose.”

Later in their conversation, Bannon endorsed mass deportations, saying: “I think illegal alien invaders are coming because they've gamed the asylum system. My belief is those people have to go home. They have to be returned, they have to leave our country or we're not going to have a country.”

Later that day, Bannon appeared on Donald Trump Jr.’s Triggered to celebrate Hungary’s far-right authoritarian leader Viktor Orbán and Irish mixed martial arts fighter Connor McGregor, who had come under police investigation following anti-migrant social media posts.

Video

CitationFrom the November 27, 2023, edition of Triggered, streamed on Rumble

Former President Donald Trump fought “for the sovereignty, not just of nation-states, but the sovereignty of the individual citizens in those nation-states,” Bannon said. “I think it's inspired Orban in Hungary. I think McGregor in Ireland standing up the other day was inspired by Donald Trump.”

The discussion then turned to the knife attack in Dublin, with the host claiming Arab and Muslim cultures celebrate anti-social violence.

“In their culture, they can stab people in the streets. It's fine. We must allow them to do that to our children,” Trump Jr. facetiously said, adding, “I mean, the government is taking an actively hostile position against their citizens in favor of, like, seemingly savages in many cases.”

Bannon returned to the subject the next day on his War Room podcast, calling for the “deportation of the 9 million — at least 9 million to 10 million — illegal alien invaders coming in the Biden regime.”

“What happened in Ireland — it's all coming here, folks,” Bannon warned ominously. “It’s all coming here.”

His guest the following hour was conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, who has been increasingly embraced by right-wing media in recent years. Jones falsely claimed that “illegal aliens or migrants” are responsible for “the majority of muggings, rape, and murder in every European country."

That evening, Bannon discussed the violence in Ireland in another episode of War Room, where his guest, author Michael Walsh, again pushed the great replacement conspiracy theory.

“This was the spark that set off what’s become a powder keg across the country, which is the notion — widely held among the Irish people — that they’re being replaced by foreigners,” Walsh said. He added that the Irish government “is committed to this program of quiet replacement and has demonized what we would have called Irish patriots,” referring to the far-right mobs.

Several other right-wing media figures also used the riots to spread anti-migrant bigotry.

BlazeTV’s Steve Deace defended the mob, arguing that “the Irish Proud Boy wannabes” are “not the villain here,” suggesting they “have had enough” and feel like “I’ve already lost my culture to Islam. Now our daughters are getting raped and assaulted” by the “rape-fugees we brought in.”
“Concerned citizens in Dublin, Ireland look on helplessly as busloads of undocumented migrants are brought into their community,” anti-LGBTQ social media account Libs of Tik Tok posted on X (formerly Twitter).
Salem Media’s Charlie Kirk questioned “how Ireland allowed so many foreigners and Third-Worlders into the beautiful country of Ireland?"
Self-described “proud Islamophobe” Laura Loomer blamed the attack on a “Muslim migrant."

"Across the West, the status quo has become intolerable,” Loomer added. “The endless waves of immigrants, the devastation of our culture, and the crackdown against anyone who dares to stand against it has all become too much to bear.”

“There can be no doubt that the average person is, at last, awake to the gravity of the situation, and their anger is brewing,” Loomer continued. “White people, in particular, have taken all of this on the chin for the last few decades, but that appears to be coming to an end.”

Former Trump lawyer Jenna Ellis argued that regardless of the suspect’s citizenship status, he “was an immigrant nonetheless,” claiming the incident was further evidence that “Europe is at the precipice of falling."

Following the riots, some observers of the far right argued that anti-immigrant sentiment had become a major issue in Ireland in recent years, and that politicians needed to do more to address the rising xenophobia. Right-wing media figures are determined to stand in the way.

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4 23

https://www.alternet.org/Bank/ivanka-trump-splits-from-don-jr-and-eric-as-250-million-fraud-trial-looms-2659915220/

ref no lnx

https://www.thedailybeast.com/even-donald-trump-cant-make-sense-of-his-own-dark-money-maze

[Pay Dirt is a weekly foray into the pigpen of political funding. Subscribe here to get it in your inbox every Thursday.

An inquiry from the feds has thrown new light on the murky relationships between a dozen Trump-aligned groups. And the problem traces back, as do so many other problems in Trumpworld, to a familiar name: former top aide Corey Lewandowski.

When Lewandowski got himself fired from a pro-Trump super PAC last fall—after allegedly sexually assaulting a big donor—the group brought in a clean-up crew. When Lewandowski refused to step down, they opened up a new super PAC without him.

That super PAC—the preposterously titled “Make America Great Again, Again!”—was the 12th in a sprawling labyrinth of political groups and nonprofitsthat comprise the Trump fundraising network. And in terms of the incestuous confusion, it may have been the one that finally tipped the scales; federal election officials now want to know why some of the super PAC’s payments aren’t being properly reported.

[Trump’s Dark-Money Machine Gets a Makeover—and New Owners

BILL OF GOODS

Roger Sollenberger]

Brendan Fischer, deputy executive director of good government group Documented, said the extent of Trump’s network is unparalleled.

“It is worth emphasizing: All of this is totally unprecedented for a former president,” Fischer told The Daily Beast. “Even if Trump kept it simple, and just had one hard money PAC, a single super PAC, and a pair of 501(c)(3)/501(c)(4) nonprofits, there would be no parallel with any former president in American history.”

Anyone who’s taken even the quickest of peeks at Trump’s personal financial disclosures would recognize the pattern.

His first such disclosure revealed positions with more than 500 entities, nearly 400 of which used his name or initials. And Trump has “organized” the mess in a stultifying Russian-nesting-doll structure—companies within companies within companies. Frequently, one company will be held under multiple Trump companies at the same time, each with stakes in still other Trump companies.

This isn’t an accident. The structure gave the Trump Organization an enormous amount of financial flexibility, while making it difficult to follow the billions of dollars that Trump, his family, and his accountants move across the organization.

When Trump hauled his private life into politics, he brought this practice with him, too.

The full Trump-aligned apparatus counts a dozen separate political committees and dark money organizations. Almost all of them share one of three names.

Here they are:

Make America Great Again PAC (converted from the old Trump campaign)

Make America Great Again Action (super PAC)

Make America Great Again, Again! (super PAC)

Trump Make America Great Again (small-dollar joint fundraising committee)

Make America Great Again Policies Inc (a 501(c)(4) nonprofit)

America First Policy Institute (a 501(c)(3) nonprofit)

America First Works (formerly America First Policies; a 501(c)(4) nonprofit)

America First Legal Foundation (a 501(c)(3) nonprofit)

America First Action (super PAC)

Save America (leadership PAC)

Save America JFC (joint fundraising committee)

Trump Victory (high-dollar joint fundraising committee)

“Typically, former presidents focus on their presidential library, or start a charitable foundation, but Trump is staying in the political game and raising a staggering amount of cash,” Fischer said.

It is staggering.

Want a closer look inside the pockets of the government’s most powerful players? Subscribe to the Pay Dirt newsletter here for exclusive reporting every Thursday.

For instance, the Trump-endorsed America First Action super PAC pulled in nearly $200 million between 2017 and 2020. Its sister nonprofit, America First Works—formerly America First Policies—posted $51.3 million in revenue for 2020, doling out nearly $40 million in grants.

[Dark-Money Group Paid Former Trump AG to Ask for Pardons

BEG YOUR PARDON

Roger Sollenberger]

The TMAGA PAC raised $884 million for 2020, with Trump Victory tossing in another $336.3 million. Those guns mostly fell quiet last year, while Trump’s three new PACs built up a $124.4 million stash, with another $12.5 million in the MAGAA! super PAC.

And we won’t know how much those other dark money nonprofits raised in 2021, or what they did with it, until after the midterms.

As Trump and the Republican Party gear up for 2024, these groups are in various stages of repair. However, that also appears to have created some internal problems. In fact, according to a filing on Wednesday, even the Trump campaign admits it isn’t always able to follow its own money.

Fischer chalked up the mess to a few factors, including Trump’s will-he-or-won’t-he candidate status, his relationship with the Republican National Committee, and disarray among his associates.

But Brett Kappel, a specialist in campaign finance and nonprofit law at Harmon Curran, perceived something more designed.

“The central lesson of Watergate is ‘Follow the money,’” Kappel told The Daily Beast. “And this byzantine structure of different types of legal entities—which are subject to different fundraising restrictions and file different reports with different agencies according to different filing schedules—appears to be designed to make that task as difficult as possible.”

To illustrate, these organizations can be divided into two groups: PACs and joint fundraising committees, and “dark money” nonprofits.

The PACS and joint fundraising committees are Trump’s political organizations. They disclose their finances to the Federal Election Commission. But they don’t all follow the same filing schedule, and, depending on what kind of committee they actually are, they can raise and transfer different amounts of money from different types of people and organizations.

[The GOP Dark Money Group Giving Big to White Supremacists

UNWORTHY CAUSES

Roger Sollenberger]

Of these groups, Save America leadership PAC is currently Trump’s main squeeze. Most of the money he raises goes there.The Save America JFC is a joint committee that splits donations between Save America and MAGA PAC, which used to be the Trump campaign. Weirdly, MAGA PAC doesn’t get much out of this joint arrangement—more than 90 percent of every contribution goes to the Save America PAC.

And the super PACs are, as mentioned above, something of a mess.

As for the “dark money” nonprofits, unlike the PACs, these groups file with the IRS. They don’t have to disclose their donors at all (hence “dark money”). They also only file once a year, and because those deadlines are so late, it can take nearly two years for a transaction to become visible to the public.

The IRS restricts their activities, too. Some groups have leeway to be political (the 501(c)(4) groups). Some must focus on social welfare (the 501(c)(3) groups). The Trump network has a healthy helping of both.

Sometimes, however, these PACs and nonprofits can overlap, even sharing employees and office space, like America First Action and America First Policies did during the Trump administration.[shuffle?]

And while they appear to be giving that another go, as the FEC found, it hasn’t been so clean this time.

Enter Lewandowski.

After Trump left the White House, the industriously sycophantic Lewandowski wormed his way back into his graces, winning the right to run the Make America Great Again Action super PAC. At the same time, he quietly created a Florida nonprofit, Make America Great Again Policies Inc.

But MAGA Policies didn’t appear to do anything—at all. There has been no reporting on any actual activity since it was created. Zero. It is a black box.

Then Lewandowski reportedly sexually assaulted a Trump donor and got himself booted from orbit. More experienced hands took over the new MAGAA! super PAC, led by former Florida attorney general Pam Bondi, and that also got complicated.

[Trump PAC Lavishing $37K a Month on Trump Tower Rent: WaPo

DONATIONS WELL SPENT

According to a new corporate filing in Florida, Bondi—who also happens to lead the massive America First Policy Institute nonprofit—also took over Lewandowski’s mysterious MAGA Policies nonprofit, adding former Trump administration officials Ric Grenelland Matt Whitaker, as well as Donald Trump Jr. paramour Kimberly Guilfoyle. All of those people are also on the new super PAC’s payroll.

But here’s the rub: The super PAC hasn’t been paying them directly. The nonprofit has, as part of a “cost share agreement.”

On Tuesday, the FEC sent the super PAC a letter saying that’s not cutting it. The group needs to explain exactly what they mean by “cost share agreement,” the letter said, because what they provided is not adequate.

Kappel said the FEC may be trying to figure out whether the two groups are “financially and operationally independent.” If the super PAC was found to be “connected” to the MAGA Policies nonprofit, he said, that meansit can only raise money from people tied to the nonprofit—and not from the general public. That would be a death blow, and the group would be forced to reorganize itself yet again.

Fischer said he wouldn’t be surprised to see more groups strategically shut down, like Trump Victory began doing last year.

“It might be more straightforward for Trump to shut down MAGA PAC,” he said, though he pointed out that MAGA PAC appears to own the campaign’s valuable supporter data, which might make it more cost-effective to retain for joint fundraising efforts.

But, Fischer pointed out, even though the constellation of Trump-aligned groups is basically unnavigable, it always could have been worse.

“Recall that Brad Parscale also started the ‘American Greatness’ super PAC in 2021, which never really got off the ground,” he said.

trump Jr. mocked for tweet claiming troops refusing vaccine will get 're-education'

David Badash The New Civil Rights Movement

August 26, 2021

**Donald Trump Jr.** is being mocked after retweeting a post from the far right wing website The Daily Caller that claims troops refusing the Military's mandatory coronavirus vaccination program will go through "re...

https://www.alternet.org/2021/04/trump-jr/

lie under oath inaug $

https://www.alternet.org/2020/11/a-far-right-radio-host-promoted-an-authoritarian-plan-to-steal-the-election-and-donald-trump-jr-signed-off-on-it/

trms? notes that gop not about ideas or even policy, just own the libs eg matt gaetz angling for some fox pundit talk radio gig before scandal? cruz and hawley trump mini-me's, trump kid general in meme war

literally red meat for the base: gubmint gonna take your guns, burgers, gasoline...

https://www.alternet.org/2021/04/how-larry-kudlow-set-off-a-right-wing-anti-biden-smear-campaign/

How Larry Kudlow set off a right-wing anti-Biden smear campaign

Jon Skolnik and Salon April 26, 2021

Fox News host and former economic Trump adviser Larry Kudlow set off something of a right-wing smear campaign over the weekend when he went on a tirade against President Joe Biden's nonexistent plan to force "plant-based beer" upon the American public, calling Biden an "ideological zealot" intent on scrapping America's most cherished tradition of meat-eating.

In a Fox News interview on Thursday, Kudlow erroneously attacked Biden for putting forth a climate plan that calls for the elimination of meat, eggs, and dairy from the American diet. "There's a study coming out of the University of Michigan which says that to meet the Biden Green New Deal targets, America has to…stop eating poultry and fish, seafood, eggs, dairy, and animal-based fats," he started. "Ok, got that? No burger on July 4. No steaks on the barbecue. I'm sure Middle America is just going to love that. Can you grill those Brussels sprouts?"

Kudlow, notably livid over the thought grilling vegetables –– let alone foreign ones –– continued to rail against Biden's new climate action plan.

"You can throw back a plant-based beer with your grilled Brussels sprouts and wave your American flag. Call it July 4th Green. Now, I'm making fun of this because I intend to make fun of it. This kind of thing is stupid. It comes from a bunch of ideological zealots who don't care one whit about America's well-being. Not one whit."

It should be noted that beer, generally made from water, grain, hops, and yeast, and barley malt, is already, in fact, plant-based. Furthermore, nothing in President Biden's plan so far calls for a prohibition on meat consumption. The original culprit of this misinformation, a Thursday Daily Mail article headlined "How Biden's climate plan could limit you to eat just one burger a MONTH," speculated that Biden intends on "cutting red meat consumption by 90% and animal products by 50%."

The article, quickly feasted upon by Kudlow and amplified Fox Newswithout the slightest fact-check, was then picked up by Republicans in government, including Texas GOP Gov. Greg Abbott, Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., who spread the lies to their voting bases.

"Joe Biden's climate plan includes cutting 90% of red meat from our diets by 2030. They want to limit us to about four pounds a year," tweeted Boebert. "Why doesn't Joe stay out of my kitchen?"

"Not gonna happen in Texas!" Gov. Abbott tweeted, with a screenshot of Kudlow's broadcast.

Greene, posting a picture of Biden eating a hamburger with others a table, echoed: "The Hamburglar. No burgers for thee, but just for me."

The misinformation also came into the good graces of Donald Trump Jr., who declared most proudly, "I'm pretty sure I ate 4 pounds of red meat yesterday. That's going to be a hard NO from me."

On Saturday, New York Times columnist Paul Krugman explained how Kudlow's remarks planted the seeds for a concerted misinformation campaign.

"If you read what Kudlow actually said,'' Krugman argued on Twitter, "he's cagey — doesn't say that Biden proposed this, only that some people say this is what would happen. But Fox viewers won't notice, which is the intention. This is what right-wing politics is down to.It's all false claims about evil liberals, which the base is expected to believe because it's primed to believe in liberal villainy. They're not even trying to engage on actual issues."

The White House has thus far released scant information about any formal plan to address emissions. According to the Washington Post, on Thursday, the President made vague remarks about investing in "American infrastructure and American innovation" in order to build "a critical infrastructure to produce and deploy clean technology."

The right's outrage was widely mocked online by the left, who were quick to point out that Biden's apparent political aversion to meat has no factual or historical basis at all. On Sunday, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., took a jab at his conservative colleagues . "Excited to be watching the Oscars with an ice cold plant-based beer," he tweeted, with a picture of himself holding a beer while watching the Oscars. "Thanks Joe Biden."

FROM YOUR SITE ARTICLES

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Trump Jr. says dad’s ‘next move’ is to ‘break up’ the FBI: ‘He has to get rid of these things’

David Edwards Raw Story

Donald Trump Jr. on Sunday called on his father to "break up" the FBI if he wins a second term.

During an interview on Fox News, host Maria Bartiromo asked the president's son what his father would do if the FBI does not

ref 2

no lnx

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/21/us/politics/andrew-weissmann-mueller.html

Mueller’s Team Should Have Done More to Investigate Trump-Russia Links, Top Aide Says

A new book by one of the special counsel’s top deputies, Andrew Weissmann, is the first inside account of the investigation.

“We could have done more,” Andrew Weissmann, who was one of the top aides in the special counsel’s office, writes in a new book.

By Charlie Savage

Sept. 21, 2020

WASHINGTON — The team led by Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel, failed to do everything it could to determine what happened in the 2016 election, shying away from steps like subpoenaing President Trump and scrutinizing his finances out of fear he would fire them, one of Mr. Mueller’s top lieutenants argued in the first insider account of the inquiry.

“Had we used all available tools to uncover the truth, undeterred by the onslaught of the president’s unique powers to undermine our efforts?” wrote the former prosecutor, Andrew Weissmann, in a new book, adding, “I know the hard answer to that simple question: We could have done more.”

The team took elaborate steps to protect its files of evidence from the risk that the Justice Department might destroy them if Mr. Trump fired them and worked to keep reporters and the public from learning what they were up to, Mr. Weissmann wrote in “Where Law Ends: Inside the Mueller Investigation,” which Random House will publish next week.

While he speaks reverently of Mr. Mueller, he also says his boss’s diffidence made him ill-suited for aspects of shepherding the politically charged investigation. He saw Mr. Mueller and his deputy, Aaron M. Zebley, as overly cautious.

Mr. Weissmann also defended against accusations by the president and his allies that he and other investigators were politically biased “angry Democrats”; Mr. Weissmann said his personal views had no bearing on the crimes that Russian operatives and Trump aides committed.

And he elevates particular details — for example, emphasizing that the same business account that sent hush payments to an adult film star who alleged an extramarital affair with Mr. Trump had also received “payments linked to a Russian oligarch.” The president has denied the affair; his former lawyer Michael D. Cohen controlled the account. Mr. Mueller transferred the Cohen matter to prosecutors in New York.

Previously a mafia and Enron prosecutor and then a lawyer at the F.B.I. for Mr. Mueller, who was the bureau’s director for 12 years, Mr. Weissmann ran one of three major units for the special counsel’s office. His “Team M” prosecuted Mr. Trump’s former campaign chairman Paul Manafort for numerous financial crimes. The goal was to flip him and learn whatever he knew about any Trump campaign links to Russia.

Mr. Manafort had worked for pro-Russian interests in Ukraine, and the investigation uncovered ties by his business partner, Konstantin V. Kilimnik, to Russian intelligence. The book builds toward investigators’ discovery that Mr. Manafort had shared internal campaign polling data with Mr. Kilimnik, who flew to the United States to meet with Mr. Manafort during the campaign, asking whether Mr. Trump would permit a peace plan for Russia to essentially take over all of eastern Ukraine.

But while admitting this much, Mr. Manafort — seeing the dangle of a potential pardon from Mr. Trump — refused to cooperate further. Investigators did not obtain any final puzzle pieces and lacked the evidence to charge anyone in the campaign with a criminal conspiracy involving Russia’s covert electoral assistance.

“It would seem to require significant audacity — or else, leverage — for another nation to even put such a request before a presidential candidate,” Mr. Weissmann wrote of Mr. Kilimnik’s request. “This made what we didn’t know, and still don’t know to this day, monumentally disconcerting: Namely, why would Trump ever agree to this? Why would Trump ever agree to this Russian proposal if the candidate were not getting something from Russia in return?”

Mr. Weissmann explained the significance of Mr. Manafort’s interactions with Mr. Kilimnik — also a major focus of a recent bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee report, which explicitly labeled Mr. Kilimnik a Russian intelligence agent — more clearly than the Mueller report did.

Mr. Mueller had strictly forbidden leaks, and the special counsel team took extraordinary care to protect the high-profile, high-stakes investigation, Mr. Weissmann wrote. They kept window blind slats tilted at an angle to keep out prying eyes, shutting out natural light. They concocted an “almost comically elaborate and surreal” plan to sneak in “through the many hidden arteries of the courthouse” to obtain a grand jury indictment without tipping off reporters.

And worried about the possibility that Mr. Trump would fire them and the Justice Department would then seal off or destroy their evidence, the Mueller team members packed their numerous applications to judges for search warrants with extensive, up-to-date details about their investigation — ensuring they backed up their work beyond the reach of the executive branch.

Ty Cobb, a lawyer for Mr. Trump, also privately promised to be a “canary in the coal mine” and provide a heads up if Mr. Trump was going to fire the special counsel team, according to Mr. Weissmann. In an email, Mr. Cobb wrote that he “never made the commitment” described by Mr. Weissmann.

The investigation played out against the backdrop of regular vilification of the Mueller team by Mr. Trump and his allies like Fox News’s Sean Hannity — who turned out to be in regular contact with Mr. Manafort cooking up a “smear campaign” over text messages. Mr. Weissmann, a major target, wrote that such “ad hominem” insinuations of bias appealed to emotion rather than reason.

“I am a registered Democrat,” he wrote. “Does this make Paul Manafort or any of the other 32 people our office charged any less guilty? Did Russia not attack our democracy and disrupt our election with its self-described online information warfare operation? Which facts that we alleged in our various indictments — and to which many of those we indicted, including Manafort, would plead guilty — did our attackers believe were invented as a result of our alleged bias as ‘angry Democrats?’”

Mr. Trump’s allies have recently pointed with alarm to documents showing that cellphones issued to Mr. Mueller’s team were erased during the investigation; Mr. Weissmann twice entered an incorrect passcode too often, triggering a security measure that erased his phone. In an interview, he portrayed the concerns as a “tempest in a teapot” and said his understanding was that all emails and other such data from phones were backed up. He called on the Justice Department to release information about the special counsel’s data backup system.

Mr. Weissmann also wrote that he is not “anti-Trump” but rather “pro the rule of law.” Still, the distinction is less than clear in a book that also portrays Mr. Trump as a liar and a dangerous demagogue trying “to peel the world around him away from the rule of law — away from reason itself — and mold it to accommodate his desire for unchecked power.”

Mr. Weissmann was equally scathing about Attorney General William P. Barr, calling him an enabler and likening his misleading letter last spring about the then-still-secret Mueller report as a betrayal and “gut punch.”

Mr. Weissmann also criticized colleagues, portraying the special counsel team as divided between aggressive investigators like him, the F.B.I. special agent Omer Meisel and the prosecutor Jeannie Rhee — who headed “Team R,” which investigated Russian issues other than those centered on Manafort — and far more risk-averse law enforcement officials like Mr. Zebley who pulled punches.

In one episode in 2017, the Mueller team issued subpoenas to Deutsche Bank for information about Mr. Manafort’s income in Ukraine. Deutsche Bank had also lent large sums to the Trump Organization, and the White House somehow found out about the still-secret subpoenas — though not their focus. The White House demanded to know what investigators were doing, andMr. Mueller authorized Mr. Zebley to tell the White House that they had not been seeking Mr. Trump’s financial information.

“At that point, any financial investigation of Trump was put on hold,” Mr. Weissmann writes. “That is, we backed down — the issue was simply too incendiary; the risk, too severe.”

The book provides many other examples of concessions large and small. Investigators did not try to question Mr. Trump’s daughter Ivanka — who had spoken in the lobby to a delegation of Russians who came to Trump Tower in June 2016 to meet with campaign leaders who had been promised that they were offering dirt on Hillary Clinton from the Russian government.

They “feared that hauling her in for an interview would play badly to the already antagonistic right-wing press — look how they’re roughing up the president’s daughter — and risk enraging Trump, provoking him to shut down the special counsel’s office once and for all,” he wrote.

Similarly, they did not subpoena the Trump Organization for emails about its efforts to develop a Trump-branded building in Moscow, which were active deep into the 2016 campaign.

And they did not immunize Mr. Trump’s son Donald Trump Jr., a step that would have prevented him from being able to invoke the Fifth Amendment to avoid testifying about matters like the Trump Tower meeting. Bound by grand-jury secrecy rules, Mr. Weissmann did not come out and say whether Donald Trump Jr. was threatened with or actually issued a subpoena and used his right against self-incrimination to repel it.

Mr. Weissmann laid much of the blame for what he saw as a pattern of timidity on Mr. Zebley, portraying him as a primary decision maker. “Repeatedly during our 22 months in operation, we would reach some critical juncture in our investigation only to have Aaron say that we could not take a particular action because it risked aggravating the president beyond some undefined breaking point.”

Mr. Weissmann acknowledged, but did not clearly address, concerns that the aging Mr. Mueller had lost a step, both declaring that he was capable of making the tough decisions despite “speculative concerns” about his health but also describing him in one scene as looking drained and worn down by his years of grueling public service.

While Mr. Zebley obtained Mr. Mueller’s sanction for many of his cautious directives, in one striking episode, Mr. Zebley appeared in Mr. Weissmann’s telling to have unilaterally agreed — without Mr. Mueller’s knowledge — to a request by the office of the deputy attorney general overseeing them, Rod J. Rosenstein, not to coordinate with state prosecutors “as it would undermine the president’s pardon power.”

Two other former officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, disputed the account. Mr. Rosenstein did not decline any request to share information with state prosecutors, a person familiar with his thinking wrote in an email.

Another person familiar with how the special counsel’s office interacted with Mr. Rosenstein’s office denied that there had been any agreement about sharing evidence with or withholding it from state prosecutors, and said Mr. Zebley had consulted with Mr. Mueller on every material decision.

On the failure to subpoena Mr. Trump, Mr. Mueller was determined to avoid “any public disagreements” with Mr. Rosenstein, Mr. Weissmann wrote. Because the special counsel regulations required telling Congress about any instance in which Mr. Rosenstein overruled him, Mr. Mueller never actually proposed subpoenaing Mr. Trump, instead coyly asking what Mr. Rosenstein’s reaction would be. Mr. Rosenstein just kept demurring.

In the end, Mr. Weissmann said in an interview, the caution was more justified early on to avoid provoking Mr. Trump into firing them before they could get going. But he and Ms. Rhee, among others, believed the office should have been willing to be more aggressive later on, after they had learned much of what Russia had done and had already used indictments to drag it into public view.

“We would have subpoenaed the president after he refused our accommodations, even if that risked us being fired,” he wrote. “It just didn’t sit right. We were left feeling like we had let down the American public, who were counting on us to give it our all.”

https://www.alternet.org/2020/09/trump-jr-makes-absurd-excuse-for-er-kyle-rittenhouse-we-all-do-stupid-things-at-17/

the cosmic disappointment of a son only Donald Trump could have, Donald Trump Jr., was on ExtraTV on Tuesday to discuss his new book, Liberal Privilege.I believe the book is sold exclusively at the Hypocrites Handbook Book Store on Nepotism Island, in the magical land of Cowpie. Right out of the gate, Junior was asked by Extra host Rachel Lindsay what he thought of the statement Black Lives Matter, as well as the movement underneath its umbrella.

Trump Jr. stammered his way into explaining that “the phrase Black Lives Matter is obvious, ah no one in America, you know, says anything else.” Lindsay, who is Black, cut Trump Jr. off to remind him that yes, in fact, there are tons of people that say almost anything else besides Black Lives Matter. Trump Jr. responded that “no one” he knew did. Welcome through the looking glass, Extra! This is the Trump family, of course, so somehow this was the least offensive and ignorant thing Junior said in the interview. It was the first question, so he was likely just warming up those three brain cells he’s working with.

Junior went on to explain that he thought Black Lives Matter was a “very good marketing message,” and a “great catchphrase,” but that the political ideology behind it didn’t support it. As opposed to, I guess, Trump and Junior’s white supremacist agenda. Trump Jr. went on to defend his father’s lack of communication with Jacob Blake’s family and his very direct communication with the Kenosha police department. His defense was the same one we’ve already heard: Trump called someone and the Blake family had asked that their family lawyer be on the call—and we know lawyers not in Trump’s pocket spook Donald Trump—and the police department that Trump was meeting with are fighting to save businesses.

Lindsay, a former reality television contestant, did about as well as any traditional media outlet host could, pointing out that those hollow talking points aside: “Why hasn’t the Trump Administration or President Trump condemned what happened in Kenosha with Kyle Rittenhouse—coming across state lines and murdering two people and injuring another?"

it is here that Trump Jr. reminds the world exactly who the Trumps are:

DONALD TRUMP JR.: We’re waiting for due process. We’re not jumping to a conclusion. If I put myself in Kyle Rittenhouse’s shoes, maybe I shouldn’t have been there. He’s a young kid. I don’t, I don’t want 17-year-olds running around the street with AR-15s. Maybe I wouldn’t have put myself in that situation. Who knows? But we all do stupid things at 17.

It looks like some of us continue to live a life of doing “stupid things” well into their 40s. Maybe Trump Jr. can speak to his father’s full page ad calling for the death penalty for the five children who lost decades of their lives, only to be exonerated later. Those kids were 14-year-old Kevin Richardson, 14-year-old Raymond Santana, 15-year-old Antron McCray, 15-year-old Yusef Salaam, and 16-year-old Korey Wise. Those kids were straight up doing “stupid things,” but went to jail for some completely other man’s truly evil actions. The reason those teenagers were falsely treated like rapists and attempted murderers was because they were children of color in a New York City where law enforcement’s job is to keep people of color far away from white supremacists like Donald Trump Jr.

Yes, we all know that being young is filled with doing “stupid things.” But there are degrees of stupid, and what is excruciatingly clear is that people like Donald Trump and his progeny believe that white youth are more valuable than Black youth, and therefore the rules must be applied differently. It’s that fundamental difference that is the root of white supremacy.

https://www.alternet.org/2020/08/once-disregarded-by-his-father-donald-trump-jr-appears-to-be-his-fathers-political-heir/

girlfriend kimberly (ex -newsom) coked out? used in college?

https://www.alternet.org/2020/08/rnc-review-speakers-described-an-alternate-reality-in-which-chaos-and-violence-of-the-trump-era-is-joe-bidens-fault/

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RNC review: Speakers described an alternate reality in which chaos and violence of the Trump era is Joe Biden’s fault

Written by Igor Derysh / Salon August 25, 2020 Commentary

The first night of the Republican National Convention featured a diverse lineup that defended President Donald Trump from charges of racism, even as other speakers sought to stoke racial fears and push conspiracy theories.

The convention, largely consisting of a mix of live and pre-taped speeches before an empty auditorium, appeared to take place in an alternate reality where Trump had successfully beaten back the coronavirus pandemic, and where the protests, violence and racial division seen during Trump’s presidency would only get worse Democratic nominee Joe Biden is elected. It was a wildly dishonest night, with the New York Times fact-checking team counting at least 30 false and misleading claims.

“This one half-night of Republican programming so far has been exponentially more dishonest than the entire four nights of the Democratic convention,” wrote CNN fact-checker Daniel Dale.

While Republicans insisted that their convention would be optimistic, and headliners like former UN ambassador Nikki Haley and Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina delivered speeches on the promise of America that could have taken place under any other Republican president, the tone of the night was dark and the theme was racial fear-mongering.

The night kicked off with a speech by Charlie Kirk, founder of the right-wing student group Turning Point USA, who described Trump as a “bodyguard of Western civilization” — a common white nationalist dog whistle — who is defending America against a “vengeful mob that seeks to destroy our way of life, our neighborhoods, schools, churches and values.”

Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio gave a speech riddled with falsehoods accusing Democrats of stoking “crime, violence, and mob rule.” Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida, one of Trump’s most loyal followers in Congress, bizarrely warned that Democrats will “disarm you, empty the prisons, lock you in your home, and invite MS-13 to live next door.”

Mark and Patricia McCloskey, the St. Louis couple who threatened Black Lives Matter supporters with guns, delivered a gloomy, downbeat chat accusing “radical Democrats” of trying to destroy the suburbs.

“They are not satisfied with spreading the chaos and violence into our communities. They want to abolish the suburbs altogether by ending single-family home zoning,” Patricia McCloskey said. “This forced rezoning would bring crime, lawlessness and low-quality apartments into thriving suburban neighborhoods.

“These are the policies that are coming to a neighborhood near you,” she added. “So make no mistake: No matter where you live, your family will not be safe in the radical Democrats’ America.”

These divisive speeches were interspersed between people of color who insisted that neither Trump, the Republican Party nor the nation had a problem with racism.

Former NFL player Herschel Walker — who once played for the New Jersey Generals, a long-gone USFL team owned by Trump — said it “hurt my soul” to hear people call Trump “racist,” noting their long friendship. Haley, speaking of her own experience as the daughter of Indian immigrants, said that “America is not a racist country” but a “work in progress.”

Scott, the night’s keynote speaker, [heh appt by nikki] delivered a powerful speech on the promise of America and his own experiences with racism. Scott urged viewers to “not look simply at what the candidates say” before listing a number of remarks made by Biden to suggest that he, and not Trump, would ignore minority communities. Scott repeatedly insisted that Biden wants to turn the U.S. into a “socialist utopia,” which would be news to Biden and the progressive primary challenges who repeatedly criticized him for being too conservative.

But while the headliners tried to ignore the division stoked by Trump since long before he launched his 2016 campaign, Donald Trump Jr. and his girlfriend, former Fox News personality Kimberly Guilfoyle, stole the show with stunningly dark and loud diatribes that prompted viewers to question whether cocaine was involved.

Guilfoyle, who earns $180,000 per year from the Trump campaign, shouted an amped-up speech into the empty auditorium comparing Democrats to socialists in Cuba and Venezuela. Guilfoyle, who was formerly married to California Gov. Gavin Newsom, claimed that Democrats (including her ex-husband, apparently) had turned California into a “land of discarded heroin needles in parks, riots in streets and blackouts in homes.”

“They want to control what you see and think and believe so that they can control how you live,” she warned. “They want to enslave you to the weak, dependent liberal victim ideology to the point that you will not recognize this country or yourself.”

“Biden, Harris and the rest of the socialists will fundamentally change this nation,” she continued. “They want open borders, closed schools, dangerous amnesty, and will selfishly send your jobs back to China while they get rich. They will defund, dismantle and destroy America’s law enforcement. When you are in trouble and need police, don’t count on the Democrats.”

Donald Trump Jr. gave a speech touting his father’s response to the pandemic, albeit one that was entirely detached from reality.

He claimed that the president had “acted quickly,” even though Trump spent the crucial early weeks downplaying the threat, and that the administration had delivered supplies to “hospitals that needed them most,” even though the Health and Human Services Department’s inspector general found rampant shortages of vital supplies. Six months into the pandemic, such equipment remains in short supply.

The night also featured segments in which Trump hyped hydroxychloroquine, a drug that has repeatedly been found ineffective in treating the coronavirus, and a video that touted Trump’s “rapid policy changes” in the face of the pandemic.

MSNBC broke away from the broadcast to fact-check the claims.

“To say that 170,000 souls lost in our country up to now is a success by any measure is fantasy,” Dr. Vin Gupta, a disease expert at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, said during the segment. “It’s disrespectful to the families who lost loved ones, to frontline clinicians who put their lives at risk. It’s just fantasy. It’s propaganda.”

During another segment, Trump spoke with a group of Americans who had been freed from overseas prisons, including pastor Andrew Brunson, who was arrested by Turkey during President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s purge following an unsuccessful coup attempt.

“To me, President Erdogan was very good,” Trump told the pastor, who was detained for two years.

Though all of the major news networks break away during portions of the convention for analysis and ads, Fox News host Sean Hannity warned his viewers that “the media won’t cover large parts of the RNC that we’ll be showing.”

Twitter users couldn’t help but notice that Fox News actually aired fewer segments from the convention than CNN and MSNBC. Trump’s former campaign manager, Brad Parscale, tweeted his complaints at Fox News.

“Can’t believe I have to watch the convention on @CNN,” he wrote. “Unbelievable.”

https://www.alternet.org/2020/08/the-downfall-of-steve-bannon-looks-really-bad-for-bill-barr-and-donald-trump-jr

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The downfall of Steve Bannon looks really bad for Bill Barr and Donald Trump Jr.

Written by Cody Fenwick August 21, 2020

With the arrest of Steve Bannon — the president’s former campaign chair and White House strategist — and a group of his allies on Thursday, the world received confirmation of what many have long said about the conservative movement: The right-wing, ethnonationalist, populist rhetoric is often little more than a scam to win support from the massive to fund the desires of elites.

At least, that’s the narrative told in the indictment of Bannon and others leading “We Build the Wall, Inc.” — an organization that raised money from private donors, supposedly to build parts of President Donald Trump’s border wall. (Don’t ask about the fact that Mexico was supposed to pay for the wall.) According to federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York, despite, Bannon’s claim that the organization was run entirely by volunteers, he and his allies was cashing in.

“While repeatedly assuring donors that Brian Kolfage, the founder and public face of We Build the Wall, would not be paid a cent, the defendants secretly schemed to pass hundreds of thousands of dollars to Kolfage, which he used to fund his lavish lifestyle,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss.

Bannon, on the other hand, “through a non-profit organization under his control (‘Non-Profit-1’), received over $1 million from We Build the Wall, at least some of which [Bannon] used to cover hundreds of thousands of dollars in [Bannon’s] personal expenses,” SDNY said. Bannon is fighting the charges, pleading not guilty in court on Thursday.

Bannon and Kolfage, along with Timothy Shea and Andrew Badolato, were charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering.

But it’s not just the people named in the indictment who come off looking worse.

Attorney General Bill Barr’s already tarnished reputation took another substantial hit with the announcement because it reframed actions he took two months ago. In June, Barr sought to remove Geoffrey Berman, who has been the U.S. attorney in the Southern District of New York. But he did so in a clumsy and corrupt fashion. He met with Berman privately and tried to pressure him out of a job. When Berman refused, Barr simply announced that Berman would be stepping down, to be replaced immediately by another prosecutor from outside the office while a permanent successor could be confirmed.

Berman quickly refuted Barr’s claim, publicly stating that he did not intend to leave. This started a brief struggle until Barr caved somewhat on his demands. He still had Berman removed, but he permitted Strauss, Berman’s deputy, to take his role. She is now serving in an acting capacity, and she oversaw the indictment filed against Bannon and the others.

The episode created a sharp backlash, because there seemed to be no above-board explanation for Barr’s actions. Barr might have had legitimate reasons to replace Berman with another appointee, but there was no clear reason why Berman should leave before that person was appointed. And Barr might have had reason to fire Berman, but there’s no clear reason why Strauss wouldn’t take over in his stead — which is how succession in these offices typically functions. And there was no good reason at all why Barr should lie about Berman voluntarily stepping down — it was just an aggressive power play.

These facts all pointed to a clear conclusion: Barr had a corrupt reason for wanting to oust Berman and replace him with a hand-picked successor. In a public statement and in testimony to Congress, Berman made clear what a plausible motive would be: Replacing him with anybody but Strauss would likely impede the office’s ongoing investigations.

We now know that the case again Bannon and “We Build the Wall, Inc.” was among the cases that likely would have been slowed down. Barr has admitted he knew about the case months ago. And it’s quite clear why Barr, an unabashed partisan, would want to slow it down. Indicting yet another of the president’s allies — and his second campaign manager — surely reflects badly on Trump. It’s especially bad because the allegations involve fleecing Trump’s supporters for venal reasons, which may hit close to home for those feeling let down by his presidency heading into the November election.

It’s possible there were other investigations Barr was looking to stop as well. And it’s possible, of course, that he wasn’t trying to delay this investigation at all. But that’s precisely why Barr’s hamfisted control of the Justice Department, and his complete lack of interest in even acting like a straight shooter, is so destructive for him and the country as a whole. It makes it impossible for Americans to be confident that he’s performing his job in good faith, rather than trying to protect the president’s friends and go after his enemies.

Donald Trump Jr., too, comes off looking a lot worse out of Bannon’s scandal, because he openly endorsed the project. In a quote featured on the organization’s website, he said:

This is private enterprise at its finest. Doing it better, faster, cheaper than anything else and what you guys are doing is pretty amazing. It started from a grassroots effort and it’s doing some wonderful things for an important issue.

After the indictment became public on Thursday, the Trump Organization put out a statement to the New York Times trying to distance himself from the project:

Don gave one speech at a single We Build the Wall event over a year ago with a group of angel moms and, besides that, has no involvement with their organization. He never gave them permission to use him as a testimonial on their website and was unaware they included him as one until today’s media reports about it. His previous praise of the group was based on what he was led to believe about their supposed intention to help build the wall on our southern border and if he and others were deceived, the group deserves to be held accountable for their actions.

The statement appears to admit that when Trump Jr. said the group was “private enterprise at its finest” that does work “better, faster, cheaper” than others and is “amazing,” he had no idea what he was talking about.

But the HuffPost reported that the ties between Trump Jr. and We Build the Wall, Inc. may be more significant than the statement suggested:

As part of a fundraising promotion, We Build the Wall offered free, autographed copies of Trump Jr.’s book, “Triggered,” to people donating at least $75. And Instagram posts from Kolfage and We Build the Wall suggest Trump Jr. directly interacted with the group again in November.

“[We Build the Wall representative] FOREMAN MIKE will be in Florida TOMORROW with Donald Trump Jr. at Sandestin Golf and Beach Resort!” the organization announced in a post on Nov. 7. The next day, Kolfage posted a photo of himself with a small group of people including Trump Jr. and “Foreman Mike.”

There’s some evidence, too, that the president was backing the project before its downfall, but its thinner.

In a Jan. 25, 2019 New York Times article on Kris Kobach that discussed the project, reporter Stephanie Saul wrote:

President Trump gave the undertaking his “blessing” in a telephone conversation Wednesday night, according to Mr. Kobach.

The White House press office did not respond to requests for comment.

Trump avoided going on the record, which now looks wise.

After the indictment came out, Trump’s defenders pointed to a recent tweet of his distancing himself from the project:

[twt: " i disagreed with doing this very small (tiny) section of wall, in a tricky area, by a private group which raised money by ads. It was only done to make me look bad, and perhsps it now doesn’t even work. Should have been built like rest of Wall, 500 plus miles.

Jeremy Schwartz

@JinATX

UPDATE: Experts to inspect a controversial privately built border wall following a federal court hearing this am. Govt attorney identified 4 areas of problematic erosion along the base of 4080]

However, this tweet emerged after Barr was aware of the investigation into the Bannon, so Trump was likely aware of it, too. And the president’s fans had already donated millions to the project, some of whom were likely encouraged by the fact that the Trump’s own son had endorsed it.

https://www.alternet.org/2020/08/feds-charge-ex-trump-official-steve-bannon-with-criminal-fraud-in-crowd-funded-border-wall-campaign/

former Trump White House political strategist Steve Bannon has been charged with criminal fraud for his role in a crowd-funded campaign to build President Donald Trump’s wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.

The United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York announced on Thursday that Bannon and several other leaders of the ‘We Build The Wall’ online fundraising campaign have been indicted for defrauding “hundreds of thousands” of donors.

“As alleged, the defendants defrauded hundreds of thousands of donors, capitalizing on their interest in funding a border wall to raise millions of dollars, under the false pretense that all of that money would be spent on construction,” said acting SDNY U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss. “While repeatedly assuring donors that Brian Kolfage, the founder and public face of We Build the Wall, would not be paid a cent, the defendants secretly schemed to pass hundreds of thousands of dollars to Kolfage, which he used to fund his lavish lifestyle.”

As for Bannon’s role in the scheme, SDNY alleges that funneled “over $1 million from We Build the Wall” into a nonprofit organization that he personally controlled. According to SDNY, Bannon then used at least some of that money “to cover hundreds of thousands of dollars” in his own personal expenses.

in total, Bannon has been charged with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering.

https://www.alternet.org/:{2020/08/:(style="background-color:#ffff66;"):}:senate-panel-referred-trump-family-members-to-doj-over-suspicions-of-misleading-russia-testimony-report/

wapo

Bipartisan leaders of the Senate Intelligence Committee last year notified the Department of Justice that members of President Donald Trump’s family and close circle “might have presented misleading testimony” to the panel during its investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, the Washington Post reports.

According to the Post, then-Chairman Richard Burr (R-NC) and Vice Chairman Mark R. Warner (D-VA) referred a list of individuals, including Donald Trump Jr. and Jared Kushner to federal prosecutors after their accounts of a pre-election meeting with Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya “were contradicted by the president’s former deputy campaign chairman Rick Gates” during former special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation.

In a separate section, the congressional panel said it had reason to believe Steve Bannon, Erik Prince and former campaign co-chair Sam Clovis “had lied to congressional investigators — a potential felony,” the Post reports.

According to the Los Angeles Times, which first reported on the referrals and viewed a copy of the panel’s letter, the committee believes Bannon may have lied about his knowledge of a meeting Prince held in the Seychelles with a Russian official tied to the Kremlin. Per the Post, “Prince had told Mueller’s team that he briefed Bannon on the meeting, which occurred before Trump’s inauguration in early 2017; Bannon denied the conversation took place.”

https://www.alternet.org/2020/08/this-is-what-collusion-looks-like-gop-led-senate-report-far-more-devastating-than-mueller-probe

lots of docs in twt not here

‘This is what collusion looks like’: GOP-led Senate report ‘far more devastating’ than Mueller probe

Written by Igor Derysh / Salon August 18, 2020

The Senate Intelligence Committee’s final report on its bipartisan Russia investigation revealed even more numerous contacts between President Donald Trump’s advisers and Russian operatives than former special counsel Robert Mueller’s report.

The committee, which is chaired by Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., on Tuesday released its fifth and final report, totaling nearly 1,000 pages,following a three-year bipartsian investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 election. The report documents the extent to which Russia sought to influence the election — and members of Trump’s team welcoming their assistance.

“The Senate report — even more extensive than the Mueller investigation — paints a far more devastating picture of Russian intelligence operatives’ access to the Trump campaign, describing far more insidious connections than even Mueller did in his report,” Politico’s Kyle Cheney wrote.

The report, like Mueller’s, did not conclude that Trump’s campaign coordinated with Russia, but it found that Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort worked with a “Russian intelligence officer” and handed him internal campaign data. The report also suggested that Manafort might also be linked to Russia’s hack of the Clinton campaign.

“The committee obtained some information suggesting that the Russian intelligence officer, with whom Manafort had a longstanding relationship, may have been connected to the G.R.U.’s hack-and-leak operation targeting the 2016 U.S. election,” the committee’s Democrats wrote. “This is what collusion looks like.”

The report found that Konstantin Kilimnik, a longtime associate of Manafort, was a “Russian intelligence officer” who might be connected to Russia’s “hack and leak operation.” (Manafort provided internal Trump campaign polling data to Kilimnik.)

While the Senate Russia report mentioned Kilimnik 819 times, the House Republican report did not mention him once. The Senate report also found that Kilimnik later “almost certainly helped arrange some of the first public messaging that Ukraine had interfered in the U.S. election.” Trump has repeatedly echoed the claim that Ukraine interfered in the election — not Russia.

Another part of the report also cited evidence raising the “possibility of Manafort’s potential connection” to the hack and leak operation, though the evidence was redacted.

The report described Trump’s former campaign chief as a “grave counterintelligence threat,” who worked with Russian operatives before and after the election.

The report also found thatTrump did discuss WikiLeaks with longtime adviser Roger Stone, even though he told Mueller’s team that he did “not recall” doing so. It also revealed that Stone directed an associate to request a leak of hacked emails by Clinton’s top aide when the infamous Access Hollywood tape dropped. The emails were published a half hour after the release.

Like the Mueller report, the Senate report also detailed efforts by Trump and his team to impede the years-long probe.

Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., the vice chairman of the committee, urged the public to “review the documented evidence of the unprecedented and massive intervention campaign waged on behalf of then-candidate Donald Trump by Russians and their operatives and reach their own independent conclusions.”

Rubio, however, tried to spin the report as favorable for the president.

“We can say, without any hesitation, that the committee found absolutely no evidence that then-candidate Donald Trump or his campaign colluded with the Russian government to meddle in the 2016 election,” he said in a statement.

“What the committee did find however is very troubling,” he added. “We found irrefutable evidence of Russian meddling.”

But Rubio’s statement brushed over actions by Trump’s advisers, as well as the president’s own statements to investigators.

One part of the report notes that Trump told Mueller in written responses that he did “not recall” discussing WikiLeaks with longtime adviser Roger Stone, who was later convicted in the former special counsel’s probe before being granted clemency by the president.

“Despite Trump’s recollection, the committee assesses that Trump did, in fact, speak with Stone about WikiLeaks and with members of his campaign about Stone’s access to WikiLeaks on multiple occasions,” the report said.

The report also noted that WikiLeaks “likely knew it was assisting a Russian intelligence influence effort” by publishing stolen Democratic emails.

Stone “obtained information indicating” that Clinton campaign chief John Podesta would “be a target of an upcoming release, prior to WikiLeaks releasing Podesta’s emails . . . Stone then communicated his information to Trump,” the report said.

Stone directed an associate to tell WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to “drop the Podesta emails immediately” the day the Trump campaign learned about the looming Access Hollywood tape.

The report also noted that the Senate investigation was met with “unprecedented potential executive privilege claims” from the White House.

“The committee was surprised by these assertions, because they were made inconsistently and because they have no basis in law,” the report said.

“The Trump campaign publicly undermined the attribution of the hack-and-leak campaign to Russia and was indifferent to whether it and WikiLeaks were furthering a Russian election interference effort,” the report added.

The report further concluded that Donald Trump Jr. might have obstructed the investigation, but the panel declined to pursue the issue due to “time and resource considerations.”

Trump Jr.participated in the infamous Trump Tower meeting with Kremlin-linked lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya about obtaining dirt on Hillary Clinton. Veselnitskaya’s ties to the Russian government “were far more extensive and concerning than what had been publicly known,” the report said.

The report concluded by warning that “what happened to the United States in 2016 should be an alarm bell.”

“Russia is actively interfering again in the 2020 U.S. election to assist Donald Trump, and some of the president’s associates are amplifying those efforts,” the report said. “The Russian intelligence services’ assault on the integrity of the 2016 U.S. electoral process, and Trump and his associates’ participation in and enabling of this Russian activity, represents one of the single most grave counterintelligence threats” to the homeland.

wapo: https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/senate-intelligence-trump-russia-report/2020/08/18/62a7573e-e093-11ea-b69b-64f7b0477ed4_story.html

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National Security

Trump’s 2016 campaign chair was a ‘grave counterintelligence threat,’ had repeated contact with Russian intelligence, Senate panel finds

Karoun Demirjian and

Ellen Nakashima

August 18, 2020

President Trump’s 2016 campaign chairman posed a “grave counterintelligence threat” due to his interaction with people close to the Kremlin, according to a bipartisan Senate report released Tuesday that found extensive contacts between key campaign advisers and officials affiliated with Moscow’s government and intelligence services.

In its report, the Republican-led Senate Intelligence Committee states that Trump’s then-campaign chair Paul Manafort worked with a Russian intelligence officer “on narratives that sought to undermine evidence that Russia interfered in the 2016 U.S. election,” including the idea that purported Ukrainian election interference was of greater concern.

It found that a Russian attorney who met with Manafort, along with the president’s son,Donald Trump Jr., and his son-in-law Jared Kushner at Trump Tower in 2016, had “significant connections” to the Kremlin. The information she offered them was also “part of a broader influence operation targeting the United States that was coordinated, at least in part with elements of the Russian government,” the report stated.

But the panel also concluded that the FBI’s handling of Russian threats to the election was “flawed” and that the bureau gave “unjustified credence” to allegations about Trump’s Russia ties made in a dossier compiled by former British spy Christopher Steele, “based on an incomplete understanding of Steele’s past reporting record.”

Document: Read the Senate Intelligence Committee’s report on Russian interference in the 2016 election]

The Senate Intelligence Committee’s three-and-a-half year investigation stands as Congress’s only bipartisan examination of Russian interference in the 2016 election. The panel, significantly, agreed that the FBI overestimated Steel’s reliability and that Manafort and other aides exposed the campaign to undue Russian influence. But its leaders were noticeably divided along party lines in how they interpreted the report’s significance, and several committee members — including its acting chairman Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) — endorsed dissenting conclusions about Trump’s own culpability.

The partisan divisions are a sign that the panel’s tome likely will not put to rest the political wrangling over how seriously to treat foreign interference in U.S. democracy as the country heads into its most divisive election in modern history.

“After more than three years of investigation by this Committee, we can now say with no doubt, there was no collusion,” a group of six panel Republicans, including Rubio, wrote in a statementinstead accusing the Democratic Party of coordinating with foreign actors to produce Steele’s dossier.

“In 2016, the Democratic Party, using a series of arm’s length transactions, hired a foreign citizen to seek out dirt on a political opponent, provided by foreign sources,” the Republicans wrote, attacking the FBI for “sloppy work and poor judgment.”

Five Democrat senators — including Kamala D. Harris (D-Calif.), the party’s 2020 vice-presidential nominee — asserted the report “unambiguously shows that members of the Trump Campaign cooperated with Russian efforts to get Trump elected.” Referring specifically to their findings on Manafort, the Democrats wrote, “This is what collusion looks like.”

The intelligence committee’s vice chairman, Sen. Mark R. Warner (D-Va.), who did not sign onto the Democrats’ dissenting views, noted “a breathtaking level of contacts between Trump officials and Russian government operatives that is a very real counterintelligence threat to our elections,” and he encouraged “all Americans to carefully review the documented evidence of the unprecedented and massive intervention campaign waged on behalf of then-candidate Donald Trump by Russians and their operatives and to reach their own independent conclusions.”

The committee’s past chairman Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.), who oversaw the bulk of the investigation and also steered clear of the GOP’s dissent, struck a position in the middle.

“One of the Committee’s most important — and overlooked — findings is that much of Russia’s activities weren’t related to producing a specific electoral outcome, but attempted to undermine our faith in the democratic process itself,” he said in a statement. “Their aim is to sow chaos, discord, and distrust. Their efforts are not limited to elections. The threat is ongoing.”

Senate panel told Justice Dept. of suspicions over Trump family members’ Russia testimony

Burr and Warner launched the committee’s probe before Trump’s inauguration in January 2017 and sustained the bipartisan investigation over the following three and a half years, even as other Congressional investigations into the same matter faltered along partisan lines. Since the Senate Intelligence Committee began its probe, former special counsel Robert S. Mueller III also released a 448-page report on Russian interference in the 2016 election — and Trump was impeached and acquitted after Democrats accused him of coercing Ukrainian leaders to interfere in the 2020 election.

Though the committee’s probe covers much of the same turf as Mueller’s investigation, it was different in nature. Mueller was running a criminal probe; the Senate committee was conducting an intelligence investigation — a distinction that helps to explain some of nuanced differences between their conclusions.

The Senate panel’s probe, which was mostly driven by the committee’s bipartisan staff, included more than 200 witnesses and considered evidence relating to Russian disinformation, Trump’s personal, business and campaign contacts with Russians and the transition period following the 2016 election.

At one point, the document all but concludes that Trump aides were duped and manipulated by Russian interests they were too callow to understand.

“Russian officials, intelligence services, and others” acting in concert with the Kremlin “were capable of exploiting the transition team’s shortcomings,” the report concluded. “Based on the available information, it is possible — and even likely — that they did so.”

The report also presents a damning portrait of the Trump campaign’s hasty move in March 2016 to assemble a foreign policy team, asserting that it had recruited inexperienced people without thoroughly vetting them and thus potentially exposed itself to Russian influence.

“Ultimately,” the committee wrote, “the foreign policy team exposed the Trump Campaign to significant counterintelligence vulnerabilities.”

The committee pointed to Trump campaign aide George Papadopoulos, who attempted to secure a face-to-face meeting between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin through “highly suspicious” contacts with people close to the Russian government. Ultimately, investigators concluded, Papadopoulos “was not a witting co-optee of the Russian the Russian intelligence services. The panel also found that while Russia seemed to show an interest in campaign adviser Carter Page, investigators “found no indication that Page had useful Campaign information for the Russian intelligence services to extract, nor meaningful influence for them to exploit.”

The committee did find however that Putin personally directed the 2016 hack-and-leak campaign targeting the Democratic Party, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and the Clinton campaign. The anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks “actively sought and played a key role in the Russian campaign and very likely knew it was assisting a Russian intelligence influence effort,” the report stated, surmising that a Russian military spy agency, known as the GRU, transferred hacked emails to WikiLeaks likely because it offered a more effective platform for publicity than the GRU’s own methods.

Yet investigators could not “reliably determine the extent of authentic, nonpublic knowledge” Trump’s friend Roger Stone had about WikiLeaks’s coming releases and shared with the campaign.

The panel noted that its investigation was hampered by several witnesses’ refusing interviews and to produce documents, citing Fifth Amendment rights that protect against self incrimination. These included Stone, Manafort and Rick Gates, the campaign’s deputy chair at that time. The panel’s request to interview Julian Assange was rebuffed.

The committee also outright accused Blackwater founder and Trump supporter Erik Prince of stonewalling its investigation, saying that it was “hampered by a lack of cooperation” and that his account of a controversial 2017 meeting in the Seychelles alongside a Russian official was “brief and deceptive.”

The committee previously released other volumes detailing aspects of its inquiry. Those reports focused on U.S. election security, Russia’s use of social media in disinformation campaigns, the Obama administration’s response to the perceived threat in 2016 and the intelligence community’s joint assessment that Russia had interfered in an attempt to tip the scales in Trump’s favor.

Yet the panel’s effort to maintain a bipartisan approach has not saved it from partisan scrutiny. Last year, the panel came under fire from Senate Republicans after issuing a subpoena for Donald Trump Jr. to come in for a second round of testimony.

After his testimony, Trump Jr. was one of several witnesses that the panel referred to the Justice Department for closer scrutiny over discrepancies between their testimony and that of Gates, the ex-deputy campaign chair who was a key witness in Mueller’s probe.

Earlier this year, Burr stepped aside as panel chairman after coming under scrutiny over stocks he sold in industries hit badly by the coronavirus pandemic. Rubio has been serving as acting chairman in his place.

https://www.alternet.org/:{2020/08/:(style="background-color:#ffff66;"):}:senate-panel-referred-trump-family-members-to-doj-over-suspicions-of-misleading-russia-testimony-report/

wapo

musing/aha/analysis: 820

this is some sort of balancing? (to be charitable) jiu jitsu move: because the left keeps beating us up as racists and all kinds of phobes (which is true btw, xian have all?! including satanist pedophile // blood libel jews). We are the victims of their smears that we peddle hate when in fact we are the real patriotic americans, so we just need to cause friction/ transaction costs by triggering their immune system as much as possible; this exposes their weakness, the absurdity of their views.

declared himself the chief or general of the alt rtish army to own the libs? maybe memes?

origin in hacker culture:

https://www.alternet.org/2020/08/how-trump-is-once-again-colluding-with-russia/

no lnx twt

how Trump is once again colluding with Russia

Written by Nancy LeTourneau / Washington Monthly August 14, 2020

Almost two weeks ago, a story circulated that Portland protesters were burning Bibles and American flags. It spread via social media and was picked up by conservative outlets, such as the Washington Examiner. Of course, several Republican leaders joined the bandwagon.

tp kirk --> djt jr?]

ted cruzretweet: This is who they are.

Ian Miles Cheong

@stillgray

Left-wing activists bring a stack of Bibles to burn in front of the federal courthouse in Portland. https://twitter.com/Shelldrayk/status/1289481822414413827/video/1

don jr

Now we move to the book burning phase. I’m pretty sure ANTIFA doesn’t actually stand for what they say it stands for. Maybe just remove the anti part of them name and it’s perfect.

tpkirk

BLM inc arsonists just burned a stack of Bibles in Portland

The activist media won’t report on this because it’s likely they support it

Our faith is under attack.

If you vote for Biden—you vote for Bible burnings

---

Two reporters at the New York Times, Matthew Rosenberg and Julian Barnes, decided to look into the story and found Vladimir Putin’s fingerprints all over it. As is often the case with effective propaganda, this story contains a kernel of truth. Apparently, some group was handing out Bibles to protesters that night and one of them was used to start a fire. An American flag was also burned. But a local paper covering the protests that night devoted just one sentence to that story in a lengthy piece about what happened.

The video news agency connected to Russia Today (RT) was regularly streaming a live feed of the Portland protests. They edited the clip of the fire and made it the focal point of their protest coverage that night. Then, RT did an entire story about it. Social media took it from there and the next thing you know, outlets like the Washington Examiner were picking it up. Here is how Rosenberg and Barnes summarized the process:

The Russian technique is a kind of information laundering, akin to money laundering.Stories originate with Russian-backed news sites, some of them directly connected to Moscow’s spy agencies, officials and experts said. They are then picked up by Americans on social media or in domestic news outlets, and their origins quickly become obscured. Often, by the time a story reaches most of its American audience, there is little to indicate that it was created to fuel grievances and deepen political divisions.

Following Trump’s press briefing on Wednesday, Hunter Walker tracked down another example of Russia’s attempt to get their propaganda in the news. He wrote about the question OAN reporter Chanel Rion asked the president.

Rion: In the last hour or so, if you googled antifa.com. it would take you straight to Joe Biden’s website, his official campaign website. Odd situation. We don’t know who’s behind that. But it raises an interesting leadership question. Should Joe Biden, the Democrat party, Kamala Harris– should they publicly denounce the Antifa as a domestic terrorist organization?

Trump: They should. I think they’re afraid to. It’s– in my book it’s virtually a part of their campaign, Antifa. The Democrats act like, gee, I don’t know exactly what that is.

Take a look at Portland. Take a look at any place you want to take a look at, and they’re all over the place. They were here.

Basically Rion gave Trump the opportunity to claim that Antifa is part of the Biden campaign—which is, of course, a blatant lie.

Walker looked into what actually happened with the antifa.com website. Once again, as Pelosi said, “all roads lead to Putin.”

Records for “antifa.com” in the domain name database Whoisology.com show the site was registered in the Russian Federation from 2013 through last July. Starting last November, the site’s registration was moved to Panama, The website has always been anonymously registered and its owners could not be reached for comment.

Russia set up the antifa.com website and eventually redirected it to Biden’s campaign page, allowing the president to claim that the group was involved politically with Democrats. Of course, this raises the old question of whether this was all coordinated with the president or if Trump is simply taking advantage of Putin’s efforts. The same questions are raised about the role of OAN in these kinds of Russian propaganda efforts.

So there you have two examples of how Russia is currently interfering in the 2020 election to support the reelection of Donald Trump. One thing worth noting is that if these examples are reflective of their efforts, Vladimir Putin has calculated that his best bet is to inflame the so-called “culture wars,” something that has been the bedrock of the Republican strategy for decades. The Bible burning story was especially useful for the Christian nationalists who want to scare their followers into thinking that, as Trump has suggested, Joe Biden is against God and the Bible.

It is important to keep in mind that the only reason we know about these Russian efforts is because some reporters put in the time to track down the story. Senator Richard Blumenthal, who has seen what our intelligence services know about Russian interference, said that the 2020 efforts “make Moscow’s past interference and nefarious actions look like child’s play.” But the Trump administration is keeping that information from the public, while the attorney general hypes the antifa story and puts all of his energy into accusing the Obama administration of “spying” into the Trump campaign. That strikes me as the definition of collusion.

an 720

https://www.alternet.org/2020/07/twitter-suspends-donald-trump-jr-s-account-for-posting-bogus-and-potentially-harmful-claims-on-covid-19/

an 720

trump Jr.’s girlfriend criticized for fundraising failures in NYT exposé: ‘She likes the spotlight a little too much

https://www.alternet.org/2020/07/trump-jr-gets-dragged-for-self-published-book-that-includes-glaring-error-on-the-cover/

kos

There are a few things that equal the mediocrity and base idiocy of Donald Trump. Their names are Donald Jr., Eric, Ivanka, and Jared. But, the greasy, sweaty, desperate nature of Donald Trump Jr. has a special patina of existential impotency that is hard to ignore. It’s hard to ignore, in part, because not unlike his father, Junior speaks at a loud blunt volume of dumb about 100% of the time.

Donald Trump Jr.’s newest idea is to self-publish a new book. But this time, it isn’t just about how liberals are being triggered all the time by the pure corruption of the conservative megalomaniac money machine. This time, in another sad attempt to receive the love his father is unable to feel for anything, Trump Jr. will spend however many pages it takes to try and make some money before the Republican National Convention in August. Unfortunately, the Trump family crest includes a guy wearing a dunce cap and cutting corners, and Junior’s announcement needed some copy editing.

“Thrilled to announce that during the last few months of quarantine, I’ve been working on a new book, LIBERAL PRIVILEGE! Blown away by what Biden has gotten away with, more details next week! Libs already triggered! #LiberalPrivilege” Trump Jr. wrote on Twitter this past Saturday. He also provided a hellfire-inspired cover design:

[[twt]

as GUK points out, the subtitle “Joe Biden and the Democrat’s Defense of the Indefensible,” has a misplaced apostrophe among other problems. Of course, because Junior is such a clever boy, he even name-checked his fabricated New York Times best seller Triggered. The one that was propelled into the category of “best seller” by the generous purchases of thousands of books by the Republican National Committee.

The book will be another “collaboration* with Trump Victory finance Committee Chief of Staff Sergio Gor. Junior told Axios that the audio book will be read by his girlfriend and former Fox News TV personality Kimberly Guilfoyle, who he explained helped him with the book. “That’s how we came up with the idea for her to do the audio book. We would take turns reading the chapters out loud for flow. … Love in a time of COVID.” I’ll give you a moment to gargle with 100 proof alcohol or whatever you need to get that vomit taste out of your mouth.

Trump Jr.’s move away from traditional publishing comes after he complained that he didn’t receive the kind of support from bookstores that he deserved. Instead he got that “support” when the RNC bought about $100,000 in books. What will the book cover? It will likely be filled with the misinformation being continuously peddled by Trump and others: conspiracy theories on how the deep state is trying to oust Trump from the White House.

Here are some of the responses to Trump Jr.’s announcement.

an 620 5x $ on end species hunt

https://www.alternet.org/2020/05/aiming-to-take-down-fox-donald-trump-jr-reportedly-investing-in-far-right-oann/

Investors aligned with Donald Trump Jr. and Republican National Committee (RNC) co-chair Tommy Hicks Jr. have acquired a major stake in One America News Network (OANN), sources familiar with the deal told Vanity Fair.

“Tommy Hicks and Don Jr. have been looking to buy a station for Trump TV,” a person briefed on the negotiations told Vanity Fair.

“This is all about building a Fox competitor. Trump is really aiming to take down Fox,” the person said.

The report is the first to connect the Trump family to the acquisition, discussions of which were first _{reported}_ in January by the Wall Street Journal.

The Journal reported that Hicks Equity Partners, a firm belonging to the family of Tommy Hicks Jr., the RNC co-chair, was negotiating a $250 million deal with Herring Networks, the parent company of OANN, a _{low-impact}_ far-right network that offers a home to the likes of Pizzagate conspiracy theorist Jack Posobiec and has _{defended Roy Moore}_ and _{endorsed Russian propaganda}_.

Sources told Vanity Fair the deal has stumbled along for months and still hasn’t closed, but that the Trump-affiliated group had reportedly talked Herring down to $200 million. VF said it was also unclear whether Donald Trump Jr. invested Trump money in the deal, or was given equity.

As the buyout talks progressed, President Trump has repeatedly expressed his growing distaste with Fox News — long perceived as the only network he likes, and certainly the only network that consciously slants coverage and analysis in his favor.

Last month _{Trump accused Fox News of “being on a bad path,”}_ and has _{asked twice now}_ “what the hell is happening” at the network. He _{attacked Fox reporters}_ twice last month _{during White House coronavirus briefings}_, and has taken several potshots at several of the channel’s shows and personalities, _{tweeting}_ in January that Fox News was “really pathetic” and “so politically correct,” _{singling out Chris Wallace’s impeachment coverage}_.

After it was reported that Fox had fired MAGA-world luminaries Diamond and Silk for hawking ludicrous coronavirus conspiracy theories, Trump _{tweeted}_ his support for the duo: “But I love Diamond and Silk, and so do millions of people!”

In late April, _{Trump took to Twitter once again to call for an alt-Fox, pro-himself network}_:

“The people who are watching @FoxNews, in record numbers (thank you President Trump), are angry,” he wrote. “They want an alternative now. So do I!”

During this same period, Trump often promoted OANN, providing the nascent network — which is viewed with disdain by many reputable journalists — with cover against the White House Correspondents’ Association. Trump even plugged OANN by name in _{a tweet last month}_ as the alternative he has been asking for.

But _{this isn’t the first time}_ Trump has appeared to be switching media mistresses. When Fox soothes him, he reciprocates. When they rankle him, he pumps OANN.

OANN, which has roughly one-third of Fox’s reach, with ratings _{reportedly}_ lower than the Tennis Channel, appears to have no problem _{serving as the president’s megaphone}_.

For instance, OANN hired former Trump campaign aide Michael Caputo— the newly-hired spokesman for the Department of Health and Human Services who recently disgraced himself with a barrage of racist, pandemic-related tweets — who hosted a special program dedicated to “the Ukraine Hoax.” Late last year a network crew accompanied Rudy Giuliani and _{personal assistant Christianné Allen}_ on a trip to Ukraine, which resulted in a _{three-part series}_ that mainlined viewers with apparent Russian disinformation.

Spokespeople for Trump Jr. and Hicks denied involvement in the deal to Vanity Fair.

President Trump, who is in no financial position to acquire Fox News, views OANN as a fallback business opportunity should former Vice President Joe Biden defeat him in November, according to Vanity Fair, which reported the president might look to OANN as a “post-presidential television platform.”

The cash from the buyout will reportedly help OANN increase its production values and campaign to expand its viewership, two elements Trump would demand of any home for a post-White House TV home.

Trump Jr. and Hicks have been wrapped in scandal before. The president’s eldest son and his younger brother Eric were — along with Hicks and Dallas-based investment manager Gentry Beach — co-registrants for a nonprofit called Opening Day, which insinuated itself in Trump’s inauguration. Trump’s sons had to abandon the organization weeks after its inauguration event was announced, amid _{allegations that they were selling access}_ to their father.

An associate ofGentry Beachdeclined to comment when Salon inquired about his possible involvement in the OANN deal.

https://www.alternet.org/2020/03/trumps-campaign-chief-has-been-funneling-money-to-don-jrs-girlfriend-and-eric-trumps-wife-report

no lnx

Trump’s campaign chief has been funneling money to Don Jr’s girlfriend and Eric Trump’s wife: report

Written by Alex Henderson March 10, 2020

President Donald Trump’s reelection campaign includes not only Donald Trump Jr. and Ivanka Trump, but also, the women two of Trump’s sons have been romantically involved with. And according to the New York Times, the president’s campaign manager has been funneling money to Kimberly Guilfoyle (Trump Jr.’s girlfriend) and Eric Trump’s wife, Lara Trump.

The payments, the Times reported, were made through Parscale Strategy, a private, San Antonio, Texas-based company owned by the president’s campaign manager, Brad Parscale.

HuffPost’s Mary Papenfuss notes that the “family benefits” are “linked to a network of politically connected private companies — operating with the support and help of Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner — that have charged roughly $75 million since 2017 to the Trump reelection campaign.”

Guilfoyle is a former Fox News pundit who left that right-wing cable news channel in 2018 and has been dating Trump Jr. for two years. In January, Trump’s campaign announced that Guilfoyle would be leading joint fundraising between Trump’s reelection campaign and the Republican National Committee (RNC).

Long before she dated Trump Jr., Guilfoyle was married to Democrat Gavin Newsom — who was mayor of San Francisco at the time and went on to become governor of California.

According to the Associated Press (AP), Lara Trump was hired as a senior consultant in early 2017 by Giles-Parscale — another company owned by Parscale. In January, Lara Trump mocked former Vice President Joe Biden’s stuttering and said, “Joe, can you get it out? Can you get the words out, Joe?”

Adam Brewster

@adam_brew

The Trump Campaign is in Des Moines with the Women for Trump bus tour. @LaraLeaTrump, Senior Adviser @mercedesschlapp and Nat’l Press Sec @kayleighmcenany are speaking

Joe Biden (Text Join to 30330)

@JoeBiden

I’ve worked my whole life to overcome a stutter. And it’s my great honor to mentor kids who have experienced the same. It’s called empathy. Look it up. https://twitter.com/SarahHuckabee/status/1207863935426322432 …

https://www.alternet.org/2020/01/don-jr-posts-photos-of-his-assault-rifle-bearing-ancient-symbol-of-war-with-islam-now-used-by-white-supremacists-experts/

https://www.alternet.org/2020/01/ivanka-trump-and-trump-jr-rank-in-the-top-four-of-a-poll-on-possible-2024-gop-presidential-candidates/

long a way to launder $? wright gingrich?

https://www.alternet.org/2019/11/9-conservative-groups-caught-stocking-piling-donald-trump-jrs-book-onto-the-best-sellers-list/

no lnx pix

9 conservative groups caught ‘stocking piling’ Donald Trump Jr’s book onto the Best Seller’s list

Written by David Edwards / Raw Story November 28, 2019

Nearly ten conservative groups or officials have been accused of inflating sales of Donald Trump Jr.’s new book by purchasing it in bulk.

The New York Times reported on Thursday that conservative student group Turning Point U.S.A. is “stocking piling” roughly 2,000 copies of Trump’s book “Triggered.”

According to the Times, at least nine organizations or conservative personalities have participated in the bulk purchases.

Earlier in November, the Republican National Committee said that it had raised $200,000 off of $75,000 in book purchases. Citizens United is another group offering the book to its followers.

Turning Point said that it had purchased the book to provide to students ahead of Don Trump Jr.’s appearance at their December summit.

“When an author headlines a Turning Point USA event, we regularly purchase the author’s latest work for the students in our chapters who attend,” a Turning Point spokesperson told the Times. “As one of our most requested speakers, Don is headlining our student-leadership conference in Florida this December, and so we purchased copies for some of the students, chapter leaders and V.I.P.s.”

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and the Texas Republican Party are fundraising off of the book.

“Leader McCarthy shares a close relationship with Donald Trump Jr. and was thrilled to offer ‘Triggered’ to his campaign supporters,” a spokesperson for McCarthy said.

A representative for Trump insisted that the bulk purchases had little impact on the book’s status on the New York Times Best Seller’s list.

“Don is proud of the fact that the demand for ‘Triggered’ has been so high that it has allowed groups like the R.N.C., N.R.S.C. and the N.R.C.C. to net hundreds of thousands of dollars through their marketing of the book,” Trump spokesperson Andy Surabian said.

Nick Confessore

@nickconfessore

Replying to @nickconfessore

Breadth of the effort is striking for Trump Jr., a noncandidate who has defended himself a “private citizen.” And underscores cross-pollination between the Trump family’s political ambitions, its business ventures and the party President Trump leads. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/28/us/politics/donald-trump-jr-book.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share …

Nick Confessore

@nickconfessore

Here’s a pic I was sent of boxes of “Triggered” sitting in the offices of Turning Point USA, a student group with close Trumpworld ties.

View image

post ucla coincidence?

University of Florida student body president facing possible impeachment over use of student fees for Trump Jr speaking event

At the University of Florida, Student Body President Michael Murphy…

https://www.newsweek.com/donald-j-trump-jrs-book-goes-viral-after-new-covers-change-title-daddy-please-love-me-1470754

Trump Jr,'s book Triggered: How the Left Thrives on Hate and Wants to Silence Us was changed by TGL to Daddy, Please Love Me: How Everything I Do Is to Try to Earn My Father's Love.

hachette

Center Street publishes Nonfiction books in such categories as Conservative Political and Military.

https://www.amazon.com/Triggered-Left-Thrives-Wants-Silence/dp/154608603X

blurb

This is the book that the leftist elites don't want you to read -- Donald Trump, Jr., exposes all the tricks that the left uses to smear conservatives and push them out of the public square, from online "shadow banning" to rampant "political correctness."

In Triggered, Donald Trump, Jr. will expose all the tricks that the left uses to smear conservatives and push them out of the public square, from online "shadow banning" to fake accusations of "hate speech." No topic is spared from political correctness. This is the book that the leftist elites don't want you to read!

Trump, Jr. will write about the importance of fighting back and standing up for what you believe in. From his childhood summers in Communist Czechoslovakia that began his political thought process, to working on construction sites with his father, to the major achievements of President Trump's administration, Donald Trump, Jr. spares no details and delivers a book that focuses on success and perseverance, and proves offense is the best defense.

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Nauseating’: CBS slammed for ’embarrassing’ softball interview with Trump Jr

David Badash / The New Civil Rights Movement

“CBS This Morning” hosted Donald Trump Jr. Tuesday morning to talk about his new book that attacks the left and many Americans are asking: “Why?"

https://www.alternet.org/2019/11/don-jr-and-kimberly-guilfoyle-received-50000-for-university-of-florida-speaking-event-at-trump-campaign-officials-request-student-newspaper/

no lnx

Don Jr and Kimberly Guilfoyle received $50,000 for University of Florida speaking event at Trump campaign official’s request: Student newspaper

Written by Alex Henderson November 1, 2019

During an October 9, 2006 appearance on Larry King’s show on CNN — ten years before he was elected president of the United States — Donald Trump declared, “I like nepotism.” That is among the most honest things Trump has ever said; he likes nepotism a lot — so much that, according to the student newspaper at the University of Florida, his reelection campaign urged the student body to bring in his son, Donald Trump Jr., for a paid speech given on October 10.

Trump’s fondness for nepotism has been impossible to miss. His daughter, Ivanka Trump, and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, are both senior advisers in his administration — and Donald Trump Jr. is a prominent figure on his 2020 reelection campaign. And as affluent as Trump Jr. is, his father’s campaign was happy to help him earn thousands more, according to the University of Florida’s student newspaper, The Alligator.

Trump campaign official Caroline Wren, The Alligator reports, directly e-mailed the University of Florida’s student body president, Michael Murphy, in September and asked him to bring in Donald Trump Jr. to speak along with GOP operative Kimberly Guilfoyle (who previously co-hosted “The Five” on Fox News), and Republican National Committee (RNC) official Tommy Hicks. Although Guilfoyle has been very involved in Republican politics, she was once married to a prominent Democrat: California Gov. Gavin Newsom.

@radleybalko

Student newspaper finds evidence that the Trump campaign arranged for Trump Jr. and Guilfoyle to speak on the UF campus. Which means that Trump Jr. got $50K in mandatory student dues to come campaign for his dad.

https://twitter.com/AdamWeinstein/status/1189746365745770497?s=20 …

Adam Weinstein

@AdamWeinstein

“Emails show a Donald Trump re-election campaign official personally asked UF Student Body President Michael Murphy in September to bring Donald Trump Jr. and Kimberly Guilfoyle to campus the following month.”

Get yourself an indy school paper like UF’s https://www.alligator.org/news/emails-released-between-student-body-president-and-donald-trump-campaign/article_7dad41f0-fb7a-11e9-9b4f-3795b8d7df23.html …

@AdamWeinstein

Emails released between Student Body President and Donald Trump campaign official

Donald Trump Jr. and Kimberly Guilfoyle spoke at UF on Oct. 10

alligator.org

Brad Po-sometimes-scum-BOO??

@brad_polumbo

I feel like Don Jr. isn't the best guy to make the case against nepotism... https://twitter.com/thehill/status/1189896064486252546 …

The Hill

@thehill

"I wish my name was Hunter Biden. I could go abroad, make millions off my father’s presidency. I’d be a really rich guy." http://hill.cm/gndFg4I

6:25 AM - Oct 31, 2019

Twitter Ads info and privacy

See Brad Po-sometimes-scum-BOO??'s other Tweets

The $50,000 payment for Trump Jr., Guilfoyle and Hicks (described by The Alligator as a “joint payment”) for the October 10 event was funded by student tuition.

In a September 10 e-mail, according to The Alligator, Wren told Murphy, “We met at my house on the 4th of July. I wanted to follow up with you regarding a speaking engagement at the University of Florida for Donald Trump Jr.” And on September 11, Murphy responded and said he would to “love to hop on a phone call” to discuss bringing Trump Jr., Guilfoyle and Hicks to the campus.

Wren told The Alligator that, in her e-mails to the University of Florida, she used a Trump campaign-related e-mail signature by accident and that she was communicating “via my private e-mail in my personal capacity and mistakenly forgot to remove my Trump Victory signature.”

Who Makes Money When a Bunch of Conspiracy Theorists Throw a Party at Trump’s Hotel?

The American Priority Conference at the Trump National Doral Miami last month was filled with pro-Trump conspiracies. The “Trump, Inc.” podcast was there for it.

This month, about a thousand supporters of President Donald Trump gathered at his resort in Florida to discuss a variety of unsupported theories. There were panels on the “Russia Hoax” and “Voter Fraud in the USA.” One speaker endorsed the theory that former President Barack Obama had planned to “turn over” North Africa to al-Qaida.

The American Priority Conference and Festival at the Trump National Doral Miami drew national attention for a video shown that depicted a fake Trump shooting and stabbing members of the media. And as ProPublica and WNYC detailed, speakers also told conference-goers to prepare for “war” and invoked other violent imagery. (The conference organizers said they oppose all political violence.)

Alice Wilder of “Trump, Inc.” was there during it all. (Listen to the episode.) And we explored who profited from the three-day event.

Here is what we know about who got paid.

1. Trump: The President Won’t Say How Much He Made

Neither conference organizers nor the Trump Organization would say how much the festival paid to rent the Donald J. Trump Grand Ballroom and adjacent event rooms over the three days. Disclosures by the Republican National Committee and Republican Governors Association show they each spent about $400,000 for multi-day events at the resort.

Also, many of the thousand attendees stayed at the Trump Doral. Neither the conference organizers nor the Trump Organization would say how many. Those who did stay there paid $199 per night.

2. Donald Trump Jr.: He Won’t Say if He Got Paid, but He Made $50,000 for Speaking the Night Before

Donald J. Trump Jr. was the conference’s headline speaker. During his speech, he alleged that Instagram suppressed the prominence of his profile. “I typed in my handle. Like my full handle, ‘Donald J. Trump Jr.’ I came up on Page 6,” he said. “It’s not an error.” (We searched his name. It’s the first result.)

Trump Jr. did not answer our questions about any pay he received for speaking. The night before, he addressed an audience at the University of Florida with his girlfriend, Kimberly Guilfoyle. They were paid $50,000.

...

https://www.alternet.org/2019/10/furious-former-white-house-official-blasts-trump-video-of-church-slaughter-mass-shootings-are-not-jokes/

former White House official blasts Trump video of church slaughter: ’Mass shootings are not jokes!’Tom Boggioni / Raw Story

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Furious former White House official blasts Trump video of church slaughter: ’Mass shootings are not jokes!’

Written by Tom Boggioni / Raw Story October 14, 2019

A CNN panel was equally appalled and furious about a video that was shown at the conservative conference held at a hotel owned by Donald Trump that showed the president slaughtering church worshipers who represented CNN, NPR, MSNBC and Black Lives Matter in the “Church of Fake News.”

Speaking with hosts John Avlon and Alisyn Camerota, former President Bill Clinton communications director Joe Lockhart seemed visibly angry that it was shown at a conservative sanctioned event that featured Sarah Sanders and Don Trump Jr. as speakers.

Asked by Avlon, “Has there been anything remotly like this in American political history or something truly new and dangerous?”

“This is something truly new,” Lockhart responded. “We haven’t had the internet for that long of time, if you’re going over the sweep of history. that’s what allows this to be distributed widely. But we’ve had presidents who have denounced the media. We’ve had every president in the history of the country who has at times wanted to denounce them and probably had thoughts in their head about what they’d like to do.”

“But kept them inside their head,” Avlon prompted.

“This isn’t a case where some over-enthusiastic supporter did something,” Lockhart continued. “This is Nixonian in the sense that the campaign was sanctioning dirty tricks like Nixon did. Here the president is not blameless — he has retweeted these people’s memes. He has retweeted memes with things hitting CNN reporters in the head — they’re not funny.”

“What struck me from this video is this all happened in a church. The president — probably the biggest part of his base are churchgoers, evangelicals,” he added. “And they are now making fun of someone coming in and committing vicious murders in a church. I don’t care what the president does, he’s already lost his credibility on this. People who went to church yesterday who are going to wake up this morning and wake up and see the president and his supporters think it’s funny to commit violence in a church. ”

Watch below:

Trump Jr. makes #MeToo ‘joke’ at his father’s NC rally

David Badash / The New Civil Rights Movement

https://www.alternet.org/2019/09/donald-trump-jr-will-seek-the-gop-nomination-in-2024-and-hell-probably-win-republican-strategist

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Donald Trump Jr will seek the GOP nomination in 2024 — and he’ll probably win: Republican strategist

Written by Travis Gettys / Raw Story September 5, 2019

Like it or not, warned Republican strategist Rick Wilson, the president’s eldest son is running for the GOP nomination in 2024.

Donald Trump Jr. has been traveling the country for fundraisers and other events for Republican candidates, and he often appears on “Fox & Friends” to plug his upcoming book, “Triggered,” which signals he’s considering a run in his family’s new business, Wilson wrote in a column for The Daily Beast.

“He is fluent in the language of whining, dickish grievance-mongering, which has replaced modern conservatism,” Wilson wrote. “Whether the GOP wannabe 2024 field knows it or not, it’s DJTJ’s opening shot for the 2024 nomination.”

It’s not implausible that President Donald Trump’s son would run for the White House, and maybe win the GOP nomination, regardless of the outcome of next year’s election.

“For GOP candidates who think they’re going to finesse this one somehow, or blow up Trump Jr. in 2024, may I remind you of the hell of 2016?” Wilson said. “This time, the cult you fear so much will listen to its leader and support the dynasty. Trump’s royal fantasies won’t wait, and no matter how much any other GOP candidate has polished Donald Trump’s knob in the past years, he’ll throw them under the bus for his spawn.”

Wilson said the president’s son might even have a better shot at winning the nomination in five years if Trump loses his re-election bid.

“Every single one of these candidates will spend the year before the election posturing and posing as the sole heir to Donald Trump’s legacy,” Wilson wrote.

“Making the pivot to the general election won’t just be difficult; it will be laughable,” he added. “Imagine trying to make the jump from ‘I would let Donald Trump dry hump my wife in broad daylight if he would tweet something nice about me’ to the era of ‘Trump has passed and I will lead a Republican party as it seeks to bring all Americans together as one to face the great national challenges ahead of us.’”

https://www.alternet.org/2019/08/trumps-hardcore-base-giddy-over-don-jrs-trolling-on-the-campaign-trail-like-hes-a-next-generation-model/

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Trump’s hardcore base giddy over Don Jr.’s ‘trolling’ on the campaign trail: ‘Like he’s a next-generation model’

Written by Alex Henderson August 13, 2019

In the Trump family, 37-year-old Ivanka Trump and 41-year-old Donald Trump Jr. have radically different approaches when it comes to promoting right-wing politics: while Ivanka has been trying to position herself as an intellectual conservative and generally avoids the crude, in-your-face approach of her father, her older brother is more than happy to throw red meat to the worst parts of the GOP base — and Marianne Levine, in a report for Politico, describes the ways in which Donald Trump, Jr. has been firing up that base on the campaign trail.

Levine explains that when President Donald Trump is unavailable for a reelection campaign event, the base often considers his son a very good substitute. And when Trump Jr., like his father, engages in “trolling,” hardcore Trumpistas welcome it.

Matt Mackowiak, president of the right-wing consulting firm Potomac Strategy Group, told Politico that Donald Trump Jr. “loves responding — you might want to even say trolling — on a more active basis. Because he’s more current, he can use modern-day tactics, understands how to make a sharp argument, understands how to sort of cheekily criticize someone, sort of demonstrate a clever but cutting approach. In a way, it’s almost like he’s a next-generation model.”

South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, who was once a vehement critic of President Trump but is now an obsequious sycophant, described Trump Jr. as “very helpful” and told Politico that he “brings a lot of energy” and is “out there fighting for his father and his agenda.”

An anonymous source identified by Levine as “close to Trump Jr.” told Politico that he can be even more in-your-face than his father — which can cause problems at times.

“I think he goes a little bit edgier than his father does, and edgier isn’t always better,” that source told Politico. “It can create a bad news cycle. When his father creates a bad news cycle, it’s by design.”

Much like his father, Trump Jr. is a polarizing figure — and while his presence can excite the base in red states, Levine reports that it could prove detrimental in swing states or blue states.

One such blue state is Maine, where four-term Republican Sen. Susan Collins is considered vulnerable in 2020. When Politico asked Collins if she would welcome Trump Jr.’s help, she replied, “That’s a very premature question because I haven’t made my own decision yet.”

Collins said of Trump Jr.’s participation in his father’s campaign, “I didn’t even know he was playing a role in the 2020 elections.”

https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/08/politics/interior-department-arizona-development-bernhardt/index.html

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In the summer of 2017, Arizona developer Mike Ingram's proposed housing and golf course project in the desert was facing a road block because of a decision by the Department of the Interior.

A field supervisor for the US Fish and Wildlife Service had determined that it was "reasonably certain" that threatened and endangered species could be harmed.

But that decision suddenly changed following a secret breakfast meeting at a Montana hunting lodge between Ingram -- a donor to President Donald Trump and co-owner of the Arizona Diamondbacks -- and David Bernhardt, then the Trump administration's deputy Interior secretary.

Following the meeting, which did not appear in Bernhardt's official calendar and has not been previously reported, the field supervisor says he was pressured to reverse his decision, allowing the project to move ahead.

"I felt pressured to reverse my decision ... in simplest terms, I was rolled," Steve Spangle, then a 30-year veteran of the Fish and Wildlife Service, told CNN in an interview. "I made a decision, which was my authority to make in Arizona, and that was overruled by higher-ups in the administration."

The meeting is one of at least 11 interactions Ingram had with top officials at the Interior Department and Environmental Protection Agency during the Trump administration, according to a CNN review of emails and calendars.

Former FWS official Steve Spangle

The meetings and the reversal suggest yet another example of Trump administration officials siding with executives and business leaders in the industries for which they have oversight.

A lawsuit filed by environmental groups earlier this year has put the project on hold once again. The House Committee on Natural Resources is also investigating what happened. Committee Chairman Raul Grijalva has asked Interior for documents and raising "questions about whether a key permit decision at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service was inappropriately reversed."

A phone call and a reversal

The Villages at Vigneto is designed as a development of 28,000 homes, golf courses and a resort community planned for the sprawling patch of mesquite scrub expanse just east of Benson, Arizona.

Local officials welcome the development; Benson Mayor Toney King said it's desperately needed to bring jobs back to the area. "We've been fighting really hard to get growth here," King told CNN. "We've had generations of kids that have left and they can't come back. There are no jobs."

Interior declined to answer any of CNN's specific questions for this story, and instead provided a one sentence statement: "U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has reexamined the issue at hand and using the best available science as required under the Endangered Species Act issued the same exact conclusion."

Lanny Davis, a prominent Democratic attorney representing Ingram's El Dorado Holdings, told CNN there is no evidence of any political influence by his client, and any suggestion of influence is "innuendo."

Mayor Toney King, Benson, Arizona

But the environmental concerns surrounding the area go back more than a decade because of its proximity to the San Pedro River and the habitats of endangered and threatened species. The remote desert landscape was initially slated for development in the early 2000s. The Environmental Protection Agency has long been opposed to building on the site, writing in 2005 that it "represented a substantial and unacceptable impact on aquatic resources of national importance," and the EPA stance has not changed since. Opponents of the project also say the aquifer that feeds the river could be impacted.

Despite those environmental concerns, the US Army Corps of Engineers approved a Clean Water Act permit in 2006, but the 2008 recession forced the owners to sell.

Ingram bought the property with his company El Dorado Benson LLC in 2014, renaming the development the "Villages at Vigneto," with the intention of building using the 2006 Army Corps permit.

That permit was suspended, however, in 2016 after six environmental groups sued and demanded an environmental consultation by the Fish and Wildlife Service.

Spangle was the top official in Arizona evaluating development projects and their impact on the environment and endangered species. In October 2016, he wrote a decision about the Villages at Vigneto that "direct and indirect effects to threatened and endangered species... are reasonably certain to occur," referring to the western yellow-billed cuckoo, the southwestern willow flycatcher and northern Mexican gartersnake.

[pix This August, 2013 photo provided by Point Blue Conservation Science shows a yellow-billed cuckoo, which has made the western United States its breeding ground for many years. But the migratory bird, which otherwise lives in Latin America, has seen its population dwindle in the past few decades because its habitats have been marred. NThe U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Thursday, Oct. 2, 2014, announced that the western population of the yellow-billed cuckoo has been listed as a threatened species and will be protected under the Endangered Species Act. The bird resides in 12 western states and in Mexico and Canada, but Arizona has the largest population. (AP Photo/Point Blue Conservation Science, Mark Dettling)

He ordered that a full scale "biological assessment," which can take months and bring additional litigation, was needed before the project could move ahead. He also wrote that the Clean Water Act permit issued earlier by the Army Corps "should not have been issued."

Spangle assumed the project would move ahead with the assessment he ordered, like other projects he had worked on. Then in August 2017, he says, he received an unusual phone call from Peg Romanik, an associate solicitor at the Interior Department.

"[S]he told me that she had gotten a call from a high-level political appointee within the Department of the Interior who informed her that our position out here, in Arizona, was not the position of the administration," Spangle told CNN.

During that call, Spangle said he was strongly pressured to reverse his decision on Vigneto; his reversal would remove a major hurdle for the project and allow it to move forward without the in-depth biological assessment he asked for.

Romanik met with Bernhardt at 8:30 a.m. the same day that she called Spangle, according to Bernhardt's calendar, which does not list what was discussed.

The phone call and reversal were first reported by the Arizona Daily Star, but the name of the solicitor and her meeting with Bernhardt have not been previously reported.

Spangle said it was the first time in his career that he was asked to change an official decision he had made, saying it "wasn't a good feeling, but I felt I had a duty. I work for the administration, I have to do what I'm told, and so I did."

On October 26, 2017, Spangle issued a new decision, reversing his earlier letter, and allowing the project to move ahead without the full biological assessment. He retired four months later.

Romanik did not return a call requesting comment.

Developer's contacts with Trump administration

Ingram is a wealthy and powerful figure in Arizona. El Dorado Holdings is one of the largest private landholders in the southwestern US, with assets exceeding $1 billion. Ingram is also one of the owners of the Arizona Diamondbacks, the state's Major League Baseball team.

CNN has found a trail of contacts between the developer and top government officials, along with political contributions, that raise questions of access and influence.

Ingram co-chaired a "Camouflage and Cufflinks" fundraiser around the time of Trump's inauguration, which offered a private reception with the President, and a hunting trip withDonald Trump Jr, and Eric Trump in exchange for a $500,000 donation. The event was canceled after ethical questions surfaced over buying access to the President and his sons.

An avid hunter, Ingram is a director of the non-profit Safari Club International Foundation, which Bernhardt formerly represented as an attorney, according to Bernhardt's financial disclosure statement.

Ingram was also appointed by then-Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke to the International Wildlife Conservation Council, an official federal group set up to advise on issues related to "citizens traveling to foreign nations to engage in hunting," according to its website.

Several weeks after Spangle received the phone call asking for his reversal, Ingram made a one- time $10,000 donation to the Trump Victory Fund. Since November 2015, Ingram donated $50,900 to political committees supporting Trump. In the same time frame, Ingram donated $6,050 to Democrats.

Since the beginning of the Trump administration, Ingram or his representatives had at least 11 meetings, emails or phone calls with top officials at Interior and EPA, including one meeting with Zinke, two meetings and three emails withthen-EPA Secretary Scott Pruitt, and at least five meetings with Bernhardt, who succeeded Zinke as Interior secretary earlier this year.

Ingram declined CNN's request for an interview, but Davis, El Dorado Holding's attorney, says his client has done nothing wrong.

"The innuendo is, well, he's close to Trump, there must've been political influence," Davis said in an interview, adding, "That's just innuendo. I can't negate that because it's a quote 'feeling.'"

While Davis confirmed to CNN the meetings between Ingram and administration officials, he said there was nothing untoward about them.

Davis points to a recent letter sent by the US and Fish and Wildlife Service to the Army Corps of Engineers, which reiterated that the reversal by Spangle was the correct course of action. The letter also said, "we take the allegations made by Mr. Spangle seriously," and that a re-evaluation was done at the local level without influence from regional or Washington, DC headquarters.

"[T]he local Fish and Wildlife Service... [said] that the likely impact on endangered species is not sufficient to stop this project," Davis said, adding that the facts contradict any suggestion that the federal agency was influenced by Ingram. "If you focus on facts, the facts are that the Army Corps of Engineers made a decision on the facts under the law," Davis added.

The letter, dated June 12, 2019, was given to CNN by Davis just days after CNN requested an interview with Ingram, and was a response to a May 23 request by the Army Corps of Engineers.

CNN sent Interior a detailed list of questions about the Vigneto project asking about the phone call to Spangle, why he was pressured to reverse his decision, why Bernhardt had a secret meeting with Ingram, and whether that led to the pressure on Spangle to reverse his order. CNN also asked to do an interview with Bernhardt. Interior declined to answer those questions.

Environmentalists who oppose the project in Arizona are livid.

"I think it's the most blatant example most people have seen of how people with power and money, connections and influence, have changed how the system is supposed to work, " said Tricia Gerrodette, a local resident and activist. "We're supposed to work under the laws and science. And science was overridden here."

Gerrodette is on the board of the Tucson Audubon Society, one of six environmental groups which filed a joint lawsuit earlier this year demanding the Army Corps complete a full Environmental Impact Statement, and the Corps once again suspended the permit for the Villages at Vigneto development. The case is still pending.

El Dorado Holdings has argued it does not need a permit to begin construction, and it would be willing to change the footprint of the development to avoid federal waters if needed.

But with Spangle's reversal and the Fish and Wildlife Service backing that decision it is expected the corps will lift the suspension on the original 2006 permit. Environmentalists vow they will fight on in the courts, because they believe the project will destroy the underground aquifer.

"The development will ruin this area. It will drain the aquifer and kill it," Gerrodette said.

Clarification: This story has been clarified to reflect that the suspension is expected to be lifted from the original 2006 permit, and updated to include the May 23 request by the Army Corps of Engineers.

CNN's Collette Richards contributed to this report.

Trump Jr.: Modern Teddy Roosevelt or conservation letdown?

The president's eldest son was once offered as a direct line to the White House for conservationists, but that may be gone now.

By Michael Doyle and Jennifer Yachnin in Greenwire1:31 PM EDT

https://www.alternet.org/2019/07/don-jr-reportedly-accuses-kushner-of-leaking-2016-trump-tower-meeting-as-pair-battle-for-control-in-2020-campaign-really-dislike-each-other/

Harris, 54, was born in Oakland, California to a father from Jamaica and a mother from India. She spoke of her experience growing up black in the debate, recalling a story about neighbors who wouldn’t let their children play with Harris and her sister because of the color of their skin.

The attacks on Harris’s background started Thursday when Ali Alexander tweeted she is not an “American black.”

“She is half Indian and half Jamaican,” Alexander wrote. “I'm so sick of people robbing American Blacks (like myself) of our history. It's disgusting. Now using it for debate time at #DemDebate2? These are my people not her people. Freaking disgusting.”

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escalator/ reddit?

Here's how a fringe smear targeting E. Jean Carroll reached Donald Trump Jr.

Blog ››› June 26, 2019 6:35 PM EDT ››› ALEX KAPLAN

Sarah Wasko / Media Matters

After author and advice columnist E. Jean Carroll reported that President Donald Trump sexually assaulted her in the 1990s, the president's son, Donald Trump Jr., pushed a conspiracy theory that the claim was "ripped-off a plot" from a 2012 episode of NBC procedural Law & Order. Before being amplified by Trump Jr., the conspiracy theory was spread by a Twitter account associated with the QAnon conspiracy theory and another account whose content has regularly been shared by “seemingly-automated accounts.” It has also been pushed by the Daily Mail's political editor.

On June 21, Carroll wrote in New York magazine’s The Cut that 23 years ago, Trump assaulted her in a department store dressing room. According to Carroll, Trump “lunge[d] at me, pushe[d] me against the wall, hitting my head quite badly, and [put] his mouth against my lips.” She wrote that he then pulled down her tights and assaulted her. Carroll told two close friends at the time, both of whom “confirmed the allegations to New York and to [The New York] Times.”

Even though her friends confirmed that Carroll told them about the incident at the time, social media accounts and message boards have claimed that Carroll “ripped-off a plot” from an episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit that dealt with a similar sexual assault against an actor. However, the episode aired in 2012, well over a decade after the incident allegedly occurred.

Here’s how the smear spread from social media to message boards to some right-wing sites and to Donald Trump Jr.:

Twitter user @RickMcCargar:

Twitter user @tksusie:

Twitter user @thebradfordfile (real name John Bradford Williams) also tweeted about the Law & Order episode. The Outline reported last year that Williams’ account has “more than 100,000 followers, a penchant for spreading far-right propaganda, and a curious network of seemingly-automated accounts regularly amplifying the reach of its tweets.” One of Williams’ former coworkers told The Outline that Williams “farms a significant portion of his engagement from direct-message based group chats on Twitter”:

8chan’s "/pol/" amplified @thebradfordfile’s tweet:

Twitter account @Trump454545 posted a clip of the episode in a tweet calling for Carroll to be prosecuted. The account's profile contains a hashtag of the abbreviated slogan for the QAnon conspiracy theory -- “where we go one, we go all” or “WWG1WGA”:

Reddit forum “r/The_Donald” amplified the smearand @thebradfordfile and @Trump454545’s tweets:

Twitchy cited @thebradfordfile to push the claim:

Twitter user @thebradfordfile then dug up this clip from “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.” The detectives are interviewing a man who’s hired to play out women’s rape fantasies, and he mentions one in particular that took place … in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room.

No, for real.

A user on 4chan’s “/pol/” cited the same link that @thebradfordfile tweeted earlier.

YouTube conspiracy theorist and far-right troll Mark Dice tweeted another video of the episode (Donald Trump Jr. liked the tweet):

Model and reality television star Mindy Robinson later tweeted the same video as the account @Trump454545 did:

Multiple videos of the episode were posted on YouTube to push the smear:

The Gateway Pundit published a piece headlined “Fraud Gets Caught! Crackpot Trump Accuser’s Story Likely Stolen from Law and Order Episode of Rape Fantasy in Bergdorf Dressing Room (VIDEO).”The article cited both @thebradfordfile and @Trump454545 to push the claim:

Boston Herald columnist Adriana Cohen quoted tweeted Robinson's post of the video.

Donald Trump Jr. also quote tweeted Robinson’s post of the video to push the smear, writing, “As long as the media gives these nut jobs unfettered air time they will keep coming”:

Multiple other conservative figures also pushed Robinson’s tweet, including right-wing commentator David Wohl, the Daily Mail’s David Martosko, former speechwriter for President George W. Bush Ned Ryun, and RedState:

Additionally, when searching for Carroll’s name on Google (via incognito search), the phrase “e jean carroll law and order” now appears as an automatic search suggestion:

Posted In

Sexual Harassment & Sexual Assault

Network/Outlet

4chan, Reddit, Gateway Pundit, Google, Twitter

Person

Donald Trump Jr., David Wohl, David Martosko

Show/Publication

Twitchy.com, YouTube, RedState

Stories/Interests

Fake News

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Donald Trump Jr joined an army of dubious social media trolls to target Kamala Harris with a racist smear

written by Travis Gettys / Raw Story June 28, 2019

President Donald Trump sarcastically asked Vladimir Putin not to meddle in the 2020 election — hours after his son helped amplify an attack on Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) that was pushed by suspicious bot accounts.

Shortly after Harris dealt former Vice President Joe Biden a devastating blow by questioning his commitment to racial justice, Donald Trump Jr. retweeted a post questioning the California Democrat’s own racial credentials.The president’s son later deleted his post, but not after an army of sketchy-looking Twitter accounts began pushing the same theme just minutes later.

A lot of suspect accounts are pushing the “Kamala Harris is not Black” narrative tonight. It’s everywhere and it has all the signs of being a coordinated/artificial operation. #DemDebate2 pic.twitter.com/DTeB2qWJnm

— Caroline Orr (@RVAwonk) June 28, 2019

That message was further amplified byKatrina Pierson, the president’s former campaign spokeswoman.

Kamala Harris is going to get a stern talking to after the debate. Can’t play the race card without going all the way…Obama did choose Biden &none one yelled foul! Obama is actually African American – Kamala Harris is not. Who is best to speak for the AA Community? #DemDebate2

— Katrina Pierson (@KatrinaPierson) June 28, 2019

Kirk, a former contributor to Breitbart News, the online platform of the racist alt-right, is an ally of the Trump administration. He worked for the Trump campaign in 2016 and spoke at the Republican National Convention that year. Kirk has appeared on Fox News alongside members of the Trump family.

Two members of the TPUSA advisory council, investor Gentry Beach and Thomas Hicks, Jr., the son of a Dallas billionaire, worked with Trump’s sons Donald Jr. and Eric to establish a Texas nonprofit to sell access to the president to big donors during inauguration festivities in January. Beach and Hicks, who were both national vice chairmen of the Trump campaign, raised millions of dollars for the campaign. Beach has visited the White House multiple times in 2017.

Beach’s father, Gary, was indicted on five charges of bankruptcy fraud in 2016. Charlie Kirk's father is allegedly Robert W. Kirk, the project architect manager for Trump Tower in New York City.

“We stay totally removed from restricted political activity,” said Kirk. “Instead, we focus on starting chapters, hosting debates on campus, planning training seminars, and hosting national training conferences such as our upcoming one in Palm Beach in December.”

One day after the midterm elections in which the Republicans lost the House majority, President Trump once again sought to flip the script by firing his longtime nemesis, Attorney General Jeff Sessions. He announced the dismissal in an especially sour press conference, during which he berated all the losing Republicans for failing to tether themselves close enough to him, which he of course insisted sealed their defeat.

This article was originally published at Salon

===

General in the Meme Wars official title

Donald Trump Jr. Shares Yet Another Strange Meme Of His Dad

www.huffpost.com › entry › donald-trump-jr-weird-me...

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:{Mar 6, 2020 - Donald :{Trump Jr:(style="font-weight:bold"):}:. Shares Yet Another Strange :{Meme:(style="font-weight:bold"):}: Of His Dad. Donald :{Trump's:(style="font-weight:bold"):}: son posted an edited picture of the president with a man bun ...:(style="overflow-wrap:break-word"):}:

Donald Trump Jr. meme: Fact-checking a dangerous mask ...

www.cnn.com › 2020/07/02 › politics › donald-trump-jr-...

Jul 3, 2020 - President Donald Trump has finally started to encourage people to wear masks, even while not wearing one himself. Meanwhile, his son ...

Donald Trump Jr. (@donaldjtrumpjr) • Instagram photos and ...

www.instagram.com › donaldjtrumpjr

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:{Donald :{Trump Jr:(style="font-weight:bold"):}:. :{General:(style="font-weight:bold"):}: in the :{Meme:(style="font-weight:bold"):}: Wars, EVP of Development & Acquisitions The @:{Trump:(style="font-weight:bold"):}: Organization, Father, Outdoorsman, dad of @kaitrumpgolfer.:(style="overflow-wrap:break-word"):}:

Donald Trump Jr. Posts a Pornhub Meme of His Father - The Cut

www.thecut.com › 2019/03 › donald-trump-jr-pornhub-...

Mar 27, 2019 - Donald Trump Jr. posted a meme of his father, President Donald Trump, ... The meme was shared by Don Jr. two days after Attorney General ...

Donald Trump Jr. Posts Bizarre 'Tiger King' Meme of Dad ...

people.com › Politics

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:{Mar 31, 2020 - Donald :{Trump Jr:(style="font-weight:bold"):}:. Bizarrely Shares :{Meme:(style="font-weight:bold"):}: of His Father as Tiger ... obvious that President :{Trump:(style="font-weight:bold"):}: doesn't love him, and :{Junior's:(style="font-weight:bold"):}: attempts to get ...:(style="overflow-wrap:break-word"):}:

Donald Trump Jr. Shares White Supremacist Meme | Vanity Fair

www.vanityfair.com › news › 2016/09 › donald-trump...

:{:(style="border-color:#70757a;;border-style:solid;border-width:5px 4px 0px;width:0px;height:0px;margin-left:3px;top:7.5px;margin-top:-3px;position:absolute;left:0px"):}:

:{Sep 11, 2016 - Apparently, Don :{Jr:(style="font-weight:bold"):}:. is happy to be in the company of Pepe the Frog.:(style="overflow-wrap:break-word"):}:

Missing: general ‎| Must include:general

Donald Trump Jr.'s worst moments of 2019 (so far) - Mashable

mashable.com › article › donald-trump-jr-worst-mome...

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:{Jun 26, 2019 - Donald :{Trump Jr:(style="font-weight:bold"):}:. has had plenty of embarrassing moments so far in 2019. ... :{Junior:(style="font-weight:bold"):}: loves :{memes:(style="font-weight:bold"):}:. ... In the case of online shopping — or shopping, in :{general:(style="font-weight:bold"):}: — the rule that "good things come to those who wait" doesn't apply ...:(style="overflow-wrap:break-word"):}:

Donald Trump Jr posts crusader symbol image amid Middle ...

www.theguardian.com › us-news › jan › donald-trump-...

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:{Jan 7, 2020 - President's son poses with assault rifle bearing Jerusalem cross, with historian criticising Instagram post as 'inflammatory':(style="overflow-wrap:break-word"):}:

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Donald Trump Jr. in Woods Sitting on Tree Stump Becomes ...

nymag.com › intelligencer › 2017/03 › donald-trump-jr-i...

Mar 18, 2017 - Donald Trump Jr. Walked Into the Woods a Man and Walked Out a Meme. By Madison Malone Kircher.

===

But firing Sessions didn’t lift Trump’s spirits as much as he might have hoped. He was reported to be depressed and upset because of the rumors that were flying all over town that his number one son, Donald Trump Jr., was about to be indicted by special counsel Robert Mueller. Vanity Fair reported:

In recent days, according to three sources, Don Jr. has been telling friends he is worried about being indicted as early as this week. One person close to Don Jr. speculated that Mueller could indict him for making false statements to Congress and the F.B.I. about whether he had told his father about the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting with Russians to gather “dirt” on Hillary Clinton.

It was already well known by this time that Junior had lied to the congressional committees, soft-pedalinghis knowledge of the Trump Tower project and failing to divulge the information that he’d met with other emissariesof foreign countries about possibly help for the Trump campaign. So the notion that he was in Mueller’s crosshairs as well wasn’t exactly a surprise.

Mueller never indicted Junior, obviously. But despite Trump and his allies’ insistence that the special counsel’s report “cleared” him, it’s not true. Mueller never interviewed Don Jr., and redactions in the report point strongly to the likely scenario that he was subpoenaed by the grand jury and took the Fifth. The general consensus is that Mueller concluded that Junior’s collusion was so dumb that he couldn’t possibly have been involved in a criminal conspiracy.

But Mueller isn’t the only game in town. As it turns out, the Senate Intelligence Committee still wanted Don Jr. to come back and testify again before the senators. (He’d previously only spoken to the staff.) They asked him nicely but unlike all the others who’d testified under the same agreement, including his brother-in-law, Jared Kushner, Don Jr. apparently refused. So sometime between a month ago and a week ago (news reports differ on the timing) the committee issued a subpoena. When the news leaked on Wednesday, Trump Jr. and his allies completely lost their minds.

This hysterical statement was issued to the news media:

The “so-called ‘Republican’ Senator” described as “cowardly” would be Richard Burr of North Carolina, chair of the Intelligence Committee. That leak happened on the day after Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell had declared “case closed,” which is probably not a coincidence. Someone on the committee likely thought it might be useful to have it out there that the only truly bipartisan Russia investigation on Capitol Hill was still in operation, making it clear that McConnell’s words were only rhetorical.

Trump’s allies raced to Junior’s rescue, particularly those who are facing re-election in 2020, reportedly after being reminded that they might not want to anger the president and cause him to endorse a primary opponent against them. Following the intemperate words of that “source” close to Trump Jr. calling Burr a coward, other Republicans came forward to condemn their colleague — a highly unusual occurrence, especially within the GOP — and call for the committee investigation to be shut down.

It was quite a temper tantrum, joined by the president himself:

It’s clear that Trump is only aware of the sunny Mueller Report Cliff Notes he sees on Fox News, so he probably unaware that Burr also acted as a back channel during the investigation, speaking to former White House counsel Don McGahn about whom the committee had interviewed. But Trump mentioned that Burr had said publicly that his committee had found no evidence of collusion and seemed confused since he had obviously considered Burr to be among his loyal henchmen.

Burr is a strange figure in all this. He has gone out of his way to avoid appearing publicly with Trump, supposedly to avoid the appearance of a conflict even as he shared info with the White House and intervenedwith the press on Trump’s behalf. He has managed to work congenially with Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, the panel’s ranking Democrat, and by all accounts the committee investigation itself has not been compromised.

Why Burr has decided to subpoena the president’s son, if it’s simply a mopping-up exercise, as other Republicans on the committee have implied, remains mysterious. Some people assume it’s because Burr believes that lying to his committee under oath is wrong no matter what, and he wants to preserve the integrity of the process. Others think it’s because this is his last term in the Senate and he’s decided to take a stand. (Burr has said he will not run for re-election in 2022.)

It’s tempting to believe that. Burr’s back-channel activities with the White House are reminiscent of Sen. Howard Baker of Watergate fame, the Tennessee Republican known for his repeated question, “What did the president know and when did he know it?” It was later learned that Baker had secretly provided the Nixon White House with information about the Watergate committee’s investigation; his question was designed to protect Richard Nixon, under the assumption that Nixon hadn’t known anything about the criminal cover-up. When it could no longer be denied that Nixon knew everything, Baker changed sides and sealed his reputation as a man of integrity, even though the truth was much murkier than that.

There have been so many of these possible parallels between Republicans of the Watergate era and today, and none of them have panned out. I’m no longer willing to extend the possibility. That species of Republicans who are willing to do the right thing, however reluctantly, has gone extinct. I don’t know why Burr has gone that extra mile, but I doubt that he intends to nail Donald Trump Jr. with a perjury rap or to expose the president’s collusion with Russia. It may just be that Burr thought Don Jr. would end up complying and they could have a nice little sit-down to clear the air. In any case, the likelihood of the Republican Senate sending a criminal referral to William Barr for Don Jr.’s lies under oath are about the same as the chances President Trump will join the Space Force for its first trip to the moon.

This would all have probably blown over if the Trump administration, and Trump’s entire family as well, hadn’t decided to stonewall all congressional requests, no matter what they are, in order to put on a show for the base and run out the clock on the myriad of outstanding legal issues. But Don Jr., not being the sharpest fellow of all time, didn’t realize that stonewalling the Senate won’t really work — since the Senate is run by Republicans, after all — and he ended up causing a huge mess inside Trump’s own party. He’s a real chip off the old block.

busted for lying about trump twr?

Republican senators are rallying around Donald Trump Jr. after one of their colleagues issued him a subpoena — and he plans to fight it tooth and nail.

President Donald Trump’s son doesn’t intend to show up to answer questions from the Senate Intelligence Committee about apparent falsehoods in his previous congressional testimony, which would then set off a constitutional showdown, reported Axios.

Defying the subpoena would essentially dare Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC), the committee’s chairman who issued the order, to hold the president’s eldest son in contempt, but Trump Jr. could also plead the Fifth Amendment in writing or, most likely, reach a compromise to answer the panel’s questions in writing.

no lnx twt

Here’s why Trump Jr. is so terrified of a 29-year-old Latina

Here’s why Trump Jr. is so terrified of a 29-year-old Latina Gage Skidmore

written by Common Dreams March 29, 2019

Hillary Clinton is no longer the most targeted Republican foe—that dubious honor, ahead of the 2020 election, belongs to freshman Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. The New York Democrat’s rise to prominence…

Hillary Clinton is no longer the most targeted Republican foe—that dubious honor, ahead of the 2020 election, belongs to freshman Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

The New York Democrat’s rise to prominence in the GOP mind was on full display Thursday evening in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where President Donald Trump held a “rambling and lie-filled rally,” as Common Dreams reported early Friday.

Before the president took the stage, however, his son Donald Trump, Jr., warmed up the crowd by taking potshots at Ocasio-Cortez.

“Think about the fact that every mainstream, leading Democratic contender is taking the advice of a freshman congresswoman who three weeks ago didn’t know the three branches of government,” Jr. said, referring to the Green New Deal. “I don’t know about you guys, but that’s pretty scary.”

Those comments were met with a chant of “AOC sucks” from the pro-Trump crowd.

“You guys, you’re not very nice,” said Jr. “And neither is what that policy would do to this country.”

Washington Post reporter Isaac Stanley-Becker noted that Ocasio-Cortez may be replacing Clinton as the president’s party’s primary foe heading to 2020. Chants about the New York Democrat “testified to the first-term congresswoman’s rapid ascent to GOP public enemy No. 1, a position that took Clinton slightly longer to reach,” said Stanley-Becker.

Ocasio-Cortez’s place at the top of conservative horror stories is due in part to a concerted campaign in right wing media against the freshman Democrat. In a piece on the rise of the New York Democrat to the front of the right wing mind, Washington Postanalyst Philip Bump put it simply:

Ocasio-Cortez is polarizing and vocal. So Fox News and conservatives make her the “face of the Democratic Party” and focus their rhetoric on her. As a result, Republicans are more likely to know who she is. And what they know, they don’t like.

The congresswoman, on Twitter, wryly noted the push by the right to attack her.

“It’s almost as though there is a directed + concerted far-right propaganda machine with a whole cable news channel, and a dark-money internet operation propped up by the Mercers et al dedicated to maligning me & stoking [national] division, reported on by @JaneMayerNYer or something,” said Ocasio-Cortez.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

@AOC

It’s almost as though there is a directed + concerted far-right propaganda machine with a whole cable news channel, and a dark-money internet operation propped up by the Mercers et al dedicated to maligning me & stoking nat’l division, reported on by @JaneMayerNYer or something

Brett LoGiurato

@BrettLoGiurato

It's ... interesting ... that only 23% of Republicans haven't heard enough about @AOC to form an opinion, compared to a sizable 44% of Democrats https://poll.qu.edu/national/release-detail?ReleaseID=2611 …

View image on Twitter

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Other commentators noted the right wing obsession with Ocasio-Cortez and questioned where it comes from.

“Wow @realDonaldTrump really hates women,” tweeted Oregon writer Nick Jaynes.

Nick Jaynes

@NickJaynes

'AOC sucks!' chant breaks out at Trump's Michigan rally against @AOC. Wow @realDonaldTrump really hates women. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2019/03/28/trump-rallygoers-chant-aoc-sucks-against-alexandria-ocasio-cortez/3304962002/ …

7:30 PM - Mar 28, 2019

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'AOC SUCKS!' chant breaks out at Trump rally as Trump Jr. blasts Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

Trump rallygoers chant 'AOC SUCKS' against Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's Green New Deal 'AOC SUCKS!' chant breaks out at Trump rally against Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's Green New Deal

usatoday.com

See Nick Jaynes's other Tweets

“So terrified of a 29 year old Latina,” observed political analyst Andy Ostroy.

Andy Ostroy

@AndyOstroy

So terrified of a 29 year old Latina... https://apple.news/AUm0ZPH-RT8WdvjN12k2Nzw …

6:12 PM - Mar 28, 2019

Twitter Ads info and privacy

Trump rally crowd hits Ocasio-Cortez with 'AOC sucks' chant in Michigan

Part of the crowd at a Trump rally in Michigan started chanting "AOC sucks," referencing Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), after Donald Trump Jr. criticized her ideas.

apple.news

22 people are talking about this

But, as reporter Colby Itkowitz pointed out, the focus on Ocasio-Cortez didn’t mean that Clinton was completely forgotten.

“It’s going to be a long 19 months,” said Itkowitz.

Colby Itkowitz

@ColbyItkowitz

To recap Trump's rally last night: crowd chanted "AOC sucks," "lock her up" (still about Clinton), Trump claimed "total exoneration," warned of a deep state coup, mocked asylum seekers... It's going to be a long 19 months... https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/the-russia-hoax-is-finally-dead-at-michigan-rally-trump-declares-victory-in-mueller-investigation/2019/03/28/715b6b64-51a9-11e9-a3f7-78b7525a8d5f_story.html?utm_term=.dc160aa7e102 …

5:47 AM - Mar 29, 2019

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‘The Russia hoax is finally dead’: At Michigan rally, Trump declares victory in Mueller investiga...

The president attacked Democrats and the news media for “a sinister effort” to sabotage his 2016 election.

washingtonpost.com

50 people are talking about this...

Economics reporter debunks Donald Trump Jr.’s boasting as new data reveal his financial illiteracy

suggest cand in wm barr afterglow?

3/19

https://www.alternet.org/2019/03/trump-to-sign-executive-order-mandating-campus-free-speech/

no lnx

Trump to sign executive order mandating campus ‘free speech’

Trump to sign executive order mandating campus ‘free speech’ White House/Shealah Craighead

written by David Badash / The New Civil Rights Movement March 21, 2019

255

At 3:30 Thursday afternoon President Donald Trump is scheduled to sign the executive order he promised while speaking at the far right Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC)several weeks ago. The order, framed as protecting “free speech” on college and university campuses, is actually a direct threat to defund them by rescinding a wide array of federal grants for research and other programs.

Embedded video

CPAC 2020

@CPAC

“I will be signing an executive order requiring colleges and universities to support free speech if they want federal research dollars” @realDonaldTrump #CPAC2019 #WhatMakesAmericaGreat

Trump isn’t actually advocating for “free speech,” he’s working to make it easier for far right extremist groups and their positions to enter the marketplace of ideas – unencumbered, and without context or warning, on the nation’s colleges and universities. It is a literal attempt to move the nation to the right – or alt-right – starting with college-aged Americans.

Leading up to the push for the executive order are several years of conservative outrage that came to national attention when far right wing or extremist pundits like Ann Coulter, Ben Shapiro, and Milo Yiannopoulos saw their speeches canceled at various colleges, mostly due to overwhelming outrage from students who pay thousands or tens of thousands of dollars to receive an education.

According to the President’s son, Donald Trump Jr., today’s executive order is the result of a “push” from the far right wing group Turning Point USA (TPUSA), founded by conservative activist Charlie Kirk.

Donald Trump Jr.

@DonaldJTrumpJr

Super excited today that @realdonaldTrump is signing an executive order today to protect free speech rights for ALL students!

Great work by @TPUSA and @charliekirk11 who have been pushing this since the first time I met him years ago

A big momentous day! #MAGA

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Kirk, perhaps best known for being a close friend of Donald Trump Jr., is also known for the embarrassingly false tweets he produces on a regular basis. Trump Jr. and TPUSA are closely aligned, as are TPUSA and the Trump campaign. Politico calls Kirk “Trump’s man on campus,” and The Weekly Standard called him “Kid Trump.” Trump last year was interviewed by Kirk at a White House event for college students hosted by an anti-gay hate group.

One year ago, almost as if publishing a prediction, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) warned of “Turning Point USA’s blooming romance with the alt-right.”

Fast forward to this past December.

Kirk and TPUSA’s Communications Director Candace Owenstraveled to London to launch Turning Point in the UK, as Buzzfeed News reported last month.

Owens, in a discussion with potential recruits, brought up Hitler and, as many reports state, appeared to defend him, saying, “if Hitler just wanted to make Germany great and have things run well, OK, fine. The problem is that he wanted, he had dreams outside of Germany.”

Headlines encapsulated her remarks:

“Candace Owens: Hitler Was ‘OK’ Until He Tried to Go Global” (Daily Beast)

“One of Trump’s most vocal black supporters seemed to defend Hitler in a recent speech” (Washington Post)

“Candace Owens’ Bonkers Take On Nationalism Includes A Defense Of Hitler” (Huffpost)

“Candace Owens: If Hitler Was Just a Nationalist, He’d Be Fine” (Ebony)

One year earlier, in December of 2017, the award winning journalist Jane Mayer at The New Yorker published an article on TPUSA titled, “A Conservative Nonprofit That Seeks to Transform College Campuses Faces Allegations of Racial Bias and Illegal Campaign Activity.”

That lengthy and in-depth article includes this disturbing revelation:

As Turning Point’s profile has risen, so has scrutiny of its funding and tactics. Internal documents that I obtained, as well as interviews with former employees, suggest that the group may haveskirted campaign-finance laws that bar charitable organizations from participating in political activity. Former employees say that they were directed to work with prominent conservatives, including the wife of the Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, in aid of Republican Presidential candidates in 2016. Perhaps most troubling for an organization that holds up conservatives as the real victims of discrimination in America, Turning Point USA is also alleged to have fostered an atmosphere that is hostile to minorities. Screenshots provided to me by a source show that Crystal Clanton, who served until last summer as the group’s national field director, sent a text message to another Turning Point employee saying, “i hate black people. Like fuck them all .?.?. I hate blacks. End of story.”

This is the organization that President Trump, the Trump family, and the Trump campaign are not only intimately involved with, but now creating national policy with.

All Americans, but especially college students, educators, researchers, and actual civil rights supporters and advocates, should be extremely concerned.

AN 119

A consulting firm with ties to Israeli intelligence pitched a plan to the Trump campaign to use social media and foreign assistance to interfere with the 2016 election that turned out to be eerily similar to Russian meddling.

Wikistrat started gaming out a foreign influence campaign just days after Donald Trump entered the race, and an associated firm pitched senior campaign official Rick Gates on the plan in April 2016, reported The Daily Beast.

The pitch by Psy Group, which is reportedly owned by Wikistrat founder Joel Zamel, laid out an election influence campaign that involved creating thousands of fake social media accounts to support Trump, and Zamel himself took part in at least two meetings in Washington in 2016 and 2017.

His staff at Psy Group continued making connections about their social media manipulation scheme with individuals who represented themselves as close to the Trump campaign.

Zamel met with Donald Trump Jr. after his father became the Republican presidential nominee to discuss the plan, which resembled the election interference already underway by Russia and the scenario described by Wikistrat the year before.

Special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigators have already questioned Zamel, who is so low-profile that no public photos of him are known, and Gates has agreed to cooperate as part of a plea agreement.

It’s not clear whether the Psy Group plans were ever implemented, but some former employees said at least parts of them were carried out.

An attorney for Wikistrat pointed out the firm had conducted hundreds of simulations on a variety of scenarios, and many in the cybersecurity world were concerned about foreign election interference when Psy Group conducted the sim.

But one former employee who helped create the 2015 report said the accuracy of their predictions are spooky in retrospect.

“At the time we were discussing the subject of cyber-interference in democratic processes, it seemed and felt like just another idle intellectual exercise and scenario planning project for political scientists,” said Peter Marino, a former Wikistrat analyst. “But retrospectively, it feels a bit too on-the-nose not to be disturbing.”

sandmann

Charlie Kirk

@charliekirk11

How could anyone still trust the media after this weekend?

Fake “bombshell” built on lies with anonymous sources that was debunked by the special counsel [buzzfeed?]

The attempted public lynching of high school kids on lies just because they wrote Trump hats

Journalism is dead.

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The president’s adult son, Donald Trump Jr., leaned into the campaign on Twitter, citing Posobiec, Kirk and others to question why major accounts had not been banned:

Donald Trump Jr.

@DonaldJTrumpJr

Waiting for you to do the right thing and retract this... oh who am I kidding? You couldn’t care less about what’s right or true, just your leftist narrative.

Rep. Louie Gohmert repeats disgusting lie about George Soros helping the Nazis.

George Soros, the wealthy Hungarian-born Jewish billionaire philanthropist, is frequently a target of anti-Semitic attacks.

This week, one such attack came from Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX), and host Stuart Varney was apparently so caught off-guard by Gohmert's casual hate speech that he simply tried to move on:

Embedded video

Justin Baragona

@justinbaragona

Holy crap!

Appearing on Fox Biz, Louie Gohmert says "George Soros is supposed to be Jewish but you wouldn't know it from the damage he inflicted on Israel and the fact that he turned on fellow Jews & helped take the property that they owned."

Stuart Varney quickly moves on

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Gohmert is referring to a frequently-debunked lie that Soros helped the Nazis confiscate Jewish property — which is not only false, it is a despicable claim to make against a Holocaust survivor. Sadly, various members of the right, including Donald Trump Jr., have been circulating this claim for a while, hoping to make it stick by repetition.

https://www.propublica.org/getinvolved/how-we-found-donald-trump-jr-secret-investment-in-a-fundraiser-business

Trump Jr. Invested in a Hydroponic Lettuce Company Whose Chair Was Seeking Trump Administration Funds — “Trump, Inc.” Podcast Extra

by Jake Pearson and Peter Elkind

The president’s eldest son last year became the most prominent shareholder in an indoor-lettuce farm while the company’s co-chairman, a friend of Donald Trump Jr.’s and presidential fundraiser, sought federal support for his other business interests.

How We Found Donald Trump Jr.’s Secret Investment in a Fundraiser’s Business

by Jake Pearson and Derek Kravitz

What do an ice rink in Central Park and a golf course in the Bronx have to do with a greenhouse in Texas? Decoding a Trump mystery.

'Could These People Be More Vile?': Donald Trump Jr Dragged on Twitter After He Compares the Democratic Party to Nazis

bannon sez money laundering russian:

putin real estate

https://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/heres-why-trump-tries-so-hard-be-putins-good-side

Trump's insistence on a summit with Vladimir Putin, disregarding the advice of aides and worries of allies, is consistent with his obsession with the Russian leader. But it’s inconsistent with his pattern of choosing policies that resonate with his supporters -- there’s no indication that Trump's followers condone this bromance.

So why does Trump pander to Putin?He won’t criticize him and incessantly flatters and coddles him. He has winked at the annexation of Crimea, threatened NATO, suggested that the G7 should readmit Russia, and done nothing to prevent Russian meddling in U.S. elections.

Many fear Trump will hand Putin unwarranted concessions, like unraveling U.S. sanctions against Russia. Trump was always soft on them anyway. After Russia requested a secretary of state who favored lifting them, Trump obliged, appointing Rex Tillerson instead of Mitt Romney. When Congress enacted sanctions on 15 Russian entities and individuals in 2017, Trump delayed implementing them for seven months and reversed a decision to impose more. What could be motivating Trump's largesse toward Russia? It's hard to argue that it's what’s best for America. A pattern of reported facts suggest it could be personal financial gain.

Throughout the 2000s, Russians bought many apartments in Trump Tower and $100 million worth of Trump properties in Florida. But these sales dropped precipitously in 2014 after the U.S. imposed sanctions on Russian oligarchs for the Crimean incursion. Lifting sanctions would likely restore these sales, and the profits would flow through a trust run by Trump's sons, with the president as sole beneficiary. Indeed, Trump admitted that he’d “be looking at” lifting them.

Trump has many business aspirations in Russia that Putin can make or break. In 1986, Trump met with the Soviet ambassador about building a luxury hotel in Moscow, and announced a potential Trump International complex there. At the 2008 Russian Real Estate Summit, Trump touted plans for condos and hotels in Moscow, St. Petersburg and Sochi. In 2011, he licensed his name to an aborted Azerbaijan hotel for $1 million and promoted a Trump Tower in Kazakhstan. Even as he campaigned for the Republican nomination, Trump signed a letter of intent to build Trump Tower in Moscow.

Trump’s business depends heavily on Russian money. Donald Trump Jr. said in 2008 that “Russians make up a … disproportionate cross-section of … our assets,” and later added, “We see a lot of money pouring in from Russia.” Eric Trump told a journalist, “We don’t rely on American banks; we have all the funding we need out of Russia.” (He later denied saying that.)

In 2008, Deutsche Bank’s real estate group stopped lending to Trump after he defaulted on a $330 million loan. Inexplicably, he subsequently borrowed $75 million from another DB group. European and American regulators punished DB for laundering billions from Moscow.It’s not a huge leap to suspect that Trump’s DB money came from Russia.

The blackmail potential in all these financial shenanigans is abundant. Implicating Trump in almost any of these schemes could expose him to charges of money laundering and bank fraud.Since Trump’s nomination, 70 percent of Trump sales were tolimited liability companies frequently used by Russians to hide their identity, stow cash and, most likely, violate U.S. sanctions.Hundreds of millions of dollars from unidentified sources funded Trump’s unprofitable golf courses in Ireland and Scotland. Testimony before Congress suggests they were used to launder money for the Russian mafia. Steve Bannon told Michael Wolff, in speaking of White House corruption: “This is about money laundering … the path to …Trump goes right through Paul Manafort, Don Junior and Jared Kushner.”

“America first” ideology has actually put Russia first. Leaving the Trans-Pacific Partnership, Iran nuclear deal and Paris Climate Agreement lost America international forums where it communicated, led and influenced. Cutting the State Department’s budget and foreign aid weakened America’s global clout and allowed Putin to expand Russia's sphere of influence.

Trump’s threat to cut aid to Central America damaged trust in the U.S. Now Putin is providing aid there, reopening military bases and building a satellite-tracking station that could spy on the U.S. Trump’s rejection of Obama’s soft Cuba policy may result in a repeat of Cuba’s pivot to Russia after Dwight Eisenhower rejected Cuban efforts for diplomatic and trade ties. Trump’s trade tariffs and insults of EU and Canadian leaders threatens relationships with our closest allies. His escalating criticism of NATO make some worry the United States might actually leave the alliance – the ultimate gift to Putin.

Congressional Republicans are muting their nervousness about Trump giving away the store, settling for bromides about how there's nothing wrong with just talking to Russia. It's hard to imagine how talking under these conditions will serve America's interest, but on the other hand, we may finally see Trump Tower built in Moscow. In keeping his stakes in 500 foreign businesses -- no other president had any – Trump has unprecedented cause to tailor foreign policy for personal gain. He promised to “drain the swamp,” but there are more reptiles in it than ever, and many speak Russian

ref

https://www.buzzfeed.com/aramroston/trump-campaign-co-chair-was-part-of-team-pushing-to?utm_term=.nbZQwp9vr#.swY5yXWN8

Thomas O. Hicks Jr., a wealthy friend of Donald Trump Jr. and a top Trump fundraiser, helped a security company pushing the Trump administration to outsource intelligence missions and covert operations, according to three sources familiar with the plan.

Over the summer and fall, the White House and CIA considered a package of proposals to privatize intelligence operations, including a plan to snatch terrorists overseas in a rendition action, as BuzzFeed News first disclosed. At the center of the plan was a security and intelligence company called Amyntor Group, headquartered in Whitefish, Montana, associated with figures from the Iran-Contra operation of the 1980s. Hicks brokered introductions for this company.

Hicks was the national finance co-chair of the Trump campaign,vice chair of the inauguration committee,and a close friend and hunting buddy of the president’s son, Donald Jr. The 40-year-old Hicks is the son of the billionaire who used to own the Texas Rangers. His role — not previously disclosed — in the effort to secretly privatize intelligence operations underscores the clout and influence of those pushing the Trump administration to take these unusual steps.

Hicks met with key Amyntor figures, according to two sources who were told about the meetings by participants, at least once in a special suite in the Trump International Hotel in Washington, DC, that was billed as secure from electronic surveillance. That room was dubbed the “Tinfoil” suite, the Intercept reported in December. The two sources say he made introductions for Amyntor, though it is unclear to whom he introduced the company officials.

A lawyer for Amyntor, Raymond R. Granger, provided a statement to BuzzFeed News, confirming that Hicks helped broker meetings for the company.

“Tommy Hicks introduced business people he knew to Amyntor representatives as a courtesy to both so the business people could determine whether they were interested in hiring Amyntor. Some of the introductions may have occurred at the Trump International Hotel. Neither Mr. Hicks nor any business with which he is affiliated has hired Amyntor. Furthermore, Mr. Hicks has not, directly or indirectly, invested in or otherwise provided money to Amyntor. With respect to the President’s son, Donald Trump Jr. has nothing to do with Amyntor.”

A representative for Hicks, Arthur Schwartz, declined to address specific questions but said “Mr. Hicks’ role and knowledge” concerning the privatization effort “have been grossly exaggerated.” Donald Trump Jr.’s attorney and the Trump Organization did not respond to requests for comment.

A major reason for the effort to privatize espionage was the belief by some of those involved that the “deep state,” a shadowy network in the government, was sabotaging Trump’s agenda, and that to work effectively Trump, had to use channels outside the CIA. (The president has used the term “deep state” in a tweet, though in reference to the Justice Department rather than the CIA.)

Three sources with knowledge of the company’s proposals have told BuzzFeed News that CIA director Michael Pompeo and other agency officials met Amyntor executives. The CIA declined to comment. Some officials at the National Security Council were also briefed on it, though an NSC spokesperson said that the head of the council, National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster, and other officials had not been aware of it.

After BuzzFeed News exposed the scheme, some intelligence officials privately argued that they had not taken it seriously, and that they were merely humoring those involved. “None of this makes sense,” said one former official who was briefed on it. Amyntor’s advocates were insisting that “we need to do this off the books,” he said.

White House spokesperson Sarah Huckabee Sanders, asked about it in December, said she had not asked the president but “it’s not something that’s currently in the works.”

The Intercept reported that Oliver North and Erik Prince were also involved in the scheme. North is the former Marine Corps officer who was at the center of the Reagan-era Iran-Contra scandal and later became a Fox News TV personality. In the summer and fall of 2017, three sources say, North was involved in meetings and phone calls for the Amyntor plan. North did not respond to phone calls and an email.

Erik Prince, the Blackwater founder, denied involvement through his spokesperson. Prince had been an associate of an Amyntor official, John Maguire. Maguire didn’t return calls for comment.

It’s not clear how Hicks first connected with Amyntor and the cadre of intelligence figures associated with it.

Hicks is a supporter of America First Action, the new pro-Trump super PAC. He’s on the advisory board of Turning Point USA, a group that organizes college students to support conservative political causes, and was recently profiled in the New Yorker.

Aram Roston is an investigative reporter and editor for BuzzFeed News and is based in Washington, DC. His secure PGP fingerprint is D861 374F D725 4F61 39C0 08F1 4575 134B 09D9 B28D

Contact Aram Roston at aram.roston@buzzfeed.com.

Got a confidential tip? Submit it here.

am 1st

another question from February, as shown in the above screenshot from one of the group's reports, respondents were reminded that large companies had given out employee bonuses before they were asked if they agreed with House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi's comment that worker bonuses were "crumbs" compared with corporate windfalls. The results were surprising: A plurality of voters agreed with Pelosi, despite the lopsided question. This would suggest that for Republicans, using the "crumbs" comment as an attack line against Democrats in 2018 campaigns, which Trump has suggested they do, may not be a good idea.

Over the past six months, CNBC monitored America First Policies' website and found hundreds of pages of polling and research paid for by donors whose names are permitted to be kept secret. Much of this polling has since been removed from the site, but a portion of the removed documents are still available online.

America First Policies is not the first nonprofit group created to advance a president's priorities, nor is it the first to conduct intensive polling. Two Obama-linked groups, Priorities USA and Organizing for Action, did the same thing. Priorities USA did not disclose its donors, but OFA did voluntarily, releasing quarterly donor lists.

But by hiring the Trump campaign's pollsters to conduct such a large and secretive Trump-focused data operation, and paying for it with dark money, America First Policies is going well beyond what previous outside nonprofit groups have done.

While a political committee such as the RNC is designed and expected to collect information that helps to win elections, a nonprofit group such as America First Policies — permitted to operate tax-free and accept unlimited donations from donors whose names can be kept secret — is not.

"So you have a situation where large donors are contributing to America First Policies with the understanding that their secret donations are going to be seen as valuable by the president, because this group appears to work so closely with the White House," said Campaign Legal Center's Fischer. "And because these donors are secret, the public and Congress will never know if the White House later took action to advance a donor's interests."

In addition to a slew of senior advisors with ties to Trump, America First Policies has three board members, all of whom are also close to the Trump White House. Its chairman, Tommy Hicks Jr., is the son of a billionaire and a good friend of Donald Trump Jr. He has also reportedly brokered White House introductions for companies seeking business with the Trump administration.

Another board member, Dallas financial executive Roy Bailey, serves as managing director and founding partner of Giuliani Partners LLC, along with former New York City mayor and longtime Trump ally Rudy Giuliani. The newest board member is Harold Hamm, a shale oil billionaire who was Trump's top pick for energy secretary but reportedly turned down the job.

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2018/03/trump-russia-nra-connection-maria-butina-alexander-torshin-guns/

mant links pix

Very Strange Case of Two Russian Gun Lovers, the NRA, and Donald Trump

Here’s what we uncovered about an odd pair from Moscow who cultivated the Trump campaign.

DENISE CLIFTON AND MARK FOLLMAN MAR. 8, 2018 6:00 AM

For more than a year, reports have trickled out about deepening ties among prominent members of the National Rifle Association, conservative Republicans, a budding gun-rights movement in Russia—and their convergence in the Trump campaign.

Now attention is focused around a middle-aged Russian central bank official and a photogenic young gun activist from Siberia who share several passions: posing with assault rifles, making connections with Republican lawmakers and presidential candidates, and publicizing their travels between Moscow and America on social media. Alexander Torshin and his protégé Maria Butina also share an extraordinary status with America’s largest gun lobbying group, according to Torshin: “Today in NRA (USA) I know only 2 people from the Russian Federation with the status of ‘Life Member’: Maria Butina and I,” he tweeted the day after Donald Trump was elected president.

Of particular interest are their overtures to Trump. Butina asked him directly at a campaign event about the future of “damaging” sanctions against Russia. Torshin twice tried to meet with Trump, according to the New York Times, and did meet with Donald Trump Jr. at an NRA event. Meanwhile, the House Intelligence Committee has heard sworn testimony about possible Kremlin “infiltration” of the NRA and other conservative groups. And the FBI reportedly is investigating whether Torshin illegally funneled money to the Trump campaign through the NRA—which backed Trump with a record $30 million.

Torshin, a former Russian senator and longtime ally of Vladimir Putin, has been accused of having ties to the Russian mob (an allegation he has denied). Butina, a graduate student since fall 2016 at American University in Washington, DC—who founded a Russian gun rights group and worked as Torshin’s assistant—has reportedly bragged about her connections to the Trump campaign.

Does this odd pair indicate anything more than a far-flung association of international gun rights advocates? Neither Torshin nor Butina responded to our requests for comment, but we built a timeline from hundreds of their photos and social-media posts going back seven years—including previously unreported material—that stirs further questions about their roles.

Introductions and a new gun group

2011: Torshin, then a Russian senator, is introduced to NRA President David Keene through G. Kline Preston IV, a lawyer from Nashville, Tennessee, who had been doing business in Russia for years. Preston later tells the Washington Post, “The value system of Southern Christians and the value system of Russians are very much in line.”

Butina at the 2014 NRA convention in Indianapolis VK page

2011: Maria Butina, in her early 20s, creates Right to Bear Arms, aiming to seed a gun rights movement in Russia.

2011: US gun manufacturer Arsenal Inc. sells 100 limited-edition AK-74s signed by Mikhail Kalashnikov—a personal friend of Torshin’s—with the anticipated $100,000 or more in proceeds to go to the NRA-ILA, the organization’s political lobbying arm.

NRA magazine America’s First Freedom

December 2011: Preston serves as an international observer of Russia’s legislative elections, calling them free and fair, despite mass street protests and European observers reporting fraudulent activity.

Targeted by the Kremlin

2012: The FBI warns Republican Rep. Dana Rohrabacher—a cold warrior turned Russia apologist who claimed to have once lost a drunken arm-wrestling match to Putin in a Washington dive bar—that the Kremlin aims to recruit him as a source.

April 15, 2012: Torshin tweets about returning from the NRA annual convention to a rally in Moscow for the Right to Bear Arms, where he notes how “similar,” “good-looking,” and “confident” the supporters of both gun groups are.

July 24, 2012: Torshin and Butina lobby the Russian senate to expand gun rights.

November 2012: Torshin and Preston observe the US presidential elections in Nashville and allege improprieties took place on behalf of President Barack Obama.

From Houston to Moscow

May 2013: After attending the NRA annual convention in Houston, Torshin writes, “Kalashnikov couldn’t join me, though we have both been ‘life members’ of the NRA for years,” adding that “dozens of AK-47 clones” on display at the event represented one of “our country’s greatest accomplishments.”

Keene and Butina in a photo posted on Butina’s Facebook page in November 2013

November 2013: Torshin and Butina invite Keene to Moscow for a Right to Bear Arms meeting that draws 200 people and features a fashion show, including attire designed for carrying concealed weapons.

Concealed-carry fashion Right to Bear Arms Facebook page

November 2013: Former UN ambassador and future Trump national security adviser John Bolton appears in a video in which he talks up gun rights in Russia.Bolton is a member of the NRA’s “international affairs subcommittee” at the time. NPR later reports that Bolton recorded the address at Keene’s request for the Russian legislature, and that Right to Bear Arms used the video in its lobbying.

“We would like to be friends with NRA”

January 2014: Following the death of Kalashnikov at age 94, theWashington Times publishes an appreciation written by Torshin. Former NRA President Keene is the op-ed editor at the time.

April 2014: Torshin and Butina attend the NRA convention in Indianapolis, where Butina joins Keene for meetings. Butina later explains the purpose: “We protect gun rights in Russia, and people who are gun owners and in a situation of self-defense.” She adds, “We would like to be friends with NRA.”

September 2014: Paul Erickson—an NRA member and longtime conservative Republican operative from South Dakota—attends a Right to Bear Arms meeting in Moscow with Butina. Erickson has known Butina at least since 2013.

Butina and Erickson in Russia, in a photo posted in November 2013 Facebook

November 18, 2014: Russia changes its laws to allow citizens to carry guns in public for self-defense.

Trump to Butina: “I don’t think you’d need the sanctions”

January 2015: Torshin is appointed deputy governor of the Central Bank of Russia.

March 2015: Butina announces on Facebook that she will attend the NRA’s upcoming convention in Nashville. She notes the importance of “paying attention to the politicians that we have more similarities than differences.”

April 2015: Butina posts about 200 pictures from Nashville, including one with Republican Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin, who she says greeted her in Russian. She notes he’s “one of the possible future nominees for the post of US President,” and ponders the “beginning of a new dialogue between Russia and the US.” Donald Trump also attends, telling the crowd, “I promise you one thing, if I run for president and if I win, the Second Amendment will be totally protected, that I can tell you.” Torshin, also present, later tells Bloomberg that he had a “jovial exchange” with the future president.

Butina at the NRA convention in Nashville VK

April 16, 2015: Butina gives a talk at the University of South Dakota; she says Right to Bear Arms now has 10,000 members and 76 offices “all over Russia.”

June 2015: Four days before Trump announces his campaign, Butina writes in the conservative National Interest urging friendship between “the bear and the elephant”: “It may take the election of a Republican to the White House in 2016 to improve relations between the Russian Federation and the United States.”

July 11, 2015: At FreedomFest in Las Vegas, Butina asks Trump, “What will be your foreign politics…and do you want to continue the politics of sanctions that are damaging on both economy?” Trump responds, “I know Putin and I’ll tell you what, we get along with Putin…I don’t think you’d need the sanctions. I think that we would get along very, very well.”

Q&A with Trump at FreedomFest VK

July 13, 2015: Butina posts photos from the Wisconsin event where Gov. Scott Walker announces his presidential candidacy.

Butina attends Gov. Walker’s campaign launch VK

August 29, 2015: Preston tweets a picture of Trump speaking to the National Federation of Republican Assemblies, posting in Russian, “Donald Trump today in Nashville. He is a friend of Russia.”

September 25, 2015: A Right to Bear Arms post on Facebook features a Trump meme, attributing to him in Russian, “Nobody can encroach on the citizenry’s right to store and carry firearms. Period.”

Right to Bear Arms post

December 8-13, 2015: Erickson, Keene, future NRA President Pete Brownell, and Milwaukee Sheriff David Clarke meet with Kremlin officials in Moscow, where they have lavish meals and visit a gun manufacturer. Clarke, an outspoken Trump supporter, later files an ethics report showing that Right to Bear Arms paid $6,000 for his expenses.

December 10, 2015: Future Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn is also in Moscow, attending a gala for the Kremlin-controlled RT media network. Flynn, who sits next to Putin and across fromfuture Green Party candidate Jill Stein, gives a speech for which he is paid $45,000—a sum he fails to report on his financial disclosure forms.

Campaign ammo

January 21, 2016: Trump speaks at the National Shooting Sports Foundation’s annual “SHOT Show” in Las Vegas; Don Jr. and Eric Trump also attend, posing with representatives fromSig Sauer, whose “Black Mamba” MCX assault rifle would soon be used in the Orlando nightclub massacre. Ten days later, at an event at an Iowa gun shop, Don Jr. and Eric Trump shoot assault rifles and brag about their concealed-carry permits. “I shoot all the time,” Don Jr. tells the Telegraph. “Every weekend.”

February 13, 2016: Torshin writes on Twitter, “Maria Butina is currently in the USA. She writes to me that D. Trump (an NRA member) really is for cooperation with Russia.”

February 2016: Butina and Erickson form Bridges LLC. Erickson later tells McClatchy that they created the South Dakota-based company for Butina to get financial assistance for her graduate studies—“an unusual way to use a LLC,” as McClatchy dryly notes.

February 23, 2016: After winning the Nevada primary, Trump gives a victory speech hailing his sons’ gun bona fides: “[Don Jr.] loves the rifle stuff. This is serious rifle. This is serious NRA, both of them, both of them. We love the Second Amendment folks. Nobody loves it more than us, so just remember that.”

March 3, 2016: In a primary debate, Trump is reminded that in his 2000 book, The America We Deserve, he supported a ban on assault weapons. His response: “I don’t support it anymore.”

May 2016: In an email to Trump campaign aide Rick Dearborn, with the subject line “Kremlin Connection,” Erickson says Russia is “quietly but actively seeking a dialogue with the U.S.” and proposes using the NRA convention to set up “first contact” with the Trump team. According to a New York Times report, Erickson writes that he’s in a position to “slowly begin cultivating a back-channel to President Putin’s Kremlin.” The email doesn’t name Torshin but appears to reference him as “President Putin’s emissary” who planned to attend a dinner hosted by conservative Christian activist Rick Clay. Meanwhile, Clay sends an email to Dearborn with the subject line “Russian backdoor overture and dinner invite,” seeking a meeting between Trump and Torshin. Dearborn forwards Clay’s email to Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who reportedly nixes the proposal.

May 19-20, 2016: Torshin meets Don Jr. at a private dinner the night before his father speaks at the NRA convention in Louisville, Kentucky. Don Jr.’s lawyer later says the exchange “was all gun-related small talk.”

The NRA endorses Trump for president. Trump tells the crowd, “The only way to save our Second Amendment is to vote for a person that you all know named Donald Trump.”

Torshin poses for photos wearing an NRA “Ring of Freedom” donor ID badge.

June 15, 2016: House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy tells fellow GOP leaders in a private conversation, “There’s two people I think Putin pays: Rohrabacher and Trump. Swear to God.” House Speaker Paul Ryan immediately shuts down the conversation and swears those present to secrecy. When a recording of the conversation later becomes public, McCarthy says he was just joking.

August 2016: Hours after Trump appears to threaten Hillary Clinton during a campaign rally by invoking “Second Amendment people” who might “do something” to stop her, Politico reports that the NRA has bought its most expensive pro-Trump campaign ad yet: a $3 million spot attacking Clinton.

September 2016: Don Jr. appears in a promotional video for gun silencer manufacturer SilencerCo, whose CEO subsequently donates $50,000 to the Trump Victory fund. “That thing’s awesome,” Don Jr. says, firing guns in the opening segment. The 38-minute video closes with the CEO saying, “Your father is someone that we believe in very strongly.”

October 2016: A wave of NRA-sponsoredTV political ads targets voters in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and North Carolina. Since the end of June, the NRA has aired more than 10,000 ads criticizing Clinton or extolling Trump—about 16 percent of all TV ads produced by Trump and his allies. Trump goes on to win all three states.

Early November 2016: Pro-gun messages feature prominently in “junk news” spread by Russian trolls and others on Twitter, particularly in key battleground states, according to a later analysis by Oxford University researchers.

November 8, 2016: Donald Trump is elected the 45th president of the United States.

November 12, 2016: Butina hosts a costume party in DC for her 28th birthday, attended by Erickson and Trump campaign aides. Erickson dresses as Russian mystic Rasputin, and Butina dresses as the Russian empress Alexandra. Two unnamed guests tell the Daily Beast that Butina bragged about being part of the Trump campaign’s communications with Russia.

“You came through for me”

Jan. 20, 2017: Butina and Erickson attend the Freedom Ball,one of the three official inaugural balls Trump attends.

From right: Kolyadinand Torshin, with others including Rohrabacher, second from left Kolyadin’s Facebook

January 31, 2017: Torshin, Erickson,Rohrabacher(who has received at least $18,000 from the NRA over the past 20 years), and former Kremlin staffer Andrey Kolyadin attend a private event on Capitol Hill hosted by George O’Neill Jr., a longtime conservative activist.

February 2, 2017: Torshin and Butina accompany a delegation of more than a dozen Russian officials and academics to the National Prayer Breakfast, where Trump is the main attraction. Kolyadin posts a photo with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, commenting that he “treats Russia pretty well, by the way.” Kolyadin later brags about his “direct access to leadership,” noting, “we sat very close to each other and just smiled.”

Torshin was scheduled to meet with President Trump, but the meeting is canceled when a national security aide points out that Torshin reportedly is under investigation by Spanish authorities for an alleged “godfather” role in organized crime and money laundering. For his part,Rohrabachertells Yahoo News that Torshin is “sort of the conservatives’ favorite Russian.”

“Direct access to leadership” Kolyadin’s Facebook

February 24, 2017: “For years, the media couldn’t have cared less about Vladimir Putin or Russia,”NRA leader Wayne LaPierresays in a speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference, giving early voice to a “deep state” conspiracy theory on Trump’s behalf: “But now, barely a month into Trump’s presidency, they’re ‘horrified’ and all a-fret over the ‘Russian-American equation.’ Even more alarming is that they’ve apparently found willing co-conspirators among some in the US intelligence community.”

April 28, 2017: Having recently reversed an Obama-era law making it more difficult for mentally ill people to buy guns, Trump addresses the NRA annual convention: “You came through for me,” he says, “and I am going to come through for you.”

August 15, 2017: After Rohrabacher meets with WikiLeaks’ Julian Assange at the Ecuadorean Embassy in London, he claims he has evidence to share with the White House that the Russians did not hack the Democratic National Committee. But White House chief of staff John Kelly rebuffs him. Rohrabacher later tells the Intercept, “What is preventing me from talking to Trump about this is the existence of a special prosecutor. Not only Kelly, but others are worried if I say one word to Trump about Russia, that it would appear to out-of-control prosecutors that that is where the collusion is.”

October to November 2017: Russian-linked trolls spread conspiracy theories following mass shootings on the Las Vegas Strip and at a church in Sutherland Springs, Texas.

November 14, 2017: “It appears the Russians…infiltrated the NRA,” Glenn Simpson, founder of the opposition research firm Fusion GPS, testifies to the House Intelligence Committee. “They targeted various conservative organizations, religious and otherwise, and they seem to have made a very concerted effort to get in with the NRA.” Referencing Torshin and Butina, he adds, “The most absurd [thing] about this is that, you know, Vladimir Putin is not in favor of universal gun ownership for Russians. And so it’s all a big charade, basically.”

Investigations and a politicized school massacre

January 18, 2018: McClatchy reports the FBI is investigating whether Torshin illegally funneled money to the Trump campaign through the NRA. (The FBI would “neither confirm nor deny” the investigation to Mother Jones.)

January 29, 2018: Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff, the ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, tells NPR that the committee’s probe of the NRA-Russia angle has been stymied by the Republican majority.

“I am specifically troubled by the possibility that Russian-backed shell companies or intermediaries may have circumvented laws designed to prohibit foreign meddling in our elections.”

February 2, 2018: Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden sends separate letters to the NRA and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin demanding they provide any documents showing financial ties between the NRA and Russia. “I am specifically troubled by the possibility that Russian-backed shell companies or intermediaries may have circumvented laws designed to prohibit foreign meddling in our elections,” Wyden writes. NRA General Counsel John Frazer responds, “The NRA and its related entities do not accept funds from foreign persons or entities in connection with United States.”

February 14, 2018: Following the school massacre in Parkland, Florida, Kremlin-linked trolls and Russian state media jump into action on Twitter, stirring both sides of the gun debate.

February 21, 2018: During a live-televised “listening session” with Parkland survivors at the White House, Trump endorses NRA talking points to end “gun-free zones” and arm teachers to “harden” America’s schools.

February 22, 2018: Trump hails the leaders of the NRA: “Great People and Great American Patriots. They love our Country and will do the right thing. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!” NRA spokesperson Dana Loesch echoes Trump’s blame on the FBI’s Russia investigation for the failure to prevent the Parkland massacre: “Maybe if you politicized your agency less and did your job more, we wouldn’t have these problems.”

March 2018: In an NRA magazine, LaPierre blasts media bias against Trump, specifically calling out coverage of “the bogus Russia investigation.”

March 1, 2018: Trump and Vice President Mike Pence meet privately in the Oval Office with NRA Executive Director Chris Cox. Trump calls the meeting “great.” Cox announces: “POTUS & VPOTUS support the Second Amendment, support strong due process and don’t want gun control. #NRA #MAGA.”

Trump Jr. Pushed ‘Blatantly Illegal’ Project In India, Former Official Says — ‘Trump, Inc.’ Podcast

by Eric Umansky, ProPublica , and Andrea Bernstein , WNYC

A Trump project in Mumbai had its permits revoked after investigators found “significant irregularities.” Then Trump Jr. travelled to India to get the decision overruled.

https://www.propublica.org/article/trump-inc-podcast-donald-trump-jr-india-project

propublica

https://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/now-far-right-pundits-are-calling-death-trumps-opponents

While he is notoriously stubborn and self-assured, President Donald Trump is also famous for being susceptible to the power of suggestion.

Trump demonstrates how easily persuadable he is by responding via Twitter to “Fox & Friends" almost every day. His campaign and White House staffers have admitted to this several times, albeit not on the record. But their actions have made clear they believe this: White House chief of staff John Kelly has reportedly prohibited staff members from giving Trump reading materials. More recently, Democratic Senate leader Chuck Schumer asked that presidential aide and immigration hard-liner Stephen Miller be kept out of an immigration meeting, lest he shape the president's thinking too much. Even Russian-controlled Twitter accounts have apparently been set to tweet at Trump during times he’s habitually online.

But the relationship between Trump and his admirers goes both ways. It has been observed that the people who have worked closely with the president, either in private or public life, eventually start behaving like him, even when he’s not around. Longtime lawyer Marc Kasowitz certainly demonstrated that when he threatened to stalk a "bitch" emailer. Trump’s personal physician, Dr. Harold Bornstein, has also waxed Trumpian at times, describing his patient’s health as “extraordinary” and “astonishingly excellent.”

Given how the president and his close admirers tend to bring out the worst in each other, it’s particularly concerning how the most vehemently pro-Trump media outlets are going far beyond the sycophantic blather of “Fox & Friends” to outright calls for the president to jail or even execute people he doesn’t like -- particularly if they happen to be investigating connections between Trump's 2016 campaign and Russia.

In December, Fox News pundit and Trump ally Jeanine Pirro called on the president to implement a massive purge of officials who are not totally loyal.

“There is a cleansing needed in our FBI and Department of Justice — it needs to be cleansed of individuals who should not just be fired, but who need to be taken out in cuffs!” Pirro ranted.

The alleged need for large-scale firings and arrests within America’s intelligence agencies is a subject on which Pirro and her fellow Fox News Trump commentators Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson have opined for many months now.

But Trump did not need months of persuasion to respond, however. As the New York Times reported on Thursday, the president ordered the firing of special counsel Robert Mueller in June, just a few weeks after he had been appointed. Luckily for Trump, White House counsel Don McGahn and other staffers reportedly declined to carry out the order.

But the president’s Fox fans not have been the only right-wing media figures urging Trump to jail various Democrats and government investigators.

On Tuesday, John Guandolo, a disgraced former FBI agentwho has made a second career as an anti-Muslim and pro-Trump commentator, repeatedly told viewers of the Christian television station theDove that anyone who had allegedly promoted the famous “Steele dossier” as a justification for wiretapping Trump campaign officials was guilty of “sedition and treason” and must be given the death penalty.

“People need to be tried, convicted and executed for treason,” Guandolo said, in remarks that were first reported by the blog Right Wing Watch. “They are conspiring to overthrow the government … they need to be charged, sent to jail, executed, etc., if the republic is to survive.”

Though Guandolo is a relatively obscure pundit, he is apparently respected by a number of federal law enforcement agencies who have repeatedly paid for his anti-Muslim training programs.

Fox News viewers have also been introduced to the idea of capital punishment for Trump's critics. In October, Sebastian Gorka, the former White House adviser who is now a “national security strategist” at Fox News, invoked a conspiracy theory about former secretary of state Hillary Clinton's supposed approved of a deal for a Canadian uranium company that was working with a Russian firm.

“If this had happened in the 1950s, there would be people up on treason charges right now. The Rosenbergs, OK?” Gorka told a rapturous Sean Hannity. “This is equivalent to what the Rosenbergs did, and those people got the chair. Think about it. Giving away nuclear capability to our enemies, that’s what we’re talking about.”According to Gorka, American officials who approved the sale are the equivalent of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, the American couple executed for selling nuclear secrets to the Soviet Union.

As the Russia investigation has continued to heat up, Alex Jones— the conspiracy radio host who shifted from commentary about gay frogs, Ron Paul, and space aliens to spittle-flecked pro-Trump bombast — has begun increasing his own rhetorical vehemence against law enforcement officials.

Even before he became devoted to Trump, Jones had a long history of, such as warning actor Robert DeNiro that he wanted to “tear his nose completely off his face” and threatening to break the jaws of various other people he dislikes.

(While some observers of his program have argued Jones is just acting, during an April episode, he denied that his harangues are purely theatrical. “We’re the most bona fide, hard-core, real McCoy thing there is,” he told listeners.)

As the Mueller investigation has gotten two guilty pleas and numerous indictments against former Trump associates, Jones’ violent outbursts have only increased. He has apparently absorbed every unhinged conspiracy theory about treasonous “Deep State” elites and the ways they are using their supposedly limitless power to overthrow the president.

During the Jan. 19 episode of his program, Jones went on an, saying that Clinton, former president Barack Obama, former FBI director James Comey and a host of others were accusing Trump of acting like a dictator. Jones' suggested remedy: Trump should start doing just that.

“Mr. President, they’re not going to stop, they’ve already started a civil war! They’ve all got to go to prison!” Jones raged in a segment discussing CNN host Anderson Cooper and New York Times reporter Matthew Rosenberg. “They’re saying you’re a dictator, we all need to be shut down, take our free speech, and then say you’re doing that. They’ve already launched their operations!"

The Infowars founder then alluded to Phil Mudd, a former FBI and CIA official who now is a commentator at CNN who said last August that Trump’s antagonistic remarks about career intelligence officials could result in them wanting to “kill this guy.” It was clearly a metaphor, as host Jake Tapper and Mudd were quick to point out, for the idea that Trump might be inspiring government officials to leak disparaging information about the president.

According to Jones, however, Mudd had instead publicly stated that American intelligence agencies are planning to assassinate Trump. Because of that, Jones suggested, the president needs to begin physically rounding up his political opponents and treating them like violent traitors:

“Phil Mudd is on TV saying he’s going to kill you! All you need to do is go after them now! Turn the dogs loose! They started it! They did it! They’re the foreign power! They’re the enemy! They’re the traitors!”

“Get ’em! Get ’em!” Jones screamed as he pointed at an image of Cooper and Rosenberg on his studio screen.

, Jones revisited the topic of the Trump-Russia investigation, claiming that Obama “needs to go to prison” because “these people aren’t above the law.”

“These aren’t Americans,” Jones continued. “They’re globalists.”

He then tried to answer listeners and viewers who might believe that Trump imprisoning Clinton and Obama could lead to civil war.

“They’re already trying to cause one,” Jones replied. “Justice be done, may the heavens fall,” he said, alluding to the famous Latin phrase that is also a line in Oliver Stone's conspiracy film “JFK.”

The Infowars chief then compared government officials and liberal political figures to the Japanese and German armies America fought in World War II.

“We have to attack them legally and lawfully. ...We have to defeat them all. They’re not going to stop,” Jones continued. “Like World War II, you don’t just kick Hitler back into Germany, he’s going to reconstitute and attack again. You don’t just kick the Japanese out of the Pacific Islands, you’ve gotta go all the way to Tokyo. They started it!”

As he continued, Jones suggested that because of their “treason,” Trump needs to “go all the way” against his opponents.

“Whatever has to happen is going to happen. We’re going all the way against these people, period. We have to do it. There’s no other choice. They’ve all got to politically hang for their crimes,” he said.

“Incidentally,” Jones said as he looked deep into the camera and drummed his fingers to accentuate the dramatic pause. “You know what the punishment for treason is.”

He continued: “These are the foreign individuals that took our country over. They’re the ones who corrupted everything almost to the point of the country’s death. And they’re still trying to strangle the country today. We must stand against them.”

Before the rise of Trump, Jones was an irrelevant conspiracy radio host whose ravings were listened to by a small number of deranged core fans and hipsters with eccentric senses of humor. All of that changed after Jones latched on to Trump during his campaign.

Trump returned the favor, saying publicly that Jones has an “amazing” reputation during his campaign. As president, he has given Jones and his Infowars colleagues prime access to White House officials. According to Jones, Trump has called him multiple times at home during the past few months. The host has also claimed that he knows several personal phone numbers for Trump, including the president’s private suite at Mar-a-Lago.

Nor Jones is the only person associated with Infowars who has deep connections inside the administration.

Trump’s longtime friend and unofficial political adviser Roger Stone is now the host of an Infowars show of his own.Donald Trump Jr., the president's oldest son, posted on Twitter last April that Infowars correspondent and conspiracy theorist Mike Cernovich deserved a Pulitzer Prize after an administration source fed him a scoop days before the mainstream press. It was one of several important stories the two have broken ahead of legitimate news outlets. Cernovich has also boasted that Donald Jr. and other Trump family members personally give the president printouts of stories from Infowars and other dubious websites.

Given the many strictures on the commander in chief's authority, it is unlikely that Trump could start imprisoning his political opponents even if he wanted to. But the president is far from the only person exposed to a constant diet of violent rhetoric against Democrats, journalists and law enforcement officers. Many disturbed people who voted for him are as well.

Last week, a Michigan man named Brandon Griesemer was arrested for threatening to kill CNN’s “fake news” anchors.In December of 2016, North Carolina resident Edgar Maddison Welch burst into a pizza restaurant near Washington with a rifle and fired off three rounds, in part because Jones and his staff had spent hours telling their followers the place was the center of a global child-sex ring.

Following Welch’s guilty plea last March, Jones begrudgingly and partially retracted his support for the “Pizzagate” conspiracy theory. His actions since, however, suggest he has no legitimate intention of cleaning up his act.

People have mocked the idea that Trump could become a dictator. What's clear is that many people he likes are telling him to become one.

Matthew Sheffield

Washington, the anti-Trump resistance talks about a "constitutional crisis" while the president and his allies decry a "rigged system." They’re using different vocabulary to describe the same thing: the coming death match fight for control of the U.S. legal system.

Former Attorney General Eric Holder and others are waking up to the reality expressed by Josh Marshall: "The Plot Is Afoot" to dump special prosecutor Robert Mueller and there is no longer any institutional force or political will sufficient to prevent Trump from carrying it out. It’s just a matter of time.

The Republicans who once praised Mueller or warned against his firing have announced retirement, fallen silent or turned into Trump toadies. Of the six phases in the campaign to get rid of Mueller, I wrote last week, four have already been completed.

As Holder tweeted on Sunday:

ABSOLUTE RED LINE: the firing of Bob Mueller or crippling the special counsel’s office. If removed or meaningfully tampered with, there must be mass, popular, peaceful support of both. The American people must be seen and heard - they will ultimately be determinative.

— Eric Holder (@EricHolder) December 17, 2017

Holder’s intervention, while welcome, has dismal implications. According to the man who was once the nation’s top law enforcement officer, the weakness and impending failure of Washington institutions is practically certain. That protest in support of Mueller, an uncharismatic former FBI man, will be massive, popular and peaceful is far from certain.

The truth is that the “red line” of Washington consensus that protects the special prosecutor process has been eroded by the anti-Mueller campaign, which cultivates fear and anger to depict the mechanism of accountability as a threat, not just to Trump, but to America itself.

The demonization campaign is multipronged. Justice Department officials leakedthe private texts of FBI agent Peter Strzok, since removed from the investigation, who opposed Trump’s election. Breitbart and Fox News supply the analysis.

Congressmen are deployed as conspiracy theorists disguised as whistleblowers. Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) says, “Everything points to the fact that there was an orchestrated plan to try to prevent Donald Trump from becoming the president of the United States.”

The rhetoric of rage, disgust and control add emotional force to the pro-Trump narrative. “Will you rein in the FBI,” cries a conservative reporter. People are "very, very angry about the FBI," Trump responded, adding, “we have a lot of sickness in some of our institutions.”

And the president’s son has provided the marketing slogan: “My father talked about a rigged system throughout the campaign, and people went, ‘Oh, what are you talking about?’ But it is,” Donald Trump Jr. said. “There are people at the highest levels of government that don’t want to let America be America."

“Let America be America” is the full flowering of the anti-Mueller narrative. This isn't about Russia, the argument goes, this is about America. Since Steve Bannon returned to Breitbart News, the right-wing media have layered on other Washington storylines, which have little or no substantive connection to the Russia investigation....

https://www.alternet.org/election-2016/don-jr-giving-speeches-100000-pop

kali h

Trump Jr. reportedly raked in $100,000 for a speech he gave at Faulkner University in Alabamaon Thursday, according to Newsweek. The outlet also reports that the president’s son will receive a six-digit honorarium, along with $5,000 in food and travel, for an upcoming appearance at the University of North Texas. Trump Jr. :{made money on at least one other speech, delivered in th:(style="background-color:#ffffff;"):}::{e UAE:(style="background-color:#ffff66;"):}:, since his father entered the White House.

While none of those speaking gigs qualify as illegal, Newsweek notes that Don Jr.'s appearances are just the "latest in a string of questionable ethics decisions by the Trump family.”

“The paid speeches do not break any laws, but create a risk of Trump’s children getting unethical benefits from their father’s role as president,” Noah Bookbinder, who heads Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, told NBC News. “They also open the possibility of foreign governments using access to Trump’s children as a way to influence U.S. policy.”

POTUS has three sons, of which Don Jr. is the eldest. In case you are confused, Eric Trump is the son whose foundation allegedly rerouted money that was intended to go to children with cancer back into the family business. Don Jr. is the son who, along with his sister Ivanka, was reportedly almost charged with felony fraud for duping prospective buyers of units in the Trump SoHo condominium hotel, until their lawyer made a hefty donation to the district attorney’s reelection campaign. Junior is also the son who tweeted a fake Top Gun clip of his dad shooting the CNN logo out of the sky, and retweeted a white supremacist meme.

But Don Jr.—who currently serves as executive vice president of the Trump Organization—is most famous for meeting with a lawyer from a hostile foreign government to get dirt that could help his father win the presidential election.

NBC News writes that the website for All American Speakers Bureau, the talent agency that books Don Jr.’s speaking spots, has advertised his speaking fees as starting at $50,001. That page was removed after NBC began asking questions a few weeks ago.

In his speech at Faulkner University, Don. Jr. reportedly pulled out the old conservative trope about universities being liberal indoctrination centers. Per the Hill, “general admission for the event was $150, and top-level sponsors were able to take a picture with Trump Jr. after the event."

july 16

http://www.alternet.org/right-wing/trump-jr-emails-and-meeting-russian-lawyer-are-probable-cause-federal-crime

Trump Jr.'s email communication and subsequent meeting with a lawyer connected to the Russian government constitute probable cause that he and his father's presidential campaign violated the Federal Election Campaign Act (52 U.S.C. §§ 30101, 30121). It is not yet clear whether these events are sufficient to obtain a criminal conviction. Special counsel Robert Mueller's team is amassing additional evidence, which could eventually lead to criminal prosecutions.

In a June 3, 2016, email chain Trump Jr. released on Twitter, British publicist and former tabloid reporter Rob Goldstone told Trump Jr. the Russian government had "some official documents and information that would incriminate Hillary." Goldstone added, "This is obviously very high level and sensitive information but is part of Russia and its government's support for Mr. Trump." Seventeen minutes later, Trump Jr. replied, "if it's what you say I love it."

Six days later, on June 9, Trump Jr., then campaign manager Paul Manafort, and Jared Kushner, the president's son-in-law and senior advisor, met withNatalia Veselnitskaya, a Russian lawyer with ties to the Kremlin, at Trump Tower. Trump Jr. arranged the meeting with the expectation of receiving negative information the Russian government supposedly had about Hillary Clinton.

These facts amount to probable cause that Trump Jr., the Trump campaign, and likely Manafort and Kushner committed federal election interference in violation of federal criminal law.

Federal Crime of Solicitation to Influence the Election

It is a federal crime for any person to "solicit, accept or receive" from a foreign national a monetary contribution or "other thing of value" which is given "for the purpose of influencing any election for Federal office." The element of "other thing of value" can be satisfied by opposition research, for which candidates regularly pay research firms. It is not necessary that the defendant actually receive the thing of value. The crime is complete upon the solicitation.

Trump Jr.'s response to Goldstone--"I love it"--and subsequent meeting with the Russian lawyer constitutes probable cause to believe this crime was committed.

Manafort and Kushner could also be charged with the same crime. Although Trump Jr. insisted they were told "nothing of the substance" about the meeting before it took place, both Manafort and Kushner were copied on one of the emails in the thread with the subject line "Fw: Russia -- Clinton -- private and confidential." If they attended the meeting with knowledge of its purpose, they could be criminally liable.

The watchdog organization Common Cause filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission and the Department of Justice on July 10, 2017, asking both agencies as well as Mueller to investigate whether campaign finance laws were violated. Citing a New York Times article, the complaint states there is "reason to believe" that Trump Jr. and Donald J. Trump for President, Inc. violated the Federal Election Campaign Act by meeting with a "Kremlin-connected Russian lawyer during the 2016 campaign" in an effort to obtain "damaging information about Hillary Clinton."

The complaint quotes from a Times report, which states: "It is unclear whether Russian lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya, actually produced the promised compromising information about Mrs. Clinton. But the people interviewed by The Times about the meeting said the expectation was that she would do so."

Trump Jr. maintains that nothing of substance came from the June 9 meeting. But on June 14, 2016, DCLeaks released internal documents from the Clinton campaign for the first time. And one week later, WikiLeaks published numerous hacked Democratic National Committee (DNC) emails. Additional disclosures of hacked data continued to emerge until the presidential election.

Kushner Investigated for Helping Russia Release Hacked Emails

The Senate and House Intelligence committees and the Department of Justice are investigating whether the Trump campaign's digital operation, led by Kushner, assisted Russia in targeting US voters and disseminating false information about Clinton.

Justice Department investigators are examining whether Kushner and the Trump digital operation helped the Russians publicly release thousands of emails that were hacked from the accounts of leading Democrats at strategic points in the campaign, particularly via WikiLeaks. Investigators "doubt Russian operatives controlling the so-called robotic cyber commands ... could have independently 'known where to specifically target … to which high-impact states and districts in those states,'" a source familiar with the Justice Department probe told McClatchy.McClatchy reports: "By Election Day, an automated Kremlin cyberattack of unprecedented scale and sophistication had delivered critical and phony news about the Democratic presidential nominee to the Twitter and Facebook accounts of millions of voters. Some investigators suspect the Russians targeted voters in swing states, even in key precincts."

Lawsuit Filed Against Trump Campaign

Meanwhile, United to Protect Democracy, a watchdog organization run by former Obama administration attorneys, has filed a federal lawsuit for invasion of privacy against the Trump campaign and longtime Trump adviser Roger J. Stone.

The complaint, filed on behalf of two DNC donors and a former DNC staff member, accuses defendants of conspiring to release the hacked DNC emails and files that revealed their personal information.The DNC donors allege they suffered financial attacks and harassment after the WikiLeaks disclosures.The DNC employee's leaked emails contained confidential information about his health and sexual orientation. Publication of this information resulted in bigotry against him and estrangement from his family. The complaint also alleges intentional infliction of emotional distress, and conspiracy to interfere with civil rights by intimidating lawful voters from giving support or advocacy to electors for president in violation of 42 USC § 1985(3).[contrast w/ FBI going after white hackers?] 1996 data act?]

This lawsuit could lead to the deposition of witnesses and discovery of emails and other documents. It would constitute an independent judicial investigation into ties between Russia and the Trump campaign. Besides Mueller's Justice Department probe, there are currently investigations pending in the FBI, the House and Senate Intelligence committees, the Senate Judiciary Committee and the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

Marjorie Cohn is professor emerita at Thomas Jefferson School of Law. A former president of the National Lawyers Guild, her most recent book is Drones and Targeted Killing:

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/15/world/europe/rinat-akhmetshin-donald-trump-jr-natalia-veselnitskaya.html

nyt

Rinat Akhmetshin, the Russian-American lobbyist who met with Donald Trump Jr. at Trump Tower in June 2016, had one consistent message for the journalists who met him over the years at the luxury hotels where he stayed in Moscow, London and Paris, or at his home on a leafy street in Washington: Never use email to convey information that needed to be kept secret.

While not, he insisted, an expert in the technical aspects of hacking nor, a spy, Mr. Akhmetshin talked openly about how he had worked with a counterintelligence unit while serving with the Red Army after its 1979 invasion of Afghanistan and how easy it was to find tech-savvy professionals ready and able to plunder just about any email account.

A journalist who visited his home was given a thumb drive containing emails that had apparently been stolen by hackers working for one of his clients.

On another occasion, at a meeting with a New York Times reporter at the Ararat Park Hyatt hotel in Moscow, Mr. Akhmetshin, by then an American citizen, informed the journalist he had recently been reading one of his emails: a note sent by the reporter to a Russian-American defense lawyer who had once worked for Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the anti-Kremlin oligarch.

Continue reading the main story

Continue reading the main storyIn that instance, the reporter’s email had become public as part of a lawsuit. But the episode suggests Mr. Akhmetshin’s professional focus in the decades since he immigrated to the United States — and the experience that he brought to a meeting last June in New York with President Trump’s oldest son, Donald Trump Jr., his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and the then-head of the Trump presidential campaign, Paul J. Manafort.

The meeting was arranged on the claim that a Russian lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya, would provide dirt on Hillary Clinton, though in the end, Mr. Trump and his son have insisted, neither Mr. Akhmetshin nor Ms. Veselnitskaya provided anything of value.

But Mr. Akhmetshin, a gregarious, fast-talking man with a sharp sense of humor, was a skilled practitioner in the muscular Russian version of what in American politics is known as opposition research. From his base in Washington, Mr. Akhmetshin has been hired by an ever-changing roster of clients, often Russians, to burnish their image and blacken those of their rivals. Some clients were close to the Kremlin. Others were its bitter foes.

Mr. Akhmetshin often warned his friends and contacts: “Nothing is secure.” It was a conviction that emerged from the chaotic and often violent corporate battles that convulsed Russia in the 1990s, when “chyorny P.R.” or “black public relations” based on stolen or fabricated documents became a powerful weapon for businessmen seeking to damage their rivals without resorting to physical threats, another frequently used tool.

The practice was rooted in the Soviet techniques of “kompromat,” the collection of compromising information by the K.G.B. against foes of the Communist Party, but reached its full flowering after the 1991 collapse of Communism and the privatization of the dark arts formerly dominated by the K.G.B.

Instead of simply examining old media reports, court records and other public documents to try to dig up dirt or embarrassing gossip, Russian-style “chyorny P.R.” has often focused on pilfering private information through hacking and physical intrusion into offices and filing cabinets.

In his own investigations over the years, Mr. Akhmetshin has acquired a reputation for obtaining email records, information from spyware and other data that appeared to be drawn from Russian hackers.

He has denied that, insisting that he conducted research for his clients and relayed accurate information to the press. A 2011 case illustrates his style.

Andrey**Vavilov**, a former Russian deputy finance minister and owner of an oil company, hired him to discredit a longtime adversary, a former Russian lawmaker named Ashot Egiazaryan. Mr. Vavilov had learned that Mr. Egiazaryan was seeking political asylum in the United States, and was “disgusted by this,” Mr. Akhmetshin later said in a court deposition.

At the time, Mr. Akhmetshin was described as the Washington director of a pro-democracy think tank called the International Eurasian Institute, although United States corporation records show it had been dissolved two years earlier for failure to pay taxes. He was also lobbying against the Magnitsky Act, the law which bars Russian officials suspected of human rights abuses from entering the United States.

In a defamation lawsuit later brought by Mr. Egiazaryan in a New York federal court, Mr. Akhmetshin testified that Mr. Vavilov invited him to his home in Moscow to discuss how to derail his enemy’s asylum application. “He had some cash around the house,” Mr. Akhmetshin testified. “I remember there was money in like $100 bills bags.”

He said Mr. Vavilov, who had been dogged for years in Russia by accusations of corruption, handed him a total of $70,000 to $80,000 in cash. That was the start of a concerted campaign to portray Mr. Egiazaryan as an anti-Semite in the news media and to Jewish organizations that then opposed his asylum application. “I met with people in Russia. I met with people in Washington D.C.,” Mr. Akhmetshin testified. Mr. Egiazaryan remains in the United States, but his lawyer would not comment on his asylum status.

There is no evidence that Mr. Akhmetshin’s efforts on behalf of any of his clients, whether they had close or hostile relations with the Kremlin, were illegal. Nor is there evidence that he personally engaged in the technical aspects of hacking himself. But a 2015 lawsuit filed in a New York State court put forward detailed allegations.

An international mining company controlled by a trio of flamboyant millionaires from Kazakhstansued in a New York State court, accusing Mr. Akhmetshin of orchestrating a hacking campaign against their company to benefit a rival Russian tycoon, Andrey Melnichenko. Each side of the dispute is known for aggressive business practices and lavish excesses.

Court papers filed in November 2015 on behalf of the Kazakhs’ company, International Mineral Resources, or I.M.R., described Mr. Akhmetshin as “a former Soviet military counterintelligence officer who moved to Washington, D.C. to become a lobbyist” and “developed a special expertise in running negative public relations campaigns.”

Mr. Akhmetshin has called this characterization misleading. He was, he said, drafted as a young man to serve in a military unit performing counterintelligence functions during the Soviet-Afghan war. As an enlisted man, he said, he never received any training in “negative public relations.”

The suit alleged that Mr. Akhmetshin was retained by EuroChem VolgaKaliy, a Russian potassium mining company controlled by Mr. Melnichenko, which was involved in a $1 billion litigation with I.M.R. The suit also names as a defendant Salisbury & Ryan, a New York law firm representing EuroChem.

The lawsuit alleged that Mr. Akhmetshin was hired to hack into the computer systems of I.M.R. and had stolen about 28,000 files, or about 50 gigabytes of data. It said the sensitive material was then distributed to journalists and others in an effort to harm the company’s reputation.

The suit claims that Mr. Akhmetshin stole passport information, emails and personal contact lists for executives within I.M.R., along with bank account information; loan agreements; business strategy documents; board meeting minutes; drafts of market-sensitive documents; and financial forecasts and projections for the company.

An investigator for I.M.R. reported personally witnessing and overhearing a conversation at a London coffee shop during which Mr. Akhmetshin handed someone an external hard drive that Mr. Akhmetshin described as containing files obtained from I.M.R. computers, according to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit was withdrawn in 2016, and Mr. Melnichenko denied all the allegations in it.

Mr. Akhmetshin has denied that he hacked the company’s computers.

An early client of Mr. Akhmetshin’s was an opposition leader from Kazakhstan who, from self-imposed exile in the West, was waging a lonely campaign against one of Mr. Putin’s closest allies, the president of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev.

And in neighboring Kyrgyzstan, he helped to unravel a brazen corruption scheme by a former pro-Kremlin leader and his family that had been cheating the population, poor already, out of millions of dollars.

On other occasions, however, Mr. Akhmetshin worked on causes that clearly benefited the Kremlin, like a long-running campaign by Ms. Veselnitskaya to get Congress to repeal legislation imposing sanctionson Russian officials suspected of corruption and involvement in the death of Sergei L. Magnitsky, a Russian accountant who died in a Moscow jail in 2009.

Mr. Akhmetshin had also at times been in touch with Russian government officials, court records show.

In 2010, he submitted an op-ed column to The Washington Timeson behalf of Viktor Ivanov, then the director of Russia’s anti-narcotics police, according to one of Mr. Akhmetshin’s own emails, subpoenaed as evidence in a case in the Southern District of New York. Mr. Ivanov is a longtime veteran of Russia’s security services.

Mr. Akhmetshin has spoken openly about his service in the Soviet military in Afghanistan, and his current work throughout Russia and Central Asia.

Once, a reporter arrived for a meeting at a coffee shop in Moscow with Mr. Akhmetshin and peered around the room, trying to see where he was sitting.

Mr. Akhmetshin had come in with what amounted to a disguise: He sat smiling at a table, wearing a hat resembling a skull cap and his beard grown to an impressive length. He was headed next, he said, on an assignment to Afghanistan and had assumed the appearance of an Afghan elder.

David D. Kirkpatrick contributed reporting from Cambridge, Britain, Sharon LaFraniere from Washington and Bryant Rousseau from New York.