save am p a c

this become his new twit? as of 6 22 he is using nunes offbrand twt

see JFC

---

context WHAT CONNECTION TO FLYNN CONF? CLETA WAS THERE

At Summit, Election Deniers Press for Trump to Take Over Midterms — ProPublica

LAUNDER TRUMP SAVE AM PAC $ TO CYBERNINJA FRAUDIT BS

meadows sinecure save am pac 1mill$?

note TYPOS AND GUESSES?

i think this is typo

an 1 23 maya GUK

Former President Donald Trump made a “secret” $1 million donation to the election audit conducted in Arizona following his false claims that the election was stolen from him, the Guardian reports.

The audit was requested by Arizona GOP senators, and doubted by many of their colleagues due to the “wild conspiracy theories” it mirrored. An assertion “that bamboo fibers found in ballot sheets proved they had been printed in Asia” even caused some local GOP members to deem the probe a “grift disguised as an audit.”

But nevertheless, the audit persisted.

READ MORE:Arizona newspaper exposes all the Republicans rushing into the state to learn about bogus election audit

Although eventually proven baseless and unsuccessful, The Guardian reports that “one of the largest benefactors” behind this attempt to counter the 2020 election results remained a secret for nearly two years.

But watchdog group “Documented” was able to track funding for the failed assessment and eventually landed on Trump’s super PAC, Save America.

First, the group discovered that Cyber Ninjas, the Florida company that conducted the audit, was provided $5.7 million by far-right groups, and then given an additional $1 million from former Trump advisor and attorney Cleta Mitchell.

Still, questions around the origin of the $1 million remained unanswered.

READ MORE:Behind the shady Florida consulting firm trying to upend election results in Arizona and Michigan: 'Such a farce'

TheNew York Timesreports that in September of 2021, “unnamed ‘officials,’” as well as Arizona GOP senators who requested the election audit, adamantly denied Trump’s contribution.

However, with its research on many corporate, tax and campaign finance filings, as well as emails and text messages between Trump allies that were obtained by nonpartisan accountability group American Oversight, "Documented" managed to counter those claims.

The Guardian broke down the process of how the watchdog group traced the donation back to Trump.

Like many incidents surrounding Trump’s effort to overturn the 2020, tracing back Trump’s contribution to the audit starts with the Jan. 6 committee.

READ MORE:Arizona secretary of state urges criminal probe of Trump's efforts to overturn 2020 election results

The committee’s final report mentioned that Trump super PAC, Save America, donated $1 million to the Conservative Partnership Institute (CPI) — led by former Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows — but did not disclose the origin or the reason for the money.

Further research revealed that Trump’s contribution possibly began around June 2021, as accountability group American Oversighttracked text messages between retired Army officer and “arch election denier” Phil Waldron and Doug Logan, CEO of Cyber Ninjas, the Florida-based company that conducted the audit.

Waldron texted Logan, “Kurt is going to talk to 45 today, about $.”

According to the Guardian, “Kurt” likely referred toKurt Olden, an “election denying lawyer.” He continued, “Mike L talking to Corey L,” referring to CEO of MyPillow and devoted Trump supporter Mike Lindelland Trump campaign manager Corey Lewondowski.

READ MORE:How Trump's toxic presence in Republican state party politics is being entirely underestimated

A couple of weeks later, Waldron asked Logan if he had received a $1 million payment from Lewondowski. He texted, “Supposedly Kurt talked to Trump and they got 1 mil for you,” but he noted he “couldn’t verify who sent and received.”

According to The Guardian, the Federal Election Commission reported that less than two weeks later, on July 26, 2021, Save America transferred the $1 million to CPI. Two days later, a new group, American Voting Rights Foundation (AVRF) “registered as a corporation in Delaware.”

CPI donated $1 million to AVRF — the group’s first and only donation — in 2021, and although the date of donation is unknown, the clear relationship between the groups, the “timing and amounts” of the transfers, as well as the revealed text messages between Trump allies all leads to one culprit: Trump.

Furthermore, on the day AVRF registered as a corporation, Trump attorney Mitchell emailed Cyber Ninjas CEo Loganand put him in touch with the audit spokesperson, Randy Pullen as well as AVRF treasurer Tom Datwyler.

READ MORE: GOP lawmaker facing allegations of 'massive violations' after FEC audit reveals he lent money to his own campaign

The Arizona Republic recently confirmed that Trump was notified of the process the whole time

GOP vice-chair of Maricopa County board of supervisors Bill Gates told The Guardian he is “disappointed, but not surprised” by the revelation.

“At the very least, it is highly hypocritical for the Arizona state senate to have allowed the audit to be funded in this fashion,” Gates said.

Ultimately, even after the great lengths Trump and his cohort of election deniers went to assist in the audit, the goal to overturn Arizona's election was never met. The Guardian reports that in 2020, President Joe Biden won Maricopa County, the most populated in Arizona and where the audit took place, by 45,109 votes.

Regarding the morality of the audit, Gates added that Arizona law states, “electoral candidates are not allowed to fund vote recounts which have to be financed with taxpayer dollars.” And although the audit was “technically not a recount,” it’s clear the intent was the same.

READ MORE: Arizona newspaper exposes all the Republicans rushing into the state to learn about bogus election audit

an 12 22

An ethics attorney to Donald Trump _{allegedly instructed}_ former White House aide, Cassidy Hutchinson to lie about her own recollection of events during _{her notable testimony}_ in June, CNN reports.

Stefan Passantino, who Hutchinson fired as her attorney prior to her testimony,_{was paid by}_ Trump’s political action committee, Save America for his legal services. The former Deputy White House Counsel _{claims that}_ many people drop their lawyers “because their interests or strategies change.”

Rep. Zoe Lofgren, a member of the committee said to CNN, “She was advised to say that she didn’t recall something when she did. So that’s pretty serious stuff.”

READ MORE:**Meadows allegedly behind possible attempt at witness intimidation of Cassidy Hutchinson: reports**

Passantino _{said in a statement}_ to CNN that any claims of him advising Hutchinson to deceive the committee are untrue. “I represented Ms. Hutchinson honorably, ethically, and fully consistent with her sole interests as she communicated them to me,” he said. “I believed Ms. Hutchinson was being truthful and cooperative with the Committee throughout the several interview sessions in which I represented her.”

The committee also alleges that the attorney provided Hutchinson’s testimony to fellow lawyers, as well as the press, despite her disapproval.

Passantino claimed, “External communications made on Ms. Hutchinson’s behalf while I was her counsel were made with her express authorization.”

Michael Best & Friefrich LLP, the law firm he’s served as partner, _{deleted}_ the long-time attorney’s headshot and bio from its website this week. Although, he says “given the distraction of this matter” he’s only on “a leave of absence.” The firm maintains that they _{were not involved }_in any way and Hutchinson was never a client, according to CNN.

READ MORE:All the President's women: Female Trump aides turn key January 6th witnesses

The Jan. 6 committee included their assessment of this matter in the executive summary of their report. “The lawyer had advised the witness that the witness could, in certain circumstances, tell the Committee that she did not recall facts when she actually did recall them,” the report says.

“When the witness raised concerns with her lawyer about that approach,” according to the summary, the lawyer said, “They don’t know what you know, [witness]. They don’t know that you can recall some of these things. So you saying ‘I don’t recall’ is an entirely acceptable response to this.”

The report continues, “The lawyer instructed the client about a particular issue that would cast a bad light on President Trump: ‘No, no, no, no, no. We don’t want to go there. We don’t want to talk about that.’”

The committee stated that it will share the transcript of the witness testimony in question with the public.

READ MORE:_{**Cassidy Hutchinson's testimony is 'smoking gun' for 'seditious conspiracy' by Donald Trump: legal experts**}_

10 22

yet another one

According to a report from the Daily Beast's Roger Sollenberger, Donald Trump has moved an "eye-popping" amount of cash from one of his PAC's to a newly formed one -- and that has campaign finance experts asking questions about what he plans to do it and if he is attempting to skirt election finance laws.

As the report notes, the former president created a new super PAC, called Make America Great Again Inc, and, on Oct. 3, transferred $20 million from one of his existing PACs and another $8.9 million from another to it.

This, in turn, has set off alarm bells from government watchdogs who wonder what Trump -- who has been known to use donations to pay personal expenses -- is up to.

According to Sollenberger, "Super PACs can spend unlimited amounts of money to support candidates, so on its face, the donation could be said to be a generous contribution from Trump to the MAGA cause during a critical election. But as a number of campaign finance experts explained, the specifics here suggest Trump is really trying to get around laws that would otherwise prevent him from spending his personal stash on a 2024 presidential run."

"The only thing Trump cannot do with the millions and millions of dollars he’s raised into his leadership PAC is support himself. The only plausible explanation for this move is to convert that money to be spent on his own campaign,” explained attorney Paul S. Ryan, an expert in campaign finance law.

Documented deputy executive director Brendan Fischer suggested Trump is shifting money around in order to provide cover if he spends the cash on himself in a presidential run.

"Once Trump becomes a candidate, it would clearly be illegal to transfer Save America funds to a super PAC. But Trump appears to be trying to manufacture deniability by making the transfers now, and by having MAGA Inc. spend some amount in the 2022 midterms," he explained. "That way, Trump’s team might argue that Save America gave to MAGA Inc. to support Trump-endorsed candidates, and it just so happened that the super PAC ended up with leftover money that it independently chose to spend backing Trump’s 2024 run.”

Attorney Ryan explained, "Moving the money suggests he wants to spend it on himself. It’s illegal, but that seems to be the motivation and he will likely get away with it,” with the Beast's Sollenberger adding, "Ryan was referring to federal laws that restrict candidates from coordinating with super PACs on fundraising and spending efforts—a charge that is notoriously difficult to prove."

You can read more here.

an 9 22

The New York Times reported Monday afternoon that at least 40 subpoenas have been filed for allies of former President Donald Trump over the attempt to overthrow the 2020 election using the fake electors.

At least two of Trump's top advisers had their phones taken by the FBI, sources told the Times.Boris Epshteyn, a Russian-American Republican political strategist who served as a strategic adviser to Trump's 2020 campaign was one of those who had to surrender his phone. The other was Mike Romanan opposition researcher who worked for Trump from 2017 to 2018. He went on to work on the campaign, and became the person who handed off the envelope of fake electors to be given to Vice President Mike Pence.

The Times described it as an indication that the Justice Department's case is escalating after slow movement for the past several months.

Dan Scavino, Trump’s former social media director is also among those who got a subpoena from the case.

Former New York Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik was another subpoenaed. He was on the team with Rudy Giuliani and helping with the so-called "war room" on Jan. 6 at the Willard Hotel.

Some of the information, the Times explained, was asking about activities around theSave America PAC,which has been the main source of funding for Trump since leaving office.

Read the full report here.

an 9 22

Former President Donald Trump'sfundraising efforts following his landslide loss to President Joe Biden in the 2020 election are under investigation by a federal grand jury, according to multiple news outlets.

ABC first reported on Thursday morning that the United States Department of Justice has issued subpoenas to Trump aides and allies aligned with Trump's Save America Political Action Committee, which he has used to capitalize on his lies about the election having been stolen and rife with fraud.

"Since its inception, Save America PAC has brought in more than $135 million, including transfers from affiliated committees, according to disclosure records. As of the end of July, the PAC reported having just under $100 million in cash on hand," ABC noted.

READ MORE: Former intelligence officials warn Mar-a-Lago has become a 'magnet for foreign spies'

In recent weeks, Trump has encouraged his followers to donate money to the PAC in the wake of the Federal Bureau of Investigation's seizure of above-top-secret documents relating to a foreign government's nuclear capabilities during its August 8th search warrant execution at Trump's Mar-a-Lago compound in Palm Beach, Florida.

More than two million dollars of funds have been distributed to attorneys representing witnesses that have testified before the House Select Committee probing Trump's January 6th insurrection at the United States Capitol.

But the latest development is yet another tendril in the legal net that is ensnaring Trump.

"The new subpoenas appeared to have been issued by a different grand jury in Washington than the one that has been gathering evidence about the so-called fake elector plan, which has focused on questions surrounding pro-Trump lawyers like Rudolph W. Giuliani and John Eastman," revealed Maggie Haberman of The New York Times.

READ MORE: This MAGA Republican used campaign funds for January 6th visit and the FEC let him off the hook

Haberman added that "at least one of the new subpoenas bore the name of a veteran federal prosecutor in Washington who specializes in fraud cases, suggesting that this avenue of inquiry is devoted primarily to examining the spending and fund-raising at Mr. Trump’s super PAC."

Allegations that the Save America PAC has been scamming its donors were put forth by Congressman Zoe Lofgren (D-California) during one of the Select Committee's public hearings in June.

“Throughout the committee’s investigation, we found evidence that the Trump campaign and its surrogates misled donors as to where their funds would go and what they would be used for. So not only was there the big lie, there was the big rip-off,” Ms. Lofgren said. “Donors deserve to know where their funds are really going. They deserve better than what President Trump and his team did.”

READ MORE: January 6th Panel suggests Newt Gingrich was 'involved the in fake elector scheme'

PAC Profile: Save America • OpenSecrets

os 6 22

sAVE AMERICA JOINT FUNDRAISING COMMITTEE

ARLINGTON, VA 2221902/28/2022$3,513,705

KASTEN, WENDY

MEQUON, WI 53097RETIRED01/27/2021$5,000KAO, RYAN

YORKTOWN HEIGHTS, NY 10598INFORMATION REQUESTED12/31/2020$5,000JACOBS, TERRENCE S

WINDERMERE, FL 34786PENNECO01/22/2021$5,000HOPSON, FRANK

BROOKLYN, NY 11226FORTUNA ADVISOR11/30/2020$5,000HENRY, PAULA A

MIDLAND, TX 79703RETIRED12/09/2020$5,000GERSON, ELOISE

CHICAGO, IL 60610REAL ESTATE04/24/2021$5,000GERGEN, THOMAS F

NORTH HAMPTON, NH 03862INFORMATION REQUESTED02/01/2021$5,000FU, JANICE

WALNUT, CA 91789INFORMATION REQUESTED01/29/2021$5,000GORENSTEIN, RALPH G

MILWAUKEE, WI 53203BELL PROPERTY MANAGEMENT INC12/23/2020$5,000FALLON, FRED B

COLUMBUS, OH 43206NEWBURY PROPERTIES12/31/2020$5,000FOX, SAUL

WOODSIDE, CA 94062FOX PAINE04/24/2021$5,000FISCHER, CLIFFORD

DALLAS, TX 75240FISCHER AND COMPANY04/26/2021$5,000EVANS, FRED W

STANLEY, ND 58784RANCHER11/30/2020$5,000DOYLE, DANIEL

BELLAIR, FL 33752DEXIMAGING04/24/2021$5,000DEPERRO, MARTIN

HUDSON, OH 44236RETIRED01/20/2021$5,000CARTER, JOEL

GULFPORT, MS 39501GULFSIDE CASINO PARTNERSHIP04/28/2021$5,000CHEVES, WALLACE

GREENVILLE, SC 29601SKY BOAT GAMING05/07/2021$5,000CAMERON, SELINA KELLY

HILLSBORO, OR 97123INFORMATION REQUESTED02/12/2021$5,000BRUBAKER, GARY L

DOYLESTOWN, PA 18902ANIMAL BIOTECH INDUSTRIES INC03/12/2021$5,000BERTOZZI, JOHN

JACKSONVILLE, FL 32207LIVE OAK04/24/2021$5,000BEAN, BRUCE W

PELL CITY, AL 35128INFORMATION REQUESTED12/23/2020$5,000BAWANY, ISAAC

KANSAS CITY, MO 64106DRE HEALTH05/02/2021$5,000ADELBERG, MICHAEL GERALD

SACRAMENTO, CA 95864ADELBERG ASSOC MEDICAL GROUP11/30/2020$5,000WITKOFF, STEVEN

MIAMI, FL 33137WITKOFF GROUP05/17/2021$5,000

vendors

2016 cruz --> trump, 2020

Jamestown Associates is a political, public affairs and corporate advertising firm active in the United States, specializing in media production, direct mail, press relations and campaign management, for candidates of the Republican Party.^[1] Its CEO is Larry Weitzner. Among its best-known political clients are Donald Trump (both 2016 and 2020), several governors (including Charlie Baker of Massachusetts, Chris Sununu of New Hampshire, and Chris Christie of New Jersey), Senator Mike Braun, and the Republican National Committee. Past corporate and governmental clients include Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson and the New York City Department of Environmental Protection.^[2]

Pericles, Llc LLC is a District Of Columbia Limited-Liability Company filed On January 27, 2021. The company's filing status is listed as Active and its File Number is L00006845305.

The Registered Agent on file for this company is Registered Agents Inc. and is located at 1717 N Street Nw, Suite 1, Washington, DC 20036. The company's principal address is 1150 4th Street Sw #1002, Washington, DC 20024.

The company has 1 contact on record. The contact is Taylor Swindle from Arlington VA.

os

cnbc 2021

former President Donald Trump’s political action committees combined to spend just over $7.9 million on legal fees, with much of it going toward lawyers who attempted to overturn the 2020 election and defended him during his second impeachment trial.

Four committees linked to Trump made the payments during the first half of 2021, filings show. The Make America Great Again PAC paid out just over $7.8 million of the total legal expenditures. The committee is Trump’s former campaign account. His team turned it into a PAC earlier this year.

:{

}:

Trump’s leadership PAC, Save America, spent just over $50,000 in legal fees,while its sister joint fundraising committees paid out around $40,000. The Trump Make America Great Again Committee, which raised money with the Republican National Committee, spent nearly $37,000 on legal costs.

Trump announced over the weekend that his committees raised nearly $82 million and has over $100 million on hand. The former president used fundraising promotions during his election challenge and impeachment to raise cash for both legal efforts.

the payments started in early January after multiple lawsuits from Trump and his Republican allies were tossed out in key states such as Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Arizona and Michigan. The checks continued to go to legal firms through Trump’s impeachment trial, where he was impeached for a second time by the House and exonerated by the Senate. Some payments to legal advisors were as recent as June.

Asked about the legal costs, Jason Miller, a spokesman for Trump, pointed to the impeachment fight. The House, largely along party lines impeached Trump for inciting the deadly Jan. 6 riot on Capitol Hill. The Senate acquitted him, but some Republicans joined Democrats in voting to convict.

“It’s a shame that national Democrats, obsessed with trying to prevent President Trump from running and winning again in 2024, pursued another failed impeachment effort earlier this year. While this partisan charade was soundly defeated, and President Trump was completely exonerated, these things cost money,” Miller said in an email Monday.

:{

}:

Trump’s lawyers reaped a windfall during his impeachment trial.

Kasowitz, Benson, Torres, a firm founded by longtime attorney Marc Kasowitz, received $2.5 million from Trump’s Make America Great Again PAC. Eric Herschmann, a partner at the firm, was hired by Trump in January to assist on the first legal impeachment defense in 2020. He later joined the Trump White House as a senior advisor, and it remains unclear what the payment was for.

Miller and Kasowitz did not respond to requests for comment on the payment to the firm.

The MAGA PAC paid the law offices of Michael van der Veen just over $575,000. Van der Veen and Bruce Castor, who also works at the firm, were part of Trump’s second impeachment defense team.

David Schoen, another member of the Trump impeachment team, was paid over $100,000 by the former president’s PAC.

None of the FEC records shows legal service payments to Rudy Giuliani, who has called the president a client and publicly challenged the results of the election.

The former New York mayor has been suspended from practicing law in the state after his false election claims. He is under investigation for allegedly not registering as a lobbyist for entities who were seeking various actions related to Ukraine, including the removal of the American ambassador under Trump.

The Make America Great Again PAC did pay Giuliani’s security firm, Giuliani Security & Safety, just over $76,000 for travel expenses. “Mayor Giuliani was reimbursed for expenses only,” Miller told CNBC. Giuliani had said that he would work for Trump for free.

Jenna Ellis, one of Trump’s legal advisors during the recount, was paid more than $22,000 for her services.

In an email to CNBC, Ellis defended the former president and the payments she received.

“I was paid in full according to the terms of my representation. President Trump always treated me with fairness and respect for my work and advocacy for him. He is the best boss I have ever had,” Ellis said Monday.

Elections LLC, which the Center for Responsive Politics says was launched by former Trump deputy White House counsel Stefan Passantino, received over $200,000 this year between multiple Trump PACs, according to the new records. The FEC filings do not say whether the payments were related to the election. Passantino did not respond to requests for comment.

A website that tracks the lawyers who worked on efforts to overturn the election for Trump shows that many of those attorneys were paid six figures for legal fights they ended up losing. In February, the Make America Great Again PAC paid the Hilbert Law Firm just under $380,000 for legal help with the recount.

That firm led failed legal fights in Georgia. According to The Wall Street Journal, Kurt Hilbert, a founder of the firm, was on an infamous January phone call between Trump and the Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. Trump urged Raffensperger to overturn then-President-elect Joe Biden’s victory in the state.

“I would like to suggest that just four categories that have already been mentioned by the president that have actually hard numbers of 24,149 votes that were counted illegally. That in and of itself is sufficient to change the results or place the outcome in doubt, Hilbert said on the call, according to the Journal’s transcript.

Hilbert declined to comment on the payments made by the PAC to his firm. But he again pushed the idea that there were election irregularities in Georgia.

“This evidence cannot be ignored,” Hilbert told CNBC in an email.

Courts, state election authorities and the U.S. Justice Department have all said there is no evidence that the election was rigged against Trump.

True North Law, which led a failed fightin swing state Michigan, was paid over $270,000 for its services in January by the same committee. Harvey & Binnall, which was involved in a failed legal fight in Nevada, received over $300,000 in payments from January through June by the Trump PAC, according to the filings.

True North Law did not respond to requests for comment.

ref

Anna Massoglia on Twitter: "New addition to Trump 2020 campaign legal fees disclosed in FEC filings is $60,000 paid to "Elections LLC," which was launched by President Trump's former White House ethics counsel Stefan Passantino & incorporated weeks before the Trump reelection campaign's first payment to it. https://t.co/oxTTM0SDwi" / Twitter

:{:{anna Massoglia:(style="border:0px solid black;box-sizing:border-box;display:inline;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px;white-space:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;min-width:0px"):}::(style="border:0px solid black;box-sizing:border-box;display:inline;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px;overflow-wrap:break-word;max-width:100%;overflow:hidden;text-overflow:ellipsis;min-width:0px"):}:

:{@annalecta:(style="border:0px solid black;box-sizing:border-box;display:inline;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px;white-space:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;min-width:0px"):}:

New addition to Trump 2020 campaign legal fees disclosed in FEC filings is $60,000 paid to "Elections LLC," which was launched by President Trump's former White House ethics counsel Stefan Passantino & incorporated weeks before the Trump reelection campaign's first payment to it.

:{

}:

:{

}:

//NRA expose?

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/jan-6-committee-zeroes-in-on-trump-e2-80-99s-big-lie-fundraising

zoe takes lead;

no lnx

the Jan. 6 committee spent most of its second hearing Monday picking apart Trump’s relentless lies about the 2020 election outcome — lies he pursued despite findings from both his campaign staff and government investigators that the election results were legitimate.

But Monday’s hearing ended with an interesting change of topic: The panel zeroed in on Trump’s fundraising. Specifically, the committee found, Trump lied to his base in order to raise millions of dollars, and then used that money to pursue his own political and personal ends.

According to the committee’s senior investigative counsel Amanda Wick, it went like this: After Trump lost the 2020 election — and even after the “safe harbor date” that usually spells the end of election lawsuits —Trump and his campaign pursued a fundraising strategy based around a so-called “Election Integrity Fund”: A fund that they told donors would help “PROTECT THE INTEGRITY OF OUR ELECTION” in dozens of emails over several weeks.

But the Election Integrity Fund didn’t exist: Gary Coby, the campaign’s former digital director, agreed during a deposition that it was a “marketing tactic.” And the tactic worked: The committee found that Trump and his allies raised nearly $100 million in the first week after the election.

On Nov. 9, Trump created the “Save America PAC.” Wick said most of the money for the “Election Defense Fund” went to that account. And that PAC, in turn, made millions in donations to Trump-aligned groups: $1 million to former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows’ charitable foundation, $1 million to the America First Policy Institute, which employed several former Trump administration officials, $204,857 to the Trump Hotel Collection, and over $5 million to Event Strategies Inc., the company that ran Trump’s White House Ellipse rally — the event that preceded the Capitol attack. 

The campaign sent fundraising emails regularly, including one about 30 minutes before the Capitol was breached, Wick said.

...

jane m slime machine

A.A.F. describes itself as a champion of transparency, but it declines to reveal the sources of its funding. Its official mailing address is a handsome historic building a few blocks from the U.S. Capitol. But when I stopped by there recently, to ask for the group’s basic financial records—which all tax-exempt nonprofits are legally required to produce—a woman at the lobby’s front desk said there was no such group at that address. Instead, the building is occupied by a different nonprofit group: the Conservative Partnership Institute, which serves as a kind of Isle of Elba for Trump loyalists in exile. It has become the employer of Trump’s former chief of staff Mark Meadows and of Trump’s former ad-hoc legal adviser Cleta Mitchell, both of whom are fighting subpoenas from the House committee investigating the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Cameron Seward, the general counsel of the Conservative Partnership Institute,appeared in the lobby and assured me that there was no relationship between his group and the A.A.F. Yet documents that the A.A.F. filed with the I.R.S. in 2021, to secure its tax-exempt status, describe the group as existing “in care of” C.P.I. Moreover, C.P.I.’s 2021 annual report notes that it launched the A.A.F. because “conservatives didn’t have a group performing research on Biden’s woke nominees—even though plenty of liberal groups were digging up (or manufacturing) dirt on our side.” The groups have several overlapping directors, including Jones, who sits on both boards.

The A.A.F. told the I.R.S. that its mission is to conduct nonpartisan research, but it is curious that the largest contribution by far to its parent group, C.P.I., is a million-dollar “charitable contribution” from Save America—Trump’s political-action committee. Trump reportedly raised much of the pac’s money from supporters after his 2020 defeat, and his campaign has called the group an “election defense fund.”

Save America made its contribution to C.P.I. a few months after Meadows joined the group. Meadows’s son, Blake, an associate attorney at the Georgia law firm Foster, Foster, & Smith, appears to be involved with C.P.I., too: his name appears in a lawsuit filed last month on behalf of the A.A.F. against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Matthew Buckham, the A.A.F. co-founder, also has a Trump connection: he worked at the White House during his Administration, in the personnel office. (His father, Ed Buckham, is chief of staff to Marjorie Taylor Greene.)

It’s a great advantage to be able to treat opposition research as a tax-exempt charitable expense rather than as, say, a campaign cost. On March 21st, Paul Teller, the executive director of an advocacy group that serves as former Vice-President Mike Pence’s political operation, gave a lecture to Christian pastors in which he said, of the A.A.F., “I’m just in love with these guys!” Teller enthused, “They are just taking it to every Biden-Harris nominee that comes across to Congress,” adding, “Some of the stuff that we’re fighting with the Supreme Court nominee Jackson came from our friends at the American Accountability Foundation.” He went on, “We’re partnering, we’re collaborating.” Teller’s group is widely seen as promoting a potential Pence campaign for President in 2024.

When the A.A.F. applied for its tax-exempt status, it portrayed itself, under penalty of perjury, as a nonpartisan charity that would neither participate in political campaigns nor try to influence legislation. As a tax-exempt nonprofit dark-money organization, Jones’s group isn’t required to publicly disclose its donors, so it’s impossible to know all the sources of its funding. Clearly, though, it has big ambitions. In its I.R.S. filing, the A.A.F. submitted revenue projections that predict its budget as six hundred thousand dollars in 2021, a million dollars in 2022, and one and a half million dollars in 2023.

Norman Ornstein, a political scientist and Trump critic at the American Enterprise Institute, a right-leaning think tank, believes that the A.A.F. is doing “frightening, sleazy stuff” with serious implications. Not only is the group creating needless vacancies in important Administration positions; it is intimidating well-qualified people from wanting to undergo the nomination process. “It’s tough enough to get top-flight people in government,” Ornstein said. “But, if you also have to go through a well-funded, well-oiled slime machine, it’s really an attack on government.

https://www.alternet.org/2022/02/trump-2656651980/

rubber glue as 1/6 and criminal prosecutions tighten?

2 22

Former president Donald Trump issued a statement Saturday suggesting that unnamed members of Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign staff should be put to death.

“The latest pleading fromSpecial Counsel Robert Durham provides indisputable evidence that my campaign and presidency were spied on by operatives paid by the Hillary Clinton Campaign in an effort to develop a completely fabricated connection to Russia,” Trump said in the statement from his Save America PAC. “This is a scandal far greater in scope and magnitude than Watergate and those who were involved in and knew about this spying operation should be subject to criminal prosecution. In a stronger period of time in our country, this crime would have been punishable by death. In addition,reparations should be paid to those in our country who have been damaged by this.”

Former president Donald Trump issued a statement Saturday suggesting that unnamed members of Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign staff should be put to death.

“The latest pleading from Special Counsel Robert Durham provides indisputable evidence that my campaign and presidency were spied on by operatives paid by the Hillary Clinton Campaign in an effort to develop a completely fabricated connection to Russia,” Trump said in the statement from his Save America PAC. “This is a scandal far greater in scope and magnitude than Watergate and those who were involved in and knew about this spying operation should be subject to criminal prosecution. In a stronger period of time in our country, this crime would have been punishable by death. In addition, reparations should be paid to those in our country who have been damaged by this.”

Trump was responding to allegations put forth by Durham in a court filing this week.

“Lawyers for the Clinton campaign paid a technology company to ‘infiltrate’ servers belonging to Trump Tower, and later the White House, in order to establish an ‘inference’ and “narrative’ to bring to government agencies linking Donald Trump to Russia, a filing from Special Counsel John Durham says,” Fox News reported Saturday. “Durham filed a motion on Feb. 11 focused on potential conflicts of interest related to the representation of former Clinton campaign lawyer Michael Sussman, who has been charged with making a false statement to a federal agent. Sussman has pleaded not guilty.”

More below.

an 222

reason for 180 on 1/6 cooperation? other 5 or 10K? trms

trump PAC transferred $1 million to a Mark Meadows nonprofit as House coup probe got underway

Daily Kos Staff February 02, 2022

nBC News is reporting that, only weeks after the formation of the House Select Committee to Investigate the Jan. 6 Attack on the United States Capitol, Donald Trump's "Save America" PAC donated a whopping $1 million to a conservative training "institute" headed in part by former Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows—a man who was intimately involved with multiple parts of Trump's attempts to overturn the 2020 election. What makes the donation especially conspicuous is that it's orders of magnitude above the Trump PAC's usual gifts.

The Trump PAC distributed a total of $1.35 million in the last half of 2021, reports NBC News. And that single $1 million donation to Meadows' group accounted for the lion's share of it.

It should be immediately clarified that this is not Donald Trump's own money. Trump's fascist-premised "Save America" fundraisers have been sucking the money out of Trump supporters' pockets just as every other Trump grift has, providing a means for Trump to give financial rewards to party allies without having to write any of the checks himself.

And Donald Trump is not known for writing checks himself. It is said that the reason Trump's fingers are so short is that whenever anyone comes to him asking him to write a check, the man bites his own fingers off so that nobody can make him pick up the pen. After the unpleasant visitor goes away, a team of surgeons reattaches each finger—always with a bit of loss, shrinking each digit by a few millimeters or so—and the cycle repeats. Or something. It is only a rumor I heard.

Trump's sudden shove of $1 million to Meadows is notable for its large size, even as the rest of his PAC spends its days trickling out money only a few thousand dollars at a time, but also because it has been clear from the beginning thatMark Meadows knows more about the Trump White House's attempts at self-coup than perhaps any other person, Trump included.Meadows participated in the call to Georgia election officialsin which Trump asked them to "find" enough Trump votes to overturn Joe Biden's victory in the state. Meadows was involved in discussions about taking pseudo-military action to erase or "redo" the election. Meadows was involved in Trump's efforts to gather a crowd of his most rabid public supporters and set them loose to "march" to the U.S. Capitol at the precise day and hour that a joint session of Congress would oversee the final constitutional acknowledgement of his loss.

Mark Meadows is, in other words, up to his ex-House-Republican eyebrows in a multipronged plan to overthrow the United States government, and Trump throwing a million bucks his way just after it became clear that House Republicans had not been able to halt the investigation of Jan. 6 and that Congress would be making an effort to haul Meadows' aiding and abetting ass into a hearing room, a donation absurdly out of scope of what the Trump PAC was doing before and since, can certainly be taken as a distribution of hush money.

And that might be an untoward accusation to make if Donald Trump had not already been caught red-handed handing out similar "hush money" in the past. And it's difficult to find examples of Trump spending money anywhere, at any time, that hasn't been directly linked to what the recipient has personally done for or said about Trump. We can be sure that Trump's PAC did not throw $1 million at Mark Meadows because Donald Trump—sincerely and urgently—believes in the "Conservative Partnership Institute" goal of training new conservative staffers for future generations. Donald Trump doesn't give a flying damn about anything that does not provide immediate and tangible benefit to Donald Trump.

So sure, maybe it's hush money. Maybe it's witness tampering with a big ol' check attached. One way to determine what the money is for is to watch how Meadows' group spends it. If it turns out the "institute" is suddenly spending $1 million or so on unexplained legal fees, as Meadows' own battles with the Jan. 6 committee heat up, well then golly gee won't that be something.

But it ain't gonna be spent on anything that Donald Trump did not personally want it spent on.

ref

no lnx

Trump gave $1M to Meadows nonprofit weeks after Jan. 6 panel's creation

The contribution was made to the Conservative Partnership Institute, where Mark Meadows, the former White House chief of staff, is a senior partner.

Trump's PAC gave to 69 candidates for federal and state offices, many of whom have embraced his lie that he was defrauded in the 2020 presidential election.

Feb. 1, 2022, 4:19 AM PST

By Jonathan Allen

WASHINGTON — Former President Donald Trump's political action committee donated $1 million to the conservative nonprofit organization where his former chief of staff, Mark Meadows, is a senior partner, according to a campaign finance report filed Monday night with the Federal Election Commission.

In December, the House voted to recommend that the Justice Department pursue contempt of Congress charges against Meadows over his refusal to cooperate with an investigation into the Trump-inspired Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

The tax-deductible seven-figure contribution to the Conservative Partnership Instituteis by far the largest chunk of $1.35 million in donations Trump's "Save America" PAC made to political allies over the last six months of 2021, according to the campaign finance report.

[Jan. 6 committee recommends Mark Meadows for contempt of Congress

DEC. 13, 202104:15

Trump's PAC gave to 69 candidates for federal and state offices, many of whom have embraced his lie that he was defrauded in the 2020 presidential election. He lost to President Joe Biden by an electoral vote rally of 306 to 232 — and by more than 7 million raw votes.

Recommended

JUSTICE DEPARTMENT

Judge's son who stormed Capitol dressed as cave man pleads guilty

ELECTIONS

Florida Republicans propose election police force

:{

}:

The contribution to Meadows's nonprofit stands out both for its size and for its timing. On July 1, the House voted to establish a select committee to investigate the Capitol attack. Trump's PAC donated to the Conservative Partnership Institute, which bills itself as a training ground for conservative staff and elected officials, on July 26.

"CPI is proud to have the support of President Trump, along with tens of thousands of Americans across the nation, for our work to build and unite the conservative movement," CPI chief operating officer Wesley Denton said in a statement to NBC News.

Tim Mulvey, a spokesman for the Jan. 6 committee, did not immediately respond to a text seeking comment on the donation to Meadows's employer.

"Save America" is one of the former president's several political fundraising vehicles, which collectively raised $51 million in the second half of 2021, according to Trump spokesman Taylor Budowich. It employs about two dozen people and its most frequent expense is Facebook advertising, according to Monday's disclosure.

[Fox News' Sean Hannity's text messages revealed, Capitol police prep for Jan. 6 anniversary

JAN. 5, 202202:28]

The PAC's largest contribution to a candidate, $10,000, went to Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who has been a guide to Trump in navigating Texas's Republican primary politics. Most of the donations were made in $5,000 increments, and they went to most of the candidates Trump has endorsed.

Recipients of "Save America" checks include several candidates running for statewide offices, including secretary of state and attorney general, that have influence over the administration of elections. For example, Trump gave $5,000 to Arizona state Rep. Mark Finchem, a secretary of state candidate who has called for the decertification of the 2020 election, and a matching amount to Rep. Jody Hice, R-Ga., who voted against certifying the election and is now running for secretary of state in Georgia.

Arizona and Georgia were the states decided by the smallest margins in 2020.

The PAC's contributions to Senate candidates included a donation to Republican Herschel Walker, the former University of Georgia and professional football star who played for Trump's team in the defunct USFL, the New Jersey Generals. And on theHouse side, Trump gave to Harriet Hageman, who is running a primary challenge to Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo.Cheney voted to impeach Trump for his role in the Jan. 6 attack and is one of two Republicans sitting on the committee investigating it.

https://www.mediamatters.org/facebook/facebook-letting-trumps-pac-run-ads-implying-he-true-president

Less than nine months into his suspension on Facebook, former President Donald Trump is using his political action committee to run ads on the platform containing election misinformation, including claiming “the election was tainted” and implying that Trump is “the true president.”

In June, Facebook announced Trump’s suspension from the platform for at least two years, citing his “acts of incitement” and claiming the suspension would “be significant enough to be a deterrent to Mr. Trump and others from committing such severe violations in future.” That same month,Trump’s Save America Joint Fundraising Committee,a joint venture between his Make America Great Again PAC and his newer Save America l**eadership PAC**, started sponsoring Facebook ads.

Kyle Tharp’s newsletter FWIW, which tracks digital spending and strategy in politics, reported on September 24 that the latest ads from Trump’s PAC attempt to undermine the U.S. election process and contain misinformation about the 2020 election, even suggesting that Trump is “the true president.”...