Featured Timeline Entries
May 6, 2024 - New court filings reveal the DOJ's crime scene photo of the Mar-a-Lago raid was doctored

The picture that launched a thousand pearl-clutching articles.

(…) New court filings in Special Counsel Jack Smith’s espionage and obstruction case against Trump and two co-defendants conclusively demonstrate that the government used the cover sheets to deceive the public as well as the court. The photo was a stunt, and one that adds more fuel to this dumpster-fire case.

Jay Bratt (Credit: cyber security
summit)

Jay Bratt, who was the lead DOJ prosecutor on the investigation at the time and now is assigned to Smith’s team, described the photo this way in his August 30, 2022 response to Trump’s special master lawsuit:

“[Thirteen] boxes or containers contained documents with classification markings, and in all, over one hundred unique documents with classification markings…were seized. Certain of the documents had colored cover sheets indicating their classification status. (Emphasis added.) See, e.g., Attachment F (redacted FBI photograph of certain documents and classified cover sheets recovered from a container in the ‘45 office’).”

The DOJ’s clever wordsmithing, however, did not accurately describe the origin of the cover sheets. In what must be considered not only an act of doctoring evidence but willfully misleading the American people into believing the former president is a criminal and threat to national security, agents involved in the raid attached the cover sheets to at least seven files to stage the photo.

Classified cover sheets were not “recovered” in the container, contrary to Bratt’s declaration to the court. In fact, after being busted recently by defense attorneys for mishandling evidence in the case, Bratt had to fess up about how the cover sheets actually ended up on the documents.

Here is Bratt’s new version of the story, where he finally admits a critical detail that he failed to disclose in his August 2022 filing:

“[If] the investigative team found a document with classification markings, it removed the document, segregated it, and replaced it with a placeholder sheet. The investigative team used classified cover sheets for that purpose.”

But before the official cover sheets were used as placeholder, agents apparently used them as props. FBI agents took it upon themselves to paperclip the sheets to documents—something evident given the uniform nature of how each cover sheet is clipped to each file in the photo—laid them on the floor, and snapped a picture for political posterity.

That raises many troubling questions, to say the least, about the FBI’s handling of the alleged incriminating documents.

For example, who made the on-site determination as to the classification level appropriate for each document? Did agents have security clearance and expertise related to classification? Did the agents know whether the document had been declassified by Trump while still in office?

The hasty assessment also appears to contradict Bratt’s statements in court about the classification status of the seized documents. Bratt told Judge Aileen Cannon during a hearing last year that the records were undergoing a classification review, presumably conducted by the intelligence community, to determine the correct level of secrecy.

Did the final analysis confirm or dispute the assessments by the field FBI agents who conducted the raid?

But Jack Smith might have bigger problems. During the raid, agents took a box in its entirety if it contained papers with classified markings; the box usually contained other items, which is how the FBI ended up with so many of Trump’s personal belongings.

So, in order to flag the location of the alleged classified record in the box, agents, as Bratt noted, used the cover sheets as placeholders. (The classified records were then placed in a separate secure file.)

But now defense attorneys claim, and the special counsel concedes, that some placeholders do not match the relevant document. “Following defense counsel’s review of the physical boxes…and the documents produced in classified discovery, defense counsel has learned that the cross-reference provided by the Special Counsel’s Office does not contain accurate information,” attorneys representing Trump’s co-defendant Waltine Nauta wrote in a May 1 motion.

The motion forced the special counsel to admit the error. “In many but not all instances, the FBI was able to determine which document with classification markings corresponded to a particular placeholder sheet,” Bratt wrote.

In other words, in their zeal to stage a phony photo using official classified cover sheets, FBI agents might have failed to accurately match the placeholder sheet with the appropriate document. This is a potentially case-blowing mistake, particularly if the document in question is one of the 34 records that represents the basis of espionage charges against Trump. (Read more: Declassified/Julie Kelly/Substack, 5/06/2024)  (Archive)

May 6, 2024 - FBI confirms it’s restarting online censorship efforts ahead of 2024 election

On Monday, Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., the chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, told reporters that federal agencies such as the FBI and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) restarted discussions with Big Tech platforms. According to NextGov/FCW, this coordination will focus on “removing disinformation on their sites as the November presidential election nears.” Warner claimed these talks resumed in March, around the same time oral arguments in Murthy v. Missouri — which centers on the feds’ censorship efforts — were heard before the U.S. Supreme Court.

When pressed on the validity of Warner’s remarks, an FBI representative confirmed to The Federalist that the agency has resumed communications with social media companies ahead of the 2024 election.

“The FBI remains committed to combatting foreign malign influence operations, including in connection with our elections. That effort includes sharing specific foreign threat information with state and local election officials and private sector companies when appropriate and rigorously consistent with the law,” the representative claimed. “In coordination with the Department of Justice, the FBI recently implemented procedures to facilitate sharing information about foreign malign influence with social media companies in a way that reinforces that private companies are free to decide on their own whether and how to take action on that information.”

CISA Logo (Credit: public domain)

Jen Easterly (Credit: Wikipedia)

CISA External Affairs Specialist Tess Hyre declined The Federalist’s request for comment on whether the agency has resumed discussions with social media companies to combat what it claims to be “disinformation,” but she said that CISA Director Jen Easterly will be participating in an “Election Security” hearing in “the coming weeks.”

Neither the FBI nor CISA responded when pressed on when they restarted communications with social media companies on efforts to remove posts containing so-called “disinformation” from their platforms. The FBI and CISA did not identify the specific companies they’re working with on such efforts. Neither agency provided an answer when questioned on how they determine what constitutes “disinformation” or what other federal agencies they are collaborating with in these efforts to have “disinformation” removed from social media platforms.

The issue of government-compelled censorship is front and center in Murthy v. Missouri, a case before SCOTUS focused on allegations from Missouri and Louisiana that the federal government’s pressuring of social media companies to censor free speech online constitutes a violation of the First Amendment. U.S. District Court Judge Terry Doughty issued a preliminary injunction in July 2023 barring federal agencies from colluding with Big Tech to censor posts they don’t like. In his ruling, Doughty wrote, “If the allegations made by Plaintiffs are true, the present case arguably involves the most massive attack against free speech in United States’ history.” (Read more: The Federalist, 5/08/2024)  (Archive)

May 6, 2024 - A key player in Wisconsin's 2020 election steal has been fired

Full Text:

BREAKING: The most corrupt election clerk from the biggest city in Wisconsin has been FIRED. Claire Woodall-Vogg was a key player in stealing the 2020 election

“She printed 64,000 ballots in the back conference room of City Hall, Room 501. For the Nov 3rd 2020 election. She had city employees and others (CTCL) fill some of those out on the 4th, 6th and other floors of city hall. Then kicked out observers around 10-10:30pm on Nov 3rd. Then brought in large amounts of ballots at 1:15am on Nov 4th. All illegal, unconstitutional – number one way however the liberals stole the Presidential election in 2020.”

Full Text:

And here is,

why the swing states stopped counting on the night of Nov 3, 2020,

Wisconsin Election Commission Executive Director was printing 64,000 ballots on 4th, 6th floor of Milwaukee City Hall, all in favor of the Manchurian candidate Joe Biden.

Claire Woodall-Vogg
“I would just say as a reminder that is a felony, it is voter fraud to abuse the system.”

📝U.S. Congress certified the overthrown of your government. And they all know it.

May 7, 2024 - Judge Cannon vacates May 20 Trump trial date; set hearings with focus on Jack Smith

Case Documents

May 7, 2024 - Georgia Election Board member Janice Johnston states over 300,000 ballot images are missing from their 2020 election

Full Text:

“Does the investigation confirm that there are missing ballot images?”

“Yes.”

Case closed. No cover up operation can conceal the fact that Fulton County did not have the votes it claimed it had. The recount could not replicate the original results.

Oh, and it’s “news” to Fulton County that they are missing over 300,000 ballot images from Election Day.

May 8, 2024 - House Intelligence Committee holds a 'bipartisan' party dubbed 'FISA Fest' after renewing FISA 702 warrantless spying on Americans

Reps. Mike Turner and Jim Himes appear on Face the Nation, February, 2024. (Credit: CBS)

The lawmakers responsible for allowing the FBI to continue its warrantless spying on Americans threw an actual party to celebrate that fact, according to a report in Wired.

The tech publication reported Wednesday that the House Intelligence Committee had a party scheduled for that night, to celebrate last month’s renewal of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which allows for the warrantless collection of Americans’ communications.

“The US House Intelligence Committee is throwing a party Wednesday night to celebrate the recent extension of the 702 surveillance program, multiple sources tell WIRED,” the publication reported.

“House Intelligence Committee chair Mike Turner and ranking member Jim Himes blasted out invitations announcing a ‘bipartisan celebration’ of the 702 program’s continuation last week. The event, which the lawmakers have dubbed FISA Fest, is being held in a reception room in the US Capitol building Wednesday night.” (Read more: Headline USA, 5/09/2024)  (Archive)

May 8, 2024 - Missouri AG blasts Media Matters for trying to stop his investigation into their fraudulent solicitations of donations from Missourians

On Wednesday, Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey announced that Media Matters is attempting to halt an investigation from the AG’s office into the organization for “allegedly fraudulent solicitation of donations from Missourians amidst its efforts to target X.”

Bailey posted about the motion from Media Matters online. “Media Matters is attempting to shut down Missouri courts. They filed a motion to HALT our investigation and lawsuit into their fraudulent practices,” Bailey wrote.

“DC courts have no say over Missouri courts. I have filed a motion to protect our ability to litigate in Missouri,” he added.

Baily filed a counter motion to Media Matters’ attempt to stop the investigation, which stated, “How shocking it would be if the Missouri Attorney General asked a state court to issue an order preventing this Court from hearing this case. Yet Media Matters seeks exactly that extreme remedy, just in reverse.”

The case filing from Bailey added, “Media Matters does not dispute that it can raise all its claims and defenses in the ongoing proceeding in Missouri state court. It has already begun doing so. It filed a motion to exercise legal rights guaranteed by Missouri law, which the state court granted. Nevertheless, Media Matters now asks a federal court in the District of Columbia to enter an order that would force the courts of the State of Missouri to stop adjudicating an ongoing case.”

Bailey also called the attempt to block the lawsuit an “attack on federalism” for the country.

Motion AG Bailey by Tommy

(The Post Millennial, 5/10/2024) (Archive)

May 9, 2024 - Turley skewers Hillary Clinton for attacking Trump over payments despite her labeling payment for Steele Dossier as legal expenses

George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley skewered former First Lady Hillary Clinton Thursday for attacking former President Donald Trump over the alleged payout to porn star Stormy Daniels.

Clinton appeared on Morning Joe, where she alleged that the $130,000 payout to Daniels in 2016 was a form of “election interference” by the Trump campaign while discussing Trump’s trial on a 34-count indictment secured by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. Clinton’s 2016 campaign and the Democratic National Committee agreed to pay a $113,000 fine after failing to report funding of the now-debunked Steele dossier through the Perkins Coie law firm.

“They are saying you rigged an election or a race that was already run, that’s what doesn’t make sense to us,” Turley said. “The hilarious aspect of that earlier clip with Hillary Clinton is that she actually makes the case for Trump, because when she ‘says how dare you keep information from the public,’ The Clinton campaign lied to the media about funding the Steele dossier. How did they hide it? They said it was legal expenses with Marc Elias. And when they were facing a fine, they litigated that and said no, it really is a legal expense. So her campaign did exactly what she is suggesting here, but they did it before the election.”

The Steele dossier was a key source behind the FBI’s investigation into allegations that the Trump campaign engaged in election interference with Russia in 2016. In October 2016, the FBI offered the dossier’s author, Christopher Steele, $1 million to corroborate allegations made in the document, according to testimony by FBI supervisory analyst Brian Auten.

Steele ultimately failed to “prove the allegations,” Auten testified.

“What Trump is being accused of is giving the wrong notation, which he may not have had anything to do with, after the election was over that somehow affected the election,” Turley said. “The fact that judge Juan Merchan has allowed this case to go forward on these conflicted elements of the theory is one of the biggest complaints I have against him, that most judges, I think, would have approached this case very differently and many would not have had this case go to trial.” (The Daily Caller, 5/10/2024)  (Archive)

May 10, 2024 - Stormy Daniels answers Trump defense team questions with disastrous results

(Credit: Thomson Reuters )

(…) Asked if she knew what the case was about, and well, she didn’t.

According to Victoria Taft, writing at PJMedia:

The Washington Post captured most of the dialogue between Necheles and Daniels.

Necheles asked Daniels if she had knowledge of Trump’s involvement in the payment made to her in 2016 to ensure she would not go public about their alleged sexual encounter.

“Not directly,” Daniels replied. “No.”

Necheles followed up, “You know nothing about what he does or does not know about the business records?

“I know nothing about his business records,” Daniels said. “No, why would I?”

Daniels drew some laughter when Necheles asked if she knew about what the criminal indictment against Trump entailed.

“There’s a lot of indictments,” Daniels responded.

Why would she know if Trump knew about the payments, indeed? She admitted she hadn’t spoken with him since 2007.

Taft then noted that the other thing that came out at trial was that she tried to extort him for cash, while the getting was good.

A recorded phone exchange revealed this:

“You better settle this God damn story. Because if he loses this election, and he is going to lose, if he loses this election we lose all fucking leverage this case is worth zero. And if that happens, I’m going to sue you because you lost this opportunity,” said Stormy’s lawyer Keith Davidson to Trump’s then-fixer Michael Cohen, who then badly advised Trump to pay the extortion money.

Sound like extortion? It does to anyone normal.

And that contradicted her claim on the stand that she wasn’t interested in money, only in telling her story.

Lying comes easy to her, because it’s what she does for a living. Her schtick, after all, is talking and acting dirty for cash.

That’s not just the view of us normal people watching the case far from New York City.

Even leftists at the scene are saying she shouldn’t have been allowed anywhere near the witness stand.

Fox News quoted a CNN legal analyst saying Daniels was a disaster for the prosecution:

CNN legal analyst Elie Honig said that the cross-examination of adult film actress and Trump trial witness Stormy Daniels after her testimony against former President Trump was a disaster.

While Honig said that Daniels’ testimony about a sexual encounter with Trump in a hotel room in 2006 was “plausible,” her responses under cross-examination by Trump’s team called her credibility into question.

“Her responses were disastrous,” Honig said, referring to the moment when Daniels admitted that she hates Trump.

“That’s a big deal,” Honig said.

…

“When the witness hates the person whose liberty is at stake, that’s a big d— deal!” Honig said. “And she’s putting out tweets, fantasizing about him being in jail. That really undermines the credibility.”

Well, yeah. Whether it persuades the all-Democrat Trump-hating jury is another matter but for sure it will be out there for the rest of us.

Another leftist who seemed to think Daniels was a disaster was the justice himself, Juan Merchan, who otherwise keeps threatening to throw Trump in jail any time he tries to defend himself.

According to CNN, he chided Trump’s lawyers for not objecting to Stormy Daniels’s disgusting graphic testimony, which had nothing to do with the bookkeeping case.

Judge Juan Merchan called out former President Donald Trump’s defense team during their motion for a mistrial Thursday afternoon, telling them there were many times they could have objected to Stormy Daniels’ testimony, but did not.

For the second time this week, Merchan expressed surprise that Trump’s lawyers had not objected more when Daniels was on the stand. And for the second time this week, Merchan rejected their motion for a mistrial.

Well, whose courtroom was it, Justice Merchan? The guy did object to some of the toilet talk himself in one instance but way too much got out, it was like Fani Willis babbling from the stand all over again.

The prosecution put Stormy on the stand to embarrass Trump and damage his presidential run, of course, but didn’t seem to understand that the audience in the courtroom and well beyond might just be onto him and his sleazy political game, which could render the legal case against him nil.

We all know what party the justice donates to, whose side he’s on, and what he would like to do to Trump.

So the fact that Merchan complained about the Trump side not objecting enough, for example, on the matter of whether Trump used a condom, a sacred point to the left and a matter of no interest to most others, pretty well tells us that he could see that Daniels’s recollections of porkings past was damaging to the prosecution, particularly as her contradictions and lies were exposed, one by one.

That’s at least two on the left who see the case starting to go down in flames, and there have been others. Many others. (Read more: American Thinker, 5/11/2024)  (Archive)

(…) [Bill] Maher, referencing his 2018 interview with Daniels, pointed out her previous statements where she denied being coerced into any sexual encounters with Trump.

“You say it’s not a Me Too case,” Maher asked Daniels in the 2018 footage.

“It is not a Me Too case,” Daniels responded. “I wasn’t assaulted. I wasn’t attacked, or raped, or coerced or blackmailed…. They tried to shove me in the Me Too box to further their own agenda. And first of all, I didn’t want to be part of that because it’s not the truth and I’m not a victim in that regard.”

Reacting to Daniels’ current testimony, Maher highlighted inconsistencies, “That’s not what she’s saying now.”

He continued to dismantle her credibility by pointing out her current use of “Me Too buzzwords” and expressed doubts about her claim of blacking out during the encounter with Trump.

“She said she blacked out. Blacked out? She’s a porn star. Do you really think she blacked out? I mean, a porn star is used to having sex with people she does not know. That’s the job… I just think she’s not a good witness,” Maher said.

(Read more: The Gateway Pundit, 5/12/2024) (Archive)

May 10, 2024 - Bragg’s paralegal testifies three pages of phone calls between Stormy Daniels’ lawyer and Michael Cohen were deleted

Court sketch of Jaden Jamel-Schneider (Credit: Jane Rosenberg/CNN)

(…) Defense attorney Emil Bove is challenging the evidence prosecutors are putting forward, asking paralegal Jaden Jarmel-Schneider about the deletion of some toll records between Keith Davidson and Michael Cohen after the defense submitted recordings between the two from 2018.

The paralegal has admitted that they’ve deleted some call records from the files. Bove also has Jarmel-Schneider confirm that some calls were removed from an exhibit of calls between Gina Rodriguez and Dylan Howard.

Bove said it was three-pages worth of records.

Jarmel-Schneider took issue with Bove characterizing it as a “significant” number but he did acknowledge some were removed.

“At this trial, you’re sort of the guardian of the toll records?” Bove asks.

“I don’t know if I’d say that, but if you say so,” Jarmel-Schneider responds.

(Read more: CNN, 5/10/2024) (Archive)

Full Text:

One of Alvin Bragg’s paralegals admitted on the stand today in the Trump trial that his office deleted three pages worth of phone calls between Stormy Daniels’ lawyer Keith Davidson and Michael Cohen.

Not only that but they submitted the call records into evidence but didn’t mention to Trump’s team that some of the files were deleted.

This trial becomes more insane by the day.

May 12, 2024 - Nonprofits are making billions off the border crisis

A group of migrants try to cross a barbed wire fence to reach the U.S., as seen from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, on March 20, 2024. (Credit: Herika Martinez/AFP)

While the border crisis has become a major liability for President Biden, threatening his reelection chances, it’s become a huge boon to a group of nonprofits getting rich off government contracts.

Although the federally funded Unaccompanied Children Program is responsible for resettling unaccompanied migrant minors who enter the U.S., it delegates much of the task to nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) that run shelters in the border states of Texas, Arizona, and California.

And with the recent massive influx of unaccompanied children—a record 130,000 in 2022, the last year for which there are official stats—the coffers of these NGOs are swelling, along with the salaries of their CEOs.

“The amount of taxpayer money they are getting is obscene,” Charles Marino, former adviser to Janet Napolitano, the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security under Obama, said of the NGOs. “We’re going to find that the waste, fraud, and abuse of taxpayer money will rival what we saw with the Covid federal money.”

The Free Press examined three of the most prominent NGOs that have benefited: Global Refuge, Southwest Key Programs, and Endeavors, Inc. These organizations have seen their combined revenue grow from $597 million in 2019 to an astonishing $2 billion by 2022, the last year for which federal disclosure documents are available. And the CEOs of all three nonprofits reap more than $500,000 each in annual compensation, with one of them—the chief executive of Southwest Key—making more than $1 million.

Some of the services NGOs provide are eyebrow-raising. For example, Endeavors uses taxpayer funds to offer migrant children “pet therapy,” “horticulture therapy,” and music therapy. In 2021 alone, Endeavors paid Christy Merrell, a music therapist, $533,000. An internal Endeavors PowerPoint obtained by America First Legal, an outfit founded by former Trump aide Stephen Miller, showed that the nonprofit conducted 1,656 “people-plant interactions” and 287 pet therapy sessions between April 2021 and March 2023.

Endeavors’ 2022 federal disclosure form also shows that it paid $5 million to a company to provide fill-in doctors and nurses, $4.6 million for “consulting services,” $1.4 million to attend conferences, and $700,000 on lobbyists. In 2021, the NGO shelled out $8 million to hotel management company Esperanto Developments to house migrants in their hotels. Endeavors, which gets 99.6 percent of its revenue from the government according to federal disclosure forms, declined to comment to The Free Press.

The Administration for Children and Families, a division of the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, funds the nonprofits through its Office of Refugee Resettlement, and its budget has swelled over the years—from $1.8 billion in 2018 to $6.3 billion in 2023. The ORR is expected to spend at least $7.3 billion this year—almost all of which will be funneled to NGOs and other contractors.

When asked about the funding increase during a January media event, Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, the chief executive of Global Refuge said, “We’ve grown because the need has grown.” The nonprofit did not make Vignarajah available for an interview.

But while it’s true the number of migrants has exploded in recent years, critics say these enormous federal grants far exceed the current need. The facilities themselves are generally owned by private companies and are leased to the NGOs, which house the unaccompanied minors and attempt to unite them with family members or, if that’s not possible, people who will take care of them—their so-called sponsors. The ORR does not publicly list the specific number of shelters it funds in its efforts to house migrants, a business The New York Times once described as “lucrative” and “secretive.” (Read more: The Free Press, 5/12/2024)  (Archive)

May 15, 2024 - HHS suspends funding and proposes formal debarment of EcoHealth Alliance, cites evidence from COVID Select Report

President of Ecohealth Alliance Dr. Peter Daszak

Today, Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic Chairman Brad Wenstrup (R-Ohio) issued the following statement after the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) accepted the Select Subcommittee’s recommendation to formally debar EcoHealth Alliance, Inc. (EcoHealth). HHS will immediately commence official debarment proceedings and implement a government-wide suspension of U.S. taxpayer funds to EcoHealth — including a hold on all active grants.

“EcoHealth Alliance and Dr. Peter Daszak should never again receive a single penny from the U.S. taxpayer. Only two weeks after the Select Subcommittee released an extensive report detailing EcoHealth’s wrongdoing and recommending the formal debarment of EcoHealth and its president, HHS has begun efforts to cut off all U.S. funding to this corrupt organization. EcoHealth facilitated gain-of-function research in Wuhan, China without proper oversight, willingly violated multiple requirements of its multimillion-dollar National Institutes of Health grant, and apparently made false statements to the NIH. These actions are wholly abhorrent, indefensible, and must be addressed with swift action. EcoHealth’s immediate funding suspension and future debarment is not only a victory for the U.S. taxpayer, but also for American national security and the safety of citizens worldwide.

“The Select Subcommittee’s investigation into EcoHealth and the origins of COVID-19 is far from over. Dr. Daszak and his team are still required to produce all outstanding documents and answer the Select Subcommittee’s questions, specifically related to Dr. Daszak’s potential dishonesty under oath. We will hold EcoHealth accountable for any waste, fraud, and abuse and are committed to uncovering any illegal activity, including lying to Congress, NIH, or the Inspector General,” said Chairman Wenstrup.

Read the Select Subcommittee’s report titled “An Evaluation of the Evidence Surrounding EcoHealth Alliance, Inc.’s Research Activities” here.

Read today’s letter from HHS to EcoHealth Alliance, Inc. here.

Read HHS’s action referral memorandum here.

(House Oversight Committee, 5/15/2024)  (Archive)

May 15, 2024 - Former Michael Cohen attorney Robert Costello testifies to Congress that Cohen didn’t believe Stormy Daniels’ story yet paid her without Trump knowing

Attorney Robert Costello testified before the House Weaponization of the Federal Government Subcommittee, May 15, 2024. (Credit: clipping from testimony)

Michael Cohen’s attorney Robert Costello just testified to Congress that Michael Cohen told him that he didn’t even believe Stormy Daniels story, and only paid her off to save Trump and his family embarrassment.

This completely blows up the entire case in Manhattan! Costello said that Cohen was becoming increasingly agitated at not being invited to work in Washington.

What will Cohen and the Manhattan DA do now? It’s clear now that Cohen and Daniels extorted the President of the United States with help from the US government!

Rep. Greg Steube (R-FL): He didn’t believe the allegation of the Stormy Daniels story, that he thought the story would be embarrassing for Trump and especially for Melania, so he decided he would take care of it himself.

Attorney Robert Costello: Absolutely. That is contrary to what this guy testified to in court in New York yesterday.

Rep. Greg Steube: Well, what’s not being talked about is your next paragraph, the reason and his motivation for that. So if you could just walk through that for the committee.

Robert Costello: Yeah, obviously, when we started to talk about the NDAs, and this is the very first meeting at the Regency Hotel, when, by the way, Rudy Giuliani was not involved in representing Donald Trump at that time. Cohn testified that it was a conspiracy between Giuliani and Costello as of this date. Totally false. In any event, he also said that he didn’t discuss the Stormy Daniels matter with us, and he certainly did. I specifically asked him because he kept on going back saying, I can’t believe they’re trying to put me in jail for these NDAs.

So I said, Michael, tell me about the NDA. Tell me about Stormy Daniels. What did you do? He said, I got a call from a lawyer representing Stormy Daniels who represented that she was going to testify that Donald Trump had sex with Stormy Daniels. Michael Cohen said, I didn’t believe the allegation, but I knew that such an allegation would be terribly embarrassing. He said, It would be embarrassing. He focused on Melania Trump. He said, I didn’t want to embarrass Melania Trump. He said, That’s I decided to take care of this on my own. I went back to that several times.

You did this on your own? “On my own.”

Did Donald Trump have anything to do with it? “No.”

Did you get the money from Donald Trump? “No.”

From any of his organizations? “No.”

From anybody connected to Donald Trump? “No”.

Where did you get the money? “I took out a HELOC loan against my property.”

I said, Why would you do that? He said, “I didn’t want anybody to know where I got this money.”

I didn’t want Melania to know. I didn’t want my own wife to know because she’s in charge, he said, of the Cohen family finances. He said, “If she saw money coming out of my account, she’d ask me 100 questions, and I didn’t want to answer any of them.”

It was clear after talking to him for several days after that, whenever we talked on the phone or in my office, that he kept on bringing up the subject that he felt he was betrayed.

Robert Costello also told the committee, “I read Michael Cohen’s testimony from yesterday’s trial in New York on the way down on the train, and virtually every statement he made about me is another lie.” (h/t The Gateway Pundit)

May 16, 2024 - Senators Grassley and Johnson are investigating Fani Willis over alleged abuse of federal funds

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis appears in court on Nov. 21, 2023, in Atlanta. (Credit: Dennis Byron/Politico)

Sens. Chuck Grassley and Ron Johnson are investigating whether Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’ office misused federal funds.

The two Republican senators highlighted multiple reports accusing Willis’ office of squandering funds, including from the Justice Department Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention and other initiatives, on frivolous items such as “swag” and unrelated travel.

“In Fiscal Year (FY) 2020, OJJDP awarded Fulton County nearly $500,000 to establish the Fulton County Center of Youth Empowerment and Gang Prevention,” Grassley (R-Iowa) and Johnson (R-Wis.) wrote in a letter to Willis Wednesday.

“The Center has yet to open and the ‘building meant to house it is closed to the public, its gates padlocked.’”

They cited Washington Free Beacon reporting on Willis, a Democrat, firing Amanda Timpson, previously the head of gang prevention and intervention at the DA office.

She was the one who sounded the alarm about the potential misuse of OJJDP funds.

(…) “The apparent and significant discrepancy between the purpose of the federal award of taxpayer money and the actual use of that money raises alarms that it hasn’t been used as Congress intended,” they wrote.

The two senators are demanding a list of grants the Fulton County DA’s office garnered since fiscal year 2019. Willis ascended to the district attorney perch in 2021.

They also want a list of expenditures and planned expenditures for each grant.

Willis was given a deadline of May 29 to comply with that request.

(Read more: New York Post, 5/16/2024)  (Archive)

May 16, 2024 - Patrick Byrne and Stefanie Lambert speak following hearing to disqualify Lambert from Dominion defamation case

“Dominion has the pattern of seeking to prevent me from being an attorney for my clients because I know too much, and I understand too much.” – Stefanie Lambert in court on Thursday.

Michigan attorney Stefanie Lambert faced a disqualification hearing in Dominion’s defamation case against Patrick Byrne on Thursday after Dominion filed a Motion to Disqualify her from representing Byrne, alleging she violated a protective order in the case.

(…) During the hearing to remove Lambert from this case for the seemingly unprecedented reason of violating a court order, Dominion attorneys desperately tried to justify their request despite having no standard or legal precedence. They admitted that there was no prior case law and claimed that Lambert’s previous and future actions “might actually hinder” Dominion attorneys’ “ability to do their job” and prove that Patrick Byrne defamed them by saying the 2020 election was stolen.

At one point, the far-left Dominion attorneys even presented a tweet by Byrne, in which he critiqued Judge Juan Merchan’s unconstitutional gag order against President Trump. They ridiculously claimed Byrne violated the gag order in Trump’s case by sharing a post by Trump and “spreading the information himself” and that he cannot be trusted to follow the Court’s orders.

When the Judge questioned Lambert, she pleaded that she did not violate the order by turning over evidence of crimes, including alleged perjury by Dominion CEO John Poulos, to law enforcement. “Everyone can go to law enforcement and report crimes, and I have an oath and an obligation to do that,” Lambert told the Judge. The Judge requested in the future that Lambert seek relief from the Court’s order to turn over evidence of criminal misconduct found in discovery to law enforcement, and Lambert agreed.

However, Dominion attorneys argued, “she says to you now that she’ll come to the court if she finds new evidence of criminal activity because she doesn’t have to anymore,” claiming that Sheriff Dar Leaf could have every document in his possession already, while seemingly not disputing the claims of criminal activity.

In another hysterical rant by Dominion attorneys to the Judge, they questioned Lambert’s explanation that she and Patrick Byrne never expected Dominion to hand over evidence of criminal acts in discovery and did not believe that turning this evidence over to law enforcement would violate the protective order. Without disputing the notion that evidence of criminal acts was discovered, the attorney said the idea that Lambert will now follow the rules is “not credible” because the documents showed “apparently exactly what she and her client have been saying the documents would show.”

After a short recess, the Judge ordered Patrick Byrne and Stefanie Lambert to desist from sharing or discussing confidential discovery material and to come to the Court with future questions or requests for relief. When Lambert asked the Judge on Byrne’s behalf how to proceed if Byrne is asked by Congress, the DOJ, or law enforcement to cooperate with an investigation, the Judge told them to follow the strict guidelines of the protective order and file a request before sharing any confidential information.

Finally, the Judge said she would take the matter under advisement to issue a ruling at a later date and asked Dominion to file their exhibits by the close of business on Friday. (Read more: The Gateway Pundit, 5/17/2024) (Archive)

May 16, 2024 - Devon Archer turns over 3.7 million new documents pointing to never seen before Biden bank accounts

Dev[o]n Archer turned over “3.7 million documents never before been seen by any of the IRS investigators, the securities & exchange investigators.”

These documents will “answer pretty much every question we’ve had about the source of these shady transactions” and Biden’s role.

“We believe we’ve found new accounts”

“The evidence is overwhelming that Joe Biden was involved… Joe Biden was a central figure.”

“If you were paying the Biden Family for the Biden Brand you were buying Joe Biden.”

May 16, 2024 - House Oversight votes to hold Merrick Garland in contempt of Congress

Merrick Garland (Credit: Andrew Harnik/Associated Press)

The House Oversight Committee passed a resolution on Thursday, to hold Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt of Congress for defying a subpoena that demanded the audio recording of President Joe Biden’s interview with Special Counsel Robert Hur.

The resolution passed in a 24-20 vote and will now go to a full House floor vote.

The House Committees on Oversight and Accountability and Judiciary issued subpoenas to Garland on February 27, 2024 for “records, including transcripts, notes, video, and audio files, related to Hur’s investigation of Biden’s willful mishandling of classified information,” according to committee staff.

The resolution was advanced out of the House Judiciary Committee earlier Thursday, after Biden evoked “executive privilege” over the audio and video recordings, which the White House said was done in conjunction with Garland’s office. The recording was done as part of Hur’s investigation into Biden’s handling of classified documents when he was vice president.

“The attorney general made it clear that law enforcement files like these need to be protected,” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said, according to Fox News. “And so the president made his determination at the request of the attorney general.”

The transcript of the interview has already been released, but Republican lawmakers claimed they cannot show the president’s cognitive state. (Read more: Just The News, 5/16/2024)  (Archive)

May 16, 2024 - Testimony of NIH official reveals a top Fauci aide allegedly learned to make ‘smoking gun’ emails ‘disappear’

Lawrence Tabak (Credit: Screenshot/Rumble/GOP Oversight)

Principal Deputy Director Lawrence Tabak testified on Thursday that a former aide to Dr. Anthony Fauci allegedly violated the agency’s public records policy by disposing of certain emails.

Fauci’s senior advisor at the NIH Dr. David Morens allegedly intentionally obstructed the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic’s investigations into the origins of COVID-19 to protect his boss. Tabak told Republican House Oversight Chair James Comer in response to his questioning during a hearing that Morens allegedly violated NIH policy by getting rid of emails following public records requests.

“Dr. David Morens, a senior advisor to Fauci for decades, wrote in an email to Dr. Daszak, ‘I learned from our FOIA lady here how to make emails disappear after I am FOIA’d, but before the search starts. So I think we are all safe. Plus I deleted most of those earlier emails after sending them to Gmail.’ Is that consistent with NIH document retention policies?” Comer asked, to which Tabak answered that it’s not.

EcoHealth Alliance President Peter Daszak allegedly misled the federal government to receive grants that funded virus research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, where some suspect the COVID-19 pandemic originated.

“Does the NIH FOIA office teach employees how to avoid transparency?” Comer followed up.

“I certainly hope not,” Tabak said. (Read more: The Daily Caller, 5/17/2024) (Archive)

May 22, 2024 – Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) sent a letter to the Department of Justice, urging them to open a formal investigation into Dr. David Morens for the alleged “improper concealment and intentional destruction of records.”

Morens, a former top aide to Dr. Anthony Fauci and current Senior Advisor to the Director at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), is accused of engaging in corrupt behavior to skirt the rules on various issues, the least of which involved investigations from the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic. It is believed that Morens engaged in a cover-up and destroyed vital records and communications related to the investigation.

“I write to urge the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) to open an investigation into the alleged improper concealment and intentional destruction of records by Dr. David Morens, Senior Advisor to the Director at the National Institutes of Health (NIH),” Paul wrote in his letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland. “Additionally, I request you investigate allegations that employees within NIH’s FOIA office may have conspired with Dr. Morens to evade public records retention laws.”

In the letter, Paul cited a statute that states that any person who “‘willfully and unlawfully’ conceals, removes, or destroys a federal record can be fined and imprisoned for up to three years.” Furthermore, Paul highlighted that this applied to anyone who tries to “conceal, remove, or destroy a federal record.”

Additionally, Morens is suspected of using a personal email account in lieu of an authorized government account so he could discuss matters related to the pandemic and, as the Washington Examiner previously reported, avoid any scrutiny and accountability through Freedom of Information Act requests. (Read more: Washington Examiner, 5/22/2024)

May 16, 2024 - Michael Cohen's cross examination of his failed memory, bias, financial motives, history of lies and possible indictment of his wife

The cross examination of Michael Cohen, led by Trump attorney Todd Blanche, was destructive. Devastating to Cohen’s credibility. Even Anderson Cooper admitted cross was “severely damaging.”

Here’s how it began:

Q: On April 23rd, so after the trial started in this case, you went on TikTok and called me a “Crying Little Shit;” didn’t you?

A: Sounds like something I would say.

Judge Merchan sustained the objection to that question, but the points were made: that Trump wasn’t the only one posting criticisms on social media, that Cohen was already hostile to the defense and to Trump’s attorney (and expressing his bias) before his testimony even started.

Blanche’s cross was, at times, meandering. It went from point to point, from issue to issue. It wasn’t necessarily chronological, and he went back and forth from calls to texts to statements indicating Cohen’s bias to Cohen’s numerous lies and crimes. That was ineffective to some observers. But the critics miss the strategy, which proved effective. Blanche was putting steady pressure on Cohen, moving him from corner to corner. The hits were coming from all directions. By moving Cohen from topic to topic, Cohen couldn’t keep track of his story. He couldn’t see the hits coming.

On which general areas did the defense focus? Here they are:

  • Cohen’s failed memory.
  • Cohen’s bias and financial motives.
  • Cohen’s reasons for doing the Stormy Daniels deal.
  • Cohen’s history of lies, both past and current.

Cohen’s Failed Memory

The State relies on Cohen’s recollection of a number of calls and meetings he had with Trump before and after the 2016 election. But how can the jury be convinced that Cohen’s memory is accurate – or if he’s not inventing his story? After all, Cohen repeatedly answered that he could not “recall” a number of discussions that took place last year. Here are some examples.

  • Cohen could not recall the DA’s office expressing frustration that he would talk about the investigation on TV.
  • He couldn’t recall whether he leaked to CNN that he gave his phones to the DA’s office in January of 2023.
  • Cohen said he couldn’t recall promising the DA’s office that he wouldn’t do any TV appearances until after the indictment.
  • He couldn’t recall the DA telling him he was “unwittingly helping President Trump by going on TV.”
  • Cohen couldn’t recall asking the DA’s office – while he was in prison – the timeline for bringing charges against Trump.

The defense seized on Cohen’s poor memory, suggesting to the jury that’s its all very convenient now that Trump has been charged. Here’s an excerpt of how they did it:

Q: So you don’t recall a year ago, making a promise that you would no longer go on TV until after the indictment?

A: No, sir.

Q: But you recall very specifically multiple telephone conversations that you had with President Trump in 2016; correct?

A: I recall the conversations with President Trump at the time, yes.

Cohen’s Bias and Motives

Then there’s the issue of bias. The defense presented Cohen with his own words – from his podcasts and books and social media – documenting his desire to take Trump down. These included:

  • After Trump was indicted, Cohen said on his podcast: “I truly fucking hope that this man ends up in prison . . . You better believe I want this man to go down and rot inside for what he did to my family.”
  • He said he wants “accountability” for Trump and for Trump to go to prison. He said Trump needs to “wear handcuffs and to do the perp walk”; that Trump needs to sit “inside the cell.”
  • He’s selling merchandise “which depicts President Trump in an orange jumpsuit behind bars,” coffee mugs that say “Send him to the Big House not the White House”.
  • He called Trump a “Cheeto-dusted cartoon villain.”
  • In 2020, he said “I truly fucking hope that this man ends up in prison.”
  • He thanked the new DA team in 2021 for “continuing their investigation.”
  • He sells anti-Trump merchandise on his website, profits from his anti-Trump social media presence and podcasts, and made an estimated $3.4 million for his books Disloyal and Revenge. (In Revenge, he expressed frustration that Trump hadn’t been prosecuted.)

Cohen’s motives weren’t just financial, however. He also sought benefits from his cooperation with the DA’s office in the form of a reduced sentence. While Cohen was in prison in 2019, he told Anthony Scaramucci that he was “trying to figure out a way to get out of prison early.”

Around that time, he was meeting with the DA’s office. Sought reduction in sentence due, in part, to cooperation with DA’s office. (It was denied.) While on house arrest, he wanted the DA’s office to publicly announce his cooperation to help with his release conditions. (Read more: Techno Fog/Substack, 5/17/2024)  (Archive)

…

Cohen testifies to having evaded substantial tax returns from 2012-2017.

Also testifies that he received an application form that did not reveal the full extent of his liabilities for a HELOC form, and submitted the form to the bank with full knowledge that it was inaccurate.

Cohen testifies to being guilty of federal tax evasion and making false statements to a financial institution.

When Blanche presses him if anybody induced him to plead guilty, Cohen defers and says he feels he shouldn’t have been indicted for underlying crimes. Claims he felt pressure to plead guilty, thinking his wife would be indicted, based on what his lawyer at the time told him.

Cohen claims he pled guilty without outside pressure at the time, but now testifies that he lied and did feel such pressure.

May 20, 2024 - Former legal adviser to Michael Cohen is called as a defense witness in Trump NY trial; judge attempts to interfere with his testimony

All eyes turned to Robert Costello on Monday after he was called to the witness stand in former President Trump’s hush money trial and was quickly admonished by the judge for his courtroom behavior.

Minutes after Costello, a former legal adviser to ex-Trump fixer Michael Cohen, took the witness stand Monday, Judge Juan Merchan asked the jurors to leave the courtroom so he could admonish Costello over his behavior on the stand.

Costello and Merchan shared a tense exchange, and reporters were abruptly asked to leave the courtroom. At one point, Merchan demanded to know if he was being stared down by Costello.

The jury and reporters were permitted back inside minutes later without explanation, and Trump’s legal team began questioning Costello.

Costello is a former federal prosecutor turned defense lawyer who spent decades in New York’s legal sphere. In 2018, Costello briefly served as an adviser to Cohen as federal prosecutors criminally investigated him and his work on Trump’s behalf.

Costello allegedly offered to set up a back channel between Trump and Cohen via former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who had just joined Trump’s legal team. (Read more: The Hill, 5/22/2024) (Archive)

Full Text:

FIREWORKS!! Merchan says to Costello if he doesn’t like a ruling, don’t roll his eyes or say Jeez or strike it! And if you don’t like my ruling, you don’t give me side eyes! Costello says he understands. Merchan now asks if he’s staring him down, asking loudly. Judge and the witness leave the bench to go have what I’m sure is a spirited conversation behind closed doors.

Full Text:

BREAKING: There has been an extended back and forth between the Defense, Judge Merchan, and the Prosecution over Robert Costello’s impending testimony, resulting in delays. The Prosecution is trying to filibuster Costello from taking the stand, arguing that his testimony would be collateral and thus inadmissible under the rules of evidence. Bragg’s attorneys know that Costello will drive the nail in the coffin of their case, which is now on life support after Michael Cohen’s dumpster fire of a testimony this morning in which he admitted to lying to protect his personal interests, financially profiting off Trump and the trial, and stealing from the Trump Organization, among other damning revelations. Stay tuned!

Full Text:

Judge Merchan Booted all the Reporters out and Shouts at Trump Defense Witness Robert Costello. Merchan: Are you staring me down right now? Costello: I’m not. Merchan: GET OUT OF THE COURTROOM, NOW! GET OUT OF THE COURTROOM! It’s obvious that Corrupt Judge Merchan knew that they didn’t have a case with Robert Costello’s testimony, so he runs Interference for Bragg…

Full Text:

BREAKING: Trial now resumes after delay following fiery exchange between Merchan and Costello about courtroom conduct.

Merchan is absolutely seething over Costello’s damning testimony. The type of treatment Costello, an experienced prosecutor who once worked for the US Attorney’s Office for New York in the 1970s and early 1980s, is receiving on the witness stand from the judge is disgusting.

Merchan is visibly perturbed, condescending, and downright abusive of the witness on the stand. Outrageous behavior from a judge, and totally inappropriate for any courtroom! No decorum whatsoever!

h/t Revolver News, 5/22/2024 (Archive)