Trump supporters hate America

[merh]

Durham rebukes his own witness and slams FBI’s Russia probe after trial setbacks
Analysis by Marshall Cohen
Updated 11:19 AM EDT, Thu October 13, 2022

CNN
—
The final expected trial of special counsel John Durham’s probe took an unexpected turn Wednesday, with Durham grilling and rebuking his own witness after the witness seemed to bolster the defense of Igor Danchenko, a key Steele dossier source.

The dynamic was surprising because it was Durham’s first witness. And at times, while Durham personally questioned the witness, he strayed from the narrow case against Danchenko and focused more on the FBI’s mistakes in 2016 as it investigated then-candidate Donald Trump.

Former UK intelligence officer Christopher Steele arrives at the High Court in London on July 24, 2020, to attend his defamation trial brought by Russian tech entrepreneur Alexej Gubarev.
FBI offered Christopher Steele $1 million to prove dossier claims, senior FBI analyst testifies
Durham – a Trump-era holdover who was appointed in 2019 to find government misconduct in the Trump-Russia investigation – charged Danchenko with lying to the FBI agents who were trying to corroborate the dossier. Danchenko has pleaded not guilty and says he told the truth.

Here’s a breakdown of what happened Wednesday at the federal court in Alexandria, Virginia.

FBI official undercuts Durham’s case
The special counsel opened his case with testimony from Brian Auten, a senior FBI intelligence analyst who oversaw part of the FBI’s early investigation into possible Trump-Russia collusion.

Over two days, Auten helped prosecutors by saying there was information that Danchenko didn’t share with the FBI about his dossier sourcing that would’ve aided the bureau’s investigation. This is a key element of Durham’s case: to secure a conviction, Durham must persuade the jury that Danchenko intentionally lied and that those false statements may have impacted the FBI’s work.

The witness also put a spotlight on some of Danchenko’s inconsistencies in his many FBI interviews, where he was peppered with questions about his ties to Christopher Steele, the dossier, and his own sub-sources.

But the situation shifted when the defense got to cross-examine Auten. Danchenko’s lawyers highlighted Auten’s previous testimony, given years ago to the Justice Department inspector general and to the Senate Judiciary Committee, which contradicted some of Durham’s claims.

Auten previously said Danchenko was “truthful” and “assisted” the Russia probe. He also said securing Danchenko as an FBI source was “one of the best things that came out of” the Russia probe. This undercuts the core of Durham’s indictment, which alleged that Danchenko serially lied to the FBI and impeded the investigators who were scrambling to verify the Steele dossier.

Danchenko’s defense attorney, Danny Onorato, asked Auten in court on Wednesday if that was still his belief today, and Auten answered in the affirmative, adding, “I stand by my testimony.”

The defense also elicited testimony indicating that Durham cherry-picked material from an FBI memo that Auten wrote, when there was exculpatory information on the very next page.

“And Mr. Durham didn’t take any steps to correct your wrong answer, did he?” Onorato asked.

Durham attacks his own witness
After Onorato finished, Durham returned for a final round of questioning, but the tone completely changed. Durham and Auten sparred for over an hour. Durham sounded angry at times, and many of Auten’s responses were adversarial, clearly not giving Durham the answers that fit his narrative.

Durham brought up the previously unknown fact that Auten was “recommended for suspension” by the FBI’s internal auditors – which wasn’t even mentioned by the defense. Auten acknowledged the recommendation, which he said is under appeal. Lawyers often bring up a witness’ past misconduct or punishments as a way to attack their credibility – but in this case, it was the prosecutor seemingly impeaching his own witness.

“You’re going to be suspended,” Durham said in one of his questions, “because you won’t admit your involvement” in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA, process.

The special counsel then rebuked Auten for saying earlier that George Papadopoulos was a “high-level adviser” to Trump’s 2016 campaign. Durham accurately noted that Papadopoulos was a low-level aide, just 28 years old at the time, and still included his Model UN experience from college on his resume.

Later, Durham tried to get Auten to agree that the FBI was more alarmed about Papadopoulos’ ties to the Middle East than his ties to Russia. Auten wouldn’t go there and called it a “both/and” situation. The spat had little to do with Danchenko’s alleged false statements about the dossier.

Russia probe under a microscope
Durham took a bat to Crossfire Hurricane, which was the codename for the FBI’s Trump-Russia probe before special counsel Robert Mueller took over. The Russia probe has been a major focus of Durham’s work, and he previously criticized how it was opened. But he hasn’t brought any charges alleging bias or misconduct in the opening of Crossfire Hurricane.

“Did you guys even bother to go look at the phone records?” Durham asked, referring to the records of one of Danchenko’s potential sources for the dossier. “Did you guys even bother to look at the travel records?”

Auten said the FBI had not, to the best of his memory.

“It all had to be reconstructed,” Durham said.

“Reconstructed by whom?” Auten asked.

“Not by your group,” Durham responded, touting his team’s renewed scrutiny of Danchenko.

Flawed FISA surveillance
The special counsel also grilled Auten over his role in the FBI applications to surveil a former Trump campaign adviser, Carter Page, under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

It seemed as if Durham was using Auten’s time on the witness stand to hold him responsible for the significant mistakes and omissions in the FISA applications, which were revealed by the Justice Department inspector general in a 2019 report. Durham called it a “scathing report,” but was forced to rephrase his question after Danchenko’s lawyers objected to his characterization.

Durham said the FBI was “much too ready, willing and able just to accept” Steele’s claims and include them in the FISA warrant applications. The trial has established that FBI agents recycled Steele’s material in FISA renewals, even as their efforts to corroborate his work fell flat.

Many of Durham’s actions Wednesday vindicated his critics’ main complaint – that he has used his trials to push a dubious narrative of intentional government misconduct against Trump, and of a far-reaching conspiracy by Democrats to smear Trump, without ever actually charging it.

The stakes are high for Durham, who has taken on an unprecedented role in this trial by personally handling most arguments and questioning so far. His inquiry is winding down after more than three years, and he has only secured one guilty plea from an FBI lawyer that resulted in zero jail time. His only other case, against a Hillary Clinton campaign lawyer, ended with a swift jury acquittal in May.

[merh]

The Senate finance panel chair Ron Wyden (D-OR) sent detailed questions to a financial firm on a deal back in 2018 for property owned by then White House aide Jared Kushner’s family.

TEXT:

A financial firm that operates billions of dollars in real estate properties around the world is facing new questions from the powerful chairman of the Senate finance committee about whether Qatar was secretly involved in the $1.2bn (£1bn) rescue of a Fifth Avenue property owned by Jared Kushner’s family while Kushner was serving in the White House.

Ron Wyden, the Oregon Democrat who leads the finance committee, has given the chief executive of Toronto-based Brookfield Asset Management until 24 October to answer a series of detailed questions about a 2018 deal in which Brookfield paid Kushner Companies for a 99-year lease on the family’s marquee 666 Fifth Avenue property.

When the deal was announced in August 2018, it was seen as the end of a drawn-out saga surrounding the property. The rescue, it was said in media reports, generated enough money for the Kushner family to pay $1.1bn (£970m) of debt on the building and buy out a partner.

In a statement on Thursday, Wyden accused Brookfield of stonewalling his committee and refusing to answer questions about the transaction, including whether Brookfield “intentionally misled” the public when it said that “no Qatar-linked entity” had been involved in the deal. In fact, it has since been alleged by Wyden that Brookfield used a Qatari-backed fund – called Brookfield Property Partners – to fund the transaction. At the time of the deal, Wyden said, the Qatari Investment Authority was the fund’s second largest investor.

“I remain deeply concerned that funding from a foreign government was involved in the rescue of a Kushner-owned property while Jared Kushner was employed as a senior White House official closely involved in the formulation of US policy towards the Middle East,” Wyden said. “This is a serious issue, as federal criminal conflict of interest statutes for White House officials extend not only to matters affecting their own financial interests, but that of their direct relatives and spouses.”

Wyden also noted that Kushner was involved at the time in matters involving a diplomatic blockade against Qatar by Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt. He pointed to recent testimony by the former secretary of state Rex Tillerson, who said Kushner frequently engaged with foreign officials in a manner that was inconsistent with the views of other US government officials. In the case of Qatar, Tillerson said, Kushner expressed support for the blockade despite opposition from the Departments of State and Defense.

Kushner’s investment fund, Affinity Partners, has recently secured a $2bn (£1.7bn) investment from Saudi Arabia, which Wyden said raised additional questions about his communications with both Qatar and Saudi Arabia, and whether Kushner changed his stance on the Qatar blockade only after his family secured funding for the deal.

A spokesperson for Brookfield did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Kushner could not immediately be reached for comment.

In his letter, Wyden asked for a wide range of documents and correspondence in connection with the transaction.

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/oct/13/jared-kushner-qatar-property-deal-ron-wyden-senate

[abbey1227]

Oct 14, 2022 1:28:15 GMT merh said:

The Senate finance panel chair Ron Wyden (D-OR) sent detailed questions to a financial firm on a deal back in 2018 for property owned by then White House aide Jared Kushner’s family.

TEXT:

A financial firm that operates billions of dollars in real estate properties around the world is facing new questions from the powerful chairman of the Senate finance committee about whether Qatar was secretly involved in the $1.2bn (£1bn) rescue of a Fifth Avenue property owned by Jared Kushner’s family while Kushner was serving in the White House.

Ron Wyden, the Oregon Democrat who leads the finance committee, has given the chief executive of Toronto-based Brookfield Asset Management until 24 October to answer a series of detailed questions about a 2018 deal in which Brookfield paid Kushner Companies for a 99-year lease on the family’s marquee 666 Fifth Avenue property.

When the deal was announced in August 2018, it was seen as the end of a drawn-out saga surrounding the property. The rescue, it was said in media reports, generated enough money for the Kushner family to pay $1.1bn (£970m) of debt on the building and buy out a partner.

In a statement on Thursday, Wyden accused Brookfield of stonewalling his committee and refusing to answer questions about the transaction, including whether Brookfield “intentionally misled” the public when it said that “no Qatar-linked entity” had been involved in the deal. In fact, it has since been alleged by Wyden that Brookfield used a Qatari-backed fund – called Brookfield Property Partners – to fund the transaction. At the time of the deal, Wyden said, the Qatari Investment Authority was the fund’s second largest investor.

“I remain deeply concerned that funding from a foreign government was involved in the rescue of a Kushner-owned property while Jared Kushner was employed as a senior White House official closely involved in the formulation of US policy towards the Middle East,” Wyden said. “This is a serious issue, as federal criminal conflict of interest statutes for White House officials extend not only to matters affecting their own financial interests, but that of their direct relatives and spouses.”

Wyden also noted that Kushner was involved at the time in matters involving a diplomatic blockade against Qatar by Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt. He pointed to recent testimony by the former secretary of state Rex Tillerson, who said Kushner frequently engaged with foreign officials in a manner that was inconsistent with the views of other US government officials. In the case of Qatar, Tillerson said, Kushner expressed support for the blockade despite opposition from the Departments of State and Defense.

Kushner’s investment fund, Affinity Partners, has recently secured a $2bn (£1.7bn) investment from Saudi Arabia, which Wyden said raised additional questions about his communications with both Qatar and Saudi Arabia, and whether Kushner changed his stance on the Qatar blockade only after his family secured funding for the deal.

A spokesperson for Brookfield did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Kushner could not immediately be reached for comment.

In his letter, Wyden asked for a wide range of documents and correspondence in connection with the transaction.

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/oct/13/jared-kushner-qatar-property-deal-ron-wyden-senate

Those kinda deals are only OK when it's it's a (D) benefiting    

[merh]

EXCLUSIVE
The Washington Post

Co-founder of Trump’s media company details Truth Social’s bitter infighting

Will Wilkerson, one of Trump Media & Technology Group’s first employees, alleges the company violated securities laws and that Trump pressured executives to hand over their shares to his wife. He shared a cache of internal documents with The Post and federal investigators that he says support his claims.

By Drew Harwell
October 15, 2022 at 3:03 p.m. EDT

Will Wilkerson, then an executive at former president Donald Trump’s start-up Trump Media & Technology Group, was at a Fort Lauderdale, Fla., coffee shop with company co-founder Andy Litinsky last October when Trump called Litinsky with a question: Would he give up some of his shares to Trump’s wife, Melania?

Trump Media, the owner of the fledgling social network Truth Social, had just been boosted by a huge merger agreement and a flood of investment that had made the stake worth millions of dollars. Trump had already been given 90 percent of the company’s shares in exchange for the use of his name and some minor involvement, leaving everyone else to split the rest.

Litinsky tried to brush it off, telling Trump “the gift would have meant a huge tax bill he couldn’t pay,” Wilkerson said in an interview. “Trump didn’t care. He said, ‘Do whatever you need to do.’ ”

Five months later, Litinsky, who first met Trump in 2004 as a contestant on the TV show “The Apprentice,” was abruptly removed from the company’s board. Wilkerson said he believes it was payback for his refusal to turn over a small fortune to the former president’s wife. Litinsky thought so, too, according to an email Wilkerson and his attorneys shared with The Washington Post and the Securities and Exchange Commission. In that email, Litinsky complained that Trump was “retaliating against me” by threatening to “ ‘blow up the company’ if his demands are not met.”

Litinsky did not respond to emails and phone messages. It is unknown whether he still retains his shares.

Trump Media & Technology Group co-founder Andy Litinsky said in a March email that he believed former president Donald Trump was “retaliating” against him for not giving some of his company equity to Trump's wife, Melania. Will Wilkerson, as an administrator of the company's email system, retained a copy of the message, which he provided to The Post and the SEC. (Will Wilkerson)

The email — one of hundreds of previously unreported company messages, documents, photos and audio recordings that Wilkerson has provided to the SEC in connection with a whistleblower submission — reveals a stunning portrait of the animosity that has built up inside Trump Media since its high-profile debut last year.

Promoted as the centerpiece of Trump’s post-presidential business ambitions, the company had marketed itself as a budding media empire, with enterprises planned in social media, video streaming, live events and online payments — a powerful rival not just to Twitter but Disney, Google and Amazon.

But inside the company, Wilkerson said, those plans gave way to bitter infighting, technical failures and a chaotic jockeying for power among Trump allies that undermined its potential and left some employees crying at their desks.

Wilkerson, who was fired from his job Thursday as a senior vice president of operations at the company after he spoke to The Post, filed the whistleblower complaint with the SEC in August. The complaint, drafted by Wilkerson’s attorneys, alleges that the company’s bid to raise money via an investment vehicle known as a special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC, relied on “fraudulent misrepresentations … in violation of federal securities laws.”

The SEC, a federal watchdog agency, allows members of the public to submit tips, complaints and referrals about suspected financial wrongdoing via a document the agency calls a Form TCR. Whistleblowers can be granted confidentiality protections and, in some cases, financial awards. Litinsky did not join in the complaint.

Read Wilkerson's full SEC whistleblower disclosure

Wilkerson is cooperating with investigations into Trump Media by the SEC and federal prosecutors from the Southern District of New York, said his attorneys, Phil Brewster, Patrick Mincey and Stephen Bell. Among the materials he filed with the SEC’s whistleblower office is a detailed, day-to-day computer log compiled by company co-founder Wes Moss, Litinsky and Wilkerson about their daily company-related activities. He also provided to The Post a copy of that log as well as numerous other memos, photographs and videos that chronicled the creation of Trump Media. All of the materials Wilkerson shared with The Post were previously provided to government investigators, his attorneys said.

The SEC and the SDNY declined to comment.

In an SEC filing in December, Digital World Acquisition, the SPAC that is pushing to take Trump Media public, acknowledged that the SEC was investigating and had sought documents related to the merger with Trump Media. In another filing in June, Digital World said it had become aware that a federal grand jury in the Southern District of New York had issued subpoenas to its board members seeking documents related to its initial public offering filings and “communications with or about multiple individuals.” The investigations, the company said, could “impede or prevent” the merger.

Wilkerson said he was still working for the company on Oct. 6 when his SEC complaint was first reported by the Miami Herald. A Trump Media attorney sent Wilkerson a letter that night suspending him for what the lawyer said was a “blatant violation” of his nondisclosure agreement.

After interviewing Wilkerson alongside his attorneys, The Post on Wednesday sent a detailed list of claims and questions raised by Wilkerson’s allegations to representatives for Trump, Trump Media and the Trump Organization, Trump’s long-running family business.

Only Trump Media responded, saying in a statement that Trump, as company chairman, had hired former congressman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) as CEO to “create a culture of compliance and build a world-class team to lead Truth Social.” The company said it was already a success, having launched on the Apple and Google app stores, “executed multiple feature updates” and attracted millions of users. “Ignoring these achievements, The Washington Post sent us an inquiry rife with knowingly false and defamatory statements and other concocted psychodramas.” The statement did not directly address any of Wilkerson’s claims.

Trump Media fired Wilkerson on Thursday, citing his “unauthorized disclosures” to The Post. Brewster, his attorney, called the termination “patent retaliation against an SEC whistleblower of the worst kind.”

Digital World Acquisition has asked shareholders to give the company more time to finalize the merger, which would unlock hundreds of millions of dollars for Trump Media but is effectively frozen pending the outcomes of the federal investigations. Digital World and its chief executive, Patrick Orlando, did not respond to requests for comment.

The revelations to the SEC from Wilkerson, the most prominent company official to speak publicly about its operations, come at a turbulent time for Trump Media’s business. Investors, discouraged by the halted merger, have sent the SPAC’s share price plunging from a high of $175 to less than $18 on Friday. Roughly 4 million users follow Trump on the company’s sole product, Truth Social — far below his Twitter peak of 88 million. The company has pledged to investors it would surpass 50 million total users by 2024.

In past public statements, Nunes, Orlando and Trump have argued that Trump Media will ultimately prove to be a successful business. But Wilkerson said he expects its internal problems could lead the company to fall apart.

“We weren’t trying to be Trump Org 2.0,” he said. “We always saw Trump as the rocket fuel to send this thing to space. I wanted this to succeed more than anything. … But these are glaring issues, and they’re threatening me now for calling them out. I couldn’t stay quiet anymore.”
Truth Social faces financial peril as worry about Trump’s future grows

‘The Avengers’

Wilkerson, 38, isn’t a traditional Trump critic.

When Litinsky and Moss, another former “Apprentice” contestant, first started discussing the idea of a multipronged Trump media business after Trump’s November 2020 election loss, the men had asked for his help developing the business, Wilkerson said. A former executive producer for Litinsky’s conservative radio show, Wilkerson was excited about monetizing the following of a person he considered a master marketer with 40 years as a political and household name.

Wilkerson shared a photo from that time of the men sketching the original concept on a whiteboard, titled “Trump’s New Media Empire,” that would ultimately compose the company’s public pitch, including new business lines (“Trump Digital Subscription,” “Trump Documentaries”) and a chain of “Trump technologies,” including in servers and online payments.

After Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and Trump was banned from major social networks, the men drew up plans for a tech platform that would be “resilient to cancel culture and the impact of bias against the right,” according to the daily log Wilkerson shared with The Post and the SEC.

How social media ‘censorship’ became a front line in the culture war

To meet with Trump, the men sought help from another “Apprentice” contestant, Bradford Cohen, a Florida criminal-defense attorney who represented two rappers, Lil Wayne and Kodak Black, to whom Trump had granted clemency on his final day in the White House.
In late January, three weeks after the riot, Cohen, Litinsky and Moss met with Trump at Mar-a-Lago, his opulent home and club in Palm Beach, Fla., to discuss the idea. Over cheeseburgers, Diet Cokes and ice cream, the men offered to build Trump a media company that he would own 90 percent of without putting in any of his own money, Wilkerson said. He was interested, and Trump Media was born. Cohen and Moss did not respond to requests for comment.

Wilkerson photographed a Trump Media team showing off a prototype of the Truth Social website at Mar-a-Lago in October 2021. He shared the photo with The Post and the SEC. (Will Wilkerson)

Raising money, however, proved to be a major challenge. The investment bankers they called rejected them because of fears over Trump’s post-election behavior, Wilkerson said. So they started cold-calling SPACs. Known as “blank-check companies,” SPACs sell shares to investors before merging with a private company, allowing the combined business to make money on the stock market without abiding by the traditional transparency requirements of a public listing.

They ultimately found a willing partner in Orlando, a financier in Miami who had recently launched a SPAC, Benessere Capital Acquisition, with $100 million in its coffers. In late February, Orlando, Wilkerson and other Trump allies outlined the vision for Trump in a Mar-a-Lago dining hall, taking photos to remember the moment.

“We viewed ourselves at the time as the Avengers,” Wilkerson said. “We were an unstoppable force.”

Jan. 6 Twitter witness: Failure to curb Trump spurred ‘terrifying’ choice

‘djt is pissed’
The next several months were a frantic rush to meet with potential partners, hire workers and build the business, Wilkerson said. The daily logbook shows the men flying to meetings with conservative media figures and exchanging proposals at bars, golf clubhouses and pizza joints. The team, Wilkerson said, also gave Trump regular in-person updates at Mar-a-Lago, Trump Tower and his golf club in Bedminster Township, N.J.
But as the company became more legitimate, it also started running into problems. Trump’s umbrella company, the Trump Organization, disputed a long-signed agreement between the start-up and Trump himself, demanding more control over how Trump’s likeness would be used, Wilkerson said. And Trump’s adult sons — Donald Jr. and Eric — began asking for large stakes in the company, Wilkerson said, even though they had been almost entirely uninvolved. Representatives for the Trump family business did not respond to requests for comment.

“They were coming in and asking for a handout,” Wilkerson said. “They had no bearing in this company … and they were taking equity away from hard-working individuals.”

Orlando brought his own issues. In June 2021, he’d raised tensions when he sent Trump a birthday letter in which he devoted hundreds of words to Trump’s “thought leadership” and “quick and genius guidance” during a recent meeting discussing the company’s name and logo.
“I was unaware of the extent of your brilliance,” Orlando had written. “On your birthday, my only wish is that you realize how proud we are of your successes to date.” The letter agitated the co-founders, Wilkerson said, who found it mawkish and overly familiar.

Moss and Litinsky were further unnerved when Orlando routed roughly $8 million into Trump Media, via an unknown group called the ES Family Trust, but refused to say where it had come from, Wilkerson said. Their previous investments had come from people they knew, but this money appeared to have been routed from a bank in the Caribbean island of Dominica through a cryptocurrency company, according to wire transfer and financial documents from the transaction that Wilkerson shared with The Post and the SEC. Digital World and Orlando did not respond to requests for information about the transaction or other reporting in this article.
Trump SPAC faces grand jury investigation

When Orlando had first gotten involved, he’d suggested merging Trump Media with Benessere, the already-public SPAC. But Orlando also began suggesting a second option, Wilkerson said: one of Orlando’s newer SPACs, Digital World, that had yet to be launched but could raise much more money. In his complaint to the SEC, Wilkerson said the original SPAC “could not sufficiently capitalize [Trump Media] at a valuation that was acceptable” to Trump and the company’s leaders, and that it would also “result in Orlando making less money compared to substituting Orlando’s future SPAC.”

Digital World’s registration form, filed with the SEC in May 2021 and signed by Orlando, said the SPAC and its representatives had not “initiated any substantive discussions, directly or indirectly, with any business combination target.” But in Wilkerson’s complaint, he claims that Digital World and Trump Media had “substantive communications” regarding a merger that he alleged violated SEC rules.

On April 14, 2021, Moss and Litinsky learned in a meeting with Orlando that the Benessere deal was no longer viable but that Digital World could be an option, Wilkerson said; an entry in the computer log notes that day that “the BENE deal is OFF!!!!”

After leaving the meeting, Wilkerson said, the men were so stunned by the suggestion of something they believed to be improper that they wondered whether it was a government setup or if Orlando had been wearing a secret recording device. The log quotes Litinsky in calling it the “roughest day so far” and says, “Patrick [Orlando] pitches [us] plan b, I get scared, is he wearing a wire?”

The men arranged a brief follow-up meeting with Orlando shortly after — this time, to record their conversation with him, during which they stated their concerns. “We can only engage in discussions after they’re public. That’s the rule,” Litinsky can be heard saying on the recording, a copy of which Wilkerson shared with The Post and the SEC.

Orlando responded, “That’s exactly the rules we have to play by.” He then added, “We have to be very smart. Obviously, we can talk hypothetically about if there were another vehicle,” at which point Litinsky cuts him off. Later, Orlando says, “We’ll make some magic happen.” The men exchange some more pleasantries before parting ways.

Three months later, in late July, an entry in the log said Moss eventually talked to “djt on phone to discuss potential plan b.”
The Post asked three SPAC experts about whether a SPAC’s leadership knowing its target merger partner, and not disclosing it before filing its initial public offering document, known as a Form S-1, would violate SEC rules.

John Coates, a former acting director of the SEC’s corporate finance division, told The Post, “If the identity of a merger partner is known before a Form S-1 is filed and goes effective, it must be disclosed, whether it’s a SPAC or not. For a SPAC, a known merger partner is even more obviously material to investors.”

Michael Klausner, a Stanford University law professor, said it would violate SEC regulations and argued that “a failure to disclose the SPAC’s plans would be an end-around the IPO rules.”

Michael Ohlrogge, a New York University law professor, said the failure to tell investors could violate the SEC’s rules against material misstatements and omissions, but that there can be gray areas in instances where a sponsor runs multiple SPACs and targets a company with one SPAC after having seriously considered it with another. For example, in one instance involving a maritime shipping company, he said, the SEC halted its review of the SPAC’s filings but eventually allowed the merger to proceed.

Digital World held its initial public offering in September 2021 and announced its plan to merge with Trump Media one month later. The SPAC ultimately raised roughly $300 million, not including a separate $1 billion bundle — known as a “private investment in public equity,” or PIPE — from an unidentified group of investors set to pay out once the merger is complete.
In one video Wilkerson shared from October 2021, Orlando can be seen standing in the Trump Media office toasting with a large bottle of Veuve Clicquot champagne.

“I really want to build a $100 billion company. I think this is the team to do it,” he said. “Andy and Wes and the entire team … I’m so happy to be working with you guys. We’re going to see a lot of each other for decades to come.”

Trump’s Truth Social in trouble as financial, technical woes mount

The log cites daily notes of Moss, Litinsky and Wilkerson strategizing how to handle the Trump family’s growing interest in the business’s rising fortunes; one person advised them, for instance, that Trump Jr. “needs a bedtime story and some love,” an entry shows.

The timeline entries also show the men growing accustomed to dealing with Trump’s sudden reversals and rage. On Sept. 23, 2021, the log records cite Litinsky saying, “President trump calls me in morning to yell at me because don jr is upset.” The next day, “Don jr calls Wes and yells at him.” On Oct. 12, “djt calls in crazy mood and he tries to renegotiate the entire deal … don jr walks in room and wants to get paid.” On Oct. 30: “djt is pissed.”

Tensions also began to grow inside the company over who was in control. Litinsky, Moss and Wilkerson, eager to hire a point person to handle financial marketing and public scrutiny, had in November gotten dinner at an Atlanta steakhouse with then-Rep. Nunes, a Trump loyalist and prominent Republican critic of Silicon Valley, Wilkerson said. Two months later, Nunes resigned from Congress to become the company’s CEO with Trump and the co-founders’ support.

Company filings show Nunes is paid a base salary of $750,000 a year that could increase to $1 million in the second year, plus bonuses and equity. He had no prior experience leading a tech company.

Wilkerson has expressed sharply critical views of Nunes’s leadership of the company. He told The Post that, in Nunes’s first days at the office, Nunes began exhorting workers to come in early and stay late and berating company officials over what he saw as flawed decision-making.

Wilkerson added that he believed this fueled acrimony among the company’s more established employees.
He began “bringing in a camp of people who were Nunes loyalists,” Wilkerson said, “to the point where it became very fractious and hampered our ability to be productive.”

A small team of developers raced to build Truth Social from the company’s WeWork office floor in Atlanta, Wilkerson said. In February, shortly before it opened to the public, Wilkerson published the first post, or “truth,” to Trump’s profile: “Get Ready! Your favorite President will see you soon!” In a video he shared with The Post, Wilkerson can be shown hitting the button and saying, “History has been made.”

FBI attacker was prolific contributor to Trump’s Truth Social website

But days later, the site had an embarrassing launch, including a 13-hour outage and an overwhelming waiting list for new accounts. Wilkerson said many of the issues had been the fault of third-party vendors, including the video site Rumble, which he said had been delayed in preparing server hardware for the site’s debut.

Rumble spokesman Brian Doherty denied his company bore any responsibility for Truth Social’s difficult launch. Truth Social, he said, has run fully off Rumble’s servers since April and the company looks “forward to continuing to support” Trump Media.

In March, Wilkerson said, the company underwent a major shake-up. The board of directors, once composed of Trump, Litinsky and Moss, dropped Litinsky and added Nunes, Trump Jr. and a former Nunes aide, Kash Patel. Within days, the company’s chiefs of technology, product development and legal affairs resigned. Wilkerson said he remembers some other employees tearfully processing the sudden upheaval.

“It was such a violent removal of the founders of this thing,” he said. “It was a very jarring experience, and it set this company on a path where it may not be able to be redeemed.”

‘What value does the company have?’

Truth Social’s website has stabilized, and Trump has taken to using it as his primary online megaphone. But the site’s audience remains tiny compared with major social networks and — unlike its original proposal, promising a “big tent” for all kinds of political thought — it has been criticized for featuring largely pro-Trump comments and memes. Elon Musk, Twitter’s likely next owner and the world’s richest man, told the Financial Times last week that Truth Social is “a right-wing echo chamber” that “might as well be called Trumpet.”

The Digital World’s merger freeze also has thrown the company’s future into doubt. The company originally promised to close the merger by last month, but Orlando has since begun asking shareholders to vote to push back the deadline in hopes of resolving the federal investigations and sealing the deal.

Digital World — with help from its sponsor, Arc Capital, an investment firm based in Shanghai — has paid roughly $3 million to give itself until Dec. 8 to finish the merger. The company has delayed shareholder meetings three times, including earlier this week, without announcing whether it has received approval for an extension from the required 65 percent of shareholders.

The company has warned that a failed vote could force it to liquidate, without Trump Media pocketing any of the money it had raised. In an SEC filing last month, Digital World said investors had sent termination notices between Sept. 19 and 23, pulling out roughly $138 million from the PIPE.

The company, which has submitted SEC filings suggesting it has “enough operating capital” to last “until at least next spring,” recently changed its headquarters address from an office in Miami’s upscale Brickell financial district to a mailbox in a UPS Store in the Miami neighborhood of Coconut Grove.

Trump says he won’t rejoin Twitter. Some advisers don’t believe him.

Truth Social’s hallmark — Trump’s involvement — has been undermined by the possibility that a Musk-owned Twitter could restore Trump’s account. Trump has insisted he would not rejoin Twitter even if he is reinstated, though some Trump advisers told The Post they think he wouldn’t be able to resist.

Trump has also undermined confidence in the deal, saying in a Truth Social post last month that he may just end up skipping out on the SPAC deal and taking the venture private because he’s “really rich.”

“If he takes his bat and his ball and goes home, what value does the company have at that point?” Wilkerson said.

Wilkerson said he hopes that by speaking out he will help protect the company’s shareholders from possible harm. His attorneys said the information he has shared should shield him as a protected whistleblower from company retaliation, and they have questioned the terms of Trump Media’s nondisclosure agreement.

“It is drafted to silence him, to prevent him from talking, and to punish him if he does so,” his attorney Phil Brewster said.

[merh]

TEXT:

Eric Trump, son of former President Donald Trump, on Friday discussed how the GOP has been reshaped in his father's image, and added that there is "no longer a Republican Party."

The younger Trump made the claim during an appearance on conservative news channel, Newsmax. The clip of Eric Trump's TV appearance was shared on Twitter by left-leaning pundit and former federal prosecutor, Ron Filipkowski, and has been viewed over 100,000 times as of Saturday afternoon.

"He's fundamentally changed the party," Eric Trump said about his father. "It's no longer the Republican Party, it's the Trump Party."

The claim is not a new one for the younger Trump, who has made similar comments in past interviews while discussing the present and future state of the Republican Party. During another Newsmax appearance in August, he said the same thing while discussing Representative Liz Cheney's primary defeat against Trump-endorsed GOP challenger, Harriet Hageman.

"There's no question. I mean, it's not even the Republican Party," Eric Trump said at the time. "I'd say it's actually the Trump party."

During his appearance in August, the former president's son also went into greater detail on his claim about the GOP, and said that his father's endorsements have "brought in a whole new party." Trump's endorsements this year have led to primary wins 92 percent of the time, according to Ballotpedia.

"My father has literally brought in a whole new party from the RINO [Republican in name only] class of the Republican Party," Eric Trump said. "He literally brought in a whole new party that stands for something totally different than the wider class of the Republican Party ever stood for. My father's really redefined what the party is, how the party speaks to its constituents and I think it's exactly why you have this overwhelming support in all of the people he's endorsed."

During his most recent appearance on Friday, Eric Trump also discussed the public hearings of the House select committee investigating last year's Capitol riot, saying that "not a single person cares about" them.

"Not a single person cares about the J6 hearings," he said. "The Republicans are absolutely going to steamroll the Democratic Party because they haven't accomplished anything in two years. This is all coordinated, it's all made up. It's all a diversion, a distraction."

Contrary to his claims, the select committee's hearings have appeared to draw significant interest, with the eight televised hearings from the summer averaging 13.1 million viewers, with the first hearing drawing in around 20 million. A PBS poll from July also found that 50 percent of respondents agreed that Trump should face charges for his involvement in the January 6, 2021, riot. However, only 28 percent believed he will actually be prosecuted.

Newsweek reached out to Donald Trump's press office and the Republican National Committee (RNC) for comment.

www.newsweek.com/eric-trump-declares-there-no-longer-republican-party-1752184

[abbey1227]

Oct 16, 2022 20:53:57 GMT merh said:

EXCLUSIVE
The Washington Post

Co-founder of Trump’s media company details Truth Social’s bitter infighting

I will agree one of the biggest problems so called conservatives and those on the Right have........they can't agree with one another in so many ways. Too individualistic to cooperate long term politically speaking. The hive mind of the Left doesn't have as many problems in that area.

Another thing that's been exposed by Trump's time........far too many so called 'Conservatives' are anything but. The fact that they'd spend money trying to get Democrats elected instead of conservatives they disagree with is very telling.

You'd probably get a kick out of the 'newspaper' that began arriving at my home recently. It's called the Wisconsin Independent. Hilariously ironic considering it's put out by devout collectivists.

[merh]

I work at a bank, a couple just came in wanting to cash this and claimed it was real gold and legal tender
r/facepalm - I work at a bank, a couple just came in wanting to cash this and claimed it was real gold and legal tender

alyrenna123•3 hr. ago
I thought they were joking and laughed before I realized they were serious. I told them it wasn't actual money and they argued it was and that it was from Trump himself. My supervisor came over and tried to tell them the same but they said you could tell it was real gold and it's from the US treasury and that Bank of America would cash it for them. I told them it was a scam and asked if they paid for it, they said yes but got really quiet when I asked how much before they took it and left.

Loki-L•2 hr. ago
I told them it was a scam and asked if they paid for it, they said yes but got really quiet when I asked how much before they took it and left.

It may not be true that “You can't cheat an honest man”, but it certainly seems easier to scam someone who thinks that buying a note that is worth $5000 for less then $5000 is something they should be able to do

[merh]

Breaking news!A jury found Igor Danchenko not guilty of lying to the FBI, the second loss at trial for special counsel John Durham, who was reviewing the FBI’s probe into the Trump campaign’s links to Russia.


TEXT:

A jury on Tuesday found Igor Danchenko — a private researcher who was a primary source for a 2016 dossier of allegations about former president Donald Trump’s ties to Russia — not guilty of lying to the FBI about where he got his information.



The verdict in federal court in Alexandria, Va., is another blow for special counsel John Durham, who has now lost both cases that have gone to trial as part of his nearly 3½-year investigation. Durham, who was asked by Attorney General William P. Barr in 2019 to review the FBI’s investigation of the Trump campaign in 2016, is sure to face renewed pressure to wrap up his work following the verdict.



Trump predicted Durham would uncover “the crime of the century” inside the U.S. law enforcement and intelligence agencies that investigated his campaign’s links to Russia. But so far, no one charged by the special counsel has gone to prison, and only one government employee has pleaded guilty to a criminal offense. In both trials this year, Durham argued that people deceived FBI agents, not that investigators corruptly targeted Trump.



The jury in Danchenko’s case deliberated for about nine hours over two days. Juror Joel Greene said in an interview that there were no holdouts in the deliberations and that the decision was “pretty unanimous.”



“We looked at everything really closely,” said Greene, who declined to comment on the politics of the case. “The conclusion we reached was the conclusion we all were able to reach.”



Durham, a longtime federal prosecutor who was U.S. attorney in Connecticut during the Trump administration, personally argued much of the government’s case against Danchenko. The special counsel alleged that Danchenko misled the FBI officials asking in 2017 about his sources, after the agency determined the researcher was the unnamed person behind some of the most explosive allegations about Trump in reports compiled by former British spy Christopher Steele.



The trial could be Durham’s last. A grand jury that the special counsel had been using in Alexandria is now inactive, people familiar with the matter have told The Washington Post, though the status of a similar panel in D.C. was not immediately clear. A Justice Department spokesman declined to comment when asked whether Durham would continue as special counsel in the wake of the Danchenko acquittal.



Barr, reached by phone Tuesday afternoon after the jury announced its verdict, declined to comment. In a statement released by the Justice Department after the verdict, Durham said, “While we are disappointed in the outcome, we respect the jury’s decision and thank them for their service. I also want to recognize and thank the investigators and the prosecution team for their dedicated efforts in seeking truth and justice in this case.”



A representative for Trump could not immediately be reached for comment.



After the verdict was announced, Danchenko choked up and embraced his defense attorneys, Stuart A. Sears and Danny C. Onorato. Danchenko declined to comment, but Sears said outside the courthouse that “we’ve known all along that Mr. Danchenko is innocent.”



“We’re happy now that the American public knows that as well,” he said.



To win a conviction, Durham had to convince jurors both that Danchenko lied and that his deception had a “material” impact on the FBI’s investigation of possible ties between the Trump campaign and Russia. Defense attorneys argued that Danchenko believed what he was telling agents was true and that it was not a crime to give unsure answers to imprecise questions.



In May, a jury in D.C. federal court acquitted cybersecurity lawyer Michael Sussmann, who also was accused by the special counsel of lying to the FBI. A former FBI lawyer, Kevin Clinesmith, was sentenced to one year of probation after admitting in a 2020 plea deal with Durham that he had altered a government email used to justify secret surveillance of a former Trump campaign adviser, Carter Page.



After his investigation is complete, Durham will be required to write a report, but deciding how much of it, if any, to release to the public would be up to Attorney General Merrick Garland.



The indictment listed five charges against Danchenko for statements made to FBI investigators about whether his sources included a longtime Democratic public relations executive, Charles Dolan Jr., and Sergei Millian, a former president of the Russian American Chamber of Commerce. U.S. District Judge Anthony J. Trenga dismissed the charge related to Dolan before the case went to the jury.

For Durham, the FBI’s handling of the Steele reports has been a key area of investigative interest. Steele was hired to produce the reports by research firm Fusion GPS, which had been retained by a law firm that represented Trump’s opponent, Hillary Clinton, and the Democratic National Committee. A website funded by a deep-pocketed Republican donor initially hired Fusion GPS to dig into Trump’s background.



But the FBI began to look into possible coordination between Trump’s campaign and Russia before it used the Steele dossier to support the warrant applications covering Page. The Justice Department inspector general determined that the FBI was justified in starting the probe, which eventually would be taken over by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III.



Mueller did not find a conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russia, but a report from his office mapped out various links between Trump campaign officials and the Kremlin and characterized the campaign as eager to benefit from Russia’s help in 2016.



In his closing remarks, Durham defended his investigation as apolitical and a “logical” consequence, following Mueller’s failure to find that the Trump campaign illegally conspired with Russia.



FBI witnesses testified that some emails and information about Dolan and Millian that Danchenko kept to himself would have been valuable to investigators vetting the sources for the dossier’s claims in 2017. An FBI supervisor who led intelligence analysts in the 2016 Trump probe, Brian Auten, and a special agent working in Russian counterintelligence, Kevin Helson, both testified they might have taken different steps had they known as much as Danchenko.



But Auten and Helson also described Danchenko as a trusted source of information on Russian influence activities that U.S. investigators mined for years — testimony that seemed to frustrate Durham, whose questions for the FBI officials then turned more aggressive.

www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/10/18/igor-danchenko-john-durham-verdict/?itid=hp-top-table-main_p001_f004

So much for fake Steele Dossier

[merh]

Oct 17, 2022 12:56:01 GMT abbey1227 said:

Oct 16, 2022 20:53:57 GMT merh said:

I will agree one of the biggest problems so called conservatives and those on the Right have........they can't agree with one another in so many ways. Too individualistic to cooperate long term politically speaking. The hive mind of the Left doesn't have as many problems in that area.

Another thing that's been exposed by Trump's time........far too many so called 'Conservatives' are anything but. The fact that they'd spend money trying to get Democrats elected instead of conservatives they disagree with is very telling.

You'd probably get a kick out of the 'newspaper' that began arriving at my home recently. It's called the Wisconsin Independent. Hilariously ironic considering it's put out by devout collectivists.

Will Wilkerson, then an executive at former president Donald Trump’s start-up Trump Media & Technology Group, was at a Fort Lauderdale, Fla., coffee shop with company co-founder Andy Litinsky last October when Trump called Litinsky with a question: Would he give up some of his shares to Trump’s wife, Melania?

Trump Media, the owner of the fledgling social network Truth Social, had just been boosted by a huge merger agreement and a flood of investment that had made the stake worth millions of dollars. Trump had already been given 90 percent of the company’s shares in exchange for the use of his name and some minor involvement, leaving everyone else to split the rest.

Litinsky tried to brush it off, telling Trump “the gift would have meant a huge tax bill he couldn’t pay,” Wilkerson said in an interview. “Trump didn’t care. He said, ‘Do whatever you need to do.’ ”

Five months later, Litinsky, who first met Trump in 2004 as a contestant on the TV show “The Apprentice,” was abruptly removed from the company’s board. Wilkerson said he believes it was payback for his refusal to turn over a small fortune to the former president’s wife. Litinsky thought so, too, according to an email Wilkerson and his attorneys shared with The Washington Post and the Securities and Exchange Commission. In that email, Litinsky complained that Trump was “retaliating against me” by threatening to “ ‘blow up the company’ if his demands are not met.”

So Donnie had 90% of the shares.

10% for the rest of the guys running it to split, right?

Not good enough.
Donald wanted more shares

[abbey1227]

Oct 19, 2022 0:02:38 GMT merh said:

Breaking news!A jury found Igor Danchenko not guilty of lying to the FBI,

www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/10/18/igor-danchenko-john-durham-verdict/?itid=hp-top-table-main_p001_f004

So much for fake Steele Dossier

So much for any semblance of a justice system in this country anymore.

[merh]

Pro-Trump Tour Flies Off The Rails Over ‘Demonic Satellites’ and ‘Deep State’ McDonald’s
‘INSECT BURGERS’
Zachary Petrizzo
Politics Reporter
Updated Oct. 22, 2022 9:55PM ET Published Oct. 22, 2022 8:39PM ET

The far-right “ReAwaken America” gathering in Manheim, Pennsylvania, this weekend wasn’t your typical pro-Trump rally.

It was a whole different level of crazy.

The QAnon-peppered programming frequently flew off the rails Saturday, as speakers took severe issue with everything from McDonald’s being part of the “deep state” to “demonic satellites” controlling the voting system in the United States.

The day’s activities kicked off with a prayer asking for Trump’s eyes to be opened so he could be shown when to “implement divine intervention.”

ADVERTISEMENT

“You will surround him, Father, with none of this deep-state trash, none of this RINO trash,” the speaker—who led the prayer—yelled as attendees thrust their hands into the air.

Other speakers included Roger Stone, Michael Flynn, Pennsylvania gubernatorial candidate Doug Mastriano, and MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, though the crowd favorite appeared to be organizer Clay Clark, who frequently took to the microphone to accuse McDonald’s of being part of the “deep state” and ask about Michelle Obama’s gender.

“What gender is Michelle Obama?” Clark asked. The crowd overwhelmingly yelled back: “Male.”

Then, without missing a beat, Clark began claiming there was a “war on food” and alleged a shady left-wing entity was pushing for the feeding of “insect burgers” to the masses.

Clark didn’t stop there. Elsewhere, the organizer—whose gathering once triggered an anthrax scare—called people that wear masks on planes “jackass-er-y.”

Fresh off of a video emerging of Stone calling Ivanka Trump an “abortionist bitch daughter,” the longtime informal Trump adviser attempted to flip the script, claiming videos showing him encouraging violence were actually part of “continued harassment” against him.

“I am guilty of the crime of supporting President Donald Trump,” he said. “Loving him for 40 years.”

Right-wing doctor Stella Immanuel, best known for her belief in demon sperm, urged attendees to pray that both satellites and voting machines be destroyed.

“We need to pray and crush…the demonic satellites. We need to send a holy ghost virus into their computers, to destroy them, so they will not function, or until our election is over,” she said, to the crowd’s applause.

Earlier on Friday afternoon, Eric Trump—a longtime staple at fringe anti-vaccine confabs—took to the stage and phoned up his father to address the QAnon-friendly conference.

“We love you all,” said the ex-president, who was at times muted by Eric Trump’s phone not being close enough to the microphone. “And we’ll be back doing things that... We’re going to bring this country back because our country’s never been in such bad shape as it is now.”

Eric added that he advised his father—who has been subpoenaed to appear before the Jan 6. committee—to testify due to it being “the greatest entertainment.”

“Who wants to pop a beer, make some popcorn, and watch Donald Trump talk about election fraud in the United States of America,” he continued.

But perhaps the craziest message of the weekend thus far was from Julie Green, a self-identifying prophet, who told the crowd she had a message directly from God.

“Says God, you can’t stop my son, who is the rightful president,” Green said on Friday evening. “He is on his way back, and how he takes his position back on center stage, you will never see that coming because you won’t see me coming. And I am with him.”

What do they have with saying women are men & men are women?

[abbey1227]

Oct 23, 2022 5:17:53 GMT merh said:

Earlier on Friday afternoon, Eric Trump—a longtime staple at fringe anti-vaccine confabs—took to the stage and phoned up his father to address the QAnon-friendly conference.

“We love you all,” said the ex-president, who was at times muted by Eric Trump’s phone not being close enough to the microphone. “And we’ll be back doing things that... We’re going to bring this country back because our country’s never been in such bad shape as it is now.”

Eric added that he advised his father—who has been subpoenaed to appear before the Jan 6. committee—to testify due to it being “the greatest entertainment.”

“Who wants to pop a beer, make some popcorn, and watch Donald Trump talk about election fraud in the United States of America,” he continued.

But perhaps the craziest message of the weekend thus far was from Julie Green, a self-identifying prophet, who told the crowd she had a message directly from God.

“Says God, you can’t stop my son, who is the rightful president,” Green said on Friday evening. “He is on his way back, and how he takes his position back on center stage, you will never see that coming because you won’t see me coming. And I am with him.”

What do they have with saying women are men & men are women?

being anti-vaccine is fringe? Espousing anything conservative these days is 'unhinged'?

These prophets and God talkers are just plain weird, though.

What does the Left have with claiming people can choose their identities? Seems inconsistent with your complaint about oddball rumors of Michelle being a man in reality. Do they think their kids came from Barrack's womb, too?

[merh]

Oct 23, 2022 13:50:32 GMT abbey1227 said:

Oct 23, 2022 5:17:53 GMT merh said:

What do they have with saying women are men & men are women?

being anti-vaccine is fringe? Espousing anything conservative these days is 'unhinged'?

These prophets and God talkers are just plain weird, though.

What does the Left have with claiming people can choose their identities? Seems inconsistent with your complaint about oddball rumors of Michelle being a man in reality. Do they think their kids came from Barrack's womb, too?

Eric Trump was pushing election fraud, dude.

They have said Michelle is a man for years. There have been pictures with something in that area (no chance it's a feminine pad or some such?. They sell pads for urinary incontinence which can happen in older women after having had kids) 

However, it seems like every month or 2 we see yet another set of pix that some famous male is female or female is male.

It is a serious obsession.

[abbey1227]

Oct 23, 2022 21:21:01 GMT merh said:

Eric Trump was pushing election fraud, dude.

They have said Michelle is a man for years. There have been pictures with something in that area (no chance it's a feminine pad or some such?. They sell pads for urinary incontinence which can happen in older women after having had kids) 

However, it seems like every month or 2 we see yet another set of pix that some famous male is female or female is male.

It is a serious obsession.

And? You guys STILL think Russia got Trump elected. But you won't stand for any insinuation that Biden got in under suspicious activities?

She's a handsome woman.  

As in a trendy thing that people wanna belong to? like fluid identity?

[merh]

Oct 24, 2022 4:33:05 GMT abbey1227 said:

Oct 23, 2022 21:21:01 GMT merh said:

Eric Trump was pushing election fraud, dude.

They have said Michelle is a man for years. There have been pictures with something in that area (no chance it's a feminine pad or some such?. They sell pads for urinary incontinence which can happen in older women after having had kids) 

However, it seems like every month or 2 we see yet another set of pix that some famous male is female or female is male.

It is a serious obsession.

And? You guys STILL think Russia got Trump elected. But you won't stand for any insinuation that Biden got in under suspicious activities?

She's a handsome woman.  

As in a trendy thing that people wanna belong to? like fluid identity?

From Shays on V2

This guy is no anomaly. This is a prevailing narrative among many (if not most) MAGA Republicans.

Sarge

Yeah, it's weird. The Trump Cult phenomenon is bizarre. These folk are so different than me I can't relate to them. I have a cousin that is enamored with Trump, believes he's handsome, Christian, shares American values, and has even convinced herself that his father is actually George Patton. I wouldn't believe it if I hadn't heard it from her mouth.

Toy-

That is what the Columbian ambulette driver who was taking me to my iron infusion and emergency blood transfusion this afternoon just told me.

I hope I get a different driver going home.

There's that line-
"Let go. Let God"

So do I believe there are people out there that believe the Facebook memes?

Believe Trump is a Christian?

Their preacher tells them how to vote & they vote.

So yes.
I think people believed lies Russian groups put on the net.

[abbey1227]

Oct 24, 2022 19:00:21 GMT merh said:

Oct 24, 2022 4:33:05 GMT abbey1227 said:

From Shays on V2

This guy is no anomaly. This is a prevailing narrative among many (if not most) MAGA Republicans.

Sarge

Yeah, it's weird. The Trump Cult phenomenon is bizarre. These folk are so different than me I can't relate to them. I have a cousin that is enamored with Trump, believes he's handsome, Christian, shares American values, and has even convinced herself that his father is actually George Patton. I wouldn't believe it if I hadn't heard it from her mouth.

Toy-

That is what the Columbian ambulette driver who was taking me to my iron infusion and emergency blood transfusion this afternoon just told me.

I hope I get a different driver going home.

There's that line-
"Let go. Let God"

So do I believe there are people out there that believe the Facebook memes?
Believe Trump is a Christian?

Their preacher tells them how to vote & they vote.
So yes.
I think people believed lies Russian groups put on the net.

You must be perplexed by my lack of religious faith yet still being a Trump supporter?

ambulette? Ambulance? Blood transfusion? Sounds like something where you'd take out the toxic blood, and inject the new, fresh clean detoxified blood. How weird. 

What  does it take ot be a Christian? Are Christians any better or worse than other groups of people?

I can believe that some do believe lies, as well. How else could you explain Obama and Biden voters?

[merh]

Oct 24, 2022 19:12:23 GMT abbey1227 said:

Oct 24, 2022 19:00:21 GMT merh said:

From Shays on V2
Sarge

Toy-

There's that line-
"Let go. Let God"

So do I believe there are people out there that believe the Facebook memes?
Believe Trump is a Christian?

Their preacher tells them how to vote & they vote.
So yes.
I think people believed lies Russian groups put on the net.

You must be perplexed by my lack of religious faith yet still being a Trump supporter?

ambulette? Ambulance? Blood transfusion? Sounds like something where you'd take out the toxic blood, and inject the new, fresh clean detoxified blood. How weird. 

What  does it take ot be a Christian? Are Christians any better or worse than other groups of people?

I can believe that some do believe lies, as well. How else could you explain Obama and Biden voters?

Did you not know about Toy's problem?

He has a health issue & needs regular transfusions, but his insurance will only do it on an emergency basis si he has to be below certain levels for them to do it.

This stuff with pregnant women needing to be at death's door? Sounds like what Toy goes through. That he has to be at death's door to get what he needs. There are things they could approve, but they won't 

Best Healthcare system in the world!

Christ preached love & compassion.
Many seem to focus on hate & excusion.  Only they & their friends are going to heaven. 

Their leaders say Trump is a Christian so no matter that he is completely unfamiliar with the Bible, they buy he is Christian.

Do you see Trump as turning the other cheek?

Matthew 5:39
But I say to you, do not resist an evil person; but whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also.

Luke 6:29
Whoever hits you on the cheek, offer him the other also; and whoever takes away your coat, do not withhold your shirt from him either.

1 Thessalonians 5:15
See that no one repays another with evil for evil, but always seek after that which is good for one another and for all people.

1 Peter 3:8-10
To sum up, all of you be harmonious, sympathetic, brotherly, kindhearted, and humble in spirit; not returning evil for evil or insult for insult, but giving a blessing instead; for you were called for the very purpose that you might inherit a blessing. For,
“The one who desires life, to love and see good days,
Must keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit.

Romans 12:17
Never pay back evil for evil to anyone. Respect what is right in the sight of all men

[merh]

Two right-wing operatives pleaded guilty on Monday in Cleveland to single felony counts of telecommunications fraud for having placed thousands of false robocalls in Ohio that told people they could be arrested or be forced to receive vaccinations based on information they submitted in votes by mail.

TEXT:

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Two right-wing conspiracy theorists who placed thousands of robocalls with false information to largely minority and Democratic voters in Cleveland in the months before the November 2020 election pleaded guilty on Monday to a felony charge.



Jacob Wohl, 24, of Irvine, California, and Jack Burkman, 56, of Arlington, Virginia, face a maximum of a year in prison after they pleaded guilty to a fifth-degree felony charge of telecommunications fraud.

Assistant Cuyahoga County Prosecutor James Gutierrez said the men also agreed to pay the maximum fine of $2,500 as part of the plea deal. Prosecutors dismissed 14 counts of telecommunications and bribery as part of the deal.



Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court Judge John Sutula set sentencing for Nov. 29. He allowed Wohl and Burkman to attend the hearing via Zoom.



Wohl, Burkman and their attorneys declined to answer questions from reporters after the hearing.



Wohl and Burkman gained national profiles after holding several press conferences to levy false accusations against prominent Democrats and Republicans critical of former President Donald Trump.



Their schemes included accusing former presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg and Robert Mueller, the former FBI Director and Special Counsel in the investigation into ties between Russia and the Trump campaign, of sexual assault and harassment charges that were quickly debunked.



The two were charged in October 2020 after prosecutors said their group, Project 1599, placed more than 3,500 robocalls that spread misinformation to targeted voters on Cleveland’s East Side and in East Cleveland.



The calls featured a woman warning voters against being “finessed into giving your private information to the man” and that if they voted by mail, police and debt-collection agencies would use their personal information to arrest them for outstanding warrants or collect outstanding debts, according to court filings. The call also claimed the U.S. Centers for Disease Control could use their information to institute a mandatory vaccination program.



Both claims are false.



The calls were among more than 85,000 total that prosecutors said specifically targeted minority voters in heavily democratic areas in Chicago, Detroit, Philadelphia, New York City and Cleveland.



Several states expanded the use of absentee voting to accommodate voters weary of casting their ballots in person at crowded precincts during the coronavirus pandemic.

Sutula last month denied a motion filed by the men’s attorneys asking Sutula to find the robocalls were protected by the First Amendment and to throw out the charges.



Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel also charged Wohl and Burkman with multiple felonies tied to the same conduct. The pair has appealed that case to the Michigan Supreme Court.



The Federal Communications Commission last year recommended that the pair pay a $5.1 million fine for the robocalls, which at the time was the largest forfeiture that the commission had sought in a robocall case, according to a news release.

www.cleveland.com/court-justice/2022/10/jacob-wohl-jack-burkman-plead-guilty-to-felony-for-2020-election-robocalls-targeting-cleveland-voters.html

[abbey1227]

Oct 24, 2022 22:12:56 GMT merh said:

Oct 24, 2022 19:12:23 GMT abbey1227 said:

You must be perplexed by my lack of religious faith yet still being a Trump supporter?

ambulette? Ambulance? Blood transfusion? Sounds like something where you'd take out the toxic blood, and inject the new, fresh clean detoxified blood. How weird. 

What  does it take ot be a Christian? Are Christians any better or worse than other groups of people?

I can believe that some do believe lies, as well. How else could you explain Obama and Biden voters?

Did you not know about Toy's problem? He has a health issue & needs regular transfusions, but his insurance will only do it on an emergency basis si he has to be below certain levels for them to do it.

This stuff with pregnant women needing to be at death's door? Sounds like what Toy goes through. That he has to be at death's door to get what he needs. There are things they could approve, but they won't 
Best Healthcare system in the world!

Christ preached love & compassion.
Many seem to focus on hate & exclusion.  Only they & their friends are going to heaven. 

Their leaders say Trump is a Christian so no matter that he is completely unfamiliar with the Bible, they buy he is Christian.

Do you see Trump as turning the other cheek?

Matthew 5:39
But I say to you, do not resist an evil person; but whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also.

Luke 6:29
Whoever hits you on the cheek, offer him the other also; and whoever takes away your coat, do not withhold your shirt from him either.

1 Thessalonians 5:15
See that no one repays another with evil for evil, but always seek after that which is good for one another and for all people.

1 Peter 3:8-10
To sum up, all of you be harmonious, sympathetic, brotherly, kindhearted, and humble in spirit; not returning evil for evil or insult for insult, but giving a blessing instead; for you were called for the very purpose that you might inherit a blessing. For,
“The one who desires life, to love and see good days,
Must keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit.

Romans 12:17
Never pay back evil for evil to anyone. Respect what is right in the sight of all men

I have spoken/chatted with Toy about his health and situation a little bit in the past. It's funny because I joke he'll likely outlive us all.

That's the nature of insurance for everything though. Especially the more costly stuff. Kinda motivates some people to gather more wealth so they don't have to ask/rely on others.

It is one of the best systems in the world......provided you can pay for it. Part of the reason it's gotten so expensive is the sheer amount of people that NEVER pay for it, run up massive bills........and stick insurance companies/hospitals/the rest of us with the after effect of their behavior.

There are many, many, too many branches of Christianity. They all have slight variations on their beliefs. Who are you or I to tell them which one is perfect? Maybe NOBODY is getting In? Maybe EVERYBODY is? Maybe all it takes is belief in Christ?.....so even the most dastardly person can get in, cuz they simply believe?

Judging by humanity's behavior? It's not gonna be a crowded place  

[merh]

Oct 25, 2022 11:34:45 GMT abbey1227 said:

Oct 24, 2022 22:12:56 GMT merh said:

Did you not know about Toy's problem? He has a health issue & needs regular transfusions, but his insurance will only do it on an emergency basis si he has to be below certain levels for them to do it.

This stuff with pregnant women needing to be at death's door? Sounds like what Toy goes through. That he has to be at death's door to get what he needs. There are things they could approve, but they won't 
Best Healthcare system in the world!

Christ preached love & compassion.
Many seem to focus on hate & exclusion.  Only they & their friends are going to heaven. 

Their leaders say Trump is a Christian so no matter that he is completely unfamiliar with the Bible, they buy he is Christian.

Do you see Trump as turning the other cheek?

Matthew 5:39
But I say to you, do not resist an evil person; but whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also.

Luke 6:29
Whoever hits you on the cheek, offer him the other also; and whoever takes away your coat, do not withhold your shirt from him either.

1 Thessalonians 5:15
See that no one repays another with evil for evil, but always seek after that which is good for one another and for all people.

1 Peter 3:8-10
To sum up, all of you be harmonious, sympathetic, brotherly, kindhearted, and humble in spirit; not returning evil for evil or insult for insult, but giving a blessing instead; for you were called for the very purpose that you might inherit a blessing. For,
“The one who desires life, to love and see good days,
Must keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit.

Romans 12:17
Never pay back evil for evil to anyone. Respect what is right in the sight of all men

I have spoken/chatted with Toy about his health and situation a little bit in the past. It's funny because I joke he'll likely outlive us all.

That's the nature of insurance for everything though. Especially the more costly stuff. Kinda motivates some people to gather more wealth so they don't have to ask/rely on others.

It is one of the best systems in the world......provided you can pay for it. Part of the reason it's gotten so expensive is the sheer amount of people that NEVER pay for it, run up massive bills........and stick insurance companies/hospitals/the rest of us with the after effect of their behavior.

There are many, many, too many branches of Christianity. They all have slight variations on their beliefs. Who are you or I to tell them which one is perfect? Maybe NOBODY is getting In? Maybe EVERYBODY is? Maybe all it takes is belief in Christ?.....so even the most dastardly person can get in, cuz they simply believe?

Judging by humanity's behavior? It's not gonna be a crowded place  

That hard to read what Jesus actually said?

You know my complaint that a lot of them never read the Bible. They trust some preacher to interpret it for them.

They lie.
I found that out.

Read it oneself