You searched for - Page 433 of 441

8/26/2022

CLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS/DOJ/FBI: “A redacted version of the affidavit used to justify the August 8 search of Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago property was unsealed Friday [August 26, 2022].

The heavily blacked-out document nevertheless showed that, in the 15 boxes that Trump initially sent to the National Archives, 184 documents had classification markings, including 25 marked as top secret…

[U.S. Magistrate Judge] Reinhart wrote that the DOJ had ‘met its burden’ of showing why portions of the affidavit should be redacted, including that the disclosure would reveal identities of witnesses, law enforcement agents and uncharged parties…

The action followed months of dispute between Trump’s team, the Justice Department and the National Archives over his complaints with the Presidential Records Act, which mandates that presidential records belong to the government, not the former president. DOJ attorneys issued a subpoena for additional records last spring, as well as security footage, but reportedly had reason to believe that additional boxes were being held at Mar-a-Lago.”

-Ted Johnson, “Court Unseals Redacted Version Of Affidavit Used To Justify Search Of Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Property,” deadline.com, August 26, 2022

8/26/2022

CLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS/FBI/INVESTIGATIONS: “FBI agents sought court permission to search former president Donald Trump’s home this month after reviewing 184 classified documents that were kept at the Florida property after he left the White House…

FBI agents dressed in polos and khakis executed the search warrant at the Palm Beach estate, carting away an additional 20 boxes of items from a bedroom, office and a first-floor storage room, according to an inventory of what was retrieved from the property that was made public earlier this month…

Some material recovered in the search is considered extraordinarily sensitive, two people familiar with the search have said, and could reveal carefully guarded secrets about U.S. intelligence-gathering methods. One of the people said the information is ‘among the most sensitive secrets we hold.’”

-Devlin Barrett and Perry Stein, “Affidavit to search Trump’s Mar-a-Lago says 184 classified files found in January,” washingtonpost.com, August 26, 2022

8/29/2022

CLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS/DOJ/FBI: “FBI agents have already finished their examination of possibly privileged documents seized in an Aug. 8 search of Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home, according to a Justice Department court filing Monday [August 29, 2022] that could undercut the former president’s efforts to have a special master appointed to review the files.

The ‘filter team’ used by the Justice Department to sort through the documents and weed out any material that should not be reviewed by criminal investigators has completed its review.”

-Devlin Barrett, “Trump’s Mar-a-Lago documents already examined by FBI, Justice Dept. tells judge,” washingtonpost.com, August 29, 2022

8/29/2022

HILLARY CLINTON/LINDSEY GRAHAM: “Senator Lindsey Graham’s prediction on Sunday [August 28, 2022] that a prosecution of former President Donald J. Trump would lead to ‘riots in the streets’ added an element of menace to the fraught decisions facing Justice Department officials as they consider next steps in the investigation of Mr. Trump’s handling of classified material…

‘If they try to prosecute President Trump for mishandling classified information after Hillary Clinton set up a server in her basement, there literally will be riots in the street. I worry about our country,’ he said.”

-Jonathan Weisman, “Graham Predicts ‘Riots in the Streets’ if Trump Is Prosecuted,” nytimes.com, August 29, 2022

9/1/2022

GOP/JOE BIDEN/TRUMP POST-PRESIDENCY: “President Biden traveled to Independence Hall on Thursday [September 1, 2022] to warn that America’s democratic values are under assault by forces of extremism loyal to former President Donald J. Trump, using a prime-time address to define the midterm elections as a ‘battle for the soul of this nation.’

In a 24-minute speech, Mr. Biden blamed his predecessor for stoking a movement filled with election deniers and people calling for political violence. He went out of his way to declare that not all Republicans embrace extremism, however, and he said that defending democracy would require rejecting Mr. Trump and his ideology in elections this fall.”

-Zolan Kanno-Youngs and Michael D. Shear, “Biden Warns That American Values Are Under Assault by Trump-Led Extremism,” nytimes.com, September 1, 2022

9/1/2022

JOE BIDEN/GOP: “Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans represent an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our republic…

Not every Republican embraces their extreme ideology… But there is no question that the Republican Party today is dominated, driven, and intimidated by Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans, and that is a threat to this country.”

-Joe Biden, “Remarks by President Biden on the Continued Battle for the Soul of the Nation,” whitehouse.gov, September 1, 2022

9/1/2022

2020 ELECTION/PARDONS: “Donald Trump said on Thursday [September 1, 2022] he would pardon and apologize to those who participated in the deadly attack on the US Capitol on January 6 if he were elected to the White House again.

‘I mean full pardons with an apology to many,’ he told Wendy Bell, a conservative radio host on Thursday. ‘I will be looking very, very strongly about pardons, full pardons.’

Five people died in connection with the attack and more than 140 law enforcement officers were injured.”

-Sam Levine, “Donald Trump says he plans to pardon US Capitol attack participants if elected,” theguardian.com, September 1, 2022

9/1/2020

INVESTIGATIONS/TRUMP BUSINESS: “Ex-President Donald Trump and his former longtime accounting firm have agreed to turn over some financial records to the House Oversight and Reform Committee in a deal that will end a lawsuit over their prior refusal to do so, that panel and Trump’s lawyers said…

The deal does not cover a separate lawsuit involving the House Ways and Means Committee, which is seeking Trump’s federal tax returns from 2015 through 2020…

The committee sought the documents in 2019 as part of its investigation into Trump’s conflicts of interest involving his businesses while serving as president and his foreign financial ties.”

-Dan Mangan, “Trump and accounting firm agree to give financial records to House Oversight Committee in deal to end court battle,” cnbc.com, September 1, 2022

9/2/2022

TRUMP POST-PRESIDENCY/WILLIAM BARR: “In his sharpest critique of his former boss, former attorney general William P. Barr said there is no reason classified documents should have been inside Donald Trump’s personal residence in Florida after he was no longer president.

‘No, I can’t think of a legitimate reason why they could be taken out of government, away from the government, if they are classified,’ Barr said in an interview with Fox News that aired Friday [September 2, 2022]…

‘People say this was unprecedented,’ Barr said Friday, ‘but it’s also unprecedented for a president to take all this classified information and put them in a country club, okay?’”

-Azi Paybarah, “Barr says no ‘legitimate reason’ for Trump to have classified documents,” washingtonpost.com, September 2, 2022

9/2/2022

JOE BIDEN: “President Biden on Friday [September 2, 2022] said he does not consider any Donald Trump supporters to be a ‘threat’ to the U.S., though he said the failure to condemn violence for political gains was ‘inappropriate.’

The president’s comments were in answer to a question from Fox News’ Peter Doocy who asked if Biden considered all Trump supporters to be a threat to the country less than a day after he blasted ‘MAGA Republicans’ in a speech Thursday.”

-Caitlin McFall, “Biden says Trump supporters not a threat to country after speech blasting ‘MAGA Republicans,’” foxnews.com, September 2, 2022

9/2/2022

CLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS/DOJ/FBI: “The Justice Department on Friday [September 2, 2022] filed a more detailed list of documents taken in its raid of former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort, including dozens of classified documents and folders with classified markings…

The document includes little that was unexpected. A different federal judge unsealed a less detailed property receipt last month which showed that the FBI took several boxes of documents from Trump’s property, which included ‘Various classified/TS/SCI documents.’ Trump, meanwhile, has complained publicly that the FBI took documents and items allegedly unrelated to its investigation.

However, the Friday filing does underscore the massive amount of material the government took from Mar-a-Lago, including many government documents.”

-David Spunt, Bill Mears, and Tyler Olson, “Trump FBI raid: DOJ releases more details on documents taken from Mar-a-Lago,” foxnews.com, September 2, 2022

9/4/2022

RALLY: “It’s impossible to explain how great the people last night were in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. The level of love they have for our Country is both unbelievable and highly impressive—it is more than anyone would ever know. If the Radical Left Lunatics that work so hard to destroy our Country could just get a little bit of the love, energy, enthusiasm, spirit, and patriotism that we witnessed last night, our Country would go to the top of every list like a rocket ship. Thank you to everyone who attended the Rally last night. It was a two-hour speech, and the only disappointment was that they were screaming, ‘Please, please, go longer.’ They love our Country, and I love them!”

-Donald Trump, “Statement by Donald J. Trump, 45th President of the United States of America,” donaldjtrump.com, September 4, 2022

9/5/2022

DOJ/FBI: “Remember, it takes courage and ‘guts’ to fight a totally corrupt Department of ‘Justice’ and the FBI. They are being pushed to do the wrong thing by many sinister outside sources. Until impartiality, wisdom, fairness, and courage are shown by them, our Country can never come back or recover—it will be reduced to being a Third World Nation!”

-Donald Trump, “Statement by Donald J. Trump, 45th President of the United States of America,” donaldjtrump.com, September 5, 2022

9/6/2022

CLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS/DOJ/FBI: “In a legal victory for former President Donald Trump, a federal judge on Monday granted his request for a special master to review documents seized by the FBI from his Florida home and temporarily halted the Justice Department’s use of the records for investigative purposes…

The order came despite the strenuous objections of the Justice Department, which said a special master was not necessary in part because officials had already completed their review of potentially privileged documents.”

-Eric Tucker, “Judge grants Trump bid for special master in document search,” apnews.com, September 6, 2022

9/6/2022

CLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS/FBI/NUCLEAR: “A document describing a foreign government’s military defenses, including its nuclear capabilities, was found by FBI agents who searched former president Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence and private club last month, according to people familiar with the matter, underscoring concerns among U.S. intelligence officials about classified material stashed in the Florida property.

Some of the seized documents detail top-secret U.S. operations so closely guarded that many senior national security officials are kept in the dark about them… such documents were stored at Mar-a-Lago, with uncertain security, more than 18 months after Trump left the White House.”

-Devlin Barrett and Carol D. Leonnig, “Material on foreign nation’s nuclear capabilities seized at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago,” washingtonpost.com, September 6, 2022

9/6/2022

FAKE NEWS/IMPEACHMENT/RUSSIA: “The Fake News Mainstream Media, Democrats, and RINOs are obsessed with pushing the latest Witch Hunt against me.

All American Patriots know that I always do everything “by the book” and that this Hoax will fail miserably just like the Russia, Russia, Russia Scam, Impeachment Hoax #1, Impeachment Hoax #2, and all other attempts, perpetrated by the same people, to weaponize Law Enforcement against the 45th President, me. We have to rescue our great Country.

Make America Great Again!”

-Donald Trump, “Statement by Donald J. Trump, 45th President of the United States of America,” donaldjtrump.com, September 6, 2022

9/7/2022

CLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS/FBI: “Not only did the FBI steal my Passports in the FBI Raid and Break-In of my home, Mar-a-Lago, but it has just been learned through court filings that they also improperly took my complete and highly confidential medical file and history, with all the bells and whistles (at least they’ll see that I’m very healthy, an absolutely perfect physical specimen!), plus personal Tax Records (Illegal to take), and lawyer/client/privileged information, a definite NO, NO. Days of the Soviet Union!“

-Donald Trump via Mark Moore, “Trump compares FBI to USSR after tax, medical docs taken in Mar-a-Lago raid,” nypost.com, September 7, 2022

9/7/2022

CLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS/DOJ/FBI: “Monday’s decision by a US federal judge to stop the investigation of Donald Trump’s seizure of classified documents until a ‘special master’ reviews them has thrown the political and legal worlds into uproar – pitting those who believe the ex-president has special legal privileges against those who think he should be treated like any other citizen.

The procedural victory for Trump means the Department of Justice will have to press pause on its effort to determine whether the former president may have illegally run off with classified documents from the White House and kept them at his home in Mar-a-Lago.

Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee, agreed to his request that a special master, a kind of independent mediator, review the roughly 11,000 documents that the FBI discovered and seized when it searched Mar-a-Lago last month…

The justice department can appeal Cannon’s ruling, but the court of appeals that would probably hear the appeal is heavily dominated by Trump-appointed judges. Cannon herself was appointed to the federal bench by Trump in 2020.”

-J Oliver Conroy, “Why did a judge grant Trump’s request for a ‘special master’?,” theguardian.com, September 7, 2022

9/7/2022

FBI/HILLARY CLINTON: “Former secretary of state Hillary Clinton said Tuesday [September 6, 2022] that the ‘right is trying to make this about me again,’ as Republicans increasingly make comparisons between how she was not charged in a 2016 FBI investigation into her use of a private email server and the ongoing probe into former president Donald Trump’s handling of sensitive government documents.

‘I can’t believe we’re still talking about this, but my emails…’ Clinton tweeted. ‘The fact is that I had zero emails that were classified.’”

-Bryan Pietsch, “As FBI probes Trump, Clinton says GOP ‘trying to make this about me again,’” washingtonpost.com, September 7, 2022

9/7/2022

NEW YORK/STEVE BANNON/TRUMP PEOPLE/WALL: “Former United States President Donald Trump adviser Steve Bannon has been indicted in a new criminal case in New York, and is expected to turn himself in on Thursday [September 8, 2022]…

The Washington Post, citing people familiar with the situation, reported the indictment was expected to ‘mirror aspects’ of earlier federal charges lodged against Bannon, which alleged he had duped thousands of people into donating funds they were told would be used to build Trump’s promised wall along the border between the US and Mexico.

In his final hours in office in January 2021, Trump pardoned Bannon of the federal charges.”

-Al Jazeera, “Steve Bannon expected to turn himself in after new indictment,” aljazeera.com, September 7, 2022

9/8/2022

CLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS/DOJ/FBI/INVESTIGATIONS: “Former U.S. President Donald Trump’s team may not have returned all the classified records removed from the White House at the end of his presidency even after an FBI search of his home, U.S. prosecutors warned on Thursday, calling it a potential national security risk that needs investigation.

That revelation came in a Justice Department court filing asking U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon to let it continue reviewing about 100 classified records seized by the FBI at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate while it investigates whether classified documents were illegally removed from the White House and improperly stored there.”

-Sarah N. Lynch, “U.S. reveals more classified records may be missing in Trump probe,” reuters.com, September 8, 2022

9/9/2022

HILLARY CLINTON/LAWSUIT: “A U.S. judge has thrown out former President Trump’s lawsuit against Hillary Clinton, saying the former president ‘is seeking to flaunt a two-hundred-page political manifesto outlining his grievances against those that have opposed him… And this Court is not the appropriate forum,’ Judge Donald Middlebrooks of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida wrote…

‘We vehemently disagree with the opinion issued by the court today,’ Trump attorney Alina Habba said in a statement.”

-Erin Doherty, “Judge throws out Trump’s lawsuit against Hillary Clinton,” axios.com, September 9, 2022

9/12/2022

DOJ/INVESTIGATION/PAC: “Sitting on top of more than $115 million across several political committees, Donald Trump has positioned himself as a uniquely indomitable force in the GOP who would almost certainly have the resources to swamp his rivals if he launched another presidential campaign.

But that massive pile of money is also emerging as a potential vulnerability. His chief fundraising vehicle, Save America PAC, is under new legal scrutiny after the Justice Department issued a round of grand jury subpoenas that sought information about the political action committee’s fundraising practices…

The investigation is one of several criminal probes Trump currently faces, including scrutiny of how documents with classified markings wound up at the former president’s Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida.”

-Jill Colvin, Brian Slodysko, and Eric Tucker, “Trump’s PAC faces scrutiny amid intensifying legal probes,” apnews.com, September 12, 2022

9/13/2022

TRUMP POST-PRESIDENCY: “The National Archives has informed congressional aides that it is still unsure whether former President Donald J. Trump has surrendered all the presidential records he removed from the White House, even after months of negotiations, a subpoena and a search of his Florida property, according to the House Oversight Committee…

[Representative Carolyn B. Maloney, Democrat of New York] said the archives staff had informed the committee staff during a call in late August of its uncertainty about the status of the material, which Mr. Trump was required by law to return.”

-Luke Broadwater, “Archives Is Unsure Whether Trump Surrendered All Records, Panel Says,” nytimes.com, September 13, 2022

9/13/2022

CLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS/FBI/INVESTIGATION: “U.S. Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart on Tuesday unsealed additional portions of the heavily redacted affidavit used to justify the raid of former President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home…

One newly unsealed portion of the affidavit revealed that Trump, in addition to the original 15 boxes of records provided to the National Archives and Records Administration, produced additional documents bearing classification markings in response to a grand jury subpoena…

Reinhart signed the FBI’s warrant for the raid on Mar-a-Lago on Aug. 5, giving the FBI authority to conduct its search — a document the judge unsealed along with the property receipt from the raid. FBI agents took approximately 20 boxes of items from the premises, including one set of documents marked as ‘Various classified/TS/SCI documents,’ which refers to top secret/sensitive compartmented information.

Records covered by that government classification level could potentially include human intelligence and information that, if disclosed, could jeopardize relations between the U.S. and other nations, as well as the lives of intelligence operatives abroad. However, the classification also encompasses national security information related to the daily operations of the president of the United States.”

-Brooke Singman, David Spunt, and Jake Gibson, “Judge unseals additional portions of heavily-redacted Trump Mar-a-Lago affidavit,” foxnews.com, September 13, 2022

9/13/2022

CLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS/DOJ/FBI/INVESTIGATION: “The Justice Department on Tuesday blasted efforts by former President Donald Trump’s lawyers to delay its investigation of classified documents seized at his Florida resort, while a magistrate judge unsealed some previously redacted information relating to the FBI’s search of Trump’s club…

The [DOJ] filing noted that the documents had ‘markings signifying that their unauthorized disclosure ‘reasonably could be expected to result in damage to the national security,’ including “exceptionally grave damage,”’ and it said any delay causes ‘irreparable harm’ to the government and the public…

Trump’s attorneys have suggested in court filings that the documents were declassified and that they are his personal records and belong to him — contentions the Justice Department ridiculed in its new filing.”

-Dareh Gregorian and Tom Winter, “’Irreparable harm’: Justice Department warns against further delay in Trump documents probe,” nbcnews.com, September 13, 2022

9/15/2022

DOJ/INVESTIGATIONS: “A federal judge on Thursday [September 15, 2022] rejected the Justice Department’s request to resume a key part of its inquiry into former President Donald J. Trump’s handling of sensitive government records and appointed an outside arbiter to review thousands of documents seized last month from his Florida residence…

In her 10-page decision, Judge Cannon appointed a special master suggested by the Trump legal team and agreed upon by the government: Raymond J. Dearie, a semiretired judge from the Federal District Court for the Eastern District of New York.”

-Charlie Savage, Alan Feuer and Glenn Thrush, “Judge Keeps Block on Inquiry Into Mar-a-Lago Files and Names Special Master,” nytimes.com, September 15, 2022

9/15/2022

PUERTO RICO: “New details have emerged about former President Donald Trump’s alleged desire to have the United States acquire the island of Greenland while in office. According to a forthcoming book, the former president at one point even suggested to aides that the U.S. could trade Puerto Rico for it…

According to the book, former national security adviser John Bolton even had his aide Fiona Hill ‘assemble a small team to brainstorm ideas. They engaged in secret talks with Denmark’s ambassador and produced an options memo.’

While Bolton thought that “an outright purchase was not feasible,” Trump ‘kept pushing,’ the authors write.”

-Virginia Chamlee, “Donald Trump Reportedly Wanted to Trade Puerto Rico for Greenland,” people.com, September 15, 2022

9/15/2022

DEMS/MITCH MCCONNELL: “Mitch McConnell is giving the Democrats everything they want. He is their lapdog! He didn’t stop trillions of dollars in spending by refusing to use the Debt Ceiling as a negotiating tool. He gave it up for nothing. Now he wants to give Manchin the thing he wanted in order to destroy America, and even the People of West Virginia. How about his tax on coal? The Republican Senate must do something about this absolute Loser, Mitch McConnell, who folds every time against the Democrats—and he’s only getting worse!”

-Donald Trump, “Statement by Donald J. Trump, 45th President of the United States of America,” donaldjtrump.com, September 15, 2022

9/16/2022

QANON: “After winking at QAnon for years, Donald Trump is overtly embracing the baseless conspiracy theory, even as the number of frightening real-world events linked to it grows.

On Tuesday [September 13, 2022], using his Truth Social platform, the Republican former president reposted an image of himself wearing a Q lapel pin overlaid with the words ‘The Storm is Coming.’ In QAnon lore, the ‘storm’ refers to Trump’s final victory, when supposedly he will regain power and his opponents will be tried, and potentially executed, on live television…

He’s published dozens of recent Q-related posts, in contrast to 2020, when he claimed that while he didn’t know much about QAnon, he couldn’t disprove its conspiracy theory…

Earlier this month, Trump chose a QAnon song to close out a rally in Pennsylvania. The same song appears in one of his recent campaign videos and is titled ‘WWG1WGA,’ an acronym used as a rallying cry for Q adherents that stands for ‘Where we go one, we go all.'”

-David Klepper and Ali Swenson, “Trump openly embraces, amplifies QAnon conspiracy theories,” apnews.com, September 16, 2022

9/19/2022

TRUMP POST-PRESIDENCY: “The Radical Left controlled NARA (the National Archives and Records Administration), now becoming more famous than ever, placed a ‘Harmful Content Warning’ on The Constitution of the United States, labeling our Country’s governing document as ‘harmful,’ among other things. This Warning includes the Bill of Rights and the Declaration of Independence. Remember, this is the group wrongfully complaining about me—and instigating the Raid on Mar-a-Lago.”

-Donald Trump, “Statement by Donald J. Trump, 45th President of the United States of America,” donaldjtrump.com, September 19, 2022

9/19/2022

2020 ELECTION/GEORGIA: “Atlanta, Georgia, is number ‘1’ in the Country in murders and heinous crimes, especially on a per capita basis—even worse than now-fabled Chicago, yet the District Attorney there is spending almost all of her waking hours, which aren’t many, on attempting to prosecute a very popular president, Donald J. Trump, who got more votes in 2020 than any sitting president in the history of the United States. She is basing her potential claims on trying to find a tiny word or phrase (that isn’t there) during an absolutely PERFECT phone call, concerning widespread Election Fraud in Georgia, with Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and many lawyers and other officials who were knowingly on the line, had no problems with the call, and didn’t voice any objections or complaints about anything that I said on the call which could be construed as inappropriate. A strictly political Witch Hunt!”

-Donald Trump, “Statement by Donald J. Trump, 45th President of the United States of America,” donaldjtrump.com, September 19, 2022

9/19/2022

FBI/RUSSIA INVESTIGATION: “Did you see that the FBI Agent who was in charge of the Russia, Russia, Russia Hoax is being ‘investigated’ for being paid by Russia while working in, of all places, the FBI. In other words, the people that were investigating me for Russia involvement (Mueller Report proved No Collusion!) were actually the ones involved with Russia. This could only happen to me!”

-Donald Trump, “Statement by Donald J. Trump, 45th President of the United States of America,” donaldjtrump.com, September 19, 2022

9/20/2022

INVESTIGATIONS: “The senior federal judge tasked with reviewing the materials seized by the FBI from Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate sharply questioned the former president’s attorneys Tuesday during their first hearing in his courtroom.

Judge Raymond Dearie repeatedly challenged Trump’s lawyers for refusing to back up the former president’s claim that he declassified the highly sensitive national security-related records discovered in his residence…

Dearie bristled at the effort by Trump’s lawyers to resist his request for proof that Trump actually attempted to declassify any of the 100 documents that the Justice Department recovered from his estate.”

-Josh Gerstein and Kyle Cheney, “Special master to Trump’s lawyers: ‘You can’t have your cake and eat it,’” politico.com, September 20, 2022

9/20/2022

FOREIGN DIGNITARIES/JOE BIDEN: “Former President Donald Trump is claiming he would have gotten a better seat than President Joe Biden at Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral.

Monday’s state funeral was one of the biggest gatherings of world leaders in years, to bring closure to Britain’s longest-reigning monarch, who died Sept. 8 at age 96…

‘If I were president, they wouldn’t have sat me back there.’ Trump wrote. ‘In Real Estate, like Politics and in Life, LOCATION IS EVERYTHING!!!'”

-Natalie Neysa Alund, “‘They wouldn’t have sat me back there’: Trump mocks Biden on seat at queen’s funeral,” usatoday.com, September 20, 2022

9/21/2022

DOJ/INVESTIGATION: “In a stark repudiation of Donald Trump’s legal arguments, a federal appeals court on Wednesday [September 21, 2022] permitted the Justice Department to resume its use of classified records seized from the former president’s Florida estate as part of its ongoing criminal investigation.

The ruling from a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit amounts to an overwhelming victory for the Justice Department, clearing the way for investigators to continue scrutinizing the documents as they consider whether to bring criminal charges over the storage of top-secret records at Mar-a-Lago after Trump left the White House.”

-The Associated Press, “An appeals court rules the DOJ can regain access to documents seized from Mar-a-Lago,” npr.org, September 21, 2022

9/21/2022

NEW YORK/TRUMP BUSINESS/TRUMP FAMILY: “New York Attorney General Letitia James filed a lawsuit Wednesday accusing former president Donald Trump, three of his grown children and executives at his company of flagrantly manipulating property valuations to deceive lenders, insurance brokers and tax authorities into giving them better rates on bank loans and insurance policies and to reduce their tax liability.

The 222-page civil complaint asks the New York Supreme Court to bar Trump, as well as Donald Trump Jr., Ivanka Trump and Eric Trump, from serving as executives at any company in New York, and to bar the Trump Organization from acquiring any commercial real estate or receiving loans from any New York-registered financial institution for five years.

It seeks to recover more than $250 million in what James’s office says are ill-gotten gains received through the alleged deceptive practices.”

-Shayna Jacobs and Jonathan O’Connell, “Donald Trump, 3 of his children accused of business fraud by New York AG,” washingtonpost.com, September 21, 2022

9/21/2022

INVESTIGATIONS/NEW YORK: “Another Witch Hunt by a racist Attorney General, Letitia James, who failed in her run for Governor, getting almost zero support from the public, and now is doing poorly against Law & Order A.G. candidate, highly respected Michael Henry. I never thought this case would be brought — until I saw her really bad poll numbers. She is a fraud who campaigned on a ‘get Trump’ platform, despite the fact that the city is one of the crime and murder disasters of the world under her watch. She is a failed A.G. whose lack of talent in the fight against crime is causing record numbers of people and companies to flee New York. Bye, bye!”

-Donald Trump via Ryan King, “‘Another Witch Hunt by a racist’: Trump family bashes Letitia James after suit,” gazette.com, September 21, 2022

9/22/2022

CLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS/FBI/INVESTIGATION: “In his first TV appearance since a court-authorized search of his Florida home last month, Donald Trump reasserted Wednesday [September 22, 2022] that any documents taken from the White House to Mar-a-Lago were declassified while he was in office, adding that a president can carry that out ‘even by thinking about it.’ …

Prosecutors have said that about 100 of the documents taken from Mar-a-Lago were marked classified, including some labeled top secret.

‘If you’re the president of the United States, you can declassify just by saying it’s declassified,’ the former president added…

Trump’s comments were made ahead of a Wednesday appeals court decision that the FBI can use the seized documents in its criminal investigation.”

-Julian Mark, “Trump says presidents can declassify docs ‘even by thinking about it,’” washingtonpost.com, September 22, 2022

9/23/2022

2024 ELECTION/FEC/PAC: “Top allies of former President Donald Trump are creating a new super PAC that’s expected to serve as the main vehicle for his midterm spending and could become a key part of his campaign infrastructure should he move forward with a 2024 White House run.

The political action committee, called MAGA Inc., will supersede Trump’s existing super PAC, Politico first reported. Paperwork for the new committee was filed Friday morning [September 23, 2022] with the Federal Election Commission.”

-Jill Colvin, “Donald Trump allies create a new super PAC called MAGA Inc.,” pbs.org, September 23, 2022

9/27/2022

LAWSUIT: “A federal appeals court set aside a judge’s ruling that Donald Trump could be sued for defamation by E. Jean Carroll after denying he raped her, though it stopped short of declaring the former U.S. president immune from the author’s lawsuit.

In a 2-1 decision on Tuesday [September 27, 2022], the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan asked an appeals court in Washington to weigh in on whether the laws of that district shielded Trump from liability.”

-Jonathan Stempel, “Donald Trump wins ruling in rape accuser Carroll’s defamation lawsuit,” reuters.com, September 27, 2022

9/29/2022

2020 ELECTION/SUPREME COURT: “Virginia ‘Ginni’ Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, stood by her concerns about the 2020 election during an appearance before the Jan. 6 committee Thursday, according to her lawyer.

Thomas reportedly fielded questions from the panel behind closed doors for about 3 1/2 hours. Investigators were keen on questioning her about her communications with Trump allies who attempted to overturn the 2020 election…

During the aftermath of the 2020 election, Thomas also had multiple communications with those tied to Trump’s efforts to challenge the 2020 election. For example, she texted White House chief of staff Mark Meadows shortly after the election, imploring him to prod Trump not to concede and later to ‘release the Kraken,’ in reference to lawyer Sidney Powell.”

-Ryan King, “Ginni Thomas stood by 2020 election fraud claims during Jan. 6 deposition: Lawyer,” washingtonexaminer.com, September 29, 2022

9/29/2022

DONALD ON DONALD: “I know many people who wanted to write a really good book about me, but their publishers wouldn’t let them. They were not interested in any way, shape, or form unless they were willing to say bad things. Some took a pass, and some sold out to the Enemy.”

-Donald Trump, “Statement by Donald J. Trump, 45th President of the United States of America,” donaldjtrump.com, September 29, 2022

9/29/2022

CLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS/FBI/INVESTIGATIONS: “Judge Aileen M. Cannon told Donald Trump’s lawyers Thursday [September 29, 2022] that they did not need to comply with an order from special master Raymond J. Dearie and state in a court filing whether they believe FBI agents lied about documents seized from the former president’s Florida residence…

Dearie last week told the former president’s legal team that it couldn’t suggest in court filings that the government’s description of the seized documents — including whether they were classified — was inaccurate without providing any evidence…

But according to Cannon, who has the authority to overrule Dearie’s orders, such a decision is not required right now…

Trump’s legal team has argued that answering questions about the inventory list and whether the documents are classified could put them at a disadvantage in the face of a possible future criminal prosecution, or a future legal fight over getting the seized documents returned to Trump.”

-Perry Stein, “Judge rules Trump lawyers don’t have to clarify Mar-a-Lago document claims,” washingtonpost.com, September 29, 2022

9/30/2022

DOJ/FBI/IMPEACHMENT/RUSSIA: “The Document Hoax Lawsuit, which is the ‘Weaponization’ of the Justice Department and the FBI, is yet another Scam against me, much like Russia, Russia, Russia, Impeachment Hoax #1, Impeachment Hoax #2, the Mueller Report (No Collusion!), Spying on my Campaign (and getting caught!), Lying to the FISA Court, Lying to Congress, Illegally Breaking into my home in Florida in violation of the Fourth Amendment, also violating the Presidential Records Act, and so much more. This is all being done in order to hurt a political opponent, me, who is leading in all of the polls by over 50 points against Republicans, and from 5 to 10 points against the two primary Democrats, Biden and North Korea Sympathizer Kamala Harris. They have been doing this to me for six years ever since my wonderful journey down the ‘Golden Escalator.’ The Radical Left Democrats are out-of-control, and our Country is going to Hell!”

-Donald Trump, “Statement by Donald J. Trump, 45th President of the United States of America,” donaldjtrump.com, September 29, 2022

9/30/2022

POLLS: “Given ‘what we know about the ongoing investigations into Donald Trump,’ a narrow majority of registered voters (51%) now believe he should not ‘be allowed to serve as president again in the future,’ according to a new Yahoo News/YouGov poll.

Just 35% of voters say Trump should be allowed to serve again. The rest (14%) are unsure.”

-Andrew Romano, “Poll: Most U.S. voters now say Trump should not be allowed to serve as president again,” news.yahoo.com, September 30, 2022

9/30/2022

LAWSUIT/NEW YORK: “New York Attorney General Letitia James wants to accelerate her $250 million fraud lawsuit against former President Donald Trump, his children, his company, and two of its executives.

James, in a letter to the state’s chief administrative judge, signaled her intention to push for a trial before 2024…

James has accused Trump of ‘staggering’ fraud and alleges that the former president, with the help of his three eldest children and two corporate executives, ‘grossly inflated’ his net worth by billions of dollars.”

-Aaron Katersky, “New York AG seeking to expedite fraud suit against Trump and company,” abcnews.go.com, September 30, 2022

10/1/2022

RALLY: “‘No matter what the left-wing tyrants throw at us, no matter what they do to us, we have no choice, we have to keep on going,’ Trump told his rally at Macomb Community College, which aired live on Newsmax. ‘We have to keep on fighting because we are on a mission to restore the republic to greatness.

‘We’re on a mission to bring it back, and it’s really down and it’s down very big — bad, very bad — very precarious what’s going on.'”

-Eric Mack, “Trump: ‘We Are on a Mission to Restore the Republic to Greatness,'” newsmax.com, October 1, 2022

10/1/2022

RALLY: “Teasing another presidential campaign, former President Donald Trump promised his Save America rally crowd in Warren, Michigan, on Saturday night he will ‘continue fighting.’

‘I am their No. 1 target, but I am proud to be fighting for you, and I’m going to be fighting for you a long time,’ Trump told his enthusiastic crowd at the Macomb Community College…

‘The choice in this election is simple: If you want the decline and fall of America, then vote for the radical-left Democrats, that’s what’s happening,’ he continued. ‘We have a nation, as they say, in decline. If you want to stop the destruction of our country and save the American dream, you must vote Republican.’

Trump said two more years of ‘Democrat rule’ will ‘obliterate our country.'”

-Eric Mack, “Trump: ‘I Am Their No. 1 Target,’ but I ‘Will Continue Fighting,'” newsmax.com, October 1, 2022

10/3/2022

SUPREME COURT/TRUMP PEOPLE: “Mike Lindell, a prominent ally of former President Donald Trump, must face a $1.3 billion lawsuit by Dominion Voting Systems Inc accusing him of defamation for pushing false claims that its voting machines rigged the 2020 presidential election, with the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday [October 3, 2022] turning away his appeal.

The justices rejected a bid by Lindell and his company My Pillow Inc to immediately appeal a federal judge’s refusal to toss the lawsuit. A lower court also snubbed his effort to quickly review the case, allowing the litigation to proceed.”

-Andrew Chung, “U.S. Supreme Court rejects Trump ally Lindell’s defamation case appeal,” reuters.com, October 3, 2022

10/3/2022

CLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS/NORTH KOREA/OBAMA/TRUMP POST-PRESIDENCY: “The National Archives and Records Administration on Monday publicly released a small fraction of communications related to government documents removed by former President Donald Trump and his reported destruction of some White House records.

The communications related to NARA’s efforts to recover those documents, which included letters to Trump from former President Barack Obama and North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un. They also expressed the agency’s concern about Trump’s reported penchant for ripping up some documents he read in the White House.”

-Dan Mangan, “Torn-up Trump papers, missing Obama and Kim Jong Un letters detailed in new release on White House documents,” cnbc.com, October 3, 2022

10/4/2022

2020 ELECTION/FBI: “Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes began planning to resist the result of the 2020 U.S. presidential election days after the vote, telling followers that Donald Trump ‘will need us and our rifles,’ an FBI witness testified on Tuesday.

Rhodes and four co-defendants – Thomas Caldwell, Kenneth Harrelson, Kelly Meggs and Jessica Watkins – are on trial in federal court in Washington, accused of conspiring to prevent Congress from certifying the election victory of President Joe Biden in a failed bid to keep Trump, a Republican, in power.”

-Chris Gallagher, “Oath Keepers leader said Trump ‘will need us and our rifles,'” reuters.com, October 4, 2022

10/4/2022

LAWSUIT: “Former president Donald Trump sued CNN on Monday [October 3, 2022], alleging defamation and seeking $475 million in punitive damages, a move that escalates his conflict with U.S. news organizations that have critically reported on his career.

The 29-page lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, alleges that CNN took part in a ‘campaign of dissuasion in the form of libel and slander’ that ‘escalated in recent months’ because the network feared Trump would again run for president. The lawsuit took issue with CNN’s use of the words ‘racist’ and ‘insurrectionist,’ as well as associations made between the former president and Adolf Hitler.”

-Kelly Kasulis Cho, “Trump sues CNN for defamation, seeks $475 million in damages,” washingtonpost.com, October 4, 2022

10/4/2022

STEVE BANNON/TRUMP PEOPLE/WALL: “Former Trump White House adviser Steve Bannon will stand trial in November 2023, a judge in New York said Tuesday [October 4, 2022].

Bannon is charged with defrauding donors to the ‘We Build the Wall’ campaign, which was an independent effort intended to raise money for former President Donald Trump’s signature policy project.”

-Aaron Katersky, “Trump adviser Steve Bannon’s trial won’t take place until November 2023,” abcnews.go.com, October 4, 2022

10/4/2022

CLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS/FBI/TRUMP POST-PRESIDENCY: “A lawyer for Donald Trump refused to report to the National Archives that the former president had turned over all Oval Office documents as required out of concern that the claim was a lie.

Earlier this year, Trump returned 15 boxes of federal government records from his Mar-a-Lago resort home to the National Archives, and he directed one of his lawyers, Alex Cannon, to inform the agency that the boxes contained all the documents taken from his time in office…

Trump later directed a statement in February to aides saying that all his documents from his time in office had been returned to the National Archives and Records Administration. But federal agents later learned Trump still had government documents at Mar-a-Lago, including some records marked with the highest level of classification.”

-Coral Murphy Marcos, “Trump lawyer refused to report all Mar-a-Lago records had been turned in,” theguardian.com, October 4, 2022

10/6/2022

CLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS/TRUMP ADMIN: “Donald Trump has identified yet another federal institution he wants to purge of qualified officials and stack with his lackeys: the National Archives.

Since this summer, Trump has told close associates that he wants to gut the nonpartisan historical agency, which the former president believes is full of anti-MAGA subversives, two sources with knowledge of the matter tell Rolling Stone. Trump has said he plans to make it a priority if he wins a second term, the sources say.”

-Asawin Suebsaeng and Adam Rawnsley, “Trump’s Latest Revenge Fantasy: Purge the National Archives,” rollingstone.com, October 6, 2022

10/6/2022

DOJ: “A top Justice Department official told former President Donald J. Trump’s lawyers in recent weeks that the department believed he had not returned all the documents he took when he left the White House, according to two people briefed on the matter…

It is not clear what steps the Justice Department might take to retrieve any material it thinks Mr. Trump still holds.”

-Michael S. Schmidt, Maggie Haberman, and Katie Benner, “Justice Dept. Is Said to Believe Trump Has More Documents,” nytimes.com, October 6, 2022

10/9/2022

IRAN/NUCLEAR/UKRAINE: “In Ukraine, with potentially hundreds of thousands of people dying, we must demand the immediate negotiation of a peaceful end to the war in Ukraine, or we will end up in World War III and there will be nothing left of our planet all because stupid people didn’t have a clue, they didn’t have a clue. They really don’t understand. I rebuilt our military, I rebuilt our nuclear power, they don’t understand that they’re dealing with, the power of nuclear, they have no idea what they’re doing. I withdrew from the disastrous Iran nuclear deal.”

-Khaleda Rahman, “Key Moments From Donald Trump’s Nevada Rally,” newsweek.com, October 9, 2022

10/9/2022

2020 ELECTION: “You know the biggest crowd I’ve ever seen? January 6th. And you never hear that. They were there largely to protest a corrupt and rigged and stolen [2020] election.”

-Khaleda Rahman, “Key Moments From Donald Trump’s Nevada Rally,” newsweek.com, October 9, 2022

10/9/2022

UKRAINE/VLADIMIR PUTIN: “During an interview on Saturday morning [October 8, 2022] on Real America’s Voice, a right-wing network, the former president accused the US and its leadership of goading Putin into waging a botched invasion of Ukraine on February 24.

‘They actually taunted him, if you really look at it, our country and our so-called leadership taunted Putin,’ Trump said. ‘I would listen, I would say, you know, they’re almost forcing him to go in with what they’re saying. The rhetoric was so dumb.’ …

Earlier in the interview, the former president claimed that the war between Russia and Ukraine would never have happened if he had won the election and served a second term.”

-Joshua Zitser, “Trump blames US for ‘almost forcing’ Putin to invade Ukraine, says ‘dumb’ rhetoric taunted Russia,” yahoo.com, October 9, 2022

10/10/2022

BUSH FAMILY/CLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS/RALLY: “Appearing at a rally in Arizona on Sunday [October 9, 2022], Trump repeatedly compared his retention of presidential records to the actions of his predecessors…

‘George H.W. Bush took millions and millions of documents to a former bowling alley pieced together with what was then an old and broken Chinese restaurant. They put them together. And it had a broken front door and broken windows. Other than that, it was quite secure. There was no security.’ …

It’s not at all clear what Trump was referring to by broken doors and windows. But the idea that there was ‘no security’ is flat wrong.”

-Aaron Blake, “Trump’s nonsensical riff on past presidents and classified documents,” washingtonpost.com, October 10, 2022

10/10/2022

CLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS: “[Donald Trump stated that] ‘[Bill Clinton] kept classified recordings in his sock. Did you know about that? They say he left the White House with recordings in his sock, and they found [them] in his sock drawer.’ …

Clinton didn’t leave the White House with the recordings; they were stored in a sock drawer in the White House during Clinton’s tenure.

And they weren’t classified; they were tapes of conversations Clinton had with an author who was working on the president’s oral history…

Trump’s team and its allies have cited this as proof that a president has the authority to determine what is personal record, rather than a presidential one…

‘Under the socks decision — this is a very important decision, they call it the socks decision, because again it had to do with Bill Clinton and his socks — there is no crime,’ Trump said Sunday [October 9, 2022]. ‘You know, there is no crime. It’s not a crime.’

But that same ruling repeatedly notes that this authority pertains to a president’s time in office. It does not deal with a former president removing material with classified markings.”

-Aaron Blake, “Trump’s nonsensical riff on past presidents and classified documents,” washingtonpost.com, October 10, 2022

10/10/2022

CLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS: “The National Archives put a trigger warning on the Constitution of the United States — did you know that — and the Bill of Rights, and other great documents that we have in our country, founding documents, considering them to be dangerous…

They should give me immediately back everything that they’ve taken from me, because it’s mine. It’s mine. … Likewise, under the Presidential Record Act, everything should come back. All should come back.

[The Archives] lose documents, they plant documents. ‘Let’s see, is there a book on nuclear destruction or the building of a nuclear weapon cheaply? Let’s put that book in with Trump.’ No, they plant documents.”

-Aaron Blake, “Trump’s nonsensical riff on past presidents and classified documents,” washingtonpost.com, October 10, 2022

10/11/2022

CLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS/DOJ/FBI: “The Biden administration on Tuesday urged the Supreme Court to steer clear of a legal fight over classified documents seized during an FBI search of former President Donald Trump’s Florida estate.

The high court is weighing an emergency appeal from Trump asking it to overturn a lower court ruling and permit an independent arbiter, or special master, to review the roughly 100 documents with classified markings that were taken in the Aug. 8 search of Mar-a-Lago.

The Justice Department said in a 32-page filing that Trump’s claim has no merit, noting the case involves ‘extraordinarily sensitive government records.’”

-Mark Sherman and Eric Tucker, “Justice Department asks court to deny Donald Trump plea over FBI search,” pbs.org, October 11, 2022

10/12/2022

2020 ELECTION/ENDORSEMENTS: “Over two dozen corporate leaders and businesses are quietly donating to the campaigns of at least four Republicans who have pushed false claims about the 2020 election results while running to become secretaries of state, according to a review of state campaign finance disclosures.

The secretary of state candidates in Jim Marchant, Mark Finchem, Kristina Karamo and Chuck Gray — all endorsed by former President Donald Trump — have disputed the 2020 election results on the campaign trail. If elected, they could have ultimate administrative control over their states’ election processes.”

-Brian Schwartz, “Some corporate leaders are funding Trump-backed election deniers in secretary of state races,” cnbc.com, October 12, 2022

10/12/2022

LAWSUIT: “A federal judge has denied a request by former president Donald Trump to pause proceedings in a defamation case brought against him in 2019 by an author who said he raped her in a department store dressing room decades ago.

The decision clears the way for Trump, who denies the claim, to be deposed as scheduled next week.”

-Shayna Jacobs, “Judge clears way for Trump to be deposed in defamation case,” washingtonpost.com, October 12, 2022

10/12/2022

CONGRESS/SECRET SERVICE: “The probably final public hearing of the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol is expected to highlight newly obtained Secret Service records showing how President Donald Trump was repeatedly alerted to brewing violence that day, and he still sought to stoke the conflict, according to three people briefed on the records…

After being alerted to violence erupting at the Capitol when he returned to the White House, Trump tweeted criticism of Vice President Mike Pence for not blocking the certification of the election, whipping up supporters who had already trampled over security barricades and were battling police to break into the halls of Congress.”

-Carol D. Leonnig and Jacqueline Alemany, “New evidence to show Trump was warned of violence on Jan. 6,” washingtonpost.com, October 12, 2022

10/12/2022

LAWSUIT: “This ‘Ms. Bergdorf Goodman’ case is a complete con job, and our legal system in this Country, but especially in New York State (just look at Peekaboo James), is a broken disgrace. You have to fight for years, and spend a fortune, in order to get your reputation back from liars, cheaters, and hacks. This decision is from the Judge who was just overturned on my same case.

I don’t know this woman, have no idea who she is, other than it seems she got a picture of me many years ago, with her husband, shaking my hand on a reception line at a celebrity charity event. She completely made up a story that I met her at the doors of this crowded New York City Department Store and, within minutes, ‘swooned’ her. It is a Hoax and a lie, just like all the other Hoaxes that have been played on me for the past seven years. And, while I am not supposed to say it, I will. This woman is not my type! …

Our Justice System is broken along with almost everything else in our Country. Her lawyer is a political operative and Cuomo crony who goes around telling people that the way to beat Trump is to sue him all over the place. She is suing me on numerous frivolous cases, just like this one, and the court system does nothing to stop it. In the meantime, and for the record, E. Jean Carroll is not telling the truth, is a woman who I had nothing to do with, didn’t know, and would have no interest in knowing her if I ever had the chance. Now all I have to do is go through years more of legal nonsense in order to clear my name of her and her lawyer’s phony attacks on me. This can only happen to ‘Trump’!”

-Donald Trump, “Statement by Donald J. Trump, 45th President of the United States of America,” donaldjtrump.com, October 12, 2022

10/13/2022

NEW YORK/TRUMP BUSINESS: “The New York attorney general’s office on Thursday [October 13, 2022] asked a judge to bar former President Donald Trump from moving his businesses to a new holding company he formed amid a pending civil lawsuit accusing him, three of his children, and the Trump Organization of widespread fraud.

That request is spurred by concerns that the AG’s office would have difficulty getting Trump to pay a fine, if he loses the suit, as a result of his assets being held by a company that is not named as a defendant in the case.”

-Dan Mangan, “New York AG asks judge to bar Trump from moving assets to new company he formed amid fraud lawsuit,” CNBC.com, October 13, 2022

10/13/2022

CONGRESSIONAL HEARINGS: “Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), the vice chair of the Jan. 6 select committee, said during Thursday’s televised meeting that former President Trump was the ‘central cause’ of the violence on Jan. 6…

‘None of this would have happened without him, he was personally and substantially involved in all of it.'”

-Erin Doherty, “Cheney: ‘Central cause’ of Jan. 6 was Donald Trump,” axios.com, October 13, 2022

10/13/2022

LAWSUIT: “Former President Donald Trump angrily lashed out Wednesday [October 12, 2022], calling the nation’s legal system a ‘broken disgrace’ after a judge ruled he must answer questions under oath next week in a defamation lawsuit lodged by a writer who says he raped her in the mid-1990s…

The outburst late in the day came hours after U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan in Manhattan rejected a request by his lawyers to delay a deposition scheduled for Oct. 19.

Kaplan is presiding over the case in which Carroll said Trump raped her in the dressing room of a Manhattan Bergdorf Goodman store in the mid-1990s.”

-Larry Neumeister and Jill Colvin, “Trump angrily lashes out after his deposition is ordered,” apnews.com, October 13, 2022

10/13/2022

2020 ELECTION/CONGRESSIONAL HEARINGS: Donald Trump sent a 14-page letter to the Chairperson of the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol titled “Peacefully and patriotically.” The first sentence reads, “THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OF 2020 WAS RIGGED AND STOLEN!” Click the link to read the full text of the letter.

10/13/2022

CONGRESSIONAL HEARINGS: “The House committee investigating last year’s attack on the US Capitol voted to subpoena Donald Trump, a dramatic challenge to a former president just weeks before Republicans and Democrats face off in an election that will determine control of Congress.

The committee, in a unanimous vote on Thursday, agreed to demand documents and testimony from Trump about his role in the Jan. 6 attack.

A subpoena likely wouldn’t force immediate testimony from Trump, who has a record of using extensive maneuvers to delay legal proceedings.”

-Billy House and Mike Dorning, “Jan. 6 Committee Votes to Subpoena Donald Trump,” October 13, 2022

10/14/2022

2020 ELECTION/CONGRESSIONAL HEARINGS: “Former President Donald J. Trump responded on Friday [October 14, 2022] to a promised subpoena from the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 assault with a lengthy, rambling letter that attacked the panel’s work, reiterated false claims of widespread voting fraud and presaged a potentially bruising battle over whether he would be compelled to testify about his role in the riot and his efforts to subvert the 2020 election.”

-Luke Broadwater and Maggie Haberman, “Trump, Reacting to Pending Jan. 6 Subpoena, Repeats Election Lies in Letter,” nytimes.com, October 14, 2022

10/14/2022

2020 ELECTION/CONGRESSIONAL HEARINGS: “The U.S. House Jan. 6 committee’s unanimous decision to subpoena former President Donald Trump is unusual. But presidential subpoenas are not unprecedented — and the outcomes of prior clashes between the executive and legislative branches provide some context for the tensions surrounding the committee’s Oct. 13 decision.

The subpoena noted that 30 witnesses had cited the Fifth Amendment in declining to testify, leaving Trump as one of the panel’s few remaining options for fully understanding the events of Jan. 6, 2021, when pro-Trump rioters stormed the U.S. Capitol as the electoral votes for the 2020 presidential election were being formally counted.”

-Louis Jacobson, “The Jan. 6 Committee’s subpoena of Donald Trump: What does it mean?,” politifact.com, October 14, 2022

10/14/2022

2020 ELECTION/JOE BIDEN/TRUMP PEOPLE: “Former president Donald Trump’s communications director recounted popping into the Oval Office roughly a week after the 2020 election to find a morose Trump watching TV: ‘Can you believe I lost to this f—ing guy?’ Trump lamented, referring to then-President-elect Joe Biden.

A young aide to Trump’s former chief of staff Mark Meadows recalled Meadows telling her, ‘A lot of times he’ll tell me that he lost but he wants to keep fighting it.’”

-Ashley Parker, “Jan. 6 hearing shows Trump knew he lost — even while claiming otherwise,” washingtonpost.com, October 14, 2022

10/14/2022

CONGRESSIONAL HEARINGS: “Donald Trump is considering testifying in front of the House January 6 committee, which this week concluded a dramatic hearing establishing what it says is his culpability for the deadly Capitol attack by voting to subpoena the former president…

If Trump refused to comply with the subpoena issued by the committee – which seeks testimony and documents – he too could be charged with contempt of Congress.

But that seems unlikely, given both his position as former president, de facto leader of the Republican party and possible 2024 presidential nominee, and the proximity of the midterm elections. If Republicans take back the House next month, as seems likely, the January 6 committee will in all probability be disbanded.”

-Martin Pengelly, “Donald Trump considers testifying before January 6 panel,” theguardian.com, October 14, 2022

10/16/2022

TRUMP BUSINESS: “A whistleblower has claimed to the government that Donald Trump’s eponymous media company — which sources say is under federal investigation — committed ‘fraudulent misrepresentations’ regarding possible mergers with two other firms as it sought to raise money, according to a federal filing.

The complaint from Will Wilkerson, a former executive at Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG), alleges federal securities law violations were committed by TMTG and several company officials, as well as Benessere Capital Acquisition Corporation (BENE) and Digital World Acquisition Corporation (DWAC).”

-Aaron Katersky, Will Steakin, and Tal Axelrod, “Whistleblower complaint claims Trump media company committed ‘fraudulent misrepresentations,'” abcnews.go.com, October 16, 2022

10/17/2022

ERIC TRUMP/SECRET SERVICE/TRUMP BUSINESS: “The Trump Organization charged the Secret Service up to $1,185 per night for hotel rooms used by agents protecting former President Donald J. Trump and his family, according to documents released on Monday by the House Oversight Committee, forcing a federal agency to pay well above government rates.

The committee released Secret Service records showing more than $1.4 million in payments by the department to Trump properties since Mr. Trump took office in 2017…

In 2019, Eric Trump said the Trump Organization charged the government only ‘like $50’ for hotel rooms during presidential visits.

Instead, records obtained by the committee showed, the Trump International Hotel in Washington repeatedly charged the Secret Service rates more than $600 per night.”

-David A. Fahrenthold and Luke Broadwater, “Trump Hotels Charged Secret Service Exorbitant Rates, House Inquiry Finds,” nytimes.com, October 17, 2022

10/17/2022

ISRAEL/RELIGION: “The White House press briefing is underway, and press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre began with a question about Donald Trump’s attack on American Jews.

She called the former president’s comments ‘antisemitic, as you all know, and insulting both to Jews and to our Israeli allies.’

‘But let’s be clear, for years, for years now, Donald Trump has aligned with extremists and antisemitic figures and it should be called out,’ she added. ‘We need to root out antisemitism everywhere it rears its ugly head. … With respect to Israel, our relationship is iron clad and it’s rooted in shared values and interests. Donald Trump clearly doesn’t understand that either.'”

-Lauren Gambino, “White House calls Trump’s remarks on American Jews ‘antisemitic and insulting’ – as it happened,” theguardian.com, October 17, 2022

10/17/2022

JOE BIDEN/POLLS: “More voters say they would vote for former President Trump than President Biden if the election were held today, according to a new poll from The New York Times and Siena College.

The poll of likely voters also showed Biden’s approval rating slipping below 40% for the first time since his boost in August. The NYT and Siena polled 792 registered voters in both English and Spanish over cellphones and landlines from October 9-12, reporting a margin of error of 4%. It found that the vast majority of Americans, 64%, believe the country is on the wrong track.

Trump narrowly beat out Biden in the election question, sporting 45% support to Biden’s 44%.”

-Anders Hagstrom, “Donald Trump edges out President Biden in election poll as Biden slips below 40% approval,” foxnews.com, October 17, 2022

10/18/2022

CLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS: “An excerpt from a new audiobook revealed that President Donald J. Trump shared classified letters from Kim Jong-un, the North Korean leader, with the journalist Bob Woodward and seemed to acknowledge that they were sensitive material that he should not be sharing…

The Washington Post reported that a month later, in January 2020, Mr. Woodward also asked to see letters that Mr. Trump had written to the North Korean leader. Mr. Trump replied, ‘Oh, those are so top secret.'”

-Chris Cameron, “Trump Acknowledged in Interview That Letters to Kim Were ‘Top Secret,’” nytimes.com, October 18, 2022

10/18/2022

ERIC TRUMP/LAWSUIT/NEW YORK: “Donald Trump has lost the first legal skirmish in his battle against New York’s attorney general, Letitia James, and her $250 million fraud case against him: After three weeks and a court order, he’s been officially served with the 220-page lawsuit…

The lawsuit accuses the Trump Organization of a decadelong pattern of fraudulently exaggerating the company’s worth; it seeks a quarter-billion dollars in penalties and to bar the Trumps from doing business in New York.

Representatives for Trump and his son Eric, an executive vice president at his father’s company, had evaded service of the lawsuit ever since it was filed three weeks ago, on September 21.”

-Laura Italiano, “Donald Trump finally gets served $250 million NY fraud lawsuit after 3 weeks — and a court order,” businessinsider.com, October 18, 2022

10/19/2022

2020 ELECTION/CONGRESSIONAL HEARING/VOTER FRAUD: “U.S. District Court Judge David Carter wrote in an 18-page opinion that emails from attorney John Eastman, an architect of Trump’s last-ditch effort to subvert the 2020 election, needed to be turned over to the Jan. 6 select committee. Those emails, Carter wrote, ‘show that President Trump knew that the specific numbers of voter fraud were wrong but continued to tout those numbers, both in court and to the public.’ …

Carter’s ruling arms the Jan. 6 select committee with another batch of evidence supporting its investigation of Trump’s effort to subvert the 2020 election.”

-Kyle Cheney and Josh Gerstein, “Judge: Trump signed court document that knowingly included false voter fraud stats,” politico.com, October 19, 2022

10/19/2022

DOJ/INVESTIGATIONS: “A group of Justice Department prosecutors believe there is sufficient evidence to charge Donald Trump with obstruction of justice, but the path to an actual indictment is far from clear.

The team that’s part of the classified records probe has not yet made a formal recommendation to Attorney General Merrick Garland, who would ultimately approve or reject such a move, according to people familiar with the matter. It’s also unlikely officials would bring only obstruction charges amid several other Trump investigations into potential crimes, the people said.”

-Chris Strohm, “Trump Prosecutors See Evidence for Obstruction Charges,” bloomberg.com, October 19, 2022

10/19/2022

LAWSUIT: “‘We’re pleased that on behalf of our client, E. Jean Carroll, we were able to take Donald Trump’s deposition today,’ a spokesperson for the firm, Kaplan, Hecker & Fink told Fox News on Wednesday…

The decision comes in a lawsuit brought by Carroll, who is known for her “Ask E. Jean” column that ran in Elle Magazine. Carroll alleges that Trump raped her in a dressing room at Bergdorf Goodman, a department store in New York City.”

-Brooke Singman, “Trump deposed in E. Jean Carroll defamation lawsuit after federal judge rejected request for delay,” foxnews.com, October 19, 2022

10/21/2022

CONGRESSIONAL HEARINGS: “In an extraordinary move, the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol subpoenaed former President Donald Trump on Friday, putting the panel into a legal confrontation with Trump, who has slammed the committee as politicized.

The committee ‘assembled overwhelming evidence’ that Trump ‘personally orchestrated and oversaw a multi-part effort to overturn the 2020 presidential election and obstruct the peaceful transition of power,’ according to a letter the panel sent Trump signed by its chairman, Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss.”

-Sean Rossman, “Jan. 6 committee issues subpoena to Donald Trump in probe of Capitol riot,” usatoday.com, October 21, 2022

10/21/2022

CONGRESSIONAL HEARINGS/TRUMP PEOPLE/STEVE BANNON: “Former Trump strategist Steve Bannon railed against the ‘Biden regime’ after being sentenced to four months in jail for contempt of Congress.

Bannon, 68, was convicted in July on two counts – for refusing to provide either testimony or documents to a committee probing the 6 January 2021 riot at the US Capitol.

In addition to the jail time, Bannon must also now pay a fine of $6,500 (£5,833).”

-Bernd Debusmann Jr, “Steve Bannon: Ex Trump adviser sentenced to four months in jail for contempt of Congress,” bbc.com, October 21, 2022

10/21/2022

CHINA/CLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS/IRAN: “Some of the classified documents recovered by the FBI from Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home and private club included highly sensitive intelligence regarding Iran and China, according to people familiar with the matter. If shared with others, the people said, such information could expose intelligence-gathering methods that the United States wants to keep hidden from the world…

The classified documents about Iran and China are considered among the most sensitive the FBI has recovered to date in its investigation of Trump and his aides for possible mishandling of classified information, obstruction and destruction of government records.”

-Devlin Barrett, “Mar-a-Lago classified papers held U.S. secrets about Iran and China,” washingtonpost.com, October 21, 2022

10/24/2022

TRUMP BUSINESS/TRUMP TAXES: “The Trump Organization stands trial this week in what prosecutors allege was a 15-year scheme to compensate top executives of former President Donald Trump’s company ‘off the books’ to help them avoid paying taxes — with the company’s former chief financial officer appearing as the prosecution’s star witness.

Jury selection began Monday [October 022], with potential panelists likely to be questioned intensely about whether they can be impartial in a case that involves the former president and his eponymous company.”

-Dareh Gregorian, Tom Winter, and Adam Reiss, “Trump Organization’s criminal tax fraud trial begins,” October 24, 2022

10/25/2022

2020 ELECTION/DOJ: “The Justice Department has asked a federal judge to force the two top lawyers in Donald J. Trump’s White House to provide additional grand jury testimony as prosecutors seek to break through the former president’s attempts to shield his efforts to overturn the 2020 election from investigation, according to two people familiar with the matter…

The filing was the latest skirmish in a behind-the-scenes legal struggle between the government and Mr. Trump’s lawyers to determine how much testimony witnesses close to the former president can provide to the grand jury, which is examining Mr. Trump’s role in numerous schemes to reverse his election defeat, culminating in the mob attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.”

-Alan Feuer and Luke Broadwater, “Justice Dept. Seeks to Force Trump White House Lawyers to Testify in Jan. 6 Inquiry,” nytimes.com, October 25, 2022

10/26/2022

2024 ELECTION/GOP/MIKE PENCE/PAUL RYAN: “A growing number of prominent Republicans are warning that former President Trump should not run again in 2024 or that he will lose if he does, previewing rifts in the GOP that are likely to come into full view after the midterms.

Former Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R) and former Vice President Mike Pence in recent days each indicated they’d rather see someone else on the ballot in the next presidential election.”

-Brett Samuels, “Growing number of Republicans say Trump won’t be GOP nominee,” thehill.com, October 26, 2022

10/26/2022

NUCLEAR: “In a taped conversation with Bob Woodward, Donald Trump boasted about US nuclear weapons development.

‘I have built a weapon system that nobody’s ever had in this country before,’ the then president told the veteran Washington Post reporter. ‘We have stuff that you haven’t even seen or heard about. We have stuff that Putin and Xi have never heard about before.’ …

Woodward said he looked into Trump’s claim and was told by an official it was true.”

-Martin Pengelly, “Trump bragged about new US nuclear weapons, Woodward tape shows,” theguardian.com, October 26, 2022

Follow Us