Tracking former Trump officials

[China]

Trump tasks Corey Lewandowski with destroying one of America’s most popular GOP governors: report Bob Brigham

 

Corey Lewandowski's most recent banishment from Trumpland has reportedly come to an end as the former president seeks to exact vengeance on a Republican governor deemed insufficiently loyal.

 

In September, a Trump spokesperson claimed Lewandowski "will no longer be associated with Trump World" after allegations of drunken sexual misconduct against a major donor in Las Vegas. The incident came five years after Lewandowski was fired from Trump's 2016 presidential campaign, even though Trump had stuck with him after he allegedly assaulted a female Breitbart News reporter.

 

But Lewandowski says Trump has given him new assignments to help the former president.

 

“The president is very unhappy with the chief executive officer of the state of New Hampshire, Chris Sununu,” Lewandowski told radio host Howie Carr, the New Hampshire Journal reported Thursday.

 

“And Sununu, in the president’s estimation, is someone who’s never been loyal to him. And the president said it would be really great if somebody would run against Chris Sununu," Lewandowski said.

 

Morning Consult ranks Sununu as the fifth most popular governor in America in their polls of voters.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

'What are they doing in our town?' Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner struggle to get along with Florida neighbors

 

Some of Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner's new neighbors aren't exactly pleased to have them in the town of Surfside, Florida.

 

"All but banished from Washington after January 6, Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner have been hiding out in a little no-frills town in South Florida," the Washingtonian reported this week. "Its Trumpy mayor couldn’t be more thrilled, but the former First Kids have had a frostier welcome from another set of locals."

 

One Surfside resident, who asked to remain anonymous because she continues to live near the couple, told the magazine she first encountered Ivanka Trump last June. The former White House adviser was walking her little white dog Winter (believed to be a Pomeranian mix) near the couple's seaside condo building. The resident said she watched as Trump "led the dog off the pathway toward the beach, right past a sign that clearly said dogs weren’t allowed."

 

"The resident, a beach activist who finds high purpose in protecting Surfside’s loggerhead sea turtles during nesting season, mobilized," the Washingtonian reported, adding that Ivanka Trump must have walked past the large beach rules notice saying "no dogs allowed" scores of times before then.

 

“I was speed-walking at her and yelling at her,” the resident recalled. “I just opened my mouth and said, ‘You can’t go out there with the dog!’”

 

“Oh-uh, I didn’t realize,” Trump responded.

 

“You’re standing right next to the sign,” the neighbor told Ivanka. “Look, it says ‘No dogs.’”

 

The resident encountered Ivanka and Jared again a few months later, on the beach with their five-year-old son, Theodore. "The neighbor reminded Jared, in swim trunks, and Ivanka, in a 'cute ruffled outfit,' to watch out for jellyfish," according to the Washingtonian. After Theodore hurried into the ocean, the neighbor immediately became concerned.

 

“I’m thinking, Why is this boy in the water alone on a boogie board with this moderate rip current? I’m a mother, and I would never let my child alone in the water like that," the resident said.

 

Moments later, Kushner had to run into the water after Theodore, who had started drifting away from the shore. According to the Washingtonian, the neighbor's encounters with Ivanka only reinforced a long-held impression.

 

“She seems to be about — ‘I live in this little cocoon where the rules don’t apply to me’ — in her own little world," the resident said.

 

The resident referred to Kushner as "slenderman" and took this dig at Ivanka's appearance: "She’s well put together. She’s had a lot of work done, and it’s good plastic. It’s Miami, and there’s a lot of bad plastic here. She has good plastic.”

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

Bank CEO Stephen M. Calk Sentenced To One Year And One Day For Corruptly Soliciting A Presidential Administration Position In Exchange For Approving $16 Million In Loans

 

Damian Williams, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced today that STEPHEN M. CALK was sentenced to one year and one day of imprisonment for corruptly using his position as the head of a federally-insured bank to issue millions of dollars in high-risk loans to Paul Manafort in exchange for personal benefit: CALK’s placement on the Donald J. Trump 2016 presidential campaign and assistance from Manafort in trying to obtain a senior position with the incoming presidential administration.  On July 13, 2021, CALK was found guilty of financial institution bribery and conspiracy to commit financial institution bribery following a three-week trial before U.S. District Judge Lorna G. Schofield, who also imposed today’s sentence.

 

Click on the link for the full press release

[China]

On 12/16/2021 at 11:03 AM, Cooked Crack said:

 

 

 

Analyzing the Very Bizarre Sale of Melania Trump’s $170,000 NFT

 

The $170,000 purchase of an NFT collection auctioned by Melania Trump was made by the entity that originally put the NFT up for sale, according to blockchain records. 

 

The former first lady got into NFTs last year, launching her own website and lining up a slate of auctions. On Jan. 11, Trump started auctioning the "Head of State Collection, 2022" on the Solana blockchain, a package deal that paired the "iconic white millinery masterpiece worn by Mrs. Trump" (a wide-brimmed hat she wore during a 2018 visit with French President Emanuel Macron) with a watercolor of her wearing it, as well as an NFT. The opening bid, according to a press release, was "the equivalent of $250,000" denominated in SOL tokens (1,800 SOL at the time) and a "portion" of the proceeds would be used to "provide foster care children with access to computer science and technology education."

 

After the auction's conclusion, the New York Times ran a piece describing the sale as attracting a few bids all around 1,800 SOL, ultimately ending with somebody purchasing the NFT for 1,800 SOL worth $170,000 at the time (now $200,000), a price far below the figure touted by the auction's press release and which the paper described as "deflated results" due to a wider crash in the price of cryptocurrencies. 

 

Now, according to Solana blockchain records reviewed by Motherboard and shared with an independent researcher, we know who bought the NFT collection: Melania Trump herself, or at least, whoever set up the auction for her. In a statement to Motherboard from "the Office of Melania Trump," Trump said "the nature of Blockchain protocol is entirely transparent. Accordingly, the public can view each transaction on the blockchain. The transaction was facilitated on behalf of a third-party buyer." 

 

Despite the transparent nature of the blockchain, however, Trump's office would not elaborate on who actually bought the NFT or the details around why the transaction was set up so that the creator of the NFT provided the crypto to the auction winner, and seemingly got the funds back. 

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

Investigation: Zinke misused position as Interior secretary

 

Former U.S. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke misused his position to advance a commercial development project that included a microbrewery in his Montana hometown and lied to an agency ethics official about his involvement in the project, according to a report by federal investigators released Wednesday.

 

The investigation by the Interior Department’s inspector general found that Zinke continued working on the commercial project through a non-profit foundation in the resort community of Whitefish, Montana even after he committed upon taking office to break ties with the foundation.

 

The report also said that Zinke gave incorrect and incomplete information to an Interior Department ethics official who confronted him over his involvement, and that Zinke ordered Interior Department staff to help him with the project in a misuse of his position.

 

But after resigning as the foundation’s president and while he was employed as the Interior Secretary, Zinke engaged in “repeated, ongoing substantive negotiations” with developers about the use of foundation property for a commercial project known as 95 Karrow, investigators said. The project included a potential microbrewery.

 

Zinke is a candidate in the June Republican primary for an open Montana Congressional seat, a position he held prior to joining former President Donald Trump’s cabinet.

 

His campaign blasted the investigative report as “a political hit job” and said in a statement that the involvement of Zinke’s family with the foundation led to the restoration of railroad land into a park where children can sled.

 

The department’s inspector general’s office — led by Inspector General Mark Greenblatt, a Trump nominee — referred the results of the Zinke investigation to federal prosecutors for potential prosecution.

 

But the prosecutors who work for Attorney General Merrick Garland, appointed by President Joe Biden, declined to pursue criminal charges in the summer of 2021, according to the investigative report.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

 

[Larry]

2 hours ago, China said:

 

 

Can only post link.  

 

https://www.newyorker.com/cartoons/daily-cartoon/thursday-june-18th-white-house-memoir

 

[Cooked Crack]

 

[Ball Security]

15 hours ago, Cooked Crack said:

 

Damn dude.  Thought I could break some news.  You had me beat by 15 hours.  

[China]

On 2/27/2022 at 9:25 PM, China said:

 

 

And the response from TFG:

 

 

[China]

Trump rips Barr in letter to NBC's Lester Holt

 

Former President Trump ridiculed his former attorney general, William Barr, in a letter to NBC News anchor Lester Holt over the weekend.

 

"I made many great appointments during my Administration, and we accomplished more than most Administrations could even dream of, but Bill Barr was not one of my better picks," Trump wrote. "He crumbled under the pressure, and bowed to the Radical Left-And that is not acceptable. Now he is groveling for the media, hoping to gain acceptance that he doesn't deserve."

 

The former president's comments come days after Barr granted an extensive interview to Holt and NBC. Trump's letter, sent to the anchor at the network's studios in Manhattan, was first obtained by Axios.

 

Holt and the NBC News team had apparently asked Trump and his representatives for comment on a number of the statements Barr made during his sit-down interview with the anchor, which comes as the former head of the Justice Department promotes a new book about his time spent in Trump's administration.

 

"With respect to prosecuting political rivals, it was just the opposite," Trump said in one of his responses. "Despite the many crimes committed by the Biden family, I did not push Barr to go after them. While the things done were legendarily corrupt, I thought it would be inappropriate for me to get personally involved."

 

During an interview on NBC's "Today" show Monday morning, Barr called Trump's letter "par for the course."

 

"The president is a man who, when he is told something, he doesn't want to hear, he immediately throws a tantrum," Barr added.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

NOW THAT DOJ HAS RUDY GIULIANI’S PHONE CONTENTS, LEV PARNAS PREPARES TO PLEAD

 

Back on January 21, Special Master Barbara Jones reported on the status of her privilege review of Rudy Giuliani’s devices. For eight of Rudy’s devices, she had turned over over 27,000 items that post-dated January 1, 2018. For eight others, she had turned over the 3,000 items dated between December 1, 2018 and May 31, 2019.

 

While she had started to turn over materials as early as November, Jones turned over the balance on January 19. From there, a filter team at the FBI would have to scope the contents to make sure the investigative team only got items covered by whatever warrants the government has gotten.

 

The one known warrant that SDNY has covers Rudy’s efforts — assisted by Lev Parnas — to get Maria Yovanovitch fired in 2019. Those charges were included on the original October 2019 indictment against Parnas, but removed when the charges against him were superseded in September 2020.

 

If DOJ is going to charge Rudy for ousting Yovanovich at the behest of Yuri Lutsenko and others, they are probably preparing to do so now.

 

Which makes it interesting that yesterday, Parnas asked for a change of plea hearing on the remaining already-charged count for which he still has to stand trial.

 

Remember: Back in March 2020, Parnas tried, unsuccessfully, to flip.

 

In a pretrial hearing last October, Parnas’ lawyer Joseph Bondy revealed that at that early point, SDNY had insisted Parnas plead to all the charges against him (which at that point still included the Yovanovitch charge).

 

But now that DOJ has — after 30 months of work — obtained all Rudy’s communications about the Yovanovitch plot (and already facing prison based off his October 2021 guilty verdict), Parnas appears to have a deal that’s worth pleading guilty to.

 

Remember: When Parnas was previously trying to flip, it wasn’t just the Yovanovitch plot he wanted to cooperate on. He also wanted to help SDNY prosecute obstruction of the investigation into that effort, including efforts to delete iCloud content as impeachment started. Parnas has receipts — not just against Rudy (and Mike Pompeo), but also videos implicating Trump.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[Cooked Crack]

 

A man that too obviously corrupt for the Trump administration he had to resign

[Cooked Crack]

 

 

[China]

Paul Manafort Denied Flight To Dubai Over Revoked Passport

 

Former Donald Trump presidential campaign chair and once-convicted felon Paul Manafort was removed from a Miami flight bound for Dubai on March 20, officials confirmed.

 

Manafort was convicted in federal court of tax and bank fraud and ordered to serve a term in prison. He was released in May 2020 and pardoned by Trump before he left office in December 2020.

 

Officials with Miami-Dade police confirmed to Knewz.com that Manafort was denied travel by the Customs and Bureau Protection at Miami International Airport. Police said he could not take the flight and his U.S. Passport was revoked.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[The Evil Genius]

 

[China]

Still waiting for the DOJ to indict Meadows for defying the congressional subpoena.

 

If they just lock him up for voter fraud, they don't have to fret over executive privilege.  Gotta start somewhere.

[China]

South Carolina candidate to ex-Trump aide: 'You really are a true piece of 's---'

 

A Trump-backed Republican House candidate in South Carolina called a former top official in the Trump administration “a true piece of ****” in a private text unearthed by The State.

 

In a series of texts between congressional candidate Katie Arrington and former acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, Arrington insulted Mulvaney with the four-letter word in a Monday morning text that the newspaper obtained and reviewed on Wednesday.

 

“You really are a true piece of ****,” Arrington texted Mulvaney, according to screenshots provided by The State.

 

“Ha! You have no idea. What did I do now?” the former Trump official responded.

 

“You’re just not the person I thought you were,” Arrington replied back, later referencing texts from 2018 she said she would not share to “make you look like a jack ass.”

 

“Because then you would really would look like the piece of **** that you turning out to be,” she added.

 

Mulvaney, who represented South Carolina's 5th District from 2011 to 2017, fired back that Arrington “might be unstable” and sent a winking emoji after pointing out punctuation problems in her texts.

 

Arrington continued to text, at one point referring to Mulvaney's departure as chief of staff and appointment as U.S. special envoy for Northern Ireland.

 

“Nope just can’t stand two faced folks,” Arrington texted. “No wonder you were fired and as an Irish catholic sent to Northern Ireland.”

 

“And now we have religion,” Mulvaney fired back.

 

Catholics have long been a minority in Northern Ireland, though the gap with Protestants has been closing. 

 

“Again: you may be unfit for office. Seriously. It may be time for some deep introspection,” he added, to which Arrington replied “ditto” and “pls.”

 

The newspaper noted that the exchange came close to four hours after NBC News published a story in which Mulvaney weighed in on Arrington’s campaign.

 

“She’s not the best candidate by any stretch of imagination," Mulvaney told NBC News. "And I guess it’s enough for Donald Trump that she’s not Nancy Mace."

 

Click on the link for the full article

[Cooked Crack]

 

 

[China]

Stephen Colbert Attacks CBS—His Own Network—Over Mick Mulvaney Hire

 

This week, CBS News announced it had hired Mick Mulvaney, who served as the budget director and chief of staff under former President Trump, as its newest contributor.

 

“Recently, my network has gotten a lot of criticism—much of it from itself—because CBS News has hired the ex-president’s former chief of staff Mick Mulvaney to ‘provide political analysis across the network’s broadcasts and platforms,’” explained Mulvaney’s network-mate, Stephen Colbert, on Thursday night’s Late Show.

 

The late-night host then stared directly into the camera and exclaimed, “What the ****?!”

 

Many have objected to Mulvaney’s cushy CBS News gig given that during his Trump administration tenure, Mulvaney proudly admitted that Trump had engaged in quid pro quo with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky over Biden family dirt; called COVID-19 the media “hoax of the day” in February 2020 despite Congress being briefed on its dangers a month prior; dumped hundreds of thousands of dollars in stock in March 2020, while Trump was telling Americans the economy was in great shape and COVID didn’t pose much of a threat; and penned a Wall Street Journal op-ed promising that should Trump lose the 2020 election, he would concede gracefully.

 

“I, for one, can’t wait to hear Mulvaney’s trenchant and objective political analysis,” joked Colbert, adding of the former official’s awful predictions, “Is Mick Mulvaney psychic? Get this man to Vegas! He’s Nostra-dumbass!”

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

Meadows Nixed From North Carolina Voter Roll Amid Probe Into Fraud Allegations

 

Former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows is reportedly no longer listed in North Carolina’s voter rolls amid an investigation by state authorities into allegations of election fraud in the 2020 election.

 

Macon County Board of Elections Director Melanie Thibault confirmed the move to the Asheville Citizen Times on Tuesday. Thibault said she removed Meadows the day before from the county’s active voter list.

 

Thibault told the Citizen Times that she consulted the North Carolina Board of Elections staff in Raleigh after she found records that the former Trump official was registered in Virginia and North Carolina.

 

The county official reportedly found that Meadows was registered in Virginia when he voted in a 2021 election. The last election Meadows voted in Macon County was in 2020, she said.

 

Meadows was removed for violating state law, which dictates that if a person votes in an election outside of the state, county, municipality, precinct, ward, or other election district they are registered under, that person loses their residency.

 

Citing Virginia records, Thibault noted Meadows did not disclose his voter registration in Macon County. Meadows’ omission prevented Virginia election officials from notifying North Carolina officials about the double registration, Thibault told the Citizen Times.

 

Meadows’ removal from North Carolina’s voter rolls comes as the State Bureau of Investigation looks into allegations of voter fraud against Meadows. The investigation follows a report in the New Yorker last month that revealed a questionable address the former Trump official registered under to vote in the 2020 election.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

Rudy Giuliani unlocks phones for prosecutors in Ukraine-related lobbying probe

 

Federal prosecutors may soon reach a charging decision regarding Rudy Giuliani's foreign lobbying efforts involving Ukraine, after he helped investigators unlock several electronic devices that were seized by the FBI, according to multiple sources familiar with the probe.

 

Giuliani has also offered to appear for a separate interview to prove he has nothing to hide, his lawyer told CNN, renewing a proposal that federal prosecutors have previously rebuffed.

Investigators seized 18 devices during high-profile raids on Giuliani's home and office last April. Since then, a court-appointed special master has been reviewing materials on devices to shield from prosecutors any materials that could be personal or protected by attorney-client privilege. The review has been long-running, in part, because investigators haven't been able to unlock several of the devices.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

Why did CBS News hire Mick Mulvaney?

 

CBS News was once the home of legends like Edward R Murrow and Walter Cronkite. Why is it now hiring Trump conspirators and enablers?

 

CBS News has hired Mick Mulvaney as an on-air contributor.

 

You may recall that Mulvaney served as acting chief of staff under Trump and led Trump’s Office of Management and Budget. But as I’ll get to in a moment, Mulvaney wasn’t just a high official in the Trump administration. He was an active enabler of Trump’s deceit and attempted coup.

 

An “on-air contributor” on a major network is different from a mere “guest”. I’ve been in both roles. Guests appear when a particular program’s producer invites them. “On-air contributors” appear regularly. They’re paid employees. And they’re introduced as contributors – which gives them the cachet and authority of being part of a network’s news division.

 

Mulvaney’s first appearance as a CBS News contributor occurred several days ago on a “MoneyWatch” segment in which he was asked to explain Biden’s plan for taxing the super-rich.

The anchor, Anne-Marie Green, introduced Mulvaney as “a former OMB director” and “the guy to ask about this”. But she said nothing about whose OMB he directed, suggesting that Mulvaney was simply a budget expert offering an expert analysis rather than a fierce Trump partisan.

 

Then she asked him whether a “regular working-class American” should care about Biden’s tax proposal.

 

Mulvaney’s answer: “It’s easy to look at it and say, ‘Don’t worry, you’re not going to pay this,’” but regular working Americans would have to “prove that they don’t have to pay it”, a burden that “could be troublesome: every single year proving that you’re not worth a hundred million dollars”.

 

This is as misleading as it gets in broadcast media (except for Fox News). Nothing in Biden’s proposal to tax the super-rich requires that people prove they’re not super-rich. Mulvaney’s claim was pure demagoguery.

 

But that’s what we should expect from Mulvaney. In 2019 Mulvaney threatened to withhold US aid to Ukraine to fight Russian aggression unless President Zelenskiy came up with dirt on Hunter Biden. (This was the call in which Zelenskiy’s plea “we need more Javelins” – anti-tank missiles that have proved crucial in Ukraine’s defense against Russia’s invasion – was met with Trump’s “I would like you to do us a favor though.”)

 

When the quid pro quo came to light, Mulvaney brushed it off: “I have news for everybody: get over it. There’s going to be political influence in foreign policy.” After Trump withheld the aid, Mulvaney asked White House budget officials for legal justification to withhold it until Zelenskiy announced an investigation of Biden.

 

There was also the time Mulvaney called Covid a “media hoax” designed to bring down Trump. And the time he predicted that if Trump lost in 2020 he would “concede gracefully”.

 

Click on the link for the rest

[Cooked Crack]

 

[Larry]

Suspect it ought to read "The Trump campaign, which Trump intentionally bankrupted at the end of the election, and therefore has no assets whatsoever, has been ordered . . . "