1995 Milwaukee 1998 Alpine, Alpine 2003 Albany, Boston, Boston, Boston 2004 Boston, Boston 2006 Hartford, St. Paul (Petty), St. Paul (Petty) 2011 Alpine, Alpine 2013 Wrigley 2014 St. Paul 2016 Fenway, Fenway, Wrigley, Wrigley 2018 Missoula, Wrigley, Wrigley 2021 Asbury Park 2022 St Louis 2023 Austin, Austin
We all know that a jutted jaw, a hockey stick across your padded shoulders and a snap of the suit jacket you can’t button is no match for SNL. POOTWH needed all the help he could get. And then some.
New York court suspends Rudy Giuliani's law license
By JIM MUSTIAN
53 mins ago
NEW YORK (AP) — An appeals court suspended Rudy Giuliani from practicing law in New York on Thursday because he made false statements while trying to get courts to overturn Donald Trump’s loss in the presidential race.
An attorney disciplinary committee had asked the court to suspend Giuliani’s license on the grounds that he'd violated professional conduct rules as he promoted theories that the election was stolen through fraud.
The court agreed and said suspension should be immediate, even though disciplinary proceedings aren't yet complete, because there was an “immediate threat” to the public.
“The seriousness of respondent’s uncontroverted misconduct cannot be overstated," the court wrote. "This country is being torn apart by continued attacks on the legitimacy of the 2020 election and of our current president, Joseph R. Biden.”
Trump called the suspension a politically motivated “witch hunt," while Giuliani said it was a “disgrace” on his afternoon radio show. The court's opinion, Giuliani said, was based on hearsay and “could have been written by the Democratic National Committee.”
“The bar association should give me an award,” the Republican told listeners on WABC-AM. “I defended an unpopular client. I’ve been threatened with death. I’ve had a good deal of my income taken away. I’ve lost friends over it.”
“This is happening to shut me up," he added. "They want Giuliani quiet.”
The court held that Giuliani, as a lawyer for Trump, “communicated demonstrably false and misleading statements to courts, lawmakers and the public at large.”
Giuliani, a former New York City mayor and U.S. attorney in Manhattan, claimed the investigation violated his First Amendment right to free speech and that he did not knowingly make false statements.
The court rejected those arguments, noting that in Pennsylvania, Giuliani failed to “provide a scintilla of evidence for any of the varying and wildly inconsistent numbers of dead people he factually represented voted in Philadelphia during the 2020 presidential election.”
“False statements intended to foment a loss of confidence in our elections and resulting loss of confidence in government generally damage the proper functioning of a free society," the court wrote.
Interim suspensions are often a precursor to disbarment but are typically “reserved for lawyers convicted of a crime,” said Bruce Green, a former federal prosecutor who directs the Louis Stein Center for Law and Ethics at the Fordham University School of Law. “It’s rarely done in cases involving lying lawyers.”
Still, Giuliani will be allowed to fight the suspension and even call witnesses as part of his challenge — a process that could take months to play out — and Giuliani's attorneys said they expect him to be reinstated “once the issues are fully explored at a hearing.”
“He gets another day in court,” Green said.
The ruling prevents Giuliani from representing clients as a lawyer, but it could have limited practical impact. Before pleading Trump's case in November, the former mob prosecutor had not appeared in court as an attorney since 1992, according to court records.
Giuliani was the primary mouthpiece for Trump’s false claims of election fraud after the 2020 vote, standing at a press conference in front of Four Seasons Total Landscaping outside Philadelphia on the day the race was called for Biden and saying they would challenge what he claimed was a vast conspiracy by Democrats.
Lies around the election results helped push an angry mob of pro-Trump rioters to storm the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 in an effort to stop the certification of President Biden’s victory. Since that time, Republicans have used that lie to push stricter voting laws nationwide.
The suspension comes as Giuliani is under scrutiny by federal prosecutors over his interactions with figures in Ukraine while he was trying to get that country to launch an investigation of Biden’s son.
The investigation includes an examination of whether Giuliani was required to register as a foreign agent in the U.S. Some of the Ukrainian figures Giuliani was worked with were also interested in getting his help lobbying the Trump administration.
Giuliani has said he is innocent of any wrongdoing and that the investigations are politically motivated.
Giuliani could also face consequences in Georgia, where he made statements to legislative committees casting doubt on the legitimacy of that state’s election that are cited in the New York court’s decision.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has opened a criminal investigation into potential attempts to influence the 2020 election in Georgia, including looking into “the making of false statements to state and local governmental bodies.”
Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a Republican who has come under attack from Trump and his allies for not taking steps to overturn the former president’s loss in the state, saw vindication in the New York court’s decision.
“The judges recognized that the baseless conspiracy theories Giuliani repeated were not true and punished him for spreading lies, particularly about Georgia’s election,” he said Thursday.
The suspension won’t affect Giuliani’s ability to act as a lobbyist or do security consulting, but will likely will prevent him from practicing law in jurisdictions even beyond New York, said David S. Weinstein, a former federal prosecutor.
Giuliani would be obligated to tell other states about the suspension, he said, which “in all likelihood will cause them to say, ‘You won’t be able to practice here.’”
__
This story has been updated to correct the attribution on the decision. It was made by the court, not the attorney disciplinary committee.
__
Associated Press writers Kate Brumback in Atlanta, Michael Hill in Albany, New York, and Michael Balsamo in Washington contributed to this report.
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
Pence 'proud' of his role certifying 2020 election results
By MICHAEL R. BLOOD and JILL COLVIN
Today
SIMI VALLEY, Calif. (AP) — Former Vice President Mike Pence has defended his role in certifying the results of the 2020 election, saying he's “proud” of what he did on Jan. 6 and declaring there's “almost no idea more un-American than the notion that any one person could choose the American president.”
Pence, a potential 2024 presidential contender, delivered his strongest rebuttal to date of former President Donald Trump’s continued insistence that he could unilaterally overturn the results of the last election, even though the Constitution granted him no such power. A mob of Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 in a bid to halt the certification process and transition of power, with some chanting, “Hang Mike Pence!”
Pence, in remarks at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library on Thursday, directly addressed those who continue to blame him for Trump’s defeat to now-President Joe Biden, who won the Electoral College on a 306-232 vote.
“Now there are those in our party who believe that, in my position as presiding officer over the joint session, that I possessed the authority to reject or return electoral votes certified by the states,” Pence said. “But the Constitution provides the vice president with no such authority before the joint session of Congress.
“And the truth is,” he continued, “there’s almost no idea more un-American than the notion that any one person could choose the American president. The presidency belongs to the American people and the American people alone.”
Pence said he will “always be proud that we did our part, on that tragic day, to reconvene the Congress and fulfill our duty under the Constitution and the laws of the United States.”
It was Pence’s most overt attempt to date to distance himself from Trump’s rhetoric about the election while painting himself as an heir to Trump’s mantle and key to his accomplishments in office. Trump has continued to insist that he won the November election, even though his administration’s own election experts, his attorney general, state election officials and numerous judges, including some he appointed, have repeatedly and forcefully rejected his allegations of mass voter fraud.
Pence, speaking as part of a series organized by the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation & Institute, repeatedly praised Trump — as he has in other speeches since leaving office — and compared him to Reagan, whom Pence has long hailed as a hero.
But he also argued that the American public needs to trust that Republicans will “always keep our oath to the Constitution, even when it could be politically expedient to do otherwise.”
“Now I understand the disappointment many feel about the last election. I can relate. I was on the ballot,” he added. “But you know, there’s more at stake than our party and our political fortunes in this moment.”
Trump was impeached after Jan. 6 on a charge of inciting an insurrection, and he was acquitted by the Senate the next month, after leaving office. More than 500 people face federal charges in the insurrection, including a member of the Oath Keepers extremist group who pleaded guilty this week.
Pence’s appearance Thursday in front of a sold-out crowd of more than 800 at the hilltop library was his latest in recent months as Pence considers a White House bid. He took a brief pause from the public stage after leaving office in January, but he kicked off a series of appearances in April in early-voting states, looking to sharpen his conservative profile for voters more familiar with him standing in Trump’s shadow.
Earlier this month in New Hampshire, Pence defended the Trump administration record but also appeared to put some distance between himself and the former president, saying, “I don’t know if we’ll ever see eye to eye” on the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol.
Last week, Pence was booed and jeered during a speech at the conservative Faith and Freedom Coalition’s annual Road To Majority conference in Florida — a reflection of lingering resentments in some wings of the party over what they see as a lack of loyalty from the former vice president.
Pence entered Thursday to a standing ovation, but there were mixed views about whether he would be a good choice on the presidential ticket in 2024.
Joseph Quiroz, 45, an accountant from Pasadena, said he would like to see Pence run and considered him his top choice at this juncture, largely because of his experience in Washington and as a former governor.
Quiroz, a Republican, said he voted for Trump in 2016 but believed “the best thing would be a new face.”
Bob Refer, 72, a Republican and a retired policeman from San Diego, said he liked Pence. But, he said, “I think he’s too nice a guy. He’s not forceful enough.”
While Refer liked Trump and his readiness to take on a fight, he was dubious about another run for the billionaire businessman in 2024.
But he quickly added: “I’d like someone like him (Trump).”
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
Bill Barr was so vital in convincing the American people that the Muller investigation was a nothingburger. He spent every moment of his time (at least prior to the election) devoted entirely to Trump.
This really should be a lesson to all of his current bootlickers; Their commitment has to be permanent. He'll turn on him the moment they waver and/or the moment it suits him.
1995 Milwaukee 1998 Alpine, Alpine 2003 Albany, Boston, Boston, Boston 2004 Boston, Boston 2006 Hartford, St. Paul (Petty), St. Paul (Petty) 2011 Alpine, Alpine 2013 Wrigley 2014 St. Paul 2016 Fenway, Fenway, Wrigley, Wrigley 2018 Missoula, Wrigley, Wrigley 2021 Asbury Park 2022 St Louis 2023 Austin, Austin
Bill Barr was so vital in convincing the American people that the Muller investigation was a nothingburger. He spent every moment of his time (at least prior to the election) devoted entirely to Trump.
This really should be a lesson to all of his current bootlickers; Their commitment has to be permanent. He'll turn on him the moment they waver and/or the moment it suits him.
Did he say something about the Mueller report recently? I saw some quotes but thought he was talking about other things.
Bill Barr was so vital in convincing the American people that the Muller investigation was a nothingburger. He spent every moment of his time (at least prior to the election) devoted entirely to Trump.
This really should be a lesson to all of his current bootlickers; Their commitment has to be permanent. He'll turn on him the moment they waver and/or the moment it suits him.
Did he say something about the Mueller report recently? I saw some quotes but thought he was talking about other things.
Not to my knowledge. My point was that, way back then, his response to the Mueller report was pretty good for Trump. And Trump has no gratitude. It was the highlight of his time in a key federal position serving one man instead of the entire country. He worked tirelessly for Trump. And now that doesn't matter. Once you are in, you'd better be all-in or he'll cut you lose and MAGA will make you an enemy.
It's really sad that so many people want leadership that puts so much premium on loyalty to the leader.
1995 Milwaukee 1998 Alpine, Alpine 2003 Albany, Boston, Boston, Boston 2004 Boston, Boston 2006 Hartford, St. Paul (Petty), St. Paul (Petty) 2011 Alpine, Alpine 2013 Wrigley 2014 St. Paul 2016 Fenway, Fenway, Wrigley, Wrigley 2018 Missoula, Wrigley, Wrigley 2021 Asbury Park 2022 St Louis 2023 Austin, Austin
Trump Org lawyers make last pitch against prosecution
By TOM HAYS and JIM MUSTIAN
6 mins ago
NEW YORK (AP) — Lawyers for the Trump Organization met again Monday with prosecutors in the Manhattan District Attorney's Office in a last bid to forestall a potential indictment stemming from a long-running investigation into the former president’s company.
Trump Organization lawyer Ron Fischetti told The Associated Press the meeting came as a grand jury nears a vote on an indictment this week following a more than two-year investigation into Trump's business affairs.
He said prosecutors have told him Trump himself will not be charged at this time — “at least not with what's coming down this week" — but added the investigation is continuing.
“There is no indictment coming down this week against the former president," Fischetti said in a telephone interview Monday. "I can’t say he’s out of the woods yet completely.”
The Manhattan district attorney’s office declined to comment.
The former Republican president, however, issued a blistering statement in which he derided District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr.'s office as “rude, nasty, and totally biased in the way they are treating lawyers, representatives, and some of the wonderful long-term employees and people within the Trump Organization.”
“After hundreds of subpoenas, over 3 million pages of documents, 4 years of searching, dozens and dozens of interviews, and millions of dollars of taxpayer funds wasted, they continue to be ‘in search of a crime,’" Trump alleged, calling the investigation a “continuation of the greatest Witch Hunt of all time.”
In recent months, investigators in Vance's office have focused on fringe benefits the company gave to top executives, such as use of apartments, cars and school tuition.
Investigators have scrutinized Trump’s tax records, subpoenaed documents and interviewed witnesses, including Trump insiders and company executives.
Another person familiar with the investigation confirmed there were communications between defense lawyers and prosecutors on Monday. The person declined to give any details of the talks.
Such final exchanges are considered formalities that rarely change the course of an investigation in a late stage, suggesting the grand jury is near a vote.
The person was not authorized to discuss the case and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.
Fischetti, who did not attend Monday’s meeting, said the gathering had been arranged “for the Trump Organization — not Donald Trump himself.”
“We’re just waiting,” Fischetti said, adding he expects to know this week whether charges will be brought.
The prospective charges this week, he said, “are limited to a couple of Trump Org employees who didn't declare taxes on fringe benefits” they received. The company itself also could be charged, he added.
Lawyers representing Donald Trump's company also met virtually with prosecutors for more than 90 minutes last Thursday.
It isn't illegal for a company to offer employees tuition help, lease them cars or let them use company-owned apartments, but such arrangements can be subject to income tax.
Fischetti has called the possibility of charges “absolutely outrageous” and politically motivated. He said it would be extremely unusual for prosecutors to seek criminal charges over unpaid tax on fringe benefits.
Some of the scrutiny has been focused on longtime Trump Organization chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg.
Vance’s investigation of Weisselberg, 73, stemmed in part from questions about his son’s use of a Trump apartment at little or no cost, cars leased for the family and tuition payments made to a school attended by Weisselberg’s grandchildren.
Weisselberg’s attorney, Mary Mulligan, has declined to comment.
In addition to fringe benefits, prosecutors have looked into whether the Trump Organization lied about the value of real estate holdings to lower taxes or to obtain bank loans or insurance policies on favorable terms. They have also looked into the company’s role in paying hush money to two women who say Trump had affairs with them, accusations Trump has denied.
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
Donald Trump is back, possibly at his party’s peril
Former
President Donald Trump’s vengeance tour against his GOP critics that
began with a Saturday night stop in Ohio proves he will never willingly
give up the limelight, Shapiro writes. (Tayfun Cokun/Anadolu Agency via
Getty Images)
There
is a time-honored spy story plot: A retired CIA agent, tired of the
clandestine life, has retreated to an island in Mediterranean. One day
up the dirt road to his hideaway comes his former CIA station chief
luring him back for one last mission.
Saturday night, Donald
Trump lured everyone back to his alternative universe of crazed
conspiracies about a “rigged” election. His 91-minute speech in
Wellington, Ohio, was the start of his vengeance tour against
Republicans like nearby Rep. Anthony Gonzalez, who voted to impeach Trump for fomenting the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol.
Equally
predictable, but far more devastating, is the beginning of the
onslaught of books featuring dramatic scenes from inside the Trump Oval
Office. We have, of course, had articles and books like this before, but
this time around the sources are finally talking on-the-record instead
of lurking in the shadows.
The Atlantic published on Sunday a chilling excerpt
from ABC News correspondent Jonathan Karl’s forthcoming book,
“Betrayal,” about the end times of the Trump presidency. Instead of
Richard Nixon drunkenly talking to the portraits in the White House in
“The Final Days,” we have the 45th president, his face bloated with
rage, shouting at his attorney general, William Barr, “You must hate
Trump. You must hate Trump.”
Barr’s candid interviews with Karl
have been characterized as a Trump toady’s last-ditch efforts to salvage
his reputation. But Barr’s motivations — which presumably are not based
on his dedication to truth, justice and the American Way — do not
undermine the narrative power of his tale.
The
attorney general’s purported disloyalty came when he displayed a
belated flicker of moxie in telling The Associated Press in an interview
that there was no compelling evidence or legal justification to
overturn Joe Biden’s election.
According to Karl, the catalyst for Barr’s truth-telling was a series of desperate pleas from Mitch McConnell,
urging him to do something to save the two Republicans on the Jan. 5
ballot in the Georgia Senate runoffs. McConnell feared that Trump’s
rants about a stolen election would muddle the GOP message in Georgia.
Yes, we have another example to insert in the McConnell chapter in any future edition of “Profiles in Courage.”
McConnell,
who confirmed the anecdotes in Karl’s excerpt, did not want his
fingerprints on any effort to uphold the legitimacy of the 2020
election. Instead, his devilishly clever notion was for Barr to do the
dirty work for him — and make the attorney general the focus of Trump’s
rage.
McConnell’s actual words to Barr should be included in
every future profile of the supposed Machiavellian genius that is the
Senate GOP leader: “Look, we need the president in Georgia, and so we
cannot be frontally attacking him now. But you’re in a better position
to inject some reality into this situation.”
Throughout
Trump’s presidency, McConnell kept thinking that he could placate an
erratic, ego-mad president with one more piece of his soul. With each
payment, McConnell naively believed he could go back to his
single-minded agenda of rubber-stamping conservative Republican judges.
Blessed
in 2018 with the most favorable Senate map in memory (26
Democratic-held seats were on the ballot and just 9 GOP seats),
McConnell expected to win a lasting, unassailable majority. Instead, the
GOP picked up a net of just two seats that year, a paltry gain that
eventually made possible Chuck Schumer’s current status as Senate majority leader.
The difference-maker: Donald J. Trump.
Virtually
everything the president did in 2018 and 2020 had the inadvertent
result of fueling record Democratic turnout. By never standing up to
Trump, Republicans like McConnell allowed him to continue as a human
wrecking ball trying to destroy everyone — including Republicans — who
stood in his way.
The Ohio rally illustrated a truth that should
have been obvious from the beginning: Trump will never willingly give up
the limelight.
Bristling
with resentments, Trump, who never pledged allegiance to anyone other
than his own reflection in the mirror, is happy to fight a two-front war
against disloyal Republicans and the Democratic Party.
No former
president since Richard Nixon in 1974 has been a major factor in
off-year congressional elections after he left office.
But Trump in 2022 promises to be the exception — and nothing could make the Democrats happier. Ohio Sen. Rob Portman,
an old-fashioned Republican who is retiring next year, said Sunday on
ABC News that Trump is “definitely the leader” of the GOP.
This
week, members of Congress — and, yes, mostly their staff members — will
be putting the final touches on patriotic remarks to be delivered over
the Fourth of July weekend.
What better time for timorous
Republicans to come forward and say, “I have looked closely at the
evidence. And on this weekend of celebration of 245 years of American
democracy, I want to tell you that Joe Biden was honestly elected and is
the legitimate president of the United States.”
For most congressional Republicans (legislators like Marjorie Taylor Greene
fall in a special category), this would merely be the public
acknowledgement of what they have known since all the Trump lawsuits
challenging the election were rejected by both Republican- and
Democratic-appointed jurists.
By not standing up to Trump even
now, congressional Republicans will be doomed to spend 2022 defending
his deranged conspiracy theories. By Election Day 2022, Trump will
probably be talking about how little green men flying undetected in UFOs
altered the ballots to elect Biden.
American patriotism through
the ages has been linked with courage. This is the perfect weekend for
congressional Republicans to show it with more than just empty
platitudes about the Founding Fathers.
Walter Shapiro has
covered the last 11 presidential campaigns. He is also a fellow at the
Brennan Center for Justice at NYU and a lecturer in political science at
Yale. Follow him on Twitter @MrWalterShapiro.
CQ
Roll Call is a part of FiscalNote, the leading technology innovator at
the intersection of global business and government. Copyright 2021 CQ
Roll Call. All rights reserved.
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
Donald Trump is back, possibly at his party’s peril
Former
President Donald Trump’s vengeance tour against his GOP critics that
began with a Saturday night stop in Ohio proves he will never willingly
give up the limelight, Shapiro writes. (Tayfun Cokun/Anadolu Agency via
Getty Images)
There
is a time-honored spy story plot: A retired CIA agent, tired of the
clandestine life, has retreated to an island in Mediterranean. One day
up the dirt road to his hideaway comes his former CIA station chief
luring him back for one last mission.
Saturday night, Donald
Trump lured everyone back to his alternative universe of crazed
conspiracies about a “rigged” election. His 91-minute speech in
Wellington, Ohio, was the start of his vengeance tour against
Republicans like nearby Rep. Anthony Gonzalez, who voted to impeach Trump for fomenting the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol.
Equally
predictable, but far more devastating, is the beginning of the
onslaught of books featuring dramatic scenes from inside the Trump Oval
Office. We have, of course, had articles and books like this before, but
this time around the sources are finally talking on-the-record instead
of lurking in the shadows.
The Atlantic published on Sunday a chilling excerpt
from ABC News correspondent Jonathan Karl’s forthcoming book,
“Betrayal,” about the end times of the Trump presidency. Instead of
Richard Nixon drunkenly talking to the portraits in the White House in
“The Final Days,” we have the 45th president, his face bloated with
rage, shouting at his attorney general, William Barr, “You must hate
Trump. You must hate Trump.”
Barr’s candid interviews with Karl
have been characterized as a Trump toady’s last-ditch efforts to salvage
his reputation. But Barr’s motivations — which presumably are not based
on his dedication to truth, justice and the American Way — do not
undermine the narrative power of his tale.
The
attorney general’s purported disloyalty came when he displayed a
belated flicker of moxie in telling The Associated Press in an interview
that there was no compelling evidence or legal justification to
overturn Joe Biden’s election.
According to Karl, the catalyst for Barr’s truth-telling was a series of desperate pleas from Mitch McConnell,
urging him to do something to save the two Republicans on the Jan. 5
ballot in the Georgia Senate runoffs. McConnell feared that Trump’s
rants about a stolen election would muddle the GOP message in Georgia.
Yes, we have another example to insert in the McConnell chapter in any future edition of “Profiles in Courage.”
McConnell,
who confirmed the anecdotes in Karl’s excerpt, did not want his
fingerprints on any effort to uphold the legitimacy of the 2020
election. Instead, his devilishly clever notion was for Barr to do the
dirty work for him — and make the attorney general the focus of Trump’s
rage.
McConnell’s actual words to Barr should be included in
every future profile of the supposed Machiavellian genius that is the
Senate GOP leader: “Look, we need the president in Georgia, and so we
cannot be frontally attacking him now. But you’re in a better position
to inject some reality into this situation.”
Throughout
Trump’s presidency, McConnell kept thinking that he could placate an
erratic, ego-mad president with one more piece of his soul. With each
payment, McConnell naively believed he could go back to his
single-minded agenda of rubber-stamping conservative Republican judges.
Blessed
in 2018 with the most favorable Senate map in memory (26
Democratic-held seats were on the ballot and just 9 GOP seats),
McConnell expected to win a lasting, unassailable majority. Instead, the
GOP picked up a net of just two seats that year, a paltry gain that
eventually made possible Chuck Schumer’s current status as Senate majority leader.
The difference-maker: Donald J. Trump.
Virtually
everything the president did in 2018 and 2020 had the inadvertent
result of fueling record Democratic turnout. By never standing up to
Trump, Republicans like McConnell allowed him to continue as a human
wrecking ball trying to destroy everyone — including Republicans — who
stood in his way.
The Ohio rally illustrated a truth that should
have been obvious from the beginning: Trump will never willingly give up
the limelight.
Bristling
with resentments, Trump, who never pledged allegiance to anyone other
than his own reflection in the mirror, is happy to fight a two-front war
against disloyal Republicans and the Democratic Party.
No former
president since Richard Nixon in 1974 has been a major factor in
off-year congressional elections after he left office.
But Trump in 2022 promises to be the exception — and nothing could make the Democrats happier. Ohio Sen. Rob Portman,
an old-fashioned Republican who is retiring next year, said Sunday on
ABC News that Trump is “definitely the leader” of the GOP.
This
week, members of Congress — and, yes, mostly their staff members — will
be putting the final touches on patriotic remarks to be delivered over
the Fourth of July weekend.
What better time for timorous
Republicans to come forward and say, “I have looked closely at the
evidence. And on this weekend of celebration of 245 years of American
democracy, I want to tell you that Joe Biden was honestly elected and is
the legitimate president of the United States.”
For most congressional Republicans (legislators like Marjorie Taylor Greene
fall in a special category), this would merely be the public
acknowledgement of what they have known since all the Trump lawsuits
challenging the election were rejected by both Republican- and
Democratic-appointed jurists.
By not standing up to Trump even
now, congressional Republicans will be doomed to spend 2022 defending
his deranged conspiracy theories. By Election Day 2022, Trump will
probably be talking about how little green men flying undetected in UFOs
altered the ballots to elect Biden.
American patriotism through
the ages has been linked with courage. This is the perfect weekend for
congressional Republicans to show it with more than just empty
platitudes about the Founding Fathers.
Walter Shapiro has
covered the last 11 presidential campaigns. He is also a fellow at the
Brennan Center for Justice at NYU and a lecturer in political science at
Yale. Follow him on Twitter @MrWalterShapiro.
CQ
Roll Call is a part of FiscalNote, the leading technology innovator at
the intersection of global business and government. Copyright 2021 CQ
Roll Call. All rights reserved.
it just dawned on me that this is probably never going to go away. even after 5 years, we'll still have these idiots pulling shit like this for attention and/or money and/or mental issues. and then when trump eventually dies of a McStroke, the Second Coming of Trump movement will emerge, with people claiming he isn't really dead, that he's in hiding, waiting for his eventual triumphant return to politics to save America.
it just dawned on me that this is probably never going to go away. even after 5 years, we'll still have these idiots pulling shit like this for attention and/or money and/or mental issues. and then when trump eventually dies of a McStroke, the Second Coming of Trump movement will emerge, with people claiming he isn't really dead, that he's in hiding, waiting for his eventual triumphant return to politics to save America.
Comments
https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-wanted-his-justice-department-to-stop-snl-from-teasing-him?ref=home
2013 Wrigley 2014 St. Paul 2016 Fenway, Fenway, Wrigley, Wrigley 2018 Missoula, Wrigley, Wrigley 2021 Asbury Park 2022 St Louis 2023 Austin, Austin
www.headstonesband.com
Libtardaplorable©. And proud of it.
Brilliantati©
NEW YORK (AP) — An appeals court suspended Rudy Giuliani from practicing law in New York on Thursday because he made false statements while trying to get courts to overturn Donald Trump’s loss in the presidential race.
An attorney disciplinary committee had asked the court to suspend Giuliani’s license on the grounds that he'd violated professional conduct rules as he promoted theories that the election was stolen through fraud.
The court agreed and said suspension should be immediate, even though disciplinary proceedings aren't yet complete, because there was an “immediate threat” to the public.
“The seriousness of respondent’s uncontroverted misconduct cannot be overstated," the court wrote. "This country is being torn apart by continued attacks on the legitimacy of the 2020 election and of our current president, Joseph R. Biden.”
Trump called the suspension a politically motivated “witch hunt," while Giuliani said it was a “disgrace” on his afternoon radio show. The court's opinion, Giuliani said, was based on hearsay and “could have been written by the Democratic National Committee.”
“The bar association should give me an award,” the Republican told listeners on WABC-AM. “I defended an unpopular client. I’ve been threatened with death. I’ve had a good deal of my income taken away. I’ve lost friends over it.”
“This is happening to shut me up," he added. "They want Giuliani quiet.”
The court held that Giuliani, as a lawyer for Trump, “communicated demonstrably false and misleading statements to courts, lawmakers and the public at large.”
Giuliani, a former New York City mayor and U.S. attorney in Manhattan, claimed the investigation violated his First Amendment right to free speech and that he did not knowingly make false statements.
The court rejected those arguments, noting that in Pennsylvania, Giuliani failed to “provide a scintilla of evidence for any of the varying and wildly inconsistent numbers of dead people he factually represented voted in Philadelphia during the 2020 presidential election.”
“False statements intended to foment a loss of confidence in our elections and resulting loss of confidence in government generally damage the proper functioning of a free society," the court wrote.
Interim suspensions are often a precursor to disbarment but are typically “reserved for lawyers convicted of a crime,” said Bruce Green, a former federal prosecutor who directs the Louis Stein Center for Law and Ethics at the Fordham University School of Law. “It’s rarely done in cases involving lying lawyers.”
Still, Giuliani will be allowed to fight the suspension and even call witnesses as part of his challenge — a process that could take months to play out — and Giuliani's attorneys said they expect him to be reinstated “once the issues are fully explored at a hearing.”
“He gets another day in court,” Green said.
The ruling prevents Giuliani from representing clients as a lawyer, but it could have limited practical impact. Before pleading Trump's case in November, the former mob prosecutor had not appeared in court as an attorney since 1992, according to court records.
Giuliani was the primary mouthpiece for Trump’s false claims of election fraud after the 2020 vote, standing at a press conference in front of Four Seasons Total Landscaping outside Philadelphia on the day the race was called for Biden and saying they would challenge what he claimed was a vast conspiracy by Democrats.
Lies around the election results helped push an angry mob of pro-Trump rioters to storm the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 in an effort to stop the certification of President Biden’s victory. Since that time, Republicans have used that lie to push stricter voting laws nationwide.
The suspension comes as Giuliani is under scrutiny by federal prosecutors over his interactions with figures in Ukraine while he was trying to get that country to launch an investigation of Biden’s son.
Federal agents raided Giuliani’s home and office in April, taking electronic devices including phones and computers.
The investigation includes an examination of whether Giuliani was required to register as a foreign agent in the U.S. Some of the Ukrainian figures Giuliani was worked with were also interested in getting his help lobbying the Trump administration.
Giuliani has said he is innocent of any wrongdoing and that the investigations are politically motivated.
Giuliani could also face consequences in Georgia, where he made statements to legislative committees casting doubt on the legitimacy of that state’s election that are cited in the New York court’s decision.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has opened a criminal investigation into potential attempts to influence the 2020 election in Georgia, including looking into “the making of false statements to state and local governmental bodies.”
Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a Republican who has come under attack from Trump and his allies for not taking steps to overturn the former president’s loss in the state, saw vindication in the New York court’s decision.
“The judges recognized that the baseless conspiracy theories Giuliani repeated were not true and punished him for spreading lies, particularly about Georgia’s election,” he said Thursday.
The suspension won’t affect Giuliani’s ability to act as a lobbyist or do security consulting, but will likely will prevent him from practicing law in jurisdictions even beyond New York, said David S. Weinstein, a former federal prosecutor.
Giuliani would be obligated to tell other states about the suspension, he said, which “in all likelihood will cause them to say, ‘You won’t be able to practice here.’”
__
This story has been updated to correct the attribution on the decision. It was made by the court, not the attorney disciplinary committee.
__
Associated Press writers Kate Brumback in Atlanta, Michael Hill in Albany, New York, and Michael Balsamo in Washington contributed to this report.
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
Asshole.
SIMI VALLEY, Calif. (AP) — Former Vice President Mike Pence has defended his role in certifying the results of the 2020 election, saying he's “proud” of what he did on Jan. 6 and declaring there's “almost no idea more un-American than the notion that any one person could choose the American president.”
Pence, a potential 2024 presidential contender, delivered his strongest rebuttal to date of former President Donald Trump’s continued insistence that he could unilaterally overturn the results of the last election, even though the Constitution granted him no such power. A mob of Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 in a bid to halt the certification process and transition of power, with some chanting, “Hang Mike Pence!”
Pence, in remarks at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library on Thursday, directly addressed those who continue to blame him for Trump’s defeat to now-President Joe Biden, who won the Electoral College on a 306-232 vote.
“Now there are those in our party who believe that, in my position as presiding officer over the joint session, that I possessed the authority to reject or return electoral votes certified by the states,” Pence said. “But the Constitution provides the vice president with no such authority before the joint session of Congress.
“And the truth is,” he continued, “there’s almost no idea more un-American than the notion that any one person could choose the American president. The presidency belongs to the American people and the American people alone.”
Pence said he will “always be proud that we did our part, on that tragic day, to reconvene the Congress and fulfill our duty under the Constitution and the laws of the United States.”
It was Pence’s most overt attempt to date to distance himself from Trump’s rhetoric about the election while painting himself as an heir to Trump’s mantle and key to his accomplishments in office. Trump has continued to insist that he won the November election, even though his administration’s own election experts, his attorney general, state election officials and numerous judges, including some he appointed, have repeatedly and forcefully rejected his allegations of mass voter fraud.
Pence, speaking as part of a series organized by the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation & Institute, repeatedly praised Trump — as he has in other speeches since leaving office — and compared him to Reagan, whom Pence has long hailed as a hero.
But he also argued that the American public needs to trust that Republicans will “always keep our oath to the Constitution, even when it could be politically expedient to do otherwise.”
“Now I understand the disappointment many feel about the last election. I can relate. I was on the ballot,” he added. “But you know, there’s more at stake than our party and our political fortunes in this moment.”
Trump was impeached after Jan. 6 on a charge of inciting an insurrection, and he was acquitted by the Senate the next month, after leaving office. More than 500 people face federal charges in the insurrection, including a member of the Oath Keepers extremist group who pleaded guilty this week.
Pence’s appearance Thursday in front of a sold-out crowd of more than 800 at the hilltop library was his latest in recent months as Pence considers a White House bid. He took a brief pause from the public stage after leaving office in January, but he kicked off a series of appearances in April in early-voting states, looking to sharpen his conservative profile for voters more familiar with him standing in Trump’s shadow.
Earlier this month in New Hampshire, Pence defended the Trump administration record but also appeared to put some distance between himself and the former president, saying, “I don’t know if we’ll ever see eye to eye” on the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol.
Last week, Pence was booed and jeered during a speech at the conservative Faith and Freedom Coalition’s annual Road To Majority conference in Florida — a reflection of lingering resentments in some wings of the party over what they see as a lack of loyalty from the former vice president.
Pence entered Thursday to a standing ovation, but there were mixed views about whether he would be a good choice on the presidential ticket in 2024.
Joseph Quiroz, 45, an accountant from Pasadena, said he would like to see Pence run and considered him his top choice at this juncture, largely because of his experience in Washington and as a former governor.
Quiroz, a Republican, said he voted for Trump in 2016 but believed “the best thing would be a new face.”
Bob Refer, 72, a Republican and a retired policeman from San Diego, said he liked Pence. But, he said, “I think he’s too nice a guy. He’s not forceful enough.”
While Refer liked Trump and his readiness to take on a fight, he was dubious about another run for the billionaire businessman in 2024.
But he quickly added: “I’d like someone like him (Trump).”
___
Colvin reported from Washington.
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
https://apple.news/AqGYujCg2ShCMLjlmTLHMUQ
Libtardaplorable©. And proud of it.
Brilliantati©
That's all.
Just lunatic.
This really should be a lesson to all of his current bootlickers; Their commitment has to be permanent. He'll turn on him the moment they waver and/or the moment it suits him.
2013 Wrigley 2014 St. Paul 2016 Fenway, Fenway, Wrigley, Wrigley 2018 Missoula, Wrigley, Wrigley 2021 Asbury Park 2022 St Louis 2023 Austin, Austin
It's really sad that so many people want leadership that puts so much premium on loyalty to the leader.
2013 Wrigley 2014 St. Paul 2016 Fenway, Fenway, Wrigley, Wrigley 2018 Missoula, Wrigley, Wrigley 2021 Asbury Park 2022 St Louis 2023 Austin, Austin
Libtardaplorable©. And proud of it.
Brilliantati©
NEW YORK (AP) — Lawyers for the Trump Organization met again Monday with prosecutors in the Manhattan District Attorney's Office in a last bid to forestall a potential indictment stemming from a long-running investigation into the former president’s company.
Trump Organization lawyer Ron Fischetti told The Associated Press the meeting came as a grand jury nears a vote on an indictment this week following a more than two-year investigation into Trump's business affairs.
He said prosecutors have told him Trump himself will not be charged at this time — “at least not with what's coming down this week" — but added the investigation is continuing.
“There is no indictment coming down this week against the former president," Fischetti said in a telephone interview Monday. "I can’t say he’s out of the woods yet completely.”
The Manhattan district attorney’s office declined to comment.
The former Republican president, however, issued a blistering statement in which he derided District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr.'s office as “rude, nasty, and totally biased in the way they are treating lawyers, representatives, and some of the wonderful long-term employees and people within the Trump Organization.”
“After hundreds of subpoenas, over 3 million pages of documents, 4 years of searching, dozens and dozens of interviews, and millions of dollars of taxpayer funds wasted, they continue to be ‘in search of a crime,’" Trump alleged, calling the investigation a “continuation of the greatest Witch Hunt of all time.”
In recent months, investigators in Vance's office have focused on fringe benefits the company gave to top executives, such as use of apartments, cars and school tuition.
Investigators have scrutinized Trump’s tax records, subpoenaed documents and interviewed witnesses, including Trump insiders and company executives.
Another person familiar with the investigation confirmed there were communications between defense lawyers and prosecutors on Monday. The person declined to give any details of the talks.
Such final exchanges are considered formalities that rarely change the course of an investigation in a late stage, suggesting the grand jury is near a vote.
The person was not authorized to discuss the case and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.
Fischetti, who did not attend Monday’s meeting, said the gathering had been arranged “for the Trump Organization — not Donald Trump himself.”
“We’re just waiting,” Fischetti said, adding he expects to know this week whether charges will be brought.
The prospective charges this week, he said, “are limited to a couple of Trump Org employees who didn't declare taxes on fringe benefits” they received. The company itself also could be charged, he added.
Lawyers representing Donald Trump's company also met virtually with prosecutors for more than 90 minutes last Thursday.
It isn't illegal for a company to offer employees tuition help, lease them cars or let them use company-owned apartments, but such arrangements can be subject to income tax.
Fischetti has called the possibility of charges “absolutely outrageous” and politically motivated. He said it would be extremely unusual for prosecutors to seek criminal charges over unpaid tax on fringe benefits.
Some of the scrutiny has been focused on longtime Trump Organization chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg.
Vance’s investigation of Weisselberg, 73, stemmed in part from questions about his son’s use of a Trump apartment at little or no cost, cars leased for the family and tuition payments made to a school attended by Weisselberg’s grandchildren.
Weisselberg’s attorney, Mary Mulligan, has declined to comment.
In addition to fringe benefits, prosecutors have looked into whether the Trump Organization lied about the value of real estate holdings to lower taxes or to obtain bank loans or insurance policies on favorable terms. They have also looked into the company’s role in paying hush money to two women who say Trump had affairs with them, accusations Trump has denied.
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
https://www.instagram.com/p/CQrXYR7rnWh/?utm_medium=copy_link
Libtardaplorable©. And proud of it.
Brilliantati©
www.headstonesband.com
The man who will never go away
Donald Trump is back, possibly at his party’s peril
There is a time-honored spy story plot: A retired CIA agent, tired of the clandestine life, has retreated to an island in Mediterranean. One day up the dirt road to his hideaway comes his former CIA station chief luring him back for one last mission.
Saturday night, Donald Trump lured everyone back to his alternative universe of crazed conspiracies about a “rigged” election. His 91-minute speech in Wellington, Ohio, was the start of his vengeance tour against Republicans like nearby Rep. Anthony Gonzalez, who voted to impeach Trump for fomenting the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol.
Equally predictable, but far more devastating, is the beginning of the onslaught of books featuring dramatic scenes from inside the Trump Oval Office. We have, of course, had articles and books like this before, but this time around the sources are finally talking on-the-record instead of lurking in the shadows.
The Atlantic published on Sunday a chilling excerpt from ABC News correspondent Jonathan Karl’s forthcoming book, “Betrayal,” about the end times of the Trump presidency. Instead of Richard Nixon drunkenly talking to the portraits in the White House in “The Final Days,” we have the 45th president, his face bloated with rage, shouting at his attorney general, William Barr, “You must hate Trump. You must hate Trump.”
Barr’s candid interviews with Karl have been characterized as a Trump toady’s last-ditch efforts to salvage his reputation. But Barr’s motivations — which presumably are not based on his dedication to truth, justice and the American Way — do not undermine the narrative power of his tale.
The attorney general’s purported disloyalty came when he displayed a belated flicker of moxie in telling The Associated Press in an interview that there was no compelling evidence or legal justification to overturn Joe Biden’s election.
According to Karl, the catalyst for Barr’s truth-telling was a series of desperate pleas from Mitch McConnell, urging him to do something to save the two Republicans on the Jan. 5 ballot in the Georgia Senate runoffs. McConnell feared that Trump’s rants about a stolen election would muddle the GOP message in Georgia.
Yes, we have another example to insert in the McConnell chapter in any future edition of “Profiles in Courage.”
McConnell, who confirmed the anecdotes in Karl’s excerpt, did not want his fingerprints on any effort to uphold the legitimacy of the 2020 election. Instead, his devilishly clever notion was for Barr to do the dirty work for him — and make the attorney general the focus of Trump’s rage.
McConnell’s actual words to Barr should be included in every future profile of the supposed Machiavellian genius that is the Senate GOP leader: “Look, we need the president in Georgia, and so we cannot be frontally attacking him now. But you’re in a better position to inject some reality into this situation.”
Throughout Trump’s presidency, McConnell kept thinking that he could placate an erratic, ego-mad president with one more piece of his soul. With each payment, McConnell naively believed he could go back to his single-minded agenda of rubber-stamping conservative Republican judges.
Blessed in 2018 with the most favorable Senate map in memory (26 Democratic-held seats were on the ballot and just 9 GOP seats), McConnell expected to win a lasting, unassailable majority. Instead, the GOP picked up a net of just two seats that year, a paltry gain that eventually made possible Chuck Schumer’s current status as Senate majority leader.
The difference-maker: Donald J. Trump.
Virtually everything the president did in 2018 and 2020 had the inadvertent result of fueling record Democratic turnout. By never standing up to Trump, Republicans like McConnell allowed him to continue as a human wrecking ball trying to destroy everyone — including Republicans — who stood in his way.
The Ohio rally illustrated a truth that should have been obvious from the beginning: Trump will never willingly give up the limelight.
Bristling with resentments, Trump, who never pledged allegiance to anyone other than his own reflection in the mirror, is happy to fight a two-front war against disloyal Republicans and the Democratic Party.
No former president since Richard Nixon in 1974 has been a major factor in off-year congressional elections after he left office.
But Trump in 2022 promises to be the exception — and nothing could make the Democrats happier. Ohio Sen. Rob Portman, an old-fashioned Republican who is retiring next year, said Sunday on ABC News that Trump is “definitely the leader” of the GOP.
This week, members of Congress — and, yes, mostly their staff members — will be putting the final touches on patriotic remarks to be delivered over the Fourth of July weekend.
What better time for timorous Republicans to come forward and say, “I have looked closely at the evidence. And on this weekend of celebration of 245 years of American democracy, I want to tell you that Joe Biden was honestly elected and is the legitimate president of the United States.”
For most congressional Republicans (legislators like Marjorie Taylor Greene fall in a special category), this would merely be the public acknowledgement of what they have known since all the Trump lawsuits challenging the election were rejected by both Republican- and Democratic-appointed jurists.
By not standing up to Trump even now, congressional Republicans will be doomed to spend 2022 defending his deranged conspiracy theories. By Election Day 2022, Trump will probably be talking about how little green men flying undetected in UFOs altered the ballots to elect Biden.
American patriotism through the ages has been linked with courage. This is the perfect weekend for congressional Republicans to show it with more than just empty platitudes about the Founding Fathers.
Walter Shapiro has covered the last 11 presidential campaigns. He is also a fellow at the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU and a lecturer in political science at Yale. Follow him on Twitter @MrWalterShapiro.
Trending Stories
Democrats lack leverage on top priority
FEC reviewing rules on salaries, benefits for candidates
State challenges to fintech charters a losing battle so far
Capitol Ink | The truth is out there
Advocates for sex workers vindicated in Section 230 debate by new GAO report
The man who will never go away
Related Stories
Reminder for Democrats: Politics won’t stop after November
How the Republican Party can move forward after Trump
GOP shouldn’t count its midterm chickens before they hatch
Still in trouble … and getting worse
The Source for news on Capitol Hill since 1955
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
Libtardaplorable©. And proud of it.
Brilliantati©
https://www.insider.com/trump-won-banners-mlb-games-stadiums-2021-6
Libtardaplorable©. And proud of it.
Brilliantati©
www.headstonesband.com