“Suicide mission”: Trump reportedly turned down by lawyers because his “case is a certain loser”

Lawyers for Donald Trump were told Thursday by prosecutors to expect an indictment against the former president in connection with his efforts to reverse his loss in the 2020 election, NBC News reported.

Trump’s lawyers Todd Blanche and John Lauro met Thursday morning in Washington, D.C., with prosecutors for Department of Justice special counsel Jack Smith and were informed of the planned indictment, according to NBC.

Later Thursday, Trump in a social media post wrote, “My attorneys had a productive meeting with the DOJ this morning, explaining in detail that I did nothing wrong, was advised by many lawyers, and that an Indictment of me would only further destroy our Country.”

“No indication of notice was given during the meeting — Do not trust the Fake News on anything!” Trump wrote on his Truth Social account.

Steven Cheung, a spokesman for Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign, told CNBC in a text message, “NBC report is incorrect.”

At around the same time as the defense lawyers’ meeting with prosecutors, the grand jury that could soon vote on criminally charging Trump assembled in Washington federal court.

Multiple members of that panel were seen entering the E. Barrett Prettyman Courthouse at around 8:30 a.m. ET, NBC reported.

A number of those anonymous grand jurors were spotted in the cafeteria and then going to the grand jury room on the courthouse’s third floor, according to NBC.

Early Thursday afternoon, members of the U.S. Marshals Service, who are responsible for security at federal courts, met with officials from the U.S. Park Police and Washington, D.C., police department at the Prettyman courthouse, NBC reported.

Smith is overseeing the Justice Department’s criminal probe of Trump and his allies related to their attempts to prevent President Joe Biden from being confirmed as the winner of the 2020 race by the Electoral College and Congress.

That effort was based on false claims, spread broadly by Trump and his allies, that Biden only won as a result of widespread ballot fraud.

Trump last week revealed that Smith had told his lawyers on Sunday that the former president was a criminal target of that investigation and had been offered a four-day window to testify to the grand jury.

Trump, who declined the offer, noted that such notifications are typically made before the recipient is indicted.

On Wednesday, Trump said he would testify at any trial if he is indicted.

“We’ll have fun on the stand with all of these people that say the Presidential Election wasn’t Rigged and Stollen,” Trump wrote on his social media site. “THE TRIAL OF THE CENTURY!!!”

On Thursday, a joint fundraising committee, Trump Save America, for the second day in a row sent out an email citing his potential indictment.

“Any moment now, Crooked Joe’s corrupt ‘Justice’ Department could yet again INDICT yours truly on federal charges despite being a totally innocent man,” Trump says in the email. “But that means that in just a few days’ time, we have the opportunity to cement this moment in the history books as the moment the American people PROVED they would never bend the knee to the Left’s tin-pot dictatorship.”

Peter Carr, a spokesman for Smith, declined to comment to CNBC on Thursday.

Lawyers for Trump, and a spokesman for him, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Smith in early June obtained a grand jury indictment of Trump in Florida federal court on several dozen criminal counts related to his retention of classified government documents at his Mar-a-Lago club after he left office in early 2021.

Trump has pleaded not guilty in that case, which is scheduled to go to trial next year.

He has accused Smith and the DOJ of charging him and investigating him in an effort to harm his chances of winning the 2024 Republican presidential nomination and defeating Biden.

Source: https://www.cnbc.com/2023/07/27/trump-election-probe-grand-jury.html

Trump made at least $9.6 million from the Middle East while president

Donald Trump made at least $9.6 million from countries in the Middle East during his presidency, according to years of reporting and a CREW analysis of his tax returns. That means Trump pulled in at least six times his official presidential salary in side income from the Middle East alone during his time in office. The total is likely much higher, but public reporting only sheds light on the most high profile instances of profiteering, and he is only required to report certain types of income on his tax returns.

After Trump was elected president, he made the unprecedented decision not to divest from his business interests, and remained very much involved in the Trump Organization, creating an endless number of conflicts of interest by blurring the lines between the government and his businesses. The profiteering paid off, and Trump raked in tens of millions from international business interests during his time in office.

Trump and his allies in Congress frequently visited and held events at his clubs, hotels and golf courses, advertising to those looking to influence the government that Trump properties were open for business. Foreign governments and officials in particular took advantage of the open opportunity to ingratiate themselves with the president. At an event for foreign diplomats at the Trump International Hotel in D.C., held shortly after Trump was elected, one diplomat told the Washington Post, “Why wouldn’t I stay at his hotel blocks from the White House, so I can tell the new president, ‘I love your new hotel!’” Multiple other diplomats echoed this sentiment.

Officials from the Middle East in particular took this advice, with officials from countries including Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Turkey taking conspicuous measures to curry favor with the president.

Saudi Arabia

From December 2016 through February of 2017, Saudi government lobbyists reserved blocks of rooms at Trump’s D.C. hotel, “paying for an estimated 500 nights at the luxury hotel in just three months,” and spending at least $270,000 at the property in total. Trump continued to benefit from Saudi business in office. When the Saudi Crown Prince visited New York in 2018, several members of his entourage stayed at the Trump International Hotel in Manhattan. Earnings from the room rentals caused revenue to spike 13 percent, putting the hotel “back in the black” after two years of decline. Weeks before the murder of Washington Post contributing columnist Jamal Khashoggi by agents of the Saudi government, Trump’s business partner in Indonesia signed an agreement for a Saudi-backed company to work on a development with Trump-branded elements. Asked about the deal, “an official with the Saudi-tied firm also said they expect to be involved in the development of a different Trump-branded project in the future.” Trump returned the favor, shielding Saudi leaders from criticism after Khashoggi’s murder and going so far as to allege Khashoggi was tied to terrorist groups.

Qatar

After several Middle Eastern countries cut diplomatic ties with Qatar for allegedly backing terrorists, Qatar spent hundreds of thousands on lobbying to put itself back into Trump and the U.S.’s good graces. They purchased a $6.5 million condo in Trump World Tower, and started renting space in the “most valuable asset” in Trump’s portfolio, a San Francisco building he co-owns, directing $125,000 per year in rent to the president. After Qatar finished renovations in February 2018, the office sat completely vacant. In April 2018 he welcomed the Emir of Qatar to the Oval Office and praised the country for fighting against extremism.

United Arab Emirates

Trump raked in money from the United Arab Emirates through his Dubai golf course amid concerns about corruption and human rights abuses in the country. Before taking office, Trump was paid as much as $10 million in royalties from the golf course and other projects in Dubai. On top of that, the U.A.E. spent up to $10 thousand per night for rooms at Trump’s D.C. hotel from late 2017 to mid 2018. Trump acted favorably to the U.A.E. in many ways during this time, from his administration’s “maximum pressure” agenda against U.A.E. adversary Iran to supporting a $23 billion arms deal with Abu Dhabi in 2020.

Turkey

In 2017 and 2019 groups with ties to the Turkish government held four events at Trump properties and Turkish officials made 15 visits to the Trump Hotel in D.C., where they spent up to $10,000 per night on rooms. Around the same time, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan pressured Trump to shut down an investigation into sanctions violations by a state-owned Turkish bank. DOJ officials attempted to quash the investigation on the orders of Trump, though it ultimately proceeded.

Kuwait

The Embassy of Kuwait hosted three independence day parties at the D.C. hotel. In turn, Trump bestowed a “top U.S. honor” to Kuwait’s ruling emir.

Trump said
They buy apartments from me. They spend $40 million, $50 million. Am I supposed to dislike them? I like them very much.

Source: https://www.citizensforethics.org/reports-investigations/crew-investigations/trump-made-9-6-million-middle-east-income-while-president/

u-font-size-30@mobile-max u-line-height-33@mobile-max u-width-90p@tablet u-width-85p@desktop “>u-width-80p@desktop-xl”>THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT has brought a superseding indictment and additional charges against former President Donald Trump and his aide Walt Nauta, and charged a third Mar-a-Lago employee in connection with their investigation into Trump’s mishandling of classified documents following his departure from office.

Federal authorities now allege that Trump, Nauta, and Carlos de Oliveira, a maintenance worker at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort, conspired to destroy surveillance footage of Mar-a-Lago requested by federal investigators over the course of their investigation.

De Oliveira joins Trump and his Nauta as a defendant in the case brought by the Justice Department in June. The new charges against the former president and his employees include “Corruptly Altering, Destroying, Mutilating or Concealing a Document, Record, or Other Object,” as well as “Altering, Destroying, Mutilating, or Concealing an Object.”

According to the new indictment, On June 25, 2022, the day after investigators had requested “[a]ny and all surveillance records, videos, images, photographs and/or CCTV from internal cameras” at certain locations at the Mar-a-Lago Club, de Oliveira met with a Mar-a-Lago IT employee, allegedly at Nauta’s direction. De Oliveira allegedly told the employee something to the effect of “the boss” wanting the server containing the security footage “deleted.” The employee replied that he would need to reach out to his supervisor.

The indictment alleges that de Oliveira spoke multiple times on the phone with Trump, including a conversation in which Trump promised he’d get de Oliveira an attorney.

According to a June CNN report, de Oliveira was seen in surveillance footage helping Nauta move boxes out of a storage room that was later examined by investigators and Trump’s attorneys.

De Oliveira is charged separately for allegedly lying to the FBI in a voluntary interview. The indictment includes a snippet of an interview transcript. When questioned about whether he’d taken part in moving around Trump’s presidential boxes, de Oliveira repeatedly said, “No,” adding that he, “Never saw nothing.”

Last month, the former president pleaded not guilty to 42 federal counts related to his handling of classified material. The previous charges leveled against Trump include conspiracy to obstruct justice, corruptly concealing a record or document, concealing a document in a federal investigation, scheme to conceal, false statements and representations.

Read the full updated indictment here:

source: https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/trump-carlos-de-oliveira-mar-a-lago-classified-docs-1234796376/

Trump says he’ll run for president from jail if convicted on any of his various indictments

Donald Trump said on Friday that he would run for president from prison in 2024 if he is convicted on any of the number of criminal charges he faces.

The former president and current Republican frontrunner made the comments during a radio interview with conservative host John Fredericks. During the exchange, Mr Trump denied new charges brought against him by federal prosecutors claiming that he instructed employees at his Mar-a-Lago resort to destroy security recordings.

“These were security tapes. We handed them over to them. … I’m not even sure what they’re saying,” Mr Trump insisted.

The three new indictments were brought by US Special Counsel Jack Smith on Thursday. That brings the former president’s number of charges up to 40. The special counsel also named a Mar-a-Lago worker, Carlos De Oliveira, with conspiracy to obstruct justice by helping Mr Trump conceal documents.

Mr De Oliveira, 56, reportedly told another worker at the club that “the boss” requested for him to destroy security videos after they were subpoenaed by the Department of Justice.

The maintenance worker was also charged with lying to the FBI when he told agents during a voluntary interview that he did not move boxes of classified documents around Mar-a-Lago.

“They went after two fine employees yesterday, fine people,” Mr Trump said. “They’re trying to intimidate people so that people go out and make up lies about me. Because I did nothing wrong.”

Fredericks then asked Mr Trump if the charges did stick, whether or not a conviction would stall his presidential campaign.

“So let me ask you this. If going forward, right? You get these indictments, there ends up you got a jury in DC, you get convicted and sentenced. Does that stop your campaign for president if you’re sentenced?” Fredericks asked.

Mr Trump assured him that he would continue to run, even while incarcerated.

“No, not at all. There’s nothing in the Constitution to say that it could, and not at all. And even the radical left crazies are saying, no, that wouldn’t stop,” Mr Trump said.

And he’s right; there’s nothing saying he can’t run.

Eugene Mazo, a law professor at Seton Hall, told Politico that Mr Trump could lose his mind and still legally run for president.

“There’s nothing barring Trump from running. Even a federal conviction doesn’t prevent that. … Even if he were mentally insane,” Mr Mazo said. “The Supreme Court has said what’s in the Constitution are the only requirements you need to run for federal office.”

Mr Trump has made it clear he understands that, and that he’ll still seek the nomination even if he’s in an orange jumpsuit.

“And [a conviction] wouldn’t stop me either,” Mr Trump said. “These people are sick. What they’re doing is absolutely horrible.”

Source: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-presidential-run-prison-indictments-b2383877.html?utm_source=reddit.com

the_patriot_smack said
Trump did lose probably way more than 900 million dollars for being a fucking amazing president but that still did not stop him from donating 100% of his presidential salary to charities

You don’t even know your own lore. Trump lost $700 million in 2009, and $200 million in 2010. Obama was president. This was back when Trump was trying to be a “business man” and I use the term generously. Pissing away $900 million in two years? It’s hard to be that big of a failure. He’s bankrupt six businesses. The man is a fucking loser. 

Source: https://int.nyt.com/data/documenttools/jc-treport-full/f668ccce9e46c975/full.pdf