Another Criminal Investigation Into The Trump Organization? Sure Why Not!
Always room for more.
We are all waiting waiting waiting for something fun to happen, for the feds or the district attorney in Atlanta to arrest members of Donald Trump's organization or others of his high-level associates. At this point, it seems almost too hopeful to think somebody might grow the balls to arrest Trump himself for any of the obvious crimes he's always committing in our face. And it's kind of weird, quite frankly, that we got more perp walks of Trump criminals in the days of Donald Trump's Justice Department than we have under Joe Biden's Justice Department, at least so far.
But maybe it's just the calm before the storm. Maybe.
Regardless, the New York Times is reporting that another district attorney's office is leading a criminal investigation into the Trump Organization. This time it's Westchester County, New York, DA Mimi Rocah — yes, you've seen her on MSNBC as a legal commentator — and surprise, it's about whether the Trump Organization has lied about the value of another Trump property in order to hide from taxes. So that's familiar territory, if you've been following the Manhattan investigations, which are reportedly chugging along.
Here's the Times:
In recent months, the district attorney's office in suburban Westchester County, N.Y., has subpoenaed records from [...] Trump National Golf Club Westchester, and the town of Ossining, which sets property taxes on the course, a sprawling private club that is perched on a hill north of New York City and boasts a 101-foot waterfall.
The full scope of the investigation could not be determined, but the district attorney, Mimi E. Rocah, appears to be focused at least in part on whether Mr. Trump's company, the Trump Organization, misled local officials about the property's value to reduce its taxes, one of the people said.
The Times offers all the usual disclaimers about nobody has been accused of anything wrong and nobody knows if charges are coming and yadda yadda.
Down there in Manhattan, longtime Trump Org CFO Allen Weisselberg has been indicted, and we haven't gotten an update lately on whether he's being a pain in the ass or whether he's decided to be helpful. If he wanted to be an American hero he'd just spill everything he knows and give us the Trump family perp walk of our dreams. Regardless, we've had updates on how that investigation might be getting closer to other Trumpland figures, like Matthew Calamari and other people who may or may not be named after Red Lobster appetizers. (We hear Joey Cheddar Bay Biscuits is a real bad guy.)
And of course, as we mentioned, Fulton County, Georgia, DA Fani Willis has been investigating Trump and pals for their attempts to pressure Georgia officials into overthrowing democracy because Trump is a wannabe tyrant and his feelings were hurt because he's such a gargantuan loser. That investigation has been SHHHHHHHHH QUIET and we have read that that's by design.
And now there's Westchester County. As the Times notes, Mimi Rocah is a veteran of the Southern District of New York (SDNY), and after that, she went to MSNBC. The lead investigator on the case is another guy who was an SDNY prosecutor forfuckingever. So we can be sure that Trump is composing his grammatically incoherent WITCH HUNT statements right now. Make three wanking motions if you care.
Our point here is can somebody please give us a goddamn perp walk please please please? The feds raided all of Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska's American dachas yesterday, and we don't know why, but that would be fine. Or Rudy Giuliani? How all those investigations coming? Anybody need any help?
It is way the fuck past time for these lawless assholes to start facing some accountability, and that is pretty much all we have to say about that.
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Liz Cheney And Adam Schiff Sound Ready To Throw Steve Bannon's Ass In Jail
Hope Merrick Garland is willing to follow through.
In the matter of the House January 6 Select Committee subpoenas that several of the most garbage members of Trumpland are saying they're going to defy, a couple members of that committee made some noise this week suggesting they absolutely intend to have those people criminally prosecuted if they follow through with their threats.
Last time we wrote about the subject, we had Democratic committee chair Bennie Thompson and Republican Adam Kinzinger making similar threats. Today's quotes are even stronger fightin' words.
Liz Cheney, the Republican who serves as vice-chair of the committee, says lock 'em up if they don't comply:
"In general, people are going to have to appear, or, you know, we will move contempt charges against them," Cheney said. She said the entire committee was in agreement on that point.
Cheney said the committee expected to have depositions from [Mark] Meadows and [Kash] Patel later this week. "We'll see if they show up. If they show up, we'll be prepared," she said.
As Talking Points Memo notes, Cheney and Thompson made a statement last week that's much the same, suggesting that Meadows and Patel were cooperating somewhat, but specifically calling out human urinal cake Steve Bannon for saying through his lawyer that he was going to defy Congress. It went something like this:
"Though the Select Committee welcomes good-faith engagement with witnesses seeking to cooperate with our investigation, we will not allow any witness to defy a lawful subpoena or attempt to run out the clock, and we will swiftly consider advancing a criminal contempt of Congress referral," the committee chairs wrote.
Cheney's comments this week sound a little tougher than last week's statement. Meanwhile, Bannon is renewing his threats to defy the committee.
Also trying to speak some reality in Steve Bannon's general direction is Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff, who's just trying to remind Bannon that his true father Donald Trump is a powerless loser now, and nobody is going to save you. He said all this on CNN:
"We have a new attorney general, a new Justice Department, dedicated to the principle that no one is above the law.… https://t.co/I5eY9tjagu— New Day (@New Day) 1634042886.0
"We have a new attorney general, a new Justice Department dedicated to the principle that no one is above the law," the Democrat continued. "So Bannon is in a completely different situation now."
Schiff warned that the committee was "not fooling around."
"Those who don't cooperate with our committee are going to be the subject of criminal contempt," he said. "We will vote on it in the House at the appropriate time, and we will refer to the Justice Department for prosecution."
In other words, welcome to hell, you pockmarked hairball.
Of course, all of this is assuming the committee doesn't back down, and that Attorney General Merrick Garland will actually do the job he was hired to do. We have not been automatically assuming he's not, simply because we can't always see exactly what the attorney general is doing behind the scenes. But this is one case where we'll be able to figure out real fast if he's going to decide if subpoenas from Congress mean something, or if Donald Trump and his minions can just keep acting like they exist entirely outside the law.
There is no in between here. CNN's sources say if Bannon doesn't comply, the committee is ready to make an example of him. We hope so.
Oh yeah, BT-dubs, the committee also just subpoenaed Jeffrey Clark, the Trump DOJ assclown who appears to have done more to help his loser president destroy democracy with coups than anyone else. There needs to be follow-through on the requirement to comply with the committee's demands, and it needs to happen now, where everybody can see it.
[Reuters / Talking Points Memo / ibid.]
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Kyle Rittenhouse Lawyers: He Was Just 'Hunting'. What Do You Mean That's Worse?
Kyle Rittenhouse's Most Dangerous Game.
In an attempt this week to get the gun charge against him dropped, Kyle Rittenhouse's lawyers tried to argue that Wisconsin's hunting laws permitted him to patrol the streets of Kenosha with an AR-15-style semiautomatic rifle, even though he was only 17 at the time and another law states that no one under 18 may possess a dangerous weapon like that.
The Chicago Tribune reports that on Tuesday, defense attorney Corey Chirafisi pointed to a state statute that requires specific training and supervision for anyone hunting under the age of 16, noting, "There appears to be an exception for 17-year-olds."
Rittenhouse, you may recall, went up to Kenosha, Wisconsin, from his home in Illinois specifically to defend a used car dealership from Black Lives Matter protesters, an activity that is not traditionally considered to be "hunting." Unless of course one is an eccentric, sociopathic Russian aristocrat living on an island and luring shipwrecked sailors to one's estate for the purposes of hunting them down and killing them.
But this is the United States, not "Ship-trap Island," and we have different rules here.
The prosecution has no problem with this line of defense, saying that if Rittenhouse's lawyers want to present the theory to a jury, they should go right ahead and knock themselves out.
"They can submit evidence that the defendant had a certificate to hunt and he was engaged in legal hunting on the streets of Kenosha that night," said Assistant District Attorney Thomas Binger, adding, "I don't think they really want to do that."
Circuit Judge Bruce Schroeder is less sure that this is a good idea, saying he wants to review the statutes himself. "I don't feel comfortable making a ruling," he said, according to the Tribune. "The basic concept is the rule ... has to be clear to ordinary people."
Rittenhouse's defense so far has focused on claiming that he was acting in self defense, a claim that would certainly conflict with the idea that he killed two people and injured one while he was out hunting ... in a used car lot, in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
Via Chicago Tribune:
In a preview of Rittenhouse's defense, [self-defense expert John R.] Black testified that each time Rittenhouse pulled the trigger he was doing so to protect himself and stop his gun from being taken.
"I do believe they (Rittenhouse's actions) were reasonably necessary," he said.
Black says his findings are all predicated on his belief that each person Rittenhouse shot wanted to take away his gun. Videos from that night show several people trying to disarm Rittenhouse after he fatally shot Joseph Rosenbaum and ran away from the scene, but there is no clear image of an unarmed Rosenbaum trying to take the rifle.
So just to recap:
Who knows what their next defense will be? My guess is that they will claim that Kyle Rittenhouse saw the Mars Cheese Castle and figured he was in an another country not subject to the gun/homicide laws of Wisconsin, but at this point anything is possible.
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Matt Gaetz's Wingman Buddy Got A Whole Lot More Cooperatin' To Do
This blog post doesn't mention Matt Gaetz's penis. Much.
Here's a little tidbit of news that landed on us yesterday afternoon!
We haven't heard much lately about the federal sex crimes investigation into disgusting gross GOP Florida Man Rep. Matt Gaetz. We feel like the last major update we got was in August, maybe? In that update, we learned that Gaetz's wingman Joel Greenberg — who has been cooperating with the feds since at least the spring, when he pleaded guilty to six federal charges, and maybe quite a bit longer than that — was "steadily providing information and handing over potential evidence that could implicate the Florida congressman and others in the sprawling probe," according to ABC News.
There were other details in that report, but you don't want to read them, it's too early in the morning. But hey, if you want to read text messages where Greenberg is chatting up women to negotiate "allowances" for hanging out with his "friend" and yeah just ugh nope.
The news from yesterday is that Greenberg's lawyer asked the judge to delay his sentencing until March so he can cooperate a whole lot more, and prosecutors were fine with that. Greenberg was supposed to be sentenced in November, but we guess he's got more than just another month of cooperation in him. So that should be comforting news for Gaetz!
The Orlando Sentinel explains:
Greenberg is currently slated to be sentenced Nov. 18. But in a newly filed motion, his attorney Fritz Scheller said that Greenberg's cooperation with investigators, which was a condition of his plea deal "cannot be completed prior to the time of his sentencing."
"The parties expect that Mr. Greenberg will participate in additional proffers, and a continuance would provide Mr. Greenberg with additional time to do so prior to his sentencing," the motion states.
Yes, we bet Matt Gaetz slept very well last night.
We are not a lawyer, but we are GUESSING that if the feds want to keep Greenberg cooperating with them for several extra months, that means his cooperation is fruitful. We are just guessing. Oh wait, we don't have to guess, because the filing basically says that:
Pursuant to his plea agreement with the Government, Mr. Greenberg has been cooperating with the Government and has participated in a series of proffers. Said cooperation, which could impact his ultimate sentence, cannot be completed prior to the time of his sentencing. The parties expect that Mr. Greenberg will participate in additional proffers, and a continuance would provide Mr. Greenberg with additional time to do so prior to his sentencing.
If you are just jones-ing for more Matt Gaetz news to read, the Daily Beast recently had a thing on the team of lawyers he's put together. Short version: These are likely not the lawyer hirings of somebody who thinks this is all going to go away quietly!
This has been an update on Matt Gaetz where we didn't have to mention his penis. Of course we just ruined that, by mentioning that this blog post does not reference Matt Gaetz's penis. All our apologies.
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