White House
One Last Grift On His Way Out The Door
T----p pardons some weird shit.
January 20, 2021 12:32 PM
It's a perfect, perfect list. No, really.
Trump's last-second pardons are out, and there could not be a more consummate encapsulation of the last four years, which are now over. The venality, the favoritism, the naked corruption, the gross tokenism ... it's all there.
"No one's done more for the blacks," he'll say. "I pardoned Tiny Wayne and that mayor, the one Diamond and Silk told me about. Those people love me."
"And no one's done more for the Jews! I pardoned that Israeli spy handler. It meant a lot to them."
He won't talk about the absolute gravy train of corruption that led to dozens of white collar convictions being wiped away after a blizzard of lobbying fueled by cash and connections. Why would he? To him it's normal that a wealthy sports gambler should pay Trump's former attorney John Dowd to work his White House connections to get an insider trading conviction commuted. Why shouldn't former prosecutor Brett Tolman collect money from clients lobbying to get a pardon, while simultaneously advising the White House on the issuance of pardons? How would a president know who deserves clemency without a cottage industry of hustlers looking to sell their access or do some business in the favor economy?
<p>"Everything is a transaction. He likes pardons because it is unilateral. And he likes doing favors for people he thinks will owe him," a source told <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/17/politics/trump-pardons-expected/index.html" target="_blank">CNN</a>.</p><p>And just like every other filthy, awful thing in the past four years, <em>he doesn't even know that it's wrong.</em> Take for instance the commutation of pending charges against Miami developer Robert Zangrillo in the college admissions scandal.</p><blockquote>President Trump granted a full pardon to Robert Zangrillo. This pardon is supported by Len Blavatnik, Geoff Palmer, Tom Barrack, Sean Parker, Walid Abu-Zalaf, Medo Alsaloussi, and Kevin Downing. Mr. Zangrillo was charged in connection with the Varsity Blues investigation. However, his daughter did not have others take standardized tests for her and she is currently earning a 3.9 GPA at the University of Southern California. Mr. Zangrillo is a well-respected business leader and philanthropist.</blockquote><p>The kid was packaged as a crew recruit, despite the fact that she does not even row, in exchange for a $50,000 donation to the athletic department and $200,000 to the handler. This was a fraud on the school, which is perhaps why Trump's gazillionaire buddy Tom Barrack, who sits on USC's board of trustees, is furiously trying to distance himself from it.</p><p>"Mr. Barrack had nothing whatsoever to do with Mr. Zangrillo's pardon," his spokesman told the <em><a href="https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-01-20/with-usc-trustees-support-trump-pardons-father-in-college-admissions-scandal" target="_blank">LA Times</a></em>. "He never intervened and never had discussion with anyone about it. All reports to the contrary are patently false."</p><p>Because you're supposed to keep that shit on the DL, not put it in a press release! Four years in Washington, and the fool is still saying the quiet part out loud.</p><p>The list of pardons and commutations is a parade of grotesques, with non-violent drug offenders "supported by Acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen and the Office of the Pardon Attorney" building a wall of legitimacy around the white collar criminals supported by the president's coterie. The former were locked away for decades under the same harsh, mandatory minimum sentencing laws championed by Trump's Attorneys General Jeff Sessions and Bill Barr. The latter served a few years and would like to go home early and/or have their slates wiped clean, please and thanks.</p><p>Like the <a href="https://www.nashvillepost.com/business/health-care/article/21139711/former-cps-exec-sentenced-to-42-months-in-kickback-scheme" target="_blank">healthcare CEO</a> who just started a 42-month sentence in a $4.6 million kickback scheme. He was lucky enough to have an in with Sen. Rand Paul, so he's going home. Or Michael Liberty, who "was convicted for campaign finance violations and later was indicted for related offenses," according to the White House press release. By which they mean, he made an <a href="https://www.justice.gov/usao-me/pr/florida-man-sentenced-four-months-making-illegal-campaign" target="_blank">illegal campaign contribution</a> to Mitt Romney's campaign, and is <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/nathanvardi/2019/02/28/michael-liberty-founder-of-once-hot-startup-mozido-indicted-for-fraud/?sh=57d8029c5cc5" target="_blank">currently under indictment</a> for scamming 55 investors out of $200 million. He gets a full pardon, of course, thanks to lobbying by Maine state Rep. Susan Austin.</p><p>There are plenty more like that, but let's move on to the truly vile pardons.</p><p>There's political consultant Ken Kurson, Jared Kushner's buddy who was charged with cyberstalking and harassment after his divorce. "This investigation only began because Mr. Kurson was nominated to a role within the Trump Administration," the White House wrote. They left out the part where he harassed his ex-wife and her friend, whom he blamed for his divorce, leaving threatening voice mails, negative Yelp reviews, showing up at the friend's office, and hacking her email. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/23/nyregion/ken-kurson-arrest-cyberstalking.html" target="_blank">Allegedly!</a></p><p>There's Russian honeypot Maria Buttina's hapless boyfriend <a href="https://www.wonkette.com/meet-paul-erickson-maria-butinas-middle-aged-balding-debt-ridden-boy-toy" target="_blank">Paul Erickson</a>. You remember this guy — he's the one who actually left himself a note saying <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/feds-target-butinas-gop-boyfriend-as-foreign-agent" target="_blank">"How to respond to FSB offer of employment?"</a></p><blockquote>This pardon is supported by Kellyanne Conway. Mr. Erickson's conviction was based off the Russian collusion hoax. After finding no grounds to charge him with any crimes with respect to connections with Russia, he was charged with a minor financial crime. Although the Department of Justice sought a lesser sentence, Mr. Erickson was sentenced to 7 years' imprisonment—nearly double the Department of Justice's recommended maximum sentence. This pardon helps right the wrongs of what has been revealed to be perhaps the greatest witch hunt in American History.
</blockquote><p>He pled guilty to defrauding investors in an oil scheme entirely unrelated to the Russia investigation, after a long career of defrauding people for the purpose of <a href="https://www.argusleader.com/story/news/2020/07/06/former-political-operative-paul-erickson-maria-butina-sentencing/5383306002/" target="_blank">"Christian nursing homes." </a>But, you know, WITCH HUNT!</p><p>Trump pardoned Elliott Broidy, the former RNC fundraiser who just pled guilty in October to acting as an unregistered foreign agent of the Malaysian and Chinese governments. He pardoned Rick Renzi, Robert Hayes, and Randy Cunningham, three former Republican congressmen convicted of corruption. Randy "Duke" Cunningham lived rent-free on a lobbyist's boat called the <em>Duke Stir </em>where he would entertain women in a fetid hot tub by the light of a lava lamp. He had an actual <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/story?id=1667009&page=1" target="_blank">bribe menu</a> on his business card, but he never sold weed, so he got out of jail in 2013.</p><p>But at least Duke Cunningham served his time! Steve Bannon, who was charged with <a href="https://www.wonkette.com/and-on-the-fourth-day-of-the-dnc-the-post-office-arrested-steve-bannon" target="_blank">scamming Trump's supporters</a> out of cash to build that border wall Mexico was totally going to pay for, was pardoned before he could even stand trial. White House staff thought they'd talked Trump out of letting Bannon skate, but a late phone call by Bannon paid off. It didn't pay off for his co-conspirator Brian Kolfage, however. Guess there's no honor among thieves.</p><p>"Mr. Bannon has been an important leader in the conservative movement and is known for his political acumen," the White House wrote. Which is one way to put it.</p><p>In the end, Trump didn't pardon himself or his kids or Rudy Giuliani, as <a href="https://www.wonkette.com/trump-will-pardon-them-all-will-pardon-his-family-will-pardon-himself-f-ck-it-its-fine" target="_blank">we'd predicted</a>. In our defense, we didn't predict a violent insurrection stoked by the president and his nasty family, either, after which a pardon looked like an admission of guilt and a politically impossible challenge to the Senate during impeachment. Failure of imagination on our part, we guess.</p><p>And now, as he shambles out the door, our Fox News president has one more gift to give to the people that made him. He's reportedly pardoned <a href="https://twitter.com/Acosta/status/1351929366398312450?s=20" target="_blank">Judge Jeanine's ex-husband Albert Pirro, </a>a lawyer who once represented Trump in real estate deals and served 11 months on tax evasion charges in 2000. Talk about bending the arc of the moral universe!</p><p>Well, as a former president once said, <em>that was some weird shit</em>. And thank God it's over.</p><p>[<a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/statement-press-secretary-regarding-executive-grants-clemency-012021/" target="_blank">White House Pardon List</a>]</p><p><strong>Follow Liz Dye on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/5DollarFeminist" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">RIGHT HERE!</a></strong><br></p><p><strong>Please click here to support your Wonkette. And if you're ordering your quarantine goods on Amazon, <a href="https://amzn.to/2wbH77j" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">this is the link to do it.</a></strong></p><p></p><form name="donation" method="post" class="donation-form"><p class="subheadline">How often would you like to donate?</p><div class="form-row row--plan"><label class="plan-type__label"><input type="radio" name="plan_type" value="once" class="plan-type" required="" checked> Just once
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Legal
Latinos For Trump Wants Election Tossed Because Congress DOES NOT EXIST
He's got about an hour, he'd best hurry.
January 20, 2021 09:30 AM
A new contender enters the ring! Move over, Sidney Powell! Step aside Roodles! Back up, Lin Wood! It's time for Paul M. Davis, Former Associate General Counsel of Goosehead Insurance, Inc. (Terminated after peacefully protesting) Now Solo Civil Rights Attorney.
AKA, this jackass.
This is Paul Davis. Paul is a lawyer. He’s also associate general counsel & director of human resources at Goosehea… https://t.co/T15t82tT4l— Roger Sollenberger (@Roger Sollenberger)1609980629.0
Paul Davis is representing Latinos for Trump, Blacks for Trump, Joshua Macias, apparently the founder of Vets for Trump who was recently released from jail and re-arrested after the Capitol riots, and four other pseudonymous plaintiffs.
<p>If we cared at all, we'd ask Mr. Google about these crafty chuckleheads, like "Plaintiff, J.B. [who] is a former Texas congressional candidate who was on the federal ballot for a Congressional seat in the 117th Congress and who resides in Texas." <em>But we do not care.</em> We might also engage in a more thorough inquiry as to how a couple of "political organizations" which do not appear to be domiciled anywhere, if indeed they are registered entities at all, have standing to sue in the Western District of Texas. If we cared, which, again <em>we do not.</em> </p><p>As to the defendants, they are EVERY POLITICIAN IN THE UNITED STATES. Plus Mark Zuckerberg, 'cause hey, what the hell, right?</p><blockquote>Plaintiff name, individually as Defendants all current so-called members of the 117th Congress of the United States, including all members of both the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate who are individuals residing in the respective states they purport to represent and may be served with process at their respective Washington D.C. and/or local state offices at the addresses publicly provided via the following links or by virtue of other publicly available sources or wherever they may be found: <a href="https://ballotpedia.org/List_of_current_members_of_the_U.S._Congress" target="_blank">https://ballotpedia.org/List_of_current_members_of...</a> <br><br>Plaintiffs additionally names as Defendants, all the state governors and
secretaries of state listed in Exhibit 1 attached hereto. These individuals reside in
the respective state listed above their names and may be served with process at the
addresses provide in Exhibit 1 or wherever they may be found.</blockquote><p>And no, they didn't bother to serve all those people. What do you think this is, a real lawsuit?</p><p>"This is not a Sidney Powell lawsuit. This is not a Rudy Giuliani lawsuit. This is not a Lin Wood lawsuit. This is not a Team Trump lawsuit. This is not a Republican lawsuit. This is not a Democrat lawsuit," reads a footnote on the first page. Which is true, because even all those lunatics couldn't come up with something this batshit — and you know they tried!</p><p>The theory of the case, and we use that term very loosely, goes like this: In 2002, Congress passed the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) to subsidize the purchase of new voting machines and set out best voting practices going forward. Acceptance of the cash bound states to run elections exactly as dictated by Congress, despite the Constitution saying that elections will be run "in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct." All 50 states have violated the HAVA by allowing mail-in voting, and thus Congress does not exist!</p><blockquote>The truth of the allegations set forth herein compels the shocking conclusion that every member of currently-seated 117th U.S. Congress and the President-Elect, who is scheduled to be sworn in this coming Wednesday, January 20th, were not legitimately elected because the People of the United States were given ballots that were patently illegal under federal law, namely HAVA. Therefore, the entire 117th Congress is illegitimate and all actions taken since January 3, 2021, including the counting of the Electoral College votes and confirmation of Joseph Biden as President-Elect and the impeachment of President Donald J. Trump are null and void.</blockquote><p>Astute observers will note that only one-third of the Senate was on the ballot in 2020, so even if this crackpot theory of the case was accepted, that would still leave 66 sitting senators. But we've got bigger fish to fry here, kids.</p><blockquote>The 20th Amendment mandates that President Trump's term must end at noon on January 20th, but since Congress's act on January 6, 2021 in confirming Joseph Biden as President-Elect was clearly illegitimate, and there is effectively no lawfully existing Legislative Branch this means that the Presidential Inauguration cannot lawfully go forward on Wednesday. Thankfully, there is still time for the only the only lawfully and constitutionally remaining federal public official, President Donald Trump to take all reasonable and necessary action consistent with the Take Care Clause of Article II, Section 1 and all the original intents and purposes of the Constitution of the United States to preserve the lawful and orderly continuity of government.</blockquote><p>There is plenty of time for Trump to fix it, they said, in a case filed on JANUARY 18, 2021.</p><p>This lawsuit is a veritable Easter egg hunt, with every paragraph hiding a delicious, foil-wrapped sugar rush of pure crazy. </p><p>If "the courage of the Court does in fact match that of Plaintiffs' and their undersigned counsels' act in filing this Complaint," that is, if the judge can only be brave like "Plaintiffs and Counsel [who] have essentially signed their own death warrants, or at least the chance at any meaningful career, at the hands of powerful figures who acted, funded, directed, and/or otherwise conspired in furtherance of the evil scheme to strip all power of self-government from the People," then the <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/political_question_doctrine" target="_blank">political question doctrine</a> will not apply. Obviously!</p><p>As for <a href="https://www.wonkette.com/the-law-is-a-gimmick" target="_blank">laches</a>, how were the plaintiffs to know before this week that Congress was going to swear itself in on, um, January 3?</p><blockquote>There is no issue of laches because none of the Plaintiffs were aware of the extent to which the states had violated HAVA in the 2020 congressional elections until they hired undersigned counsel to look into the various election laws. Even if they had been aware, it is axiomatic that a criminal or tortious act is rarely foreseeable, and it was certainly not foreseeable to Plaintiffs that the 117th Congress would take their oaths and be seated in gross violation of federal election law. </blockquote><p>Why should the court award the plaintiffs a temporary restraining order declaring that congress is UNLEGAL?</p><blockquote>If the Defendants and the illegitimate Congress their actions installed are able to continue govern the Republic, it will cease to be a republic. It may become a true RINO "republic in name only" in the sense that the "People's Republic of China" contains the word "Republic," although it is common public knowledge that the China does not in any way belong to its people. It belongs to a tyrannical, authoritarian, communist police state that engages in atrocities against humanity, including the active persecution of proponents of free speech, democracy, Christians, and anyone else who poses a view that does not demonstrate absolute and unquestioning loyalty to the state and whatever ideologies it chooses to cram down the throats of its citizens.</blockquote><p>It's like snorting a Cadbury Creme Egg off the ass of a QAnon influencer!</p><p>Anyway, all they want is for the court to overturn the election. Oh, and also to tell the feds not to arrest Solo Civil Rights Attorney Paul Davis or his co-counsel Kellye SoRelle, a failed Republican candidate who <a href="https://www.wxyz.com/news/how-a-wxyz-wagon-sparked-false-election-fraud-claims-in-detroit" target="_blank">appears to have been the source</a> of the false story about wagons full of ballots being wheeled into the TCF Center in Detroit.</p><blockquote>Enjoin the Department of Justice, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and any other federal agency from arresting and/or holding in custody Plaintiff's undersigned lead counsel, Paul M. Davis and co-counsel, Kellye SoRelle, and any plaintiff or potential witness in relation to their exercise of their own exercise of civil rights by their attendance at the January 6, 2021 protest in Washington, D.C. absent a showing for good cause by clear and convincing evidence that said counsel committed some overt and intentional act of violence that directly resulting in substantial injury to the person of another ...</blockquote><p>Why, NO, it is not normal for the lawyer to seek criminal immunity <em>for himself</em> as part of an unrelated lawsuit. Just another egg in this deplorable basket.</p><p>And here's a sneak peak from a lawyer reading the Motion for a restraining order — we only made it through the complaint, but some people are gluttons for punishment.</p><div id="638ae" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="3e82489f14198342b76a7bacc9af2834"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1351634868833280001" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">OHMYGOD---
A lawyer put this actual text in an actual motion filed in an actual court. https://t.co/GXnXoqDltQ</div> — Mike Dunford (@Mike Dunford)<a href="https://twitter.com/questauthority/statuses/1351634868833280001">1611089839.0</a></blockquote></div><p>THESE PEOPLE ARE CRACKED. Happy Easter.<br></p><p>[<a href="https://www.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.txwd.1120287/gov.uscourts.txwd.1120287.1.0.pdf" target="_blank">Latinos for Trump v. Sessions</a>]</p><p><span></span><strong>Follow Liz Dye on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/5DollarFeminist" target="_blank">RIGHT HERE!</a></strong><br></p><p><strong>Please click here to support your Wonkette. And if you're ordering your quarantine goods on Amazon, <a href="https://amzn.to/2wbH77j" target="_blank">this is the link to do it.</a></strong></p><p></p><form name="donation" method="post" class="donation-form"><p class="subheadline">How often would you like to donate?</p><div class="form-row row--plan"><label class="plan-type__label"><input type="radio" name="plan_type" value="once" class="plan-type" required="" checked> Just once
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My Pillow Guy Dropped By Kohls, Picked Up By Dominion Voting's Lawyers
Cray. Zee.
January 19, 2021 11:58 AM
Mike Lindell didn't get where he is in this life by being shy. The former addict turned pillow pumper built a successful company by just going for it, and he's not about to stop now. The problem with just saying whatever's on your mind, though, is that sometimes it gets you in trouble — particularly when your mind is filled with syphilitic ferrets shouting COUP! COUP! COUP!
And so it is that Lindell finds his company dropped by multiple major national retailers just as he receives a preservation letter from the company he's been shit talking for months. Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.
For reasons not entirely clear, the White House has consulted Lindell on everything from coronavirus treatments to election security. Lindell, who failed to graduate from the University of Minnesota, has expertise in neither area. But he's been an ardent supporter of the president, and in the Trump administration, that's good enough.
<p>On Friday night, he was spotted leaving the White House with a<a href="https://www.wonkette.com/pillow-salesman-invited-to-white-house-to-advise-president-on-enacting-martial-law" target="_blank"> memo laying out a plot</a> to overthrow the government involving martial law and the CIA. This is what we call fomenting rebellion against the US government, and there used to be severe criminal penalties for that sort of thing. Heck, maybe soon there will be again! In the meantime, Dominion Voting Systems would like a word in civil court about all the baseless accusations of fraud and vote rigging Lindell has been slinging about them.</p><p>"We write regarding your patently false accusations that Dominion has somehow rigged or otherwise improperly influenced the recent U.S. presidential election," Dominion's lawyer Thomas Clare wrote in a <a href="https://www.wonkette.com/pillow-salesman-invited-to-white-house-to-advise-president-on-enacting-martial-law" target="_blank">preservation letter</a> on December 23 and published yesterday by <a href="https://www.axios.com/dominion-mike-lindell-my-pillow-ceo-trump-meeting-df5ec714-0528-4d7a-b70d-5c7a5a012a7e.html" target="_blank">Axios</a>. "Despite knowing your implausible attacks against Dominion have no basis in reality, you have participated in the vast and concerted misinformation campaign to slander Dominion."</p><p>Note that defamation of a public figure requires actual knowledge that the claim is false, or at least reckless disregard of the statement's veracity. There's a decent argument that Lindell is so cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs that he actually believes all this horse shit about vote rigging by the Chinese and the Italians, although we're having a hard time picturing the Pillow lawyers making the case that their own client is too batcrap insane to know which end is up.</p><p>"Recently, you have positioned yourself as a prominent leader of the ongoing misinformation campaign," the letter continues. "Accordingly, Dominion formally demands that you (1) cease and desist making defamatory claims against Dominion and (2) preserve and retain all documents relating to Dominion and your smear campaign against the company." And just in case that wasn't clear, Clare added in a footnote, "For the avoidance of all doubt, this is a retraction demand pursuant to relevant state statutes and applicable rules of court."</p><p>Translation: <em>We are suing you in a minute. Don't destroy any evidence, you paste-eating charlatan</em>.</p><p>A month later, Lindell seems not to be heeding the warning. </p><div id="b58bb" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="a035ed7cf45d395f1796906871b5d309"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1351355543097667587" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Lindell says he talks with Sidney Powell twice a day, and came to his (false) conclusion that the election was rigg… https://t.co/7HpkP7IZeA</div> — John Whitehouse (@John Whitehouse)<a href="https://twitter.com/existentialfish/statuses/1351355543097667587">1611023243.0</a></blockquote></div><p>"I have friends of mine that they're getting — they've been gone after by 'the machine people.' You know, these Dominion, these SOS, you know, SAS machines whatever. Or they did, I think, they're going after them," Lindell told Right Side Broadcasting Network in an apparent reference to Sidney Powell, who has already been sued by Dominion. "But you know what? Ha! That's great! I welcome 'em to come after me, 'cause I've got all the evidence. Then we'll finally see it, right?"<br></p><p>"I want Dominion to put up their lawsuit because we have 100% evidence that China and other countries used their machines to steal the election," Lindell told Axios.</p><p>Which raises an interesting question, and one which Dominion's lawyers will likely raise in court. Presumably Lindell could have shared that evidence with the public at any point in the past 10 weeks — unlike his buddy Sidney Powell, he's still got his Twitter account. And instead he's tweeting out inscrutable screenshots of context-free gibberish, which will no doubt be cited as evidence that he knows his own numbers are garbage.</p><div id="51f85" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="037a53c2bde9d6b70f054a1fba2a31df"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1350298525549137921" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Here is one page of hundreds that prove President Trump got around 79m votes to 68m votes for Biden! Everyone shoul… https://t.co/NnQsJHTCTp</div> — Mike Lindell (@Mike Lindell)<a href="https://twitter.com/realMikeLindell/statuses/1350298525549137921">1610771230.0</a></blockquote></div><p>He's got hundreds of pages, you guys. He just can't show them to you right now. Don't ask why.</p><p>"I did my own math on November 4th, and I said 'This is mathematically impossible. Or improbable, for sure improbable. Close to impossible.' And then I got this guy four days ago, he brought it in 100 percent impossible!" Lindell gushed to the Right Side host Brian Glenn, assuring him that Trump's actual margin of victory was 11 million votes.</p><p>For those of you doing the math, turning a 7 million Trump vote deficit into an 11 million margin would require an 18 million vote tabulation error, or 11 percent. Which seems on the face of it 100 percent impossible. But, see, Mike Lindell knows a guy ...</p><p>And while we're on this little tangent, the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right_Side_Broadcasting_Network" target="_blank">Wiki</a> for Right Side notes that it was just some dude named Joe Seales posting YouTube videos of Trump rallies in 2015, until he decamped to Alabama to chow down on that sweet, sweet government cheese.</p><blockquote>After RSBN began taking off, Seales and his family moved to Auburn, Alabama, as the town had just equipped itself with $43 million worth of high-speed fiber optic cables. He and his wife transformed their new home into a news studio, hiring producers and on-air talent. Since then, RSBN has accumulated hundreds of millions of views on its YouTube channel.</blockquote><p>As every red-blooded conservative does!</p><p>As for Kohls, Bed Bath and Beyond, Wayfair, and H-E-B <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/mypillow-products-no-longer-stocked-these-companies-1562510" target="_blank">dropping </a>his product, Lindell knows who is to blame. </p><div id="43093" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="2de21f5ac5f87238c62ce04c313445a1"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1351351525248032768" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">From an interview earlier this evening, Mike Lindell tells Right Side Broadcasting that he was just told that… https://t.co/Fj3sPtTvRF</div> — John Whitehouse (@John Whitehouse)<a href="https://twitter.com/existentialfish/statuses/1351351525248032768">1611022285.0</a></blockquote></div><p>That's right, it is communists! Or maybe it is bots! Look, who can follow this shit? The point is, Mike Lindell welcomes this lawsuit because then everyone will get to see all his very good evidence that the election was stolen. Evidence he can't share with you now because reasons. And he's definitely not a wacko who's going to lose his company in a lawsuit that proves to the public that all the claims about vote fraud which the GOP used to gin up a pack of lunatics to sack Congress were pathetic lies.</p><p>[<a href="https://www.wonkette.com/pillow-salesman-invited-to-white-house-to-advise-president-on-enacting-martial-law" target="_blank">Dominion Letter</a> / <a href="https://www.axios.com/dominion-mike-lindell-my-pillow-ceo-trump-meeting-df5ec714-0528-4d7a-b70d-5c7a5a012a7e.html" target="_blank">Axios</a>]<br></p><p><strong>Follow Liz Dye on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/5DollarFeminist" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">RIGHT HERE!</a></strong><br></p><p><strong>Please click here to support your Wonkette. 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White House
Trump Trying To Stuff One More Of Devin Nunes's Idiots Under Desk At NSA Before He Leaves
Miss Nancy will SEE ABOUT THAT.
January 18, 2021 03:30 PM
Remember that time in 2017 when Rep. Devin Nunes ninja-ed out of an Uber to race over to the White House for classified info on the Russia investigation, only to hold a press conference on the White House driveway purporting to bring that same info to the White House? Do you think the asshole who gave him that info should installed as the top lawyer at the National Security Agency just hours before Trump leaves office? What if we told you NSA Chief Paul Nakasone was vehemently against it?
And yet! Acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller just ordered Nakasone to do just that, as Donald Trump's minions do their best to break all the shit they can't stuff in their pockets on the way out the door.
The Washington Post was first to report that Miller had forced the NSA to put Nunes's former House Intel lawyer Michael Ellis in the job over the weekend. Ellis was selected for the position in November — i.e. right after the election — despite scoring lower in the civil service interview process than other competitors. The New York Times confirms that Ellis was "one of three finalists, although he did not receive the highest score from the panel evaluating the candidate." Despite that, the Pentagon insists that the hiring process was entirely regular and in order.
<p>
"Once a candidate is selected through the merit system, given an offer, and meets the requirements to be entered into the position, if that entry does not happen it exposes the department, agency, and senior leadership to claims for a violation of the merit system principles and processes that are designed to protect the participants in such selections," an anonymous DOD spokesman <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/nsa-installing-michael-ellis-top-lawyer" target="_blank">said</a>.
</p><p>
Which is nonsense on its face. The current Principal Deputy General Counsel, <a href="https://www.nsa.gov/about/ogc/leadership/" target="_blank">Teisha M. Anthony</a>, joined the NSA as an intelligence analyst in 1990 and has been a lawyer since 1996. Ellis didn't even graduate from law school until 2011. It's a safe bet Anthony wouldn't have to take a crash course on classification the way Ellis did so he could <a href="https://www.wonkette.com/trump-sues-john-bolton-over-upcoming-tell-all-and-yes-they-can-both-lose" target="_blank">overrule career officials</a> to declare John Bolton's book double super duper classified.
</p><p>
Nor is Anthony under investigation for retaliation against a co-worker, unlike Ellis, who is <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/vindman-s-brother-files-whistleblower-complaint-alleging-white-house-retaliation-n1238273" target="_blank">accused of retaliating</a> against Yevgeny Vindman, twin brother of Alexander Vindman, for his role in the Ukraine impeachment scandal. In fact, as a lawyer for the National Security Council, Ellis's fingerprints are all over the hinky Ukraine shit, from <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/03/politics/nsc-senior-director-for-intelligence-michael-ellis/index.html" target="_blank">parking the transcript</a> of the "perfect, perfect phone call" on the top-secret bin Laden server, to burying the whistleblower complaint, to stonewalling Congress.
</p><p>
The naked effort to "burrow" a political hack into a career position with civil service protections, particularly against the wishes of the agency head, has not gone unnoticed. Today, Speaker Nancy Pelosi sent a <a href="https://www.speaker.gov/newsroom/11821-0" target="_blank">letter</a> to Miller asking him to halt Ellis's installation and indicating that she'd initiated an inspector general investigation into how exactly Ellis got hired if he wasn't the top choice:</p><blockquote>
Public reporting indicates that Mr. Ellis, a relatively recent law school graduate with a limited resume, was selected due to interference by the White House, and was chosen over much more qualified candidates. Moreover, Mr. Ellis has been reportedly involved in highly questionable activities that are disqualifying – including the infamous 2017 "midnight run" to launder intelligence information through Rep. Devin Nunes and with efforts to shield information about President Trump's July 2019 call with the President of Ukraine.<br>
<br>
The NSA General Counsel, which involves supervising many intelligence community attorneys and interacting with intelligence agencies, is a highly sensitive career position for which candidates are selected, based on merit and free from political influence. If Mr. Ellis did go through the traditional civil service hiring process, I request a detailed account of that process, to understand how someone with his credentials was chosen over other qualified candidates. The circumstances and timing – immediately after President Trump's defeat in the election – of the selection of Mr. Ellis, and this eleventh-hour effort to push this placement in the last three days of this Administration are highly suspect. Further, the efforts to install him or "burrow" him into a highly sensitive intelligence position 72 hours prior to the beginning of a new Administration manifest a disturbing disregard for our national security. Therefore, this placement should not move forward.
</blockquote><p>
The whole thing reeks to high heaven, as <em>Lawfare</em> executive editor and former NSA lawyer Susan Hennessey told the <em>Post.</em> "This is a transparent effort to subvert civil service rules. No one could possibly defend this apparent hiring process as being free from impermissible political interference. If the NSA director has been given a direct order to install Ellis in this role, despite serious concerns regarding the legality of doing so, then he has no alternative."
</p><p>There's also the question of why it's taken so long for the NSA to onboard this turkey if he was selected in November. Just Security editor Ryan Goodman <a href="https://twitter.com/rgoodlaw/status/1350598841024851968?s=20" target="_blank">noted</a> on Twitter that the original story referred to a delay for "administrative procedures, including taking a polygraph test," and wondered if there might be some problem with the lie detector. Good question!</p><p>If Trump's lackeys do manage to shoehorn Ellis in over the expressed reservations of his immediate boss, he will get some civil service protections against immediate firing. But President Biden will be able to transfer Ellis immediately to another senior position in the Defense Department. Perhaps one in Alaska? We hear the weather there is lovely in February.</p><p>[<a href="https://www.wonkette.com/devin-nunes-didnt-get-wire-tapp-intel-from-white-house-he-just-got-it-at-white-house-see" target="_blank">WaPo</a> / <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/17/us/politics/nsa-michael-ellis-trump.html" target="_blank">NYT</a> / <a href="https://www.justsecurity.org/69012/the-gravity-of-michael-ellis-promotion-to-senior-director-for-intelligence-at-the-white-house/" target="_blank">Just Security</a>]</p><p><span></span><strong>Follow Liz Dye on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/5DollarFeminist" target="_blank">RIGHT HERE!</a></strong><br></p><p><strong>Please click here to support your Wonkette. And if you're ordering your quarantine goods on Amazon, <a href="https://amzn.to/2wbH77j" target="_blank">this is the link to do it.</a></strong></p><p></p><form name="donation" method="post" class="donation-form"><p class="subheadline">How often would you like to donate?</p><div class="form-row row--plan"><label class="plan-type__label"><input type="radio" name="plan_type" value="once" class="plan-type" required="" checked> Just once
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