Crime And Lies In DC

 

As has often been noted, if Republicans are interested in fighting crime in Washington, DC, they need look no further than 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.:

The Trump family notched as much as $5 billion in paper wealth on Monday after its flagship crypto venture opened trading of a new digital currency.

The launch is akin to an initial public offering, in which the cryptocurrency, called WLFI, can now be bought and sold on the open market like a listed company’s shares. Beforehand, people who had privately bought WLFI from the Trump venture, World Liberty Financial, hadn’t been able to exchange their tokens.

The trading debut was most likely the biggest financial success for the president’s family since the inauguration. The Trump family, including President Trump himself, holds just under a quarter of all WLFI tokens in existence. Trump’s three sons are co-founders of World Liberty, while it names the president a “Co-Founder Emeritus.”

World Liberty says founders and team members’ tokens remain “locked,” meaning they still can’t sell them. But the trading launch now puts a real-world valuation on their holdings, which previously were valued based on private sales.

WLFI is likely now the Trumps’ most valuable asset, exceeding their decades-old property portfolio. While the president’s family has continued to pursue property deals around the world since taking office, the fast-moving crypto business has had the biggest early impact.

President Trump helped launch World Liberty a year ago, while campaigning, saying it would help make “America Great Again, this time with crypto.”

World Liberty’s rise this year came as the president drove the growth of the crypto industry from the White House, reining in regulation and touting the potential of private, digital currencies to invigorate the U.S. economy.

In advance of the WLFI trading debut, World Liberty this summer took over a publicly listed firm and raised $750 million in cash from investors to buy the cryptocurrency.

That deal, an unusually circular transaction with the same party as buyer and seller, stands to earn the Trumps around $500 million since they keep up to three-quarters of the revenues from the sale of the tokens, The Wall Street Journal previously reported...

You may recall back in 2021 when the convicted felon Malignant Fascist referred to cryptocurrency as a "scam."  Hearing that word pass his lips must've brought him to his senses ("Wait.  A scam?  That's my business model!  I want in!").   After breezing by concerns about emoluments and divestiture in his first go- round (remember the Trump International Hotel where lobbyists and foreign agents paid to curry favor with the regime?), the convicted felon believes if he's going to cash in on his office, now's the time to go big (thanks to the protections offered by the Republican Supreme Court).  If you took all the illegal deals, scandals, unethical practices, and money- grubbing of Presidents from Washington to Biden, no one would come anywhere close in brazenness or magnitude to the Malignant Fascist's malfeasance.

But, that same career criminal is "Mission Accomplished"-style declaring that Washington, DC, is now "crime free": 

In a spree of Truth Social posts on Labor Day, President Donald Trump declared Washington, D.C., a “crime free zone” following his National Guard takeover of the capital.

Trump also specifically praised Mayor Muriel Bowser, claiming she had “become very popular because she worked with me and my great people in bringing CRIME down to virtually NOTHING.”

However, available crime statistics from D.C.’s Metropolitan Police Department show 442 crimes reported in the district over the past seven days.

These include 50 reports of violent crime: one homicide, 23 instances of assault with a dangerous weapon, 24 robberies, and two cases of sex abuse. Nearly 250 thefts were also reported over the past week.

Trump began his so-called crime crackdown in D.C. on 11 August. As part of the effort, his administration took over the city’s police department and sent in National Guard troops, FBI, and ICE agents into the streets...

Once again, this was a dry run for 2026 mid- term elections interference and voter suppression that will be played out in every major Democratic- run city in America over the next year, Chicago being the next target, apparently.  Maybe he thinks this "crime free" declaration gives him an exit from the charade of the likely illegal deployment of National Guard troops in our cities, which is the majority of the public opposes. Maybe he's getting blowback from the states who provided National Guard troops that are in danger of running out of money for operations and training.

In any event, DC won't be crime free as long as the Malignant Fascist and his gang of fascist cronies is gone.

(Image:  composite by The Guardian, Getty Images)

Trump Predicts His Arrest On Tuesday

In an all-caps tirade on his failing social media site (no link), the Malignant Loser seems abundantly aware that indictments against him are coming very soon, actually predicting he'll be "arrested" on Tuesday, March 21. In particular, an indictment from Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's office involving his hush money payment to adult film actress Stormy Daniels has the Malignant Loser especially agitated. Ominously, the Malignant Loser called for "protests" nationwide if he is indicted by the grand jury formed by the Manhattan District Attorney, echoing his "fight like hell" instigation of the January 6 rioters:

"Former President Donald Trump on Saturday called on his supporters to protest and 'take our nation back' as he girds for an expected effort by the Manhattan district attorney to bring an unprecedented criminal charge over his handling of a hush money payment during his 2016 presidential campaign.

'Protest, take our nation back!' the former president and 2024 GOP presidential candidate exhorted his followers Saturday morning on his social media platform Truth Social, after pointing to news reports about the possibility he could be arrested Tuesday or soon thereafter."  (our emphasis)

His exhortation to violence to shield him from justice isn't new, but it once again demonstrates his utter lawlessness, desperation, and dangerous demagoguery.  It's unknown what the Malignant Loser has for the basis of his prediction, but it's almost certainly gleaned from Bragg's inquiries about the logistics involved in the indictment of the Malignant Loser at his home in Florida:

"A flurry of news reports Friday evening said Bragg asked law enforcement authorities in New York City to begin discussions about the security issues and logistics involved in responding to a potential indictment of Trump there. It’s unclear whether the potential criminal charge would result in Trump being arrested at his new home in Florida, but one of Trump’s attorneys, Joseph Tacopina, has said Trump would turn himself in to face the charges in Manhattan if a grand jury returns an indictment in the coming days."  (our emphasis)

In addition to the Manhattan DA's action, the Malignant Loser is also awaiting indictments from Fulton County, GA, involving his felonious election tampering and obstruction, and from Department of Justice Special Counsel Jack Smith's grand jury investigation into his mishandling of highly classified documents and his central role in the January 6 violent insurrection. 

This is going to be a very bad Spring for the Malignant Loser, and we're down for it.

(image: Yes we can. Yes we must.)

QOTD -- "A Dangerous Precedent!"

(Ed. -- This is likely the longest Quote of the Day we've ever published.  But we think you'll see why we're printing this piece from the Australian website, "The Shovel," in its entirety.)

We are certainly no fans of Donald Trump – let’s make that clear from the outset. But yesterday’s raid by the FBI on the home of a former president sets a dangerous precedent.

A precedent which now means that anyone who evades taxes, attempts to undermine an election, sexually assaults women, manipulates the value of their assets, uses state resources to enrich themselves or aids and abets the overthrow of a democratically elected government will be subject to investigation.

Is that the world we want to live in? Where anyone accused of insurrection can be subject to questioning from law enforcement officers?

It’s a slippery slope. Before we know it, regular citizens accused of defrauding the government, concealing evidence, manipulating financial documents, tampering with witnesses or perverting the course of justice will also be held to account.

Or to put it another way, if we simply shrug our shoulders and fail to question the actions of the FBI, soon any old Joe Citizen who is suspected of ripping classified government documents into small pieces and flushing them down the toilet will be obliged to answer to law enforcement, as well as their plumber.

If we don’t ask the hard questions about the potential motives of the FBI now, soon any one of us who buries our ex-wife in a small grave at the side of their golf course in order to gain a tax concession will be treated with suspicion.  

As Trump supporters put it so clearly yesterday, if this can happen to a President, it could happen to anyone who has committed insurrection, assault or fraud. That’s a chilling thought.  

We are on new ground here. As Donald Trump himself made clear, this is the first time a former president’s home has been raided. Proof, if ever we needed it, that the FBI shamefully only targets people who it considers to have committed a crime. Who gave FBI director Chris Wray that authority?

As we made clear earlier, we’re certainly not Trump supporters. But in today’s partisan world, it would be easy to fall into the trap of cheering on the FBI’s actions, without taking a step back to look at the bigger picture. If Trump goes to jail, it opens the door for every lying, corrupt, perverted piece of shit to go to jail too. Is that what we want?

LMFAO!

(h/t Hulabaloo)

Trump Pleads The Fifth, Claims Victimhood

 

Naturally:

Former President Donald Trump announced that he would invoke his Fifth Amendment rights during his Wednesday deposition with New York Attorney General Letitia James' office in a reversal from the stance he took nearly six years ago when he was running for the presidency.

In a statement made Wednesday, just an hour after Trump arrived at James' headquarters in New York City, the former president said, "I once asked, 'If you're innocent, why are you taking the Fifth Amendment?' Now I know the answer to that question."

"When your family, your company and all the people in your orbit have become the targets of an unfounded, politically motivated Witch Hunt supported by lawyers, prosecutors and the Fake News Media, you have no choice," Trump said.

"Accordingly, under the advice of my counsel and for all of the above reasons, I declined to answer the questions under the rights and privileges afforded to every citizen under the United States Constitution," he added.

The Malignant Loser may not be aware of the consequences of taking the 5th in a civil case:

“In a civil proceeding such an [adverse] inference is permissible, where appropriate, not as a sanction or remedy for any unfairness created by exercise of the privilege but simply because the inference is relevant and outside the scope of the privilege.” Diaz v. Washington State Migrant Council, 156 Wash.App. 59, 85-86 (2011). “Fifth Amendment invocations by corporate employees or principals may also result in an adverse inference drawn against the corporation.” Id. (collecting cases). “Moreover, invocation of the Fifth Amendment privilege may supply an avenue for investigation by prosecutors.” Chaffee, 200 Wash.App. at 84.

We were happy to infer the Malignant Loser's guilt regardless of his taking the 5th, so this makes things all the more clear.




Former Manhattan ADA: "Trump Guilty Of Numerous Felony Violations"

 

Here's the resignation letter submitted by former Special Assistant District Attorney Mark Pomerantz to disgraceful Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg, obtained by the New York Times (our emphasis):

Dear Alvin,

I write to tender my resignation as a Special Assistant District Attorney and to explain my reasons for resigning.

As you know from our recent conversations and presentations, I believe that Donald Trump is guilty of numerous felony violations of the Penal Law in connection with the preparation and use of his annual Statements of Financial Condition. His financial statements were false, and he has a long history of fabricating information relating to his personal finances and lying about his assets to banks, the national media, counterparties, and many others, including the American people. The team that has been investigating Mr. Trump harbors no doubt about whether he committed crimes — he did.

In late 2021, then-District Attorney Cyrus Vance directed a thorough review of the facts and law relating to Mr. Trump’s financial statements. Mr. Vance had been intimately involved in our investigation, attending grand jury presentations, sitting in on certain witness interviews, and receiving regular reports about the progress of the investigation. He concluded that the facts warranted prosecution, and he directed the team to present evidence to a grand jury and to seek an indictment of Mr. Trump and other defendants as soon as reasonably possible.

This work was underway when you took office as District Attorney. You have devoted significant time and energy to understanding the evidence we have accumulated with respect to the Trump financial statements, as well as the applicable law. You have reached the decision not to go forward with the grand jury presentation and not to seek criminal charges at the present time. The investigation has been suspended indefinitely. Of course, that is your decision to make. I do not question your authority to make it, and I accept that you have made it sincerely. However, a decision made in good faith may nevertheless be wrong. I believe that your decision not to prosecute Donald Trump now, and on the existing record, is misguided and completely contrary to the public interest. I therefore cannot continue in my current position.

In my view, the public interest warrants the criminal prosecution of Mr. Trump, and such a prosecution should be brought without any further delay. Because of the complexity of the facts, the refusal of Mr. Trump and the Trump Organization to cooperate with our investigation, and their affirmative steps to frustrate our ability to follow the facts, this investigation has already consumed a great deal of time. As to Mr. Trump, the great bulk of the evidence relates to his management of the Trump Organization before he became President of the United States. These facts are already dated, and our ability to establish what happened may erode with the further passage of time. Many of the salient facts have been made public in proceedings brought by the Office of the Attorney General, and the public has rightly inquired about the pace of our investigation. Most importantly, the further passage of time will raise additional questions about the failure to hold Mr. Trump accountable for his criminal conduct.

To the extent you have raised issues as to the legal and factual sufficiency of our case and the likelihood that a prosecution would succeed, I and others have advised you that we have evidence sufficient to establish Mr. Trump’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, and we believe that the prosecution would prevail if charges were brought and the matter were tried to an impartial jury. No case is perfect. Whatever the risks of bringing the case may be, I am convinced that a failure to prosecute will pose much greater risks in terms of public confidence in the fair administration of justice. As I have suggested to you, respect for the rule of law, and the need to reinforce the bedrock proposition that “no man is above the law,” require that this prosecution be brought even if a conviction is not certain.

I also do not believe that suspending the investigation pending future developments will lead to a stronger case or dispel your reluctance to bring charges. No events are likely to occur that will alter the nature of the case or dramatically change the quality or quantity of the evidence available to the prosecution. There are always additional facts to be pursued. But the investigative team that has been working on this matter for many months does not believe that it makes law enforcement sense to postpone a prosecution in the hope that additional evidence will somehow emerge. On the contrary, I and others believe that your decision not to authorize prosecution now will doom any future prospects that Mr. Trump will be prosecuted for the criminal conduct we have been investigating.

I fear that your decision means that Mr. Trump will not be held fully accountable for his crimes. I have worked too hard as a lawyer, and for too long, now to become a passive participant in what I believe to be a grave failure of justice. I therefore resign from my position as a Special Assistant District Attorney, effective immediately.

Sincerely,

Mark F. Pomerantz

Here are some initial takes:

I am again calling on @GovKathyHochul @KathyHochul to reassign the Trump criminal investigation from @ManhattanDA to another prosecutor, either @TishJames @NewYorkStateAG or @WestchesterDA @Mimirocah1
Trump Is Guilty of ‘Numerous’ Felonies https://t.co/TN4DLZb6rF

— Richard Signorelli (@richsignorelli) March 23, 2022

 

"A grave failure of justice." Indeed. https://t.co/V5VtSZCWTl

— George Conway🌻 (@gtconway3d) March 23, 2022

 

New York City is going to demand an explanation for why @ManhattanDA Alvin Bragg, within weeks of assuming office, overrode both his predecessor and line prosecutors, who had all concluded Donald Trump was guilty of multiple felonies and decided to prosecute him.

— Robert J. DeNault (@robertjdenault) March 23, 2022

 

Mark Pomerantz and Carey Dunne have forgotten more about criminal law than Bragg will ever know. While Bragg refuses to pursue an indictment of Trump, Pomerantz’s letter is an indictment of Bragg and demonstrates that Bragg is unfit to be the Manhattan DA. https://t.co/1umdvBHZ43

— Michael G. (@MichaelGarofola) March 23, 2022

 

No question anymore. Bragg stopped indictment of Trump. He must explain. And, I want to hear from Pomerantz.https://t.co/RurR6qEFJa

— Jill Wine-Banks (@JillWineBanks) March 24, 2022

 

 

Federal Judge: Hand Over Trump's Tax Returns To Manhattan D.A.

(Clay Bennett, Chattanooga Times Free Press)

Worth keeping an eye on:

A federal judge on Monday dismissed President Trump’s lawsuit seeking to block the Manhattan district attorney from obtaining the president’s tax returns as part of an investigation into hush-money payments during the 2016 campaign.

U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero rejected Trump’s argument that the presidency makes him immune to any investigation by any prosecutor.

In his 75-page ruling, Marrero called such a claim “extraordinary” and wrote, “This Court cannot endorse such a categorical and limitless assertion of presidential immunity from judicial process.”

The order would allow District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. (D) to enforce a subpoena he sent to Trump’s longtime accountants, Mazars USA. Trump had filed an unorthodox lawsuit seeking to stop that subpoena, saying that he would suffer “irreparable harm” if prosecutors obtained his tax returns. The Justice Department also took Trump’s side in the case.

But moments after the ruling Monday, Trump’s private attorneys asked the New York-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit to intervene to put the case on hold. The appeals court responded soon after, issuing a temporary stay pending review by a three-judge panel of the court.

It's revealing that the attorneys for crime family dumb don Donald "The Chosen One" Trump would say having his tax returns made available to prosecutors would cause him "irreparable harm." That doesn't sound like he's someone who's innocent of, oh, tax fraud, campaign finance law violations ("Individual 1"), bank fraud, etc.  In Trump's case, "irreparable harm" can be defined as "jail time."

Not Fade Away: The Crimes Of Donald Trump

Has the certainty over time that we have a serial sexual predator/ rapist in the White (Supremacist) House deadened us to new revelations criminal behavior?  Is that one reason why E. Jean Carroll's account of child concentration camp landlord Donald "Rump" Trump's raping her 20 years ago faded so quickly?

Melinda Henneberger

"Joe Biden accused of standing too close" is apparently a way bigger story than "Donald Trump accused of raping a public person in a public place." Unlike most women, men and children who are sexually assaulted, Carroll told two friends at the time, and they back her up.

Why then is White House counselor Kellyanne Conway’s husband so lonely in noting the credibility of this 16th sexual assault allegation against the 45th president of the United States?

Yes, we’re exhausted by the sheer volume of Trump scandals, and yes, we’re bored with rape, too, because that is so last year.

Maybe if he had been accused of swiping a sweater from Bergdorf’s, that would be new and different? Because allegations of slamming a woman against a wall and penetrating her is same old, same old at this point. [snip]

To Trump’s faithful, his denials and claims that “I’ve never met this person in my life” are in no way undercut by a photo of them chatting at a party. But for those who know better but can’t be bothered, I’m sorry to see the extent to which this man and this topic have worn us down and worn us out.

And to those who purport to support women but wish this particular woman had said something sooner, later or not at all, I say: What else is new?  (our emphasis)

Megan Garber

... The sheer number of women who have accused the president of misconduct seems to have helped diminish the impact of her accusation. The notion of a president who is a sexual predator is profoundly familiar at this point, in part because Trump himself has been caught bragging on tape about the predation. (I moved on her like a bitch. Grab ’em by the pussy. When you’re a star, they let you do it.)

That explains, in part, how a famous woman could make, it is worth reiterating, a credible claim that the president of the United States raped her and see that claim dissolved within a weekend’s news cycle: A news media that is so efficiently calibrated to report that which is new isn’t fully sure how to report on that which is manifestly not new. The numbers give way to a numbness. He said and she said and she said and so did she, and the many, many shes, rather than amounting at least to the sum of their parts, end up canceling one another out. Defeatism sets in. The women’s stories tell us what we already know, and so they fade away.  (our emphasis)

This effect also has worked in Trump's favor in the exposés of his financial corruption and ineptitude, his repeated efforts to do Putin's bidding, the multiple and public efforts to obstruct justice during the Mueller investigation and, of course, just the firehose of lies that come from him every moment of every day.  As much as many in the media would like to portray it otherwise, there is no equivalence to this supernova of criminality, immorality, ignorance, and treasonous behavior.

Yes, he's worn us down over the past 2 1/2 years (it seems much longer).  And we have no words of wisdom on how to deal with this vicious malignancy, other than to redouble our resolve to see to it that this will end through our common efforts, our voices and our votes.

BONUS:  Totally in (rotted out) character, as a "defense," Trump says Ms. Carroll is "not my type." So, he has a "type" in mind when he goes out to rape and assault?  Good to know.

(Photo:  Trump's  "grab 'em by the pussy" moment.)