“The Hungarian sociologist Bálint Magyar has coined the term “mafia state” to describe the creation of “political families” (which can include a ruler’s actual family, as in the examples of Trump’s, Orbán’s, Bolsonaro’s and Erdoğan’s children, with especially nefarious roles reserved for sons-in-law); these families then use the state to enrich themselves.”
Donald Trump Jr.: “There’s nothing that I would do to ever endanger this country”. citatis.com
Really?
Trumpworld takes aim at Republicans who supported Ukraine aid push
Donald Trump Jr., the ex-president’s eldest son, has led the charge against the 22 Republicans who backed the national security supplemental, many of whom are allies of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.).
He called for Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) to get a primary challenge, and for West Virginia primary voters to reject the gubernatorial bid of Moore Capito, the son of Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.).
In another instance, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) a major backer of Trump, took aim at Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), one of McConnell’s top allies, writing on social media, “Unbelievable that [Cornyn] would stay up all night to defend other countries borders, but not America.”
At NY trial, Eric and Donald Trump Jr say they were not aware of fraud
In back-to-back appearances in a New York courtroom, Trump’s adult sons both said they were not involved in the questionable valuations that now threaten to hobble the real estate empire that vaulted Trump to prominence. Trump put the two in charge of the business while he served as U.S. president from 2017 to 2021.
Eric Trump said he was not even aware of the financial statements that were used to secure loans and insurance that allowed the company to keep functioning.
However, he grew frustrated as state lawyer Andrew Amer presented emails, video calls and other evidence that showed him discussing financial estimates of some of the company’s trophy properties, including changes to the valuation methodology for a golf course. He said he did not remember many of those communications.
“Certainly I was aware of it, but I don’t think I was the main person involved, or even very involved,” he said of an appraisal of the family’s Seven Springs estate north of New York City.
Donald Jr. blamed accountants, both inside and outside the company.
“They had more information and details on all of this than I would have,” he said.
Evidence submitted at trial shows that both sons signed statements certifying that they had provided accurate information to Mazars, the outside accounting firm that prepared the financial statements.
Judge Arthur Engoron has already ruled that Trump, his two adult sons and the company fraudulently inflated asset values to win favorable financing terms. The trial largely concerns damages.
Trump’s former lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen has testified that Trump directed them to exaggerate the value of assets like Trump Tower in Manhattan in order to win better financing terms and bolster his reported net worth.
Trump has denied wrongdoing and has kept up a steady stream of attacks against Engoron and New York Attorney General Letitia James, who has brought the case.
“So sad to see my sons being PERSECUTED in a political Witch Hunt,” he wrote on social media.
Trump himself is scheduled to testify on Monday and his daughter Ivanka, who is not a defendant in the case, on Wednesday. For the former president, it would be the latest in courtroom appearance by the frontrunner for the Republican nomination to challenge Democratic President Joe Biden in the 2024 U.S. election.
James is seeking at least $250 million in damages, as well as a permanent ban on Trump, Donald Jr. and Eric from running businesses in the state.
Engoron has ordered the dissolution of companies that control pillars of Trump’s real estate portfolio, including Trump Tower. That ruling is on hold while Trump appeals.
Reporting by Jack Queen; Writing by Andy Sullivan; Editing by Scott Malone, Will Dunham, Lisa Shumaker and Jonathan Oatis
How Donald Trump tried to undo his loss in Georgia in 2020
If you do not support my dad 100 percent, we have a problem, Donald Trump Jr. told the group, a Trump campaign staffer familiar with the meeting testified to the House committee that investigated the violent attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
The state party chairman, David Shafer, emerged looking “like he had seen a ghost,” the staffer said.
The message was received. That evening, Republican leaders in Georgia held a rally-style news conference in support of Trump.
The same week, the president’s allies circulated a video falsely accusing a Georgia election worker of throwing away ballots, making her the immediate target of harassment and threats. And White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and others began evaluating a plan for how legislatures in states like Georgia could overturn the will of voters.
The rapid series of events kicked off an aggressive pressure campaign that only intensified as weeks passed and the results more and more firmly showed that Trump had lost.
In phone calls, speeches, tweets and media appearances, Trump and his allies pushed to overturn the 2020 election results in six swing states where certified results declared Joe Biden the winner, an effort that culminated in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol as Congress convened to confirm the results.
Nowhere was the effort more acute than in Georgia, where all of their strategies came together in a complex and multilayered effort that unfolded against the hyperpartisan backdrop of two ongoing U.S. Senate races.
Those close to Trump prodded state officials to identify fraud that would cast Biden’s victory in doubt. In the process, they personally targeted individual election workers with false claims of cheating, unleashing waves of threats, and amplified conspiracy theories about rigged machines that persist today. In the end, after Trump sought to use every lever of power to overturn the results, top state Republicans stood in his way, refusing to buckle under the pressure.
While much of what happened in Georgia has surfaced in leaked recordings, court proceedings and congressional testimony, the fullest story yet could emerge this week, when the district attorney in Fulton County, home to Atlanta, is widely expected to seek an indictment of Trump and those who supported his efforts there.
How The Fake Electors Scheme Explains Everything About Trump’s Attempt To Steal The 2020 Election
New materials illustrate why Fani Willis and Jack Smith have focused on this esoteric part of Trump’s plot.
Josh Kovensky
February 10, 2023
[Excerpt:]But it’s stunning to observe how, within days of the November 2020 election, people up and down the hierarchy of the Trump campaign were ready to move on the fake electors plot.
On Nov. 5, 2020, Donald Trump Jr. was one of many people in Trump’s orbit to text White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows with a plan for how electors could be used to subvert the election, up to Jan. 6.
“It’s very simple,” Don Jr. wrote, according to a text log that Meadows handed over to the Jan. 6 committee and that was obtained by TPM. “If through our lawsuits and recounts the Secretary of States on each state cannot �certify� that states vote the State Assemblies can step in and vote to put forward the electoral slate Republicans control Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, North Carolina etc � we get Trump electors[.]” (The text message contents received by the committee contained tokens that replaced emojis and certain punctuation.)
“There is a Safe Harbor on 8 December if for whatever reason you miss that the Electors then cannot meet in the individual state Capitols on 14 December,” he continued. “So we either have a vote WE control and WE win OR it gets kicked to Congress 6 January 2021[.]”
According to the text log, Meadows acknowledged Don Jr.’s text, and other plans like it coming in from allies.
Text From Donald Trump Jr. Set Out Strategies to Fight Election Outcome
In a message two days after Election Day 2020, the president’s son conveyed a range of ideas for keeping his father in office.
Credit…Doug Mills/The New York Times
Former President Donald J. Trump’s eldest son sent the White House chief of staff a text message two days after Election Day in 2020 that laid out strategies for declaring his father the winner regardless of the electoral outcome, people familiar with the exchange said on Friday.
The text, which was reported earlier by CNN, was sent two days before Joseph R. Biden Jr. was declared the winner of the election. The recipient, Mark Meadows, turned a cache of his text messages over to the House committee investigating the events leading up to the deadly riot at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, as the Electoral College results in Mr. Biden’s favor were being certified.
“It’s very simple,” Donald Trump Jr. wrote to Mr. Meadows on Nov. 5, 2020. He wrote at another point, “We have multiple paths We control them all.”
The message went on to lay out a variety of options that Mr. Trump or his allies ultimately employed in trying to overturn the results of the election, from legal challenges to promoting alternative slates of electors to focusing efforts on the statutory date of Jan. 6 for certification of the Electoral College results.
. . . the text message underscores the extraordinary lengths that Mr. Trump’s allies and official aides were already exploring right after Election Day to keep Mr. Trump in power if the voters throughout the country failed to do so.
Donald Trump Jr. and his brother Eric called on Republicans to keep fighting on their father’s behalf in the immediate aftermath of Election Day, as votes were still being counted in a string of close races in battleground states like Pennsylvania and Arizona.
The House committee is investigating what led to the assault on the Capitol and the various efforts to try to thwart Mr. Biden’s victory, all of which failed. Ultimately, a mob of supporters of Mr. Trump stormed the Capitol during the certification. At least seven people died in connection with the riot.
November 8, 2020: Donald Trump Jr., praised DeSantis for his work supporting the president while criticizing other GOP leaders for staying quiet. Trump Jr. called for a “total war over this election,” as Biden cut into his father’s leads in Pennsylvania and Georgia.
Sun-sentinel.com, Nov. 8, 2020
Donald Trump Jr. and his brother Eric Trump amplified false claims of election fraud, analysis shows. The president’s eldest sons repeatedly retweeted misleading videos. They repeatedly disseminated unfounded allegations around the improper handling of ballots, including that they were burned or stolen, by sharing videos or pictures of the baseless allegations on social media, according to Storyful, the Murdock-owned social media intelligence agency that conducted the analysis.
The brothers, who have over 10 million followers combined on Twitter alone, also shared content that claimed dead voters cast ballots or that ballot counters were illegally changing ballots, the study found. There is no evidence to support any of these claims.
Despite the allegations being debunked immediately by election officials and law enforcement, the brothers did not remove or delete their posts or shares. The analysis looked at six videos, which were either directly shared or referenced in Facebook or Twitter posts by Don Jr and Eric. abcnews.com, Nov. 18, 2020
January 6, 2021: Trump Jr. told the crowd to send a message to members of Congress that we are “coming for you.” The siege of the U.S. Capitol ensued.
nytimes.com, Jan.6, 2021
Former Republican lawmaker and MSNBC host Joe Scarborough on the U.S. Capitol riots: “That’s insurrection against the United States of America and if Donald Trump Jr., Rudy Giuliani and Donald Trump are not arrested today for insurrection and taken to jail and booked . . . then we are no longer a nation of laws and we only tell people they can do this again.”
thehill.com, Jan. 7, 2021
April 14, 2021: Trump Jr. Blasts ‘Un-American’ Companies Opposing Voting Bills
https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-jr-voting-laws-letter-new-york-times-woke-republicans-1583542
Donald Trump Jr. has urged Republicans to “stand up” against companies that are pushing back against new state voting laws.
Trump Jr.’s comments follow similar sentiments by prominent GOP figures such as his father, who have called for boycotts of companies that have opposed the new voting legislature passed last month in Georgia.
Delta Air Lines and Coca-Cola, which are major employers in the Peach State’s capital Atlanta, have spoken out against the GOP voter ID law, arguing it would disenfranchise minority voters.
Trump Jr.’s tweet about corporations opposing further voting measures comes as Amazon, BlackRock, Google, and hundreds of other companies and executives signed a statement opposing “any discriminatory legislation” that would make it harder for people to vote.
On the lighter side:
“Daily Show” correspondent Roy Wood Jr. did a special investigation into Donald Trump Jr., son of the former president, in the style of “Unsolved Mysteries,” and it boiled down to a single question: “Does Don Jr. know who his father is?
Huffpost.com, Mar. 26, 2021
Still at it . . .
D.C. Prosecutors Set Their Targets on Don Jr.’s Posse
By Jose Pagliery
At the Willard and the White House, the Jan. 6 Panel Widens Its Net
What went on at a five-star hotel near the White House the day before the riot could be a window into how a Trump-directed plot to upend the election ended in violence at the Capitol.
Luke Broadwater and
Among those in attendance, according to Mr. Herbster, were Mr. Trump’s sons Eric and Donald Jr.; Mr. Giuliani; Senator Tommy Tuberville of Alabama; the Trump advisers Peter Navarro, Corey Lewandowski and David Bossie; and Mike Lindell, the MyPillow executive and conspiracy theorist. (Boldface added)
IT SURE SOUNDS LIKE TRUMP WAS SCREENING DON JR.’S CALLS DURING THE CAPITOL ATTACK
THE JANUARY 6 COMMITTEE IS GETTING CLOSER TO DONALD TRUMP JR.
Two of the former first son’s advisors have been subpoenaed by the panel.
HTTPS://WWW.VANITYFAIR.COM/NEWS/2022/01/DONALD-TRUMP-JR-ADVISORS-JANUARY-6-COMMITTEE?
. . . the committee said it was particularly interested in their contacts with a number of individuals connected to the “Stop the Steal” rally, including Don Jr., Kimberly Guilfoyle,Trump spokesperson Taylor Budowich,Trump adviser Katrina Pierson,donor Julie Fancelli,and GOP fundraiser Caroline Wren.Guilfoyle’s leaked text messages show her bragging about having raised $3 million for the rally that fueled the Capitol riot and, per ProPublica, “represent the strongest indication yet that members of the Trump family circle were directly involved in the financing and organization of the rally.” Last month, we learned that Don Jr., among others, had sent messages to the White House insisting that the president do something to stop the rioters, requests that were ignored as Trump “gleefully” watched the violence unfold on TV, reportedly remarking to those around him, “Look at all of the people fighting for me.”
Alexander Vindman sues Trump Jr. and Giuliani, alleging retaliation over first Trump impeachment proceedings
By Amy B Wang
February 2, 2022
Alexander Vindman, a retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel and former White House national security aide, is suing several allies of former president Donald Trump, alleging that they intimidated and retaliated against him while he was a key witness during Trump’s first impeachment.
According to the 73-page complaint, Vindman’s lawsuit “seeks long-overdue accountability for unlawful actions knowingly undertaken by close associates and allies” of Trump, alleging that they “engaged in an intentional, concerted campaign of unlawful intimidation and retaliation against [Vindman] to prevent him from and then punish him for testifying truthfully before Congress during impeachment proceedings against President Trump.”
Those named as defendants in Vindman’s lawsuit include Donald Trump Jr., Trump’s eldest son; former Trump attorney Rudolph W. Giuliani; former White House deputy chief of staff Dan Scavino; and former White House deputy communications director Julia Hahn. The complaint alleges that the defendants violated the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871, which makes it unlawful to conspire to interfere with a federal official’s ability to carry out the duties of their office or to interfere with any witness’s ability to testify.
Vindman, who was formerly the National Security Council’s expert on Ukraine, had listened to a July 2019 phone call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, in which Trump asked Zelensky to investigate Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden and his ties to Ukrainian businesses. Vindman reported the call through official channels, and Trump’s alleged attempts to pressure Ukraine into political investigations by leveraging promises of an official White House visit by Zelensky and military aid would later become the basis of his first impeachment and Senate trial.
Congress issued a subpoena to Vindman, who testified in an impeachment inquiryabout his concerns over Trump’s actions involving Ukraine. Vindman immediately became the target of a witness-intimidation campaign by Trump and his allies that “did not simply happen by accident or coincidence,” his lawsuit alleges.
Vindman, who was formerly the National Security Council’s expert on Ukraine, had listened to a July 2019 phone call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, in which Trump asked Zelensky to investigate Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden and his ties to Ukrainian businesses. Vindman reported the call through official channels, and Trump’s alleged attempts to pressure Ukraine into political investigations by leveraging promises of an official White House visit by Zelensky and military aid would later become the basis of his first impeachment and Senate trial.
Congress issued a subpoena to Vindman, who testified in an impeachment inquiryabout his concerns over Trump’s actions involving Ukraine. Vindman immediately became the target of a witness-intimidation campaign by Trump and his allies that “did not simply happen by accident or coincidence,” his lawsuit alleges.
Judge rules Trump, children must comply with NY AG’s subpoena for testimony
BY HARPER NEIDIG – 02/17/22 03:18 PM EST
[Excerpts:]
“Today, justice prevailed,” the state attorney general said in a statement. “Donald J. Trump, Donald Trump, Jr., and Ivanka Trump have been ordered by the court to comply with our lawful investigation into Mr. Trump and the Trump Organization’s financial dealings. No one will be permitted to stand in the way of the pursuit of justice, no matter how powerful they are. No one is above the law.”
James’s office revealed last month that it had uncovered “significant” evidence that the Trump Organization has for years been falsifying the value of its assets for financial gain, including to win tax breaks and attract investors.
That revelation came as Trump fought to block her efforts in both state and federal court, while painting the investigation as a political witch hunt in the media.
Trump’s accounting firm, Mazars, said in a letter sent to the former president’s company last week that it could no longer vouch for the business’s financial statements for the past decade given the revelations from the attorney general’s investigation.
Donald Trump Jr. Claims His Father Doesn’t Just Indiscriminately Kiss Dictators’ Asses, Has a Plan
When he wasn’t shredding documents, trying to buy Greenland, obsessing over toilets, and lying about public health catastrophes, Donald Trump spent a significant amount of his time in office praising dictators. Kim Jong Un, Vladimir Putin, Mohammed bin Salman? Nobody loved these guys more than the last president, who routinely and publicly took their words, sometimes against those of his own intelligence agencies, especially when it came to various crimes everyone knew they’d committed.
Trump’s affection for dictators was problematic then and remains extremely problematic now, given that one of his favorite authoritarians, Putin, is currently waging an unprovoked war against Ukraine, which has included the killing of children. That 45 has recently described the Russian president’s actions as “genius,” “smart,” and “savvy” seems to be yet further confirmation that the ex-leader of the free world is a deeply disturbed individual whose brain should be donated to science so leading researchers can determine precisely what is wrong with it. In the meantime, we can probably conclude, with a high degree of certainty, that the guy is a sick individual whose love of dictators is a national security risk.
But according to his eldest son? The famously not-smart Don Jr.? This is all a game of 3D chess by a grand master.
OPINION
MICHELLE COTTLE
The Don Jr. Road Show in Ohio Was No Joke
The crowd, a couple of hundred MAGA fans and local Republican players, laps up the wickedness. This is Don Jr.’s last public appearance of the day on behalf of J.D. Vance, whose Senate candidacy was recently endorsed by Trump Sr. As at earlier stops, the audience whoops and laughs and hollers “Amen!” as Trump the Younger slashes at a series of targets: Democrats, the media, RINOs (Senator Mitt Romney is taking a serious beating), Big Tech, America’s “stupid” military leaders and so on.
Don Jr. clearly inherited the family flair for showmanship. (Democrats would do well to keep an eye on his political development. In particular, the ladies here are gaga over him.) He deploys funny voices and goofy faces, his comic timing is spot on, and he has a vicious streak untempered by decency or accuracy. “The other side has literally taken the stance that it’s OK to be a groomer,” he charges, promoting the MAGAworld calumny that Democrats are pro-pedophile. Even on this dark topic he draws laughs by marveling that, in his younger days, “being antipedophile was something that we could all agree on!”
Trump’s Former Aides and Advisers on the Peril He Poses
Former Secretary of Defense Mark Esper agreed with an interviewer that President Trump posed “a threat to democracy.” Other former administration officials have expressed similar concerns.
In his new book “A Sacred Oath,” released earlier this week, Mark T. Esper, the former defense secretary, revealed that President Donald J. Trump in 2020 had floated the idea of launching missiles into Mexico to “destroy the drug labs” and asked why the military could not “just shoot” racial justice protesters in Washington in the legs.
Mr. Esper also described his concerns that Mr. Trump might misuse the military during the 2020 election, for example by asking soldiers to seize ballot boxes. [Boldface added]
On Monday, when a Fox News host asked if he thought President Trump “was a threat to democracy,” Mr. Esper was blunt.
“I think that given the events of Jan. 6, given how he has undermined the election results, he incited people to come to D.C., stirred them up that morning and failed to call them off, to me that threatens our democracy,” he said.
Trump, two adult children scheduled to testify July 15 in New York AG investigation
Trump, two adult children scheduled to testify July 15 in New York AG investigation
Former President Trump and two of his adult children are scheduled to sit for depositions on July 15 in a probe by the attorney general of New York into Trump’s business dealings, according to a court filing Wednesday.
New York Attorney General Letitia James (D) and lawyers for the former president, Donald Trump Jr. and Ivanka Trump reached an agreement that will give former President Trump time to appeal if he wishes. The Trumps have until Monday to ask the state’s Court of Appeals to hear the case.
James has been investigating whether former President Trump inflated the Trump Organization’s property values for investors and then deflated them in federal tax documents. She has been pushing him to turn over documents and sit for a deposition for months, but he has has appealed her efforts in court. She first requested that he testify in the civil investigation in December.
Donald Trump Jr confirms he signed father’s porn star ‘hush money’ check: ‘That son is me’
In the criminal indictment unsealed on Tuesday, prosecutors allege a check made out to Mr Trump’s former ‘fixer’ Michael Cohen was falsely recorded in the Trump Organization’s business records
Donald Trump Jr has admitted that he personally signed one of the hush money checks now at the centre of his father’s arrest on criminal charges.
The former president’s son told right-wing network Newsmax that part of Mr Trump’s indictment on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records refers to his own actions.
“I can’t tell you the number of times somebody said, ‘You don’t have to believe the election is stolen, the important thing isn’t believing it, it’s saying it. . . . That is what a Republican is supposed to do right now.”