Category Archives: Donald Trump

Donald Trump says his residence in Mar-A-Lago has been abruptly raided by "a large group of FBI agents," characterizing the intrusion as a politically calculated move to stunt the former president's future political ambitions.

Trump posted a statement to his Truth Social platform Monday evening denouncing the raid on his home as "not necessary or appropriate," describing his home as "under siege, raided, and occupied." While the reason for federal law enforcement descending on Trump's estate in Palm Beach, Florida, is yet to become clear, it follows months of speculation that federal prosecutors had turned their attention to the former president for his actions in the effort to overturn the 2020 presidential election.

"Nothing like this has ever happened to a President of the United States before," Trump said in the statement. "After working and cooperating with the relevant Government agencies, this unannounced raid on my home was not necessary or appropriate."

Calling the raid "prosecutorial misconduct" and a "weaponization of the Justice System," Trump said the raid was hatched by "Radical Left Democrats" seeking to prevent him from running for president in 2024. Trump likened his treatment to corruption in "broken, Third-World Countries."

"They even broke into my safe!" said Trump. "What is the difference between this and Watergate, where operatives broke into the Democrat National Committee? Here, in reverse, Democrats broke into the home of the 45th President of the United States."

Trump was referring to the Watergate scandal that led to the undoing of President Richard Nixon. In 1972, a team of men broke into Washington, D.C.'s Watergate complex where the Democratic National Committee had offices. The burglars were acting on the orders of G. Gordon Liddy, an FBI agent who worked on Nixon's re-election committee, to bug DNC telephones.

The arrests of five men led to one of the worst political scandals in U.S. history.

Trump did not offer an official reason for the raid, and the Justice Department has remained tight-lipped about its intentions regarding the former president who continues to hold sway in the Republican Party. But the House January 6 committee has held a series of nationally televised hearings that have cast Trump as attempting to prevent Congress from certifying the 2020 presidential election.

William Barr, Trump's former attorney general, said Friday that the allegedly incriminating evidence against his old boss was piling up. During an appearance on CBS News, Barr called recent grand jury subpoenas for high-ranking Trump administration officials "significant."

The National Archives and Records Administration earlier this year sought help from the FBI in retrieving 15 boxes containing classified documents Trump allegedly took to his Florida resort, according to reporting from The Washington Post.

Trump has denied any wrongdoing pertaining to the 2020 presidential election or that he improperly handled documents.

As the 2022 midterm elections near, speculation has grown that Trump will make another run for the White House. Late last month, Trump said on a podcast that it would be "very hard for me not to run, to be honest." Recently, his son, Eric Trump, was spotted carrying a golf bag with the words "Trump 2024."

Newsweek has reached out to the Justice Department for comment.

Update 8/8/22, 8 p.m. ET: This story has been updated with additional information and background.

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Donald Trump Says Mar-a-Lago 'Under Siege, Raided, Occupied' by the FBI

The FBI raided former President Donald Trumps Florida resort and home, Mar-a-Lago, he said Monday night.

These are dark times for our Nation, as my beautiful home, Mar-A-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, is currently under siege, raided, and occupied by a large group of FBI agents, Trump said in a statement. Nothing like this has ever happened to a President of the United States before.

The circumstances of the raid are unclear, but the Justice Department has been ramping up its investigations into the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol and Trumps efforts to remain in power after he lost the 2020 presidential election to Joe Biden.

The New York Times first reported that the search appeared to be related to classified material Trump brought with him to Mar-a-Lago after he left the White House.

The raid is an extreme move against a former president and would require approval from the highest echelons of the Justice Department. The Times added that the FBI would have been required to convince a judge it had probable cause to search the premises.

The FBI is led by Director Christopher Wray, who was nominated by Trump in 2017 after his predecessor, James Comey, was fired.

The Washington Post added that Trump who was not at Mar-a-Lago during the raid Monday morning was not given a heads up about the search.

The saga surrounding the classified documents began earlier this year after the National Archives retrieved 15 boxes of documents Trump took with him to Mar-a-Lago when he left the White House. The agency said in February that those boxes contained classified information and materials subject to the Presidential Records Act, which requires such items be turned over to the federal government.

Prosecutors have also reportedly homed in on Trumps efforts to stay in power through widespread, and false, claims of voter fraud, as well as an effort to install slates of fake electors in battleground states that would circumvent the will of the people. The Washington Post reported last month that prosecutors had asked witnesses before grand juries detailed questions about meetings Trump held after his November, 2020 election loss and what instructions he gave his attorneys regarding the fake electors plan.

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The Department of Justice has also issued subpoenas to senior White House officials in recent weeks, including former White House counsel Pat Cipollone and two top aides to former Vice President Mike Pence.

The Justice Department investigations are separate from the ongoing investigation by the House select committee looking into the Capitol attack. Unlike Congress, Justice Department officials have the power to levy criminal charges against the president or others in his circle.

No former U.S. president has ever been charged with a crime, despite investigations into misbehavior.

Trump, who said his FBI agents had broken into a safe, decried the search warrant in his statement, saying the raid was prosecutorial misconduct that reflects a weaponization of the Justice System.

Such an assault could only take place in broken, Third-World Countries, he said. Sadly, America has now become one of those Countries, corrupt at a level not seen before.

What is the difference between this and Watergate, where operatives broke into the Democrat National Committee? he asked. Here, in reverse, Democrats broke into the home of the 45th President of the United States.

During his tenure, Trump regularly came under fire over his efforts to leverage the Justice Department to do his bidding. Attorney General William Barr resigned in December 2020 after the agency rejected Trumps claims of voter fraud.

Republicans quickly condemned the raid. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) echoed Trumps claims the search reflected a state of weaponized politicization, vowing to investigate the Justice Department and Attorney General Merrick Garland.

Attorney General Garland, preserve your documents and clear you calendar, McCarthy said.

This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.

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FBI Raided Donald Trumps Mar-A-Lago Resort, Former President Says

WASHINGTON The fight between former President Donald J. Trump and the National Archives that burst into the open when F.B.I. agents searched Mr. Trumps Palm Beach estate has no precedent in American presidential history.

It was also a high-risk gamble by Attorney General Merrick B. Garland that the law enforcement operation at Mar-a-Lago, the former presidents sprawling home in Florida, will stand up to accusations that the Justice Department is pursuing a political vendetta against President Bidens opponent in 2020 and a likely rival in 2024.

Mr. Trumps demonization of the F.B.I. and the Justice Department during his four years in office, designed to undermine the legitimacy of the countrys law enforcement institutions even as they pursued charges against him, has made it even more difficult for Mr. Garland to investigate Mr. Trump without a backlash from the former presidents supporters.

The decision to order Mondays search put the Justice Departments credibility on the line months before congressional elections this fall and as the country remains deeply polarized. For Mr. Garland, the pressure to justify the F.B.I.s actions will be intense. And if the search for classified documents does not end up producing significant evidence of a crime, the event could be relegated by history to serve as another example of a move against Mr. Trump that backfired.

Mr. Trump faces risks of his own in rushing to criticize Mr. Garland and the F.B.I., as he did during the search on Monday, when he called the operation an assault that could only take place in broken, Third-World Countries. Mr. Trump no longer has the protections provided by the presidency, and he would be far more vulnerable if he were found to have mishandled highly classified information that threatens the nations national security.

A number of historians said that the search, though extraordinary, seemed appropriate for a president who flagrantly flouted the law, refuses to concede defeat and helped orchestrate an effort to overturn the 2020 election.

In an atmosphere like this, you have to assume that the attorney general did not do this casually, said Michael Beschloss, a veteran presidential historian. And therefore the criminal suspicions we dont know yet exactly what they are they have to be fairly serious.

In Mr. Trumps case, archivists at the National Archives discovered earlier this year that the former president had taken classified documents from the White House after his defeat, leading federal authorities to begin an investigation. They eventually sought a search warrant from a judge to determine what remained in the former presidents custody.

Key details remain secret, including what the F.B.I. was looking for and why the authorities felt the need to conduct a surprise search after months of legal wrangling between the government and lawyers for Mr. Trump.

The search happened as angry voices on the far-right fringe of American politics are talking about another Civil War, and as more mainstream Republicans are threatening retribution if they take power in Congress in the fall. Representative Kevin McCarthy of California, the Republican leader in the House, warned Mr. Garland to preserve documents and clear his calendar.

This puts our political culture on a kind of emergency alert mode, said Douglas Brinkley, a presidential historian at Rice University. Its like turning over the apple cart of American politics.

Critics of Mr. Trump said it was no surprise that a president who shattered legal and procedural norms while he was in the Oval Office would now find himself at the center of a classified documents dispute.

How Times reporters cover politics. We rely on our journalists to be independent observers. So while Times staff members may vote, they are not allowed to endorse or campaign for candidates or political causes. This includes participating in marches or rallies in support of a movement or giving money to, or raising money for, any political candidate or election cause.

For nearly 35 years, the tug of war over presidential records and who controls them has been a largely bureaucratic one waged in the halls of the National Archives and debated among lawyers in courtrooms.

Former President Richard M. Nixon spent nearly four years after Watergate fighting for control over millions of pages of presidential records and hundreds of hours of the audiotapes that helped force his resignation. Mr. Beschloss said that Nixon initially reached a deal with President Gerald R. Ford that would have given him control over his papers as well as the ability to destroy them. But an act passed by Congress after Nixon left office in August 1974 forced him to take his fight to court. He eventually lost in the Supreme Court, in a 7-to-2 decision.

The dispute led to the passage in 1978 of the Presidential Records Act, which for the first time made it clear that White House records are the property of the federal government, not the president who created them. Since then, presidents from both parties have haggled over how and when the archives may release those documents to the public.

Presidents and their aides have also been subjected to other laws concerning the handling of classified information. Over the years, a handful of top federal officials have been charged with illegally handling classified information.

David H. Petraeus, the Army general who served as C.I.A. director under former President Barack Obama, admitted in 2015 that he provided his highly classified journals to his lover, pleading guilty to one count of unauthorized removal and retention of classified material, a misdemeanor.

Sandy Berger, who was national security adviser for former President Bill Clinton, paid a $50,000 fine after pleading guilty to removing classified documents from the National Archives in 2003 to prepare for his testimony to the 9/11 Commission.

But there has never been a clash between a former president and the government like the one that culminated in Mondays search, said Lee White, the executive director of the National Coalition for History.

Mr. White, who has met frequently over the years with officials at the National Archives, said they usually work hard to resolve disagreements about documents with former presidents and their advisers.

They tend to be deferential to the White House, Mr. White said of the lawyers at the National Archives. You know, these questions come up about presidential records and they are like, Look, our job is to advise the White House. But they are not, by nature, an aggressive group of attorneys.

Mr. Beschloss and Mr. Brinkley both said the search of Mr. Trumps house had the potential to become a flash point in the struggle between those investigating the former presidents actions and the forces who supported Mr. Trumps frantic efforts to stay in office.

But they said there were also risks for Mr. Trump and his allies on Capitol Hill, who on Monday rushed to attack Mr. Garland and the F.B.I. in the hours after the search.

You now have Kevin McCarthy something else weve never seen before in history making ugly threats to an attorney general, obviously trying to intimidate him, Mr. Beschloss said.

Mr. Trumps defenders did not wait to find out what evidence the F.B.I. found or even sought before using the search to ratchet up longstanding grievances that the former president stoked throughout his time in office. Senator Marco Rubio, Republican of Florida, quickly distributed a short video on Twitter accusing the Biden administration of acting like the regime of a dictator in a third-world country.

This is what happens in places like Nicaragua, Mr. Rubio said in the video. Where last year every single person that ran against Daniel Ortega for president, every single person that put their name on the ballot, was arrested and is still in jail.

You can try to diminish it, but thats exactly what happened tonight, Mr. Rubio said.

The historians said the events are a test of the resilience of American democracy when it is under assault.

We are in the middle of a neo-civil war in this country, Mr. Brinkley said. This is a starkly unprecedented moment in U.S. history.

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The F.B.I. Search of Trumps Home Has No Precedent. Its a Risky Gamble. - The New York Times

For years, Donald Trump and Fox News were smitten.

The former president would call into the rightwing news channel seemingly whenever he liked. Fox News hosts pumped up every Trump utterance. Trump watched the channel religiously, and in 2019 alone he sent 657 tweets in response to Fox News or Fox Business programs.

Since then, however, things appear to have changed. Trump, as the New York Times has pointed out, has not been interviewed on Fox News for more than 100 days.

A recent Trump speech was largely ignored by the network, and in a sign that Fox News has recognized alternative Republican presidential candidates are available, a Mike Pence address was broadcast live, in its entirety.

With the news channel embroiled in a billion-dollar lawsuit with Dominion Voting Systems over its claims the voting machine company tampered with the 2020 election, Trumps continuing lies about election fraud seem to have rattled Rupert Murdoch, the media titan who owns Fox News.

Two of Murdochs newspapers, the New York Post and the Wall Street Journal, published scathing editorials on Trump in July, the former calling the twice-impeached 45th president unworthy to be this countrys chief executive again and the latter branding Trump The President Who Stood Still on January 6.

This week the Washington Post reported that Murdoch has lost his enthusiasm for Trump.

The channel has begun to give Pence and Ron DeSantis, the governor of Florida, plenty of air-time, including two primetime interviews in the space of five days recently, the New York Times reported. Tom Cotton, the Arkansas senator who is also said to be jockeying for a 2024 presidential run, has also been a regular interviewee.

But while the apparent bouncing of Trump from Fox News has been enthusiastically covered by media reporters, there are plenty of signs the channel isnt ready to let its paramour go just yet.

A recent study by Media Matters for America, a media watchdog, found that Fox News continues to discuss Trump far, far more than any of his perceived rivals for the 2024 nomination specifically, Trump was mentioned on Fox News 8,556 times through January to July, while DeSantis and Pence received 1,083 and 589 mentions respectively.

Angelo Carusone, Media Matters president and chief executive, said those findings suggest there has not been a souring. He said there may have been a slight change in tone, and that Trump may not have the same stranglehold he once had on Fox News the days when the channel was seen to be broadcasting to an audience of one are probably over but that the coverage is still overwhelmingly positive.

You were allowed to attack Donald Trump during the primaries in 2015 and 2016 on Fox News. That doesnt happen now, at all, ever, Carusone said.

For his part, Trump has recently expressed his displeasure at Fox News output. The 76-year-old, who is known to be emotional, attacked Fox & Friends in July, after its host Steve Doocy suggested a straw poll of potential 2024 candidates that showed Trump with 79% of the vote be taken with a pinch of salt.

Doocy hardly went off on Trump the host just pointed to other, more scientific, polls that showed Trump lacking 79% support. But it was enough to cause upset.

Fox & Friends just really botched my poll numbers, no doubt on purpose. That show has been terrible gone to the dark side, Trump posted on Truth Social, his ailing rightwing social media platform.

The Dominion lawsuit could be a reason for Trumps absence. The company is suing Fox News for $1.6bn, accusing its owner, Fox Corp, and the Murdochs specifically, of allowing Fox News to amplify Trumps false claims that the voting company had rigged the election for Joe Biden.

In a statement, the news channel said: We are confident we will prevail as freedom of the press is foundational to our democracy and must be protected, in addition to the damages claims being outrageous, unsupported and not rooted in sound financial analysis, serving as nothing more than a flagrant attempt to deter our journalists from doing their jobs.

But with the lawsuit ongoing, could be a wise strategy not to allow Trump to repeat those precise claims on Fox News during a live interview.

Asked about Fox News relationship with Trump, a spokesperson said: The debate among the liberal media on this topic is the very reason Fox News exists and is the most watched cable news channel in the country with more viewers of every political persuasion than any other network.

Still, Carusone believes any cooling on the part of Fox News towards Trump is likely to be temporary.

The channels hosts are still engaging in misty-eyed segments where they talk about how Trump would handle issues ranging from inflation to China to the border crisis a Fox News staple. And Trumps supposed achievements while in office are still championed.

Theyre still fetishizing and fantasizing, its just that theres no longer an audience of one, Carusone said.

There are other people in the audience that they care about.

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Has the love affair between Trump and Fox News gone sour? - The Guardian US

South Park creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker went viral during the pandemic thanks to their surprise deepfake video, Sassy Justice, which has earned over 2 million views on YouTube since its October 2020 debut. The 14-minute short finds a deepfake Donald Trump, voiced by Peter Serafinowicz, reporting news out of Cheyenne, Wyoming under the eponymous moniker. The project was the first bit of content to come out of Deep Voodoo, Stone and Parkers deepfake production studio.

Stone and Parker said at the time that Sassy Justice came about because we just wanted to make fun of [deepfakes] because it makes it less scary, but it turns out the project had its roots in a full-length Donald Trump deepfake movie that Parker and Stone were working on and then scrapped because of the pandemic. The duo revealed the projects existence in a new interview with the Los Angeles Times.

Not a lot of people know that we were a day away from starting production on the first feature movie we had done since Team America: World Police,' Parker said. We were going to start shooting on the day that the pandemic shut everything down. It was months and months of getting ready for that movie, to just being like, Nope, its over. I went to the office to start packing up my things because I was just kind of in shock.

Stone said the deepfake movie is sort of on hold. Why? It was very timely and the timeliness of it has passed, Parker added. Wed have to majorly rethink it to do it now.

Stone and Parker founded Deep Voodoo because of the movie they planned to make. It was going to be Deep Fake: The Movie,' Parker said. It was about this guy who looked exactly like Trump because we deep fake Trumps face onto him. And it was this whole funny thing because, of course, it ends up with Trump just naked and getting run through the wringer and everything, and thats why it was so funny and so timely.

Serafinowicz was going to voice the Trump deepfake, just as he did in Sassy Justice. Stone added, Even though the script was sort of timely, we ended up keeping the deep fake part of the studio going.

Deep Voodoo ended up working on Sassy Justice instead once the feature-length deepfake project fell through because of the pandemic. The studio would later join forces with Kendrick Lamar for his The Heart Part 5 video, which went viral for using deepfake technology to put the faces of Will Smith and more on Lamars body. The video, which debuted May 8, has earned over 38 million views on YouTube.

As for the scrapped deepfake movie, will it ever end up being made? I dont know, [Trump] could be running again, Stone said, noting a timely window could end up opening for the project to be made.

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South Park Creators Developed an Entire Deepfake Donald Trump Movie That Never Got Made: Its Sort of On Hold - Variety

By Michael Brown, CP Op-Ed Contributor | Tuesday, August 09, 2022President Donald J. Trump disembarks Marine One at Valley International Airport in Harlingen, Texas, Tuesday, Jan. 12, 2021, and boards Air Force One en route to Joint Base Andrews, Maryland. | White House/Shealah Craighead

While Donald Trump remains the front-running, potential presidential candidate in the GOP, an increasing number of Trump voters say they would prefer that he not run in 2024, myself included in that number.

Are we guilty of being fair-weather friends of Trump, supporting him when he was in power but rejecting him now that hes out of power? Thats certainly a fair question.

If Trump is your man, you obviously feel he has earned your trust and hes the best man for the job. My intent here is not to argue with you or question your judgment.

But what about those of us who voted for him twice but would prefer another candidate now? Are we being fair-weather friends?

Ill help you bring the charge against me.

You could argue that: 1) I was against Trump during the 2016 primaries, preferring any number of Republican candidates to him; 2) when he became the Republican candidate, I voted for him with both hope and trepidation in 2016, but primarily as a vote against Hillary; 3) I voted for him more enthusiastically in 2020 after watching him keep his promises for four years; 4) I distanced myself from him in the aftermath of January 6.

Isnt this like wearing your home teams jersey when theyre winning but calling them bums when theyre losing? Or worse still, like wearing their opponents jersey when theyre losing?

Im sure it could appear like that to some, and for many people, perception is reality.

Thats why I wasnt surprised at all when I was branded a Never Trumper and a RINO and weak and unpatriotic (and more) when I said that it was time for us to move on from Trump.

Of course, as a registered Independent, its hard to be a RINO. And as a two-time Trump voter (who often defended him when he was falsely accused), its hard to be a Never Trumper.

But the reality is that the same factors that caused me (and many others) to vote for Trump in 2016 and 2020 are the same factors that cause me (and many others) to wish for a different candidate in 2024.

And, given the intense loyalty and the large number of Trump supporters, it requires backbone, not weakness, to swim against this vocally fierce tide.

To be clear, I am not suggesting for a moment that millions of Trump supporters are backing him because it's convenient or easy. Not at all. I recognize their sincerity and I understand why they still believe hes the best man for the job. And they still suffer reproach for standing with their man.

Im simply saying that its a whole lot easier to keep ones mouth shut than to call the failed Trump prophets to account. Or to state publicly that, while not legally responsible for the storming of the Capitol, he was morally responsible.

For me, the conservative Christian principles that led me to vote for Trump in 2016 and 2020 are the principles that lead me to look for another candidate.

It has nothing to do with who the frontrunner is or who is currently in power.

It has everything to do with pros vs. cons, with gains vs. losses, with positives vs. negatives. And some things only become clear over time, which explains the chronological history of my attitudes toward Trump. Perhaps I speak for others here as well?

At the beginning, I didnt trust him at all, assuming he was using evangelicals like other presidents had done before him, especially given his own wheeler-dealer, worldly background.

When some of my friends got closer to him, sharing their positive perspective with me, and when it seemed there was something uncanny about his ascendancy to the top of the pack, I lowered my resistance.

When it was Trump vs. Hillary, my choice was clear. Still, I had concerns.

Over the course of Trumps presidency, in my view, the good outweighed the bad, and so I planned to vote for him again in 2020, with even more confidence than in 2016.

But in virtually every article I wrote speaking well of him, I also added caveats.

But this was not to hedge my bets. Instead, it was because I saw that our unreserved, wholehearted association with Trump as Christians was hurting our witness, not to mention hurting us too, as we seemed to emulate him more than we emulated Jesus. And I recognized the damage he could do.

To me, integrity required us to say (to give a case in point), I really appreciated the presidents Mt. Rushmore speech, and it sent a strong message of racial harmony. But why did he have to shoot himself in the foot by going after NASCAR driver Bubba Watson only hours later?

Then, as we got closer to November 2020, I became more deeply concerned.

There was a loud chorus of prophets guaranteeing four more years of Trump with almost cultlike support for their words.

There was an almost frenzied concern that, if Trump was not reelected, the whole country would collapse, as if only Trump could save America.

There was an increasingly unhealthy merging of the Gospel with politics and of the kingdom of God with national patriotism.

Yet I still voted for Trump, without hesitation (after all, it was Trump vs. Biden), even as these other concerns grew.

Then, in the aftermath of the elections, as I watched Christian leaders pronounce curses on those who allegedly stole the elections, as I watched many prophets try to cover their tracks, as I watched believers have emotional meltdowns over Trumps apparent defeat (or, the steal), as I watched QAnon conspiracies flood our social media pages, I realized things were even worse than I had realized.

Then, watching some of the rhetoric at Christian rallies leading up to January 6 it was downright dangerous and witnessing Trumps failure to read the crowd or recognize the irresponsibility of his own rhetoric, I was convinced that we needed a very serious course correction. And thats where I stand today.

I also agree with the assessment of Elon Musk, when he was asked where he differed with Trump on policy (since Musk expressed his preference for Florida Governor Ron DeSantis). He replied, Yeah, but too much drama. Do we really want a bull in a china shop situation every single day!?

Personally, I have deep appreciation for the good that Trump did and for his loyalty to his evangelical base, and I commend him for keeping his promises. There were even some things about his presidency that were exceptional.

But with so much collateral damage and with other viable candidates available, the same principles that prompted me to vote for him now prompt me (and many other, former Trump voters) to look for someone else.

You can differ with our assessment and think were dead wrong. Fair enough. Just dont mistake us for fair-weather friends. Quite the contrary.

Speaking for myself, this is about loyalty to God, concern for the Church, and love for America.

Dr. Michael Brown(www.askdrbrown.org) is the host of the nationally syndicatedLine of Fireradio program. His latest book isRevival Or We Die: A Great Awakening Is Our Only Hope.Connect with him onFacebook,Twitter, orYouTube.

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Have we been fair weather friends of Donald Trump? - The Christian Post

Former U.S. President Donald Trump speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) held at the Hilton Anatole on August 06, 2022 in Dallas, Texas. CPAC began in 1974, and is a conference that brings together and hosts conservative organizations, activists, and world leaders in discussing current events and future political agendas.

Brandon Bell | Getty Images

A commercial real estate firm held in contempt of court for failing to hand over records on its appraisals of severalTrump Organizationproperties to New York's attorney general has turned over nearly 36,000 documents, court filings show.

New York Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron had found Cushman & Wakefieldin contemptlast month for not producing documents in state Attorney General Letitia James'civil probeinto the Trump Organization's business practices and ordered the firm to pay a $10,000-a-day fine until it complied.

In aletter to the judgelate Friday, James' office said it has now "received Cushman's production, which amounts to about 35,867 documents since entry of this court's contempt order." The letter said the attorney general's office was joining with Cushman in asking the judge to "dissolve the contempt order and hold any contempt purged, without any fines due or owing."

Cushman's and James' spokespeople did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

James' office is considering whether to file a civil suitagainst former President Donald Trump and his company over their business practices, and has said in court filings that it has "uncovered substantial evidence establishing numerous misrepresentations in Mr. Trump's financial statements provided to banks, insurers, and the Internal Revenue Service."

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Trump real estate appraiser hands over thousands of documents to N.Y. AG in civil probe - CNBC

NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!

Former President Donald Trump strongly indicated he is preparing to run for president and suggested an announcement will come soon.

Trump, who has repeatedly said that he's made a decision on the 2024 race, was asked by Fox News Digital at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Texas when Republicans could expect a formal announcement.

TRUMP EASILY WINS TEXAS CPAC 2024 GOP PRESIDENTIAL NOMINATION STRAW POLL; DESANTIS SECOND

"Its certainly not a very long period, the time is coming," said the former president. "I think people are going to be very happy, our country has never been in a position like this, we've lost everything."

Former President Donald Trump speaks to Fox News Digital at CPAC in Texas. (Fox News Digital)

Trump said that America was facing both domestic and foreign policy crises. In particular, he argued the country's "prestige" had been damaged by President Biden's botched withdrawal from Afghanistan.

MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE OPEN TO WHITE HOUSE RUN 'DOWN THE ROAD'

"Our country has never been at a worse point," said Trump. "They gave away $85 billion worth of equipment, dead soldiers, you still have Americans over there probably as hostages, eventually will be hostages, there has never been a time like this.

"We'll be making an announcement in the not too distant future," added Trump.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

The remarks came shortly after CPAC unveiled its straw poll showing Trump as the overwhelming favorite for the 2024 GOP nomination among the conservative grassroots. Trump captured nearly 70% of the ballots cast at the conference, with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis coming in at a distant second at 23.7%.

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Since leaving the White House in January 2021, Trump has maintained an active presence within the Republican Party.

The former president has endorsed an expansive list of candidates running for everything from local and state office to the United States Senate.

Haris Alic covers Congress and politics for Fox News Digital. You can contact him at haris.alic@fox.com or follow him on Twitter at @realharisalic.

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Donald Trump hints at 2024 White House comeback bid: The time is coming - Fox News

Last month we learned that Donald Trumps attorneys are planning for criminal charges from the Department of Justice, an effort that ramped up in the wake of former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinsons damning testimony before the January 6 committee. It would be career malpractice not to, a source familiar with the matter told Rolling Stone. Do the [former] presidents attorneys believe everything Cassidy said? No. Do they think the Department of Justice would be wise to charge him? No. But weve gotten to a point where if you dont think criminal charges are at least somewhat likely, you are not serving the [former] presidents best interests. And while its possible the DOJ could decline to indict the former guy, recent developments suggest he might not get that lucky.

On Tuesday, ABC News reported that in a dramatic escalation in the Justice Departments investigation of the plot to overturn the 2020 election and the violent insurrection that followed, the department had subpoenaed Pat Cipollone, White House counsel during the Trump administration. In addition to being the highest-ranking member of the White House staff to have been called to testify by the feds to date, Cipollone was in the West Wing while Trumps supporters, egged on by the then commander in chief at the Stop the Steal rally, attacked the Capitol. As The New York Times notes, Cipollone also attended several meetings in the run-up to the riot in which Mr. Trump and his allies discussed how they could overturn the election and keep him in office. In a previously taped recording that aired during the final January 6 hearing of the summer, Cipollone told the panel he believed the president should have done more to call off the angry mob. I think I was pretty clear there needed to be an immediate and forceful response, statement, public statement, that people need to leave the Capitol now, he said. Cipollone also knew of Trumps desire to seize voting machines, which he dubbed a terrible idea for the country, not how we do things in the United States, and something the administration had no legal authority to do. Of Trumps tweet attacking Mike Pence as the violence was unfolding and Secret Service members thought they were going to lose their lives, Cipollone told the panel:

Responding to the news of the Cipollone subpoena, Representative Adam Kinzinger, one of the two Republicans on the January 6 panel, told CNN it didnt look good for Trump. He added: Well see where this goes, but there is no doubt that this investigation has developed further along than even where we knew it was or thought it was a few months ago.

On Thursday, CNN reported that Trumps legal team is is in direct communication with Justice Department officials, with the conversations focused mostly on whether any communications that witnesses from the Trump West Wing had with the former president can be kept from a federal criminal grand jury under Trumps claims of executive privilege. For example, his conversations with Cipollone. Sources told CNN Trumps lawyers have warned him criminal charges are possible, echoing Rolling Stones reporting.

The escalation of the DOJs investigation comes just over a week after it was revealed that Marc ShortandGreg Jacob,two former top aides to Mike Pence, had beeninterviewedby a grand jury investigating the plot to overturn the election and the attack on the Capitol. In addition to being able to speak to the threat to Pences life on January 6Short was at the Capitol with the V.P. that daythe former chief of staff was also present at the Oval Office meeting on January 4, 2021, during which attorneyJohn Eastmanpressuredthe V.P. to either suspend the Electoral College vote count and ask willing state legislatures to reexamine their results, or simply rejectJoe Bidens win outright. It was during that meeting that Eastman reportedly admitted that he knew such ideas were illegal, but told Pence, with the president listening, to go along with them anyway. Jacob, Pences chief legal counsel, was at that meeting as well. In March, a federal judgewrotethat Eastman and Trump very likely committed a crime in attempting to overturn the election, and noted that the illegality of the plan was obvious.

In other news re: Trumps legal peril, his allies in Georgia are reportedly mounting a campaign to recall Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis over her investigation into the then presidents attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 election. While conceding that the chances of a successful recall are low, a source familiar with the effort told Yahoo News that thats beside the point and that, as reporter Michael Isikoff writes, the aim is to use the recall campaign as a way to politically damage the Democratic district attorney, portraying her as a partisan actor who is ignoring soaring crime rates in Atlanta in order to target high-profile Republicans. Isikoff adds, A side benefit of that game plan, another source familiar with the campaign said, is to potentially influence a jury pool down the road should a case against Trump go to trial. In other words, theyre scared shitless.

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This Is Probably Bad for Former President Trump: The DOJ Does Not Appear to Be F--king Around - Vanity Fair

Dick Cheney has branded Donald Trump the greatest threat to our republic, in a new campaign ad for his daughter, Liz Cheney, who is running for re-election in Wyoming.

In our nations 236-year history, there has never been an individual who is a greater threat to our republic than Donald Trump, said Cheney, who served as vice-president for two terms under George W Bush.

Cheney said: He tried to steal the last election using lies and violence to keep himself in power after the voters had rejected him.

He is a coward. A real man wouldnt lie to his supporters. He lost his election, and he lost big. I know it, he knows it, and deep down I think most Republicans know it.

Cheney went on to speak about how proud he was of his daughter for standing up to the truth, doing whats right, honoring her oath to the constitution when so many in our party are too scared to do so.

The one-minute ad featured the elder Cheneys sharpest public attacks against Trump to date. Best known as the most powerful vice-president in American history, and a major figure in leading the US to war in Iraq, he has taken to defending his daughter in her fight against Trump.

Theres nothing more important she will ever do than lead the effort to make sure Donald Trump is never near the Oval Office. And she will succeed, he said in the ad.

The younger Cheney has been widely praised from liberals as vice-chairwoman of the House select committee investigating the January 6 attack. Cheney has been one of Trumps most pointed critics, accusing him of violating the constitution for his role in the insurrection.

In return, she has been largely ostracized from her party. Cheney faces an uphill re-election battle against the Trump-backed candidate Harriet Hageman, who maintains that the 2020 election was stolen.

Liz Cheney has long forgotten she works for Wyoming (or perhaps she never knew), not the Radical Democrats, Hageman tweeted on Thursday. Wyoming deserves a Congresswoman who will represent us AND our conservative values. Its time to retire elitist Liz Cheney.

Though Cheney has at least a million dollars more in donations to her campaign against Hageman, she was 22 points behind Hageman in a July poll conducted by the Casper Star-Tribune.

In an interview with CNN on Thursday, Cheney said she does not expect to lose on 16 August.

I really believe that the people of Wyoming fundamentally understand how important fidelity to the constitution is understand how important it is that we fight for those fundamental principles on which everything else is based, she said.

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Dick Cheney attacks Donald Trump as greatest threat to our republic - The Guardian US