Category Archives: Donald Trump

Tunstall, 34, has been linked to a number of political action committees including as recently as this spring using Trumps name in order to raise money. Campaign finance disclosures showed that those PACs contributed little or none of that money to Trumps campaign or causes. And Tunstall has reportedly used the returns to fund a lavish lifestyle for himself, or one portrayed as such online.

So-called scam PACs have proliferated on the political fundraising scene over the last decade. A POLITICO investigation in 2019 identified more than a dozen pro-Trump PACs with no actual ties to the president, including one committee operated by Tunstall. The phenomenon has grown serious enough to trigger a warning from the FBI earlier this year urging would-be donors to be on the lookout for such schemes.

The operator of another pro-Trump scam PAC admitted in May that hed swindled Trump supporters and pleaded guilty to wire fraud in connection with the operation. The FEC, meanwhile, has weighed options aimed at fighting scam PACs and received recommendations from a working group on the issue this spring.

The scheme prosecutors zeroed in on in Wednesdays indictment took place in the lead up to the 2016 election, when Tunstall, Reyes and Davies formed two PACs claiming to support candidates on the right and the left, respectively.

The indictment does not name either candidate but makes clear that the defendants Liberty Action Group PAC claimed to support then-candidate Trump and their Progressive Priorities PAC claimed to support his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton.

Both PACs made false and misleading representations in robocalls and written and radio ads soliciting donations, which sought to portray the committees as being affiliated with or working to financially support both directly and indirectly their respective candidates, prosecutors said. They offered campaign swag like stickers and signed photos as rewards for larger donations.

Tunstall, Reyes and Davies instead used the funds they acquired through the scheme to pay for additional fraudulent solicitations for money, to enrich themselves directly, and to support their independent, unrelated business ventures, according to the indictment, which charges that the PACs reported little or no operating expenditures while money was transferred to the defendants or falsely reported as advertising expenses.

The defendants also allegedly used the names of others including a friend of Davies, his then-girlfriend, an associate of Davies, and an accountant who did compliance work for the PACs to conceal their involvement with the scam PACs in campaign finance records, sometimes without the others knowledge and occasionally forging others names on FEC filings or other related documents.

Finally, prosecutors allege that a common third-party vendor for the two committees was used to launder more than $350,000 in illegal proceeds to bank accounts belonging to Tunstall and Reyes or controlled by them.

Attempts to reach Tunstall and Reyes were unsuccessful. There was no readily available contact information for Davies.

Prosecutors say Tunstall and Reyes overpaid the vendor, an unnamed company that disseminated robocalls, and then arranged for the company to wire the excess funds in a series of nearly two dozen transactions between June 2016 and April 2017 to bank accounts belonging to three companies: Matte Media Creations and Supreme Dream Media, which Tunstall controlled, and Modern Media Group, which Reyes controlled. In other instances, the defendants or the companies linked to them received payments from at least one of the committees themselves.

Tunstall made his initial appearance in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California on Tuesday, according to a press release from the Justice Department. Reyes and Davies will make their initial appearances on Wednesday in the U.S. District Courts for the Northern District of California and the Western District of Texas, respectively.

If convicted on all counts, Tunstall and Reyes face up to 125 years in prison, while Davies faces up to 65 years in prison if convicted on all counts.

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They raised millions for Trump, spent barely any of it on him. Now theyre indicted. - POLITICO

The only good part of inflation I was always jealous of those old guys who would go, like, Back in my day, you could buy a house with a dollar! It looks like now if inflation gets bad enough, well get to be those old guys: Oh, yeah? Back in my day, a million dollars could buy a whole lot more than just a haircut! TREVOR NOAH

I feel like a million bucks, and thats not nearly enough, because everything is getting so expensive. STEPHEN COLBERT

All your favorite stuff is more expensive. Prices have gone up for autos, energy, furniture, rent and medical care. That is terrible! One of my favorite things is being mobile, warm, comfortable, dry and alive. STEPHEN COLBERT

This is a big danger to Biden politically, because inflation is the one economic concept that normal people actually care about. Like, the debt ceiling, the Federal Reserve, derivatives thats all just [expletive] we pretend to understand: [mocking] The debt ceiling, the debt ceiling. But when you hear inflation is rising, you know it means youre about to be a broke [expletive]. TREVOR NOAH

OK, how much more bad news is Biden going to get? At the end of the month, were going to find out the turkey he pardoned was at the Capitol on Jan. 6. SETH MEYERS

Yesterday, the N.F.L. fined Rodgers and the Packers for violating Covid-19 protocols. Phew. Now that Covid protocols are being enforced, we can get back to safely enjoying the beautiful game of 300-pound men crushing each others spines like a sleeve of Ritz crackers. STEPHEN COLBERT on the Green Bay Packers and their quarterback Aaron Rodgers

Rodgers attended a Halloween party despite being unvaccinated, for which the N.F.L. fined him $14,650. Which sounds like a lot of money, but its the equivalent of fining an average American $33.80 or one beer at a Packers game. STEPHEN COLBERT

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Stephen Colbert Is Tickled by a Judges Takedown of Trump - The New York Times

Similar to their father, Ivanka Trump and Donald Trump Jr. have also gotten into a bit of legal trouble over the past few years. Most recently, the pair have been involved in a lawsuit filed by Karl Racine, the attorney general of Washington D.C., against the Trump Organization and the Presidential Inaugural Committee. According to Mother Jones, Racine alleges that Trump's inauguration committee misused charitable funds in order to further enrich the Trump family. Allegedly, this enrichment occurred when the Trump family used more than $1 million in charitable funds from the inauguration fund to "overpay" for a space in the Trump International Hotel and to throw a private party that cost several hundred thousand dollars.

As it turns out, Ivanka and Donald Jr. were involved in negotiations surrounding this misuse of funds. Filings show that Ivanka knew about and was involved in negotiations to use a space in the Trump International Hotel for a price that far exceeded the typical costs that the hotel charged (thus allegedly padding the Trump family's pockets with even more cash), per Mother Jones. Additionally, the final decision to go ahead with the private party using funds from the inauguration committee was ultimately up to Donald Jr. and other key members of the Trump Organization.

On Monday, according to CNN, a D.C. Superior Court ruled that these claims accusing the inauguration of overpaying for the event space at the hotel will move forward meaning that Ivanka and Donald Jr. will soon be defending their actions in court.

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Are Ivanka And Donald Trump Jr. Headed For Court Soon? - The List

Per the Associated Press, a still from the video of former President Donald Trump addressing his supporters from Walter Reed National Military Medical Center included a caption that read, "The doctors said they've never seen a body kill the coronavirus like my body. They tested my DNA and it wasn't DNA. It was USA."

However, after several fact checks, it later emerged that the video still and accompanying quote were false, and there is no evidence that the former president ever made this statement.

Although false, the video was shared thousands of times across social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook. In the real video clip, Trump actually said, "I came here, wasn't feeling so well. I feel much better now. We're working hard to get me all the way back. I have to be back because we still have to make America great again."

Per USA Today, the former president also said that his wife, Melania Trump, was handling the coronavirus "very nicely" and described potential cures for COVID-19 as "miracles coming down from God."

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The Truth About The Viral Video Of Donald Trump Talking About His COVID-19 Recovery - The List

After Donald Trump lost the Presidential election last year, a law professor named John Eastman drafted, for Trumps use, a two-page manual for unlawfully throwing out the electoral votes of certain states as they were being tallied in Congress, on January 6th. The name he mentions most often in the memo is that of Vice-President Mike Pence. It appears in such statements as Pence then gavels President Trump as re-elected and, regarding disrupting the count, The main thing here is that Pence should do this without asking for permission. Eastman also spoke at Trumps January 6th rally, where he said that what we are demanding of Vice-President Pence is that he intervene in the electoral count. Trump, speaking shortly afterward, cited Eastmans authority when he said, If Mike Pence does the right thing, we win the election.

Soon afterward, the assault on the Capitol began, and, once it became clear that the Vice-President was not going to do what Trump and his allies demanded, a group of insurrectionists chanted Hang Mike Pence. Members of the Pence family were also in the Capitol, and in danger. Eastman is expected to be subpoenaed in the coming days by the House select committee investigating the events surrounding January 6th. In addition to writing that memo, and a revised, more detailed onein which he declares that letting the results stand would mean thatAmericans were no longer a self-governing peoplehe attended a meeting with Trump and Pence in the Oval Office on January 4th. (Eastman says that he ultimately advised Pence to delay the count, not to stage a coup.) An area of inquiry for the committee is how much pressure Trump put on Pence to help him overturn the election. (A lot, it seems.)

But one person who doesnt appear eager to dwell on that question, at least not publicly, is Pence himself, who has been biding his time giving speeches and setting up an organization called Advancing American Freedom. Last month, in an interview with Sean Hannity, on Fox News, he said that the media is trying to use January 6th to distract from President Bidens failed agenda and to demean the character and intentions of people who voted for Trump. He assured Hannity that he and Trump had parted amicably after leaving office, and had stayed in touch. On social media and in a podcast he has launched, he steadily repeats the phrase Trump-Pence Administrationlinking his name with that of a man who was ready to abandon him to a mob.

Pences position is intriguing on a human level, but it is significant in political terms, too, because it captures so much about the state of the G.O.P., where the 2024 Presidential race is headed, and how much the contest over the legacy of January 6th matters in setting that course. Trump seems to realize that as much as anybody. After Pence appeared on Fox News, Trump put out a statement saying that the interview very much destroys and discredits the Unselect Committees Witch Hunt on the events of January 6th. The interview does not do that, of course. But the Trump-Pence dance underscores how high the stakes are for the committee. Trump, in trying to obstruct the investigation into January 6thwith spurious claims of executive privilege, for exampleis fighting not only to impose his view of the past but to insure his political future.

A simple explanation for Pences complacency is that he wants to run for President himself, and cant afford to alienate Trump if he is to have any hope of making it through the primaries. According to a recent poll, Trumps favorability rating among Republicans is eighty-six per cent. His Save America PAC, the new Make America Great Again, Again! super PAC, and ancillary political funds have raised more than a hundred million dollars. But Trump may not want to help anyone but Trump. In September, when asked by Fox News if he would run, he said, It is getting to a point where we really have no choice. Its hard to know whom he means by we. In a Morning Consult/Politico poll that asked Republicans whom they would support out of more than fifteen potential candidates for 2024, forty-seven per cent chose Trump. Pence came next, with just thirteen per cent. Close behind Pence was Ron DeSantis, the governor of Florida and a Trump ally, with twelve per cent. (Six per cent chose Donald Trump, Jr.twice as many as picked Senators Ted Cruz or Marco Rubio.) When Trump was asked recently, in an interview with Yahoo Finance, what he thought of DeSantiss Presidential prospects, he said, If I faced him, Id beat him like I would beat everyone else. But Trump didnt believe it would come to that. He said he thought that, if he ran, most people would drop out, I think he would drop out.

Trump may be right. Nikki Haley, the former governor of South Carolina, criticized him in straightforward terms after January 6th; in February, she told Politico that the Party had been wrong to follow him. A few weeks ago, she told the Wall Street Journal, We need him in the Republican Party. She also said that, if theres a place for me in the 2024 race, I would talk to him and see what his plans are.... We would work on it together. Perhaps she was hinting at the Vice-Presidential spot; its extraordinary to think that there are people who would like to be the next Mike Pence. One wonders if candidates for the job would be given copies of Eastmans memos and asked to check off the unconstitutional moves that they would be willing to make.

Far from being a witch hunt, the investigations into January 6th have continued to uncover unsettling material concerning Trumps efforts to overturn the election. (The Senate Judiciary Committee reported last month on his attempts to enlist officials in the Department of Justice in that cause.) Theres no shortage of reminders that he hasnt moved on. Last week, the Wall Street Journal published a lengthy letter to the editor from Trump, full of baseless claims that the vote count in Pennsylvania was wrong. The election was rigged, which you, unfortunately, still havent figured out, he informed the Journal. In a statement a week earlier, he spoke in even more strident terms: The insurrection took place on November 3, Election Day. January 6 was the Protest!

There can hardly be a better example of why a clear accounting of the events leading up to the assault on the Capitol is so crucial. According to Trump, the real insurrection was never put down. January 6th, in that sense, is a long way from over.

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When Will January 6th Be Over? - The New Yorker

During his presidency, Donald Trump said a lot of wild, outrageous, and untrue things. But a Trump misstatement unlike any other was the time he made up a nonexistent fighter jet.

As reported by the BBC, Trump made the statement in early 2018 that the United Stateshad sold F-52 fighter jets to Norway.

In November we started delivering the first F-52s and F-35 fighter jets, Trump said at a joint appearance at the White House with the then-Norwegian prime minister Erna Solberg, as reported by the Washington Post. We have a total of 52 and theyve delivered a number of them already a little ahead of schedule.

There is, in fact, no such jet in existence, although a fictional jet of that name is in the video game series Call of Duty, specifically the Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare game. TheNational Interestnotedin a piece last year that the F-52 in the video game is clearly based on early 1990s-era Lockheed Martin concepts for the Naval Advanced Tactical Fighter and the later A/F-Xboth of which were based on the YF-22 demonstrator aircraft that eventually became the F-22 Raptor.

There really was a sale of jets to Norway and presumably, the president had confused the number of jets, fifty-two, with the name of the jet.

Speaking of fighter jets, Trump was also known to confuse stealth with invisibility.

According to Popular Mechanics, the 45th president often created the impression that he thought the F-35 jet in particular was literally invisible.

No, they have the money, and they allthey would like to order quite a few F-35s; its the greatest fighter jet in the world, as you know, by far. Stealth. Totally stealth. You cant see it, Trump said in a White House briefing in August of 2020. Makes it very difficult. I was asking a pilot, What do you think is better: This one? This one? That one? Talking about Russian planes, Chinese planes. He said, Well, the advantage we have is you cant see it. So when were fighting, they cant see us. I say, That sounds like a really big advantage to me.

Stealth fighters are invisible to radar, but not to the naked eye itself unless theyre operated by Wonder Woman.

Earlier this year, under President Joe Biden, the United Statesreached another agreement with Norway, per Reuters.

The agreement regulates and facilitates U.S. presence, training and exercises in Norway, thus facilitating rapid U.S. reinforcement of Norway in the event of crisis or war, the Norwegian government said at the time of the deal.

Stephen Silver, a technology writer for The National Interest, is a journalist, essayist and film critic, who is also a contributor to The Philadelphia Inquirer, Philly Voice, Philadelphia Weekly, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Living Life Fearless, Backstage magazine, Broad Street Review and Splice Today. The co-founder of the Philadelphia Film Critics Circle, Stephen lives in suburban Philadelphia with his wife and two sons. Follow him on Twitter at @StephenSilver.

Image: Flickr

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Donald Trump Did What? He Accidently Made Up the F-52 Fighter Jet - The National Interest

Donald Trump told Fox News 'a lot of people will be very happy' with his announcement on whether he runs again for President. Photo / Alex Brandon, AP, File

In the days after the United States Congress decided to impeach Donald Trump over his role in inciting the January 6 insurrection, it seemed the possibility of his running for the presidency again was slim.

Eleven months later, those odds have tumbled.

Although the former president has yet to launch an official, or non-official bid to run in the 2024 election, this Monday saw him give the clearest indication yet that he could be seeking to stage a comeback.

In an interview with Fox News, the controversial Republican confirmed it was something that was up for consideration.

"I am certainly thinking about it and we'll see," he said.

"I think a lot of people will be very happy, frankly, with the decision, and probably we'll announce that after the midterms.

"It doesn't mean I will.

"It's probably appropriate, but a lot of people are waiting for that decision to be made."

Should Trump decide to run in 2024, he'll need to win the Republican presidential nomination. Officially, the campaign for that role doesn't begin until after America's midterm elections in November 2022.

He's not without rivals. Other Republican candidates could include former vice president Mike Pence, former secretary of state Mike Pompeo, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and Senator Ted Cruz, who previously attempted to run in 2016. These are some of the names Trump would need to beat to claim his party's nomination.

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Should he accomplish that, there's another step: beating the Democratic Party's nominee. Given the current unpopularity of President Joe Biden, that's not a far-fetched scenario.

With the pandemic still impacting American citizens, and America's catastrophic withdrawal from Afghanistan after two decades of conflict plaguing him, Biden's approval ratings have declined steadily in recent months.

A recent poll by Gallup placed Biden's approval rating at 42 per cent, which was a stark decline from the 56 per cent he achieved in June.

This was the second-lowest rating achieved by a president at this point in their term, above only Trump, who scored an approval rating of just 37 per cent 283 days into his time in office.

Another searing poll from Emerson College found that if the 2024 presidential election were today, Trump would beat Biden by 45 per cent to 43.

Half of those polled said they disapproved of the performance of the current President, with 41 per cent approving.

Biden's slumping approval ratings could impact the performance of the Democrats in the midterm elections in 2022, which subsequently affects how effectively they can pass bills and enact significant legislative change.

Currently the Democrats have control of both the House of Representatives and Senate, however, they could be at risk of losing both houses to the Republicans.

Analysis from CNN's editor-at-large, Chris Cillizza, showed that once a president's approval drops below 50 per cent, they lose "an average of 37 seats in the House".

"If Biden and congressional Democrats can find a way to a compromise on both the 'hard' infrastructure plan and the social safety net legislation, then Democrats could well have an appealing package of accomplishments to sell to voters come next November," Cillizza wrote, offering something of a silver lining.

Looking at Trump's activity since exiting the White House, it's clear he's still an influential member of the Republican Party.

While the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives impeached Trump in the wake of the January 6 riot, with the support of 10 Republicans, he was subsequently acquitted in a Senate impeachment trial.

A 57-43 majority of the Senate voted to convict Trump of inciting an insurrection against the US government, well short of the 67 votes needed for a conviction.

This means Trump could still legally run for the presidency again in 2024.

Since avoiding conviction, the former president has remained active within his party, endorsing some candidates and making enemies of others. Most recently, he backed winning Republican candidate Glenn Youngkin in the Virginia gubernatorial election.

While Trump previously attempted to "reinstall himself in power illegitimately" and through force, retiring Republican Congressman Anthony Gonzalez of Ohio said he's since changed tactics.

Retiring from politics, in part due to the threats he received after supporting Trump's impeachment in January, Gonzalez said the former president has learned from his mistakes,

"It looks to me that he has evaluated what went wrong on January 6. Why is it that he wasn't able to steal the election who stood in his way?" said Gonzalez, appearing on the CNN documentary Trumping Democracy: An American Coup.

"And he's going methodically, state by state, at races from, you know, state Senate races all the way down to county commissioner races trying to get the people who the Republicans the RINOs, in his words who stopped this, who stopped him from stealing the election."

RINO - Republican in name only - was previously a pejorative term used to refer to Republicans who were insufficiently conservative. It has since come to be used as a term for those who are insufficiently loyal to Trump.

The host of the documentary and prominent political journalist Jake Tapper also expressed fears over Trump's likely return to politics.

One of his key concerns was that the former president would continue his rhetoric that the 2020 election was stolen, stoking erroneous claims of voter fraud. He predicted Trump could do this by endorsing candidates who have historically supported or are more likely to support his attempts to undermine an election, through baseless and false allegations.

"People need to understand that he could and likely will try to do it again, and it won't necessarily be violent," Tapper told Vanity Fair.

"Next time, it might be without violence but more successful."

Should Trump set out for a second chance at presidency, he would historically be the third former president who has attempted to do so.

Serving as the 22nd and 24th US President, Grover Cleveland is the only person who's been able to serve two non-consecutive terms.

The 26th President of the US, Theodore Roosevelt also attempted to do something similar, but his bid to serve a third term by running against his successor, William Howard Taft.

However, as the first reality TV star to run (and win) the presidency - something he did before becoming the first US president to be charged with and survive two impeachment charges - Trump's actions have always been difficult to predict.

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Donald Trump 2024: Signs of a comeback bid for the presidency - New Zealand Herald

Donald Trumpsays he prefers the more profane version of the chant Lets go, Brandon! an anti-President Joe Biden inside joke, which really means FkJoe Biden.

The seemingly innocuous phrase Lets Go Brandon! started with NASCAR in October whenBrandon Brownwon his first Xfinity Series.

At the time, the crowd was chanting something that was difficult to hear. The sideline reporter suggested they were chanting Lets go, Brandon! to support the driver.

But later it became abundantly clear that the crowd was insulting the president by saying: Fk Joe Biden.

The in-joke Lets go Brandon became a big thing with Trump supporters, appearing on T-shirts, caps and mugs nationwide. It even became a chart-topping song.

Trump headlined the The America First Policy Institute, at his resort Mar-a-Lago, and spoke for 45 minutes blasting Biden, calling it a failed presidency.

When the crowd chanted Lets Go Brandon! he joked, I still like the first phrase better, somehow more accurate.

He added of the NASCAR mix-up by the NBC reporter Kelli Stavast, I still havent figured out was that young, attractive female reporter was she trying to cover up? Or was she being nice? Did she not understand what was happening? She works for NBC. So its about 94% sure that she knew exactly what she was doing.

Anyway, well, Brandon has become a big star. Nobody ever heard of this guy. Now. Hes one of the biggest stars. Nobody ever heard of Brandons history.

An insider said there was no direct talk from Trump about running for 2024 but the consensus in the room was he would.

Trump added, We have great great people in our party. But this is a much different party. They even call it the party of Trump and I said, its not the party of Trump. This is the party of all of you in this room, and this is going to long outlast Trump. This is a great thing that weve done in a very short period of time.

Attendees included Jared Kushner, Kellyanne Conway, Larry Kudlow and Monica Crowley.

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Donald Trump prefers the profane version of 'Let's go ...

Chutkan heard arguments in the suit last week and promised to rule quickly on Trumps initial emergency request. But she seemed inclined to reject it, questioning the legal basis for a former president to claim executive privilege over records when the sitting president and Congress disagree.

The National Archives has indicated that Trump is seeking to block at least 750 pages out of an initial 1,500 unearthed in response to the Jan. 6 committees request for records about the former presidents effort to overturn the election. Many of those papers are culled from the files of senior Trump aides like Mark Meadows, Stephen Miller and Patrick Philbin. They also include call and visitor logs.

Trumps attorney, Jesse Binnall, issued his second request Monday night, asking Chutkan to approve an administrative stay of her own ruling even before she issued it. That way, Binnall argued, Trump would have a chance to appeal her decision before the Archives began delivering hundreds of pages to congressional investigators.

Jobs numbers are great, and the economy is strengthening. But theres also inflation. And supply chain problems. Oh, and a worker shortage. So what does all that add up to?

Binnall also warned Chutkan that if she didnt rule on Trumps first request by Wednesday, he would go immediately to the appeals court and ask it to step in. He noted that Thursday is Veterans Day and that the National Archives plans to send Trumps papers to Congress at 6 p.m. Friday.

This case should be decided after thorough but expeditious consideration pursuant to Americas judicial review process, both before this Court and on appeal, not by a race against the clock, Binnall wrote.

But the request baffled legal experts, who said judges have no power to preemptively block rulings they havent issued yet. They noted Chutkan is already moving on an urgent timeline to consider Trumps initial request and that it was odd for the former president to threaten to go to the appeals court before seeing Chutkans decision.

Chutkan, in her brief decision overnight, said she would consider Binnalls request for a stay after she issues her ruling, which she reiterated would arrive expeditiously. But she noted that federal rules only allow a stay while an appeal is pending, not before.

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Trump makes and loses overnight bid to block Jan. 6 investigators - POLITICO

After the Posts story was published online, Pirro denied through a Fox News spokesperson that she intervened on Kerik and Giulianis behalf.

According to Richard Ben-Veniste, a Watergate prosecutor, the use of campaign funds further undermines a wildly broad assertion of executive privilege. Executive privilege is typically limited to the protection of communications involving a presidents official dutiesnot to those relating to personal or political campaign matters. John Yoo, the arch conservative attorney, agreed with Ben-Veniste, telling the Post, If he acts as a president, he gets these things we talk aboutexecutive privilege and immunity. But if hes acting as a candidate, hes deprived of all of those protections.

In a statement to the Post, Taylor Budowich, a spokesman for Trump, said the former president is making executive privilege determinations carefully, based on the merits and in accordance with law and customs of interbranch comity,and, it has to be said, the idea of Trump carefully determining anything based on merits and in accordance with the law is completely hilarious. Budowich also accused the Biden administration of jeopardizing the office of the presidency by refusing to assert privilege over clearly privileged documents.

On Monday, the January 6 committee said it is issuing subpoenas to more top Trump associates, including

2020 campaign managerWilliam Stepien; former senior adviser to the campaign Jason Miller; John Eastman, the attorney who helped come up with Trumps argument that the election was stolen; disgraced national security adviser Michael Flynn, who wanted Trump to invoke martial law; Angela McCallum, national executive assistant to the 2020 reelection campaign; and Kerik. According to the Post, both Kerik and Eastman were active in the Willard hotel command center. According to CNN, Miller attended a meeting at the command center on January 5.

In the days before the January 6th attack, the former presidents closest allies and advisers drove a campaign of misinformation about the election and planned ways to stop the count of Electoral College votes, Select Committee chairman Bennie Thompson said in a statement on Monday. The Select Committee needs to know every detail about their efforts to overturn the election, including who they were talking to in the White House and in Congress, what connections they had with rallies that escalated into a riot, and who paid for it all. Thompson added: The Select Committee expects all witnesses to cooperate with our investigation as we work to get answers for the American people, recommend changes to our laws that will strengthen our democracy, and help ensure nothing like January 6th ever happens again. These are the first subpoenas issued since Congress voted to hold Stephen Bannon in contempt for ignoring his, CNN noted.

In related news, CNN reported last month that at least five former Trump staffers have provided information to the committee investigating January 6, either because they believe they have information worth sharing or to preempt a potential subpoena. So thats not great news for the former guy!

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Fox News Jeanine Pirro May Have Inadvertently F--ked Over Trumps Claims of Executive Privilege - Vanity Fair