#jenna ellis

[mysharona1987]

Gee, Jenna. If only everyone had been warning you for years that MAGA is a cult and Donald Trump isn’t trustworthy.

[makingdonalddrumpfagain]

[liberalsarecool]

This whole 'if I knew then what I know now' defense is complete rubbish. Due diligence? Give me a break.

Jenna Ellis knew MAGA was poison and she gladly worked with Trump and Rudy. She gloated about it.

[rejectingrepublicans]

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Rachel Leingang at The Guardian:

An Arizona grand jury has charged 18 people involved in the scheme to create a slate of false electors for Donald Trump, including 11 people who served as those fake electors and seven Trump allies who aided the scheme. Kris Mayes, Arizona’s Democratic attorney general, announced the charges on Wednesday, and said the 11 fake electors had been charged with felonies for fraud, forgery and conspiracy. Beyond the fake electors themselves, high-profile Trump affiliates have been charged with aiding in the scheme: Mark Meadows, John Eastman, Boris Epshteyn, Rudy Giuliani, Jenna Ellis, Christina Bobb and Mike Roman.

Those charged over their roles as false electors include two sitting lawmakers, state senators Jake Hoffman and Anthony Kern. The former Arizona Republican party chair Kelli Ward and her husband, Michael Ward, have been charged, as has Tyler Bowyer, a Republican national committeeman and Turning Point USA executive, and Jim Lamon, who ran for US Senate in 2022. The others charged in the fake electors scheme are Nancy Cottle, Robert Montgomery, Samuel Moorhead, Lorraine Pellegrino and Gregory Safsten. The indictment says: “In Arizona, and the United States, the people elected Joseph Biden as president on November 3 2020. Unwilling to accept this fact, defendants and unindicted co-conspirators schemed to prevent the lawful transfer of the presidency to keep unindicted co-conspirator 1 in office against the will of Arizona’s voters. This scheme would have deprived Arizona voters of their right to vote and have their votes counted.”

Biden won Arizona by more than 10,000 votes, a close margin in the typically red state that immediately prompted allegations of voter fraud that persist to this day. The state has remained a hotbed of election denialism, despite losses for Republicans who embraced election-fraud lies at the state level. Trump has not been charged in the Arizona case. The indictment refers to Trump himself as “unindicted co-conspirator 1” throughout, noting how the former president schemed to keep himself in office, and how those around him, even those who believed he lost, aided this effort. Some involved have claimed they signed on as an alternate slate of electors in case court decisions came down in Trump’s favor, so they would have a backup group that could be certified by Congress should Trump prevail.

An Arizona grand jury handed down 18 indictments to those involved in the scheme to award 11 fake electors to give Donald Trump the state of Arizona in 2020, despite the fact that Joe Biden flipped the state in his narrow win. Donald Trump has been named unindicted co-conspirator #1.

The persons indicted for aiding and abetting efforts to help the fake electors: Jenna Ellis, Kenneth Chesebro, Christina Bobb, Rudy Giuliani, John Eastman, and Boris Epshteyn.

Some of the notable fake electors charged include: former AZGOP chair Kelli Ward, TPUSA employee Tyler Bowyer, and 2022 GOP US Senate candidate Jim Lamon.

[republicansaredomesticterrorists]

🤮

[imkeepinit]

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Mike Luckovich

* * * *

“Socialism is a scare word they've hurled at every advance the people have made. Socialism is what they called public power, social security, deposit insurance, and independent labor organizations. Socialism is their name for anything that helps all people.”

—Harry Truman, 1952

+

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

August 7, 2024 (Wednesday)

The Democratic presidential ticket of Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota governor Tim Walz continues to gain momentum, with people flocking to their rallies and pouring money into the Democrats’ campaign: in the first 24 hours after Walz joined the ticket, the party raised $36 million from more than 450,000 donors, more than a third of them giving for the first time. In contrast, the Republicans seem to be imploding. For years, people have noted that the party seemed to be painting itself into a corner, but it’s very odd to watch it now seem to be trapped.

Yesterday afternoon, after Harris’s selection of Walz had hit social media and enthusiasm was building, Trump posted on his social media company an elaborate and bizarre fantasy that President Joe Biden would suddenly try to take back the 2024 Democratic presidential nomination.

“What are the chances that Crooked Joe Biden, the WORST President in the history of the U.S., whose Presidency was Unconstitutionally STOLEN from him by Kamabla, Barrack HUSSEIN Obama, Crazy Nancy Pelosi, Shifty Adam Schiff, Cryin’ Chuck Schumer, and others on the Lunatic Left, CRASHES the Democrat National Convention and tries to take back the Nomination, beginning with challenging me to another DEBATE. He feels that he made a historically tragic mistake by handing over the U.S. Presidency, a COUP, to the people in the World he most hates, and he wants it back, NOW!!!”

Aside from Trump’s obvious yearning to go back to running against Biden, on whom his personal attacks seemed to stick, and his attempt to find some nickname that will stick to Harris, this rant shows that the Republicans seem unable to counter popular Democratic policies.

The heart of their policies were in Project 2025, the extremist vision of a country ruled by a strongman who took the civil service, the Department of Justice, and the military under his own control in order to slash the popular, secular parts of the government and replace them with Christian nationalism. Right-wing evangelicals liked what was outlined in the project, but when the majority of Americans began to understand what was in it, they were quite clear they wanted no part of it. Trump then tried to distance himself from it, although he had publicly praised it, his political action committee had called it his plan, and more than 100 of its architects were people who had served in his administration.

And then it turned out that Trump’s vice presidential pick, J. D. Vance, had written the introduction for a book by Heritage Foundation president Kevin Roberts, the chief author of Project 2025. The original publication date for the book, which calls for “a peaceful ‘Second American Revolution,’” was in September, shortly before the election, but today the publisher announced it would put off publication until November, after the election.

But advance reader copies of Roberts’s book are already in the hands of reviewers, and Madeline Peltz of Media Matters is posting some of the content online. In it, she notes, Roberts “rails against birth control, in vitro fertilization, abortion, and dog parks. He says that having children should not be considered an ‘optional individual choice,’ but a ‘social expectation,’” and that reproductive choice is a “snake strangling the American family.” It is no accident that Vance’s numbers with women continue to fall.

And the Roberts book is only one of Vance’s recent unpopular steps: it turns out that he also wrote a glowing blurb for a book written by ghostwriter Joshua Lisec under the name of far-right conspiracy theorist Jack Posobiec. The book, titled “Unhumans: The Secret History of Communist Revolutions (and How to Crush Them),” calls for purging their enemies from society. “In the past, communists marched in the streets waving red flags,” Vance wrote. “Today, they march through HR, college campuses, and courtrooms to wage lawfare against good, honest people… In ‘Unhumans,’ Jack Posobiec and Joshua Lisec reveal their plans and show us what to do to fight back.”

Without popular policies, MAGA Republicans are simply falling back on the old narrative techniques they used in the past. This morning, Trump called into Fox & Friends, where he fell back on the old argument that Democrats are essentially communists who are undermining American culture. Of Harris-Walz, he said, “This is a ticket that would want this country to go communist immediately if not sooner.” Trump also tried to hit on the culture wars Republicans have fallen back on since the 1970s, warning that Walz is “very heavy into transgender. Anything transgender he thinks is great.”

Trump also tried to push the idea that Harris’s choosing of Walz over Pennsylvania governor Josh Shapiro proves that the Democrats are antisemitic. “I think it's very insulting to Jewish people,” Trump said. This is a hard sell considering that of the 26 members of Congress who are Jewish, 24 are Democrats, and of the 9 Jewish senators, 8 are Democrats and 1 is an Independent. And then, of course, there is the fact that Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff is himself Jewish.

When the stock market tumbled Monday, Trump tried to pin the slide on Harris—calling it the Kamala Crash—and Vance seemed to bet against the United States, predicting that “[t]his moment could set off a real economic calamity around the globe.” When the market rebounded Tuesday, the two remained silent.

Indeed, Trump is largely off the campaign trail, raising suggestions that his handlers don’t want him in public out of concern about what he will do—not a frivolous concern after his angry performance last week before the National Association of Black Journalists.

Meanwhile, Vance is traveling around to the sites where Harris and Walz are speaking. His crowds are embarrassingly small compared to theirs, and he seems perhaps to be trying to intimidate his opponents as Trump tried to do when he loomed behind his 2016 Democratic opponent, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Today Vance and a phalanx of his team approached reporters near Harris’s plane to attack her, only to discover she wasn’t around, at which point he boasted the plane would soon be his.

But rather than seeming intimidating, he came across as so desperate for attention that he had to stalk a more popular figure across the tarmac. Former representative Liz Cheney (R-WY) apparently thought so: she reposted Vance’s photo of his group of about nine people walking away from Harris’s plane and commented: “Looks like [Vance] brought all his rally attendees to the airport with him today.”

MAGA Republicans also appear to be reaching to their past by attacking Walz with the sort of “swift boat” smear campaign attacking his military service they launched against decorated veteran John Kerry when he ran for president in 2004. Indeed, the Republican operative widely thought to be behind the attacks on Kerry, Chris LaCivita, is now in charge of the Trump-Vance campaign. Vance today suggested that Walz is engaging in “stolen valor.” Vance served for four years as a Marine, including as a military journalist in Iraq, where he did not experience combat. Walz served in the Army National Guard for 24 years, during which he deployed in response to natural disasters in the United States and served in Europe in support of U.S. operations in Afghanistan.

A number of observers are saying that part of the genius of the Walz pick is that he seems to many people to be the dad and grandfather stolen away by the right-wing rage machine of talk radio and the Fox News Channel and replaced with frightened, angry people who suspect their neighbors and insist the country is going to hell. It seems unlikely that doubling down on that narrative will attract the voters the MAGA ticket needs to win a majority of votes in 2024.

Yesterday the Republican-dominated Georgia State Election Board passed a rule that could delay the certification of an election until “after reasonable inquiry that the tabulation and canvassing of the election are complete and accurate and that the results are a true and accurate accounting of all votes cast in that election.” In a rally on Saturday, Trump thanked the three Republican members of the board—Janice Johnston, Rick Jeffares, and Janelle King—by name, calling them “pit bulls fighting for honesty, transparency, and victory.”

In 2020, Trump tried to get Georgia to throw out its certification of Biden’s victory there, claiming the vote had been marred by fraud, especially among the state’s Black population. He told Georgia secretary of state Brad Raffensperger to “find” him 11,780 votes—one more than the 11,779 that had given Biden the state.

Yesterday, news broke that former Trump lawyer Jenna Ellis, who was indicted in Arizona for her participation in the scheme to replace the state’s real electors for Biden with fake ones for Trump, has agreed to a plea deal. In exchange for the state dropping its charges against her, she has agreed to provide information and materials about the scheme and to testify “at any time and place.”

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[thingstrumperssay]

(Some of) the mugshots are in!

(Mark Meadows)

(Harrison Floyd)

[sher-ee]

Story here ⬆️

Big surprise Jenna.

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

Former President Donald Trump, his former chief of staff Mark Meadows, and Rudy Giuliani are unindicted co-conspirators in the Michigan attorney general's case against the state's so-called "fake electors" in the 2020 election, a state investigator revealed in court on Wednesday.

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel charged 16 Republicans last year with forgery and conspiracy to commit election forgery for allegedly attempting to replace Michigan's electoral votes for Joe Biden with electoral votes for Trump at the certification of the vote on Jan. 6, 2021.

During Wednesday's hearing, which was part of preliminary examinations for the so-called fake electors, Howard Shock, a special agent for the attorney general's office, also testified that former Trump attorney Jenna Ellis is also an unindicted co-conspirator.

Shock's revelation was in response to questions from Duane Silverthorn, an attorney for Michele Lundgren, one of the so-called fake electors.

"Finally, former President Donald Trump?" asked Silverthorn.

"Yes," Shock testified.

Ted Goodman, Giuliani's political adviser, said in a statement that the former New York City mayor is "proud to stand up for the countless Americans who raised legitimate concerns surrounding the 2020 U.S. Presidential Election."

"He won't be bullied or pressured into silence by highly partisan actors," the statement said.

Nessel dismissed the charges against one of the alleged fake electors in October in exchange for cooperating with the case. The state is still pursuing charges against the other 15 defendants.

All the defendants have pleaded not guilty.

[mysharona1987]

Politics aside, image a woman calling another woman “this disloyal wench.”

These days.

We are back in the old times.

[makingdonalddrumpfagain]

[razorroy]

The Criminal World of MAGA

Donald Trump's circle of criminal associates:

Steve Bannon Peter Navarro Roger Stone Allen Weisselberg Mark Meadows Rudy Giuliani Jeffrey Clark John Eastman Sidney Powell Jenna Ellis Ken Chesebro Boris Epshteyn

[rejectingrepublicans]

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Dean Obeidallah at The Dean's Report:

Earlier this week, current Trump top advisor Boris Epshteyn and former Trump lawyer Jenna Ellis plead not guilty to the nine felony charges each was charged with in connection with helping Donald Trump attempt to overturn the 2020 election in Arizona. Given all the pleas entered by Trump’s criminal associates over the past year, we should just refer to this event as: “Tuesday.” When I read about these latest criminal developments by Trump’s allies, though, for some reason what popped into my head was Trump’s past comments calling numerous scandals “bigger” and “worse” than Watergate because he believed it helped him politically to say that.  In fact, Trump said that about everything from Hillary’s emails to his false claim that the FBI had engaged in surveillance of one of his then 2016 campaign advisor, George Papadopoulos.

The Watergate scandal was huge and it did send more people to jail than many may recall. As a quick refresher, like Trump’s 2020 illegal scheme, the goal of Watergate was to illegally impact a presidential campaign to help the incumbent Republican President win re-election. The Watergate scandal began on June 17, 1972, when several burglars connected to President Richard Nixon’s reelection campaign were arrested in the office of the Democratic National Committee. They had been caught wiretapping phones and stealing documents.

From there, a sprawling cover up involving President Nixon and top aides was launched ranging from providing hundreds of thousands of dollars in “hush money” to the “Watergate burglars” to a plan to instruct the CIA to impede the FBI’s investigation of the crime. By the time the criminal prosecutions came to an end, more than 40 people were charged with crimes relating to the Watergate scandal--—including high ranking Nixon administration and campaign officials.

Some of the best known include Nixon’s Chief of Staff H.R. Haldeman who served 18 months for conspiracy and obstruction of justice, former U.S. Attorney General and reelection campaign manager John Mitchell who was found guilty of conspiracy, perjury, and obstruction of justice and served 19 months in prison, and top domestic policy adviser John Ehrlichman, convicted of conspiracy to obstruct justice and perjury. Others who went to prison included Nixon’s White House Counsel John Dean, legal counsel to the Nixon campaign G. Gordon Liddy, White House aide Jeb Magruder and more. Nixon would’ve been charged with crimes if he had not been pardoned by Gerald Ford—a point former Watergate prosecutor Jill Wine-Banks has made on my SiriusXM show.

In the case of convicted felon Trump, though, what he and his criminal conspirators did was far, far worse both in terms of the potential impact on our Republic and the sheer number of people involved. Trump attempted to remain in power despite losing the 2020 election. And while Nixon lacked any ethics or morals, only Trump incited a terrorist attack on our Capitol on Jan 6 as part of his scheme to remain in power. Plus—very importantly—the scope of Trump’s scheme involved both the federal government and various GOP state officials as well. Trump corrupted not just his White House associates but in essence the entire GOP across the nation—with few exceptions. Even Nixon didn’t do that!

For example, the most sprawling criminal case involving Trump and “All the President’s Men” is the one in Fulton County, Georgia, where 19 people have been charged with illegally interfering in the state’s 2020 election. The defendants include Trump and prominent Trump allies like Rudy Giuliani, former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, Trump lawyers John Eastman, Sidney Powell, Kenneth Chesebro and more.  But also charged were numerous local GOP officials such as the former chair of Georgia’s Republican Party, a sitting GOP State Senator and the former head of the Coffee County Republicans. Then there are the fraudulent elector charges brought against Trump allies in five states: Arizona, Nevada, Georgia, Wisconsin and Michigan. While Trump has not been charged in these cases, all the crimes were committed by Trump’s advisors, lawyers and local GOP officials in an effort to help Trump overturn the election results in their respective states so he could remain in power as President despite losing.

[...] Yes, we are witnessing something actually far “bigger’ and “worse” than Watergate. And it’s the crime spree of convicted felon Trump and his allies. This is the person the GOP chose to be their 2024 presidential nominee knowing full well this very history. Again, this reminds us of how dangerous today’s lawless and anti-democratic GOP is and why we must politically crush them this November in order to save our democratic Republic.

Dean Obeidallah has yet another banger post: The GOP’s fake electors plot to attempt to steal the 2020 elections for Donald Trump in multiple close states was worse than Watergate ever was.