Ryan Goodnan, a former Special Counsel at the Department of Defense, dropped a bombshell on CNN’s OutFront show(03/21/23 ), telling host Erin Burnett that contrary to popular belief, New York legal precedent does indeed dictate that Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg must bring criminal charges against former President Trump for falsifying of business records.
Goodman said that after analyzing cases going back 15 years related to falsifying of business records, there is already more than enough evidence to indict Trump. Put another way, regular people have been charged based on far less incriminating evidence.
Goodman specifically told host Erin Burnett(3:57): “What we did is we surveyed the last fifteen years of all the District Attorney offices across New York, and saw how many times they brought this particular charge–falsifying business records–and the conclusion is essentially, if the person’s last name was not Trump, he would be charged.”
Goodman then went on to point out specific examples of New Yorkers who have been prosecuted for falsifying business records, with far less evidence than the Manhattan DA’s office is known go have against Trump. The image below lists some of the cases Goodman cited.
Bottom line folks, despite all the lamentations by prominent Republicans, of former President Trump being a “victim” of a “weaponized” justice system, the evidence, as Ryan Goodman correctly illustrates, shows the complete opposite, and that is, any other similarly situated New Yorker would have been indicted already.
The real question is what valid excuse DA Alvin Bragg will offer to the public if his office decides not to indict former President Trump? Yours Truly will go out on a limb and say an indictment(s) from the Manhattan DA’s office is/are coming. Only question left is when it/they will come down.
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Just four months after the horrific January 6th insurrection in Washington DC by violent Trump supporters, Congressman Matt Gaetz(R-FL) was in Dalton, Georgia (5/27/21) telling a crowd of supporters that the second amendment was meant for armed rebellion and importantly, that they(Republicans), “have an obligation to use it”. If this is not a direct incitement to violent insurrection by the sitting Congressman, I don’t know what is.
In the clip which was played on CNN’s NewDay with Brianna Keilar, Rep Gaetz can be heard telling the crowd, “We have a second amendment in this country, and I think we have an obligation to use it…The second amendment is not about hunting, it’s not about recreation, it’s not about sports. The second amendment is about maintaining within the citizenry, the ability to maintain an armed rebellion against the government if that becomes necessary.” There’s absolutely no other way any reasonable person can interpret this, other than a direct incitement to an armed rebellion against the government by Rep Gaetz.
This is a very serious issue, and must be treated as such by the powers that be, given the fact that it comes only four months after DC insurrection, an armed rebellion that came shockingly close to success. Rep Gaetz’s comments also deserve further scrutiny because unlike many other Republicans who initially distanced themselves from former President Trump after DC insurrection, he and Rep Marjorie Taylor Greene, in whose district Gaetz was speaking, fully embraced Trump even after the incident, and have since projected themselves as Trump’s trusted lieutenants nationally. As a result, Trump’s supporters regard public statements by Reps Gaetz and Greene as direct messages from the former President–a call to action if you will.
Any reasonable person looking at the GOP’s reaction to the events that transpired on January 6th, and since then, is left with a very troubling picture as to where the party, and quite frankly the country, is headed. Trump’s lies about election fraud led to an armed insurrection on Jan 6th. Congressional Republicans chose not to impeach him for that. Trump is still pushing the same dangerous lies. Some Republican members of Congress have since conjured up revisionist theories as to what really happened on January 6th(just a bunch of tourists etc), to excuse their continued support for Trump.
Republican-controlled state legislatures have embarked on voter suppression laws targeting areas/voters they deem anti-Trump and importantly, made it possible for state legislatures to overturn elections in case of unfavorable outcomes. All this is being done against the backdrop of Trump teasing another run for President in 2024, meaning the said state legislatures are setting the stage for overturning the elections in case Trump loses. The sham election recount in Arizona is also setting the stage to overturn future election results that don’t go in Trump’s favor. States like Texas are passing reckless gun laws that make it possible for just about anybody to bear arms. Hmm, coincidence? How does this fit into Rep Gaetz’s rebellion rhetoric? Remember, Texas Governor Greg Abbott is a super Trumper too.
Republican Senators, at the urging of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell(KY), are today(05/28/21) set to kill an effort to establish a bipartisan commission to look into what led to the January 6th DC insurrection, and coming up with ways to prevent it from ever happening again. Is Senator McConnell afraid that the commission will show that DC insurrection was not as “fringe” as establishment Republicans want the public to believe? Was he personally involved behind the scenes? These are questions the public needs to start asking, and asking loudly, because something is off-kilter with the current GOP, and it’s continued dalliance with insurrectionist Trump. Simply put, “fringe” Reps Gaetz and Marjorie Taylor Greene may not be that fringe after all, as CNN host Brianna Keilar pointed out.
Bottom line folks, we must never forget the fact that we simply got lucky on January 6th. Everything that has happened with Trump’s GOP since January 6th, leads any reasonable person to conclude that Jan 6th was just a trial run, and if we don’t remain vigilant, we are definitely headed towards another one, this time, successful .
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A secret tape recording of a fundraiser for 4th ranking GOP member of Congress Cathy McMorris Rogers captures her essentially admitting to the fact that House Republicans are primarily interested in protecting Trump from the Mueller probe, and not getting to the bottom of what Russia did in 2016.
While the public has suspected, even seen evidence of this for a long time now, it was quite breathtaking to hear such a high ranking member of congress essentially admitting that the majority party in Congress is essentially stonewalling a very serious investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. elections.
It also bolsters the charge that has been levelled at House Speaker Paul Ryan since the Mueller investigation began–that he sits idly by as Rep Devin Nunes and other House Republicans openly obstruct the Mueller investigation–abetts their conduct. With McMorris-Rogers admission, the public does not have to speculate anymore about Speaker Ryan’s actions/inactions. It appears obstructing Mueller probe is an agenda fully endorsed by House Speaker Paul Ryan and Rep Cathy McMorris-Rodgers–Congressional leaders.
This is very serious in that it does away with the widely held notion that there are a few wayward GOP characters in Congress (Devin Nunes, Jim Jordan et al) who are acting independently to obstruct Mueller probe/protect Trump and suggests the entire GOP leadership in Congress is onboard with Mueller probe obstruction.
Dems must take Rep Cathy McMorris Rogers to task and demand that she comes forward and explain her actions. The same must be done for Speaker Ryan. Bottom line it is highly unlikely that Rep McMorris-Rogers would go along with a plan to obstruct Mueller probe if Speaker Ryan wasn’t in on it.
Dems and indeed the mainstream media(still a major let down) must take McMorris-Rogers and Speaker Ryan to task regarding their shameful conduct because they are Congressional leaders who ought to know better. Put another way the media’s emphasis should notbe on Rep Devin Nunes, but on Congressional leaders McMorris-Rogers and Speaker Ryan.
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This week’s bombshell indictments by Special Counsel Robert Mueller of specific members of the Russian Military Intelligence should be cause for Congressional Democrats to get off the TrumpRussia sidelines and begin asking a series of very important questions beginning with this–What did Russian military intelligence do with the information they stole from 500,000 U.S. voters? It is foolhardy to suggest that Russians amassed such a large quantity of data on U.S. voters only to turn around and sit on it. Every reasonable person would conclude that they put such data to use against Dems in the 2016 elections. Dems therefore have every right to question who in the GOP sought or was the beneficiary of such illegally acquired info beginning with the head honcho himself House Speaker Paul Ryan.
There have been media reports that a Ryan-allied political action commitee(PAC) used this illegally obtained information to attack Dems in the 2016 election cycle.
Do not forget Paul Ryan’s Super PAC linked to Russian hacking during election….https://t.co/7mAIniYWed
Given Mueller’s indictment, this is the perfect time for Dems to confront Speaker Ryan using the popular watergate question, “What did Speaker Ryan know about the Russian hack and when did he know it?” This is a particularly important question when considering the fact that a lot of Americans find Speaker Ryan’s strange silence even in the face of obvious TrumpRussia obstruction by his House GOP colleagues quite suspect. Is he afraid because he is implicated(complicit) or that he knows a lot of his GOP colleagues are?
Beyond House Speaker Ryan, the possibilities as to what Russian military intelligence could have accomplished with such a treasure trove of voter data should be very concerning to Dems. Remember Trump “beat” Hillary Clinton by a combined total of only 88,000 votes in the key swing states of Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania. Yours Truly has always maintained, even when the mainstream media considered it a radical left-wing conspiracy theory, that Clinton won these three crucial swing states but more importantly, that the pre-election polls that showed her leading were never wrong
Dems need to ask serious questions about MI, WI & PA given this bombshell revelation that Russian military intel stole information of 500,000 voters. Specifically, were Trump’s poll-defying “wins” in MI, WI & PA made up of real voters or fictitious #GucciferVoters? Remember folks we are talking here about the highly sophisticated and well financed Russian military intelligence not the imaginary “400 pound guy in the basement” Trump referred to when confronted about Russian election meddling.
As for the unnamed GOP politician referenced in the Mueller indictments as having sought Dem dirt from the Russians and later used it in his campaign, Dems must demand his immediate resignation if he is currently a member of Congress. The highly informed grassroots Dems who follow Yours Truly on twitter strongly suggest it is Rep Matt Gaetz representing Florida’s 1st congressional district. If he turns out to be the one, Dems must demand his immediate resignation.
As the TrumpRussia investigation chugs along, the public has become accustomed to public pronouncements by Trump and his GOP operatives that there was no TrumpRussia collusion. To prove their point, they have repeatedly pointed to the length of the Mueller probe saying after one year and countless interviews there is still no collusion bombshell–their point being this late in the game, the public should stop expecting a collusion bombshell
So, the Democrats make up a phony crime, Collusion with the Russians, pay a fortune to make the crime sound real, illegally leak (Comey) classified information so that a Special Councel will be appointed, and then Collude to make this pile of garbage take on life in Fake News!
Goodman's strongest argument for collusion is that there are emails proving that then Trump Campaign Chairman Manafort knew of the Russian DNC hack in April 2016, way before this became public information(reported in the media). According to Goodman, Trump Campaign Chair Manafort learnt about the Russian hack through emails that were copied to him by another Trump Campaign operative George Papadopoulos. Manafort apparently was coordinating with the Russians, including a known member of the Russian military intelligence on how to disseminate/weaponize the hacked DNC emails to hurt Hillary Clinton's campaign. In an email Manafort sent to Rick Gates, also a member of Trump campaign, Manafort reportedly said "we shouldn't let DT do this, we should let somebody low level do this so as to send no signals."
Think about that folks--way back in April 2016 before the public was aware that Putin-allied Russians had hacked DNC emails, Trump Campaign Chair Manafort and Papadoupolis already knew about it. They not only knew that the emails had been hacked, but they were also communicating/colluding with the Russians on how to disseminate/weaponize the hacked emails to hurt Hillary Clinton's campaign--something they eventually did. Manafort even sent an email to Rick Gates, a Trump campaign operative suggesting that they should disseminate the hacked emails in a way that does not implicate "DT"--a clear cut consciousness of guilt on Manafort's part. Folks this is a slam dunk case of TrumpRussia collusion and the Dems better get on it--fast.
Bottom line, its about time Dems started pushing back on Trump and his GOP's bogus claim that there was no collusion between Trump campaign and the Russians. Manafort's case proves clearly that there was not only TrumpRussia collusion but that Team Trump violated federal law(s). A large part of the reason Dems are excited to go to the polls this November is to finally get rid of Trump-supporting GOP Members of Congress who have made a conscious decision not to take any action on what clearly appears to be a Trump Administration in bed with Putin's Russia--an enemy of the United States. Dem candidates need to forcefully make the case that there is strong evidence of TrumpRussia Collusion as we head into midterms 2018
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