Tag: campaign 2016
Donald Trump

'Deeply Troubling': Ex-Staffer Says Trump Campaign Hid More Payoffs To Women

An aide to former President Donald Trump's 2016 campaign is now alleging that millions of dollars in campaign donations were paid out to an untold number of women, and that a law firm helped cover it up.

The Daily Beast reported on a recent court filing by A.J. Delgado, a senior advisor to Trump's first campaign for the presidency who also worked on his presidential transition team. In the filing, Delgado accused the campaign of sex discrimination, saying that she was sidelined after it became known she was pregnant. The Beast reported that the father of Delgado's child is Trump advisor Jason Miller, whom Delgado says sexually assaulted her (Miller has denied the allegation).

However, one portion of the filing raised the antennae of a nonpartisan anti-corruption watchdog group. Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) has filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) in response to Delgado's claims that the campaign used a law firm to act as a "middleman" to funnel payments to women "who raised complaints of gender discrimination, pregnancy discrimination, and sexual harassment." Those payments were notably marked as legal expenses, though Delgado's filing claimed that was a ruse (this is very similar to the scheme Trump is accused of in his Manhattan trial).

"The allegations made in AJ Delgado’s declaration paint a deeply troubling picture of potentially illegal activity carried out by Donald Trump’s campaign," CREW president Noah Bookbinder said. "The FEC must conduct an investigation to determine the validity of these claims and establish the degree to which any wrongdoing occurred."

According to Delgado, Trump's campaign made several large payments to the Kasowitz Benson Torres law firm following the 2020 election totaling more than $4 million, that she says were explicitly done to circumvent federal campaign finance law. Millions of dollars were also paid to the firm's compliance firm, Red Curve Solutions, which the Beast reported does not conduct any legal services.

Delgado claimed in her declaration that during settlement negotiations in 2017 that ultimately fell apart, Trump campaign attorney Marc Kasowitz said that "Trump and the Campaign would need to keep this confidential," and stressed that Trump was "known for ‘not settling.'"

"My attorneys expressed this would not be possible because disbursements by a Campaign are public record," Delgado recalled. She said Kasowitz then "dismissed the concerns easily," saying her concerns about campaign finance disclosure laws was "not a problem at all." He allegedly then told her "what we would do is the campaign pays me and then I cut a check to you guys."

A spokesperson for the firm dismissed Delgado's concerns, telling the Beast that "Ms. Delgado’s accusations that there were FEC violations or that the firm acted as a ‘middleman’ to ‘hid[e] settlement payments to women’ from the Campaign are pure fantasy and false."

According to FEC records, Trump's Make America Great Again PAC and his primary campaign organization, Donald J. Trump for President, Inc., paid the firm roughly $4.5 million between 2016 and 2021. The Beast reported that Trump using PACs and law firms as pass-through entities for payouts is a common practice. An FEC record from February of this year, for example, shows a payment to attorney Alina Habba in the amount of $392,638.69 for "legal consulting," which was the exact dollar amount the ex-president was required to pay the New York Times for defamation.

The 45th president of the United States is in the midst of a criminal trial, in which he faces 34 felony counts of falsifying business records relating to hush money payments to women claiming to have had extramarital affairs with him. In a manner similar to what Delgado described, Trump is accused of disguising reimbursements to his former attorney Michael Cohen — who will testify against him next week — by classifying them as legal fees. Cohen is expected to say on the witness stand that there was no such legal retainer and that the payments were reimbursement for him personally covering the hush money payments.

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

On Trial For Campaign Crimes, Trump Is Drenched In Tabloid Sewage

On Trial For Campaign Crimes, Trump Is Drenched In Tabloid Sewage

Back in the antediluvian era of American politics, perpetrating dirty tricks was considered proof of bad character and potentially disqualifying for public office, depending on circumstances.

But as with so many other aspects of public life, the rise of former President Donald Trump heralded a steep decline in political ethics and the way that campaigns are run. And now, after nearly a decade of Trump-style politics, the sleazy conduct exposed in sworn testimony at his New York trial is dismissed with a shrug — especially by Republicans who ask nothing better of their leaders.

Leave aside for a moment the dubious practice of paying off women — an adult movie star and a former Playboy model — to ensure their silence about illicit trysts with Melania Trump's husband. (Having promised a spot on his Celebrity Apprentice TV show to porn actress Stormy Daniels, Donald Trump seems to have been paying at both ends.) Evangelical Christians who used to proclaim their indignation about licentious sexuality have discredited themselves thoroughly, which should not surprise anyone who has observed their antics over the past few decades.

What Trump did to silence Daniels and Karen McDougal was unsavory, and his effort to conceal it was probably illegal, but the truly dirty conspiracy involved the smearing of his political opponents.

According to the testimony of David Pecker, his friend and coconspirator who ran the National Enquirer tabloid, Trump and his henchman attorney Michael Cohen promoted the publication of scurrilous lies about his rivals on its front page.

At the same moment that Trump bestowed the nickname "Lyin' Ted" on Ted Cruz, his final opponent for the 2016 Republican nomination, he and his crew were overseeing the publication of outrageous lies about the Texas senator. In spring 2016, the Enquirer featured an absurd story, complete with a doctored photo, claiming that Cruz's father Rafael, an ordained minister, had been consorting with Lee Harvey Oswald just before Oswald assassinated President John F. Kennedy.

Insane as that accusation was, Trump used it to distract Republican voters from criticism of him by Cruz. On Fox News, he declared that "Cruz's father, you know, was with Lee Harvey Oswald prior to Oswald's, you know, being shot. ... What was he doing with Lee Harvey Oswald, shortly before the death? Before the shooting? It's horrible." What's horrible, of course, is that Trump knew he was spouting an invented story, because it had been invented to benefit him.

The Enquirer went on to publish more fabricated tales about Cruz, including a claim that he had engaged in at least five extramarital affairs — again, while the tabloid was covering up Trump's actual and lengthy history of adultery.

After Cruz had been dispatched, and then prostrated himself cravenly to endorse Trump, the Enquirer moved on to smearing Hillary Clinton, a hobby pursued by the disgusting Pecker with gusto for years before Trump entered politics.

"The desperate and deteriorating 67-year-old won't make it to the White House — because she'll be dead in six months," the paper blared, insisting that the Democratic nominee suffered from brain cancer, strokes, alcoholism, multiple sclerosis and various forms of mental illness, all somehow concealed from the public and press. None of those mythical ailments actually afflicted the former secretary of state, who is still alive and well — and fighting to defeat Trump.

Much of the fake news published by the tabloid about Clinton was pitched by Steve Bannon, the Trump adviser who swindled thousands of donors to his "Build the Wall" charity — and only evaded prison thanks to a corrupt pardon. Naturally, Bannon is back and, like Trump, has endured no opprobrium for his amply proven crimes. Instead, he is a powerful influence on the far right and in Republican circles.

Back when Trump and his cronies oversaw the publication and broadcasting of all those falsehoods, he said repeatedly that he had nothing to do with the Enquirer and its raging defamations. He seemed to sense there was some shame in that kind of sick deception. But he and his attorneys no longer need to deny any of it, because on the American right, the worst kinds of deceit are accepted and even acclaimed, while their perpetrator is idolized.

And still, they will lecture the rest of us about "morality."

Reprinted with permission from Creators Syndicate

Joe Conason is founder and editor-in-chief of The National Memo. He is also editor-at-large of Type Investigations, a nonprofit investigative reporting newsroom formerly known as The Investigative Fund, and a senior fellow at Type Media Center. His forthcoming book, The Longest Con: How Grifters, Swindlers and Frauds Hijacked American Conservatism, will be published by St. Martin's Press in July.On


Hillary Clinton

Trump Troll Mackey Convicted In 2016 Election Rigging Plot

A social media influencer was convicted Friday in connection with a plot to undermine Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign, the Justice Department said.

Douglass Mackey, also known as “Ricky Vaughn,” was convicted of conspiracy against rights for a “scheme to deprive individuals of their constitutional right to vote,” the agency said.

Mackey faces up to 10 years in prison.

“Mackey has been found guilty by a jury of his peers of attempting to deprive individuals from exercising their sacred right to vote for the candidate of their choice in the 2016 Presidential Election,” U.S. Attorney Breon Peace of the Eastern District of New York said in a news release.

“Today’s verdict proves that the defendant’s fraudulent actions crossed a line into criminality and flatly rejects his cynical attempt to use the constitutional right of free speech as a shield for his scheme to subvert the ballot box and suppress the vote.”

Mackey amassed some 58,000 Twitter followers and was ranked as the 107th most important influencer ahead of the presidential election in February, 2016, by the MIT Media Lab.

Prosecutors alleged that Mackey in the months leading up to the 2016 election conspired with other influential Twitter users, among others, to spread disinformation encouraging Clinton supporters to cast invalid votes via text message or social media, the DOJ said.

In the days leading up to the election, Mackey sent tweets suggesting the importance of limiting “black turnout,” tweeting an image depicting an African American woman standing in front of an “African Americans for Hillary” sign.

The ad stated: “Avoid the Line. Vote from Home,” “Text ‘Hillary’ to 59925,” and “Vote for Hillary and be a part of history.”

The fine print at the bottom of the deceptive image stated: “Must be 18 or older to vote. One vote per person. Must be a legal citizen of the United States. Voting by text not available in Guam, Puerto Rico, Alaska or Hawaii. Paid for by Hillary For President 2016.”

The tweet included the “#ImWithHer” hashtag.

At least 4,900 unique telephone numbers texted “Hillary” or some variant of the 59925 text number, which had been used in multiple deceptive campaign images tweeted by Mackey and his co-conspirators.

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

Chris Christie

Christie Mocked Hilariously As He Bids For Anti-Trump Redemption

Reprinted with permission from AlterNet

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) may have an anti-Trump stance in the public eye now but Bulwark writer Tim Miller is explaining why his pushback is a decade too late.

Miller pointed to a tweet highlighting a quote from Christie that read, "I've never walked away from an argument, no matter who stood on the other side," Christie told me during a wide-ranging interview in New Jersey.

He went on to note the main problem with Christie's remarks: The former governor talks a good game but fails miserably at backing it up.

"Like every other pathetic, podgy, scared, insecure bully who has ever disgraced a schoolyard, Chris Christie talks a big game," Miller wrote. "But when he was called upon to meet the biggest threat of his life—a doughy, soft-handed trust-fund baby with authoritarian aspirations—Christie didn't just walk away from an argument. He waddled as fast as he could go in his urine-soaked pull-ups."

Referencing an incident that occurred back in February of 2016, Miller explained how Christie blunder on the campaign trail. At the time, the former governor had launched his presidential bid, running alongside the likes of former President Donald Trump and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL). He needed a campaign boost in New Hampshire but instead of taking aim at the candidate he should have challenged, Christie went after Rubio.

"Christie surveyed the stage and decided to try and butch himself up by taking on the runt of the pack: He ignored Trump and whaled on Lil' Marco, to the delight of many," Miller wrote. "To the delight, in fact, of Trump."

In his book, Christie also recounted what transpired between him and Trump after the debate as he alluded to why he targeted Rubio instead.

"I felt a tap on my shoulder. It was Donald Trump," Christie wrote in his book. "Donald put his arm around me and said, 'God, you destroyed him. . . . You're the only one who could have done that. Just remember: I haven't said anything bad about you. Don't go after me.'"

Miller went on to explain how Christie's wrong move not only impacted Rubio but also tanked his own campaign in New Hampshire.

"Christie succeeded in blunting Marco's momentum, but did nothing to boost himself. Three days later Trump went on to win New Hampshire in a rout, Marco fell to fifth, and Christie bottomed out in sixth," he wrote. "After which he walked away from the race without ever having even thrown an unkind glance in Trump's general direction."

However, Christie's behavior didn't stop there. It only grew worse in the months that followed as the 2016 presidential election approached.

"Right at the moment when the Republican party needed to unite against Trump, Christie gassed the fellow up," Miller noted.

Highlighting a number of Christie's other embarrassing blunders, Miller explained why he has made it to the point of no return.

He wrote:

  • Christie stood next to Trump pliantly as he ranted and raved.
  • It was leaked, maybe apocryphally, that he was assigned the job of fetching Trump's hamburgers.
  • He stood by as Trump told him to stop eating Oreos.
  • After an event in Arkansas, he obediently walked up to Trump looking for a pat on the head but instead he was shooed off and instructed to "go home."
  • He weirdly referred to him throughout the campaign as "Mr. Trump," despite the fact that he was a sitting governor and Trump was a former game-show host.
Despite Christie's latest attempt at redemption, Miller concluded, "Christie is six years late and one insurrection short and I will not be respecting his authorit-aye."

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