Tag: mark meadows
'Less Than Credible' GOP Witness Hits Hutchinson With $10M Libel Lawsuit

'Less Than Credible' GOP Witness Hits Hutchinson With $10M Libel Lawsuit

Former President Donald Trump's ex-White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson on Monday was sued by House Republican "star witness" Tony Bobulinksi for defamation, according to The Daily Beast.

Bobulinski — who's an ex-business partner of Hunter Biden's turned GOP impeachment witness — sued Hutchinson over allegations she included in her September memoir, Enough, saying that Bobulinski was "involved with some sort of shady business dealing."

The GOP witness' filing, according to the report, "contends he is being treated unfairly '[b]ecause [he] did not pledge blind loyalty to the Democrat Party and to the Biden family."

The Beast notes during "a Feb. 28 deposition by the House Oversight Committee, Hunter Biden said, 'Tony is a bitter, bitter man that did not get in on a deal that he wanted to get in on, because I thought that he was both incompetent and an idiot."

Highlighted in Bobulinski’s defamation claim are details of "a 2020 Trump campaign rally in Rome, Georgia, in which former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows handed 'a folded sheet of paper or a small envelope' to Bobulinski while Bobulinksi was wearing what Hutchinson called a 'ski mask.'"

According to her book, the report notes, "Hutchinson observed the two men huddling, with Bobulinski covering his face with a ski mask, 'through a gap in the vehicles,' she wrote. Meadows had asked Hutchinson to locate Bobulinski, then 'work with [the] Secret Service to find a hidden spot.'"

The Beastreports:

According to Bobulinski’s lawsuit, nothing 'nefarious' was going on, and the face-to-face was simply 'an exchange of pleasantries.' It says Bobulinski had become the target of death threats, and that Meadows 'asked to meet with him for the sole purpose of checking on his and his family’s health and safety due to the ongoing threats against them.'

Bobulinski insists in the suit that, under oath last month before the Jan. 6 Committee, he 'unequivocally rejected' the notion he was wearing a ski mask during the meeting with Meadows. He further complains about being mocked on social media about the mask, embedding a photo of himself in his dress whites, 'an actual photo of Plaintiff, a decorated Navy veteran,” to distinguish himself from a meme-ified cartoon showing a masked man smoking a cigarette.

The news outlet also notes, "in describing Hutchinson as a liar, Bobulinski cites a trio of far-right conspiracy theorists, one of whom was banned from Twitterand Facebook for spreading falsehoods about the 2020 election, as 'proof' of his assertions."

Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) sent a February 12 letter to House Oversight Committee Chairman Rep. James Comer (R-KY), saying Bobulinski "is a less-than-credible witness whose 'mysterious ties to the Trump campaign, his refusal to engage with the Committee’s Democratic staff, and his problematic personal finances, raise significant concerns about his truthfulness, credibility, and motivations.'

Reprinted with permission from Alternet


Juicy Columns -- Like This Gift From Meadows -- Keep Landing On My Doorstep

Juicy Columns -- Like This Gift From Meadows -- Keep Landing On My Doorstep

Case in point: ABC News is reporting that former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows has been granted immunity by Special Counsel Jack Smith and is ratting out his former boss, Donald J. Trump. After the Georgia plea deals of Sidney Powell, Kenneth Chesebro, and earlier yesterday, Jenna Ellis, is it possible to get any better? What could be next? Testimony about Trump laughing off his loss to Joe Biden and contemplating ways to turn Stop the Steal into a cash cow?

Actually, that testimony might be on the horizon after we learn more about what Meadows has told Special Counsel Smith during three meetings he had with prosecutors earlier this year.

Listen to this from ABC’s breaking news about the Meadows immunity deal: “Sources said Meadows informed Smith’s team that he repeatedly told Trump in the weeks after the 2020 presidential election that the allegations of significant voting fraud coming to them were baseless, a striking break from Trump's prolific rhetoric regarding the election.”

The ABC report continues, “According to the sources, Meadows also told the federal investigators Trump was being ‘dishonest’ with the public when he first claimed to have won the election only hours after polls closed on November 3, 2020, before final results were in. ‘Obviously we didn't win,’ a source quoted Meadows as telling Smith's team in hindsight.”

Wait. There’s more: “Meadows privately told Smith's investigators that -- to this day -- he has yet to see any evidence of fraud that would have kept now-president Joe Biden from the White House, and he told them he agrees with a government assessment at the time that the 2020 presidential election was the most secure election in U.S. history.”

Thunk. That is the sound of my jaw hitting the little piece of my desk in front of my keyboard.

And the thunkscontinue. ABC reports that its reporters have found numerous assertions about the 2020 election in Meadows’ 2021 book, The Chief’s Chief, that “appear to be contradicted by what Meadows allegedly told investigators behind closed doors.”

Meadows, in other words, who in meetings with Smith’s prosecutors detailed the grift behind Trump’s denials that he lost the 2020 election, has been part of the grift himself, profiting off the lies he and Trump told by publishing a book that knowingly repeats some of those lies.

Another thunk: After spending the month of November and part of December in 2020 passing along allegations of fraud in the election Trump lost, “Meadows said that by mid-December, he privately informed Trump that Giuliani hadn't produced any evidence to back up the many allegations he was making, sources said. Then-Attorney General Bill Barr also informed Trump and Meadows in an Oval Office meeting that allegations of election fraud were ‘not panning out,’ as Barr recounted in testimony to Congress last year.”

That little burst of truth telling got Barr fired, but not Mark Meadows, who stuck around for the whole thing, right up until Jan. 6. On that ignominious day, testimony to the January 6 Committee by his assistant, Cassidy Hutchinson, revealed that when White House Counsel Pat Cippolone rushed into Meadows’ office and told him, “The rioters have gotten into the Capitol, Mark. We need to go see the President now,” Meadows responded calmly, while staring at his phone, “He doesn't want to do anything.” Cippollone told Meadows, “Something needs to be done, or somebody is going to die and this is going to be on your effing hands.” By that time, Trump had already sent out a tweet essentially telling his followers that Vice President Mike Pence was a coward.

"They're literally calling for the VP to be effing hung," Cipollone told Meadows. “You heard him, Pat,” Meadows replied, still staring at his phone. “He thinks Mike deserves it.”

ABC News reports that part of what Meadows told prosecutors confirms what others, such as his assistant, Cassidy Hutchinson, have already testified to. Sources told ABC that Meadows confirmed a widely-circulated story that while the assault on the Capitol was ongoing, Trump took a call from Kevin McCarthy, who urged him to do something to calm the situation. Meadows confirmed that Trump told McCarthy, “I guess these people are more upset than you are, Kevin.”

Meadows was in the West Wing during the entire time the assault on the Capitol was underway and can doubtlessly provide more information to prosecutors about what Trump was doing and who he spoke to in his private dining room just off the Oval Office as he watched the Capitol assault on TV. It is obvious from the ABC report that Meadows has more information on Trump’s statements after he lost the election and what meetings he had and with whom about his attempts to overturn the election. The testimony Meadows can give about Giuliani alone would be voluminous, and the same goes for others who met with Trump in Meadows’ presence, such as John Eastman, Jeffrey Clark, Sidney Powell, Michael Flynn, and others.

Meadows is still facing trial on racketeering charges brought by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis. Anything Meadows tells prosecutors in Washington under a grant of federal immunity could be used against him at trial on state charges in Fulton County, so you can definitely expect that Mark Meadows will cop a plea there, too.

Splat. That’s the sound of Mark Meadows’ teardrop falling in Georgia.

Click. That’s the sound of me locking my front door so the pile of gift columns doesn’t break it down.

Lucian K. Truscott IV, a graduate of West Point, has had a 50-year career as a journalist, novelist, and screenwriter. He has covered Watergate, the Stonewall riots, and wars in Lebanon, Iraq, and Afghanistan. He is also the author of five bestselling novels. You can subscribe to his daily columns at luciantruscott.substack.com and follow him on Twitter @LucianKTruscott and on Facebook at Lucian K. Truscott IV.

Please consider subscribing to Lucian Truscott Newsletter, from which this is reprinted with permission.

Mark Meadows

Atlanta Court Sets $100K Bail For Mark Meadows And Releases His Mugshot

One-time White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows on Thursday surrendered to the Fulton County Jail on charges related to former President Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the presidential election, the Daily Beast reports.

A mugshot and booking records released Thursday showed Meadows “was booked on two charges — violation of the RICO Act and solicitation of violation of oath by a public officer,” the Beast adds. Bond for the former House Oversight Committee chairman was set at $100,000 and he is “forbidden from speaking with co-defendants about the facts of the case, and from intimidating witnesses and co-defendants, or ‘otherwise obstruct[ing] the administration of justice,’” reporter Josh Fiallo notes.

Meadows is one of 19 co-defendants who are accused of conspiring to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in Georgia. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis announced the charges on Aug. 14.

The first of Trump’s co-defendants turned themselves in on Tuesday, and a steady stream of allies have trickled into the jail in the days since. Trump is expected to turn himself in at 7:30 PM tonight, according to a Truth Social post from the former president.

Meadows and former Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark on Tuesday made emergency requests to avoid arrest as they seek to move the charges to federal court. Those requests were denied by U.S. District Judge Steve Jones after Willis successfully argued the pleas were “improper” and “baseless.”

See the full mugshot below or at this link.

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

CNN Reveals New Tape Of Trump Sharing Classified Papers (VIDEO)

CNN Reveals New Tape Of Trump Sharing Classified Papers (VIDEO)

When Donald Trump was indicted on 37 counts ranging from willful retention of national defense information to conspiracy to obstruct justice, that indictment contained devastating snippets of a conversation in which Trump provided prosecutors with a nearly perfect admission of guilt. Now CNN has obtained the full conversation and it turns out to be … even more devastating than it seemed.

In the indictment, Trump was transcribed talking about “the papers.” Afterward, Trump claimed he was actually only showing news clippings to an author working as a ghostwriter for his former chief of staff, Mark Meadows. “There was no document,” Trump insisted in a Fox News appearance. “I didn’t have a document per se. There was nothing to declassify. These were newspaper stories, magazine stories and articles.”

But just as the original portion of the conversation ripped through Trump’s claims about having declassified everything, the full conversation makes a hash of the idea that Trump was just flipping through newspaper clippings. And Trump is not happy about its release.

The recorded conversation starts immediately with Trump proclaiming that U.S. military leadership, and particularly former chairman of the Joint Chiefs Mark Milley, are “bad, sick people.” But then he jumps immediately into audibly fumbling through papers.

Trump: “Well with Milley, let me see that. I’ll show you an example. He said that I want to attack Iran. Isn’t it amazing, I have a big pile of papers, this thing just came up. Look. This was him.”

Trump stops flipping through papers at this point and there is a sharp sound, as if he is stabbing the page with a finger.

Trump: “This was him. He presented me this. This is off the record, but they presented me this. This was him. This was the Defense Department and him. We looked at some–this wasn’t done by me. This was him.”

The sound of pages turning resumes.

Trump: “Also it’s pages long. Look. Wait a minute, let’s see here. It’s it amazing? This totally wins my case, you know. Except it is like highly controversial, secret …”

Laughter in the background.

Trump: “This is secret information. Look at this! The attack …”

At this point, someone comments that “Hillary would print that out all the time.” Trump then comments, “She would send it to Anthony Weiner.”

But the joke is on Trump, because even the comments about Hillary Clinton demonstrate that what he was paging through was not newspapers or magazine clippings, but the actual classified documents—just as he said. And as Trump makes clear, it’s not just one document. It’s a “big pile of papers” that he has with him at the Bedminster club.

The argument that when talking about “papers” Trump meant newspapers is as thoroughly shredded by the conversation as the idea that Trump had somehow declassified this material before leaving office. Not only does he brag about the material being “secret” repeatedly, the conversation goes on, as it did in the indictment, to make things absolutely, abundantly clear.

Trump: “This was done by the military and given to me. Uh, I think we can probably print?”
Staffer: “Well, we’ll have to see, yeah. We’ll have to try to–”
Trump: “Declassify it.”
Staffer: “Yeah.”
Trump: “See, as president I could have declassified it, now I can’t, you know, but this is classified.”
Staffer: “We have a problem.”
Trump: “Isn’t that interesting? It’s so cool. And look, we heard I have a–and you probably didn’t believe me, but now you believe me.”

This is material right out of a prosecutor's dream. Trump confirms the origin of the classified document, he not only shows it to staffers and the writer, who have no security clearance, while saying “look” and “this is secret,” he then goes on to explain that he knows the material remains classified and that he can’t declassify it … though he seems to think there is some way around this.

The partial conversation was already indefensible, but the full audio only drives nails into Trump’s coffin. Which is why he’s reacting to it so well.

CNN audio of Donald Trump sharing national security secretsyoutu.be

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.