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Tag: trump inauguration
Ivanka Trump arrives at former President Trump's inauguration.

‘Major Grifting’: Ivanka Testified Falsely In Inauguration Probe

Reprinted with permission from Alternet

Ivanka Trump in sworn testimony claimed she "really didn't have an involvement" in the planning of her father's January 2017 inauguration event, but according to Mother Jones she "testified inaccurately during her deposition" in a lawsuit brought by Washington, D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine.

Racine is accusing the Trump family of misusing charitable funds to enrich themselves (something of which the Trump family allegedly knows a thing or two.)

"As Racine put it," Mother Jones reports, "the lawsuit maintains 'that the Inaugural Committee, a nonprofit corporation, coordinated with the Trump family to grossly overpay for event space in the Trump International Hotel… The Committee also improperly used non-profit funds to throw a private party [at the Trump Hotel] for the Trump family costing several hundred thousand dollars.' In short, the attorney general accused the Trump gang of major grifting, and he is seeking to recover the money paid to the Trump Hotel so those funds can be used for real charitable purposes."

Ivanka Trump "was part of the decision-making for various aspects of the inauguration, including even the menus for events," despite her sworn testimony that she "really didn't have an involvement" in the planning aside from giving "feedback" if her "opinion was solicited." The report cites "documents filed in that case and material obtained by Mother Jones."

Emails between several individuals suggest Ivanka Trump distanced herself from the events after they were unable to attract "A-listers."

Other parts of the deposition show Ivanka Trump "downplayed her relationship with" Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, apparently a friend of both Ivanka and Melania Trump who later would write a scathing exposé that included then-First Lady Melania Trump's now infamous profanity-laden tirade about kids, cages, and Christmas.

Ivanka Trump "described Winston Wolkoff as 'a person I knew in New York who does events,' adding, 'I didn't know Stephanie Winston that well. I just knew she was very good at planning. I just knew her in that capacity.'"

Emails appear to show that too was false.

Read the entire report here.

Did Don Jr. Lie To Prosecutors Under Oath? Watch The Videotape

Did Don Jr. Lie To Prosecutors Under Oath? Watch The Videotape

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos

The news cycle during the last White House administration was a never-ending stream of corruption and nepotism. The Trumps (and Kushners) participated in such transparent acts of self-dealing and corruption that it became clear they believed their positions in government would immunize them from any prosecution of their actions. Added to this cocktail of criminality and power, is the fact that the Trump family is filled with starkly third-rate people, like Donald Trump Jr. It isn't hard to see how they have broken the laws, stolen Americans' money, and abused their positions in government.

In January of 2020, Washington, D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine filed a civil complaint against the Trump Organization and the Presidential Inaugural Committee. Racine alleged that these two Trumpian groups acted a lot like money laundering operations. A year later, while the Trump and Republican machine tried to overthrow our democratically elected government, Racine was asking for depositions from both Ivanka and Junior. Reportedly, Racine was asking the conman's progeny about money purportedly spent by Trump's Inaugural Committee on the Trump Organization—the latter technically being the family business. Ivanka worked the Inaugural Committee while Junior worked the Trump Organization. At the time, Racine reportedly said Trump Jr.'s deposition "raised further questions," that his office would continue to pursue.

Mother Jonesreports that some of the questions raised during Junior's deposition may revolve around him lying during his testimony.

Donald Trump Jr.'s deposition is filled with his inability to "recall" whether or not he was involved at all in the deals and moves being made to bring together Donald Trump's 2017 inauguration. One might say he pleads ignorance to most questions asked of him by attorneys. And even though the words "ignorance" and "Donald Trump Jr.," go together like peanut butter and chocolate, Junior possibly being a liar is more believable.

In documents and video obtained by Mother Jones, Donald Trump, Jr. seems to have lied or at the very least misled, prosecutors when he was asked about knowing close Melania Trump friend, Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, who raised concerns about price-gouging by the Trump organization, when the Trump hotel was charging the Inaugural Committee "twice the market rate for event space." According to Racine, the committee's deal with the hotel ended up being well above market rates.

During his deposition, Trump Jr. was asked about Winston Wolkoff: "Do you know her?" He replied, "I know of her. I think I've met her, but I don't know her. If she was in this room I'm not sure I would recognize her." He added, "I had no involvement with her."

Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, you might remember, is the former senior adviser to Melania Trump. She's the lady who wrote the tell-all memoir about her time with the former first lady. Mother Jones has video from inauguration night of Junior telling a camera how great Winston Wolkoff is, and they also have text exchanges showing that Winston Wolkoff and Junior likely spoke on the phone a bit, and emails from Trump Jr. to Winston Wolkoff asking about helping out with inauguration festivities.

Winston Wolkoff didn't comment on Junior's testimony but she told Mother Jones: "I did not think it was right for the Trump Family or the Trump Family's businesses to be financially profiting from the presidential inauguration. It was a gross mismanagement of funds and an abuse of authority, and I made it very clear to people in the Trump Family and the inauguration committee how I felt."

The video where Trump Jr. is praising Winston Wolkoff also happens to be at an inauguration event that Junior also didn't recall attending. Video evidence says he definitely attended it. Most of Junior's testimony is evasive. Many of the questions directed at him were about private Trump organization events that seem likely to have been paid for, or in part funded by, the Trump Inauguration Committee—something that would be the definition of self-dealing. Prosecutors have receipts for all of these expenditures and whether or not it matters if Junior is lying or simply an ignoramus, will be a legal question decided by the courts.

To be clear, the Republican Party is fully complicit in self-dealing under the guise of self-promotion. And both the Trumps and the GOP use made-up cultural changes to try and obfuscate the real issues of their corruption and impotence as leaders. But lawyers don't care about your incitements to overthrow the government on Fox News when they are investigating whether or not you stole money.

Here's Trump Jr. talking about how great a person he told lawyers he didn't really know was, at an event he couldn't recall attending.


Watch Donald Trump, Jr. Praise Stephanie Winston Wolkoffwww.youtube.com

Second Women’s March Again Brings Massive Protest Crowds Into Streets

Second Women’s March Again Brings Massive Protest Crowds Into Streets

It’s been exactly a year since the historic 2017 Women’s March, which brought millions out to protest Trump’s inauguration, flooding the streets of the nation with pink knitted hats. Millions have taken to the streets again this weekend for the Women’s March 2018, empowered by the #MeToo movement against sexual harassment and fed up with Trump’s increasingly authoritarian and anti-immigrant policies, his war-mongering and his tantrum-centric presidency.

This year’s march arrived just one day after Trump’s attempt to block Planned Parenthood funding and amid a dramatic government shutdown centering on immigration. The shutdown came as Democrats and several Republicans refused to accept the border wall funding and deportation policies proposed by the Trump administration and the GOP in the federal funding bill. It marks the first successful government shutdown under a single party controlling Congress, and has become a big theme of the second Women’s March.

From Twitter:

View image on TwitterView image on TwitterView image on Twitter
Natalie Montelongo@natimontelongo

, reminding people that we need a & that ✊🏽❤

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Alyssa Milano

✔@Alyssa_Milano

.@realDonaldTrump

You didn’t need to do this.

But you did.

So today…

I march for the dreamers you didn’t protect.

And the children you left vulnerable.    

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Emma Gray

✔@emmaladyrose

These kids are ready to march for women’s rights and against racism

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Hundreds of Women’s March anniversary events are already underway or kicking off this weekend in every U.S. state. You can look up an event in your state and watch a live feed of today’s events on the Women’s March website.

The central organized 2018 Women’s March event is a Power to the Polls demonstration in Las Vegas on Sunday, focused on mobilizing national voter registration for the upcoming midterm election, which could reshape U.S. politics.

In Chicago, the turnout for the second Women’s March march had already exceeded last year’s numbers by 11:30am, with more than 250,000 people descending on downtown. In Los Angeles, a Weekend of Women movement kicked off Saturday morning with 200,000 expected attendees.

In New York City, hundreds of thousands filled more than 20 city blocks as the 2018 Women’s March kicked off at 11:30am in Columbus Circle and Central Park West, as Patch.com reports. Exact turnout is yet to be determined. Attendees interviewed by the New York Times on Saturday reported crowds that filled city blocks, though didn’t pack them quite as full as last year’s march.

Some the largest crowds of the second Women’s March are in Washington D.C., San Francisco, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Seattle, Denver, and even Rome, Italy. More than 250 additional cities and towns throughout the country and the world have also drawn large crowds.

April M. Short is a freelance writer who focuses on health, wellness and social justice. She previously worked as AlterNet’s drugs and health editor. 

Hundreds of thousands marched down Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C. during the Women’s March, January 21, 2017. REUTERS/Bryan Woolston

#EndorseThis: Hillary Tells It Like It Was About Trump’s Inauguration (Uncensored)

#EndorseThis: Hillary Tells It Like It Was About Trump’s Inauguration (Uncensored)

The new, let-it-all-hang-out Hillary Clinton was over in London last week, promoting her book What Happened – and surprisingly showed up on the fabled “marmalade couch” of BBC’s Graham Norton Show, where she ruefully recounted the tale of her appearance at Trump’s inauguration. You may have heard this story before, but not the way she tells it here.

Having broken a toe during her trip, the poor woman came on the BBC set wearing a foot-cast. (She fervently praised the treatment she received from the UK’s National Health System. Maybe she is secretly a socialist, as Rush Limbaugh always insists.)

Hillary’s description of the painful process that led up to her decision to attend the inauguration, as well as of the event itself, is the most candid and funny version yet. Plus she says a bad word that former First Ladies never utter in public.