What does the future hold for Donald Trump? - threadbans in OP

Rjd2

Igotadose wrote: »

Sadly, Cawthorn's wheelchair-bound. Has gone full Trumplodyte after not being one earlier on.

Cawthorn is a cliche, Zombie Reganism turned up to 11 while milking MAGA.

However Liz is a really bad person as well less said about her dad,,,,

"Let them fight".

Overheal

Cody montana wrote: »

More than 100 Republicans will sign a letter tomorrow threatening to create a third party if the GOP doesn't "break" with former President Trump, Reuters first reported


Should be interesting.

Yeah, they can call it the Tea Party and it will be a real party and not just a publicity stunt. :rolleyes:

I'll believe this when the pigs fly.

Rjd2

Overheal wrote: »

Yeah, they can call it the Tea Party and it will be a real party and not just a publicity stunt. :rolleyes:

I'll believe this when the pigs fly.

Its a grift.

A lot of people whose career is "Never Trump" just trying to make money from liberals with way to much money and time on their hand.

What new ideas would they be bringing to America? Tax cuts, drones? Limited government.,:pac:

The amusing thing is those involved probably agree with Mitch, Mc Carthy and heck even Trump on pretty much everything politically.

I could be wrong, but possibly would end up like ChangeUK.

Better use although probably not as profitable use of their time is to actually win some primaries and then exert some power.

Igotadose

Rjd2 wrote: »

Cawthorn is a cliche, Zombie Reganism turned up to 11 while milking MAGA.

However Liz is a really bad person as well less said about her dad,,,,

"Let them fight".

Totally agree. Lest we forget, Cheney got booted because she supported an election result. That's how far the QGOP has fallen. And, it'd be hilarious if Cheney became an 'independent' and voted however the heck she felt.

Overheal

Rjd2 wrote: »

Its a grift.

A lot of people whose career is "Never Trump" just trying to make money from liberals with way to much money and time on their hand.

What new ideas would they be bringing to America? Tax cuts, drones? Limited government.,:pac:

The amusing thing is those involved probably agree with Mitch, Mc Carthy and heck even Trump on pretty much everything politically.

I could be wrong, but possibly would end up like ChangeUK.

Better use although probably not as profitable use of their time is to actually win some primaries and then exert some power.

Depends on their actual objectives, and I too doubt they'd actually try and work with them in the future in some 2 party coalition.

gizmo

Igotadose wrote: »

Sadly, Cawthorn's wheelchair-bound. Has gone full Trumplodyte after not being one earlier on.

I think you may be confusing Cawthorn with someone else? TIME have a pretty good piece on him from back in January...

He’s Saying One Thing and Then He’s Doing Another.’ Rep. Madison Cawthorn Peddles a Different Kind of Trumpism in a Post-Trump World

Overheal

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MluGPJtb8Kc

DOJ memo reveals that Barr was pre-determined not to charge Trump with crimes including obstruction.

Overheal

Palm Beach police have been looking at their procedure for extraditing Trump from Florida if he is indicted. He is still under investigation in SDNY.

https://www.mediaite.com/trump/palm-beach-police-have-reportedly-discussed-trumps-possible-extradition-if-hes-indicted/

A florida law may allow DeSantis to roadblock it, whom Trump has expressed interest in considering as his next running mate.

everlast75

More on this "nothing" story....

https://twitter.com/jimsciutto/status/1392873879895515138?s=19

Not good news for Matt..

everlast75

https://twitter.com/RepMattGaetz/status/1392911653247795203?s=19

He ain't gonna pardon you bro...

Overheal

everlast75 wrote: »

https://twitter.com/RepMattGaetz/status/1392911653247795203?s=19

He ain't gonna pardon you bro...

He will if he can get him back in office soon enough and filibuster his legal problems long enough.

Overheal

https://twitter.com/RonFilipkowski/status/1393011924384821258?s=20

Cringeworthy. Acting like they are being persecuted for having to face the possibility of due process.

ohnonotgmail

Overheal wrote: »

https://twitter.com/RonFilipkowski/status/1393011924384821258?s=20

Cringeworthy. Acting like they are being persecuted for having to face the possibility of due process.

Prosecutes, the word is prosecutes. you'd think a lawyer would know that.

everlast75

Who'd have thought that salty tears were as delicious as this..

https://twitter.com/kyledcheney/status/1393168815677218818?s=19

francois

Dirty tricks

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/13/us/politics/mcmaster-fbi-trump-project-veritas.html

Tony EH

everlast75 wrote: »

Who'd have thought that salty tears were as delicious as this..

https://twitter.com/kyledcheney/status/1393168815677218818?s=19

Pffft, stupid people left to look at the results of their stupid beliefs and actions.

Can't even muster a half ounce of pity for them.

everlast75

everlast75 wrote: »

Who'd have thought that salty tears were as delicious as this..

https://twitter.com/kyledcheney/status/1393168815677218818?s=19

Oh f*ck it's a bus.

Maybe he'll turn informant again as a way out of some time.

francois

francois wrote: »

Dirty tricks

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/13/us/politics/mcmaster-fbi-trump-project-veritas.html

Paywall, any chance of a quick summary?

Tony EH

It's a lengthy read...




WASHINGTON — A network of conservative activists, aided by a British former spy, mounted a campaign during the Trump administration to discredit perceived enemies of President Trump inside the government, according to documents and people involved in the operations.

The campaign included a planned sting operation against Mr. Trump’s national security adviser at the time, H.R. McMaster, and secret surveillance operations against F.B.I. employees, aimed at exposing anti-Trump sentiment in the bureau’s ranks.

The operations against the F.B.I., run by the conservative group Project Veritas, were conducted from a large home in the Georgetown section of Washington that rented for $10,000 per month. Female undercover operatives arranged dates with the F.B.I. employees with the aim of secretly recording them making disparaging comments about Mr. Trump.

The campaign shows the obsession that some of Mr. Trump’s allies had about a shadowy “deep state” trying to blunt his agenda — and the lengths that some were willing to go to try to purge the government of those believed to be disloyal to the president.

Central to the effort, according to interviews, was Richard Seddon, a former undercover British spy who was recruited in 2016 by the security contractor Erik Prince to train Project Veritas operatives to infiltrate trade unions, Democratic congressional campaigns and other targets. He ran field operations for Project Veritas until mid-2018.

Last year, The New York Times reported that Mr. Seddon ran an expansive effort to gain access to the unions and campaigns and led a hiring effort that nearly tripled the number of the group’s operatives, according to interviews and deposition testimony. He trained operatives at the Prince family ranch in Wyoming.



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The efforts to target American officials show how a campaign once focused on exposing outside organizations slowly morphed into an operation to ferret out Mr. Trump’s perceived enemies in the government’s ranks.

Whether any of Mr. Trump’s White House advisers had direct knowledge of the campaign is unclear, but one of the participants in the operation against Mr. McMaster, Barbara Ledeen, said she was brought on by someone “with access to McMaster’s calendar.”

At the time, Ms. Ledeen was a staff member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, then led by Senator Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa.

This account is drawn from more than a dozen interviews with former Project Veritas employees and others familiar with the campaign, along with current and former government officials and internal Project Veritas documents.

The scheme against Mr. McMaster, revealed in interviews and documents, was one of the most brazen operations of the campaign. It involved a plan to hire a woman armed with a hidden camera to capture Mr. McMaster making inappropriate remarks that his opponents could use as leverage to get him ousted as national security adviser.

Although several Project Veritas operatives were involved in the plot, it is unclear whether the group directed it. The group, which is a nonprofit, has a history of conducting sting operations on news organizations, Democratic politicians and advocacy groups.

The operation was ultimately abandoned in March 2018 when the conspirators ended up getting what they wanted, albeit by different means. The embattled Mr. McMaster resigned on March 22, a move that avoided a firing by the president who had soured on the three-star general.

Project Veritas did not respond to specific questions about the operations. On Thursday, James O’Keefe, the head of the group, said this article was “a smear piece.”

“Because The New York Times is losing to Project Veritas in a court of law, it is trying to smear Project Veritas in the court of public opinion,” he said. “I think the court, like me, may well be appalled at The New York Times’s continued pattern of defamation of Project Veritas.” He also released a video.

Project Veritas sued The Times for defamation last year over coverage of one of the group’s videos.

Neither Mr. Seddon nor Mr. Prince responded to requests for comment. Mr. McMaster declined to comment.

When confronted with details about her involvement in the McMaster operation, Ms. Ledeen insisted that she was merely a messenger. “I am not part of a plot,” she said.



Scheme Against McMaster


The operation against Mr. McMaster was hatched not long after an article appeared in BuzzFeed News about a private dinner in 2017. Exactly what happened during the dinner is in dispute, but the article said that Mr. McMaster had disparaged Mr. Trump by calling him an “idiot” with the intelligence of a “kindergartner.”

That dinner, at an upscale restaurant in downtown Washington, was attended by Mr. McMaster and Safra A. Catz, the chief executive of Oracle, as well as two of their aides. Not long after, Ms. Catz called Donald F. McGahn II, then the White House counsel, to complain about Mr. McMaster’s behavior, according to two people familiar with the call.

White House officials investigated and could not substantiate her claims, people familiar with their inquiry said. Ms. Catz declined to comment, and there is no evidence that she played any role in the plot against Mr. McMaster.

Soon after the BuzzFeed article, however, the scheme developed to try to entrap Mr. McMaster: Recruit a woman to stake out the same restaurant, Tosca, with a hidden camera. According to the plan, whenever Mr. McMaster returned by himself, the woman would strike up a conversation with him and, over drinks, try to get him to make comments that could be used to either force him to resign or get him fired.

Who initially ordered the operation is unclear. In an interview, Ms. Ledeen said “someone she trusted” contacted her to help with the plan. She said she could not remember who.

“Somebody who had his calendar conveyed to me that he goes to Tosca all the time,” she said of Mr. McMaster.

According to Ms. Ledeen, she passed the message to a man she believed to be a Project Veritas operative during a meeting at the University Club in Washington. Ms. Ledeen said she believed the man provided her with a fake name.

By then, Mr. McMaster already had a raft of enemies among Trump loyalists, who viewed him as a “globalist” creature of the so-called deep state who was committed to policies they vehemently opposed, like remaining committed to a nuclear deal with Iran and keeping American troops in Afghanistan.

The president often stoked the fire, railing against national security officials at the C.I.A., F.B.I., State Department and elsewhere who he was convinced were trying to undermine him. These “unelected deep-state operatives who defy the voters to push their own secret agendas,” he said in 2018, “are truly a threat to democracy itself.”


Mr. Seddon recruited Tarah Price, who at one point was a Project Veritas operative, and offered to pay her thousands of dollars to participate in the operation, according to interviews and an email written by a former boyfriend of Ms. Price and sent to Project Veritas Exposed, a group that tries to identify the group’s undercover operatives.

The May 2018 email, a copy of which was obtained by The Times, said that Ms. Price was “going to get paid $10,000 to go undercover and set up some big-name political figure in Washington.” It was unclear who was funding the operation. Ms. Price’s former boyfriend was apparently unaware of the target of the operation, or that Mr. McMaster had been forced to step down in March.

Two people identified the political figure as Mr. McMaster. Ms. Price did not respond to requests for comment.

Ms. Ledeen was a longtime staff member for the Judiciary Committee who had been part of past operations in support of Mr. Trump. In 2016, she was involved in a secret effort with Michael T. Flynn — who went on to become Mr. Trump’s first national security adviser — to hunt down thousands of emails that had been deleted from Hillary Clinton’s private email server.

According to the report by the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, Ms. Ledeen had prepared a 25-page proposal about how to obtain what she believed were “classified emails” that had already been “purloined by our enemies.” The exchange was included in emails the special counsel obtained during the investigation.

Ms. Ledeen later claimed to have obtained the deleted Clinton emails from the dark web and sought Mr. Prince’s assistance to authenticate them. “Erik Prince provided funding to hire a tech adviser to ascertain the authenticity of the emails. According to Prince, the tech adviser determined that the emails were not authentic,” the special counsel’s report said.

She is part of a network of conservative activists who had particular influence in the Trump White House. She is a member of one group, Groundswell, that pushed to purge the White House and other government agencies of “deep state” enemies of Mr. Trump.

Last year, Axios reported that a memo written by Ms. Ledeen — laying out a case against a nominee for a top job in the Treasury Department — was instrumental in Mr. Trump’s decision to withdraw the nomination.

Ms. Ledeen is married to Michael Ledeen, who wrote the 2016 book “The Field of Fight” with Mr. Flynn. She said she retired from the Senate earlier this year.

After Mr. Flynn resigned under pressure as national security adviser, Mr. Trump gave the job to Mr. McMaster — inciting the ire of loyalists to Mr. Flynn.

Ms. Ledeen posted numerous negative articles about Mr. McMaster on her Facebook page. After The Times published its article about Mr. Prince’s work with Project Veritas, she wrote on Facebook, “We owe a lot to Erik Prince.”



A Former Spy’s Role

Mr. Seddon first came to know Mr. Prince in the years after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, when he was stationed at the British Embassy in Washington and Mr. Prince’s company, Blackwater, was winning large American government contracts for work in Afghanistan and Iraq. Former colleagues of Mr. Seddon said he nurtured a love of the American West, and of the country’s gun culture.

He is married to a longtime State Department officer, Alice Seddon, who retired last year.

After Mr. Seddon joined Project Veritas, he set out to professionalize what was once a small operation with a limited budget. He hired former soldiers, a former F.B.I. agent and a British former commando.

Documents obtained by The Times show the extent that Mr. Seddon built espionage tactics into training for the group’s operatives — teaching them to use deception to secure information from potential targets.

One role-playing exercise involved a trainee being interrogated by a law enforcement officer and having to “defend their cover” and “avoid exciting” the officer.

Another exercise instructs trainees in how to target a person in an elevator. The students were encouraged to think of their “targets as a possible future access agent, potential donor, support/facilities agent.”

“The student must create and maintain a fictional cover,” one document read.

The early training for the operations took place at the Prince family ranch near Cody, Wyo., and Mr. Seddon and his colleagues conducted hiring interviews inside an airport hangar at the Cody airport known locally as the Prince hangar, according to interviews and documents. Mr. Prince is the brother of Betsy DeVos, who served as Mr. Trump’s education secretary.

During the interview process, candidates fielded questions meant to figure out their political leanings, including which famous people they might invite to a dinner party and which publications they get their news from.

After finishing the exercises, the operatives were told to burn the training materials, according to a former Project Veritas employee.

Project Veritas also experienced a windfall during the Trump administration, with millions in donations from private donors and conservative foundations. In 2019, the group received a $1 million contribution made through the law firm Alston & Bird, according to a financial document obtained by The Times. The firm has declined to say on whose behalf the contribution was made.

That same year, Project Veritas also received more than $4 million through DonorsTrust, a nonprofit used by conservative groups and individuals.


Targeting F.B.I. Employees


Around the time Mr. McMaster resigned, Mr. Seddon pushed for Project Veritas to establish a base of operations in Washington and found a six-bedroom estate near the Georgetown University campus, according to former Project Veritas employees. The house had a view of the Potomac River and was steps from a dark, narrow staircase made famous by the film “The Exorcist.”

The group used a shell company to rent it, according to Project Veritas documents and interviews.

The plan was simple: Use undercover operatives to entrap F.B.I. employees and other government officials who could be publicly exposed as opposing Mr. Trump.

The group has previously assigned female operatives to secretly record and discredit male targets — sometimes making first contact with them on dating apps. In 2017, a Project Veritas operative also approached a Washington Post reporter with a false claim that a Senate candidate had impregnated her.

During the Trump administration, the F.B.I. became an attractive target for the president’s allies. In late 2017, news reports revealed that a senior F.B.I. counterintelligence agent and a lawyer at the bureau who were working on the Russia investigation had exchanged text messages disparaging Mr. Trump.

The president’s supporters and allies in Congress said the texts were proof of bias at the F.B.I. and that the sprawling Russia inquiry was just a plot by the “deep state” to derail the Trump presidency.

Project Veritas operatives created fake profiles on dating apps to lure the F.B.I. employees, according to two former Project Veritas employees and a screenshot of one of the accounts. They arranged to meet and arrived with a hidden camera and microphone.

Women living at the house had Project Veritas code names, including “Brazil” and “Tiger,” according to three former Project Veritas employees with knowledge of the operations. People living at the house were told not to receive mail using their real names. If they took an Uber home, the driver had to stop before they reached the house to ensure nobody saw where they actually lived, one of the former Project Veritas employees said.

One woman living at the house, Anna Khait, was part of several operations against various targets, including a State Department employee. Project Veritas released a video of the operation in 2018, saying it was the first installment in “an undercover video investigation series unmasking the deep state.”

In the video, Mr. O’Keefe said Project Veritas had been investigating the deep state for more than a year. He did not mention efforts to target the F.B.I.

A former Project Veritas employee and another person identified the woman who targeted the State Department employee as Ms. Khait, who had appeared on the television show “Survivor.”

Ms. Khait did not respond to a request for comment.

By the time Project Veritas released its first “deep state” video, Mr. Seddon had left the group for other ventures — chafing at what he viewed as Mr. O’Keefe’s desire to produce quick media content rather than to run long-term infiltration operations, three former Project Veritas employees said.

He was replaced by Tom Williams, a longtime associate of Mr. Prince’s, two of the former Project Veritas employees said. Mr. Williams also eventually left the group.

Mr. O’Keefe has long defended his group’s methods. In his 2018 book, “American Pravda,” Mr. O’Keefe wrote that a “key distinction between the Project Veritas journalist and establishment reporters” is that “while we use deception to gain access, we never deceive our audience.”

Overheal

Gaetz coconspirator enters plea of Guilty into court record today on charges he conspired with other individuals to prostitute a 17-year old girl and other charges.

https://www.mediaite.com/news/just-in-matt-gaetzs-ex-confidant-joel-greenberg-pleads-guilty-admits-to-sex-trafficking-of-a-minor/

Igotadose

WhomadeGod wrote: »

@Tony EH that was a good read.

Dirty politics at its finest.

I don't think the US DoJ is going to look kindly at attempts to coerce FBI agents. That sounds very illegal. All under the direction of Betsy DeVos' brother Erik Prince... What a swamp

Overheal

A man charged with murdering his tells FBI agents that he committed voter fraud for Trump by using her name on an illegal ballot. He allegedly murdered her last may according to prosecutors, and then he confesses that in October sent an absentee ballot in her name, which the clerks office systematically flagged as belonging to a missing person. He said he did it because the dems were cheating and that she would have wanted it. Really twisted individual if found guilty of the murder.

https://www.businessinsider.com/colorado-man-tried-vote-for-trump-using-missing-wife-identity-2021-5?fbclid=IwAR10tOws1RXzBXm5jFDm1WT235XUpGf9eAundR_ywszUGFTBCr1qZqg2GT0

Carfacemandog

francois wrote: »

Dirty tricks

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/13/us/politics/mcmaster-fbi-trump-project-veritas.html

I wonder what the connection could be?

Leroy42

WhomadeGod wrote: »

I agree.
Drain the swamp.

At least they made a start voting Trump out. Get the likes of Sanders, AOC and Warren in the clean up the mess.

Overheal

Why does the GQP think sleep deprivation is a strength? McCarthy arguing that Trump>Biden because "Trump doesn't sleep for 5 hours a night."

What.

Tell me how

WhomadeGod wrote: »

I agree.
Drain the swamp.

Trump was President for 4 years after he promised to do that.
Surely it's no longer necessary.

Igotadose

Tell me how wrote: »

Trump was President for 4 years after he promised to do that.
Surely it's no longer necessary.

The poster responding to me, missed the bait here; I used the word 'swamp' because it was the #IMPOTUS' campaign slogan (one of dozens.) This inept sting was run by QGOP operatives working against an #IMPOTUS appointee. Big, deep, putrid QGOP swamp.

The draining's started. More to come. It only got worse under the #IMPOTUS, the greatest swamp creature of them all.

ohnonotgmail

Overheal wrote: »

Why does the GQP think sleep deprivation is a strength? McCarthy arguing that Trump>Biden because "Trump doesn't sleep for 5 hours a night."

What.

are they including his "executive time"?

astrofool

Overheal wrote: »

Why does the GQP think sleep deprivation is a strength? McCarthy arguing that Trump>Biden because "Trump doesn't sleep for 5 hours a night."

What.

It's a really weird angle, trump was known for getting bored with things and wandering off like a puppy to the next thing and never getting anything done. Also for spending an inordinate amount of time watching tv.

I mean his itinerary was basically "donald will get up in the morning, put on his big boy pants and spend the day having lots of meetings and making lots of phone calls then pass out surrounded by diet coke and fillet o'fish".

mcmoustache

WhomadeGod wrote: »

I agree.
Drain the swamp.

Maybe you can make some sense of this. Are the things that are being stated as fact actually fact or are they a load of unhinged nonsense from a delusional narcissist? I'm leaning towards the latter but I'd like to see you justify this to a simple man like myself.