Who, What, When, Why: Trump Has Paid $500K to Silence Keith Schiller
In the middle of a NYT story explaining why Trump, whose campaign has raised over $1 billion, is facing a cash crunch, it reveals that Trump’s bodyguard — whom they don’t name — has been paid $500,000 since 2017.
Mr. Trump’s former bodyguard and White House aide has been paid more than $500,000 by the R.N.C. since late 2017.
This appears to be a reference to Keith Schiller, whose generous funding for to complete vaguely defined tasks dubbed “security” have been reported in the past.
Schiller was originally hired by the RNC to help select a site for the 2020 convention. But once the city of Charlotte, North Carolina, was announced in July, Schiller’s firm was kept on to “work on other security needs for the committee,” a party official told CNBC, speaking on the condition of anonymity.
The official declined to go into detail about what the committee’s security needs might be but confirmed that the work is ongoing.
The RNC’s characterization of Schiller is different from how the committee described his work a year ago, when CNBC first inquired about it.
In February 2018, an RNC official told CNBC that the committee had hired Schiller’s firm, KS Global Group, for a very specific purpose: “To provide security consultation for the RNC 2020 convention site selection process, which is currently underway.”
The official also took pains to emphasize that Schiller’s $15,000 a month fee was not coming out of the same funds the party was using to help elect Republicans to office in the 2018 midterms. Instead, the official said, Schiller’s firm was being paid out of a special fund set aside for convention expenses.
Since the time of all the earlier reports about Schiller’s exorbitant fees to do little, however, we’ve learned that Schiller witnessed Trump actions that go beyond whether or not he fucked sex workers while in Moscow in 2013.
He was also the cut-out for calls on which Trump sought to optimize Russia’s help in 2016.
The SSCI Report provides evidence that Roger Stone spoke to Donald Trump via Keith Schiller’s phone on July 17, 2016, when Stone was at the RNC obtaining advance notice of when the stolen DNC files would drop.
However, Stone’s phone records show that Keith Schiller placed a five-minute call to Stone on the afternoon of July 17, 2016.1499 Witnesses said that Trump often used Schiller’s phone to hide his communications. For example, Sam Nunberg recalled Stone commenting in the late 2015 to early 2016 time frame that Trump would call Stone from Keith Schiller’s phone because he did not want his advisors to know they were talking. 1500
It further suggests that a call Rick Gates witnessed, which he incorrectly remembered had taken place in early August 2016, instead took place on September 29, using Schiller’s phone.
On September 29, a call took place between Stone and Trump while Trump and Gates were on the way to LaGuardia Airport. After the call ended, Trump told Gates that “more releases of damaging information would be coming.”1619 Phone records show that this was not the first phon~ call between them that day. Trump called Stone three times just before 10:00 a.m. on the morning of September 29, but could not connect.1620 Stone returned the call to a Trump Organization number two hours later, but the call lasted only two minutes. 1621 Then, at approximately 1 :40 p.m., Stone received a one-minute call from Keith Schiller’s phone number, which records show originating from East Elmhurst, New York-in proximity to LaGuardia Airport.1622 Stone returned the call to Schiller at 1:51 p.m. for three minutes. 1623 This call matches the conversation between Stone and Trump that Gates remembered.
This flurry of calls was included in exhibits entered into Stone’s trial but never actually explained.
Stone also had a call to Schiller’s phone on October 6, the night before WikiLeaks started dropping the Podesta files.
On the afternoon of October 6, Stone received a call from Keith Schiller’s number. Stone returned the call about 20 minutes later, and spoke-almost certainly to Trump–for six minutes. 1663 The substance of that conversation is not known to the Committee. However, at the time, Stone was focused on the potential for a WikiLeaks release, the Campaign was following WikiLeaks’s announcements, and Trump’s prior call with Stone on September 29, also using Schiller’s phone, related to a WikiLeaks release. Given these facts, it appears quite likely that Stone and Trump spoke about WikiLeaks.
In other words, it’s not just from Trump’s rat-fucker — from whom Trump bought the silence by commuting his prison time — that Trump must buy silence. He also has to ensure that Schiller doesn’t repeat details of what Stone told Trump when he got advance notice of the first WikiLeaks drop, what he told Trump a week before the Podesta files started dropping, and what he told Trump the night before.
And that’s just what SSCI was able to discover from a really partial understanding of what Mueller found. With access to (at least) much of Stone’s unencrypted emails and texts from 2016, Mueller would have had a far better idea of what Schiller may have witnessed while serving as the cut-out between Trump and his rat-fucker.
Whatever secrets Trump is paying Schiller to keep, they are apparently worth bankrupting his re-election campaign fund.
Imagine what an audit of the RNC would reveal?
It would sparkle with corruption, lawlessness, and shades of Enron.
Schiller, shilling, scofflaws, and salacious details.
Carnal knowledge indeed.
Schiller was also the handler who ran Trump’s liaisons for him, who spearheaded the raid to confiscate Trump’s NYC medical records just after the inauguration, who accompanied Trump on the infamous Miss Universe trip to Moscow. He knows loads.
Guaranteed that $15k/month + legal fees is a drop in the (slop) bucket…
And he’s not the only one getting 15,000 per month. I’ve seen that number a few times.
A FOUR year campaign has to be pretty expensive as well.
I believe it was Omarosa who claimed that the rush to open Trump’s re-election campaign was to create a place to exchange “salaries” for NDA’s.
It always made sense to me, but I’m biased; Shiller’s situation could give her claim some merit.
I often pointed out that Brad Parscale was the first hire, but considering how much more we know now, then we did then, it would be interesting to see who else is on the payroll, including those who were “hired” to work on Trump’s re-election so soon after Trump’s inauguration.
So the going rate for “ongoing security” is $15k/mth which exactly matches the going rate for wives/girlfriends of the failsons. I wonder how many other underlings in Trump-world are on a monthly stipend of $15k?
Running the RNC like one of his busin…. wait. it IS one of his businesses.
Kimberly Guilfoyle and Lara Trump each get 15,000 per month (180 per year). Are there tax or reporting implications to that number?https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-campaign-paying-sons-significant-others-180000-a-year-2020-4
No, it’s all normally taxable income, but it’s just a convenient number for a Trump to remember. Enough to be interesting to the recipient and to pay normal human bills, not enough to look like hush money or some other graft. In Schiller’s case, and almost certainly for family members, that payment seems to be one of many.
That’s alot of bills!! I make 20K/year. 😅
Before I retired, I was getting paid 55K per year, plus “incentive compensation pay”, i.e., a bonus. (I was at the low end of the management scale.)
I could have my piddly hypothetical deed paid off!
Triple the American median income, I think. The amount is a sort of safe harbor. It’s enough to keep most people quiet, if they think they know something useful about someone important. It’s not enough, without more, to be suspicious, and it helps make an NDA enforceable. It also provides cover for paying someone more for other, unrelated services.
Bankrupting his re-election fund? Half a million dollars is 0.05% of a billion. The Trumps must be skimming off much more elsewhere. How they disbursed inaugural fund monies – still a mystery – is probably a good guide. My guess is that they take their vig by directing large payments to a plethora of related entities for pseudo-, over-priced services, a structure that probably looks a lot like money laundering.
Mr. Biden and his AG will really need to take a hard look into that, because it’s probably the sort of thing many of Trump’s cronies do, too.
I like the idea of a Truth and Reconciliation Commission that investigates all of the players and all of the corruption! Oh, and prosecutes.
Truth and reconciliation commissions do not, by definition, prosecute. And anybody even remotely open to prosecution would be an idiot to speak to one.
Yes. And President Biden will need to immediately establish a quorum at the FEC.
As an aside it’s as if their $15,000 a month for criming is our $15 an hour for a day’s honest work.
For this administration, I think a Truth and Incarceration Commission would be more apropos.
Tiny percentage, that’s true, but I have serious doubts about that billion dollar figure. I would not be surprised if we find out he and the GOP have been inflating and double counting receipts to make everything look a lot rosier than it really is.
Granted that Trump inflates everything. But there are substantial donors behind the GOP and they are putting up lots of money to keep the GOP in the White House. If Trump’s campaign is really running low on cash, it’s not because too little came in.
I’m curious if a lot of spending happened because ad buyers were told there was a lot more money in the bank than existed.
Ad buys get a lot of discounts when they are a part of a package with commitments for future buys and prompt payment. If Trump has been backing out of deals becuse the fundraising was ego pumping vapor, that ends up costing a whole lot more as discounts are taken off the table.
Stations also sell out of spots, and what is left for last minute buys can cost a lot more.
As time gets short, it gets harder to hit up big donors for contributions to GOP committees and PACs. These people don’t always have the liquidity to write a million dollars in checks on short notice, or they may be tempted to make a pledge but not pay up until they how things are going closer to November.
They could skip a lot of the cash crunch headaches by being a lot more honest up front.
Have they bought any furnaces? I hear those are handy for markups.
Events at his properties is one way – you can hide a lot in catering bills and room-service charges.
Trump is famous for never using his own money to pay his own bills. He uses someone else’s money for both his bills and his charitable contributions. (How he accounts for that will be a nightmare.) His legal bills alone the past four years must be yuge. Predictably, he’s also paid the bills of those who’ve kept quiet about his crimes, which presents even more issues.
The connection between who incurred the debt and who pays for it would be something to scrutinize, because it’s the sort of thing Trump would either ignore or make up. If there isn’t a real one, the payment is a gift or income to the beneficiary, and might not be a legitimate expense by the payor. Either way, the payments might create a basket of legal and tax problems. (See, Trump Foundation.)
Investigating how the Trump family and its many related entities are disbursing a billion or more re-election dollars needs to be thoroughly investigated. Federal jurisdiction should be clear. But it would also create state law issues, such as tax compliance, which means a federal pardon won’t necessarily put all the worms back in the can.
There is always a distinction in Trump’s world between who gets paid and who doesn’t. Melania gets cash, not credit. Putin gets paid, in his own way. It is significant that Schiller seems to get more than promissary notes and country club swag.
That is probably a very important distinction about who is a serious risk versus a possible one to DJT’s empire.
Yes, never uses his own money; however uses people for his own gain, also uses people to bully.
As in almost all things related to DJT, follow the money. It will make clear what has been going on, and to this end Cy Vance and Letitia James in NY need to keep the pressure on release of the records.
When it is revealed that DJT likely skinned all of the rubes, small money donors and well-heeled oligarchs together, I would not be surprised to see some of them return the favor. However, I think that payback would wait until after DJT is out of office. In the mean time, saying that Louis DeJoy can be investigated is merely another reminder that there is the boss and there is the (expendable) help, no matter how rich or helpful they are. Before anyone thinks that DeJoy is in real danger, understand that AG Barr will make sure Louis is covered to keep the USPS shenanigans under wraps. Look how many other investigations run by Mueller have been “quietly dropped” to see how this will play as opposed to how it should play.
IIRC the federal statute of limitations has run out on some, if not all, of deJoy’s straw donations. But NC doesn’t have one, and Trmp can’t pardon for state crimes.
Yes, the SOL on any fed charges has run unless the DOJ fought to demand tolling of the statute, which pretty much never works, and certainly would not here.
I’m not so sure that federal charges *can’t* be tolled, even post facto. Effectively and practically, the OLC opinion, binding on the DOJ, has put Trump beyond the reach/jurisdiction of the DOJ and the Court. It is not unlike committing a crime in one state and removing oneself to another for the period of the SOL. This has been, in some cases, tolled.
It *may not* toll, but it’s still a compelling argument for later, when he’ll already be up to his eyeballs in court. In for a penny …
Lol, no. Tolling is beyond difficult in civil cases, but damn near impossible in criminal cases absent knowing flight from the relevant federal jurisdiction. Not happening.
Sorry, friend, not to be clear what I was saying. The comment wasn’t about deJoy, but Trump. Of course, the OLC opinion doesn’t apply to deJoy.
It still might be worth the try, if only to get *some* court adjudication on the OLC opinion, which is probably *long* overdue.
Oh, sorry! But, yes, there should really be no question that if, because you are POTUS and criminal law cannot apply to you, any and all criminal SOLs should be tolled while you are in office. I am not sure why this is even a controversial issue, though apparently it is.
Yay! We’re almost agreeing! I vote that nothing be tolled (no such thing in the British Commonwealth). Make those who would lead, come to the table with clean hands, and keep sanitizing.
I also would not rule that he has been paying off a lot of straw donors much more recently. It’s always possible the heat gets to people and they talk. He seems to have made a lot of enemies.
There are signs some important people are not delaying the payback.
The Trump campaign is reported to have gone dark this past weekend on TV in Michigan, Ohio and PA. TV stations usually extend credit to campaigns on the assumption that fundraising will continue past the election to come up with cash to cover shortalls. Considering Sinclair’s dominance over many local markets, this may be a sign they are tired of unpaid bills and demanding a lot of cash up front, which the campaign can’t or won’t pay.
Indeed. Not paying his bills is one of Donald’s defining characteristics. He thinks he’s so thspecial, people should give him stuff, like his dad. It could also be a sign that reality is creeping in on Donald’s side as well as his supporters’.
The likelihood of Trump losing, and losing big, is real. Big time cheating, without a Trump administration being there to hide or ignore it afterwards, could become very expensive. And Donald’s first thought would always be to pocket for himself whatever he can grab. He’s a bloody pirate.
There does seem to be correlation between being very wealthy and having access to the means for sustenance of “alternate realities”. As time goes on, it costs more to keep that machinery going.
Reality “creeping in” indeed.
Sinclair is a bad group to lose for DJT and this should be confirmed independently. They pretty much are the RWNM archetype (if quieter than OANN or Faux), including such charming policies as Boris Epshteyn rants as must-run content for their stations. So, losing them is like losing the choir for DJT and they are also large enough in terms of market share to do real damage to the WH messaging reach.
One wonders about the security bill as well running into the millions of dollars still pending in places like El Paso, TX among other cities. Can a campaign claim bankruptcy to dodge these bills or are the officers financially liable?
Also, the idea that Donald Trump would use his own money – assuming he has any – to fund his campaign, let alone, “whatever it takes,” is LOL funny. The guy is a professional liar. He – and Princess Ivanka – would tell people a condo building was 80% complete and 90% sold, when he’d just broken ground and had sold less than 20% of it. If the press repeats that shit, it needs to put a tobacco-warning label on it.
That’s the beauty of the name-branding model DJT uses almost everywhere, since he gets $$$ up front to use the name for recognition but he owns none of the other costs or risks.
OT, but did Danbury CT name their sewage treatment plant for John Oliver? He dared them to do so for something like 50 k$.
Aha, they did a couple of days ago. This gives an example that Oliver will be famous as long as it is named for him. The change is that DJT gets paid in the theory that his name will bring in business to the underlying projects and it’s worth paying a cut.
However, Oliver isn’t on the hook for anything regarding the plant performance.
There is the little matter that some of Trump’s campaign money was raised on explicit promises that Trump would match it. Not doing so would be straight up fraud. That would implicate state laws, as well as federal.
Even if Trump claims to have matched it, did he, when, how, and with whose money? Were matches double or triple counted? A Trump pyramid scheme comes to mind. Trump is a professional liar and lifelong cheat, especially about money.
I don’t remember that promise to match, but it would fit the persona. The usual stuff is that another big money donor will match some multiple of donations in a period, which is something public TV does all of the time.
When does such a promise become a contract issue?
Basically, when he accepts contributions that relied on it.
…”the idea that Donald Trump would use his own money… ”
He is a real estate developer. The mantra is “never use your own money”.
That is absolutely true, especially in the big cities Trump develops in (when he still did develop instead of just name brand whoring). That said, most real estate developers are still more honest and ethical than Trump.
bmaz wrote: “… That said, most real estate developers are still more honest and ethical than Trump.”
That is some World Class faint praise!
Ehhh, it was the best I could muster!
If the Trump campaign owes money, wouldn’t any vendor that chooses to forgive a debt to the campaign have to be re-classified as a donar?
Since we aren’t talking about another private Trump company being run into the ground by grifters, is there any reason to think that vendors that have no intention of turning their receivables into a campaign donation have the leverage to force some sort of investigation/protection In real time if they believe that the reason they haven’t been paid is because of serious mismanagement or laws being broken?
That deposition–“If I feel like I own most of it, I own most of it”–even when he owns, say, 30%.
I’ve said it before, but his business is secrets: primarily keeping his own secrets secret at whatever cost (especially about his finances) but also buying access to other people’s secrets. One reading of the 2016 election is that he paid people off to preserve [some of] his secrets and gleefully exploited how the secrets of others were exposed — even if those things weren’t especially secret — without him having to pay for them. But if you’re getting something for free, you’re not the customer, you’re the product being sold.
He expected Cohen to stay quiet. He bought silence from Schiller with campaign money. He’s probably buying silence from Parscale right now. He got silence from Stone by perverting the justice system. He hides presidential actions from the actual federal government.
He’s been enraged for nearly four years at the bullshit idea he was “spied upon” by Obama’s administration. And even if you find Cohen’s description compelling — that the president wants to own the country as if it’s his own business, the way Putin owns Russia — there’s a good circumstantial case that his deference to Putin is tied to his secrets, however you define “secrets.”
The thing is, by commuting Stone’s sentence, Trump left in place Stone’s 5A putative protections pending conclusion of Stone’s appeals. But Stone himself affirmatively dismissed his appeal. He is available again to be put under oath and questioned. These people really do not deeply think through much.
It looks like Billy Barr has killed some of the ongoing investigation into Stone, given the latest FOIA releases.
Oh, I know. But without any formal prosecution ongoing, no reason to not put him in the chair and start asking him questions under oath. Let him try to take the 5th.
Any outrage that the President has displayed at the idea of his campaign being spied upon by Barack Obama in 2016 is entirely manufactured and only intended to distract attention from the reasons why the FBI found it necessary to investigate Michael Flynn. In order for Trump to lie effectively, he has to know and understand the truth. He knows full well that Obama didn’t spy upon him in 2016 just as he knows full well that the Russians helped him to win the election.
Donald Trump knows what kind of a man he is, just as he knows what kind of a man Barack Obama is. Trump knows that, if he had been in President Obama’s position in 2016, he certainly would have spied upon the opposition party and candidate, and he probably thinks that Obama is a “sucker” and a “loser” for not having done so.
“Nice omertà you’ve got there Mr. Donald. It’s be a shame if something were to happen to it…” holding open wallet.
You write: “Stone was at the RNC obtaining advance notice of *when* the stolen DNC files would drop.” I emphasize the *when* because, here and elsewhere, you are often careful to limit the scope of foreknowledge to timing. To what extent do you assume or believe that the players also knew, in some generality, *what* would drop and *why*?
As we know, Trump loves to tip his hand. For example, he first called on the FBI to “reopen the investigation” of Clinton’s email on October 27, the eve of Comey’s announcement. He first demanded that Clinton release transcripts of her paid Wall Street speeches at his last rally on October 3, the eve of their anticipated publication: “Release the papers, Hillary. Release those papers” (One might think he had made the demand ad nauseam. He had not.)
Of course, the more significant impact of foreknowledge on campaign messaging (my interest) lies elsewhere. Still, Trump’s gestures are vivid confirmation.
Just prior to the publication of DNC emails, Trump addressed his RNC volunteers, saying:
“Hillary’s people just swamped [Bernie]. You’re looking at Deborah Wasserman Schultz. I’ll take our Reince over her any day in terms of competence. Forget it. Not for being nice or any of those things.”
This relatively out-of-the-blue comment from Trump included the key criticism that would emerge from the DNC files (although the word “swamped” is a poorly chosen) and demonstrated foreknowledge of the *what” (in generality) and *why*.
For those who like a richer fact pattern, recall that Trump also likes to take a victory lap, crediting himself with magical predictive powers. Two days later he tweeted:
“Today proves what I have always known, that Reince Priebus is the tough one and the smart one, not Debbie Wasserman Shultz.”
Anyone else see this Salon article? Not only will we need to see who is getting paid by the DJT campaign and how much, but who is not and why. Jason for his part is getting 20k$ monthly from a (IIRC) “nonprofit” tied to Bannon and that is not fully kosher as if DJT cares about appearances.
However, with money comes pro-quos, so who is getting “that” and what does “that” mean?
https://www.salon.com/2020/09/08/short-on-cash-trump-campaign-appears-to-be-hiding-large-dollar-payments-to-top-staff/
Last line of the Salon article: “A great many of Trump’s donors contribute in small dollar amounts.” AKA: suckers.
I read it as an insinuation that money laundering/structuring may be occurring.
The Trump Gang is among other things an agglomeration of grifters. Brad Parscale made off with $40 million, and is still on the payroll.
At $40 mil each plus hush money, how many grifters does it take to cripple a billion dollar campaign fund?
https://www.salon.com/2020/07/01/brad-parscale-used-trump-campaign-funds-to-run-ads-on-his-personal-facebook-page-report_partner/
Other than the occasional short lived, glib, Roger Stone-ish, “Thistle eating mule, I’ve gotten away with something ain’t I smart, grin”* is there anyone in this cesspool of power hunger avarice who’s really happy with themselves?
If there is someone, there’s probably substance abuse or psychological problems involved.
Come on people we’re only on this planet for a few short years.
*similar to the grin of Commander in Chief cynically embracing the US flag
” … is there anyone in this cesspool of power hungry avarice who’s really happy with themselves?”
No, they’ll probably all whisper “Rosebud” on their deathbeds.
Smile
…and enter a much warmer climate.
Meanwhile, in the real world, San Diego State University researchers estimate that between August 2-September 2, 2020, the Sturgis motorcycle party was responsible for a quarter million Covid-19 cases and about $12.2 Billion in health care costs.
Freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose, apparently. It’s worth a lot, especially if someone else pays for it. Many of those sick and dead didn’t “assume the risk” by going to the rally, they contacted Covid from those who did.
https://digbysblog.net/2020/09/thanks-kristi/
http://ftp.iza.org/dp13670.pdf
Dripping with sarcasm “Who could’a predicted.”
Meanwhile in a “sh*t hole” country.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2020/09/06/covid-19-why-senegal-outpacing-us-tackling-pandemic/5659696002/
I swear Trump has an ongoing open channel to RU. Wonder if it’s this guy.
Is there a link here with a name?
Stormy Daniels revealed that she would contact Trump by calling Schiller’s mobile. Before that, someone else close to him (Barbara Res?) likewise said that he would often call from, or be called at, other people’s phones, which could become confusing at times.
Regardless, Schiller knows a lot. It’d be a real shame were he ever indicted for anything.
Trivia: Schiller’s son (first name not recalled) is the head of Surveillance for TrumpOrg.
As Natasha Bertrand notes about a Bloomberg story, Bill Barr’s attempt to substitute the USG for Donald Trump in E. Jean Carroll’s defamation suit has delayed the start of the evidence-gathering phase of her suit. Fancy that. If the court agrees with Barr, it would probably derail her suit, as the USG has not statutorily consented to be sued for that harm. As bmaz notes, the move is classic Trump-Barr bullshit, in that it requires Trump’s misogyny to be a part of his job. Once a consigliere, always a consigliere.
That also raises an issue analogous to how Trump spends his campaign contributions: how he spends the USG’s money. Apart from all those AF1 flights Trump takes to his campaign stops, Barr’s move is clearly outside the scope of the DoJ’s remit.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-09-08/doj-seeks-to-take-over-trump-defense-in-e-jean-carroll-lawsuit
https://twitter.com/NatashaBertrand/status/1303461834532556800
https://twitter.com/steve_vladeck/status/1303444129863655424
I hope the court throws it out, with prejudice. The alleged events took place long before he became president and are well outside the scope of *any* legitimate job.
No, no, no! You just want the application denied as to substitution as counsel.
Whatever it takes to keep her case alive and in the courts. And put Barr behind bars.
The defamation part is current, and because it keeps moving forward I would assume that she has a good case showing it was done with deliberate, actual(?) malice.
Steve, as usual, is right. It simply is not.
The theory of law supporting Barr’s maneuvers in favor of Trump can be simply stated:
L’etat c’est moi.
Bill Barr also apparently sought removal of the case from NY state to federal district court. The rationale for that would most likely be that the USG should be a party under the FTCA – a circumstance that Bill Barr seems to have conjured out of whole cloth.
The powers that be who told the American public that Bill Barr would make a great Attorney General and that he would keep Donny on a straight course – and every Senator who voted for his approval as AG – have a lot to answer for. Shitbags.
Not that I agree with it (and I do not) but I would guess that the “interference with the job” ploy is referring to DJT’s current job, not the one held when the alleged rape occurred. That would be consistent with the theory behind the unitary executive immunity from litigation, to prevent getting hobbled by lawyers dredging stuff up from long ago.
So, perhaps without the WH fully realizing it the odious OLC opinion will get its day in court.
Unless someone has crossed state lines to commit a rape, why can’t New York handle this? The trouble with AG Barr’s idea is that it will be extended to anyone associated with the WH, which we already see in the so-called privilege claims that are not formally declared as required by the minions.
Think of how hard it will be to prosecute CBP thugs in PDX, for example when they cross the line into kidnapping, if all AG Barr has to do is say they are WH staff / Praetorian Guards and thus under DJT’s immunity.
Reality interferes with Donald Trump doing his job. Running his businesses and thinking of scams to rip-off the taxpayer interfere with it. Endless tweeting and eating in bed, and taking until noon to shower and set his strand of hair interfere with it. His ignorance, incompetence, and psychopathy interfere with it.
The interference from a single private lawsuit is pocket lint, not a strong material from which the DoJ might build its house. A cascade of prosecutions and private lawsuits, on the other hand, is strong evidence that Donald Trump is manifestly unfit. He should be thrown out of it so that someone capable might take his place.
Totally OT, Rugger9 and E of H, is it dark where you are ? I know that you are both in the Bay Area. It is as dark as 8:45pm here on the peninsula right now. The street lights are on and actually needed.
Not there now. Pictures I’ve seen make the Bay Area look like a set from Dune.
I’m expecting the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse this afternoon.
My sis sent me a pic she took at 10am this morning. I can see lights on down the hill from her, and the bay (about 2 miles NW) is nearly invisible. Phone camera, though, so it isn’t as dark as it really was.
All the pics I’ve seen are apocalyptic.
I have friends who live near Stayton, OR. This is their second day of stage-2 alert: “be ready to get out”. So far, they haven’t had to – but they aren’t sure where they’d go, as all the evac centers in their area are already full.
https://static01.nyt.com/images/2020/09/09/us/09wildfires-02/merlin_176776104_5106bffb-16f0-4e56-bb31-64c1c553d93b-superJumbo.jpg
Picture of San Francisco at 10:30 this morning It did not get any lighter all day.
And they’ll all be wearing MAGA caps.
I’m about ready to award Trmp, all of his immediate adult family, all of his WH staff and cabinet past and present, all his appointees, and all the Rs in both houses of Congress the “Mid-Pacific Peace Prize”. It’s awarded as they leave the plane at 35000 feet, somewhere between Hawaii and New Zealand.
Wishing death on political opponents is not a path anyone should go down. The people noted just need to be removed from office and control over people’s lives. The Peace Prize should be awarded to the individual(s) who can find a way for people like the ones noted above never to get to governmental offices of control.