Trump supporters and conspiracy theory - Part 2

[Rick Plant]

Exclusive: Special counsel trades immunity for fake elector testimony as Jan 6 probe heats up



Washington CNN — Special counsel Jack Smith has compelled at least two Republican fake electors to testify to a federal grand jury in Washington in recent weeks by giving them limited immunity, part of a current push by federal prosecutors to swiftly nail down evidence in the sprawling criminal investigation into efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

The testimony, described to CNN by people familiar with the situation, comes after a year of relative dormancy around the fake electors portion of the investigation and as a parade of related witnesses are being told to appear before the grand jury with no chance for delay.

That activity could signal that investigators are nearing at least some charging decisions in a part of the 2020 election probe, sources added. It also comes just as the special counsel’s office filed charges against former President Donald Trump for his handling of classified documents.

Prosecutors initially obtained documents and interviews last spring from many of the Republicans who signed false certificates to the federal government, asserting they were the rightful electors for Trump in seven battleground states won by Joe Biden.

Prosecutors have played hardball with some of the witnesses in recent weeks, refusing to grant extensions to grand jury subpoenas for testimony and demanding they comply before the end of this month, sources said. In the situations where prosecutors have given witnesses immunity, the special counsel’s office arrived at the courthouse in Washington ready to compel their testimony after the witnesses indicated they would decline to answer questions under the Fifth Amendment, the sources added.

Locking in witness statements

The compelled testimony has allowed the special counsel’s office to lock in witness statements and potentially information that other investigators who have looked at the aftermath of the 2020 election couldn’t obtain.

At least one other witness has spoken to investigators in the past two weeks outside of the grand jury with an agreement the person would be protected from potential prosecution, another source said.
At least half a dozen witnesses have testified before the federal grand jury in Washington over four days in the past two weeks, with many of the sessions focused on the fake electors’ plot orchestrated by attorneys assisting the Trump campaign in 2020. The numbers, profile of the witnesses and prosecutor tactics suggest a probe picking up its pace, several people familiar with the investigation said.

Lawyers who have been in touch with the special counsel’s office in the wake of Trump’s indictment in Florida have found that prosecutors are still examining what appear to be other aspects of the investigation into Trump and his allies’ efforts to subvert the 2020 election results.

It is not clear if Trump is a target in the fake electors aspect of Smith’s ongoing criminal probe. But in recent months, prosecutors have pursued information about the former president’s words and actions after the 2020 election, including securing court-ordered testimony from his former vice president, Mike Pence.

Prosecutors have also asked multiple witnesses recently about Trump’s actions before, during and after the January 6 attack on the US Capitol, sources said.

An interest in former Trump legal team

In recent weeks, the special counsel’s office has also shown interest in several members of Trump’s post-election legal team who promoted baseless claims of widespread voter fraud, including his former lawyers Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell, as well as former Justice Department appointee Jeffrey Clark, who tried to help Trump’s push to use the Department of Justice to overturn the election.

Giuliani played a key role in overseeing the fake electors plot across seven battleground states as part of the broader push to overturn the 2020 presidential election results for Trump, as CNN has previously reported.

Prosecutors have also continued to focus on potential financial crimes and money laundering after Trump raised millions of dollars off false claims the election was stolen. One former Trump campaign official who testified this month before the grand jury was asked about specific campaign ads and messaging produced as part of those fundraising activities, according to a source familiar with the matter.

Multiple 2020 election witnesses are scheduled for grand jury appointments in the coming days, sources say.

Fake electors in Nevada

The fake electors scheme – one of the more public efforts to overturn Biden’s win in the 2020 election – now appears to be at the forefront for prosecutors, sources said. The Republicans at the center of the fake electors effort asserted that Trump won in seven battleground states that he actually lost, and signed documents claiming they were the rightful electors.

The two Nevada Trump electors who were given the limited immunity – the state’s Republican Party Chairman Michael McDonald and another Nevada GOP official, Jim DeGraffenreid – both testified before the grand jury last week.

At least two more grand jury witnesses this week had insight into the fake electors scheme, including Gary Michael Brown, a 2020 Trump campaign election day operations official, who had told campaign staff he delivered fake elector votes for Trump to Congress from battleground states. Brown previously never responded to House Select Committee investigators who tried to reach him in their separate investigation.

Attorneys representing the witnesses declined to comment to CNN.

McDonald and DeGraffenreid previously declined to answer some questions about the fake electors scheme in the House inquiry.

McDonald also previously told reporters in Nevada that the FBI seized his phone as part of the federal probe related to January 6 and efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

The two Nevada fake electors who testified recently spoke to the grand jury about the actions of Nevada’s former GOP attorney general Adam Laxalt, and Jesse Binnall, a lawyer who worked for the Trump campaign in Nevada. Laxalt and Binnall both appeared at a press conference in mid-November 2020 to tout a lawsuit challenging the presidential election results and spreading claims of election fraud.

“Donald Trump won the state of Nevada after you account for the fraud and irregularities that occurred in the election,” said Binnall, who was one of the lawyers who brought a failed lawsuit on behalf of the GOP electors in Nevada.

"Adam Laxalt has never been contacted by the special counsel,” Robert Uithoven, a Laxalt spokesman, told CNN.

Binnall declined to comment.

As part of the special counsel’s investigation into the state-level efforts to overturn the election results, several county election commissions and state officials in battleground states Trump tried to contest received subpoenas last year for documents related to communications involving his campaign and various allies.

Nevada’s Clark County was among those that produced documents following a subpoena. In the batch of documents handed over and obtained by CNN, representatives for Trump’s campaign were in touch with election workers in Clark County. In their communications, the election workers parried questions from the Trump campaign about mail-in ballots and knocked down rumors, including a claim that there were problems with ballot tabulation hardware, the documents show.

https://www.cnn.com/2023/06/23/politics/special-counsel-fake-electors-immunity-testimony-jan-6/index.html



Heat on Trump: Jack Smith strikes deal with fake MAGA electors in coup probe

Jack Smith’s January 6 probe revives with new heat on MAGA electors. CNN reporting Smith got "at least two Republican fake electors to testify to a federal grand jury in Washington in recent weeks by giving them limited immunity.” CNN adding the move could signal “at least some charging decisions.” MSNBC Chief Legal Correspondent Ari Melber reports.

Watch:

[Rick Plant]

Jack Smith Will 'Wring the Truth' Out of Trump Fake Electors: Kirschner



At least two of the fake Republican electors who were installed by former President Donald Trump to falsely declare him the winner of the 2020 election have testified before the federal grand jury investigating the former president's alleged attempt to overturn the last presidential election, according to CNN.

The exclusive report, which cites sources familiar with the situation, is the latest sign of activity with Special Counsel Jack Smith's probe into Trump's actions leading up to the siege of the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, and could signal that decisions on charges are nearing.

It's also a sign that Smith "continues to move forward on all fronts" of his investigations against Trump, said former federal prosecutor Glenn Kirschner, as the Department of Justice also moves steadily along in its case against the former president regarding his handling of classified documents.

Federal prosecutors have been investigating multiple avenues in which Trump and his allies allegedly attempted to overturn his loss to President Joe Biden, including the elaborate scheme to subvert the Electoral College process at the hands of fake electors who were pledged to Trump in seven key swing states that the former president lost.

According to CNN, at least two of those electors in question agreed to testify to the grand jury in Trump's case on a limited immunity deal. The grand jury has also heard from "at least half a dozen witnesses" in the past two weeks, read the report, and at least one other witness spoke to investigators outside of the grand jury on the agreement that they would not be prosecuted.

Kirschner, who spoke about the update in Trump's January 6 case on his Justice Matters podcast Friday, said that Smith's agreement with the fake electors is a "tactical decision" that it is more imperative to "lock in their testimony that very likely will incriminate Donald Trump" than worry about "nobodies who committed crimes."

"What are the odds that Republican operatives and officials in all seven battleground states simultaneously and coincidentally came up with the fake elector scheme?" Kirschner posed.

"Come on, man. This was a Washington-conceived, Washington-implemented, Washington-controlled criminal operation from the top down."

"That's a tactical decision that I certainly entrust Jack Smith to make," the legal analyst continued, speaking about the limited immunity deals. "I'm sure he's making the right decisions, the best decisions based on the available evidence, and he has decided that it's better to grant some of these fake electors immunity and use their testimony against Trump and company than try to prosecute them all."

"[Smith]'s going to wring the truth out of them upfront, and he's going to use that truth to make sure he brings the best, most complete, most compelling case he can bring against Donald Trump and his legal team," Kirschner added.

The fake elector issue has also been a major part of Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis' investigation of the former president's alleged attempts to overturn Georgia's 2020 election results. Willis' office previously reached an immunity deal with eight of the 16 fake Republican electors in her state in exchange for their grand jury testimonies, and is expected to wrap up decisions on charges by summer's end.

Watch: https://twitter.com/i/status/1672620544053719041

https://www.newsweek.com/jack-smith-will-wring-truth-out-trump-fake-electors-kirschner-1808799



Jack Smith continues to investigate Trump on all fronts; puts Republican fake electors in grand jury

Special Counsel Jack Smith continues to investigate the crimes of Trump and company on all fronts. New reporting from CNN indicates, "Special counsel trades immunity for fake elector testimony as Jan 6 probe heats up."

This video discusses why prosecutors decide to grant some culpable individuals immunity and compel them to testify before the grand jury.

Watch:

[Rick Plant]

Fox host floats conspiracy theory that either U.S. or NATO is behind attempted Russian rebellion



Fox News host Rachel Campos-Duffy tossed out an evidence-free conspiracy theory today that perhaps the U.S., NATO or both were behind the apparent coup unfolding in Russia.

One of Campos-Duffy’s takers was K.T. McFarland, a key aide to scandal-ridden Michael Flynn during the early years of the Trump administration. Campos-Duffy began by saying that she no longer trusted the government on foreign affairs.

“I’m always questioning things. I asked our last guest on this subject, Rebeka Koffler on this topic, if she thought it was possible that we could be behind this attempted coup with the Wagner group, and she said it’s definitely one of the possibilities or NATO.”

McFarlane responded: “I think she’s right that the United States government –whether it’s been actively or behind the scenes – has been very involved in Ukraine Russia all the time.”

Journalist Ben Smith mused on Twitter, “Fox and Friends host Rachel Campos-Duffy cheerfully floating the theory that Prigozhin is working for the US/NATO.”

That prompted former Rep. Adam Kinzinger to offer this concise analysis.

“No, he isn’t. This is nuts."

Decoding Fox News @DecodingFoxNews

K.T. McFarland worked with Michael Flynn during the Trump Admin. Rachel Campos-Duffy immediately assumes with no evidence that the U.S. is behind the coup. McFarland called the annex of Crimea a 'revolution' then parrots Russian propaganda again with NO evidence.

Watch: https://twitter.com/i/status/1672607700578975748




GOP candidates criticize Trump's handling of classified documents

Former Rep. Will Hurd of Texas announced his White House bid Thursday and called former President Donald Trump a "failed politician." Another Republican hopeful -- businessman Vivek Ramaswamy -- also shared criticisms for the former president Thursday. CBS News chief election and campaign correspondent Robert Costa discusses the latest developments in the 2024 race.

Watch:

[Rick Plant]

Donald Trump's valet Walt Nauta scheduled to be arraigned Tuesday: CBS

Former president Trump's co-defendant in the criminal documents case in Florida is finally set to be arraigned Tuesday morning, according to CBS.

Walt Nauta, who served as Trump's valet and allegedly had a key role in moving Trump's boxes of confidential documents to keep them from being discovered by authorities or Trump's own attorneys, couldn't be arraigned at the time Trump was because he hadn't found a lawyer in the area yet. Since that time, legal professionals and onlookers have wondered if Nauta might decide to "flip" on Trump.

Now, the delay is over, according to Scott MacFarlane, the CBS Congressional Correspondent. He posted on Twitter:

"Arraignment is set for 9:45am Tuesday in the federal criminal case of Walt Nauta, Trump's co-defendant In Miami."

Trump was also arraigned in Miami.

https://twitter.com/MacFarlaneNews/status/1672695840413208576



Who is Walt Nauta, the aide charged alongside Donald Trump?



An aide to former President Donald Trump has been charged alongside him with alleged mishandling of national security documents.

Walt Nauta, a US Navy veteran, was a White House military valet to Mr Trump and joined him as an assistant at his Florida estate after he left office.

Mr Nauta, 40, did not enter a plea during a hearing in Miami on Tuesday, and will be arraigned at a later date.

He faces six criminal counts punishable by up to 90 years in prison.

He is charged with conspiracy to obstruct justice, withholding records, concealing documents, scheming to conceal facts from investigators and making false or misleading statements.

Mr Nauta will not need to enter a plea until 27 June because of legal technicalities - he did not have a local lawyer with him in court of Tuesday. He was released alongside Mr Trump without having to post bond and was ordered not to talk to other witnesses.

According to the indictment, Mr Trump directed his aide to move boxes that were a focus of the investigation from a storage room at the Mar-a-Lago resort. He was allegedly told to conceal them from Mr Trump's attorney and the FBI.

Prosecutors have said Mr Nauta can be seen on surveillance video removing the boxes from the storage room ahead of an imminent search of the Palm Beach property, and later moving some of them back - one of at least five times he moved boxes in and out of the room.

They further allege that, in a May 2022 interview with the FBI, Mr Nauta lied that he did not know how the boxes had arrived on site, where they were being stored or whether Mr Trump had intentionally kept any.

On his Truth Social platform on Friday, the former president defended Mr Nauta and accused officials at the US Department of Justice of "trying to destroy his life" and "hoping that he will say bad things about 'Trump'".

Born in Agat, in the US territory of Guam, Waltine Torre Nauta enlisted in the US Navy in 2001.

Navy records show he ascended through the ranks to become a Senior Chief Culinary Specialist, in 2021.

By then, he had been serving in the military-staffed cafeteria for the Trump White House.

The president later elevated him to a role as his military aide, a position similar to a personal valet and sometimes referred to as a "body-man".

Mr Nauta retired from the Navy when Mr Trump left the White House. According to the indictment, he became an executive assistant to Mr Trump in August 2021.

Unlike other aides, who sought to remain in Washington DC after Mr Trump lost the 2020 election, Mr Nauta relocated to Florida and continued to serve as an aide to the former president at Mar-a-Lago.

He has been described as a low-key but constant presence in the Trump White House, and a trusted, well-liked aide in Mr Trump's post-presidential orbit.

The New York Times reported that Mr Nauta is viewed as a Trump loyalist and does not appear to be playing a "side game" in exchange for prosecutorial leniency.

When the BBC contacted some of Mr Nauta's relatives in Guam about the charges, they seemed stunned by the news.

Reached by social media on Monday, his cousin, Lani Nauta, said the family had only just regained electricity after the typhoon that struck the island two weeks ago.

She ended the conversation to call other members of her family and inform them of the indictment.

In an interview with the Washington Post before Mr Nauta was charged, relatives in Guam described him as a "good boy" who moved to the United States "to enjoy his life, not to cause problems".

Pauline Torre, his mother, said the fact that her son had been selected to serve the president "says it all".

But his aunt said he did everything "at the direction of the former president".

https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/walt-nauta-trump-aide-reportedly-174257039.html



Donald Trump Arrested: Former president banned from talking to body man Walt Nauta about case



Donald Trump was banned from speaking about the federal classified documents case with a host of potential witnesses, including his co-defendant, Walt Nauta, a White House military valet and Mar-a-Lago “body man” who was also charged in Jack Smith’s special counsel case.

Trump pleaded not guilty in a Miami courtroom on Tuesday. The judge overseeing the historic arraignment reportedly said Trump could not discuss the case with Nauta.

Nauta faces six criminal counts: conspiracy to obstruct justice, withholding of a document or record, corruptly concealing a document or record, concealing a document in a federal investigation, scheme to conceal, and a false statements charge. He did not enter a plea on Tuesday, receiving a two-week extension as he seeks a local attorney in Florida.

Nauta followed Trump to his Florida resort home of Mar-a-Lago after the former president lost the 2020 election to President Joe Biden, and the Trump aide arrived at the Miami federal courthouse on Tuesday in the same SUV as the former president.

The judge had said Tuesday that Trump and Nauta could still talk to each other about topics unrelated to the criminal investigation but that discussions about the case would need to go through their respective attorneys.

"There will be no communication about the case with fact witnesses who are on a list provided by the government," U.S. Magistrate Judge Jonathan Goodman told Trump.

Nauta allegedly moved around boxes at Mar-a-Lago that contained government records Trump had retained after leaving the White House.

Nauta, whose full name is Waltine Torre Nauta, is from Guam and joined the Navy in 2001. Despite urging from the Justice Department, he declined to cooperate with Smith in the investigation into Trump.

Trump pleaded not guilty to 31 counts for the willful retention of national defense information, one count of conspiracy to obstruct justice, one count of withholding a document or record, one count of corruptly concealing a document or record, one count of concealing a document in a federal investigation, one count for a scheme to conceal, and one count related to alleged false statements.

Nauta worked in the Trump White House as a “senior chief culinary specialist.” His records show his duty station was the “Presidential Food Service,” part of the White House Military Office, from November 2012 to May 2021. He retired from the Navy in September 2021.

Reports have claimed that among Nauta’s many White House duties was bringing Trump a Diet Coke after he pushed a red button on the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office.

The Trump body man was reportedly added to the payroll of Trump’s Save America political action committee in August 2021, receiving $176,000 over the next year and a half, and he worked as an executive assistant in the Office of Donald J. Trump. Nauta was then added to the Trump campaign payroll after it launched in November 2022.

“Trump endeavored to obstruct the FBI and grand jury investigations and conceal his continued retention of classified documents by, among other things … directing defendant Waltine Nauta to move boxes of documents to conceal them from Trump’s attorney, the FBI, and the grand jury,” Smith wrote when charging Trump and Nauta.

Smith said Trump "and his White House staff, including Nauta, packed items, including some of Trump’s boxes” in January 2021 and that “Trump was personally involved in this process.” The special counsel said Trump "caused the boxes, containing hundreds of classified documents, to be transported from the White House to The Mar-a-Lago Club.”

The special counsel said, “Nauta and others moved some of Trump’s boxes from the White and Gold Ballroom to the business center at the Mar-a-Lago Club” in March 2021.

Nauta also “found several of Trump’s boxes fallen and their contents spilled out on the floor of the Storage Room” at Mar-a-Lago in December 2021, including a document allegedly marked “SECRET//REL TO USA, FVEY” — meaning the information in the document was “releasable only to the Five Eyes intelligence alliance consisting of Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States.”

The special counsel said Nauta “made false and misleading statements” to the FBI in May 2022, including “falsely stating that he was not aware of Trump’s boxes being brought to Trump’s residence for review before Trump provided 15 boxes" to the National Archives. Smith said Nauta was asked whether he knew where Trump’s boxes had been stored before they were in Trump’s residence and whether they had been in a secure or locked location and that Nauta “falsely” responded, “I wish, I wish I could tell you. I don’t know. I don’t — I honestly just don’t know.”

The indictment also said Trump and Nauta "misled Trump Attorney 1 by moving boxes that contained documents with classification markings so that Trump Attorney 1 would not find the documents and produce them to a federal grand jury.”

Nauta’s lawyer, Stanley Woodward, has reportedly filed a letter under seal with Judge James Boasberg of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, alleging prosecutorial misconduct by the Justice Department's chief of the counterintelligence section, Jay Bratt.

Nauta’s lawyer declined to comment to the Washington Examiner.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/justice/donald-trump-arrested-former-president-banned-talking-walt-nauta



How Walt Nauta, Trump’s 'body man' turned co-conspirator, could hurt Trump's case

Lawrence O’Donnell on Donald Trump’s co-conspirator in the classified documents case: “I actually think them having a co-defendant in there who is by all previous legal precedent completely vulnerable to serious criminal sentencing here is actually very helpful.”

Watch:

[Rick Plant]

Ex-Fox host Dan Bongino caught being thrown out of Palm Beach restaurant

Former Fox host Dan Bongino was spotted in the midst of a sticky situation in Palm Beach, Fla., where many conservatives have gathered over the past year since Donald Trump moved permanently to Mar-a-Lago, Politico reported Sunday.

Instead of dining at the country club, Bongino was spotted at Cucina, a high-priced Italian restaurant with modern Scandinavian decore and a highlighter-yellow awning.

According to the report, it was nearing midnight on Friday, and several employees were photographed forcibly removing Bongino.

See the photo of the incident: https://twitter.com/dlippman/status/1672987522618519554



Putin looked like a 'rat in the corner' until he was bailed out with withdrawal: former ambassador

According to the former United States Ambassador to Russia, Vladimir Putin's response to the called-off Wagner Group revolt exposed him as being weak and severely damaged his tough-guy reputation.

Appearing on MSNBC with host Jonathan Capehart, ex-Ambassador Michael McFaul stated the Russian president ended up looking like a "rat in the corner" during the biggest crisis of his career.

Reflecting on the fact that Putin had previously threatened the Wagner Group's leader Yevgeny Prigozhin with arrest only to back off after a deal was brokered by Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko, Capehart asked, "Do you think Vladimir Putin can let this go? Especially given as you pointed out what he said in that televised speech yesterday?"

"I honestly do not know," McFaul admitted. "I was very surprised that he capitulated so fast."

"By the way, I think that there's a lot about our theories about how he is going to fight in Ukraine, and whether he has an off-ramp and all these arguments about if he is a rat in the corner he'll never negotiate," he continued. "Well, yesterday he was a rat in the corner and he didn't double down, he didn't escalate, he negotiated, and, he looks very weak in terms of whether he is in charge of his own country."

"I suspect he is going to be looking for a way to reassert himself, vis-à-vis Mr. Prigozhin, and the Wagner fighters. I just do not exactly know how," he added.

Watch:

[Rick Plant]

Trump’s Long History With Conspiracy Theories
https://www.factcheck.org/2020/10/trumps-long-history-with-conspiracy-theories/

[Richard Smith]

Trump continues to surge in the latest polls despite every dirty trick by the corrupt establishment to derail democracy and a great and wide field of GOP candidates, Trump is still over 50% with a 30% lead.  In contrast, Old Joe's poll numbers are in the basement.  RFK is doing push ups and has 20% of the Dems.  Over half of DEM voters have expressed doubt about Clown Show Joe's mental and physical abilities. 

[Rick Plant]

Ex-Prosecutor: Trump Could Land Himself In Jail In Next Phase Of Documents Case
https://www.yahoo.com/news/ex-prosecutor-trump-could-land-160208940.html