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FRAUD

Donald Trump Jr and Ivanka Knowingly Defrauded Condo Buyers — and Wriggled Out of Prosecution, New Book Charges

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“Coordinated, deliberate and knowing effort to deceive buyers”

President Donald Trump’s two eldest children knowingly took part in a fraud scheme to sell luxury condominiums, according to a new book about the family’s business.

The family’s dealings around the Trump SoHo project fell under criminal investigation, which was dropped in 2011, but the new book American Oligarchs: The Kushners, The Trumps And The Marriage Of Money And Power reveals email correspondence that appears to show Donald Trump Jr. and Ivanka Trump engaged in fraud, reported The Guardian.

“(Email evidence) showed a coordinated, deliberate and knowing effort to deceive buyers,” wrote journalist and author Andrea Bernstein. “In one email, the Trumps discussed how to coordinate false information they had given to prospective buyers. Because the sales levels had been overstated at the beginning of the sales process, any statement showing a lower level could reveal the untruths.”

Trump previewed the 46-story tower in lower Manhattan during a 2006 episode of NBC’s “The Apprentice,” but sales proved disappointing — especially after business partner Felix Sater’s criminal past was revealed.

Only about 15 percent to 30 percent of the units had been sold by the start of 2009, according to figures filed with state and federal agencies, but the future president’s children presented a rosier picture in public.

Ivanka Trump told Reuters in June 2008 that 60 percent of them had been sold, and Trump Jr. told Real Deal magazine in April 2009 that 55 percent of units had sold, according to Bernstein.

Buyers later sued Trump, complaining that they had been defrauded by inflated sales claims, and the Manhattan district attorney’s office then began a criminal investigation of the case.

The Trump feared the damning evidence they left behind in their email correspondence, which was first revealed by ProPublica in 2017.

“According to a person who read them, the Trumps worried that a reporter might be on to them,” Bernstein wrote. “In yet another email chain that included Don Jr. and Ivanka, the younger generation of Trumps issued the email equivalent of a knowing chuckle, saying that nobody would ever find them out, because only people on the email chain or in the Trump Organization knew about the deception.”

One person who read the mails told Bernstein there was “no doubt” Trump Jr. and Ivanka Trump “approved, knew of, agreed to, and intentionally inflated the numbers to make more sales.”

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FRAUD

FEC Closes Case on International ‘Coordinated Attempt’ to Steal Black Americans’ Votes for Clinton to Help Trump

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3 years ago

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June 7, 2021

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The Federal Election Commission (FEC) has quietly closed the file on a five-year old election fraud case, confirming a “coordinated attempt” by an international 4chan-based group that set up a website masquerading as an official Hillary Clinton campaign site that targeted Black Americans to try to get them to “cast” their vote for the 2016 Democratic presidential candidate online, to help elected Donald Trump.

There is no online voting in U.S. elections.

The website also tried to profit off the venture, soliciting “campaign” donations, which is illegal since they had no affiliation with the Clinton campaign.

It is not known how many people believed they cast their ballot for Clinton online, at votehillaryonline.com, nor is it known how much money was collected through the election fraud scam. An FEC’s Second General Counsel report reveals the main focus of the website (screenshot image below), as one user in a Discord chat said, was “to trick African-Americans ‘into thinking that they can vote at home,’ hopefully resulting in a ‘Trump landslide.'”

“The results of the investigation show that the primary purpose of the Website was to deceive minority voters into thinking that they could vote for Clinton on the Website rather than at a polling place, thus, potentially helping Donald J. Trump to win the 2016 Presidential election,” the FEC report reads.

It noted “the investigation confirmed the existence of a coordinated attempt, likely from outside the United States, to interfere with American voters.”

The Daily Beast adds, “FEC investigators combed through reports by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and the final report of Special Counsel Robert Mueller for signs that the fake site could be linked to the Internet Research Agency, the Russian troll farm responsible for carrying out much of Russia’s election meddling, but found no connections.”

The FEC was unable to identify the perpetrators and recommended closing the case, taking no further action.

 

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FRAUD

‘Should Be Disbarred’: Internet Furious After Sidney Powell Insists ‘No Reasonable Person’ Would Have Believed Her

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3 years ago

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March 22, 2021

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“Tell this to the families of the murdered Capitol Police officers”

Attorney and conspiracy theorist Sidney Powell for months insisted then-President Donald Trump won re-election, that it was stolen from him, and spun an outrageous tale involving a government supercomputer switching votes to Joe Biden amid a communist plot involving Cuba, George Soros, China, Venezuela, the Clinton Foundation, Antifa, dead Hugo Chávez, and Dominion and Smartmatic voting machine companies.

Dominion and Smartmatic both sued her for defamation.

Now, in response to Dominion’s $1.3 billion lawsuit, Powell is trying to get it dismissed – by blaming anyone who believed her.

Buzzfeed News’ senior reporter Zoe Tillman posted the details: Powell is claiming “no reasonable person would conclude” those “were truly statements of fact.”

“Powell argues she can’t be liable if the information she based her ‘opinions and legal theories’ on were actually unreliable,” Tillman adds, “comparing herself to reporters who get 1A protection when they cite sources; but she later also makes clear she disputes that her info was ‘false.'”

It was just three weeks ago that her final cases were dropped – by the U.S. Supreme Court, which threw them out. In other words, she expected the nation’s highest court to believe her arguments, but says in response to being sued that “no reasonable person” should have.

Twitter quickly buried her in mockery, but some are absolutely furious, like this woman who says Powell thinks America “is a toy–to be played with, snapped in half, and then discarded as soon as it no longer charms.”

Here’s how others are responding:

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FRAUD

New Right-Wing ‘Election Integrity’ Project Chair Is Attorney Who Was Part of Trump’s Call to Brad Raffensperger

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3 years ago

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March 16, 2021

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A new right-wing “election integrity” project is being headed by Cleta Mitchell, an attorney who took part in the notorious call on which former President Donald Trump threatened and badgered Georgia’s Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to “find” enough votes to reverse the election results in that state. The new “multi-million dollar National Election Protection Initiative” was announced by right-wing astroturf group FreedomWorks via an “exclusive” to Newsmax.

“Election integrity is the most important issue to the conservative movement,” FreedomWorks said in a statement to Newsmax. “The outcome of the 2020 presidential election and its associated legal battles underscore the need for conservatives to engage at all levels in fighting for secure elections that generate confidence.”

As the Washington Post reported in January, Mitchell was an “early backer” of Trump’s false claims about election fraud and a stolen election. Shortly after the election was called for Biden, Mitchell claimed that Georgia’s recount was a “total sham,” tweeting, “Happy to be considered a nut job because I believe in the rule of law.”

On the Raffensperger call, Mitchell said that Trump’s legal team had been “formally and informally” contacting Georgia election officials “for weeks.” State election officials on the call repeatedly told Trump, Mitchell, and then-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows that their claims were based on false information.

In January, Right Wing Watch reported that Mitchell signed a Dec. 30 letter from right-wing movement leaders urging Senate Republicans to “protect the republic” by contesting electoral votes from battleground states won by Biden.

To launch her new project, Mitchell appeared Sunday on the Newsmax program “Save the Nation,” hosted by FreedomWorks President Adam Brandon, where she claimed that the 2020 election had caused Americans to lose confidence in the nation’s elections and would lead to a totalitarian government (see video below).

Mitchell dismissed longtime progressive efforts to protect voters from voter suppression, charging that they are ploys to “wipe out” election safeguards. Mitchell called H.R. 1, a voting-rights and democracy-reform bill that passed in the House and is now being considered in the Senate, an attempt to “rig” elections in Democrats’ favor. Mitchell urged right-wing activists to “hammer” their senators to oppose the legislation.

In addition to opposing federal voting rights legislation, FreedomWorks’ efforts appear to be targeting the same battleground states cited in the right-wing leaders’ Dec. 30 letter: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. FreedomWorks’ list also includes North Carolina.

Before Mitchell began volunteering with Trump’s post-election efforts, she represented “a who’s who of prominent Trumpworld people” in recent years, the Daily Beast reported in January. Mitchell’s clients have included Trumpism strategist Steve Bannon and the right-wing True the Vote, an organization that has a track record of opposing mail-in ballots, challenging voter registrations, and advocating for voter ID laws. Mitchell was reportedly involved in a project to “protect” Trump and attack Democrats that right-wing activist Ginni Thomas presented to the secretive Council for National Policy in 2019. Mitchell resigned as a partner at the law firm of Foley & Lardner after a recording of the call with Raffesnperger became public.

 

This article was originally published by Right Wing Watch and is republished here by permission.

Image: Official White House Photo by Tia Dufour via Flickr 

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