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Trump Jr. Whines for 13 Minutes About 15 Felony Count Indictment Against Family Company: ‘This Is What Russia Does’

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“We run a clean company – no one questioned that prior to politics”

Donald Trump Jr. for 13 minutes rambled and whined on a Facebook video Thursday about the 15-count federal criminal felony indictment handed up by a grand jury against The Trump Organization and its CFO Allen Weisselberg. The former president’s son falsely compared it to how Russian President Vladimir Putin punishes his political enemies, along with Iran and China, while falsely characterizing the depth and breath of the criminal indictment.

“How is this any different, how is this any different than what the mullahs in Iran do to their political enemies?” he asked.

(Some experts say the indictment could mean the end of The Trump Organization.)

Trump Jr. praised Weisselberg as The Trump Organization’s loyal “accountant,” yet laid the blame on him, while barely acknowledging the indictments also name the family company, except when he called it a “witch hunt” and an extension of the Mueller investigation. He also ignored that Weisselberg has been the Chief Financial Officer of the family business for more than two decades.

(Weisselberg began by working for Fred Trump, Donald Trump’s father, in 1973 as an accountant. He became the company’s controller in the 1980’s, and ultimately CFO who co-ran The Trump Organization while Donald Trump was president.)

Trying to minimize the charges, which include a 15-year tax scheme “including a scheme to defraud, conspiracy, grand larceny and falsifying business records,” CNN reports.

Instead he claimed it essentially was about Weisselberg not paying taxes on a company car, and about the Donald Trump paying tuition for one of Weisselberg’s “grandkids,” because “he’s a good guy.”

“My dad did that cuz he’s a good guy, takes care of his employees. And, it was the nice thing to do.”

Trump Jr. told supporters the charges were “essentially amounting to fringe benefits, you know, like a corporate car, you got a corporate car after 48 years of service, you got a corporate car, didn’t pay tax on it.”

“This is what they got,” he added, “they’re able to tie in the Trump organization because he’s the CFO right” So they try to do that for the flowery headlines because this is what they’ve been promising you, right?”

“How is this, anything but a political persecution? How is this anything other than a government abuse of power. Let’s break it down for you,” Trump Jr. continued, weaving a web of falsehoods. “They’ve been doing this for about five years, hundreds of witnesses presumably countless hours of grand jury testimony 3 million documents reviewed by the AG and the DA, right? 3 million documents, what they’ve got someone on his, he didn’t pay taxes on fringe benefits.”

At one point Jr. claimed the amount of unpaid taxes was a mere $5000 per year, which is false.

“Yeah, that’s all it is, man. It’s a game, and it sucks, because this isn’t what America is about. This is what Russia does. This is what Iran does. This is what China does, but it’s happening right here right now. And so many people are totally silent about it, which also sucks, but we’re gonna keep fighting, because we have to, because it’s worth fighting for,” Trump Jr. promised. “And we can’t let this crap take over America, or we won’t have an America that any of us recognize for our kids. You guys have a good one.”

It appeared that many of the more than 1000 comments on the post were supportive of Trump and the former president, and the social media users “bought” the lies Trump was telling.

Here’s the video:

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CRIME

Giuliani Booking Photo Released

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Former Trump attorney and former Republican Mayor of New York City, Rudy Giuliani was booked in Fulton County, Georgia Wednesday afternoon on racketeering charges and charges related to attempts to overturn the 2020 election.

He was released on a $150,000 bond after being arraigned on 13 charges.

“Conditions include prohibitions against intimidating co-defendants or witnesses, and against communicating with co-defendants other than through their lawyers. Giuliani must check in with pretrial services every 30 days,” USA Today reports.

READ MORE: ‘Wrong on the Law, Wrong on the Facts’: Fani Willis Smacks Down Jeff Clark’s Legal Move in Scathing Response

Former Trump attorneys Jenna Ellis and Sidney Powell were also booked and their photos have been made public as well.

See all three mug shots below or at this link.

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CRIME

‘Moral Turpitude’: Bill Barr Hammers Donald Trump

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Former Trump Attorney General Bill Barr delivered one of his harshest criticisms to date of his former boss on Thursday, accusing Donald Trump of “moral turpitude.”

“You know, you don’t get immunity for two years in the run-up to an election just by saying, ‘Hey, I’m a candidate,'” Barr told Fox News’ Neil Cavuto.

“These investigations have been going on for a while, everyone knew about them even before he announced his candidacy,” Barr continued. “So if there’s a chance to get it resolved before the election, it should be because the American people should know these are crimes involved – or potential crimes – involving moral turpitude.”

Cornell Law School’s Legal Information Institute says moral turpitude is “wicked, deviant behavior constituting an immoral, unethical, or unjust departure from ordinary social standards such that it would shock a community.”

READ MORE: ‘Truly Scandalous: Jim Jordan Slammed by Former Top DOJ Official

Barr also talked about the two federal cases brought by Special Counsel Jack Smith, one for Trump’s efforts to overturn the election, and one for his refusal to return classified and other documents.

“I think the federal cases are legitimate,” Barr said. “At the end of the day, at the core of this thing he engaged in – in the case of the documents – in outrageous behavior where anyone would be prosecuted. I don’t know of any attorney general who could walk away from it.”

“He’s not being prosecuted for having the documents, he’s being prosecuted for obstruction, two egregious instances are alleged so I think that’s a very simple case.”

Barr also said for him, Trump “crossed the line” when “he used this device of impaneling imposter electors, swearing that they were the electors, but the key point there was, they were in tandem with a plan whereby the vice president would use that as a pretext for nullifying the legal and certified votes. So it was a calculated and deceitful plan to remain in office by nullifying and negating certified legal votes.”

Watch the videos below or at this link:

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CRIME

Special Counsel Wanted Trump’s Twitter Direct Messages When He Obtained a Search Warrant: Report

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Special Counsel Jack Smith obtained a search warrant for access to Donald Trump’s Twitter account in January, but was looking for non-public information from the account.

That non-public information was Trump’s direct messages, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins reports, noting there were “many.” DMs are private.

Smith, who has already obtained indictments against Donald Trump for the ex-president’s removal and refusal to return classified documents and for the ex-president’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election, appears to have accessed an important resource.

“The special counsel was seeking Trump’s direct messages on Twitter, of which there were many, federal prosecutors and lawyers for Twitter revealed in newly unsealed transcripts from hearings about the search warrant,” Collins reported Tuesday evening.

RELATED: Special Counsel Obtained Search Warrant for Trump’s Twitter Account Amid Court Concerns He Could ‘Flee’ Prosecution

Former federal prosecutor Renato Mariotti said, “I’m surprised that Trump had “many” direct messages. Given that he doesn’t use text and email, they could more directly reveal his intent than other evidence Jack Smith has.”

Experts have wondered why Smith would have wanted access to Trump’s Twitter account, which was suspended after the 2021 insurrection. Elon Musk, who bought Twitter in late 2022, has since reinstated Trump’s account, but the ex-president has not made any public posts on the social media site, now renamed X.

Noted technologist John Gruber last week when news broke that Smith had obtained a search warrant for Trump’s Twitter account wrote, “I’m keenly interested in what the search warrant was after. It wasn’t Trump’s tweets, which are public.”

READ MORE: Democratic Senator Slams ‘Racist’ Videos That Will Be ‘Piped Straight Into the Bloodstream’ of Florida Schoolchildren

“So the obvious conclusion: his direct messages. Trump, famously, does not use email and, until this year, apparently didn’t use text messaging either. But did he send or receive DMs on Twitter? And was he stupid enough to put anything incriminating in them?”

“We also know,” Gruber continued, “that ‘deleted’ tweets were just hidden, not actually deleted — and a bug resulted in deleted tweets resurfacing. Was that (or is it still) true for ‘deleted’ direct messages as well? I think it’s quite likely that every single DM ever sent on Twitter is still around.”

A filing had said “the court ‘found probable cause to search the Twitter account for evidence of criminal offenses,’” according to an Associated Press report last week.

Image by Gage Skidmore via Flickr and a CC license

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