2016 Trump gang still in Russia propaganda business

[A] group of former Trump advisers and operatives have quietly helped build a pro-Russian website that frequently spreads debunked conspiracy theories about the war in Ukraine, election fraud and vaccines.

Working alongside contributors for Kremlin state media, the former Donald Trump policy aide George Papadopoulos, his wife, Simona Mangiante, and others have become editorial board members of the website Intelligencer, which is increasingly becoming a source of news for those in the rightwing ecosystem.

  Pressway

You remember Papadopoulos - Trump's early 2016 foreign policy aide who was drunkenly giving info to an Australian diplomat, which started the Russian collusion investigations, and whom Trump claimed was no more than a coffee boy. BTW, he pled guilty in 2018 to lying to the FBI about contacts with Joseph Mifsud, the professor who was linked to the Kremlin and offered dirt on Hillary Clinton. Remember all that?

The site appears to have launched at the end of 2023 – and nearly half of Intelligencer’s board members are either former aides, surrogates or fake electors for Trump’s previous two campaigns.

[...]

Intelligencer appears to be gaining in popularity. It recently had its best month for internet traffic, with an increase of nearly 300% during August, according to data from Similarweb, and its articles have been shared on social media by the conspiracist Alex Jones, former Trump White House staffer Garrett Ziegler and former Trump aide Roger Stone.

“Since the invasion of Ukraine, Russia has increasingly been forced to rely on networks of proxies and influencers whose conspiracist ‘brand’ generates income and audiences through social media monetization and some of whom Russia has now been caught covertly subsidizing,” [Emma Briant, an associate professor of news and political communication at Monash University in Australia,] said.

The website’s opaque ownership structure makes it difficult to understand its financial backing, and there is no direct evidence of Kremlin funding. There is no corporate entity listed anywhere on the website, just a business address in Los Angeles.

[...]

Show hosts and guests frequently deny climate change, discuss culture war issues in the US, espouse pro-Russian viewpoints on the war in Ukraine, and spread conspiracy theories about Covid-19.

[...]

Many of the articles promote debunked conspiracy theories about vaccines and fraud in the 2020 presidential election, as well as stories that are aggressively anti-Ukrainian.

[...]

[Papadopoulos' wife, Simona Mangiante,along with fellow board member Igor Lopatonok, appears to have parlayed this work into a new documentary about the Hunter Biden laptop saga called Hunter’s Laptop: Requiem for Ukraine. According to social media posts, the documentary premiered on 5 September at the Trump International hotel in Chicago.

[...]

According to invitations for the Hunter Biden documentary premiere, the event was hosted by the Christian Orthodox Coalition, an organization which claims to educate Orthodox Christians on social and cultural issues. Four of the organization’s board members are also board members of Intelligencer, including Papadopoulos, Mangiante and Lopatonok.

[...]

Three other editorial board members also have close connections to the Trump campaigns. Leah Hoopes and Greg Stenstrom, both from Pennsylvania, have written a book falsely alleging the 2020 election was stolen. Both of them have been litigants in court cases challenging the results of the election in Pennsylvania, and Hoopes was one of Pennsylvania’s fake electors, who falsely signed paperwork saying that Trump had won the election.

[...]

“Intelligencer appears to be one of several [Russia-friendly] operations targeting the upcoming US elections, leveraging a network of far-right figures and disinformation tactics,” Olga Lautman, a senior fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis, said.

[...]

“With an editorial board that reads like a who’s who of Putinist propaganda, Intelligencer is not your usual Russian ‘fake news’ site,” Briant said. “We may see more efforts like Intelligencer, which brings together cohorts of recognizable pro-Russian writers and consolidates their effort into a respectable-looking ‘news’ platform aiming to promote Russia’s influence in the US election and beyond.”

[...]

Eliason said that the website is funded out of pocket and the contributors contribute pieces because it “because it makes sense to them”.

Well, that's all that matters, surely.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Wheels of justice drag

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Stop electing Republicans

The Political Crime Party.

Georgia is creating the pattern to capture the election

Our entire country has been held hostage by Trump’s mental and emotional deficits. He doesn’t “lose.” He is unwell and cannot publicly acknowledge defeat. Democracy was vulnerable before Trump, but its fragility could be fatal because of him.

  The Bulwark

[T]he Georgia State Election Board has drawn well-deserved national attention with its outrageous actions on Tuesday to pass antidemocratic changes to the battleground state’s election rules.

[...]

Trump’s 2020 election interference playbook hasn’t changed, but the MAGA operation has become more sophisticated. Now, there are election deniers holding local elections positions in Arizona, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina and Pennsylvania (in addition to Georgia). GOP officials have resisted certifying results in Arizona, Michigan and Nevada.

[...]

[E]arlier this year, the GOP-controlled [Georgia] state Legislature appointed two new members to the five-person panel, transforming it into a Trump-aligned government body. Three of the board’s five members have expressed doubts that President Joe Biden won the state in the 2020 election. The board’s meetings have become a haven for false election conspiracy theories.

[...]

Now the board’s MAGA majority is trying to change Georgia’s election rules just ahead of the contest. Its first attempt came last month, only to be reversed after a lawsuit accused the three members of holding an unlawful meeting to ram through the changes.

[...]

One of the two new rules passed by the board on Tuesday lets local elections officials halt vote-counting and delay or even outright refuse certification if they contend there are any irregularities, essentially making the certification of election results discretionary. (Georgia law states in multiple places that local election board officials shall perform their duties — meaning their duties are mandatory, not discretionary). Other proposed changes would increase workload demands on overburdened election workers, which could overwhelm county elections offices and ultimately slow down or stop certification.

[...]

And all this builds on similar efforts in 2020, when a Coffee County elections official delayed certification of Biden’s Georgia victory and refused to validate the recount results, citing MAGA-backed election conspiracies. The same official allegedly helped Trump campaign operatives breach Coffee County’s voting data days before Jan. 6. According to CNN, Coffee County was specifically cited in draft federal executive orders for seizing voting machines that were presented to Trump in a chaotic Oval Office meeting on Dec. 18, 2020.

[...]

These newly passed rules changes, along with other proposed changes still being considered by the board, follow refusals from Republican county election board members in Georgia to certify election results in the 2023 local elections and the 2024 primary even though there is no legitimate doubts about the results.

[...]

After failing to overturn his 2020 loss, it seems Trump aims to win Georgia by any means, aided by the State Election Board. Trump may be hinting at this strategy, recently claiming he “didn’t need the votes,” an odd statement for a presidential candidate.

[...]

Georgia law gives [Governor Brian] Kemp the authority to investigate members of the election board and remove and replace them if they’ve violated Georgia law, which it certainly seems they did by holding an unlawful meeting.

  MSNBC

Trump has been lambasting Kemp lately. We'll see if that cows him into doing Trump's bidding or steels him to uphold Georgia law.

Voters are the last and ultimately most critical line of defense. The best way to ensure election results are certified in a timely manner is with large turnout and decisive margins. Voters everywhere should also check their voter registration status regularly and get their friends and family registered today.

An investigation by Rolling Stone identified “in the swing states of Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania . . . at least 70 pro-Trump election conspiracists currently working as county election officials who have questioned the validity of elections or delayed or refused to certify results.” Of those 70, 22 of them already have “refused or delayed certification” in recent past elections. Nationwide, Republicans have refused to certify results at least 25 times since 2020, in eight states—the most in Georgia.

[...]

There are more than enough such individuals in these key posts to bring us to a constitutional crisis.

“I think we are going to see mass refusals to certify the election” in November, Democratic election lawyer Marc Elias told Rolling Stone. “Everything we are seeing about this election is that the other side is more organized, more ruthless, and more prepared.”

  The Bulwark

UPDATE 08/17/2024:

Meanwhile in the Arizona fake electors case

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Nevada fake electors getting an assist

Clark County District Judge Mary Kay Holthus ruled that prosecutors with the Nevada attorney general’s office chose the wrong venue in which to file the case, calling off a trial scheduled for January.

Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford (D) brought the case in Clark County, home to Las Vegas, but defense attorneys contended that it should have been filed in a northern Nevada city closer to where the alleged crime occurred.

  The Hill

Where there are more conservatives to serve on the jury. It's a state case, FFS. It should be allowed to be brought anywhere in the state.

“We disagree with the judge’s decision and will be appealing immediately,” said John Sadler, a spokesperson for the Nevada attorney general’s office.

Following the judge’s decision, defense attorneys told reporters the case is “done” since a three-year statute of limitations on filing charges expired in December, meaning that the state likely could not bring the case to a grand jury in a different venue.

[...]

Biden won Nevada by more than 33,000 votes in 2020.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Wisconsin fake elector charges

Link

Serves him right (pun intended)

Arizona’s Democratic Attorney General Kris Mayes on Friday announced that Rudy Giuliani had been served with the notice of his indictment in connection with an alleged conspiracy to overturn the 2020 election results in Arizona.

The announcement came less than two hours after a social media post from Giuliani taunted Mayes for failing to deliver his indictment. The notice was served to Giuliani during a celebration in Palm Beach, Florida, for his 80th birthday.

In a now-deleted post on X, Giuliani taunted Arizona authorities. “If Arizona authorities can’t find me by tomorrow morning; 1. They must dismiss the indictment; 2. They must concede they can’t count votes,” Giuliani posted Friday night. Accompanying the message was a photo of Giuliani smiling with six others and balloons arranged behind them.

  

Effing Asshole.  A game.  Hiding from the law.  

An hour and 14 minutes later, Mayes responded to Giuliani’s post, writing, “The final defendant was served moments ago. @RudyGiuliani, nobody is above the law.”

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE 05/19/2024:

  

Would have been awesome.

UPDATE 05/21/2024:

Doesn't seem like much.  Maybe it's all they're allowed to levy.  Or maybe it's just to make a point.

Rudy is hawking branded shit now.  I works for Trump, but I don't know if Rudy will get the same love.

Wheels of justice grinding slowly but surely

An Arizona grand jury has indicted 18 allies of Donald Trump for their efforts to subvert the 2020 election — including former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, attorney Rudy Giuliani and former Trump campaign operative Mike Roman.

The indictment, which includes felony counts of conspiracy, fraud and forgery, also describes Trump as an unindicted co-conspirator.

  Politico

So, indict the mfer.

“Defendants and unindicted coconspirators schemed to prevent the lawful transfer of the presidency to keep Unindicted Coconspirator 1 in office against the will of Arizona’s voters,” the 58-page indictment reads.

The names of seven of the defendants, including Meadows, Giuliani and Roman, are redacted, but the document makes clear who they are by describing their roles. Ken Chesebro, an attorney who helped devise Trump’s post-election strategy, is described as “unindicted coconspirator 4.

[...]

Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes, a Democrat, has been helming the aggressive investigation. Though she initially appeared to be focused primarily on the false electors, in recent months she issued a wave of subpoenas to figures in Trump’s national orbit.

Mayes is the fifth prosecutor to bring criminal charges over the sprawling, multi-state bid by Trump and his allies to upend the 2020 results. Special counsel Jack Smith has charged Trump with federal crimes for those efforts. Prosecutors in Georgia have charged Trump and many of his allies for their bid to overturn the results in that state, including the fake electors plot. Prosecutors in Michigan and Nevada have also charged Republicans who posed as fake electors in those states.

UPDATE 04/25/2024:

Ken Chesebro could be in even bigger trouble

From the Xitter account of Marshall Cohen...

EXCLUSIVE: Ken Chesebro, who helped devise the 2020 electors plot, concealed a secret Twitter from Michigan prosecutors, hiding dozens of damning posts that undercut what he told investigators about his role in the scheme.

Chesebro told MI prosecutors GOP electors were a contingency to be used only if Trump won election suits. Said it was "ridiculous" that legislatures could step in if Trump lost in court. But on his secret Twitter, he said courts didn't matter and legislatures should get involved

Further, Chesebro told MI prosecutors he didn't think Pence should be involved in picking which electors to recognize on January 6. But on his secret Twitter, Chesebro embraced the idea that Pence could throw the election to Trump with the GOP electors

There was an article in The Atlantic in Sept. 2020 that previewed Trump's fale electors scheme. Chesebro told MI prosecutors in 2023 he belatedly saw that article, years after the election. But on his secret Twitter, he literally posted about that article on the day it came out.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

More incriminating emails

And Trump was completely innocent, I'm sure.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE 06:11 pm:

Cleaning up the insurrectionists

Some states are working on it.  Including, now, Nevada.  But, like the national project, not yet getting all the dirt out.

After a change in the state Legislature, 2024 will be the first presidential year where Nevada will hold primaries at the ballot box, rather than statewide caucuses. However, the Republican Party is sponsoring separate caucuses anyway — two days after that state-run election. Only the caucuses will award delegates. But it has put Nevada in the position of having two outcomes, two days apart from one another. And candidates have had to choose which one to participate in.

[...]

“If Trump were so far ahead in the polls, why not then just let the primary play itself out?” Tarkanian said. “They’ve thrown the primary election into complete confusion and chaos.”

  NBC

I'm guessing because the more confusion they can introduce, the more chances to claim something wasn't right when Trump loses.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Fake elector news

UPDATE :  DON'T FOLLOW THE WaPo LINKS BELOW UNTIL 12/8.  WaPo STAFF ARE ON A ONE-DAY STRIKE TODAY.

Whatever scam Trump has planned for 2024, he won't be able to use the fake elector scheme again.

Who's going to make the first deal with the prosecution in exchange for no jail time?

The news out of Nevada came hours after a unique civil settlement was announced in Wisconsin. There, 10 individuals who served as fake Trump electors acknowledged their part in the attempt to overturn the 2020 election.

The announcement of the Wisconsin settlement noted that litigation continues against two former Trump attorneys, one of whom is [Ken] Chesebro.

  WLIW-FM

Those Nevada fakers weren't as savvy as the Wisconsin ones, I guess.  Either that or they weren't offered a deal.

Chesebro just testified to the Nevada grand jury and will be talking with Arizona investigators shortly.  (Hoping to mitigate whatever punishment he ultimately receives for his part in the fake electors scheme, no doubt.)  I wonder if the Arizona fake electors will take a hint from Wisconsin and try to get out in front of a lawsuit.

...but hey, do what  you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE 12/08/2023:

Inch by inch

The question is whether all this inching will be overtaken by the 2024 elections.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE 04:11 pm:

Chesebro on the hot seat

On Dec. 24, 2020, Kenneth Chesebro and other lawyers fighting to reverse President Donald J. Trump’s election defeat were debating whether to file litigation contesting Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s victory in Wisconsin, a key swing state.

Mr. Chesebro argued there was little doubt that the litigation would fail in court — he put the odds of winning at “1 percent”.

[...]

But the “relevant analysis,” Mr. Chesebro argued, “is political.”

The emails have new significance because Mr. Chesebro is scheduled to be one of the first two of Mr. Trump’s 18 co-defendants to go on trial this month on charges brought by the district attorney’s office in Fulton County, Ga.

  NYT

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Coming up in Trump crimes: Arizona

PROSECUTORS IN ARIZONA are probing the extent to which Donald Trump and his allies were still working behind the scenes to reverse the results of the 2020 presidential election — years into Joe Biden’s presidency [well into 2021 and 2022].

[...]

The sources say that investigators have asked about a 2022 pressure campaign from Trump allies aimed at decertifying the state’s electors, and inquired about how deeply the former president and his senior advisers were involved in supporting Arizona Republicans’ privately-run 2021 election audit.

  Rolling Stone

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Mark Meadows fucked himself good

Meadows' big risk in taking the stand at his removal hearing did not pay off. 

And he's the one person in all this shit who folks said hired a good lawyer. 

Might be time to revoke his bail. 

One more person serving as a lesson in lying under oath. 

Yes, he definitely made the wrong choice.  Unless the deal he was offered wasn't good enough.  And even then, he made the wrong choice when he decided he'd testify on his own behalf.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE 09/09/2023:  Removal denied.

UPDATE 09/11/2023:

Let the games begin

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Wherever there's political sleaze, you'll find Roger Stone

UPDATE 08/19/2023:

Next up: Arizona