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    We're about to find out if Trump can literally get away with murder

    David Cay Johnston, DCReport @ RawStory
    December 16, 2019

    Thanks for your support!

    This article was paid for by reader donations to Raw Story Investigates.

    (AFP / Jim WATSON)

    This article was paid for by Raw Story subscribers. Not a subscriber? Try us and go ad-free for $1. Prefer to give a one-time tip? Click here.

    David Cay Johnston, DCReport @ RawStory

    Donald Trump’s claim that if he actually shot someone on Fifth Avenue the NYPD cannot investigate him will be heard by our Supreme Court. Such are the crazy times we live in.


    In fighting a New York City investigation into whether Trump is a serial tax cheat, one of his lawyers argued in October that should he murder someone the local authorities could not even collect evidence. However, lawyer George Consovoy added, Trump could be prosecuted after he leaves office.

    Technically, the high court said Friday that it will take up whether Trump’s tax returns and supporting financial records must be turned over to three different investigations.

    The deep issue in all three cases is whether the justices will embrace Trump’s claims of being above the law.

    The crucial case for Trump is the Manhattan district attorney’s probe. For our Constitution, the crucial cases involve subpoenas issued by a pair of House committees in Washington.

    Significantly, the high court is not taking up the most clear-cut case of Trump violating his oath of office with regard to his taxes. The House Ways and Means Committee asked the IRS for six years of Trump's tax returns under a 1924 anti-corruption law. It says any return requested by the committee chairman “shall" be provided, a right also enjoyed by every president.

    Trump claims that he doesn't have to comply with that law because House Democrats want to embarrass him and have no legitimate legislative purpose.  There is no other known case of the IRS failing to comply with such requests.

    Trump Above the Law

    The deep issue in the three cases the Court is taking up is whether the justices will embrace Trump’s claims of being above the law. I doubt that, but if the high court proves me wrong our liberties and our republic will be in deep jeopardy.

    The two Congressional subpoena cases also go to the heart of our Constitutional system with its three co-equal branches of government.

    Repeatedly, Trump has shown his utter contempt for this separation of powers. He has denounced judges who don’t rule as he wishes, a sign of his dictatorial desires. He also claims he is free to ignore any Congressional subpoena he dislikes.

    In fighting impeachment, for example, Trump asserts that Congress is acting unconstitutionally. A Dec. 6 letter signed by the White House counsel attacks what it calls “the most unjust, highly partisan, and unconstitutional attempt at impeachment in our Nation's history.”

    However, our Constitution says that the House of Representatives “shall have the sole Power of Impeachment.”

    Federal trial and appeals courts have rejected every Trump argument to shield his tax and accounting records.

    Actions Before Becoming President

    Significantly, the Manhattan case includes suspected tax cheating when he was a private citizen. No federal court has ever held that a president has immunity from investigation, much less for actions before taking any oath of office.

    Indictment and trial are different from investigation. There is a reasonable argument that a sitting president cannot be tried criminally in a state court. The argument is that a  single state or county could tie up the federal government, undoing our Constitution’s scheme.

    Professor Laurence Tribe of Harvard, arguably our most eminent Constitutional scholar, says that a president can be indicted, especially for a heinous criminal offense such as murder.

    There is fairly broad agreement among leading Constitutional scholars, and even Trump’s own lawyer Consovoy, that a president can be tried once he leaves office.

    Unresolved is whether such a delay would let a president run out of the clock on statutes of limitations or whether the time periods would be tolled, legal speak for freezing deadlines for government action.

    While still in his 30s, Trump beat four federal grand jury investigations into his connections with corrupt lawyers, real estate figures and railroad interests, as first reported by the late Wayne Barrett in his 1992 book Trump: The Deals and the Downfall. In two cases Trump, with help from the notorious lawyer Roy Cohn, simply ran out of the clock on the grand juries.

    Why Trump Wants To Hide Records

    What has not been raised in these proceedings over subpoenas for Trump’s tax records, and likely will go on mentioned before the Supreme Court, is that Trump’s past conduct explains why he is fiercely trying to conceal his tax and accounting records.

    Trump lost two income tax fraud trials over his 1984 New York state and city tax returns, a story I broke before the election in 2016. Trump falsified one of the returns. His longtime tax lawyer, Jack Mitnick, testifying that while his name was on the return, he did not prepare it. The document in evidence, the only copy known to exist, was a photocopy. A signature can be faked using photocopy technology.

    Weeks later I wrote about the mystery of the Trump Soho tower profits, which disappeared into an Icelandic bank under the thumb of a Russian oligarch, a deal that Trump had approved in writing. Trump was due 18% of the profits. The headline: Is A Crook Hiding in Trump’s Taxes?

    In addition, Trump went to extraordinary lengths—farcical really—to hide Grand Hyatt Hotel accounting records from the City of New York, a story told in my 2016 biography The Making of Donald Trump. Auditors eventually proved Trump had tried to cheat the city out of almost $3 million in rent.

    More recently, several news organizations including The New York Times last year and a recent joint project of ProPublica and WNYC public radio have shown that Trump has used two sets of books taking inconsistent financial positions.

    Ready to Comply

    In the Manhattan case that the Supreme Court has agreed to consider, Trump sued to block the release of eight years of his tax returns and the financial records used to prepare the tax returns by Mazars USA, his accounting firm, and by Deutsche Bank. Mazars and the bank both say they will turn over the records to Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. if the courts uphold the subpoenas.

    During arguments in the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, Federal Judge Denny Chin was skeptical of the argument by Trump's lawyer that Trump is immune from investigation. “Local authorities couldn’t investigate? They couldn’t do anything about it?... That is your position?”

    “That is correct,” attorney Consovoy replied.

    Two weeks later the federal appeals court held that was not correct. It upheld the Manhattan grand jury subpoenas. Jay Sekulow, another Trump lawyer, immediately announced an appeal to the Supreme Court.

    So here we are, our Supreme Court about to consider what the framers of our Constitution considered unthinkable: Is Donald Trump above the law, even the law against murder, just because he is president?

    The Supreme Court has agreed to hear all three cases in March with one hour of oral argument. A decision is expected in June.

    This article was paid for by Raw Story subscribers. Not a subscriber? Try us and go ad-free for $1. Prefer to give a one-time tip? Click here.

    Enjoy good journalism?

    … then let us make a small request. The COVID crisis has slashed advertising rates, and we need your help. Like you, we here at Raw Story believe in the power of progressive journalism. Raw Story readers power David Cay Johnston’s DCReport, which we've expanded to keep watch in Washington. We’ve exposed billionaire tax evasion and uncovered White House efforts to poison our water. We’ve revealed financial scams that prey on veterans, and legal efforts to harm workers exploited by abusive bosses. And unlike other news outlets, we’ve decided to make our original content free. But we need your support to do what we do.

    Raw Story is independent. Unhinged from corporate overlords, we fight to ensure no one is forgotten.

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    … then let us make a small request. The COVID crisis has slashed advertising rates, and we need your help. Like you, we believe in the power of progressive journalism — and we’re investing in investigative reporting as other publications give it the ax. Raw Story readers power David Cay Johnston’s DCReport, which we've expanded to keep watch in Washington. We’ve exposed billionaire tax evasion and uncovered White House efforts to poison our water. We’ve revealed financial scams that prey on veterans, and efforts to harm workers exploited by abusive bosses. We need your support to do what we do.

    Raw Story is independent. You won’t find mainstream media bias here. Every reader contribution, whatever the amount, makes a tremendous difference. Invest with us in the future. Make a one-time contribution to Raw Story Investigates, or click here to become a subscriber. Thank you.


    Report typos and corrections to: corrections@rawstory.com.
    READ COMMENTS - JOIN THE DISCUSSION

    Survey: Will Melania leave Trump now that he's out of office ?

    Voters are leaving the divided Republican Party in droves after the Capitol insurrection

    Ray Hartmann
    January 27, 2021

    Republican senators may continue to cower in fear of Donald Trump, but there's a mass exodus of voters from the registration rolls of their party in key swing states.

    "More than 30,000 voters who had been registered members of the Republican Party have changed their voter registration in the weeks after a mob of pro-Trump supporters attacked the Capitol," reports TheHill.com.

    That statistic doesn't begin to describe the depth of the party's problem, says the Hill:

    "The massive wave of defections is a virtually unprecedented exodus that could spell trouble for a party that is trying to find its way after losing the presidential race and the Senate majority.

    "It could also represent the tip of a much larger iceberg: The 30,000 who have left the Republican Party reside in just a few states that report voter registration data, and information about voters switching between parties, on a weekly basis.

    "Voters switching parties is not unheard of, but the data show that in the first weeks of the year, far more Republicans have changed their voter registrations than Democrats. Many voters are changing their affiliation in key swing states that were at the heart of the battle for the White House and control of Congress."

    Among the key states reporting voter's scattering from the GOP since the first of the year are Pennsylvania (10,000), North Carolina (6,000) and Arizona (5,000). There is some corresponding reduction in Democratic Party rolls but that number "is a fraction of Republican defectors," reports the website.

    It's possible that something about sedition and insurrection isn't sitting so well with at least a slice of GOP voters. Here's what Michael McDonald, a voting and elections expert at the University of Florida, told The Hill about the unusual amount of recent activity in voter registration moves:

    "McDonald said those who would take the proactive step to change their registration are likely to be well-informed voters who both follow the news and are aware of the process by which they would change their actual registration.

    "These people who are doing this activity, they are likely very sophisticated voters. They're highly participatory, most likely," he said. "If you're sophisticated enough to change your party registration, you're somebody who's likely to vote."

    The exodus comes at a time the Republican Party is plagued with a widening civil war over Trump. Politico reports:

    "The spate of threatened primary challenges ripping the party apart are uniformly about loyalty to Trump. The state-level intra-party spats that have made headlines in Arizona, Kentucky and Oregon are not about raising up the best political strategists to steer the local parties forward; they are about condemning Republicans who have criticized Trump. The GOP's potential 2024 aspirants are frozen in place, still being asked to respond to every scrap of Trump news and stuck in an endless cycle of political calculation about whether it's safe to unyoke themselves from him."

    Here's the latest polling from Politico that illustrates the divide:

    "Over half of Republican voters (56%) believe that Trump should either probably or definitely run for president again in 2024. Just over a third of Republican voters (36%) think he probably or definitely should not.

    "Republicans and Republican-leaning independent voters are closely split between the Republican Party and the notional Patriot Party that Trump recently floated. A third (33%) said they are more interested in being a member of the Republican Party, and 30% said they would be more interested in being a member of the Patriot Party. A small share (11%) expressed interest in neither party."

    You can more here from the Hill and from Politico.


    Prepare for the next pandemic like a 'war,' says Bill Gates

    Agence France-Presse
    January 27, 2021

    Billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates has warned that the world must prepare for the next pandemic as it would for war, including the investment of tens of billions of dollars each year, in a letter released Wednesday.

    "We can't afford to be caught flat-footed again," wrote the Microsoft co-founder and his wife Melinda in an annual missive.

    "The threat of the next pandemic will always be hanging over our heads -- unless the world takes steps to prevent it."

    To avoid future destruction on the scale of that caused by Covid-19, "pandemic preparedness must be taken as seriously as we take the threat of war," Gates said.

    "Stopping the next pandemic will require spending tens of billions of dollars per year -- a big investment, but remember that the COVID-19 pandemic is estimated to cost the world $28 trillion," he added.

    "The world needs to spend billions to save trillions (and prevent millions of deaths)."

    The American, ranked the third-wealthiest person in the world by Forbes, urged rich countries to provide the bulk of the investment, pointing out that their governments stand to benefit most.

    Investments in future diagnostic and vaccination technologies should be supplemented by "a global alert system, which we don't have at large scale today," allowing epidemics to be detected and responded to early, the letter said.

    Gates famously sounded the alarm about the risk of global pandemics at a 2015 TED conference.

    He now advocates the creation of a team of around 3,000 fully trained, professional pandemic "firefighters" available on permanent alert.

    The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has already invested $1.75 billion to fight the coronavirus pandemic, as well as promoting and funding inoculation projects in developing countries.

    © 2021 AFP

    Nicolle Wallace unleashes on Republicans for supporting domestic terrorism and refusing to protect America

    Sarah K. Burris
    January 27, 2021

    MSNBC's Nicolle Wallace was furious during her Wednesday show while addressing the way the Republican Party has been taken over by terrorists.

    She first addressed Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), who threatened to execute Speaker Nancy Pelosi, former President Barack Obama and former Secretaries Hillary Clinton and John Kerry. GOP Congressional Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) said that he would give Greene a talking-to. In reality, he put her on the Education Committee after it was reported she called school shootings false flags.

    Wallace mentioned Joe Scarborough's Wednesday morning rant demanding that Republicans be held accountable.

    "But I have a totally different view on this," Wallace said. "Republicans want to stand with Donald Trump on inciting an insurrection? Knock yourself out. You'll make the job of burning the party to the ground faster and easier."

    She read an excerpt from the Homeland Security bulletin posted Wednesday warning of anti-government domestic terror threats all over the United States.

    "It's Donald Trump's freaking mission statement for the last three months of his presidency! He is the clear and present danger. He is the symbol of everything we're being warned about today!" Wallace said. "I mean, this really is a case where the lies uttered by Donald Trump and amplified by his allies on Fox News and OAN and everywhere else that his media sycophants project their messages now put all of our lives at risk. It's a stunning culmination of the role of disinformation from Russia in his election in 2016 to the role of disinformation after his defeat in bringing us to the brink of a practically unprecedented threat of domestic terrorism based on political violence."

    In a discussion with Bulwark's Tim Miller and Dr. Jason Johnson, Wallace came back to the issues facing McCarthy and the members of his party who are threatening political violence. Fox News host Tucker Carlson has come to the aide of QAnon supporters like Greene, claiming that she is being persecuted for what she thinks.

    "She's not in trouble for what she thinks," Wallace explained. "She's in trouble as a public official for what she posts and conveys on social media."

    She went on to say that what was revealed this week was that 45 Republicans voted not to even hold a trial for a president who incited an insurrection.

    It "had all of them hiding in their own offices with furniture pushed up again the doors," she recalled. "What were they hiding for? If Donald Trump hadn't incited a violent insurrection that they were scared about. Why weren't they roaming the halls? If they weren't afraid, why were they in offices with furniture pushed up against a door? And my only point about the opportunity that Democrats have is that they have today, this bulletin describes the threat, they describe the world view of the people who right now and through the end of April, in the views of the people at the Department of Homeland Security -- the world view is the same word view as the views publicly espoused by the QAnon member of Congress."

    Wallace went on to echo questions from Scarborough about why Republicans are so afraid to stand up to Trump and terrorists who attacked them.

    "The magnitude of the threat for those who want to dismantle our government -- a threat addressed today by the Department of Homeland Security when it issued a federal bulletin of the increased threat of ideologically motivated violent extremists, possibly motivated to incite violence in the wake of Joe Biden's inauguration," she continued. "It's a warning that makes republican inaction even more frightening."

    See the discussions below:

    Part 1:


    The Republican Party has been taken over by terrorists www.youtube.com


    Part 2:


    Part2 www.youtube.com



    Part 3 www.youtube.com

     
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