At least one legal expert appeared stunned by Monday's bombshell ABC News report that former TrumpWhite House lawyer Jenna Ellis said to Fulton County prosecutors Dan Scavino had told her that Trump "is not going to leave under any circumstances," despite being told he had lost the 2020 election.
"This is devastating in my view," declared Brad Moss, the well-known national security attorney. "Trump never had any intention of complying with the election results. He was told repeatedly in the presence of a convicted co-defendant that he had lost. He ignored it and conspired with his lawyers to overthrow the election anyway."
"Ellis," ABC News adds, noting that her on-camera comments (video below) were made as part of a plea deal, "at one point was one of Trump's most loyal lieutenants."
She "frequently appeared on TV and in high-profile legislative sessions spreading false claims of election fraud following the 2020 election. In total, the Trump campaign paid her nearly $195,000 for her legal services between 2019 and 2021, according to Federal Election Commission records,"
"In the video of prosecutors' Oct. 23 proffer session with Ellis, she said that one of Trump's top White House aides, Dan Scavino, allegedly told her 'in an excited tone' at a White House Christmas party weeks after the 2020 election that 'the boss is not going to leave under any circumstances.' "
Ellis, ABC reports, told investigators that on December 19, 2020, Scavino "said to me, in a kind of excited tone, 'Well, we don't care.' "
"And I said, 'What do you mean?' And he said 'Well, the boss', meaning President Trump -- and everyone understood 'the boss,' that's what we all called him -- he said, 'The boss is not going to leave under any circumstances. We are just going to stay in power.' "
"And I said to him," Ellis reportedly continued, " 'Well, it doesn't quite work that way, you realize?' and he said, 'We don't care.' "
EXCLUSIVE: ABC News has obtained video from Georgia prosecutors' interview with ex-Trump attorney Jenna Ellis, in which Ellis tells them she was personally informed by a top Trump adviser that Trump was "not going to leave" the White House — despite losing the 2020 election.… pic.twitter.com/J9c4bm9cbZ
— ABC News (@ABC) November 13, 2023
The Foundation for Government Accountability says its mission is, in part, promoting “public policies based on the principles of transparency.”
But the conservative group with a $13 million budget — which advocates to curtail voting, promote child labor and cut holes in the social safety net, among other priorities — proved defiantly unaccountable when asked repeatedly by Raw Story about the “unauthorized expenses” of one of its directors.
Raw Storyreported last week that Margaret A. (Maggie) Harrell, the Foundation for Government Accountability’s federal affairs director, who used to be deputy chief of staff for Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX), reimbursed Roy’s campaign committee for nearly $40,000 in February for “unauthorized expenses.”
When Raw Story reached Harrell by phone, she said she was at work and unavailable to discuss the issue.
Harrell did not return subsequent voicemail and text messages. Her professional biography remained on the Foundation for Government Accountability’s website as of Monday afternoon.
Roy, a member of the far-right House Freedom Caucus, failed to explain the nature of the unauthorized expenses in two statements issued by his office to Raw Story.
"Upon a review of all transactions made in previous cycles, our campaign discovered some debit card transactions not officially authorized by the campaign, self-reported those charges to the FEC, and those reimbursements were made,” one of the statements said.
Roy also did not answer questions about whether he considers the matter theft or whether the Roy campaign reported it to law enforcement.
This secrecy extended to the Foundation for Government Accountability, which has government accountability in its name.
Numerous voice and email messages were not returned by Foundation for Government Accountability president Tarren Bragdon, chief operating officer and general counsel Jonathan Bechtle, vice president of communications Nick Stehle and communications director Adam Gibbs.
The Foundation for Government Accountability, located in Naples, Fla, is a 501(c)(3) non-profit with a lobbying wing called the Opportunity Solutions Project. The Foundation for Government Accountability does much of its work at the state level, influencing Republican legislatures, although Harrell is a registered federal lobbyist representing the Opportunity Solutions Project in Washington, D.C., according to federal lobbying records.
According to nonpartisan research organization OpenSecrets, the Foundation for Government Accountability has received almost $18 million since 2013 from a foundation controlled by Richard “Dick” Uihlein, a shipping supply billionaire and descendant of a founder of Schlitz beer. Uihlein is a prominent funder of election denial efforts.
Uihlein spent millions in a losing effort to thwart an Ohio constitutional amendment allowing abortion.
The Foundation for Government Accountability works to limit such “direct democracy” efforts by raising the threshold for such measures to succeed at the ballot box.
"America is the greatest country in the history of the world because we value personal liberty, and FGA’s work is tangibly improving people’s lives by preserving and expanding freedom," Harrell is quoted as saying on the group's website. "I’m grateful to be part of a team dedicated to freeing individuals from government dependency so they can achieve their unique version of the American Dream."
Bragdon, the group’s president, received $426,369 in total compensation in 2021, according to public tax records. Bechtle, the COO and general counsel, was paid $313,633.
As multiple states investigate the premise that the 14th Amendment could keep Donald Trump off of their 2024 general election ballot, Bruce Ackerman, a professor of law and political science at Yale, implored the Supreme Court to jump into the fray as soon as possible because it could prevent another Jan. 6-type rebellion.
In a column for Slate, Ackerman made the case that no matter how courts in states like Colorado and Minnesota rule, the Supreme Court will inevitably be put on the spot to provide a definitive ruling on what constitutes an "insurrection or rebellion" that can preclude a citizen from running for office.
According to the law professor, the sooner the Supreme Court makes a ruling, the better.
As he explained, "Normally, the justices would take months to consider the merits of such an important issue and reach a decision only in June 2024, at the end of their present term. Nevertheless, it would be a tragic mistake for the court to delay its decision when the two cases arrive on its docket."
Admitting he does not expect a unanimous ruling from the fractious court, he warned the biggest risk would be the application of different standards in different states which would throw the country into chaos.
"In some of the states, Trump will run as the Republican candidate. In others, the GOP will designate a stand-in candidate in its effort to deprive Biden of an Electoral College majority on Election Day," he predicted. "Such a three-candidate race will culminate in a shattering tragedy on Jan. 20, 2025, when the next president is required to take the oath 'to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States.'"
He added, "In short, when the Colorado and Minnesota cases arrive in Washington, the Supreme Court will confront a desperate race against time. If it fails to decide the cases rapidly, it will provoke a constitutional crisis once the polls close and each state decides who won the election."
Short of that, he suggested Republicans could make a case that Trump was deprived of the ability to be part of a fair election even if President Joe Biden wins by an overwhelming margin.
As he explained, Republicans "...will emphasize that the states that disqualified Trump had prevented their voters from showing that they vastly preferred him to Biden. Instead, the best they could do was to vote for his proxy, who lacked Trump’s magnetic appeal. As a consequence, House Republicans will claim that they are defending democracy in deploying the “one state, one vote” rule on behalf of Trump—since he would have won the popular vote on a nationwide basis if Americans had been given a nationwide chance to express their support for him in his campaign against Biden."
During a recent interview with Fox News' Kayleigh McEnany, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) said he was willing to 'take any arrows — that's fine —but don't talk about my wife, for goodness' sake."
His wife, Kelly Johnson, sat next to him during that interview.
In a Sunday, November 12 report from The New York Times, congressional correspondent Annie Karni writes, "if Mrs. Johnson has become a target, it is because Mr. Johnson has helped put her there, by holding up their partnership as the embodiment of his belief that heterosexual marriage is 'the building block of society.'"
Like her husband, the Times reports, Mrs. Johnson, "is also an evangelical Christian and a licensed pastoral counselor," and together, "they have acted as self-appointed spokespeople for heterosexual marriage," and even have "championed more legally binding marriages that make it difficult to divorce."
According to the report, the couple appeared on Good Morning America in 2005 to discuss why they chose to adopt a "Covenant marriage," which the report notes "is available in Louisiana, Arizona and Arkansas," and "was designed to prevent quick marriages and quick divorces; couples who enter into the arrangement cannot get a divorce for two years, and only under certain circumstances."
Since sharing a nearly 600-word 2019 Facebook post, according to the Times, the speaker dedicated to Mrs. Johnson for their 20th wedding anniversary calling her "his muse and the great joy of his life," Amy Noles, a friend of Mrs. Johnson's, said, "He's been in D.C. for several years now, and she's been taking care of the four kids at home. She has to do that so he can go to D.C. and do what he needs to do. He supports her as much as he can."
Regarding Mrs. Johnson's beliefs, Noles emphasized, "People who don't subscribe to those same beliefs vilify her for believing that. Because you believe something doesn't mean that you hate the person who does whatever it is you’ve spoken out against. You love the sinner and not the sin."
In a page on her counseling website, which she deleted days after Mr. Johnson was elected speaker last month, Mrs. Johnson said she believed any form of sexual activity outside of marriage, including 'adultery, fornication, homosexuality, bisexual conduct, bestiality, incest, pornography or any attempt to change one's sex, or disagreement with one's biological sex, is sinful and offensive to God.' All employees of her company were required to abide by and agree to the statement, according to the operating agreement.
The Times also notes:
Mrs. Johnson took down her site because she felt the statement had been misinterpreted and become the subject of scorn, according to a person familiar with her thinking who described it on the condition of anonymity. The section in question, that person said, followed guidance sent out by the National Christian Counseling Association, which warned biblical counselors that they could be open to legal action if they did not include a disclaimer such as the one on Mrs. Johnson’s site. She could be sued, the association said, for refusing to counsel gay people if she did not post it.
The report notes that comedian Stephen Colbert has said, "Mrs. Johnson was, 'if possible, just as weird as her husband' and that her counseling company 'offensively and outrageously' equated being gay with bestiality."
However, the person familiar with Mrs. Johnson's website insisted the speaker's wife did not intend to "compare bestiality with homosexuality, but simply to state that according to biblical scripture, any sex outside of a heterosexual marriage is considered sinful in God's eyes."
Mrs. Johnson often shared her views on the religious "Truth Be Told" podcast "she co-hosted with her husband until his" speakership appointment, the Times notes, in which she would express "her deep concern about a 'woke agenda' in schools across the country and the rising rates" of queer students.
"These are clearly unprecedented, unsettled and very dangerous times for our children," Mrs. Johnson said.
A champion of "culture wars," in addition to promoting heterosexual marriage, the longtime counselor "opened an anti-abortion booth called 'Eyes for Life' at the Louisiana State Fair where she gave out tiny models of a fetus to drive home her message," while working with Louisiana Right to Life in 2018.
U.S. Senator Joe Manchin's announcement Thursday afternoon he will not run for re-election but instead will travel the country to “mobilize the middle and bring Americans together” is being seen by some as confirmation he will run for president as a third-party candidate, but some Democrats are thrilled he will be out of the Senate.
The West Virginia Democrat, one of the most-vulnerable and most unpopular in the Senate, has often been a challenge for Democrats for years.
Now, some strategists are worried about Democrats losing the Senate majority, while others are pointing out Manchin's chances of being re-elected may not have been good, and would have forced Democrats to invest heavily in a seat they may not have been able to hold. West Virginia Republican Governor Jim Justice is running for that seat, and is expected to win it next year. In May, CNN ranked Manchin's Senate seat the number one most likely to flip to the GOP.
"West Virginia was a 'prime pickup opportunity' for the GOP in the Senate whether Manchin ran or not," observes former Chicago Tribune editor Mark Jacob. "He was useful in the past to give the Democrats the Senate majority. But he's a Democrat in name only, standing in the way of vital climate action. Good riddance."
Manchin's announcement was not unexpected. After being one of the top opponents of President Joe Biden's agenda, in August Manchin toyed with leaving the party and becoming an independent. U.S. Senator Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, also one of Biden's top opponents on the left, did just that last year.
Daniel Nichanian, editor-in-chief of Bolts Magazine, which reports on "local elections and obscure institutions that shape public policy," weighed in:
"To hold Senate in 2024, Dems must defend Montana, PLUS Ohio, PLUS Arizona & Wisconsin & Michigan & Pennsylvania, PLUS the White House. Or, if they stumble in just 1 of those, they must replace one by a GOP-held seat, so unseat [Rick] Scott or [Ted] Cruz."
"This is as narrow a path to a Senate majority as it gets, but it exists, & Dems did defy trends in 2022: Hold onto all Biden states (certainly not a stretch based on the 2022/2023 cycles), & get 2 longtime incumbents to survive (tricky, but neither is a given at all for GOP)," he adds.
Roll Call on Wednesday announced its top 10 list of most vulnerable U.S. Senators "includes only two Republicans, Ted Cruz of Texas and Rick Scott of Florida."
Senator Cruz's seat is now getting a lot of attention from Democrats.
"Joe Manchin’s retirement almost certainly means Democrats will lose the WV Senate seat. You know where they can pick one up this time? In Texas by defeating Ted Cruz next November," Julián Castro also noted. "Best pickup opportunity on the map this cycle."
Castro, a Texas Democrat woh served as President Barack Obama's HUD Secretary and Mayor of San Antonio, went further.
"For those who roll their eyes at the idea that Texas is winnable… it’s been moving strongly toward Dems in the Trump era. Obama 2012 lost by 16, Hillary by 9, Biden by 5.5. Beto 2018 lost to Cruz by 3 and Dems picked up 2 seats in Congress, 2 in state sen and 12 in state house," he noted.
Meanwhile, Democratic anger at Manchin, long palpable, appears to be growing.
Sawyer Hackett, Democratic strategist and senior adviser to Julián Castro, summed up what many appeared to be thinking: "Joe Manchin is almost single-handedly to blame for 5 million children falling back into poverty last year. Not a great legacy to kickstart a long shot bid for President."
"Joe Manchin (along with Sinema & the GOP) helped put five million children back into poverty by blocking the extension of the expanded Child Tax Credit. Five. Million. Remember this whenever you hear him preach about the virtues of the so-called 'middle.'"
The Nation's Elie Mystal did not hold back his anger, "All the people who said we had to go easy on Manchin letting kids starve because he was trying to hold the Senate 'for the Dems' should now confront the fact that Manchin just pulled a 'f*ck them kids' because he felt like it for no electoral upside."
SiriusXM's Dean Obeidallah appears pleased: "Joe Manchin BLOCKED Biden's Build Back Better bill which would've helped people like my mother by providing her with a home health aide covered by the government. Millions of seniors and disabled people didn't get that coverage because of Manchin. Good riddance Manchin!!"
"This is actually incredibly good news," says political strategist and former Biden ad writer Cliff Schecter. "God knows how much we would've wasted on this asshat of betrayal, and he 100% would've lost anyhow. Now we're don't have to spend a cent there, can put it to good use protecting [Jon] Tester, Sherrod [Brown], etc."
Esquire's Charles Pierce snarked, "Joe Manchin is leaving the Senate to wander the earth looking for people who want a 'centrist' like him, just days after Democrats won big."
A professor of law, former U.S. Attorney, and noted legal analyst is urging Democrats to "have a serious conversation with the American people about what Donald Trump intends to do if he wins again." Joyce Vance warns: "If Trump wins in 2024, we lose the Republic. That’s not drama, and that’s not overstatement. That’s what Trump is promising."
"The writing on the wall is clear," Vance continues. "But far too many people remain unaware of Trump’s 2025 plan, or they don’t take it seriously. People who love democracy need to make sure they do."
Vance points to this section of a recent Washington Post article on Trump's plan for a second White House term, which she says "sounds positively Stalinist":
“Trump and his allies have begun mapping out specific plans for using the federal government to punish critics and opponents should he win a second term, with the former president naming individuals he wants to investigate or prosecute and his associates drafting plans to potentially invoke the Insurrection Act on his first day in office to allow him to deploy the military against civil demonstrations.”
As others have also noted, and as Vance writes, the "most frightening thing about this, to my mind, is that it’s not new. People simply aren’t paying attention. In October of 2020, before the last election, Trump was already taking steps in this direction. Trump signed an executive order making a change in civil service rules that made it possible to fire employees in policy positions 'at will'—for no reason at all."
"The order undid the pesky civil service protections that made it impossible to fire FBI agents who were investigating him or government lawyers who insisted he play be the rules. It was a harbinger of what Trump’s plans for 2025 would look like," Vance adds.
She points out several new points in the Post's piece, including, "Have DOJ investigate former Trump administration officials and allies who have become critics of the former president," "Appoint a special prosecutor to 'go after' President Biden and his family, based on unsupported allegations of corruption that Trump’s allies in the House are already moving forward with," and "Draft an executive order to permit the military to be deployed in the United States pursuant to the Insurrection Act."
"It’s the stuff of banana republics," Vance writes. "It’s a menu for the end of democracy."
"Donald Trump plainly wants to end democracy. That’s not being alarmist," Vance says, "it’s just the truth."
House Oversight Committee chairman James Comer (R-KY) has been investigating the allegedly "shady business practices" of President Joe Biden and his family, but he's engaged in similar practices with his own relatives.
The Kentucky Republican subpoenaed the president's brother James Biden and son Hunter Biden, and will no doubt ask about two personal loan payments between the siblings in 2017 and 2018 – when Joe Biden was neither in office or a candidate – but The Daily Beast reported that Comer may have conflicts of interest involving his brother.
"According to Kentucky property records, Comer and his own brother have engaged in land swaps related to their family farming business," the website reported. "In one deal — also involving $200,000, as well as a shell company — the more powerful and influential Comer channeled extra money to his brother, seemingly from nothing. Other recent land swaps were quickly followed with new applications for special tax breaks, state records show. All of this, perplexingly, related to the dealings of a family company that appears to have never existed on paper."
The House GOP investigation has so far failed to turn up evidence the president's loans are connected to any family business dealings, and none of them occurred while holding elected office, but Comer has exercised government influence over his family's agriculture business for nearly two decades.
"Comer has held important positions in agriculture oversight since 2003, while running a family farming business, and those roles overlapped in 2019, the year of the land swaps," reported The Daily Beast. "He only stepped back from an agriculture oversight role recently, in 2020 — one year after the family business pivoted away from farming."
The land swaps between the congressman and his brother Chad Comer occurred months after their father died in January 2019 without leaving a will, and the siblings set about dividing up his properties in Kentucky and Tennessee in a series of complicated transactions sometimes involving a shell company they set up.
"For instance, on July 8, Chad Comer bought out his brother’s half of a piece of inherited Kentucky property, paying $100,000, according to deed records in Monroe County," reported The Daily Beast. "Five months later, James and his wife Tamara 'TJ' Comer, bought the property out in full, this time paying Chad Comer $218,000. The buyout netted Chad Comer an unexplained $18,000 above the total value in July."
That purchase involved Farm Team Properties, LLC, which Comer's financial disclosures described as a “land management and real estate speculation company” with a range of value between $200,000 and $500,000 – but in two years had jumped into the $1 million range.
"In another swap — this one in April, 2019 — James Comer gifted his brother, via a $1 transaction, his share of two inherited tracts in Clay County, Tennessee, with a share value being $175,000, according to the deed of sale," the website reported. "The value of James Comer’s share matches the value of the full property in 1994, when the brothers and their father first acquired it for $175,000, according to the deed."
A spokesman for the lawmaker did not respond to a request for comment, but ethics experts say Comer's overlapping public and private roles raise serious questions.
“Conflicts of interest can occur when members serve on committees overseeing industries in which they are heavily invested or in which their business interests are intertwined,” said Delaney Marsco, senior counsel for ethics at nonpartisan watchdog Campaign Legal Center. “Voters have a right to know that lawmakers are using their considerable power in the interest of the public, not to game a personal business advantage.”
Legal experts closely following defendant Donald Trump’s myriad of criminal and civil trials are praising U.S. District Judge Tanya Chukan’s order on Wednesday requiring the ex-president to prove the basis for the defense he has claimed he is expecting to use in the prosecution against him for allegedly attempting to overturn the 2020 election.
“Judge Chutkan will require Trump to disclose by Jan. 15 whether he intends to use an ‘advice of counsel’ defense in his Washington, D.C. trial — and to provide relevant documentation of that defense at the same time,” Politico’s Kyle Cheney reports.
Trump is expected to allege he cannot be guilty of the crimes he is charged with because he acted on the “good faith” advice of his attorneys. He would have to have “made full disclosure of all material facts to his attorney before receiving the advice,” according to Chutkan’s Wednesday opinion and order.
Judge Chutkan adds that if he does invoke that defense, Trump must waive attorney-client privilege and provide the court with all documents and evidence related to his claim, even any that undermine his assertions.
“Very good development,” writes constitutional law professor and former Deputy Asst. Attorney General Harry Litman. “Trump has to put up or shut up on this well in advance.”
“Short point is that he doesn't have the legal basis for asserting advice of counsel– and he’d have to waive privilege–so getting it out in the open early will preempt them from pulling fast ones,” Litman also writes.
Joyce Vance, also a professor of law and former U.S. Attorney says, “Trump will have a heavy lift convincing the Judge to permit him to use an advice of counsel defense at trial, among other things because you can’t rely on the advice of your co-conspirators, even if they’re lawyers. If the Judge rules against him, it can’t be mentioned at trial."
WASHINGTON — What would you rather do than watch tonight’s third GOP presidential debate?
Dinner with friends? Laundry? Sleep? Play with your kids?
If you answered any of the above, you may be a Republican U.S. senator. Ahead of tonight’s debate — frontrunner Donald Trump will again be a no-show — Raw Story asked 32 Republican senators their plans this eve. Most gave their party’s prime time soirée a resounding shrug.
“Debate? I didn’t know there was one,” Sen. Jim Risch (R-ID) told Raw Story.
“We’ll see if there’s a good basketball game on,” Sen. Roger Marshall (R-KS) told Raw Story.
“No. I’d rather hang out with my kids,” Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) told Raw Story.
“You know, the winner may very well be appointed secretary of the Interior, so that’s one reason to watch it,” Vance quipped.
Of the 32 Republican senators Raw Story asked, only three were firmly planning to tune in, including Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-WY), who says it’s must-watch-TV.
“I want to see who our likely vice presidential nominee is going to be,” Lummis told Raw Story through her signature hearty laugh as she walked into a mostly empty U.S. Senate chamber.
For at least one former presidential contender, the debate seems to be more homework – or a cheat sheet? – than anything else.
“Oh yeah,” Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) told Raw Story. “I’ll watch it, and tomorrow morning, I’ll do a podcast with my thoughts on it.”
After having withstood the bright presidential debate lights himself, Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT), the GOP’s 2012 presidential standard bearer, says debates are now fun.
“I usually do enjoy watching my friends go through the gauntlet of a debate,” Romney told Raw Story. “It’s unfortunate President Trump's not there. I don’t know why he’s chickening out, but I guess it's good politics for him.”
Romney isn’t expecting a game changer for any of the Republican candidates not named “Trump.” But he still thinks the exercise in policy contrasts and political pugilism is important.
“It’s not gonna move the needle for President Trump, but it might make it clear as to which would be the strongest competitor,” Romney said.
Another 10 or so Republicans say they’re open to watching the debate, though they don’t have firm plans to do so.
“I hopefully will,” Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) told Raw Story.
“Probably will. I stay current,” Sen. Mike Braun (R-IN) told Raw Story. “There’s always some entertainment or something.”
Sen. Lisa Murkoskwi (R-AK) isn’t planning to tune in, although she’s braced for it after a television remote mishap during the second debate.
“Last time, I turned it on accidentally,” Murkowski told Raw Story.
At least one Republican says he may listen to it on his radio. But his chores come first.
“I don’t have a TV, so I might just listen to it,” Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) told Raw Story. “But I have things to do.”
Anything super pressing?
“I do have to wash clothes,” Cassidy said. “Just activities of daily living.”
With the debate earlier than the last two, the Senate’s oldest member thinks he may get to squeeze an hour of it in before bed time.
“What time is it on?” Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) asked.
“I think tonight’s earlier, I think it’s 8-10 EST,” Raw Story replied. “I think all the last ones were at 9.”
“Probably watch it til 9,” the 90-year-old senator said.
Poor Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC). Although several Senate Republicans says it’s nothing personal against Scott — or Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley and the others on the stage — Scott is an actual Senate colleague who works with them day after day.
While the Senate’s number two GOP leader has plans, he also hopes to catch part of the GOP debate, because he said it affects the party back here in Washington.
While the Senate’s number two Republican leader has plans, he also hopes to catch part of the GOP debate.
“We’ll see, if I get back in time I will,” Sen. John Thune (R-SD), the Republican whip, told Raw Story. “I don’t know. We’ll see. Somebody out of that group, I think, is going to emerge as an alternative to the former president. Knowing who’s saying what and what they think the issues are – they’ve been out on the campaign trail – I think it’s good for all of us. It informs our decision making here.”
Not because of any great wisdom it imparted, but because, as many, including Robert Reich, on social media observed, the ultra-conservative former Pennsylvania Republican lawmaker and hard core social conservative activist said the "quiet part out loud."
"You put very sexy things like abortion and marijuana on the ballot, and a lot of young people come out and vote," observed Santorum, who once "compare[d] pro-choice Americans to Nazi Germany," as ABC News reported in 2012.
“It was a secret sauce for disaster in Ohio. I don’t know what they were thinking,” he added. “That’s why, thank goodness that most of the states in this country don’t allow you to put everything on the ballot. Because pure democracies are not the way to run a country.”
Democratic state Senator Nabilah Islam Parkes, the first Muslim woman elected to the Georgia legislature, posted the video of Santorum speaking on Newsmax Tuesday night and offered this summation of his comments: "This clip tells you how afraid the Republicans are of the following: 1. Young People 2. Abortion Rights 3. Legalizing Weed 4. A function[ing] democracy."
That video has received over 4 million views in just 12 hours, causing "Santorum" to trend on social media Wednesday.
Former GOP media consultant Matthew Sheffield responded to the Santorum video by saying, "The panic and extremism that's exploded on the right flows directly from them finally realizing that they are a small and overrepresented minority that most people loathe. Their time is ending and they know it. We are going to have pluralistic social democracy."
Santorum was not the only hard core Republican to weigh in on Tuesday's major Democratic wins.
Former Virginia Attorney General and former (and unlawfully appointed) top Trump Homeland Security official Ken Cuccinelli was also on Newsmax, but it was host Rob Schmitt's remarks that were perhaps the most insightful.
“It does seem like the Republican Party generally has a real problem with winning,” Schmitt told Cuccinelli. "We're not doing something right. I think that's very obvious."
Tennessee Democratic state Rep. Gloria Johnson, who is running to unseat U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), responded, writing: "Perhaps because your electeds have no policy ideas, just hate and division."
Top Fox News pundit Sean Hannity, who reportedly spoke to Donald Trump almost nightly during his term as president, claimed Democrats are "trying to scare" voters when he commented on what The Washington Post is now calling "major victories in Ohio, Kentucky, Virginia" for abortion and abortion rights activists.
"Democrats are trying to scare women into thinking Republicans don't want abortion legal under any circumstances," Hannity said Tuesday night.
Huffpost, reporting on Hannity's remarks, noted: "As many commenters pointed out on social media, the main reason for that perception is probably because it’s true in many cases."
"In Alabama, Arkansas, Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas and West Virginia, abortion is now banned in almost all circumstances," Huffpost added. "In Georgia and South Carolina, abortion is banned after six weeks of pregnancy. Other states have bans after 12, 15 or 18 weeks."
One of the leading organizers of the "Stop the Steal" rally in Washington, D.C., questioned Kentucky's election results after a Democratic governor won re-election.
Gov. Andy Beshear won a second term Tuesday over Republican Attorney General Daniel Cameron in a state that Donald Trump won by 26 points in 2020, and Women for Trump head Amy Kremer didn't understand how that could be possible, especially since GOP candidates won in down-ballot races.
"I’ve heard a couple of different reasons for such a difference in the vote count for Governor, [secretary of state and attorney general]," Kremer posted on X. "They re-elected their Democrat Governor because he was an incumbent [and] candidates matter. It’s not an anti-incumbent year but I’m not buying any of that… Something is off here. Maybe 10 yrs ago, those explanations would be more believable But not in today’s world."
Beshear is one of the most popular governors in the U.S., at 60 percent approval, which is the highest for any Democratic governor in a red state and enjoys 41 percent approval among Trump voters – which is tied with Hawaii's Democratic Gov. Josh Green for the highest.
"There is no way this many Republicans voted for a Democrat governor," Kremer said. "It’s not plausible. On the other hand, there is no way that Democrats voted for a Dem governor and voted for a Republican SOS &/or a Republican AG or that they voted for the re-election of the Gov but didn’t vote for SOS or AG. The SOS controls elections & the AG is the top law enforcement officer in the state And Democrats left these blank?!?"
"Come on now…I was born in the morning, but not this morning," she added.
Beshear, whose father Steve Beshear was also a popular Kentucky governor from 2007 to 2015, helped attract major investment projects to the state, which currently has one of its highest budget surpluses ever, and voters have praised his leadership in several crises to hit the state – including the Covid-19 pandemic, major flooding and tornadoes, and a Louisville mass shooting that left one of his closest friends dead.
"I can’t make this make sense, but I’m not buying what they are selling," Kremer said. "If I lived in KY, I’d be looking at every down ballot race and asking for audits in every county, especially where totals are close. If it is legit, then the powers that be should have no problem with shining sunlight on the results."
SANFORD, N.C. — A former U.S. soldier-turned-neo-Nazi, who recently served a federal prison sentence for distributing bomb-making instructions for killing former presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke, protested outside a children’s story hour led by drag performers last month, Raw Story has confirmed.
Jarrett William Smith, 28, wore a skull mask and a shirt inscribed with the chilling words, “Support your local Einsatz-Kommando” to protest a drag show at a yoga studio in Sanford, N.C.
“Einsatz” refers to a Third Reich-era Nazi mobile death squad that assassinated political enemies, Jews and communists. The shirt also includes the Totenkopf “death’s head” skull that was utilized by Adolf Hitler’s Schutzstaffel paramilitary squad.
Smith, a resident of South Carolina, traveled to Sanford, N.C., where he met five other men and a child wearing masks and sunglasses. Together, they marched single-file down Main Street and joined a small group that included a local pastor on a public sidewalk behind the Sanford Yoga & Community Center, which was hosting a Halloween-themed drag story hour for about 15 children.
Raw Story identified Smith by matching the vehicle that he used to travel to the rally to a 2012 Honda registered in his name in Horry County, S.C., where he currently lives. Ryan Patrick, one of the men wearing skull masks, confirmed in an interview with Raw Story that Smith was also one of the skull-mask wearers and present beside him.
Smith’s presence at the protest does not appear to violate a law. But it indicates he’s back in the business of intimidation following his release from prison.
In 2019, prosecutors accused Smith of encouraging a federal informant to assassinate O’Rourke — a former congressman who’s run for president, U.S. Senate and Texas governor — with a car bomb.
Court documents also indicate that Smith, who law enforcement arrested at Fort Riley in Kansas in September 2019, encouraged users on an encrypted social media app to commit arson against an anti-fascist podcaster.
In February 2020, Smith pleaded guilty to two counts of distributing information related to explosives, destructive devices and weapons of mass destruction. A judge ultimately sentenced Smith to 30 months in prison.
Smith was released from prison in November 2021 after serving slightly more than 14 months, and earlier this year, he successfully petitioned for early termination of supervised release.
“Early termination of Mr. Smith’s supervised release poses no danger to public safety and is in the best interest of justice,” Smith’s federal public defender argued in a court filing. A federal judge in Kansas signed off on the order in July, noting that the government did not oppose the move, effectively cutting Smith’s probation in half — from three years to 18 months.
As part of the special conditions of Smith’s supervised release that U.S. District Court Judge Daniel D. Crabtree imposed, Smith was ordered to “not participate in any anti-government or tax protesting activities which endorse or encourage violence or associate with individuals who are known members of these groups, or possess any literature advocating or supporting these groups” during his probation.
Crabtree freed Smith from these conditions on July 14, when the same judge granted him early release from probation.
Smith, who lives in the Myrtle Beach area — a two-and-a-half hour drive from Sanford — could not be reached for comment, despite multiple efforts to contact him by phone and email, and through family members and his employer.
Rebecca Bongiorno, Smith’s mother, told Raw Story by email that his family would “speak to no one unless they can reverse this lie about him, both in the court and the media.” Asked to elaborate, Bongiorno cited unspecified accusations by then-Assistant U.S. Attorney Tony Mattivi that she said “were thrown out of court.”
Mattivi declined to comment on Smith’s release from probation.
But Mattivi, who now directs the Kansas Bureau of Investigation, told Raw Story he left the U.S. Justice Department while Smith was serving his prison sentence. Mattivi has an extensive prosecutorial history on matters related to terrorism and explosives, having served as the lead prosecutor against the al Qaeda operative who masterminded the bombing of the USS Cole and led the team of prosecutors that convicted three militia members for plotting to bomb an apartment building where Somali Muslim immigrants lived and worshiped.
According to Smith’s motion, the government was represented by First U.S. Attorney Duston Slinkard, who did not oppose Smith’s request for early termination of supervised release. In his order, Crabtree took note that the government did not oppose the request.
“Anyone who is sentenced to probation following conviction has a right to request early release,” Danielle Thomas, a spokesperson for the government, told Raw Story. “The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Kansas respects the decision of the court in these matters, and we have nothing further to add.”
‘We want you gone’
Smith’s presence Oct. 15 in Sanford, a city of about 30,000 residents, was neither coincidental nor accidental.
And he had help in ensuring the atmosphere around the children’s story hour would be filled with tension.
Jarrett William Smith protests a drag story hour with a bullhorn outside a yoga center in Sanford, N.C. on Oct. 15, 2023.
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As observed by a Raw Story reporter, Smith led the group of masked men to a corner of the public sidewalk at the edge of a gravel parking lot behind the yoga studio in Sanford where two drag performers were reading to children.
They fell in behind Thomas Booher, a local pastor. Holding a Bible to his chest, Booher chastised a small group of pro-LGBTQ supporters stationed throughout the parking lot to protect the venue. Among them: yoga studio co-owner Mike Knapp.
In addition to Ryan Patrick, the crew with Smith included Nicholas Garner Fisher, a 32-year-old self-identified “Nazi” skateboarder from Raleigh.
Fisher, like Smith, has a criminal record, with his record including convictions for illegally carrying a concealed gun.
In Telegram chats reviewed by Raw Story, Fisher has expressed hostility toward Black people. Of Black people using a skate park that he frequents, Fisher wrote, “If someone’s in my way, they get snaked by Fuhrer daddy and the skateparks are a no n----er zone.” Less than 10 days before the Sanford protest, he had posted on Telegram that he had been prevented from boarding a flight in Florida for using a racial slur.
In a written statement provided to Raw Story, Fisher did not confirm or deny that he was present at the protest in Sanford.
“Everyone was wearing a mask, and I reckon they were just concerned citizens as I was,” he said. “I can’t tell you who was there because of the masks.”
While Booher was speaking, some members of Smith’s group introduced themselves to Jere Brower, a local man who served about 30 days in the D.C. Jail for violating the curfew instituted by Mayor Muriel Bowser after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Brower attracted notoriety when coverage of his arrest noted his past association with Aryan Nations, a white power group that brought together racist skinheads and Klansmen in the 1980s and ’90s.
The 48-year-old Brower acknowledged to Raw Story in an interview last week that he has previous ties to the white power group Aryan Nations, but said that today he accepts that whiteness is not a precondition of American citizenship.
Brower told Raw Story that he did not know Smith at the time of the Oct. 15 protest in Sanford, but that members of the crew introduced themselves to him using their nicknames.
Brower had warned — in a comment on the yoga center’s Facebook page prior to the drag event — that he would be tracking who went into the building. He would be ready, he said, to call Child Protective Services, even though performing in drag in the presence of children is not illegal in North Carolina.
Brower tagged friends on a thread under a post on the yoga studio’s page announcing the event.
Some of the responders openly suggested violence. One of them replied by posting a drawing of a person dressed in the colors of the transgender flag colors hanging from a noose. Brower himself replied to a comment by one of the drag performers with a meme promoting the idea that trans people are prone to self-harm.
Smith’s crew coordinated their travel to the protest on Telegram, Patrick told Raw Story. Information about the protest came up in an online chat, he said. One member asked if anyone was going, and another responded affirmatively. Knowing Smith’s affinity for skull masks, Patrick said it was his idea that everyone should wear one so that they could “all look the same, more or less.”
During the protest, Brower ominously predicted, “This will be the last time.”
Smith raised a bullhorn. He slowly launched into a staccato harangue that gradually increased in intensity and volume.
“If you sit around wearing sexual-fetish gear to give yourself sexual pleasure, and you require the presence of children in order to attain that sexual pleasure, you are a pedophile!” he shouted, parroting a false accusation that drag show organizers and attendees are pedophiles.
Smith shook his head in disgust, and his foot slowly edged into the gravel parking lot.
One of the LGBTQ supporters approached and warned, “Hey, back up, man. Back up on the sidewalk.”
One of the members of Smith’s crew then stepped between the two men, and called the LGBTQ supporter a “f---ot.”
Smith resumed his tirade, seething with rage and frustration
“You do not represent us!” he yelled. “We do not want you here! We want you gone! Out of our town! Out of our state! And out of our country!”
LGBTQ supporters stand guard during a drag story hour at a yoga center while facing protesters led by Jarrett William Smith (holding bullhorn). Jordan Green/Raw Story
‘Kindness and support’
Inside the yoga center, drag performer Stormie Dae wielded a light saber and wore a headdress, heavy gray shawl, pants and knee-high boots while portraying the Star Wars character Ahsoka Tano.
Mx. Princexx Peritwinkle, the other performer, embodied the Muppet character Cookie Monster, wearing a floor-length, blue velvet dress with googly eyes. The two performers read books such as Gustavo the Shy Ghost, Calvin, and Creepy Carrots. They made candy bracelets with the children in attendance.
As a trans person, Mx. Princexx Peritwinkle told Raw Story that this performance name puts a “gender queer” spin on “the idea of princess.” Peritwinkle, whose real name Raw Story agreed to withhold for safety reasons, generally uses the ze/zim/zir pronouns.
“When I would go to drag shows, I would see Black and brown and queer and trans people being free and being their authentic selves,” Peritwinkle told Raw Story. “I was like, ‘How do I sign up?’ I learned a new way to sew a zipper and hem a skirt. It’s a space where I’m able to be free and be me and explore how I move my body and how I interact with the audience. There’s so much kindness and support. It feels good being onstage and seeing the audience live for the performance.”
Lindsey Knapp, a lawyer who has represented military veterans facing retaliation for reporting sexual assault, opened the Sanford Yoga & Community Center with her husband in 2020.
Located 30 miles from Fort Liberty (formerly Fort Bragg) — one of the largest military installations in the world — the yoga studio initially focused on providing trauma-informed services to veterans.
During the pandemic, the Knapps’ son came out as trans. Initially, they started an “LGBTQ kids hangout,” Lindsey said, adding that LGBTQ adults started asking for programming as well. Thus, the yoga center expanded into an LGBTQ resource center, incorporating drag shows as one among many queer-friendly activities, including a monthly game night and “sip and paint” sessions.
“My kiddo, when he came out as trans, I wanted to expose him to a lot of different trans humans so he could know he has options,” Lindsey said. “Not everybody who performs in drag events is trans and not every trans person performs in drag events. There are plenty of cisgender people who do drag. Drag in itself is just an art form. I enjoy it because it’s a lot of fun. It’s letting people be creative and use their attire in an effort to express themselves.”
Drag performers Stormie Dae (foreground) and Mx. Princexx Peritwinkle make bracelets with children during a drag story hour. Courtesy Sanford Yoga & Community Center
During the brief altercation between Smith’s crew and the LGBTQ supporters outside, one of the LGBTQ supporters called the Sanford police. Two officers showed up and informed the protesters that, because they didn’t have a permit, they could not use amplified devices and would need to stay on the sidewalk.
The police left. The energy at the protest began to flag. LGBTQ supporters maintained a line and stared down Smith’s crew. About 30 minutes before the conclusion of the drag story session, Smith and his cohort filed out. Most of the drag show protesters joined them in a nearby Dollar Store parking lot where they continued to talk before returning to their cars and driving away without further incident.
A track record of encouraging violence
The federal criminal complaint against Smith alleged that after enlisting in the Army in 2018, he led a group chat on Facebook with other extremists in which he bragged about his expertise in bomb-making.
“Oh yeah, I got knowledge of IEDs for days,” Smith wrote, referring to improvised explosive devices. “We can make cell phone IEDs in the style of the Afghans. I can teach you that.”
Additionally, an FBI confidential source who was communicating with Smith asked him to recommend a political figure in Texas who would be a good candidate for assassination.
“Outside of Beto?” Smith responded. “I don’t know enough people that would be relevant enough to cause a change if they died.”
Meanwhile, according to an affidavit filed by the government, “Smith talked with the [confidential source] about killing members of the far-left group, Antifa, as well as destroying nearby cell tower or [a] local news station.”
In August 2019, the affidavit alleges that Smith told the confidential source “that the headquarters of a major American news network would be a suggested target, utilizing a vehicle bomb.”
During Smith’s sentencing in 2020, he sought to undercut the government’s case by hiring a retired Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives enforcement officer as an expert witness. The retired officer submitted a report that concluded that Smith’s advice was largely “incorrect or without sufficient detail to have anyone assemble a functioning explosive or incendiary device or weapon of mass destruction.”
According to the government, Smith’s advocacy for violence was motivated by an obscure Satanic belief system known as Quayinism.
Based on an interview following his arrest, an FBI agent wrote about Smith: “He gives information out freely to people who may use it for harm, for the glory of Quayinism, and his religion of anti-kosmik Satanism. He wants to cause chaos, as it brings back the realm of his religious beliefs, through the destruction of the universe.
“Smith said the idea of chaos in the world is a disruption and he can be an agent of chaos by enabling people with his knowledge,” the report continues. “Smith said that if the death of people isn’t affecting him, then he doesn’t see an issue.”
Although Smith was ultimately convicted only of distributing bomb-making instructions, the government also charged him with threatening interstate communication. While stationed at Fort Riley, Smith allegedly communicated a plan to burn down the home of a Michigan man identified in court documents only as “D.H.”
Matching the username “Anti-Kosmik 2182,” which was cited in Smith’s charging documents, anti-fascist researchers noted the user’s contributions to an energetic discussion on the encrypted social media app Telegram about how to respond to a podcast by Daniel Harper that discussed Atomwaffen and how the group drew inspiration from a text by an obscure neo-Nazi author.
“Ditch the car somewhere a few blocks away, take back alley trails in the woods, etc., and then come up to the house wearing a mask,” Anti-Kosmik 2182 wrote, according to a report by the Daily Beast. “I’m not saying do anything illegal, but I am saying it would be a real shame if all he has went up in literal flames.”
In another chat, according to screenshots from a neo-Nazi channel infiltrated by anti-fascist researchers, Smith provided instructions for assembling and setting off an improvised chlorine bomb.
“Good for clearing out a room or breaking up a meeting,” he wrote, while posting as Anti-Kosmik 2182.
Arson appears to be a consistent theme in Smith’s online communications, as well as in his music interests.
The 2019 chats show Smith advocating that someone burn down the trailer of a white supremacist Satanist whom Smith faulted for betraying the cause by supporting North Korea.
Arson is also a theme in the story of “Burzum,” the Norwegian black metal music project whose shirt Smith was wearing in Sanford on Oct. 15.
Burzum was a solo project of Norwegian musician Kristian Vikernes, who served a prison sentence from 1994 to 2009 for murder and arson related to a church-burning spree.
Vikernes was convicted for the murder of former bandmate Øysten Aarseth. Vikernes and his erstwhile musical collaborator “burned churches and desecrated cemeteries,” according to a report by Southern Poverty Law Center. In the early 1990s, Vikernes and Aarseth helped establish National Socialist black metal, a musical subgenre that is explicitly racist.
Smith’s arrest in late 2019 came at a time when the FBI carried out a significant crackdown against white supremacists and their alleged terror plots. Smith found himself at the epicenter and served prison time for his crime.
But since Smith’s release from prison in November 2021, the white power movement has rebounded with a proliferation of so-called “active clubs,” and other, more obscure neo-Nazi and fascist groups.
Smith’s documented history of calling for car-bombings and arson is striking in the current climate of intimidation against the LGBTQ community in which neo-Nazis and other far-right actors have threatened to shut down drag shows.
‘Greater risk’
For some observers, Smith’s presence at the drag show story hour indicates he hasn’t reformed himself.
“If Smith has remained involved in white supremacist activity, that would be concerning,” Jake Hyman, a spokesperson for ADL Center on Extremism, told Raw Story. “His sentence was relatively short, which makes him at greater risk to hold on to extreme views and perhaps even reoffend.”
As an example, Hyman cited Brandon Russell, an Atomwaffen leader who served prison time for possession of explosives, and then was arrested again roughly a year after his release for allegedly plotting an attack on the power grid.
Mx. Princexx Peritwinkle, one of the drag performers at the Sanford Yoga & Community Center on Oct. 15, is no stranger to threats from far-right protesters.
Last December, Peritwinkle participated in an ensemble drag performance at a downtown theater in Southern Pines, N.C. Peritwinkle stood alongside lead performer Naomi Dix as Dix addressed a throng of protesters outside the show. Peritwinkle was onstage that night right before a power outage disrupted the show.
The outage was caused by someone shooting out a substation in surrounding Moore County, resulting in a blackout that was celebrated by accelerationist neo-Nazis who embrace chaos and societal collapse as a precondition for establishing white ethno-states.
Peritwinkle’s mind would go back to that show in Southern Pines for several months when applying drag makeup. But over time the preoccupation with fear diminished and the joy of being in the moment while performing onstage returned.
“After the violence at the Moore County show, knowing that drag can be protested and can be met by so much animosity, I like to remind people that this gets me free,” Peritwinkle said. “It has a way of reaching queer, trans folks, young and old folks. For me, it’s so personal.”
Donald Trump's art of the dodge failed him in the New York City courtroom where the future of his eponymous empire hangs in the balance because, as his former attorney Michael Cohen told Raw Story on Tuesday, it revealed his Achilles heel.
"It only took them four hours to get him to crack," said Cohen. "Because he has no stamina."
"It's all about deception — more than just deception," Cohen said. "It's almost devious."
Trump, who has denied the wrongdoing alleged in the $250 million lawsuit, claims that he never explicitly said to change the documents to defraud banks or insurance companies. But Cohen argues Trump never says anything directly.
"With Trump, nothing is ever explicit," Cohen told Raw Story.
On the stand, Cohen testified he worked on statements of financial condition, complete listings of Trump Organization assets and liabilities, according to MSNBC's legal correspondent Lisa Rubin, who has been reporting from the courtroom. "
New YorkAttorney General Letitia James contends the Trump family purposefully inflated the company's worth in such documents and ultimately defrauded investors and lenders.
Cohen reportedly told the court the financial statements would be used to demonstrate how much the Trump Organization was worth and would be shared outside the company.
To Raw Story, Cohen said Trump signed off on those documents.
In Trump's fraud case, the question will be whether Judge Arthur Engoron believes Trump's contention that lower-level staffers took the initiative to inflate his net worth.
"Not only is it not believable," Cohen said of Trump's defense, "it’s ludicrous."
Cohen is not the only person to criticize Trump's performance on the witness stand Monday.
Judge Arthur Engoron repeatedly admonished the twice-impeached ex-president to answer prosecutors' questions and stop giving "irrelevant" testimony more suited to a campaign rally than a courtroom.
And legal experts say Trump made a "critical" admission when he agreed on the witness stand that a Deutsche Bank term loan agreement he verified and signed was issued "in order to induce lending."
LGBTQ supporters stand guard during a drag story hour at a yoga center while facing protesters led by Jarrett William Smith (holding bullhorn). Jordan Green/Raw Story
Drag performers Stormie Dae (foreground) and Mx. Princexx Peritwinkle make bracelets with children during a drag story hour. Courtesy Sanford Yoga & Community Center