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Roger Stone hints at July Trump announcement: 'DeSantis needs to stick to his knitting'
June 29, 2022
Roger Stone, a longtime ally of Donald Trump, said that the former president could announce his reelection bid as soon as next week.
During an interview with conspiracy theorist Alex Jones on Wednesday, Stone suggested that the news had come from sources close to Trump.
"I think he announces sooner rather than later," Stone opined. "I think he announces as early as July."
Stone also took a shot at potential Trump opponent Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL).
"DeSantis needs to stick to his knitting and get reelected governor before he can move out openly in a presidential campaign," Stone claimed. "I do think he is sizing up taking on the champ."
"Trump easily dispatches all comers," he added. "It's his race to lose."
"You mean, in like a week, he could be announcing?" Jones exclaimed. "Wow!"
Watch the video below from the Alex Jones Show.
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Russia's second-richest man, hit by British sanctions on Wednesday, had his superyacht berthed in Dubai, one of three ultra-expensive, oligarch-owned boats moored in the Gulf financial hub.
Vladimir Potanin, whose fortune Forbes magazine estimated in 2021 at $27 billion, had his assets frozen and was handed a travel ban and other restrictions, the British foreign ministry said.
His 88.5-metre (290 feet) yacht Nirvana -- complete with jacuzzi, a swimming pool that converts into a dancefloor, and a 3D cinema, according to a chartering website -- was once listed at $300 million, reports said.
Dubai, long known to Russians as a high-end holiday destination, has been a magnet for the country's professionals and elite fleeing the impact of Western sanctions since the invasion of Ukraine.
Berthed close to Nirvana at Dubai's Port Rashid on Wednesday was Madame Gu -- a 99-metre superyacht reportedly owned by Russian billionaire Andrei Skoch, sanctioned by the European Union and Britain.
Quantum Blue, another luxury vessel which reportedly belongs to Russian retail tycoon Sergey Galitsky and has an elevator, beauty salon and helipad, according to yachtcharterfleet.com, was also docked at Dubai port.
Some yachts linked to sanctioned Russians have been seized. This month, a Fiji court handed the $300 million Amadea to US authorities, and other floating palaces have been impounded in Spain, Italy and France.
Last week, US deputy treasury secretary Wally Adeyemo visited Dubai, calling for "vigilance" against attempts to evade sanctions against the Russian financial system, the Financial Times said.
The United Arab Emirates has announced a drive against money-laundering after being placed on the grey list of countries subject to heightened scrutiny by the Paris-based Financial Action Task Force.
"The UAE takes its role in protecting the integrity of the global financial system extremely seriously," a UAE government official told AFP.
"We work closely with the private sector to implement targeted financial sanctions and combat sanctions evasion in line with international obligations and practices, and the UAE remains steadfast in this commitment without exception."
© 2022 AFP
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‘The usual scams just aren’t working’: Trump’s defense against Hutchinson testimony is ‘preposterously weak’
June 29, 2022
Donald Trump's allies have kicked into gear after devastating testimony from former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson, but they're having trouble gaining traction.
The aide to White House chief of staff Mark Meadows told the House select committee that Trump knew his supporters were armed on Jan. 6, 2021, and still directed them toward the U.S. Capitol, but the former president's allies have seized on a second-hand account about his behavior in the presidential limo to discredit her, reported the Washington Post.
"They are claiming Hutchinson’s appearance was a flop, based on the fact that a single anecdote about Trump — one barely related to the central allegations against him — is now being questioned by a handful of bit players in this saga who aren’t even offering this pushback publicly, let alone under oath," wrote Post columnist Greg Sargent. "In addition to providing an object lesson in how pro-Trump propaganda functions, this buffoonery reveals just how weak Trump’s defenses have become. The pushback is shriveling into meaningless trivialities even as the enormity of this scandal grows overwhelming."
The Secret Service says it will respond to claims made in Hutchinson's testimony, and anonymous sources claim agent Robert Engel and White House staffer Tony Ornato will testify that Trump did not lunge for the wheel in his presidential SUV, and apologists such as Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) insist others inside the vehicle should testify publicly.
IN OTHER NEWS: Morning Joe offers profane advice to longtime ‘buddy’ Mark Meadows
"By all means, let’s do that," Sargent wrote. "Ornato, Engel and the driver absolutely should testify under oath on live television."
"Here’s why this pushback is so preposterously weak," he added. "First, Hutchinson was not relating her firsthand experience of that episode. As Hutchinson recounted, she, Ornato and Engel were outside Meadows’s office after this episode, and Ornato described it to her. Asked whether Engel disputed this account at the time Ornato delivered it, Hutchinson said Engel did not."
Ornato and Engel have already testified to the House select committee behind closed doors, but they haven't come forward publicly to dispute Hutchinson's claims -- and Sargent said that gives away the game Trump allies are playing.
"When Greene insists she wants them to testify on live TV, the aim is not to make that actually happen," he wrote. "The real game is to project manufactured confidence that if it did, somehow truths being suppressed by Trump’s enemies would suddenly come to light, to inject a fog of uncertainty into mainstream media coverage."
"But the revelations have been so overwhelming that the usual scams just aren’t working," Sargent added.
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