Source: The Hill

Republican aides and strategists privately expect Attorney General Merrick Garland to pursue an indictment of former President Trump within 60 to 90 days after Election Day, predicting the window for prosecuting Trump will close once the 2024 presidential campaign gains momentum.

Republican aides on Capitol Hill and veteran party strategists emphasize they don’t have any inside information on what Garland might do, but they say the attorney general is under heavy pressure from Democrats to act and the deadline for pursuing an indictment is fast approaching.

GOP aides also warn that an indictment of Trump by the Biden administration would further polarize the nation and likely strengthen Trump’s support from the Republican Party’s base as the former president and his allies would frame the Department of Justice’s prosecution as a political witch hunt.

“A couple of weeks after the election, I assume that Garland will indict Trump,” said one veteran Republican aide, expressing a sentiment shared by several other GOP aides and strategists.

Read more: https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/3710063-gop-bracing-for-trump-indictment-soon-after-election-day/

Source: The Hill

Republican lawmakers are warning that any Department of Justice prosecution of former President Trump will turn into a political battle, setting a high bar for Attorney General Merrick Garland to act on an expected criminal referral from the House’s Jan. 6 committee.

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Sen. Mike Braun (R-Ind.) said any criminal referral from the House “would probably have as much political taint on it as you can get.”

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“I think it could backfire in a way that they have no clue,” said Republican pollster Jim McLaughlin. “I think it’s going to backfire because it just so political and it’s tainted.

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Ford O’Connell, a Republican strategist, said a prosecution “will only make Trump stronger with the GOP primary voters.”

“If your goal is to make sure Donald Trump is the nominee in 2024 for the Republicans, then by all means proceed with this. You’re just going to make him stronger,” he said.

Read more: https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/596955-republicans-warn-justice-department-probe-of-trump-would-trigger-political

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Seems like they got their talking points in order...

Source: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Former national security aide Alexander Vindman accused Republican U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson and others of having "blood on their hands" as Ukraine withstands a withering assault from Russian troops.

In an interview with the Journal Sentinel, Vindman included Johnson on a list with former President Donald Trump, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Fox News host Tucker Carlson, claiming they undermined U.S. national security.

"Civilians are dying, Ukrainians are providing a formidable defense, defending democracy for Americans as well as for themselves and their homes. And Ron Johnson is trying to distract and obfuscate," Vindman said.

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Last week, in an interview with Fox News, Johnson blamed Vindman and others for helping embolden Russian president Vladimir Putin.

Read more: https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/politics/2022/03/07/alexander-vindman-says-ron-johnson-a-huge-disappointment-ukraine/9365277002/

Source: The Hill

Top political officials in the Trump White House tried to block public health guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and to eliminate evidence of political interference into scientists' reports on the coronavirus, according to newly released documents from congressional investigators.

The latest documents from a House committee investigating the former administration's response to the pandemic shed additional light on the efforts of some of former President Trump's political appointees to blunt or even block the messages of career officials because they did not align with Trump's rosy projections.

During a press briefing on Feb. 25, 2020, former senior CDC official Nancy Messonnier warned about the coming dangers of COVID-19. She told reporters that the spread of the coronavirus was essentially inevitable.

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Her statement angered Trump, and the administration subsequently stopped granting CDC officials permission to brief the public. The agency held no briefings from early March until June, during some of the earliest and most confusing times of the pandemic.

Read more: https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/581322-documents-reveal-new-details-of-trump-political-interference-in-covid

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Source: JPost

Former US president Donald Trump defended his supporters who during the January 6 Capitol riot threatened to hang then-vice president Mike Pence, Axios reported on Friday.

The comments were made in an interview with Trump in Mar-a-Lago back in March by Jonathan Karl for his new book, Betrayal, which is slated for release next week.

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Regarding the chants to hang Pence, Trump justified it by saying "well, the people were very angry."

When Karl continued by saying "They were saying 'hang Mike Pence,'" Trump replied that "it's common sense."

Read more: https://www.jpost.com/american-politics/donald-trump-defends-calls-to-hang-mike-pence-during-capitol-riot-684830

Source: The Daily Beast

The owner of a private COVID testing clinic turned right-wing provocateur Candace Owens away for spreading COVID misinformation and discouraging mask use, according to a screenshot of an email posted online by Owens.

“We cannot support anyone who has pro-actively worked to make this pandemic worse by spreading misinformation, politicizing and DISCOURAGING the wearing of masks and actively dissuading people from receiving life-saving vaccinations,” the owner wrote.

“My team and myself have worked overtime, to exhaustion, unpaid and underpaid this past year, spending our own capital to ensure that our community remains protected. It would be unfair to them and to the sacrifices we have all made this year to serve you.”

According to previous media reports, the owner, Suzanna Lee, runs a private lab in the ski resort town of Aspen, Colorado. She directed Owens to the only other testing site in the city, but said it had inconsistent wait times for results.



Read more: https://www.thedailybeast.com/covid-testing-clinic-turns-candace-owens-away-for-spreading-misinformation-discouraging-masks

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https://twitter.com/briantylercohen/status/1433265904075292672

Source: Yahoo/Business Insider

In 2020, Blackwater founder Erik Prince pitched plans to hire Ukrainian combat veterans and buy into the country's military-industrial complex in order to create a $10 billion private army, according to a new Time investigation.

The former Navy SEAL created a "roadmap" detailing his goals to acquire factories in Ukraine that make engines for fighter jets and helicopters as well as build munitions factories in the country and combine Ukraine's top aerospace and aviation firms in order to compete with Boeing and Airbus, the outlet reported.

Prince's full plan, obtained by Time, dates back to June 2020 and is one of his most ambitious ventures in a long career of pursuing and creating controversial defense infrastructure, according to the magazine. Documents obtained by the outlet reveal Prince's coveted venture would have given him a pivotal role in Ukraine's military industry amid it's continuous conflict with neighboring Russia.

Several of the proposals required approval from the Ukrainian government, including one that would create a new private military company staffed by veterans of the ongoing conflict in eastern Ukraine, according to the magazine.

Read more: https://www.yahoo.com/news/blackwater-founder-erik-prince-had-070738973.html

Source: ESPN

IN THE SPRING of 2008, the NFL was in crisis. A hard-charging United States senator from Pennsylvania named Arlen Specter had launched an investigation into the Spygate scandal. He tried to determine how many games the New England Patriots' illegal videotaping operation of opposing coaches' signals had helped the team win and learn why the NFL, under the orders of commissioner Roger Goodell, had destroyed all evidence of the cheating. By May, Specter -- a former Philadelphia district attorney and a lifelong Eagles fan -- was so angry at the "stonewalling" of his inquiry by the league and the Patriots that he called for an independent investigator, similar to the Mitchell investigation of steroid use in professional baseball. League executives and coaches might be forced to testify under oath. The prospect sent the league, and its new commissioner, into panic. "If it ever got to an investigation," Goodell said at one point, "it would be terrible for the league."

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But there was one man, a mutual friend of Specter and Patriots owner Robert Kraft, who believed that he could make the investigation go away. He was a famous businessman and reality television star who routinely threw money at politicians to try to curry favor, whether it worked or not. He had been a generous political patron of Specter's for two decades.

One day in early 2008, Specter had dinner with the man in Palm Beach at his palatial club, not far from Kraft's Florida home. A phone call followed. The friend offered Specter what the senator felt was tantamount to a bribe: "If you laid off the Patriots, there'd be a lot of money in Palm Beach."

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But recently and unexpectedly, there's been movement in the quest. Follow-up conversations with the people closest to Arlen Specter -- his oldest son, Shanin, a Philadelphia personal injury and medical malpractice attorney, and Charles Robbins, Specter's trusted longtime communications aide and the ghostwriter of two Specter memoirs -- revealed this: The man who dangled campaign cash if Specter were to drop the Spygate inquiry was none other than Donald J. Trump.

Read more: https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/31484993/son-ghostwriter-late-senator-say-trump-intervened-stop-probe-patriots-spygate-scandal

Source: The Hill

Most Republicans believe that Donald Trump is still the rightful president and that the results of the 2020 election were tarnished by illegal voting, according to a new Reuters-Ipsos poll released on Tuesday.

The survey found that just over half of Republicans — 53 percent — think that Trump remains the “true president,” despite losing to President Biden last year by roughly 7 million votes nationally. Even more — 61 percent — believe either strongly or somewhat that the 2020 election was “stolen” from the former president.

Similarly, 56 percent of Republican respondents said that the presidential election had been marred by illegal voting or “election rigging,” a baseless claim that Trump has made repeatedly in the more than six months since Election Day.

The poll, which was conducted from May 17 to 19, underscores the influence that Trump still has over much of the GOP’s electorate. Despite losing reelection in November, he has continued to insist that the election had been rigged against him — a claim that has prompted Republican legislators across the country to rewrite election laws and review the results of the presidential race.

Read more: https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/555256-53-percent-of-republicans-say-trump-is-true-president-poll

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