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    New York Launches Probe Into Trump Judge

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
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    4
    Gavel via Wikimedia Commons Image

    The New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct has launched an investigation into a New York attorney’s claim that he advised Judge Arthur Engoron in the case against former President Donald Trump.

    Attorney Adam Leitman Bailey told WNBC-TV that he had a courthouse conversation with Engoron three weeks before the judge would slap Trump with a $454 million penalty for fraudulently inflating the value of his assets.

    New York judges are barred from considering outside opinions in such a way when litigating a case, yet Bailey said he discussed the legal questions at length with the judge.

    Judge Engoron’s ruling ordered Trump to pay nearly $355 million, Donald Jr. and Eric to each pay $4 million, and ex-Trump Org chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg to pay $1 million. The order also barred Trump from serving as a corporate officer or a director of a company in New York for three years, and barred his sons for two years. The Trumps did avoid the so-called “corporate death penalty;”

    “I actually had the ability to speak to him three weeks ago,” Bailey said in an interview with the station on Feb. 16, just hours before the judge issued his ruling.

    “I saw him in the corner [at the courthouse], and I told my client, ‘I need to go,’” he recounted.

    “And I walked over, and we started talking … I wanted him to know what I think and why … I really want him to get it right,” the attorney continued.

    He said he “explained to” Engoron that ruling against Trump would have far-reaching implications beyond destroying the former president, including damaging New York’s economy.

    If Trump were forced to pay a hefty fine and shut down his business, it would make other companies concerned about similarly being targeted at any time, even when there were no actual damages or victims, as in this case.

    Trump’s legal team raised the same points, which Engoron ignored in his verdict.

    In a later interview with WNBC, Bailey walked back his claims slightly, saying they “didn’t even mention the word ‘Donald Trump’” during their conversation.

    However, the attorney admitted that it was understood exactly what they were discussing.

    “Well, obviously, we weren’t talking about the Mets,” Bailey said.

    According to the New York State Rules of Judicial Conduct, “a judge shall not initiate, permit, or consider ex parte communications, or consider other communications made to the judge outside the presence of the parties or their lawyers.”

    Al Baker, a spokesman for the state’s Office of Court Administration, denied that the judge had broken those rules.

    “The decision Justice Engoron issued February 16 was his alone, was deeply considered, and was wholly uninfluenced by this individual,” Baker said in a statement, according to WNBC.

    ‘Shark Tank’ Host Vows To ‘Never Invest’ In ‘Loser State’ New York Following Trump Ruling

    By
    admin
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    1
    Gage Skidmore Flickr

    Kevin O’Leary, co-host of the TV show “Shark Tank” and a successful investor in his own right, stated in a Monday interview with Fox News host Neil Cavuto that he will never invest in New York after a judge ordered Donald Trump to pay over $350 million in penalties in a civil fraud case.

    “I’m not different than any other investor. I’m shocked at this. I can’t even understand or fathom the decision at all. There’s no rationale for it,” O’Leary told Cavuto.

    From Mediaite:

    In his New York fraud case, Trump was ordered by Judge Arthur Engoron to pay more than $350 million, and the former president was also barred from doing business in New York for three years. Trump was accused of fraud through past valuations of his properties that were inflated and used to get more beneficial agreements in a civil lawsuit filed by New York Attorney General Letitia James.

    O’Leary called Trump’s actions a victimless crime and said other companies are now going to be even more fearful to conduct business in New York, which the Canadian-born O’Leary called a “loser state.”

    “It doesn’t matter what the governor says, New York was already a loser state. Like California‘s a loser state. There are many loser states because of policy, high taxes, uncompetitive regulation, it was already on the top of the list of being a loser state. I would never invest in New York now, and I’m not the only person saying that,” he said.

    O’Leary, long a vocal critic of New York’s policies for business, described running into massive amounts of red tape while trying to set up a “high end data center” in New York and he’s now abandoning the state for “winner states,” like the Oklahoma, North Dakota, and West Virginia.

    “The fine people of New York should ask themselves, why are we such a loser state? How are we going attract business?” O’Leary continued. “It’s not just the existing businesses that are fleeing out to Texas and Florida. What about new money like what I’m talking about?”

    “This is a New York problem now,” the businessman, investor and philanthropist concluded.

    This article originally appeared on American Liberty News. Republished with permission.

    MyPillow Evicted From Warehouse

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
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    2
    Mike Lindell via Gage Skidmore Flickr

    A Minnesota court has ordered MyPillow to be evicted from the warehouse it formerly used.

    The Hill has more:

    The Minneapolis warehouse is approximately 125,000 square feet and has been leased to Lindell since December 2015. The lease agreement between Lindell and the landlord, First Industrial LP, has been amended twice. It lasts 10 years, seven months and 20 days, and the monthly rent was $57,794.12, according to the eviction complaint.

    According to the complaint, dated March 7, Lindell did not make rent payments for February and March 2024. Since it is not the first time MyPillow failed to pay its rent on more than two occasions in the previous 12-month period, per the lease agreement, the landlord is entitled to retake possession of the premises.

    As of Wednesday, Lindell did not answer the eviction complaint or appear at the scheduled hearing, forcing the judge to order the eviction. He confirmed to the AP that MyPillow owes around $217,000 to the Delaware-based company for the rent.

    Lindell said the company no longer needed the space and removed its property from the warehouse last June before subleasing it to another company through December. The company backed out in January and “left us all stranded.” MyPillow offered to find another tenant, but the landlord wanted to take the warehouse back, he told the newswire.

    MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell faces multiple defamation lawsuits from two voting machine companies, after he spread lies that the 2020 presidential election was fraudulent and stolen from former President Trump. In February, a federal judge ruled he must pay $5 million in an election data dispute case.

    Andrew Cuomo to Launch New Podcast with First Guest Anthony Scaramucci

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
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    2
    Photos from the opening of the new Delta Air Lines terminal in LaGuardia Airport in Queens, NY, on Tuesday, Oct. 29, 2019. (Chris Rank for Rank Studios) (Photos from the opening of the new Delta Air Lines terminal in LaGuardia Airport in Queens, NY, o

    Look at how far Andrew Cuomo has sunk.

    After resigning as New York Governor due to allegations of sexual misconduct Cuomo announced he plans to start a new business venture. Cuomo’s newest foray into the public sphere comes in the shape of a podcast and one of his first guests is scheduled to be President Donald Trump’s former communications director Anthony Scaramucci.

    Scaramucci, who briefly served the Trump administration in 2017, has emerged as a critic of Trump and expressed his support for Biden in the 2020 election.

    According to The Hill:

    Cuomo will this week debut a new hourlong show he is calling “As a Matter of Fact” on podcast streaming service Quake, he told Axios, and the show will aim to “hear from people — their questions, their issues — and have that dialogue.”

    The former governor told Axios this week he has “learned from the entire situation.”

    “There’s a fundamental problem with the entire system here,” Cuomo told the outlet of the media ecosystem writ large. “We have such division of people and we have such dysfunction of government, and part of it is this hyper-partisan, extreme dialogue that goes on.”

    “There is a new sensitivity that I didn’t fully appreciate that some people have, and some people have a new sense of cultural boundaries that I didn’t appreciate enough,” Cuomo said.

    It seems the disgraced governor is following in his brother’s footsteps. Chris Cuomo, who was a leading anchor at CNN during the Cuomo sex scandal, also started a new podcast after being fired from the network.

    Facebook Admits ‘Mistake’ In Censoring Iconic Trump Assassination Attempt Photo

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
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    2
    Photo via Pixabay images

    On Monday, a Facebook spokesperson admitted the platform wrongly called the popular image of Donald Trump pumping his fist in the air after an assassination attempt against him an “altered photo.”

    Meta Public Affairs Director Dani Lever later explained on X it was done in error as the systems were meant to detect a separate version of the image.

    “This was an error. This fact check was initially applied to a doctored photo showing the secret service agents smiling, and in some cases our systems incorrectly applied that fact check to the real photo. This has been fixed, and we apologize for the mistake,” Lever wrote.

    Lever confirmed the mistake when Fox News Digital reached out for a comment.

    The altered image Lever referenced featured the Secret Service members surrounding Trump smiling. USA Today and AFP United States previously fact-checked the images as “altered,” though it confirmed the accuracy of the original image.

    “None of the agents in the original image are smiling as they surround Trump, who has blood on his face and his right arm in the air. The image – which was captured by Associated Press photographer Evan Vucci and distributed by the AP – appeared with coverage of the shooting by CNN, The Atlantic, Business Insider and many other legitimate news outlets,” USA Today explained.

    USA Today’s fact-check on the altered photo was used as a “third-party fact-checker” when Facebook corrected the photo.

    Google has recently come under criticism for omitting search results for Trump’s recent assassination attempt.

    Elon Musk Vows To Keep His PAC ‘Grinding’ And To Help Future Republican Primaries

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
    -
    1

    Billionaire Elon Musk has no plan to back away from politics anytime soon.

    SpaceX owner Elon Musk vowed to keep up his political activities in a social media post on Tuesday, saying he would take an active role in the GOP primaries ahead of the 2026 midterms.

    “Normally, PACs go somewhat dormant after a big election,” Musk wrote on X, adding:

    @America PAC is going to do the opposite and keep grinding, increasing Republican registrations in key districts around the country, in preparation for special elections and the midterms.

    “And, of course, play a significant role in primaries,” Musk added.

    Musk’s PAC reportedly spent some $200 million to help get Trump reelected in recent months. Musk himself, the world’s richest man, donated some $120 million to aid in Trump’s reelection bid – making him Trump’s second biggest backer after billionaire Timothy Mellon.

    Musk’s pledge to stay active in GOP politics is the first sign his interest in the party extends far beyond Trump as activism.

    Airbnb Co-Founder Opens Up About Leaving Democrat Party to Support Trump

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
    -
    0
    President Donald Trump participates in a welcome ceremony with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman Al Saud at the Royal Court Palace in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Tuesday, May 13, 2025. (Official White House Photo by Daniel Torok)

    Earlier this week, Airbnb co-founder Joe Gebbia opened up about why he decided to leave the Democrat Party to support President Donald Trump.

    During an interview with former White House official Katie Miller – the wife of White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller – Gebbia revealed how he became drawn to the Republican Party through Secretary of Health Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and the crisis at the southern border.

    “At what point did you know in the last election that you were like, ‘I wanna help President Trump’? Was it Bobby Kennedy and your love for MAHA? Like, what was it?” asked Miller on The Katie Miller Podcast.

    Gebbia responded, “I’ve been on my journey. Everyone’s been on a journey, and I think through, you know, certainly Bobby Kennedy and supporting him, and I’ve been so grateful for the work that he’s doing, to be somebody who just cares so much about the health of our nation, and you know, has no ties to industry and is really just able to bust through walls and sort of, like, right size the ship.”

    The Airbnb co-founder revealed that he “grew up in an alternative medicine, health food household,” which made him gravitate towards Kennedy when he ran for president on a “Make America Healthy Again” platform.

    Watch:

    However, Gebbia told Miller it was the crisis at the southern border that ultimately made him lose faith in the Democratic Party and become a Republican.

    “I think it was early 2021, mid-2021, the activity at the border caught my attention, and I just remember thinking, ‘What’s going on with this topic? It seems as if there’s no border,’” he said. “And as it got worse that year, I felt like I needed to understand this problem more, so I reached out to my friends, largely on the Democratic side of the house, at all levels, from the highest level all the way down.”

    Gebbia said that while he received “some answers” from friends in the Democratic Party, he ultimately “felt unfulfilled,” and so decided to talk to former Trump senior adviser Jared Kushner about the issue:

    I get on the phone with Jared and say, “Hey, can you help me? Fill in the gaps for me. Like, what am I missing here? Is this normal? Like, seems there’s no enforcement of our own border. Like, don’t nations need borders to be a nation?” And so he put me on this curriculum of just talking to experts in the field, and I remember just being like holy cow, this is crazy. Like, this is not right. This is a real problem and there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be enforcing the laws of our country and our border. And so I think, as I started to pull on that thread, I sort of, you know, begin to look at other topics and eventually came to the point where I don’t think I can support a political party that wants to have an open border, that lets in criminals and dangerous people into our country. That’s just not something I can get behind.

    The most effective way to support State Republicans is to stand tall for America FIRST — renew your MAGA pledge today!

    Watergate Prosecutor Says ‘Trump Is Toast’ In Fraud Trial 

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
    -
    6
    Slowking4, CC BY-SA 3.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

    Former Watergate prosecutor Nick Ackerman said former President Trump is “toast” in his New York civil fraud case.

    New York Attorney General Letitia James’ case accuses Trump, his two adult sons, the Trump Organization, and top executives of falsely inflating the values of Trump’s real estate properties and other assets in order to get tax benefits and better loan terms.

    James seeks around $250 million in damages, and she wants to bar Trump and his co-defendants from running another business in New York.

    According to The Hill, Ackerman argued people are not only focused on the former president’s testimony but also his deposition with James’s lawyers last summer, where he invoked the Fifth Amendment more than 400 times.

    “Now what does it mean to take the Fifth Amendment? It means that you are refusing to answer a question, because a truthful answer would tend to be incriminating,” Ackerman said. “Then what did Donald Trump do last week? He went into court and said, ‘Oh, I didn’t do anything fraudulent, I wasn’t involved in a fraud.’ Which is just the opposite what in effect he was saying when he took the Fifth Amendment in his deposition.”

    “So you’ve got contradictory testimony,” Ackerman continued. “You can use his assertion of the Fifth Amendment against him to basically find that he’s lying, that he’s manipulating the system when he goes in, refuses to answer questions, answers the questions in a half-baked manner.”

    Earlier this week when Trump took the stand he fiercely defended his business practices and condemned those involved in the case as politically motivated “Trump haters.”

    “I just don’t see how this judge at the end of the day is not going to find that, with respect to Donald Trump … ‘Liar, liar, pants on fire,’” Ackerman said.

    Ackerman said that in his more than 40 years of civil law experience, he has never seen anyone “do such a stupid move as to suddenly start testifying” after they’ve taken the Fifth Amendment.

    Billionaire Makes Massive Political Contribution To Trump

    By
    admin
    -
    1
    Image via Pixabay free images

    One of the largest single disclosed gifts ever…

    A reclusive billionaire from a storied American family with a legacy dating back to the Gilded Age has made one of the largest political contributions in the history of American politics.

    Timothy Mellon, heir to the Mellon banking fortune, made a $50 million contribution to the pro-Trump super PAC, Make America Great Again Inc.

    At the end of April, the organization had only $34.5 million.

    In a memo following Mellon’s donation, the PAC announced it had reserved $100 million in advertising through Labor Day.

    The New York Times continues:

    Mr. Mellon is now the first donor to give $100 million in disclosed federal contributions in this year’s election. He was already the single largest contributor to super PACs supporting both Mr. Trump and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who is running as an independent. Mr. Mellon has previously given $25 million to both.

    Gage Skidmore from Peoria, AZ, United States of America, CC BY-SA 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

    Democrats have sought to portray Mr. Kennedy as a spoiler supported by Republicans, in part by emphasizing Mr. Mellon’s dual contributions and seemingly split loyalties. The pro-Kennedy super PAC has distributed quotations from the hard-to-reach Mr. Mellon, and for a blurb that appears on the cover of Mr. Mellon’s upcoming book, Mr. Kennedy called the billionaire a “maverick entrepreneur.”

    It is not clear what Mr. Mellon’s mega-donation means for his support of Mr. Kennedy going forward. He has so far toggled between giving to support both candidates. His most recent donation to Mr. Kennedy’s super PAC was a $5 million contribution in April.

    But Mr. Mellon’s $50 million gift will significantly help pro-Trump forces narrow the financial advantage that President Biden and his allies have enjoyed so far. Miriam Adelson, the casino billionaire and widow of Sheldon G. Adelson, who died in 2021, has also made plans to fund a pro-Trump super PAC with at least as much money as the $90 million that her family gave in the 2020 campaign, although much of the cash has yet to arrive.

    Mellon’s contributions follow Donald Trump‘s conviction in a hush money trial.

    Critics argue that the case is politically motivated and based on an overly broad interpretation of campaign finance laws. They add that such payments are common among public figures seeking to avoid public scrutiny.

    The Mellon family‘s wealth started when an Irish immigrant named Thomas Mellon founded T. Mellon & Sons’ Bank in Pittsburgh in 1869. His sons, Andrew W. Mellon and Richard B. Mellon, later grew the bank into a strong financial institution. This bank eventually became Mellon Financial Corporation, one of the largest banking institutions in the United States.

    During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Andrew Mellon played a crucial role in financing and supporting key industries such as aluminum, oil, and steel, contributing to the growth of major corporations, such as Gulf Oil, and Union Steel. As secretary of the Treasury from 1921 to 1932, his influence shaped the economic policies of the 1920s, known as the Mellon Plan, which contributed to the economic boom of the decade.

    National Photo Company Collection, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

    In 2007, Mellon Financial Corporation merged with The Bank of New York to form BNY Mellon, one of the world’s largest asset management and securities services companies, preserving their 150-year legacy in banking and finance.

    Article Published With The Permission of American Liberty News

    RNC Chair Lara Trump Releases New Single

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
    -
    1
    Image via gage Skidmore Flickr

    The Trump family is full of talents.

    On Thursday night, RNC chair Lara Trump released her second single and teased the release of several more songs coming soon.

    According to Mediaite, Trump—who made headlines with her 2023 cover of Tom Petty’s “I Won’t Back Down”—spontaneously dropped yet another single, “Anything is Possible,” at midnight on Thursday evening.

    “A little something I had fun with over the winter,” wrote Trump in a social media post announcing the song. “And a few more too that I’ll save for a future date, special for my YUGE fans in the liberal media [winky face emoji].”

    In the uplifting single about faith, which is currently available to stream on Spotify and Apple Music, Trump sings, “I’ve had my ups and downs, cried when no one’s around. Still I gotta put my game face on, even when I’m not feeling strong. No matter how it seems, I wouldn’t trade a thing, ’cause all of it makes me who I am.”

    She continues in the chorus, “Don’t think, just jump, you can’t give up. Know that anything is possible. Have faith, believe, just trust, you’ll see, anything is possible.”

    It is unclear whether Trump currently has an album in the works or whether she has just produced a collection of singles.

    Earlier this month, Trump was elected to serve as co-chair of the Republican National Committee following Ronna McDaniel’s exit.

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