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Lauren Boebert Undergoes Emergency Surgery

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

On Monday, Colorado Congresswoman Lauren Boebert was admitted to a hospital to undergo emergency surgery for a blood clot in her leg.

According to The Hill, Boebert was experiencing “severe swelling in her upper left leg” and went to UCHealth Medical Center of the Rockies in Loveland, Colorado.

“I want to thank Dr. Rebecca Bade and the entire team at UCHealth Medical Center of the Rockies for their great care and providing helpful insight on my recent diagnosis,” Boebert said in a statement. “I’m looking forward to making a full recovery and getting back to Congress to continue fighting for Colorado.”

“After undergoing a CT Scan, doctors found an acute blood clot and diagnosed her with May-Thurner syndrome, which is a rare condition that disrupts blood flow,” her campaign confirmed to The Hill.

Boebert’s doctors recommended surgery to remove the clot and insert a stent that will address her symptoms, which was “successfully completed” Tuesday morning.

Bade said in the statement provided by Boebert’s campaign that patients who undergo this surgery are “able to live and work just as they have in the past after a brief recovery.”

The Colorado Republican’s campaign statement also noted that women between the ages of 20 and 45 who have given birth are more likely to develop May-Thurner Syndrome. The exact cause is unknown, the statement said, but dehydration, travel and extended periods of sitting have been identified as factors that cause symptoms.

Republicans Float Plan To Rename Airport After Trump

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Republicans are pushing to rename Washington, D.C.’s, main international airport after former President Trump.

Rep. Guy Reschenthaler, R-Pa., the House GOP’s chief deputy whip, introduced the bill Friday along with six cosponsors. 

“In my lifetime, our nation has never been greater than under the leadership of President Donald J. Trump,” Reschenthaler told Fox News Digital. “As millions of domestic and international travelers fly through the airport, there is no better symbol of freedom, prosperity and strength than hearing ‘Welcome to Trump International Airport’ as they land on American soil.”

Legislative text obtained by Fox News Digital on Monday showed that, if passed, “the Washington Dulles International Airport in Virginia shall after the date of the enactment of this Act be known and designated as the ‘Donald J. Trump International Airport.'”

“Any reference in any law, regulation, map, document, paper, or other record of the United States to the airport referred to in subsection (a) shall be considered to be a reference to the Donald J. Trump International Airport,” the brief bill said. 

Reschenthaler’s bill is also backed by Reps. Michael Waltz, R-Fla.; Andy Ogles, R-Tenn.; Chuck Fleischmann, R-Tenn.; Paul Gosar, R-Ariz.; Barry Moore, R-Ala.; and Troy Nehls, R-Texas, according to the website Congress.gov.

Trump Posts $175M Bond, Prevents Seizure Of Assets

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Image via Pixabay free images

Trump is breathing a sigh of relief for now.

On Monday night, the former president officially posted the $175 million bond in his New York civil business fraud case.

Trump’s payment comes one week after an appeals court allowed the leading presidential candidate to post a significantly lower bond.

“I’ve just posted a 175 Million Dollar Bond with the sadly failing and very troubled State of New York, based on a Corrupt Judge and Attorney General who used a Statute that was never used for this before, where no Jury was allowed, my financial statements were conservative and had a 100% perfect caution/non-reliance clause, there were no victims (except me!), there was no crime or damage, there was only success and HAPPY BANKS,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

Trump raged against Engoron and James in his post on Monday night, calling the case brought against him “election interference” and a “witch hunt.”

“The case was a fabricated ELECTION INTERFERENCE con job, so bad for New York, where businesses are fleeing & violent crime is flourishing,” said Trump. “The Crooked Judge, to suit his narrative, valued Mar-a-Lago, in Palm Beach, Florida, at $18,000,000, when it is worth 50 to 100 times that amount. He ruled I was guilty before he ever saw the case. He should be disbarred, and Letitia James, who campaigned on getting TRUMP, Impeached. Also posted a 91 Million Dollar Bond on another New York Fake Case, money I can’t use on my campaign. Just what Crooked Joe wanted. WITCH HUNT!”

Judge Engoron ruled in agreement with New York Attorney General James in February after James brought civil charges against Trump, alleging the former president inflated his net worth and misled investors. In his judgment, Engoron ordered Trump to pay $350 million, which increased to $464 million, including interest, and also ordered Trump’s co-defendants to pay $10 million.

Prior to last week’s appeals court decision, Trump would’ve had to pledge 120%, or around $550 million, in collateral to a bond company, an amount his lawyers said last week would be “a practical impossibility” to attain.

Ex-Superior Court Judge Calls For Putting Trump ‘In a Jail Cell’ 

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Image via Pixabay

Yikes.

A former judge told CNN on Sunday that Donald Trump should be jailed if he violates the latest gag order.

CNN anchor Omar Jimenez spoke with former Superior Court Judge LaDoris Cordell as his guest on Sunday to discuss Trump’s latest social media attacks on New York Judge Juan Merchan and his family.

Cordell said that after going through the initial steps of warnings and fines, it was time for Trump to face what any other American would face in his situation if he violates another gag order: jail time.

According to Mediaite, Jimenez noted that Trump was “testing the limits” of his gag order, with Cordell agreeing that “he’s tiptoeing very close to the line.” However, Jimenez pointed out that Trump was not known for his restraint and asked, “What happens when Trump breaks that gag order on Truth Social or otherwise?”

[Y]ou said “when” and not “if,” and I think you’re right, Omar. When he steps across then gag order line, and I do hope that will be expanded, there should be only one response: “Bring your toothbrush, Donald Trump, because you’re going to sit in a jail cell for a while.” There has to be an immediate consequence when he defies a court order. That is a normal response. You cannot have a court system that is subjected to these kinds of threats and intimidation. Nowhere else has this ever happened and gone on without any consequences, and that has to change, and it has to change now.

Prior to that, Cordell explained that Trump’s threats are never empty and that the lives of the people he names in his posts are genuinely at risk:

What people should know, first off, is that this is not normal. Attacks upon our legal system, attacks on judges, witnesses, jurors, court staff, lawyers, and their families, it’s not normal. I’ve presided over thousands of hearings and trials during my nearly 20 years as a trial judge, and never did any defendants in my courtroom show such disrespect for the court system as was shown by Donald Trump. And occasionally I had to warn a defendant to conduct himself properly, but a warning was usually sufficient. In this instance, Trump’s words are clearly intended to intimidate, threaten, and incite violence against the people he names in the words coming out of his mouth and on social media.

So what he’s doing, he’s literally thumbing his nose at the courts, and he’s making a mockery of the legal system. And we know this because he has cautioned, he has never once, never cautioned his followers to abstain from making threats and otherwise attack his targets. He wants to put people in fear for their lives by having his followers do his dirty work. So almost the job of a trial judge is to ensure a fair trial for both sides and to manage the courtroom to ensure law and order. So when you have a disrupter like Donald Trump, judges have tools to rein them in. They have warnings, you got fines, you got gag orders, you got incarceration. And warnings and fines haven’t worked with Trump.

Judge Knocks Attorney Over 2020 Election

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Gavel via Wikimedia Commons Image

On Wednesday, a California judge recommended disbarring pro-Trump attorney John Eastman for his role in former President Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

According to The Hill, State Bar Judge Yvette Roland found John Eastman culpable on 10 of the 11 counts filed by the California State Bar last year. The state bar sought to strip Eastman’s license to practice law in the state due to his “false and misleading statements” about purported election fraud and his role in “provoking” the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot.

“In view of the circumstances surrounding Eastman’s misconduct and balancing the aggravation and mitigation, the court recommends that Eastman be disbarred,” Roland wrote in a 128-page decision.

The judge also recommended that Eastman be ordered to pay $10,000 in sanctions to the State Bar of California Client Security Fund.

Roland wrote in her decision that Eastman showed an unwillingness to admit to “any ethical lapses” in his behavior.

“This lack of remorse and accountability presents a significant risk that Eastman may engage in further unethical conduct, compounding the threat to the public,” the judge wrote.

Eastman led the legal strategy attempting to change the election results in several key 2020 states, including by using slates of alternate electors to swing the election’s outcome in Trump’s favor. The plan also relied on then-Vice President Mike Pence throwing out the real electors for the “fake” ones.

Report: Kari Lake To Forfeit Defense In Defamation Case

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Kari Lake speaking with supporters at a "Stand for Freedom" rally at the Embassy Suites by Hilton Scottsdale Resort in Scottsdale, Arizona. [Photo Credit: Gage Skidmore from Surprise, AZ, United States of America, CC BY-SA 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons]

On Tuesday, Kari Lake’s legal team moved to forfeit a defamation case against her.

According to The Hill, Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer (R) sued Lake last year in his personal capacity, claiming Lake defamed him after she refused to concede her 2022 Arizona gubernatorial defeat and alleged election fraud.

The lawsuit claims Lake consistently and systemically lied about Richer’s actions as recorder, causing him to receive harassment and numerous threats to his life. Richer added that Lake claimed without evidence that he stuffed ballot boxes with 300,000 invalid votes and used his role as recorder to make the ballot unclear for voters.

“For the last seven months, I have been subjected to constant harassment, intimidation, and threats to my and my family’s lives because the defendants in this case were spreading falsehoods about me, my work, and our elections,” Richer said in a statement when the lawsuit was filed last year.

The court filing Tuesday does not contest Richer’s claims, and requests an accelerated hearing to determine damages. 

Richer held up the filing as an admission of guilt.

“Won’t defend / can’t defend,” he wrote in a post on X, formerly Twitter. “I’ll get my due. But not the millions of people she lied to.” 

“Not the thousands of people who donated ‘to continue the fight.’ Not the people who have gone to jail because they so strongly believed Kari’s lies,” he continued. “Those people won’t get their due.”

Lake pushed back on the filing as a rejection to participate in what she described as a “political witch hunt” and a “frivolous” lawsuit, refusing to admit culpability.

“Washington, D.C. operates on blackmail and bribes. Since they can’t blackmail or bribe me, they’ve resorted to filing a punishing lawsuit to try to stop me and bleed me dry,” she said in a video message. “They’re threatening to take everything I own. What they don’t realize is even if they leave me, my husband and children homeless and penniless, that won’t stop us.”

“By participating in this lawsuit, it would only serve to legitimize this perversion of our legal system and allow bad actors to interfere in our upcoming election,” she continued. “So I won’t be taking part.”

Report: Judge Imposes Gag Order In Trump Hush Money Trial

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Gavel via Wikimedia Commons Image

On Tuesday, the New York judge overseeing the Trump hush money trial imposed a gag order on the former President.

Judge Juan Merchan’s order still enables Trump to publicly attack the judge and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg (D) but protects jurors and court staff as the trial approaches.

The Hill has more:

But it prevents the former president from attacking other prosecutors, court staff and their family members “if those statements are made with the intent to materially interfere with” the case.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg (D) charged Trump in the case with 34 counts of falsifying business records last spring over reimbursements Trump made to his then-fixer, Michael Cohen.

Cohen had paid porn actress Stormy Daniels to keep quiet about an affair she alleged to have had with Trump. The indictment accuses Trump of improperly deeming the reimbursements a legal retainer to conceal damaging information from the public ahead of the 2016 presidential election. 

Trump, who denies the affair, pleaded not guilty.

This is a breaking news story. Please check back for updates.

Trump Press Sec. Claims Campaign Will Have ‘Soldiers’ Watching Polling Stations on Election Day

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President Donald J. Trump is presented with a 10th Combat Aviation Brigade challenge coin following an air assault and gun rain demonstration at Fort Drum, New York, on August 13. The demonstration was part of President Trump's visit to the 10th Mountain Division (LI) to sign the National Defense Authorization Act of 2019, which increases the Army's authorized active-duty end strength by 4,000 enabling us to field critical capabilities in support of the National Defense Strategy. (U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Thomas Scaggs) 180813-A-TZ475-010

Is this a step too far?

On Monday, former President Donald Trump’s press secretary told Kimberly Guilfoyle during an interview that Trump plans to deploy “soldiers” to monitor polling stations on election day in an effort to make sure “there are no irregularities” or “fraud.”

Karoline Leavitt, who previously ran for Congress and lost, explained the plan during an appearance on The Kimberly Guilfoyle Show.

Mediaite has more:

We’re so excited about our recent merger with the Republican National Committee and the new leadership we have there in both Lara Trump and Michael Whatley. Our team is already working hand-in-hand with the staff at the RNC as one very lean and mean machine, as we like to call it, with one goal, and that goal is victory for Republicans up and down the ballot on November 5th.

We have the team, now it’s time to deploy the troops on the ground. We have an amazing volunteer-led effort right now in all of the battleground states, in addition to our great paid staff who will be making direct voter contact every single hour of every day between now and November 5th to get out the vote. A large part of this is also educating voters on the laws within their state. If you live in an early voting state, we encourage you to get out and vote early, cast your ballot. You don’t know what could happen to you on election day.

And then we’re also investing a lot of money into voter integrity efforts to ensure that every American knows their ballot will be cast and counted and matter, and we’re gonna play offense this time around. We’re not gonna play defense like we unfortunately did in 2020. We’re gonna have soldiers, poll watchers on the ground who are making sure that there are no irregularities and fraud like we saw in the last election cycle.

Guilfoyle replied, “I love it. I cannot wait. It’s gonna be fantastic.”

This is hardly the first time Trump has called for backup at the polls. During the 2020 election, the then-President encouraged supporters to stay vigilant and independently monitor polling stations for evidence of fraud.

“I am encouraging my supporters to go into the polls and watch very carefully because that’s what has to happen,” said Trump at the time. “I am urging them to do it.”

Appeals Court Punts Trump Civil Fraud Judgment

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Gavel via Wikimedia Commons Image

On Monday, a New York Appeals Court extended the deadline by 10 days for Donald Trump to post his bond to satisfy the civil fraud judgment and cut the necessary amount to $175 million.

“We will abide by the decision of the Appellate Division, and post either a bond, equivalent securities, or cash,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

CNN reports:

It’s a major lifeline for the former president, who, along with his adult sons and his company, were fined more than $464 million, including interest, after Judge Arthur Engoron found Trump and his co-defendants fraudulently inflated the value of his assets.

The ruling staves off the prospect, for now, of New York Attorney General Letitia James seeking to seize the former president’s property to enforce the judgement against him.

Trump had been struggling to come up with the means to post the $464 million bond, the total that he would have needed before Monday’s appellate decision.

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;”

New York Attorney General Letitia James said that if Trump fails or refuses to pay the $354.8 million fine, plus roughly $100 million in interest, she will seize his assets – including his properties.

Former White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham proposed a list of properties former President Trump would be most disappointed to have seized if he cannot pay the damages in his civil fraud case.

“I think if it were to happen, 40 Wall Street is probably the one that he would … I mean, he would hate it,” Grisham told CNN’s Erin Burnett on Monday. “But I think if she tried to seize Mar-a-Lago or Bedminster or Trump Tower even — I mean, those are his babies.”

“You’ve got the Sterling golf course in Virginia. Any of the properties with golf courses, I think, would absolutely devastate him,” Grisham, who worked under the Trump administration, added. “It will be interesting to see what [New York Attorney General Letitia James] goes for.”

This is a breaking news story. Click refresh for the latest updates.

Ronna McDaniel Faces Roadblocks Over NBC News Gig

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Ronna McDaniel via Gage Skidmore Flickr

Former Republican National Committee (RNC) chair Ronna McDaniel could already be heading for the exit…

Days after NBC News announced it had hired McDaniel as a new contributor to the network and reports of inner turmoil are already running rampant.

According to The Wall Street Journal, MSNBC president Rashida Jones “has no plans to have McDaniel on the channel,” citing “people familiar” with the controversy.

The Journal reported that there has been “internal backlash” over the hire — adding that “a number of MSNBC anchors and producers have voiced concern about McDaniel’s ties to former President Donald Trump and the RNC’s role in his efforts to challenge the 2020 election results.”

“Morning Joe” Co-hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski in their Monday broadcast sharply criticized the network for hiring McDaniel and called on NBC News to reconsider the decision.

“To be clear, we believe NBC News should seek out conservative Republican voices to provide balance in their election coverage. But it should be conservative Republicans, not a person who used her position of power to be an anti-democracy election denier,” Brzezinski said.

“And we hope NBC will reconsider its decision. It goes without saying that she will not be a guest on ‘Morning Joe’ in her capacity as a paid contributor,” Brzezinski added.

On Friday, Carrie Budoff Brown, who leads political coverage at NBC, wrote in a memo shared with The New York Times, “It couldn’t be a more important moment to have a voice like Ronna’s on the team.”

Chuck Todd, the former host of “Meet the Press,” appeared on the Sunday morning show and blasted his network over the decision.

“There’s a reason why there are a lot of journalists at NBC News uncomfortable with this, because many of our professional dealings with the RNC over the last six years have been met with gaslighting, have been met with character assassination,” he said.

“We learned about the hiring when we read about it in the press on Friday,” Scarborough said.

“We weren’t asked our opinion of the hiring, but if we were, we would have strongly objected to it for several reasons, including, but not limited to, as lawyers might say, Ms. McDaniels’s role in Donald Trump’s fake electoral scheme, and her pressuring election officials to not certify election results while Donald Trump was on the phone,” he continued.