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    ‘Bidenomics’ – U.S. National Debt Passes $33 Trillion for First Time

    By
    Paul Crespo
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    4
    Image via Pixabay free images

    ANALYSIS – In case some readers weren’t sure, this is a big reason the conservative GOP ‘Freedom Caucus’ is threatening a government shutdown. Thanks to Joe Biden’s massive spending orgy, the gross U.S. national debt has breached the $33 trillion mark for the first time.

    To be precise, according to the U.S. Treasury Department, as of September 18, 2023 (just 12 days short of the end of our fiscal year), the national debt has risen to $33,053,950,837,720 or $33.05 trillion.

    America’s runaway inflation, which is crushing everyone’s pocketbooks, is just one result of this part of ‘Bidenomics.’

    This unprecedented debt is also fueling concerns that another fight over federal spending may trigger the first government shutdown since 2019.

    Without drastic spending cuts, it’s only going to get worse, much worse.

    Even accounting for newly passed spending cuts, the U.S. national debt is on track to top $50 trillion by the end of the decade, impacted by mounting interest and the cost of the nation’s social programs.

    This is unsustainable; a looming catastrophe waiting to happen.

    And, yes, while Donald Trump clearly overspent, especially due to the COVID-19 epidemic, this current staggering debt, and the debt going forward, is mostly Biden’s fault.

    As David Winston explained in Rollcall back in April:

    The president [Biden] and his White House have taken the 2020 COVID-19, one-time-only crisis budget as his administration’s working baseline, rather than the pre-Covid 2019 budget, which had a significant $4.4 trillion price tag.

    In 2020, because of the pandemic, the budget jumped 47 percent to $6.5 trillion, as both Democrats and Republicans supported the need for emergency funding. That COVID funding was to sunset as the country returned to normal — as it did last year. Apparently, Biden decided to ignore that crucial point.

    Instead, he saw that supersized budget in 2020 not as a crisis, but an opportunity that could be exploited going forward to pay for what amounted to a historic spending spree that kicked off with the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan and drove what became the worst inflation in 40 years. During Biden’s first two years in office, he oversaw spending that was 40 percent higher than the pre-COVID 2019 budget.

    According to the CBO, Biden is going to match Trump’s addition to the national debt in just three years, reaching a total of $7.1 trillion over his four years. That would be $1.5 trillion more than Trump contributed during his term, which included the 2020 one-time COVID emergency spending. If Biden’s 2024 proposed budget actually passed, he would add as much to the national debt as Trump and Bush 43 combined. House Republican leaders have made clear his budget isn’t going anywhere; but it illustrates just how out of control Biden’s spending policies really are.

    This is a big reason why the House Freedom Caucus is willing to shut down the government to try to impose some sort of fiscal discipline.

    While much of the news has focused on the ‘intransigent’ MAGA conservatives undermining Speaker Kevin McCarthy and the rest of the House Republicans on this issue, Biden refuses to even discuss the House majority’s proposals.

    Biden says he wants a “clean” debt ceiling vote without any provisions to control spending. This is not surprising since he just proposed a budget that will reach a record $10 trillion in spending by 2033. 

    As horrible as a government shutdown will be, allowing this massive debt to keep growing is unacceptable. Without massive cuts, everyday Americans will still be paying the bill, long after Biden is gone.

    Opinions expressed by contributors do not necessarily reflect the views of Great America News Desk.

    Amanda Head: Vax Pusher Bruce Springsteen Cancels 3rd Concert This Week Over Illness

    By
    Amanda Head
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    0

    His fans have had enough…

    Watch Amanda explain the latest controversy below:

    Opinions expressed by contributors do not necessarily reflect the views of Great America News Desk.

    Judge Again Blocks Biden From Violating 1st Amendment

    By
    Paul Crespo
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    0
    Gavel via Wikimedia Commons Image

    ANALYSIS – Even when presented with overwhelming evidence that Team Biden colluded intimately with Big Tech social media companies to censor conservative Americans, the White House doubled down on violating the 1st Amendment. 

    As I wrote last week, on July 4th a federal judge blocked “federal agencies from communicating with Big Tech firms to censor posts.”

    This, after a lawsuit against the Biden administration by three Republican state Attorney Generals (AGs).

    According to the judge, Terry A. Doughty, the AGs “have produced evidence of a massive effort by Defendants, from the White House to federal agencies, to suppress speech based on its content.” 

    “If the allegations made by plaintiffs are true, the present case arguably involves the most massive attack against free speech in United States history,” Doughty wrote in his preliminary injunction against more than 40 administration officials. 

    “In their attempts to suppress alleged disinformation, the federal government, and particularly the defendants named here, are alleged to have blatantly ignored the First Amendment’s right to free speech.”

    Please note – ‘disinformation’ is any information the left and Team Biden don’t like.

    This is serious constitutional stuff. One would think the White House might say, “ok, we overstepped a bit.”

    But not Team Biden.

    Using the Orwellian doublespeak, the left always uses to hide the truth, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said: “We are going to continue to promote responsible actions.” 

    She added: “That is something that we’re going to continue to do to make sure we protect public health and make sure there is safety and security.”

    Using similar verbiage, the Department of Justice announced later that same day that it would appeal the decision, to protect public health, safety, and security.

    Basically, Team Biden said, we don’t care, we want to keep violating the Constitution and censoring our opponents. And we are going to request an emergency order from the judge to do it.

    The Daily Caller reported:

    Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey and Louisiana Attorney General Jeffrey Landry opposed the Biden administration’s attempt to stop the injunction in a court filing Sunday, writing the administration was essentially asking to “continue violating the First Amendment.”

    “In essence, Defendants argue that the injunction should be stayed because it might interfere with the Government’s ability to continue working with social-media companies to censor Americans’ core political speech on the basis of viewpoint,” they wrote in the court filing. “In other words, the Government seeks a stay of the injunction so that it can continue violating the First Amendment.”

    Thankfully, on Monday the same federal judge blocked Biden again, denying the administration’s attempt to pause the injunction. 

    The Washington Post reported that Judge Doughty noted again that the plaintiffs (the state AGs) would likely succeed in proving the government colluded with social media companies “to engage in viewpoint-based suppression of protected free speech.”

    Responding to the hysteria surrounding his initial injunction, Doughty also wrote:

    Although this Preliminary Injunction involves numerous agencies, it is not as broad as it appears. “It only prohibits something the Defendants have no legal right to do—contacting social media companies for the purpose of urging, encouraging, pressuring, or inducing in any manner, the removal, deletion, suppression, or reduction of content containing protected free speech posted on social-media platforms. 

    Rejecting the administration’s argument that the order could chill law enforcement activity to protect national security, the judge added that It also contains numerous exceptions for communications related to criminal activity, explicit dangers to national security, and foreign election interference.

    Meanwhile, this important battle will continue as the AGs’ lawsuit works its way through the legal system.

    Opinions expressed by contributors do not necessarily reflect the views of Great America News Desk.

    Should Trump Bring Back His Winning ’16 Campaign Chief?

    By
    Paul Crespo
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    2

    ANALYSIS – Will Kellyanne Conway return to Team Trump? As Kamala Harris, who recently stole the campaign from her boss, Joe Biden, basks in her current sugar high glory, some in the Trump campaign are wondering if his team needs a reboot. 

    Or maybe an injection of a 2016 winner.

    And who better to revitalize Trump’s campaign, than his winning campaign manager from 2016, Kellyanne Conway.

    At least Donald Trump’s wife, Melania, reportedly thinks so.

    And a recent post on X showing pics of Conway and Trump together in New Jersey has fueled the speculation that a return to the campaign is in the works.

    In 2016 the brash flaxen haired pollster-turned campaign chief swooped in after the campaign’s failing start with its B Team and is rightly credited as helping to get Trump across the finish line to victory against Hillary Clinton.

    According to the Daily Beast:

    Donald Trump is looking to bring in Kellyanne Conway to shake up his faltering campaign, according to a new report.

    The outspoken adviser is seen as a trusted confidante by both the former president and, importantly, by Melania Trump who is “pushing” for Conway to return because she sees her as “a familiar face amid a sea of relative newcomers,” says Tara Palmeri in the online magazine, Puck.

    Lara Trump, co-chair of the Republican National Committee and wife of Trump’s son, Eric, is also said to be pushing for Conway to be brought on board to reignite campaign stalwarts taken by surprise by Kamala Harris’ fast start after Joe Biden’s sudden departure.

    One adviser told Puck that Trump listens to powerful women, more than men. “He listens to Hope Hicks. He listens to Brooke Rollins,” they tell Puck. “Ironically, he likes powerful women. If you’re a sharp woman, he will listen to you. Hope and these people could tell him the hardest shit. He may not have done anything, but at least he listens.”

    While she was a key player in Trump’s 2016 win, eight years ago, she could still be the spark that relights the fire of a campaign still unsteady after Harris’ surprising Democrat Party coup and subsequent rise.

    Puck notes:

    …it may also be fair to question whether his brain trust is living in the past. Chris LaCivita, who famously ran the Swift Boat Veterans campaign against John Kerry, has spearheaded an attack on Walz’s military record, but it’s yet to have the same impact as it did in 2004, when the U.S. had recently invaded Iraq. Other Trump allies are wondering if pollster Tony Fabrizio is likewise frozen in carbonite, as he considers a race-baiting strategy against Harris akin to the Willie Horton ads against Dukakis back in 1988. 

    Team Harris has raised $310 million in July, and another $36 million in the 24 hours after announcing her stolen Valor radical VP choice, Tim Walz.

    So far Team Trump hasn’t been able to land any significant blows on his younger female political opponent.

    According to Puck, Trump’s campaign team is split in half over whether she should return in a similar role to the one she had in 2016.

    Meanwhile, Conway is smoothing over any ruffled feather with JD Vance after openly suggesting Marco Rubio as Trump’s VP.

    As part of her mending relations effort, Conway recently tweeted “Brilliant” to Vance’s stunt when he landed at the same airport as Harris and Walz and challenged her to debate.

    One big potential drawback to Team Trump is the fact that Conway recently registered as a $50,000- a month foreign agent for a Ukrainian oligarch.

    This is already provoking accusations among her critics that it would be a conflict of interest. However, a campaign manager or advisor is not the same as a member of the administration. So, that issue may not matter much in these final three months of the campaign.

    The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of Great America News Desk.

    VP Vance Issues ‘Official’ Two Word Response To Racist Attacks On Wife

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
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    0
    By Xuthoria - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0,

    Vice President Vance has had enough…

    Vice President JD Vance had two choice words for racist troll Nick Fuentes and others like MS NOW host Jen Psaki, who have made comments about the second lady: “Eat s–t.”

    “Let me be clear. Anyone who attacks my wife, whether their name is Jen Psaki or Nick Fuentes, can eat s–t,” Vance told UnHerd in an interview published Sunday.

    “That’s my official policy as vice president of the United States.”

    He then told writer Sohrab Ahmari that “all forms of ethnic hatred” including antisemitism have “no place in the conservative movement.”

    Vance’s response comes after Fuentes bashed him for being a “race traitor” for marrying his wife; Usha Vance is an American citizen born in San Diego to two Hindu Indian immigrants. Fuentes has also used derogatory terms about Indians to describe The Second Lady.

    Fuentes has made a number of racist and antisemitic comments over the years, and he told Piers Morgan earlier this month that he believed Adolf Hitler was “really f*cking cool.” 

    The vice president’s comments were published a few hours after he told the crowd at Turning Point USA’s AmericaFest that President Donald Trump had wisely “relegated DEI to the dustbin of history.” 

    Vance said DEI is antithetical to American values and a meritocratic society — which made it an easy target for the second Trump Administration.

    “We don’t treat anybody different because of their race or their sex,” Vance told the Phoenix crowd.

    Vance continued his message about unity:

    In the United States of America, you don’t have to apologize for being white anymore.

    And if you’re an Asian, you don’t have to talk around your skin color when you’re applying for college. Because we judge people based on who they are, not on ethnicity and things they can’t control.

    We don’t persecute you for being male, for being straight, for being gay, for being anything. The only thing that we demand is that you be a great American patriot. And if you’re that. you’re very much on our team.

    Watch:

    Those comments were also well-received by the arena. His remark on white men comes a few days after a viral Compact article reported a number of professional fields had “gatekeepers [who] promised extra consideration to anyone who wasn’t a white man.”

    Vice President Vance touted a number of accomplishments he said the Trump Administration has had in less than a year, including closing down the southern border. He said the crowd must continue to support the “America First Party” — echoing Donald Trump Jr., who earlier in the day said the Republican Party was no longer a thing.

    Trump Jr. said it is a new era for the conservative movement — one that is constantly under attack from the Democratic Party and Republicans In Name Only (RINOs). He said those attacks are ramping up as both parties plow towards the 2026 midterm elections.

    Here is what the told the AmFest crowd:

    Midterms are coming around the corner and make no mistake, the Democrat Party wants to do whatever they possibly can to shut this movement down. Not just the Democrats. The RINOs.

    You see the manufactured attacks on JD [Vance], myself, my father — anyone who understands that this isn’t the Republican Party anymore. It’s the America First Party. It’s the Make America Great Again Party. And we are not going back!

    Watch:

    Democrats just filed articles of impeachment against Pete Hegseth — and he could be removed if we don’t act. Hegseth is a God-fearing, America First patriot who made our country safer under President Trump — and that’s exactly why the Left wants him gone. We’re demanding 1,000,000 signatures before MIDNIGHT to show Pete he is NOT alone. STAND WITH PETE. ADD YOUR NAME NOW.

    US Navy Vet Back Online as Pro-Russia Disinformation Queen

    By
    Paul Crespo
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    0

    ANALYSIS – Just months after the Department of Justice (DoJ) opened an investigation on her for posting leaked Pentagon intelligence on Ukraine, a US Navy veteran-turned-pro-Russian propagandist is back online. 

    Sarah Bils, a divorced 38-year-old New Jersey native, and former Navy technician, was unmasked in April after falsely posing as a Russian Jew reporting from occupied Ukraine. And deplatformed shortly thereafter by X (formerly Twitter) and YouTube.

    But the attractive Bils, who had a security clearance while in the Navy, is back online on both platforms, as well as Telegram, spewing anti-American and pro-Putin propaganda under the name ‘DD Geopolitics.’ 

    She has repeatedly posted since the relaunch faithfully parroting the Kremlin line. Bils has also encouraged followers to donate to the Russian army and the brutal Wagner Group mercenaries.

    In a bizarre rant on September 4, she lashed out at the United States, blaming it for ‘constant meddling’ and provoking the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

    Pekka Kallioniemi, an expert on Russian disinformation at the University of Tampere in Finland, questioned how Bils was able to restart her pro-Kremlin operations so soon after the opening of that DOJ probe.

    ‘I find it surprising that the FBI appears to be turning a blind eye to the online activities of people who are clearly working on behalf of America’s enemies,’ he said.

    Well, it is called freedom of speech, and as we have seen under the Joe Biden regime, one person’s disinformation is another’s strongly held political convictions. 

    The best way to combat false information in a free society is with truth, not government or social media censorship.

    Meanwhile, as the Daily Mail reported:

    It comes after a ten-month investigation into her online activities by volunteers from the pro-Kyiv open-source intelligence group, ‘The UnIntelligence Agency.’

    She has already garnered more than 200,000 followers across X – formerly known as Twitter – YouTube, and the social media messaging platform, Telegram, which draws in a wide range of guests.

    They include Moscow’s envoy to the UN and Alexander Dugin, a far-right political philosopher, described as the Russian president’s ‘brain’ on foreign policy.

    ‘Donbass Devuskha hasn’t pulled a disappearing act, she’s just had a fabulous makeover,’ Bils wrote earlier this summer. 

    Bils began her rise as the preeminent English-language pro-Russian disinformation queen just eight months before she was demoted and discharged from the Navy in November 2022. She had been serving since 2009.

    While the Navy hasn’t provided reasons for her demotion and discharge, divorce papers filed in the state of Washington show that prior to her discharge she had been suffering from a variety of health problems.

    Still, many suspect that her pro-Russia postings, and possible connections to Jack Teixera, the ex-U.S. Air National Guardsman who leaked a treasure trove of highly classified materials online, were related to her being demoted and dumped from the Navy.

    Soon thereafter, DoJ opened an investigation into Bils earlier this year when she distributed stolen, classified documents about U.S. arms deliveries to Ukraine.

    Opinions expressed by contributors do not necessarily reflect the views of Great America News Desk.

    Republican Governor Crowns Kamala The Winner Of ABC Debate

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
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    5
    Photo via Gage Skidmore Flickr

    New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu (R) called Vice President Kamala Harris the clear winner of Tuesday night’s presidential debate.

    “Oh, Kamala definitely won the debate,” Sununu said during a Wednesday morning appearance on CNN. “There’s no question about that. So the question is, what does it mean, right? And it’s not just, what does it mean to everybody? What’s going to do that 10 percent of swing voters?” 

    “I think if you poll those swing voters, they want results,” he said. “They’re results-driven. It’s the cost of living, it’s the border, it’s public safety, those types of issues, you can be the change agent to make that better in their lives.” 

    The outgoing New Hampshire governor, who considered a presidential run of his own, praised Harris’s debate strategy Tuesday night.

    “She kind of talked confidence in her answers, and then she took the last 30 seconds of almost every question and hit him with a personal attack, knowing that that would get under his skin,” Sununu said. “It was a very effective measure, and I give her a lot of credit on that. It kept him on the defensive, to be sure, and it’s ultimately, definitely, stylistically, why she openly won the debate.” 

    Sununu said the debate would move the needle “a little bit,” but argued neither candidate explained to voters how they would help lower costs for average Americans. The GOP governor added Trump failed to take advantage of openings to go on the offense over the economy.

    Tough conservatives are running for Senate in MUST-WIN campaigns across the country. WE NEED YOUR SUPPORT! Help us win back the Senate in November.

    “He should have talked about price controls,” Sununu said. “He should have talked about the cost of living more. I think he went like an hour, not even talking about inflation and those are real issues.” 

    Sununu said the ex-president should also draw a bigger contrast on foreign policy with Harris, saying on CNN there “was clearly more peace when”  he was in office. 

    “That is a strength that he has, that he has not exploited in this campaign,” he said. “There is chaos in Ukraine, chaos in Israel. You know, there’s a lot of pressure going on in Taiwan. Let’s not forget about that. Let’s not forget about Afghanistan.”

    Amanda Head: Poll Shows Patriotism, Faith In Sharp Decline

    By
    Amanda Head
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    1

    Have you seen the results of this poll? Are you concerned?

    Watch Amanda explain the situation below:

    Opinions expressed by contributors do not necessarily reflect the views of Great America News Desk.

    Two Biden Family Members Referred For Criminal Prosecution As Impeachment Probe Heats Up

    By
    Donny Ferguson
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    1
    Joe Biden via Gage Skidmore Flickr

    Two members of Joe Biden’s family, who have been at the heart of foreign influence-peddling allegations, have been referred to the Justice Department for criminal prosecution as part of ongoing impeachment proceedings.

    U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Accountability Chairman James Comer (R-KY), House Committee on the Judiciary Jim Jordan (R-OU), and House Committee on Ways and Means Jason Smith (R-MO) sent criminal referrals to the Justice Department recommending “Hunter and James Biden be charged with making false statements to Congress about key aspects of the impeachment inquiry of President Joe Biden,” the Oversight Committee announced in a statement.

    “These false statements implicate Joe Biden’s knowledge of and role in his family’s influence peddling schemes and appear to be a calculated effort to shield Joe Biden from the impeachment inquiry,” the Committee notes.

    “Our investigation has revealed President Biden knew about, participated in, and benefitted from his family cashing in on the Biden name around the world. Despite this record of evidence, President Biden continues to lie to the American people about his involvement in these influence peddling schemes. It appears making false statements runs in the Biden family. We’ve caught President Biden’s son and brother making blatant lies to Congress in what appears to be a concerted effort to hide Joe Biden’s involvement in his family’s schemes. As part of our efforts to hold the Bidens accountable for profiting off public office, we are today referring Hunter and James Biden to the Justice Department for criminal prosecution for making false statements to Congress. This is not the end of our efforts to hold the Bidens accountable; it’s only the beginning,” said Comer.

    “Lying to Congress is a serious crime with serious consequences. Both Hunter and James Biden did just that. They lied to coverup President Biden’s involvement in their family’s international influence peddling schemes that have generated millions of dollars. These criminal referrals are a reflection of criminal wrongdoing by the Biden family, and the Department of Justice must take steps to hold the Bidens accountable,” said Jordan.

     “President Biden claims no one is above the law. We will soon see his Department of Justice put that principle to the test. Congress cannot allow anyone, not even the president’s son or his brother, to stand in the way of its oversight of the executive branch or deny the American people the accountability they deserve. The IRS whistleblowers have provided indisputable evidence that Hunter Biden broke the law and lied to Congress during his February deposition. Lying to Congress to impede an ongoing congressional investigation is a serious crime. If the Department of Justice fails to act on our criminal referral and hold Hunter Biden accountable, they will once again be telling the American people there are two tiers of justice in this country. One for the wealthy and politically connected, and one for everyone else,” said Smith.

    The Oversight Committee reports:

    As part of the impeachment inquiry of President Biden, the Committees are investigating the President’s role in and knowledge of his family’s international influence peddling schemes that have generated over $18 million for Biden family members and their related companies, and over $27 million when including the payments to their business associates, who often were used to transfer funds to Biden family members. The Committees have also identified an additional $8 million in loans—most of which has not been repaid—Hunter and James Biden. The Committees have not identified legitimate services warranting such lucrative payments and have found that Joe Biden often interacted with his family’s business associates as they were funneling the Bidens millions of dollars and lied to the American people about these interactions.

    According to the Oversight Committee, the alleged false statements made by Hunter and James Biden include:

    During his deposition, Hunter Biden made false statements about holding a position at Rosemont Seneca Bohai (RSB), a corporate entity that received millions of dollars from foreign individuals and entities who met with then-Vice President Biden before and after transmitting money to the RSB account that then transferred funds to Hunter Biden. After deposing Hunter Biden, the Committees obtained documents showing Hunter Biden represented that he was the corporate secretary of RSB. 

    Additionally, Hunter Biden during his testimony relayed an entirely fictitious account about threatening text messages he sent to his Chinese business partner while invoking his father’s presence with him as he wrote the messages.  Hunter Biden testified he had transmitted this threat to an unrelated individual with the same surname. However, documents released by the Committee on Ways and Means demonstrate conclusively that Hunter Biden made this threat to the intended individual, and bank records prove Hunter Biden’s Chinese business partners wired millions of dollars to his company after his threat.  A portion of the proceeds has been traced to Joe Biden’s bank account.

    During James Biden’s transcribed interview, he stated that Joe Biden did not meet with Tony Bobulinski, a business associate of James and Hunter Biden, in 2017 while pursuing a deal with a Chinese entity, CEFC China Energy. His statements were contradicted not only by Mr. Bobulinski, but Hunter Biden.  Mr. Bobulinski also produced text messages that establish the events leading up to and immediately following his meeting with Joe Biden on May 2, 2017.

    Opinions expressed by contributors do not necessarily reflect the views of Great America News Desk.

    Keeping Track of the Criminal ‘Witch Hunt’ Against Trump

    By
    Paul Crespo
    -
    1
    Photo via Gage Skidmore Flickr

    ANALYSIS – If you can’t beat him, charge him. As I wrote earlier: “From the four-year Hillary Clinton-manufactured ‘Russia collusion’ hoax to corrupt investigations to ‘deep state resistance’ within his administration to a partisan impeachment – no [other] president has been so unfairly hounded in U.S. history.”

    But the persecution clearly didn’t end with Donald Trump leaving the White House. The absolute fear he could return to office has since resulted in multiple prosecutions from idiotic nonsense such as his bookkeeping regarding hush money to a porn actress, to sexual assault that reportedly happened 30 years ago.

    But that was just the beginning, and those cases were brought by partisan local prosecutors. Now the prosecutorial floodgates have opened wider, with Joe Biden’s Department of Justice (DoJ) being weaponized to go after Trump.

    While I have blamed the ex-president for bringing the classified materials charges upon himself – see my earlier piece – there is no doubt that politics is playing a big part as well.

    And it is getting hard to keep up with all the charges and case and court timelines. His most recent indictment being related to his words and actions leading up to and during the January 6 Capitol Riot.

    “Not guilty,” Trump stressed the first word of his plea on Thursday (August 3) before Magistrate Judge Moxila Upadhyaya.

    The arraignment — U.S. special counsel Jack Smith’s second DoJ indictment against the former president — charges Trump with conspiracy to defraud the United States, obstruction, conspiracy to obstruct the Electoral College vote certification, and conspiracy against voter rights. 

    Charges that could carry serious prison time if convicted.

    With the latest four charges, Trump now faces 78 criminal counts.

    The 45-page indictment says Trump “pursued unlawful means of discounting legitimate votes and subverting the election results.”

    Trump’s next court date will be August 28, when U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, a harsh critic of January 6 defendants, and Obama-appointee, sets a trial date.

    “This is a very sad day for America,” Trump told reporters after the hearing, portraying the indictment and the other three criminal cases against him as a “witch hunt” intended to derail his 2024 presidential campaign.

    Among the criminal charges that special counsel Jack Smith released; media identified six of Trump’s former lawyers as unnamed co-conspirators in his bid to rig the elec­tion.

    They possibly are Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s former personal attorney; White House lawyer John Eastman; Trump attorney Sidney Powell; former Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark; and attorney Kenneth Chesebro.

    The description of the sixth co-conspirator is a “political consultant” and is not immediately apparent — the indictment gives few details. 

    The consultant identified attorneys who could help carry out a scheme to present fake Electoral College votes to Congress as lawmakers certified the election results.

    According to the indictment, co-conspirator No. 2 is a lawyer who drafted a plan to have Vice President Mike Pence throw out Joe Biden’s Electoral Votes in Congress.

    Speaking publicly for the first time since Trump’s indictment, Pence told reporters he had hoped it wouldn’t come to a charge.

    “Sadly, the president was surrounded by a group of crackpot lawyers that kept telling him what his itching ears wanted to hear,” said Pence.

    Of the 78 charges across three criminal cases, 44 are federal and 34 state charges, all felonies, in three jurisdictions. Trump has denied wrongdoing in every case.

    However, Trump’s legal woes have done little to damage his status as a Republican front-runner. A New York Times/Siena College poll between July 23-27 showed a landslide lead of 37 percentage points over Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, his closest competitor in the Republican primary.

    Trump’s best defense against these mostly politicized prosecutions may be winning the White House in 2024.

    Opinions expressed by contributors do not necessarily reflect the views of Great America News Desk.

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