Home Blog Page 196

Conservative Group FreedomWorks Shuts Down, Cites Trump Effect

By
Madeleine Jackson
-
3
Gage Skidmore Flickr

On Wednesday, conservative group FreedomWorks announced it is shutting down, blaming Donald Trump for his “splintering effect” on the Republican Party.

“We’re dissolved,” said the group’s president, Adam Brandon. “It’s effective immediately.”

FreedomWorks’ board of directors voted unanimously on Tuesday to dissolve the organization, Brandon said. Wednesday was be the last workday for the group’s roughly 25 employees, though staffers will continue to receive paychecks and health care benefits for the next few months.

He said the decision to dissolve the company was driven by the ideological changes driven by Trump’s time in office.

“A lot of our base aged, and so the new activists that have come in [with] Trump, they tend to be much more populist,” Brandon said. “So, you look at the base and that just kind of shifted.”

He said FreedomWorks staff became divided into MAGA Trump supporters and “Never Trump” Republicans. Brandon said the organization saw “an erosion of conservative donors” because they specifically wanted the group to work for Trump, when the organization would only support Trump if it was on topics they agree with.

Brandon called it “an impossible situation” to navigate as some donors would say he wasn’t doing enough to support Trump and others would say he was doing too much. Brandon, who has been with FreedomWorks since 2005 and has acted as president for about 10 years, told the outlet he plans to create a new organization that is focused on politically independent millennials and Gen Z members.

The group’s closure doesn’t come as a complete shock for employees as FreedomWorks laid off 40 percent of its staff in March 2023, and its total revenue dropped by roughly half since 2022, Brandon told Politico.

Article Published With The Permission of American Liberty News.

Barron Trump To Serve As GOP Convention Florida Delegate

By
Madeleine Jackson
-
2
Donald Trump via Gage Skidmore Flickr

It runs in the family…

Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s youngest son Barron, 18, was named a Florida delegate for this year’s Republican National Convention.

Barron will serve as one of the 41 at-large GOP delegates to represent Florida at the July convention, where the party is expected to officially nominate his father as its presidential candidate to run against President Biden in November, Republican Party of Florida chairman Evan Power confirmed to The Associated Press.

Trump, who turned 18 earlier this year, joins three of the former president’s other children — Donald Trump Jr., Eric and Tiffany — who were also selected as delegates. NBC News first reported Barron’s selection as a delegate Wednesday.

“We are fortunate to have a great group of grassroots leaders, elected officials, and members of the Trump family working together as part of the Florida delegation to the 2024 Republican National Convention,” Power said in an emailed statement to the AP.

Barron, who was 10 when his father was elected to the White House in 2016, was mostly kept out of the public spotlight while the former president was in office.

Court Asked To Rule Against Trump Prosecutor Who Failed To Respond To Record Lawsuit

By
Donny Ferguson
-
2
Gavel via Wikimedia Commons Image

A high profile conservative law firm is asking a Georgia court to enter a default judgment against anti-Trump prosecutor and liberal Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, after Willis failed to respond to a lawsuit demanding documents detailing her coordination with Washington liberals in Trump’s case.

The non-profit public interest law firm Judicial Watch announced it “has asked the Superior Court of Fulton County, Georgia, to declare a default judgment against District Attorney Fani Willis in Judicial Watch’s lawsuit seeking records of communications Willis had with Special Counsel Jack Smith and the House January 6 Committee.”

The motion was filed after Willis simply refused to respond to Judicial Watch’s suit seeking what are supposed to be publicly-available records.

“I think this is the first time in Judicial Watch’s thirty years that a government official failed to answer an open records lawsuit in court,” Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said. “This further shows Ms. Willis has something to hide about her collusion with the Biden administration and Nancy Pelosi’s Congress on her unprecedented and compromised ‘get-Trump’ prosecution.”

“The lawsuit was filed in the Superior Court of Fulton County, GA, after Willis and the county denied having any records responsive to an August 2023 Georgia Open Records Act request for communications with the Special Counsel’s office and/or the January 6 Committee (Judicial Watch Inc. v. Fani Willis et al. (No. 24-CV-002805)). (Judicial Watch dismissed Fulton County from the lawsuit.),” Judicial Watch notes.

Judicial Watch notes Willis “was served with the lawsuit on March 11, 2024, but that she has not yet answered it,” writing in its motion:

Defendant has not filed an answer and no answer has been served upon [Judicial Watch].… Defendant’s answer was due 30 days after service, or on April 10, 2024. Pursuant to [Georgia law] the case automatically became in default when an answer was not filed by the due date. Further pursuant to that Code section, Defendant was permitted as a matter of right to open the default within 15 days of the day of default, or by April 25, 2024.

Judicial Watch asserts it “is now entitled to a verdict and judgment by default.”

By all accounts, Willis coordinated her case with some liberals in Washington, and has records that Judicial Watch and the public are legally entitled to see.

In its lawsuit Judicial Watch states that Willis’ “representation about not having records responsive to the request is likely false.”

Judicial Watch points to “a December 5, 2023, letter from House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan to Willis that cites a December 2021, letter from Willis to then-House January 6 Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson. In that letter Willis requested assistance from the committee and offered to travel to DC.”

Judicial Watch also cited “news reports and other records which ‘indicate that representatives of Willis’s office traveled to Washington, DC, and met with January 6 Select Committee staffers in April, May, and November 2022, as Willis proposed in her December 17, 2021 letter …’”

Judicial Watch is assisted in the case by John Monroe of John Monroe Law in Georgia.

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

Former House Speaker Announces He Won’t Vote For Trump

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
    -
    8
    Gage Skidmore Flickr

    Former House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) does not plan to support Donald Trump’s latest bid for the White House.

    The former lawmaker said in an interview that he plans to write in a different Republican’s name on the ballot but stopped short of revealing who it is.

    “Character is too important to me,” Ryan, who left Congress in 2019, told Yahoo Finance at the Milken Global Institute Conference. “And it’s a job that requires the kind of character that he just doesn’t have.”

    “Having said that, I really disagree with [President Biden] on policy,” he added. “I wrote in a Republican the last time, I’m gonna write in a Republican this time.”

    Ryan, the head of the Republican House majority during Trump’s first two years in the White House, has become a vocal critic of the former president.

    “Historically speaking, all of his tendencies are basically where narcissism takes him, which is whatever makes him popular, makes him feel good in any given moment,” Ryan said in an interview late last year.

    “He doesn’t think in classical liberal conservative terms,” he continued at the time. “He thinks in an authoritarian way, and he’s been able to get a big chunk of the Republican base to follow him because he’s the culture warrior.”

    Appeals Court To Weigh Trump’s Bid To Disqualify Fulton County DA

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
    -
    2
    Donald Trump via Gage Skidmore Flickr

    On Wednesday, the Georgia Court of Appeals agreed to review former President Donald Trump’s application to appeal Judge Scott McAfee’s ruling to keep embattled Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis on the case.

    The district attorney’s office had opposed the move. 

    “Upon consideration of the Application for Interlocutory Appeal, it is ordered that it be hereby GRANTED,” read the one-page ruling from the Georgia Court of Appeals. 

    Judge McAfee’s order in March said that special prosecutor Nathan Wade had to be removed in order to keep Willis from disqualification in the Trump election interference case in Georgia. Willis and Wade were alleged to have had an “improper” romantic affair.

    Trump and his co-defendants contended that McAfee’s factual findings made clear the romance amounted to more than just an apparent conflict of interest.  

    “If this law means anything, the trial court’s actual findings here establish an actual conflict,” their application for an appeal read. 

    Steve Sadow, who represents Trump in the case, welcomed the development.

    “President Trump looks forward to presenting interlocutory arguments to the Georgia Court of Appeals as to why the case should be dismissed and Fulton County DA Willis should be disqualified for her misconduct in this unjustified, unwarranted political persecution,” Trump attorney Steve Sadow said in a statement. 

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

    Newsmax Host Delivers Blunt Assessment To Former VP Contender

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
    -
    2

    South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem is in hot water over her recent book and it could cause a major dent in her career.

    Noem’s new memoir No Going Back has sparked several controversies over its content, including an anecdote about Noem killing her 14-month-old dog and a story about the governor meeting North Korean leader Kim Jong-un which the Republican has yet to corroborate.

    Interrogating Noem over the book on Newsmax’s Wake Up America, Rob Finnerty assessed that Donald Trump likely won’t invite the Republican to be his running mate due to the recent scandal.

    Finnerty then said, “Governor, if you asked me a month ago who’s at the top of the list to run with Donald Trump, I would have said your name. If you asked me that same question this morning, I don’t even think you’re on the list.”

    The host went on to say that the content within Noem’s book, specifically her allegedly fabricated meeting with Kim Jong-un, is likely what spoiled her chances of becoming Trump’s running mate.

    “I should not have put that anecdote in the book,” conceded Noem, to which Finnerty shot back, “But an anecdote indicates that it happened, right?”

    “I’m not going to talk about my conversations with world leaders,” Noem bluntly declared – a statement she has made repeatedly when pressed about the alleged meeting with Kim Jong-un.

    Finnerty snapped, “Governor, I’m not asking you about the details of this alleged meeting. I’m asking if the meeting actually happened. I don’t think it did and I think if it did, you’d be able to confirm for me that, ‘Yes, it did, and here’s when it happened.’ It happened, say, at such and such a date or a month or you don’t have to be specific.”

    After Noem refused yet again to say whether the alleged meeting actually took place, Finnerty continued, “Again, I think at one point you were at the top of that list, but you’re going to get questions a lot more difficult than that.”

    Despite endorsing Noem’s book, Trump allegedly told several people he was “disgusted” by the governor’s anecdote about killing her 14-month-old dog Cricket in a gravel pit.

    According to unnamed sources, Trump was baffled by Noem’s confession that she shot her dog after it proved “less than worthless” as a hunting dog and questioned, “Why would she do that?” and “What is wrong with her?”

    Trump Classified Docs Trial Postponed Indefinitely

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
    -
    1
    Gavel via Wikimedia Commons Image

    This is exactly what Trump wanted…

    On Tuesday evening, Florida Judge Aileen Cannon indefinitely postponed former President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago documents case.

    The Tuesday order was issued less than two weeks before Trump’s trial was still on the books to kick off on May 20.

    The Hill has more:

    Cannon pinned the delay on the need to resolve numerous issues dealing with how classified information will be handled at trial, details governed by the Classified Information Procedures Act (CIPA). 

    “The Court also determines that finalization of a trial date at this juncture — before resolution of the myriad and interconnected pre-trial and CIPA issues remaining and forthcoming — would be imprudent and inconsistent with the Court’s duty to fully and fairly consider the various pending pre-trial motions before the Court,” Cannon wrote. 

    In laying out the new schedule, Cannon noted that she still has “eight substantive pretrial motions” she must rule on. 

    Trump Moves For Hush Money Mistrial

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
    -
    2
    Donald Trump via Gage Skidmore Flickr

    On Tuesday, Donald Trump’s attorneys moved for a mistrial in his first criminal case, citing the salacious testimony of ex-porn star Stormy Daniels.

    “The guardrails for this witness, answering questions from the government, were just thrown to the side,” Trump attorney Todd Blanche said.

    Prosecutors called Daniels, a porn star, to the stand on Tuesday.

    “I do think some things were better unsaid,” Judge Juan Merchan said. “I don’t believe we are at the point where a mistrial is warranted.” 

    The Hill reports:

    Blanche asked for a mistrial after the court reconvened following the lunch break. Daniels had taken the stand in the morning, testifying in sordid detail about the alleged sexual encounter.

    Blanche suggested that Daniels’ story has changed since 2016 from a consensual affair to be more dubious and that some of the details the jury was allowed to hear, including that he didn’t use a condom, were inappropriate.

    “How can you just let them ring the bell?” Blanche said.

    Susan Hoffinger, a prosecutor with the Manhattan district attorney’s office, pushed back against Blanche’s accusations.

    “In your motions, your honor did not put any guardrails on the testimony,” she said, claiming that Daniels’s story has been public for several years and the defense should not be surprised by her testimony.

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

    Cannon Suspends Key Mar-a-Lago Deadline

      By
      Madeleine Jackson
      -
      0
      Marine One lifts-off after returning President Donald J. Trump to Mar-a-Lago Friday, March 29, 2019, following his visit to the 143-mile Herbert Hoover Dike near Canal Point, Fla., that surrounds Lake Okeechobee. The visit was part of an infrastructure inspection of the dike, which is part of the Kissimmee-Okeechobee Everglades system, and reduces impacts of flooding for areas of south Florida. (Official White House Photo by Joyce N. Boghosian) [Photo Credit: The White House from Washington, DC, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons]

      Judge Aileen Cannon suspended a key deadline in former President Trump’s documents case after his attorneys suggested that special counsel Jack Smith’s team had “failed to preserve critical evidence” in the case after prosecutors disclosed some classified records may not be in the original order in which they were found.

      The Hill reports:

      In a Saturday letter posted to the court docket Tuesday morning, Trump’s legal team pounces on the admission by Smith’s team that the order in which the documents were found may have shifted slightly.

      “Your failure to disclose the spoliation of this evidence until this month is an extraordinary breach of your constitutional and ethical obligations, Trump attorney Todd Blanche wrote.

      The letter lays out a series of demands for more information, including on the instructions given to those who initially searched the boxes, all communications surrounding the searches of the boxes and their movements, and a list of personnel who had access to them. 

      “If the investigative team found a document with classification markings, it removed the document, segregated it, and replaced it with a placeholder sheet. The investigative team used classified cover sheets for that purpose, until the FBI ran out because there were so many classified documents, at which point the team began using blank sheets with handwritten notes indicating the classification level of the document(s) seized,” prosecutors noted.

      Trump’s team in their letter shot back at Smith’s efforts to dismiss the issue, saying it has repercussions beyond what classified information might be presented at trial.

      “You cannot seriously contend that your recent spoliation concession is irrelevant to President Trump’s pending pretrial motions,” Blanche wrote.

      The suspension marks yet another delay in a prosecution where Cannon has yet to even set a new trial date, casting further doubt on the chances the case will come before a jury ahead of the election.

      House Democrat Accuses ‘Right-Wing Organizations’ Of Training In The Hills For Future Attacks

      By
      admin
      -
      3
      Former President of the United States Donald Trump speaking with attendees at the 2022 Student Action Summit at the Tampa Convention Center in Tampa, Florida. [Photo Credit: Gage Skidmore from Surprise, AZ, United States of America, CC BY-SA 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons]

      A prominent House Democrat floated a conspiracy theory on MSNBC yesterday without providing a shred of evidence.

      Warning of violence if Donald Trump loses the 2024 presidential election, Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) told host Jonathan Capehart that she intends to ask the Justice Department and the White House what, exactly, President Joe Biden will do if his Republican challenger refuses to accept the election results.

      Waters then accused unnamed “right-wing organizations” of “training up in the hills somewhere,” implying that extremist violence against the government is likely, if not inevitable.

      JUST IN: Rep. Maxine Waters launches new conspiracy theory that Trump supporters are “training up in the hills” for a coordinated attack.

      Waters also called on the DOJ to investigate this made up threat in her head.

      “I tell you what I’m going to do. I’m going to ask the Justice… pic.twitter.com/x4WFCGsSzZ— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) May 6, 2024

      “Trump says in that, in that Time interview, interview that he would not seek to overturn or ignore the Constitution’s prohibition on a third term,” Capehart said, according to the transcript. “Should the American people believe that? Do you believe that?” he continued.

      “No! Absolutely not,” an indignant Waters declared. “As I said, you can’t believe anything that Donald Trump has to say. Donald Trump will do any and everything that he can possibly get away with. He does not at all support the Constitution of the United States of America. This is a man who we better be careful about.”

      Then came her uncorroborated claims about Trump “connected” groups preparing to attack:

      And I tell you what I’m going to do. I’m going to ask the Justice Department and I’m going to ask the president to tell us what they are going to do to protect this country against violence if he loses. I want to know about all of those right-wing organizations that he’s connected with who are training up in the hills somewhere and targeting, you know, what communities they’re going to attack. We need to know now, given that he’s telling us that there’s going to be violence if he loses. We need to know what his plan is and how we’re going to be protected.

      Mediaite’s Isaac Schorr has more:

      During his interview with Time, Trump said he “wouldn’t be in favor” of an effort to challenge the 22nd Amendment and seek a third term.

      “I wouldn’t be in favor of it. I wouldn’t be in favor of a challenge. Not for me,” mused Trump. “I wouldn’t be in favor of it at all. I intend to serve four years and do a great job. And I want to bring our country back. I want to put it back on the right track.”

      You can read the Trump Time Magazine interview in its entirety here.

      Article Published With The Permission of American Liberty News.

      1...195196197...344Page 196 of 344
      © Great America News Desk 2022