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Judge Orders MyPillow CEO To Pay $5 Million To Made Over Election Claims

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Mike Lindell via Gage Skidmore Flickr

Time for Mike Lindell to pay the piper.

On Wednesday a federal judge ruled that the MyPillow CEO must pay $5 million to the man who debunked his 2020 election claims.

Following the 2020 presidential election, Lindell launched the “Prove Mike Wrong” challenge, which he promised $5 million to anyone who could prove that data pointing to election fraud was not related to the 2020 election and was a product of Chinese election interference.

Robert Zeidman, a computer forensics expert from Nevada, was able to prove the pro-Trump businessman’s claims were false but has still yet to be paid his reward.

Mediaite continues:

That led to last spring’s arbitration panel, which also decided that Lindell had to pay Zeidman the reward that he soundly earned. (That arbitration panel was actually in the fine print of the “Prove Mike Wrong” contest.) After that decision, Lindell vowed to take the case to court, which resulted in Wednesday’s ruling.

In depositions related to the case, Lindell indicated that he never thought he would have to pay.

Lindell also claimed that he was “broke” after being “canceled” for spreading election lies. (Though he was also “canceled” by Fox News for being broke.) Lindell was one of many parties sued for defamation related to the 2020 election by Dominion Voting Systems and Smartmatic.

Former NYC Mayor Appeals $148M Defamation Verdict

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    Photo via Gage Skidmore Flickr

    Former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani appealed a jury’s verdict ordering him to pay $148 million to two Georgia election workers for defaming them following the 2020 presidential election.

    Giuliani filed for bankruptcy shortly after the verdict was handed down freezing the election workers’ case and their efforts to collect the staggering sum from the lawyer who previously represented Trump.

    The Hill has more:

    “We very much appreciate the judge’s expeditious consideration of this matter and look forward to proceeding accordingly,” Ted Goodman, political adviser to Giuliani, said in a statement earlier in the day after the bankruptcy judge’s ruling.

    A Washington, D.C., jury ordered Giuliani to pay $148 million to the two election workers, Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, after they became a focal point of the Trump campaign’s claims of mass voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election.

    Prior to the trial, Giuliani was found liable for failing to turn over discovery. The jury then decided how much he must pay.

    “The absurdity of the number really underscores the absurdity of the entire proceeding,” Giuliani said after the verdict was handed down, also doubling down on his baseless claims about the two women.

    It remains unclear how much money the mother-daughter duo would be able to recover from Giuliani, even if his appeal fails.

    Watch: Freedom Caucus Congressman Gets Kicked Out Of Pro-Trump Event

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    This isn’t the behavior you expect from a sitting Congressman…

    Rep. Bob Good (R-VA) was kicked out of a pro-Donald Trump event this week.

    In footage posted to social media, the chairman of the House Freedom Caucus can be seen talking with store owner Karen Angulo, a former local GOP chair, and being told to leave the event. Virginia state Sen. John McGuire (R) was in attendance at the event and can be seen talking to someone in the background of the Good video. He is challenging Good for his congressional seat.

    “We invited our State Senator John McGuire as a special guest because John has been a supporter of President Trump and never wavered, unlike Bob Good,” Angulo wrote in a statement about the incident with Good.

    In the video from the Trump store opening. Angulo repeatedly tells Good to leave, and he, at one point, reads from an email inviting all Republicans supporting Trump to the event.

    “Bob, please stop this,” Angulo said.

    In a statement about the incident, she called it “embarrassing.”

    “I repeatedly asked Bob to leave. Once he finally relented and left our store, Bob and his paid campaign staff stood out front for over four hours trying to block people from entering our store,” she wrote. “The whole thing was very embarrassing behavior for anyone, let alone a sitting member of Congress.”

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

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    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.

    Trump Confirms Names On VP List

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    [Photo Credit: The White House from Washington, DC, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons]

    On Tuesday, former President Donald Trump confirmed a short list of names he is considering asking to become his running mate in the coming months,

    Trump joined Fox News Channel’s Laura Ingraham to discuss the upcoming South Carolina primary, which takes place on Feb. 24., Ingraham asked the former president if the rumored names were in fact on his list of potential running mates.

    The list includes three former GOP candidates, Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.), entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy and Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.). He also confirmed that Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.), Gov. Kristi Noem (R-S.D.) and former Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, who served in Congress as a Democrat but has since shifted to more conservative views.

    Trump confirmed “they are” on his shortlist, but did not provide a timeline for when he will announce his vice presidential pick. He said, “all of those people are good. They’re all solid.”

    Trump specifically commended Scott, who was in the crowd at the event, for his support.

    “A lot of people are talking about that gentleman right over there,” Trump said when asked about a running mate, pointing to Scott. “And he’s, been so great. He’s been such a great advocate.”

    “I have to say, this is in a very positive way, Tim Scott, he has been much better for me than he was for himself,” the former president continued. “I watched his campaign and he doesn’t like talking about himself, but boy, does he talk about Trump.”

    The South Carolina senator suspended his primary bid in November after failing to earn enough support.

    Report: Trump Must Pay Nearly Half-Billion Dollars Before Appealing New York Ruling

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    Image via Pixabay free images

    Before Donald Trump can appeal Judge Arthur Engoron’s ruling he must pay nearly half a billion dollars as a bond to New York State.

    Last week, the judge ordered Trump to pay $354 million in fines, $450 million with interest, after New York Attorney General sued Trump under and obscure New York fraud statute.

    Jonathan Turley points out another astonishing fact at the New York Post: before he can appeal, Trump must pay the whole fine:

    Under New York law, Trump cannot appeal this ruling without depositing the full amount, including interest, in a court account. Even for Trump, $455 million is hard to come by. Likewise, a bond would require a company to guarantee payment for a defendant who has been barred from doing business in New York and is facing the need to liquidate much of his portfolio.

    Nothing succeeds like excess for judges like Engoron. By imposing this astronomical figure, he can make it difficult or impossible for a defendant to appeal, absent declaring bankruptcy or selling off assets at distress prices.

    The excessive fine and its basis raise serious statutory and constitutional questions. Many of us believe it should be substantially reduced or tossed out entirely.

    Trump Inches Toward Tulsi Gabbard As VP Pick

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    Could this be the winning ticket?

    Former President Donald Trump has reportedly been in conversation with former Congresswoman and 2020 presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) in regard to her potentially becoming his running mate.

    Per the Washington Post:

    Former president Donald Trump and top advisers have spoken with former Hawaii congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard about foreign policy and how the Defense Department should be run in a second Trump term, according to people familiar with the matter.

    Gabbard told Fox News about her willingness to entertain discussions with Trump about potentially joining his 2024 presidential ticket as a running mate.

    I’d be open to that conversation. My mission in life is to serve our country and serve the American people and find the best way to be able to do that.

    She ran for president in 2020 and had issues with the Democrat National Committee throughout her campaign.

    Gabbard served on the following committees when she was in Congress: Judiciary, Intelligence, Financial Services, Foreign Affairs, Energy and Commerce, Education and Labor, Transportation and Infrastructure, and Armed Services. 

    There has also been talk that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (I) is considering Gabbard as a running mate. 

    Haley Answers If She Will Pardon Trump if Elected

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      The White House from Washington, DC, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

      On Sunday, Nikki Haley said she plans to pardon Donald Trump if she is elected to the White House.

      Asked the question directly by an audience member at a Fox News town hall in South Carolina, where she once served as governor, Haley said a pardon would be in the country’s “best interest” so Americans can work to “leave the negativity behind” without being further divided.

      “If you’re talking about pardoning Trump, it’s not a matter of innocence or guilt at that point, because that means he would have already been found guilty,” Haley said at the town hall, hosted by John Roberts. “I believe, in the best interest of bringing the country together, I would pardon Donald Trump. Because I think it’s important for the country to move on.”

      “We’ve got to leave the negativity and the baggage behind,” she added. “I don’t want this country divided any further. I don’t think it’s in the best interests for America to have an 80-year-old president sitting in jail and having everybody upset about it. I think this would be the time that we would need to move forward and get this out of the way.”

      Trump currently faces four criminal indictments, including two on the federal level brought by special counsel Jack Smith

      In January, Haley said she would not consider a preemptive pardon for Trump but would issue a pardon if he were found guilty.

      “I think you only do it if someone’s found guilty. So, you know, what I’ll say is this is about moving the country forward, and the last thing we want to see is an 80-year-old former president sitting in jail,” she said on Fox News when asked if she would pledge to pardon Trump preemptively or only if he was found guilty. 

      “Instead, we want to say, ‘OK, how do we put the past behind us and move forward as a country?’ And I think that by pardoning him, that absolutely would move the country forward, instead of dividing it further. And so I think you always have to look at what’s in the best interests of the country,” she added.

      Hillary Clinton Warns Trump Will Withdraw from NATO

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      Hillary Clinton via Gage Skidmore Flickr

      Former Democrat presidential candidate and avid Trump critic Hillary Clinton warned that if elected Donald Trump will make good on his threat to withdraw the U.S. from NATO.

      Over the weekend, Clinton made the claim during remarks at the Munich Security Conference in Germany, telling U.S. allies that they should take Trump’s claims to heart after the former president warned NATO countries to contribute their fair share.

      “We have a long struggle ahead of us, and the obvious point to make about Donald Trump is take him literally and seriously,” she said. “He means what he says. People did not take him literally and seriously in 2016. Now he is telling us what he intends to do, and people who try to wish it away, brush it away, are living in an alternative reality.”

      “He will do everything he can to become an absolute authoritarian leader if given the opportunity to do so. And he will pull us out of NATO even though the Congress passed a resolution saying that he couldn’t without congressional support, because he will just not fund our obligations,” she said.

      Clinton seemed to direct her message to NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, who has brushed off Trump’s recent comments.

      The Republican presidential frontrunner has repeatedly claimed that member countries should not receive protection if they do not pay their share toward NATO’s budget.

      “The whole idea of NATO is that an attack on one ally will trigger a response from the whole alliance and as long as we stand behind that message together, we prevent any military attack on any ally,” Stoltenberg said.

      “Any suggestion that we are not standing up for each other, that we are not going to protect each other, that does undermine the security of all of us.”

      According to Fox News, the NATO chief announced that 18 of the alliance’s 31 members are on track to meet their pledges of contributing 2% of GDP to the group. European states are on track to contribute $380 billion this year, and Germany will meet its 2% pledge for the first time since the Cold War.

      Judge Delivers Ruling In Trump Business Fraud Trial

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        Gavel via Wikimedia Commons Image

        On Friday, a New York judge ordered former President Donald Trump to pay $354 million in penalties stemming from the civil fraud case against his business empire.

        Engoron also barred Trump from serving as a corporate officer or a director of a company in the state of New York for three years. There was one silver lining in the ruling for the Trumps: the judge did not issue an order revoking the Trump Org’s certificate to do business, which has commonly been referred to as the “corporate death penalty.”

        According to The Hill, Judge Arthur Engoron’s 92-page decision came just weeks after closing arguments in the case following a months-long trial last year during which Trump frequently lambasted the judge and the prosecutor who brought the case. 

        Engoron previously ruled that Trump committed fraud in his real estate empire and he is expected to issue a penalty ruling Friday, according to sources familiar with the matter.

        In addition to a $370 million financial penalty, James has asked Engoron to ban Trump from New York’s real estate business for life.

        New York Attorney General Letitia James (D) sued Trump in 2022, alleging he falsely altered his net worth on key financial statements to receive tax and insurance benefits. The documents, which detailed the value of the Trump Organization’s various assets, were sent to banks and insurers to secure loans and deals, which the state purports is evidence of fraud.  

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