Donald Trump Announces 2016 White House Bid

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U.S. Capitol rioter who said he followed Trump's orders found guilty
Author of the article:Reuters
Reuters
Jan Wolfe
Publishing date:Apr 14, 2022 • 15 hours ago • 1 minute read • Join the conversation
In this file photo taken on January 6, 2021 supporters of President Donald Trump protest outside the U.S. Capitol in Washington.
In this file photo taken on January 6, 2021 supporters of President Donald Trump protest outside the U.S. Capitol in Washington. PHOTO BY ALEX EDELMAN /AFP via Getty Images
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WASHINGTON — A jury on Thursday convicted an Ohio man who claimed he was following former President Donald Trump’s orders when he looted items from U.S. Capitol during last year’s riot, handing another notable win to prosecutors.

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A federal jury in the District of Columbia found Dustin Thompson, 38, guilty on all charges he faced, including obstruction of an official proceeding and theft of government property.

Thompson had admitted to entering the Capitol and stealing a bottle of liquor and a coat rack during the riots.

But in a novel legal strategy, Thompson argued to the jury that he was acting at Trump’s behest and that the former president is ultimately responsible for the mob that stormed the Capitol.

“Besides being ordered by the president to go to the Capitol, I don’t know what I was thinking,” Thompson told the jury, according to CNN. “I was caught up in the moment.”

U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton, who oversaw the trial, will sentence Thompson at a hearing in July. The judge ordered Thompson detained in jail until that hearing.

The U.S. Justice Department has now won all three Jan. 6 prosecutions that have gone to a jury trial. One defendant was acquitted in a non-jury trial.

About 800 people have been charged with crimes relating to the Jan. 6 attack.
 
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WAR OF WORDS: Donald Trump storms off Piers Morgan's new show?
A Trump flack told NBC: "This is a pathetic attempt to use President Trump as a way to revive the career of a failed television host."

Author of the article:Brad Hunter
Publishing date:Apr 21, 2022 • 11 hours ago • 2 minute read • 46 Comments
Donald Trump and Piers Morgan go at it.
Donald Trump and Piers Morgan go at it. PHOTO BY SCREENGRAB /FOX NATION
Did they go to war or didn’t they?

With two master showmen, it’s hard to tell.

In one corner, you have the trailer for firebrand Piers Morgan’s new show, Piers Morgan Uncensored, in which former U.S. President Donald Trump storms off the set.

On the other is Trump, claiming no such thing happened.



In his column in Thursday’s New York Post, Morgan claims that when he arrived at Trump’s palatial Mar-a-Lago headquarters in Palm Beach, one of the former president’s aides brought up several unflattering quotes the bombastic Brit had uttered about The Apprentice star.

And it went from there.

Morgan — a Fleet Street tabloid legend and no stranger to smoke and mirrors — wrote that the interview concluded with “(Trump) abruptly jumping to his feet, looking hateful, and barking at the shocked crew: ‘TURN THE CAMERAS OFF!”

Morgan added: “Then he turned on his heel, and sloped angrily off through a side door, loudly muttering, ‘SO dishonest …”

Calm before the storm: Trump and Morgan. FOX NATION
Calm before the storm: Trump and Morgan. FOX NATION
However, Trump fought back, according to NBC, and provided audio revealing Morgan telling the former president: “That was a great interview.”


Trump agreed, and added: “Yeah.”

Morgan replied: “Thank you very much. I really appreciate it.”

Trump can then be heard saying: “Turn the camera off.”

According to Morgan — the first winner of Celebrity Apprentice — he has been friends with Trump for more than 15 years.

He was, admittedly, “savagely critical of Trump’s conduct in the last year of his presidency.”

Morgan had lambasted Trump on his handling of COVID, his refusal to concede the 2020 election, and the Jan. 6, 2021 Washington riots. The former newspaper whiz kid said he felt justified in his criticisms, calling Trump a “supreme narcissist” and a “Mafia mob boss.”

STOP THE CAMERAS! And he was gone! FOX NATION
STOP THE CAMERAS! And he was gone! FOX NATION
Following the release of the TV show trailer, Trump said in a statement that the video clip was “deceptively edited.”


And a Trump flack told NBC: “This is a pathetic attempt to use President Trump as a way to revive the career of a failed television host. It is also another example of President Trump being right, as he told Piers Morgan that the host was dishonest to his face and Piers, for the first time in his life, didn’t disappoint.”

Morgan said in his Post column that the 75-minute interview was a “fascinating, often riveting, sometimes hilarious series of exchanges with arguably the world’s most famous person as we talked about everything from Ukraine, Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong Un, and nuclear weapons, to the royals, transgender athletes, Twitter and Joe Biden.”

But when he brought up the 2020 election, things went off the rails.

“I told him I believe he lost the supposedly ‘rigged, stolen’ election, I repeatedly pointed out his failure to produce any evidence of the widespread voter fraud he insists occurred to rob him of his presidency, and I blamed his refusal to admit defeat for the deadly riots at the Capitol,” Morgan wrote in the Post.

Trump replied: ”Then you’re a FOOL! And you haven’t studied!”

Piers Morgan Uncensored debuts on April 25 on Fox Nation.

bhunter@postmedia.com

@HunterTOSun
 

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Trump mocks CNN+ flop: 'CONGRATULATIONS'
'It was like an empty desert out there despite spending hundreds of millions of dollars,' former president says

Author of the article:Mark Daniell
Publishing date:Apr 22, 2022 • 22 hours ago • 2 minute read • 70 Comments

Former President Donald Trump had a field day mocking CNN following the news that it is shuttered its short-lived streaming service after it managed to only sign up 150,000 customers.


“Congratulations to CNN+ on their decision to immediately FOLD for a lack of ratings, or viewers in any way, shape, or form,” Trump said in a sarcastic statement, The Hill reported.

“It was like an empty desert out there despite spending hundreds of millions of dollars and the hiring of low-rated Chris Wallace, a man who tried so hard to be his father, Mike, but lacked the talent and whatever else is necessary to be a star.”

Trump continued his slam, adding, “In any event, it’s just one more piece of CNN and Fake News that we don’t have to bother with anymore!”

After sinking hundreds of millions into its much-talked about launch less than a month ago, CNN’s parent company, Warner Bros. Discovery, announced it was closing up shop.


“This decision is in line with WBD’s broader direct-to-consumer strategy,” Chris Licht, the incoming CEO of CNN, said in a statement obtained by Variety.

“In a complex streaming market, consumers want simplicity and an all-in service, which provides a better experience and more value than stand-alone offerings.”

It garnered fewer than 10,000 daily active viewers in the two weeks after its launch, CNBC reported last week.


Trump sparred with CNN journalists throughout his presidency and at one point had reporter Jim Acosta’s credentials removed. Last year, Trump gleefully pointed out how CNN’s ratings “are down 70%,” calling it a “wonderful thing to see!”

In March 2021, Fox reported that CNN started to bleed viewers once President Biden took office, estimating that primetime viewership was down 47% in the key demographic of adults between the ages of 25 and 54.


Longtime broadcaster Ted Koppel famously mocked CNN’s Brian Stelter to his face back in 2018, telling the pundit that “CNN’s ratings would be in the toilet without Donald Trump.”

“Newspapers, television, all forms of media will tank if I’m not there,” Trump predicted in 2017, “because without me, their ratings are going down the tubes.”

mdaniell@postmedia.com
 
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Republican Kevin McCarthy under fire after audio shows he urged Trump to resign
Author of the article:Reuters
Reuters
David Morgan
Publishing date:Apr 22, 2022 • 18 hours ago • 2 minute read • Join the conversation

WASHINGTON — Congressman Kevin McCarthy, the top Republican in the U.S. House of Representatives, came under fire from some of his fellow party members, after an audio recording showed him saying that then-President Donald Trump should resign over the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol riot.


The comments, which McCarthy had denied hours before the recording emerged, could undermine his widely known ambition to become House speaker next year if Republicans take control of the chamber in November’s midterm elections, as expected.

But as criticism of the House minority leader mounted on Twitter, the Washington Post reported that he and Trump had spoken by phone and that the Republican former president was not upset about McCarthy’s remarks. That could significantly mute the rank-and-file reaction among Trump supporters.

The audio — recorded days after Trump supporters stormed the Capitol, delaying certification of Democrat Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential election victory — depicts a conversation between McCarthy and Representative Liz Cheney, who was ousted from party leadership weeks later over her opposition to Trump.


McCarthy told Cheney he planned to call Trump to discuss a mechanism for invoking the 25th Amendment, under which then-Vice President Mike Pence and Cabinet members could have removed the president from office.

“The only discussion I would have with him is that I think this will pass, and it would be my recommendation you should resign,” McCarthy says in the recording, released on cable news channel MSNBC late on Thursday.

In another audio tape, McCarthy told Republican lawmakers that Trump had admitted bearing some responsibility for the Jan. 6 attack, according to CNN.

McCarthy’s office did not respond to requests for comment on Friday. A Trump spokesman also was not immediately available.

The first reference to his comments appeared earlier on Thursday in a New York Times article published as part of a forthcoming book by two Times reporters.


The newspaper also reported that McCarthy told other Republican leaders he wished big tech companies would strip social media accounts from party lawmakers who supported Trump’s false claims of a rigged 2020 election.

McCarthy initially denied the Times account in a statement that called the reporting “totally false and wrong.”

U.S. Representative Adam Kinzinger, one of the few Republican politicians openly critical of Trump, blasted McCarthy on Twitter on Thursday night over his denial.

“Question for Kevin McCarthy … how can you honestly feel ok with the lies? Yes, other people lie too, but you have claimed to fight for a higher purpose,” Kinzinger asked. “Honestly Kevin, is it worth it?”

McCarthy, who has also faced criticism from hard-line conservatives within his caucus, publicly zigzagged on Trump’s culpability for the Jan. 6 riot by first saying the former president bore some responsibility for the violence — but finally visited Trump at his Mar-a-Lago resort home in Florida and posed for a photograph with him.

McCarthy’s political fate will depend largely on Trump, who remains the most powerful figure in the Republican Party more than a year after he left office.

The Post cited two unnamed sources as saying that McCarthy and Trump spoke on Thursday night and that the former president was glad the Republican leader did not follow through with his plan to ask him to resign, seeing it as a sign of his continued grip on the Republican Party.
 

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Donald Trump held in contempt for not complying with subpoena in business probe
Author of the article:Reuters
Reuters
Luc Cohen and Karen Freifeld
Publishing date:Apr 25, 2022 • 17 hours ago • 2 minute read • 43 Comments

A New York judge on Monday held former President Donald Trump in contempt of court for not producing documents subpoenaed in the state attorney general’s civil probe of his business practices, and ordered Trump to be fined $10,000 per day until he complies.


Trump lost a bid to quash a subpoena from state Attorney General Letitia James, then failed to produce all the documents by a court-ordered March 3 deadline, later extended to March 31 at his lawyers’ request.

Justice Arthur Engoron ruled that a contempt finding was appropriate because of what the judge called “repeated failures” to hand over materials and because it was not clear Trump had conducted a complete search for responsive documents.

“Mr. Trump … I know you take your business seriously, and I take mine seriously. I hereby hold you in civil contempt,” the judge said, although Trump himself was not in the courtroom.

Trump intends to appeal the contempt ruling, said his attorney Alina Habba. “We respectfully disagree with the court’s decision,” Habba said in a statement.


Anti-Trump demonstrators gather outside of the New York County Supreme Court in New York City, April 25, 2022.
Anti-Trump demonstrators gather outside of the New York County Supreme Court in New York City, April 25, 2022. PHOTO BY DAVID 'DEE' DELGADO /REUTERS
Andrew Amer, special litigation counsel with the attorney general’s office, said during the hearing the $10,000-a-day fine was meant to coerce Trump into complying with the subpoena, not punish him.

During the hearing, Habba said Trump did indeed comply with the subpoena, but that he did not have any documents responsive to James’ request. Engoron said she would have to submit a detailed affidavit about her search through Trump’s records in order to be in compliance with the subpoena.

Should Trump fail to pay the fine, he could be jailed, according to Sarah Krissoff, a New York lawyer not involved in the case, though she said that such a scenario was unlikely and the judge could opt for other remedies such as increasing the amount of the fine.


James is investigating whether the Trump Organization, the former president’s New York City-based family company, misstated the values of its real estate properties to obtain favorable loans and tax deductions.

Trump, a Republican, denies wrongdoing and has called the investigation politically motivated. James is a Democrat.

James has said her probe had found “significant evidence” suggesting that for more than a decade the company’s financial statements “relied on misleading asset valuations and other misrepresentations to secure economic benefits.”

The attorney general has questioned how the Trump Organization valued the Trump brand, as well as properties including golf clubs in New York and Scotland and Trump’s own penthouse apartment in Midtown Manhattan’s Trump Tower.
 

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Plea deal offered to Quebec woman accused of sending poison to Donald Trump
Pascale Ferrier will have until the end of June to decide whether to accept the offer

Author of the article:Canadian Press
Canadian Press
Publishing date:Apr 27, 2022 • 21 hours ago • 1 minute read • 5 Comments

WASHINGTON — United States prosecutors say they’ve offered a plea deal to the Montreal-area woman accused of mailing poison to former president Donald Trump.


The deal would include the three charges Pascale Ferrier faces related to a letter containing ricin that was mailed to the White House in 2020, as well as 16 federal charges she faces in Texas, where she is alleged to have mailed poison to several law enforcement officials.

Federal prosecutor Michael Friedman said during a brief court appearance today that Ferrier will have until the end of June to decide whether to accept the offer, the details of which were not disclosed.

Friedman says the deal is complex and the charges Ferrier faces are serious, adding that eight of the Texas charges carry a possible life sentence.

Ferrier was found fit to stand trial in March.

She is scheduled to be back in court June 30.
 

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Donald Trump challenges $10G-a-day fine and N.Y. judge's contempt ruling
Author of the article:Reuters
Reuters
Luc Cohen
Publishing date:Apr 27, 2022 • 19 hours ago • 2 minute read • Join the conversation

NEW YORK — Former U.S. President Donald Trump has appealed a $10,000-a-day fine and a judge’s contempt ruling over his failure to comply with a subpoena for documents in a case about his business practices, his lawyer said on Wednesday.


In a court filing with New York state’s Appellate Division, attorney Alina Habba said Trump had “proffered a timely response to the subpoena.”

Judge Arthur Engoron on Monday imposed the fine and held Trump in civil contempt for “repeated failures” to hand over materials to Attorney General Letitia James for her three-year-old investigation into whether the Trump Organization improperly valued assets to obtain financial benefits.

Habba said she would ask the appellate court to review whether the fine “serves any purpose as either a compensatory or coercive remedy,” arguing that James failed to show her office was harmed by Trump’s conduct.

The Republican former president denies wrongdoing and has called the probe by the Democratic state attorney general politically motivated. Habba, said during a court hearing in Manhattan on Monday that Trump did not have any of the documents James had requested.


Engoron said he would fine Trump $10,000 per day until he complies with the subpoena. The judge said Trump did not provide enough evidence that he conducted a thorough search for the documents.

“The judge’s order was clear,” James said in a statement. “We’ve seen this playbook before, and it has never stopped our investigation of Mr. Trump and his organization.”

James has said her office’s investigation had found “significant evidence” that the Trump Organization included misleading asset valuations in more than a decade of its financial statements.

The attorney general has questioned how the company valued the Trump brand, as well as golf clubs in New York and Scotland and Trump’s own penthouse apartment in Midtown Manhattan’s Trump Tower.

In some cases the assets were overvalued to obtain favourable loan terms and in other cases they were undervalued to win tax benefits, the attorney general has said.

Trump previously lost a bid to quash the subpoena, then failed to produce the documents by a court-ordered March 3 deadline, later extended to March 31 at his lawyers’ request.
 

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Donald Trump feared being 'killed' by 'dangerous' tomato attack
'They were going to throw fruit. We were threatened. We had a threat.'

Author of the article:Bang Showbiz
Bang Showbiz
Publishing date:Apr 29, 2022 • 1 day ago • 2 minute read • 23 Comments

Donald Trump feared being killed by “dangerous” fruit.


The former U.S. president confirmed in a deposition that he had asked people “in jest” to intervene if they saw protesters at a 2015 campaign rally gearing up to pelt him with tomatoes or other edible objects because he feared he’d be seriously injured or worse if one of them had made contact.

A transcript of the deposition – which is part of a lawsuit filed by a group of protesters who alleged they were assaulted at the rally by the former ‘Apprentice’ star’s security guards – was recently released.

The demonstrators’ attorney, Benjamin Dictor, asked Trump: “OK. And you said that, ‘If you see someone getting ready to throw a tomato, just knock the crap out of them would you.’ That was your statement?”

The ex-Commander-in-Chief replied: “Oh, yeah. It was very dangerous. We were threatened.


“They were going to throw fruit. We were threatened. We had a threat.”

Asked how he was aware of the fruit threat, Trump replied: “We were told. I thought Secret Service was involved in that, actually. And you get hit with fruit, it’s – no – it’s very violent stuff. We were on alert for that.”

His own attorney, Jeffrey Goldman, interjected: “A tomato is a fruit after all, I guess. … It has seeds.”

Trump continued: “It’s worse than a tomato, it’s other things also. But tomato, when they start doing that stuff, it’s very dangerous. There was an alert out that day.”

The demonstrators’ lawyer then asked the 75-year-old business mogul who he had asked to “knock the crap out of” anyone trying to throw fruit.

He replied: “That was to the audience. It was said sort of in jest. Buy maybe, you know, a little truth to it. It’s very dangerous stuff. You can get killed with those things. … I wanted to have people be ready because we were put on alert that they were going to do fruit. And some fruit is a lot worse than – tomatoes are bad by the way. But it’s very dangerous… they were going to hit – they were going to hit very hard.”

During a 1970 anti-war protest, then-President Richard Nixon was hit by “eggs, tomatoes, and vegetables,” while on a 2012 visit to Egypt, Hillary Clinton, who was Secretary of State, had tomatoes thrown at her motorcade.

And in 2009, two tomatoes were thrown at former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin at Minnesota’s Mall of America.

None of them were hurt.
 

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Oath Keepers member pleads guilty to seditious conspiracy in U.S. Capitol attack
Author of the article:Reuters
Reuters
Jan Wolfe
Publishing date:Apr 29, 2022 • 18 hours ago • 1 minute read • Join the conversation
Riot police push back a crowd of supporters of U.S. President Donald Trump after they stormed the Capitol building in Washington, D.C., Jan. 6, 2021.
Riot police push back a crowd of supporters of U.S. President Donald Trump after they stormed the Capitol building in Washington, D.C., Jan. 6, 2021. PHOTO BY ROBERTO SCHMIDT /AFP via Getty Images / Files
Article content
WASHINGTON — An Oath Keepers member on Friday admitted to engaging in seditious conspiracy during the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol and agreed to cooperate with investigators, handing a win to prosecutors as they prepare for a likely trial against the far-right group’s founder.


Brian Ulrich, 44, of Georgia pleaded guilty on Friday during a court hearing in federal court in the District of Columbia.

Ulrich was one of 11 Oath Keepers members charged with seditious conspiracy in an indictment unsealed in January.

The defendants in that case include Stewart Rhodes, the founder of the far-right militia group. Some of those defendants are likely heading to trial later this year.

That multi-defendant case is the only case alleging participants in the Jan. 6 attack engaged in seditious conspiracy, which is defined as attempting “to overthrow, put down or to destroy by force the government of the United States.”

Ulrich is the second Oath Keepers member to plead guilty to seditious conspiracy and obstruction charges. Joshua James, 34, of Alabama pleaded guilty in March.

As part of the plea agreement, Ulrich has agreed to cooperate with the U.S. Justice Department’s ongoing investigation.

Under U.S. sentencing guidelines, Ulrich faces a likely sentence of around six years in prison, with credit for time already served.

U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta, who will sentence Ulrich, is not bound by that guideline range. A sentencing hearing has not yet been set, and Ulrich will be in federal custody until that hearing.
 

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Judge 'surprised' at Trump claim he has no documents sought in N.Y. probe
U.S. president held in contempt of court and being fined $10,000 a day

Author of the article:Reuters
Reuters
Karen Freifeld and Luc Cohen
Publishing date:Apr 29, 2022 • 16 hours ago • 2 minute read • Join the conversation

NEW YORK — A New York judge expressed surprise on Friday that Donald Trump, a man he described as perhaps the world’s most famous real estate developer, was unable to provide any documents sought in a probe of the Trump Organization, his family company.


Justice Arthur Engoron in New York state court in Manhattan said at a virtual hearing that he would go on holding the former U.S. president in contempt of court and fine him $10,000 a day despite a request from Trump’s lawyer to lift both orders.

“He’s Donald Trump, the most famous real estate developer in the world, arguably,” the judge said. “I am surprised he doesn’t seem to have any documents; they’re all with the organization.”

On Monday, Engoron issued the orders over Trump’s failure to comply with New York Attorney General Letitia James’ subpoena for documents. On Wednesday, Trump signed an affidavit saying he did not believe he had any relevant documents and, if there were any documents, the Trump Organization would have them.


On Friday, Engoron, who read Trump’s affidavit at the hearing, said the document bore “his inimitable signature” in what appeared to be a Sharpie. But he said that it lacked useful detail about where Trump kept his records.

In order to purge the contempt finding, Trump would have to submit an affidavit swearing to where his files were located, how they were stored, and who had access to them, as well as state whether he turned over his personal electronic devices for searching and imaging, the judge said later in a written order.

At the hearing, Engoron homed in on the small pieces of paper with an adhesive strip on one side that Trump is known for using. “He’s famous for post-its,” the judge said. “When he wants something done, he puts a post-it on something. I don’t think we’ve received any post-its.”


Trump Organization general counsel Alan Garten testified as part of the attorney general’s probe that Trump used post-it notes to communicate with employees, court records show.

But Trump lawyer Alina Habba said Trump does not have any post-its.

“You can fine us for 10 months but you’re not going to get any more documents from Donald Trump,” Habba said. “He doesn’t have the documents that you want.”

James says her probe has already turned up evidence that the Trump Organization – which manages hotels, golf courses and other real estate around the world – has given banks and tax authorities misleading financing information in order to obtain financial benefits such as favorable loans and tax breaks.

Engoron said he would consider Habba’s request to terminate the fine. “But if you don’t hear from me, the clock is still ticking,” he said.

A Republican, Trump denies wrongdoing and calls the probe politically motivated. James is a Democrat. Habba said on Friday that she would continue appealing against both the contempt order and the fine following Engoron’s oral ruling.
 

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Donald Trump feared being 'killed' by 'dangerous' tomato attack
'They were going to throw fruit. We were threatened. We had a threat.'

Author of the article:Bang Showbiz
Bang Showbiz
Publishing date:Apr 29, 2022 • 1 day ago • 2 minute read • 23 Comments

Donald Trump feared being killed by “dangerous” fruit.


The former U.S. president confirmed in a deposition that he had asked people “in jest” to intervene if they saw protesters at a 2015 campaign rally gearing up to pelt him with tomatoes or other edible objects because he feared he’d be seriously injured or worse if one of them had made contact.

A transcript of the deposition – which is part of a lawsuit filed by a group of protesters who alleged they were assaulted at the rally by the former ‘Apprentice’ star’s security guards – was recently released.

The demonstrators’ attorney, Benjamin Dictor, asked Trump: “OK. And you said that, ‘If you see someone getting ready to throw a tomato, just knock the crap out of them would you.’ That was your statement?”

The ex-Commander-in-Chief replied: “Oh, yeah. It was very dangerous. We were threatened.


“They were going to throw fruit. We were threatened. We had a threat.”

Asked how he was aware of the fruit threat, Trump replied: “We were told. I thought Secret Service was involved in that, actually. And you get hit with fruit, it’s – no – it’s very violent stuff. We were on alert for that.”

His own attorney, Jeffrey Goldman, interjected: “A tomato is a fruit after all, I guess. … It has seeds.”

Trump continued: “It’s worse than a tomato, it’s other things also. But tomato, when they start doing that stuff, it’s very dangerous. There was an alert out that day.”

The demonstrators’ lawyer then asked the 75-year-old business mogul who he had asked to “knock the crap out of” anyone trying to throw fruit.

He replied: “That was to the audience. It was said sort of in jest. Buy maybe, you know, a little truth to it. It’s very dangerous stuff. You can get killed with those things. … I wanted to have people be ready because we were put on alert that they were going to do fruit. And some fruit is a lot worse than – tomatoes are bad by the way. But it’s very dangerous… they were going to hit – they were going to hit very hard.”

During a 1970 anti-war protest, then-President Richard Nixon was hit by “eggs, tomatoes, and vegetables,” while on a 2012 visit to Egypt, Hillary Clinton, who was Secretary of State, had tomatoes thrown at her motorcade.

And in 2009, two tomatoes were thrown at former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin at Minnesota’s Mall of America.

None of them were hurt.
1651325771311.png
 

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MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell banned from Twitter once again
Author of the article:Denette Wilford
Publishing date:May 02, 2022 • 20 hours ago • 1 minute read • Join the conversation

Mike Lindell was kicked off Twitter for a second time, mere hours after he rejoined the social media site.


The MyPillow CEO was previous suspended in January 2021 when he promoted claims the 2020 presidential election was rigged.

He launched his new account under the handle @MikeJLindell on Sunday afternoon, and quickly gained tens of thousands of followers.

“Hello everybody, I’M BACK ON TWITTER,” read his first tweet, according to Newsweek. “ My only account is @MikeJLindell! Please RT and FOLLOW to SPREAD THE WORD.”



“Hello, everyone on Twitter, this is Mike Lindell,” he said in a video that accompanied his first tweet back, and warned of other accounts pretending to be him.

“So we started this account,” he continued. “Please share it with everyone you know. Let everybody you know — so we can get the word out over here at Twitter in case they do take it down. And thanks a lot for helping out.”

It appears Twitter got wind of Lindell’s triumphant return and suspended him once more – for good. He had reached more than 35,000 followers by the time he was turfed.



A Twitter spokesperson confirmed to the Daily Beast that Lindell was “permanently banned for violating the Twitter Rules on ban evasion.”

MyPillow’s Twitter account was also put to bed after Lindell took over the account to tweet out his personal agenda.

In January 2021, Lindell was booted for “repeated violations” of Twitter’s civic integrity policy, a spokesperson said at the time.


Lindell, a staunch supporter of former president Donald Trump, had repeatedly spread unsubstantiated claims of widespread voter fraud in the election.

Trump had been banned weeks earlier after the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

There’s always Truth Social. Or Mastodon.
 

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Truth Social app to be available via web browser 'end of May': CEO
Author of the article:Reuters
Reuters
Helen Coster
Publishing date:May 02, 2022 • 1 day ago • 1 minute read • Join the conversation
This illustration photo shows a person checking the app store on a smartphone for "Truth Social", with a photo of former president Donald Trump on a computer screen in the background, in Los Angeles, Oct. 20, 2021.
This illustration photo shows a person checking the app store on a smartphone for "Truth Social", with a photo of former president Donald Trump on a computer screen in the background, in Los Angeles, Oct. 20, 2021. PHOTO BY CHRIS DELMAS /AFP via Getty Images / Files

Former U.S. President Donald Trump’s Truth Social app will launch on a web browser at the end of May, Chief Executive Devin Nunes said on Monday.


In a post on the platform, Nunes also said Truth Social has not yet been approved for launch in the Google Play store for Android devices.

“End of May we will launch PWA (Web Browser) this will allow access from any device,” Nunes wrote. “After that we will launch an Android App… pending approval from Google!”

Availability in the Google Play and Apple App stores is key to the app’s ability to scale up.

Truth Social’s parent company, Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG), launched with the mission of standing up to Big Tech, after Trump was kicked off Twitter, Facebook and YouTube for allegedly inciting or glorifying violence during the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol riots.

Yet the social media venture is limited by its reliance on Alphabet-owned Google and Apple, which operate app stores that dominate the smartphone market.

Truth Social launched in the Apple App store on Feb. 21 and was for a time the most downloaded free app there. It was number two on that list on Monday.

Trump began posting on the site late Thursday, for the first time since he posted one “truth” – as posts are called – on Feb. 14.

TMTG is planning to go public through a merger with blank-check firm Digital World Acquisition Corp (DWAC) . The deal is under scrutiny by the Securities and Exchange Commission and is likely months away from being finalized.
 

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Trump Organization settles lawsuit over D.C. hotel payments tied to inauguration
Author of the article:Reuters
Reuters
Jonathan Stempel
Publishing date:May 03, 2022 • 18 hours ago • 2 minute read • Join the conversation

NEW YORK — Donald Trump’s family business and his 2017 U.S. presidential inaugural committee will pay $750,000 to settle a lawsuit by Washington, D.C.’s attorney general claiming that the committee funneled excessive amounts of charitable funds to the Trump International Hotel.


The payment is nearly three-quarters of the $1.03 million that Attorney General Karl Racine said the nonprofit inaugural committee “dramatically” overpaid to rent event space at the hotel, including for a private party for Trump’s adult children on the night Trump became president.

Both the Trump Organization and the committee denied wrongdoing in agreeing to settle the January 2020 lawsuit.

“After he was elected, one of the first actions Donald Trump took was illegally using his own inauguration to enrich his family,” Racine said in a statement. “Nonprofit funds cannot be used to line the pockets of individuals, no matter how powerful they are.”

The $750,000 will go to two nonprofits that support youth in Washington, D.C.


Trump was not a defendant. His family is expecting soon to sell the hotel, located several blocks southeast of the White House, to Miami investment firm CGI Merchant Group.

The hotel will be converted to a Waldorf Astoria, and Trump’s name will come down.

In light of the sale, “we have reached a settlement to end all litigation with Democrat Attorney General Racine,” Trump, a Republican, said in a statement provided by his company.

“This was yet another example of weaponizing Law Enforcement against the Republican Party and, in particular, the former President of the United States,” Trump added. “So bad for our Country!”

The inaugural committee and its insurer decided that settling would avoid the higher cost of litigating Racine’s “baseless allegations,” and the committee now plans to wind down its affairs, its lawyer Lee Blalack said in a statement.

In November 2019, Trump paid $2 million to settle claims by New York Attorney General Letitia James that he misused his namesake charitable foundation.

She said this resulted in funds being used to advance his 2016 presidential campaign and pay for a $10,000 portrait of Trump, among other expenses.

James is conducting a civil probe into the Trump Organization, and has said she has found evidence it misstated values of some assets for more than a decade.