The Latest - Friday, October 9

Pet_Proletariat · October 13, 2020, 4:31pm

Welcome to a new community space for breaking news

A daily community thread to collect updates and events pertinent to the daily shock and awe, this is The Latest.

This thread has ended. The discussion continues: The Latest - Monday, October 12

Today’s WTF

Earlier today:

House Democrats will create a commission to review whether Trump is capable of carrying out his duties as president. Speaker Nancy Pelosi made the announcement after expressing concerns that Trump is suffering a “disassociation from reality” and “is, shall we say, in an altered state right now.” Pelosi and Rep. Jamie Raskin will hold a press conference at 10:15 a.m. ET “to discuss the introduction of the Commission on Presidential Capacity to Discharge the Powers and Duties of Office Act.” Trump responded on Twitter by claiming that “Crazy Nancy is the one who should be under observation.” He added: “They don’t call her Crazy for nothing!” He also retweeted Republican allies like Rep. Mark Green, who said he “wouldn’t put it past Speaker Pelosi to stage a coup.” The 25th amendment does allow Pelosi to create a panel to review Trump’s health and fitness for office, but the House of Representatives will not be able to remove Trump from office without the consent of Mike Pence and members of Trump’s cabinet. (The Guardian / Associated Press)
The Justice Department’s review into the origins of the Russia investigation will not be released until after the election. Attorney General Bill Barr has been telling top Republicans that U.S. Attorney John Durham’s report about alleged abuses by the Obama administration and intelligence community will not result in any indictments or a public report before Nov. 3. Trump has publicly criticized Barr and FBI Director Christopher Wray for not moving fast enough with Durham’s inquiry, saying, “They want to get more, more, more. They keep getting more. I said, ‘you don’t need any more.’” (Axios)

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Previously

Windthin · October 9, 2020, 4:56pm

Trump was involved in not one but TWO $21M scams, with dual reporting coming in from the NYT and WaPo.

More details continue to come out about the Michigan plot, including a plan to attack police in their homes.

matt · October 9, 2020, 5:12pm

Windthin · October 9, 2020, 5:54pm

Here is a sitting sheriff, Dar Leaf, mansplaining how the conspirators who wanted to kidnap Gov. Whitmer & attack police in their homes were “always nice to me” & may have “wanted to make a citizens’ felony arrest.”

I think he missed the point.

dragonfly9 · October 9, 2020, 8:23pm

Another installment from NYT on T’s Taxes.

A windfall coming from Phil Ruffin - $21 million…that helped fund his campaign at a crucial time.

Tax records expose more than $21 million in highly unusual payments from the Las Vegas hotel Donald Trump owns with Phil Ruffin, routed through other Trump companies and paid out in cash

Donald J. Trump needed money.

His “self-funded” presidential campaign was short on funds, and he was struggling to win over leery Republican donors. His golf courses and the hotel he would soon open in the Old Post Office in Washington were eating away at what cash he had left on hand, his tax records show.

And in early 2016, Deutsche Bank, the last big lender still doing business with him, unexpectedly turned down his request for a loan. The funds, Mr. Trump had told his bankers, would help shore up his Turnberry golf resort in Scotland. Some bankers feared the money would instead be diverted to his campaign.

That January, Mr. Trump sold a lot of stock — $11.1 million worth. He sold another $11.8 million worth in February, and $7.5 million in March. In April, he sold $8.1 million more.

And the president’s long-hidden tax records, obtained by The New York Times, also reveal this: how he engineered a sudden financial windfall — more than $21 million in what experts describe as highly unusual one-off payments from the Las Vegas hotel he owns with his friend the casino mogul Phil Ruffin.

In previous articles on the tax records, The Times has reported that, in all but a few years since 2000, chronic business losses and aggressive accounting strategies have allowed Mr. Trump to largely avoid paying federal income taxes. And while the hundreds of millions of dollars earned from “The Apprentice” and his attendant celebrity rescued his business career, those riches, together with the marketing power of the Trump brand, were ebbing when he announced his 2016 presidential run.

The new findings, part of The Times’s continuing investigation, cast light on Mr. Trump’s financial maneuverings in that time of fiscal turmoil and unlikely political victory. Indeed, they may offer a hint to one of the enduring mysteries of his campaign: In its waning days, as his own giving had slowed to a trickle, Mr. Trump contributed $10 million, leaving many people wondering where the burst of cash had come from.

The tax records, by their nature, do not specify whether the more than $21 million in payments from the Trump-Ruffin hotel helped prop up Mr. Trump’s campaign, his businesses or both. But they do show how the cash flowed, in a chain of transactions, to several Trump-controlled companies and then directly to Mr. Trump himself.

The bulk of the money went through a company called Trump Las Vegas Sales and Marketing that had little previous income, no clear business purpose and no employees. The Trump-Ruffin joint venture wrote it all off as a business expense.

dragonfly9 · October 9, 2020, 8:17pm

NBC reporting - How can Bill Barr have two different interpretations of this?

dragonfly9 · October 9, 2020, 8:19pm

Tonight’s Fox “Live” Dr. check of the president is not Live or in person but the Dr. will work remotely.

matt · October 15, 2020, 5:04pm