On Monday, a federal judge rejected Donald Trump’s legal arguments that getting 57 percent of white America to vote for a grown-ass man who still uses magic markers makes him immune to criminal investigations, ordering the baboon-brained president to turn over his tax returns to New York prosecutors. The federal court ruling ended a weekend that saw Trump throwing hissy fits about Nancy Pelosi, tantrums on Twitter and his secretary of energy under a rapidly-moving impeachment bus.
In a 75-page ruling, Southern District of New York Judge Victor Marrero ruled that the Russia-backed commander-in-chief must hand over eight years of personal and corporate tax returns to Manhattan’s district attorney’s office, which is investigating Trump for hush money payments he made to not-so-silent adult film star Stormy Daniels through his fixer Michael Cohen, according to the New York Times. Trump’s lawyers had argued the “extraordinary claim” that the Constitution makes the president immune from criminal investigations, a proposition that the judge called “repugnant.”
Attorneys representing the president vowed to appeal the case to ensure the criminal in the White House gets away with his actions. If the White House attorneys are unsuccessful, Trump’s tax returns still won’t be made public. They will be protected by the laws governing grand jury proceedings unless he is indicted.
In a Monday morning tweetstorm, Trump blamed all of this on the Democrats:
The news about Trump’s tax returns capped off a turbulent weekend of reports that revealed the depth and consistency of the doo-doo Donald Trump has stepped in. Apparently, the newest trend in Washington, D.C.’s intelligence community is whistleblowing.
The Associated Press reports that another whistleblower has stepped forward who may have insight into Trump’s phone call strong-arming Ukrainian officials into interfering in the 2020 presidential elections. Not only is the new anonymous inside source reported to have firsthand knowledge of Trump’s collusion attempt, but the person is said to have evidence of how officials connected to the president attempted to cover up and discredit the first whistleblower complaint.
The AP reports:
With Congress out for another week and many Republicans reticent to speak out, a text from attorney Mark Zaid that a second individual had emerged and could corroborate the original whistleblower’s complaint gripped Washington and potentially heightened the stakes for Trump.
Zaid, who represents both whistleblowers, told The Associated Press that the new whistleblower works in the intelligence field and has spoken to the intelligence community’s internal watchdog.
The original whistleblower, a CIA officer, filed a formal complaint with the inspector general in August that triggered the impeachment inquiry. The document alleged that Trump had used a July telephone call with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to investigate a political rival, Joe Biden, and his son Hunter, prompting a White House cover-up.
The push came even though there was no evidence of wrongdoing by the former vice president or his son, who served on the board of a Ukrainian gas company. Trump and his supporters deny that he did anything improper, but the White House has struggled to come up with a unified response.
A second whistleblower with direct knowledge could undermine efforts by Trump and his allies to discredit the original complaint. They have called it politically motivated, claimed it was filed improperly and dismissed it as unreliable because it was based on secondhand or thirdhand information.
Meanwhile, back at the White House, Trump told fellow Republicans that he never even wanted to talk to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky but Secretary of Energy Rick Perry made him do it, possibly prompting attorneys for Amber Guyger and R. Kelly to say: “Damnit, why didn’t I think of that?
Axios reports:
Trump made these comments during a conference call with House members on Friday, according to 3 sources on the call.
Per the sources, Trump rattled off the same things he has been saying publicly — that his call with Zelensky was “perfect”and he did nothing wrong.
But he then threw Perry into the mix and said something to the effect of: “Not a lot of people know this but, I didn’t even want to make the call. The only reason I made the call was because Rick asked me to. Something about an LNG [liquefied natural gas] plant,” one source said, recalling the president’s comments. 2 other sources confirmed the first source’s recollection.
Perry, who recently announced that he will resign from Trump’s cabinet, admitted that he spoke to the president about the Eastern European country, saying: “Absolutely, I asked the president multiple times. ‘Mr. President, we think it is in the United States and in Ukraine’s best interest that you and the President of Ukraine have conversations and discuss the options that are there.’”
But the White House’s official description of the June 25 phone call creates a unique problem with Trump’s Rick-Perry-bullied-me-into-committing-a-crime defense:
Trump never talked to Zelensky about energy.
Or maybe Trump’s public plea for China to also interfere in the electoral process was part of Trump’s trade deal to get a cheap shipment of Chinese whistles because the sheer number of people who are stepping forward to sound the alarm on the Trump administration makes the Nine Trey Gangstas look like the Greater Shiloh Baptist usher board.
Anyway…
How was your weekend?