From the Washington Post:
In January, Kobach told the New York Times that he had described the organization to Trump in a personal phone call and that the president had given it his blessing.
“I talked with the president, and the “We Build the Wall Effort’’ came up,” Kobach said. “The president said ‘the project has my blessing, and you can tell the media that.’”
I guess that blows the whole “I never had anything to do with it” excuse out of the water.
According to CBC news the arrest and charges are by NY State. So no pardons in the offing.
Honestly, I feel like starting a fund-raising organization targeted to Trump supporters saying I need money to do Trump stuff to support Trump. I could maybe pick up a few quick bucks?
Are we sure? The indictment is filed by SDNY and signed by Audrey Strauss, the Acting US Attorney of SDNY.
There is a lot to keep track of all at once, though, with Trump’s tax returns again in the news with Cy Vance’s Manhattan DA’s Office.
No, I am not sure. That’s why I hedged it by saying that CBC reported it. If it is SDNY, then it is certainly federal. So Barr will quash it, maybe?
It sounds like the CBC got it wrong. As per the Washington Post:
Also, and this is just an interesting detail:
I agree with @kenobi_65. CBC got it wrong.
Barr may try to quash it, but he’ll have to have to expend some significant amount of “unbiased” capital to do it. He can’t kibosh Acting US Attorney Audrey Strauss, thanks to Lindsey Graham. Graham is blocking any hearings to confirm a permanent SDNY US Attorney replacement. That’s what made Geoffrey Berman’s move so brilliant. He stepped down only after he picked his own replacement and was assured she could not be fired by Barr.
I kind of hate to rely on Graham as the linchpin pin that safeguards this prosecution, but at the moment, it’s what we’ve got.
For some reason, in almost every picture, Bannon looks like a homeless bum who has not had a bath in about two months. I always expect that in real life one would see flies buzzing around him, attracted from a considerable distance. Who sez that looks can be deceiving?
The possible double-meaning could very well be intentional.
That’s actually a thing now?? Science help us!
Interesting how Lindsey Graham seems to be the bulwark against Barr being able to quash this. Could it be that, in spite of years of having his nose seemingly parked up Orange Julius Caesar’s butt, that he has wanted to bring Trump down and decided to play Iago to Trump’s Othello?
Barr probably already tried to quash it when he fired the previous prosecutor and tried to install a crony. Whether that means he’ll be very motivated to quash it or will wash his hands of it, I dunno.
The Daily Beast reports that Steve Bannon and Brian Kolfage planned to use the email addresses they collected from the build-the-wall group to start a Republican consulting and fundraising firm.
“Knights” is a not so silent KKK reference dogwhistle that is used by outlaw MCs. “White” in addition is a nice touch. Coincidence, surely.
I think it was Jon Stewart who called him “the best-looking guy at the liquor store.”
Yeah. I think though it was “The best-looking guy at the liquor store at midnight.”
One of the places these scammers were building a wall is next to the National Butterfly Center, which is near Mission, Texas. The twitter account for the butterfly center has some amusing posts in the past couple of days, such as, “WE TOLD YOU SO!!! From the beginning, we said this was a Bannon scheme to raise dark money for the administration & help @FisherSandG defraud the government. We are sure there will be more coming out…Just wait!!! Oh, and SUCK IT, @BrianKolfage”
Since this was a somewhat local story with a lot of the scheme originating here in Colorado the local news had an amusing take on it last night.
It seems that it keeps getting dumber as you dig into it.
That could be said for most of the Trump Presidency.
I love the phrase “I wish them well in their cavity searches”.
The National Butterfly Center is currently generating enough schadenfreude to light a small town, and I can’t say I blame them.
Please tell me there is a non-zero possibility for Bannon and his group to end-up in a Mexican prison on the other side of the wall. Maybe thru some sort of prisoner exchange deal? Or maybe we just pay Mexico to take them.