Tag Archives: Jeffrey Epstein

Daily Beast: Schumer Explodes at Trump Sending His Trial Lawyer to Interview Ghislaine Maxwell: ‘Stinks of High Corruption’

Posted on by
Reply

Top Democrat torches Todd Blanche’s prison sit-down with Jeffrey Epstein’s accomplice and gloats about an “Epstein Recess.”

Chuck Schumer blasted Donald Trump for sending his “personal lawyer” to interview Ghislaine Maxwell in prison in what he described as a clear “conflict of interest.”

“Sending Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, Todd Blanche, to interview Ghislaine Maxwell while she’s in prison, a woman who’s been convicted of abusing people, to offer some kind of corrupt deal so that she can exonerate Donald Trump just stinks of high corruption,” the Senate minority leader said in a video posted on X.

Blanche was appointed deputy attorney general in March, serving under Attorney General Pam Bondi, but he is most famous for having served as Trump’s lead counsel in his criminal case a year earlier.

The 50-year-old lawyer traveled to the Federal Correctional Institution Tallahassee on Thursday and spoke with Maxwell for several hours, in a meeting that was widely criticized on social media.

In his own post on X Thursday, Blanche confirmed the meeting and announced a follow-up session: “Today, I met with Ghislaine Maxwell, and I will continue my interview of her tomorrow. The Department of Justice will share additional information about what we learned at the appropriate time.”

Maxwell, 63, is serving a 20-year sentence for trafficking under-age girls for Jeffrey Epstein. The social links between her and Epstein with Trump continue to dog the president.

Blanche did not disclose what was discussed during the six-hour meeting.

However, Maxwell was said to have “answered every single question” during Thursday’s interview with Blanche, according to her lawyer David Markus. “She answered all questions and did not take the Fifth,” he added.

Amazingly, it appears to be the first time Maxwell—who declined to testify at her trial in 2021—has ever been formaly interviewed about the Epstein case.

Jonathan Turley, a leading legal commentator and professor at the George Washington University Law School, wrote on X that he had recently spoken with Maxwell’s counsel, Leah Saffian, and she “surprisingly maintained that neither state nor federal investigators ever interviewed Maxwell.

He added: “That struck me as curious in a scandal involving a myriad of state and federal investigations. If so, she may have new information.”

Within minutes of Schumer’s first tweet, the 74-year-old fired off a second, aimed at House Republicans, who had just departed Washington for their August break.

“It’s the first day of House Republicans fleeing town for their Epstein Recess. They high-tailed it out of here hoping to hide the story. But the story is growing louder by the hour with Trump and the administration’s lies.”

The House’s early getaway heightened Democratic accusations of a Republican Trump-Epstein cover-up.

The Daily Beast has contacted the Justice Department for comment.

Yes, it’s “fishy”, but remember that Ghislaine Maxwell is 63 and already serving a 20 year sentence.

Schumer Explodes at Trump Sending His Trial Lawyer to Interview Ghislaine Maxwell: ‘Stinks of High Corruption’
Top Democrat torches Todd Blanche’s prison sit-down with Jeffrey Epstein’s accomplice and gloats about an “Epstein Recess.”

https://www.thedailybeast.com/schumer-explodes-at-trump-sending-his-trial-lawyer-to-interview-ghislaine-maxwell-stinks-of-high-corruption

Raw Story: ‘Blindsided and annoyed’: Pam [Bimbo #3] Bondi insiders tell of fury at Tulsi Gabbard

Posted on by
Reply

Attorney General Pam [Bimbo #3] Bondi found herself scrambling to contain the political fallout after Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard hijacked her handling of the Jeffrey Epstein crisis and launched an uncoordinated attack on Barack Obama, according to several sources close to the AG.

Gabbard, reportedly desperate to repair her standing with Trump after being “excoriated” and excluded from recent meetings, suddenly demanded [Bimbo #3] Bondi investigate what she called a “treasonous conspiracy” by Obama officials regarding the 2016 Russia investigation.

The move caught [Bimbo #3] Bondi completely off-guard, the sources told The New York Times. Fresh off a nasty fight with top FBI officials over the mess regarding her announcement that an Epstein client list didn’t exist, the attorney general was given “little warning” that Gabbard was about to dump the Obama investigation in her lap, sources said.

Sources inside her camp told the Times she “felt blindsided and annoyed.”

Gabbard made the announcement earlier this week, then went into detail during a surprise appearance at a White House press conference on Wednesday.

“She’s, like, hotter than everybody. She’s the hottest one in the room right now,” Trump declared at a White House event Tuesday, signaling Gabbard was back in his good graces after her diversionary attack relieved pressure from the “never-ending Epstein file crisis.”

But the stunt put [Bimbo #3] Bondi in an “nearly untenable position.” Her staff scrambled for a solution that would satisfy Trump without committing to a politically explosive Obama investigation with “unpredictable legal and political consequences.”

Hours after Gabbard’s provocative White House briefing, [Bimbo #3] Bondi’s deputies posted an ambiguous statement announcing a “strike force” to examine the accusations—though details about the group’s operations and timeline remained absent.

A spokesman for Obama dismissed the attacks as “ridiculous and a weak attempt at distraction.”

Current and former officials warned that building a coherent conspiracy case against Obama-era intelligence officials would be “challenging,” while prosecuting Obama himself would be “practically impossible” given Supreme Court immunity protections.

Gabbard stepped far outside traditional intelligence boundaries by directly accusing Obama of criminal wrongdoing, the Times reported.

“The evidence that we have found and that we have released directly point to President Obama leading the manufacturing of this intelligence assessment,” she claimed, though she “produced no evidence of wrongdoing.”

Republican senators offered [Bimbo #3] Bondi an escape route by suggesting a special counsel—forcing her into a “tactical U-turn” since she’s opposed such appointments in political cases.

‘Blindsided and annoyed’: Pam Bondi insiders tell of fury at Tulsi Gabbard

https://www.rawstory.com/gabbard-bondi-obama

Maddow Blog | On Epstein, Senate Republican admits the party is trying to give Trump ‘cover’

Posted on by
Reply

When it comes to transparency and disclosures in the Jeffrey Epstein scandal, arguably no Senate Democrat has been as aggressive as Sen. Ruben Gallego. In fact, last week, the Arizonan became the first senator to push a resolution to formally demand the release of documents from the Justice Department.

But because Gallego is in the Democratic minority, he had limited options to force a vote. He took the only credible step available to him: Last Thursday, Gallego went to the Senate floor and sought unanimous consent on his proposal. He knew, of course, that the effort would fail if only one Republican objected, and one did: Oklahoma’s Markwayne Mullin, an ardent Trump ally, balked.

Seven days later, as NBC News reported, the two faced off again:

In other words, Gallego rejected a narrow and toothless Republican alternative after Mullin rejected a more meaningful Democratic effort. (The Arizonan offered to back both resolutions, but the Oklahoman wouldn’t take the deal.)

As part of the back and forth, however, Mullin made an off-hand comment that stood out.

“I’m sure this would be handled just like any other thing [the Democrats] have tried to go after like the baseless impeachments. Or the baseless special counsels. Or the unbelievable amount of charges they tried to file against the president,” Mullin said. “I’m sure this would be handled the exact same way. What we’re simply wanting to do here is give [Trump] cover.”

For now, let’s not dwell on the fact that Trump’s impeachments weren’t “baseless.” Let’s also skip past the fact that the incumbent Republican president faced investigations from two special counsels — Robert Mueller and Jack Smith — and neither was “baseless.”

Rather, I’m interested in the GOP senator’s acknowledgement that “we” are trying to give the president “cover” in the Epstein scandal.

As The New Republic asked, “What exactly do Trump and his administration need cover for?”

For now, the party has not tried to answer the question, though Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut noted via Bluesky around the same time as the Gallego/Mullin exchange, “The number one priority of Republicans is protecting Donald Trump. It’s not protecting you. It’s protecting him.”

Three words: Midterms are coming!

And they’re going to be mayhem for Republicans.

On Epstein, Senate Republican admits the party is trying to give Trump ‘cover’
As observer asked, in reference to the Jeffrey Epstein scandal, “What exactly do Trump and his administration need cover for?”

https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/epstein-senate-republican-admits-party-trying-give-trump-cover-rcna221110

Mediaite: Trump Aides and Allies Swarm NBC News to Tell How Strictly They’ll Enforce Not Talking About Epstein

Posted on by
Reply

Advisers and allies of President Donald Trump swarmed NBC News reporters to outline a new strategy of strict silence on the so-called “Epstein Files” flap.

It has been almost three weeks since the Trump administration first tried to bury the promised mountain of information on deceased sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein, and the heat just keeps going up. At every turn, Trump’s efforts to quash the story have only intensified interest in it, and deepened Trump’s own association with it.

Just this week alone:

The latest attempt to persuade the press and the public to drop it appears to be telling the press just how strictly the White House plans to enforce a policy of total silence.

A phalanx of Trump aides and Republican allies spoke to the NBC News reporting team of Jonathan Allen, Matt Dixon, Henry J. Gomez, Allan Smith, and Natasha Korecki about the strategy:

President Donald Trump and his aides have settled on silence as a strategy to stamp out criticism of his refusal to release files detailing the federal government’s investigation of Epstein, according to a senior administration official and Republicans familiar with the White House’s thinking.

For weeks, stories about Epstein, the financier and pal to political luminaries who died by suicide awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges in 2019, have been making headlines.

In a break from Trump’s usual crisis communications template — which emphasizes an all-hands-on-deck approach to defending him on television and on social media — the Epstein case has been met with more restraint from the White House.

Trump himself has signaled that he doesn’t want members of his administration talking about the matter nonstop, a person close to the White House told NBC News. And White House aides have made it clear that no one in the administration is allowed to talk about Epstein without high-level vetting, according to a senior administration official who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

“The communications office has to be directly involved in every aspect of this,” the official said. “Every ‘i’ must be dotted, and every ‘t’ must be crossed through us.”

The piece is unlikely to decrease the questions being asked, but could serve as a warning to Republicans who wish to stay in the White House’s good graces.

Read the full report here.

Trump Aides and Allies Swarm NBC News to Tell How Strictly They’ll Enforce Not Talking About Epstein
Advisers and allies of President Donald Trump swarmed NBC News reporters to outline a new strategy of strict silence on the so-called “Epstein Files” flap.
Trump Aides and Allies Swarm NBC News to Tell How Strictly They’ll Enforce Not Talking About Epstein

Alternet: Trump DOJ sitting on ‘more than 100,000 pages’ of unreleased Epstein materials: NY Times

Posted on by
Reply

A new report is shedding light on the truly massive trove of evidence the Department of Justice (DOJ) has amassed on Jeffrey Epstein — most of which has yet to see the light of day.

The New York Times reported Thursday on what went on behind the scenes during an extensive review of the Epstein files that the DOJ conducted for several months earlier this year. According to the Times, DOJ staff combed through “more than 100,000 pages of documents” pertaining to the 2019 federal investigation into the convicted pedophile.

DOJ attorneys reviewed the trove of evidence four times between February and April, and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche instructed staff to flag any mention of President Donald Trump, along with any other prominent public figures, “including former President Bill Clinton and Prince Andrew.” Then in May, Attorney General Pam Bondi confirmed to Trump that his name was in the Epstein documents, as the Wall Street Journal reported this week.

The Times reported that senior Trump administration officials like Blanche, Bondi, FBI Director Kash Patel and Deputy Director Dan Bongino have maintained there is no evidence implicating anyone outside of Epstein in the evidence. However, Trump’s MAGA base has continued to harp on the issue, believing that a full release of the evidence may reveal the names of previously unknown co-conspirators and associates of Epstein.

ABC News reported earlier this month on the FBI’s indexing of the Epstein evidence, and what has yet to be made public. This reportedly includes “40 computers and electronic devices, 26 storage drives, more than 70 CDs and six recording devices,” which “hold more than 300 gigabytes of data.”

“The evidence also includes approximately 60 pieces of physical evidence, including photographs, travel logs, employee lists, more than $17,000 in cash, five massage tables, blueprints of Epstein’s island and Manhattan home, four busts of female body parts, a pair of women’s cowboy boots and one stuffed dog,” the ABC report continued.

The network further reported that the FBI is sitting on logbooks of visitors to Epstein’s “Little Saint James” island — which housed his private compound — along with a log of boat trips to and from the island. The famed “client list” may also be among those items, as ABC reported that the FBI had a “document with names” among its Epstein-related evidence.

Trump DOJ sitting on ‘more than 100,000 pages’ of unreleased Epstein materials: NY Times

https://www.alternet.org/trump-doj-epstein-materials

Daily Mail: Pam [Bimbo #3] Bondi sidelined by sudden medical condition after bombshell report claims AG told Trump he was in Epstein files

Posted on by
Reply

Pam [Bimbo #3] Bondi abruptly canceled her appearance at a high-profile anti-trafficking summit on Wednesday, citing a sudden medical emergency.

The attorney general – who has been under siege over the Epstein files – was scheduled to appear at CPAC’s Summit Against Human Trafficking when a speaker at the event made the stunning announcement. 

‘I do have a note from the attorney general, from Attorney General Pam [Bimbo #3] Bondi, that I wanted to share,’ Acting Assistant Attorney General Matthew R. Galeotti said. 

He then read her statement aloud: ‘I’m sorry to miss all of my CPAC friends today…’

‘Unfortunately, I am recovering from a recently torn cornea, which is preventing me from being with you. I truly wish I was able to join you and support all of the work being done on this critical issue.’ 

At the conclusion of the statement, Galeotti laughed nervously as scattered applause came from the audience. 

‘We appreciate the applause for her and not boos for me,’ he joked. ‘So I will do my best to fill those big shoes.’ 

Several people can be seen walking out of the conference after it was revealed the attorney general would not be speaking.

The Department of Justice did not provide any further information about [Bimbo #3] Bondi’s condition. 

Her injury came just hours after a bombshell report claimed she personally informed President Trump that his name appeared ‘multiple times’ in the Jeffrey Epstein files. 

[Bimbo #3] Bondi’s appearance at the CPAC summit was highly-anticipated given her central role in the administration’s long-promised disclosures about the billionaire pedophile. 

Adding to the intrigue, the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday that [Bimbo #3] Bondi had informed President Trump in May that his name appeared more frequently than expected in the trove of sealed Epstein files. 

[Bimbo #3] Bondi had warned Trump that while the documents included ‘unverified hearsay,’ they also contained child pornography and sensitive victim information. She also advised against further public releases, the WSJ said.

The Journal’s report directly contradicts Trump’s public statements about the drama surrounding the Epstein files. 

On July 15, when asked whether his name came up in a briefing with [Bimbo #3] Bondi about the Epstein records, Trump replied bluntly: ‘No, no.’ 

He described the meeting as ‘just a very quick briefing,’ and accused former FBI Director James Comey of ‘making up’ the contents of the files.

Trump’s communications director, Steven Cheung, slammed the Journal’s reporting as ‘fake news,’ responding to the Daily Mail in a statement.

‘The fact is that the President kicked [Epstein] out of his club for being a creep,’ Cheung said. ‘This is nothing more than a continuation of the fake news stories concocted by the Democrats and the liberal media, just like the Obama Russiagate scandal, which President Trump was right about.’

But the Journal’s reporting was backed by multiple senior officials, who said [Bimbo #3] Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche briefed Trump as part of a ‘routine meeting.’

The Journal also noted that [Bimbo #3] Bondi recommended withholding additional Epstein documents due to their inclusion of graphic material and potential privacy violations.

‘They turned out to be child porn downloaded by that disgusting Jeffrey Epstein,’ [Bimbo #3] Bondi said at a July 8 cabinet meeting. ‘Never going to be released, never going to see the light of day.’

[Bimbo #3] Bondi’s explanation has done little to quell outrage particularly from Trump’s MAGA base, which has grown increasingly hostile towards over what they see as stall tactics and contradictions. 

Her promise earlier this year on Fox News that she had the Epstein ‘client list’ on her desk proved hollow, as the long-awaited ‘Phase I’ release offered no significant revelations. 

A leaked DOJ-FBI memo later revealed that no such ‘client list’ had ever been located in agency files.

The backlash has ignited conspiracies of a cover-up and infighting within pro-Trump circles. 

Calls to release everything have grown louder, and some prominent MAGA influencers have demanded [Bimbo #3] Bondi’s resignation. 

The administration’s failure to deliver on the campaign promise of transparency in the Epstein case is becoming a political flashpoint. 

Trump has had recent beef with the Wall Street Journal, threatening to sue the publication and its owner Rupert Murdoch for publishing last week a piece claiming he sent Epstein a 50th birthday card with a hand-drawn outline of a naked women. 

The paper claims that Trump wrote in the card’s note: ‘May every day be another wonderful secret.’ 

‘I never wrote a picture in my life. I don’t draw pictures of women,’ Trump fired back when asked if he transmitted such a card. ‘It’s not my language. It’s not my words.’

Legal experts say such a defamation lawsuit would be difficult to win, but the threat underscores the president’s rising frustration with how the Epstein story is dominating headlines – and damaging his team’s credibility.

How convenient, and from someone who’d scarcely know the truth if it bit her!

Pam Bondi sidelined by sudden medical condition after bombshell report
The attorney general was scheduled to speak at CPAC’s Summit Against Human Trafficking when a speaker at the event made the stunning announcement.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14934851/Pam-Bondi-sidelined-sudden-medical-condition-bombshell-report-claims-AG-told-Trump-Epstein-files.html

Daily Beast: Epstein Victim Twice Urged FBI to Investigate Trump

Posted on by
Reply

The disgraced financier’s former employee recalled an alleged incident in which Trump stared at her bare legs.

Disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein’s first accuser says she warned the Federal Bureau of Investigation on two occasions to look into Donald Trump’s conduct as an associate of the disgraced sex offender.

In an interview with The New York Times, Maria Farmer, who in 1996 was the first to report Epstein’s sexual offenses, recalled a 1995 encounter with Trump after she was summoned to see Epstein at his luxurious Manhattan offices.

Farmer, who was preparing to do some work for Epstein, said she was wearing running shorts when she turned up at the building to find Trump in a suit. Farmer told the Times that she started feeling scared as Trump allegedly stared at her bare legs, but Epstein came into the room and broke the tension. Farmer said Epstein reportedly said to Trump, “No, no. She’s not here for you.”

The incident left Farmer shaken, with her alleging that she could hear Trump tell Epstein in the other room that he thought she was a teenager, the Times reported.

The next year, Farmer told the FBI that she was sexually assaulted by Epstein and his alleged accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year prison sentence, and warned that the two had “committed multiple serious sex crimes” against her and other girls, including her then-15-year-old sister, Annie.

Although Farmer, now in her mid-fifties, said she has not seen Trump engage in any inappropriate behavior and has had no other uncomfortable encounters with the MAGA figurehead, the incident was enough for her to tell the FBI to look into the people in Epstein’s orbit, including Trump.

According to Farmer, she was alarmed by what she saw working at Epstein’s mansion, including his pursuit of young girls and using them to gain favor with prominent people, including the likes of Alan Dershowitz and former President Bill Clinton.

Farmer also spoke to the Sixth Precinct of the New York Police Department in 1996, police records show, the Times reported.

White House Communications Director Steven Cheung denied Farmer’s claims in a statement, saying, “The president was never in his office.” He added, “The fact is that the president kicked him out of his club for being a creep.”

Farmer filed a lawsuit against the federal government on May 29 on the grounds that it failed to protect her and other victims of Epstein and Maxwell. Farmer said she warned of Epstein’s associates again in a 2006 FBI interview, but nothing came of it, the Times reported.

Epstein was indicted in 2006, later pleading guilty to two felony charges, including soliciting a minor. Then in 2019, he was charged again and accused of trafficking dozens of girls as young as 14 years old. He was found dead in his jail cell at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York, in what was said to have been a suicide.

As Trump looks to bury his alleged connections to Epstein in the press—filing a $10 billion lawsuit over a Wall Street Journal report on a lewd drawing he allegedly sent Epstein for his 50th birthday—Farmer’s testimony has picked up new steam as MAGA demands that the Trump administration unseal all Epstein files.

Previously, Trump referred to Epstein as a “terrific guy” in a 2002 New York magazine article, with one of Epstein’s exes also describing Trump as Epstein’s “bro.”

Yet in a lengthy Truth Social post on July 16, Trump ripped some of his followers for believing what he called the “Jeffrey Epstein Hoax.”

“Their new SCAM is what we will forever call the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax, and my PAST supporters have bought into this ‘bullshit,’ hook, line, and sinker. They haven’t learned their lesson, and probably never will, even after being conned by the Lunatic Left for 8 long years,” he wrote. “Let these weaklings continue forward and do the Democrats work, don’t even think about talking of our incredible and unprecedented success, because I don’t want their support any more!”

Epstein Victim Twice Named Trump to Law Enforcement
The disgraced financier’s former employee recalled an alleged incident in which Trump stared at her bare legs.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/epstein-victim-twice-named-trump-to-law-enforcement

MSNBC: The demise of Trump’s lawsuit against Bob Woodward offers a reminder to his other targets

Posted on by
Reply

The demise of the president’s case against the journalist offers a broader lesson about the benefits of fighting back — and the folly of appeasement.

Late Friday, Donald Trump announced a new lawsuit against The Wall Street Journal’s publisher, corporate parent and individual reporters who wrote an article about Jeffrey Epstein that the president didn’t like. The civil suit — which the Republican described as “a POWERHOUSE Lawsuit” for reasons unknown — marked a historical rarity: There’s no modern precedent for a sitting U.S. president suing a newspaper over an article.

But as it turns out, right around the same time that Trump’s lawyers were filing their WSJ case, their client received some related news. NBC News reported:

A federal judge on Friday dismissed President Donald Trump’s nearly $50 million lawsuit against the journalist Bob Woodward for publishing tapes from interviews for his 2020 best-seller ‘Rage’ as an audiobook. The decision by U.S. District Judge Paul Gardephe in Manhattan is a victory for Woodward, his publisher Simon & Schuster and its former owner Paramount Global.

In case anyone needs a fresher, it was in early 2023 when the Republican first filed a civil suit against Woodward and his publisher, claiming that the longtime journalist did not get his consent to release audio recordings of their interviews. Trump sought nearly $50 million in damages.

He’ll end up with nothing but legal bills. (The judge in this case was appointed by George W. Bush.)

The outcome was hardly unfamiliar. When Trump sued CNN and demanded $475 million, the case was thrown out; when he sued The Washington Post, the case was thrown out; and when he sued The New York Times, seeking $100 million, the case was thrown out.

In each instance, the Republican and his legal team filed highly dubious, politically motivated cases, each of which was based on claims that can charitably be described as “thin,” and in each instance, the journalists and their employers fought back — and won.

To be sure, there are some notable exceptions. When Trump filed a similarly weak case against ABC News, the network agreed to a controversial $15 million settlement with the president. More recently, in response to a bizarre lawsuit from the president, CBS News’ corporate parent agreed to an even more controversial $16 million settlement.

The broader lessons should be obvious. For one thing, those wildly unnecessary out-of-court settlements only emboldened Trump, effectively encouraging him to sue other news organizations that bothered him for one reason or another. Indeed, the president explicitly referenced the ABC News and CBS News payments when outing his new civil suit against The Wall Street Journal.

For another, the recent pattern suggests the only way to lose in a fight against Trump is to pursue a course rooted in appeasement. It’s true when it comes to law firms; it’s true when it comes to higher education; and it’s true in his court fights against news organizations.

Since Rupert Murdoch is unlikely to roll over and pay bribe money in feasance to King Donald, this will be King Donald’s biggest legal flop yet.

The demise of Trump’s lawsuit against Bob Woodward offers a reminder to his other targets
The demise of the president’s case against the journalist offers a broader lesson about the benefits of fighting back — and the folly of appeasement.

https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/demise-trumps-lawsuit-bob-woodward-offers-reminder-targets-rcna219958

The Grio: Trump escalates call for Obama’s arrest with AI video after ‘treasonous’ claim by his national intelligence director

Posted on by
Reply

Trump officials attempt to reframe the DOJ investigation of Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election, in which a special counsel found that Trump may have committed obstruction of justice.

President Donald Trump appeared to call for the arrest of his predecessor, former President Barack Obama, after posting an AI-generated video depicting America’s first Black president being placed in handcuffs in the Oval Office.

On the heels of controversy surrounding the FBI files related to convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, Trump turned his attention away from the bombshell report about a letter he sent his former friend, one for which he subsequently filed a defamation lawsuit—Trump on Sunday re-posted the AI video on Truth Social.

Trump published several posts about Obama, including clips from a Sunday Fox News interview with National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard, who accused Obama and his administration officials of engaging in a “treasonous conspiracy” against the Trump 2016 campaign.

On Friday, the Trump administration released an intelligence report that claimed top Obama officials manufactured the beginnings of a years-long federal investigation into Trump’s campaign and Russia alleging the foreign adversary’s interference in the U.S. presidential election. Gabbard said Obama and company were “not happy” about Trump’s shock 2016 victory against Hillary Clinton and therefore “decided that they would do everything possible to try to undermine his ability to do what voters tasked President Trump to do.”

Gabbard, a former Democrat who ran for the party’s presidential nomination in 2020, said the Obama administration relied on “manufactured intelligence” that claimed Russia had “helped Donald Trump get elected,” but argued intelligence before the 2016 election “contradicted” that claim. The national intelligence director said Russia “had neither the intent nor the capability” to hack the election.

The Trump official said she would also make a criminal referral to the FBI based on the recently released documents.

However, the investigation of Trump and his allies did not focus on whether Russia hacked the U.S. election, ie. changing votes or hacking voting systems. Intelligence reports revealed that Russia engaged in a sophisticated interference campaign that included extracting voter registration data in at least two states, and online interference campaigns—including a troll farm targeting Black voters. Analysis of Russia’s interference campaign concluded that it was an effective voter suppression tool.

A DOJ special counsel investigation of the 2016 Russia interference campaign, led by Robert Mueller, concluded that there was not enough evidence to charge any Trump official for conspiring with Russia. However, Mueller made clear his report did not absolve Trump of possible obstruction. His 448-page report outlines 10 potential instances of obstruction of justice committed by Trump, including the firing of former FBI Director James Comey, who was leading an investigation of Russia and the Trump campaign.

Anthony Coley, a former DOJ official for the Biden administration, threw cold water on the Trump administration’s attempt to reframe the 2016 Russia probe. He told theGrio it’s a “distraction” from Trump’s Epstein controversy.

“Distraction, thy name is Donald Trump,” said Coley. “Donald Trump is attacking the left to keep the right from focusing on him. Trump thinks his base is too naive, too stupid even, to see that he’s been playing them on the Epstein matter.”

The former DOJ official added, “His latest claim about Russia and the 2016 election has been thoroughly debunked, including through a bipartisan investigation by the Senate Intelligence Committee and a top prosecutor that Trump’s own attorney general appointed.”The former DOJ official added, “His latest claim about Russia and the 2016 election has been thoroughly debunked, including through a bipartisan investigation by the Senate Intelligence Committee and a top prosecutor that Trump’s own attorney general appointed.”

King Donald is totally deranged and as daffy as they come!

What will it take to get this flake job into a memory-care unit or a mental asylum?

Trump escalates call for Obama’s arrest with AI video after ‘treasonous’ claim by his national intelligence director
Trump officials attempt to reframe the investigation of Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election.

https://thegrio.com/2025/07/21/trump-escalates-call-for-obama-arrest-ai-video