Independent: Joe Rogan finally realizes Trump doesn’t have evidence of his biggest complaint

The podcaster gave Trump a huge platform when he was a guest on the show in the final week of the 2024 presidential campaign

It has finally dawned on Joe Rogan that President Donald Trump doesn’t appear to have any evidence to back up the false claim that the 2020 election was stolen.

The podcaster gave Trump a huge platform when he was a guest on the show in the final week of the 2024 presidential election campaign, where he reeled off his widely-debunked grievance that the 2020 election was “fraudulent.”

Now, Rogan has shared his skepticism.

“I don’t think they have any evidence,” Rogan told his guest comedian Dave Smith on Tuesday’s episode ofthe Joe Rogan Experience, referring to Trump’s 2020 claims.

“I think there’s a lot of speculation and there’s a lot of consideration about mail-in ballots. There’s a lot of shenanigans,” Rogan added. “There’s a good record of shenanigans and there’s the reality of any kind of electronics can be hacked.”

“It was one of the most interesting parts of your podcast with him was when you asked him about that, it was like he really didn’t have anything to back it up,” Smith interjected.

Rogan then criticized Trump for not having a “tight 10 minutes” prepared to present his evidence and argument.

“If that was you or if that was me, I mean, there was some reason why I knew that they did something and I could give you all the facts, I would have that ready for anybody,” Rogan said. “Because…you’re, for four f***ing years they’ve been telling him he’s crazy for questioning the election. So after four years I’d have a f***ing tight 10 minutes on the election where I could just rattle off at you and rock your world with it.”

Rogan’s interview, which pulled in 38 million viewers within three days of airing, and other podcast appearances within the so-called “Manosphere” have been credited with helping Trump clinch the presidency.

Rogan, who endorsed Trump after the episode aired, gave him the opportunity to explain his evidence for claiming the 2020 election was stolen from him.

“I want to talk about 2020 because you said over and over again that you were robbed in 2020,” Rogan said. “How do you think you were robbed?”

Trump then launched into a familiar tirade about judges not having “what it took to turn over an election,” mail-in ballots being insecure, and Democrats using “Covid to cheat.”

Rogan appeared to sympathize with Trump. “You get labeled an election denier,” he said, drawing similarities with being labeled an “anti-vaxxer if you question some of the health consequences that people have from the Covid-19 shots.”

More recently, Rogan has been calling out the man he endorsed for president. In July, the podcaster ripped into the Justice Department’s handling of the Epstein files.

“They’ve got videotape and all a sudden they don’t,” Rogan said. “You had the director of the FBI on this show saying, ‘If there was [a videotape], nothing you’re looking for is on those tapes,’” referring to FBI Director Kash Patel’s interview with Rogan in June.

He also criticized the Trump administration’s aggressive ICE raids on his show, appearing to suggest that they had taken things too far.

“The targeting of migrant workers — not cartel members, not gang members, not drug dealers. Just construction workers. Showing up in construction sites, raiding them. Gardeners. Like, really?” Rogan said. “I don’t think anybody would have signed up for that.”

https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/us-politics/joe-rogan-trump-2020-election-b2815018.html

Slingshot News: ‘Claims From Katrina’: Sec. Kristi Noem Reveals Her Department Is 22 Years Behind Schedule On FEMA Aid In House Hearing

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/claims-from-katrina-sec-kristi-noem-reveals-her-department-is-22-years-behind-schedule-on-fema-aid-in-house-hearing/vi-AA1L50Gp

Slingshot News: ‘I Will Find Out’: Pam Bondi Exposes Her Incompetence, Admits She Has Not Secured Sensitive FBI Data In House Hearing

https://www.msn.com/en-us/lifestyle/relationships/i-will-find-out-pam-bondi-exposes-her-incompetence-admits-she-has-not-secured-sensitive-fbi-data-in-house-hearing/vi-AA1KRKzO

Raw Story: GOP trolled as planes circle major cities with three-word taunt

Some daring pilots took to the friendly skies over the capitals of Democratic-led states Monday with a three-word taunt meant to troll President Donald Trump and Texas Republicans, according to HuffPost.

Several planes were spotted over Albany, New York; Springfield, Illinois; and Annapolis, Maryland, while trailing banners that said simply, “Mess with Texas.”

Planes towing the message were also seen over Augusta, Maine; Trenton, New Jersey; and Sacramento, CaliforniaPolitico reported.

The banners were a play on the Texas slogan, “Don’t Mess With Texas,” which is seen as a declaration of state pride.

But the “anonymous group of self-described democracy advocates” altered the slogan in a plea to lawmakers in Democratic states “to help fight what many view as a gerrymandering scheme going down in Texas that will help secure Republicans’ control in the U.S. House after the midterm elections in 2026.”

Some 56 Democratic lawmakers fled Texas for blue states to prevent a quorum as Republicans sought to vote for a redistricting map that could give the GOP up to five new congressional seats. The ploy was orchestrated by President Donald Trump, who told CNBC on Tuesday that Republicans “had the right” to the seats because he swept the state so soundly in the 2024 presidential elections.

The Democrats say they’re hunkered down for the long haul away from home, even as Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Attorney General Ken Paxton issued warrants for the arrests. Texas Sen. John Cornyn (R) asked the FBI to get involved in the hunt in a letter to MAGA director Kash Patel.

https://www.rawstory.com/gerrymandering-2673861437

Raw Story: ‘This is not a judge’: Jasmine Crockett pokes huge hole in Texas lawmaker arrest warrants

The warrants issued to arrest Texas Democrats who fled the state to stymie a GOP attempt to redistrict the state lack the legal weight to do what the Republicans want them do.

That is the opinion of Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) who was asked, as an attorney, about the FBI reportedly getting involved in tracking the lawmakers down.

Appearing with MSNBC host Ali Velshi on Saturday, she was asked, “Quick question for you: because you’re a lawyer, why would [FBI director] Kash Patel take [Texas Republican] John Cornyn’s phone call about getting the FBI to round up people? I don’t know what the crime is.”

“There is no crime, you already know this,” the Texas Democrat replied. “And just so people understand, even the warrants that they put out for them, they are signed by the speaker of the [Texas] House. I mean, this is not a law, a law enforcement official. This is not a judge. This is not a prosecutor. This is no one whomsoever would normally sign off on a warrant.”

“And that is because it is not a criminal warrant,” she elaborated. “This is only giving license to someone who is found within the state of Texas, to then grab them and take them back to the [legislature] chamber. If they take them anywhere other than the chamber, then they are looking at a civil rights violation because they have not broken any laws.”

“So this is just a matter of a civil situation and frankly, this is a family situation as far as i’m concerned, because basically, the family known as the legislators in the Texas House have decided that they don’t want to come to the table and have a conversation about doing right by Texas,” she added. “They have decided that they would steamroll and disrespect their colleagues as well as their constituents in this moment, so that they can appease the mad king.”

So apparently the “arrest warrants” that King Donald’s FBI lackeys are helping Texas to enforce are invalid outside of Texas — there is no actual crime, and they are not signed by a judge.

https://www.rawstory.com/texas-lawmaker-arrests

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

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.

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

Rolling Stone: Pam [Bimbo #3] Bondi Fires Top DOJ Ethics Adviser

Pam “Bimbo #3” Bondi don’t need no stinkin’ ethics!!!

Attorney General Pam [Bimbo #3] Bondi – who has been purging the Justice Department of anyone tied to the Jan. 6 prosecutions as well as the prosecutions of President Donald Trump – fired the lawyer personally advising her and the department’s thousands of employees on ethics, Bloomberg reported Sunday. 

Joseph Tirrell, who began his career in the Navy and spent almost two decades in the federal government, was fired last Friday via a brief letter from [Bimbo #3] Bondi, who gave no reason for the termination. The same day, Bondi fired 20 DOJ employees who were involved in prosecuting Trump. She has also recently fired employees related to the prosecutions of the Jan. 6 riots on the Capitol. Tirrell had advised Special Counsel Jack Smith on ethics related to the prosecution of Trump, Bloomberg reported.

“My public service is not over, and my career as a Federal civil servant is not finished,” Tirrell wrote on LinkedIn on Monday. “I took the oath at 18 as a Midshipman to ‘support and defend the Constitution of the United States.’ I have taken that oath at least five more times since then. That oath did not come with the caveat that I need only support the Constitution when it is easy or convenient.” 

“I believe in the words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. – ‘the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice,'” he wrote. “I also believe that Edmund Burke is right and that ‘the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good people to do nothing.'”

Tirrell was responsible for advising Bondi, FBI Director Kash Patel, and other DOJ leaders on financial disclosures, conflicts of interest, gifts, and recusals. He also helped guide the 117,000 Justice Department employees on ethics rules. He previously served as an ethics attorney at the FBI.

He reportedly approved Jack Smith’s $140,000 in free legal fees from a major Washington, D.C., law firm. In February, [Bimbo #3] Bondi instructed a working group to investigate “Weaponization by Special Counsel Jack Smith and his staff who spent more than $50 million targeting President Trump.” Smith resigned in January. 

[Bimbo #3] Bondi has been under fire for possible ethics violations. Earlier this month, the Miami Herald reported that the DOJ dropped its investigation into pharmaceutical company Pfizer’s potential foreign corruption violations. Bondi was previously an outside legal counsel for Pfizer. 

Trump has also taken aim at ethics in his administration. Earlier this year, he ordered the Justice Department to pause investigations into foreign bribery cases, although the investigations eventually resumed. The Trump Organization, the president’s family business empire, fired its ethics attorney after they represented Harvard in a suit against the government for freezing its federal funding. 

“The rules don’t exist anymore,” another fired DOJ official, Patty Hartman, told CBS News last week. 

Hartman, previously a top public affairs specialist at the FBI and federal prosecutors’ offices, had worked on press releases related to prosecutions of the Jan. 6 riots. The Justice Department began purging employees who worked on these prosecutions as soon as Trump took office. Trump issued a mass pardon for all 1,500 defendants hours after he was sworn in, including some of the most violent offenders

Hartman was fired last Monday and warned that there were more firings to come. Three other employees tied to the prosecutions of Jan. 6 have been fired in the past month, CBS News reported.

“There used to be a line, used to be a very distinct separation between the White House and the Department of Justice, because one should not interfere with the work of the other,” Hartman told CBS News. “That line is very definitely gone.”

“We appear to be driving straight into an abyss that holds no memory of what democracy is, was, or should be,” the now-former DOJ official added on social media.

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/pam-bondi-fires-top-doj-ethics-lawyer-1235384777

Newsweek: Pam Bondi’s DOJ to make Ghislaine Maxwell decision after Epstein backlash

Pam Bondi’s leadership of the Department of Justice may come under further Jeffrey Epstein-related scrutiny over an appeal by Epstein’s former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell.

The British socialite, and former friend of Prince Andrew, was sentenced to 20 years in jail in June 2022 for her role in Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking operation, but has appealed to the Supreme Court.

The Trump administration’s response to that case is due July 14 at a particularly pressured time for Bondi, who as attorney general leads the DOJ.

Why It Matters

Bondi has facing severe criticism from within President Donald Trump‘s MAGA base after a report by the DOJ and FBI last week stated there was no Epstein client list and no evidence the New York financier blackmailed prominent public figures.

This has sparked accusations of a cover-up as Bondi appeared to suggest in February the alleged document was sitting on her desk. The White House later sought to clarify that she was referring to Epstein files more generally.

Newsweek has contacted the DOJ for comment by email out of office hours.

What to Know

Epstein is thought to have abused hundreds of girls and was awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges when he died in his jail cell in 2019.

The case has long featured allegations that he forced his victims to have sex with his powerful friends, but none have ever been charged. Bill Clinton and Donald Trump have been linked to Epstein but both men, and Prince Andrew, strenuously deny knowledge of his crimes.

Trump administration figures suggested new details and even new cases would emerge after a review ordered by the President into the Epstein files this year.

However, a memo by the DOJ and FBI last week indicated there would be no new cases and stated there was no evidence of a blackmail plot by Epstein.

“This systematic review revealed no incriminating ‘client list.’ There was also no credible evidence found that Epstein blackmailed prominent individuals as part of his actions,” said the memo.

“We did not uncover evidence that could predicate an investigation against uncharged third parties.”

This sparked furious responses from MAGA commentators and tears from alt-right radio host Alex Jones, exerting extra pressure on the DOJ, run by Bondi as attorney general, over how to handle Ghislaine Maxwell’s appeal following her criminal conviction for sex trafficking.

Ghislaine Maxwell’s Appeal

Maxwell’s lawyers argue she should never have been put on trial due to a plea deal between Jeffrey Epstein and Florida prosecutors in 2008.

A filing by her team, seen by Newsweek, reads: “Despite the existence of a non-prosecution agreement promising in plain language that the United States would not prosecute any co-conspirator of Jeffrey Epstein, the United States in fact prosecuted Ghislaine Maxwell as a co-conspirator of Jeffrey Epstein.

“Only because the United States did so in the Second Circuit and not elsewhere, her motion to dismiss the indictment was denied, her trial proceeded, and she is now serving a 20-year sentence.

“In light of the disparity in how the circuit courts interpret the enforceability of a promise made by the ‘United States,’ Maxwell’s motion to dismiss would have been granted if she had been charged in at least four other circuits (plus the Eleventh, where Epstein’s agreement was entered into).

“This inconsistency in the law by which the same promise by the United States means different things in different places should be addressed by this Court.”

D. John Sauer, Donald Trump’s pick for Solicitor General, has already twice applied to extend the deadline for the administration’s response to Maxwell’s appeal, leading to the current July 14 deadline.

A letter from Sauer to the court, seen by Newsweek, read: “The government’s response is now due, after one extension, on June 13, 2025.

“We respectfully request, under Rule 30.4 of the Rules of this Court, a further extension of time to and including July 14, 2025, within which to file the government’s response.

“This extension is necessary because the attorneys with principal responsibility for

preparation of the government’s response have been heavily engaged with the press of previously assigned matters with proximate due dates.”

What People Are Saying

Conservative media personality Megyn Kelly was among those to heap pressure on Bondi over backlash during an appearance at the Turning Point USA Student Action Summit over the weekend. “It’s starting to create a real hornet’s nest within the administration and I’ve got to be honest I blame Pam Bondi. I’ll tell you why: incompetence,” she said.

“She is the reason that things are unravelling around this story right now, that virtually all the Republican Party cares about. It’s also true that [FBI Deputy Director] Dan Bongino and [FBI Director] Kash Patel had questions about Epstein before they took office before they went to the FBI,” she continued.

“But once they joined the FBI they said nothing. They kept their mouths shut about Epstein. You have not seen them, except for one joint appearace with Dan and Kash on Fox, running all over the media looking for attention on this, yes, clickbaity story.

“Who have you seen?” Kelly asked. “Pam Bondi. She has never missed an opportunity to go on television and dangle sweet nothings that might be coming your way, try to lead you to believe that she’s got it, it’s on her desk, it’s coming, ‘tomorrow you’re going to see something on Epstein.'”

Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social on Saturday: “What’s going on with my ‘boys’ and, in some cases, ‘gals?’ They’re all going after Attorney General Pam Bondi, who is doing a FANTASTIC JOB! We’re on one Team, MAGA, and I don’t like what’s happening. We have a PERFECT Administration, THE TALK OF THE WORLD, and ‘selfish people’ are trying to hurt it, all over a guy who never dies, Jeffrey Epstein. For years, it’s Epstein, over and over again.”

What Happens Next

The Government will now either file its reply, which should lay out how it intends to contest the case, or seek a third extension. Either way, there should be a filing to the Supreme Court case outlining which option has been chosen.

There must be many more besides Prince Andrew who took advantage of Epstein’s many underage victims. The must ALL be exposed.

https://www.newsweek.com/pam-bondi-doj-ghislaine-maxwell-jeffrey-epstein-files-2098469

Showbiz 411: Trump Epstein Fake Out: Says He Might Revoke Rosie O’Donnell’s Citizenship (Which He Knows He Can’t Do)

There’s nothing to quote, it’s all in the title. Our pathetic King Donald is making a royal ass of himself in front of 340 million Americans and assorted billions elsewhere.

Alternet: A cult leader shows how Trump is taking America to a very dark place

Former FBI agent Michael Fienberg has gone public, pointing out that the agency, under the leadership of Dan Bongino and Kash Patel, is purging itself of people who are not members of the Trump cult (my phrase, not his).

Similar cult-like behavior is on vivid display with the White House press secretary, the head of DHS, and the head of the Department of Justice — among numerous other administration officials and elected Republicans — regularly spouting lies and half-truths that target women, immigrants, and Democrats.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) is implying that the children who died in the Texas floods were the victims of a nefarious plot — presumably by Democrats or Jews who operate space lasers — to modify the weather, completely ignoring the fact that Republican-aligned fossil fuel billionaires have been engaged in a half-century-long scheme to sabotage our atmosphere with their carbon dioxide emissions in exchange for trillions of dollars in profits. Some of which, no doubt, have been shared with Greene or her campaign.

Multiple administration officials, elected Republicans, and rightwing media cult leaders on platforms like Fox “News” have been amplifying the racist, antisemitic “Great Replacement Theory,” that wealthy Jews are paying to “replace” white people in America with Blacks, Mexicans, and other people of color. This has led to ICE becoming the largest police force in America, with a budget larger than that of the entire Russian military, soon to be sweeping a neighborhood near you in their never-ending hunt for brown-skinned people.

Donald Trump didn’t need to lure his followers into a remote jungle, like Jim Jones did in Guyana. He didn’t need to physically isolate them from the rest of the world. Instead, Trump built his Jonestown right here at home, within the boundaries of our republic, brick by brick. He did it using over 30,000 documented lies, fear, rage, and the intoxicating promise of belonging.

Today, tens of millions of Americans are trapped inside Trump’s reality-warping cult. And just as Jones’ followers drank poisoned Kool-Aid believing it was salvation, Trump’s followers have swallowed his Big Lies and are now willing to sacrifice our Constitution, our democracy, and our future on the altar of one man’s insatiable ego.

This is an old story in new packaging….

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https://www.alternet.org/alternet-exclusives/the-cult-of-trump-2673148656