The federal grand jury investigating the events surrounding the January 6th Republican-led domestic terrorist attack on Congress have subpoenaed former White House lawyer Eric Herschmann, who served as an advisor to Donald Trump, CNN reports.

Herschmann joined Trump’s White House to represent Trump in his first impeachment in 2020 dealing with Trump leveraging US aid to Ukraine to get a foreign government to assist him in his 2020 reelection effort.  Herschmann has been interviewed by the House Select Committee investigating the January 6th attack, and the snippets of the interviews have shown him to be a no-nonsense, by-the-book attorney who would not break the law.

Herschmann was approached by many Trump loyalists in the aftermath of Trump’s November 2020 loss to Joe Biden as they tried to undermine the integrity of the election.  Herschmann was not joining in, telling Trump lawyer John Eastman, “Get a great f’ing criminal defense lawyer. You’re gonna need it.’”

The second effort to recall Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón did not receive enough legitimate signatures on the ballot petition, falling more than 50,000 short, securing Gascón’s position until 2024, the Los Angeles Times reports.

The effort to oust Gascón comes months after a successful effort to recall San Francisco attorney general Chesa Boudin, who succeeded Gascón in San Francisco; Gascón was appointed to the position by Democratic California Governor Gavin Newsom after Kamala Harris became California’s Attorney General in 2011.

Voters recalled Boudin after crime in the San Francisco spiked coincidental to many liberal policies–such as bail reform and homeless persons assistance programs–which conservatives have blamed for poor conditions in a city they claim they would never visit because it’s a liberal bastion.

Allan Weisselberg, the long-time CFO of the Trump Organization, is likely to take a plea deal in the Manhattan investigation into the company’s practice of giving off-the-book benefits to himself and others in the company, the New York Times reports.

Although not agreeing to cooperate, Weisselberg will likely receive a five-month prison sentence for his role in covering up perks and payments to Trump Organization employees.  He will also be fined and given other restrictions–perhaps even being barred from sitting on the boards of companies or charities–which would essentially force him into retirement.

The investigation into this scandal involving Donald Trump has been stifled since Alvin Bragg became Manhattan district attorney in January 2022.  When he first took office, Bragg expressed pessimism to prosecutors that their case would be successful and reportedly subsequently cut resources for the investigation after two of the probe’s top lawyers resigned in protest.

“The FBI, working with its state and local partners during two weeks in August, identified and located 84 minor victims of child sex trafficking and child sexual exploitation offenses and located 37 actively missing children during a nationwide enforcement campaign, dubbed ‘Operation Cross Country.’ The FBI-led nationwide initiative focused on identifying and locating victims of sex trafficking and investigating and arresting individuals and criminal enterprises involved in both child sex and human trafficking,” says a Monday Justice Department Press release.

We already wrote basically the same article a few months ago about a different, similarly successful sweep by Homeland Security but we couldn’t leave this one alone given the MAGA-QAnon scumbags losing their fucking minds in reaction to their Orange Messiah’s lair getting raided by the FBI last week. Both of the two most prominent QAnon fans in Congress, Lauren Boebert and Marjorie Greene, called for the FBI to be defunded and Greene on Friday tried to file impeachment articles against Attorney General Merrick Garland. Former Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne said the FBI were looking for the incriminating evidence Trump had on them. And so on and so forth.

It says a lot about how fucked up the whole cult is that, aside from one questionable effort by a small Q-aligned group to intercept coyotes that could be trafficking kids across the border that there is nothing else done by Q fans even remotely close to within the scope of actually helping vulnerable children. You might think that QAnoners would be opening shelters for abused transient children, running “To Catch a Predator”-type vigilante stings to lure in scumbags, organizing search parties to respond when a child goes missing, whatever. To our knowledge there is nothing like that going on in the name of QAnonism. Instead they just jerk off on the internet, “baking” their theories, and just waiting for shit to happen and freak out when it doesn’t end up happening. They might as well be playing Super Mario Bros and saving Princess Peach from Bowser. It’s about as real and arguably more productive than playing “soldier” in Mike Flynn’s “digital army.”

The US Department of Justice filed a notice with the federal court in south Florida saying it opposes the release of the underlying affidavit used to secure a search and seizure warrant for Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago rental venue and occasional residence, Reuters reports.

The DOJ says that release of information contained in the affidavit would harm ongoing investigations, including the one for which the warrant was issued, which includes possible charges in violation of the Espionage Act, as well as other statutes regarding destroying evidence and obstruction of justice.

“If disclosed, the affidavit would serve as a roadmap to the government’s ongoing investigation, providing specific details about its direction and likely course, in a manner that is highly likely to compromise future investigative steps,” prosecutors wrote in their filing.

Pennsylvania Catholic Margaret “Peggy” Koller, who in approximately 1938 was successfully talked out of joining a convent by her future husband William before going on to have a more authentically Catholic life by bearing 11 children, 56 grandchildren, and – as of last week – 100 great grandchildren celebrated the Papist scourge she wrought upon the Keystone State by granting an audience to the newest addition – Koller William Balster – on Sunday, ABC 6 reports.

Trumpians are going to end up hating all the magistrate judges in South Florida:  A different magistrate judge than the one who okayed the search of the Mar-a-Lago flop house and supper club has ordered the Trump social media company Truth Social to produce its records regarding the hiring of former California Congressman and bovinophobe Devin Nunes, Reuters reports.

The order supports a motion made by the defendants in the case, Hearst Media and journalist Ryan Lizza, who are being sued by Nunes because he believes a 2018 report by Lizza on Hearst-owned Esquire slandered him and ruined his reputation.  Lizza is currently on staff at Politico.

Lizza reported that the Nunes family farm was no longer in California, the state Nunes represented while in Congress and from which his family reportedly moved their dairy farm out of California to Sibley, Iowa in 2007.  His brother and sister-in-law operate the family farm there. Devin’s uncle Gerald still owns a dairy back in Tulare, and like many California elites, Nunes bought into a winery in Napa Valley, but neither Devin himself or any direct family does not own any farm or ranchland in California.

“On or around August 11, 2022, the FBI National Threat Operations Section (NTOS) Social Media Exploitation (SMEX) team received a tip from MEMRI Domestic Terrorism Threat Monitor (DTTM) regarding Gab user ‘BlankFocus’, who posted threats towards the FBI and law enforcement stating, ‘My only goal is to kill more of them before I drop.’ MEMRI DTTM provided additional information that the ‘BlankFocus’ made violent threats against the FBI, ‘If You Work For The FBI Then You Deserve To Die’. On August 11, 2022, an Emergency Disclosure Request (EDR) was issued to Gab via their online Kodex Law Enforcement Portal regarding the ‘BlankFocus’ account.”

“On the same date, a preservation letter for the account was submitted to Gab via email. In response to the EDR, Gab provided the subscriber information regarding the user’s email address, which was identified as adam@adamkennethcampbell.com. Furthermore, the following was provided in a chat log disclosed by Gab, ‘my email adam@adamkennethcampbell.com – I use a fake name for my photography and Gab so that corporate Murica’ can’t google me out of a job’. Based on my background and experience, I believe BIES was using the ‘Adam Campbell’ alias as a means of thwarting law enforcement as it related to his violent statements,” says an FBI agent’s affidavit in support of the federal criminal complaint against Gab user Adam Bies.

This is fucking hilarious how quickly and thoroughly a “free speech” social media platform handed over one of their users in a nicely wrapped little package. The fanboys must be going apeshit over this right now – or they will soon when it fully percolates. Looks like we’re going to have to log in to Gab for the first time in a long time to check out the reaction to this “betrayal.”

In related news, the account almost certainly belonging to dead Ohio FBI MAGA terrorist Ricky Walter Shiffer is still up on Truth Social, as is his last post written during the attack (Yes, it’s still there, but it will come up as “This resource could not be found” as all posts not by Trump do if you’re not currently logged in). Kind of a funny statement on Truth Social.

Ghoulish criminal kingpin and head of the National Republican Campaign Senate Committee Rick Scott has been forced to cut back campaign advertising support for his rogues gallery of Republican Senate candidates – feckless quack Mehmet Oz in Pennsylvania, Reptilian Humanoid Blake Masters in Arizona, and demented conspiracy theorist Ron “RonAnon” Johnson in Wisconsin – canceling $10 million worth of spots reserved in the three states, the New York Times reports.

The Times doesn’t go too deep into it beyond noting that the move comes amid a general slowdown in online small-dollar fundraising for the GOP. Still, it’s kind of impressive that the guy in charge of the NRSC is a white collar criminal who masterminded the largest Medicare fraud in history but apparently can’t use that experience to figure out how to “creatively bookkeep” enough money to keep his shitty candidates on television constantly. Could be an early sign of a larger problem facing the GOP in the final stretch before the midterms.

Only four out of the seven members of the Kenyan national election commission disowned the result of last week’s contest between declared winner Deputy President William Ruto and now five-time loser Raila Odinga, which is pretty good by Kenyan standards of even wackier pranks and hijinks undermining voters’ faith in democracy. “We are not able to take ownership of the results that will be announced, because of the opaque nature of this last phase of the general election,” commission Deputy Chair Juliana Cherera had told media just minutes before her boss Wafula Chebukati declared Ruto had won with 50.49% to Odinga’s 48.5% with the remainder uncounted.

More than 1,200 people were killed in the bloody aftermath of the disputed 2007 Kenyan election, and at least 100 after the Supreme Court stopped the steal in 2017, so if the death toll is only a few dozen then by Kenyan standards 2022 will definitely be the least violent disputed election result of the 21st century. It’s not clear if candidates are required to provide a long form birth certificate to prove they were born in Kenya to be elected to the presidency or if any such controversy is contributing to this current dispute. We should hire some private detectives to look into that.

Donald J. Trump

@realDonaldTrump
Wow! In the raid by the FBI of Mar-a-Lago, they stole my three Passports (one expired), along with everything else. This is an assault on a political opponent at a level never seen before in our Country. Third World!

1,142 2,537 Aug 15, 2022, 13:22

Now, while we have no idea whether or not the Donald’s just making shit up again, if federal law enforcement really did seize his passports, that would be a pretty significant development as it could mean prosecutors see him as a flight risk and that an indictment would be imminent.

Trump also wrote “Republicans could win many additional seats, both in the House & Senate, because of the strong backlash over the raid at Mat-a-Lago. Polls are showing that some lost Republican territory over the last number of weeks has been more than made up with the unannounced Break In by the FBI, which should never have happened!” in a post immediately before the one about the passports, so again, it’s not clear if he’s all there right now mentally.

Fulton County, Georgia prosecutors have informed alcoholic shitbrain Rudy Giuliani he’s a target of a criminal investigation over the failed Trump coup attempt in the state, reports Danny Hakim of the New York Times. Giuliani is scheduled to testify to the grand jury on Wednesday after a judge last week told him to drive his ass down from New York if he’s not well enough to fly. We’re going to go ahead and guess Rudy’s just not going to show up now that they told him he’s looking at charges.

The tentacles of the Kraken reached far deeper into election systems in the fraught aftermath of the 2020 election than previously known, according to a new court filing obtained by the Washington Post on the slimy cephalopod MAGA lawyer Sidney Powell’s work copying software from secure tabulation platforms used by counties in Nevada, Michigan, and Georgia.

The new information came from a subpoena to Atlanta forensics firm SullivanStrickler, who were hired by the Trump Campaign’s lawyers to pore over the software and find potential vulnerabilities, but the actual breaches were executed by agents of the Kraken, connecting her to the May report on a rural Georgia county’s clerk allowing some MAGA asshole into their server room, and also the tampering of tabulation devices already under criminal investigation in Michigan.

Members of the Senate Intelligence committee have asked the Justice Department and the Director of National Intelligence to “provide the Committee with the classified documents that were seized in the search of Mar a Lago, and an assessment of potential risks to national security as a result of their mishandling” by fat former President Trump, MSNBC’s Kyle Griffin reports.

#BREAKING: Trump says "temperature has to be brought down" after Mar-a-Lago search https://t.co/b8RxkWuBBs pic.twitter.com/uEJaDoQOjp

— The Hill (@thehill) August 15, 2022

The Hill’s editorial staff sees this Monday Fox News interview with the Orange Fat Bastard and promptly writes a headline selling Trump as having said the “temperature has to be brought down.” They could’ve instead picked the part where he complained about “years of fake witch hunts and phony Russia, Russia, Russia schemes and scams… nothing happens to those people who perpetuate that – nothing happens with them,” “And then they break into a president’s house – a sneak attack where it was totally—no one ever thought a thing like this would happen,” “People are so angry at what is taking place,” “The people of this country are not going to stand for another scam,” or other rants that far outnumber the insincere platitudes of comity.

But because Trump also said he wants some sort of deescalation – and let’s be fucking honest here, despite the vague offer to “help” in the middle of the rest of his hateful shit, he’s not telling his fans to stop threatening the Justice Department, he’s telling the Justice Department to back off so his fans stop threatening them – The Hill makes that the headline and lede.

You couldn’t design this better in a lab. Trump sits for an interview with Fox News, puts it on the DOJ, not him, to back down, giving his defenders something to work with just as he did when he used to word “peacefully” a few times when he incited his marauders to attack the Capitol, and The Hill just runs with it, the fucking losers and suckers that they are.

A federal judge on Monday rejected dainty South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham’s bid to bitch out of testifying to the Fulton County, Georgia grand jury investigating the Trump regime’s failed coup attempt in the state, USA Today reports. US District Judge Leigh Martin May ruled that the Fulton County DA “shown extraordinary circumstances and a special need for Senator Graham’s testimony on issues relating to alleged attempts to influence or disrupt the lawful administration of Georgia’s 2020 elections,” ignoring the confirmed bachelor’s arguments that it was a legitimate inquiry when he called Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger at least twice to ask if he could void a few ten thousand mail-in ballots and throw the state to his Orange Overlord.

In yet another reports on the bottomless hypocrisy of Republicans, the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel reports Mesa County, Colorado GOP Chairman Kevin McCarney last week said that County Clerk Tina Peters, who is currently under a 13 count indictment for tampering with Dominion Voting Systems equipment in a moronic attempted to prove they were vulnerable to hacking, had last year asked McCarney to make sure there were no Republican primary challengers for her current office, even as she ran an ultimately failed primary bid for Colorado Secretary of State.

The Daily Sentinel’s article is maddeningly short on specifics, such as the context in which McCarney shared this conversation, if anyone else was actually trying to run, and if there’s any sort of rule with the state or county GOP that would have been broken by allowing Peters to run in two separate primary elections at once – or even if the Mesa County Clerk primary was on the same say as the Colorado Secretary of State primary. It’s not clear why it’s so short, but maybe they’re just sick of covering that crazy asshole and want her to go to prison already.

An unknown number of mercenaries with the Wagner Group – Russia’s version of Blackwater, only far more evil – were canceled in a Ukrainian missile stroke on their base in occupied town of Popasna over the weekend according, to a Ukrainian military official, CNN reports.

“The Armed Forces of Ukraine once more successfully worked on the enemy headquarters… This time it was yesterday in Popasna, where the headquarters of PMC ‘Wagner’ was smashed with a well-aimed hit… The number of dead is being clarified,” said Serhiy Hayday on Telegram Monday.

Under an agreement by the two warring sides, the first freighter loaded with grain to help feed humans has departed the Ukrainian port city of Yuzhne, east of Odesa and now in Russian hands, and it will head to Africa to help abate the risk of famine, Politico reports.

Carrying 23,000 metric tons of wheat grain, The Brave Commander Sunday afternoon local time.  The ship will unload its cargo in Djibouti where it will travel on to Ethiopia.  The shipment will be one of many to nations in Africa, which were dependent on Ukrainian grain to feed their populations.

In an agreement reached last month thanks to negotiations led by the United Nations and Turkey, Russia and Ukraine agreed to let Ukrainian grain be shipped to needy countries in Africa to lessen a famine that has already struck most of the western region.

CNN’s Jim Acosta beautifully points out the faults in Andrew Yang’s new policies on controversial issues:  the Forward Party doesn’t have them.  While Yang attempts to explain his position on the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade, Acosta presses on, to which Yang replies:  “The Forward Party has not left or right but forward stance on even the most divisive and contentious issues.”

“Well, what does that mean?” Acosta asks.  “Don’t you have to take a position on something? … You can’t just say, ‘well, this is a hot button issue so I’m not going to take a position on it.  If you wanna run the country, you’re gonna have to make some hard decisions.”