Jeff McConney, a senior VP and controller for the Trump Organization, was called in to testify before the grand jury assembled by Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance hearing evidence about potential criminal activity by Donald Trump, his family and his business entities, ABC News reports.

McConney is the first employee of the Trump Organization called to testify before the grand jury, sources told ABC News.  His appearance before the grand jury demonstrates that prosecutors have thorough and deep information about the finances of the company, and that they’re using his testimony to support some of the findings of investigators as well as add insight into the motivations of the people controlling the company.

“Complex accounting issues are crucial to this investigation, as is the knowledge and intent of the people at the Trump Organization involved in these transactions,” said Daniel R. Alonso, the former chief assistant district attorney in Manhattan and now a partner in private practice at Buckley LLP.

“Next time I’m in the White House there will be no more dinners, at his request, with Mark Zuckerberg and his wife. It will be all business!” another statement from the Orange Tyrant – which pretty strongly suggests he thinks he’s going to be reinstated, or at least run and win in 2024.

This #NationalDoughnutDay, we were going to show off a nice box of fresh doughnuts, but you know how cops can be around these sweet treats 🤣

Side note, we are investigating what type of person leaves behind a quarter of a doughnut. #NoDoughtnutLeftBehind pic.twitter.com/4k04qg2kaO

— NYPD NEWS (@NYPDnews) June 4, 2021

While the average cost of a home in the United States has been on a steady increase over the past fifty years (minus the Great Recession), the selling price of properties bearing the Trump name has been on a steep decline over the last fifteen years, an analysis of sales data by the Associated Press reveals.

The selling prices of homes has gone up around 80% since 2015, according to data from the Census Bureau; the AP, however, found that the sales price of condos and hotel suites in Trump-branded has dropped by one-third over that time.  “They’re giving them away,” says Lane Blue who paid $160,500 in March for a studio in Trump’s Las Vegas tower, $350,000 less than the seller paid in 2008.

Trump properties may be suffering from the Trump brand, given the historic taint left after his four year political career.  But there are other causes as well:  the areas in which Trump invested have been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic; people are seeking single family homes and not condos; and Trump properties tend to be older and not particularly well-kept. 

“Facebook’s ruling is an insult to the record-setting 75M people, plus many others, who voted for us in the 2020 Rigged Presidential Election. They shouldn’t be allowed to get away with this censoring and silencing, and ultimately, we will win. Our Country can’t take this abuse anymore!” – Trump.

Retweet spotted on soon-to-be-former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s feed.

Nick Clegg, Facebook VP Global Affairs: “Last month, the Oversight Board upheld Facebook’s suspension of former US President Donald Trump’s Facebook and Instagram accounts following his praise for people engaged in violence at the Capitol on January 6. But in doing so, the board criticized the open-ended nature of the suspension, stating that ‘it was not appropriate for Facebook to impose the indeterminate and standardless penalty of indefinite suspension.’ The board instructed us to review the decision and respond in a way that is clear and proportionate, and made a number of recommendations on how to improve our policies and processes.”

“We are today announcing new enforcement protocols to be applied in exceptional cases such as this, and we are confirming the time-bound penalty consistent with those protocols which we are applying to Mr. Trump’s accounts. Given the gravity of the circumstances that led to Mr. Trump’s suspension, we believe his actions constituted a severe violation of our rules which merit the highest penalty available under the new enforcement protocols. We are suspending his accounts for two years, effective from the date of the initial suspension on January 7 this year. At the end of this period, we will look to experts to assess whether the risk to public safety has receded. We will evaluate external factors, including instances of violence, restrictions on peaceful assembly and other markers of civil unrest. If we determine that there is still a serious risk to public safety, we will extend the restriction for a set period of time and continue to re-evaluate until that risk has receded. When the suspension is eventually lifted, there will be a strict set of rapidly escalating sanctions that will be triggered if Mr. Trump commits further violations in future, up to and including permanent removal of his pages and accounts.”

“Pillow magnate Mike Lindell is trying to re-litigate the election with a second lawsuit against voting machine companies involved in the 2020 presidential race. The Minnesota MAGA enthusiast filed a federal lawsuit on Thursday alleging that voting technology companies Dominion Voting Systems and Smartmatic engaged in a racketeering conspiracy ‘to suppress free speech and extort silence from dissenters.’ Dominion sued Lindell’s company, MyPillow Inc, for defamation and demanded $1.6 billion after Lindell leveled a series of false allegations about the company’s voting software in the wake of the 2020 election. Defamation suits by Smartmatic and Dominion, Lindell claims, amount to a racketeering conspiracy to suppress the wild accusations about the companies’ products. The suit frequently cites cease-and-desist letters sent by Dominion attorneys at the law firm Clare Locke which demanded that recipients refrain from and retract false accusations about the company’s products, but it does not name attorneys from the firm as defendants.”

“By invoking the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, or RICO, passed as part of the Organized Crime Control Act in 1970, Lindell appears to be likening the voting machine companies to a sprawling organized crime syndicate. The law contains a criminal offense used by prosecutors to take down organized crime groups, but also contains a provision that allows plaintiffs to sue entities allegedly engaged in the same criminal conduct. Lindell also alleged that the two companies are guilty of defamation, abuse of process, and depriving Lindell of his civil rights under color of state law. The lawsuit is littered with ominous-sounding quotes from sci-fi dystopian fiction like the Terminator franchise – one section of the 80-page suit is dubbed ‘Rise of the Machines’ – 1984, Shakespeare, and Fahrenheit 451” – Daily Beast.

It was great to see President Trump last week—a President who put America first, created record jobs & peace agreements, stood with law enforcement, secured our border, took on the CCP & MSM, and delivered vaccines.

Liberals are still outraged but I’ll take that record any day! pic.twitter.com/Ns3TOSNqJB

— Kelly Loeffler (@KLoeffler) June 4, 2021

USA Today and its parent company, Gannett Publishing, is fighting a subpoena for information on people who accessed a story on the newspaper’s website about a Florida shooting in February that left two FBI agents dead, Politico reports.

The subpoena, signed by an FBI agent located in Maryland, demands USA Today hand over the IP addresses and phone numbers of the people who read the story about the murder of two FBI agents who were part of a raid on the apartment of David Lee Huber, 55, who was suspected of distributing child pornography.  The subpoena seeks information on people who accessed the story during a 35-minute window starting just after 8 p.m. on the day of the shootings.

According to the subpoena, the FBI is seeking the information because it “relates to a federal criminal investigation being conducted by the FBI.”  The nature of the specific investigation is not mentioned. 

https://youtu.be/s-9NTVectNQ

“A Trump supporter accused of storming the US Capitol and heckling police officers for ‘protecting pedophiles’ previously served jail time after being convicted in the statutory rape of a 14-year-old girl, according to court records reviewed by CNN and lawyers involved in the cases. Federal prosecutors say Sean McHugh of Auburn, California, fought with police as they fended off the massive mob of Trump supporters outside the Capitol on January 6. During the scuffle, McHugh was recorded by police body-worn cameras heckling the officers with a megaphone. According to prosecutors’ description of the footage, McHugh allegedly shouted, ‘You guys like protecting pedophiles?’ ‘you’re protecting communists,’ ‘I’d be shaking in your little shit boots too,’ and, ‘there is a Second Amendment behind us, what are you going to do then?'”

“His comments about ‘pedophiles’ are particularly striking, considering his criminal history. McHugh was convicted in 2010 on a state charge of unlawful sex with a minor, according to California court records reviewed by CNN and lawyers involved in McHugh’s cases. McHugh was sentenced to 240 days in jail – though he served less – and got four years of probation. There was DNA evidence that connected McHugh to the girl, former prosecutor Todd Kuhnen told CNN. The victim was 14 years old and McHugh was 23 when the crime occurred, Kuhnen said. The victim also alleged that she was intoxicated when the incident occurred. McHugh pleaded no contest to the underage sex charge. Kuhnen said he didn’t take the case to trial because he didn’t want to ‘run the victim through the ringer again,’ and said that the victim and her mother signed off to the plea agreement as part of California’s victims’ rights law” – CNN.

WWNY: “North country congresswoman Elise Stefanik says if the U.S. and Canada can’t come up with a plan to open the border, the U.S. should take steps to do so on its own. The border with Canada has been closed for more than a year to most travel, since the start of the pandemic. Stefanik, who for months has urged the governments of the two countries to work together on reopening the border, is clearly out of patience. ‘Our communities cannot afford any further delay or acquiescence – unilateral action to begin reopening the border appears necessary,’ she wrote in a letter to Alejandro Mayorkas, Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security.”

“The letter comes following Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s comments reaffirming that Canada will ‘make our decisions based on the interests of Canadians and not based on what other countries want,’ Stefanik noted in a statement. In the letter, Stefanik calls for immediately ‘expanding the list of exempted travelers to include family members and extended family members; Canadians with property, boats, or leased campsites in the U.S.; and business representatives with business dealings in the U.S., while beginning a phased reopening to the broader public.'”

Texas Tribune’s Patrick Svitek reports a Texas Republican Party spokesperson confirmed the report Friday morning and West will remain until at least July 11th, when a successor is chosen.

New Republic: “It’s doubtful that the Republican legislators and governors pushing restrictions on vote by mail are completely unaware that they’re discouraging key Republican constituencies from voting at all. It doesn’t matter. At the moment, the GOP’s overriding imperative is to appease and flatter Trump by yielding to his partisan fixations, never mind their ineptitude. Amid this plague of troubling voter disenfranchisement bills, there’s a ray of hope in that.“

“The blog from former President Trump – originally touted as his own social media ‘platform’ – generated engagement roughly on par with the top posts from mid-market local newspapers, according to exclusive data from NewsWhip. Even with his considerable base of support, Trump was unable to defy the laws of social media physics by getting political followers to change their habits. The move to shut down the page this week acknowledged the flawed assumption that if you build it, they will come. The numbers, a far cry from the audience Trump commanded with his Twitter and Facebook accounts, show the limits of Trump’s power without access to the biggest platforms. Trump’s attention monopoly has steadily waned since late January, as he lost both the power of his office and of his social media megaphones” – Axios.

Politico: “Republicans finally found a commission they can get behind. Feeling vindicated after Democrats, scientists and the media gave new oxygen to the theory that the coronavirus was borne out of a laboratory accident in China, Republicans are now ramping up efforts to prod President Joe Biden’s party into opening a thorough investigation into the origins of the virus – through an independent commission or at the congressional level. But despite a growing chorus of bipartisan calls for such a probe, it’s unclear whether Democrats are actually willing to launch a wide-ranging review. The House’s select panel on Covid-19 has not committed to exploring how the deadly outbreak started, with its chair, Majority Whip Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.), recently suggesting he’d rather look forward than backward.”

“That leaves Republicans with few options for uncovering the information they’re seeking from Beijing – but plenty of incentives to use the pandemic’s murky genesis as a political cudgel against their opponents. ‘Everyone knows Biden and the Democrats will never stand up to China because they have too much invested there. That’s why we have little faith they’ll get to the bottom of this,’ said Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.), chair of the conservative Republican Study Committee. ‘If anything deserves a 9/11-style commission, it’s the pandemic that’s left half a million Americans dead.'”

Federal prosecutors and the lawyers for Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani have agreed on Barbara S. Jones, a former judge in Manhattan, to serve as the special master in matters to be reviewed in the federal investigations involving the former New York City mayor, according to the New York Times.

If the candidate is approved by a federal judge, Jones will determine what seized materials might be covered by attorney-client privilege and should be kept from the authorities who are investigating Giuliani to ensure confidentiality.  Jones held a similar role in the federal investigation of a different indicted Trump attorney, Michael Cohen.

Giuliani is facing multiple investigations from work he’s done for Ukrainians in the 2016 and 2020 election cycles.  Federal investigators are looking into the potential that Giuliani was working as an unregistered agent for Ukrainians during the Trump Administration, and that he may have broken various campaign laws by soliciting assistance for the Trump reelection campaign during the 2020 cycle. 

In a deviation from the previous actions of Israel, the nation’s Defense Minister said that Israel will do less “provoking” of the United States and its allies through media and social media, particularly in relation to US effort to renegotiate a nuclear deal with Iran, the Associated Press reports.

Meeting with US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz said that Israel values US support and will endeavor to keep communications channels open so the US and Israel can discuss developments.

“Our dialogue is so important to ensuring that any deal effectively meets its goal of keeping Iran away from nuclear weapons,” Gantz said.  “Of course, given the scope of the threat, Israel must always make sure that it has the ability to protect itself.”

A coalition of Realtor groups has asked the US Supreme Court to allow landlords to immediately beginning evicting tenants who are late on rent, repealing an eviction moratorium put in place to help people during the coronavirus pandemic, CNN reports.

Last month, Judge Dabney Friedrich of the US District Court in Washington, DC, a Donald Trump appointee, ruled that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention exceeded its legal authority to implement the eviction moratorium as a public health policy.  Friedrich issued her order to be effective immediately, although the order was stayed pending appeal by a three-judge panel.

The current moratorium is set to expire June 30 after being extended twice.  The Realtor groups claimed that the moratorium was costing them “over $13 billion in unpaid rent per month.”