According to filings by the ex-president, the Trump Organization is facing incredible losses as Donald Trump leaves office and presumably retakes control of his eponymous company, the Washington Post reports.

The reduction in Trump’s fortunes comes as the hospitality industry is suffering, but other wounds were self-inflicted because of Trump’s support of domestic terrorists.

As the coronavirus swept across the nation, Trump Organization properties saw the bottom drop out of its finances.  Two highly leveraged properties saw significant drops in revenue:  The Trump International Hotel in Washington, DC, which has a $190 million debt load, saw year-over-year revenues drop more than 60% while his club in Doral, also debt-ladened with $100 million outstanding, saw a 44% drop.

In total, Trump’s hotels, resorts and golf clubs lost more than $120 million in revenue from the previous year, a decline of 35%.

“He faces some very serious problems that have been building in recent years and I think are going to come to a head now that he’s left office,” said Bert Ely, a banking consultant who has testified before Congress on financial matters.

Daily Beast: “PayPal has terminated the account of a Texas real-estate agent who took a private plane to the Capitol insurrection and is now begging her fellow ‘patriots’ for donations to cover her legal fees. Jenna Ryan, a real-estate broker and life coach, was released from custody last week after being charged for her role in the storming of the Capitol, which she documented on social media, calling it ‘one best days of my life.’ On Thursday, Ryan posted a Twitter thread begging for donations to help pay for her legal fees for ‘protesting at the US Capitol.'”

“On Thursday evening, PayPal shut down her account, saying in a statement that she was using it for more than just her legal fees. ‘PayPal has a policy to allow fundraising for legal defense purposes,’ the company said in a statement. ‘PayPal thoroughly reviews accounts, and if we learn that funds are used for anything other than legal defense, the account will be subject to immediate closure. We can confirm that the account in question has been closed.'”

“The Justice Department inspector general has begun examining the abrupt departure this month of the U.S. attorney in Atlanta after then-President Donald Trump complained officials in Georgia were not doing enough to find election fraud, according to people familiar with the matter.”

“The investigation into the sudden resignation of Byung J. ‘BJay’ Pak by Inspector General Michael Horowitz appears to be in its early stages. Investigators have not yet talked to Pak, and it is unclear how broad their inquiry will be, the people familiar with the matter said. Like others, they spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing probe. Pak unexpectedly announced Jan. 4 that he was stepping down that day as the U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Georgia, surprising many in his office. Trump then bypassed Pak’s top deputy in selecting a temporary replacement, raising questions among legal observers about the possibility of political interference in law enforcement work” – Washington Post.

1,384 days

— Mike Pompeo (@mikepompeo) January 21, 2021

I’m just going to leave this right here because it does not deserve comment.

My statement on introducing Articles of Impeachment against President @JoeBiden: pic.twitter.com/1mq7QRBbTX

— Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene🇺🇸 (@RepMTG) January 21, 2021

UPDATE (6:20 p.m ET):  According to the Congressional Record, Greene didn’t file anything.  It’s all bluster.

Both chambers of Congress granted Lloyd Austin, a retired four-star general in the US Army, a waiver to serve as Secretary of Defense, a waiver to bypass the requirement of being out of the military seven years, clearing the way for him to become the first Black Secretary of Defense, the New York Times reports.

While some members of Congress voiced opposition to granting the waiver, Austin had no problem getting the majority of both chambers to get the waiver.  Earlier Thursday, the Senate Armed Services Committee approved the nomination and the waiver.  The full Senate than voted to approve the waiver and will consider the nomination shortly.

The waiver request bypassed the House Armed Services Committee and went straight to the floor of the House for a vote.

The appointment of the Secretary of Defense is a key position in any administration, as it signals the continuity of government and maintain US military readiness.

Politico– “Seven Senate Democrats filed an ethics complaint against GOP Sens. Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz over their Jan. 6 efforts to object to the 2020 presidential election results.

“‘By proceeding with their objections to the electors after the violent attack, Senators Cruz and Hawley lent legitimacy to the mob’s cause and made future violence more likely,’ the senators wrote in a letter to Senate Ethics panel chair Chris Coons and vice chair James Lankford.

“Democrats are requesting an investigation into the pair of senators over their challenge.”

Saying that “one of the things we’re going to do is being completely transparent, open and honest,” Dr. Anthony Fauci noted a stark difference between the management of the coronavirus pandemic response under President Biden compared to the predecessor.

https://youtu.be/JUGnIuOcTHs

Fauci said, “If things go wrong, not point fingers, but to correct them and to make everything we do based on science and evidence.”

Minority rights on legislation are key to the Senate. President Biden spent decades defending them. More than two dozen Senate Democrats backed them just four years ago.

This isn't complicated. Simply reaffirming that Democrats won't break the rules should not be a heavy lift.

— Leader McConnell (@LeaderMcConnell) January 21, 2021

A bipartisan group of Constitutional scholars, including the co-founder of the conservative Federalist Society, released a statement Thursday saying that Donald Trump can be tried for the charge he was impeached on even though he’s out of office, Politico reports.

While some Trump-friendly pundits have argued variously that the ex-president cannot face an impeachment trial or that he cannot be punished via Constitutional impeachment standards because he’s out of office, more than 150 signatories of the statement disagree.

“We differ from one another in our politics, and we also differ from one another on issues of constitutional interpretation,” wrote the signatories.  “But despite our differences, our carefully considered views of the law lead all of us to agree that the Constitution permits the impeachment, conviction, and disqualification of former officers, including presidents.”

“In 2019 President Trump was impeached by the U.S. House of Representatives for abuse of power by soliciting the interference of Ukraine in the 2020 U.S. presidential election and obstruction of Congress by directing defiance of certain subpoenas issued by the House of Representatives. A trial in the U.S. Senate found the President not guilty of the charges brought against him… In 2021 President Trump was impeached by the U.S. House of Representatives for having incited an insurrection against the government of the United States” reads the fifth and sixth paragraphs of Trump’s biography on the new TrumpLibrary.gov website.

“President Trump has been married to his wife, Melania, since 2005. Together they have one son, Barron. Trump also has four adult children, Donald Jr., Ivanka, Eric, and Tiffany. He has 10 grandchildren” nonchalantly concludes the bio. The presidential library site is operated by the National Archives, so it’s unlikely there will be any “Trump is Thanos” or other memes portraying the 45th president as an immortal intergalactic warlord added to it in the foreseeable future.

Ex-president Donald Trump has allegedly found a lawyer to represent him in his upcoming impeachment trial, according to Punchbowl News.

Butch Bowers of Columbia, South Carolina will represent Trump, according to South Carolina Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, who made the announcement in a GOP conference call Thursday.

A former chairman of the South Carolina Election Commission, Power’s website does not list any experience in Constitutional law, although he has an extensive background in election law. 

A federal judge dismissed a motion from conservative social media platform Parler in its attempt to force Amazon Web Services to host the app, Reuters reports.

AWS deplatformed Parler last week, citing multiple violations of its terms of service, specifically that Parler did not moderate violent content and that Parler actively engaged in promoting that content.  Parler was seeking an injunction to force AWS to restore services.

U.S. District Judge for the Western District of Washington Barbara Rothstein ruled that Parler was unlikely to prevail in court and denied the request for injunction.

Parler has been cut off from many of the services vital for its survival in the wake of the January 6th coup attempt at the Capitol.  It’s found a hosting service which is running 100% of its content through a Russian server farm, allowing it to get back up and running.

A New York state judge threw out a series of motions from the National Rifle Association as it attempted to have a lawsuit seeking its dissolution dismissed, Politico reports.

Leticia James, the New York Attorney General, filed a lawsuit seeking to dissolve the non-profit NRA for a variety of charges against its directors and executives, including self-dealing and misuse of funds.

NRA lawyers argued that the lawsuit should have been filed in federal court, and they claim that the trial should be heard in Albany, not Manhattan.  The judge ruled against the NRA in each case. 

In a Thursday afternoon address, President Joe Biden announced that the White House has released an extensive 190-page plan on how it intends to confront the coronavirus pandemic, including its plan to manage the distribution of vaccines to the states.  Our goal, Biden says, “is to regain public trust.”

Available on the White House website, the plan includes establishing liaisons from each US state and territory to work as a point person with the Federal Emergency Management Agency.  The previous administration left the acquisition and distribution of vaccines up to the individual states, which often pitted states against one another.

Biden calls for a “war-time undertaking” while invoking the Defense Protection Act to increase the production of vaccine, distribute it to communities, and provide personnel to assist with inoculations.  Biden’s plan would also form a test distribution panel that would identify areas in need of testing kits so that they can advance reopening schools and businesses safely. 

WBTW: “A couple has been accused of having sex on the Myrtle Beach Skywheel ride and in a community pool to make videos for a popular porn site. Eric Harmon, of Surfside Beach, and Lori Harmon, of Lexington, both 36, face multiple charges after police say they saw videos of the two having sex in public on a pornography site. Myrtle Beach police opened an investigation into indecent exposure on Jan. 12 and said they found the videos.”

“In one video, the couple is having sex inside a gondola encased with glass and in view of the public on the Skywheel ride on North Ocean Boulevard. The incident happened on or around Jan. 2. In another video, the couple is seen having sex in a community pool in the Surfside Beach section of Horry County and Lori Harmon is seen exposing herself while sitting on top of a vending machine along with other lewd acts, police said. Both Eric Harmon and Lori Harmon can be seen exposing themselves and performing sex acts at the community pool in the video, according to the report. “The actions were recorded by both defendant and co-defendant and uploaded to the adult web site…during Christmas break, on or about Dec. 23, 2020,” the officer wrote in the report.”

The man caught on tape beating a police officer with a hockey stick during the January 6th domestic terrorist attack has been arrested in Michigan, the Detroit News reports.

Michael Joseph Foy of Wixom was identified by the FBI thanks to a tip that linked Foy to a photo taken earlier in the day of him holding a hockey stick at the rally, and was then matched to a photo of Foy at a November MAGA rally in Detroit.  A January 6th photo posted to social media show Foy standing in front of the Washington Monument holding a hockey stick with a Trump flag attached.  That photo was posted by Foy’s father.

Foy beat a police officer, believed to be a DC Metropolitan Police officer, with the hockey stick for 16 seconds before being knocked off his feet by other protesters surging to enter the Capitol.  He rose and shouted to other insurrectionists “Let’s go!” and entered the building.  Ten minutes later, a different video showed him entering the Capitol through a broken window.

https://twitter.com/dotjenna/status/1352301016092434433

Democratic House Oversight Committee Chair Carolyn Maloney sent a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray requested an investigation into the role that social media platform Parler played in the January 6th domestic terrorist attack at the Capitol, NBC News reports.

“In the days and weeks leading up to the siege, press reports detailed the rise of violent threats on Parler against state elected officials for their role in certifying the election results and later against the Congress and its constitutional role in counting electoral votes,” the letter states.

Maloney goes on to cite specific posts on the social media site which call for people like the Proud Boys to take action against Congress. Maloney also asks the FBI to investigate the financial backing for Parler and its ties to Russian disinformation campaigns.  She notes that Parler CEO John Matze got funding for the venture shortly after he took a trip to Russia with his wife, a Russian national whose family has ties to the government of Vladimir Putin.

Read this brilliant piece from the Hill’s own redoubtable warrior of journalism Joe Concha here.