Trump’s PAC has paid at least $40 million in legal fees for him and others in the first half of 2023 related to the multiple investigations and prosecutions of Donald Trump, leading prosecutors to question potential conflicts of interest among the group of lawyers common among defendants, the Washington Post reports.

In federal filings due Monday, Save America PAC is expected to list $40.2 million in spending on legal affairs covering Donald Trump and the increasing number of people drawn into the investigations and grand jury inquiries on federal, state, and local levels who request its assistance.  It is the single greatest category of spending for the PAC this year so far.  Since Trump left the White House, his PAC has spent $56 million in legal fees.

Prosecutors are also making a point of asking potential witnesses if they know who is paying for their legal counsel and what other witnesses, targets or defendants that lawyer may be representing.  Funded largely through small-dollar donors, the PAC is the best way to pay for the legal fees of those drawn into the inquiries, Trump advisors say, particularly those who could not afford legal fees themselves.  The fact that only a small number of lawyers will work for Trump-affiliated clients is another issue.

Well, this is awkward.  One day after Russian President Vladimir Putin thanked North Korea for being one of the handful of countries supporting the Kremlin since its invasion of Ukraine, reports come from the front lines of Ukrainian forces using North Korean rockets seized from Russian forces.  Video shows Ukrainian forces loading a Soviet-era launcher with North Korean rockets.

Reuters reports Ukrainian officials have not detailed how its military came into possession of the arms, saying only they were seized by a “friendly” country and turned over to Ukraine. Shipments of arms and other supplies to Russia have been halted and strict sanctions imposed by most nations, although North Korea and Iran are thought to be supplying Russia.

https://youtu.be/n7PCwno-v88

Indicted felon Donald Trump continues his tour to sucker his followers to fund his attempt to avoid accountability for his misdeeds, taking his rantings to Erie, Pennsylvania and addressing a crowd at Erie Insurance Arena, which has a maximum capacity of 9,300. Trump is scheduled to take the stage at 6 p.m. ET.

With a Fulton County grand jury expected to decide on indictments imminently, Donald Trump’s motion to disqualify Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and the judge overseeing the case merits a hearing according to Georgia Senior Superior Court Judge Stephen Schuster, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports.  Schuster set the hearing for August 10th.

Schuster, a retired Cobb County judge, was called in on the case because all active judges in Fulton County recused themselves due to Trump’s motion targeting their fellow Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney as well as Willis.  Although pundits give the motion little chance of succeeding, it could impede the issuance of indictments in the case.

From the groomers to the people who admit they don’t socialize with anyone who doesn’t share their beliefs, the people who lined up for Saturday’s Trump rally in Erie, Pennsylvania share their common love for their king and cult leader.

More than one hundred Wagner Group forces are reportedly traveling the Suwalki Gap, a 50-mile strip of land between Poland and Lithuania that connects Belarus to the isolated Russian Kaliningrad Oblast on the Baltic Sea, a movement that worries the  NATO allies concerned Wagner forces will infiltrate their countries, CNN reports.

Kaliningrad is a vital port region for Russian trade and maintaining its naval power on the Baltic, and the Suwalki Gap is strategically important to keep open to defend the NATO allies on the Baltic.  Moving Wagner troops along this undefined stretch of land to Kaliningrad concerns leaders of Poland and the Baltic states of Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia because it could signal Russian intent to isolate the region and limit trade.

The man who got thrown into the Trump indictment buffet was given an interview known as a “Queen for a Day” meeting where he could share his story without fear of prosecution, the Washington Post reports.  Prosecutors, however, did not believe Carlos De Oliveira was being honest or completely open with them and told his lawyers to expect an indictment.

De Oliveira worked with fellow defendant Walt Nauta to move boxes of files after Donald Trump’s lawyers were advised of meetings at Mar-a-Lago with government lawyers in June 2022.  He was also seen on security footage moving at least one box on June 3rd, 2022 that Trump ultimately took to Bedminster, New Jersey that day.  From the day of the FBI raid to secure government documents in August 2022, investigators have felt De Oliveira had obfuscated when responding to direct questions; for example, when FBI agents asked for the key to the room where Trump stored boxes of documents, De Oliveira, the property manager, claimed he didn’t have it and said either unknown Secret Service agents or Trump campaign staff had it.

Prosecutors ended up charging De Oliveira after offering an opportunity to give an honest and complete account of his activities after he appeared before the grand jury in early April and then appeared for a proffer session weeks later.  During those times, De Oliveira claimed not to remember key details–like two out-of-character trips Trump made to Mar-a-Lago in the heat of summer in July 2022–as well as specifics of if he was asked to perform certain tasks and by whom.

In his quest to Make Ukraine Great Again, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy took the war with Russia to a whole new level Friday when he signed a declaration moving the official recognization of Christmas from January 7th, the date of the Russian Orthodox observation, to the Western traditional day of December 25th, Politico reports.

Zelenskyy said the move was to encourage his countryman to “abandon the Russian heritage” Ukrainians have adopted after generations of occupation and rule from Moscow-based overseers.  It also pushes Ukrainians to move away from the Russian Orthodox-affiliated churches in Ukraine, which have been shown to be giving aid to Russian invaders.

Trump-appointed Florida federal circuit Judge Raag Singhal late Friday dismissed with prejudice the twice-impeached loser’s moronic defamation suit against CNN over their usage of “the Big Lie” to describe his fantasies that the 2020 election was stolen from him, which he alleged made him sound like a Nazi because some reference to Hitler and Goebbels his lawyers tried to draw.

“Acknowledging that CNN acted with political enmity does not save this case; the Complaint alleges no false statements of fact. Trump complains that CNN described his election challenges as ‘the Big Lie.’ Trump argues that ‘the Big Lie’ is a phrase attributed to Joseph Goebbels and that CNN’s use of the phrase wrongly links Trump with the Hitler regime in the public eye. This is a stacking of inferences that cannot support a finding of falsehood,” Singhal wrote in the opinion.

NSA can’t even keep basic secrets when employees go rogue that I highly doubt the government could keep spaceships and alien bodies a secret. Still waiting for someone to disclose the address of where the alien bodies are.

Also, why are space aliens always showing up in America? https://t.co/Rk79ulVFFy

— Ted Lieu (@tedlieu) July 29, 2023

This is what we want to see from members of Congress amid all this recent UFO mania. Start asking the hard questions and get this shit sorted out. Make this a real debate, get to the bottom of it, see if there’s any there there instead of letting all these allegations run wild.

• Last week, we noted that HBO decision to rebrand as Max was a bad idea.  While I stand by that statement, Elon Musk just committed the biggest rebranding error in the history of American marketing.  
• Mark my words:  weeks after Ron DeSantis drops out of this presidential race, he will call for a socialized federal insurance fund to cover homeowner losses to hurricanes.  He will need to socialize the insurance industry because his regulations have hopelessly dismantled it.  Oh, and the fact that Florida is just a money pit thanks to stupid people who build houses in flood plains.
• Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss were targeted in a vile racist way by Trump and his supporters, but by Rudy Giuliani most heinously.  His racism wasn’t dogwhistled; it was bullhorned.
• Isn’t it odd that you never hear of a doctor supporting the vaccine AND claiming ivermectin could cure Covid?  It’s like they refer to two different sciences to reach their conclusions.
  Read More ▶ “Random thoughts Friday, Volume CXXXI”

Meet Republican presidential candidate Perry Johnson.  “Who?” you rightfully ask.  Johnson is one of those entrepreneurs who made a lot of money in the private sector–in his case, running a consulting company on international quality control standards; think ISO9000–which he believes qualifies him for the highest public office in the land.

Johnson’s not a neophyte, exactly:  he was one of five candidates disqualified from the 2022 Michigan governor’s race because of a ballot petition signature scam.  He’s polling… well, he’s not polling anywhere outside the margin of error, so his glory days in the Republican race are likely this speech at the Iowa GOP conference.  And he certainly brings the SlapChop energy the Republican base loves.

As I made clear about Kenosha immediately, the @TheJusticeDept should drop all charges against all January 6th defendants. If you do not, I will destroy your careers and any remaining institutional legitimacy you may have. You have been warned. https://t.co/E79BDisQyf

— John M. Pierce (@CaliKidJMP) July 27, 2023

MAGA lawyer John Pierce, famous for his failed representation of fat kid vigilante Kyle Rittenhouse, psychotic far right influencer Laura Loomer, and Jacob “QAnon Shaman” Chansley as well as dozens of other Capitol riot defendants – many of whose court proceedings were delayed while the vocally anti-vax Pierce was indisposed and nearly killed by a COVID-19 infection in late Summer 2021, might be in some trouble with a DC federal judge as the District’s US Attorney on Friday submitted a motion flagging several tweets by Pierce as “apparent threats” against DOJ personnel.

Thomas Sibeck, the 37-year-old Buffalo, New York man who was one of the people who attacked DC Metropolitan Police officer Michael Fanone and stole his radio, was sentenced to 50 months in prison and ordered to pay a $7,500 fine, according to the Associated Press.

While Sibeck didn’t physically assault Fanone, he stole the officers radio and badge.  Sibeck buried Fanone’s badge in his backyard; the radio, valued at $5,000, was not recovered.  After spending months in the DC jail, he was released to home confinement at his parents’ home in Buffalo.  (While in home confinement, he asked the court to allow him to use dating apps on his phone.)

Other members of the mob got much harsher sentences:  Daniel Rodriguez, who attacked Fanone with the stun gun, was sentenced to 12½ years in prison last month. Kyle Young was sentenced to over 7 years in prison. Albuquerque Head–that is his actual name–was sentenced to 7½ years.

“We want education in this country not indoctrination in this country.  We got it done in Florida and we got it done nationally,” Republican Florida governor, presidential candidate and guy who won’t let YOU pay a lot for a muffler Ron DeSantis says to a crowd in Iowa to an audience of people who likely have never been to anywhere in Florida not run by The Mouse.  “And I got Kamala Harris comin’ down to Florida trying to create a phony narrative because she understands Florida has stood up to the left’s agenda.  We have beat the left’s agenda in the state of Florida and so thinks she can come down and lie about what we’re doing in the state of Florida.  I’m not budgin’ an inch.  We are going to fight back against these people and we are not letting them take over our schools.”

Note:  DeSantis is obviously removing the use of the word “woke” from his speeches.  In the 120+ words spoken above, he didn’t use it once, substituting “the left” for “woke.”  This is a major change from the days when he was clocked saying “woke” seven times in 20 seconds just a month ago.

Having already launched an undersea adventure tour company with a near-perfect safety record, Argentinian-born entrepreneur Guillermo Söhnlein tells Insider he’s thinking even bigger and better with his next project: Sending 1,000 colonists to go spend the rest of their lives in giant blimps floating perpetually in Venus’s atmosphere, with a target date of 2050 for the first departures.

“Forget OceanGate. Forget Titan. Forget Stockton. Humanity could be on the verge of a big breakthrough and not take advantage of it because we, as a species, are gonna get shut down and pushed back into the status quo,” Söhnlein said of his vision to station the population of a small town in a theoretically habitable sliver of atmosphere approximately 30 miles above the surface of the Stygian nightmare planet in blimps he maintains will be designed to resist corrosion by clouds of sulfuric acid. Addressing the design flaws that caused the little mishap that last month took the lives of his former partner and four other souls, Söhnlein said “I don’t think that should have a negative connotation because you could almost argue that it’s a critical element of humanity moving forward… If we didn’t have people that like this, we’d probably all still be in caves.”

At the DeSantis hospitality suite at the Iowa Republican Conference, where the candidates try to earn the Party members support through earnest debate and discussion of the issues on the minds of the American publ–  Oh, who the hell am I trying to kid:  it’s where the delegates get drunk off their asses and denigrate everyone behind their backs.

Anyway, DeSantis thought it would be particularly special to include a little fun and games with the alcohol, hence the “knock down the Bud Light cans so you can show the world you’re not trans” exhibition.  Per the New York Times’ Shane Goldsmacher, their manifestation of this is the “game” above. Because nothing says “steady, mature leadership” like petty displays of aggression.

The President and First Lady acknowledged their grandchild Navy for the first time publicly, saying that their son Hunter is working with the child’s mother to create a beneficial relationship for their daughter, People magazine reports.

“Our son Hunter and Navy’s mother, Lunden, are working together to foster a relationship that is in the best interests of their daughter, preserving her privacy as much as possible going forward,” President Biden said in a statement provided exclusively to PEOPLE.

“Our son Hunter and Navy’s mother, Lunden, are working together to foster a relationship that is in the best interests of their daughter, preserving her privacy as much as possible going forward,” the president said. “This is not a political issue, it’s a family matter. Jill and I only want what is best for all of our grandchildren, including Navy.”  Many in the conservative echosphere have been questioning why Biden hasn’t publicly acknowledged the child.

Circa 60 year-old pubescent teenager Greg Gutfeld on Friday was confused as to why deleting surveillance camera footage on private property is a crime, obviously talking about how Trump commanded his minions to do so at Mar-a-Lago to cover up their crime of hoarding classified documents stolen from the White House. Gutfeld left out that the indictment specifies that the footage had been deleted after Trump’s lawyers had been sent a subpoena for it which rises to obstruction of justice, but of course remembered to add “it’s not like deleting other people’s emails” to make it clear to the Fox News audience that Hillary bad, Trump innocent.

Two of the Georgia Republican scumbags who signed fake electoral college votes for disgraced former President Trump in December 2020 on Friday joined the twice-impeached and thrice-indicted loser’s still-ongoing efforts to “quash” the special grand jury report and disqualify Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis from prosecuting them, Lawfare’s Anna Bower reports.

Georgia state GOP Chairman David Shafer and former Coffee County GOP Chairwoman Cathy Latham – also likely on the hook for even more charges than Shafer as she was involved in that Dominion hack shitshow at the county clerk’s office – each filed motions to “intervene and adopt and join” the case against the likely case against them, one they’ve known was coming since they received target letters last July and probably taking on even more urgency since their 16 counterparts in Michigan are each looking at 85 years in prison for their crimes against Democracy. Apparently it doesn’t matter that the Georgia state Supreme Court already tossed Trump’s case, he’s trying again and these assholes want in on the desperate bid to avoid accountability.