The Conversation -- August 25, 2023
Richard Fausset of the New York Times: "As of late Friday morning, all 19 defendants in the state election interference case involving ... Donald J. Trump had turned themselves in. Jeffrey A. Clark, the former high-ranking Justice Department official criminally charged in Georgia in connection with efforts to overturn Donald J. Trump's 2020 election loss in that state, was booked at the Fulton County Jail early on Friday, a few hours after the former president's dramatic booking at the same Atlanta facility.... The last two defendants in the case, Trevian C. Kutti and Steven C. Lee, surrendered on Friday morning before noon, the deadline the Fulton County district attorney, Fani T. Willis, had set for them to appear at the jail before she would start to issue arrest warrants. All but one of the 19 defendants negotiated bail agreements with prosecutors ahead of time, and were released immediately after being processed at the jail. The one defendant [Harrison Floyd] who did not do so was still being held at the jail on Friday."
Marie: Despite all his multi-million-dollars grifts, I'm not sure #BillionaireTrump is doing too well, money-wise. For one thing, he used a bail bondsman to post his bond in Fulton County. That cost him $20K out-of-pocket, where your "normal" richy-rich inmate would post his own bail and save the $20K -- assuming he was planning not to skip the country. Then there's this: ~~~
~~~ Susie Madrak of Crooks & Liars: "Well, well, well! According to British publication The Express, online property records show [Donald] Trump transferred the ownership of Mar-A-Largo to a corporation headed by Junior. 'Zillow, which claims to receive "information from the municipal office responsible for recording real estate transactions in your area", reports the property was sold for $422 million on August 4, 2023. A quick search of the website SunBiz ... (shows) that the current owner of Mar A Lago is a company called Mar A Lago, Inc. The owner of the company, and its registered agent, is Donald Trump Jr....'" ~~~
~~~ Marie: Florida's bankruptcy laws are generous to residents who live in multi-million-dollar houses, allowing them to keep their luxurious residences even as they stiff all their creditors. But those laws may not apply to a "home" that's part of a for-profit resort hotel. Madrak suggests Trump the Elder is trying to protect his assets. That sounds mighty plausible. ~~~
~~~ OOPS! Update and correction: "'Zillow has since updated the posting to show that the property is not currently on the market and hasn't changed hands since 1995 when Trump turned the residence that he originally purchased in 1985 for $2 million into The Mar-a-Lago Club.' So apparently this was fake? Though Zillow hasn't said how that listing appeared." Thanks to Bobby Lee for the heads-up.
Marie: I have no idea if the video is real or fake (I'd guess fake). But whatever; it expresses my feelings. Thanks to RAS for the lead:
Marie: The Pulitzer committee is going to have to decide if the person who snaps mugshots at the Fulton County Jail is eligible for the news photography prize; after all, s/he has taken the picture of the year.
~~~~~~~~~~
Inmate No. P01135809
This photo of a man who resembles the movie thriller version of a villainous, scary character is the way Donald Trump wants to be -- and will be -- remembered for as long as human civilization continues. This is the first-ever mugshot of a U.S. president* (or president). ~~~
~~~ Jonathan Cooper of the AP: When the camera shutter blinked inside an Atlanta jail on Thursday, it both created and documented a tiny inflection point in American life. Captured for posterity, there was a former president of the United States, for the first time in history, under arrest and captured in the sort of frame more commonly associated with drug dealers or drunken drivers. The trappings of power gone, for that split second. Left behind: an enduring image that will appear in history books long after Donald Trump is gone."
~~~ Niha Masih of the New York Times: "... Donald Trump made a return to X...-Twitter, late Thursday, with his account sharing his mug shot and a link to his website hours after his surrender and subsequent release from an Atlanta jail on charges connected to his attempts to reverse the 2020 election results in Georgia." MB: Weirdly, Trump's caption for his mugshot included the admonition "NEVER SURRENDER!" Surrender is precisely what Trump did in Atlanta Thursday. According to Lawrence O'Donnell, the Biggest Grifter is hawking T-shirts emblazoned with his mugshot for $34 or $35. I guess he thinks his mugshot is a good look.
Marie: I heard on MSNBC that four or five more perps, including Jeffrey Clark, were booked this morning. Update: According to CNN's liveblog in an item posted later this morning, all but two of the gangsters have surrendered. The liveblog doesn't identify the two people who are still on the lam. According to an ABC News liveblog, "Out of the 19 total defendants, only Trevian Kutti and Stephen Lee have yet to turn themselves in as today's noon deadline approaches." Here's more on these two from Diane Pathieu of ABC-7 Chicago.
The New York Times liveblogged the Fulton County, Georgia, hoohah: "... Donald J. Trump was booked at an Atlanta jail on Thursday in his fourth criminal arrest this year, this time in a sweeping racketeering case accusing him and his allies of conspiring to reverse his 2020 election loss in Georgia. Mr. Trump flew to Atlanta in a private plane from Newark, N.J., and was whisked to the Fulton County Jail in a motorcade with a police escort, arriving at 7:35 p.m. He was then fingerprinted and photographed like other people accused of state crimes and released on bond. About 20 minutes later, he returned directly to the Atlanta airport, where he briefly spoke to reporters on the tarmac before boarding his plane. Saying he had done nothing wrong, he called the charges a 'travesty of justice' and added 'we have every right to challenge an election we think is dishonest.'... Mr. Trump was listed in the Fulton County booking system as having 'blonde or strawberry' hair, a height of 6 foot 3 inches and weight of 215 pounds. That weight is 24 pounds less than the White House doctor reported Trump weighed in 2018 [MB: and according to MSNBC, 25 pounds less than Mark Meadows weighed the same day. CNN said Trump was allowed to 'self-report']....
"Harrison Floyd III, a former 2020 Trump campaign staff member, remains in custody Thursday evening because he showed up to his booking without a lawyer, according to a person with knowledge of what took place. Unlike other defendants, he did not take up the district attorney's offer to work out a bond agreement ahead of time, meaning he could be in jail for several days....
"Donald Trump will use a commercial bondsman, Charles Shaw of Foster Bail Bonds, to post his bond in exchange for $20,000, the bondsman confirmed.... The 10 percent fee will be nonrefundable.... It's not only notable that the billionaire businessman is using a bail bondsman, but also that he's covering the percentage himself....
"A flurry of legal motions were filed on Thursday ahead of [Donald Trump's] appearance, with Fani T. Willis, the Fulton County district attorney, asking a judge to set a trial date of Oct. 23 and Mr. Trump objecting to that timing, indicating that he wants to move more slowly. Mr. Trump's filing also said that he would seek to have his case severed from that of Kenneth Chesebro, a co-defendant who on Wednesday filed a speedy trial demand in state court. ...
"Judge Scott McAfee of Fulton County Superior Court approved the motion of Kenneth Chesebro, one of the defendants in the Georgia election interference case, for a speedy trial, setting a start date for Oct. 23....
"Trump is on Truth Social attacking Atlanta as crime-ridden as he heads to Fulton County for his arrest. It's unclear whether any of these posts will test the limits of his social media restrictions under his bond package....
Two more of his co-defendants turned themselves in on Thursday: Mark Meadows, his former White House chief of staff, and Harrison Floyd, a former campaign staffer." (Also linked yesterday.)
Politico publishes a rogues' gallery of all of the mugshots of the Trump gang which the Fulton County Jail had released as of early this morning. The accused must surrender by noon ET today.
Another Gangster Says "Trump Made Me Do It." Kyle Cheney of Politico: "Shawn Still, a Georgia Republican charged alongside ... Donald Trump..., says he signed false papers claiming to be a legitimate presidential elector at Trump's direction.... 'The president's attorneys instructed Mr. Still and the other contingent electors that they had to meet and cast their ballots on Dec. 14, 2020,' his attorney Thomas Bever argued Thursday in a court filing seeking to transfer the case against him to federal court.... [Still] contends that because Trump effectively instructed him to cast the ballot ..., he was acting with the imprimatur of the federal government.... [Similarly, former GOP chair David] Shafer's attorney wrote in a petition seeking to move the Fulton County case to federal court, 'Mr. Shafer and the other Republican Electors in the 2020 election acted at the direction of the incumbent President and other federal officials.... The arguments by Still and Shafer underscore the tensions and cracks likely to emerge among the 19 defendants."
Annie Grayer & Melanie Zanona of CNN: "The Republican-led House Judiciary Committee has opened a congressional investigation into Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, a development that was first reported by CNN and comes the same day [Donald] Trump is slated to surrender at the county jail after being charged for participating in schemes to meddle with Georgia's 2020 election results. The committee sent a letter to Willis on Thursday asking whether she communicated or coordinated with the Justice Department, who has indicted Trump twice on two separate cases, or used federal dollars to complete her investigation that culminated in the fourth indictment of Trump. The questions from Republicans about whether Willis used federal funding in her state-level investigation mirrors the same line of inquiry that Republicans used to probe Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who indicted Trump in New York earlier this year for falsifying business records to cover up an alleged hush money scheme." (Also linked yesterday.) The New York Times story is here. ~~~
~~~ Marie: In a Congress that refuses to fund the federal government, I am damned sick of their funneling millions of tax dollars into the line item "Trump Defense Expenditures."
Paul Krugman of the New York Times: "... it was a bit startling to see Trump propose, as he did last week on Fox Business, a 10 percent tariff on all U.S. imports, which he called a 'ring around the collar' of the U.S. economy. Before I get to why that would be a really bad idea, I can't help noting how remarkable it was to hear Trump using that phrase. It's an article of faith among many Republicans that President Biden is doddering and senile (even though he isn't, at all). What would they be saying if Biden were promoting one of his big policy ideas with a 55-year-old advertising slogan that was meant to describe something bad? (Wisk detergent was supposed to prevent ring around the collar.)... A tariff would, of course, be a tax -- a tax that would, whatever Trump may assert, fall on U.S. families, probably disproportionately hitting lower income households.... The geopolitical effects of such a tariff would be disastrous.... If America were to implement Trump's proposal for a unilateral, across-the-board tariff, it would in effect be seceding from the international order it did so much to create. The result would be a global wave not so much of retaliation -- although that too -- as of emulation, a free-for-all of tariffs imposed to cater to various interest groups."
Presidential Race 2024
Going to the candidates debate
Laugh about it, shout about it
When you've got to choose
Every way you look at this, you lose. ~~~
~~~ Amanda Marcotte of Salon: "Trump's power is entirely due to the vacuum created by the vapidity of Republican leaders. Watching this non-debate was mainly a reminder that none of these politicians possess anything resembling substance. Despite all the chatter from the punditry about 'policy,' the voters these candidates are trying to reach could not care less about the nuts and bolts of governance. The GOP exists mainly as a vehicle for the endless parade of unwarranted, incoherent grievances of the Republican base.... For a base that just wants to hear how they're the real victims here, Trump's 'woe is me' messaging and retribution-oriented rhetoric is political heroin straight into their MAGA veins. Wednesday night's debate was a painful illustration of this.... The party's base actively repels any discourse with real meaning.... There's no such thing as 'policy discourse' in a world built entirely around conspiracy theories." (Also linked yesterday.)
Not a Mugshot. Miranda Nazzaro of the Hill: "The U.S. Postal Service is set to unveil its new stamp honoring late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg this October. The Postal Service announced Thursday it will hold a first-day-of-issue ceremony in October for the new Forever stamp commemorating Ginsburg's legacy.... The stamp features an oil painting of Ginsburg wearing her black judicial robe and white collar."
Josh Gerstein of Politico: "The Justice Department has accused Elon Musk's SpaceX company of violating federal law by refusing to hire foreign nationals who were granted U.S. work permits as asylum-seekers or refugees. In a complaint filed Thursday, DOJ officials claim SpaceX rebuffed applications from asylum-seekers and refugees from 2018 through last year.... The 13-page complaint filed with a unit of Justice's Executive Office for Immigration Review does not mention the outspoken Musk by name but does allege that as the company's CEO, he publicly advanced the incorrect claim that a green card or citizenship was necessary to work at the company."
~~~~~~~~~~
Russia. The New York Times liveblog of developments Thursday in Russia's war on Ukraine is here: "Here's the latest on the plane crash [that apparently killed Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin and nine others]. U.S. and other Western officials said Thursday that preliminary intelligence reports led them to believe that an explosion on board likely brought down the aircraft in Russia, killing all the passengers aboard. And, for the first time, the Pentagon openly said it believed Mr. Prigozhin was dead. 'Our initial assessment is that it's likely Prigozhin was killed,' the Pentagon spokesman, Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder, said on Thursday afternoon. There has been no official confirmation that Mr. Prigozhin was killed, but President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia on Thursday, in his first comments on the crash, spoke obliquely of his death, referring to him in the past tense. 'He made some serious mistakes in life, but he also achieved necessary results,' Mr. Putin said in a televised meeting." ~~~
~~~ An AP story is here. ~~~
~~~ The New York Times' live updates of developments Friday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here.
News Lede
New York Times: "Authorities in Hawaii released a list late on Thursday naming 388 people who are still unaccounted for in the aftermath of the deadliest wildfires in America in more than a century, which killed at least 115 people. The fires devastated the coastal town of Lahaina on the island of Maui, as well as other areas of the island, more than two weeks ago. Search-and-rescue teams are still sifting through the last patches of ash and rubble looking for human remains.In publicizing the names, the authorities hope to narrow the tally of the missing." ~~~
~~~ The AP's story is here.
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Reader Comments (16)
Like everything else Trump, his mugshot is another empty act.
“Ooooh, look how scary and tough I am!” sez Cadet Bone Spurs who did a cartoon character “feets don’t fail me now!” dash as fast as possible in the opposite direction of the draft and military service. It’s all performative, just like his Potemkin administration (although he was successful in reducing taxes on himself, which is funny considering he never pays taxes, but whatever…), just like his gaudy, fake gold plated penthouse, or his soft core porn model wife.
His old Twitter picture was pretty similar, the adolescent scowl, the faux tough guy sneer. It’s a show put in for the droolers who, like worshipful followers of the schoolyard bully, are impressed with image, with superficial flamboyance and flimflam, who can be moved to genuine outrage by and prêt-à-porter pique.
If one considers the style of official portraits approved over the centuries by the rich and powerful which typically portray the sitter as cool, collected, on top of the world and unimpressed if not unaffected by the vagaries of life that keep the hoi polloi up at night, Trump instead chooses to look like some character from a not very good horror movie. It says more about the fear and angst he must be feeling that compels him to put on this vicious looking visage. Of course it’s a performance for the MAGAts, to show them he’s large and in charge.
And try as they might, even those sycophantic lemmings can’t forget that a mugshot is a step on the road to the DOC jumpsuit.
This isn’t the image of a powerful, confident, mature man, his power, of course stemming from the hate and grievance factories on the right. This is a small, flabby, morally inert adolescent doing his best to give the universe one more impotent, sneering FU.
Oh, and 215 lbs?…hang on…hahahahahahahahaha…that fat fuck hasn’t seen two fifteen since high school. More flimflam. He must have brought his own scale with the tare weight set at fifty pounds. “Let’s see…265, subtract the tare…there ya go, Donnie. 215.”
One other thought (maybe more) about the mug’s shot. The idea, I’m guessing, is not only to try to appear tough, but to once more deny that any DA, any Justice official, any law, any jurisdiction, has the right to hold him accountable. For anything. Ever.
The snarling sneer is meant to let his MAGAts know that they have his permission now to ignore and, when possible, attack his many enemies. These include the rule of law, the idea of justice, democracy, decency, and civil behavior. Here a fat pig whining about his victimization, a narcissistic prick who has had everything handed to him, including the presidency, with the aid of an antagonistic foreign power, a self indulgent, presumptuous FBI director, and a supine, shiny-object-chasing media.
A preening rich kid who has lived in the lap of luxury his entire life, free to rape and plunder and ignore rules of behavior and the law who has gotten away with everything. Until now. And he’s mad. Look at that scowl. Oh, baby, is he pissed. They can’t treat the great Donald like some average guy on the street.
Then think of all the thousands of poor schmucks who get printed and have mugshots taken every day who look into the camera with despair and hopelessness, realizing that their actions, most of which can’t come within telescopic sight of Trump’s transgressions, will guarantee them time in prison. But that fat fuck is outraged that he is forced to undergo at least the beginnings of that process.
Of course, his lapdogs in the GQP need to take umbrage as well at the Dear Leader being treated like he’s not a god, so their goal now is to go after Fani Willis. Because that’s how it’s played now on the right. We don’t get everything we want, we change the rules, ban the books, fire the ones we don’t like, make public their names and addresses and sic the gun toting mob on them. Finally, we threaten to murder them.
All of that is contained in that picture of a belt-busting, obscenely over privileged Richie Rich who momentarily had his toy crown taken away.
Akhilleus,
All true or truth-y, but I still think he looks like a spoiled boy, or as you say, teenager, who has been denied the use of the family Mercedes and is now on the verge of tears.
Whatever, a cartoonish image and a far cry from manly.
Oh noes! A new poll has some very bad news for the Fat Traitor, especially concerning his contention of complete innocence and his victimization by a weaponized witch hunt.
According to this poll, a majority of Americans don’t believe his current list of lies. They believe he should be tried before the 2024 election, that he is guilty, and 50% now believe he should be locked up if convicted. Ka-bam! goes the cell door!
Even worse for Fatty, a fair percentage of respondents, almost a third, say they don’t fully understand all the charges yet. Should light start to dawn on these people, it’s a lead pipe cinch that those numbers will continue to trend away from Trump’s assertions of perfect phone calls and poor, poor, pitiful me-isms.
But the Orange Monster is back on Twitter/X/Musky’s Musty Clubhouse, whatever the Christ it’s called these days. He’ll be sure to spout off about this latest challenge to his sainthood.
Oh, by the way, does that mean that Fatty’s broke-ass Untruth-Antisocial media thingie has bitten the dust?
Another failed Trump wingding. He just keeps driving the clown car into ditches.
Too much winning!
@Akhilleus: Wait a minute! Whazzamatta wichoo people?
You liked me when I cheated on my wives.
You liked me when I admitted to assaulting women.
You liked me when I lied to you again and again.
You liked me when I was impeached once.
You liked me when you found out I was a tax cheat.
You liked me when I led a coup against your country.
You liked me when I was impeached twice.
You liked me when I was indicted once.
You liked me when I was indicted twice.
You liked me when I was indicted three times.
And now you don't like me when I'm indicted four times and got my picture on the cover of the New York Post?
Hey, I'm still the same guy. What's not to like?
The Lincoln Project has last night's reaction the mug shot.
I saw elsewhere that Fulton County's scale is in kilos.
People are saying that the mug shot is a look of consternation.
They evidently can't spell. Should be constipation.
He's always been full of it.
Jack,
Hahaha. Roughy calculation then puts fat boy’s weight at over 450 lbs.
Sounds a lot more accurate. Fucking blimp.
@Marie: I'm pretty sure the Lincoln video is doctored, but still fun to imagine.
Rudy and Donnie
"Rudy and Donald first got together in the late 1980s shortly before Donald became a co-chair of Giuliani's first fundraiser for his 1989 mayoral campaign, sitting on the Waldorf dais and steering $41,000 to the campaign. A year earlier, Tony Lombardi, the federal agent closest to then-U.S. Attorney Giuliani, opened a probe of Trump's role in the suspect sale of two Trump Tower apartments to Robert Hopkins, the mob-connected head of the city's largest gambling ring.
Trump attended the closing himself and Hopkins arrived with a briefcase loaded with up to $200,000 in cash, a deposit the soon-to-felon counted at the table. Despite Hopkins' wholesale lack of verifiable income or assets, he got a loan from a Jersey bank that did business with Trump's casino. A Trump limo delivered the cash to the bank.
The government subsequently nailed Hopkins' mortgage broker, Frank LaMagra, on an unrelated charge and he offered to give up Donald, claiming Trump "participated" in the money-laundering — and volunteering to wear a wire on him.
Instead, Lombardi, who discussed the case with Giuliani personally (and with me for a 1993 Village Voice piece called "The Case of the Missing Case"), went straight to Donald for two hour-long interviews with him. Within weeks of the interviews, Donald announced he'd raise $2 million in a half hour if Rudy ran for mayor. Lamagra got no deal and was convicted, as was his mob associate, Louis (Louie HaHa) Attanasio, who was later also nailed for seven underworld murders. Hopkins was convicted of running his gambling operation partly out of the Trump Tower apartment, where he was arrested."
It appears that the Orange Monster got together with his ministers and flacks and (tiny) testicle latherers to groupthink what his mugshot should look like.
After the ordeal, he retreated to his plane to see how the media was playing his “Never Surrender” glower. He’s all about “how do I look?”
The group apparently tried out different versions of The emperor’s new sneer.
Can you picture it?
“Okay Mr President*, now give us a menacing, tough guy, gonna cut all your throats look!”
“How’s that?”
“Um, looks like you’re getting an enema. How about…”
“Okay, okay…what about this?”
“Bad fish for lunch? Not a good look.”
“Can I hold up a gun?”
“I’m pretty sure they’ll say no to that.”
“What about this one?”
“Yeaaahh…no.”
“This?”
“Looks like you’re shitting an anvil.”
“Now?”
“Did your dog die?”
“I don’t have a dog. I hate fucking dogs. How ‘bout this…”
“Hmmm…your golfing partner cheated better than you? Okay. We’ll go with that.”
I'm surprised and disappointed right now. With our Photoshop and AI world, plus the way I get bombarded with junk ads, I haven't been hit with Trump's mugshot, suit replaced with an orange jumpsuit and his photo number on some Cheap Charlie T-Shirt being flogged for 25$.
So, how to explain that 215 lb for El Bloato?
First, as earlier noted, his staff filled out the form and "self-verified."
But, maybe, when they wrote in the "275" they wrote the "7" with no slant and a small horizontal cap, like "1". It happens, just ask any mob accountant. That's one reason why in many countries, a handwritten "7" has a little cross-bar about half-way down the stem. So it can't be mistaken for a written "1".
You've got to marvel that DiJiT cannot do ANYTHING without cheating.
Back in April Trump claimed he was 6'2 and 240 lbs in Manhattan.
Looks like MaO is still "Trump's Dump" according to an update/correction from Zillow. https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-mar-lago-sold-arrest-listing-1822370