Sunday, May 9, 2021

WHITE COLLAR CRIMINAL DONALD TRUMP AND THE FINAL DAYS OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY - Kinzinger: Republican Party Is ‘Basically The Titanic’ in the Middle of a ‘Slow Sink’

 No one is supposed to be above the law. But during Donald Trump’s presidency, we were more likely to witness a White, wealthy, and well-connected felon pardoned than perp-walked. This was, perhaps, a piece of Trump’s kinship if not admiration for these elite grifters.

House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy apparently pays $1,500 to live in a 12-bedroom, 16-bath penthouse


Kinzinger: Republican Party Is ‘Basically The Titanic’ in the Middle of a ‘Slow Sink’

PAM KEY
1,070
3:38

Representative Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation” called the Republican Party “basically the Titanic” and was in the middle of a “slow sink.”

Partial transcript as follows:

DICKERSON: Speaking of internal divisions, the Republican Party in the House. It looks like Liz Cheney, the number three in House leadership on the Republican side, is no longer going to hold that position. What is this debate about?

KINZINGER: Yeah, look, it’s incredible. So Liz Cheney is saying exactly what Kevin McCarthy said the day of the insurrection. She’s just consistently been saying it. And a few weeks later, Kevin McCarthy changed to attacking other people. And so I think what the reality is, is as a party, we have to have an internal look and a full accounting as to what led to January 6th. I mean, right now, it’s basically the- the Titanic. We’re like, you know, in this in the middle of this slow sink, we have a band playing on the deck telling everybody it’s fine. And meanwhile, as I’ve said, you know, Donald Trump’s running around trying to find women’s clothing and get on the first lifeboat. And I think there’s a few of us that are just saying, guys, this is not good, not just for the future of the party, but this is not good for the future of this country. We’re four months after January 6th, an insurrection, something that was unthinkable in this country. And the message from the people that want to get rid of Liz Cheney is to say it’s just time to focus on the future and move on, like this was 10 years ago and we’ve been obsessed about it since. It’s been four months. And we have so many people, including our leadership in the party, that has not admitted that this is what it is, which was an insurrection led by the president of the United States, well deserving of a full accounting from Republicans.

DICKERSON: But if you are a leader of a party and 70% of the members of your party think the last election was stolen, though, they’re wrong about that, you are a leader of that party. You can’t change the party. You’re the leader. So why shouldn’t a person be a leader of a party that is fundamentally at odds with what Liz Cheney believes?

KINZINGER: Because truth matters. Right now- and we have to look and understand why, yes, 70% of the base believes that the election was stolen because they’ve been told it was. They’ve been told by the president of the United States. They’ve been told in many cases by Republican leaders or at least Republican leaders in the least have not countered it on something so vastly crazy as the election is stolen. You know, and- and this is why you have this real battle right now in the party, this idea of let’s just put our differences aside and be unified. You cannot unify truth with lies. The lie is that the election was stolen. The truth is Joe Biden beat Donald Trump. And I’m sorry that 74 million people voted for Donald Trump. They weren’t disenfranchised. They were simply outnumbered and as a party let’s focus on now, how do we go out and win more people. And that’s why actually I started the ‘Country 1st’ movement, at country1st.com is just to say, tell people the truth and quit peddling and conspiracies, because that’s what we’ve seen in this party. And they’re going to get rid of Liz Cheney because they’d much rather pretend that the conspiracy is either real or not confront it than to actually confront it and maybe have to take the temporary licks to save this party and in the long term this country.

Follow Pam Key On Twitter @pamkeyNEN

House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy apparently pays $1,500 to live in a 12-bedroom, 16-bath penthouse

Hogan: Bothers Me Republicans Have to ‘Swear Fealty to the Dear Leader’ Trump or ‘Get Kicked Out’

PAM KEY
738
1:29

Governor Larry Hogan (R-MD) said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that it bothered him his fellow Republicans were making loyalty to former President Donald Trump a litmus test for members of the party.

When asked about Rep Liz Cheney (R-WY) possibly being ousted from leadership for disagreeing that the 2020 election was stolen from former President Donald Trump, Hogan said, “Look, I think we’ve got to get back to winning elections. We have to be able to have a Republican Party that appeals to a broader group of people. We have to get back to having a bigger tent, as Reagan talked about. Look, we’ve had the worst four years ever in the Republican Party, losing the White House, the House of Representatives, and the Senate. Successful politics is about addition and multiplication, not subtraction.”

He continued, “I think they’re concerned about retaliation from the president. They’re concerned about being attacked within the party. It just bothers me that you have to swear fealty to the dear leader or get kicked out of the party. It doesn’t make any sense.”

Hogan added, “It’s sort of a circular firing squad where we’re just attacking members of our own party instead of focusing on solving problems or standing up and having an argument that we can debate the Democrats on some of the things the Biden administration is pushing through.”

Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN

House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy apparently pays $1,500 to live in a 12-bedroom, 16-bath penthouse


McCarthy Backs Ousting Liz Cheney from Leadership, Supports Stefanik

PAM KEY
819
1:32

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) said on this week’s broadcast of Fox News Channel’s “Sunday Morning Futures” that he supported Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) taking over Rep. Liz Cheney’s (R-WY) leadership role.

Host Maria Bartiromo said, “Do you have the votes to formally oust Liz Cheney?”

McCarthy said, “Well, Maria, everyone in leadership serves at the pleasure of the conference, and as you know, there’s a lot at stake. Democrats are destroying the nation.”

He added, “To defeat Nancy Pelosi and the socialist agenda, we need to be united, and that starts with leadership. That’s why we will have a vote next week, and we want to be united and looking moving forward. I think that’s will take place.”

Bartiromo asked, “Is this just her ideology that she’s unable to get over being never Trump.”

McCarthy said, “No, any member can take whatever position they believe in. That’s what the voters vote on the individuals, and they make that decision. What we are talking about, it’s a position in leadership. We are in one of our biggest battles ever for this nation and the direction of whether this century will be ours. As conference chair, you have the most critical jobs of the messenger going forward.”

Bartiromo asked, “Do you support Elise Stefanik for that job?”

McCarthy responded, “Yes, I do.”

Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN


Starting with Trump, It’s Time for a White Collar Crime Crackdown

This week, a federal judge slammed Bill Barr over the Mueller investigation. Hopefully, Merrick Garland’s Justice Department will stay on Barr and give financial crimes the attention they deserve.

by Jennifer Taub
LAW AND JUSTICE
Merrick Garland
Attorney General Merrick Garland speaks about a jury's verdict in the case against former Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin in the death of George Floyd, at the Department of Justice, Wednesday, April 21, 2021, in Washington. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, Pool)

This week, Judge Amy Berman Jackson delivered a significant victory to anticorruption advocates. The federal judge ordered the Department of Justice to hand over the March 24, 2019 memo that former Attorney General William Barr claimed to have relied on when he decided not to criminally charge then-President Donald Trump with obstructing the Mueller Investigation. In a fair, but brutal dressing down of Bill Barr, Judge Jackson confirmed our worst suspicions, that the fix had been in to clear Trump. “The fact that he would not be prosecuted was a given,” she wrote.

Now, Attorney General Merrick Garland is at an inflection point. He will either deliver this internal memo from the Barr Justice Department to the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), the watchdog group who brought the original Freedom of Information Act Request, or he can appeal Judge Jackson’s decision. The direction Garland takes here has huge implications, not just for this case, or for public corruption, but more broadly for addressing our current white collar crime epidemic. Here’s why.

No one is supposed to be above the law. But during Donald Trump’s presidency, we were more likely to witness a White, wealthy, and well-connected felon pardoned than perp-walked. This was, perhaps, a piece of Trump’s kinship if not admiration for these elite grifters.

By the end of just the first two years of the Trump administration, federal white collar criminal enforcement was at an all-time low. We saw at least a 26 percent decline in the number of these defendants prosecuted since the Obama era, according to the Department of Justice. Also, criminal investigations by the I.R.S. for tax evasion, money laundering, and identity theft fell by 36 percent. How big is our white collar crime problem? While the F.B.I. pegs street-level “property” crimes including burglary, larceny, and theft nationwide at around $16 billion annually, there is no equivalent F.B.I. figures published on white collar crime. Scholars have tallied the cost to be at least $800 billion.

There is no official count of the number of suspects, convicts, victims, or total dollars involved, and there is not even a uniform definition of what qualifies as “white collar crime.” Though, Edwin Sutherland, the sociologist who coined the expression in 1939 to mean “a crime committed by a person of high social status and respectability in the course of his occupation,” today we typically define it by the nature of the offense, not the status of the offender.

What makes determining the white collar crime numbers additionally challenging is that the numbers change depending on who is adding them up. When reporting data to the F.B.I., state and local law enforcement can include behavior that would not seem to fit the bill, such as the arrest of a low-income suspect for writing a bad check or committing welfare fraud as white collar crime. Tracking at the federal level is equally tough. The 93 U.S. Attorneys’ offices annually report prosecutions organized by category. What is included has changed, creating an apples-to-oranges problem for those making comparisons over time. As an illustration, back in 1992, the annual report listed within its section on white collar crime: money laundering, official corruption, procurement fraud, and environmental, health and safety offenses. Today, those are tallied under different headings.

Despite this numerical opacity, we are in the midst of a prosecution crisis or rather a nonprosecution one, according to many experts. So, what can be done? Quite a lot, actually.

First, the Justice Department must pursue the obstruction case against Donald Trump. Volume II of the Mueller Report provided detailed, persuasive arguments that Trump committed criminal obstruction on several occasions. To ignore this evidence simply due to his status as a former president would further the public’s suspicion that the most powerful are above the law. If the DOJ wins a conviction, they can deal with the problems of incarcerating a former president later. What they should not do, is simply fail to prosecute because the this is unprecedented territory.

A Trump prosecution should be thought of as under the white collar crime umbrella using both Sutherland’s 1939 status-based definition and the more modern offense-based understanding. As for status, Trump occupied the highest office in the nation, if not the world. And, as for the nature of the offense, the obstruction-of-justice statutes are often used by federal prosecutors against defendants in complex fraud investigations. It’s the lying not the underlying crime that often is prosecuted. As one example, Martha Stewart was never charged with securities fraud. Instead, she was indicted for and found guilty of obstructing an agency proceeding and making false statements to investigators looking into her suspicious stock trading.

Second, President Biden should provide clear direction that cracking down on white collar crime is a priority. Tone from the top matters. After the Savings and Loan Crisis of the 1980s, President George H.W. Bush said, “We will not rest until the cheats, the chiselers and the charlatans spend a large chunk of their lives behind bars in prison.” He backed this rhetoric with resources. An interagency group was set up to target the biggest offenders. Plus, he sought new legislation from Congress to increase funding and laws to sharpen tools to investigate bank fraud, including the use of wiretaps. By his third year in office, federal prosecutors had charged more than 1,000 and secured convictions of more than 900 individuals involved in significant S&L fraud.

Similarly, during the George W. Bush administration, between mid-2002 and early 2006, the Justice Department, secured convictions of more than 1,000 individuals involved in corporate fraud cases, including eighty-two CEOs, eighty-five corporate presidents, thirty-six chief financial officers, and fourteen chief operating officers. The posterchild of these prosecutions was Enron, the once high-flying, energy innovator with a $70 billion market capitalization that came crashing down when accounting fraud surfaced. Big talk matched with big resources, delivered big results.

There are promising signs that President Biden is similarly setting the right tone. In his joint address to Congress on the eve of his 100th day in office, he promised, “The I.R.S will crack down on millionaires and billionaires who cheat on their taxes. That’s estimated to be billions of dollars.” This month the I.R.S. commissioner testified that the annual tax gap (the difference between what the I.R.S. is owed and what it’s actually collecting) is now nearly $1 trillion a year, most of which he said is due to tax evasion by the high-earners and large corporations. Importantly, President Biden is asking Congress to put our money where his mouth is, seeking additional I.R.S. funding of $80 billion over ten years toward this priority.

Third, Attorney General Merrick Garland should make individual accountability a reality, not just words on paper.  When a large business enterprise is caught up in federal criminal activity, the trend has been to allow the enterprise to enter what’s called a deferred prosecution agreement or nonprosecution agreement to avoid the expense, embarrassment, and uncertainty of indictment or trial. The company pays some amount in penalties and fines, sometimes submits to an independent monitor, and within a few years is cleared. The vast majority of the time, no real people inside the organization face any criminal consequences.

Duke University Law School professor Brandon Garrett has calculated, individuals were charged alongside just 27 percent of the 497 of these agreements with organizations between 2001 and 2018. And high-level executives even more rarely. This must change. Similar to my recommendation in Big Dirty Money for an elite crime division, Garrett recommends an independent corporate prosecution function with Main Justice and key regional offices. This new unit should also get a handle on data reporting problem.

Garland has the right team in place to make this happen. His number two in command is Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco. While on the Enron Task Force, she helped convict several former executives on an assortment of wire fraud and conspiracy charges.

Of course, President Biden must stay independent of any investigation touching on the former president. However, that recusal should not make either pursuing Trump or cracking down on white collar crime any less of a priority. The ongoing criminal investigations of Trump in New York County for insurance and bank fraud, and in Fulton County, Georgia for election interference should not absolve the U.S. Department of Justice from following the facts where they lead, even if they lead them to the former occupant of the Oval Office.


House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy apparently pays $1,500 to live in a 12-bedroom, 16-bath penthouse






Peter Weber

Tucker Carlson was right: House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) is living in the Washington, D.C., penthouse of Republican pollster and messaging maven Frank Luntz, and it does sound like a pretty sweet deal. Carlson was tipped off to the roommate arrangement, and McCarthy confirmed it Tuesday, telling Fox & Friends he has "rented a room from Frank for a couple of months, but don't worry, I'm back to — going back to where I normally am, on my couch in my office. But, yes, we pay fair market rate"

Washington Post fact-checker Glenn Kessler looked into Luntz's apartment, and it's actually a 7,000-square-foot, 12-bedroom, 16-bathroom amalgamation of 4 three-story penthouses Luntz purchased for nearly $4.3 million in August and September 2018 and merged in November 2019. The homeowner's association fees on the four units is $4,976 a month, Kessler calculates, citing Redfin.

Neither McCarthy nor Luntz responded to the Post's request for comment, but a McCarthy spokesman told the Daily Wire the minority leader "calculated the fair market value amount at $1,500/month" to rent an "approximately" 400-square-foot room in Luntz's penthouse. Kessler's Apartments.com search found that a comparable studio or one-bedroom would run about $5,000 a month. Regardless, he writes, "besides the 'room' he rented, McCarthy would have had access to a 24/7 concierge, a rooftop pool, a fitness center, a media room, a business center, and a party room with a bar and pool table."

"This is quite a deal, especially considering that Luntz has talked about how he's on the road all the time," Politico muses. "Imagine paying $1,500 a month for what is essentially a mansion carved into a high-rise? It's good to be the minority leader!"

Carlson was less amused by the "sleazy and corrupt" arrangement. "Kevin McCarthy promises Republicans he shares their values" and "will fight for them against permanent Washington, the forces that would like to destroy their lives," he said. "And at the end of the day, Kevin McCarthy goes home to Frank Luntz's apartment in Penn Quarter and laughs about it."

More stories from theweek.com
The insurrectionists are winning
Pfizer, Moderna shares plummet after Biden administration backs a COVID-19 vaccine patent waiver
Trump is a terrible blogger



Rep. Liz Cheney says House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy 'changed his story' on the Capitol riot

Lauren Frias
Liz Cheney Kevin McCarthy
Rep. Liz Cheney at a news conference with House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy on July 21. Photo by Samuel Corum/Getty Images

Rep. Liz Cheney wrote an op-ed article for The Washington Post on Wednesday in which she called out House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, saying he had "changed his story" on the US Capitol riot.

Earlier this week, a hot mic caught McCarthy saying he'd "had it with her" after an interview with "Fox and Friends," signaling his and the House GOP's waning support for Cheney, who serves as the House Republican Conference chair. McCarthy and his Republican allies have bristled at Cheney's public criticism of former President Donald Trump.

In the op-ed article, Cheney said that the GOP had reached a "turning point" post-Trump and that "Republicans must decide whether we are going to choose truth and fidelity to the Constitution." She pointed to GOP lawmakers' reactions to the January 6 siege, and specifically to McCarthy's public comments about it.

"House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy (Calif.) left no doubt in his public remarks," Cheney wrote. "On the floor of the House on Jan. 13, McCarthy said: 'The president bears responsibility for Wednesday's attack on Congress by mob rioters. He should have immediately denounced the mob when he saw what was unfolding.'"

"Now, McCarthy has changed his story," she continued.

She went on to slam some GOP lawmakers' continued support for Trump after he lost the 2020 presidential election to Joe Biden. Cheney called her party's ongoing fealty to Trump "immensely harmful."

"While embracing or ignoring Trump's statements might seem attractive to some for fundraising and political purposes, that approach will do profound long-term damage to our party and our country," Cheney wrote. "Trump has never expressed remorse or regret for the attack of Jan. 6 and now suggests that our elections, and our legal and constitutional system, cannot be trusted to do the will of the people."

Cheney's article came one day after McCarthy said in the Tuesday "Fox and Friends" interview that he had heard "from members concerned about her ability to carry out the job as conference chair, to carry out the message."

"We all need to be working as one if we're able to win the majority" in the 2022 midterm elections, he said Tuesday.

In an off-air comment to the host Steve Doocy, McCarthy could be heard saying he "lost confidence" in her as a Republican leader in the House, Axios reported Tuesday.

"You know, I've lost confidence," McCarthy said. "Well, someone just has to bring a motion, but I assume that will probably take place."

In response to McCarthy's comments on Fox News, Cheney's communication director, Jeremy Adler, said: "This is about whether the Republican Party is going to perpetuate lies about the 2020 election and attempt to whitewash what happened on Jan 6. Liz will not do that. That is the issue."

It is not immediately clear whether the statement was responding solely to McCarthy's on-air remarks or addressed the off-air comment as well.

Cheney's public criticisms of the GOP and Trump come in stark contrast with the silent response from Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who has refused to answer questions from reporters about the former president.

Read the original article on Business Insider


Peter Weber

Tucker Carlson was right: House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) is living in the Washington, D.C., penthouse of Republican pollster and messaging maven Frank Luntz, and it does sound like a pretty sweet deal. Carlson was tipped off to the roommate arrangement, and McCarthy confirmed it Tuesday, telling Fox & Friends he has "rented a room from Frank for a couple of months, but don't worry, I'm back to — going back to where I normally am, on my couch in my office. But, yes, we pay fair market rate"

Washington Post fact-checker Glenn Kessler looked into Luntz's apartment, and it's actually a 7,000-square-foot, 12-bedroom, 16-bathroom amalgamation of 4 three-story penthouses Luntz purchased for nearly $4.3 million in August and September 2018 and merged in November 2019. The homeowner's association fees on the four units is $4,976 a month, Kessler calculates, citing Redfin.

Neither McCarthy nor Luntz responded to the Post's request for comment, but a McCarthy spokesman told the Daily Wire the minority leader "calculated the fair market value amount at $1,500/month" to rent an "approximately" 400-square-foot room in Luntz's penthouse. Kessler's Apartments.com search found that a comparable studio or one-bedroom would run about $5,000 a month. Regardless, he writes, "besides the 'room' he rented, McCarthy would have had access to a 24/7 concierge, a rooftop pool, a fitness center, a media room, a business center, and a party room with a bar and pool table."

"This is quite a deal, especially considering that Luntz has talked about how he's on the road all the time," Politico muses. "Imagine paying $1,500 a month for what is essentially a mansion carved into a high-rise? It's good to be the minority leader!"

Carlson was less amused by the "sleazy and corrupt" arrangement. "Kevin McCarthy promises Republicans he shares their values" and "will fight for them against permanent Washington, the forces that would like to destroy their lives," he said. "And at the end of the day, Kevin McCarthy goes home to Frank Luntz's apartment in Penn Quarter and laughs about it."

More stories from theweek.com
The insurrectionists are winning
Pfizer, Moderna shares plummet after Biden administration backs a COVID-19 vaccine patent waiver
Trump is a terrible blogger



Rep. Liz Cheney says House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy 'changed his story' on the Capitol riot

Lauren Frias
Liz Cheney Kevin McCarthy
Rep. Liz Cheney at a news conference with House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy on July 21. Photo by Samuel Corum/Getty Images

Rep. Liz Cheney wrote an op-ed article for The Washington Post on Wednesday in which she called out House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, saying he had "changed his story" on the US Capitol riot.

Earlier this week, a hot mic caught McCarthy saying he'd "had it with her" after an interview with "Fox and Friends," signaling his and the House GOP's waning support for Cheney, who serves as the House Republican Conference chair. McCarthy and his Republican allies have bristled at Cheney's public criticism of former President Donald Trump.

In the op-ed article, Cheney said that the GOP had reached a "turning point" post-Trump and that "Republicans must decide whether we are going to choose truth and fidelity to the Constitution." She pointed to GOP lawmakers' reactions to the January 6 siege, and specifically to McCarthy's public comments about it.

"House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy (Calif.) left no doubt in his public remarks," Cheney wrote. "On the floor of the House on Jan. 13, McCarthy said: 'The president bears responsibility for Wednesday's attack on Congress by mob rioters. He should have immediately denounced the mob when he saw what was unfolding.'"

"Now, McCarthy has changed his story," she continued.

She went on to slam some GOP lawmakers' continued support for Trump after he lost the 2020 presidential election to Joe Biden. Cheney called her party's ongoing fealty to Trump "immensely harmful."

"While embracing or ignoring Trump's statements might seem attractive to some for fundraising and political purposes, that approach will do profound long-term damage to our party and our country," Cheney wrote. "Trump has never expressed remorse or regret for the attack of Jan. 6 and now suggests that our elections, and our legal and constitutional system, cannot be trusted to do the will of the people."

Cheney's article came one day after McCarthy said in the Tuesday "Fox and Friends" interview that he had heard "from members concerned about her ability to carry out the job as conference chair, to carry out the message."

"We all need to be working as one if we're able to win the majority" in the 2022 midterm elections, he said Tuesday.

In an off-air comment to the host Steve Doocy, McCarthy could be heard saying he "lost confidence" in her as a Republican leader in the House, Axios reported Tuesday.

"You know, I've lost confidence," McCarthy said. "Well, someone just has to bring a motion, but I assume that will probably take place."

In response to McCarthy's comments on Fox News, Cheney's communication director, Jeremy Adler, said: "This is about whether the Republican Party is going to perpetuate lies about the 2020 election and attempt to whitewash what happened on Jan 6. Liz will not do that. That is the issue."

It is not immediately clear whether the statement was responding solely to McCarthy's on-air remarks or addressed the off-air comment as well.

Cheney's public criticisms of the GOP and Trump come in stark contrast with the silent response from Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who has refused to answer questions from reporters about the former president.

Read the original article on Business Insider

Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)