Posts

The Longest Witch Hunt Goes on… Democrats Release Trump’s Tax Returns Before Losing Power; Trump Reacts

Democrats in control of the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee released six years of former President Donald Trump’s tax returns on Friday, an unprecedented intrusion that revealed nothing in particular.

The release marked the first time Congress had ever obtained and published the tax returns of any individual.

The six years of newly-released returns, covering the years 2015 through 2020, show that Trump paid a total of $4.4 million in federal income taxes over that period, with an adjusted gross income of -$53.2 million. “The Trumps paid some form of federal taxes every year, but they reported income-tax liability of $750 or less in three of the six years,” the Wall Street Journal noted. Democrats point to some potential problems. They claim that Trump’s tax returns as president were not properly audited by the IRS (a claim the IRS disputes). They also complained about charitable deductions and whether loans to his children should have been taxed as income. . .

However, there appeared to be few bombshells. In a statement on Truth Social, his social media platform, the former president said the returns showed “how proudly successful I have been” and warned that “the Democrats should never have done it.”

Republicans echoed the latter sentiment, saying the release of the tax returns seemed to have a purely political motive, and opened the door for Republicans to do the same in future. (Read more from “The Longest Witch Hunt Goes on… Democrats Release Trump’s Tax Returns Before Losing Power; Trump Reacts” HERE)

Delete Facebook, Delete Twitter, Follow Restoring Liberty and Joe Miller at gab HERE.

January 6 Committee Withdraws Trump Subpoena: ‘They Knew I Did Nothing Wrong’

January 6 Committee Withdraws Trump Subpoena: ‘They Knew I Did Nothing Wrong’

By Fox News. The January 6 special committee on Wednesday decided to withdraw its subpoena of former President Trump as it concludes its work.

Trump’s testimony was no longer needed, according to the panel’s chairman, Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS). . .

Trump took to his social media platform to share the following message:

“Was just advised that the Unselect Committee of political Thugs has withdrawn the Subpoena of me concerning the January 6th Protest of the CROOKED 2020 Presidential Election. They probably did so because they knew I did nothing wrong, or they were about to lose in Court. Perhaps the FBI’s involvement in RIGGING the Election played into their decision. In any event, the Subpoena is DEAD!” (Read more from ”
_________________________________________________

Jan. 6 Committee Withdraws Trump Subpoena

By Washington Times. The Jan. 6 special committee has withdrawn its subpoena of former President Donald Trump.

In a letter sent Wednesday to the former president’s lawyers, the panel’s chairman said it was wrapping up its work and no longer needed his testimony.

“In light of the imminent end of our investigation, the Select Committee can no longer pursue the specific information covered by the subpoena,” Rep. Bennie Thompson, Mississippi Democrat, wrote in the letter, which was obtained by CNN.

“Therefore, through this letter, I hereby formally withdraw the subpoena issued to former President Trump, and notify you that he is no longer obligated to comply or produce records in response to said subpoena,” he wrote.

Mr. Trump promptly took to his social-media platform to claim vindication. (Read more from “Jan. 6 Committee Withdraws Trump Subpoena” HERE)

Delete Facebook, Delete Twitter, Follow Restoring Liberty and Joe Miller at gab HERE.

Three-Quarters of Americans Want President Under 65, New Poll Shows

. . .A new poll shows the vast majority of Americans want their president to be under the age of 65 — seemingly precluding 76-year-old former President Donald Trump and 80-year-old President Biden from successful White House runs in 2024.

The Suffolk University/USA Today survey found 50% of registered voters say their “ideal president” would be between 51 and 65 years old. Another 25% liked their chief executive even younger, between the ages of 35 and 50.

Another 15% said age didn’t matter, but just 8% said they preferred a president between the ages of 66 and 80 — and just 0.4% said they wanted one older than 80.

Biden, already the oldest person to serve as president, has said he plans to run for a second term in 2024, but would make a final decision after the holidays.

If he is reelected, the president would be 82 on the day of his second inauguration in 2025. Should Biden complete another four years, he would be 86 when the time comes for him to leave office in 2029. (Read more from “Three-Quarters of Americans Want President Under 65, New Poll Shows” HERE)

Delete Facebook, Delete Twitter, Follow Restoring Liberty and Joe Miller at gab HERE.

House Committee Picks Date To Release Trump’s Tax Returns

Several years’ worth of former President Donald Trump‘s tax returns are on track to be released to the public by the end of this week.

A spokesperson for the Democrat-led House Ways and Means Committee told multiple news outlets that the disclosure will take place Friday, less than a week before Republicans take control of the lower chamber. The tax materials for Trump and his businesses, which are expected to cover the years 2015 to 2020, will be placed into the Congressional Record as part of a pro forma session, according to NBC News.

The panel voted along party lines last week to release Trump’s tax returns following a years-long legal battle capped by the Supreme Court rejecting the former president’s plea to block the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) from giving the tax records to the committee. Chairman Richard Neal (D-MA) said the release would happen after a few days, allowing staff to make redactions of sensitive information.

A longtime businessman before he jumped into politics, Trump refused a modern standard of making tax information public while a candidate for president and while in office, insisting over the years it was because he was being audited, along with numerous other explanations. (Read more from “House Committee Picks Date To Release Trump’s Tax Returns” HERE)

Delete Facebook, Delete Twitter, Follow Restoring Liberty and Joe Miller at gab HERE.

Kari Lake Could Be on Hook for Big Payday Benefiting Corrupt Dem Lawyer

A high-powered Democratic attorney who became a big name in the Trump-Russia controversy may get a hefty paycheck for battling Kari Lake in her recently tossed 2022 election lawsuit seeking to overturn the results of last month’s governor’s race.

Arizona Governor-elect Katie Hobbs and Maricopa County filed motions on Monday for sanctions against Lake and her attorneys, which may amount to nearly $700,000 in penalties to cover the attorneys’ fees and costs, according to an estimate from the AZ Law blog. Most of that money could go toward Marc Elias, who is well known as the lawyer who directed funding from Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign and Democratic National Committee that went toward British ex-spy Christopher Steele’s now-discredited anti-Trump dossier.

Hobbs filed motions in her capacity as Arizona’s secretary of state, the top elections position in the state, and candidate. In the latter, she declared $56,585 in “definite” fees and expenses for last week’s trial, of which $35,762.50 is for Elias’ firm, the Elias Law Group. Another $20,822.50 was listed for the Perkins Coie law firm, which happens to be Elias’ former employer during the 2016 election.

The filing also describes estimated fees “for additional legal services in connection with the election contest,” earmarking about $457,032.50 for the Elias Law Group and $93,177.50 for Perkins Coie.

Lake, a Republican endorsed by former President Donald Trump, sued Hobbs and Maricopa County after the results showed that she lost the November contest to Hobbs by roughly 17,000 votes. (Read more from “Kari Lake Could Be on Hook for Big Payday Benefiting Corrupt Dem Lawyer” HERE)

Photo credit: Gage Skidmore via Flickr

Delete Facebook, Delete Twitter, Follow Restoring Liberty and Joe Miller at gab HERE.

‘Absurd and Discredited Story’: Trump Bashes Jan. 6 Panel

Former President Donald Trump released video bashing the Jan. 6 “witch hunt,” in one of his first public addresses of the Jan. 6 Committee since the release of its final report.

In the video, Trump derided the committee itself, Vice Chairwoman Liz Cheney, President Joe Biden, and the Democratic Party, among others. Trump claimed that the committee was intended to distract from other issues, and that it was deceptively editing information while ignoring evidence favorable to him.

“For two years as inflation skyrocketed, crime soared, the border was erased, Afghanistan was a disaster, and Joe Biden destroyed our country, the American people have been besieged with lies from the partisan witch hunt, known as the unselect committee on January 6,” he began. “The committee cut the part of my speech out where I encouraged protesters to make their voices heard, peacefully and patriotically, but no one ever says that.”

He quickly shifted to bashing Cheney, who has become perhaps the most vocal Trump critic in the Republican Party. He claimed that she, “lost her congressional race in Wyoming by the largest margin ever for a sitting congressperson, that’s 40%.” (Read more from “‘Absurd and Discredited Story’: Trump Bashes Jan. 6 Panel” HERE)

Photo credit: Gage Skidmore via Flickr

Delete Facebook, Delete Twitter, Follow Restoring Liberty and Joe Miller at gab HERE.

The Trump Rule: House Passes Bill Requiring Yearly Audit of President’s Taxes

The House of Representatives passed a bill mandating annual reviews of a president’s tax returns Thursday, following the move to publicly disclose of former President Donald Trump’s elusive tax returns earlier in the week. (Read more from “The Trump Rule: House Passes Bill Requiring Yearly Audit of President’s Taxes” HERE)

Delete Facebook, Delete Twitter, Follow Restoring Liberty and Joe Miller at gab HERE.

Billionaire Mark Cuban Says Trump Was ‘Political Chemotherapy’ and ‘Changed the System’

Billionaire Mark Cuban told comedian Bill Maher that former President Donald Trump reset the American political system.

The duo were talking politics on Maher’s “Club Random” podcast, with Cuban saying that, while he has no political aspirations, if he did run, he’d run as a Republican.

“I can f**k with them more, and I think they’re more pragmatic,” Cuban said. “But I think Democrats are smarter.”

Maher then retorted that Democrats are too committed to identity politics and that Cuban, being white, would have little chance of winning a Democratic primary. Cuban then expressed support for ranked choice voting because it “eliminates extremism,” while Maher said the political climate is “rough because this is a team era when people just want to hear what they believe.”

“So, I think Trump has been political chemotherapy. Meaning, he was such a mess that he changed the system,” Cuban said. (Read more from “Billionaire Mark Cuban Says Trump Was ‘Political Chemotherapy’ and ‘Changed the System’” HERE)

Delete Facebook, Delete Twitter, Follow Restoring Liberty and Joe Miller at gab HERE.

Trump Shrugs off Jan. 6 Panel’s Criminal Referral: ‘What Doesn’t Kill Me Makes Me Stronger’

By The Blaze. Former President Donald Trump brushed off the House Jan. 6 committee’s referral to the Department of Justice that he face criminal charges for his actions leading up to the 2021 Capitol riot.

“These folks don’t get it that when they come after me, people who love freedom rally around me. It strengthens me. What doesn’t kill me makes me stronger,” Trump wrote in a statement posted on his Truth Social account.

“Americans know that I pushed for 20,000 troops to prevent violence on Jan 6, and that I went on television and told everyone to go home….” the 76-year-old former commander-in-chief added.

Trump compared the bipartisan panel’s criminal referral Monday to the article of impeachment brought against him by Congress — twice — during his presidency.

“The people understand that the Democratic Bureau of Investigation, the DBI, are out to keep me from running for president because they know I’ll win and that this whole business of prosecuting me is just like impeachment was — a partisan attempt to sideline me and the Republican Party,” Trump wrote. (Read more from “Trump Shrugs off Jan. 6 Panel’s Criminal Referral: ‘What Doesn’t Kill Me Makes Me Stronger'” HERE)

______________________________________________________

Jan. 6 Committee Tears Into Ivanka for Not Being ‘Forthcoming,’ Memory Woes

By Washington Examiner. The Jan. 6 committee chastised former first daughter Ivanka Trump for not being fully straightforward with the panel in an executive summary released on Monday.

Ivanka reportedly sat for deposition before the committee for about eight hours, but during that time she often exhibited a “lack of full recollection of certain issues” and was not always “forthcoming” as some of the other witnesses had been about her father’s actions surrounding the Capitol riot, according to the executive summary.

“Ivanka Trump was not as forthcoming as Cipollone and others about President Trump’s conduct,” the executive summary said, “Ivanka Trump’s Chief of Staff Julie Radford had a more specific recollection of Ivanka Trump’s actions and statements.” (Read more from “Jan. 6 Committee Tears Into Ivanka for Not Being ‘Forthcoming,’ Memory Woes” HERE)

Delete Facebook, Delete Twitter, Follow Restoring Liberty and Joe Miller at gab HERE.

Scenes From a Celebration of the Same-sex Marriage Law — At Mar-a-Lago

Hundreds of guests in tuxedos of all styles — sequined, quilted, velvet — and colorful gowns sipped on Trump-branded champagne and martinis. Between courses of steak and bite-sized Key lime pie, they danced to “YMCA” and “Macho Man,” the disco anthems at Trump rallies.

Thursday night’s Log Cabin Republicans’ “Spirit of Lincoln” gala in the main ballroom of Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago beachfront club was a joyous celebration of gay rights and — in a case of ironic timing — the historic same-sex marriage law signed by President Joe Biden days earlier. . .

But the main attraction, obviously, was Trump. He received a standing ovation after delivering an enthusiastic affirmation of gay rights not often heard in the GOP.

“We are fighting for the gay community, and we are fighting and fighting hard,” the former president and 2024 candidate said. “With the help of many of the people here tonight in recent years, our movement has taken incredible strides, the strides you’ve made here is incredible.”

Throughout the evening, speakers praised Trump for his embrace of the gay community. They credited him for his initiatives to combat the criminalization of homosexuality, his work pushing for public heath initiatives to combat the HIV epidemic, and for appointing the first openly gay Cabinet member, Grenell, as director of national intelligence. (Read more from “Scenes From a Celebration of the Same-sex Marriage Law — At Mar-a-Lago” HERE)

Delete Facebook, Delete Twitter, Follow Restoring Liberty and Joe Miller at gab HERE.