Name: ‘Something smells’: Tax crime investigator suspects Trump campaign laundering money through Mar-A-Lago
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‘Something smells’: Tax crime investigator suspects Trump campaign laundering money through Mar-A-Lago

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--Report typos and corrections to: .Among Never Trump conservatives, there has been a lot of debate over whether former President Donald Trump or Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis would be more dangerous to have in the White House in 2025. One school of Never Trumper thought argues that Trump would be more dangerous because he is undisciplined and lacks self-control; another Never Trumper argument, however, is that DeSantis would be more dangerous because he is a more focused and disciplined version of Trump. But one thing those Never Trumpers agree on is that the MAGA movement in general has an authoritarian mindset.Conservative Daily Beast opinion columnist Matt Lewis, in a , analyzes some of the MAGA Republicans who are being mentioned as possible post-Trump options for the GOP — namely, DeSantis and Blake Masters, who is running against incumbent Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly in Arizona’s 2022 U.S. Senate race. And the main thing they have in common, according to Lewis, is an affinity for “heavy-handed” authoritarianism.“Ever since Donald Trump came down that gold-plated escalator in 2015, the American right has relied more on coercion than persuasion,” Lewis explains. “This month’s National Conservatism Conference — its third edition, held in Miami — signaled an increasing commitment to this heavy-handed approach. One breakout session included a call for mandatory military service for anyone making over $250,000 a year. And a speech by Blake Masters, the Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in Arizona, led a prominent conservative to unironically tweet: ‘Sounds like (Masters) is absorbing the Viktor Orban lesson.”Lewis continues, “But perhaps the most newsworthy example came when Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said tech companies ‘cannot be viewed as private entities’ because ‘we know without a shadow of a doubt they are doing the regime’s bidding when it comes to censorship.’ This, of course, comes on the heels of DeSantis going after Disney — when the company opposed Florida’s controversial “Parental Rights in Education’ bill, dubbed ‘Don’t Say Gay’ by its critics.”The “prominent conservative” Lewis was referring to is author/journalist Rod Dreher, known for his work for the National Review, the now-defunct Weekly Standard and other publications. In a , Dreher quotes Masters as saying that “libertarianism doesn’t work.”“What happened to ‘limited government’ conservatives opposing intervention in the private sector, and opposing the state picking winners and losers?” Lewis writes. “The new right waves away such concerns, instead advocating for the government to use its awesome powers to do ‘good,’ as defined by the new right, just as it selectively embraces the good tech elites. Take, for example, PayPal founder Peter Thiel, an erstwhile libertarian, who during NatCon 3, praised DeSantis. Thiel, of course, famously funded successful GOP primary victories for Ohio Senate candidate J.D. Vance and Arizona Senate candidate Blake Masters.”Lewis argues that DeSantis and Masters “represent a dangerous worldview that could define the post-Trump American right.”“Whereas Trump lacked a coherent and consistent philosophy — he flirted with populism, but Trump’s main agenda was always advancing Trump — these national conservatives are more competent, and they have an ethos,” Lewis warns.“Trump can at least be laughed at, because he is essentially an out-of-touch old guy who says crazy shit. Likewise, ridiculous Republican lawmakers like Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert spout absurd, deliberately offensive things and are constantly committing malapropisms," Lewis continues. "These Trumpers get clicks, but they are not part of the new right’s ‘brain trust,’ like the NatCons. This raises the now-trite question of whether DeSantis would be more dangerous than Trump.”Lewis speculates that DeSantis “might be merely playing up his authoritarian persona to appease the Trumpy Republican base” but adds that “DeSantis’ remarks about private companies and ‘the regime’ at NatCon 3 do little to quell my anxiety.”“Devout believers in limited government have reason to fear national conservatism, and so do devout believers in Christianity,” Lewis writes. “But national conservatism isn’t about philosophical ideas or spiritual transcendence. It’s about earthly power — and who wields it.”One of the battles that landed Donald Trump's administration in court was over his demand that a Census question ask about the citizenship status of those living in homes around the country. The concern is that to proceed with his promise to deport "probably 2 million" — and possibly 3 million — people who are in the country illegally. There was also a fear that documented immigrants would be too scared to fill out the census.Writing in his book "Holding the Line," former US Attorney Geoffrey Berman, from the Southern District of New York, recalled the court case the quick way in which the main Justice Department took over the investigation instead of SDNY dealing with State of New York et al. vs. the United States Department of Commerce.It put the SDNY in an awkward position, Berman wrote, because Trump became their client despite the SDNY's full understanding that the question was purely p politically motivated. Jeffrey Oestericher should have been the person to handle the case, as the chief of the civil division. Instead, the DOJ interfered again. The SDNY fought to stay involved, though Berman admits washing their hands of it would have probably "saved us some headaches."IN OTHER NEWS: The first issue that was heard by the US District Court was whether the DOJ or the Census Department asked for the citizenship question to be included on the census. As with any case, the government was required to hand over records to the plaintiffs. The lawyers then have to sift through searches to find all of the information. "It’s certainly not unusual for attorneys to be surprised by some of what they find—or for it to sometimes make their advocacy more difficult," Berman explains. "It’s less common for them to come across material that just blows their case up. The review uncovered a 2017 email exchange between Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross and a top deputy that showed the citizenship question was first proposed by political staff and not—as the government claimed—the Department of Justice.""I am mystified why nothing [has] been done in response to my months old request that we include the citizenship question,” Ross said in the email to senior adviser Earl Comstock, in May 2017," the book continues. Comstock reassures Ross that he'll handle it. “We need to work with Justice to get them to request that citizenship be added back as a census question, and we have the court cases to illustrate that DOJ has a legitimate need for the question to be included," he wrote. READ MORE: Another set of emails proved Ross spoke with Steve Bannon, known for being an anti-immigration hawk, about the census question. Bannon organized a call between Ross and Kris Kobach, the disgraced former attorney general of Kansas that Trump tasked with finding 3 million illegal votes. Kobach never found them or any other kind of rampant voter fraud. Trump simply didn't win the popular vote. Kobach had wanted the citizenship question for decades because it could reduce the number of congressional districts in states like California. He'd pitched the idea to Trump in 2017. According to the email he sent Ross, Kobach said, the lack of a citizenship question on the census “leads to the problem that aliens who do not actually ‘reside’ in the United States are still counted for congressional apportionment purposes.”The key piece at this point of the scandal is that Ross testified under oath to Congress that the Justice Department “initiated the request for inclusion of the citizenship question.” It was a lie. Ross was asked if anyone from the White House ever discussed such a question. Ross answered: “I am not aware of any such.” It was another lie under oath, and the emails proved it. Berman wrote that when Oestericher saw the emails he called it "major," and indicated it would significantly undermine the Commerce Department. It made it bad for the government, but things got much worse. ALSO IN THE NEWS: Berman wrote that "attorneys in civil cases do not, of course, just bundle up discovery material and send it over to opposing counsel. They first take a close look to determine what may be privileged or confidential information, and therefore can be properly withheld. What they cannot do is conceal information just because it hurts their case."But that's exactly what the Justice Department did. The SDNY sent their discovery documents to the DOJ and at the last minute 70 pages suddenly disappeared. The "documents were pulled by political appointees in Washington, among them a Deputy Associate Attorney General and two Deputy Assistant Attorneys General," he said. "Our attorneys were told by this trio that the emails in question did not fall under the required preliminary discovery because they were subject to what’s called the 'deliberative process privilege'—which means, essentially, that they were part of the in-office narrative of how an agency reached a decision."Berman didn't agree, explaining that they've used that in cases before, but in this one it was applicable. What's more, concealing documents that couldn't be more relevant would end badly for the DOJ. Both Barr and Wilbur Ross were for withholding the documents and concealing information in the case. It was then, of course, referred to the Justice Department, which Barr ran, so no grand jury was called and no case was filed. "Holding the Line" is available on sale nowU.S. Sen. Rick Scott took aim at Democratic candidate for Senate from Pennsylvania, John Fetterman, saying that rich parents wouldn't want their kids to turn out like Fetterman, who was supported by his parents up until middle age. “You know what I think about Fetterman? It’s exactly: If you’ve made any money, you don’t want your kids to turn out like that," Scott told radio host Hugh Hewitt.As Florida Politics' A.G. Gankarski points out, this isn't the first time Scott has attacked Fetterman. In August, Scott questioned the Pennsylvania Lt. Governor's health in the wake of a stroke he earlier this year. “Fetterman, first off, lied about his health. Fetterman wasn’t even on the campaign trail for months. I’m sorry that he’s had health problems, but he lied about it. And that right there should be a disqualifying factor,” Scott said on another episode of the Hugh Hewitt Show.IN OTHER NEWS: Scott has also accused Fetterman of wanting to commit voter fraud. “He wants to let, what, a third of the felons out right now. He wants to legalize drugs. He wants to kill jobs by banning fracking. He wants to commit fraud in the election by … getting rid of voter ID. I mean, this guy’s a radical,” Scott said on Hannity on Aug. 30, as reported by the Daily Beast.Read more at .&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Copyright © 2022 Raw Story Media, Inc. PO Box 21050, Washington, D.C. 20009 | | | For corrections or concerns, please email corrections@rawstory.com. | {{ post.roar_specific_data.api_data.analytics }}

--Report typos and corrections to: .Among Never Trump conservatives, there has been a lot of debate over whether former President Donald Trump or Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis would be more dangerous to have in the White House in 2025. One school of Never Trumper thought argues that Trump would be more dangerous because he is undisciplined and lacks self-control; another Never Trumper argument, however, is that DeSantis would be more dangerous because he is a more focused and disciplined version of Trump. But one thing those Never Trumpers agree on is that the MAGA movement in general has an...

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The Raw Story (also stylized as RawStory) is an American online tabloid founded in 2004 by John K. Byrne. It covers current national and international political events and publishes its own editorials which tend to advocate for progressive positions. The Raw Story is a news site, bringing attention to stories that it sees as downplayed or ignored by other media outlets.

‘Something smells’: Tax crime investigator suspects Trump campaign laundering money through Mar-A-Lago

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