Name: Steve Bannon's arrest has Trump quaking in his golf shoes
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Steve Bannon's arrest has Trump quaking in his golf shoes

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RED BARBLUE BARDavid Cay JohnstonThursday’s arrest of Steve Bannon, the last manager of Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign, carries powerful messages that strike fear in The Donald. The arrest of Bannon and three others on fraud charges grows&nbsp;&nbsp;2019 DCReport&nbsp;&nbsp;by Grant Stern.If federal prosecutors can flip Bannon, a 66-year-old man ill-suited by health or personality to prison life, it would be devastating for Trump. Although the president enjoys immunity from federal indictment, that privilege ends the moment his presidency does.ADVERTISEMENTSubpoenaed records are virtually certain to result in the indictment of Trump.The Bannon arrest also helps explain why Trump tried, and failed, to install his own man in the federal prosecutor’s office in Manhattan: Bannon’s fraud case involving a $25 million charity scam to build a wall on the Mexican border.That case is only one of the criminal cases threatening Trump personally that Southern District of New York prosecutors are pursuing. Any one of them could, as early as Jan. 21, result in Trump’s indictment.Adding to Trump’s very bad morning, Federal District Court&nbsp;Judge Victor Marrero ruled Thursday that Trump’s business and personal tax records since 2011 must be turned over to a state grand jury in Manhattan. Trump has no immunity from state criminal prosecution. His federal pardon power would not protect him from state criminal prosecution.Judge Marrero did everything short of calling the latest Trump effort to shield his tax and business records from the Manhattan District Attorney’s office “frivolous,” which lawyers know is the most damning characterization a judge can make about a legal argument.ADVERTISEMENTThose subpoenaed records are virtually certain to result in the indictment of Trump and others for years of New York State income tax crimes and other felonies including falsifying business records, insurance fraud, and bank fraud.Trump Lawyers AppealTrump’s lawyers immediately appealed Judge Marrero’s ruling to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, but given the Supreme Court ruling that Trump is not above the law, all that will do is delay the inevitable. If the court of appeals acts as swiftly as Judge Marrero and the Supreme Court declines to hear any more arguments, as seems highly likely, state prosecutors could have the accounting records weeks before the Nov. 3 vote, although perhaps not in time to ask the grand jury to vote a bill of indictment.Mazars USA, the accounting and tax preparation firm for Trump, the Trump Organization and others around him, says it will turn over the records as soon as it gets a final court order.ADVERTISEMENTThe Manhattan case is also a threat to Trump’s older sister, Maryanne Trump Barry, who resigned as a senior judge on the Second Circuit Court of Appeals when judicial authorities put her under investigation to determine if she was a major league serial tax cheat.By resigning, Judge Barry shut down that probe, a privilege judges extend to themselves but not others.ADVERTISEMENTManhattan prosecutors already have records from Deutsche Bank, Trump’s sole lender,&nbsp;. Deutsche Bank is notorious for laundering Russian oligarch money in New York, Germany, and the Mediterranean island nation of Cyprus, a major enclave of rich Russians.Who Backed Trump Loans?A key question about Trump and his decades of dealings with Russian criminals and Kremlin officials is whether his Deutsche Bank loans were matched by deposits or letters of credit from Russian interests. If so, that would explain both the bank’s willingness to make the loans and a major reason Trump praises Vladimir Putin at every turn and says he trusts him, but not American intelligence agencies.What’s surely most scary for Trump is Bannon’s vulnerability to a plea deal in return for ratting out the boss. Accused criminals like Bannon often can get away with a slap on the wrist provided they turn over someone higher up. In Bannon’s case the big fish he can offer prosecutors is Trump.ADVERTISEMENTThis is the same concern Trump had when Jeffrey Epstein was arrested on numerous charges of rape and other sex crimes against underage girls. Epstein died in federal custody under what officials say was a suicide, terminating that concern.Epstein Proscurer’s ArrestHowever, the arrest six weeks ago of Epstein’s alleged procurer, Ghislaine Maxwell, resurrected the fear that Trump may be indicted as a suspected child rapist.Trump has repeatedly wished her well. That is a most curious position for any president to take on an accused pedophile madam. It also stands in sharp contrast to his wishing prison on many others, starting with his 2016 presidential opponent Hillary Clinton.ADVERTISEMENTBannon’s arrest means that now Trump knows for certain that he failed to convert our Justice Department into a protection racket for his friends and a cudgel against his enemies. Trump’s appointment of Bill Barr as attorney general has resulted in unprecedented efforts to compromise our Justice Department for Trump’s personal benefit.At DCReport we look upon Barr as Trump’s attorney specific, his successor to the notorious Roy Cohn, but with government powers.If anything, Trump’s ham-handed efforts to corrupt Justice has strengthened the spines of career prosecutors who know there is no honor in serving in a do-as-you’re-told system. That is good for our Constitution’s mandate for equal justice under law and very bad news for Donald Trump.… then let us make a small request. The COVID crisis has cut advertising rates in half, and we need your help. Like you, we here at Raw Story believe in the power of progressive journalism. Raw Story readers power David Cay Johnston’s DCReport, which we've expanded to keep watch in Washington. We’ve exposed billionaire and uncovered White House efforts to . We’ve revealed , and legal efforts to harm workers exploited by . And unlike other news outlets, we’ve decided to make our original content free. But we need your support to do what we do.Raw Story is independent. Unhinged from corporate overlords, we fight to ensure no one is forgotten.We need your support in this difficult time. Every reader contribution, whatever the amount, makes a tremendous difference. Invest with us. , or… then let us make a small request. The COVID crisis has cut advertising rates in half, and we need your help. Like you, we believe in the power of progressive journalism — and we’re investing in investigative reporting as other publications give it the ax. Raw Story readers power David Cay Johnston’s DCReport, which we've expanded to keep watch in Washington. We’ve exposed billionaire and uncovered White House efforts to . We’ve revealed , and efforts to harm workers exploited by . We need your support to do what we do.Raw Story is independent. You won’t find mainstream media bias here. Every reader contribution, whatever the amount, makes a tremendous difference. Invest with us in the future. , orReport typos and corrections to: .The National Zoo on Friday that a giant panda had been born in Washington, D.C."Giant panda Mei Xiang (may-SHONG) gave birth to a cub at Smithsonian’s National Zoo today, Aug. 21. Animal care staff witnessed the birth at 6:35 p.m. Mei Xiang picked the cub up immediately and began cradling and caring for it. The panda team heard the cub vocalize and glimpsed the cub for the first time briefly immediately after the birth. They are monitoring Mei Xiang and her cub via the Zoo’s panda cams," the zoo announced.Shortly after Allen West took over as the Texas GOP chair last month, he gave the party a new slogan — "We are the storm" — and plastered it everywhere: fundraising emails, social media accounts, even on T-shirts and hats for sale.West, a former Florida congressman, indicated he drew inspiration for the slogan from an unattributed quote that he likes: "The devil whispers to the warrior slyly can it withstand the coming storm. The warrior responds, 'I am the storm.'" Others, however, saw something more nefarious: a dog whistle to the QAnon conspiracy movement — the one that President Donald Trump notably declined to denounce Wednesday, saying he did not know much about it while also .&nbsp; Former Donald Trump aide Sam Numberg discussed the indictment of Steve Bannon during a Friday interview by MSNBC chief legal correspondent Ari Melber on "The Beat.""I think this is mainly a feeder indictment, because they are looking into Steve's finances and apparently, you know, there have been a lot of complaints about this We Build the Wall and it has been complaints in multiple states," Nunberg said."And I think that Steve is going to have a lot of problems," he said. "I think Steve is probably going to get more indictments down the tunnel and he is probably looking at jail."&nbsp;&nbsp;Comments:

RED BARBLUE BARDavid Cay JohnstonThursday’s arrest of Steve Bannon, the last manager of Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign, carries powerful messages that strike fear in The Donald. The arrest of Bannon and three others on fraud charges grows&nbsp;&nbsp;2019 DCReport&nbsp;&nbsp;by Grant Stern.If federal prosecutors can flip Bannon, a 66-year-old man ill-suited by health or personality to prison life, it would be devastating for Trump. Although the president enjoys immunity from federal indictment, that privilege ends the moment his presidency does.ADVERTISEMENTSubpoenaed records are virtually...

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Steve Bannon's arrest has Trump quaking in his golf shoes

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