Name: Republican defends Trump's talk of a military coup: 'It was a conversation -- not a revolution'
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Republican defends Trump's talk of a military coup: 'It was a conversation -- not a revolution'

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--Report typos and corrections to: .Congress passed and former President Barack Obama signed the Comprehensive Iran Sanctions, Accountability, and Divestment Act of 2010. It amended the previous law to give the president more power to punish companies adding to Iran's oil industry. Six years later it was extended until 2026. Under Donald Trump's administration, however, the sanctions weren't always evenly applied. In one scandal, the Turkish bank, Halkbank, was exposed for violating sanctions against Iran. Just prior to the 2020 election, that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was controlling Trump, who dictated to the Justice Department that the investigation be quashed.Geoffrey Berman wrote in his book "Holding the Line" that former Attorney General Bill Barr and former acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker were both complicit in helping kill the probe into the sanctions violations. While Berman came forward about the incident in Oct. 2020, his book walks through the shocking way that Turkey was manipulating the U.S. government to protect Erdogan and members of his family.The transactions involved in buying and selling gold (much of it through Dubai) essentially created a slush fund for Iran, Berman explained. IN OTHER NEWS: "His co-conspirators included Zafer Çağlayan, who at the time was Turkey’s economic minister, and Süleyman Aslan, the chief executive of Halkbank," Berman wrote. "He paid bribes to both of them—including regular deliveries of cash that came to Aslan’s house stuffed in shoeboxes. The nation of Turkey benefited from the conspiracy. The gold transfers out of the country were so large—about $20 billion—that they artificially inflated Turkey’s export statistics and made its economy look stronger than it really was." It wasn't just about corruption on behalf of the president, it was a crime that could significantly impact the economy of Turkey. Zarrab was arrested entering the US on a trip to Disney. Atilla, Halkbank’s deputy general manager, then came into the United States on bank business and was arrested. "Zarrab testified over the course of six days at Atilla’s trial. He said the scheme reached to the top levels of Turkey’s government and that Erdoğan himself had given it his approval," the book reads. It put the SDNY in a difficult position because they had to figure out what to do with the bank. READ: "What normally happens in these kinds of sanctions or money laundering cases is that a conviction of top executives sets off negotiations between the bank and the Department of Justice on how to resolve the financial institution’s criminal liability," Berman explained. Civil charges aren't a slap on the wrist. Halkbank didn't take the SDNY seriously and was stonewalled when it came to any kind of admission of guilt and paying fines associated. "It acted as if it had an ace in the hole, or two aces: a friend in the White House, and a back channel to Main Justice," Berman said. A Turkish police detective made it to the United States with a trove of "evidence—wiretaps, searches, electronic surveillance. He had pictures of the cash in shoeboxes and other things that pointed directly to high-ranking people at the bank and in the Turkish government.Halkbank went over their heads and started speaking with the main staff at the Justice Department. Under Whitaker, SDNY went nowhere fast in cooperation from the main DOJ. Whitaker told Berman to stand down. Turkey was lobbying Trump and Trump was giving Barr orders. "It soon became clear that Halkbank and its counsel were talking directly to Main Justice. It also looked like whatever pressure Whitaker had felt from Trump to go easy on Turkey was now being exerted on Barr."ALSO IN THE NEWS: Barr had his own issues that he said would violate Turkish law, but Berman explained it was several steps ahead, they hadn't even got the bank to admit they did something wrong. Small meetings took place about the bank at the White House in the months that followed and the SDNY wasn't included. Barr then suddenly said he was the new "point person" for the criminal case that was being run out of New York. It was a directive from the White House. Barr began meeting with the bank's lawyers without any of the prosecutors on the case. SDNY still refused to drop their cases on the bank, despite Barr's demands. "On June 17, one of his top advisers wrote to IlanGraff [in the national security unit] to relay that the 'AG thinks we need to give them [Halkbank] global resolution for the facts at issue.' He added, 'No need to cave immediately,' but emphasized that we would have to 'play ball.' No need to cave immediately?""The Trump administration killed the Iran nuclear deal and strengthened the sanctions," Berman explained. "Ostensibly, stopping the Iran nuclear program was an issue near and dear to the president. The sanctions were the law of the land, which I was sworn to enforce. Halkbank had schemed to illegally funnel billions of dollars to Iran at a time when the United States wanted to exert maximum economic pressure. So, on what basis were we going to give the bank a sweetheart deal and grant immunity to all bank and government officials involved in the scheme?"Barr called him into DOJ for a dressing down, telling him that the case "implicates foreign policy" and that it had been discussed "by the leaders of the administration.""Who do you think you are to interfere with this resolution?" Barr asked, according to Berman. "Who do you think you are? When I heard that, my thought was, who the f*ck does he think he is? I’ve seen bullies work before. In fact, he had used the same words with me a little more than a year before when he got angry because he believed I had announced the appointment of Audrey Strauss as deputy without first getting his approval. It’s completely ineffective, or it is with me. I would describe Barr’s posture that morning as thuggish. He wanted to bludgeon me into submission."He later revealed that there was an encounter between Trump and Erdoğan at the G-20 in late 2018 where Trump was handed a memo by the president written by Halkbank's lawyers making the argument the prosecution was misguided because it was about gold transactions and not US banks. It was a lie. In former national security adviser John Bolton's book he described the incident, saying Trump flipped through the pages pretending to read it. “Well, it looks convincing to me," Trump said according to Bolten. "In an interview in Turkey, Erdoğan recounted his call with Trump and said the American president had promised to 'instruct the relevant ministers immediately' on how to shut down the Halkbank matter," he closed.In wake of Queen Elizabeth II's highly publicized death and King Charles III's ascension to the throne, one Republican lawmaker has expressed interest in the United States adopting However, based on the social media reactions, his suggestion appears to have backfired. According to HuffPost, Rep. (R-Texas) believes former President Donald Trump should be deemed the United States' "MAGA King."On Monday, September 12, Jackson, who has publicly supported Trump's voter fraud conspiracy claims, and asked his followers to reshare his tweet if they agreed the former president should be a king. "Retweet if you want the MAGA King back now!!" Jackson wrote.The news outlet notes that Jackson's MAGA king suggestion appears to be a spinoff of President Joe Biden's mocking reference to Trump being “.”While Jackson appears to be in favor of the title, many social media users made it clear they were not. In fact, some critical responses to Jackson's suggestion as they criticized his presumed lack of knowledge of American history."We dumped our last King in 1776. Maybe you can read about it someday......," one Twitter user .Another user also chimed in , "What is wrong with you? This is the United States of America. We don’t have Kings. Remember the three branches of government? That’s the way we do it here. What a small man. PITIFUL."Another user also offered an update on the MAGA movement as he suggested Jackson move on from Trump. "The American people dethroned the MAGA king," the user . "MAGA is a fascist party. Move on."The far right is rallying behind former Otero County Commissioner Couy Griffin following his court-ordered removal from his commission seat last week.Griffin remained unrepentant, telling a far-right radio host that the judge who ordered him off the board had no authority to do so, and suggesting that shadowy forces barred him from office in order to further supposed election fraud in the state.Griffin was removed from office by order of Judge Francis Mathew on Tuesday, Sept. 6. Mathew ruled that Griffin violated the 14th Amendment by participating in the riot at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.The attack constituted an attempt at insurrection, making Griffin ineligible to ever serve in office in the United States, Mathew ruled. The rule, originally intended to bar Confederates from office after the Civil War, had not been used in.Mathew ruled that Griffin’s removal from office is effective retroactively since the day of the riot, meaning any votes Griffin took as a county commissioner since then are invalid. Otero County Attorney R.B. Nichols told the board Thursday that he will review all the votes since Jan. 6, 2021, to determine if Griffin cast a deciding vote in any of them.“We may need to revisit those votes,” Nichols told the commission. “It’s kind of uncharted territory.” In figuring it out, they’ll “hopefully get some input from some other attorneys, their thoughts on what it means for the county,” he said.Griffin was convicted of entering and remaining in a restricted area during the attack on the Capitol and in June by Trump-appointed Judge Trevor McFadden. Griffin had already spent more than 14 days in jail awaiting trial, so McFadden did not order additional jail time.Immediately following his sentencing in Washington, D.C., Griffin called into the Otero County Commission and from the New Mexico Supreme Court ordering him and other commissioners to certify the results of the 2022 primary election.Griffin’s case was taken up on messaging app Telegram by, who posted contact information for Mathew and encouraged their followers to call and email him. Officials targeted by the Clements have often reported a wave of harassment and threats stemming from their attacks.Erin Clements also uploaded a complaint that she told her followers she had filed against the judge and encouraged them to file similar complaints. Judge Mathew “committed a gross overstepping of his power as a state district judge by daring to attempt to remove a duly elected official, Mr. Couy Griffin, based on his own personal political vitriol and personal feelings about the conservative half of the country,” Clements wrote in the complaint.Clements also posted a letter she wrote to the remaining commissioners, Nichols and Otero County Sheriff David Black, urging them to defy Judge Mathew’s order.“I understand that Sheriff Black and Roy Nichols are both assisting in carrying out this unconstitutional, disgusting order which works directly against the civil rights of the citizens of Otero County,” she wrote. They should have recused themselves, she continued, in anticipation of an appeal and because the order is unconstitutional.“They would have been within their rights to let this out-of-county judge figure out how to enforce his own order,” she wrote. “I hope you will all consider that by submitting to this out-of-district judge’s insane order, that you are giving him power he doesn’t have and setting a dangerous and disgusting precedent.”She urged her followers to send similar letters to the sheriff and the other officials.In an email response to Source NM, Clements challenged the legality of Mathew’s order. By “backdating what is an illegal removal in the first place, the judge took away the fundamental right of 20,000 citizens from Mr. Griffin’s district to have representation in their county government,” she wrote.Nikhel Sus, senior counsel for Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), said the decision to invalidate Griffin’s votes since Jan. 6, 2021, is based on cut-and-dry precedent from the New Mexico Supreme Court. CREW was one of the organizations that represented plaintiffs in the lawsuit seeking to remove Griffin from office.“The case law in New Mexico makes clear that the date you forfeit office, if you’re a disqualified office holder, is the date the disqualifying condition occurs,” Sus said. “That is not a point that Mr. Griffin disputed at trial.”failed in September 2021, but that’s irrelevant, Sus said.“Mr. Griffin’s argument appears to be that because the people didn’t remove him from a recall election, that he can hold office even if he’s legally disqualified from serving, and that’s just not how the law works,” he said. “That disqualification is part of the United States Constitution and is completely separate from his removability through a recall election.”In a video posted to Telegram Thursday, David Clements called Judge Mathew’s decision “tyranny” and vowed to assist Griffin in finding a lawyer to file an appeal. In response, commenters on Clements’ channel called for Judge Mathew to be jailed, and one suggested Griffin should sue the judge for defamation.Griffin appeared alongside Erin Clements Thursday on election denier Joe Oltmann’s podcast, telling the host that the judge did not have the right to order him removed from office. “He doesn’t have jurisdiction in this deal, man… it’s been very hard to stomach,” Griffin said.Oltmann repeatedly called Judge Mathew a “Nazi,” and added “I’m not going to apologize” for the comment. He urged Griffin to lock himself in his office at the Otero County Commission and refuse to leave.“There’s no precedent that would allow a judge to remove a sitting elected official. But that didn’t stop this Nazi judge from breaking the law,” Oltmann said.Griffin vowed to file an appeal and doubled down on his earlier accusations of election fraud, falsely claiming that fraud had been proven in this year’s Otero County primary election and insisting he was right not to certify the results.He also insinuated without evidence that Judge Mathew’s order was part of a conspiracy to enable wide-scale voter fraud in Otero County.Oltmann encouraged listeners to donate to a crowdfunding page set up to fund a legal appeal for Griffin. By the end of the weekend, the page had raised nearly $10,000.“I had an agenda item on the agenda today to call a public hearing to pass an ordinance against the ballot dropboxes,” Griffin said. “So that was my next move, was to draft an ordinance against ballot drop boxes in Otero County, and all of a sudden I’m removed from office two days before the meeting. You know, coincidence.”He went on to say that his opponents will spend their lives in federal prison after “the truth comes out” about “the Biden laptop thing.” He did not elaborate further on what he meant by “the truth.”Mathew did not respond to an emailed request for comment. Griffin could not be reached for comment for this story. Oltmann and David Clements did not respond to an email asking for comment.Conservative media more broadly also rallied behind Griffin, with Breitbart that Griffin “apparently believed he was defending the Constitution, not rebelling against it,” while the Daily Caller claimed in a headline that “Walking Around Outside The Capitol Is Now Officially ‘Insurrection,’ Says Judge.” other conservative and right-wing outlets including the Gateway Pundit and RedState also defended Griffin following Mathew’s ruling.is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Source New Mexico maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Marisa Demarco for questions: . Follow Source New Mexico on and .&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: .Congress passed and former President Barack Obama signed the Comprehensive Iran Sanctions, Accountability, and Divestment Act of 2010. It amended the previous law to give the president more power to punish companies adding to Iran's oil industry. Six years later it was extended until 2026. Under Donald Trump's administration, however, the sanctions weren't always evenly applied. In one scandal, the Turkish bank, Halkbank, was exposed for violating sanctions against Iran. Just prior to the 2020 election, that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was...

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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.

Republican defends Trump's talk of a military coup: 'It was a conversation -- not a revolution'

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