Ending the weekend this late-afternoon Sunday here in California’s Central Valley — tomorrow comes the return of a relentless, depressing news cycle that only sometimes cools off during our two-day break.
And we can’t leap from tomorrow to Friday without some serious shit coming down.
Today seems quiet, though, with an occasional pinch of surreal:
Dear MAGA,
Alina and I would like to thank you for the $40 million you sent us for her salary, Jason Miller’s child support case, & other lawyers.
Your donations allow us to fly around the country on a private jet so we can make it home in time for late night celebrations. pic.twitter.com/iO2O8a4KYm
— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) July 30, 2023
Reality to the fun — via The Washington Post last night:
Former president Donald Trump’s political group spent more than $40 million on legal costs in the first half of 2023 to defend Trump, his advisers and others, according to people familiar with the matter, financing legal work that has drawn scrutiny from prosecutors about potential conflicts of interest between Trump and witnesses.
Save America, the former president’s PAC, is expected to disclose about $40.2 million in legal spending in a filing expected Monday, said the people familiar with the filing, who like others interviewed spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss information that has not been made public.
That total is more than any other expense the PAC has incurred during Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign and, according to federal filings from earlier this month, more than Trump’s campaign raised in the second quarter of 2023. It will bring the PAC’s post-presidential legal spending to about $56 million, as Trump faces a federal indictment in Florida, state charges in New York, and the prospect of additional criminal indictments in Washington and Fulton County, Ga.
[…]
In an indictment unsealed Thursday charging Trump, his longtime valet Waltine “Walt” Nauta, and his property manager Carlos De Oliveira in the classified documents case, authorities allege that Trump called De Oliveira last August to say he would pay for De Oliveira’s attorney. That same day, authorities said, Nauta had a conversation with a different Trump employee who assured Nauta that De Oliveira was loyal to Trump.
[…]
Paul Seamus Ryan, a campaign finance expert, said he didn’t necessarily see any “legal red flags” with the spending, noting that Trump had wide berth to spend money on legal fees — but that it was far more than any other 2024 presidential candidate would be spending at this point.
“It’s an extraordinary sum of money,” he said. “At the end of the day it’s up to the donors to decide if that’s the way they want their money spent. My sense is if you’re giving money to Trump in 2023, you’re fine with it.”
Hence, the thank-you note to those fried-brained MAGA donors.
And with any discussion of fried brains, T-Rump in that picture above appears lost in a vapor-like Mitch McConnell look, which is normal for the asshole, but Alina Habba, the top lawyer for MAGA, loves her some T-Rump with a loving smile in the face of ugly weird. The photo was taken at Habba’s 39th birthday party last May.
She is full of shit — on Fox News this morning Habba let the crazy fly regarding the T-Rump trying to delete surveillance tapes at Mar-a-Lago last year (Yahoo!):
“Well, let’s be clear … If there was an attempt by somebody who lives in a home — take out President Trump — who owns a company. He owns it, he owns the I.T., and he pays for all these employees. If there was an attempt for him to not turn over documents or he wanted something deleted, do you not think that that’s something he couldn’t have gotten done? Let’s just use common sense … That’s the allegation — is that he did try to talk to these employees and that these employees said, ‘we may have to talk to someone else and I don’t know if I can even do that. Shannon, I know the facts … When President Trump gets the subpoena, it goes to the organization and the organization turns it over. That is what actually happened … If President Trump didn’t want something turned over, I assure you that is something that could’ve been done … But he never would act like that. He is the most ethical American I know.”
Also today, another brick in the wall of Mar-a-Lago (CNN): ‘Yuscil Taveras, a Mar-a-Lago employee who oversees the property’s surveillance cameras, received a target letter from federal prosecutors after former President Donald Trump was first indicted in June on charges related to his alleged mishandling of classified documents after leaving office, sources told CNN.‘
In the updated indictment that came out on Thursday, Taveras is identified as “Trump Employee 4” — it’s not known if he is cooperating with the DOJ or not. He hasn’t been charged with anything yet, either, Another brick in the wall that will hopefully be turned into a jail cell.
T-Rump and Alina should know, ‘Don’t play games with the ones who love you‘ — consequences:
Ethical, or way-not, once again here we are…
(Illustration out front: Salvador Dalí’s ‘Galatea of the Spheres,’ found here.)