The Trump Presidency : Year V

January 29, 2025, 04:16 PM

Lets see. They can run for the border or risk going to Guantanamo Bay.
I'm thinking it's going to get pretty busy at the border.

January 29, 2025, 04:23 PM

konata88

If the words gets out, then I think / hope that you're right.

January 29, 2025, 04:38 PM

parabellum

https://x.com/RapidResponse47/.../1884690766410244491

January 29, 2025, 08:03 PM

12131

Who is next? Is it CBS?

Trump wins $25 million from Meta for suspending his accounts after January 6

By CHARLIE SPIERING, SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER, WASHINGTON, DC
PUBLISHED: 17:49 EST, 29 January 2025 | UPDATED: 18:59 EST, 29 January 2025

Meta, the parent company of Facebook, and President Donald Trump have settled a lawsuit filed by the president in 2021 after the company suspended his social media accounts after the January 6th riots on Capitol Hill.

Meta has agreed to pay roughly $25 million to settle the lawsuit, according to the Wall Street Journal, which reported that Trump signed the settlement agreement on Wednesday.

Of the $25 million settlement, $22 million will go to a fund for Trump's presidential library and the rest will be used to pay legal fees and plaintiffs on the case.

Mark Zuckerberg and Trump reportedly spoke about the lawsuit in November as the tech mogul sought to rekindle his relationship with Trump during a trip to Mar-a-Lago for dinner.

He later returned to Mar-a-Lago in January to settle the lawsuit with Trump's lawyers.

The settlement is one more example of how Zuckerberg is rapidly trying to repair his relationship with Trump after he won the 2024 presidential election.

In 2021, Zuckerberg defended the decision to ban Trump from Facebook and Instagram after the January 6th riots, after the president continued protesting the validity of the 2020 election.

'We believe the risks of allowing the President to continue to use our service during this period are simply too great,' Zuckerberg said in a post announcing the ban of Trump at the time.

The tech billionaire first flattered Trump after he was shot in Butler, Pennsylvania in July 2024 on the campaign trail.

'On a personal note, seeing Donald Trump get up after getting shot in the face and pump his fist in the air with the American flag is one of the most bada** things I've ever seen in my life,' he said at the time.

On January 7, Zuckerberg announced he would end its fact-checking program in favor of a community-based verification system.

Zuckerberg also conceded in an subsequent interview with podcaster Joe Rogan that he made a mistake by censoring and banning speech on the Meta company platforms.

'I feel like in retrospect I deferred too much to the kind of critique of the media on what we should do,' he said. 'And since then, I think generally trust in media has fallen off a cliff, right?'

Trump has defended his meetings and relationships with tech billionaires, making the case that it's part of his effort to make the country better economically.

'I want to get ideas from them,' he told CNBC anchor Jim Cramer during an interview in December. 'Look, we want them to do well. We want everybody, and we want great jobs, fantastic salaries.'

The settlement is the latest of many Trump contentious lawsuits against media and social media organizations that have been settled rather than sent to court.

ABC News also agreed to settle a defamation lawsuit by paying $15 million toward Trump's presidential library after anchor George Stephanopoulos said that Trump had been found civilly liable for rape.

January 29, 2025, 09:49 PM

lkdr1989

What difference in Administration!

https://x.com/JennieSTaer/status/1884727692437635498

January 29, 2025, 09:55 PM

Pipe Smoker

^^^^
Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove appears to be fell and grim. Chicago politicos had better watch their step.

January 30, 2025, 05:27 AM

downtownv

⬆︎ The look of unemployment, coming real soon.

January 30, 2025, 05:54 AM

lastmanstanding

Jacob Frey mayor of Minneapolis says they have a city separation ordinance that allows them not to cooperate with ICE. A city ordinance HA! Jacob Frey is the pajama boy who hid under his bed during the Floyd riots same as Walz. Walz came out long enough to throw him under the bus. At the first sight of Tom Homan these two will scurry back under their beds.

https://x.com/AntGockowski/sta...ation-enforcement%2F

January 30, 2025, 06:19 AM

Sig2340

I’m coining a new phrase: The Don of a New Era (TM).

Because President Trump suspended foreign aid,
a Kenyan politician says Africa should stop whinging, stop begging, stop being corrupt, and use their natural resource wealth for the benefit of the country vice themselves!

Holy Mother of God!

Truly ‘tis The Don of a New Era!

January 30, 2025, 08:40 AM

TMats

I don’t believe I would have seen the short speech from Laken Riley’s mom at the signing of the Act if it had not been posted here. Thanks, para, that was very moving.

Enjoyed the Kenyan political leader too. I watched much of the RFK Jr. hearing yesterday. The photos I’ve seen perfectly capture Sen. Warren, a shrill, unhinged, pure partisan hack, without redeeming qualities. I found myself up and wandering around the house while she had the mic, unable to listen to her yelling at a life-long Democrat who accepted the President’s nomination because he thought he could help our country. There are several Democrats, and more than a few Republicans, who perfectly illustrate what’s wrong in Washington. We need term limits.

January 30, 2025, 10:02 AM

parabellum

PAYDAY, BITCHEZZ!!

https://x.com/WesternLensman/s.../1884994026774102455

January 30, 2025, 10:06 AM

c1steve

quote:
Originally posted by lastmanstanding:
Jacob Frey mayor of Minneapolis says they have a city separation ordinance that allows them not to cooperate with ICE. A city ordinance HA! Jacob Frey is the pajama boy who hid under his bed during the Floyd riots same as Walz. Walz came out long enough to throw him under the bus. At the first sight of Tom Homan these two will scurry back under their beds.

https://x.com/AntGockowski/sta...ation-enforcement%2F

[FLASH_VIDEO]<iframe id="twitter-widget-1" scrolling="no" src="https://platform.twitter.com/embed/Tweet.html?dnt=true&embedId=twitter-widget-0&frame=false&hideCard=false&hideThread=false&lang=en&theme=&id=1884375273719636373" style="position: static; visibility: visible; width: 550px; height: 551px; display: block; border: none; background-repeat: no-repeat; background-image: url('https://codejanitor.net/embeds/images/bgmessage.png'); background-position: 50% 85px; background-size: 200px; overflow: hidden;" title="Twitter Tweet"></iframe>[/FLASH_VIDEO]

He has the same speaking mannerisms as Justin Trudeau. Full of fury and signifying nothing.

January 30, 2025, 10:30 AM

chellim1

Tulsi Gabbard is in the hot-seat today (along with Kash Patel and RFK Jr.) at her Senate confirmation hearing in front of the Senate Intelligence Committee. Gabbard, Tump's pick for director of national intelligence, will face a serious grilling from Democrats, while convincing Republican senators that she supports a surveillance system she once sought to repeal.

DNI Nominee Tulsi Gabbard is opposed by every corrupt interest within the United States Intelligence Community. The issue of their opposition is basically around who can be open against her and who must pretend to support her while being willfully blind to the attacks.

Watch Live:

January 30, 2025, 10:53 AM

Sig2340

quote:
Originally posted by parabellum:
PAYDAY, BITCHEZZ!!

January 30, 2025, 11:02 AM

corsair

https://x.com/collinrugg/statu...993678248210499?s=42

January 30, 2025, 11:05 AM

Sig2340

Its becoming clear that President Trump's nominees are instructed to take no shit from the Senators of either side, and to respond in kind to their attacks.

Its AWESOME.

January 30, 2025, 11:51 AM

corsair

quote:
Originally posted by c1steve:
He has the same speaking mannerisms as Justin Trudeau. Full of fury and signifying nothing.

He operates out of the same playbook with Gavin Newsom, Brandon Johnson, etc.... they are well spoken, articulate, able to glide through a presentation or, give public statements as their political career has never had to deal with serious policy pushback. The opposition they've encountered is from the far-end of their own political party, being accused of not doing enough, not doing it harder, not being radical enough. They like to manipulate emotions by talking about empathy, openness and other overused terms for acceptance; presentations are often highly polished as they've gone through a career of active stage managing. In short, these people are frauds, they come across as inhuman, they know nothing of what they espouse or, the destruction it causes.

January 30, 2025, 11:56 AM

D_Steve

I tell y'all, so much WINNING is beginning to hurt. Making my knees shake, face hurts from all the smiling, on and on.
Trump is tough, well-seasoned and putting together one badass group of people working
with him.
I am so impressed.

January 30, 2025, 12:36 PM

Sig2340

Defund the FBI. Every fucking penny.

Fire them ALL.

quote:
Foxnews.com: Anti-Trump FBI agent responsible for opening Jack Smith elector case against president: whistleblower

Brooke Singman By Brooke Singman Fox News
Published January 30, 2025 9:53am EST | Updated January 30, 2025 11:52am EST

EXCLUSIVE: WASHINGTON—A previously identified anti-Trump FBI agent allegedly broke protocol and played a critical role in opening and advancing the bureau’s original investigation related to the 2020 election, tying President Donald Trump to the probe without sufficient predication, whistleblower disclosures obtained by Sen. Chuck Grassley revealed.

That investigation into Trump was formally opened by the FBI on April 13, 2022, and was known inside the bureau as "Arctic Frost," Fox News Digital has learned.

Sen. Chuck Grassley, chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Sen. Ron Johnson, Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations chair, shared internal FBI emails and predicating documents — legally protected whistleblower disclosures — exclusively with Fox News Digital.

The senators say the documents prove the genesis of the federal election interference case brought against Trump began at the hands of FBI Assistant Special Agent in Charge Timothy Thibault.

Fox News Digital exclusively reported in 2024 that Thibault had been fired from the FBI after he violated the Hatch Act in his political posts on social media. Previous whistleblowers claimed that Thibault had shown a "pattern of active public partisanship," which likely affected investigations involving Trump and Hunter Biden.

Grassley first publicly revealed the existence of the whistleblower disclosures during the Senate Judiciary Committee’s confirmation hearing for Trump’s nominee to serve as FBI director, Kash Patel, on Thursday.

One email, obtained and reviewed by Fox News Digital, revealed Thibault communicating with a subordinate agent on Feb. 14, 2022.

Thibault said: "Here is draft opening language we discussed," and attached material that would later become part of Special Counsel Jack Smith’s elector case.

Another email, sent by Thibault on Feb. 24, 2022, to a prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, John Crabb, states: "I had a discussion with the case team and we believe there to be predication to include former President of the United States Donald J. Trump as a predicated subject."

Sources told Fox News Digital, though, that Thibault took the action to open the investigation and involve Trump, despite being unauthorized to open criminal investigations in his role — only special agents have the authority to open criminal investigations.

Another email, sent on the same day, notes that he would seek approval from Attorney General Merrick Garland and FBI Director Christopher Wray to open the case.

Next, an email on Feb. 25, 2022, sent by a subordinate agent, Michelle Ball, to Thibault states that they added Trump and others as a criminal subject to the case.

Thibault responded: "Perfect."

The fifth email, reviewed by Fox News Digital, reveals Thibault emailing a version of an investigative opening for approval. However, this email did not include Trump as a criminal subject.

The sixth email, from April 11, 2022, shows Thibault approving the opening of Arctic Frost, and the next email, on April 13, 2022, was from an FBI agent to Thibault stating that the FBI deputy director approved its opening.

Another email reviewed by Fox News Digital shows Thibault emailing DOJ official John Crabb notifying him that the elector case was approved.

Crabb responded, "Thanks a lot. Let’s talk next week."

"Between March 22 and April 13, other versions of the document opening the investigation existed, because a ninth email shows that the FBI General Counsel’s office made edits on March 25," Grassley said during Patel's confirmation hearing Thursday. "Was Trump still removed as an investigative subject? If so, which Justice Department and FBI officials – other than Jack Smith – later added him for prosecution?"

The email records appear to show that an official in the Justice Department's Public Integrity Section, Richard Pilger, reviewed and approved the FBI’s Arctic Frost investigation, authorizing DOJ to move forward with a full field criminal and grand jury investigation that ultimately transformed into Special Counsel Jack Smith's Trump-elector case.

Grassley, in 2021, published a report which raised concerns regarding Pilger’s record at DOJ.

Fox News Digital first reported in July 2022 that Grassley warned Attorney General Merrick Garland that Thibault and Pilger were "deeply involved in the decisions to open and pursue election-related investigations against President Trump."

At the time, whistleblowers told Grassley that the Thibault-Pilger investigation's predicating document was based on information from "liberal nonprofit American Oversight."

In the investigation’s opening memo sent to the upper levels of the DOJ for approval, however, whistleblowers claimed Thibault and Pilger "removed or watered-down material connected to the aforementioned left-wing entities that existed in previous versions and recommended that a full investigation — not a preliminary investigation — be approved."

Based on Smith’s scope memo, Grassley and Johnson, in 2022, wrote that the Thibault-Pilger investigation was included in the special counsel’s jurisdiction.

They also pointed out that Smith had a prior relationship with Pilger. Smith was in charge of the DOJ’s Public Integrity Unit while Pilger was in charge of the Election Crimes Branch.

Grassley and Johnson, in 2022, began sounding the alarm that Special Counsel Jack Smith was "overseeing an investigation that was allegedly defective in its initial steps and an investigation which his former subordinate [Pilger] was involved in opening."

Former Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Smith, a former Justice Department official, as special counsel in November 2022.

Smith, a former assistant U.S. attorney and chief to the DOJ's public integrity section, led the investigation into Trump's retention of classified documents after leaving the White House and whether the former president obstructed the federal government's investigation into the matter.

Smith also was tasked with overseeing the investigation into whether Trump or other officials and entities interfered with the peaceful transfer of power following the 2020 presidential election, including the certification of the Electoral College vote on Jan. 6, 2021.

Smith charged Trump in both cases, but Trump pleaded not guilty.

The classified records case was dismissed in July 2024 by U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida Judge Aileen Cannon, who ruled that Smith was unlawfully appointed as special counsel.

Smith charged Trump in the U.S. District Court for Washington, D.C., in his 2020 election case, but after Trump was elected president, Smith sought to dismiss the case. Judge Tanya Chutkan granted that request.

Grassley, during the confirmation hearing on Thursday, said he is requesting "the production of all records on this matter to better understand the full fact pattern and whether other records exist."

The FBI declined to comment.