Evidence of Coordination?

The cases against Donald Trump seem to be well managed

Last spring and summer the hits for Donald Trump were coming at a lightning pace.  It seemed like every two months he was getting hit with another indictment or another civil lawsuit.  There seemed to be no way this timeline wasn’t coordinated.  Now with some embarrassing developments in Fulton Country GA, evidence of coordination has begun to emerge.

Is this the Blue Steel, Le Tigre, or Magnum pose?

Just to review the timeline of Trump’s most recent legal difficulties:

·        On April 4, 2023, soft-on-crime Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg indicts Trump on 34 felony counts of Falsifying Business Records regarding payments to Stormy Daniels through attorney Michael Cohen. 

·        On May 9, 2023, a Manhattan civil jury found Trump not liable for allegedly raping E. Jean Carroll, but somehow found him liable for sex abuse in the same lawsuit.  Carroll admits that part of her legal bills were paid for by Democrat party operative Reid Hoffman.

·        On June 8, 2023, Trump is indicted by Jack Smith and company in the Southern District of Florida Federal Court on 37 counts of mishandling classified documents and conspiracy to obstruct justice. 

·        On August 1, 2023, Jack Smith comes through with another 4 count indictment in Washington, D,C. Federal Court.  This time Trump is charged with conspiring to overturn the 2020 election.

·        On August 14, 2023, the Fulton County DA Fani Willis announced that she had indicted Trump and 18 others on a multiple count Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization indictment charging that crimes were committed around an attempt to overturn the election results in Fulton County, Georgia.  This indictment was rushed out in a late night press conference possibly in an effort to take attention away from US Attorney David Weiss’s case against Hunter Biden.

·        On October 2, 2023, a trial started in regard to a civil lawsuit by New York State Attorney General Letitia James against Trump and the Trump organization.  The AG alleged that Trump was involved in a scheme to defraud creditors and lenders by overstating the value of his properties.  She is seeking an astounding $370 million in damages, a settlement that would destroy Trump. 

This whole timeline seems quite coincidental.  Seemingly every few weeks, Trump gets hit with another legal setback.  These cases kept his name in the media in a very negative light for most of 2023.  None of the cases overlapped.  Trump was kept and will be kept ping-ponging up and down the east coast attending his court dates and trying to keep his legal bills paid while campaigning for President. 

It would be logical to assume that there was some sort of coordination in the legal attacks on Trump.  This week we got a bit closer to proving a degree of collusion. 

Fani Willis apparently hired her boyfriend at taxpayer expense to join the team that is prosecuting Trump in Fulton County.  Over a period of two years Nathan Wade has been paid over $650,000 dollars by the Fulton County Prosecutor’s Office despite having very little criminal trial experience.  Wade used some of that money to take Willis on extravagant vacations. 

Fani Willis

This is not a good use of taxpayer funds and seems unethical, but that is something for the voters of Fulton County to deal with.  What is more illuminating are some of the billing records that Nathan Wade filed.  He dropped a total of $4,000 in legal fees for two meetings that he attended well outside of his work in Fulton County.  He met twice with individuals at the White House as this case against Trump was getting underway. 

Nathan Wade

On May 23, 2022, Wade’s records indicate that he met with the White House Counsel.  On November 18, 2022, Wade billed another meeting with “DC/White House”.  What was the purpose of these meetings?  Earlier this year Fani Willis refused to answer any questions from Congress about possible collusion with the White House and federal prosecutors. 

It looks like Willis had good reason to refuse to cooperate with the probe.  Her boyfriend was billing taxpayers for White House meetings that smack of coordination. 

This is not a smoking gun.  It is not proof of collusion.  It does not establish that the White House was involved in some wide-reaching conspiracy to ensure Trump could not be on the ballot in 2024. 

But there is smoke there.  Voters should be made aware of the attendees at those meetings and what was discussed.  Trump might not be the only one facing charges of election interference. 

Oh, the Irony

Last week a federal judge refused to send a convicted felon to jail.  The perp, Gustavo Chavez, pled guilty to distributing fentanyl and was supposed to be sent to the Federal Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn to be incarcerated until his sentencing date.  Instead Judge Jesse Furman released him on bail.  

Was there some miscarriage of justice, some oversight in due process that caused this decision? Nope. Judge Furman believed that the conditions at the Metropolitan Detention Center were too inhumane to send Mr. Chavez there.  He said that the chronic understaffing, filthy conditions, and lack of medical and mental health treatment made the facility untenable.  The Judge also pointed out that the improper guard staffing leads to near constant lockdowns, which are tantamount to solitary confinement.  The facility staffing is hovering at about 55% of its normal complement. 

It should be noted that the Federal Metropolitan Correction Center in Manhattan was closed two years ago due to similar problems.  This was the facility where Jeffrey Epstein died.  The jail was a mess and similar staffing problems allegedly played a role in Mr. Epstein’s death. 

All this sounds like a pretty easy fix, but the feds can’t seem to straighten things out in their jails.  Which makes us wonder why they are so interested in taking over the New York City Department of Corrections’ Riker’s Island. 

The federal government formally requested that the Adams administration hand over control of the troubled Riker’s jail to a federally appointed receivership in November of 2023.  They cited the lack of improvement in conditions, the level of violence (despite a 50% reduction in deaths in custody last year), and the lack of proper staffing as reasons to send Riker’s into a federal takeover. 

The NYC Dept of Corrections has been part of a federal consent decree (these things never seem to end) under the supervision of Federal Monitor Steve Martin since 2015.  Martin feels that the city is incapable or unwilling to effectively reform and manage its jail.  It should be noted that Martin would be the likely candidate to be appointed the receiver  (don’t want to lose that no-show job).

 NYC Deputy Mayor for Public Safety Philip Banks feels that Rikers would be worse under federal receivership than under the city’s control. “Show me a receivership. Point to one receivership – Mississippi, Alabama. Chicago – where a receivership came in and did a better job than that particular city,”  Judging from the federal government’s track record in running New York City prisons, it is hard to argue with that assertion. 

Perhaps Judge Furman can sit down with the Federal Monitor, the Federal Bureau of Prisons, and the NYC Department of Corrections and get some progress made.  At this point it doesn’t seem like the feds have any standing to be telling others how to run a prison.  Doctor, heal thyself.

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