Donald Trump will have to be sick of winning, as he has just added a six-figure legal bill to his growing pile of court fines.
A judgment handed down in London ordered Trump to pay 300,000 pounds ($382,000) in legal fees for Orbis Business Intelligence, according to court documents released Thursday. Orbis is a consulting firm founded by former MI6 officer Christopher Steele.
During his career in British intelligence, Steele headed the Russia bureau. In 2016, he compiled a dossier claiming that Trump and members of his inner circle had been “compromised” through Russian security services. The documents in the dossier, which have since been verified, claimed that Russia had been grooming Trump to collaborate for years. Two memos also said Trump had attended “sex parties” in St. Petersburg and earned “golden showers” from sex staff in Moscow.
Trump sued Orbis, saying he had “suffered non-public and reputational harm and distress,” specifically because of the sex-related allegations. He denied all allegations in the filing, which was leaked and later published via Buzzfeed in 2017.
But the court’s chief justice, Karen Steyn, dismissed the case last month, saying it was “doomed to fail. “And now he has ordered Trump to reimburse Orbis for legal fees incurred through the company during the one-day hearing.
However, the $382,000 bill is just a drop in the ocean of Trump’s mounting legal fees. The former president owes more than $466 million for committing real estate fraud in New York City. First, he was fined $354 million, but the interest adds some money. another $112,000 consistent with the day.
Trump also owes a total of $88. 3 million to E. Jean Carroll: $5 million for sexually assaulting and defaming her and $83. 3 million for defaming her at another time. He owes the New York Times $400,000 and has racked up thousands more in fines and gags. order violations throughout their myriad lawsuits.
In addition, Trump’s former lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, says he has not yet been paid for his legal services. Giuliani estimates Trump owes him about $2 million in total.
Proud Navy veteran and former White House medical representative Ronny Jackson appears to have tainted some major points of his military record.
On his congressional website, the Texas Republican describes himself as a “retired U. S. Navy rear admiral. “”We are a member of the U. S. with just three decades of military service. ” But that leaves out one big omission: the fact that Jackson was demoted from the more sensible rank of naval flag to captain in July 2022.
The move came after the Pentagon’s inspector general issued a scathing report about Jackson’s habit while serving in Donald Trump’s White House, adding that the doctor, who retired from the Navy in 2019, had reprimanded, drunk and sexually harassed his subordinates while serving as Pentagon Director-General. Jackson was also accused of ruining Ambien’s workday.
The revelations were accompanied by a $15,000 cut in annual pension bills for a 24-year veteran like Jackson, as well as social stigma within the ranks.
“The allegations substantiated in the [Department of Defense Inspector General’s] investigation into Rear Adm. (lower half) Ronny Jackson meet the criteria the Navy demands of its leaders, and as such, the Secretary of the Navy took administrative action in July 2022,” Navy Lt. Cmdr. Joe Keiley told the Washington Post.
Jackson casually ignored the report in his July 2022 memoir, Holding the Line, conveniently omitting the component into which it was officially demoted.
“Had I retired and not entered politics, this investigation would never have concluded,” Jackson wrote. “This is because I’m seen as a risk to the Biden administration and because some political appointees in the Department of Defense need to make a call for themselves. “
Jackson played a key role in Trump’s 2024 campaign, helping the presumptive GOP presidential nominee ignore considerations about his age by claiming that Trump is sane in brain and body, despite his regime’s intellectual problems.
After all, at least one Republican representative has taken concrete steps to speak out in favor of IVF, after widespread backlash for lip service to the issue.
California Rep. Michelle Steel revealed Thursday that she got rid of the list of co-sponsors of the Life in the Conception Act, which would have stated that life begins at conception and would have exposed the medical corps of workers to lawsuits if anything happened to an embryo.
“As for who has struggled to get pregnant, this has no public significance, so let me be clear,” Steel said in an article in The Orange County Register. He criticized “Washington insiders” for misrepresenting his stance on life.
“I believe that life begins at conception. I am pro-life with exceptions for rape, incest, as well as for the health and life of the mother. Unlike my opponents, I do not support destructive late-term abortions,” she wrote, employing a medically erroneous term.
“Having personally experienced it when starting a family, I am a strong advocate for IVF. There is nothing more pro-life than helping families have children and I do not support federal restrictions on IVF. So when a recent ruling by an Alabama court raised the question of whether the Life at Conception Act, if passed, would prohibit IVF, I walked back from that bill so as not to create confusion about my IVF help.
The Life to Conception Act was first introduced in 2021 with 166 co-sponsors (all Republicans) and then in 2023 with 124 (all Republicans). Many parties vying over the bill, which has not progressed since, have warned that if it becomes law, it would severely limit access to in vitro fertilization. The bill and its proponents are under scrutiny in light of the Alabama Supreme Court’s ruling that embryos can be classified as human children.
Since the ruling, which severely limited IVF in the state, Republicans have been quick to present themselves as staunch proponents of the medical procedure, especially those representing districts that voted for Joe Biden in 2020. Steel, who is up for re-election in November, is one of the vulnerable Republicans.
Steel was quick to post on social media her support for IVF access after Alabama’s decision, promptly criticizing her for refusing to acknowledge that she was still listed as a co-sponsor of the Life Act at the time of conception at the time. It does not specify in its article when it relinquished its role as co-sponsor.
Still, Steel is one of the first Republicans in Congress to take concrete steps to demonstrate his support for IVF. In contrast, Rep. Nancy Mace introduced a non-binding solution last week expressing support for IVF and calling on elected officials to protect access to treatment. The measure is non-binding and does not actually protect IVF. Five of the six co-sponsors of the solution are vulnerable districts.
House Republicans needed a slap on the wrist ahead of Thursday’s State of the Union address, and House Speaker Mike Johnson privately called on party members to maintain decorum for the president’s annual scale in Congress.
“He just said, ‘Let’s have decorum,'” one Republican lawmaker told The Hill on Wednesday.
“We don’t have to be yelling, we have to. We have to base things on policies, on facts, on the truth of the situations. Let them be the ones to blame, let them bear the blame,” the legislator added. , referring to the Democrats. ” I think the rest of Americans know who’s to blame for the many global crises we’re experiencing. “
As sad and embarrassing as this reminder of elegance is for the country’s elected officials, it is unfortunately necessary.
Last year, Republicans introduced a series of explosions into Biden’s speech, necessarily as props on an unscheduled call-and-response with the president. As Biden pored over the immigration issue, lawmakers shouted “secure the border,” and when he explained the possible “securing of the border. ” For cuts to Social Security and Medicare and debt ceiling negotiations, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, dressed in a white lab coat trimmed with fur, shouted “liar. “
Still, it’s not entirely transparent whether party members are willing to accept Johnson’s recommendation and the push to intervene.
“Will they have it? Someone asked me this earlier and I said, “Does the Baptist Church have a bus?”Of course they’re going to do it because he’s going to say very offensive things, he’s going to attack us,” Tennessee. Rep. Tim Burchett told The Hill.
“I think we just have to try to have a little bit of class,” he continued. “Look where we are, let the other aspect do that. You know, they did it to Trump, and nobody said boo, yet when we do, we’re going to make an example of it.
Apparently, quoting Hitler isn’t enough for the Republican candidate for governor of North Carolina. Mark Robinson also sought to disenfranchise women.
Robinson, an anti-Semite who quotes Hitler, denigrates LGBTQ, hates feminists and promotes conspiracy, won the nomination for Republican governor of Tar Heel State on Super Tuesday. Since then, a video from four years ago has resurfaced, in which he appears making even more questionable comments.
At a March 2020 event hosted by Pitt County Republican women, Robinson, who was then running for lieutenant governor, reflected on what would make America “great again. “He said someone asked conservative activist Candace Owens which U. S. edition was better: one in which “blacks and others swinged in reasonable trees” or one in which women were not allowed to vote.
“I definitely need to go back to an America where women couldn’t vote,” Robinson said, thinking it was an absolutely general and moderate thing to say to a room full of women.
According to Robinson, before women had the right to vote, “at that time we had other people fighting for genuine social change and they were called Republicans. “
The room was silent at Robinson’s comments, but that supposedly didn’t put the electorate off too much. Robinson became lieutenant governor and then won his number one in 2024 with 66% of the vote. Mathematically, some of those voters had to be women.
Robinson has long since taken other scandalous positions. She said that feminism was created through Satan, that feminist women are “feminists,” and that feminist men are “as manly as lace panties. “
In December 2017, she wrote on Facebook: “The worst thing than a woman who doesn’t know her position is a guy who doesn’t know her position. “
Robinson also quoted Hitler on social media. In 2014, he cited the genocidal German dictator’s stance on racial pride. Then, at a Moms for Freedom event in July, she defended hers by quoting Hitler.
In other articles, Robinson downplayed the Holocaust, from abortion to murder, and called other LGBTQ people “filth” and “worms. “
On Wednesday, the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability continued its impeachment inquiry against President Joe Biden, inviting his son Hunter Biden to testify at a public hearing on March 20. It’s still clear whether the younger Biden has accepted the date.
Last week, Hunter Biden, after all, gave in to months-long requests to appear before the committee in a closed-door hearing. For six hours, Republicans found themselves under attack more than the president’s son, being roundly accused of ignoring evidence supporting the president’s innocence and applying double standards by refusing to read about the monetary gains pocketed through President Donald Trump and his family. Official White House positions, adding a $2 billion deal with a Saudi crown prince and Trump ally, negotiated through the former president’s son-in-law. -Law, Jared Kushner, shortly after he left the White House.
So far, Republicans have not provided any witnesses or concrete evidence proving Joe Biden’s criminal acts. The committee’s former star witness, Alexander Smirnov, served as the sole source for claiming that Biden had benefited from millions of dollars through his son’s ties to Burisma. That angle, which House Republicans considered their most productive bid to impeach the president, blew up in their faces last month when Smirnov was charged through the Justice Department with mendacity to the FBI. Smirnov has since reportedly admitted to authorities that senior Russian intelligence officials were concerned about the smear crusade against the sitting president.
Meanwhile, all the other witnesses the Republicans called, saying their testimony would open the case, refuted all the allegations against the Biden family.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. says that it is general to have continuously dated convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, as he is also friends with many other questionable characters.
The independent presidential candidate made a surprising defense in his Wednesday appearance on the Flagor podcast. Kennedy has already admitted that he flew twice on Epstein’s personal plane.
“I’ve been in New York most of my life. You know everybody in New York,” Kennedy said. I mean, I know Harvey Weinstein. I knew, O. J. Simpson came to my house. Bill Cosby came to my house.
Man of the people, general @RobertKennedyJr person after being asked about flying on Jeffrey Epstein’s plane: “And I met everyone in New York. I mean, I knew Harvey Weinstein, I knew Roger Ailes, I knew. . . O. J. Simpson came here to my house. Bill Cosby came here to my house. . . pic. twitter. com/Kvh9zZtR8x
Kennedy insisted he didn’t know he was dating an organization of sex abusers and an accused murderer. “You don’t know those other people are swamp creatures until all of this is revealed,” he said.
But at least with Epstein, who committed suicide in a criminal act before being tried for sex trafficking minors, Kennedy said he “immediately got goosebumps. “
But not so immediately that he didn’t board the disgraced financier’s personal plane a second time.
Of course, they made jokes about Kennedy’s mind-boggling defense.
“Who names 4 rapists and a murderer???,” one user tweeted.
Dan Pfeiffer, co-host of Pod Save America, noted that he seemed to be missing from the guest list.
“Never stop running for president, Bob,” the user joked.
Kennedy’s presidential crusade has struggled to get off the ground and has experienced some setbacks in the primaries in recent weeks. Kennedy ran a campaign ad during the Super Bowl that borrowed the iconic “Kennedy for President” jingle from his late uncle John F. Kennedy was forced to apologize to other members of his family, who were outraged that the anti-vaxxer had tried to exploit his family’s appeal to have an effect on his crusade.
And on Monday, the Democratic National Committee accused a pro-Kennedy super PAC of violating financial rules.
But it turns out that Kennedy is slowly gaining support. Although he did not win any victories in the Super Tuesday primary, Kennedy announced that he had amassed enough signatures to qualify for the November elections in New Hampshire and Nevada.
After the 2020 presidential election, Donald Trump’s crusade officials scrambled to find a way to turn the electoral effects in their favor, though they may not find any concrete evidence that he had legitimately won the states that ultimately sent Joe Biden to the election. White House.
And it turns out that, according to the Arizona State Attorney General’s Office, the crusade would have possibly violated state law.
In recent weeks, former Trump campaign chairmen won grand jury subpoenas from Arizona prosecutors as part of a criminal investigation into attempts to overturn the effects of the 2020 election, Politico reported. The subpoenas may help determine whether some of Trump’s biggest allies in the state, adding that some who were fake electors in December 2020 will face felony charges.
The most recent decision was made by Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes, a Democrat. It’s not yet clear whether it will be passed after other people involved in Trump’s domestic campaign, or if that investigation will focus on those in Arizona who tried to help Trump overturn the state’s election. results. Mayes’ investigators reportedly inquired about Trump himself, his former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, and Trump’s lawyers, John Eastman and Kenneth Chesebro.
A recent document released as part of a test deal shows the disturbed depths into which Chesebro plunged as he sought tactics to undermine the effects of the 2020 election.
In other states such as Georgia, Michigan and Nevada, voters face fees for their efforts.
When the Anti-Defamation League announced it would award an award to Donald Trump’s son-in-law and former White House official, Jared Kusher, it drew widespread criticism, given that the organization has a reputation for opposing anti-Semitism and the Trump administration. administration. . . No.
On Wednesday, criticism was in full swing when protesters disrupted Kushner’s grand awards ceremony.
When Kushner accepted his award for his “vital and deeply impactful paintings on the Abraham Accords,” he booed and booed protesters in the audience, who attacked his record and also called for a ceasefire on Israel’s war in Gaza.
“Do unto others as you would have them do unto you,” Jared Kushner said in his speech today at the ADL convention in New York. “Don’t do that!” shouts a woman in the audience. ” You’re not civil rights’ best friend, fascist!You’re a fucking racist! pic. twitter. com/wuhh9NIB0l
RUPTURE: Anti-genocide activists disrupt ADL’s “It’s Never Now” convention in New York as the Zionist organization pays tribute to Jared Kushner, whose speech to a half-empty hallway was continually interrupted by shouts of “warmongering!”and “It’s Not Anti-Genocide!” Semitics to prevent bombardeo!pic. twitter. com/gdVJBPlWOy
“You don’t do that!” A woman in the audience shouted in reaction to Kusher the word, “Do unto others as they would do unto you. “
“You’re civil rights’ best friend, fascist!The woman continued as a security team escorted her out of the room.
It is anti-Semitic to prevent the bombing of the Palestinian people!Their protester shouted. Cease fire now! »
According to the Forward, a total of three other people were kicked out of the ADL’s “Never is Now” convention for upsetting Kushner, while “several dozen” people left quietly as Kushner began his remarks. Kushner ended his speech as the protesters were ejected from the room.
The Anti-Defamation League has been criticized in recent years for ignoring the risk of white nationalism and focusing instead on teams of anti-Zionist activists such as Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace, even admitting that it considers such activism anti-Zionist. That shift appears to have accelerated thanks to its chairman, Jonathan Greenblatt, who on Wednesday had Kushner say, “I don’t care how you vote. “
The Abraham Accords, which normalized relations between Israel and two countries, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, were signed in September 2020, the final months of the Trump administration. Kushner is credited with helping bring the parties together. In recent months, in the wake of Israel’s war on Gaza, the accords have been criticized for ignoring the plight of the Palestinian people.
Rep. Elise Stefanik stands for many things, but this week she said she’s a historian.
During a speech on Super Tuesday, Stefanik attempted to insert a reminder of a prominent Ronald Reagan crusading line, in which he timidly questioned the progress made during President Jimmy Carter’s tenure. But the chairman of the House Republican Conference had no charm, or supposedly no reminiscence. – of what had happened under the previous administration.
“Are you better off than you were four years ago?The answer for hardworking Americans across the country is a resounding no,” Stefanik said.
Stefanik: Are you better off than you were 4 years ago? The answer is a resounding no pic. twitter. com/53SC8pyUIs
Four years ago, the country was dystopically devastated by the Covid-19 pandemic, with former President Donald Trump ordering passengers with health conditions to quarantine on the Grand Princess cruise ship to keep the number of cases in the country low.
It didn’t take long for many viewers with good memories to notice the typed error, adding several of Stefanik’s Democratic colleagues.
One X user (formerly Twitter) pointed out that “4 years ago this month, Covid exploded while Trump was still lying about the severity of the challenge and there were so many corpses that cities had to hire caravans to fill them with corpses. “
“Four years ago, other people were rationing paper and dying in hospital hallways,” said Virginia Rep. Gerry Connolly.
“It turns out that the girl from New York has forgotten about the cloth bags in Central Park, the collapse of the economy, the loss of confidence in American democracy in the world, and a rapist president who evades taxes and denies COVID and who plots his new act of sedition. “said Illinois Rep. Sean Casten. “
Vermont Rep. Becca Balint accused Republicans of “trying to rewrite history. “
“Four years ago, we were on the brink of a fatal pandemic that killed millions of Americans because of Trump’s failed reaction and the same kind of denial,” Balint said.
No wonder Stefanik tries (and fails) to enlighten Americans. She would be considered a possible choice for Trump’s vice presidency, even if the short list of presumptive GOP nominees is starting to look a bit long.
Other contenders for Trump’s No. 2 spot include former No. 1 Democratic presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard, South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, Florida Rep. Byron Donalds, biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. He has already flatly rejected the offer (“I don’t do that. And the list goes on. Last week, Trump added Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to his list of picks for dumpster fires.