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Sunday, June 2, 2024

Ex-Dem NY Gov. Paterson blasts ‘rigged’ Trump prosecution, Pataki worries of election impact

Democratic ex-New York Gov. David Paterson says he would have wanted President Biden to consider pardoning Donald Trump in his hush-money conviction if the prez had the power.

Paterson, speaking Sunday on 77 WABC radio’s “The Cats Roundtable,” agreed with Trump’s gripes that the case was “rigged.

“There are a lot … of erroneous qualities to that trial,” Paterson said. “Some of the people who are involved: A person who worked at the White House somehow wound up in the Manhattan DA’s Office.

“All of it, when it adds up, really looks very much like what the former president describes it as,” the top Dem told host John Catsimatidis.

A US president cannot pardon someone of state crimes — such as the felony raps involving falsifying business records that Trump was convicted of in Manhattan court last week — but if the commander in chief could, he should have considered it in this case, Paterson said.

“Sometimes when you’re a leader and you’re willing to put yourself at the center of acrimony and controversy, both sides may come down on you,” the ex-gov said, noting former President Gerald Ford’s pardoning of ex-President Richard Nixon over “Watergate” in 1974.

“But years later, upon reflection, I’m sure they’ll respect you,” Paterson said.

Trump is also facing federal charges in the Jan. 6, 2021, rioting at the Capitol and for allegedly moving national security documents to Mar-a-Lago — both of which would be pardonable offenses if he is convicted.

Paterson said Biden should be “real careful” about gloating, especially with the president’s son, Hunter Biden, now on trial.

Hunter goes on trial in Delaware on Monday on three federal counts related to his alleged lying on federal paperwork about his drug addiction when he purchased and possessed a .38-caliber Colt revolver in October 2018. He faces up to 25 years in prison.

“There was a press release [after former President Trump’s conviction] from the White House: ‘No one is above the law.’ I think President Biden should be real careful. There are investigations on him and his son right now. That dog could come back to bite him,” Paterson said.

Former New York Republican Gov. George Pataki joined Paterson in blasting the prosecution of Trump — and both governors warned it could boomerang on Biden and other Democrats.

Pataki said the unprecedented conviction of an ex-president could lead to a tit-for-tat, with conservative prosecutors indicting Biden or other Democrats down the road.

“When Biden is out of office, what is to prevent the district attorney of some rural county in Texas prosecuting him for millions of dollars for damage done by illegal aliens because he didn’t uphold his oath of office on the border?,” the former three-term governor said.

“They have opened a can of worms here that can go anywhere,” he said of Democrats pushing for Trump’s conviction.

Pataki, while worrying that the conviction will cause long-term damage to the justice system, also said that in the short-term, it will have a negative impact on Trump’s comeback bid for The White House.

He said Americans who have not followed Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s successful prosecution closely will just look at the outcome — that Trump is a convicted felon.

“If you’re an undecided voter who … doesn’t understand Bragg’s partisan and ideological history; or the judge’s [Juan Merchan] partisan and ideological history … it’s going to have an impact on this election, which is unfair,” Pataki said.

Pataki anticipates the Biden campaign running an attack ad against Trump reminding voters that “by the way, he’s a convicted felon” — while Trump’s appeal of the verdict won’t be heard until after the fall election.

“This isn’t about convicting Trump. This is about hurting him in the election. To use our justice system for this partisan political benefit is a disgrace,” said Pataki, a lawyer.

Trump became the first former US president to be convicted of felony criminal charges when the presumptive Republican 2024 White House nominee was found guilty on all 34 counts by a jury of 12 Manhattanites in the unprecedented criminal prosecution of an ex-president.

Trump was accused by Bragg’s office of illegally trying to cover up a $130,000 payment to porn star Stormy Daniels — part of a scheme to stifle sex scandals that threatened to derail his 2016 campaign.

Jurors found that Trump falsified business records throughout 2017 by lying that he was paying his then-lawyer and “fixer” Michael Cohen for phony “legal services” when he was actually reimbursing him for the hush money that kept Daniels from speaking out about having sex with Trump inside a Lake Tahoe hotel room in 2006.

https://nypost.com/2024/06/02/us-news/ex-dem-ny-gov-paterson-blasts-rigged-prosecution-of-donald-trump-as-pataki-worries-of-election-impact/

NIH scientists made $710M in royalties from drug makers

During the pandemic, the American people started to feel that Big Government was very cozy with Big Pharma.

Now we know just how close they were.

New data from the National Institutes of Health reveals the agency and its scientists collected $710 million in royalties during the pandemic, from late 2021 through 2023. These are payments made by private companies, like pharmaceuticals, to license medical innovations from government scientists.

Almost all that cash — $690 million — went to the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID), the subagency led by Dr. Anthony Fauci, and 260 of its scientists.

Information about this vast private royalty complex is tightly held by NIH. My organization, OpenTheBooks.com, was forced to sue to uncover the royalties paid from September 2009 to October 2021, which amounted to $325 million over 56,000 transactions.

We had to sue a second time, with Judicial Watch as our counsel, to pry open this new release.

Payments skyrocketed during the pandemic era: those years saw more than double the amount of cash flow to NIH from the private sector, compared to the prior twelve combined. All told, it’s $1.036 billion.

It’s unclear if any of the Covid vaccine royalties from Pfizer and Moderna, the latter of which settled with NIH by agreeing to pay $400 million, is even included in these new numbers. NIH isn’t saying.

The American people have one last crack at getting some candor from Fauci, the face of our COVID response, when he testifies Monday before the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic.

There’s plenty to answer for.

He’s spent years scoffing at questions about potential conflicts of interest between COVID policymakers, who relentlessly pushed vaccines, and recipients of private royalties.

Now he’ll also need to account for bombshell emails sent by one of his deputies, which described in-house strategies to circumvent the federal Freedom of Information Act.

Fauci won’t be able to misspell words to evade scrutiny or have folks physically courier messages — just two of the FOIA-avoiding actions described by Dr. David Morens, a key Fauci deputy.

Instead, cameras from around the world will be trained on Fauci and he’ll be answering for information he gave in a sworn deposition earlier this year.

It’s a chance to either come clean or further cement the public’s perception of him and the NIH as secretive and self-interested.

Beyond this small cabal of scientists covering up discussions of the virus’ origin, NIH has consistently treated FOIA requests like viral attacks of their own. No wonder, then, that we’re plaintiffs in six ongoing FOIA cases.

Characteristically, NIH is still redacting pieces of the data that would help us more easily connect therapeutics with their government-paid inventors. For example, they refuse to show us the amount of royalties paid to each individual scientist. So we still can’t entirely follow the money.

In the meantime, Sen. Rand Paul has sponsored the Royalty Transparency Act, which sailed unanimously through the committee process and deserves a floor vote immediately.

There’s plenty Fauci could do in the meantime, too. He could indicate he supports bills like Paul’s. He could call on NIH and CDC to voluntarily “unmask” the royalty payments. Then we could see whether their decisions have advanced the general welfare or their own.

Fauci could also support fixes to the FOIA law that create real consequences for those who purposely violate it.

At minimum, he must apologize for the utter contempt for FOIA, and the transparency war waged by his colleagues that’s now been revealed in private communications.

Among the government’s most basic duties to the public are providing for the general welfare and reporting its income and spending.

As Dr. Fauci wraps five decades in government having become its highest-paid bureaucrat, he should consider ticking those boxes again. For old times’ sake.

Adam Andrzejewski is the CEO and founder of OpenTheBooks.com, the largest private database of public spending.

https://nypost.com/2024/06/02/opinion/nih-scientists-made-710m-in-royalties-from-drug-makers-a-fact-they-tried-to-hide/

Alex Jones Repels Ambush Seizure Of Infowars, Sleeps In Studio As Monday Court Date Looms

One day after Donald Trump was convicted of 34 felonies in his 'hush money' trial, a court-appointed officer overseeing the Infowars bankruptcy apparently went rogue on Friday and tried to seize and shut down Alex Jones' studio without a court order, despite having a reported "path with the [bankruptcy] judge to continue on for years."

On Saturday, Jones held a four hour X space, in which supporters including Gen. Mike Flynn, Steve Bannon and Roger Stone commented on the situation. All three suggested that Jones stand his ground and peacefully resist.

According to commentator and attorney, 'Viva Frei' (David Freiheit), the court-appointed Chief Restructuring Officer (CRO) in the Infowars bankruptcy, Patrick Magill, "showed up to lock the place down," adding "and apparently in the absence of a court order."

"This is going to be Infowars' last show, because I learned yesterday that they were going to padlock the door and kick us out last night," Jones said during the Saturday space.

"They are trying to shut us down," Jones told us when reached for comment.

A CRO is typically appointed during times of significant financial stress, and is tasked with overseeing the restructuring companies in bankruptcy. On Saturday, Jones suggested that his legal team had come to terms with the judge in the bankruptcy proceedings regarding a long-term timeline for transition, and was instead surprised with an ambush by Magill to seize his studio.

"They want us shut down because in bankruptcy and what was happening we have a path with the judge to continue on for years, and the judge has signaled that. So, different groups involved in the bankruptcy that will be exposed soon have literally made a move to shut this place down and end my show," Jones said.

In March, tensions came to a boil between Jones' legal team and Magill, after a company managed and partially owned by Jones' father, PQPR Holdings Limited, LLC asked the US Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas to replace Magill with a new CRO - days after accusing Magill of acting unprofessionally and in a dysfunctional manner.

PQPR has been accused of receiving millions in payments from Jones' Free Speech Systems while families of Sandy Hook Elementary School students attempt to collect $1.5 billion worth of legal judgements against Jones and Infowars. In a court filing, PQPR slammed Magill's decision to replace the company's lead bankruptcy attorney with someone new, after the CRO accused attorney Ray Battaglia of hindering progress on the bankrupcy.

Jones says Magill is trying to "obviously and maliciously" entrap him, per Frei, in order to "facilitate the shutting down of Infowars."

Gen. Mike Flynn (Ret.) suggested that this was part of a play for the ruling party to stay in power and cripple opposition voices in advance of a potential NATO-instigated false flag in Europe in order to trigger Article 5 and spark war with Russia.

"They're looking for big excuses to stay in power and shut the election down," Flynn added.

In February, the Sandy Hook families voted 100% in favor of a Chapter 11 plan for Jones that would see to the liquidation and redistribution of his property and cash. In December, Jones proposed a settlement that would pay Sandy Hook families at least $5.5 million per year for a decade, however the plaintiffs called the offer "woefully short."

Last week Jones obtained approval to sell his Texas ranch for $2.8 million, which will be placed into escrow in order to pay for legal expenses.

What Went Down

According to Frei, whose summary Jones says is "an accurate breakdown," Magill "was trying to frame Alex Jones" by allowing the Infowars host to personally pursue contracts for sponsorships.

"What apparently happened is, this guy Magill, the CRO, was trying to frame Alex Jones - saying 'hey Alex, I'm not going to pursue signing contracts for sponsorships. But you've got some. Maybe you just wanna pocket that money - knowing damn well that if Alex says yes to this, well then they'll shut down Infowars for committing criminal fraud," said Frei. "Alex Jones is not an idiot... he knows that they tried the same schtick over and over again, and he says 'no.' And apparently he's been recording a lot of this."

"It seems that they are in fact, and it would appear to be, premia facie, unlawfully and in violation of their fiduciary duties to the creditors, trying to shut down a profitable enterprise that is Infowars, in detrement to the people who are owed money. Because they don't care about those people... their goal was to shut Alex Jones up, and to shut Infowars down. And they're doing this two days after Donald Trump was convicted on 34 counts of rubbish," Frei continued, adding "It's not a coincidence."

"It's 2024 people. Donald Trump is getting convicted on bogus felony indictments, and two days after that the most popular populist voice that resulted, arguably, in Donald Trump getting elected in 2016, is now getting shut down unlawfully. They're going to be in court Monday, but this is what's going on," Frei concluded.

Watch:

Jones broke into tears on Saturday, saying "We're going to beat these people. I'm not trying to be dramatic, but it's been a hard fight,"adding "I've been targeted for abuse. I was duped by someone. Federal files in secret have claimed that I'm committing crimes. This was untrue, of course[...]This may be my final performance."

Jones has received an outpouring of support over his situation.

To be continued...

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/alex-jones-repels-ambush-seizure-infowars-sleeps-studio-monday-court-date-looms

Deepfake Privilege? Justice Department Makes Startling Claim To Withhold Biden-Hur Audiotape

by Jonathan Turley,

We have been discussing the dubious constitutional basis for President Joe Biden withholding the audio tapes of his interview with special counsel Robert Hur. I have previously written that the claim of privilege makes little sense when the transcript of the interview has already been released. It seems curious that Biden is claiming to be the president “who cannot be heard” in withholding the audio version.

It just got wackier as the Justice Department seeks to create a new type of “Deepfake privilege” that would effectively blow away all existing limits on the use of the privilege when it comes to audio or visual records of a president.

Multiple committees are investigating Biden for possible impeachment and conducting oversight on the handling of the investigation into his retention and mishandling of classified material over decades. Classified documents were found in various locations where Biden lived or worked, including his garage. The mishandling of classified material is uncontestable. Broken boxes, unprotected areas and lack of tracking are all obvious from the photos.

Biden made the situation even worse with a disastrous press conference in which he attacked Hur and misrepresented his findings.

Hur’s ultimate conclusion that Biden’s diminished cognitive abilities would undermine any prosecution left many dumbfounded. After all, the man who is too feeble to prosecute is not only running a superpower with a massive nuclear arsenal but running for reelection to add four more years in office.

From impeachment to oversight to the 25th Amendment (allowing the removal of a president for incapacities), there are ample reasons for Congress to demand information and evidence from the government on these questions. Congress is also interested in looking at repeated omissions for “inaudible” statements. Under this sweeping theory that Biden can legitimately withhold these recordings under executive privilege, any president could withhold any evidence of incapacity or criminality.

As previously explained, the claim that the audiotape but not the transcript remains privileged is hard to square with precedent or logic. However, now the Justice Department appears to be pivoting with a new claim with a late Friday filing. The filing obtained by Politico states that the audiotape must be withheld due to the risk that it could be altered by artificial intelligence and passed off as authentic in a deepfake release: “The passage of time and advancements in audio, artificial intelligence, and ‘deep fake’ technologies only amplify concerns about malicious manipulation of audio files.”

Consider the implications of that argument for a second. It would mean that any visual or audio recording of the President could be withheld due to the danger of digital or other manipulation. It would eviscerate any existing limits on privilege assertions.

It is also absurd since you could create such fake recordings using the transcript and Biden’s voice from countless interviews through AI programs. The Justice Department acknowledges that obvious logical disconnect by noting that the release would make any fake version more credible.

“To be sure, other raw material to create a deepfake of President Biden’s voice is already available, but release of the audio recording presents unique risks: if it were public knowledge that the audio recording has been released, it becomes easier for malicious actors to pass off an altered file as the true recording,.”

The filing is logically and legally absurd. It is also dangerous.

For a president who is already carefully insulated from questions and controlled in public appearances, the argument would allow staff to completely control any public or, more importantly, congressional review of his actual speech and discourse.

In seeking to prevent “malicious actors” from altering reality, the government is claiming the right to frame reality as an inherent constitutional prerogative.

The argument ignores that, if an audiotape is released, it is harder to pass off a fake as genuine. As it stands, actors can claim tapes as leaked or derived from other sources. In the absence of an official tape, such arguments can be difficult to refute.

The fact that this spurious argument is being made by Merrick Garland’s Justice Department is another disappointing sign that he has abandoned his pledge to remain apolitical in office. This litigation is clearly designed for one overriding purpose: to delay any release until after the election when it cannot harm the President.

It is the legal version of a deepfake — misrepresenting the law to mislead citizens into believing that they are better off with less information on the credibility and competence of their president.

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/deepfake-privilege-justice-department-makes-startling-claim-withhold-biden-hur-audiotape