2020 Election: Predictions, Results and Reactions

[N.E. Brigand]

On the Dept. of Justice website:

"Florida Residents Plead Guilty To Conspiracy To Commit Interstate Transportation Of Stolen Property. Pleas Follow Filing of Criminal Information Alleging Defendants Stole Property Belonging to Immediate Family Member of a Then-Former Government Official." Nowhere at that link will you find the names Trump or Biden, but here's what happened. Joe Biden's daughter Ashley kept a diary while she was in rehab. In the spring of 2020, she was rooming at a home in Florida. She moved out in June but got permission to store some of her personal items there, including that diary and a flash drive with family photos. Later that month, a woman named Aimee Harris stayed at the house, discovered Ashley Biden's things, and stole some of them. In August, she reached out to a man named Robert Kurlander, and they plotted to sell Biden's belongings. They hoped to make a lot of money selling the diary. ...

Kurlander has agreed to cooperate with the government. Project Veritasa may be in some trouble here.

After many delays, Aimee Harris, who was paid $20,000 (and was supposed to have been paid $20,000 more) by the conservative organization Project Veritas for a diary belonging to Joe Biden's daughter Ashley -- which she and a friend named Robert Kurlander first tried, unsuccessfully, to sell to Donald Trump's campaign -- was finally sentenced today in a New York courtroom to one month of imprisonment and three months' probation. The judge in the case said what Harris did was "despicable." Kurlander is apparently still cooperating.

[N.E. Brigand]

I appreciate Paul Farhi's point concerning the media's reluctance to publish the Hunter Biden laptop story a few weeks before the 2020 election: ask Dan Rather how it worked out in 2004 to rush to publish a story (about George W. Bush's National Guard service) that wasn't thoroughly sourced. (No one ever won the Doonesbury contest, though.)

[N.E. Brigand]

CNN: "Judge schedules Newsmax case over 2020 election lies for September trial. ... Newsmax and the voting technology company Smartmatic could still reach an out-of-court settlement, and further delays are possible. But if the September 24 trial date holds, the fallout from former President Donald Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 election will be on full display as he tries to return to the White House. The trial would also be the first of more than a dozen high-profile defamation cases to face a jury, all stemming from the false claims that Smartmatic and another voting company, Dominion Voting Systems, rigged the 2020 election by flipping millions of votes from Trump to Joe Biden. Those lies — championed by Trump and his allies in Congress and the right-wing press — fueled the deadly insurrection on January 6, 2021." Judge Eric Davis, who will preside in Delaware Superior Court, is the same judge who oversaw Dominion's lawsuit against Fox News that was settled at the last minute in 2023 when Fox agreed to pay Dominion $787.5 million.

The voting machine company Smartmatic, in addition to suing Newsmax, has been separately suing Fox News and One America News. I don't know the status of the Fox case, but today Smartmatic and One America News announced that they have reached a confidential settlement.

That article notes that "the lawsuit ... in recent months devolved into messy discovery disputes, wherein Smartmatic and its attorney J. Erik Connolly went so far as to lob allegations that OAN execs had potentially 'engaged in criminal activities' by 'appear[ing] to have violated state and federal laws regarding data privacy.' The plaintiff alleged that an email exchange between 'Kraken' lawyer Sidney Powell and OAN President Charles Herring indicated that the network had access to a spreadsheet with Smartmatic employees' passwords".

[N.E. Brigand]

And the Dept. of Justice is still charging people for their actions on January 6th. In this case, there's a quasi-celebrity connection, because the defendant, Tyler Campanella, is the stepson of a matchmaker named Siggy Flicker, who was in the "cast" of two reality TV shows, Why Am I Still Single? (VH1) and The Real Housewives of New Jersey (Bravo). I have seen neither show. But I see that Flicker is well known as a Trump supporter, sometimes seen at Mar-a-Lago, and apparently friends with Trump's attorney Alina Habba. The phone that Campanella used is actually on Flicker's Verizon account, and the FBI identified Campanella in part from pictures on Flicker's Instagram feed. Campanella was in the Capitol on Jan. 6th and is charged with trespassing in a restricted building and disorderly conduct meant to disrupt an official proceeding.

[N.E. Brigand]

And the Dept. of Justice is still charging people for their actions on January 6th. In this case, there's a quasi-celebrity connection, because the defendant, Tyler Campanella, is the stepson of a matchmaker named Siggy Flicker, who was in the "cast" of two reality TV shows, Why Am I Still Single? (VH1) and The Real Housewives of New Jersey (Bravo).

Ryan Reilly notes that there is video apparently showing Campanella in Speaker Pelosi's office.

[N.E. Brigand]

One possible answer to Karen Piper's question is that Rep. Barry Laudermilk is attempting to assist future attacks on the Capitol.



Remember, it was Laudermilk who led a suspicious tour of the Capitol shortly before Jan. 6th.

But there also may be some other more innocent explanation.

[N.E. Brigand]

Meanwhile, Michigan attorney general charges 'false electors' over efforts to overturn the 2020 election

ABC reports today: "Trump, Giuliani, Meadows are unindicted co-conspirators in Michigan fake elector case, hearing reveals."

[N.E. Brigand]

And going some 1,600 miles south-by-southwest from Michigan:

"Arizona grand jury has indicted Trump allies for 2020 election interference" (Politico).

Donald Trump is "Unindicted Co-Conspirator 1." (Ken Chesebro is "Unindicted Co-Conspirator 4.") Only some of the eighteen people who have been indicted by a grand jury in Arizona are named in the document, but reporters quickly identified Mark Meadows, Rudy Giuliani, and Mike Roman based on descriptions of their roles and actions. The named defendants thus far comprise only "the 11 Republicans who falsely posed as the state’s presidential electors" including "former Arizona GOP Chairwoman Kelli Ward, state senators Jake Hoffman and Anthony Kern, and Arizona’s RNC committeeman Tyler Bowyer."

[Voronwë the Faithful]

I'm sure there are reasons, but it seems wrong to me (and I would guess to you as well) that Trump is an uninvited co-conspirator in both states. He is the head of the snake.

[N.E. Brigand]

Mother Jones has obtained audio of Steve Bannon on Oct. 31, 2020 discussing election strategy with Guo Wengui, the exiled Chinese billionaire on whose yacht Bannon had been arrested earlier that year....

Guo Wengui (real name Ho Wan Kwok), the exiled Chinese billionaire and Steve Bannon's erstwhile funder and host ... was charged today in a $1 billion fraud scheme.

Additional charges were brought against Steve Bannon's backer, Guo Wengui. "Bannon is not referenced in the indictment, but the companies that he promoted and ran with Guo are."

Mother Jones reports that Steve Bannon is named as an unindicted co-conspirator in a government filing in the prosecution of Bannon's billionaire buddy Guo Wengui.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

And going some 1,600 miles south-by-southwest from Michigan:

"Arizona grand jury has indicted Trump allies for 2020 election interference" (Politico).

Donald Trump is "Unindicted Co-Conspirator 1." (Ken Chesebro is "Unindicted Co-Conspirator 4.") Only some of the eighteen people who have been indicted by a grand jury in Arizona are named in the document, but reporters quickly identified Mark Meadows, Rudy Giuliani, and Mike Roman based on descriptions of their roles and actions. The named defendants thus far comprise only "the 11 Republicans who falsely posed as the state’s presidential electors" including "former Arizona GOP Chairwoman Kelli Ward, state senators Jake Hoffman and Anthony Kern, and Arizona’s RNC committeeman Tyler Bowyer."

Boris Epshteyn is apparently also one of the ones who have been indicted.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Christina Bobb, too