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After Donald Trump was forced from the major social-media platforms for violating their terms of service, the Associated Press reported in March he would soon launch his own site. Jason Miller told Fox News at the time that the former president was poised to "completely redefine the game" with his new tech initiative.

It was against this backdrop that Fox News reported in May that Trump and his team had launched a new "communications platform," powered by a "digital ecosystem." The phrases wildly oversold what was actually a rudimentary blog, utilizing technology that's existed for many years.

A month after its launch, the website was permanently scrapped due to lack of reader interest. The game had not been "completely redefined."

Apparently undeterred, the Republican and his team made a related announcement the week before Halloween, launching the Trump Media & Technology Group, which apparently has multimedia ambitions it says it intends to compete with both Twitter and Netflix and even hired a high-profile CEO: Former House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes said he'd resign as a Republican congressman to lead the nascent company.

And while that's certainly of interest, what makes this story amazing is what we're learning about the behind-the-scenes financing of the initiative. The New York Times published this report the week after the company's launch.

[The former president] agreed to merge his social media venture with whats known as a special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC. The result is that Mr. Trump largely shut out of the mainstream financial industry because of his history of bankruptcies and loan defaults secured nearly $300 million in funding for his new business. To get his deal done, Mr. Trump ventured into an unregulated and sometimes shadowy corner of Wall Street, working with an unlikely cast of characters....

That cast includes a small Chinese investment firm with a curious record. (This may seem a little convoluted at first, but be patient, because this is going somewhere.)

A few years ago, for example, the firm helped create a company called Atlas Technology International, and it claimed in its Securities and Exchange Committee filing to be a company that made cupcakes. Soon after, Atlas filed a new annual report, saying it had made the transition from cupcakes to touch-screen devices, which was a bit odd.

The same folks behind that operation a Chinese firm called Arc Capital said they also ran a smart-phone sales company in south Florida, which did not appear to have ever sold anything to anyone at any time. They also claimed to have a drone software company, which somehow existed without any employees.

The SEC took a closer look and came to the conclusion that these companies were, for all intents and purposes, fake which is a problem, because in the United States, fake companies are not supposed to be publicly traded.

The SEC intervened and took the unusual step of issuing a "stop order," preventing the companies from selling public shares.

And now, as The Washington Post reported, these same guys in Shanghai have partnered with the former American president and the Trump Media & Technology Group.

A Chinese firm helping former president Donald Trump take his new media company public has been the target of investigations by federal securities regulators, who say the firm misrepresented shell companies with no products and few employees as ambitious, growing enterprises, documents and interviews show. Arc Capital, an investment advisory firm based in Shanghai, has repeatedly helped create or finance companies with little or no revenue, no customers and office locations that point to P.O. boxes, according to a Washington Post review of regulatory and court filings.

It's quite a marriage, isn't it? On the one hand, there's Trump, who's been accused of running fraudulent operations such as Trump University and the Trump Foundation, while on the other hand, there's a Chinese firm that's also been accused of launching highly dubious operations.

Keep in mind, the Trump Media & Technology Group, launched to great fanfare in October, does not appear to exist in any meaningful way, at least not yet. It has no products, no customers, and no sources of revenue. A securities lawyer told the Post, in reference to the partnership between the the former president's operation and Arc Capital, Theres a shell company basically merging with another shell company."

Nevertheless, the Republican's friends in Shanghai are raising hundreds of millions of dollars from the public that will ostensibly go towards Trump's media company that, again, still doesn't exist.

All of this has recently drawn the interest of investigators at the SEC and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), which typically investigates things like insider trading.

So, let's recap. Trump, who spent his White House term boasting about getting tough with China, has partnered with a dubious firm in Shanghai, which doesn't have any offices in the United States, but which is nevertheless financing his first and for now, largely aspirational post-presidency business venture. All of this is now facing federal investigations, in part because of the Chinese firm's history of fake businesses.

I can appreciate why expectations surrounding the former president are low, but this is farcical.

Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MSNBC political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "The Impostors: How Republicans Quit Governing and Seized American Politics."

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Why the controversy surrounding Trump's media venture matters - MSNBC

Congressman Bennie Thompson, the chairman of the House select committee investigating the Capitol attack, has said the panel will open an inquiry into Donald Trumps phone call seeking to stop Joe Bidens certification from taking place on 6 January hours before the insurrection.

The chairman said the select committee intended to scrutinize the phone call revealed last month by the Guardian should they prevail in their legal effort to obtain Trump White House records over the former presidents objections of executive privilege.

Thats right, Thompson said when asked by the Guardian whether the select committee would look into Trumps phone call, and suggested House investigators had already started to consider ways to investigate Trumps demand that Biden not be certified as president on 6 January.

Thompson said the select committee could not ask the National Archives for records about specific calls, but noted if we say we want all White House calls made on January 5 and 6, if he made it on a White House phone, then obviously we would look at it there.

The Guardian reported last month that Trump, according to multiple sources, called lieutenants based at the Willard hotel in Washington DC from the White House in the late hours of 5 January and sought ways to stop Bidens certification from taking place on 6 January.

Trump first told the lieutenants his vice-president, Mike Pence, was reluctant to go along with the plan to commandeer his ceremonial role at the joint session of Congress in a way that would allow Trump to retain the presidency for a second term, the sources said.

But as Trump relayed to them the situation with Pence, the sources said, on at least one call, he pressed his lieutenants about how to stop Bidens certification from taking place on 6 January in a scheme to get alternate slates of electors for Trump sent to Congress.

The former presidents remarks came as part of wider discussions he had with the lieutenants at the Willard a team led by Trump lawyers Rudy Giuliani, John Eastman, Boris Epshteyn and Trump strategist Steve Bannon about delaying the certification, the sources said.

House investigators in recent months have pursued an initial investigation into Trumps contacts with lieutenants at the Willard, issuing a flurry of subpoenas compelling documents and testimony to crucial witnesses, including Bannon and Eastman.

But Thompson said that the select committee would now also investigate both the contents of Trumps phone calls to the Willard and the White Houses potential involvement, in a move certain to intensify the pressure on the former presidents inner circle.

If we get the information that we requested, Thompson said of the select committees demands for records from the Trump White House and Trump aides, those calls potentially will be reflected to the Willard hotel and whomever.

A spokesperson for the select committee declined to comment about what else such a line of inquiry might involve. But a subpoena to Giuliani, the lead Trump lawyer at the Willard, is understood to be in the offing, according to a source familiar with the matter.

The Guardian reported that the night before the Capitol attack, Trump called the lawyers and non-lawyers at the Willard separately, because Giuliani did not want to have non-lawyers participate on sensitive calls and jeopardize claims to attorney-client privilege.

It was not clear whether Giulaini might invoke attorney-client privilege as a way to escape cooperating with the investigation in the event of a subpoena, but Congressman Jamie Raskin, a member of the select committee, noted the protection does not confer broad immunity.

The attorney-client privilege does not operate to shield participants in a crime from an investigation into a crime, Raskin said. If it did, then all you would have to do to rob a bank is bring a lawyer with you, and be asking for advice along the way.

The Guardian also reported Trump made several calls the day before the Capitol attack from the White House residence, his preferred place to work, as well as the West Wing, but it was not certain from which location he phoned his top lieutenants at the Willard.

The distinction is significant as phone calls placed from the White House residence, even from a landline desk phone, are not automatically memorialized in records sent to the National Archives after the end of an administration.

That means even if the select committee succeeds in its litigation to pry free Trumps call detail records from the National Archives, without testimony from people with knowledge of what was said, House investigators might only learn the target and time of the calls.

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Capitol panel to investigate Trump call to Willard hotel in hours before attack - The Guardian

There is a scene in the latest remake of Godzilla where Ishiro Serizawa, played by Ken Watanabe, is standing on a shoreline staring out at the sea. He is surrounded by bustling soldiers. Behind him, two giant MUTO creatures are beating the living hell out of San Francisco. Somewhere in the distance, a huge bulge of ocean approaches at dizzying speed: The King of the Monsters is coming. The commanding general asks if there is any hope that Godzilla can defeat the menace shredding the city. The arrogance of men is thinking nature is in our control and not the other way around, replies Serizawa. Let them fight.

This is how Im feeling about Donald Trump and his buddies within the Proud Boys these days.

The House Select Committee investigating the January 6 attack on the Capitol building is not Trumps only problem on that particular front; six Capitol police officers are suing him for sparking the Capitol riot, during which they were viciously assaulted, and recent court papers filed by Trumps defense team indicate they plan to lay responsibility for the whole thing at the feet of the Proud Boys and other right-wing groups.

Former President Donald Trump is seeking dismissal of a suit accusing him of sparking the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, reports Bloomberg News, arguing that speakers at political rallies dont have a legally enforceable duty of care to adversaries or others who might find themselves in the path of impassioned supporters. Trump, sued in August by eight Capitol Police officers who claim they were assaulted that day, argued in a court filing that the lawsuit should be tossed out because Trump isnt vicariously liable for the actions of people who heard him speak at a Stop the Steal rally before the siege.

It aint Stand back and stand by, thats for sure. Trump and his newest band of legal superchamps seem to be arguing that he can, in fact, yell Fire! in a crowded theater, and if you get your face stepped on by someone fleeing the room, well, thats your problem. This is far less theoretical than that old legal saw. With these filings, Trump is handing the bag directly over to groups, including the Proud Boys, which have been his staunchest and most menacing allies.

This appears to be yet another crossroads moment featuring Trump trying to put some wind between himself and the hardest of his hardcore allies. This split with the Proud Boys is nothing less than cold-blooded political calculus seen in hundreds of courtrooms a day: It was them, Your Honor, not me, and under the bus they go (the standard-issue fate of nearly everyone foolish enough to hitch their wagon to his star).

Last week, it was Trump parting ways with the anti-vax brigades, a move that went over with them about as well as a pole-vaulting sack of cement. Sitting for an interview with right-wing commentator Candace Owens, Trump pushed back hard on her suggestion that the vaccines were somehow flawed or dangerous. Oh no, the vaccines work, he replied, but some people arent the ones. The ones who get very sick and go to the hospital are the ones that dont take the vaccine. But its still their choice. And if you take the vaccine, youre protected. Look, the results of the vaccine are very good, and if you do get it, its a very minor form. People arent dying when they take the vaccine.

Vile conspiracy monger Alex Jones immediately spoke for many within the anti-vax brigades in a scathing Christmas Day message. But now that you know that [Anthony] Fauci signed you onto a fraud, you must extricate yourself from this lie, or you will be forever known as the M.V.V.P., the Most Valuable Vaccine Pusher, and the name Trump will be associated with pure evil, ranted Jones. Do not go down history as Josef Mengele 2.0. Your legacy will be that of a monster. Your legacy will be that of a eugenicist. Your legacy will be that of a child killer, using medical tyranny.

Meanwhile, the House 1/6 committee prepares to move into a more public phase of operation, sweeping in new testimony and evidence left and right, while Trumps efforts to stop them have finally reached the Supreme Court. This is a perilous moment fraught with uncertainty: Yes, the 6-3 conservative bent of the court, including three justices he personally nominated, would seem to be a safe harbor for the embattled former president. Yet that same court had a number of opportunities to involve themselves in Trumps favor during the post-election chaos, and they very deliberately wanted no part of it. There is no way to tell where they will come down on this.

Donald Trump seems to be running out of friends at an accelerating rate, and it is his own behavior that is creating the distance. Its a strange decision tree hes climbing, and puts one in mind of the old saying: What do you call a leader with no followers? Just a guy taking a walk.

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Donald Trump Has Spent the Last Two Weeks Offending His Closest Allies - Truthout

In this daily series, Newsweek explores the steps that led to the January 6 Capitol Riot.

On December 27, the last Sunday of 2020, the news media struggled to offer any happy news in a year dominated by COVID and then by Donald Trump's post-election dissension.

COVID cases reached 80 million worldwide and over the weekend, the United States reached a grim indicator: 1 in 1,000 Americans had died in the pandemic. Los Angeles County alone was experiencing one COVID death every ten minutes.

On Sunday, Dr. Anthony Fauci expressed concern that the state of the pandemic might get worse in the coming weeks. "... [T]he reason I'm concerned and my colleagues in public health are concerned also is that we very well might see a post-seasonal, in the sense of Christmas, New Year's, surge ... a surge upon a surge, because, if you look at the slope, the incline of cases that we have experienced as we have gone into the late fall and soon-to-be-early winter, it is really quite troubling."

"We are really at a very critical point," Fauci said.

Then there was the Christmas morning bombing in Nashville, still raw in people's minds, a reminder that nothing stopped for the pandemic. Though terrorism was being downplayed, analysts latched onto other implications. "I think this is a wake-up call and a warning for all of us about how vulnerable our infrastructure is," former FBI assistant director Frank Figliuzzi told CBS' Face the Nation. "We've concentrated, post 9/11 on ... getting our hands around all the chemical companies, mass orders of precursors for known explosives," he said, calling on shop owners and companies to be even more vigilant.

"[T]he notion of a copycat seeing what's happened in Nashville and trying to do this themselves is very real," he said.

"We haven't really been talking about infrastructure in this country in the context of individuals trying to conduct attacks of harm against," former homeland security Assistant Secretary Elizabeth Neumann told ABC's This Week, "but it's just a stark reminder that it is extremely vulnerable and we're overdue for some pretty significant investments."

On NBC's Meet the Press, there was no talk of Nashville, or COVID: the entire show was devoted to Joe Biden and what kind of president he would be. The closest the program got was in asking two governors about the difficult time and being targeted by COVID protestors. Gov. Mike Dewine of Ohio said: "I think it's understandable that people are upset. It's nine months into this. People are tired of it, so I get it."

Trump's "final days in office are shaping up to be the most volatile and unpredictable of a presidency defined by its volatility and unpredictability," said Jonathan Karl on ABC's This Week.

ABC had Maryland Republican Governor Larry Hogan on, Karl asking him if he was concerned about the damage Donald Trump could do in his last 24 days in office. Hogan cited Trump's delay in signing the COVID stimulus bill into law, his vetoing of the defense authorization bill. "Millions of people are going to suffer," Hogan said. "The Paycheck Protection Plan ran out in July. Unemployment benefits are about to run out tomorrow. And we've got to get this done."

Asked about Trump's call for a last-ditch fight on January 6, Hogan reassured viewers that Joe Biden was going to be sworn in on January 20. "There is a lot of disinformation out there," Hogan said. "Everybody wants every single legal vote to be counted. We want the election to be fair and proper."

"I'm hopeful that the vice president [Mike Pence] understands that [January 6 is a purely ceremonial job] and will execute his constitutional duties on January 6th," former Governor of New Jersey Chris Christie told ABC. "There may be some, some histrionics that go along with it, in the end I'm confident that the Congress will confirm what the American people did on Election Day, which was to elect Joe Biden the next president of the United States."

Not one of the dominant Sunday morning news shows mentioned the protests brewing or the likelihood of violence.

"See you in Washington, D.C., on January 6th. Don't miss it," Donald Trump tweeted on Sunday.

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Though Obsessed with Donald Trump, the Media Was Blind to Brewing Threat of Violence - Newsweek

Republicans cheered when Chris Smith, a leading anti-abortion advocate, flipped a Democratic-held district and was elected to Congress in 1980. Hes won in landslides for the following four decades.

But now the leader of Republican Party, former President Donald Trump, wants Smith out of office. Two GOP candidates are answering Trumps call to challenge New Jerseys longest-serving congressman in next years primary just as Smiths new district gains more loyal supporters of the former president.

The reason? Smith, who often split with Trump and House GOP leaders during his 41 years on Capitol Hill, went too far in the eyes of the ex-president when he was one of only 13 House Republicans to back President Joe Bidens $1 trillion infrastructure bill.

Alan Steinberg, who worked in the administrations of Gov. Christie Whitman and President George W. Bush, said it has more to do with the state of the Republican Party than Smith.

Hes never changed, Steinberg said. The party has changed.

Former Rep. Frank LoBiondo, R-2nd Dist., who also often opposed Trump when he served in Congress, said the ex-presidents actions show any dissent is no longer permitted.

The former president doesnt take kindly to somebody who disagrees in any way shape or form with him, LoBiondo said. Ive never seen it this bad. Its a whole different ball game. You cant even talk about cooperation without jumping down your throat.

Two Republicans have asked Trump to endorse their primary challenges to Smith: Mike Blasi and Tricia Flanagan.

The Chris Smith of 20 years ago would not be supportive of the Chris Smith of today, said Dominick Cuozzo, a member of Blasis campaign management team.

No way, Smith said. He says hes still a conservative moderate.

Im not a liberal, Smith said.

Despite hearing a few dissenting voices from the fringes such as Rep Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., who on Twitter called Smith a traitor along with the other Republicans who voted yes on infrastructure the New Jersey Republican said his views remain in line with the GOP.

The mainstream of the party hasnt changed that much, he said. I feel very at home.

If there is any movement, one could argue that the party has moved closer to Smith rather than the other way around. The former executive director of New Jersey Right to Lifes election began as an outlier in a state where leading New Jersey Republicans, most notably Govs. Whitman and Tom Kean, supported abortion rights.

Now, thanks to Trump and Senate Republicans, a six-judge GOP majority on the U.S. Supreme Court could revoke the constitutional right to abortion in Roe v. Wade.

Smith has drawn the ire of GOP leaders before, most notably when he was stripped of his House Veterans Affairs Committee chairmanship for opposing Republican efforts to cut federal funding for veterans.

He annually is among the Republicans least likely to toe the party line, and most likely to work with Democrats. And he opposed both of Trumps top legislative priorities: the GOP tax law and he unsuccessful effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act.

LoBiondo said Smith does a good job representing New Jersey.

Were not Alabama or Mississippi or one of the deep red states, said LoBiondo, who also opposed both bills. If you want Republican representation, thats going to look different than it will in other areas.

Indeed, Smiths brand of Republicanism remains popular in his district. Hes received at least 60% of the vote in 18 of his 21 successful House campaigns.

The thing about Chris Smith is hes the same guy hes always been, said former Rep. Mike Ferguson, R-7th Dist. That is the reason that no matter what his district has looked like, New Jersey voters have confidence in who he is and they love that he is their representative in Washington.

Smiths vote for the infrastructure bill was different than the other times he diverted from the Republican stance because of Trump, said Ross Baker, a political science professor at Rutgers University..

(Trump) is spending his time plotting his revenge and going after people who otherwise are solid Republicans representatives who subscribe to what the party stands for these days, except for those things that are important to the district that Trump opposes, Baker said.

LoBiondo said that enforcing such loyalty tests could hurt the partys chances of winning back the House majority in 2022.

Were really on the edge of retaking the majority, LoBiondo said. One of the things the Republicans seem to be pretty good at is forming a circular firing squad. Chris, who has held a solid grip on that district, is told hes got to have a primary because there was a single vote that people didnt agree on.

Smiths new district, approved by the states independent redistricting commission Wednesday, removes his home in Hamilton and his Mercer County base while adding large swaths of pro-Trump Ocean County Republicans.

David Wasserman, who tracks House races for the Cook Political Report, said that could mean trouble for Smith in next years Republican primary

Hes picking up a ton of hard-core Trump towns in Ocean County who dont like that he voted for the bipartisan infrastructure bill, Wasserman said.

Smith said more than 70% of the new 4th is his current district and he previously represented some of the other municipalities during his four decades in Washington. He supported the former president 66% of the time, according to FiveThirtyEight.

I know these areas, including the new areas, Smith said. Trump is a force. Ive supported much of his agenda. So Im very confident where I stand vis a vis Donald Trump.

One of Smiths primary opponents, Blasi, a veteran, former law enforcement officer and owner of a small real estate company, described his agenda as America First and praised two of Trumps most vocal supporters in Congress: Reps. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, and Paul Gosar, R-Ariz. Both backed efforts to overturn the 2020 election that Trump lost.

Smith broke with a majority of House Republicans and did not ask the U.S. Supreme Court to throw out the election results in several battleground states won by Joe Biden, and voted against rejecting state-certified election results in two states following the Jan. 6 insurrection by supporters of the former president.

We need more Jim Jordans and less Chris Smiths, said Blasi, who entered the race as a Trump supporter even before the former president sought a primary challenger to Smith. Im watching several congressmen and congresswomen doing their jobs and stepping up. Theres nobody stepping up in Jersey.

Cuozzo said Blasi had the support of Karen Giorno, a former Florida adviser to Trumps campaign. He said Giorno has submitted Blasis name to Susie Wiles, who is overseeing the former presidents political operation, including his endorsements.

Following Trumps call to action, Flanagan, who initially sought the GOP nomination against Democratic Rep. Andy Kim in the 3rd District, said she would instead run against Smith in the 4th District GOP primary.

Im answering the very clear and present call that President Trump put forth for Chris Smith to be primaried in this midterm, said Flanagan, who earlier this year sought the ex-presidents support for her challenge against Kim during a visit to his Bedminster golf club.

Smith, though, said all indications were that Trump would sit out his race. Theres no sense that hes going to do anything, Smith said.

Nor was he worried about his vote for the infrastructure bill being an issue next year, he said.

Infrastructure is a win for everybody, he said. I dont think its going to be a major problem or even a minor problem.

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Jonathan D. Salant may be reached at jsalant@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him at @JDSalant.

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N.J.s Chris Smith was once celebrated by conservatives. Now Trump wants him gone. What happened? - NJ.com