Herschel Walker’s End Run Around Finance Laws

Former Georgia Bulldog, New Jersey General, and The Apprentice TV loser Herschel Walker told lots of lies during his failed MAGA senate campaign, but his secret lie to a billionaire donor was worth over half a million dollars and, possibly, a federal conviction for wire fraud.

Instead of transferring the payments to his senatorial campaign fund, Walker asked Montana billionaire Dennis Washington to wire $535,200 directly to his private company, HR Talent, LLC. Mr. Washington did so, thinking this was a legitimate political contribution. Not so.

The hidden ball trick is legal in football, but not in campaign finance, or any kind of finance, except maybe organized crime. The watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) has asked the referees, The Federal Election Commission (about the campaign donation violation and Attorney General Garland (about the wire fraud issue), and it sure looks like a personal foul by Herschel Walker.

More:

“Emails Reveal ‘Jaw-Dropping’ Herschel Walker Money Scandal,” Roger Sollenberger, Daily Beast

“Emails show Herschel Walker nicked billionaire Dennis Washington for $500K,” Zoë Buchli, Missoulian

“Report: Herschel Walker’s Very Embarrassing Campaign May Have Also Committed Wire Fraud,” Caleb Ecarma, Vanity Fair

Top image: 1984 Topps bubblegum card. The New Jersey Generals team owner was Donald Trump. 

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Trump’s Ex-Employee Hershel Walker Stumbles Downfield

Georgia’ GOP candidate for the US Senate is Hershel Walker, a former University of Georgia Heisman winner, All-American, and  NFL veteran. He was endorsed by Donald Trump, who was his pre-NFL employer as the owner of the failed New Jersey Generals of the United States Football League. In just a few short years, as Mr. Walker raced down the field, Mr. Trump managed to tank the entire USFL.

Hershel Walker and Donald Trump have something else in common: they are both phenomenal liars. Mr. Trump told over 30,000 lies while he was in the White House, and continues to lie about losing the 2020 election. Mr. Walker lied about graduating from college, then lied about lying that he graduated from college. He lied about being a policeman and an FBI agent. He lied about his business ventures, including his “mini-Tyson’s chicken empire“. And while Dr. Oz can’t remember all the houses he owns, Walker can’t recall all the children he’s sired.

Despite his sports celebrity and Trump endorsement, the drip of revelations has raised been understandable questions about Herschel Walker’s electability. All that lying doesn’t help when you’re running against an incumbent who’s a Baptist minister. Weird statements blaming China for US air pollution, evolution denial, claims the US has 52 states, and accusations of spousal abuse should raise even more concern that the ex-Georgia Bulldog is a dog of a candidate.

Herschel Walker was a contestant on The Celebrity Apprentice TV show in 2009. Donald Trump fired him. He might want to fire him as a Trump-branded political endorsee, too.

More:

“Herschel Walker declines invitation to debate Senator Warnock in Macon,” Justin Baxley, WMAZ-TV

“Herschel Walker’s ex-wife recalls him threatening to ‘blow my brains out’ in campaign ad released by opponents in Georgia Senate race,” Dave Goldiner, NY Daily News

Related:

“Republicans rue price of fame as celebrity Senate candidates struggle,” Adam Gabbatt, The Guardian

“Donald Trump’s Less-Than-Artful Failure in Pro Football,” Joe Nocera, New York Times

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Embryos Are People Under Georgia Tax Law

Under Georgia state tax law, embryos gestating for over 6 weeks are now considered dependent children. The state Department of Revenue will allow deductions of $3000 for each 3/4-inch long blob of cells if they have perceptibly pulsing cardiac activity, often wrongly called a “fetal heartbeat.”

Who knows, maybe gun ownership and voting rights will be next under such so-called “personhood laws“.

More:

“Embryos can be listed as dependents on tax returns, Georgia rules,” Ramon Antonio Vargas, The Guardian

“Georgia says ‘unborn child’ counts as dependent on taxes after 6 weeks,” María Luisa Paúl, Washington Post

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Georgia’s New Jim Crow

Republican Governor Brian Kemp, elected in 2018 after suppressing Georgia’s Black vote, has signed a new voter suppression bill into law. Georgia’s S.B. 202 bans mobile voting, limits secure drop boxes, and prohibits volunteers from giving water to Georgia voters waiting in the long voting lines typical of the state’s black neighborhoods. It cuts the time window when voters can request a mail-in ballot by half, and absentee ballots will now be mailed out three weeks later than before. S.B. 202 also allows the State Board of Elections to overide county election boards and replace them with state-appointed administrators.

The NAACP and ACLU, understandably, have challenged the new law in court as a violation of the First, Second, and Fifteenth Amendments, and the Voting Rights Act. Who else is against the law? Georgia’s biggest employers, including Coca Cola, Home Depot, AFLAC, Delta Airlines and Tyler Perry Studios.

More:

“’Jim Crow In a Suit and Tie’: Georgia Passes Massive Voter Suppression Bill,” Eric Lutz, Vanity Fair

“72 Black executives call on corporate America to fight voting restrictions,” Shawna Chen, Axios

“Georgia-based companies face boycott calls over voting bill,” Chris Isidore, CNN Business

“MLBPA open to discussing moving 2021 MLB All-Star Game from Atlanta after new voting laws pass in the state,” R.J. Anderson, CBS Sports

“Black voter says a painting at Georgia governor’s voter bill signing shows the plantation where her family worked for generations,” Natasha Chen and Theresa Waldrop, CNN

Updates:

“MLB will move its All-Star Game out of Atlanta as backlash to Georgia voting law continues,” Chelsea Janes, Washington Post

“What Georgia’s Voting Law Really Does,” Nick Corasaniti and Reid J. Epstein, New York Times

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Trump-Throttled Post Office May Disenfranchise American Troops

Georgia voters in the military and citizens living overseas are concerned that their mail-in ballots won’t get delivered in time to be counted in the January 5th senatorial runoff elections. The resource-starved U.S. Postal Service is reeling from Louis DeJoy’s cutbacks, COVID-19 staff outages, and after-effects and backlogs of the Christmas rush. USPS has pledged to fast-track election mail, but on-time mail deliveries in the Atlanta area were as low as 54% a few weeks ago. Ballots must arrive by 7:00 PM today to be valid. Results of the contest may determine control of the U.S. Senate.

More:

“USPS delays could hit Georgia military, overseas ballots,” Hannah Denham and Jacob Bogage, Washington Post

 

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Trump to Georgia Official: Steal Me an Election

Mere days before he’s evicted from the Executive Mansion, lame-duck President Donald Trump can’t resist another chance to break the law, trying to turn the land of his birth into a banana republic. In an hour-long phone call, aided by Mark Meadows and other co-conspirators, he tried to wheedle, cajole, pressure, and threaten Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a fellow Republican, into “finding” him 11,780 votes and overturning his defeat in the state’s November’s election, even though Georgia’s returns have been reviewed three times and certified by the state’s electors.

But even if Mr. Trump got Georgia’s 16 electoral votes, Joe Biden would still have won the U.S. presidential election by 40 electoral votes, so you’ve got to wonder: in what other states has Donald Trump been illegally leaning on election officials?

Mr. Trump has threatened to sue Brad Raffensperger for making recordings of the phone call public, but his recording of the conversation is legal under Georgia State Law.

Here are some of the Trump-Raffensperger phone call low-lights:

Sarah Palin Rants for Republicans in Georgia, Denies Trump Lost

Sarah Palin, former Miss Wasilla and Alaska TV sportscaster, once part-time Temp-Governor of Alaska, failed reality TV star and Fox News commentator, and John McCain’s biggest mistake, is now campaigning in Georgia alongside QAnon-embracing Congress-creature-elect Marjorie Taylor Greene. She’s in the Peach State in support of corrupt conservative GOP Senate candidates David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, now in close races ahead of  the January 5th runoff election. Ms. Palin echoed false claims that Trump didn’t lose the presdential election, and spoke Friday as part of the “Save America Tour,” funded by the right-wing  Club for Malignant Growth. which also booked conservative ciruit celebs Ted Cruz, Rick Scott, Jim Jordan, and Lee Greenwood.

More:

“Sarah Palin hits campaign trail in Georgia, denying Trump lost alongside QAnon-supporting Republican,” Stuti Mishra, The Independent

“Palin campaigns in Georgia for Loeffler, Perdue,” Celine Castronuovo, The Hill

“Sarah Palin Returns to the Movement She Started in Georgia Runoff Campaign,” Sam Brodey, Daily Beast

Related:

“’A Serial Liar’: How Sarah Palin Ushered in the ‘Post-Truth’ Political Era in Which Trump Has Thrived,” Patrice Taddonio, Frontline

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Trump’s Legal Team Blusters and Blunders On

From his executive command center at Virginia’s Trump National Golf Club, the lame-duck president continues to fight for a job he’s had no interest in performing, deploying a team of cracked crack-smoking crack lawyers under a hair-dye-sweating Rudy Giuliani to courts across the nation in an attempt to invalidate the will of the people. Recent highlights:

Attempting to earn his $20K-a-day rate, Mr. Giuliani appeared in a federal courtroom for the first time in 30 years. The Republican judge reproved him for ignorance of basic legal terms, likened his claims to “Frankenstein’s Monster … haphazardly stitched together,” and laughed them out of court, writing “This is simply not how the Constitution works.”

In Wisconsin, Trump campaign lawyer Jim Troupis wants the court to invalidate his own vote. He wants to throw out all the early voting ballots, and that’s how he and his wife voted. We don’t don’t know what Mr. Troupis is being paid for this, but the campaign paid $3 million for the two-county recount effort.

On Saturday, Trump lawyer Sidney Powell claimed the presidential election was rigged by Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez, who died in 2013, claimed a voting machine company bribed Georgia’s Republican officials to throw the electon to Biden, and proposed a “Biblical lawsuit” on behalf of Donald Trump in the Peach State. Even Chris “Bridgegate” Christie was embarrassed. Ms. Powell was booted from the Trump legal team — not for being nuts, but for undermining Georgia GOP officials before the state’s crucial senate runoff elections.

And, ultimately, it may be Republican anxiety over those Georgia senate runoffs, which threaten the GOP stranglehold on congress, that will force Mr. Trump to accept his defeat. Big party donors are telling the Republican leadship they won’t contribute a dime to the Georgia campaigns if the president doesn’t concede, and spend even more time on his golf courses.

Updates:

“Trump’s Pennsylvania Appeal Rejected in Scathing Decision by His Own Appointee,” Tracy Connor, Daily Beast

“Pennsylvania Supreme Court dismisses lawsuit against mail ballots with prejudice in another defeat for Trump,” Elise Viebeck, Washington Post

Related:

“Donor sues pro-Trump group over failure to prove voter fraud: ‘Empty promises,'” Jordan Williams, The Hill

“Joe Biden gains votes in Wisconsin county after Trump-ordered recount,” The Guardian

“20 days of fantasy and failure: Inside Trump’s quest to overturn the election,” Philip Rucker, Ashley Parker, Josh Dawsey and Amy Gardner, Washington Post

More Updates:

“How Is Trump’s Lawyer Jenna Ellis ‘Elite Strike Force’ Material?” Jeremy W. Peters and Alan Feuer, New York Times

“Pro-Trump legal crusade peppered with bizarre blunders,” Zach Montellaro and Kyle Cheney, Politico

“Delusional Trump Says He’ll Waste 125 Of His Energy Into Already Low Energy Election Lawsuits,” Summer Concepcion, Talking Points Memo

“Judges turn back claims by Trump and his allies in six states as the president’s legal effort founders,” Elise Viebeck, Emma Brown and Rosalind S. Helderman, Washington Post

“Trump thought courts were key to winning. Judges disagreed.” Colleen Long and Ed White, Associated Press

“Supreme Court Rejects Texas Suit Seeking to Subvert Election,” Adam Liptak, New York Times

“Wisconsin Supreme Court Justices Tell Trump Lawyer His Election Suit ‘Smacks of Racism,’” Adam Klasfeld, Law & Crime

“‘The last wall’: How dozens of judges across the political spectrum rejected Trump’s efforts to overturn the election,” Rosalind S. Helderman and Elise Viebeck, Washington Post

“Trump’s Legal Arguments Are Getting More Delusional. Support From Republicans Just Keeps Growing,” Paul McLeod, BuzzFeed News

“Trump Orders Space Force to Discover Other Planets with Courts,” Andy Borowitz, The New Yorker

Even More Updates:

“Trump Lost 59 Election Cases Before Electoral College Vote (and Counting),” Zoe Tillman, BuzzFeed News

“Kilmeade Asks Stephen Miller If Trump’s Failing Lawsuits Mean He Has ‘Worst Legal Team,’” Summer Concepcion, TalkingPointsMemo

“Judge Briskly Tosses Out GOP Georgia Ballot Challenge Hours After It Was Lodged,” Kate Riga, TalkingPointsMemo

“Conspiracy-theorist lawyer Sidney Powell spotted again at White House,” Martin Pengelly, The Guardian

“Trump wants Supreme Court to overturn Pa. election results,” Jill Colvin and Marc Levy, Associated Press

Wait! Wait! Additional Updates:

“Sidney Powell’s Hidden ‘Kraken’ Witness Is a Pro-Trump Podcaster Once Sued for Fraud,” Blake Montgomery, Daily Beast

“Federal court rejects Trump’s Wisconsin election challenge,” Daniel Uria, UPI

“Dominion Voting Systems Employee Sues Trump Campaign And Allies, Alleging Defamation,” Bente Birkeland, Colorado Public Radio

Even More Horrible Updates:

“Rep. Gohmert Calls for Street Violence as Another Legal Loss Sends MAGA World Spiraling,” Justin Rohrlich, Daily Beast

“Louie Gohmert Suggests People ‘Go to the Streets’ and Be ‘Violent’ After Judge Throws Out Baseless Election Suit,” Peter Wade, Rolling Stone

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‘I’ll Sue!’ Says Most Litigious President Ever

After losing to Joe Biden in the election, Donald Trump is continuing his economic stimulus policy of full employment for lawyers, suing in several states to try overturning his rejection by a majority of voters, claiming his victory has been “stolen” because states are actually counting actual votes. He first asked several states to stop counting votes while he seemed to be ahead, before all the Biden-leaning mail-in ballots were counted. Mr. Trump, former owner of the failed U.S.F.L. New Jersey Generals football team, essentially asked the refs to stop the game in the 3rd quarter and declare him the winner.

Donald Trump had already used campaign funds to pay lawyers in pre-election lawsuits, and continues to make his supporters pay for his sore-loser legal claims, but state taxpayers will foot the bill for defending election boards against the spurious suits. It’s not surprising that Mr. Trump would resort to the courts for his hail-mary legal claims. In 2016, while he was the GOP candidate, Donald Trump was involved in 3500 lawsuits. His legal team should be grateful to be paid with campaign funds. As a businessman, Donald Trump had a habit of stiffing his lawyers.

UPDATE: Donald Trump has found a way to further his baseless legal claims for free — he’s going to pay for them with your tax dollars. Attorney General William Barr has authorized the U.S. Department of Justice to pursue these wacky conspiracy theories in violation of common sense. This also violates long-standing DOJ policy, so the director of the Election Crimes Branch, the official in charge of election fraud investigations, has resigned.

Jimmy Carter’s Letter to Brian Kemp

Former president and Georgia resident Jimmy Carter wrote to his state’s Republican nominee for governor, Brian Kemp, asking him to resign as Georgia secretary of state. The secretary of state oversees elections.

October 22, 2018

To Secretary of State Brian Kemp:

I have officially observed scores of doubtful elections in many countries, and one of the key requirements for a fair and trusted process is that there be nonbiased supervision of the electoral process.

In Georgia’s upcoming gubernatorial election, popular confidence is threatened not only by the undeniable racial discrimination of the past and … serious questions … about the security of Georgia’s voting machines, but also because you are now overseeing the election in which you are a candidate. This runs counter to the most fundamental principle of democratic elections — that the electoral process be managed by an independent and impartial election authority. Other secretaries of state have stepped down while running for election within their jurisdiction, to ensure that officials without a direct stake in the process can take charge and eliminate concerns about a conflict of interest.

In order to foster voter confidence in the upcoming election, which will be especially important if the race ends up very close, I urge you to step aside and hand over to a neutral authority the responsibility of overseeing the governor’s election. This would not address every concern, but it would be a sign that you recognize the importance of this key democratic principle and want to ensure the confidence of our citizens in the outcome.

Sincerely,

Jimmy Carter

Emphasis added. The full text of the letter is here

In case you forgot, before he monitored elections across the world, before he served as president, Jimmy Carter was Governor of Georgia, the position Brian Kemp is attempting to procure by questionable means.

More:

“Jimmy Carter Calls For Georgia Secretary Of State’s Resignation In Personal Plea,” Colin Dwyer, NPR News

“Watch the Georgia Minority Vote Disappear Before Your Eyes,” Jamil Smith, Rolling Stone

“Stealing an election in Georgia: everything you need to know about voter suppression,” Sophie McBain, New Statesman

“Where Voter Suppression Hits Hardest in Georgia,” Brentin Mock, CityLab

Updates:

“Judge orders Georgia to allow new U.S. citizens to vote,” Shannon Vavra, Axios

“How Voting Became a Central Issue in the Georgia Governor’s Race,” Richard Fausset, New York Times

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