Pecker puns aside, I think it’s important to remember that this was the Chairman of the National Enquirer blackmailing the world’s richest man not for money, but simply to stop him trying to find out who hacked his phone.
I can’t help thinking that part could become a very big deal.
Especially since there's a heavy implication it might not have been Trump but instead the Saudis who are behind it.
I could swear there was a story some time back about Pecker meeting Kushner in the White House to discuss AMI expanding into the Saudi Arabian market. I can’t remember who the hell covered it though. I’ll keep looking.
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Lord_AsmodeusgoeticSobriquet:Here is your magical cryptic riddle-tumour: I AM A TIME MACHINERegistered Userregular
I miss the days when the likes of the Globe and the National Enquirer just had articles about Bigfoot and aliens, that was at least fun to read headlines for in the grocery store line, now it's all just celebrity and political gossip.
Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if Labor had not first existed. Labor is superior to capital, and deserves much the higher consideration. - Lincoln
I miss the days when the likes of the Globe and the National Enquirer just had articles about Bigfoot and aliens, that was at least fun to read headlines for in the grocery store line, now it's all just celebrity and political gossip.
Whatever. All their meteors and doomsaying scarred me in my youth!
And just like that, Whitaker WILL adjust in front of the HIC
(CNN) — Acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker will testify before the House Judiciary Committee Friday, Chairman Jerry Nadler said Thursday night, following a tumultuous couple of days where Whitaker threatened to not show up while Democrats prepared to subpoena his appearance.
The Justice Department confirmed Nadler's Thursday evening statement that Whitaker will appear.
"The chairman has made the commitment that we requested, and agreed that, if Mr. Whitaker voluntarily appears at tomorrow's hearing, the Committee will not issue a subpoena on or before February 8," Justice Department spokesperson Kerri Kupec said in a statement. "In light of that commitment, Acting Attorney General Whitaker looks forward to voluntarily appearing at tomorrow's hearing and discussing the great work of the Department of Justice."
Jesus dude, you're supposed to wield your wealth and power against the poor and disenfranchised. You don't go after people with multiples of "fuck you" money.
It does sort of make you wonder if they’ve gone after people with multiples of “fuck you” money before without suffering these sort of consequences. Pecker certainly seemed to be absurdly confident, putting the threat in writing and all.
I mean, there is "multiples of fuck you money", and then there is wealthiest single person in the world economy.
Yeah, I suppose this is the Chairman of the world’s trashiest tabloid attempting to blackmail the world’s richest man on behalf of the President of the United States, while they’re both under investigation by the Special Counsel.
What a time to be alive.
And in doing this, he made it so that this story is now the TOP story on BBC, CNN, MSNBC, NBC and ABC. CBS has it as front page but not top story.
You know, Trump having sleezed his way into the whitehouse might actually have turned out to be a good thing for the country in the long run; the investigation is liable to take down the head of one of the worst newspapers on the planet, the NRA has some 'splainin to do, the republicans have been shown to be utterly beholden to the orange toddler no matter how catastrophic his behavior is to both them and the nation and Donald has been exposed as a great flaming idiot to everyone on the planet, forever tarnishing his brand.
Also: bravo trying to blackmail one of the most wealthy people on the planet Pecker, like his personal life matters to the legions who buy from amazon every second of every day.
Jesus. I just saw someone retweet Trump’s reaction from the initial National Enquirer story, when Bezos’ texts were published. He actually ended his mocking with the words “Hopefully the (Washington Post) will soon be placed in better & more responsible hands!” That is absolutely going to come back to haunt him.
I’m going to put the tweet itself behind a spoiler just so nobody scrolls past it and thinks it’s Trump tweeting now.
You know, Trump having sleezed his way into the whitehouse might actually have turned out to be a good thing for the country in the long run; the investigation is liable to take down the head of one of the worst newspapers on the planet, the NRA has some 'splainin to do, the republicans have been shown to be utterly beholden to the orange toddler no matter how catastrophic his behavior is to both them and the nation and Donald has been exposed as a great flaming idiot to everyone on the planet, forever tarnishing his brand.
Also: bravo trying to blackmail one of the most wealthy people on the planet Pecker, like his personal life matters to the legions who buy from amazon every second of every day.
On the other hand, crimes against humanity.
Self-righteousness is incompatible with coalition building.
You know, Trump having sleezed his way into the whitehouse might actually have turned out to be a good thing for the country in the long run; the investigation is liable to take down the head of one of the worst newspapers on the planet, the NRA has some 'splainin to do, the republicans have been shown to be utterly beholden to the orange toddler no matter how catastrophic his behavior is to both them and the nation and Donald has been exposed as a great flaming idiot to everyone on the planet, forever tarnishing his brand.
Also: bravo trying to blackmail one of the most wealthy people on the planet Pecker, like his personal life matters to the legions who buy from amazon every second of every day.
On the other hand, crimes against humanity.
Also, that's assuming that human decency actually wins. If it fails, it shows that pubs can just be as shameless as they want and prove that they really are immune to any consequences
Keep doing the thing you're under indictment for? Bold strategy, we'll see if it pays off.
I know I say this every single goddam time but how is this idiot just not able to just! stop! committing! crimes! It’s just downright bizarre at this point.
And just like that, Whitaker WILL adjust in front of the HIC
(CNN) — Acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker will testify before the House Judiciary Committee Friday, Chairman Jerry Nadler said Thursday night, following a tumultuous couple of days where Whitaker threatened to not show up while Democrats prepared to subpoena his appearance.
The Justice Department confirmed Nadler's Thursday evening statement that Whitaker will appear.
"The chairman has made the commitment that we requested, and agreed that, if Mr. Whitaker voluntarily appears at tomorrow's hearing, the Committee will not issue a subpoena on or before February 8," Justice Department spokesperson Kerri Kupec said in a statement. "In light of that commitment, Acting Attorney General Whitaker looks forward to voluntarily appearing at tomorrow's hearing and discussing the great work of the Department of Justice."
Maybe I'm missing it, but it doesn't seem like the House Judiciary Committee has backed down on the subpoena usage nor has it made the commitment the DOJ requested.
If he tries to pull executive privilege it's still on the table.
Keep doing the thing you're under indictment for? Bold strategy, we'll see if it pays off.
I know I say this every single goddam time but how is this idiot just not able to just! stop! committing! crimes! It’s just downright bizarre at this point.
Possible explanation: because he doesn't have a choice. He's balls deep with these people and owes them a shit ton of money. Also may be the only way to protect whatever nestegg he might have squirrelled away.
Alternative and concurrent explanation: he's a goddamn moron like we've known for awhile.
Keep doing the thing you're under indictment for? Bold strategy, we'll see if it pays off.
Is it a compulsion at this point? Does he believe he's going to get a full pardon from a certain someone?
I feel like this is some very special episode and his motivation is, this is the only thing you know how to do, so do it. Even when reason and logic would dictate otherwise.
All opinions are my own and in no way reflect that of my employer.
i mean historically, going to jail has not proven a very effective method of stopping people from doing crimes, so i don't see why we'd expect it to happen here
Keep doing the thing you're under indictment for? Bold strategy, we'll see if it pays off.
I know I say this every single goddam time but how is this idiot just not able to just! stop! committing! crimes! It’s just downright bizarre at this point.
I can see Trump pardoning his cronies on the way out of office like Presidents tend to.(Not Obama as far as i know, but the others.)
I doubt he'll pardon anyone unless it specifically has to do with maintaining his line on money laundering post presidency.
I don't know. It would piss a whole lot of people who trump doesn't like if he issued the pardon. I don't think Trump is big on being loyal to people who worked for him, but I do think he is vindictive and petty.
Trump has some kind of broken Midas touch where instead of gold, everything explodes in a glittering trash fire
Again, let us all be thankful for the ineptitude of these people
The Chlorine Trifluoride Touch doesn't flow off the tongue as easily, but it seems to be as good a way as any to describe the man's effects on anything in his vicinity lately.
Meanwhile - wow, I'm still struggling to figure out what AMI was thinking. What did they hope this was going to do? Bring the financial acumen of the wealthiest human since Augustus into question? Possibly damage his marriage? Like... what?
Trump has some kind of broken Midas touch where instead of gold, everything explodes in a glittering trash fire
Again, let us all be thankful for the ineptitude of these people
The Chlorine Trifluoride Touch doesn't flow off the tongue as easily, but it seems to be as good a way as any to describe the man's effects on anything in his vicinity lately.
Meanwhile - wow, I'm still struggling to figure out what AMI was thinking. What did they hope this was going to do? Bring the financial acumen of the wealthiest human since Augustus into question? Possibly damage his marriage? Like... what?
They were just hoping he'd be so scared of the world seeing pictures of his weiner that he would back off.
Trump has some kind of broken Midas touch where instead of gold, everything explodes in a glittering trash fire
Again, let us all be thankful for the ineptitude of these people
People tend to forget about the other afflictions of Midas, besides turning things to gold he also ejaculated scorpions and poisonous snakes after his curse, I'm not sure how to connect this to current happenings, but I feel that such correlation does exist.
No matter where you go...there you are. ~ Buckaroo Banzai
Trump has some kind of broken Midas touch where instead of gold, everything explodes in a glittering trash fire
Again, let us all be thankful for the ineptitude of these people
The Chlorine Trifluoride Touch doesn't flow off the tongue as easily, but it seems to be as good a way as any to describe the man's effects on anything in his vicinity lately.
Meanwhile - wow, I'm still struggling to figure out what AMI was thinking. What did they hope this was going to do? Bring the financial acumen of the wealthiest human since Augustus into question? Possibly damage his marriage? Like... what?
They were just hoping he'd be so scared of the world seeing pictures of his weiner that he would back off.
They were apparently sorely mistaken.
It's so dumb. Jeff Bezos could talk to every person alive right now and say, "How much for you to never mention this to me again? Ten bucks?"
Reading through Bezos's (I never know where to put the apostrophe in names that end with "s". Bezos'?) medium post got me thinking.
Dude isn't an idiot, clearly (I'm not talking about his morals or ethics, just intelligence); but that whole thing was clearly run past lawyers, and if I had too put money down on it, at least one journalist. Not only to know ramifications but to be sure it was worded precisely in a way that has the lowest chance to backfire, while accepting his shit is going to be made public anyway, while still appearing as a personal narrative.
Also, given his current situation, it was almost 100% likely to be ran past not only his estranged wife, but also his mistress, and their respective lawyers.
Here is the thing though, given the investigation into hacking or potential tapping, it also seems pretty likely that he, or at minimum who he's hired to do the investigation and his lawyers, has most certainly been in contact with the FBI, as they're the agency who would handle this in any normal situation. And given AMI's involvement with the Mueller investigation, AMI/Peckers involvement with Trump, and god knows what other financial links between those three and other parties (Saudi Arabia, hey Kushner!), it follows that anything Bezos's people have found has been necessarily handed over to Mueller, as it directly relates to the whole thing. Which makes me wonder if this post also was cleared through the Special Council prior to posting.
Don't mistake this as a "yay Bezos!" post, dude is a sociopathic dickbag. But he doesn't come off to me as a hothead who would do something like this without a lot of work to make his position as airtight as possible. Being wealthier than god would also allow him to do so on an extremely short timetable; but reality is, despite him posting the first email from the 5th, this didn't just start on Tuesday.
Anyway, if he wasn't already in active contact with the Council, he will be now. But I'm pretty sure he already was.
Trump has some kind of broken Midas touch where instead of gold, everything explodes in a glittering trash fire
Again, let us all be thankful for the ineptitude of these people
The Chlorine Trifluoride Touch doesn't flow off the tongue as easily, but it seems to be as good a way as any to describe the man's effects on anything in his vicinity lately.
Meanwhile - wow, I'm still struggling to figure out what AMI was thinking. What did they hope this was going to do? Bring the financial acumen of the wealthiest human since Augustus into question? Possibly damage his marriage? Like... what?
They were just hoping he'd be so scared of the world seeing pictures of his weiner that he would back off.
They were apparently sorely mistaken.
It's so dumb. Jeff Bezos could talk to every person alive right now and say, "How much for you to never mention this to me again? Ten bucks?"
...and still have 40+ BILLION dollars.
Oh, I would charge Bezos WAY more than that.
You know what? Nanowrimo's cancelled on account of the world is stupid.
I'm really failing to see what Bezos being extorted by the Enquirer has to do with Mueller's investigation
SDNY was dealing with them, I thought
Oh, SDNY were dealing with AMI eat al with regard to their charges against Michael Cohen, but the Cohen / Mueller streams crossed last November when Cohen worked out a plea deal with Mueller when Mueller prosecuted him for lying to Congress about the timing of the Trump Tower Moscow plan, and when subsequent court appearances and filings made it clear Cohen is continuing to cooperate with Mueller. After that I think the Cohen stuff ended up in these threads, which would include the AMI stuff.
Unless I have that wrong? I could have that wrong. The SDNY thread died off a while back I think when the Trump Foundation suit quieted down after the Foundation itself was dissolved, but I could resurrect it or make a new thread with the AMI stuff or we could do what we did in 2017 and have an “all non Russia related crimes Trump committed get talked about in here” thread as well as these threads? There’s already a thread about the Trump Inauguration investigation knocking about.
This is really infuriating about Whitaker. He and the White House were given the questions well in advance specifically so proper Executive Privilege could be used. If Whitaker starts giving bullshit non-answers today and Nadler does not subpoena him on the spot, then what is the fucking point of elections. Might as well have a Republican in charge of the committee again.
This is really infuriating about Whitaker. He and the White House were given the questions well in advance specifically so proper Executive Privilege could be used. If Whitaker starts giving bullshit non-answers today and Nadler does not subpoena him on the spot, then what is the fucking point of elections. Might as well have a Republican in charge of the committee again.
As Qanamil pointed out though, it doesn’t look like they’ve dismissed the possibility of Whitaker being subpoenaed. They made some comforting noises, sure, but that’s about it as far as I can see.
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I ZimbraWorst song, played on ugliest guitarRegistered Userregular
This is really infuriating about Whitaker. He and the White House were given the questions well in advance specifically so proper Executive Privilege could be used. If Whitaker starts giving bullshit non-answers today and Nadler does not subpoena him on the spot, then what is the fucking point of elections. Might as well have a Republican in charge of the committee again.
Better get your mad pants on, because he's going to give bullshit non-answers.
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The agreement was between SDNY and AMI, if memory serves. To put it bluntly, I’m pretty sure AMI’s entire board of management is royally fucked.
I could swear there was a story some time back about Pecker meeting Kushner in the White House to discuss AMI expanding into the Saudi Arabian market. I can’t remember who the hell covered it though. I’ll keep looking.
Whatever. All their meteors and doomsaying scarred me in my youth!
https://www.cnn.com/2019/02/07/politics/matthew-whitaker-subpoena-house-judiciary-committee/index.html
And in doing this, he made it so that this story is now the TOP story on BBC, CNN, MSNBC, NBC and ABC. CBS has it as front page but not top story.
Also: bravo trying to blackmail one of the most wealthy people on the planet Pecker, like his personal life matters to the legions who buy from amazon every second of every day.
I’m going to put the tweet itself behind a spoiler just so nobody scrolls past it and thinks it’s Trump tweeting now.
On the other hand, crimes against humanity.
NBC reporter:
Keep doing the thing you're under indictment for? Bold strategy, we'll see if it pays off.
Also, that's assuming that human decency actually wins. If it fails, it shows that pubs can just be as shameless as they want and prove that they really are immune to any consequences
I know I say this every single goddam time but how is this idiot just not able to just! stop! committing! crimes! It’s just downright bizarre at this point.
Maybe I'm missing it, but it doesn't seem like the House Judiciary Committee has backed down on the subpoena usage nor has it made the commitment the DOJ requested.
If he tries to pull executive privilege it's still on the table.
Possible explanation: because he doesn't have a choice. He's balls deep with these people and owes them a shit ton of money. Also may be the only way to protect whatever nestegg he might have squirrelled away.
Alternative and concurrent explanation: he's a goddamn moron like we've known for awhile.
Is it a compulsion at this point? Does he believe he's going to get a full pardon from a certain someone?
I feel like this is some very special episode and his motivation is, this is the only thing you know how to do, so do it. Even when reason and logic would dictate otherwise.
Obsessive compulsive disorder?
Pretty sure trying to pardon Pecker is going to end up with Besos owning the failing National Enquirer in a civil suit.
Again, let us all be thankful for the ineptitude of these people
I doubt he'll pardon anyone unless it specifically has to do with maintaining his line on money laundering post presidency.
I don't know. It would piss a whole lot of people who trump doesn't like if he issued the pardon. I don't think Trump is big on being loyal to people who worked for him, but I do think he is vindictive and petty.
The Chlorine Trifluoride Touch doesn't flow off the tongue as easily, but it seems to be as good a way as any to describe the man's effects on anything in his vicinity lately.
Meanwhile - wow, I'm still struggling to figure out what AMI was thinking. What did they hope this was going to do? Bring the financial acumen of the wealthiest human since Augustus into question? Possibly damage his marriage? Like... what?
They were just hoping he'd be so scared of the world seeing pictures of his weiner that he would back off.
They were apparently sorely mistaken.
Zoe Tillman writes for buzzfeed.
A true ourobor-dumbass.
People tend to forget about the other afflictions of Midas, besides turning things to gold he also ejaculated scorpions and poisonous snakes after his curse, I'm not sure how to connect this to current happenings, but I feel that such correlation does exist.
~ Buckaroo Banzai
His tenacity and dedication to committing crime is almost admirable.
Before anyone jumps on me, seriously, lots of wealthy people have bankrupted themselves to at least stay out of prison.
It's so dumb. Jeff Bezos could talk to every person alive right now and say, "How much for you to never mention this to me again? Ten bucks?"
...and still have 40+ BILLION dollars.
Dude isn't an idiot, clearly (I'm not talking about his morals or ethics, just intelligence); but that whole thing was clearly run past lawyers, and if I had too put money down on it, at least one journalist. Not only to know ramifications but to be sure it was worded precisely in a way that has the lowest chance to backfire, while accepting his shit is going to be made public anyway, while still appearing as a personal narrative.
Also, given his current situation, it was almost 100% likely to be ran past not only his estranged wife, but also his mistress, and their respective lawyers.
Here is the thing though, given the investigation into hacking or potential tapping, it also seems pretty likely that he, or at minimum who he's hired to do the investigation and his lawyers, has most certainly been in contact with the FBI, as they're the agency who would handle this in any normal situation. And given AMI's involvement with the Mueller investigation, AMI/Peckers involvement with Trump, and god knows what other financial links between those three and other parties (Saudi Arabia, hey Kushner!), it follows that anything Bezos's people have found has been necessarily handed over to Mueller, as it directly relates to the whole thing. Which makes me wonder if this post also was cleared through the Special Council prior to posting.
Don't mistake this as a "yay Bezos!" post, dude is a sociopathic dickbag. But he doesn't come off to me as a hothead who would do something like this without a lot of work to make his position as airtight as possible. Being wealthier than god would also allow him to do so on an extremely short timetable; but reality is, despite him posting the first email from the 5th, this didn't just start on Tuesday.
Anyway, if he wasn't already in active contact with the Council, he will be now. But I'm pretty sure he already was.
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Oh, I would charge Bezos WAY more than that.
SDNY was dealing with them, I thought
Oh, SDNY were dealing with AMI eat al with regard to their charges against Michael Cohen, but the Cohen / Mueller streams crossed last November when Cohen worked out a plea deal with Mueller when Mueller prosecuted him for lying to Congress about the timing of the Trump Tower Moscow plan, and when subsequent court appearances and filings made it clear Cohen is continuing to cooperate with Mueller. After that I think the Cohen stuff ended up in these threads, which would include the AMI stuff.
Unless I have that wrong? I could have that wrong. The SDNY thread died off a while back I think when the Trump Foundation suit quieted down after the Foundation itself was dissolved, but I could resurrect it or make a new thread with the AMI stuff or we could do what we did in 2017 and have an “all non Russia related crimes Trump committed get talked about in here” thread as well as these threads? There’s already a thread about the Trump Inauguration investigation knocking about.
As Qanamil pointed out though, it doesn’t look like they’ve dismissed the possibility of Whitaker being subpoenaed. They made some comforting noises, sure, but that’s about it as far as I can see.
Better get your mad pants on, because he's going to give bullshit non-answers.
HuffPost reporter:
~ Buckaroo Banzai