News

23287 readers

3461 users here now

Welcome to the News community!

Rules:

1. Be civil

Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.

2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.

Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. We have an actively updated blocklist, which you can see here: https://lemmy.world/post/2246130 if you feel like any website is missing, contact the mods. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.

3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.

Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.

4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.

Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.

5. Only recent news is allowed.

Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.

6. All posts must be news articles.

No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.

7. No duplicate posts.

If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.

8. Misinformation is prohibited.

Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.

9. No link shorteners.

The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.

10. Don't copy entire article in your post body

For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.

founded 1 year ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

565

Trump Campaign Sent Cease-and-Desist Letter to ProPublica Attempting to Stop Their Latest Exposé. It Didn’t Work. (www.mediaite.com)

submitted 5 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

22 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Former President Donald Trump's campaign and businesses have provided "Significant financial benefits" to nine of the witnesses in his criminal cases, ProPublica reported Monday morning - shrugging off a threatening cease-and-desist letter sent by Trump's attorney.

The detailed report by ProPublica's Robert Faturechi, Justin Elliott, and Alex Mierjeski describes how nine individuals who have been named as witnesses received benefits that included "Large raises from his campaign, severance packages, new jobs, and a grant of shares and cash from Trump's media company" from Trump's various campaign committees and businesses.

These benefits "Often came at delicate moments in the legal proceedings against Trump," said the report, highlighting one example of Trump aide Dan Scavino, who was given a "Plum position on the board of Trump's social media company, for example, got the seat after he was subpoenaed but before he testified." Other well-known names in Trump's circle mentioned in the article include campaign adviser Boris Epshteyn, campaign head Susie Wiles, lawyer Evan Corcoran, and former Trump Org CFO Allen Weisselberg.

Salary increases, bonuses, promotions, and other benefits, can be evidence of witness tampering, the ProPublica article explained, if prosecutors can show that these employment changes occurred separate from normal business operations and the "Perks or punishments were intended to influence testimony." Even if no new charges are brought against the former president who is now a convicted felon, the details of these benefits could be used by prosecutors in Trump's still-pending cases to "Undermine the credibility" of these witnesses if the defense calls them to provide testimony helpful to Trump.

The Trump Org and various campaign entities have, of course, denied that any wrongdoing took place, and denied that Trump had knowledge or direct involvement in compensation issues.

One former aide compared working for the Trump Organization, his large company, to "a small family business" where every employee "In some sense reports to Mr. Trump." Former aides have said Trump demands unwavering loyalty from subordinates, even when their duties require independence Trump's former campaign manager and former campaign adviser were convicted on federal witness tampering charges in 2018 and 2019.

Trump posted on social media that he had read about a Georgia politician who "Will be testifying before the Fulton County Grand Jury. He shouldn't." One witness has said publicly that, when he quit working for Trump in the midst of the classified documents criminal investigation, he was offered golf tournament tickets, a lawyer paid for by Trump and a new job that would have come with a raise.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] [email protected] 16 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

Unfortunately these threats do work. Media matters just had to lay off a bunch of people to pay its legal expenses following Elon's suit. Nonprofits don't have a ton of money, and those that fight the powerful are...fighting those that do.