Dana Bash

Hunter Biden Threatens Fox News with Lawsuit Alleging Defamation and Revenge Porn

Posted by on April 29, 2024 at 12:41 pm. 2 Comments :

CNN has obtained a copy of a cease and desist letter from Hunter Biden’s attorneys to Fox News, demanding that they retract false stories that they have been disseminating for more than a year, despite the fact that there is no evidence to support them. Not that lacking evidence has ever stopped Fox News from lying to smear their political opponents before.

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Fox News, Bullshit Factory

The specific stories addressed in Biden’s letter refer to unfounded allegations that President Biden and his son accepted bribes from Ukrainian officials. The source of those allegations was a Russian operative, Alexander Smirnov, who was recently arrested for having lied to the FBI about these allegations and other disinformation he was spreading on behalf of his Russian handlers. And Fox News was well aware of the deceit because the White House had previously told them so…

SEE THIS: White House Seeks Retraction from Fox News of Biden Smears By GOP and Russian Indicted for Lying

On Monday, CNN’s Dana Bash revealed what Biden’s letter to Fox News said…

“Lawyers for Hunter Biden are telling Fox News to correct the record on bribery allegations made by a discredited FBI informant or face a defamation lawsuit. CNN obtained a cease and desist letter sent to Fox last week. In it Biden’s legal team points to Fox hosts like Maria Bartiromo continuing to push claims that Hunter Biden and his father took bribes from Alexander Smirnov. Even after Smirnov was indicted for lying to the FBI.

“Biden’s team also accused Fox of profiting off of a fictionalized show streaming on Fox Nation called “The Trial of Hunter Biden,” and of violating revenge porn laws because that show unlawfully published, and continues to publish, intimate pictures of Hunter Biden depicting him in the nude.”

This potential lawsuit would add to the legal troubles that Fox News has been facing. They have already settled a defamation lawsuit with Dominion Voting Systems for $787 million. That suit revealed the myriad lies that Fox News hosts and guests told about Donald Trump’s “Big Lie” that the 2020 presidential election was “rigged and stolen” from him. The revelations that emerged included emails that showed that Fox knew they were lies while they were telling them. Fox News is also facing a similar defamation lawsuit by the voting software firm, Smartmatic, for $2.7 billion.

MORE HERE: The Fox News 3/4 Billion Dollar Dominion Defamation Settlement is Also a Judgment Against Trump

It’s interesting that Biden’s letter named specific Fox hosts as perpetrators of the defamation. In particular, Maria Bartiromo has been a frequent distributor of dishonest “reporting.” Media Matters has documented that her show “pushed the indicted FBI informant’s story more than 200 times.”

Hunter Biden has a strong case against Fox News and the network would be wise to issue the retractions and settle with him. Otherwise, Biden’s legal team would begin the discovery process, wherein they could subpoena internal communications that would undoubtedly embarrass the network, its hosts, and executives. But expecting Fox News to do the right thing is always a suckers bet. So as they say…stay tuned.

UPDATE: Fox News has responded to Biden’s letter defending what they say is “constitutionally protected coverage,” and refusing to remove and retract their reports. However, the First Amendment does not shield them from defamation, known falsehoods, or purposefully “fictionalized” stories that contain stolen, private images. But Fox News is apparently worried because The Daily Beast is reporting that they did scrub the “mock trial” that ran on Fox Nation.

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Desperately Seeking a Trump VP Nod, Gov Kristi Noem Manages to Thoroughly Humiliate Herself.

Posted by on April 21, 2024 at 4:41 pm. 1 Comments :

The ranks of servile sycophants swimming around Donald Trump like the symbiotic fish species that leech off of whales is peculiar phenomenon that generally leads to repudiation and rejection. Trump notoriously demands unflinching loyalty from his supplicants, but refuses to reciprocate when they are no longer useful to him.

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Donald Trump, Woman, Fear

This is especially notable in the grueling contest for who will join Trump’s ticket for the 2024 presidential race. There is already a flock of fawners hoping to land the number two post, whose job it will be to prop up Dear Leader’s corpulent husk and ego. They include such bottom-feeding bootlickers as Tim Scott, Vivek Ramaswamy, Elise Stefanik, Byron Donalds, Kari Lake, and JD Vance. All vying to be the next hangman, aka Mike Pence.

SEE THIS: Trump Renews Whining that Mike Pence is a Deep State Traitor for Not Overturning the Election

Among the throbbing throng of VP aspirants is South Dakota governor, Kristi Noem. And she made a big play for the part of vice-president this weekend on CNN’s “State of the Nation” during an interview with Dana Bash. It went something like this (video below)…

Bash: Donald Trump acknowledged in 2018 that he authorized payments to Stormy Daniels and reimbursed Michael Cohen. And we actually have the reimbursement checks to Michael Cohen. Those are the facts. Are you comfortable with this?
Noem: Michael Cohen worked for ‘president’ Trump. ‘President’ Trump paid his legal fees. He paid his Michael Cohen legal fees and bills. And that’s what this trial will bringing forward hopefully is the truth.

Noem’s response is a bald-faced lie. Trump was not paying Cohen’s legal fees. He was reimbursing Cohen for the $130,000.00 that Cohen paid to Stormy Daniels to buy her silence, in order to influence the outcome of the election. Then Trump purposefully lied in his financial reporting to cover that up. Those are the facts, and Noem knows it. Despite that, she continued…

Noem: What a ridiculous case that this is. That it is based on a narrative today that is coming from a man that is proven to be a liar. So, I’m hoping that this judge makes the right decision. I’m hoping these jurors can come in and be unbiased. And we’ll let this case go forward in a swift manner that allows ‘president’ Trump to get back on the campaign trail.

Noem is right that this case is based on the narrative of “a man that is proven to be a liar.” Donald Trump. And the last thing that Trump wants is for the case to “go forward in a swift manner.” He has been doing everything he can to delay it from the start. Because unlike defendants who are innocent and want to clear their names, Trump knows he’s guilty and wants to avoid his inevitable conviction. Noem continues…

Noem: Americans deserve to hear from their candidates, and the Democrats and the activists are using this trial to derail him, to keep him in court instead of out talking to Americans about what their real concerns are. And their real concerns are their every day lives. They need a leader in the White House who gets up every day and puts them first and doesn’t raise their taxes. Doesn’t over-regulate them, take away their freedoms and give all our money to other countries instead of making sure that we’re taking care of America first and keeping us safe and secure.

The trial is only going to be in session four days a week. The other three days, and every night, Trump is free to campaign. So far he has not done so any of the days when court has not been in session. He is not, and never has been, a leader who “gets up every day and puts [the people] first.” He puts himself first at all times. He rarely stops talking about himself. And when he does address policies, they are always aimed at benefitting wealthy people, corporations, or his foreign authoritarian pals.

Bash then fact-checks Noem’s utterly unfounded insinuations that Democrats and President Biden had something to do with Trump’s prosecutions in order to “keep him in court.” Which leads to Noem bizarrely unleashing totally unrelated references to imaginary crimes by Biden and the controversies surrounding his son, Hunter. Then Bash interjects…

Bash: I just want to say for the record, there’s absolutely no evidence that President Biden is involved in this. This is a a case that is being brought in the state of New York by the Manhattan D.A.
Noem: Yes, that’s, that’s what I think is remarkable, is that if you look at President Biden, and what he’s done, and what his son has done, and the fact that…
Bash: That has nothing to do with this.

Noem is a strong contender for Trump’s VP slot because she is a shameless lickspittle who will dodge and lie in order to deflect from the illegal and unethical record of Trump’s public life. But she won’t be much help appealing to voters if she persists in these pathetic displays of dishonesty. But then, she shares that with all of the other VP contenders and, of course, with Trump himself. So it’s a lose-lose proposition for the biggest loser in American politics.

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CNN’s Dana Bash Asks the Key Question About Trump’s Criminality: How is that ‘Law and Order’

Posted by on January 21, 2024 at 12:20 pm. 1 Comments :

The 2024 Republican primary for their presidential nominee promises to deliver some of the most bizarre and disturbing episodes in modern electoral politics. It could hardly be otherwise with their leading candidate, Donald Trump, facing 91 criminal charges stemming from his felonious conduct during and after his prior occupation of the white House.

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Donald Trump, CNN

Under ordinary circumstances, a candidate who has been indicted for inciting an insurrection, undermining democracy, and violations of the Espionage Act due to his theft and hoarding of classified materials, would be summarily disqualified from public service. And if that same candidate had been adjudicated to be a rapist, and demonstrated signs of severe cognitive disability, he would be spending his golden years in a prison psyche ward.

SEE THIS: Dementia J. Trump Confuses Nancy Pelosi and Nikki Haley In a Lie-Riddled Rant About January 6th

Which makes it all the more troubling that Trump is still regarded by his party, and a small, but annoyingly loud, contingent of glassy-eyed cult followers, as a viable prospect to lead the nation. And while Trump’s broadly unpopular positions on issues such as abortion, guns, foreign policy, climate change, and the economy, should be sufficient to sink his candidacy, his morass of legal liabilities should make his involuntary retirement a fait accompli.

Unfortunately, the media does a miserable job of covering elections. They focus far too much on the horse race aspect and transitory polling. However, on Sunday’s edition of CNN’s State of the Union, host Dana Bash interviewed GOP Sen. Tim Scott, who had just delivered a drooling endorsement Trump, and she actually composed a question that was honest, challenging, and ripe with relevance…

Bash: You did say on Friday, when you endorsed Donald Trump, is that he will “restore law and order.” Which is some of what you’re talking about here this morning. As president, he did try to overturn a legitimate election. He called January 6th rioters “hostages” and promised to pardon them. He is charged with keeping classified documents and obstructing attempts to get them back. And on the campaign now, he’s arguing that presidents should have total immunity, even if they, “cross the line.” How is that “law and order”?
Scott: Well, he has a legal team that could answer the questions of the legal challenges that he faces.

Bash packed a fair amount (but not nearly all) of Trump’s lawlessness into her question. Yet Scott was still unable to give a direct answer. He spent most of his response complaining about crime in cities, and blaming it on President Biden. That, of course, had nothing whatsoever to do with the question. What’s more, presidents are not responsible for law enforcement at the state level, and Scott knows that. He was just using the issue to dodge answering Bash’s question, and to smear Biden.

For the record, crime has actually been decreasing throughout Biden’s term in office. So if Scott wants to hold Biden responsible for the crime rate, he should be praising and supporting him.

The substance of Bash’s question ought to be the starting point for every interview of every Trump surrogate, supporter, and sycophant, who speaks for Trump in the press. And they must be required to give responses that are relative to the matter at hand. If the media held to those simple principles of journalism, the nation would be far better off, and charlatans like Scott and Trump could not get away with their limp dictation of propaganda.

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WTF? Trump’s Attorney Repeatedly Insists that January 6th Was a ‘Peaceful Transfer of Power’

Posted by on August 6, 2023 at 12:19 pm. 10 Comments :

Last week Donald Trump was indicted for the third time, which puts him in first place for the number of times that an American president or former president was indicted. Second place is a 45 way tie with zero times indicted. And with a total of 78 felony counts pending against him, there are pretty good odds that he will be convicted of something, and even prison isn’t out of the question.

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Donald Trump Insurrection

But Trump isn’t resting on his lack of morals. He spent much of the week defying court orders to refrain from intimidating jurors or witnesses, or obstructing the administration of justice. In multiple posts on his floundering Twitter ripoff, Truth Social, Trump overtly threatened everyone from the judge, to special counsel Jack Smith, to potential witnesses and jurors, to his own former Vice-President, Mike Pence.

SEE THIS: Trump Attacks Pence on Truth Social After Told By Judge to Refrain From Witness Intimidation

On Sunday morning Trump’s lead attorney, John Lauro, pulled what is known in the media as a “full Ginsburg,” by appearing on every major Sunday morning political news television program. But if he thinks he was benefiting his client, he might be sorely disappointed when he reads the reviews of his performances.

What Lauro has offered as a defense for Trump is extraordinarily weak and devoid of any legal basis. For instance, on CNN’s State of the Union, Lauro was interviewed by Dana Bash. He attempted to justify Trump’s crimes by falsely asserting that they were merely expressions of free speech. Never mind that the indictments are not charging Trump for what he said, but for what he did. Lauro even acknowledged that in the interview. However, he went off the rails shortly thereafter…

Lauro: The ultimate request that president Trump made was to pause the voting for ten days to allow the states to recertify or certify or audit, and Mr. Pence rejected that as well. After that there was a peaceful transition of power. So that’s how the Constitution works.
Bash: What happened on January 6th was not peaceful.
Lauro: Wait a minute. The transfer of power was certainly peaceful
Bash: Did you see what happened on January 6th? Did that look peaceful to you?
Lauro: I’m not saying that that was in any way appropriate. But the ultimate power of the presidency was transferred to Mr. Biden.

For starters, Lauro’s assertion that Trump tried to get Pence to “pause the voting for ten days” is a virtual admission of his guilt. The Congress is mandated by the Constitution to certify the Electoral College vote, and the vice-president has no authority to interfere with that. The fact that Pence declined to participate in Trump’s criminal conspiracy doesn’t absolve Trump of guilt.

Perhaps more bizarre was Lauro’s contention that the January 6th insurrection that Trump incited was a “peaceful transition of power.” He is taking the brazenly delusional position that many of Trump’s cult followers in politics and the press have previously tried to take.

SEE ALSO: Fox News Fabulist Tucker Carlson Launches a Laughably Lame Defense of His January 6th Lies

Dana Bash, however, wasn’t having it. She immediately corrected Lauro. Although her correction appeared to have no effect on him. He persisted with his lies. And he elaborated by saying that, because the presidency was eventually transferred, that any suggestion of violence was null and void. By that logic, the Civil War was peaceful. After all, ultimately power was ceded to the Union and the Confederacy acquiesced. See? Totally peaceful.

In his interview with Chuck Todd on NBC’s Meet the Press, Lauro also claimed that Trump was innocent because “Trump believed in his heart of hearts that he had won that election.” Which is an utterly absurd legal argument. It would mean that if you “believe in your heart” that your bank ripped you off, you have a right to conspire with your friends to rob it.

It’s also notable that throughout the interview, Lauro referred to Trump as the “president,” but in this exchange he referred to the actual President as “Mr. Biden.” This is a deliberate effort to shape the narrative that Biden is not the legitimate President and that Trump was denied his place as America’s first dictator.

RELATED: Snowflake Trump Whines to DOJ that ‘An Indictment of Me Would Only Further Destroy Our Country’

These sort of statements might work well to feed the fetid fantasies of Trump’s cult followers on Fox News, but they will fail pitifully with the nation at large, and especially, in the courtroom. It’s a preposterous defense strategy. But it’s likely the best that Trump can expect considering that he has no coherent case for innocence, or access to reputable attorneys.

SEE ALSO: Donald Trump: Presidential Candidates Under Felony Indictment Have ‘No Right to Be Running’

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