There was news coverage, mostly critical from non-RWNJ outlets of the big crypt currency event/fundraiser Trump held last night. Upwards of 200 of the biggest buyers of Trump’s crypto currency joined Trump at his Virginia Golf Club for a fancy dinner. A LOT of money changed hands, as into Trump’s bank account. Serious ethics and legal questions were raised leading up to the crypto dinner. Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich was blunt: He noted the top 220 Trump memecoin buyers were paying an average of $1m for their dinner with Trump. More pointedly he said “Trump is literally selling access to the government to the highest bidder.” The thing is, the insistence by the WH this was all personal business carries a potential very real consequence of that claim waiving Presidential Immunity!
As with the business of the Qatari jet he’s not just not concealing his grifting, he’s FLAUNTING it. It remains to be seen what favors will be granted for what donations but Trump is famously transactional. He’s been so his whole life and everyone knows it. None of us (I hope) are naive enough to think that big dollar donors don’t give big sums to politicians without expecting something in return. However there’s almost always been an effort to avoid specific deals/transactions. Something that could be credibly fought out in a courtroom as a quid pro quo.
However, with enough money access and with it a chance to advocate for something at a later time is why rich people usually donate. Money buys special access, and the recipient both remembers why the access was granted and that the individual has MORE money that can be donated. Sleazy? Yep. But care has been taken most of the time to avoid something can can be legally construed as a straight up bribe.
Trump has been no different than anyone else on that, but a lot of what he did in his first term didn’t pass the smell test. Now he’s decided he doesn’t care, and has even recently said he was stupid for not profiting MORE from his first term! He figures the get out of jail free card SCOTUS gave him last year protects him from anything he does now. However there’s a real question I think is going to get attention the longer time goes by. Raw Story has an article about the WH characterization of last night’s event that explains how Trump might have waived his Immunity.
The crypto/meme is Trump’s biggest scam to date and that’s saying something. Given how he used to trash Bitcoin and the whole business as being fraud, a threat to currency and the economy etc. his hypocrisy is staggering. Still, Trump couldn’t resist getting in on the action. And he figured, unlike any other bad actor in the crypto biz HE was immune from prosecution! It seemed foolproof. People with lots of money want things from him and pay ‘bigly’ to get those things. Their bribes to him could be laundered using Trump’s own crypto currency scheme. However there’s a catch: Immunity doesn’t cover ‘non-official acts.’
Team Trump insisted leading up to the event it was all kosher and no one at the glittering event would even think of quid pro quos being offered or accepted. It was purely a private, ‘personal’ event. Just another fundraiser with big money donors. Happens all the time. And there my friends is the proverbial rub:
Thursday afternoon Leavitt lectured reporters in the Brady Briefing Room about the dinner which was to include foreign investors at a Donald Trump golf resort in Virginia, telling NBC’s Garrett Haake, “Well, as you know, Garrett, this question has been raised with the president. I have also addressed the dinner tonight. The president is attending it in his personal time. It is not a White House dinner, it’s not taking place here at the White House. But certainly I can raise that question and try to get you an answer for it.”
Look, fundraisers do happen but there seemed to be a sleaze factor leading up to this one that made it different. EVERYONE knew what the game was. So Team Trump kicked the mantra of “Personal” into high gear, and Press Secretary Kakistocracy KKKaroline Leavitt might well have pulled off a magic trick. In this case making Trump’s Presidential Immunity go “poof.” To disappear! Leavitt’s claim of personal time got noticed and critics started talking about how Presidents never really have purely personal time. Ok, but comments got more pointed:
Conservative lawyer and ardent Trump opponent George Conway took the next step and suggested, “Actually, it’s fine. If Trump is saying he’s doing something on his ‘personal time,’ then obviously that means he’s not acting within what the Supreme Court calls ‘the outer perimeter of his official responsibility,’ which, in turn, means he’s not immune from criminal prosecution.”
See the problem? Trump can (if Congress doesn’t step in) get his luxury jet bribe from the Qatari government because he’s getting via a ‘pass-through’ process with the DOD. However, to me it’s like going into last night’s dinner Trump and his minions had a good idea of who was going to want what and how much they’d pay to get it. So calling it all a purely private affair with Trump promoting his meme coin, just purely PERSONAL stuff would allow him to collect and not have to deal with all the PAC stuff and the hassle of figuring out how to put campaign/legal donations into his pocket. The meme coin is a lot simpler and much harder to trace.
A list of attendees will become known, if not specific amounts each gave (and will give). Hopefully journalists looking to make a name for themselves will keep an eye out on each and every one of them because at some point whatever they ‘bought’ from Trump last night will become apparent. Proving a quid pro quo in a court of law is a tougher thing, but what matters is that all the insistence this is all purely PERSONAL Trump business could haunt Trump in time. Such insistence, including from the WH press room lays waste to claiming even “Outer Perimeter” of a President’s official duties/acts.
Greed, especially when combined with massive ego can cause people to do awful things. It can also cause them to do STUPID things – like tear up a SCOTUS issued Get Out Of Jail Free card!
***Zoomers, we are always in need of donations. It’s been an especially rough month and my own health has not been great these past few weeks, which just adds to the frustration. Anything you can spare will be immensely appreciated. And thank you to all who have donated generously already. Ursula***
Y’know, the meme coin thing has been bugging me for awhile. That seems pretty damn personal, even *before* the bigly dinner. I’m not sure how that’s covered for a President when they’re supposed to shed themselves of such things *when they are in the office*. I know he (supposedly) put all his personal things into something controlled by family members, but the meme coin (ha, I typed “con” the first time) seems like it’s really riding that edge.
Well, to now say it’s personal brings it *over* that edge. Either way, I’m *SO GLAD* you covered this because I would have failed miserably if I’d tried. Lots and lots to think about!!!