And the grift goes on
Special counsel Jack Smith may be investigating Donald Trump’s defrauding his followers after he lost the 2020 election.
Speaking to MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace on Tuesday, Tim Heaphy related suspected financial dealings based on claims that the election was stolen to an operation that was selling snake oil.
“He’s looking for more evidence of the big grift,” he explained. “We laid this out in great detail during one or more of our hearings and it is outlined in the report. A lot of people were profiting from this false narrative that the election was stolen. Save America PAC raised $250 million after the election by telling people that the election was stolen. Sidney Powell set up a nonprofit and legal defense fund in which those same lies led to a lot of people giving money.”
Wallace played a clip of the House committee’s hearing showing screen captures of over 25 email solicitations that the Trump campaign sent out in a single day. There was also an America First Foundation, which raised money and has hired many of the former Trump staff.
It’s all fraud, Heaphy believes:
“If somebody says, ‘If you give me money, I’ll use it to do the following: I’ll give it to refugee resettlement in our community.’ But you don’t use it for refugee resettlement, you use it for other purposes beyond that which you indicated. That is fraud. Wire fraud, mail fraud are crimes that broadly criminalize any scheme that is meant to deprive people of their money based on deception, based on falsity. That’s one of the many things that the special counsel may very well be looking at here.”
Gee, that’s awfully familiar, isn’t it? Former Trump adviser, Steve Bannon, will stand trial next May “on charges that he duped donors who gave money to build a wall along the U.S. southern border” in his “We Build the Wall” campaign:
Bannon, 69, pleaded not guilty last September following his indictment on state money laundering, conspiracy, fraud and other charges. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg took up the case after Bannon’s federal prosecution was cut short by a Trump pardon. Presidential pardons apply only to federal crimes, not state offenses.
Bannon is accused of falsely promising donors that all money given to the We Build the Wall campaign would go toward building a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. Instead, prosecutors allege that the money was used to enrich Bannon and others involved in the project.
Like cult leader, like cult follower. And the grift goes on.