Thread by @SusanKBradford

There’s a sucker born everyday but will this reporting like everything get swept under the rug bec MSM is chasing the latest shiny object? #TheMoreYouKnow

apple.news/AJlQfFCIjQDW2Z…

2/An independent report showing no widespread election fraud in 2020 would have gotten in the way of the Trump campaign's fundraising. TFG is a man who has been sued dozens of times for allegedly refusing to pay his bills in full.

3/So he must have really hated that his campaign spent over $600,000 to be told he was wrong.

According to The WP, the Trump campaign commissioned an outside firm to try to substantiate the claims of widespread fraud Trump was peddling.

4/Employees of Berkeley Research Group, you may be shocked to learn, discovered no irregularities that would have swung the election.

The research got shoved into a drawer rather than released, either to the publ or in court filings, incl the campaign’s last-ditch bid to SCOTUS.

5/That fits neatly with how much Trump had already gained at that point from insisting that the election had been stolen. But unfortunately for him and his enablers, their continued efforts to defraud the American people makes criminal charges all the more likely.

6/In late Nov 2020, Berkeley Research Grp was brought in “to study 2020 election results in 6 states, looking for fraud & irregularities to highlight in publ & in the courts,” the Post reported. “Among the areas examined were 🗳️ machine malfunctions, instances of 💀 ppl voting …

7/& any evidence that could help Trump show he won.” The findings from the roughly dozen researchers were reportedly shared w Trump, then-WH chief of staff Mark Meadows & others in a Dec 2020 conf call. Rather than bow to the evidence, Meadows “showed skepticism” of the firm’s…

8/conclusions, the Post reported, & TFG & his team did nothing to slow their deluge of efforts to overturn the election. In the process, Berkeley subsidiary contracted for the project got paid over $600,000 for its work, labeled “recount: legal consulting” in related FEC filings.

9/That’s a lot of money — but a drop in the bucket compared to how much TFG had already made pushing the lie to his supporters. The blitz of fundraising appeals that went out in the month after Election Day drew in $207.5M from donors.

10/His leadership PAC alone raked in around $31M from Nov. 24 to Dec. 31.

It’s honestly incredible that over 2 yrs later we’re still learning the myriad ways TFG & his advisers were aware that his claims of fraud were fabricated.

Like i said #suckerborneveryday

11/Just this month, The AP published tapes of Trump campaign staffers in WI acknowledging defeat but still preparing, in the words of Trump’s lead operative in the state, to “fan the flame and get the word out about Democrats trying to steal this election.”

12/And last yr, the House Jan. 6 committee presented testimony from multiple witnesses documenting times they had told TFG — or had been told by TFG — that he’d lost. Yet the fundraising appeals flowed via emails and text messages & FB posts, and the💰flowed back to the campaign.

13/The big question that remains is how much of that💰grab was fully aboveboard. A former FEC lawyer told NPR last yr that there’s not necessarily anything illegal abt campaign donations’ going to some political activity other than the 1 disclosed to donors.

14/But last summer, in its 2nd publ hearing, the Jan 6 committee revealed that the “legal defense fund” donors were supposedly donating to never actually existed. That opens the🚪to a potential chrg of wire fraud, according to some legal experts, incl MSNBC columnist Barb McQuade

15/While the committee opted to focus on Trump himself in the bulk of its final report, its so-called Green Team tracking the 💰provided its findings in the report’s 3rd appendix. The massive influx of💰to Trump’s PAC, in particular, resulted in some very questionable spending…

16/documented in the appendix’s pages. And evidence continues to mount that TFG campaign was well aware of the deception it was undertaking.

The biggest potential layup for special counsel Jack Smith continues to be charges related to the classified docs discovered at Mar-a-Lago

17/& the subsequent lies & obstruction TFG undertook to cover up his hoarding. But the Berkeley Research Group’s report could show the intent req ‘d to prosecute Trump, his campaign staff or both for ripping off the American ppl.

[and shows #MAGAts are gullible]

18) Like many of the charges Smith could bring, it would be nearly unprecedented, especially against a former president and current candidate — but just because it would be a heavy lift doesn’t mean he shouldn’t try.