EXCLUSIVE: Ken Chesebro, who helped devise the 2020 electors plot, concealed a secret Twitter from Michigan prosecutors, hiding dozens of damning posts that undercut what he told investigators about his role in the scheme. w/ @KFILE @emsteck @alligordon_ cnn.com/2024/02/26/pol… Chesebro told MI prosecutors GOP electors were a contingency to be used only if Trump won election suits. Said it was "ridiculous" that legislatures could step in if Trump lost in court. But on his secret Twitter, he said courts didn't matter and legislatures should get involved

Cynthia Hughes, who runs a support group for J6ers, spoke at tonight's Trump rally. She told the story of her nephew Tim Cusanelli, a convicted Capitol rioter — and Nazi sympathizer, who said "Hitler should've finished the job." This is their poster child for J6 "injustice." /1 An internal Navy probe found 34 colleagues who said he held "extremist or radical views pertaining to the Jewish people, minorities and women." FBI found racist memes with the N-word on his phone. He told an informant that he hoped for "civil war." /2 cnn.com/2021/03/14/pol…

THREAD: Putin's attack on Ukraine has been brewing for years. Along the way, Trump parroted Kremlin propaganda, excused Russian aggression & emboldened Putin. Memories are short — so here's my roundup of 4 things to remember about Trump, Ukraine, and Putin
cnn.com/2022/03/26/pol… (1) Trump took Russia's side when the Ukraine conflict began in 2014. He praised Putin for invading Crimea. He said Crimea was Russian. And during the 2016 campaign, Paul Manafort was collaborating with a Russian spy on a secret plan for Trump to help Russia control the Donbas.

A group of North Carolina voters restarted their efforts to disqualify GOP Rep. Madison Cawthorn from running for Congress over his role in the January 6 insurrection, by refiling their challenge Wednesday after it was disrupted by the state’s redistricting process. (1/4) The challenge revolves around the little-used "disqualification clause" of the US Constitution, which was ratified after the Civil War to prevent Confederate officials and those who supported "insurrection" from returning to office. (2/4) cnn.com/2022/02/08/pol…

THREAD: Dawn Bancroft pleaded guilty today to a misdemeanor for illegal protest in the Capitol on 1/6. She's the rioter who said "we were looking for Nancy to shoot her in the friggin' brain." Judge asked DOJ why they didn't charge her with making the threat. Here's what happened While pleading guilty, Bancroft was sharply rebuked by Federal Judge Emmet Sullivan. "That’s really troubling. It’s horrible. It’s outrageous,” he said, before turning his attention to federal prosecutors and asking, “Does it not rise to the level of a threat?”

CAPITOL BOMB THREAT UPDATE: The Justice Department charged Capitol bomb threat suspect Floyd Ray Roseberry with threatening to use a weapon of mass destruction and attempting to use an explosive device, a judge said Friday. (1/7) The charges were unsealed during Roseberry’s first court appearance in DC District Court. Roseberry, 51, is currently in jail and prosecutors said they'll seek to keep him behind bars while his case progresses in court. (2/7)

INSURRECTION UPDATE: The DOJ has offered a guilty plea deal to Lonnie Coffman, a Vietnam veteran from Alabama who was arrested near the US Capitol on January 6 with what one judge called a “small armory” of guns and homemade bombs. (1/4) background --> cnn.com/2021/05/25/pol… Coffman, 71, is still considering the offer, his attorney said at a court hearing. The case is important because of the sheer volume of weaponry he allegedly had near the Capitol: An assault rifle, a handgun, and 11 homemade bombs. (2/4) background --> cnn.com/politics/live-…

THREAD: A Trump-appointed federal judge on Friday rejected claims from a US Capitol rioter that he was “selectively charged” because he is a supporter of former President Donald Trump. Here are the details of the legal challenge, the judge's ruling, and why it's important. (1) Federal Judge Trevor McFadden shot down that accusation and upheld the criminal charges against Couy Griffin, a NM county commissioner who founded the “Cowboys for Trump” group and was featured in a recent CNN documentary about the January 6 insurrection. cnn.com/interactive/20…

A judge just ruled against alleged Capitol rioter Timothy Hale-Cusanelli, the neo-Nazi who went viral for his Hitler mustache. Judge rejected 2nd request to be released from jail pre-trial, says he's too dangerous. Past story from the 1st ruling in March: cnn.com/2021/03/23/pol… ‘I was concerned, and remain concerned, that the defendant bears animus toward groups of people in this country…. his conduct in this case made me concerned that the was perhaps looking to act on these violent tendencies," Federal Judge Trevor McFadden said at a hearing today.

THREAD: To cap off the Trump era, I interviewed a politically diverse group of constitutional scholars, presidential historians and experts on democracy to put together a definitive list of Trump's ten most egregious abuses of power. Here's what we found. cnn.com/2021/01/24/pol… 1) SUBVERTING THE 2020 ELECTION. There is broad agreement that Trump's worst abuse was his relentless effort to undermine the vote and overturn the legitimate results. No POTUS ever tried a political coup like this. It's simply un-American, experts said. cnn.com/2021/01/24/pol…

THREAD: During the campaign, Bill Barr emerged as a serial liar about "voter fraud." He pushed false narratives, cited debunked claims, and doubled down on the absolutely ridiculous conspiracy theory that foreign countries would flood the US with millions of forged ballots. (1/8) June 22: Barr lied about mail-in voting and massively exaggerated the risks of fraud. For the first time, he also raised the possibility that foreign countries will send forged ballots to US voters. Trump picked up this baseless theory and ran with it.
cnn.com/2020/06/22/pol…

MINI-THREAD: Trump "returned to form" today on Twitter, with personal insults against Dems and inaccurate info about the pandemic. But one thing is still missing: While Trump deals with his illness, he has temporarily shut off his firehose of disinformation about voting. (1/5) Trump's last lie about voting was Thursday night, on Sean Hannity's show. (He falsely claimed Nevada Dems eliminated signature verification for mail-in ballots.) That means FIVE DAYS have now elapsed without Trump spreading any disinformation about the election. (2/5)

Trump is spewing massive amounts of misinformation about voting and elections at this press conference. We've fact-checked and debunked much of it already: 80 million unsolicited ballots, claims of massive fraud, foreign countries sending fake ballots, etc. IT'S MISINFORMATION. cnn.com/2020/09/14/pol…

THREAD: Roger Stone was supposed to be in prison now, having been convicted of 7 federal crimes. But thanks to Trump, he's a free man — and can call into Alex Jones' conspiracy show. He did Thursday, and urged Trump to do a bunch of illegal things regarding the election. (1/6) The liberal group Media Matters was the first to publicize Stone's comments, which include a slew of completely false statements about voter fraud, blatant threats of voter intimidation, and a pubic call for Trump to launch a coup if he loses. (2/6) mediamatters.org/roger-stone/ro…

NEW: Financial disclosures reveal USPS chief Louis DeJoy's business entanglements, which experts say are likely a major conflict of interest. He has a $30m stake in a USPS contractor, and he bought Amazon stock options after joining Trump's administration. cnn.com/2020/08/12/pol… According to federal records, when he became postmaster general, DeJoy still owned a large equity stake in XPO, totaling between $30 million and $75 million. Federal ethics officials recently approved his decision to keep these assets, but outside experts are raising red flags.

MINI-THREAD: Trump is lying about the Russia investigation and is accusing Sally Yates of crimes without any proof. (She's testifying right now before the Senate Judiciary Committee.) Here's a brief breakdown of Trump's lies.... (1/5)

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1291015075541786624

Trump says Yates "has zero credibility."

Trump is not qualified to judge credibility — he has made 20,000 false or misleading claims since 2017.

Yates testified to Mueller, House Intel, and Senate Judiciary. Her testimony has been clear and consistent over three years. (2/5)

DEEP DIVE: Experts from across the political spectrum are terrified of a disputed November election. With Trump's norm-breaking behavior, plus the unprecedented challenges of pandemic-era voting, the circumstances are ripe for a post-election nightmare. cnn.com/2020/07/20/pol… Exhibit A: Trump thinks mail-in voting hurts his re-election has fought hard to restrict it. But he's been unsuccessful, in blue & red states. Having lost this battle, Trump could blame mail-in voting if he loses. That would fit with 8 years of precedent. We have the paper trail.

Reeling after a weekend campaign rally with lower-than-expected turnout, President Trump changed the subject Monday morning with a series of widely debunked lies about alleged voter fraud in US elections, stoking fears of a "rigged election" this November. cnn.com/2020/06/22/pol… Trump claimed "mail-In Ballots will lead to a RIGGED ELECTION." He also claimed "MILLIONS OF MAIL-IN BALLOTS WILL BE PRINTED BY FOREIGN COUNTRIES." He claimed without proof that his political opponents were "using Covid in order to cheat" in the election. cnn.com/2020/06/22/pol…

THREAD: The President of the United States said today that "domestic terrorists have taken over Seattle," the 18th largest city in the nation. This is totally untethered from reality. But nobody cared, because it's "Trump being Trump." Well, I care. Let's take a close look. (1/8) First: Let's look at Trump's comments about Seattle. Here is context from my colleague @ddale8, the gold standard of fact-checking. Trump is referring to an "autonomous zone" protesters set up in a tiny part of the city. His comments are inaccurate. (2/8)

https://twitter.com/ddale8/status/1271045367111524355

THREAD: Here's what you won't see on Trump's Twitter: Three members of the right-wing "Boogaloo" movement were charged with terrorism offenses after allegedly infiltrating a #BLM rally in Las Vegas, bringing guns and explosives, and urging protesters to attack the police. Here's the irony: These charges were brought by the DOJ, which is led by AG Bill Barr. Over the weekend, Barr singled out left-wing groups and Antifa as being responsible for much of the violence. Surely, Antifa is involved. But these first charges don't fit Barr's narrative.

THREAD: In this 2-min clip from last night, Trump made five (!) false and misleading claims about hydroxychloroquine. Bottom line: He's still totally out of step with the science. Too much material for one tweet, so I'll make a thread. CNN fact-check --> cnn.com/2020/05/03/pol… 1) Asked about studies that found cardiac side effects in Covid-19 patients, Trump falsely said it was only "one study." A handful of studies found similarly problematic or unhelpful results — in Brazil, France, veterans' hospitals in the US and a large study of patients in NY.