There are dozens of legal cases against the Trumps, but perhaps the most fascinating is one in the District of Columbia that has attracted little public attention, according to Mother Jones’ D.C. bureau chief, David Corn.
A lawsuit filed by Karl Racine, D.C. attorney general, alleges that the Trump clan used the purportedly nonprofit Trump inaugural committee to rake in hundreds of thousands of dollars in profit, Corn tells The New Abnormal co-host Molly Jong-Fast. Yes, the family’s “fuckery,” according to Corn, started even before the former president reached the White House and allegedly included the committee overpaying the Trump Hotel in D.C. by hundreds of thousands of dollars by booking space for events that didn’t even happen—and one that did.
“There was indeed fuckery,” Corn says.
ADVERTISEMENT
That one party was for Donald Trump’s children and wasn’t part of the official inauguration festivities; according to Corn, several big names have already been brought in for depositions, including Donald Trump Jr. The former president’s eldest son, Corn says, testified on the stand that he did not know Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, Melania Trump’s former confidante who blew the whistle on much of the inauguration scandal.
“He said, ‘I don’t know her. Uh, yeah, I’ve heard of her, but I don’t know if she was in this room. I probably wouldn’t recognize her,’” Corn said of Trump Jr.’s testimony. But emails and other internal documents show they certainly knew each other, the Russian Roulette author says, and the Trump scion’s claims of ignorance about a canceled inauguration event—a sort of cash-for-Trump-access ball for hunters—are similarly flimsy.
Corn also weighs in on the Rudy Giuliani raid and what’s likely ahead for the former Trump lawyer and New York City mayor. “I would not expect the slap on the wrist at the end of the day, if there's a conviction,” he says.
Next, Molly and co-host Jesse Cannon are joined by LaTosha Brown, co-founder of Black Voters Matter and Southern Black Girls and Women’s Consortium.
“We are in the midst of what I say is probably the biggest modern battle of democracy that we're dealing around with,” Brown says. “We’re seeing Republicans all across this nation literally lead these bills and 47 states around the nation to actually marginalize the vote, particularly the Black vote.”
Brown talks about the battle ahead, what’s next in Georgia, and why she thinks Mississippi is a key state.
“I think it is ground zero as a state of showing how when we empower and invest in people, we can shift the political landscape of the state,” she says.
Listen to The New Abnormal on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Stitcher.
