Susie Wiles Named in A(nother?) Trump-Related Indictment
ABC has identified two more people referred to in Trump’s Espionage Act indictment.
In addition to confirming earlier reports that Molly Michael is Trump Employee 2 — the person who, with Walt Nauta, helped Trump sort through boxes in advance of returning a subset of boxes in January 2022 — ABC describes that Trump Employee 1 is Hayley (née D’Antuono) Harrison.
Sources have also further identified some of the other figures mentioned by Smith’s team in the indictment. Hayley Harrison and Molly Michael are said to be “Trump Employee 1” and “Trump Employee 2,” respectively.
Michael, whose name was previously reported as an individual identified in the indictment, is Trump’s former executive assistant who no longer works for him, while Harrison is currently an aide to Trump’s wife, Melania Trump.
The role of Trump Employee 1 in the indictment is fairly minor: in a discussion with Michael she suggested moving other stuff to storage to make space in the gaudy bathroom for boxes of documents.
People often raise questions about whether she has familial ties with Steve D’Antuono, the former FBI Assistant Director who kept thwarting investigations into Trump; they share a last name but no known familial ties.
More interesting is the role of her spouse, Beau, whom she married last year. Both Beau and Hayley were employed by Trump’s PAC, and Beau was represented (as Cassidy Hutchinson had been) by Stephen Passantino. Beau made two appearances before the January 6 Committee, in the second of which his testimony evolved to match Tony Ornato’s testimony disclaiming Trump’s efforts to go to the Capitol on January 6. Harrison was interviewed in the January 6 investigation late last year.
The Harrisons are a couple in the thick of things.
ABC’s other identification is a much bigger deal — and Trump is making it one. According to ABC, Susie Wiles is the PAC Representative to whom Trump is described as showing a classified map in September 2021.
Susie Wiles, one of Trump’s most trusted advisers leading his second reelection effort, is the individual singled out in Smith’s indictment as the “PAC Representative” who Trump is alleged to have shown a classified map to in August or September of 2021, sources said.
Trump, in the indictment, is alleged to have shown the classified map of an unidentified country to Wiles while discussing a military operation that Trump said “was not going well,” while adding that he “should not be showing the map” to her and “not to get too close.”
[snip]
If the identification of Wiles by sources is accurate, it also raises the prospect that should Trump’s case go to trial prior to the 2024 election, one of the top figures leading his reelection bid could be called to testify as a key witness. Wiles, who previously helped lead Trump’s now-GOP primary opponent Ron DeSantis’s two campaigns for governor, is seen as one of Trump’s most trusted confidants.
She also led Trump’s campaign operations in Florida in 2016, and was later CEO of Trump’s Save America political action committee.
Note that Trump could not be surprised by Wiles’ inclusion in the indictment; the map-sharing incident was widely reported before the indictment.
Still, Wiles’ ID is important for several reasons. Even more than the prospect that Wiles might have to testify during the campaign, which ABC notes, consider how the primary release condition — that Trump not discuss the facts of the case with any witnesses — would affect this. Trump wants to turn being an accused felon into a key campaign plank. He’s running on being a victim. But the contact prohibition would make it more difficult for Trump and Wiles to discuss the best way to do that. And it would make any false claims the Trump campaign made about the prosecution legally problematic, because Wiles is a witness.
That would be true irrespective of Wiles’ role in running Save America PAC, which is the key subject of the fundraising prong of the investigation. But there’s a non-zero likelihood that Wiles’ conduct is being scrutinized for spending money raised for one purpose and spent on another. One way or another, Wiles was involved in a suspected Trump scheme to raise money based off a promise to spend it on election integrity, only to use the money for lawyers representing Trump in other matters.
More interesting still: this may not be Wiles’ first inclusion in a Trump-related indictment. At the very least, Wiles was the former 2016 campaign staffer who had to answer for the multiple contacts Yevgeniy Prigozhin’s trolls made with Trump’s Florida campaign as laid out in the Internet Research Agency indictment, and she may well have been one of the three campaign officials referred to in it.
74. On or about August 15, 2016, Defendants and their co-conspirators received an email at one of their false U.S. persona accounts from a real U.S. person, a Florida-based political activist identified as the “Chair for the Trump Campaign” in a particular Florida county. The activist identified two additional sites in Florida for possible rallies. Defendants and their co-conspirators subsequently used their false U.S. persona accounts to communicate with the activist about logistics and an additional rally in Florida.
75. On or about August 16, 2016, Defendants and their co-conspirators used a false U.S. persona Instagram account connected to the ORGANIZATION-created group “Tea Party News” to purchase advertisements for the “Florida Goes Trump” rally.
76. On or about August 18, 2016, the real “Florida for Trump” Facebook account responded to the false U.S. persona “Matt Skiber” account with instructions to contact a member of the Trump Campaign (“Campaign Official 1”) involved in the campaign’s Florida operations and provided Campaign Official 1’s email address at the campaign domain donaldtrump.com. On approximately the same day, Defendants and their co-conspirators used the email address of a false U.S. persona, [email protected], to send an email to Campaign Official 1 at that donaldtrump.com email account, which read in part:
Hello [Campaign Official 1], [w]e are organizing a state-wide event in Florida on August, 20 to support Mr. Trump. Let us introduce ourselves first. “Being Patriotic” is a grassroots conservative online movement trying to unite people offline. . . . [W]e gained a huge lot of followers and decided to somehow help Mr. Trump get elected. You know, simple yelling on the Internet is not enough. There should be real action. We organized rallies in New York before. Now we’re focusing on purple states such as Florida.
The email also identified thirteen “confirmed locations” in Florida for the rallies and requested the campaign provide “assistance in each location.”
77. On or about August 18, 2016, Defendants and their co-conspirators sent money via interstate wire to another real U.S. person recruited by the ORGANIZATION, using one of their false U.S. personas, to build a cage large enough to hold an actress depicting Clinton in a prison uniform.
78. On or about August 19, 2016, a supporter of the Trump Campaign sent a message to the ORGANIZATION-controlled “March for Trump” Twitter account about a member of the Trump Campaign (“Campaign Official 2”) who was involved in the campaign’s Florida operations and provided Campaign Official 2’s email address at the domain donaldtrump.com. On or about the same day, Defendants and their co-conspirators used the false U.S. persona [email protected] account to send an email to Campaign Official 2 at that donaldtrump.com email account.
79. On or about August 19, 2016, the real “Florida for Trump” Facebook account sent another message to the false U.S. persona “Matt Skiber” account to contact a member of the Trump Campaign (“Campaign Official 3”) involved in the campaign’s Florida operations. On or about August 20, 2016, Defendants and their co-conspirators used the “Matt Skiber” Facebook account to contact Campaign Official 3. [my emphasis]
In the wake of the indictment, Wiles insisted, convincingly, that no official staffer wittingly cooperated with the trolls.
Susie Wiles, who was co-chair of the Trump campaign in Florida in August 2016 and later became the campaign’s chief Florida staffer, said no campaign official was aware of the Russian effort.
“It’s not the way I do the business; it’s not the way the Trump campaign in Florida did business,” she said. “It is spooky. It is awful. It makes you look over your shoulder. It shouldn’t happen. I’m anxious for this to be uncovered so this never happens again.”
Indeed, ultimately, DOJ argued that Prigozhin’s trolls had made approximately 26 real US persons unwittingly serve as agents of Russia, who otherwise should have registered under FARA. Had the Concord Consulting case gone to trial, the interactions of those real people with Prigozhin’s trolls would have been introduced as evidence.
But the focus on Florida led to a real focus on the Wiles family’s real actions tied to Russia. Notably, just days after the June 9, 2016 meeting with Natalia Veselnitskaya and Rinat Akhmetshin, Susie’s spouse Lanny arranged for Veselnitskaya to get a prominent seat at a Magnitsky sanctions hearing.
In fact, her seat had been reserved for her by a Republican consultant with close ties to the Trump campaign.
Lanny Wiles, whose wife, Susie, was then chairing the Trump campaign in Florida, said in an interview that he came early to scout out the seat and was there at the request of Akhmetshin, with whom he was working as a consultant on the sanctions-related adoption issue.
Lanny and Susie Wiles both said she was unaware of his role in the lobbying effort. Lanny Wiles said he was unaware that the Russian lawyer whose seat he was saving had just days earlier met with Trump Jr.
“I wasn’t part of it,” Susie Wiles said.
First Politico, then BuzzFeed, reported that Lanny Wiles had some kind of financial role in Akhmetshin’s anti-Magnitsky lobbying. And the Wiles’ daughter, Caroline, had to be moved from a job in the White House to Treasury after she failed a background check.
That back story is what makes it more interesting that Trump was sharing a classified map with Wiles in 2021.
Update: CNN matches ABC’s identification of Wiles, and adds that Wiles has been interviewed several times.
The campaign adviser, Susie Wiles, has spoken to federal investigators numerous times as part of the special counsel’s Mar-a-Lago documents probe, multiple sources told CNN.
[snip]
During her interviews, sources say that prosecutors repeatedly asked Wiles about whether Trump showed her classified documents. They also inquired about a map and whether she had any knowledge regarding documents related to Joint Chiefs Chairman, Gen. Mark Milley, one source added.
[snip]
Wiles, one of Trump’s closest advisers, is effectively running his third bid for the presidency and has taken an active role in Trump’s legal strategy, including helping find lawyers and helping arrange payment to attorneys representing Trump associates being questioned in the multiple federal and state investigations into the former president.
Wiles is also a close associate of Chris Kise, who is on Trump’s legal team and appeared in court earlier this month when Trump was indicted.
Sources in Trump’s inner circle tell CNN they were blindsided by the news.
Wiles declined to comment to CNN.
Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung told CNN that Wiles would not be taking a step back from the campaign.
“Jack Smith and the Special Counsel’s investigation is openly engaging in outright election interference and meddling by attacking one of the leaders of President Trump’s re-election campaign,” said Cheung.
Perhaps the most interesting detail in the CNN piece is that “sources in Trump’s inner circle” didn’t know this.
Update: A Trump rival (remember that Wiles used to work for DeSantis) finally finds something to attack Trump on — and in a Murdoch rag, no less: Wiles’ ties to China.
Susie Wiles works on Donald Trump’s 2024 campaign and is co-chair of Mercury Public Affairs, which has taken millions of dollars in recent years from Chinese companies such as Yealink, Hikvision and Alibaba.
[snip]
If confirmed, the episode is further complicated by both Wiles’ high standing in the Trump campaign and her firm’s lobbying for potential hostile entities — though a search of the Justice Department’s registry of foreign agents indicated Wiles had not worked directly for those clients.
“Susie could put Trump away for years in just one minute of testimony to Jack Smith,” a rival GOP operative told The Post. “She’s got Trump by the balls, which means she can name her price for her loyalty and Trump can’t say no.”
Yes.
Would it not also be legally problematic for Trump to talk about the MaL documents in any public speeches, as this would be tantamount to a one-sided conversation with witnesses (like Nauta) who hear him? “This is my story about what happened . . .” says Trump, and those witnesses willing to be creative can thus tailor their stories to match his – exactly what the “don’t talk to any witnesses about the case” prohibition is designed to prevent.
Of course, for it to be a legal problem, a judge would have to rule that curtailing Trump’s speaking on this subject outweighs the First Amendment free speech rights of a political candidate for president. I have a hard time seeing that.
That said, I suspect Jack Smith has locked in the testimony of damn near anyone who could potentially help Trump by tailoring their testimony to whatever Trump’s latest alibi is.
Hi,
Just a quick D’Antuono flyover. Steven of FBI was a CPA from U Rhode Island, approx age is 60. Hayley is 31 and current address is No Virginia and seems to be originally from RI. D’Antuono (with that spelling) isn’t a very common name, 200 total in US, with a lot of dups on Family tree now, so there are probably only 70 living, breathing D’Antuonos in USA. (Steve is not listed on Fam tree now but most law enforcement, understandably, opt out). I think they’re probably related, Steve being uncle or cousin of Hayley.
The surname is a Neapolitan version of the northern D’Antonio. I have a friend/neighbor whose family immigrated from Naples and who goes back and forth, and she tells me that she has a difficult time understanding other Italian dialects.
RI has always been an Italian immigrant destination/waystation, and it is indeed where my friend’s family moved from shortly after arrival, to come here to ME.
Providence’s Federal Hill, also known as Little Italy, was the locus of the original mid-to-late 19th century Southern Italian immigration wave and, as an enclave, keeping the D’Antuono spelling would make sense in that community (and places nearby). My guess is that most Southern Italians who have that name end up changing it to D’Antonio because it’s more compatible with English as far as spelling, ease of documentation, pronunciation, etc., goes — which would explain the scarcity of its presence elsewhere.
My friend is also not a fan of her home country, mainly because of the persistent and intense ubiquity of the Mafia in Naples (crazy driving being a close second). She didn’t say so, but I’m also guessing that they may have moved to ME because Providence was the HQ for the US Cosa Nostra syndicate.
Exactly. There are in fact over 100 facebook profiles for D’Antuono’s even after eliminating those who obviously live in Italy or have dropped the apostrophe (even more common than adopting the northern spelling). And yes, Rhode Island is the epicenter, though naturally they’re to be found everywhere. There *could* be a relationship here, but we have no special reason to assume so.
Apropos of …not much; you mention Italians in ME; here in far off northern ME (an 1/8th of an inch below Fort Kent), there isn’t an Italian to be found anywhere. Even the pizza places are all French…, unfortunately.
Helping to put the D’Antuono family relationship question to rest: Given that Hayley’s parents are named Steve and Cathy, it’s an obvious question! But she’s about 31 years old (2014 graduate of Elon), and former FBI Steven’s about 52 (1993 graduate of U.R.I.), so it’s unlikely we’re looking at the same Steven unless he was busy siring a daughter while an undergraduate. D’Antuono is a fairly common name (originally from Campania); there are quite a few of them in Rhode Island, for example. FWIW, “our” Steven is back to his roots as a forensic accountant, now with KPMG & presumably pulling about double his old FBI salary (on top of his pension).
The flowers in our sanctuary this weekend
are donated by Steve and Cathy D’Antuono
in honor of Hayley D’Antuono
and Beau Harrison, married here at the Basilica
on Saturday, May 14.
Congratulations!
Basilica of St Mary in Alexandria va.
If we can assume a Steve D’Antuono DC FBI head was living in Alexandria area then the Hayley D’Antuono of the investigation is his daughter.
https://stmaryoldtown.org/wp-content/uploads/May-15-2022-for-website.pdf
Is Steven D’Antuono age 64? Unlikely. There is a Steve, age 64, that comes up, probably her Dad, when you search for her in Alexandria. So i dont think it is the FBI guy who looks to be about 45.
Whats the date of the photo where you think he looks 45? A’93 URI grad makes him 52ish and a 21YO dad isn’t remarkable – he’s pro-life!
I just saved that URL to the Wayback Machine’s archive. That should be the first step anyone finding content of critical interest should do. Someone else did just that on June 10 and June 19.
Let’s put it to bed. According to Radaris, Hayley was born in Alexandria VA in December of 1991, which (along with her federal employment) explains the wedding location. She is said to be related to “Stephen” D’Antuono, age 64. Legistorm says she graduated from Bishop Ireton High School, also in Alexandria. Father (it has to be him) appears to be a portfolio manager and vice president with Morgan Stanley in the DC area. He still lives in Alexandria.
As I’m sure you agree, not everything is part of a conspiracy! Sometimes a name is just a name.
Yes that flower thing was the source of my statement that her parents were probably named Steve and Cathy. Ought to have included the link.
Still skeptical that an ambitious, FBI-bound accounting student was having kids in college, though for sure it’s biologically feasible. Note that if FBI/KPMG Steve is not the father, he surely isn’t an uncle. Who gives two sons the same name?
I haven’t poked through D’Antunono’s profile, but was he in the service or reserves?
(It’s a different Stephen D. See above.)
Nancy Pelosi said all roads lead to Russia with Trump. She’s a smart woman.
That the stunt of “Hillary in a cage” during the 2016 campaign is connected with “the multiple contacts Yevgeniy Prigozhin’s trolls made with Trump’s Florida campaign” is stunning, particularly in light of last week’s Wagner military debacle. The interconnectedness of events has me gobsmacked! Thank you, Marcy, for weaving these far-flung threads.
Marcy: ABC’s other identification is a much bigger deal — and Trump is making it one.
https://twitter.com/KFaulders/status/1674222318451666945
9:04 PM · Jun 28, 2023
Marcy: The Harrisons [Beau and Hayley] are a couple in the thick of things.
See this THREAD by Lisa Rubin:
https://web.archive.org/web/20221210183255/https:/twitter.com/lawofruby/status/1601366512513781760
12:01 AM · Dec 10, 2022
Great link there. Also interesting:
Speaking of moving docs, there’s one woman in the video of folks loading documents onto the Jet that Trump took to Bedminster on May 9 of last year. The resolution is shite but it could be Haley Harrison. The captain tried to take it from her but she wouldn’t let him.
https://twitter.com/petestrzok/status/1568569527113338882?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1568569532377186306%7Ctwgr%5Ee73d8cb852b269490050238ff5dd19ffe75e83dc%7Ctwcon%5Es2_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.salon.com%2F2022%2F09%2F12%2Fbetter-bedminster-video-shows-boarding-plane-with-boxes-after-feds-asked-for-docs%2F
Note that whomever she was, she took that box of docs, along with a black briefcase on top of it, into the front of the plane as opposed to the cargo hold behind the wings where all the other boxes went. That’s also where Trump himself, moments later, boarded.
Better link to Strzok’s THREAD:
https://twitter.com/petestrzok/status/1568569527113338882
7:58 AM · Sep 10, 2022
Thanks. Ah, the briefcase is brown.
And you can see the heartbeat of the person taking the video, I think. Beating pretty fast, if that’s what it is.
What if it’s not a briefcase?
Could it be a “leather bound box”?
Edit:
“The captain tried to take it from her but she wouldn’t let him…indicating, I suppose, some sort of authority.”
Other items that may be of interest:
1. Susie Wiles is listed in the Acknowledgements of Roger Stone’s book, “The Making of a President, 2016: how Donald Trump orchestrated a revolution.”
2. Susie Wiles’ other daughter, Katherine Wiles, has been working for the outgoing Mayor of Jacksonville (Lenny Curry.) Her title is Administrative Aide – MA – III (Executive Office of the Mayor.)
3. I wonder if Susie Wiles has a thing for men who end up in Bankruptcy Court. This pertains to her former husband, Lanny: In re Wiles
United States Bankruptcy Court, M.D. Florida, Jacksonville Division, May 3, 1994, 166 B.R. 975 (Bankr. M.D. Fla. 1994)
4. And last, and definitely least (although not to me, of course,) I had my own personal experience that involved Susie Wiles. It also involved many other people, one of whom had ethical standards that I’ve come to equate to those Steven D’Antuono might have. He benefited career wise as a result, as well. As I’ve made known before, an attorney once confided in me something that he said Susie Wiles did relative to my case that we both thought of as unethical. Since then I’ve come to think of it as corrupt.
5. But in my daydreams, I sometimes hope that Susie Wiles is a mole in the Trump campaign. After all, we know DeSantis thought she betrayed him when she was working on his campaign. Donald must be wondering about her, as well. And, from the sounds of it, DOJ may have some leverage on Wiles, maybe in relation to the PAC, or maybe something else.
Adding:
Susie’s famous sportscaster father, Pat Summerall, had a master’s degree in Russian history. I wonder if he would be pro Russia or pro Ukraine if he were still alive. I wonder what Susie is.
Pat “There will be no three-peat” Summerall is her dad?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNRe45lr9D0
Lol, yes! And Susie was instrumental in an intervention for him to get him to stop drinking. Maybe she might do an intervention for Donald?! She could say that to him, “No three-peat.”
The convergence of disparate worlds is going to make my head explode before this is all over.
This will surely push you over the edge. Apologies, Molly!
https://twitter.com/realstewpeters/status/1674608726504775681
LOL Elmo has now cut off everyone from viewing tweets unless they have an account, so that tweet is not visible to anyone but Twitter users.
This single step has likely trashed hundreds if not thousands of posts here at emptywheel in which content has relied on links to Twitter.
VERY UPSET ABOUT THIS!
Try using Nitter.nl — you’ll need to poke around a bit, but Elmo doesn’t appear to have cut that off.
Yet.
Huh! :-) :-) :-)
https://nitter.net/bmaz
https://nitter.net/emptywheel
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
LOL Don’t count on it lasting for long. If there’s something important worth keeping, make a screen cap and save it to another more durable cloud-based resource — a personal blog, a Mastodon post, Pixelfed, other. You might also consider saving a Nitter link to Wayback Machine’s archive but it will be difficult to search for such a link.
Well, that was short lived…LOL!
I just noticed Emptywheel
has over
1 MILLION comments!
1 million *published* comments. There are likely multiples of that which have never been published because they were spam and trollery, held off in most part by WordPress, WordFence, and other moderation tools. That community members here have never seen the flood of repulsive crap has been an enormous if hidden blessing.
It’s erroring out now. Looks like they’ve shut it down, alas.
Yes…
published comments!
Truly a
mind-boggling thought!
Might be the final nail in the coffin that was twtr, except for its use as an anarchist rag. But Elmo as found so many nails and has only a hammer in his micro-Louis Vuitton bag-sized tool box.
I was a Twitter lurker, and I learned today that one can still view at least some tweets at instalker.org, though it doesn’t look like one can see replies, and who knows how long it will continue to function. I’m guessing that this is a copy of the tweet that AndTheSlithyToves referenced: https://instalker.org/realstewpeters/status/1674608726504775681
Why not just open a freaking account and make it private. NONE of the whiners here about Twitter are saving the world from Musk or accomplishing anything useful. At all. The pontificating about “golly, I’m not on Twitter” is seriously tiring.
Can we add this too?
6. Susie Wiles is mentioned once in Cassidy Hutchenson’s first Jan. 6 interview, and 20 times in the second. She played a role in getting Cassidy the PAC-paid attorney, and helped to facilitate the job offers that were supposed to keep Cassidy in “Trumpworld”.
https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GPO-J6-TRANSCRIPT-CTRL0000928884/pdf/GPO-J6-TRANSCRIPT-CTRL0000928884.pdf (p. 158)
https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GPO-J6-TRANSCRIPT-CTRL0000060752/pdf/GPO-J6-TRANSCRIPT-CTRL0000060752.pdf (p. 15, 18, 19, 20, 22, 23, 24, 32)
7. Also facilitated the PAC paying for John McEntee’s attorney.
https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GPO-J6-TRANSCRIPT-CTRL0000060752/pdf/GPO-J6-TRANSCRIPT-CTRL0000060752.pdf (p. 182)
Thank you! She also played a role in getting Liz Cheney canned.
I also read in WaPo yesterday that Susie Wiles was with Margo Martin and a staffer named Sean, (I forget his last name, maybe he was the one who got the Cokes since we never heard his voice) at the meeting with Meadow’s ghost writer who was not named, along with the publisher who was. So there were five folks other than Trump
in the room at the recording.
So it’s good for some stuff, but only half as good without Emptywheel.
So apparently Ms. Susie has quite a bit that she will be called as witness about.
I think that’s Liz Harrington, his then spox.
Marcy, since you’ve pointed that out, I’ve also been wondering about the reliability of the ABC report. It seems there are conflicting reports flying around. In this previous reporting in WaPo, the PAC rep is said to be young and male. I thought it might be Taylor Budowich. But now ABC is saying Susie Wiles. It would be good to know which is the more reliable reporting. Or is it all guesswork?
“Evidence in Trump’s indictment came from inside Mar-a-Lago and those hired for him” – Josh Dawsey and Jacqueline Alemany, 6/10/23
“…A young political aide, referred to as “the PAC representative” in the indictment, told prosecutors that Trump showed him a classified map about a military operation in a foreign country and told him to stand back because it was a secret document….”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2023/06/10/trump-indictment-aides-molly-evan/
Wow. Am I wrong, though I swear I read something yesterday about Susie Wiles being present at that meeting.
Here’s what WaPo said to clarify
“ Also present at the meeting was Kate Hartson, a publishing veteran who co-founded a conservative imprint called All Seasons Press in 2021 that put out the Meadows book, and another person involved with the project, Sean McGowan. Hartson did not respond to request for comment, and McGowan could not be reached. Neither responded to messages left through the publishing house.”
Liz Harrington, whose voice is alleged by some sources to be the one saying “Now we have a problem.” to Trump’s statement that he can no longer declassify the document is also a Trump staffer who was present.
And Sean McGowan was with the publisher, not a Trump staffer. I really bungled this lol!
I’m gonna backtrack on my reading yesterday and see if I can find where I swear I read Wiles was at that meeting too. It’s driving me crazy now. Sorry to drag y’all into it.
Trying to lend some Credence to that:
Suzie Q? Or Suzy Creamcheese??
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dn2vfY1D990
Suze W
Trump needs a Cone Of Silence for his next staff meeting.
This is fascinating, albeit for the wrong reasons. Because Trump, and the people he surrounded himself with at all levels, have damaged the US’s reputation. Biden has overseen legislation which benefits US citizens; he’s also regained some of the lost respect of US allies. But, from the headlines, one would never know! ‘Newsworthy’ still seems to mean Trump: his court cases, his all-caps rages, his lies, and the sycophants pandering to his (and their) base.
I’m glad I discovered this site; I respect your painstaking research.
(P.S. Rayne: I’ll stick with this name.)
I doubt she has the success that Parscal had at digging up people who believe in UFOs and Elvis is alive to vote for Trump. I wouldn’t be surprised if we hit 75 million voters per, but it seems lofty. Parscale was a doofy genius, on some level. First time voters were his specialty. Trump probably has mined all he can out of that, and I still think the polls are overcorrecting for past errors on Republican voters.
OT but GOP indictment related:
https://www.dispatch.com/story/news/politics/2023/06/29/ex-ohio-house-speaker-larry-householder-faces-prison-in-corruption-case/70235375007/
Whew.
This is one of those rare moments when I, a non-smoker, suddenly feel like I need a good old-fashioned cigarette.
Thanks for that link, klynn!
Yeah, me too! And it’s also weird to me that now 2 people involved in my own case got into serious legal jeopardy. My fractal world!
Thanks for this! So, he’s one of about half a dozen R politicians involved in the scheme. And in a little aside, the article notes that his predecessor as Speaker left office while also under FBI investigation, though I guess nothing came of that one.
I’m left with a chicken-or-egg question. Has Ohio become more “red” because of the corrupt money spent advocating R policies? Or does the “redward” drift simply make it possible for such large-scale corporate-financed corruption?
https://twitter.com/ZcohenCNN/status/1674569927234052098
8:05 PM · Jun 29, 2023
I wish I had a better read on how good Cohen’s sources are, but this feels like a serious thing to me. As in, maybe he’s worried and now other people should be too.
Like I said, I wish I had a better read on the sources.
This is Marcy’s take:
https://nitter.net/emptywheel/status/1674628157763117061#m
Jun 30, 2023 · 3:57 AM UTC
Fox News Agrees to Pay $12 Million to Settle Hostile Workplace Suit The settlement with a former producer, Abby Grossberg, is the latest development in a series of legal battles involving Fox. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/30/business/media/abby-grossberg-fox-news-settlement.html June 30, 2023, 2:24 p.m. ET
Just going to put out there that with the exception of the Concord catering entities against whom the charges were dropped, the IRA indictment is still an open docket, and that counts 1 and 2 were conspiracy to defraud the US and conspiracy to commit bank and wire fraud.
As conspiracies, their statute of limitations are tolled as long as overt acts in furtherance of the conspiracy are being committed.
With particular regards to count 1, the object of that conspiracy could be construed to be ongoing given how broadly it was worded, meaning this indictment could be superseded by adding overt acts and defendants at any time, if there was an agreement with the named defendants to interfere in US elections. This would be similar to how the Assange indictment has been updated over the years… And I believe Susie Wiles could potentially provide such links, were she to cooperate.
Since you mentioned Assange & Wiles in the same comment, I thought I’d bring this ditty (did he?) back to see how it is holding up:
Whatnot
The tin pot dictator favored a stone cold tea party. Even though it was short on Havarti, the crew knew how to remain quite farty. Then things got more than a little gnarly, awaiting Rasputin’s arrival (although he was tardy.) Wiles and gambits were the order of the day. Until they finally got in the way. Who was left banging the pot? The dish and the spoon and a little whatnot.
7/14/20; rev. 8/9/22
I like it, though I know not what it means. But, yeah, it’s good.
I also failed to mention that at the time Mueller brought this indictment in Feb 2018, it was made clear the conspiracy(ies?) was/were ongoing, and did not pertain to just the 2016 presidential election.
Subsequent indictments (not necessarily related to the IRA) even just this past year make it clear there are Russian conspirators that have been meddling in elections ever since, and still are.
Also, as a reminder, Susie Wiles used to work for Ballard (where one of her besties, Pam Bondi, works) but then she moved on to Mercury Public Affairs. That’s where Bryan Lanza works. Lanza once worked for David Bossie and Citizens United.
If you recall, Boris Epshteyn told Jackie Speier in an HPSCI interview on 9/28/17: “Bryan Lanza joined the campaign, and it was Bryan and his team who would distribute the talking points…”
Mercury Public Affairs was also used by Manafort to help enhance Russia’s image. Mercury also once had EN+ Group as a client, although they claim that Lanza did not have contact with Deripaska.
Lanny Wiles, Susie’s ex, has/had ties to Dana Rohrabacher that go back to the Reagan administration. You may remember Rohrabacher being called “Putin’s favorite congressman.” Rohrabacher also had links to Erik Prince, Roger Stone, and Paul Manafort. So, Susie and Lanny Wiles seem to have been the silent partners of that crowd. Lanny seems to have disappeared from the media. But Susie has finally made her national debut.
https://www.dni.gov/files/HPSCI_Transcripts/2019-01-16-BorisE-MTR.pdf
https://thebulwark.com/the-swampiest-swamp-in-the-history-of-swamps/
Adding additional resources:
https://www.cnn.com/2018/05/12/politics/washington-lobbying-trump-era/index.html
https://www.thedailybeast.com/gop-lawmaker-got-direction-from-moscow-took-it-back-to-dc