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- June 10, 2022
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Since leaving office 17 months ago, Donald Trump has had his hands full trying and failing to overturn the 2020 election, endorsing would-be elected officials accused of being just as gross as he is with women, asking people if Google is trying to “f–k” him, and mulling over terrorizing the nation for another four years. Another area that’s kept him quite busy? Stonewalling the numerous investigations he and/or his company are the subject of, like the one being led by New York attorney general Letitia James, who’s been probing his family business for more than two years and says she’s uncovered “significant evidence” of fraud. But unfortunately for the ex-president and his two eldest children, that tactic has not been working out of late.
CNN reports that Trump, Ivanka Trump, and Donald Trump Jr. will all sit for under-oath depositions in July with the New York attorney general’s office, barring intervention by a New York appeals court. Last month, no doubt to the Trump family’s chagrin, an appeals court held up a lower court ruling ordering the Trumps to comply with the subpoenas issued by James’s office.
In January, the New York attorney general filed an almost 160-page document accusing the Trump Organization of inflating the value of its properties to lure lenders, and deflating the value of properties when it came time to pay taxes. “We are taking legal action to force Donald Trump, Donald Trump, Jr., and Ivanka Trump to comply with our investigation into the Trump Organization’s financial dealings,” James wrote on Twitter the same day. “No one in this country can pick and choose if and how the law applies to them.” She went on to write that her office “will not be deterred in our efforts to continue this investigation, uncover the facts, and pursue justice, no matter how many roadblocks Mr. Trump and his family throw in our way.”
Separately this week, New York judge Arthur Engoron said he wouldn’t purge a civil contempt order against Trump until the ex-president produces additional sworn statements regarding the Trump Organization’s “document retention and destruction policy.” In April, Engoron held Trump in civil contempt—and fined him $10,000 a day—for failing to comply with a request from the attorney general for documents. While Trump’s attorney claim he has “given all the information he has,” James’s office has, per CNN, “questioned whether it has been given all of Trump’s files.”
Anyway, when it comes to the Trump trio’s depositions, it’s not clear what to expect. When he was deposed by the New York A.G. in 2020, Eric Trump reportedly pleaded the Fifth more than 500 times. In 2007, after Trump sued biographer Tim O’Brien for penning an unflattering but accurate portrait, O’Brien’s lawyers caught Trump in dozens of his own lies during a deposition. And as we learned in April, during an October 2021 deposition as part of a lawsuit against the Trump Organization’s chief of security, the former president went on an extremely long, rambling aside about his fear of being killed by flying fruit.
Facebook’s gun-sales ban involves extremely harsh—checks notes—10-strikes-and-you’re-out rule for sellers
Hey, wouldn’t want to be too harsh on anyone! Small children are typically given only two strikes for things like throwing food and drawing on the walls, but why not let people using the site to sell killing machines learn their lesson nine times before bringing down the hammer? Per The Washington Post:
>Facebook prohibits gun sales on its service. But buyers and sellers can violate the rule 10 times before they are kicked off the social network, according to internal guidance obtained by The Washington Post…. A separate five-strikes policy extends even to gun sellers and purchasers who actively call for violence or praise a known dangerous organization, according to the documents.
>Once a major marketplace for gun sales, which were sold in groups for firearm enthusiasts, Facebook prohibited such sales in 2016 amid pressure from activists and government agencies trying to strengthen gun control post-Sandy Hook. Other social media companies, such as Twitter, YouTube and TikTok, followed suit. Facebook has maintained that it polices gun sales appropriately, arguing that such deals represent a tiny fraction of the content on its networks and that many who violate the policy aren’t aware they’re breaking rules since selling guns is legal in the United States.
Uh, sure, except that they should probably be aware after they violate the rule the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, or eighth time.
“Facebook’s 10 strike rule for prohibited gun sales is beyond shocking—it’s incredibly dangerous,” Shannon Watts, founder of Moms Demand Action, told The Post. “Gun violence is tearing apart our communities and yet Facebook is more concerned about giving gun sellers not just a second chance, but 10 chances? That’s not accountability, that’s complicity.”
In case the Republican Party’s priorities were unclear
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