| From: Brumar89 | 9/23/2022 3:19:13 PM | | | | | | U.S. Watching for Warning Signs Putin Is Preparing Nuclear Attack
BY KATHERINE FUNG ON 9/21/22 AT 4:49 PM EDT
Russian President Vladimir Putin's thinly veiled nuclear threat has prompted new fears that a Kremlin attack could be on the horizon, but the U.S. is well-positioned to know when Putin plans to strike.
On Wednesday, Putin accused officials from NATO states of trying to "blackmail" Russia with nuclear weapons and warned that he had his own "various weapons of destruction" that he's prepared to hit back with. In a rare pre-taped address, Putin said he'd use "all available means to protect Russia and our people," adding that his warning was "not a bluff."
Launching a nuclear attack is a last-resort measure for Russia, and experts say the U.S. would be able to detect an attack before Putin decides to fire.
Hans Kristensen, the director of the nuclear information project at Federation of American Scientists, told Newsweek that Putin could move quicker with long-range weapons, which are already on high alert, rather than short-range ones, which Russia would have to bring out of central storage.
The intelligence community detecting activity at storage sites where warheads would be loaded to trucks and helicopters, or increased activity among specially trained units that can handle those weapons, would indicate Putin is preparing to strike with short-range weapons.
On the other hand, the use of long-range weapons could be anticipated if land-based mobile launchers, missile submarines or cruise missiles are being moved in greater numbers than normal.
"There would, as part of this, also be a number of detectable activities in the nuclear command and control system and general communication that indicated something was up," Kristensen said.
According to the Federation of American Scientists, Russia has the largest nuclear warhead inventory in the world with a total of 5,977. Comparatively, the U.S. has the second-most with 4,428, followed by France with 290. However, the exact number of warheads in Russia's possession is not known due to security concerns.
Monitoring levels of nuclear activity has been the norm since the Cold War, John Erath, the senior policy director at the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation, told Newsweek.
In this combination image, National Security Council coordinator for strategic communications John Kirby speaks during the daily press briefing at the White House in September 2022 and Russian President Vladimir Putin (Inset) pictured at the Kremlin in Moscow on September 14, 2022. Kirby said that there would be "severe consequences" if Russia were to use nuclear weapons, but that U.S. intelligence has "no indication" that events in Ukraine would escalate to that level at this time.GETTY
Wednesday is not the first time that Putin has raised alarms over nuclear weapons this year. In March, he placed forces on high alert when Western nations began imposing sanctions on Russia and global corporations withdrew from the country in response to the invasion of Ukraine.
At the time, there was no movement on the ground, which Kristensen said indicated to U.S. officials Putin wasn't preparing to launch a strike. He expected officials to be making similar observations this time around to get clarification of how imminent the threat is. He added that the U.S. military also has nearly 1,000 weapons ready to fire within minutes, so it would also be well-prepared to respond should Putin launch an attack.
On Wednesday, National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said that there would be "severe consequences" if Russia were to use nuclear weapons, but that U.S. intelligence has "no indication" that events in Ukraine would escalate to that level at this time.
Although intelligence officials don't expect Putin to launch a nuclear missile, his remarks sparked a flurry of condemnation from around the world.
Speaking at the United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday, President Joe Biden said that " a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought." United Kingdom Defense Secretary Ben Wallace also said that "no amount of threats and propaganda" could conceal the fact that Ukraine is moving closer to winning the war against Russia.
However, Ukraine wants officials to take their remarks a step further. On Wednesday, Mykhailo Podolyak, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's senior aide, said that the U.S. and other allies "need to say very firmly" that there will be "swift retaliatory nuclear strikes" if Russia were to carry out a nuclear strike in Ukraine.
Ukraine may not get the harsh language that it wants, and Erath said that world leaders will be "very careful" about what they say because no leader, including Putin, "wants to be responsible for triggering a major nuclear war."
Erath said part of the danger is that Putin isn't bluffing, and world leaders need to take the threat seriously and prepare.
"But I think what he's trying to do is to utilize the threat of nuclear weapons, which everyone knows Russia has in abundance, to get other countries to reconsider their support of Ukraine," Erath said.
https://www.newsweek.com/us-looking-warning-signs-nuclear-strike-following-vladimir-putin-comments-1745118 |
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| To: Brumar89 who wrote (32018) | 9/23/2022 3:21:19 PM | | From: Brumar89 | | | | Trump's strategy in the classified documents case is quickly crumbling
(CNN)No judge would put it this crudely, but the court system is effectively telling Donald Trump to put up or shut up about his wild claims and outlandish defenses over his hoarding of classified information at his Florida resort.
The case has taken a turn against the former President and towards the Justice Department in recent days, suggesting that the classic Trumpian legal strategy of delay, denial and distraction is not working as well as usual.
In a sign of the how quickly Trump's position may be eroding in this particular drama, several Republican senators took the unusual step of criticizing his handling of the documents on Thursday, despite his firm hold over their party.
In the latest developments, a third-party judge acting as a special master Thursday gave the Trump legal team until the end of next week to formally declare whether they believe his claim that the FBI planted incriminating evidence at Mar-a-Lago during a search last month. This came a day after an appeals court delivered a blow to Trump by ruling that his team had failed to show evidence to support his claims that he as President had declassified the roughly 100 secret documents the FBI took from his home.\
In a sense, Trump is being given his day in court and every chance to prove his statements. He is being investigated by the Justice Department for possible violations of the Espionage Act and obstruction of justice regarding the mishandling of classified documents. There is no indication so far that he will be charged.
The search, an unprecedented step against a former president, provoked questions over whether the DOJ had overreached given the fraught political sensitivity of the case -- particularly because Trump has shown every sign that he's preparing another run for the White House in 2024.
But if the former President cannot prove his allegations, as many outside observers expect, his legal position will deteriorate considerably.
The tell here may be that Trump's lawyers, who understand they cannot lie under oath, have not repeated many of the ex-President's statements before a judge. The latest twists in the case are therefore jamming them between their obligation to tell the truth and their client who has a famously flexible concept of facts and reality.
A classic Trump strategy
The former President's strategy is a familiar one, and has been remarkably successful for much of his long and controversial business and political careers.
Trump often substitutes a legal defense for a public relations one, blasting away at institutions, government departments, courts, officials and the media that attempt to impose accountability or call on him to justify his allegations with fact. His strong support among grassroots GOP supporters reflect Trump's talent in creating a version of events that can become a politically potent narrative.
Often, it seems that Trump makes up a new counter-attack on the spot to get him through a particularly dicey moment, as when he told Sean Hannity of Fox News on Wednesday that a president could simply declassify a document by thinking about it in his head -- an absurd derogation of intelligence processes.
This approach flounders, however, when allegations that function well as a political strategy come up against the factual threshold of a courtroom where statements must be made under penalty of perjury.
"The power of our courts is that they have a way of bringing out the truth," CNN legal analyst Elie Honig said on "Erin Burnett OutFront" on Thursday, adding that anyone could say what they wanted in public or in the media. "But when you step into a court, ultimately, and it's happening here sooner rather than later, the judge or the jury will say, 'Fine that's your allegation, now prove it.'"
The tension between Trump's public statements and what is admissible in court now playing out in the classified documents case is reminiscent of what happened after the 2020 election. Trump and his political cronies made extreme allegations of voter fraud and cheating in public. But their claims were repeatedly thrown out by multiple courts when his lawyers either could not produce evidence or declined to repeat the allegations before a judge.
Unless the former President can provide credible evidence for FBI wrongdoing and that he went through a legal declassification process for the documents soon, he is likely to have more bad days in court to match those he experienced this week.
"It's just going to expose this lie. The lawyers know they can't lie to the judge, they could get sanctioned, they could get disbarred," Dave Aronberg, state attorney for Palm Beach County, Florida, said on "The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer."
"Trump can say whatever he wants in the public with impunity, but it's different for his lawyers," added Aronberg, who is a Democrat.
Special master punctures Trump's strategy
Fresh twists in a case that has transfixed the political world came when Judge Raymond Dearie, the court-appointed special master, said in a filing Thursday that Trump's team must submit a sworn declaration saying whether they believe the Justice Department included items on their "inventory" of materials taken from Mar-a-Lago that were not actually seized during the search.
Trump's claims to this effect soon after the search triggered a political furor, and were widely picked up by conservative media hosts and even by some prominent GOP lawmakers on Capitol Hill. But there may now be a price for Trump to pay.
It was the second time this week that Dearie, who was suggested for the role of special master to filter documents taken from Mar-a-Lago by the ex-President's team, had delivered a blow to his defense. After Trump's lawyers declined to assert in court that Trump had declassified documents he took to the resort, Dearie told them, "You can't have your cake and eat it."
In the other big move in the case this week, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a lower court's ruling that prevented the Justice Department from examining around 100 classified documents that were taken from Mar-a-Lago. Once again, judges -- two of whom on the three-judge panel were appointed by Trump -- quibbled with the idea that the documents had been declassified.
"The record contains no evidence that any of these records were declassified. And before the special master, Plaintiff resisted providing any evidence that he had declassified any of these documents," the court ruling said.
This came on the same day that Trump's legal exposure on multiple fronts deepened when the state of New York filed a civil suit against him, three of his adult children and the Trump Organization alleging huge insurance and tax fraud and seeking a range of severe penalties. Trump said that he is a victim of another example of political persecution and denied the allegations against him.
Republicans create space from Trump
The apparent erosion in Trump's legal position is causing a simultaneous softening of the ex-President's support base among senior senators in his party.
Asked about Trump's claim on Fox News that he could simply declassify documents by thinking about it, Senate GOP Whip John Thune told CNN there's a process for declassifying documents.
"I think it ought to be adhered to and followed. And I think that should apply to anybody who has access to or deals with classified information," the South Dakota Republican said.
Sen. Thom Tillis, a Republican from North Carolina who sits on the Senate Judiciary Committee, told CNN that he believes there's a process that must be followed by a President to declassify the records.
"I believe there's a formal process that needs to go through, that needs to be gone through and documented," Tillis said "And to the extent they were declassified, gone through the process, that's fine. ... As I understand the Executive Branch requirements, there is a process that one must go through."
Sen. Mike Rounds, a South Dakota Republican who sits on the Senate Armed Services Committee, called the handling of classified documents a "very serious" issue.
"People can get hurt, people can get killed if it's not stored correctly, and if that information gets out," Rounds told CNN's Manu Raju.
https://www.cnn.com/2022/09/23/politics/trump-legal-strategy-classified-documents-analysis/index.html |
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| To: Brumar89 who wrote (32019) | 9/23/2022 3:22:52 PM | | From: Brumar89 | | | | Trump endorsed congressional candidate JR Majewski today says that the reason why there is no record of him serving in combat in Afghanistan in his service record is because it is “classified.”
@RonFilipkowski
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| From: Brumar89 | 9/23/2022 6:22:44 PM | | | | | | WolfTracker
The Justice Department (DOJ) is investigating MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell over potential identity theft and damage to a protected computer in connection with a breach of a Colorado county’s voting system.
The FBI seized Lindell’s phone last week while he was waiting at a drive-thru in Minnesota — a move that the Trump ally is contesting in court.
The warrant for the search, which was filed by Lindell’s team on Wednesday as part of his lawsuit to the United States District Court in Minnesota, showed that the DOJ is investigating Lindell for identity theft, intentional damage to a protected computer and conspiracy to commit identity theft or intentionally damage a protected computer.
The warrant was approved by U.S. Magistrate Judge Tony Leung on Sept. 7, according to document. Law enforcement were required to execute the search warrant before Wednesday, Sept. 21.
The magistrate approved the search and seizure warrant on the basis of probable cause that Lindell may have violated federal law.
Note: Up to 5 years on each charge |
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| To: Brumar89 who wrote (32021) | 9/23/2022 6:25:41 PM | | From: Brumar89 | | | | WolfTracker
(CNN)The special master overseeing the Mar-a-Lago documents investigation has ordered former President Donald Trump's lawyers to back up out-of-court assertions that the FBI may have planted evidence at the property during their search last month.
Judge Raymond Dearie, the court-appointed special master, said in a filing Thursday that Trump's team needs to submit a sworn declaration saying if they believe the Justice Department included any items on their "inventory" of materials taken from Mar-a-Lago that were not actually seized during the search.
The declaration must include "a list of any specific items set forth in the Detailed Property Inventory that Plaintiff asserts were not seized from the Premises on August 8, 2022," Dearie wrote in the order.
NOTE: I like this Judge Dearie and he ain't taking no shit from Trump and his lawyers!
WolfTracker
Special master sets timeline for review in Trump docs case, says he must explain claims of privilege
Dearie is not messing around and he is requiring Trump to sign an affidavit swearing he declassified documents or give up that claim and now he wants Trump to explain his executive privilege claim on any documents and Dearie will decide if that is a legitimate claim.
That is going to hurt Trump when his defense is thrown out by Dearie! |
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| From: Glenn Petersen | 9/23/2022 8:41:29 PM | | | | | | QAnon follower who chased Capitol Police officer convicted in Jan. 6 trial
MICHAEL KUNZELMAN 1 hr ago
Los Angeles Times
An Iowa man was convicted Friday of charges that he led a crowd of rioters in chasing a U.S. Capitol Police officer up a staircase and accosting other officers guarding the Senate, one of the most harrowing scenes of the mob’s attack on Jan. 6, 2021.
© Provided by LA Times Douglas Jensen, center, and other members of the pro-Trump mob confront U.S. Capitol Police officers inside the Capitol during the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection. (Manuel Balce Ceneta / Associated Press)
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A federal jury deliberated for roughly four hours before convicting Douglas Jensen of felony charges that he obstructed Congress from certifying the electoral college vote and that he assaulted or interfered with police officers during the siege.
Jensen was convicted on all counts, including a charge that he engaged in disorderly conduct inside the Capitol while carrying a folding knife in his pocket.
During the trial’s closing arguments, a prosecutor accused Jensen of “weaponizing” rioters by taking the lead in chasing Capitol Police Officer Eugene Goodman up a staircase. A reporter’s video of the confrontation went viral.
“The defendant wasn’t just leading the mob. He was weaponizing it,” Assistant U.S. Atty. Hava Mirell told jurors. “He knew he had the numbers, and he was willing to use them.”
Jensen, a construction worker from Des Moines, was wearing a T-shirt with a large “Q” expressing his adherence to the QAnon conspiracy theory. One of the most memorable images from the Jan. 6 insurrection captured Jensen with his arms extended as he confronted a line of police officers near the Senate chamber.
“Go arrest the vice president,” Jensen told one of the officers, according to prosecutors.
QAnon is centered on the baseless belief that former President Trump was secretly fighting a Satan-worshiping cabal of “deep state” enemies, prominent Democrats and Hollywood elites. Jensen believed the conspiracy theory’s apocalyptic prophesy that “the Storm” was coming and would usher in mass arrests and executions of Trump’s foes, including Vice President Mike Pence.
Pence was presiding over the Senate on Jan. 6 as a joint session of Congress was convened to certify Joe Biden’s 2020 electoral victory. Before the riot, Trump and his allies spread the falsehood that Pence somehow could have overturned the election results.
After scaling the outer walls of the Capitol, Jensen climbed through a broken window to enter the building. Prosecutors said Jensen learned from a friend’s text message that Pence was about to certify the election results.
“That’s all about to change,” Jensen replied.
Jensen didn’t testify at his trial, which started Tuesday. Goodman was a key witness for prosecutors.
Before running upstairs, Goodman approached Jensen and other pro-Trump rioters with his hand on his gun. Fearing for his life, Goodman retreated upstairs and found backup from other officers guarding an entrance to the Senate, where senators were being evacuated, according to prosecutors.
At least 880 people have been charged with Capitol riot-related federal crimes. About 400 of them have pleaded guilty. Juries have convicted eight after trials. None of the defendants who had jury trials was acquitted of any charges.
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
msn.com |
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| From: Brumar89 | 9/23/2022 8:59:43 PM | | | | | | Duty To Warn
As you perhaps know by now, the WaPo published an article saying Gaetz is unlikely to be charged with underaged sex-trafficking. It's a strange article, especially since DOJ NEVER LEAKS. Many on Twitter panned it. Joel Greenberg's attorney Fritz Scheller reacted as follows (more)
Duty To Warn
From Joel Greenberg's attorney Fritz Scheller: “I have not received any information from the government regarding any decision to abandon its investigation and any prosecution [of Gaetz] ... Based on my knowledge of the evidence, I would be surprised by such a decision.” |
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| From: Brumar89 | 9/24/2022 8:22:51 AM | | | | | | | | Running for president, fighting in court? How fraud lawsuit could complicate Trump's plans
David Jackson, USA TODAY
Fri, September 23, 2022
WASHINGTON – Now that the New York attorney general has sued Donald Trump for fraud, one thing seems nearer certainty: If Trump runs for president again in 2024, he will do so while defending himself in a court of law.
Maybe several courts of law.
The long-running panoply of investigations into Trump – over his business practices, his handling of classified information, his efforts to overturn his election loss in 2020, and his role in the insurrection of Jan. 6, 2021 – will burden any 2024 presidential run by the former chief executive, analysts said.
New York Attorney General Letitia James' suit – while a civil matter rather than a criminal one – takes things a step further than those other inquiries: It is the most definitive sign yet that Trump could be pulled into court while running for president, an unprecedented position for a major party candidate.
Citing James' recital of allegations against Trump, including fraud running into the tens of millions of dollars or more, historian Michael Beschloss said, "I have never seen anything remotely like this in the history of the American presidency."
And with a separate tax fraud case also moving against the Trump Organization, Trump's legal problems will be in the headlines for months, or perhaps even years, to come.
"It will be in the news over and over again," said Andrew Weissmann, a former federal prosecutor who was part of the investigation into Russia's interference in the 2016 presidential election.
Anger – and discoveryTrump and his allies – including some past allies – say the investigations will only help him politically as voters rally around a man they believe is being unfairly targeted.
Former Attorney General Bill Barr, who has criticized Trump over his actions in a classified documents case, criticized James over the lawsuit. If she fails to make her case, Barr said, it could hurt other investigations with voters who believe the government is "piling on" Trump.
"I don't think it's going to hurt him," Barr said. "The more overboard these cases get, the more I think it's going to help him."
In an interview broadcast Thursday, Trump agreed with Fox News host Sean Hannity's contention, without evidence, that investigators would back off if he simply announced he was not running in 2024.
But Trump said he would not do that, though he did not make a formal announcement one way or the other. "I have to fight," Trump said at one point. "I'm under siege."
New York Attorney General Letitia James announces that she's filed a civil lawsuit against former President Donald Trump and his family for overstating asset valuations and deflating his net worth by billions for tax and insurance benefits, on Wednesday, Sept. 21, 2022, in New York.
Weissmann said Trump's reaction is understandable – "he thrives on being the victim and running against the elites" – but could be hard to sustain as cases develop against him.
Discovery, or the information exchange process in court, and submission of court documents could be "hideous" for Trump and his cause, Weissmann said.
A 2024 test in 2022Trump has not formally declared a 2024 presidential candidacy. He does frequently flirts with the idea, especially after bad legal news, including James' lawsuit announcement.
In the lawsuit, the attorney general said Trump and members of his family fraudulently overvalued properties to secure bank loans or devalued them to reduce tax bills.
Claiming the valuations amounted to financial fraud, James said: "There aren't two sets of laws for people in this nation:. Former presidents must be held to the same standards as everyday Americans." James also said she has referred the Trump case to federal prosecutors in New York and the Internal Revenue Service.
Trump, who accused James of seeking to criminalize standard business practices, has been under investigative clouds since leaving the White House on Jan. 20, 2021.
His single term ended two weeks after a mob of supporters stormed the Capitol in an unsuccessful effort to block President Joe Biden's election victory. The insurrection followed weeks of false claims by Trump of a stolen election.
Now a grand jury in Atlanta is investigating Trump's pressure on state officials to overturn his election loss in Georgia.
The Department of Justice is investigating whether Trump has culpability in the insurrection.
The Justice Department also is investigating Trump's removal of classified information from the White House. That probe inspired the Aug. 8 search of Trump's home in Mar-a-Lago, Fla., by the FBI, a stunning legal development that amped up speculation about the former president's political future.
Strong with Republicans, weak with independentsTrump-backed candidates in November's midterm elections are in some cases struggling.
Candidates who won nominations largely because of Trump's backing are struggling in general elections, including races in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Georgia and Arizona that will decide which party controls the U.S. Senate.
"The 2022 midterms are a test case" for the impact of Trump's legal difficulties, said David Paleologos, director of the Suffolk University Political Research Center.
In Ohio – a key, red-leaning state in most presidential elections – only 26% of independents have a favorable view of Trump, Paleologos said.
"He's always had to fight for independents," Paleologos said. "The investigations don't help him."
'No way'A number of people question how Trump could run a credible presidential candidacy while tied up in court, especially if he is hit with criminal indictments.
Michael Cohen, the former Trump attorney whose congressional testimony led to the James investigation over property valuations, said he always doubted there will be another Trump presidential campaign and said he believes Trump talks about it only so he can raise money.
"I never thought he was going to run in 2024, and that this was a stunt in order to grift off of his supporters for as long as possible," said Cohen, a onetime confidante who has since turned on his former boss.
Given the James lawsuit and the other investigations, Cohen said, he doesn't see how Trump can mount a presidential campaign or how voters could take him seriously. "There is no way he could legitimately run a race with all of the legal baggage that is plaguing him."
Grand juries investigating Trump aren't expected to take any formal action against the former president before this year's Election Day on Nov. 8. In the meantime, however, news leaks, pretrial litigation and legal discovery may continue to rain down on Trump, a preview of legal and political storms to come.
The Trump Organization, the former president's company, has been charged with fraud in a separate case as well and faces trial in October. Some of the testimony is expected to touch on Trump and his business dealings. Little of this is expected to help Trump politically.
But Matt Wolking, a deputy communications director for Trump's 2020 campaign, said that, if anything, the James lawsuit and the other investigations will only encourage Trump to run. "It certainly gives him an incentive to fight back," he said.
Republicans point out the investigations may not loom as the biggest issues facing voters when Republican primaries roll around in early 2024 – especially if the economy continues to struggle. The inflation rate has been hovering near a 40-year high, squeezing Americans on everything from rent to the cost of eggs.
There's also the fact that Trump survived any number of scandals on his way to the White House the first time, said Liz Mair, an anti-Trump Republican political consultant.
"The problem with Donald Trump," Mair said, "is that he doesn't operate in the same reality as everybody else."
https://news.yahoo.com/york-fraud-lawsuit-adds-court-232925967.html?.tsrc=daily_mail&uh_test=0_00 |
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| To: Brumar89 who wrote (32025) | 9/24/2022 8:24:04 AM | | From: Brumar89 | | | | Admiral James Stavridis, USN, Ret.
Yeah...the Russians are SO happy with the mobilization that they are rushing to visit friends and relatives in other countries to tell them how pleased they are.
@JuliaDavisNews
Relying on the time-honored Russian tradition of asking people to reject the evidence of their eyes and ears, Russian lawmakers and state TV propagandists insist that the Russians are enthusiastic about the mobilization, and Ukrainians are happy with the upcoming annexation. |
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| To: Brumar89 who wrote (32026) | 9/24/2022 8:25:43 AM | | From: Brumar89 | | | | Pulp non-fiction: DeSantis dispatches "The Wolf" to oversee election security in Florida
Frank Cerabino
Palm Beach Post
Not mentioned in this story is that The Fixer, DeSantis' man to "fix" elections, just died of a massive heart attack:
@CathyNotToday
The man they call “ the Wolf — the Fixer”— the “guy who cleans up murder scenes” The guy who helped Rick Scott hide his fraudulent Medicare money The guy Ron DeSantis just appointed as his “elections crimes chief” Sad for his family — not for the underhanded things he did
The Fixer had just stormed out of a meeting in the FL Capitol and collapsed, Found dead in the hallway.
Is there any job Pete Antonacci can’t get?
Just wondering. Last week it was announced that Antonacci, who was once just a humble minion in the Palm Beach County State Attorney’s Office, will be the director of Gov. Ron DeSantis’ Office of Election Crimes and Security.
I guess it’s not surprising. At this point, the frequently appointed, always-qualified-for-any-post Antonacci should have a business card that simply says “Henchman” to keep the reproduction costs down.
Who is “Mr. Fix It”? : DeSantis names government troubleshooter to head new election crimes office
Removed by e-mail from board seat: Something's fishy about Florida muzzling a pediatrician advocating for COVID-19 vaccines | Cerabino
He has been on a dizzying merry-go-round of political missions and assignments since he started doing Rick Scott’s dirty business as his lawyer during Scott’s gubernatorial days.
Years ago, I started calling Antonacci “The Wolf” because he reminded me of Winston Wolfe, the Harvey Keitel character in the Quentin Tarantino movie Pulp Fiction.
“I fix things,” the movie character explained, after being dispatched to direct mob hitmen played by Samuel L. Jackson and John Travolta to clean up a brain-splattered murder scene.
The first clean-up mission for Antonacci was doing a hit on Gerald Bailey, the politically disloyal head of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement who complained about Scott using state law enforcement officers as political props for Scott’s campaign events.
Scott dispatched “The Wolf” to make an unannounced visit to Bailey’s office on a Friday afternoon in December of 2014 and take him out on the spot, even though Scott didn’t have the sole authority to fire Bailey.
“We’ve known each other for a long time and this is not my idea,” Bailey said Antonacci told him. “You’ve got two choices: Resign or retire, and do it before 5 o’clock.”
Scott next sent Antonacci on a dirty-water mission to sandbag the South Florida Water Management District in West Palm Beach.
Without even posting the job for knowledgeable applicants to oversee a $750 million-a-year environmental agency, Scott installed The Wolf as the head of the water district, where his mission was to make sure that tax cuts, not environmental protections, would be the priority.
Under Antonacci, the South Florida Water Management District cut its ties to scientists overseeing the cleanup of the Everglades, in what was supposed to be a joint federal-state project.
Scott next sent The Wolf to run his beloved Enterprise Florida, the corporate-welfare operation that doles out millions of dollars in taxpayer money to companies that promise to create jobs that routinely don’t materialize.
But he didn’t last long there, because Scott, in an effort to put his thumb on Broward County, Florida’s most heavily Democratic-voting county, installed Antonacci as Broward’s Supervisor of Elections, after removing the elected supervisor Brenda Snipes for mishandling the 2018 election.
Antonacci kept getting moved to new gigs where his job was to fix thingsApparently, when new Republican governors are sworn in they are issued Antonacci, as if he were some kind of human office furniture.
So, DeSantis got busy, moving Antonacci from Broward to Tallahassee, and appointing him in 2020 to lead a powerful group of 29 administrative law judges as the chief judge for the Division of Administrative Hearings.
These are the judges that hear disputes between private citizens and agencies of the state, making important rulings on contract disputes and worker’s compensation claims.
Antonacci was selected over other candidates who had blundered by explaining how independent they would be if appointed.
The Wolf knew where his bread was buttered.
“The voters speak through you and all the appointments you make,” Antonacci said in his interview with the Florida Cabinet. “I would report and be accountable to each and every one of you.”
The loyal soldier. It has worked well for him.
And the good news just keeps coming for Antonacci. Six months after getting his plum chief judge job, he won the lottery for a Florida liquor license overseen by the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation.
What are the odds? Antonacci got a valuable new liquor licenseThe little-known lottery awards valuable new liquor licenses to reflect the rise in population. For every new 7,500 residents in a county, a new liquor license is available.
In a drawing where there were 23,655 entrants, 62 licenses were awarded – that’s about a 0.26 percent chance of winning – and Antonacci was one of the winners.
So, it’s not surprising that now we’re raising our glasses in yet another toast to The Wolf, who has been dispatched to perform a new dirty-work political mission.
Despite scant evidence of voter fraud, other than Republican-orchestrated shadow-candidate schemes state leaders have religiously ignored, DeSantis has created a new elections fraud unit under his control.
The $3.7 million Office of Election Crimes and Security gives the governor an apparatus to cast aspersions on election results that don’t fall his way, especially when it comes to mail-in voting, which has been heavily favoring Democratic candidates.
It also allows the governor to step in and kill election-fraud investigations in places where county and local agencies have initiated probes.
By naming The Wolf to run the election crimes unit, DeSantis is putting a tried-and-true political operative in place to guide the direction and selection of investigations.
But at the age of 73, Antonacci’s starting to age out of the henchman business. Republican governors need to start recruiting new fixers.
Antonacci can’t keep being plugged in forever. The man needs a break and/or a seat on the Florida Supreme Court.
“Peter Antonacci has dedicated his career to serving the state of Florida,” DeSantis said in announcing the appointment. “I am confident he will lead the Office of Election Crimes and Security with integrity and ensure that Florida’s elections are the most secure in the nation.”
Secure for whom?
The Wolf’s on the job again.
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