Happy Wednesday! It’s good to get the Brew pouring on this stormy day on the East Coast.

Between Easter and insanity, pending eclipses and possible pestilence, we haven’t paid much attention to the 2024 presidential race and related events in recent days. However, the election is still on. In fact, we are only 215 days away from selecting a new president. Or more accurately, rehiring one of the last two.

Trump Posts $175 Million Bond in NYC ‘Fraud’ Case

Nobody’s going to be renaming any iconic structures in New York City “Letitia Tower” anytime soon. Former President Donald Trump has posted a $175 million bond that allows him to appeal the insane $454 million judgment levied against him in a fraud case where nobody was able to prove any fraud took place. The bond also means New York Attorney General Letitia James can’t begin seizing any of Trump’s assorted New York properties.

Flood warnings have been issued for the New York area in anticipation of James’s torrent of tears.

Judge in Stormy Daniels Case Expands Gag Order in Response to Trump Pointing Out Daughter’s Conflict of Interest

In other news, Trump is hitting some people a bit too close to home. The judge in the Stormy Daniels hush-money case has expanded his gag order to prevent the former president from commenting publicly on the case at all. Judge Juan Merchan acted after Trump issued a series of complaints about Merchan’s daughter posting several images on social media depicting Trump behind bars. Trump also pointed out that Loren Merchan is the president of a left-wing political consulting firm whose clients include Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) — one of Trump’s lead antagonists. (More on this in a minute.)

Did the extended gag order stop Trump? What do you think? He responded Tuesday morning on Truth Social.

I just was informed that another corrupt New York Judge, Juan Merchan, GAGGED me so that I can not talk about the corruption and conflicts taking place in his courtroom with respect to a case that everyone, including the D.A., felt should never have been brought. They can talk about me, but I can’t talk about them??? That sounds fair, doesn’t it? This Judge should be recused, and the case should be thrown out. There has virtually never been a more conflicted judge than this one. ELECTION INTERFERENCE at its worst!

MSNBC’s Nicole Wallace Gets Melodramatic Over Trump Criticizing Judge’s Anti-Trump Daughter

Another side effect of Trump Derangement Syndrome is that it can turn law-abiding citizens into litterbugs. Take MSNBC’s Nicole Wallace. She became so irate over the weekend at the notion of Trump pointing out Merchan’s conflict of interest that she threw her script the way basketball coach Bobby Knight used to throw chairs.

MSNBC' host's Nicole Wallace throws script live on air, slams Trump https://t.co/nUnLOVhblx

— Joe Peyronnin (@joepeyronnin) April 2, 2024

Funny how the camera was perfectly aimed to best capture her paper toss.

Here’s what Wallace didn’t tell her audience. (Perhaps it was written on her tossed script … in super small font … in an extinct language … and she just missed it.)

Loren Merchan didn’t just allegedly post an image of Trump behind bars. Merchan is president of Authentic Campaigns, a progressive political consulting firm. According to the New York Post, her clients have raised nearly $100 million in campaign funds using the case over which her father is presiding as part of their pitch. Adam Schiff has paid Merchan’s firm about $4 million as part of his campaign to get Trump, and he personally stands to gain politically from Trump’s legal demise. In fact, Schiff met with former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen, who is the key witness in the Daniels case, many times. Kamala Harris has also been an Authentic Campaigns client.

In other words, the judge’s family has a financial incentive for nailing Trump. And Trump isn’t supposed to complain about that?

Tossing papers? Appellate Courts ought to toss the book at Judge Merchan if he doesn’t recuse himself from the case.

By the way, there’s another family connection to be concerned about. According to research by Laura Loomer, Loren’s mother, Lara Merchan, was a Special Assistant Attorney General under … wait for it … current New York Attorney General Letitia James.

We can’t make this stuff up.

Witness: Fulton County’s 2020 Election Results Never Should Have Been Certified

Donald Trump is set to stand trial in Fulton County, Georgia, for challenging the state’s election results in 2020. Part of his beef was that Fulton County’s election was an unmitigated disaster, rife with corruption and incompetence. And now, Trump has gotten high-octane fuel for his case from Fulton County Election Board member Mark Wingate. During the recent court shenanigans concerning Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’s professional and personal improprieties as she seeks to bring a RICO case against Trump and his associates, Wingate testified that the county’s election results never should have been certified. One prime reason? The county’s 145,000 mail-in ballots did not have the necessary signature verification.

“I asked what did we do for signature verification?” Wingate testified, “And the comment I got back frankly floored me, ‘We didn’t do any.'”

According to Fulton County election records, 115,600 of the mail-in votes went to Joe Biden, and 29,506 to Trump. Keep in mind, the official margin of victory for Biden in Georgia was 11,779 votes.

Wingate also testified there was neither chain-of-custody documentation for the mail-in ballots, nor “any surveillance tape, an inch of footage delivered to the board” of the mail-in ballots or election dropboxes. The Elections Board wanted it, asked for it, but never got it, he said. Was that because the footage would show what Dinesh D’Souza later documented in his film 2000 Mules? Repeated instances of illegal ballot dumping?

🚨NEW: Mark Wingate, a Fulton County Elections Board member, testifies that he voted against certifying the 2020 election because the county did not verify the signatures on 147,000 mail-in ballots.

"I asked what did we do for signature verification? And the comment I got back… pic.twitter.com/pLeoT7WbZ4

— KanekoaTheGreat (@KanekoaTheGreat) April 2, 2024

Hunter Biden Loses Bid to Get Federal Tax Charges Thrown Out

At least the feds now seem a little more serious about holding Hunter Biden to account for his tax evasion. On Tuesday, federal judge Mark Scari rejected Hunter’s bid to have eight federal criminal tax charges dismissed.

Along The Stream

You want to talk about how far the Left will go to try and destroy those in its way? Have we got one for you to share on all your social media and email lists! John Zmirak has interviewed Stream contributor Mark Judge in “Perjury Victim Responds to Christine Blasey Ford’s New Book.” Judge also tells why he finally agreed to sit down for a Fox Nation special to talk about what he endured during U.S. Supreme Court Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearings a few years ago — and what he’s endured since.

You know how pop-up restaurants work? We’re trying a pop-up of our own the next couple weeks: “Al’s Afternoon Tea.” The plan is to serve some light fare of positive stories and breaking news, while still starting your mornings off right with the more robust news in The Brew. Please let us know what you think by emailing us at contactus@stream.flywheelstaging.com. Yesterday’s Tea was titled “Florida Upholds 15-Week Abortion Ban, While LSU Loses After Dissing Anthem.”

 

Al Perrotta is managing editor of The Stream, coauthor with John Zmirak of The Politically Incorrect Guide to Immigration and coauthor of the counterterrorism memoir Hostile Intent: Protecting Yourself Against Terrorism.