Focus on the Felons
Trump's dogs of war are having MAGAsms. The breakdown of the social order is the whole point for now. Are they also planning the next insurrection?
“With Lincoln, they had a team of rivals. With Trump, you have a team of felons.” — Presidential historian Douglas Brinkley
In an organized crime family, being a made man is the mark of the true initiate.
These seven individuals are made men in a very particular crime family. More than that, they hold perhaps the ultimate credential with their boss, the President of the United States.
All of them committed serious crimes on President Donald Trump’s behalf, including witness tampering, money laundering, lying to the FBI, bank fraud conspiracy, criminal contempt of Congress, and seditious conspiracy to overthrow the federal government.
Each was convicted in court and sentenced to federal prison, yet remained steadfast and loyal. On regaining the Presidency, Donald Trump pardoned all of them. He commuted the sentences of those still incarcerated and ordered them freed.
These men have all made their bones and are still in it bone-deep. Several have roles in Trump’s new administration; the activities of others are well-hidden.
So what are they doing now? What’s out in the open and what’s happening sub rosa?
Most crucially, what if anything are their roles in planning for another insurrection?
The Messianics
Steve Bannon is a skilled provacateur and a self-described populist revolutionary. He has one foot firmly in Trumpworld, where he remains close to the President after serving as his chief strategist and senior counselor. He is also plugged in across the far-right fringe. Bannon’s WarRoom podcast is an essential touchstone.
Bannon served four months in prison last year for refusing to appear before the House select committee investigating January 6. He also pled guilty to felony fraud involving a “Build the Wall” fundraising scam.
Lt. General Michael Thomas Flynn (Ret.) is Trump’s disgraced former National Security Advisor and a former director of the Defense Intelligence Agency. Trump pardoned Flynn for making false statements to the FBI about Flynn’s conversations with the Russian Ambassador to the United States.
Gen. Flynn’s mindset is best described as apocalyptic; he actually pledged an oath to the QAnon conspiracy on July 4, 2020.
Flynn recently said that with Trump back in the White House, “believe me, the gates of hell — my hell — will be unleashed.”
According to Wikipedia, Flynn has also become a prominent leader in the Christian nationalist movement, organizing and recruiting for what he characterizes as a spiritual and political war.
Trump just appointed Flynn to a largely honorary post on the Board of Overseers at West Point. His current day job is a little obscure but sounds like consulting.
If, however, things ever degenerate to the point that there is another attempt, this time backed by elements of the military, to forcibly seize power, don’t be surprised to see Gen. Flynn backstage pulling strings.
Peter Navarro, Trump’s former Trade Advisor and current tarriff czar, is the anomaly on this list, having only been convicted of misdemeanors.
Like Steve Bannon, Navarro refused to honor a subpoena from the January 6 Select Committee over his role in attempting to overturn the results of the 2020 Presidential election. Navarro was convicted on two counts of criminal contempt of Congress and served four months in prison.
I refer to him as Trump’s “demolition man” for taking a proverbial chainsaw to the global economy. The only other Trump associates who have wreaked similar havoc in the past 100 days are Elon Musk and Stephen Miller, neither of whom has yet been charged with a crime.
The Sharp End of the Stick
1,583 people were ultimately arrested, and 1,270 convicted, in connection with the violent events at the nation’s capitol on January 6, 2021. All of them were pardoned en masse by Donald Trump.
Only ten individuals were charged and convicted of the most serious charge possible, seditious conspiracy to overthrow the government, the peacetime equivalent of treason. (Four others pled guilty to that charge, bringing the total to 14.)
These were the individuals who planned and coordinated the assault. They had a weapons storehouse, communications infrastructure, and tactical gear. They drilled on military attack formations. They were at the forefront of assaulting the police, forcing their way into the capitol, and desecrating the building.
They were there to stop the orderly transfer of power from Donald Trump to Joseph Biden by any means necessary.
Six of the ten were high-ranking members of the Oath Keepers, including their leader, Stewart Rhodes, along with Kelly Meggs, Roberto Minuta, Edward Vallejo, David Moerschel, and Joseph Hackett.
The other four were Proud Boys, including their founder and leader, Enrique Tarrio, plus Ethan Nordean, Joseph Biggs, and Zachary Rell.
Question: Where are these people now and what are they doing? Are any of them, or their pardoned comrades, preparing to be shock troops for the next coup attempt?
The Trickster and the Bagman
After five decades as the GOP’s dark prince of sleaze, dating all the way back to Tricky Dick, Roger Stone is unquestionably a master of the dark arts. Stone, who calls himself a political hit man, is one of Donald Trump’s oldest and closest co-conspirators and confidants, going back more than 30 years.
Like many Trump cronies, Stone also likes to feather his own nest. According to his most recent lobbying disclosure, Stone was just retained to the tune of $600,000 by the fugitive crypto kingpin Roger Ver, who faces a potential life sentence over $48 million in unpaid taxes. By sheer coincidence, Stone’s website The StoneZone now explains, “Why Roger Ver Deserves A Presidential Pardon.”
Paul Manafort has had a checkered career as lobbyist extraordinaire to global despots including Ferdinand Marcos in the Philippines, Mobutu Sese Seko in Zaire, the Angolan guerrilla leader Jonas Savimbi, and the anti-immigrant French politician Marine Le Pen.
He and Roger Stone were joined at the hip as business partners 45 years ago.
Manafort served briefly as chairman of Trump’s 2016 Presidential campaign. He was indicted the following year on multiple charges arising from his consulting work for the then pro-Russian government of Viktor Yanukovych in Ukraine.
Donald Trump pardoned Manafort, who was serving an eight-year prison term on multiple charges, in December 2020, in one of the last acts of his first term as President.
As The New York Times reported four months ago:
Four years after receiving a pardon from President Donald J. Trump for crimes related to foreign lobbying, Paul Manafort is again seeking business from political interests abroad.
Mr. Manafort, who led Mr. Trump’s 2016 campaign for a few months, has assembled a team of consultants who helped run Mr. Trump’s 2024 effort and is looking to advise campaigns for opposition and far-right political factions in Latin America and Europe, according to documents and interviews.
To borrow a turn of phrase from Rachel Maddow, Manafort may be Trump’s new bagman.
Art—Well done, well done! Well researched and clearly and succinctly presented. That’s a pro job. Gino