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Thread: Turns out he was a thief as well

  1. #1
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    Turns out he was a thief as well

    From The Times



    Stacy Blatt was in hospice care last September listening to Rush Limbaugh’s dire warnings about how badly Donald J. Trump’s campaign needed money when he went online and chipped in everything he could: $500.

    It was a big sum for a 63-year-old battling cancer and living in Kansas City on less than $1,000 per month. But that single contribution — federal records show it was his first ever — quickly multiplied. Another $500 was withdrawn the next day, then $500 the next week and every week through mid-October, without his knowledge — until Mr. Blatt’s bank account had been depleted and frozen. When his utility and rent payments bounced, he called his brother, Russell, for help.

    What the Blatts soon discovered was $3,000 in withdrawals by the Trump campaign in less than 30 days. They called their bank and said they thought they were victims of fraud.

    “It felt,” Russell said, “like it was a scam.”

    But what the Blatts believed was duplicity was actually an intentional scheme to boost revenues by the Trump campaign and the for-profit company that processed its online donations, WinRed. Facing a cash crunch and getting badly outspent by the Democrats, the campaign had begun last September to set up recurring donations by default for online donors, for every week until the election.

    Contributors had to wade through a fine-print disclaimer and manually uncheck a box to opt out.

    As the election neared, the Trump team made that disclaimer increasingly opaque, an investigation by The New York Times showed. It introduced a second prechecked box, known internally as a “money bomb,” that doubled a person’s contribution. Eventually its solicitations featured lines of text in bold and capital letters that overwhelmed the opt-out language.


    The tactic ensnared scores of unsuspecting Trump loyalists — retirees, military veterans, nurses and even experienced political operatives. Soon, banks and credit card companies were inundated with fraud complaints from the president’s own supporters about donations they had not intended to make, sometimes for thousands of dollars.

    “Bandits!” said Victor Amelino, a 78-year-old Californian, who made a $990 online donation to Mr. Trump in early September via WinRed. It recurred seven more times — adding up to almost $8,000. “I’m retired. I can’t afford to pay all that damn money.”

    The sheer magnitude of the money involved is staggering for politics. In the final two and a half months of 2020, the Trump campaign, the Republican National Committee and their shared accounts issued more than 530,000 refunds worth $64.3 million to online donors. All campaigns make refunds for various reasons, including to people who give more than the legal limit. But the sum the Trump operation refunded dwarfed that of Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s campaign and his equivalent Democratic committees, which made 37,000 online refunds totaling $5.6 million in that time.



    The recurring donations swelled Mr. Trump’s treasury in September and October, just as his finances were deteriorating. He was then able to use tens of millions of dollars he raised after the election, under the guise of fighting his unfounded fraud claims, to help cover the refunds he owed.

    In effect, the money that Mr. Trump eventually had to refund amounted to an interest-free loan from unwitting supporters at the most important juncture of the 2020 race.
    Grifter gonna grift.

  2. #2
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    Forgot to add, total refunds were $122 million. After they had wiped out a lot of supporters bank accounts, natch.

  3. #3
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    I don't find this surprising after having read Rage by Bob Woodward, Disloyal by Michael Cohen, and The Room Where it Happened by John Bolton.

    I think its sad when we feel we have to vote against instead of for.
    Dave

    Today is un-returnable !

  4. #4
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    On reflection its quite possible Trump knew nothing of what whoever actually composed the donation form did, but Hey, the buck stops with him.
    Dave

    Today is un-returnable !

  5. #5
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    Dave. I'm pretty sure that he would have no problems with that clause whether he knew about it before or after.
    "The only thing that we learn from torture is the depths of our own moral depravity"

  6. #6
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    Based on what I've read about him I agree, just don't know if he would have thought of it himself. Somehow he doesn't come across, to me anyway, as devious enough.
    Dave

    Today is un-returnable !

  7. #7
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    He just keeps on giving
    "A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity, an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty” ---Sir Winston Churchill
    "Political extremism involves two prime ingredients: an excessively simple diagnosis of the world's ills, and a conviction that there are identifiable villains back of it all." ---John W. Gardner
    “You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending.” ---C. S. Lewis

  8. #8
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    Quote Originally Posted by Ferraridriver View Post
    I think its sad when we feel we have to vote against instead of for.
    Describes me for the last two elections. And, it is sad. I should be voting for the best instead of voting against the worst.

    Hunter
    I don't care if it hurts. I want to have control. I want a perfect body. I want a perfect soul. - Creep by Radiohead

  9. #9
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    And now they are issuing threats against those who want out of the continuing grift

    https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/...t-16084749.php
    "The only thing that we learn from torture is the depths of our own moral depravity"

  10. #10
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    Why does the Barnum & Bailey Circus come to mind?

  11. #11
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    Quote Originally Posted by Phillbo View Post
    Why does the Barnum & Bailey Circus come to mind?
    I thought they went out of business but now I find out that they relocated to Washington DC.
    OPINION....a view or judgment formed about something, not necessarily based on fact or knowledge.

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