TRUMP: He Is Who He Appears To Be

The depth and breadth of the crimes and malfeasances of the 45th President of the United States are staggering and overwhelming when attempting to look at them as a whole. He blatantly lies, distorts facts, and intentionally turns law enforcement agencies and the media into enemies to discredit their findings and satisfy his base.

Trump’s capacity for committing what seem to be daily behavioral and legal offenses is mind boggling, and puts enormous pressure on the press who struggles to keep up with his 24-hour news cycle, instead of being able to shine a spotlight on each deserving scandal.

What is even more remarkable is that when breaking his multitude of derelictions down into more easily digested categories, that research reveals even more areas where he has committed either actual crimes, or demonstrated a shocking level of moral decay. One thing leads to many others.

So, rather than attempt to address the entirety of his corruption, let’s examine his categories of behavior one at a time — any single item of which would have been enough to bring any other President down.

PART ONE: SEXUAL MISCONDUCT: Grab ’Em By The Pussy

Reports of Trump’s sexual misconduct date back to 1989 when his then wife Ivana Trump accused him of rape in divorce proceedings, and continue all the way to the present.

To date, 22 women have come forward to allege sexual abuse, sexual assault, or inappropriate sexual conduct.

Overall, Trump’s sexual misconduct display an attitudes that because he is rich and famous, he is entitled to treat women in any way that he deems fit. This warped viewpoint was never more apparent than in the 2005 Access Hollywood tapes that caught an off-camera Access Hollywood conversation between he and Billy Bush, first reported in the Washington Post, the transcripts of which can be found here: http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-pol-trump-bush-transcript-20161007-snap-htmlstory.html

“I’ve got to use some Tic Tacs, just in case I start kissing her. You know I’m automatically attracted to beautiful — I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. I just kiss. I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything…Grab them by the pussy. You can do anything.”

You can do anything. This viewpoint manifested itself in three different areas of sexual abuse: Beauty Pageants, Business Encounters, and Extramarital Affairs.

Trump’s abuse of women through his position of power as owner of Miss USA, Miss Teen USA, and Miss Universe, has resulted in five women coming forward to complain about his actions in this venue. (Sourced from The Washington Post, The Guardian, Independent U.K., Vox, The Atlantic, Buzzfeed, CBS, and NBC)

*Maria Billado: a former Miss Vermont Teen USA said that in 1997, Trump walked in on the Miss Teen USA pageant contestants while they were changing and, as the girls hurriedly dressed, told them not to worry because he had seen it all before.

*Victoria Hughes: former Miss New Mexico, and oldest person at age 19 at the 1997 Miss Teen USA, confirms Maria Billado’s account by saying that Trump made a sudden appearance where she described “the timing of the entrance could’ve been better and less awkward for all of us.”

*Bridget Sullivan: Miss New Hampshire in the 2000 Miss Teen USA Pageant, said that Trump approached her and hugged her too low on her back, and gave her “a squeeze like a creepy uncle would.” She also reiterated the pattern that Trump would walk through the dressing rooms while girls were naked and changing.

*Tasha Dixon: told CBS News that she met Trump in the 2001 Miss USA pageant as Miss Arizona. She said that Trump would visit the women’s dressing room while the contestants were changing. He would just barge in leaving women no time to dress, and that many were topless. She also claimed that people who worked for Trump instructed the girls to fawn over him, talk to him, and try to get his attention.

*Samantha Holvey: Miss North Carolina at the 2006 Miss USA Pageant said that Trump would personally “inspect” all the contestants before the competition. This would involve him having all the girls line up so that he could look them up and down.

My sources confirm that the “Trump Inspection” of the girls was something that was actually put in the production schedule as part of the day’s events during rehearsal.

A business meeting with Trump, or a chance encounter, did not result in any more safety for the women involved. His pattern is to either, grab them by the hand and pull them into an unwanted and unexpected aggressive kiss, or to lure them to a more private setting where he could pursue them aggressively.

Fifteen women have come forward with accusations of improper sexual conduct in this environment, if you include Ivana Trump’s accusations from her divorce suit.

*Jessica Leeds: in 1979, Trump attacked her while seated next to her on an airplane. 45 minutes into the flight, he lifted the armrest and began a series of unwanted physical actions. He grabbed her breasts and tried to put his hands up her skirt. She fled to the back of the plane for the rest of the flight to avoid him. This story, according to the New York Times, was corroborated by at least four people close to her.

She had another encounter with him in 1981 or 1982 at a gala fundraiser while working for the New York Humane Society. Trump and Ivana approached her table. He looked at her and said, “I remember you. You’re that cunt from the airplane.” (DemocracyNow.org)

*Kristin Anderson: was having drinks with friends at a Manhattan night club in the early 1990’s, when the person sitting next to her suddenly slid his fingers under her skirt, moved them up her thigh, and touched her vagina through her underwear. When she looked at him, she recognized him as Trump. This story was corroborated by her friends Kelly Steadman and photographer Brad Trent.

*Jill Harth: She and her business and romantic partner first met Trump in 1992 regarding a business proposal. At that meeting, Trump tried to grope her under the table. In 1993 she said Trump overpowered her and pulled her into a bedroom at Mar-a-Lago, tried to get his hands up her dress, and lay down on top of her. Then at a business meeting at Mar-a-Lago in 1993, Trump cornered her in his daughter’s bedroom grabbed her and tried kissing her and putting his hands all over her. She had purposely worn pants because of his previous behavior.

*Temple Taggart McDowell: Was Miss Utah in the 1997 Miss USA pageant where Trump kissed her and offered to help her get modeling contracts. When she visited Trump Tower to discuss modeling contracts, he embraced her and kissed her on the lips very inappropriately. This occurred in front of two chaperones that became so uncomfortable that they advised McDowell never to go into any room with Trump alone again.

*Cathy Heller: Was introduced to Trump at Mar-a-Lago in 1997 or 1998 at a Mother’s Day Brunch. She claims Trump shook her hand and wouldn’t let go, then pulled her in and kissed her inappropriately on the lips.

*Lisa Boyne: In 1996 was invited by her friend Sonja Morgan to dinner with Trump and famed modeling agent John Casablancas. Trump and Morgan picked Boyne up at her apartment. She said the whole conversation in the limo was about Trump boasting of his sexual prowess and rating the two women’s attractiveness. At the restaurant, several models were made to walk across the tables so Trump could look up their skirts and comment on whether or not they were wearing underwear, as well as their genitalia.

*Karena Virginia: Claimed that Trump harassed and groped her in 1998 at the U.S. Open Tennis Tournament, while they were waiting for their cars. She said he grabbed her arm and touched her breast. When she recoiled, he said “Don’t you know who I am?” then made vulgar comments about her body to a group of nearby men.

*Mindy McGillivray: was groped by Trump at Mar-a-Lago in 2003 during a photo shoot at a Ray Charles concert. He forcibly grabbed her butt while she was standing next to Trump and his fiancée at the time Melania. Ken Davidoff, the official photographer of the event, who had brought McGillivray along to assist, corroborated the story.

*Natasha Stoynoff: In 2005, while interviewing Trump for People Magazine, he lured her into a Mar-a-Lago room and forcibly kissed her and did not relent until a butler arrived to inform Trump that Melania was on her way in for the interview. Natasha said that after the interview, he resumed his advances, all the while bragging about his sexual abilities and claiming that they would indeed have an affair. This account was corroborated by five people connected with Natasha.

*Rachel Crooks: In 2005, Rachel was a 22-year-old receptionist at Bayrock Group (a company that will make another appearance in later articles under the heading Organized Crime and the Russian Mob), when she introduced herself to Trump. He shook her hand and wouldn’t let go, then pulled her into him and kissed her directly on the lips.

*Summer Zervos: In 2005, Summer met Trump while a contestant on The Apprentice, where he kissed her on the lips in his New York Office. In 2007, she met with Trump at the Beverly Hills Hotel about getting a job in the Trump Organization. Trump’s security guard led her to a hotel bungalow where he forcibly kissed her, put his hands on her breasts, and pressed his genitals against her. She rebuffed him. Summer Zervos still has an outstanding defamation lawsuit pending against Trump.

*Nikki Laaksonen: a former Miss Finland, said the Trump grabbed her on the bottom when they were backstage on the Late Show With David Letterman in 2006. She was standing right next to him when he “really grabbed my butt.” She was appearing on the show with other Miss Universe contestants.

*Cassandra Searles: a former Miss Washington 2013 said in a Facebook post that Trump repeatedly grabbed her butt and invited her to his hotel room. She also complained that Trump would have all the girls come out, and line them up so he could “get a closer look at his property.”

*Jane Doe: This one stands alone because it involves the alleged rape of a 13- year-old girl in 1994 (Newsweek). In a lawsuit filed in 2016, by “Jane Doe,” she claimed that Trump went to a party with billionaire and registered sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, and raped her in a “savage sexual attack.” The account was corroborated by a witness in the suit who claimed to have watched as the child was forced to perform various sex acts on Trump and Epstein, even after they were informed that she was a minor.

Jane Doe claimed, “immediately following this rape, Defendant Trump threatened me that, were I ever to reveal any of the details of Defendant Trump’s sexual and physical abuse of me, my family and I would be physically harmed if not killed.”

The lawsuit was dropped by Jane Doe shortly thereafter in November 2016, four days before the election, citing “numerous threats” against her.

It should be noted that Jeffrey Epstein is a notorious sex offender and pedophile who owns an island off of St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands that is referred to by locals as “Pedophile Island.”

Trump’s appearances on the Howard Stern Show over 17 years also confirm many of these accusations by his own words. The two would engage in very crude and demeaning conversations about women, even to the extent that he discussed his own daughter Ivanka’s physical attributes and allowed Stern to call her “a piece of ass.”

Trump confirmed with Stern that he would barge in unannounced on beauty contestants while they were getting dressed.

“I’ll go backstage before a show and everyone’s getting dressed and ready…no men are anywhere. And I’m allowed to go in because I’m the owner of the pageant. And therefore, I’m inspecting it. You know I’m inspecting it…they’re standing there with no clothes…and you see these incredible looking women. And so I sort of get away with things like that.”

No discussion of Trump’s unwanted sexual advances would be complete without a foray into the area of porn stars.

*Jessica Drake: A porn star and sex educator said that she attended a 2006 golf tournament in Lake Tahoe with Stormy Daniels that was also attended by Trump. Drake claims that Trump grabbed her and two other women tightly, and kissed them on the lips without permission. He then offered Drake $10,000 and the use of his private plane if she would come back to his room with him and go with him to a party.

Interesting note to the Jessica Drake encounter is that, according to CNN, a week later a woman named Angel Ryan was listed in a secret negotiated settlement by Trump’s personal attorney because she had “confidential information” about the then-Republican nominee. According to CNN, Drake and Angel Ryan are the same person. Jessica Drake, aka Angel Ryan may also be one of the four people listed in the Stormy Daniels lawsuit against Trump in a section dealing with “prior disclosures” of “confidential information.”

Okay here we go with the headliner.

*Stormy Daniels aka Stephanie Clifford: If you haven’t heard by now, Stormy Daniels is the professional name of adult film star and director, Stephanie Clifford. According to Business Insider, Daniels met Trump, along with Jessica Drake, at a celebrity golf tournament in Lake Tahoe in 2006. Shortly thereafter, Clifford and Trump began an affair while Trump was married to Melania, who had just given birth to son Barron.

Trump and the White House have emphatically denied this affair, which is interesting because —

In 2016, before the election, Trump’s personal lawyer Michael Cohen paid $130,000 out of his own pocket to keep Stormy quiet about the affair. The affair that, according to Trump, did not occur. Cohen had initially denied the existence of any payment.

In the agreement to keep Daniel’s quiet, Daniels was listed by the pseudonym Peggie Peterson, and Trump as David Dennison. The Agreement confirms the amount paid to Daniels, and was routed through Cohen’s company, Essential Consultants, LLC. The agreement made it very clear that both had given up the right to resolve disputes outside of private arbitration. It also called for a $1 million payment per breach of the agreement.

This is a whole lot of legal procedures for an affair that never happened.

In January 2018, the story of the hush money broke. Cohen claimed that “neither the Trump Organization nor the Trump Campaign was a party to the transaction with Ms. Clifford, and neither reimbursed me for the payment either directly or indirectly…the payment…was not a campaign contribution or a campaign expenditure by anyone.”

Daniel’s manager said Cohen’s admission invalidates a non-disclosure agreement that Daniels’s had signed.

In March 2018, Daniels files suit against Trump, arguing that he never signed his part of the agreement. She also claims that attempts to “intimidate Ms. Clifford into silence and shut her up in order to protect Mr. Trump continue unabated.”

Meanwhile Trump’s team claims that an arbitration ruling issued by an arbitrator that Cohen’s company Essential Consultants provided, issued a temporary restraining order prohibiting Daniels from disclosing confidential information.

The argument becomes about signatures. Trump did not sign the agreement as either himself or as David Dennison, but rather, the agreement was instead

initialed by Essential Consultants. Daniels’ attorney claims this renders the agreement legally null and void, and claim that Cohen’s public comments on the agreement also render the agreement null and void.

Legal experts are mixed on the case, but many say that Cohen is in trouble because the case implicates him in legal misconduct. The Cohen quote in the NYT in February that “Neither the Trump organization nor the Trump campaign was a party to the transaction with Ms. Clifford…” suggests he conducted substantial business on behalf of Trump without his knowledge. (Vox)

George Washington University professor Jonathan Turley states that if Trump had no knowledge of the payment on behalf of him, and it was offered without consulting, or consent, from the client, that is a clear ethical breach. Cohen could face censure or disbarment for making Daniels sign a false statement denying the affair.

Common Cause, a campaign finance watchdog group, has claimed that the hush money payment was made in service of Trump’s campaign, because it silenced a controversy that could’ve hurt his election prospects. That makes the hush money an illegal, undisclosed campaign contribution.

If the money really is Cohen’s, then that would be an illegal large gift, in addition to the illegality of keeping that illegal large gift secret.

In addition, Daniels’ lawyer Michael Avenatti claimed on March 16 that his client was “physically threatened to stay silent about what she knew about Donald Trump.” He also said that six more women have come forward alleging sexual relationships with Trump, including some who also claim to have signed NDA’s. (CNN Interview)

Per CBS News, Cohen used the Trump Organization email to arrange the transfer of funds to a bank account for Daniels, and received a confirmation email from First Republic Bank that “the funds have been deposited into your checking account” — and that email was addressed to Cohen’s Trump Organization address. Cohen then forwarded this email, then the whole exchange to Keith Davidson (Clifford’s Attorney at the time). Cohen, at that point, had already missed several deadlines to pay Clifford.

Avenatti also claimed on CNN on 3/16 that some of the accusations that Daniels is making occurred actually during the Trump Presidency.

It is, to this day, Trump’s position that every single one of these women is lying.

Yet it is striking how similar the sexual assaults are, when examined over the period of several decades. A introduction, either by chance or a business meeting, results in a handshake which is then forcibly pulled closer so that Trump can aggressively kiss and physically assault women who think they are just being introduced to him, or perhaps having a legitimate business meeting.

He considers women his property, as is the case in several instances of abuse of beauty pageant contestants, and as demonstrated in the Access Hollywood tapes, he feels he has a right to sexual congress with any women because he is famous.

• Since posting this, another woman has come forward: Karen McDougal, a former Playboy Playmate who claims to have had a 9 month affair with Trump in 2006. She sold her story to the National Enquirer, who paid her $150,000. The National Enquirer then killed the story. McDougal is now suing the National Enquirer to release her from the agreement that restricts her from speaking out about her affair with Trump. https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/20/politics/karen-mcdougal-donald-trump/index.html

This is part one of a series that will examine the extent and depth of Trump’s criminal and moral transgressions with the hope that, taken as a whole, they will demonstrate someone not only completely inadequate for the office of The President of the United States, but a man so morally bereft and criminally active that he should be subject to immediate prosecution.

Future explorations will include: Conspiracy and Collusion With Russia, Fraud, Organized Crime and the Russian Mob, The Very Best People, Attacking Democratic Institutions, and many others.

forrestbrakeman.com