The Latest Frazzledrip Is Another Casualty Of Truth And Justice
Republican bloviating about a Democratic Justice Department conspiracy to get trump ranks right up there with space lasers, pedophile pizza parlors, Frazzledrip and of course, the voter fraud conspiracy.
There are no space lasers, no baby-eating pedophiles, no Frazzledrip and no voter fraud conspiracy. And no Justice Department conspiracy, just a string of unrelated issues that looks better to conspiracists when joined together.
Trying to debunk conspiracy claims is as futile as spitting in the wind, playing Whack-a-mole, rolling a stone uphill like Sisyphus, barking at the moon, beating a dead dog or a dead horse, fighting a losing battle, chasing rainbows, tilting at windmills or even shoeing a goose, something that is pretty much impossible.
By means of explanation, Frazzledrip is a QAnon conspiracy that emerged from the muck in 20018. It claimed that an “extreme snuff film” was recovered from the laptop of the disgraced, former Rep. Anthony Weiner, R-N.Y. “Frazzled.rip” was the name of a supposed folder in Weiner’s computer that contained the photos showing former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Huma Abedin, a close Clinton aide and Weiner’s wife, raping and murdering a young girl.
Enough on Frazzledrip. There’s another equally otherworldly conspiracy claim making the rounds among those willing to immerse themselves in the muck and mire. It involves trump’s recent conviction on dozens of charges of faking business records to keep the voters from knowing of his sexcapades with Stormy Daniels. Here’s how it goes.
A unanimous Manhattan jury on May 30 found trump guilty of all 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. The case was brought by the Manhattan district attorney’s office.
FANTASY: The trumpers claim that Judge Juan Merchan, hearing evidence in the hush money trial, told New York jurors the verdict in trump’s trial does not need to be unanimous.
REALITY: On May 29, Merchan gave the jury instructions for their deliberation, which are posted online. He told jurors that to find trump guilty, they must agree unanimously on two things: That Trump falsified business records and that he did so intending to commit a separate crime. Merchan said jurors did not have to agree unanimously on what the separate crime was that trump intended to commit. Merchan was simply repeating standard criminal law.
Duncan P. Levin, a New York-based lawyer, explained that the jurors had to be unanimous on the elements of the crime, specifically that trump “caused business records to be filed (and) intended to conceal election by unlawful means.” Jurors did not have to be unanimous on the means used to commit the crime.
In other words, Levin said. “Someone can be convicted of murder even if the jurors disagree about the type of murder weapon.”
Predictably, the social media right wing, reporting on a relatively complicated issue, got it wrong.
“Judge Merchan has instructed the jury they do not need to have a UNANIMOUS verdict in order to convict former President Donald J. Trump,” former Fox News writer and producer Kyle Becker wrote on X.
“This is insane,” the conservative End Wokeness X account posted a few minutes later to its 2.5 million followers. “New York Judge Merchan just told jurors that they DO NOT have to unanimously agree on what crime Trump is guilty of.”
Other social media posts, including from trump supporter, Steve Bannon, also claimed the jury verdict did not have to be unanimous. The posts echoed a trump lie that he made May 26 on Truth Social that said Merchan imparted “FAKE options for the jury to choose from, without requiring them to be unanimous, which is completely UNAMERICAN AND UNCONSTITUTIONAL.”
FANTASY: Merchan “overrules every objection from the defense and sustains every objection from the prosecution.”
REALITY: Merchan didn’t overrule all defense objections and sustain all prosecution objections. Trial transcripts also show that throughout the trial, Merchan regularly sustained and overruled objections from prosecution and defense lawyers. During closing arguments by trump’s lawyer, Merchan sustained at least three objections from the defense and overruled at least two objections from the prosecution.
FANTASY: Merchan had it out for trump, and even prevented trump from attending his son Barron’s high school graduation. Trump said the judge was “highly conflicted” and “trump hating.”
REALITY: Merchan hadn’t yet set a trial schedule when trump claimed he would be blocked from his son’s graduation. Merchan later set trial dates and court proceedings were paused to allow trump to attend.
The reality again didn’t get in the way of lies.
On May 28, before the verdict came, Fox News host Jesse Watters spoke with Alina Habba, a lawyer with the trump defense team.
“So, we’re hearing from inside the court — and you can confirm this — every time defense raises an objection, overruled,” Watters said to Habba.
“Overruled,” Habba agreed.
FANTASY: Trump claims he was tried as a “political prisoner.” “Victory on November 5th!” trump wrote on Truth Social after the jury read its verdict. “Save America!!!” Trump spoke to reporters briefly after the verdict and his campaign sent out an email, declaring, “Breaking from Trump: I am a political prisoner!”
REALITY: Political prisoners are targeted specifically for their political beliefs or activities. There were no signs that trump’s trial was unfair or that he was held without due process, which are commonly the plights of political prisoners. Trump was not tortured or mistreated, he had lawyers and a right to appeal. Political prisoners are mistreated, misrepresented and have no route to appeal.
Trump was not imprisoned for participating in protests or for expressing dissenting opinions, and he has not suffered any mistreatment of human rights violations.
FANTASY: Trump told reporters that the trial “was done by the Biden administration in order to wound or hurt an opponent, a political opponent.” He also called Merchan “the devil.”
REALITY: The Manhattan district attorney’s office started investigating trump in 2018, even before Biden was the Democratic presidential nominee. District Attorney Alvin Bragg filed charges in 2023. Trump’s fighting a subpoena lengthened the timeline.
Trump also said evidence of Biden’s influence was seen by Bragg’s hiring Matthew Colangelo, a former Justice Department prosecutor. More likely, Colangelo was brought on board because he previously worked for the New York attorney general and investigated the Trump Foundation and was familiar with trump’s businesses and financial dealings. It is not unusual for prosecutors to move among federal, state and local offices.
FANTASY: Trump told reporters that Bragg was backed by George Soros, a liberal Jewish billionaire and the frequent target of criticism from conservatives and anti-Semites.
REALITY: The link between Soros and Bragg is indirect. Soros donated $1 million in May 2021 to “Color of Change,” a progressive racial justice group that endorsed Bragg and pledged to spend more than $1 million supporting his campaign. “Color of Change” supported not just Bragg but also other progressive district attorney candidates. Soros has long supported prosecutors who seek to reform the criminal justice system. While campaigning, Bragg called for reforms to a system that he said includes a separate standard of justice for the rich and powerful than for everyone else.
FANTASY: Trump told reporters that he was “not allowed to testify” because of an “unconstitutional gag order. He said his lawyers are appealing the gag order. The next day, trump told reporters that he was not actually banned from testifying but that he was stopped “from talking about people and responding when they say things about me.” The confusion and damages from trump’s initial misstatements were already planted.
REALITY: A gag order did not prevent trump from testifying in court. The gag order issued by the judge on April 1 banned trump from attacking witnesses away from the court and from talking about jurors in the case. Trump could have taken the stand and earlier insisted that he would but in the end, he chose not to testify.
Merchan told Trump that the gag order “does not prohibit you from taking the stand” and that it applies only to “extrajudicial statements” made outside of the court. The gag order did not stop trump from criticizing Bragg or Merchan.
FANTASY: Trump’s attorneys argued that Merchan should recuse himself because he was conflicted because his daughter was paid for political consulting work, which included the 2020 Biden campaign and now-Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign. The lawyers also wanted Merchan to explain why he had donated $15 to the Biden campaign in 2020.
Merchan’s daughter, Loren Merchan, was the director of digital persuasion for Kamala Harris’ 2020 presidential campaign. She also worked, indirectly, for the Biden-Harris 2020 campaign through a communications firm that provides services for progressive campaigns.
Merchan was assigned the case based on a rotation system responsible for assigning judges. Judicial experts told the Associated Press that “the daughter’s employment by Democrats is an insufficient basis for recusal” and “the political views of the judge’s children [are not] a basis to recuse.”
Merchan solicited a recommendation from the New York State Advisory Committee on Judicial Ethics. The committee concluded that “the judge’s impartiality cannot reasonably be questioned based on the judge’s relative’s business and/or political activities.”
Attorney General Merrick Garland tried to inject a semblance of sanity when he accused Republicans of spreading conspiracy theories by suggesting the Justice Department was involved in trump’s conviction.
Garland spoke before the House Judiciary Committee and linked conspiracy theories to increased violence and threats against judges and other officials. He pointed to trump’s unfounded claim that the Justice Department gave law enforcement the green light to assassinate him during a search for classified documents at Mar-a-Lago. The document trump referred to actually bars the FBI from using deadly force unless there is an imminent threat of danger, and the Justice Department intentionally planned the search for when trump would not be at Mar-a-Lago.
Rather than tone down their talk of conspiracies, Republicans have gotten even worse, falling over each other to be in front of the line supporting trump. Those who criticized trump and not the court did it at their own peril.
The College Republican National Committee was hardly radical when it tweeted that the trump convictions were a “politically motivated prosecution” but that “a verdict was handed down by jurors whose decisions were made in accordance with our criminal justice system. As such, the outcome of the trial should be respected. Just like the decision of voters on November 5th.”
The basically milk toast comments brought out the ire of Chris LaCivita, a vile trump mouthpiece, who responded with great class that “opinions are like a — holes…everyone has one.”
Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., a staunch Trump ally, is under investigation by the House for having sex with underage girls. Gaetz said the comments by the College Republican National Committee were “a horrendously bad take. The verdict should be condemned as a stain on our nation and our justice system. It was the outgrowth of a rigged, corrupt process.”
Senate Republicans ignored the constitutional separation of the legislative and judicial branches of government and warned Merchan not to sentence trump to prison or house arrest or take any other action that could disrupt trump’s ability to campaign.
Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, a senior member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said it would be a “further abuse of power” to incarcerate Trump or sentence him to home confinement. Sen. Ted Budd, R-N.C., said it would be “foolish” and “unconstitutional” for the judge to sentence trump to jail or house arrest and that a strict sentence “would only strengthen the resolve of the Americans to support President Trump.”
And the beat goes on as three trump more allies were charged, this time in Wisconsin, over a “fake electors” scheme. Kenneth Chesebro, James Troupis and Michael Roman , trump allies who were involved in his 2020 campaign, were charged in state court with a single count of forgery, a low-level felony.
Following the election, the three men were involved in a scheme to send slates of pro-trump electors to Congress in battleground states that trump had lost to Biden. The scheme ultimately spanned seven states.
Roman allegedly helped coordinate the efforts in multiple states alongside Chesebro and called for a tracker to be made of the individuals who would sign the documents, intended to be sent to Congress for counting on Jan. 6, 2021.
Wisconsin is the fifth state to bring charges against individuals involved in the “fake elector” scheme, though trump allies sought to execute the plan in seven battleground states. Prosecutors previously brought charges in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan and Nevada. The attorney general in New Mexico said the state’s laws prevent criminal prosecution there, and Pennsylvania’s top prosecutor at the time made similar remarks.
The majority, but not all Republicans in Kentucky as well as around the nation, came out unconditionally in support of trump. One outlier was Kentucky state Sen. Whitney Westerfield of Fruit Hill, who had the audacity to remark, “The courts function as they should, and a jury decided the outcome, for better or worse. We absolutely cannot risk further eroding confidence in our justice system.”
Westerfield’s term ends early next year and he is not running for reelection.
“What happens when our courts join the elections on the ash heap of things that a large swath of Americans no longer trust?” Westerfield asked. “It’s a scary place for us to be headed toward and I think we owe an allegiance to the truth — even if the truth is not what we want to hear.”
Another Republican voice in the wilderness was Larry Hogan, the Republican Senate candidate in Maryland, who dared Americans to “respect the verdict” against trump.
“Regardless of the result, I urge all Americans to respect the verdict and the legal process. At this dangerously divided moment in our history, all leaders — regardless of party — must not pour fuel on the fire with more toxic partisanship. We must reaffirm what has made this nation great: the rule of law,” said Hogan, a moderate Republican and former Maryland governor.
The tepid comments were enough to enrage Lara trump, the co-chair of the Republican National Committee and trump’s daughter-in-law. She said that Hogan “doesn’t deserve the respect of anyone in the Republican Party at this point, and quite frankly anybody in America, if that’s the way you feel.”
LaCivita tweeted to Hogan, “You just ended your campaign.”
Republicans in competitive districts chose their words carefully, walking a tightrope not to offend voters who may be unsure of their support for the GOP.
“Everybody has to do what they think is wise,” said Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb. Bacon represents a district that Biden won by 6 percentage points in 2020. “I don’t know if there’s a right or wrong answer. Everybody has to do it their own way and make their own judgment.”
Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer, R-Ore., also in a close campaign, commented without commenting.
“It’s disappointing that the national narrative continues overshadowing the kitchen table issues Oregon families are facing every day,” Chave-Deremer said.
Other Republican lawmakers who have yet to publicly comment include five representatives from California, Mike Garcia, Michelle Steel, David Valadao, John Duarte and Young Kim; Rep. Tom Kean Jr., R- N.J., Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa. and David Schweikert, R-Ariz.
In 2021, 10 Republicans learned the reality of trump’s power and wrath after they joined Democrats to charge trump for the “incitement of insurrection” for his role in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol with a final vote of 232–197.
The dissenting Republicans included:
Rep. John Katko, R-N.Y., served in Congress from 2015 until 2023, after he chose not to run for re-election. Katko also was one of nine House Republicans who voted to hold trump confidante, Steve Bannon, in contempt of Congress.
Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., was in Congress from 2011 to 2023, when he also chose not to run for another term. Kinzinger also called for Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., a strong trump supporter, to resign while he was being investigated on sex trafficking charges. Kinzinger and 34 other Republican House members voted to create a National Commission to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol Complex, intended to probe the U.S. Capitol attack.
Rep. Jamie Herrera Beutler, R-Wash., was elected in 2011 and went on to be re-elected five times. In 2023, Beutler lost in the GOP primary after she testified as a witness in trump’s Senate trial, which prompted a primary challenge from other Republican candidates. A Democrat won the general election.
Other Republicans who voted to impeach trump for inciting the insurrection but either chose not to run for reelection or lost included Rep. Peter Meijer, R-Mich., Rep. Tom Rice, R-S.C., Rep. Fred Upton, R-Mich., Rep. Anthony Gonzalez, R-Ohio, and Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo.
Rep. Dan Newhouse, R-Wash., and Rep. David Valadao, R-Calif., where the only GOP members of congress who voted to impeach but still kept their seats. Newhouse benefitted from the state’s crowded primary and won the GOP nod with just 25.5 percent of the total vote.