Todd Blanche Colluded with an Italian Mafioso … and Also Rudy Guiliani … to Indict Jim Comey

Jim Comey has filed his pretrial motions. The memoranda and backup for each are here (Fitzgerald’s affidavit is a worthwhile place to start): - Motion to Dismiss (MTD) for lack of a true threat - MTD vindictive and selective prosecution - Appendix of Trump’s complaints (17 pages longer than it was last year) - Motion for disclosure of grand jury transcripts - Motion to suppress two warrants - Patrick Fitzgerald Affidavit - Backup to May 15 Secret Service phone interview - May 15 Executive Summary shared with Trump’s detail - Reference to Kash Patel and Don Jr claiming 8647 was a threat - Discussion of surveilling Comey on orders from DOJ number 3 (including recognition it would be illegal) - Exigent surveillance request claiming it involved risk of death - Discussion of Secret Service interview reflecting Trump involvement - ASAC thanking people for work, including non-traditional - Rudy Giuliani interview - Sealed interview of nutball who wanted Comey jailed - Charlotte opens full investigation - FBI receives Secret Service file - Star witness’ texts with Comey’s spouse - Sentinel search for uses of 86 - Search in Gambino file for uses of 86 - AUSA suggesting more terms for searches in Gambino files - Results of searches from Gambino files - More results of searches from Gambino files - Interview of old FBI Agent on whether the mob used the term 86 - Interview of another old FBI Agent on whether the mob used the term 86 - Google and AI searches on whether 86 meant to kill - AI search debunking the case - Another AI search debunking the case, citing Merriam-Webster - Social media search of how Comey and his spouse would use 86 - 302 recording discussion about logistics for interview with Gravano - Caveats about search of database of threat assessment database - Document explaining Secret Service’s non-referral of the “threat” - Subpoena to Amazon for 8645, 8646, and 8647 merch - Subpoena response indicating the Feds have never inquired about that 86 merch - Attempt to segregate privileged communications - Secret Service SAIC claiming David Kelley should have sent metadata - David Kelley’s response to SS request The story captured by these various filings is even more pathetic than told publicly. For example, while the frothy MAGAts ginned themselves into believing that the extra evidence Todd Blanche insisted he had when he announced the charges consisted of materials in the novel Comey was about to release, there’s no such evidence. Instead, there’s evidence of a deeply unwell country. The story starts when Comey posts a post and Trump, his FBI Director, and his son insist it must be malicious, not because it was but because those men survive by stoking grievance. Rudy Giuliani, fresh off ginning up conspiracies to target Joe Biden followed by worse conspiracies to start a riot, insisted Comey would know the mob used the term 86 to mean murder. An associate of Comey’s spouse, Patrice, somebody who hated Jim and resented their son-in-law, Troy Edwards, for prosecuting people like Stewart Rhodes, then texted her to tell her it was malicious. That’s when Jim deleted the text. Secret Service felt they had to interview. The “number 3” in DOJ ordered them to illegally surveil Comey (this is before Stan Woodward was appointed yet), following him and his wife to visit the grave of one of their children. Trump demanded updates on the Secret Service investigation. But the Secret Service didn’t pursue the investigation, so an AUSA in North Carolina got the task, who then sent it to the FBI in Charlotte to investigate. And that person, April Floyd, decided to look everywhere for proof. Both before and after indicting Comey, she had FBI search transcripts of old mobster trials to see if they ever used the term, she spoke to retired FBI guys, She interviewed Salvatore Gravano — who said, sure the mob used the term, but they never used it because the cops would know. And really, Gravano told the Feeb, he didn’t bear Comey any ill will. Honest. During the conversation regarding logistics for the upcoming interview, Gravano told SA Floyd he had no vendetta or issues with James Comey (Comey) , and he did not care one way or another what occurred with Comey’s pending criminal case for the “86 47” post. Gravano did not care if Comey went to jail for the post or remained free. According to Gravano, there was no way that Comey did not know what the term “86” meant as it related to killing someone. Gravano gave an example of the use of the term “86” in the context of killing someone and used his son, Gerard, in the sentence. Gravano told SA Floyd that if he ordered for Gerard to be “86-ed” it meant that he wanted Gerard killed. Gravano told SA Floyd he was fairly certain it would be difficult to find the term “86” documented in law enforcement/FBI files because members of the organized crime families refrained from using terms such as “86” that were commonly used in day-to-day business in the presence of law enforcement officers. Gravano reiterated that based on the positions Comey held and the interactions Comey had with those involved in organized crime, there was no way he did not know that the term “86” was used in the context of killing someone. Here’s Pat Fitzgerald’s footnote about Gravano’s reliability: 14 Mr. Gravano’s racketeering guilty plea in 1992 included his admission to participation in nineteen murders. Mr. Gravano also admitted to bribing a juror at John Gotti’s first racketeering trial. After he completed his sentence in 1995, Gravano left the Witness Protection Program. He was later convicted in 2002 on both federal and state charges for his participation in a narcotics conspiracy in Arizona with his wife, son and daughter among others. He was released from prison in 2017 and is currently on parole. He is now a podcaster. April Floyd — who in normal time would be hunting white collar criminals — also obtained a warrant for Apple, shortly before the indictment, and another for Google, shortly after it, which failed to mention their key source had originally concluded the 86 term had the restaurant connotation, until he watched Rudy. She similarly failed to mention that all her efforts to prove there was a mob connotation failed — except for Sammy the Bull. There are fairly compelling motions (though of course most of them must meet a really high bar to work). But they are also a chronicle of a deeply unwell nation, of the kind of insanity that Trump has demanded everyone around him adopt. This should be humiliating to the entire country. It should lead Republicans — all of them, not just John Cornyn and Thom Tillis — to reject the handmaiden of this atrocity to lead DOJ, precisely the prize (Comey’s filings suggest) that he sought, in pursuing this bullshit investigation. But they won’t. A “chronicle of a deeply unwell nation.” Exactly. Thanks for linking to all of the docs, Marcy, and for the commentary. Hi Doc, typo in the 6th bullet from the end on the Fitzpatrick affidavit: Document explaining **Social Security’s** non-referral of the “threat” TY We certainly are a deeply unwell nation. What stands out to me as well in reading the Fitz affidavit is the disgusting amount of government resources and personnel involved in this clusterfuck. Cut the budgets for USSS, US Attorneys, FBI, and related “law enforcement” agencies. The money is better spent on providing health care to all of us and other truly beneficial things. No group is more full if shit that the military, but cops are a very close second. Cut those budgets. The first paragraph of the Motion for Disclosure of Grand Jury transcripts: That last sentence is going to appear in more and more motions by defendants targeted by the Trump DOJ. Fitz is asking the courts to say out loud and in writing what is becoming more evident every day: the Department of Justice under Donald Trump is no longer entitled to a presumption of regularity. Prove the complete chain of custody for every piece of evidence you present. Prove the reliability of the claims you make when asking for a warrant. Prove the bona fides of every “expert” whose work you represent to the court in any motions. Irregularity is the standard operating procedure at Main Justice now, and Fitz seems determined to make DOJ own their new sobriquet. A bunch of lawyers submitted a 50-page amicus brief in John Brennan’s lawsuit laying out all the ways Blanche’s DOJ has destroyed presumption of regularity. It’s a good brief, and lays out the pattern of DOJ misbehavior. But it also demonstrates the unwillingness of the judges in these cases to take the pattern of behavior seriously enough. It’s one thing when a lawyer says the presumption of regularity is gone, whether it is Fitz or the amici who filed to support Brennan. It’s about damn time a *judge* explicitly agreed with them, naming the DOJs work for what it is — irregular and illegal. In that brief, the amici note cases where judges accepted that the actions of the government passed the threshold for the judge to order actions that would breach the presumption of regularity barrier. The courts dismissed charges, ordered grand jury materials to be shown to the defense, etc. What the judges did *not *do was to expressly say “the DOJ no longer has the presumption of regularity in my courtroom.” At best (see p. 8 of the brief), the judges said “This, the court said, was ‘uncharted territory’ and ‘calls into question the presumption of regularity generally associated with grand jury proceedings. . . .’ ” Calling into question the presumption of regularity is not the same as declaring it dead. Lawyers call things into question. Judges decide how to answer the questions. Or at least, they should. Didn’t Judge Williams in Florida just do exactly that, in referring to the Slush Fund as a fraud on the court? Replying to Ginevra deBenci at 12:51pm . . . Judge Williams did indeed say that the slush fund is a fraud upon the court. Other judges have similarly ruled that the Trump administration has indeed broken the law in other ways, and thrown out the evidence they wanted to introduce, thrown out the charges they have tried to press, and in other ways moved to shut down the misconduct. They have ruled narrowly on the specific case before them. What Judge Williams did not do, nor has any other judge done that I am aware of, is to rule that in courtrooms across the country, in front of judges of every rank, the lawyers of the DOJ have engaged in an unmistakable systemic pattern of behavior that is nothing less than a conspiracy to obstruct justice, and the best response to that systemic pattern of behavior is for the courts (again, at every level in every jurisdiction) to refuse to extend the presumption of regularity to any lawyer of the DOJ and of the government agencies with whom they work. Just as courts regularly demand that attorneys for defendants “show their work” in terms of dismantling the charges their clients face, the courts should now hold prosecutors to the same standard. “Show me how you obtained this evidence . . . how you stored this evidence . . . how you handled this evidence to protect it from tampering . . . Show me the paperwork, the videos, the emails, and the policy memos that lay out the procedures to be followed, and let’s see if you did it right . . . “Show me how you respected the rights of those you investigated, because I am done assuming you did so without you explaining your actions and you motivations in detail. . . . “It used to be that in the absence of evidence to the contrary presented by the accused, the courts would accept that the government had acted according to the law. Because of the widespread flaunting of that privilege and manifest disdain for the authority of the courts, we’re done with that.” That’s what rejecting the presumption of regularity means. It all boils down to telling the government “The DOJ has proven time and time again to be unworthy of trust by the courts, so show me your work, all your work, or we’re done here.” Democracy Defenders Fund, Lawyers Defending American Democracy & Judges wrote a 69-page complaint asks the Attorney Grievance Committee for a Manhattan-based appeals court that governs disciplinary matters to look into alleged violations of the Rules of Professional Conduct. (https://www.law.com/newyorklawjournal/2026/06/23/complaint-lodged-with-attorney-grievance-committee-against-acting-ag-todd-blanche) The group of 101 former federal and state judges, (alongside the above watchdog groups), filed a formal ethics and disciplinary complaint against Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, while dozens of retired federal judges separately petitioned to reopen a Trump-IRS case scrutinizing his actions. More than 1,200 former Justice Department employees signed a letter urging the Senate Judiciary Committee to reject Blanche’s permanent nomination as Attorney General, https://www.thejusticeconnection.org/news-and-press/1-200-former-doj-employees-oppose-todd-blanche%E2%80%99s-nomination Groups like the New York City Bar Association formally called on the Senate to vote against his confirmation, citing concerns regarding political impartiality and the rule of law July 9th, 2026:The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights and 46 additional organizations write to express our strong opposition to the confirmation of Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche as the next Attorney General of the United States.https://www.theusconstitution.org/news/leadership-conference-sign-on-letter-opposing-confirmation-of-todd-blanche/ Todd Blanche is a political apparatchik—a loyal bureaucrat prioritizing the personal and political interests of Donald Trump over institutional norms and the rule of law. He weaponized DOJ authority to grant unprecedented, permanent immunity to Trump and his family from ongoing IRS tax audits. The perspective that the $1.776 billion fund serves as a direct reward and financial backing for right-wing extremists is exactly why it has sparked such intense national outrage. Bipartisan critics and lawmakers share the view that using taxpayer money this way is an unprecedented abuse of public trust. Senator Chris Van Hollen has described the payout program as an illegal, corrupt “slush fund” to finance Donald Trump’s power seizing agenda. Blanche is Trump’s Roy Cohn. An incompetent, intellectually challenged Roy Cohn, perhaps. from Secondhand Time: The Last of the Soviets by Svetlana Alexievich NY: Random House, 2013, 2016 ISBN 9780399588815 “The bureaucratic apparatus is a machine capable of major maneuvering… anything for the sake of survival. Principles? Bureaucrats have no convictions, principles, or any of those muddled metaphysical ideals. The most important thing is holding onto your seat, keeping your palms greased. Bureaucracy is our hobby horse. Lenin himself considered bureaucracy a greater threat than Denikin. The only thing that’s valued is personal loyalty – never forget who owns you, whose hand is feeding you. Apparatchiks of our own. From the Amicus Brief Marcy links to in the comment above: Looking at the “Star witness’ texts with Comey’s spouse” document, it’s nice to see that whoever the star witness is, they’re stewing in Newsmax sewage. Just as the SCOTUS 6 live in a Fox dreamworld. Propaganda works. and META announcing today they’ve signed an AI licensing deal to feed Newsmax digital “news” content into their products… The best case scenario for that Meta deal is that they are trying to bulk up the fiction section of their database, to improve the fiction v reality judgment that AI needs to solve. The most likely case is that the don’t care about the quality of Newsmax content at all. They just want content, content, and more content. AI will likely never solve the fiction v reality conundrum. Plato condemned the poets because (he said) they tell lies. But they don’t. Fiction is a pretending, where both poet and audience implicitly agree that while the fiction is being attended to, words which usually refer to real things and situations, will refer only to the world within the fiction. To (mis)quote another writer, what we do when we attend to fiction is we will belief in the pretended world while we are immersed in it, reading, viewing, or listening. But as soon as we snap the book shut, or stop watching the movie, the real world returns to us and we to it. I remain unconvinced that an AI agent will be able to reliably distinguish between fictional reports and real world reports because it only sees the words, not the meanings. In that sense, Rudy, Trump Jr., all of them are likewise crippled by their inability to distinguish reality from fiction, relying on the movie versions of “86” to goose their hatred. As for me, I have not yet begun to write. I am seeing increasing reports on these data corporations buying up books to feed into the AI machines, tearing them apart spine by spine to liberate the pages for scanning, then disposal. One of the best books I’ve read was “How the Irish Saved Civilization” regarding the Illuminated Manuscripts, written to preserve books/libraries being destroyed by “the barbarians.” We need some St. Patricks again. Google did that years ago, in what was billed as an effort to create a digital library of public domain texts, so that researchers would not need to get a physical copy of it to read it. Now, they may also have been looking ahead to prepare for the AI era, but taking physical books apart and scanning them has been going on for a long time. Here’s the wiki for Google Books, to see more about this history. Peterr, they didn’t unfold foldouts and scan them in those books. Star witness for the Star Chamber that Convict-1 wants. To: Ka$h, Toddler From: Darth Stephen I know the big guy wanted this, but is a colossal waste of of critical Federal resources! We have millions of criminal alien gangbangers from shithole countries to extort, export and deport. Two low levels Feebs is all it should take to harass an old fart messing with seashells at the beach. You need to do better! We’ve got a quota to keep and we’re falling short. Affectionally, DS /s Talk concerning the minions around Trump always reminds me of the scene in “The Exorcist” where Father Karras starts to explain all the manifestations of the different demons, and Father Merrin stops him and says, There is only one. Trump, of course, in his own mind, is The Highlander: ‘There can be only one!’ Feel free to play some Queen if you like. I prefer the earlier stuff myself, all of that mad Fairy Feller’s Masterstroke stuff. How about Stone Cold Crazy? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0kTkxhyWNo ; – ) MSNOW is reporting that Blanche is still making the rounds of Senate offices to salvage his nomination, and in the video, he doesn’t look happy as he is avoiding any interactions with the media. Earlier, Lisa Rubin delivered a lengthy and scathing review of the evidence contained in Comey’s filings and motions, and it was brutal. If Senate staffers were watching then, they are no doubt having conversations with their bosses right now. This is the real battle: Blanche’s nomination. Can it be sunk? I think momentum has shifted since last week, when GOPers were clearly fishing for excuses to vote yes. This week they seem almost vertebrate…as if they have conceived finally of the idea of voting no. Doesn’t mean they will. Elections have a way of sharpening the mind. They can let Susan Collins take a walk, but perhaps not all of them. Latest I’ve heard is that Blanche was supposed to meet with Cornyn at Cornyn’s office at 10:30 am (EDT) this morning. Supposedly he told Blanche to bring the paperwork that officially calls off the slush fund with him. When Blanche didn’t show up by 10:35, Cornyn said the meeting was “off”. Grassley has demanded of Cornyn that he give him a thumbs-up or thumbs-down on whether he will vote Blanche out of committee or not by 5 p.m. today. So the situation is in flux. The pundits are opining that if Cornyn gives a thumbs-down on Blanche to Grassley by 5 p.m. that Grassley will postpone tomorrow’s committee vote so that they can continue to wrangle and arm-twist behind the scenes before a rescheduled vote takes place. Grassley is trying to save face. He doesn’t want to put Blanche’s nomination to a vote if he doesn’t have the votes to win. Cornyn, on the other hand, doesn’t give a damn about Grassley saving face. Cornyn made his very specific objections known, in public, and told Blanche what he needed to put in writing to get his vote – a much narrower and more focused immunity from audits for Trump, and an official declaration by the DOJ that the Slush Fund is no longer part of any so-called “settlement” between Trump and the government. Blanche, for his part, has apparently chosen to not respond, let alone agree with, what Cornyn has laid out. Blanche still wants to negotiate, and Cornyn doesn’t. If Grassley can’t see that, or his staff sees it but can’t make the senator accept it, Grassley will lose more than just face. Grassley has absolutely no leverage over Cornyn. He can ask for a reply by 5pm, but he can’t compel it. All Grassley can do is appeal to senate and committee traditions and old personal relationships. The problem with those two things is that his recent primary experience, Cornyn has learned exactly what those two things are worth these days. If Cornyn is feeling generous, he will give Grassley the courtesy to tell him to see if Blanche has submitted any documents to the committee that are responsive to Cornyn’s requests. My money is on Cornyn simply not replying at all by 5pm. Either of these should tell Grassley everything he needs to know. From The Hill: Either Cornyn is a lurker at EW and saw my earlier comment, or I seem to have a pretty good sense for the senator’s mindset. Or, of course, both could be true. 😉 Interesting that the focus is on the slush fund, which, from what I’ve read, they can get around by using “victim compensation” funds already allowed by the DOJ; but there is little comment I’ve seen on the outrageous “the Trmp family never needs to worry about Federal tax liabilities forever and ever amen.” I’d like to see that talked about much, much more since it is so clearly outrageous and over the top. Can you link to the Rubin piece? Poking around I only turned up a co-authored piece by her. I think it’s in this video clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9siVWpDKnA The John Gleeson affidavit has a lot of mob prosecution history going back to the early 80’s. I suspect there is a deeper relationship here, between Trump and Giuliani and what the public knows. Giuliani built his career and reputation off of the prosecution of the New York Mafia. Trump was mentored by Roy Cohen, who represented among others Fat Tony Salerno, head of Genovese family. The Mafia prosecutions did use informants that were to sensitive to name but could give tips to aid investigation. 1983: Trump Tower opens, involves an agreement between Gambino and Genovese families in which family collects Mafia VIG from construction by neighborhood; Trump gets first taste of Russian mob money through shell cash purchases in Trump Tower 1983: per Giuliani’s book, he became friends with Trump 35 years before Trump sent him on the Hunter Biden op in 2018 1985: Mob Commission trials start, evidence was collected using wiretaps mentioning Trump Tower; Gambino boss Castellano assassins wear Russian hats (possible message) 1986: the public’s perception when Trump First met Giuliani; Commission trial over, effectively ending 5 Families dominance as Russian mob gains power https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/09/10/how-rudy-giuliani-turned-into-trumps-clown 1987: Trump meets Epstein 1989: Giuliani briefly counsel at Epstein company Towers Financial, which was largely a laundering scheme for Iran-Contra money, and perhaps Robert Maxwell money; Trump co-chair Giuliani first mayoral campaign fundraiser My guess is that Blanche will get a big payoff if the slush fund is allowed. What a world we live in when Sammy the mobster serial murderer is free to walk and have a podcast. Nevertheless, he has more credibility than Blanche. BTW, Epstein survivors are describing their meeting with Blanche that he was indifferent to their plight and did not want to hear their complaints. Blanche better count that he has saved enough of his payouts to survive the rest of his life since his future in law and business is hihgly questionable. Payoff? Please. Blanche is basically owned by Trump and his minions. They will not pay him off – they will demand he continue to unconditionally serve with his undying loyalty. He may not end up being AG, but Trump is always going to need attorneys. And we know how much Trump likes owning his attorneys. Just ask Michael Cohen. Would Mr Gravano, aka Sammy the Bull, be considered an associate of Mr Trump? He testified to the Senate in the 90’s how he would reach Trump. Seth Hettena has a clip: https://xcancel.com/i/status/1204491152113557505 Gleeson’s book details a boxing scheme by Sammy the Bull at one of Trump’s Atlantic City casinos. Well, the lead prosecutor on that case, renowned for giving generous deals to cooperative witnesses —one Robert S. Mueller. Mueller famously got Sammy the Bull—he of the 17 confessed hits— to flip on John Gotti. Guess which prominent New York real estate developer reportedly testified to the grand jury about his involvement with Mr. Sammy the Bull, thus getting (allegedly) immunity from criminal charges? One wonders if perhaps the reaction to learning of Mr. Mueller’s appointment “I’m fucked,” went beyond a dispute over country club fees. Gravano also has a bias that he endorsed Trump’s campaign, saying that we need a gangster as president. https://www.thenation.com/article/society/trump-gravano-government-gangsters/ Mr. Gravano is a perfect choice for the position of President in 2028. He is more transparent than the current as he ADMITTED to participation in murders, ADMITTED to bribery and is now a podcaster. When is the last time the current ADMITTED to anything except for transparency? As usual we can say little for certain about the state of the fevered minds of the Trump inner circle involved in this. However I suspect that a trial and conviction of Comey really wasn’t the primary objective in the first place. They would think it wonderful if that actually happened but somebody — even Trump — must have realized what BS this indictment actually was. What Trump actually wanted to was to make Comey do a perp walk. Get it on video, then play it non-stop on right wing media. The rest of the media would slavishly go along. They would probably marquee it on the whitehouse web site on infinite loop. Trump wanted Comey to face humiliation on the order of what Trump experienced when he had the mugshot taken. Comey adeptly avoided all that. Trump must have been in a rage over it. Not entirely shocking, since the Trump government is organized as more or less a Mafia family and Donald himself socialized with mobsters. [Welcome to emptywheel. Please choose and use a unique username with a minimum of 8 letters. We adopted this minimum standard to support community security. Because your username is too short and common, your username will be temporarily changed to match the date/time of your first known comment until you have a new compliant username. /~Rayne] Speaking of conformation, I don’t think Blanche has a problem as Susan Collins just announced that she is “Very concerned.” /s