A high-ranking former aide to Miami Congressman Carlos Curbelo just got caught participating in the Miami-Dade Republican Party Chairman’s out of control protests in Coral Gables earlier this week.

Kevin Marino Cabrera is a lobbyist at the Southern Strategy Group, whose Miami office consists of only he, Miami GOP Chairman Nelson Diaz — who planned the protest — and one other person.

My reporting ripped the story open when I obtained a copy of the Miami-Dade Republican Party’s official press release and an interview with Diaz, himself a former top staffer to Florida Senator Marco Rubio during his days in the state House.

Miami GOP Chairman just caught leading Proud Boys in attack on Democratic campaign office

That led to coverage in the Washington Post and ThinkProgress, who identified Curbelo’s former aide Cabrera, as well as Splinter News.

Kevin Marino Cabrera’s biography from his lobbying firm highlights his establishment resume.

Kevin began his political career after many years in management and sales in the freight forwarding industry as a volunteer for Congressman Carlos Curbelo’s 2014 congressional campaign and subsequently joining the campaign as its Field Director. Kevin later served as the Director of Constituent Services in Congressman Curbelo’s district office. Kevin was then recruited to join Governor Jeb Bush’s Presidential campaign as the South Florida Director, while also assisting with Hispanic outreach in Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina. Most recently Kevin managed a Florida House campaign.

For his part, Congressman Curbelo vehemently denies any role in his party’s disastrous mob attack.

But Curbelo’s campaign staff worked hard to get the media to cover Shalala’s cancelled visit from California Democratic Congresswoman Barbara Lee, which Republican Party Chair Diaz cited to me in an interview as a reason for the protest’s manic tenor and hate group members in attendance.

Since then, he and his campaign communications director Johanna Rodriguez have removed nearly all of the references to stories about the attack on Shalala’s HQ since my story was published yesterday, highlighting that he was campaigning heavily on local media coverage, which painted the Democratic candidate as at fault for the mob scene, even though she cancelled the California Congresswoman’s ill-advised appearance.

This morning Rep. Curbelo tweeted two words in agreement with a conservative commentator slamming the Republican “protest” against Shalala’s campaign HQ.

Yesterday, right-wing website the Daily Caller also released a copy of the video depicting 50–60 Republicans trespassing into Donna Shalala’s Minorca Avenue congressional campaign office to confront House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi as she entered from the allway.

That led to Sen. Rubio posting a tweet this morning condemning his former aide’s “repudiation” mob against Pelosi, comparing it accurately to former Cuban dictator Fidel Castro’s street brawling tactics.

Marco Rubio on Twitter

You are not helping the cause of anti-communism if you behave like the repudiation mobs Castro has long used in Cuba. Not sure who was behind this behavior but you should have protested Pelosi campaign stop without borrowing the tactics of left wing mobs. https://t.co/LDsR4SDSPJ

Shalala campaign pollster Fernand Amandi agreed with Rubio’s characterization of his own local party, making for a rare moment of bipartisanship in today’s fractured political landscape.

Fernand R. Amandi on Twitter

The despotic Castro regime represses political dissent in Cuba using thuggish, intimidation mobs called "actos de repudio" which incredibly is exactly what the @MiamiGOP & Proud Boys copied & did in #FL27 Watch & see why we must #VoteBlueToSaveAmerica🇺🇸👇🏼https://t.co/AeVA6yoxmu

Even other Republican officeholders have joined in publicly condemning the Miami GOP Chairman’s failed leadership including a member of House GOP leadership wounded during the Congressional baseball shooting and another Republican Senator.

Many commentators on Twitter compared the Miami GOP “protest” to the “Brooks Brothers riot” during the 2000 election recount in Florida, which was a mob scene cooked up by a Republican legislator and carried out by Roger Stone and now-CPAC Chairman Matt Schlapp, whose wife Mercedes is a Trump White House Strategic Comms Director, along with a long list of GOP operatives and paid protesters. That Republican riot caused Miami-Dade County elections officials to cease recounting votes during the highly disputed election.

Miami GOP Chair Diaz issued an apology late last night, for getting caught, by blaming emotion for his failed leadership and collaboration with a hate group.

The consequences of Diaz’s actions are still unfolding, and numerous people who were inside the building or on the scene that day have contacted me noting that many of the GOP’s “protesters” were wearing brand new red MAGA hats, wondering who paid for those, and if they were paid for their attendance.

Former top Curbelo aide just caught at Miami GOP’s unhinged protest alongside Proud Boys hate group was originally published in The Stern Facts on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

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Miami-Dade County’s Elections Department turned down the Miami Heat’s offer to use the American Airlines Arena as a gigantic voting and elections center only after its Mayor’s personal intervention in the decision in late August and early September 2020.

Until the National Elections Defense Coalition took up my cause to file a public records lawsuit, it looked like elections officials would be able to suppress all of the information about that decision. We have since amended that complaint to include a request for injunctive relief under Miami-Dade’s Charter which prohibits making voting less convenient.

Miami-Dade’s County Charter Bill of Rights guarantees “convenient access” to the vote to all citizens. Mayor Gimenez appears to have violated that right by making a political decision when he’s on the ballot.

In fact, the Frost Museum of Science is directing patrons to use parking at the American Airlines Arena, which it says is “a short, 6-minute walk from the museum.” When Mayor Gimenez made his decision, the museum’s website clearly noted that its parking facility has a minimal size.

Department officials discussed how inadequate parking has resulted from moving early voting away from the basketball venue and to the smaller Frost Science Museum — venue would depress turnout because of its inadequate parking garage space, and said so in a public record email.

After Mayor Gimenez made the call to Elections Supervisor Christina White, the county’s public information officers spread false statements about the government’s reason for making the change, refused to give the Miami Heat a written copy of its administrative decision, and covered up the entire affair, only releasing records debunking them in response to a lawsuit.

Miami-Dade’s Charter also prohibits public officials from making false statements to the public or omitting key information, withholding public records, refusing to provide administrative decisions. The state of Florida’s Public Records Act is part of the Sunshine Law and makes it a crime to withhold documents knowingly and willingly illegally.

This story is based on the examination of over 741 pages of public records in the 291 suppressed emails that Miami-Dade elections officials turned over, and two text message screenshots from the Election Supervisor’s phone which prove that the Mayor got involved in her decision about creating a supersized voting center, which ultimately changed 180 degrees.

Miami-Dade Mayor Gimenez has been in office for nine and a half years — as he frequently points out — and his duties include overseeing Supervisor White, who runs the state’s largest county Elections Department. Gimenez is also a partisan political candidate in the 2020 general election, running as the pro-Trump Republican nominee for Florida’s 26th Congressional district against incumbent U.S. Representative Debbie Mucarsel-Powell.

“This is a clear attempt to suppress voter participation and bolster his own run for Congress,” said Rep. Mucarsel-Powell in a press release about the Mayor’s role in taking away the Miami Heat’s early voting location approval. “It’s a blatant abuse of power that reminds too many Miamians of the worst behavior of Donald Trump.”

“To ensure a fair process, he must immediately recuse himself from all election decision-making”

Mayor Gimenez refused to give official comment when asked by email and his campaign did not reply to the same email request for comment either.

After a newly revealed text message from the Election Supervisor to the Mayor and their presumed subsequent conversations, county officials then told the local newspaper they were choosing the smaller and difficult to access Frost Museum of Science over the massive American Airlines Arena, which is built to handle large crowds with ease.

Since then, record-shattering early voting turnout in Miami-Dade County has led to long wait times for in-person voting, with massive lines even in the rain.

Only after the National Election Defense Coalition took up my quest to expose the truth and filed suit this past Thursday with Coral Gables attorney George David could we obtain the records. Mr. David forced the County into an immediate hearing to produce the records within 24 hours, and the Election Supervisor has already produced some of the responsive records about the hot-button issue, which are the basis of this story. But there could be more revealing records still to follow since the department arbitrarily did not provide any responsive records after September 15th, even though they only produced them on October 23rd, precisely seven minutes before our scheduled hearing in court with Judge Reemerto Diaz of Florida’s 11th Circuit Court.

Led by their Director of Research, Analytics and Strategy, Dr. Nicholas Martinez, the NBA team fought to host a voting venue for over two months. Dr. Martinez continued to work with the Elections Department to place team employees wishing to be poll workers into volunteer roles. Still, public statements from the team’s management expressed disgust and anger at being stood up by the county. The emails reveal that the team was summarily denied as a polling place without even the courtesy of a conversation about the matter before telling the Miami Herald’s Doug Hanks, who covered the story.

But their emails

This is a chronological revelation of the evidence that Miami Dade County violated its charter to select an inferior polling location and make it less convenient for citizens to vote while disseminating lies to cover up their decision.

Every public statement made by county officials about the abrupt reversal has contradicted the written discussions between Elections Supervisor White and her professional Elections Department staff throughout the time period of the Miami Heat’s dogged efforts to open a voting supercenter.

The suppressed emails reveal in graphic detail the lies that Miami-Dade officials later spread to justify their decision after the fact.

Firstly, the department’s staff had no prior relationship with the science museum at the start of the process.

That didn’t stop the Deputy Supervisor for Media Affairs Susie Trutie from telling the Miami Herald’s Doug Hanks about a “longstanding relationship” between the department and the relatively new museum.

Yet, an email from the Deputy Supervisor of Poll Work Recruitment and Training Allison McComb (left) said she couldn't even get a call back from the Frost Museum in a June 26th email.

She wrote to her colleagues, asking if they had contact with the American Airlines Arena.

The Heat Group’s Dr. Martinez contacted the county proactively only four days later on June 30th, taking over a week to set up an initial conference call after the unusual mid-week 4th of July holiday.

Revealing Miami-Dade’s objective criteria for using the Arena as a polling place

The importance of parking availability cannot be overstated for early voting centers in Miami. The Government Center early voting location is at the city's main transit hub, which coves commuters on all of the train networks.

This summer, the Elections Department’s Early Voting Manager Miriam Rivero wrote an email to Supervisor White explaining that the “complicated parking” situation at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts for its prior polling location caused it to have the second-fewest votes of any early polling location in Miami-Dade County.

On July 10th, Elections Supervisor White wrote an email herself to the Miami Heat, where she outlined her top logistical concerns for creating a voting supercenter, taking into account the low turnout in a high-population area from the Arsht Center. She wrote:

Dates: October 19 — November 1 with hours of operation of 7am-7pm (need access daily from 6am — TBD nightly)

• Access to drop off and set up equipment the week before (Likely Oct 15 or 16)
• Large enough room to accommodate voting equipment commensurate with presidential turnout (at least 3,000 square feet) (1)
• Ground floor to ensure ease and accessibility for our voters with disabilities (2)
• Adequate electrical needs for equipment– we will send electrician to confirm
• A lockable/secured room with sole access during the timeframe noted above
• Ample and immediate non-paid parking (3)
• Ample signage, so voters are clear on access (4)
• Additionally, if they are able to provide parking lot/flow coordinators that would be beneficial.
• All of this stated, the biggest deterrent for me would be any kind of game/event during the Early Voting period. I would need to know if these are/are not occurring before considering this a viable option. (Author’s emphasis above in italics and bold. Bold numbers referenced below)

In all ways, the American Airlines Arena is an objectively superior location to the far smaller Frost Science Museum.

The size of the two locations is an obvious disparity. American Airlines Arena is designed to accommodate the ingress and egress of 20,000 people at a time with a 4-lane ring road and a 4-acre staging area. (1)

Public records obtained in the lawsuit show that the Arena planned to place 100 socially distant voting booths on the concrete floor where NBA games used to be played before the coronavirus crisis hit America and Miami became a global hotspot disease.

Frost only has 25 polling places, according to a poll worker interviewed for this story.

Speaker White wanted ground level access, which the arena has, and the museum does not.

A record the County released in an email from the Heat Group notes that they have an extra-large, ground-level entrance from NE 6th Street onto the arena floor where the polling place would be located. (2)

(Author’s note: The polling place diagram and street-level traffic flow diagram is not being shown to protect the public facility’s security since it shows architectural diagrams which are not generally available to the public and labeled by the team asking the County to claim an exemption from disclosure for security purposes. These documents are being filed under seal with Miami-Dade’s 11th Circuit Court with the judge for in camera review.)

Miami-Dade @MayorGimenez denied the Miami Heat's offer to use the American Airlines Arena and its expansive road network as an #EarlyVoting drop off site. He's a GOP politician. It's off-peak time for drivers now, but I have only seen one drop off in the first five minutes here. pic.twitter.com/n618qE4dsC

In contrast, the Frost Museum does not have a ground floor entrance.

As you can see from this video, its north side entrance is an elevator that goes from the ground floor to the plaza level.

The southern entrance to the Frost Museum is challenging to access from the adjacent Maurice A. Ferré Park, named for Miami’s first Hispanic mayor.

According to the Frost Museum’s website, the only options available are a lengthy and rather steep ramp or a set of stairs to enter the plaza level.

Supervisor White put a premium on “ample” and “immediate” parking.

American Airlines Arena has thousands of parking places underneath the street level, in addition to a four-lane ring-road for access.

The Frost Museum only offers a winding two-lane road to a far smaller garage that fills up quickly, so as noted above, they’re currently directing overflow to the Arena.

Supervisor White wanted ample signage at the Arena. Hence, voters were clear on access, and no location has a bigger street frontage on Biscayne Boulevard than the Arena, while the Frost Museum is set far from the street.

More shocking is a comparison of the signage presently at the Frost Museum compared to another polling place at the Lemon City Branch Library located 50 blocks north of the museum.

Currently, the Frost Museum only has two signs telling the voting public and the 40,000 cars that pass it on Biscayne Boulevard daily that it is an early voting place.

A look at the smaller library shows a far larger demonstration of signage on the street frontages where cars drive past Miami’s Martin Luther King Boulevard.

Sandwich board with instructions on parking dot the landscape for the far smaller library.

The numerous signs are easy to spot from the low-speed roadway, and the library has been a polling place for decades.

Yet, the Frost Museum has far inferior signage.

By way of comparison, the American Airlines Arena has a massive LED television and emplacements for signage all across its frontage.

If the availability of ample signage was a goal, then how did Mayor Gimenez’s decision suddenly remove that requirement?

Obviously, the decision was political in nature.

But it doesn’t explain why the county has placed such obviously inferior signage at a massive polling place in the heart of one of Miami’s most densely populated neighborhoods.

Lastly, Supervisor White was concerned about events. The Miami Heat agreed to hold no events in the Arena. Meanwhile, the Frost Museum just reopened for business and managed both its guests and voters simultaneously.

Objectively, the American Airlines Arena provides voters with a bigger, more accessible platform for voting.

But at the end of the process, Miami-Dade County decided that the arena’s ample signage needed some restrictions to provide for a proper polling place.

Three days after Miami-Dade’s August primary elections finished, Supervisor White emailed the team with new concerns about ensuring that the Miami Heat didn’t give any improper appearances, ensuring that entrances didn’t have improper advertising and once again asking for assurance that “reasonable parking must be made available to voters seeking to vote at the location.”

Five days later, on August 26th, the Heat Group agreed to terms with the Elections Department, and by that weekend was enrolled as a polling place by its professional staff. Those terms included restricting its advertising.

Miami-Dade Deputy Mayor Jennifer Moon was heavily involved in the Elections Department’s decision-making process for early voting throughout the process. In late July, she wrote an email to Supervisor White comparing the county’s early voting site map to “pandemic maps.”

The afternoon that the Miami Heat agreed to term with White, Deputy Mayor Moon stepped in to manage the process on behalf of Mayor Gimenez.

Moon is Gimenez’s budget director.

She’s best known as a public official for her antics during a televised public meeting on Zoom for when she said on an open mic, “behind this mask I’m saying fuck you” to County Commissioner Daniela Levine-Cava, who happens to be a member of the Democratic Party and who is running in the nonpartisan race to replace the budget director’s Republican boss on the 2020 ballot.

On the morning of August 31st, the Election Department’s Information Systems manager Ana Medina had acted on career staff's orders to enroll the American Airlines Arena as a polling place.

After August 31st, the Elections Department ceased all communications with the Miami Heat while they continued to discuss matters amongst themselves without informing the team of any developments.

By the end of the week — a day after Supervisor White’s last released text message to Mayor Gimenez — Medina acted on orders to enroll the Frost Museum in the arena’s place.

What’s important to note is that a longstanding relationship like the county claimed to journalists would not require a new site enrollment.

None of the emails indicate a written explanation of the Supervisor and Mayor’s administrative decision was ever provided to the Miami Heat, although the lawsuit's records production remains incomplete.

As of the evening of October 27th, the Frost Science Museum accounted for only 3,668 early votes, according to the Miami-Dade Elections Department, which is only 1.2% of the vote, which left it 30th most used out of 33 sites countywide.

Here is a copy of my amended complaint with the National Election Defense Coalition:

NEDC ex rel Stern vs. Miami-Dade County - Voter Suppression Complaint

Miami-Dade covered up Mayor Gimenez’s voter suppression until my lawsuit freed the evidence. was originally published in The Stern Facts on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Update II (6:25 pm on 5/12/19, six hours after publication): A journalist who first exposed Kolfage’s scams in 2014 and defeated his libel lawsuit in response has stepped forward to provide a detailed history of Brian Kolfage, The Wall GoFundMe sponsor’s scams. Title notes that the sponsor paid for the yacht. Kolfage still hasn’t emailed response to our questions.

A source close to the Florida man who raised over $22 million on GoFundMe in the “We The People Will Build the Wall” campaign just revealed today in their opinion money may be diverted to pay for a ‘million dollar’ yacht and high-flying lifestyle.

This article draws on the use of an anonymous source whose identity is being protected because they stepped forward to expose what they believe is a wrong-doing or possibly criminal fraud by the Wall GoFundMe campaign that received over 300,000 individual donations.***

That source is a known activist that is pro-Trump and has gone on Fox News for his bipartisan cause. The source told The Stern Facts that they “ironically” know Brian Kolfage, who built that Wall Go Fund Me page.

According to the source, Brian Kolfage personally confided that was “broke” last year after his “Right Wing News” empire—which the source was told was fake, but he never read—collapsed and Facebook “deplatformed” him.

Kolfage only responded to this story after publication, and TSF has responded with a list of questions about his project and continues to investigate his reply.

That anonymous source shared an Instagram post highlighting Kolfage’s recent purchase of a fine seagoing vessel which they believe is “close to a million dollars.”

After Kolfage commented to this story, the source said, “Whether he ordered it last year with the year before is irrelevant it’s still nearly a million dollar boat. Those new toys are very expensive as is flying private. Where did he get the money if his business was destroyed by Facebook? ”

Story continues below and the rest of the photos are embedded at the bottom of the story:

In the interests of fairness, TSF has provided Mr. Kolfage with a list of five questions about his venture and the opportunity to respond with any documentation regarding his yacht which will be published in this space.

Who is Brian Kolfage?

Kolfage is a Purple-heart decorated war veteran and triple-amputee who lost an empire on Facebook of literally “fake news” after the 2016 election.

Kolfage’s GoFundMe page touched a nerve amongst Trump supporters during the President’s government shutdown and while nearly suspended, was subjected to a mass opt-out.

“That’s why I’m sending it to you. I back what’s right,” said the anonymous source who elaborated in a phone call about the concern that the money wasn’t being spent on a wall. “That money was supposed to be for the wall. I hate fuckers that take money under false pretense. Kolfage is using the wall money to fly private, range rovers boats, etc…”

Two days ago, The Daily Beast’s Will Sommer wrote a story highlighting the non-existence of any serious plans to purchase land for Kolfage’s project, which he proudly highlighted with disgraced former Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach. Sommer wrote:

Organized by triple-amputee veteran Brian Kolfage, the campaign eventually morphed into a nonprofit called We Build the Wall, which promised to build portions of the wall on private land using the money it raised.

Months later, there’s no evidence that any construction has started, despite claims from Kolfage and his allies that construction would start in April. And now Greene is wondering what ever happened to that wall he was promised his dollars would fund?

Complicating the effort further is that it’s not that easy to find private land right on the border where a wall can be built.

Kolfage and We Build the Wall’s board of directors have spent plenty of time in Arizona, ostensibly scouting private land to build the wall. But The Phoenix New Times reported in March that the “vast majority” of land on the border in the state is owned by the federal government. Meanwhile, many of the people who actually own land on the border told the New Times that they hadn’t been contacted by We Build the Wall.

The Post reports that Kolfage would not comment today either and that the ire of his followers is rising after numerous blown dates to begin constructing his wall. Kolfage’s project only became a possibility only after estranged former White House senior advisor Steve Bannon, Kobach and ex-Milwaukee Sheriff David A. Clarke got involved.

In early 2017, Kris Kobach became best known as the person whom President Trump appointed to lead a dubious voter fraud commission that made no significant findings. He is the former Kansas Secretary of State. Kobach got held in contempt of a federal court for being an atrocious lawyer in early 2018. The Kansas Supreme Court ordered a grand jury to investigate his handling of voter registration in 2016 after a citizen-initiated process. He then won the GOP gubernatorial nomination by a razor-thin margin in a primary that his Republican opponent openly accused him of cheating to win the recount, only to lose the general election by 5-points. Kansas political experts call Kobach “Democrats best hope” to win an open U.S. Senate seat next year.

Story continues below:

How did we get here?

Even Kolfage admitted defeat at one point, but the national political figures negotiated a deal to keep the money if their donors did not opt out after a mass email.

The veteran appeared to have moved on from the project and rapidly started a quirky business selling coins with his face on them, presumably to leverage the massive mailing list he collected from his GoFundMe campaign.

A month later Kolfage told Fox News in March that he insisted construction would start “within months.”

On April 14th, they made a press release that claimed 94% opt-in rate (available through the Wayback Machine) and that they identified landowners. A call for comment to the We Build the Wall contact Jennifer Lawrence was not answered and they didn’t call back. That same day, the opt-in period for the fundraiser ended, and GoFundMe has allowed the campaign to remain open for donations to this day.

The anonymous source indicated they believe there was a “very low” opt-out rate and that most donors left their money with Kolfage. The source indicated in strong language that Kolfage was manipulating donors with his personal story to support a profligate lifestyle.

Hundreds of thousands of Trump supporters paid Brian Kolfage millions of dollars under false pretenses, and he allied himself with some of the most well known, least successful Republican political figures.

Now, not only are thousands of disgruntled donors turning on Kolfage, but even people who know him personally are turning on the veteran who made millions from intentionally fake news, before moving on to what appears to be selling an intentionally fake wall on the internet.

Here are the rest of the photos of Brian Kolfage’s yacht:

***Editor’s note: The Stern Facts only makes use of anonymous sources who are known to the author as credible retellers of events, and in the event that a story of great public interest could not otherwise be told to protect their identities. In this case, the source has been known to the editing author of the story for at least four years. The source has given multiple credible interviews, including in-person discussions with the source’s legal counsel in matters of public interest. That is why TSF relies upon a single source interview for this story, which though unusual, is acceptable only because of the lengthy relationship under these circumstances.

CLARIFICATION: The words “really fake news” empire has been clarified by the source to really mean his above reference to the Facebook pages formerly known as Right Wing News which were taken down as part of what he characterizes as a “conservative purge” on Facebook and funds from the GoFundMe may be diverted.

SOURCE: Wall GoFundMe sponsor just paid for a ‘nearly’ $1 million yacht (UPDATED II) was originally published in The Stern Facts on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

The signed contract for a Trump Tower Moscow real estate licensing deal which CNN’s Chris Cuomo obtained last month contains a clear provision requiring the Russian developers to pay $1 million to Donald Trump on the execution of the deal by both sides.

Nobody knows today if Donald Trump collected the $1 million payoff from his Russian developer partners during the last Presidential election when the deal was signed by both sides.

Trump’s license payment before the Moscow project would open with his name on it totaled $4 million altogether.

The relevant portions of the Trump Tower Moscow agreement are on pages 4 and 5, which specify that the licensor (Trump’s partner) shall deposit a $100,000 expense fee upon signing the deal, which can be used towards the million dollars down payment required from the partner at signing per the contract’s “Schedule 2" as described on page 16 of the contract below.

Here are the up-front fee provisions of the deal (click images to enlarge):

A contract is considered “executed” when both parties sign the deal.

“If money changed hands during the campaign, then that means Russia got its corrupt tentacles into the heart of the Trump organization,” a former Russia director on the National Security Council, Dr. Michael R. Carpenter told me, after examining the written agreement today.

“In addition to whatever kompromat they may have already had on Trump,” says Carpenter. “This would have been the icing on the cake.”

Reports of a Moscow City deal to build a Trump Tower emerged in August 2017 and former Trump Org executive and presidential personal lawyer Michael Cohen denied at the time that the business deal progressed past October 2015, professing that the deal was not signed.

In September 2017, a copy of the Trump Tower Moscow contract leaked to the media, and it wasn’t signed by Trump.

But this past December, Cohen pled guilty to lying to Congress, specifically to mislead them over the Moscow City Trump Twitter agreement.

CNN obtained the fully executed agreement soon afterward.

It turns out that not only did it continue through the entire GOP primary, but the agreement was actually signed, meaning the payment came due and that Donald Trump certainly knows about the Trump Tower Moscow deal he denied throughout the campaign.

The Moscow City deal wasn’t even the only Trump Tower development plan kicking around in Moscow in 2015, while Trump started running for the Republican presidential nomination.

Donald Trump also had a signed deal with his Miss Universe 2013 hosts Crocus City, the realty company owned by Russian oligarch Aras Agalarov. That earlier Trump Tower plan was most likely sidelined by its source of funds.

After Trump inked the deal with Agalarov, state-owned Sberbank – who agreed to fund the tower with Agalarov – got sanctioned by the US government after the Russian Federation’s illegal land annexation of Crimea.

PROOF: Trump Tower Moscow Had Land And Plans — His Lawyer Lied To Hide It

“Trump has never done anything for free,” says Democratic Coalition senior advisor Scott Dworkin who pointed out that the agreement calls for a generous up-front payment last week. “If Trump’s former lawyer Cohen was planning a trip to Moscow as late as June 2016, eight months later, then they probably bagged the million dollars.”

Public corruption cases require a quid pro quo, a favor for a favor.

If Donald Trump collected a million dollars up front from Russian interests while running for the Republican Presidential nomination and Mueller’s investigators found the money, it could become the first hard evidence of the most consequential bribery crime in American history.

Here is a copy of the complete Trump Tower Moscow contract via CNN:

Did Russian developers give Trump a $1 million payment on the Moscow Trump Tower contract? was originally published in The Stern Facts on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

A Massachusetts lawyer’s disbarment complaint just led Paul Manafort to abandon his law license permanently.

J. Whitfield Larrabee filed a 63-page complaint against Manafort with the Connecticut Bar on April 17th, 2017, over six months before Special Counsel Robert Mueller filed his first indictment for acting as an illegal foreign agent.

Trump’s former Campaign Chairman threw in the towel on defending his law license when his lawyers — from the ironically named Ury & Moskow — delivered his surrender in a Connecticut Superior Court filing today, exactly four weeks before a planned public hearing on his disbarment. Larrabee celebrated with a tweet.

J Whitfield Larrabee on Twitter

Mission accomplished. #PaulManafort is disbarred. He surrendered in response to my complaint. He'll go down in history as a traitor. Manafort was from New Britain, CT. Benedict Arnold was from Norwich, CT. Manafort was a worse traitor than Arnold. https://t.co/xrPIWgJYps

The Hartford Courant reports:

Rather than face a disbarment hearing in his native Connecticut, beleaguered Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort has resigned his law license.

In a Superior Court filing in Hartford Wednesday, the jailed Trump associate effectively forfeited in a misconduct case against him and waived his right to be readmitted to the Connecticut bar.

“Finally, Paul Manafort has been held to account,” said the attorney J. Whitfield Larrabee who founded The Resistance Committee Action Fund and represents the Democratic Coalition. “Even if Donald Trump pardons him, Manafort will still suffer the consequences of today’s disbarment.”

“I just renewed my complaint against former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi as well,” says Larrabee. “I’m requesting her disbarrment over her illegal campaign contribution from Trump, while her office investigated him for TrumpU.”

Paul Manafort was convicted of eight financial crimes including tax fraud and mortgage fraud in a Northern Virginia federal district court last August.

A month later, he pled guilty to witness tampering and criminal conspiracy charges and agreed to cooperate with Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s office in his probe into Russia’s attack on America’s 2016 general election. As part of that deal, Manafort agreed to a $46 million permanent property forfeiture.

But Mueller canceled his plea deal for lying about contacts with a Russian intelligence agent, which his attorneys accidentally disclosed this week.

Paul Manafort is in solitary confinement today and facing what amounts to a life sentence in federal prison for representing pro-Putin Ukrainian oligarchs in an international intrigue aimed at deceiving the President of the United States.

Now, the former Trump campaign chairman will forever forfeit the privileges of being an attorney at law, no matter what else happens with the federal case against him.

A lawyer in #TheResistance just forced Paul Manafort into permanent disbarment was originally published in The Stern Facts on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Lawyers for Nevada Attorney General Adam Laxalt in their Virginia offices emailed me an extortion demand and threat letter at 11:19 pm the night of October 24th, seeking a retraction of my last report about him.

Laxalt’s letter confirmed the facts of my previous story about a Las Vegas TV newsroom sitting on serious rape allegations against the GOP gubernatorial dating back to his college days as a hard-drinking student at Tulane University.

Adam Laxalt is this year’s GOP gubernatorial candidate in Nevada.

Nevada TV station refuses to air shocking rape allegation against a GOP gubernatorial candidate

This afternoon I received a physical copy of his attorneys’ threat letter at my mortgage business’ offices while I was filing a criminal extortion complaint at the Miami Police Department’s downtown headquarters. (image below)

Last night, Danielle P. gave her first published video interview to The David Pakman Show detailing her rape allegation against Laxalt, which you can see embedded below via YouTube.

Laxalt’s lawyers have threatened at least four Nevada news outlets for covering or just asking him about my story, and one national news outlet in addition to the letter and email embedded below.

One Nevada news outlet told me that they received Laxalt’s heavy-handed threat letter demanding prior restraint on their publication solely for asking his campaign if he knew Danielle P. by her full name.

In their late-night missive to me, Laxalt’s lawyers Elizabeth M. Locke, P.C. and Joseph R. Oliveri demanded confidentiality for their naked threat letter, writing in the email delivering their demands that, “Republication of this letter as a backdoor way to republish further false claims about Mr. Laxalt will not be tolerated.”

However, neither attorney requested, nor was granted “off the record” status for any discussion. Furthermore, I have no contractual relationship or current court proceeding with Adam Laxalt which would create an obligation of confidentiality on my behalf.

It’s a gross bullying tactic.

But the Nevada Attorney General’s censorship demand letter does clearly note that my story is about a political matter of public importance because they claim that Nevada’s Democratic gubernatorial candidate Steve Sisolak is aware of Danielle P.’s allegations and that they are a political campaign issue.

Ironically, Laxalt’s attorneys fully confirmed the accuracy of my story’s central point, that a Nevada television news outlet reported Danielle P.’s #MeToo story, but refused to air it:

“At least one Nevada media outlet, KLAS CBS 8, refused to publish “Danielle P’s” sexual assault allegations…”

As I previously reported an investigative reporter for Las Vegas TV station KLAS CBS 8 — whom I shall now reveal as Vanessa Murphy — interviewed a woman named Danielle P. who accuses Laxalt of raping her in New Orleans only weeks before entering a rehab facility in the mid-90s.

Danielle P. flew to Las Vegas on October 3rd and stayed through October 8th to recount her most painful memories for the cameras at KLAS, as Uber and airline receipts confirmed before my original story.

Just three days after I reported that her producers refused to air the story, Murphy flew to Louisiana to have a chat with Danielle P. at her home, without calling in advance.

In their lengthy missive (embedded below), the attorneys argued that Laxalt should be forgiven for any unreported sexual assaults during an era in his life when he was arrested for assaulting a police officer and DUI in Virginia because he has done well since then.

The Nevada Attorney General’s lawyers were careful to expressly mention multiple times that he is a state actor, and that should be a reason not to publish rape allegations about him.

His lawyers compared the rape allegations against Laxalt to Judge Brett Kavanaugh, whom Republicans elevated to the Supreme Court this month, even though he faced credible allegations of a sexual assault. After his confirmation, Supreme Court Chief Justice Roberts referred numerous well grounded judicial misconduct complaints about perjury and partisanship during his confirmation hearings.

Locke and Oliveri did issue a denial on Laxalt’s behalf:

Let there be no mistake: The allegation that Mr. Laxalt sexually assaulted “Danielle P” in Louisiana over twenty years ago is completely false, as is any allegation that Mr. Laxalt has sexually assaulted any other women.

Mr. Laxalt has never sexually assaulted anyone, anywhere, at any time. Period.

They did not explain why the Laxalt campaign refused to give a comment or deny the story in my first two phone calls, nor return the two messages I left in any way.

Nor did they explain why Adam Laxalt’s campaign failed to reach out to me in the intervening nine days to issue a denial.

But they did fill the letter with defamatory allegations which they threaten to unleash in court unless I remain quiet about their extortionate demands and retract a factual story.

The timing of Laxalt’s latest threat letter is probably not a coincidence, as Danielle P. took to YouTube last night to tell her story to The David Pakman Show.

That’s where Danielle P. revealed that her belief that there is at least one other accuser who has remained silent, if not more, but I have no information to prove or disprove her assertion.

Nonetheless, Adam Laxalt’s lawyers denied that to me in their letter beseeching me to cease covering matters of public interest about the Nevada Attorney General.

YouTube broadcaster Danny Pakman received one of Laxalt’s “confidential” threat letters and removed this exclusive video interview.

What is not in doubt, is that the timing of the allegations by Danielle P. stemming from her residency in New Orleans where she worked at the world famous Emeril’s Restaurant, and that time period intersected with Adam Laxalt’s short stint as a Tulane University student according to websites, voting records and other public records which I reviewed before publishing my original story. I also reviewed an apology letter for “taking advantage” of Danielle P. purportedly written by Laxalt from rehab in 1997, but it could not be confirmed, nor disproven to be actually from him.

Laxalt’s famous last name propelled him to high office in Nevada

Adam Laxalt is the son and grandson of US Senators, his grandfather being former Nevada Governor Paul Laxalt who served in Congress from 1974 through 1987 and was Ronald Reagan’s presidential campaign chairman. Paul Laxalt was known as the “first friend” of Reagan and passed recently at the age of 96. Only a few years ago, his real father Sen. Pete Domenici (R-NM) admitted paternity in an extramarital affair with his mother, Michelle Laxalt, the Senator’s daughter and then-staffer.

Now, the Laxalt family has very publicly come out in opposition to Adam Laxalt’s campaign for governor of Nevada, saying that they have irreconcilable differences about policy and resent his claims of local roots, which they deem false.

The Nevada GOP gubernatorial candidate reacted to his family’s disapproval much in the way his attorneys responded to my reporting, by alleging that everything was about left-right politics.

The rest of their letter is dominated by an attempt to discredit the messenger — Lou Colagiovanni, a confidant who is helping Danielle P. navigate the painful process of speaking out her #MeToo story — by presenting a worthless affidavit with zero evidence relevant to Danielle P.’s claims of rape against Adam Laxalt. Today, he is a paid political operative in Nevada.

Oliveri and Locke even lied about Colagiovanni’s history of exposing sexual predators which they called, “attacking non-leftist political candidates.”

In fact, Colagiovanni became a nationally feared criminal justice and political journalist after for revealing the substantiated sex allegations that ended Democrat Anthony Wiener’s political career while he was running for Mayor of New York City five years ago.

Wiener infamously called himself Carlos Danger online in his chats with sex worker Sydney Leathers.

He quit the Mayor’s race after being exposed.

There is no expectation of privacy for threat letters

“This constitutes our client’s formal demand for a retraction,” Laxalt’s lawyers wrote, “pursuant to any applicable statutory or common law.”

The First Amendment of America’s Constitution gives its highest protection to political speech about matters of public interest. This website is published in Florida, where the state’s journalist shield law and anti-SLAPP law give statutory protection to news outlets like this one against revealing sources, and which are aimed at stopping meritless litigation aimed at suppressing First Amendment activities.

“Adam Laxalt is using his position as the Nevada Attorney General to threaten and intimidate a journalist,” says Massachusetts lawyer J. Whitfield Larrabee who drafted two complaints of judicial misconduct on behalf of clients against Judge Kavanaugh that have been referred for investigation. “It is illegal under federal law to use his office to interfere with the freedom of the press.”

“The public has a right to know,” says Larrabee, “about serious allegations of sexual assault that are made against public officials.”

Florida’s criminal extortion law protects its residents from coercive threats by people seeking financial gains — like a paid attorney or a politician seeking a job as Nevada Governor — with intent to compel the person so threatened to act against their will.

That is why I elected to file a complaint with the Miami Police Department and provide them with Laxalt’s extortion and threat letters, which are now a public record that anyone may request under the Florida Sunshine law.

Accordingly, The Stern Facts formally declines to acquiesce to ClareLocke LLP’s extortionate threat or demands that we censor our factually accurate reporting about the Nevada Attorney General’s past problems with alcohol and Danielle P.’s rape allegation against their client Adam Laxalt.

Criminal extortion complaint to Miami Police Department:

Extortion letter from Nevada Attorney General Adam Laxalt’s via his Virginia lawyers:

Censorship demand letter from Nevada Attorney General Adam Laxalt’s via his Virginia lawyers:

Nevada AG’s extortion letter just confirmed TV station sitting on Adam Laxalt rape allegation story was originally published in The Stern Facts on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Facebook photos reveal that the Republican Party of Florida sent a pair of staffers to support the Miami GOP’s “protest” that turned into a screaming mob seeking forcible entry into a Democratic campaign headquarters with a leader of the Proud Boys — a violent hate group — acting as cheerleader and cameraman.

The two staffers even posed for pictures with Enrique Tarrio — the leader of the Proud Boys Miami chapter — who marched in the Charlottesville “tiki torch Nazis” hate rally last year.

The two men took the time to pose for a total of four photographs in the unenclosed private entrance to the Donna Shalala for Congress campaign headquarters after cursing out House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi.

Miami GOP Chairman Nelson Diaz lied blamed others for organizing the now-infamous attack on Donna Shalala’s congressional campaign office, pointing me to this Facebook event, which he falsely claimed was a non-affiliated group who could’ve been responsible for the failed “protest.”

But both men — and ironically Diaz — checked into the event’s attendance log.

Diaz even lied to the Miami Herald this weekend in a vain attempt to cover up his role in organizing what his former boss Sen. Marco Rubio called a “like the repudiation mobs Castro long used in Cuba.”

William Berejano, a 23-year-old has been a Republican Party of Florida (RPOF) staffer since at least 2016, and David Lopez just began working for the organization in March of this year according to his Facebook profile.

Both men are staffing the campaign for Congressman Carlos Curbelo, as you can see from this Tweet.

Based on his tweets William Berejano seems to be a key player in the RPOF’s campus outreach team, making appearances at Miami-Dade College, University of Miami and Florida International University in the last two months.

I asked Congressman Curbelo if he had any further comment about the Miami GOP’s failed protest, since earlier this week he took the time to inform me (a Jewish person), and this website (which is an unsponsored, ad-free public interest news journal), that he believes my reporting is akin white nationalist website associated with American neo-nazis. The Breitbart website backs Republicans, a billionaire Trump-backer funds it, and its former editor got placed into the White House as a senior advisor.

Curbelo did not respond for further comment.

William Berejano also appeared with Republican congressional candidate Maria Elvira Salazar — Shalala’s opponent — at the Miami-Dade College Republicans of Kendall, as well as at Florida International University’s campus which is in Curbelo’s district but educates students from the entire county.

Based on a review of their social media accounts, neither man appears to be affiliated with outside group Turning Point USA which the Miami New Times recently revealed as a Florida International University campus incubator of rape jokes, racist Pepe memes, and hate.

Berejano also posted a photo of himself on Instagram with Florida Governor Rick Scott this August, which David Lopez photobombed.

Gov. Scott is running for Florida Senate this year, and both Berejano and Lopez are stumping for him as well.

Both men also appear to be heavily involved in staffing the Republican Ron DeSantis’ campaign for Florida governor.

William Berejano also managed to get a personal photo with DeSantis without Lopez in the picture.

As you can see from the photos, David Lopez works closely with Berejano, who is obviously a senior aid in the state GOP’s hierarchy.

It is unclear specifically what role the two Republican Party staffers had in the planning and execution of the Miami GOP’s “protest” this week, but it is clear that two men staffing the Carlos Curbelo, Rick Scott and Ron DeSantis campaigns attended a contrived protest that spiraled out of control behind the leadership of Miami GOP Chairman Diaz and a former Curbelo congressional aide.

Here are the rest of the photos of the RPOF staffers:

The original stories:

• Miami GOP Chairman just caught leading Proud Boys in attack on Democratic campaign office
• Former top Curbelo aide just caught at Miami GOP’s unhinged protest alongside Proud Boys hate group

Republican Party of Florida just caught staffing Miami GOP attack on Dem campaign HQ with Proud… was originally published in The Stern Facts on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

The Miami-Dade Republican Party’s County Chairman led an angry mob of partisans, alongside the local leader of national hate group the Proud Boys, in an attack on a Democratic campaign office this week.

Miami GOP Chairman Nelson Diaz planned the event (image below) and local Congressman Carlos Curbelo publicized the protest heavily, before and after.

“This is beyond reprehensible and it must be condemned in the strongest of ways,” said Pelosi campaign spokesman Jorge Aguilar who attended the event.

“Anything short of it is simply an endorsement of their violent tactics,” he said.

A chaotic mob scene ensued as the Republican party leader and his followers spewed expletives at House Minority leader Nancy Pelosi while she entered a Democratic Congressional campaign office.

Ironically, Diaz and his followers demonstrated an utter lack of respect for private property to shout “communista” while trespassing in a narrow alleyway, before demanding entry to the Democratic event.

Video of the attack published by the far-right wing website “Big League Politics” was shot by Enrique Tarrio, the leader of the Miami Proud Boys. He recorded the video of Diaz personally pounding on the side-door to Democratic nominee Donna Shalala’s campaign office. (video below)

Nelson Diaz returned my emailed request for comment by phone the day after the near riot and was unequivocal in blaming a local pro-Trump group for the trouble.

Chairman Diaz even told me that he never heard of the Proud Boys, even though the Miami New Times caught local GOP Congressman Mario Diaz-Balart posting a photo of himself with one candidate of the group’s members just two months ago.

But the video doesn’t lie, and it depicts Diaz only a few feet away from Miami Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio when he yelled:

“Open up! It’s some Proud Boys in here.”

Diaz can also be seen wearing his USA flag hat just a few feet from Tarrio in this tweeted Miami Herald video. The hate group leader is wearing the group’s distinctive black shirt with yellow trim.

Jimena Tavel on Twitter

The crowd has grown. They're striking the door to the building where the event will take place. They're also screaming "commie" and calling the Democrats "witches." https://t.co/08ZafRtxwp

The Proud Boys are a national street gang with numerous Republican connections one of whose members planned the Charlottesville riot which group members attended last summer. But they court a multi-racial membership based on their beliefs in religious hatred, bitter misogyny and Trump-ism whose members seek violent confrontation from coast to coast.

In just the last week, the Proud Boys violently attacked protesters alongside neo-Nazis in Manhattan after an event held at the GOP’s New York City clubhouse and The Oregonian reported on Monday that a march they co-organized in Portland included a team of rooftop snipers.

Diaz gave a tv interview to local news station CBS 4 in front of Shalala’s office, which visually confirms his role in the attack.

“I was on the other side of that door with the Capitol Police, helping to deadbolt the entrance from an angry mob. I’ve never seen anything like this in all of my years in Miami politics, or anywhere else for that matter,” said Ricky Junquera, Outreach Vice Chairman of the Miami-Dade County Democratic party who was literally on the other side of the door that Diaz was pounding.

The Proud Boys did nothing to hide their presence at the event

One member of their group who wasn’t otherwise identified with the group waving a custom “PB” flag, in a video provided by an anonymous bystander who recorded the scene in slow motion. (video embedded below)

“Carlos Curbelo has been silent about this incident and the participation of members of the Alt-Right Group Proud Boys,” says Democratic Congressional candidate Debbie Mucarsel-Powell. “That is shameful.”

“I will not be intimidated by an angry group of Republicans.”

“I’m tired of their disgusting tactics,” she said, “that they use to silence those of us who are fighting for more access to healthcare, a cleaner environment, safer schools and communities and common sense immigration reform.”

“Peacefully protesting is one thing, but what they were doing on the other side of that door was not peaceful. No volunteer should fear that kind of violence.” says Junquera, who himself began working for the Mucarsel-Powell campaign recently.

The Miami GOP Chair gave me an extensive phone interview about his protest, and he pointed out that an informal group of rabid Trump supporters supplemented his party’s executive committee members at the protest.

He forgot to mention being a personal member of that group

“The party sent out an email to members of the [Republican] executive committee. We just went there and protested,” Chairman Diaz told me by phone last night. “There were 50–60 people there. It was just a typical protest. Some Brigade 2506 members who are not party members were there.”

“The ‘Trump Club of Miami’ also made a Facebook post and called for the protest, they’re not affiliated with the Miami GOP,” Diaz continued, putting the blame on others last night, and pointing me to a page entitled Miami TRUMP Volunteers and citing their public event page.

“Out of 60 people there, I didn’t recognize half of them,” Nelson Diaz told me on the phone last night, but he stressed repeatedly that that group was not affiliated with the Miami Republican Executive Committee.

The Facebook event page’s guest list shows that the Miami GOP Chair both RSVP’d for the event, and attended.

Miami Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio went to Charlottesville personally last year during the massive hate rally with “tiki torch Nazis” that killed counter-protester Heather Heyer.

He identifies as Afro-Cuban and is part of a wave of non-white activists gravitating towards the hatred and violence preached by the group founded by Vice News co-founder Gavin McInnes.

While most of the group has been banned by Twitter, the @MiamiProudBoys handle touts itself as “the last PB account standing.”

Photos from that account confirm Tarrio’s identity, though they did not publish any images or videos from this week’s incident.

I asked Miami GOP Chairman about Congressman Diaz-Balart’s photo with a member of the Proud Boys, he explained that the shirt was difficult to distinguish as it parodied the label of Jack Daniels whiskey, but he had no explanation why the photo is still published.

When I asked Diaz if he or any of the Republican candidates paid or invited the Proud Boys, he denied it.

Instead, Nelson Diaz told me gravely that, “There are events that I don’t attend in person because I’ve gotten threats from my own side. It has gotten really dangerous.”

Diaz tried to deflect blame for the mob scene by claiming that Spanish language radio and television advertised the event, but I could not find any mention online of it which gave out the Coral Gables office address.

Diaz specfically cited the Spanish language media frenzy as a reason for the “protest” spiralling out of control resulting from remarks at a District 27 debate the night before, and presumably from Rep. Carlos Curbelo’s inflammatory press release before the event that turned it into the number one topic in Spanish language radio all day.

But the Republican Party’s top figures from Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) — who chairs the House Intelligence Committee — to Trump’s longest tenured political operative Roger Stone, and even Fox News’ prime time host Tucker Carlson are all cozying up to the hate group.

“People across our country and Miami are looking for leaders who will protect their health care from the endless Republican attacks,” said Pelosi’s spokesman Aguilar, “who will protect their Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security — who will stand up to Donald Trump’s authoritarian-like behavior, not emulate it.”

“If any part of that protest was sanctioned by the Miami GOP,” concluded Ricky Junquera, “then they should investigate and assure everyone that type of aggression is not acceptable to them either, and disavow any group or persons not representing the Miami GOP’s values.”

The Shalala campaign did not respond for comment when asked if they planned to file criminal trespass charges against Diaz, Tarrio and anyone else who could be identified trespassing on their campaign headquarters this week.

The Miami Herald reported on Twitter that the event was shut down less than thirty minutes after Diaz’s attempts to gain forced entry.

Video from Big League Politics shows Miami GOP Chairman attempting to break into Democratic campaign offices:

Street scene video shows Proud Boys waving their flag:

The Miami GOP’s protest plan:

Miami GOP Chairman just caught leading Proud Boys in attack on Democratic campaign office was originally published in The Stern Facts on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

A pair of high-profile Republican candidates in Miami just got caught furiously deleting and hiding their pro-Trump tweets.

GOP Congressional candidate Maria Elvira Salazar deleted the Tweet you see above lauding Donald Trump.

But the internet remembers everything.

I have preserved the Tweet in question from the Google Cache using Archive.is, and it reads:

“Bravo #Trump for calling for “real and positive #immigration reform”. Look forward to concrete details. #JointSession”

Maria Elvira Salazar, 6:59 PM — 28 Feb 2017 from Oaxaca, México via Twitter.

Republican state Senate candidate Marili Cancio took everything a step further by making her entire Twitter account private, according to a Miami Herald report that buried the lede about a candidate who needed to keep all of her pro-Trump tweets for later, for some reason she won’t tell voters today.

The Miami Herald buried the lede on Cancio’s secret Twitter account, but my investigation turned when one of her followers sent me multiple captured images from her hidden pro-Trump account, the screen shots of which have never been seen elsewhere, like these:

I also found some of Cancio’s tweets in Archive.org, like this one doubting “#globalwarming” reporting on the effects of climate change which leads to more extreme weather conditions.

High profile Cuban-American Republican candidates running away from Trump during their election campaigns after spending a year running towards him

Both women are seeking legislative offices in overlapping districts the heart of Florida’s largest city, Miami, which voted overwhelmingly for Hillary Clinton in the 2016 elections.

Both women live in mansions worth triple the median home value in high-priced Miami-Dade County.

One of them is an out of work, former Univision television journalist who is praising bipartisanship today.

The other is a Republican Party insider and a failed Congressional candidate who launched an insincere moderate account just for her State Senate campaign.

The Pro-Trump journalist

Maria Elvira Salazar spent decades on Miami’s vibrant Spanish language television news where she reported on everyone from an interview with Fidel Castro — whom she controversially called an excellent revolutionary — to the exiles who bombed an air flight in the 1970s, whom she later helped exonerate in court with her testimony.

She is a first time GOP candidate for Florida’s 27th district seeking a mild upset in a solidly blue district whose current Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen is the most senior and 5th most liberal Republican in the House, who announced her retirement last year.

Salazar disputes being too soft on Castro during that interview, and in 2011 she testified in federal court to the exact opposite of what bomber Luis Posada Carriles had admitted to her — that he murdered 73 people on a Cuban airline — to help him remain in the United States until his death.

Just yesterday, the Miami Herald reported that Salazar demanded secrecy about her real position on Cuban affairs after blurting out the truth without an off the record agreement to their Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Fabiola Santiago.

While Maria Elvira Salazar deleted the “#Bravo Trump” tweet, she didn’t tweet the replies, and this one is illustrative of her blind support for the President and his policy of separating families seeking refugee status at the US-Mexico border.

Salazar is the Miami-born daughter of Cuban immigrants.

A good indication of her outlook towards the importance of immigration policy emerged recently, when she went on to MSNBC to disparage immigrants:

Florida Democrats on Twitter

If you weren't aware, @MaElviraSalazar, immigrants don't just "pick up Jalapeño peppers in Southern California or clean toilets in Orlando or in Manhattan." Going around repeating these insulting comments is disgraceful. #FL27 will reject your Trump-like tactics and rhetoric. https://t.co/CWr1S7sEyA

If she sent any other pro-Trump tweets, they have been pruned from Salazar’s account, but not everything she has ever said about the head of her party.

As a former journalist, she knows that the top concern in political journalism today is the rampant practice of gaslighting by American politicians and elected officials, and it starts from the top.

Salazar’s campaign did not answer their phone during working hours, and a voicemail message seeking comment for this story was not returned. I contacted her Democratic opponent Donna Shalala’s campaign, but they did not return texts and phone calls seeking comment for this story.

From “Island Paradise” to Miami suburbs

Marili Cancio is a Miami lawyer and Spanish-language media pundit.

She recently “moved” into the suburban Florida State Senate district 40 about 15 miles from her longtime home in the exclusive island Village of Key Biscayne.

Sometime since her “relocation” to Miami’s suburban Kendall neighborhood, Cancio took this account private and opened a new public account touting her “rise” above partisan politics, an account that has never mentioned the word “Trump.”

Cancio was a moderate Jeb Bush backer that transformed from #NeverTrump into a staunch defender of the President. As far back as 2012, she didn’t like Trump’s birtherism movement which was little more than very thinly veiled racism.

After Trump’s racist campaign launch speech and public feud with Univision, Cancio was ready to fire The Apprentice tv show host.

She even taunted his populist platform of protectionism by pointing out his imported clothing from the now-defunct merchandising empire that Trump built with a shipping fleet’s worth of deliveries from China.

Of course, Marili Cancio might not just be hiding her ties to Donald Trump from voters.

Cancio is apparently very close with Florida Governor Rick Scott, whose business career was at its zenith as the CEO of a hospital chain. Scott was forced to resign as the head of a company that pled guilty to massive amounts of systematic fraud, including 14 felonies, leading to a historic $1.7 billion fine, said his first gubernatorial opponent in 2010. Politifact rated that statement as true.

Scott’s net worth rose from $73 million in what the New York Times just called a blind trust in name only, to at least triple that value after he placed his assets in the care of his wife, Ann, an interior decorator by profession.

One Republican woman’s transformation

Ironically, she had this to say about womanizers, right before her party nominated the notorious Trump as its presidential candidate.

After the nominating convention, Cancio’s tweets about Trump underwent a metamorphosis, starting with hatred for his opponent.

And culminating in Cancio’s outright admiration for Trump’s former senior White House advisor and campaign manager, Steve Bannon, and the white nationalist news outlet which launched him into political power in a candid audience last November.

It all paid off for Cancio with a trip to the White House at the start of this year.

Marili Cancio did not answer her cell-phone — which has no voicemail — for comment, nor did she answer a Direct Message on her protected Twitter account which she receives because she is following me. I contacted the campaign of Cancio’s Democratic opponent Annette Taddeo, who could not be reached for comment today for this story.

Florida GOP candidates just caught hiding pro-Trump tweets, pretending to be moderates was originally published in The Stern Facts on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

A Las Vegas television station is sitting on the story of a credible allegation of rape against Nevada Attorney General Adam Laxalt, whose hard-drinking college days have been well documented.

A source on Facebook from Louisiana’s capital city which is familiar with the victim’s story reached out to tell me that the woman — whose name is Danielle P. — boarded a flight to Las Vegas to recount the story in October and returned after having spoken on camera to a news reporter.

The source says Danielle P. told reporters at CBS 8 KLAS TV news that she was raped by Adam Laxalt in New Orleans when he was a student at Tulane University in late 1996.

Shortly afterward, Laxalt entered rehab.

But the story has not come out.

Yet.

Just over two weeks ago, the Reno Gazette-Journal reported that Adam Laxalt was arrested in 1996 on charges of assaulting a police officer. They wrote:

The GOP governor hopeful, who was born in Reno but raised in Alexandria, told the RGJ he was drinking underage at the woman’s house when police were called to the home.

“When I was 17, I was at a friend’s house, when police suddenly started to enter and I reacted the wrong way — trying to keep them from coming in and asking for a warrant.”

Laxalt has been public about his teenage struggles with alcohol, including his 1997 DUI arrest in Virginia and his decision to enter a rehab facility at age 18. He said the assault charges leveled against him were dismissed.

Sources close to the woman say that Laxalt attacked Danielle P. just before entering rehab after a long night of drinking in uptown New Orleans.

The future Nevada Attorney General walked Danielle P. home from the bar when he was in a drunken state, and she let him pass out on her sofa, only to awaken later to Laxalt sexually assaulting her without protection.

Today, the woman who alleges Laxalt raped her has PTSD from that incident and is currently suffering from a debilitating physical impairment. She lives at her parents’ home in central Louisiana now.

Adam Laxalt has spoken publicly about his battle against alcoholism and his 1997 Virginia DUI arrest.

The source indicated that Danielle P. has contemporaneous documentary evidence from Laxalt himself which expresses apology for “taking advantage” of her, but that it could not be confirmed, nor debunked by forensic analysis.

I called seeking comment from the newsdesk at CBS 8 today three times in a two hour span, but the PM desk operator told me that the News Directors were in a meeting that could not be interrupted to give comment. In my last call I was forwarded to a voicemail.

The newsdesk operator told me the KLAS investigative journalist who purportedly interviewed Danielle P. is not working today and did not answer a call I placed to her cellphone or reply to a Tweet seeking comment.

I called the Adam Laxalt for Governor campaign twice today, but the campaign office told me that they would pass my information to their media person, whereupon I stressed that it was an important story going out shortly.

The Laxalt campaign didn’t call back to give comment before publication.

Nevada TV station refuses to air shocking rape allegation against a GOP gubernatorial candidate was originally published in The Stern Facts on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.