Uh-Oh: Lauren Boebert Quickly Deletes Cameo After Ethics Red Flags

Representative Lauren Boebert’s Cameo page disappeared just one day after it went up amid questions over whether it broke congressional rules.

The Colorado congresswoman was charging $250 for personal advice or a “pep talk” on the celebrity video service, she explained in a welcome video. But questions quickly came up about whether her Cameo gig violated House rules prohibiting honoraria, or a “payment of money or thing of value for an appearance, speech, or article.”

Now, Boebert’s Cameo page is gone, returning a 404 error, and she may have managed to avoid an investigation from the House Ethics Committee over the whole thing. Members of the House are prohibited from earning more than $31,815 in outside income, and the only way she could have legitimized her Cameo income would have been to funnel it into her campaign account. However, that would have violated Cameo’s terms of service.

Boebert managed to stay in Congress during the past election thanks to switching to a safer, more conservative district after barely surviving Democratic challenger Adam Frisch in 2022. It seems that merely retaining her seat wasn’t lucrative enough for her, so she tried to copy her old colleagues Matt Gaetz and George Santos by launching a Cameo page.

But Boebert failed to realize that the two have ethical violations of their own that made them former members of Congress: sexual misconduct for Gaetz and various corruption charges for Santos. Despite her own numerous theatrical missteps, Boebert has yet to join Gaetz and Santos in breaking federal law or attracting attention for ethical shortcomings. But, seeing as how her congressional career has gone thus far, it may only be a matter of time.

Infamous Trump stooge Rudy Giuliani let the world know that he is desperate and broke after an unsuccessful attempt to postpone his trial.

Giuliani is facing another trial after refusing to pay $148 million he owes to Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, two Georgia election workers he defamed after Donald Trump lost the state  in 2020. Giuliani sought to delay this latest trial, claiming the dates interfered with President-elect Trump’s inauguration in January, which he wanted to attend. The last-ditch delay tactic was likely an effort to seek a Trump pardon post-inauguration and make all of his legal problems go away—but unfortunately for him, his request was denied. This set Giuliani off on a pitiful rant against the judge, Lewis J. Liman. 

“It’s punishment for being the one who revealed first Joe Biden’s 30-year criminality,” Giuliani opined. “He’s been trying to torture me, stop me, take everything away from me since then.” It’s unclear whether he’s referring to President Biden or Judge Liman. 

“The reality is I have no cash,” he went on. “It’s all tied up. So right now, if I wanted to call a taxi cab, I can’t do it. I don’t have a credit card. I don’t have a checking account. I have no place I can go take cash out except a little bit that I saved, and it’s getting down to almost nothing.”

Giuliani already handed some of his prized possessions over to the plaintiffs, including his luxury watches, a diamond ring, and a 1980 Mercedes-Benz. It remains to be seen whether Trump will come to his aid.

After funneling hefty sums into the 2024 elections, the crypto industry is poised to wield considerable influence over the incoming government.

The industry spent more than $180 million on campaigns this election cycle, surpassing all other special interest groups, NOTUS’s Claire Heddles reported Tuesday. Lawmakers who ran afoul of the industry’s agenda found themselves targets of aggressive campaigns by crypto-backed PACs. Two hundred seventy-six candidates deemed “pro-crypto” by the group Stand With Crypto will hold seats in the 119th Congress.

Rick Claypool of the consumer rights advocacy group Public Citizen told NOTUS that the crypto industry can “use a ton of money to create this crypto-shaped club that they’re holding over candidates, and that changed candidate behavior.”

President-elect Donald Trump, for his part, has transformed from skeptic to friend of crypto. Calling it “a scam against the dollar” and “a disaster waiting to happen” during and soon after his first term, he is now one of its most outspoken advocates, vowing to transform the United States into “the crypto capital of the planet.” His sons have even launched a crypto venture of their own.

A letter to Trump and members of Congress by crypto industry trade group Blockchain Association, shared by Heddles on X, shows that the industry is anticipating reaping the fruits of its 2024 spending.

In the letter, Blockchain Association CEO Kristin Smith proposes regulatory overhauls and changes in leadership at agencies such as the Securities and Exchange Commission and Treasury to support crypto industry growth. “Following a historic election,” Smith wrote, “the crypto industry is hopeful and optimistic for a friendlier regulatory environment in the United States under your leadership.”

The letter underscores, as Senator Elizabeth Warren told NOTUS, that the industry, “like all big-dollar donors who think that their money should buy them a seat at the table,” will be expecting significant returns on its 2024 election investments.

Donald Trump’s latest moneymaking scheme has been hit with legal action.

On Monday, the Gibson guitar company sent a cease and desist order to 16 Creative, the owner of Trump Guitars, claiming that the design of its single-cut electric guitar model “infringes upon Gibson’s exclusive trademarks, particularly the iconic Les Paul body shape.”

Trump endorsed a series of guitars last week, both acoustic and electric, with one of the electric models described as “the only guitar officially endorsed by President Donald J. Trump.” The guitars are split into the American Eagle series, the Presidential Series, and God Bless the USA Guitars, with prices starting at $1,000 and surpassing $10,250 for models autographed by the president-elect.

The company isn’t believed to be owned by Trump, as its website states that the guitars are “custom designed and developed by a Veteran owned company with the help of a master luthier.” They also aren’t entirely made in the United States but “have been manufactured by multiple providers and include parts/features that are both domestic and international,” going against Trump’s stated “America First” philosophy.

The guitars are only the latest attempt by Trump to hawk items with his name on them, and being elected president hasn’t stopped his efforts. In the past year, Trump has sold branded Bibles, sneakers, watches, NFT cards, items commemorating the first assassination attempt against him, and even fragrances celebrating his election victory.

All of this foreshadows a second presidential term in which Trump will continue to completely disregard the emoluments clause to the Constitution. And like the first term, Republicans in Congress will prevent any attempts to rein Trump in and prevent him from profiting off his presidency.

Another member of Donald Trump’s inner circle has gotten away with everything. Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner has officially dropped his legal case against billionaire Trump confidant Elon Musk and his America PAC.

During the 2024 presidential campaign, Musk’s America PAC offered swing state residents a chance to win a $1 million “lottery” in exchange for their signature on a “pro-Constitution” petition, with special focus on the First and Second Amendments. Many of the “winners” ended up being from Pennsylvania.

Krasner initially filed the civil lawsuit against Musk and his PAC before the election, on the grounds that they broke state law by operating an illegal, unregulated lottery in Pennsylvania, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer. Though several legal experts and the Justice Department have sounded the alarm, Krasner’s lawsuit was the first legal challenge that Musk faced for his $1 million bribe.

When Musk’s lawyer admitted that the so-called “lottery” winners were specifically chosen and not randomly selected, Krasner’s office doubled down. “This was all a political marketing masquerading as a lottery, that’s what it is. A grift,” said Krasner. “[Voters] were scammed for their information,” Krasner said. “It has almost unlimited use.”

But now the fight is over, as Krasner requested that the case be “Discontinued and Ended as to all parties without prejudice, with all parties bearing their own costs.” The filing came just days before Jack Smith’s cases against Trump also collapsed.