Republican convention featured felons despite party’s ‘law and order’ pledge

Trump and Peter Navarro – fresh out of Florida jail – both addressed convention with Paul Manafort in attendance

The Republican party that promised in its 2024 policy platform to restore “law and order” as a “pillar” of “American civilisation” packed up and left Milwaukee on Friday after a convention featuring numerous felons.

The most prominent was the keynote speaker: Donald Trump, the former president turned nominee who in May was convicted in New York on 34 criminal charges of falsifying business records arising from hush-money payments to an adult film star.

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Roger Stone should be prosecuted, says Democrat he allegedly threatened to kill

Eric Swalwell calls for action against Trump ally apparently recorded saying congressman or colleague ‘has to die’

The California Democratic congressman Eric Swalwell has called for the rightwing activist and Trump ally Roger Stone to be prosecuted over an alleged death threat he also made against Jerry Nadler, a Democrat from New York.

Asked by Scripps News if he wanted Stone to be prosecuted, Swalwell said: “Yes, I absolutely do. I know [the] aim [of the threat] is to not just threaten and in this case take a specific action, but its aim is to silence Donald Trump’s critics.”

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Roger Stone slammed Ivanka Trump after not getting pardoned, video shows

Republican operative calls Trump an ‘abortionist bitch’ in video released by film-maker who provided footage to January 6 panel

In video released by a Danish film-maker who provided footage to the January 6 committee, Roger Stone, furious he will not be pardoned for his activities around the Capitol attack, is seen to call Ivanka Trump an “abortionist bitch”.

The Republican operative also says Jared Kushner, Ivanka Trump’s husband and like her an adviser to Donald Trump in the White House, “has an IQ of 70”.

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Roger Stone and Michael Flynn under fire over rallies ‘distorting Christianity’

Prominent Christian leaders accuse Trump allies of spreading misinformation about 2020 election and Covid, while distorting Christian teachings at ReAwaken America events

A growing number of prominent Christian leaders are sounding alarms about threats to democracy posed by ReAwaken America rallies where Donald Trump loyalists Michael Flynn and Roger Stone and rightwing pastors have spread misinformation about the 2020 elections and Covid-19 vaccines, and distorted Christian teachings.

The falsehoods pushed at ReAwaken gatherings have prompted some Christian leaders to warn that America’s political and spiritual health is threatened by a toxic mix of Christian nationalism, lies about Trump’s loss to Joe Biden, and ahistorical views of the nation’s founding principle of the separation of church and state.

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Capitol police officers sue Trump and far-right groups over 6 January attack

• Roger Stone also named in suit by six officers in federal court

• Ex-president worked with others to ‘commit acts of … terrorism’

Capitol police officers who were attacked and beaten during the insurrection at the US Congress on 6 January by extremist supporters of Donald Trump filed a lawsuit on Thursday against the former Republican president, his ally Roger Stone and members of far-right extremist groups.

The officers accused them of intentionally sending a violent mob to disrupt the congressional certification of Joe Biden’s victory in the November 2020 election.

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Roger Stone ‘funded lavish lifestyle’ despite owing $2m in taxes, US lawsuit says

US justice department accuses Trump ally and Republican operative of using a commercial entity to hide income

The US Department of Justice has sued Roger Stone, saying the close ally of former president Donald Trump owes about $2m in unpaid federal income taxes, according to a court document.

The civil lawsuit, filed in federal court in Florida on Friday, alleged that Stone and his wife, Nydia, used a commercial entity to “shield their personal income from enforced collection and fund a lavish lifestyle despite owing nearly $2m in unpaid taxes, interest and penalties”.

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Donald Trump’s latest wave of pardons includes Paul Manafort and Charles Kushner

President also gives clemency to Roger Stone in second round of pardons since Tuesday

Donald Trump has pardoned another 26 people in his second big wave of clemency actions since Tuesday, marking yet another audacious application of presidential power to reward loyalists.

The US president pardoned his former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, his longtime adviser Roger Stone, and Charles Kushner, the father of his son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner.

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Roger Stone to Donald Trump: bring in martial law if you lose election

Trump meanwhile promises to ‘put down’ leftwing protests and says US Marshals killing Portland suspect was ‘retribution’

Roger Stone, whose 40-month prison sentence for lying to Congress and witness tampering in the Russia investigation was commuted by Donald Trump, has said Trump should seize total power and jail prominent figures including Bill and Hillary Clinton and Mark Zuckerberg if he loses to Joe Biden in November.

The long-time Republican strategist and dirty trickster, who has a tattoo of Richard Nixon on his back, lied about contacts with WikiLeaks during the 2016 election regarding emails hacked from Democratic party accounts.

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‘Conmen, grifters and criminals’: why is Trump’s circle so at odds with the law?

Apart from legal trouble, what Bannon, Manafort, Flynn, Cohen, Stone, Gates and Papadopoulos have in common is the president

To live outside the law, Bob Dylan sang, you must be honest. It also helps, apparently, to stay as clear as possible from Donald Trump, whose inner circle of advisers has suffered steady attrition since 2017, through a series of encounters with the criminal justice system.

Related: Steve Bannon pleads not guilty to fraud after arrest on luxury yacht

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US Senate report goes beyond Mueller to lay bare Trump campaign’s Russia links

Bipartisan intelligence panel says that Russian who worked on Trump’s 2016 bid was career spy, amid a stunning range of contacts

A report by the Senate intelligence committee provides a treasure trove of new details about Donald Trump’s relationship with Moscow, and says that a Russian national who worked closely with Trump’s presidential campaign in 2016 was a career intelligence officer.

The bipartisan report runs to nearly 1,000 pages and goes further than last year’s investigation into Russian election interference by special prosecutor Robert Mueller. It lays out a stunning web of contacts between Trump, his top election aides and Russian government officials, in the months leading up to the 2016 election.

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Roger Stone should face grand jury, Mueller prosecutor says in op-ed

Trump’s commutation ‘does not have to be the end of the story’, Andrew Weissmann wrote in a New York Times column

Donald Trump’s commutation of Roger Stone’s sentence for lying to Congress and other crimes discovered in the Russia investigation “does not have to be the end of the story”, the former Mueller team member Andrew Weissmann said on Tuesday, advocating that the self-confessed political dirty trickster be brought before a grand jury.

Related: Roger Stone speaks in Fox News interview after Trump commutation

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Donald Trump: ‘I’m getting rave reviews’ for commuting Roger Stone’s sentence – video

Trump has claimed he received 'rave reviews' for commuting the prison sentence of Roger Stone, his long-time ally. Stone, 67, was convicted in November 2019 of obstructing a congressional investigation into whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russia to win the 2016 election. Both Democrats and Republicans have criticised the move as a miscarriage of justice

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California reverses coronavirus reopenings for businesses’ indoor operations – live

Hi all - Sam Levin here, taking over our live coverage for the rest of the day, writing from Los Angeles, which is returning to strict closures for a number of industries, as Covid infections, hospitalizations and deaths continue to surge here.

Business owners in LA have told me that it’s been particularly painful to restart and then shut down again, and that they have been pouring money into making their indoor operations safe, with little certainty about when they can properly reopen. Here’s more from my colleague Vivian Ho on the state of the crisis and new restrictions across California:

Related: California rolls back reopening of bars, restaurants and indoor venues

That’s it from me today. My west coast colleague, Sam Levin, will take over the blog for the next few hours.

Here’s where the day stands so far:

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Robert Mueller breaks his silence and condemns Trump for commuting Roger Stone’s sentence

US special counsel defends his investigation into allegations of corruption during 2016 election

The former special counsel Robert Mueller made a rare move on Saturday to publicly defend his two-year investigation into allegations of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia in the 2016 election – and to castigate Donald Trump’s decision to commute Roger Stone’s prison sentence.

Mueller wrote an opinion article for the Washington Post [paywall] published under the headline “Roger Stone remains a convicted felon, and rightly so”.

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Mueller castigates Trump’s decision to commute Roger Stone’s sentence – live

The grim news from Florida continues: The state reported 15,000 new cases on Sunday. That breaks not only the record for a state in the US in a single day but is also more new cases than any European country has reported in a single day during the pandemic. Only the US, Brazil and India have reported more new cases in a day than Florida did on Sunday.

Related: Florida wrestles with impossible question: when can schools reopen safely?

The row over Goya Foods is spreading to some unlikely places. Last week, Goya Foods CEO Bob Unanue heaped praised on Donald Trump, saying: “We’re all truly blessed at the same time to have a leader like President Trump, who is a builder”.

There was backlash due to the fact that the head of an organization that describes itself as the largest Hispanic-owned food company in America praised a president who has introduced policies that have hurt Latinx people.

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Trump’s commutation of ally Roger Stone’s sentence sparks outrage

  • Mitt Romney calls move ‘unprecedented, historic corruption’
  • Analyst: ‘It’s a disgraceful, dark day for American democracy’

Outrage is growing among opponents of Donald Trump’s decision to commute the prison sentence of his longtime friend and notorious Republican fixer Roger Stone. Special counsel Robert Mueller weighed in on Saturday night, declaring that “Roger Stone remains a convicted felon, and rightly so.”

The president commuted Stone’s sentence on Friday despite the US attorney general previously having declared Stone’s conviction “righteous”.

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Roger Stone: Trump proves his love for ‘law and order’ doesn’t apply to friends | Analysis

Analysis: The president’s commutation of his longtime adviser’s prison sentence was spectacularly unsurprising

The law and order president has decided that a convicted criminal should not go to prison.

It may be mere coincidence that Roger Stone is an old friend and fellow resident of Florida with a shared crush on Richard Nixon.

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Trump commutes sentence of Roger Stone, longtime friend and adviser

Move means Stone, due to serve more than three years for crimes related to Russia investigation, will not set foot in prison

Donald Trump has commuted the sentence of Roger Stone, a longtime friend and former campaign adviser who was to spend three years and four months in jail for crimes related to the Russia investigation.

In a statement released on Friday evening, the White House denounced the prosecution of Stone on charges stemming from “the Russia Hoax” investigation. “Roger Stone has already suffered greatly,” the statement reads. “He was treated very unfairly, as were many others in this case. Roger Stone is now a free man!”

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Roger Stone case: Trump ally given special treatment, Congress hears

Aaron Zelinsky says prosecutors were under pressure to go easy on Stone because of his relationship with the president

A federal prosecutor who was part of Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation told Congress on Wednesday Roger Stone, a close ally of Donald Trump, was given special treatment before sentencing because of his relationship with the US president.

Related: US appeals court orders judge to dismiss case against Michael Flynn

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Roger Stone is a friend of Trump – does that mean he’s above the law?

Stone, sentenced to 40 months for lying to Congress, is an ally of the president – and in the US in 2020 that carries a lot of weight

Any other convict, in Roger Stone’s place, might find cause for despair.

Sentenced by Judge Amy Berman Jackson to 40 months in federal prison on Thursday, Stone, 67, the piratical politico, was also on the receiving end of a stern rebuke for making threatening social media posts during the trial and for generally acting as if the rules did not apply to him.

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