Category Archives: US Capitol attack

Trump pays $110,000 in fines after being held in contempt of court – live

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The Washington Post said Friday it had obtained emails showing that Virginia “Ginni” Thomas, the conservative activist and wife of supreme court justice Clarence Thomas, pressed Arizona lawmakers to set aside Joe Biden’s 2020 victory in the state and choose “a clean slate of electors”.

Thomas wrote to two unidentified lawmakers on 9 November 2020, the newspaper says, six days after the general election, arguing they needed to intervene because the vote had been marred by fraud.

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House panel not planning to seek Trump’s testimony on Capitol attack

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After months of uncertainty, chairman says it is ‘not our expectation’ that investigators will summon former president

The House select committee investigating the January 6 attack on the Capitol is not expecting to call Donald Trump to testify about potentially unlawful schemes to stop the certification of Joe Biden’s election win, its chairman said on Tuesday.

The panel has been weighing for months whether to seek voluntary cooperation or subpoena the former president in its wide-ranging inquiry in an effort to obtain his insight into unlawful schemes to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

But Bennie Thompson, the chairman of the select committee, told reporters on Capitol Hill that it was “not our expectation” to demand testimony from Trump.

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Subpoenas of Trump allies by January 6 panel set up high-stakes showdown

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Before taking its decision, the select committee gamed out scenarios: what happens if Republicans defy the subpoenas?

The House select committee investigating the Capitol attack made a political and legal gambit when it issued unprecedented subpoenas that compelled five Republican members of Congress to reveal inside information about Donald Trump’s effort to overturn the 2020 election.

The move sets into motion an extraordinary high-stakes showdown of response and counter-response for both the subpoenaed House Republicans – the House minority leader, Kevin McCarthy, Jim Jordan, Scott Perry, Andy Biggs and Mo Brooks – and the panel itself.

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Capitol attack panel subpoenas five Republicans in unprecedented step

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Chair Bennie Thompson says panel has been ‘forced to take this step’ as Kevin McCarthy complains investigation ‘not legitimate’

The House select committee investigating the January 6 attack on the Capitol has issued unprecedented subpoenas to five Republican members of Congress, seeking to compel their cooperation with the inquiry into Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

The select committee empowered the chairman, Bennie Thompson, to move ahead with subpoenas to the House minority leader, Kevin McCarthy, Jim Jordan of Ohio, Scott Perry of Pennsylvania, Andy Biggs of Arizona and Mo Brooks of Alabama.

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Senate Democrats aim to reveal which Republicans oppose abortion ahead of midterms – live

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Nancy Pelosi has assailed Republicans in her weekly “Dear Colleague” letter to fellow Democrats, saying once Roe v Wade abortion protections are overturned, basic human rights will be next.

In the missive, the House speaker says it is “urgent and essential” that Democrats share with the American public the “dangers of the Republican agenda” in the wake of the supreme court’s draft ruling ending almost half a century of constitutional abortion protections:

Republican state legislators across the country are already advancing extreme new laws, seeking to arrest doctors for offering reproductive care, ban abortion entirely with no exceptions, and even charge women with murder who exercise their right to choose.

These draconian measures could even criminalize contraceptive care, in vitro fertilization and post-miscarriage care, dragging our nation back to a dark time decades into the past.

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San Francisco judge rejects Trump lawsuit challenging Twitter suspension

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The former president was banned from from the social media platform after the deadly US Capitol attack

A US judge on Friday dismissed Donald Trump’s lawsuit against Twitter that challenged his suspension from the platform.

In a written ruling, US district judge James Donato in San Francisco rejected Trump’s argument that Twitter violated his right to freedom of speech guaranteed by the first amendment of the US constitution.

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Marjorie Taylor Greene is qualified to run for re-election, Georgia official says

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Secretary of state Brad Raffensperger accepts judge’s findings and says far-right congresswoman, a Trump ally, is eligible to run

The Georgia secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, has accepted a judge’s findings and said the far-right Republican congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene is qualified to run for re-election.

A group of voters filed a challenge saying Greene should be barred under a seldom-invoked provision of the 14th amendment concerning insurrection, over her links to the January 6 attack on the US Capitol by supporters of Donald Trump.

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New York judge’s son who stormed US Capitol gets prison sentence

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Aaron Mostofsky sentenced to eight months in prison and a year under federal supervision with 200 hours of community service

A New York state judge’s son who dressed like a caveman and helped a pro-Donald Trump mob storm the US Capitol has received a prison sentence for his role in the 6 January 2021 attack.

Aaron Mostofsky, 35, must spend eight months in prison – and after his release, he must spend a year under federal supervision while also performing 200 hours of community service, a US district court judge in Washington DC ruled Friday.

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Donald Trump Jr testifies before the committee on the events of January 6

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House panel also released text messages in which Donald Trump’s son begged the White House to get his father to condemn the riot

Donald Trump’s oldest son has met with the congressional committee investigating the January 6 insurrection, according to two people familiar with the matter.

The interview Tuesday with Donald Trump Jr comes as the bipartisan House committee moves closer to the former president’s inner circle of family members and political advisers.

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Militia group leader tried to ask Trump to authorize them to stop the transfer of power

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The justice department has alleged that Oath Keepers leadership called the president’s confidant to allow them to use force

Stewart Rhodes, the Oath Keepers militia group leader charged with seditious conspiracy over the January 6 attack on the Capitol, asked an intermediary to get Donald Trump to allow his group to forcibly stop the transfer of power, the justice department has alleged in court papers.

The previously unknown phone call with the unidentified individual appears to indicate the Oath Keepers had contacts with at least one person close enough to Trump that Rhodes believed the individual would be a good person to consult with his request.

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Trump or no Trump: Asa Hutchinson mulls run for president in 2024

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Republican Arkansas governor says he would not be deterred by former president in party in wrong over January 6 insurrection

The Arkansas governor, Asa Hutchinson, is considering a run for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024 and would not be deterred if Donald Trump made an expected bid to return to the White House.

“No, it won’t [deter me],” Hutchinson told CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday.

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January 6 committee set to subpoena Trump allies, Republican Kinzinger says

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Members of Congress involved in attempt to overturn election have refused to testify voluntarily before June public hearings

The House committee investigating the January 6 attack on the US Capitol will decide “in the next week or two” whether to issue subpoenas trying to force Republican lawmakers to testify about Donald Trump’s attempt to overturn the 2020 election, one of two Republicans on the panel said on Sunday.

“If that takes a subpoena, it takes a subpoena,” Adam Kinzinger said.

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Mark Meadows claims US Capitol attack panel leaked texts to ‘vilify’ him

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Argument made in federal court filing in Washington, where Trump’s chief of staff sued to invalidate subpoenas

Donald Trump’s last White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows, has accused the congressional committee investigating the US Capitol attack of leaking all the text messages he provided in what he says is an effort to vilify him publicly.

The argument was made in a filing on Friday in federal court in Washington, where Meadows sued in December to invalidate subpoenas issued for his testimony and to Verizon for his cellphone records.

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Marjorie Taylor Greene accused of lying in hearing in Capitol attack case

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Lawyers for groups challenging Republican say text Greene sent to Meadows, released by House panel, shows she lied in testimony

Lawyers for voters seeking to bar the far-right Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene from Congress over her support for the January 6 insurrection have accused her of lying in a hearing in the case.

In a filing Friday, lawyers for groups challenging Greene said a text from the Georgia congresswoman to then White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, released by the House committee investigating January 6, shows she lied in testimony.

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Trump claims he doesn’t have documents New York attorney general is seeking – as it happened

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Nancy Pelosi says the House will vote to pass Joe Biden’s $33bn request for aid for Ukraine “as soon as possible.”

Speaking at her weekly press briefing on Friday morning, the House speaker framed the administration’s request as one of a number of “emergencies” Congress needed to address urgently.

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Capitol attack panel set to issue letters to Kevin McCarthy and other key Republicans

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Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert among those poised to receive letters requesting voluntary cooperation, sources say

The House select committee investigating the January 6 attack on the Capitol is expected to issue letters requesting voluntary cooperation from House minority leader Kevin McCarthy and around a dozen other Republican members of Congress, according to two sources familiar with the matter.

The panel intends to issue a letter to McCarthy – the top House Republican – and is considering further letters to Scott Perry, Jim Jordan, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Mo Brooks, Lauren Boebert, Andy Biggs, as well as some Republican senators, the sources said.

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Republicans in Congress give McCarthy standing ovation for defense of leaked audio – live

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Joe Biden has delivered a moving eulogy to Madeleine Albright, telling mourners at her funeral in Washington DC that the former secretary of state “turned the tide of history”.

The president was among about 1,400 masked attendees at Washington National Cathedral service honouring the top diplomat from the Bill Clinton administration who died last month at the age of 84.

With her humanity and her intellect, she turned the tide of history.

Her story was America’s story. She loved to speak about America as the indispensable nation. To her, the phrase was never a statement of arrogance, it was about gratitude.

That’s why there was nothing she loved more than swearing in new citizens to this great nation of ours. She’d light up reminding them that she once stood where they stood. Having gained the blessings of liberty she wanted nothing more than the share them around the globe.

To Madeleine, from my perspective, there was no higher mission, no greater honor, than to serve this great experiment of freedom known as the United States of America.

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Mark Meadows was warned of illegality of scheme to overturn 2020 election

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A former staffer testified that White House counsel said the scheme involving fake electoral college votes was not legally sound

Donald Trump’s former chief of staff Mark Meadows was warned the effort to overturn the 2020 election with fake electoral college votes was not legally sound – and yet proceeded anyway, the House select committee investigating the Capitol attack said Friday.

In a court filing, the panel also said that Meadows went ahead with plans to have Trump speak at the Ellipse rally that descended into the Capitol attack, only days after being expressly told by the US Secret Service that there was potential for violence on 6 January 2021.

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Marjorie Taylor Greene appears in court over attempt to bar her from Congress

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Effort, brought by voters and liberal groups, to ban Republican for aiding the Capitol attack comes under the 14th amendment

The far-right Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene appeared in court in Georgia on Friday for a hearing in an attempt to bar her from Congress for aiding the insurrection at the US Capitol on 6 January 2021.

A lawyer for Greene, James Bopp, tried to portray her as a “victim” of the Capitol attack, rather than an instigator.

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Kevin McCarthy said Trump recognized ‘some responsibility’ for Capitol attack, report says – as it happened

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The questioning moves on to Greene’s use of social media to communicate with her “hundreds of thousands of followers” and possibly millions of other people. There is extensive argument about what Greene tweeted about the 2020 election and whether it was fraudulent, and what she was trying to tell her Twitter followers.

Things are not proceeding smoothly. The court did swear Greene in, even though the prosecutor thought it didn’t. He then asks: “Can I ask the court to acknowledge that this is an adverse witness?”

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