Category Archives: US Capitol attack

Donald Trump: how will prosecutors pursue the House panel’s charges?

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The justice department may find it difficult to obtain a conviction for each charge referred by the January 6 committee

The House January 6 select committee outlined criminal referrals against Donald Trump for charges that experts believe the justice department could definitely pursue should it move forward with prosecuting the former US president over his efforts to stop the congressional certification of the 2020 election.

The panel voted at its final public session on Monday to recommend prosecution for Trump for four possible crimes: obstruction of an official proceeding, conspiracy to defraud the US, conspiracy to make a false statement and incitement of insurrection.

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Jan 6 committee refers Donald Trump for criminal prosecution on four counts – as it happened

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Four Republicans referred to House ethics committee for refusing to comply with panel’s subpoenas, including Kevin McCarthy

Joe Biden is condemning growing antisemitism, in remarks for a Hanukah reception at the White House that will include a menorah lighting and blessing.

The US president will tell guests at tonight’s event that silence is complicity, according to White House officials, and will add that it’s imperative that hate, violence and antisemitism are condemned, the Associated Press reports.

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House January 6 panel recommends criminal charges against Donald Trump

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The referral marks the first time in US history that Congress has taken such action against a former president

The January 6 committee has referred Donald Trump to the justice department to face criminal charges, accusing the former president of fomenting an insurrection and conspiring against the government over his attempt to subvert the outcome of the 2020 election, and the bloody attack on the US Capitol.

The committee’s referrals approved by its members on Monday are the first time in American history that Congress has recommended charges against a former president. They come after 18 months of investigation by the bipartisan House of Representatives panel tasked with understanding Trump’s plot to stop Joe Biden from taking office.

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Schiff: ‘Sufficient evidence’ to criminally charge Trump over efforts to overturn election

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Dramatic statement comes one day before January 6 panel set to release outline of its investigative report on US Capitol attack

California congressman Adam Schiff said Sunday that he believes there is “sufficient evidence” to criminally charge Donald Trump in relation to his efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

Schiff’s dramatic statement on CNN’s State of the Union came one day before the House January 6 select committee to which he belongs is poised to release an outline of its extensive investigative report on the US Capitol attack, which has been linked to nine deaths, including the suicides of traumatized law enforcement officers.

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January 6 committee to use last meeting to refer Trump to justice department

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Lawmakers expected to outline findings and vote to issue criminal and civil referrals on Monday

The House January 6 select committee plans at its final meeting on Monday to refer Donald Trump and top advisers to the justice department for criminal conduct connected to the former president’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election and release the executive summary of its final report.

The panel is expected to take several conclusive steps at the meeting, announced for 1pm, including outlining its investigative findings and legislative recommendations, voting to formally adopt the report, and then voting to issue criminal and civil referrals.

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Tennessee man accused of plot to kill FBI agents in latest January 6 charges

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Pair allegedly had list of 37 law enforcement agents they planned to assassinate

In the latest in an ever-growing list of criminal charges brought against January 6 rioters, a Tennessee man was arrested on Friday for allegedly plotting to kill the FBI agents who were investigating him.

With the House of Representatives committee on the insurrection preparing to deliver its final recommendations on Monday, 34-year old Edward Kelley of Maryville was charged with conspiracy, retaliating against a federal official and solicitation to commit a crime of violence, reported CNN.

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Republican who urged Trump to declare ‘Marshall’ law only regrets misspelling

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Text from Ralph Norman to Mark Meadows, Donald Trump’s final chief of staff, urged president to declare martial law

A Republican who urged the Trump White House to declare martial law to stop Joe Biden taking office has only one regret: that he misspelled “martial”.

The text from Ralph Norman of South Carolina to Mark Meadows, Donald Trump’s final chief of staff, was given to the January 6 committee by Meadows and revealed by Talking Points Memo.

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January 6 officers and relatives snub top Republicans at gold medal ceremony

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Mitch McConnell and Kevin McCarthy denounced as ‘two-faced’ by Brian Sicknick’s mother at Congressional Gold Medal event

Senior Republicans Mitch McConnell and Kevin McCarthy were snubbed by law enforcement leaders and a fallen officer’s family at Tuesday’s Congressional Gold Medal award ceremony for Capitol police who defended against the 6 January attacks.

The pair were denounced as “two-faced” by the mother of Officer Brian Sicknick, who died after a mob of Donald Trump supporters ransacked the Capitol building and forced politicians to flee for their lives.

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Joe Biden condemns antisemitism following Kanye West’s remarks: ‘Silence is complicity’ – as it happened

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Biden alludes to Republican politicians, saying ‘our political leaders should be calling out and rejecting antisemitism wherever it hides’

It looks like Florida’s legislature will press ahead with a plan to allow Ron DeSantis to continue serving as the state’s governor, while he pursues his expected run for the White House.

An Associated Press report Friday adds credence to the idea floated by Republicans last month, and reported in this blog, to repeal Florida’s so-called “resign to run” rule.

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January 6 report expected to focus on Trump’s role and potential culpability

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Final report by House select committee is scheduled for release in December – but fixation on Trump has opened a rift on the panel

The House January 6 select committee’s final report into its investigation is expected to focus heavily on Donald Trump’s involvement in the Capitol attack and his potential culpability, opening a rift on the panel weeks before its scheduled release in the middle of December.

The nature of the final report – alongside criminal referrals to the justice department – is expected to be the defining legacy of the investigation that brought into sharp relief Trump’s efforts to stop the congressional certification of Joe Biden’s election win and return to the White House for a second term.

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Jury deliberations begin in January 6 sedition trial of Oath Keepers founder

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Jurors will decide if his actions amount to seditious conspiracy, which carries significant jail time

As angry supporters of President Donald Trump stormed the US Capitol, ready to smash through windows and beat police officers, Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes extolled them as patriots and harked back to the battle that kicked off the American revolutionary war.

“Next comes our Lexington,” Rhodes told his fellow far-right extremists in a message on 6 January 2021. “It’s coming.”

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Pence says FBI search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago ‘sent the wrong message’

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Ex-vice-president hopes prosecutors ‘give careful consideration before taking more steps’ in investigating Trump over January 6

Though he believes “no one is above the law,” former US vice-president Mike Pence says he hopes federal prosecutors “give careful consideration before they take any additional steps” in investigating Donald Trump’s role in inciting the rioters who staged the January 6 Capitol attack and tried to hang him.

Pence made those remarks Sunday in an interview with the host of NBC’s Meet the Press, Chuck Todd, in which he also said that the FBI “sent the wrong message” with its search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence in August to retake government secrets that were stored there without authorization.

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Oath Keepers called for ‘violent overthrow’ of US government, trial hears

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Jurors hear closing arguments in seditious conspiracy trial of founder Stewart Rhodes and four associates of far-right group

For weeks leading up to 6 January 2021, the Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes and four associates of the far-right group discussed using violence to overturn the 2020 presidential election’s outcome, and when rioters started storming the US Capitol they saw an opportunity to do it, a federal prosecutor told jurors on Friday as the seditious conspiracy case wound toward a close.

Prosecutor Kathryn Rakoczy said in her closing argument to jurors after nearly two months of testimony in the high-stakes case that Rhodes’s own words show he was preparing to lead a rebellion to keep Democrat Joe Biden out of the White House. Rhodes and his co-defendants repeatedly called for “violent overthrow” of the US government and sprang into action that day, she said.

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US attorney general names special counsel to weigh charges against Trump

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‘Extraordinary circumstances’ require appointment of Jack Smith to determine whether charges should be brought, Garland says

The US attorney general Merrick Garland has appointed a special counsel to determine whether Donald Trump should face criminal charges stemming from investigations into the former’s president’s alleged mishandling of national security materials and his role in the 6 January attack on the US Capitol.

The politically explosive move comes just three days after Trump announced he is running for the White House yet again, despite a disappointing Republican performance in the midterm elections, especially among candidates backed by the ex-president.

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Trump said Pence was ‘too honest’ over January 6 plot, says ex-vice-president in book

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Pence also seems to blame anti-Trump Lincoln Project for angering former president with political ad, fueling Capitol attack

Shortly before the January 6 insurrection, Donald Trump warned Mike Pence he was “too honest” when he hesitated to pursue legalistic attempts to stop certification of Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory and would make Trump’s supporters “hate his guts”, the former vice-president writes in his memoir.

Pence also seems, bizarrely, to blame the anti-Trump Lincoln Project for enraging Trump with a political ad, thereby fueling the anger that incited the Capitol attack.

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Pence blames Trump for events leading to January 6 in new memoir

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Former vice-president says meeting at which advisers led by Giuliani urged Trump to not accept election defeat was ‘a new low’

A post-election meeting at which advisers led by Rudy Giuliani attacked campaign lawyers and urged Donald Trump not to accept his election defeat was “a new low” for a president “well acquainted with rough-and-tumble debates”, Mike Pence writes in a forthcoming memoir.

Of the meeting in November 2020, the former vice-president writes: “In the end, that day the president made the fateful decision to put Giuliani and [attorney] Sidney Powell in charge of the legal strategy … The seeds were being sown for a tragic day in January.”

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Steve Bannon given four months in prison for contempt of Congress

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Former Trump strategist also fined $6,500 for refusing to comply with subpoena issued by Capitol attack committee

Donald Trump’s top former strategist Steve Bannon was sentenced Friday to four months in federal prison and $6,500 in fines after he was convicted of criminal contempt of Congress for refusing to comply last year with a subpoena issued by the House January 6 select committee.

The punishment – suspended pending appeal – makes Bannon the first person to be incarcerated for contempt of Congress in more than half a century and sets a stringent standard for future contempt cases referred to the justice department by the select committee investigating the Capitol attack.

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Steve Bannon: justice department urges six-month prison term in contempt case

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Former Trump strategist found guilty of criminal contempt of Congress for ignoring subpoena from Capitol attack committee

Steve Bannon should be sentenced to six months in prison and a $200,000 fine for “his sustained, bad-faith contempt of Congress”, the justice department said in a legal filing on Monday.

Bannon, the former Donald Trump White House strategist, was found guilty on two counts of criminal contempt of Congress in July for ignoring a subpoena from the US House committee investigating the January 6 attack.

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Republican Adam Kinzinger: election deniers won’t ‘go away organically’

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January 6 committee member speaks days after panel voted to subpoena Trump and says ex-president ‘required by law to come in’

Election deniers are not “going to go away organically”, and if they are ever to vanish, US voters must signal “that truth matters” beginning with the upcoming midterms, according to a Republican member of the congressional committee investigating the January 6 attack on the Capitol.

Adam Kinzinger’s latest remarks on the baseless insistence by Donald Trump’s allies that fraudsters denied him a second term in the Oval Office and handed the 2020 election to Joe Biden came Sunday, days after the House January 6 select committee unanimously moved to subpoena the former president’s testimony over his knowledge of the deadly Capitol attack.

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

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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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