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    Trump files lawsuit to block House Capitol attack panel’s subpoena

    Trump files lawsuit to block House Capitol attack panel’s subpoenaThe committee demanded the ex-president’s testimony and access to several documents in their investigation of the 6 January riot Donald Trump’s attorneys filed a lawsuit seeking to block the House January 6 select committee’s subpoena demanding his testimony in its investigation, according to court documents and a statement on Friday night, setting up a legal battle over the extent of executive power. The suit marks an aggressive posture from the former president as he seeks to avoid complying with the sprawling subpoena, in an effort that could culminate in a constitutionally significant showdown before the US supreme court.Rift in Trump’s inner circle over 2024 presidential campaign announcementRead more“Former President Trump turns to the courts to preserve his rights and executive branch independence consistently upheld by the courts and endorsed by the Department of Justice,” Trump’s attorneys wrote in a 41-page submission filed in federal court in West Palm Beach, Florida.The lawsuit contends that, while former presidents have voluntarily agreed to provide testimony or documents in response to congressional subpoenas in the past, “no president or former president has ever been compelled to do so”.“Long-held precedent and practice maintain that separation of powers prohibits Congress from compelling a President to testify before it,” Trump attorney’s David A Warrington said in a statement announcing Trump‘s intentions.He said Trump had “engaged with the committee in a good faith effort to resolve these concerns consistent with executive branch prerogatives and separation of powers”, but said the panel “insists on pursuing a political path, leaving President Trump with no choice but to involve the third branch, the judicial branch, in this dispute between the executive and legislative branches”.The suit prolongs the battle over Trump’s testimony and makes it likely it will never happen, as the committee is expected to disband at the end of the legislative session in January.The committee voted to subpoena Trump during its final televised hearing before the midterm elections and formally did so last month, demanding testimony from the former president. Committee members allege Trump “personally orchestrated” a vast effort to overturn the results of the 2020 election.They said Trump had to testify, either at the Capitol or by videoconference, “beginning on or about” 14 November and continuing for multiple days if necessary.The letter also outlined a sweeping request for documents, including personal communications between Trump and members of Congress as well as extremist groups.The lawsuit comes as Trump is expected to launch a third campaign for president next week.TopicsDonald TrumpJanuary 6 hearingsUS Capitol attacknewsReuse this content More

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    Many Republicans think climate crisis is a hoax, says Nancy Pelosi – video

    Speaking at a Cop27 panel discussion, the speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, said it was difficult to predict how the results of the midterm elections would affect US action on climate change, but that such action was ‘long overdue’. ‘We have had, shall we say, a disagreement on the subject,’ said Pelosi, referring to the Democrats and the Republicans. ‘When Kathy [Castor, a congresswoman] had her bill on the floor, our [Republican] colleagues said why are we having this discussion, there is no climate crisis, it’s all a hoax.’

    Cop27: climate justice activists call for fossil fuel ‘criminals’ to be kicked out of conference – live More

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    ‘Giant red wave didn’t happen,’ says Biden as he cites plan to run in 2024 – video

    Joe Biden took a cautious victory lap following the 2022 midterm election results, describing Democratic successes despite expectations of large Republican gains. ‘While the press and the pundits were predicting a giant red wave – it didn’t happen,’ the US president said, adding that many results in key races were still being tallied.
    With ballots still being counted, Democrats were hopeful about holding the Senate while Republicans felt they were on course to win the House – but by a much narrower margin than widely predicted

    Senate control still a toss-up as key midterm races remain uncalled
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    Trump said Pence was ‘too honest’ over January 6 plot, says ex-vice-president in book

    Trump said Pence was ‘too honest’ over January 6 plot, says ex-vice-president in bookPence 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.The winner of the midterms is not yet clear – but the loser is Donald TrumpRead morePence 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.Pence’s book, So Help Me God, will be published in the US on Tuesday. An extract was published by the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday.Describing a conversation on New Year’s Day 2021, five days before supporters Trump told to “fight like hell” stormed the US Capitol, Pence writes that he and Trump discussed a lawsuit filed by Republicans, asking a judge to declare the vice-president had “‘exclusive authority and sole discretion to decide which electoral votes should count”.Pence says Trump told him that if the suit “gives you the power, why would you oppose it?”Pence says he “told him, as I had many times, that I didn’t believe I possessed that power under the constitution”.“You’re too honest,” Trump chided. “Hundreds of thousands are gonna hate your guts … People are gonna think you’re stupid.”In the end, hundreds of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol, some chanting that Pence should be hanged. Nine deaths, including law enforcement suicides, have been linked to the riot.Pence’s book emerges as he seeks to establish himself as an alternative to Trump in the Republican presidential primary for 2024.Trump has indicated he will announce his third consecutive run soon, a plan possibly delayed by midterm elections on Tuesday in which the GOP did not succeed as expected and high-profile Trump-backed candidates failed to win their races.Ron DeSantis, the Florida governor and a much stronger rival to Trump in polling than Pence, provided a bright spot for Republicans with a landslide win that thrust his name back into the spotlight.In hearings held by the House January 6 committee, Pence has been painted as a hero for refusing to attempt to block Biden’s win, even after his life was placed in danger.In the extract published on Thursday, Pence said the Lincoln Project, a group of anti-Trump conservative operatives, angered Trump with an ad which said Pence would “put the final nail in the coffin” of his re-election campaign by certifying Biden’s win.Rick Wilson, a Lincoln Project co-founder, told the Guardian: “It’s no secret that the Lincoln Project has lived rent-free in Donald Trump’s head since 2019. Mike Pence telling this story is one more powerful testimony to just how our ‘audience of one’ strategy unfailingly disrupts Trump world.”On Twitter, Wilson linked to the ad.On the page, Pence describes events inside the Capitol as Trump’s supporters attacked. His account parallels reporting by news outlets and testimony presented by the House committee, to which Pence has not yet testified.The devoutly Christian Pence gives his version of a call with Trump on the morning of 6 January in which Trump has widely been described as calling his vice-president a “pussy”.Pence writes: “The president laid into me. ‘You’ll go down as a wimp,’ he said. ‘If you [don’t block certification], I made a big mistake five years ago!’”Pence describes his refusal, also widely reported, to get in a Secret Service vehicle, lest his protectors drive him away while the attack was in motion.He describes meetings with Trump after the riot, when Trump’s second impeachment was in train. On 11 January, Pence writes, Trump “looked tired, and his voice seemed fainter than usual”. He says Trump “responded with a hint of regret” when he was told Pence’s wife and daughter were also at the Capitol during the deadly attack.“He then asked, ‘Were you scared?’“‘No,’ I replied, ‘I was angry. You and I had our differences that day, Mr President, and seeing those people tearing up the Capitol infuriated me.’ He started to bring up the election, saying that people were angry, but his voice trailed off. I told him he had to set that aside, and he responded quietly, ‘Yeah.’”Pence claims the Capitol rioters, more than 900 of whom have now been charged, some with seditious conspiracy, were “not our movement”. He says Trump spoke with “genuine sadness in his voice” as he “mused: ‘What if we hadn’t had the rally? What if they hadn’t gone to the Capitol? … It’s too terrible to end like this.’”Pence may risk angering Trump by presenting something approaching presidential contrition. Trump claims to regret nothing about his actions on 6 January, denying wrongdoing in the face of multiple investigations, pursuing the lie that his defeat was the result of electoral fraud and presenting rioters as political prisoners.Pence also describes a meeting on 14 January, “the day after President Trump was impeached for the second time”.“I reminded him that I was praying for him,” Pence writes. Trump, he says, answered “Don’t bother” but added: “It’s been fun.”Pence said he told Trump they would “just have to disagree on two things” – January 6 and the fact Pence would “never stop praying” for Trump.Pence says Trump smiled and said: “That’s right – don’t ever change.”TopicsBooksMike PenceDonald TrumpTrump administrationUS Capitol attackUS elections 2020US politicsnewsReuse this content More

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    'Standing is what matters': Stacey Abrams concedes in Georgia – video

    Democratic candidate Stacey Abrams conceded the gubernatorial race to Republican Brian Kemp in a rematch of Georgia’s close 2018 election, saying she ran for election to ‘fight to save Georgia’. ‘I may no longer be seeking the office of governor, but I will never stop doing everything in my power to ensure that the people of Georgia have a voice,’ she  told her supporters. 
    Abrams, a former member of the Georgia House of Representatives, became a national Democratic figurehead after losing a hard-fought governor’s race to Kemp in 2018 by just 55,000 votes. Her voter registration efforts are credited with helping President Joe Biden win Georgia in 2020 and two Democrats capture the state’s US Senate seats in 2021

    Future of Congress hangs in balance as many races still too close to call
    Marijuana, abortion, climate crisis: what was down the ballot in the midterm More

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    Inflation, jobs and abortion: why US citizens are voting in the midterms – video

    Inflation and the state of the economy are at the front of voters’ minds when going out to vote in the closely fought US midterm elections, the results of which threaten to rob the Democrats of control of Congress. Abortion and the threat to democracy also figure highly.
    The final results, which will determine control of Congress for the remainder of Biden’s first term as president and possibly further constrain his legislative agenda, could take days or even weeks in some tight Senate races

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    Obama joins Biden on campaign trail in hopes of averting midterms defeat – video report

    Joe Biden was joined by Barack Obama on the campaign trail in the swing state of Pennsylvania on Sunday as the US gets ready to vote in new members of Congress and the Senate. Biden also addressed supporters in Westchester, New York, where he echoed his message that ‘democracy is literally on the ballot’. Donald Trump also visited Pennsylvania, where the former president attended  a rally in support of the Republican candidate for Senate, Mehmet Oz

    Biden fights to stop midterms defeat as Republicans poised for sweeping gains More

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    House January 6 panel grants Trump’s request for extension to subpoena

    House January 6 panel grants Trump’s request for extension to subpoenaThe ex-president sought more time to produce responsive records and cooperate with the committee’s Capitol attack investigation Donald Trump responded to the House January 6 select committee’s subpoena deadline for documents with a letter that sought more time to produce responsive records and cooperate with the investigation into the Capitol attack, according to a source familiar with the matter and a statement from the panel.The details of the former president’s requests were not clear. But the select committee, appearing to grant Trump an extension, informed Trump’s lawyers that he must produce documents next week and that he the summons for his appearance under oath remains in place.Will he testify? Trump’s lawyers accept subpoena from Capitol attack panelRead more“We have received correspondence from the former president and his counsel in connection with the select committee’s subpoena. We have informed the former president’s counsel that he must begin producing records no later than next week and remains under subpoena for deposition testimony,” the select committee said.The letter from Trump’s lawyers appears to indicate that the former president is engaging in negotiations with the select committee to stave off the threat of a potential contempt of Congress referral to the justice department, while at the same time slow-walking his cooperation.Trump has been counseled in recent days that he might not need to cooperate with the panel, depending on the results of the midterm elections next Tuesday, the source said, since any contempt referral would almost certainly be withdrawn by Republicans if they take control of Congress in January, the source said.But if Democrats retained their House majority, the former president has been told, then he might need to more seriously consider the extent of his cooperation with the panel – while also making sure his responses to the select committee’s questions do not leave him with potential legal exposure, for instance by making false statements.Back at his Mar-a-Lago resort for the winter, Trump has for weeks been at the center of diverging advice from a coterie of lawyers and aides, who have suggested everything from ignoring the subpoena in its entirety to make good on his own idea about testifying as long as he could do so before a live public audience.The former president, at least for now, appears to have empowered the lawyers suggesting a cautious approach until the midterms. The Dhillon Law Group has been retained to lead talks with the select committee and drafted the letter, which has not been made public, the source said.A Trump spokesman did not respond to a request for comment and a spokesman for the select committee declined to comment further on the former president’s letter.Last month, the select committee transmitted a historic subpoena to Trump and his lawyers making sweeping demands for documents and testimony, raising the stakes in the highly-charged congressional investigation into the Capitol attack that could yet end up before the supreme court.The panel demanded that Trump turn over records of all January 6-related calls and texts sent or received, any communications with members of Congress, as well as communications with the far-right Proud Boys and Oath Keepers, extremist groups that stormed the Capitol. The expansive subpoena ordered Trump to produce documents by 4 November and testify on 14 November about interactions with key advisers who have asserted their fifth amendment right against self-incrimination, including the political operatives Roger Stone and Michael Flynn.“Because of your central role in each element,” the panel’s chairman, Bennie Thompson, and vice-chair, Liz Cheney, wrote, “the select committee unanimously directed the issuance of a subpoena seeking your testimony and relevant documents in your possession on these and related topics.”The subpoena also sought materials that appeared destined to be scrutinized as part of an obstruction investigation conducted by the select committee, such as one request that asked for records about Trump’s efforts to contact witnesses and their lawyers before their depositions.TopicsDonald TrumpUS Capitol attackJanuary 6 hearingsUS politicsnewsReuse this content More