US Politics

Capitol riot panel to vote for contempt charges against Trump DoJ officialCommittee to recommend criminal prosecution of Jeffrey ClarkClark defied subpoena and refused to turn over documents The House select committee investigating the Capitol attack announced on Monday that it will vote to recommend the criminal prosecution of top former Trump justice department official Jeffrey Clark after he defied a subpoena seeking his cooperation with the inquiry.Joe Biden says Omicron Covid variant a ‘cause for concern, not panic’ – liveRead moreThe move to pursue contempt of Congress charges against Clark reflects the select committee’s aggressive approach to warn recalcitrant witnesses against attempting to derail their investigation as Trump tried during his administration.Members on the select committee will convene on Wednesday evening to vote on the contempt report – which is expected to be unanimous, according to a source familiar with the matter – and send it to a vote before the full House of Representatives.The select committee issued a subpoena to Clark last month in order to understand how the Trump White House sought to co-opt officials at the justice department to stop the certification of Joe Biden’s election victory from taking place on 6 January.“We need to understand Mr Clark’s role in these efforts at the justice department and learn who was involved across the administration. The select committee expects Mr Clark to cooperate fully with our investigation,” said the chairman of the select committee, Bennie Thompson.In targeting Clark, House investigators followed up on a Senate judiciary committee report that detailed his efforts to abuse the justice department and threaten the then acting attorney general, Jeffrey Rosen, to support Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 election.The Senate report found Clark had conversations with Trump about how to upend the election, and pressured his superiors to draft a letter that falsely claimed the justice department had identified “significant concerns that may have impacted the outcome of the election”.The report also detailed a 2 January episode where Clark seemed to blackmail Rosen, suggesting that Trump could fire Rosen if he refused to do the former president’s bidding, and then said he would decline to replace him as attorney general if he sent the letter. Clark, citing executive and attorney-client privilege, refused to turn over documents demanded by the subpoena and declined to answer questions at his deposition, instead delivering a 12-page letter from his attorney defending his decision to not testify.The attorney, Harry MacDougald, said in the letter that Clark would not testify at least until the courts resolved a separate lawsuit brought by Trump challenging the select committee’s request to review documents from his administration held by the National Archives.“He is duty-bound not to provide testimony to your committee covering information protected by the former president’s assertion of executive privilege,” MacDougald said of Clark in the letter. “Mr Clark cannot answer deposition questions at this time.”But the Biden White House has declined to invoke executive privilege for matters involving the Capitol attack in most cases, and White House counsel Dana Remus has waived the protection for Trump administration materials being sought by House investigators.Thompson said at the time that Clark’s defiance would put him on the path towards a criminal referral – a misdemeanor charge that carries a maximum penalty of $100,000 and a 12-month jail sentence.The move to initiate criminal contempt proceedings against Clark marks the second confrontation, after the select committee last month voted unanimously to hold former Trump adviser Steve Bannon in contempt of Congress for ignoring his subpoena.Bannon also cited Trump’s directive, first reported by the Guardian, for former aides and advisers to defy subpoenas and refrain from turning over documents in his refusal to cooperate with the select committee’s investigation.Bannon was indicted on two counts of contempt of Congress by a federal grand jury earlier this month and surrendered himself to the FBI. He has pleaded not guilty and vowed to “go on the offense” against Biden and the select committee.TopicsUS Capitol attackUS politicsnewsReuse this content More

Biden advises ‘concern, not panic’ over Omicron and says no to lockdownsPresident says boosters and vaccines are best protection against variant and that additional restrictions are not required

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Joe Biden on Monday said the new Omicron variant of the coronavirus was a “cause for concern, not a cause for panic”, as the US implemented restrictions on travel from South Africa and several other countries.Omicron Covid variant prompts nervous governments to impose travel curbsRead moreIn remarks from the White House, Biden urged all Americans to get vaccinated, including booster shots, saying it was the best protection against the new variant.He warned that travel restrictions which took effect on Monday would not prevent the spread of the virus in the US. He also said the ban would give public health officials “time to take more actions, to move quicker, to make sure people understand you have to get your vaccine”.No cases of the variant have yet been identified in the US. Biden said it was only a matter of time.“Sooner or later, we are going to see new cases of this new variant here in the United States, and we’re going to have to face this new threat, just as we have faced the ones that came before it,” Biden said after meeting his Covid-19 advisers.Cautioning that there was still much to be learned about the variant, Biden said he was working with vaccine makers to develop “contingency plans” in the “hopefully unlikely” event that updated shots or boosters are needed.“We do not yet believe that additional measures will be needed,” he said.He promised to put forward a more detailed strategy on Thursday. “Not with shutdowns or lockdowns,” he said of the forthcoming plan, “but with more widespread vaccinations, boosters, testing and more.”Answering questions, Biden said lockdowns were not under consideration.“If people are vaccinated and wear their mask, there’s no need for a lockdown,” Biden said.Banning travel from other countries recalls the earliest days of the pandemic in 2020, and comes just weeks after the US re-opened its borders to vaccinated travelers from Europe. The new restrictions stop travelers from South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Lesotho, Eswatini (formerly Swaziland), Mozambique and Malawi coming to the US. The restrictions do not apply to US citizens and lawful permanent residents.The US is not alone in imposing such restrictions. Many countries have taken similar measures, closing borders and halting travel in a scramble to try to contain the new variant.Biden spoke after the World Health Organization warned that the global risks posed by Omicron were “very high”, though significant questions remained including whether it is more transmissible, will cause more severe outcomes, or can evade antibodies provided by existing vaccines. Health officials say it appears to be more transmissible but that more analysis is needed.The variant was identified by researchers in South Africa, and has been detected in the UK, European countries, Canada, Australia and Israel.Officials in South Africa and other affected nations responded bitterly to the new wave of travel restrictions, saying they were once again bearing the consequences of a failure by wealthier nations to provide vaccines and resources to the continent.“The objective here is not to punish. It is to protect the American people,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said.Biden commended South Africa for its transparency in identifying and reporting the emergence of Omicron, named for the letter in the Greek alphabet.“This kind of transparency is to be encouraged and applauded because it increases our ability to respond quickly to any new threats and that’s exactly what we did,” the president said.Asked if travel restrictions might make countries more reluctant to report new variants, Biden defended his administration’s actions.“We needed time to give people an opportunity to say get that vaccination now,” he said. “It’s going to move around the world. I think it’s almost inevitable that there will be at some point that strain here in the United States.”Despite widespread vaccine availability, the US inoculation rate remains stubbornly low compared with other western countries. Just 59.1% of the US population is fully vaccinated against the coronavirus, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Politicization of public health guidelines and vaccine misinformation have complicated coronavirus response efforts.Many Republicans have denounced vaccine mandates and mask requirements, even as intensive care units fill up. Yet as infections rise again in some parts of the country, the same conservatives are blaming Biden for failing to contain the pandemic, a central promise of his presidential campaign.Public confidence in Biden’s handling of the pandemic has tumbled, polls show, dragging down his overall approval ratings.On Monday, Biden insisted his administration has made substantial progress.“A year ago, America was floundering,” the president said, contrasting Thanksgiving celebrations this year with those in 2020, when public health officials advised against travel and large gatherings.By Christmas, Biden said 71% of American adults would be vaccinated, compared with just 1% a year before. Nearly all schools have reopened and children as young as five are eligible to be vaccinated. Early this month, the CDC expanded eligibility for Covid-19 booster shots to all aged 18 and older, if at least six months past a second dose.Biden acknowledged that Omicron may present new risks.“Do not wait,” he said. “Go get your booster if it’s time for you to do so. And if you are not vaccinated, now is the time to go get vaccinated and to bring your children to go get vaccinated.”TopicsJoe BidenUS politicsnewsReuse this content More

Trump’s ‘fact-free’ approach caused briefing challenges, CIA report saysEx-president’s chaotic style resulted in presidential daily briefing being delivered more regularly to Mike Pence Donald Trump’s “fact-free” approach to the presidency created unprecedented challenges for intelligence officials responsible for briefing him, according to a newly released account from the CIA.Trump challenges media and Democrats to debate his electoral fraud lieRead moreThe 45th president’s chaotic and freewheeling style, and his disinclination to read anything put in front of him, resulted in the presidential daily briefing, or PDB – a crucial security update including information about potential threats to the US – being delivered more regularly to Vice-President Mike Pence instead, the report states.By the middle of Trump’s term in office, his briefings were reduced to two weekly sessions of 45 minutes each. Briefings were discontinued altogether after the deadly insurrection of 6 January, which was sparked by Trump urging his supporters to march on the US Capitol in a failed attempt to overturn his defeat by Joe Biden.The analysis comes in a 40-page unclassified update to the CIA’s Getting to Know the President, a publication that chronicles efforts to brief presidents-elect through transition periods and into office for every administration since 1952.“For the intelligence community (IC), the Trump transition was far and away the most difficult in its historical experience with briefing new presidents,” the new chapter, posted to the CIA website, concludes.“Trump was like [Richard] Nixon, suspicious and insecure about the intelligence process, but unlike Nixon in the way he reacted. Rather than shut the IC out, Trump engaged with it but attacked it publicly.”Nixon, who resigned in 1974 after the Watergate scandal, refused to accept any intelligence from the CIA and received briefings instead from trusted insiders such as his national security adviser and later secretary of state, Henry Kissinger.Trump regularly assailed intelligence officials and famously chose to believe the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, over agencies including the CIA which concluded that Russia meddled in the 2016 election.The CIA report’s author, retired career intelligence officer John L Helgerson, said briefers achieved “only limited success” in their mission to deliver timely and relevant intelligence to Trump and to establish a working relationship with him.Pence, by contrast, “was an assiduous, six-day-a-week reader” who made efforts to try to keep Trump focused. The vice-president urged briefers to “lean forward on maps” in graphics-heavy presentations much shorter than those presented to Trump’s predecessors, and “would sometimes ask leading questions” during joint sessions with Trump “so the president would hear his concerns”.Pence’s efforts were largely unsuccessful, Helgerson suggests. James Clapper, a former director of national intelligence, said Trump “was prone to fly off on tangents”, according to the CIA report, and said “there might be [only] eight or nine minutes of real intelligence in an hour’s discussion”.Additionally, Clapper said, while “the IC worked with evidence, Trump ‘was fact-free – evidence doesn’t cut it with him’.”Helgerson writes: “Trump preferred that the briefer take the lead and summarise the key points and important items from the days since they had last had a session. The PDB was published every day, but because Trump received a briefing only two or three times a week, he relied on the briefer to orally summarize the significance of the most important issues.”Michael Cohen: prosecutors could ‘indict Trump tomorrow’ if they wantedRead morePerhaps unsurprisingly, the subjects to which Trump paid most attention were China and developments involving Russia and Ukraine. The first of the former president’s two impeachments was for pressing Ukraine to investigate Biden, then his likely 2020 election opponent. He was also investigated for allegedly colluding with Russia.“A few subjects and areas of the world were notable by their relative absence,” the CIA report states. “Regarding Europe, only Nato budget issues, Turkey and approaching elections in France and Germany stimulated much discussion. Latin America, Africa, and south-east Asia received almost no attention.”Overall, Helgerson believes, the briefing process barely survived Trump’s presidency.“[He] publicly criticised the outgoing directors of national intelligence and the CIA, and disparaged the substantive work and integrity of the intelligence agencies. From the outset, it was clear that the IC was in for a difficult time.“The system worked, but it struggled.”TopicsDonald TrumpMike PenceCIATrump administrationUS national securityUS politicsnewsReuse this content More

Carrie Meek, daughter of Black sharecroppers who blazed path to Congress, dies aged 95Tributes note her dedication to Miami’s Haitian community, to economic opportunity for the poor and affirmative action Carrie Meek, who died on Sunday, was remembered as a trailblazer, a descendent of enslaved people who became one of the first Black Floridians elected to Congress since Reconstruction.Lee Elder, golfer who broke colour barrier at the Masters, dies at age of 87Read moreThe late congressman John Lewis had another way of describing her.“We see showboats and we see tugboats. She’s a tugboat. I never want to be on the side of issues against her,” Lewis said of Meek in 1999.Politicians and public figures recalled a pioneering career, with many noting Meek’s devotion to working-class families in her Miami district as well as her powerful oratory, in an outpouring of support after her death at 95 after a long illness.“Throughout her decades of public service, she was a champion for opportunity and progress, including following her retirement, as she worked to ensure that every Floridian had a roof over his or her head and access to a quality education,” said the House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi.“On the appropriations committee where we both served, she was a force, bringing to bear the special power of her soft accent and strong will for her community and country. Indeed, she was formidable in meeting the needs of her community, including by advocating for Haitian immigrants and refugees and creating economic opportunities for working families in her district.”Meek was 66 when she won the 1992 Democratic primary in her Miami-Dade county district, later winning the seat in an unopposed general election. On her first day in Congress, Meek reflected that while her grandmother, enslaved on a Georgia farm, could never have dreamed of such an accomplishment, her parents told her anything was possible.“They always said the day would come when we would be recognized for our character,” Meek said.In Congress she was a champion of affirmative action, economic opportunities for the poor and efforts to bolster democracy in and ease immigration restrictions on Haiti, the birthplace of many of her constituents.As a member of the powerful appropriations committee she worked to secure $100m in aid to rebuild Dade county after Hurricane Andrew.In a statement, Congresswoman Frederica S Wilson called Meek an “exemplary role model for elected officials like me who broke down barriers so that we could follow the path she paved and succeed”.“Congresswoman Meek was the granddaughter of slaves who likely never have imagined how far she would go, but to the benefit of generations yet unborn, her parents encouraged her to believe that she could achieve anything she set her mind on – and she did,” Wilson said.Even before Meek’s death, lawmakers lauded her work.“Only in America can the granddaughter of a slave and the daughter of a former sharecropper believe that she can achieve and conquer all that presents itself in opposition to her dreams,” the congressman Alcee Hastings, who died in April, said of Meek in 2003.“Carrie Meek has set the stage and perpetuated the legacy of political astuteness for all of us, but particularly for African American women everywhere.”TopicsRaceUS CongressUS politicsnewsReuse this content More

How far-right extremist groups face exposure from army of hacktivists Data leaks and breaches by so-called ‘ethical hackers’ – often assisted by poor security practices – have exposed inner workings of groups and the nature of the movement as a whole Throughout 2021, websites associated with far-right extremist groups and extremist-friendly platforms and hosts have suffered from data leaks and breaches that have exposed the inner workings of far-right groups, and the nature of the movement as a whole.The data has been exfiltrated in breaches engineered by so-called “ethical hackers” – often assisted by poor security practices from website administrators – and by activists who have penetrated websites in search of data and information.Experts and activists say that attacks on their online infrastructure is likely to continue to disrupt and hamper far-right groups and individuals and makes unmasking their activities far more likely – often resulting in law enforcement attention or loss of employment.Numerous far-right groups have suffered catastrophic data breaches this year, in perhaps a reflection of a lack of technical expertise among such activists. Jim Salter, a systems administrator and tech journalist, said: “Extremists, and extremist-friendly entities, have a noticeable shortage of even-tempered, thoughtful people doing even-tempered, thoughtful work at securing sites and managing personnel.”There are many examples.In the wake of the 6 January attacks, the Guardian reported on the leak from American Patriots III% website, which allowed the entire membership of the organization to be identified.In that case, poor website configuration had allowed savvy researchers to view and republish the information on the open web.In July, another organization affiliated with the Three Percenters, which monitoring organizations classify as an anti-government group or a component of the militia movement, had internal chats leaked which reportedly exhibited a “thirst for violence”.Then, in September, it emerged that the website of the anti-government group the Oath Keepers was comprehensively breached, with membership lists, emails and what appeared to be the entire content of their server suddenly put on public display.The data exfiltrated from that site was widely reported on, coming at a time when members of the organization were facing charges or on trial for their role in the attack on the US Capitol on 6 January.The Guardian reported that the breach showed that the group had enjoyed a surge in membership after the events of that day.Another neo-Confederate group with extremist connections, the Sons of Confederate Veterans, had its entire membership list exposed this year, after a self-described “hacktivist” provided the data to the Guardian.Although there were many such breaches and leaks this year, 2021 could be seen as the year in which a wave of anti-fascist cyber-activism crested.In recent years, extremist groups including Patriot Front and The Base have had internal communications revealed by infiltrators.Independent news organization Unicorn Riot has published dozens of chats from far-right groups leaked from Discord, a chat application created for gamers that came to be a platform favoured by extremists, including for the planning of the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville in 2017.The hacking is even more significant as recently mainstream social media and chat platforms like Facebook, YouTube and Twitter have – with varying degrees of enthusiasm – moved to exclude extremists from their platforms.Events like Unite the Right and the Capitol attack brought pressure to bear on platforms including Discord, which banned hundreds of extremist servers during 2021.The intermittent crackdowns have led some extremists to flock to so-called “alt-tech” platforms, which reproduce some of the functions of big tech sites while advertising themselves to the far right with “free speech” policies. But these platforms, too, have come under attack by hacktivists in 2021.In the days leading up to the Capitol riot, Parler, a Twitter-like site that had advertised itself as an online home for the Trumpist right, leaked account details, videos, posts and other materials.After the riot, Parler data was used to identify participants in the rally and others who had entered the Capitol building.Then, in March, Gab, a platform that had long played host to extremists who had been banned from other platforms, was also hacked.Gab had achieved notoriety for, among other things, being the venue where Robert Bowers announced his intention to attack the Tree of Life synagogue in October 2018.At the time of the breach, the Guardian reported that the data revealed the email addresses and other personal details of thousands of users, including Gab’s investors and verified accounts.It also showed direct messages between Gab CEO Andrew Torba and a QAnon influencer, Richard Cornero Jr, who came to prominence under the alias Neon Revolt.The hack was attributed to Gab’s introduction of security vulnerabilities into their own platform in their adaptation of an open source social media application for their own use.Then, in September, the domain name registrar and web hosting provider Epik had the entire contents of its home server repeatedly breached.Epik had offered services of last resort to groups like neo-Nazi podcasters, The Right Stuff; sites like QAnon hub and the extremist playground 8chan; and even, for a time, Gab itself.CEO Rob Monster built up his business by promising an anything goes platform for such groups. The Guardian’s inspection of the data reveals that Monster – who has worked as a broker of domain names – had also speculatively snapped up dozens of domains that invoked the code words and preoccupations of the QAnon movement.Megan Squire, senior fellow in data analytics at the Southern Poverty Law Center, agreed with Salter’s assessment of the level of technical talent on the far right when it comes to security online. She said: “A lot of the people who are actually qualified to do this work are not going to be willing to work with these people.”While “the hacktivist ethos is alive and well on the left”, Salter added, extremist-friendly hosts like Epik are unable to hire the personnel who might help them create a defensive capacity. She described Epik’s data design as poor. “I haven’t seen anything that bad in my entire career,” she said.Salter said that any talented technologists on the far right “tend to be clustered heavily around more offensive roles attacking others rather than defending – and far more importantly, day to day managing – their own infrastructure”.Given this deficit, and the surge of hacktivism on the left, breaches like those seen in the last year seem set to continue, she added.TopicsThe far rightUS politicsnewsReuse this content More

Ex-defense secretary sues over withheld material from Trump era memoirMark Esper claims material being improperly held from ‘unvarnished’ memoir of dealings with ex-president The former US defense secretary Mark Esper claims in a lawsuit against the defense department that material is being improperly withheld from him as he seeks to publish an “unvarnished and candid memoir” of his time in Donald Trump’s cabinet.The lawsuit, which was filed on Sunday in the US district court in Washington, describes the memoir, A Sacred Oath, as an account of Esper’s tenure as army secretary from 2017 to 2019 and his 18 months as defense secretary, which ended when Trump fired him in a tweet just days after the president lost his reelection bid.The period in which Esper was Pentagon chief was “an unprecedented time of civil unrest, public health crises, growing threats abroad, Pentagon transformation, and a White House seemingly bent on circumventing the constitution”, the lawsuit says.Esper and Trump were sharply divided over the use of the military during civil unrest in June 2020 following the killing of George Floyd. Other issues led the president to believe Esper was not sufficiently loyal while Esper believed he was trying to keep the department apolitical. Firing a defense secretary after an election loss was unprecedented, but the opening allowed Trump to install loyalists in top Pentagon positions as he continued to dispute his election loss.The lawsuit contends that “significant text” in the memoir, scheduled for publication by William Morrow in May, is being improperly held under the guise of classification and that Esper maintains it contains no classified information. The suit notes that Esper is restricted by his secrecy agreements from authorising publication without Pentagon approval, or face possible civil and criminal liability.The lawsuit quotes from a letter Esper sent to the defense secretary, Lloyd Austin, criticising the review process. He wrote that he had been asked not to quote Trump and others in meetings, not to describe conversations he had with Trump, and not to use certain verbs or nouns when describing historical events.The letter describes other problematic subjects and says about 60 pages of the manuscript contained redactions at one point. Agreeing to all of those redactions would result in “a serious injustice to important moments in history that the American people need to know and understand”, Esper wrote.The suit itself says some accounts Esper relates in the manuscript under consideration appeared to have been leaked to some mainstream media “possibly to undermine the impact” it would have had in his book.Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby said the department was aware of Esper’s concerns. “As with all such reviews, the department takes seriously its obligation to balance national security with an author’s narrative desire. Given that this matter is now under litigation, we will refrain from commenting further,” he said in a statement.Esper, 57, a West Point graduate and Gulf war veteran, said in a statement that he had waited for six months for the review process to play out but found “my unclassified manuscript arbitrarily redacted without clearly being told why”.“I am more than disappointed the current administration is infringing on my first amendment constitutional rights. And it is with regret that legal recourse is the only path now available for me to tell my full story to the American people,” he said.TopicsTrump administrationUS politicsnewsReuse this content More

Ties that bind: Missouri Senate candidate hopes Trump notices neckwearCongressman Billy Long seeks Trump’s endorsement for ‘the guy that was with you from day one. I mean, look at this tie’ Senate candidates endorsed by Donald Trump have struggled of late, from Sean Parnell’s withdrawal in Pennsylvania while denying allegations of domestic abuse to the former NFL star Herschel Walker angering party leaders with his run in Georgia.Republican McCarthy risks party split by courting extremists amid Omar spatRead moreBut to one candidate for the Republican nomination in Missouri, Congressman Billy Long, the former president’s endorsement still carries the ultimate weight.“If he endorses in this race,” the 66-year-old told Politico, “I don’t care who he endorses, it’s over … And that’s what I’m trying to impress upon him is that, you know, ‘You need to get involved in this race and put an end to it.’”Long said he would tell the former president: “You’re looking at the guy that was with you from day one.’ Never ever left. I mean, look at this tie.”The former auctioneer duly showed off his neckwear, a gold striped number signed, apparently in his signature Sharpie marker, by Trump himself.Long said Trump signed the $37 tie in Nevada in 2016, when Long spoke on his behalf. Long has had – and auctioned off – other ties signed by the president, including a striking example featuring flags and caricatures which Long wore to the State of the Union in 2019.Trump’s own ties played a prominent role in the 2016 election and its aftermath.In 2015, Macy’s made news when it dropped Trump’s menswear line – many headlines said the retail giant was “cutting ties” – over his racist remarks about Mexicans at his campaign launch.In 2019, the former New Jersey governor and Trump ally Chris Christie revealed that Trump advised him to wear longer ties in order to look slimmer.Politico described Long as “built like a lineman” and said he spoke with a “thick ‘Missoura’ twang”. In Missoura’, whose other sitting senator is the Trump-supporting controversialist Josh Hawley, a large field is jostling to replace the retiring Roy Blunt.One candidate, Mark McCloskey, rose to fame in 2020 when he and his wife pointed guns at protesters for racial justice near their home in St Louis. Both pleaded guilty to misdemeanours. Another, Eric Greitens, resigned as governor in 2018, amid scandals over sex and campaign finance. Criminal charges were dropped.Speaking to Politico, Long called Greitens “Chuck Schumer’s candidate”, a reference to the Democratic leader who will defend control of the Senate next year, hoping to face weak or controversial Republicans in key states.Michael Cohen: prosecutors could ‘indict Trump tomorrow’ if they wantedRead moreA spokesperson for Greitens told Politico: “Billy Long is a much better comedian than he is a Senate candidate.”Observers including Blunt said Long, who also has a habit of handing out fake money with Trump’s face on it, had a chance of winning Trump’s endorsement.But though Long voted to object to electoral college results in 2020 he has also recognised Joe Biden as president, thereby failing a key test in a party in Trump’s grip.Long told Politico he would not follow his leader in the House, Kevin McCarthy, to Florida to worship the party’s golden idol.“I have people say: ‘Call him, call him every day. Go sit at Mar-a-Lago and tell him you’re not leaving till he endorses,’” Long said. “I’m smart enough to know that’s not going to win favour with Donald Trump.”Others might say that it would.TopicsMissouriUS SenateUS CongressUS politicsRepublicansDonald TrumpnewsReuse this content More

Michael Flynn appears to have called QAnon ‘total nonsense’ despite his linksTrump ally reportedly says conspiracy theory a ‘disinformation campaign’ created by CIA and the left, apparent recording reveals Michael Flynn, Donald Trump’s first national security adviser, appears to have called QAnon “total nonsense” and a “disinformation campaign” created by the CIA and the political left – despite his own extensive links to the conspiracy theory and seeming eagerness to serve as its hero.‘The goal was to silence people’: historian Joanne Freeman on congressional violenceRead moreFlynn’s apparent statement was revealed by Lin Wood, a pro-Trump attorney and QAnon supporter once allied with the disgraced former general.QAnon followers believe in the existence of a secret cabal of pederastic cannibal Satanists, dominated by Democrats, against whom Trump is fighting. Followers also believe John F Kennedy Jr is not dead and will soon return to lead them. Many recently congregated in Dallas, waiting for that to happen. The FBI considers QAnon a potential source of extremist violence.Trump has refused to disavow QAnon believers. Tucker Carlson, of Fox News, called them “gentle patriots”.Late on Saturday, Wood released a recording of what appeared to be a call between him and Flynn on Telegram, a social media and messaging app favored by far-right extremists. During the conversation, a voice which appears to be Wood is heard to complain that QAnon followers are coming after him online.In answer, the Daily Beast reported, a voice which appears to be Flynn says: “I think it’s a disinformation campaign. I think it’s a disinformation campaign that the CIA created. That’s what I believe. Now, I don’t know that for a fact, but that’s what I think it is. I think it’s a disinformation campaign.’”“I find it total nonsense,” the voice adds. “And I think it’s a disinformation campaign created by the left.”The Guardian could not verify the authenticity of the recording. Contact information for Flynn was not immediately available. Wood could not be reached for comment.Flynn was fired from a top intelligence role by Barack Obama before becoming a close aide to Trump. He was installed as national security adviser but resigned after less than a month, for lying to the FBI about interactions with Russians.Under the special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of Russian election interference, Flynn pleaded guilty to one criminal charge. He tried to withdraw that plea, then received a pardon from Trump.Flynn has attracted condemnation for his links to QAnon and the far right, for calling for the establishment of “one religion” in the US, and for seeming to advocate armed insurrection.The recording released by Wood comes amid acrimony among leading pro-Trump figures who have worked to overturn the 2020 election. According to the Daily Beast, the feud appears to have sprung from Wood’s brief representation of Kyle Rittenhouse, the 18-year-old recently acquitted after killing two people and wounding one at a protest in Wisconsin last year.According to the Beast, Rittenhouse alleged that Wood intentionally let him languish in jail so he could earn money off the case. Wood reportedly became angry that Flynn and Sidney Powell, another pro-Trump attorney, didn’t speak up for him. Why Republicans are embracing Kyle Rittenhouse as their mascotRead morePowell could not be reached for comment on Sunday.The recording apparently featuring Flynn disowning QAnon raised echoes of remarks about a related conspiracy theory by Steve Bannon, Trump’s former campaign chair and White House strategist.Bannon was pardoned on fraud charges by Trump but now faces a charge of contempt of Congress over the 6 January Capitol attack, to which he has pleaded not guilty.He has repeatedly promoted the “deep state” conspiracy theory, which holds that a permanent government of bureaucrats and intelligence agents exists to thwart Trump’s agenda.However, Bannon has also said the “deep state conspiracy theory is for nut cases”.TopicsQAnonMichael FlynnUS politicsRepublicansThe far rightnewsReuse this content More