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      Democrats condemn McCarthy for handing Capitol attack footage to Tucker Carlson – as it happened

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      Kevin McCarthy’s protracted battle to win election as speaker of the House had far-reaching consequences. His decision to release a massive trove of surveillance footage from January 6 to Fox News commentator Tucker Carlson is one of them.It was lawmakers on the GOP’s right wing who held up McCarthy’s election as speaker for days last month, resulting in an unheard-of 15 rounds of balloting. McCarthy only won their support by making a number of promises – and releasing the January 6 footage was apparently among them.“I promised,” McCarthy told the New York Times, when asked why he gave Carlson the footage. “I was asked in the press about these tapes, and I said they do belong to the American public. I think sunshine lets everybody make their own judgment.”The speaker said he wanted to ensure Carlson, who has claimed the insurrection was a “false flag” attack and generally tried to downplay it, without evidence, “exclusive” access to the footage, but could release it to other outlets later. As for Carlson, he told the Times he was taking the footage “very seriously” and had a large team reviewing it.Democrats cried foul after Republican House speaker Kevin McCarthy sent about 40,000 hours of footage of the January 6 insurrection to Tucker Carlson – Fox News’s best-known conservative commentator, who has repeatedly downplayed the attack. Meanwhile, special prosecutor Jack Smith moved to pre-empt former vice-president Mike Pence’s attempt to get out of testifying before a grand jury investigating Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss. Expect to hear more about that in weeks and days to come.Here’s what else happened today:
      Transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg visited the Ohio village where a train derailment sparked fears of toxic contamination, and expressed regret for not stopping by sooner.
      Trump and FBI director Christopher Wray could be deposed as part of a lawsuit by two former bureau employees – unless Joe Biden stops it.
      The United States has seen a disturbing streak of extremist-driven mass killings, a new report found.
      The latest Twitter feud is between New York mayor Eric Adams and congressman and fabulist George Santos.
      Did you know? Jon Tester has only seven fingers.
      Two former FBI agents will be allowed to depose Donald Trump and the bureau’s director Christopher Wray as part of a lawsuit against the government, Politico reports.But in an unusual twist, Joe Biden could put a stop to the deposition by asserting executive privilege. The lawsuit stems from the FBI’s firing of Peter Strzok, an agent who it was revealed exchanged text messages disparaging Trump with Lisa Page, an attorney for the bureau who resigned. Strzok was involved in the investigation into ties between Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and Russia, and the then-president attacked the pair repeatedly once the exchanges were revealed.According to Politico, the pair are suing the FBI alleging breach of privacy for releasing their messages, while Strzok is contesting his firing. Here’s more from the report:.css-cumn2r{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}In the suits, Strzok and Page contend that Trump and his Justice Department appointees were carrying out a political vendetta.
      The Justice Department and the FBI have both denied that Trump’s public attacks played any role in the bureau’s decision to fire Strzok, saying it was a decision arrived at by career officials and carried out without political pressure. They’ve argued that deposing Trump or Wray would shed little light on decisions that were made by others at the FBI.
      But Jackson’s ruling suggests there might be evidence that she thinks only Trump and Wray can provide. She noted that her decision was rooted in an analysis of the “apex doctrine,” which requires litigants to first seek information from figures at lower rungs of an organization before pursuing testimony of more senior officials.
      Jackson also indicated that the depositions would be limited to a “narrow set of topics” that were defined in a sealed hearing on Thursday.Joe Biden today nominated a Wall Street insider to take over as president of the World Bank from David Malpass, a Trump nominee who drew fire for comments questioning climate change, and will be leaving the post early. But as Phillip Inman reports, Ajay Banga may not get a warm welcome from anti-poverty groups:Joe Biden has nominated a former boss of Mastercard with decades of experience on Wall Street to lead the World Bank and oversee a shake-up at the development organisation to shift its focus to the climate crisis.The US president’s choice of Ajay Banga, an American citizen born in India, comes a week after David Malpass, a Donald Trump appointee, quit the role.The World Bank’s governing body is expected to make a decision in May, but the US is the Washington-based organisation’s largest shareholder and has traditionally been allowed to nominate without challenge its preferred candidate for the post.Malpass, who is due to step down on 30 June, was nominated by Trump in February 2019 and took up the post officially that April. He is known to have lost the confidence of Biden’s head of the US Treasury, Janet Yellen, who with other shareholders wanted to expand the bank’s development remit to include the climate crisis and other global challenges.Joe Biden nominates former Mastercard boss Ajay Banga to lead World BankRead moreOne of the best known progressive voices currently on television is Mehdi Hasan of MSNBC. He sat down with the Guardian’s David Smith to discuss everything from being British to how to report the news in these hyper-partisan times: One evening this month on cable television, Mehdi Hasan interviewed Ilhan Omar, who had just been ousted from a House of Representatives panel by Republicans still worshipping at Donald Trump’s altar of intolerance.The significance of the moment was not lost on Hasan.“When I was growing up, I never imagined I’d see, on primetime, a Muslim host interviewing a Muslim politician. Tonight, I did the interview,” the 43-year-old tweeted afterwards. “I also never thought I’d see double standards on terrorism bluntly addressed on primetime, but tonight I got to address it. Thanks @MSNBC.”For those who criticise the American news media as too white, too Christian, too complacent, too inward looking, too pompous (“democracy dies in darkness”), too prone to herd mentality and too deferential to authority, Hasan has come along in the nick of time.He is a British-born Muslim of Indian descent, anti-establishment muckraker and unabashed lefty with a bias towards democracy. As a former columnist and podcaster at the Intercept, and ex-presenter on Al Jazeera English, he used to worry that MSNBC would find him too edgy, too iconoclastic. But he says the network has been entirely supportive: he hosts weekly shows on MSNBC and NBC’s streaming channel Peacock.One explanation is that, unlike shock jocks, bomb throwers and social media stars on the right, his show undeniably does substance. During the US military withdrawal from Afghanistan, it featured the Afghan perspective at length. When the war in Ukraine erupted, Hasan offered a 10-minute monologue about the fascist philosopher who informs Vladimir Putin’s worldview. After the police killing of Tyre Nichols, an African American man in Memphis, he discussed critical race theory and policing with two leading academics.Clearly, Hasan is not afraid to be an outlier. For one thing, he is personally opposed to abortion, though he condemned last year’s overturning of Roe v Wade and believes the law should uphold a woman’s right to choose. For another, he is still fastidious about taking precautions to avoid the coronavirus even as nearly everyone else seems to have thrown caution to the winds.‘Biden’s the most impressive president of my lifetime’: Mehdi Hasan on Fox News, tough questions and post-Trump politicsRead moreA day after he confirmed he would seek another term next year in what is sure to be a closely fought contest, Montana’s Democratic senator Jon Tester had a new message for Americans: I only have seven fingers.Don’t take it from us, take it from him:RT if you’re ready to send a seven-fingered dirt farmer from Montana back to the Senate. pic.twitter.com/1zE95IRsSQ— Jon Tester (@jontester) February 23, 2023
      The culprit was a meat ginder. And no, this is not the first time he brought the childhood accident up on the campaign trail.At her daily briefing, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre defended transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg from those who say he waited too long to visit East Palestine, Ohio.Republicans have argued Buttigieg shirked his duties by not visiting the village that’s been grappling with the aftermath of a chemical spill sooner. Here’s what Jean-Pierre had to say about that:WH Press Sec. Karine Jean-Pierre condemns “bad faith attacks” on Transportation Sec. Pete Buttigieg amid growing scrutiny of his handling of the Ohio derailment:“If you remember Elaine Chao…when there was these types of chemical spills, nobody was calling for her to be fired.” pic.twitter.com/sEpNLr2jA6— The Recount (@therecount) February 23, 2023
      Hugo Lowell reports on the latest developments in the saga over Mike Pence’s testimony, or otherwise, in the US justice department investigation of January 6 and related election subversion…The special counsel investigating Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election issued a motion to compel testimony from Mike Pence in recent days – after the Trump legal team sought to block his appearance on executive privilege grounds, sources familiar with the matter said.The compulsion motion against Pence marks a pre-emptive move by the special counsel to rebut the executive privilege arguments before Pence had even made an appearance before the federal grand jury in Washington DC pursuant to a subpoena issued last month, the sources said.While Pence has suggested he would contest the subpoena, the Guardian has previously reported that is understood to involve him at least appearing before the grand jury and asserting the so-called speech or debate protection for congressional officials to specific questions.The Trump special counsel, Jack Smith, appears to have issued the motion to compel – earlier reported by CBS News – not in response to Pence’s expected actions, but in response to a recent executive privilege motion filed in the case by Trump’s legal team seeking to stop Pence testifying in the investigation.Full story:Motion to compel Pence’s January 6 testimony is rebuttal to Trump team, sources sayRead moreAdam Gabbatt takes a look at what Tucker Carlson has said about the January 6 attack, and what he might say next now Kevin McCarthy has given the Fox News host 44,000 hours of Capitol security footage…In the two years since the US Capitol attack, Tucker Carlson has described the violent assault on American democracy connected to the deaths of nine people as “vandalism” and a “forgettably minor” outbreak of “mob violence”.The Fox News host has said the attack on Congress by supporters of Donald Trump, which has prompted more than 900 arrests, was a “false flag” operation, part of alleged persecution of conservatives by shady government forces. Carlson even devoted much of a conspiracy-laden TV series to undermining the severity of the attack.It is not difficult to imagine, then, what Carlson might do with the 44,000 hours of Capitol surveillance footage from January 6 handed to him exclusively by Kevin McCarthy, the Republican House speaker. In fact Carlson gave an indication on his show on Monday night.“Our producers, some of our smartest producers, have been looking at this stuff and trying to figure out what it means and how it contradicts or not the story we’ve been told for more than two years,” Carlson said.He added: “We think already in some ways that it does contradict that story.”Read on:The January 6 insurrection has proved an obsession for Tucker CarlsonRead moreA Texas man who assaulted a police officer during the US Capitol riot and also threatened the New York Democratic congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was sentenced on Wednesday to 38 months in prison.Garret Miller, 36 and from Richardson, Texas, was “at the forefront of every barrier overturned, police line overrun, and entryway breached within his proximity” on January 6 and was twice detained outside the building, prosecutors said.On the night after the riot, he tweeted: “Assassinate AOC.”As the Associated Press reports, when Miller was arrested at his home near Dallas two weeks after the riot, he “was wearing a shirt that read ‘I Was There, Washington DC, January 6, 2021’, with a picture of President Donald Trump on it.“… Miller has already spent more than two years behind bars since his arrest, and with credit for good behavior he’s expected to serve another eight months, according to his lawyer, F Clinton Broden”.More than 1,000 people have been charged over the Capitol attack. Slightly under half have, like Miller, pleaded guilty.Miller has also expressed remorse. His lawyer, Broden, told the AP: “It should be always be remembered that although Garret is fully responsible for his individual actions that day, his actions and the actions of many others were a product of rhetoric from a cult leader that has yet to be brought to justice.“Garret Miller was not the name on the flag carried by those who invaded our Capitol on this dark day in our nation’s history.”That, of course, was Trump. The former president was impeached for inciting the insurrection but acquitted as enough Senate Republicans stayed loyal. He is still under investigation by the US justice department, to which the House January 6 committee made four criminal referrals.Regardless, Trump remains the favourite to win the Republican presidential nomination in 2024.David DePape, the suspect in the attack last year on Paul Pelosi, the husband of the then House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, is due to appear in state court on 12 April, his public defender said earlier.DePape faces state and federal charges over the attack, in which Pelosi was attacked with a hammer and seriously wounded.Here’s some reading about the case – and how politicians and pundits on the right sought to capitalise on it, and then retreated:Paul Pelosi attack: rightwing pundits backtrack after release of police videoRead moreDemocrats are crying foul after Republican House speaker Kevin McCarthy sent about 40,000 hours of footage of the January 6 insurrection to Tucker Carlson – Fox News’s best-known conservative commentator, who has repeatedly downplayed the attack. Meanwhile in court, former vice-president Mike Pence is planning his strategy to quash a subpoena from the special prosecutor investigating the insurrection, among other things, while Republican lawmaker Scott Perry is trying to stop the justice department from accessing his cellphone.Here’s what else has happened today so far:
      Transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg visited the Ohio village where a train derailment has sparked fears of toxic contamination, and expressed regret for not stopping by sooner.
      The United States has seen a disturbing streak of extremism-driven mass killings, a new report found.
      The latest Twitter feud is between New York mayor Eric Adams and congressman and fabulist George Santos.
      In Florida, authorities have released the name of a journalist who was one of two people shot dead near the scene of a murder earlier that same day, the Guardian’s Sam Levine reports:A Florida journalist killed near Orlando on Wednesday was identified as 24-year-old Dylan Lyons.Lyons, a reporter for Spectrum News 13, was fatally shot on Wednesday afternoon while at the scene of a murder. Officials said Keith Melvin Moses, 19, shot Lyons and a colleague before walking into a nearby home and shooting a woman and her nine-year-old daughter. The girl died.Lyons’ colleague, Jesse Walden, a photographer, was in critical condition but able to speak with investigators, according to Greg Angel, a station news anchor.John Mina, the Orange county sheriff, said Moses ambushed Lyons and Walden as they were at the scene of a murder Moses is accused of committing. It was not clear if Moses knew Lyons and Walden were members of the media.Officials identify Florida journalist killed while reporting at scene of murderRead moreMass killings linked to extremism in the United States are on the rise, as are the number of victims of these incidences, according to a new report. Here’s the latest on that, from the Associated Press:The number of US mass killings linked to extremism over the past decade was at least three times higher than the total from any other 10-year period since the 1970s, according to the Anti-Defamation League.The ADL report also found that all extremist killings identified in 2022 were linked to rightwing extremism, with an especially high number linked to white supremacy.They include a racist mass shooting at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, that killed 10 Black people and a mass shooting that killed five people at an LGBTQ+ nightclub in Colorado Springs.“It is not an exaggeration to say that we live in an age of extremist mass killings,” the report from the ADL Center on Extremism says.Between two and seven extremism-related mass killings occurred every decade from the 1970s to the 2000s but in the 2010s that number rocketed to 21, the report found.The trend has continued with five extremist mass killings in 2021 and 2022, as many as there were during the 2000s.The number of victims has risen too. Between 2010 and 2020, 164 people died in ideological extremist-related mass killings, according to the report. That was much more than in any other decade except the 1990s, when the bombing of a federal building in Oklahoma City killed 168.US mass killings linked to extremism at highest level in decades, report findsRead moreIn his visit to the Ohio community where a freight train’s derailment earlier this month sparked fears of severe pollution, transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg expressed regret for not speaking out about the disaster sooner:Transportation Sec. Pete Buttigieg admits he waited too long to address the train derailment disaster in East Palestine, Ohio:“I felt strongly about this and could’ve expressed that sooner.” pic.twitter.com/i3DD12VV62— The Recount (@therecount) February 23, 2023
      The stop in the village of East Palestine by Buttigieg, who is considered a rising star in the Democratic party and was a candidate in the 2020 presidential election, came less than a day after an appearance by Donald Trump, where the former president criticized the Biden administration:“Get over here.”— Donald Trump’s message to President Biden during his visit to East Palestine, Ohio after the train derailment disaster pic.twitter.com/eRiWy9vurW— The Recount (@therecount) February 22, 2023
      Democrats have hit back at Trump, saying he rolled back safety regulations on the railroad and chemical industries during his time in the White House:Trump’s environmental rollbacks in focus on visit to Ohio toxic train siteRead moreNot 24 hours after Donald Trump came and went from East Palestine, Ohio, transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg paid a visit to the scene of the freight train derailment that spilled toxic chemicals in the community.Here’s a clip of his visit, from CNN:This morning, Transportation Sec. Pete Buttigieg is on the scene of the Norfolk Southern train derailment disaster in East Palestine, Ohio. pic.twitter.com/fHiHXmKT13— The Recount (@therecount) February 23, 2023 More

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      Special counsel seeks to compel Mike Pence to testify about January 6

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      Special counsel seeks to compel Mike Pence to testify about January 6Compulsion motion against former vice-president marks pre-emptive move to rebut executive privilege arguments, sources sayThe special counsel investigating Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election issued a motion to compel testimony from Mike Pence in recent days – after the Trump legal team sought to block his appearance on executive privilege grounds, sources familiar with the matter said.The compulsion motion against Pence marks a pre-emptive move by the special counsel to rebut the executive privilege arguments before Pence had even made an appearance before the federal grand jury in Washington DC pursuant to a subpoena issued last month, the sources said.While Pence has suggested he would contest the subpoena, the Guardian has previously reported that is understood to involve him at least appearing before the grand jury and asserting the so-called speech or debate protection for congressional officials to specific questions.The Trump special counsel Jack Smith, however, appears to have issued the motion to compel – earlier reported by CBS News – not in response to Pence’s expected actions, but in response to a recent executive privilege motion filed in the case by Trump’s legal team seeking to stop Pence testifying in the investigation.Trump’s legal team has reflexively filed executive privilege motions to stop multiple top former Trump White House officials from testifying in the criminal investigation into the January 6 Capitol attack.That has led to protracted litigation with federal prosecutors before the chief US judge in the District of Columbia, Beryl Howell. The executive privilege fight with Pence’s chief of staff Marc Short took at least four months – that is thought to have delayed parts of the investigation.Howell, who has generally ruled in favor of the government on executive privilege disputes, even if they do take months to resolve, is slated to step down on 16 March. She will be replaced as the chief judge by James Boasberg, who previously oversaw the secret foreign surveillance court.The Pence subpoena is more complicated than other legal battles over executive privilege because there are two privilege assertions at play: Pence’s own expected speech or debate assertions, as well as the standard executive privilege fight by the Trump legal team as intervenors in the case.Whether the special counsel filed the motion to compel in response to the Trump legal team, in order to deal with the privilege issues sequentially – executive privilege is also generally a weaker protection than the speech or debate clause – was not clear, and a spokesman did not respond to a request for comment.TopicsMike PenceDonald TrumpJanuary 6 hearingsUS politicsnewsReuse this content More

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      in US Politics

      Kevin McCarthy denounced for giving January 6 tapes to Fox News host

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      Kevin McCarthy denounced for giving January 6 tapes to Fox News hostRepublican House speaker says he promised to release footage of deadly attack as Democrats denounce release to Tucker CarlsonTop Democrats in Washington cried foul after Kevin McCarthy, the new Republican House speaker, released more than 40,000 hours of surveillance footage from the January 6 US Capitol attack to Tucker Carlson, the far-right Fox News host who has consistently downplayed the deadly riot.The Senate majority leader, Chuck Schumer, told colleagues McCarthy’s decision “poses grave security risks” and “needlessly expos[es] the Capitol complex to one of the worst … risks since 9/11”.Democrats condemn McCarthy for handing Capitol attack footage to Tucker Carlson – live Read moreBut McCarthy told the New York Times he had “promised” to release the footage, apparently as part of dealmaking with which he clinched the speakership after far-right rebels forced him through 15 nominating votes.“I was asked in the press about these tapes,” McCarthy added, “and I said they do belong to the American public. I think sunshine lets everybody make their own judgment.”McCarthy said he wanted to give Carlson “exclusive” access to the footage, but could release it to other outlets later.Carlson, a prominent voice in far-right media, has claimed the insurrection was a “false flag” attack and generally tried to downplay it without offering evidence. He told the Times he was taking the footage released by McCarthy “very seriously” and had a large team reviewing it.Nine deaths, including law enforcement suicides, have been linked to the attack on Congress by Trump supporters seeking to block certification of Joe Biden’s 2020 election win, fueled by Trump’s lie about widespread electoral fraud.Trump was impeached for inciting the attack but acquitted when enough Senate Republicans stayed loyal. He continues to run for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024. The US Department of Justice is investigating January 6 but has not yet acted on criminal referrals regarding Trump made last year by a House committee.A possible Republican challenger to Trump, his former vice-president, Mike Pence, is expected to fight a grand jury subpoena as part of the justice department’s January 6 investigation.Pence would be a key witness, offering unique insight into conversations with Trump and the efforts to stop certification of the 2020 presidential election, a process over which Pence ultimately presided.Pence was at a December 2021 meeting at the White House with Republican lawmakers who discussed objections to Biden’s win. Pence also spoke to Trump one-on-one on 6 January, when Trump was imploring him to unlawfully reject electoral college votes for Biden at the joint session of Congress.Those two interactions are of particular investigative interest to the justice department-appointed special counsel, Jack Smith, as his office examines whether Trump sought to unlawfully obstruct certification and defrauded the US by seeking to overturn the 2020 election.However, experts in constitutional law this week told the Guardian that Pence had a good chance of success in his attempt to avoid having to testify by citing the speech or debate clause, the constitutional provision that protects congressional officials from legal proceedings related to their work.On Wednesday, Hakeem Jeffries, the Democratic House minority leader, followed Schumer in protesting McCarthy’s decision to release January 6 footage to Carlson and Fox News.“The apparent transfer of video footage represents an egregious security breach that endangers the hardworking women and men of the United States Capitol police, who valiantly defended our democracy with their lives at risk on that fateful day,” the New York congressman said.Jeffries noted that the House January 6 committee, a panel consisting of seven Democrats and two anti-Trump Republicans which operated in the last Congress but disbanded when Republicans took control of the chamber, had enjoyed access to the footage McCarthy has now released.The January 6 committee, Jeffries said, was “able to diligently review [the footage] … with numerous protocols in place to protect the safety of the members, police officers and staff who were targeted during the violent insurrection.“There is no indication that these same precautionary measures have been taken in connection with the transmission [to Carlson] of the video footage at issue.“Unfortunately, the apparent disclosure of sensitive video material is yet another example of the grave threat to the security of the American people represented by the extreme Maga Republican majority” – a reference to Trump’s campaign slogan “Make America great again”.In his letter to colleagues, Schumer said the footage showed where cameras are located in the Capitol and other details of security arrangements.The New York senator added: “Giving someone as disingenuous as Tucker Carlson exclusive access to this type of sensitive information is a grave mistake by Speaker McCarthy that will only embolden supporters of the big lie [about voter fraud and the 2020 election] and weaken faith in our democracy.”TopicsUS Capitol attackRepublicansUS politicsKevin McCarthyDonald TrumpFox NewsnewsReuse this content More

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      in Elections

      Trump responds to interviews with grand jury foreperson: ‘This Georgia case is ridiculous’

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      Trump responds to interviews with grand jury foreperson: ‘This Georgia case is ridiculous’Former president, under investigation for his election subversion attempts, criticizes jury foreperson for ‘doing a media tour’Donald Trump responded to interviews given by the foreperson of the Georgia grand jury which investigated his election subversion attempts by ridiculing the woman and claiming to be the victim of his political enemies.‘A big freaking deal’: the grand jury that investigated Trump election pressureRead more“This Georgia case is ridiculous,” the former president wrote on his Truth Social platform, claiming “a strictly political continuation of the greatest witch hunt of all time”.It has been widely reported that lawyers for possible Republican targets in the investigation are preparing to seek dismissal of the case based on the foreperson’s comments.Running for the Republican presidential nomination, Trump remains in wide-ranging legal jeopardy over election subversion including inciting the January 6 attack on Congress, his financial affairs including a hush money payment to a porn star, the retention of classified documents and an accusation of rape, which he denies.The district attorney of Fulton county, Fani Willis, requested the grand jury to investigate Trump’s attempts to overturn his 2020 defeat in Georgia by Joe Biden, the first Republican loss there in a presidential election since 1992.Portions of the grand jury report have been released but indictments have not yet followed.The jury foreperson, Emily Kohrs, was authorized to speak to the media but not to discuss deliberations.Many observers said she went too far, dropping broad hints about indictments and discussing interactions with witnesses.Speaking to CNN, she said it would be a “good assumption” that more than a dozen people would be indicted.Kohrs, 30, told the New York Times it was “not rocket science” to work out if Trump indictments were among those recommended.Speaking to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and told Trump had claimed “total exoneration” through the jury’s report, Kohrs “rolled her eyes” and “burst out laughing”.Trump wrote: “Now you have an extremely energetic young woman, the (get this!) ‘foreperson’ of the racist DA’s special grand jury, going around and doing a media tour revealing, incredibly, the grand jury’s inner workings and thoughts.”Willis, a Democrat, is African American. Claiming she was presiding over “an illegal kangaroo court”, Trump also claimed to have done nothing in Georgia but make “two perfect phone calls”.The grand jury investigated election subversion efforts including a call to the Georgia secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, in which Trump asked the Republican elections official to “find” enough votes for him to beat Biden. Alternate elector schemes and state-house machinations were also scutinised.On Wednesday, amid reports that lawyers were preparing to seek dismissal of the case because of Kohrs’ comments in the media, observers including the New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman pointed out that Kohrs led a fact-finding grand jury, meaning a separate panel would deal with any indictments.But Haberman also told CNN: “I’ve covered courts on and off for the last 20 years, more than that. I’ve never heard of a grand jury foreperson speaking this way … I’ve never seen anything like it.“If I’m the prosecutor, I’m not sure that I want this media tour taking place, because I’m confident that Donald Trump’s lawyers are going to use this, just based on what I [am] hearing … to try to argue that this is prejudicial in terms of what she is saying.”TopicsDonald TrumpGeorgiaUS Capitol attackUS politicsnewsReuse this content More

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      in Elections

      Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner subpoenaed in January 6 investigation – report

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      Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner subpoenaed in January 6 investigation – reportSpecial counsel looking into Trump’s efforts to overturn 2020 election subpoenas former president’s daughter and son-in-law Former US president Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and daughter Ivanka Trump have been subpoenaed by the special counsel Jack Smith to testify before a federal grand jury regarding the January 6 attack on the Capitol, the New York Times reported on Wednesday, citing sources.Merrick Garland, the attorney general, appointed Smith in November last year to take over two investigations involving Trump, who is running for president in 2024.The first investigation involves Trump’s handling of highly sensitive classified documents he retained at his Florida resort after leaving the White House in January 2021.The second investigation is looking at efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election’s results, including a plot to submit phony slates of electors to block Congress from certifying Democrat Joe Biden’s victory.Earlier this month, media outlets reported that the former US vice-president Mike Pence, the former national security adviser Robert O’Brien and Trump’s former chief of staff, Mark Meadows, were subpoenaed by Smith in his investigations.Grand juries in Washington have been hearing testimony in recent months for both investigations from former top Trump administration officials.Smith’s office and Kushner did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Wednesday. Ivanka Trump could not immediately be reached for comment.TopicsDonald TrumpJared KushnerIvanka TrumpUS politicsUS Capitol attacknewsReuse this content More

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      Trump’s environmental rollbacks in focus on visit to Ohio toxic train site

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      Trump’s environmental rollbacks in focus on visit to Ohio toxic train siteFormer president criticizes Biden administration’s response to train derailment in East Palestine as he visits townDonald Trump’s record of rolling back environmental protections was highlighted by critics on Wednesday as the ex-president visited the town of East Palestine, Ohio, and called the federal response to the toxic train derailment there earlier this month a “betrayal” .Trump’s administration, which rolled back more than 100 environmental rules in total, watered down several regulations at the behest of the rail industry.‘We just need answers’: distrust grows in Ohio town after toxic train derailmentRead moreHe withdrew an Obama-era plan to require faster brakes on trains carrying highly flammable materials, shelved a rule that demanded at least two crew members on freight trains and dropped a ban on transporting liquified natural gas by rail, despite fears this could cause explosions.“His trip serves as a reminder that Trump and his administration made gutting transportation and environmental safety regulations a key priority of their Maga agenda,” the Democratic National Committee said in an email to reporters.Linking to a number of media reports of his transportation policies, it said, “Trump and his administration rolled back … transportation safety and environmental rules, including toxic chemical regulations,” and “Trump’s budget proposals slashed funding for investigating accidents, enforcing environmental rules, and prosecuting environmental crimes”.“I don’t know exactly what he’s planning to do there, especially since his administration was anti-regulation and pro-industry every step of the way,” Pete Buttigieg, the transportation secretary, told CBS the day before Trump’s visit.Buttigieg has been attacked by Republicans for failing so far to visit the site of the Ohio disaster, and the Department of Transportation said on Wednesday that he will visit the town on Thursday. The statement said: “As the secretary said, he would go when it is appropriate and wouldn’t detract from the emergency response efforts. The secretary is going now that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has said it is moving out of the emergency response phase and transitioning to the long-term remediation phase.”The head of the National Transportation Safety Board – the lead agency investigating the crash – has said that the improved braking system wouldn’t have applied to the train that veered off its tracks in East Palestine, but environmental groups are pushing for the Biden administration to reinstate the rule anyway.There has been pressure from some Republicans to review safety rules, with Mike DeWine, the Ohio governor, saying it is “absurd” that the train could be marked as non-hazardous because it wasn’t exclusively carrying toxic material. But many other GOP figures have so far shied away from calling for tighter regulation of the rail industry, instead focusing on what they say has been a ponderous response from the Biden administration.Residents have expressed distrust at official statements that the water and air in the town is safe. In his visit on Wednesday, Trump, who is running for the White House again in 2024, said the community needs “answers and results”, not excuses. He spoke at a firehouse roughly half a mile from where more than three dozen freight cars – including 11 carrying hazardous materials – came off the tracks near the Pennsylvania state line.“In too many cases, your goodness and perseverance were met with indifference and betrayal,” Trump said. He appeared with Senator JD Vance, Mayor Trent Conaway and other state and local leaders.The former president and other Republicans have intensified criticism of the Biden administration’s handling of the 3 February derailment, which led to evacuations and fears of air and water contamination after a controlled burning of toxic chemicals aboard the rail cars.The Biden White House has defended its response to the derailment, saying officials from the EPA, National Transportation Safety Board and other agencies were at the rural site within hours of the derailment. The White House says it has also offered federal assistance and that the Federal Emergency Management Agency has been coordinating with the state emergency operations center and other partners.EPA administrator Michael Regan visited the site last week and earlier this week and tried to reassure skeptical residents of the town, which has a population of around 5,000, that the water was fit for drinking and the air safe to breathe.“I’m asking they trust the government,” Regan said. “I know that’s hard. We know there’s a lack of trust.” Officials are “testing for everything that was on that train”, he said.The Associated Press contributed reportingTopicsDonald TrumpOhio train derailmentOhioUS politicsPollutionnewsReuse this content More

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      in US Politics

      Georgia grand jury foreperson’s remarks on Trump investigation could fuel legal challenges – as it happened

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      Lawyer for Republican officials who a special grand jury in Georgia may have recommended for indictment over their effort to meddle in the 2020 election could use the grand jury foreperson’s public statements to challenge any charges, CBS News reports:News: CBS News has learned that lawyers close to several GOP witnesses in Fulton Co. investigation are preparing to move to quash any possible indictments by DA based on the public statements by the forewoman of the special grand jury, per two people familiar with the discussions— Robert Costa (@costareports) February 22, 2023
      Emily Kohrs, the foreperson of the special grand jury empaneled in the Atlanta area to investigate the effort by Donald Trump and his allies to overturn Joe Biden’s election win in Georgia, has in recent days spoken publicly about the panel’s work. While she hasn’t named names, she confirmed that the panel did recommend indictments, and when it comes to the former president, “You’re not going to be shocked. It’s not rocket science.”Donald Trump traveled to East Palestine, Ohio, where he took the opportunity to criticize the Biden administration’s response to the derailment and toxic waste spill earlier this month. Two can play at that game, however, and Democrats have seized on his trip to remind voters of his administration’s friendliness to the rail industry, and argue it set the stage for the derailment. We may hear more about that tomorrow, when transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg pays his own visit to the village.Here’s what else happened today:
      The foreperson of the special grand jury investigating Trump’s election meddling campaign in Georgia has been making the rounds of news outlets, and that might not be helpful for prosecutors.
      Democrats got some good news in their quest to hold the Senate after next year, when Montana’s Jon Tester announced he’d stand for re-election. However, West Virginia’s Joe Manchin remains non-committal on another term.
      House Republicans want to learn everything they can about American support to Ukraine.
      Joe Biden is taking a page out of Trump’s book with new restrictions meant to dramatically crack down on asylum seekers arriving at the border with Mexico.
      “Serious vulnerabilities” in Arizona’s election systems? Apparently not.
      One of the most under-the-radar political stories of the year is happening in Wisconsin, where voters yesterday cast ballots in a primary election that could set the stage for a change in the ideological balance on the state supreme court. That won’t just affect Wisconsinites, but particularly all Americans, since the Badger state is crucial to any victorious presidential campaign. Here’s more on that from the Guardian’s Sam Levine:Wisconsin voters on Tuesday chose one liberal and one conservative candidate to face off in a race to determine control of the state supreme court in what is likely the most important election of 2023.Janet Protasiewicz, a liberal Milwaukee circuit court judge, will be on the ballot against Daniel Kelly, a conservative former supreme court justice, in the state’s 4 April general election. Protasiewicz, who received 46% of the statewide vote, and Kelly, who received 24% of the statewide vote, advanced from a four-member field that included Everett Mitchell, a liberal judge in Dane county, and Jennifer Dorow, a conservative judge in Waukesha county.Conservatives currently have a 4-3 majority on the court, but if Protasiewicz wins, the balance of the court would flip.That would have enormous impact in Wisconsin, one of the most politically competitive states in America that often determines the outcome of the presidential election. The court is expected to have a say in the near future on a range of major voting rights and abortion decisions.Wisconsin judicial race: contenders chosen in pivotal election for 2023Read moreAmong the news outlets Emily Kohrs, foreperson of the Georgia special grand jury investigating the 2020 election meddling campaign, spoke to was CNN.Their legal analyst Elie Honig, a former assistant US attorney, was not impressed by her disclosures. Here’s what he had to say:Emily Kohrs (and other jurors in Trump investigations, or any investigations for that matter), if you’re listening:“It’s a prosecutor’s nightmare.”Former federal and state prosecutor @eliehonig with @andersoncooper discussing effects of grand jury members speaking publicly. pic.twitter.com/s11guYp3Ef— Ryan Goodman (@rgoodlaw) February 22, 2023
      Legal experts who spoke to the Washington Post say the Georgia special grand jury foreperson’s media blitz won’t be helpful to prosecutors looking to hold Donald Trump’s allies to account, but aren’t necessarily fatal to their case.“What the forewoman said in this case was nothing more than hearsay, and in theory isn’t damaging. But her statements could allow for stalling and delaying on the part of those facing indictment who might question the impartiality of the proceedings,” Jeffrey Fagan, a law professor at Columbia University, told the Post.Washington University in St. Louis law professor Peter A. Joy said her comments could be fodder for future investigations.“It could lead to an investigation into the grand jury itself and the possibility that anyone indicted may be able to obtain a copy of the transcript of the grand jury proceedings, which would be helpful to the defense,” he said.Clark D. Cunningham of Georgia State University summed it up best: It is “speculative and maybe alarmist to say that her media appearances will be a problem for the prosecution. But the adverse effect on public confidence, I think, is clear.”Lawyer for Republican officials who a special grand jury in Georgia may have recommended for indictment over their effort to meddle in the 2020 election could use the grand jury foreperson’s public statements to challenge any charges, CBS News reports:News: CBS News has learned that lawyers close to several GOP witnesses in Fulton Co. investigation are preparing to move to quash any possible indictments by DA based on the public statements by the forewoman of the special grand jury, per two people familiar with the discussions— Robert Costa (@costareports) February 22, 2023
      Emily Kohrs, the foreperson of the special grand jury empaneled in the Atlanta area to investigate the effort by Donald Trump and his allies to overturn Joe Biden’s election win in Georgia, has in recent days spoken publicly about the panel’s work. While she hasn’t named names, she confirmed that the panel did recommend indictments, and when it comes to the former president, “You’re not going to be shocked. It’s not rocket science.”Joe Biden, a devout Catholic, marked Ash Wednesday in Warsaw today.This is Facebook’s translation from the Polish of what the attending priest, Wieslaw Dawidowski, had to say:.css-cumn2r{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}Today is Ash Wednesday. Also the greats of this world accept the ashes – if they belong to the Catholic tradition. I had the honor to put ashes on the head of the President of the United States himself Mr Joe Biden.
      Everything happened in great secret but now I can say: in an improvised house chapel just next to the president’s apartment, we held a Holy Mass with the intention of peace, the conversion of Russia and the light of the Holy Spirit for the president.Dawidowski’s post included pictures of presidential challenge coins and of the priest and president together, ash on the president’s forehead.Democrats and immigration advocates have harshly criticized Joe Biden over a new proposal that could stop migrants claiming asylum at the US-Mexico border. One advocate said the move would cause “unnecessary human suffering”.The pushback came after the Biden administration unveiled the proposal that would deny asylum to migrants who arrive without first seeking it in one of the countries they pass through.There are exceptions for children, people with medical emergencies and those facing imminent threats but if enacted the proposal could stop tens of thousands of people claiming asylum in the US.The move prompted comparisons to Donald Trump’s attempts to limit asylum, attempts repeatedly struck down by federal courts. As a presidential candidate, Biden pledged to reverse those policies.The proposal “represents a blatant embrace of hateful and illegal anti-asylum policies, which will lead to unnecessary human suffering”, said Marisa Limón Garza, executive director of Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center.“Time after time, President Biden has broken his campaign promises to end restrictions on asylum seekers traveling through other countries.“These are mothers, fathers, aunts, uncles and thousands of children who are simply looking for a fair chance for their case to be heard. We urge the Biden administration to abandon policy initiatives that further the inhumane and ineffective agenda of the Trump administration.”The proposed rule was posted in the Federal Register this week, with 30 days for public comment.Mary Meg McCarthy, executive director of the National Justice Immigration Center, said the brief comment period “suggests that the president already knows that this policy is a betrayal of his campaign promises”.Full story:Biden’s proposal denying asylum at border would cause ‘unnecessary suffering’, say criticsRead moreJon Tester has announced a run for re-election – good news for Democrats facing a tough map in their quest to hold the Senate in 2024.In a statement earlier today, the Montanan, for three terms an increasingly rare blue (Democratic) senator from a very red (Republican) state, said: “I know that people in Washington don’t understand what a hard day’s work looks like or the challenges working families are facing in Montana.“I am running for re-election so I can keep fighting for Montanans and demand that Washington stand up for our veterans and lower costs.”Politico reports an unusually cross Republican response, in the form of a statement from Steve Daines, the other Montana senator.“Jon Tester just made the same mistake Steve Bullock did in 2020. Both should have ended their political careers on their terms. Instead, they each will have their careers ended by Montana voters.”Bullock, a former Montana governor, ran against Daines in 2020 … and was soundly beaten.As Politico puts it, “it’s rare for an intra-state senator … to hammer someone on the record like this. Part of the history here is that Tester helped recruit Bullock to run against Daines”.An interesting report from Politico says Joe Biden’s failure to say whether he will run for re-election or not has created a creeping “sense of doubt” among Democratic operatives.Most expect Biden to announce a run for a second term in April and thereby answer those who say he is too old for the office, the report says, “but even that target is less than definitive”.Politico adds: “According to four people familiar with the president’s thinking, a final call has been pushed aside as real-world events intervene.”One such event, of course, was the president’s visit to Ukraine and Poland this week.Nonetheless, “some potential presidential aspirants and scores of major donors” are reportedly “strategising and even developing a Plan B while trying to remain respectful and publicly supportive of the 80-year-old president”.Among possible candidates should Biden not run, the site names three governors – JB Pritzker (Illinois), Gavin Newsom (California) and Phil Murphy (New Jersey) – and some of the usual suspects in Congress, including senators Amy Klobuchar (Minnesota) and Bernie Sanders (Vermont), who it says are keeping the door open, just in case.Sanders, of course, is a year older than Biden. Here’s what he says about those who say 80, or indeed 81, is too old to run for president: Bernie Sanders: Nikki Haley’s demand for mental tests is ageist and ‘absurd’Read moreA former Arizona attorney general omitted key context from investigators when he publicly said his office had discovered “serious vulnerabilities” in state election systems, according to new documents obtained by the Washington Post.The documents provide new insight into how Mark Brnovich, a Republican who left office last year, investigated allegations of fraud in his state. The investigation took 10,000 hours and had the participation of all of the office’s 60 investigators at one point or another.In April last year, Brnovich released an interim report saying there were issues with the handling and verification of mail-in ballots. The documents obtained by the Post show that in a draft report, Brnovich’s staff wrote: “We did not uncover any criminality or fraud having been committed in this area during the 2020 general election.”Brnovich’s interim report also suggested that Maricopa county, the largest in the state, had not turned over information, making the investigation more difficult. In a draft report, staff wrote that investigators collectively believed the county “was cooperative and responsive to our requests”.The Post documents also show that top Arizona Republicans who claimed widespread fraud in the 2020 election could not substantiate their claims when they met investigators and were subject to criminal penalties if they lied.When Mark Finchem, a prominent election denier who unsuccessfully ran for secretary of state last year, met investigators, he did not have much to show, “specifically stating he did not have any evidence of fraud and that he did not wish to take up our time”. He offered four ballots that had not been opened nor counted, the Post said.Sonny Borrelli, another GOP lawmaker, only provided the name of one voter he believed to be deceased. The voter turned out to be alive.The Department of Transportation has sent out a statement, from “a spokesperson”, about why Pete Buttigieg has announced his own visit to East Palestine, Ohio, site of the toxic Norfolk Southern rail spill, tomorrow.It’s basically an outline of the how and why of the federal response, which crosses jurisdictions and departments, in answer to Republican attacks on Buttigieg (and Joe Biden) for not visiting the disaster site sooner.The statement says: “As the secretary said, he would go when it is appropriate and wouldn’t detract from the emergency response efforts. The secretary is going now that the Environmental Protection Agency has said it is moving out of the emergency response phase and transitioning to the long-term remediation phase.“His visit also coincides with the National Transportation Safety Board issuing its factual findings of the investigation into the cause of the derailment and will allow the secretary to hear from [department] investigators who were on the ground within hours of the derailment to support the NTSB’s investigation.”The statement says the EPA is leading federal efforts to hold Norfolk Southern accountable “and make the company clean up its mess”, because “that is how it works in response to a chemical spill”.The statement also takes a veiled shot at Republicans, including Donald Trump, due in East Palestine today, for weakening federal safety regulations applicable to companies like Norfolk Southern and businesses like transporting dangerous chemicals.“The [department] will continue to do its part by helping get to the bottom of what caused the derailment and implementing rail safety measures, and we hope this sudden bipartisan support for rail safety will result in meaningful changes in Congress.”Donald Trump is expected in East Palestine, Ohio later today, where he’ll undoubtedly take every opportunity to criticize the Biden administration’s response to the derailment and toxic waste spill in the community earlier this month. Two can play at that game, however, and Democrats have seized on his trip to remind voters of his administration’s friendliness to the rail industry, and argue it set the stage for the derailment. We may hear more about that tomorrow, when transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg pays his own visit to the community.Here’s what else has happened so far today:
      Democrats got some good news in their quest to hold the Senate after next year, when Montana’s Jon Tester announced he’d stand for re-election. However, West Virginia’s Joe Manchin remains non-committal on another term.
      House Republicans want to learn everything they can about American support to Ukraine.
      Joe Biden is taking a page out of Trump’s book with new restrictions meant to dramatically crack down on asylum seekers arriving at the border with Mexico. More

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      in Elections

      ‘A big freaking deal’: the grand jury that investigated Trump election pressure

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      ‘A big freaking deal’: the grand jury that investigated Trump election pressureForeperson Emily Kohrs gives insight into process usually cloaked in secrecy, after portions of grand jury report released last weekAsked if the grand jury she led recommended indicting Donald Trump over his election subversion in Georgia, the foreperson of the jury said: “You’re not going to be shocked. It’s not rocket science.”Ron DeSantis gives Donald Trump kid-glove treatment in new bookRead moreShe also said sitting on the jury was “a big freaking deal”.Emily Kohrs, 30, spoke to the New York Times and outlets including the Associated Press and NBC News on Tuesday. She was authorised to speak but not to discuss details of the grand jury report, most of which remains secret after a judge disclosed portions last week.Those portions showed jurors saw possible evidence of perjury by “one or more witnesses”. Trump did not testify. His personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, who advanced Trump’s lie about voter fraud in his 2020 defeat by Joe Biden, was among those who did.The grand jury was requested by Fani Willis, the Fulton county district attorney. Speaking to the AP, Kohrs described how, last May, jurors were led into a garage beneath an Atlanta courthouse, where officers with guns waited. Ushered into vans with heavily tinted windows, jurors were driven to their cars under police escort.“That was the first indication that this was a big freaking deal,” Kohrs said.Kohrs found herself at the center of one of the most significant legal proceedings in US history. She would become foreperson of the panel investigating whether the then president and associates illegally meddled in Georgia election results.The case is one of Trump’s most glaring legal vulnerabilities as he mounts a third presidential run, in part because he was recorded asking officials to “find 11,780 votes” and overturn Biden’s win.Jurors heard from 75 witnesses, from prominent Trump allies to local election workers. A judge, Robert McBurney, advised jurors on what they could and could not share publicly. Kohrs provided insight into a process typically cloaked in secrecy.She told the Times Giuliani, who was mayor of New York at the time of the 9/11 attacks, when she was 11, was “almost like a myth figure in my head”, leaving her “intimidated” in his presence.She told NBC the list of recommended indictments was “not short”, involving more than a dozen people, and that Trump “might” be among them.She told the Times the report would not offer “some giant plot twist. You probably have a fair idea of what may be in there. I’m trying very hard to say that delicately”.Her remarks met with criticism in some quarters.Elie Honig, a federal prosecutor turned CNN analyst, said: “This is a very serious prospect. Indicting any person, you’re talking about potentially taking away that person’s liberty. We’re talking about potentially [indicting] a former president for the first time … she does not seem to be taking that very seriously.”Trump’s lawyers might seek to dismiss any indictment based on grand jury impropriety, Honig said.Trump was the first Republican to lose Georgia since George HW Bush lost to Bill Clinton in 1992. Attempts to overturn Trump’s defeat included the famous call to Brad Raffensperger, the secretary of state, in which he asked his fellow Republican to “find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have” to get to win.Kohrs told the Times the jury “definitely started with the first phone call, the call to Secretary Raffensperger that was so publicised”.She told the AP Raffensperger was “a really geeky kind of funny”. She said the South Carolina senator Lindsey Graham, who fought not to testify, joked with jurors while Brian Kemp, the Republican governor of Georgia, seemed unhappy to be there.Looking to other parts of Trump’s attempt to overturn his defeat, she said the jury “definitely talked about the alternate electors a fair amount” and “talked a lot about December and things that happened in the Georgia legislature”.What does the release of Georgia’s grand jury report mean for Trump?Read moreKohrs told the AP she was fascinated by an explainer by a former Dominion Voting Systems executive. She said the jury studied the “concept of vote fraud in Georgia”, finding “unanimously that there was no evidence of vote fraud in Fulton county in the 2020 election”, which they “wanted to make sure we put in” the final report, “because somehow that’s still a question”.Trump and his supporters still claim the 2020 election was stolen.Kohrs sketched witnesses. When jurors’ notes were taken for shredding, she managed to salvage two sketches, of Graham and Marc Short, who was chief of staff to former vice-president Mike Pence, because there were no notes on those pages.Kohrs said she enjoyed learning about the White House from Cassidy Hutchinson, who was much more forthcoming than the former chief of staff Mark Meadows.Several witnesses have immunity deals. Trump’s attorneys have said he was not asked to testify. Kohrs said the jury didn’t think he would offer meaningful testimony.“Trump was not a battle we picked to fight,” she said.Kohrs told the AP she didn’t vote in 2020 and at the time did not know the specifics of Trump’s allegations of widespread election fraud or efforts to reverse his loss. She said she did not identify with any political party, and did not feel political pressure.“I fully stand by our report as our decision and our conclusion,” she said.
      Associated Press contributed reporting
      TopicsUS elections 2020Donald TrumpUS politicsGeorgianewsReuse this content More