Donald Trump

Subterms

    More stories

    • 138 Shares99 Views

      in US Politics

      House January 6 panel found Trump lawyers tried to influence witnesses

      by

      House January 6 panel found Trump lawyers tried to influence witnessesIn addition to offering lucrative jobs, attorneys connected to ex-president also told them it was OK to lie to investigators The House January 6 committee has discovered that lawyers connected to Donald Trump sought to influence witnesses with job offers and advice including that it was OK to lie to investigators.In an opening statement in Monday’s final hearing on Capitol Hill, Zoe Lofgren, a California Democrat, said: “We are concerned that these efforts may have been a strategy to prevent the committee in finding the truth.”House January 6 panel recommends criminal charges against Donald TrumpRead moreLofgren was outlining findings detailed in the committee’s report into the attack on the US Capitol in Washington DC, which was released on Monday after a final hearing in which the committee voted to make four criminal referrals of the former US president and his associates to the justice department.She said: “The committee found that Mr Trump raised hundreds of millions of dollars with false representations made to his online donors.“Proceeds from his fundraising we have learned have been used in ways that we believe are concerning. In particular, the committee has learned that some of those funds were used to hire lawyers. We have also obtained evidence of efforts to provide or offer employment to witnesses.“For example, one lawyer told the witness the witness could in certain circumstances tell the committee that she didn’t recall facts, when she actually did.”The committee report says the lawyer also “instructed the client about a particular issue that would cast a bad light on President Trump”, saying: “No, no, no, no, no. We don’t want to go there. We don’t want to talk about that.”Lofgren continued: “That lawyer also did not disclose who was paying for the lawyer’s representation, despite questions from the client seeking that information. He told her, ‘We’re not telling people where funding is coming from right now.’”Efforts to contact and influence witnesses have been mentioned by committee members before, around an appearance by Cassidy Hutchinson, a former aide to Trump and his last chief of staff, Mark Meadows, which contained some of the most dramatic testimony of all.Lofgren said: “We’ve learned that a client was offered potential employment that would make her quote ‘financially very comfortable’. As the date of her testimony approached, by entities that were apparently linked to Donald Trump and his associates, these offers were withdrawn or didn’t materialise.“As reports of the content of her testimony circulated, the witness believed this was an effort to perfect her testimony. We are concerned that these efforts may have been a strategy to prevent the committee from finding the truth.”TopicsJanuary 6 hearingsDonald TrumpUS Capitol attackUS politicsLaw (US)newsReuse this content More

    • 175 Shares169 Views

      in US Politics

      A very American coup attempt: Jan 6 panel lays bare Trump’s bid for power

      by

      A very American coup attempt: Jan 6 panel lays bare Trump’s bid for powerExecutive summary of report released by House panel investigating January 6 details a failed self-coup It was, all in all, a very American attempt at a coup. Or self-coup to be exact.The world watched its denouement dumbfounded on 6 January 2021 as thousands of Donald Trump’s supporters stormed the heart of US democracy, the Capitol in Washington, with cries to hang the vice-president, in an attempt to overturn an election and keep Trump in power.From Liz Cheney to Donald Trump: winners and losers from the January 6 hearingsRead moreBut, as the detailed executive summary of the report released by the congressional committee investigating the insurrection lays bare, Trump’s bid to usurp power began while the votes from the November 2020 presidential election were still being counted.That kicked off what amounted to a rolling coup attempt as an increasingly desperate president sought to compromise and corrupt officials from the US justice department to state election boards in an effort to find a way, any way, to have his defeat declared null and void.The seeds were sown by Trump as he watched the results roll in on election night. The president’s own campaign manager, Bill Stepien, had told him that the way the count was conducted in several states meant that early results were likely to give Trump the lead but that would be eroded as absentee and other postal votes were tallied.The count panned out as Stepien predicted and Trump’s aides cautioned the president that, for all his euphoria at the prospect of pulling off another astonishing upset, it was way too soon to be declaring victory. But all Trump saw was his numbers go up and then down. He brushed off his advisers and went on television.“This is a fraud on the American public. This is an embarrassment to our country. We were getting ready to win this election. Frankly, we did win this election. We did win this election,” he declared.The following morning, Trump inevitably used Twitter to demand that the results already declared, and showing him ahead, be frozen: “STOP THE COUNT!”The report notes that almost none of Trump’s aides supported his claims, with the exception of the increasingly erratic former New York mayor and Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani. But that fed the narrative pushed by the president and his supporters that he was the victim of an establishment conspiracy.By the time the electoral college met on 14 December to cast and certify each state’s votes, many of Trump’s senior staff, cabinet secretaries and even members of his family, were pressing him to admit defeat. The president preferred to listen to Giuliani’s conspiratorial claims that the voting machines were rigged and suitcases of fake ballots had been used to tip the result against him.As Trump grew more desperate, he pressured Republican officials in key swing states he had lost to overturn the results. In early January, he called Georgia’s Republican secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, to demand he “find 11,780 votes” to reverse Joe Biden’s crucial victory in the state.“Trump also made a thinly veiled threat to Raffensperger and his attorney about his failure to respond to Trump’s demands: ‘That’s a criminal, that’s a criminal offense … That’s a big risk to you and to Ryan, your lawyer … I’m notifying you that you’re letting it happen,’” the report said.In Arizona, Trump targeted the Republican speaker of the state legislature, Russell “Rusty” Bowers. The president and Giuliani repeatedly called or met with Bowers to claim that Arizona’s results were fraudulent and to press him to replace the state’s members of the electoral college with ones who would vote for Trump.Bowers told Giuliani: “You are asking me do something against my oath, and I will not break my oath.”Trump exerted similar pressure on officials in Michigan, which he had won in 2016 but lost four years later.The president was pursuing a parallel track with the US justice department. The attorney general, William Barr, grew so exasperated with Trump’s actions that he resigned. The president called or met with Barr’s replacement, Jeff Rosen, nearly every day of the following weeks in an attempt to pressure the justice department “to find factual support for his stolen election claims and thereby to assist his efforts to reverse election results”, according to the report.When Rosen repeatedly told Trump that there was no evidence for the allegations, Trump replied: “Just say the election was corrupt and leave the rest to me and the Republican congressmen.”When this didn’t fly either, Trump turned to those he could always trust: the men and women in the red Make America Great Again caps. As he saw it, the “deep state” was working to rob him of his rightful victory. Trump would count on the people to save him.And so the president summoned the faithful to Washington for a rally on January 6, the day his vice-president, Mike Pence, was to preside over a joint meeting of both houses of Congress to count and approve the electoral college votes, a routine affair for much of the US’s existence.Trump’s efforts to pressure states to withhold their tallies in the hope of delaying the endorsement of Biden’s victory had come to naught and a wave of court challenges to the results failed. Pence made clear to Trump that he would fulfil his duty and that the president’s days in the White House were numbered.Trump told the world a different story. On the evening of 5 January, he released a statement falsely claiming that his vice-president was “in total agreement” with him that Pence had the power to prevent endorsement of the results by “sending them back” to the states.In the early hours of the following morning, Trump tweeted: “If Vice President @Mike_Pence comes through for us, we will win the Presidency. Many States want to decertify the mistake they made in certifying incorrect & even fraudulent numbers in a process NOT approved by their State Legislatures (which it must be). Mike can send it back!”Pence did not agree and, astonishingly, refused to take his own president’s call on the morning of the rally. When Trump finally reached his vice-president by phone, the president called him “a wimp” for refusing to block Congress from approving Biden’s victory.The crowd that arrived for the Washington rally was already stoked by weeks of Trump’s tweets and conspiratorial claims bolstered by Fox News and other rightwing broadcasters. The committee’s report noted that far-right militia groups like the Proud Boys, Oath Keepers and Three Percenters were also instrumental in spreading the false claims of fraud.“President Trump’s supporters believed the election was stolen because they listened to his words, and they knew what he had called them to do; stop the certification of the electoral count,” the report said.It noted that supporters tweeted messages ahead of the rally predicting what would happen.“IF TRUMP TELLS US TO STORM THE FUKIN CAPITAL IMA DO THAT THEN!” said one.Others circulated flyers proclaiming “#OccupyCongress” over images of the Capitol.The report records that the intelligence services had wind of all of this, and warned the president and his staff. Some of Trump’s aides urged him to make a public statement disavowing violence.The president refused. His speech on January 6 instead made clear who he regarded as the real villain of the moment.As the congressional report recorded, Trump told the assembled crowd: “Mike Pence, I hope you’re going to stand up for the good of our Constitution and for the good of our country.” The president added a veiled threat: “If you’re not, I’m going to be very disappointed in you. I will tell you right now. I’m not hearing good stories.”The report records the reaction of Trump supporters at the rally.“I’m telling you, if Pence caved, we’re going to drag motherfuckers through the streets. You fucking politicians are going to get fucking drug through the streets,” said one.And then the mob headed Pence’s way.The report concluded that the Proud Boys militia led the attack on Congress.“Multiple Proud Boys reacted immediately to President Trump’s December 19th tweet and began their planning,” it said.Someone erected an imitation gallows in front of the Capitol. As the mob chanted “Hang Mike Pence”, the vice-president fled his office near the Senate chamber but refused to leave the building. The protesters passed within 40ft.Pence was not the only target. The report records that one woman was looking for the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, “to shoot her in the frigging brain”.By the time the crowd broke through the barriers around the Capitol, beating police officers with flag poles and smashing their way into the corridors of Congress, Trump was back in the White House.Alarmed aides pleaded with him to make a call to stop the violence. Trump instead sent out yet another tweet denouncing Pence for failing to overturn the election result.Finally, he was pressured into acting.“As the evidence demonstrates, the rioters at the Capitol had invaded the building and halted the electoral count. They did not begin to relent until President Trump finally issued a video statement instructing his supporters to leave the Capitol at 4:17 p.m., which had an immediate and helpful effect: rioters began to disperse,” the report said.The self-coup had failed. Biden’s election win would be certified.TopicsJanuary 6 hearingsUS Capitol attackHouse of RepresentativesDonald TrumpUS politicsfeaturesReuse this content More

    • 200 Shares179 Views

      in Elections

      January 6 panel to hold final public hearing and vote on referrals against Trump – live

      by

      It’s decision day on criminal referrals for Donald Trump over his efforts to overturn his 2020 election defeat to Joe Biden.At 1pm, the bipartisan House panel that has been investigating his insurrection for 18 months will meet for the final time, and has plenty of business to conclude.It’s expected to vote to refer the former president to the justice department for obstruction of an official proceeding of Congress, and conspiracy to defraud the United States, among other potential charges.We’ll also hear the panel’s summary of the wide-ranging plot to keep Trump in office, including inciting the deadly 6 January attack on the Capitol by a mob of his supporters; and scheming to reverse the election result using fake electors.California Democrat Adam Schiff, a key member of the panel, said Sunday on CNN he was confident there was “sufficient evidence” to charge Trump, and several of his closest aides and advisors.They include former chief of staff Mark Meadows, and Trump attorney John Eastman. Also expected are civil referrals to the House ethics committee for Republican members of Congress who defied subpoenas, and a recommendation of disbarments for Trump lawyers.As my colleague Hugo Lowell writes for the Guardian today:.css-cumn2r{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}The anticipated criminal referrals against Trump mark a remarkable moment for a precedent-shattering investigation into the former president’s efforts to reverse his 2020 election defeat at any cost and impede the congressional certification that culminated in the Capitol attack early last year.Please stick with us for what is certain to be a busy day. We’ll bring you developments as they happen.While we wait for events to unfold, take a read of our preview of today’s meeting here:January 6 committee to use last meeting to refer Trump to justice departmentRead moreAs the clock ticks down to this afternoon’s final “business meeting” of the January 6 House committee, let’s take a look at some of the winners and losers. Martin Pengelly reports:From Liz Cheney to Donald Trump: winners and losers from the January 6 hearingsRead moreAnother Kennedy is headed for Ireland. The state department said Monday that Joe Kennedy, of the storied Irish-American political family, would become US special envoy to Northern Ireland for economic affairs.Kennedy, 42, will focus on advancing economic development in Northern Ireland and people to people ties between the citizens of the two countries, secretary of state Antony Blinken said in a statement, according to Reuters.“His role builds on the longstanding US commitment to supporting peace, prosperity, and stability in Northern Ireland and the peace dividends of the Belfast Good Friday agreement,” Blinken said.I welcome Joe Kennedy III as the U.S. Special Envoy to Northern Ireland for Economic Affairs. He will be instrumental to ensuring deeper U.S. support for economic growth in Northern Ireland to benefit everyone.— Secretary Antony Blinken (@SecBlinken) December 19, 2022
      Kennedy is grandson of former attorney general Robert F Kennedy, and great-nephew to former president John F Kennedy, both assassinated in the 1960s. He served eight years in the House before losing a Senate bid in Massachusetts in 2020.His cousin Caroline Kennedy, a former ambassador to Japan and daughter of the late president, is ambassador to Australia.Jury selection begins today in the seditious conspiracy trial of former Proud Boys national chairman Enrique Tarrio and four other members of the extremist group accused of plotting the deadly January 6 Capitol attack.Tarrio and four of his lieutenants are heading to trial in Washington DC, the Associated Press reports, just weeks after two leaders of another extremist group, the Oath Keepers, were convicted of seditious conspiracy in a major victory for the justice department’s extensive 6 January prosecution.Tarrio is perhaps the highest-profile defendant to face jurors yet in the attack that delayed the certification of Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential election victory, left dozens of police injured and led to nearly 1,000 arrests. Tarrio, Ethan Nordean, Zachary Rehl, Dominic Pezzola and Joseph Biggs are charged with several other crimes in addition to seditious conspiracy. If convicted of sedition, they could face up to 20 years in prison. Jury selection is likely to take several days, and the trial is expected to last at least six weeks.More on this story:Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes found guilty of seditious conspiracyRead moreHere’s a handy explainer from my colleague Kira Lerner about the work of the bipartisan January 6 House committee that’s been investigating Donald Trump’s attempts to overturn his 2020 election defeat.From the panel’s first meeting in July 2021, through live, televised hearings this year, to its final gathering today, the nine members have focused stringently on the insurrection effort. They have interviewed more than 1,000 witness interviews, reviewed more than one million documents and viewed hundreds of hours of video. The Select Committee will hold a business meeting today at 1pm ET.WATCH LIVE ⤵️https://t.co/qI55tpMLn2— January 6th Committee (@January6thCmte) December 19, 2022
      They obtained a massive number of call records, text messages, and emails through subpoenas and also got access to White House records from the National Archives.The committee assembled five teams to investigate different topic areas and assigned each team a color, the Guardian has previously reported. The issues ranged from efforts by Trump and his associates to pressure federal, state, and local officials to overturn the election to law enforcement and intelligence agency failures. They also examined domestic extremist groups like QAnon, and online misinformation, those who planned the January 6 rally, the “Stop the Steal” movement and the money behind efforts to overturn the election.Read the full story:What has the January 6 House panel done so far – and what’s next?Read moreIt’s decision day on criminal referrals for Donald Trump over his efforts to overturn his 2020 election defeat to Joe Biden.At 1pm, the bipartisan House panel that has been investigating his insurrection for 18 months will meet for the final time, and has plenty of business to conclude.It’s expected to vote to refer the former president to the justice department for obstruction of an official proceeding of Congress, and conspiracy to defraud the United States, among other potential charges.We’ll also hear the panel’s summary of the wide-ranging plot to keep Trump in office, including inciting the deadly 6 January attack on the Capitol by a mob of his supporters; and scheming to reverse the election result using fake electors.California Democrat Adam Schiff, a key member of the panel, said Sunday on CNN he was confident there was “sufficient evidence” to charge Trump, and several of his closest aides and advisors.They include former chief of staff Mark Meadows, and Trump attorney John Eastman. Also expected are civil referrals to the House ethics committee for Republican members of Congress who defied subpoenas, and a recommendation of disbarments for Trump lawyers.As my colleague Hugo Lowell writes for the Guardian today:.css-cumn2r{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}The anticipated criminal referrals against Trump mark a remarkable moment for a precedent-shattering investigation into the former president’s efforts to reverse his 2020 election defeat at any cost and impede the congressional certification that culminated in the Capitol attack early last year.Please stick with us for what is certain to be a busy day. We’ll bring you developments as they happen.While we wait for events to unfold, take a read of our preview of today’s meeting here:January 6 committee to use last meeting to refer Trump to justice departmentRead moreGood morning blog readers, for what promises to be a momentous day in US politics.It’s a long-awaited moment of reckoning for Donald Trump as the January 6 House panel investigating his efforts to overturn his 2020 election defeat meets in public for the final time, and votes to recommend referral to the justice department for criminal charges against the former president.As we reported last week, Trump faces referral for obstruction of an official proceeding of Congress and conspiracy to defraud the United States, among other potential charges.But the bipartisan panel has plenty of other business to conclude when it meets at 1pm, including outlining investigative findings and legislative recommendations, voting to formally adopt its final report, then voting on referrals for Trump and several key allies and advisers.While we’re unlikely to see the full report today, we expect an executive summary, outlining the extraordinary efforts Trump took to stay in power, including unleashing a mob of supporters on the US Capitol on 6 January 2021. Today we’re also watching:
      Chief of the Capitol police Thomas Manger testifies on the security of Congress members at an afternoon meeting of the Senate’s rules and administration committee.
      Joe Biden meets with Ecuador’s president Guillermo Lasso at lunchtime.
      White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre will brief reporters at 2.30pm. More

    • 175 Shares189 Views

      in US Politics

      What has the January 6 House panel done so far – and what’s next?

      by

      ExplainerWhat has the January 6 House panel done so far – and what’s next?The final meeting will determine if Trump will be criminally referred to the US justice department The US House committee investigating the January 6 attack on the US Capitol is holding a final public meeting on Monday, when it’s expected to decide whether to issue criminal referrals for former president Donald Trump and his allies.House January 6 panel to issue criminal referrals to DoJ as tensions heightenRead moreThe event, which comes just before the release of the committee’s final report, marks the end of a panel which has led the inquiry into the riots since the January day when more than 2,000 rioters breached the US Capitol building.Here is an explanation of what the panel is and what work it has done.How did the panel come together?In the days and months after the riots at the US Capitol, members of Congress began calling for a committee to investigate the attack and how Trump supporters were able to breach one of the nation’s most significant governmental buildings. But from the beginning, Democrats and Republicans couldn’t agree on how the investigation should look.In February 2021, leaders on the House homeland security committee tried to convene a bicameral commission modeled after the one that investigated the 9/11 terrorist attacks, but disputes between Democrats and Republicans over its makeup and focus derailed negotiations. The commission was ultimately blocked by Senate Republicans.Democrats pivoted to launching a special investigative committee, and in June 2021, House Democrats voted 220-to-190 to establish the select committee to investigate the January 6 attack on the United States Capitol.Who served on the panel?Two Republican lawmakers – Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois – joined Democrats in voting to create the select committee, and both became members of the panel. They were joined by seven Democrats: Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, Zoe Lofgren of California, Adam Schiff of California, Pete Aguilar of California, Stephanie Murphy of Florida, Jamie Raskin of Maryland, and Elaine Luria of Virginia. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi selected Thompson to chair the committee and Cheney to serve as vice chair.How did the panel conduct its investigation?Committee members and staff conducted more than 1,000 witness interviews and reviewed over a million documents and hundreds of hours of video. They obtained a massive number of call records, text messages, and emails through subpoenas and also got access to White House records from the National Archives.What was the focus of its investigation?The committee assembled five teams to investigate different topic areas and assigned each team a color, the Guardian has previously reported. The issues ranged from efforts by Trump and his associates to pressure federal, state, and local officials to overturn the election to law enforcement and intelligence agency failures. They also examined domestic extremist groups like QAnon, and online misinformation, those who planned the January 6 rally, the “Stop the Steal” movement and the money behind efforts to overturn the election.How many public hearings did the panel hold?The committee held one public hearing in July 2021 on the law enforcement experience on January 6 and then nine public hearings from June to October 2022. The final hearing is scheduled for 19 December, when the committee is expected to issue criminal referrals and cue up its final report for full release on 21 December.Who served as witnesses and who provided some of the most notable interviews?The committee has interviewed over 1,000 witnesses, many of whom are close allies of Trump, Department of Justice officials, or Republicans serving on the state and local level. They interviewed members of Trump’s family, including his daughter Ivanka and son-in-law Jared Kushner, former attorney general Bill Barr, Trump’s 2020 campaign manager Bill Stepien, and Greg Jacob who served as general counsel for former Vice-President Mike Pence.Cassidy Hutchinson, a former White House aide, provided compelling testimony during a televised hearing about Trump’s alarming behavior during the riots and how White House officials knew that attendees would be armed and were planning for violence.US Capitol police officers also provided testimony, including Carolina Edwards, who was the first officer injured in the riots and described the scene at the US Capitol as an “absolute war zone”.Former Fulton county, Georgia election officer Wandrea “Shea” Moss testified about the harassment she and her family faced by Trump supporters in the wake of the 2020 election.Notably missing from the witness list is Trump himself, who the committee voted to subpoena in October. Trump has refused to cooperate and sued the committee to block the subpoena.January 6 report expected to focus on Trump’s role and potential culpabilityRead moreHow did the panel handle Trump allies who denied its subpoenas?The committee has referred four Trump allies to the Justice Department for refusing to cooperate. Two of them, Steve Bannon and Peter Navarro, have been criminally charged, and Bannon was sentenced to four months in prison in October but is currently free while he appeals his conviction. The Justice Department chose not to charge former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and former deputy chief of staff Dan Scavino.Before Meadows stopped cooperating, he provided the committee with thousands of emails and text messages implicating prominent Republicans in an effort to overturn the results of the election.What will be in the final report?While the exact contents of the final report are still unknown and could change, it’s expected to be eight chapters and include information that hasn’t yet been made public. The committee is also expected to eventually release transcripts of many of its witness interviews.TopicsUS Capitol attackDonald TrumpUS politicsDemocratsRepublicansexplainersReuse this content More

    • 150 Shares159 Views

      in US Politics

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

      by

      Schiff: ‘Sufficient evidence’ to criminally charge Trump over efforts to overturn electionDramatic statement comes one day before January 6 panel set to release outline of its investigative report on US Capitol attack California congressman Adam Schiff said Sunday that he believes there is “sufficient evidence” to criminally charge Donald Trump in relation to his efforts to overturn the 2020 election.Schiff’s dramatic statement on CNN’s State of the Union came one day before the House January 6 select committee to which he belongs is poised to release an outline of its extensive investigative report on the US Capitol attack, which has been linked to nine deaths, including the suicides of traumatized law enforcement officers.January 6 committee to use last meeting to refer Trump to justice departmentRead moreThe committee is expected to use its last meeting on Monday to refer Trump, as well as others, to the US justice department in relation to the former president’s attempts to reverse his 2020 defeat to Joe Biden.During this final meeting, the panel is expected to outline an executive summary of its findings, propose legislative recommendations, vote to adopt the report – and then vote on possible criminal and civil referrals. Schiff is one of nine members, seven of whom are Democrats like him, serving on the January 6 committee.The potential referrals involving Trump are expected to involve obstruction of an official congressional proceeding as well as conspiracy to defraud the United States. The Guardian first reported the nature of these referrals.Schiff told CNN host Jake Tapper that he “can’t comment” on specifics of any possible referrals. The predicted criminal referrals are effectively symbolic because Congress can’t force prosecutors to pursue charges.“I think that the evidence is there that Trump committed criminal offenses in connection with his efforts to overturn the election,” said Schiff, who chairs the House intelligence committee. “And viewing it as a former prosecutor, I think there’s sufficient evidence to charge the [former] president.”Tapper asked Schiff whether this was enough to secure a conviction.“Well, I don’t know what the justice department has. I do know what’s in the public record. The evidence seems pretty plain to me, but I would want to see the full body of evidence, if I were in the prosecutor’s shoes, to make a decision,” Schiff responded. “But this is someone, who in multiple ways, tried to pressure state officials to find votes that didn’t exist. This is someone who tried to interfere with a joint session, even inciting a mob to attack the Capitol.“If that’s not criminal, then – then I don’t know what it is.”Asked whether he thought Trump would face criminal charges, Schiff said: “The short answer is, I don’t know. I think that he should. I think he should face the same remedy, force of law that anyone else would.”Schiff said he was worried, however, that “it may take until he is no longer politically relevant for justice to be served. That’s not the way it should be in this country, but there seems to be an added evidentiary burden with someone who has a large enough following.”“That simply should not be the case, but I find it hard, otherwise, to explain why, almost two years from the events of January 6, and with the evidence that’s already in the public domain, why the justice department hasn’t moved more quickly than it has,” Schiff also said.The Guardian previously reported that the Trump allies who might face criminal referrals include former high-ranking White House staffers. The panel is also expected to make civil referrals to the House ethics committee involving Republican Congress members – as well as suggest disbarment for some of Trump’s attorneys.Exclusive: January 6 panel considering Trump referral to justice department for obstruction of CongressRead moreThe January 6 committee has largely concluded that the insurrection was rooted in a conspiracy, sources previously told the Guardian. The panel found that Trump oversaw a “political” plan for his Vice-President Mike Pence to refuse to certify election results in a joint session on January 6 as well as a “coup” plot to force Congress’s hand if he refused.Committee investigators think that Trump’s alleged desire to illegally thwart the certification of the election he lost was obvious months before January 6. They believe it extended from the time he agreed with a fake elector plot so states would swap Biden’s electoral college votes for him until he refused for hours to call off Capitol attackers, sources had told the Guardian.Trump did not leave documentary evidence of his alleged involvement, but his staffers left a paper trail. During Trump’s presidency, he used his power to stifle inquiries, the committee is expected to say. One of Trump’s attorneys did not immediately respond to a request for comment.TopicsJanuary 6 hearingsUS Capitol attackUS elections 2020Donald TrumpUS politicsDemocratsnewsReuse this content More

    • 125 Shares169 Views

      in US Politics

      Can Pence’s Trump-lite blend of policy and politeness convince Republicans?

      by

      Can Pence’s Trump-lite blend of policy and politeness convince Republicans? Former vice-president strikes a delicate balance between praise and condemnation of his old boss as he considers a 2024 runThere were servings of croissants, macarons and copies of a book entitled So Help Me God. There were reporters but it could not be described as a stampede; one front row seat was nabbed by the Guardian while others assigned to the media were eventually given to regular audience members.Mike Pence, the former US vice-president, walked into the auditorium at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) thinktank in Washington last week. It was the latest stop on a lengthy book tour that is ostensibly promoting his memoir while also testing the water for a presidential run in 2024.So Help Me God review: Mike Pence’s tortured bid for Republican relevanceRead moreAt event after event, in interview after interview, Pence has framed his book as a story about growing up in small town Indiana, putting his faith in Jesus Christ and marrying “the girl of my dreams”. But the 63-year-old has also struck a delicate balance when it comes to his former boss, President Donald Trump – coming both to bury Caesar and to praise him.Pence has repeatedly defended his decision to resist pressure from his boss to overturn the 2020 election – while stopping short of condemning Trump as a traitor who should never hold elected office again.Asked by the Associated Press what consequences Trump should face for the January 6 attack on the US Capitol, the former VP replied: “That’s up to the American people … And look, I’ll always be proud of the record of the Trump administration.” Asked by NBC’s Meet the Press if the president committed a criminal act in fomenting an insurrection, he answered: “Well, I don’t know if it is criminal to listen to bad advice from lawyers.”In a town hall broadcast by CNN, Pence said: “Let me just say that it was a great honor for me to be a part of the Trump-Pence administration … But in the end, our administration did not end well.” And he told CBS News’s Face the Nation: “While the president and I parted amicably, I believe as we look to the future, we’ll have better choices.”At the AEI last week Pence charted a similar course, seeking to embrace the Trump legacy while simultaneously keeping the man at arm’s length. They were always an odd couple: a blowhard celebrity billionaire from New York accused of sexual harassment and a pious midwestern governor who refuses to dine alone with a woman who is not his wife.But Pence claimed that an unlikely bond formed between them.“President Trump wasn’t just my president, he was my friend,” he said “We really developed a close working relationship, which I know surprises people … It isn’t that we didn’t have differences, and I recount a few of them in the book, but during the administration I thought it was always important that I express my opinion to the president in private.“The relationship between the president and the vice-president is very unique in all the American government and I never wanted to ever be in a position where there’s any daylight between me and the president. Loyalty is the essence of a vice president’s job. The only higher loyalty you have is to God and to the constitution.”No one but Trump could have defeated Democrat Hillary Clinton in 2016, he argued, a realisation he made after seeing the way Trump connected with voters in Indiana. Pence said as he travels the country now, people approach him yearning for a return to the Trump-Pence administration’s record on energy independence, wages, employment, the military and appointing conservatives to the courts.“But in the same breath, almost invariably people say to me that they they want leadership that has the potential of uniting our country around our highest ideals and solving some of these long-term problems. And I think that all begins with civility and respect. I think democracy depends on heavy doses of civility.”Pence cited his Christian faith and his friendships with Tom Lantos, the only Holocaust survivor to serve in Congress, and John Lewis, who one year asked him to join the commemoration of Bloody Sunday by crossing the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama. “I didn’t agree with either of them on almost anything that I could think of except that they were both good men and truly great men and it was an honor to call them friends. So I think that’s what people are looking for now.”It was a rebuke to Trump’s brand of abusive, bilious and divisive politics, a bet that people are now tired of that circus and looking for a more sombre tone. As he contemplates going head-to-head with Trump for the Republican nomination in 2024, Pence appears to be making a case that he can deliver a similar policy agenda minus the name-calling and insulting-throwing. In short, Trump-lite.The audience at the AEI event included Ryan Streeter, 53, who in 1988 drove Pence around Indiana in a Buick Sedan when he was first running for Congress and later worked as a policy adviser when Pence was Indiana governor.Streeter, now director of domestic policy at the AEI, said: “He’s very honestly trying to hold on to the things that he believes policy wise they did that were good while now very clearly creating some distance between him and Trump’s style and maybe his focus on issues that are maybe too heavy in a way that he wouldn’t do. That seems to be very deliberate. January 6 created the historic event that necessitated this separation between the two.”Pence, who has nurtured White House ambitions since his teens, told the audience that he and his family would spend time over the holidays listening to Americans and deciding on their future. A Morning Consult opinion poll this week showed him backed by 8% of potential Republican primary voters, trailing behind Trump on 49% and Florida governor Ron DeSantis on 31% but ahead of Liz Cheney, Ted Cruz and Nikki Haley on 2% each.Mike Murphy, a Republican strategist who recently interviewed Pence in Indianapolis during his book tour, believes that his call for a return to a more polite political discourse could help distinguish him from Trump and his imitators. “The great thing about Pence says he’s not afraid to broach tender or controversial subjects but he does it with civility.Who’s next? Republicans who might go up against Trump in 2024Read more“When he gets hecklers, instead of saying kick their asses like Trump would say, he says that’s the voice of freedom speaking right there, that’s why we have the first amendment, so you can yell at me if you want to. He just has his very gracious, accommodating style. I’ve known the guy for 35 years. I’ve never seen him yell once and, when you’ve been a governor or a congressman, you sure have plenty of reason to yell from time to time.”Michael D’Antonio, co-author of The Shadow President: The Truth About Mike Pence, agreed: “I would think that he’s also considering DeSantis who, away from his base, is a rather obnoxious guy and just as lacking civility in Trump, so maybe Pence is betting on all of this coming to a head and I don’t think it’s a bad bet. Everyone’s so exhausted by the meanness that, if someone can persuade the Republican party in its entirety that there’s an end coming and a return to what may have existed in 2010, they’ll go for it.”But he added: “The only hang up is that his profound anti-abortion and anti-choice record will make him a hard sell in the general election to suburban women and all non-evangelicals and he may be a great target for the pro-choice movement. His background is also very anti-LGBTQ in a more extreme way than Trump’s ever was and it’s on the record. He can’t run away from that.”Indeed, Pence could suffer the worst of both worlds. The Trump base may never forgive him for refusing to support the president’s attempted coup, as evidenced by the cries of “Hang Mike Pence!” at the Capitol and subsequent incidents of booing. Democrats, meanwhile, have cast him as a lapdog, a loyal and sycophantic second-in-command who defended Trump through every crisis and controversy until he finally became a reluctant “hero” on January 6.Antjuan Seawright, a Democratic strategist, said: “The challenge for him is to separate himself from being a certified Trumpster, even though he is trying to claim a line of separation. The smart candidate in the Republican primary is going to wrap him around a Trump axle every chance they get. He cannot really offer himself as an alternative because there are people who have several more layers of separation from Trump, whatever he does.”Reed Galen, a co-founder of the Lincoln Project, an anti-Trump group, added: “He’s definitely running for president. He’s the only one for whom running against Trump actually makes sense because Trump tried to kill him. I get it, I don’t even fault him for it. The guy tried to kill you, you want to run against him: I’m OK with that. But the truth is he’s a bowl of vanilla ice cream.”TopicsMike PenceDonald TrumpUS politicsRepublicansfeaturesReuse this content More

    • 163 Shares169 Views

      in US Politics

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

      by

      January 6 committee to use last meeting to refer Trump to justice departmentLawmakers expected to outline findings and vote to issue criminal and civil referrals on Monday The House January 6 select committee plans to use its final meeting on Monday to refer Donald Trump, among others, to the justice department for conduct connected to the former president’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election.As it prepares to release its voluminous investigative report, the panel is expected to use its meeting, announced for 1pm, to take several conclusive steps. These include outlining an executive summary of its findings and legislative recommendations, voting to formally adopt the report, and then voting to issue criminal and civil referrals.The committee was scheduled to meet over the weekend to finalize the referrals, which, in the case of Trump, center on obstruction of an official proceeding of Congress and conspiracy to defraud the United States, among other potential charges, the Guardian first reported.The referrals for Trump mark a remarkable moment for the precedent-shattering investigation, which has looked into the former president’s efforts to reverse his 2020 election defeat at any cost, culminating in the Capitol attack last year.Tennessee man accused of plot to kill FBI agents in latest January 6 chargesRead moreIn addition to Trump, the select committee is likely to proceed with criminal referrals against top former White House advisers, including the former chief of staff Mark Meadows, and to make civil referrals to the House ethics committee for GOP members of Congress and recommend disbarments for Trump lawyers.The criminal referrals are only suggestions. Congress has no ability to compel prosecutions by the justice department, although the department has increasingly ramped up its own investigations into January 6 and subpoenaed a parade of top Trump advisers to testify before at least two grand juries in Washington.But the expected referrals – essentially letters to the justice department urging charges – presage a moment of high political drama at Monday’s final business meeting of the select committee, which has run a supercharged investigation staffed by multiple former federal prosecutors.The panel has broadly concluded the Capitol attack was a conspiracy, according to sources familiar with its work. It concluded Trump oversaw a “political” plan to have his vice-president, Mike Pence, refuse to certify the election for Joe Biden, and a “coup” plan to pressure Congress if Pence refused.For the investigators on three principal teams – the gold team examining the Trump White House and Republican congressmen, the red team examining January 6 rally organizers, and the purple team examining the extremist groups that stormed the Capitol – the chief suspect has, for months, been Trump.Exclusive: January 6 panel considering Trump referral to justice department for obstruction of CongressRead moreThe former president’s desire to illegally impede the certification was clear months before January 6, the investigators are said to believe, from when Trump assented to a fake elector plot to have states replace electoral college votes for Biden with votes for him, to refusing for many hours to call off the attack as it happened.Though Trump did not leave a paper trail that might come back to haunt him as evidence, his aides did. And although Trump deftly wielded the powers of the presidency while in office to stymie investigations, once out of office he found those powers drastically reduced.As a result, the select committee was able to draw upon testimony from hundreds of witnesses and thousands of documents that investigators believe amount to compelling evidence of criminality, the sources said.The panel is only expected to provide a top-level outline of its report on Monday, though the entirety of the eight-chapter document is scheduled to be made public on Wednesday, and all of the deposition transcripts will be released before the end of the year.The final report – which will include an extended executive summary of more than 100 pages – roughly tracks the select committee’s public hearings from the summer. Chapter topics include Trump’s fake-elector plot, his illegal effort to pressure Pence, and his inaction in the West Wing during the 187 minutes of the Capitol attack.“We obviously want to complete the story for the American people,” the congressman Jamie Raskin, a member of the select committee, said. “Everybody has come on a journey with us, and we want a satisfactory conclusion, such that people feel that Congress has done its job.”The transcripts and other evidence cited in the report will be uploaded, with some redactions, through the Government Publishing Office, another federal agency, in an attempt to ensure that the House Republican majority in the next Congress cannot unilaterally remove the documents.TopicsUS Capitol attackDonald TrumpUS politicsUS CongressHouse of RepresentativesBiden administrationnewsReuse this content More

    • 125 Shares99 Views

      in US Politics

      Is Trump finally politically dead? Sort of | Robert Reich

      by

      Is Trump finally politically dead? Sort ofRobert ReichRepublican lawmakers know Trump is unpopular – but some feverishly pro-Trump voters have the party in a bind As Congress ends its first post-Trump term, the biggest political question hanging over America is: When will the Republican party finally reach its anti-Trump tipping point – when a majority of Republican lawmakers disavow him?Again and again, it looks like the tipping point is near but the party remains under Trump’s thumb.What about last month’s dinner at Mar-a-Lago, with Ye – formerly Kanye West – the man whose fame as a musician has been dwarfed by his antisemitic declarations, along with infamous Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes?It didn’t come near to tipping the scales. Trump ‘is in trouble’, says insider after DeSantis surges in 2024 pollsRead moreWhat about Trump’s 3 December declaration that the “massive fraud” of the 2020 election would allow for the constitution to be “terminated”?Nope.Both events caused grumbling among a few Republican lawmakers, but most avoided criticizing Trump (as they’ve avoided in the past and as they avoided doing the moment the furor over January 6 had died down) for fear of his wrath.But what’s to fear now? Didn’t the midterms reveal how weak he is?After all, most of the candidates he endorsed flamed out, including celebrity doctor Mehmet Oz in Pennsylvania; Tim Michels in Wisconsin; Adam Laxalt in Nevada; Blake Masters and Kari Lake in Arizona; and Herschel Walker in Georgia. (Walker’s campaign even asked Trump to stay away in the final weeks.)Many election deniers hit the skids. Michigan’s legislature swung to the Democrats for the first time since the 1980s.Democrats defied almost all doomsday prophecies as well as the historic pattern of sitting presidents’ parties losing midterms. Why? In large part because so many voters fear and loathe the former president.Nearly as many viewed the midterms as a referendum on Trump as who saw it as a referendum on Joe Biden. As Mitch McConnell explained, swing voters “were frightened” by the Trump-induced Republican rhetoric, “so they pulled back”.And it’s only going to get worse for Trump.His business has been found guilty of criminal fraud. Investigators have found more classified documents in a storage unit near Mar-a-Lago. A criminal case is pending in Georgia. The January 6 committee is likely to make a criminal referral to the justice department, whose special counsel is already building a criminal case against him. Several leaders of the January 6 attack have already been convicted of seditious conspiracy.Exclusive: January 6 panel considering Trump referral to justice department for obstruction of CongressRead moreEven the kingpins of the Republican party, including the rightwing media tycoon Rupert Murdoch, have switched their allegiances away – to Ron DeSantis or Ted Cruz or another Republican hopeful.So why hasn’t the party as a whole tipped? Why aren’t almost all Republican lawmakers publicly disavowing the former sociopath-in-chief?Two words: the base.Utah’s Republican senator Mitt Romney, no friend of Trump, put it bluntly last week:
      I think we’ve got, I don’t know, 12 people or more that would like to be president, that are thinking of running in 2024. If President Trump continues in his campaign, I’m not sure any one of them can make it through and beat him. He’s got such a strong base of, I don’t know, 30% or 40% of the Republican voters, or maybe more, it’s going to be hard to knock him off as our nominee.
      That’s the problem in a nutshell, folks.It’s not so much the size of Trump’s base. Even 40% of Republican voters is a relatively small group nationwide, especially considering that fewer than 30% of all voters are registered Republicans.It’s the intensity and tenacity of their support, which gives them effective control over the Republican party. They won’t budge.Until they budge, most Republican lawmakers won’t budge either. (With Romney and Liz Cheney being notable exceptions, and we know what happened to her.)The problem isn’t some highfalutin moral issue, such as Republican lawmakers putting their party over their country. It’s more prosaic. They want to keep their jobs.The only hope for the Republican party is that Trump is opposed in the 2024 presidential primaries by just one opponent – most obviously Florida’s Ron DeSantis – who becomes the alternative for the majority of Republican voters who don’t particularly want Trump to be their standard bearer.But if DeSantis were to jump in, it’s likely so would a bunch of others – Mike Pence, Josh Hawley, Ted Cruz, et al (Romney’s “12 or more”) – who’d split the non-Trump Republicans, allowing Trump’s base to anoint him the Republican nominee.Which means the Republican party will continue to rot as a political party, as a governing institution and as a moral entity. This may be good for Democrats in 2024, but in the larger sense it’s bad for us all.
      Robert Reich, a former US secretary of labor, is professor of public policy at the University of California, Berkeley, and the author of Saving Capitalism: For the Many, Not the Few and The Common Good. His new book, The System: Who Rigged It, How We Fix It, is out now. He is a Guardian US columnist. His newsletter is at robertreich.substack.com
      TopicsUS politicsOpinionDonald TrumpRepublicanscommentReuse this content More