More stories

  • in

    January 6 panel releases transcripts of key witness Cassidy Hutchinson – as it happened

    The full report from the January 6 House panel investigating Donald Trump’s insurrection has not yet materialized, but the committee has just published transcripts of the testimony of a key witness.Cassidy Hutchinson, a former aide to Trump’s White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, gave some of the most dramatic, and damning testimony during a live public hearing in the summer. She said Trump attempted to strangle his secret service agent and lunged for the steering wheel when he was told that he would not be driven to join the rioters he incited during the January 6 Capitol riot.She gave further, closed doors testimony to the panel in September, released by the committee in two documents this morning. One from 14 September is here; and the other from the following day is here.The first session lasted five and a half hours, and the second was two and half. There’s more than 200 pages of transcript here, but one episode sticks out, aboard Air Force One early on 5 January 2021, as Trump was flying back to Washington after “stop the steal” rallies in Georgia.It would appear to allude to the plot to try to persuade vice-president Mike Pence to deny certification of Trump’s election defeat by Biden in Congress the following day, the infamous Capitol riot incited by Trump.In a conference room meeting attended by, among others, Georgia congresswoman Marjorie Taylor-Greene, allies were talking up the scheme, and assuring Trump it would succeed, Hutchinson says.But she says she then saw Meadows take Trump aside after the meeting and caution him thus: “In case we didn’t win this [the election] sir, and in case, like, tomorrow doesn’t go as planned, we’re gonna have to have a plan in place.”According to Hutchinson, Trump replied: “There’s always that chance we didn’t win, but tomorrow’s gonna go well,” a potentially crucial admission that Trump already knew his defeat was not fraudulent.We’re closing the live politics blog now, but look out for our news report later on the January 6 committee’s final report, assuming the panel sticks to its word and publishes it today.Even without the report, it’s been a busy day. The select committee did release transcripts of the two-day deposition of Cassidy Hutchinson, aide to former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and a key witness during public hearings this summer.Hutchinson spoke of a campaign of pressure on her by White House attorneys, including one paid by Trump, to give misleading testimony.Here’s what else we followed:
    The Senate voted 68-29 to pass the $1.7tn omnibus spending bill that will keep the government funded for another year. The House is expected to take up the bill later on Thursday, and Joe Biden must sign it before a Friday deadline to avert a government shutdown.
    Arizona governor Doug Ducey said he’d take down a makeshift wall made of shipping containers at the Mexico border, settling a lawsuit and political tussle with the US government over trespassing on federal lands.
    Newly elected New York congressman George Santos, whose life story has come under question since the Republican’s midterms victory last month, said he’ll address those concerns next week.
    Former president George W Bush issued a statement condemning the Taliban for pulling the plug on university education for women in Afghanistan, accusing the country’s ruling party of treating women as “second-class citizens”.
    Joe Biden will speak from the White House at 4pm ET Thursday with a Christmas message.The president’s address, the White House said in a memo, will be “focused on what unites us as Americans, his optimism for the year ahead, and wishing Americans joy in the coming year”.You can watch the Biden Christmas address here.The governor of Arizona, Doug Ducey, will take down a makeshift wall made of shipping containers at the Mexico border, settling a lawsuit and political tussle with the US government over trespassing on federal lands.The Associated Press reports that the Biden administration and the Republican governor entered into an agreement under which Arizona will cease installing the containers in any national forest, according to court documents filed in US district court in Phoenix.The agreement also calls for Arizona to remove containers already installed in the remote San Rafael Valley, in south-eastern Cochise county, by 4 January and without damaging any natural resources. State agencies will have to consult with US Forest Service representatives.Read the full story:Arizona governor agrees to remove wall of shipping containers on Mexico borderRead moreGeorge W Bush, the president who ordered US forces into Afghanistan as part of the global war on terror, has issued a statement condemning the Taliban for pulling the rug on university education for Afghan women.In a statement from his office in Crawford, Texas, the 76-year-old former commander in chief and former first lady Laura Bush said their “hearts are heavy for the people of Afghanistan”:.css-cumn2r{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}We are especially sad for Afghan women and girls, who are enduring terrible hardship under the brutal Taliban regime. Just this week, all Afghan women were banned from studying at university. Many were turned away from their jobs in schools; others were prevented from worshiping in mosques and seminaries.
    And in the latest assault on human rights in the country, we fear for young girls being barred from school entirely. Treating women as second-class citizens, depriving them of their universal human rights, and denying them the opportunity to better themselves and their communities should generate outrage among all of us.
    For Afghans who were forced to flee their homes, these attacks remind us of our responsibility to help those who’ve helped us over the last two decades, including the evacuees here in the United States. Afghans, like people around the world, simply want to live in freedom and provide a better future for their children.
    Laura and I, along with the team at the Bush Center, pray that 2023 will bring a better time for the people of Afghanistan and those fighting for freedom everywhere.Other former world leaders have also been vocal. In an opinion piece for the Guardian, Gordon Brown, the United Nations special envoy for global education, and most recent Labour prime minister, said the Taliban’s ruling had done “more in a single day to entrench discrimination against women and girls and set back their empowerment than any other single policy decision I can remember”.Read more:The Taliban are taking away women’s right to learn. The world can’t afford to stay silent | Gordon BrownRead moreSenators have just voted 68-29 to pass the $1.7tn omnibus spending bill that will keep the government funded for another year.The House is expected to take up the bill later on Thursday, with the outgoing Democratic majority likely to pass it in one of its last acts before ceding control of the chamber to Republicans next month.Politicians are facing a midnight Friday deadline to get the measure to Joe Biden’s desk before parts of the government would have to shut down through lack of funding.“There are so many good things in the bill it’s hard to get them all out,” Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer said.“We’ve concluded this Congress, one of the most disruptive in decades, with one of the best omnibus packages in decades.”George Santos says he’ll address questions “next week” about an allegedly fantastical biography the newly-elected New York congressman presented to voters in last month’s midterms.Speculation has grown in recent days that the Republican may not have been entirely truthful in statements about his background, education and achievements. His beaten Democratic opponent, Robert Zimmerman, said Santos “was running a scam against the voters”.“To the people of #NY03 I have my story to tell and it will be told next week. I want to assure everyone that I will address your questions and that I remain committed to deliver the results I campaigned on; Public safety, Inflation, Education & more,” Santos said in a Thursday afternoon tweet.To the people of #NY03 I have my story to tell and it will be told next week. I want to assure everyone that I will address your questions and that I remain committed to deliver the results I campaigned on; Public safety, Inflation, Education & more.Happy Holidays to all!— George Santos (@Santos4Congress) December 22, 2022
    Santos had claimed his grandfather escaped the Holocaust; that he had worked at Citigroup and Goldman Sachs; that he had graduated from Baruch College; and that he ran a non-profit, tax-exempt pet rescue group.Every one of the claims has been disproved, according to research by, among others, the New York Times and CNN.Santos, who beat Zimmerman by eight points in November, became the first openly gay Republican to win a House seat as a non-incumbent, the Times reported.More, from Maya Yang, on how Florida’s governor, Ron DeSantis, Donald Trump’s only current rival for the next Republican presidential nomination, has appointed a judge previously ousted over a controversial ruling in which he denied a teenager an abortion, citing her school grades.DeSantis appointed Jared Smith to the newly established sixth district court of appeal, an appointment which will begin on 1 January 2023. Smith was previously a judge on the Hillsborough county court, until he was ousted in August after his decision on the abortion-related case.In January, Smith ruled that a 17-year-old was unfit to obtain an abortion as he questioned her “overall intelligence”. According to Florida law, both parental notification and consent is required in order for a minor to receive an abortion. In the teenager’s case, she asked the court to waive the requirement.The requirement can be waived if the court finds “by clear and convincing evidence, that the minor is sufficiently mature to decide whether to terminate her pregnancy”.In his ruling, Smith cited the teenager’s grades as a factor in his decision to deny her the abortion.“Addressing her ‘overall intelligence’ … the court found her intelligence to be less than average because ‘[w]hile she claimed that her grades were ‘Bs’ during her testimony, her GPA is currently 2.0. Clearly, a ‘B’ average would not equate to a 2.0 GPA,’” Smith wrote.Smith also questioned the teenager’s “emotional development and stability, and ability to accept responsibility”.“This court has long recognized that the trial court’s findings … may support a determination that the minor did not prove that she was sufficiently mature to decide whether to terminate her pregnancy,” he wrote.An appeals court overturned the ruling. In August, Smith lost his re-election bid against Nancy Jacobs, a Tampa criminal defense and family law attorney.DeSantis appoints judge who denied abortion to girl over school gradesRead moreSpeaking of impending investigations of Hunter Biden, the president’s son has hired a well-known Washington lawyer, who represented Jared Kushner in Congress as well as during the investigation of Russian election interference and links between Donald Trump and Moscow, to advise him during his looming congressional combat.The younger Biden “has retained Abbe Lowell to help advise him and be part of his legal team to address the challenges he is facing,” another attorney, Kevin Morris, told news outlets on Wednesday.“Lowell is a well-known Washington based attorney who has represented numerous public officials and high-profile people in Department of Justice investigations and trials as well as congressional investigations. [For Hunter Biden] Mr Lowell will handle congressional investigations and general strategic advice.”Lowell has worked across the political divide, representing Democrats including Bob Menendez, a New Jersey senator, and the former senator and vice-presidential nominee John Edwards, both in corruption cases that ended in mistrials, and acting as chief minority counsel to House Democrats in the impeachment of Bill Clinton.Recently, Lowell represented Tom Barrack, a Trump ally acquitted in a foreign lobbying case.Lowell, 70, has said that to be a trial lawyer, “you have to have a desire to be a performer at some level. If I hadn’t done this, it would have been Broadway”.But his work for Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and chief adviser, brought an uncomfortable sort of spotlight. Writing in the American Lawyer in late 2020, Lowell suggested criticism of his work for another client was generated “primarily because I later represented … the president’s son-in-law.“The resulting news coverage, and especially the more sensational headlines, triggered the all-too-common flurry of hate mail, threatening voice mails and anonymous criticisms for doing the very job that attorneys are supposed to do.”Full story:Hunter Biden hires Jared Kushner lawyer to face Republican investigatorsRead moreJamie Raskin of Maryland, a member of the January 6 committee and before that a House manager in the second impeachment of Donald Trump, will be the top Democrat on the House oversight committee in the next Congress.Raskin beat Gerry Connolly of Virginia in a closed ballot on Capitol Hill.So far, so inside Beltway baseball. But it’s an important vote to note nonetheless. Raskin, who was a professor of constitutional law before entering Congress, has achieved a high profile and he will need to wield it to good effect in the oversight role from January, given Republicans’ declared intent to use the committee to launch investigations into Hunter Biden and other subjects designed to damage Joe Biden.The current oversight chair, Carolyn Maloney of New York, will leave Congress shortly, having lost her primary this year.James Comer of Kentucky, the incoming Republican chair, told reporters last month he intended to go on the offensive, by investigating whether family business activities have “compromise[d] US national security and President Biden’s ability to lead with impartiality”.“We want the bank records and that’s our focus,” Comer said. “We’re trying to stay focused on: ‘Was Joe Biden directly involved with Hunter Biden’s business deals and is he compromised?’ That’s our investigation.”Raskin’s work on the January 6 investigation is all but done. Now comes the next hefty task.Here’s some further reading about Raskin, from our Washington bureau chief, David Smith:Congressman Jamie Raskin: ‘I’ll never forget the terrible sound of them trying to barrel into the chamber’Read moreWhite House aide Cassidy Hutchinson said she felt she had “Trump himself looking over my shoulder” as she discussed with her attorney her upcoming testimony to the January 6 committee earlier this year.Hutchinson, an assistant to then-president Donald Trump’s chief of staff Mark Meadows, makes the revelation in a transcript of a deposition to the panel that was released on Thursday morning.In it, Hutchinson, a star witness against Trump in public hearings of the committee this summer, outlines what she saw as sustained campaign of pressure by lawyers paid by Trump to get her to mislead the panel.CNN reported on Wednesday that Stefan Passantino, the top ethics attorney in the White House at the time, allegedly advised Hutchinson to tell the committee that she did not recall details that she did over Trump’s efforts to reverse his defeat to Joe Biden.According to the transcript, Hutchinson told the panel:.css-cumn2r{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}It wasn’t just that I had Stefan sitting next to me; it was almost like I felt like I had Trump looking over my shoulder. Because I knew in some fashion it would get back to him if I said anything that he would find disloyal.
    And the prospect of that genuinely scared me. You know, I’d seen this world ruin people’s lives or try to ruin people’s careers. I’d seen how vicious they can be.Hutchinson, then 26, said she originally thought she was “fucked” because she couldn’t afford a lawyer after receiving a subpoena from the House committee, but was hooked up with Passantino through her White House contacts. It turned out that Passantino was being paid by a Trump political action committee.NEW: Cassidy Hutchinson told Jan. 6 committee that Ben Williamson — aide to former Trump chief Meadows — told her: “Well, Mark wants me to let you know that he knows you’re loyal and he knows you’ll do the right thing tomorrow and that you’re going to protect him and the boss.”— Hugo Lowell (@hugolowell) December 22, 2022
    Hutchinson also said that Passantino had never explicitly asked her to lie to the panel:.css-cumn2r{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}I want to make this clear to you: Stefan never told me to lie. He specifically told me, ‘I don’t want you to perjure yourself, but ‘I don’t recall’ isn’t perjury. They don’t know want you can and can’t recall’.But she said she felt increasingly pressured into misleading the panel. The relationship with Passantino soured, and ended, she said.Read more:Cassidy Hutchinson: who is the ex-aide testifying in the January 6 hearings?Read moreThe $1.7tn government spending bill could pass Congress as early as Thursday night after Democratic and Republican negotiators in the Senate appeared to strike a deal over certain amendments that were holding it up.Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer announced the agreement to clear about 15 amendments, the Associated Press reported. Such amendments are subject to a 60-vote requirement and would ordinarily fail in the evenly divided chamber.“It’s taken a while, but it is worth it,” Schumer said in announcing the series of votes, needed to lock in an expedited vote on final passage and get the bill to Joe Biden’s desk before a partial government shutdown would begin at midnight Friday. The House will take up the bill after the Senate completes its work, the AP reports.The massive bill includes about $772.5bn for non-defense, discretionary programs and $858bn for defense, and would finance the government through September. Lawmakers were racing to get the bill approved before a shutdown could occur, and many were anxious to complete the task before a deep freeze and wintry conditions leave them stranded in Washington for the holidays. Many also want to lock in government funding before a new GOP-controlled House next year could make it harder to find compromise on spending.Read more:Schumer seeks Senate path for funding bill as government shutdown loomsRead moreThe full report from the January 6 House panel investigating Donald Trump’s insurrection has not yet materialized, but the committee has just published transcripts of the testimony of a key witness.Cassidy Hutchinson, a former aide to Trump’s White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, gave some of the most dramatic, and damning testimony during a live public hearing in the summer. She said Trump attempted to strangle his secret service agent and lunged for the steering wheel when he was told that he would not be driven to join the rioters he incited during the January 6 Capitol riot.She gave further, closed doors testimony to the panel in September, released by the committee in two documents this morning. One from 14 September is here; and the other from the following day is here.The first session lasted five and a half hours, and the second was two and half. There’s more than 200 pages of transcript here, but one episode sticks out, aboard Air Force One early on 5 January 2021, as Trump was flying back to Washington after “stop the steal” rallies in Georgia.It would appear to allude to the plot to try to persuade vice-president Mike Pence to deny certification of Trump’s election defeat by Biden in Congress the following day, the infamous Capitol riot incited by Trump.In a conference room meeting attended by, among others, Georgia congresswoman Marjorie Taylor-Greene, allies were talking up the scheme, and assuring Trump it would succeed, Hutchinson says.But she says she then saw Meadows take Trump aside after the meeting and caution him thus: “In case we didn’t win this [the election] sir, and in case, like, tomorrow doesn’t go as planned, we’re gonna have to have a plan in place.”According to Hutchinson, Trump replied: “There’s always that chance we didn’t win, but tomorrow’s gonna go well,” a potentially crucial admission that Trump already knew his defeat was not fraudulent.Nancy Pelosi is delivering the final press conference of her long-time tenure as House speaker, and is reminiscing over all the memorable presidents she has served:Pelosi: “I was speaker and minority leader under President Bush, under President Obama and under whatshisname?”— David Smith (@SmithInAmerica) December 22, 2022
    It’s safe to say that Madam Speaker has not suddenly become that forgetful as she prepares to stand down.Kyrsten Sinema, Arizona’s Democratic-turned-independent senator, has always had a reputation as one of Washington’s more unconventional politicians. Now, it seems, she’s also one of the most demanding.The Daily Beast has published details of what it says is a 37-page memo “intended as a guide for aides who set the schedule for and personally staff Sinema during her workdays in Washington and Arizona”.It makes for quite a read, reminiscent of some of the more outlandish demands contained in the “riders” of various rock stars.Sinema must always have a room temperature bottle of water at hand, the Beast says, citing the memo.At the beginning of each week, her executive assistant must contact Sinema in Washington to “ask if she needs groceries,” and copy both the scheduler and chief of staff on the message to “make sure this is accomplished”.Anyone booking her travel must avoid Southwest Airlines, never book her a seat near a bathroom, and never a middle seat, the Beast says.And if the internet in Sinema’s private apartment fails, the executive assistant “should call Verizon to schedule a repair” and ensure a staffer is present to let a technician inside the property.The allegations come just a week after Slate published a piece claiming Sinema was a prolific seller on Facebook’s online marketplace, listing mostly shoes and clothing.The Beast said Sinema’s office said it couldn’t verify the document’s authenticity, which is not an outright denial, and said the information as published “is not in line with official guidance from [her] office and does not represent official policies of [the] office”.You can read the Beast’s report here.Never one to hide his opinions, however extreme, Fox News host Tucker Carlson did not share in the almost universal acclaim for Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s historic address to a joint session of Congress on Wednesday night.“The president of Ukraine arrived at the White House, dressed like the manager of a strip club and started to demand money,” Carlson announced at the opening of his show on Wednesday, citing both Zelenskiy’s request for more western armaments and his trademark olive green military-style clothing.“Amazingly, no one threw him out. Instead, they did whatever he wanted,” Carlson continued, fuming at the further $1.85bn in US aid for Ukraine, including, for the first time, advanced Patriot air defense missiles, announced by the Biden administration on Wednesday.Tucker Carlson, Lauren Boebert, and Matt Gaetz stand with Putin; most of America stands with Zelensky and the people of Ukraine.The contrast between the far right and most of America has never been more glaring.— Ritchie Torres (@RitchieTorres) December 22, 2022
    Right-wingers bashing US support for Ukraine as it fights to repel the 10-month-old invasion by Russia is nothing new. A number of politicians and celebrity figures such as Carlson have long questioned the tens of billions of dollars of taxpayers money committed so far.But the howls of protest have become louder in recent weeks as Republicans prepare to take control of the House, and a further $44bn in emergency aid for Ukraine is included in the $1.7tn government spending package that looks on track for congressional passage today.Ahead of November’s midterms, Republicans even hinted that if they won control, the stream of funding for Ukraine could be cut off, as reported by Axios, and others, in October.On Wednesday night in the House, two notorious Republican extremists, Lauren Boebert of Colorado and Matt Gaetz of Florida, remained sitting and unmoved as Zelenskiy spoke, while many party colleagues sprang to their feet in applause.It caught the attention of Democratic New York congressman Ritchie Torres, who was not impressed with the pair’s antics, or Carlson’s comments for that matter.“Tucker Carlson, Lauren Boebert, and Matt Gaetz stand with [Russian president Vladimir] Putin; most of America stands with Zelenskiy and the people of Ukraine. The contrast between the far right and most of America has never been more glaring,” he said in a tweet.CNN is reporting that Senate negotiators for the Democrats and Republicans have struck a deal to secure passage of the $1.7tn government spending package.A number of amendments are incorporated into the bill, reflecting a “furious push by Senate leaders to get this done,” the network reports.We’ll have more details soon.Bennie Thompson, the Mississippi Democrat who chaired the January 6 House panel, says its investigation into Donald Trump’s insurrection uncovered witnesses that not even the justice department could find.In a revealing interview with MSNBC on Wednesday night, Thompson also said the bipartisan, nine-member committee took its time before referring the former president for criminal charges on Monday because it “wanted to get things right”.Thompson, and Liz Cheney, the Republican vice-chair from Wyoming, will present their 800-page full report to Congress sometime today. The panel has already sent evidence to the justice department to assist its own parallel criminal investigation into Trump’s efforts to stay in power after losing the 2020 election to Joe Biden.Thompson told MSNBC:.css-cumn2r{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}I am more comfortable with the fact that the special counsel has been actively engaged in pursuing any and all the information available. They have been in contact with our committee, asking us to provide various transcripts.
    There were people that we deposed that justice had not deposed. There were electors in various states that justice couldn’t find. We found them. We deposed them.
    So we had a lot of information, but now we make all that information available to them. And if they come back and want to interview staff or any members, ask any additional information, you know, we’ll be more than happy to do it. Thompson also spoke emotionally about the demands of conducting an intensive, 18-month inquiry, and the reason it was necessary:.css-cumn2r{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}It’s been difficult. I have spent many nights away from home. I’ve spent a lot of time just trying to figure out why, in the greatest democracy in the world, would people want to all of a sudden stow on the Capitol because they lost an election?
    You know, normally in a democracy, you settle your differences at the ballot box. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, but under no circumstances do you tear the city hall up, or the courthouse up, and, God forbid, the United States Capitol.
    It was just something that for most Americans, it was beyond imagination. And so, it played out in real time. People could see it. And there are still a lot of people who can’t fathom why our people would do that. You can view Thompson’s MSNBC interview here.It’s a third day of reckoning this week for Donald Trump as the January 6 House committee releases the final report from its 18-month investigation into the former president’s insurrection.Delayed from Wednesday, today’s publication of a dossier expected to run to 800 pages will expose in depth the extraordinary, and illegal efforts Trump employed to stay in power after he lost the 2020 election to Joe Biden.
    On Monday, the panel held its final hearing and referred Trump to the justice department for four criminal charges, including engaging in or assisting an insurrection.
    And on Tuesday, a separate House panel voted to release tax returns that Trump had fought for three years to keep secret.
    We already know from previous hearings much of the plotting and scheming that took place. Trump incited a mob that overran the US Capitol on January 6 2021, seeking to halt the certification of Biden’s victory; tried to manipulate states’ election results in his favor; and attempted to install slates of “fake electors” to reverse his defeat in Congress.On Wednesday night, the House panel released transcripts of 34 witness interviews.Today, the Select Committee made public 34 transcripts of witness testimony that was gathered over the course of the Select Committee’s investigation.These records can be found on the Select Committee’s website: https://t.co/JZaSH4GmdK— January 6th Committee (@January6thCmte) December 21, 2022
    Subjects of the interview transcripts included Jeffrey Clark, a senior official in the Trump justice department; John Eastman, a conservative lawyer and an architect of Trump’s last-ditch efforts to stay in office; and former national security adviser Mike Flynn, who was convicted of lying to the FBI but pardoned by Trump.Each invoked his fifth-amendment right against self-incrimination.More transcripts are expected to be released today.Panel member Adam Schiff, a California Democrat, told CBS: “I guarantee there’ll be some very interesting new information in the report, and even more so in the transcripts.”Read more:January 6 panel releases transcripts of testimony ahead of 800-page reportRead moreGood morning US politics blog readers. If you figured things were winding down for the Christmas holiday, think again.Sometime today we will see the release of the full January 6 House committee report into Donald Trump’s insurrection, delayed from Wednesday for reasons unknown. But the panel did release transcripts of 34 witness interviews last night, many of which make interesting reading.Also in Trump news, we’re learning the former president paid no federal tax at all in the final year of his administration.Elsewhere, here’s what we’re following:
    There’s uncertainty over the passage of the bipartisan $1.7tn government spending package after early-hours drama in the Senate when Republicans threatened to blow up the deal over an immigration provision.
    Nancy Pelosi will give her last press conference, scheduled for 10.45am, before she stands down as speaker when Republicans take control of the chamber early next month.
    There’s reaction to Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s powerful and historic address to to a joint session of Congress on Wednesday night.
    Joe Biden has no public engagements scheduled, and no White House press briefing is listed, although that could change.
    A reminder you can follow ongoing developments in the war in Ukraine in our live blog here.Strap in and stick with us. It’s going to be a lively day. More

  • in

    George Santos Breaks Silence: ‘I Have My Story to Tell.’ (Next Week.)

    Mr. Santos, the congressman-elect from New York, has yet to address numerous inconsistencies raised by The New York Times about his background.Representative-elect George Santos broke his silence on Thursday, vowing that he would come forward next week to address questions surrounding his background.Mr. Santos has been the subject of intense scrutiny following the publication of a New York Times report that raised questions about whether he misrepresented key parts of his background and finances, and filed incomplete or inaccurate congressional disclosures.“I have my story to tell and it will be told next week,” Mr. Santos, a Republican, said on Twitter.Mr. Santos, 34, has refused to answer any questions from The Times about his past and finances, and has only pointed to a statement released by his lawyer that accused the Times of attempting to smear him. In the report published on Monday, The Times found that key pillars of Mr. Santos’s résumé — including his education, ties to Wall Street firms and charitable endeavors that formed the basis of his pitch to voters — could not be substantiated. Instead, The Times found a string of debts and legal trouble, including an unresolved criminal matter in Brazil, that raise questions about the congressman’s rise to power and wealth.Mr. Santos has faced numerous calls to address The Times’s reporting. In his statement on Twitter, he said, “I want to assure everyone that I will address your questions and that I remain committed to deliver the results I campaigned on; Public safety, Inflation, Education & more. Happy Holidays to all!”Mr. Santos’s brief statement on Twitter came a day after the incoming House minority leader, Representative Hakeem Jeffries of New York, suggested that Mr. Santos appeared “to be in the witness protection program” after he spent the week avoiding the press.“No one can find him,” Mr. Jeffries, a Democrat, said at a news conference. “He’s hiding out from legitimate questions that his constituents are asking about his education, about his so-called charity, about his work experience, about his criminal entanglement in Brazil, about every aspect, it appears, of his life.”On Wednesday, The Forward, a Jewish publication, reported that Mr. Santos may have misled voters about his account of his Jewish ancestry, including that his maternal grandparents fled persecution around World War II.The House Republican leader, Representative Kevin McCarthy of California, did not answer questions about Mr. Santos on Thursday afternoon before walking onto the House floor, according to several accounts on Twitter from Washington reporters.Mr. Santos’s lawyer, Joe Murray, told The Times earlier on Thursday that he did “not anticipate any response” to further inquiries, though he acknowledged that would be subject to change.On Thursday, a spokeswoman for the New York attorney general, Letitia James, said that her office was “looking into some of the things that were raised” by The Times’s report.Jonah E. Bromwich More

  • in

    January 6 panel releases transcript of key witness ahead of 800-page report

    January 6 panel releases transcript of key witness ahead of 800-page report Cassidy Hutchinson, former aide to Trump, gave some of the most dramatic testimony during live hearings last summer Ahead of the release of its full report, the House January 6 committee published transcripts of witness testimony including that of Cassidy Hutchinson, a central figure in the investigation of Donald Trump’s election subversion and the Capitol attack.From Liz Cheney to Donald Trump: winners and losers from the January 6 hearingsRead moreOn Wednesday night, the committee released 34 transcripts from 1,000 interviews conducted over 18 months. Most interviewees invoked their fifth amendment right against self-incrimination. But Adam Schiff of California, a Democratic member of the committee, told CBS: “I guarantee there’ll be some very interesting new information in the report and even more so in the transcripts.”Hutchinson, a former aide to Trump and his last chief of staff, Mark Meadows, gave some of the most dramatic testimony during live hearings last summer. Then, she described how Trump accosted a secret service agent and lunged for the steering wheel of his vehicle when he was told he would not be driven to the Capitol himself.Further testimony, given by Hutchinson behind closed doors on 14 and 15 September, was released on Thursday. The first session lasted five-and-a-half hours, the second two-and-a-half. Early readings of more than 200 pages revealed a hitherto unknown episode aboard Air Force One early on 5 January 2021, as Trump was flying back to Washington after attending rallies in Georgia.The testimony would appear to allude to attempts to persuade the vice-president, Mike Pence, to deny certification of Joe Biden’s victory the following day.In a meeting attended by, among others, the far-right Georgia congresswoman Marjorie Taylor-Greene, allies talked up the scheme and assured Trump it would succeed, Hutchinson says. But she says she then saw Meadows take Trump aside and caution him: “In case we didn’t win this [the election] sir, and in case, like, tomorrow doesn’t go as planned, we’re gonna have to have a plan in place.”According to Hutchinson, Trump replied: “There’s always that chance we didn’t win, but tomorrow’s gonna go well.”The remark is potentially crucial evidence that Trump knew his defeat was not the result of fraud.Hutchinson also says she felt she had “Trump himself looking over my shoulder” as she discussed with her attorney her testimony earlier this year. The former White House aide outlines what she saw as sustained campaign of pressure by lawyers paid by Trump to get her to mislead the panel.CNN reported on Wednesday that Stefan Passantino, the top ethics attorney in the Trump White House, allegedly advised Hutchinson to tell the committee she did not recall details that in fact she did.According to the new transcript, Hutchinson said: “It wasn’t just that I had Stefan sitting next to me; it was almost like I felt like I had Trump looking over my shoulder. Because I knew in some fashion it would get back to him if I said anything that he would find disloyal.“And the prospect of that genuinely scared me. You know, I’d seen this world ruin people’s lives or try to ruin people’s careers. I’d seen how vicious they can be.”Hutchinson, then 26, said she thought she was “fucked” because she couldn’t afford a lawyer, but was hooked up with Passantino through White House contacts. It turned out Passantino was paid by a Trump-aligned political action committee.Hutchinson added: “I want to make this clear to you: Stefan never told me to lie. He specifically told me, ‘I don’t want you to perjure yourself, but ‘I don’t recall’ isn’t perjury. They don’t know want you can and can’t recall’.That said, Hutchinson felt pressured into misleading the panel. The relationship with Passantino soured and ended, she said.Subjects of other transcripts included Jeffrey Clark, an official in the justice department who worked to advance Trump’s efforts to overturn the election, and John Eastman, a conservative lawyer and an architect of Trump’s attempt to stay in office. Each invoked his fifth amendment right against self-incrimination.Also included in the release was testimony from members of extremist groups involved in the attack. The Oath Keepers founder, Stewart Rhodes, convicted last month of seditious conspiracy, and the former Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio both testified. Tarrio and four other Proud Boys will appear in court this month.Committee members hope for criminal charges against Trump and key allies. Only the justice department has the power to prosecute, so the panel recommended investigation of Trump for four crimes, including aiding an insurrection.On Wednesday the Democratic committee chair, Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, was asked if he had confidence charges would be pursued.He told MSNBC: “I am more comfortable with the fact that the special counsel” – Jack Smith, appointed last month – “has been actively engaged in pursuing any and all the information available. They have been in contact, asking us to provide various transcripts and what have you.”Thompson was asked if the committee was cooperating with the justice department. He said: “Yes … we made the decision [in] consultation with other members that we will cooperate.”He added: “There were people that we deposed that justice had not deposed. There were electors in various states that justice couldn’t find. We found them. We deposed them. And so we had a lot of information, but now we make all that information available. And if they come back and want to interview staff or any members, ask [for] any additional information, we’ll be more than happy to do it.”Trump is running again for the presidency but faces investigations including into the presence of classified documents at his Florida estate and his tax affairs. He has been blamed by Republicans for a poor showing in the midterm elections, leaving him politically vulnerable.Trump has slammed the House committee as “thugs and scoundrels”. In response to the criminal referrals, he said: “These folks don’t get it that when they come after me, people who love freedom rally around me. It strengthens me.”Republicans take over the House on 3 January. The committee will be dissolved.TopicsUS Capitol attackJanuary 6 hearingsUS politicsHouse of RepresentativesDonald TrumpnewsReuse this content More

  • in

    January 6 panel releases transcripts of testimony ahead of 800-page report

    January 6 panel releases transcripts of testimony ahead of 800-page reportMost of 34 witnesses whose transcripts have been released invoked fifth-amendment right against self-incrimination An 800-page report set to be released on Thursday by House investigators will conclude that Donald Trump criminally plotted to overturn his 2020 election defeat and “provoked his supporters to violence” at the Capitol with false voter fraud claims.From Liz Cheney to Donald Trump: winners and losers from the January 6 hearingsRead moreBefore the release, on Wednesday night, the January 6 committee released 34 transcripts from 1,000 interviews conducted over 18 months. Most of the interviewees were witnesses who invoked their fifth-amendment right against self-incrimination.More transcripts and some video were also expected to be released.“I guarantee there’ll be some very interesting new information in the report and even more so in the transcripts,” Adam Schiff of California, a Democratic member of the committee, told CBS.Subjects of the interview transcripts released on Wednesday included Jeffrey Clark, a senior official in the Trump justice department who worked to advance Trump’s efforts to overturn the election, and John Eastman, a conservative lawyer and an architect of Trump’s last-ditch efforts to stay in office.Each invoked his fifth-amendment right against self-incrimination.Also included in the release was testimony from witnesses associated with extremist groups involved in planning the attack. The Oath Keepers founder, Stewart Rhodes, convicted last month of seditious conspiracy, and the former Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio both spoke to the committee. Tarrio and four other members of the extremist group will appear in court on similar charges this month.Committee members hope for criminal charges against Trump and key allies. Only the justice department has the power to prosecute, so the panel sent referrals recommending investigation of Trump for four crimes, including aiding an insurrection.At the meeting on Monday to adopt the report and recommend charges, the Democratic chair, Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, said: “This committee is nearing the end of its work but as a country we remain in strange and uncharted waters.“We’ve never had a president of the United States stir up a violent attempt to block the transfer of power. I believe nearly two years later, this is still a time of reflection and reckoning.”On Wednesday, Thompson was asked by MSNBC if he had confidence the Department of Justice would pursue charges.He said: “I am more comfortable with the fact that the special counsel” – the prosecutor Jack Smith, appointed last month – “has been actively engaged in pursuing any and all the information available. They have been in contact with our committee, asking us to provide various transcripts and what have you.”Thompson was asked if the committee was cooperating with the justice department.He said: “Yes … we made the decision [with] consultation with other members that we will cooperate. But early on … we felt we had to get the report done. We had to get it filed, which we’ll file on Thursday morning, so the whole public will have access to it.“There were people that we deposed that justice had not deposed. There were electors in various states that justice couldn’t find. We found them.“We deposed them. And so we had a lot of information, but now we make all that information available to [the justice department]. And if they come back and want to interview staff or any members, ask any additional information, we’ll be more than happy to do it.”According to the report’s executive summary, which was released on Monday, “the central cause of January 6 was one man, former president Donald Trump, who many others followed. None of the events of January 6 would have happened without him.”The report’s eight chapters of findings will largely mirror nine hearings that presented evidence from interviews and millions of pages of documents. The 154-page summary detailed how Trump amplified false claims on social media and in public, encouraging supporters to travel to Washington and protest Joe Biden’s win, and how he told them to “fight like hell” at a rally in front of the White House then did little to stop them as they beat police, broke into the Capitol and sent lawmakers running.It was a “multi-part conspiracy”, the summary concluded.Trump is running again for the presidency but faces multiple investigations, including into his role in the insurrection and the presence of classified documents at his Florida estate. A House committee is expected to release his tax returns, documents he has fought to keep private. He has been blamed by Republicans for a poor showing in the midterm elections, leaving him politically vulnerable.Most Republicans have stayed loyal but the January 6 hearings were watched by tens of millions.Trump slammed the committee as “thugs and scoundrels”. In response to the criminal referrals, he said: “These folks don’t get it that when they come after me, people who love freedom rally around me. It strengthens me.”Republicans take over the House on 3 January. The committee will be dissolved.TopicsUS Capitol attackJanuary 6 hearingsUS politicsHouse of RepresentativesDonald TrumpnewsReuse this content More

  • in

    The Last Lesson of the Jan. 6 Committee

    The hearings of the House select committee on the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol presented a careful, convincing and disturbing account of former President Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election. They provided an abundance of detail about what we’ve long known: that Mr. Trump and his allies engaged not only in an assault on Congress, but on democracy itself.The work done by the committee over the past 18 months may be even more important than its report, which is expected to be released Thursday. The long months of scouring investigation and the carefully staged hearings, in which the evidence of Mr. Trump’s malfeasance was presented to the public, were critical elements in the nation’s full understanding of the attack on the Capitol. Through the work of these hearings, Congress showed that the best possible answer to political violence lay in the tools that were right at hand: the rule of law, checks and balances, testimony given under oath and the careful process of bureaucracy.Like a slow-motion replay, the committee’s work also gave Americans a second chance to comprehend the enormity of what transpired on Jan. 6. It seems plausible, as some members of the panel have asserted, that the hearings made protecting democracy a significant issue in the midterm elections and helped to persuade voters to reject some election deniers who ran for state offices. The sustained attention on Mr. Trump’s conduct in his final days in office is also valuable as he mounts a renewed campaign for the presidency. And the hearings focused the attention of the public and policymakers on the extremist groups that participated in the attack on the Capitol and that pose a threat of renewed violence.Congressional hearings are often filled with the distraction of partisan squabbling, grandstanding and detours into tangential subjects. The Jan. 6 committee was different, and the American people were better off for it. Mr. Trump and others refused to answer subpoenas from the committee, which would have given them an opportunity to answer questions and make their case. Their refusal is unfortunate; they deserve the chance to defend themselves and present their account of the facts, and Americans deserve the chance to hear from them. They’re still due that chance, and Mr. Trump may still have his say in a court of law.The seven Democrats and two Republicans who served on the committee captured the attention of Americans who may not have been sufficiently informed or alarmed about Mr. Trump’s role in the events of Jan. 6 to take notice. The two Republicans on the committee, Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, deserve particular credit for defying their own party to participate. Their presence, and the damning testimony delivered by Mr. Trump’s own aides and allies, conveyed the message that some things are necessarily more important than loyalty to a political party.Americans have also learned, thanks to these hearings, exactly how close this country came to even greater tragedies. Rioters came within 40 feet of Vice President Mike Pence. A Justice Department official, Jeffrey Clark, in late December 2020 sought to send a letter — based on lies — to officials in Georgia and potentially several other key states that warned of election irregularities and called for a special legislative session to select alternate slates of presidential electors.The lesson, in part, is that our democracy is inescapably fragile. It requires Americans, and those who serve them as elected officials and in law enforcement, to act in good faith. The committee rightly spent many hours of its work documenting the actions of all those local, state and federal officials who defied Mr. Trump’s demands and acted in many different ways to protect democracy.The dangers remain clear and present, so this work is not complete. House Republicans will be in the majority come January, including many who sought to overturn President Biden’s victory, and some who encouraged the rioters.Political violence is on the rise, especially among right-wing extremists.And Mr. Trump is running for president again on a platform of his grievances, still insistent that he did not lose the last election, still refusing to accept the rule of law. He is, in fact, escalating his rhetoric.The nation needs to respond to these threats. Congress needs to pass the reforms to the electoral process that are included in the year-end omnibus spending bill. Law enforcement can do more to crack down on extremist violence. Voters should reject Mr. Trump at the polls.As the select committee’s chairman, Representative Bennie Thompson, Democrat of Mississippi, emphasized at its final hearing on Monday, the government should continue to pursue those responsible for the Jan. 6 attack and to hold them accountable.More than 900 people already have been charged with crimes related to the attack on the Capitol, and several hundred of those have either been convicted or pleaded guilty. Stewart Rhodes, the founder of the extremist Oath Keepers group, was convicted of seditious conspiracy in November. Jury selection has begun in the federal trial of Enrique Tarrio, the former leader of the Proud Boys, another extremist group, who faces similar charges.The committee called upon the Justice Department to also bring criminal charges against Mr. Trump and the lawyer John Eastman, for their efforts to overturn the 2020 election, including Mr. Trump’s role in the Jan. 6 attack. The Justice Department is still engaged in its own investigation. As we wrote in August, if there is sufficient evidence to establish Mr. Trump’s guilt on a serious charge in a court of law, then he should be charged and tried; the same goes for all of the others whom the committee referred to the Justice Department.Mr. Thompson, urging action on all these fronts, said that as a nation, “We remain in strange and uncharted waters.” Yet the hearings also underscored that the country is better off with clarity and truth.The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. We’d like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips. And here’s our email: letters@nytimes.com.Follow The New York Times Opinion section on Facebook, Twitter (@NYTopinion) and Instagram. More

  • in

    Hunter Biden hires Jared Kushner lawyer to face Republican investigators

    Hunter Biden hires Jared Kushner lawyer to face Republican investigatorsTarget of House GOP looks to Abbe Lowell, seasoned Washington attorney who represented Trump’s son-in-law Facing imminent investigation by House Republicans, Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, has hired a high-profile Washington lawyer who represented Jared Kushner in Congress, as well as during the investigation of Russian election interference and links between Donald Trump and Moscow.Trump left ‘shockingly gracious’ letter to Biden on leaving office, book saysRead more“Hunter Biden has retained Abbe Lowell to help advise him and be part of his legal team to address the challenges he is facing,” another attorney for the president’s son, Kevin Morris, told news outlets on Wednesday.“Lowell is a well-known Washington based attorney who has represented numerous public officials and high-profile people in Department of Justice investigations and trials as well as congressional investigations. [For Hunter Biden] Mr Lowell will handle congressional investigations and general strategic advice.”Lowell has worked across the political divide, representing Democrats including Bob Menendez, a New Jersey senator, and the former senator and vice-presidential nominee John Edwards, both in corruption cases that ended in mistrials; and acting as chief minority counsel to House Democrats in the impeachment of Bill Clinton.Recently, Lowell represented Tom Barrack, a Trump ally acquitted in a foreign lobbying case.Lowell, 70, has said that to be a trial lawyer, “you have to have a desire to be a performer at some level. If I hadn’t done this, it would have been Broadway”.But his work for Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and chief adviser, brought an uncomfortable sort of spotlight. Writing in the American Lawyer in late 2020, Lowell suggested criticism of his work for another client was generated “primarily because I later represented … the president’s son-in-law.“The resulting news coverage, and especially the more sensational headlines, triggered the all-too-common flurry of hate mail, threatening voice mails and anonymous criticisms for doing the very job that attorneys are supposed to do.”Hunter Biden is the focus of considerable criticism and threat from Republicans who will take control of the House next month.The president’s son is also under federal investigation over his tax affairs and personal issues including problems with drugs that have been widely documented, including in his own memoir.Biden has said he “handled my affairs legally and appropriately, including with the benefit of professional tax advisers”. He has not been charged with any crime.Politically speaking – where Lowell comes in – Republicans allege the younger Biden exploited his father’s roles as a senator, vice-president and president for financial gain, allegations Hunter Biden also denies.James Comer, the incoming chair of the House oversight committee, has said an investigation will seek to determine if Biden family business activities have “compromise[d] US national security and President Biden’s ability to lead with impartiality”.Republican allegations focus on Hunter Biden’s work in China and Ukraine, claims that in the case of Ukraine attracted the attention of Donald Trump, resulting in the scandal which led to his first impeachment.Beautiful Things by Hunter Biden review – the prodigal son and Trumpists’ targetRead moreIn November, Comer told reporters: “We want the bank records and that’s our focus. We’re trying to stay focused on: ‘Was Joe Biden directly involved with Hunter Biden’s business deals and is he compromised?’ That’s our investigation.”Republicans are also fixated on a laptop computer once owned by Hunter Biden, the contents of which were shopped to news outlets by Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s attorney, shortly before the 2020 election.The laptop and news and social media’s wariness of it and of Giuliani have recently emerged as a subject of the Twitter Files, a series of releases coordinated by the new owner of the platform, Elon Musk, as he has sought to demonstrate liberal bias.TopicsHunter BidenJared KushnerJoe BidenBiden administrationDemocratsHouse of RepresentativesUS CongressnewsReuse this content More

  • in

    Volodymyr Zelenskiy channels Churchill to briefly unite a polarised US Congress

    AnalysisVolodymyr Zelenskiy channels Churchill to briefly unite a polarised US CongressDavid Smith in Washington As he received thunderous cheers and standing ovations, Ukraine’s president made a case for financial support that would ensure his country’s survivalFor a former actor and comedian, it was the curtain call of a lifetime.His address delivered, Volodymyr Zelenskiy walked up the centre aisle of the House of Representatives chamber to thunderous cheers, a standing ovation, eager handshakes and some members clamouring to touch him with almost religious reverence. One group had brought a giant Ukrainian flag. Others wore blue and yellow, the national colours.They were last impressions to warm Zelenskiy as he flew back to bleak, wintry Ukraine. He could also reflect that he had written one more chapter in the strange, eventful history of America and Ukraine, two nations whose fates have become unexpectedly intertwined.Zelenskiy invokes fight against Nazi Germany in speech to US CongressRead moreThe 44-year-old president was making his first trip outside Ukraine since the Russian invasion in February. He was in Washington to thank Joe Biden, Congress and the American people for their support. The climax was his address to a joint session of Congress that included representatives, senators and members of Biden’s cabinet.There was a rising hubbub of voices as the chamber awaited his entrance. Kevin McCarthy, running for speaker, gave someone an elaborate wink. Matt Gaetz offered a quip to Lauren Boebert, who chuckled. January 6 committee members Liz Cheney and Elaine Luria chatted then posed for a photo together.It takes a lot to impress long-in-the-tooth politicians but the Time magazine person of the year’s combination of star quality and steel core was enough. As every member rose to their feet, applauding and hollering, even Zelenskiy was overwhelmed for a moment. “It’s too much for me,” he said.He stood at the same spot that American presidents do when delivering the State of the Union address but cut a very different figure with short dark hair, a moustache and beard. The House waived a rule that requires men to wear a jacket and tie inside the chamber, allowing him to wear a sweater in his trademark wartime olive. He read his speech from pages placed on the lectern before him, tracing the words with his index finger as he spoke English in a raspy, accented voice.“Against all odds and doom-and-gloom scenarios, Ukraine didn’t fall – Ukraine is alive and kicking,” he said, prompting one of many standing ovations.02:12More than one historian compared the visit to Winston Churchill sailing to America soon after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Churchill held a press conference with President Franklin Roosevelt and joined him in the ceremonial lighting of the National Christmas Tree. He also addressed Congress in the Senate chamber on 26 December 1941. At the end of his half-hour speech, the chief justice gave a “V” for victory sign and one reporter observed: “The effect was instantaneous, electric. The cheers swelled into a roar.”Cheers turned to roars again for Zelenskiy when, in a nod to Churchill, he declared: “Ukraine holds its lines and will never surrender.”He was also a polite guest, resisting the temptation to go all Oliver Twist and demand more. But he did remark: “Your money is not charity. It’s an investment in the global security and democracy that we handle in the most responsible way.”He added: “Your support is crucial. We have artillery, yes. Thank you. We have it. Is it enough? Honestly, not really.” Some members of Congress burst out laughing, which would have been fine in Zelenskiy’s old job playing a fictional president of Ukraine on TV, but must have been less welcome as his people freeze.America, of course, had its own celebrity turned president in the shape of Donald Trump. Whereas the Watergate rule was “follow the money”, the best advice in this era of American politics is “follow the ruble”.Top US conservatives pushing Russia’s spin on Ukraine war, experts sayRead moreTrump has made a habit of parroting the Kremlin’s talking points since a visit to Russia in 1987. Mysteriously, his campaign aides intervened during the 2016 Republican National Convention to block language from the Republican party platform that called on the US to send lethal arms to Ukraine.The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, undoubtedly meddled in that year’s election. Special counsel Robert Mueller did not establish a conspiracy but the Trump campaign and transition team is known to have at least hundreds of known contacts and dozens of known meetings with Russia-linked operatives. Once he became president, Trump shied away from criticising Putin over anything.Zelenskiy, already locked in a long conflict with Russia, had cause to wonder which side Washington was on. His face was a picture when Trump once told him: “I really hope that you and President Putin can get together and solve your problem.”So it was hardly a surprise when, in 2019, the US president withheld nearly $400m in military aid from Ukraine in an effort to pressure Zelenskiy into announcing a bogus investigation into Biden and his family. This led to a congressional inquiry in which Ukraine was suddenly dominating media headlines and experts such as Fiona Hill were the talk of the town. Trump was ultimately impeached by the House but acquitted by the Senate.When Joe Biden took office in 2021, Zelenskiy was not uppermost in his thoughts, but Russia’s invasion of the country in February this year changed all that. It gifted him an ‘Exhibit A’ in his oft-made argument that democracies face a struggle with autocracies for global preeminence. On his watch, the US has poured $20bn worth of military aid into Ukraine and is about send a battery of Patriot missiles.In vivid contrast to Trump, the personal chemistry between Biden and Zelenskiy was palpable on Wednesday. At a joint press conference in the White House east room, Biden, at his most tactile, pointed to the Ukrainian and said: “This guy to his very soul is who he says he is. It’s clear who he is. He’s willing to give his life for his country and all the folks who came with him today.”Zelenskiy, for his part, said through an interpreter: “As to what is the message for Putin, I am standing here in the United States with President Biden on the same podium because I respect him as a person, as a president, as a human being for his position. And for me, this is a historic moment.”Zelenskiy expressed confidence that, despite the upcoming change in control of the House, America will stand firm in backing his cause. Despite some in the Trump wing questioning the cost, plenty of Republicans seemed to show enthusiasm on Wednesday night. They joined the cheering as, near the end of a half-hour speech, Zelenskiy presented Vice-president Kamala Harris and speaker Nancy Pelosi – probably presiding over their last joint meeting of Congress – with a Ukrainian flag signed by its soldiers. “We are united,” he said. “Ukraine, America and the entire free world.”A decade ago few could have predicted that Ukraine would loom so large in Washington – in Donald Rumsfeld’s language, it was an unknown unknown. It would also have been hard to foresee that it would take a courageous leader from eastern Europe to bring Democrats and Republicans together. In the age of polarisation, unity at last. A sea of heads turned upwards as a Ukrainian contingent in the public balcony shouted: “God bless America! Thank you, thank you, thank you.”TopicsVolodymyr ZelenskiyThe US politics sketchUkraineRussiaUS politicsJoe BidenNancy PelosiHouse of RepresentativesanalysisReuse this content More

  • in

    Did George Santos Also Mislead Voters About His Jewish Descent?

    Genealogy websites cited by The Forward suggest that Mr. Santos’s grandparents were born in Brazil and were not “Holocaust refugees,” as he has claimed.Representative Hakeem Jeffries of New York, the incoming House Democratic leader, on Wednesday accused Representative-elect George Santos of being a “complete and utter fraud,” as a new report cast doubt on Mr. Santos’s account of his Jewish descent.“His whole life. Made up,” Mr. Jeffries said at a news conference in Washington. “Did you perpetrate a fraud on voters of the Third Congressional District of New York?”Hours before Mr. Jeffries spoke, The Forward, a Jewish publication based in New York City, reported that Mr. Santos, a Republican, may have misled voters about having Jewish ancestry, a claim he made on his website and in statements during his political campaign.In his current biography, Mr. Santos says that his mother, Fatima Devolder, was born in Brazil to immigrants who “fled Jewish persecution in Ukraine, settled in Belgium, and again fled persecution during WWII.”But according to The Forward — which cited information from myheritage.com, a genealogy website; Brazilian immigration cards; and databases of refugees — Ms. Devolder’s parents seemed to have been born in Brazil before World War II. CNN later published a similar report that also cited interviews with several genealogists.Ms. Devolder died in 2016, according to an online obituary. Mr. Santos said in a 2020 interview that his family converted to Christianity in Brazil, and on Ms. Devolder’s Facebook page, which links to Mr. Santos’s, she regularly shared Christian imagery and had “liked” numerous Facebook pages associated with Brazil-based Christian organizations.Mr. Santos’s campaign, his lawyer and a political consulting firm that had been fielding reporter inquiries did not immediately respond to a request for comment.A New U.S. Congress Takes ShapeFollowing the 2022 midterm elections, Democrats maintained control of the Senate while Republicans flipped the House.Who Is George Santos?: The G.O.P. congressman-elect from New York says he’s the “embodiment of the American dream.” But his résumé appears to be mostly fiction.McCarthy’s Fraught Speaker Bid: Representative Kevin McCarthy has so far been unable to quash a mini-revolt on the right that threatens to imperil his effort to secure the top House job.The G.O.P.’s Fringe: Three incoming congressmen attended a gala that drew white nationalists and conspiracy theorists, raising questions about the influence of extremists on the new Republican-led House.Kyrsten Sinema: The Arizona senator said that she would leave the Democratic Party and register as an independent, just days after the Democrats secured an expanded majority in the Senate.The Republican Jewish Coalition, an influential conservative group that has hosted Mr. Santos and billed him as a Jewish Republican, said that it had reached out to Mr. Santos’s office regarding The Forward’s reporting.“These allegations, if true, are deeply troubling,” the coalition’s director, Matt Brooks, said. “Given their seriousness, the congressman-elect owes the public an explanation, and we look forward to hearing it.”Mr. Santos, whose victory in a district covering parts of Long Island and Queens helped his party secure a narrow majority in the House next year, has not directly answered questions about his background raised by an article in The New York Times earlier this week.The Times’s report found that Mr. Santos may have misled voters about key details of his résumé that were on his campaign website at various points during his two bids for Congress, including his college graduation and his purported career on Wall Street.It also found that Mr. Santos did not include key details about his business, the Devolder Organization, on financial disclosure forms. The Devolder Organization, which was registered in 2021 in Florida, had been dissolved by state officials in September after it failed to file an annual report. On Tuesday, Mr. Santos filed paperwork to reinstate it.The claim that Mr. Santos’s maternal grandparents fled Jewish persecution was added to his campaign website sometime between April and October, according to a review of the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine. An earlier version of Mr. Santos’s biography said simply that Mr. Santos’s maternal grandparents “fled the devastation of World War II Europe.”Though Mr. Santos has identified as Catholic, he has more often trumpeted his Jewish heritage on the campaign trail, even as he described himself as a nonobservant Jew. As early as June 2020, when he was making his first bid for Congress, he wrote on Twitter that he was the “grandson of Holocaust refugees.”On Sunday night, Mr. Santos attended a Hanukkah party on Long Island being held by the Republican Jewish Coalition. He also spoke last month at the coalition’s annual leadership meeting in Las Vegas.In his remarks in Washington, Mr. Jeffries did not address the new questions about Mr. Santos’s heritage. But he said that The Times’s reporting left him with doubts as to Mr. Santos’s suitability for office that he believed the House minority leader, Representative Kevin McCarthy, needed to address.“It’s an open question to me as to whether this is the type of individual that the incoming majority should welcome to Congress,” Mr. Jeffries said.Mr. McCarthy, the top House Republican, who is trying to shore up support for his bid to become the House’s next speaker, has not commented on The Times’s findings.A spokesman for Mr. McCarthy has not responded to emails or phone calls about Mr. Santos, who voiced his support for Mr. McCarthy’s potential speakership hours after The Times warned him of its report on Sunday night.Legal experts have said it is unlikely that the House of Representatives could deny Mr. Santos his seat in Congress. There are procedures that allow losing candidates to contest the results of a House election. But a Supreme Court decision in 1969 limited the House from preventing candidates from taking office unless they did not meet the Constitution’s age, citizenship and state residency requirements.Some Democrats and government watchdog groups have called for further investigation of Mr. Santos’s past claims and financial disclosure forms, either by the bipartisan Office of Congressional Ethics or by federal prosecutors.Representative-elect Dan Goldman, a Democrat from New York City and a former assistant U.S. attorney, said in an interview on Wednesday that he believed there were two possible federal crimes that prosecutors should investigate.The first issue, he said, was whether Mr. Santos had willfully and intentionally made false statements in his financial disclosure forms. Such a violation, he said, would require investigators to make sure that there was a clear and knowing intent to omit or misrepresent information.“As someone who had to make those disclosures, they’re done under penalty of perjury,” Mr. Goldman said.But Mr. Goldman, who was the chief investigator in the first impeachment case against former President Donald J. Trump, said that he believed the authorities should explore whether Mr. Santos’s apparent misstatements could be considered part of a conspiracy to defraud the United States.Such a charge would be an aggressive approach, Mr. Goldman said. (It was used on Monday by the committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol against Mr. Trump, whom Mr. Santos has previously backed.)Prosecutors would need to prove that Mr. Santos had interfered with a federal election by willfully disseminating misinformation, and that he had worked with others to do so.“I think it’s worthy of investigation to see whether his efforts to repeatedly and pervasively lie about pretty much anything rises to the level of an effort to defraud the voters of his district to vote for him,” Mr. Goldman said. More