Trump news - live Ex-president blocks Jan 6 probe in court as Schmidt says riot made GOP authoritarian

Donald Trump addresses supporters before the Capitol riot on 6 January 2021

Donald Trump’s legal team will argue later today that records from his presidency demanded by a panel investigating the 6 January riot should not be released. The former president claims that the documents are covered by executive privilege, but the Biden administration and the Justice Department have so far declined to invoke that principle to stop the National Archives releasing them. The hearing will commence at 11am ET.

The documents have been requested by the House select committee set up to investigate the causes and planning of the riot and the former president’s role in it, as well as the potential involvement of members of the House of Representatives and other elected or appointed officials.

Show latest update 1636033420Steve Schmidt: ‘you have to appreciate the awesome efficiency of the right-wing propaganda machine'

Former GOP campaign adviser and Lincoln Project member Steve Schmidt has warned of the Republicans’ embrace of cultural grievance â€" and said that “Democrats have to understand and I think be able to confront the racial animus that is teeming with the dog-whistle messaging that you saw Youngkin engage in in the course of the campaign without alienating the majority of white working-class voters, and the way I think that you do that I think is by offering something better.”

Andrew Naughtie4 November 2021 13:431636031711Mike Lindell wants voted machines “melted down”

Trump devotee and MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, who has propagated some of the most unhinged theories about the 2020 election, yesterday predicted that a lawsuit will soon be filed that will result in the Supreme Court outlawing all voting machines and overturning Donald Trump’s defeat.

As with his three-day “cyber symposium” that yielded precisely zero evidence to back up Mr Lindell’s extravagant claims, there is no basis for this.

Andrew Naughtie4 November 2021 13:151636030248White supremacists and other extremists a major threat to US, says law enforcement

At a House subcommittee hearing yesterday, officials from the FBI and Department of Homeland Security warned that small groups and lone actors with extreme right-wing beliefs pose as big a threat to the US homeland as terrorists identifying with the so-called Islamic State.

According to the FBI’s Timothy Langan, the bureau is investigating some 2,700 cases tied to domestic violent extremism. The threats in question, he said, are driven by an array of overlapping right-wing grievances, among them “biases against minorities, perceived government overreach, conspiracy theories promoting violence, and false narratives often spread online.”

Read more below.

Andrew Naughtie4 November 2021 12:501636028656Catch up: Kinzinger’s resignation

Congressman Adam Kinzinger is one of only two GOP members of the 6 January committee, sitting alongside vice chair Liz Cheney. The Illinois representative has been an outspoken opponent of Donald Trump for some years and was one of only a handful to vote for his impeachment after the riot â€" and now, as he is effectively ostracised from the party mainstream, he is not running for re-election.

Mr Kinzinger, who arrived in Congress in 2010, is facing the scorn of his colleagues but also a redistricting that would effectively force him to run in an intra-party primary featuring other sitting Congressmen. Clearly, the prospect was unappealing.

Andrew Naughtie4 November 2021 12:241636027216Judges prepare to decide how much evidence riot committee will see

Politico’s Kyle Cheney and Josh Gerstein report on the two federal judges who will decide just how much information the 6 January select committee can access over the next few weeks.

The judge presiding over today’s hearing is Tanya Chutkan, an Obama appointee who has presided over multiple cases involving 6 January defendants â€" and as the report points out, she has more than once handed down sentences that exceeded what prosecutors requested.

Andrew Naughtie4 November 2021 12:001636025716Republicans who attended 6 January rally elected to public office

Numerous individuals who attended Donald Trump’s “Stop the Steal” rally before the 6 January riot were on the ballot at Tuesday’s various elections across the country â€" and several of them won. Three were elected to state legislatures, including in Virginia.

Andrew Naughtie4 November 2021 11:351636024396The grievance that won’t go away

Successful Virginia gubernatorial candidate Glenn Youngkin kept Donald Trump at arm’s length while running, and many Republicans are worried that the former president’s fixation on the supposed theft of the 2020 election could scramble their message as they fight for power at all levels of government (and especially in Congress).

But as the New York Times’s Maggie Haberman writes, there’s little sign Mr Trump is moderating his obsession...

Andrew Naughtie4 November 2021 11:131636022811Report: Trump allies set up legal fund for rally organisers

Rolling Stone’s Hunter Walker reports that Matt and Mercedes Schlapp, two longtime members of the Trump circle, are organising a legal fund to support former Trump aides and associates who have been subpoenaed by the 6 January select committee.

The money will go towards providing counsel for those obliged to testify â€" but will not be extended to help those arrested for actually taking part in the riot.

Andrew Naughtie4 November 2021 10:461636021740What is executive privilege?

Donald Trump’s attempt to stop the Capitol riot committee accessing records from his administration is based on the principle of executive privilege, which he has invoked repeatedly in other cases revolving around his personal and official communications.

Whether or not he actually believes it applies to him, it is a useful means for Mr Trump to take investigators to court and slow down their efforts to get to him.

However, the problem in this case is that because Mr Trump has tested the limits of executive privilege in court before, there are now enough precedents (and not in his favour) to help the latest case move far more quickly.

Andrew Naughtie4 November 2021 10:291636020076First defendant up for sentencing over cop assaults at Capitol

Among the hundreds of people arrested for their alleged part in the riot are several facing charges of assaulting police officers, in some cases very seriously. The first to be found guilty of doing so is Scott Fairlamb, a New Jersey gym owner who was among the first rioters to breach the Capitol.

Government prosecutors are seeking a 44-month sentence, which would be the longest handed down to any rioter thus far. They argue that Mr Fairlamb’s actions incited the crowd to further violence; video from the day showed him holding a police officer’s collapsible baton and shouting, “What (do) patriots do? We f*****g disarm them and then we storm the f*****g Capitol!”

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Andrew Naughtie4 November 2021 10:01

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