GOP senator dodges question on Trump’s praise of Putin
Less than a week after husband Jared Kushner voluntarily testified before the House committee investigating the 6 Jan Capitol riot, Ivanka Trump appeared virtually in front of the same panel yesterday. Like her husband, she reportedly answered questions for several hours without invoking the Fifth Amendment, a break with various of her father’s other close associates.
The committee has also finally received a cache of emails belonging to former Trump lawyer John Eastman, who had tried to withhold them from the committee’s scrutiny citing various arguments that were rejected in court.
Meanwhile, six weeks after its launch, Donald Trump’s Truth Social app has lost two senior executives. The app has been beset by tech problems and about 1.5 million people remain on the waiting list to join, unable to use it.
Mr Trump has also filed a new legal motion seeking to have a judge dismissed in a lawsuit he has filed against former opponent Hillary Clinton, in which he alleges she conspired with some 50 other people to advance false claims about his dealings with Russian contacts during the 2016 election.
Washington dispatch: Elegy for a normal Republican
In this morning’s dispatch from Washington, DC, The Independent’s Eric Garcia takes a look at the resignation of Fred Upton, one of the 10 GOP House members who voted to convict Donald Trump after the 6 January attack on the US Capitol.
Upton’s announcement makes him the fourth Republican who voted to impeach Trump to retire – along with Kinzinger, Anthony Gonzalez of Ohio, and John Katko of New York. In his farewell speech on the House floor, he complimented Democrats and Republicans equally, characteristic of a man whose departure shows just how impossible it is for people like him to survive in a much more radicalized party.
And all the while, Republicans are losing people who actually know how to govern and who can actually accomplish major policy achievements with Democrats.
You can read the full piece below.
Andrew Naughtie6 April 2022 16:20
Ron DeSantis’s office accused of interfering with documents related to Gaetz probe
According to a new report, the office of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has been accused of holding up a public records request for the financial records of a former state official who’s been linked to the Matt Gaetz sex trafficking investigation.
The story is a complicated one, and Mr Gaetz continues to deny all allegations against him – in particular that he paid for an underage girl to travel for the purposes of having sex with him.
More from Johanna Chisholm below…
Andrew Naughtie6 April 2022 15:53
Another House Republican retires
A day after GOP Congressman Fred Upton announced his retirement, it has emerged that his Republican colleague Bob Gibbs will also be stepping down in November as he faces an awkward race against a Trump-backed incumbent in a redrawn district.
Unlike Mr Upton, Mr Gibbs is very much a pro-Trump member, and was one of those to sign on to an amicus brief submitted as part of a failed lawsuit to get the 2020 election result thrown out. That loyalty has been rewarded by the statement Mr Trump has put out since the news broke:
I want to congratulate Congressman Bob Gibbs of Ohio on a wonderful and accomplished career. His retirement, after serving in Congress for more than a decade, should be celebrated by all. He was a strong ally to me and MAGA, voting to support my America First agenda and fighting strongly against the Radical Left. Thank you for your service, Bob—a job well done!
Andrew Naughtie6 April 2022 15:15
Jan 6 committee Democrat on “people who were in the room”
Elaine Luria, one of the Democratic members of the 6 January select committee, spoke last night to MSNBC about the value of Ivanka Trump’s testimony. In the interview, she explained what the panel is hoping to get to via the president’s family members and closest aides: “direct knowledge” of what the president did and said during hours when communications records are thin or apparently non-existent.
Andrew Naughtie6 April 2022 14:45
New poll: voters think Clarence Thomas should recuse in Jan 6 cases
Politico has released a new poll looking at Americans’ views of Clarence Thomas in light of his wife Ginni’s texts to figures in the Trump orbit after the 2020 election. The main finding: most of the electorate agree that the judge should probably or definitely recuse himself from future cases related to the effort to overturn the election and the events of the Capitol attack.
Interestingly, even 34 per cent of Republicans agree. You can read the poll’s toplines here.
Read more on Mr and Mrs Thomas’s tricky position below:
Andrew Naughtie6 April 2022 14:15
Lawyer representing Jan 6 groups has licence revoked
A state court in Virginia has disbarrred an attorney who’s previously represented accused 6 January rioters who belong to extremist groups such as the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers.
The court found that Jonathan Moseley failed to follow “professional rules that govern safekeeping property; meritorious claims and contentions; candor toward the tribunal; fairness to opposing party and counsel; unauthorized practice of law, multijurisdictional practice of law; bar admission and disciplinary matters … and misconduct”, according to a Virginia State Bar website summary.
Read more:
Andrew Naughtie6 April 2022 13:44
Trumpists’ border campaign continues
Former Trump officials are amping up pressure on Republican governors of states that share a border with Mexico to declare an “invasion” at the southern frontier.
While the US Border Patrol says it anticipates as many as 18,000 arrivals a day at the border when a Trump-era anti-immigration measure expires next month, the prospects for aggressive new action at the state level are unclear – and it is not obvious whether the governors being targeted with these right-wing appeals necessarily agree that National Guard deployments are the way to go.
Andrew Naughtie6 April 2022 12:50
Jan 6 committee obtains more Eastman emails
As it continues to draw conclusions about Donald Trump’s role in the effort to subvert the election, the 6 January committee is focusing closely on emails sent by former legal adviser John Eastman in the run-up to the Capitol riot. And it has now made a major step forward in that direction after obtaining 101 of Mr Eastman’s emails between 4 and 7 January 2021, a cache he had tried to withhold from the panel citing attorney-client privilege – a claim that was thrown out in court.
The judge ruling on the case, David Carter, wrote that the significance of the emails should not be understated. “This may have been the first time members of President Trump’s team transformed a legal interpretation of the Electoral Count Act into a day-by-day plan of action.”
Read more from CNN here.
Andrew Naughtie6 April 2022 12:14
ICYMI: Another anti-Trump Republican retires
Veteran Congressman Fred Upton, who voted to impeach Donald Trump after the 6 January insurrection, has announced he is retiring from the House of Representatives this year. He is the fourth of the 10 Republicans who voted against Mr Trump after the Capitol riot to leave Congress voluntarily – and naturally, the former president jumped on the news.
Eric Garcia has the story.
Andrew Naughtie6 April 2022 11:40
One of Trump’s fake electors loses election
Among the many tactics deployed by the Trump team as they tried to subvert the 2020 election was a quixotic effort to send alternative slates of pro-Trump “electors” to Washington, DC – an apparent attempt to derail the Congressional certification of electoral college votes.
The plan failed. And now, one of its many outriders in the crucial swing state of Wisconsin has lost her effort to hold on to public office.
Andrew Naughtie6 April 2022 11:10