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Trump news: Rattled Trump lashes out as Jan 6 panel finishes investigation and tax return release looms

Publication of House committee’s Jan 6 report comes as information on former president’s tax returns released earlier in week

Oliver O'Connell,Sravasti Dasgupta
Sunday 25 December 2022 03:07 GMT
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January 6 panel chair says Trump ‘broke the faith’ of US elections in final session

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The House committee investigating the 6 January 2021 Capitol riot released its final report late on Thursday night, outlining why it has recommended Donald Trump and others face criminal charges over the insurrection.

Over 845 pages, the damning report details how the former president and his allies engaged in at least 200 acts attempting to overturn the 2020 election. The committee calls for him to never be allowed to hold office again.

“That evidence has led to an overriding and straightforward conclusion: the central cause of January 6th was one man, former President Donald Trump, whom many others followed,” the report states.

“None of the events of January 6th would have happened without him.”

Among its other recommendations: swift passage of the Electoral Count Act; a series of disciplinary and criminal referrals; a whole of government strategy to counter violent extremism; and the reform of security arrangements and criminal statutes to include harsher penalties for threats to election workers and the peaceful transfer of power.

The publication of the report caps off another terrible week for Mr Trump that also included a vote by another House committee to release six years’ worth of his tax returns.

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Trump allies Gaetz and Boebert refuse to applaud Zelensky

Republican representatives Lauren Boebert and Matt Gaetz refused to stand or applaud Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky during his address to the Congress on Wednesday.

The war-time president received a standing ovation from the members of Congress after concluding his speech on the crisis in Ukraine.

The two Republican members, however, seemed unimpressed as they remained seated and kept looking down at their phones while the rest of the chamber applauded Mr Zelensky.

Alisha Rahaman Sarkar reports.

Matt Gaetz and Lauren Boebert refuse to stand or applaud for Zelensky

War-time president receives standing ovation from members of Congress

Oliver O'Connell22 December 2022 15:00
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Jan 6 committee already cooperating with Justice Department

The House January 6 select committee has reportedly been “extensively cooperating” with the Department of Justice probe into Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election, including through providing documents and data pertaining to Mr Trump’s former White House chief of staff and the conservative law professor who pushed for the plan.

According to Punchbowl News, the panel began transmitting documents to the office of special counsel Jack Smith, the prosecutor appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland to oversee investigations into Mr Trump’s conduct.

Andrew Feinberg reports from Washington, DC.

House January 6 committee already cooperating with Justice Department

Committee is transmitting documents to the office of special counsel Jack Smith, the prosecutor appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland to oversee investigations into Mr Trump’s conduct

Oliver O'Connell22 December 2022 15:25
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34 Trump allies and supporters pleaded the Fifth in Jan 6 interviews. Here’s what their silence showed

While January 6 committee witnesses in general chose not to go along with the panel’s questioning, the published transcripts reveal the sheer amount of evidence that was collected and some new aspects of how the investigators went about their work.

Gustaf Kilander examined their testimony for The Independent.

What newly-released Jan 6 transcripts show

Transcripts reveal investigators’ tactics and lenghts witnesses went to to avoid providing answers

Oliver O'Connell22 December 2022 15:45
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Supermarket heiress tried to invoke four different amendments in Jan 6 interview

Julie Fancelli, the Publix supermarket chain heiress who funded bus transport for hundreds of Trump supporters who attacked the Capitol on 6 January 2021, attempted to avoid answering questions before the House January 6 select committee by citing a litany of – occasionally irrelevant – amendments to the US constitution, as well as her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.

Andrew Feinberg took a look at her evasive testimony.

Supermarket heiress tries invoking four different amendments in Jan 6 deposition

Julie Fancelli is one of many witnesses who refused to answer questions before the House January 6 select committee

Oliver O'Connell22 December 2022 16:05
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Florida judge slams Trump lawyers in order denying request to block trust documents

A federal judge in Florida has smacked down former president Donald Trump’s request to keep New York State Attorney General Letitia James and her staff from viewing documents related to a trust that holds most of his assets as part of an ongoing fraud lawsuit against him, his family and his eponymous company.

Andrew Feinberg reports.

Judge slams Trump lawyers and denies bid to block trust documents from New York AG

‘This litigation has all the telltale signs of being both vexatious and frivolous’

Oliver O'Connell22 December 2022 16:35
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Trump calls on Republicans to vote against ‘massive leftwing’ spending bill in new Truth Social video

Former President Donald Trump has released a video via his Truth Social platform urging all Republicans to vote against the Democratic Party’s “massive leftwing” spending bill.

Watch below:

Oliver O'Connell22 December 2022 16:50
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Jan 6 committee releases Cassidy Hutchinson testimony transcripts

The January 6 committee has released the transcripts of Cassidy Hutchinson’s testimony which resulted in her bombshell appearance before the panel at a live hearing earlier this year.

Ms Hutchinson’s testimony reveals the pressure she was under while trying to find legal representation and the efforts made to influence what she would tell the committee.

“The less the committee thinks you know, the better.”

The night before her second interview with the panel she testified she received a call from Ben Williamson, deputy assistant to President Donald Trump and senior adviser to Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, encouraging her to protect “the boss”.

She also recalled a phone call with a Republican member of Congress not on the January 6 committee who encouraged her to be more forthcoming to the investigation.

Oliver O'Connell22 December 2022 17:05
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‘We’re going to get you a really good job in Trump world'

Oliver O'Connell22 December 2022 17:15
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More evidence that Trump knew he lost the election

Cassidy Hutchinson testified to the January 6 committee about a conversation with John Ratcliffe, former director of national intelligence, that Donald Trump acknowledged he lost the election it appears on several occasions, but then would backpedal.

In addition, she spoke with Kevin McCarthy in the days before 6 January 2021 and recalls him saying that Mark Meadows was not serving the president well by making him think he had won the election.

Around Christmas 2020 Donald Trump said to Mark Meadows: “I don’t want people to know we lost.”

Oliver O'Connell22 December 2022 17:20
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Hutchinson’s Trumpworld lawyer was relaying her testimony to Mar-a-Lago

Cassidy Hutchinson’s original Trumpworld lawyer Stefan Passantino was relaying her testimony to Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago according to the released transcript of her interview with the January 6 committee.

Oliver O'Connell22 December 2022 17:30

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