Trump news – live: Jan 6 committee finds gaps in White House call logs as president denies destroying records

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Trump tries to turn tables by claiming he was victim of attempted coup

It has emerged that the committee investigating the 6 January insurrection at the US Capitol has identified gaps in the White House call logs from the day of the riot, posing another obstacle to establishing what Mr Trump said and did in the hours before and during the event. According to the New York Times, there is no evidence the records were deliberately deleted, but it is well known that Mr Trump frequently used his own and others’ cellphones to talk to his allies while in office.

Meanwhile, as the saga of the Trump administration documents wrongly taken to Mar-a-Lago continues to deepen, an new book has reported that Donald Trump himself clogged a White House toilet with torn-up documents that should have been preserved.

The story is featured in Confidence Man, a soon-to-be-released account of the president’s White House years written by New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman. Mr Trump has called the story “fake news” and accused Ms Haberman – whose work he follows closely – of making it up for publicity.

Key Points

• Trump team still recovering documents owed to National Archives
• DeSantis dodges on key question regarding Pence’s constitutional authority on Jan 6
• Trump watched riot footage as it occurred, rewound footage to watch people ‘fighting’ for him
• Jan 6 committee member previews public hearing schedule

[11 February 2022 00:15 · John Bowden]

Biden touts credentials of his SCOTUS shortlist

Joe Biden told MSNBC’s Lester Holt in the interview snippet shared by NBC News on Thursday that his shortlist of nominees for the Supreme Court seat being vacated by Justice Stephen Breyer have prestigious backgrounds.

The president is making a clear play for bipartisan support for his nominees as he seeks to convince voters ahead of the midterms that he retains the ability to get things done in the US Senate, which is currently evenly divided between the GOP and Democrats.

“[T]hey were the honor students, they come from the best universities, they have experience—some on the bench, some in the practice of law,” he told NBC’s Lester Holt in the clip.

Biden about his SCOTUS short list:

“they were the honor students, they come from the best universities, they have experience—some on the bench, some in the practice of law”

he’s done a deep dive on 4 ppl

“I’m not looking to make an ideological choice”
pic.twitter.com/DrJU9BlG0w

— Alex Thompson (@AlexThomp) February 10, 2022

[11 February 2022 00:45 · John Bowden]

Democratic senator rips ‘racist’ treatment of Biden SCOTUS selection announcement

Sen Alex Padilla of California, a Democrat, sharply criticised his Republican colleagues who denounced the president for vowing to uphold his campaign promise to confirm the first Black woman to the Supreme Court in a hearing on Thursday.

He also criticised Sen Marsha Blackburn specifically for her comments referring to a Black judicial nominee’s past speeding tickets as a “rap sheet”.

“It’s not lost on me that nominees of color have been treated differently in our hearings,” Padilla said on Thursday during a hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee, as was first reported by HuffPost. “Whether it’s insinuations of a ‘rap sheet’ or hostility about their qualifications or views, or undue scrutiny of their personal religious faith.”

[11 February 2022 01:15 · John Bowden]

Senior Lincoln Project adviser calls Trump administration ‘criminal enterprise'

A senior adviser to the conservative anti-Trump Lincoln Project on Thursday reacted to the news of the documents Donald Trump was supposed to turn over to the National Archives that he instead kept at Mar-a-Lago, explaining that it was time for reporters and everyone else to stop being surprised at the former president’s misdeeds.

“The entire Trump presidency was a large criminal enterprise. He tried to steal democracy; why do you think he’s not going to steal documents? We have to quit being surprised by this stuff,” veteran presidential campaign staffer Stuart P Stevens said.

The Washington Post reported late Thursday afternoon that some of the documents retained by Mr Trump’s team at Mar-a-Lago were clearly marked as classified. The agency has asked the Justice Department to investigate.

“The entire Trump presidency was a large criminal enterprise. He tried to steal democracy; why do you think he’s not going to steal documents? We have to quit being surprised by this stuff.”

- Lincoln Project Senior Advisor @StuartPStevens to CNN’s @DonLemon pic.twitter.com/5IcTjU1d3J

— The Lincoln Project (@ProjectLincoln) February 10, 2022

[11 February 2022 02:15 · John Bowden]

Liz Cheney: Jan 6 panel hearings will disprove GOP criticism

Congressman Liz Cheney, vice chair of the January 6 committee, declared in an op-ed for The Wall Street Journal on Thusday that the upcoming public hearings to be held by the committee would disprove claims from her fellow Republicans that the panel is “tainted” or overly politicised.

She also declared in the op-ed that the panel’s members would not be deterred by the criticism or threats of retaliation from the GOP and former President Donald Trump.

“The [January] 6 investigation isn’t only about the inexcusable violence of that day: It is also about fidelity to the Constitution and the rule of law, and whether elected representatives believe in those things or not,” she wrote. “Those who do not wish the truth of Jan. 6 to come out have predictably resorted to attacking the process—claiming it is tainted and political. Our hearings will show this charge to be wrong. We are focused on facts, not rhetoric, and we will present those facts without exaggeration, no matter what criticism we face”.

Read more from The Independent’s Andrew Feinberg:

[11 February 2022 02:45 · John Bowden]

Trump supporter among five charged with voter fraud in Wisconsin

A woman who told investigators she was trying to root out voter fraud was charged with that exact crime in Wisconsin on Thursday.

The unnamed woman faces more than three years in prison if convicted; she was among a handful of people charged by the Fond du Lac County District Attorney Eric Toney, a Republican running for the state attorney general position.

“This is an important opportunity for education on this issue,” Mr Toney told the Associated Press in an interview.

Read more from the AP:

[11 February 2022 03:15 · John Bowden]

Sarah Palin says she felt ‘powerless’ after NYT editorial linked her to Arizona shooting

Former Alaska Gov Sarah Palin said she felt “powerless” when the New York Times published an editorial falsely linking her to the shooting of Democratic Congresswoman Gabby Giffords.

The editorial, which the Times corrected, linked her political action committee’s map featuring Democratic-held districts with target crosshairs over them to the shooting of Ms Gifford outside of a supermarket in 2011.

“It was devastating to read, again, an accusation, false accusation, that I had anything to do with murdering innocent people,” Ms Palin told a court Thursday in New York.

The former governor is pursuing a defamation case against the newspaper.

Read more from The Independent’s Alex Woodward: