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Democrats Zero In On 1887 Law Pivotal To 2020 Election Plot One Year After The Deadly Attack On The U.S. Capitol, Congress Is Eying New Laws To Prevent Future Attempts To Subvert Democracy, With The Goal Of Passing Legislation This Year. The House Committee Investigating The Riot Is Considering "Enhanced Penalties" For Presidential Dereliction Of Duty, As Vice Chair Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., Says It Has Evidence That Former President Donald Trump Sat Idly By And Watched The Violence Unfold On Television. Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., A Member Of The Committee, Said Lawmakers Are Examining Clarifications And Changes To The 1887 Electoral Count Act, Which Governs The Counting Of Electoral Votes For President In Congress, A Tradition That Sparked The Violence As Trump Supporters Seized On The Day To Try To Prevent President Joe Biden's Win From Being Finalized. Congress Considering New Laws To Protect Against Election Coups "We Found Out, Surprisingly, How Poorly Written It Is, How Ambiguous Many Of Its Provisions Are, How Simply Things Could Be Triggered Without Merit. And So We're Looking At How To Reform That In A Way That Would Have Support Across The Spectrum, In Terms Of Constitutional Scholars," Schiff Said, Saying The Status Quo Is "A Point Of Great Vulnerability In Terms Of Our Democracy." "The Challenges In 2020 Were Superficial And Patently Absurd," He Said. "In The Future, Though, If It Came Down To A Single State And The State Attempted To Overturn The Popular Will And Congress' Role Came Down To Interpretation Of An Ambiguous Provision In The Electoral Count Act, It Could Be A Real Crisis." Among The Changes Under Consideration: Raising The Threshold To Challenge Electors To More Than Just One House Member And One Senator; Overhauling Unclear "Safe Harbor" Rules That Give States A Deadline After Which, Some Argue, Congress Can Disregard Their Electoral Votes; And Making It Clear That The Vice President Doesn't Have Unbridled Power To Discount Electors. Entering The New Year, The Committee Faces A Crucial Stretch As It Wrestles With How To Handle Reluctant Witnesses And Whether To Subpoena Members Of Congress. The Panel Is Bracing For Its First Public Hearings In The Coming Weeks And Months While Facing Pressure To Wrap Up And Turn Its Legislative Proposals Into Law By The Midterm Elections. An Aide Said The Committee "Will Consider A Wide Range Of Legislative Recommendations As We Continue Our Investigation And Craft Our Report." "Our Aim Is To Ensure Nothing Like January 6th Ever Happens Again, And That Includes Attempts To Overturn The Outcome Of The 2020 Election And Stop The Counting Of Electoral Votes," The Aide Said. 'Still A Democracy' The Cause Has Taken On New Urgency After The Jan. 6 Committee Obtained Evidence That Trump Allies Were Seizing On Gaps In The 1887 Law To Plot A Strategy To Overturn Biden's Victory. The Failed Plan Hinged On Then-Vice President Mike Pence's Acting Unilaterally To Throw Out Electoral Votes For Biden. "We Absolutely Have To Clarify It. The Act That's In Place Now Is Open To Too Much Interpretation. I Don't Think It Was Ever The Intention That You Could Create A Scenario Where The Vice President Basically Can Decide Whether Or Not We're Still A Democracy," Said Rep. Colin Allred, D-Texas. "And That's Basically What We Came Down To In This Last Certification. "One Of The Biggest Things That Has To Be Clarified Is The Vice President's Role, Which Is Not To Make Declarative Decisions About Whether Or Not To Accept Or Reject Results," Allred Said. Congress Should Also Make It Clear That Its Job Is "Not To Fact-Find Or To Investigate," He Said. The Proposals Point To A Core Purpose Of The Committee's Investigation: To Provide Legislative Recommendations To Congress About How To Prevent Another Attack And To Secure Democracy From What Lawmakers And Historians See As An Existential Threat. One Year Later: Recap Of Events Since Jan. 6 Attack One Challenge Facing Any New Bill Is That It Would Be Subject To A Republican Filibuster In The Senate, Where Minority Leader Mitch Mcconnell, R-Ky., On Tuesday Mocked Fears Of States' Overriding The Will Of Voters. "Why Would Any Legislature In America Want To Overturn The Counting Of Votes? They Have To Get Elected By Those People, Too," Mcconnell Told Reporters. "The Notion That Some State Legislature Would Be Crazy Enough To Say To Their Own Voters 'We're Not Going To Honor The Results Of The Election' Is Ridiculous On Its Face." More Than 140 Congressional Republicans Voted To Block The Counting Of Some Of Biden's Electoral Votes. Since He Left Office, Trump Has Sought To Purge Governors And State Officials Who Resisted His Lie That The Result Was Illegitimate. Critics Say He Is Laying The Foundation To Steal The 2024 Election. Even So, Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., Said: "I Don't Think We Need To Legislate That. We Have Those Provisions Pretty Clear In Our Constitution." Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., Said The Electoral Count Act Should Simply Be Repealed And Not Replaced. 'It's Really Frightening' Still, Some Advocates Say There's A Potentially Fatal Flaw In Relying On Congress: A Twisted Interpretation Of The Constitution That Has Risen From Far-Right Circles. "The Biggest Threat To The Democracy Is, Chillingly, A False Constitutional Theory Called The Independent Legislature Doctrine, Which Suggests That State Legislatures Can Wave A Magic Wand At Any Point And Nullify Their States' Voters To Send Presidential Electors To Whoever They Favor," Said Daniel Squadron Of The States Project, A Democratic Group Aiming To Win State Elections. Squadron Said The Only Ironclad Way To Prevent That Is To Deny Trump-Allied Republicans Control Of State Legislatures, A Project That Democrats Are Failing At. "Every State Legislature In A Swing State In America Has A Trumpist Majority Today. So If That Doesn't Change In 2022, Those Trumpist Majorities Will Hold The Democracy In Their Hands, Whatever Happens With Federal And State Law," He Said. "The 2022 Election Is Going To Have As Much Impact On Who Takes The Presidency As The 2024 Election." Rep. Jamaal Bowman, D-N.Y., Said That Jan. 6 Was Merely A "Test Run" And That Congress Needs To Act To "Prevent A Future Coup Attempt By Any Means Necessary." "We've Had The Socialism-Capitalism Fight. We've Had The Progressive-Versus-Moderate Fight. We've Had The Democrat-Republican Fight. But This Is A Fight For Democracy Against Fascism. The Enemy Is Fascism," He Said. Lawmakers Are Struggling To Find The Right Approach. Giving Congress Too Much Power To Challenge Electors Could Enable A Majority Party To Disregard Legitimate Results. But Negating A Role For Congress Could Eliminate Its Power To Stop States From Overriding The Will Of Voters. "We Have Real Concerns With A False Slate Of Electors' Being Sent. And What Are The Thresholds For Challenging That? Anything You Do To The Threshold For Challenging A Slate Of Electors Could Impact Both Protecting A Real Slate That Comes Or Challenging A False Slate," Allred Said. "So That's Very Difficult To Balance." Allred Said Future Attempts To Subvert Elections Will Be "More Coordinated, More Organized." "We Have To Be Honest That Everything We're Seeing Right Now Is Laying The Groundwork For Some Kind Of Challenge To The Results In 2024," He Said. "It's Really Frightening."

Trump Calls Off Jan. 6 News Conference, A Relief For Some In GOP Former President Donald Trump On Tuesday Abruptly Canceled A News Conference Scheduled For The Anniversary Of The Jan. 6 Attack On The U.S. Capitol, Blaming The House Committee Investigating The Riot. "In Light Of The Total Bias And Dishonesty Of The J6 Unselect Committee Of Democrats, Two Failed Republicans, And The Fake News Media, I Am Canceling The Jan 6th Press Conference At Mar-A-Lago On Thursday, And Instead Will Discuss Many Of Those Important Topics At My Rally," Trump Said In A Statement. The Move Provided A Sense Of Relief To Some In His Party. The Prospect Of Trump's Using The Date To Lie Again About The 2020 Election, A Falsehood That Fueled The Assault On Congress, Had Not Sat Well With Many In His Circle. "No One Understands It," A Former Trump Adviser Said Earlier This Week In An Interview, Trying To Explain Trump's Earlier Decision To Hold The News Conference. "It's All About His Ego." Trump Bears 'Great Deal' Of Responsibility For Jan. 6 Riot, 43 Percent Say In Poll With House Republicans Confident That They Are Poised To Take Control Of Congress In November's Midterm Elections, Trump's Plan To Counterprogram Against Official Washington's Commemoration Of The Attempted Insurrection Represented A Potential Liability. "It's Helpful That Trump Has Decided Not To Use This Day For Hyperbolic Political Hits, And For The Sake Of The Country, Democrats Should Do The Same," Said A Senior Republican Aide On Capitol Hill. A Majority Of Americans — 60 Percent — Said Trump's Level Of Responsibility For The Jan. 6 Attack Was Either A "Great Deal" Or A "Good Amount," According To A Washington Post-University Of Maryland Poll Released Saturday. The Survey Found, However, That 72 Percent Of Republicans And 83 Percent Of Trump Voters Said He Is Not Responsible At All Or Bears "Just Some" Responsibility. Some Republican Officials Would Like To Move Past Trump's Lie That He Was Defrauded Of The Presidency. Whatever Misgivings Fellow Republicans Had About The News Conference — At Which Trump Was Expected To Prosecute The Moot And Dishonest Case That He Won — He Did Not Attribute His Decision To Resistance Among His Allies Or Within The Broader GOP. Instead, He Blamed The House Committee Investigating The Attack On The Capitol, Which Has Interviewed More Than 300 Witnesses And Initiated Contempt-Of-Congress Charges Against Two Of His Former Top Aides. It Plans To Conduct Public Hearings As Early As This Spring. Trump Said He Would Address The Jan. 6 Anniversary At A Previously Scheduled Rally In Arizona On Jan. 15, Rather Than At A News Conference. President Joe Biden And Vice President Kamala Harris Plan To Speak About The Attack Thursday, And House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., Has Scheduled A Series Of Events To Mark The Anniversary.

Jan. 6 Committee Asks Fox News Host Sean Hannity To Cooperate With Probe The House Committee Investigating The Jan. 6 Riot At The U.S. Capitol Wants Fox News Host Sean Hannity To Voluntarily Cooperate With Its Investigation, Citing Newly Released Communications That It Says Show He Had Detailed Discussions With The White House Around The Time Of The Attack. "The Select Committee Now Has Information In Its Possession ... Indicating That You Had Advance Knowledge Regarding President Trump’s And His Legal Team’s Planning For January 6th. It Also Appears That You Were Expressing Concerns And Providing Advice To The President And Certain White House Staff Regarding That Planning," Committee Chair Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., And Vice Chair Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., Said In A Letter To Hannity That Was Made Public Tuesday Night. "You Also Had Relevant Communications While The Riot Was Underway, And In The Days Thereafter," The Letter Goes On To Say, Adding That The Panel Has "Dozens Of Text Messages You Sent To And Received From Former White House Chief Of Staff, Mark Meadows And Others Related To The 2020 Election And President Trump’s Efforts To Contest The Outcome Of The Vote." The Letter Included What It Described As A Text Hannity Sent To Meadows On Jan. 5, When He Said He Was “Very Worried About The Next 48 Hours.” "It Also Appears From Other Text Messages That You May Have Had A Conversation Directly With President Trump On The Evening Of January 5th (And Perhaps At Other Times) Regarding His Planning For January 6th," Thompson And Cheney Wrote. Another Text Message The Committee Released Tuesday Showed That Hannity And Trump Weren't On The Same Page About Trump's False Claims That The Election Had Been Stolen From Him. "He Can’t Mention The Election Again. Ever. I Did Not Have A Good Call With Him Today. And Worse, I’m Not Sure What Is Left To Do Or Say," Hannity Said In A Text To Meadows And Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, On Jan. 10, According To The Letter. Thompson And Cheney Said They Would Also Like To Ask Hannity About "Any Conversations You Had With Mr. Meadows Or Others About Any Effort To Remove The President Under The 25th Amendment." "We Have No Doubt That You Love Our Country And Respect Our Constitution. Now Is The Time To Step Forward And Serve The Interests Of Your Country," They Wrote. Axios First Reported That The Committee Would Seek Hannity's Cooperation. Asked For Comment, A Representative For Fox News Referred To A Statement Hannity Lawyer Jay Sekulow Gave To Axios. Sekulow Told Axios That Any Request For Cooperation “Would Raise Serious Constitutional Issues Including First Amendment Concerns Regarding Freedom Of The Press.” One Year Later: Recap Of Events Since Jan. 6 Attack Hannity Did Not Directly Address The Committee's Request On His Show Tuesday Evening; Instead, He Sharply Criticized Democrats And The Media, Calling Them "Swamp Creatures" And "Sycophants." Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., On Tuesday Described Hannity's Close Relationship With Trump. "He Has Information That Would Be Relevant To Our Committee. He Was More Than A Fox Host. He Was Also A Confidant, Adviser, Campaigner For The Former President. And I Would Hope That If Asked By The Committee ... He Would Cooperate With Us," Schiff, A Member Of The Jan. 6 Panel, Told Hallie Jackson In An Interview On MSNBC. The Committee Has Previously Released Text Messages From Hannity To Meadows Urging Trump To Take Action During The Riot. "Can He Make A Statement Asking People To Leave The Capitol?" Hannity Asked In One Message. Hannity, Who Criticized The Rioters On The Night Of Attack, Acknowledged Having Sent That Text On His Dec. 14 Show, Saying It Was "One Of" The Messages He Sent To Meadows Around That Time. He Then Blasted The Committee, Saying The Release Of The Messages Was An Invasion Of Privacy. “I Am An Honest, Straightforward Person. I Say The Same Thing In Private That I Say To All Of You. Liz Cheney Knows This. She Doesn’t Seem To Care. She’s Interested In One Thing And One Thing Only — Smearing Donald Trump And Purging Him From The Party,” Hannity Said On His Show Last Month. The Committee Also Signaled Tuesday That It Would Like To Speak With Former Vice President Mike Pence, Who Officiated At The Counting Of Electoral Votes On Jan. 6 And Was Among Those Who Were Evacuated When The Violence Erupted. "We Have Not Formally Asked," A Committee Spokesperson Said Tuesday. "But If He Offered, We'd Gladly Accept. Everything Is Under Consideration." Pence Hasn't Signaled Whether He Would Cooperate, But Some Of His Former Aides Have Engaged With The House Panel. Thompson Told CNN In An Interview That Aired Tuesday That He Hopes Pence Testifies "Voluntarily." "I Would Hope That He Would Do The Right Thing And Come Forward And Voluntarily Talk To The Committee," Thompson Said.

Biden Doubles Order For Pfizer Covid Pills As Surge Closes Schools, Businesses President Joe Biden Said Tuesday That The U.S. Will Double Its Order For A Pill From Pfizer To Treat Covid Infections So It Has Enough Courses For 20 Million People. Biden Said The Evidence Suggests That Those Who Are Vaccinated Are Less Likely To Develop Severe Illness, Especially With A Booster Dose. But He Said More Work Needs To Be Done To Get Americans Vaccinated, With The Unvaccinated Making Up The Vast Majority Of Recent Hospitalizations. "We're Going To See, As You All Have Been Hearing, Continued Rise In Cases," Biden Said In Remarks At The White House. "Omicron Is A Very Transmissible Variant, But Much Different Than Anything We've Seen Before. But You Can Protect Yourself, And You Should Protect Yourself, Quite Frankly: Get Vaccinated, Get Boosted — There's Plenty Of Booster Shots — Wear A Mask While You're In Public." Biden Made The Remarks Ahead Of An Update From His Covid Response Team On The Latest Data On The Omicron Variant And What Resources And Personnel Are Being Sent To States To Help Hospitals Running Low On Beds, Supplies, And Staffing. Biden Called The Pfizer Pill A "Game Changer" With The "Potential To Dramatically Alter The Impact" Of The Pandemic. But Given The Complexity Involved In Making The Pill, Pfizer Has Said It Will Take Months To Ramp Up Supply. School Districts Struggle With Staffing Shortages Amid Nationwide Covid Surge The U.S. Hit 1 Million New Covid-19 Cases On Monday, According To Data Compiled By NBC News, Underscoring The Threat Of The Omicron Variant As The Third Year Of The Pandemic Gets Underway. Omicron Represents 95 Percent Of New Covid Cases, According To The Centers For Disease Control And Prevention. Biden’s Remarks On The Pandemic, His First Since Dec. 28, Come As The Omicron Variant Has Forced Business And Schools To Close With Cases More Than Tripling Over The Past Month. While Hospitalizations Haven’t Increased At The Same Rate, The Increase Has Been Enough To Leave Hospitals Across The Country Struggling To Care For The Latest Surge In Patients. Deaths Have Remained Relatively Unchanged At Around 1,100 A Day, Though They Have Been A Lagging Indicator During Past Surges. Biden Urged Americans Again To Get Booster Shots, Which He Said Are Available At 90,000 Locations. Public Health Officials Have Said People Who Are Vaccinated And Boosted Are Significantly Less Likely To Be Hospitalized And Die From Covid. The Vast Majority Of Those Hospitalized And Dying Have Been Unvaccinated, Doctors Have Said. "For God's Sake, Please Take Advantage Of What's Available. Please, You're Going To Save Lives," Biden Said. "Maybe Yours, Maybe Your Child, Please Take Advantage Of What We Already Have." The U.S. Health Care System Has Been Struggling Over The Past Month To Respond To The Surge In Cases With Shortages Of Tests, Treatments And Staff. Rapid At-Home Tests Have Been In Short Supply With Production Not Expected To Significantly Ramp Up Until February Or March Based On Projections From Test Makers. Biden Has Promised To Send 500 Million Free At-Home Tests To People’s Homes, But That Effort Could Take Months. Patients Have Had To Wait Days For Laboratory Test Results In Hardest-Hit Areas With Labs Running At Capacity. "On Testing, I Know That Remains Frustrating. Believe Me, It's Frustrating To Me. But We're Making Improvements," Biden Said. Biden Said The Federal Government Has Been Opening Up Testing Centers. He Directed Americans To A Website Where They Can Find A Testing Location, And Urged People To Check With Their State And Local Governments About Getting Access To Free At-Home Tests. While Pfizer Ramps Up Production Of Its Covid Pill, The Supply Of Another Key Treatment, A Monoclonal Antibody Product From Glaxosmithkline, Has Also Been Extremely Limited. Some Hospitals Have Stopped Giving Out Monoclonal Antibody Therapies Or Have Been Rationing Them For Only The Most High-Risk Patients Because Of The Constrained Supply. To Help Overwhelmed Hospitals, The Federal Government Has Been Deploying Federal Personnel, Biden Said. Total Hospitalizations In The U.S. Have Reached The Levels Of The Summer Surge, But Below Where They Were During Last Winter’s Surge, With 62 Percent Of The Population Now Fully Vaccinated. The Military Has Begun Providing Support To Hospitals In Eight States, Including New York And New Hampshire. Military Medical Personnel Including Nurses, Respiratory Therapists, And Medical Doctors Will Deploy In Two Teams, One 15-Person Team To New Hampshire And One 20-Person Team To New York, To Support Health Care Workers There. “Military Medical Personnel Are Just One Of The Many Tools Available To The Nation To Combat COVID-19 And Save Lives,” Said Lt. Gen. John R. Evans Jr., U.S. Army North Commander. “Our Service Members Are Working Tirelessly In Support Of FEMA, And Hand-In-Hand With Civilian Partners, To Provide Additional Support For Hospitals Facing Capacity Issues.”

Manchin Says 'No Negotiations' In The Works With White House On Build Back Better Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., A Key Vote On The Build Back Better Bill, Said He Has Not Taken Part In Any Negotiations With The White House After He Said Last Month That He Could Not Support President Joe Biden’s Signature Legislation. "There Is No Negotiation Going On At This Time," Manchin Told Reporters Tuesday. Manchin Declared Last Month That He Could Not Vote For The House-Passed Version Of The Bill, Throwing Its Prospects Into Doubt And Leaving The White House Scrambling To Salvage The Nearly $2 Trillion Package. "You Know, I've Never Turned Down Any Talks With Anybody. I Really Haven't. I Was Very Clear On Where I Stand, And I Thought It Was Time To Do That," Manchin Said Tuesday, Referring To His Announcement. Biden And Manchin Spoke The Evening After Manchin Declared His Opposition, Two Sources Familiar With The Call Said At The Time. The Sources Said That The Call Was Cordial And That The Two Kept The Door Open To Further Negotiations. Biden And Manchin Ended The Call With An Understanding That They Would Speak Again, The Sources Said. Several Days After Manchin Publicly Opposed The Bill, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki Was Asked Whether There Had Been Any More Contact With Manchin Or His Office Since The Call. Psaki Said, "We Have Been In Touch With His Team And His Office, And I Expect We Will Continue To Be In Touch With Him As Well, But I’m Not Going To Outline All Those Specifics From Here." On A Call With Fellow Senate Democrats Before Christmas, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer Of New York Said The Senate Would Vote On A Revised Version Of The Build Back Better Act And A Potential Rules Change — If Republicans Do Not Drop The Filibuster — Early In The New Year. Both Endeavors Hinge Largely On Manchin, The Linchpin Of The 50-50 Senate. Asked Tuesday About Changing The Filibuster Rule, Manchin Said That It Was A "Heavy Lift" And That He Preferred To Do It With Republican Support. "That's My Absolute Preference," He Said. "You Know, I Have To Exhaust Everything In My Ability To Talk And Negotiate With People Before I Start Doing Things That Other People Might Think Need To Be Done." Changing The Filibuster Rules Would Allow A Vote On Sweeping Legislation To Expand Access To The Ballot Box And Safeguard Against Election Subversion. The Legislation Is A High Priority For Biden, Democratic Lawmakers And Progressive Advocates.

The Riot, The Republic And The Fight For America’s Soul America Survived The Jan. 6 Capitol Riot, But The Explosion Of Political Violence Exposed The Republic’s Fragility. A Year Later, After An Impeachment And Amid Federal Investigations, The Risk To America’s System Of Governance Remains High, According To Many Elected Officials And Advocates. Etched In The Granite Of National Memory, Jan. 6 Has Become Shorthand For An Ongoing And Existential Battle Over Fair Elections, The Integrity Of Democratic Institutions And The Abuse Of Power. But As Savage, Bloody And Traumatic As The Riot Was, It Is Only One Piece Of A Fight That Is Now Unfolding Across The Country In Local Election Boards, State Legislatures, Courtrooms And The Halls Of Congress. At The Center Of It All Is Former President Donald Trump And His Biggest, Most Persistent Lies About What Happened On Nov. 6, 2020. His Propaganda Campaign, Which Insists Against Extensive Evidence That The Election Was Stolen From Him, Led Supporters To Storm The Capitol And Most GOP Lawmakers To Stand By Him. That Lie Also Furnished Fuel For Nearly Three Dozen New Republican-Written State Laws Restricting Voting Rights And Countless Bids For Office By Republicans Who Say They Believe It. The Republic Has Been Pushed To Its Limit And Is Still Teetering On The Brink, Said Joseph Ellis, The Pulitzer Prize-Winning Biographer Of The Original American Revolutionaries. "Focusing On This As A Genuine Inflection Point In American History, Comparable To The Civil War And The Revolution Is Not Fanciful — It's Absolutely Historically Correct," He Said. "We Are Facing A Historic Crisis. The Fate Of The Republic Really Is At Stake.” If That Is True, It Is In Part Because A Large Share Of The Population Has Lost Faith — Or Perhaps Never Had Faith — In The Ability Of Democratic Institutions To Deliver For Them. Trump Fed That Vein Of Mistrust From The Moment He Became A Candidate For The Presidency In 2015, And Then Framed His 2020 Defeat As Evidence That The American Political System Is Corrupt. The Solution, For Hundreds Of His Supporters, Was To Try To Physically Stop Congress From Certifying President Joe Biden’s Victory. “We Came Perilously Close To Not Being Able To Certify The Election, Which Meant That Was Uncharted Territory For Our Government, And It Could Have Potentially Left The Same People In Charge Until We Worked It Out,” Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., Chairman Of The Special House Committee Investigating The Attack On The Capitol, Said In An Interview With NBC News. His Panel, Which Has Interviewed More Than 300 Witnesses And Plans To Conduct A Series Of Public Hearings In The Coming Months, Is Looking Closely At Financing For The “Save America” Rally, Which Led To The Riot; The Actions And Inaction Of Trump And His Allies; And What Roles Far-Right Anti-Government Extremist Groups Such As The Proud Boys, Oath Keepers And Three Percenters Played In Fomenting Violence. “I’m Concerned About Some Of The Information That We Are Collecting, That The Potential For Criminal Referrals Is There,” Thompson Said, Adding That He Is Hesitant To Finalize That Conclusion Until Committee Lawyers Have Assessed All Available Information. “Our First Task Is To Look At The Facts And Circumstances That Brought About Jan. 6. If, In The Committee’s Review, We Find Something That The Committee And Staff Feel Warrants Criminal Referral, We Will Not Hesitate One Scintilla In Making That Referral. … We Are Not Shrinking Violets.” So Far, Trump Has Paid No Legal Or Political Price For What Many Believe Was An Attempted Coup. The House Determined That He Incited The Riot When It Impeached Him In January, But The Senate Acquitted Him. The Justice Department Has Not Charged Him With Any Crimes Related To The Riot, And The House Has Not Yet Asked The Attorney General To Do So. Trump’s Grip On The Republican Party Remains Iron Clad. That Is Evident Both In Polling And In GOP Candidates’ Fear Of His Ire. Two Republican Members Of The House, Adam Kinzinger Of Illinois And Anthony Gonzalez Of Ohio, Announced They Will Not Seek Re-Election After Trump Vowed Political Retribution For Voting To Impeach Him Last Year. But While Trump Builds The Foundation Of Another Possible Campaign For The Presidency, The Riot Has Disrupted Thousands Of Lives. Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick Died Of A Stroke After Clashing With Rioters, And Two Other Officers, Howard Liebengood Of The Capitol Police And Jeffrey Smith Of The D.C. Metro Police, Both Of Whom Were At The Capitol, Died By Suicide In The Days After The Attack. Ashli Babbitt, A 35-Year-Old Rioter, Was Shot And Killed As She Tried To Break Into The Chamber Adjacent To The House Floor. More Than 725 People Had Been Arrested In Connection With The Riot, According To The Justice Department. More Than 150 Have Pleaded Guilty. About 70 Have Had Their Cases Adjudicated, Including 31 Who Were Sentenced To Jail Time, The Justice Department Says. In The Harshest Punishment Handed Down So Far, Robert Palmer Of Florida Was Sentenced To Five Years And Three Months In Prison For Assaulting Police Officers With A Fire Extinguisher, A Plank And A Pole. What Prosecutors And House Investigators Have Not Done Is Show That Trump Or His Top Lieutenants Helped Plan The Attack On The Capitol, Rather Than Just The Rally Down The Street That Preceded It. The Democratic-Run House Is Taking The Lead In Searching For Such Proof, And It Has Been Met With Resistance From Trump — Who Is Taking His Claim Of Executive Privilege To The Supreme Court — And Many Of His Advisers. The Interference May Be Designed To Try To Run Out The Clock On The Congressional Probe, Which Will Be Discontinued If Republicans Win Control Of The House In November’s Midterm Elections. Steve Bannon, A Former Aide To Trump, Is Being Prosecuted For Contempt Of Congress Because Of His Failure To Testify Before And Provide Documents To The House Investigative Committee. In December, The House Adopted A Resolution Recommending That The Justice Department Charge Former Trump Chief Of Staff Mark Meadows, Himself A Former House Member, With Contempt Of Congress. And The Committee Is Also Seeking Information From Sitting Members Of Congress, Including Reps. Scott Perry, R-Pa., And Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, Who Are Close To The Former President. For Many Black Americans And Other Voters Of Color, The Riot Represented A White-Nationalist Backlash Against Their Votes For Biden And A Flashpoint In Ongoing Republican Efforts To Limit Their Political Power By Taking Control Of The Machinery Of State Elections. "This Was The Worst Of America That We’d Ever Seen," Said Martin Luther King III, Son Of The Slain Civil Rights Leader Whose Nonviolent Demonstrations Propelled Democratic Change. "This Did Not Happen Independently. It Clearly Was Promoted By Him [Trump]." The "Save America" March And Rally At The Ellipse Near The White House On Jan. The "Save America" March And Rally At The Ellipse Near The White House On Jan. 6. How The Riot Unfolded For Nearly Two Months After The Election Was Called For Biden, Trump And His Allies Worked To Undermine Public Faith In The Results. Trump Pleaded With The Justice Department And State Election Officials To Overturn The Outcome. But As The Date Of The Congressional Certification Drew Closer, He Trained His Focus On Then-Vice President Mike Pence. One Of Trump's Legal Advisers, John Eastman, Drafted A Memo Explaining How Pence Might Try To Use His Constitutionally Mandated Role In The Proceedings At The Capitol To Block The Certification Of Electors, A Process That Had Largely Been Viewed As Perfunctory. Pence Considered The Plan But Decided Against It. On The Morning Of Jan. 6, Before Speaking At A "Save America" Rally Just Outside The White House Gates, Trump Tweeted A Message Urging Pence To Execute Eastman's Extralegal Stratagem. When Trump Spoke, Around Midday, He Blasted Pence Repeatedly. His Friend Rudy Giuliani Already Had Called For "Trial By Combat" For Trump's Political Adversaries. During Trump's Speech, Members Of The Proud Boys Began Making Their Way From The Washington Monument To The Capitol. Trump Encouraged The Crowd To "Fight Like Hell" And To March The Mile-And-A-Half To The Capitol To "Peacefully" Protest The Election Results. Before 1 P.M., The Mob At The Capitol Began Breaching Barriers As Trump Continued Speaking. Hundreds Streamed Toward The Capitol, Joining The Increasingly Violent Crowd That Had Morphed From Protest To Riot. Pence Entered The House Chamber At 1 P.M. The Proceedings In The Chamber Unfolded Quickly. Twelve Minutes After Pence Began, Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., And Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, Objected To Arizona's Electors. Outside The Capitol, Police Tried To Fend Off Rioters, Many Of Whom Struck Officers Or Sprayed Them With Irritants. Shortly After 2 P.M., Rioters Broke Into The Capitol. Pence, Now In The Senate Chamber, Was Whisked Away By Security. Capitol Police Officer Eugene Goodman Distracted Rioters And Drew Them Away From Pence And The Senate Chamber. Outside The Building, Chants Of "Hang Mike Pence" Echoed As A Gallows Was Erected. Until Jan. 6, The Capitol Was Not Just The Beacon Of Global Democracy — The Physical Manifestation Of A Representative Form Of Government — But A Fortress And A Sanctuary For The Tens Of Thousands Of People Who Work In Or Visit Its Labyrinthine Complex Every Day. They Are Lawmakers, Legislative Aides, Journalists, Police Officers, Groundskeepers, Tour Guides, Cafeteria Workers, Engineers, Architects, Artists, Parliamentarians And Interested Citizens. That Day, A Building That Felt Eerily Empty Because Of The Ongoing Pandemic Became Overrun With Rioters. Trump Egged Them On. "Mike Pence Didn't Have The Courage To Do What Should Have Been Done To Protect Our Country And Our Constitution, Giving States A Chance To Certify A Corrected Set Of Facts, Not The Fraudulent Or Inaccurate Ones Which They Were Asked To Previously Certify," Trump Tweeted As His Supporters Ransacked The Capitol. Rep. Jason Crow, D-Colo., Comforts Rep. Susan Wild, D-Pa., While Taking Cover As Protesters Amassed Outside The House Chamber At The Capitol. Rep. Jason Crow, D-Colo., Comforts Rep. Susan Wild, D-Pa., While Taking Cover As Protesters Amassed Outside The House Chamber At The Capitol. Meadows Received Text Messages From Donald Trump Jr. And Several Fox News Hosts That Pleaded With Him To Get Trump To Denounce The Rioting. "Condemn This S---," Trump Jr. Wrote. "It Has Gone Too Far And Gotten Out Of Hand.” Rioters Broke Into The Senate Chamber, Swarming The Desks Where So Much Of America’s Legislative History Has Been Made And Rifling Through Papers, And Infiltrated The Office Of Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. Shortly Before 3 P.M., Babbitt Was Part Of A Crowd That Pressed Forward Into The Speaker’s Lobby, A Long Anteroom That Adjoins The House Chamber. Officer Michael Byrd Defended A Position Near The Wood-Framed Double Doors. After Rioters Smashed Glass Panes In The Doors, And With Babbitt Apparently Trying To Get Into The Lobby, He Fired A Single Shot Into Her Shoulder. She Would Die From The Wound. More Than An Hour Later, Shortly After 4 P.M., Pence Got On The Phone With A Top Defense Department Official And Pleaded With Him To "Clear The Capitol." Pelosi And Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., Made A Similar Appeal To Joint Chiefs Of Staff Chairman Gen. Mark Milley To Intervene. About 10 Minutes Later, Trump Released A Video In Which He Repeated The Lie That The Election Had Been Stolen But Said To His Supporters, "Go Home, We Love You." Protesters And Police Clash Near A Broken Window Outside; Pro-Trump Rioters Inside The Capitol Protesters And Police Clash Near A Broken Window Outside; Pro-Trump Rioters Inside The Capitol. Republicans And Democrats Hid Under Chairs And In Secret Offices. There Was A Moment, Amid The Sounds Of Screams And Busting Glass, That Rep. Dean Phillips, D-Minn., Considered Leaping From The Observation Balcony Above The House Floor. He Was Trapped With About 20 Of His Democratic Colleagues. On The Main Level, Where There Are Fewer Entry Points, Capitol Security Officers With Guns Drawn And A Small Cadre Of Republican Lawmakers Worked To Stop The Mob From Breaching The Chamber. But The Second Floor Gallery Is Dotted With Doorways, And The Lawmakers There Were Uncertain That Police Could Hold Off The Rioters. "I Tried To Calculate The Distance Down," Phillips Recalled In An Interview, Noting That He Concluded That The Risk Of Grievous Injury Or Death Was Too Great. When He And His Colleagues Finally Escaped The Chamber And Made Their Way To An Elevator So They Could Use The Tunnel System To Go To An Office Building, They Heard The Gunshot That Killed Babbitt, He Said. A Year Later, He Still Meets Regularly With The Same Set Of Colleagues For "Camaraderie, Support, Friendship," Phillips Said. "I Think About It Every Day." Congress Reconvened On The Night Of The Riot To Finish Certifying Biden's Election, And To Send A Message That, As Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, Put It, Lawmakers Would "Not Be Intimidated" Out Of Doing Their Jobs. And Yet The Political Violence Did Not Stop Most Republican House Members And A Handful Of Senate Republicans From Objecting Again To The Election Results. About Two-Thirds Of The House Republican Conference — 139 Members — Voted Against Certifying Electors From Arizona, Pennsylvania Or Both. In The Senate, Eight Of 50 Republicans Voted Against Certification. Flashes Of Light From Police Munitions Illuminate The Capitol And Protesters. Flashes Of Light From Police Munitions Illuminate The Capitol And Protesters. ‘We’re Still In The Middle Of It’ Two Weeks After The Riot, Biden Was Sworn In As President On The Same Capitol Steps Where The Mob Had Fought The Police. “Democracy Is Fragile. And At This Hour, My Friends, Democracy Has Prevailed,” Biden Said. “So Now, On This Hallowed Ground Where Just Days Ago Violence Sought To Shake This Capitol’s Very Foundation, We Come Together As One Nation, Under God, Indivisible, To Carry Out The Peaceful Transfer Of Power As We Have For More Than Two Centuries. We Look Ahead In Our Uniquely American Way — Restless, Bold, Optimistic — And Set Our Sights On The Nation We Know We Can Be And We Must Be.” A Year Later, The Nation, And Its Government, Remains Fractured. The Democratic-Led House’s Quick Effort To Impeach Trump For "Incitement Of Insurrection” Put On Full Display A Partisan Chasm That Would Only Widen. On Jan. 13, 232 House Members — All Of The Democrats And 10 Of The Republicans — Voted For The Single Article Of Impeachment. By The Time The Senate Could Arrange Its Trial And Vote, Trump Had Been Out Of Office For Three Weeks. Seven Republicans Joined All 50 Democrats In Voting To Convict Trump — Well Short Of The Two-Thirds Majority Necessary. Even As He Voted Against Conviction, Senate Minority Leader Mitch Mcconnell, R-Ky., Called Trump "Practically And Morally Responsible" For The Riot. But In May, Mcconnell Blocked The Establishment Of An Independent Commission To Conduct An Investigation Into The Attack. That Prompted Pelosi, In June, To Announce The Creation Of A Select Committee, Doing So Largely On Partisan Lines And Forming A Panel That Included Only Two Republicans After Majority Leader Kevin Mccarthy, R-Calif., Refused To Name Members Who Had Not Worked To Aggressively Undermine The Election. The Committee, In Addition To The Hundreds Of Witness Interviews, Has Received More Than 35,000 Pages Of Records, Collected More Than 250 Substantive Tips, Sent 52 Subpoenas And Launched Contempt-Of-Congress Referrals Against Bannon And Meadows. The Committee Is Backed Up Against One Date On The Calendar — Jan. 3, 2023 — When The Next Congress Is Sworn In. But In An Important Way Its Work Has Barely Begun. Committee Officials Hope That They Will Be Able To Begin A Round Of Hearings In The Spring That Will Give The Public A Better Understanding Of Who Bears Responsibility For The Attack And How It Was Carried Out. Opinion Surveys Show That Americans Are Divided Over Whether The Attack Was A Serious Threat To The Republic. In A University Of Massachusetts Amherst Poll Released Last Week, More Than Two-Thirds Of Democrats — 68 Percent — Said The Terms “Insurrectionists,” “White Nationalists” And “Rioters” Apply To The Group That Stormed The Capitol. But 80 Percent Of Republicans Described The Event As A “Protest,” 62 Percent Said Participants Were “Protesters” And 26 Percent Said They Were “Patriots.” That Is Consistent With The Framing Preferred By Trump And His Allies, Including Many Republican Lawmakers. For Example, Georgia Rep. Andrew Clyde Once Compared The Violent Breach Of The Capitol To A “Normal Tourist Visit.” Thompson Said He Has Learned From The House’s Last Major Public Investigation Of Trump, Which Led To The Then-President’s 2019 Impeachment, And 2020 Senate Acquittal, Over His Dealings With Ukraine. Back Then, Democrats Were Unable To Sway Enough Public Sentiment Against Trump To Force Republicans To Vote To Convict Him In The Senate. While He Is Not Building An Impeachment Case — And It Would Be The Biden Justice Department, Not The Senate, That Would Deal With Any Criminal Referrals — Thompson Sees The Importance Of Telling The Story In A Way That The Public Can Easily Grasp. “What We Want To Do Is Not Make Our Investigation So Technical And So Complex That The Majority Of American Citizens Won’t Understand It,” He Said. “People Saw What Occurred On Jan. 6 With Their Own Eyes, And They Just Want To Know Who Caused It, Why And How We Can Prevent It From Ever Occurring Again. And That’s The Charge We Have As A Committee.” A Pro-Trump Protester Inside The Capitol. A Pro-Trump Protester Inside The Capitol. Outside Of Congress, There Is A Legal Strategy To Hold Organizers Of The Attack Accountable. In Mid-December, Karl Racine, The Attorney General For The District Of Columbia, Filed A Civil Suit Against The Proud Boys And Oath Keepers In Federal District Court, A Move That Could Bleed The Groups Dry Of Money. The Suit Is Designed “To Send A Very Clear Message That There Are Serious Consequences, Legal And Financial, For Stepping Outside The Bounds Of Our Democracy,” Said Joanna Lydgate, Founder Of States United Democracy Center, A Nonpartisan Voting-Rights And Election-Security Think Tank That Is Providing Counsel In The Case. At The Same Time, Lydgate Said, State-Level Efforts To Rewrite Election Rules Remain A Danger To The American System Of Government. "People Are Not As Tuned In About This Kind Of Legislative Insurrection," She Said. "In Many Ways The Insurrection Has Kind Of Gone Underground, And Unfortunately, I Think Understandably, People Have A Lot Of Other Things They’re Concerned About." Susan Stokes, Chair Of The University Of Chicago Center For Democracy, Likens Trump’s Actions To A “Self Coup,” A Term Political Scientists Apply To Autocrats Who Nullify Elections — Usually With The Help Of A Portion Of The Military — To Remain In Power. The Effort Began With Trump’s Deceitful Election-Night Claim That The Presidential Vote Was Rigged Against Him — An Assertion He Made Despite Simultaneously Declaring Victory. But, Stokes Said, It Did Not Culminate With The Riot On Jan. 6. “We’re Still In The Middle Of It,” She Said. More Than Two-Thirds Of Republicans Tell Pollsters That They Believe Real Cases Of Fraud Affected The Result Of The 2020 Election. Several GOP Secretary Of State Candidates In Politically Competitive States Have Embraced The Lie That The 2020 Election Was Stolen And Vowed To Enforce “Election Integrity.” And 34 Laws Restricting Voting Rights Were Enacted By State Governments In 2021, According To The Brennan Center For Justice, With More Up For Consideration In 2022. In Other Words, Trump Has Married The Republican Party To The False Notion That Election Fraud Cost Him The Last Election, Created A Political Imperative For GOP Candidates To Show Their Loyalty To Him And The Party By Embracing That Lie, And Provoked Efforts To Change Voting Laws To Help Republicans. Some Republican State Legislators Want To Take The Power To Pick Electors Away From Voters. And While There Are Signs That Some GOP Officials On The Local Level Want To Move On, It Is Becoming More Difficult To Separate Partisan Brawling From Trump’s Crusade To Undermine The Integrity Of Elections. With Trump Still Active In The Political Arena — Raising Money, Giving Speeches And Making Endorsements — His Lie About The 2020 Election Could Become A Centerpiece Of The Next Republican Nominee’s Campaign For President. And That’s Why Stokes Says America Is Still Watching A Self-Coup Unfold. “Fifty Years From Now, The End Of The Story Of This Coup Attempt Doesn’t Happen On The Night Of Jan. 6,” She Said. “It Probably Comes After The 2024 Election, And I Don’t Think We Know What The Outcome Will Be.” Phillips Remains More Optimistic Than Many Of His Democratic Colleagues That Republicans Will Eventually Break With Trump. “There Are Many Righteous Republicans Who Have Been Quiet But Understand The Risk And Understand The Responsibility, And I Am Hopeful That They Recognize That Principle Must Be Placed Above Self-Preservation,” He Said. “Jan. 6 Is Analogous To The First Attack On The World Trade Center That Failed. We Should Take Heed Of That.”

Prince Andrew Launches Legal Gambit To Derail Sex Abuse Suit Prince Andrew’s Lawyers Tried Again Monday To Block A Lawsuit By A Woman Who Says He Sexually Assaulted Her When She Was 17, Releasing Details Of A Legal Settlement In Which She Took $500,000 From Jeffrey Epstein Not To Bring Further Legal Action. The Deal, Which Was Reached In 2009, Is Expected To Be Part Of The Prince’s Arguments When His Legal Team Argues Tuesday That The Civil Suit By The Woman, Virginia Giuffre, Should Be Dismissed. A Federal Judge In New York City Rejected An Earlier Attempt By The Royal Defense Team To Derail Giuffre’s On The Grounds That She No Longer Lives In The U.S. Giuffre, Now Living In Australia, Claims Epstein And His Recently Convicted Confidant, Ghislaine Maxwell, Forced Her In The 1990s To Have Sex With Andrew, Queen Elizabeth II’s Son — An Allegation Andrew Has Repeatedly Denied. Giuffre, Who Is Referred To In The Unsealed Settlement By Her Maiden Name, Roberts, Agreed To “Remise, Release, Acquit, Satisfy And Forever Discharge The Said Second Parties And Any Other Person Or Entity Who Could Have Been Included As A Potential Defendant ... From All, And All Manner Of, Action And Actions Of Virginia Roberts, Including State Or Federal, Cause And Causes Of Action.” Andrews’ Lawyers Have Contended That The Prince Is A “Third-Party Beneficiary Of The Release Agreement” Even Though He Is Not Mentioned By Name In The Settlement. A Representative For Giuffre’s Lawyer David Boies Released A Statement Monday Saying “The Release Is Irrelevant To Ms. Giuffre’s Claim Against Prince Andrew.” “He Did Not Even Know About It,” The Representative Said Of The Settlement. “He Could Not Have Been A ‘Potential Defendant’ In The Settled Case Against Jeffrey Epstein Both Because He Was Not Subject To Jurisdiction In Florida And Because The Florida Case Involved Federal Claims To Which He Was Not A Part.” Although Andrew’s Name Is Not Mentioned, Section 21 Of Giuffre’s Complaint Against Epstein Says The Powerful Epstein Friends Who “Sexually Exploited” Her Included “Royalty.” Giuffre, Who Is Seeking Unspecified Damages, Claims Andrew Sexually Assaulted Her Three Times When She Was 17. Oral Arguments In Giuffre’s Lawsuit Are Set To Get Underway Tuesday, Four Days After Maxwell Was Convicted Of Recruiting And Grooming Four Teenage Girls For Epstein To Sexually Abuse. Giuffre Was Not One Of The Four Women In The Case Against Maxwell, And There Were No Allegations Against Andrew As Part Of That Case. The U.S. District Judge In That Case, Alison Nathan, Has Given Maxwell’s Defense Attorneys And The Prosecutors A Deadline Of Jan. 10 To Submit Sentencing Proposals And Recommendations. A Trial Date Has Not Yet Been Set For The Two Perjury Counts That Were Not Part Of Her Sex Trafficking Trial. They Were Part Of The Original Indictment When Maxwell Was Arrested In July 2020. Prosecutors Have Accused Maxwell Of Lying Under Oath In 2016 When She Was Being Deposed For A Civil Lawsuit Filed By Giuffre. U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan Earlier Turned Aside The Defense Argument That It Was Pointless To Proceed Because Giuffre Has Lived In Australia For All But Two Of The Past 19 Years, Has An Australian Driver’s License And Lives In A $1.9 Million Home In Perth In Western Australia, Where She Has Been Raising Three Children With Her Husband, Who Is Australian. Giuffre’s Attorney Sigrid Mccawley Said The Request To Halt The Case Was “Just Another In A Series Of Tired Attempts By Prince Andrew To Duck And Dodge The Legal Merits Of The Case Virginia Giuffre Has Brought Against Him,” Adding, “All Parties In Litigation Are Subject To Discovery, And Prince Andrew Is No Exception.” Kaplan Noted In A One-Page Order That The Prince’s Lawyers Have Requested That Giuffre Turn Over “Extensive” Materials By Jan. 14, Including Documents Related To Where She Has Lived. Kaplan Also Said The Prince’s Attorneys Have Not Yet Formally Raised The Defense That The Lawsuit Cannot Proceed On The Grounds That Giuffre Has Been Living In Australia Rather Than Colorado, Where Her Lawyers Say She Is A Resident. Andrew’s Lawyers Have Accused Giuffre Of Launching A “Baseless Lawsuit Against Prince Andrew To Achieve Another Payday At His Expense And At The Expense Of Those Closest To Him.” “Epstein’s Abuse Of Giuffre Does Not Justify Her Public Campaign Against Prince Andrew,” The Prince’s Lawyers Have Said In Written Arguments. Epstein Hanged Himself In A Federal Jail In New York City In August 2019 As He Awaited Trial On Sex Trafficking Charges.

Illinois Democrat Bobby Rush To Retire After 30 Years In Congress Rep. Bobby Rush, D-Ill., Is Expected To Announce Tuesday That He Will Retire After His 15th Term In Congress, Making Him The 24th House Democrat Not To Seek Re-Election This Year. A Source Close To Rush Confirmed His Plans Late Monday. Rush, 75, A Longtime Civil Rights Activist, Is Expected To Make A Formal Announcement Tuesday At A Church In Chicago. The Chicago Sun-Times First Reported Rush's Plans Monday. He Told The Newspaper That He Made The Decision In Recent Weeks And That A Conversation With A Grandson Played A Role. “I Don’t Want My Grandchildren ... To Know Me From A Television News Clip Or Something They Read In A Newspaper,” Rush Said. “I Want Them To Know Me On An Intimate Level, Know Something About Me And I Want To Know Something About Them. I Don’t Want To Be A Historical Figure To My Grandchildren.” Rush, Who Is An Ordained Minister, Said He Plans To Remain Active In His Ministry And Use His Life Story And Experiences To Inspire Young People. Rush Has Represented The 1st Congressional District On The South Side Of Chicago Since 1993. Before That, He Was A Chicago Alderman And A Co-Founder Of The Illinois Chapter Of The Black Panther Party. Rush Holds The Distinction Of Being The Only Lawmaker To Defeat Barack Obama In An Election. He Bested Obama In A Congressional Primary In 2000, When Obama Was A State Senator. Rush Is A Member Of The House Agriculture Committee And The Energy And Commerce Committee. He Was In The News Last Week When He Disclosed That He Had Tested Positive For Covid-19, Saying In A Pair Of Tweets That He Was Fully Vaccinated And Hadn't Experienced Any Symptoms. Rush Joins A Long List Of Democrats Who Are Leaving The House At A Time When The Party Faces Significant Challenges Heading Into The Midterm Elections, When The President's Party Typically Loses Seats. Some Members Have Said They Are Bowing Out Because Their Seats Have Become More Competitive After Redistricting, While Others Have Cited Dysfunction On Capitol Hill Or Satisfaction With Their Legislative Accomplishments. Some Lawmakers Are Seeking Positions At The State Level Or In The Senate. Rep. Yarmuth: Decision To Retire ‘Was Totally Personal’ Rush Comfortably Won Re-Election In 2020, With Nearly 74 Percent Of The Vote. Before He Held Public Office, Rush Co-Founded The Illinois Chapter Of The Black Panthers And Became Acting Chairman After Fred Hampton And Mark Clark Were Killed In A Police Raid In December 1969.

More Than A Foot Of Snow Falls In First Mid-Atlantic Storm Of 2022 The Biggest Snowstorm For The Mid-Atlantic Since 2019 Kicked Off The First Full Week Of The New Year: More Than A Foot Of Snow Fell Across Portions Of Maryland, Delaware And Southern New Jersey. Huntingtown, On Maryland's Eastern Shore, Recorded What Was Possibly The Largest Total In The Region, With An Accumulation Of 15.5 Inches By Mid-Day Monday, According To The National Weather Service. In New Jersey, Where Gov. Phil Murphy Declared A State Of Emergency In Five Southern Counties, He Called The Storm The "Most Significant" Snow Event In Four Years. Egg Harbor Township, North Of Cape May, Saw 13.5 Inches By Monday Night, The Weather Service Reported. Snow Slows Colorado Fire Recovery Efforts Earlier, Accumulating Snow Fell Across Portions Of Northern Alabama, North Georgia, Much Of Tennessee And As Far South As The Florida Panhandle. Thundersnow Was Reported In Alabama, Tennessee, North Carolina, Virginia And Maryland. The Severe Weather Appeared To Be Responsible For The Deaths Of Two Children. In Rain-Soaked Decatur, Georgia, A Tree Fell On A Home And Killed A 5-Year-Old Boy Monday Morning, Fire Officials Told NBC Affiliate WXIA. In Snow-Battered Townsend, Tennessee, A Tree Fell On A Home And Killed A Child Who Had Been In Their Bedroom, According To NBC Affiliate WBIR. Three People In The Washington D.C., Area Were Also Killed When Their SUV Collided With A Snowplow On Monday Night, Authorities In Montgomery County, Maryland, Said. An Investigation Into The Cause Of The Crash Was Still Underway And It Wasn't Clear Whether The Snowplow Was Operating At The Time, Montgomery County Police Spokeswoman Shiera Goff Said. Hundreds Of Thousands Of People Lost Power In The Storm. By Monday Night, Virginia Had The Most Outages, With 311,000 Customers Still Without Power. Tens Of Thousands More Were Without Electricity In North Carolina, Georgia And Tennessee, According To Poweroutage.Us, Which Aggregates Data From Utilities Across The U.S. New York City, Which Was Forecast To See As Much As A Few Inches Of Snow, Saw Almost Nothing After The Early Morning, NBC New York Reported. The Dynamic Storm System Had A Severe Thunderstorm Side, Too. The Southern Side Of The Mid-Atlantic Snowstorm Produced Severe Thunderstorms Monday Morning Across The Eastern Carolinas. Monday Morning Featured A Tornado Watch For Cities Including Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, And Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, And Severe Thunderstorms Capable Of Damaging Winds And Isolated Tornadoes Charged Through The Eastern Carolinas. Flash Flooding Was Also A Concern. To Add More Shock To The Biggest Snowstorm In Years, The Snow Came On The Heels Of Spring-Like Warmth Over The Weekend. After Highs Sunday Soared Into The 70s Across The Southeast And 60s Across The Mid-Atlantic And Northeast, Highs On Monday Will Be 20 To 30 Degrees Lower. These Sharply Colder Temperatures Could Cause Wet Roadways To Freeze Monday Night Into Tuesday Morning, Leading To Icing Concerns On Roadways.

How Extremism In The U.S. Shifted After The Jan. 6 Capitol Riot Denise Aguilar Was In Washington On Jan. 6, Appearing As A Featured Speaker At The “Health Freedom” Stage — One Of The Many Events Held Hours Before A Wide Range Of Far-Right Groups And Trump Supporters Would Storm The Capitol. Shortly After The Riot, Aguilar Claimed In A Since-Deleted Instagram Video That “We Stormed The Capitol, And Patriots Broke Open The Doors” And “We’re Taking Back Our States.” She Called The Day A “Revolution.” Nearly A Year Later, Aguilar Appeared At A More Low-Key Event With A Different Tone: A School Board Meeting In San Joaquin County, Just South Of Sacramento. That Evening, The Board Would Be Considering Covid Vaccine Guidance For The District’s Students, And She Was There To Raise Her Voice Against Any Government Mandates. The Shift From National To Local Is One With A Purpose. Supporters Of Jan. 6 Attack On Capitol Shift Focus To Local Politics “We Figured Out That Going To The Capitol And Working That Particular Piece Doesn’t Do Anything, Because These Legislators Have Already Made Up Their Mind,” Aguilar Told NBC News In December Outside The Stockton Meeting. “It’s All About Local Legislation, Your Local School Districts, Your City Council Board Of Supervisors,” She Said. “These People Live In Our Community. They Work Here, And They’re Going To Have To Face Us Every Single Day.” Aguilar’s Changing Focus Is Indicative Of A Broader Transformation By Many Of The Extremist Groups That Participated In The Jan. 6 Capitol Riot. After A Brief Cooling-Off Period, Groups Like Aguilar’s All-Women Militia Group, Mamalitia, And Many Others Have Focused On Local Politics — Most Notably School Boards And County Health Boards — Where They Have Found Success In Pushing Back Against Everything From Covid Mitigation Proposals To Public School Curricula. Domestic Extremist Groups Ranging From The Qanon Conspiracy Movement And The Proud Boys To Militia Organizations And Avowed White Nationalists Have Re-Emerged In Recent Months, Frequently Trying To Effect Change At The Local Level. But It’s Not Just The Strategy That Has Shifted. Most Far-Right Domestic Extremist Movements Have Also Adapted Their Infrastructure And Messaging, According To A Forthcoming Report By The Digital Forensic Research Lab At The Atlantic Council, A Nonprofit International Affairs Think Tank. Freshman Members Of Congress Reflect On Jan. 6 Riot That Analysis, Which Tracked Violent Domestic Extremism And Political Violence Since Jan. 6 Via News Reports And Known Extremist Networks, Found That Despite An Initial Decline, Domestic Extremist Groups Have Evolved And Resurfaced, Encouraging Local Action While Recruiting And Spreading Their Messages Through Culture-War Debates Including Vaccines, Race And Education. “The Domestic Extremist Landscape Was Battered By Jan. 6,” Said Jared Holt, A Resident Fellow At The Digital Forensic Research Lab And Author Of The New Report. “But Extremism Is Dynamic And Fluid. It Is Always Trying To Adapt To Fit The Container That It’s In.” For More On This Story, Watch NBC’s “Nightly News With Lester Holt” Tonight At 6:30 P.M. ET/5:30 P.M. CT. At The Event In Stockton, Aguilar Spoke Through A Bullhorn Outside, And Later At The Microphone Inside, Asking The Board To “Challenge The State’s Mandates.” Aguilar Was Immediately Followed At The Microphone By Two More Parents, Who Claimed Radiofrequency Radiation From Computers Used For Distance Learning Poisoned Their Children And Possibly Gave Them A Case Of “Havana Syndrome,” A Mysterious Brain Ailment Reported By Many Diplomats And U.S. Intelligence Officers. Minutes After That, The Board Of Education Agreed To Push Back Against California’s Still-Pending Vaccination Mandate. The Protesters Gave The School Board A Standing Ovation. Going Local After Their Failed Attempt To Overturn A Presidential Election Perceived As Stolen, Domestic Extremists Retreated To Their Backyards. Extremist Movements Faced “A Massive PR Crisis,” Holt Said. “A Lot Of These Movements Spent 2020 Raising Their Visibility, Building Out Their Ranks, Going To Mainstream Conservative Rallies At State Capitols, Showing Up In Opposition To Racial Justice Protests Over The Summer And Getting Very Active During The Election In The Period Afterward. All Of That Perceived Momentum Got Sucked Out Of The Room Very Quickly.” Then The Arrests Started. More Than 700 People Have Been Charged With Crimes Allegedly Committed At The Capitol On Jan. 6. Many Of Those Arrested Have Since Been Linked By Prosecutors, Researchers And Journalists To Extremist Groups: The Proud Boys, Qanon, Militia Groups Such As The Oath Keepers And The Three Percenters, And White Supremacists. But By Spring, There Were Already Internal Calls For The Far Right To Refocus. Steve Bannon, A Former Trump Adviser And Promoter Of The Jan. 6 Stop The Steal Rallies, Called For Foot Soldiers In His Far-Right Nationalism Movement To Get Involved In Local Politics. “We’re Going To Take This Back Village By Village,” He Told His Podcast Listeners In May. A Propublica Investigation Found An Unusual Increase In Local-Level Party Officers Following Bannon’s Rallying. A Move Toward Local Action Allowed Extremist Groups “To Evade The Scrutiny, Surveillance And Attention That They Might Receive When They Operate On A National Level,” Holt Said. While Far-Right Extremists May Be Less Willing To Telegraph Their Activities Than They Were In Recent Years, News Reports Documented Some Of Their Efforts, Particularly The Harassment Of Local Officials And Disruption Of Local Governments. Public Schools In Vancouver, Oregon, Went Into Lockdown In September, After The Far-Right Group Patriot Prayer, Known In The Pacific Northwest For Targeting Political Opponents At Violent Pro-Trump Portland Rallies, Spread A Rumor That A Child Faced Arrest For Failing To Wear A Mask. The False Claim Was Amplified By Proud Boys Members, Which Resulted In An Impromptu Anti-Mask Protest Outside A High School. In October, More Than A Dozen Reportedly “Agitated And Angry” Members Of A Colorado Militia, The United American Defense Force, Filed Into A School Board Meeting To Oppose Mask Mandates. Shifting Messages It’s Not Just The Audience, But The Message That’s Changed. “A Lot Of These Incidents Are Still Happening Near Major Metropolitan Areas, High Population Areas, But The Targets Of These Protests Are Not National Causes Anymore,” Holt Said. As Part Of The Effort To Stay Relevant And Engaged In Local Fights, Extremists Have Put New Focus On Covid-19 Vaccines And Safety Protocols, Race In School Curricula And Other Culture War Battles. Over The Summer, Qanon Believers Changed Their Mythology Of Donald Trump As Savior To Include Themselves As Part Of A Plan To Save The World. On Popular Qanon Forums, Influencers Urged Followers To Get Involved With School Committees And Boards And Run For Election At Any Level. In November, Super Happy Fun America (SHFA), A Far-Right Trolling Organization, Announced An Anti-Vaccine Rally In Boston. Two SHFA Leaders, Mark Sahady And Suzanne Ianni, Are Currently Facing Charges In The Jan. 6 Attack. That Same Month, Around 30 Men Dressed In The Black And Yellow Uniforms Of The Proud Boys, A Far-Right Gang Known For Political Violence And An Allegiance To So-Called Western Values, Marched The Streets Of Rockville Centre, A Long Island Suburb Of New York. In Their Telegram Channel, The Long Island Proud Boys Posted A Hodgepodge Of Purposes Behind The March, Which Included Honoring The Victims Of A Mass Killing Of Holiday Revelers The Weekend Before In Waukesha, Wisconsin, And Fighting Against “Illegal Vaccine Mandates.” (As Of Now, There Is No Evidence That The Six Deaths In Waukesha, Which Happened When A Black Man Drove His Car Into The Crowd At A Christmas Parade, Were Racially Motivated.) In Addition To Acting As Muscle For Anti-Vaccine Rallies In New York And Los Angeles, The Proud Boys Have Been An Intimidating Presence At Schools. In November, 10 Members Of The Group Attended A School Board Meeting In Suburban Illinois To Protest An LGBTQ-Friendly Book In Its Library. They “Jeered” At Students Who Came To Support The Book, And Called Them “Pedophiles,” According To The Chicago Sun-Times. Members Of The Cape Fear Proud Boys Chapter Who Showed Up In Uniform And Full Face Masks At Health And School Board Meetings In New Hanover, North Carolina, In November Made Their Purpose Clear. “If Our Presence Escalates That Pressure,” One Member Told A Local Reporter, “And Makes It To The Point Where We Become A Distraction To Conducting Business And They Just Change The Mask Mandate So We Go Away, That’s A Win.” The Proud Boys Used The Media Coverage In Recruitment Propaganda, Featuring A Photo Of The Group At The Meeting In Flyers That Read, “We Saved You A Seat.” Out Of Sight And Online Efforts To Organize Follow-Up Events To Jan. 6 Were Quickly Panned Once The Crowdsourced Identification And Arrests Began. And So Instead Of Rallying At The U.S. Capitol Or Their Statehouses, The Far Right Turned Back To The Internet. “It Doesn’t Take An Event Every Weekend To Sustain One Of These Communities,” Said Megan Squire, A Senior Fellow For Data Analytics At The Southern Poverty Law Center Who Tracks Online Extremism. “You Can Sustain A Community Online.” After Jan. 6, Various Internet Platforms And Digital Infrastructure Companies, Some Of Which Had Already Banned Various Groups Involved In The Riot, Took Action. Website Hosts Ended Service Agreements, Online Storefronts Removed Militia And Qanon Content, Groups Including The Oath Keepers Were Dropped By Their Payment Processors, And Mainstream Streaming Platforms Banned Popular Creators Who Participated In Or Promoted Violence At The Capitol. Remembering The Jan. 6 Riot: What It Was Like Inside The Capitol Extremists Reacted By Moving To Unmoderated Alternative Platforms, Many Of Which Offer A Way For Extremists To Broadcast Their Messages And Make Money Doing So. “Everybody And Their Brother Has A Podcast Now And A Videocast, And They’re Doing Nightly Streams,” Squire Said. “There Are A Billion Platforms Now That Offer Streaming, And Most Of That Is Monetized.” The Shift Away From Mainstream Platforms Has Also Given Some Extremists Groups Reason To Band Together. Thedonald Forum, Which Spun Off From Reddit To Become An Independent Website That Hosted Some Of The Most Violent Pro-Trump Content, Including Specific Plans To Breach The Capitol, Has Only Grown In The Last Year, Rebranding As A New Site, Patriots.Win, And Expanding To Host New Far-Right Communities As They Are Banned From Reddit, According To The Digital Forensic Research Lab Report. Some People, Including Mike Lindell, The Pillow Company Owner And Funder Of Stop The Steal Rallies And Causes, Created Their Own Online Spaces. Nick Fuentes, An Influential 22-Year-Old White Nationalist Who Urged A Crowd Of His Supporters Gathered At Freedom Plaza On Jan. 6, To “Take This Country Back By Force,” Created His Own Streaming Service After He Was Booted From Dlive, Which He Had Been Using Before The Capitol Riot. “We’re Back,” Fuentes Said In A Livestream From His New Platform In October. “We Can’t Be Censored. We Can’t Be De-Platformed. We’re All Here.” ‘The Toxins Are Still There’ The U.S. Government Is Taking The Threat Of Domestic Extremism More Seriously. More Than 700 People So Far Have Been Arrested And Charged With Crimes Related To The Capitol Breach. A Select House Committee Is Investigating The Attack, And President Joe Biden Has Established A National Strategy That Devotes $100 Million To The Justice Department To Address The Threat Of Domestic Violent Extremism. The Vigilance Is Warranted, Said Brian Levin, Director Of The Center For The Study Of Hate And Extremism At California State University, San Bernardino. Because Even While Extremist Groups Go Through A Time Of “Fragmentation And Realignment,” He Said The Environmental Elements That Contributed To The Rise In Extremism Up To The Attack On The Capitol Remain Strong. Indeed, White Nationalist Groups Are Beginning To Re-Emerge, Planning Large-Scale Events That Had Mostly Ceased Since The Deadly Unite The Right Rally In Charlottesville, Virginia, In 2017. “Our Demonstrations Are An Exhibition Of Our Unified Capability To Organize, To Show Our Strength,” Thomas Ryan Rousseau, Founder Of The White Nationalist Group Patriot Front, Explained In A Propaganda Video Made From His Group’s December March On The National Mall, During Which 100 Khaki-Dressed Men, Flanked By Police, Chanted “Reclaim America,” And Marched To The Capitol, Then Piled Into The Back Of A Moving Truck And Left. The Car Attack That Killed Six People And Injured More Than 60 At The Parade In Waukesha, Wisconsin, Was Animating For White Nationalist Groups And Movements, Which Are Looking For Race-Based Incidents To Further Incite Violence And Division. Levin Is Concerned About The Rise In Anti-Social Markers — Political Polarization, Internet Use, Alcoholism And Psychological Distress, Among Others — That Indicate Prime Conditions For Extremist Ideas And Groups To Take Hold. “These Extreme Communities May Very Well Ebb And Flow And Even Hit Their Ceiling, But They’re Not Going To Disintegrate,” Levin Said. “It’s Like Hitting Mercury With A Hammer. Distribution And Size Will Vary. But The Toxins Are Still There.”

New York Attorney General Asks Court To Enforce Subpoenas Of Trump Children In Tax Fraud Probe New York Attorney General Letitia James Has Subpoenaed Ivanka Trump And Donald Trump Jr. As Part Of Her Civil Tax Fraud Investigation Into The Trump Organization, Court Filings Made Public Monday Reveal. James' Office "Recently" Filed Subpoenas Seeking Testimony And Documents From Former President Donald Trump's Children "In Connection With An Investigation Into The Valuation Of Properties Owned Or Controlled By Donald J. Trump Or The Trump Organization," According To A New York Supreme Court Order Unsealed Monday And First Reported By The New York Times. James Is Also Seeking To Depose The Former President, Who Has Called Her Investigation "Corrupt" And A "Witch Hunt." On Monday Evening, Lawyers For Ivanka Trump, Donald Trump Jr. And Their Father Filed A Motion Arguing The Subpoenas Are Improper Because James' Office Is Also Assisting The Manhattan District Attorney In A Criminal Probe Of The Trump Organization. The State Attorney General "Is Engaged In A Criminal Investigation That Has An Active Grand Jury. It Cannot Issue Subpoenas For Testimony Under The Guise Of A Civil Investigation That Will Immediately Become Available" To Its Own Criminal Investigation, The Lawyers Argued In Their Motion To Quash The Subpoenas. "The Subpoenas Are An Obvious Improper End-Run Around The Rules," They Added. Attorneys For The Trumps Also Requested The Judge Postpone The Depositions Until After The Criminal Probe If The Motion To Quash The Subpoenas Is Rejected. James Contended The Trumps Were Stalling. "For More Than Two Years, Members Of The Trump Family And The Trump Organization Have Continually Sought To Delay And Impede Our Investigation Into Donald Trump And The Trump Organization, But Despite Their Names, They Must Play By The Same Rules As Everyone Else," James Said In A Statement Monday. "These Delay Tactics Will Not Stop Us From Following The Facts Or The Law, Which Is Why We Will Be Asking The Court To Compel Donald Trump, Donald Trump Jr., And Ivanka Trump To Testify With Our Office Under Oath." The Legal Fight Was Revealed After A New York Judge Signed Off On A Dec. 30 Stipulation Allowing The Trumps To File A Motion To Quash The Subpoenas And For James To Respond With A Timetable For The Judge To Review The Filings. Lawyers For The State Attorney General's Office Deposed Trump's Son Eric Trump In Their Probe In Late 2020. James' Office Is Looking Into Whether To File A Civil Suit Against The Company And Has Been Assisting A Criminal Investigation Headed By The Manhattan District Attorney Into Alleged Tax Fraud Schemes At Trump's Company. The DA's Office Charged The Trump Organization And Its Chief Financial Officer, Allen Weisselberg, With Tax Fraud Last Year. Both Have Pleaded Not Guilty. The Former President And His Children Have Not Been Accused Of Any Wrongdoing In Either The State AG's Case Or The Manhattan District Attorney's Probe. After News That Trump Had Been Subpoenaed Became Public Last Month, His Attorney Ronald Fischetti Said He Was Not Worried About The Probe. "They Have Been Investigating This For Three Years. We Are Not Concerned About It Because He Has Done Nothing Wrong," Fischetti Said, Referring To Trump.

Virginia Ag Sues Town Where Police Threatened Black Army Lieutenant During Stop Virginia’s Attorney General Sued The Town Where A Police Officer Appeared To Threaten The Execution Of A Black Army Lieutenant During A Traffic Stop, Alleging Thursday That The City's Police Department Engages In A Broader Pattern Of Discriminatory Policing. In A Written Statement, Top State Prosecutor Mark Herring Recalled The “Egregious Treatment” Of U.S. Army Officer Lt. Caron Nazario And Said A Monthslong Investigation Prompted By The Case Uncovered “Huge” Disparities In Enforcement Against Black Drivers And A “Troubling Lack Of Policies And Procedures” To Prevent Discrimination. “We Even Discovered Evidence That Officers Were Actually Being Trained To Go ‘Fishing’ And Engage In Pretextual Stops,” Herring Said. Nazario's Traffic Stop Occurred Dec. 5, 2020, In The Town Of Windsor, About 30 Miles West Of Downtown Norfolk, When Officers Pulled Him Over For Not Having A License Plate. 'I'm Honestly Afraid To Get Out': Police Pull Guns On Afro-Latino Army Officer In Traffic Stop A Lawsuit Filed Earlier This Year By Nazario Against Windsor Officers Joe Gutierrez And Daniel Crocker Alleges Excessive Force And Other Constitutional Violations, And Claims The Officers Struck Nazario With Their Knees After He Was “Compliant And Blinded” By Pepper Spray. In The Suit, Nazario, Who Is Black And Latino, Said He Had A New Vehicle Tag Clearly Visible In His Rear Window And Didn't Immediately Pull Over Because He Was Looking For A Safe Place To Stop. When He Finally Did, Gutierrez Told Him He Was "Fixin' To Ride The Lightning," According To The Lawsuit And Body Camera Video Of The Incident. The Lawsuit States The Expression Is A Reference To Execution By Electric Chair. The Video Showed Nazario Saying He Was Afraid To Get Out Of His Car And Officers Pepper Spraying Him. Gutierrez Was Later Fired By The Department And Crocker Was Disciplined. Their Lawyers Did Not Immediately Respond To Requests For Comment Thursday, But In Court Filings Gutierrez And Crocker Denied The Allegations In Nazario's Suit, Saying They Used "Reasonable" Force And Did Not Violate His Rights. Gutierrez Also Denied That He Was Planning To Execute Nazario, The Filing Says. In The Suit Filed Thursday, Virginia State Prosecutors Claimed That Windsor Police Officers Disproportionately Stop Black Drivers. Between July 1, 2020, And Sept. 30, Black Drivers Accounted For 42 Percent Of The Department's Traffic Stops, A Rate 200 To 500 Percent Greater Than What It Should Be Based On The Size Of The Area's Black Population, The Suit Claims. The Suit Also Alleges That Officers Disproportionately Search Black Motorists And That The Department Provided Different Traffic Stop And Citation Data To Local And State Authorities. The Suit, Filed In Circuit Court In Isle Of Wight County, Seeks To Reform The Department Through Court-Ordered Policy Changes. Windsor Town Officials Did Not Immediately Respond To Requests For Comment, But In A Statement To A Local Newspaper, The Suffolk News-Herald, The Town Described Herring's Suit As "Clearly Political." Before And After Nazario's Traffic Stop, The Police Department Practiced Non-Discriminatory Policing, The Statement Said. Still, Officials Took Measures To Increase Police Training And Accountability, The Statement Said — Measures That State Prosecutors "Were Fully Aware Of" For "Several Months." The Statement Also Said That Data Cited By The Attorney General's Office Was "Questionable," Though It Did Not Provide Additional Details. In An Interview Thursday, A Lawyer For Nazario, Tom Roberts, Said He Was "Happy To See The Attorney General Of The State Of Virginia Has Taken The Dec. 5 Incident As Seriously As We Do." He Added That Nazario Is In Treatment For Symptoms Of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder And Views What Happened Last Year As A "Horrible Betrayal." "It's Shaken Him To His Core," He Said. Correction (Dec. 31, 2021, 1:22 P.M. Et): An Earlier Version Of This Story Misstated Where The Lawsuit Was Filed. It Was Isle Of Wight County Circuit Court, Not Isle Of Wright County Circuit Court.

Jan. 6 Panel Has 'Firsthand Testimony' Ivanka Trump Asked Father To Intervene In Riot, Cheney Says The House Panel Investigating The Jan. 6 Riot Has Testimony That Then-President Donald Trump's Daughter Ivanka Trump Asked Him To Intervene As His Supporters Ransacked The U.S. Capitol, Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., Said Sunday. "The Committee Has Firsthand Testimony Now That He Was Sitting In The Dining Room Next To The Oval Office Watching The Attack On Television As The Assault On The Capitol Occurred. We Know, As You Know Well, That The Briefing Room At The White House Is Just A Mere Few Steps From The Oval Office," Cheney, The Vice Chair Of The Committee, Said On Abc News' "This Week." She Said That At Any Moment, Trump Could Have Walked To The Briefing Room And Appeared On Television. "We Know, As He Was Sitting There In The Dining Room Next To The Oval Office, Members Of His Staff Were Pleading With Him To Go On Television, To Tell People To Stop. We Know Leader Mccarthy Was Pleading With Him To Do That," She Said, Referring To House Minority Leader Kevin Mccarthy, R-Calif. "We Know Members Of His Family, We Know His Daughter — We Have Firsthand Testimony That His Daughter Ivanka Went In At Least Twice To Ask Him To Please Stop This Violence," She Said. In A One-Minute Video Released On Social Media Hours After The Attack Began, Trump Repeated False Claims About The Election He Lost While Encouraging The Rioters, Who Attacked The Capitol During A Joint Session Of Congress To Disrupt The Counting Of The Electoral Votes Formalizing Joe Biden's Win, To "Go Home In Peace." "Go Home. We Love You. You're Very Special," Trump Said. He Tweeted Later, "These Are The Things And Events That Happen When A Sacred Landslide Election Victory Is So Unceremoniously & Viciously Stripped Away From Great Patriots Who Have Been Badly & Unfairly Treated For So Long." Twitter Took Action Against Both Messages And Banned Trump After The Riot, Citing "The Risk Of Further Incitement Of Violence." Thompson Said On Nbc News' "Meet The Press" That The Panel Believes Trump Made "Several Videos" Before He Released The Short Clip And That It Has Asked The National Archives For Videos That Were Never Shared. "It's About 187 Minutes," He Said In An Interview That Aired Sunday, Referring To How Long It Took For Trump To Urge His Supporters To Leave The Capitol After The Attack Began. Representatives For Trump And His Daughter Did Not Immediately Respond To Requests For Comment. Over The Past Few Months, The Jan. 6 Committee Has Been Accelerating Its Investigation Into The Riot, As Well As Any Actions Or Inaction By Trump And His Allies. The House Voted Last Month To Refer Former White House Chief Of Staff Mark Meadows To The Justice Department For A Criminal Charge Over His Refusal To Answer The Committee's Questions. The Panel Also Recently Asked Reps. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, And Scott Perry, R-Pa., To Provide Information About Their Activities. The Chair Of The Committee , Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., Said Sunday That Its Ability To Subpoena The Lawmakers Remains Uncertain. As The Anniversary Of Jan. 6 Nears, Thompson Appeared On Three Sunday Programs To Discuss The Congressional Investigation And The Pro-Trump Rally That Preceded The Deadly Event. Trump Spoke At The Rally And Encouraged Those Who Were There To March To The Capitol, Where Congress Was Formalizing Biden's Win. Trump Encourages Those At His Rally To March To The Capitol Thompson Said The Panel Has Evidence Of Interactions Between House Members And Rioters On Jan. 6 That May Or May Not Be Significant. He Did Not Specify Who. "Now, 'Assisted' Means Different Things," He Said On "Meet The Press." "Some Took Pictures With People Who Came To The 'Stop The Steal' Rally. Some, You Know, Allowed Them To Come And Associate In Their Offices And Other Things During That Whole Rally Week. So There's Some Participation." Thompson Also Said The Panel Intends To Recommend Legislation To Improve Intelligence Gathering, Which He Said He Hoped Would Ensure That "This Will Never, Ever Happen Again." "As You Know, It Was Clear That We Were Not Apprised That Something Would Happen. But, For The Most Part, It Was The Worst-Kept Secret In America That People Were Coming Into Washington, And The Potential For Coordination And What We Saw Was There. So We Want To Make Sure That Never Happens Again," He Said On "This Week." A Senate Report Released In June, The Product Of A Joint Investigation By The Homeland Security And Rules Committees, Summed Up What It Says Were Profound Intelligence And Security Failures That Contributed To One Of The Worst Incidents Of Domestic Terrorism In U.S. History. The Report Found That A Key Contributor Was The Failure Of The Intelligence Community To "Properly Analyze, Assess, And Disseminate Information To Law Enforcement" About The Potential For Violence And The Known Threats To The Capitol. In The Report, An Unnamed Capitol Police Officer Was Quoted As Saying: "We Were Ill Prepared. We Were Not Informed With Intelligence. We Were Betrayed." House Intelligence Committee Chair Adam Schiff, D-Calif., Said On Cbs News' "Face The Nation" That The Riot Was, "In Part, An Intelligence Failure That Is The Failure To See All The Evidence That Was Out There To Be Seen Of The Propensity For Violence That Day." Full Thompson Interview: ‘We Came Critically Close To Losing This Democracy’ The Jan. 6 Committee Will Also Recommend Legislation To Better Coordinate Resources To Protect The Capitol, Thompson Said. "There Were Significant Inconsistencies In Coordination. The National Guard From The District Of Columbia Was Slow To Respond, Not On Its Own, But It Had To Go To The Department Of Defense," He Said On "This Week." "We Want To Make Sure That The Line Of Communication Between The Capitol Police And The Structure Of How We Make Decisions Is Clear. Right Now, It's Kind Of A Hybrid Authority, And That Authority Clearly Broke Down."

Twitter 'Permanently Suspends' Marjorie Taylor Greene's Personal Account Twitter Suspended A Personal Account Of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., For "Repeated Violations" Of Its Covid Misinformation Policy, The Company Said Sunday. "We Permanently Suspended The Account You Referenced (@Mtgreenee) For Repeated Violations Of Our COVID-19 Misinformation Policy," Twitter Said In A Statement. "We’ve Been Clear That, Per Our Strike System For This Policy, We Will Permanently Suspend Accounts For Repeated Violations Of The Policy." Greene Appears To Still Have Access To Her Professional Account, @Repmtg. Twitter Did Not Say What Was Tweeted To Earn What It Calls A Permanent Suspension. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Green Banned From Twitter For Covid Misinformation Greene Said In A Statement Through Her Office Sunday That She Was Suspended For Tweeting Statistics From The Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System. Anyone Can Report An Adverse Event To The System, Which Operates Under The Department Of Health And Human Services. The Agency Says It Is "Not Designed To Determine If A Vaccine Caused A Health Problem." "Twitter Is An Enemy To America And Can’t Handle The Truth," Greene Said. "That’s Fine, I’ll Show America We Don’t Need Them And It’s Time To Defeat Our Enemies." Twitter Implemented A Strike System For Violations In March. A Single Strike Might Not Incur An Action, But The Company Will Place Locks On Accounts That Repeatedly Violate The Policy. Five Or More Strikes Result In A "Permanent Suspension," According To The Company's Website. Greene Was Suspended Multiple Times Last Year For Violations Of The Policies. In January Last Year, Greene Was Suspended For Making False Claims About Widespread Voter Fraud In Georgia. She Was Also Suspended In July And August For Violating The Covid-19 Policy With Tweets About Vaccines. Greene’s Suspension Is Not The First Time Twitter Has Banned An Elected Official. Last Year, It Issued A Similar Action Against Then-President Donald Trump Because Of “Severe Violations Of Our Civic Integrity Policy." Chief Financial Officer Ned Segal Told CNBC In February That Twitter Would Uphold The Ban Even If Trump Runs For Office Again. “Our Policies Are Designed To Make Sure That People Are Not Inciting Violence,” Segal Said. “He Was Removed When He Was President, And There’d Be No Difference For Anybody Who’s A Public Official Once They’ve Been Removed From The Service.”

Snow Storms And Pandemic Ground Flights, Delay Holiday’s End Wintry Weather Combined With The Pandemic To Frustrate Air Travelers Whose Return Flights Home From The Holidays Were Canceled Or Delayed In The First Days Of The New Year. More Than 2,500 U.S. Flights And More Than 4,100 Worldwide Were Grounded Sunday, According To Tracking Service Flightaware. That Followed Saturday’s Mass Cancellations Of More Than 2,700 U.S. Flights, And More Than 4,700 Worldwide. “It Was Absolute Mayhem,” Said Natasha Enos, Who Spent A Sleepless Saturday Night And Sunday Morning At Denver International Airport During What Was Supposed To Be A Short Layover On A Cross-Country Trip From Washington To San Francisco. Saturday’s Single-Day U.S. Toll Of Grounded Flights Was The Highest Since Just Before Christmas, When Airlines Began Blaming Staffing Shortages On Increasing COVID-19 Infections Among Crews. A Winter Storm That Hit The Midwest On Saturday Made Chicago The Worst Place In The Country For Travelers Throughout The Weekend. About A Quarter Of All Flights At O’Hare Airport Were Canceled Sunday. Denver’s Airport Also Faced Significant Disruptions. Enos, Who Was Flying On Frontier Airlines, Didn’t Learn That Her Connecting Flight Home To California Was Canceled Until She Had Already Landed In Denver. Then It Was A Rush To Find Alternative Flights And Navigate Through Baggage Claims Packed With Stranded And Confused Travelers, Amid Concerns About The Spread Of The Highly Transmissible Omicron Variant Of COVID-19. “It Was A Lot Of People In A Very Small Space And Not Everybody Was Masking,” Said The 28-Year-Old Financial Analyst. “There Were A Lot Of Exhausted Kids And Some Families Were So Stressed Out.” In Michigan, The Authority That Runs Detroit International Airport Said Crews Were Working Around The Clock To Remove Snow And Maintain The Airfield. Atlanta’s Airport Authority Advised Travelers To Arrive Earlier Than Usual Because Of High Passenger Volume, Potential Weather Issues And Pandemic-Fueled Staffing Shortages That Could Lengthen The Time It Takes To Get Through Security Gates. And Thousands Of Miles From The Closest Snow Storms, Hawaiian Airlines Said It Had To Cancel Several Flights Between Islands And Across The Pacific Due To Staffing Shortages. Southwest Airlines Said It Was Working To Help Customers Affected By About 400 Flights Canceled Around The Country Sunday, About 11% Of Its Schedule. The Dallas-Based Airline Anticipates Even More Operational Challenges To Come As The Storm System Pushes Into The Eastern Seaboard. Delta Air Lines Said Sunday That It Was Issuing A Travel Waiver For Planned Flights This Week Out Of Mid-Atlantic Airports In Baltimore And Washington In Preparation For Expected Winter Weather. American Airlines Said Most Of Sunday’s Canceled Flights Had Been Halted Ahead Of Time To Avoid Last-Minute Disruptions At The Airport. Skywest, A Regional Carrier That Operates Flights Under The Names American Eagle, Delta Connection And United Express, Grounded Nearly 500 Flights Sunday, About 20 Percent Of Its Schedule, According To Flightaware. Airlines Have Said They Are Taking Steps To Reduce Cancellations Caused By Workers Affected By The Omicron Variant. United Is Offering To Pay Pilots Triple Or More Of Their Usual Wages For Picking Up Open Flights Through Most Of January. Spirit Airlines Reached A Deal With The Association Of Flight Attendants For Double Pay For Cabin Crews Through Tuesday, A Union Spokesperson Said. Airlines Hope That Extra Pay And Reduced Schedules Get Them Through The Holiday Crush And Into The Heart Of January, When Travel Demand Usually Drops Off. The Seasonal Decline Could Be Sharper Than Normal This Year Because Most Business Travelers Are Still Grounded.

Defense Secretary Tests Positive For Covid, Says His Symptoms Are Mild Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin Said Sunday That He Had Tested Positive For Covid. In A Statement, He Said Was Fully Vaccinated, With A Booster Shot Having Been Administered In October, And Was Feeling Only Mild Systems As A Probable Result. Positivity For A Fully Vaccinated Person Is Characterized As A Breakthrough Case. Austin Said He Will Try To Attend All Necessary Meetings Virtually For At Least The Next Five Days, During Which He Will Isolate Himself According To New Guidelines From The Centers For Disease Control And Prevention. "I Will Retain All Authorities," He Said. "Deputy Secretary [Kathleen] Hicks Will Represent Me As Appropriate In Other Matters." Austin Suggested That He Was Positive At A Time That Would Not Have Exposed President Joe Biden To The Coronavirus. He Said His Last Meeting With The President Was On Dec. 21, More Than A Week Before His Symptoms Prompted Him To Request A Test While He Was On Holiday Leave At Home. In Addition, Austin Said, He Wore A Mask And Kept Proper Distance During The Meeting With Biden. Austin Used The Occasion To Double Down On The Armed Forces' Vaccination Requirement. He Said His Inoculation Served Him Well In Confronting A Potentially Deadly Disease. "The Vaccines Work And Will Remain A Military Medical Requirement For Our Workforce," He Said. "I Continue To Encourage Everyone Eligible For A Booster Shot To Get One. This Remains A Readiness Issue." Austin Made The Announcement The Same Day Biden Spoke To Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Vowing To Stand By The Country As It Fears A Possible Invasion By Russia. Russian Forces Have Been Expanding Along The Ukraine Border And Now Number About 100,000.

PGA, Trump Org. Announce Settlement Over Axed Bedminster Golf Tournament The PGA And The Trump Organization Announced Tuesday A Settlement Over The Golf Association's Decision To Move Its 2022 Championship From Trump's New Jersey Golf Course In The Wake Of The Jan. 6 Riot At The U.S. Capitol. The Terms Of The Settlement Were Not Released, But The Professional Golfers' Association Offered Glowing Words For Former President Donald Trump's Company And Its Bedminster Golf Course. "The Trump Organization’s Contribution To The Golf Community Is Appreciated. We Are Thankful The Company Employs Hundreds Of Dedicated PGA Professionals And Consistently Gives Back To The Golf Community Through Hosting Charitable Events And Sponsoring Junior Golf Programs," The PGA Said In A Statement, Calling Trump Bedminster "A Major Championship-Worthy Golf Course." The PGA Announced In 2014 That It Would Hold Its 2022 Championship At Trump Bedminster. The Organization Pulled The Plug On Those Plans Days After A Pro-Trump Mob Stormed The Capitol In An Effort To Block Certification Of Joe Biden's Election Win. "It's Become Clear That Conducting The PGA Championship At Trump Bedminster Would Be Detrimental To The PGA Of America Brand And Would Put At Risk The PGA's Ability To Deliver On Many Programs And Sustain The Longevity Of Our Mission," PGA Of America President Jim Richerson Said At The Time. Former President Trump Asks Supreme Court To Block Release Of Jan. 6 Documents The Trump Organization Called The Move "A Breach Of A Binding Contract" And Said The PGA Had "No Right To Terminate The Agreement." "As An Organization We Have Invested Many Many Millions Of Dollars In The 2022 PGA Championship At Trump National Golf Club, Bedminster," The Statement Said. On Tuesday, Eric Trump, The Trump Organization's Executive Vice President, Said, "We Have Great Respect For The Work Of The PGA." "We Look Forward To Continuing To Support The Mission Of The PGA And Its Professionals, Who Are The Best In The Golf Industry," He Said. His Father Also Weighed In, Hailing The Settlement In A Statement As A "Wonderful Conclusion For All. Thank You To The PGA Of America!" Trump, Who Famously Said He Would Be Too Busy To Golf If He Were Elected President In The 2016 Campaign, Wound Up Being A Prolific Golfer While In Office, Mostly Playing At His Own Courses. An NBC News Tally Of His Golfing Trips Totaled Over 250 During His Time In Office, But An Exact Number Was Difficult To Track. His Administration Often Tried To Hide Trump's Activity, Keeping His Traveling Press Pool Away And Refusing To Confirm Whether He Played Golf. While In Office, He Was One Of The Sport's Biggest Boosters, Awarding The Country's Highest Civilian Honor, The Medal Of Freedom, To Four Golfers, Including Tiger Woods.

Biden Plans To Reaffirm Support For Ukraine In Call With Zelenskyy On Sunday President Joe Biden Plans To Speak By Phone With Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy On Sunday To Reaffirm U.S. Support For The Country's Sovereignty And Territorial Integrity, The White House Told Reporters On Friday. Russia Has Amassed 100,000 Troops Along The Ukrainian Border, Prompting Fears Of An Invasion As Early As Next Month. The Scheduled Call Comes Amid Tense Diplomatic Discussions Between The U.S. And Russia. Both Leaders Will Discuss Russia's Military Build-Up On Ukraine's Border, And Review Preparations For Upcoming Diplomatic Talks To De-Escalate The Situation In The Region, The White House Said. Biden On Thursday Warned Russian President Vladimir Putin That The U.S. Could Impose New Sanctions Against The Country If It Takes Military Action Against Ukraine, During A Nearly Hour-Long Call Between The Two Leaders. "President Biden Urged Russia To De-Escalate Tensions With Ukraine. He Made Clear That The United States And Its Allies And Partners Will Respond Decisively If Russia Further Invades Ukraine," Said White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki In A Statement Thursday. Biden's Remarks Were Similar To Those In A Call With Putin On Dec. 7, In Which Biden Said Moscow Would Face "Severe Consequences" If It Attacked Ukraine. Biden Spoke With Zelenskyy Earlier This Month To Reaffirm U.S. Support For Ukraine. At The Time, Biden Told Zelenskyy That The U.S. And Its European Allies Are Prepared To Pursue "Strong Economic Measures" To Punish Russia As Well As Boost The Capabilities Of NATO Allies Near Ukraine If The Kremlin Moves Forward With An Invasion. Russia Has Repeatedly Denied That It Has Any Plans To Attack Its Neighbor, But Biden Administration Officials Have Said They Are Preparing For Such A Possibility. The U.S. And Russia Are Scheduled To Hold Security Talks On Jan. 10. Biden And Putin Are Not Expected To Participate.

Putin Warns Biden Of ‘Complete Rupture’ Of U.S.-Russia Relationship Over Ukraine President Vladimir V. Putin Of Russia Spoke With President Biden For 50 Minutes About The Escalating Crisis With Ukraine, But His Intentions Remained Unclear. • Send Any Friend A Story As A Subscriber, You Have 10 Gift Articles To Give Each Month. • Anyone Can Read What You Share. President Vladimir V. Putin Warned President Biden On Thursday That Any Economic Sanctions Imposed On Russia If It Moves To Take New Military Action Against Ukraine Could Result In A “Complete Rupture” Of Relations Between The Two Nuclear Superpowers, A Russian Official Told Reporters On Thursday Evening. The Exchange Came During A 50-Minute Phone Call That Mr. Putin Requested, And Which Both Sides Described As Businesslike. Yet It Ended Without Clarity About Mr. Putin’s Intentions. He Has Massed 100,000 Or So Troops On The Border With Ukraine, And Issued Demands For The North Atlantic Treaty Organization And The United States To Pull Back Their Forces In The Region, But Apparently Has Not Decided Whether To Order An Invasion. Mr. Biden, For His Part, Pushed Back, According To Two American Officials. A Terse White House Statement Said He “Made Clear That The United States And Its Allies And Partners Will Respond Decisively If Russia Further Invades Ukraine.” American Officials Declined To Discuss The Substance Of The Discussion, Insisting That, Unlike The Russians, They Would Not Negotiate In Public. But It Was Clear That Both Sides Were Trying To Shape The Diplomatic Landscape For Talks That Will Begin In Geneva On Jan. 10, And Then Move To Brussels And Vienna Later In The Week In Sessions That Will Include NATO Allies And Then Ukraine Itself. During The Conversation, Mr. Putin Repeatedly Accused The United States And NATO Nations Of Placing Offensive Weapons Near Russia’s Borders, Imperiling The Country’s Security. It Is A Charge That Russian Officials Have Made Repeatedly In Recent Times, At First Puzzling American Officials. At First It Appeared They Might Be Referring To Javelin Anti-Tank Weapons And Other Small Munitions The U.S. Has Provided To Ukraine To Deter An Attack. But Over Time, It Has Become Increasingly Clear That The Russians Are Referring To Nuclear And Non-Nuclear “Global Strike” Weapons, Including Intermediate-Range Nuclear Missiles That Were Prohibited By A Treaty That Moscow Violated For Several Years, And President Trump Abandoned. Some U.S. Officials Say That Mr. Putin’s Concern May Provide Some Basis For New Negotiations With Russia — Especially Because There Are No Current Plans To Deploy A New Generation Of Such Weapons On European Soil. In Moscow, Yuri V. Ushakov, Mr. Putin’s Foreign Policy Adviser, Said The Russian President Had Conveyed Moscow’s Expectation That The Upcoming Talks Would Lead To “Legally Formulated Guarantees Of Security” For Russia. He Added That The Conversation Had Created A “Positive Background” For Negotiations In January, But That No Compromises Had Been Reached. Mr. Biden Has Attempted A Two-Track Approach, Trying To Deter Russia With Unusually Specific Warnings About Imposing A Series Of Sanctions That Would Go Far Beyond What The West Agreed Upon In 2014, After The Russian Annexation Of Crimea. The New Sanctions Under Consideration Range From Cutting Russia Off From The System Of Global Financial Settlements To Imposing New Restrictions On American And Western Semiconductors, Which Russia Employs For Its Military Modernization. Mr. Ushakov Said Mr. Putin Warned That Any New, Harsh Sanctions Would Be A Mistake, And That, As Mr. Ushakov Put It, “In This Situation, It’s Better Not To Make Such Mistakes.” But He Also Said That Mr. Biden Had Observed More Than Once During The Call That “It’s Impossible To Win” A Nuclear War — Something Mr. Biden Has Often Said In Public. While The Tone Of The Call Was Constructive, According To The Kremlin Aide, Mr. Putin Repeated His Claims That Russia Felt Threatened By An Encroaching NATO. He Said That Russia Would “Conduct Itself As The United States Would Behave If Offensive Weapons Were Near The United States.” The Biden Administration, Like The Trump Administration Before It, Has Provided Hundreds Of Millions Of Dollars In Aid To The Ukrainian Military To Fund What It Characterizes As Purely Defensive Arms, Including Anti-Tank Missiles To Repel A Threatened Russian Invasion. Russia Has Called Those Offensive Weapons That Threaten Its Own Forces. Mr. Ushakov Said That “For Now, It’s Not Clear” If The Two Sides Were Moving Toward A Compromise But Said Russia Had Not Specific Deadline For Talks. An American Official, Briefing Reporters On The Condition Of Anonymity, Said The Call “Set The Sort Of Tone And Tenor For The Diplomatic Engagements” To Come In January. But He Declined To “Get Into The Territory Of Starting To Negotiate In Public,” Saying That “Whatever The Russian Side Has Decided Is Its Best Tactic And Strategy In Terms Of Its Public Pronouncements, We Really Believed, Based On Past Precedents, That It Is Most Constructive To Have These Conversations Privately.” Mr. Biden And Mr. Putin Had Radically Different Objectives Going Into The Call. By Massing Troops On The Border And Then Publishing Two Draft Treaties That Had Echoes Of Cold War-Era Demands, Mr. Putin Created An International Crisis And Made Plain His Desire To Wind Back The Clock 30 Years, To Just Before The Collapse Of The Soviet Union. He Demanded That Ukraine Halt Its Embrace Of The West, That The United States And Its Allies Halt All Military Activity In Eastern Europe And Central Asia And That NATO Freeze Its Expansion To The East And Roll Back Military Deployments Near Russia’s Borders. In Washington And European Capitals, Most Of The Proposed Treaty Language Was Immediately Rejected As An Effort To Redraw The Post-Cold War Boundaries Of Europe, And, With The Threat Of Invasion, Force Ukraine Back Into Moscow’s Orbit. Yet Despite Russia’s Damaged Economy And Diminished Capabilities, Mr. Putin Is Dealing From A Strong Hand: He Demonstrated In 2014, With The Annexation Of Crimea, His Willingness To Pick Off Russian-Speaking Territory. And He Is Confident That The United States And Its NATO Allies Will Not Commit Forces To The Task Of Pushing Back. But All That Was True When The Two Leaders Last Spoke On Dec. 3. So They Entered The Second Conversation On Thursday Amid Speculation That The Russian Leader Was Feeling Out Mr. Biden’s Red Lines Ahead Of The Formal Round Of Talks Next Month. A Senior Administration Official Told Reporters On Wednesday That The United States Assessment Was That Mr. Putin Had Not Decided Whether To Invade Ukraine. But The Biden Administration Expected That Russia Would Have To Make That Decision In The Next Month, In The Brief Window Ahead Of The Spring Thaw In March Or April, When It Would Become Difficult To Roll Heavy Equipment Into Ukraine. Russia’s Foreign Minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, Had Aired Concerns Ahead Of Thursday’s Call That The United States Might Try To Drag Out The Talks As Long As Possible, Even As It Expressed Willingness To Engage. The U.S. Has Suggested A Return To A Diplomatic Process. But Mr. Lavrov Said On Monday That Russia Should Not Be Left In A Situation Where “Our Proposals Are Tied Up In Endless Discussions, Which The West Is Famous For And Which It Knows How To Do.” It Is Important, He Said, That, “There Is A Result Of All These Diplomatic Efforts.” He Said The Russian Government Remained Skeptical That The United States And NATO Would Truly Engage On Mr. Putin’s Demands. “We Have Serious Doubts That The Key Thing In The Proposals — The Unconditional Demand For A Halt To NATO’s Eastward Expansion — Won’t Fall By The Wayside,” He Said In The Comments, Carried By The Tass News Agency. Understand The Escalating Tensions Over Ukraine A Brewing Conflict. Antagonism Between Ukraine And Russia Has Been Simmering Since 2014, When The Russian Military Crossed Into Ukrainian Territory, Annexing Crimea And Whipping Up A Rebellion In The East. A Tenuous Cease-Fire Was Reached In 2015, But Peace Has Been Elusive. A Spike In Hostilities. Russia Has Recently Been Building Up Forces Near Its Border With Ukraine, And The Kremlin’s Rhetoric Toward Its Neighbor Has Hardened. Concern Grew In Late October, When Ukraine Used An Armed Drone To Attack A Howitzer Operated By Russian-Backed Separatists. Ominous Warnings. Russia Called The Strike A Destabilizing Act That Violated The Cease-Fire Agreement, Raising Fears Of A New Intervention In Ukraine That Could Draw The United States And Europe Into A New Phase Of The Conflict. The Kremlin’s Position. President Vladimir V. Putin Of Russia, Who Has Increasingly Portrayed NATO’s Eastward Expansion As An Existential Threat To His Country, Said That Moscow’s Military Buildup Was A Response To Ukraine’s Deepening Partnership With The Alliance. A Measured Approach. President Biden Has Said He Is Seeking A Stable Relationship With Russia. So Far, His Administration Is Focusing On Maintaining A Dialogue With Moscow, While Seeking To Develop Deterrence Measures In Concert With European Countries. Russia’s Demands Are So Sweeping That Many Political Analysts View Them As Untenable, Signifying Either A Bargaining Chip For Russia Or A Justification For War When Its Demands Are Inevitably Rejected. NATO Immediately Dismissed The Central Stipulation To Guarantee A Halt On Admitting New Members. While The Demands Are Addressed To The United States And NATO, Russia’s Military Threat Is Aimed At Ukraine. The United States Has Said That Despite Its Calls For “De-Escalation,” The Russians Have Shown No Signs Of Leaving And Have Instead Inflamed The Situation. Still, American Officials Believe That Mr. Putin Has Not Yet Decided To Order The Invasion — And May Still Be Convinced To Back Off. So They Have Made Public Their Plans For Extreme Economic Sanctions If An Invasion Starts, While Signaling They Are Open To Diplomacy. Image “A Broader Challenge Of The Crisis Is Russia Pointing A Gun At Ukraine’s Head While Asking The West To Make Concessions,” Said Samuel Charap, A Russian Security Analyst At The RAND Corporation. “And That Has Been The Dynamic Here.” Ukrainian Officials Have Been Quietly Searching For Diplomatic Openings Of Their Own. The Government In Kyiv Has Been Exploring Whether Negotiations For Cease-Fires And Related Security Matters In The Long-Simmering Conflict With Russian-Backed Separatists In Eastern Ukraine Can Dial Down The Wider Tensions, According To A Senior U.S. Official Who Briefed Journalists In Washington Before The Presidential Phone Call. “We Have Had Very Good Discussions With The Ukrainian Side In Terms Of Short-Term Confidence-Building Measures They Have Put On The Table With The Russian Side,” The Official Said, Speaking Without Attribution Under Terms Set By The Biden White House. “For There To Be Real Progress In These Talks For Us To Get To A Place Where We Have Security And Stability In Europe, A Context Of De-Escalation Rather Than Escalation Will Be Required.” In An Early Sign Of Success Of The Ukrainian Diplomatic Initiative, The Organization For Security And Cooperation In Europe Brokered A Holiday Cease-Fire Along The Front That Held For Several Days, Though Skirmishing Along The Eastern Ukrainian Trench Line Resumed Recently. Discussions Are Underway For Other Such Gestures, Including An Exchange Of Prisoners Between Ukraine And Russian-Backed Separatists. At The Same Time, Jake Sullivan, Mr. Biden’s National Security Adviser, Said In A Talk At The Council On Foreign Relations That The Flow Of Arms To Ukraine Would Continue, Raising The Potential Cost Of An Invasion And Occupation. In Conversations With His Russian Counterpart, Gen. Mark A. Milley, The Chairman Of The Joint Chiefs Of Staff, Has Made Clear That While Russia Might Succeed In Taking Over Parts Of Ukraine, It Would Pay A Huge Human Cost In Trying To Occupy It. Privately, American Officials Have Explored How They Might Aid Ukrainian Forces In Mounting An Insurgency, If It Came To That. Mr. Putin, For His Part, Has Made It Known That He Sees Providing Arms To Ukraine As A Threat To Russia And That It Must Stop. “The Administration’s In A Tight Spot,” Mr. Charap Said. “The Ukrainians Are Clearly Making A Lot Of Requests, And They Have A Lot Of Sympathetic Ears On The Hill And More Broadly In Washington. And There’s The Question, If This Is Imminent, And There’s Anything You Can Do To Help, Now Is The Time. On The Other Hand, We Are Asking Russia To De-Escalate, And They Would See This As Escalatory.” David E. Sanger Reported From White Plains, N.Y., And Andrew E. Kramer From Nizhny Novgorod, Russia.

Supreme Court Chief Justice Roberts Stresses Need For Judicial Independence Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts Said The Nation's Federal Courts Are Doing A Better Job Of Policing Themselves, Which He Called Essential For The Ability Of The Judicial Branch To Maintain Its Independence. His Annual New Year's Eve Report On The Federal Judiciary Came At The End Of A Year That Brought Repeated Calls For Changes In The Supreme Court. A Commission Appointed By President Joe Biden Explored Adding More Justices Or Limiting The Length Of Their Terms, As The Court Became The Most Conservative In Nearly A Century. The Latest Gallup Poll Showed Only 40 Percent Approval Of The Court's Performance, Down 20 Points From Two Decades Ago And A New Low For That Survey. The Current Court Term Is Loaded With Highly Charged Cases, Including A Direct Assault On Roe V. Wade And Challenges To The Biden Administration's Efforts To Impose Vaccine Or Mask-Wearing And Testing Requirements For Large Employers And Health Care Workers To Control The Spread Of Covid. The Court Will Hear The Pandemic-Related Cases In A Special Session January 7. Roberts Did Not Mention Any Of Those Factors. But He Said The Judiciary's Power To Manage Its Own Internal Affairs "Insulates Courts From Inappropriate Political Influence And Is Crucial To Preserving Public Trust In Its Work As A Separate And Co-Equal Branch Of Government." Supreme Court Prepares For High-Stakes Term With Cases On Abortion Rights The Chief Justice Said The Federal Courts Need To Do A Better Job At Spotting Potential Conflicts That Should Require Judges To Take Themselves Off Cases Involving Companies In Which They Or Members Of Their Families Own Stock. He Noted That A Recent Wall Street Journal Analysis Found That 131 Judges Participated In 685 Such Matters Between 2010 And 2018. "The Judiciary Needs To Take This Matter Seriously," He Said, Though He Added That The Cases Cited By The Journal Amounted To Less Than 0.03 Percent Of The Total Federal Civil Caseload. He Said Many Likely Were The Result Of Unintentional Failures In Checking For Financial Conflicts. Even So, He Said, "Our Ethics Training Programs Need To Be More Rigorous." Roberts Commended The Efforts By The Federal Courts To Recognize And Deal With Inappropriate Conduct In Federal Courthouses. "New Protections Could Help Ensure That Every Court Employee Enjoys A Workplace Free From Incivility And Disrespect," He Said. Roberts Praised One Of His Predecessors, William Howard Taft, Who Became Chief Justice A Century Ago, Eight Years After Serving A Term As US President. "He Understood That Criticism Of The Courts Is Inevitable, And He Lived Through An Era When Federal Courts Faced Strident Calls For Reform, Some Warranted And Some Not," He Said.

Florida Democrats Blast 'MIA' Gov. Ron Desantis As Covid Cases Surge Gov. Ron Desantis Has Been Missing In Action As Covid Cases In The State Have Spiked To New Heights, Florida Democratic Officials Charge. "Counties Are Overwhelmed W/ Lines That Stretch For Miles," State Sen. Shevrin Jones, A Democrat, Tweeted Thursday. "It's Every Man/Woman For Themselves, Because Leadership Is MIA," He Added. Desantis, A Republican And Outspoken Opponent Of Vaccine And Mask Mandates, Last Held A Covid Press Briefing On Dec. 17. Covid Cases Have Reached New Highs In Florida Since Then, Including A Record Level Of More Than 58,000 New Cases On Wednesday. The State Later Reported Nearly 78,000 New Cases On Thursday. Florida Bills Target Federal Covid Restrictions, Vaccine Mandates Desantis' Office Did Not Immediately Respond To Requests For Comment. His Press Secretary, Christina Pushaw, Tweeted Thursday That The Governor Has "A Wife And 3 Kids Ages 1-5, And It’s Not Surprising If He Wants To Take A Few Days Off At Christmas To Spend Time With His Family, Especially As His Wife Is Battling Cancer. I Don’t Criticize (President Joe) Biden For Going To Rehoboth Beach All Week, Right?" Pushaw Pointed Out Some Of His Daily Schedule From Tuesday, Which Showed He Had Had Meetings Scheduled At The Florida Capitol With State Officials. In A Press Conference Tuesday, Mayor Jerry Demings Of Orange County, A Democrat, Called On The Governor To Step Up His Response Efforts Because The Omicron Surge Has Resulted In People Waiting In Line As Long As Five Hours To Get Tested. "We Have Not Received Any Assistance From The State Of Florida At Our Testing Sites," Demings Said. "Local Governments Have Been Left To Figure It Out And Respond On Our Own. We Are Doing Our Best." “He Signed Into Law Legislation That Effectively Prohibited Local Governments From Being Able To Take Charge And Lead In Our Fight Against Covid-19,” Demings Said. "Our Residents, All Florida Residents Should Be Outraged, And They Should Ask The Question, Now, Where's Our State? Where's Our Governor? Where Is Ron Desantis Now? When Was The Last Time You Saw The Governor Do A Press Briefing Regarding Covid-19?" Demings Asked. Following Demings' Complaints, Desantis's Twitter Account Tweeted A Picture Of Him At A Sweet Shop In Chipley. Desantis's Office Told MSNBC The Sweet Shop Visit Actually Took Place On Dec. 16. The State's Agriculture Commissioner, Nikki Fried, Said Wednesday That She Had "No Idea" Where Desantis Was. Fried, Who's Running For Governor As A Democrat, Told MSNBC That Desantis "Cancelled Our Cabinet Meeting In The Middle Of December" And "I Haven't Seen Him Since Dec. 17. I Don't Know Where He Is." "Local Counties And State Commissioners Are Having To Stand Up Testing Sites," She Said. "We Have Five-Hour Lines In Miami-Dade County, And He's Nowhere To Be Found." In Her Twitter Feed, Pushaw Blamed The White House For The Long Testing Lines. "Regarding Tests, Ask Biden, Who Is On Vacation," She Tweeted.

New Laws In 2022 Address Surprise Medical Bills, Chained Pets, Cocktails-To-Go The New Year Will Bring A Host Of New Laws That Take Effect Starting Saturday On Issues From Surprise Medical Bills To Restraints For The Family Pet. Protections From Unexpected Medical Bills Kick In On New Year’s Day. A New Federal Law, The No Surprises Act, Requires Insurance Companies To Cover Even Out-Of-Network Expenses That Can Sneak Up, Especially In Emergencies. Two-Thirds Of Adults Fear Unforeseen Medical Costs, According To The Kaiser Family Foundation. It Said Bills For One-Fifth Of Emergency Treatments And One-Sixth Of In-Network Hospitalizations Include At Least One Out-Of-Network Charge. Financial Literacy In Ohio, Students Entering High School In The New Year Won’t Be Allowed To Graduate Until They Complete A Course In Financial Literacy, Covering Such Adult Issues As Taxes, Interest Rates And Getting A Loan. Sponsors Of The Legislation Said The State Has A Duty To Prepare Young People For Success. Emmanuel Velkos, A Student At North Royalton High School, South Of Cleveland, Said It’s What Students Need To Know. “I Would Say, Yes, Undoubtedly The Most Important, Because It Helps You Manage Your Money,” He Said. Dog Tethers, Insurance Discrimination As Of January, It Will Be Illegal To Chain Up A Dog In Texas. Any Outdoor Restraint Must Be Lighter And More Flexible, And Dogs Must Have Adequate Shelter, Shade And Water. Fines Can Go As High As $500 For First Offenses, And Repeat Offenders Could Get Jail Time. “Too Many Dogs Are Seen Like Burglar Alarms Or Some Sort Of Security Device Instead Of The Living Beings That They Are, And They’re Kept In Chains,” Said Rachel Wolf Of VOICE For Animals, An Animal Rights Group. Gov. Greg Abbott, Who First Vetoed The Law, Signed A New Version After He Was Hit By A Blizzard Of Tweets With The Hashtag #Abbotthatesdogs. A New Law In Nevada Makes It Illegal For Insurance Companies To Deny Coverage To Homeowners Or Charge More Based On Their Dogs’ Breeds. Insurers Say They Need To Be Able To Account For The Potential Liability Brought On By Potentially Aggressive Animals, But Supporters Said The Law Protects Pet Owners From “Breed Discrimination.” Internet Access, Hot Car Alarms Washington State, Home To Tech Giants, Has A New Law Requiring Anyone Selling A House To Disclose Whether The Property Has Access To Internet Service. “During The Pandemic, The Lack Of Internet Access Was A Problem In Many Regions Of Our State,” Said Rep. Carolyn Eslick, A Sponsor Of The Law. She Said It Ensures That Homebuyers Get Full Disclosure Of High-Speed Internet Access In Sellers’ Statements “Before Signing On The Bottom Line.” Florida Will Now Require Child Care Providers To Install Alarms In Any Car, Bus Or Van That Will Alert Drivers To Make Sure Everyone Is Out Before They Lock Up. The Law Is Intended To Reduce Deaths Of Children Who Are Accidentally Left In Hot Cars. State Sen. Linda Stewart Of Orlando Started Working On The Measure After The Death Of A 3-Year-Old Boy Who Was Locked In The Back Seat Of A Van For More Than 12 Hours. “It Saves Lives. It’s At A Very Small Cost To The Day Care Operator,” She Said. Sterilized Coats, Cocktails-To-Go Utah Becomes The First State To Require Makers And Distributors Of Clothes And Bedding Filled With Down Or Other Material To Include A Label Showing That The Fill Material Was Sterilized To Ensure Its Safety. The Law Will Apply To Quilted Bed Covers And Down Jackets Known As Puffer Coats. And Oregon Says “Cheers” By Allowing Bars And Restaurants To Sell Cocktails-To-Go Even After The Pandemic Ends. Drinks Must Be Sold In Sealed Containers — To Be Opened At Home, Where They Can Help Toast The New Year. The Distilled Spirits Council Of The United States Said 15 Other States Enacted Similar Measures, Which It Said “Served As A Critical Lifeline For Restaurants During The Pandemic And Continue To Provide An Important Source Of Revenue As They Begin To Bounce Back.”

Pelosi announces Capitol events to mark anniversary of Jan. 6 riot House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., on Thursday announced a series of events at the U.S. Capitol next week to commemorate the anniversary of the Jan. 6 riot. The schedule includes lawmakers' testimonials, a prayer vigil with members of the Senate and a panel discussion with historians Doris Kearns Goodwin and Jon Meacham to "establish and preserve the narrative" of Jan. 6. "These events are intended as an observance of reflection, remembrance and recommitment, in a spirit of unity, patriotism and prayerfulness," Pelosi said in a letter to colleagues. The House is not in session next week. All of the anniversary events will be livestreamed. Rep. Jason Crow, D-Colo., will lead the session of lawmakers' reflections on the events of Jan. 6, when many members of Congress and their aides were holed up inside the Capitol as a mob of former President Donald Trump's supporters rampaged through the building. Federal prosecutors have filed charges against hundreds of people accused of taking part in the assault. The House committee investigating the riot has ramped up its probe into the events leading up to and including Jan. 6, issuing subpoenas to numerous Trump allies. Trump, who is waging a legal battle against the committee to block the release of his White House records, is scheduled to hold a news conference Jan. 6 at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. The event is scheduled to begin shortly before the prayer vigil on the Capitol steps with members of the House and the Senate

Florida Democrats Blast 'MIA' Gov. Ron Desantis As Covid Cases Surge Ron Desantis Has Been Missing In Action As Covid Cases In The State Have Spiked To New Heights, Florida Democratic Officials Charge. "Counties Are Overwhelmed W/ Lines That Stretch For Miles," State Sen. Shevrin Jones, A Democrat, Tweeted Thursday. "It's Every Man/Woman For Themselves, Because Leadership Is MIA," He Added. Desantis, A Republican And Outspoken Opponent Of Vaccine And Mask Mandates, Last Held A Covid Press Briefing On Dec. 17. Covid Cases Have Reached New Highs In Florida Since Then, Including A Record Level Of More Than 58,000 New Cases On Wednesday. Florida Bills Target Federal Covid Restrictions, Vaccine Mandates Desantis' Office Did Not Immediately Respond To Requests For Comment. His Press Secretary, Christina Pushaw, Tweeted Thursday That The Governor Has "A Wife And 3 Kids Ages 1-5, And It’s Not Surprising If He Wants To Take A Few Days Off At Christmas To Spend Time With His Family, Especially As His Wife Is Battling Cancer. I Don’t Criticize (President Joe) Biden For Going To Rehoboth Beach All Week, Right?" Pushaw Pointed Out Some Of His Daily Schedule From Tuesday, Which Showed He Had Had Meetings Scheduled At The Florida Capitol With State Officials. In A Press Conference Tuesday, Jerry Demings, The Democratic Mayor Of Orange County, Called On The Governor To Step Up His Response Efforts Because The Omicron Surge Has Resulted In People Waiting In Line As Long As Five Hours To Get Tested. "We Have Not Received Any Assistance From The State Of Florida At Our Testing Sites," Demings Said. "Local Governments Have Been Left To Figure It Out And Respond On Our Own. We Are Doing Our Best." “He Signed Into Law Legislation That Effectively Prohibited Local Governments From Being Able To Take Charge And Lead In Our Fight Against Covid-19,” Demings Said. "Our Residents, All Florida Residents Should Be Outraged, And They Should Ask The Question, Now, Where's Our State? Where's Our Governor? Where Is Ron Desantis Now? When Was The Last Time You Saw The Governor Do A Press Briefing Regarding Covid-19?" Demings Asked. Following Demings' Complaints, Desantis's Twitter Account Tweeted A Picture Of Him At A Sweet Shop In Chipley. Desantis's Office Told MSNBC The Sweet Shop Visit Actually Took Place On Dec. 16. The State's Agriculture Commissioner, Nikki Fried, Said Wednesday That She Had "No Idea" Where Desantis Was. Fried, Who's Running For Governor As A Democrat, Told MSNBC That Desantis "Cancelled Our Cabinet Meeting In The Middle Of December" And "I Haven't Seen Him Since Dec. 17. I Don't Know Where He Is." "Local Counties And State Commissioners Are Having To Stand Up Testing Sites," She Said. "We Have Five Hour Lines In Miami-Dade County, And He's Nowhere To Be Found." In Her Twitter Feed, Pushaw Blamed The White House For The Long Testing Lines. "Regarding Tests, Ask Biden, Who Is On Vacation," She Tweeted.

Jan. 6 Committee Asks Supreme Court To Deny Trump Request To Shield Records The Congressional Committee Probing The Jan. 6 Riot Asked The Supreme Court On Thursday To Reject Former President Donald Trump's Request To Shield His White House Records From Investigators. “Although The Facts Are Unprecedented, This Case Is Not A Difficult One. [Trump] Attempts To Overturn The Current President’s Reasonable Determination That The Select Committee Is Entitled To Three Tranches Of Presidential Records Responsive To Its Request,” The House Committee Said In A 44-Page Court Filing. “To The Extent Any Novel Questions Linger In The Background, This Case Would Be A Poor Vehicle To Address Them. This Court’s Review Is Unwarranted, And [Trump's] Petition ... Should Be Denied,” The Panel Added. Trump Asked The Supreme Court Last Week To Block The National Archives From Turning Over Any Of His White House Records To The Jan. 6 Committee After Lower Courts Sided With The Panel's Efforts. The Court Is Likely To Seek A Response From The National Archives Before It Decides Whether To Take The Case. There Is No Deadline For The Court To Act. Former President Trump Asks Supreme Court To Block Release Of Jan. 6 Documents The House Committee Is Pursuing A Trove Of Documents Related To The Events Of Jan. 6, Including Records Of Communications Between The White House And The Department Of Justice Leading Up To The Attack On The Capitol. Trump Has Objected, Claiming Executive Privilege Over The Documents, But President Joe Biden Declined To Deem The Records Privileged. Instead, Biden Directed The National Archives To Hand Over The Materials To The Committee. The U.S. Circuit Court Of Appeals For The District Of Columbia Ruled This Month That Trump Has Not Shown Any Specific Harm That He Would Suffer From The Disclosure Of The Documents. In Addition, The Appeals Court Said That While Trump Retained Limited Authority To Claim Executive Privilege, It Wasn't Strong Enough To Overcome Biden's Determination That Congress Has A Legitimate Need For The Records. Trump's Legal Team Has Argued That The Courts Were Wrong To Find That The House Committee Has A Legitimate Legislative Purpose In Seeking The Documents. Its Real Purpose Isn't Merely Fact-Finding, His Attorneys Have Argued, But An Attempt To Seek Information That Would Embarrass Trump. Earlier This Week, The Jan. 6 Committee Reached An Agreement With The Biden White House To Defer Its Request For Some Trump Records, Indicating There Were Documents That Biden Was Not Willing To Turn Over To The Panel. The Agreement Mostly Shields Records That Do Not Involve The Events Of Jan. 6 But Were Covered By The Committee’s Request For Documents From The Trump White House About The Events Of That Day.