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Tag Archives: cooperate
These Trump Allies ‘Very Well-Suited’ to Cooperate With DOJ: Legal Analyst
A legal expert expects that some in former President Donald Trump’s inner circle could cooperate with the Department of Justice (DOJ) if charges are filed against the former president.
The January 6 House Select Committee announced several criminal referrals at the culmination of its 18-month investigation last week. Trump was chief among those referred, with the committee urging the DOJ to file charges against Trump for alleged insurrection, obstruction of an official proceeding, conspiracy to make false statements and conspiracy to defraud the U.S. government.
Also referred for charges were John Eastman, a lawyer who advised Trump; Mark Meadows, who was Trump’s chief of staff for part of his presidency; Rudy Giuliani, a member of Trump’s legal team and former New York City mayor; Kenneth Cheseboro, a lawyer who advised Trump; and Jeffrey Clark, an assistant attorney general during the U.S. Capitol insurrection on January 6, 2021.
So far, no charges have been filed by the DOJ. Of those referred with Trump, several could cooperate with the DOJ to protect themselves, according to Harry Litman, a lawyer, political commentator and former DOJ official.
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Litman appeared Sunday on MSNBC’s “The Sunday Show” to speak about the situation and identified key members of Trump’s inner circle most likely to turn on if the referred charges are pursued by the DOJ.
Litman said he expects anywhere from six to 10 of Trump’s allies to be “very well-suited” as cooperating defendants, including several referred for criminal charges by the House select committee.
“Normally in a setting like this, it’s a race to the prosecutor’s office for them because there’s a real advantage to being first,” Litman said.
Litman named Meadows, Eastman and Clark as being “tailor-made” to be cooperators, but that there were plenty of “co-conspirators to go around.”
“This, like so much else with Trump, is kind of a unique situation. Will they actually be the ‘et, tu, Rudy?’ persons?” Litman said, speculating that some of Trump’s friends could betray him.
Other legal experts have marked Meadows as a likely cooperating witness. This month, attorney and former federal prosecutor Glenn Kirschner appeared on an episode of “The Legal Breakdown” with Brian Cohen and said Meadows could be the key the DOJ needs to further investigate the referred charges.
Congress has already accused Meadows of being in contempt of Congress for refusing to cooperate with the House select committee, and Kirschner speculated that the DOJ might be delaying filing any charges so it can further glean information from Meadows.
Newsweek reached out to the DOJ for comment.
Pro-Trump organizer agrees to cooperate with DOJ in Jan. 6 probe
Pro-Trump organizer Ali Alexander confirmed Friday that he is cooperating with the Justice Department’s investigation of the Jan. 6 insurrection, Politico reports.
Why it matters: Alexander, who was connected to permit applications for the “Stop the Steal” rally that preceded the Capitol attack, claimed to have been in communication with the White House and Congress members about events planned to coincide with the certification of the 2020 election, according to the Jan. 6 select committee, which subpoenaed him in October.
- Leading up to Jan. 6, Alexander “made repeated reference during Stop-the-Steal-sponsored events to the possible use of violence to achieve the organization’s goals,” the select committee said in an October release.
What he’s saying: Alexander said in a statement Friday, per Politico, that a federal grand jury recently subpoenaed him for information on several groups of people linked to pro-Trump rallies in D.C. after the 2020 election, including “Women for America First” and the “Save America March.”
- He denied talking with the White House about security groups or coordinating plans with the Proud Boys. “I don’t believe I have information that will be useful to them but I’m cooperating as best as I can,” he said.
- “I did nothing wrong and I am not in possession of evidence that anyone else had plans to commit unlawful acts,” he added.
- “I denounce anyone who planned to subvert my permitted event and the other permitted events of that day on Capitol grounds to stage any counterproductive activities.”
The big picture: Alexander’s cooperation could offer insight into the White House officials and lawmakers who may have been involved in the attempt to block the certification of President Biden’s win.
- The subpoena delivered to him is an “indication that the inquiry could reach into the Trump administration and its allies in Congress,” the New York Times notes.
- Alexander voluntarily sat for a deposition with the House committee in December and handed over documents related to its investigation.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated with Alexander’s statement.
Pro-Trump activist Ali Alexander to cooperate with Capitol attack inquiry | US Capitol attack
Ali Alexander, the prominent pro-Trump activist, will cooperate with the justice department investigation into the Capitol attack, making him the first high-profile political figure to agree to assist the government’s criminal inquiry into the events of January 6.
The move is likely to give initial momentum to the newly expanded justice department investigation running in parallel to the House select committee investigation examining Donald Trump and the Capitol attack.
An attorney for Alexander – the organizer of the “Stop the Steal” movement – told the Guardian that he had agreed to cooperate with the justice department after being issued a grand jury subpoena but informed he was not a target of the investigation.
The news of his cooperation was earlier reported by the New York Times.
In a lengthy statement through his attorney, Alexander denounced the process as “hostile” but indicated he would comply with the grand jury subpoena asking about Women for America First’s “Save America March” events that immediately preceded the Capitol attack.
“I did nothing wrong and I am not in possession of any evidence that anyone else had plans to commit unlawful acts,” Alexander said in the statement. He has also denounced anyone who took part in or planned violence on 6 January 2021.
Alexander said he did not think he could provide prosecutors with anything useful for the inquiry, noting he had not financed the equipment used for the Save America rally on the Ellipse near the White House and had not discussed the security for the event with the Trump White House.
The statement added that he had not coordinated any movements with the Proud Boys militia groups and he had only accepted an offer from the Oath Keepers militia group to act as security for a separate event he had planned near the Capitol, which ultimately did not take place.
It was not clear what assistance Alexander might furnish. But he was deeply involved in efforts to invalidate the results of the 2020 election and had contacts with members of Congress and, according to the House select committee, White House officials.
That is now of interest to the justice department, which recently expanded the scope of its January 6 inquiry to include Trump’s push to return himself to office, after spending months focused purely on the rioters that stormed the Capitol.
A spokesperson for the justice department declined to comment.
The subpoena to Alexander from the grand jury empaneled by federal prosecutors suggests the justice department investigation could go beyond that of the select committee, to which he testified voluntarily for about eight hours last December.
It also indicates that the criminal inquiry could reach Trump’s inner circle, with the subpoena demanding information about members of the legislative and executive branches who were involved in efforts to obstruct the certification of Joe Biden’s election win.
January 6 committee still expects Giuliani to ‘cooperate fully’ despite rescheduled appearance though no interview date set
The panel is making clear that it still expects Giuliani, a central figure in former President Donald Trump’s failed bid to overturn the 2020 election, to “cooperate fully” with its subpoena. CNN reported last week that Giuliani was among four witnesses scheduled to appear before the committee on Tuesday who had their depositions rescheduled.
“Mr. Giuliani’s appearance was rescheduled at his request. He remains under subpoena and the Select Committee expects him to cooperate fully,” a committee aide said in a statement to CNN.
Robert Costello, Giuliani’s attorney, previously told CNN that the committee deferred a subpoena deadline while discussions are ongoing. The committee has rescheduled interviews for other high-profile witnesses who have engaged with investigators, but those talks are predicated on negotiations happening in good faith. Costello has so far declined to say in what areas Giuliani may be willing to cooperate.
A source familiar with the matter told CNN that Giuliani may be willing to testify to the committee about claims of election fraud after the 2020 presidential contest, though the former Trump attorney still does not intend to waive executive or attorney-client privilege. More than a dozen items of interest to the committee in Giuliani’s subpoena have to do with election fraud, and Giuliani may be willing to testify under oath about some of those matters as they are not covered by privilege, the source said.
But negotiations are still in the early stages, and there is still no agreement for Giuliani to cooperate. And he hasn’t turned over any documents to the committee, the source said.
The New York Times reported Saturday that Giuliani’s lawyer is discussing with the committee the possibility of responding to questions and “has signaled to the committee that he plans to take a less confrontational stance toward its requests than some other members of Mr. Trump’s inner circle who are fighting the committee’s subpoenas or have otherwise refused to cooperate.” The Times also reported Giuliani is still negotiating over whether to sit for a formal deposition or give an informal interview.
Giuliani’s apparent willingness to engage with the committee comes as a stark shift from his previous stance.
Last month, immediately following news he had been issued a subpoena, CNN reported that Giuliani had indicated through his attorney that he didn’t plan to provide information to the committee, citing claims of executive privilege and attorney-client privilege.
GOP Rep. Adam Kinzinger said on Sunday that committee members “fully expect” Giuliani to speak with them, adding, “The expectation is he is going to cooperate because that’s the law.”
“Regardless of when we hear from Rudy or how long that interview is, we’re getting a lot of information, and we’re looking forward to wrapping this up at some point, when that is right, showing it to the American people, but not rushing it, not hurrying this. We want everyone to have the full story,” Kinzinger said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”
Former White House chief of staff Staff Mark Meadows was referred to the Justice Department for possible criminal contempt charges after refusing to comply with his subpoena in December. Steve Bannon was indicted in November after refusing to obey his subpoena.
This story and headline have been updated with additional developments Monday.
Trump news today: Kevin McCarthy refuses to cooperate with Jan 6 committee
Fox News host says Trump must ‘learn to lose’
A new interview airing on NPR hears Donald Trump irritably ending his discussion with the broadcaster over questions about the Capitol insurrection and his fixation on non-existent election fraud in 2020.
Speaking to interviewer Steve Inskeep, Mr Trump disowned Republicans who have recognised his fraud claims as false, calling Mitch McConnell a “loser” for agreeing and decrying all those in his party who agree as “RINOs”. According to Mr Inskeep, the interview was meant to go on for 15 minutes but in the end only lasted nine because Mr Trump left the call.
The ex-president is facing further pressure from the select committee investigating the events of 6 January 2021, with the panel issuing subpoenas to a former White House speechwriter and aides to Donald Trump Jr. So far, many White House and Trump associates have refused to comply with the panel’s demands, but many others are thought to have given evidence in private and handed over relevant documents.
Meanwhile, the one-term president’s middle son, Eric Trump, lashed out at New York Attorney General Letitia James, who is leading a long-running probe into whether he or his company violated New York tax laws. Coming off the back of a lawsuit claiming Ms James’s efforts “are in no way connected to legitimate law enforcement goals, but rather, are merely a thinly-veiled effort to publicly malign Trump and his associates”, the president’s son claimed that her probe was unconstitutional.
The younger Trump made the incorrect statements during an appearance on Sean Hannity’s show on Fox News in which he claimed Ms James’s investigation into whether his family business violated New York tax laws is meant to keep his father from running for president in 2024 and amounts to “effectively handing” that election to President Joe Biden.
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Former White House press secretary for Trump met Jan 6 panel
Kayleigh McEnany, former White House press secretary for Donald Trump and current Fox News host, has appeared before the House select committee investigating the 6 January insurrection.
The appearance was virtual and had been “going on all day”, the panel’s chairman Bennie Thompson told CBS News on Wednesday.
The Fox News host was serving as a top spokesperson for then-president Donald Trump and was an adviser to the Trump 2020 campaign.
She was subpoenaed in November by the committee, asking her to turn over any related records and appear for deposition.
The subpoena expressed interest in speaking with her based on her public statements pushing the former president’s baseless voter fraud claims and noted that her comments contributed to public distrust in the election and fueled insurrection.
The panel also noted that she was with Trump on 6 January when he travelled to Ellipse and delivered the incendiary speech to “fight like hell” and “stop the steal”.
The committee has so far issued 85 subpoenas to Trump allies, former White House officials and individuals who are suspected to be involved in planning of the rally before riots broke out at the Capitol.
Shweta Sharma13 January 2022 06:30
Ex-Trump lawyer Cohen gloats as former president is served legal papers
Michael Cohen announced on Thursday that Donald Trump was served legal papers for a new lawsuit against him and other members of the Trump administration for allegedly violating his right to free speech and placing him in solitary confinement for two weeks.
Tweeting on Thursday, former Trump lawyer said the “case progresses and the guilty will not go unpunished”.
In the lawsuit, Cohen, who was once Mr Trump’s private lawyer, claimed that federal authorities forced him into 16 harrowing days in solitary confinement where he suffered shortness of breath, severe headaches and anxiety inside a small cell.
It was after he threatened to leak damning information about Trump.
The lawsuit seeks damages for “extreme physical and emotional harm” and violations of Cohen’s First Amendment rights.
Shweta Sharma13 January 2022 05:49
Former notorious Proud Boys leader arrested
Kyle “Based Stickman” Chapman, who is infamous for attacking counter-protesters with a stick during a Donald Trump rally, has been arrested for allegedly attacking a health care worker in Idaho, reported the Daily Beast.
He was arrested on Tuesday after a local hospital called police to report battery on a worker, a felony in Idaho, Boise Police spokesperson Haley Williams said.
During his arraignment, the next day, the former leader of the right-wing group said he was being treated in the hospital for pneumonia. But Chapman allegedly grabbed a hospital employee and became verbally abusive when they went there to fix a device.
Chapman was on probation until 17 July from a Texas case for giving a man a brain haemorrhage and he might have violated his probation terms by attacking the worker.
Shweta Sharma13 January 2022 04:44
Trump interviews with NPR, OAN dominate headlines
Former President Donald Trump proved his ability to dominate the attention of the US political sphere this week with a pair of interviews given to National Public Radio (NPR) and One America News, a right-wing broadcaster.
In the two interviews, Mr Trump went after his opponents both directly and indirectly; he called Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell a “loser”, a Republican senator who denied his false claims about 2020 “crazy”, and took a shot at politicians (clearly referring to Florida Gov Ron DeSantis, a 2024 rival) who refuse to share their vaccination status as “gutless”.
Andrew Naughtie reports on the NPR interview that was cut short after the host questioned him repeatedly on his false claims about 2020:
Tom Fenton examines his attack against Mr DeSantis:
John Bowden13 January 2022 04:00
McCarthy refuses to cooperate with ‘illegitimate’ Jan 6 probe
House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy has refused to cooperate with the House select committee investigating the 6 January insurrection, citing the “illegitimate” investigation by the panel.
In a statement released hours after the committee sent a formal request to him for an interview, McCarthy said that the “illegitimate” panel was trying to interview him about his “private conversations not remotely related to the violence that unfolded at the Capitol.”
“The committee’s only objective is to attempt to damage its political opponents,” he said.
“It is with neither regret nor satisfaction that I have concluded to not participate with this select committee’s abuse of power that stains this institution today and will harm it going forward.”
The panel requested “voluntary cooperation” after noting that he had previously acknowledged having at least one telephone conversation with Donald Trump while a mob of his supporters was storming the Capitol in hopes of stopping Congress from certifying President Joe Biden’s 2020 electoral college victory.
Shweta Sharma13 January 2022 03:54
Looking at Ray Epps, the subject of the GOP’s newest conspiracy
The Justice Department won’t say why Ray Epps, a man previously identified on a website set up by the FBI to catch Capitol rioters, is no longer facing charges.
The decision has spawned a conspiracy theory on the right, where some supporters of former President Donald Trump have spread the idea that Mr Epps was a federal agent involved in inciting other rioters to violence. There’s no currently-public evidence, however, placing Mr Epps physically inside the Capitol building during the riot.
The House select committee investigating January 6 has said that “Mr Epps informed us that he was not employed by, working with, or acting at the direction of any law enforcement agency on January 5th or 6th or at any other time, and that he has never been an informant for the FBI or any other law enforcement agency”.
Justin Vallejo investigates the conspiracist right’s newest fixture:
John Bowden13 January 2022 03:30
Oklahoma congressman writes letter to judge requesting leniency for rioter
A congressman from Oklahoma, GOP Rep Kevin Wallace, penned a letter to a DC judge overseeing numerous Capitol riot-related trials and asked her to show “compassion” in the sentencing of a man who spent only a few minutes inside the US Capitol on January 6.
“I’ve known his mother, Kristin Sells, and family for more than twenty years,” wrote Mr Wallace. “He is and has been a contributing citizen in our small community.”
John Bowden13 January 2022 03:00
GOP lawmaker on January 6 panel seeks to disprove Ted Cruz’s conspiracy theory
Adam Kinzinger, a congressman on the House select committee investigating January 6, fired back on Tuesday after his fellow Republican, Sen Ted Cruz, questioned an official at a hearing regarding whether a man present at the January 6 attack was a federal agent.
There’s no evidence to suggest that the man in question, who was targeted by conspiracy theorists after being removed from FBI wanted lists, is a federal agent of any kind. Republicans have long sought to prove that left-wing activists or even the government itself was responsible for the massive crowd of Trump supporters that overran the Capitol last year.
“Take your pick. Truth is they were rioters incited by lies. And Ray is no fed. Just another misled man,” wrote the congressman on Twitter. “While it may break hearts, it’s true. So many are misled by so few. Just look up.”
John Bowden13 January 2022 02:30
Top Trump ally in the House faces legal trouble of his own
One of former President Donald Trump’s most loyal followers in the House, GOP Rep Matt Gaetz, was in his own hot water on Wednesday as the ex-president battled his niece Mary Trump in court and faces the ongoing efforts of the Jan 6 committee.
Rep Matt Gaetz has been under federal investigation for months after being accused of allegedly engaging in sexual contact with a girl who was 17 at the time, and paying for her travel across state lines. The congressman has strenuously denied the accusations, and has not yet been formerly indicted.
But that could change soon. On Wednesday, his ex-girlfriend testified before a grand jury, and his former confidant is supposedly cooperating after being hit with his own similar charges last year.
John Bowden13 January 2022 02:00
Mike Rounds refuses to back down in face of Trump criticism
South Dakota’s Sen Mike Rounds, a Republican, is refusing to cease his criticism of former President Donald Trump and his false claims about the 2020 election.
On Wednesday, he responded after several statements from the former president excoriating him for saying on Sunday during an interview that the election was not stolen; he urged his fellow Republicans to join him, and more persistently call out the former president’s falsehoods.
“If we want to keep the trust and gain the trust of more individuals that are wondering, we have to probably say it a little bit louder and in more places that many of us normally either aren’t invited to talk or have chosen not to get into the fray,” he told The Associated Press.
John Bowden13 January 2022 01:30
McCarthy says he will not cooperate with January 6 committee probe
“As a representative and the leader of the minority party, it is with neither regret nor satisfaction that I have concluded to not participate with this select committee’s abuse of power that stains this institution today and will harm it going forward,” McCarthy said in a statement Wednesday night.
The Republican leader charged that the committee “is not conducting a legitimate investigation,” citing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s rejection of some of his picks to serve on the panel, and claimed that it “is not serving any legislative purpose.”
The committee’s vice chairwoman, Republican Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, did not rule out the possibility of the panel subpoenaing McCarthy in the future, saying late Wednesday: “We’re going to evaluate our options, but we will get to the truth.”
The committee’s request to McCarthy, detailed in a new letter released Wednesday, marks a significant moment in the ongoing investigation as the panel is now seeking cooperation from the top Republican in the House.
“We also must learn about how the President’s plans for January 6th came together, and all the other ways he attempted to alter the results of the election,” wrote committee Chairman Bennie Thompson, a Democrat from Mississippi. “For example, in advance of January 6th, you reportedly explained to Mark Meadows and the former President that objections to the certification of the electoral votes on January 6th ‘was doomed to fail.’ “
The letter cited several previous comments made by McCarthy following the riot, including interviews where he discussed his conversations with Trump as the violence unfolded.
“As is readily apparent, all of this information bears directly on President Trump’s state of mind during the January 6th attack as the violence was underway,” it stated, offering a window into what the committee wants to discuss with the minority leader.
The panel also made clear it wants to question McCarthy about his communications with Trump, White House staff and others in the week after the January 6 attack, “particularly regarding President Trump’s state of mind at that time.”
“The Select Committee has contemporaneous text messages from multiple witnesses identifying significant concerns following January 6th held by White House staff and the President’s supporters regarding President Trump’s state of mind and his ongoing conduct. It appears that you had one or more conversations with the President during this period,” the letter states.
“It appears that you may also have discussed with President Trump the potential he would face a censure resolution, impeachment, or removal under the 25th Amendment. It also appears that you may have identified other possible options, including President Trump’s immediate resignation from office,” it added.
In the letter, the committee traces McCarthy’s public comments since the attack and questions whether Trump pressured him to change his tone when the pair met in late January 2021.
“Your public statements regarding January 6th have changed markedly since you met with Trump,” the panel said in the letter. “At that meeting, or at any other time, did President Trump or his representatives discuss or suggest what you should say publicly, during the impeachment trial (if called as a witness), or in any later investigation about your conversations with him on January 6th?”
The panel cites multiple public reports about the heated exchange between McCarthy and Trump as the attack unfolded that it wants to learn more about.
CNN previously reported about an expletive-laced phone call between McCarthy and Trump while the Capitol was under attack on January 6 where Trump said the rioters cared more about the election results than McCarthy did.
The letter also cites an interview where McCarthy told a local California news outlet that on January 6 he had a “very heated” conversation with Trump where he told the then-President to “get help” to the Capitol.
In May 2021, McCarthy had told CNN’s Manu Raju that “Sure,” he’d be willing to testify about his conversations with Trump on January 6 if he were asked to by an outside commission.
McCarthy is the third Republican lawmaker whom the committee has requested cooperation from, following letters to Reps. Scott Perry of Pennsylvania and Jim Jordan of Ohio in recent weeks. Both Perry and Jordan have indicated they will not cooperate with the committee voluntarily, and CNN reported earlier Wednesday that even the panel is currently weighing its options to get members to comply.
At issue is determining a path that would give them the best opportunity to obtain the information and interviews they are looking for by using the powers of the committee at their disposal.
The committee is wrestling with whether they have the constitutional right to subpoena their fellow members, and if they do, if they have an enforcement mechanism in place that will ultimately lead to cooperation.
But Wednesday’s letter makes clear that the committee will continue to seek information from their fellow members even as they deliberate what to do if Republicans continue to resist their overtures.
Thompson separately told CNN that the committee specifically wants to hear from McCarthy about why he gave a floor speech on January 13 where he said that Trump “bears responsibility” for the January 6 attack.
“We need to get him before the committee to just say, why did you make that statement?” Thompson said. “We’d like to know, did you call the White House and say, ‘hey, what’s going on?’ We don’t know. We think it’s significant because a few days later, he was on the floor, saying that the President bared some responsibility for what occurred. And so we’d like to know, where did you arrive at that decision?”
Thompson said that the committee does not currently have phone records from McCarthy or anything other than his public statements, and the decision of whether the panel will ask the minority leader to turn over documents is “to be determined.”
Asked whether the panel would subpoena McCarthy if he refuses to accept its voluntary request, Thompson said, “We’ll consider it.”
This story and headline have been updated with additional developments Wednesday.
CNN’s Morgan Rimmer and Manu Raju contributed to this report.
Trump chief of staff Meadows to cooperate with Capitol attack panel – live | US news
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Federal prosecutors began their aggressive cross-examination of the Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes on Tuesday, in Silicon Valley’s highest-profile trial in decades.
Holmes entered the federal courthouse in San Jose, California, flanked by her partner, Billy Evans, and her mother for her fifth day on the stand fighting charges that she lied about the company’s core blood-testing technology. She faces 11 counts of fraud and up to 20 years in prison.
Assistant US attorney Robert Leach targeted Holmes’s assertions that she did not know about the failures of the company’s proprietary tests, zeroing in on methods she used to quash whistleblowers and investigations into the company.
Holmes previously testified she believed Theranos’s technology to be more accurate than it was due to successful early trials. She cited studies conducted by Schering-Plough (a pharmaceutical firm that later became Merck) and Pfizer, saying that at the time the numbers meant “our system was working well”.
Read more:
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The Tennessee education department declined to investigate the first complaint under a new state law that bans some teaching approaches to issues of race and bias – a complaint that included a book about the Rev Martin Luther King Jr and the March on Washington.
The bill, passed in the spring, includes among its targets critical race theory, or CRT, an academic discipline that examines the ways in which racism operates in US laws and society. CRT is rarely taught below college level but Republicans across the US have exploited fears about it for electoral gain.
The Tennessee complaint was filed by Robin Steenman, chair of the Williamson county chapter of Moms for Liberty, a conservative parents group, the Tennesseean reported.
The 11-page notice alleged that a literary curriculum, Wit and Wisdom, in use by Williamson county schools and at least 30 other districts, presented a “heavily biased agenda” that caused children to “hate their country, each other and/or themselves”.
The group took issue with several books adapted for younger readers on topics including King’s leadership of the civil rights movement of the 1960s, the integration of schools in California by the activist Sylvia Mendez and the autobiography of Ruby Bridges, the first Black child to desegregate an all-white primary school in Louisiana.
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Dr Oz trails Senate run in PA
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Calls for an apology continue today after a Fox News commentator stoked outrage by comparing Dr Anthony Fauci, Joe Biden’s chief medical adviser, to Josef Mengele, the Nazi “Angel of Death”.
Lara Logan, a host on the Fox Nation streaming service, was discussing Omicron on Fox News Prime Time on Monday night.
The news comes amid fears that the new Omicron variant will trigger a new wave of Covid cases and further deepen political divisions in the US over how to respond to the pandemic. Fox News has consistently given a platform to misinformation about Covid and measures meant to contain it.
Bill Grueskin, a professor at Columbia Journalism School, responded: “The real issue isn’t [Lara] Logan’s insanity. It’s the complicity of Pete Hegseth, the Fox News host. He never interrupts or pushes back. It’s just another day at the office.”
The American Jewish Committee called Logan’s remark “utterly shameful”.
“Josef Mengele earned his nickname by performing deadly and inhumane medical experiments on prisoners of the Holocaust including children,” the AJC said. “There is no comparing the hell these victims went through to public health measures. An apology is needed.”
Full story:
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The House committee investigating the January 6 Capitol attack had reportedly grown impatient with former Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows in recent weeks as he refused to engage with the panel.
Meadows had defied his deposition in front of the committee on November 12, which CNN is further reporting in its story today “suggested the next step was a showdown that could lead the panel to begin a criminal referral process against him.”
Meadows’ lawyer George Terwilliger had indicated that there wouldn’t be cooperation until a court had decided whether Trump’s claims that executive privilege protects him from cooperating (with Meadows hoping for a similar shield by extension), a matter currently before the federal court in Washington, DC. Joe Biden won’t extend such privilege to Trump and observers think Trump’s on a long shot, here, but one that’s at least succeeding in gumming up the works.
But CNN further reports that “the tone appeared to have shifted in recent days”.
Many more subpoenas have been issued in recent days to individuals whom the House panel wants to question and see materials from, relating principally to their conduct in the run-up to the insurrection and on the day.
Those subpoenaed in the last week or feature so several Trump operatives, including Roger Stone and Alex Jones, and leaders of the far-right Proud Boys and Oath Keepers groups.
Meanwhile, today Guardian US reports that hours before the deadly attack on the US Capitol, Donald Trump made several calls from the White House to top lieutenants who were basing themselves at the Willard hotel in Washington. He talked about ways to stop the certification of Joe Biden’s election win from taking place on 6 January in Congress – an essential part of the American democratic process that was delayed by the insurrection but ultimately not thwarted.