Jan 6 hearings latest – live: Pat Cipollone talks to committee at last as two hearings planned for next week

Unmanned drop boxes used across the country by voters to cast their ballots are now banned in Wisconsin following a ruling by the state’s Supreme Court.

The conservative-controlled court ruled that voters must now deliver their absentee ballots by mail or in-person to their clerks, a decision that is likely to disproportionately impact Democratic areas.

The ruling could have a significant impact on the next presidential election. Joe Biden won Wisconsin by fewer than 21,000 votes in 2020, and the state is likely to be a battleground again in 2024.

Ballot drop boxes have been used for years in Wisconsin without issue.

After months of negotiation, former White House counsel Pat Cipollone is currently talking to the Jan 6 panel behind closed doors. It’s a moment that Donald Trump has clearly been dreading, since Mr Cipollone was present on the day of the attack and is said by other witnesses to have been near the then-president when staffers were imploring him to call the rioters off.

As Senator Lindsey Graham refuses to comply with a subpoena calling him to testify to investigators in Fulton County, Georgia, Richard Hall takes a look at the probe into the Trump world’s efforts to influence the 2020 election outcome in the state – and explains why the case really is something Donald Trump should be worried about.

Read the full piece below.

As Steve Bannon prepares to face trial in his contempt of Congress case after refusing to cooperate with a Jan 6 committee subpoena, one of his legal team has backed out of the case.

Mr Costello, who has also represented Rudy Giuliani, has seen his emails and phone records targeted by the FBI as the case proceeds, as federal law enforcement investigate whether he himself was involved in the potentially criminal act of having Mr Bannon refuse to comply.

The resulting FBI “dragnet” reportedly ensnared the records of multiple people across the US with the name Bob Costello.

Andrew Feinberg has the story.

Today marks a major breakthrough for the 6 January select committee as Pat Cipollone, who was White House Counsel during Donald Trump’s post-2020 election meltdown, finally sits down to talk to the panel behind closed doors.

The panel has put pressure on Mr Cipollone to contribute to its investigation for some time, with suggestions at the last public hearing that he, like others, has been pressured to keep quiet by some unspecified person or persons in the Trump orbit.

Mr Trump took the news of Mr Cipollone’s cooperation badly.

“Why would a future President of the United States want to have candid and important conversations with his White House Counsel,” Mr Trump wrote on Truth Social, “if he thought there was even a small chance that this person, essentially acting as a ‘lawyer’ for the Country, may some day be brought before a partisan and openly hostile Committee in Congress, or even a fair and reasonable Committee, to reveal the inner secrets of foreign policy or other important matters. So bad for the USA!”

The thrust of Tucker Carlson’s show on Fox News has grown only darker since the end of the Trump presidency, with the most-watched host in cable news trading in increasingly paranoid conspiracy theories and overtly bigoted rhetoric about LGBT+ people, people of color, and assorted other groups.

Such is Mr Carlson’s popularity among the hardcore GOP base that there has long been speculation about his political future – but in a rare interview this week, he made clear that a presidential run was off the cards. “I don’t think that way,” he said; “I don’t want power, I’ve never wanted power. I’m annoyed by things and I want them to change, but I’ve never been motivated by the desire to control people.”

Memes showing former US president Donald Trump ‘bombing’ the Georgia Guidestones appeared on his own social media platform days before the monument was attacked, a report says.

The photoshopped image featuring Mr Trump appeared on Truth Social on 2 July – four days before the mysterious 18-foot granite monument was damaged in an alleged explosion.

According to the DailyDot, the meme was posted by a verified user on the Trump-owned social media site.

It had earlier appeared on Twitter and was shared by other users.

One of the main effects of the 6 January hearings has been to take some of the allure out of a Trump re-election campaign, with even some Republicans who have supported him in public up till now starting to openly advise against it. That in turn raises the question of who might run instead – and as Eric Garcia writes, few are as well-placed as Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.

Tom Cotton, the hard-right Arkansas Senator who infamously called for the military to be sent in to crack down on anti-racism protests in the summer of 2020, recently told a room of donors that he would not be put off running for president if Donald Trump announces another tilt a the White House. And now he appears to be doing the Iowa groudwork that’s compulsory for anyone seeking a presidential nomination…

The next session of the Jan 6 committee, which is scheduled for Tuesday, July 12th at 10:00am ET, is set to focus on the role played by extremist groups who participated in the Capitol riot, and on the ways they were coordinated – possibly with the involvement of Trump confidantes.

Politico quotes committee member Jamie Raskin giving this assessment: “Our investigation shows that there was a tremendous convergence of interests between the domestic violent extremist groups and the broader MAGA movement. This hearing will be the moment when one sees both the convergence of efforts at a political coup with the insurrectionary mob violence. We see how these two streams of activity become one.”

For more on the Oath Keepers, whose leaders have been charged with seditious conspiracy over their role in the events of 6 January, here is Richard Hall’s report on leader Stewart Rhodes.