Trump news today: Kevin McCarthy refuses to cooperate with Jan 6 committee

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.

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.

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.

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:

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.

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:

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.”

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.”

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.

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.