A federal appeals court granted Donald Trump’s request to temporarily block the National Archives from releasing White House documents to the House select committee investigating the Capitol insurrection. The National Archives had previously been expected to start sending the records tomorrow, after a lower court dismissed Trump’s claims of executive privilege over the materials.
The appeals court will hear oral arguments in the case on 30 November because the judges granted the request for an expedited schedule to decide the matter. The three judges who will hear the case were all nominated by Democrats,which will likely be reassuring to members of the select committee.
Joe Biden marked Veterans Day at Arlington National Cemetery. The president laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and delivered a speech thanking veterans for their service. “Our veterans represent the best of America,” Biden said. “You are the very spine of America, not just the backbone. You’re the spine of this country.”
Joe Manchin is reportedly wavering on the timeline for passing Democrats’ reconciliation package, due to concerns about inflation. According to Axios, the senator is considering pushing the bill’s passage to 2022 after a labor department report showed that US inflation hit a 30-year high last month. Manchin has expressed fears that more government spending could supercharge inflation, although the White House has insisted the reconciliation package will help lower prices.
Kevin Gough, a defense attorney in the trial over the killing of Ahmaud Arbery, has sparked outrage after asking the court to limit the number of Black pastors who can sit with the Arbery family, claiming their presence could influence the almost entirely white jury.
On Thursday, while addressing Judge Timothy Walmsley, who is presiding over the trial, Gough claimed that high-profile Black pastors such as the Rev Al Sharpton and the Rev Jesse Jackson could be “intimidating” for jury members.
“There’s only so many pastors they [Arbery’s family] can have. If their pastor’s Rev Al Sharpton right now, that’s fine. But that’s it. We don’t want any more Black pastors in here or others,” said Gough.
As others in the court discussed Sharpton’s presence in the court room, Gough went on to say, “If a bunch of folks came in here dressed like Colonel Sanders with white masks … ” before being cut off.
Walmsley refused Gough’s request, stating: “I’m not going to start blanketly excluding members of the public from this courtroom.”
Sharpton said in a statement: “The arrogant insensitivity of attorney Kevin Gough in asking a judge to bar me or any minister of the family’s choice underscores the disregard for the value of the human life lost and the grieving of a family in need spiritual and community support.”
Kyle Rittenhouse judge in spotlight after angry reprimand of prosecution
Maya Yang
The shouting that unfolded on Wednesday in Kyle Rittenhouse’s homicide trial has thrust the presiding judge, Bruce Schroeder, and his style of unusual lectures and quirky questions in court under the spotlight.
Schroeder heavily admonished prosecutors in the trial in Kenosha, Wisconsin, questioned the authenticity of some pinch-to-zoom footage presented in evidence, and apparently forgot to silence his phone in court, which at one point rang with a song used at Donald Trump’s rallies.
The trial is in its second week. The defense team rested its case on Thursday afternoon, setting the stage for closing arguments on Monday, and the prosecution said it would seek approval for the jury to consider lesser charges against the teenager on some criminal counts.
Kyle Rittenhouse had taken the stand in his own defense on Wednesday and Thursday amid dramatic scenes in the courtroom.
Rittenhouse, 18,has pleaded not guilty to six charges, including first-degree intentional homicide, first-degree reckless homicide and first-degree attempted intentional homicide.
He killed Joseph Rosenbaum, 36, and Anthony Huber, 26, and wounded Gaige Grosskreutz, 27, when he shot them with a military-style assault rifle during night-time protests in August 2020, after a white police officer shot a local Black man, Jacob Blake, in the back and gravely wounded him.
The Kenosha county assistant district attorney, James Kraus, on Thursday said he planned to ask the judge to allow the jury to consider lesser charges on the counts involving Huber and Grosskreutz, a move that would lower the burden of proof for conviction.
Meanwhile, proceedings had became highly charged on Wednesday. Rittenhouse sobbed on the stand, the defense requested a mistrial and the judge gestured and shouted angrily at the lead prosecutor, accusing him of asking questions of the defendant that were legally out of bounds.
Pressure mounts for Mark Meadows, the former White House chief of staff, to cooperate with the House select committee investigation into the Capitol riot.
The White House counsel has alerted Meadows’ lawyer that Joe Biden will not assert executive privilege over documents and deposition that lawmakers investigating the 6 January insurrection are requesting, the Washington Post reports.
Meadows was subpoenaed in September but has dragged his feet in complying indicating that Donald Trump has requested he respect the former president’s “executive privilege” over confidential communications with staff.
“The President believes that the constitutional protections of executive privilege should not be used to shield information reflecting an effort to subvert the Constitution itself, and indeed believes that such an assertion in this circumstance would be at odds with the principles that underlie the privilege,” White House deputy counsel Jonathan Su wrote to Meadows’ lawyer.
That’s it from me today. My west coast colleague, Maanvi Singh, will take over the blog for the next few hours.
Here’s where the day stands so far:
A federal appeals court granted Donald Trump’s request to temporarily block the National Archives from releasing White House documents to the House select committee investigating the Capitol insurrection. The National Archives had previously been expected to start sending the records tomorrow, after a lower court dismissed Trump’s claims of executive privilege over the materials.
The appeals court will hear oral arguments in the case on 30 November because the judges granted the request for an expedited schedule to decide the matter. The three judges who will hear the case were all nominated by Democrats,which will likely be reassuring to members of the select committee.
Joe Biden marked Veterans Day at Arlington National Cemetery. The president laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and delivered a speech thanking veterans for their service. “Our veterans represent the best of America,” Biden said. “You are the very spine of America, not just the backbone. You’re the spine of this country.”
Joe Manchin is reportedly wavering on the timeline for passing Democrats’ reconciliation package, due to concerns about inflation. According to Axios, the senator is considering pushing the bill’s passage to 2022 after a labor department report showed that US inflation hit a 30-year high last month. Manchin has expressed fears that more government spending could supercharge inflation, although the White House has insisted the reconciliation package will help lower prices.
A panel of three appeals court judges will hear arguments in the case over Donald Trump’s effort to block the House select committee investigating the Capitol insurrection from obtaining White House documents.
Those three judges will be Patricia Millett, Robert Wilkins and Ketanji Brown Jackson. As Politico’s Kyle Cheney notes, all three judges were nominated by Democrats:
THE PANEL:
Judge Patricia Millett (Obama) Judge Robert Wilkins (Obama) Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson (Obama/Biden)
Appeals court temporarily blocks Archives from releasing documents linked to Capitol insurrection
A federal appeals court has granted Donald Trump’s request to temporarily block the National Archives from releasing documents to the House select committee investigating the Capitol insurrection.
The court has also set a hearing for November 30 to hear oral arguments in the case, granting the request for an expedited schedule.
The archives were expected to start sending Trump White House documents to the select committee tomorrow, but this ruling will alter that timeline.
A lower court has already ruled against Trump, dismissing the former president’s claims of executive privilege over the materials.
Joe Biden will also travel to Detroit, Michigan, next week to tout the benefits of the bipartisan infrastructure bill.
“On Wednesday, November 17, the President will travel to Detroit, Michigan to visit General Motors’ Factory ZERO electric vehicle assembly plant,” the White House said in a new statement.
“He will discuss how the Bipartisan Infrastructure Deal delivers for the American people by accelerating the expansion of electric vehicle charging infrastructure and supply chains, reducing emissions to fight the climate crisis, improving air quality, and creating good-paying, union jobs across the country.”
The White House announced earlier today that Biden will also travel to Woodstock, New Hampshire, on Tuesday to visit a bridge and deliver remarks on the infrastructure bill.
The president plans to sign the bill on Monday at the White House, where he will be joined by a bipartisan group of lawmakers who helped craft the legislation.
A group of congressional Republicans who helped pass the bipartisan infrastructure bill last Friday are facing calls for political punishment by their own party, including the threat of having their committee assignments stripped for supporting Joe Biden’s agenda, according to reports this week.
Several hardline Republicans, including the Colorado congresswoman Lauren Boebert and former Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, have publicly urged retaliation against party colleagues who voted for the $1tn bill.
“That 13 House Republicans provided the votes needed to pass this is absurd,” the Texas representative Chip Roy said, and the Washington Post has reported.
Florida’s Matt Gaetz had fumed early on Saturday, tweeting: “I can’t believe Republicans just gave the Democrats their socialism bill.”
House speaker Nancy Pelosi has already called for Republican Paul Gosar to be investigated by the House ethics committee and law enforcement over his violent tweet about Joe Biden and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
“Threats of violence against Members of Congress and the President of the United States must not be tolerated,” Pelosi said on Twitter, calling for minority leader Kevin McCarthy to “join in condemning this horrific video”.
So far, McCarthy has remained silent about Gosar’s tweet, even as many Democrats demand that the Republican leader take action.
The White House has also denounced the violent tweet. Karine Jean-Pierre, the deputy White House press secretary, said on Tuesday, “There is no place for any type of violence or that type of language in the political system. And it should not be happening, and we should be condemning it.”
House Democrats call for censure of Gosar over AOC tweet
A group of House Democrats is introducing a proposal to censure Republican congressman Paul Gosar over his violent tweet about Joe Biden and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
Gosar’s tweet included an altered video showing him striking Ocasio-Cortez with a sword and appearing to attack Biden, prompting intense criticism from the congressman’s Democratic colleagues.
Now several of those lawmakers -- Jackie Speier, Jim Cooper, Brenda Lawrence, Sylvia Garcia, Veronica Escobar, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Rashida Tlaib, Eric Swalwell , Nikema Williams and Ayanna Pressley -- are demanding that Gosar be censured.
Intro'ing a resolution to censure Rep Gosar for vile threats of violence against @RepAOC and @POTUS. @GOPLeader's silence is tacit approval and just as dangerous.
“For a Member of Congress to post a manipulated video on his social media accounts depicting himself killing Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and attacking President Biden is a clear cut case for censure,” the lawmakers said in a statement.
“For that Member to post such a video on his official Instagram account and use his official congressional resources in the House of Representatives to further violence against elected officials goes beyond the pale.”
The lawmakers warned that the Capitol insurrection demonstrated how “vicious and vulgar messaging can and does foment actual violence,” and they denounced House minority leader Kevin McCarthy’s silence about Gosar’s tweet.
“Violence against women in politics is a global phenomenon meant to silence women and discourage them from seeking positions of authority and participating in public life, with women of color disproportionately impacted,” they said. “Minority Leader McCarthy’s silence is tacit approval and just as dangerous.”
Donald Trump, the former US president, has been scrambling this week to make a last-ditch legal bid to block the release on Friday of sensitive White House records related to the deadly 6 January insurrection at the US Capitol.
The National Archives, a federal agency that holds presidential files, is poised to give congressional investigators hundreds of pages and other material, such as video clips, that Trump wants to keep secret.
The ex-president’s lawyers this week tried and failed to persuade district judge Tanya Chutkan to put on hold her ruling that allows a House of Representatives committee investigating the attack to access phone records, visitor logs and other documents.
Now, with time running out, Trump’s hopes are pinned on the influential US court of appeals for the District of Columbia in Washington. His legal team have asked it to overturn Chutkan’s ruling and stop the National Archives handing over the first documents on Friday.
As is customary, the DC circuit court will randomly assign three judges to a panel to consider the appeal. If they decline to issue a preliminary injunction, Trump is expected to appeal to the supreme court through its “shadow docket”, which allows justices to quickly decide emergency matters without full briefs and arguments.
Joe Biden will visit Woodstock, New Hampshire, on Tuesday to continue pitching the benefits of bipartisan infrastructure bill, which he will sign on Monday.
According to the White House, Biden will visit a bridge in Woodstock and “discuss how the Bipartisan Infrastructure Deal delivers for the American people by repairing and rebuilding the nation’s roads and bridges while strengthening resilience to climate change, improving equity and safety for all users, and creating good-paying, union jobs that grow the economy”.
Biden visited the Port of Baltimore yesterday to tout the benefits of the bill, saying, “Infrastructure week has finally arrived.”
The racial justice litmus-test trial of the white killers of 25-year-old Black Georgian Ahmaud Arbery is currently underway in Brunswick, in the south-east of the state.
Earlier today the jury was shown video of Arbery walking around a vacant property on an earlier visit to the mostly white southern Georgia neighborhood where hewas later fatally shot after being chased by three white men who are now on trial for murder.
Defendants Gregory McMichael, 65, his son Travis McMichael, 35, and their neighbor William “Roddie” Bryan, 52, have pleaded not guilty to murder, aggravated assault and false imprisonment. They face life in prison if convicted of murder.
The trial is in its second week of hearing arguments and evidence in a case closely-watched and widely regarded as a test for the state of racial justice in the US, although it got underway with a jury of 11 white members and only one Black member, vastly out of proportion with the county demographics.
Meanwhile, after New York politician and civil rights campaigner Al Sharptonshowed up, there has apparently been some protest from the defense...
A defense attorney for the men accused of killing Ahmaud Arbery is currently objecting to Al Sharpton’s presence in the court room, saying it’s intimidating. “We don’t want any more black pastors in here,” he just said.
Speaking outside the Glynn county courthouse as the trial opened, Arbery’s mother, Wanda Cooper-Jones, said she found the final jury’s racial makeup “devastating” but was confident the jury would “make the right decision”.
The defendants have argued they thought Arbery might have been fleeing a crime, rather than going on one of his regular jogs in the area, and they pursued in an attempt to make a citizen’s arrest when he ran through Satilla Shores, a suburb of the small coastal city of Brunswick, south-eastern Georgia, in February 2020.
The man who owned the house under construction where Arbery was seen on surveillance tape wandering around, Larry English, has said he called 911 - but had also called 911 previously when a white couple were caught on tape similarly intruding on the property.
English has also said, via a lawyer, that he later concluded that Arbery had been stopping by a faucet on his property for a drink of water.
Drilling down a little now on Donald Trump’s request for the federal appeals court to block the release of his White House records from the National Archive in relation to the January 6 insurrection at the US Capitol by his extremist supporters.
Those more steeped in court-speak have been examining some of the language in the legal documents.
Trump has asked for a placeholder "administrative" injunction until he formally asks the DC Circuit for an injunction blocking production of the docs while he pursues the appeal. The expedited schedule that the committee did agree to would push things back by less than a week pic.twitter.com/kw41hn91EM
And further, on what the committe and the National Archives are - or more importantly are not - arguing today:
Clarification: The expedited schedule they've jointly proposed is for Trump to more formally argue for an injunction pending his appeal of the order denying a prelim. injunction by the district court judge — same core issue, different procedural posture https://t.co/WxsMP1zDeN
I'm seeing a lot of people asking why the committee wouldn't fight the administrative injunction request in the meantime. @bradheath, as always, puts things well https://t.co/IMlBjlrVdb
Donald Trump is asking a federal appeals court to temporarily block the release of White House records to the House select committee investigating the Capitol insurrection. The National Archives was expected to start sending the records tomorrow, after a federal judge dismissed Trump’s claims of executive privilege over the materials. Trump is appealing that ruling, and he has now asked the court to block the transmission of the documents until the appeal is heard.
Joe Biden marked Veterans Day at Arlington National Cemetery. The president laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and delivered a speech thanking veterans for their service. “Our veterans represent the best of America,” Biden said. “You are the very spine of America, not just the backbone. You’re the spine of this country.”
Joe Manchin is reportedly wavering on the timeline for passing Democrats’ reconciliation package, due to concerns about inflation. According to Axios, the senator is considering pushing the bill’s passage to 2022 after a labor department report showed that US inflation hit a 30-year high last month.
US district judge Tanya Chutkan issued a ruling this week that Donald Trump could not claim executive privilege over the White House documents subpoenaed by the House select committee investigating the insurrection.
Chutkan said in her ruling: “His position that he may override the express will of the executive branch appears to be premised on the notion that his executive power ‘exists in perpetuity’... but presidents are not kings, and plaintiff is not president.”
Trump’s lawyers are appealing Chutkan’s decision, and they are now asking a federal appeals court to grant a temporary injunction to prevent the National Archives from sending the documents to the committee tomorrow.
Donald Trump’s lawyers argued that a temporary injunction would allow the courts to fairly consider his appeal of the lower court’s decision to allow the National Archives to send the documents to the select committee.
“If no administrative injunction issues from this Court, then the records at issue will be produced on November 12, at 6:00 p.m.,” they said in their court filing.
“Put simply, this motion seeks only a brief pause in the production; it will not prejudice the other arguments or requests to be made by the parties in this important appeal.”
The filing notes that both parties in the lawsuit believe the matter “should be handled expeditiously,” as the select committee looks to gather more information about the Capitol insurrection as quickly as possible.
Trump asks court to block ruling giving Capitol attack committee access to documents
Donald Trump has now formally asked a federal appeals court to temporarily block a lower court’s ruling that cleared the way for the National Archives to send White House documents to the House select committee investigating the Capitol insurrection.
Just in: Trump has now asked the DC Circuit for a temporary "administrative" injunction to stop the Archives from turning over his White House records to the Jan. 6 committee (set to happen tomorrow) while he pursues a full appeal https://t.co/D5E1ymERJZpic.twitter.com/6WzpKV7DAk
The new filing from Trump’s legal team requests “a brief administrative injunction to maintain the status quo and allow the Court to consider, on an expedited basis, whether to grant an injunction pending appeal”.
The National Archives had been expected to start sharing documents with the select committee tomorrow, after a federal judge dismissed Trump’s claims of executive privilege over the materials.
The blog will have more details coming up, so stay tuned.
