Closing summary
That’s it from the US politics live blog for today, thank you for tuning in. We’re closing earlier than usual at the moment to focus our resources on the Guardian’s round-the-clock global live blog on the crisis in Ukraine. Please click here to follow all the news developments in Russia’s war, condemned by Joe Biden as “premeditated and unprovoked”.
Here are the main news events from today in US politics.
- International nuclear talks with Iran could produce a deal soon, despite tricky hurdles remaining, the US has indicated.
- Joe Biden promised the “strongest unified economic impact campaign on Vladimir Putin in all history” in announcing new sanctions on Russian oligarchs.
- The White House announced new sanctions on a host of Russian elites and what it called ‘cronies’ close to Russian president Vladimir Putin.
- The US is firmly resisting Ukraine’s appeals for it to impose a no-fly zone for Russian military aircraft over Ukraine, saying that would likely bring the US minto direct military conflict with Russia, which the US is steadfastly avoiding.
- Donald Trump may have committed federal crimes, including criminal conspiracy, in his various attempts to overturn his defeat by Joe Biden in the 2020 election, including inciting the insurrection at the US Congress on January 6, 2021, the bipartisan House committee investigating the deadly Capitol attack said in a court filing.
Updated
Given the situation in Ukraine, the US politics live blog is closing down earlier than usual at the moment, to provide more resources to our round-the-clock, round-the-world Ukraine crisis live blog covering developments in the war perpetrated by Russia.
So we won’t have live coverage of Joe Biden signing a new law that will provide greater justice for victims of sexual assault and sexual harassment.
The Washington Post has the goods on this, however. Here are the details.
President Biden is poised to sign into law Thursday a bill that ends forced arbitration in workplace sexual assault and harassment cases, allowing survivors to file lawsuits in court against perpetrators.
The new law would nullify agreements between employees and their employers in which the employees waive their rights to sue in the case of sexual assault or harassment and instead are required to settle their disputes by arbitration.
A bill-signing ceremony is scheduled for 5 p.m. Thursday at the White House.
“President Biden has long spoken against forced-arbitration clauses in employment contracts, and today marks an important milestone in empowering survivors of sexual assault and sexual harassment and protecting employee rights,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Thursday afternoon.
Critics of forced arbitration say that the practice has served only to further cultures of abuse in workplaces and that the new law would be critical for holding perpetrators of sexual misconduct accountable. About 60 million Americans are subject to arbitration clauses, and many of them do not know it because the provisions are buried in the fine print of their employment contracts.
“We can’t ignore a basic reality of these clauses: They deprive victims of sexual harassment and assault of their basic rights by mandating that they seek remedy only behind the closed doors of private arbitration, with no other alternative,” Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) said on the Senate floor Thursday morning.
The Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act, which was first introduced in 2017 by Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) and Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.), was a rare product of bipartisan congressional support. The #MeToo movement helped spur momentum for the bill after more victims spoke out about how they could not sue perpetrators because they had unwittingly signed such clauses.
Last month, the House passed the bill, 335-97; the Senate passed it on a voice vote. Gillibrand touted it then as “one of the most significant workplace reforms in American history,” while Graham defended the bill against some Republican criticism that it would be bad for businesses.
“It does not hurt business to make sure that people who are harassed in the workplace get treated fairly,” Graham said then.
Former Fox News host Gretchen Carlson, who was a key proponent of the bill, said in advocating for it that she had been shocked to learn that her employment contract included a forced arbitration clause. Her lawyers initially said the clause meant she could not sue then-Fox News CEO Roger Ailes, whom she accused of sexual harassment.
The full report is here.
US hopes of hosting men’s and women’s Rugby World Cups in 2029 and 2031 got a boost from Capitol Hill on Thursday, with the introduction of a bipartisan congressional resolution expressing support for the bid.
The resolution was introduced by the co-chairs of the Congressional Rugby Caucus, Alex Mooney, a West Virginia Republican, and Eleanor Holmes Norton, a Democrat from Washington DC.
Mooney said: “As a former college rugby player at Dartmouth College, I continue to enjoy watching the sport … as co-chairman of the Congressional Rugby Caucus, I am proud to be an advocate for the Rugby World Cup.”
Holmes Norton said: “Rugby has made a difference to the youth of the District of Columbia and across the country in terms of health, self-esteem, teamwork and social skills. I am proud to support the US bids to host the men’s and women’s Rugby World Cup tournaments.”
Sean Casten, an Illinois Democrat, and two Republicans, Richard Hudson from North Carolina and Paul Gosar from Arizona, also co-sponsored the measure.
Full story:
Kimberly Guilfoyle, a prominent pro-Donald Trump Republican figure, who also happens to be engaged to Don Trump Jr, has been subpoenaed to provide evidence to the House select committee investigating the insurrection at the US Capitol on January 6 last year and attempts by the-then US president to overturn his election defeat.
The committee issued the subpoena this afternoon, Reuters reports. Guilfoyle is also a television personality.
The agency writes:
Guilfoyle, who worked on the elder Trump’s presidential campaign, abruptly ended an interview with the select committee on February 25, criticizing House of Representatives members who were present.
Her attorney issued a statement afterward saying Guilfoyle had agreed to meet only with attorneys for the Democratic-led House committee, not members of Congress.
As a result, the committee said it would issue a subpoena to compel Guilfoyle’s cooperation. The panel asked Guilfoyle to appear for a deposition on March 15.
“Guilfoyle met with (former President) Donald Trump inside the White House, spoke at the rally that took place before the riot on January 6th, and apparently played a key role organizing and raising funds for that event,” Representative Bennie Thompson, committee chairman, said in a statement.
Her attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Select Committee is trying to establish the actions of Trump and associates before and during the assault on the Capitol by thousands of his supporters. The mobs attacked police, vandalized the building and sent members of Congress and then-Vice President Mike Pence running for their lives as they gathered to certify Democrat Joe Biden’s presidential election victory over Trump.
The Select Committee has so far interviewed more than 560 witnesses and issued more than 80 subpoenas as it probes the causes of the attack and the role played by Trump, who continues to push false claims that his election defeat by Biden was the result of fraud.
Earlier on Thursday, the panel interviewed Judd Deere, a former White House spokesman who is now a Republican congressional aide.
The House select committee investigating the Capitol attack is hoping to show through public hearings in April how it believes Donald Trump came to violate federal laws in his efforts to overturn the 2020 US election results, the panel has indicated in court documents.
The hearings are set to be a major and historical political event in America as the panel seeks to publicly show the extent of its investigations so far into the shocking events that saw a pro-Trump mob invade the Capitol in an attempt to stop the certification of the election of Joe Biden by Congress.
The panel alleged in a court filing on Wednesday that Trump and his associates obstructed Congress and conspired to defraud the United States on 6 January, arguing it meant the former Trump lawyer John Eastman could not shield thousands of emails from the inquiry.
But the public hearings – which are likely to come late next month, the chair of the select committee, Bennie Thompson, told the Guardian – will address just how Trump came to interfere with the joint session of Congress through rhetoric he knew to be false or unlawful.
“The president’s rhetoric persuaded thousands of Americans to travel to Washington for January 6, some of whom marched on the Capitol, breached security, and took other illegal actions. The select committee’s hearings will address those issues in detail,” the filing said.
The panel also said in its court submission that the public hearings would address how Trump appeared to lay the groundwork for his rhetoric inciting the Capitol attack by promoting claims of election fraud in the 2020 election that he had been told were without merit.
“Despite being repeatedly told his allegations of campaign fraud were false, the President continued to feature those same false allegations in ads seen by millions,” the filing said. “The select committee will address these issues in detail in hearings this year.”
The select committee indicated the public hearings would serve as the opportunity to cast a light on Trump’s secret efforts to overturn the election, from his attempts to pressure the then vice-president, Mike Pence, to return him to office, to abuse of the justice department.
“We want to paint a picture as clear as possible as to what occurred,” Thompson told reporters on Capitol Hill on Thursday. “The public needs to know what to think. We just have to show clearly what happened on January 6.”
Read the full report here.
Donald Trump will turn over some documents to New York’s attorney general, Letitia James, for her civil probe into his business practices, but need not answer questions under oath while he appeals a judge’s order that he testify.
The developments are part of an agreement struck today between the former US Republican president, his oldest children Don Jr. and Ivanka Trump, and AG James.
Reuters reports that these developments:
Followed a February 17 ruling by Justice Arthur Engoron of a state court in Manhattan that James could enforce subpoenas for the Trumps’ testimony and documents from Donald Trump, after having found “copious” evidence of possible financial fraud.
The Trumps appealed on February 28. James’ three-year probe and a parallel criminal probe led by Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg have focused on whether the Trump Organization misstated the values of its real estate properties to obtain favorable loans and tax benefits.
The Trumps have denied wrongdoing, and none has been accused of criminal wrongdoing.
Today’s agreement, which Engoron approved, requires Donald Trump to comply “in full” with James’ subpoena for documents and information by March 31.
It also requires the Trumps to submit for questioning within 14 days if the state appellate division rejects their appeal, unless that court or the state’s highest court puts the case on hold.
Both sides will speed up the appeals process, with briefing completed by March 31.
In their appeal, the Trumps have said testifying in James’ probe would violate their constitutional rights because their words could be used against them in Bragg’s criminal probe.
NEW: Trumps reach deal with NYAG to postpone depositions until after an appeal is heard. Expedited briefing schedule ends March 31. Trumps wouldn’t sit for depositions until 14 days after appeals court decision. pic.twitter.com/azJCYlZPpv
— Kara Scannell (@KaraScannell) March 3, 2022
Donald Trump faces legal peril on several fronts, as Ed Pilkington has reported lately for Guardian US. But the Manhattan criminal investigation is now in its own world of trouble. Will Teflon Donald ever come before a judge?
Updated
Congressman Tom Malinowski, a Democrat of New Jersey, is calling for the frozen assets of Russian oligarchs to be sold to benefit the Ukrainian people.
Malinowski, a former assistant secretary of state under Barack Obama, has introduced a bill with Congressman Joe Wilson, a Republican of South Carolina, to sell the oligarchs’ luxury assets like yachts.
A $600 million yacht can help pay for rebuilding Ukraine.
— Tom Malinowski (@Malinowski) March 3, 2022
So today, I'm introducing a bipartisan bill with @RepJoeWilson to give the administration a new authority to dispose of sanctioned Russian oligarchs' frozen assets, and to use the proceeds to help Ukrainians. pic.twitter.com/dE0EyHA6ae
“A $600 million yacht can help pay for rebuilding Ukraine,” Malinowski said on Twitter. “So today, I’m introducing a bipartisan bill with @RepJoeWilson to give the administration a new authority to dispose of sanctioned Russian oligarchs’ frozen assets, and to use the proceeds to help Ukrainians.”
The introduction of Malinowski’s bill comes as Joe Biden announced a new round of sanctions on Russian oligarchs and their families, restricting their access to American banks and banning them from traveling to the US.
“Our interest is in maintaining the strongest unified economic impact campaign on Putin in all of history, and I think we’re well on the way to doing that,” Biden said in his cabinet meeting this afternoon.
Business Insider has more details on the bill from Malinowski and Wilson calling on the federal government to sell seized Russian assets to benefit the Ukrainian people:
“Funds from such sales could be used on post-conflict reconstruction in Ukraine, humanitarian support, weapons for Ukraine’s armed forces, provisions for refugees, and technology goods. Cash could also be diverted to humanitarian assistance for Russians, ‘including democracy and human rights programming and monitoring,’ according to the bill.
Authority provided by the bill would last for two years after its passage, giving President Joe Biden prolonged power over Russian oligarchs parking their wealth in the US.
The idea could gain further bipartisan traction in Congress. Democratic representative Pramila Jayapal of Washington said she was ‘absolutely’ on board.
Updated
Possible nuclear deal with Iran near but issues remain - US State Dept
American diplomacy is on hold with Russia right now but alive and well with Iran.
There has been significant progress in nuclear talks with Iran and world powers may be close to reaching a deal with Tehran, Reuters reports, while quoting the US government saying a number of difficult issues still remain unresolved.
There will not be an Iran nuclear deal unless those issues are quickly resolved, State Department spokeswoman Jalina Porter told reporters.
Marathon talks recently hit a roadblock. It’s not clear yet what might have cleared along the way for a deal to be closer to fruition, but there are reports of “significant progress”.
Talks had been going on in Vienna between the west, Russia, Iran and China.
Iran is pushing for all sanctions in place against it to be lifted, but the US says some sanctions are linked to human rights and terrorists abuses, and are not linked to the nuclear deal.
The Guardian’s Patrick Wintour previously noted that an agreement is designed to bring the US, and subsequently Iran, back into the original nuclear deal signed in 2015 from which the US withdrew in 2018.
The talks have been held against a backdrop of repeated warnings from the west stretching back months that the talks can continue only for a few more weeks because Iran is coming ever closer to obtaining irreversibly the material and knowledge required to make a nuclear weapon.
The American version of RT, the Russia-controlled TV network that pumps out Putin propaganda and has now been banned in Europe and dropped by platforms around the world, is apparently seeing an impact in the US of the invasion of Ukraine.
The production company behind the RT operation in the US laid off most of its staff today, CNN has reported.
The cable network promises more reporting, but for now writes on its website that:
Misha Solodovnikov, the general manager of the production company, T&R Productions, told staff that it will be “ceasing production” at all of its locations “as a result of unforeseen business interruption events.””Unfortunately, we anticipate this layoff will be permanent, meaning that this will result in the permanent separation from employment of most T&R employees at all locations,” Solodovnikov wrote in his memo to employees.
The layoffs would mean an effective end to RT America. The network, one of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s main mouthpieces in the US, was dropped earlier this week by DirecTV. The satellite carrier was one of the two major television providers in the US to carry the network.
BREAKING: RT America is ceasing productions and laying off its staff, according to a memo I have obtained from the production company behind the Russia-backed network. https://t.co/l2wcGA85Zg
— Oliver Darcy (@oliverdarcy) March 3, 2022
Biden: 'Strongest unified economic impact campaign on Putin in all history'
Joe Biden made remarks a little earlier at the top of a meeting of his cabinet about the new sanctions announced by the US against oligarchs close to Russian president Vladimir Putin, over the invasion of Ukraine.
The US president did not take questions from the pool reporters gathered to see the top of the meeting.
But Biden talked from prepared remarks of his latest announced measures against Russian oligarchs as: “Severe economic sanctions on Putin and all of those folks around him, choking off access to technology as well as cutting off access to the global financial system.”
He added: “It’s had a profound impact already. The goal was to maximize the impact on Putin and Russia and minimize the harm on us and our allies and friends around the world.
“Our interest is in maintaining the strongest unified economic impact campaign on Putin in all history and I think we’re well on the way to doing that.”
Biden referred to his State of the Union address on Tuesday evening, his first, in which he vowed that Putin would pay for his “unprovoked” attack on Russia’s southern, democratic neighbor.
He said: “I announced that the Department of Justice is going after the crimes of Russian oligarchs…who line their pockets with Russian peoples’ money while Ukraine and the people are hiding in the subway from Russian missiles that are being fired indiscriminately...
“Today I’m announcing that we’re adding dozens of names to the list including one of Russia’s wealthiest billionaires and I’m banning travel to America by more than 50 Russian oligarchs, their families and their close associates. And we’re going to continue to support Ukrainian people with direct assistance.”
Updated
White House announces new sanctions on Russian elites and 'cronies' close to Putin
The White House has now issued details on further sanctions the US will impose on Russian oligarchs.
A statement from the White House, released for publication moments ago, states: “The United States, in coordination with allies and partners, is targeting additional Russian elites and family members who continue supporting President Putin despite his brutal invasion of Ukraine.”
It continued that the individuals concerned had enriched themselves “at the expense of the Russian people, and some have elevated their family members into high-ranking positions. Others sit atop Russia’s largest companies and are responsible for providing the resources necessary to support Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
“These individuals and their family members will be cut off from the U.S. financial system, their assets in the United States will be frozen and their property will be blocked from use. Today, the United States will sanction an expansive list of Putin’s cronies and their family members.”
The first individual mentioned is Alisher Usmanov, a metals magnate with ties to Britain’s Everton soccer club.
When the European Union imposed sanctions on him, the bloc described him as “one of Vladmir Putin’s favourite oligarchs”.
“His property will be blocked from use in the United States and by U.S. persons – including his super yacht, one of the world’s largest, and just seized by our ally Germany, and his private jet, one of Russia’s largest privately-owned aircraft,” the White House announcement said.
Next on the list is multi-millionaire Dmitry Peskov, “who as Putin’s spokesman is a top purveyor of Putin’s propaganda”, the White House said. The US also imposed visa restrictions on 19 oligarchs and 47 of their family members and close associates.
Full sanctions were announced on: Nikolai Tokarev and his two luxury real estate companies, Boris Rotenber, Arkady Rotenberg, Sergei Chemezo, Yevgeniy Prigozhin and his three companies, and members of their families. Also on Igor Shuvalov and his five companies, his wife Olga, his son Evgeny and his company and jet, and his daughter Maria and her company.
In my State of the Union Address, I said the United States is going after the crimes of Russian oligarchs.
— President Biden (@POTUS) March 3, 2022
Today, we’re adding dozens of names to the list — and banning travel to America by more than 50 Russian oligarchs, their families, and close associates.
Updated
'We want him to feel the squeeze' – White House on extra sanctions on Russian oligarchs close to Vladimir Putin
The White House will shortly issue new sanctions on Russian oligarchs and their families, as Vladimir Putin showed no sign of deescalating Russia’s devastating military attacks on Ukraine.
The White House press secretary, Jen Psaki, confirmed the forthcoming sanctions and said the move was meant to put more pressure on Putin by targeting his inner circle of allies.
“We want him to feel the squeeze. We want the people around him to feel the squeeze,” Psaki said. “I don’t believe this is going to be the last set of oligarchs.”
Psaki did not provide many details on the sanctions, although she did indicate they would include a US travel ban on the oligarchs. Joe Biden is expected to provide more details on the sanctions at his cabinet meeting on Thursday afternoon.
The announcement marks an escalation by the Biden administration, which had already imposed sanctions on Putin, his foreign minister and some of the top executives of Russia’s largest companies following the invasion of Ukraine. Biden indicated in his State of the Union speech on Tuesday that his administration would crack down on oligarchs’ assets as part of the West’s efforts to further isolate Putin.
“I say to the Russian oligarchs and the corrupt leaders who’ve bilked billions of dollars off this violent regime: no more,” Biden said Tuesday. “We’re joining with European Allies to find and seize their yachts, their luxury apartments, their private jets. We’re coming for your ill-begotten gains.”
The new sanctions came as the White House asked Congress for another $10bn in aid to Ukraine. Shalanda Young, acting director of the Office of Management and Budget, said the money would be used to provide Ukraine with more defense equipment and emergency food assistance, as well as bolster enforcement of the sanctions against Russia.
“Given the rapidly evolving situation in Ukraine, additional needs may arise over time,” Young said.
House speaker Nancy Pelosi said Thursday that she supports including the funding for Ukraine in the omnibus spending package currently being debated in Congress. Pelosi also echoed demands to ban US imports of Russian oil, telling reporters, “I’m all for that. Ban it. Ban the oil coming from Russia.”
But the White House has voiced a more skeptical opinion of sanctioning Russian oil companies, amid concerns that the crisis in Ukraine could drive gas prices higher. “We don’t have a strategic interest in reducing the global supply of energy,” Psaki said. “That would raise prices at the gas pump for the American people.”
Any sanctions imposed by the White House may be coming too late for millions of Ukrainians. More than 1 million people have already fled the country because of the Russian invasion, and the president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has begged for more assistance from Western allies to end Putin’s airstrikes.
“If you do not have the power to close the skies, then give me planes!” he said Thursday. “If we are no more, then, God forbid, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia will be next.”
Expectations are low for the second round of peace talks between Ukrainian and Russian officials in Belarus. A phone call between Putin and French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday yielded no major breakthroughs, and concerns are mounting over a massive Russian convoy of tanks and artillery outside the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv.
The French Élysée palace said after the call, “We expect the worst is yet to come.”
Updated
US not planning to engineer Russian no-fly zone over Ukraine - White House
White House press secretary Jen Psaki reiterated moments ago that the US has no plans to take action to impose a no-fly zone for Russian military aircraft over Ukraine.
A reporter pointed out to Psaki that Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy has asked for the west to create a no-fly zone over his imperiled nation.
Psaki said: “The reason why that has not been a step the president [Joe Biden] is willing to take because it requires implementation. It requires essentially the US military shooting down Russian planes and causing a potential direct war with Russia - the exact step that we want to avoid.”
She added that Biden has increased support to Ukraine, including military equipment and weapons “but we are not taking steps that would prompt a war between the US and Russia.”
The US believes that Russian forces have not, in fact, yet taken over the southern Ukrainian port city of Kherson, known for its shipbuilding industry, a senior US defense official has said.
This is in contrast to most media reports so far, including the Guardian’s, which say that the Black Sea port on Wednesday became the first major Ukrainian city to fall under the de facto control of Russia forces.
This was after Kherson’s mayor, Igor Kolykhaiev, said in a Facebook post that Russian troops were in control of the city hall and that residents should obey a curfew imposed by “armed visitors”.
But the Reuters news agency is now reporting that the Russian military offensive on Kherson could be part of a strategy for potentially moving to the much larger port of Mykolaiv a little to the west of Kherson on that southern coast of Ukraine.
And then on to the city of Odesa on the Black Sea, which has a population close to a million.
Reuters is citing an unnamed senior US defense officia. The agency further reports:
Tanks entered the port town of Kherson, a provincial capital of around 250,000 people, and Russian forces occupied the regional administration building, regional governor Hennadiy Laguta said in an online post on Thursday.
“There’s still fighting there, so we’re not ready to call it one way or another,” the U.S. official told reporters, adding that the situation on the ground was changing quickly.
If Kherson were to be captured, it would be the first significant urban center to fall into the hands of Russian troops.
“What they may want to do is move on (Mykolaiv) so that they can then position themselves to the northeast of Odessa in case, in fact, they want to move on Odessa, not just from the sea, but from the ground,” said the official, speaking on the condition of anonymity.
The invasion, which started eight days ago, has not seen Russian aircraft control Ukraine’s airspace. Russian troops are still stalled about 16 miles outside Kyiv’s city center.
The official said that Russia had moved about 90% of its pre-staged combat power into Ukraine so far and about 480 missiles had been fired by Russian forces at Ukrainian targets.
British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace earlier on Thursday said Putin had deployed thermobaric weapons systems in Ukraine.
The U.S. official said: “We know that they have the launching systems available to them in Ukraine that could be used for rockets that have a thermobaric warhead on them. But we cannot confirm that those weapons are in Ukraine and we cannot confirm any examples of use.”
Meanwhile, a massive Russian military convoy outside the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv is stalled for a third day.
Updated
Smugglers have breached the Trump administration’s US-Mexico border wall more than 3,000 times, government maintenance records obtained by the Washington Post reveal.
Nearly 500 miles of barrier was constructed by the Trump administration, beginning in 2019 and mostly in New Mexico and Arizona. Donald Trump touted the “big, beautiful wall” as the “Rolls-Royce” of barriers, but smugglers have breached it at least 3,272 times, mostly with common power tools found at hardware stores.
“No structure is impenetrable, so we will continue to work to focus resources on modern, effective border management measures to improve safety and security,” Luis Miranda, a spokesperson for Customs and Border Patrol (CBP), told the Post.
Full story:
Bad news for Republicans not wholly on the Trump Train, it seems, from Arizona.
The governor, Doug Ducey, has decided not to run for Senate against Mark Kelly, a former astronaut and one of two Democrats who currently represent Arizona in Washington.
Ducey* notified donors of his decision in a letter reported by the Arizona Republic.
“Right now I have the job I want,” Ducey wrote, adding that he was “fully committed to helping elect a Republican US senator from Arizona”.
The other current senator in Arizona, Kyrsten Sinema, is unpopular with Democrats in her state and nationally but is up for re-election in 2024. Some fear she could drag down votes for Kelly.
The Senate is split 50-50 and controlled by the vote of the vice-president, Kamala Harris. Mitch McConnell, the Republican minority leader, has now seen three popular Republican governors decline to run for Senate: Larry Hogan, in Maryland, and Chris Sununu in New Hampshire are the others.
There’s also the question of what effect the Trump Train itself might have. In Missouri, for instance, Trump has not yet bestowed his endorsement in the race for the Republican nomination to replace a retiring Republican senator, Roy Blunt. There are some rather extreme candidates about, including Eric Greitens, a former governor who resigned in 2018 over allegations of sexual assault.
As in the House, some think too-extreme candidates could jeopardise Republicans’ chances of taking control, by turning off the sort of independent or “moderate” voters who notably swung Republican in last year’s gubernatorial election in Virginia.
*Note on Doug Ducey: he’s the Republican governor of a state key to Donald Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 election through lies about electoral fraud who was certifying results when Trump called him … and who let the call go through to voicemail**.
**Note to the note about Doug Ducey: he’s also the governor who recently said he needed the support of a far-right state senator who associates with white nationalists and muses about building gallows for her enemies, because at least she isn’t a Democrat.
Updated
In the late summer of 2020, Bruce Bartman went to Pennsylvania’s voter registration website and signed up his mother and mother-in-law to vote. Both were dead.
A few months later, Bartman, who is white, requested a mail-in ballot for his late mother and cast her vote for Donald Trump. Bartman was arrested that December and charged with perjury and unlawful voting. Months later, he pleaded guilty, admitted he made a “stupid mistake”, was sentenced to five years of probation and barred from serving on a jury or voting for four years.
“There’s not public benefit to him being incarcerated,” Jack Stollsteimer, the local district attorney said at the time. “This defendant from the beginning has accepted responsibility for his actions, and he has paid the price for them.”
When Bartman pleaded guilty, nearly 1,000 miles away, in Memphis, a Black Lives Matter activist named Pamela Moses was facing her own election-related criminal charges.
A few years previously, Moses, who is Black, permanently lost the right to vote after committing a felony. But no one had actually removed Moses from the voter rolls or told her she couldn’t vote. And in 2019, when state officials began looking into her eligibility, a probation officer signed a certificate saying Moses had completed her sentence and was eligible to vote. So she applied to do so. Even though corrections officials conceded they made an error, Moses was indicted anyway.
Moses was convicted by a jury in November. In late January, she was sentenced to six years and one day in prison.
Full story:
Updated
In his new book, Donald Trump’s former attorney general William Barr complains that in the US, the “most educated and influential people are more attached to self-serving narratives than to factual truth”.
But in his own narrative of his tumultuous time as Trump’s top lawyer, Barr regularly omits inconvenient truths or includes self-serving versions of events previously reported with his evident input.
Barr was only the second US attorney general to fill the role twice, working for George HW Bush from 1991 to 1993, then succeeding Jeff Sessions in 2019. His memoir, One Damn Thing After Another, will be published on 8 March. Excerpts have been reported by US news outlets. The Guardian obtained a copy.
Barr’s accounts of controversies under Trump are often highly selective or noticeably incomplete.
In June 2020, for example, Barr was engulfed in controversy over the removal of Geoffrey Berman, the US attorney in the southern district of New York.
Berman was investigating Trump’s business and allies including Rudy Giuliani. He was also supervising a case involving a Turkish bank which the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, pressured Trump to drop.
Shortly after John Bolton, Trump’s third national security adviser, said Trump promised Erdoğan he would get rid of leaders in the southern district, Barr announced Berman was stepping down. When Berman said he would not quit, he was fired.
The incident prompted calls for Barr to resign, including from the New York City Bar Association.
In his book, Barr praises the “quality and experience of the group of US attorneys I inherited” and says he told them “to go full speed ahead on the department’s existing priorities”. He also says he regrets not installing an aide, Ed O’Callaghan, “into his dream job – US attorney in the southern district of New York”.
But he does not mention Berman and how or why he fired him.
Full story:
US to impose sanctions on more Russian oligarchs close to Putin – report
The US today plans to impose economic sanctions on a wide array of Russian oligarchs and their families in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, two sources familiar with the matter have told Reuters.
The news agency further reports:
Washington has already hit a variety of oligarchs with asset-blocking sanctions. The source, speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity, said some significant names would be included in today’s actions.
A second person familiar with the matter confirmed that there will be a number of oligarchs sanctioned on Thursday. The source also said Russian officials close to Putin would likely be among those targeted.
Washington has so far imposed several rounds of sanctions, including against Putin and the central bank, after Russia’s forces invaded Ukraine in the biggest assault on a European state since World War Two. Moscow calls the assault a “special operation.”
The measures have included sanctions against what the U.S. Treasury Department said were Russian “elites,” including some with ties to Sberbank, VTB, Rosneft and the Federal Security Service (FSB).
The sources said the names cited by the US would overlap with those already designated by the European Union but would go beyond them by naming family members and business associates.
The US is also expected to announce visa bans on some of those targeted, one of the sources said. The EU on Monday imposed sanctions on 26 prominent people over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, including oligarchs and business people active in the oil, banking and finance sectors.
Several people included on the EU’s list on Monday have not yet been designated by the United States, including Nikolay Tokarev, the chief executive of energy giant Transneft, Dmitry Chernyshenko, Russia’s deputy prime minister, and Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.
Washington has repeatedly warned that it is prepared to take further measures to hold Moscow to account over its invasion of Ukraine.
In his State of the Union address on Tuesday night, Joe Biden said the US would work to seize the yachts, luxury apartments and private jets of wealthy Russians with ties to Putin.
The US and its allies last week announced they would launch a task force to identify and freeze the assets of sanctioned Russian companies and oligarchs.
Updated
Leaders of the Quad grouping of countries - the US, India, Australia and Japan - agreed today that what is happening to Ukraine should not be allowed to happen in the Indo-Pacific, Japanese prime minister Fumio Kishida said.
Reuters reports:
A virtual meeting of the four-country grouping was held at a time of increased concern about Taiwan, a self-ruled island claimed by China, which has stepped up its alert level, wary of China taking advantage of a distracted west to move against it.
“We’ve agreed that unilateral changes to the status quo with force like this should not be allowed in the Indo-Pacific region,” Kishida said, referring to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“We’ve also agreed this development makes it even more important to work toward realizing a free and open Indo-Pacific,” Kishida told reporters after the meeting Joe Biden, the Australian prime minister, Scott Morrison, and Narendra Modi, prime minister of India.
Kurt Campbell, the White House coordinator for Indo-Pacific, said on Monday the US would keep its focus on the Indo-Pacific despite the Ukraine crisis, although this would be difficult and expensive. He said Washington has been deeply engaged in two theaters simultaneously before, including during the second world war and the cold war.
The US sees the Quad and its growing relations with India as essential to its efforts to push back against China in the Pacific, but it is in a delicate balancing act with New Delhi, given the latter’s long-standing ties with Russia.
Of the four Quad countries, only India has not condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Russia is the main supplier of arms to the Indian military and India faces the possibility of US sanctions for its purchase of the Russian S-400 air defense system.
Analysts say any moves by Russia hawks in the Biden administration to impose sanctions on India for working with Moscow could backfire and set back cooperation in the Quad.
Campbell said on Monday Washington remained “bullish” about its relationship with India.
“We have a deep dialogue with them on issues underway now,* he told a Washington think tank. “We understand ... India’s historic, long-standing relationship with Russia, but at the same time, ultimately, we believe that India will be moving in our direction.”
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Joe Biden is poised to impose sanctions on a number of Russian oligarchs and their families at some point today, according to Bloomberg reporters, citing unnamed sources.
SCOOP: Biden is poised to impose sanctions on a number of Russian oligarchs and their families TODAY, sources tell @nwadhams and me.
— Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) March 3, 2022
The sanctions will be in keeping with EU measures but broader, prohibiting the oligarchs’ travel to US and also targeting their families.
We await further details and will bring those to you asap.
With @JenniferJJacobs , the Biden is poised to impose sanctions on a number of Russian oligarchs and their families today. To include visa bans and family members.
— Nick Wadhams (@nwadhams) March 3, 2022
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, has been on the phone with US secretary of state Antony Blinken to discuss a further strengthening of Ukraine’s air defenses and imposing new sanctions on Russia due to its aggression.
Call with @SecBlinken to coordinate further strengthening of Ukraine’s air defense capabilities, imposing new sanctions on Russia. Grateful to the U.S. for working on additional financial aid for Ukraine. Russia must cease hostilities to allow opening of humanitarian corridors.
— Dmytro Kuleba (@DmytroKuleba) March 3, 2022
For full global coverage of the Russian war in Ukraine, follow the Guardian’s Ukraine crisis live blog here.
House speaker Nancy Pelosi is holding her weekly press conference right now.
She pre-empted questions about the court filing last night by the House panel investigating the January 6, 2021, insurrection at the Capitol and Donald Trump’s various attempts to overturn his defeat but Joe Biden, saying she didn’t want to talk about it.
But a reporter just asked what was going through her mind on that day, as she was at the dias in the House chamber, when extremist supporters of Trump broke into the US Capitol and were trying to smash their way into the chamber.
Pelosi said she was “totally consumed” by concerns for the safety of lawmakers, congressional staff and media covering the Capitol at the time, saying that “I didn’t want to leave” the chamber.
Then she added of the attack: “I thought it was a threat to our democracy, our constitution and the Capitol building and all that that entails.”
The bipartisan panel now suspects that Trump violated federal laws in his numerous actions taken in his bid to overturn the November 2020 election results. Read Hugo Lowell’s report here.
Pelosi just reiterated that she won’t answer questions today about the panel’s investigation except “to thank them for seeking the truth”.
Join me live at the U.S. Capitol for my weekly press conference. https://t.co/606PIHqZ4B
— Nancy Pelosi (@SpeakerPelosi) March 3, 2022
The US supreme court has also ruled today that two former CIA contractors cannot be questioned in a criminal investigation in Poland over their role in interrogating Abu Zubaydah, a suspected high-ranking al-Qaida figure who was repeatedly subjected to waterboarding.
Reuters reports:
The justices concluded that Central Intelligence Agency contractors James Elmer Mitchell and John Bruce Jessen cannot be subpoenaed under a U.S. law that allows federal courts to enforce a request for testimony or other evidence for a foreign legal proceeding.
The court found that the government could assert what is known as the “state-secrets privilege” to prevent the contractors from being questioned, saying it would risk national security.
Poland is believed to be the location of a “black site” where the CIA used harsh interrogation techniques against Zubaydah. Zubaydah, now 50, has spent more than 15 years at Guantanamo. He lost an eye and underwent waterboarding 83 times in a single month while held by the CIA, U.S. government documents showed.
The contractors’ testimony “would be tantamount to a disclosure from the CIA itself,” Justice Stephen Breyer wrote in the majority opinion.
“For these reasons, we conclude that in this case the state secrets privilege applies to the existence (or nonexistence) of a CIA facility in Poland,” Breyer added.
The justices were divided on what exactly should happen, with six justices saying Zubaydah’s request should be dismissed. Conservative Neil Gorsuch and liberals Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan said the case should be sent back to lower courts.
Gorsuch wrote a strongly worded dissenting opinion joined by Sotomayor saying that much of what the government claims to be a state secret is already widely known.
“Ending this suit may shield the government from some further modest measure of embarrassment. But respectfully, we should not pretend it will safeguard any secret,” Gorsuch said.
The Polish investigation concerns the treatment of Zubaydah, who remains held at the American naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Zubaydah, a Palestinian man captured in 2002 in Pakistan and held by the United States since then without charges, repeatedly underwent waterboarding, a form of simulated drowning widely considered torture.
At the oral arguments in the case in October, some justices asked why the government would not allow Zubaydah himself to be questioned. The Justice Department later told the court that it would agree to Zubaydah sending a declaration that could be used in the Polish investigation, although it would have to be reviewed first. Zubaydah’s lawyers said that approach was not acceptable.
Read the Guardian’s investigation into the CIA’s lies over Zubaydah’s torture here.
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Supreme court lets Kentucky official defend abortion law
The US supreme court moments ago announced it has decided to allow Kentucky’s Republican attorney general to take over the defense of a restrictive abortion law, after the state’s Democratic governor dropped the case when lower courts struck down the statute.
The Reuters news agency writes:
The justices ruled 8-1 in favor of Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron, the top legal officer in the state, in his appeal of a lower court’s rejection of his request to intervene in the litigation.
A federal appeals court had found that Cameron’s request, in a bid to revive the law, came too late.
The justices found that even though the Cincinnati-based 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had already issued its decision in the case, it should have used its discretion to allow the state’s attorney general to step in to pursue a rehearing or an appeal to the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court’s ruling was authored by conservative Justice Samuel Alito and joined by the other five conservative justices. Liberal justices Elena Kagan and Stephen Breyer concurred in the judgment, while Justice Sonia Sotomayor dissented.
Republican-backed abortion restrictions enacted by numerous U.S. states in recent years have continued to draw the attention of the nation’s highest judicial body.
Kentucky’s Republican-backed 2018 law placed strict limits on the use of an abortion method called dilation and evacuation - the most common form of the procedure after 15 weeks of pregnancy during the second trimester.
Abortion rights advocates have said the law would effectively ban the procedure, though its proponents denied that it was a ban.
The law was passed by the state legislature and signed by then-Governor Matt Bevin. Bevin, Republican, subsequently lost his 2019 re-election bid to Democrat Andy Beshear.
EMW Women’s Surgical Center, an abortion clinic in Louisville, challenged Kentucky’s law. It argued that Cameron should not be able to take the case further because the state attorney general’s office previously agreed to be bound by the lower court’s final judgment and then did not pursue an appeal.
The case heard by the Supreme Court did not involve the legality of the law, focusing instead on the narrow legal issue of Cameron’s right to act when another state official declines.
The case highlights the sometimes-messy conflicts that arise when a governor and a state’s top legal officer differ in political views or party, sometimes leading to disagreements on whether to defend certain state laws in court.
Beshear’s administration dropped the case after the 6th Circuit ruled that the law violated Supreme Court precedents holding that women have a right under the U.S. Constitution to obtain an abortion.
Kentucky’s health department had continued to defend the law in court after Beshear took office but opted not to pursue the matter further after the 6th Circuit’s decision. Cameron then unsuccessfully sought to take over the defense.
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Biden seeks $10bn for aid to Ukraine, $22.5bn for coronavirus
The Biden administration is seeking another $10bn to help protect Ukraine against the Russian invasion and an additional $22.5bn to cover coronavirus pandemic-related expenses, two major additions to budget talks already under way.
The Associated Press reports:
The acting director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, Shalanda Young, laid out the need for the supplemental funding in a blog post today. The requests would be additions to a planned budget agreement that Congress is trying to finish before a March 11 deadline.
Young said in the blog post that the money was urgently needed.
The $10 billion to Ukraine would be a rapid escalation of the $1.4 billion provided by the United States since 2021, a reflection of the crisis caused by the Russian offensive that began last month.
Young said the money would cover “additional humanitarian, security, and economic assistance in Ukraine and the neighboring region in the coming days and weeks.”
Last week, Biden administration officials told congressional aides that their requests would include $3.5 billion for the Pentagon and $2.9 billion for humanitarian aid as Russia’s invasion has caused more than a million Ukrainian refugees to flee their country.
The $22.5 billion tied to the coronavirus would pay for testing, treatments and vaccines as well as investments in research and efforts to increase vaccinations worldwide.
The federal government spent $6.8 trillion last fiscal year, due in large part to the emergency measures tied to the coronavirus that included Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion relief package.
Before the Covid-19 pandemic, the federal budget was about $4.4 trillion, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
To keep up with global developments in the Ukraine crisis as they happen, tune into the Guardian’s round-the-clock war live blog, here.
To read more of our global coverage of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, browse our stories here.
Updated
The House select committee investigating the January 6 Capitol believes Donald Trump violated multiple federal laws to overturn the 2020 election, including obstructing Congress and defrauding the United States.
The revelations came as part of a filing that intended to force John Eastman to turn over thousands of emails and records, arguing that Trump’s participation in potential crimes destroyed his argument that the material is protection by attorney-client privilege.
House counsel Douglas Letter said in the 61-page filing that the select committee had a basis for concluding Trump violated the law by obstructing or attempting to obstruct an official proceeding and defrauded the United States by interfering with lawful government functions.
The former president knew he had not won enough electoral college votes to win the 2020 election, yet nevertheless sought thenvice-president Mike Pence to manipulate the results in his favor, the filing said about Trump’s obstruction.
Had the effort to pressure Pence into returning Trump to power succeeded, the certification of Joe Biden’s win would have been impeded. “There is no genuine question that the president and plaintiff attempted to accomplish this specific illegal result,” the filing said.
The select committee said in the court submission that it believed Trump defrauded the United States by interfering in the certification process, disseminating false information about election fraud, and pressuring state officials to alter state election results.
House investigators also said there was evidence to suggest that the conspiracy to defraud extended to the Capitol attack, arguing it was plausible to argue Trump entered a conspiracy with the rioters to disrupt Biden’s certification on 6 January.
The Guardian first broke the news earlier this year that the select committee was investigating whether Trump oversaw a criminal conspiracy that connected the “political elements” of his scheme to return himself to office with the violence perpetrated by far-right militias.
Letter also said in the filing that the select committee believed Trump and his associates appeared to have violated the law by engaging in common law fraud as they sought to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
The select committee’s findings came as part of a 16-part court submission to persuade a federal judge to force Eastman, a central figure in Trump’s scheme to return himself to office, to at least allow the panel to confidentially review his records.
Eastman helped lead a team of lawyers at a Trump “war room” at the Willard hotel in Washington DC, which Trump called from the White House the night before the Capitol attack to discuss ways to stop Biden’s certification from taking place, the Guardian has reported.
He has so far turned over about 8,000 pages of emails and documents from 4-7 January to the panel, but has withheld an additional 11,000 documents on the basis that they are protected by attorney-client privilege or constitute confidential attorney work product.
The panel also said in the filing that Eastman’s attorney-client privilege claims were undercut by his inability to show he had been formally retained as Trump’s lawyer. An ‘engagement letter’ that Eastman produced last week was unsigned.
Through Letter’s submission, the select committee added Eastman could not claim to assert attorney-client privilege over emails he sent on his Chapman university email server, and those messages were not protected by the attorney work product protection.
House investigators said the evidence against Trump – and Eastman’s role in counselling Trump to engage in potentially criminal activity – meant that Eastman’s claims of attorney-client privilege were destroyed by the so-called “crime-fraud exception”, among other arguments.
“The attorney-client privilege does not shield participants in a crime from an investigation into a crime,” select committee member Jamie Raskin told the Guardian. “If it did, then all you would have to do to rob a bank is bring a lawyer with you and be asking for advice.”
The select committee said that in the first instance, it simply wanted to examine Eastman’s records “in camera” – a process that takes place when a reasonable person would agree a review of the materials may help establish whether the crime-fraud exception applies.
Trump engaged in 'criminal conspiracy' to prevent Congress from certifying Biden's victory – panel
The bipartisan House committee investigating the deadly insurrection at the US Capitol on January 6 last year by extremist supporters of Donald Trump and wider attempts to overturn the-then president’s defeat by Joe Biden has, for the first time, said publicly that it suspects federal crimes may have been committed by Trump and his associates during that crisis for American democracy.
Trump and some individuals close to him perpetrated a “criminal conspiracy” to prevent Congress from certifying the victory of his Democratic rival for the White House, Biden, in the electoral college system, according to a 61-page filing made in federal court last night by the panel.
The then-Republican president spread lies about the November 2020 election result and pressured state officials to flip the results in his favor, potentially violating multiple federal laws, the panel alleges.
“The Select Committee also has a good-faith basis for concluding that the President and members of his Campaign engaged in a criminal conspiracy to defraud the United States,” the committee wrote in the filing submitted in US district court in the central district of California on Wednesday.
The committee was responding to a lawsuit filed by lawyer and Trump adviser John Eastman, who is trying to withhold documents from the House panel.
You know things are sticky when a lawyer needs a lawyer.
Charles Burnham, Eastman’s attorney, said in a statement last night that his client has a responsibility “to protect client confidences, even at great personal risk and expense” adding: “The Select Committee has responded to Dr. Eastman’s efforts to discharge this responsibility by accusing him of criminal activity.”
The AP adds:
The brief filed Wednesday was an effort to knock down Eastman’s attorney-client privilege claims. In doing so, the committee argued there is a legal exception allowing the disclosure of communications regarding ongoing or future crimes.
“The Select Committee is not conducting a criminal investigation,” Mississippi Rep. Bennie Thompson, the committee’s Democratic chairman, said in a statement. “But, as the judge noted at a previous hearing, Dr. Eastman’s privilege claims raise the question whether the crime-fraud exception to the attorney-client privilege applies in this situation.”
The filing also provides new details from the committee’s interviews with several top Trump aides and members of former Vice President Mike Pence’s team, including chief of staff Marc Short and chief counsel Greg Jacob.
The committee said it has evidence that Trump sought to obstruct an official proceeding in this case, the certification of the election results by trying to strong-arm Pence to delay the proceedings so there would be additional time to “manipulate” the results.
“The evidence supports an inference that President Trump and members of his campaign knew he had not won enough legitimate state electoral votes to be declared the winner of the 2020 Presidential election during the January 6 Joint Session of Congress, but the President nevertheless sought to use the Vice President to manipulate the results in his favor,” the filing states.In a Jan. 6, 2021, email exchange between Eastman and Jacob revealed by the committee, Eastman pushed for Pence to intervene in his ceremonial role and halt the certification of the electoral votes, a step Pence had no power to take.
Jacob replied: “I respect your heart here. I share your concerns about what Democrats will do once in power. I want election integrity fixed. But I have run down every legal trail placed before me to its conclusion, and I respectfully conclude that as a legal framework, it is a results-oriented position that you would never support if attempted by the opposition, and essentially entirely made up.”
He added, “And thanks to your bulls-, we are now under siege.”
Updated
Fewer Americans applied for unemployment benefits last week reflecting a low number of layoffs across the economy.
Jobless claims fell by 18,000 to 215,000 for the week ending February 26, from 233,000 the previous week, the Labor Department reported, according to the Associated Press.
The four-week average for claims, which compensates for weekly volatility, fell by 6,000 to 230,500.
In total, 1,476,000 Americans were collecting jobless aid the week that ended Feb. 12, a small uptick of 2,000 from the previous week’s revised number, which was its lowest level since March 14, 1970.
First-time applications for jobless aid generally track the pace of layoffs, which are back down to fairly healthy pre-pandemic levels.
The Labor Department releases its February jobs report on Friday. Analysts surveyed by the financial data firm FactSet forecast that the U.S. economy added 400,000 jobs last month.
In January, the U.S. economy added a whopping 467,000 jobs and revised December and November gains upward by a combined 709,000. The unemployment rate stands at 4%, a historically low figure.
The U.S. economy has rebounded strongly from 2020’s coronavirus-caused recession. Massive government spending and the vaccine rollout jumpstarted the economy as employers added a record 6.4 million jobs last year.
The U.S. economy expanded 5.7% in 2021, growing last year at the fastest annual pace since a 7.2% surge in 1984, which also followed a recession.
Inflation is also at a 40-year high 7.5% year-over-year leading the Federal Reserve to ease its monetary support for the economy. The Fed has said it will begin a series of interest-rate hikes this month in an effort to tamp down surging prices.
January 6 committee suspects Donald Trump of breaking federal laws
Good morning, US politics live blog readers, there’s a lot going on in Washington today and we welcome you along for the ride, bringing you the major news developments and reactions as they occur. We’ll touch on matters involving Russia and Ukraine, from the US perspective as that comes up. But for our round-the-clock global live coverage focusing purely on that abominable conflict, please follow the Ukraine crisis live blog currently helmed form London, here.
What’s on the agenda in the US today?
- The House select committee investigating the January 6, 2021, Capitol attack said in a major filing last night that it believed that Donald Trump violated multiple federal laws to overturn the 2020 election, including obstructing Congress and defrauding the US. The fallout continues.
- Joe Biden is participating in a secure call at 9am ET with the prime ministers of Australia, India and Japan – Scott Morrison, Narendra Modi and Kishida Fumio – to discuss the war in Ukraine and implications for the Asia-Pacific region.
- Attorney General Merrick Garland is under pressure to intensify Department of Justice investigations into the January 6 insurrection and alleged political conspiracy to overturn Trump’s 2020 election defeat.
- The White House media briefing with press secretary Jen Psaki is currently scheduled for 1pm ET, with Russia, coronavirus and the Capitol attack are likely to be on the agenda.
- The US president this afternoon will sign into law the Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act that often forces victims into the shadows with gag orders as a condition of settlement of complaints. A #MeToo milestone. Vice-President Kamala Harris with speak, and Garland and the labor secretary, Marty Walsh, will also attend.
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