Closing summary
The jurors in Steve Bannon’s contempt of Congress trial returned guilty verdicts today, meaning the former Donald Trump adviser is likely to serve jail time. Bannon has vowed to appeal the decision.
Here’s what else happened today:
- Joe Biden’s Covid-19 symptoms have “improved”, the White House doctor said, and the president appeared later in the day at a virtual event to showcase declining US gas prices.
- Washington is still reeling from yesterday’s January 6 committee hearing, where the panel laid out evidence that Trump resisted stopping the riot. One presidential historian warned Americans not to be complacent about what those behind the attack were trying to accomplish.
- Trump, if elected president again in 2024, would oust tens of thousands of civil servants across the US government and replace them with his supporters, sources close to the ex-leader told Axios.
- California’s governor signed a law modeled on anti-abortion legislation in Texas that would allow citizen to sue distributors of illegal weapons or parts.
California governor signs law allowing citizens to sue illegal assault weapon distributors
In its latest attempt to stop gun violence, California’s Democratic leadership has taken inspiration from anti-abortion legislation first crafted in conservative Texas, the Associated Press reports:
California punched back Friday against two recent landmark US supreme court decisions as the state’s governor signed a controversial, first-in-the-nation gun control law patterned after a Texas anti-abortion law.
The action by Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, comes one month after conservative justices overturned women’s constitutional right to abortions and undermined gun control laws in states including California.
Newsom stitched the two hot-button topics together in approving a law allowing people to sue anyone who distributes illegal assault weapons, parts that can be used to build weapons, guns without serial numbers, or .50 caliber rifles. They would be awarded at least $10,000 in civil damages for each weapon, plus attorneys fees.
Expect to hear more from Steven Bannon about his contempt of Congress conviction, including in an interview with the conservative Fox News host Tucker Carlson this evening, the Guardian’s Hugo Lowell reports:
Hearing that Steve Bannon will return to hosting War Room podcast tonight at 5p ET and then appear on Tucker Carlson’s show on Fox News at 8p ET to discuss his conviction for contempt of Congress.
— Hugo Lowell (@hugolowell) July 22, 2022
Updated
Speaking to reporters after his conviction, Steve Bannon declared, “We may have lost a battle today, but we’re not going to lose this war.” He added, “I stand with Trump, and the constitution.”
He also attacked the House panel investigating the January 6 attack as “gutless members of that show-trial committee” who “didn’t have the guts to testify in open court”.
You can watch video of his remarks below:
Steve Bannon, a longtime ally of former President Donald Trump, was convicted on Friday of contempt charges for defying a congressional subpoena from the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. https://t.co/ehJpCqr64t pic.twitter.com/W1L4uFcu3r
— The Associated Press (@AP) July 22, 2022
Updated
January 6 committee leaders call Bannon conviction 'victory for the rule of law'
Bennie Thomspon, the Democratic chair of the January 6 committee, and Liz Cheney, the Republican vice chair, have released a statement applauding the conviction this afternoon of former Trump adviser Steve Bannon for defying the committee’s subpoenas.
“The conviction of Steve Bannon is a victory for the rule of law and an important affirmation of the Select Committee’s work,” Thompson and Cheney said.
“As the prosecutor stated, Steve Bannon ‘chose allegiance to Donald Trump over compliance with the law’. Just as there must be accountability for all those responsible for the events of January 6th, anyone who obstructs our investigation into these matters should face consequences. No one is above the law.”
Updated
The Secret Service has just put out a statement reaffirming its willingness to cooperate with the January 6 committee, amid an ongoing investigation over its deletion of text messages from around the time of the insurrection.
“As an American and director of this incredible agency, I found the events at the Capitol on January 6th to be abhorrent. What happened on that day in January 2021 is anathema to democracy and the processes our constitution guarantees,” Secret Service director James Murray said. “Since day one, I have directed our personnel to cooperate fully and completely with the committee and we are currently finalizing dates and times for our personnel to make themselves available to the committee for follow up inquiries.”
Separately, CNN reports that Adam Kinzinger, a Republican lawmaker serving on the committee, said that Donald Trump’s former deputy chief of staff and the former head of his Secret Service detail have stopped cooperating with the inquiry.
I asked @RepKinzinger if he believes Trump’s fmr Dep Chief of Staff Tony Ornato and fmr Secret Service lead agent Robert Engel are still cooperating with the Jan 6 Cmte. His answer was a hard “No.”
— Jim Sciutto (@jimsciutto) July 22, 2022
Updated
Jean-Pierre didn’t have much to say about Steve Bannon’s conviction earlier this afternoon on contempt of Congress charges for defying subpoenas from the January 6 committee.
“I’m not going to comment specifically on that case, but obviously, everyone should cooperate with the January 6 committee,” she told reporters.
The White House has identified 17 close contacts of President Joe Biden, who tested positive for Covid-19 yesterday.
Speaking at a briefing to reporters, press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the group members have all been informed, but none has tested positive.
“The White House medical unit has identified and informed 17 people determined to be close contacts of the president, including members of his senior staff. None of the staff members have tested positive to date, and all of them are wearing masks around other people,” Jean-Pierre said.
President Joe Biden has appeared at a White House event - virtually, due to his Covid-19 infection.
“I feel much better than I sound,” he said, flashing a thumbs-up and smiling on-screen.
He didn’t have much more to say about that, but the event is focusing on gas prices, which are declining nationally from their record high levels hit last month, according to GasBuddy’s Patrick De Haan:
37 days in a row: #gasprices keep falling, the national average ⬇️ 2.2c to $4.419/gal. We’re likely to fall to $4.399/gal by late today. 8 states under $4: TX, SC, GA, MS, LA, AL, TN, & AR. 35k stations <$4. Most common price in the US: $3.99.
— Patrick De Haan ⛽️📊 (@GasBuddyGuy) July 22, 2022
Steve Bannon’s lawyer plans to challenge his conviction immediately after sentencing, The Guardian’s Hugo Lowell reports:
New: Steve Bannon’s lawyer David Schoen tells reporters outside the courthouse just now that they will appeal today’s contempt of Congress conviction — they expect to file after sentencing on October 21 at 3p ET.
— Hugo Lowell (@hugolowell) July 22, 2022
CNN reports attorney David Schoen is confident that the verdict against Bannon will be overturned:
“Bulletproof appeal,” David Schoen, Bannon lawyer, tells reporters. “You will see this case reversed on appeal.”
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) July 22, 2022
Here’s the latest from Guardian US reporters on the conviction of Steve Bannon, a noteworthy figure in the world of Trump advisers:
Steve Bannon was on Friday convicted of contempt of Congress at trial in federal court in Washington DC, for defying a subpoena by the committee investigating last year’s attack on the Capitol by supporters of his former boss Donald Trump.
The case for criminal contempt went to the jury just a few hours prior on Friday, after prosecutors and defense lawyers made their final pitches about Trump’s former presidential adviser.
Bannon was charged with two counts of criminal contempt for refusing to appear before the House committee, each count carries a minimum of 30 days in jail and up to a year. He had denied the charges but was found guilty on both counts.
The Guardian’s Hugo Lowell reports that the judge presiding in the case hinted at a potential grounds for the appeal of any guilty verdict – which Bannon is likely to do:
New: Steve Bannon will almost certainly appeal after Judge Nichols, a Trump appointee, indicated pre-trial that he considered the controlling case law that forced him to exclude the main defence arguments bad law.
— Hugo Lowell (@hugolowell) July 22, 2022
Updated
Reuters has more details on the severity of the sentence Bannon could face:
For each of the two contempt of Congress counts, Steve Bannon could be sentenced from 30 days to one year behind bars and fined between $100 and $100,000
— Matt Spetalnick (@mattspetalnick) July 22, 2022
Bannon will wait a few months before being sentenced, according to NBC News:
Bannon will be sentenced on October 21, though an appeal is pretty certain.
— Ryan J. Reilly (@ryanjreilly) July 22, 2022
Jury finds Steve Bannon guilty on two counts of contempt of Congress
A Washington jury has found Steve Bannon guilty on two counts of contempt of Congress after the former adviser to Donald Trump refused to cooperate with a subpoena from the January 6 committee.
BREAKING: Steve Bannon GUILTY on both counts. https://t.co/apLhOX2dia
— Ryan J. Reilly (@ryanjreilly) July 22, 2022
Updated
A verdict has been reached in the trial of Steve Bannon, Politico reports.
UPDATE: Court official says jury has verdicts in Steve Bannon contempt of Congress case. Earlier: https://t.co/aiUH35mw36 https://t.co/K8K523jUc1
— Josh Gerstein (@joshgerstein) July 22, 2022
Bannon is a former adviser to Donald Trump who is facing contempt of Congress charges for defying a subpoena from the January 6 committee.
Joe Biden released a statement condemning the attack against Lee Zeldin, a congressman from New York who is the Republican candidate for governor in the state. During a speech yesterday, a man climbed onstage and pulled Zeldin to the ground. Zeldin was not injured as people started to rush the stage to assist him.
“I condemn the attack on Congressman Zeldin in the strongest terms,” Biden said in his statement. “As I’ve said before, violence has absolutely no place in our society or our politics. I am especially grateful for the courage of those who immediately intervened, and that he is unharmed and was able to continue his speech.”
President Biden's statement on yesterday's attack on @leezeldin pic.twitter.com/uVr7W08oa0
— Erin McEwan (@erinmcewan) July 22, 2022
Updated
Sports news website SB Nation managed to find a sports angle to the clip of Josh Hawley fleeing the Capitol during the insurrection after raising a fist to Trump supporters in solidarity.
Using some interesting mathematical calculations, SB Nation calculated that if the Republican senator was running a 40-yard-dash, he would have had a time of 7.2 seconds.
It’s a pretty slow time, but “Hawley is in dress shoes on a tile floor, not on astroturf in spikes”, noted James Dator, SB Nation writer. “Furthermore, it’s unclear where in his stride he was when he crossed the hall. Maybe he was really winded before he got there?”
Updated
Tucked away in South Carolina’s bill that outlaws abortion is a provision that would make it illegal to provide information of how to get an abortion over the phone or internet.
Such a provision would take abortion bans to an extreme and is probably an indication of how radical anti-abortion laws will be to come.
“These are going to be laws that spread like wildfire through states that have shown hostility to abortion,” Michelle Goodwin, a professor at University of California at Irvine Law School, told the Washington Post, which reported on the provision.
South Carolina currently has six-week abortion ban in place following the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v Wade. The state’s House of Representatives has been considering even stricter legislation after the ruling. The House has convened a special session to pass abortion restrictions.
“Now is a good time. We have children being aborted in our state, as well as the rest of the country, and we have the information,” South Carolina governor Henry McMaster told the State, a newspaper in South Carolina. “It’s time to get on with the discussion and make whatever decisions are necessary.”
Updated
Today so far
Here’s what has happened today so far:
- Joe Biden’s Covid-19 symptoms have “improved”, the White House doctor said Friday morning. While the president had a mild fever last night, his temperature has gone back to normal. Biden is currently taking anti-Covid drug Paxlovid. He is experiencing a runny nose and fatigue, with an occasional cough.
- Washington is still reeling from yesterday’s January 6 committee hearing, where the committee laid out a case against Donald Trump’s inaction as the riot was taking place. One presidential historian has warned Americans not to be complacent about what those behind the attack were trying to accomplish.
- A report from this morning revealed that Trump, if elected as president in 2024, would replace tens of thousands of civil servants across the US government with his supporters, according to sources close to the former president.
We’re still keeping an eye on the trial of Steve Bannon, which continues today, along with Trump’s appearance at a rally later this afternoon. Stay tuned.
Updated
Jeffrey Clark was a key figure in Trump’s attempt to overturn the 2020 election. The president tried to appoint him to lead the justice department, which would have allowed Clark to send a letter to Georgia state lawmakers informing them that there were “significant concerns” about the results that showed Joe Biden winning the state.
That effort was thwarted when Justice Department senior staff threatened to resign en masse if Clark, whom they viewed as unqualified, was appointed. Clark has since become the subject of a probe by the justice department’s inspector general, the FBI raided his house last month, and today, Reuters reports that Washington DC’s law license administrator is considering disciplinary action against him.
According to their report:
Clark, who is now also facing a federal investigation into his conduct, is accused of attempting to “engage in conduct involving dishonesty” and attempting actions “that would seriously interfere with the administration of justice,” according to a petition filed by the D.C. Bar’s Office of Disciplinary Counsel.
The ethics charges, dated June 29 and received by the Bar of the District of Columbia Court of Appeals on July 19, were made public on Friday, after Clark was served a copy of them in the morning, said Hamilton “Phil” Fox, the head of the D.C. Office of Disciplinary Counsel.
Rachel Semmel, a spokesperson from Center for Renewing America, Clark’s new employer, called the charges “the latest attack on the legal qualifications of one of the only lawyers at the DOJ who had the interests of the American people at heart.”
“Jeff Clark is an American hero and the media sure seems to enjoy being the press secretary for the J6 committee,” she added.
As the report points out, similar charges have been filed against Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani, who was involved in many of the ex-president’s schemes to overturn the result of the 2020 vote.
Trump plans civil service purge if returned to the White House: report
If voters were to elect Donald Trump to another term in the 2024 presidential election, he is considering using bureaucratic maneuvers to remove potentially tens of thousands of civil servants across the US government and replace them with people who adhere to his ideology, according to a report from Axios.
That Trump expects his deputies to be unfailingly loyal to him is no secret, but during his time in the White House, they didn’t always do what he wanted. He intends to change that dramatically in a second term, according to the report, appointing staunch cabinet members and changing civil service regulations to allow him to dismiss up to 50,000 employees. He would replace these bureaucrats, who typically hold onto their jobs through presidential administrations, with people handpicked to support his “America first” ideology.
Groups connected to him such as the Center for Renewing America and Jeffrey Clark, a former justice department official who Trump tried to install as attorney general but backed down after senior staff threatened a revolt, are already working to identify candidates, the report said.
Here’s more from Axios on how the plan would work:
Trump signed an executive order, “Creating Schedule F in the Excepted Service,” in October 2020, which established a new employment category for federal employees. It received wide media coverage for a short period, then was largely forgotten in the mayhem and aftermath of Jan. 6 — and quickly was rescinded by President Biden.
Sources close to Trump say that if he were elected to a second term, he would immediately reimpose it.
Tens of thousands of civil servants who serve in roles deemed to have some influence over policy would be reassigned as “Schedule F” employees. Upon reassignment, they would lose their employment protections.
New presidents typically get to replace more than 4,000 so-called “political” appointees to oversee the running of their administrations. But below this rotating layer of political appointees sits a mass of government workers who enjoy strong employment protections — and typically continue their service from one administration to the next, regardless of the president’s party affiliation.
An initial estimate by the Trump official who came up with Schedule F found it could apply to as many as 50,000 federal workers — a fraction of a workforce of more than 2 million, but a segment with a profound role in shaping American life.
Trump, in theory, could fire tens of thousands of career government officials with no recourse for appeals. He could replace them with people he believes are more loyal to him and to his “America First” agenda.
Even if Trump did not deploy Schedule F to this extent, the very fact that such power exists could create a significant chilling effect on government employees.
It would effectively upend the modern civil service, triggering a shock wave across the bureaucracy. The next president might then move to gut those pro-Trump ranks — and face the question of whether to replace them with her or his own loyalists, or revert to a traditional bureaucracy.
Trump’s plans to subvert power unconstitutionally were hiding in plain sight, Michael Beschloss said, as he continued his argument over the greater significance of January 6 in a series of tweets.
The views of Beschloss, who has written nine books about the American presidency, are worth reading in their entirety:
Authoritarians incite violence and then demand dictatorial power to enforce "law and order." (See modern Europe, history of.)
— Michael Beschloss (@BeschlossDC) July 22, 2022
Looks increasingly as if this was Trump's game plan for January 6.
How many times did we hear -- in public -- Trump boasting about all of the emergency powers a President had -- starting with martial law -- that he said he couldn't "talk about?"
— Michael Beschloss (@BeschlossDC) July 22, 2022
How many times did Trump "joke" in public about remaining President beyond two terms?
— Michael Beschloss (@BeschlossDC) July 22, 2022
The January 6 attack and Trump's role in it was fully foreshadowed by the previous six years -- contempt for democracy, fascination with violence and how to exploit it, eagerness to grab authoritarian power.
— Michael Beschloss (@BeschlossDC) July 22, 2022
He told us in public almost every day who he was and what he wanted.
Updated
Michael Beschloss, a noted presidential historian, has warned in an interview on MSNBC about the corrosive effects of the January 6 insurrection and urged Americans not to get complacent about the attack’s significance:
On Trump’s action on Jan. 6, @BeschlossDC: “This was a massive blueprint that didn't just happen by accident…To treat this only as Donald Trump didn't do enough to stop something someone else started, I think the facts are suggesting something that's much larger.” #AMRstaff
— Andrea Mitchell (@mitchellreports) July 22, 2022
On the significance of Jan. 6, @BeschlossDC: “What I'm worried about is that we get so familiar with the story that we think this is the way that American history operates. We have never seen anything like this, you know, this is way off the track of democracy.” #AMRstaff
— Andrea Mitchell (@mitchellreports) July 22, 2022
Updated
Biden's Covid-19 'symptoms have improved': White House doctor
President Joe Biden is on the mend from Covid-19, his doctor said in an update on his health released by the White House this morning.
Biden’s “symptoms have improved,” Kevin C. O’Connor wrote. “He did mount a temperature yesterday evening to 99.4 degrees fahrenheit, which responded favorably to acetaminophen... His temperature has remained normal since then.”
Biden is also taking anti-Covid drug Paxlovid. His symptoms currently include a running nose and fatigue, with the occasional cough.
“The president is fully vaccinated and twice-boosted, so I anticipate that he will respond favorable, as most maximally protected patients do. There has been nothing in the course of his illness thus far which gives me cause to alter that initial expectation,” O’Connor wrote.
The January 6 committee in a nutshell: 'The mob was accomplishing president Trump’s purpose'
“The mob was accomplishing president Trump’s purpose. So of course he didn’t intervene.”
That was how Adam Kinzinger, one of two Republicans on the January 6 committee, summed up what the panel uncovered last night. His statement near the start of the hearing was followed by testimony from two former White House officials present in the room and video clips from the lawmakers’ interviews with former White House officials, including attorney Pat Cipollone.
“What explains President Trump’s behavior. Why did he not take immediate action in a time of crisis?” Kinzinger asked. “Because president Trump’s plan for January 6 was to halt or delay Congress’s official proceeding to count the votes. The mob... attacking the Capitol quickly caused the evacuation of both the House and the Senate. The count ground to an absolute halt and was ultimately delayed for hours.”
The committee won’t host another hearing until sometime in September, and plans to use the coming weeks to continue their investigation. As the committee vice-chair, Liz Cheney, put it last night: “Doors have opened, new subpoenas have been issued and the dam has begun to break.”
Updated
As the January 6 committee was airing evidence, Andrew Lawrence entered an alternate universe, just by watching Fox News:
On Thursday night as the Congressional hearings into the January 6 Capitol riot drew to a close, Tucker Carlson directed his outrage at a president he felt had lied and was not being held accountable for falsehoods that shook popular faith in the American democratic system. But he wasn’t talking about Donald Trump inciting rioters to storm the Capitol. He was talking about Joe Biden getting Covid.
Whilemillions of people last night tuned into America’s other TV news channels and heard testimony about what Trump did, or rather did not do, during the hours when the rioters stormed the Capitol, Fox News viewers saw the network’s primetime stars Carlson and Sean Hannity chide the “twice jabbed, double-boosted” president for contracting the virus they say he alleged couldn’t be caught with a vaccine.
Steve Bannon is one of the many Trump associates whose comments were shown by the January 6 committee last night, but he may be the only one currently embroiled in active criminal trial.
In fact, the charges he’s facing center around his defiance of a subpoena from the committee, and both sides are today expected to finish making their cases before a jury. Politico reports that Bannon’s legal team wants to question the jury about whether they watched last night’s hearing.
HAPPENING SOON: Bannon returns to court just hours after the Jan. 6 select committee featured him prominently at the close of their hearing. The case is expected to go to the jury today but I’m anticipating some discussion about whether jurors may have watched.
— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) July 22, 2022
As expected, BANNON team raises his mention in last night's hearing as a potential problem for the jury. Here's a filing that just arrived: pic.twitter.com/5WdvxXPzM1
— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) July 22, 2022
BANNON wants judge to question jury:
— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) July 22, 2022
"The Defendant respectfully requests...that there should be some inquiry, while assuring the jurors of the importance of candor and that they will not suffer negative consequences if they acknowledge exposure to the broadcast or its subject."
Closing arguments in the case are now underway:
UPDATE: Closing arguments are now underway. Judge Nichols has already instructed the jurors, so they'll begin deliberating as soon as this is over. Expect they'll be deliberating by 11-11:30 a.m.
— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) July 22, 2022
The Guardian’s David Smith was in the room last night as the January 6 committee conducted what some are calling its “season finale”:
They did it. They pulled it off. Anyone who feared that the January 6 committee’s season finale would turn into an anti-climax – more Game of Thrones than M*A*S*H – need not have worried. There were shocks, horrors and even laughs.
The eight “episodes” have exceeded all expectations with their crisp narrative and sharp editing, a far cry from the usual dry proceedings on Capitol Hill. Each has recapped what came before, teased what is to come and compellingly joined the dots against Donald Trump.
Much of the credit must go to James Goldston, the former president of ABC News, who was brought in to help produce the hearings like a true crime series. Give that man an Emmy (if only to infuriate Trump, a TV obsessive).
Today, the Republican party remains by and large the domain of Donald Trump. He still leads in polls of potential candidates in the next election, and House Republican leadership routinely criticizes the January 6 committee.
Last night’s hearing was however full of reminders that top Republicans appeared ready to break with Trump during and immediately after the insurrection - or at least were terrified by it. Case in point: the much-mocked video footage of rightwing senator Josh Hawley fleeing through the halls of the Capitol as the protesters he greeted as he walked in overwhelmed police.
Then there was Kevin McCarthy, the leader of the party in the House of Representatives who could be the chamber’s next speaker, should Republicans gain seats in November’s midterms. The committee last night showed that he pleaded with Trump as the insurrection was ongoing to call off the mob - which the president refused to do. Viewers also saw a repeat of his floor speech seven days after the attack, where he pinned the blame squarely on Trump.
Days later, McCarthy went to Florida, where he met with the former president and appeared in a picture beside him that is now seen as having been key to reviving Trump’s standing among the party.
Updated
'He chose not to act': Washington grapples with evidence of Trump's willful inaction on January 6
Good morning, US politics blog readers. Last night, the January 6 committee wrapped up its first weeks of hearings by airing evidence that showed Donald Trump resisted efforts to forcefully condemn the rioters who broke into the Capitol that day, despite the pleas of top White House officials and his own family members to do so. As Congressman Adam Kinzinger put it: “President Trump did not fail to act during the 187 minutes between leaving the Ellipse and telling the mob to go home. He chose not to act.” Expect the aftershocks from those revelations to wash through Washington today.
Here’s what else is happening today:
- Trump speaks at an Arizona rally for candidates in the state he has endorsed, which kicks off at 4 pm eastern time.
- The trial of Steve Bannon, a former top advisor to Trump who featured in last night’s hearing, continues over contempt of Congress charges.
- Congress is still negotiating over a bunch of legislation, including measures to boost American competitiveness, codify same-sex marriage rights and lower prescription drug and health care costs.
