Here’s more on the news that a federal judge has allowed the release of special counsel Jack Smith’s report on Donald Trump’s 2020 election interference case:
The justice department can publicly release its investigative report on the president-elect’s attempts to overturn the 2020 election, US district judge Aileen Cannon said on Monday.
But a temporary injunction barring the immediate release of the report remains in effect until Tuesday, Associated Press reports.
Cannon had earlier temporarily blocked the department from releasing the entire report on Smith’s investigations into Trump that led to two separate criminal cases.
It is unlikely that Cannon’s order will be the last word on the matter, and defense lawyers may seek to challenge it all the way up to the supreme court.
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The day so far
Former justice department special counsel Jack Smith’s report into Donald Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 election will be made public, after a judge lifted the hold she has placed on its release last week. However, Aileen Cannon maintained the pause she had put on the sharing of Smith’s report into Trump’s possession of classified documents. The special counsel had led both cases, only to drop the charges after Trump won re-election.
Over in Congress, senators are gearing up for back-to-back confirmation hearings for the president-elect’s cabinet picks, beginning tomorrow with Pete Hegseth, Trump’s controversial nominee to lead the Pentagon.
And at 2pm today, Joe Biden will defend his foreign policy in a speech from the state department – including his divisive decisions to pull the US out of Afghanistan and supply Israel with weapons.
Here’s what else has happened today so far:
Smith’s resignation from the justice department last week did not stop Trump from bashing him on social media.
Trump’s inaugural committee has released a lineup of events to welcome the incoming president, beginning with reception dinners for him and JD Vance on Saturday.
Confirmation hearings have not yet been scheduled for Robert F Kennedy Jr, Kash Patel or Tulsi Gabbard, three of Trump’s more eyebrow-raising picks for cabinet spots.
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Judge allows release of special counsel's report into Trump's effort to overturn 2020 election
A federal judge has allowed the release of former special counsel Jack Smith’s report into Donald Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 election, Reuters reports.
Florida judge Aileen Cannon’s decision lifts an order blocking the report’s release she had placed last week. However, Cannon also maintained a pause she had placed on releasing to senior members of Congress Smith’s report on his investigation of Trump for hiding classified documents.
Smith dropped both cases after Trump won re-election, and resigned from the justice department last week:
Biden to defend Ukraine, Israel and Afghanistan policy in speech from state department
It’s just past noon in Washington DC, meaning that one week from today, Joe Biden will no longer be president. The outgoing president is looking to make the most of his remaining time in office, and will at 2pm make a speech from the state department outlining his foreign policy accomplishments.
“When President Biden entered office, our alliances had been badly damaged. We had abandoned agreements that made America safer. We were falling behind in our competition with China. US troops were still engaged in America’s longest war. Our adversaries were gaining strength. And the nation and the world were in the midst of a global pandemic,” a senior administration official said, in previewing the speech.
“President Biden confronted these challenges head on. Now, as he prepares to leave office, our country is in a much stronger position and we have delivered results for the American people. During his remarks, president Biden will outline how our alliances and partnerships are the strongest they’ve ever been thanks to our work.”
Among the topics the official said Biden would cover are how he reinvigorated Nato and rallied western countries to supply weapons to Ukraine as Russia invaded, the official said. The president will also touch on more controversial topics, such as his decision to pull the US out of Afghanistan in 2021, and to supply Israel with weapons it used to invade Gaza.
The former decision alienated moderate voters and infuriated Republicans, while the latter caused a split among Democrats – all of which combined to sink the president’s public approval ratings and contributed to Kamala Harris’s defeat in the November elections.
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Earlier today, Donald Trump’s inauguration committee released a lineup of events for the coming week, and announced a public website.
Trump and JD Vance will be sworn in next Monday, though the festivities will begin on Saturday with reception dinners for both. On Sunday, Trump will convene Maga faithful for a rally at an arena in downtown Washington DC, as well as hold a “candlelight dinner”. He is scheduled to deliver remarks at both.
Inauguration day will be a packed one for Trump and Vance. Here’s their schedule, from the committee:
St John’s Church Service
Tea at the White House
Swearing-In Ceremony
US CapitolFarewell to the Former President and Vice-President
US Capitol Departure Ceremony
The President’s Signing Room Ceremony
JCCIC Congressional Luncheon
The President’s Review of the Troops
Presidential Parade
Pennsylvania AvenueOval Office Signing Ceremony at the White House
Commander in Chief Ball
President Donald J Trump Delivers RemarksLiberty Inaugural Ball
President Donald J Trump Delivers RemarksStarlight Ball
President Donald J Trump Delivers Remarks
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For those who want to meet with Donald Trump or JD Vance at next week’s inauguration, the price is higher than ever, the Guardian’s Hugo Lowell reports:
Major donors to Donald Trump’s inaugural committee are having to contribute twice as much to get direct access to him and Vice-president-elect JD Vance at private events around the swearing-in ceremony compared with the first inauguration, according to fundraising materials.
The ability to briefly interact with Trump and Vance requires donors to contribute at least $1m to the committee – the highest-tier ticket package – in a marked increase from the previous cycle when the same access cost $500,000.
That top-tier package provides donors and lobbyists seeking to curry favor with the second Trump administration with two tickets to a dinner with the vice president-elect and six tickets to the “candlelight dinner” where Trump will be in attendance.
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The excessive drinking and marital infidelity Pete Hegseth is reported to have engaged in as a civilian would have put him at risk of disciplinary action, had it happened while he was in uniform. The Associated Press reports that military officials have grown uneasy with the prospect of him leading the defense department.
Here’s more:
If Pete Hegseth were still in uniform, his extramarital affairs and a decision to flatly ignore a combat commander’s directive would not just be drawing the attention of senators – they could have run afoul of military law.
That is raising questions among current and former defense leaders and veterans about whether Hegseth would be able to enforce discipline in the ranks if confirmed as President-elect Donald Trump’s defense secretary. Hegseth would oversee more than 2 million troops who could be disciplined or kicked out of the service for the same behavior he has acknowledged or been accused of in the past.
Hegseth, a 44-year-old Army National Guard veteran and former Fox News Channel weekend host, has acknowledged having multiple extramarital affairs – which occurred while he was in the military, according to divorce records — and has said he told his troops to ignore commands about when to fire on potential enemies. Both violate the Uniform Code of Military Justice and can get troops court-martialed and dishonorably discharged.
He’s also facing questions over his past drinking – which, had it occurred in uniform, also could have led to disciplinary action.
Hegseth, however, has the support of some veterans’ groups that say his past indiscretions are not as important as getting in the job someone who will focus on improving military readiness to fight.
Four defense officials pointed to Hegseth’s acknowledged problems and said senior officers have expressed unease about having him at the helm because the defense secretary often sits in judgment of generals and admirals accused of bad behavior – including infidelity and refusal to obey orders.
Service members expect those holding them accountable to set an example and meet equally high standards, said the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to relay private discussions.
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Confirmation hearings have not yet been scheduled for several other candidates to serve in Donald Trump’s cabinet, the Associated Press reports.
These includes several picks that have infuriated Democrats, including Robert F Kennedy Jr to lead the department of health and human services, Kash Patel as FBI director, and Tulsi Gabbard as director of national intelligence.
Hegseth, Rubio among Trump cabinet picks to face Senate scrutiny this week
The Senate, newly in Republican hands, will on Tuesday begin considering a slew of Donald Trump’s nominees for cabinet posts.
Among those whose records are to be scrutinized is Pete Hegseth, the former Fox News host nominated for post of defense secretary who has faced heightened scrutiny after reports emerged of marital infidelity, excessive drinking and other misconduct. His hearing is seen as crucial to swaying the handful of Republicans who have expressed misgivings about confirming him.
Expect much less drama at the hearings for several other posts, including Florida senator Marco Rubio’s nomination for secretary of state, and Scott Bessent’s candidacy to lead the Treasury.
From the Associated Press, here is a full schedule of this week’s confirmation hearings:
Tuesday: Hegseth for defense secretary, former congressman Doug Collins for secretary of veterans affairs, former North Dakota governor Doug Burgum for interior secretary.
Wednesday: South Dakota governor Kristi Noem for homeland security secretary, former Florida attorney general Pam Bondi to lead the justice department, former congressman Sean Duffy as transportation secretary, former director of national intelligence John Ratcliffe to lead the Central Intelligence Agency, Rubio to lead the state department, Chris Wright as energy secretary, Russell Vought to lead the White House office of management and budget, which he led during Trump’s first term.
Thursday: former Trump White House official Scott Turner to lead the department of housing and urban development, former congressman Lee Zeldin to lead the Environmental Protection Agency, Bessent as Treasury secretary, day two of Bondi’s hearing.
Donald Trump will take power a week from today with what the Guardian’s Ed Gargan reports is an unusual amount of power in Washington. Here’s more:
Donald Trump will come in to power with a “trifecta” of governmental control after his Republican party won the House of Representatives, the Senate and the presidency in the 2024 US election.
Control of both chambers of Congress is not uncommon for US presidents. Trump achieved a trifecta in his first term, as did Joe Biden, Barack Obama and Bill Clinton.
But Trump has an unusual edge over his predecessors: six of the nine members of the US supreme court are appointees of Republican presidents.
Since the second world war, only two other presidents have assumed office with overall control of both houses as well as a supreme court “super majority” of two-thirds or more.
Supreme court justices owe no official loyalty to a party or president, but a majority of conservative-leaning justices will work to Trump’s advantage.
Here’s how these government majorities compare historically.
Trump slams former special counsel Jack Smith as January 6 report hangs in limbo
If Jack Smith’s report into his abortive prosecution of Donald Trump for attempting to overturn the 2020 election ever comes out, it will happen this week.
The report is currently held up by legal wrangling, and over the weekend, Smith resigned his position as justice department special counsel tasked with bringing charges against the ex-president.
That did not stop Trump from levying an attack on Smith in a post on Truth Social yesterday:
Why would Deranged Jack Smith be allowed to issue a ‘report’ on a complete and total Witch Hunt against me, strictly for political purposes, when he was thrown off the case and ultimately dismissed by the DOJ. Therefore, to put it nicely, he was illegitimately involved in this political persecution, and all of the hundreds of millions of dollars spent by our hapless government were, simply put, wasted! He has already filled thousands of rejected statements and documents against me, which were a ‘joke,’ and the public just voted for me, in a landslide, to be their President!
Here’s more on Smith’s low-key announcement that he was ending his government service:
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Trump has walked back promises on Ukraine, inflation since winning election
Pardoning January 6 defendants is far from the first campaign promise on which Donald Trump has changed his stance since winning re-election in November.
The Republican wooed voters with promises to lower prices on groceries, but told Time magazine in a late November interview that undoing what inflation has done is likely impossible:
I’d like to bring them down. It’s hard to bring things down once they’re up. You know, it’s very hard. But I think that they will. I think that energy is going to bring them down. I think a better supply chain is going to bring them down.
Trump has similarly waffled on mediating an end to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. He campaigned on doing so within 24 hours of inauguration, but at a press conference last week, said it now might take up to six months.
Over the weekend, Keith Kellogg, a retired army general who Trump selected as his envoy to Russia and Ukraine, said he would like to see the conflict between the two countries resolved in 100 days. Here’s more from Kellogg’s interview with Fox News:
Let’s set it at 100 days and move all the way back and figure a way we can do this in the near term to make sure that the solution is solid, it’s sustainable, and that this war ends so that we stop the carnage. I think that’s going to be very, very important to do. It’s going to be important for our national security. It’s a part of our vital national interests, and it’s also good for Europe as well and the globe as well.
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One week before inauguration, Vance backtracks on Trump's promise to pardon January 6 rioters
Good morning, US politics blog readers. We’re one week out from Donald Trump’s inauguration as president, a day on which he has vowed to act like a dictator, and among the long list of things he has promised to do one his first day in office is pardon people convicted or accused of crimes over the January 6 insurrection. The few surveys done of the issue have indicated that a blanket pardon would be unpopular with Americans, and in an interview on Sunday, JD Vance seemed to walk back his boss’s pledge. “If you protested peacefully on January 6th … you should be pardoned”, the incoming vice-president told Fox News. “If you committed violence on that day, obviously you shouldn’t be pardoned, and there’s a little bit of a gray area there, but we’re very much committed to seeing the equal administration of law.”
For all the norms he has shattered, Trump would be far from the first American president to make big promises on the campaign trail then find reason not to keep them once he gets the job. We’ll find out what his supporters think of Vance’s comments as the day goes on.
Here’s what else is happening:
Confirmation hearings begin this week for Trump’s cabinet nominees, with the first scheduled for Tuesday. Some nominees, such as senator Marco Rubio to lead the state department, are expected to be approved with little tension. But others, think Pete Hegseth as defense secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr as secretary of health and human services and Tulsi Gabbard as director of national intelligence, will spark fights with Democrats.
Joe Biden is looking to make the most of his final week as president, beginning with a speech today at 2pm ET from the state department about his foreign policy legacy.
Los Angeles firefighters continue to combat blazes in and around the city, amid fears that another bout of gusty and hot weather could fuel more outbreaks. Follow our live blog for more.
