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Lois Beckett in Los Angeles (now) and Joan E Greve in Washington (earlier)

Deb Haaland to reportedly ask Biden to restore national monument protections – as it happened

Deb Haaland, the interior secretary, paid a visit to Bears Ears national monument in Utah in April.
Deb Haaland, the interior secretary, paid a visit to Bears Ears national monument in Utah in April. Photograph: Rick Bowmer/AP

Evening summary

We are wrapping up our live politics coverage for this evening, but we’ll have more live coverage starting early tomorrow, as California launches a full reopening of restaurants, bars and other businesses as the state officially retires many pandemic-related capacity and social distancing rules.

Key news from today:

  • Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell said on Monday it was “highly unlikely” he would allow Joe Biden to fill any supreme court vacancy arising in 2024, the year of the next presidential election, if Republicans had regained control of the chamber. Whether he would allow Biden to fill a vacancy in 2023 was still a question, McConnell said.
  • Interior secretary Deb Haaland recommended in an internal report that Joe Biden restore protections that Donald Trump removed at three national monuments, the Washington Post reported.
  • The US Republican Party is “vastly diminished” and dominated by its Trump wing, which was not supported by the majority of Americans, Biden said at a press conference in Brussels, where he also said Ukraine was not yet ready to join Nato.
  • The US neared an official toll of 600,000 coronavirus deaths, with racial disparities persisting in the toll of those lost to the pandemic.
  • NSA whistleblower Reality Winner was released from prison.
  • Vladimir Putin refused to give any guarantee that the opposition leader Alexei Navalny will get out of Russian prison alive.
  • A Nato communique warned that the rising power of China presents “systemic challenges to the rules-based international order”. “We remain concerned with China’s frequent lack of transparency and use of disinformation,” the Nato document says.
  • John Demers, the assistant attorney general of the National Security Division, is reportedly leaving the justice department. According to the New York Times, the departure of Demers, who was nominated by Donald Trump, was in the works for months, but his exit comes amid intensified scrutiny of the department because of the records seizure of top Democrats and reporters as part of a leaks investigation. The chair of the House Judiciary Committee announced its own investigation into the Trump Justice Department’s actions.

Updated

Marjorie Taylor Greene holds press conference apologizing for Holocaust comparisons

The Republican Georgia congresswoman, who has a track record of racist and Islamophobic remarks, as well support for QAnon and other antisemitic conspiracy theories, staged a public apology today for her repeated comparisons of vaccine and mask mandates to the Holocaust.

Her comments had been criticized by House Republican leaders, who once again denounced Greene’s remarks without taking any action to censure her for them.

“The Holocaust is...there’s nothing comparable to it,” Greene said in a press conference held after she said she had visited the Holocaust Museum. “It happened, and over 6 million Jewish people were murdered….The horrors of the Holocaust are something that some people don’t even believed happened, some people deny, but there is no comparison to the Holocaust.”

“Greene’s attempt to show remorse could help take some of the heat off her own party as the GOP prepares to go after [Ilan] Omar,” Politico reported, in response to the Democratic congresswoman’s tweet about “unthinkable atrocities committed by the US, Hamas, Israel, Afghanistan and the Taliban.”

House judiciary committee to investigate DOJ surveillance of lawmakers, journalists

Jerry Nadler, the chair of the House judiciary committee, announced a “formal investigation” into justice department surveillance during the Trump administration, Reuters reports.

Updated

Lin-Manuel Miranda apologizes for colorism in ‘In the Heights’ casting decisions

Alongside widespread excitement and anticipation for In the Heights, a movie musical from Hamilton creator and star Lin-Manuel Miranda, there has also been criticism about the lack of dark-skinned Afro-Latino actors in main roles in a film that is supposed to represent New York’s Washington Heights.

Some of the early responses to the criticism only sparked more pushback.

Now, Miranda himself has tweeted out an apology, and promising to do better in his future work:

Dr Deborah Birx, then the White House coronavirus taskforce coordinator, hinted to an Obama-era official shortly before the 2020 election she wanted Donald Trump to lose to Joe Biden.

Andy Slavitt, a former acting chief of the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services, writes in a new book, according to CNN, that he spoke to Birx “to get a sense for whether, in the event of a strained transition of government, she would help give Biden and his team the best chance to be effective.

“At one point, after a brief pause, she looked me in the eye and said, ‘I hope the election turns out a certain way.’ I had the most important information I needed.”

Slavitt stepped down last week as senior adviser to the Biden pandemic response. His book, Preventable: The Inside Story of How Leadership Failures, Politics, and Selfishness Doomed the US Coronavirus Response, is published on Tuesday.

McConnell: 'highly unlikely' Republican Senate would consider Biden justice

The Senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell, said on Monday it was “highly unlikely” he would allow Joe Biden to fill any supreme court vacancy arising in 2024, the year of the next presidential election, if Republicans had regained control of the chamber.

“I think it’s highly unlikely – in fact, no, I don’t think either party, if it were different from the president, would confirm a supreme court nominee in the middle of an election,” McConnell told Hugh Hewitt, a rightwing radio host.

McConnell famously blocked Barack Obama from filling a vacancy in 2016, denying Merrick Garland, now Biden’s attorney general, even a hearing after he was nominated to fill the seat vacated by the death of Antonin Scalia.

McConnell said that was because no new justice should be seated in an election year – a position he reversed with alacrity in 2020, on the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg two months before polling day.

Ginsburg, a liberal lion, was replaced by the hardline Catholic Amy Coney Barrett, tipping the court 6-3 in conservatives’ favour. Major rulings are expected on abortion rights, gun control, affirmative action and more.

McConnell now says no new justice should be seated in an election year when the White House and the Senate are controlled by different parties – a position he restated to Hewitt.

Asked by Hewitt what would happen if a vacancy arose in 2023 with Republicans in control of the Senate, McConnell said: “We’ll have to wait and see what happens.”

McConnell’s hardball tactics have contributed to his status as a hate figure among progressives. On Monday, much online reaction to his remarks focused on beseeching Stephen Breyer, a liberal justice and at 82 the oldest on the current court, to retire while Biden is in the White House and Democrats hold the Senate.

Breyer has shown little inclination to do so. Last month, he angered some on the left by telling high school and middle school students the key to working with conservatives was to talk to them more.

Among progressives, support is growing for countering conservative dominance of the court by increasing the number of justices. Republicans are stringently opposed.

McConnell told Hewitt he wanted to give Breyer “a shout out, though, because he joined what Justice Ginsburg said in 2019, that nine is the right number for the supreme court, and I admire him for that. I think even the liberal justices on the supreme court, have made it clear that court packing is a terrible idea.”

FBI warns QAnon followers may transition from ‘digital soldiers’ to real-world violence

The FBI has warned that followers of the QAnon conspiracy theory could again engage in violence against political opponents out of frustration that the theory’s predictions have not come true, Reuters reports.

In a 4 June bulletin distributed to members of Congress and seen by Reuters, the FBI said its experts believe that some believers in predictions of political upheavals promoted on QAnon websites and bulletin boards believe they can “no longer ‘trust the plan’”.

Given the failure of QAnon’s predictions to materialize, the FBI bulletin warns that some QAnon adherents “likely will begin to believe” they have an “obligation” to transform themselves from “serving as ‘digital soldiers’ towards engaging in real world violence” against Democrats and “other political opposition”.

The FBI attributes at least some of a falloff in support for QAnon to the non-occurrence of events, such as Trump’s restoration, which QAnon predicted but which failed to materialize, and also to large-scale deplatforming of QAnon materials by social media companies.

Believers in the conspiracy theory – which casts former President Donald Trump as a savior figure and elite Democrats as a cabal of Satanist pedophiles and cannibals – played a prominent role in the deadly 6 January assault on the Capitol.

The FBI’s new assessment echoes what QAnon expert Travis View told the Guardian last fall, warning that if supporters of the conspiracy theory begin to lose faith in Trump’s ability to stop the cabal of child abusers, that might inspire them to begin taking more direct violent action themselves.

Read more from us about previous acts of violence linked to QAnon adherents, or see the new FBI assessment, shared by NBC News’ Ben Collins:

Updated

Disneyland drops mask mandate, will not require proof of vaccination

Starting tomorrow, as California officially removes many of its coronavirus public health restrictions, Disneyland will allow fully vaccinated guests to visit the theme park without wearing a mask. The theme park will use the honor system, per the Hollywood Reporter, and will allow guests to self-attest that they have been vaccinated, rather than requiring any proof.

Haaland recommends restored protections for three national monuments: report

Interior secretary Deb Haaland recommended that Joe Biden restore protections that Trump weakened at three national monuments, the Washington Post reports.

Haaland paid a historic visit in April to the Bears Ears national monument, the Utah site sacred to Native Americans that was downsized by President Donald Trump, Rico Moore reported for the Guardian. Read more from Rico about her trip here, as well as the Guardian’s original reporting on Trump’s widely-condemned decision to “drastically shrink” two national monuments in 2017.

Updated

Racial disparities persist as US nears 600,000 Covid-19 deaths

As the US approaches 600,000 coronavirus deaths, as tracked by Johns Hopkins University, the Associated Press has updated details on the racial disparities in who has been most likely to lose most family members and loved ones to the pandemic.

A toll of 600,000 people, the Associated Press notes, is greater than the population of Baltimore or Milwaukee. It is about equal to the number of Americans who died of cancer in 2019. The racial disparities in the death rates have shifted over time:

  • In the first wave of fatalities, in April 2020, Black people were slammed, dying at rates higher than those of other ethnic or racial groups as the virus rampaged through the urban Northeast and heavily African American cities like Detroit and New Orleans.
  • Last summer, during a second surge, Hispanics were hit the hardest, suffering an outsize share of deaths, driven by infections in Texas and Florida. By winter, during the third and most lethal stage, the virus had gripped the entire nation, and racial gaps in weekly death rates had narrowed so much that whites were the worst off, followed closely by Hispanics.
  • Now, even as the outbreak ebbs and more people get vaccinated, a racial gap appears to be emerging again, with Black Americans dying at higher rates than other groups.

Family identifies woman struck and killed by a car at a Minneapolis protest

This is Lois Beckett, picking up our live politics coverage from Los Angeles.

A family member has identified the person killed after being struck by a car at a protest in Minneapolis near the site of Winston Smith’s killing by members of a US Marshals task force: she was Deona Knajdek, 31, a local news outlet reports.

Knajdek’s brother told KARE 11 that “friends of his sister told him she had parked her car at the scene of the demonstration to shield fellow activists who were protesting and block traffic from coming through”.

Knajdek’s employer, a company that manages living facilities for adults with mobility issues, said in a statement that “she was one of the most selfless people we have ever had the pleasure of knowing”.

A 35-year-old man from neighboring St Paul was booked in a local jail on probable cause of criminal vehicular homicide, KARE 11 reported.

Updated

The White House press secretary turned Fox News contributor Kayleigh McEnany claimed on Sunday she “never lied” while speaking for Donald Trump.

Addressing a conservative group in Dallas, McEnany said of her first steps in the role: “And then there was the question, ‘Will you ever lie to us?’, and I said without hesitation, ‘No’, and I never did, as a woman of faith.

“As a mother of baby Blake, as a person who meticulously prepared at some of the world’s hardest institutions, I never lied. I sourced my information, but that will never stop the press from calling you a liar.”

The press has questioned the veracity of McEnany’s claims. So have political factchecking sites. For instance, Politifact gave McEnany a “pants on fire” rating last September after she told reporters: “The president never downplayed the virus.”

She was responding to questions about reporting by Bob Woodward of the Washington Post, to whom Trump said in March 2020, as the coronavirus pandemic took hold: “To be honest with you, I wanted to always play it down. I still like playing it down, because I don’t want to create a panic.”

Politifact said: “The record shows she’s wrong.”

Biden dismisses "phony populism" of Trump, decries GOP in thrall

In a wide-ranging press conference in Brussels, Joe Biden did something he often skirts around. He criticized Donald Trump by name in public. The 46th US president sometimes likes to refer obliquely to Trump, the Trump administration and his politics, but not always explicitly and not always addressing the 45th president directly.

Joe Biden and NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg talk after the NATO summit in Brussels today.
Joe Biden and NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg talk after the NATO summit in Brussels today. Photograph: Kevin Lamarque/Reuters

Following the NATO summit, Biden weighed in on Trump’s style and the Republican party’s apparent blind loyalty to their former president, despite his resounding defeat and numerous humiliations (twice impeached, eg).

Biden said: “It is a shock and a surprise that what’s happened in terms of the consequences of President’s Trump’s phony populism has happened.

“And it is disappointing that so many of my Republican colleagues in the Senate, who I know know better, have been reluctant to take on, for example, an investigation [into the January 6 insurrection at the US Capitol by rapid supporters of Trump], because they are worried about being primaried.

“But at the end of the day we have been through periods like this in American history before where there has been this reluctance to take a chance on your reelection because of the nature of your party’s politics at the moment.

“I think this is passing, I don’t mean easily passing, but that’s why it’s important that I succeed in my agenda, whether it’s dealing with the vaccine, the economy, infrastructure, it’s important that we demonstrate we can make progress … and I think we are going to be able to do that.”

The Reuters news agency has a little more:

The US Republican Party is “vastly diminished” and dominated by its Trump wing, which was not supported by the majority of Americans, Biden said.

“I think it’s appropriate to say that the Republican Party is vastly diminished in numbers,” Biden told the news conference.

“The leadership of the Republican Party is fractured and the Trump wing of the party is the bulk of the party, but it makes up a significant minority of the American people,” he continued.

Updated

Joe Biden said Ukraine still has more work to do before it can become a member of the Nato alliance.

“It depends on whether they meet the criteria,” Biden told reporters in Brussels. “The fact is, they still have to clean up corruption. ... School’s out on that question.”

A tweet today from the Ukrainian president had led some reporters to think that the Nato summit had approved adding Ukraine as a member, but it seems that will not yet happen.

Biden’s press conference at the Nato headquarters has now concluded, after he took just a handful of questions from reporters.

A reporter asked Joe Biden how it would impact US-Russian relations if Alexei Navalny, a critic of Russian president Vladimir Putin, died in prison.

“Navalny’s death would be another indication that Russia has little or no intention of abiding by basic fundamental human rights,” Biden said.

In an interview with NBC News ahead of his Wednesday summit with Biden, Putin would not guarantee that Navalny would survive his prison sentence.

No surprise here: the first question at Joe Biden’s press conference focused on his upcoming summit with Russian president Vladimir Putin and what he hoped to get out of the meeting.

The US president emphasized that he wanted to see whether there are areas where he and Putin can work together to promote the interests of their countries and the world at large.

But Biden declined to provide many specific details, saying he did not want to negotiate in public with reporters.

Noting he has met Putin before, Biden said of the Russian president, “He’s bright, he’s tough, and I have found that he is – as they say when I used to play ball – a worthy adversary.”

Biden expresses 'rock-solid and unshakable' commitment to Nato alliance

Joe Biden said he had a “positive and productive meeting” with Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, much of which was a one-on-one discussion.

The president expressed confidence that his administration will make “real progress” in improving US-Turkish relations.

Biden also emphasized his loyalty to the Nato alliance, saying, “The US commitment to article five of the Nato treaty is rock-solid and unshakable.”

The US president accused China and Russia of trying to “drive a wedge in our trans-Atlantic solidarity”.

Looking ahead to his Wednesday summit with Russian president Vladimir Putin, Biden said, “I’m not looking for conflict with Russia but we will respond if Russia continues its harmful activities, and we will not fail to defend the trans-Atlantic alliance.”

Biden holds press conference at Nato headquarters in Brussels

About two and a half hours later than scheduled, Joe Biden is now holding his press conference at Nato headquarters in Brussels, Belgium.

The US president opened his remarks by reflecting on his country’s coronavirus death toll, which is expected to soon surpass 600,000.

Biden offered his condolences to the millions of Americans who have lost loved ones in the pandemic, and he urged anyone who has not yet gotten vaccinated to do so as quickly as possible.

“If you’ve not been vaccinated, get vaccinated. Get vaccinated as soon as possible,” Biden said. “We have more work to do to beat this virus, and now’s not the time to let our guard down.”

Secretary of state Antony Blinken and defense secretary Lloyd Austin are now also waiting with reporters in the room where Joe Biden will soon hold his press conference.

The US president was scheduled to start his press conference at the Nato headquarters in Brussels about two and a half hours ago. No sign of him yet, but stay tuned.

Vladimir Putin has refused to give any guarantee that the opposition leader Alexei Navalny will get out of prison alive, saying his continued detention was not his decision and noting the poor state of medical care in Russian jails.

In an extended and testy interview with NBC News before Putin’s Geneva summit with Joe Biden, the Russian president deflected a string of allegations about his government’s role in cyber-attacks on the west. He also fended off questions about his government’s human rights record by making counter-allegations against the US.

Navalny was the victim of poisoning with the Russian-made nerve agent novichok and then jailed for more than two years. He faces further prosecution, suggesting the Kremlin is ready to extend his jail term. His political movement was outlawed last week as part of a wider suppression of opposition groups.

Asked whether he could guarantee that Navalny would be released alive, Putin replied: “Look, such decisions in this country are not made by the president. They’re made by the court whether or not to set somebody free.

“As far as the health, all individuals who are in prison, that is something that the administration of the specific prison or penitentiary establishment is responsible for. And there are medical facilities in penitentiaries that are perhaps not in the best condition. And they are the ones whose responsibility it is.”

Update: there is still no sign of Joe Biden in the room where he was supposed to start holding his press conference nearly two hours ago.

The US press pool is still waiting for the president to take reporters’ questions after meeting with Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan today on the sidelines of the Nato summit in Brussels.

The blog will have updates whenever Biden does start speaking, so stay tuned.

NSA whistleblower Reality Winner released from prison

The Guardian’s Edward Helmore reports:

Reality Winner, a former intelligence contractor convicted of leaking a report about Russian interference in the US election in 2016, has been released from prison.

Winner’s attorney, Alison Grinter Allen, made the announcement via Twitter, saying the former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor had been released into a residential re-entry programme for good behavior.

In a statement, Allen said: “We are relieved and hopeful. Her release is not the result of the pardon or compassionate release process, but rather the time earned through exemplary behavior while incarcerated.”

Allen said Winner was still barred from making public statements, and she and her family had asked for privacy “during the transition process as they work to heal the trauma of incarceration”.

The US press pool has moved into the auditorium where Joe Biden will soon hold his press conference at Nato headquarters in Brussels.

According to the latest pool report, there are at least 100 journalists filling the auditorium seats, which are spaced about three feet apart.

The president is expected to start speaking at any moment, so stay tuned.

The US press pool was finally let in to the room where Joe Biden and Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan were meeting, after waiting nearly two hours.

Biden was seated at a table with secretary of state Antony Blinken, defense secretary Lloyd Austin and national security adviser Jake Sullivan.

“We had a very good meeting,” Biden said of his conversation with Erdoğan.

When a reporter thought he had missed some of what Biden said, he asked the president to repeat himself. “I didn’t say anything,” Biden replied.

The US president is expected to soon hold a press conference, so stay tuned.

Johnson announces four-week delay to Covid lockdown easing in England

Boris Johnson has announced a four-week delay to the final lockdown easing and a speeding up of second vaccine doses, saying the extra time could prevent thousands of unnecessary deaths.

No 10 said the data was now clear that two doses of the vaccine were needed to combat the new Delta variant and said it was right to allow more time to give millions more people second doses. Johnson slashed the interval between the first and second jabs from 12 weeks to eight for the over-40s, a step which has already been taken for older adults.

Hospitalisations could hit the peak of the first wave if step 4 of the roadmap proceeds, according to modelling by the government’s SPI-M committee. The data presented to ministers suggested that because vaccine effectiveness increases significantly after two doses, thousands of deaths could be prevented by delay.

“At some stage we are going to have to live with this virus, as we do with flu, but when we have effective vaccines, and a variant that needs two doses for maximum protection, it is right to allow more time to save lives,” a Downing St spokesman said.

“These are preventable deaths. That’s a very important point – they can be prevented. Because we have the vaccine program. So that’s why it is right to take this approach.”

Today so far

Here’s where the day stands so far:

  • Joe Biden is now meeting with Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on the sidelines of the Nato summit in Brussels. US-Turkish relations have been particularly strained in recent months, after Biden became the first American president to officially recognize the genocide of Armenians by Ottoman troops.
  • The Nato communique warned that the rising power of China presents “systemic challenges to the rules-based international order”. “We remain concerned with China’s frequent lack of transparency and use of disinformation,” the Nato document says. “We call on China to uphold its international commitments and to act responsibly in the international system, including in the space, cyber, and maritime domains, in keeping with its role as a major power.” Biden reportedly pushed for a mention of China in the communique as he met with Nato allies in recent days.
  • John Demers, the assistant attorney general of the National Security Division, is reportedly leaving the justice department. According to the New York Times, the departure of Demers, who was nominated by Donald Trump, was in the works for months, but his exit comes amid intensified scrutiny of the department because of the records seizure of top Democrats and reporters as part of a leaks investigation.

The blog will have more coming up, so stay tuned.

Biden meets with Erdoğan on sidelines of Nato summit

Joe Biden is now meeting with Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on the sidelines of the Nato summit in Brussels.

Erdoğan’s office shared photos from the meeting, although the US press pool has not yet been let in to the room where the two leaders are holding their talks.

The press pool will likely have a chance to shout a few questions at the two presidents when they are let in to the room, and the White House will later release a readout of the meeting.

Stay tuned.

Joe Biden wants to create international blocs of democratic nations to act as a counterweight to China’s authoritarian system and its fast-growing economic and military might, and the topic was also high on the agenda at the weekend’s G7 meeting.

“There is a growing recognition over the last couple years that we have new challenges,” Biden said in brief remarks made shortly after his arrival in Brussels for the Nato summit. “We have Russia, which is acting in a way that is not consistent with what we had hoped, and we have China.”

Other countries have highlighted the importance of striking a balance. Boris Johnson, the UK prime minister, said as he arrived at the gathering: “I think when it comes to China, I don’t think anybody around the table today wants to descend into a new cold war.”

Jens Stoltenberg, Nato’s secretary general, said it was important to engage with Beijing “on issues like climate change, arms control”. But, he added, “China’s military buildup, growing influence and coercive behaviour also poses some challenges to our security”.

China presents 'systemic challenges to the rules-based international order,' Nato communique says

As expected, the newly released Nato summit communique indicates that leaders view China’s rising power as a security threat.

“China’s stated ambitions and assertive behaviour present systemic challenges to the rules-based international order and to areas relevant to Alliance security. We are concerned by those coercive policies which stand in contrast to the fundamental values enshrined in the Washington Treaty,” the Nato document says.

“We remain concerned with China’s frequent lack of transparency and use of disinformation. We call on China to uphold its international commitments and to act responsibly in the international system, including in the space, cyber, and maritime domains, in keeping with its role as a major power.”

National security adviser Jake Sullivan previewed this language yesterday, telling reporters, “China will feature in the communiqué really in a more robust way than we’ve ever seen before.”

Asked about reports that Joe Biden pushed for the mention of China in the communique, Sullivan said, “There is a broad view that China represents a significant challenge to the world’s democracies on a number of different dimensions, and that we need a common agenda that is mostly affirmative but also has elements where we are going to stand up and counter and compete.”

As Joe Biden prepares for his meeting with Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in Brussels, Kamala Harris has just arrived in South Carolina for an event to promote coronavirus vaccinations.

Kamala Harris deplanes upon arrival at Greenville Spartanburg International Airport in Greer, South Carolina.
Kamala Harris deplanes upon arrival at Greenville Spartanburg International Airport in Greer, South Carolina. Photograph: Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images

The vice-president will soon deliver remarks at a coronavirus vaccination mobilization event at the Phillis Wheatley Community Center in Greenville.

Harris will later tour a pop-up vaccination site at the YMCA of Greenville and participate in a conversation on voting rights with community leaders.

Attorney general Merrick Garland also released a statement addressing the seizure of records from top Democrats and reporters during Donald Trump’s presidency.

“As I stated during my confirmation hearing, political or other improper considerations must play no role in any investigative or prosecutorial decisions,” Garland said.

“There are important questions that must be resolved in connection with an effort by the department to obtain records related to Members of Congress and Congressional staff. I have accordingly directed that the matter be referred to the Inspector General and have full confidence that he will conduct a thorough and independent investigation. If at any time as the investigation proceeds action related to the matter in question is warranted, I will not hesitate to move swiftly.”

Garland noted he has also asked the deputy attorney general, Lisa Monaco, to “evaluate and strengthen the department’s existing policies and procedures for obtaining records of the Legislative branch”.

The attorney general concluded, “Consistent with our commitment to the rule of law, we must ensure that full weight is accorded to separation-of-powers concerns moving forward.”

Senior DoJ official leaving amid uproar over leaks investigation – reports

John Demers, the assistant attorney general of the National Security Division, is reportedly leaving the justice department amid an uproar over the seizure of records from top Democrats and reporters as part of an investigation into leaks of classified information.

According to the New York Times, Demers’ departure has been in the works for months, but it comes amid intensified scrutiny of the department because of the leaks investigation, which started during Donald Trump’s presidency.

The Times reports:

Mr. Demers was the longest-serving Senate-confirmed official from the Trump administration to remain at the Justice Department during the Biden presidency.

John Carlin, the second in command in the deputy attorney general’s office, had asked Mr. Demers in April to remain at the department, according to the person. Lisa O. Monaco had just been confirmed to serve as the deputy attorney general, and the three officials had a long history of working together on sensitive national security cases.

Mr. Demers asked to leave by summer, and the two men eventually agreed that he would stay on through June 25, the person said.

The news comes three days after the justice department inspector general announced his office would launch an investigation of the records seizure, which Democrats have criticized as a “shocking” abuse of power by the Trump administration.

Updated

The supreme court released two opinions this morning, but the decisions in the highest-profile cases on Obamacare and voting rights, among other issues, have not yet been announced.

The court’s next opinion day is Thursday.

The

Supreme court leaves in place convictions of two Charlottesville rioters

The supreme court has left in place the convictions of two men who participated in the 2017 white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.

The AP reports:

The high court said Monday that it would not take the case of Michael Miselis or Benjamin Daley, who participated in the rally as members of the ‘Rise Above Movement,’ or ‘RAM.’ Both pleaded guilty to federal rioting charges in connection with the Virginia rally.

As is typical, the high court didn’t comment in turning away their cases.

Miselis and Daley admitted they punched and kicked demonstrators who showed up to protest against white nationalists during the ‘Unite the Right’ rally in Charlottesville in August 2017. ...

Miselis and Daley had challenged their convictions by arguing that the Anti-Riot Act, a law they pleaded guilty to violating, is overbroad under the First Amendment’s free speech clause. A federal appeals court had ruled against them.

Daley was sentenced to 37 months in prison. Miselis was sentenced to 27 months.

One person participating in a peaceful protest against the rally, Heather Heyer, was killed after a white supremacist drove his car into a crowd of demonstrators. A Virginia State Police pilot and trooper also died after the helicopter they were using on the day of rally crashed.

The White House has released a readout of Joe Biden’s meeting today with Polish President Andrzej Duda at the Nato summit.

“The President reiterated his support for NATO’s strengthened defense and deterrence agenda and his resolute commitment to the defense of Allies on NATO’s eastern flank, including Poland,” the White House said.

The two leaders also discussed Biden’s summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin, which will take place on Wednesday in Geneva, Switzerland.

Biden’s meeting with Duda did not appear on his official schedule for the day, but a spokesperson for the Polish president previously said the two leaders had a discussion this morning.

Joe Biden is intensely preparing for his Wednesday summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin, as the US president meets with Nato leaders in Brussels, Belgium.

CNN reports:

Most of his formal meetings this week have started after noon, leaving his mornings free for consultations with advisers. He has held lengthy preparation sessions with senior officials, including Secretary of State Antony Blinken and national security adviser Jake Sullivan, to discuss the wide range of issues he plans to bring up with Putin, from cyberattacks to Syria to Ukraine.

The President has also asked foreign leaders at the G7, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel, for their input as he prepares for the meeting in Geneva, according to people familiar with the conversations. Putin even came up as a point of conversation during his tea with Queen Elizabeth II at Windsor Castle, Biden told reporters, saying she ‘wanted to know’ about the Russian President.

Sullivan told reporters yesterday that Biden would “have the opportunity to speak to all of the [Nato] allies about what he intends to talk to Putin about”.

The White House press secretary, Jen Psaki, added, “His view is that this is not a meeting about trust, it’s not a meeting about friendship -- it’s a meeting about figuring out where we can find common ground, and also being straightforward and candid about areas where we have concern.”

Joe Biden held a meeting with leaders of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania at the Nato summit in Brussels this morning.

“The President underscored strong U.S. support for the security of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, as well as the entire Baltic region,” the White House said in a readout of the meeting.

“The four leaders committed to further strengthening our political, military, and economic partnerships, including working together through NATO to address challenges posed by Russia and China.”

A spokesperson for the Polish president said he also held talks with Biden today, although the meeting did not appear on the US president’s official schedule for the day. The spokesperson said the two leaders discussed economic and military security in eastern Europe.

Three years ago it was Donald Trump who stunned Nato members at a summit in Brussels, warning that he may be prepared to pull the US out of the western military alliance if its other members did not increase their defence spending.

At a summit in the same city on Monday, it falls to Joe Biden to repair the damage from four years of his predecessor’s freewheeling theatrics, although experts caution that the Trump era will have lasting consequences.

Rhetorically, at least, the omens are favourable. The US president declared Nato’s article 5, under which an armed attack against one member is deemed an attack against them all, a “sacred commitment” last week.

Similar language and a respectful tone, long a Biden trademark, are expected in the Belgian capital, not least because the US wants Nato, along with the G7, to take a more robust line against Russia, particularly on cyberwarfare, and even China, not traditionally seen as an opponent.

Biden meets Nato leaders and Erdoğan in Brussels

Greetings from Washington, live blog readers.

Joe Biden continues his first international trip as president today, meeting with Nato leaders at a summit in Brussels.

The US president will also soon have a meeting with Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, marking the first in-person discussion between the two leaders since Biden took office in January.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and US President Joe Biden are seen ahead of their meeting within the NATO summit.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and US President Joe Biden are seen ahead of their meeting within the NATO summit. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

Speaking to reporters yesterday, national security adviser Jake Sullivan said the two leaders will “cover the range of issues in our bilateral relationship, as well as a number of important regional issues, from Syria, to Libya, to the eastern Mediterranean”. He said Biden and Erdoğan will also discuss China and Russia.

But the two presidents are not expected to significantly improve their somewhat strained relationship. Erdoğan was outraged in April when the US president formally recognized the genocide of Armenians by Ottoman troops.

That recognition will almost certainly be discussed in the two leaders’ meeting today, and it seems very unlikely that they will see eye to eye.

The blog will have more details on the meeting coming up, so stay tuned.

Updated

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