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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
World
Sam Levin in Los Angeles (now) and Amanda Holpuch (earlier)

Trump impeachment: president's legal team to include Bill Clinton investigator Ken Starr – as it happened

Kenneth Starr.
Kenneth Starr. Photograph: Joshua Bright/The Guardian

Summary

We’re ending our live coverage now, thanks for following along. Some links and key events from the day:

The House intelligence committee has released new documents this evening relating to Lev Parnas, the close associate of Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani. Parnas made headlines this week when he added to evidence that Trump personally directed an effort to pressure Ukraine to investigate a political rival.

The new records include contact between Parnas and a top aide to Devin Nunes, the Republican congressman and Trump ally:

Some more details on the new documents in this thread from a Politico reporter.

Three more men linked to neo-Nazi group arrested

Police have arrested three men linked to a violent white supremacist group called The Base, charging them with conspiring to kill members of an anti-fascist group. The arrests come one day after three other alleged members of the neo-Nazi group were arrested on federal charges in Maryland and Delaware.

Authorities have alleged that members had discussed opening fire at a pro-gun rally in Virginia:

More from the AP:

A criminal complaint included details of how some of the men built an assault rifle using parts, purchased thousands of rounds of ammunition and traded vests that could carry body armor. They were believed to be planning to attend the pro-gun rally in Richmond, according to a law enforcement official who spoke to the AP.

In encrypted chat rooms, members of The Base have discussed committing acts of violence against blacks and Jews, ways to make improvised explosive devices and their desire to create a white “ethno-state”, the FBI has said in court papers.

On Friday, police in Georgia confirmed that three other men linked to The Base were arrested on charges of conspiracy to commit murder and participating in a criminal street gang. Authorities said the men planned to kill a married couple who were anti-fascist protesters and believed killing the couple would send a message to enemies of The Base.

Officials revealed today that 11 US troops were flown out of Iraq for evaluation of concussion-like symptoms after the Iranian missile strike. Trump previously had said that there were no injuries or harm caused to US forces. From the AP:

The Pentagon’s chief spokesman, Jonathan Hoffman, said defense secretary Mark Esper did not know of the injuries until he was told Thursday afternoon that the 11 troops had been sent for evaluation at US medical facilities — eight in Germany and three in Kuwait. Hoffman said the notification to Esper was in line with military procedures, which he said do not require notification of service member casualties to the Pentagon unless they involve the loss of life, limb or eyesight.

As recently as Tuesday night, Trump said he had been told no American had been harmed in the Iranian missile strike on 8 January. The question of American casualties was especially significant at the time because the missile attack’s results were seen as influencing a US decision on whether to retaliate and risk a broader war with Iran.

Earlier on Friday, Iran’s supreme leader delivered a rare sermon describing Trump as a “clown” who pretended to support the Iranian people but would push a poisonous dagger into their backs.

Some background on the 11 injuries:

Trump has arrived at Mar-a-Lago for his first fundraiser of the new year, 94th as president.

It’s apparently his 344th day at a Trump property as president.

Former congressman sentenced to 26 months for insider trading

Chris Collins, a former congressman and one of Trump’s earliest supporters, has just been sentenced to two years and two months in federal prison in an insider trading case. Collins was previously forced to resign and had admitted he helped his son and others dodge $800,000 in stock market losses when he learned that a drug trial by a small pharmaceutical company had failed.

Collins arrives to federal court on Monday.
Collins arrives to federal court on Monday. Photograph: Eduardo Muñoz/Reuters

From the AP:

Collins, 69, was sentenced by US district judge Vernon S Broderick in Manhattan after the Republican pleaded guilty in October to conspiracy to commit securities fraud and lying to law enforcement officials.

Collins broke down and apologized to his family and his former constituents and colleagues.

“I stand here today as a disgraced former member of Congress,” he said. “My life has been shattered.”

The sentence came even after Collins’ lawyers argued he was sorry and should face no prison time in the insider trading case.

Prosecutors asked for a five-year sentence.

There’s been another release of secret FBI documents from special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation, published by BuzzFeed, which sued the US government for the records:

The documents are heavily redacted, and reporters are currently reviewing them:

Trump is also tweeting about the conflict in Virginia, where an intense political fight over gun policy has escalated this month. The president claimed that the second amendment is “under very serious attack” in Virginia and that Democrats “will take your guns away”.

As my colleague Lois Beckett recently reported, the backlash to gun control efforts in the state have been fueled by conspiracy theories and misinformation:

Earlier this week, the FBI arrested three suspected members of a neo-Nazi group, with authorities alleging that they had built a machine gun and had hoped to spark violence before a planned gun-rights rally in Virginia. The governor had banned guns from the capitol before the rally and declared a state of emergency due to concerns of violence.

One Virginia legislator, who is a socialist, told the Guardian that he had been facing death threats over his bill that pro-gun activists wrongly interpreted as a threat to gun rights. The legislation was related to public school teachers and had nothing to do with guns.

Here’s a response this evening from a Virginia congressman to Trump’s tweet:

Trump has responded to the reports that Iran’s supreme leader called him a “clown” during a rare sermon at Friday prayers in Tehran, tweeting, “He should be very careful with his words!”

More on the earlier remarks from Ayatollah Ali Khamenei here:

Trump reportedly said he regretted that his administration got involved in vaping policy, according to a new report in Axios, citing sources familiar with the president’s private conversation:

According to Axios, the president told his health secretary, “I should never have done that fucking vaping thing.”

The president has pushed a ban on flavored vapes.

There’s new info out on the rules for the next Democratic debate, on 7 February in New Hampshire, which will be the first one after voting has begun.

Based on the new rules, the qualifying candidates appear to be Joe Biden, Pete Buttigieg, Amy Klobuchar, Bernie Sanders, Tom Steyer and Elizabeth Warren, according to ABC News, which is hosting the debate. That’s the same (all-white) group that debated earlier this week.

Supreme court to hear birth control access case

Sam Levin in Los Angeles here, taking over our live coverage for the rest of the day.

The US supreme court has just decided it will consider allowing the Trump administration to enforce rules that enable employers to deny insurance coverage for contraceptives. The justices agreed that they will hear yet another case challenging Obama’s healthcare law, with arguments expected in April. More from the AP:

The high court will review an appeals court ruling that blocked the Trump administration rules because it did not follow proper procedures. The new policy on contraception, issued by the Department of Health and Human Services, would allow more categories of employers, including publicly traded companies, to opt out of providing no-cost birth control to women by claiming religious objections.

The policy also would allow some employers, though not publicly traded companies, to raise moral objections to covering contraceptives.

Employers also would be able to cover some birth control methods, and not others. Some employers have objected to covering modern, long-acting implantable contraceptives, such as IUDs, which are more expensive and considered highly effective in preventing pregnancies.

Some reactions and context:

Updated

Late afternoon summary

Hello again, US politics watchers, the Guardian’s Sam Levin on the west coast will take over the blog now and keep you covered for the next few hours.

Main events this afternoon so far:

  • The House foreign affairs committee chair, Eliot Engel, has scheduled a hearing for the end of the month to hear the testimony of the secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, about the use of force in Iran and Iraq.
  • A coalition of 13 states, New York City and Washington DC are suing the Trump administration over new restrictions for food stamp benefits for unemployed Americans.
  • The US court of appeals for the ninth circuit struck down a lawsuit filed by 21 young people who sued the federal government claiming that it has failed to address the climate crisis.
  • Senator Amy Klobuchar, who is seeking the Democratic nomination for president, is fighting the narrative she can’t run for president and participate in the Senate impeachment trial.

Updated

A delegation from the Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC) is in Brownsville, Texas and Matamoros, Mexico today as part of an investigation into the Trump administration’s Remain in Mexico policy and the use of tent courts to process those cases.


Nanette Barragán, a Democrat from California, said a child from El Salvador with Down syndrome and a heart condition was not being allowed to seek entry in the US, despite having family in Philadelphia. After being pressured by Congresspeople, Barragán said US Customs and Border Patrol admitted the child, who could seek parole for medical help.

A jury of seven men and five women were picked for the disgraced Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein’s rape trial today after a two-week selection process in which scores of people were dismissed.

Opening statements are expected to begin on Wednesday.

More from the AP:

During jury selection, prosecutors had accused Weinstein’s lawyers of systematically trying to keep young women off the panel, though the final makeup of the jury turned out to be more closely balanced.

For its part, the defense raised an outcry and demanded a mistrial because one of the jurors is the author of an upcoming novel about young women dealing with predatory older men. The request was denied, but Weinstein’s lawyers continued to claim outside court that the juror had withheld the information on her questionnaire.

The House foreign affairs committee chair, Eliot Engel, has scheduled a hearing for the end of the month to hear the testimony of the secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, about the use of force in Iran and Iraq.

The hearing was supposed to happen this week, but Pompeo refused to participate. The hearing is being held in part because of the fatal strike on the Iranian general Qassem Suleimani earlier this month, which spurred questions about the Trump administration’s strategy in the Middle East and whether it would be sharing that information with Congress.

Updated

A coalition of 13 states, New York City and Washington DC are suing the Trump administration over new restrictions for food stamp benefits for unemployed Americans – a measure they say could disqualify nearly 700,000 from federal food assistance.

The lawsuit is the latest pushback by Democratic states against the Trump administration, as opponents criticize the president for what they say are proposed changes that target the poor, unemployed and those in large metropolitan areas.

The US government is moving to cut the amount of fruits and vegetables required in school lunches and expanding schools’ ability to sell them more pizza, burgers and fries.

The US department of agriculture (USDA) announced the proposed rule change on Friday, which happened to be the birthday of the woman who helped improve the vegetable and fruit the USDA is undoing: Michelle Obama.

Colin Schwartz, deputy director of legislative affairs for Center for Science in the Public Interest, told the Washington Post that the rules, if finalized, “would create a huge loophole in school nutrition guidelines, paving the way for children to choose pizza, burgers, french fries and other foods high in calories, saturated fat or sodium in place of balanced school meals every day.”

Appeals court strikes down youth climate crisis lawsuit

The US court of appeals for the ninth circuit struck down a lawsuit filed by 21 young people who sued the federal government claiming that it has failed to address the climate crisis. In a divided opinion, the court determined the young people do not have the standing to pursue the case in federal court.

“We do not dispute that the broad judicial relief the plaintiffs seek could well goad the political branches into action,” wrote judge Andrew Hurwitz in an opinion. “We reluctantly conclude, however, that the plaintiffs’ case must be made to the political branches or to the electorate at large, the latter of which can change the composition of the political branches through the ballot box.”

Judge Josephine Staton wrote a strongly-worded dissent which compared the climate crisis to an asteroid barreling towards Earth. “Seeking to quash this suit, the government bluntly insists that it has the absolute and unreviewable power to destroy the nation,” Staton wrote.

Updated

CNN’s Dana Bash said that since Evelyn Yang, Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang’s wife, revealed last night that she was sexually assaulted by her obstetrician-gynecologist while she was pregnant with the couple’s first child, more women have come forward with allegations against the same doctor.

Yang said in an interview televised on Thursday by CNN that the assault happened in 2012, and she was initially afraid to tell anyone. She and 31 other women were suing the doctor and hospital system, saying they conspired and enabled the crimes.

Today, six more women have come forward, according to Bash.

Senator Amy Klobuchar, who is seeking the Democratic nomination for president, is fighting the narrative she can’t run for president and participate in the Senate impeachment trial at the same time. “I’m a mom, I can do two things at once,” Klobuchar said today on CBS This Morning.

Klobuchar is one of four candidates in the Senate who will be obligated to be in Washington DC for the impeachment trial weeks before the critical Iowa caucus. But two others, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, have much stronger support in the pools and the fourth, Michael Bennet, is considered much more of a long shot than Klobuchar.

Minnesota senator and candidate for the Democratic nomination for president, Amy Klobuchar, on CBS This Morning,
Minnesota senator and candidate for the Democratic nomination for president, Amy Klobuchar, on CBS This Morning, Photograph: CBS Photo Archive/Michele Crowe/CBS via Getty Images

In the interview she said she had a strong network in Iowa and planned to “Skype-in or phone-in,” to some campaign events.

“When I can go campaign in those early states, including Nevada and South Carolina, I will,” she said. “But when I have to be there [the Senate], I will.”

Arizona senator, Martha McSally, a Republican, went Washington DC-viral yesterday after a CNN journalist asked her if the Senate should “consider new evidence as part of the impeachment trial?” The senator responded by calling the reporter, Manu Raju, “a liberal hack.”

Within hours of the encounter, McSally had registered the domain name “liberalhack.com” and then started selling a t-shirt to fundraise for her campaign that reads: “You’re a liberal hack, buddy.”

But when asked the same question by Fox News’s Laura Ingraham on Thursday night, McSally continued to fight the question - suggesting her problem is with “hacks” of all political stripes.

In response to McCally swerving the question once, Ingraham pressed: “You can call me a conservative hack, but do you want witnesses, yes or no? Why aren’t you telling us?”

McSally said the public would have to wait and see what she did. “I’m not going to tell everyone what my votes are going to be,” she said.

“Pretty easy question, don’t you think, senator?” Ingraham interjected.

One CNN reporter noted McSally’s feelings about the news company haven’t always been so negative:

Afternoon summary

Donald Trump started his Friday by attacking Mike Bloomberg, who is seeking the Democratic presidential nomination.

The squabbling between Bloomberg and Trump, both billionaires from New York, comes after the for years kept a cordial and even friendly relationship as they repeatedly ran into each other at charity events and parties writes Guardian senior political reporter, Daniel Strauss:

Trump has even praised Bloomberg’s past positions on gun control on Fox News’s Fox & Friends.

Bloomberg has also thrown Trump some kind words. At the same ribbon-cutting ceremony Bloomberg said: “If there is anybody who has changed this city, it is Donald Trump.” In 2004, Bloomberg appeared on an episode of The Apprentice. Trump at the time said he invited Bloomberg on to the show because he had “great respect for him”.

Yet even back then the identities they each fostered as famous billionaires were radically different. They ran in different social circles.

Secretary of state breaks silence on ambassador surveillance allegations

Nearly 72 hours after reports emerged about alleged surveillance and threats to the former US ambassador to Ukraine, US secretary of state Mike Pompeo broke his silence about the issue in interviews with conservative radio hosts.

Pompeo said he had an obligation to investigate the claims, but believed they would be proven wrong.

His silence was criticized by current and former diplomats after documents provided by an associate of Trump’s personal attorney, Lev Parnas, suggested there may have been a threat to the ambassador, Marie Yovanovitch.

Former US Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch testifies before the House Intelligence Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington in November 2019
Former US Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch testifies before the House Intelligence Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington in November 2019 Photograph: Andrew Harnik/AP

“We will do everything we need to do to evaluate whether there was something that took place there,” Pompeo said in a radio interview with Tony Katz, a right-wing radio host. “I suspect that much of what’s been reported will ultimately prove wrong, but our obligation, my obligation as secretary of state, is to make sure that we evaluate, investigate. Any time there is someone who posits that there may have been a risk to one of our officers, we’ll obviously do that.”

“It is always the case at the Department of State that we do everything we can to ensure that our officers, not only our ambassadors but our entire team, has the security level that’s appropriate,” Pompeo said.

At the White House today, Donald Trump is honoring the 2019 college football national champions before heading to Mar-a-Lago.

He told the players, speaking about the presidency and himself: “You’ve got a good one now, even though they’re trying to impeach the son of a bitch. Can you believe that?”

US President Donald Trump takes part in an event honoring the 2019 College Football National Champions, the Louisiana State University Tigers, in the East Room of the White House in Washington DC
US President Donald Trump takes part in an event honoring the 2019 College Football National Champions, the Louisiana State University Tigers, in the East Room of the White House in Washington DC Photograph: Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images

The anti-abortion group Susan B Anthony List on Friday said it plans to spend $52m to help Donald Trump win the 2020 election. The day before, women’s health group Planned Parenthood said it would spend $45m on candidates who support a woman’s right to seek an abortion.

It is the most election spending for both groups in history, according to CNBC.

More reports are emerging about what Trump’s impeachment legal team will look like. Former Florida attorney general, Pam Bondi, and a lawyer for Trump in the Mueller investigation, Jane Raskin, are also said to be on the list.

The only official announcement about the legal team has come from Alan Dershowitz. Other names on the list have come from journalists, citing a source.

Dershowitz is one of the best known attorneys in the US after representing high-profile people including OJ Simpson and Jeffrey Epstein. Axios reported that several White House officials had said they didn’t want Dershowitz on the team because of his ties to Epstein.

Starr also was involved with the Epstein case, as is noted in this Miami Herald article from Nov 2018:

Harvard professor Alan Dershowitz, Jay Lefkowitz, Gerald Lefcourt, Jack Goldberger, Roy Black, Guy Lewis and former Whitewater special prosecutor Kenneth Starr — reached a consensus: Epstein would never serve time in a federal or state prison.

Trump is ... Team Bernie?

Shortly after the notorious independent counsel in Bill Clinton’s impeachment, Kenneth Starr, was named to Trump’s impeachment defense team, a woman who said Starr turned her life into “living hell,” has something to say:

In September 2018, the Guardian’s Ed Pilkington asked Starr if he owed Lewinsky an apology.

Starr responded: “No.”

He added: “I regret the sorrow she went through, the travail she went through.”

Starr is asked the same question, again, in the interview, which is well worth reading in full:

Trump impeachment legal team to include Ken Starr and Alan Dershowitz

Donald Trump’s legal team for the impeachment trial will include: Kenneth Starr (the independent counsel who investigated Bill Clinton during his impeachment trial), Harvard professor Alan Dershowitz and Robert Ray, according to multiple US news outlets. They will join White House counsel, Pat Cipollone, and Trump attorney, Jay Sekulow.

In a statement to the New York Times, a representative for Trump’s legal team said: “Professor Dershowitz will present oral arguments at the Senate trial to address the constitutional arguments against impeachment and approval.”

The statement said Dershowitz is “non partisan when it comes to the constitution” and “is participating in this impeachment trial to defend the integrity of the Constitution and to prevent the creation of a dangerous constitutional precedent.”

Updated

Survey: 83% of black Americans say Trump has made racism a bigger problem in US

More than eight in 10 black Americans said they believe Donald Trump is a racist according to a national poll by the Washington Post and Ipsos published this morning.

The same amount, 83%, said Trump has made racism a bigger problem in the US. The survey of 1,008 non-Hispanic black people also found that nine in 10 black people disapprove of his job performance.

Of those surveyed who planned not to vote for Trump, 75% said it was “extremely important” Trump does not win a second term and 14% said it was “very important.”

Among those who “leaned Democratic,” 40% said they would support Joe Biden if the Democratic primary was today. The second most popular candidate was Bernie Sanders, with 20% support.

Updated

More from the big Politico story about Warren and Sanders’ attempts to put an end to talk of their conflict, which has “freaked out left-wing organizations and activists who see the conflict as a boon to Biden — and insist it’s all in the rearview mirror.”

… fully exorcising the conflict will be more difficult than simply having the candidates proclaim that it’s over. Warren and many on her campaign responded intensely after POLITICO reported that the Sanders campaign had quietly deployed talking points to its canvassers in multiple early states that included language attacking her electability.

The talking points weren’t particularly vicious, but the leaked script struck a raw nerve with Warren and her campaign because they felt they had held up their end of a nonaggression pact with Sanders — even after some Sanders staffers and surrogates had spent most of the race hitting Warren. The Warren campaign got so frustrated about critical tweets and comments from Sanders’ staffers that it privately expressed its displeasure to Sanders campaign manager Faiz Shakir last summer.

But top Sanders aides kept throwing elbows throughout the fall.

Hello and good morning.

Senators Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders are attempting to move on from a testy exchange they had on the debate stage this week, after tensions between to the two longtime friends reached a flash point as they compete for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination.

Politico obtained talking points from the Sanders campaign which include: “Please refrain from commenting on the CNN story on the meeting between Bernie and Sen Elizabeth Warren.” And Warren on Thursday told reporters she had “no further comment” on the matter.

The two senators will spend their weekend campaigning and preparing for the Senate impeachment trial, which will keep them away from the presidential race for at least the next few weeks.

The impeachment trial doesn’t start again until Tuesday, but the impeachment managers and legal team for Trump will be spending the long holiday weekend preparing legal briefs and preparing to make their case.

Today, Donald Trump is welcoming the championship college football team, Louisiana State University, to the White House before jetting off to Mar-a-Lago.

Updated

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