Steve Bannon rebuffed a congressional subpoena from the House Select Committee investigating the January 6 insurrection, citing Donald Trump’s claims of executive privilege.
Jayapal Pushes Biden for $3 Trillion Spending Bill
Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) told the AP that she has “pushed Biden to hold the line and keep his ambitious social spending plan closer to $3 trillion instead of the $2 trillion range that he has floated to Democrats in recent days.”
Jared Golden Says Reconciliation Bill Needs Work
Rep. Jared Golden (D-ME) writes in the Portland Press Herald that he doesn’t support the budget reconciliation bill yet:
“I strongly support the bipartisan infrastructure bill and think the House should pass and send it to the president immediately. As for the separate $3.5 trillion draft reconciliation proposal in the House, while there are many worthy policies under consideration, I cannot support it in its current form, nor does it currently have the votes to pass in Congress. While those may be difficult realities for some to acknowledge, there is a silver lining: There is still time for us to get it right.”
Trump Lawyer Tells Former Aides Not to Cooperate
An attorney for former president Donald Trump instructed former advisers, including Mark Meadows, Kash Patel, Dan Scavino and Stephen Bannon, not to comply with congressional investigators who requested documents by Thursday at midnight, the Washington Post reports.
Select Committee Issues More Subpoenas
“The special committee scrutinizing the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol issued three more subpoenas Thursday, turning its focus to organizers of the ‘Stop the Steal’ rally that led into the mob violence,” the New York Times reports.
Facebook Whistleblower to Meet with Select Committee
The former Facebook staffer who went public this week with damning allegations against the social media giant is set to meet with House lawmakers investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection, CNN reports.
Senate Probe Zeroes In on Pennsylvania Republican
“A Senate Democratic report released Thursday places Rep. Scott Perry (R-PA) at the center of efforts to help former President Donald Trump overturn the 2020 election results,” Politico reports.
“The report indicates that the House Freedom Caucus, a group of hardline conservatives with close ties to Trump, took an active role in helping the president strategize about ways to undercut Joe Biden’s victory. But the report indicates that Perry, more than other House Republicans, took a direct role in attempting to help Trump install loyalists in the Justice Department who would assist in undermining the legitimacy of Joe Biden’s victory.”
Select Panel Can’t Find Trump Aide to Subpoena Him
“More than a week after subpoenaing former Donald Trump aide Dan Scavino to cooperate with its investigation into the January 6 riot at the US Capitol, the House select committee investigating the attack has been unable to physically serve the subpoena to him,” CNN reports.
Ex-Trump Official Testifies Before Select Panel
Richard Donoghue, formerly the No. 2 official at Justice Department “appeared for a closed-door interview on Friday with the select panel investigating Jan. 6,” Politico reports.
“Donoghue’s tenure at the Justice Department in the final days of the Trump administration has drawn scrutiny from congressional investigators as they explore the former president’s attempts to pressure the department to interfere in the 2020 election.”
More Republicans Oppose Bipartisan Bill
Politico: “As few as 15 House Republicans may ultimately back the bipartisan infrastructure bill (maybe a few more trickle in if the bill looks poised to pass). That’s fewer than the 19 Senate Republicans who supported the bill.”
“What’s changed? President Joe Biden and other Democrats have so actively linked this bill to the broader multi-trillion Democratic social spending plans. And House Republican leadership have ratcheted up their whipping against it.”
Top Trump Aides Will Defy Subpoenas
“The former Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and other top aides subpoenaed by the House select committee investigating the Capitol attack are expected to defy orders for documents and testimony related to January 6,” The Guardian reports.
“The move to defy the subpoenas would mark the first major investigative hurdle faced by the select committee and threatens to touch off an extended legal battle as the former president pushes some of his most senior aides to undercut the inquiry.”
Pelosi Tells Democrats to Downsize Ambitions
“Democrats in both chambers are now eyeing a price tag in the roughly $2 trillion range, down from the initial $3.5 trillion,” Politico reports.
“Pelosi held a call with leadership and committee chairs today that broached one of the trickiest questions the party faces — whether to prioritize as many new programs as possible in the bill, even if they don’t last long, or to narrow the bill’s scope and focus on cementing the legacy of new programs.”
Said Pelosi: “The theme among members is to do fewer things better.”
Gaetz ‘Wing Man’ Wants Sentencing Delay
Rep. Matt Gaetz’s (R-FL) friend, Joel Greenberg, a former local tax collector who pleaded guilty to sex trafficking a minor, asked a judge to further delay his sentencing because he is still cooperating with federal authorities as part of his plea deal, the Orlando Sentinel reports.
Biden Meets with Vulnerable House Democrats
“President Biden met Tuesday with nearly a dozen vulnerable House Democrats as he and party leaders race to adopt his massive economic agenda before month’s end,” The Hill reports.
“Democrats consider enactment of Biden’s two-piece domestic plan crucial to the party’s chances of keeping control of the lower chamber in next year’s midterm elections — a cycle that’s historically difficult for the party of the incumbent president. And leaders in both chambers are scrambling to unite their clashing factions behind both the bipartisan infrastructure component and a larger, more controversial package of climate and social safety net programs.”
Mother and Son Arrested In Theft of Pelosi’s Laptop
“A New York mother and son have been charged with theft in aiding the disappearance of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s laptop during the Jan. 6 insurrection after the FBI initially raided a home 4,500 miles away in Alaska, looking for the computer,” the AP reports.
The son “also faces a charge of possession of an unregistered sawed-off shotgun.”
This Is ‘Normal’
Julia Ioffe: “What you’ve been watching for the past two weeks is Washington’s full return to its own version of normalcy. After four years of Donald Trump, and eighteen months of a pandemic that forced the Hill to pass giant, bipartisan rescue packages, Washington is back to what it has looked like since at least the beginning of Barack Obama’s presidency: two political parties with radically different aims and visions of good governance, haggling over legislation till the last possible minute.”
“Normal is not necessarily a compliment. Normal for Washington for a long time now has been about the impossibility of passing big, ambitious legislation on a bipartisan basis. The parties are now so far apart in how they view the role of government, and their own priorities, that finding a middle ground is pretty much non-existent.”
Legislative Process Doesn’t Matter In the End
Jonathan Last points out that if the infrastructure and budget reconciliation legislation pending in Congress passes, none of the messiness will turn out to matter “because it’s process. And voters do not care about process. Ever.”
“Only two things will matter to voters:
- Did the legislation pass?
- Can they be convinced after the fact that the legislation made their own lives better in some tangible way?”
“Everything else is moot.”
Rioters Exploited Little-Known Capitol Weak Spots
“Four major access points that Jan. 6 rioters used to break into and overtake the U.S. Capitol had something unusual in common: They were among a dozen or so ground-floor windows and glass-paned doors that had not been recently reinforced,” the Los Angeles Times reports.
“The majority of the Capitol’s 658 single-pane windows were quietly upgraded during a 2017-19 renovation of the historic building. The original wooden frames and glass were covered with a second metal frame containing bomb-resistant glass.”
“But planners skipped about a dozen ground-floor windows, including some located in doors, because they were deemed to be low risk in the event of implosion, largely due to their discreet or shielded location, or because the building couldn’t structurally handle the load of the heavier frames.”
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