“When Representative Scott Perry joined his colleagues in a monthslong campaign to undermine the results of the presidential election, promoting ‘Stop the Steal’ events and supporting an attempt to overturn millions of legally cast votes, he often took a back seat to higher-profile loyalists in President Donald J. Trump’s orbit.
But Mr. Perry, an outspoken Pennsylvania Republican, played a significant role in the crisis that played out at the top of the Justice Department this month, when Mr. Trump considered firing the acting attorney general and backed down only after top department officials threatened to resign en masse.
It was Mr. Perry, a member of the hard-line Freedom Caucus, who first made Mr. Trump aware that a relatively obscure Justice Department official, Jeffrey Clark, the acting chief of the civil division, was sympathetic to Mr. Trump’s view that the election had been stolen, according to former administration officials who spoke with Mr. Clark and Mr. Trump.
Mr. Perry introduced the president to Mr. Clark, whose openness to conspiracy theories about election fraud presented Mr. Trump with a welcome change from the acting attorney general, Jeffrey A. Rosen, who stood by the results of the election and had repeatedly resisted the president’s efforts to undo them.
Mr. Perry’s previously unreported role, and the quiet discussions between Mr. Trump and Mr. Clark that followed, underlined how much the former president was willing to use the government to subvert the election, turning to more junior and relatively unknown figures for help as ranking Republicans and cabinet members rebuffed him.
Mr. Perry’s involvement is also likely to heighten scrutiny of House Republicans who continue to advance Mr. Trump’s false and thoroughly debunked claims of election fraud, even after President Biden’s inauguration this week and as Congress prepares for an impeachment trial that will examine whether such talk incited the Capitol riot.” Read more at New York Times
“Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) called for the Justice Department’s internal watchdog to investigate former President Trump over a bombshell report released Friday that said he tried to oust his former acting attorney general in a plot to overturn the election results.” Read more at The Hill
“Anthony Fauci, the federal government’s leading infectious disease expert, said it was ‘chilling’ to see the pressure put on scientists during the Trump administration by officials seeking to project rosy messaging about the coronavirus.
Fauci recounted on ‘The Rachel Maddow Show’ on Friday night that officials under former President Trump pressed government scientists in what he said was an unusual dynamic compared with his work under past administrations, describing ‘a situation where science was distorted and/or rejected.’
‘I didn’t want to be at odds with the president because I have a lot of respect for the office of the presidency, but there was conflict at different levels with different people and different organizations and a lot of pressure being put on to do things that just are not compatible with the science,’ he said.” Read more at The Hill
“House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said he has ‘concerns’ over Rep. Liz Cheney’s (R-Wyo.) vote to impeach former President Trump, his sternest comments yet on the controversial vote.
McCarthy, in an interview with Greta Van Susteren airing Sunday, maintained that he supports keeping Cheney in her role as the No. 3 Republican in the House but said she did not inform him of her decision to impeach Trump before she cast her vote.” Read more at The Hill
“President Biden’s pitch for bipartisan unity to defeat the coronavirus and resurrect the economy is crashing into a partisan buzz saw on Capitol Hill, where Republicans and Democrats can’t agree on ground rules for running the Senate — let alone pass a $1.9 trillion stimulus bill.
Biden’s relief package is being declared dead on arrival by senior Senate Republicans, some of whom say there has been little, if any, outreach from the Biden team to get their support. Liberals are demanding the president abandon attempts to make a bipartisan deal altogether and instead ram the massive legislation through without GOP votes. And outside groups are turning up the pressure for Biden and the Democrats who control Congress to enact economic relief quickly, even if it means cutting Republicans out of the deal.
In the face of these competing pressures, Biden may discover he can get a big coronavirus stimulus bill or a bipartisan deal — but not both. The path Biden chooses with his first major piece of legislation could set the tone for the remainder of his term, revealing whether he can make good on his promise to unify Congress and the country.” Read more at Washington Post
“Even with a new president, the Trump legacy lingers over Washington.
The House will transmit its article of impeachment for former President Donald Trump to the Senate on Monday. But under a deal struck between Senate leaders, the chamber will then pause until Feb. 9 to give the prosecution and defense time to draft and exchange written legal briefs.
It will also give President Biden the time to put crucial members of his cabinet in place and push forward on a large coronavirus aid package.
Mr. Trump, who was impeached for the second time earlier this month, is charged with “incitement of insurrection” for urging on a mob that attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6 to protest the results of the election.
We looked at a crucial moment during the attack as the insurrectionists closed in on lawmakers and a Capitol Police lieutenant fatally shot a woman who was vaulting through a window. Our investigation showed a dire set of circumstances that left a lone officer to confront a mob.
In the month leading up to the riot, Mr. Trump was devising his own plan: He and a Justice Department official plotted to oust the acting attorney general to try to advance baseless election claims, interviews showed, and only backed down after top department officials threatened to resign.” Read more at New York Times
“Former president Donald Trump threw himself back into politics this weekend by publicly endorsing a devoted and divisive acolyte in Arizona who has embraced his false election conspiracy theories and entertained the creation of a new ‘MAGA Party.’
In a recorded phone call, Trump offered his ‘complete and total endorsement’ for another term for Arizona state party chairwoman Kelli Ward, a lightning rod who has sparred with the state’s Republican governor, been condemned by the business community and overseen a recent flight in party registrations. She narrowly won reelection, by a margin of 51.5 percent to 48.5 percent, marking Trump’s first victory in a promised battle to maintain political relevance and influence after losing the 2020 election.
In recent weeks, Trump has entertained the idea of creating a third party, called the Patriot Party, and instructed his aides to prepare election challenges to lawmakers who crossed him in the final weeks in office, including Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R), Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and Rep. Tom Rice (R-S.C.), according to people familiar with the plans.
Multiple people in Trump’s orbit, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations, say Trump has told people that the third-party threat gives him leverage to prevent Republican senators from voting to convict him during the Senate impeachment trial. Trump advisers also say they plan to recruit opposing primary candidates and commission polling next week in districts of targeted lawmakers. Trump has more than $70 million in campaign cash banked to fund his political efforts, these people say.
The prospect of a divisive battle threatens to widen a split in the Republican Party and has alarmed leaders in Washington, who have been pleading publicly to avoid any new rounds of internecine retribution. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Republican Party Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel are among the leaders who have worked to protect politicians like Cheney, who supported Trump’s second impeachment and now faces an internal effort to remove her from her role as the third-highest-ranking member of the House Republican leadership.” Read more at Washington Post
“The Arizona Republican Party, in an anticipated move Saturday, approved resolutions censuring Gov. Doug Ducey (R), former GOP Sen. Jeff Flake and Cindy McCain, the widow of the late Arizona Sen. John McCain (R).
The public rebukes, which are largely symbolic, came after both McCain and Flake endorsed President Biden in the 2020 election. The party cited Ducey’s coronavirus restrictions as the reason behind his censure.” Read more at The Hill
“President Biden’s administration on Friday revoked a last-minute memo issued by former President Trump’s Justice Department that sought to limit the scope of a landmark Supreme Court decision on workplace discrimination against the LGBTQ community.
Greg Friel, the acting head of the Justice Department’s civil rights division, on Friday issued a memo revoking a Trump administration directive in response to the Supreme Court’s June 2020 ruling in Bostock v. Clayton County. The justices ruled in a 6-3 decision that the country’s laws on sex discrimination in the workplace also apply to discrimination against LGBTQ individuals.
The Wall Street Journal reported that the Trump Justice Department’s 23-page memo dated Sunday said the court’s ruling should not extend to areas where gender-based policies on bathrooms and sports teams are relevant. The memo also indicated that employers could cite religious beliefs as justification for discrimination against LGBTQ employees.” Read more at The Hill
“President Biden, vowing to restore environmental protections frayed over the past four years, has ordered the review of more than 100 rules and regulations on air, water, public lands, endangered species and climate change that were weakened or rolled back by his predecessor.
But legal experts warn that it could take two to three years — and in some cases, most of Mr. Biden’s term — to put many of the old rules back in place.” Read more at New York Times
“A Texas man is facing multiple criminal charges after allegedly participating in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol and posting death threats against Rep. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, and a U.S. Capitol police officer.
The Department of Justice revealed that Garret Miller faces five criminal charges, including trespassing and making death threats.
Using the initials widely used to refer to the New York Democrat, Miller tweeted ‘assassinate AOC’ hours after he posted pictures of himself storming the Capitol. That tweet was in response to one in which Ocasio-Cortez called for President Donald Trump to be impeached, which he was a week later on a charge of inciting the mob of his supporters.
According to the criminal complaint, Miller was particularly incensed by the fatal shooting of one of those supporters, Ashli Babbitt, during the attack. On Jan. 10, Miller is alleged to have threatened the Capitol Police officer who shot Babbitt, saying on Instagram he was going to ‘hug his neck with a nice rope.’ Six days later, he said the officer deserved to die and that it was ‘huntin season.’
Miller was arrested on Jan. 20 and made his first court appearance Friday. Miller’s detention hearing is set for Monday.” Read more at USA Today
The need for coronavirus vaccines has never been greater:The U.S. has surpassed 25 million known cases, and more contagious variants threaten to erase recent gains made in curbing the spread of the virus.
And yet the reality on the ground is growing more confusing by the day. Health officials around the country are growing desperate, unable to get clear answers as to why the long-anticipated vaccines are suddenly in short supply. Many vaccine appointments have been canceled.” Read more at New York Times
Sergey Ponomarev for The New York Times
“Tens of thousands of Russians rallied in support of the jailed opposition leader Aleksei Navalny on Saturday. It was the biggest nationwide showdown in years between critics of the Kremlin and the Russian authorities.
More than 3,000 people were arrested. The broad scope of the protests — from the Far East to Moscow — signaled widespread fatigue with the stagnant, corruption-plagued political order that President Vladimir Putin has presided over for two decades.
Mr. Navalny, a 44-year-old anticorruption activist and Mr. Putin’s most prominent domestic critic, was poisoned in August in Siberia and recovered in Germany. After flying home to Moscow last Sunday, he was arrested at passport control.” Read more for New York Times
“Approximately 17% of people in the U.S. have been infected with the coronavirus, a model by researches at the University of Washington estimates.
Current data suggests that at least 7% of Americans have tested positive for COVID-19, but themodel by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation assumes that testing isn't detecting all of the cases present in the population.” Read more at USA Today
Butch Dill/Associated Press
“Around this time last year, there was a lot of speculation that Tom Brady, 43, would retire. Now Brady, the longtime New England Patriots quarterback, is a game away from the Super Bowl with another team.
Brady will lead the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the N.F.C. championship against the Green Bay Packers today. Kickoff is at 3:05 p.m. Eastern. The winner of that game will meet either the Buffalo Bills or the Kansas City Chiefs. That game starts at 6:40 p.m.” Read more at New York Times
“An Olympic sailing champion has accused a top sporting official in Greece of sexual abuse, the country’s first high-profile accusation of sexual assault and abuse of power since the #MeToo movement swept the world in recent years, bringing down powerful figures in the media, politics and sports.
Claims by Sofia Bekatorou, a Greek Olympic sailing champion, that she was sexually assaulted by the official 23 years ago, when she was 21, have prompted a wave of support and an unusually open debate in a country where studies suggest sexual harassment is prevalent.
And it has catapulted one of Greece’s most popular international athletes back into the public eye, this time as a champion for women’s rights.” Read more at Boston Globe
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