Key events
Donald Trump has vowed to pardon January 6 defendants upon taking office, and the Guardian’s Michael Sainato reports that a militia leader who was given a long sentence over the attack has appealed to the president-elect not to pass him over:
Enrique Tarrio, the former leader of the Proud Boys group who received a 22-year sentence for seditious conspiracy related to the January 6 attack on the US Capitol in 2021, has formally asked Donald Trump for a pardon.
A jury convicted Tarrio of helping to orchestrate the insurrection. At the time of the attack, Tarrio had been banned from the city by prosectors for burning a stolen banner from a historic Black church in December 2020 during a protest march against Trump’s election loss.
Prosecutors said Tarrio was the driving force for organizing hundreds of Proud Boys to participate in the attack on January 6, and several top lieutenants in the group – a far-right militant organization – were at the frontlines of the violence.
US district judge Tim Kelly, a Trump appointee, sentenced Tarrio to 22 years in prison after his conviction. It is the longest sentence of any January 6 defendant.
Trump lawyers suggest decision on releasing special counsel report should be made by incoming president
Attorneys for Donald Trump have asked attorney general Merrick Garland to stop special counsel Jack Smith from completing his report detailing his investigations of the president-elect. Should Garland decline to do that, they propose that the decision to release the report be made by whoever becomes attorney general when Trump takes office.
The position is likely to be filled by Pam Bondi, the former top prosecutor in Florida whom Trump nominated to lead the justice department after his initial pick, former congressman Matt Gaetz, declined the job amid allegations of sexual misconduct and drug use.
We’ll find out if Garland will heed Trump’s request. The president-elect’s attorneys have also asked a federal judge to intervene and block the release of Smith’s report. Here’s more on their requests, from the Guardian’s Hugo Lowell:
Trump moves to block release of special counsel report as sentencing on hush-money sentencing nears
Good morning, US politics blog readers. Donald Trump may be less than two weeks away from returning to the White House, but his lawyers are keeping busy with motions to frustrate the final developments in his lingering criminal cases. Yesterday, they asked New York judge Juan Merchan to delay the president-elect’s sentencing on the 34 felony business fraud charges he was convicted of last year, but their motion was denied and the hearing is expected to take place on Friday. The case, brought by the Manhattan district attorney, Alvin Bragg, was the only one of Trump’s four criminal indictments to go to trial before his election victory in November. His prosecution in Georgia for allegedly meddling in the state’s election result four years ago has stalled, likely permanently, while special counsel Jack Smith dropped the charges he brought against Trump for allegedly hiding classified documents, and plotting to overturn the 2020 election.
However, justice department regulations mandate that Smith release a report at the end of his investigations, which could bring to light damaging evidence about Trump’s actions. Late yesterday, the president-elect’s attorneys asked outgoing attorney general Merrick Garland to prevent the report’s completion. We’ll let you know if Garland makes his response known today.
Here’s what else is going on:
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Donald Trump Jr is scheduled to arrive in Greenland today, the massive island that his father has talked about the United States buying from Denmark. We’ll see how that visit goes.
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Jimmy Carter will lie in state at the US Capitol today, with Kamala Harris laying a wreath on his casket and eulogizing him at 4.30pm ET.
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The House of Representatives will vote on the Laken Riley Act, an early step in the forthcoming Republican crackdown on undocumented immigrants that would mandate they be taken into custody by immigration authorities over theft charges.
