Trump tries to stop hush-money sentencing as Congress meets to certify his election victory: Live updates
President-elect tries to stave off hush money conviction sentencing as Congress meets to formally recognize Trump’s November victory over Kamala Harris, four years on from attempted insurrection by his supporters
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Your support makes all the difference.Donald Trump is attempting to stave off the sentencing for his criminal hush-money case conviction, currently scheduled for January 10, just ten days before his inauguration and the start of this second term in the White House.
The president-elect’s legal team filed a motion to stay the scheduled sentencing date on Monday morning. Steven Cheung, Trump’s spokesperson, said: “The Supreme Court’s historic decision on Immunity, the state constitution of New York, and other established legal precedent mandate that this meritless hoax be immediately dismissed.”
In May 2024, a jury convicted the president-elect on 34 counts based on the evidence presented during a lengthy trial.
Meanwhile, Trump’s victory over Kamala Harris in November’s presidential election will be formally certified by a joint session of Congress today, coinciding with the fourth anniversary of the Capitol riot of January 6, 2021,
Given that the duty of presiding over the process falls to the vice president, Harris will have to formalize her own defeat.
Finally, Joe Biden has moved to ban new offshore oil and gas development along most US coastlines, a decision that Donald Trump, who has vowed to boost domestic energy production, may find difficult to reverse.
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Biden to ban offshore oil and gas drilling in vast areas before Trump takes office
President Joe Biden has moved to ban new offshore oil and gas development along most US coastlines, a decision that President-elect Donald Trump, who has vowed to boost domestic energy production, may find difficult to reverse.
The White House said on Monday that Biden will use his authority under the 70-year-old Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act to protect all federal waters off the East and West coasts, the eastern Gulf of Mexico and portions of the northern Bering Sea in Alaska.
The ban will affect 625 million acres of ocean.
Biden said the move was aligned with both his climate change agenda and his goal to conserve 30 per cent of US lands and waters by 2030.
He also invoked the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, saying the low drilling potential of the areas included in the ban did not justify the public health and economic risks of future leasing.
“My decision reflects what coastal communities, businesses, and beachgoers have known for a long time: that drilling off these coasts could cause irreversible damage to places we hold dear and is unnecessary to meet our nation’s energy needs,” Biden said in a statement.
“It is not worth the risks.”
The announcement comes as Trump has pledged to reverse Biden’s conservation and climate change policies when he takes office later this month.
During his term, Biden limited new oil and gas leasing on federal lands and waters, drawing criticism from drilling states and companies.
But the Lands Act, which allows presidents to withdraw areas from mineral leasing and drilling, does not grant them the legal authority to overturn prior bans, according to a 2019 court ruling.
That order came in response to Trump’s effort to reverse Arctic and Atlantic Ocean withdrawals made by former President Barack Obama at the end of his presidency.
Even Trump used the law to ban sales of offshore drilling rights in the eastern Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Florida through 2032. Biden’s decision will protect the same area with no expiration.
Trump transition spokesperson Karoline Leavitt, on X, called Biden’s decision “disgraceful” and reiterated Trump’s campaign pledge to increase US drilling, without offering details.
An oil and gas industry trade group said the decision would harm American energy security and should be reversed by Congress.
Truth Social: Trump trails ‘powerful bill’ and rages about hush money sentencing
Here’s the latest bluster from the president-elect on social media, which finds him keeping the heat under Mike Johnson days after his narrow re-election as House speaker and continuing to stew over Judge Juan Merchan’s plan to sentence him on Friday over May’s hush money conviction.
Joe Biden stresses importance of remembering Jan 6 in Washington Post editorial
Reflecting on the events of four years ago in an editorial for the Post this morning, the president tells America its way of life was sorely tested that winter’s day in January 2021 but prevailed.
As Trump plots a mass pardoning for the 1,600 people prosecuted over their roles in the Capitol riot, Biden warns against historical revisionism by writing:
“We should be proud that our democracy withstood this assault. And we should be glad we will not see such a shameful attack again this year.
“But we should not forget. We must remember the wisdom of the adage that any nation that forgets its past is doomed to repeat it. We cannot accept a repeat of what occurred four years ago.
“An unrelenting effort has been underway to rewrite – even erase – the history of that day. To tell us we didn’t see what we all saw with our own eyes. To dismiss concerns about it as some kind of partisan obsession. To explain it away as a protest that just got out of hand.”
Kamala Harris called Trump a danger. Now she is set to certify his win
Here’s more from Kelly Rissman on what promises to be a pretty galling day for the vice president after she spent her summer and fall denouncing the incoming president as a “petty tyrant” and a “fascist” and now finds herself presiding over the formal recognition of his victory.
Harris called Trump a danger to democracy. Now she is set to certify his election win
Harris will join the ranks of Mike Pence and Al Gore, who also had to formalize the election victories for their rivals
Congress to certify Donald Trump’s election on fourth anniversary of Capitol riot
Good morning!
Donald Trump’s victory over Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris in November’s presidential election will be formally certified by a joint-session of Congress on Monday, the occasion coinciding with the fourth anniversary of the Capitol riot of January 6 2021.
One of the darkest days in American history, the date will live in infamy for the violent scenes that erupted between Trump supporters and local law enforcement on the steps of the Capitol, clashes that resulted in the deaths of five people and left many more injured as the legislative complex was invaded and vandalized.
The rioters were fired up by the 45th and soon to be 47th president’s false claims that he had been cheated out of a second term by a nationwide conspiracy to rig the 2020 vote in Joe Biden’s favor, which he continues to insist took place despite failing to produce any evidence.
The states’ electoral vote records will be transported to the House of Representatives, where they will be unsealed at 1pm ET (6pm GMT) today and read aloud in alphabetical order.
Given that the duty of presiding over the process falls to the vice president, Harris will have to formalize her own defeat.
Here’s more.
Congress to certify Trump’s election on fourth anniversary of Capitol riot
Vice President Kamala Harris to preside over joint-session formally recognizing her own defeat as spectre of mob violence on January 6 2021 looms large
Pelosi says her husband is still suffering from effects of hammer attack as she condemns pro-Trump violence
House speaker emerita Nancy Pelosi discussed the ongoing threat of political violence and the dangers posed by Donald Trump’s 2020 misinformation campaign in an interview Sunday on Face the Nation.
The former top Democrat in the lower chamber said that her husband, Paul Pelosi, still faces medical issues resulting from a violent attack he suffered in 2022, when an intruder in their home attacked him with a hammer.
The suspect, David DePape, was convicted of the violent attack and found to have been consumed by far-right conspiracy theories promoted by various figures aligned with MAGA Republicanism, including the 2020 stolen election conspiracies promoted by Trump himself.
Read more:
Pelosi says her husband is still suffering effects of hammer attack
Speaker emerita says ‘sick’ Trump needs to stop fixating on 2020 defeat
Melania documentary to be screened by Amazon in latest Trump connection with Jeff Bezos
Incoming first lady Melania Trump will be the subject of a new documentary directed by Brett Ratner and distributed by Amazon Prime Video. The streaming arm of the tech giant got exclusive licensing rights for a streaming and theatrical release later this year, the company said Sunday.
Filming is already underway on the documentary. The company said in a statement that the film will give viewers an “unprecedented behind-the-scenes look” at Melania Trump and also promised a “truly unique story.”
The former and now future first lady also released a self-titled memoir late last year. Her husband takes office on January 20.
Read more:
Melania documentary to be screened by Amazon in latest Trump connection with Bezos
Incoming first lady will be the subject of new film directed by Brett Ratner
Former Capitol police officer ‘devastated’ by Trump’s vow to pardon Jan 6 rioters
A former Capitol police officer says he has been “devastated” by Donald Trump’s vow to pardon January 6 rioters, four years on from the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.
In an op-ed published in The New York Times, Aquilino Gonell, a former sergeant in the Capitol Police, said a pardon “outrageous mistake,” that could put him and other law enforcement officers in danger.
“I remain haunted by that day. Now Mr. Trump’s promised actions could erase the justice we’ve risked everything for,” he said. “Releasing those who assaulted us from blame would be a desecration of justice. If Mr. Trump wants to heal our divided nation, he’ll let their convictions stand.”
ANALYSIS: Mike Johnson may be the speaker, but Democrats will still have power
After a whipsaw couple of hours, Mike Johnson remained speaker of the House of Representatives with the help of some pressure from President-elect Donald Trump. The move shows that the mild-mannered Louisianan is a far more deft politician than his predecessor Kevin McCarthy, who had to go fifteen rounds before he became speaker two years ago.
But Johnson’s speech afterward did not set the tone, nor did the speech of House Republican Conference Chairwoman Lisa McClain.
Rather, it came when House Democratic Caucus Chairman Pete Aguilar nominated Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries and called Democrats the “governing majority.”
Keep reading:
Mike Johnson may be the speaker, but Democrats will still have power
Yes, Republicans have a trifecta. Yes, Trump is president. But hardliners’ inability to take ‘yes’ for an answer means Democrats can act as the ‘governing majority,’ in a coalition with Mike Johnson, Eric Garcia reports
MAGA-world in meltdown after George Soros awarded the Medal of Freedom
Conservative commentators were outraged after the Biden administration gave billionaire investor and Democratic mega-donor George Soros the Medal of Freedom.
Former Trump adviser Steve Bannon called on the incoming Trump administration to rescind the medal, the nation’s highest civilian honor.
“Send a team to track down Soros and take the medal back,” Bannon said on his War Room podcast. “It is a disgrace that a demonic individual like that—who has been going out of his way to try to destroy this country, to mock this constitutional republic, which he hates and has dedicated his life to destroying—that we would be presenting him, awarding him, the highest civilian honor that you can give.”
Read more:
MAGA-world in meltdown after seeing George Soros awarded Medal of Freedom
Soros has long been lightning rod for conservatives due to prolific funding for Democrats and progressive causes
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