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Top House Republican McCarthy threatens to investigate search of Trump’s home – as it happened

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Kevin McCarthy says he’ll consider creating special committee to investigate FBI search of Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home

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Tue 9 Aug 2022 17.15 EDTFirst published on Tue 9 Aug 2022 06.40 EDT
Authorities stand outside Mar-a-Lago, the residence of former president Donald Trump, amid reports of the FBI executing a search warrant as a part of a document investigation, in Palm Beach, Florida Monday.
Authorities stand outside Mar-a-Lago, the residence of former president Donald Trump, amid reports of the FBI executing a search warrant as a part of a document investigation, in Palm Beach, Florida Monday. Photograph: Jim Rassol/EPA
Authorities stand outside Mar-a-Lago, the residence of former president Donald Trump, amid reports of the FBI executing a search warrant as a part of a document investigation, in Palm Beach, Florida Monday. Photograph: Jim Rassol/EPA

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Kevin McCarthy threatens to investigate search

House minority leader Kevin McCarthy has been furious in the hours since the FBI search of Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home.

Attorney General Garland: preserve your documents and clear your calendar. pic.twitter.com/dStAjnwbAT

— Kevin McCarthy (@GOPLeader) August 9, 2022

McCarthy told Punchbowl News that when Republicans take back the House, he’s considering creating some sort of special committee to investigate the justice department and other governmental agencies. “I’ve got to talk to my members and see where we go,” McCarthy said. “We have to follow it wherever it goes.”

Punchbowl News noted that a select committee could exclude Democrats – running an inquiry through the judiciary committee or the committee on oversight and reform would require participation from both parties. But on Fox News, Republican congressman Jim Jordan, a ranking member of the judiciary committee, called for attorney general Merrick Garland and Trump-appointed FBI director Christopher Wray to meet with lawmakers when the House is in session Friday to vote on the reconciliation bill.

“Merrick Garland, Chris Wray, come to the House judiciary committee this Friday and answer our questions about this action today, which has never happened in American history,” Jordan said. “What was on the warrant? What were you really doing? What are you looking for? Why not talk to President Trump and have him give you the information you’re after? This is unbelievable.”

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Key events

Summary

  • The White House declined to comment on the FBI search of Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home, with press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre saying that Joe Biden learned of it just like every other American, by watching the news reports. “I can say that President Biden has been unequivocal since the campaign that he believes in the rule of law, in the independence of justice department investigations, that those investigations should be free from political influence and he has held that commitment as president,” Jean-Pierre said.

  • Users on pro-Trump Internet forums have been agitating for civil war and spouting their usual white supremacist rhetoric, but NBC News found that among the users was at least one individual awaiting sentencing for his involvement in a previous insurrection. Tyler Welsh Slaeker wrote that he had to be careful with his words because he was awaiting sentencing for trespassing during the 6 January attack on the US Capitol.

  • The House select committee tasked with investigating the 6 January attack on the US Capitol is meeting today with Mike Pompeo, the former secretary of state under Trump.

  • Biden signed a measure ratifying the US support for Finland and Sweden to join the Nato alliance.

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The House ways and means committee won a major victory today when a Washington court of appeals ruled in its favor, ensuring that lawmakers will receive the much-sought after tax returns and audit files of Donald Trump. (Despite the timing, this ruling is unrelated to the FBI search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home).

Committee chairman Richard Neal sounded off on the ruling today:

House Ways & Means Chair Neal on today's DC Circuit Court of Appeals ruling in favor of cmte's request to obtain former President Trump's tax returns from IRS: "With great patience, we followed the judicial process, and yet again, our position has been affirmed by the Courts."

— Craig Caplan (@CraigCaplan) August 9, 2022

Neal (D-MA): " I’m pleased that this long-anticipated opinion makes clear the law is on our side. When we receive the returns, we will begin our oversight of the IRS’s mandatory presidential audit program."

— Craig Caplan (@CraigCaplan) August 9, 2022
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NBC News reporters Ben Collins and Ryan Reilly were monitoring some of the pro-Donald Trump forums during the FBI search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home. They discovered users agitating for “civil war”, urging supporters to make their way to Mar-a-Lago.

They also found that one of the users was Tyler Welch Slaeker, who is awaiting sentencing for his involvement in the January 6 attack on the US Capitol.

Last night, I posted a screenshot of top replies on TheDonald about the Mar a Lago raid, almost all of them violent.

One user, bananaguard62, referenced a "civil war."

Well, it turns out bananaguard62 is Tyler Welch Slaeker, awaiting sentencing for storming the Capitol on 1/6. pic.twitter.com/wntNmjrgHX

— Ben Collins (@oneunderscore__) August 9, 2022

Here is Slaeker at the Capitol. He took a selfie on 1/6.

He's been posting on TheDonald in the 17 months since.

In a reply to his "civil war" post last night, he clarified:

“I am awaiting sentencing for trespassing into the Capitol. I am only being careful with my words.” pic.twitter.com/12YdN9we7i

— Ben Collins (@oneunderscore__) August 9, 2022

Slaeker was one of countless extremists talking about an upcoming "civil war" last night on extremist forums.

In one Groyper white nationalist chat on Telegram, the wrote about how “Civil War is imminent.” pic.twitter.com/kuL52koA1v

— Ben Collins (@oneunderscore__) August 9, 2022
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“All I can tell you is that the president intends to run in 2024,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in response to questions from Fox News reporter Peter Doocy on if Joe Biden wanted to run against Donald Trump again.

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White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre doubled down on not commenting on the FBI search of Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home.

“The president and the White House learned [of the search] just like the American public did yesterday,” she said. “We did not have advance notice of this activity.”

Jean-Pierre continued: “We are a nation of laws. We defer any incoming on this incident to the Department of Justice.”

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White House was not given a heads up on FBI search of Mar-a-Lago

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said at today’s press briefing that Joe Biden was not aware or given a heads up about the FBI search of Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home.

“The justice department conducts investigations independently,” she said. “We leave any law enforcement matters to them. It would not be appropriate for us to comment on any ongoing investigations. I can say that president Biden has been unequivocal since the campaign that he believes in the rule of law, in the independence of justice department investigations, that those investigations should be free from political influence and he has held that commitment as president.”

Jean-Pierre then quoted what Biden said when he nominated Merrick Garland as attorney general. “‘We need to restore the honor, the integrity, of the independence of the Department of Justice in this nation that has been so badly damaged,’” she quoted Biden as saying. “‘I want to be clear to those who lead this department who you will serve. You won’t work for me. You will not be the president or vice-president’s lawyer. Your loyalty is not to me. It’s to the law, the constitution, the people of this nation, to guarantee justice.”

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Biden signs US ratification for Finland and Sweden to join Nato alliance

Joe Biden signed a measure ratifying the US support for Finland and Sweden to join the Nato alliance.

“In a moment when Putin’s Russia has shattered peace and security in Europe… America’s commitment to Nato is more important than it’s ever been,” Biden said.

HAPPENING NOW: Biden signs measure ratifying US support for Finland and Sweden’s accession to NATO. pic.twitter.com/HulzGQe2CV

— Steven Portnoy (@stevenportnoy) August 9, 2022
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The House select committee tasked with investigating the 6 January attack on the US Capitol is meeting today with Mike Pompeo, the former secretary of state under Donald Trump.

NBC News: The Jan. 6 Committee is meeting TODAY with Mike Pompeo. @MSNBC

— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) August 9, 2022
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Attorneys for right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones accidentally sent his legal adversaries a nude photo of his wife that he had texted to the conservative political operative Roger Stone.

If you’ll recall, the family of a six-year-boy killed during the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting recently won a nearly $50m judgment against Jones after he spent years falsely claiming the deadly shooting was a hoax aimed at forcing nationwide gun control reform.

During the defamation trial, the family’s attorney, Mark Bankston, revealed that Jones’ lawyers had accidentally sent him two years’ worth of text messages exchanged by Jones and then failed to take steps to keep them out of court.

Bankston appeared on Monday on the Young Turks progressive news commentary show to confirm that one of the texts in question contained a naked photo of Jones’s wife sent to Stone, once an adviser to former president Donald Trump.

"That intimate photo was sent to Roger Stone and I don't know if that was consensual," Mark Bankston reveals an intimate photo of Alex Jones' wife was found in his phone and that it was sent to #RogerStone #tytlive pic.twitter.com/JCFLqljotr

— The Young Turks (@TheYoungTurks) August 9, 2022

Read more here:

Today so far

  • FBI agents spent the majority of the day at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home, where they have seized documents related to the removal of 15 boxes of presidential records from the White House, including classified documents, as well as the destruction of other materials.

NBC News: A senior U.S. official says the FBI was present at Trump's Mar-a-Lago "for the majority of the day." @NBCNews

— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) August 9, 2022
  • Trump has previously come under scrutiny for his flagrant violations of the Presidential Records Act of 1978, which mandates the preservation of White House documents. With the FBI search of Mar-a-Lago, there is some debate over the significance of doing so over the preservation of documents. While a legal expert told Politico Playbook today that if the FBI conducted the search of Mar-a-Lago just for the classified documents, Trump will be re-elected president in 2024, the Guardian’s Hugo Lowell pointed out that a violation of the presidential records act has serious consequences – including the disqualification from holding office:

The Guardian: The statute governing the unlawful removal or destruction of presidential records — though rarely enforced — carries significant penalties: fines, imprisonment and, most notably, disqualification from holding office.

— Hugo Lowell (@hugolowell) August 9, 2022
  • Republicans have come out in support of Trump, with even former vice president Mike Pence, who Trump’s supporters called a traitor and demanded be hanged during the 6 January attack on the US Capitol, saying the FBI search was politically motivated. House minority leader Kevin McCarthy threatened to establish a special committee to investigate the justice department if Republicans take the House and he becomes leader in January.

  • House speaker Nancy Pelosi responded to McCarthy’s remarks by saying that the Democrats will win the House in 2022 so his threats were idle.

  • Meanwhile, in an investigation unrelated to the FBI search of Mar-a-Lago, the House ways and means committee has announced that a Washington court of appeals has ruled in its favor and that the committee will be receiving Trump’s much-sought after tax returns and audit files “immediately”. For a full list of all the current lawsuits and investigations that Trump is facing, click here.

  • In non-Trump news, Joe Biden signed into law the $280bn Chips and science act meant to boost domestic production of semiconductor computer chips.

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Former Democratic presidential candidate and conservative bugaboo Hillary Clinton is using the FBI search of Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home for some tongue-in-cheek humor, and to fundraise for Onward Together, the political action organization that she founded in 2017.

Every “But her emails” hat or shirt sold helps @onwardtogether partners defend democracy, build a progressive bench, and fight for our values.

Just saying!https://t.co/4TiUxjmRNY pic.twitter.com/rflM8fTAbw

— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) August 9, 2022

If you’ll recall, Clinton’s emails were an oft-used red herring in the 2016 presidential election that she lost. When she served as secretary of state for Barack Obama, from 2009 to 2013, she used a private email server, situated in her New York home. She has admitted that this was a mistake, and while the FBI then deemed that this handling of classified information was “extremely careless”, neither she nor her aides should face criminal charges. That didn’t stop the chants from conservatives of “lock her up!” and the repeated rebuttals of “but her emails” whenever her name arose, particularly when the 2016 election cycle kicked up.

The irony, of course, is that in the end, the FBI never conducted a search of Clinton’s homes over her emails and no matter what allegations Republicans lobbed at her, no one has ever found any evidence of criminal wrongdoing. Meanwhile, here’s a handy list of all the current lawsuits and investigations that Trump – the candidate that won the 2016 election – is facing.

It seems many were a fan of Clinton’s humor – the hats sold out.

That was fast—I'm told hats are now sold out.

We'll re-stock ASAP.

In the meantime, know that we've got shirts, too. https://t.co/dhHPVVWxHghttps://t.co/CnYBzHQ0Cl pic.twitter.com/iv8tQOl1lz

— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) August 9, 2022

Hats are available for pre-order again.

Crisis averted.https://t.co/4TiUxjmRNY

— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) August 9, 2022
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Former vice-president Mike Pence, who supporters of Donald Trump threatened to hang during the 6 January attack on the US Capitol, has waded in the fracas that is the FBI search of Mar-a-Lago and thrown his support behind his former president.

I share the deep concern of millions of Americans over the unprecedented search of the personal residence of President Trump. No former President of the United States has ever been subject to a raid of their personal residence in American history.

— Mike Pence (@Mike_Pence) August 9, 2022

After years where FBI agents were found to be acting on political motivation during our administration, the appearance of continued partisanship by the Justice Department must be addressed.

— Mike Pence (@Mike_Pence) August 9, 2022

Yesterday's action undermines public confidence in our system of justice and Attorney General Garland must give a full accounting to the American people as to why this action was taken and he must do so immediately.

— Mike Pence (@Mike_Pence) August 9, 2022

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