Trump news today: Stephanie Grisham says ex-president ‘loved dictators’

After carping at the soaring gas prices in the US, Donald Trump yesterday released two statements accusing Joe Biden of being “taken advantage of by Europe” over the Russian oil boycott and claiming that the “fake news media” is misrepresenting his contributions to the security of Ukraine – whose government he tried to extort with a threat to withhold military aid.

Enrique Tarrio, former FBI informant and leader of the extremist Proud Boys, was yesterday indicted and arrested along with other high-ranking group members in relation to the 6 January riot. The allegations levelled against them include that they organised members to attend the event, distributed “paramilitary gear and supplies” to would-be rioters”, and were involved in “directing, mobilizing and leading” people into the Capitol itself.

Sidney Powell, the extreme conspiracy theorist and attorney who helped lead the effort to overturn the 2020 election in courts across the US, is already facing multiple legal actions against her for filing lawsuits on false premises.

She now faces disciplinary action from the Texas bar, which accuses her of professional misconduct – writing in its complaint that Ms Powell “had no reasonable basis to believe the lawsuits she filed were not frivolous”.

Former UN Ambassador and Trump ally Nikki Haley has joined in the Georgia Senate race with a short clip featuring Herschel Walker, the leading Republican candidate to take on freshman Democrat Raphael Warnock.

The video she shot with the former football star is hardly the slick stuff of normal high-visibility campaigns, instead coming off as embarrassingly homespun.

Mr Walker’s campaign is a must-win for Republicans as they work hard to take the Senate back, and his personal problems and sometimes erratic public statements have become a cause for concern.

Last night, Donald Trump released an unusually long statement rejoicing in the supposed progress of the election fraud investigation in Wisconsin, a probe being led by a Trump-supporting former state Supreme Court justice.

The taxpayer-funded investigation, widely derided as a partisan sham with no basis in fact or chance of success, has been extended through the end of April, which Mr Trump seems to be spinning as a sign that it could yield results in his favour.

Jessie Opoien, who covers WIsconsin politics for Madison’s Capital Times, has this tidy summary of why he’s off-base.

The Republican speaker of the Wisconsin assembly, Robin Vos, made clear that the extension of the investigation is “not necessarily looking for additional things to investigate”.

Most of the attention paid to the congressional 6 January investigation is focused on the select commitee’s approach to the Trump inner circle and the former president himself, but the panel’s work has a lot more to it than that.

As the Washington Post explains, the committee is working hard to track down every funding source that contributed to the events of the Capitol riot. “Committee investigators,” writes the paper, “have interviewed low-level Trump campaign aides who wrote fundraising pitches, grilled Trump advisers about who may have personally profited from the post-election cash haul and even dialed up the owners of a portable-toilet company to find out who paid them to put toilets on the Ellipse the day of the insurrection.”

Bill Barr’s book tour has provoked a stream of angry outbursts from the ex-attorney general’s former boss. But as pointed out by the Republican Accountability Project, Mr Barr has explicitly said that even though he considers Mr Trump “out of touch with reality”, he would still vote for him again because the “progressive left” is the biggest threat to the US.

Donald Trump last night hosted a political fundraiser at Mar-a-Lago for Matthew DePerno, who he’s endorsed for Michigan attorney general in this year’s elections. Mr DePerno, a lawyer from Kalamazoo, is a longtime proponent of 2020 election consrpiacy theories, including the false claim that Dominion voting machines used in his state were hacked.

Courtesy of Bridge Michigan reporter Jonathan Oosting, here’s a sample of the president’s remarks…

Former Attorney General Bill Barr in his new book One Damn Thing After Another: Memoirs of an Attorney General, explained former president Donald Trump’s refreshments of choice for guests during meetings at the White House.

Over the weekend, Republican senators Marco Rubio of Florida and Steve Daines of Montana violated security protocols, putting Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky at risk of assassination.

Their irresponsibility is stunning, but not surprising. It’s yet another indication that the Republican party has lost both the inclination and the ability to govern.

Rubio and Daines were on a conference call in which Zelensky briefed US lawmakers on the situation in Ukraine. Lawmakers were specifically asked not to share anything on social media during the call, because doing so could compromise Zelensky’s location.

Despite these instructions, however, Rubio and Daines posted screenshots of the video call while it was ongoing, writes Noah Berlatsky.