👀 Hutchinson recounts a bizarre episode in whith House Intelligence Committee Republicans, including Rep. Devin Nunes and staffers, carted over classified documents to the WH for Meadows and Pat Cipollone to review.
CHENEY remarks that this is pretty unusual for House Republicans to truck classified docs to the White House when they have their own SCIF.
What did Meadows do with the documents? He made a bunch of copies and kept some to give out to people in the "private sector," Hutchinson says. While it's not entirely clear what these are, this is consistent with Russia docs Trump attempted to declassify.
MOST NOTABLY: Hutchinson said Meadows wanted GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy to have a set of the records.
MORE: Hutchinson said that Meadows was extremely secretive about the original HPSCI copy of the documents in his office, which she says he kept in a safe and didn't want others to know about. january6th.house.gov/sites/democrat…
HUTCHINSON said she recalled some conversations among Trump and GOP members of Congress about QAnon, the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys ahead of Jan. 6.
Here's Hutchinson talking about Matt Gaetz's bid for a pardon, which she said began in early December 2020.
HUTCHINSON said that several GOP lawmakers reached out to her after Jan. 6 w/ question sabout White House's preparedness for the 25th amendment discussion. She name: Markwayne Mullin, Roy Blunt, Mike Johnson and GOP Leader McCarthy as people she talked about it with.
House admin staff director Jamie FLEET — a top adviser to Speaker Pelosi — told the select committee in an interview that he and his staff began preparing for GOP objections to the election over the summer of 2020 — because they read Trump's tea leaves.
FLEET says he never conveyed directly to Speaker Pelosi the security briefings from Capitol Police and the sergeant at arms because they were assured the professionals had it in hand.
Max MILLER’s attorney got particularly hostile with the select committee over what appeared to be pretty basic foundational questions.
The hostility actually got worse from there, prompting Kinzinger to jump in and accidentally refer to the committee as "the prosecution," which didn't help.
Miller accused Cheney of trying to intimidate him because "I knocked your buddy" — Anthony Gonzalez — "off the block."
Max Miller notes he advised Trump not to let Rudy Giuliani, John Eastman or Sidney Powell speak at his Jan. 6 rally. He also recommended that Mike Flynn not be permitted to speak. But Trump didn't take that advice for Rudy/Eastman.
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Magistrate judge Faruqui, who has been on a tear over DOJ's flimsy prosecutions in recent weeks, was floored by the Trump administration's decision to level a federal marijuana possession charge against a recently arrested defendant. But that's not all... storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco…
He says DOJ held the man in detention for *three days* on this misdemeanor charge even though prosecutors later agreed he shouldn't be detained at all. And that's still not all... storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco…
Prosecutors seized the indigent man's phone, leaving him without a means to contact his lawyer or access his personal information. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco…
GRASSLEY asks if Jeffrey Epstein was a U.S. government or foreig government asset. Patel says he can only speak for the FBI and that Epstein was not a source for the bureau.
PATEL uses his opening statement tosay Alex Acosta's handling of the original Epstein case was the "original sin" of the saga, saying the nonprosecution agreement he struck after initial plea deal locked down many records under court order.
PATEL says the Jan. 6 pipe bomb investigation is "ongoing." He says there's "a lot of evidence" but he can't share it yet.
LAWSUIT INCOMING: FBI leaders fired by Director Kash Patel — including Brian Driscoll and Steve Jensen — have filed some kind of action against the Patel and the bureau. Details TK
UPDATE: In the lawsuit, three senior FBI officials fired by Kash Patel say Patel informed them that he was instructed to "fire anyone" who worked on any investigation related to Trump. And said his own job depended on carrying out the firings. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco…
The FBI officials say Patel informed Driscoll that his vetting for FBI leaderhsip woudl be fine, so long as he hadn't donated to Dems or voted for Kamala Harris. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco…
BREAKING: A federal judge has *blocked* the Trump administration from abruptly deporting 600 unaccompanied Guatemalan children — perhaps within a matter of hours — granting an emergency restraining order after advocates called the plan illegal + dangerous. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco…
NEW: Judge Sooknanan acted quickly to block as many as 600 Guatemalan children from being deported by the Trump administration without due process. A judge in Illinois took a similar step for 4 children whose lawyers sued Saturday.
@joshgerstein MORE: This is reminiscent of the emergency fight over Alien Enemies Act — an overnight lawsuit alleging abrupt deportations and violation of due process, quick restraining order by a judge, hearing set for the afternoon.
HAPPENING NOW: Judge Xinis is leaning toward issuing another restraining order to block Kilmar Abrego Garcia's immediate deportation to Uganda at least through this week — she wants an evidentiary hearing on Friday.
XINIS says law may require Abrego's deportation to his country of choice, given that Costa Rica has indicated a willingness to accept him, give him refugee status and vow not to re-deport him to El Salvador.
Uganda, where administration plans to send him, has made no promises.
XINIS emphasizes that she has serious concerns about the claim that DOJ pressured Abrego into a guilty plea by offering him deportation to Costa Rica — and threatening deportation to Uganda if he refused.
DOJ's Drew Ensign says Abrego's deportation is not "imminent," given pace of third-country removals.
AND WE'RE UNDERWAY: Judge Reyes has taken the bench to consider DC's emergency bid to block Trump's takeover of the city's police department.
REYES notes the attack on DOGE employee Ed Coristine and the prior claim by Trump + allies that crime in DC has been significantly down this year before deciding there was a national emergency.
But she says she will assume, for today, that the emergency claim is legit.
Arguing for DOJ: Yaakov Roth, principal deputy assistant attorney general of the Civil Division.