Closing summary
That’s all for the US politics blog for today, a Monday almost entirely dominated by news about Donald Trump’s legal troubles and developments in the inquiry into the 6 January insurrection that the former president incited.
Trump is facing a fine of $10,000 a day after a New York judge held him in contempt for failing to release documents to state attorney general Letitia James, who is probing his business dealings. And CNN revealed thousands of texts sent to and by Trump’s former chief of staff Mark Meadows at and around the time of the Capitol riot.
Developments in the Ukraine conflict are recorded in our 24-hour live blog here. And please join us again tomorrow, when the House of Representatives returns from its Easter break.
Here’s where else our day went:
- Twitter agreed to sell itself to Elon Musk for $44bn. The White House said “no matter who owns or runs Twitter... tech platforms must be held accountable for the harms they cause.”
- The Texas court of criminal appeals issued a stay of execution for Melissa Lucio, a Mexican-American woman convicted in the death of her two-year-old daughter.
- Joe Biden said he “felt good” about Emmanuel Macron’s victory in the French presidential election.
- Beto O’Rourke, the Democratic hopeful to become Texas governor, announced he has tested positive for Covid-19.
- A district court judge in Kansas threw out a Republican-drawn congressional map that sought to decrease Democratic representation in the state.
Updated
Jen Psaki was also questioned about today’s meeting between Joe Biden and members of the Democratic Congressional Hispanic Caucus, who are concerned about the expected surge of migrants at the southern US border next month when the Trump-era Title 42 policy ends.
Psaki noted the policy, which blocked refugees during the Covid-19 pandemic, was ending on health grounds, although Republican lawmakers visiting the border today are painting the predicted surge as an immigration failure by Biden.
Psaki said the issue was a reminder that there was a need for comprehensive immigration reform:
We have a broken immigration system that’s been long overdue to be fixed. [The president] agrees with that, and he’s certainly happy to discuss that during this meeting, or any other meeting he has with members of Congress.
But this is not an immigration policy. Title 42 is a health authority that’s determined by the CDC, and we need to have a conversation about immigration reform, that’s vital. Maybe this is a reminder.
The homeland security Alejandro Mayorkas faces a series of congressional hearings later this week that will include discussions of Title 42, and which will undoubtedly feature some feisty questioning from Republicans.
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