Closing summary
The prospects of Congress voting on a deal to tighten immigration policy and approve military aid to Israel and Ukraine faced a new threat, in the form of Republican House speaker Mike Johnson’s objection to reported provisions in the deal. Johnson’s opposition came a day after fury erupted when the top Senate Republican Mitch McConnell, told his lawmakers behind closed doors that he may reject whatever deal is reached to allow Donald Trump to campaign on immigration. McConnell reportedly later walked back those comments, but the prospects of a bargain to address one of the most intractable issues in American politics continue to look grim.
Here’s what else happened today:
Trump was ordered to pay $83.3m to author E Jean Carroll for defamation.
Johnson also pledged to move forward with impeaching homeland security secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on claims he is responsible for the surge in migrants crossing the southern border.
The Biden administration paused approvals of new natural gas export terminals, citing their impact on the climate.
Georgia’s Republican-controlled state Senate created a panel to investigate Fani Willis, the Fulton county district attorney whose election subversion case against Trump and 18 co-defendants has been rattled by allegations that she has a conflict of interest.
Karine Jean-Pierre, the Biden administration’s spokeswoman, said Alabama’s decision to execute a convicted murderer using nitrogen gas was “deeply troubling”.
Trump owes Carroll a total of $88.3m between two trials. There’s the $83.3m awarded today, and $5 million last year.
All in all, we’ve seen a number of big defamation payouts recently, all involving players in Trump’s orbit.
Right-wing figure Alex Jones was ordered to pay $1.5b to Sandy Hook parents, who suffered abuse and threats from believers of Jones’s lies about the mass shooting. Rudy Giuliani was made to pay $148.1m to election workers for spreading lies about them.
Alina Habba, Trump’s attorney, called the trial a “witch hunt”, echoing the former president.
“I am so proud to stand with President Trump,” she said. “Because he stood up, he took the stand, and he faced this judge.”
Disgruntled Trump vows to appeal
Donald Trump was, as one would expect, unhappy with this outcome.
“I fully disagree with both verdicts, and will be appealing this whole Biden Directed Witch Hunt focused on me and the Republican Party,” he wrote on Truth Social. “Our Legal System is out of control, and being used as a Political Weapon. They have taken away all First Amendment Rights. THIS IS NOT AMERICA!”
It is worth noting, among other things, that E Jean Carroll first sued Trump in 2019, before Joe Biden was in office.
Updated
Carroll and her legal team were beaming as they left court in a black SUV. They did not answer questions immediately after court let out.
Judge to jury: 'never disclose you were on this jury'
“My advice to you is that you never disclose that you were on this jury, and I won’t say anything more about it,” said judge Kaplan to jurors.
Updated
Donald Trump ordered to pay $83.3m
The former president must pay E Jean Carroll a total of $83.3m.
Carroll will receive $18.3m in compensatory damages and $65m in punitive retribution. Of the $18.3m in compensatory damages, $11m was awarded as part of the reputation repair program and $7.3m was awarded for other than the reputation repair program.
Updated
Jury reaches decision in Carroll defamation trial vs Trump
The jury in E Jean Carroll’s second defamation trial against Donald Trump has reached a decision, court officials said. Carroll– who in a 2023 trial won a $5m verdict against Trump for sexual abuse, and defamation, over his denials–is seeking damages to repair her reputation and deter Trump from continuing to defame her.
Carroll accused Trump of raping her in a department store dressing room around late 1995, when New York magazine in June 2019 published an excerpt of her then-forthcoming book, What Do We Need Men For? A Modest Proposal.
Trump subsequently went on the attack, calling Carroll a liar and a political operative who wanted to drum up book sales. He has continued to do so, despite the prior verdict, including throughout this trial.
The judge in this case, Lewis Kaplan, said that the jury’s factual finding in that case would be accepted in this trial, meaning jurors were only charged with determining damages.
In her closing on Friday, Carroll’s lead attorney, Roberta Kaplan (no relation to the judge), asked jurors to award at least $24m.The decision is expected to be read in court soon.
Updated
The family of Elizabeth Sennett, who was murdered by Kenneth Smith, spoke to the press following Smith’s execution in Alabama on Thursday using an untested nitrogen gas method.
Here’s what they had to say:
Michael Sennett, whose mother Elizabeth Sennett was murdered by Kenneth Smith, speaks after Alabama executed Smith by nitrogen gas Thursday:
— The Recount (@therecount) January 26, 2024
“Nothing happened here today is gonna bring Mom back … Kenneth Smith made some bad decisions 35 years ago and his debt was paid tonight.” pic.twitter.com/CWLp025Ncg
Will we get a verdict in author E Jean Carroll’s second defamation case against Donald Trump? We are waiting to find out, but for those of you just joining us, here’s a rundown from the Guardian’s Victoria Bekiempis of the day’s proceedings, including Trump’s abrupt storming out of the courtroom as Carroll’s lawyers were talking:
As E Jean Carroll’s second defamation trial against Donald Trump neared its final stage Friday morning in New York, proceedings quickly took a turn for the absurd with the judge threatening his lawyer with “lockup” and the ex-president leaving about 10 minutes into the former Elle writer’s closing argument. Trump returned to court for his defense’s closing.
Trump’s abrupt departure came as Carroll’s lead attorney, Roberta Kaplan, was delivering her closing argument – shortly after she noted that he had continued to defame the former Elle writer during this very trial. Trump left.
Roberta Kaplan had provided a chronology of the harm endured by Carroll due to Trump’s attacks in advance of the remark that appeared to trigger him.
“Donald Trump’s denials and vicious accusations were all complete lies. That has already been proven, right in this courtroom, by a jury,” Kaplan said.
“That’s why Donald Trump’s testimony was so short yesterday. He doesn’t get a do-over.”
“This case is also about punishing Donald Trump for what he has done and for what he continues to do,” Kaplan said, adding shortly thereafter: “This trial is about getting him to stop, once and for all.”
One thing you can expect to hear a lot about from the White House in the months to come is abortion. Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have put restoring nationwide access to the procedure at the center of their re-election campaign, but as the Guardian’s Carter Sherman reports, activists say they could be doing more to make that goal a reality:
Joe Biden’s re-election campaign has made a big bet that outrage over abortion will keep the president in the White House come November.
Over the last several days, the Biden administration has unleashed a blitz of ads and events to spotlight the devastation wrought by the overturning of Roe v Wade. Biden met with a reproductive health task force, while his vice-president, Kamala Harris – who he has entrusted to lead this effort – embarked on a national tour to talk about abortion. They even devoted their first joint campaign stop of 2024 to the issue.
From the podium, Biden promised to sign any bill that would codify Roe’s protections into law and to fight back efforts by Congress to diminish abortion access.
“Donald Trump and Maga Republicans, including the speaker of the House, are hellbent on going even further,” Biden said, a reference to the hard-right Republican speaker, Mike Johnson. “As long as I have power of the presidency, if Congress were to pass a national abortion ban, I would veto it.”
Congress is unlikely to ban or protect abortion anytime soon. Not only is Congress largely frozen – it passed just 27 bills last year – but both political parties seem wary of tackling national legislation around a third-rail topic like abortion.
Now that Roe is gone, the question of if and how to regulate abortion access is largely up to state governments to answer. But the executive branch of the US government still maintains several powers to protect abortion access – and undermine it.
The White House said that Texas governor Greg Abbott’s efforts to defy federal government and supreme court assertions of federal control of the border are “shameful”.
The fight between Texas and the federal government is only intensifying, amid Abbott’s pledge to put more razor wire on the border despite supreme court ruling that federal agents can remove it.
“All we are asking for is border patrol to have access to an area to enforce the law. That’s what they are meant to do, that’s what they are trying to do. We have a governor getting in the way of that,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.
The White House has declared the execution of Kenneth Smith last night using nitrogen “very troubling”.
Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said at the west wing media briefing, now ongoing, on Friday afternoon that Joe Biden has long had “deep concerns about the death penalty and whether it’s consistent with our values”.
“It’s troubling to hear,” Jean-Pierre said of the news that despite appeals all the way up to the US supreme court and expert opinion that it was inappropriate to try out this unprecedented method on a human being, Smith was executed in Alabama.
Smith, a convicted murderer, was 58 and his lawyers had argued the execution amounted to a form of cruel and unusual punishment banned under the US constitution.
Smith struggled as he was suffocated by forced breathing of nitrogen, eyewitnesses said. Alabama is now promoting the method to other states.
Amid tense talks in the Senate and fierce chatter on Capitol Hill over a legislative deal linking new immigration regulations with funding for Ukraine, others are weighing in.
David Axelrod, political consultant and former senior adviser to Barack Obama as president, said on X/Twitter, amid reports that pressure from Donald Trump could derail bipartisan talks in the US Senate, that Trump would “rather exploit the problem for his own political profit than allow Republicans and Democrats to work together to solve it.”
Trump is a little like the "coyotes" who smuggle migrants across the border. He'd rather exploit the problem for his own poltical profit than allow Republicans and Democrats to work together to solve it. https://t.co/eMykBU6yZK
— David Axelrod (@davidaxelrod) January 26, 2024
Arizona congressman Rubén Gallego, who is running for the Senate seat held by Kyrsten Sinema (who is in the thick of the border bill talks), told civil rights organizer Al Sharpton, in a discussion on MSNBC, that the situation in relation to talks was “not ideal” – given that Republican control of the House is pushing Democrats to the right on immigration issues – but that there had to be compromise to get a legislative deal.
Discussing Senate border talks with Arizona Rep. Ruben Gallego. #MorningJoe pic.twitter.com/T3aiB21h52
— Reverend Al Sharpton (@TheRevAl) January 26, 2024
Georgia Republican state senators are weighing in fiercely on Fulton county district attorney Fani Willis and her prosecution of Donald Trump and others for election interference, in a racketeering case, as they form a committee to investigate her.
Republican state senator Brandon Beach of Alpharetta said that Willis’ employment of [special prosecutor] Wade is a “prosecution for personal profit scheme,” contending that she has stretched out the Trump inquiry to keep paying Wade and derive personal benefit, the Associated Press further reports.
I believe this scheme — prosecution for personal profit — was a fraud against the court and it was a fraud against you as a Georgia taxpayer,” Beach said.
The new panel would be able to issue subpoenas and require people to testify under oath — powers that no other Georgia legislative committee routinely uses.
People can already be prosecuted for making false statements to Georgia lawmakers. Those are among the criminal charges that Rudy Giuliani and some others face for the false claims they made to Georgia lawmakers in late 2020. They claimed Georgia’s election was marred by widespread fraud and that Trump and not Democrat Joe Biden was the rightful winner of the state’s 16 electoral votes.
Georgia governor Brian Kemp has said he favors a revived prosecutor oversight board looking into whether Willis did anything wrong, instead of a legislative committee.
Democratic senator Josh McLaurin accused Republicans of going down a “dangerous path” by catering to Republicans who have shown themselves willing to threaten violence against Georgia lawmakers seen as insufficiently supportive of Trump.
If you guys think you can handle it — if you think you can inflame that base, and feed them more, feed them misinformation, or let them persist in their misinformation about the results of elections — and not face the consequences someday, I think you’re mistaken,” McLaurin said.
Here is my colleague Sam Levine’s latest analysis on Willis and the case.
Georgia senate creates panel to investigate Fani Willis
Georgia’s state senate has joined attempts to investigate Fulton county District Attorney Fani Willis, voting 30-19 on Friday to create a special committee that Republican senators say is needed to determine whether the prosecutor misspent state tax money in her ongoing prosecution of former US president Donald Trump and others, the Associated Press reports.
This has to do with following state funds. We want to know where is our money going,” said Republican senator Matt Brass of Newnan.
The committee, which doesn’t require approval by the state House or Governor Brian Kemp, is tasked with making recommendations on state laws and spending based on its findings. But the committee can’t directly sanction Willis, and Democrats denounced it as a partisan attempt to try to play to Trump and his supporters.
You’re talking about partisan politics. That’s all you’re talking about,” said Democratic senator. David Lucas of Macon.
Trump on Thursday joined an effort by co-defendant Michael Roman to have Willis, special prosecutor Nathan Wade and their offices thrown off the case. Ashleigh Merchant, a lawyer for Roman, filed a motion Jan. 8 accusing Willis of having an inappropriate romantic relationship with Wade that resulted in a conflict of interest.
Willis has yet to respond publicly to the allegations of a romantic relationship between her and Wade. But she vigorously defended Wade and his qualifications.
A filing in Wade’s divorce case includes credit card statements that show Wade — after he had been hired as special prosecutor — bought plane tickets in October 2022 for him and Willis to travel to Miami and bought tickets in April to San Francisco in their names.
Immigration officials did not document the medical necessity of at least two hysterectomies they authorized for women in their custody, according to a new report by the Department of Homeland Security’s Inspector General.
Investigators contracted with an OB/GYN to review six hysterectomies performed on migrant women who were in federal custody. The doctor found that in two of the cases, officials had failed to document whether it was medically necessary, the watchdog report states.
“Our contracted OB/GYN concluded that for two of six hysterectomies performed, the detained non-citizens’ IHSC medical files did not demonstrate that a hysterectomy was the most appropriate course of treatment and was medically necessary,” investigators wrote. “[Immigration health] officials agreed that their medical files did not contain the necessary documentation to demonstrate the medical necessity of these two hysterectomies.”
The Office of the Inspector General (OIG) finding was part of a larger review that concluded Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) did not follow proper procedures to authorize dozens of such surgeries between fiscal years 2019 and 2021. Looking at a sample of 227 major surgeries, investigators found 72 of them – about a third – did not follow proper procedures.
While a clinical director is supposed to approve all major surgeries, investigators found these surgeries were approved by other healthcare personnel, like a nurse or nurse practitioner.
Based on that sample, OIG said it could infer with 95 percent confidence that between 137 and 217 of 553 major surgical procedures were not properly approved in the timeframe it studied.
The Guardian will have a fuller report on this on our website soon.
The day so far
The prospects of Congress voting on a deal to tighten immigration policy and approve military aid to Israel and Ukraine faced a new threat in the form of Republican House speaker Mike Johnson’s objection to reported provisions in the deal. Johnson’s opposition came a day after fury erupted when the top Senate Republican Mitch McConnell, told his lawmakers behind closed doors that he may reject whatever deal is reached to allow Donald Trump to campaign on immigration. McConnell reportedly walked back those comments in another meeting with his party, but the prospects of a bargain to address one of the most intractable issues in American politics continue to look grim.
Here’s what else happened today so far:
Trump stormed out of closing arguments in the New York City trial of author E Jean Carroll’s defamation lawsuit against him.
Johnson also pledged to move forward with impeaching homeland security secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on claims he is responsible for the surge in migrants crossing the southern border.
The Biden administration paused approvals of new natural gas export terminals, citing their impact on the climate.
Trump’s attorney Alina Habba has just wrapped up her closing arguments in the defamation lawsuit against him.
We are now hearing the rebuttal from author E Jean Carroll’s attorney.
Trump attorney begins closing arguments in defamation case
In her closing arguments, Donald Trump’s lead attorney Alina Habba said the former president was the real victim, because of the backlash caused by E Jean Carroll’s defamation lawsuit.
Carroll, she said, wasn’t “accepting any responsibility for the media and the press frenzy and the public profile that she wanted and still enjoys.”
“There is no one that can truly express the frustration of the last few years better than my client, the former president of the United States.”
Habba then played a video that had been introduced by Carroll’s lawyers – because they considered it defamatory – in which Trump doubled down on his denials.
“I have absolutely no idea who this woman is. The verdict is a disgrace, a continuation of the greatest witch hunt of all time,” Trump said in the clip.
“You’re right that’s how he feels,” Habba continued. “The president has been consistent, she’s right, he has said this same thing over and over and over again and do you know why he has not wavered? Because it’s the truth,” she said shortly thereafter, prompting an objection from Carroll’s team.
Habba then started to attack Carroll’s credibility, which appeared to edge toward breeching judge Lewis Kaplan’s prohibition on litigating the facts.
“If you violate my instructions again, Ms Habba, you may have consequences,” he warned.
Joe Biden has meanwhile characterized his administration’s decision to pause approval of new permits for natural gas export terminals as important to addressing the climate crisis. Here’s more about it, from the Guardian’s Oliver Milman:
Joe Biden’s administration has hit the brakes on the US’s surging exports of gas, effectively pausing a string of planned projects that have been decried by environmentalists as carbon “mega bombs” that risk pushing the world further towards climate breakdown.
On Friday, the White House announced that it was pausing all pending export permits for liquified natural gas (LNG) until the Department of Energy could come up with an updated criteria for approvals that consider the impact of climate change.
The pause, which will likely last beyond November’s presidential election, could imperil the future of more than a dozen gas export terminals that have been planned for the Gulf of Mexico coast. According to one analysis, if all proposed LNG projects go ahead and ship gas overseas, it will result in 3.2bn tons of greenhouse gases – equivalent to the entire emissions of the European Union.
A vigorous campaign by climate activists and local residents has pressed Biden to curb the rapid growth of LNG exports, pointing to its contribution to global heating and the direct pollution suffered by surrounding communities.
The US president said the pause will allow his administration to “take a hard look at the impacts of LNG exports on energy costs, America’s energy security, and our environment”.
“This pause on new LNG approvals sees the climate crisis for what it is - the existential threat of our time,” Biden said, adding that Republicans who support ever-expanding fossil fuel infrastructure “wilfully deny the urgency of the climate crisis”.
Republican House speaker Mike Johnson also objected to the Biden administration’s decision to pause approval of liquid natural gas export permits, saying it undermined efforts to support Ukraine.
Calling the decision “as outrageous as it is subversive” Johnson said:
Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began, American petroleum producers have increased LNG shipments to our partners in Europe to prevent a catastrophic, continent-wide energy crisis and to provide an alternative to Russian energy exports.
It is outrageous that this administration is asking American taxpayers to spend billions to defeat Russia while knowingly forcing allies to rely on Russian energy, giving Putin an advantage. This policy change also flies in the face of the commitments made when the White House announced the joint US-EU Task Force less than two years ago to reduce Europe’s dependence on Russia and strengthen energy security.
After Donald Trump stormed out of the closing arguments of his defamation trial in New York City, judge Lewis Kaplan remarked: “Excuse me, the record will reflect that Mr Trump just rose and walked out of the courtroom.”
Before the former president’s abrupt departure, Roberta Kaplan, an attorney for E Jean Carroll was providing a chronology of the harm endured by her client due to Trump’s attacks.
“Donald Trump’s denials and vicious accusations were all complete lies. That has already been proven, right in this courtroom, by a jury,” Kaplan said.
“That’s why Donald Trump’s testimony was so short yesterday. He doesn’t get a do-over.”
“This case is also about punishing Donald Trump for what he has done and for what he continues to do,” Kaplan said, adding shortly thereafter, “This trial is about getting him to stop, once and for all.”
Kaplan noted that Trump started to smear Carroll within a day of her last court victory, which found that he had defamed her. “Donald Trump, however, acts as if these rules and laws just don’t apply to him,” and pointed out that he spent “this entire trial” attacking Carroll with nefarious posts.
It was right about this time that Trump walked out of court.
“Excuse me,” judge Kaplan said. “The record will reflect that Mr Trump just rose and walked out of the courtroom.”
Not long after Roberta Kaplan said in her closing: “Trump is required to follow the law, whether he likes it or not.”
Responding to Mike Johnson’s vow to impeach Alejandro Mayorkas, White House spokesman Ian Sams accused him of acting “out of partisan political bloodlust”:
Such a silly claim. There’s no “necessity”
— Ian Sams (@IanSams46) January 26, 2024
In fact—since before they even took the majority, House Rs have been crowing about impeaching somebody…anybody…out of partisan political bloodlust
Totally baseless spin as House Rs refuse to even engage on bipartisan border solutions https://t.co/lrQhuhYylJ
Johnson warns Ukraine-immigration deal likely 'dead on arrival' in House, pledges to impeach Mayorkas
In a letter to House Republicans, speaker Mike Johnson warned that the immigration deal under consideration in the Senate may be “dead on arrival” in his chamber, while also vowing to move forward with plans to impeach homeland security secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
The Republican leader’s statement bodes ill for the bargaining in the Senate, which is seen as crucial to unlocking GOP support for aid to Ukraine, as well as Israel and Taiwan. Democrats and Republicans in the upper chamber have been negotiating for months on an agreement to restrict immigration policy in a bid to keep undocumented migrants from entering the United States. While no compromise has yet been reached, Johnson said today that “if rumors about the contents of the draft proposal are true, it would have been dead on arrival in the House anyway.”
Johnson said he would support the effort to impeach Mayorkas, who Republicans have accused of mishandling border security.
“When we return next week, by necessity, the House Homeland Security Committee will move forward with Articles of Impeachment against Secretary Mayorkas. A vote on the floor will be held as soon as possible thereafter,” he wrote.
Impeachments of cabinet secretaries are exceedingly rare, and the Senate’s Democratic majority will almost certainly refuse to convict Mayorkas.
Trump quickly departs defamation trial, judges threatens to jail his lawyer
As E Jean Carroll’s second defamation trial against Donald Trump neared its final stage Friday morning in New York, proceedings quickly took a turn for the absurd with the judge threatening his lawyer with “lockup” and the ex-president leaving about 10 minutes into closing arguments.
Trump’s abrupt departure came as Carroll’s lead attorney, Roberta Kaplan, was speaking, and shortly after she noted that he had continued to defame the former Elle writer even during this very trial. At that point, Trump left.
CNN heard from both Democratic and Republicans senators yesterday who were not interested in throwing out months of negotiations over the complex deal to change immigration policy and unlock aid to Ukraine and Israel, simply to help Donald Trump.
Chris Murphy, the Connecticut Democrat who is a party to the talks, expressed dismay that Trump could wield so much power. Meanwhile, James Lankford, the Oklahoma Republican who is the party’s lead on the issue, downplayed the former president’s effect on the negotiations. Here’s more:
GOP Sen. Kevin Cramer on Rs who want to kill bipartisan immigration deal as Trump seeks to derail effort: "I reject the idea we should reserve a crisis for a better time to solve it... I don't see how we have a better story to tell when we miss the one opportunity to fix it." pic.twitter.com/YeJUjpanOR
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) January 25, 2024
McConnell's comments on Ukraine, border deal 'flipped around' – report
After meeting yesterday with their leader Mitch McConnell, Senate Republicans told Politico that earlier comments he had made expressing opposition at Donald Trump’s urging to a deal to arm Ukraine and Israel while enacting conservative immigration policies were misunderstood.
McConnell’s remarks were “flipped around”, Alabama’s Tommy Tuberville said, adding “he just tried to get it straight … some of the senators came out and got kind of misconstrued on what he was talking about.”
“McConnell has not changed his point of view,” according to Mississippi’s Roger Wicker, who said McConnell had earlier just been speaking plainly about the political calculations that would go into approving the deal. “And I don’t think anybody disagreed with him. We are at a particular set of crossroads and intersections,” Wicker said.
Updated
Senate Republican leader walks back Trump-driven opposition to Ukraine and border deal
Yesterday kicked off with the somewhat shocking news that Senate Republicans were, at Donald Trump’s behest, willing to walk away from a deal they had been negotiating with Democrats for months to implement some conservative immigration policies in exchange for approving new aid to Ukraine and Israel’s militaries. The reason, the Senate’s top Republican Mitch McConnell told his lawmakers in a private meeting, was that Trump wanted to be able to attack Joe Biden over immigration on the campaign trail, and passing the deal would undermine that. The comments unsurprisingly sparked outrage from Democrats and some Republicans, and later on Thursday, McConnell seems to have walked them back.
According to Politico, he again convened his party to tell them that he was still behind the deal. That doesn’t mean it’s going to happen – the odds of enacting legislation in an election year dealing with one of the most divisive issues in American politics, immigration, were also going to be long, but the parties seem resolved to at least try. We’ll see what more is revealed about this kerfuffle over the course of the day.
Here’s what else is happening:
Trump will once again be in a New York City courtroom for author E Jean Carroll’s defamation trial against him, where closing arguments are expected today.
The top UN court ordered Israel to “take all measures” to prevent genocide during its military campaign in Gaza, but did not order a ceasefire, as the country’s critics had hoped. Follow our live blog for more on this developing story.
Joe Biden paused all pending natural gas export permits over concerns they’d further fuel climate change.
Updated
