Authorities lock down California Capitol after 'credible threat'

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Legislators and their staff huddled inside offices for several hours Thursday after police warned of a "credible threat" against the California Capitol from a man police said had fired on a nearby hospital the night before.

The California Highway Patrol said they were searching for the man suspected of firing on a Kaiser Permanente hospital building in the Sacramento suburb of Roseville and had made threats that prompted the lockdown of the Capitol and the postponement of a legislative floor session. No injuries were reported from the shooting, officials said.

Police did not provide details about the threat to the Capitol, which also resulted in the cancelation of two committee hearings.

Earlier, officials directed lawmakers and staff in a memo not to come to the Capitol and for those already there to remain "situationally aware, and report any suspicious activity" to authorities.

Normal activities at the Capitol resumed by noon.

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Progressives push WH to suspend Alaska oil project permits

Environmental groups and progressives have been loudly critical of the Biden administration’s approval of Willow.

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Capitol Police officer who sought to protect Jan. 6 rioter sentenced to home incarceration

A Capitol Police officer who tried to help a Jan. 6 rioter avoid detection from law enforcement was sentenced Thursday to 120 days of home incarceration for obstructing justice.

Michael Riley, a decorated 25-year veteran of the Capitol Police who was one of the first officers to respond to pipe bombs found at the RNC and DNC on Jan. 6, delivered a tearful apology in the courtroom, describing “awful judgment” in the days following the attack that led him to attempt to aid a member of the mob.

U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson said she appreciated Riley’s remorse but tore into the retired officer for what she said was a pattern of dishonesty about the brazenness of his conduct. She said he lied to colleagues about his contact with the Jan. 6 rioter — a fisherman from Virginia named Jacob Hiles who pleaded guilty to misdemeanors in 2021 — and misrepresented his actions both on the witness stand and even in the chronology he laid out during his sentencing hearing.

Still, Jackson said Riley’s lengthy career — unblemished before Jan. 6 — his lack of criminal history and the consequences he already suffered, from his forced retirement to the loss of his department-issued dog, justified the sentence of home confinement. Prosecutors had initially sought a sentence of 27 months in prison for Riley’s conduct, saying his status as a police officer exacerbated the seriousness of his actions.

It’s the close of a complicated and wrenching chapter in the arc of Jan. 6 prosecutions. Riley was convicted last year of obstruction of justice for deleting his Facebook messages. The jury deadlocked on a second obstruction charge related to his contact with Hiles.

Riley’s arrest in October 2021 followed intense, but so far unsupported, concerns among members of Congress that some Capitol Police officers may have sympathized with and even assisted the Jan. 6 mob at the Capitol.

Riley is the only officer who has faced charges stemming from his actions following the Jan. 6 attack. There’s no evidence he assisted the mob on Jan. 6 — and in fact the evidence suggests he acted “honorably” in responding to the riot, Jackson emphasized.

Jackson said it was not entirely clear why Riley chose to aid Hiles — and not any other rioter — but said he seemed enamored of Hiles, whom he didn’t know personally before Jan. 6 but who shared a passion for fishing. Riley and Hiles were active in the same social media groups for fishing enthusiasts, and Riley noticed Jan. 7 that Hiles had posted about being inside the Capitol.

He soon struck up a Facebook conversation with Hiles and urged him to delete parts of his posts that mentioned he went inside the building. Investigators, Riley noted, would be searching for and arresting anyone who went inside. Riley maintained contact with Hiles for nearly two weeks, even after he was arrested Jan. 19, 2021. After Hiles told Riley that the FBI seemed interested in their contact, Riley deleted his own communications with Hiles and sent Hiles a concocted excuse to cut off contact.

“Talk about a complete lie,” Jackson said.

The case drew sharply polarized reactions from Riley’s family, friends and colleagues. He retired from the Capitol Police within months of the charges and indicated in court Thursday that many of his former colleagues had cut off contact with him. Aquilino Gonell, a Capitol Police officer who was assaulted by members of the mob Jan. 6 and has become an outspoken advocate for prosecuting members of the mob, called him a “turncoat.”

But Jackson also acknowledged that Riley had a history of heroism on the Capitol Police force, on multiple occasions saving the lives of fellow officers or providing aid amid crisis. He saved the life of a fellow officer who was knocked unconscious during a 2011 blizzard and had stopped breezing. He was also one of the first to respond to a vehicle attack against officers in April 2021 — three months after the Jan. 6 attack — and provided aid to a downed officer, Billy Evans, who later died of his injuries.

Complicating the matter further, Riley is suffering from an undisclosed autoimmune illness that requires complicated treatments, details of which were disclosed to Jackson under seal. She acknowledged the illness in her sentencing and emphasized that he was permitted to leave his home for medical reasons.

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The RNC chose Fox for first debate but rankled conservatives by entertaining CNN

A line of TV network executives made a pilgrimage to the Republican National Committee’s headquarters on Capitol Hill in late February to make the case for why they should be awarded the right to host one of the party’s forthcoming primary debates.

The outlets — which ranged from established networks like CNN and NBC, to upstart channels like NewsNation and Newsmax — were allotted an hour to make their pitch. Before a group of party officials that included RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel and Maryland RNC member David Bossie, the executives detailed what their plans would be, including prospective moderators and how they would reach the largest possible audience.

On Wednesday, the committee announced that Fox News would host the first event, which is slated to be held in Milwaukee in August. While the announcement was widely expected (Fox News also hosted the party’s first primary debate in 2015 and has long enjoyed a powerful place in the GOP hierarchy) it also provided an early insight into how the RNC is trying to structure the all-important debate process amid heightened tensions between the party and the fourth estate.

Many top Republicans are convinced that the debates — what format they take, who is allowed to participate and how they are designed — will play an outsize role in determining who wins the primary. They may also winnow down the field: Party officials say they are likely to implement thresholds in order for candidates to qualify for the debates; participation in the first debate could include standards like somewhere between 40,000 and 50,000 donors and to be averaging at least 1 percent in polls. Those thresholds could increase in subsequent debates, potentially squeezing out lower-performing contenders.

Businessman and author Vivek Ramaswamy, a lower-polling candidate who is heavily self-funding his campaign, expressed confidence during a recent interview with POLITICO that he would make the debate stage, but said he was uncertain whether some others in the race would.

“I think it's going to be hard for some of the other candidates, especially if they didn't have an existing captive base to this race and I think we're not gonna be the ones scraping the edge of the bottom of the criteria,” said Ramaswamy, who is waging his first campaign for elected office.

Another wrinkle is that debate participants will be required to pledge their support for whoever wins the party’s nomination. Trump has refused to do so in the current race, though he did end up saying he would support the eventual nominee during the 2016 contest. It could also prove tricky for former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a prospective Trump rival who has said he will never support Trump again, even if he wins the nomination.

“Why would we host a debate stage without every candidate saying, ‘I’m going to support whoever the voters choose’?” McDaniel said during a Wednesday morning appearance on Fox News, where she announced that the network would be hosting the first debate. “It’s about beating Joe Biden, it’s about beating what’s happening with this country right now, and we can only do that united, so we want every candidate to pledge that heading into this process.”

The RNC faces a number of complicated variables as it goes about deciding not just the qualifications for the debate but who should host them and when. And the prospect that mainstream outlets — such as CNN, whose chief executive officer, Chris Licht, has pitched the RNC — could be awarded debates has rankled some in the conservative media world. In recent years, CNN has emerged as a favorite punching bag for Trump and other Republicans, many of whom argue that the network’s coverage has been skewed against them.

Among those weighing in has been Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.). Scott, who on Wednesday launched a presidential exploratory committee, recently shared an article on Twitter that called for only conservative-leaning outlets to be awarded debates.

“I’m calling for conservatives to hear from our leaders without the media’s biased filter,” Scott wrote.

And Charlie Kirk, the conservative commentator and head of the conservative activist group Turning Point USA, tweeted after the Fox News debate was announced on Wednesday that he had been “told that CNN and NBC” were “getting multiple RNC debates.”

“Hope that isn’t true!” he added. “But wouldn’t surprise me.”

A person familiar with the debate planning, however, said no decisions about other hosts have yet been made.

Those familiar with the debate process say they expect television outlets to be paired with conservative online platforms as debate co-hosts. For the inaugural debate, viewers will be able to tune in on the conservative streaming platform Rumble. The event will also be co-hosted by Young America’s Foundation, an organization overseen by former Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker. It is not yet clear which moderators will be chosen.

One other element the committee must grapple with is Trump, who has emerged as the primary’s strong frontrunner. During the Fox News-hosted debate in 2015, the former president famously sparredwith then-Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly. Trump has had a chilly relationship with the network in recent months, believing that it has given him less-than-favorable coverage while taking steps to promote his likely rival, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. Recently, however, Trump has sat down with Fox News’ evening hosts, most recently Tucker Carlson.

A Trump spokesperson declined to comment on the decision to give Fox News the first debate.

But Trump advisers have privately raised concerns about the August date, with some arguing that it’s too far in advance of the first nominating contests, which are expected to take place in Feb. 2024.

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Appeals court rejects Peter Navarro’s bid to retain hundreds of presidential records

A federal appeals court panel on Wednesday rejected a bid by former Trump White House adviser Peter Navarro to retain hundreds of government records despite a judge’s order to return them promptly to the National Archives.

“There is no public interest in Navarro’s retention of the records, and Congress has recognized that the public has an interest in the Nation’s possession and retention of Presidential records,” the three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals concluded in a unanimous two-page order.

The Justice Department sued Navarro last year, seeking to reclaim hundreds of records — contained in Navarro’s personal ProtonMail account — that the government said should have been returned to the National Archives after the Trump administration came to an end in January 2021.

Navarro acknowledged that at least 200 to 250 records in his possession belong to the government, but he contended that no mechanism exists to enforce that requirement — and that doing so might violate his Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination. Last month, U.S. District Court Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly rejected that claim, ordering Navarro to promptly return the records he had identified as belonging to the government.

But Navarro appealed the decision, rejecting the notion that the Justice Department had any legitimate mechanism to force him to return the records. And he urged the court to stay Kollar-Kotelly’s ruling while his appeal was pending. But the appeals court panel — which included Judges Patricia Millett and Robert Wilkins, both appointees of President Barack Obama, and Judge Neomi Rao, an appointee of President Donald Trump — rejected Navarro’s stay request.

Within minutes, Kollar-Kotelly put the squeeze on Navarro, ordering him to turn over the 200 to 250 records “on or before” Friday. She also ordered him to perform additional searches or presidential records that might be in his possession by May 8, with further proceedings scheduled for later in the month.

The flurry of filings is the latest twist in a saga that began when the National Archives discovered that Navarro had relied on a ProtonMail account to do official government business — the result of a congressional investigation into the Trump administration’s handling of the coronavirus crisis.

Navarro is also trying to fend off criminal charges for defying a different congressional investigation — the probe by the Jan. 6 select committee — into his role in strategizing to help Trump overturn the results of the 2020 election. He faces charges for contempt of Congress for defying a subpoena issued by the select committee, a case that has been repeatedly delayed amid battles over executive privilege and immunity for presidential advisers.

In its brief order rejecting Navarro’s stay, the appeals court panel concluded that returning the documents would not violate Navarro’s protection against self-incrimination.

“Navarro has failed to articulate any cognizable Fifth Amendment injury,” the panel wrote. “Because the records were voluntarily created, and he has conceded both that they are in his possession and that they are the property of the United States, the action of physically returning the United States’ records to it will not implicate his [Fifth Amendment right].”

It was not immediately clear whether Navarro would appeal the panel’s ruling.

Justice Department attorneys argued that despite Navarro’s claim, there is a method for the government to enforce its ownership interest in the records Navarro has acknowledged retaining — a provision of the Washington, D.C., code. That statute, known as “replevin,” provides a mechanism for property owners to reclaim stolen materials even while court proceedings are pending.

Navarro has contended that this procedure was not contemplated in federal recordkeeping laws and had never been used to enforce the return of presidential records before. But the appeals court panel said he had “not adequately demonstrated that the United States cannot proceed under the replevin statute.”

However, the panel said it would not “prejudge” any additional arguments about that issue that might be made as the case proceeds.

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Germany aims to 'set the record straight' on China after Macron's Taiwan comments

As Foreign Minister Baerbock heads to China, Berlin is keen to stress that Europe will neither let Taiwan nor the U.S. down.

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Trump seeks delay of defamation trial, citing ‘media frenzy’ caused by Manhattan indictment

Donald Trump argued late Tuesday that his historic indictment by a Manhattan grand jury requires a delay in another legal matter he faces: the defamation lawsuit brought by E. Jean Carroll, who says Trump defamed her when he denied and derided her claim that he raped her decades ago.

The former president is slated to defend against those allegations in a civil trial on April 25, but his lawyer Joe Tacopina is urging U.S. District Court Judge Lewis Kaplan to postpone it for four weeks, contending that the surge in media coverage of Trump’s indictment has tainted potential jurors in the civil case.

“Holding the trial in this case a mere three weeks after these historic events will guarantee that many, if not most, prospective jurors will have the criminal allegations top of mind when judging President Trump against Ms. Carroll’s allegations,” Tacopina argued in a late-night filing, contending that the intensity of media coverage was “remarkable for its volume and incitement of animus towards President Trump” among potential jurors.

Tacopina acknowledged that Trump draws blanket media coverage at nearly all times — but he said Google searches indicated a particularly intense surge of coverage of the charges brought by Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg earlier this month. Those charges include claims that Trump falsified business records to conceal hush money payments to a porn star to cover up an affair. Because those charges relate to Carroll’s claims of “sexual misconduct,” Tacopina said, there’s a particularly acute risk that jurors in the civil trial will conflate the issues.

Kaplan has seemed intent on charging ahead with Trump’s civil case despite the surrounding chaos caused by the indictment. He recently backed a bid to permit jurors in the civil trial anonymity, citing the potential threats to their safety caused by Trump’s rhetoric — particularly toward Bragg and the judge in his criminal case.

But Trump’s effort to delay the civil case until at least May 23 underscores the extraordinary challenge of subjecting a former president — particularly one who garners intense media coverage at all times — to a civil or criminal trial before an impartial jury.

Trump’s tangle of legal threats is only likely to intensify, as several other criminal matters approach the charging stage. That includes an investigation by Atlanta-area DA Fani Willis, who has said charging decisions for Trump and his allies are “imminent” in a case about his bid to subvert Georgia’s election laws in 2020. At the federal level, special counsel Jack Smith appears to be reaching the final stages of his probe into Trump’s alleged mishandling of classified documents after leaving office, and he’s begun penetrating Trump’s inner circle in a separate probe of Trump’s bid to subvert the 2020 election.

Tacopina didn’t mention those other looming matters. Rather he said he expected a “cooling off” period after the Manhattan indictment to arrive by late May, when the immediacy of the Bragg news had faded. The next big milestone in that case, he said, was in August, when Trump is expected to file a motion to dismiss his case.

Carroll responded to Trump's effort Wednesday afternoon, contending that Trump himself is often responsible for driving the media interest and coverage in his legal troubles.

"If anything, it is somewhat perverse for Trump to seek a continuance in these proceedings based on the recent indictment when so much of the publicity he complains about has been driven by his own incendiary statements," wrote Carroll's attorney, Roberta Kaplan.

Carroll noted that Trump has turned his indictment into a bid for fundraising and selling campaign merchandise, and he appeared on Fox News just hours before seeking a delay in the civil trial and discussed his pending indictment.

"Not surprisingly, Trump’s mounting legal difficulties have given rise to substantial press coverage and will continue to do so; he is not only a former President, but also a declared candidate in the next presidential election," Kaplan wrote. "As a result, each passing week will offer Trump yet another straw to grasp at in his campaign to avoid standing trial for sexually assaulting Carroll."

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