Trump news today: Donald Trump Jr slammed for Ukraine comments as Jan 6 report to be released today

The House select committee investigating the January 6 riot at the US Capitol has released a trove of interview transcripts from several Donald Trump supporters and allies.

On Wednesday, the panel published testimony from 34 witnesses who had been called to testify as part of the months-long investigation into the violent insurrection that culminated in five deaths and left dozens of law enforcement officers injured.

All 34 of the witnesses pleaded the Fifth during all or at least part of their interviews with the House panel.

Among them was Roger Stone, right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and the leaders of far-right groups the Oath Keepers and the Proud Boys.

The transcripts are the first of hundreds of interviews gathered throughout the months-long investigation to be released to the public, coming ahead of the release of the full report on Thursday.

The report had been slated for release on Wednesday but was delayed a day due to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s surprise visit to Washington DC.

The panel held its final public hearing earlier this week, where it announced it was making criminal referrals to the DOJ.

Among the referrals, the committee said that Donald Trump should potentially face four criminal charges for his alleged role in the insurrection.

The report will detail the reasons behind the recommendations.

The final report from the House select committee’s investigation into the January 6 attack on the US Capitol will be released today.

The report had been slated for release on Wednesday but was delayed by a day due to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s surprise visit to Washington DC.

The panel held its final public hearing earlier this week, where it announced it was making criminal referrals to the DOJ.

Among the referrals, the committee said that Donald Trump should potentially face four criminal charges for his alleged role in the insurrection.

The report will detail the reasons behind the recommendations.

Donald Trump Jr and Rep Marjorie Taylor Greene have come under fire for making the “dumbest remarks ever” about Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s surprise trip to the US.

The Ukrainian leader visited Washington DC on Wednesday, to meet President Joe Biden and give an in-person address to Congress.

Mr Trump Jr took to Twitter to complain about Republican support for the Ukrainian defence effort and about Mr Zelensky, who he branded an “international welfare queen”.

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Republican Joe Kent has officially conceded the race to represent Washington state’s 3rd Congressional District after his defeat in November by Representative -elect Marie Gluesenkamp Perez.

Mr Kent said on Wednesday that he called his Democrat opponent to concede and offer his congratulations on her victory, The Columbian reported.

The acknowledgement came after counties in the southwestern district concluded individual machine recounts, per Mr Kent’s request.

“I promised during the campaign that I would accept the outcome of the election, now definitively determined as the recount has concluded,” Mr Kent wrote in a statement. “This morning, I called my opponent to concede and offer my congratulations on her victory.”

Mr Kent also said the Republican party cannot continue to lose the voter turnout battle, that it must adapt and that he looked forward to “helping lead this change.”

Ms Gluesenkamp Perez said on Twitter that she’s glad Mr Kent accepted his loss.

“Democracy is alive and well in our corner of the country,” she wrote.

The House Select Committee investigating the January 6 Capitol riot has alleged that a former Trump White House ethics lawyer told a witness to give misleading testimony, advising her to say she didn’t recall things that she could, in fact, remember.

While the panel hasn’t named the attorney and witness, CNN reports that Trump White House ethics attorney Stefan Passantino told witness Cassidy Hutchinson, who served as an aide to ex-Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, to avoid telling the panel everything she knew. Mr Passantino rejects that allegation.

Donald Trump followed the presidential tradition carried out by his predecessors and wrote a letter to his successor before leaving the Oval Office, said excerpts from the book The Fight of His Life obtained by Politico’s West Wing Playbook and focused on the Biden presidency.

Mr Biden reacted to the note by saying: “That was very gracious and generous… Shockingly gracious”.

The House January 6 select committee has reportedly been “extensively cooperating” with the Department of Justice probe into Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election, including through providing documents and data pertaining to Mr Trump’s former White House chief of staff and the conservative law professor who pushed for the plan.

According to Punchbowl News, the panel began transmitting documents to the office of special counsel Jack Smith, the prosecutor appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland to oversee investigations into Mr Trump’s conduct.

Andrew Feinberg reports from Washington, DC.

Donald Trump has demanded he be reinstated as president and doubled down on lies about the 2020 election results, ahead of the release of the Jan 6 committee report today.

The former president started with a quote from conservative commentator Jesse Watters: “The FBI and Twitter COLLUDED to elect Joe Biden.”

“It all began a long time ago, they SPIED on my campaign, and tried to “RIGG” the 2016 Election, but failed. Remember, our government is doing,” he wrote in a long post on his Truth social account, after the release of the Twitter files by reporters working in conjunction with Elon Musk.

“What should be done about such a terrible thing, or should we let someone who was elected by cheating and fraud stay in office and continue to destroy our Country?” he added.

The House Jan. 6 committee may have outlined a potential criminal case against Donald Trump, but it doesn’t actually bring the former president any closer to prosecution.

The Justice Department already has been conducting its own wide-ranging investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol and the efforts by Trump and his allies to undo the results of the 2020 presidential election.

Former President Donald Trump appears to be fuming about his criminal referral to the Justice Department by the January 6 committee, due to his role in inciting the storming of the US Capitol almost two years ago.

Here’s how he reacted online: