Impeachment trial – live: Trump poured ‘kerosene on the flames’ as Pence family fled for lives, Democrats say

A US federal judge has declined to send a suspect accused of involvement in the Capitol riots to jail, despite ruling that he violated his release orders. 

John Sullivan, 26, was accused of violating a previous order from a different judge by buying a smartphone, trying to access Twitter and promoting his organisation “Insurgence USA”, and inviting its members to attend his court hearing. 

US magistrate judge Robin Meriweather expressed “serious concerns” after Mr Sullivan violated his release order immediately after he was allowed to go home last month.

However, she said, she doesn’t believe Mr Sullivan poses any danger to the community.

Read the full story.

More than half (54 per cent) of registered US voters “somewhat” or “strongly” agreed that Donald Trump should be convicted, a poll found.

An even greater margin (58 per cent) said the former president should “probably” or “definitely” be prevented from running for public office again, the Politco/Morning Consult survey of 1,986 voters found.

Conducted between 5 and 7 February, the poll also found that 19 per cent of Republicans said he should be convicted, while 7 per cent of Democrats said he should be acquitted.

Tuesday's proceedings will begin with a debate to dismiss the trial before it even begins. Mr Trump's lawyers have argued the trial is moot now that he is out of office, and 45 Senate Republicans have already voted once to move forward with an effort to dismiss the trial on those grounds. 

The Senate will debate the constitutionality of the trial for four hours on Tuesday and then hold a vote on whether to dismiss it.

The effort to dismiss is expected to fail, allowing arguments in the trial to begin on Wednesday.

Beginning Wednesday, the House managers will present their arguments first. Each side will have up to 16 hours, running no more than eight hours per day. 

Defense arguments are likely to begin on Friday. In their main filing with the Senate, Mr Trump's lawyers made clear that they will not only argue against the trial on process grounds, but also present a full-throated defense of Mr Trump's actions that day and why they believe he did not incite the riot. 

Donald Trump's lawyers released a 78-page memorandum on Monday detailing a range of legal and factual arguments that they intend to make at trial. 

Here, AP has picked out the main arguments his legal team will make.

TRUMP DID NOT INCITE THE INSURRECTION

Defense lawyers are adamant that Mr Trump did not incite the riot when he addressed a huge crowd of supporters at a rally that preceded it. They accuse House impeachment managers of cherry-picking Mr Trump's statements from an hourlong speech by highlighting only those that Democrats see as helpful to their case, pointing out repeatedly that he had told his supporters to "peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard".

HIS SPEECH IS PROTECTED

The Trump legal team plans to lean on the Constitution in multiple ways, including by arguing that Mr Trump enjoyed First Amendment protections in everything he said to his supporters. "The fatal flaw of the House's arguments is that it seeks to mete out governmental punishment — impeachment — based on political speech that falls squarely within broad protections of the First Amendment," the lawyers say. 

THE TRIAL ITSELF IS UNCONSTITUTIONAL

This is disputed among legal scholars, but Mr Trump's legal team plans to argue that the trial itself is unconstitutional because he is no longer in office. They say the Constitution does not extend the power of impeachment against a "private citizen." 

DEMOCRATS HAVE THEIR OWN STATEMENTS AND ACTIONS TO ANSWER FOR 

Mr Trump's lawyers signaled that they'll look to defend him by invoking other examples of what they say is similar political rhetoric from Democrats. They point to a statement that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi made at a 2018 news conference about the Trump administration's zero tolerance policy on immigration. "I just don't even know why there aren't uprisings all over the country. Maybe there will be," she said. 

DUE PROCESS 

Mr Trump's lawyers resurrect an argument raised during the first impeachment case against him – that House lawmakers rushed through the process without conducting a full investigation or evaluating all the evidence

White House press secretary Jen Psaki has said Joe Biden will be occupied with the business of the presidency and would not spend much time watching the televised proceedings.

"He'll leave it to his former colleagues in the Senate," she said.

Mr Biden gave an interview on Sunday with CBS when he said he would leave the impeachment process to others.

"Look, I ran like hell to defeat [Donald Trump] because I thought he was unfit to be president," he said. 

"I've watched what everybody else watched, what happened when that – that crew invaded the United States Congress.

"But, I'm not in the Senate now. I'll let the Senate make that decision."

The Justice Department will ask US attorneys who were appointed by Donald Trump to resign from their posts, as the Biden administration moves to transition to its own nominees, a senior Justice Department official said.  But the US attorney overseeing the federal tax probe involving Joe Biden's son, Hunter Biden, will remain in place.

The acting attorney general, Monty Wilkinson, called US Attorney David Weiss, who runs the federal prosecutor's office in Delaware, and asked him to remain on the job, the official said. 

The transition process, which happens routinely between administrations, is expected to take weeks and would apply to a few dozen US attorneys who were appointed by Mr Trump and confirmed by the Senate.

Many of the federal prosecutors who were nominated by Mr Trump have already left their positions, some in recent weeks. 

The Screen Actors Guild has passed a resolution effectively banning Trump from rejoining them ever again.

The resolution was passed by SAG-AFTRA’s national board on Saturday, which held that the “well-documented actions by Donald J Trump to undermine the peaceful transition of power in the US, and to undermine the delivery of truthful information to the public by attacking journalists is anathema to the values” embodied by them and their members.

“Any future re-admission to membership of Donald J Trump would not be in the best interests of the union … and the national board hereby directs that any future application for admission to membership in SAG-AFTRA by Donald J Trump shall be denied,” said the resolution.

Gabrielle Carteris, the guild's president, said: “Preventing Donald Trump from ever rejoining SAG-AFTRA is more than a symbolic step. It is a resounding statement that threatening or inciting harm against fellow members will not be tolerated. An attack against one is an attack against all.”

The resolution talked about disciplinary charges against the former president, alleging that he incited insurrection against the US government on 6 January.

The guild was scheduled to hold a hearing on 5 February on the charges against Mr Trump, but on 4 February the former president preempted its decision by resigned his membership in a letter stating "Who cares!"

The Justice Department under the Biden administration has dropped a lawsuit against Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, a former adviser to Melania Trump, who was accused of breaking a non-disclosure agreement with her tell-all book about the first lady.

The case against Ms Wolkoff, the author of “Melania and Me”, was dismissed on Monday by a federal judge, reported Bloomberg News.

Ms Wolkoff, who worked as an unpaid adviser to Ms Trump from January 2017 to February 2018, was accused of violating an agreement that she had signed in 2017.

While she claims that all the terms of her agreement were fulfilled and the provisions regarding confidentiality ended once her contract was terminated, the Justice Department had stated at the time of the lawsuit that she never shared the draft of her book with Melania Trump, her chief of staff, or the Office of the White House Counsel.

At least 56 US attorneys appointed during Donald Trump’s presidency may soon need to vacate their posts as the Justice Department under the new Biden administration plans to seek their resignation.

While the process could take several weeks, calls for the resignations may start from as early as Tuesday as the department looks to ensure a smooth transition, a senior official told CNN.

The Biden administration is reportedly planning to ask at least two to continue with their work: Delaware US Attorney David Weiss, who is investigating the president's son Hunter Biden, and special counsel John Durham, who is looking into the origins of the Trump-Russia probe – although he is expected to resign as US Attorney in Connecticut.

The move to let go of the attorneys appointed by the previous administration is not unusual to a new presidency – the Trump administration had also let go of 46 US attorneys in March 2017 who were appointed by his predecessor Barack Obama.

At present, of the 94 US attorneys, at least 25 are operating in an acting capacity due to the resignations of several Trump administration-appointed attorneys. The acting attorney for Washington DC, Michael Sherwin, who is looking into the 6 January riots, may also continue his investigations.

The Harvard law professor was part of the former president's legal team during his first impeachment but is not taking part during the historic second trial.

Mr Dershowitz was a guest on Sean Hannity's Fox News show on the eve of the Senate trial.