Trump news – live: Jan 6 committee finds gaps in White House call logs as president denies destroying records

The 6 January select committee was intending to depose Rudy Giuliani in its investigation this week, but he has not appeared. In the absence of his official testimony, ever more stories are emerging about the role he played in efforts to seize voting machines after Donald Trump lost the election to Joe Biden.

Catch up on the story here:

Some of the most unedifying congressional scandals of recent years have revolved around the same problem: sitting members trading millions of dollars of stock in companies directly affected by matters of which they have advance warning. The issue is so toxic that in these poisonously partisan times, fixing it has become one of the only points of bipartisan agreement.

Even Nancy Pelosi, herself a fabulously wealthy member, seems to be coming on board.

According to the New York Times’s Maggie Haberman, White House staffers have recounted to her how they more than once found the president’s toilet blocked with torn-up documents. The president has naturally denied the report: “Another fake story, that I flushed papers and documents down a White House toilet, is categorically untrue and simply made up by a reporter in order to get publicity for a mostly fictitious book.”

Speaking to MSNBC’s Joy-Ann Reid, former federal prosecutor Glenn Kirschner explained that Mr Trump shouldn’t just be worried about the Presidential Records Act – which is “largely toothless” – but about a closely related federal statute that makes the removal of certain documents criminal.

And anyone convicted under that statute, he pointed out, is barred from holding federal office. Watch the discussion below.

In the last two years, school boards all over the US have been increasingly inundated by outraged right-wing protesters spouting variously bizarre, racist and violent conspiracy theories and demanding that they be given control of the curriculum. Not all these people are parents, or local – and as Run For Something co-founder Amanda Litman explains, the supposedly organic “protests” have very organised origins.

Joe Biden has responded to the grim data on inflation confronting the US with a statement that tries to strike a balance between realism and optimism.

Prices for common consumer goods in the US are now 7.5 percent higher than this time last year – the biggest jump since the start of the 1980s. Andrew Feinberg has the story.

Asked about the reports emerging of Trump administration documents stashed at Mar-a-Lago, South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham – who went from being one of Donald Trump’s most caustic critics to a devoted ally – has refused to defend or condemn his erstwhile friend.

It has emerged that the 6 January select committee has identified gaps in White House call logs from the day of the Capitol attack – that is, precisely the period where the investigation needs to establish Donald Trump’s conduct and his contact with others inside and outside the White House.

The New York Times reports that there are few records of any calls made by Mr Trump during the insurrection, posing a major obstacle to the committee’s investigation.

Read more:

Retiring Congressman Adam Kinzinger, who has been censured by his party for daring to participate in the investigation into the 6 January Capitol attack, has put out an ad for his political action committee, Country 1st.

The usually acerbic congressman’s commentary is upbeat and optimistic – but the analogy between Washington politics and juvenile fighting is pushed pretty hard.

Republican Congresswoman Nancy Mace, who has previously broken with Donald Trump over the Capitol insurrection, is facing a primary challenge from a Trump-backed right-wing candidate aiming to take her down for her apostasy. But rather than come out swinging against the president, Ms Mace has instead travelled to the foot of Trump Tower in Manhattan to beg for the #Maga base’s forgiveness: