Trump rues immunity ruling after scathing appeals court decision: Live

More than 60 House Republicans have joined a resolution, led by Florida congressman Matt Gaetz, declaring that Trump did not engage in an insurrection on 6 January 2021, just days before the Supreme Court will hear arguments in the case.

In a heated press conference on Tuesday, Gaetz was joined by several notable Trump-allied representatives to claim the January 6 attack on the US Capitol was not an insurrection, that Trump did not engagedin the insurrection and that the Colorado Supreme Court erred in its decision to remove the former president from the ballot on those grounds.

“We are here today to authoritatively express that President Trump did not commit an insurrection and we believe Congress has a unique role in making that declaration,” Gaetz said.

“It’s not the jobs of the state, especially not the job of some bureaucrats in Colorado to make that assessment,” he added.

Ariana Baio has the story.

Two days after Trump told Newsmax that he would be recommending changes at the Republican National Committee, it appears that chairwoman Ronna McDaniel will be heading for the exit.

John Bowden has the story.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that a group of 17 ethics experts, former prosecutors and defence attorneys filed a “friend of the court” brief this week in support of Fulton County district attorney Fani Willis, writing that she does not have any conflicts that warrant her disqualification from the Georgia election interference case brought against Trump.

“Disqualifying conflicts,” the group wrote, “occur when a prosecutor’s previous representation of a defendant gives the prosecutor forbidden access to confidential information about the defendant or a conflict otherwise directly impacts fairness and due process owed a defendant.”

“That kind of conflict is not at issue here,” they said.

The brief lays out why Fulton Superior Court judge Scott McAfee should dismiss multiple court motions alleging Willis acted improperly by not disclosing a romantic relationship with Nathan Wade, the attorney she hired in the case against the former president and his 14 co-defendants.

Willis acknowledged the relationship in a court filing last week but denied she had improperly benefited financially.

An evidentiary hearing is scheduled for 15 February, which Willis has urged Judge McAfee to cancel.

Here’s Alex Woodward’s earlier reporting on the issue.

The judge overseeing Trump’s sprawling civil fraud case in New York wants answers following reports that one of the former president’s co-defendants is arranging a plea deal with Manhattan prosecutors on a perjury charge for lying in his courtroom.

In a message to attorneys on Tuesday, New York County Supreme Court judge Arthur Engoron said he wants to know whether the Trump Organization’s former chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg is now “changing his tune” and admitting to lying under oath during the fraud trial.

Last week, The New York Times reported that the disgraced executive is negotiating a plea deal with the Manhattan district attorney’s office on a perjury charge – at the same that Judge Engoron is preparing a final judgment in the case.

Alex Woodward has been following the trial and filed this report.

Also on social, Trump has urged conservatives to relax their boycott of Bud Light brewer Anheuser-Busch over LGBT+ rights, extending an olive branch to one of America’s biggest beer makers after it was perceived to have “gone woke” by featuring transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney in a commerical last year.

The former president said he was compiling a blacklist of “woke companies” and that Anheuser-Busch – which donated nearly $1.8m to Republicans in the 2022 elections – was not among them.

Here’s more from Io Dodds.

Ever the gallant victor, Trump has taken to social media to deride his rival for the Republican presidential nomination after she lost, humiliatingly, to “none of the above” in the state’s primary yesterday.

The loss did not cost Nikki Haley any delegates (Trump is likely to pick up all 26 of those in the Silver State’s competing GOP caucus tomorrow) but does nothing for her claims to be able to mount a serious challenge to the front-runner.

Here’s John Bowden with the full story.

President Joe Biden on Tuesday took direct aim at Republicans in Congress and the man they take direction from, former president Donald Trump, slamming both for blocking a carefully-crafted bipartisan compromise bill that would implement sweeping changes in the US immigration system and provision defence assistance funds for Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan.

In remarks from the State Dining Room at the White House, Mr Biden described the legislation crafted by White House negotiators and a group of senators led by Republican James Lankford of Oklahoma, Democrat Chris Murphy of Connecticut and Arizona independent Kyrsten Sinema as a “bipartisan agreement that represents the most fair, humane reforms in our immigration system in a long time and the toughest set of reforms to secure the border ever”.

He also acknowledged that at this time, “all indications” show the bill has no chance of advancing in either the House or Senate, and laid out the “simple reason” Republicans are blocking the bill.

“Why? A simple reason, Donald Trump,” he said.

Andrew Feinberg reports from Washington, DC:

According to a CNN poll released on Monday, 58 per cent of respondents said they did not trust the Supreme Court to make the “right decisions”.

When asked if they trusted the Supreme Court, 58 per cent of respondents either said “not at all” or “just some”.

Only a small group – 11 per cent of respondents – said they trusted the Supreme Court “a great deal” and 31 per cent said “a moderate amount”.

Maroosha Muzaffar digs into the numbers:

Gustaf Kilander has the story:

“A Nation-destroying ruling like this cannot be allowed to stand. If not overturned, as it should be, this decision would terribly injure not only the Presidency, but the Life, Breath, and Success of our Country.”

Gustaf Kilander and Alex Woodward report: