Trump news today: Esper says he stopped ex-president from doing ‘terrible things’

Ken Paxton, the right-wing Texas attorney general who appeared at Donald Trump’s “stop the steal” rally before the 6 January Capitol attack, is facing potential disciplinary action from his state bar over his actions after the 2020 election. Specifically, the Texas bar is poised to include him in a lawsuit alleging he made dishonest claims in a petition to have the US Supreme Court overturn Joe Biden’s victory in four swing states.

Mr Paxton is a dogged Trump supporter who has been under indictment on criminal fraud charges for several years.

Speaking at an event yesterday, Nancy Pelosi reiterated a point she has made several times before: that the Republican Party has moved so far away from its days representing the centre-right that it now resembles a “cult” – and that this is to the detriment not just of the party itself, but to the country, which would benefit from having a GOP that operated within the bounds of normality.

Take a look at her remarks below.

The New York Times’s Maggie Haberman last night shared some choice Trump quotes from a National Republican Congressional Committee fundraiser, where it seems the former president was in an upbeat mood:

Former White House strategist Steve Bannon has vowed revenge against Mark Esper for making shocking revelations against Donald Trump in his new book.

“Now let me be brutally frank Esper, ‘cause your book is going to get ripped apart like Bill Barr’s [book]…So don’t think you are skipping away from this. When we come to power, don’t think you can skip away from this,” the far-right political pundit said in his podcast on Monday.

“You are going to be held accountable for this, bro.”

The House select committee investigating the 6 January Capitol riot are inching closer to issuing subpoenas to Republican members of Congress to compel their cooperation.

The panel is expected to make a final decision on the subpoenas over the next couple of weeks ahead of the public hearings in June, sources familiar with the matter told The Guardian.

According to sources, Republican leaders’ refusal to assist the investigation in any form has caused a stir among the members of the committee, prompting them to deliberate issuing subpoenas.

Former defence secretary Mark Esper said he believes Donald Trump was a threat to democracy, alleging that his actions led to the Capitol riots last year.

“I think that, given the events of 6 January, given how he has undermined the election results, he incited people to come to DC, stirred them up that morning, and failed to call them off, to me, that threatens our democracy,” Mr Esper told Fox News on Monday.

The former defence secretary said he hopes his former boss doesn’t run for office in 2024.

The US defence ministry reportedly tried to block former secretary Mark Esper from revealing that Donald Trump threatened to bomb Mexico to “destroy” drug production labs.

In his upcoming book A Sacred Oath: Memoirs of a Secretary of Defense During Extraordinary Times, Mr Esper recounts a conversation in 2020 where the former president said: “We could just shoot some Patriot missiles and take out the labs, quietly.”

Pentagon officials were alarmed at the potential effect the revelation could have on US-Mexico relations, CNN reported, citing sources.

Former president Donald Trump in an affidavit filed with the court has stated that he doesn’t have any cell phones requested by New York attorney general Letitia James in the ongoing investigation of alleged fraud by the Trump Organization.

In a bid to stay a $10,000 per day fine for contempt of court, the former president said he had turned over all material in his possession that the attorney general’s office had subpoenaed.

Mr Trump said he no longer has a phone given to him by the organisation in 2015, two other flip phones, or a Samsung phone that was “taken from me at some point while I was president”, according to a CNN report.

Former president Donald Trump has refused to comment on allegations made by former defence secretary Mark Esper that he suggested launching missiles into Mexico to “destroy the drug labs”.

Mr Esper during an interview with CBS alleged that during the last year of the Trump administration, he and other officials worked tirelessly to prevent “really bad things” from happening under the former president’s watch.

When CBS sought comments from Mr Trump, he responded by flatly denying all but one of the claims sent over by the network.

Johanna Chisholm reports.

Former president Donald Trump claimed he had to “run the military” during his tenure in office because his defence secretary Mark Esper was a “lightweight”.

Hitting out at Mr Esper, the former president in a written response to CBS said: “Mark Esper was weak and totally ineffective and because of it, I had to run the military.

“Mark Esper was a stiff who was desperate not to lose his job. He would do anything I wanted, that’s why I called him ‘Yesper.’ He was a lightweight and figurehead, and I realised it very early on,” he added.

Maroosha Muzaffar has more.