SCOTUS will decide if Trump can be kept off 2024 ballots after insurrection: Live

Dramatic new footage, introduced as evidence ahead of the sentencing of a Capitol rioter, shows the tense standoff that took place at the entrance to the chamber of the House of Representatives on 6 January 2021.

As rioters hurled insults and angry, false claims of election fraud, two Republican members of Congress confronted them through the broken glass in the cellphone footage shot by rioter Damon Beckley.

Law enforcement officers are also shown pointing their firearms at the mob trying to breach the main door to the chamber.

The footage was released to the media following a request by NBC News.

Donald Trump and his co-defendants in a sprawling civil case alleging years of fraud within his real estate empire should be forced to pay more than $370m and effectively barred from doing business in New York, according to the state’s attorney general.

Several lengthy final briefs submitted to New York County Supreme Court on Friday summarise arguments from Mr Trump’s attorneys as well as Attorney General Letitia James’s long-running case and arguments against the former president and his chief associates, who faced a 44-day trial stemming from her blockbuster lawsuit against them.

The filings arrive one week before closing arguments in the case. Judge Arthur Engoron is expected to issue a decision by the end of January.

The judge’s pretrial ruling effectively ordered the dissolution of Mr Trump’s New York-based real estate empire, what the former president has labelled the “corporate death penalty” against him.

That order has been put on hold pending appeal while the trial played out in lower Manhattan.

Alex Woodward has been following the trial forThe Independent:

One of the biggest remaining mysteries surrounding the riot is the identity of the person who placed two pipe bombs outside the offices of the Republican and Democratic national committees the day before the Capitol attack. Last year, authorities increased the reward to up to $500,000 for information leading to the person’s arrest. It remains unclear whether there was a connection between the pipe bombs and the riot.

Investigators have spent thousands of hours over the last three years doing interviews and combing through evidence and tips from the public, said David Sundberg, assistant director in charge of the FBI Washington Field Office.

“We urge anyone who may have previously hesitated to come forward or who may not have realized they had important information to contact us and share anything relevant,” he said in an emailed statement on Thursday.

The explosive devices were placed outside the two buildings between 7:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. on Jan. 5, 2021, but officers didn’t find them until the next day. Authorities were called to the Republican National Committee’s office around 12:45 p.m. on Jan. 6. Shortly after, a call came in for a similar explosive device found at the Democratic National Committee headquarters. The bombs were rendered safe, and no one was hurt.

Video released by the FBI shows a person in a gray hooded sweatshirt, a face mask and gloves appearing to place one of the explosives under a bench outside the DNC and separately shows the person walking in an alley near the RNC before the bomb was placed there. The person wore black and light gray Nike Air Max Speed Turf sneakers with a yellow logo.

Here’s what you need to know about Donald Trump’s second upcoming defamation trial:

Donald Trump is on the campaign trail in Iowa today ahead of the state’s caucuses which will be held on 15 January. His mind is elsewhere though as he contemplates the potential ramifications of his New York State civil fraud trial.

The former president wrote on Truth Social:

Great to be in Iowa, getting ready to make some very big stops with already large crowds of people forming, but before I do, I want to thank almost everybody, even perceived opponents from the “other side” politically, who have spoken up against the Radical Left, Soros backed, New York State Attorney General, who yesterday asked me to pay a “fine” of $370,000,000, plus other harmful things to N.Y., after a years long Witch Hunt, for essentially borrowing money from a bank, and paying the bank back, ahead of schedule. There were no defaults, discounts, or anything other than profits for the bank. “THEY WERE TWO PERFECT LOANS,” and the bank in question testified that the loans were great, and FAR SMALLER THAN THE FINE. I didn’t even need the money, the bank wanted to make the loans – That’s what they do, make loans. Additionally, I won the Appeal in the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court, and the Judge refused to accept their decision, A FIRST. Also, great Financial Statements!

Alex Woodward has been following the trial for The Independent.

Dozens of people believed to have assaulted law enforcement during the riot have yet to be identified by authorities, according to [Matthew Graves, the US attorney for the District of Columbi]. And the statute of limitations for the crimes is five years, which means they would have to be charged by Jan. 6, 2026, he said.

Several defendants have also fled after being charged, including a Proud Boys member from Florida who disappeared while he was on house arrest after he was convicted of using pepper spray gel on police officers. Christopher Worrell, who spent weeks on the lam, was sentenced on Thursday to 10 years in prison.

The FBI is still searching for some defendants who have been on the run for months, including a brother-sister pair from Florida. Olivia Pollock disappeared shortly before her trial was supposed to begin in March. Her brother, Jonathan Pollock, is also missing. The FBI has offered a reward of up to $30,000 for information leading to the arrest of Jonathan Pollock, who is accused of thrusting a riot shield into an officer’s face and throat, pulling an officer down steps and punching others.

Another defendant, Evan Neumann, fled the US two months after his December 2021 indictment and is believed to be living in Belarus.

President Joe Biden marked the third anniversary of the January 6 attack on the Capitol by warning that the issue of American democracy will be “what the 2024 election is all about,” as he runs against former president Donald Trump once more.

Mr Biden, who spoke near the Valley Forge historical site where George Washington and the Continental Army were encamped during the winter of 1777 and 1778, told attendees that they were there “to answer the most important of questions: Is democracy still America’s sacred cause?”

“This isn’t rhetorical, academic, or hypothetical. Whether democracy is still America’s sacred cause is the most urgent question of our time,” he said.

Mr Biden said his speech, his first major event of the 2024 election season, was “deadly serious,” and about a topic that needed to be raised at the outset of his campaign.

He said the dark events of January 6, 2021 — nearly three years ago to the day — marked a day when America was “nearly lost”.

The president’s pointed remarks come nearly three years to the day that a riotous mob of former president Donald Trump’s supporters stormed the US Capitol in hopes of preventing Congress from certifying the results of the 2020 election, and as Mr Trump again campaigns for a return to the White House, where he has promised to be a “dictator” on “day one” if he is re-elected to a nonconsecutive term.

He said his likely opponent’s campaign is “about him, not America, not you” and slammed Mr Trump as being “obsessed with the past, not the future” while contrasting himself with his disgraced predecessor.