First Thing: Trump aides could be prosecuted over Capitol attack | US

On Oct 11, 2021

Good morning.

The House select committee investigating the deadly assault on the US Capitol on 6 January is prepared to urge federal prosecution of former aides to Donald Trump who refuse to comply with subpoenas, a key panel member said.

The former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, deputy chief of staff Dan Scavino, strategist Steve Bannon and Pentagon aide Kash Patel are defying subpoenas for documents and testimony, under instruction from the former president.

Amid fears that the panel will not seek to enforce its will, Adam Schiff, a member of the panel as well as chairman of the House intelligence committee, told CBS’s Face the Nation on Sunday: ‘We are prepared to go forward and urge the justice department to criminally prosecute anyone who does not do their lawful duty.”

Meanwhile, the second-ranking House Republican, Steve Scalise of Louisiana, repeatedly refused to say on Sunday that the 2020 election was not stolen.

Liz Cheney of Wyoming has also said it will enforce subpoenas. She is one of only two Republicans on the committee.
The riot, around which five people including a police officer died, followed a rally near the White House at which Trump exhorted followers to “fight like hell” to overturn his election defeat.
In an interview with the Guardian, Schiff discusses life before politics as well as his leading roles in impeachment and other dramas on Capitol Hill.

Donald Trump’s own treasury secretary blocked Ivanka World Bank role – report

(From left) Canada’s foreign minister, Chrystia Freeland, Ivanka Trump, the then IMF director, Christine Lagarde, and the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, on a panel in Berlin. Photograph: Markus Schreiber/AP

Only direct intervention from his own treasury secretary stopped Donald Trump nominating his daughter, Ivanka Trump, to lead the World Bank, according to a report.

Citing two anonymous sources, the Intercept said the appointment “came incredibly close to happening” in January 2019, but for Steven Mnuchin’s decision to step in. Mnuchin, a Goldman Sachs banker and film producer, stayed in the post for all Trump’s four years in office, a rare feat among Trump’s cabinet picks and advisers.

The head of the World Bank is always chosen by the US. In January 2019, Jim Yong Kim resigned. Rumours abounded that Ivanka Trump, an executive in the Trump Organization before her father entered politics, would be chosen.

Three months later, Trump told the Atlantic: “I even thought of Ivanka for the World Bank … she would’ve been great at that because she’s very good with numbers.”

Ivanka Trump told reporters her father offered her the job but she turned it down, as she was “happy with the work” as a senior White House adviser.
“A growing number of countries” are not happy that the US always picks the World Bank head and to hear how close the president’s daughter came to being picked could add “fuel to the fire”, an expert said.

Lego to remove…