Trump news: Judge says ‘plausible’ ex-president incited Jan 6 riot as Mar-a-Lago docs referred to DoJ

President Joe Biden called into a meeting Vice President Kamala Harris held with members of Congress today in Munich, according to a person in the room.

He reiterated the work the US and its allies have been doing to try to prevent a Russian invasion of Ukraine and further updated them on the situation.

Former US Secretary of State opened her speech at the New York State Democratic by taking a dig at former President Donald Trump, moments after a New York judge ruled that Mr Trump and two of his children must testify in the state attorney general’s investigation into his business practices.

“It’s funny, the more trouble Trump gets into the wilder the charges and conspiracy theories about me seem to get,” Ms Clinton said on Thursday at the Sheraton Times Square hotel in New York City. “So now his accountants have fired him and investigations draw closer to him, and right on cue the noise machine gets turned up doesn’t it?”

Richard Hall reports.

The top Republican on the House committee which oversees the US Capitol Police is calling for the release of surveillance video he says disproves Democratic claims that GOP members gave “reconnaissance tours” before the 6 January 2021 attack on the Capitol.

In a Thursday letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Illinois Representative Rodney Davis said Capitol security footage recorded during the “relevant period” — which he claimed to have reviewed — “does not support ... Democrat accusations about so-called ‘reconnaissance’ tours”.

Andrew Feinberg reports from Washington, DC.

More than 3.7 million American children re-entered poverty after the expiration of monthly payments through a pandemic-era federal programme that expired at the end of 2021.

The nation’s child poverty rate rose from 12 per cent at the end of 2021 to 17 per cent last month, effectively erasing the gains from an expanded Child Tax Credit programme introduced by President Joe Biden, according to a report from the Center on Poverty and Social Policy at Columbia University.

Alex Woodward reports.

The 15 boxes of White House records that were stored at former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence contained items marked as classified national security information, the National Archives and Records Administration said on Friday. The agency said the matter has been referred to the Justice Department.

In a response to a 9 February letter to the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, the National Archives confirmed reports that Trump took government records with him down to Florida after he left office in January 2021.

House lawmakers had opened an investigation and the National Archives has reportedly asked the Justice Department to look into the matter. The Justice Department and the FBI have not yet said what, if anything, they’ll do.

Former president may have broken the law by taking 15 boxes of documents to Florida with him – and his own explanation could prove especially damning, writes Andrew Feinberg.

US President Joe Biden will deliver an update on efforts to deter a further invasion of Ukraine at 4pm eastern time on Friday, the White House has said.

According to an updated version of his daily schedule released by the White House press office, the president is set to speak on “continued efforts to pursue deterrence and diplomacy and Russia’s buildup of military troops on the border of Ukraine”.

A federal judge has rejected an attempt by former president Donald Trump to dismiss civil lawsuits against him brought by multiple parties regarding the January 6 2021 Capitol riot.

“To deny a President immunity from civil damages is no small step. The court well understands the gravity of its decision,” writes Judge Amit Mehta in his decision.

“But the alleged facts of this case are without precedent, and the court believes that its decision is consistent with the purposes behind such immunity,” adds the judge.

The conspiracy lawsuits were filed by lawmakers and two Capitol police officers. Judge Mehta said Mr Trump’s words “plausibly” may have led to the insurrection.

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Almost the whole of the Biden Administration’s national security team were in Europe today as the Ukraine crisis continues to loom over international affairs.

Donald Trump does not have absolute immunity from multiple civil lawsuits seeking to hold him accountable for the attacks on the US Capitol, according to a federal judge’s ruling on 18 February.

In his 112-page opinion, US District Judge Amit Mehta said that the president’s rally speech on 6 January, 2021 that preceded the assault “can reasonably be viewed as a collective action.”

His opinion determined that arguments in several lawsuits are “plausible” in their allegations that the former president’s “words at the rally sparked what followed”.

Alex Woodward has more details.