David DePape, the man who attacked Paul Pelosi, the husband of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, has been found guilty by a jury in San Francisco.
The assailant was convicted of assault and attempted kidnapping of a federal official.
The attack left Paul Pelosi, 83, in hospital for six days with a fractured skull and other injuries.
David DePape, who tearfully apologised for the attack in his testimony, now faces up to 50 years in prison.
He was convicted on November 16 after a week-long trial at the Phillip Burton Federal Courthouse in downtown San Francisco.
Video evidence shows the attacker, a Canadian citizen who has lived in the US for 20 years, breaking into the Pelosi home in San Francisco with a hammer on October 28 last year.
Once inside, he asked for Nancy Pelosi, who was not home at the time.
Officers responding to a 911 call from Paul Pelosi found both men gripping a hammer.
When asked to drop the weapon, DePape abruptly swung the hammer at Paul Pelosi before being subdued by officers.
The entire encounter was caught on body camera footage which was played in court.
One of the witnesses, an FBI special agent, testified that the footage showed the attacker striking Paul Pelosi three times.
Image source Wikimedia
In his own testimony, Paul Pelosi told the court that during the attack, David DePape said his intention was to “take out” Nancy Pelosi, referring to her as “the leader of the pack”.
In addition to a fractured skull, Paul Pelosi suffered injuries to his arm and hand.
David DePape’s court-appointed lawyer Jodi Linker argued that, while her client did attack Paul Pelosi, he did so because he believed in right-wing conspiracy theories with “every ounce of his being”.
Jodi Linker said DePape blamed what he saw as America’s demise on corrupt elites using their status to spread lies, including facilitating the sexual abuse of children.
She argued that David DePape was motivated by these conspiracies instead of Nancy Pelosi’s government position.
Prosecutors, however, argued that DePape was looking for Nancy Pelosi as part of a “plan of violence”.
When he was arrested, he had zip ties and duct tape in his possession.
He also told investigators after the incident that he had a “target list” and planned to hold Nancy Pelosi captive and break “her kneecaps” if she did not reveal “the truth”
David DePape now faces up to 20 years in prison for the attempted kidnapping charge, as well as an additional 30 years for assault on a federal official’s family member.
He is also facing separate state charges stemming from the incident, including attempted murder, assault with a deadly weapon, and residential burglary.
He could face life in prison if convicted of the more serious state charges.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says Congress will establish an “outside, independent” commission to investigate the January 6 attack on the Capitol.
In a letter to lawmakers, Nancy Pelosi said the commission would be modeled on the inquiry into the September 11, 2001, attacks on New York and the Pentagon.
She said: “We must get to the truth of how this happened.”
Former President Donald Trump was acquitted by the Senate of inciting the violence.
However, Democrats and some Republicans have backed an independent investigation into the riots, which left five people dead.
Nancy Pelosi said that retired US Army Lt. Gen. Russel Honoré had, over the past few weeks, been assessing the security needs of the Capitol in light of the attack.
The commission, Nancy Pelosi said, “would investigate and report on the facts and causes” of the attack; “the interference with the peaceful transfer of power”; and the “preparedness and response” of both the Capitol police and other branches of law enforcement.
She also said that, based on Lt. Gen. Honoré’s initial findings, Congress needed to allocate additional funding to “provide for the safety of members and the security of the Capitol”.
A group of House Republicans wrote to Nancy Pelosi on February 15 complaining that their party had not been consulted about the general’s security review.
In the letter, they also demanded to know what Nancy Pelosi knew and the instructions she gave to secure the Capitol ahead of January 6.
House Republican Adam Kinzinger, who called for Donald Trump’s removal after the riots, was condemned by 11 members of his family in a handwritten letter, in which they said he was in cahoots with “the devil’s army”.
Donald Trump survived his second impeachment trial on February 13, after Democrat prosecutors failed to secure the two-thirds majority needed to convict him. He is the only president to have faced the process twice.
The vote split largely along party lines, with seven Republicans joining the Senate’s 48 Democrats and two independents in voting to convict.
The senior Republican in Congress, Senator Mitch McConnell, had voted against conviction on constitutional grounds, but after the vote declared Donald Trump “responsible” for the assault on the Capitol.
Other Republicans have also expressed support for an independent inquiry into the riots, including a close ally of Donald Trump, Senator Lindsay Graham.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) has expressed regret for past incendiary comments and support for the QAnon conspiracy claims.
Her comments at the House of Representatives come as lawmakers gather for a vote today on whether to strip her of committee assignments.
She said: “I was allowed to believe things that weren’t true.
“And that is absolutely what I regret.”
However, Marjorie Taylor Greene, 46, stopped short of an apology, and cast blame on the media.
She said: “The media is just as guilty as QAnon for promoting lies.”
The Qanon conspiracy theory claims that former President Donald Trump was waging a clandestine war on a cabal of child-abusers.
Before taking office, Marjorie Taylor Greene liked posts calling for violence against Democratic lawmakers, claimed that school shootings and the 9/11 terror attack were staged events, and suggested Muslims should not serve in government, among other comments online.
Just hours before the Republican took to the floor, Democrat House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she was “profoundly concerned” by Republicans’ “acceptance of an extreme conspiracy theorist.”
“If any of our members threatened the safety of other members, we’d be the first ones to take them off a committee,” Nancy Pelosi said.
On February 4, Marjorie Taylor Greene sought to distance herself from some of these past remarks, saying they were made before she ran for office.
“I want to tell you 9/11 absolutely happened,” she said.
“I do not believe that it’s fake.”
“These were words of the past. These things do not represent me,” she said.
Marjorie Taylor Greene said she had been “upset about things” happening in the US and did not trust the government when she came upon conspiracy theories online in 2018.
However, she did not specifically apologize for past rhetoric widely seen as racist and anti-Semitic, or for comments suggesting support for violence against Democrats.
Marjorie Taylor Greene doubled down on other beliefs about abortion and immigration, expressing disgust at the “millions of Americans…murdered in the womb”, and saying that her friends had had loved ones “murdered by illegal aliens”.
Nancy Pelosi said the House would proceed with a vote on February 4 to expel Marjorie Taylor Greene from the education and budget committees.
The measure requires a simple majority to pass.
Committees assignments are typically the job of party leaders and are a vital channel for lawmakers to advance legislation. There’s also the symbolic value: veteran lawmakers may be rewarded with a position on the more prestigious committees.
Republicans condemned Marjorie Taylor Greene’s past comments but warned that Democrats were setting a dangerous precedent by sanctioning a lawmaker for things said and done before she entered Congress.
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi has signed the article of impeachment against President Donald Trump.
Donald Trump has become the first sitting president to be impeached twice by the House of Representatives.
Congress voted 232 to 197 on the sole article of impeachment.
Now, President Trump faces trial in the senate.
Ten Republicans voted with Democrats to impeach the president, making this vote the most bipartisan impeachment vote in US history.
They are:
Liz Cheney of Wyoming (the third highest-ranking Republican in the House)
Adam Kinzinger of Illinois (the only Republican that voted on a bill calling for Vice-President Mike Pence to take over as president yesterday)
John Katko of New York (the first House Republican to say he’d vote to impeach)
Anthony Gonzalez of Ohio
Tom Rice of South Carolina
Dan Newhouse of Washington State
Jaime Herrera Beutler of Washington State
Fred Upton of Michigan
David Valadao of Florida
Peter Meijer of Michigan
Senators will then act as jurors during the trial and ultimately decide whether or not to convict the president on the charge.
The lead manager is Jamie Raskin. He’s joined by Diana DeGette, David Cicilline, Joaquin Castro, Eric Swalwell, Madeleine Dean and Joe Neguse.
“Today the House demonstrated that no one is above the law, not even the president of the United States,” Nancy Pelosi said before signing.
“That Donald Trump is a clear and present danger to the country and that once again we honor that oath of office to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.
“And now, I sadly and with a heart broken over what this means to our country, of a president who would incite insurrection, will sign the engrossment of the article of impeachment.”
In a video message posted to the White House’s Twitter account, President Trump has condemned the violence in the Capitol last week, saying “violence and vandalism have absolutely no place in our country and no place in our movement”.
He did not make any reference to impeachment.
The president ends with a call for unity.
“All of us can choose by our actions to rise above the rancor and find common ground and shared purpose. We must focus on advancing the interests of the whole nation, delivering the miracle vaccines, defeating the pandemic, rebuilding the economy, protecting our national security and upholding the rule of law,” Donald Trump said.
“Today I am calling on all Americans to overcome the passions of the moment, and join together as one American people,” he said.
“God bless you, and God bless America.”
When he was first impeached in 2019, President Trump became part of a small group of rebuked US leaders.
After today, President Trump is the first president to be impeached twice.
Only two other presidents in history have been impeached by the House of Representatives – Andrew Johnson, back in 1868, and Bill Clinton in 1998.
President Richard Nixon stepped down and resigned.
But to date, no president has ever been removed from the White House by Congress.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has stepped up the pressure on VP Mike Pence to act to remove President Donald Trump from office over his role in last week’s storming of Congress.
Lawmakers are expected to bring up a resolution asking VP Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment to declare the president unfit for office.
Mike Pence is said to oppose the idea.
If he refuses, the House will hold a vote to impeach President Trump who had urged supporters to march on the Capitol.
Donald Trump has been accused by Democrats and an increasing number of fellow Republicans over the riot, following a rally in which the president repeated unsubstantiated allegations of vote fraud. Five people died in the attack, including a Capitol police officer.
President Trump has made no public statements since he was banned from social media platforms on January 8.
He is due to leave office on January 20, when Joe Biden will be sworn in as president.
Donald Trump has said he will not attend Joe Biden’s swearing-in ceremony.
Nancy Pelosi wrote to lawmakers saying the House of Representatives would present a resolution on January 11 to formally request that VP Pence invoke the 25th Amendment to the Constitution, which would allow him to remove President Trump from the White House and become acting president.
The House could vote on the resolution on January 12. After that, Mike Pence and the cabinet would be given 24 hours to act before the House’s potential move toward impeachment.
Nancy Pelosi wrote in her letter: “We will act with urgency, because this president represents an imminent threat to both.
“The horror of the ongoing assault on our democracy perpetrated by this president is intensified and so is the immediate need for action.”
Although Mike Pence has appeared to distance himself from the president by saying on January 10 he planned to attend Joe Biden’s inauguration, there is no sign that the vice-president is prepared to invoke the amendment.
In a separate development, First Lady Melania Trump, who rarely makes public comments about political events, condemned January 6 violence, saying the “nation must heal in a civil manner”.
Melania Trump said in a statement called Our Path Forward released by the White House: “I implore people to stop the violence, never make assumptions based on the color of a person’s skin or use differing political ideologies as a basis for aggression and viciousness.”
House Democrats have vowed to press ahead quickly with impeachment. To impeach, in this context, means to bring charges in Congress, and Nancy Pelosi said Democrats could introduce a charge of “incitement of insurrection” against President Trump.
Senior lawmakers say a vote to impeach President Trump in the House could be held by mid-week.
Donald Trump could become the only president in US history to have been impeached twice.
Joe Biden has said impeachment is for Congress to decide, even though he has thought “for a long time President Trump was not fit to hold the job”.
At his annual State of the Union address, President
Donald Trump has hailed the “great American comeback”.
His speech to Congress exposed sharp divisions
at the top of US politics.
President Trump was speaking on the eve of his expected acquittal on
corruption charges in his impeachment trial.
At one point the Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi ripped up a copy of
the president’s speech behind him.
Donald Trump delivered the nationally televised speech in the
Democratic-controlled House of Representatives, where he was impeached in
December.
His trial in the Senate culminates on February 5 but with Republicans in
charge there he is all but certain to be cleared and escape being thrown out of
office.
President Trump did not mention
impeachment at all in his speech although he did jab at Democrats.
Republican lawmakers chanted
“four more years” as Donald Trump prepared to speak, urging him on
for November’s White House election.
The State of the Union address is a
speech delivered by the president to Congress towards the beginning of each
calendar year in office.
The speech is usually used as a
chance to report on the condition of the nation, but also allows the president
to outline a legislative agenda and national priorities.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has been
one of the president’s fiercest critics – she was the one who first launched
formal impeachment efforts last year. President Trump has frequently taunted
her as “Crazy Nancy”.
It was the first time the two had
come face-to-face since Nancy Pelosi stormed out of a White House meeting four
months ago.
Before President Trump began speaking
at the podium in the well of the House, he appeared to snub the outstretched
hand of Nancy Pelosi, America’s most powerful elected Democrat.
The House speaker, critics noticed,
skipped the traditional introduction welcoming the president as a
“distinct honor”.
When President Trump accused
Democrats of planning to force American taxpayers to provide unlimited free
healthcare to undocumented immigrants, Nancy Pelosi was observed twice
mouthing: “Not true.”
Nancy Pelosi stunned onlookers by
shredding a copy of the president’s remarks as he concluded.
She told reporters afterwards her
gesture was “the courteous thing to do, considering the
alternatives”.
Nancy Pelosi did rise to applaud the
president more than once, including when he promoted his pet project of
infrastructure investment, a possible area of bipartisan co-operation.
President Trump struck an upbeat
note in a speech lasting one hour and 18 minutes that contrasted sharply with
his lament of “American carnage” in his 2017 inaugural presidential
address.
In an implicit rebuke to his
predecessor Barack Obama, President Trump told his audience: “In just three short years, we have
shattered the mentality of American decline and we have rejected the downsizing
of America’s destiny.
“We are moving forward at a pace that was unimaginable
just a short time ago, and we are never going back!”
President Trump repeatedly swiped at
Democrats, including left-wing candidates such as Bernie Sanders, who are vying
to challenge him for the presidency.
As is tradition, President Trump
invited several special guests, including Venezuelan opposition leader Juan
Guaidó, military veterans and the brother of a man killed by an undocumented
immigrant.
In a move certain to infuriate
liberal critics, President Trump announced he would award the Presidential
Medal of Freedom, America’s highest civilian honor, to firebrand conservative
radio host Rush Limbaugh, who revealed this week he has lung cancer.
First Lady Melania Trump bestowed
the honor on an emotional Rush Limbaugh as the president spoke.
A protester was escorted from the
chamber while President Trump defended gun rights. It was Fred Guttenberg, the
father of Jaime Guttenberg, a student killed in a mass school shooting at
Parkland, Florida, in February 2018.
Fred Guttenberg was a guest of Nancy
Pelosi.
Each year after the State of the Union speech, a member of the main
opposition party is tasked with responding and this year it fell to Michigan
Governor Gretchen Whitmer.
The governor accused the president of failing to fix America’s problems.
She said: “Bullying people on
Twitter doesn’t fix bridges – it burns them.”
As they did last year, many female Democrats – including Nancy Pelosi – wore
white as tribute to the suffragettes who won the vote for US women a century
ago.
Several liberal Democratic lawmakers, including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of
New York and Maxine Waters of California, boycotted President Trump’s address.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tweeted that she would “not use my presence at
a state ceremony to normalize Trump’s lawless conduct & subversion of the
Constitution”.
Other left-wing Democrats, including Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, walked out
during President Trump’s speech.
As is traditional during the State of the Union, one member of the president’s
cabinet did not attend the address.
He or she remains at a secret location to make sure the government can
continue should calamity befall the nation’s president, vice-president and
other top leaders.
This time, that person, who is known as the designated survivor, was Interior Secretary David Bernhardt.
Democrats have announced the House will
vote on January 15 on sending articles of impeachment against President Donald
Trump to the Senate.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told
fellow Democrats she would also name the House managers who will prosecute the
case against President Trump in the Senate trial.
Nancy Pelosi has been withholding
the articles of impeachment in a row with Republicans over allowing witnesses.
Donald Trump was impeached by the
Democratic-led House last month.
The president is accused of abuse of
power and obstruction of Congress.
He denies trying to pressure Ukraine
to open an investigation into his would-be Democratic White House challenger
Joe Biden.
President Trump has been touting
unsubstantiated corruption claims about Joe Biden and his son, Hunter, who
accepted a lucrative board position with a Ukrainian energy company while his
father handled American-Ukraine relations as US vice-president.
The impeachment trial by the Senate
will be only the third ever of a US president.
Donald Trump’s fellow Republicans
control the chamber 53-47, and are all but certain to acquit him.
Once the resolution is approved, the
House managers will walk to the Senate and formally present the articles of
impeachment in the well of the chamber, escorted by the sergeant-at-arms. The
articles of impeachment will be read out.
On January 14, Senate leader Mitch
McConnell met Republican senators behind closed doors to map out the ground
rules.
He said the trial was likely to
begin in earnest on January 21.
The first couple of days will
involve housekeeping duties, possibly later this week.
Supreme Court Chief Justice John
Roberts will be sworn in to preside, and he will administer an oath to all 100
senators to deliver “impartial justice” as jurors.
Lawmakers may hear opening arguments
next week. The House managers will lay out their case against President Trump,
and his legal team will respond.
The trial is expected to last up to
five weeks, with the Senate taking only Sundays off.
President Trump suggested over the weekend that he might prefer simply
dismissing the charges rather than giving legitimacy to the “hoax”
case against him.
Moderate Republican senators Susan Collins of Maine and Mitt Romney of Utah
have made clear they would oppose any such motion.
On January 14, the White House said the president is “not afraid of a
fight” in his trial.
Deputy press secretary Hogan Gidley said President Trump was in fact eager
for witnesses to testify that “this man did nothing wrong”.
One of the biggest sticking points between House Democrats and Senate
Republicans has been whether testimony will be allowed during the trial.
Republican senators Lindsey Graham and Mike Rounds said on January 14 the
Senate’s trial plan will guarantee votes on whether to call witnesses and hear
new evidence.
It takes just 51 votes to approve rules or call witnesses, meaning four
Republican senators would have to side with Democrats to insist on testimony.
The White House is understood to have identified several possible defectors
in the Republican ranks, including Susan Collins and Mitt Romney.
The others are Senators Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Cory Gardner of Colorado
and Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, who is retiring this year.
Republicans say that if witnesses are allowed, they may try to subpoena Joe Biden and his son, and the unidentified government whistleblower whose complaint about President Trump sparked the whole impeachment inquiry.
The president initially gave a
positive account of the 90-minute meeting at the White House, describing it as
“very productive”.
However, when asked whether he had
considered using emergency presidential powers to bypass congressional approval
of funding, President Trump said he had.
He said: “I may do it. We can call a national emergency and build it very
quickly. That’s another way of doing it.”
“I’m very proud of doing what I’m
doing,” President Trump added.
“I don’t call it a shutdown, I call it
doing what you have to do for the benefit and safety of our country.”
On January 4, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the meeting had been
“contentious”, while Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said: “We told the president we needed the
government open. He resisted.”
Democrats, who now hold the majority in the House, passed spending bills on
January 3 to reopen the government, including $1.3 billion of border security
funds until February 8.
However, the legislation cannot take effect unless it passes the Republican-controlled Senate, where leader Mitch McConnell said his party would not back any measure without President Trump’s support.
Nancy Pelosi has again been elected as the
House Speaker – the third most powerful role in Washington.
The 78-yar-old California Democrat reclaimed the gavel after the most
diverse class of lawmakers were sworn in and as Democrats took control of the
House after mid-term elections gains.
Her victory came as the government remained partly shut down in a row over
funds for the president’s border wall.
Nancy Pelosi has said she wants to end the shutdown but will not support the
wall.
She said: “I’m particularly proud
to be a woman speaker of the house of this Congress, which marks the 100th year
of women having the right to vote.
“And, that we all have the
ability and the privilege to serve with over 100 women members of Congress –
the largest number in history. “
Nancy Pelosi seized the gavel as the House welcomed more women than ever
before in the 116th Congress.
As of January 3, 102 women serve in the House, an all-time high, including
36 newly elected members and a record 43 women of color.
While Republican women marked some firsts this past election season – like
Marsha Blackburn becoming the first female Tennessee Senator – the vast
majority of these new lawmakers are Democrats.
Among them are the first Muslim congresswomen – Michigan’s Rashida Tlaib and Minnesota’s Ilhan Omar – and the first Native American women to serve – New Mexico’s Debra Haaland and Kansas’ Sharice Davids.
President Donald Trump threatened a government shutdown over funding for his proposed border wall in a budget row with top Democrats in the Oval Office.
During a heated exchange with Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer, President Trump said he would be “proud” to shut down the government over border security.
If lawmakers cannot agree on a federal budget, funding for some departments will run out at the end of next week.
President Trump has asked to include $5 billion in the deal for border security.
However, Senator Chuck Schumer and Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi said they had agreed to extend funding for the Department of Homeland Security at current levels of $1.3 billion until September 30, 2019.
President Trump opened the Oval Office meeting calling it a “great honor” to have Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi present, in their firstmeeting since Democrats took control of the House of Representatives in theNovember mid-term elections.
The meeting soon turned contentious as Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer argued that the Republican-controlled Congress could pass legislation before funding for some agencies was set to expire on December 21.
President Trump contended that it could only pass if it met his demands for more funding for his proposed borderwall along the US southern border.
He said: “If we don’t get what we want, one way or the other, whether it’s through you, through military, through anything you want to call, I will shutdown the government.
“And I am proud to shut down the government for bordersecurity. I will take the mantle. I will be the one to shut it down.”
Veteran congressman John Conyers says he is stepping aside as top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee while harassment allegations are investigated.
The Michigan Democrat again denied the accusations, but said he was stepping down to clear his name.
A staff member alleges she was fired for refusing to “succumb to advances” from John Conyers.
A prominent civil rights leader, John Conyers first joined Congress in 1965.
The House Ethics Committee has launched an investigation into allegations of harassment and age discrimination involving staff.
On November 26, John Conyers, now 88, tweeted that he would like to remain as ranking member on the judiciary committee, but that he could not “in good conscience” allow the charges to “undermine” House colleagues.
On November 21, it was reported that he had paid $27,000 in 2015 in exchange for the confidentiality of a former staff member who alleged she was fired for rejecting advances.
According to signed legal documents seen by Buzzfeed, John Conyers was also accused of repeatedly making advances and inappropriately touching other female employees.
However, he said that many of the allegations “were raised by documents reportedly paid for by a partisan alt-right blogger”.
Nancy Pelosi, the leader of the Democrats in the House of Representatives, said it was imperative that John Conyers received “due process”.
She called him “an icon” who had advanced women’s causes.
However, Nancy Pelosi tweeted in reference to John Conyers: “Zero tolerance means consequences… No matter how great an individual’s legacy, it is not a license for harassment.”
John Conyers is the last member of Congress to have been in office under President Lyndon Johnson in the 1960s.
Republican house speaker Paul Ryan has called the allegations “extremely troubling”.
He recently announced that all lawmakers and staff members must undergo anti-harassment training.
Top Democrats Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer say they have agreed to reach a deal with President Donald Trump to protect thousands of young undocumented migrants from deportation.
They said they also agreed to work on a border security package that would exclude President Trump’s proposed wall with Mexico.
However, the White House denied the wall had been excluded from proposals.
President Trump scrapped the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program earlier this month.
The Obama-era DACA scheme was put in place to protect so-called “Dreamers” – migrants brought to the US illegally as children – from deportation.
The DACA program, which protect some 800,000 people in the US, also provide temporary permits for work and study.
On September 4, PresidentTrump announced he would cancel the scheme, while giving Congress six months to enact a replacement plan for DACA recipients.
Following talks over dinner at the White House, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said: “We agreed to enshrine the protections of DACA into law quickly, and to work out a package of border security, excluding the wall, that’s acceptable to both sides.”
Democrats have repeatedly said that they will block any legislation that contains funding for the border wall – a key campaign pledge of President Trump’s.
A White House statement was more muted, simply saying that there had been a “constructive working dinner” where tax reform, border security and DACA had been discussed.
White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders later disputed the Democrats’ account.
She tweeted: “While DACA and border security were both discussed, excluding the wall was certainly not agreed to.”
Chuck Schumer’s aide replied: “The President made clear he would continue pushing the wall, just not as part of this agreement.”
Republican support would be needed in any immigration legislation, as they have a majority in both the House and the Senate.
Republicans in the House have voted to weaken the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE), the body that investigates claims of misconduct against members of Congress.
Under the change, the independent OCE would come under the control of the House Ethics Committee.
Republican leaders in the House had opposed the change. The newly elected Congress meets later and the full House will vote on the proposed new rules.
However, Democrats reacted angrily to the vote.
The proposals, tabled in an amendment to House rules by Congressman Bob Goodlatte, would weaken the OCE’s oversight of matters such as conflicts of interests and financial impropriety.
If the new rules package is voted in – as is likely as the Republicans have a clear majority – the OCE would be renamed the Office of Congressional Complaint Review.
Under the proposals the new body would no longer be able to receive anonymous tip-offs, nor have a spokesperson, and would be under the supervision of the House Ethics Committee. Accusations against lawmakers would not be made public, as they are currently.
Any referral to law enforcement agencies would have to be approved by members of the committee.
Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic leader in the House, said the amendment to the rules would effectively destroy the OCE.
She said in a statement: “Republicans claim they want to <<drain the swamp>>, but the night before the new Congress gets sworn in, the House GOP [Republican Party] has eliminated the only independent ethics oversight of their actions.
“Evidently, ethics are the first casualty of the new Republican Congress.”
During his election campaign, Donald Trump repeatedly vowed to “drain the swamp” of Washington politics, claiming the federal government was corrupt and dysfunctional. He has not commented on the proposals for the ethics body.
While House Speaker Paul Ryan and Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy were reportedly opposed to the amendment, Rep. Bob Goodlatte – chair of a House committee – introduced it anyway.
Rank and file members voted to support it in a closed session of the House Republican Conference.
There was no advance notice of the move, which came late on a federal public holiday.
The Office of Congressional Ethics was created in 2008 after a series of embarrassing scandals, including one involving lobbyist Jack Abramoff who was jailed for conspiracy and fraud.
Some felt that the House Ethics Committee had previously been held back from investigating wrongdoing by fellow members of the House of Representatives.
Nancy Pelosi – then leader of a Democrat-controlled House – spearheaded the efforts to reform oversight of Congress and shed light on the often murky world of Washington lobbying after the Abramoff scandal.
After their success in November’s elections, Republicans will control both houses in the new session of the US Congress.
Once Donald Trump is inaugurated on January 20, the GOP will control both Congress and the presidency for the first time since 2007.
According to the US constitution, “each House may determine the Rules of its Proceedings”, so at the start of each new Congress, the House of Representatives has to approve its own rules and regulations.
President Barack Obama’s plans for a military strike on Syria have won backing from key US political figures.
Barack Obama said a “limited” strike was needed to degrade President Bashar al-Assad’s capabilities in response to an alleged chemical weapons attack.
Key Republican leaders John Boehner and Eric Cantor both signaled their support for military action. Congress is expected to vote next week.
The UN earlier confirmed that more than two million Syrians were now refugees.
More than 100,000 people are thought to have died since the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad began in March 2011.
President Barack Obama and Vice-President Joe Biden met House Speaker John Boehner, House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi and the chairmen and ranking members from the national security committees in Washington on Tuesday.
John Boehner signaled his support for Barack Obama’s call for action, saying that only the US had the capacity to stop President Bashar al-Assad. John Boehner urged his colleagues in Congress to follow suit.
Eric Cantor, the House of Representatives majority leader, said he also backed Barack Obama.
President Barack Obama’s plans for a military strike on Syria have won backing from key US political figures
The Virginia Republican said: “Assad’s Syria, a state sponsor of terrorism, is the epitome of a rogue state, and it has long posed a direct threat to American interests and to our partners.”
Nancy Pelosi said she did not believe Congress would reject a resolution calling for force.
Barack Obama said that Bashar al-Assad had to be held accountable for the chemical attack and that he was confident Congress would back him.
He said he was proposing military action that would degrade Bashar al-Assad’s capacity to use chemical weapons “now and in the future”.
“What we are envisioning is something limited. It is something proportional,” the president said.
“At the same time we have a broader strategy that will allow us to upgrade the capabilities of the opposition.”
Secretary of State John Kerry, Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel and the top US military officer, Gen Martin Dempsey, are appearing before the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations.
John Kerry told the panel that US allies such as Israel and Jordan were “one stiff breeze” away from potentially being hurt by any fresh chemical weapons attacks, and that US inaction would only embolden the Syrian president.
“This is not the time for armchair isolationism,” John Kerry said.
“This is not the time to be spectators to slaughter. Neither our country nor out conscience can afford the cost of silence.
“We have spoken up against unspeakable horror many times in the past. Now we must stand up and act.”
But John Kerry said again that there would be no American boots on the ground in Syria and that Barack Obama was “not asking America to go to war”.
Chuck Hagel said that “the word of the United States must mean something” and echoed John Kerry when adding: “A refusal to act would undermine the credibility of America’s other security commitments, including the president’s commitment to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon.”
There will also be a classified briefing for all members of Congress.
Barack Obama will head to Sweden late on Tuesday for a G20 meeting sure to be dominated by Syria.
France has strongly backed the US plan for military action.
President Francois Hollande said on Tuesday: “When a chemical massacre takes place, when the world is informed of it, when the evidence is delivered, when the guilty parties are known, then there must be an answer.”
Francois Hollande called for Europe to unite on the issue, but said he would wait for the Congress vote.
Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng has arrived in New York with his family to begin a new life in the United States.
The blind human rights lawyer caused a diplomatic crisis when he escaped house arrest to arrive at the US embassy in Beijing last month.
Speaking outside New York University, where he has been offered a fellowship, Chen Guangcheng said China had dealt with the situation with “restraint and calm”.
But he raised concerns about ongoing reprisals against his family.
“Acts of retribution in Shandong have not been abated and my rights to practice law have been curbed – we hope to see a thorough investigation into this,” he said, referring to the province where he was kept under house arrest.
Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng has arrived in New York with his family to begin a new life in the United States
The activist thanked US officials and his supporters for their help and said he had come to the United States for “recuperation in body and spirit”.
Chen Guangcheng and his family were taken from a Beijing hospital, where he was being treated for a foot injury, to the capital’s airport on Saturday.
After weeks of uncertainty, the activist, his wife Yuan Weijing and their two children, aged eight and six, were handed passports and allowed to fly to Newark, New Jersey, where they arrived soon after 18:00 on Saturday.
Chen Guangcheng spent six days in the US embassy in Beijing last month after escaping house arrest in north-east China, sparking a diplomatic spat between the US and China.
Former House speaker Nancy Pelosi described his arrival in the US as “a milestone in the cause for human rights in China”.
“The courage of Chen Guangcheng to risk his life and livelihood to advocate for disadvantaged people in China is an inspiration to freedom-seeking people around the world,” Nancy Pelosi said.
The Congressional Executive Commission on China, set up to monitor human rights there in 2001, said it remained “deeply concerned that Mr. Chen’s supporters and family members who remain in China face the real threat of retaliation from Chinese officials”.
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