Justin Flores, 35, was taken away in a body bag Wednesday, several hours after the shooting at Siesta Inn Motel.
CDCR
Justin Flores, 35, was taken away in a body bag Wednesday, several hours after the shooting at Siesta Inn Motel. A man who said he was Flores’ stepfather confirmed a California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation photo to be that of Flores.
The two officers, Corporal Michael Paredes and Officer Joseph Santana, were responding to the report of a stabbing at the motel, at 10327 Garvey Ave., just off the 10 Freeway. They came under immediate gunfire as they tried to make contact with the suspect inside the room, and the suspect was fatally shot after running from the motel into the parking lot.
His wife, Diana Flores, spoke with CBSLA Wednesday. She said the 911 call was made when she was with her husband at the motel.
“I’m so deeply sorry. My condolences for saving me,” said Flores. “I’m so sorry. They didn’t deserve that. They were trying to help me.”
Evidence of a stabbing was not found at the scene, and it’s not clear if anyone else was inside the room when the emergency call went out.
Flores had been sentenced to prison time at least twice before Tuesday night’s shootout, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. He was sentenced to one year and four months in 2009 for vehicle theft, but served less than two months of that sentence and was ultimately discharged from parole supervision on Nov. 21, 2010. He was convicted again of first-degree burglary in 2011 and was sentenced to serve two years in, CDCR officials said. In that case, he served about nine month of his sentence, and was discharged from parole supervision on Aug. 7, 2016.
The mother of one of the two US military veterans feared captured fighting for Ukraine has tearfully recalled her son warning her he was “going dark” — days before a colleague told her he went missing on a mission “gone bad.”
Lois Drueke told NBC News that she last communicated with son Alexander Drueke, 39, last Wednesday — the same day fellow Alabama vet Andy Huynh, 27, was also last heard from.
“He wrote and said, ‘I’ll be going dark tomorrow and possibly the next day.’ And I wrote back, ‘Stay safe, and I love you,’” she said, pausing to control her emotion.
Alexander Drueke was last heard from last Wednesday.Facebook/Alexander Drueke
“He wrote back, ‘I love you too.’ And that’s the last I heard from him,” Drueke told the outlet, calling her son “the most loyal American you will ever meet.”
The panicked mom said she was then contacted Monday with an alarming message from a fellow US veteran who had been with her son in a village outside Kharkiv.
“He was not there to fight. He was just there to train,” Lois Drueke said of her son.via REUTERS
“He said that there had been a mission and that it had gone bad,” she recalled to NBC.
“And after 36 hours, everyone had come back, except Alex and Care Bear,” she said, using a codename the troops used for Huynh.
If the pair have been captured, they would be the first known US citizens to have been taken as prisoners of war in the brutal, nearly four-month war.
White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said that if the reports are true, the US “will do everything we can” to get them back.
Drueke’s mom said she had not given up hope that her son — an Army veteran of eight years and who had been a staff sergeant — could still be hiding in Ukraine and “out there evading the enemy.”
However, she was panicked at the possibility he had been captured by Russia, which recently sentenced two captured British fighters to death.
Drueke served two tours in Iraq.Facebook/Alexander Drueke
“If worse comes to worst, I know he was doing something he truly believed was good and noble,” she told NBC News, her voice breaking again.
She put Military.com in touch with “Pip,” the US veteran who had relayed his fears that the duo had been captured after the mission “gone bad.”
Pip — who refused to identify himself — also shared with her an “intercepted Russian communique that talked about having captured two Americans near the area where Alex and Andy went missing,” Duerke’s mom said.
She told the military site that her son — who had PTSD after two tours of Iraq — went to Ukraine in April after telling her he had “the ability and the knowledge to help train the Ukrainian soldiers.’”
“He was not there to fight. He was just there to train,” she insisted.
She said she was “so proud of him.”
“He said, ‘Mom, if I die over there, I have died doing something I truly believe is a good thing; I’m over there for purpose, and it’ll be a warrior’s death,” she recalled.
He told her, “‘Just know that I did what I believed was right to do. I believe that I am helping to save American lives, not just Ukrainian lives,’” she said.
Drueke warned his mother that he would be “going dark” for a few days.via REUTERS
An Army veteran, Drueke is among the first Americans to go missing in the Ukraine conflict.Facebook/Alexander Drueke
Russia’s defense ministry has yet to comment on the reported capture.
The emails might come up “at some point” in their hearings, Thompson said earlier Thursday, though they were still in the “discovery phase.”
Thomas told the conservative-leaning Daily Caller later Thursday she was open to testifying.
“I can’t wait to clear up misconceptions. I look forward to talking to them,” she said.
The Washington Post and New York Times both reported late Wednesday that Thomas and Eastman had exchanged emails, though the timing of their conversations remains unclear, per the outlets. The Times also reported that Eastman had expressed, in an email with another Trump campaign attorney, insight into internal Supreme Court discussions related to the election results. The court, he said, according to the Times, was engaged in a “heated” debate about whether to take up election-related lawsuits on the eve of Jan. 6.
Eastman said in a statement that he did not discuss matters before the Supreme Court with Ginni Thomas or her husband.
“Whether or not those news accounts were true, I can categorically confirm that at no time did I discuss with Mrs. Thomas or Justice Thomas any matters pending or likely to come before the Court,” he said on the Substack email platform. The emails with Ginni Thomas, Eastman added, were related to an invitation to “give an update about election litigation to a group she met with periodically.”
The committee has faced questions about Ginni Thomas since March, when the Washington Post and CBS published text messages she exchanged with White House chief of staff Mark Meadows in the weeks after Trump’s defeat in the 2020 election. Thomas, who appeared to espouse unfounded conspiracy theories about the results, pushed Meadows to continue fighting to reverse the outcome and indicated she had been in touch with others in Trump’s orbit.
Those texts immediately raised questions about whether Thomas had also talked to Eastman, who clerked for her husband in the 1990s. In deposition testimony from Greg Jacob, a top aide to former Vice President Mike Pence, the select committee learned that Eastman had expressed confidence that Justice Thomas would support a fringe theory that Pence could single-handedly prevent Joe Biden’s election.
Jacob told the select committee that when Eastman pushed that idea, Jacob replied, “If this case got to the Supreme Court, we’d lose 9-0, wouldn’t we, if we actually took your position and it got up there?”
Eastman said he actually believed the court would vote 7-2, Jacob recalled.
“And I said, ‘Who are the two?’ And he said, ‘Well, I think maybe Clarence Thomas.’ And I said, ‘Really? Clarence Thomas?’ And so we went through a few Thomas opinions and, finally, he acknowledged, ‘yeah, all right, it would be 9-0.’”
Eastman has declined to say whether his initial instinct about Thomas’ support was based on contacts with either Ginni Thomas or the justice himself. When the select committee asked Eastman last year about his conversation with Jacob, Eastman invoked his right to not self-incriminate, as he did more than 100 times in his deposition with the panel.
Pence: electoral count rejection ‘illegal’: Marc Short, chief of staff to former Vice President Mike Pence, says Pence told former President Donald Trump “many times” that any plan to have Pence reject electoral votes was illegal.
Federal judge: Trump’s order would have been ‘tantamount to revolution’: Federal Judge J. Michael Luttig told the Jan. 6 Committee that had Pence obeyed orders from Trump on Jan. 6, declaring Trump the presidential election winner, it would have “plunged America” into what he says would’ve been “tantamount to a revolution within a constitutional crisis.”
The vice president ‘cannot possibly’ choose the president: Greg Jacob, counsel to Pence, said that while the Electoral Count Act includes “ambiguous” text, “common sense and structure would tell you” that it “cannot possibly be” that a vice president would have the authority to choose the U.S. president under the Constitution.
Hannity ‘very worried’Fox News’ Sean Hannity told White House chief of staff Mark Meadows in text messages of his concerns around Jan. 6. On Dec. 31, he wrote, “I do NOT see January 6 happening the way he is being told.” And on Jan. 5, he texted that he was “very worried about the next 48 hours.”
Paul Ryan: Pence doesn’t have ‘any greater authority’ over results
Former Pence Chief of Staff Marc Short testified that former House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Ill., spoke to both himself and Pence about the joint committee, and all were in agreement that the vice president has no greater authority over election results.
Short also told the committee that Pence consulted with former GOP Vice President Dan Quayle, who agreed with Pence that the role in the joint session is purely ceremonial, not authoritative.
Retired federal appeals judge Michael Luttig told the panel former President Donald Trump’s advisers got “wrapped around the axle” by lawyer John Eastman’s historical evidence about the vice president’s role in counting Electoral College votes.
But Greg Jacob, Pence’s counsel, said no vice president in 230 years of the country’s history acted as Eastman proposed. Luttig said he would have tried to prevent Thomas Jefferson, John Adams or Richard Nixon from following Eastman’s plan.
“I would have laid my body across the road before I would have let the vice president overturn the 2020 election on the basis of that historical precedent,” Luttig said. “This is constitutional mischief.”
– Bart Jansen
Eastman didn’t believe his own debunked legal theory, committee says
John Eastman, Trump’s attorney who pushed the false notion that Pence could decide the winner of the 2020 election, didn’t believe the theory would hold up in the Supreme Court, according to testimony from Pence legal counsel Greg Jacob.
Eastman acknowledged to Jacob before Jan. 6 that the nation’s high country would likely reject the theory by a 9-0 vote, Jacob recalled.
“Dr. Eastman never really believed his own theory,” said Rep. Pete Aguilar, D-Calif, one of the House committee members.
– Joey Garrison
Sean Hannity ‘very worried’ in the hours before insurrection
The committee is presenting reams of evidence that people very close to Trump were very dubious about the idea that Pence could simply award the election to him – and worried about the ramifications.
Fox News host Sean Hannity, for example, sent White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows a series of tweets reflecting concerns that the White House legal team might resign over Trump’s pressure on Pence.
“I’m very worried about the next 48 hours,” Hannity texted on Jan. 5, 2021, a day before the insurrection.
– David Jackson
Giuliani privately admitted Pence couldn’t overturn election before speaking at Jan 6 rally
In a deposition, former Trump impeachment lawyer Eric Herschmann described a call between him and Rudy Giuliani on the morning of Jan. 6.
“We had an intellectual discussion about Eastman’s – I don’t know if it’s Eastman’s theory per se but the VP’s role and he was asking me my view, analysis, and other practical implications of it.” said Herschmann. “And when we finished, he said like I believe you’re probably right.”
“I think he thought, were it done, it was something he’d have to consider if he was sitting on the bench. But he’d probably come down on that and you know, couldn’t interpret it or sustain the argument long term.”
Hours later, Giuliani spoke at the ellipse to Jan. 6 protestors, telling them “Every single thing that has been outlined, as the plan for today, is perfectly legal.”
– Kenneth Tran
Herschmann: “You’re going to cause riots in the streets”
Trump’s counsel John Eastman told White House counsel Eric Herschmann he saw ambiguities within the 12th Amendment that allowed Pence to stop the certification of votes, thus deciding who would be the next president.
“Are you out of your f’ing mind?” Herschmann said to Eastman, saying voters wouldn’t tolerate this and it would cause riots in the streets.
In response, Eastman told Herschmann that there’s been a history of violence in the country to protect democracy and the republic, so it was necessary for Pence to not certify election results.
– Katherine Swartz
Advisors said Pence did not have power Trump claimed
Advisors to President Donald Trump were aware that Vice President Pence did not have the power to overturn the results of the 2020 election, witnesses told the Jan. 6 committee.
Marc Short, Pence’s chief of staff, said White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows told him “a couple times” before Jan. 6, 2021 that Pence didn’t have the power. Short added, “Mark had told so many people so many different things that it was not necessarily something that I would accept as, ‘OK, that’s resolved.’”
Jason Miller, an aide to Trump, said White House Counsel Pat Cipillone thought the plan to have Pence affect the election “was nutty and at one point had confronted (Trump lawyer John) Eastman basically with the same.”
– Erin Mansfield
‘No idea more un-American’: Pence lawyers says historic precedence, text refuted Trump scheme to reject results
Greg Jacob, former legal counsel for Pence, said he and other attorneys reviewed the text of the Constitution,the intent of founding fathers and historic precedent, determining the vice president has no authority to choose the next president.
“There is almost no idea more un-American than the notion that any one person would choose the American President,” Jacob said.
Jacob said no vice president in 230 years ever claimed to have such a power that the vice president can reject the electoral votes submitted by states.
Jacob recounted what he told Jon Eastman, the attorney pushing the theory to Trump: “If you were right, don’t you think Al Gore might have liked to have known in 2000 that he had authority to just declare himself president of the United States?”-
– Joey Garrison
Luttig: “The language of the 12th amendment is that simple”
After long testimony, Senior Investigative Counsel John Wood asked retired Federal Judge Michael Luttig if the 12th amendment was as complicated as John Eastman, made it out to be.
“Judge Luttig, at the risk of oversimplifying for the non-lawyers who are watching,” said Wood. “Is it fair to say that the 12th amendment basically says two things happen: the vice president opens the certificates and the electoral votes are counted. Is it that straightforward?”
“The language of the 12th amendment is that simple,” said Luttig.
– Kenneth Tran
Luttig: Vice President Pence had no power to strike down electoral votes.
Retired federal judge Michael Luttig is citing numerous legal rulings to knock down the pro-Trump claim that Vice President Mike Pence had any authority whatsoever to throw out electoral votes.
“There was no historical precedent,” Luttig said.
Basically, the vice president has no power at all when it comes to congressional counting of electoral votes, Luttig said, including recognition of seven slates of alternative electors put up by the Trump people.
“There was no basis in the Constitution or the laws of the United States AT ALL for the theory espoused by Mr. (John) Eastman,” Luttig said at one point. “At all. None.”
Luttig is not just any retired federal judge, by the way – he was once a rising conservative star who came very close to winding up on the Supreme Court.
President George W. Bush had Luttig on his short list, though he ultimately picked John Roberts and Samuel Alito for high court vacancies.
– David Jackson
Trump lawyers wanted Pence to not count Arizona’s electoral votes
A day before the Electoral College met to cast their votes on Dec. 14, 2020, Trump attorney Kenneth Chesebro sent a memo to Rudy Giuliani that Pence is charged with “making judgements about what to do if there are conflicting votes.”
Chesebro wanted Pence to not count Arizona’s votes (which JBiden won) in the joint session of Congress, “because there are two slates of votes.”
A group of Trump supporters in Arizona and other states had proclaimed themselves “the true electors for the state,” thus creating a group of official electors chosen by the state, and a group of “fake electors,” Cheney said in the hearing.
– Katherine Swartz
Pence ‘first instinct’ said he did not have power over 2020 election
A lawyer for Vice President Mike Pence said Pence had an immediate response to the idea that he could sway the 2020 election — that there is no way that the framers of the Constitution intended for him to have that power.
Greg Jacob, Pence’s general counsel, recounted Pence’s reaction and described the conversation that came before Jacob put together a legal memo for Pence that explained the obscure line in the Constitution describing the vice president’s role as well as the Electoral Count Act that laid out the process of counting votes.
“The vice president’s first instinct when he heard this theory was that there was no way that our framers – who abhorred concentrated power, who had broken away from the tyranny of George the third – would ever have put one person – particularly not a person who had a direct interest in the outcome because they were on the ticket for the election – in a role to have decisive impact in the outcome of the election,” Jacob said.
– Erin Mansfield
Pence started asking about his authority to count electors in early December
Greg Jacob, Pence’s former counsel in the vice president’s office, said he was first asked by Pence about the vice president’s role in the process to count electoral votes in early December.
Jacob recalled that Pence brought up former Vice President Al Gore using his gavel to strike down some Democratic lawmakers who objected to results in the 2000 election.
Jacob said that both he and Pence concluded that the vice president – in accordance with the Electoral Count Act of 1887 and the U.S. Constitution – lacks any role other than counting the votes certified by the Electoral College. He said the vice president does not have the authority to decide the presidency.
“There is no justifiable basis to conclude that the vice president has that kind of authority,” Jacob said.
Former Vice President Mike Pence’s counsel, Greg Jacob, told the committee that John Eastman admitted his scheme to have Pence single-handedly overturn the election violated the Electoral Count Act.
The 1887 statute sets the rules for how Congress counts votes in presidential elections. Jacob told the committee during his deposition Eastman conceded his argument was contrary to historical practice, would likely be rejected unanimously by the Supreme Court and violated the Electoral Count Act in four ways.
Former President Donald Trump held an Oval Office meeting Jan. 4 to pressure Pence, but the vice president refused to buckle. Committee investigators asked if Eastman ever acknowledged in front of Trump that his proposal would violate the law.
“I believe he did on the Fourth,” Jacob said in a videotaped deposition played Thursday.
– Bart Jansen
Rep. Pete Aguilar: Trump knew there was violence at the Capitol when he tweeted at Pence
Democratic Rep. Pete Aguilar from California said former President Donald Trump knew the Capitol was breached when he tweeted at former Vice President Mike Pence to overturn the 2020 election.
“You’ll also hear President Trump knew there was a violent mob at the Capitol when he tweeted at 2:24 p.m. that the Vice President did not have the quote, courage to do what needed to be done.” Trump tweeted then that Pence lacked the courage to “do what should have been done and protect our country and constitution.”
“Let me be clear,” said Aguilar. “Vice President Pence did the right thing that day. He stayed true to his oath to protect and defend the constitution.”
– Kenneth Tran
Rep. Pete Aguilar: Trump “latched on to a dangerous theory and would not let go”
In his opening statement of the hearing, Rep. Pete Aguilar, D-Calif., said that January 6th was not an isolated incident, that for weeks leading up to the attack Trump committed “illegal scheme and deception.”
Aguilar said the committee’s evidence proves that Trump knew he lost the election and then attempted to circumvent “the country’s most fundamental civic tradition: the peaceful transition of power.”
“The president latched on to a dangerous theory and would not let go because he was convinced it would keep him in office,” Aguilar said.
– Katherine Swartz
Aide says Pence told Trump “many times” he could not reject electoral votes
Vice President Mike Pence’s Chief of Staff told the committee that Pence had communicated directly to Trump that he did not have the legal or constitutional authority to reject electoral votes and thereby hand Trump the presidency.
Marc Short said in a videotaped interview with the committee that Pence had not only written a letter to Trump saying he had no such legal authority, but communicated the same thing to Trump “many times” and “very consistently.”
– Erin Mansfield
Pro-Trump rioters: Hang Mike Pence!
The committee played chilling videos of Jan. 6 rioters threatening Mike Pence when they learned he had refused to throw out electoral votes – a demand made by their patron, Donald Trump.
“I’m hearing reports that Pence caved!” one rioter said during a profane rant.
Another tape showed demonstrators chanting a harrowing theme: “Hang Mike Pence! Hang Mike Pence!”
– David Jackson
Committee chair calls Pence rejection of Trump scheme ‘courageous’
Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., chairman of the Jan. 6 House Committee, kicked off the third hearing Thursday, saying testimony will reveal a pressure campaign waged by former President Donald Trump to reject the electoral votes confirming Joe Biden’s election victory.
“Donald Trump wanted Mike Pence to do something no other vice president has ever done. The former president wanted Pence to reject the votes and either declare Trump the winner or send the votes back to the states to be counted again.
“Mike Pence said no. He resisted the pressure. He knew it was wrong. We are fortunate for Mr. Pence’s courage.”
Thompson added: “When Mike Pence made it clear that he wouldn’t give into Donald Trump’s scheme, Donald Trump turned the mob on him.”
– Joey Garrison
Thompson: Committee wants to question Ginni Thomas
The chairman, Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., told reporters Thursday the committee wants to question Ginni Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, over her contacts with a lawyer who developed a plan to overturn the 2020 election.
The committee had earlier discussed pursuing Ginni Thomas because of text exchanges with former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows about fighting results of the 2020 election.
But the committee recently obtained emails between Ginni Thomas and John Eastman, a lawyer for former President Donald Trump who developed the plan for Vice President Mike Pence to single-handedly tip the election in favor of Trump, according to The Washington Post.
“We think it’s time that we, at some point, invite her to come talk to the committee,” Thompson told reporters, according to Axios reporter Andrew Solender.
– Bart Jansen
Trump raised money for ‘election defense’ and gave millions to his allies
A fundraising committee affiliated with former President Donald Trump raised millions of dollars for an “Official Election Defense Fund,” but the Jan. 6 committee said in its hearing Monday that it found no evidence that fund existed.
Most of the money went to a leadership fund called Save America that gave millions to Trump allies. For example, nonprofits affiliated with advisor Kellyanne Conway and chief of staff Mark Meadows received $1 million each. Campaigns for candidates running to unseat Trump foes in Congress received $5,000 each.
E. Danya Perry, who served as an assistant U.S. Attorney in the Southern District of New York from 2002 to 2013, said the case has the building blocks of a “pretty clear cut” case of wire fraud, a subject that is “bread and butter for federal prosecutors.”
‘1776 Returns’ detailed plans to occupy buildings near Capitol
A document allegedly given to Proud Boys Chairman Henry “Enrique” Tarrio prior to the Jan. 6 insurrection lays out detailed plans to occupy more than half a dozen buildings surrounding the U.S. Capitol and describes tactics to be used by occupiers as they “Storm the Winter Palace.”
The full document titled “1776 Returns,” attached as an exhibit in a court filing Wednesday by Tarrio’s co-defendant Zachary Rehl, was described by one former federal prosecutor as “an absolutely devastating piece of evidence.”
Patrick Cotter, a former federal prosecutor in Chicago who has practiced criminal law for 40 years, said the “1776 Returns” document is a bombshell for prosecutors, assuming it can be verified. “The authors are clearly planning multiple, multiple felonies; they’re saying how they’re going to do it, and it’s all in service, apparently, to a broader crime, which is the sedition.” he said.
Pence in Cincinnati, Ohio, as Jan. 6 hearing focuses on him
Former Vice President Mike Pence will travel to Cincinnati on Thursday alongside Gov. Mike DeWine for a roundtable with members of Ohio’s natural gas and oil industry.
On the same day, the House Jan. 6 committee is expected to examine how former President Donald Trump pressured Pence to overturn the 2020 election.
The roundtable won’t be open to the public. It will be hosted by the Ohio Oil and Gas Energy Education Program. Pence will also be in town to raise money for Rep. Steve Chabot’s reelection campaign at the home of Nancy and David Aichholz, according to an invitation sent out by the GOP.
USA TODAY will livestream the hearings here on USATODAY.com. The hearings have also been televised on C-Span and cable news networks.
Trump lawyer: Pence was calm when told about lack of election fraud
Alex Cannon, a Trump campaign lawyer, described a stoic Vice President Mike Pence compared to other Trump aides in response to the lack of election fraud.
Cannon found no evidence of enough voter fraud to change the election. At one point during a November 2020 meeting at the White House, Pence asked Cannon for an update.
“I don’t remember his exact words, but he asked me if we were finding anything, and I said that I was not personally finding anything sufficient to alter the results of the election,” Cannon said. “He thanked me. That was our interaction.”
One Trump lawyer to another: Get a great criminal defense lawyer
In a promotional tweet Tuesday for the hearing, the committee released video of Eric Hershmann, one of Trump’s lawyers, who described warning Eastman the day after the riot he should find a “great” defense lawyer.
Eastman had contacted Hershmann to chat about Georgia election results because he couldn’t reach other Trump aides. Hershmann questioned Eastman’s sanity and told him the only phrase he wanted to hear from Eastman from then on was “orderly transition” to the Biden administration.
“Eventually he said, ‘Orderly transition,'” Hershmann said. “I said, ‘Good, John. Now I’m going to give you the best free legal advice you’re ever getting in your life. Get a great f-ing criminal defense lawyer. You’re going to need it.’ Then I hung up on him.”
In an Oval Office meeting with Trump on Jan. 4, Pence stressed his “immediate instinct that there is no way that one person could be entrusted by the Framers to exercise that authority,” according to Jacob.
As the mob ransacked the Capitol two days later and Pence evacuated the Senate chamber, Jacob emailed Eastman to say “thanks to your bull—-, we are now under siege,” according to court records.
Eastman clerked for Michael Luttig, a retired judge for the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals who was rumored as a potential Supreme Court nominee during President George W. Bush’s administration.
The same day Trump pressured Pence and Jacob in the Oval Office, Pence’s personal lawyer, Richard Cullen, called Luttig to ask about Eastman. Luttig tweeted his disagreement with Eastman’s argument the morning of Jan. 5.
“The only responsibility and power of the Vice President under the Constitution is to faithfully count the electoral college votes as they have been cast,” Luttig said. “The Constitution does not empower the Vice President to alter in any way the votes that have been cast, either by rejecting certain of them or otherwise.”
Pence’s former chief of staff Marc Short says he sided with Constitution over Trump
Marc Short, Pence’s chief of staff, told the committee the vice president was proud of what was accomplished during the four years of the Trump administration, but sided with the Constitution in the election showdown.
“I think he was proud to have stood beside the president for all that has been done,” Short said in a videotaped deposition. “But I think he ultimately knew that his fidelity to the Constitution was his first and foremost oath.”
Justin Flores, 35, was taken away in a body bag Wednesday, several hours after the shooting at Siesta Inn Motel.
CDCR
Justin Flores, 35, was taken away in a body bag Wednesday, several hours after the shooting at Siesta Inn Motel. A man who said he was Flores’ stepfather confirmed a California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation photo to be that of Flores.
The two officers, Corporal Michael Paredes and Officer Joseph Santana, were responding to the report of a stabbing at the motel, at 10327 Garvey Ave., just off the 10 Freeway. They came under immediate gunfire as they tried to make contact with the suspect inside the room, and the suspect was fatally shot after running from the motel into the parking lot.
His wife, Diana Flores, spoke with CBSLA Wednesday. She said the 911 call was made when she was with her husband at the motel.
“I’m so deeply sorry. My condolences for saving me,” said Flores. “I’m so sorry. They didn’t deserve that. They were trying to help me.”
Evidence of a stabbing was not found at the scene, and it’s not clear if anyone else was inside the room when the emergency call went out.
Flores had been sentenced to prison time at least twice before Tuesday night’s shootout, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. He was sentenced to one year and four months in 2009 for vehicle theft, but served less than two months of that sentence and was ultimately discharged from parole supervision on Nov. 21, 2010. He was convicted again of first-degree burglary in 2011 and was sentenced to serve two years in, CDCR officials said. In that case, he served about nine month of his sentence, and was discharged from parole supervision on Aug. 7, 2016.
The chairman of the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot said Thursday that the panel will invite Virginia “Ginni” Thomas, wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, to testify about her involvement in efforts to reverse Donald Trump’s presidential election loss.
Disclosure of the planned invitation of Ginni Thomas came a day after a report that the committee had obtained emails between her and John Eastman, a lawyer who was advising Trump on the 2020 election.
Eastman was a leading proponent of a plan to have Trump and others pressure then-Vice President Mike Pence to block the certification by Congress of President Joe Biden’s electoral victory.
The Jan. 6 panel is set Thursday afternoon to hold its third public hearing, which will focus on details of Trump’s pressure on Pence, who refused to go along with the plan.
“We think it’s time that we, at some point, invite her [Ginni Thomas] to come talk to the committee,” said Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., the committee’s chair, to reporters, shortly before the scheduled start of that hearing.
Thompson said the planned invitation is based on “information we have come upon.” He later said the invitation to Thomas will be issued in the next few weeks.
Asked if the panel would subpoena Thomas if she refused to voluntarily testify, Thompson said: Well, we’ll see what happens. And we’ll go from there.”
An aide to Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, one of just two Republicans on the Jan. 6 committee, said Cheney also agrees that it is time for Ginni Thomas to be interviewed by the panel.
Cheney reportedly previously had leaned against calling in Ginni Thomas to testify.
The Washington Post, citing people involved in the panel’s probe, said that Thomas’ involvement in the bid to reverse Trump’s loss was more extensive than had been previously known.
The New York Times separately reported that Eastman had told another pro-Trump lawyer and Trump campaign officials on Dec. 24, 2020, that he was aware of a “heated fight” among Supreme Court justices over whether that court should consider cases involving Trump’s bid to overturn election results in several key states.
Eastman previously served as a Supreme Court clerk to Justice Thomas.
A spokeswoman for the Supreme Court did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.
— CNBC’s Kevin Breuninger contributed to this article.
At Ms. Maxwell’s trial, prosecutors presented a case over 10 days that centered on testimony from four accusers, all now adults.
Two women said Mr. Epstein engaged in sex with them when they were as young as 14. One woman said Ms. Maxwell was sometimes present during the encounters; the other testified that Ms. Maxwell had molested her directly, touching her breasts.
“Maxwell was a sophisticated predator who knew exactly what she was doing,” Alison Moe, an assistant U.S. attorney, told the jury in a closing argument. “She manipulated her victims, and she groomed them for sexual abuse.”
The government is scheduled to file its sentencing recommendation with Judge Nathan next week.
Ms. Maxwell’s lawyers, in their brief, also reiterated long-raised arguments that she had endured extreme conditions after she was denied bail and held in a detention center in Brooklyn. For 22 months, they said, she was locked in an isolation cell, measuring 9-by-7 feet, and monitored constantly by video cameras.
They said her “extraordinary conditions of solitary confinement” justified a “hard-time credit.”
Ms. Maxwell’s lawyers wrote that after Ms. Maxwell’s conviction, she was moved into the jail’s general population, where the Oxford University graduate worked as an orderly, completed several educational courses and “eagerly provided a wide variety of assistance to the women in her unit, including G.E.D. tutoring.”
But while in the general population, the lawyers said, she also was the “target of a credible death threat from a fellow inmate.”
LONDON — There are increasing signs that Western unity over the war in Ukraine could be starting to crack as the conflict drags on and leaders face public discontent over rampant inflation and the cost-of-living crisis.
There are widespread concerns over how long the war could continue, with some strategists saying it has all the hallmarks of a war of attrition where no side “wins” and the losses and damage inflicted by both sides, over a protracted and prolonged period, are immense.
The U.S., U.K. and Eastern Europe appear staunch in their position that Russia must not be able to succeed or “win” in Ukraine by carving out (or reclaiming, as Moscow sees it) swathes of territory for itself, saying that could have major global geopolitical repercussions.
They have also been clear that it is Ukraine that must decide if, and when, it wants to negotiate with Russia over a peace deal. For its part, Kyiv has said it is willing to conduct talks but that it has red lines, chiefly, that it is not willing to concede any territory to Russia.
Nonetheless, there appears to be a faction within Europe — namely France, Italy and Germany — that are hoping for a peace deal sooner rather than later.
On Wednesday, French President Emmanuel Macron said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his officials will have to negotiate with Russia “at some point.”
Macron and his German and Italian counterparts (who are all in Kyiv on Thursday) have all called for a cease-fire and for a negotiated end to the war, urging Russian President Vladimir Putin to hold peace talks with Zelenskyy, to no avail.
In the meantime, Ukraine continues to plead for more weapons from its Western allies, with NATO officials meeting this week in Brussels to discuss Kyiv’s urgent need for more arms.
It comes as Russia makes gains in eastern Ukraine largely as a result of its relentless artillery bombardment of the Donbas. Russian forces are making slow but steady progress in seizing more parts of the Luhansk and Donetsk regions where two pro-Russian separatist “republics” are located, which Moscow is intent on, as it says, “liberating” from Ukraine.
The West continues to help Ukraine; U.S. President Joe Biden said Wednesday that his administration will send $1 billion more in weapons to Kyiv, as well as another $225 million in humanitarian aid. For Kyiv, the weapons can’t arrive quickly enough.
But questions are now being asked over how long its military assistance can last, particularly if the conflict continues for years.
“This is the first tranche announced inside that $40 billion total package. So we still have quite a way to go here … How long can all that last? How long will the war last? Nobody can be sure,” Kirby said.
“We know and predicted that the fight in the Donbas was going to be a slog, that it was going to probably stretch this war out many months. And it seems as if that’s bearing fruit now.”
Western leaders under pressure
When Russia’s invasion started on Feb. 24, the West’s unified opposition to the war, and robust response in imposing a raft of tough sanctions imposed on it, was striking.
Four months into the conflict, however, and Western leaders are increasingly coming under pressure from their electorates as the fallout from the conflict — essentially, soaring food and energy costs as a result of supply chain disruptions and sanctions on Russia — hit consumers hard.
Summing up the dilemma facing officials, Helima Croft, head of global commodity strategy and MENA research at RBC Capital Markets, said, “‘What is the price you are willing to pay?’ has seemingly emerged as the central question of the summer, as Western leaders seek to balance their desire to support the Ukrainian resistance with their urgent imperative to tame inflation and stave off recessions.”
There appears to be a geographic dimension to this divide, Croft noted in her note Wednesday. “U.S., U.K. and eastern European leaders seem to be the staunchest defenders of the principle that Ukrainians will determine what constitutes a just peace and have expressed strong commitments to defending Ukraine’s territorial integrity.”
However, she said, “officials from continental Europe and many developing nations, on the other hand, appear more inclined to call for a compromise that will provide Putin with a ‘golden bridge’ to retreat across.”
Croft said she had recently attended meetings and policy forums where “there was an appreciable divide” between those officials calling for more fulsome military assistance for Ukraine, and “those suggesting that it is time for Ukraine to consider making concessions at the negotiating table, citing the ruinous impact of rising commodity prices.”
Europeans divided
A pan-European poll released Wednesday also indicated that Europeans’ sense of unity over the war in Ukraine could be starting to wane.
The study by the European Council on Foreign Relations think tank found an increasing level of concern among the public over the costs of economic sanctions and the threat of nuclear escalation, in particular. It was based on polling of more than 8,000 people between April 28 and May 11 across nine EU countries.
Some 35% of those questioned wanted to see an end to the conflict even if it meant Ukraine conceding territory to Russia, whereas 22% said they were more interested in seeing Russia punished for its aggression, even if it meant prolonging the war.
In addition, a growing number of people said they were worried that their governments were prioritizing the war ahead of other issues, such as the cost-of-living crisis.
“Many in Europe want the war to end as soon as possible — even if it means territorial losses for Ukraine – and believe that the EU, rather than the U.S. or China, will be ‘worse off’ as a result of this conflict,” the report on the poll’s findings, co-authored by Mark Leonard and Ivan Krastev, said.
“Unless something dramatically changes, Europeans will oppose a long and protracted war. Only in Poland, Germany, Sweden, and Finland is there substantial public support for boosting military spending.”
Regional police chief Eduardo Fontes said one of the two men arrested in connection with the pair’s disappearance had confessed to killing them and led officers to the burial site.
The announcement appeared to bring a tragic close to the 10-day search after the pair went missing on 5 June. The pair’s disappearance has underlined the growing dangers faced by defenders of Brazil’s environment and Indigenous communities under the Brazilian president, Jair Bolsonaro.
A crowdfunding campaign has been launched to support the families of Phillips and Pereira.
Third panel hearing will show Trump pressuring Pence to overturn election
Donald Trump pressured Mike Pence in 2020 to accept a scheme to reject certified electors in an attempt to win the election Photograph: Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images
The panel will examine the origins of Trump’s pressure campaign on Pence, and outline how Pence rejected the former president’s plan. Despite being roundly told the scheme was unlawful, Trump ignored his top White House advisers to follow the course of action, it will argue.
The committee will show how Trump’s false public statements about Pence having the power to refuse to count votes for Biden endangered his life as the mob shouted “hang Mike Pence”.
What does the so-called Pence strategy mean for Trump? His involvement makes him liable for the crimes of obstructing an official proceeding and conspiring to defraud the United States, the panel argues.
Two US volunteers in Ukraine feared taken prisoner by Russia
Alexander Drueke, 39, and Andy Tai Ngoc Huynh, 27, are US military veterans living in Alabama who volunteered to go to Ukraine to assist with war efforts. Both are missing. Composite: Reuters/Associated Press
Both Alexander Drueke, 39, and Andy Tai Ngoc Huynh, 27, are US military veterans from Alabama who traveled to Ukraine to aid Ukraine’s war effort. The pair haven’t been heard from in several days.
White House spokesperson John Kirby said he could not confirm the disappearance of the two Americans but said: “If it’s true, we’ll do everything we can to get them safely back home.” He discouraged Americans from traveling to Ukraine.
What does it mean for the US? If confirmed, the pair would be the first Americans known to have been captured. It would complicate efforts in the war, as the US is trying to steer clear of direct confrontation with Russia.
The leaders of the EU’s three biggest nations, Germany, France and Italy, will visit Kyivon Thursday in a show of support for Ukraine. Volodymyr Zelenskiy is expected to push the leaders to provide Ukraine with more arms.
In other news …
John Hinckley, pictured in 2003, was 25 when he tried to assassinate Ronald Reagan in 1981. He was freed from court oversight on Wednesday. Photograph: Evan Vucci/AP
John Hinckley, who shot and wounded former president Ronald Reagan in 1981, has been freed from court oversight.He has been living in the community in Virginia since 2016 following decades in a Washington mental hospital after he was acquitted of trying to kill Reagan by reason of insanity.
The UN human rights chief, Michelle Bachelet, has said she wasn’t able to speak to any detained Uyghurs or their families, and was accompanied by government officials during her visit to Xinjiang. Activists and some western governments described it as a propaganda coup for Beijing.
Ghislaine Maxwell’s attorneys have argued that she should be sentenced to “well below” the 20 years’ imprisonmentthat probation authorities have recommended in her sex-trafficking case. They alleged that an inmate has threatened her life, claiming that an additional 20 years’ incarceration “would be worth the money she’d receive for murdering Ms Maxwell”.
Joe Biden has signed an executive order aimed at stopping discrimination against transgender youth and ending federal funding for so-called conversion therapy for transgender youth. It comes amid the slew of anti-LGBTQI+ laws introduced in state legislatures over the past year.
Stat of the day: US will save 7.4m lives globally if it reaches net zero by 2050
Ten US states could save 3.7 million lives worldwide by cutting their emissions to net zero. Photograph: Iuliia Bondar/Getty Images
A total of 7.4 million lives worldwide will be saved over this century if the US manages to reduce its emissions to net zero by 2050, according to a landmark analysis. The research, by the Climate Impact Lab, found that just 10 states could save 3.7 million lives by achieving net zero, chiefly due to their high consumption of fossil fuels. Texas alone could save 1.1 million lives.
Don’t miss this: ‘I was willing to risk death’: five women on abortions before Roe
Trudy Hale, Sarah Thompson, Frans Moreland Johns, Barbara Lee and Carol Deanow Composite: Provided photos
If the supreme court reverses Roe v Wade this summer as expected, those living in around 20 states in the south and midwest – will lose the right to abortion. Five women from across the US share their experiences of abortion in the pre-Roe v Wade era. “Often abortions are talked about as endings,” says the executive director of Grandmothers for Reproductive Rights, Kelli Wescott McCannell. “The women in our program have decades of life since their abortions that show what was made possible for them because of that abortion.”
Last Thing: can you scare yourself happy?
Daniel Lavelle explores an abandoned mill at night. Photograph: Joel Goodman/The Guardian
Fear is, apparently, said to be as beneficial for mental wellbeing as practising mindfulness. So naturally, writer Daniel Lavelle tries to pack in as much fright as possible into a few weeks. Here’s how he rates a series of thrills, from rollercoasters to spending midnight in the woods.
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Yellowstone National Park could partially reopen as early as Monday as officials continue to assess the damage caused by historic flooding, which now threatens to hamper the peak of the summer tourist season.
Heavy rains and rapid snowmelt caused rivers to swallow bridges, sweep away entire sections of roadway and forced the evacuation of more than 10,000 visitors. The sudden closure has fueled concerns from business owners and employees in surrounding communities who rely on Yellowstone visitors as a key source of revenue.
The park’s northern region, which bore the brunt of the flood damage, is expected to be closed for a “substantial length of time,” which will likely go through the end of the season, the park said in a release Tuesday.
The less-impacted southern loop could reopen as early as Monday, Park Superintendent Cam Sholly told residents and tourists in Cody, Wyoming, on Wednesday, according to the Casper Star-Tribune.
But while the southern loop reopening may provide relief to some tourism industry workers, those bordering the northern entrance are still left to wait.
In the south Montana city of Gardiner, which acts as a gateway into Yellowstone’s northern entrance, hotel owners are already feeling the impact.
“There’s nobody here,” Keri Huesing, owner of Yellowstone Gateway Inn, told CNN. “We were booked solid for a year.”
Now, she says, all but one of her visitors are gone, following the flooding, and one neighboring hotel has shut down completely and sent its employees home.
“It’s a Yellowstone town, and it lives and dies by tourism,” Park County Commissioner Bill Berg said of Gardiner.
In Cody, which lies east of the park, tourism industry workers were eager for answers from Sholly on the southern loop reopening, the Casper Star-Tribune reported. Sholly hopes gateway communities and park staff can determine how to sustain local businesses without attracting more visitors than the park can host, the paper reported.
The dangerous flooding fueled by heavy rainfall and snowmelt began to inundate the park and several surrounding communities Monday, overtaking essential roadways and bridges, and making it dangerous or impossible for some people to evacuate.
As some communities became completely surrounded by water, at times without power or drinking water, search and rescue teams worked to evacuate residents. The Montana National Guard this week carried out 87 rescues by helicopter, it said Wednesday on Facebook.
In Montana’s Park County, which includes Gardiner, water has been receding, and access to the communities that had been surrounded by floodwater has been restored for emergency vehicles at a minimum, Greg Coleman, the county’s emergency services manager, said Wednesday morning.
Park temporarily closed as locals try to recover
All five entrances to Yellowstone will remain closed through at least the weekend, the park said in a release Tuesday, and the northern roads of the park will likely be closed for an extended period due to “severely damaged, impacted infrastructure.”
The battering floodwaters wiped away entire segments of paved road near the northern entrance, downed trees and triggered multiple mudslides.
Communities surrounding Yellowstone are also reeling from the catastrophic damage. Quickly moving waters compromised several roads and bridges, submerged cars, and even swept away homes as the underlying foundations became completely worn away.
In Park County, at least two homes collapsed into the intruding Yellowstone River early this week, and numerous homes and businesses were flooded, said Coleman, the county emergency official.
Video from witnesses showed one building in Gardiner collapsing into the river on Monday. Gardiner was isolated by water Monday and into Tuesday as flooding rendered roads and bridges impassable.
Aerial video captured by CNN shows one Montana home hanging precariously over the edge of a severely eroded embankment. Photos of the aftermath in the city of Red Lodge, Montana, on Tuesday, show several streets piled with rocks and debris as water still runs over the sidewalks.
Region braces for more potential flooding
The record flooding was caused by a combination of heavy rainfall and snowmelt from high elevations over the weekend in the Beartooth and Absaroka mountain ranges, which stretch across the Montana-Wyoming state line.
The level of runoff is comparable to the region receiving two to three times a normal June’s precipitation in only three days, according to CNN meteorologists.
A flood wave moved east Tuesday and Wednesday along the Yellowstone River, the National Weather Service said, leading to reports of major flooding in Billings, which is about a 175-mile drive east of Gardiner. By Tuesday afternoon, the river at Billings had surged well above its previous record of 15 feet, according to the weather service.
The flooding prompted city officials to shut down the city water plant late Tuesday night, the city’s public works department said.
The plant resumed operations at a low level Wednesday afternoon, and by Thursday morning it was working at full capacity, city officials said.
Even as water levels began to recede in areas on Tuesday and Wednesday, park officials and residents in the region are bracing for the possibility of more flooding in the coming days.
More snow could soon melt in the mountains of Wyoming and Montana, and that, coupled with more rain this weekend, could cause river levels to rise again, the National Weather Service’s office in Billings said.
Warm air is expected to move over the mountains Thursday night, keeping the low temperatures above freezing. This, along with plenty of sunshine during the day, should get snow melting. “Temperatures will be in the 50s and 60s in the high country both Friday and Saturday afternoon,” the weather service said.
“Expect a few days of melting of what is still a substantial snowpack in the mountains.”
Showers and thunderstorms are expected to hit the area Saturday night and Sunday.
The weather service’s latest river forecasts predict substantial rises due to the melt. Still, the levels are predicted to be well under flood stage, because the rainfall amounts look very light. River projections show this new rise in water peaking over the weekend around Yellowstone and in Billings on Monday.
“By the time slightly more substantial precipitation arrives Sunday night into Monday, temperatures drop into the 30s, and snow is probable above 8,500 feet Sunday night,” the weather service said.
“That said, those with interests near waterways in the western foothills should pay attention to the forecasts through the weekend in case the forecast changes significantly,” the service added.
The intense rainfall and rapid snow melt already experienced by the park and nearby communities are consistent with projections laid out in a climate assessment report released last year from scientists with the US Geological Survey, Montana State University and the University of Wyoming.
The climate crisis is already driving more annual precipitation and runoff from melting snowpack in the Greater Yellowstone Area, and the trend will continue in the coming years, the report said.
CNN’s Judson Jones, Nick Watt, Chris Boyette, Julia Jones, Sara Smart, Maegan Vazquez, Paradise Afshahar and Rachel Ramirez contributed to this report.
The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol has new emails that show that Ginni Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, corresponded with Trump-allied lawyer John Eastman, two sources said Wednesday.
The committee is mulling what to do about the emails, two people familiar with the documents told CBS News.
The House Jan. 6 committee is expected in Thursday’s hearing to explore Eastman’s role to pressure Vice President Mike Pence to unilaterally reject electors and replace them with alternate ones. The theory floated by Eastman and others was that Republicans in seven states would submit alternate slates of electors on Jan. 6, 2021, when Congress met to certify the Electoral College votes.
Last week, a federal judge ordered Eastman to turn over 159 documents to the House select committee that he had attempted to withhold, claiming executive privilege.
Virginia Thomas, conservative activist and wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Oxon Hill, Maryland, on Feb. 23, 2017.
Susan Walsh / AP
In the House select committee’s public hearing last week, vice chair Liz Cheney said the committee would be presenting some of those emails. “You will see the email exchanges between Eastman and the vice president’s counsel as the violent attack on Congress was underway,” Cheney said. “[Pence counsel Greg] Jacob said this to Mr. Eastman: ‘Thanks to your bullsh**, we are under siege.'”
House select committee chair Rep. Bennie Thompson said in May that the committee had not considered subpoenaing her as a witness. “Well, she was not really a focal point of the broader committee’s work,” Thompson told CBS News on May 19. “She just happens to be the wife of a Supreme Court justice.”
According to the text messages first reported by The Washington Post and CBS News, Ginni Thomas’ text messages showed her encouraging Trump’s top aide to fight to overturn the 2020 election. Citing Trump allies who were gathering evidence of alleged fraud, Thomas wrote Meadows on November 19, saying, “Make a plan…and save us from the left taking America down.”
Ellis Kim and Melissa Quinn contributed to this report.
The suspect who gunned down two cops at a motel about 20 minutes outside Los Angeles on Tuesday was on probation for illegally carrying a gun and had been banned from packing heat since 2011.
Justin Flores, 35, allegedly slew El Monte police Cpl. Michael Paredes and Officer Joseph Santana and was killed in the firefight when the officers responded to a report of a stabbing.
Flores had served two prison terms for burglary and car theft and pleaded no contest to possessing a firearm as a felon last winter, according to the Los Angeles Times.
The weapons charge could have sent the career criminal back to prison for three years, but instead he was sentenced to two years’ probation and 20 days of time served, the paper said.
A day before the shooting, Flores’ probation officer filed for a revocation hearing after the suspect allegedly assaulted his girlfriend last week, violating his probation, according to the report.
Instead of being arrested and jailed, Flores was allowed to stay on the streets ahead of a June 27 hearing.
The Los Angeles County Probation Department was “currently investigating” why Flores was not taken in for the violation, the outlet said.
LA District Attorney George Gascon is facing a recall attempt as critics saying his leniency toward criminals has resulted in higher crime numbers.
Cpl. Michael Paredes was shot and killed in Los Angeles County.El Monte Police Department/FacebOfficer Joseph Santana, one of the El Monte police officers killed in the shooting.El Monte Police Department/FacebFlores served two prison terms for burglary and car theft and pleaded no contest to possessing a firearm as a felon last year.AP/California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation
Paredes and Santana reportedly came under fire after knocking on the door of a room at the Siesta Inn on Tuesday afternoon.
A shootout with Flores started in the room and ended in the parking lot with all three men dead, officials told the paper.
Flores reportedly followed his wife, Diana Flores, to the hotel, where she booked a room to escape him after he stabbed her a day earlier, according to NBC Los Angeles.
Police arrived shortly after Flores found his wife at the motel.
The Los Angeles County Probation Department was “currently investigating” why the suspect was not taken in for the violation.Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
Diana Flores said she warned the officers that her husband was not in the right state of mind and had a gun.
“I love my husband to death but … this wasn’t my husband. This was a monster,” Diana Flores said.
“I didn’t want anyone to get hurt in this,” she told NBC. “I am so deeply sorry. They didn’t deserve that, or their families. They really didn’t. They were trying to help me.”
She said she fled the room as the two cops arrived and soon heard gunshots, so she ran.
“We don’t have all the facts yet,” El Monte Mayor Jessica Ancona reportedly said Tuesday night, adding the officers were “essentially ambushed.”
The officers were native to the San Gabriel Valley city of 110,000 and were remembered by Ancona as hometown heroes.
Police Cpl. Michael Paredes and Officer Joseph Santana were remembered as hometown heroes.AP/Keith Birmingham
“They grew up here; to us, they’re El Monte homegrown,” Ancona said. “They’re our boys.”
“They were good men,” Capt. Ben Lowry, the El Monte Police Department’s acting chief, told the paper. “These two heroes paid the ultimate sacrifice today. They were murdered by a coward.”
Santana, 31, was survived by his wife, daughter and twin boys.
Paredes, 42, a 22-year veteran, left behind his wife, daughter and son.
A police station memorial adorned with candles, flowers, US flags and “Thank you” signs was flooded by community residents.
Only two members of the department had ever died in the line of duty before Tuesday, the Times reported.
LONDON — There are increasing signs that Western unity over the war in Ukraine could be starting to crack as the conflict drags on and leaders face public discontent over rampant inflation and the cost-of-living crisis.
There are widespread concerns over how long the war could continue, with some strategists saying it has all the hallmarks of a war of attrition where no side “wins” and the losses and damage inflicted by both sides, over a protracted and prolonged period, are immense.
The U.S., U.K. and Eastern Europe appear staunch in their position that Russia must not be able to succeed or “win” in Ukraine by carving out (or reclaiming, as Moscow sees it) swathes of territory for itself, saying that could have major global geopolitical repercussions.
They have also been clear that it is Ukraine that must decide if, and when, it wants to negotiate with Russia over a peace deal. For its part, Kyiv has said it is willing to conduct talks but that it has red lines, chiefly, that it is not willing to concede any territory to Russia.
Nonetheless, there appears to be a faction within Europe — namely France, Italy and Germany — that are hoping for a peace deal sooner rather than later.
On Wednesday, French President Emmanuel Macron said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his officials will have to negotiate with Russia “at some point.”
Macron and his German and Italian counterparts (who are all in Kyiv on Thursday) have all called for a cease-fire and for a negotiated end to the war, urging Russian President Vladimir Putin to hold peace talks with Zelenskyy, to no avail.
In the meantime, Ukraine continues to plead for more weapons from its Western allies, with NATO officials meeting this week in Brussels to discuss Kyiv’s urgent need for more arms.
It comes as Russia makes gains in eastern Ukraine largely as a result of its relentless artillery bombardment of the Donbas. Russian forces are making slow but steady progress in seizing more parts of the Luhansk and Donetsk regions where two pro-Russian separatist “republics” are located, which Moscow is intent on, as it says, “liberating” from Ukraine.
The West continues to help Ukraine; U.S. President Joe Biden said Wednesday that his administration will send $1 billion more in weapons to Kyiv, as well as another $225 million in humanitarian aid. For Kyiv, the weapons can’t arrive quickly enough.
But questions are now being asked over how long its military assistance can last, particularly if the conflict continues for years.
“This is the first tranche announced inside that $40 billion total package. So we still have quite a way to go here … How long can all that last? How long will the war last? Nobody can be sure,” Kirby said.
“We know and predicted that the fight in the Donbas was going to be a slog, that it was going to probably stretch this war out many months. And it seems as if that’s bearing fruit now.”
Western leaders under pressure
When Russia’s invasion started on Feb. 24, the West’s unified opposition to the war, and robust response in imposing a raft of tough sanctions imposed on it, was striking.
Four months into the conflict, however, and Western leaders are increasingly coming under pressure from their electorates as the fallout from the conflict — essentially, soaring food and energy costs as a result of supply chain disruptions and sanctions on Russia — hit consumers hard.
Summing up the dilemma facing officials, Helima Croft, head of global commodity strategy and MENA research at RBC Capital Markets, said, “‘What is the price you are willing to pay?’ has seemingly emerged as the central question of the summer, as Western leaders seek to balance their desire to support the Ukrainian resistance with their urgent imperative to tame inflation and stave off recessions.”
There appears to be a geographic dimension to this divide, Croft noted in her note Wednesday. “U.S., U.K. and eastern European leaders seem to be the staunchest defenders of the principle that Ukrainians will determine what constitutes a just peace and have expressed strong commitments to defending Ukraine’s territorial integrity.”
However, she said, “officials from continental Europe and many developing nations, on the other hand, appear more inclined to call for a compromise that will provide Putin with a ‘golden bridge’ to retreat across.”
Croft said she had recently attended meetings and policy forums where “there was an appreciable divide” between those officials calling for more fulsome military assistance for Ukraine, and “those suggesting that it is time for Ukraine to consider making concessions at the negotiating table, citing the ruinous impact of rising commodity prices.”
Europeans divided
A pan-European poll released Wednesday also indicated that Europeans’ sense of unity over the war in Ukraine could be starting to wane.
The study by the European Council on Foreign Relations think tank found an increasing level of concern among the public over the costs of economic sanctions and the threat of nuclear escalation, in particular. It was based on polling of more than 8,000 people between April 28 and May 11 across nine EU countries.
Some 35% of those questioned wanted to see an end to the conflict even if it meant Ukraine conceding territory to Russia, whereas 22% said they were more interested in seeing Russia punished for its aggression, even if it meant prolonging the war.
In addition, a growing number of people said they were worried that their governments were prioritizing the war ahead of other issues, such as the cost-of-living crisis.
“Many in Europe want the war to end as soon as possible — even if it means territorial losses for Ukraine – and believe that the EU, rather than the U.S. or China, will be ‘worse off’ as a result of this conflict,” the report on the poll’s findings, co-authored by Mark Leonard and Ivan Krastev, said.
“Unless something dramatically changes, Europeans will oppose a long and protracted war. Only in Poland, Germany, Sweden, and Finland is there substantial public support for boosting military spending.”
Millions of tourists are drawn each year to the wilderness and active geysers in Yellowstone, which sprawls across more than two million acres in the northwest corner of Wyoming and into Montana and Idaho. In 2021, more than 4.8 million people visited, a significant increase over previous years.
The storm that caused the flooding and mudslides this week began with two to three inches of rain over the weekend. Combined with warming temperatures that melted 5.5 inches of snow, the rain created the flood.
Hundreds of homes were flooded in communities north of the park in Montana, including Gardiner and Cooke City, which were also cut off from supplies of food and clean water, officials said. Floodwaters knocked out the water plant in the state’s largest city, Billings, leaving less than two days of supplies for residents. On Wednesday, Montana’s lieutenant governor requested a presidential major disaster declaration.
Ominously, some forecasts suggest more warmth and rain in four to five days, even as another foot of snow remains on Yellowstone’s mountains, raising the possibility of yet another series of floods, Mr. Sholly said.
Bill Berg, one of three commissioners in Park County, Mont., said he feared that a number of hotels and restaurants in the area might go out of business with the park’s northern entrance closed for the season. Summer is when most businesses make the bulk of their money, he said.
He said this week’s flooding was by far the worst he had seen in 50 years living in the area. He watched as the river swelled and carried full-grown trees downstream. On Wednesday, standing on the river’s edge, he gave an inventory of the debris left behind: piles of logs, pillows, toys, cabinets and a solitary cross-country ski.
When the House committee investigating Jan. 6, 2021, meets Thursday, the highest-ranking member of House leadership serving on the panel will be in an unusual position: praising a leader of the opposing party.
The hearing will focus on the intense pressure then-President Trump and conservative lawyer John Eastman put on then-Vice President Mike Pence to either reject certain states’ electoral college votes or delay Congress from certifying the results of the 2020 presidential election.
“Mike Pence did his job,” House Democratic Caucus Vice Chairman Pete Aguilar (D-Redlands) told The Times. “He did his job throughout. He didn’t waver in his reading of the Constitution. Even after all of that, the president of the United States still used every method to call him names, to call him out, and to summon a mob to get him.”
With the help of committee Chair Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) and Vice Chair Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), the four-term California congressman will take the lead in laying out the panel’s case Thursday, arguing that it would have been disastrous for the country if Pence hadn’t adhered to the vice president’s largely ceremonial role in counting the votes, and had instead embraced Trump’s theory that he could be an arbiter of whether states’ votes were acceptable.
“If the vice president would have succumbed to pressure, or if the vice president would say that he or she was more loyal to the president than the Constitution, we would have had a constitutional crisis that would have threatened the republic,” Aguilar said.
Aguilar said he sees the value of having someone in a political leadership position make the argument.
“It’s important as a partisan to say that the vice president did his job,” he said.
The committee’s mandate from the House includes proposing potential legislation, such as more clearly defining or limiting the vice president’s role, he said, “but this story is also that some people did the right thing in the moment of time that we needed them.”
Depositions already released by the committee show that Trump tried to persuade Pence to intervene in the presidential election in private Oval Office meetings on Jan. 4 and Jan. 5 and in a call the morning of Jan. 6. The pressure campaign continued in public, with Trump lambasting Pence in his Jan. 6 speech ahead of the attack on the Capitol and tweeting to supporters during the riot that Pence “didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done.”
“What the former president was willing to sacrifice — potentially the vice president — in order to stay in power is pretty jarring,” Aguilar said.
He said the committee had overlaid the route along which Pence was evacuated with a second-by-second timeline of where the rioters were in the building.
“How many paces they were apart is very small,” Aguilar said.
Most alarming to him, he said, is a clip the panel will show Thursday from a rioter who is cooperating with the Justice Department.
“We’ll hear from a witness who says that, if they would have found [Pence], they probably would have killed him,” Aguilar said.
Greg Jacob, who as Pence’s chief counsel was present as Eastman and Trump pushed the vice president to intervene, is among the witnesses scheduled to testify Thursday. Jacob was also with Pence inside the Capitol on Jan. 6, arguing with Eastman by email during the riot over who was to blame for the violence.
“The ‘siege’ is because YOU and your boss did not do what was necessary to allow this to be aired in a public way so that the American people can see for themselves what happened,” Eastman said in an email to Jacob.
After the riot ended, Eastman again emailed Jacob to say that the vice president still should send the election back to the states rather than certifying it, based on what he called a “relatively minor violation” of the procedural law.
Former Trump attorney John Eastman is at the center of the House’s Jan. 6 investigation
Aguilar said the committee also expects to use clips from the deposition of former Pence Chief of Staff Marc Short, who was also in the Eastman meetings, as well as depositions of people within the White House who discussed which members of Congress were involved in Trump’s efforts.
“You’ll also hear other people who worked inside the White House who can speak to the evolution of this conspiracy theory idea that Professor Eastman ended up advocating,” Aguilar said.
Eastman, a former Chapman University professor, was the architect of the theory that Pence could either reject states’ electoral college votes due to allegations of fraud, an act that would have left deciding the next president up to state delegations in the House, or send results back to the states to have their legislatures examine the results and decide whether they should be changed.
“What’s important to know is this only became a real strategy after they lose 60-plus court cases,” Aguilar said. “This became the last-ditch effort.”
Aguilar said the “politically palatable” plan was to send results back to the states, but “ultimately, what they wanted to do was to have the vice president outright reject electors, depriving the president-elect of the 270 electors that would be needed, thus triggering the states or Congress voting by state.”
The House picks the president if no presidential candidate receives the required 270 votes in the electoral college, with each state getting a single vote. At the time, Republicans controlled a majority of state delegations even though Democrats controlled the House.
“President [Trump] woke up on Jan. 6 feeling that he still had a path to be president by the end of the day and past Jan. 20,” Aguilar said.
The committee has been in a legal fight with Eastman for months over whether his former employer, Chapman University, can turn over to the committee the contents of his university email account. Eastman claimed attorney-client privilege over some of the documents, prompting a judge to review the contested emails.
In his initial order requiring Eastman to hand over emails sent between Jan. 3 and Jan. 7, 2021, Judge David O. Carter found that the emails showed that the plan they were trying to get Pence to implement was obviously illegal and that Trump and Eastman “more likely than not” conspired to obstruct Congress on Jan. 6.
Carter reviewed hundreds more emails sent or received by Eastman in the months before Jan. 6, and recently ordered him to hand over an additional 159 challenged documents by this week, including some from Trump.
Aguilar said in an interview that the committee is preparing for the contingency that the new trove of emails will be useful to Thursday’s hearing.
“If they’re relevant to our hearing, we will include them. We will have time to triage and read and analyze,” he said. “We will adapt.”
The panel also plans to hear in-person testimony from federal Judge J. Michael Luttig, who was nominated to the bench by President George H.W. Bush. Pence relied on Luttig’s stance disputing Eastman’s assertions about the vice president’s power when he announced on Jan. 6 that he did not believe he had the power to reject votes or delay the count.
Eastman once clerked for Luttig.
Aguilar said Luttig would be able to speak to the widely accepted interpretation of the role of Congress and the vice president under the Electoral Count Act of 1877 and the 12th Amendment, and on the deficiencies in the law that Congress might need to address.
After Thursday’s hearing, the committee plans just two more, on June 21 and June 23, with each led by a different committee member.
Like most of the committee members, Aguilar was on the House floor Jan. 6. He believes he was prepared to turn to investigating what happened in a way that others perhaps weren’t because of his experience in the aftermath of the 2015 San Bernardino shooting, which occurred in his district less than a year into his first term.
“I think it prepared me in a sense to be able to have these conversations and to be able to kind of step up in this moment, to try to help and shine a light on something that needs to be discussed,” he said. “They’re very different experiences. But Jan. 6 is informed by what my community went through, what I went through with them as their friend and spokesperson, with the Dec. 2 shooting in San Bernardino.”
While the Pentagon chief was rallying more international support for Ukraine in Brussels, President Joe Biden reaffirmed the U.S. commitment at home.
Biden said Wednesday the U.S. would contribute an additional $1 billion in security assistance and $225 million in humanitarian aid to Ukraine following a phone call with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Biden said the new package includes more artillery and coastal defense weapons, along with ammunition to boost Ukrainian efforts to defend the Donbas region in the east from a fierce Russian attack. The humanitarian part of the package is earmarked for providing drinking water, medical care, food, shelter and other needs.
“The bravery, resilience, and determination of the Ukrainian people continues to inspire the world,” Biden said in a statement. “And the United States, together with our allies and partners, will not waver in our commitment to the Ukrainian people as they fight for their freedom.”
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, speaking at NATO headquarters in Brussels earlier Wednesday, noted that the U.S. and its allies recently provided long-range rocket-assisted artillery but said more help was needed because Ukraine “is facing a pivotal moment on the battlefield.”
The request for more firepower comes amid revelations that Moscow could be increasing its own defense spending by 20% to combat a war that shows no signs of ending soon.
“Russia is using its long-range fires to try to overwhelm Ukrainian positions, and Russia continues to indiscriminately bombard Ukraine’s sovereign territory and recklessly endanger Ukrainian civilians,” Austin said. “So we must intensify our shared commitment to Ukraine’s self-defense.”
Latest developments
►President Joe Biden on Wednesday asked oil producers to reduce the cost of gas, telling them in a letter that “amid a war that has raised gasoline prices more than $1.70 per gallon, historically high refinery profit margins are worsening that pain.”
►Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny confirmed Wednesday that he was transferred to another prison and put in quarantine, writing on the Telegram messaging app that he was moved to the maximum-security IK-6 prison in the Vladimir region village of Melekhovo, about 155 miles east of Moscow.
►French President Emmanuel Macron said Wednesday the timing was right for a visit to Kyiv but did not offer more details. Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Italian Premier Mario Draghi are expected to travel to Ukraine in the coming days, according to multiple reports.
►Russia’s state-controlled energy giant Gazprom said for the second day in a row it’s reducing natural gas flows through a key European pipeline, down to a total of 60% of previous deliveries, creating energy turmoil in the continent.
►NHL officials decided they will not the Stanley Cup to travel to Russia or Belarus this summer, foregoing the unofficial tradition for players from those countries of allowing them to travel there while spending a day with the cup. Officials informed both the Tampa Bay Lightning and the Colorado Avalanche of the decision.
Two US citizens missing in Ukraine, possibly captured
Two American veterans from Alabama, who were helping Ukraine fight against Russia, are missing amid reports they’ve been captured by Russian-backed separatists. If the information is confirmed, they would be the first U.S. citizens known to have been taken into custody after coming to Ukraine’s aid.
Relatives of Andy Tai Ngoc Huynh, 27, of Trinity and Alexander Drueke, 39, of Tuscaloosa have been in contact with the state’s congressional offices seeking information about the men’s whereabouts, press aides said.
Rep. Robert Aderholt said Huynh had volunteered to go fight with the Ukrainian army against Russia and relatives haven’t heard from him since June 8, when he was in the Kharkiv region of northeastern Ukraine, located near the Russian border. Huynh and Drueke were together, an aide to Aderholt said.
The U.S. State Department said it was looking into the reports and advised Americans not to travel to Ukraine, pointing out U.S. citizens are singled out by Russian security officials. “We are closely monitoring the situation and are in contact with Ukrainian authorities,” the department said in a statement.
A court in Donetsk, under separatist control, sentenced two Britons and a Moroccan man to death last week after finding them guilty of “mercenary activities.”
Allies pledging further Ukraine support, U.S. military leaders say
Dozens of countries are joining the U.S. in boosting their commitment to supporting Ukraine’s efforts to fight off the Russian invasion, U.S. military leaders said Wednesday after meeting with 50 allies in Brussels.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, appearing with Army Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, announced the Pentagon will send $1 billion in weapons to help Ukraine’s effort to blunt Russia’s offensive in the eastern Donbas region.
The package, the 12th approved by Biden since August, includes long-range, rocket-assisted artillery, Harpoon anti-ship missiles and more conventional howitzer cannons and ammunition. U.S. allies also pledged to continue backing the Ukrainian military.
“The international community is not allowing this unambiguous act of aggression by Russia to go unanswered,” Milley said.
The Ukrainians have said they more need long-range and conventional artillery, armored vehicles and anti-aircraft systems, Austin said.
“It’s never enough,” Austin said. “And so we’re going to continue to work hard to moving as much capability as we can, as fast as we can.”
The Russians outgun the Ukrainians in the Donbas – some estimates indicate by 20-to-1 in weapons – Milley said, but the Ukrainians continue to engage in house-by-house fighting there.
“The advances the Russians have made have been very slow, a very tough slog, very severe battle of attrition, almost World War I-like, and the Russians have suffered tremendous amounts of casualties,” Milley said.
– Tom Vanden Brook
Almost two-thirds of Ukrainian children have fled their homes: UNICEF
Nearly two-thirds of Ukraine’s children have fled their homes, with families sometimes leaving behind fathers to fight the war, UNICEF says. Some of the families have moved to western Ukraine, which has been relatively calm, while others have fled across the border into Poland or other nations. The trauma and fear can have long-lasting effects on children’s physical and mental health, said Afshan Khan, UNICEF’s Regional Director for Europe and Central Asia.
“Children forced to leave homes, friends, toys and treasured belongings, family members and facing uncertainty about the future,” Khan said. “This instability is robbing children of their futures.”
Russian forces have indiscriminately bombed Ukraine cities, sometimes cutting off humanitarian evacuation corridors. The result: At least 277 children have been killed and another 456 have been injured.
“This use of explosive weapons in populated areas and attacks on civilian infrastructure must stop,” Khan said. “It is killing and maiming children and preventing them from returning to any kind of normal life in the towns and cities that are their homes.”
Ukraine seeks Harpoons to fight off Russian ships
The Harpoon, a powerful anti-ship missile, is one of Ukraine’s most urgent needs as it seeks to fend off Russian attacks from the sea, a senior Defense Department official said Wednesday.
Ukraine needs the missiles to defend itself against Russia’s effective blockade of the Black Sea and to protect the vital port city of Odesa, the official said. Harpoons provide significantly stronger deterrence than Ukraine has.
The U.S. will provide Ukraine with trucks specifically designed to launch the missiles, a second senior Pentagon official said, briefing reporters after the White House and Defense Department announced the new $1 billion aid package. It may take months to field the truck-based launch system and train Ukrainian troops to use it.
Other countries will provide the missiles, the officials said. Denmark has already pledged to send Harpoons to Ukraine.
The deterrent effect of shore-based anti-ship missiles was made plain in April when Ukraine sank the Moskva, the flagship of the Russian fleet, with a missile it had developed. Russia has since pulled its ships farther from the Ukrainian coastline.
The $1 billion dollar aid package includes $650 million from the Ukrainian Security Assistance Initiative, which allows the government to buy equipment for Ukraine, maintain it and to train its troops. The balance of $350 billion comes from existing Pentagon stocks of equipment and weapons. They will be shipped to Ukraine under the president’s drawdown authority, according to the Pentagon.
— Tom Vanden Brook
Global defense ministers meet to support Ukraine
The Ukraine Defense Contact Group meeting today, led by U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, is bringing together dozens of global of defense ministers trying to “identify and examine the next steps needed to help Ukraine defend itself from Russian aggression,” the State Department says. Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Malyar said Ukraine uses 5,000 to 6,000 artillery rounds a day – and that Russia uses 10 times more.
“No matter how much effort Ukraine makes, no matter how professional our army, without the help of Western partners we will not be able to win this war,” Malyar said in a televised news conference.
It appears Russia will significantly boost its military budget to continue its slow but steady attack on the Donbas: British defense officials said Russian defense spending could increase by 12 billion U.S. dollars — approaching a 20% increase in Russian President Vladimir Putin’s defense budget.
The British Defense Ministry said Russia is allowing the country’s defense industrial base “to be slowly mobilized to meet demands placed on it by the war in Ukraine. However, the industry could struggle to meet many of these requirements, partially due to the effects of sanctions and lack of expertise.”
Ikea to sell factories in Russia, keep stores shut
Global furniture giant Ikea said Wednesday that it will sell its four factories in Russia and liquidate inventory in its 17 stores due to supply-chain issues and the war in Ukraine. The company, which paused operations in Russia a week after the invasion, said it would be sharply reducing its workforce. The Swedish-founded company said it will continue paying employees until the end of August. Ikea also paused operations in Belarus, Russia’s neighbor and strongest ally.
“The war in Ukraine … is a human tragedy that is continuing to affect people and communities,” Ikea said in a statement on its website. “Businesses and supply chains across the world have been heavily impacted and we do not see that it is possible to resume operations any time soon.”
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