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There is a scene in the latest remake of Godzilla where Ishiro Serizawa, played by Ken Watanabe, is standing on a shoreline staring out at the sea. He is surrounded by bustling soldiers. Behind him, two giant MUTO creatures are beating the living hell out of San Francisco. Somewhere in the distance, a huge bulge of ocean approaches at dizzying speed: The King of the Monsters is coming. The commanding general asks if there is any hope that Godzilla can defeat the menace shredding the city. The arrogance of men is thinking nature is in our control and not the other way around, replies Serizawa. Let them fight.

This is how Im feeling about Donald Trump and his buddies within the Proud Boys these days.

The House Select Committee investigating the January 6 attack on the Capitol building is not Trumps only problem on that particular front; six Capitol police officers are suing him for sparking the Capitol riot, during which they were viciously assaulted, and recent court papers filed by Trumps defense team indicate they plan to lay responsibility for the whole thing at the feet of the Proud Boys and other right-wing groups.

Former President Donald Trump is seeking dismissal of a suit accusing him of sparking the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, reports Bloomberg News, arguing that speakers at political rallies dont have a legally enforceable duty of care to adversaries or others who might find themselves in the path of impassioned supporters. Trump, sued in August by eight Capitol Police officers who claim they were assaulted that day, argued in a court filing that the lawsuit should be tossed out because Trump isnt vicariously liable for the actions of people who heard him speak at a Stop the Steal rally before the siege.

It aint Stand back and stand by, thats for sure. Trump and his newest band of legal superchamps seem to be arguing that he can, in fact, yell Fire! in a crowded theater, and if you get your face stepped on by someone fleeing the room, well, thats your problem. This is far less theoretical than that old legal saw. With these filings, Trump is handing the bag directly over to groups, including the Proud Boys, which have been his staunchest and most menacing allies.

This appears to be yet another crossroads moment featuring Trump trying to put some wind between himself and the hardest of his hardcore allies. This split with the Proud Boys is nothing less than cold-blooded political calculus seen in hundreds of courtrooms a day: It was them, Your Honor, not me, and under the bus they go (the standard-issue fate of nearly everyone foolish enough to hitch their wagon to his star).

Last week, it was Trump parting ways with the anti-vax brigades, a move that went over with them about as well as a pole-vaulting sack of cement. Sitting for an interview with right-wing commentator Candace Owens, Trump pushed back hard on her suggestion that the vaccines were somehow flawed or dangerous. Oh no, the vaccines work, he replied, but some people arent the ones. The ones who get very sick and go to the hospital are the ones that dont take the vaccine. But its still their choice. And if you take the vaccine, youre protected. Look, the results of the vaccine are very good, and if you do get it, its a very minor form. People arent dying when they take the vaccine.

Vile conspiracy monger Alex Jones immediately spoke for many within the anti-vax brigades in a scathing Christmas Day message. But now that you know that [Anthony] Fauci signed you onto a fraud, you must extricate yourself from this lie, or you will be forever known as the M.V.V.P., the Most Valuable Vaccine Pusher, and the name Trump will be associated with pure evil, ranted Jones. Do not go down history as Josef Mengele 2.0. Your legacy will be that of a monster. Your legacy will be that of a eugenicist. Your legacy will be that of a child killer, using medical tyranny.

Meanwhile, the House 1/6 committee prepares to move into a more public phase of operation, sweeping in new testimony and evidence left and right, while Trumps efforts to stop them have finally reached the Supreme Court. This is a perilous moment fraught with uncertainty: Yes, the 6-3 conservative bent of the court, including three justices he personally nominated, would seem to be a safe harbor for the embattled former president. Yet that same court had a number of opportunities to involve themselves in Trumps favor during the post-election chaos, and they very deliberately wanted no part of it. There is no way to tell where they will come down on this.

Donald Trump seems to be running out of friends at an accelerating rate, and it is his own behavior that is creating the distance. Its a strange decision tree hes climbing, and puts one in mind of the old saying: What do you call a leader with no followers? Just a guy taking a walk.

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Donald Trump Has Spent the Last Two Weeks Offending His Closest Allies - Truthout

In this daily series, Newsweek explores the steps that led to the January 6 Capitol Riot.

On December 27, the last Sunday of 2020, the news media struggled to offer any happy news in a year dominated by COVID and then by Donald Trump's post-election dissension.

COVID cases reached 80 million worldwide and over the weekend, the United States reached a grim indicator: 1 in 1,000 Americans had died in the pandemic. Los Angeles County alone was experiencing one COVID death every ten minutes.

On Sunday, Dr. Anthony Fauci expressed concern that the state of the pandemic might get worse in the coming weeks. "... [T]he reason I'm concerned and my colleagues in public health are concerned also is that we very well might see a post-seasonal, in the sense of Christmas, New Year's, surge ... a surge upon a surge, because, if you look at the slope, the incline of cases that we have experienced as we have gone into the late fall and soon-to-be-early winter, it is really quite troubling."

"We are really at a very critical point," Fauci said.

Then there was the Christmas morning bombing in Nashville, still raw in people's minds, a reminder that nothing stopped for the pandemic. Though terrorism was being downplayed, analysts latched onto other implications. "I think this is a wake-up call and a warning for all of us about how vulnerable our infrastructure is," former FBI assistant director Frank Figliuzzi told CBS' Face the Nation. "We've concentrated, post 9/11 on ... getting our hands around all the chemical companies, mass orders of precursors for known explosives," he said, calling on shop owners and companies to be even more vigilant.

"[T]he notion of a copycat seeing what's happened in Nashville and trying to do this themselves is very real," he said.

"We haven't really been talking about infrastructure in this country in the context of individuals trying to conduct attacks of harm against," former homeland security Assistant Secretary Elizabeth Neumann told ABC's This Week, "but it's just a stark reminder that it is extremely vulnerable and we're overdue for some pretty significant investments."

On NBC's Meet the Press, there was no talk of Nashville, or COVID: the entire show was devoted to Joe Biden and what kind of president he would be. The closest the program got was in asking two governors about the difficult time and being targeted by COVID protestors. Gov. Mike Dewine of Ohio said: "I think it's understandable that people are upset. It's nine months into this. People are tired of it, so I get it."

Trump's "final days in office are shaping up to be the most volatile and unpredictable of a presidency defined by its volatility and unpredictability," said Jonathan Karl on ABC's This Week.

ABC had Maryland Republican Governor Larry Hogan on, Karl asking him if he was concerned about the damage Donald Trump could do in his last 24 days in office. Hogan cited Trump's delay in signing the COVID stimulus bill into law, his vetoing of the defense authorization bill. "Millions of people are going to suffer," Hogan said. "The Paycheck Protection Plan ran out in July. Unemployment benefits are about to run out tomorrow. And we've got to get this done."

Asked about Trump's call for a last-ditch fight on January 6, Hogan reassured viewers that Joe Biden was going to be sworn in on January 20. "There is a lot of disinformation out there," Hogan said. "Everybody wants every single legal vote to be counted. We want the election to be fair and proper."

"I'm hopeful that the vice president [Mike Pence] understands that [January 6 is a purely ceremonial job] and will execute his constitutional duties on January 6th," former Governor of New Jersey Chris Christie told ABC. "There may be some, some histrionics that go along with it, in the end I'm confident that the Congress will confirm what the American people did on Election Day, which was to elect Joe Biden the next president of the United States."

Not one of the dominant Sunday morning news shows mentioned the protests brewing or the likelihood of violence.

"See you in Washington, D.C., on January 6th. Don't miss it," Donald Trump tweeted on Sunday.

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Though Obsessed with Donald Trump, the Media Was Blind to Brewing Threat of Violence - Newsweek

Republicans cheered when Chris Smith, a leading anti-abortion advocate, flipped a Democratic-held district and was elected to Congress in 1980. Hes won in landslides for the following four decades.

But now the leader of Republican Party, former President Donald Trump, wants Smith out of office. Two GOP candidates are answering Trumps call to challenge New Jerseys longest-serving congressman in next years primary just as Smiths new district gains more loyal supporters of the former president.

The reason? Smith, who often split with Trump and House GOP leaders during his 41 years on Capitol Hill, went too far in the eyes of the ex-president when he was one of only 13 House Republicans to back President Joe Bidens $1 trillion infrastructure bill.

Alan Steinberg, who worked in the administrations of Gov. Christie Whitman and President George W. Bush, said it has more to do with the state of the Republican Party than Smith.

Hes never changed, Steinberg said. The party has changed.

Former Rep. Frank LoBiondo, R-2nd Dist., who also often opposed Trump when he served in Congress, said the ex-presidents actions show any dissent is no longer permitted.

The former president doesnt take kindly to somebody who disagrees in any way shape or form with him, LoBiondo said. Ive never seen it this bad. Its a whole different ball game. You cant even talk about cooperation without jumping down your throat.

Two Republicans have asked Trump to endorse their primary challenges to Smith: Mike Blasi and Tricia Flanagan.

The Chris Smith of 20 years ago would not be supportive of the Chris Smith of today, said Dominick Cuozzo, a member of Blasis campaign management team.

No way, Smith said. He says hes still a conservative moderate.

Im not a liberal, Smith said.

Despite hearing a few dissenting voices from the fringes such as Rep Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., who on Twitter called Smith a traitor along with the other Republicans who voted yes on infrastructure the New Jersey Republican said his views remain in line with the GOP.

The mainstream of the party hasnt changed that much, he said. I feel very at home.

If there is any movement, one could argue that the party has moved closer to Smith rather than the other way around. The former executive director of New Jersey Right to Lifes election began as an outlier in a state where leading New Jersey Republicans, most notably Govs. Whitman and Tom Kean, supported abortion rights.

Now, thanks to Trump and Senate Republicans, a six-judge GOP majority on the U.S. Supreme Court could revoke the constitutional right to abortion in Roe v. Wade.

Smith has drawn the ire of GOP leaders before, most notably when he was stripped of his House Veterans Affairs Committee chairmanship for opposing Republican efforts to cut federal funding for veterans.

He annually is among the Republicans least likely to toe the party line, and most likely to work with Democrats. And he opposed both of Trumps top legislative priorities: the GOP tax law and he unsuccessful effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act.

LoBiondo said Smith does a good job representing New Jersey.

Were not Alabama or Mississippi or one of the deep red states, said LoBiondo, who also opposed both bills. If you want Republican representation, thats going to look different than it will in other areas.

Indeed, Smiths brand of Republicanism remains popular in his district. Hes received at least 60% of the vote in 18 of his 21 successful House campaigns.

The thing about Chris Smith is hes the same guy hes always been, said former Rep. Mike Ferguson, R-7th Dist. That is the reason that no matter what his district has looked like, New Jersey voters have confidence in who he is and they love that he is their representative in Washington.

Smiths vote for the infrastructure bill was different than the other times he diverted from the Republican stance because of Trump, said Ross Baker, a political science professor at Rutgers University..

(Trump) is spending his time plotting his revenge and going after people who otherwise are solid Republicans representatives who subscribe to what the party stands for these days, except for those things that are important to the district that Trump opposes, Baker said.

LoBiondo said that enforcing such loyalty tests could hurt the partys chances of winning back the House majority in 2022.

Were really on the edge of retaking the majority, LoBiondo said. One of the things the Republicans seem to be pretty good at is forming a circular firing squad. Chris, who has held a solid grip on that district, is told hes got to have a primary because there was a single vote that people didnt agree on.

Smiths new district, approved by the states independent redistricting commission Wednesday, removes his home in Hamilton and his Mercer County base while adding large swaths of pro-Trump Ocean County Republicans.

David Wasserman, who tracks House races for the Cook Political Report, said that could mean trouble for Smith in next years Republican primary

Hes picking up a ton of hard-core Trump towns in Ocean County who dont like that he voted for the bipartisan infrastructure bill, Wasserman said.

Smith said more than 70% of the new 4th is his current district and he previously represented some of the other municipalities during his four decades in Washington. He supported the former president 66% of the time, according to FiveThirtyEight.

I know these areas, including the new areas, Smith said. Trump is a force. Ive supported much of his agenda. So Im very confident where I stand vis a vis Donald Trump.

One of Smiths primary opponents, Blasi, a veteran, former law enforcement officer and owner of a small real estate company, described his agenda as America First and praised two of Trumps most vocal supporters in Congress: Reps. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, and Paul Gosar, R-Ariz. Both backed efforts to overturn the 2020 election that Trump lost.

Smith broke with a majority of House Republicans and did not ask the U.S. Supreme Court to throw out the election results in several battleground states won by Joe Biden, and voted against rejecting state-certified election results in two states following the Jan. 6 insurrection by supporters of the former president.

We need more Jim Jordans and less Chris Smiths, said Blasi, who entered the race as a Trump supporter even before the former president sought a primary challenger to Smith. Im watching several congressmen and congresswomen doing their jobs and stepping up. Theres nobody stepping up in Jersey.

Cuozzo said Blasi had the support of Karen Giorno, a former Florida adviser to Trumps campaign. He said Giorno has submitted Blasis name to Susie Wiles, who is overseeing the former presidents political operation, including his endorsements.

Following Trumps call to action, Flanagan, who initially sought the GOP nomination against Democratic Rep. Andy Kim in the 3rd District, said she would instead run against Smith in the 4th District GOP primary.

Im answering the very clear and present call that President Trump put forth for Chris Smith to be primaried in this midterm, said Flanagan, who earlier this year sought the ex-presidents support for her challenge against Kim during a visit to his Bedminster golf club.

Smith, though, said all indications were that Trump would sit out his race. Theres no sense that hes going to do anything, Smith said.

Nor was he worried about his vote for the infrastructure bill being an issue next year, he said.

Infrastructure is a win for everybody, he said. I dont think its going to be a major problem or even a minor problem.

Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com.

Jonathan D. Salant may be reached at jsalant@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him at @JDSalant.

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N.J.s Chris Smith was once celebrated by conservatives. Now Trump wants him gone. What happened? - NJ.com

Expectation is growing that Donald Trump might face charges for trying to obstruct Congress from certifying Joe Bidens election this year as a House panel collects more evidence into the 6 January attack on the Capitol, former prosecutors and other experts say.

Speculation about possible charges against the former US president has been heightened by a recent rhetorical bombshell from Republican representative and 6 January panel vice-chair Liz Cheney suggesting the House panel is looking at whether Trump broke a law that bars obstruction of official proceedings.

Former prosecutors say if the panel finds new evidence about Trumps role interfering with Congress job to certify Bidens election, that could help buttress a potential case by the Department of Justice.

In varying ways, Cheneys comments have been echoed by two other members of the House select committee, Republican Adam Kinzinger and Democrat Jamie Raskin, spurring talk of how an obstruction statute could apply to Trump, which would entail the panel making a criminal referral of evidence for the justice department to investigate, say DoJ veterans.

Cheneys remarks raising the specter of criminal charges against Trump came twice earlier this month at hearings of the committee. Experts believe the charges could be well founded given Trumps actions on 6 January, including incendiary remarks to a rally before the Capitol attack and failure to act for hours to stop the riot, say former justice department officials.

Based on what is already in the public domain, there is powerful evidence that numerous people, in and out of government, attempted to obstruct and did obstruct, at least for a while an official proceeding i.e., the certification of the Presidential election, said former DOJ inspector general and former prosecutor Michael Bromwich in a statement to the Guardian. That is a crime.

Although a House panel referral of obstruction by Trump would not force DOJ to open a criminal case against him, it could help provide more evidence for one, and build pressure on the justice department to move forward, say former prosecutors.

Attorneygeneral Merrick Garland has declined to say so far whether his department may be investigating Trump and his top allies already for their roles in the Capitol assault.

The panel has amassed significant evidence, including more than 30,000 records and interviews with more than 300 people, among whom were some key White House staff.

The evidence against Trump himself could include his actions at the Stop the Steal rally not far from the White House, where he urged backers to march to the Capitol and fight like hell [or] youre not going to have a country any more. Trump then resisted multiple pleas for hours from Republicans and others to urge his violent supporters to stop the attack.

Recent rulings by Trump-appointed district court judges have supported using the obstruction statute, which federal prosecutors have cited in about 200 cases involving rioters charged by DOJ for their roles in the Capitol assault that injured about 140 police officers and left five dead.

Still, experts note that the House panels mission has been to assemble a comprehensive report of what took place on 6 January and work on legislation to avoid such assaults on democracy. They caution that any criminal referral to DOJ documenting Trumps obstruction of Congress will take time and more evidence to help bolster a DOJ investigation.

Some DOJ veterans say that any referral to DOJ by the House panel for a criminal case against Trump and perhaps top allies such as ex chief of staff Mark Meadows, whom the House last week cited for criminal contempt for refusing to be deposed might also include Trumps aggressive pressuring of federal and state officials before 6 January to block Bidens win with baseless charges of fraud.

Bromwich stressed that the evidence is steadily accumulating that would prove obstruction beyond a reasonable doubt. The ultimate question is who the defendants would be in such an obstruction case. Evidence is growing that, as a matter of law and fact, that could include Trump, Meadows and other members of Trumps inner circle.

Cheney teed up the issue about Trumps potential culpability first at a House panel hearing last week, when she urged that Meadows be held in contempt for refusing to be deposed, and then hit Trump with a rhetorical bombshell.

We know hours passed with no action by the president to defend the Congress of the United States from an assault while we were counting electoral votes, Cheney said.

Did Donald Trump, through action or inaction, corruptly seek to obstruct or impede Congress official proceeding to count electoral votes?

Cheneys comments about Trump were very precise, including language from the criminal obstruction statute, and she stated that her question is a key one for the panels legislative tasks.

Raskin too has told Politico that the issue of whether Trump broke the law by obstructing an official proceeding is clearly one of the things on the mind of some of the members of the committee.

The possibility of obstruction charges is legally valid, said Paul Rosenzweig, a former DOJ prosecutor who worked on Ken Starrs team during the impeachment of former President Bill Clinton, noting that two district judges appointed by Trump have recently said that the statute covers the efforts on January 6 to stop the electoral count.

For instance, Judge Dabney Friedrich in a recent opinion rejected the claim by some defendants who were challenging the DOJ view that the 6 January meeting of Congress fit the legal definition of an official proceeding.

Rosenzweig posited that given Trumps various attempts before 6 January to undermine the election results, a broader conspiracy case may be another option for prosecutors to pursue. Should DOJ look at broader conspiracy charges, Trumps persistent pressures on acting attorney general Jeffrey Rosen and his top deputy for help blocking Bidens victory wouldprobably be relevant, say ex-prosecutors.

On one call on 27 December 2020, Trump pressed Rosen and his deputy to falsely state the election illegal and corrupt despite the fact that the DOJ had not found any evidence of widespread voter fraud.

Paul Pelletier, a former acting chief of the fraud section at DOJ, said that Cheneys statements were carefully crafted and obviously based upon evidence the committee had seen. Should Congress ultimately refer the case to DOJ for investigation and prosecution, the DOJs investigation would not be limited to a single obstruction charge, but would more likely investigate broader conspiracy charges potentially involving Trump and other key loyalists.

The panel has accelerated its pace recently by sending out dozens of subpoenas for documents and depositions, some to close Trump aides. Meadows has become a central focus of the inquiry, in part over tweets he received on and near the insurrection that are among approximately 9,000 documents he gave the panel, much to Trumps chagrin.

As Trumps efforts to thwart the panel from moving forward have had limited success, he has relied on sending out splenetic email attacks, including one last month that read: The Unselect Committee itself is Rigged, stacked with Never Trumpers, Republican enemies, and two disgraced RINOs, Cheney and Kinzinger, who couldnt get elected dog catcher in their districts.

Despite Trumps angry attacks on the panel, some ex-prosecutors say that prosecuting Trump if enough evidence is found to merit charges is important for the health of American democracy.

Former Georgia US attorney Michael J Moore told the Guardian: I hate to think of a legal system that would allow the most powerful person in the country to go unchallenged when he has abdicated his highest priority, that being to keep our citizens safe. Trumps conduct that day was not unlike a mob boss.

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Trump could face charges for trying to obstruct certification of election, legal experts say - The Guardian

Donald Trump turned to the supreme court Thursday in a last-ditch effort to keep documents away from the House committee investigating the 6 January insurrection at the Capitol.

A federal appeals court ruled against the former US president two weeks ago, but prohibited documents held by the National Archives from being turned over before the supreme court had a chance to weigh in. Trump appointed three of the nine justices.

Trump is claiming that as a former president he has right to assert executive privilege over the records, arguing that releasing them would damage the presidency in the future.

But Joe Biden determined that the documents were in the public interest and that executive privilege should therefore not be invoked.

The documents include presidential diaries, visitor logs, speech drafts, handwritten notes concerning the events of January 6 from the files of former chief of staff Mark Meadows, and a draft executive order on the topic of election integrity, the Archives has said.

The House committee has said the records are vital to its investigation into the run-up to the deadly riot that was aimed at overturning the results of the 2020 presidential election.

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Trump asks supreme court to block release of 6 January records - The Guardian