Allies said that the Republican congressman Mike Gallagher decided to exit after far-right Republicans ejected Kevin McCarthy, the former House speaker, amid other shenanigans.
But Gallagher’s latest comments suggest that his early exit is tied to fears of rising political violence in the US on all sides, though the majority of threats and concerns come from the far right.
Just this week, two prominent Republican lawmakers encouraged voters to either use violence against protesters or carry weapons.
The Republican Senate candidate Kari Lake, who is vying for a seat in Arizona, told her supporters to “strap on a Glock” ahead of the 2024 elections. A day later, the Republican senator Tom Cotton said Americans should “take matters into their own hands” when dealing with pro-Palestinian protesters, encouraging vigilantism.
An alarming number of Americans are also willing to use weapons to carry out political violence, according to a recent study.
Republican congressman for Wisconsin Mike Gallagher has suggested that he is resigning from his seat in Congress because of death threats and swatting targeted at his family.
Gallagher shared more insight into his decision to vacate his seat while talking with reporters on Tuesday, the NBC affiliate WLUK reported. Gallagher, 40, said:
This is more just me wanting to prioritize being with my family ... I signed up for the death threats and the late-night swatting, but they did not. And for a young family, I would say this job is really hard.
Gallagher is married, with two young daughters. He announced last month that he would be resigning from his congressional seat before the end of his term, effective 19 April.
Mike Gallagher, who is married with two children, said: ‘I signed up for the death threats and the late-night swatting, but they did not.’ Photograph: Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
Gallagher, a rising star within the Republican party, announced his retirement in February after breaking with other House Republicans and refusing to vote to impeach the homeland security secretary, Alejandro Mayorkas, a Democrat.
But, in March, Gallagher said that he would be exiting Congress in April, before the end of his term. He has represented Wisconsin’s eighth district since 2017.
The first potential juror has worked as a law clerk in a courthouse, and says she has discussed the Trump hush money case at length with her co-workers and boss, including the Mark Pomerantz book.
Asked if her ability to be fair and impartial had been affected, the potential juror says she will put her legal training aside, though “it’s hard to unring a bell”, per pool.
Two lawyers have already been selected to sit on Trump’s trial. One is a civil litigator at a large white-shoe law firm, and another is a corporate lawyer at a firm focused on start-ups and venture capital, according to Politico.
Before the new panel of potential jurors entered the courtroom, Judge Merchan said he had concerns about one of the selected jurors and how truthfully the person had answered questions.
One of the questions on the juror questionnaire asks if the potential juror or any of their family members were accused of a crime. Under questioning earlier this week, Juror 4 had said he hadn’t been convicted of a crime.
Prosecutors found an article from the 1990s about a person with the same name as the juror who was arrested for tearing down political advertisements. The posters were on the political right, prosecutor Joshua Steinglass said.
Steinglass also disclosed that the man’s wife may have been involved in a corruption inquiry and cooperated with the Manhattan district attorney’s office, which is prosecuting Trump’s case.
Judge Merchan noted that he had instructed the man to come to court this morning to answer questions and verify whether the people involved were him or his relative. He noted the juror’s apparent “reluctance to come in” and asked both sides if they would consent to having him removed without further inquiry.
Trump lawyer Todd Blanche declined, saying he wanted to first hear from the man before deciding to dismiss him.
Trump lawyers ask judge to force Stormy Daniels to comply with subpoena
Donald Trump’s lawyers are asking Judge Juan Merchan to force Stormy Daniels to comply with the subpoena. In their filing, they included a photo they said process server Dominic DellaPorte took of Daniels as she strode away.
Daniels’s lawyer Clark Brewster claims they never received the paperwork. He described the requests as an “unwarranted fishing expedition” with no relevance to Trump’s criminal trial. Brewster wrote in a 9 April letter to Merchan:
The process – instituted on the eve of trial – appears calculated to cause harassment and/or intimidation of a lay witness.
Daniels is expected to testify about a $130,000 payment she got in 2016 from one of Trump’s lawyers at the time, Michael Cohen, in order to stop her from speaking publicly about a sexual encounter she said she had with Trump years earlier.
Donald Trump’s legal team has said it tried serving Stormy Daniels a subpoena as she arrived for an event at a bar in Brooklyn last month, but the adult movie actor, who is expected to be a witness at the former president’s criminal trial, refused to take it and walked away.
A process server working for Trump’s lawyers said he approached Daniels with papers demanding information related to a documentary recently released about her life and involvement with Trump, but was forced to “leave them at her feet”, according to a court filing made public on Wednesday.
“I stated she was served as I identified her and explained to her what the documents were,” process server Dominic DellaPorte wrote.
She did not acknowledge me and kept walking inside the venue, and she had no expression on her face.
Stormy Daniels is expected to be a witness in Donald Trump’s hush-money trial in New York, for which jury selection resumes on Thursday. Photograph: Markus Schreiber/AP
Prosecutors say Trump has violated gag order seven times
Prosecutors are submitting another order to show cause, saying that Donald Trump has violated the gag order seven more times, starting on Monday.
Trump’s new posts came after prosecutors initially sought a $3,000 fine on Monday for three other Truth Social posts.
One links to a NYPost article calling Michael Cohen a “serial perjurer” and the case “an embarrassment for the New York legal system, per pool.
Prosecutor Chris Conroy also notes “the most disturbing post” that Trump posted on social media quoting Jesse Watters on Fox News that they are “catching undercover liberal activists lying to the judge” in order to get on the jury. “It’s ridiculous and has to stop,” Conroy says.
The defense argues that reporting statements from others should not violate the gag order.
Judge Merchan does not make an immediate ruling, saying he will wait for a hearing on the prosecution’s request for contempt sanctions over Trump’s posts scheduled for 23 April.
