Former Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith arrived on Capitol Hill for a closed-door interview with House Republicans on Wednesday after lawmakers rebuffed his offer to testify publicly about his investigations into President Donald Trump. The private deposition is part of an ongoing investigation by the Republican-led House Judiciary Committee into the Justice Department's criminal inquiries of Trump during the Biden administration. Smith was subpoenaed earlier this month to provide testimony and documents, and his lawyers indicated that he would cooperate with the congressional demand despite having volunteered more than a month earlier to answer questions publicly before the committee. Smith did not speak as he arrived just before 10 a.m., but his lawyer Lanny Breuer told reporters: “Jack is showing tremendous courage" by testifying. Trump told reporters at the White House that he supported the idea of an open hearing, saying: “I'd rather see him testify publicly. There's no way he can answer the questions.” Smith is expected to discuss both of his investigations of Trump but will not answer questions that call for grand jury materials, which are restricted by law, according to a person familiar with the investigation who insisted on anonymity to discuss the interview. He is also expected to correct what he regards as mischaracterizations from Republicans about his work, including about his team's use of cellphone records belonging to certain GOP lawmakers, the person said. Smith was appointed in 2022 to oversee the Justice Department investigations into Trump’s efforts to overturn his 2020 presidential election loss to Democrat Joe Biden and his hoarding of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida. Smith’s team filed charges in both investigations. Smith abandoned the cases after Trump was elected to the White House again last year, citing Justice Department legal opinions that say a sitting president cannot be indicted. Republicans who control Congress have sought interviews with at least some individual members of Smith’s team. In recent weeks they have seized on revelations that the team, as part of its investigation, had analyzed the phone records of select GOP lawmakers from on and around Jan. 6, 2021, when pro-Trump rioters stormed the U.S. Capitol to try to halt the certification of Trump's election loss to Biden. The phone records reviewed by prosecutors included details only about the incoming and outgoing phone numbers and the length of the call but not the contents of the conversation.

A leading Muslim civil rights group in the U.S. has sued Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis over his order designating it and another organization as a “ foreign terrorist organization,” saying the directive was unconstitutional. The Council on American-Islamic Relations, known as CAIR, has more than 20 chapters across the United States and its work involves legal actions, advocacy and education outreach. The lawsuit was filed late Monday by the CAIR-Foundation and CAIR-Florida, its affiliate in the state. The suit asked a federal judge in Tallahassee to declare DeSantis' order unlawful and unconstitutional and prevent it from being enforced. “He has usurped the exclusive authority of the federal government to identify and designate terrorist organizations by baselessly declaring CAIR a terrorist organization,” the lawsuit says. CAIR said in the lawsuit that it was targeted by DeSantis for defending the free speech rights of people in cases in which state officials and officials elsewhere had tried to punish or silence those who had expressed support for Palestinian human rights. The order by DeSantis last week also gives the same “foreign terrorist” label to the Muslim Brotherhood, a pan-Arab Islamist political movement. President Donald Trump last month issued an executive order that sets in motion a process to designate certain chapters of the Muslim Brotherhood as a foreign terrorist organization. The governor’s order instructs Florida agencies to prevent the two groups and those who have provided them material support from receiving contracts, employment and funds from a state executive or cabinet agency. Florida has an estimated 500,000 Muslim residents, according to CAIR. When reached by email for comment on Tuesday, the governor's press secretary, Molly Best, referred to DeSantis' recent social media posts on the topic in which he said he looked forward to a trial. In one post, DeSantis said, “I look forward to discovery — especially the CAIR finances. Should be illuminating!” Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has issued a similar proclamation in Texas. CAIR last month asked a federal judge to strike down Abbott’s proclamation, saying in a lawsuit that it was “not only contrary to the United States Constitution, but finds no support in any Texas law.”

A prosecutor told jurors on Dec. 15 that a Wisconsin judge said she would “take the heat” for directing an immigrant to dash through a private courtroom door while federal agents were trying to arrest him. Opening remarks by Assistant U.S. Attorney Keith Alexander kicked off an extraordinary trial for a public official. Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Hannah Dugan is charged with obstruction and concealment for her actions this spring during President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown. The trial in federal court in Milwaukee will center on what happened when Eduardo Flores-Ruiz, 31, reported to the county courthouse in April for a hearing on a state crime. Authorities say Dugan led him out through a back door that led to a public corridor after she told immigration agents to speak with the chief judge about trying to arrest people at the courthouse. “They did not expect a judge, sworn to uphold the law, would divide their arrest team and impede their efforts to do their jobs,” Alexander told the jury. He said Dugan informed her court reporter that she “would take the heat” for helping Flores-Ruiz. The government's case is expected to run through at least Thursday, with roughly two dozen witnesses lined up to testify. Dugan faces up to six years in prison if convicted on both counts. She has argued that she was following courthouse protocols on immigration arrests and wasn’t trying to disrupt agents. Her lawyer says Chief Judge Carl Ashley had sent out a draft policy that barred immigration agents from executing certain warrants in nonpublic areas and required court personnel to refer agents to a supervisor. Agents followed Flores-Ruiz outside the building and arrested him after a foot chase. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security announced in November that he had been deported after he pleaded no contest in the local battery case and was sentenced to time served. Ahead of the trial, U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman declined to dismiss the charges, saying there was no firmly established immunity for Dugan. Democrats say Trump is looking to make an example of Dugan to blunt judicial opposition to immigration arrests. Dugan told police she and her family found threatening flyers at their homes this spring. The administration has branded her an activist judge. Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, a fierce Trump loyalist running for Wisconsin governor next year, urged authorities to “lock her up” in a recent tweet.