WASHINGTON: The top federal prosecutor for the District of Columbia has said that “all options are on the table” for charging members of the violent pro-Trump mob that stormed the US Capitol, including sedition charges.

Michael Sherwin, acting US attorney for DC, said prosecutors plan to file 15 federal cases on Thursday for crimes including unauthorised access and theft of property, and investigators are combing through reams of evidence to bring additional charges.

“All of those charges are on the table. We will bring the most maximum charges we can,” he said.

More than 90 people have been arrested by police in Washington and more arrests are likely.

US attorneys from across the country have vowed to find and bring to justice any residents who participated in the insurrection aimed at thwarting the peaceful transfer of power.

Experts say some could face the rarely used seditious conspiracy charge.

It’s the the same charge former Attorney General William Barr’s Justice Department told prosecutors to consider levying against those who caused violence at protests last summer over the killings of black Americans by police.

Then-Deputy Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen, who stepped into the top Justice Department job when Barr resigned last month, told prosecutors in a memo in September that they should consider the use of seditious conspiracy charges against violent demonstrators, saying “it does not require proof of a plot to overthrow the US government despite what the name might suggest.”

Asserting that those responsible for the violence at the US Capitol will “face the full consequences of their actions”, Acting Attorney General Jeffery Rosen said some participants in the violence will face charges on Thursday.

“The Department of Justice is committed to ensuring that those responsible for this attack on our Government and the rule of law face the full consequences of their actions under the law,” Rosen said.

“Some participants in yesterday’s violence will be charged today,” Rosen said.

Department’s criminal prosecutors have been working throughout the night with special agents and investigators from the US Capitol Police, FBI, ATF, Metropolitan Police Department and the public to gather the evidence, identify perpetrators, and charge federal crimes where warranted, said the Acting Attorney General.

FBI Director Christopher Wray said the violence and destruction of property at the US Capitol building showed a blatant and appalling disregard for our institutions of government and the orderly administration of the democratic process.

“Let me assure the American people the FBI has deployed our full investigative resources and is working closely with our federal, state, and local partners to aggressively pursue those involved in criminal activity during the events of January 6.

“Our agents and analysts have been hard at work through the night gathering evidence, sharing intelligence, and working with federal prosecutors to bring charge,” Wray said.

“What transpired on Wednesday was “tragic and sickening,” said Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf.

“While I have consistently condemned political violence on both sides of the aisle, specifically violence directed at law enforcement, we now see some supporters of the President using violence as a means to achieve political ends. This is unacceptable,” he said.

“These violent actions are unconscionable, and I implore the President and all elected officials to strongly condemn the violence that took place yesterday,” Chad said.

US Ambassador to NATO, Kay Bailey Hutchison, in an open letter to NATO allies said that there can be no justification for the appalling invasion of our US Capitol building.

“There can be no minimisation or hiding of the disgraceful acts we watched unfold,” she said.

The 25th Amendment allows for the president to be removed from office by the vice president and a majority of the Cabinet.

WASHINGTON: Top Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer on Thursday joined dozens of his party colleagues in asking Vice President Mike Pence to invoke 25th Amendment to the American Constitution to remove President Donald Trump from office following the violent assault on the US Capitol by the president’s supporters.

The 25th Amendment allows for the president to be removed from office by the vice president and a majority of the Cabinet.

“What happened at the US Capitol yesterday was an insurrection against the United States, incited by the president.

This president should not hold office one day longer,” Senate Democratic leader Schumer said.

“The quickest and most effective way – it can be done today – to remove this president from office would be for the vice president to immediately invoke the 25th amendment,” he demanded.

“If the vice president and the cabinet refuse to stand up, Congress should reconvene to impeach the president,” Schumer said in a statement amidst increasing chorus to remove Trump from office.

His successor Joe Biden will be sworn in as the 46th President of the United States on January 20.

Dozens of Democratic lawmakers have demanded that Pence and his Cabinet colleagues invoke this special provision of the US constitution wherein they can remove the sitting president by saying that he is not fit to serve the office of presidency.

Adam Kinzinger on Thursday became the first Republican lawmaker to call for invoking the 25th Amendment to remove Trump from office.

“The president caused this. The president is unfit and the president is unwell. And the president now must relinquish control of the executive branch voluntarily or involuntarily,” Kinzinger said in a video posted on twitter.

Congressman Sean Casten in a statement said that “attempted coup incited by our 45th president, Donald Trump, will go down as one of the darkest moments” in American history.

“Donald Trump presents a grave threat to the continuity of our government, and our democracy.

He must be removed from office immediately, and I am calling on the House to impeach, and for Vice President Pence, in parallel to initiate removal via the 25th Amendment,” Casten said.

The “insurrectionists” who stormed the Capitol today should be held fully accountable for their actions under the law, said Senator Patty Murray.

“The most immediate way to ensure the President is prevented from causing further harm in coming days is to invoke the 25th Amendment and remove him from office.

As history watches, I urge Vice President Pence and the President’s Cabinet to put country before party and act,” he said.

There has been no reaction from Pence on this.

Pence while presiding over the Joint Sessions of the Congress to count and certify electoral college votes condemned the violence, saying violence never wins, freedom does.

“We condemn the violence that took place here in the strongest possible terms. We grieve the loss of life in these hallowed halls, as well as the injuries suffered by those who defended our Capitol today,” he said.

Describing Wednesday’s events as “one of the darkest days in American history,” Congresswoman Suzan DelBene alleged that Trump encouraged a violent mob to attack members of Congress to block the certification of Biden and Kamala Harris.

“He failed to repudiate the violence he started and refused to activate security forces to protect the US Capitol.

Consequently, he violated his oath to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States,” she said.

“I couldn’t have imagined the violence and lawlessness I saw around the United States Capitol. For the good of the country, the 25th Amendment should be invoked to remove President Trump from office immediately,” she said.

Congresswoman Doris Matsui called on Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment and convene the Cabinet to remove the president from office.

“President Trump continues to put himself above the American people, and his reckless actions to undermine our democracy must be met with equal consequence,” she said.

The 49-year-old diamond merchant facing charges of fraud, money laundering and intimidating witnesses in the estimated USD 2-billion Punjab National Bank (PNB) scam case.

LONDON: Nirav Modi’s lawyer raised a British court’s judgment blocking the extradition of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to the US on mental health grounds, as the embattled diamond merchant appeared via videolink before a court here on Thursday for a two-day hearing of final submissions in his fight against being extradited to India.

The 49-year-old diamond merchant, facing charges of fraud, money laundering and intimidating witnesses in the estimated USD 2-billion Punjab National Bank (PNB) scam case, appeared in the Westminster Magistrates’ Court.

Sporting a full beard and dressed casually in a blazer, he followed the proceedings from a room at Wandsworth Prison in south-west London as his counsel raised Monday’s judgment which blocks the extradition of Assange to the US on the grounds of his mental health.

In the Assange case, which is currently the subject of appeal, District Judge Vanessa Baraitser had ruled that extradition would be “oppressive by reason of mental harm” as the Australian activist could commit suicide.

“As in the Assange case, the issues here evidentially are the same, the mental condition of Modi and the treatment he would receive given the prison conditions in India,” said barrister Clare Montgomery, reiterating that her client’s mental health has been deteriorating due to his lengthy incarceration since March 2019.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), arguing on behalf of the Indian authorities, sought an adjournment to the proceedings in order to access Modi’s mental health records to be independently evaluated by a consultant psychiatrist and appropriate assurances be acquired in terms of his care in India.

“While the issues of mental health are not contested, the consequences of those need cross-examining,” said CPS barrister Helen Malcolm, who appeared via video link for the part-remote courtroom settings in place due to the UK’s coronavirus lockdown.

The CPS pointed to already existing Indian government assurances in the case as well as the option for Modi to access privately paid for medical treatment, given his offer of millions in the course of several bail applications before the UK courts.

However, District Judge Samuel Goozee turned down the application for adjournment and concluded that the Indian government had “ample opportunity” to respond to five reports presented by defence witness Dr Andrew Forrester, a forensic psychiatrist who examined Modi on several occasions last year and concluded that “coupled with a severe condition of depression, he presents a high risk of suicide albeit not immediately”.

The hearing on Thursday went on to focus on the defence team’s concluding submissions that several legal bars exist against extraditing Modi to India, including on human rights grounds due to inadequate prison conditions that would fail to provide sufficient anti-suicide measures.

Modi’s lawyers also claim that he would not receive a fair trial in India due to the case being politicised by the “ruling BJP”, which impacted on the principle of presumption of innocence until proven guilty.

On Friday, the CPS will conclude submissions on the prima facie case against Modi in detail, which is expected to complete the final hearings in the case and a judgment expected in a few weeks’ time.

At the last full hearing in the case in November 2020, Judge Goozee heard the arguments for and against the admissibility of certain witness statements provided by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and Enforcement Directorate (ED) and ruled that the evidence to establish a prima facie case of fraud and money laundering against the wanted diamantaire is broadly admissible.

He concluded that he considered himself “bound” by the previous UK court rulings in the extradition case of former Kingfisher Airlines chief Vijay Mallya, who has been found to have a case to answer in India in his fraud and money laundering case and awaits a “confidential” legal clearance before UK Home Secretary Priti Patel can consider signing off on his extradition order.

Clare Montgomery, who was also the defence counsel in Mallya’s case, has sought to establish that the two cases are “completely different”.

Nirav Modi is the subject of two sets of criminal proceedings, with the CBI case relating to a large-scale fraud upon PNB through the fraudulent obtaining of “Letters of Understanding” (LoUs or loan agreements), and the ED case relating to the laundering of the proceeds of that fraud.

He also faces two additional charges of “causing the disappearance of evidence” and intimidating witnesses or “criminal intimidation to cause death” added to the CBI case.

The jeweller has been in prison since he was arrested on March 19, 2019, on an extradition warrant executed by Scotland Yard and his attempts at seeking bail have been repeatedly turned down.

The charges against him centre around his firms Diamonds R Us, Solar Exports and Stellar Diamonds making fraudulent use of credit facilities or LoUs in a conspiracy with banking officials.

Authorities said the dead on Wednesday included a woman who was shot by the U.S. Capitol Police, as well as three others who died in ‘medical emergencies.

Violent protesters loyal to President Donald Trump stormed the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday and forced lawmakers into hiding, in a stunning attempt to overturn America’s presidential election, undercut the nation’s democracy and keep Democrat Joe Biden from replacing Trump in the White House.

The National Guard and state and federal police were called in for control, and the mayor of Washington imposed a rare evening curfew. One person was reported to have been shot.

The protesters were egged on by Trump and his false attacks on the integrity of the November presidential election.

While rallying his supporters outside the White House Wednesday morning, he urged them to march to the Capitol. But later — hours after they fought police and breached the building — he told them that although they were “very special people” and he backed their cause, they should “go home in peace.”

President-elect Biden, two weeks away from being inaugurated, had declared in Wilmington, Delaware: “I call on President Trump to go on national television now to fulfill his oath and defend the Constitution and demand an end to this siege.”

London: UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has imposed a new stay-at-home lockdown until at least mid-February to battle through the “critical moment” in the coronavirus pandemic, which has been exacerbated due to a new highly transmissible variant of the deadly virus.

Addressing the country in a televised address from Downing Street on Monday night, Johnson said the UK is at a pivotal stage in its fight against the rapidly spreading infections as he confirmed a complete shutdown of schools and businesses, similar to the very first nationwide lockdown back in March 2020.

“As I speak to you tonight our hospitals are under more pressure from Covid than at any time,” said Johnson.

“It’s clear that we need to do more together to bring this new variant under control. In England, we must therefore go into a national lockdown which is tough enough to combat this variant. That means the government is once again instructing you to stay at home,” he said.

He revealed that the number of hospital patients has increased to nearly 27,000, almost a third higher than the peak of the first wave of the pandemic in April 2020. He, however, stressed that there is “one huge difference” compared to the lockdown of last year.

“We are rolling out the biggest vaccination programme in our history. We have vaccinated more people in the UK than in the rest of Europe combined,” he said.

Giving a “realistic” picture on vaccination by the National Health Service (NHS), he said: “By the middle of February if things go well, and with a wind in our sails, we expect to have offered the first vaccine dose to everyone in the four top priority groups identified by the Joint Committee of Vaccination and Immunisation.”

The UK prime minister said this means vaccinating care home residents and carers, all over-70s, everyone who is clinically extremely vulnerable, and all NHS frontline and health workers.

“That will eventually enable us to lift many of the restrictions that we have endured for so long,” he said.

He advised people to leave their homes only for essential shopping, some daily exercise or medical reasons.

 “I want to say to everyone right across the UK that I know how tough this is. And I know how frustrated you are and I know that you have had more than enough of government guidance,” Johnson said.

“But now more than ever we must pull together. You must follow the new rules from now and they will become law on Wednesday morning.”

He admitted that the weeks ahead will be the “hardest yet” but reiterated that the UK was entering the “last phase of the struggle”.

“Because with every jab that goes into our arms, we are tilting the odds against Covid and in favour of the British people,” he said.