Politics

By Susan Heavey and Trevor Hunnicutt

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. President Joe Biden appeared virtually at a White House meeting of economic advisers on Friday to highlight his good health a day after testing positive for COVID-19.

Speaking remotely at the meeting to discuss White House efforts to lower gas prices, Biden appeared vigorous and in good spirits but with a noticeably deeper voice, hours after his doctor released a statement saying his symptoms had improved.

“I’m feeling much better than I sound,” he said, apologizing for intermittent coughs as he described recent efforts to lower gasoline prices. “Gas prices are coming down. In fact, gas prices have fallen every day,” he said.

Seated as a desk in the White House residence and flanked by a bag of Halls cough drops and a box of tissues that was quickly removed before his remarks began, Biden gave a thumbs-up when asked by reporters how he felt.

Biden, 79, tested positive for COVID on Thursday, when the White House said he was experiencing mild symptoms and would continue working but in isolation. His diagnosis comes as a highly contagious subvariant of the coronavirus drives a new wave of cases in the United States.

A letter released from the White House physician, Kevin O’Connor, said Biden reached 99.4 F (37.4 C) on Thursday night but he responded favorably to Tylenol and was breathing normally.

“His voice is deeper this morning. His pulse, blood pressure, respiratory rate and oxygen saturation remain normal, on room air,” O’Connor said. Biden has a runny nose, fatigue and occasional dry cough, the doctor said.

At the Friday afternoon briefing, White House COVID-19 Coordinator Dr. Ashish Jha stressed that the 99.4 F reading was the highest Biden had experienced during his illness. Jha noted that Biden’s vitals had remained in the normal range but admitted the president had used an inhaler a couple of times since testing positive.

Overall, Jha said Biden was doing better, noting that he had slept well and ate his breakfast and lunch. “He joked that his one regret was that his appetite had not changed,” Jha said, adding that the president “was, and is, in a very good mood.”

On Friday, as the White House sought to convey a sense of normalcy, it also released another photo of Biden signing legislation a day earlier wearing a black mask.

“The president said he is still putting in eight-plus hours of work a day,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters at a daily briefing.

O’Connor said two medicines that Biden takes, Eliquis for atrial fibrillation and cholesterol drug Crestor, are being held back temporarily to avoid interfering with his treatment course of the antiviral drug Paxlovid. He said low-dose aspirin is being added to Biden’s treatment as an alternative blood thinner.

“The president is tolerating treatment well,” he said.

Biden, who is the oldest person ever to serve as president of the United States, is due to hold a total of three virtual meetings with his staff on Friday, including his economic, legislative and national security aides, according to his public schedule released by the White House.

He began experiencing typical COVID symptoms and, once diagnosed with the virus, was immediately put on Paxlovid.

Fully vaccinated and twice boosted, Biden said he was “doing well” in a video posted on his Twitter account on Thursday. In the 21-second clip, he also said he was “getting a lot of work done” and would continue with his duties.

Jha said it was still unclear where exactly Biden, who recently returned from a trip to the Middle East, contracted the coronavirus.

Speaking at the briefing on Friday afternoon, Jha also said the White House’s medical unit had identified and informed 17 close contacts of Biden’s, including senior staff, and said so far none of the staff had tested positive.

U.S. COVID cases have jumped more than 25% in the last month, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), as the new BA.5 subvariant takes hold there and across the world.

‘THE BEST CARE THERE IS’

Biden had been planning to travel to his home state of Delaware this weekend but instead first lady Jill Biden, who has so far tested negative, will stay there while the president isolates in the White House.

U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris has also tested negative.

Paxlovid, the Pfizer Inc antiviral drug the president is taking, has been shown to reduce the risk of severe disease by nearly 90% in high-risk patients if given within the first five days of infection, but has also been associated with rebound infections in some cases.

Even with the powerful antiviral drug and vaccines, a small percentage of older people do wind up in the hospital.

However, health experts have noted that Biden appears to be in relatively good health for his age, echoed by the president’s physical in late 2021.

(Reporting by Susan Heavey, Trevor Hunnicutt and Katharine Jackson and Steve Holland; Writing by Susan Heavey and Alexandra Alper; editing by Trevor Hunnicutt, John Stonestreet and Jonathan Oatis)

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By Sarah N. Lynch

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The prosecution asked jurors on Friday to convict Steve Bannon on charges of contempt of Congress for rebuffing a subpoena by the committee investigating last year’s attack on the U.S. Capitol, saying Donald Trump’s former presidential adviser must be held accountable for his unlawful defiance.

The prosecution began delivering its closing arguments to the 12-member jury in the trial, with the defense going next. Jurors were due to start their deliberations after that. The defense rested its case on Thursday without calling any witnesses after the prosecution rested on Wednesday, having called just two witnesses over two days.

Bannon, 68, has pleaded not guilty to two misdemeanor counts after rebuffing the House of Representative select committee’s subpoena requesting testimony and documents as part of its inquiry into the Jan. 6, 2021, rampage by Trump supporters trying to overturn his 2020 election defeat.

Prosecutor Molly Gaston told jurors the attack represented a “dark day” for America.

“This is a simple case about a man – that man, Steve Bannon – who didn’t show up,” Gaston told jurors. “Why didn’t he show up? He did not want to provide the Jan 6 committee with documents. He did not want to answer its questions. And when it really comes down to it, he did not want to recognize Congress’s authority or play by the government’s rules.”

    “Our government only works if people show up. It only works if people play by the rules. And it only works if people are held accountable when they do not,” Gaston told jurors.

U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols placed limits on the kinds of arguments the defense could make during the trial.

Bannon was barred from arguing that he believed his communications with Trump were subject to a legal doctrine called executive privilege that can keep certain presidential communications confidential. The judge also prohibited Bannon from arguing that he relied on legal advice from an attorney in refusing to comply.

Bannon’s primary defense in the trial was that he believed the subpoena’s deadline dates were flexible and subject to negotiation between his attorney and the committee.

“This document is not hard to understand,” Gaston told jurors of the subpoena. “It tells him what he is required to do, and when he is required to do it.”

The main prosecution witness was Kristin Amerling, a senior committee staff member. She testified on Wednesday that Bannon disregarded the subpoena’s two deadlines, sought no extensions and offered an invalid rationale for his defiance – a claim by Trump involving a legal doctrine called executive privilege that can keep certain presidential communications confidential.

Trump’s supporters stormed the Capitol and attacked police in a failed effort to block formal congressional certification of his 2020 election loss to Democrat Joe Biden, which Trump falsely claims was the result of widespread voting fraud. Bannon was a key adviser to Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, then served in 2017 as his chief White House strategist.

The defense has made motions to the judge asking him to acquit Bannon, arguing the prosecution failed to prove its case, or dismiss the charges because his lawyers were blocked from calling as witnesses lawmakers who are members of the committee. Such motions seeking acquittals and dismissals at the end of a trial are common and rarely granted. Nichols said he intends to rule on both motions after the jury reaches a verdict.

(Reporting by Sarah N. Lynch; Editing by Will Dunham)

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NEW YORK (AP) — A man brandishing a sharp object who attacked U.S. Rep. Lee Zeldin as the Republican candidate for New York governor delivered a speech in western New York has been charged with attempted assault.

“I’m OK,” Zeldin said in a statement after the incident Thursday. “Fortunately, I was able to grab his wrist and stop him for a few moments until others tackled him.”

David Jakubonis, 43, was arraigned and released, a Monroe County sheriff’s spokesperson said. It’s not clear whether Jakubonis has an attorney who can speak for him. A message seeking comment was left at a number listed for Jakubonis.

Jakubonis is an Army veteran who was deployed to Iraq in 2009 as a medical laboratory technician.

The incident happened as Zeldin, who is challenging incumbent Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul this November, was addressing a Veterans of Foreign Wars post in the town of Perinton, outside Rochester.

The attacker climbed onto a low stage where the congressman spoke to a crowd of dozens, flanked by bales of hay and American flags.

Videos taken by people in the audience showed Jakubonis walk up to Zeldin saying, “You’re done,” and then try to grab him, bringing a pointed object shaped like a cat’s head toward Zeldin’s neck as he reached for the congressman. Photos of the object suggested it was a keychain meant to be worn on the knuckles for self defense.

Jacob Murphy, a spokesperson for Zeldin’s congressional office, said Friday that Zeldin had a minor scrape from the incident. He said Zeldin had not received any specific threats recently.

In response to a question about what security was at the event, Murphy said: “Congressman Zeldin had private security at the event and law enforcement arrived on the scene within a few minutes. Security will be increased starting with our first event this morning.”

Among those who helped to subdue the attacker was Zeldin’s running mate, former New York Police Department Deputy Inspector Alison Esposito.

In a statement, Hochul condemned the attack and said she was “relieved to hear that Congressman Zeldin was not injured and that the suspect is in custody.”

New York Republican State Committee Chairman Nick Langworthy called on Hochul to issue a security detail for Zeldin to protect him on the campaign trail.

“This could have gone a lot worse. This could have really ended in a horrible way tonight and this is unacceptable,” he said.

Hochul’s press secretary Avi Small referred questions about providing Zeldin with a security detail to New York state police.

Zeldin, an Army Reserve lieutenant colonel who has represented eastern Long Island in Congress since 2015, is a staunch ally of former President Donald Trump and was among the Republicans in Congress who voted against certifying the 2020 election results.

He has focused his campaign on fighting crime but faces an uphill battle against Hochul. He’ll need to persuade independent voters — which outnumber Republicans in the state — as well as Democrats in order to win the general election.

Democrats are expected to focus on Zeldin’s vocal defense of Trump during both of his impeachments and objection to the election results.

___

Associated Press reporter Karen Matthews contributed to this report.

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Joe Biden continues to have mild symptoms of COVID-19, the White House said on Friday, one day after he tested positive for the virus and as a highly contagious subvariant drives a new wave of cases in the United States.

“He was doing just fine” as of Thursday night, White House COVID Coordinator Dr. Ashish Jha told CNN.

“The symptoms were basically the same,” Jha said, adding that he would check the president’s condition again on Friday morning. “As of 10 p.m. …. he said he was feeling just fine.”

The White House on Thursday announced that Biden had tested positive for COVID-19, was experiencing mild symptoms and would continue working but in isolation.

Biden, who at 79 is the oldest person ever to serve as president of the United States, is due to hold three virtual meetings on Friday, his public schedule released by the White House showed.

He began experiencing a runny nose, fatigue and an occasional dry cough late on Wednesday and is taking the antiviral treatment Paxlovid, White House physician Kevin O’Connor said on Thursday.

Fully vaccinated and twice boosted, Biden said he was “doing well” in a video posted on his Twitter account on Thursday. In the 21-second clip, he also said he was “getting a lot of work done” and would continue with his duties.

Jha said it was still unclear where exactly Biden, who recently returned from a trip to the Middle East, contracted the novel coronavirus. He told CNN he was unaware of any linked cases among Biden’s recent close contacts but that the White House was continuing to conduct contract tracing.

Jha said he and O’Connor would provide ongoing updates of Biden’s condition but that he did not know whether the White House would release any more videos or pictures of the president.

The White House has scheduled a briefing for an update on Biden’s health at 3 p.m. (1900 GMT).

U.S. COVID cases have jumped more than 25% in the last month, according to CDC data, as the new BA.5 subvariant takes hold there and across the world.

(Reporting by Susan Heavey and Katharine Jackson; editing by John Stonestreet)

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By Richard Cowan, Patricia Zengerle and Moira Warburton

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Thursday’s congressional committee hearing into the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot by supporters of Donald Trump featured minute-by-minute accountings of the then-president’s actions — and inaction — as his supporters launched a violent attack.

Here are four takeaways from the hearing:

HAWLEY RAISES FIST, THEN RUNS

The committee showed a well-known image of conservative Republican Senator Josh Hawley, who is thought to be eyeing a run for president, outside the Capitol raising his arm, hand balled into a fist, to encourage the gathering angry crowds still being held behind security lines.

While that image was familiar, indeed one that Hawley has used to raise money, the committee followed up with new images: Multiple video clips of Hawley running from the rioters, first fleeing across a hallway and later down a flight of steps.

The hearing room, packed with reporters, congressional aides, security staff and visitors broke into laughter as the footage was played.

SAYING GOODBYE TO FAMILIES

Vice President Mike Pence hid in his ceremonial office on the second floor of the Senate as rioters pushed closer and closer, as seen in videos shown at the hearing.

There was smoke in a nearby hallway as U.S. Capitol Police tried to corral a group of attackers, and Secret Service agents desperately tried to figure out whether they could safely evacuate Pence to another location on the Capitol grounds.

“The security detail of the vice president was starting to fear for their own lives,” one anonymous White House security official testified on video played at the hearing.

Rioters were just feet away, the official testified, adding that agents were “screaming and saying goodbye to family.”

Pence ultimately was hurried to a Capitol loading dock.

TRUMP ‘CHOSE’ NOT TO STOP THE RIOT

Representative Adam Kinzinger, one of two Republicans on the House’s select committee, portrayed a president who was satisfied with the violence he watched unfolding at the Capitol on Jan. 6.

“The mob was accomplishing President Trump’s purpose, so of course he didn’t intervene” to stop the violence until more than three hours after it had begun, Kinzinger said.

“President Trump did not fail to act during the 187 minutes between leaving the Ellipse and telling the mob to go home. He chose not to act.”

TRUMP MADE NO CALLS TO TOP OFFICIALS

High-ranking officials, including then-White House Counsel Pat Cipollone, testified on pre-recorded videotape that the president watched television for hours during the Capitol riot in the White House dining room.

They said that they were not aware of Trump making phone calls to Cabinet heads, including the secretaries of defense and homeland security, the attorney general or the National Guard, all of whom could have aided in stopping the violence on Capitol Hill.

(Reporting by Richard Cowan, Moira Warburton, Doina Chiacu and Rose Horowitch; Editing by Scott Malone and Daniel Wallis)

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By Richard Cowan, Patricia Zengerle and Moira Warburton

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Thursday’s congressional committee hearing into the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot by supporters of Donald Trump featured nearly minute-by-minute accountings of the then-president’s actions — and inaction — as his supporters launched a violent attack.

Here are two takeaways from the opening portion of the hearing:

TRUMP ‘CHOSE’ NOT TO STOP THE RIOT

Representative Adam Kinzinger, one of two Republicans on the House’s select committee, portrayed a president who was satisfied with the violence he watched unfolding at the Capitol on Jan. 6.

“The mob was accomplishing President Trump’s purpose, so of course he didn’t intervene” to stop the violence until more than three hours after it had begun, Kinzinger said.

“President Trump did not fail to act during the 187 minutes between leaving the Ellipse and telling the mob to go home. He chose not to act.”

TRUMP MADE NO CALLS TO TOP OFFICIALS

High-ranking officials, including then-White House Counsel Pat Cipollone, testified on pre-recorded videotape that the president watched television for hours during the Capitol riot in the White House dining room.

They said that they were not aware of Trump making phone calls to Cabinet heads, including the secretaries of defense and homeland security, the attorney general or the National Guard, all of whom could have aided in stopping the violence on Capitol Hill.

(Reporting by Richard Cowan, Moira Warburton, Doina Chiacu and Rose Horowitch; Editing by Scott Malone and Daniel Wallis)

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By Patricia Zengerle and Richard Cowan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Donald Trump sat for hours watching the attack on the U.S. Capitol unfold on live TV on Jan. 6, 2021, ignoring pleas by his children and other close advisers to urge his supporters to stop the violence, witnesses told a congressional hearing on Thursday.

The House of Representatives Select Committee used its eighth hearing this summer to detail what members said was Trump’s failure to act for the 187 minutes between the end of his inflammatory speech at a rally urging supporters to march on the Capitol, and the release of a video telling them to go home.

“President Trump sat at his dining table and watched the attack on television while his senior-most staff, closest advisors and family members begged him to do what is expected of any American president,” said Representative Elaine Luria, a Democratic committee member.

The panel played videotaped testimony from White House aides and security staff discussing the events of the day.

Former White House counsel Pat Cipollone was asked question after question in the recorded testimony about whether Trump took this action or that action – did he call the secretary of defense? Did he call the U.S. attorney general? Did he call the head of Homeland Security? Cipollone answered “no” to each query.

Panel members said Trump’s daughter Ivanka and son Don Jr. were among those who pleaded with him to act.

The hearing, expected to be the last until September, detailed both the violence that played out as Trump supporters fought their way into the Capitol and Trump’s actions in the hours after his speech in which he urged the crowd to “fight like hell” and the release of the video telling the rioters to go home.

The onslaught on the Capitol, as Vice President Mike Pence met with lawmakers, injured more than 140 police officers and delayed certification of Democratic President Joe Biden’s victory in the November 2020 election.

“Over the last month and a half, the select committee has told a story of a president who did everything in his power to overturn an election. He lied, he bullied, he betrayed his oath,” the committee’s Democratic chairperson, Representative Bennie Thompson, said via a remote video feed after being diagnosed with COVID. “He tried to destroy our democratic institutions. He summoned a mob to Washington.”

Representative Adam Kinzinger, a Republican committee member, said Trump had no interest in calling off the rioters.

“The mob was accomplishing President Trump’s purpose, so of course he didn’t intervene,” Kinzinger said.

Trump remains highly popular among Republican voters and continues to flirt with the possibility of running for president again in 2024. But a Reuters/Ipsos poll concluded on Thursday found his standing among Republicans has weakened slightly since the hearings began early last month. Some 40% of Republicans now say he is at least partially to blame for the riot, up from 33% in a poll conducted six weeks ago, just as the congressional hearings were getting underway.

Trump denies wrongdoing and continues to claim falsely that he lost because of widespread fraud. “These hearings are as fake and illegitimate as Joe Biden — they can’t do anything without a teleprompter,” Trump spokesperson Liz Harrington said in a post on his Truth Social social media site as the hearing began.

MORE HEARINGS IN SEPTEMBER

Scheduled during the evening to reach a broad television audience, the public hearing was the eighth in six weeks by the House of Representatives Select Committee. Another round of hearings will begin in September, said the panel’s Republican vice chairperson, Representative Liz Cheney.

The witnesses in the room were Matthew Pottinger, a deputy national security adviser under Trump, and Sarah Matthews, a deputy press secretary in his White House. Both resigned in the hours following the riot.

“If the president had wanted to make a statement and address the American people, he could have been on camera almost immediately,” Matthews testified. “If he had wanted to make an address from the Oval Office, we could have assembled the White House press corps within minutes.”

The panel of seven Democratic and two Republican House members has been investigating the attack for the past year, interviewing more than 1,000 witnesses and amassing tens of thousands of documents.

It has used the hearings to build a case that Trump’s efforts to overturn his defeat by Biden in 2020 constitute illegal conduct, far beyond normal politics.

Previous hearings have focused on the run-up to the riot, Trump’s pressure on Pence to deny Biden’s victory, militant groups whose members participated in the Capitol attack, and Trump’s interactions with close advisers questioning his false allegations of massive voter fraud.

Committee members said Trump incited the riot by refusing to admit he lost the election and through comments including a Twitter post in December calling supporters to Washington for a “big protest” on Jan. 6, saying, “Be there, will be wild.”

The attack on the Capitol led to several deaths. More than 850 people have been charged with taking part in the riot, with more than 325 guilty pleas so far.

(Reporting by Patricia Zengerle and Richard Cowan; Additional reporting by Jason Lange, Doina Chiacu, Moira Warburton and Rose Horowitch; Editing by Scott Malone, Andy Sullivan, Alistair Bell and Daniel Wallis)

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(Reuters) – A U.S. venue cancelled Dave Chappelle’s stand-up show just hours before he was due on stage on Wednesday, after critics lamented the scheduled gig following controversy over the comedian’s jokes about transgender people.

In a statement on its website, First Avenue in Minneapolis, Minnesota said Chappelle’s show would moved to the city’s Varsity Theater, where the U.S. comedian is also due to perform on Thursday and Friday.

First Avenue had announced the Chappelle show earlier this week, drawing criticism on social media.

Chappelle drew a backlash last year for material in his Netflix comedy special “The Closer” that some in the LGBTQ+ community said ridiculed transgender people. His supporters viewed it as a cry against cancel culture.

“To staff, artists, and our community, we hear you and we are sorry. We know we must hold ourselves to the highest standards, and we know we let you down. We are not just a black box with people in it, and we understand that First Avenue is not just a room, but meaningful beyond our walls,” First Avenue said.

“The First Avenue team and you have worked hard to make our venues the safest spaces in the country, and we will continue with that mission. We believe in diverse voices and the freedom of artistic expression, but in honoring that, we lost sight of the impact this would have. We know there are some who will not agree with this decision; you are welcome to send feedback.”

A representative for Chappelle could not immediately be reached for comment.

In May, the Emmy Award winning entertainer was tackled on stage during his show at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles. A 23-year-old man was charged with four misdemeanor counts.

(Reporting by Marie-Louise Gumuchian; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky)

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By Matt Spetalnick

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Biden administration is willing to discuss the existing U.S.-Colombia trade agreement with the Andean country’s next president, a senior U.S. official said, as Washington dispatched a high-level delegation on Thursday to begin forging a relationship with him.

Gustavo Petro, a 62-year-old economist who will become Colombia’s first leftist leader next month, talked during his campaign about proposals to renegotiate trade pacts, including a 2012 deal with the United States, but moderated some of his stances by the time he was elected last month.

Asked whether Washington is willing to renegotiate the accord or open it up for discussion, the senior administration official said: “Any conversations relating to the U.S.-Colombia trade promotion agreement will be led by the U.S. Trade Representative.”

“We look forward to engaging in those discussions with the Petro administration after he is inaugurated on Aug. 7,” the official added.

The official previewed a visit to Bogota beginning on Thursday by a group of U.S. officials that could be a test for what has long been one of the closest U.S. partnerships in Latin America. They will meet outgoing President Ivan Duque as well as President-elect Petro and his transition team.

Petro has called the U.S.-led drug war a “complete failure,” saying the government should instead support small farmers with substitute crops and increase their incomes.

Asked how the delegation would address the issue, a second official said it wants to “to listen and to understand the contours and the nuances” of Petro’s ideas.

President Joe Biden’s administration believes a “holistic approach” focused on economic livelihoods and security is needed and they can find common ground, the official added.

Petro has also raised concerns in Washington over his outreach to Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, who is under U.S. sanctions. The two leaders said last month they discussed reestablishing normal relations at their countries’ border.

Asked whether Petro’s efforts could undermine efforts to isolate Venezuela’s Socialist leader, the second official said Colombia could help encourage Maduro and the Venezuelan opposition to resume negotiations.

The visit is also intended to provide reassurances against “speculation” about the U.S.-Colombia relationship, one official said, referring to questions about how well the countries would work together once Petro takes office.

The agenda will include discussion of implementation of a 2016 peace deal between the Colombian government and FARC rebels, the officials said.

The delegation includes the White House’s top Latin America adviser Juan Gonzalez, Assistant Secretary of State Brian Nichols, deputy national security adviser Jon Finer and Philip Gordon, Vice President Kamala Harris’ national security adviser.

(Reporting By Matt Spetalnick; Editing by Marguerita Choy)

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By Brendan O’Brien

(Reuters) – A former Minneapolis police officer was scheduled to be sentenced on Thursday on federal charges stemming from his role in the death of George Floyd, an incident that sparked protests around the globe against police brutality and racism.

United States District Judge Paul Magnuson was to sentence Thomas Lane at 10 a.m. local time in a federal courtroom in St. Paul on charges that he deprived Floyd of his civil rights and his conduct caused his death.

Lane was facing as much as 5 1/4 to 6 1/2 years in prison, according to court records.

Lane was one of four officers who responded to a Minneapolis grocery store on May 25, 2020 and took the Black man into custody on suspicion he used a fake $20 bill to buy cigarettes.

During the encounter, former police officer Derek Chauvin pinned the handcuffed Floyd beneath his knee for more than nine minutes, leading to his death.

The incident, which was captured on cellphone video, led to protests in many cities in the United States and around the world against police brutality and racism.

Lane, along with fellow former Minneapolis police officers Tou Thao and Alexander Kueng, were found guilty by a federal jury in February for their involvement Floyd’s death. A date has not been set for the sentencing of Thao and Kueng.

During the trial, federal prosecutors argued that the three other men knew from their training and from “basic human decency” that they had a duty to help Floyd as he begged for his life before falling limp beneath Chauvin’s knee.

Earlier in July, Chauvin was sentenced to 21 years in prison on federal charges of violating Floyd’s civil rights.

Chauvin also was convicted of intentional second-degree murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter in a state trial in 2021. He is serving a sentence of 22-1/2 year in a Minnesota prison on that conviction.

In May, Lane pleaded guilty to state aiding and abetting manslaughter charges and agreed to a sentence of three years in prison. A state trial is scheduled to be begin in January for the other two officers.

(Reporting by Brendan O’Brien in Chicago; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)

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