The acting Defence secretary, Chris Miller, says there is “no intelligence indicating an insider threat” to the inauguration of Joe Biden.

More than 25,000 National Guard members flooding into Washington DC are being vetted by the FBI after claims the riot at the US Capitol was part of an inside job.

“While we have no intelligence indicating an insider threat, we are leaving no stone unturned in securing the capital,” Mr Miller said.

Here is the full statement from Milla, via the Army.

As is normal for military support to large security events, the Department will vet National Guardsmen who are in Washington, DC. While we have no intelligence indicating an insider threat, we are leaving no stone unturned in securing the capital. This type of vetting often takes place by law enforcement for significant security events. However, in this case the scope of military participation is unique.  

The DC National Guard is also providing additional training to service members as they arrive in DC that if they see or hear something that is not appropriate, they should report it to their chain of command. We appreciate the support of the FBI in assisting with this task and for each of the more than 25,000 Guardsmen who answered their Nation’s call and rapidly deployed to the NCR.

A wall of security forces in Guatemala began removing hundreds of mostly Honduran migrants from a road where they had been camped out after authorities halted their trek to the United States.

Video footage broadcast on social media and television showed lines of security forces wielding plastic shields moving down the road towards the migrants near the Guatemalan village of Vado Hondo, some 55 km (34 miles) from the borders of Honduras and El Salvador. 

There were about 2,000 migrants camped out on the highway after they clashed with Guatemalan security forces on Sunday. As many as 8,000 migrants, including families with young children, have entered Guatemala since Friday, authorities say, fleeing poverty and lawlessness in a region rocked by the coronavirus pandemic and back-to-back hurricanes in November. Migration authorities confirmed the removal. – Reuters

At least one Trump has a home after leaving the White House.

The Trump Baby Blimp has been inaugurated into the collection of the Museum of London, which said on Monday that that the giant balloon depicting the 45th president of the US was includes as an illustration of the protest against his visit to the UK in 2018

“By collecting the baby blimp, we can mark the wave of feeling that washed over the city that day and capture a particular moment of resistance,” Sharon Ament, the museum’s director, said in a statement.

Speaking of Nancy Pelosi. A care worker charged in connection with the Capitol riots has been accused of attempting to steal the House Speaker’s laptop in order to sell it to Russia.

Riley June Williams, 22, from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, was accused of stealing the laptop by a former partner, who identified her to the FBI after footage emerged of Ms Williams inside the Capitol building.

The alleged former partner “stated that Williams intended to send the computer device to a friend in Russia, who then planned to sell the device to SVR, Russia’s foreign intelligence service,” according to an affidavit.

Harriet Sinclair reports.

The Democratic speaker of the House said on Monday she has written to the Secretary of Defence demanding he not install Michael Ellis as new National Security Agency general counsel before the inauguration of Joe Biden.

In an announcement on Monday, Nancy Pelosi said the “unqualified Trump-loyalist” Michael Ellis was involved in highly questionable activities and had limited experience.

“The circumstances and timing – immediately after President Trump’s defeat in the election – of the selection of Mr. Ellis, and this eleventh-hour effort to push this placement in the last three days of this Administration are highly suspect,” she wrote.

The president’s signed an executive order for his promised “Garden of American Heroes”.

Announced during his last Independence Day speech at Mount Rushmore, the garden would “reflect the awesome splendour of our country’s timeless exceptionalism”, according to the order.

There are the usual suspect’s in the list of statures like George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and Samuel Adams, but also some wild cards.

The garden is to include John Wayne, Julia Child, Dr Seuss, Ruth Bader Ginsberg, Steve Jobs, Harper Lee, Elvis Presley, Edgar Allan Poe, Babe Ruth, Ernest Hemingway, Shirley Temple, Douglas MacArthur, and Humphrey Bogart.

And also, who was the recently deceased host of Jeopardy?

In a sudden twist, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani announced he was no longer serving on President Donald Trump’s impeachment team — just as Republican strategists warned his participation in the US Senate trials may lead to a conviction.

The president’s longtime confidant and personal lawyer spent the weekend telling news media outlets he was “involved” and “working on” the upcoming impeachment trials.

He even went so far as to tell ABC News he “wouldn’t be as strongly opposed” to Mr Trump testifying during the trials as he was during the president’s first impeachment in 2019.

But by Sunday night, his apparent involvement in the president’s legal team seemed to change.

“… And yet I am not so opposed to capitalism that I have failed to see its relative merits. It started out with a noble and high motive, viz, to block the trade monopolies of nobles, but like most human system it fail victim to the very thing it was revolting against. So today capitalism has outlived its usefulness.”

Josh Hawley has found a new publisher after his book was dropped by Simon & Schuster in the wake of the siege of the U.S. Capitol by supporters of President Donald Trump.

The conversative publisher Regnery announced Monday that Hawley’s “The Tyranny of Big Tech” will come out this spring.

“Regnery is proud to stand in the breach with him. And the warning in his book about censorship obviously couldn’t be more urgent,” Regnery President and Publisher Thomas Spence said in a statement.

Hawley, a Republican from Missouri, has been widely condemned for his encouragement of the Jan. 6 protest that ended with a violent mob rampaging through the Capitol. Thousands had gathered that day as Congress voted to formally certify Joe Biden’s win over Trump. Hawley and Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, also a Regnery author, led objections in the Senate to Biden’s victory, citing baseless claims the election was stolen. – AP

The president or his kids won’t be among the 100 pardons he is reportedly expected to issue before leaving office.

Fox News said that Trump would not issue the “protective” pardons for his inner circle of family.

“Sources with knowledge of the process tell @FoxNews  that President Trump is NOT EXPECTED to issue “protective” pardons to members of his family, and is NOT expected to attempt a protective pardon for himself, tweeted White House correspondent John Roberts.

It comes after multiple outlets about 100 pardons were to be announced on Tuesday, a day before Joe Biden is inaugurated as president.