By ERIC TUCKER

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Jan. 6. riot at the U.S. Capitol “does not happen” without Donald Trump, former special counsel Jack Smith told lawmakers earlier this month in characterizing the Republican president as the “most culpable and most responsible person” in the criminal conspiracy to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

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The Republican-led House Judiciary Committee released on Wednesday a transcript and video of a closed-door interview Smith gave about two investigations of Trump. The document shows how Smith during the course of a daylong deposition repeatedly defended the basis for pursuing indictments against Trump and vigorously rejected Republican suggestions that his investigations were politically motivated.

“The evidence here made clear that President Trump was by a large measure the most culpable and most responsible person in this conspiracy. These crimes were committed for his benefit. The attack that happened at the Capitol, part of this case, does not happen without him. The other co-conspirators were doing this for his benefit,” Smith said, bristling at a question about whether his investigations were meant to prevent Trump from reclaiming the presidency in 2024.

“So in terms of why we would pursue a case against him, I entirely disagree with any characterization that our work was in any way meant to hamper him in the presidential election,” he added.

The Dec. 17 deposition was conducted privately despite Smith’s request to testify publicly. The release of the transcript and video of the interview, so far Smith’s only appearance on Capitol Hill since leaving his special counsel position last January, adds to the public understanding of the decision-making behind two of the most consequential Justice Department investigations in recent history.

Trump was indicted on charges of conspiring to undo the 2020 election he lost to Democrat Joe Biden, and of willfully retaining classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. Both cases were abandoned after Trump’s 2024 election win, with Smith citing Justice Department policy against the indictment of a sitting president.

Smith repeatedly made clear his belief that the evidence gathered against Trump was strong enough to sustain a conviction. Part of the strength of the Jan. 6 case, Smith said, was the extent to which it relied on the testimony of Trump allies and supporters who cooperated with the investigation.

“We had an elector in Pennsylvania who is a former congressman, who was going to be an elector for President Trump, who said that what they were trying to do was an attempt to overthrow the government and illegal,” Smith said. “Our case was built on, frankly, Republicans who put their allegiance to the country before the party.”

Accounts from Republicans willing to stand up against the falsehood that the election had been stolen “even though it could mean trouble for them” created what Smith described as the “most powerful” evidence against Trump.

When it came to the Capitol riot itself, Smith said, the evidence showed that Trump “caused it and that he exploited it and that it was foreseeable to him.”

Asked whether there was evidence that Trump had instructed supporters to riot at the Capitol, Smith said that Trump in the weeks leading to the insurrection got “people to believe fraud claims that weren’t true.”

“He made false statements to State legislatures, to his supporters in all sorts of contexts and was aware in the days leading up to January 6th that his supporters were angry when he invited them and then he directed them to the Capitol,” Smith said.

“Now, once they were at the Capitol and once the attack on the Capitol happened, he refused to stop it. He instead issued a tweet that without question in my mind endangered the life of his own Vice President. And when the violence was going on, he had to be pushed repeatedly by his staff members to do anything to quell it.”

Some of the deposition focused on Republican anger at revelations that the Smith team had obtained, and analyzed, phone records of GOP lawmakers who were in contact with Trump on Jan. 6. Smith defended the maneuver as lawful and by-the-book, and suggested that outrage over the tactic should be directed at Trump and not his team of prosecutors.

Former Department of Justice Special Counsel Jack Smith accompanied by his attorney Lanny Breuer, leave after his closed-door interview with House Republicans at Capitol Hill, Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

“Well, I think who should be accountable for this is Donald Trump. These records are people, in the case of the senators, Donald Trump directed his co-conspirators to call these people to further delay the proceedings. He chose to do that. If Donald Trump had chosen to call a number of Democratic senators, we would have gotten toll records for Democratic senators.”

The communications between Trump and Republican supporters in Congress were an important component of the case, Smith said. He cited an interview his office did with Mark Meadows in which Trump’s then-chief of staff referenced that Rep. Jim Jordan, an Ohio Republican and current chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, had been in touch with the White House on the afternoon of the riot.

“And what I recall was Meadows stating that ‘I’ve never seen Jim Jordan scared of anything,’ and the fact that we were in this different situation now where people were scared really made it clear that what was going on at the Capitol could not be mistaken for anything other than what it was,” Smith said.

Smith was also asked whether his team evaluated former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson’s explosive claim that Trump that grabbed at the steering wheel of the presidential SUV when the Secret Service refused to let him go to the U.S. Capitol building after a rally at the Ellipse on Jan. 6, 2021.

Smith told lawmakers that investigators interviewed the officer who was in the car, “who said that President Trump was very angry and wanted to go to the Capitol,” but the officer’s version of events “was not the same as what Cassidy Hutchinson said she heard from somebody secondhand,” Smith said.

Associated Press writer Alanna Durkin Richer contributed to this report.

By MICHELLE L. PRICE

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said he’s dropping — for now — his push to deploy National Guard troops in Chicago, Los Angeles and Portland, Oregon, a move that comes after legal roadblocks hung up the effort.

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Trump said in a social media post Wednesday that he’s removing the Guard troops for now. “We will come back, perhaps in a much different and stronger form, when crime begins to soar again – Only a question of time!” he wrote.

Troops had already left Los Angeles after the president deployed them earlier this year as part of a broader crackdown on crime and immigration. They had been sent to Chicago and Portland but were never on the streets as legal challenges played out.

Trump’s push to deploy the troops in Democrat-led cities has been met with legal challenges at nearly every turn.

The Supreme Court in December refused to allow the Trump administration to deploy National Guard troops in the Chicago area as part of its crackdown on immigration. The order was not a final ruling but was a significant and rare setback by the high court for the president’s efforts.

In the nation’s capital, District of Columbia Attorney General Brian Schwalb sued to halt the deployments of more than 2,000 guardsmen.

In Oregon, a federal judge permanently blocked the deployment of National Guard troops there.

California National Guard troops had already been removed from the streets of Los Angeles by Dec. 15 after a court ruling. But an appeals court had paused a separate part of the order that required control of the Guard to return to Gov. Gavin Newsom.

In a Tuesday court filing, the Trump administration said it was no longer seeking a pause in that part of the order. That paves the way for the California National Guard troops to fully return to state control after Trump federalized the Guard in June.

Associated Press writer Jaimie Ding in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

By KANIS LEUNG

HONG KONG (AP) — Fireworks are typically a celebratory centerpiece of Hong Kong’s New Year celebrations. Not this year.

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The territory greeted 2026 without spectacular and colorful explosions in the sky over its iconic Victoria Harbor after a massive fire in November that killed at least 161 people.

The city’s tourism board instead hosted a music show Wednesday night featuring soft rock duo Air Supply and other singers in Central, a business district that also is home to the famous nightlife hub Lan Kwai Fong. The facades of eight landmarks turned into giant countdown clocks presenting a three-minute light show at midnight.

Fireworks have long been part of the city’s celebrations for the New Year, Lunar New Year and National Day. The pyrotechnic displays against Hong Kong’s world-famous skyline of skyscrapers typically draw hundreds of thousands of people including many tourists to both sides of the promenade.

Hotels and restaurants likely affected

Rosanna Law, the territory’s secretary for culture, sports and tourism, acknowledged Tuesday that having no fireworks would affect some hotel and restaurant businesses.

FILE – Fireworks explode over Victoria Harbour to celebrate the start of 2025 at Tsim Sha Tsui in Hong Kong, Jan. 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei, File)

Annie Wang, a tourist from Shanghai, said that although she had planned to watch the fireworks show, she understood the city’s decision because she found news of the blaze heart-wrenching.

“It’s quite regretful. But there’s no way around it after the fire,” said Wang, a university student.

Wang Miao, a teacher from the neighboring economic hub of Guangzhou, planned to join the official countdown activities in Central despite the absence of fireworks. She said it was a pity that she could not see pyrotechnics, but she could understand why.

“It doesn’t affect our experience in Hong Kong,” Wang said.

By early Wednesday evening, crowds of revelers had already gathered near the performance stage in Central, hoping to secure the best views of the musical performance.

Worst fire since the 1940s for Hong Kong

The financial hub’s worst blaze since 1948 broke out at Wang Fuk Court, in the northern suburban district of Tai Po, in late November. The apartment complex was undergoing a monthslong renovation project with buildings covered by bamboo scaffolding and green netting.

Authorities have pointed to the substandard netting and foam boards installed on windows as contributing factors in the fire’s rapid spread. Thousands of affected residents have moved to transitional homes, hotels and youth hostels, struggling to recover from the loss of lives and homes that took them years to buy. The casualties pained many residents across the city.

People look at flames engulfing a building after a fire broke out at Wang Fuk Court, a residential estate in the Tai Po district of Hong Kong’s New Territories, Wednesday, Nov. 26 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei, File)

Past tragedies in Hong Kong have forced similar cancellations of fireworks. They include the 2013 National Day festivities following a vessel collision that killed 39 people on Oct. 1, 2012, and the 2018 Lunar New Year celebration after a bus crash that left 19 dead. During the 2019 anti-government protests and the COVID-19 pandemic, multiple displays also were scrapped.

The origin of fireworks is believed to date to China in the second century B.C., when someone discovered bamboo stalks exploded with loud bangs when thrown into fire, creating the first natural “firecrackers,” according to the American Pyrotechnics Association, a U.S. trade group.

The Guinness World Records organization says the first accurately documented firework, the Chinese firecracker, was created by Li Tian, a monk from China’s Tang dynasty dating to around 618 to 907 C.E. Li discovered that putting gunpowder in enclosed hollow bamboo stems created loud explosions and bound crackers together to create the traditional New Year firecrackers to drive out evil spirits, Guinness said.

You better not tell head coach Kevin O’Connell that the Vikings have nothing to play for this weekend.

Though the Green Bay Packers are locked into their playoff spot and will likely rest their starters on Sunday afternoon at U.S. Bank Stadium, the Vikings are still invested in ending this season on a high note.

A win this weekend would ensure the Vikings finish with a 9-8 record in the highly competitive the NFC North. That looked nearly impossible roughly a month ago when the Vikings were floundering with a 4-8 record.

“We set out on this journey when we were in some pretty dark times a few weeks back, and I laid out the challenge to our team,” O’Connell said. “To their credit, they’ve answered the challenge, and we’ve found a way to stack some wins together.”

Here are five young players that would do themselves good by shining for the Vikings this weekend:

J.J. McCarthy

It sounds like quarterback J.J. McCarthy might be able to give it a go. He was able to participate in practice on Wednesday afternoon at TCO Performance Center despite the fact that he’s still dealing with a hairline fracture in his right hand.

That’s a step in the right direction.

If McCarthy is able to turn over in time to play, he needs to continue to show growth. It has been a roller coaster for him this season as he has struggled to adapt to NFL speed.

McCarthy has only completed 57.3% of his passes for 1,450 yards, 11 touchdowns and 12 interceptions. It would be a major boost for him to put together a good game, even if he’s going up against a backups.

Tai Felton

It’s basically been a redshirt campaign for receiver Tai Felton as he has been able to learn the intricacies of the NFL without having to play a big role on offense. He has logged only 37 snaps on offense this season while carving out a niche as a key contributor on special teams.

It’s still unclear if Felton will see an uptick in his playing time Sunday. If he get more of a runway on offense, he needs to showcase some of the speed and playmaking ability that convinced the Vikings to draft him.

There’s a chance Felton has to step into a larger role on offense in the near future if Jalen Nailor signs elsewhere as a free agent. A solid effort in the finale would go a long way in Felton earning the trust of his teammates.

Michael Jurgens

It feels safe to say center Michael Jurgens has already played more this season than he originally expected. The assumption was that Jurgens would get to learn the ropes of the position while playing behind Ryan Kelly on the depth chart.

Those plans changed as Kelly has navigated a series of concussions that could end up forcing him into retirement. The ripple effect has been Jurgens being thrust into the spotlight as a potential replacement.

It would go a long way for Jurgens and his confidence if he’s able to confidently anchor the middle of the offensive line Sunday. He has had some ups and down spot minutes this season with room for improvement in pass protection and run blocking.

Dallas Turner

There have been flashes of brilliance from edge rusher Dallas Turner this season, as well as some growing pains here and there. He has shown the most promise as a pass rusher while filling in for injured edge rusher Jonathan Greenard.

The explosiveness that Turner possesses is evident when he can pin his ears back and do what he does best. The biggest challenge for him has been developing into somebody that can do it all.

It looks like Turner might get to go up against some backups Sunday. He has to dominate whoever lines up across from him. That should be the expectation as he continues to ascend.

Jay Ward

It looked like safety Jay Ward might be heading down a path that ended with him being nothing more than a star on special teams. He has since been given a chance on defense with Josh Metellus out for the rest of this season due to shoulder injury.

The physicality with which Ward plays the position has been palpable since stepping in as a starter. He’s an extremely violent tackler that makes his presence felt every time he brings a ballcarrier to the ground.

If Ward can have a good game Sunday, he could put himself in the conversation to garner more reps on defense. He needs to make the most of his opportunity.

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