Trump ally Lindsey Graham has promised a Senate investigation into claims senior justice department officials discussed invoking the 25th amendment and removing the president from power.
Related: Andrew McCabe says officials discussed removing Trump after Comey firing
Continue reading...Trump announces emergency to bypass Congress and free up billions for long-promised border wall
Here’s Trump earlier, performing what is being referred to as both a “ditty” and a “sing-song”. The sound of the summer?
"We'll end up in the Supreme Court and hopefully get a fair shake and win in the Supreme Court just like the ban," said Trump, acknowledging his administration may get sued over the national emergency. https://t.co/rPePQTU8uT pic.twitter.com/QneaGmvvLv
A gag order for attorneys and witnesses has been issued in the case of Roger Stone by a federal judge in Washington DC.
Stone, a longtime friend and adviser to Donald Trump, was indicted last month on charges of lying to investigators, obstructing justice and witness tampering. He denies wrongdoing.
Continue reading...Declaration prompts dire warnings but fallout could be contained by successful legal challenge or resolution in Congress
As state attorneys general across the country threaten to sue the White House over Donald Trump’s declaration of a national immigration emergency on Friday, Democrats and Republicans insisted Trump was overstepping his powers, while legal analysts warned of a dangerous new phase of the Trump presidency.
Related: Trump declares national emergency to bypass Congress over border wall funds – live news
Continue reading...In rebuke of Trump’s alliance with Saudi Arabia, resolution would force administration to withdraw US troops
Asserting congressional authority over war-making powers, the US House of Representatives approved a resolution Wednesday that would force the Trump administration to withdraw US troops from involvement in Yemen, in a rebuke of Donald Trump’s alliance with the Saudi-led coalition behind the military intervention.
Lawmakers in both parties are increasingly uneasy over the humanitarian crisis in Yemen and are skeptical of the US partnership with that coalition, especially in light of Saudi Arabia’s role in the killing of the Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, a critic of the royal family.
Continue reading...Donald Trump has suggested he is open to a compromise border security measure that would avert another US government shutdown as the House pushed toward a vote on the agreement before the funding deadline expires on Friday.
Republicans and Democrats have broadly embraced the proposed legislation, but have cautioned that they will wait to see the final text of the bill, which includes far less funding than Trump initially sought for his wall along the border with Mexico.
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Larry Hogan, the Republican governor of Maryland, is at risk of seeing one of his biggest initiatives in office be overturned.
Hogan, who has been mooted as potential primary opponent of Donald Trump, decreed that public schools in the Old Line State couldn’t open until Labor Day. However, the Maryland general assembly is poised to overturn that through veto-proof legislation.
California Governor Gavin Newsom announced today that the state would not move forward on a controversial and hugely expensive project to link San Francisco and Los Angeles via high speed rail.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California Gov. Gavin Newsom abandoning plan for high-speed train from Los Angeles to San Francisco, says too costly.
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As President Trump prepared to speak at the border Monday in another expected call for a wall to curtail illegal immigration, Governor Gavin Newsom defended his decision to withdraw national guardsmen from the California-Mexico border, saying that “this whole border issue is manufactured.”
We’re live with @GavinNewsom as he discusses moving @theCAguard personnel from the border & redeploying them to focus on the actual threats California faces, not the White House’s manufactured crisis. #CaliforniaForAll https://t.co/bcd5KJB0xB
Cliff Sims, the former White House communications aide who wrote a tell-all about life working for President Trump, is suing the president, alleging that he used his campaign organization to selectively enforce nondisclosure agreements to silence or punish former employees, the New York Times is reporting.
Mr. Sims was a White House aide from the beginning of the administration. But it was the campaign organization that filed an arbitration claim against him last week, accusing him of violating the nondisclosure agreement he signed with it during the 2016 presidential race with the publication of his book, “Team of Vipers,” last month.
The White House had dozens of people sign such agreements at the beginning of the president’s term. But those agreements are widely seen as likely unenforceable. In the suit, Mr. Sims says he does not recall whether he signed one when he came to the White House.
Continue reading...Congresswoman ‘unequivocally apologized’ after suggesting Republican support for Israel was fueled by financial incentives
The Minnesota congresswoman Ilhan Omar “unequivocally” apologized on Monday for comments that suggested American support for Israel was fueled by political donations from a pro-Israel lobby group – a remark condemned by House Democratic leaders for raising “antisemitic tropes and prejudicial accusations”.
“Anti-Semitism is real and I am grateful for Jewish allies and colleagues who are educating me on the painful history of anti-Semitic tropes,” she said in a statement posted on Twitter. “My intention is never to offend my constituents or Jewish Americans as a whole.”
Continue reading...Acting attorney general will be first Trump cabinet official to be brought before panel led by Democrats
A look at the front page of the Detroit Free Press memorializing John Dingell, the legendary US congressman who passed away on Thursday.
Ivanka Trump has said she knew “almost nothing” about the prospective Trump Tower project in Moscow that her father was pursuing during 2016 presidential election.
“We were an active business,” Trump said during an interview that aired Friday on ABC’s Good Morning America, while adding her knowledge of the project amounted to “literally almost nothing”.
EXCLUSIVE: Ivanka Trump has "zero concern" about special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation. https://t.co/4raDLDD6Xh pic.twitter.com/R18v6BW7gW
Continue reading...After attorney general admits wearing blackface in 1980s, lieutenant governor accused of attack in 2004
It was a quiet ending to an eventful day. Thanks for sticking with us, everyone.
Paul Erickson, the boyfriend of Maria Butina, the Russian national who pleaded guilty to a conspiracy to influence US politics during the 2016 presidential election, was indicted by a federal grand jury in South Dakota on charges of wire fraud and money laundering, the Daily Beast is reporting.
The case against Erickson, a conservative US political activist and National Rifle Association insider, does not appear to be linked to the foreign agent case against Butina, who tried to infiltrate the NRA and relay intelligence on American politicians to a Russian government official.
Erickson was arrested on Feb. 6 and entered a plea of not guilty, according to the court filings.
The indictment alleges that Erickson ran a criminal scheme from 1996 to 2018 using a chain of assisted living homes called Compass Care. Erickson also allegedly defrauded investors through a company called Investing with Dignity that claimed to be “in the business of developing a wheelchair that allowed people to go to the bathroom without being lifted out of the wheelchair.” The indictment says he also ran a fraudulent scheme that claimed to be building homes in the Bakken oil fields of North Dakota.
Continue reading...The president delivered his annual speech in a House of Representatives controlled by Democrats
Continue reading...Judge cautioned Stone against treating trial build-up ‘like book tour’ and said he should not argue his case ‘on the talkshow circuit’
Thanks for tuning in, everyone.
With the government shutdown over, President Trump can finally return to Mar-a-Lago, the Associated Press is reporting.
Trump typically spends many winter weekends at the Palm Beach estate, golfing at another nearby private club he owns and dining on an outdoor terrace at Mar-a-Lago, where he catches up with friends and club members.
But that routine was interrupted by the partial government shutdown, which ended a week ago after a record 35 days.
Continue reading...Controversial climatologist John Christy, who once said scientists believed Earth was flat, to join advisory board at environment agency
Progressives are preparing to take on Starbucks CEO Howard Shultz — who is considering a run for president in 2020 as an independent — hoping to arm themselves with information about the billionaire’s governmental dealings.
Axios reports that Democratic super PAC, Priorities USA, has requested documents from roughly 70 national and state agencies who may have connected with Shultz or his coffee company over the last 3 decades:
The group is gathering as much potential opposition research as they can on Schultz and his business in anticipation of his decision to possibly run for president as an independent. This is yet another example of liberals trying to push Schultz out of the 2020 race before he begins, in part because they view his candidacy as a “threat” that could be “a major step toward re-electing Donald Trump,” Priorities USA communications director Josh Schwerin told Axios”.
A new poll released by Monmouth University says more than 60% of Americans think the president knew that high-ranking members of his campaign lied to investigators and half believe he asked them to do it.
The survey also found that there’s still significant concern among the electorate that Russia has influence over Trump, and that not enough has been done to stop the Kremlin from meddling into elections.
Was Trump aware of campaign associated trying to mislead investigators or Congress?
62% Yes
32% No
Do you think Trump personally asked people to mislead investigators or Congress?
50% Yes
42% No
Monmouth poll
‘Views of the president’s ties to Russia look like almost any other aspect of public opinion related to Trump. Very few Republicans believe anything negative about him and nearly all Democrats are inclined to accept damaging information, while independents are almost evenly split’, said Murray.
Just over half of Americans (51%) feel that the special counsel’s investigation into Russian election interference and possible links to the Trump campaign should continue. Another 45% say this investigation should be brought to an end. Support for continuing the special counsel investigation has hovered between 52% and 54% in polls taken between April and November 2018. Prior to that, about 6-in-10 Americans supported continuing the investigation (60% in March 2018 and 62% in July 2017)“.
Continue reading...Measure will fund government for three weeks after US economy lost more than the $5.7bn funding president requested for wall
Donald Trump has signed legislation to end temporarily the longest-ever partial shutdown of the US government, which has left hundreds of thousands of federal employees without pay for more than a month.
The US economy lost $6bn during the month-plus hiatus because of lost productivity and business, according to a finance industry estimate – more than the $5.7bn of taxpayer funding the president demanded for his long-promised wall along the US-Mexico border but failed to get Congress to agree to.
Continue reading...Republican-backed measure would meet Trump’s wall demand while the second would extend funding for closed agencies
The Senate will vote on Thursday on a pair of bills that could end the month-long partial shutdown of the federal government– if passed.
The first bill, a Republican-backed measure, would meet Donald Trump’s demand for a $5.7bn wall along the southern border in exchange for temporary protections for young undocumented immigrants. The second would extend funding for the agencies that are currently closed through to 8 February.
Continue reading...Donald Trump forged ahead on Saturday and proposed a deal to end the US government shutdown, despite Democrats having rejected it before he began to speak.
Related: Republicans’ lack of alarm over the shutdown reveals a disturbing truth | Ross Barkan
Continue reading...The Democratic House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, has accused the White House of leaking information about a planned congressional trip to Afghanistan, saying it was 'very, very irresponsible on the part of the president'
Continue reading...President highlights Pelosi’s proposal to delay speech in letter to supporters as he cancels her trip to Afghanistan
According to CNN, President Trump wasn’t pleased to learn that his AG pick was so close with special counsel Robert Mueller. AG nominee William Barr referred to Mueller as “Bob” during the first day of his Senate confirmation hearing, and said that “the Barrs and Muellers were good friends and would be good friends when this was all over”. He also described Mueller as a “straight-shooter”.
While Barr said during his hearing that Trump ‘was interested’ in hearing about the friendship, the details that emerged this week caught the President off guard, the three sources said. He bristled at Barr’s description of the close relationship, complaining to aides he didn’t realize how much their work overlapped or that they were so close”.
Reuters is reporting that four Volkswagen managers from the car company’s luxury Audi unit have been indicted for their role in the 2015 scandal over the automaker’s attempt to evade US exhaust emissions tests.
The four are charged in a 12-count indictment with conspiring to evade U.S. emissions standards in diesel vehicles sold in the United States with 3.0-liter engines. The vehicles include the 2009-2015 Audi Q7 vehicles as well as other Q5, A6, A7, and A8 diesel models. They are accused of wire fraud, violating the Clean Air Act and conspiracy.
Volkswagen spokesman Pietro Zollino said the company continues ‘to cooperate with investigations by the Department of Justice into the conduct of individuals. It would not be appropriate to comment on individual cases’”.
Continue reading...‘It’s not normal to shutdown the government when we don’t get what we want,’ says Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez during her first speech on the house floor. ‘The truth of this shutdown is that it’s actually not about a wall. The truth is, this shutdown is about the erosion of American democracy and the subversion of our most basic governmental norms’
• Pelosi asks Trump to delay State of the Union address, or deliver it in writing
Continue reading...Trump’s nominee says he would not fire Mueller without good cause. Watch live and follow the latest
The office of Robert Mueller, the special counsel, submitted a new court filing on Tuesday detailing communications between former Trump aid Paul Manafort and alleged Russian intelligence operative Konstantin Kilimnik.
New filing from Mueller's office: Paul Manafort said in Jan 2017 he was using intermediaries "to get people appointed in the Administration", Rick Gates has told investigators. pic.twitter.com/yv5ypLdrpL
At a taping for “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” this evening, Sen. Gillibrand shared that she was officially joining the race for the white house. Announcing that she was assembling an exploratory committee and will soon be on her way to Iowa, she told Colbert she was running as a mom as she outlined key parts of her platform:
“As a young mom, I’m going to fight for other people’s kids as hard as I’d fight for my own, which is why I believe health care should be a right, not a privilege; it’s why I believe we should have better public schools for our kids because it shouldn’t matter what block you grew up on; and I believe that anybody who wants to work hard enough should be able to get whatever job training they need to earn their way into the middle class” she said.
Tonight I announced that I’m preparing to run for president, because I believe we’re all called to make a difference. I believe in right vs. wrong – that wrong wins when we do nothing. Now is our time to raise our voices and get off the sidelines. Join me: https://t.co/I1vp93u0wh
Ms. Gillibrand, a 52-year-old former corporate lawyer, has been criticized by opponents as a politician without a firm ideological bearing of her own, having transformed from a pro-gun, conservative upstate congresswoman with deep ties to Wall Street financiers to a crusading liberal who rails against guns and refuses corporate political action committee money.”