Trump investigation designed to 'impeach or embarrass' president, furious leading Republican claims amid fury at Manafort sentence
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President Donald Trump has again attacked the “witch hunt hoax” embroiling his administration following the sentencing of ex-campaign manager Paul Manafort, declaring the outcome proved “no collusion” with Russia as Democrats decried the lenience of Manafort’s 47-month sentence as a “miscarriage of justice”.
Departing for Alabama to tour the state’s devastation by a recent tornado, the president found time to denounce his opposition as an “anti-Israel, anti-Jewish” party over Congresswoman Ilhan Omar‘s comments on the influence of Israeli interest groups in Washington, despite the House having passed a resolution condemning prejudice of all kinds by 402 to 23.
Meanwhile, the top Republican on the House Judiciary Committee, Doug Collins, has sent a scathing letter to its chairman, Jerrold Nadler, attacking the panel’s motivations in investigating the president for abuse of power, saying: “Either you intend to impeach the president, for alleged crimes that have yet to be discovered, or you intend to embarrass him.”
Manafort, was sentenced on Thursday by a federal judge to nearly four years in prison for tax and bank fraud related to his work advising Ukrainian politicians. The charges were unrelated to his work on Mr Trump’s campaign or the focus of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.
The president repeated on Friday as he departed the White House to survey tornado damage in Alabama that Manafort’s case “had nothing to do with Russia.”
Criminals who worked for Trump
Show all 5It has been a "very, very tough time" for Manafort, he added.
In Alabama, the president signed Bibles at a local Baptist church and took photos with survivors of the deadly tornado outbreak that killed nearly two dozen people.
Mr Trump used a felt pen to scratch out his signature on the cover of a little girl’s Bible, which is decorated with pink camouflage, and first lady Melania Trump then added her signature.
The president and first lady surveyed the damage on Friday, meeting with local officials and victims. They also visited a makeshift disaster relief center set up at the church.
Additional reporting by AP. Check out The Independent's live coverage from Friday below.
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Taking a break from Fox News for once, the president was last night tweeting developments he regards as favourable from MSNBC.
Michael Cohen's lawyer, Lanny Davis, said in a written statement yesterday that his client was "open to the ongoing 'dangling' of a possible pardon by Trump representatives privately and in the media" in the months after the FBI raided Cohen's home, office and hotel room in April 2018.
Here's Andrew Buncombe on the presidential pardoning intrigue swirling around Cohen.
Here's a profile of the man who could bring down the presidency. No, not Don Jr. Although...
In this instance we're taking about Allen Weisselberg, chief financial officer of the Trump Organisation, whose name was brought up by Michael Cohen 20 times before Congress last week, whose signature appears on any number of cheques and documents of interest and who has since received a letter from Jerrold Nadler and the House Judiciary Committee.
A company stalwart since 1973, Mr Weisselberg has been described as "not even remotely colourful, eyes cast down on the spreadsheet and the calculator - click, click, click" by Trump biographer Gwenda Blair. But then the greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist.
Here's Chris Riotta on Jared Kushner "going rogue" in Saudi Arabia. Is that entirely wise?
The president is up and tweeting reassurances about the border wall...
...And applauding the good folk at Fox and Friends.
Speaking of the wall, the White House is quietly pressuring Republican senators not to back the Democrats' resolution of disapproval against President Trump's national emergency declaration in order to save the administration the embarrassment of having to veto it, according to CNN.
The president's decision to invoke emergency powers over the illegal immigration "crisis" on the southern border allows him to bypass Congress to reallocate federal funds in order to get his Mexico border wall built.
The resolution opposing the measure sailed through the Democrat-controlled House 245-182 and four Republican senators - Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, Rand Paul and Thom Tillis - have already said they will support it when it reaches the upper chamber.
Keen to avoid another negative narrative about Republican defiance, the White House has conveyed a "stern message" to party senators, reminding them of the support they will need when their 2020 re-election bids are underway.
The president tweeted this on Wednesday to the same end:
He's not even trying anymore. Quite what triggered this particular outburst is unclear at present, however.
The House Democrats are meanwhile reportedly debating whether to expand the scope of their inquiry into President Donald Trump's taxes to include his business tax returns along with his personal returns, a risky step seen by some as crucial to effective oversight.
The debate has intensified, aides told Reuters, since last week's testimony by former Trump personal attorney Michael Cohen, who alleged before the House Oversight and Reform Committee that President Trump altered his business asset values and slashed employee salaries to lower his taxes.
The testimony suggested that investigators in the House will need both his personal and business returns to fully assess Mr Trump's compliance with tax laws and understand the network of businesses he owns.
House Democrats are understood to have spent months laying the groundwork for an unprecedented request to Treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin for Mr Trump's personal tax filings.
Adding his business returns could complicate an already legally-delicate effort, however. Donald Trump owns more than 550 companies and business entities, including the Trump Organisation, his financial disclosure reports show.
The White House has yet to comment.
Some more reaction to the Manafort sentencing.
President Trump's lawyer Rudy Giuliani states: "The sentence was a lot less than the out of control Angry Democrat prosecutors wanted. They should be ashamed of their horrendous treatment of Paul Manafort who they pressured relentlessly because, unlike Michael Cohen, he wouldn't lie for them."
White House adviser Kellyanne Conway, always a reliable contrarian, told reporters: "It did seem that the sentence maybe was much more than perhaps other people get for bigger crimes."
Satirist Stephen Colbert meanwhile told his audience in disgust: "The menopause lasts longer than that!"
Peter Stubley has more on the Democratic reaction to the verdict.
Franklin Foer of The Atlantic magnificent here on the "otherwise blameless life" of Paul Manafort.
From promoting Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos and brutal Angolan general Jonas Savimbi to fraternising with "a clique of former gangsters in Ukraine", the lobbyist's career has surely been anything but.
Finnish journalist Jessikka Aro has had her nomination for the State Department's International Women of Courage Award rescinded, apparently as a result of her criticism of President Trump's rhetoric on Twitter.
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