Trump news: President says 'I feel very bad' for Paul Manafort and launches emergency order to ground Boeing 737 MAX
The latest updates from Washington amid Paul Manafort's second sentencing hearing
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Your support makes all the difference.Donald Trump denounced the “Witch Hunt Hoax” against him in a flurry of tweets on Wednesday, saying potential impeachment proceedings overlook “the minor fact I never did anything wrong” on the day his ex-campaign manager, Paul Manafort, was sentenced in a second federal hearing to 73 additional months in prison.
The president tweeted thanks to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for her opposition to impeachment, which she considers “too divisive”, and took aim at New York’s state’s governor Andrew Cuomo, new attorney-general Letitia James and her predecessor, Eric Schneiderman for issuing subpoenas related to his business dealings.
Manafort was last week given 47 months in jail by a court in Virginia after pleading guilty to bank and tax fraud and this time faces up to 10 years behind bars for conspiracy against the US and obstruction of justice.
On Wednesday, a federal judge sentenced Manafort to more than three and a half additional years in prison. That’s on top of the roughly four-year sentence he received in a separate case in Virginia last week.
The sentence followed a scathing assessment by the judge and a prosecutor of Manafort’s crimes. After Manafort was sentenced in federal court Wednesday, an indictment was unsealed in New York charging him with state crimes, including a residential mortgage fraud scheme.
Mr Trump said he feels “very badly” for his former campaign chairman following the sentencing.
“On a human basis, it’s a very sad thing," the president said.
Mr Trump also insisted he’s not currently considering a Manafort pardon, saying, “I have not even given it a thought as of this moment.”
The Manafort news arrived as Mr Trump was forced to announce an emergency order grounding a fleet of Boeing planes after a 737 MAX 8 plane was once again involved in a deadly crash.
Additional reporting by AP. Read The Independent's live coverage from Wednesday below:
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The New York Times is reporting an extraordinary new line from journalist Vicky Ward's forthcoming book Kushner Inc, suggesting President Trump directed his ex-chief of staff John Kelly to "get rid of" his daughter Ivanka and her husband Jared Kushner from the White House. because they “didn’t know how to play the game” and were becoming a focal point for negative press coverage.
Wow.
Michael Flynn, the Trump administration's ex-national security adviser who co-operated with Robert Mueller's Russia investigation, has asked for a further delay in his sentencing because a second case involving his former business partner Bijan Kian has not been resolved.
Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his contacts with then-Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak about sanctions on Moscow back in December 2017.
A little more on Democratic mixed-feelings regarding impeachment from House Intelligence Committee chairman Adam Schiff.
And from New York congressman Hakeem Jeffries.
This is nice.
When Nancy Pelosi was asked in January whether she thought the president had denied her congressional delegation the use of a military plane to visit Afghanistan as revenge for her obstinacy during the government shutdown, she replied: "I don't think the president would be that petty, do you?"
She could now face a similar question herself after seizing an office given to vice-president Mike Pence at the House of Representatives.
"Room assignments are reviewed and changed at the beginning of every Congress," a Democratic aide told The Hill in breezily, matter-of-fact fashion but surely there is a little more to it than that.
This is also pretty sassy from congressman John Yarmuth, which the speaker herself retweeted.
Strong stuff from 2020 presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren on Mike Pence.
Paul Manafort has been brought into court in a wheelchair where he is facing up to ten years in prison over a series of crimes he committed that are unrelated to Special Counsel Robert Mueller's probe into Russian election interference in the 2016 election.
We will likely hear any moment from the judge on her sentencing verdict for Donald Trump's former campaign chairman.
The judge has rejected an argument claiming Paul Manafort's conduct was not included in the offence in front of the court.
The judge has outlined how she will be sentencing Paul Manafort, who faces a maximum of ten years in prison for the crimes being considered today in court.
Though the crimes she is considering in her sentencing are unrelated to the ongoing probe, the judge says Manafort's cooperation is.
"Whether he lied during his cooperation sessions and breached the plea agreement has some relevance," The judge said about Paul Manafort's cooperation with Special Counsel Robert Mueller.
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