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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Here's the latest to get you up to speed on Paul Manafort's no good, terrible, very bad day, via the AP:
Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort could spend nearly seven years in prison after a federal judge sentenced him Wednesday to three and one-half more years, rejecting his appeal for no additional time and rebuking him for his crimes and years of lies.
Within minutes of the new three and one-half year sentence, prosecutors in New York brought state charges against Manafort — a move that appeared at least partly designed to guard against the possibility that President Donald Trump could pardon him. The president can pardon federal crimes, but not state offenses.
Judge Jackson sentenced him Wednesday to three and a half years on top of the four years he was given last week. But he won’t serve the total sentence because he’s already spent the past nine months in jail and will get credit for that time.
The Paul Manafort news isn't the only scandal surrounding Donald Trump today.
New reports indicate his government shutdown caused delays in important fixes for the Boeing planes involved in a series of deadly crashes.
Donald Trump has just announced a new emergency order to ground the Boeing MAX planes involved in the series of deadly crashes.
Here's video of Donald Trump announcing an emergency order to ground Boeing's MAX fleets after a deadly crash involving one of the planes:
All airlines have reportedly been notified of the grounding, ahead of an upcoming announcement from the Federal Aviation Administration.
Boeing's shares are taking a major hit in the wake of Donald Trump's emergency order to ground the airplane company's MAX fleets following a series of deadly crashes:
While announcing his emergency order to ground all Boeing 737 MAX 8 and 9 planes, Donald Trump said he felt very bad for his former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, who was sentenced on Wednesday to an additional 73 months in prison after previously facing a separate sentencing the week prior.
The president also said he had not considered issuing a pardon for Manafort, who then received a fresh indictment shortly after his second sentencing on Wednesday. That 16-count indictment arrived in Manhattan’s District Attorney’s office, meaning Mr Trump could not issue a pardon if he faces jail time.
Folks are experiencing flight cancellations after Donald Trump announced an emergency order grounding Boeing 737 MAX fleets:
A new slate of states have joined California's lawsuit against Donald Trump's national emergency declaration which would allow the president to circumvent Congress and use federal funding towards his campaign promise of building a wall along the US-Mexico border:
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