Trump news: Congress votes to subpoena full Mueller report from attorney-general, as senior Republicans turn on president's 'catastrophic' border closure plan
The latest updates from Washington
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Your support makes all the difference.The House Judiciary Committee approved subpoenas Wednesday for special counsel Robert Mueller’s full Russia report as Democrats pressure the Justice Department to release the document without redactions.
The committee voted 24-17 to give Judiciary Chairman Jerrold Nadler permission to issue subpoenas to the Justice Department for the final report, its exhibits and any underlying evidence or materials prepared for the investigation.
Mr Nadler has not yet said if he’ll send the subpoenas, which would be the first step in a potentially long fight with the Justice Department over the materials.
The Judiciary panel also voted Wednesday to authorise subpoenas related to five of Donald Trump’s former top advisers, stepping up a separate, wide-ranging investigation into Trump and his personal and political dealings.
The vote further escalates the Democrats’ battle with the Justice Department over how much of the report they will be able to see, a fight that could eventually head to court if the two sides can’t settle their differences through negotiation. Democrats have said they will not accept redactions and want to see the evidence unfiltered by Mr Barr.
In the letter last week, Mr Barr said he is scrubbing the report to avoid disclosing any grand jury information or classified material, in addition to portions of the report that pertain to ongoing investigations or that “would unduly infringe on the personal privacy and reputational interests of peripheral third parties.”
Democrats say they want access to all of that information, even if some of it can’t be disclosed to the public. Nadler said he will give Mr Barr time to change his mind on redactions, but if they cannot reach an agreement they will issue the subpoenas “in very short order.” He also said he is prepared to go to court to get the grand jury information.
Mr Trump is meanwhile being urged not to follow through on his threat to close the US border with Mexico as senior Republicans warn of the cost of prioritising security over trade and scramble for alternatives to tackling the illegal immigration “crisis”.
“Closing down the border would have potentially catastrophic economic impact on our country and I would hope we would not be doing that sort of thing,” said Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell on Tuesday, a quote the president has since attacked The New York Times for publishing on Twitter.
The Associated Press contributed to this report. Please allow a moment for our liveblog to load.
Piers Morgan has been boasting of an invite to the White House to interview President Trump.
The two have met before of course - the Good Morning Britain presenter handing Trump an Arsenal shirt at the World Economic Forum in Davos back in January - and seemingly belong together.
One is a bloated narcissist known for this thin skin and irritating social media presence and the other is Donald Trump.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is pure box office these days and yesterday issued this superb rebuke relating to Jared Kushner's security clearance and apparent use of WhatsApp to conduct government business with foreign powers.
Donald Trump meanwhile mocked AOC at the National Republican Congressional Committee dinner he attended last night, referring to: "The Green New Deal, done by a young bartender, 29 years old. A young bartender, wonderful young woman."
"The Green New Deal. The first time I heard it I said, 'That’s the craziest thing.' You have senators that are professionals that you guys know that have been there for a long time... and they’re standing behind her shaking. They’re petrified of her."
Good thing that speech wasn't being recorded. Oh...
Mitch McConnell disagreed with Donald Trump on repealing Obamacare yesterday as well as the threat of a border closure.
The Senate majority leader told the president he would not put any comprehensive healthcare legislation before the upper chamber prior to the 2020 presidential election.
"We had a good conversation yesterday afternoon and I pointed out to him the Senate Republicans’ view on dealing with comprehensive healthcare reform with a Democratic House of Representatives," he told reporters.
"I was fine with Senator Alexander and Senator Grassley working on prescription drug pricing and other issues that are not a comprehensive effort to revisit the issue that we had the opportunity to address in the last Congress and were unable to do so,” he said, referring to Senate Health Committee chairman Lamar Alexander and Finance Committee chairman Chuck Grassley and to the failed Republican effort in 2017 to scrap Obamacare.
“I made clear to him that we were not going to be doing that in the Senate,” McConnell said he told the president. “He did say, as he later tweeted, that he accepted that and he would be developing a plan that he would take to the American people during the 2020 campaign.”
Here are those tweets:
Here are the Democrats yesterday protesting the Trump administration circling the Affordable Care Act like hungry sharks.
And here's Sarah Harvard's explainer on Trump and healthcare, which promises to be a key battleground in 2020.
Sarah Sanders brands Democratic concerns about expert advice being ignored in the White House to grant top-level security clearance to Ivanka Trump, Jared Kushner and others "a very dangerous and a shameful game".
For a president who only yesterday declared security was his priority (albeit speaking in relation to the Mexico border), the House Oversight Committee's concerns seem entirely legitimate. Remember chairman Elijah Cummings and friends are acting on the word of whistleblower Tricia Newbold, a current Trump administration employee who raised the alarm entirely of her own volition.
Here's Cummings with the fightback.
A couple of other choice lines from President Trump at the National Republican Congressional Committee Spring Dinner last night.
- He mocked Joe Biden over the inappropriate conduct allegations currently swirling around the ex-veep and possible 2020 candidate.
"We’re going into the war with some socialists. And it looks like the only none sort of heavy socialist, he’s being taken care of pretty well by the socialists. "They got to him," Trump said with a chuckle, alluding to Biden.
"I was going to call him," he continued. "I don't know him well. I was going to say, 'Welcome to the world, Joe. You having a good time, Joe? Are you having a good time?'"
- He questioned the 2018 midterm results and hinted at voter fraud, without substantiation.
"I don't like the way the votes are being tallied. There were a lot of close elections that were... They seemed, every single one of them, went Democrat. If it was close, they say the Democrat... there's something going on fellas... Hey, you've got to be a little bit more paranoid than you are".
- Less crucially, he pondered aloud on the merits of changing his winning 2016 campaign slogan.
"It's probably the greatest theme in the history of politics, I think it is. Make America Great Again. MAGA. How do you give that up for a new one - KAG? KAG? Keep America Great. KAG? I don't know maybe it catches on, you never know."
On the Mueller report, here's Chris Riotta with everything we know about the mystery foreign company embroiled in the federal investigation.
Back to the border, here's Cory Massimino for Indy Voices on why we should open it up entirely.
This is effectively a trailer for this afternoon's proceedings and as good an intro as you could ask for.
This is seemingly also in the pipeline.
Artist Cosimo Cavallaro is building a wall of Cotija cheese along the US-Mexico border to troll President Trump and "Make America Grate Again".
Here's Narjas Zatat for Indy100.
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