Trump news: Mueller report said to 'undoubtedly' contain evidence of conspiracy, as president rages over Jussie Smollett and Mexico
Nancy Pelosi calls William Barr's summary of the Mueller report 'arrogant' amid another day of chaos on Capitol Hill
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The Mueller report “undoubtedly” contains evidence of collusion between Donald Trump and Russia, according to Fox Business legal analyst Judge Andrew Napolitano, contradicting the verdict of attorney-general William Barr and risking the president’s ire.
House Oversight Committee chairman Elijah Cummings has meanwhile warned of a looming “constitutional crisis” ahead as Democrats express growing frustration at what they see as Republican efforts to prevent the full release of the FBI special counsel’s 700-page report into his 22-month investigation.
For his part, President Trump has been busy on Twitter hitting out at an array of targets, from the media to Mexico, Jussie Smollett and House Intelligence Committee chairman Adam Schiff, whose resignation he has called for in response to the congressman's repeated allegations regarding conspiracy with the Kremlin.
A House Democratic aide who briefed reporters Thursday on condition of anonymity said Mr Barr does not intend to give Congress a complete copy of the report from special counsel Robert Mueller.
The aide said Mr Barr spoke with Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler late Wednesday and indicated he was redacting grand jury information from the confidential report. While grand jury information is often confidential, it can be unsealed in some situations.
Criminals who worked for Trump
Show all 5The aide added Mr Nadler offered to work with Mr Barr to have the information unsealed.
During her weekly press conference, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called Mr Barr’s four-page synopsis “condescending” and “arrogant” and said Democrats need to draw their own conclusions about what Mr Mueller found.
The Democratic chairmen of six House committees have demanded that Mr Barr release the Mueller report to Congress by Tuesday.
Ms Pelosi also defended House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, who faced calls Thursday from Republicans to resign over his comments that there was significant evidence the president and his associates conspired with Russia.
Additional reporting by AP. See The Independent’s live reporting from Washington on Thursday below.
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Hello and welcome to The Independent's rolling coverage of the Donald Trump administration.
Good morning!
We begin today with Democratic anxiety about the delay in releasing the full Mueller report, four days after attorney-general William Barr wrote his four-page letter to Congress summarising the FBI special counsel's paper on the 22-month investigation he carried out into President Trump and his campaign's ties to Russia.
Republicans have gloated at Barr's "no collusion" verdict while Democrats have demanded the chance to read Robert Mueller's words for themselves. The opposition has otherwise struggled with how best to respond: whether to continue to pull at the "not an exoneration" thread or move the narrative back towards policy and the 2020 presidential election campaign.
Here's House Judiciary Committee chairman Elijah Cummings - last seen grilling Michael Cohen - warning of a coming "constitutional crisis" if Barr does not release the full report.
Veteran California senator Dianne Feinstein was among the senior Democrats expressing her frustration at the Republican-controlled Senate's refusal to allow a vote on a resolution calling for the full release of the Mueller report.
The resolution passed through the Democrat-dominated House of Representatives 420-0 but the Senate's majority leader, Mitch McConnell, has already stopped it reaching the floor three times.
President Trump meanwhile gave an extended 45-minute interview to Sean Hannity of Fox News last, an anchorman he reportedly speaks to by phone every evening anyway.
Hardly the most challenging or combative of confrontations, Trump largely played the hits but there were nevertheless a few eyebrow-raising turns of phrase.
His thoughts on House Intelligence Committee chairman Adam Schiff were particularly vitriolic.
Although the president was at pains to stress the US would never shoot migrants at the border, his contention that it was a "very effective" deterrent elsewhere in the world was not the wisest opinion he's ever said.
The Democrats appear to be turning away from the idea of impeaching President Trump, falling into line with Speaker Pelosi's reluctance to pursue so "divisive" a course.
But two members of the House are sticking to their guns: Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and Al Green of Texas. They're clearly heeding the advice of another Al Green: Let's stay together.
Tlaib formally submitted her impeachment resolution on Wednesday calling on the House Judiciary Committee to inquire into whether President Trump has committed impeachable offences, having sent out a letter to sympathetic colleagues earlier this week in search of support, which ultimately found none.
"For many of my colleagues, not one told me not to," Tlaib said at a last minute press conference outside the Capitol yesterday, explaining she wasn't discouraged from pursuing her resolution. "And that's important to know. Not one single person told me not to do this - and I think that speaks volumes, more than whether or not they signed on."
Pelosi was asked about Tlaib's resolution on Wednesday and told reporters to put the question to her junior colleague: "That is not an initiative of our House caucus."
"I've made it really clear on impeachment," Pelosi said.
"Everybody can do whatever they want to do but that's not a place where we are right now. Right now, we are talking about healthcare, we are talking about climate and building the infrastructure of America in a green way. Just like we promised in the campaign. That is what we are spending our time on."
Trump loyalist Lindsey Graham speaking for the president on Mueller.
President Trump yesterday used an Oval Office meeting with Fabiana Rosales, wife of Venezuela's opposition leader and self-declared president Juan Guaido, to take a hard-line with the Kremlin.
"Russia has to get out [of Venezuela]... they know very well," he said, evidently seeking to put further distance between himself and Moscow post-Barr.
Two Russian air force planes landed outside Caracas on Saturday carrying nearly 100 Russian troops, according to local media reports.
They are there to discuss military cooperation but not to take part in military operations, Interfax news agency cited Venezuela's military attache in Moscow as saying.
Donald Trump will host a rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan, tonight and is expected to be on exuberant form after Barr's verdict on Mueller suggested the FBI special counsel had found no evidence of collusion with Russia to influence the 2016 presidential election.
It will be his sixth political rally in the booming Midwestern city, home to almost 200,000 citizens.
Michigan is one of Trump's main early targets for his re-election bid. The state, which had long been a Democratic stronghold with heavy backing from union members, helped Trump capture the White House, as did Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
The Grand Rapids area holds special significance for Trump. He closed his 2016 campaign in the early hours of Election Day with a rally in the "Furniture City," nicknamed for its historic manufacturing industry of home and office goods.
He went on to net nearly 9,500 more votes than Hillary Clinton in Kent County, which encompasses the increasingly Democratic city of Grand Rapids as well as a ring of Republican-heavy suburbs and farming communities. Trump won Michigan by just 10,700 votes.
He returns to Grand Rapids not necessarily to appeal to young voters but to a vast swath of rural, conservative, white Michigan.
Those voters have reason to be happy. Among Rust Belt cities most battered by decades of outsourcing, Grand Rapids is the only one of those regions that has more manufacturing jobs today than it did in 1990, according to an August 2018 report by City Journal, a publication of the Manhattan Institute.
"With the economy firing on all cylinders as it is, especially in west Michigan, there's no reason for these people at this point to be disenchanted with Trump, said Bill Ballenger, a former Republican state legislator who now analyses Michigan politics at The Ballenger Report.
"They are probably grudgingly saying, 'The guy may be crude, he may say some outrageous things, there may be some things he has done we don't like, but, man, he's really delivered on the economy and that's what we care about.'"
The president is up and tweeting about everything from Grand Rapids to the media, Mexico, Jussie Smollett and Adam Schiff.
Makes a change from clips of Lou Dobbs blowing smoke on Fox I guess.
What on earth does this mean? "Someday, I will tell you the secret!"
Fox News legal analyst Judge Andrew Napolitano believes the Mueller report must hold damaging information on President Trump - a surprising break with the network's unwavering support for the president.
"In the 700-page summary of the 2 million pages of raw evidence, there is undoubtedly some evidence of a conspiracy, and some evidence of obstruction of justice," Napolitano told Fox Business on Wednesday.
It comes after Trump lambasted the media over its coverage of the "illegal Democrat Witch Hunt", exempting Fox.
Here's Tom Embury-Dennis.
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