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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Your support makes all the difference.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.
The 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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Maria Butina, the Russian national affiliated with the National Rifle Associations and several Republican operatives throughout the 2016 presidential election has had a sentencing date set by a US judge.
The date has been set for 26 April.
Butina was charged in July with acting a foreign agent and conspiracy.
Donald Trump sat down for an explosive interview with Sean Hannity last night - here's the hot take from our friends at Indy100:
"If you go to a lot of the generals, they will tell you, this is a national emergency. We need to defend our country. People are pouring in," The president said on Wednesday night. "Now we are capturing these people. We are getting them but we don't do it like other countries. Other countries stand there with machine guns, ready to fire. We can't do that. I wouldn't want to do that, OK? It's a very effective way of doing it but I wouldn't want to do it. We can't do it."
Nancy Pelosi is holding her weekly press conference and slamming Donald Trump for his reignited attacks on the Affordable Care Act.
“The Trump administration radically expanded its war on America's health care this week,” she said on Thursday. “We will fight that in the Congress, we will fight it in the court, and we will fight it in the court of public opinion."
The Trump administration has approved a series of secret agreements allowing US companies to explore selling nuclear power technology to Saudi Arabia, according to a leaked document.
US energy secretary Rick Perry gave the approvals, known as Part 810 authorisations, to six firms to do preliminary work on nuclear power ahead of any deal but not ship equipment that would go into a plant, a source with knowledge of the agreements told Reuters.
Jared Kushner was spotted by reporters leaving a previously undisclosed Senate Intelligence Committee hearing just six days after Special Counsel Robert Mueller concluded his investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.
The Senate committee, which is still carrying out a probe into Russia’s actions during the election, apparently met with the White House senior adviser during a closed-door hearing on Thursday afternoon in Washington.
A reporter for BuzzFeed News snapped a photo of Mr Kushner leaving the hearing, posting it to Twitter with the caption, “Jared Kushner appears from a closed door Senate Intelligence Committee hearing room this afternoon, six days after Mueller submitted his report on to AG Barr.”
A Greenpeace activist wearing a swamp monster mask drew stares during Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee confirmation hearings for Trump appointee David Bernhardt, the nominee for interior secretary.
A spokesperson for the organisation provided me with the following quote from the so-called swamp monster: "David Bernhardt is one of us. He's down here in the muck every day advocating for the dirty fossil fuels we swamp monsters love. I wanted to be at his shining moment to make sure he won't forget where he came from."
Here’s more on that secretive meeting between Jared Kushner and the Senate Intelligence Committee:
The meeting was held in a secure space, known as a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility, or SCIF, and began at 9:30am local time.
The Senate Intelligence Committee is just one of several government committees and state agencies investigating Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign and Russia’s purported connections, as well as the president’s finances and dealings with the controversial Deutsche Bank.
The Democratic-led House of Representatives has passed a resolution condemning Donald Trump’s ban on transgender Americans serving in the US military.
The vote amounted to 235-185, with five Republicans joining every Democrat lawmaker in the House.
Transgender Americans will be effectively barred from service as of 12 April after a federal appeals court lifted an injunction against the ban earlier this week.
A new Washington Post report details Donald Trump’s financial documents reviewed by the newspaper, which reveal oddities like incorrect Hassett values, exaggerations and false statements:
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