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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
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Lois Beckett in Oakland (now) and Erin Durkin in New York (earlier)

Michael Cohen 'told prosecutors of possible irregularities at Trump Organization' – as it happened

Michael Cohen leaves federal court in New York on 12 December 2018.
Michael Cohen leaves federal court in New York on 12 December 2018. Photograph: Craig Ruttle/AP

Evening summary

As we head into the weekend:

  • Democratic presidential candidate Senator Amy Klobuchar continues to face scrutiny over “dehumanizing” treatment of her staffers, with new details in reports from the New York Times and the Huffington Post.
  • On climate change: Democratic senator Dianne Feinstein is facing criticism for her response to a group of young activists who wanted her to vote yes on the Green New Deal. Also, Donald Trump announced his pick for his new UN ambassador: a diplomat who, when asked recently if she believed in climate change, said: “ I appreciate and respect both sides.”
  • Trump’s most famous “both sides” moment came when he praised the “very fine people on both sides” of the deadly neo-Nazi rallies in Charlottesville, Virginia. Today, told reporters that he does not believe his rhetoric played any role in inspiring a neo-Nazi coast guard officer was accused of planning an act of domestic terrorism. Federal prosecutors said the man had assembled a list of targets, including prominent Democrats and media figures. “I think my language is very nice,” Trump said.
  • Mueller watch: the special counsel’s reporter will, in fact, not be out next week, according to the latest reports. The chairs of six House committees wrote to Attorney General Bill Barr today saying that they expect the report to be made public.
  • Michael Cohen, Trump’s former lawyer, met with federal prosecutors in New York last month to offer information about “possible irregularities within the president’s family business”, the New York Times reports.
  • R Kelly has been charged with 10 counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse for incidents dating back as far as May 1998.

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Updated

Since the Minnesota senator launched her campaign for president on February 10, a series of articles have examined Amy Klobuchar’s treatment of her employees.

“The way she treats staff is disqualifying,” an anonymous former staffer for senator Amy Klobuchar told a reporter earlier this month.

Klobuchar has defended herself as a “tough boss” with “high expectations.”

The latest: Klobuchar “is well known on Capitol Hill for calling prospective employers in an attempt to shut new job opportunities down,” Huffington Post reports, providing new details about a habit first described by aides to Yahoo News.

“In one instance, Klobuchar went so far as to confront a fellow Democrat in Congress who had offered a job to one of Klobuchar’s staffers, making it clear she wanted the offer rescinded,” Huffington Post reports. “One former employee said that when she was looking for a new job, she warned potential employers that Klobuchar might seek a way to sabotage her prospects.”

Klobuchar, who has reportedly has thrown objects, including binders and phones, “in the direction” of her staffers, has one of the highest staff turnover rates in the Senate.

Updated

Reactions to Sen. Feinstein’s sharp exchange with young activists over the Green New Deal are continuing to roll in. Here’s a reaction from a former Obama spokesman and host of Pod Save America, the influential liberal podcast:

“We are officially living in a gerontocracy,” Charlotte Alter, a national correspondent for Time Magazine, wrote. Alter notes that Feinstein was born in 1933, “in the early days of the original New Deal.”

Now the 85-year-old senator is opposing “a bold plan to give them the same types of protections she grew up with.”

Trump's UN Ambassador Pick Believes in 'Both Sides' of Climate Change Debate

Donald Trump is nominating Kelly Knight Craft to be the United States’ ambassador to the United Nations. Knight is currently the US’ ambassador to Canada.

In December 2018, Knight Craft made headlines about a key UN concern when she was asked in a television interview: “Do you believe in climate change?”

She answered: “I believe there are scientists on both sides that are accurate.”

Asked if she believed “there is science that proves that man is not causing climate change”, she said: “Well, I think that both sides have, you know, their own results from their studies, and I appreciate and respect both sides of the science.”

Knight Craft, who has donated to the Republican party, is married to Joseph Kraft, a billionaire coal magnate from Kentucky.

The president’s announcement comes a week after Trump’s first choice to replace Nikki Haley at the UN, former Fox News host and state department spokeswoman Heather Nauert, withdrew her candidacy.

'You didn't vote for me'. California senator's response to kids on 'Green New Deal'

California senator Dianne Feinstein is facing criticism over a video of her response to a group of children and teenagers asking her to support the “Green New Deal.”

The video clip shows part of a Friday morning meeting between Feinstein and young activists from the Sunrise Movement. Founded in 2017, the group organizes young people to fight climate change and support the Green New Deal.

When Feinstein pushed back on the young activists’ request, one child says, “The government is supposed to be for the people, by the people, and all for the people.”

“I’ve been doing this for 30 years. I know what I’ve been doing,” Feinstein responds in the video. “You come in here and say it has to be my way or the highway. I’ve gotten elected. I just ran. I was elected by almost a million vote plurality and I know what I’m doing. Maybe people should listen a little bit.”

“I hear what you’re saying,” a teenage activist says. “But we’re the people who voted you, you’re supposed to listen to us.”

“How old are you?” Feinstein asks her.

“I’m sixteen,” the young woman responds.

“Well, you didn’t vote for me,” Feinstein says.

Feinstein’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The senator reacted “with smugness + disrespect,” the Sunrise Movement tweeted on Friday, sharing a video clip of the meeting. “Her reaction is why young people desperately want new leadership in Congress.”

Later in the clip, Feinstein tells a young activist, “Well, you know better than I do. So I think one day you should run for the United States Senate and then you do it your way.”

“Great, I will,” the teenager responded.

The Green New Deal, a proposal that aims to fight inequality and tackle climate change at the same time, is being advanced by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, among other Democratic lawmakers. Want more details? Here’s our explainer on the Green New Deal.

The proposal could face a vote in the senate as early as next week.

“That resolution will not pass the Senate,” Feinstein told the activists, according to a press release from the Sunrise Movement. “And you can take that back to whoever sent you here.”

Need a break from political news? It’s the Friday before the Oscars, and Vanity Fair has reportedly disinvited the New York Times from its storied Oscars party.

The Times Style section ran a critical story yesterday questioning whether Vanity Fair’s annual party was still the “hottest” Oscars event.

The magazine was apparently unhappy with the coverage, Choire Sicha, the editor of the Times Style section, noted.

Lois Beckett here, taking over our live coverage.

Michael Cohen, Trump’s former lawyer, met with federal prosecutors in New York last month to offer information about “possible irregularities within the president’s family business”, the New York Times reports. The conversation involved “insurance claims the company had filed over the years”, the Times reported, and there was “no indication” that President Trump was implicated in the “irregularities.”

Donald Trump tried to change the subject when asked about a North Carolina election invalidated because of absentee ballot fraud, instead pointing to other questionable allegations of voter fraud.

The state board of elections has ordered a new election for a House seat after an operative working for the Republican candidate, Mark Harris, was found to have run an illegal absentee ballot harvesting operation.

“I condemn any voter fraud of any kind, whether it’s Democrat or Republican,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office, Politico reports. “But when you look at some of the things that happened in California in particular, when you look at what has happened in Texas with all of those votes that they recently found that were not exactly properly done. I condemn all of it.”

A reporter attempted to point out the cases he was referring to were unsubstantiated.

“I condemn all of it. And that includes North Carolina if anything — I guess they’re going to be doing a final report. But I’d like to see the final report. Any form of election fraud, I condemn,” he said.

Trump has repeatedly made false allegations of mass voter fraud in the 2016 election, blaming it for his loss of the popular vote to Hillary Clinton.

Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rossello says Donald Trump is refusing to meet with him to discuss Hurricane Maria relief.

He told the Associated Press that the White House declined public and private requests to meet ahead of a governors’ conference in Washington this weekend to discuss the response to the storm, which has drawn heavy criticism.

Donald Trump said he doesn’t believe a resolution to block his border emergency declaration can survive his veto.

“Will I veto it? One hundred percent. One hundred percent. And I don’t think it survives a veto. We have too many smart people who want border security,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “I will veto it, yes.”

The resolution was introduced in the Democratic-controlled House Friday, where it is expected to pass. It’s fate is unclear in the Senate, where it would need some Republican votes and a handful of moderate Republicans are wavering.

Prosecutors have begun presenting evidence to a grand jury in Washington in their investigation of whether former interior Secretary Ryan Zinke lied to federal investigators, the Washington Post reports.

The grand jury deliberations are focused on Zinke’s decision not to grant a petition by two Indian tribes to operate a commercial casino in Connecticut, two sources told the Post.

The tribes say Zinke denied their application for political reasons, and investigators with the Interior Department inspector general’s office believe that Zinke lied to them when they questioned him about that claim.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez will be the star of a new comic book, CBR reports.

It’s called Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and the Freshman Force and will be released on May 15.

Donald Trump blames Amazon’s abandonment of a planned campus in New York on the “radical left.”

He also disparaged New York Mayor Bill de Blasio’s presidential aspirations, per Bloomberg News.

Updated

Donald Trump said Friday that he bears no responsibility for a Coast Guard lieutenant’s domestic terror plot against a hit list of Democrats and news media figures.

“No I don’t. I think my language is very nice,” Trump told reporters when asked whether his language bears any responsibility for inspiring the plot.

“I think it’s a shame. I think it’s a very sad thing when a thing like that happens,” he said.

The chairs of six House committees wrote to Attorney General Bill Barr Friday saying that they expect special counsel Robert Mueller’s report to be made public.

“The public is entitled to know what the Special Counsel has found. We write to you to express, in the strongest possible terms, our expectation that the Department of Justice will release to the public the report Special Counsel Mueller submits to you—without delay and to the maximum extent permitted by law,” they wrote.

The letter was signed by House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, Committee on Oversight and Reform Chairman Elijah Cummings, Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff, Committee on Financial Services Chairwoman Maxine Waters, Committee on Ways and Means Chairman Richard Neal and Committee on Foreign Affairs Chairman Eliot Engel.

Donald Trump said that alleged misconduct by his labor secretary Alex Acosta when he was a federal prosecutor happened “a long time ago.”

A judge ruled that Acosta, when he was US attorney in Miami, broke the law in a sex trafficking case against billionaire Jeffrey Epstein by failing to inform his alleged underage sex victims of a 2007 plea agreement.

“I really don’t know too much about it. I know he’s done a great job as labor secretary,” Trump told reporters in the White House.

“That seems like a long time ago,” he said, adding that Acosta was doing a “fantastic” job.

Donald Trump said he looks forward to seeing special counsel Robert Mueller’s report, which we’ve just heard will not be coming next week.

“There was no collusion, there was no obstruction, there was no anything, so that’s the nice part,” Trump told reporters at the White House Friday afternoon, adding that he won the 2016 election because, “I was a better candidate than she was, and it had nothing to do with Russia.”

“I look forward to seeing the report. If it’s an honest report, it will say that. If it’s not an honest report, it won’t,” he said.

Senator Cory Booker will be making a stop in Nevada in his presidential campaign this weekend.

Special counsel Robert Mueller’s report on the Russia investigation will not be issued next week, a senior Justice Department official tells NBC News and the Washington Post.

There had been speculation the report would come out next week.

Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, a Republican considering a primary bid against Donald Trump, asks the Trump campaign, “What are you so afraid of?”

Hogan told the Washington Post the Republican National Committee has taken “unprecedented” steps to block a possible challenge, referring to an RNC resolution declaring undivided support for Trump.

“If he has unanimous support and everybody is on board, why shut down the normal process?” he said. “It’s almost like a hostage situation.”

Senator Bernie Sanders is backing a strike by teachers in Oakland.

Donald Trump says he’s “surprised” by charges of soliciting prostitution against Patriots owner Robert Kraft, a friend of his. He stressed Kraft has denied the allegations, according to a pool report.

Updated

Donald Trump said today he would definitely veto a congressional resolution to block his declaration of an emergency at the southern border, according to a pool report.

Virginia House Republicans have announced plans to hold a public hearing where the lieutenant governor, Justin Fairfax, and the two women who have recently accused him of sexual assault can testify, the Associated Press reports:

Republican Del. Rob Bell said Friday that the House Courts of Justice Committee will invite Vanessa Tyson, Meredith Watson and Fairfax at an unnamed future hearing date.

“This will give all parties a chance to be heard,” Bell said in brief remarks on the House floor.

He added that Republicans believe they have a duty to investigate the allegations made against the lieutenant governor, who is first in line to replace the governor in the event of a vacancy.

Democratic House members have said they don’t believe the General Assembly is the best place to investigate the allegations at this time and said they don’t want to impede possible criminal investigations.

Updated

More stories of mistreatment by staffers of Senator Amy Klobuchar are featured in a new story from the New York Times.

In one incident, a staffer forgot to bring a fork with a salad he brought her on a flight. She berated him, then used a comb from her purse to eat the salad, and ordered him to clean it.

Klobuchar wrote in one email seen by the Times, “In 20 years in politics I have never seen worse prep.” Another said, “This is the worst press staff I ever had.” In another email, she told an aide, “How can you treat me like this time and time again?”

Her office also had an unusually punitive parental leave policy. Aides who took paid leave were required to remain employed for the office for three times as long as they had been on leave. If they did not, the policy called for them to pay back the money they were paid while on leave. Klobuchar’s office told the Times they never actually required any staffer to repay the money.

Updated

In a new court filing, special counsel Robert Mueller formally denied Roger Stone’s claims that the special counsel tipped off CNN about his coming arrest.

A CNN crew was outside Stone’s home to capture his arrest, but have said they were staking out the location and got lucky.

Vice-president Mike Pence promised the nation’s governors that Congress will pass an infrastructure bill next year.

“I’ll make you a promise. And we’ll ask for your help. That in this Congress we’re going to pass historic infrastructure legislation,” Pence said Friday at a governors’ event at his residence, the Washington Post reports.

Democrats have said they support an infrastructure package, but that it must include measures to combat climate change.

Updated

With a new election called in a disputed House race in North Carolina, Democrat Dan McReady confirmed he is in.

“I am running in the special election to represent the people of the ninth district,” he told supporters at a brewery in Waxhaw Friday, according to the Associated Press.

The state ordered a new election Thursday after investigating absentee ballot fraud by an operative working for Republican Mark Harris, who had led the race by a small margin.

Updated

The Trump administration issued a rule Friday banning groups that give referrals for abortions from receiving federal family planning funding.

The rule would cut groups like Planned Parenthood off from the $286m family planning program known as Title X, the Washington Post reports.

The rules bar providers from making any abortion referrals or performing abortions at the same facilities where they provide Title X services like birth control, mammograms and cancer screenings, according to Politico.

It’s expected to be challenged in court.

New York Attorney General Letitia James said: “These new rules are dangerous and unnecessary, and will prevent millions of Americans from obtaining the care they need and deserve. New York will not stand by as this Administration puts New Yorkers’ health at risk for politics, and we will take legal action.”

Updated

South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem said Friday that Donald Trump’s trade policies have “devastated” her state, Politico reports.

“South Dakota has been devastated by the trade wars that are going on,” she said.

Trump has imposed tariffs on steel and aluminum, prompting China to put retaliatory tariffs on US agricultural products like soybeans and wheat.

Noem said the woes of the agricultural industry have hit “every main street business, everybody that has another entity out there that relies on a successful ag industry.”

Updated

With New York prosecutors preparing charges against Paul Manafort, they’ll face the question of whether the case violates constitutional protections against double jeopardy.

There’s a bill pending in the state legislature that would explicitly allow state prosecution of offenses if the target has been pardoned for those offenses on the federal level.

“It’s imperative that New York clarify its double jeopardy law to ensure the State can pursue and deliver justice in these cases,” Senator Todd Kaminsky, the sponsor of the bill, said Friday.

Senator Lindsey Graham says he expects “a handful” of Republicans in the Senate to vote with Democrats to block Donald Trump’s emergency declaration at the border.

The resolution was introduced Friday in the House, and would terminate the emergency Trump is using to get money to build a border wall without Congressional approval.

Graham, speaking on Fox News, said he was “100% with the president” on the issue.

“Trump sent troops to the border. Obama sent troops to the border. Bush sent troops to the border. What’s the difference of deploying forces to the border to secure is vs. having them build a barrier while they’re there?” the South Carolina Republican said. “I think he has all the power under statute and as commander in chief to send troops to the border to actually erect barriers.”

The last in a row of Manhattan apartment buildings bearing Donald Trump’s name will remove the moniker, the Washington Post reports.

The last building with the name “Trump Place,” at 220 Riverside Boulevard, said Friday it would remove the president’s name.

In a vote among apartment owners, 74.7% voted to remove the name while 25.3% voted to keep it, according to an email obtained by the Post.

There had been six Trump Place buildings, and the rest have already voted to get rid of the name.

Senator and presidential candidate Amy Klobuchar will meet with former president Jimmy Carter and Democrat Stacey Abrams Friday on a campaign stop in Georgia, the Associated Press reports:

Klobuchar spokeswoman Carlie Waibel says the Minnesota Democrat will meet privately with Abrams, who lost a bid for governor last year and delivered the Democratic response to President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address earlier this month.

Klobuchar and Carter will speak about her campaign during their meeting, which is also private. Carter’s vice president, Walter Mondale, also represented Minnesota in the Senate and has been one of Klobuchar’s political mentors.

Klobuchar also will attend a roundtable discussion on voting rights with local leaders and activists before a fundraiser Friday night in Atlanta.

Klobuchar also will campaign this weekend in South Carolina and New Hampshire.

A federal appeals court panel appeared skeptical of Donald Trump’s termination of protections for young immigrants at arguments today, CNN reports.

Trump ordered an end to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which allowed young people brought to the US illegally as children to remain in the country and work legally. The move has been caught up in court ever since.

“Your starting premise here is respectively wrong,” Judge Harry Edwards told a Justice Department lawyer, according to CNN.

And Judge Thomas Griffith repeatedly said he was “frustrated” with the government’s argument on the rationale for terminating the Obama-era program.

A top executive at Pfizer will host a fundraiser for Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand’s presidential campaign, CNBC reports.

The fundraiser will be at the New York home of Sally Susman, executive vice president and chief corporate affairs officer at Pfizer, on March 31. Gillibrand is expected to attend, according to CNBC. Ticket prices range from $1,000 to $2,700.

House Democrats have set a vote for Tuesday on a resolution to block the national emergency declaration that Donald Trump issued to access billions of dollars to build a wall along the border with Mexico.

“This is an historic power grab, and it will require historic unity,” Texas congressman Joaquin Castro, a Democrat and chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus who is leading the effort, said in a conference call with reporters on Friday. He added: “The president is declaring a national emergency to fulfill a campaign promise, not because there is an actual emergency on the United States border.”

The resolution, which states that Trump’s emergency declaration “is hereby terminated,” has at least 226 co-sponsors, Castro said. Despite an effort to attract bipartisan support, so far only one Republican has signed on, representative Justin Amash, a libertarian from Michigan.

“The president’s act is lawless and does violence to our Constitution, and therefore, to our democracy,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on the call. “Not only is he disrespecting the legislative branch and the Constitution of the United States, he is dishonoring the office in which he serves.”

Trump declared a national emergency on the border with Mexico last week after signing legislation that would avert a second government shutdown but provided far less than he demanded to build his wall along the border.

With more than half of the members of the House signed on as co-sponsors, the resolution will all but certainly pass the chamber. But the effort is likely to fall short either in the Senate, where only a few Republicans have expressed interest, or to a Trump veto. It is unlikely either chamber could gather enough support to override a presidential veto.

Senator Susan Collins, a moderate Republican who is up for re-election in 2020, was the first lawmaker in her party to publicly state support for a resolution blocking Trump’s emergency declaration. With Republicans in the majority, at least three more Republican senators would have to join her if all of the Democrats voted for the resolution.

The Manhattan district attorney is expected to file new charges against Paul Manafort whether or not he is pardoned by Donald Trump, the New York Times reports.

As Bloomberg News reported earlier, DA Cy Vance is preparing a case against Manafort in case Trump pardons him on federal charges.

The DA’s office first began investigating Mr. Manafort in 2017 in connection with loans he received from two banks, the Times reports. The same loans were subject of some of the counts in the federal indictment that led to his conviction last year. But if Trump were to pardon his former campaign chairman, new charges could be brought on the state level.

The New York prosecutor resumed his investigation in recent months, and a state grand jury has been hearing testimony in the case, sources tell the Times.

Updated

Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin, who is up for re-election this year, said Friday he would be “delighted” to have Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence stump for him, Politico reports.

The Republican is the least popular governor up for re-election, according to polls. But he dismissed his low approval ratings.

“I have never led in any poll or been popular in any survey that has ever been done,” Bevin said. “And here I am.”

Donald Trump Jr and now-ex wife Vanessa Trump have finalized their divorce, the Daily Beast reports.

“We finalized our agreement at the end of last year. We are incredibly lucky to have five amazing children and are committed to raising them together. Our kids and their happiness will always be our first priority,” the said in a joint statement.

Vanessa Trump filed for divorce last March.

Updated

Hillary Clinton is criticizing a decision by the EPA to approve a pesticide considered toxic to bees.

Senator Amy Klobuchar is pitching her electability in a campaign stop in Iowa, the Des Moines Register reports.

“To do all this, we need to win,” she said after listing Democratic priorities like universal healthcare, expanding voting rights and ending the Citizens Union decision allowing unlimited political spending.

Klobuchar also addressed allegations of abusive behavior by former staffers.

“Am I a tough boss sometimes? Yes. Have I pushed people too hard? Yes,” she said, according to the Reigster. “But I have kept expectations for myself that are very high. I’ve asked my staff to meet those same expectations and ... the big point for me is I want the country to meet high expectations, because we don’t have that going now.”

The telecom industry will host a fundraiser for Sen. Roger Wicker the night before he presides over a hearing on data privacy, the Hill reports.

Wicker is the chair of the Senate Commerce Committee. The fundraiser is set for Feb. 26 at the Capitol Grille in Washington, DC. The hosts are the political action committees for AT&T and the trade group USTelecom, according to an invitation obtained by the Hill. The committee hearing on crafting comprehensive data privacy legislation is set for the next day.

New York prosecutors prepare case against Manafort

New York state prosecutors have assembled a criminal case they could file against former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort if Trump pardons Manafort on the federal level, Bloomberg News reports.

Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance has charges ready to go including tax offenses.

Updated

Almost the whole Democratic primary field supports the legalization of marijuana, the Washington Post reports.

The latest to get on board is Senator Amy Klobuchar, who tells the Post this morning: “I support the legalization of marijuana and believe that states should have the right to determine the best approach to marijuana within their borders.”

Not on board (at least not yet) are potential candidates Joe Biden and Sherrod Brown.

The US plans to keep 200 troops in Syria despite Donald Trump’s announcement that troops would be withdrawing from the country, the Associated Press reports:

“A small peace keeping group of about 200 will remain in Syria for period of time,” White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said in a one-sentence statement.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., who had harshly criticized Trump’s decision to pull U.S. forces out of Syria, applauded the president’s decision to leave a few hundred as part of an “international stabilizing force.”

Graham said it will ensure that Turkey will not get into a conflict with Syrian Democratic Forces, which helped the United States fight Islamic State militants. Turkey views Kurdish members of the SDF as terrorists...

Trump’s decision to pull 2,000 U.S. troops from Syria, which he initially said would be rapid but later slowed down, shocked U.S. allies and angered the Kurds in Syria, who are vulnerable to attack by Turkey. It also prompted the resignation of Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and drew criticism in Congress. Sen. Jack Reed, a Rhode Island Democrat, called the decision a “betrayal of our Kurdish partners.”

The SDF is currently involved in a standoff over the final sliver of land held by IS in eastern Syria, close to the Iraq border.

Many believe the IS threat won’t end with the pocket’s recapture and an insurgency is underway. In a foreboding sign Thursday, the IS claimed responsibility for back-to-back suicide attacks that hit a village miles away, leaving more than a dozen people dead in a rare targeting of civilians.

It’s unclear where the 200 remaining U.S. troops will be stationed.

White House press secretary Sarah Sanders falsely claimed that Donald Trump has always condemned violence against journalists.

In fact, Trump a few months ago praised a Montana congressman for assaulting Guardian reporter Ben Jacobs.

House Democrats introduce resolution to block national emergency

House Democrats have introduced their resolution to terminate the national emergency declared by Donald Trump at the US-Mexico border.

From the Associated Press:

House Democrats on Friday introduced a resolution to block the national emergency declaration that President Donald Trump issued to fund his long-sought wall along the U.S-Mexico border.

The move sets up a fight that could result in Trump’s first veto. It starts the clock on a constitutional clash between Trump and Democrats and sets up a vote by the full House as soon as next week.

The Democratic-controlled House is sure to pass the measure, and the GOP-run Senate may adopt it as well despite Trump’s opposition.

Any Trump veto would likely be sustained, but the upcoming battle will test Republican support for Trump’s move, which even some of his allies view as a stretch -- and a slap at lawmakers’ control over the power of the federal purse.

A staff aide introduced the measure during a short pro forma session of the House in which Rep. Don Beyer, D-Va., presided over an almost empty chamber.

Updated

Amid reports that special counsel Robert Mueller will soon be producing his report on the Russia investigation, Donald Trump again calls for what he describes as a “witch hunt” to end.

White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said the administration is “looking into” a ruling that Labor Secretary Alex Acosta, when he was a prosecutor, violated the rights of sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein’s victims.

“My understanding is that it’s a very complicated case ... but that they made the best possible decision and deal they could have gotten at that time,” she said, Bloomberg News reports.

Representative David Cicilline will introduce legislation to require that special counsel Robert Mueller’s report on the Russia investigation be made public.

The House Judiciary Committee could also move to compel Mueller to come before the committee and produce the report, he said Friday on CNN’s New Day.

“We’re going to use both legal remedies, legislative remedies, court remedies if we need to. This report belongs to the American people. They have a right to know the truth,” said Cicilline, a Rhode Island Democrat and Judiciary Committee member.

“It’s absolutely critical that the American people who have been watching this investigation for the last two years are entitled to know the conclusions of the investigation, and they should see the report in its entirety, absent of course any stuff that has to be kept classified,” he said.

Updated

Senator Kamala Harris has hired a seasoned California political strategist to run her presidential campaign in her home state, the San Francisco Chronicle reports.

Courtni Pugh will be the Democrat’s California director.

Donald Trump will leave it up to the attorney general, Bill Barr, to decide whether to publicly release special counsel Robert Mueller’s report on the Russia investigation, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said this morning.

“If he did it the other way, you guys would go crazy,” she said outside the White House, according to CBS News. “He’s following the process and we’ll see what happens.”

Updated

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is putting her money where her mouth is when it comes to living wage policies, paying her congressional staffers a minimum of $52,000 a year, Roll Call reported.

For the lowest-ranking position in congressional offices, staff assistant, median pay is closer to $35,000 a year.

To make the budget work, the New York Democrat will cap salaries in her office at $80,000, whereas many chiefs of staff on Capitol Hill make six figures.

“We think that if a person is working, they should make enough to live,” said Corbin Trent, Ocasio-Cortez’s communications director.

Updated

Democrats in the House plan to introduce a resolution Friday to stop Donald Trump’s declaration of a national emergency at the southern border.

House speaker Nancy Pelosi circulated a letter Wednesday asking lawmakers to sign on to the resolution to terminate the emergency declaration, according to the Hill.

“The president’s decision to go outside the bounds of the law to try to get what he failed to achieve in the constitutional legislative process violates the Constitution and must be terminated,” she wrote.

As of Thursday afternoon, 216 lawmakers had signed on, including one Republican, Roll Call reported.

Pelosi and Representative Joaquin Castro, who is sponsoring the resolution, are set to discuss it on a press call at 10am.

Updated

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James Van Der Beek planned a revival of iconic TV show
James Van Der Beek was making plans to reboot Dawson's Creek, the hit TV show.
BANG Premier
BANG Premier
Seth Green says his unseen Star Wars series would need to be "upgraded" for streaming: "I just don't think they're willing to commit the spend"
Star Wars: Detours won't be making a comeback
Total Film
Total Film
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