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Gabrielle Canon in San Francisco (now) and Adam Gabbatt and Erin Durkin in New York (earlier)

White nationalism a 'persistent, pervasive threat', says FBI chief – as it happened

Christopher Wray testifed before Congress on Thursday.
Christopher Wray testifed before Congress on Thursday. Photograph: Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images

Thursday night summary

Thanks for reading this evening. Here’s what happened:

  • The Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group voted to authorize a lawsuit that would stop Trump from redirecting federal funds toward his border wall. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who announced the move, accused the president of “stealing” and vowed to stop the “unlawful transfers”.
  • House Democrats on powerful committees have asked Capital One for documents relating to Trump’s finances. The company has preserved the requested information, but insisted it would not release them without a subpoena.
  • Michael Cohen claims to have found a new hard drive containing documents of interest, and his lawyers are asking legislators to delay his prison date so he can continue to help them investigate his former boss, President Trump.

As a legal battle is expected over yesterday’s request for the Trump’s tax documents, Democrats are again calling out the President’s repeated point that he can’t release his returns due to an ongoing audit.

After the Democratic chair of the House Ways and Means Committee formally requested the documents yesterday, the president responded saying he was unconcerned, and didn’t plan on complying.

“Now, we’re under audit, despite what people said,” he told reporters. “We’re working that out. I’m always under audit, it seems. But I’ve been under audit because the numbers are big, and I guess when you have a name you’re audited. But until such time as I’m not under audit, I would not be inclined to do that.”

As CNN’s fact checkers report, we know it’s likely Trump was under audit at some point, but it’s unclear if the president is still under audit. Even if he is, he is still fully able to release his returns. The only risk he might run would be exposing himself to increased public scrutiny that could result in a worse audit outcome.

Presidents have been audited by the IRS every year for decades, they point out, going back to Richard Nixon. Trump has been the first candidate to refuse to release his returns since then.

Updated

Michael Cohen is hoping to delay the date he is due to report to prison by offering Congress new information he says he recently discovered, CNN reports.

In a letter released today, his lawyers told legislators that the president’s former attorney found a hard drive containing files they might find useful for their investigation into Trump’s finances.

Per CNN:

They said they hoped Cohen would receive a reduced term and that the May 6 date Cohen is scheduled to report to prison ‘will be substantially postponed while he is fully cooperating with prosecutors and Congress’.

The letter adds, ‘However, with 30 days left before he surrenders to prison, time is no longer a luxury he is capable of’”.

As part of their ongoing inquiry into Trump’s finances, House Democrats are now requesting documents from Capital One, Politico reports.

According to a request made last month from Chairs from the House Oversight and Reform Committee, House Financial Services Committee, and House Intelligence Committee, the finance giant has been asked for details on the president’s revocable trust, the Trump organization, and his other business subsidiaries.

Capital one representativ Brent M. Timberlake responded to the requests, telling the chairmen that, while the company was preserving the documents, they could not turn them over without a subpoena.

From Politico:

‘Given the confidentiality obligations we have as a financial institution, including under state and federal law, we respectfully request that any production of materials be made pursuant to a subpoena rather than an informal request,’ Timberlake wrote.

In their letter to Capital One CEO Richard D. Fairbank, Cummings, Waters and Schiff said their request was related to their committees’ investigations centering on Trump’s ‘potential foreign conflicts of interest, compliance with the foreign and domestic Emoluments Clauses of the U.S. Constitution, and any counterintelligence threats arising from links or coordination between U.S. persons and other foreign entities, including any financial or other compromise or leverage over the president and his business interests’.

They specifically named the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C., as a ‘focal point’ of their investigation”.

House Democrats plan to sue Trump Administration to stop wall funding

Gabrielle Canon here, taking over for Adam Gabbatt.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is promising to sue in order to stop Trump from “stealing”, which is how she categorizes the president’s move to move funds from other federal programs to finance his US-Mexico border wall.

This afternoon she announced that the Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group voted to authorize the lawsuit, under the grounds that it violates the Appropriations Clause of the Constitution.

“The President’s sham emergency declaration and unlawful transfers of funds have undermined our democracy, contravening the vote of the bipartisan Congress, the will of the American people and the letter of the Constitution,” Pelosi wrote in an issued statement.

“The House will once again defend our Democracy and our Constitution, this time in the courts. No one is above the law or the Constitution, not even the President.”

Updated

Summary

•FBI director Christopher Wray warned that white nationalism is a “persistent, pervasive threat”, breaking with Donald Trump’s comments in the wake of the New Zealand terror attacks. “The danger. I think, of white supremacists, violent extremism or another kind of extremism is of course significant,” Wray said. Trump played down the threat of white nationalism after a white nationalist murdered 50 people in Christchurch, New Zealand in March.

•Congress has passed a resolution to end US military assistance for Saudi Arabia’s war in Yemen, in an unprecedented attempt to curtail the president’s power. The House voted 247 to 175 to send the resolution to the president’s desk, where it is likely to be met with a veto. The Senate passed the resolution last month, with seven Republicans breaking rank to support the resolution.

•Trump lashed out over claims the Mueller report is more damaging than attorney general Bill Barr revealed. The New York Times cited several of Mueller’s investigators as saying Barr’s four page summary, released last week, failed to accurately portray their findings. Trump, without foundation, claimed the Times “had no legitimate sources” for the report – a deflection he has previously used regarding negative press.

•Three more women have said Joe Biden physical behavior made them feel uncomfortable. The women, one of whom was a White House intern when Biden was vice-president, recounted their stories to the Washington Post. Seven women have now said Biden’s actions towards them were inappropriate. On Wednesday Biden said he would be “more mindful about respecting personal space in the future”.

Lindsay Graham has joined those calling for Donald Trump to release his tax returns, in an extremely rare act of defiance towards the president.

“I think you should release your tax returns if you’re running for president in 2020,” Graham told reporters on Thursday,

“I think everybody should,” Graham said. “That’s just my view, it’d be good for the country.”

House Democrats formally demanded the past six years of Trump’s tax returns from the Internal Revenue Service this morning.

Graham called Trump a “race-baiting xenophobic bigot” during the 2016 presidential campaign, but appears to have changed his mind since then, and was one of relatively few to support Trump’s national emergency declaration over the border wall.

Lindsey Graham
Lindsey Graham, seen here during his very ill-fated bid for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination. Photograph: Christopher Aluka Berry/REUTERS

Updated

FBI director Christopher Wray has said white nationalism is a “persistent, pervasive threat” – breaking with Donald Trump’s comments in the wake of the New Zealand terror attacks.

“The danger. I think, of white supremacists, violent extremism or another kind of extremism is of course significant,” Wray said during a House appropriations committee hearing on Thursday.

“We assess that it is a persistent, pervasive threat. We tackle it both through our joint terrorism task forces on the domestic terrorism side as well as through our civil rights program on the civil side through hate crime enforcement.”

After a white nationalist murdered 50 people in Christchurch, New Zealand in March, Trump played down the threat of white nationalism.

“I don’t really,” Trump said when he was asked if white nationalism was growing. “I think it’s a small group of people that have very, very serious problems, I guess.”

Christopher Wray testifies on Thursday
Christopher Wray testifies on Thursday. Photograph: Carlos Barría/Reuters

The Queer Eye crew are on Capitol Hill today. They seem to be enjoying themselves:

The number of people seeking unemployment benefits fell to its lowest level since late 1969, Associated Press is reporting.

“Weekly applications for jobless aid fell 10,000 to a seasonally adjusted 202,000, the Labor department said Thursday. That is the lowest since the week of December 6 1969,” AP said.

It’s some good news even as other data, such as weak consumer and business spending, and sluggish growth overseas, point to slower US growth this year.

The jobs report for March is released tomorrow, which will be another indicator of how the US economy is faring. February’s report was disappointing, with the US adding just 20,000 jobs, well below the 180,000 economists had expected.

Trump retreats on Mexico border threat

Donald Trump has scrapped his stated plan to close the border with Mexico, saying instead he would give the country a “one-year warning”.

Six days ago Trump said he would close the border this week, unless Mexico “immediately stop ALL illegal immigration coming into the United States through our southern border”.

But speaking to reporters this afternoon Trump backtracked on his border closure threat, which had been criticized by advisers and business leaders.

Trump said:

We’re going to give them a one-year warning, and if the drugs don’t stop or largely stop, we’re going to put tariffs on Mexico and products, particularly cars.

[...]

And if that doesn’t stop the drugs, we close the border.

Updated

The president of the United States, tweeting a meme that was doing the rounds this morning:

Maybe it’s just me, but I don’t remember Trump ever posting about this:

Donald Trump’s sex boasts: ‘When you are a star they let you do anything’

The Department of Justice has released a statement defending attorney general Bill Barr’s summary of the Mueller report, after the New York Times said several of Mueller’s investigators were unhappy with Barr’s synopsis.

In a statement department of justice spokeswoman Kerri Kupec said the report could not be released as “every page” was marked as containing potentially damaging information.

Kupec said:

Given the extraordinary public interest in the matter, the attorney general decided to release the report’s bottom-line findings and his conclusions immediately – without attempting to summarize the report – with the understanding the report itself would be released after the redaction process.

She added that the DoJ is working with the special counsel on “appropriate redactions to the report so that it can released to Congress and the public”.

Trump is meeting China’s vice president at 4pm. Here’s some brief remarks from Trump on trade talks with China, per the White House pool report:

Trump promised to talk more later on the deal but he voiced optimism that the talks are progressing. “They very much want to make a deal.”

But [Trump] said: “It has to be a great deal. If it is not a great deal, we’re not doing it.”

He said the talks are “very well along.” And said: “Everything is covered” though “we could have done a quickie” covering fewer things.

Vogue takes a look at the dogs, musical tastes, and hobbies of the women running for the Democratic presidential nomination.

The story was prompted by complaints that white male candidates like Beto O’Rourke and Pete Buttigieg are getting more attention for their endearing personal quirks.

The House voted Thursday to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act.

The legislation bars people convicted of stalking or domestic violence from buying a gun, prompting the National Rifle Association to oppose it.

The vote was 263-158, the Hill reported, with 33 Republicans breaking with the rest of their party to vote for the legislation.

Donald Trump is threatening to slap tariffs on cars produced in Mexico unless the country does more to stop migrants trying to enter the U.S. From the Associated Press:

Trump told reporters at the White House on Thursday that if that “powerful incentive” but “less drastic measure” doesn’t work, he’ll go through with his standing threat to close the U.S.-Mexico border.

The Republican president had threatened last week to close the border this week unless Mexico immediately halted “ALL illegal immigration coming into the United States.” He has since praised the country for doing more.

Trump also is threatening tariffs if Mexico doesn’t halt the flow of illegal drugs across the border. And he says he’s giving Mexico “a one year warning” to comply.

He says: “I’ll do it. I don’t play games”

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi declined to say whether Robert Mueller should testify before Congress.

“I’m not going into that. I think they should release the report. That’s where the evidence is, the information is. Let’s see the report,” Pelosi told reporters, according to the Hill. “If they don’t have anything to hide, they shouldn’t worry.”

The heads of the House Judiciary and Intelligence committees have said that Mueller should testify.

Presidential hopeful Pete Buttigieg called for abolishing the death penalty.

“It is time to face the simple fact that capital punishment as seen in America has always been a discriminatory practice and we would be a fairer and safer country when we join the ranks of modern nations who have abolished the death penalty,” he said while speaking at the National Action Network convention, Huffington Post reported.

Senator Elizabeth Warren asked the Department of Homeland Security to investigate whether the White House has overruled the Secret Service on decisions about who can meet with Donald Trump at his Mar-a-Lago estate.

The senator and presidential candidate requested the probe in a letter along with Massachusetts Rep. Steve Lynch, Talking Points Memo reports.

Access policies at Mar-a-Lago have drawn scrutiny after a Chinese national was arrested there carrying multiple cell phones and a thumb drive containing malware. The White House reportedly refused to cooperated with a prior investigation by the Government Accountability Office.

“This refusal of the White House to cooperate with this investigation, combined with the arrest earlier this week and other allegations of easy access to the President and his family at Mar-a-Lago, mean that at least one key question remains open: is the White House appropriately reviewing and making the correct recommendations regarding which individuals are granted access to the President, at Mar-a-Lago and elsewhere?” the letter reads, according to TPM.

There are “dozens” of current and former Trump administration staffers acting as whistle-blowers with the House Oversight Committee, a Democratic aide tells the Atlantic.

One such whistle-blower, Tricia Newbold, alleged that Trump’s administration overturned more than two dozen denials for security clearances, often ignoring the guidance of intelligence officials.

The oversight committee has always worked with White House whistle-blowers. But the number of whistle-blowers who have come forward since Trump became president is far higher than the number who cooperated with the panel in previous administrations, according to the Atlantic.

Alaska Rep. Don Young physically shoved a Politico reporter at the Capitol today, the reporter says.

Updated

Presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke mocked Donald Trump’s claim (false, if we need to say it) that windmills cause cancer.

“I thought it was a joke when someone asked me to comment on the President saying wind turbines caused cancer. We looked it up. It’s what he said!” O’Rourke said today in Iowa, MSNBC reported.

Presidential hopeful Pete Buttigieg is addressing his use of the phrase “all lives matter,” in response to controversies over police misconduct.

“What I did not understand at that time was that phrase was coming to be used as a sort of counter-slogan to Black Lives Matter,” the South Bend, Indiana mayor said today. “Since learning about how that phrase was being used, I have stopped using it.”

Wayne Messam, the mayor of Miramar, Florida, is criticizing Buttigieg for using the phrase in 2015.

Meanwhile, more on the tricky pronunciation of the Democratic hopeful’s name: Rev. Al Sharpton pledged at his National Action Network convention today to get it right, eventually. “It took me two months to say Obama’s name right and I ended up endorsing him,” he said, according to CBS News.

Donald Trump plans to name Herman Cain to the Federal Reserve board, Axios reports.

Cain is the pizza chain CEO who ran for president in 2012, but dropped out of the Republican primary after sexual harassment allegations.

Trump is telling confidants he’ll wait for a background check to be completed on Cain before formally announcing the nomination, according to Axios.

Congress passes motion to end support for war in Yemen in rebuke to Trump

The House has joined the Senate in voting for a resolution to end US military assistance for Saudi Arabia’s war in Yemen, in an unprecedented attempt to curtail the president’s power.

My colleagues Lauren Gambino and Julian Borger have more:

The House voted 247 to 175 to send the resolution to the president’s desk, where it is likely to be met with a veto. The Senate passed the resolution last month, with seven Republicans breaking rank to support the resolution.

The resolution’s passage sets up another confrontation between Congress and the president. The White House has said the resolution raises “serious constitutional concerns”.

The vote marks the first time Congress has invoked the 1973 War Powers Act to curb the executive’s power to take the country into a conflict without congressional approval.

It is aimed at ending US involvement in the long-running Yemen conflict, which amounts to logistical and intelligence support, as well as training and some special forces.

Scott Bootupedge speaks:

It’s getting a bit silly now isn’t it: Tim Ryan has become the second congressman-I-had-to-google of the day to launch a bid for president.

Ryan is perhaps best known for challenging Nancy Pelosi for the House minority speaker role in 2016.

He has represented Ohio’s 13th district (previously numbered as the 17th district) since 2003, it says here, and his campaign website describes him as “an independent, no-nonsense congressman from Ohio”.

Trump lashes out over claims Mueller report is more damaging than Barr revealed

Here’s our man, responding to a New York Times report that Robert Mueller’s report is more damaging than attorney general Bill Barr revealed.

The Times cited several of Mueller’s investigators as saying Barr’s four page summary failed to accurately portray their findings. The full report, yet to be released, “did not find” that Trump colluded with Russia, according to Barr, but did not exonerate him on obstruction of justice accusations.

Trump has repeatedly claimed that the New York Times apologized to readers for its coverage of his 2016 campaign.

The New York Times did not apologize to its readers for its coverage of his 2016 campaign.

Republican Senator John Kennedy has said he “would like to see” Donald Trump’s tax returns, after the House ways and means committee formally requested six years of the president’s taxes.

Trump, has claimed he did not release his returns because he is being audited, even though the Internal Revenue Service has said an audit is not a barrier to releasing returns.

In an interview with CNN, Kennedy said he trusted Trump, but was still keen to see his tax returns.

Yeah, I would like to. But I think he has, at least if you take the president at his word, a legitimate reason for not turning them over, he says he’s in the middle of an audit.

[...]

I take him at his word, and I respect that. I think all things being equal, I would like to see the president’s taxes, I wouldn’t be adverse to turning over my taxes, I don’t have anything to hide.

Updated

Trump may announce trade summit with Chinese president – reports

This afternoon Trump could announce a summit with the president of China, according to reports, as the two countries work to resolve their trade dispute.

The Wall Street Journal said talks between the countries are “moving toward ‘the end game’” and Trump could name a date for a meeting with Xi Jinping later today. Trump is hosting the vice-president of China at the White House this afternoon.

The US and China will continue to negotiate over the coming weeks, the New York Times reported:

But an agreement to schedule a summit meeting suggests both sides are eager to come to a compromise that would end months of tensions between the countries and could prompt a rollback of at least some of the tariffs that the United States has imposed on Chinese goods.

Since July 2018 the US has imposed duties on $250bn of Chinese imports, including $50bn in technology and industrial goods, at 25%, and $200bn in other products including furniture and construction materials, at 10%. China has hit back with tariffs on about $110bn of US goods including soybeans and other commodities.

The White House is said to be demanding that China end practices it says force the transfer of American technology to Chinese companies, improve access for American companies to China’s markets, and curb industrial subsidies.

Earlier today Trump said talks were “moving along nicely”.

Updated

“The senior White House official whose security clearance was denied last year because of concerns about foreign influence, private business interests and personal conduct is presidential son-in-law Jared Kushner,” the Washington Post is reporting.

The Post, citing people familiar with evidence provided to the House oversight committee, said Tricia Newbold, a whistleblower from the White House personnel security office, told the committee Kushner “had too many ‘significant disqualifying factors’ to receive a clearance”.

Their decision was overruled by Carl Kline, the political appointee who then headed the office, according to Newbold’s interview with committee staff.

The new details about the internal debate over Kushner’s clearance revives questions about the severity of the issues flagged in his background investigation and Kushner’s access to government secrets.

Last year, President Trump directed his then-chief of staff, John F. Kelly, to give Kushner a top-secret security clearance, despite concerns expressed by career intelligence officers.

Jared Kushner
Jared Kushner. Photograph: Jonathan Ernst/Reuters

President Donald John Trump, son of a man born in Germany, speaks!

There’s this:

And this:

And this:

(Let’s remember that four presidents have literally been shot dead.)

California congressman Eric Swalwell has announced his bid for the presidency, and will base his campaign around the issue of gun control, according to the Atlantic.

Swalwell, a 38-year-old Democrat, will reportedly announce his run on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. The Atlantic said that Swalwell “has been building up to a run for months”.

His campaign will be aided by Cameron Kasky, a survivor of the Parkland school shooting focus on gun safety, and he is said to be planning a launch in Florida on Monday.

Swalwell is a regular on cable news shows, which has boosted his profile, but he faces an uphill battle in entering a field likely to be dominated by better known candidates.

Eric Swalwell
Swalwell is the tall one in the background. Photograph: J Scott Applewhite/AP

Updated

Good morning

•Robert Mueller’s report is more damaging than the attorney general revealed, according to a report in the New York Times. The Times cited several of Mueller’s investigators as saying Barr’s four page summary failed to accurately portray their findings. The full report, yet to be released, “did not find” that Trump colluded with Russia, according to Barr, but did not exonerate him on obstruction of justice accusations.

•Three more women have said Joe Biden physical behavior made them feel uncomfortable. The women, one of whom was a White House intern when Biden was vice-president, recounted their stories to the Washington Post. Seven women have now said Biden’s actions towards them were inappropriate. On Wednesday Biden said he would be “more mindful about respecting personal space in the future”.

•Senior US officials have snubbed a meeting of the Group of Seven in Paris. Both secretary of state Mike Pompeo and homeland security secretary Kirstjen Nielsen have ducked the meeting, which will be attended by senior officials from France, Canada, Japan, Germany, Italy and the UK. The group is meeting to work on solutions to world security challenges.

•House Democrats have formally demanded Donald Trump’s tax returns. The House ways and means committee made the request from the Internal Revenue Service on Wednesday evening. Trump refused to release his tax returns in the 2016 campaign – breaking with a nearly 40-year precedent set by major-party presidential candidates.

Updated

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