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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
World
Sam Levin in San Francisco (now), Jessica Glenza and Erin Durkin (earlier) in New York

Trump campaign seizes on report that undercover FBI investigator met with aide – as it happened

Donald Trump delivers remarks during a National Day of Prayer service in the Rose Garden on Thursday.
Donald Trump delivers remarks during a National Day of Prayer service in the Rose Garden on Thursday. Photograph: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

This blog has closed. You can follow Friday’s politics news on our new blog.

Updated

Summary

We’re ending our live coverage for the day, thanks for following along. Some of the big stories of the day:

  • The president announced that Stephen Moore, the conservative economics commentator, is out as the Federal Reserve nominee.
  • The Guardian revealed earlier in the day that Moore had continued underpaying alimony to his ex-wife for years after he was reprimanded by a judge for failing to pay his debts to her.
  • The Trump administration finalized new religious exemptions for healthcare providers, which will allow providers to discriminate against LGBT people.
  • Florida lawmakers approved a bill to allow teachers to carry guns in their classrooms.
  • Facebook banned several prominent accounts promoting white nationalism on the platform.
  • Nancy Pelosi said the US attorney general, William Barr, committed a “crime” when he told lawmakers during a congressional hearing last month that he was unaware special counsel Robert Mueller was unhappy with his portrayal of the findings from his Russia investigation.
  • Senator Kamala Harris and other prominent Democrats called on William Barr to resign.
  • A survey revealed that there has been an increase in reports of sexual assault in the military.
  • The New York Times published a report today revealing that the FBI sent an investigator posing as a research assistant to meet with a Trump aide in 2016.
  • Civil rights groups filed a legal challenge to the Trump administration’s new policy of denying asylum seekers bond hearings, forcing them to remain in detention long-term.

Trump policy jailing asylum seekers faces legal challenge

Civil rights groups have just filed a legal challenge to the Trump administration’s new policy of denying asylum seekers bond hearings, forcing them to remain in detention long-term:

The complaint from the American Civil Liberties Union, American Immigration Council, and Northwest Immigrant Rights Project targets a directive that attorney general William Barr announced on 16 April to categorically deny bond hearings to asylum seekers. Under the new rule, the government will detain people “whom immigration officers previously determined have a ‘credible fear’ of persecution or torture if returned to the places they fled”, the groups said.

The ACLU said:

The decision is also pointlessly cruel and irrational. It makes no sense to lock people up without even having a judge consider whether they should be detained—it simply guarantees that we will imprison people who don’t need to be imprisoned. That is especially true when it comes to asylum seekers.

More background:

Barr had delayed the start of the new rule until July.

The legal challenge comes as the US government is increasingly putting migrants in military-style tent cities. From an AP report today:

In recent weeks, immigrants have been forced to sleep in hastily constructed tents on top of gravel under a bridge in El Paso. Critics decried the conditions as inhumane and corroborated accounts of migrants who said that they were held too long and did not have access to bedding while sleeping in the cold.

More from the AP on the Baltimore mayor’s resignation today:

Baltimore’s mayor resigned under pressure Thursday amid a flurry of investigations into whether she arranged bulk sales of her self-published children’s books to disguise hundreds of thousands of dollars in kickbacks.

Mayor Catherine Pugh’s resignation came exactly a week after her City Hall offices, homes and multiple other locations were raided by FBI and IRS agents. She is the second mayor in less than a decade to step down because of scandal . She came to office contrasting her clean image with her main opponent, ex-mayor Sheila Dixon, who was forced to depart office in 2010 as part of a plea deal for misappropriating about $500 in gift cards meant for needy families.

“I am sorry for the harm that I have caused to the image of the city of Baltimore and the credibility of the office of the mayor,” Pugh said in a written statement read by her lawyer, Steven Silverman.

A federal grand jury has been empaneled and state and local inquiries are also underway into the roughly $800,000 Pugh made over the years in exchange for her “Healthy Holly” paperbacks about health and nutrition. She hasn’t been charged with any crime.

Trump says he may stop Don McGahn from testifying

Trump suggested tonight that he may attempt to block former White House counsel Don McGahn from testifying to Congress, in an interview with Fox News:

Asked if he would allow McGahn to testify, Trump responded:

I’ve had him testifying already for 30 hours ... So I don’t think I can let him, and then tell everybody else you can’t ... I would say it’s done, We’ve been through this.

The House Judiciary committee has begun discussions directly with Robert Mueller’s team about having him testify, according to NBC News:

Nothing has been finalized, according to the reporter. There have been an increasing number of calls from prominent Democrats to have Mueller testify:

There’s apparently more controversy plaguing the NRA: the Wall Street Journal is reporting that CEO Wayne LaPierre charged the organization’s ad agency more than $240,000 for expenses related to trips he took to Italy, Hungary, the Bahamas and other locations, without providing adequate documentation.

The Journal cited a letter from the ad agency given to the group’s board last week. In a statement to the Journal today, NRA director Marion Hammer said the travel-expense allegations were “part of the failed coup attempt” and have been properly vetted by the board.

The report follows news that the New York state attorney general has opened an inquiry into the NRA’s not-for-profit status. More on the recent controversies about LaPierre:

Some tragic news from the border: Four migrants, including two children and an infant, are feared dead in Texas after a raft overturned while they were attempting to cross the Rio Grande, according to federal authorities.

A man apprehended by border patrol agents said he saw his 10-month-old child and 7-year-old nephew, as well as another man and that man’s daughter, swept away by the water, the New York Times reported.

Border patrol officials said the body of one child was recovered and three were missing after the raft capsized late on Wednesday night:

At this critical moment...

The Guardian’s rigorous investigative reporting is having an impact in Washington.

Today, Stephen Moore, the conservative economics commentator nominated by Donald Trump for the Federal Reserve Board, abruptly pulled out of the running. The decision followed a series of exclusive reports by the Guardian on Moore’s financial, legal and tax issues, including a story published this morning showing Moore had failed to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in alimony to his ex-wife, even after being found in contempt of court for non-payment.

Hours after the story was published, Trump announced the withdrawal of Moore’s nomination to the Fed board.

This kind of investigative reporting is time consuming and expensive to produce. Exposing the depth of Moore’s legal troubles required the Guardian to pursue costly legal action, in partnership with other media, to unseal court records related to Moore’s case.

We can’t do it without your support. In this critical moment for democracy, the need for robust, fact-based reporting has never been greater.

We hope you will considering making a contribution to support the Guardian’s independent journalism and investigative reporting.

Updated

Increase in reports of sexual assault in the military

Reports of military sexual assaults jumped by 13% last year, the AP is reporting. And an anonymous survey of service members released today suggests the problem is vastly larger:

The survey results found that more than 20,000 service members said they experienced some type of sexual assault, but only a third of those filed a formal report.

The survey number is about 37% higher than two years ago, which was the last time it was done.

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, a Democrat running for president, spoke out about this today during a confirmation hearing for Army general James McConville:

I am tired of the statement I get over and over from the chain of command: ‘We got this, madam, we got this.’ You don’t have it. You’re failing us.”

Some more details from the AP:

McConville has been nominated to be the next chief of staff of the Army, and that service saw a spike of more than 18% in the number of sexual assault reports filed last year. The Marine Corps had the largest jump, at 23%, while the Navy saw a 7% increase and the Air Force was up by about 4%. The Pentagon releases a report every year on the number of sexual assaults reported by troops. But because sexual assault is a highly underreported crime, the department sends out an anonymous survey every two years to get a clearer picture of the problem.

Updated

There are now bipartisan calls for a classified FBI briefing for the Florida congressional delegation after Mueller’s report said there was an intrusion of the state’s elections systems by hackers in 2016:

Senator Marco Rubio recently told the New York Times that Russian hackers not only accessed the Florida voting system, but were “in a position” to change voter roll data.

Trump campaign seizes on FBI investigation report

The Trump campaign is promoting a new story from the newspaper the president likes to call “a true ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE!”

The New York Times published a report today revealing that the FBI sent an investigator posing as a research assistant to meet with a Trump aide in 2016:

From the report:

The woman had set up the meeting [with George Papadopoulos, a Trump campaign adviser], to discuss foreign policy issues. But she was actually a government investigator posing as a research assistant, according to people familiar with the operation. The FBI sent her to London as part of the counterintelligence inquiry opened that summer to better understand the Trump campaign’s links to Russia.

The American government’s affiliation with the woman, who said her name was Azra Turk, is one previously unreported detail of an operation that has become a political flash point in the face of accusations by President Trump and his allies that American law enforcement and intelligence officials spied on his campaign to undermine his electoral chances.

The Trump campaign has seized on the report as evidence that the “FBI spied on the Trump campaign”. The New York Times report says the decision to use Turk “shows the level of alarm inside the FBI during a frantic period when the bureau was trying to determine the scope of Russia’s attempts to disrupt the 2016 election”.

Updated

A team from Deutsche Bank has seen Donald Trump’s tax returns, according to a new report from Bloomberg. The bankers reportedly saw the documents before agreeing to lend to the Trump Organization in 2012.

“It was all part of a fresh start on a banking relationship that had soured after the financial crisis, descending into litigation over a Chicago project,” Bloomberg wrote, citing two people familiar with the interaction.

Democrats have issued subpoenas for Deutsche Trump documents. See our previous coverage:

The president has sued the bank to stop the information from getting out.

Florida approves bill allowing teachers to carry guns

A hugely unpopular measure to allow Florida teachers to carry guns in their classrooms has been approved by state legislators, my colleague Richard Luscombe reports. The vote came after a lengthy and contentious debate that left some lawmakers in tears:

Two days of high emotion in state capital, Tallahassee, ended with the Republican-controlled Florida house voting 65-47 to approve a wide-ranging school safety bill that expands the “armed guardian” program, set up after the 2018 Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school massacre, to include trained educators.

The controversial bill, earlier approved along party lines in the Florida senate, now heads to the desk of Governor Ron DeSantis, who is expected to sign it into law.

Some students or loved ones of those caught up in the Parkland shooting said they were outraged at the legislation:

Read Richard’s full account here:

Hello! Sam Levin in our San Francisco office here, taking over our live coverage for the rest of the day. We’ve got more info on Facebook’s decision to finally ban several prominent accounts promoting white nationalism, including Alex Jones, Milo Yiannopoulos and Laura Loomer.

A Facebook spokesperson said in a statement:

We’ve always banned individuals or organizations that promote or engage in violence and hate, regardless of ideology. The process for evaluating potential violators is extensive and it is what led us to our decision to remove these accounts today.”

As my colleague Kari Paul notes, Facebook has not, in fact, “always” banned individuals engaging in violence and hate:

The company has often grappled with controlling far-right hate speech on the platform in recent years. Figures like Jones, Loomer and Yiannopoulus were able to cultivate a massive reach using the platform, making Facebook’s move “insufficient”, said Cristina López G, the deputy director for extremism at Media Matters for America, a not-for-profit media watchdog.

“This is a step in the right direction, and it shows exactly why Facebook needs to be thinking about enforcement in a more holistic way,” she said. “Facebook can help curb the spread of extremism, hate, and bigotry that flourished on its platforms if it remains open to reforming enforcement measures.”

Read the Guardian’s full story here:

Stephen Moore, a nominee to the Federal Reserve Board until he withdrew this morning, was criticized for routinely underpaying his ex-wife’s alimony. He also has a long history of misogynistic remarks.

Here are a few:

  • On tennis: “The women tennis pros don’t really want equal pay for equal work. They want equal pay for inferior work.”
  • On men’s college basketball: “No more women refs, no women announcers, no women beer venders, no women anything.”
  • On the pay gap: There is “virtually no pay discrepancy between men and women, so for this generation the 77-cents mantra is as outdated as bell-bottom jeans”.

Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh resigned days after the FBI and Internal Revenue Service raided city hall and homes belonging to the mayor. She was accused of using sales of her children’s book to disguise kickbacks.

Trump admin: Health workers can opt out of giving care for religious reasons

One more healthcare item lost in the morning’s hectic news is the Trump administration’s new conscience “protections”.

In conjunction with the National Day of Prayer, the Trump administration finalized religious exemptions for healthcare providers, which allow workers to refuse to provide care if it violates their religious beliefs. For example, a worker could refuse to provide a woman with an abortion.

The rules are important to Trump’s conservative, religious political base, many of whom oppose abortion and gay marriage.

“This rule ensures that healthcare entities and professionals won’t be bullied out of the health care field because they decline to participate in actions that violate their conscience, including the taking of human life,” said Roger Severino, director of the Office of Civil Rights for the Health and Human Services administration.

Civil liberties groups and physicians have criticized the rule as allowing healthcare workers to discriminate, for example gay or transgender patients.

“Once again, this administration shows itself to be determined to use religious liberty to harm communities it deems less worthy of equal treatment under the law,” said Louise Melling, deputy legal director at the American Civil Liberties Union. “Denying patients health care is not religious liberty. Discriminating against patients based on their gender or gender expression is not religious liberty. Medical standards, not religious belief, should guide medical care.”

While Trump has often claimed to want to provide Americans healthcare, his administration has been pushing to gut the Affordable Care Act, best known as “Obamacare”.

The law provided health insurance to more than 20 million people by expanding social safety nets.

Today, the Department of Justice filed an important brief arguing the law is unconstitutional. It joined Republican-led states, who have tried to overturn the law since Republicans passed a tax overhaul last year.

The law touches nearly every part of the American health system, from providing popular consumer protections to requiring calories counts on some restaurant menus.

Here is more about the court filing from the Associated Press:

The remaining provisions of the ACA should not be allowed to remain in effect again, even if the government might support some individual positions as a policy matter,” the administration wrote in its court filing.

The Justice Department’s legal brief also seemed to be trying to carve out some exceptions. For example, the administration said the ACA’s anti-fraud provisions should remain in effect.

Protesters appeared before a hearing on repealing Obamacare on Capitol Hill in Washington in 2017.
Protesters appeared before a hearing on repealing Obamacare on Capitol Hill in Washington in 2017. Photograph: Kevin Lamarque/Reuters

The White House announced today that golfer Tiger Woods will receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Woods is a Trump business partner.

More info on the Facebook ban on Alex Jones – Facebook announced a ban against Jones in 2018 August. The “permanent” ban comes six years after Jones first falsely claimed the massacre of 26 children in Sandy Hook, Connecticut was staged. Jones started making the claim in 2013.

Jones is now being sued by parents of children killed in the massacre, some of whom had faced death threats and harassment.

Here is the full text of White House attorney Emmet Flood’s letter to Attorney General Bill Barr, criticizing the Mueller report and asserting executive privilege.

This is the passage where he asserts the president can tell advisors not to appear before Congress:

It is one thing for a President to encourage complete cooperation and transparency in a criminal investigation conducted largely within the Executive Branch; it is something else entirely to allow his advisors to appear before Congress, a coordinate branch of government, and answer questions relating to their communications with the President and with each other.”

Instagram and its parent company Facebook banned a group of far-right extremist individuals and extremists, in an attempt to contain misinformation. InfoWars, the conspiracy theory website headed by Alex Jones, has the strictest ban.

This from the Atlantic:

Any account that shares Infowars content will see the content removed; if an account violates terms on multiple occasions it will be banned. Facebook and Instagram will remove any content containing Infowars videos, radio segments, or articles, and Facebook will remove any Groups set up to share Infowars content and Events promoting any of the banned extremist figures, according to a company spokesperson. (Twitter, YouTube, and Apple have also banned Alex Jones and Infowars.)

A letter from White House lawyer Emmet Flood argues the administration has the right to tell advisors not to testify before Congress.

White House lawyer Emmet Flood argued in a letter obtained by Reuters that the administration could exert executive privilege to prevent staff from testifying before Congress.

Congressional investigators are especially interested in the testimony of former White House lawyer Don McGahn, who became an important voice in the Mueller report.

From the Reuters report:

It is one thing for a president to encourage complete cooperation and transparency in a criminal investigation conducted largely within the Executive Branch. It is something else entirely to allow his advisers to appear before Congress...” the letter said.

The letter also criticized Special Counsel Robert Mueller for declining to conclude whether Trump obstructed justice, which he said should be left up to Congress.

Moore’s withdrawal letter to Trump said, “unrelenting attacks on my character have become untenable for me and my family and 3 [sic] more months of this would be too hard on us.”

He also said: “Trumponomics has been VINDICATED.”

Foxconn CEO Terry Gou just met with Wisconsin Governor Toney Evers, according to the Associated Press. The executive met with President Trump earlier today.

The company promised to build a $10bn manufacturing plant in Wisconsin, but tried to change its agreement with the state to focus on a “research hub” since it was announced. Taxpayers in Wisconsin are on the hook for $4bn worth of local and state tax credits.

In February, Gou said he was considering changing the project, but reversed course after a discussion with the president. Neither Evers nor Trump commented on the substance of their conversations with Gou.

Donald Trump, former Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, and Foxconn CEO Terry Gou break ground for the new Foxconn facility in Mount Pleasant, Wisconsin.
Donald Trump, former Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, and Foxconn CEO Terry Gou break ground for the new Foxconn facility in Mount Pleasant, Wisconsin. Photograph: Evan Vucci/AP

Even though the new climate bill is expected to die in the Senate, environmentalists lauded the vote.

“Nothing better demonstrates the newfound climate leadership in Congress than today’s vote,” said Rhea Suh, president of the Natural Resources Defense Council.

“The House is responding to the rising calls, from every quarter, for action to combat the soaring costs and the mounting dangers of climate change. And it’s signaling to the country, and the world, that Americans intend to keep the promises we made in Paris.

“Today’s vote also sends a strong message to the GOP-led Senate: blocking this long overdue climate progress would recklessly put the health and future of our children at risk.”

The House just passed the first climate bill in a decade – an effort to keep the US in the Paris Climate Agreement. The Trump administration pulled the US out of the accord in 2017.

The bill is expected to die in the US Senate. Republican majority leader Sen. Mitch McConnell said the bill, “doesn’t even pass the laugh test.”

At the same time, the Trump administration worked to remove references to climate change from an international statement on Arctic policy, expected to be endorsed by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo next week, according to the Washington Post.

An aerial view of ice-covered ocean and Weddell Seals on pieces of glaciers in Antarctica in February.
An aerial view of ice-covered ocean and Weddell Seals on pieces of glaciers in Antarctica in February. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

Just two hours ago former Federal Reserve board pick Stephen Moore said he was “all in” on the position.

“My biggest ally is the president,” he told Bloomberg News. “He’s full speed ahead.”

Stephen Moore on Bloomberg Television in March. He withdrew his name from consideration for the Federal Reserve Board today.
Stephen Moore on Bloomberg Television in March. He withdrew his name from consideration for the Federal Reserve Board today. Photograph: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg

More of the Guardian’s reporting on Moore...

From Guardian reporter Jon Swaine’s story on Moore this morning:

Stephen Moore, Donald Trump’s embattled pick for the Federal Reserve board of governors, has underpaid his ex-wife’s alimony bills for years, leaving her out of pocket by tens of thousands of dollars.

Moore has continued paying Allison Moore significantly less than required under their 2011 divorce settlement, according to a source familiar with the arrangements.

The underpayment persisted even after Moore was found in contempt of court in Virginia in 2012, and came close to having his home seized, after he failed to pay Allison Moore more than $300,000 he owed her at the time.

A spokeswoman for Moore said he declined to comment.

...

A source familiar with the Moores’ arrangements, who declined to be identified discussing personal matters, said Stephen Moore had since then frequently paid Allison Moore about $12,000 monthly – a shortfall of about $8,000 per month.

Previously, Moore owed the IRS more than $75,000 in federal taxes. He paid the bill while he was still under consideration for the Federal Reserve.

Trump's Federal Reserve board pick rules himself out

President Trump just tweeted Stephen Moore, his pick for a Federal Reserve board member, withdrew his name from consideration following criticism he failed to pay his ex-wife tens of thousands of dollars in alimony.

Updated

Even as Trump called on an end to attacks on houses of worship, Louisiana lawmakers want to expand protections for people who shoot and kill people within churches, synagogues and mosques.

The expansions to the state’s “Stand Your Ground” law would allow people to carry firearms in a house of worship without notifying religious leaders.

State Rep. Beryl Amedee, a Republican, told the AP, “Churches need to take steps to defend themselves when they’re under attack.”

House Judiciary member are working to secure a date for Special Counsel Robert Mueller to testify, and said they hoped Mueller would appear before 15 May.

Barr refused to testify before the House Judiciary Committee Thursday, and also missed a deadline to provide members with an unredacted version of the Mueller report and its underlying evidence.

This reporting is from the AP:

Pelosi also said the administration’s refusal to respect subpoenas by a House committee is “very, very serious” and noted that ignoring congressional subpoenas was one of the articles of impeachment against former President Richard Nixon.

As Democrats portrayed Barr as untruthful, they sought to speak to Mueller himself. Nadler said the panel hoped the special counsel would appear before the committee on May 15 and the panel was “firming up the date.”

It’s unclear whether Barr will eventually negotiate an appearance with the House panel. Nadler said he would not immediately issue a subpoena for Barr’s appearance but would first focus on getting the full Mueller report, likely including a vote holding Barr in contempt of Congress.

Pastor Paula White closed out the Rose Garden service for the National Day of Prayer with a very speedy prayer and an “Amen!”, amid whistles from the crowd.

President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump shook hands with faith leaders, before Trump took the might one last time: “You are the leaders of them all,” Trump told the crowd.

DOJ says Pelosi's comments are "reckless, irresponsible and false"

The Justice Department has responded to Pelosi’s comments.

Updated

More context on Pelosi’s comments from Guardian Washington DC reporter Lauren Gambino.

Trump hosting National Day of Prayer references “witch hunts” against his administration.

Trump said his administration just, “finalized new protections of conscience rights,” for physicians, pharmacists and other healthcare workers. Civil liberties groups said these protections could be used in the future to discrimination against gay and transgender people.

Trump then referenced new abortion restrictions state Republicans have worked to put in place across the country.

“Every child, born and unborn, is a sacred gift from God,” Trump said.

President Trump just called a victim of the synagogue attack in California up to the podium to speak at the Rose Garden. Both of his hands are in blue bandages. He said his fingers were “blown off” in the attack.

He called for a moment of silence to be brought into public schools. “When you called me, I was at home weeping,” he said to the president.

President Trump is now touting a number of issues important to evangelical Christians, including ending the Johnson Amendment and saying “Merry Christmas.”

The Johnson Amendment prevented houses of worship with tax exempt status from endorsing political candidates. The Trump administration ended enforcement of that provision.

“We got rid of the Johnson Amendment – that’s a big thing,” said Trump. He also praised his “spiritual advisor” Paula White.

“I told Paula White – who I want to thank so much for what she’s done – ‘They took away your voice politically,’” he said, referring to the Johnson Amendment. “These are the people I want to listen to politically.”

“We proudly come together as one nation under God.”

President Donald Trump speaks during a National Day of Prayer event in the Rose Garden of the White House.
President Donald Trump speaks during a National Day of Prayer event in the Rose Garden of the White House. Photograph: Evan Vucci/AP

President Donald Trump is now speaking at the Rose Garden for the National Day of Prayer. Watch live here.

Pelosi accuses US Attorney General of lying to Congress

At the same time as President Trump prepares to speak at the Rose Garden, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has accused US Attorney General Bill Barr of lying her weekly press conference.

“[Barr] lied to Congress. If anybody else did that, it would be considered a crime. Nobody is above the law. Not the President of the United States and not the attorney general,” she said.

She further remarked: “The attorney general of the United States of America was not telling the truth to the Congress of the United States. That’s a crime.”

Politico also reports she was frank behind closed doors.

Updated

Jonathan Cain, a member of the rock band Journey, is now performing at the Rose Garden.

Cain is married to Donald Trump’s “spiritual advisor,” Paula White, a Pentecostal pastor who preaches “prosperity gospel,” which tells followers the more they give to the church the more god will bless them.

Vice President Mike Pence is now speaking at the Rose Garden to commemorate the National Day of Prayer.

He condemned attacks on houses of worship – including a synagogue attack in California and the attack on a mosque in New Zealand – and said the administration will visit historically black churches in Louisiana tomorrow.

The son of a sheriff’s deputy is accused of burning three black churches in Louisiana more than two weeks ago.

“No one should ever fear for their safety in a house of worship in America, or in the world,” said Pence. He added the president is a defender of “religious liberty.”

Nancy Pelosi says Barr lied to Congress

Nancy Pelosi: “[Barr] lied to Congress. If anybody else did that, it would be considered a crime. Nobody is above the law. Not the President of the United States and not the attorney general.”

Updated

Democratic House speaker Nancy Pelosi is now holding her weekly press conference, and is criticizing US Attorney General William Barr’s failure to show up at the House hearing.

Donald Trump is expected to hold a Rose Garden ceremony to commemorate the National Day of Prayer at 11am ET.

The White House hosted 100 “faith leaders” Wednesday evening. Among them are people like Mike Huckabee (seen in the picture below), the anti-gay former governor of Arkansas.

In 2018, Huckabee was forced to resign from a board membership on the Country Music Association Foundation because of his anti-gay views. He held the position for just one day.

Watch the Rose Garden ceremony live here.

In other news, Trump met with the leader of Foxconn, a Taiwanese company which manufactures parts for iPhones and whose taxpayer-subsidized plant in Wisconsin has been a source of ire for state residents since it was announced.

This reporting from the Associated Press:

Foxconn Technology Group CEO Terry Gou has met with President Donald Trump to discuss the company’s ever-changing Wisconsin project.

Foxconn confirmed the meeting on Thursday but offered few details on what was discussed. Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers said Foxconn approached him about changing the state’s contract with the worldwide electronics leader.

The current deal makes more than $4bn in state and local tax credits available to Foxconn if it invests $9bn and hires 13,000 people. But Foxconn reduced the size of the display screen factory it plans to build and Evers says he thinks fewer people will be hired.

Foxconn said Gou and Trump “discussed the latest updates and the positive progress” of the project, among other things. Gou announced last month he is running to be president of Taiwan.

In another recent call with Trump, Foxconn executives backed away from statements that they would abandon their plans to build a factory in Wisconsin.

Democrats are harshly critical of US Attorney General William Barr’s failure to appear at a House hearing, and the White House is also lashing out.

In an appearance on Fox News, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders called Democrats attempt to question Barr, “pathetic”. Barr refused to attend a House Judiciary committee hearing Thursday about the Mueller report. Instead, they faced an empty chair.

“They saw what happened yesterday,” in the Senate, Sanders said, “and they decided they’re incapable of asking questions of the Attorney General.”

Sanders was criticizing, in particular, Democrats decision to allow staff attorneys question Barr for an additional hour after members of Congress.

“Frankly, it’s pathetic. Democrats need to step up,” Sanders said.

About House Judiciary Chair Rep. Jerry Nadler, Sanders said: “Look I lost confidence in Jerry Nadler a long time ago, but I was unaware he had lost confidence in himself.”

Here’s a good example of the revolving door Bennet talked about. Martha Coakley, a Democratic former Massachusetts Attorney General, is now lobbying for vape company Juul.

The current Massachusetts Attorney General, Maura Healey, is investigating whether the company intentionally targeted minors in its advertising campaign.

Altria, the US maker of Marlboro cigarettes formerly known as Philip Morris, recently bought a stake in the vape company.

US Senator Michael Bennet, who today announced his run for the Democratic presidential nomination, makes an interesting proposal in a video announcing his run: ban Congress members from becoming lobbyists.

It’s a crowded Democratic slate, and he also took the opportunity to oppose some progressive platforms, including free college tuition and Medicare-for-all.

Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee says after the hearing: We may have “no other option other than to hold the attorney general in contempt.”

Representatives “have not done that because we wanted to continue negotiations,” she said.

“Is this the way we want to run this nation? Do we want a president who does not welcome the truth?” Jackson asked.

Rep. Ted Lieu called Barr “one of the most dangerous men in Washington DC. “We will hold him accountable.”

There’s an empty chair at the witness table for Attorney General William Barr. Chairman Jerry Nadler says normally he would call the witness, but since he has not shown up he will end the hearing.

“We will make sure that no president becomes a monarch,” he said.

Republicans on the committee are objecting as Nadler gaveled out the hearing. Rep. Matt Gaetz said the Democrats were ignoring “members who seek legitimate inquiry,” and then apparently had his mic cut.

Rep. Doug Collins, the ranking Republican on the House Judiciary Committee, blames the conditions imposed by Democrats for William Barr’s failure to appear.

He called it a “circus political stunt.”

“The reason Bill Barr is not here today is because the Democrats decided they didn’t want him here today,” Collins said.

He noted Barr answered questions before the Senate for six hours yesterday. “Yesterday he proved he’s not terrified to sit before anybody,” Collins said.

Chairman Jerry Nadler kicks off the House Judiciary Committee hearing, calling William Barr’s refusal to appear part of a pattern of obstruction of congressional oversight.

“We will have no choice but to move quickly to hold the attorney general in contempt if he stalls or fails to negotiate in good faith,” he said, citing the Justice Department’s refusal to hand over an unredacted copy of the Mueller report to Congress in response to a subpoena.

“The challenge we face is that the president of the United States wants desperately to prevent congress, a co-equal branch of government from providing any check whatsoever to even his most reckless decisions,” Nadler said. “If we don’t stand up to him together today, we risk forever losing the power to stand up to any president in the future.”

Rep. Steve Cohen brought a bucket of fried chicken to this morning’s House Judiciary Committee in a pointed message to William Barr, who is expected to be a no-show.

“He’s here,” Cohen quipped as he pointed at the the chicken.

Senator Kamala Harris pushed for Attorney General William Barr to resign in appearances on MSNBC and CNN this morning.

“This guy doesn’t take his job seriously or he doesn’t appreciate the significance of the job. It is a job that comes with an incredible amount of power, and it should be conducted with the highest level of integrity,” said Harris, who questioned Barr sharply during Wednesday’s committee hearing.

Colorado senator Michael Bennet jumped into the Democratic presidential race on Thursday.

Bennet, a former head of Denver public schools who has carved out a reputation as a policy-oriented moderate, made his announcement on CBS This Morning. He had started to put together a campaign last year, but paused it while being treated for prostate cancer.

The State Department allowed at least seven foreign governments to rent luxury condos at New York’s Trump World Tower in 2017 without congressional approval, Reuters reports.

It’s a potential violation of the constitution’s “emoluments” clause, which bars US officials like the president from accepting gifts or payments from a foreign government without congressional approval. Some experts see payments for Trump’s condo buildings and hotels as a type of emolument.

The governments of Iraq, Kuwait, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Slovakia, Thailand and the European Union rented a combined eight units at Trump’s building, according to documents obtained by Reuters. A federal law requires foreign governments to get State Department to buy or rent property in the US. The governments of Algeria and South Korea also requested permission to rent condos at Trump’s tower, but it’s unclear if those requests were approved.

House judiciary committee to kick off hearing without Barr

The House judiciary committee is about to kick off a hearing minus its key witness: the attorney general, William Barr.

After appearing before the Senate Wednesday, Barr said he would refuse to show up for questioning by the House, objecting to the fact that staff lawyers would be allowed to ask questions.

The no-show is likely to prompt a vote on holding Barr in contempt and possibly the issuance of subpoenas, the Associated Press reports. And there may be an empty witness chair reserved for the attorney general.

“I hope and expect the attorney general will think overnight and will be there as well,” chairman Jerry Nadler said Wednesday.

Updated

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