Donald Trump denounced the “Witch Hunt Hoax” against him in a flurry of tweets on Wednesday, saying potential impeachment proceedings overlook “the minor fact I never did anything wrong” on the day his ex-campaign manager, Paul Manafort, was sentenced in a second federal hearing to 73 additional months in prison.
The president tweeted thanks to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for her opposition to impeachment, which she considers “too divisive”, and took aim at New York’s state’s governor Andrew Cuomo, new attorney-general Letitia James and her predecessor, Eric Schneiderman for issuing subpoenas related to his business dealings.
Manafort was last week given 47 months in jail by a court in Virginia after pleading guilty to bank and tax fraud and this time faces up to 10 years behind bars for conspiracy against the US and obstruction of justice.
On Wednesday, a federal judge sentenced Manafort to more than three and a half additional years in prison. That’s on top of the roughly four-year sentence he received in a separate case in Virginia last week.
The sentence followed a scathing assessment by the judge and a prosecutor of Manafort’s crimes. After Manafort was sentenced in federal court Wednesday, an indictment was unsealed in New York charging him with state crimes, including a residential mortgage fraud scheme.
Mr Trump said he feels “very badly” for his former campaign chairman following the sentencing.
“On a human basis, it’s a very sad thing," the president said.
Mr Trump also insisted he’s not currently considering a Manafort pardon, saying, “I have not even given it a thought as of this moment.”
The Manafort news arrived as Mr Trump was forced to announce an emergency order grounding a fleet of Boeing planes after a 737 MAX 8 plane was once again involved in a deadly crash.
Additional reporting by AP. Read The Independent's live coverage from Wednesday below:
Hello and welcome to The Independent's rolling coverage of the Donald Trump administration.
Donald Trump evidently had a late one last night, posting a flurry of tweets attacking the "Witch Hunt Hoax" against him ahead of his former campaign manager Paul Manafort's second appearance before a US district judge for sentencing.
The president's ire was this time trained on New York, his old stomping ground, hitting out first at governor Andrew Cuomo...
...Then at new attorney-general Letitia James and her predecessor, Eric Schneiderman.
The attack comes after Ms James, who was previously referred to him as an "illegitimate president", issued subpoenas to two banks for documents related to Trump hotel projects in Washington, Chicago and Miami as well as his attempted purchase of the Buffalo Bills American football team, according to The New York Times.
The state's actions follow Michael Cohen's testimony before Congress, in which he alleged Mr Trump had inflated the value of his assets to secure loans from Deutsche Bank.
The president was also busily retweeting friendly Republican congressman Jim Jordan, who was critical of House Intelligence Committee chairman Adam Schiff, and positive employment statistics on women in the workforce from his beloved Ivanka.
He also boasted loudly of his own economic stewardship, describing the latest data as, "A beautiful thing to watch!"
And there was this meme of Uncle Sam praying in church for America's deliverance from its oppressors - first posted on 9 November 2016, the day of his election - which is just plain crackers.
Paul Manafort will appear in the Washington courtroom of Judge Amy Berman Jackson today for sentencing, less than a week after Judge TS Ellis III of Virginia caused uproar by handing him just 47 months in jail for financial crimes and declaring he had "lived an otherwise blameless life".
Manafort could get a maximum of 10 years behind bars as the two charges he has plead guilty to - conspiracy against the US and obstruction of justice - carry five-year penalties.
Judge Jackson, a Barack Obama appointee, has found that Manafort infringed the terms of a plea deal with FBI special counsel Robert Mueller by lying to his prosecutors, the FBI and the grand jury, thereby freeing her from any obligation to recommend a reduced sentence.
The hearing may offer a window into tantalising allegations that aren't part of the criminal cases against Manafort but have nonetheless surfaced in recent court filings - that he shared Trump campaign polling data with Konstantin Kilimnik, a business associate the US says has ties to Russian intelligence, and that the two men met secretly during the campaign in an encounter that prosecutors say cuts "to the heart" of their investigation.
CNN's Stephen Collinson suggests, depending on the outcome, House speaker Nancy Pelosi will struggle to keep a lid on demands from her fellow Democrats that the president face impeachment proceedings. Ms Pelosi told The Washington Post on Monday she fears the process would be "too divisive" for America and that Donald Trump was "now worth it".
Following the first sentencing last Thursday, the president said he felt "very badly" for Manafort and cited the matter as yet more evidence of the "Witch Hoax" against him.
"The judge said there was no collusion with Russia," he told reporters on the White House lawn. This was incorrect. Judge Ellis merely said Manafort had not been accused of it in this instance.
Mr Trump has not ruled out the possibility of issuing a presidential pardon to his old ally and his press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders deflected a question on the matter at a rare briefing on Monday.
Democrats have so far broadly disagreed with Speaker Pelosi on the question of impeaching President Trump.
House Judiciary Committee chairman Jerrold Nadler told Manu Raju of CNN he was not "shutting the door" on the option.
"We're a long way from facing that. We have, we have to know all the facts," the New Yorker said. "Once we know all the facts, then we'll have to make judgments."
California representative Brad Sherman told the same channel's Jake Tapper: "The fact is, you don't have to wait until you can identify all the felonies a president has committed in order to impeach for all the felonies that are on the record."
"The felonies are there. Whether we have public opinion on our side, I don't think we are there yet, but we reached the legal standard long ago," he said.
Michigan congresswoman Rashida Tlaib meanwhile told reporters yesterday: "It's important that there is a transparent process. No one, not even the president, should be above the law."
Here's Tom Embury-Dennis on the president's suggestion his supporters are "fleeing" the Big Apple in disgust at the investigations surrounding him.
Trump says people are so angry about investigations into him they are 'fleeing' New York
'All part of the Witch Hunt Hoax,' president tweets after state launches hotel probeLast night's tweets were fairly standard for the "new normal" of Trumpland but yesterday's posts on the complexity of modern aircraft was something to behold.
In the wake of the tragic Boeing 737 crash in Ethiopia at the weekend, the president tweeted: "Airplanes are becoming far too complex to fly. Pilots are no longer needed, but rather computer scientists from MIT... I don’t know about you, but I don’t want Albert Einstein to be my pilot. I want great flying professionals that are allowed to easily and quickly take control of a plane!”
Here's Chris Riotta.
Trump launches extraordinary attack on planes which have become 'too complicated to fly'
‘Airplanes are becoming far too complex to fly’, president saysThis was MIT's response.
MIT responds to bizarre Trump tweet about its scientists flying planes
President claimed that planes are too 'complicated' for pilots to fly and that computer scientists were requiredThe president also took inspiration from Fox News to take on climate change.
“The whole climate crisis is not only Fake News, it’s Fake Science. There is no climate crisis, there’s weather and climate all around the world, and in fact carbon dioxide is the main building block of all life,” he wrote, apparently a direct quote from Greenpeace "co-founder" Patrick Moore.
A surprising source, until you hear Greenpeace's thoughts about the man in question.
“Patrick Moore often misrepresents himself in the media as an environmental ‘expert’ or even an ‘environmentalist,’ while offering anti-environmental opinions on a wide range of issues and taking a distinctly anti-environmental stance,” the group said in a statement.
“He also exploits long-gone ties with Greenpeace to sell himself as a speaker and pro-corporate spokesperson, usually taking positions that Greenpeace opposes.”
Trump repeats false claim there is no climate change crisis as he brands science 'fake'
President once again tweets false claim while seemingly watching Fox NewsEx-Trump lawyer Michael Cohen's own attorney, Michael Monico, sent a letter to the head of the House Oversight and Reform Committee yesterday clarifying his client's testimony that he never sought a pardon from the president, as accusations persist Cohen has lied to Congress again.
Cohen declared under oath on 27 February that "I have never asked for, nor would I accept, a pardon from President Trump."
That statement, with millions of people watching on television, set off a firestorm that culminated on Friday with Donald Trump calling Cohen a liar in a tweet and alleging he had "directly asked" for a pardon. Cohen responded in kind.
Lawyer Michael Monico told Representative Elijah Cummings in the letter that Cohen had asked a previous lawyer to explore the possibility of a pardon before he subsequently left a joint-defence agreement and turned against Donald Trump last June. Cohen hasn't done so since, Mr Monico said.
Mr Monico denied Mr Trump's claim that Cohen had personally asked him for a pardon.
Cohen's public committee testimony last month "could have been clearer and more complete" when it came to pardons, Monico conceded in the letter. His remarks about not seeking a pardon pertained to the time after his split from Mr Trump, he said.
Cohen had made the initial inquiry about a possible pardon after an FBI raid on his New York City home, office and hotel room in April 2018, according to Mr Monico, because Trump had "publicly dangled the possibility of pardons when commenting about ongoing investigations."
Nothing ever came of that effort, he said.
Congressional investigators appear to be zeroing in on the president's pardoning power as Democrats embark on a series of sweeping investigations into Trump's political and personal dealings.
The possibility he could pardon Paul Manafort after today's sentencing remains in the air.
In case you missed it, George W Bush's former vice-president Dick Cheney yesterday took his successor Mike Pence to task over the Trump administration's approach to foreign policy.
Calling out the decision to remove troops from Syria and keep a distance from Nato, Mr Cheney reportedly said: "It's a lot more like Barack Obama than Ronald Reagan."
Here's Sarah Harvard.
Cheney roasts Pence over Trump’s foreign policy in leaked transcript
The man credited for orchestrating the bloody and costly Iraq War criticised the president for his decision to pull troops from SyriaThe president is up and talking impeachment.
A reminder of the comments made by House speaker Nancy Pelosi to which the president is referring.
Speaking to The Washington Post on Monday, she said: "I’m not for impeachment. This is news. I’m going to give you some news right now because I haven’t said this to any press person before", she said.
"But since you asked, and I’ve been thinking about this: Impeachment is so divisive to the country that unless there’s something so compelling and overwhelming and bipartisan, I don’t think we should go down that path, because it divides the country. And he’s just not worth it."
"But since you asked, and I’ve been thinking about this: Impeachment is so divisive to the country that unless there’s something so compelling and overwhelming and bipartisan, I don’t think we should go down that path, because it divides the country. And he’s just not worth it."
One man who thinks the president is headed for impeachment is David Bossie, a former deputy Trump campaign manager.
In fact he said precisely that on ABC's The Investigation podcast: "I see that's where these Democrats are headed... We are headed to impeachment."
Asked whether he thought the White House was prepared for a possible onslaught of investigations from House Democrats.
"I would say you're never ready enough... Do I think the White House is ready? From a staff standpoint - I would say no, today. Do I believe they are in the process of getting ready? Yes."
"I would say you're never ready enough... Do I think the White House is ready? From a staff standpoint - I would say no, today. Do I believe they are in the process of getting ready? Yes."
Now the president is hitting out at satire at his expense, not naming NBC's Saturday Night Live or late night hosts like Stephen Colbert, Trevor Noah and Seth Meyers but presumably alluding to their constant jokes about him and his administration.
He's here referring to an interview former Tonight Show host Jay Leno gave to Al Roker on NBC in which he said he did not miss his old gig: "No, it’s different. I don’t miss it. You know, everything now is, if people don’t like your politics, they - everyone has to know your politics."
"I kind of used Johnny’s model. People couldn’t figure out. 'Well, you and your Republican friends' or 'Well, Mr Leno, you and your Democratic buddies.' And I would get hate mail from both sides equally," he said, referring to his celebrated predecessor Johnny Carson.
"But when people see you as one-sided, it just makes it tough," Mr Leno continued. "And plus, I did it when, you know, [Bill] Clinton was horny and [George W] Bush was dumb, and it was just a little easier.
"Now it’s all very serious. I’d just like to see a bit of civility come back to it, you know? People say, 'Oh, it must be easy to do jokes with Trump.' No, it’s actually harder because the punch line of the joke used to be 'That’s like the president with a porn star.' Well, now the president is with a porn star. Where do you go with that? How do you get more outrageous than that?"
Here come the rallying cries.
Hang on. Does America still need to be made great again or has he definitely already succeeded in that aim and is advocating consolidating the status quo? Which is it Don?
He's now taking his old enemies in California to task for halting death penalty executions.
Remember the state resoundingly snubbed him at the polls in 2016 and is leading a 16-state legal challenge against his national emergency declaration in support of his US-Mexico border wall.
Daughter-in-law Lara Trump, wife of Eric, has a handy tip for prospective 2020 presidential candidates: save it for 2024, you'll lose no matter what.
Here's Clark Mindock.
Trump’s daughter-in-law warns 2020 rivals to wait until 2024
Lara Trump says that running in 2020 is a waste of money because she thinks her father-in-law will win no matter whatOne man widely-tipped to ignore Lara Trump's advice is popular Texas Democrat Beto O'Rourke, who ran a close race for the Senate against the might of Ted Cruz in the Lone Star State back in November's midterms.
Mr O'Rourke, a native of El Paso, won national admiration for his outspoken campaign last autumn and is all set to "push the button" on a 2020 presidential run this week, according to insiders.
Now he's after the Obama-era Justice Department, calling it "corrupt".
This relates to the House Judiciary Committee releasing hundreds of pages of transcripts from last year's behind-closed-doors interview with ex-FBI attorney Lisa Page, which dwelt on whether the bureau had an “insurance policy” against then-candidate Donald Trump.
Ms Page was found to have exchanged anti-Trump text messages with the bureau's special agent Peter Strzok in December 2017 (with whom she was having an extramarital affair) by the department's inspector-general, Michael Horowitz, prompting Robert Mueller to remove Mr Strzok from the investigation.
The Judiciary Committee interviewed her at length in July 2018 on suspicions the "insurance policy" referred to in their exchanges meant the Russian probe.
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