California is threatening to leave Donald Trump off the 2020 ballot unless he publishes five years of income tax returns, just as the president is attempting to put a lid on the Mueller report that has dogged his presidency.
The threat from the blue state comes in the wake of attorney general William Barr's divisive testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday, which has inspired a war of words on Capitol Hill and seen House speaker Nancy Pelosi brand America’s top legal official “a liar”.
The Democratic-led House is considering holding Mr Barr in contempt of Congress over misleading statements he made, his refusal to show up on Thursday to a planned hearing, and for failing to deliver the full Mueller report alongside underlying evidence to Congress.
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Hello and welcome to The Independent's rolling coverage of the Donald Trump administration.
Following an acrimonious couple of days in Washington resulting from attorney general William Barr's appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday to defend his handling of the Mueller report and his no-show at the House yesterday, Donald Trump is attempting to move the narrative on.
You know, get back to policy and principle. The things that really matter.
Except that's not at all what the Mueller report said.
And, call me cynical, but it seems odd the president should so suddenly want to strike a grown-up tone just as his AG finds himself under siege from hostile Democrats.
Here's one theory to explain Trump's latest about-turn:
Or could it, perhaps, have something to do with this?
Here's Chris Riotta with more on CNN's new poll.
Things got ugly for Barr yesterday after he declined to appear before the House Judiciary Committee.
Jerry Nadler's panel went ahead without him anyway, leaving an empty chair. Tennessee Democrat Steve Cohen also brought along a glass statue of a chicken and bucket of KFC, which he shared with colleagues, to taunt the attorney general for his cowardice.
More seriously, Chairman Nadler warned that the House could hold Barr in contempt of Congress over misleading statements he made before the House Appropriations Committee on 9 April as Speaker Nancy Pelosi called the United State's top legal official "a liar" and Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer threatened action.
Here's Clark Mindock's report.
The Democrats will now press ahead in their efforts to deal directly with FBI special counsel Robert Mueller, the man best qualified to discuss his own 22-month investigation and the 448-page report but who has seldom been heard to speak.
We know he's unhappy about the reception of his magnum opus (and Republican cries of "No collusion!") after The Washington Post and New York Times published reports of a letter Mueller sent to Barr on 27 March - three days after the AG's four-page memo summarising his conclusions was released - in which he criticised its lack of context.
Barr told the Appropriations Committee he had no idea how Mueller regarded his work in early April, a claim made nonsense of by the emergence of the above.
As for the Republicans, they appear to be going after Jerry Nadler - accusing him of lying, not Barr.
Here's House minority leader Kevin McCarthy and White House spokesman Sarah Huckabee Sanders attempting to parry.
Gadzooks, is this a metaphor I see before me?
President Trump spoke in the White House Rose Garden yesterday for the National Day of Prayer and thanked God for guidance during the "witch hunt".
"As God promises in the Bible, those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength; they will soar on the wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary; and they will walk and not be faint," Trump said.
"That’s something that Mike and I think about all the time. Right, Mike?" Trump said, referring to his devout vice-president Mike Pence.
"What do you think, Mike? I think so. Hey, we deserve it."
[Cue lightning bolt from the Heavens.]
Not everyone's buying it.
President Trump described potential 2020 rival Kamala Harris as "probably very nasty" in an interview with Trish Regan of Fox Business on Wednesday night after the California Democrat subjected William Barr to a rough time at the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing and called on him to resign.
"We have a president of the United States whose primary interest I think that has been clear as a result of what we know as a result of the Mueller report, his primary interest has been to obstruct justice,” Harris responded in conversation with CNN.
The Trump campaign appointed former Fox broadcaster Kimberly Guilfoyle, girlfriend of Don Jr, to its 2020 staff this week.
Here she is meeting Jovi Val, a former Proud Boy turned authentic Third Reich Nazi.
Here's a little background on this odious buffoon from Greg Evans of Indy100 fame, concerning his recent egging by an anti-fascist protester on the streets of New York.
Trump nominated two men for the board of the Federal Reserve last month: Herman Cain and Stephen Moore.
Both have now dropped out of the running.
Cain, a fast food company executive whose 2012 presidential run was derailed by sexual harassment allegations, lacked Republican support while Moore has been disgraced by the resurfacing of misogynistic comments. Sad!
Here's more from Lily Puckett.
Democrats on Capitol Hill yesterday passed their first climate change bill since regaining control of the House of Representatives, ordering Donald Trump to renege on his move to withdraw the US from the 2015 Paris accords at the end of his first term.
It also requires the president to meet US obligations agreed to by the Obama administration under the Paris Agreement of cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 26-28 percent below 2005 levels by 2025.
The bill passed 231-190, with just three Republicans crossing the divide.
Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell, however, warns it shall not pass, dismissing the gesture as "political theatre".
Even if it were to be allowed to reach the upper chamber for debate and went on to secure an unlikely Republican rebellion, President Trump would simply veto it as soon as it landed on his desk - as he did the recent motion of disapproval against his national emergency declaration - rather than row back on a campaign promise.
But that's not the point. The move allows the Democrats to capitalise on the urgency introduced to the subject by progressive congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and her Green New Deal, dragging global warming back into the national spotlight in time for 2020 and placing renewed pressure on the Trump White House to revise its view before the last grains of sand tumble through the hourglass.
I wonder why senior Republicans are so stubbornly hostile to climate activism anyway...
Democratic congresswoman Ilhan Omar, no stranger to controversy, has said the US "set the stage" for the political unrest unfolding in Venezuela, attacking American foreign policy in Latin America. Her hawkish detractors will not like that one bit.
US secretary of state Mike Pompeo said earlier this week Washington would be prepared to step in militarily to end the unrest - a remark that likewise did no go down at all well with Russia.
As we all know, President Trump's one true passion is golf.
If you discount garish skyscrapers, beauty pageant contestants and junk food, that is.
With that in mind, he will award Tiger Woods with America's highest civilian honour, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, following his Masters win last month. The ceremony takes place at the White House on Monday.
Here's Jack de Menezes.
You know what else is happening on Monday? Michael Cohen is going to jail.
President Trump's former lawyer and fixer, 53, will serve his prison sentence alongside Billy McFarland, the fraudster behind the disastrous Fyre Festival (as apt a metaphor for this presidency as you could wish) and Jersey Shore star-turned-tax fraud convict Michael "The Situation" Sorrentino,
Cohen was sentenced in December to three years in prison for tax evasion, lying to Congress and campaign finance crimes and is due to report to the Federal Correctional Institution, Otisville, about 70 miles from New York City early next week, the jail a haven for "white-collar and D-list scoundrels", according to the AP.
Tucked in the lush countryside south of the Catskill Mountains, Otisville is actually two federal facilities with a total of about 800 inmates: a medium-security prison where former NFL star Darren Sharper is serving a 20-year rape sentence and a satellite camp for non-violent offenders like Cohen.
About 115 inmates sleep in bunks lined up in barrack-style halls, instead of individual or two-man cells like in higher-security facilities. There are lockers to store personal belongings, washers and dryers for laundry, microwaves to heat up food and ice machines to keep cool.
Alums include accountant Kenneth Starr - who was accused of bilking celebrities like Uma Thurman with bad investments - and former Cendant chairman Walter Forbes and ex-Connecticut governor John Rowland.
Otisville is also known as a favorite among prison-bound Jews for its Kosher meals and Shabbat services.
Add in recreational amenities like tennis courts, horseshoes and cardio equipment and it sounds like the closest thing the federal prison system has to sleepaway camp. Forbes once ranked Otisville as one of "America's 10 Cushiest Prisons".
Cohen could be a target of bullying, harassment or worse for his cooperation with special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation and other probes and that could make him a candidate for the prison's protective housing unit, said Otisville case manager Jack Donson.
Factor in the camp's design - off a secluded two-lane road, without much fencing or security - and Cohen could find himself easily harassed by paparazzi or ambushed by someone looking to do harm, said Donson. "He's not a good fit."
A prison handbook advises inmates to carry themselves in a "confident manner at all times," to trust their instincts and to "choose your associates wisely."
Hillary Clinton appeared on MSNBC's The Rachel Maddow Show on Wednesday night following the Barr hearing and discussed the Republicans' ongoing obsession with digging up dirt on her.
"I'm living rent-free inside of Donald Trump's brain and it's not a very nice place to be, I can tell you that," she told Maddow.
"I've been investigated repeatedly by the other side and, much to their dismay but to my satisfaction, it's been for naught.
"I guess it is one of their tools to fire up their hard-core base. When in doubt, go after me...
"They know better. But this is part of their whole technique to divert attention from what the real story is.
"The real story is the Russians interfered in our election. And Trump committed obstruction of justice. That's the real story."
White House counsel Kellyanne Conway is being mean about Bob Marley fan Kamala Harris.
They're obviously rattled by her impressive turn against Barr on Wednesday.
Here's the latest assault on the environment by an administration that won't even humour the Democrats' new new climate change bill.
Republicans in the Senate have also blocked a resolution to bring an end to the Trump administration's support for Saudi-led airstrikes in Yemen.
Seven Republicans joined all Senate Democrats to support the resolution, but that was not enough to secure the two-thirds majority needed to overturn April's presidential veto, which thwarted a controversial bid to defy the Oval Office and force the withdrawal of military resources through unprecedented use of the War Powers Act.
The US has provided Saudi Arabia with logistical support and intelligence-sharing during a brutal four-year conflict whose death toll is forecast to rise to 233,000 by the end of 2019 as famine lays waste to the territory.
Here's what's going down at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue today.
Here's some food for thought for House Democrats still entertaining ideas of impeaching President Trump.
Nancy Pelosi is still not convinced.
Lauren Fox for CNN's New Day offering a better summary of the mood in Washington in Friday than I can offer.
