Donald Trump will use the supposedly favourable outcome of the Mueller report to go after his enemies in Washington with a “political bludgeon”, an aide has warned.
The FBI special counsel’s 22-month investigation found no evidence of his having colluded with Russia during the 2016 presidential election, according to attorney-general William Barr, who reviewed the filing over the weekend after being appointed by the president in February.
“In terms of political payback, the people that I’ve talked to in the White House over the last 24 hours talk about what this means for 2020 and where we go from here. And I think you are going to see [Trump] use this as a political bludgeon,” ex-White House staffer Cliff Sims told CNN.
The FBI is meanwhile poised to brief the leaders of the House and Senate and the chairmen of the two chambers’ intelligence committees on Robert Mueller’s findings as to whether the president or anyone close to him is under the influence of a foreign power. Senior Democrats are meanwhile weighing up their options with regard to possible impeachment proceedings against the president.
Radiating a sense of vindication, Mr Trump strode into the Senate Republicans' lunch on Tuesday flanked by party leaders. GOP senators applauded.
“It could not have been better,” he said of the summary of the Mueller report by Mr Barr, which did not find the president colluded with Russia over the 2016 elections.
He told senators he was given a “clean bill of health,” according to those in the room.
But Mr Trump cut short the celebration by quickly turning senators focus on the challenges ahead, claiming, “The Republican Party will soon be known as the party of health care. You watch!”
Inside the meeting, he urged Republicans to figure out a way to repeal Barack Obama's signature health care law and replace it with a GOP version, a major goal that has eluded the party during the first years of his presidency.
Mr Trump's trip to Capitol Hill came right after his administration said late Monday it would not defend the Affordable Care Act in a court challenge - and as the House Democrats, led by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, were unveiling a sweeping measure to rescue the program.
Additional reporting by AP. Read live updates from The Independent below.
Hello and welcome to The Independent's rolling coverage of the Donald Trump administration.
Yesterday the president and his supporters enjoyed a victory lap after being given a clean bill of health from the Mueller investigation regarding collusion with Russia to rig the 2016 presidential election (in the opinion of attorney-general William Barr, that is).
"There are a lot of people out there that have done some very, very evil things, very bad things – I would say treasonous things against our country," he said during a meeting with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu to sign a proclamation recognising Israeli sovereignty over the dispute Golan Heights.
“I will tell you, I love this country. I love this country as much as I can love anything: my family, my country, my god. But what they did, it was a false narrative. It was – it was a terrible thing.
He added: “We can never let this happen to another president again. I can tell you that. I say it very strongly. Very few people I know could have handled it.”
“I think Democrats and the liberal media owe the president and they owe the American people an apology,” White House press secretary Sarah Sanders told breakfast television. “They wasted two years and created a massive disruption and distraction from things that... impact everyone’s day-to-day lives.”
The investigation is thought to have cost $25m (£19m) and involved 19 lawyers, 40 FBI agents, 2,800 subpoenas, 13 requests issued to foreign governments, 230 orders for communication records and 500 witnesses interviewed.
Here's Andrew Buncombe on a day of triumphalism in DC.
Trump claims he is victim of ‘evil and treasonous acts’
‘We can never let this happen to another president again’President Trump also commented: "This was an illegal takedown that failed. And hopefully, somebody’s going to be looking at the other side."
Many read this as a warning he attends to come after the Democrats he argues engineered the "witch hunt" to discredit him with a view to ousting him from the White House.
Former aide Cliff Sims has since appeared on CNN to warn of precisely that.
"In terms of political payback, the people that I've talked to in the White House over the last 24 hours talk about what this means for 2020 and where we go from here. And I think you are going to see (Trump) use this as a political bludgeon," he told the network's Alisyn Camerota on New Day.
"In terms of political retribution, I think the main thing is going to be using this in the election in 2020 and the campaign to remind people that 'Hey, this is (Democrats') premise for beating me'," he said. "I think that's the message you can expect to hear from him going toward 2020."
But while the Republicans celebrate, demand apologies and threaten revenge investigations into stale Obama-era "scandals" (as Senator Lindsey Graham did yesterday), they may not be out of the woods quite yet.
According to NBC's Ken Dilanian, the FBI is poised to brief the leaders of the House and Senate and the chairmen of the two chambers’ intelligence committees on Robert Mueller’s findings as to whether the president or anyone close to him is under the influence of a foreign power.
The so-called "Gang of Eight" will be briefed within the next 30 to 60 days on the matter behind closed doors. That's House Intelligence Committee chair Adam Schiff and ranking member Devin Nunes, Senate Select Committee on Intelligence chair Richard Burr and vice-chair Mark Warner, House of Representatives leaders Nancy Pelosi and Kevin McCarthy and Senate leaders Mitch McConnell and Chuck Schumer.
Mr Barr's four-page letter to Congress on Sunday was silent on the issue.
The House Intelligence Committee has meanwhile postponed a hearing from Trump associate Felix Sater on Wednesday in order to refocus its attention on interviewing counterintelligence witnesses.
"In light of the cursory statement from the attorney-general and our need to understand Special Counsel Mueller's areas of inquiry and evidence his office uncovered, we are working in parallel with other committees to bring in senior officials from the DOJ [Department of Justice], FBI and SCO [Special Counsel's Office] to ensure that the Committee is fully and currently informed about the SCO's investigation, including all counterintelligence information", Mr Schiff's spokesman, Patrick Boland, said in a statement.
Here's Chris Baynes.
FBI set to reveal Mueller's Russia counterintelligence findings to House and Senate
Agency reportedly ready to share special counsel's conclusions on whether president compromised or influenced by KremlinThe Pentagon has meanwhile approved $1bn (£759m) in funding for President Trump's border wall and ordered military engineers to join the construction effort.
Remember when Mexico were going to pay for this thing?
The army would begin planning and building 57 miles of 18-foot-high fencing in Yuma, Arizona, and El Paso, Texas, according to a statement by acting defence secretary Patrick Shanahan.
Mr Trump declared the "crisis" of illegal immigration at the southern border a national emergency on 15 February after Congress refused his request for $5.7bn (£4.4bn) during the 35-day government shutdown. The emergency allows him to divert up to $3.6bn (£2.75bn) from other military construction projects towards his signature campaign promise.
Here's Adam Withnall.
Pentagon approves $1bn for Trump's border wall as Congress prepares to vote on emergency declaration
Democrat senators 'strongly object' to funding in letter to defence secretaryThe wall news prompted Donald Trump Jr to tweet that Christmas has come early.
Sorry to spoil your fun Don Jr but here's a quick reminder of all the other congressional investigations still ongoing in relation to your father's administration, courtesy of Chris Riotta.
It's not just Mueller - here are 17 other probes Trump should be worried about
Congress, along with tax departments and prosecutors in the president's hometown, are all still investigating the White HouseEmboldened by the Barr verdict on Mueller and wasting no time, the president's team have been quick to blacklist Democratic politicians and intelligence experts who have derided Donald Trump on TV.
A rather sinister memo headed "Credibility of Certain Guests" sent to TV producers yesterday advised them not to give an audience to "Democrat leaders and others lying to the American people by vigorously and repeatedly claiming there was evidence of collusion".
It asks whether certain contributors "warrant further appearances on your programming given the outrageous and unsupported claims made in the past".
The list includes:
- House Intelligence Committee chairman Adam Schiff
- House Judiciary Committee chairman Jerrold Nadler
- Democratic National Committee chairman Tom Perez
- Ex-CIA director John Brennan
- Senator Richard Blumenthal
- Congressman Eric Swalwell
Mr Schiff was the subject of particular Trump administration ire yesterday, with Don Jr gloating on Twitter and White House counsel Kellyanne Conway calling for his head.
Eric Swalwell duly tweeted the below withering response and then appeared on Wolf Blizer's show on CNN in blithe defiance of the order.
Here's Tom Embury-Dennis with more.
Trump sends memo to TV producers pressuring them not to book people who said there was evidence of Russia collusion
'They made many of these false claims, without evidence, on your airwaves,' Trump communications chief saysTV is clearly as much on the president's mind as ever.
He posted a video of Benjamin Netanyahu's visit to the White House yesterday that was shot as though the Israeli PM were a contestant arriving at Trump Tower on The Apprentice.
Although the former reality TV star loves television, especially Fox and Friends, the box is not always kind to him. Here's Roisin O'Connor on Late Show satirist Stephen Colbert, who compared the Barr verdict on the Mueller report to the famously enigmatic ending of JJ Abrams's hit series Lost.
"Why couldn’t it have been like the ending to Seinfeld? Still disappointing, but at least they’re all in jail."
Stephen Colbert compares Mueller report on Trump to the Lost finale
'What about the smoke monster, was it real or not?' Colbert asked. 'And if not, why have so many members of Trump's campaign pleaded guilty to lying about meeting with the smoke monster?'Here's the president's inner circle working overtime yesterday to claim the narrative over what was, after all, only the synopsis of a report written by an attorney-general handpicked by Mr Trump himself.
He's up. Still infuriated by negative press coverage in spite of his apparent "victory".
CNN's Jeremy Diamond and Kevin Liptak say the president's rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan, on Thursday will provide the first indication of how Donald Trump plans to play the "political gold" of the Mueller report.
They're expecting him to "slam and shame" the media (as he just did in that tweet) rather than move on with grace, as his advisers privately hope. Insiders would reportedly prefer Mr Trump to "attempt a more traditional presidency, one focused on sober policy-making instead of chaotic attempts to change the narrative" but are not optimistic he can change.
"I think [Grand Rapids] is gonna look like probably the second-most exciting Trump event, following the election night win in 2016," Jason Miller, a communications adviser on Trump's 2016 campaign, told the network. "This is a cloud that has hung over the presidency in the first two years of it. Now that cloud has been lifted - and not just lifted, but in such complete and convincing terms."
"The fact that the entirety of the Democrat party, through the megaphone of the national media, spent every waking moment of the last two years screaming about Russian collusion is absolutely going to be an issue," Trump campaign communications director Tim Murtaugh says of the 2020 campaign. "We've been hearing these charges for two solid years. I think you might hear a little bit about the fact that all of it is untrue."
And they're not ruling out President Trump seeking revenge.
"I believe that we need to investigate the investigators," says David Bossie, the president's former deputy campaign manager and an informal adviser. "I think that there needs to be an accounting. People need to be held responsible for what they have done to this country for the last two years. I am not ready to move past that. I think that's a very important element of what we need to do."
Rudy Giuliani is being as helpful as ever.
The US House of Representatives is due to vote today on an effort to overturn President Trump's veto of a resolution that passed the House and Senate expressing disapproval at his national emergency declaration over the southern border.
The Democratic-led House would need a two-thirds majority to win the day. In a 435-member House, that would mean around 290 votes and require a considerable Republican rebellion of some 43 members, which is not likely to happen, particularly now that the president is enjoying a bounce in the wake of the Mueller report.
"Even though the two issues clearly aren’t related, it increases the president’s strength and popularity and puts him in a stronger position," observes Oklahoma congressman Tom Cole.
The previous resolution passed the House last month by 245-182, with Republicans happy to rebel on constitutional grounds. If the fail to do so today, the president's national emergency declaration will stand, allowing him to move $3.6bn (£2.7bn) in military construction projects towards the wall.
"The president will be fine in the House," says Republican minority leader Kevin McCarthy. "The veto will not be overridden."
As shellshocked Democrats demand the full release of the Mueller report in the interest of transparency, the Republicans are flexing their muscles for the push-back.
Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell has already blocked an effort by minority leader Chuck Schumer to get the upper chamber to vote on a resolution calling for its unabridged publication.
"It's not unreasonable to give the special counsel and the Justice Department just a little time to complete their review in a professional and responsible manner," Mr McConnell said on the Senate floor yesterday.
"Remember... We're likely dealing here with potential other prosecutions, classified information, damaging people's reputation. There's no evidence that the attorney-general is not going to produce as much information as possible for all of us, and that's why I objected. I think it's a reasonable thing to do."
Mr Schumer hit back: "This language was good enough for every Republican in the Senate as well as every Democrat... The president himself says it should be released. It's hard to understand why the majority leader should stand alone with objections no one else found to be reasonable or sustainable and oppose this resolution. The report should be made public and the Senate should resolve that it should be."
Republicans block Democrats' move to release full Mueller report to public
The Independent‘There is no good reason not to make the report public,’ says Democratic leader Chuck Schumer"There are any number of reasons the president should not be taking a victory lap," writes Neal Katyal in The New York Times this morning.
Mr Kayal is a lawyer who helped draft the rules for special counsel conduct in the 1990s.
Mr Kayal is a lawyer who helped draft the rules for special counsel conduct in the 1990s.
"First, obviously, he still faces the New York investigations into campaign finance violations by the Trump team and the various investigations into the Trump organisation. And Mr Barr, in his letter, acknowledges that the Mueller report 'does not exonerate' Mr Trump on the issue of obstruction, even if it does not recommend an indictment," he writes.
"But the critical part of the letter is that it now creates a whole new mess. After laying out the scope of the investigation and noting that Mr Mueller’s report does not offer any legal recommendations, Mr Barr declares that it therefore 'leaves it to the attorney-general to decide whether the conduct described in the report constitutes a crime.' He then concludes the president did not obstruct justice when he fired the FBI director, James Comey," he added.
"Such a conclusion would be momentous in any event. But to do so within 48 hours of receiving the report (which pointedly did not reach that conclusion) should be deeply concerning to every American."
Great line from Democratic rising star and rumoured Joe Biden running mate Stacey Abrams.
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders is attacking media bias by posting a stretched and incoherent graphic on "Mueller madness" straight from The New York Post.
#YouDecide
Veep Mike Pence reportedly had to talk the president down from firing national intelligence director Dan Coats last December, who was himself planning to resign and thought Mr Trump was "crazy" for insisting he'd been wiretapped by Barack Obama.
President Trump was angered at Mr Coats's refusal to join in his attacks on the intelligence community and by his praise for Nato, while the latter objected to the plans for full troop withdrawal from Syria, forcing his fellow Indianan to step in and smooth matters. He had to do the same with Rex Tillerson six months in to his tenure as secretary of state, apparently.
President Trump, always ready with a nickname, apparently likes to deride the wholesome Coats as "Mister Rogers" after the affable the children's TV presenter. Trump really is the Cable Guy isn't he?
Steve Bannon, the ex-Breitbart editor and White House chief strategist, says President Trump will "come off the chain" and go "full animal" in the wake of his so-called vindication by William Barr's reading of the Mueller report.
Here's Tom Embury-Dennis.
Trump 'to go full animal’ on his opponents following Mueller report, says Bannon
President angrily accuses mainstream media of being the 'Real Opposition Party'Here's Will Gore for Indy Voices on how the Mueller investigation has actually provided a handy distraction for the president, allowing his questionable policy agenda to pass with reduced scrutiny.
Opinion: The Mueller inquiry has distracted us from Trump’s true awfulness
The president is now well on the way to winning a second term in which to pursue his America First, climate change denial agendaPlease allow a moment for our liveblog to load
