Donald Trump lost $1.17bn (£897m) from real estate ventures between 1985 and 1994 and paid no income tax for eight years, according to The New York Times, reporting after the newspaper got hold of copies of his tax returns for the period.
The president predictably branded the story, ”A highly inaccurate Fake News hit job!”, the news coming at a time when his treasury secretary Steve Mnuchin was already under fire for refusing to release his boss’s tax returns for 2013 to 2018, setting up what promises to be a protracted legal battle with Democrats.
This latest act of stonewalling from the White House comes as the House Judiciary Committee moved to hold attorney general William Barr in contempt over the Mueller report.
The vote capped a day of ever-deepening dispute between congressional Democrats and the president, who for the first time invoked the principle of executive privilege, claiming the right to block lawmakers from the full report.
Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler of New York declared the action by Mr Trump’s Justice Department a clear new sign of the president’s “blanket defiance” of Congress’ constitutional rights to conduct oversight.
“We did not relish doing this, but we have no choice,” Nadler said after the vote.
The White House’s blockade, he said, “is an attack on the ability of the American people to know what the executive branch is doing.” He said, “This cannot be.”
But Justice Department spokeswoman Kerri Kupec said it was disappointing that members of Congress “have chosen to engage in such inappropriate political theatrics.”
Additional reporting by AP. Please allow a moment for the live blog to load
Welcome to The Independent's live coverage of US politics for Wednesday.
The big news overnight was a report claiming Donald Trump's businesses lost $1.17bn (£897m) between 1985 and 1994, meaning he paid no income tax for eight years.
The New York Times obtained a cache of documents revealing the losses just as the president's treasury secretary, Steven Mnuchin, refused to release Trump's latest tax returns, setting up what promises to be a protracted legal battle with Democrats.
Trump has repeatedly blocked attempts to make his tax returns public, defying presidential custom, insisting he cannot do so as he remains under audit. Even if this is so, releasing the filings would still be perfectly legal and House Democrats are growing impatient with the stalling tactic, which, they feel, strongly suggests the commander-in-chief has something to hide.
According to The Times, Trump's losses at the height of his pomp in the 1980s mostly came from his business holdings in casinos, hotels and retail apartment space. He lost more money than any other American taxpayer during the decade, the paper states, before rebuilding his empire by associating his name with glitzy luxury developments and rebranding himself as a business titan on reality TV show The Apprentice.
For more detail on the Democrats' fight to get hold of Trump's last five years of tax returns, here's Tom Embury-Dennis, who reports the White House has been accused of breaking the law over the matter.
Mnuchin said on Monday he was turning down the request from the House Ways and Means Committee because its request for the documents lacked a “legitimate legislative purpose”.
Last night Joe Biden held a rally in Nevada where he accused Trump of risking the US's leading position on the world stage.
Another four years of the Republican in the White House would "cause fundamental, systemic change in this country", he claimed.
"Our alliances will crumble. Not a joke. There will be no Nato after eight years," he told the crowd.
"You cannot stand on the world stage and embrace autocrats and dictators, take their word publicly, publicly like with Putin, over our entire intelligence community."
He also accused the president of "demonising" immigrants and repeated his suggestion that the 2020 election was a "battle for the soul of the country".
In Trump-related news further afield, Iran has said it will pull out of "some commitments" in the international agreement restricting its nuclear activities.
Hassan Rouhani warned that Tehran would resume higher-level enrichment of uranium in 60 days if the world powers remaining inside the deal after Trump withdrew US support cannot strike a new agreement.
The US president has called the pact, signed in 2015 under his predecessor Barack Obama, the "worst deal in history". It lifted many international sanctions on Tehran in exchange for limits on its nuclear programme.
It was originally signed by the UK, China, the EU, France and Germany, as well as Iran and the US.
Here's more from Adam Withnall and Samuel Osborne.
On Joe Biden, Chris Stevenson has analysed his chances of winning the Democratic nomination in the 2020 race.
The former vice-president grabbed a huge 32-point lead over his closest rival, Bernie Sanders, in one poll. But will it last?
President Trump is yet to tweet about the tax return story today.
His most recent foray onto Twitter was a few hours ago to retweet an old post about his friendship with golfer Tiger Woods, whom he awarded America's highest civilian honour over the weekend. Enough already Don.
In amongst the usual menu of tediously-partisan retweets, he did take Democrat Al Green to task for broaching his impeachment.
And he did have this to say about fireworks at Mount Rushmore:
Talk about blowing smoke.
A federal appeals court has ruled that the White House can force asylum seekers to wait in Mexico for immigration court hearings while a challenge to that policy goes through the courts.
It has been seen as a major victory for Trump, even if it only proves temporary.
The 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals, which the president has frequently criticised, overturned a decision by a judge in San Francisco that would have stopped asylum seekers being returned to Mexico during the legal challenge.
The case may still end up at the Supreme Court. But allowing the policy to remain in effect in the meantime lets the administration carry out a major change to US asylum practices.
The White House has said it plans to rapidly expand the policy across the border, which would have far-reaching consequences for asylum seekers and Mexican border cities that host them while their cases wind through clogged US immigration courts. Cases can take several years to decide.
The policy was challenged by 11 Central Americans and advocacy groups that argued it put asylum seekers at risk by forcing them to stay in Mexico, where drug cartels have wages a brutal war against the authorities that has caught many civilians in the crossfire.
The 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals, which the president has frequently criticised, overturned a decision by a judge in San Francisco that would have stopped asylum seekers being returned to Mexico during the legal challenge.
The case may still end up at the Supreme Court. But allowing the policy to remain in effect in the meantime lets the administration carry out a major change to US asylum practices.
The White House has said it plans to rapidly expand the policy across the border, which would have far-reaching consequences for asylum seekers and Mexican border cities that host them while their cases wind through clogged US immigration courts. Cases can take several years to decide.
The policy was challenged by 11 Central Americans and advocacy groups that argued it put asylum seekers at risk by forcing them to stay in Mexico, where drug cartels have wages a brutal war against the authorities that has caught many civilians in the crossfire.
Additional reporting by AP
All this and the House Judiciary Committee is set to vote on whether to hold attorney general William Barr in contempt of Congress over his failure to release the Mueller report as requested. That's going ahead at 10am EST (3pm GMT).
Last night, the Department of Justice (DOJ) rejected the committee's counter-offer that it at least be able to see the redacted sections of the report, if not the full, unabridged version.
The AG then threatened to ask the White House to invoke its executive privilege to stop him having to comply with House subpoenas for the report's release.
The committee's chairman, Jerry Nadler, vowed to go ahead with today's vote and reacted angrily.
"This is not how executive privilege works," he continued. "The White House waived these privileges long ago and the DOJ seemed open to sharing these materials with us earlier today. The DOJ's legal arguments are without credibility, merit, or legal or factual basis.
“This kind of obstruction is dangerous. The DOJ's decision reflects Trump’s blanket defiance of Congress’s constitutionally mandated duties. In the coming days, I expect that Congress will have no choice but to confront the behavior of this lawless administration.
"The committee will also take a hard look at officials who are enabling this cover up. In the meantime, the committee will proceed with consideration of the contempt citation as planned. I hope the DOJ will think better of this last minute outburst and return to negotiations."
Nadler is also threatening to hold former White House counsel Don McGahn - oft-cited in the Mueller report - in contempt of Congress after it emerged on Tuesday he too would be defying a subpoena from the House Judiciary and will not testify before the panel.
"I fully expect that the Committee will hold Mr McGahn in contempt if he fails to appear before the Committee, unless the White House secures a court order directing otherwise," Nadler wrote in a letter on Tuesday to McGahn's lawyer, William Burck.
Last month, Nadler issued a subpoena to McGahn to testify before the House Judiciary Committee on 21 May, as well as provide the committee with documents in his possession related to his tenure at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue by 7 May.
White House lawyer Pat Cipollone maintains those files are the property of the administration.
Here's some timely perspective on that New York Times scoop this morning.
Yesterday Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell attempted to draw a line under the whole Mueller report from the floor of the upper chamber by declaring "case closed". Good luck with that pal.
Needless to say, Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer and House speaker Nancy Pelosi were not impressed.
Nor were 2020 candidate Elizabeth Warren or House Intelligence Committee chairman Adam Schiff for that matter.
Here's Jay Caruso for Indy Voices on the Trump tax return furore.
Also for Indy Voices, Negar Mortazavi has this warning for the Trump administration on its dealings with Iran.
In a hammer blow on behalf of irony fans everywhere, the Trump administration recently proposed making life easier for debt collectors, by allowing them to send unlimited calls and texts to customers in the red without fear of subsequently facing harassment lawsuits.
Greg Evans for Indy100 here on the internet's reaction to news of President Trump's hefty businesses losses in the 1980s and 90s.
Pete Buttgieg - the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, who has been the surprise hit of the 2020 race thus far - has suggested God is not a Republican, a remark likely to stoke a good deal of controversy.
Buttigieg has done well for himself recently by questioning vice-president Mike Pence, a devout Christian, over his support for "the porn star presidency".
The president is out of bed and retweeting Breitbart. All must be right with the world.
You'd think he might have something to say about the Colorado school shooting, wouldn't you?
As if this proved anything whatsoever, my god.
Trump is due in Florida today to survey the damage to the Panhandle caused by Hurricane Michael seven months ago and to address a campaign rally in Panama City. He discussed the trip in Washington with state governor Ron DeSantis and congressman Matt Gaetz yesterday.
You'd think he'd welcome the distraction but Floridians are angry about the delay to disaster relief funding the area had expected in the wake of its being hit by the Category 5 storm.
He retweeted his gripe about the amount of money being given to Puerto Rico by Congress overnight in an apparent bid to put pressure on the situation.
Here's Jon Sharman on the William Barr's latest attempt to dodge the House over the Mueller report.
