Trump news: President faces fresh corruption allegations, as senior Republican condemns ‘carefully staged’ Barr criticism

President resumes attack on West Virgininia senator, branding him 'a puppet of Schumer & Pelosi'

Trump's latest tweets find him resuming his attack on Joe Manchin, whom he branded a "Munchkin" last weeked in another height-related attack:

He's now back to quoting his favourite mythical Republican opinion poll, again without citing it and pushing conspiracy-minded disinformation about the Democrats' primary process.

Ivanka Trump posts utterly nauseating Valentines Day message for Jared Kushner

Oh god no...

This is more like it.

President tipped to withdraw Judy Shelton's nomination to board of Federal Reserve

Trump is reportedly expected to withdraw the nomination of economist Judy Shelton to the board of the Federal Reserve over bipartisan concern about her candidacy, according to The Hill.

"She's being pulled," one anonymous Republican senator rather bluntly told the site after the candidate - handpicked by National Economic Council director Larry Kudlow - failed to impress at her confirmation hearing yesterday morning.

Shelton drew widespread criticism in 2009 when she wrote an op-ed calling for a return to the gold standard, a pet theme.

The president would have to sign off on her ducking out but her doing so would mark the third time the president has not got his way after pizza executive Herman Cain and conservative pundit Stephen Moore were both forced to pull out over past controversies.

Christopher Waller, research director of the St. Louis Federal Reserve, has also been asked to serve and, as of Thursday, the White House was insisting there's nothing to see here.

“The nomination of Judy Shelton and Christopher Waller are not being pulled. Both were in front of the Banking Committee today and the White House expects both to be confirmed by the Senate to the Federal Reserve,” it said in a statement.

Fox News host attacks Roger Stone jury foreman while broadcasting her Twitter account details

Tucker Carlson has attacked one of the jurors who convicted GOP political prankster Roger Stone while sharing her social media details to millions of people after she spoke out in support of Justice Department prosecutors.

Tomeka Hart, who served as the foreperson of the jury that found Stone guilty of seven counts including witness tampering and lying to investigators, initially planned to keep quiet on her involvement in the case for fear of retribution.

However, when four career prosecutors withdrew from the case after Trump was accused of pressuring the department into offering up a softer sentence for his former adviser, she decided to speak out in a Facebook post praising their stand.

Her intervention has brought to light a series of posts critical of Trump and his aides – prompting anger from right wing figures including the Tucker Carlson Tonight host who accused her of being an “anti-Trump zealot”.

Here's Vincent Wood's report.

A new Nevada poll has Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden at the top of the still-crowded field of Democrats hoping for a chance to unseat Donald Trump in the general elections:

BREAKING: Federal prosecutors decline to charge former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, closing an investigation into whether he lied to federal officials about his involvement in a news media disclosure.

AP

Here's my latest on the Justice Department declining to bring charges against former FBI Director Andrew McCabe -

Boris Johnson is understood to have cancelled plans for a spring visit to the US amid tensions with Donald Trump about the decision to allow Chinese firm Huawei to play a role in the UK’s 5G network.

Downing Street denied that the prime minister had been forced to delay the trip because of the Huawei decision, which reportedly sent Mr Trump into a furious rage during a telephone call with Mr Johnson.

The prime minister was expected to travel to Washington at the beginning of the year for a high-profile meeting with the president as focus shifts to securing a lucrative post-Brexit trade deal with the US.

Donald Trump says he has not asked his attorney general to intervene in the sentencing of his disgraced friend Roger Stone "so far" — but he insists he has the right to do so if he chose.

As the row over alleged political interference in the justice system continued, the president tweeted a quote he attributed to William Barr before adding his own comment: "'The President has never asked me to do anything in a criminal case.' A.G. Barr  This doesn't mean that I do not have, as President, the legal right to do so, I do, but I have so far chosen not to!"

His latest comment comes hours after Mr Barr gave an interview to ABC News in which he said Mr Trump's tweets about the case were making it "impossible to do my job".

Donald Trump has admitted sending Rudy Giuliani to Ukraine to dig dirt on a political rival, openly contradicting his own denials on the subject during the impeachment inquiry, just days after being acquitted of all alleged crimes.

Mr Giuliani, the president’s personal lawyer, is at the centre of a web of shadowy efforts in Ukraine to persuade officials to investigate the Bidens, questions around which were key to the abuse of power charge on which Mr Trump was impeached by the House.

Mr Trump previously insisted he “didn’t direct” Mr Giuliani to do “anything” in Ukraine, suggesting the attorney was likely there on behalf of “other clients”.