Trump interference in Roger Stone case is 'abuse of power' Pelosi says
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Donald Trump has been accused of attempting to orchestrate a fresh quid pro quo just a week after being acquitted in his Senate impeachment trial.
This time, the accusations come after the president offered to lift travel restrictions against New Yorkers in exchange for Governor Andrew Cuomo dropping investigations into his tax records.
Mr Trump has also been hit by an unexpected rebuke from his attorney general over the Roger Stone case, with William Barr saying he will not be “bullied” and that the president’s tweeting about an active case makes it difficult for him to do his job.
However, the public rebuttal was a move that ex-Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele warned was “carefully staged” to appease disgruntled Justice Department prosecutors.
Meanwhile, a new book on Mr Trump, Sinking in the Swamp, offers the bizarre detail that the president nurtures an obsession with badgers, regularly plaguing his first chief of staff Reince Preibus with questions about the animals and their characteristics.
Donald Trump celebrity president: A decade in two halves
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An excerpt of the new book said Mr Trump “was never able to shed his affinity for mob‑don lingo”.
The book also said he has mob-like tendencies, including instances in which he would “repeatedly blast his former fixer and attorney, Michael Cohen, for being a snitch and a rat for cooperating with the feds and making him look bad”.
Fox News host Tucker Carlson has attacked one of the jurors who convicted 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 Mr 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 Donald Trump was accused of pressuring the Justice Department into offering up a softer sentence for his former adviser, she decided to speak out in a Facebook post praising their stand.
Donald Trump has been accused of attempting a corrupt “quid pro quo” on Twitter by pressuring New York’s governor to drop lawsuits filed against him in the state.
Governor Andrew Cuomo met the president on Thursday to discuss the Trump administration’s decision to block New Yorkers from programmes which allow travellers to avoid long security lines at the US border.
The administration has sparred with the Democratic governor over New York’s new “Green Light” law, which lets unauthorised immigrants obtain state driver's licenses and bars federal immigration agents from accessing state motor vehicle records.
From The Independent's Washington Bureau Chief John Bennett:
President Trump repeated his theory that the Coronavirus could be wiped out by rising spring temperatures, but with this caveat: "We don't know yet." The president often makes bold claims only to offer some nuance (read: wiggle room).
Donald Trump, with both words and deeds, is presenting a new theory for presidential power since being impeached by House Democrats but acquitted by Senate Republicans.
In one of his most brazen threats yet, the president on Friday morning told the world he is poised to burn down a norm that has long allowed the Justice Department to operate mostly without political influence.
Mr Trump fired off a tweet quoting his hand-picked attorney general, William Barr, in a Thursday interview with ABC News when he pushed back on other presidential tweets which weighed in on agency business or floated what many have interpreted as director orders. After all, the White House has never altered former Press Secretary Sean Spicer's announcement that tweets from Mr Trump's personal account are official government statements.
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