Trump news: Hope Hicks accused of lying to Robert Mueller as president is blamed for Bush ‘heart attack’
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Hope Hicks has been accused of lying to Special Counsel Robert Mueller during his investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election by a former spokesperson for Donald Trump’s legal team.
Mark Corallo said the former White House communications director lied to investigators from the special counsel’s office about discussions that were had with the president on Air Force One after the infamous 2016 Trump Tower meeting was made public through media reporting.
Mr Coral said Ms Hicks told him she “handled” the crafting of a statement responding to the press reports about the meeting, to which he replied: “I just I listened to her yell and then I said, ‘Well you know you’ve probably made yourself a witness in a federal criminal investigation. Way to go, young lady.'”
“I just pointed out that the statement that they put out on Air Force One was inaccurate,” he added, saying it would make the president’s team appear “like they were trying to hide something.”
Meanwhile, it remains unclear to what extent Ms Hicks’ cooperation played in Mr Mueller’s 2016 report, as Wednesday brought another tense day on Capitol Hill as lawmakers wrestled over the handling of the final conclusions produced by Mr Mueller and later summarised by Mr Trump’s appointed attorney general, William Barr.
Criminals who worked for Trump
Show all 5House speaker Nancy Pelosi urged her fellow Democrats not to accept the verdict of the attorney general earlier this week.
“We cannot make a judgment on the basis of an interpretation by a man who was hired for his job because he believes the president is above the law and he wrote a 19-page memo to demonstrate that,” She reportedly told party members behind closed doors on Tuesday, calling for calm and a return to policy battles.
With renewed impeachment talk in the air, the House Judiciary Committee has meanwhile voted unanimously in favour of a resolution calling on the Justice Department to release all FBI files relating to obstruction of justice, kick-starting the Democratic fightback in earnest.
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Read The Independent's live updates from Washington on Wednesday below.
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The House Oversight Committee is now seeking a reported 10 years of Donald Trump’s financial records, Chairman Elijah Cummings has revealed:
Donald Trump has just tweeted the following clip from Fox News featuring Sean Hannity:
Hope Hicks has been accused of lying to Special Counsel Robert Mueller during his investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election by a former spokesperson for Donald Trump’s legal team:
Meanwhile on the 2020 watch:
Stacey Abrams, who delivered a powerful to Donald Trump’s State of the Union address, has hinted at a possible run for the White House in the upcoming elections.
“I think you don’t run for second place,” the Georgia Democrat said, putting to bed rumours she was planning to join former vice President Joe Biden on a joint-ticket in 2020.
“If I’m going to enter a primary,” she said, “then I’m going to enter a primary.”
Donald Trump has met with Google President Sundar Pichai, who he said “is obviously doing quite well”.
“He stated strongly that he is totally committed to the U.S. Military, not the Chinese Military,” Mr Trump wrote.
“Also discussed political fairness and various things that @Google can do for our country,” he added. “Meeting ended very well!”
A Republican state congresswoman has prompted complaints after launching into a prayer thanking Donald Trump and calling on people to bow to Jesus shortly before Pennsylvania’s first black Muslim congresswoman was sworn in.
Stephanie Borowicz began the day’s session on Monday with an emotional invocation thanking her Christian god for Mr Trump “standing beside Israel unequivocally”.
Appearing almost in tears, Ms Borowicz sermonised about “overcoming evil” in the name of Jesus – who she mentioned 13 times – and said “every knee will bow and every tongue will confess” in the name of him.
A man convicted on state murder charges in a deadly car attack at a white nationalist rally in Virginia has pleaded guilty to federal hate crime charges.
James Alex Fields Jr, of Maumee, Ohio, pleaded guilty Wednesday to 29 federal charges stemming from the “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville on 12 August 2017.
The 21-year-old Fields was convicted in December of first-degree murder and other state charges for killing anti-racism activist Heather Heyer and injuring dozens of others. A jury found that Fields intentionally plowed his car into a crowd of people protesting against the white nationalists. On Wednesday, Fields admitted he violated federal hate crime laws when he targeted the group.
AP
Lawmakers are getting testy as Donald Trump’s attorney general declines to provide a release of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report looking into Russian interference in the 2016 election:
A new CNN poll conducted by SSRS shows the majority of Americans do not believe Special Counsel Robert Mueller's report exonerates Donald Trump of collusion with Russia:
That concludes The Independent's live coverage of news surrounding Donald Trump's White House this Wednesday. Read the updates as they came in below.
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