Trump news: Leading ally of president lashes out over impeachment as accuser claims to have documents corroborating sexual assault
More than 40 Republicans support a resolution to slow an 'un-American' impeachment probe
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A woman who appeared on the Apprentice has claimed she has corroborating evidence to support her claims that Donald Trump sexually assaulted her, according to reports.
Summer Zervos, who is suing Mr Trump for defamation, allegedly has evidence supporting claims that she was assaulted in a hotel room in 2007, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Meanwhile, Senator Lindsey Graham attacked the impeachment investigation into Donald Trump as “un-American” as he announced a Senate resolution that calls on the House to pause the probe until it holds a formal vote on the issue.
Mr Graham told reporters that if Republicans investigated an impeachment of a Democrat, “You’d have beaten the sh** out of us.”
Earlier today, the morning after they stormed into an impeachment witness testimony, Mr Trump thanked House Republicans for “being tough, smart, and understanding in detail the greatest Witch Hunt in American History. It has been going on since long before I even got Elected (the Insurance Policy!). A total Scam!”
Meanwhile, Trump walked back a bizarre claim that his administration is building a border wall in Colorado, a comment he made during an address at a shale gas conference in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, despite the mountainous state being entirely landlocked. He subsequently attempted to spin as a joke on Twitter as the ridicule rained down.
The president also lied with an anecdote about witnesses being reduced to tears by the sight of him signing an executive order - quickly disproved by video evidence of the event in question - mocked hostile demonstrators and urged his audience to demand he serve a further 16 years in office, treating an official White House event as a campaign rally.
Mr Trump was speaking after an extraordinary day on Capitol Hill in which he announced an agreement with Turkey to make its Syria ceasefire “permanent” in exchange for the lifting of sanctions as a mob of Republican congressmen caused a five-hour delay to the impeachment inquiry by protesting during the deposition of senior State Department official Laura Cooper.
Catch up on events as they happened
The Independent's Clark Mindock has the story on Lindsey Graham's latest move to slow down the impeachment probe.
The strong words accompanied a measure he introduced in the Senate to formally condemn the inquiry for being run behind closed doors, and comes as the president has publicly chided his Republican backers to more strongly defend him against the attacks that have left the White House scrambling for a working defence to the probe that has jeopardised his time in office and likely derailed the likelihood of any major legislative victories before the 2020 election next year.
Summer Zervos, who was on the fifth season of Trump's Apprentice, has introduced evidence that Trump attacked her in a hotel in 2007, corroborating the basis of a lawsuit that could be headed to trial in the midst of an impeachment probe and 2020 elections.
The biggest bombshells from Thursday's filing have to do with the evidence that Zervos says she has collected to "corroborate" her account of a meeting with Trump during the time in question and a sexual assault.
Those include emails to Trump's secretary Rhona Graff to set up a meeting with him and responses from her. There are also calendar entries for Trump and his bodyguard showing how they flew from Las Vegas to Los Angeles in December 2007 and stayed at the Beverly Hills Hotel. Many of these documents are from Trump Organization files. Zervos' attorney Mariann Wang writes calendar entries and itineraries "line up with Ms. Zervos’s detailed public account with striking accuracy."
Further documents are said to also corroborate Zervos' account "with even more granularity," but for the time being, information about what is in those documents is redacted. Given the instant controversy about the secrecy of Trump's cellphone number, they could very well contain phone records.
That all for our live coverage of the Donald Trump administration. We'll be back tomorrow bringing you all the latest.
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