Trump news: Second staffer claims to have heard previously undisclosed call, as Pelosi says president admitted committing bribery
Trump petitions the Supreme Court to shield his tax returns from federal prosecutors as he hosts another rally in the Louisiana governor's race
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Your support makes all the difference.Donald Trump has said he “doesn’t remember” a compromising call he allegedly had with Gordon Sondland, the US ambassador to the EU, which top diplomat Bill Taylor raised at the House impeachment inquiry on Wednesday, saying a member of his staff had overheard Mr Trump asking Mr Sondland about “the investigations”.
House investigators heard from Mr Taylor and State Department official George Kent yesterday, with both men describing the administration’s “irregular” dealings with Ukraine as the president’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani and his allies pushed for an anti-corruption probe into domestic political rival Joe Biden.
Republican counsel Steve Castor was ridiculed for his part in proceedings.
While the president entertained Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the White House and said he was not following the drama unfold, a federal appeals court in DC cleared the path for Congress to pursue Mr Trump’s tax records, setting up a potential Supreme Court battle.
On Thursday, the president petitioned the Supreme Court to shield his tax returns from federal prosecutors.
The news arrived as he boarded Air Force One for yet another rally in Louisiana to boost support for a Republican running against the state's Democratic governor.
The upcoming legal battle will likely test the limits of Mr Trump's presidential powers.
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An associate of Donald Trump has claimed without providing evidence that large swathes of the US government are being “controlled” by billionaire philanthropist George Soros.
Joe diGenova, a former US prosecutor, touted a series of false and misleading conspiracy theories on Wednesday in an attempt to cast doubt on the motive of a top State Department official who testified to Congress during the first public impeachment hearing into Mr Trump.
It came in response to an unfounded suggestion by Lou Dobbs, a Fox Business News presenter who is fiercely loyal to the US president, that George Kent, the deputy assistant secretary for European and Eurasian Affairs, wanted to protect Mr Soros from any investigations by the Ukrainian authorities. There is no evidence of wrongdoing by Mr Soros.
“Well there’s no doubt that George Soros controls a very large part of the career foreign service of the United States State Department,” Mr DiGenova told Mr Dobbs.
Donald Trump is once again attacking the whistleblower who filed a complaint about his 25 July phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky:
Mark Morgan, acting commissioner of US Customs and Border Protection, is now holding his press briefing and slamming Congress for not having passed any significant immigration legislation:
ICYMI: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is circulating a petition demanding the swift termination of senior White House advisor Stephen Miller following the revelation of hundreds of his emails promoting a white nationalist agenda and far-right, anti-immigrant ideology.
She joins a growing chorus among Democrats calling for Mr Miller's resignation after documents obtained by the Southern Poverty Law Center show that in the months leading up to Donald Trump's presidential campaign in 2016, Mr Miller emailed right-wing website Breitbart more than 900 times to try to shape coverage, citing white nationalist websites and promoting eugenics and "white genocide" conspiracies.
"In their report about hundreds of emails from Miller, the SPLC couldn't find a single time where Mr Miller spoke sympathetically or even neutrally about non-white groups", the petition reads. "This man cannot serve in the White House."
Nancy Pelosi is holding her weekly press conference and discussing the key impeachment witnesses and their testimonies from yesterday. The House speaker seems to have gone with some new messaging on the impeachment inquiry into Donald Trump, saying the hearings have "corroborated evidence of bribery" - rather than an apparent quid pro quo.
Here's an opinion piece just published on The Independent from a former colleague of the key impeachment witnesses who spoke yesterday, describing him as one of the "kindest and most principled people I have ever worked with".
White House Senior Adviser Kellyanne Conway just sat down for a contentious interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer, who at one point addressed her marriage with prominent Washington attorney George Conway - who is far from being a fan of her boss:
A second staffer has said they heard the phone call in which Donald Trump pressed Ambassador Gordon Sondland about investigations into the Bidens - the day after he spoke to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky about doing his administration a "favour" -
A programme meant to aid poor communities as part of Donald Trump’s tax code reforms in 2017 instead reportedly benefitted a Florida marina near his Mar-a-lago resort, housing luxury superyachts that cost over $100m (£77.7m).
The wealthy area received a major tax break after it was listed in an “opportunity zone,” according to the ProPublica report published on Thursday, following apparent lobbying efforts from a local billionaire developer.
Opportunity zone tax breaks featured in the GOP’s Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 were meant to encourage private business investments in low-income regions. There are no public reporting requirements to determine how much each tax break costs under the new programme, however, and critics have said the process of choosing opportunity zones lacks transparency.
Wayne Huizenga Jr, who owns the Rybovich superyacht marina in West Palm Beach, Florida, successfully managed to have the area listed as an opportunity zone after writing a letter last year to then-Florida Governor Rick Scott, ProPublica said.
Story to come...
A US citizen and military veteran suffering from a mental health condition will reportedly receive $190,000 (£147,988) from a Michigan city after local officials transferred him to ICE detention following an arrest last year.
Jilmar Ramos-Gomez, a decorated Marine veteran suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, was arrested while experiencing an episode in which he lost all recollection, according to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).
Police found the veteran, who was born and raised in Michigan, on the helipad of a hospital after he started a small fire and pulled an alarm, according to reports.
Mr Ramos-Gomez was set to be released from jail after pleading guilty to a misdemeanour trespassing charge, but was instead turned over to ICE by the Kent County Sheriff’s Department, which reportedly has a contract with the federal immigration enforcement agency.
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