Trump news: President says 'I feel very bad' for Paul Manafort and launches emergency order to ground Boeing 737 MAX

Hello and welcome to The Independent's rolling coverage of the Donald Trump administration.

Donald Trump evidently had a late one last night, posting a flurry of tweets attacking the "Witch Hunt Hoax" against him ahead of his former campaign manager Paul Manafort's second appearance before a US district judge for sentencing.

The president's ire was this time trained on New York, his old stomping ground, hitting out first at governor Andrew Cuomo...

...Then at new attorney-general Letitia James and her predecessor, Eric Schneiderman.

The attack comes after Ms James, who was previously referred to him as an "illegitimate president", issued subpoenas to two banks for documents related to Trump hotel projects in Washington, Chicago and Miami as well as his attempted purchase of the Buffalo Bills American football team, according to The New York Times.

The state's actions follow Michael Cohen's testimony before Congress, in which he alleged Mr Trump had inflated the value of his assets to secure loans from Deutsche Bank.

The president was also busily retweeting friendly Republican congressman Jim Jordan, who was critical of House Intelligence Committee chairman Adam Schiff, and positive employment statistics on women in the workforce from his beloved Ivanka.

He also boasted loudly of his own economic stewardship, describing the latest data as, "A beautiful thing to watch!"

And there was this meme of Uncle Sam praying in church for America's deliverance from its oppressors - first posted on 9 November 2016, the day of his election - which is just plain crackers.

Paul Manafort will appear in the Washington courtroom of Judge Amy Berman Jackson today for sentencing, less than a week after Judge TS Ellis III of Virginia caused uproar by handing him just 47 months in jail for financial crimes and declaring he had "lived an otherwise blameless life".

Manafort could get a maximum of 10 years behind bars as the two charges he has plead guilty to - conspiracy against the US and obstruction of justice - carry five-year penalties.

Judge Jackson, a Barack Obama appointee, has found that Manafort infringed the terms of a plea deal with FBI special counsel Robert Mueller by lying to his prosecutors, the FBI and the grand jury, thereby freeing her from any obligation to recommend a reduced sentence.

The hearing may offer a window into tantalising allegations that aren't part of the criminal cases against Manafort but have nonetheless surfaced in recent court filings - that he shared Trump campaign polling data with Konstantin Kilimnik, a business associate the US says has ties to Russian intelligence, and that the two men met secretly during the campaign in an encounter that prosecutors say cuts "to the heart" of their investigation.

CNN's Stephen Collinson suggests, depending on the outcome, House speaker Nancy Pelosi will struggle to keep a lid on demands from her fellow Democrats that the president face impeachment proceedings. Ms Pelosi told The Washington Post on Monday she fears the process would be "too divisive" for America and that Donald Trump was "now worth it".

Following the first sentencing last Thursday, the president said he felt "very badly" for Manafort and cited the matter as yet more evidence of the "Witch Hoax" against him.

"The judge said there was no collusion with Russia," he told reporters on the White House lawn. This was incorrect. Judge Ellis merely said Manafort had not been accused of it in this instance.

Mr Trump has not ruled out the possibility of issuing a presidential pardon to his old ally and his press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders deflected a question on the matter at a rare briefing on Monday.

Democrats have so far broadly disagreed with Speaker Pelosi on the question of impeaching President Trump.

House Judiciary Committee chairman Jerrold Nadler told Manu Raju of CNN he was not "shutting the door" on the option.

"We're a long way from facing that. We have, we have to know all the facts," the New Yorker said. "Once we know all the facts, then we'll have to make judgments."

California representative Brad Sherman told the same channel's Jake Tapper: "The fact is, you don't have to wait until you can identify all the felonies a president has committed in order to impeach for all the felonies that are on the record." 

"The felonies are there. Whether we have public opinion on our side, I don't think we are there yet, but we reached the legal standard long ago," he said.

Michigan congresswoman Rashida Tlaib meanwhile told reporters yesterday: "It's important that there is a transparent process. No one, not even the president, should be above the law."

Here's Tom Embury-Dennis on the president's suggestion his supporters are "fleeing" the Big Apple in disgust at the investigations surrounding him.

Last night's tweets were fairly standard for the "new normal" of Trumpland but yesterday's posts on the complexity of modern aircraft was something to behold.

In the wake of the tragic Boeing 737 crash in Ethiopia at the weekend, the president tweeted: "Airplanes are becoming far too complex to fly. Pilots are no longer needed, but rather computer scientists from MIT... I don’t know about you, but I don’t want Albert Einstein to be my pilot. I want great flying professionals that are allowed to easily and quickly take control of a plane!”

Here's Chris Riotta.

This was MIT's response.

The president also took inspiration from Fox News to take on climate change.

“The whole climate crisis is not only Fake News, it’s Fake Science. There is no climate crisis, there’s weather and climate all around the world, and in fact carbon dioxide is the main building block of all life,” he wrote, apparently a direct quote from Greenpeace "co-founder" Patrick Moore.

A surprising source, until you hear Greenpeace's thoughts about the man in question.

“Patrick Moore often misrepresents himself in the media as an environmental ‘expert’ or even an ‘environmentalist,’ while offering anti-environmental opinions on a wide range of issues and taking a distinctly anti-environmental stance,” the group said in a statement.

“He also exploits long-gone ties with Greenpeace to sell himself as a speaker and pro-corporate spokesperson, usually taking positions that Greenpeace opposes.”

Ex-Trump lawyer Michael Cohen's own attorney, Michael Monico, sent a letter to the head of the House Oversight and Reform Committee yesterday clarifying his client's testimony that he never sought a pardon from the president, as accusations persist Cohen has lied to Congress again.

Cohen declared under oath on 27 February that "I have never asked for, nor would I accept, a pardon from President Trump." 

That statement, with millions of people watching on television, set off a firestorm that culminated on Friday with Donald Trump calling Cohen a liar in a tweet and alleging he had "directly asked" for a pardon. Cohen responded in kind.

Lawyer Michael Monico told Representative Elijah Cummings in the letter that Cohen had asked a previous lawyer to explore the possibility of a pardon before he subsequently left a joint-defence agreement and turned against Donald Trump last June. Cohen hasn't done so since, Mr Monico said. 

Mr Monico denied Mr Trump's claim that Cohen had personally asked him for a pardon. 

Cohen's public committee testimony last month "could have been clearer and more complete" when it came to pardons, Monico conceded in the letter. His remarks about not seeking a pardon pertained to the time after his split from Mr Trump, he said. 

Cohen had made the initial inquiry about a possible pardon after an FBI raid on his New York City home, office and hotel room in April 2018, according to Mr Monico, because Trump had "publicly dangled the possibility of pardons when commenting about ongoing investigations." 

Nothing ever came of that effort, he said. 

Congressional investigators appear to be zeroing in on the president's pardoning power as Democrats embark on a series of sweeping investigations into Trump's political and personal dealings.

The possibility he could pardon Paul Manafort after today's sentencing remains in the air.