Trump news: Congress files tax return lawsuit as president rages against Robert Mueller and insists military leaders 'thrilled' to take part in 4th of July tank display
Another day of controversy and chaos in Washington
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Your support makes all the difference.Donald Trump has hit out at Robert Mueller on Twitter and insisted the US military is “thrilled” to be taking part in his “Salute to America” celebration for the Fourth of July as the House Ways and Means Committee launches a lawsuit to acquire his tax returns.
In an exclusive interview with Tucker Carlson of Fox News broadcast on Monday night, the president criticised homelessness in American cities, spoke of his optimism that his trade war with China would ultimately be won and benefit farmers and accused the social media giants of “possibly illegally” blocking him from gaining new followers before expressing his desire to withdraw US troops from Afghanistan, which he called, “the Harvard of terrorists”.
A delegation of Democratic congressmen and women have meanwhile visited a number of migrant detention centres at the US-Mexico border in Texas, speaking out against the squalid conditions they found there and the behaviour of some Border Patrol agents overseeing the facilities.
Images released Tuesday by US government inspectors who visited facilities in South Texas where migrant adults and children who crossed the nearby border with Mexico are processed and detained showed overcrowding and seemingly unsanitary conditions.
As public outrage grows over the conditions in which thousands of people — some no more than a few months old — are being held by the US government, the report offered new cause for alarm.
It quotes one senior government manager as calling the situation “a ticking time bomb.”
“Specifically, when detainees observed us, they banged on the cell windows, shouted, pressed notes to the window with their time in custody, and gestured to evidence of their time in custody,” the report says.
BuzzFeed first reported on a draft version of the report, which blurs most faces in the photos.
An autopsy report also released Tuesday confirmed that a 2-year-old child who died in April had multiple intestinal and infectious respiratory diseases, including the flu.
Wilmer Josué Ramírez Vásquez is one of five children to die after being detained by border agents since late last year. Two of the other four also had the flu.
Additional reporting by AP. Please allow a moment for our liveblog to load
Here's my story on Mike Pence's sudden schedule changes and the resulting online misinformation that resulted from the White House's lack of transparency on the issue:
Donald Trump’s White House administration has sent notices of fines totalling nearly $500,000 (£396,715) to some undocumented immigrants in recent weeks, as the federal government prepares to conduct sweeping immigration raids nationwide after the 4 July holiday.
Letters notifying undocumented immigrants of the administration’s intention to charge the fines were obtained by NPR, which included copies of the administration’s statements in a report published on Tuesday afternoon.
The Department of Homeland Security stated the fines were for “failing to depart the US as previously agreed” and appeared to target undocumented immigrants who “willfully refuse to meet the obligations of an order issued by the Department of Justice’s Executive Office for Immigration Review,” the outlet reported.
Story to come...
Kevin McAleenan, the acting secretary for the Department of Homeland Security, as well as Mark Morgan, the acting commissioner for Customs and Border Protection, have both been called to testify before the House Oversight Committee "regarding troubling new revelations about the Trump Administration's family separation policy and harsh conditions at detention centers" -
A new poll shows a stark contrast in the amount of people across party lines now saying the situation at the US-Mexico border is a "crisis" compared to in January of earlier this year -
Donald Trump’s administration said on Tuesday it would not move forward with plans to include a citizenship question in the 2020 Census, after failing to meet its own deadline to start printing the paper forms and other mailings for the official nationwide head count.
In a statement sent to attorneys announcing the move, Kate Bailey, a lawyer representing the US Department of Justice, said: “We can confirm that the decision has been made to print the 2020 Decennial Census questionnaire without a citizenship question”.
“The printer has been instructed to begin the printing process,” she added.
Story to come.
The lawsuit was filed on Tuesday by attorneys representing the House Ways and Means Committee. The lawyers cited failures to comply with the committee’s requests for records by the president’s top appointees and administration officials, including US Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin and Charles Rettig, the commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
“In refusing to comply with the statute, Defendants have mounted an extraordinary attack on the authority of Congress to obtain information needed to conduct oversight of Treasury, the IRS, and the tax laws on behalf of the American people who participate in the Nation’s voluntary tax system," the lawsuit read.
Eddie Gallagher, a Navy Seal accused off fatally stabbing an Isis detainee in Iraq, was found not guilty of the killing on Tuesday in a court-martial.
A jury of seasoned combat veterans reviewed the partial testimony of a prosecution witness on Tuesday before resuming deliberations in the murder case of the decorated Navy SEAL, who had been accused by colleagues of fatally stabbing the wounded war prisoner in Iraq and shooting civilians in separate incidents in 2017.
Jurors took notes as they listened to a recording of Lieutenant Thomas MacNeil, the first of nearly a dozen Seals who testified at the court-martial of the special operations chief who at Naval Base San Diego.
More to come...
Donald Trump’s White House has sent notices of fines totalling nearly $500,000 (£396,715) to some undocumented immigrants in recent weeks, as the federal government prepares to conduct sweeping immigration raids nationwide after the 4 July holiday.
Letters notifying undocumented immigrants of the administration’s intention were obtained by NPR, which included copies of the statements in a report published on Tuesday afternoon.
Here's my latest story on Donald Trump's administration admitting defeat over its inability to include a citizenship question on the 2020 US Census -
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