Trump news: President absent at Elijah Cummings funeral as his old calendar puts him at place of alleged sexual assault
Another wild day of news surrounding the White House
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Your support makes all the difference.The US Justice Department’s investigation into the origins of FBI special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into Russian election hacking in 2016, instigated by Donald Trump’s attorney general William Barr and widely seen as a retaliatory measure to explore “deep state” liberal bias, is now “a criminal inquiry”, according to reports.
The president finds himself under renewed pressure as lawyers for Summer Zervos, a former candidate on his reality show The Apprentice who has accused Mr Trump of sexual assault, say their client has evidence to corroborate her claim that he attacked her in a Los Angeles hotel room in 2007.
The calendar records, filed in Ms Zervos’ defamation lawsuit, show Mr Trump was scheduled to be at the Beverly Hills Hotel in California on 21 December, 2007, in the timeframe when she claims Mr Trump made unwanted advances at that hotel.
She said he kissed and groped her, despite her objections, at what she thought would be a professional dinner, and then invited her to meet him at his nearby golf course the next morning. The calendar records show he was scheduled there the morning after his arrival at the hotel.
Mr Trump’s calendar doesn’t include anything about a meeting with Ms Zervos. But her lawyer, Mariann Wang, wrote that the documents “strongly corroborate” Ms Zervos’ account — and indicate that Mr Trump was lying in a 2016 statement that said he “never met her at a hotel.”
Mr Trump's lawyer Marc Kasowitz said on Thursday that Ms Zervos’ claims are “entirely meritless and not corroborated by any documents.”
Ms Zervos, a California restaurateur who was on The Apprentice in 2006, was among more than a dozen women who came forward during Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign with allegations of sexual misconduct. Both she and Mr Trump are Republicans.
He called the women “liars” trying to harm him with “100 percent fabricated” stories, and he retweeted a message specifically calling Ms Zervos’ claims “a hoax.” He also issued a statement denying her allegations, including the denial of meeting her at a hotel.
Ms Zervos had approached lawyers in 2011 and sent Fox News an August 2015 email about her allegation, according to the filing.
“Trump Hit On Me,” read the email’s subject line. Sent two months into Mr Trump’s presidential campaign, the message said he “invited me to a hotel room under the guise of working for him. He had a different agenda.”
Ms Zervos is seeking a retraction, an apology and damages.
In her lawsuit, Ms Zervos said Mr Trump also kissed her unexpectedly at his office in Trump Tower in December of 2007, before the alleged California encounter.
Thursday’s court filing doesn’t include any calendar items related to that alleged encounter, but it does include emails from that autumn between Ms Zervos and Mr Trump’s secretary where they discuss a potential lunch date in New York.
Meanwhile, White House counselor Kellyanne Conway is also in trouble after threatening a Washington Examiner reporter who asked her about her husband, a frequent critic of President Trump, prompting the journalist in question to publish a transcript of their phone call.
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House committee chairmen Adam Schiff and Jerrold Nadler have meanwhile accused Barr's Justice Department of being "a vehicle for President Trump's political revenge" as its administrative review of the origins of the Russia investigation becomes a criminal inquiry.
The folks on Fox and Friends don't like it.
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Trump's defence secretary Mark Esper says reinforcements, including "mechanised forces", will now be deployed to Syria to protect oil interests.
Here's Bel Trew with the latest.
Big Apple mayor and former 2020 candidate Bill de Blasio has a word of advice for Trump's lawyers on behalf of the New York Police Department.
Trump's education secretary Betsy DeVos was yesterday held in civil contempt of court by a federal judge and her department fined a hearty $100,000 (£78,000).
The Cabinet secretary was found at fault for violating an order to stop collecting on the student loans owed by 16,000 students of the defunct, for-profit education provider Corinthian Colleges.
US magistrate judge Sallie Kim wrote that "the evidence shows only minimal efforts to comply with the preliminary injunction" she had made against the Department of Education in May 2018.
Mark Brown, the head of the department's Office of Federal Student Aid, said in a video posted online afterwards that there was no "ill-intent" at play and that officials "have taken swift action to correct the mistake".
DeVos had got into a spat with Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren over the matter just two weeks ago.
The funeral of legendary congressman Elijah Cummings is taking place at the New Psalmist Baptist Church Baltimore right now.
The Clintons, the Obamas, Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, Adam Schiff, Steny Hoyer, Joe Biden, Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris and John Lewis are among those paying their respects and delivering eulogies.
A pallbearer has apparently already refused to shake Mitch McConnell's hand.
Here's Kellyanne Conway being menacing following her contretemps with The Washington Examiner.
Ivanka Trump is being laughed at again today, this time for celebrating the 10-year anniversary of her marriage to Jared Kushner by posting pictures of herself alone on Twitter and Instagram.
Darren Richman has more for Indy100.
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