WASHINGTON—Within a day of the release of the Mueller report last month, President Trump sought to have former White House counsel Don McGahn declare he didn’t consider the president’s 2017 directive that he seek Robert Mueller’s dismissal to be obstruction of justice, but Mr. McGahn rebuffed the request, according to people familiar with the matter.
Mr. Trump has publicly denied asking Mr. McGahn to fire the Russia probe special counsel since the release of the report. Mr. Mueller’s report detailed that directive, and a subsequent…
House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal, D-Mass., is pointing to a provision in the U.S. tax code as his authority for requesting the president’s personal and business tax records.
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House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal, D-Mass., is pointing to a provision in the U.S. tax code as his authority for requesting the president’s personal and business tax records.
J. Scott Applewhite/AP
Updated at 7:56 p.m. ET
House Democrats issued subpoenas on Friday to force Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig to release six years of President Trump’s tax returns.
Democrats say the returns include information about Trump and his business dealings that is critical to their constitutional oversight duties. House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal, D-Mass., issued the subpoena after Mnuchin failed to comply with a request from House Democrats that he voluntarily turn over the returns.
“While I do not take this step lightly, I believe this action gives us the best opportunity to succeed and obtain the requested material. I sincerely hope that the Treasury Department will furnish the requested material in the next week so the committee can quickly begin its work,” Neal said in a written statement.
Administration officials, including Mnuchin, insist the request is unreasonable and illegal. Democrats argue that Neal, as chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, is legally allowed to request the tax returns of any private citizen — citing a section of the tax code that states the Treasury secretary “shall furnish” that information.
But Mnuchin rejected the request this week, telling Neal that he was relying on Department of Justice advice that the request “lacks a legitimate legislative purpose.”
Trump has refused to comply with requests for his taxes since before he was elected, arguing that he is under audit and he does not believe he is legally required to disclose the information. “There is no law,” Trump said in April. “While I’m under audit I won’t do it.”
The IRS’s Rettig told the House Appropriations Committee in April that there is no rule barring the release of tax returns if an individual is under audit.
Democrats say they are prepared for a lengthy court battle over the returns.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., says Democrats have the legal authority to request Trump’s taxes and must do so as part of their ongoing investigations.
This week, Pelosi cited a recent New York Times report that Trump reported more than $1 billion in losses between 1984 and 1993 as further reason to request his returns.
“It would be useful to see his tax returns,” Pelosi said at an event sponsored by The Washington Post. “The law says the administration ‘shall’ give the — ‘shall.’ It doesn’t say ‘may, should, could, under certain circumstances.’ It says ‘shall’ give those tax returns to the Ways and Means chairman.”
President Donald Trump says he’s not happy about North Korea’s recent military tests. This comes at the same time says the U.S. sent an aircraft carrier group to the Persian Gulf because the Iranians “were threatening.” (May 9) AP, AP
President Donald Trump’s attempt to make a “great deal” with North Korea over its nuclear program appears increasingly in peril as Kim Jong Un has ordered new missile tests and directed his country’s military “to cope with any emergency.”
“Nobody’s happy,” Trump said Thursday after North Korea launched short-range missiles for the second time in less than a week. On Friday, Kim told his forces to be on high alert after the U.S. seized a large cargo ship that was attempting to smuggle coal out of North Korea in violation of United Nations Security Council sanctions.
“(Kim) stressed the need to further increase the capability of the defense units in the forefront area and on the western front to carry out combat tasks and keep full combat posture,” the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), a state media outlet that rarely quotes Pyongyang’s leader directly, reported. KCNA said Kim “set forth important tasks for further increasing the strike ability” of North Korea’s weapon systems.
Analysts said the implications for Trump’s diplomatic efforts at denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula were not entirely clear, and that while North Korea’s escalating rhetoric and military preparedness did not signal war, it showed how far apart the two nations were after two historic summits between Trump and North Korea’s leader.
“These new developments show that neither country is able to sustain any kind of negotiation beyond the summits,” said Waheguru Pal Singh, a defense and foreign policy expert at New York University’s Center on International Cooperation, who has also consulted for the United Nations on international peace and security issues.
“For me, the key marker will be if the U.S. resumes joint military exercises with South Korea, and how the North reacts,” he said, referring to longstanding annual large-scale Washington-Seoul military drills Trump ended in March to reduce tensions.
About 28,000 U.S. troops plus thousands more family members and Department of Defense employees are stationed in South Korea, and their presence, and the joint military exercises, have for years been a source of North Korean anger.
The projectiles North Korea launched Saturday, and then Thursday, were the first since Pyongyang paused missile launches in late 2017. All splash-landed in the Pacific.
Trump has refused to yield to North Korean demands to lift economic sanctions.
South Korea and U.S. intelligence analysts are still examining the missiles, but Michael Elleman, a missile defense expert at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, a think tank with offices in London and Washington, said they resemble the Russian-designed Iskander, which has a range of about 200 miles and can fit a warhead.
“Iskander can exploit gaps in South Korean and American missile-defense coverage,” Elleman wrote in a blog post on 38 North, a Koreas-focused website.
There was further evidence that North Korea may be ramping up its military capabilities even as the Trump administration has insisted the president has maintained a good relationship with Kim despite summits in Singapore and Vietnam that ended with no tangible denuclearization steps for Pyongyang.
On Thursday night, Beyond Parallel, a program affiliated with the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a global affairs think tank, published new satellite images that appeared to show that North Korea has been secretly operating a missile base that it has never previously disclosed.
In its analysis of the images, Beyond Parallel said that, though unconfirmed, the “Yusang-ni” base may house intercontinental ballistic missiles with a “first strike” capability against targets located throughout East Asia, the Pacific and the U.S.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has previously said that any missile tests by North Korea involving long-range or intercontinental missiles would be a diplomatic red line.
“It is evident that Trump’s diplomatic strategy has reached an impasse,” said Richard Caplan, a professor of international relations at Oxford University, England. “And trade frictions with China mean that he can’t count on Beijing to rein Kim in,” he added, referring to fraught trade negotiations between the U.S. and China.
North Korea relies on China for aid, fuel and other imports. Beijing has traditionally acted as a buffer between Pyongyang, a close ally, and Washington. Beijing’s escalating trade war with Washington may make it feel less inclined to act as a referee.
Meanwhile, the Trump administration is embroiled in another front: Iran.
The White House has increasingly appeared to risk military confrontation with Tehran following U.S. and Israeli intelligence warnings that Iran or its proxies could be planning attacks on U.S. troops and facilities in the Middle East.
Yet the vast majority of Iran-watchers and experts have accused the Trump administration, in particular Pompeo and National Security Adviser John Bolton, of potentially inflating the intelligence because of an almost obsessive dislike for Iran.
“Trump is treating North Korea as if it has no nuclear weapons, and Iran as if it does,” said Singh, the defense expert at New York University, referring to what he said was the president’s apparent willingness to take Kim at his word that he wants to denuclearize while ignoring repeated verifications from the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog that Tehran has been complying with the 2015 nuclear accord Trump withdrew the U.S. from.
“It’s a very unorthodox approach.”
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A woman dressed in a traditional gown pays her respects at statues of late North Korean leaders, Kim Il Sung, left, and Kim Jong Il, in Pyongyang, North Korea, Thursday, Feb. 16, 2017. Unaware of reports his eldest son – and current leader Kim Jong Uns half-brother – was killed just days ago in what appears to have been a carefully planned assassination, North Koreans marked the birthday of late leader Kim Jong Il on Thursday as they do every year. Eric Talmadge, AP
Azalea, whose Korean name is “Dalle”, a 19-year-old female chimpanzee, smokes a cigarette at the Central Zoo in Pyongyang, North Korea Oct. 19, 2016. According to officials at the newly renovated zoo, which has become a favorite leisure spot in the North Korean capital since it was re-opened in July, the chimpanzee smokes about a pack a day. They insist, however, that she does not inhale. Wong Maye-E, AP
A picture released by the Rodong Sinmun, the newspaper of the ruling North Korean Workers Party, on Sept. 8, 2015, shows North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, center front, and Miguel Diaz-Canel Bermudez, second from right, a member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba and first vice-president of the Council of State, watching an art performance by the Moranbong Band and the State Merited Chorus in Pyongyang, North Korea, on Sept. 7, 2015. Bermudez led a Cuban delegation to North Korea to mark the 55th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between North Korea and Cuba. Rodong Sinmun, European Pressphoto Agency
Men and women pump their fists in the air and chant “defend!” as they carry propaganda slogans calling for reunification of their country during the “Pyongyang Mass Rally on the Day of the Struggle Against the U.S.,” attended by approximately 100,000 North Koreans to mark the 65th anniversary of the outbreak of the Korean War at the Kim Il Sung stadium, Thursday, June 25, 2015, in Pyongyang, North Korea. The month of June in North Korea is known as the “Struggle Against U.S. Imperialism Month” and it’s a time for North Koreans to swarm to war museums, mobilize for gatherings denouncing the evils of the United States and join in a general, nationwide whipping up of the anti-American sentiment. Wong Maye-E, AP
North Koreans gather in front of a portrait of their late leader Kim Il Sung, left, and Kim Jong Il, right, paying respects to their late leader Kim Jong Il, to mark the third anniversary of his death, Wednesday Dec. 17 at Pyong Chon District in Pyongyang, North Korea. North Korea marked the end of a three-year mourning period for the late leader Kim Jong Il on Wednesday, opening the way for his son, Kim Jong Un, to put a more personal stamp on the way the country is run. Kim Kwang Hyon, AP
President Donald Trump told POLITICO he expects former Vice President Joe Biden to dominate Democrats leading up to 2020. | Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
In an exclusive interview with POLITICO, the president predicted the former vice president would steamroll Democratic rivals who ‘aren’t registering.’
President Donald Trump sees parallels between Joe Biden’s early surge to the front of the crowded 2020 Democratic presidential field and his own runaway success in the 2016 Republican primaries.
In an interview with POLITICO on Friday afternoon, Trump cast the former vice president as a clear, if flawed, front runner, noting that Biden had recently flubbed the name of Britain’s prime minister. And he compared Biden’s early success in a heavily crowded field to his own entry and rapid ascent in the 2016 Republican campaign.
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“I look at it like my race” in 2016, the president said in a phone interview, predicting that Biden will remain at the head of the pack of 22 Democrats running for president.
Recalling his June 2015 campaign announcement at Trump Tower, he boasted, “If you remember, from the day I came down the escalator until the end of the primaries, I was in the number-one position. I was center stage every debate. And, you know, nobody came close.”
Trump actually polled near the bottom of the then twelve-candidate Republican primary field when he first joined the race in mid-June 2015. But he became the clear GOP front runner within several weeks, and no other candidate ever decisively claimed that mantle from him.
Trump appeared to be following Biden’s early days on the campaign trail closely. At one point, he mocked the former vice president for last week mistakenly referring to Margaret Thatcher instead of the current British prime minister, Theresa May. Biden quickly corrected himself, calling it a “Freudian slip.”
“Is that a good front runner? I don’t know. That was a beauty,” Trump said.
He suggested that he doesn’t see his other Democratic rivals as serious threats. “It seems that many of them aren’t registering with, you know, the public,” Trump said. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), he added, “seems to be going in the wrong direction.”
Asked specifically about South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg, Trump was dismissive.
“Alfred E. Neuman cannot become president of the United States,” he said, comparing Buttigieg to the iconic boyish Mad Magazine cartoon character.
Asked by POLITICO in San Francisco on Friday night to respond to Trump’s new nickname, Buttigieg said: “I’ll be honest. I had to Google that. I guess it’s just a generational thing. I didn’t get the reference. It’s kind of funny, I guess. But he’s also the president of the United States and I’m surprised he’s not spending more time trying to salvage this China deal.”
In the 15-minute interview, which stemmed from POLITICO’s inquiries for a separate story, the president touched on North Korea, his former campaign aide David Bossie, the Senate Intelligence Committee’s subpoena to his son, his view of Steve Bannon and Rudy Giuliani’s upcoming trip to Ukraine.
Trump again expressed frustration that the Senate Intelligence Committee subpoenaed his oldest son, Donald Trump Jr., to testify as part of the panel’s ongoing investigation into 2016 Russian election interference. But he said he had not spoken to Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.), the panel’s chairman, who has come under fire from some Republicans for signing off on the subpoena.
“I won the state of North Carolina and frankly had another Republican won [the primary], they would not have won the state. I have a great relationship to that state. So I was very surprised,” Trump said. “[Burr] came in, ran along with me. I didn’t know him well but he ran along with me. So yeah, I was very surprised to see that.”
The president also gently criticized his former deputy campaign manager and longtime friend David Bossie, who has been accused of using his political group to scam Republican voters out of millions of dollars for personal financial gain under the guise of supporting Trump’s re-election.
“I would be disappointed in David if he did that,” he said, later adding: “I would be disappointed if everything wasn’t on the up and up.”
Trump’s 2020 campaign issued a sharply-worded statement on Tuesday saying that it “condemns any organization that deceptively uses the President’s name, likeness, trademarks, or branding and confuses voters.” The campaign encouraged authorities “to investigate all alleged scam groups for potential illegal activities.”
Trump said he has not spoken to Bossie about the subject.
In a statement, Bossie said, “For 15 years we have scrupulously complied with every campaign law and regulation that exists. The accusations are false and personally offensive to me.” He added that he has “worked tirelessly to support President Trump and his agenda and I am not going to let smears from old enemies on the left stop me.”
Even amid his apparent anger at one close ally, Trump hinted at a softened view towards a former one: Steve Bannon, whom Trump excommunicated last year after the strategist was quoted in Michael Wolff’s incendiary book about the White House, “Fire and Fury.”
“Well, I always liked Steve and I mean the last seven months or eight months, I mean, you can’t have nicer statements stated about yourself than the things he’s been saying about me,” Trump said, adding later, “You’ve seen what he’s said on the various shows and you’ve seen what he’s written and it’s very nice and I appreciate it. But I haven’t spoken to Steve in a while.”
Trump also touched on the business activities in Ukraine of Joe Biden’s son, Hunter, a subject that has drawn scrutiny among conservatives in recent days and which Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, says should be investigated further. As vice president, Joe Biden pressured Ukraine’s government to oust a top anti-corruption official who had reportedly investigated a Ukrainian energy company in which Hunter Biden had a financial interest, although no evidence has emerged that Joe Biden was acting to assist his son, and it is not clear that the official was probing the company at the time.
Trump has also alleged that Ukraine’s government aided Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign by releasing damaging information about his since-jailed campaign manager, Paul Manafort, who made millions doing political work in the country.
Some Democrats have expressed concern that Trump could direct the Justice Department to pursue the allegations, which they call a diversion from Russia’s systematic 2016 election meddling, and warn that it would be an abuse of power for political purposes.
When asked whether he would consider directing Attorney General Bill Barr to investigate the Bidens, as some Democrats fear, Trump said he had not spoken to Barr about the issue. But he left open the possibility, saying “certainly it would be an appropriate thing to” discuss with Barr.
“Certainly it is a very big issue and we’ll see what happens. I have not spoken to him about it. Would I speak to him about it? I haven’t thought of that. I mean, you’re asking me a question I just haven’t thought of,” he said, noting it “could be a very big situation” for Biden.
“Because he’s a Democrat it’s about 1/100 the size of the fact that if he were a Republican, it would be a lot bigger,” he alleged.
Trump also said that he plans to speak to Rudy Giuliani about his personal attorney’s imminent plans to go to Ukraine to reportedly encourage the Ukrainian president to investigate the origins of the Russia investigation and Hunter Biden’s role on the board of directors of an energy company owned by a Ukrainian oligarch.
“I will speak to him about it before he leaves. I’m just curious about that,” he said, adding that he has “not spoken to him at any great length” about it.
On foreign policy, the president, who once bragged about the cessation of North Korean missile tests during his presidency, downplayed the significance of North Korea’s recent decision to launch a pair of short-range missiles.
“They’re short-range and I don’t consider that a breach of trust at all. And, you know, at some point I may. But at this point no,” he said. “These were short-range missiles and very standard stuff. Very standard.”
Trump added that he might eventually lose faith in his friendly relationship with Kim Jong-un, the North Korean dictator. “I mean it’s possible that at some point I will, but right now not at all,” he said.
Minutes before the interview, Trump tweeted that trade talks with China would continue, suggesting that negotiators were unable to reach a compromise. Unprompted, the president marveled about the instant effect his China-related tweet had on stock prices.
“It seems to be having quite an impact on the market. I looked — the market was down,” he said. “Now I think it’s up 181.44. So, it shows you what happens.”
“I guess I’m fortunate enough to go to real prison, so I’ll have more material,” she said.
After her release, she is likely to be deported to Germany, but she said she then hoped to move to London.
She said she had already made some “smaller investments” in technology and cryptocurrency with personal money routed through an L.L.C.
Ms. Sorokin said she was also interested in criminal justice reform, artificial intelligence and the banking industry, adding: “Ideally, if all goes well, I’ll have my own investment fund.”
Mr. Spodek, her lawyer, said: “I don’t know how realistic some of these business endeavors are. But I’m confident that this won’t be the last time we hear from Anna, and I know that she will go on to great things.”
Others are also writing Ms. Sorokin’s story: Ms. Williams has deals with HBO and Simon & Schuster. And Netflix purchased the rights to the New York magazine story for an undisclosed amount. Shonda Rhimes, the creator of “Grey’s Anatomy” and “Scandal,” has been tapped to dramatize it.
As guards signaled the end of the visit before her sentencing, Ms. Sorokin was asked if, given the chance, she would do the same things again.
Ms. Sorokin shrugged. “Yes, probably so,” she said, laughing.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin arrives at the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative in Washington on Friday for trade talks between the United States and China. (Andrew Harnik/AP)
A House committee issued subpoenas Friday ordering Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Internal Revenue Service Commissioner Charles Rettig to turn over President Trump’s tax returns by next Friday at 5 p.m., according to copies of the subpoenas provided by the committee.
House Ways and Means Chairman Richard E. Neal (D-Mass.) authorized the subpoenas following months of disagreements with the Trump administration over whether federal law mandates Congress can obtain the records.
“The IRS is under a mandatory obligation to provide the information requested,” the subpoena states. “The IRS has had more than four weeks to comply with the Committee’s straightforward request. Therefore, please see the enclosed subpoena.”
Trump refused to release his tax returns during the 2016 presidential campaign in a break with decades of precedent from previous presidents. Legal experts have said Mnuchin’s refusal to turn over the returns is unprecedented, noting a 1924 law that explicitly gives lawmakers the authority to seek the records.
A Treasury Department spokeswoman confirmed receipt of the subpoena.
The subpoenas come amid a widening legal conflict between House Democrats and the White House over a range of oversight issues, with the administration invoking executive privilege to prevent Trump’s former counsel from giving certain records to Congress.
Neal first demanded six years of Trump’s personal and business returns, from 2013 to 2018, in letters to the administration last month.
Neal’s subpoenas demand that for these years Mnuchin and Rettig turn over Trump’s individual income tax returns, all “administrative files” such as affidavits for those income tax returns, and income tax returns for a number of Trump’s business holdings such as the Donald J. Trump Revocable Trust, an umbrella entity that controls dozens of other businesses including the Mar-a-Lago Club in Florida
House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard E. Neal (D-Mass.), who is demanding President Trump’s tax returns for six years, is joined by Rep. Tom Reed (R-N.Y.), right, at a hearing on taxpayer noncompliance on Capitol Hill on Thursday. (J. Scott Applewhite/AP)
The Trump administration has rejected Democrats’ requests for the president’s tax returns as violations of taxpayer privacy, with an attorney hired by the president and congressional Republicans echoing similar concerns. Mnuchin repeatedly asked for more time to respond to Neal’s request before rejecting it outright earlier this month.
“I think we’re coming to the point where we’re running out of letters to write,” Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr. (D-N.J.), a member of the Ways and Means Committee, said in an interview Thursday.
If Mnuchin and Rettig do not turn over the returns, Neal could respond by going to a congressional body to authorize a lawsuit in federal court against the two Trump administration officials. That body, the Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group, is controlled by Democrats.
The subpoena could bolster Neal’s position in federal court because it will help him demonstrate he pursued all possible avenues to obtain the returns before filing a lawsuit against the administration, said Steve Rosenthal, a legal expert at the Tax Policy Center, a nonpartisan think tank. That, at least in theory, will make it less likely for the court to strike down his claim on procedural grounds.
“A week now could save many months later,” Rosenthal said.
Even if House Democrats receive Trump’s tax returns, there is still no guarantee they will be made public. Legal experts say leaking the returns is a violation of privacy law that could be punishable with up to five years in prison, a provision intended to ensure taxpayer privacy, said George Yin, a legal expert at the University of Virginia.
Earlier this week, the New York Times published a report, based on data from 10 years of Trump’s federal tax returns, showing Trump reported more than $1 billion in losses to the IRS and lost more money than almost every other U.S. taxpayer from 1985 to 1994.
Earlier Friday, Rep. Kevin Brady (Tex.), the ranking Republican on the Ways and Means Committee, cautioned Neal against issuing a subpoena, arguing, “Such actions would be an abuse of the committee’s oversight powers and further examples of the Democrat majority’s coordinated attempt to weaponize the tax code.”
Damian Paletta contributed reporting to this story.
Cargo is unloaded from a container ship at the main port terminal in Long Beach, Calif., on Friday. Two days of trade talks between the U.S. and China ended without a deal to avert more tariffs.
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Cargo is unloaded from a container ship at the main port terminal in Long Beach, Calif., on Friday. Two days of trade talks between the U.S. and China ended without a deal to avert more tariffs.
Mark Ralston/AFP/Getty Images
Trade negotiators from the U.S. and China wrapped up two days of what President Trump called “candid and constructive” talks on Friday but failed to reach agreement. The Trump administration raised the stakes for future negotiations by boosting tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese imports.
Those tariffs “may or may not be removed depending on what happens with respect to future negotiations,” Trump tweeted. “The relationship between President Xi and myself remains a very strong one, and conversations into the future will continue.”
While the prospect of higher tariffs rattled financial markets, investors seemed reassured that talks had not broken down completely. Major stock indexes closed up on Friday, after a sharp drop earlier in the day.
Still, U.S. business groups greeted the administration’s latest move with caution.
“CEOs are deeply concerned that a return to tariff escalation with China will hurt the U.S. economy and American workers, businesses, and farmers,” the Business Roundtable said in a statement.
The roundtable, which represents leaders of big public companies, supports the president’s push to change what it calls unfair trade practices in China. But CEOs stressed that any “final agreement should take tariffs down.”
Trump is a firm believer in tariffs, even though most economists say the import duties are primarily paid not by China but by U.S. businesses and consumers.
“Tariffs will make our Country MUCH STRONGER, not weaker,” the president tweeted. The administration increased tariffs to 25% from 10% on a wide range of Chinese products. Trump has also threatened to extend tariffs to an additional $325 billion in Chinese goods — taxing virtually everything the U.S. imports from China.
While the higher tariffs took effect in the middle of trade talks, they do not apply to goods in transit across the Pacific. That gives negotiators a narrow window to reach agreement before the effects of the higher duties are felt.
There was no immediate word on when or where trade negotiations would resume.
Mr. Mueller declined to make a determination about whether Mr. Trump obstructed justice, saying that because a sitting president cannot be indicted it was unfair to accuse him of committing a crime. Attorney General William P. Barr stepped in and decided along with his deputy, Rod J. Rosenstein, to clear Mr. Trump of wrongdoing.
But because Mr. Mueller made no determination — and wrote a damning report that showed repeated efforts by Mr. Trump to interfere with his inquiry — questions about whether Mr. Trump obstructed justice have lingered as Democrats have sought to gain momentum in their investigation of Mr. Trump.
The Democratic-led House Judiciary Committee has subpoenaed Mr. McGahn to testify. But White House advisers have indicated they will try to block him from appearing before lawmakers, and Mr. Trump has said that there is no reason for Mr. McGahn to speak with congressional investigators because he had cooperated so extensively with Mr. Mueller’s team.
“I’ve had him testifying already for 30 hours and it’s really — so I don’t think I can let him and then tell everybody else you can’t,” Mr. Trump said in an interview with Fox News last week. “Especially him, because he was a counsel, so they’ve testified for many hours, all of them, many, many, many people. I can’t say, ‘Well, one can and the others can’t.’ I would say it’s done.”
Mr. McGahn left the White House last year but is still entangled with the president on matters related to the Mueller investigation. The White House instructed Mr. McGahn on Tuesday to not turn over documents he had to the House in response to a subpoena. Mr. McGahn followed the White House’s advice and is now waiting to see whether Democrats will hold him in contempt.
Experts say formally unleashing impeachment would bolster Democrats’ arguments that they deserve to see sensitive documents from the Trump administration. | Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Judges have repeatedly ruled that Congress has a greater claim to sensitive documents when it can point to an ongoing legal matter, like impeachment.
Democrats know that impeachment is a losing proposition against President Donald Trump right now.
But there’s another rationale for launching impeachment that has some Democrats reconsidering the idea — getting access to the sensitive documents and testimony that Trump’s team is withholding.
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Judges have repeatedly ruled that Congress has a greater claim to sensitive government documents and personal information when it can point to an ongoing legal matter, instead of just a congressional investigation or legislative debate. And impeachment would give lawmakers that legal matter — the process is essentially a court procedure run by Congress where the House brings charges and the Senate holds the trial.
The idea might seem toxic to House Democratic leaders who have so far resisted impeachment overtures against the president, aware that the politically explosive move wouldn’t get through the Republican-led Senate and could turn off voters ahead of the 2020 election.
But legal experts and lawmakers across the ideological spectrum acknowledge that formally unleashing impeachment would bolster Democrats’ arguments that they deserve to see the president’s tax returns, interview senior officials, peruse special counsel Robert Mueller’s trove of evidence and see the details of Trump’s personal dealings with foreign leaders. So far, the Trump administration has vociferously argued it doesn’t need to acquiesce to such demands, which it says are merely part of a political hit job. The president’s personal attorneys have even punched back with lawsuits in some cases.
“One could imagine that if this stonewalling of the American people continues, that that may be something the committee would have to consider,” said Rep. David Cicilline, a Rhode Island Democrat who sits on the House Judiciary Committee, which would lead impeachment proceedings.
“The Democrats’ hand would be strengthened if they were conducting a formal impeachment inquiry,” added Philip Lacovara, who served as counsel to the Watergate-era investigation of President Richard Nixon.
It’s a theory that has started bouncing around Capitol Hill. When House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler, who is leading the Democrats’ fight for Trump-related information, mentioned in a recent hearing that his committee was able to get access to sensitive investigative materials during the Nixon and Clinton administrations, Republican Rep. Doug Collins quickly reminded him that the past access was impeachment-aided.
“If the chairman truly wanted to get at this information, then he can go to what I believe many in their heart desire is, is open the impeachment inquiry,” said the Georgia lawmaker, the panel’s top Republican.
Several GOP members have doubled down on that argument. “I think if you actually get into impeachment, it does open up access to more things,” said Ohio Rep. Steve Chabot.
Such a move “might well open up more public officials to being queried by staff personnel,” added Chabot, a longtime Judiciary Committee Republican who served on the panel during Clinton’s impeachment.
“But they don’t want to take that step because that’s not where the public is and they’re afraid it might hurt them in the next election,” he said. “So, they want to talk about impeachment, but they don’t want to do it.”
Indeed, Democratic leaders have continued to shy away from impeachment.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on Thursday that while Trump has driven the country into a “constitutional crisis,” Democrats want to tread cautiously on impeachment.
“That’s just the way it is,” Pelosi said. “And it is going to be based on fact and law and patriotism, not partisanship or anything else.”
Cicilline agreed, saying the House should first pursue other legal avenues to get their desired documents.
“I don’t think we’re there yet,” he said. “We have some litigation to pursue. But there’s no question it would enhance or strengthen our ability to compel the production of documents or witnesses.”
Still, frustration is building among Democrats. Since January, the party’s new House majority has tried to launch investigations and hold hearings only to have subpoenas ignored, some refuse to appear for testimony and the president’s attorneys counter with lawsuits. On Wednesday, Trump escalated the fight by invoking executive privilege to block the release of the full unredacted Mueller report.
Since the Watergate era, courts have repeatedly ruled that the House has greater claim to fight these rejections if it is in the middle of impeachment proceedings.
Legal experts point to a 1974 D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that suggested the House Judiciary Committee had stronger claim to Nixon’s Oval Office tapes than a Senate committee because the House panel was overseeing impeachment proceedings.
“The investigative authority of the Judiciary Committee with respect to presidential conduct has an express constitutional source,” Chief Judge David Bazelon wrote in the ruling.
Another Watergate-era ruling from the D.C. Circuit blessed the idea that the House Judiciary Committee could receive normally secret grand jury material as part of preparation for possible impeachment.
And in 1984, an Atlanta-based federal appeals court approved the release of secret grand jury material to the House in connection with the impeachment of Alcee Hastings, a federal district court judge.
Several legal experts agree that Democrats would be in a better spot legally if they took the formal step of opening an impeachment case against Trump.
“History affords Congress maximum power only when it is investigating a possible impeachment,” Michael Conway, a House Judiciary Committee lawyer during the Nixon impeachment, wrote in a recent NBC op-ed.
Absent opening up impeachment proceedings, Syracuse University law professor David Driesen said he thinks the Trump administration has the upper hand in its court fights over the ignored subpoenas and requests. The current argument that the information is needed to help Congress craft legislation just won’t cut it, he said.
“I think the courts — especially conservative judges — are more likely to give weight to an impeachment inquiry than the claim that this is somehow relevant to legislation,” he said.
Democrats have started to flick at impeachment in their legal arguments.
House Judiciary Committee Democrats on Wednesday voted to hold Attorney General Bill Barr in contempt for refusing to hand over the unredacted Mueller report and the special counsel’s underlying evidence. The contempt citation says the full Mueller report is needed to determine whether the committee should be “taking any further steps” to check the executive branch.
“That includes whether to approve articles of impeachment with respect to the President or any other Administration official,” the resolution says.
But some lawyers with Hill experience are cautioning Democrats against embracing impeachment proceedings solely for the benefit of new arguments to make in their legal briefs.
“I don’t think it’s the panacea that’s going to make all the problems go away,” said Alan Baron, who worked as an attorney for the House Judiciary Committee on four judicial impeachments, including the Hastings case.
“It does help you, but it doesn’t solve all your problems,” Baron added. He predicted the Trump administration would still resist Democratic-driven demands if it were to face impeachment and try to drag things out in court through the 2020 election. “The clock is already running,” he said.
Ted Kalo, a former general counsel for House Judiciary Democrats, cautioned against the “mistaken assumption that the commencement of an impeachment inquiry grants the House superpowers that would cause the Trump administration to comply with subpoenas quickly.”
“It wouldn’t,” he added. “It’s fair to assume the administration would still stonewall and the House would still be left with litigation as its primary means of enforcing its subpoenas.”
The House has plenty of leverage even without impeachment, Baron and Kalo both argued. And judges rarely second-guess congressional committees reasoning for obtaining records or testimony, they noted.
For example, about two years ago, the private investigation firm that commissioned the so-called Steele Dossier, Fusion GPS, sought to rein in a House Intelligence Committee subpoena for the firm’s bank records. Fusion’s lawyers said the request was certain to produce information irrelevant to the panel’s probe, including payments that had nothing at all to do with the dossier.
However, U.S. District Court Judge Richard Leon declined to constrain the panel’s subpoena power.
“This court will not — and indeed, may not — engage in a line-by-line review of the committee’s requests,” wrote Leon, a George W. Bush appointee. The judge also cited a Supreme Court ruling, saying he had no authority to consider the “motives” behind Congress’ action.
Former Trump White House attorney Ty Cobb acknowledged that impeachment would give the House additional legal clout but said Democrats so far have failed to prove that they’ve exhausted all other options.
“If they jump into impeachment they would have additional legal arguments, but they wouldn’t necessarily be perfected given how little they’ve done” to negotiate, said Cobb, who stressed that he was speaking solely for himself.
“I agree, marginally, that if they got into impeachment, they have slightly stronger arguments,” he added. “The problem is the failure to do the spadework on that puts them in a weak position.”
Andrew Desiderio and Kyle Cheney contributed to this report.
DOHA (Reuters) – American B-52 Stratofortress bombers sent to the Middle East over what Washington describes as threats from Iran have arrived at a U.S. base in Qatar, U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) said.
The U.S. military said on Tuesday that a number of B-52 bombers would be part of additional forces being sent to the Middle East to counter what the Trump administration says are “clear indications” of threats from Iran to U.S. forces there.
Iran has dismissed the new U.S. deployments, including of an aircraft carrier, as old news announced now to intimidate it through “psychological warfare”, at a time when Washington is also tightening financial sanctions. The USS Abraham Lincoln is replacing another carrier rotated out of the Gulf last month.
A picture taken by U.S Air Force personnel stationed in Al Udaid air base and posted on the CENTCOM website showed two aircraft. The caption said: “B-52 Arrival. U.S. B-52H Stratofortress aircraft assigned to the 20th Expeditionary Bomb Squadron are parked on a flight line May 8, 2019.”
The media officer at Al Udaid, near Doha, did not immediately respond to a phone call and email requesting comment and details. CENTCOM is responsible for U.S. military operations in the Middle East and Afghanistan.
Washington has tightened sanctions on Iran this month, eliminating waivers that had allowed some countries to buy its oil, with a goal of reducing Tehran’s crude exports to zero. Iran has responded by scaling back some curbs on its nuclear program, although it remains compliant with a deal to restrict its nuclear activity which Washington abandoned a year ago.
Reporting by Eric Knecht; Writing by Maher Chmaytelli; Editing by Peter Graff
The Chinese markets had a surprisingly good day Friday, given that the U.S. just massively jacked up tariffs against Chinese imports, and the trade negotiations between the two countries appear likely to fail.
The Hang Seng Index, having seemed set to plummet around lunchtime, ended up 0.84% up on the day. The Shanghai Composite Index did even better, soaring 3.1% by close. And the positivity may be spreading: the Stoxx Europe 600 Index is up 0.76% at the time of writing.
So, bearing in mind that Chinese companies will be hit hard by the tariff escalation, what gives? There are three possible factors at play.
They’re still talking
President Donald Trump may have sent negotiations into a tailspin several days ago by announcing those massive new tariffs, and China may be threatening as-yet-undefined retaliation now that the tariffs have come into effect, but the negotiations are still on.
Trump said Thursday that Chinese President Xi Jinping had sent him a “beautiful letter,” and the two would likely have a phone call. According to Trump, Xi said in the beautiful letter: “Let’s work together [and] let’s see if we can get something done.”
“The high levels of volatility that we have seen is stemming almost entirely from Trump’s comments and actions over China. Traders continue to swing from tweet to headline to comment to tweet as they try to make sense of the mixed messages,” wrote London Capital Group’s Jasper Lawler in a Friday note.
Chinese Vice-Premier Liu He met Thursday with U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, and it was reportedly a short meeting. However, the two sides are still set to continue talking Friday.
“We think it’s clear that there will be no deal at the end of this round of talks,” wrote Lawler. “The best we can hope for at this stage is an agreement for the sides to keep talking. But with tariffs now at 25% both sides will want to see things progress more quickly.”
The tariffs aren’t biting yet
The escalation of the tariffs comes with one important detail: the new tariffs only apply to goods that are loaded onto ships in China as of Friday, and they will only bite once those goods arrive in the U.S. Goods that already on the high seas will only incur the old 10% tariffs.
The fastest cargo ships with the quickest routes take a couple weeks to get from China to the U.S., so that creates an effective buffer or “grace period” of as much as a month.
“Increased tariffs are in place though they only take effect on goods now leaving China so theoretically could be cancelled before anyone has to pay anything,” said Société Générale analyst Kit Juckes, according to the Guardian.
Support from Beijing
Bloomberg is reporting another possible reason why the Chinese markets had a buoyant Friday: they’re being propped up by the government.
The outlet’s sources said state-backed funds stepped in to buy Chinese equities after they started to plummet around lunchtime, local time.
The sharp slump followed a rise in the morning, and then it was over almost as abruptly. State intervention would certainly provide an explanation for this “sharp V,” but for now it remains unconfirmed.
Either way, Friday turned out better than expected on the Chinese markets. Whether that optimism holds after the day plays out in the U.S.—where futures currently point to a pretty flat opening—is another matter.
One of the students accused of opening fire at a Denver area STEM school, killing one student and wounding eight other people, bullied younger kids and would make jokes about shooting up the school, students said.
The suspected shooter, Devon Erickson, “would whisper, like get really close and kinda put his arm around you, and whisper in your ear, ‘don’t come to school tomorrow,'” said Kevin Cole, a former student of STEM School Highlands Ranch, during an interview on “Today.”
Erickson, 18, and a juvenile, who police identify as a girl but who prefers male pronouns, are accused of entering the K-12 school with handguns Tuesday. NBC News is not identifying the juvenile suspect.
Kendrick Castillo, 18, was fatally shot, and eight others were hospitalized. Several of the shooting victims have been released, and one was upgraded from serious to fair condition on Friday.
Devon Michael Erickson appears at the Douglas County Courthouse for his advisement hearing on May 8, 2019 in Castle Rock, Colorado.Joe Amon / Pool via Getty Images
One student told “Today” that the scene — which unfolded three days before Highlands Ranch seniors’ last day of school — was chaotic.
“We heard yelling, we heard police tackling, screaming, singing — shockingly singing. And it was heart-wrenching,” the student said. “I can still hear them faintly. I can still hear them screaming and singing.”
Documents obtained by NBC affiliate KUSA show that a parent warned school officials of “a repeat of Columbine” months before shots were fired Tuesday afternoon.
In December 2018, a school district director sent a letter to Highlands Ranch executive director Penny Eucker saying a district official had received an anonymous call from a Highlands Ranch parent expressing concerns about the school and accusing administrators of a wide range of misconduct.
The parent said the school suffered from “an extremely high drug culture,” “student violence due to a high pressure environment,” the letter said. The parent also reported bullying, “safety issues,” instances of sexual assault, and a recent bomb threat.
“The individual called it ‘the perfect storm’ – ‘group think’ and students … are susceptible to ‘copy-catting,'” the letter said. “The individual expressed concerns about a repeat of Columbine or Arapahoe.”
Twelve students and a teacher were killed in the Columbine High School shooting on April 20, 1999, before the two gunmen killed themselves, and one student died after the shooting at Arapahoe High School on Dec. 13, 2013. That shooter also turned the gun on himself.
The parent said school officials had ignored her concerns. She also alleged that students had learned to build a bomb in school, students had smeared feces on the walls and were forced to clean it up with no gloves, and accused a teacher of hitting a student. The parent also asked for a financial audit at the school alleging that “money is being sent to China and Mexico,” the letter said.
“The concerns expressed by this individual are very serious and need to be looked into to the extent possible” the letter to Eucker from the district said, adding a request that they be “apprised of your investigation and conclusions.”
Officials guide students off a bus and into a recreation center where they were reunited with their parents after a shooting at a suburban Denver middle school, on May 7, 2019, in Highlands Ranch, Colorado.David Zalubowski / AP
Highlands Ranch parents were notified in February of some accusations made during the call, a letter from Eucker and a member of the school board showed.
“These outrageous accusations of criminal behavior of our outstanding and dedicated volunteer board threatens their very professions. An investigation by STEM Board and staff leadership revealed no evidence of these allegations,” the letter said.
The school filed a lawsuit, denying all of the allegations and accusing the parent caller of slander and invasion of privacy. The lawsuit sought to issue a subpoena for phone records that would reveal the identity of the caller.
STEM School Highlands Ranch officials, district officials and Eucker did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the letters and lawsuit in the wake of Tuesday’s shooting.
Elisha Fieldstadt
Elisha Fieldstadt is a breaking news reporter for NBC News.
The imposition of new U.S. tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese imports could be a dangerous next step in a trade dispute between the world’s two largest economies; chief White House correspondent John Roberts reports.
President Trump on Friday touted his administration’s controversial move to increase tariffs on $200 billion in Chinese goods after trade talks between Washington and Beijing failed to come to an agreement, while saying the Obama administration let China “get away with ‘murder.'”
Despite the new tariffs, trade negotiations will continue Friday morning, according to the White House.
“Talks with China continue in a very congenial manner – there is absolutely no need to rush – as Tariffs are NOW being paid to the United States by China of 25% on 250 Billion Dollars worth of goods & products. These massive payments go directly to the Treasury of the U.S….” Trump tweeted early Friday.
“Tariffs will bring in FAR MORE wealth to our Country than even a phenomenal deal of the traditional kind. Also, much easier & quicker to do. Our Farmers will do better, faster, and starving nations can now be helped. Waivers on some products will be granted, or go to new source!” he continued.
The president added that the U.S. would “continue to negotiate with China in the hopes that they do not again try to redo” the deal.
Moments later, Trump hit back at suggestions the tariffs would hurt the U.S. economy, asserting the opposite while claiming his predecessor — as well as former Vice President Joe Biden, who is running for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination — was too weak on Beijing.
“Tariffs will make our Country MUCH STRONGER, not weaker. Just sit back and watch! In the meantime, China should not renegotiate deals with the U.S. at the last minute. This is not the Obama Administration, or the Administration of Sleepy Joe, who let China get away with ‘murder!'” he tweeted.
Trump’s tweets Friday morning come after the Treasury Department late Thursday moved ahead with increased tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese goods. The new tariffs raised the import taxes of those goods from 10 percent to 25 percent at 12:01 a.m. Friday.
But the White House said talks between the U.S. and China would continue Friday morning.
“This evening, Ambassador Lightizer and Secretary Mnuchin met with President Trump to discuss the ongoing trade negotiations with China,” White House deputy press secretary Judd Deere said in a statement. “The Ambassador and Secretary then had a working dinner with Vice Premier Liu He, and agreed to continue discussions tomorrow morning at USTR.” USTR refers to the office of U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer.
The president has repeatedly said that tariffs would be a positive for the U.S., even saying at the White House this week that he “happens to think tariffs for our country are very powerful.”
The U.S. and China had been engaging in negotiations over a deal that would open up the Chinese market to American companies, but according to The New York Times, talks fell apart when China called for changes to the text that served as a blueprint for the pact.
The bulk of goods facing increase tariffs are items such as circuit boards, vehicle parts and machinery, according to the Wall Street Journal. The proposed tariffs on the reminder of Chinese imports – the $200 billion worth of goods – would no doubt affect consumers. Those goods include iPhones, laptops, clothing and other everyday products.
China has already imposed tariffs on nearly all American goods. On Thursday, it said it would defend its interests and respond with “necessary countermeasures” if the increases take effect Friday.
Fox News’ Louis Casiano, Gregg Re and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
President Trump on Thursday distanced his Iran position from that of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and national security adviser John Bolton.
As Trump put it, “What [Iran] should be doing is calling me up, sitting down, and we can make a deal. A fair deal. We just don’t want them to have nuclear weapons, it’s not too much to ask. And we would help put them back into great shape. They’re in bad shape right now. I look forward to the day when we can actually help Iran. We’re not looking to hurt Iran. I want them to be strong, and great, and have a great economy.”
Trump is right to take this line. Still, it represents a striking departure from Pompeo and Bolton’s positions. Don’t take my word for it, take Pompeo’s. In a speech last May, Pompeo outlined 12 separate conditions for the removal of U.S. sanctions on Iran. These included not simply Trump’s nuclear deal related concerns of an open-ended deal timeline, ballistic missile restrictions, and warhead development, but of Iran’s abandonment of its current foreign policy. And Bolton isn’t just a hawk on Iran, he’s a dragon.
This distinction matters. Growing Trump administration sanctions on Iran are necessary to force Iran back to the negotiating table, but Pompeo and Bolton have far broader objectives than Trump. And the risk here is that the gap between Trump and Pompeo-Bolton fosters a misunderstanding on the part of the Iranian regime. Namely, that the hardliner bloc under the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps will believe Trump wants the regime to abandon its theological essence, rather than simply its nuclear ambitions. As long as Iran retains its Khomeneist ideology, it will never negotiate in the manner Pompeo demands, because to do so would be to end its existence.
Bolton and Pompeo aren’t wrong to counter Iranian escalation or to restrain Iran’s malevolent foreign policy. But Trump is right to keep the conditions for new nuclear negotiations focused on Iran’s nuclear threat. He should double down on his statement as issued on Thursday. Doing so will advance the diplomatic process.
North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un has told his military to maintain a “full-combat posture” as tensions continue to rise with the U.S. His order follows the firing of three missiles Thursday, the second missile launch in a week.
North Korea says the test was part of its regular military training. South Korea claims they may be part of a new weapons system. As North Korean missile tests go, CBS News correspondent Elizabeth Palmer says Thursday’s was less a show of force than an attempt to grab attention.
North Korean state media released pictures Friday morning showing a gleeful Kim apparently watching those missile launches — the second such drill he had observed in five days.
North Korea’s state media avoided specifying what the weapons were, but the U.S. military says they were three short-range ballistic missiles.
President Trump said it was not enough to ruin his relationship with Kim Jung Un.
“They were smaller missiles, they’re short range missiles,” President Trump said. “Nobody’s happy about it, but we’re taking a good look and we’ll see, we’ll see. The relationship continues, but we’ll see what happens.”
Analyst Thomas Sanderson says the launches won’t be enough of a provocation to derail future talks.
North Korea fires 3 short-range missiles
“They certainly are not going to prevent another summit; it’s not as if it is an intercontinental range missile and it’s not the testing of a nuclear warhead,” Sanderson said. “These are the two elements that Kim Jong Un promised he would put a moratorium on.”
Ratcheting up tensions between the countries even further, the U.S. revealed Thursday that it had seized a huge North Korean cargo ship off the coast of Indonesia.
The 17,000 ton ship, called the “Wise Honest,” was caught carrying North Korean coal for export — in direct defiance of international sanctions. Its seizure shows U.S. resolve to cut off North Korean trade that might fund its nuclear program.
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My colleague Tim Arango followed up on the massive cache of gunspulled over the course of hours from a multimillion dollar house in Los Angeles. Here’s his dispatch:
It reads like the plotline from an L.A. noir novel: A sprawling house in Bel-Air, close to the Playboy Mansion. An early morning raid. Stacks of bullets and guns of every sort. And a tantalizing connection to a wealthy and famous family.
In the early morning darkness on Wednesday, Los Angeles police detectives and federal agents, working on an anonymous tip, moved on the mansion in the affluent Bel-Air neighborhood.
“Lo and behold, they found over a thousand guns of all makes, models and calibers,” said Lt. Chris Ramirez, a spokesman for the Los Angeles Police Department, who was at the scene on Wednesday, after officers had spent hours cataloging the cache of weapons. There was seemingly every kind of gun — shotguns, pistols, assault rifles, even Civil War-era weapons — along with over a thousand rounds of ammunition, he said.
“They were found just laid out in various rooms in the house,” he said. “There were piles of ammunition on one side of a room. There were piles of guns on the other side of a room.”
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