Trump tweets about conspiracies he sees behind challenges

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Trump tweets about conspiracies he sees behind challenges

2018-04-13 14:44 Last Updated At：15:56

The Russia collusion probe. The Stormy Daniels allegations. Escalating tension with Moscow.

The tempests that have buffeted the White House for months merged into a maelstrom this week and threatened to engulf President Donald Trump, who on Wednesday railed against members of the Justice Department by name and used Twitter to threaten military strikes in Syria and taunt a nuclear-armed power.

While alarmed aides and allies worried that Trump was the angriest he'd ever been, the president saw conspiracies in the challenges facing his administration and hinted at more chaos. And as Trump's party was rocked by upheaval on Capitol Hill, White House staffers explored whether he has the legal authority to fire the men leading the investigation into his administration and, as underscored by the seizure of documents from his private lawyer, his business and personal life.

Trump pushed back Thursday on reports of disarray, insisted he did not consider firing special counsel Robert Mueller in December. The president denied a report in The New York Times, saying: "If I wanted to fire Robert Mueller in December, as reported by the Failing New York Times, I would have fired him. Just more Fake News from a biased newspaper!"

The Times reported that in early December, Trump was furious over reports about a new round of subpoenas from Muller's office and told advisers the investigation needed to be ended.

On Wednesday, Trump tweeted, "Much of the bad blood with Russia is caused by the Fake & Corrupt Russia Investigation, headed up by the all Democrat loyalists, or people that worked for Obama. Mueller is most conflicted of all (except Rosenstein who signed FISA & Comey letter). No Collusion, so they go crazy!"

That message followed another provocative tweet, in which Trump laced into Russia for supporting Syrian President Bashar Assad, whose government is accused of launching an apparent chemical attack Saturday on its own people. Disregarding his own insistence that he would never tip his hand to military strategy, he seemed to suggest that he would launch airstrikes.

"Get ready Russia, because they will be coming, nice and new and 'smart!'" Trump wrote. "You shouldn't be partners with a Gas Killing Animal who kills his people and enjoys it!"

The president's renewed public anger at special counsel Robert Mueller and Deputy Attorney General Rob Rosenstein was prompted by the FBI raid on his longtime personal attorney Michael Cohen, who acknowledged paying $130,000 to Daniels, a porn actress, to buy her silence about an alleged affair with Trump. Trump has warned that an investigation into his business would cross "a red line" and could lead him to fire Mueller, despite strong pushback from a number of aides and Republicans in Congress.

"It worries me because I realize how much he feels personally cheated and how much it feels like it's a personal witch hunt. And he's not the kind of guy that takes that lying down. He fights back," said Newt Gingrich, the former House speaker and an informal Trump adviser. "I think Trump doesn't know how to deal with it and is very frustrated by it, thinks it's totally unfair. And that's what you're seeing."

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders made clear Wednesday that Trump was wary of investigatory overreach, saying, "He has a very deep concern about the direction that the special counsel and other investigations have taken."

Although the president declared that his White House was "calm and calculated," aides said decisions happen fast and with even less warning than usual when Trump feels backed into a corner. Trump has continued to seethe about Attorney General Jeff Sessions recusing himself from the Russia probe. And a number of those close to Trump say they worry about his reaction — and the West Wing's lack of planning — to yet another storm on the horizon: the release of former FBI director James Comey's new book.

The advertisements for the interviews have begun blanketing cable news, leading Trump to angrily surmise that Comey was "going to lie" and try to "make money" by tarnishing the president's reputation, according to two people familiar with the president's thinking but not authorized to speak publicly about private discussions.

The January publication of Michael Wolff's "Fire & Fury" caught the White House off guard, and the critiques leveled by former chief strategist Steve Bannon and other ex-officials left Trump enraged. Although Comey's book comes as no surprise, the White House as of Wednesday had no formal plan to respond to it, instead likely opting to let the Republican National Committee and outside surrogates handle most of the pushback.

Trump's decision to fire Comey was the product of weeks of discussion among his senior-most staff. A similar debate is unlikely to play out over the potential dismissal of Mueller or Rosenstein — not least in part because those deliberations became a subject of Mueller's investigation of potential obstruction of justice.

But Trump, too, has grown more comfortable making decisions without seeking the counsel of his staff. That's what happened when he fired national security adviser H.R. McMaster and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. Although both decisions had been expected for months, Trump acted first and left it to his staff to pick up the pieces.

While a number of allies believe Trump's talk on Mueller and Rosenstein was largely venting, they acknowledged that Trump is increasingly unpredictable. White House lawyers have been considering Trump's authority to circumvent Department of Justice regulations and unilaterally fire Mueller. Trump could also direct Rosenstein or a potential successor to take action against Mueller.

Republican Rep. Mark Meadows, a Trump ally, said he did not expect a purge.

"The president is not talking about firing Mueller. I've had conversations with the president, and he's not talking about it," Meadows said.

Bipartisan legislation to protect the special counsel was introduced Wednesday, but its fate was uncertain.

White House aides also worried about the surprise announcement from House Speaker Paul Ryan that he will leave Congress at the end of the year. The move was interpreted by some in Trump's orbit as an acknowledgement of the rising likelihood that Democrats could gain control of the House this fall, imperiling the president's agenda and potentially sparking talk of impeachment.

Trump is in New York for the hush money trial while the Supreme Court hears his immunity case in DC

2024-04-25 20:14 Last Updated At：20:20

NEW YORK (AP) — A reluctant Donald Trump will be back in a New York City courtroom Thursday as his hush money trial resumes at the same time that the U.S. Supreme Court hears arguments in Washington over whether he should be immune from prosecution for actions he took during his time as president.

Jurors will hear more witness testimony from a longtime tabloid publisher, and Trump faces a looming decision over whether he violated a gag order imposed by the judge. But he had asked to skip out on his criminal trial for the day so he could sit in on the high court’s special session, where the justices will weigh whether he can be prosecuted over his efforts to reverse his 2020 election loss to Joe Biden.

“We have a big case today,” Trump said during an early morning campaign stop in Manhattan to visit construction workers. “The judge isn’t allowing me to go.”

His request was denied by New York state Supreme Court Judge Juan Merchan, who is overseeing the trial on the hush money scheme that was allegedly meant to prevent harmful stories about Trump from surfacing in the final days of the 2016 campaign.

“Arguing before the Supreme Court is a big deal, and I can certainly appreciate why your client would want to be there, but a trial in New York Supreme Court … is also a big deal,” Merchan told Trump’s lawyer Todd Blanche last week when he nixed the idea.

Though 200 miles (320 kilometers) apart -- and entirely separate cases -- the proceedings Thursday were jumbled together in one big legal and political puzzle that has implications not just for the presumptive Republican presidential nominee but for the American presidency writ large.

In both instances, Trump is trying to get himself out of legal jeopardy as he makes another bid for the White House. But the outcome of the Supreme Court case will have lasting implications for future presidents, because the justices will be answering the never-before-asked question of "whether and if so to what extent does a former president enjoy presidential immunity from criminal prosecution for conduct alleged to involve official acts during his tenure in office.”

The high court's decision may not impact the New York City case, which hinges mostly on Trump's conduct as a presidential candidate in 2016 — not as a president. He faces 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in connection with hush money payments meant to stifle embarrassing stories from surfacing. It is the first of four criminal cases against Trump to go before a jury.

Trump has maintained he is not guilty of any of the charges against him. In New York, he maintains the stories that were bought and squelched were false.

The New York trial resumes after a scheduled day off with more testimony from the Manhattan District Attorney’s first witness, David Pecker, former publisher of the National Enquirer and a longtime friend of Trump's who pledged to be his “eyes and ears” during his 2016 presidential campaign.

Trump, when asked during his campaign appearance Thursday what he thought of Pecker's testimony, responded: “David’s been very nice, a nice guy.”

Pecker explained to jurors earlier this week how he and the tabloid parlayed rumor-mongering into splashy stories that smeared Trump’s opponents and, just as crucially, leveraged his connections to suppress seamy stories about Trump, including a porn actor’s claim of an extramarital sexual encounter years earlier.

Pecker traced the origins of their relationship to a 1980s meeting at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, and said the friendship bloomed alongside the success of the real estate developer’s TV show “The Apprentice” and the program’s subsequent celebrity version.

Pecker recounted how he promised then-candidate Trump that he would help suppress harmful stories and even arranged to purchase the silence of a doorman.

“I made the decision to purchase the story because of the potential embarrassment it had to the campaign and to Mr. Trump,” Pecker said of the doorman’s story that his publication later determined wasn’t true.

Merchan, the judge, may also decide whether or not to hold Trump in contempt and fine him for what prosecutors say were violations of a gag order that barred the GOP leader from making public statements about witnesses, jurors and others connected to the case.

Some of Trump's recent online posts in question included one describing prosecution witnesses Michael Cohen, his former attorney, and Stormy Daniels, the porn actor, as “sleaze bags” and another repeating a false claim that liberal activists had tried to infiltrate the jury.

Trump was dismissive about the upcoming decision. When asked by reporters if he would pay the $1,000 fine for each of 10 posts, he replied, “Oh, I have no idea.” He then said, “They’ve taken my constitutional right away with a gag order.”

Merchan criticized Blanche this week for excusing the posts as Trump simply responding to political attacks and commenting on his experience with the criminal justice system.

“When your client is violating the gag order I expect more than one word,” Merchan said.

A conviction by the jury in the hush money probe would not preclude Trump from becoming president again, but because it is a state case, he would not be able to pardon himself if found guilty. The charge is punishable by up to four years in prison — though it’s not clear if the judge would seek to put him behind bars.

The Supreme Court's arguments, meanwhile, are related to charges in federal court in Washington, where Trump has been accused of conspiring to overturn the 2020 election. The case stems from Trump’s attempts to have charges against him dismissed. Lower courts have found he cannot claim immunity for actions that, prosecutors say, illegally sought to interfere with the election results.

The high court is moving faster than usual in taking up the case, though not as quickly as special counsel Jack Smith wanted, raising questions about whether there will be time to hold a trial before the November election, if the justices agree with lower courts that Trump can be prosecuted.

Long reported from Washington. Associated Press writer Michelle L. Price contributed to this report.

Trump tweets about conspiracies he sees behind challenges

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Trump tweets about conspiracies he sees behind challenges

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