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Donald Trump lost $1.17bn (£897m) from real estate ventures between 1985 and 1994 and paid no income tax for eight years, according to The New York Times, reporting after the newspaper got hold of copies of his tax returns for the period.
The president predictably branded the story, ”A highly inaccurate Fake News hit job!”, the news coming at a time when his treasury secretary Steve Mnuchin was already under fire for refusing to release his boss’s tax returns for 2013 to 2018, setting up what promises to be a protracted legal battle with Democrats.
The vote capped a day of ever-deepening dispute between congressional Democrats and the president, who for the first time invoked the principle of executive privilege, claiming the right to block lawmakers from the full report.
Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler of New York declared the action by Mr Trump’s Justice Department a clear new sign of the president’s “blanket defiance” of Congress’ constitutional rights to conduct oversight.
Mueller investigation: The key figures
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“We did not relish doing this, but we have no choice,” Nadler said after the vote.
The White House’s blockade, he said, “is an attack on the ability of the American people to know what the executive branch is doing.” He said, “This cannot be.”
But Justice Department spokeswoman Kerri Kupec said it was disappointing that members of Congress “have chosen to engage in such inappropriate political theatrics.”
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A watchdog group has filed a lawsuit against Donald Trump, claiming he intentionally failed to keep written accounts of his exchanges with Russian President Vladimir Putin and other world leaders.
Our friends at Indy100 note the absurdity behind a US president tweeting about "big fireworks" at Mount Rushmore shortly after a school shooting and major controversies stemming from his White House.
The former director for the Office of Government Ethics has denounced Donald Trump’s attempts to suddenly invoke executive privilege over Robert Mueller’s report and its underlying evidence, describing the move as a “delay tactic” in a new tweet:
Donald Trump has paid tribute to the shooting that took place at a Colorado school yesterday. He posted on Twitter:
An 18-year-old student was killed and eight other people were injured at a suburban Denver school. Police have named the student as Kendrick Ray Castillo.
The shooting Donald Trump has responded to happened at the Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) School in Highlands Ranch, Colorado. The student who died, Kendrick Ray Castillo, was a high school senior days away from graduating.
Two students from the high school - 18-year-old Devon Erickson and a younger student who has not been identified - walked into the school and opened fire in two classrooms, local police say.
Republicans tried to turn the contempt hearing into an argument over whether the FBI conspired against Donald Trump’s campaign in 2016, a disproven falsity -
Expert polling analyst Nate Silver pushed back against suggestions Nancy Pelosi wasn’t doing a good job of leading her party as Democrats stall on possibly impeaching Donald Trump, writing in a tweet that it isn’t as “important” as other big ticket items since the president would not be removed by a Republican-led Senate:
White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders has posted the following statement to Twitter about Donald Trump invoking executive privilege on Robert Mueller’s report into Russian election interference -
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