Trump-Mueller investigation: President faces difficult chief of staff choice as he is warned of impeachment and jail time over escalating Russia probe
New court filings detail Trump campaign members' 'crimes and lies' with potentially damaging impact on president
Donald Trump has been warned he faces the "very real prospect" of jail time as the fallout from the bombshell publication of court filings intensifies.
As the probe into Mr Trump's conduct both before and during office escalates, House Democrats are openly raising the prospect of impeachment or prison time for the US president if it is proved he directed illegal hush-money payments to women.
Jerry Nadler, the incoming chairman of the house judiciary committee, described the details in prosecutors' filings in the case of Mr Trump's former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, as evidence Mr Trump was "at the centre of a massive fraud".
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"They would be impeachable offences," Mr Nadler said.
"There's a very real prospect that on the day Donald Trump leaves office, the Justice Department may indict him, that he may be the first president in quite some time to face the real prospect of jail time," said Adam Schiff, the incoming chairman of the House intelligence committee.
"The bigger pardon question may come down the road as the next president has to determine whether to pardon Donald Trump."
In the filings, prosecutors in New York for the first time link Mr Trump to a federal crime of illegal payments to buy the silence of two women during the 2016 campaign.
When asked what usually happened after such a filing, James Comey, the sacked former FBI director, told MSNBC: “That person would be in serious jeopardy of being charged.”
Special counsel Robert Mueller's office also laid out previously undisclosed contacts between Trump associates and Russian intermediaries and suggested the Kremlin aimed early on to influence Mr Trump and his Republican campaign by playing to both his political and personal business interests.
Mr Trump has denied wrongdoing and has compared the investigations to a "witch hunt."
Mr Nadler said it was too early to say whether Congress would pursue impeachment proceedings based on the illegal payments alone because lawmakers would need to weigh the gravity of the offence to justify "overturning" the 2016 election.
Mr Nadler and other lawmakers said on Sunday that they would await additional details from Mr Mueller's investigation into Russian election interference and possible coordination with the Trump campaign to determine the extent of Mr Trump's misconduct.
Regarding the illegal payments, "whether they are important enough to justify an impeachment is a different question, but certainly they'd be impeachable offences because even though they were committed before the president became president, they were committed in the service of fraudulently obtaining the office," Mr Nadler said.
Mr Mueller has not said when he will complete a report of any findings, and it isn't clear that any such report would be made available to Congress. That would be up to the attorney general. Mr Trump on Friday said he would nominate former attorney general William Barr to the post to succeed Jeff Sessions.
Mr Nadler indicated that Democrats, who will control the House in January, will step up their own investigations. He said Congress, the Justice Department and the special counsel needed to dig deeper into the allegations, which included questions about whether Mr Trump lied about his business arrangements with Russians and about possible obstruction of justice.
"The new Congress will not try to shield the president," he said. "We will try to get to the bottom of this, in order to serve the American people and to stop this massive conspiracy — this massive fraud on the American people."
Mr Schiff also stressed a need to wait "until we see the full picture." He has previously indicated his panel would seek to look into the Trump family's business ties with Russia.
"I think we also need to see this as a part of a broader pattern of potential misconduct by the president, and it's that broad pattern, I think, that will lead us to a conclusion about whether it rises to the level to warrant removal from office," Mr Schiff said.
In the legal filings, the Justice Department stopped short of accusing Mr Trump of directly committing a crime. But it said Mr Trump told Mr Cohen to make illegal payments to porn actress Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal, both of whom claimed to have had affairs with Mr Trump more than a decade ago.
In separate filings, Mr Mueller's team detail how Mr Cohen spoke to a Russian who "claimed to be a 'trusted person' in the Russian Federation who could offer the campaign 'political synergy' and 'synergy on a government level."'
Mr Cohen said he never followed up on that meeting. Mr Mueller's team also said former campaign chairman Paul Manafort lied to them about his contacts with a Russian associate and Trump administration officials, including in 2018.
Republican senator Marco Rubio called the latest filings "relevant" in judging Mr Trump's fitness for office but said lawmakers need more information to render judgment. He also warned the White House about considering a pardon for Mr Manafort, saying such a step could trigger congressional debate about limiting a president's pardon powers.
Such a move would be "a terrible mistake," Mr Rubio said. "Pardons should be used judiciously. They're used for cases with extraordinary circumstances."
Senator Angus King, a member of the Senate intelligence committee, cautioned against a rush to impeachment, which he said citizens could interpret as "political revenge and a coup against the president",
"The best way to solve a problem like this, to me, is elections," Mr King said. "I'm a conservative when it comes to impeachment. I think it's a last resort and only when the evidence is clear of a really substantial legal violation. We may get there, but we're not there now."
Democratic senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut urged Mr Mueller to "show his cards soon" so that Congress can make a determination early next year on whether to act on impeachment.
"Let's be clear: We have reached a new level in the investigation," Mr Murphy said. "It's important for Congress to get all of the underlying facts and data and evidence that the special counsel has."
Mr Nadler spoke on CNN's State of the Union on Sunday, Mr Rubio was on CNN and ABC's This Week, and Mr Schiff appeared on CBS' Face the Nation. Mr Murphy spoke on ABC, and Mr King was on NBC's Meet the Press.
Additional reporting by AP
Paul Manafort will reportedly file a formal response to a memo released by Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s office which outlines the former Trump campaign chair’s “crimes and lies,” NBC News has learned.
However, it remains unclear what exactly that response may indicate, and whether or not Manafort will personally identify the Trump administration official he claimed to have made contact with in 2018.
Here's more on TIME's Person of the Year shortlist, which includes everyone from Donald Trump to Special Counsel Robert Mueller, as well as Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who was killed inside a Saudi consulate in Istanbul earlier this year.
At least 16 of Donald Trump’s associates and campaign members had contact with Russians during the 2016 presidential campaign or shortly after during his transition to the Oval Office, CNN reported Monday.
Those associates, according to CNN, include:
Paul Manafort, Trump’s former campaign chairman
Rick Gates, a senior Trump campaign official
Michael Flynn, ex-National Security Adviser
Donald Trump Jr, the president’s first son
Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and White House senior adviser
George Papadopoulos, a Trump campaign adviser
Carter Page, a Trump campaign adviser
Jeff Sessions, the former attorney general
JD Gordon, a Trump campaign official
Roger Stone, a former Trump campaign adviser
Michael Caputo, a former Trump campaign aide,
Erik Prince, a Trump associate
Ivanka Trump, the president’s daughter and White House senior adviser
Michael Cohen, the president’s former personal attorney
Felix Sater, a Trump business associate
More news surrounding Maria Butina, the alleged Russian spy who was linked to the National Rifle Association and may have been working with associates connected to Donald Trump campaign throughout the 2016 election: a plea hearing has officially been set for Wednesday afternoon.
Butina appears expected to change a plea of not guilty, though it remains unclear which charge she is changing her plea for, or whether she plans to reverse her not guilty pleas for both charges levelled against her:
Donald Trump is said to be considering a handful of people to be his new chief of staff. A White House official told Reuters that there are four names under consideration for the post - although it seems sources in the West Wing are being a little more tight-lipped since favourite Nick Ayers dropped out on Sunday.
Some have thrown their hat into the ring, including North Carolina representative Mark Meadows.
The job of chief of staff might appeal to a Republican in the House of Representatives. With the Democrats set to take over power in the chamber, moving to the White House would likely be seen as a step up.
Mr Meadows is already seemingly on the same page as Mr Trump, on a number of issues. Take for example his tweet about former FBI director James Comey's testimony to Congress on Friday. Bear in mind Mr Comey has been a frequent source of frustration for the president.
Beyond the Russia probe - the tensions between the US and China over trade tariffs continues to spook the stock markets.
It is another potential headache for the president.
US stocks remained volatile on Monday as the market took a dive in early trading only to erase those losses later and end slightly higher.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost as much as 507 points in early trading before ending with a gain of 34.
A day ending without more losses will be welcomed in the White House.
The Wall Street Journal has collated a brilliant infographic looking at the departures from the White House during Mr Trump's term as well as which parts of the building they worked in...
White House budget director Mick Mulvaney was one of those whose name has been put forwards as a possible chief of staff pick.
However, he is no longer interested in the job, a source has told Reuters. Mr Mulvaney would prefer to serve at the Department of Commerce or Treasury "if that's where the president needed him."
Neither of those positions are open at the moment, but it appears to be a time to time and jockey for position.
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