Trump news: President attacked over 'vile smear job' after claims of meddling in Roger Stone case

Trump denies interfering in Roger Stone sentencing

Donald Trump is receiving swift backlash for claiming without evidence that “rogue prosecutors” were possibly responsible for handing his longtime associate Roger Stone a lengthy prison sentence, as Bernie Sanders' celebrates victory in New Hampshire.

The president's comments were described as a "vile smear job" by a key witness as former White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer said in a tweet: "Justice must be blind." Mr Trump's incendiary tweets came shortly after prosecutors said Stone should be sentenced to seven-to-nine years for lying to Congress during an investigation into Russian interference in the 2020 election.

Meanwhile, results from New Hampshire's first-in-the-nation primary continued to be dissected throughout the day, as Mr Sanders' strong showing appeared to place him on a clearer path to securing the Democratic nomination than ever before. Pete Buttiegieg and Amy Klobuchar, who trailed the Vermont senator respectively, have also since thanked supporters for their solid performances on Tuesday night.

The attorneys then resigned from the case after the Justice Department overruled them and said it would take the extraordinary step of lowering the amount of prison time it would seek for Stone.

The departures on Tuesday raised immediate questions over whether Mr Trump, who earlier in the day had blasted the original sentencing recommendation as “very horrible and unfair,” had at least indirectly exerted his will on a Justice Department that he often views as an arm of the White House.

The department insisted the decision to undo the sentencing recommendation was made Monday night — before Mr Trump’s tweet — and prosecutors had not spoken to the White House about it.

Even so, the departures of the entire trial team broke open a simmering dispute over the punishment of a Trump ally whose case has long captured the Republican president’s attention.

The episode was the latest to entangle the Justice Department, meant to operate free from White House sway in criminal investigations and prosecutions, in presidential politics.

The four attorneys, including two who were early members of special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia team, comprised the entire Justice Department trial team that won convictions against Stone last fall.

Additional reporting by AP. Please allow a moment for our liveblog to load

Key Points

• Bernie Sanders wins New Hampshire, pledges 'beginning of the end' for Trump
• President mocks key candidates and Michael Bloomberg who was not on ballot
• Trump appears to admit AG meddled in Roger Stone case after earlier denial
• President suggests Pentagon should review Alexander Vindman's conduct
• Pelosi, Schumer call new budget proposal 'blueprint for destroying America'

[12 February 2020 09:50 · Joe Sommerlad]

Hello and welcome to The Independent's rolling coverage of the Donald Trump administration.

[12 February 2020 10:10 · Joe Sommerlad]

Trump denies meddling in Roger Stone sentencing before attacking judge

Donald Trump has been forced to deny meddling in the sentencing of Republican political operative Roger Stone – before launching into a Twitter attack on the judge presiding over his case – as legal experts warn of a “political infestation” of the US Justice Department under attorney general William Barr.

The flamboyant Stone, 67, is awaiting sentencing after being convicted of witness tampering and lying to investigators in November last year, charges arising from ex-FBI special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into possible ties between the Trump campaign and the Russian plot to influence the 2016 presidential election in Trump's favour.

Speaking a gathering of military veterans in the Oval Office on Tuesday afternoon, the president disputed the suggestion that his tweet expressing objections to the seven-to-nine year sentence Judge Amy Berman Jackson is considering for Stone was an attempt to sway her decision.

But he also insisted he has an "absolute right" to tell his Justice Department how to act despite the obvious conflict of interest such behavior would carry.

All four prosecutors of in the case against Stone - Jonathan Kravis, Michael Marando, Aaron Zelinsky and Adam C Jed - resigned yesterday in response to Trump criticising their sentencing recommendation and the Justice Department acquiescing, prompting further questionable comments from the president:

Trump's remark have already drawn fresh concerns about his view of presidential powers.

"This signals to me that there has been a political infestation and that is the single most dangerous thing that you can do to the Department of Justice," NBC News legal analyst Chuck Rosenberg, a former US attorney in Virginia, said on MSNBC.

On the campaign trail in New Hampshire, 2020 candidate Elizabeth Warren praised the prosecutors, saying they "showed more backbone than almost every Republican senator" at the president's impeachment trial and expressed her concern about the "corruption of a Trump Justice Department that abandons the rule of law to give sweetheart deals to criminals who commit their crimes on behalf of Donald Trump".

Here's John T Bennett's report on all of this.

[12 February 2020 10:30 · Joe Sommerlad]

Bernie Sanders wins New Hampshire, pledges 'beginning of the end' for Trump

Vermont senator Bernie Sanders won the Democratic New Hampshire primary on Tuesday and promised his victory meant “the beginning of the end” for Trump, whom he labelled “the most dangerous president in the modern history of this country”.

As he did in Iowa (eventually), Indiana mayor Pete Buttigieg enjoyed another strong showing, as did Minnesota senator Amy Klobuchar but it was another disappointing night for Senator Warren and long-time front-runner Joe Biden.

Here's Clark Mindock's report from Manchester.

[12 February 2020 10:50 · Joe Sommerlad]

President mocks key candidates and Michael Bloomberg who was not on ballot

The commander-in-chief spent his evening deriding the candidates on social media, singling out the faltering campaigns of Elizabeth Warren, Tom Steyer and Michael Bloomberg for particular ridicule, despite the latter not being on the ballot paper in the Granite State.

As petty as ever, Trump would rather the media focused on his winning the Republican primary, despite his only having to run against Bill Weld and notching up 85.5 per cent of the vote as a formality. He did beat Ronald Reagan's record take for an incumbent president but it's hardly the most significant line of the evening.

Chris Riotta has this report on Trump trotting out the same tired old racist assault on Warren's claim to Native American heritage.

[12 February 2020 11:10 · Joe Sommerlad]

Andrew Yang and Michael Bennet both end 2020 campaigns

Last night's results mean we've lost two more candidates from the race for the Democratic nomination: the entertaining, forward-thinking maths enthusiast and universal basic income champion Andrew Yang and the largely anonymous senator for Colorado Michael Bennet.

Both ended their campaigns after failing to drum up the necessary support in the key bellwether states of Iowa and New Hampshire but we have surely not heard the last of the Yang Gang, whose figurehead thanked his supporters late on Tuesday and warned the party not to become fixated on the president alone going forward.

CNN pundit Van Jones meanwhile applauded him for inspiring a more "positive" form of populism than that the president has come to embody.

Here's Bennet signing off.

[12 February 2020 11:30 · Joe Sommerlad]

Biden scrambles to keep presidential hopes alive as Sanders soars

For Indy Premium, here's Andrew Buncombe on another rough night for Joe Biden. The former vice president told Morning Joe yesterday that even Mickey Mouse had a shot against Trump, words he might already be coming to regret.

Biden was quick to look ahead to Nevada and South Carolina yesterday...

...but, behind the scenes, a campaign adviser told Politico: "The is horrendous. We're all scared."

[12 February 2020 11:50 · Joe Sommerlad]

Trump suggests Pentagon should discipline Alexander Vindman

My god this man is childish...

Another troubling suggestion of Trump's yesterday was that Lt Col Alexander Vindman ought to be investigated by the military and face disciplinary action for "reporting a false call" when he expressed concern about the president's attempts to extort a political favour from Ukraine and implicated him in the smoking quid pro quo during the impeachment inquiry

Lt Col Vindman spoke movingly about his experiences as the son of Ukrainian immigrants during the House investigation while giving his evidence against the president but has since been unceremoniously booted out of the National Security Council for his trouble under orders from a vengeful Trump.

Here's more from John T Bennett.

[12 February 2020 12:00 · Joe Sommerlad]

Trump appears to confirm William Barr intervened in Roger Stone case as Democrats demand investigation

The president's second tweet of the day sees him congratulating Bill Barr for "taking charge of a case that that was totally out of control" in reference to Roger Stone, accusing Robert Mueller of lying to Congress and effectively confirming NBC and The Washington Post's reporting on the Justice Department interfering to - quite literally - get his friend out of jail.

The above is followed by more raging from Trump (seemingly about ex-Senate Intelligence Committee security director James Wolfe), who is watching Fox recaps:

Meanwhile, the Democrats are already requesting an investigation into the Justice Department's reduced sentencing recommendation.

The president's impeachment acquittal was ONE WEEK AGO.

This was Adam Schiff's post on the matter last night.

[12 February 2020 12:20 · Joe Sommerlad]

'A blueprint for destroying America': Pelosi and Schumer vow to attack Trump's budget

House speaker Nancy Pelosi has vowed to write her own federal spending plan, rejecting Donald Trump's latest $4.8trn (£4.7trn) budget proposal as "heartless."

The Democratic leader, echoed by Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer, used a midday press conference to slam the president's fiscal 2021 spending blueprint over its proposed cuts to social safety net programs like Medicare and Medicaid.

"If there is a senior in your family on Medicaid, you are getting cut... Two thirds of long term care is paid for by Medicaid. This is a middle-class benefit," Pelosi told reporters, saying Trump's proposed spending reductions would hurt rural hospitals and curb federal opioid abuse treatment programmes.

Schumer, who vowed Democrats will "fight every penny" of the funding amounts proposed by the White House, said the president's election-year spending plan does little to help "average Americans [who are] struggling to keep up."

[12 February 2020 12:40 · Joe Sommerlad]

Sean Spicer and Reince Preibus set for return to Trumpworld

Two members of Trump's administration who left their posts in 2017 - former press secretrary Sean Spicer and ex-chief of staff Reince Priebus, replaced by Sarah Huckabee Sanders and John Kelly respectively - are reportedly set to make a comeback.

Both are about to be appointed to the President’s Commission on White House Fellowships, according to Axios, a body that "interviews National Finalists and then recommends those individuals it finds most qualified to the President for appointment as White House Fellows".