Donald Trump and his legal team have hit back at suggestions he could soon be impeached, with his lawyer saying that the American people would “revolt” if such a move was taken.
US President Donald Trump has responded to speculation that he might be impeached by warning that any such move would damage the economy.
In an interview with Fox & Friends, he said the market would crash and “everybody would be very poor”.
Rudy Giuliani, the former New York mayor who is now a legal adviser to Mr Trump, said that it was “inevitable” any attempt at impeachment would fail.
Federal prosecutors have granted immunity to the executive in charge of the National Enquirer amid an investigation into hush money payments made on behalf of Donald Trump, his longtime friend, media outlets reported on Thursday.
AP says that “Vanity Fair and The Wall Street Journal, citing anonymous sources, were first to report the development involving David Pecker, CEO of the tabloid’s publisher, American Media Inc. Subpoenas were previously served at the company’s Los Angeles offices seeking information about a payment to former Playboy Playmate Karen McDougal, who says she had a relationship with Trump shortly after his wife gave birth to his youngest child, according to a person familiar with the matter who wasn’t authorized to speak publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity.”
Court papers connected to ex-Trump lawyer Michael Cohen’s guilty plea on Tuesday to campaign finance violations, bank fraud and tax evasion say Pecker offered to help Trump fend off negative stories during the 2016 presidential campaign.
Pecker “offered to help deal with negative stories about (Trump’s) relationships with women by, among other things, assisting the campaign in identifying such stories so they could be purchased and their publication avoided,” the court papers say.
BBC reported that US Attorney General Jeff Sessions has responded to Donald Trump’s latest attack on him by insisting that the justice department he heads will not bend to political pressure.
The apparent rebuke of Mr Trump came after the president made personal comments about him during an interview. Mr Trump has been vociferous in his criticism of the Department of Justice. He has been particularly riled by its handling of the inquiry into Russian interference in the 2016 election.
Mr Sessions, an early supporter of Mr Trump’s campaign, has stepped aside from that inquiry to avoid a potential conflict of interest and handed control to his deputy, Rod Rosenstein.
That decision by Mr Sessions, and the ongoing progress of the inquiry under special counsel Robert Mueller – which is also reportedly now looking into whether Mr Trump has attempted to obstruct justice – have provoked frequent outbursts from the president, both in person and on his Twitter feed.
New York Times added that the president has long expressed regret over naming Mr. Sessions to be attorney general because he suggested Mr. Sessions failed to protect him by recusing himself from the government’s continuing investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 elections and any possible coordination with members of Mr. Trump’s campaign.
“I put in an attorney general that never took control of the Justice Department,” Mr. Trump said in an interview with “Fox & Friends” recorded on Wednesday and aired on Thursday morning. “Jeff Sessions never took control of the Justice Department and it’s a sort of an incredible thing.”
Fox/AP reported that a juror in Paul Manafort’s financial fraud trial says a lone holdout prevented the jury from convicting the onetime Trump campaign chairman on all 18 counts. Jurors repeatedly tried to persuade the holdout to “look at the paper trail” but she insisted there was reasonable doubt, juror Paula Duncan told Fox News.
“We didn’t want it to be hung, so we tried for an extended period of time to convince her,” Duncan said, adding that the four days of deliberations were so heated that there were “tears” among the 12 jurors. “But in the end, she held out and that’s why we have 10 counts that did not get a verdict.”
