Trump news today: Ex-president’s first statement since accountant cut ties blames ‘vicious intimidation tactics’

A late-night email from Donald Trump’s “Save America” indicates just how hard the former president and his allies are prepared to push the misrepresented news about John Durham’s investigation.

The allegation of “spying” that Mr Trump and right-wing media like Fox News have been claiming was “worse than Watergate” does not in fact match the facts of the filing that drew attention. The “news” contained in the filing did not say the White House had been “infiltrated” or that the matters at issue took place while Mr Trump was president – and more than that, most of the story – which does not in fact directly involve Hillary Clinton or her campaign – was publicly known last autumn.

Nonetheless, here’s the fundraising email Mr Trump has sent round:

The Senate has narrowly confirmed president Joe Biden’s pick to lead the Food and Drug Administration, Dr Robert Califf.

In a 50-46 vote on Tuesday, the Senate confirmed Dr Califf, a cardiologist and prominent medical researcher, for a second stint leading the FDA.

He had briefly headed the FDA during the end of president Barack Obama’s administration.

The FDA has been without a permanent leader for more than a year despite playing a central role in the Covid-19 pandemic response.

As the new FDA chief, Dr Califf faces a host of pending decisions at the agency, which regulates products that make up an estimated one fifth of all US consumer spending, including prescription and over-the-counter drugs, medical devices, tobacco products and most foods.

“He (Dr Califf) brings to this critical post a lifetime of knowledge and the institutional experience that will ensure he hits the ground running,” said White House press secretary Jen Psaki in a statement.

Former president Donald Trump has brought up the murder of a Chinatown woman as he lashed out at the New York District Attorney and Attorney General for allegedly harassing his accounting firm Mazars USA that severed ties with him.

Read the full story here:

A court in Washington DC has reinstated the Trump Organization as a defendant in the DC attorney general Karl Racine’s case against former president Donald Trump’s inaugural committee.

On Monday, DC Superior Court Judge Yvonne Williams reversed an earlier decision to dismiss the case against the Trump Organization.

The court is expected to set a trial schedule on Thursday. The case accuses Mr Trump’s Presidential Inaugural Committee of misusing non-profit funds to pay for event space at the Trump Hotel along with other transactions.

Through the case Mr Racine also alleges that the committee paid a debt owed by the Trump Organization.

“The case will now proceed to trial fully intact as it was originally brought,” said a spokesperson for Mr Racine to CNN.

Former president Donald Trump has issued his first statement since his accounting firm Mazars USA cut ties.

On Wednesday Mr Trump said: “We have a great company with fantastic assets that are unique, extremely valuable and, in many cases, far more valuable than what was listed in our Financial Statements.

“Anyone with even a minor degree of financial acumen would recognise that these Statements of Financial Condition, prepared for the Trump Organisation, are not audited-Which is also prominently highlighted in the Disclaimer Declaration on page one and two of the documents themselves.

“My company has among the best real estate and other assets everywhere in the world, has significant amounts of cash, and has relatively very little debt, which is totally current.”

He added that Mazars has cut ties with him due to “vicious intimidation tactics” by the New York Attorney General and the District Attorney.

“Mazars has been threatened, harassed, and insulted like virtually no other firm has ever been. They were essentially forced to resign from a great long-term account by the prosecutorial misconduct of a highly political, but failed, gubernatorial candidate Letitia James.”

Former Republican congressman Justin Amash, who left the party over his disputes with former President Donald Trump and the general direction of the GOP, retweeted a conservative columnist who mocked the ex-president and his allies on Monday for complaining about Hillary Clinton’s allies supposedly “spying” on his administration and campaign.

The original tweet from Washington Examiner contributor Brad Polumbo read: “So many of the elected Republicans bitching about how Hilary spied on Trump also voted to reauthorize the Patriot Act. Unless they’ve issued a mea culpa about that and are working to repeal the mass surveillance of Americans they can shove their Daddy Trump crocodile tears.”

Mr Amash, whose district is now represented by another anti-Trump Republican, Peter Meijer, added in his own quote tweet: “Trump himself signed legislation to reauthorize the Patriot Act—and FISA!”, referring to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act as well as the legislation which allowed warantless international and domestic phone tapping of Americans and others.

New York attorney general Letitia James will go to court on Thursday seeking to enforce a subpoena for Mr Trump’s testimony in a civil investigation.

Ms James she says uncovered evidence his company used “fraudulent or misleading” valuations of his properties to get loans and tax benefits.

On Monday a court filing showed that Trump’s accounting firm recently advised him to stop using financial statements it prepared on his behalf.

Earlier on Wednesday, the former president’s son Eric Trump hit out at the attorney general after Trumps’ accounting firm cut ties.

Mr Trump tweeted that attorneys “will be in front of a New York Judge outlining the blatantly unethical behaviour of Tish James the NY Attorney General” on Thursday after Mazars’ announcement was made public in a court filing on Monday.

The Independent’s Gino Spocchia has more:

President Joe Biden issued a statement late Tuesday afternoon celebrating a legal victory achieved by parents of nine children killed during the 2012 mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary.

In his remarks, Mr Biden also pointed out that the victory showed that legal shielding for firearms manufacturers was not absolute.

“They have demonstrated that state and city consumer protection laws – like Connecticut’s Unfair Trade Practices Act – provide an opportunity to hold gun manufacturers and dealers accountable for wrongdoing despite the persistence of the federal immunity shield for these companies,” he said.

The Biden administration has faced calls from gun control activists like those involved with the March For Our Lives to take more action at the administrative level to battle gun violence and mass shootings, particularly this week which marks the fourth anniversary of the deadly mass shooting in Parkland, Florida.

President Joe Biden warned in a national address on Tuesday that war between Ukraine and Russia remains very possible, stating that the US cannot verify Russian claims to be withdrawing some military forces from the region.

Mr Biden reiterated during the address that the US’s response to any attack would be swift and damaging.

“We have not yet verified the Russian military units are returning to their home bases. Indeed, our analysts indicate that they remain very much in a threatening position,” he said. “The fact remains right now Russia has more than 150,000 troops and circling Ukraine and Belarus and along Ukraine’s border and invasion remains distinctly possible.”

Read more from The Independent’s Andrew Feinberg:

Lawmakers on the January 6 committee revealed on Tuesday that they want a Republican state senator in Pennsylvania who was present during the Capitol riot to explain to them what he meant when he claimed to see “agitators” fighting with law enforcement during the riot.

To state Sen Doug Mastriano, the committee wrote that it “understand[s]” he was “present during the attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, and that you witnessed ‘agitators…getting in the face of the police’ and ‘agitators…start pushing the police up the [Capitol] steps’”.

“We would like to better understand these and other statements, events that you witnessed or in which you participated, and communications we believe you may have had with national, state, and local officials and others about the outcome of the November 2020 election and the events of January 6, 2021,” wrote committee chairman Rep Bennie Thompson.

Read more from The Independent’s Andrew Feinberg: