Trump news: President faces fresh corruption allegations, as senior Republican condemns ‘carefully staged’ Barr criticism
Donald Trump has been accused of attempting to orchestrate a fresh quid pro quo just a week after being acquitted in his Senate impeachment trial.
This time, the accusations come after the president offered to lift travel restrictions against New Yorkers in exchange for Governor Andrew Cuomo dropping investigations into his tax records.
Mr Trump has also been hit by an unexpected rebuke from his attorney general over the Roger Stone case, with William Barr saying he will not be “bullied” and that the president’s tweeting about an active case makes it difficult for him to do his job.
However, the public rebuttal was a move that ex-Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele warned was “carefully staged” to appease disgruntled Justice Department prosecutors.
Meanwhile, a new book on Mr Trump, Sinking in the Swamp, offers the bizarre detail that the president nurtures an obsession with badgers, regularly plaguing his first chief of staff Reince Preibus with questions about the animals and their characteristics.
An excerpt of the new book said Mr Trump “was never able to shed his affinity for mob‑don lingo”.
The book also said he has mob-like tendencies, including instances in which he would “repeatedly blast his former fixer and attorney, Michael Cohen, for being a snitch and a rat for cooperating with the feds and making him look bad”.
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