Trump news: Attorney General interrogated by Congress over 'unanswered questions' in Mueller report, as Republicans round on president over 'mess'
Joe Sommerlad, Chris Riotta
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Trump has video removed after rambling late-night Twitter storm about conspiracy theories and immigrants
In a late-night Twitter storm, Donald Trump has escalated his attacks on immigrants, promoted a conspiracy theory about a presidential “coup”, and posted a 2020 campaign video which has since been removed by the social media platform. “MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN,” Mr Trump tweeted on Tuesday afternoon, alongside a two-minute clip of moments the US president considers his highlights in office. It also features footage of a number of his perceived enemies - including Barack Obama, Rosie O’Donnell and CNN – and is accompanied by music from The Dark Knight Rises movie, specifically the song “Why Do We Fall”. "First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they call you racist,” a message reads at the start of the video. “Donald J. Trump. Your vote proved them all wrong"By late Tuesday night, the video had been replaced by a message which read, "This media has been disabled in response to a report by the copyright owner", after Warner Bros, which owns the film rights, filed a complaint.In a statement, Warner Bros said: "The use of Warner Bros' score from The Dark Knight Rises in the campaign video was unauthorised."We are working through the appropriate legal channels to have it removed."Mr Trump appears to have lifted the clip from a YouTube video, which was posted to a Reddit channel called The_Donald. > MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! pic.twitter.com/diXWQHuyGj> > — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) > > April 9, 2019Later on Tuesday evening, Mr Trump quoted Molly Hemingway, an editor at conservative outlet The Federalist, who criticised the special counsel's completed investigation into the Trump campaign's ties to Russia during a segment with Tucker Carlson on Fox News.“The underlying issue remains the same without a single American being indicted for Collusion with Russia, & that is a stunning end considering we were led to believe (Fake News) that something much more dramatic would happen. Why did people fall for this?” Mr Trump tweeted. He then pivoted to demanding Democrats support his hardline immigration agenda, falsely claiming “everybody” now acknowledged he was "100% correct" to push for a wall across the US-Mexico border.He also retweeted an article by far-right website Breitbart touting one polling organisation’s claim that Mr Trump has a higher job approval rating than Mr Obama did at the same point in their presidencies. He finished by sharing two posts by conservative activist group Judicial Watch, one of which features its president Tom Fitton discussing a so-called “Trump coup”. Mr Fitton said the "coup" began with the appointment of Robert Mueller to lead the special counsel investigation, which he said was an “aggressive effort” to harass the president.In fact, Mr Mueller's probe was launched after Mr Trump fired then-FBI director James Comey, citing in one television interview "this Russia thing" as his reason for doing so - something the Justice Department considered a potential obstruction of justice.
William Barr appeared before Congress to answer questions on the Justice Department's budget, but the hearing instead turned into a barrage of questions about the much-delayed release of the Mueller report.
The attorney general told members of Congress at his first public appearance since receiving the special counsel’s report that his earlier projection of releasing a version by mid-April still stood.
The nearly 400-page report is being scoured now to remove grand jury information and details relating to pending investigations.
The redactions will be colour-coded and accompanied by notes explaining the decision to withhold information, he said.
Democrats scolded Mr Barr over his handling of the report, telling him they were concerned that a summary of its main conclusions he released last month portrayed the investigation’s findings in an overly favorable way of the president.
Mr Barr was summoned to Congress to talk about his department’s budget request, but lawmakers still asked about the Mueller report as they waited to see it.
His opening remarks focused on funding requests for immigration enforcement and the fights against violent crime and opioid addiction, not mentioning the special counsel’s report at all.
Meanwhile, Donald Trump is under fire from senior Republicans after he forced out Homeland Security secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, with the likes of Texas Senator John Cornyn breaking ranks to denounce the “mess” left behind at the department tasked with ending illegal immigration from Central America.
Veteran senator Chuck Grassley warned further sackings could follow while others have expressed disquiet about the ever-growing influence of White House aide Stephen Miller, a “zero-tolerance” hard-liner.
Additional reporting by AP. Please allow a moment for our liveblog to load
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