A key White House figure in delaying aid to Ukraine last year reassured lawmakers Wednesday that the Trump administration realizes it is required under the law to spend money approved by Congress. Acting budget director Russell Vought told the House Budget Committee that "we need to abide by the appropriation ... passed by Congress" when distributing agency dollars. Vought was at the center of the events last year that prompted Trump's impeachment.

Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren called on Wednesday for Attorney General William Barr to "resign or face impeachment" after the Justice Department pushed back on prosecutors' "excessive" sentencing recommendation for President Trump's longtime adviser Roger Stone."Congress must act immediately to rein in our lawless Attorney General," the Massachusetts senator wrote in a tweet. "Barr should resign or face impeachment."Warren also demanded that Congress use its funding powers to constrain the attorney general's ability to interfere with "anything that affects Trump, his friends, or his elections."After President Trump complained Tuesday on Twitter that the prosecutors seven-to-nine-year sentencing recommendation constituted a "horrible and very unfair situation," his Justice Department submitted a revised filing stating that the prosecutors' recommended lengthy sentence "could be considered excessive and unwarranted."Stone was convicted of lying to Congress, witness tampering and obstructing the House's investigation into the Trump campaign's connections to Russia. All four of the prosecutors who recommended Stone's seven to nine year sentence either resigned or quit the case after the DOJ weighed in.The White House denied Trump had pressured the DOJ to show lenience to Stone."He's the chief law enforcement officer. He has the right to do it. He just didn't," said Hogan Gidley, the White House principal deputy press secretary, saying Trump "did not interfere here with anything."Trump congratulated Barr later in the day for "taking charge of a case that was totally out of control and perhaps should not have even been brought."Warren noted that she has called for an independent Justice Department task force to investigate alleged crimes by Trump administration officials and called on all other Democratic candidates to commit to doing the same, "so Trump officials know they will be held accountable by career prosecutors once he is out of office.""Abusing official power to protect political friends and attack opponents is common in authoritarian regimes like Putin’s Russia," Warren said. "Trump and Barr’s conduct has no place in our democracy. To end it, Congress must act—and the American people must hold them accountable in November."

Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, who voted to acquit President Donald Trump at his impeachment trial, said Wednesday that her acquittal vote was "not based on predicting (Trump's) future behavior," following previous comments she made saying Trump had "learned from this case."

Fresh from handing President Trump a victory in his impeachment trial, the U.S. Senate has moved to install federal judges who have expressed disdain for the Voting Rights Act.

A donor to Donald Trump who was accused of "stalking" the former ambassador to Ukraine at the behest of Rudy Giuliani's associates has provided documents to Congress as it opens its investigation into the ousting of Marie Yovanovitch, a crucial witness in the president's impeachment.The Daily Beast reports that Robert Hyde, a Republican congressional candidate from Connecticut, gave "everything" he had between himself and Lev Parnas, an associate of Rudy Giuliani who has been indicted for campaign finance violations involving foreign money.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) has little interest in investigating the Justice Department’s abrupt reversal on a sentencing recommendation for Roger Stone — rebuffing a Democratic demand sparked by President Donald Trump’s attacks on the federal prosecutors in the case.

Graham, a staunch Trump ally, said Wednesday he did not intend to bring Attorney General William Barr in for testimony aside from the committee’s general oversight of the Justice Department. And while Senate Republicans broadly criticized Trump’s Twitter forays into the case, they said further investigation was not warranted — dismissing Democrats’ calls for congressional action over allegations of politically motivated favoritism.

“I don’t think he should be commenting on cases in the system. I don’t think that’s appropriate,” Graham told reporters.

“You want to let the legal process to move forward in the way it’s intended to,” added Senate Majority Whip John Thune (R-S.D.). “The president weighs in on a lot of things. He tweeted about it I guess, so people perceived that as him having weighed in. But in the end, the Justice Department and lawyers over there need to do what they need to do to make sure justice is being served.”

Trump appeared to confirm on Wednesday morning that Barr intervened in Stone’s case, writing on Twitter: “Congratulations to Attorney General Bill Barr for taking charge of a case that was totally out of control and perhaps should not have even been brought.”

Congratulations to Attorney General Bill Barr for taking charge of a case that was totally out of control and perhaps should not have even been brought. Evidence now clearly shows that the Mueller Scam was improperly brought & tainted. Even Bob Mueller lied to Congress!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 12, 2020

Federal prosecutors initially recommended a prison sentence of seven to nine years for Stone, a former Trump political adviser who was convicted of obstructing a congressional investigation, making false statements and tampering with witnesses. Hours after the sentencing recommendation was filed, Trump took to Twitter to slam the decision as “horrible and very unfair;” and the following morning, the Justice Department overruled the proposal, prompting the four prosecutors to withdraw from the case or resign from the Justice Department altogether.

Democrats have called for Barr to testify about the reversal amid allegations of politically motivated interference from Trump. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) has asked the Justice Department’s inspector general to launch an investigation and on Wednesday urged Graham to convene an emergency Judiciary Committee hearing to conduct oversight.

Later Wednesday, the Democrat-led House Judiciary Committee announced that Barr had agreed to testify on March 31. Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) said the panel plans to press Barr on the Stone case as well as other recent controversies involving the Justice Department in the aftermath of Trump’s acquittal in the Senate’s impeachment trial.

A Justice Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the decision to reverse the initial sentencing recommendation was made before Trump registered his displeasure.

Senate Republicans said they trusted U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson, who is presiding over Stone’s case, to resolve the issue when she decides on a sentence for Stone.

“I think the judge is going to take care of all of that. Nobody is going to question the judge’s decision,” said Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), a former Senate Judiciary Committee chairman.

“Whatever the judge feels like you need to do with a 70-year-old guy, I trust her judgment,” Graham added.

“The decision should be made by the judge, and I have confidence in the third branch of our government to act outside the world of politics and to do what is right,” said Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah).

Other Judiciary Committee Republicans said there was no reason to further investigate the matter.

“There was a miscommunication between the frontline prosecutors and their supervisors. You can’t even indict a public figure without talking to upper-levels at Justice,” said Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.), a Judiciary Committee member.

But Kennedy acknowledged that Trump’s tweets “aggravated the situation.”

“I wish he’d tweet less, but that’s not gonna happen,” Kennedy said.

Asked about Trump’s comments, Romney said: “I can’t begin to spend time discussing the president’s tweets. That would be a full-time job.”

At least one Republican, though, said it was worth talking with the four prosecutors who stepped down in order to learn more about the reversal.

“I think we need to ask them and let’s find out,” said Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.).

Congressional Democrats have so far struggled to develop a unified response to Trump’s post-impeachment offensive against his political foes, including the firings of two key impeachment witnesses.

Republicans who criticized Trump for trying to pressure Ukraine into investigating his rivals said they hoped the president had learned a lesson from his impeachment. But those same Republicans acknowledged this week that that likely is not the case.

“He seems the same as he did two weeks ago,” quipped Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.).

Burgess Everett contributed to this report.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) wishes President Trump hadn't tweeted about the initial sentencing recommendation for his longtime adviser Roger Stone, but he doesn't seem overly concerned about the fallout.Graham on Wednesday said Trump should've restrained from posting about an ongoing case. "I've told him that," he said.Still, the chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee added he doesn't think the Justice Department's reversal of the original seven to nine year recommendation after Trump's public complaint is worth looking into. He said Attorney General William Barr won't be called in to testify about it, even though several prominent Democrats including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) and Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) have called for Barr to do just that.Sen. Elizabeth Warren, meanwhile, thinks Barr should either resign or be impeached for the Justice Department's conduct, let alone come in and testify before the Senate. > Congress must act immediately to rein in our lawless Attorney General. Barr should resign or face impeachment. And Congress should use spending power to defund the AG's authority to interfere with anything that affects Trump, his friends, or his elections.> > -- Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) February 12, 2020More stories from theweek.com Can Mike Bloomberg buy ironic meme glory? Yes, he can. In Twitter rampage, Trump attacks federal judge set to sentence Roger Stone A Bernie Sanders presidency would be remarkably familiar

CNN's Manu Raju asked Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) three times whether President Donald Trump learned any lessons following his impeachment trial.