New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) visited President Trump on Thursday afternoon to try and negotiate the reversal of his administration's new ban on New Yorkers participating in the Global Entry and "trusted traveler" programs, which ease border crossings and airport security lines for enrolled travelers. Cuomo had low hopes, and they were met. The governor's office and acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf said talks will continue.Before the meeting, Trump floated what appeared to be an offer he hoped New York couldn't refuse. Cuomo "must understand that National Security far exceeds politics," he tweeted, an apparent reference to the administration's purported rationale for blocking New Yorkers from the programs. "New York must stop all of its unnecessary lawsuits & harrassment [sic]." New York Attorney General Letitia James — who won a $2 million settlement from Trump over his canceled family charity and is suing him and his business on multiple fronts, including for his financial records — clapped back.> When you stop violating the rights and liberties of all New Yorkers, we will stand down. > > Until then, we have a duty and responsibility to defend the Constitution and the rule of law. > > BTW, I file the lawsuits, not the Governor. https://t.co/tsOLeEgiQp> > — NY AG James (@NewYorkStateAG) February 13, 2020House Democrats were disappointed but not surprised that post-impeachment Trump would try to evidently leverage the federal government for personal favors.> Dear @SenateGOP, > > This is what another quid pro quo by the President of the United States looks like. https://t.co/7E4PbxevBG> > — (((Rep. Nadler))) (@RepJerryNadler) February 13, 2020Trump is "expanding his abuse of power to blackmailing U.S. states," said Rep. Val Demings (D-Fla.), one of Trump's impeachment prosecutors. "In this case, he's holding New York state hostage to try to stop investigations into his prior tax fraud.”Cuomo said if he and Trump can't make a deal, "then we have a lawsuit — and by the way, it's not just New York. There was a fascinating memo that was leaked from the Department of Homeland Security ... that laid out things that could be done to punish unfriendly states."More stories from theweek.com Giuliani claims he can 'prove' a 'Democratic scam' in Ukraine with iPad full of 'reports' he never actually shares 7 brutally funny cartoons about the Democratic primary fight Bloomberg vs. Trump would be a clash of oligarchs

Donald Trump has admitted sending Rudy Giuliani to Ukraine to dig dirt on a political rival, openly contradicting his own denials on the subject during the impeachment inquiry, just days after being acquitted of all alleged crimes.Mr Giuliani, the president’s personal lawyer, is at the centre of a web of shadowy efforts in Ukraine to persuade officials to investigate the Bidens, questions around which were key to the abuse of power charge on which Mr Trump was impeached by the House.

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.

CBS News conducted a poll of New Hampshire Republicans who voted in Tuesday's primary, and found that a majority feel a greater allegiance to President Trump than the Republican Party.The results, released Thursday night, show that 55 percent of primary voters chose Trump versus 39 percent who picked the Republican Party.When asked to share their feelings about the Trump administration, 65 percent said they are "enthusiastic," 24 percent are "satisfied," 6 percent are "dissatisfied," and 5 percent are "angry." Of the primary voters who said they did not want Trump to get the GOP nomination in 2016, 62 percent said they still voted for him in the election. About 1 in 10 cast their ballot on Tuesday for someone other than Trump, with most supporting former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld.When asked about Trump's impeachment, a majority of the Republicans said they think it will help him get re-elected. Read more about the poll at CBS News.More stories from theweek.com Authoritarians aren't like Mao anymore. They're like Trump. The sidelining of Elizabeth Warren House Republicans say stealing polling data through open blinds is kosher. Democrats say it's creepy.

(Bloomberg) -- Attorney General William Barr said Donald Trump’s tweets and public comments about the Justice Department and ongoing cases make his job “impossible,” a rare public rebuke of the president by one of his most trusted Cabinet members.“It’s time to stop the tweeting about Department of Justice criminal cases,” Barr said in an interview with ABC News on Thursday.While Barr added “I cannot do my job here at the department with a constant background commentary that undercuts me,” it wasn’t clear whether Barr was giving Trump an ultimatum or just trying to provide frank advice to the president.The reaction from the White House indicated Trump wasn’t upset and retained his confidence in Barr.“The president wasn’t bothered by the comments at all, and he has the right, just like any American citizen, to publicly offer his opinions,” White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham said in a statement. “President Trump uses social media very effectively to fight for the American people against injustices in our country, including the fake news.”Regardless, it was the first time Barr spoke publicly since his department was thrust into a crisis when it reversed course this week on a recommendation about how long Roger Stone, one of Trump’s longtime associates, should go to prison for witness tampering and lying to Congress.“To have public statements and tweets made about the department, about our people in the department, our men and women here, about cases pending in the department, and about judges before whom we have cases, make it impossible for me to do my job and to assure the courts and the prosecutors in the department that we’re doing our work with integrity,” Barr said.The move to reduce the recommended prison time for Stone prompted four career prosecutors to quit the case but earned Barr praise from Trump. It fueled criticism that the Justice Department has become politicized and is more focused on protecting the president’s political allies than maintaining independence.Barr Unleashes Justice Department Turmoil Over Stone Case“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,” Trump tweeted after the new recommendation was made.On Monday, the prosecutors had asked the judge overseeing the case to sentence Stone to seven to nine years in prison. The next day, after the president had tweeted his opposition to the recommendation, the department switched gears and said that Stone should serve three to four years. The department also called on the judge in the case to account for the 67-year-old Stone’s “advanced age, health, personal circumstances and lack of criminal history.”The attorney general said he’d already decided to reduce the recommended sentence that was filed by prosecutors on Monday, telling his staff “we had to do something in the morning to amend that and clarify what our position was.” But then he said he had to consider the effect of Trump appearing to dictate to the department.‘Disruptive’ Tweets“Do you go forward with what you think is the right decision or do you pull back because of the tweet? And that just sort of illustrates how disruptive these tweets can be,” he said, ABC reported on its website.Stone is due to be sentenced on Feb. 20. Barr said he’s “not a fan of Roger Stone, but he’s entitled” to the “careful application of the law to his case.” Judge Beryl A. Howell, the chief judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, responded Thursday to the politics swirling around the the sentencing recommendation.“The judges of this court base their sentencing decisions on careful consideration of the actual record in the case before them; the applicable sentencing guidelines and statutory factors; the submissions of the parties, the Probation Office and victims; and their own judgment and experience,” she said in a statement. “Public criticism or pressure is not a factor.”The change to the sentencing recommendation was the second politically charged move revealed by Barr’s department this week.On Monday, Barr said he had created a special channel for Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani to share his “findings” on former Vice President Joe Biden’s connections to Ukraine -- an issue that played a central role in Trump’s impeachment and trial.Separately, the top law enforcement agency is also considering leniency in the sentencing of another former Trump confident, Michael Flynn, who resigned as the president’s first national security adviser after three weeks in the job.(Updates with White House and judge’s comments starting in fifth paragraph)\--With assistance from Jordan Fabian and Erik Larson.To contact the reporter on this story: Chris Strohm in Washington at cstrohm1@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Bill Faries at wfaries@bloomberg.net, Larry LiebertFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.

The president mused in an interview about scrapping the practice less than a year after one such call led to his impeachment.

In a rare moment of introspection, the president talks about the personal toll the months-long impeachment battle has taken on him.

President Donald Trump said Thursday that he might end the long-running practice of letting other administration officials listen in on presidential calls with foreign leaders. “I may end the practice entirely,” Trump told Geraldo Rivera in a radio interview that aired Thursday. Trump also offered new insights into his feelings about being impeached, saying it made him think about the “dark" days when Richard Nixon resigned over the Watergate scandal before his own likely impeachment.

President Trump on Thursday accused the lead juror in the case against his longtime associate Roger Stone of "significant bias," just as Democrats are casting the president's comments on the Stone case as an attempt to influence the Justice Department and constitute an obstruction of justice."Now it looks like the fore person in the jury, in the Roger Stone case, had significant bias. Add that to everything else, and this is not looking good for the 'Justice' Department," Trump wrote in a tweet.The juror in question, Tomeka Hart, posted Wednesday on Facebook that she “can’t keep quiet any longer” about the Justice Department's criticism of the seven-to-nine years sentence prosecutors recommended for Stone, who was convicted of lying to Congress, witness tampering and obstructing the House’s investigation into the Trump campaign’s connections to Russia.After Trump complained Tuesday on Twitter that Stone's recommended sentence was a “horrible and very unfair situation,” the Justice Department submitted a revised filing stating that the prosecutors’ recommended lengthy sentence “could be considered excessive and unwarranted.”“It pains me to see the DOJ now interfere with the hard work of the prosecutors,” Hart wrote in her post, in which she identifies herself as foreperson of the jury. “They acted with the utmost intelligence, integrity, and respect for our system of justice.”Hart is a former Democratic congressional candidate, a fact she disclosed during the public pretrial jury selection process. The former Memphis City Schools board president ran in the 2012 Democratic primary in Tennessee's 9th district, losing by a wide margin to incumbent Democratic Representative Steve Cohen.Hart's social media accounts are also filled with negative commentary about Trump, including a tweet that refers to Trump as “KlanPresident,” an apparent reference to the Ku Klux Klan. She also shared a Washington Post opinion piece titled, "What’s so extremely, uniquely wrong about Trump’s presidency" and shared praise for the Mueller investigation, which eventually resulted in Stone's arrest.Senator Lindsey Graham on Thursday weighed in the reports of Hart's potential bias, urging the court to take the allegations seriously."If media reports are accurate - about juror bias in the Roger Stone case - I hope the Court will take such allegations seriously," Graham wrote in a tweet.Stone was convicted by the jury in November, and his sentencing is scheduled for February 20.Speaker Nancy Pelosi called trump's commentary on Stone's case a "abuse of power" in her Thursday press conference and Senator Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.) said Wednesday that attorney general William Barr should "resign or face impeachment" over his alleged intervention in the sentencing.

Eric Swalwell says impeaching Donald Trump for his potential interference in Roger Stone's sentencing is not "off the table" as congressional Democrats prepare to hear from administration officials about the apparent "erosion of independence" inside the Department of Justice.The California Congressman and member of the House Intelligence and Judiciary committees told CNN that members of Congress "don't wake up in the morning wanting to impeach him" though the president has been "learning the wrong lessons" from his acquittal by the Senate, ​even after Republican allies admitted the president's wrongdoing following his impeachment in the House on charges of abuse of power and obstruction in his dealings with Ukraine and subsequent congressional investigation.