Trump latest: Jan 6 legal memo shows plan to overturn 2020 presidential election

Former president Donald Trump said the revelations out of the trial of former Clinton campaign lawyer Michael Sussmann and his acquittal make him “want to fight even harder”, hinting at the 2024 presidential run.

When asked if the verdict had any effect on his future political plans, Mr Trump told Fox News Digital: “If anything, it makes me want to fight even harder.”

“If we don’t win, our country is ruined. We have bad borders, bad elections, and a court system not functioning properly. Our country is being systematically destroyed,” the 45th president added.

“They spied on my campaign. They got caught. If a Republican would have done that, and the obvious steps forward, it would be a virtual death penalty.”

Republican operatives are working to recruit an “army” of poll watchers, legal experts and other volunteers to flood Democratic-leaning communities in Michigan.

The effort is centred in a major swing state where Joe Biden narrowly won over Donald Trump in 2020, prompting cries of fraud from the Trump campaign that were never backed up with any hard evidence.

According to operatives who spoke to Politico, Republican organisations aligned with the national party are working to close what they see as a gap between election workers aligned with Democrats and those aligned with their own party.

Rep Marjorie Taylor Greene has claimed that Canada’s proposed new gun control legislation could spark a Russian invasion in the wake of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

“Trudeau foolishly completely ignores how taking guns away from his people makes his country weak and vulnerable to being invaded and easily taken over by another stronger country,” the US congresswoman opined on Twitter.

“Like, perhaps Russia, who is very angry at America right now.”Ms Greene argued that without guns in the hands of its citizens, Canada would be powerless to stop Russian invaders.

“Canada has an incredibly weak military & now with Trudeau’s gun grab, his people are left defenceless not only by a criminal attacker, but also defenceless against another country’s military invasion,” the Republican tweeted.

Nathan Place brings you more on it.

Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky dismissed the suggestion that Donald Trump could have stopped Russia from invading his country.

Speaking on Tuesday with Newsmax anchor Rob Schmitt, the Ukrainian leader said he “cannot predict” what would have happened if Mr Trump was still US president.

Schmitt asked: “There are many Americans that believe that if somebody like Donald Trump was still in the White House that this invasion would not have happened. What is your position?”

“I am sorry if I’ll be saying something that you don’t like but for us as the country in war, it doesn’t matter whether it’s Democrats or Republicans,” Mr Zelensky replied. “It’s the people of the United States that support us.”

The eldest son of former president Donald Trump is celebrating Wednesday’s verdict in the highly publicised defamation lawsuit between actors Johnny Depp and Amber Heard, in which Mr Depp won $15m in damages.

“Believe all women… except Amber Heard,” wrote Donald Trump Jr, on social media.

The former president’s son said he hoped the defamation verdict against the “terrible” actress would “end the effective rabid feminist notion that all men are guilty before being proven innocent that we’ve seen as of late.”

NFL legend and Republican senate nominee Herschel Walker has pushed back on claims that former president Donald Trump recruited him to run for senate in 2022.

“President Trump never asked me,” he said. Rather, Mr Walker said that he heard the idea that Mr Trump persuaded him to run for senate on television.

“So, I’m mad at him because he never asked,” Mr Walker said. “But he’s taking credit that he asked.”

Rather, Mr Walker said that he and his wife consulted with his pastor and they prayed about it. “And to be honest with you, I was praying that God would bring somebody else,” he said, adding that he had a good life and a successful business career. “But, I love the Lord Jesus.”

Donald Trump’s vocal acolyte in Georgia, Marjorie Taylor Greene, is no stranger to conspiracy theories about the 2020 election, which she continues to insist was “stolen” by Democrats.

Now, she’s pushing a new theory: In a Facebook Live video, she shared baseless and unverified claims that the Uvalde, Texas shooter was transgender, engaged in cross-dressing, and was supposedly in contact with the Buffalo, New York suspect (who unlike the Uvalde shooter is thought to have had a racist motive for his attack).

Read more in The Independent from John Bowden:

The former president released a statement on Wednesday cheering on House GOP conference leader Elise Stefanik and Oklahoma’s Congressman Markwayne Mullin, who have introduced a resolution that would denounce (or in their words, “expunge”) the second impeachment of Donald Trump in 2021.

The House voted to “expunge” a censure of Andrew Jackson from the House records in the 1800s, but it’s not immediately clear if the same process could be used to erase an impeachment vote from the House record. The record of the Senate trial of Mr Trump would still exist of course even if the resolution were to work, thereby limiting the effectiveness of an already wholly-ceremonial piece of legislation.

“Thank you, Elise, and Markwayne—was a total Hoax!” Mr Trump commented on Wednesday.

President Joe Biden still leads Donald Trump in a poll of a potential 2024 matchup despite the former struggling with a low approval rating amid issues including historic inflation.

A YouGov/Yahoo! News poll conducted in mid-May registered Mr Biden’s support level just a few points higher than Mr Trump’s in a head-to-head matchup, which remains possible if not likely given that Mr Trump continues to dominate polling of a potential 2024 GOP primary.

Read more from The Independent’s John Bowden:

Donald Trump’s former campaign adviser is facing mockery online for referring to her ex-boss as “a great girlboss” during an interview with CBS Mornings this week after Mr Trump publicly denounced her for a previous statement she made about him losing the 2020 election.

“Everyone who enables this pathetic monster’s book tour is a moron,” one Twitter user wrote.

Read more from The Independent’s Gustaf Kilander: