Trump interior secretary Zinke broke ethics rules and lied, watchdog finds – live | US news

White House press secretary Jen Psaki previewed the upcoming trip of vice-president Kamala Harris, who is traveling to Munich, Germany for the Munich Security Conference on later this week.

“She will build on the president’s and the national security team’s intensive engagement with European allies and partners, and continue to emphasize with our partners our ironclad commitment to our Nato allies, underscore our commitment to Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and reaffirm our shared interests in upholding the principles that have underpinned European peace and security.”

Psaki continued: “She will continue to convey to the rest of the world…our commitment to putting in place severe economic consequences should Russia invade.”

White House press secretary Jen Psaki opened today’s press briefing by coming out strong on the economy, announcing a 3.8% increase in retail sales in January.

She said the uptick in retail sales both “reflects the resiliency of the economy” and underscores “the strength of the American economy as we recover from the pandemic.”

Meanwhile, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is in Israel:

While lawmakers were unable to come to a consensus on a sanctions bill for Russia this week, it looks like we may have some movement on the issue here:

The interior department’s inspector general said in a report made public today that Ryan Zinke, the interior secretary under Donald Trump, misused his position to advance a development project in his Montana hometown and lied to an agency ethics official about his involvement.

The Associated Press is reporting that Zinke continued working with a foundation on the commercial project in his hometown of Whitefish, Montana after taking office, even though he was supposed to break ties with the foundation upon swearing-in.

Investigators found that while he was in office, Zinke directed his staff to assist him with this project. He sent dozens of emails and text messages, held phone calls and met with developers.

Zinke also gave incorrect and incomplete information to an ethics official who confronted him over his involvement, the report states.

In response to the order from Joe Biden to turn over the White House visitors’ logs to the House select committee investigating the 6 January attack on the US Capitol, the National Archives said it will be delivering the requested records within the next 15 days.

Donald Trump and his attorney had once again tried to argue that these records were protected under executive privilege, but only the sitting president can invoke that right.

Some of the at-home Covid tests that the Biden administration has promised are purportedly on their way.

Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell is making remarks on the senate floor about the situation in Ukraine:

The Department of Homeland Security has been training quadruped “robot dogs” to help secure the US-Mexico border, a decision that is sparking concern among human rights groups.

Read more about the issue here:

We reported earlier this week about how Mazars, the longtime accounting firm for the Trump Organization, has cut ties with Donald Trump and announced that the annual financial statements it had prepared for the family business between 2011 and 2020 were no longer reliable.

The Guardian’s Ed Pilkington takes a deeper look at how this marks a significant step in New York’s investigation into Trump’s financial affairs, and how the former president is currently facing 19 legal challenges – six of which involve alleged financial irregularities.

Read more here:

Joe Biden and Olaf Scholz, chancellor of Germany, will hold a call today to discuss Ukraine.

We’ll have more details on our Ukraine live blog here.

The federal government runs out of funding on Friday, but the usual will-they, won’t-they politicking game that gets played around a possible government shutdown has been somewhat muted this week with the situation in Ukraine (again, follow our live blog here for more updates).

But yesterday the White House came out strong against Marsha Blackburn, the Republican senator from Tennessee who had been holding out on a three-week stopgap funding bill because she falsely believed that the Biden administration was trying to set aside money to hand out crack pipes – even after administration officials have said that was not the case.

“What is happening here is the potential to hold up the funding of the government and important programs around an issue that is not an issue,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said at yesterday’s briefing. “We have been clear that we are not funding crack pipes.”

The Wall Street Journal reported that Blackburn finally dropped her hold on the bill yesterday after receiving a direct letter from Xavier Becerra, the health and human services secretary. Soon after, senate majority leader Chuck Schumer filed cloture on the legislation.

Some other senate Republicans led by Mike Lee of Utah are still digging in their heels on funding, however, over federal vaccine mandates. We’ll have to see how that plays out throughout the rest of this week.

Greetings, live blog readers. Happy Wednesday.

Tensions continue to mount in Ukraine with the threat of a Russian invasion still imminent. Follow our live blog here for more updates.

Meanwhile, in Washington, Joe Biden has ordered the National Archives to hand over White House visitor logs of his predecessor to the House select committee tasked with investigating the 6 January attack on the US Capitol, the New York Times is reporting – once again rejecting the claims of Donald Trump that such records are protected under executive privilege.

Reminder that the authority to invoke executive privilege extends only to the sitting president – which Trump is not. Biden has previously had to order the release of a number of other White House documents and records sought by the committee after Trump and his attorneys attempted to have them withheld as well.

The records currently in question were identified by White House counsel Dana Remus as “entries in visitor logs showing appointment information for individuals who were processed to enter the White House complex, including on Jan. 6, 2021.”

Read more here: