Trump news – live: Trump trolls Rihanna’s Super Bowl show as new classified briefing folder turned over to DOJ

Special agents with the Federal Bureau of Investigation discovered one document bearing classification markings during a search of the Carmel, Indiana, home of former vice president Mike Pence on Friday, a spokesperson for Mr Pence has said.

In a statement, Pence adviser and spokesperson Devin O’Malley said the Department of Justice “completed a thorough and unrestricted search of five hours” at Mr Pence’s home.

Mr O’Malley said agents took possession of “one document with classified markings and six additional pages without such markings that were not discovered in the initial review by the vice president’s counsel”.

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Having claimed that Donald Trump raped her in a New York department store in the late 1990s, E Jean Carroll has spent years trying to sue Donald Trump for defamation after he publicly accused her of lying about the alleged incident.

However, Mr Trump’s most recent attempt to delay Ms Carroll’s defamation lawsuit failed, meaning he had to sit for a deposition on 19 October, 2022 and answer questions under oath.

Roberta Kaplan, Ms Carroll’s attorney, said in a statement: “We are pleased that Judge Kaplan agreed with our position not to stay discovery in this case.”

Here’s what you need to know about the case:

Donald Trump is still silent on his Facebook and Instagram accounts – despite being welcomed back to the platforms last week.

Meta restored the former president’s accounts last Thursday after he was banned more than two years ago for his actions on January 6 2021, when his supporters staged a violent insurrection on the US Capitol.

The social media giant announced in January that the one-term president would have his suspension lifted “in the coming weeks” with Sir Nick Clegg, the former UK deputy prime minister who is now Meta’s president for global affairs, saying the decision was made after assessing “whether the serious risk to public safety that existed in January 2021” had “sufficiently receded”.

As of around 7am ET on Monday, Mr Trump was yet to make a return to the accounts – with the last posts on the page still being his final posts on January 6 2021.

It may be a bit awkward for Republican Congresswoman Nancy Mace at the next House GOP get-together.

That’s because the South Carolina representative took several opportunities at Wednesday night’s Washington Press Club dinner to skewer her own fellow conservatives during a short comedy routine that had attendees guffawing.

Perhaps her top lines of the night were two not-so-subtle digs at Donald Trump, who endorsed against her in the 2022 midterm season only to see Ms Mace triumphantly coast to reelection.

The Independent’s John Bowden has the story:

A recovery operation is underway after a US Air Force fighter jet shot down a high-altitude Chinese surveillance balloon off the coast of South Carolina on 4 February.

President Joe Biden’s administration and senior military officials revealed that similar crafts had flown above the US in previous years, including at least three times during former president Donald Trump’s administration, as part of what national security officials have described as a years-long Chinese global surveillance programme.

”It is something that they’ve been working on for many years, and that they have tried to improve … in terms of capability, range [and] communication,” White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby told reporters in a phone briefing on 6 February.

At least three similar balloons were above the US at some points during the Trump administration, which began in January 2017 and ended in January 2021, according to the White House and military officials.

Mr Kirby said that those balloons were likely in the US for shorter periods of time compared to the recent balloon incident.

Here’s what we know about the spy balloons during the Trump administration:

Donald Trump’s former national security adviser has been subpoenaed in special counsel probes investigating the former president, according to reports – which came just hours after it emerged a subpoena had been served to former vice president Mike Pence.

Robert O’Brien, who served as national security advisor from 2019 to 2021 under the Trump administration, was served a subpoena by special counsel Jack Smith in both his investigation into the classified documents found at Mar-a-Lago and the probe into Mr Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election.

A source familiar with the matter told CNN that Mr O’Brien has so far been asserting executive privilege in declining to provide some of the information that prosecutors are asking of him.

The Independent’s Rachel Sharp has the story:

Donald Trump’s attorney has offered a bizarre explanation for why a folder with classified markings was found in the former president’s bedroom.

Timothy Parlatore told CNN that Mr Trump was using the manilla folder to block a pesky light on his nightstand which was getting in the way of him getting his 40 winks.

“He has one of those landline telephones next to his bed and it has a blue light on it and it keeps him up at night,” he claimed.

“So he took the manilla folder and put it over so it would keep the light down so he could sleep at night.”

Mr Parlatore described the saga as “one of the more humorous aspects of this whole thing” and insisted that the folder was empty.

“When DOJ found out about it they went crazy. They gave me a subpoena to say ‘give us over this empty folder that means nothing.’ Everything we have done as part of the search has been in the spirit of full cooperation and compliance,” he said, adding: “Now the president has to find a different way to keep the blue light out of his eyes.”

Donald Trump is slated to defend himself during testimony he will give in the defamation case brought against him by author E Jean Carroll.

New court filings show that both Ms Carroll and Mr Trump will be called for testimony when the trial begins on 25 April.

Mr Trump’s lawyers also apparently plan to call CNN‘s Anderson Cooper as a witness.

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“As an American and as a millennial, I have never wanted to associate myself with a party that supports Trump.

“But in America, we still get separated into two outdated labels: either you’re a conservative Republican or a liberal-minded Democrat.

“So, where does this leave me?”

Hope Howard writes for The Independent:

Donald Trump’s latest un-savoury nickname for the man shaping up to be his biggest rival in the Republican party has been revealed.

Mr Trump has now taken to calling Florida Governor Ron DeSantis “Meatball Ron”, according to a new report from The New York Times.

The former president does not appear to have called Mr DeSantis the derogatory name in public but is said to be referring to him as such behind closed doors in an “apparent dig” at the governor’s appearance.

Another takedown Mr Trump is said to be testing out is “Shutdown Ron” – this one in reference to the Covid-19 restrictions Mr DeSantis rolled out in Florida at the start of the pandemic.

Mr Trump’s strategy for attacking his political rivals has for a long time resorted to childish and offensive namecalling.

Most recently he has sought to brand Mr DeSantis “Ron DeSanctimonious” as the Florida governor appears to be a firm favourite in GOP circles to take on the former president in 2024.

While Mr Trump has confirmed his intentions to run, Mr DeSantis is yet to announce his bid.