According to a newly released transcript, a White House valet who was with former president Donald Trump on the day Congress certified his 2020 election loss to Joe Biden told the January 6 select committee that Mr Trump threatened then-vice president Mike Pence’s future political viability in a phone call.
The valet says he overheard Mr Trump telling the vice president before he was to preside over the Electoral College ballot count: “Mike, this is a political career killer if you do this”, and later: “Do what’s right”.
Meanwhile, Mr Trump has issued a panicky fundraising memo to his supporters entitled “Keep your filthy hands off Trump Tower!” as the Monday deadline to pay his $464m bond in the New York fraud judgment against him ticks ever closer.
The former president’s lawyers notified an appeals court this week that their client has failed to raise the money to cover the bond, saying finding a surety company to help them was proving a “practical impossibility”.
Asked in an interview with Fox News on Wednesday whether Mr Trump could look to wealthy overseas donors in Russia or Saudi Arabia for help, attorney Alina Habba stunningly did not rule it out.