Trump news – live: Probe into secret documents at Mar-a-Lago, as ex-president sells DC hotel

The Department of Justice is now investigating whether former President Donald Trump or any of his aides violated federal law by mishandling classified documents that ended up at his Florida home instead of being returned to the national archives at the end of his term.

That was the message he delivered to donors at a fundraiser on Wednesday hosted by the Democratic National Committee as the White House and Democrats nationally face questions about whether they have a strategy to see abortion rights protected at the federal level in the event that the Supreme Court overturns Roe v Wade.

“Mark my words: They’re going to go after the right of the — Supreme Court decision on the right of same-sex marriage,” he warned.

Cyber Ninjas, the contractor run by an election conspiracy theorist that was tasked with running the partisan audit of Maricopa County, Arizona ballots, ended up spending $2.1m more than it had on hand to determine yet again that Joe Biden won Grand Canyon State’s most populous county in the 2020 election.

According to records released by a watchdog group, American Oversight, the audit ordered by Republicans who control the Arizona state Senate cost approximately $8.8m — including $5.2m allocated to pay and labour costs — a number far higher than the relatively paltry sum of $150,000 the company had originally quoted in a “statement of work” prepared for the Arizona senate.

Andrew Feinberg has the details.

On Tuesday, the House passed a $40bn aid package to Ukraine. Every Democrat present voted for the legislation, while 57 Republicans voted against the package, including Ms Greene.

Eric Garcia reports from Washington, DC.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, generally considered the party’s second most popular leader after Donald Trump, has suffered a setback in his efforts to redistrict his state’s congressional districts. A judge has thrown out the map drawn up by his administration on the basis that it “diminishes African Americans’ ability to elect candidates of their choice” in Florida’s 5th District, which spans Jacksonville to Tallahassee.

The ruling calls on the state to adopt a map that restores the boundaries of the district – currently represented by Democratic US Rep Al Lawson – to represent a near majority-Black voting age population.

Alex Woodward has the story.

The shape of the Democrats’ midterm elections campaign is coming into view, and it seems the party is going with the expected gambit of putting Joe Biden front and centre to make the case against the other side. With the draft Roe v Wade opinion now out in the open, Mr Biden is going hard on the attack against Republicans in general – and at a DNC fundraiser last night, he pulled no punches.

“Did you ever think we’d be in a position in the year 2022 – we’d be talking about banning books in schools?” the president said on 11 May, referring to a growing campaign from conservative activists and Republican legislators to restrict speech in schools, including “bans” on certain books in libraries.

“I mean, you know, the idea that you cannot mention – you cannot mention to the school. What’s going to happen to a gay child, an L[G]BTQ child in school?” he said. “I mean, this thing – it’s one thing to take on Disney World. They’re going to storm Cinderella’s castle before this is over.”

While many Republicans are staying away from the row over protests outside Supreme Court justices’ homes, citing the First Amendment’s protection of the right to protest, some the more hardline members are jumping in with both feet.

Among them is Marsha Blackburn, who told far-right network Newsmax that the protesters should be arrested for breaching section 1507 of the US criminal code, which makes it a crime for anyone to “picket or parade in or near a building housing a court of the United States, or in or near a building or residence occupied or used by” judges or justices.

“They should haul all of these people down to the police headquarters. They should book them for violating a federal statute,” she said, accusing the protesters of trying to “change the outcome of a Supreme Court decision” by “force or intimidation”.

Andrew Feinberg has the story.

Marjorie Taylor Greene and other hardcore members of the House Republican caucus have gone on something of a rampage against the US’s support for Ukraine, complaining that the money being sent to fight Russia would be better spent at home.

But others in the ranks are not amused – and Ms Greene’s latest tirade has met with a harsh response from her ideological antithesis, Adam Kinzinger.

As soon as it became clear Elon Musk was serious about buying Twitter, it immediately raised the possibility that the self-proclaimed “free speech absolutist” would let Donald Trump back onto the platform.

Mr Musk, who is still in the process of buying the social media network, said the decision to block Trump in January 2021 was “morally bad” and “a mistake”.

The Independent is keen to know its readers’ views. Do you think Trump should be allowed to return to Twitter? Vote in the poll below:

The NRCC, which oversees the Republicans’ campaign to retake the House of Representatives, has got a new fundraising tactic: inviting its supporters to wish a happy birthday to far-right Fox News commentator Tucker Carlson. And more than that, it’s also asking them to weigh in on whether he should run for political office – pointing out that the conspiracy-mongering host will be giving a speech in Iowa this summer: