Donald Trump Jr called his father a “mortician” in an apparent slip of tongue while attempting to ridicule Ron DeSantis’s glitch-ridden 2024 presidential campaign on Twitter.

Former president Donald Trump’s eldest son was mocking Mr DeSantis for his troubled campaign launch on Twitter Spaces, which was marred by technical glitches.

He played an audio clip of what he claimed was “8 minutes of silence” during Mr DeSantis’s campaign launch and echoed his father’s description of it as a “DeSaster”.

Fox News has announced a town hall with Donald Trump on 1 June – the former president’s second town hall since entering the 2024 race.

Two members of Donald Trump’s staff moved boxes of documents just a day before the Department of Justice visited Mar-a-Lago, according to a report.

The files were moved the day before FBI agents and a prosecutor visited the private club in Florida’s Palm Beach. The timing of the move is suspicious and a sign that obstruction may have taken place, according to The Washington Post.

Mr Trump and his associates are alleged to have conducted a “dress rehearsal” for moving the sensitive files even before getting a subpoena in May last year, The Post noted, citing anonymous sources.

Gustaf Kilander is following the story.

A New Hampshire state representative switched her loyalties from Ron DeSantis to Donald Trump following the Florida governor’s glitch-filled presidential campaign launch announcement.

Rep Sandra Panek was included in a list of more than 50 Granite State lawmakers backing the Florida governor for president earlier this month.

“After being less than impressed with Ron DeSantis’s official announcement last night, I am hereby switching my endorsement to President Donald J Trump,” Ms Panek said in a statement.

“We can’t expect someone to run the country if they can’t properly run their own campaign launch.

“The stakes are simply too great in 2024 to take a chance on someone as unreliable as DeSantis – we need a proven winner like President Trump to take back the White House and Make America Great Again.”

An Internal Revenue Service criminal investigator who has accused Justice Department officials of slow-walking a long-running probe into President Joe Biden’s son Hunter’s tax affairs has cut off communication with a key congressional committee amid questions about the veracity of his claims and his motivations for coming forward.

The special agent, Gary Shapley, is a veteran of the IRS criminal investigations department who on Thursday revealed his identity in an interview with CBS News.

Andrew Feinberg filed this report from Washington, DC.

Alex Woodward reports on the damning words of Judge Mehta:

US District Judge Amit Mehta told the court on 25 May that seditious conspiracy “is among the most serious crimes an individual American can commit” and an “offense against the people of the country.”

“What we cannot have, we absolutely cannot have, is a group of citizens who because they didn’t like the outcome … were then prepared to take up arms in order to foment a revolution. That’s what you did,” he told Rhodes. “You are not a political prisoner, Mr Rhodes.”

For decades, Rhodes wanted American democracy to “devolve into violence,” Judge Mehta said.

“You, sir, present an ongoing threat and a peril to this country and its democracy and the very fabric of this country,” he added. “You are smart, you are compelling, and you are charismatic. Frankly, that is what makes you dangerous.”

Andrew Feinberg reports on how the Florida governor failed to answer a direct question about Russia’s war on Ukraine during an interview with Trey Gowdy on Fox News.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis on Thursday said he would “aggressively” use presidential pardons to free people who’ve been charged or convicted of crimes – including former President Donald Trump.

Speaking during an interview with hosts Buck Sexton and Clay Travis, Mr DeSantis claimed that the Department of Justice has been “weaponised” under the Biden Administration. He cited a laundry list of GOP grievances about federal law enforcement targeting conservative activists and other GOP figures who have allegedly violated federal laws.

Andrew Feinberg reports from Washington, DC.