WASHINGTON (Dispatches) -- Democratic Chairman Tom Perez told fellow Democrats on Saturday that unity is crucial in the fight against President Donald Trump, whom he lambasted as an "existential threat" to the nation.
"We have the most dangerous president in American history and one of the most reactionary Congresses in American history," Perez said as he addressed the first Democratic National Committee gathering since his February election.
The former Obama Cabinet official blistered "a culture of corruption" that he said extends to Trump's Cabinet, House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, but he warned that internal ruckuses over party priorities and leadership would distract from the goal of winning more elections to upend Republicans' domination in Washington.
On Saturday, a White House official said Trump intends to spend at least $430,000 of his own money to help pay the legal bills of White House staff and campaign aides related to the investigations into alleged Russian election meddling in the 2016 election.
It was the first such commitment by Trump, who has dismissed the ongoing investigations into whether his campaign colluded with Russia as a "witch hunt” invented by Democrats to explain Hillary Clinton’s loss.
Norman Eisen, an ethics lawyer in the Obama administration, said the offer "raises substantial questions under federal criminal law and federal ethics law”, including whether it might be construed as part of an effort to glean more favorable testimony and whether current federal employees are even allowed to accept such gifts.
Trump and his aides have been racking up hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees as special counsel Robert Mueller and House and Senate committees dig deeper into alleged Russia’s role in the campaign.


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MOSCOW (AFP) -- Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny walked free Sunday after a 20-day jail term for organizing protests against President Vladimir Putin.
Navalny, who has declared his intention to stand for president in 2018, was released in a secret location in Moscow early Sunday to evade media attention.
"Hi. I'm out," Navalny wrote on Instagram, posting a picture of himself on a street. A photographer working for his team later posted photographs of him meeting colleagues at the office of his anti-corruption foundation.
During Navalny's time behind bars, the Kremlin race he hopes to contest has heated up with television star Ksenia Sobchak throwing in her hat.
Navalny said he was "ready to work" and would meet supporters later Sunday in the southern city of Astrakhan at a rally timed for 1400 GMT. The event in the city 1,300 kilometers southeast of Moscow has permission from the authorities.