LAGRANDE, Ore. – Authorities say a trucker who, along with his tractor-trailer, was missing for four days walked out of a remote area of eastern Oregon.

The White House on Friday said officials had conducted a thorough review of presidential physician Ronny L. Jackson’s vehicle records and found three minor incidents but no evidence that he “wrecked” a car after drinking at a Secret Service going-away party, as was alleged in a document released by Senate Democrats this week.

The crash stood out as one of the most serious allegations in the two-page document, which also detailed accusations that Jackson drank on the job, improperly prescribed and dispensed medications, and created a “toxic” work environment. The Navy rear admiral withdrew his bid to lead the Department of Veterans Affairs on Thursday, less than 24 hours after the allegations came to light.

Although many news outlets, including The Washington Post, have described anonymous accounts of some of the other charges, no evidence has publicly surfaced that the crash happened since Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) authorized the release of the allegations on Wednesday. Jackson has vehemently denied all of the allegations.

Also Friday, the Secret Service issued a statement denying the details of a published report that agents had intervened on an overseas trip to prevent Jackson from bothering then-President Barack Obama. According a report from CNN, Jackson had pounded on another White House official’s hotel room door close enough to the president’s room to risk disturbing him.

“A thorough review of internal documents related to all Presidential foreign travel that occurred in 2015, in addition to interviews of personnel who were present during foreign travel that occurred during the same time frame, has resulted in no information that would indicate the allegation is accurate,” the statement reads.

All of it has emboldened President Trump and the White House to accuse Tester of a smear campaign — and has muddied the case against Jackson, who not only removed his name from consideration for VA secretary but also continues to face scrutiny as White House physician.

“Sen. Jon Tester engaged in character assassination against a decorated rear admiral in the United States Navy, and he didn’t have a shred of evidence to back it up,” said deputy White House press secretary Raj Shah.

Tester’s office declined to comment Friday evening, although Tester has defended the release of the information.

Tester said in a brief interview Thursday on Capitol Hill that he “absolutely” stands by his decision to release the detailed list of allegations.

“Look, there was information, there was a pattern to the information,” Tester said. Referring to the news media, he added: “People like you were asking me a bunch of questions. I thought it was the right thing.”

[How Ronny L. Jackson found his VA nomination rapidly imperiled]

Although the allegations were released by Democrats, their nature and lack of public evidence to support them has also raised questions about the role of Senate Republicans, notably Johnny Isakson (Ga.), chairman of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee. Isakson knew of the investigation that Tester, the committee’s ranking Democrat, was leading, and did not object to the release.

Long before then, many Republicans, including Isakson, had joined Democrats and veterans advocates in expressing concern about Jackson’s qualifications to lead VA. A former combat doctor who served in Iraq, Jackson has been widely criticized as having too little management experience to run the sprawling, complex and politically fraught VA bureaucracy. It was unclear whether his nomination would have succeeded if the allegations had not surfaced.

Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kan.), who also is on the committee, said he wished a public record of the allegations against Jackson had emerged, perhaps in the form of a congressional hearing.

But Moran said he had “no complaints” about what Tester did. “People brought him information. It’s important for us to know,” Moran said. Assessing the truth of those allegations “would take more steps in the process than have occurred,” he said.

Moran said his impression was that Isakson and Tester were in frequent contact, but “I did not know what the allegations were in any detail except through the press and then what statement Senator Tester released.”

White House officials also said Tester never sought to ask Jackson about any of the allegations before releasing them. They said he also never asked anyone at the White House about the crash or any other specific allegation before Tester and Isakson made a broad request of the White House on Tuesday morning for details of Jackson’s tenure there. The committee’s Democratic staff released the allegations the next day — not nearly enough time, White House officials said, to properly respond to the request.

Tester has said publicly that he relayed the allegations to White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly.

On Friday, the White House produced records of three minor traffic incidents involving Jackson, and officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to speak candidly about an internal investigation, said no other records exist. Jackson was not found at fault in any of the incidents — one involved a bus swiping off Jackson’s side view mirror — and he reported each of them to his supervisor immediately, officials said. Jackson drives to and from work in a government vehicle outfitted with sirens and other equipment in case he needs to respond to a presidential emergency, several officials said.

The White House also produced more than two years’ worth of audits of the White House Medical Unit’s handling of prescriptions and medications, all of which showed no problems.

White House officials also denied an accusation in the Tester memo that Jackson had allowed “ineligible” administration officials to receive care at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. The officials said many senior White House officials are entitled to medical treatment at work, including treatment from specialists at Walter Reed.

These officials also said that Jackson told them this week that the accounts of drinking are inaccurate. Several current and former medical unit employees told The Post and other news outlets that they witnessed Jackson drinking on foreign trips. But several White House officials said doctors are permitted to drink alcohol if they are not on duty and if there is more than one doctor traveling, as there always is on foreign trips, they said. Jackson told them that he never drank while on duty or on a domestic trip while he was the only doctor.

In response to inquiries earlier Friday, a Tester aide reiterated that every line item in the two-page summary was alleged by more than one source, although the aide did not specify whether every source had direct knowledge of the pertinent allegations. The committee also had documentation for some of the charges, the aide said — though it was unknown which ones.

Two more people have come forward to complain to the committee about Jackson since the document’s release Wednesday afternoon, bringing the total number of people to 25, according to Tester’s office.

Sean Sullivan and Lisa Rein contributed to this report.

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ACTION4ALFIE

Alfie Evans, the 23-month-old toddler at the centre of a High Court legal battle, has died, nearly a week after his life support was withdrawn.

The boy from Merseyside, who had a degenerative brain condition, died at 02:30 BST, his father Tom Evans said.

On Facebook he wrote: “My gladiator lay down his shield and gained his wings… absolutely heartbroken.”

Alfie’s parents lost legal challenges against a High Court ruling allowing the hospital to withdraw ventilation.

The boy had his life support withdrawn on Monday after being in a semi-vegetative state for more than a year.

Mr Evans and Alfie’s mother Kate James’s legal campaign attracted widespread media attention and saw them clash with doctors over the child’s treatment.

Alfie, who was born in May 2016, was first admitted to Alder Hey Children’s Hospital in Liverpool the following December after suffering seizures, and had been a patient at the hospital ever since.

The parents, who lived in Bootle, wanted to fly the toddler to a hospital in Italy for treatment, but this was rejected by doctors who said continuing treatment was “not in Alfie’s best interests”.

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Kate James

The hospital said scans showed “catastrophic degradation of his brain tissue” and that further treatment was not only “futile” but also “unkind and inhumane”.

The court battle between the parents and medical staff lasted for four months.

The couple heavily criticised medical staff, with Mr Evans suggesting his son was a “prisoner” at the hospital and had been misdiagnosed.

A federal judge on Friday granted Michael Cohen’s request for a delay in a lawsuit brought against him by porn star Stormy Daniels, saying it appeared likely Cohen will be indicted in a related criminal investigation.

Judge S. James Otero’s order for a 90-day stay comes two days after Cohen, President Trump’s personal attorney, said he would invoke his Fifth Amendment right not to incriminate himself in the lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court of the Central District of California. Cohen’s declaration cited the investigation by federal prosecutors in New York, who are examining his role in quashing embarrassing stories about Trump during the 2016 campaign, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Otero said Friday that the issues in the civil dispute with Daniels overlap with the criminal probe into Cohen. The lawyer’s Manhattan office and home were raided on April 9.

“This is no simple criminal investigation; it is an investigation into the personal attorney of a sitting President regarding documents that might be subject to the attorney client privilege,” Otero wrote. “Whether or not an indictment is forthcoming, and the Court thinks it likely based on these facts alone, these unique circumstances counsel in favor of stay.”

Daniels’s attorney, Michael Avenatti, said he planned to file an appeal early next week.

“While we certainly respect Judge Otero’s 90-day stay order based on Mr. Cohen’s pleading of the 5th, we do not agree with it,” he wrote on Twitter.

Cohen’s attorney, Brent Blakely, did not respond to a message seeking comment.

Daniels, who says she had an affair with Trump  more than a decade ago, is seeking to void a deal she reached with Cohen days before the election under which she was paid $130,000 in exchange for her silence. Cohen has said he “facilitated” the payment using his own money from a home-equity line of credit.

Trump, who previously denied knowing anything about the $130,000 arranged by Cohen, acknowledged Cohen’s efforts on Thursday for the first time.

“Michael represents me, like with this crazy Stormy Daniels deal, he represented me,” Trump said in an interview with Fox News. “And from what I’ve seen, he did absolutely nothing wrong. There were no campaign funds going into this.”

Daniels’s suit, filed last month, named the president and Essential Consultants, a limited liability company Cohen created as a vehicle for the payment, as defendants. Daniels later added Cohen as a defendant.

It is not uncommon for defendants facing both civil liability and criminal prosecution to request a pause in civil proceedings to avoid giving sworn testimony and producing documents that could prove incriminating.

Investors cheered the results. In recent after-hours trading, the company’s stock was up $97.54, or 6.4%, to $1,615.50.

The company recorded $1.9 billion in operating income in the quarter. That was much better than analysts were expecting. In February, the company forecast that its operating income for the first quarter would likely range from $300 million to $1 billion, influencing analysts’ profit predictions.

Several factors played into the better-than-expected results, Brian Olsavsky, Amazon’s chief financial officer, said in a conference call with analysts. The company’s revenue came in higher than Amazon expected. Because much of the company’s costs — such as those related to running its fulfilment centers and data centers — are fixed, a good portion of the extra revenue trickled down to Amazon’s bottom line, he said.

Additionally, at the end of the fourth quarter, the company had relatively high inventory levels and was worried that it would incur significant costs shifting products around among its warehouses to ensure each one had optimal levels, Olsavsky said. But the better-than-expected sales in the period meant the company didn’t have to do that rebalancing of inventory, he said.

What’s more, Amazon benefitted from surging advertising sales, he said.

“Advertising continues to be a strong contributor to profitability,” Olsavsky said.

Amazon is hiking the price for Prime

In the quarter, Amazon saw strong gains from its North American retail segment, thanks in part due to Whole Foods, which it acquired in the second half of last year. Sales from that segment rose 46% year-over-year to $30.7 billion in the quarter. The segment posted an operating profit of $1.1 billion, which was nearly double the $596 million operating profit it recorded last year.

Amazon

It was also much bigger than Wall Street was expecting. On average, analysts were forecasting that the North American retail business would have an operating income of $660 million in the quarter, according to Colin Sebastian, an analyst who covers the company for Robert W. Baird.

The North American segment could see a surge in coming quarters from another piece of Amazon’s business — its Prime subscription service. The company announced Thursday that it plans to hike the annual price for Prime to $119 in May from the current $99 a year rate.

Amazon Web Services is actually picking up steam

Amazon’s results were also helped by its cloud business — Amazon Web Services — which saw sales grow 49% to $5.4 billion. Yet again AWS contributed the lion’s share of Amazon’s profit. The cloud business had operating income of $1.4 billion in the quarter, up from $890 million a year earlier.

Although AWS’s sales have grown at rates of 40% or better for at least the last six quarter, its pace in the just-completed period was the fastest over that time span.

“AWS had the unusual advantage of a seven-year head start before facing like-minded competition, and the team has never slowed down,” Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos said in a statement. “As a result, the AWS services are by far the most evolved and most functionality-rich … That’s why you’re seeing this remarkable acceleration in AWS growth.”

Advertising boosted Amazon’s bottom line

Amazon’s results were also augmented by its burgeoning advertising business. The company’s “other” revenue, which includes ad sales, was up a massive 139% in the quarter from the same period last year to $2 billion.

Consumers who are shopping for particular products are increasingly starting at Amazon’s site. The company has seen growing interest from marketers eager to advertise to those shoppers.

Meanwhile, the company was able to keep something of a lid on the losses in its international retail business. That segment’s sales jumped 34% to $14.9 billion from the same period a year earlier. While the segment’s operating loss grew to $622 million, that figure rose 29% — a pace slower than its sales.

It also was much lower than analysts expected. Wall Street had forecast that the international retail business would post an operating loss of $950 million in the quarter, Sebastian said.

However, favorable foreign exchange rates helped improve the international segment’s top and bottom lines. Without that boost, Amazon’s international retail sales would have risen by 21%, and its operating loss would have swelled 44%.

The company’s overall retail business — North American and international — was also helped by Whole Foods and Amazon’s other physical stores as well as the money Amazon makes from third party merchants who offer goods through its sites. Amazon’s brick-and-mortar outlets accounted for $4.3 billion in sales in the quarter. Its revenue from third-party merchants was $9.3 billion, up 44% year-over-year.

By contrast, Amazon’s traditional online retail business, where it sells products directly to customers, posted $26.9 billion in sales in the quarter, up just 18% from the same period a year earlier.

Amazon’s results came on a busy day for tech earnings reports. Among the other notable results:

Intel topped Wall Street’s revenue expectations, which sent its own stock soaring.

And Microsoft reported better-than-expected financials, thanks in part to its cloud business.

We’ll be continuing to cover the results, so hit refresh or click here for the latest.

While Democrats, who have called for his resignation, sought to force Mr. Pruitt to accept culpability for a variety of ethical missteps, he denied knowledge of or responsibility for the actions in question. Republicans, after briefly chastising Mr. Pruitt in their opening remarks, asked friendly questions that appeared calculated to allow him to talk about his policy proposals.

As reports about Mr. Pruitt have continued to increase, some White House staff members have urged Mr. Trump to fire the E.P.A. chief. Some Republican leaders have called for his resignation, and many in Mr. Pruitt’s own party have called for investigations into his actions. But analysts who watched his performance on Thursday said he did well.

Representative Ken Calvert, Republican of California and chairman of the appropriations subcommittee where Mr. Pruitt testified in the afternoon, called the administrator’s appearance “very professional.”

Asked if Mr. Pruitt should resign he said, “No.”

Ultimately, of course, the only opinion about Mr. Pruitt’s fate that matters is the president’s.

“I think his effort will be well received by the president,” Mr. Maisano said. He has more explaining to do, but it was a good effort to mend fences. There were no lethal blows.”

Mr. Pruitt is now the subject of 10 federal investigations, including questions about his office’s illegal purchase of a secure phone booth, his condominium rental agreement with the wife of an energy lobbyist, and accusations that he demoted or sidelined E.P.A. employees who questioned his actions.

Committee Democrats queried him sharply about the reports of his ethical lapses and pressed Mr. Pruitt on his rollbacks of environmental rules, in particular, a new policy, proposed this week, that would limit the E.P.A.’s use of scientific research in crafting new health and environmental rules. Scientists have deplored the proposed rule, saying that it would significantly limit the agency’s use of rigorous science.

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“Administrator Pruitt has brought secrecy, conflicts of interest and scandal to the E.P.A.,” said Representative Frank Pallone Jr. of New Jersey, the ranking Democrat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, where Mr. Pruitt testified Thursday morning. “You are unfit to hold public office and undeserving of the public trust,” he said. “Every indication we have is you really should resign.”

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Greg Walden, Republican of Oregon and the chairman of the House Energy committee, offered light criticism before moving on to praising Mr. Pruitt for his efforts to roll back environmental regulations. “I am concerned that the good progress being made on the policy front is being undercut by allegations of your management of the agency and use of its resources,” he said. “These issues are too persistent to ignore.”

Conservative lawmakers from fossil-fuel producing states, who have long pushed for the rollback of E.P.A. regulations, bypassed even slight criticism of Mr. Pruitt, attributing the scrutiny on his actions to a political witch hunt.

Representative David B. McKinley, Republican of West Virginia, told Mr. Pruitt sympathetically that the attacks on him “have an echo of McCarthyism.”

In many ways, the past 14 months of Mr. Pruitt’s tenure has been building to this moment.

As Oklahoma’s attorney general, he made a name for himself aggressively battling the agency he now leads. Mr. Pruitt’s confirmation was fiercely opposed by Democrats, environmentalists and even E.P.A. employees. Since taking the helm of the agency, Mr. Pruitt has worked to strip the E.P.A. of funding, reduce its staff and curb its ability to develop new regulations on fossil fuel pollution.

No E.P.A. director in history has achieved Mr. Pruitt’s level of notoriety. Since the agency was formed, its administrators have been second-tier Washington figures. But Mr. Pruitt’s antagonism toward climate science has made him a nationally-prominent and divisive figure.

Critics said that more than the ethical and spending issues, the real damage to the E.P.A. has been Mr. Pruitt’s systematic weakening of the agency’s ability to protect the environment and public health. While Mr. Pruitt’s performance in Thursday’s hearings may make or break his future within the Trump administration, many said his legacy was already set.

“It’s just been a flagrant, shameless series of calculated decisions to dismantle the country’s most successful domestic enterprise,” William K. Reilly, who led the E.P.A. under the first President George Bush, said of Mr. Pruitt’s leadership. “It’s really a national tragedy,” he said.

At Thursday morning’s hearing, Representative Joe Barton of Texas, who has long denied the overwhelming evidence of human effects on climate change, offered sympathy. “Mr. Pruitt, you’re not the first victim of Washington politics,” he said.

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Democrats unsuccessfully sought to pin down Mr. Pruitt on questions about his expenditures, and to force him to accept culpability for some the actions now under investigation.

Representative Tony Cárdenas, a California Democrat, asked about Mr. Pruitt’s soundproof booth, installed in his E.P.A. office at a cost of $43,000. The Government Accountability Office has ruled that the expenditure broke the law.

“I was not aware of the approval of the $43,000,” Mr. Pruitt told him, “and if I had known about it, congressman, I would not have approved it.”

Mr. Cárdenas responded that “if someone was spending $43,000 in my office, I would know about it.”

Representative Diana DeGette, a Colorado Democrat, launched into questions about Mr. Pruitt’s involvement in real estate deals in Oklahoma that have been reported in The New York Times, referring to the purchaser of his home as a “shell company.”

“It’s not a shell company,” he said quickly, and added that such financial structures were commonly used to purchase real estate in Oklahoma.

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She then asked Mr. Pruitt whether he had paid taxes on rent he received. He said the issue had been handed over to an accountant.

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“I’m not doing this to hassle you. I’m doing this as an elected official,” Ms. DeGette said as she ended her questions. “Everything we do has to be to the highest ethical standards.”

Representative Paul Tonko, the ranking Democrat on the House Energy’s subcommittee on the Environment, pressed Mr. Pruitt on his claims that he was unaware that the E.P.A. had used an obscure legal provision to grant hefty raises to political appointees, bypassing approval by the White House. Mr. Pruitt has said the decision was taken by his chief of staff, Ryan Jackson.

“Did you authorize Mr. Jackson to sign those documents for you?” Mr. Tonko asked.

“I was not aware of the amount and I was not aware of the bypassing that was going on,” Mr. Pruitt replied.

Even some Republicans criticized Mr. Pruitt for repeatedly blaming his staff.

“If you say give me a phone booth, and your staff does it, you should say, I’m at fault,” said Representative John Shimkus, Republican of Illinois, the chairman of the House Energy subcommittee, speaking to reporters after the morning hearing. “It’s never good to blame your staff. Or at least do it behind closed doors.”

And Representative Anna G. Eshoo, a California Democrat, used her turn at questioning to try to get Mr. Pruitt to accept culpability. “You have a solid record of violating ethics rules from the state level to the federal government,” she told Mr. Pruitt. “I think it’s an embarrassment.” And then she asked, “Do you have any remorse? Yes or no?”

Mr. Pruitt responded: “I think there are changes I’ve made already. I’ve made a change from first class to coach travel.” Ms. Eshoo returned to her call for a yes-or-no answer, and asked Mr. Pruitt whether he would reimburse the government. He launched into a long response, but she cut him off.

“With all due respect, I may be elected, but I’m not a fool,” she said. “This is not ‘dodge-question’ day.”

Correction: April 26, 2018

An earlier version of this story gave the incorrect home state for Representative John Shimkus. He represents Illinois, not Pennsylvania.

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Early this morning, Rear Adm. Ronny Jackson did what many felt sure he would do eventually: He withdrew his nomination to lead the Department of Veterans Affairs.

In doing so, Jackson overshadowed a victory for President Donald Trump — the swift confirmation of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, along with the release of a photo of Pompeo meeting with Kim Jong Un. Jackson was also an unwitting spark to a new presidential feud, POLITICO’s Burgess Everett reports.

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Vulnerable Sen. Jon Tester, a Montana Democrat up for reelection, led the charge with a slew of anonymous allegations against Jackson. And Trump is livid.

“The president is enraged over Tester’s work documenting allegations of malfeasance by Rear Adm. Ronny Jackson, which quickly unraveled Jackson’s nomination to be VA secretary and marks a turning point in the relationship between the moderate Democrat and Trump. As Tester’s reelection campaign kicks into high gear, Trump is more motivated than ever to campaign against him in the ruby-red state — accusing the senator of irresponsibly leaking the damaging information to undermine the president’s nominee.”

As for Jackson, he announced his decision to withdraw earlier this morning amid a wave of damaging allegations, though he insisted the allegations were false even in pulling himself out of the process to lead the VA.

“The allegations against me are completely false and fabricated,” he said. “If they had any merit, I would not have been selected, promoted and entrusted to serve in such a sensitive and important role as physician to three presidents over the past 12 years.”

PROGRAMMING NOTE: Your author is moving on, and this is the last Trump After Dark. Thank you for your readership, tolerance of puns and senses of humor. Be kind!

Elsewhere in President Trump’s orbit:

POMP, YOU UP: The Senate confirmed Mike Pompeo as secretary of state, installing a close confidant of President Trump in Foggy Bottom. The White House also released a photo of Pompeo meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

HE GOT PRUITT: EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt dodged blame, said staff were responsible for costly decisions about his security and pegged complaints to critics of President Donald Trump during a daylong congressional hearing that appeared, for now, to slow calls for his job.

NOT RUSSIAN, BUT: President Trump said at some point he may change his mind and decide to get involved in the Department of Justice’s Russia probe.

NO FRIENDS ZONE: When President Trump talked off the cuff during an interview with Fox Friends this morning he once again showed how he can disrupt his legal strategy with stray comments.

FOREVER WAR: President Trump has been at odds with the press for a long time, long before he made “fake news” a buzz phrase.

EAST MEETS WEST: The New Yorker explains why Kanye West and President Trump are drawn together.

CALL THEM RED CARDS?: President Trump hinted on Twitter that he would remove support for certain nations if they didn’t back a joint bid by the United States, Canada and Mexico to host the 2026 World Cup.

There you have it. You’re caught up on the Trump administration. TGIT.