...for requiring "essential" employees to work without pay during the partial government shutdown.

Marine sentries guarding the West Wing normally rotate through their shifts every half-hour when Trump is his office and have done so for the last decade.

Mattis told Pentagon employees to "keep the faith in our country" and McGurk wished his former colleagues well "as they work under extremely difficult circumstances to protect the interests of our great country.

Employees at a Mexican restaurant [...] became alarmed after Albert came in with a gun Sunday morning and asked where the nearest Baptist church was.

...with votes expected on proposals just hours after the party takes control on Thursday

...tax cuts for northern states that he says will help power economic growth and deter migration to the United States.

Kudryavtsev, an emaciated man with a failing heart, is facing up to 20 years in prison for sending two emails to his European colleagues.

Two men with no shared history or apparent personal chemistry are charged with ending the shutdown.

The rebuff underscored how the United States and China compete not only in trade and technology, but also over the values and beliefs that define their societies, an echo of the Cold War with the Soviet Union.

It appears that federal judges can indeed make inappropriately partisan statements, so long as they are important judges with powerful partisan friends.

“Is Trump immoral, in your view?” Raddatz asked.

The president has a new acting chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, who is not averse to government shutdowns

She told the Times that managers at the club had taken steps to help her evade detection as an undocumented worker.

Kelly said his tenure as chief of staff could be evaluated not by what Trump did during that time, but rather what the president had not done.

How could someone like Kennedy, who provided the pivotal vote and wrote so eloquently in support of the most important LGBTQ rights decisions, trust those rights to Trump?

US authorities leave families to fend for themselves, a practice local bishop calls ‘inhumane and unconscionable’

...it is obvious that the blame here lies entirely with the uncooperative parents who have stubbornly failed to pay their children’s ransom, despite my very clear instructions.

...the chief justice blocked the District Court’s order requiring the foreign corporation to comply with the grand jury subpoena, until the government’s lawyers could respond to the Corporation’s briefings.

A child had not died in Border Patrol’s custody for a decade until the Trump Administration

Trump said he was pursuing the freeze because of the $25-billion price tag of the raises, though his tax reform bill was calculated to add nearly 10 times the cost of the canceled raises.

...prosecutors in New Jersey [...] have obtained evidence that supervisors at the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster may have committed federal immigration crimes and are currently working with the FBI

Two Republicans chairing the committees [...] said in a letter Friday that the DOJ must appoint a special counsel to investigate the “seemingly disparate treatment” of the investigations into Clinton’s use of private emails and Trump’s alleged ties to Russia.

“McConnell is one of the best vote-counters in politics, and he generally knows when to fold a losing hand [...] He’s now stuck with a president who prefers to double down on a losing hand.”

The inspector general of the president’s own Justice Department concluded the texts were missing due to technological glitches; 20,000 were recovered.

“We have a big, fat bubble coming up, you watch. We have artificially induced low interest rates,” Trump told MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” two days after announcing his candidacy in 2015.

...three days ahead of the Monday deadline set by the court.

But direct payments for farmers who haven’t certified production, as well as farm loans and disaster assistance programs, will be put on hold beginning next week, and won’t start up again until the government reopens.

Marshall said his office would be exploring the matter, but stopped short of saying a formal investigation had been launched.

"If you say, 'Who gets fired?' it always has to be the top," Trump said during an episode of "Fox & Friends," his favorite morning show, that aired in September 2013.

November's congressional election in Maine marked the first time in US history the ranked-choice voting system determined the outcome of a congressional race.

Garrido said the latest caravan will likely pick up even more people from El Salvador and Guatemala as it heads toward Mexico.

Nielsen is visiting the Texas border city of El Paso Friday where an 8-year-old Guatemalan boy was detained with his father before dying in government custody.

"What has changed now is the administration's attitude towards public health,"

...two weeks before its much-anticipated hearing to consider evidence of possible absentee ballot fraud

It was also the first sign that President Trump’s abrupt announcement last week [...] was not only shifting alliances in the conflict but directly benefiting Mr. Assad

Regime moves millions of dollars around the world despite sanctions and pressure on international banks

In recent years, lame-duck bills to strip authority from newly elected Democrats have become part of the partisan playbook in Republican-controlled states.

The chief judge of Manhattan's federal courts said the suspension will remain until the president signs a budget restoring Justice Department funding.

OPM’s tweet linked to a series of templates that furloughed federal workers could use to try to stave off creditors.

In all, Mueller has between 1.5 and 2 terabytes of data about the Russian troll farm gathered from several hundred sources.

Lost in all the discussion about possible lawbreaking by Mr. Trump is the fact that impeachment wasn’t intended only for crimes.

–Michael Cohen

Corsi claims that because he investigated Hillary Clinton's missing emails in 2016 and guessed WikiLeaks would leak hacked emails from Clinton's campaign chairman, Mueller has unfairly targeted him.

"Officials in Moscow looked at the 2016 U.S. presidential race and asked, ‘Which candidate would we like to have sitting in the White House? Who will help us achieve our goals?’ And they chose him."

In addition to implying that U.S. troops were “suckers” before he came along, Trump also used his remarks in Iraq to push his political agenda back home.

States passed a flurry of gun-control measures in 2018, but the future of the push for greater regulation is tied to the much larger political drama playing out in America.

The message contrasted with Trump’s claim in an Oval Office appearance on Christmas morning that “many of those workers” had told him to continue to shut down the government “until you get the funding for the wall.”

That raises the total number of people released this week to more than 1,000

...in what appears to be a disturbing allusion to the Novichok poisoning in England earlier this year that left one woman dead,

The phone and surveillance data [...] lend new credence to a key part of a former British spy’s dossier of Kremlin intelligence describing purported coordination between Trump’s campaign and Russia’s election meddling operation.

“Absent an appropriation, Department of Justice attorneys are generally prohibited from working, even on a voluntary basis, except in very limited circumstances”

With “The Apprentice,” the TV producer mythologized Trump—then a floundering D-lister—as the ultimate titan, paving his way to the Presidency.

Russian state media seems to be preparing the public for upcoming revelations of a sexual nature

Pictures show Turkish armoured vehicles being sent to the border with Syria

Tougher regulations, surprise inspections and other bureaucratic moves are hampering U.S. exports amid the trade war.

Trump incorrectly told troops in Iraq on Wednesday that he gave them their first pay raise in more than 10 years -- a falsehood he has repeatedly told.

As of Tuesday, Border Patrol agents have started conducting secondary medical checks on all children in CBP custod

The victory comes amid a coordinated advertiser boycott of Tucker Carlson’s prime-time Fox News show after the host claimed immigrants make America “dirtier.”

...saying in a statement that he had not approved the operation and did not support such tactics in American politics.

"It is in fact a campaign slogan, that is a campaign item, and it is completely inappropriate for the troops to do this"

The Coast Guard is the only part of the military under the Department of Homeland Security, rather than the Department of Defense which continues to be funded during the shutdown.

Claim from Whitaker’s University of Iowa football days listed on résumé and government documents

The trip, shrouded in secrecy, came [...] less than a week after Mr. Trump [...] infuriated even some of his staunchest political allies by announcing plans to withdraw troops from Syria and about half of those stationed in Afghanistan.

McConnell “made clear to the administration that he would consider any effort by the White House to challenge the Russians publicly an act of partisan politics.”

The government’s brief is not due until Jan. 22, but DOJ lawyers asked [...] to put the appeal on ice until the shutdown ends.

The Republican candidate who won in November likely won’t be seated before an official hearing in January.

...after markets suffered their worst Christmas Eve drop ever following Mnuchin's attempts to calm Wall Street failed

No paper evidence has been found to help corroborate the version of events described by the Braunstein family

For the third day in a row, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials released hundreds of migrant asylum-seekers at a park near a bus station in downtown El Paso.

...a sharp contrast to the picture just a year ago when the world was experiencing its best growth since 2010 and seemed poised to do even better.

“We apologize, but due to the lapse in federal funding we are unable to take your call. Once funding has been restored, our operations will resume. Please call back at that time.”

–Dan Rather, journalist

Though he called military personnel on Tuesday, Trump did not visit a hospital or a military base.

“Guys, everything’s fine! We’re not going to have another financial crisis, okay?”

"It's not a question of me," he said. "I would rather not be doing shutdowns. I've been at the White House. I love the White House, but I wasn't able to be with my family."

U.S. Customs and Border Protection ordered medical checks on every child in its custody Tuesday after an 8-year-old boy from Guatemala died

He asked the boy, named Coleman, if he's still a believer in Santa. After listening, Mr. Trump said, "Because at 7, it's marginal, right?"

The plummet followed a tumultuous few days in Washington, amid reports that Trump was discussing how to remove Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell.

As the population exploded and the economy became ever more sophisticated, the growing share of poor citizens started to demand redress. But since the institutions of the republic were dominated by patricians who had much to lose from measures like land reform, they never fully addressed the grievances of ordinary Romans.

Playing the blame game

...and hold early elections in April, nearly eight months earlier than required by law.

Trump has been complaining for months about Fed monetary policy, claiming rising interest rates are putting a brake on his economic plans.

The Treasury secretary put out an alarming—and confusing—press release on Sunday evening.

"During the federal government shutdown, the White House Visitor Center and National Christmas Tree site will be closed. Restroom facilities will be closed."

The House changeover is giving new life to calls by some lawmakers to reexamine the sweeping authority that Congress granted the president 17 years ago.

Instead, China has leaned on Brazilian imports to replace the U.S. cargoes

The pause lasts until the court has time to review a response from the government due on or before December 31.

It was the second time over the weekend Trump's top finance chief tried to send a reassuring message to investors over alleged plans to oust Powell.

“George W. Bush and Barack Obama knew and respected Brett and considered him one of their most important advisers,” [...] “and it’s very telling that Donald Trump claims to have never heard of him.”

We are entering a new and dangerous stage of Trump’s presidency. It will be defined by a reckless man who will happily burn down the international order or launch missiles to distract the country as he tries to save his own skin.

What has euphemistically long been known as “executive time” is lasting longer.

The announcement came as the United States ambassador waded into the scandal by accusing the newsmagazine of anti-American bias and calling for an independent audit.

Trump fretted to aides that Mr. Powell would “turn me into Hoover,” a reference to the man who was president in the early years of the Great Depression.

Trump’s sudden announcement that he was firing a man who had already quit was the exclamation point to a tumultuous week at the Pentagon

In a 2013 interview with Fox & Friends, Trump said the president should be fired if there’s to be a government shutdown, as the responsibility for such a failure “always has to be the top.”

The buildup comes even though Turkey said it would delay a promised offensive in eastern Syria in the wake of President Donald Trump's decision to withdraw U.S. troops

The mostly forgotten story of Nixon’s tax troubles, long overshadowed by the simultaneous Watergate scandal, is getting a new look from lawmakers and legal experts.

The secretary of defense has no legal position in the nuclear chain of command, and any attempts by a secretary of defense to prevent the president from exercising the authority to use nuclear weapons would be undemocratic and illegal.

For two years, Mr. Trump has waged war against his own government, convinced that people around him are fools.

An unnamed, foreign government-owned company in a mystery court case is asking the Supreme Court to pause a grand jury subpoena it received related to special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation.

–Steven Mnuchin, Secretary of the Treasury

“If there’s not a shutdown, he’s going to look like a loser.”

The act was due to expire on Sept. 30 and on Dec. 7 but received a last-minute reprieve each time.

The shutdown is now due to last through Christmas until at least Dec. 27.

For two years, they tried to tutor and confine him. [...] But in the end, they failed.

–James Comey, former F.B.I. Director

McGurk [...] had been planning to exit his post in February 2019. But [...] he will accelerate his departure due to a strong disagreement with President Trump's snap decision to withdraw 2,000 U.S. troops from Syria

The Senate move, with no plans to reconvene until Dec. 27, suggests Washington is settling into a lengthy government shutdown.

Close to 400,000 federal workers are expected to be home without pay until a deal is reached

Building support for Stein was one of a “roster of themes” the Moscow-sanctioned internet trolls “turned to repeatedly”

Trump has discussed firing Powell as his frustration with the central bank chief intensified following this week’s interest-rate increase and months of stock-market losses

This is the third shutdown of 2018.

A spokeswoman for Mulvaney dismissed the remarks as “old news” and said he changed his mind about Trump after they met.

You were wrong. This week proves it. Assuming you haven’t departed the administration already, now would be the time for you to go.

“Last week the Supreme Court reversed a century of law that I believe will open the floodgates for special interests, including foreign corporations, to spend without limits in our elections. I don’t think American elections should be bankrolled by America’s most powerful interests, or worse, by foreign entities.”

“You know what? It’s yours,” Trump said of Syria. “I’m leaving.”

A lot of conservatives with big platforms were very, very angry at Trump this week.

The House is set to return from recess at noon on Saturday.

"Do you hand write the bill from start to finish? I ask because the sheet is blank."

The Foreign Relations chairman said the U.S. was weeks away from launching a ‘major clearing operation’ in the Euphrates River Valley when Trump decided to withdraw from Syria.

The campaign [...] had raised more than $13 million from more than 213,000 people by Friday afternoon. The goal? $1 billion.

Unfortunately, Kavanaugh sees things differently. The newest justice appears to have suspended his judgment and reading skills to run interference for the Trump administration

The 83 ethics claims filed against Brett Kavanaugh that cannot be processed underscore what SCOTUS lost this year.

Mercer typically avoids public scrutiny, but his involvement with Trump thrust him into the political arena — an unwelcome development for him.

It was never a real thing. But with Jim Mattis’ exit, the idea that Trump’s advisers could restrain the president is finally dead.

The former president sees representative elections as the key to progress on global warming, gun control, and health care.

Funding for nine federal departments and several agencies is set to expire at midnight Friday. For now, hopes of avoiding a shutdown seem faint.

The nodules were discovered during tests to treat rib fractures she sustained in a fall last month

The "nuclear option" refers to a last-resort way for the majority party in the Senate to overcome objection by the minority, and it involves using a simple majority of 51 votes rather than 60.

"One core belief I have always held is that our strength as a nation is inextricably linked to the strength of our unique and comprehensive system of alliances and partnerships. While the US remains the indispensable nation in the free world, we cannot protect our interests or serve that role effectively without maintaining strong alliances and showing respect to those allies."

“Having Mattis there gave all of us a great deal more comfort than we have now”

The vote comes after the president said Thursday he would not sign a spending measure that does not include money for a border wall.

Congress has tried and failed some 200 times to pass similar anti-lynching legislation since 1882, according to the bill.

The DHS boss couldn’t even say how many people have died in her department’s custody.

...in protest of President Trump’s decision to withdraw 2,000 American troops from Syria,

realDonaldTrump appears to no longer follow @AnnCoulter. (This bot cannot tell if this was an unfollow, suspension or block.)

The losses amplified a Wednesday decline triggered by the Fed hiking interest rates and projecting two further rate hikes in 2019.

If Trump cannot secure the money he is demanding for the wall now, it's unlikely he will see a spending bill that meets his requirement for at least two years as Democrats assume control.

The move has generated speculation that Mueller is closing in on an indictment of Stone for lying to Congress.

"The proper definition of denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula is completely eliminating the American nuclear threat to North Korea before eliminating our nuclear capability"

The state-connected hackers are accused of penetrating networks of U.S. agencies and companies.

The Justice Department has concluded that Acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker had no reason to recuse

Leaving Congress with a legacy of empty words.

In a year of hyperpartisanship, I did the unthinkable — I changed my mind about politics.

Move puts off any bid for border wall until next year, when Democrats will hold House

By a voice vote the Senate approved the stop-gap measure, sending it to the House of Representatives for passage before a midnight Friday deadline

"I care much more about what we do than what we are called"

The trifecta of Belt and Road failures, economic fragility and negative international sentiment makes it difficult to read what China might do next.

...when the case reached the appellate level, Judge Gregory Katsas recused himself [...] and he had previously said he’d recuse himself on Russia investigation-related matters.

Starting on January 4, Flynn cannot travel more than 50 miles from Washington, DC, and he must surrender his passport.

Trump made up a tax cut before the midterms. Steve Mnuchin still won’t say if it was a “real thing.”

Planning is underway for a "full" and "rapid" withdrawal of US troops from Syria

...despite the president’s lawyer insisting no such signature existed.

...most banking, insurance and other financial firms in Britain would be cut off from the European Union if there is no divorce deal.

The ruling offers the intriguing detail that the entity fighting the Mueller subpoena is a foreign-owned company, not a specific individual, as many had speculated.

This patently frivolous endeavor is not actual lawyering; it is a bald faced effort to run down the clock and prevent the North Carolina Supreme Court from ruling in time for the 2020 election.

...the council said that the complaints [...] could not be acted on because Kavanaugh, as a justice, is no longer covered by the judiciary's misconduct rules.

Americans who own bump stocks would have 90 days to destroy their devices or to turn them in

“All along, you were an unregistered agent of a foreign country while serving as the national security adviser to the president of the United States”

...her investigation found “a shocking pattern of illegality involving the Trump Foundation — including unlawful coordination with the Trump presidential campaign, repeated and willful self-dealing, and much more.”

"We have other ways that we can get to that $5 billion" and will "work with Congress" to do so

The reason is simple: Not enough money from the tax cuts has trickled down to employees.

Unique structure of the president’s reelection campaign is an expression of his iron grip on the party.

Corbyn accused May on Monday of leading the UK into a "national crisis" as she ignored pleas to abandon her widely criticized Brexit deal.

Flynn is scheduled to be sentenced Tuesday for lying to the FBI about a conversation with Kislyak during the transition.

The agreement requires Mr. Stone to run ads in national newspapers [...] apologizing for making defamatory statements [...] It also requires Mr. Stone to publish a retraction of the false statements on social media.

Indeed, it’s no longer accurate to sum up the president’s legal troubles under the banner of “the Russia investigation.” The bulk of the federal investigatory firepower aimed at his inner circle is now coming from outside Mueller’s control, widening the risk to the president himself.

...seeking to block more than three dozen subpoenas for documents from the Trump Organization, the president’s trust and other entities.

“It’s not a contribution if it’s intended for a purpose in addition to the campaign purpose,” he said.

Social media lies have real-world consequences.

Five years. More than 150,000 shootings. How has gun violence marked your corner of the country?

MPs will vote on the UK's Brexit deal in the week beginning 14 January

The report says that while “other distinct ethnic and religious groups were the focus of one or two Facebook Pages or Instagram accounts, the black community was targeted extensively with dozens.”

(That total does not count any congressional inquiries, nor does it include any other inquiries into other administration officials unrelated to Russia.)

It was the real-world embodiment of the fantasy online world of trolls, Russian and domestic, who polluted the political discourse.

Logged on to see that everyone’s making fun of Stephen Miller’s spray-on hair? Who cares about that, focus on the awful policies he’s push—oh wait just saw a pic lol what the fuck

"At stake is the question of whether or not the United States remains a sovereign country."

It’s unlikely that a U.S. court would hear the President’s case against “Saturday Night Live” as parody has historically been protected by the First Amendment.

...and amounted to what researchers called a "propaganda war against American citizens."

MILLER: We're going to do whatever is necessary to build the border wall to stop this ongoing crisis of illegal immigration--

President also claims 'Fake News' won't report on developments despite major national outlets covering inspector general report

The president tapped Mick Mulvaney as his acting chief of staff after other possible choices removed themselves from consideration.

Critics said the proposal amounted to gerrymandering

When their regulated rents started rising more quickly in the 1990s, many tenants had no idea why.

GOP leaders are scrambling to find a short-term alternative that could stave off a shutdown, which would start on Dec. 22 absent a deal.

“He effectively repealed the entire Affordable Care Act when the 2017 Congress decided not to do so.”

The decision spells bad news for Republicans by allowing Democrats to replay a potent health care message that helped them flip 40 House seats.

There are five days left for the House to overrule the FCC.

Simply put, Trump's campaign, transition, inaugural committee and presidency are now under active criminal investigation. His business -- the Trump Organization -- and his defunct charity -- The Trump Foundation are also under investigation (the charity investigation is a civil one). His college -- Trump University -- has already been deemed a fraud.

Considering his lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, did the same thing, it all looked like part of a coordinated strategy to plant doubts about the ongoing investigation into the Trump campaign’s ties to Russia.

From the clues that have emerged, it appears that the dispute is about whether a witness can be forced to answer investigators’ questions.

"Over my dead body. But, you know, I could be dead."

The deal [...] will ultimately require every country in the world to follow a uniform set of standards for measuring their planet-warming emissions and tracking their climate policies.

"As a math teacher I would like to thank you for creating a real-world example on how NOT to construct a Venn diagram."

“Yes, I am supporting Donald Trump, but I’m doing so despite the fact that I think he’s a terrible human being”

Mulvaney will not resign as director of the Office of Management and Budget while he is acting White House chief of staff

The lawsuit — backed by the Trump administration — threatens to overturn Obamacare’s ban on preexisting conditions.

Mulvaney, a frequent visitor to the Oval Office, was never formally interviewed for chief of staff. He met Friday with Trump for a scheduled discussion of the budget showdown, officials said, but left as the acting chief of staff.

The FBI memos make clear that top Justice Department and bureau officials knew that Flynn's public story about his calls with Kislyak differed from what he actually said to the ambassador on the phone during the presidential transition

The Special Counsel’s Office released new an expenditure report Friday which revealed that the six months between the beginning of April through September cost about $4.5 million.

But 23 years later, the Weekly Standard is no more. It’s a particularly striking moment because it was the rare conservative media outlet that confronted Donald Trump, rejecting some of his worst personality traits and attitudes.

Since the President met with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, two weeks ago in Argentina, China has delivered on an array of Trump's promises, including lowering auto tariffs and restarting purchases of soybeans.

However, he added, "But at a time when faith in so many of our institutions is at an all-time low, I regret speaking imprudently. I don't believe the President broke the law, but one of the core principles of our country is that no one is above the law. That means anyone who does break the law should face appropriate consequences."

But this Friday, court officials went to extreme measures to ensure it was as difficult as possible to figure out what Mueller's team was doing

GOP lawmakers approved them in September so they could be more easily altered after the election with simple majority votes rather than the three-fourths support that would have been needed if voters had passed the proposals.

Walker approved the measures over the vehement objections of the incoming governor and despite fierce protest in the State Capitol as Republican lawmakers rushed the bills through in a hastily-called session last week.

And two days later, Platte River Power Authority, one of Xcel’s competitors in Colorado, announced it would eliminate all carbon emissions by 2030.

Flynn's allies have claimed that Flynn was essentially set up by FBI agents wanting to take down the president.

The documents – some of which are heavily redacted -- were released in response to U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan ordering prosecutors to hand over the government's files and "memoranda" related to the FBI’s questioning of Flynn

The case – known officially as “In re: Grand Jury Subpoena” – has been sealed in its entirety when it comes to public records, as it moved from the district court to the appeals court level in recent months.

We now have details as to how the indicted former campaign manager worked with the president to undermine federal law enforcement.

U.S.-led naval patrols have prompted North Korea to shift tactics, but smuggled oil keeps flowing to the regime despite U.N. sanctions.

...it will remove the additional 25% tariffs on car imports from the United States for three months starting January 1.

“Nobody got killed, nobody got robbed… This was not a big crime”

because then-candidate Trump “was very concerned about how this would affect the election” if their allegations of affairs became public

As if the country didn’t have enough to be divided about, now the forces aligned for and against President Trump are battling over whether his presidency is legitimate.

—Donald J. Trump 3:23 AM - 4 June 2014

In addition to serving as a senior adviser in the White House, he would also be playing the role of the main conduit between Trump and his friend David Pecker, the National Enquirer publisher and chief executive of AMI

It isn’t an occasional failure to uphold norms, but a consistent repudiation of them. It isn’t about dirty money so much as the pursuit and abuse of power—power as an end in itself, justifying almost any means.

“You’re saying he’s not telling the truth. That’s a slur. That’s a slur.”

...part of a broader push that [...] would continue "until meaningful action is taken" over Saudi Arabia's role in the killing.

...according to a statement from CBP, she “reportedly had not eaten or consumed water for several days.”

...carrying out an Obama-era policy that Education Secretary Betsy DeVos had fought to kill.

“Each of the threats was received via email, requesting bitcoin ransom, but we have no knowledge that anyone has complied with the transaction demands”

Jared Kushner has apparently been “pushing his own candidacy.”

Probe looking into whether committee misspent funds and top donors gave money in exchange for access to the administration

The 56-to-41 vote was a rare move by the Senate to limit presidential war powers and send a potent message of official disapproval

“I think it’s amazing because I only get bad news. I only get bad stories. Look at the paper, it’s all nonsense,”

But it did not attribute the missing texts to malicious intent on behalf of the two but rather a technology failure by the FBI’s tool meant to sweep up text messages

To take the simplest argument first, "we," of course, did no such thing, unless "we" is a very limited—and very white—plural pronoun.

There’s no evidence of any actual explosives being placed or detonated, but it’s still caused numerous evacuations and law enforcement investigations

Dozens of institutions across the country received email threats Thursday afternoon, prompting evacuations and sweeps of buildings.

...but he refused to reveal who's now on the short-list.

Butina admitted to acting "under direction of" a Russian official whom CNN has identified as Alexander Torshin

“I think I have the greatest base in the history of politics,” the president said. “I have people that I love and love me, frankly.”

"AMI admitted that it made the $150,000 payment in concert with a candidate's presidential campaign"

Nearly 40,000 people in the United States died by guns last year

They are seeking to make Republicans a permanent minority by essentially writing gerrymandering into the State Constitution.

“Are the pathetic deflections that we just heard, when he appeared on ‘Fox & Friends,‘ is that a patriot speaking,” Brzezinski asked, “or a wannabe dictator’s butt boy? Dead serious, I’m asking. Are these the words of a patriot?”

...creating a dynamic in which intelligence analysts frequently see troubling gaps between the president's public statements and the facts laid out for him in daily briefings.

The deal, lawmakers announced, would take a variety of steps to change how Congress deals with sexual harassment, including publicly naming members who are personally liable.

The country’s economy is in a sharp downturn, putting political pressure on President Xi Jinping to reach a deal with President Trump.

In 2016, while Mr. Manafort was chairman of the Trump campaign, anti-corruption prosecutors in Ukraine disclosed that a pro-Russian political party had earmarked payments for Mr. Manafort from an illegal slush fund.

The media company [...] admitted to "working in concert" with the Trump campaign to pay off a woman who said she had an affair with Mr. Trump in order to squash her story

Look, I am not complaining that the President was absent without authorized leave. This is an improvement.

Pompeo said the media's reporting on the assessment "has been inaccurate," while declining to say what was false.

The vote: 200-117 - Mrs. May now has breathing room.

...just hours before the lawyer was sentenced to three years in jail Wednesday.

Cohen had pleaded guilty to nine federal charges of tax evasion, violating campaign finance laws, lying to banks and to Congress.

...followed by three years of supervised release

In addition to Arches and Canyonlands, the Bureau of Land Management leased public lands for fracking near Bears Ears, Canyons of the Ancients and Hovenweep national monuments and Glen Canyon National Recreation Area.

Sanders said earlier this year that it “bothers” her that people think she misleads the media.

“I would go back to the ambassadors and say, ‘You know he is pretty upset. I can’t promise you what he is going to do. I’ll tell you, if we do these sanctions, it will keep him from going too far.’”

By casting Meng, the daughter of Huawei's founder, as a potential bargaining chip in the trade talks, Trump has undermined the stance taken by senior officials in his administration that the case is strictly a law enforcement matter.

Trump was essentially goaded [...] into embracing ownership of a shutdown yet to come if Democrats do not accede to his request for $5 billion to build a wall on the southern border with Mexico.

...the president said the USMCA will bring so much money into the US that it would be almost as if Mexico paid for the wall.

To survive as prime minister, May must get the votes of 158 members of Parliament.

Trump’s son-in-law and daughter [...] want a political ally in the chief of staff job, and they are using their unrivaled influence to ensure they get one

It was the first-ever tie-breaking vote to confirm a federal judge nominee — in this case, Jonathan Kobes, whom legal experts called a competent and capable person, just not Circuit Court judge material.

The judge said Meng Wanzhou must meet stringent conditions aimed at making sure she doesn't flee Canada for China.

More than ever before, in the Trump era the right needs rank-and-file conservatives to distrust any information they receive from non-conservative sources

...saying he wants to scour their social media to see if they're biased against conservatives.

But a 30-minute hearing in the case Tuesday largely centered around scheduling matters and wasn't conclusive.

...releasing a signed affidavit from a Bladen County poll worker alleging that the results of early votes were shared improperly before the election.

Judge orders porn star Stormy Daniels to pay Trump $293,000 in attorneys’ fees, sanctions

His overall sentence: life plus 419 years and $480,000 in fines.

Trump wants you to believe that the southern border is now secured because of his tough measures. But he also wants you to believe the same border is in crisis and requires the construction of an expensive border wall to secure it.

If the legislation passes, it could be a rare bipartisan policy achievement for this Congress and the largest sentencing overhaul in decades.

The president taking ownership of any potential government shutdown hinders Republicans' ability to pin the blame on Democrats

...as the president insisted he's willing to let the government shut down if Congress doesn't approve funding for his U.S.-Mexico border wall.

...limiting the types of waterways that fall under federal protection to major waterways, their tributaries, adjacent wetlands and a few other categories.

Trump has become increasingly concerned in recent weeks about what his administration is facing come January

An eight-year campaign to slash the agency’s budget has left it understaffed, hamstrung and operating with archaic equipment. The result: billions less to fund the government. That’s good news for corporations and the wealthy.

In his tweets, Trump significantly exaggerated progress on the wall.

The protesters were calling for an end to detaining and deporting immigrants and showing support for migrants in a caravan of Central American asylum seekers.

“Okay but I don’t care; all I can say is he’s doing a good job as President”

Jessica Denson is going to court to challenge the award to the campaign, which came out of secret proceedings in arbitration.

Several of his aides expressed frustration that months of intense campaigning to replace John F. Kelly [...] resulted in yet another chaotic staffing scramble in a White House splintered by factions and rife with turnover.

Maria Butina [...] has agreed to plead guilty to conspiring to act as a foreign agent

Kevin McCarthy is singing a very different tune about congressional investigations than he did during the Obama years.

The order stems from a lawsuit filed by Denson against the campaign in November 2017 alleging discrimination and cyberbullying by campaign officials.

At a meeting to coordinate climate action, the nations thwarted recognition of a recent report expressing the urgency of reducing emissions

...the point of this action was to find the “source of the leak of information to Rudolph Giuliani in October 2016 that then-FBI Director James B. Comey was going to reopen the investigation into former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s use of personal email system.”

Kavanaugh joined the majority to allow the lower court’s decision to stand, leading some to speculate that he and others on the Court want to avoid cases related to abortion rights or Planned Parenthood for now after his bruising confirmation fight.

...information was leaked to Giuliani in October 2016 [...] giving the former New York mayor a tip that then-FBI Director James Comey was going to reopen the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server

But the fact remains that Kelly was a true believer in some of Trump’s very worst ideas, echoed several of his very worst influences, failed completely to compensate for Trump’s most significant personal deficiencies, and intervened at key moments to make things worse.

Apple said all models remain available for customers in China, as the ruling only involves models running older software it has now changed.

The result is that people can continue to use Medicaid money for pregnancy-related Planned Parenthood services. Now, this is not for abortion-related services. Federal law prohibits people to use Medicaid money for abortion.

Trump’s willingness to constantly repeat false claims has posed a unique challenge to fact-checkers.

Someone needs to get the White House under control—but the president won’t let it happen.

Expectations are low that anything will come of a meeting between Chuck Schumer, Nancy Pelosi and Donald Trump.

What the president claims was no big deal, say critics, was actually a very clear campaign violation and at least one member of Congress says they "certainly" could be "impeachable offenses"

Trump on Monday sought to downplay the felony his former personal attorney Michael Cohen pleaded guilty to this month

The legal decision is significant because means Britain could prevent a no-deal Brexit from happening if it wanted, even if Theresa May's deal is voted down by MPs next week.

The first person to destroy Trump’s star was Otis

In other words, MBS and company sought to exploit Kushner’s lack of expertise — an alarming prospect for anyone concerned about U.S. foreign policy.

The decision leaves Mr. Trump to contend with fresh uncertainty as he enters the 2020 campaign amid growing danger from the Russia investigation and from Democrats who have vowed tougher oversight

The Russian ambassador. A deputy prime minister. A pop star, a weightlifter, a lawyer, a Soviet army veteran with alleged intelligence ties.

...they have continued to scrutinize what other executives in the president’s family business may have known about those crimes

Trump [...] said that he would announce a replacement for Mr. Kelly, perhaps on an interim basis, in the next day or two.

“The inner circle is predominantly deal makers who lack familiarity with political customs and deep institutions, and they support Jared Kushner”

Trump told reporters he has not read the court filings, which detail alleged lies Cohen and Manafort told publicly and to investigators.

Meng Wanzhou [...] is believed to have helped Huawei circumvent US sanctions by telling financial institutions that a Huawei subsidiary was a separate company

His verdict on the caravan, which he delivered in a 17-minute video at the time, broke sharply with Trump-aligned orthodoxy on the issue.

A political consultant is challenging the decades-old federal law barring foreign involvement in U.S. elections.

Records reveal controversy-prone Pruitt networked and arranged friendly media interviews on personal account

b/c these are goddamned felonies

The president said on Twitter that Friday’s news “totally clears the President. Thank you!” It does not. Manafort and Cohen are in trouble, and so is Trump.

A number of people who, at one time or another, were close to Trump not only had ties to the Russians but went out of their way -- sometimes risking severe criminal penalties -- to lie about the nature of those contacts.

The special counsel is connecting the dots and it doesn’t paint a pretty picture for the president.

Trump has been asking his advisors if they think the tariffs he's levied against China are causing the market's unrest over the past two months.

In a heavily redacted document, Mueller also said Manafort lied about his interactions with Konstantin Kilimnik.

The jury deliberated for several hours before convicting Fields, 21, of first degree murder, along with several counts of aggravated malicious wounding, malicious wounding and leaving the scene of an accident.

...but asked that a judge consider his cooperation with the special counsel's Russia probe and other investigations in his sentencing.

Democrat Dan McCready would be favored to win a special election if one is called, strategists in both parties say.

The hearing today — one that Comey had resisted — is an effort by House Republicans allied with President Trump to pin him down on issues important to them before Democrats take control of the majority in January.

It’s unclear who made the requests...

The Mueller questions to Kelly centered on a narrow set of issues in the investigation of potential obstruction of justice

After Tillerson publicly said their encounters grew rocky over Trump’s directives to do things that were illegal, Trump hit back in a tweet in which he branded Tillerson “dumb as a rock” and “lazy as hell.”

The board has refused to certify Republican Mark Harris as the winner of the Nov. 6 election for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives as it investigates possible fraud involving absentee ballots from two rural counties.

Paul Manafort’s alleged meetings with Julian Assange were a huge news story, until they just became embarrassing

The court has never established a standard to resolve extreme partisan gerrymanders, and if it chooses to do so, it could revolutionize the way congressional and state legislative maps are drawn.

The decision is not official and Trump, who has reportedly come close to firing Kelly before, could once again change his mind.

“What was challenging for me [...],” Tillerson said, was “to go to work for a man who is pretty undisciplined, doesn’t like to read, doesn’t read briefing reports, doesn’t like to get into the details of a lot of things, but rather just kind of says, ‘This is what I believe.’ ”

Trump on Friday said he intended to nominate William P. Barr, who served as attorney general during the first Bush administration from 1991 to 1993, to return as head of the Justice Department.

“one of the greatest intelligence operations in history”

Nauert, 48, is an unusual choice for the UN role given that she had little experience in government or foreign policy before joining the administration in April 2017 after several years as an anchor and correspondent for Fox News, including on the “Fox and Friends” show watched by Trump.

Honestly, there’s no telling what you’ll pay today. Maybe $700. Maybe $70,000. It’s a fun surprise!

At the president’s New Jersey golf course, an undocumented immigrant has worked as a maid since 2013. She said she never imagined she “would see such important people close up.”

Huawei’s CFO was detained at the request of the US government, allegedly because she attempted to evade the US trade embargo on Iran

“Your argument” is “one note,” Justice Kagan tells Chaiten in an unusually candid exchange. Yes, there are members of the Court who think that originalism is the “alpha and omega” of constitutional interpretation, but most of them do not.

Ecuadorian President Lenin Moreno said Thursday that he had received written promises from the U.K. to not extradite Julian Assange to a country where he could face the death penalty

The fight comes as the shutdown deadline approaches.

The president has left top officials in a state of limbo and top jobs without permanent occupants, creating 'a sense of chaos.'

And the fact that Republicans increased the tax burden on nonprofits, including those tied to religion, so they could shower money on corporations and the wealthy shows where their priorities lie.

The deposed attorney general says he's not missing the Senate, amid speculation that he might mount a bid for his old job.

Around 500,000 comments were linked to Russian email addresses.

Economic growth increased over the past year [...] but the federal deficit has ballooned as well, in part because the government has taken in less revenue because of the tax cuts. Current forecasts are not too rosy about the future economy.

"The defendant deserves credit for accepting responsibility in a timely fashion and substantially assisting the government."

“Twitter allowed someone to invade my text with a disgusting anti-President message”

The need for the motorcade, however, prompted questions, and a healthy dose of speculation, about why the Trumps were unable — or unwilling — to simply walk across the street.

Other Watergate lawyers also went to jail for conspiring in Nixon’s efforts to obstruct justice.

The subpoenas seek details on some of the most closely held secrets of Trump’s presidency: Which foreign governments have paid the Trump Organization money? How much? And for what?

Flynn provided "substantial assistance" in special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation, according to court papers filed Tuesday.

What does this all mean? It means people higher up than Flynn are in deep trouble.

The protests are not “a middle class rebellion against cultural Marxism.” Not even close.

"America is booming, Europe is burning They want to cover up the middle class rebellion against cultural Marxism," he wrote in the punctuation- and grammar-light message.

After a two-month delay, the conservative legal activist Pat Cipollone will start his job Monday, according to two sources.

Longtime Trump ally Roger Stone is under scrutiny in special counsel Robert Mueller's ongoing probe of Russian interference in the 2016 election.

Graham said Tuesday that you’d have to be “willfully blind” to not know Mohammed was responsible — a clear rebuke of Trump’s argument that this whole thing resides in some kind of gray area.

Party officials would not say when the hack began or who was behind it, although they privately believe it was a foreign agent due to the nature of the attack.

After a briefing from CIA Director Gina Haspel, Senate leaders declared Tuesday they were convinced that Saudi Arabia's crown prince was behind the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

In the court filing due by midnight Tuesday, Mueller's team could also nod toward the next criminal indictments in its sights.

No other news organization has been able to corroborate the Guardian’s reporting to substantiate its central claim of a meeting.

So when the president announced publicly that China “has agreed to reduce and remove tariffs on cars coming into China from the U.S.,” Trump was either badly confused about a policy he really ought to understand or he was lying.

Less than a month after the midterm elections, Republican state lawmakers in Wisconsin and Michigan are working to limit the powers of newly elected Democrats in statewide office.

...risking almost certain detention by U.S. authorities but hoping the illegal entry will allow them to apply for asylum.

Michigan’s Republican-led legislature is also trying to disempower the state’s newly-elected Democratic governor

In at least two meetings with Mr. Manafort, Mr. Moreno and his aides discussed their desire to rid themselves of Mr. Assange [...] in exchange for concessions like debt relief from the United States

Eason added that she didn't see who people were voting for, but that she never mailed the ballots. Instead, she gave them to Dowless, adding that he did not mention to her that what she was doing was illegal.

“Federal law makes it a crime to do anything to dissuade, try to postpone or delay someone’s testimony”

The president praised Roger Stone for refusing to testify against him and bashed Michael Cohen for cooperating

The lack of specific commitments from China and the conflicting statements from United States and Chinese officials struck many analysts as a sign that the president might ultimately get far less than he was publicly portraying.

FCC denies NYT appeal, says producing requested records is too hard.

“They lost and they’re throwing a fit.”

Trump, according to The Washington Post, seems to believe that the Fed is a lot like a roller coaster: You have to be so tall to go on it.

...alleging prosecutors tried to coerce him to give false testimony.

"Which is the one that matters?" “Each of us gets a copy”

"I have nothing to do with Russia. Haven’t made a phone call to Russia in years. Don’t speak to people from Russia. I have nothing to do with Russia. To the best of my knowledge, no person that I deal with does.”

American intelligence agencies have evidence that Prince Salman and Mr. Qahtani had 11 exchanges that roughly coincided with the hit team’s advance into the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul, where Mr. Khashoggi was murdered.

But now a cadre of G.O.P. lawmakers are speaking out and urging party officials to come to terms with why their 23-seat majority unraveled so spectacularly and Democrats gained the most seats they had since 1974.

Comey will appear voluntarily Friday before the House Judiciary Committee, which has agreed to withdraw a subpoena

That's in part because Bush's death and plans for him to lie in state in the Capitol early this week will complicate any efforts to hammer out a large-scale funding deal before the Friday deadline

The NAFTA deal includes a provision that allows a withdrawal after providing a six-month notice, but opinions differ on whether the president can act on his own.

Despite the president's wishes he did eventually return to the stage, to pose for group photos with the other world leaders.

"President Trump has agreed that on January 1, 2019, he will leave the tariffs on $200 billion worth of product at the 10 percent rate, and not raise it to 25 percent at this time"

Hypocrisy and failure are only the beginning: Ryan’s speakership is a story of craven cowardice and collaboration

In his conversation with Saudi Arabia's Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Trudeau said better answers about the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi were required.

after discovering what was alleged to be a coordinated effort by Republican Party staff to disenfranchise Democratic Party voters by intentionally destroying and altering their absentee ballots.

At the G-20, 19 nations agreed to support the Paris accord on fighting climate change with the United States the lone holdout.

Andrés Manuel López Obrador, 65, known as AMLO, took office as potentially the most powerful Mexican president in decades.

Language used in statements issued after the two leaders meet will offer clues as to the temperature in the room — so what does it all mean?

If the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, has proved anything in his 18-month-long investigation [...] it is that Mr. Trump surrounded himself throughout 2016 and early 2017 with people to whom lying seemed to be second nature.

..."we could possibly lure [Khashoggi] outside Saudi Arabia and make arrangements," if the crown prince could not convince the dissident Saudi journalist [...] to return to Saudi Arabia.

Cohen kept Trump “apprised” of his contacts with Russia during the campaign.

“Michael regrets that his vigor in promoting Client-1’s interests in the heat of political battle led him to abandon good judgment and cross legal lines”

...people close to the President assured Cohen that Trump would take care of him.