Politics

The New York Times reports: Carter Page, a foreign policy adviser to the Trump presidential campaign, met Russian government officials during a July 2016 trip he took to Moscow, according to testimony he gave on Thursday to the House Intelligence Committee. Shortly after the trip, Mr. Page sent an email to at least one Trump campaign aide describing insights he …

The New York Times reports: Twitter blamed the deletion of President Trump’s Twitter account on Thursday night on a rogue customer support employee. That employee has since been hailed in social media as a hero and as a scourge for acting against the president, who said the move reflected the impact his Twitter messages have had. Yet it turns out …

ABC News reports: President Donald Trump called the news that Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl will not be facing any prison time a “complete disgrace” today, but that’s far from the harshest comment he’s had on the issue. His most recent previous remark came on Oct. 16, when Trump declined to comment on the Bergdahl case, saying, “They’re setting up sentencing, …

The Peoria Journal-Star reports: Attorneys for former U.S. Rep. Aaron Schock have appealed an order last week that threw out two but not all of the charges against him. The move could place the Jan. 22 trial date in the Urbana courtroom of U.S. District Judge Colin Bruce in jeopardy as such appeals can freeze the proceedings until they are …

Esquire reports: President Trump cannot be thrilled with the news this morning. The New York Times reported there is increasingly clear evidence that both Trump and his attorney general, Jeff Sessions, experimented with the truth when they said they knew of no one in the Trump campaign who was in contact with Russian officials during the election. It looks more …

NBC News reports: President Donald Trump embarked on the longest trip of his presidency Friday — a five-country, 10-day tour of Asia designed to strengthen diplomatic and economic partnerships while contending with North Korea’s nuclear threat. The president heads overseas during a time of what some experts see as a decline of U.S. influence in the region and they suggest …

CBS News reports: Donald Trump has seized upon former acting Democratic National Committee (DNC) Chair Donna Brazile’s assertion that the DNC rigged the primaries in favor of Hillary Clinton. In a new book, Brazile says that former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton effectively took control of the DNC months before she won the nomination. The DNC issued a statement claiming …

The Washington Post reports: President Trump boasted Friday of his social media influence after his personal Twitter account was briefly deactivated by a departing company employee, raising serious questions about the security of tweets the president wields to set major policy agendas, connect with his voter base and lash out at his adversaries. The deactivation Thursday sparked deep and troubling …

CNN reports: Jared Kushner has turned over documents in recent weeks to special counsel Robert Mueller as investigators have begun asking in witness interviews about Kushner’s role in the firing of FBI Director James Comey, CNN has learned. Mueller’s investigators have expressed interest in Kushner, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and a White House senior adviser, as part of its probe …

EcoWatch reports: The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service released a recommendation Wednesday to lift former President Obama’s uranium mining ban in the watershed of the Grand Canyon. The move was made in response to President Trump’s sweeping “energy independence” executive order in March to ease regulatory burdens on energy development. “This appalling recommendation threatens to destroy one of the …

CNN reports: Attorney General Jeff Sessions is once again under scrutiny on Capitol Hill regarding his candor about Russia and the Trump campaign amid revelations that he rejected a suggestion to convene a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump last year. According to court filings unsealed this week, Trump campaign foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos suggested at …

“For several reasons, this seems like a good time to pass on the privilege of representing the 21st District to someone else. At the end of this Congress, I will have completed my six-year term as chairman of the Science, Space and Technology Committee. I have one new grandchild and a second arriving soon! And I hope to find other …

The BBC reports: Eight sacked Catalan ministers have been remanded in custody by a Spanish high court judge over the region’s push for independence. Prosecutors had asked the judge to detain eight of the nine former government members who turned up for questioning in Madrid. They are accused of rebellion, sedition and misuse of public funds. The state prosecutor has …

The Associated Press reported on Twitter just now that Sam Clovis has withdrawn his nomination to the top science post at the Department of Agriculture. The move comes after Clovis was linked to George Papadopoulos in Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation and hours after a blistering Washington Post story: The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s chief scientist nominee, Sam Clovis, who now …

Talking Points Memo reports: Being under federal investigation hasn’t stopped former Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos from trying to advance his career. Four months ago, shortly before he was arrested for lying to FBI agents about his contacts with Russian nationals during the campaign, he asked his followers on LinkedIn for their “thoughts” on him pursuing a congressional run. In …

The Daily Beast reports: Former interim Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Donna Brazile claims Hillary Clinton secretly took over the DNC before she had won the Democratic primary. In an excerpt from her new book published by Politico, Brazile said she promised Clinton’s opponent, Bernie Sanders, that she would get to the bottom of whether Clinton had “rigged the nomination process.” …

The Hill reports: Department of Justice investigators have identified at least 6 Russian government officials who took part in hacking the Democratic National Committee (DNC), The Wall Street Journal reported early Thursday. Prosecutors may file charges next year, according to the report, but the individuals likely won’t be indicted in the United States. The newspaper noted that the investigation into …

“We always talk about E pluribus unum. What’s our unum now? We have the pluribus. What’s the unum? And I think it’s a great country. I think we, for whatever reasons, have made it our — some people have decided that the Constitution isn’t worth defending, that history isn’t worth defending, that the culture and principles aren’t worth defending. And, …

The New York Times reports: President Trump projected an air of calm on Wednesday after charges against his former campaign chief and a foreign policy aide roiled Washington, insisting to The New York Times that he was not “angry at anybody” and that investigations into his campaign’s links to Russia had not come near him personally. “I’m not under investigation, …

The Washington Post reports: In February, with the shock of President Trump’s victory still fresh, a small group of libertarians and conservatives began meeting every two weeks to discuss their next moves. Evan McMullin, the “Never Trump” presidential candidate, was in the room. So was Bill Kristol, co-founder of the Weekly Standard, who had drafted McMullin to run. The meeting …