Trump Administration

Law & Crime reports: The Department of Justice on Friday evening released 176 pages of notes from former Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s interviews with key witnesses during his office’s investigation into Russian election interference. But the records, produced under a federal court order resulting from dual Freedom of Information Act (FIOA) lawsuits filed by CNN and BuzzFeed, conspicuously withheld all …

The Washington Post reports: The large color photograph that greets visitors to a National Archives exhibit celebrating the centennial of women’s suffrage shows a massive crowd filling Pennsylvania Avenue NW for the Women’s March on Jan. 21, 2017, the day after President Trump’s inauguration. The 49-by-69-inch photograph is a powerful display. Viewed from one perspective, it shows the 2017 march. …

The Sacramento Bee reports: The state of California is suing President Donald Trump’s Bureau of Land Management in an attempt to block the opening of more than 1 million acres of public land to oil and gas drilling, including hydraulic fracturing or fracking. The lawsuit, filed Friday in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, seeks to …

The Washington Post reports: The U.S. Department of Agriculture has taken another whack at former first lady Michelle Obama’s signature achievement: Establishing stricter nutritional standards for school breakfasts and lunches.  On Friday, USDA Deputy Under Secretary Brandon Lipps announced new proposed rules for the Food and Nutrition Service that would allow schools to cut the amount of vegetables and fruits …

CNN reports: Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Friday publicly committed to look into the possible surveillance of former US Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch — more than 48 hours after the evidence of potential monitoring emerged and more than 24 hours after Ukraine announced its own investigation into the matter. “We will do everything we need to do to …

Politico reports: A coalition that includes attorneys general in 14 states, the District of Columbia and New York City are suing the Agriculture Department over a plan to impose stricter work requirements on millions of food stamp recipients. The lawsuit, filed Thursday by mostly Democratic-led states, argues that USDA unlawfully limited states’ discretion to exempt certain adults from work requirements …

The Week reports: Lev Parnas, the indicted associate of Rudy Giuliani, told MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow in an interview that aired Thursday night that former Energy Secretary Rick Perry was directed by Rudy Giuliani to tell Ukraine its U.S. aid was contingent on the country announcing investigations of former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter. Parnas alleges that after …

CNN reports: Several US service members were injured during last week’s Iranian missile attack on Al-Asad airbase in Iraq Pentagon. “While no U.S. service members were killed in the Jan. 8 Iranian attack on Al Asad Air base, several were treated for concussion symptoms from the blast and are still being assessed,” the US-led military coalition fighting ISIS in Iraq …

The New York Times reports: Federal prosecutors in Washington are investigating a years-old leak of classified information about a Russian intelligence document, and they appear to be focusing on whether the former F.B.I. director James B. Comey illegally provided details to reporters, according to people familiar with the inquiry. The case is the second time the Justice Department has investigated …

Via press release from the ACLU: The American Civil Liberties Union, National Immigrant Justice Center, Center for Gender & Refugee Studies, and Human Rights First filed a federal lawsuit today challenging the Trump administration’s policies regarding so-called “safe third country” agreements with Guatemala and other nations that force people fleeing for their lives to seek asylum in the same dangerous …

NBC News reports: President Donald Trump on Thursday announced a series of new rules and guidance memos designed to push federal funds to religious organizations and advance prayer in public schools. The guidance comes amid a formal White House declaration recognizing Jan.16 as Religious Freedom Day. In a reversal of Obama-era requirements that tightly restricted religious organizations receiving taxpayer money, …

The New York Times reports: The Senate is still discussing whether it will hear witness testimony from John Bolton, the former national security adviser, who has said he would comply with a subpoena during the impeachment trial. But he’s planning to reveal some of what he saw regarding the Ukraine matter in his upcoming book, according to people familiar with …

The Guardian reports: Donald Trump “abused”, “harassed” and “pestered” his homeland security secretary over immigration policy, demanding that the US border be closed, a new book reveals. And when the then secretary, Kirstjen Nielsen, warned the president that shutting down the border would be illegal, the then attorney general, Jeff Sessions, approved the radical measure – despite it being against …

The Washington Post reports: President Trump is preparing to divert an additional $7.2 billion in Pentagon funding for border wall construction this year, five times what Congress authorized him to spend on the project in the 2020 budget, according to internal planning figures obtained by The Washington Post. The Pentagon funds would be extracted, for the second year in a row, …

“I think the president is making clear that the Democrats are and have been parroting Iranian talking points and almost taking the side of terrorists and those who were out to kill the Americans. I think the president was making the point that the Democrats seem to hate him so much that they’re willing to be on the side of …

Fox News reports: The White House’s official Twitter handle on Sunday confused residents in Washington, D.C., when it tweeted out a nighttime photograph of the world’s most famous residence behind falling snowflakes with the caption: “First snow of the year!” One problem: It didn’t snow in the city that day and was, in fact, unseasonably warm, with highs that nearly …

Reuters reports: The United States on Friday rejected a formal request from Britain for the extradition of a U.S. diplomat’s wife who left the country last year after a road collision that killed 19-year-old Briton Harry Dunn. British prosecutors are seeking the extradition of Anne Sacoolas over the crash last August in which Dunn was killed while riding his motorbike. …

The Washington Examiner reports: The Department of Justice doesn’t want the Supreme Court to fast-track a case that could result in Obamacare being thrown out ahead of the presidential election, despite its position that the healthcare law should be abolished. If the court agrees with the Trump administration, then President Trump and Republicans will be spared the possibility of having …

The Associated Press reports: The White House is considering expanding its much-litigated travel ban to additional countries amid a renewed election-year focus on immigration issues by President Donald Trump, according to four people familiar with the deliberations. A document outlining the plans has been circulating the White House, but the countries that would be affected are blacked out, according to …

The Wall Street Journal reports: The Trump administration is working on a plan to tighten eligibility requirements for disability benefits, especially for older Americans, the latest step in a broader White House effort to shrink federal safety-net programs. The proposal being prepared by the Social Security Administration would revise eligibility for disability benefits based on age, education and work experience, …