Comey Is Said to Have Become Unsettled by Interactions With Trump  —  WASHINGTON — President Trump called the F.B.I. director, James B. Comey, weeks after he took office and asked him when federal authorities were going to put out word that Mr. Trump was not personally under investigation, according to two people briefed on the call.

Julian Assange Rape Investigation Is Dropped in Sweden  —  STOCKHOLM — Prosecutors in Sweden said on Friday that they would drop their investigation into Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks founder who sought refuge in the Ecuadorean Embassy in London five years ago after the authorities …

Tips for Leaders Meeting Trump: Keep It Short and Give Him a Win  —  WASHINGTON — As Saudi Arabia's leaders prepared to make a pitch to the White House for a visit by President Trump, a PowerPoint presentation was put together complete with slides describing Saudi demographics …

House May Be Forced to Vote Again on GOP's Obamacare Repeal Bill  —  Two weeks after passage, measure still not sent to Senate  —  CBO report could force Ryan, other party leaders into redo  —  House Republicans barely managed to pass their Obamacare repeal bill earlier this month …

Source: Pence Never Informed About Flynn  —  Vice President Mike Pence has been kept in the dark about former National Security Adviser Mike Flynn's alleged wrongdoing, according to a source close to the administration, who cited a potential “pattern” of not informing the vice president and calling it …

F.B.I. Once Warned G.O.P. Congressman That Russian Spies Were Recruiting Him  —  WASHINGTON — The F.B.I. warned a Republican congressman in 2012 that Russian spies were trying to recruit him, officials said, an example of how aggressively Russian agents have tried to influence Washington politics.

Anthony Weiner to Plead Guilty to Resolve ‘Sexting’ Inquiry  —  Anthony D. Weiner, the former Democratic congressman whose “sexting” scandals ended his political career and embroiled him in a tumultuous F.B.I. investigation of Hillary Clinton before the election, is to appear in a federal courtroom …

Roger Ailes had my back at Fox News  —  Roger experienced hatred, and it killed him.  —  CONNECT  —  To say that Roger Ailes led a full life is a massive understatement.  A force of nature with an agenda, RA, as fellow executives called him, was a man on a mission.

After Mueller, Trump Critics Worry: Maybe There's No Scandal  —  Eli Lake is right: The DOJ's appointment of widely-respected former prosecutor Robert Mueller to lead the special inquiry into the Trump campaign's potential collusion with Russia is a reprieve for a Trump Administration in crisis …

Senate Democrats reject Lieberman for FBI director  —  President Donald Trump may be dramatically miscalculating how much support Sen. Joe Lieberman would have among his former Democratic colleagues if nominated to become FBI director.  —  Some Senate Democrats hold a grudge against Lieberman …

Trump Team Planning Possible Retaliation for Classified Leak Allegations  —  White House officials concoct “ludicrous” revenge plan targeting former Obama administration.  —  President Donald Trump's inner circle is war-gaming how best to respond to the Washington Post's bombshell report …

Health insurers and state officials say Trump is undermining Obamacare, pushing up rates  —  President Trump meets in February with the heads of major health insurers.  Many industry officials and state regulators now believe they cannot rely on Trump to effectively manage the country's insurance markets.

State Department Summons Turkish Ambassador After Bloody Brawl in D.C.  —  Turkish Ambassador Serdar Kiliç was called in to the State Department to meet with U.S. Under Secretary of State Thomas Shannon hours after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's guards violently entered a crowd of protesters, U.S. officials said Thursday.

Wooed by Trump's promises, opioid advocates now worry they were all empty  —  Opioids create generation of American orphans  —  Washington (CNN)Erin Canterbury had voted for New Hampshire Democrats for over a decade.  Then she met Donald Trump at a roundtable on the state's opioid epidemic …

The Guardrails of American Democracy Can't Contain Trump  —  But that doesn't mean he should be removed via the 25th Amendment.  —  The pleasant surprise of the first 100 days is over.  The action was hectic, heated, often confused, but well within the bounds of normalcy.

A Basquiat Sells for ‘Mind-Blowing’ $110.5 Million at Auction  —  Joining the rarefied $100 million-plus club in a salesroom punctuated by periodic gasps from the crowd, Jean-Michel Basquiat's powerful 1982 painting of a skull brought $110.5 million at Sotheby's, to become the sixth most expensive work ever sold at auction.

Trump's Approval Sinks Further Amid Avalanche of Bad Headlines  —  Political observers have said it's been a very bad week for President Donald Trump, and that notion is underscored by a new Morning Consult/POLITICO survey that shows his support continues to decline as many voters expressed concern about his fitness for office.