National security adviser attempts to reconcile Trump's competing impulses on Afghanistan  —  In meeting after meeting with his national security adviser, H.R. McMaster, this spring and summer, President Trump angrily hammered home two questions:  —  He wanted to know why the U.S. military …

Leak Investigations Triple Under Trump, Sessions Says  —  Washington — Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced on Friday that the Justice Department was now pursuing three times as many leak investigations as the previous administration, a significant devotion of law enforcement resources …

Exclusive: FBI tracked ‘fake news’ believed to be from Russia on Election Day  —  STORY HIGHLIGHTS  —  Washington (CNN)The FBI monitored social media on Election Day last year in an effort to track a suspected Russian disinformation campaign utilizing “fake news,” CNN has learned.

Martin Shkreli Is Found Guilty of Fraud  —  Martin Shkreli, accused of defrauding his hedge fund investors and a pharmaceutical company, was convicted on three of eight counts on Friday, after a five-week trial in the Federal District Court in Brooklyn.  —  He faces as much as 20 years in prison.

This Trump real estate deal looks awfully like criminal tax fraud  —  Two tax lawyers break down the president's sale of two condos to his son. … President Trump clearly doesn't want to release his income tax returns to the public.  Members of the public and commentators …

Fox's Jarrett calls grand juries ‘undemocratic farce’ one day after calling for one for Clinton  —  Former defense attorney and Fox News anchor Gregg Jarrett called grand juries an “undemocratic farce” on Thursday, just one day after writing an op-ed asking why a grand jury had not been impaneled …

Murder conviction in Blackwater case thrown out, other sentences overturned  —  A U.S. appeals court on Friday threw out the first-degree murder conviction of a former Blackwater Worldwide security guard sentenced to life in prison in the killings of 14 unarmed Iraqi civilians in a Baghdad traffic circle in 2007.

Cuomo May Face a Primary Hurdle in 2018  —  An actress, an upstate mayor and a former state senator are three potential democratic contenders  —  New York Governor Andrew Cuomo speaks during a rally in support of the Affordable Care Act and against the Senate replacement bill in July.

Ivanka and Jared, move back to New York  —  After delivering a blistering speech critiquing Donald Trump's performance as president at a recent conference, I was challenged by an audience member to say something nice about our commander in chief.  I answered without a second's hesitation.

Wasserman Schultz Says Laptop She Sought To Keep From Police Was Awan's, Not Hers  —  Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz never actually saw the computer she fought to block the Capitol Police from examining as evidence in a criminal case against her IT aide by saying it was hers, she told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel Thursday.

Keep the Trump Leaks Coming  —  The president is too incompetent to serve, and Congress must be pressured into removing him.  —  Both in content and in context, the official transcripts of Donald Trump's January phone calls with Australian Prime Minister Malcom Turnbull …

Russian Lawyer Tells State TV She Met Trump Jr. to Ask for ‘Help’  —  The Russian lawyer who reportedly met with Donald Trump Jr. to offer him compromising material on Hillary Clinton, told state television she wanted to “ask him for help.”  —  “It was a private meeting,” …

TRUMP, AMERICA'S BOY KING: GOLF AND TELEVISION WON'T MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN  —  Now that he's president, Trump frequently departs the White House and spends the weekend golfing at either his South Florida resort, Mar-a-Lago, or his country club in the New Jersey suburb of Bedminster.

Amid Washington dysfunction, lack of accomplishments, Trumps clings to his shrinking support  — As political and legal troubles mount, President Donald Trump holds ever tighter onto a base of support that grows ever smaller.  — Trump has placed cultivation of intensity within his base …

Hunt for Trump dossier author inflames Russia probe  —  Two Republican House Intelligence Committee staffers traveled to London earlier this summer to track down the former British intelligence operative who compiled a controversial dossier on President Donald Trump and Russia, according to three people familiar with the matter.

US created 209,000 jobs in July, vs 183,000 jobs expected  — The U.S. economy added 209,000 jobs in July and the unemployment rate dipped to 4.3 percent, according to a government report Friday.  — The report comes with the economy at a crossroads as President Trump has promised 3 percent economic growth.

Other presidents paused to meet the press before going on vacation — not Trump  —  Acosta's full exchange with Stephen Miller  —  President Trump has let almost six months pass without holding a solo press conference.  Now he's heading off on a two-week vacation with no immediate plans to meet the press.

Forget scenic traditions — Trump vacations in the land of spray tans  —  WASHINGTON — There's been an unspoken norm among presidents that their vacations are glamorous, or at the very least, scenic.  —  In election years, they tend to bow more to the masses.  But most other years are set aside for mixing with elites.