memeorandum: UK will not pay lump sum Brexit bill, according to draft agreement (Politico)

5:10 PM ET, December 6, 2017

Top Items:

Heather Caygle / Politico:

Another woman says Franken tried to forcibly kiss her — A former Democratic congressional aide said Al Franken tried to forcibly kiss her after a taping of his radio show in 2006, three years before he became a U.S. senator. — The aide, whose name POLITICO is withholding to protect her identity …

Tina Dupuy / The Atlantic:

I Believe Franken's Accusers Because He Groped Me, Too — In mid-November, a Los Angeles radio host named Leeann Tweeden stepped forward to claim that Senator Al Franken had shoved his tongue down her throat under the pretext of a rehearsal for a sketch he'd written.

Discussion: Politico, Talking Points Memo, Axios, Washington Post, Splinter, The Week, Washington Times, Mediaite, AOL and WHNT-TV, more at Mediagazer »

Kirsten Gillibrand:

Senator Franken Should Step Aside — I have been shocked and disappointed to learn over the last few weeks that a colleague I am fond of personally has engaged in behavior towards women that is unacceptable. I consider Senator Franken to be a friend and have enjoyed working with him in the Senate …

Brian Bakst / mprnews.org:

Sen. Al Franken will resign, Democratic official says — A Democratic official who has spoken to Al Franken and key aides says Franken will resign his Minnesota Senate seat on Thursday, the official tells MPR News. — The official spoke to Franken and separately to Franken's staff.

Discussion: Raw Story

Seung Min Kim / Politico:
More than two dozen Democratic senators call on Franken to resign

Discussion: Power Line, ABC News, Axios, Washington Post, Jamie Dupree - AJC, Lawyers, Guns & Money, Raw Story, IJR, Talking Points Memo, NTK Network, The Week and Mediaite

James Pindell / BostonGlobe.com:
Aide says Warren told Franken he should resign

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, RedState and NTK Network

New York Times:

Flynn Said Russian Sanctions Would be ‘Ripped Up,’ Whistle-Blower Says — WASHINGTON — Michael T. Flynn, President Trump's former national security adviser, told a former business associate that economic sanctions against Russia would be “ripped up” as one of the Trump administration's first acts …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Mother Jones, Axios, IJR, The New Civil Rights Movement, Daily Kos, The Week, Mediaite and Political Wire

New York Times:

Read the Letter That Cummings Sent on Flynn Whistle-Blower — Representative Elijiah E. Cummings, Democrat of Maryland, wrote a letter on Wednesday to Representative Trey Gowdy, Republican of South Carolina and the chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee …

Discussion: Joe.My.God.

House Oversight Dems / Oversight Democrats: Flynn Text to Business Colleague During Trump Inauguration

Kyle Cheney / Politico:
Flynn texted partners about nuclear plan during inauguration, whistleblower says

Discussion: Washington Examiner, Mother Jones, RedState and ABC News

Tom Hamburger / Washington Post:
Flynn told former business associate that Russia sanctions would be ‘ripped up,’ according to congressional witness

Discussion: Booman Tribune

Mark Landler / New York Times:

Trump Recognizes Jerusalem as Israel's Capital and Orders U.S. Embassy to Move — WASHINGTON — President Trump on Wednesday formally recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, reversing nearly seven decades of American foreign policy and setting in motion a plan to move the United States Embassy …

Discussion: URJ, RedState, Associated Press, Common Dreams, Al Jazeera English, IJR, ThinkProgress and Splinter

Josh Delk / The Hill:
Schumer says he advised Trump to declare Jerusalem Israel's ‘undivided’ capital

Discussion: Weekly Standard, Washington Post, ABC News, BBC, RedState, The Slot, Splinter, The Daily Caller, IJR and NTK Network

Bloomberg:
Jerusalem Divides Trump's Team and Complicates Kushner's Peace Plan

Discussion: BloombergQuint

Associated Press:
Transcript: Trump's remarks on Jerusalem

Discussion: The Daily Beast and Axios

Josh Rogin / Washington Post:
Trump's Israel-Palestine policy is at war with itself

Discussion: The Atlantic, New Republic, New York Times, BloombergQuint, NPR, Al Jazeera English, Outside the Beltway and 89.3 KPCC

Stephen Collinson / CNN:
Trump's Jerusalem decision promises upheaval

Discussion: Financial Times, Mother Jones, The Federalist, KTLA, CBS Philly, KFOR-TV, Just Security, fox13now.com and Shareblue Media

CNN:

Trump Jr. says he communicated with Hope Hicks, not his father, about Trump Tower response — (CNN)Donald Trump Jr. told House investigators that did not communicate directly with his father when confronted with news reports about his June 2016 Trump Tower meeting, according to multiple sources with knowledge of his testimony.

Discussion: The Hill, RedState, Reuters, Washington Post, Political Wire, Raw Story, Right Wing Watch and NBC News

CNN:

Fire closes I-405, rages near Bel Air, Getty museum in Los Angeles — Los Angeles (CNN)A new wildfire closed Interstate 405 early Wednesday near Los Angeles' posh Bel Air area and prompted evacuations — one in a series of blazes that have scorched more than 83,000 acres …

Discussion: Mother Jones, Washington Post, New York Times, KFOR-TV, robertscribbler, New York Magazine, KTLA, BloombergQuint, fox13now.com, Gizmodo, WHNT-TV, The Daily Caller, Mediaite, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin and Joe.My.God.

Los Angeles Times:
Several homes burning in Bel-Air as fire closes the 405 Freeway and forces evacuations

Discussion: Business Insider, NBC News and Mashable

Bloomberg:

Deutsche Bank Records Said to Be Subpoenaed by Mueller — Corrects Dec. 5 story that said subpoena ‘zeroed in’ on Trumps — Subpoena is said to seek information on affiliated people — Deutsche Bank AG provided records to special prosecutor Robert Mueller's investigation after receiving …

Discussion: The Daily Caller and Washington Free Beacon

Paul Sperry / New York Post:
Double-crossing FBI agent must be held accountable

Discussion: Fox News, American Greatness and Power Line

Brian Faler / Politico:

‘Holy crap’: Experts find tax plan riddled with glitches — Republicans' tax-rewrite plans are riddled with bugs, loopholes and other potential problems that could plague lawmakers long after their legislation is signed into law. — Some of the provisions could be easily gamed, tax lawyers say.

Discussion: Business Insider, New York Magazine, Hit & Run, The Week, Splinter and Daily Kos

Joe Concha / The Hill:

NYT's Bret Stephens says he can never vote Republican again — New York Times columnist Bret Stephens declared he can never vote Republican again because of the party's backing of Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore. — “Until last year, I voted Republican in every single election,” Stephens told MSNBC anchor Stephanie Ruhle.

Discussion: Political Wire

Lachlan Markay / The Daily Beast:
Trump Has Privately Decided the Sexual-Assault Allegations Against Roy Moore Are Bunk

Discussion: The White House, Talking Points Memo, Shakesville, Daily Kos, The Daily Caller and No More Mister Nice Blog

Maegan Vazquez / CNN:

Bannon on Romney: ‘You hid behind your religion’ to avoid Vietnam — Bannon hits Romney for avoiding Vietnam — STORY HIGHLIGHTS — Washington (CNN)Steve Bannon bashed Mitt Romney Tuesday night for, as he put it, hiding behind his religion to avoid getting drafted into the Vietnam War.

Discussion: NBC News, Hot Air, The Daily Beast and RedState

Eun Kyung Kim / TODAY.com:

The Silence Breakers are TIME's 2017 Person of the Year — TIME has named The Silence Breakers, the individuals who set off a national reckoning over the prevalence of sexual harassment, as its 2017 Person of the Year. — The magazine's editor-in-chief Edward Felsenthal revealed …

Discussion: The Hill, TheBlaze, New York Times, Washington Post, Common Dreams, NBC News, Talking Points Memo, FOX31 Denver, IJR, 89.3 KPCC, Mediaite, Washington Free Beacon, Joe.My.God., RedState, Vox, NPR, WFLA-TV and VICE

Politico:

Trump impeachment vote fails overwhelmingly — The measure drew the support of 58 House Democrats. — House Democrats overwhelmingly joined Republicans on Wednesday to defeat an attempt to impeach President Donald Trump. But 58 Democrats supported the bid to consider impeachment …

Discussion: Joe.My.God.

Jordan Fabian / The Hill:
Trump says government shutdown ‘could happen’

Discussion: RedState

Linda Blackford / Lexington Herald-Leader:

Kim Davis denied him a marriage license. Now he wants to take her job. — MOREHEAD — David Ermold, one of the men denied a same-sex marriage license by Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis in 2015, hopes to challenge her for the clerk's seat next year, he announced Wednesday.

Discussion: The Hill, IJR, Friendly Atheist, Splinter and Towleroad

Adam Beam / Associated Press:
Gay man who was denied marriage license by Kim Davis is running for her job

Discussion: The Slot, The New Civil Rights Movement and Joe.My.God.

Oobah Butler / VICE:

I Made My Shed the Top Rated Restaurant On TripAdvisor — Once upon a time, long before I began selling my face by the acre for features on VICE dot com, I worked other jobs. There was one in particular that really had an impact on me: writing fake reviews on TripAdvisor.

Discussion: Eduwonk and The Week

Washington Post:

GOP leaders considering 22 percent corporate tax rate as deadlines near, sources say — Republican leaders, convinced they need to find new revenue in order to fund last-minute changes to the giant tax package moving through Congress, are looking at decreasing the size of their planned corporate tax cut …

Discussion: Axios, CNBC and Political Wire

NBC News:

John Conyers III arrested but not prosecuted in domestic abuse case — LOS ANGELES — John Conyers III, a Detroit hedge fund manager named as a possible successor to his scandal-rocked father, Rep. John Conyers, was arrested in Los Angeles this year on suspicion of domestic violence …

Discussion: twitchy.com

Josh Lederman / Associated Press:

Doctors identify brain abnormalities in Cuba attack patients — WASHINGTON (AP) — Doctors treating the U.S. Embassy victims of mysterious, invisible attacks in Cuba have discovered brain abnormalities as they search for clues to explain the hearing, vision, balance and memory damage, The Associated Press has learned.

Discussion: New York Times, AOL, IJR, The Daily Caller and The Week

Eliana Dockterman / TIME:

‘I Was Angry.’ Taylor Swift on What Powered Her Sexual Assault Testimony — Before the Harvey Weinstein allegations broke, and before #MeToo swept the Internet, Taylor Swift testified in court on Aug. 10 about being assaulted in a room full of people. Swift, who TIME recognized …

Discussion: The Daily Beast, The Atlantic, Politico, Washington Post, AOL and Sputnik International

Charlotte Alter / TIME:
Republicans Are Less Likely Than Democrats to Believe Women Who Make Sexual Assault Accusations: Survey

Discussion: The Hill, Washington Post, Common Dreams, Mashable, The Daily Caller, The Guardian, WGN-TV, Refinery29, ABC News, Raw Story and IJR

Kimberly Kindy / Washington Post:

Conyers faced mounting sexual misconduct allegations as he weighed his future — As Rep. John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.) this week weighed calls for his resignation from a Michigan hospital bed, more women were coming forward with accounts of sexual misconduct by the lawmaker.