Top Items:
Matt Zapotosky / Washington Post:
Mueller adds veteran cyber prosecutor to special-counsel team — Special counsel Robert S. Mueller III has added a veteran cyber prosecutor to his team, filling what has long been a gap in expertise and potentially signaling a recent focus on computer crimes.
Discussion:
Politico, Washington Monthly, The Gateway Pundit, Raw Story, Hullabaloo, The Week and Axios
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Bradley P. Moss / Politico:
This Is How Trump's Lawyers Are Probably Prepping Him for the Mueller Showdown — As reports emerge that Special Counsel Robert Mueller is looking to put President Donald Trump in the interview chair, you're probably wondering how the president's legal team can and should prepare him for that meeting if it happens.
Discussion:
Washington Post and The Week
New York Times:
Trump Sidesteps Question on Mueller Interview — WASHINGTON — President Trump on Wednesday declined to commit to being interviewed by the special counsel investigating whether his campaign colluded with Russia to sway the 2016 election, backing off a promise he made last year to talk to Robert S. Mueller III under oath.
Julia Marsh / Page Six:
Huma Abedin and Anthony Weiner call off divorce — Say it ain't so, Huma. — Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin and her jailed sext-a-holic hubby Anthony Weiner have withdrawn their pending divorce case, The Post has learned. — Abedin was scheduled to appear in Manhattan Supreme Court Wednesday afternoon …
Discussion:
Hot Air, The Gateway Pundit, thecut, IJR, Washington Post, Mediaite, Washington Free Beacon, RedState and The Daily Caller
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Sarah Ferris / Politico:
GOP may skip budget, kneecapping 2018 ambitions — Republican leaders are considering skipping passage of a GOP budget this year — a blow to the party's weakened fiscal hawks that would squash all 2018 efforts to revamp entitlements or repeal Obamacare. — White House and Hill GOP leaders discussed …
Discussion:
ABC News, Breitbart, Shareblue Media and Political Wire
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Jennifer Haberkorn / Politico:
Trump's secret plan to scrap Obamacare
Jaclyn Peiser / New York Times:
A Feminist Twitter Campaign Targets Harper's Magazine and Katie Roiphe — It started with a tweet on Tuesday afternoon. By the next morning, five writers were said to have pulled stories planned for future issues of Harper's Magazine — an effort to pressure the magazine not to reveal …
Elliot Spagat / Associated Press:
APNewsBreak: 7-Eleven probe opens new front on immigration — LOS ANGELES (AP) — U.S. immigration agents descended on dozens of 7-Eleven stores before dawn Wednesday to open employment audits and interview workers in what officials described as the largest operation against an employer under Donald Trump's presidency.
Discussion:
The Root, Common Dreams, The Daily Caller, Splinter, The Stranger … and The Week
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David Folkenflik / NPR:
Top Fox News D.C. Reporter James Rosen Left Network After Harassment Claims — On the Friday before Christmas, Fox News confirmed that its chief Washington correspondent, James Rosen, had left the network. He had worked there for 18 years and had become something of a legend.
Discussion:
Washington Examiner, RedState, IJR, The Week, Talking Points Memo, Raw Story, Mediaite, AOL, twitchy.com and TVNewser, more at Mediagazer »
Brian Beutler / Crooked Media:
The Crime Is Worse Than The Coverup — On multiple occasions in 2016, and perhaps stretching back into the previous year, Donald Trump's presidential campaign fielded solicitations from Russian spies and cutouts offering up stolen Democratic Party emails and other assistance in the election.
Discussion:
The Guardian, Washington Post, Booman Tribune, Just Security, Business Insider and Shareblue Media
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Mollie Hemingway / The Federalist:
10 Takeaways From Glenn Simpson's Fusion GPS Senate Testimony
10 Takeaways From Glenn Simpson's Fusion GPS Senate Testimony
Discussion:
USA Today, CNBC, Power Line, RedState, The Atlantic, The Daily Caller and National Review
Nick Penzenstadler / USA Today:
Trump sold $35M in real estate in 2017, mostly to secretive buyers — President Trump's companies sold more than $35 million in real estate in 2017, mostly to secretive shell companies that obscure buyers' identities, continuing a dramatic shift in his customers' behavior that began during the election, a USA TODAY review found.
Discussion:
Axios
TMZ.com:
Harvey Weinstein — Attacked at Scottsdale Restaurant — EXCLUSIVE — Harvey Weinstein was attacked Tuesday night at a restaurant ... TMZ has learned. — Weinstein was at Elements restaurant at the Sanctuary Camelback Mountain Resort in Scottsdale, eating dinner with his sober coach when 2 men sat at a table next to them.
Discussion:
USA Today, AOL, RedState, Breitbart, The Daily Caller, IJR, Washington Free Beacon, Mediaite and thecut
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Anita Kumar / McClatchy Washington Bureau:
GOP negotiators say Trump aide Stephen Miller is standing in the way of an immigration deal — WASHINGTON — Here's one thing even Republicans negotiating an immigration deal agree on: Trump aide Stephen Miller is hurting their chances of getting anything done.
Discussion:
New York Magazine, IJR, Talking Points Memo, Washington Monthly, YouTube, The Week, Fox News Insider, New Republic, The Guardian and Washington Post
Moira Donegan / thecut:
I Started the Media Men List My name is Moira Donegan. — In October, I created a Google spreadsheet called “Shitty Media Men” that collected a range of rumors and allegations of sexual misconduct, much of it violent, by men in magazines and publishing. The anonymous, crowdsourced document …
Discussion:
The Atlantic
Jesse McKinley / New York Times:
Democratic Leader in State Senate Accused of Sexual Misconduct — ALBANY — The leader of a powerful group of renegade Democrats in the New York State Senate has been accused by a former staff member of forcibly kissing her outside an Albany bar in 2015. — The allegation surfaced …
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Sebastian Murdock / HuffPost:
EXCLUSIVE: New York State Sen. Jeff Klein Accused Of Sexual Misconduct
Wall Street Journal:
Trump Administration Seeks to Change Rules on Bank Lending to the Poor — Regulators plan to revamp rules governing banks under the Community Reinvestment Act — The Trump administration plans to unveil a major revision to decades-old banking rules that mandate lending to poor borrowers.
Discussion:
The Daily Caller
Oliver Milman / The Guardian:
New York City plans to divest $5bn from fossil fuels and sue oil companies — Mayor Bill de Blasio: 'It's up to the fossil fuel companies whose greed put us in this position to shoulder the cost of making New York safer and more resilient' … New York City is seeking to lead the assault …
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New Yorker:
Michael Wolff Says That Washington Will Bury Trump — While I was eating breakfast at the Four Seasons in Georgetown on Tuesday morning, a veteran Washington journalist stopped by my table to say hello. “Nice to see you,” Michael Duffy, a former editor at Time, deadpanned, with a grin on his face …
Discussion:
Talking Points Memo, The Daily Caller and New York Magazine
Paul Farhi / Washington Post:
Post reporter Joel Achenbach suspended for 90 days for ‘inappropriate workplace conduct’ — The Washington Post suspended reporter Joel Achenbach on Wednesday for what it called “inappropriate workplace conduct” involving current and former female colleagues.
Discussion:
The Hill and Mediaite, more at Mediagazer »
Harriet Sinclair / Newsweek:
DONALD TRUMP'S SPIRITUAL ADVISER PAULA WHITE SUGGESTS PEOPLE SEND HER THEIR JANUARY SALARY OR FACE CONSEQUENCES FROM GOD — Donald Trump's spiritual adviser has suggested that people send her money in order to transform their lives, or face divine consequences.
Discussion:
The Daily Caller
Max Greenwood / The Hill:
Arpaio: Congress should examine presidential birth certificates — Former Maricopa County, Ariz. Sheriff Joe Arpaio resurfaced false claims on Wednesday that former President Barack Obama — 's birth certificate is a “forgery” and said Congress should pass a law requiring such documents to be examined.
Tamar Lapin / New York Post:
Confused readers are buying the wrong ‘Fire and Fury’ — SEE ALSO — It's “Fire and Fury” fever. — Confused readers are buying a military book in droves all because it has a title similar to Michael Wolff's bombshell “Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House,” according to a new report.
Discussion:
The Hill, The Guardian, RedState, IJR, TheBlaze, The Week and Washington Free Beacon
Katherine Faulders / ABC News:
White House memo: Kelly orders West Wing staff no personal phones, no smart watches — With an eye on bolstering cyber security protocols and cracking down on leaks to the media, Chief of Staff John Kelly issued a memo to staff on Wednesday outlining the administration's new ban …
Discussion:
9to5Mac, Raw Story, Mediaite and Political Wire
Devin Leonard / Bloomberg:
The Most Awful Transit Center in America Could Get Unimaginably Worse — Think Penn Station is bad? Let's go into the crumbling, disaster-prone tunnels that lie beneath. — To get to New York's Penn Station, every northbound Amtrak passenger makes the last leg of their journey …
Discussion:
Axios
Andy Koval / FOX59:
New layoffs at Carrier factory year after Trump deal … INDIANAPOLIS — A new round of layoffs is taking effect at the Carrier Corp. factory in Indianapolis a little more than a year after President Donald Trump touted a deal that save some of the plant's jobs.
Kevin McCoy / USA Today:
IRS private debt-collection program hurts low-income Americans — The Internal Revenue Service's handling of its private debt-collection program is harming lower-income Americans who can least afford to repay tax debts, a federal watchdog warned Wednesday. — The program also may be a waste …
Discussion:
New York Times, ThinkProgress and KFOR-TV
Jessie Hellmann / The Hill:
Trump administration ends registry for substance abuse, mental health programs — The federal government has ended a national registry designed to provide information to the public about evidence-based mental health and substance use interventions and programs.
Discussion:
Axios
David Sirota / International Business Times:
Trump Administration Waives Punishment For Convicted Banks, Including Deutsche — Which Trump Owes Millions — The Trump administration has waived part of the punishment for five megabanks whose affiliates were convicted and fined for manipulating global interest rates.
Morgan Cook / sandiegouniontribune.com:
Grand jury subpoena issued in Rep. Duncan Hunter criminal investigation … A federal grand jury is slated to hear evidence this month regarding certain transactions in Rep. Duncan Hunter's campaign treasury, which has been under scrutiny since the spring of 2016 as a result of frequent personal expenditures.
Discussion:
Los Angeles Times
Paul Blumenthal / HuffPost:
Republicans Have 4 Convicted Criminals Running For Congress In 2018 — Three of them are bragging about it. — WASHINGTON When Joe Arpaio, the former Maricopa County sheriff, announced his Senate candidacy on Tuesday, he became the fourth viable Republican 2018 congressional candidate who's been convicted of a crime.
Discussion:
KNXV, The Hill, ThinkProgress, twitchy.com, Notes and The Week
Jonathan Allen / NBC News:
Democrats to invite sex misconduct victims to Trump's State of the Union — WASHINGTON — Some Democratic House members are planning to invite victims of sexual assault to President Donald Trump's State of the Union address later this month to highlight the issue, according to an aide …
Discussion:
Raw Story
WREG-TV:
Navy veteran's mother denied visa to attend his funeral — BLYTHEVILLE, Ark. — He proudly served his country, but when it came time to bury him, a Navy veteran's father said the government wouldn't grant his son's mother a visa to attend his funeral. — Ngoc Truong, a four-year Navy veteran …
Benjamin Weiser / New York Times:
Gillibrand Vows to Block Trump's Likely Choice for U.S. Attorney in Manhattan — Senator Kirsten Gillibrand plans to use a prerogative given to home-state senators to try to block the confirmation of Geoffrey S. Berman if he is nominated by President Trump as the United States attorney in Manhattan, her spokesman said on Wednesday.
Discussion:
The Hill
Adam K. Raymond / New York Magazine:
Jared Kushner Is Turning His Focus to Prison Reform — Trump senior adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner has a long list of responsibilities in the White House, including bringing peace to the Middle East and transforming the federal government so it runs “like a great American company.”