memeorandum: Exclusive: Controversial FBI agent co-wrote initial draft of explosive Comey letter reopening Clinton email probe (CNN)

8:30 PM ET, January 31, 2018

Top Items:

CNN:

Exclusive: Trump asked Rosenstein if he was ‘on my team’ — Washington (CNN)Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein visited the White House in December seeking President Donald Trump's help. The top Justice Department official in the Russia investigation wanted Trump's support …

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, Washington Monthly, Shareblue Media, Vox, The Hill, ThinkProgress, RedState, Talking Points Memo, Axios, IJR, repubHub, Shakesville, Raw Story, Outside the Beltway, Daily Kos, The Week and Mediaite

Bloomberg:

FBI's Wray Opposes GOP Memo Release, Citing Inaccuracies — Trump overheard saying memo ‘100 percent’ should be released — Republicans say memo raises doubts about Russia probe — FBI Director Christopher Wray has informed the White House of his opposition to releasing a controversial …

Federal Bureau of Investigation:

FBI Statement on HPSCI Memo — The FBI takes seriously its obligations to the FISA Court and its compliance with procedures overseen by career professionals in the Department of Justice and the FBI. We are committed to working with the appropriate oversight entities to ensure the continuing integrity of the FISA process.

Discussion: Fox News, Business Insider, TheBlaze and Mediaite

Adam B. Schiff / Washington Post:

Rep. Nunes's memo crosses a dangerous line — Adam B. Schiff, ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, represents California's 28th District. — Even during the most difficult of times, when Congress had seemingly lost the capacity to govern and partisan storms raged across Capitol Hill …

Discussion: Bloomberg, The Daily Caller, CNBC, Politico, Media Matters for America and Mediaite

U.S. House of Representatives Permanent …:

Nunes Statement on FBI, DOJ Objections to Release of HPSCI Memo — f t # e — House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes issued the following statement today: — “Having stonewalled Congress' demands for information for nearly a year, it's no surprise …

Discussion: RedState, Fox News, The Gateway Pundit, The Last Refuge, Business Insider and IJR

New York Times:

F.B.I. Condemns Push to Release Secret Republican Memo — WASHINGTON — Christopher A. Wray, the F.B.I. director, clashed publicly with the president for the first time on Wednesday, condemning a push by House Republicans to release a secret memo that purports to show how the bureau …

Discussion: Reuters, CNBC, Daily Kos and Mother Jones

Noah Bookbinder / Politico:
Trump's Saturday Night Massacre Is Happening Right Before Our Eyes

Discussion: CNN, Washington Post and Business Insider

Allegra Kirkland / Talking Points Memo:
FBI Publicly Savages Nunes Memo For ‘Material Omissions Of Fact’

Discussion: Politico, Washington Post, twitchy.com, Vox, IJR and The Week

Eric Boehlert / Shareblue Media:
In rare public rebuke, FBI humiliates GOP for Mueller smear campaign

Discussion: Raw Story

Betsy Woodruff / The Daily Beast:
FBI Launches Preemptive Strike on Nunes Memo

Mike Levine / ABC News:
DOJ gives special counsel internal docs on thwarted Sessions resignation, source says

Discussion: Washington Post, Associated Press, Reuters, The Week, Daily Kos and RedState

Orin Kerr / Lawfare:
The Dubious Legal Claim Behind #ReleaseTheMemo

Discussion: Washington Post and Daily Kos

Katie Bo Williams / The Hill:
FBI warns it has ‘grave concerns’ about omissions in Nunes memo

Discussion: Townhall.com

Devlin Barrett / Washington Post:
Showdown escalates between Trump, Nunes and the FBI

Discussion: Mother Jones, Washington Times, CNN, The Hill, bizpacreview.com, Vox, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Fox News Insider, Washington Free Beacon, New York Magazine, Breitbart and twitchy.com

CNN:

Exclusive: Controversial FBI agent co-wrote initial draft of explosive Comey letter reopening Clinton email probe — GOP Rep.: FBI texts most biased I've ever seen — Washington (CNN)Emails obtained by CNN show the FBI agent at the center of a Capitol Hill storm played a key role …

Discussion: Vox, RedState, Washington Examiner, ThinkProgress, Shareblue Media, New York Magazine, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, bizpacreview.com, AOL, Axios, The Week, The Gateway Pundit, Mediaite, Daily Kos, Raw Story, Political Wire and Joe.My.God.

Judd Legum / ThinkProgress:

Signature line from Trump's speech is already a white nationalist rallying cry — Donald Trump's first State of the Union was a largely banal speech with few policy details and none of his signature asides and bravado. Overall, the reception to the speech has been cool.

Discussion: CNN, Vox, Hullabaloo, Washington Times, bizpacreview.com, Conservative Review, Business Insider, Raw Story, Right Wing Watch and Mother Jones

Joe Otterson / Variety:

TV Ratings: Trump's First State of the Union Down From 2017 Address in Early Numbers — UPDATED: Viewership of President Donald Trump's first State of the Union address is down slightly in the early Nielsen ratings compared to his first televised address to Congress last February as well as President Barack Obama's first such address.

Discussion: Hollywood Reporter, Axios and Joe.My.God.

CBS News:
Viewers approve of Trump's first State of the Union address - CBS News poll

Bryan Lowry / Kansas City Star:

Josh Hawley blames sex trafficking on ‘sexual revolution’ of 1960s in leaked audio — During a speech to pastors in Kansas City in December, Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley linked the problem of sex trafficking to the sexual revolution of the 1960s. — Hawley, the top Republican prospect …

Discussion: Washington Post, ThinkProgress, Talking Points Memo, Shareblue Media, thecut and The Week

Evan Sernoffsky / San Francisco Chronicle:

SF will wipe thousands of marijuana convictions off the books — San Francisco will retroactively apply California's marijuana-legalization laws to past criminal cases, District Attorney George Gascón said Wednesday — expunging or reducing misdemeanor and felony convictions going back decades.

Discussion: CNBC, ThinkProgress, The Daily Caller, Axios, Splinter, Hit & Run and The Week

Monmouth University:

Trump Rating Ticks Up; Support for Tax Plan Increases — GOP gains on Dems in generic House ballot — West Long Branch, NJ - Donald Trump's job approval rating has bounced back from the record low registered in last month's Monmouth University Poll , as more Americans now see the president …

Discussion: Politico, New York Magazine, Breitbart, Washington Times, Fox News Insider, Business Insider and the daily howler

Ted Sherman / New Jersey Online:

In shocking move, feds drop all charges against Sen. Bob Menendez — Menendez speaks after jury deadlocked, mistrial declared — In a shocking turnaround, the U.S. Justice Department has dropped its case against Sen. Robert Menendez. — In a court in Newark today …

Discussion: Washington Post, Washington Examiner, Breitbart and New York Magazine

Ryan Hutchins / Politico:
Justice Department drops corruption case against Menendez

Discussion: CNN, Balloon Juice, IJR, ABC News and The Week

Carter Sherman / VICE News:

EXCLUSIVE: Trump officials discussed “reversing” abortion for undocumented teen — The Trump administration official in charge of the Office of Refugee Resettlement discussed trying to use a controversial, scientifically unproven method to reverse an undocumented teen's abortion, according to documents reviewed by VICE News.

Discussion: IJR, ThinkProgress, The Guardian, Daily Kos, Splinter and Raw Story

Robbie Gramer / Foreign Policy:

Kellyanne Conway Botched Trump Damage Control Meeting With African Ambassadors — But Conway didn't discuss much on Africa at all, leaving participants bewildered. — In the wake of U.S. President Donald Trump's disparaging comments about immigration from countries he considered undesirable …

Discussion: Raw Story

Caitlin Yilek / Washington Examiner:

Michael Wolff: Nikki Haley ‘embraced’ rumors of affair with Trump … Controversial author Michael Wolff is hitting back at Nikki Haley after the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations denied having an affair with President Trump. — In an interview with theSkimm, Wolff said Haley “seems to have embraced” the rumor that he started.

Discussion: Washington Post, Mediaite, IJR, Washington Free Beacon, twitchy.com and The Daily Caller

Washington Post:

White House seeks 72 percent cut to clean energy research, underscoring administration's preference for fossil fuels … The Trump administration is poised to ask Congress for deep budget cuts to the Energy Department's renewable energy and energy efficiency programs, slashing them by 72 percent overall …

Discussion: ThinkProgress, Politicus USA, CNBC, Engadget and Union of Concerned Scientists

Shane Harris / Washington Post:

Russian spy chiefs met in Washington with CIA director to discuss counterterrorism … Two top Russian spy chiefs traveled to Washington last week to discuss counterterrorism issues with CIA Director Mike Pompeo, but the unusual visit also raised concerns among some U.S. officials that Moscow …

Discussion: The Atlantic, RedState, ThinkProgress, Shakesville and Axios

CBS News:
CIA director Mike Pompeo met with Russian counterpart in U.S.

Discussion: Balloon Juice, Talking Points Memo and NPR

Tampa Bay Times:

The campaign is over. The candidate might be dead. But the spending never stops. — ★★★ — WASHINGTON, D.C. — I T'S BEEN MORE THAN A DECADE since South Florida Rep. Mark Foley was forced out of Congress for sending sexual text messages to teenage boys.

The Daily Beast:

Florida (Congress)Man Invited Infamous Troll Chuck Johnson to Trump's State of The Union … Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), a conservative Republican firebrand, was the lawmaker responsible for inviting the controversial internet troll Chuck Johnson to Tuesday night's State of the Union address.

Discussion: Politico, AOL, ThinkProgress, Joe.My.God., Mediaite and Little Green Footballs

NBC News:

Train carrying GOP Congress members hits garbage truck, one dead — A chartered train carrying Republican lawmakers to a retreat collided with a trash truck in Virginia Wednesday morning and left at least one person dead. — White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders …

Discussion: Fox News, Media Matters for America, ABC News, NBC News, The Hill, The Gateway Pundit, FOX 4 Kansas City WDAF-TV, The Last Refuge, Mediaite, KTLA, TheBlaze, bizpacreview.com, IJR, Washington Free Beacon and twitchy.com

Yascha Mounk / Slate:

Donald Trump Just Asked Congress to End the Rule of Law — Donald Trump's first State of the Union was a deeply dangerous speech. — It was deeply dangerous because he finally followed in the footsteps of European leaders like Hungarian President Viktor Orban who have long ago learned …

Discussion: American Greatness and The Federalist

Dan Mangan / CNBC:

Dr. Brenda Fitzgerald, head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, resigns amid tobacco stock furor — Fitzgerald's departure comes less than a day after Politico revealed she bought stock in a tobacco company within a month of taking her job.

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, ABC News, Washington Post, Politico, CNN, USA Today, New York Times, The Hill, Vox, Business Insider, Daily Kos, IJR and ThinkProgress

Nico Hines / The Daily Beast:

Roger Stone Says He Visited the Ecuadorian Embassy in London Where Julian Assange Is In Hiding … LONDON—Former Trump presidential campaign advisor Roger Stone paid a visit to the Ecuadorian Embassy in London on Wednesday where Julian Assange has been holed up for the last five years.

Ronald Brownstein / The Atlantic:

Trump Is Making 2018 Much Harder for Republicans — Like colliding storm systems, the three central dynamics shaping the 2018 electoral battlefield converged in President Trump's first State of the Union address on Tuesday. And control of Congress may turn on which one of these forces voters weigh most heavily.

Discussion: NBC News

Washington Post:

‘Using his position for private gain’: HUD lawyers warned Ben Carson risked running afoul of ethics rules by enlisting son … Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson allowed his son to help organize a “listening tour” in Baltimore last summer despite warnings from department lawyers …

Discussion: Mother Jones and New York Magazine

Bryan Alexander / USA Today:

New ‘Passion of the Christ’ will be ‘the biggest film in history,’ Jim Caviezel promises — James Faulkner is Paul and Jim Caviezel is Luke in the exclusive full trailer reveal for ‘Paul, Apostle of Christ.’ — Jim Caviezel is very much on board with director Mel Gibson's plan to shoot a sequel to The Passion of the Christ.

Discussion: Vox, Breitbart, IndieWire, IJR, The Stream and CatholicHerald.co.uk

New York Times:

A Paper Tears Apart in a City That Never Quite Came Together — LOS ANGELES — When an ambitious Civil War colonel from Ohio seized control of a fledgling daily newspaper here in the late 19th century, Los Angeles was a rough-hewed frontier town with no paved streets and a population of a few thousand people.

Discussion: The Week