‘I Hope This Is an Instance of Fake News’: FBI Messages Show the Bureau's Real Reaction to Trump Firing James Comey  —  Then-FBI Director James Comey meets with North Dakotan state, local, and tribal leaders in 2016 (FBI)  —  When President Trump fired James Comey as FBI director last May …

‘Dreamer’ Talks Aim to End Budget Impasse  —  Republican Sen. John McCain, Democratic Sen. Chris Coons say they will propose path to citizenship for DACA participants, but no wall  —  WASHINGTON—Congress is expected this week to pass yet another short-term spending bill to avoid a government shutdown …

Holocaust denier poised to claim GOP nomination in Illinois race for Congress  —  Sign-Up for our Newsletter  —  Arthur Jones — an outspoken Holocaust denier, activist anti-Semite and white supremacist — is poised to become the Republican nominee for an Illinois congressional seat representing parts of Chicago and nearby suburbs.

Exclusive: Massive Pentagon agency lost track of hundreds of millions of dollars  —  One of the Pentagon's largest agencies can't account for hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of spending, a leading accounting firm says in an internal audit obtained by POLITICO that arrives …

The Memo and the Mueller Probe  —  If the investigation arose from partisan opposition research, what specific crime is he looking into?  —  The memo released Friday by the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence was the product of necessity, not choice.

The cult of Trump  —  Rarely has a president changed his party as fast and profoundly as Donald J. Trump.  Love him or hate him, you can no longer argue his ability to bend an entire party to his will.  —  In the two and a half years since he announced his candidacy, he has moved the party away …

A chemistry professor got his kids ready for school.  Then ICE arrested him on his front lawn. … On a recent Wednesday morning, Syed Ahmed Jamal was getting ready to take his daughter to school when he was stopped outside his home in Lawrence, Kan.  —  Officials from Immigration and Customs Enforcement were on his front lawn.

Think California politics is on the far-left fringe?  Just wait for the next elections. … SACRAMENTO — For those who think California politics is on the far-left fringe of the national spectrum, stand by.  The next election season, already well underway here, will showcase a younger generation …

House GOP: More memos to come  —  “The memo” — which pitted the Justice Department against the White House and brought ugly partisan sniping into stark relief — is only the beginning.  Republican sources close to Devin Nunes tell me he's assured them there's much more to come.

Panic time: Democratic cash swamps House Republicans  —  Is it time for Republicans to start freaking out?  —  More than 40 House Republican incumbents were outraised in the final quarter of 2017 by one — or several — of their Democratic opponents, according to the latest round of fundraising numbers.

MeToo Has Done What the Law Could Not  —  The #MeToo movement is accomplishing what sexual harassment law to date has not.  —  This mass mobilization against sexual abuse, through an unprecedented wave of speaking out in conventional and social media, is eroding the two biggest barriers …

Sessions Silent as Trump Attacks His Department, Risking Independence and Morale  —  WASHINGTON — As President Trump hammers away at the Justice Department's credibility, one voice has been notably absent in the department's defense: the one at the top.  —  The attorney general, Jeff Sessions …

Exclusive: U.S. consumer protection official puts Equifax probe on ice - sources  —  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Mick Mulvaney, head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, has pulled back from a full-scale probe of how Equifax Inc failed to protect the personal data of millions of consumers …

Super Bowl anti-terrorism documents left on plane  —  (CNN)The Department of Homeland Security documents critiquing the response to a simulated anthrax attack on Super Bowl Sunday were marked “For Official Use Only” and “important for national security.”  —  Recipients of the draft …

Congress weighs leaving Dreamers in limbo another year  —  Congress may just end up punting on its Dreamer dilemma.  —  As lawmakers grasp for a solution for the young undocumented immigrants, one option is a temporary extension — perhaps one year — of their legal protections paired with a little bit of cash for border security.

If You Love Law Enforcement, You Must Criticize FBI Corruption  —  Many people in the media have jointly arrived at the same talking point.  They say that criticizing the bad actions of specific people at the top ranks of a law enforcement agency mean you're at war with all law enforcement.

Senator warns YouTube algorithm may be open to manipulation by ‘bad actors’  —  Senator Mark Warner of Virginia warns of ‘optimising for outrageous, salacious, and often fraudulent content’ amid 2016 election concerns … The top-ranking Democrat on the Senate intelligence committee has warned …

‘The Hairs Really Went up on the Back of our Necks’  —  By the summer of 2016, Victoria Nuland's “Spidey sense” told her something was very wrong.  —  That spring, Nuland, the top State Department official charged with overseeing U.S. policy toward Russia, was one of those who had …

Dow futures shed 300 points as stocks resume Friday's ugly sell-off  — Dow futures were off 300 points, and S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 futures were also down sharply in premarket trading Monday.  — The major U.S. stock indexes capped off their worst weekly performance in two years on Friday following a steep sell-off.

Las Vegas Review-Journal killed story in 1998 about Steve Wynn sex misconduct claims  —  Cocktail waitresses at The Mirage sued over sexual discrimination in the 1990's.  Jim Laurie Las Vegas Review-Journal  —  A 1998 fax.  —  The Mirage in Las Vegas on Saturday, Feb. 3, 2018.

Kobach will represent himself in upcoming trial.  Is it a smart move?  —  TOPEKA  —  When a federal lawsuit challenging Kansas's proof of citizenship voter law goes to trial in March, Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach plans to be in the courtroom.  —  He'll be the attorney defending the law he crafted.

Pennsylvania Congressional Map Faces Supreme Court Call  —  With the Pennsylvania primary vote only about three months away, candidates and voters still don't know what their districts will look like  —  WASHINGTON—The Supreme Court is facing a sensitive choice on whether to intervene …