Top Items:
The Daily Beast:
John Kelly: Rex Tillerson Was on the Toilet When I Told Him He'd Be Getting Fired … Reporters gathered at the White House on Friday were stunned when Chief of Staff John Kelly shared a very embarrassing story about outgoing Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.
Discussion:
Boing Boing, The Daily Caller, Raw Story, Mediaite, Shareblue Media, twitchy.com, Political Wire, Talking Points Memo and VICE News
RELATED:
Jonathan Swan / Axios:
Scoop: Kelly says Trump probably contributing to staff chaos stories — John Kelly acknowledged in an off-the-record session with reporters today that his boss, Donald Trump, is likely speculating about staff moves to people outside the White House and that reporters are then talking to those people.
Discussion:
ThinkProgress, RedState, ABC News, New York Times, Politico, The Daily Beast, Shareblue Media, Washington Post, Washington Press, Talking Points Memo, Mediaite, Raw Story, New York Magazine, Splinter, News & Guts Media, The Week, CNN, Weekly Standard, Towleroad, The Resurgent, CNBC, WIS-TV, Breitbart and Mother Jones
Michael C. Bender / Wall Street Journal:
Donald Trump and John Kelly Reach Truce — White House chief of staff had made cryptic comments suggesting he may have been the next senior adviser to step down — WASHINGTON—President Donald Trump and White House chief of staff John Kelly have settled on a truce, at least temporarily …
Discussion:
The Hill, Talking Points Memo, CBS News, CNBC, RedState, Daily Kos, CANNONFIRE, The Gateway Pundit, Breitbart, IJR, NBC News, Washington Monthly, bizpacreview.com and New York Magazine
Mark Landler / New York Times:
Spies, Not Diplomats, Take Lead Role in Planning Trump's North Korea Meeting
Veronica Stracqualursi / CNN:
Daniels' lawyer says some alleged incidents took place during Trump presidency — Lawyer: Stormy Daniels was physically threatened — Washington (CNN)The lawyer representing the adult film star Stormy Daniels alleges that some of the accusations she's making against President Donald Trump occurred while Trump was in office.
Discussion:
RedState, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Politico, Washington Press, New York Magazine, Shareblue Media, thecut, Hollywood Life, TVNewser, KTLA and Political Wire
RELATED:
Washington Post:
Trump attorney accuses Stormy Daniels of violating nondisclosure agreement 20 times, claims right to seek $20 million in damages — Attorney Michael Cohen made the claim in papers filed in federal court Friday. Cohen formed a limited liability corporation to strike the nondisclosure agreement …
Discussion:
Political Wire and Mediaite
New York Times:
Trump's Lawyers Claim Stormy Daniels Violated Confidentiality Agreement at Least 20 Times
Trump's Lawyers Claim Stormy Daniels Violated Confidentiality Agreement at Least 20 Times
Discussion:
CNN and Outside the Beltway
Edvard Pettersson / Bloomberg:
Trump Moves Stormy Daniels Hush Money Suit to Federal Court
Trump Moves Stormy Daniels Hush Money Suit to Federal Court
Discussion:
Vox, CNN and Joe.My.God.
Chris Geidner / BuzzFeed:
Trump Joins Legal Fight In Stormy Daniels' Lawsuit To End Her “Hush Agreement”
Trump Joins Legal Fight In Stormy Daniels' Lawsuit To End Her “Hush Agreement”
Discussion:
ABC News, Talking Points Memo, IJR and Outside the Beltway
Washington Post:
FBI's Andrew McCabe is fired just before retiring. Former deputy director became lightning rod for Clinton email and Russia probes. — McCabe, who had stepped down from his post earlier this year but remained an FBI employee, had been accused by the Justice Department's inspector general …
Discussion:
RedState
RELATED:
New York Times:
Andrew McCabe, a Target of Trump's F.B.I. Scorn, Is Fired Over Candor Questions — WASHINGTON — Andrew G. McCabe, the former F.B.I. deputy director and a frequent target of President Trump's scorn, was fired Friday after the Justice Department rejected an appeal that would have let him retire this weekend.
Discussion:
Mediaite, bizpacreview.com and Wall Street Journal
Paul Grewal / Facebook:
Suspending Cambridge Analytica and SCL Group from Facebook — We are suspending Strategic Communication Laboratories (SCL), including their political data analytics firm, Cambridge Analytica, from Facebook. Given the public prominence of this organization, we want to take a moment to explain how we came to this decision and why.
Discussion:
Raw Story, The Gateway Pundit and Political Wire, more at Mediagazer »
Patricia Mazzei / New York Times:
Engineer of Florida Bridge Reported Cracks Days Before Collapse — MIAMI — An engineer reported cracks on a newly installed pedestrian bridge two days before it collapsed on a busy roadway here, killing at least six people, state officials said on Friday. — The report, by the lead engineer …
RELATED:
Julia Marsh / Page Six:
Vanessa Trump hires criminal defense attorney for Donald Jr. divorce — Vanessa Trump hired a criminal defense attorney to represent her in her divorce from Donald Trump Jr. just as special counsel Robert Mueller subpoenaed the president's family business, The Post has learned.
Discussion:
Raw Story, thecut, Washington Press, East Bay Times, Mediaite, TalkLeft and New York Times
Kevin Johnson / USA Today:
Justice Department says it's considering public disclosure of Carter Page surveillance order — Former Trump campaign adviser, Carter Page told Good Morning America hosts that he's never communicated with the president. Carter is the focus of a Republican memo alleging the FBI abused surveillance rules to spy on him.
RELATED:
Mollie Hemingway / The Federalist:
REVEALED: Peter Strzok Had Personal Relationship With Recused Judge In Michael Flynn Case
REVEALED: Peter Strzok Had Personal Relationship With Recused Judge In Michael Flynn Case
Discussion:
Townhall.com, RedState, Sara A. Carter, National Review, The Gateway Pundit and The Rush Limbaugh Show
Daniel Friedman / Mother Jones:
Democrats May Seek Prosecution of Witnesses Who Misled House Intelligence Committee
Democrats May Seek Prosecution of Witnesses Who Misled House Intelligence Committee
Discussion:
Raw Story
CNN:
Pro-Trump group hires Carl Higbie, who shared N-Word laden post on Facebook in 2014 — (CNN)WARNING: This story contains graphic language. — The new advocacy director at a nonprofit group aligned with President Donald Trump shared an N-word laden post written by someone else on Facebook in December 2014.
Discussion:
ThinkProgress, Mic and Raw Story
Tim Graham / The Buffalo News:
The O.J. Simpson interview: On prison, ‘retirement’ and football — In his first substantial interview in a decade and his first extensively about football since the 1990s, Simpson spoke to The Buffalo News earlier this week. He talks about his time in prison, his life since his release, football, CTE and more.
Discussion:
Lawyers, Guns & Money, The Daily Beast, Breitbart, NBC News, theGrio, CBS San Francisco, Mediaite, The Big Lead, The Daily Caller and The Root
RELATED:
Aram Roston / BuzzFeed:
Trump's CIA Has Set Up Teams To Kill Terrorists — “Small teams are locating and killing bad guys. That's what we are doing.” The official in charge of the hit teams was a senior aide to CIA Director Mike Pompeo, who Trump just nominated to be secretary of state.
Discussion:
Task & Purpose, The Week and Daily Kos
The Guardian:
Police launch murder inquiry over death of Nikolai Glushkov — Met announces move after pathologist's report on death of Russian exile in London this week … Police have launched a murder investigation into the death of the Russian businessman Nikolai Glushkov.
Discussion:
The Independent, The Daily Beast, Politico, The Week and RedState
RELATED:
Sean Lahman / Rochester Democrat and Chronicle:
Congresswoman Louise Slaughter dies at 88 — Democratic Congresswoman Lousie Slaughter, who had represented the Rochester area in Congress since 1987, has died. She was 88. — Three sources confirmed the death to the Democrat and Chronicle Friday morning.
Ian Shapira / Washington Post:
Black man beaten in Charlottesville found not guilty of assaulting white supremacist … A black man brutally beaten at last year's white supremacist “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville — and who was later charged with assaulting a white nationalist — was acquitted Friday.
Discussion:
New York Magazine, NPR, The Root, Talking Points Memo, The Week, Axios and Joe.My.God.
Brett Stevens / Splinter:
The Smearing of Gina Haspel — In 1942, Virginia Hall, the notorious Allied spy, fled France, with Nazi spyhunter Klaus Barbie hot on her trail, hiking the snowy mountains that make up the border with Spain. The opportunity presented itself to get word to her handlers in London.
Zack Whittaker / ZDNet:
Hacker Adrian Lamo dies at 37 — The coroner confirmed Lamo's death, but the circumstances of his passing are not yet known. — Adrian Lamo, a well-known hacker, has died at 37. — His father, Mario, posted a brief tribute to his son in a Facebook group on Friday.
Gene Maddaus / Variety:
Academy President John Bailey Under Investigation for Sexual Harassment (EXCLUSIVE) — John Bailey, the president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, is under investigation for allegations of sexual harassment. — The Academy received three harassment claims on Wednesday …
Discussion:
The Guardian, KTLA, Breitbart, VICE News, The Daily Caller, ThinkProgress, MyNewsLA.com, Mashable, IndieWire, WPIX 11 New York and NY State of Politics
Jordan Valinsky / CNNMoney:
Snapchat stock loses $800 million after Rihanna responds to offensive ad — Rihanna slams Snapchat for mocking her assault — Rihanna is the latest celebrity to send Snap's stock sliding. — The singer tore into the app on Thursday for allowing an offensive ad to appear on its platform.
Discussion:
CNN, theGrio, CNBC, New York Post, fox13now.com and Engadget
CNN:
A custodian takes advantage of National School Walkout and steals $180 from students' book bags — (CNN)While students in a South Carolina school participated in the National School Walkout this week, a custodian helped herself to their cash, police said. — The incident occurred at Richland Northeast High School on Wednesday.
John Hinderaker / Power Line:
Corn? Wheat? It's All the Same to the New Yorker! — I subscribed to the New Yorker for a number of years, but finally canceled my subscription when I couldn't take the magazine's left-wing politics any more. Those were the days when the New Yorker was famous for its scrupulous fact-checking.
Discussion:
New Yorker and The Daily Caller
Paul Rosenzweig / Lawfare:
The Trump Malignancy and the Book That Will Not Be Written — The malignant deviancy of the Trump Administration and Trumpist supporters in Congress continues apace. The decision of the House Intelligence committee Republicans to close their investigation into Russian interference …
John Kiriakou / Washington Post:
I went to prison for disclosing the CIA's torture. Gina Haspel helped cover it up. … I was inside the CIA's Langley, Va., headquarters on Sept. 11, 2001. Like all Americans, I was traumatized, and I volunteered to go overseas to help bring al-Qaeda's leaders to justice.
New Yorker:
Barry Blitt's “Exposed” — Barry Blitt's latest cover for the magazine is his fifteenth to feature Donald Trump. ("The gift that keeps on grifting," in Blitt's words.) The image of Trump at the lectern, poised nude and cross-legged, recalls the prophet Bob Dylan, who once noted, in …
Jason Noble / Des Moines Register:
Alleged paperwork forgery forces Theresa Greenfield to resubmit candidacy at literally the last minute — In a whirlwind effort aided by staffers from a half-dozen or more Democratic campaigns, 3rd District congressional candidate Theresa Greenfield on Friday dramatically withdrew …