memeorandum: In the shadow of a president's wrath: Visa lottery recipients tell their side of the story (Liz Goodwin/BostonGlobe.com)

10:00 AM ET, March 17, 2018

Top Items:

McCabe: Trump's ‘Ongoing War’ On FBI Led to My Firing … Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced in a late-night statement Friday that he had fired former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, following an investigation by the Justice Department inspector general that found McCabe had …

Discussion: Raw Story, bizpacreview.com, Common Dreams, Al Jazeera English, The Gateway Pundit, The Guardian, RedState, CBS Los Angeles, Joe.My.God., Mediaite, CBS New York, FOX40, twitchy.com and The Last Refuge

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: Raw Story, Above the Law, Washington Monthly, CNBC, The Week, Talking Points Memo, Balloon Juice, twitchy.com, Vox and Mediaite

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: The Hill, RedState, The Moderate Voice, twitchy.com, NewsHounds blog, News & Guts Media and Mediaite

Matt Zapotosky / Washington Post:

FBI's Andrew McCabe is fired a little more than 24 hours before he could retire … Attorney General Jeff Sessions late Friday night fired former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, a little more than 24 hours before McCabe was set to retire. — Sessions announced the decision in a statement …

Discussion: Fox News, The Root, Lawyers, Guns & Money, Outside the Beltway, Power Line, Mother Jones, JONATHAN TURLEY, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, The Gateway Pundit and Axios

CNN:

Ex-FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe fired — (CNN)Attorney General Jeff Sessions fired former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe late Friday, less than two days shy of his retirement, ending the career of an official who had risen to serve as second-in-command at the bureau.

Discussion: Breitbart, Mediaite, IJR, Daily Kos and Joe.My.God.

CNN:

READ: Former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe's statement on his firing — (CNN)Statement by Andrew McCabe: — I have been an FBI Special Agent for over 21 years. I spent half of that time investigating Russian Organized Crime as a street agent and Supervisor in New York City.

Discussion: The Week and bizpacreview.com

CNN:

Embattled former FBI deputy says he ‘never misled’ Justice investigators — (CNN)After more than a year of investigations, accusations and taunting tweets from the President of the United States, former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe is breaking his silence.

Discussion: Raw Story, ABC News, Mediaite and Breitbart

CNN:

Embattled FBI official Andrew McCabe could lose ‘a lot of money’ if fired before Sunday — Washington (CNN)Andrew McCabe, the former No. 2 at the FBI who is fighting for his job in the wake of an internal investigation just hours ahead of his official retirement, potentially stands to lose …

Discussion: IJR and KTLA

Eline Gordts / HuffPost:
Read Andrew McCabe's Response To Being Fired Two Days Before His Retirement

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit

Matthew Yglesias / Vox:
Former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe's fiery statement about Sessions's decision to fire him

Discussion: echo.msk.ru

Chris Geidner / BuzzFeed:
DO NOT PUBLISH - Jeff Sessions Fires The Former No. 2 At The FBI Two Days Before His Scheduled Retirement

Discussion: NPR

Adam Serwer / The Atlantic:
McCabe's Firing Chips Away at the Justice Department's Independence

Discussion: Raw Story, NBC News and The Gateway Pundit

Mike Levine / ABC News:
Former FBI deputy director fired just days before retirement to kick in

Discussion: Associated Press, Hollywood Life, The Resurgent and Daily Wire

Elana Schor / Politico:
McCabe says his Russia probe work sparked smear campaign before firing

Discussion: Washington Post, Mediaite and RedState

Fox News:
Former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe fired

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit, WIS-TV, Breitbart and Fox News Insider

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: Recode, Joe.My.God., Politico, One America News Network, CNBC, The Verge, Mashable, Breitbart, Engadget, Raw Story, The Gateway Pundit and The Guardian, more at Mediagazer »

New York Times:

How Trump Consultants Exploited the Facebook Data of Millions — LONDON — As the upstart voter-profiling company Cambridge Analytica prepared to wade into the 2014 American midterm elections, it had a problem. — The firm had secured a $15 million investment from Robert Mercer …

Discussion: Vox

Elizabeth Dwoskin / Washington Post:

Facebook bans Trump campaign's data analytics firm for taking user data … SAN FRANCISCO — Facebook is suspending the Trump-affiliated data analytics firm Cambridge Analytica, after learning that it failed to delete data that it had taken inappropriately from users of the social network, Facebook said late Friday.

Discussion: Mediaite

The Guardian:

Revealed: 50 million Facebook profiles harvested for Cambridge Analytica in major data breach — Whistleblower describes how firm linked to former Trump adviser Steve Bannon compiled user data to target American voters … The data analytics firm that worked with Donald Trump's election team …

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: bizpacreview.com, Washington Press, Mediaite and The Hill

New York Times:
Trump's Lawyers Claim Stormy Daniels Violated Confidentiality Agreement at Least 20 Times

Discussion: CNN

Rebecca Morin / Politico:
Trump lawyer files to move Stormy Daniels lawsuit to federal court

Discussion: Daily Kos

Edvard Pettersson / Bloomberg:
Trump Moves Stormy Daniels Hush Money Suit to Federal Court

Discussion: Sputnik International, Joe.My.God. and Vox

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: Raw Story, thecut, ECHIDNE OF THE SNAKES, Boing Boing, Mediaite, The Daily Caller, RedState, twitchy.com, Shareblue Media and Political Wire

Jonathan Swan / Axios:
Scoop: Kelly says Trump probably contributing to staff chaos stories

miamiherald:

‘My little girl was trapped’: FIU student Alexa Duran died in bridge collapse, dad says — Florida International University student Alexa Duran was driving her gray Toyota SUV under a pedestrian bridge in front of the university on Thursday when it collapsed, trapping her car beneath the rubble.

Discussion: The Guardian, Washington Post, NBC News, CityLab and WIS-TV

Patricia Mazzei / New York Times: Engineer of Florida Bridge Reported Cracks Days Before Collapse

miamiherald:
Bridge designer left state voice mail about cracks days before FIU bridge collapsed

Discussion: Axios

Kim Hjelmgaard / USA Today:

Russia expels 23 British diplomats over ex-spy poisoning accusations — LONDON — Russia retaliated against Britain on Saturday by expelling 23 British diplomats after Prime Minister Theresa May blamed Moscow for the “brazen” poisoning of one of Moscow's ex-spies and ordered Russian diplomats to leave Britain.

Discussion: Instapundit

David M. Herszenhorn / Politico:
Russia expels 23 British diplomats

Discussion: One America News Network and The Guardian

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

Andrew C. McCarthy / National Review:

Mueller's Investigation Flouts Justice Department Standards — Gates was charged with $100 million in financial crimes — and pled guilty to two minor offenses, one of them highly questionable. — These columns have many times observed Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein's failure …

Liz Goodwin / BostonGlobe.com:

In the shadow of a president's wrath: Visa lottery recipients tell their side of the story — WASHINGTON — President Trump has expressed disgust for the news media ("scum"), Democrats in Congress ("traitors"), NFL players ("total disrespect to our Flag & Country"), and the state of California …

Kathy Dobie / New York Magazine:

To Catch a Predator — The NYPD's top sex-crimes investigator tried to bust Harvey Weinstein three years ago. Then the DA stepped in. — Early in the evening of March 27, 2015, a young Italian model named Ambra Battilana walked into the NYPD's 9th Precinct house, a few blocks from Tompkins Square Park.

Channel NewsAsia:

Bookmark — KABUL: Donald Trump flops over his pink and white baby walker and rolls it around his family's modest home in Kabul, blissfully unaware of the turmoil his “infidel” name is causing in the deeply conservative Muslim country. — The rosy-cheeked toddler's parents named …