Trump Sought to Fire Mueller in December  —  In early December, President Trump, furious over news reports about a new round of subpoenas from the office of the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, told advisers in no uncertain terms that Mr. Mueller's investigation had to be shut down.

Facebook Fallout Deals Blow to Mercers' Political Clout  —  Last month, a friend of the wealthy conservative donor Rebekah Mercer arrived at Facebook's Silicon Valley headquarters.  His task: Find out what — if anything — could repair relations between Facebook, the world's biggest social media company …

European Commission raids Murdoch's Fox offices in London  —  The British offices of the Murdoch entertainment empire 21st Century Fox have been raided by investigators from the European Commission, The Daily Telegraph can reveal.  —  It is understood that competition watchdogs gained access …

E.P.A. Assesses Threats on Twitter to Justify Pruitt's Spending  —  WASHINGTON — The Environmental Protection Agency has been examining posts on Twitter and other social media about Scott Pruitt, the agency's administrator, to justify his extraordinary and costly security measures …

Democratic Sen. Heidi Heitkamp: Trump ‘asked me to switch parties’ … Donald Trump was still weeks away from being sworn in as president when, according to one Democratic senator, he was already trying to get her to defect to the Republicans.  —  “When I visited with him in Trump Tower …

The Trump Russia probe is expanding, as Mueller looks into new meetings in Seychelles: exclusive  —  Special counsel Robert Mueller's team is examining a series of previously unreported meetings that took place in 2017 in the Seychelles, an archipelago in the Indian Ocean …

Trump's Military Strike on Syria Will Be Illegal … With much of the world bracing for Donald Trump's new missile strikes on Syria, the president's legal authority to attack Bashar Assad is conspicuously AWOL.  —  Assad isn't subject to either of the two authorizations Congress passed after 9/11 to bless the use of military force.

The Latest: John Bolton urged Trump to cancel trip abroad  —  The Latest on U.S. policy on Syria (all times local):  —  A senior Russian lawmaker says that a U.S. strike on Syria could trigger a direct military clash between Russia and the United States.  —  Vladimir Shamanov …

Russia-linked account pushed fake Hillary Clinton sex video  —  A pornographic video that falsely claimed to show Hillary Clinton engaged in a sex act has been traced back to an account that Reddit acknowledged on Tuesday is linked to Russia's Internet Research Agency.

Tennessee college student defends her gun-toting ‘graduation’ photo  —  Amid a youth-driven gun control debate that has swarmed social media, a college senior in Tennessee is defending the provocative photo she posted of her packing a handgun with the caption, “I don't take normal graduation photos ...”

Trump to host GOP leaders for dinner after Mueller attacks  —  President Donald Trump will host Republican leaders for dinner at the White House on Wednesday night, according to three sources familiar with the matter.  —  The dinner has been in the works for several days and was being planned …