Top Items:
NBC News:
Feds monitored Trump lawyer Michael Cohen's phones — EDITOR'S NOTE: Earlier today, NBC News reported that there was a wiretap on the phones of Michael Cohen, President Trump's longtime personal attorney, citing two separate sources with knowledge of the legal proceedings involving Cohen.
Discussion:
The Atlantic, Talking Points Memo, Hot Air, CNBC, BuzzFeed, USA Today, courthousenews.com, Power Line, Joe.My.God., twitchy.com, The Western Journal, New York Times, IJR, CNN, The Daily Caller, Vox, Raw Story, Washington Press, The Week, Shakesville, RedState, Breitbart, The Stream, AOL, Common Dreams, New York Magazine, New Century Times, TheBlaze, The Daily Beast, Splinter, Above the Law, National Review, Balloon Juice, VICE News, Washington Free Beacon, NBC News, The Root, Daily Wire, Mediaite, Taylor Marsh, Media Matters for America, NTK Network, Political Wire, Daily Kos, MSNBC, 105.9 FM and AM 630, Los Angeles Times and Axios
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Niall Stanage / The Hill:
EXCLUSIVE: Giuliani calls for Sessions to ‘step in’ on Cohen investigation — Rudy Giuliani called for Attorney General Jeff Sessions — to intervene in the Michael Cohen case and put the people behind the probe “under investigation” in a phone call with The Hill on Thursday.
Discussion:
Washington Post, HuffPost, Politico, Raw Story, Joe.My.God., Hot Air, IJR, Daily Wire, Mediaite, Talking Points Memo, Washington Times, twitchy.com, Political Wire and The Week
Wall Street Journal:
The Stormy Daniels Damage — Does Trump want Americans to believe him in a genuine crisis? — Most storms pass eventually. This week Donald Trump tried to ensure that Stormy Daniels doesn't rain down permanent distraction on his Presidency, though at the cost of further damage to his credibility.
Discussion:
Political Wire
Washington Post:
‘I was going to get this over with’: Inside Giuliani's explosive Stormy Daniels revelation — He may have had a strategy, but Rudolph W. Giuliani hatched it almost entirely in secret. — The White House counsel had no idea. Neither did the White House chief of staff …
Betsy Woodruff / The Daily Beast:
Giuliani: I Don't Believe That Michael Cohen Was Wiretapped … President Donald Trump's lawyer Rudy Giuliani said on Thursday he doubted the veracity of a bombshell NBC News report from earlier in the day that federal authorities wiretapped the president's longtime counsel, Michael Cohen.
Discussion:
HuffPost, CBS News, Mediaite, Townhall, Breitbart, Washington Post, CANNONFIRE, The Western Journal, CNN, IJR, Vox, courthousenews.com, New York Times, The Week, Raw Story, Joe.My.God. and emptywheel
Aaron Blake / Washington Post:
Sarah Huckabee Sanders basically just blamed Trump for misleading her
Sarah Huckabee Sanders basically just blamed Trump for misleading her
Discussion:
Politico, New York Times, New Century Times and The Week
Grant Stern / Washington Press:
Kellyanne Conway's husband just taunted Trump and Giuliani over Stormy Daniels admission in viral tweet
Kellyanne Conway's husband just taunted Trump and Giuliani over Stormy Daniels admission in viral tweet
Discussion:
USA Today, Mediaite and Mother Jones
John Santucci / ABC News:
Giuliani believes ‘50/50’ chance Mueller subpoenas President Trump
Giuliani believes ‘50/50’ chance Mueller subpoenas President Trump
Discussion:
Washington Press, Political Wire, Associated Press, Mediaite, Washington Post and CNN
Chris Geidner / BuzzFeed:
Welcome To The Giuliani Phase Of The Trump Presidency
Welcome To The Giuliani Phase Of The Trump Presidency
Discussion:
Washington Post, Politico and Hot Air
New York Times:
Giuliani May Have Exposed Trump to New Legal and Political Perils
Giuliani May Have Exposed Trump to New Legal and Political Perils
Discussion:
Common Cause, Raw Story and Hot Air
Jennifer Rubin / Washington Post:
Giuliani outs Trump: Did the president just admit to a campaign finance law violation?
Giuliani outs Trump: Did the president just admit to a campaign finance law violation?
Discussion:
New York Times, Vox and New York Magazine
Chuck Ross / The Daily Caller:
MSNBC Issues HUGE Correction To Michael Cohen ‘Wiretap’ Story
MSNBC Issues HUGE Correction To Michael Cohen ‘Wiretap’ Story
Discussion:
ThinkProgress, twitchy.com, The Western Journal, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion and IJR
Peter Baker / New York Times:
New Revelations Suggest a President Losing Control of His Narrative
New Revelations Suggest a President Losing Control of His Narrative
Discussion:
ABC News, CNN and CBS New York
Anna North / Vox:
Donald Trump just tweeted out the rich man's guide to buying women's silence
Donald Trump just tweeted out the rich man's guide to buying women's silence
Discussion:
Chicago Tribune, TIME, Bloomberg, CNBC, Politico, Breitbart and The Mahablog
Elaina Plott / The Atlantic:
A Pruitt Aide's Attack on Zinke Angers the White House — As Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt faces a seemingly endless stream of scandal, his team is scrambling to divert the spotlight to Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke. And the White House isn't happy about it.
Discussion:
Washington Press, Vox, Daily Kos, Mother Jones, Joe.My.God., Jezebel, Political Wire, The Week and Lawyers, Guns & Money
RELATED:
CNN:
Pruitt reimbursed himself $65,000 from Oklahoma attorney general campaign — Pruitt target of at least 11 federal probes — (CNN)A CNN analysis has found that embattled Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt paid himself nearly $65,000 in reimbursements from his two campaigns …
Washington Post:
Influential outsiders have played a key role in Scott Pruitt's foreign travel … Scott Pruitt's itinerary for a February trip to Israel was remarkable by any standard for an Environmental Protection Agency administrator: A stop at a controversial Jewish settlement in the West Bank.
Discussion:
The Week, Political Wire and POLITICUSUSA
Paul Kane / Washington Post:
House chaplain rescinds resignation after furor over his ouster by Ryan … The Rev. Patrick J. Conroy, the House chaplain who announced his resignation under pressure last month, informed Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) Thursday that he wanted to rescind his offer and remain in his position at least through the end of this year.
Discussion:
NBC News, Politico, New York Magazine, HuffPost, ThinkProgress, Hullabaloo, CNN, Washington Press, Joe.My.God., Vox, Townhall, The Daily Caller, Shareblue Media, Axios, The Week, Splinter and NY State of Politics
RELATED:
Mark Landler / New York Times:
Trump Orders Pentagon to Consider Reducing U.S. Forces in South Korea — WASHINGTON — President Trump has ordered the Pentagon to prepare options for drawing down American troops in South Korea, just weeks before he holds a landmark meeting with North Korea's leader, Kim Jong-un …
Eriq Gardner / Hollywood Reporter:
Alan Dershowitz Hired as Harvey Weinstein Consultant — The Harvard Law professor is helping the embattled movie mogul get “exclupatory” emails from The Weinstein Co. — Alan Dershowitz may not want to jump aboard Donald Trump's legal team, but apparently, he has no qualms with advising Harvey Weinstein's legal team.
Discussion:
Deadline, Raw Story, Splinter, Mediaite and New York Times
Ashley Feinberg / HuffPost:
Leak: The Atlantic Had A Meeting About Kevin Williamson. It Was A Liberal Self-Reckoning. — In a staff meeting, Jeffrey Goldberg and Ta-Nehisi Coates discussed the hiring and firing of a conservative writer. But it wound up being about a lot more than that.
Discussion:
The American Conservative, Mediaite and The Daily Caller
Brian Schwartz / CNBC:
Special counsel Robert Mueller focusing sharply on links between Trump confidant Roger Stone and former campaign official Rick Gates, sources say — Special counsel Robert Mueller is focusing intensely on alleged interactions between former top Trump campaign official Rick Gates and political operative Roger Stone.
Discussion:
Washington Monthly, Daily Kos, Political Wire and Joe.My.God.
RELATED:
Brandi Buchman / courthousenews.com:
Mueller Seeks 70 Blank Subpoenas in Manafort Case
Mueller Seeks 70 Blank Subpoenas in Manafort Case
Discussion:
Joe.My.God.
Kimberley A. Strassel / Wall Street Journal:
Why the Justice Department Is Defiant — A House subpoena, another missed deadline. What is the department hiding? — The feud that has simmered for months between Congress and the Justice Department erupted this week into a cage match. That's because the House is homing in on the goods.
Steven Perlberg / BuzzFeed:
A New Book On Hillary Clinton Has Reporters Angry At The New York Times — Brendan Smialowski / AFP / Getty Images — At a book party Tuesday evening, reporters and editors at the New York Times toasted the publication of Chasing Hillary, a rollicking new memoir by Amy Chozick …
Discussion:
NewsBusters, Mediaite and twitchy.com
RELATED:
Tessa Stuart / Rolling Stone:
Amy Chozick on Boys' Clubs, Sexism in Politics and Media, and the ‘Real’ Hillary Clinton
Amy Chozick on Boys' Clubs, Sexism in Politics and Media, and the ‘Real’ Hillary Clinton
Discussion:
NewsBusters and The Daily Caller
Kylie Atwood / CBS News:
U.S. freezes funding for Syria's “White Helmets” — Less than two months ago the State Department hosted members of the White Helmets at Foggy Bottom. At the time, the humanitarian group was showered with praise for saving lives in Syria. — “Our meetings in March were very positive.
The Texas Tribune:
Hysteria over Jade Helm exercise in Texas was fueled by Russians, former CIA director says — Gov. Greg Abbott's decision in 2015 to ask the Texas State Guard to monitor a federal military exercise prompted significant criticism. A former CIA director said Wednesday that the move emboldened Russians to next target elections.
Discussion:
Balloon Juice, The Guardian, Snopes.com and ThinkProgress
Sopan Deb / New York Times:
Camille Cosby Compares Husband to Emmett Till and Blames Media — Camille Cosby, the wife of the disgraced comedian Bill Cosby, disparaged the media, Mr. Cosby's accusers and his prosecutors in a caustic statement released Thursday, her first public comments since Mr. Cosby was convicted of sexual assault last week.
Discussion:
Bill Cosby, The Daily Beast, KTLA and USA Today
RELATED:
David French / National Review:
An Open Letter to Trump's Evangelical Defenders — A Christian's primary purpose is not to defend his own religious liberty. It's not even to fight abortion — as vital as that task is. His basic task on this Earth isn't protecting Christian education or preserving the freedom of Christian artists.
Alex Isenstadt / Politico:
Blankenship goes after McConnell's ‘China family’ in new ad — West Virginia GOP Senate hopeful Don Blankenship is amping up his racial attacks on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell with a new ad declaring, “Swamp captain Mitch McConnell has created millions of jobs for China people.”
Discussion:
Mother Jones, Washington Post, TheBlaze, ThinkProgress, Joe.My.God., Townhall, The Daily Caller and VICE News
Justin Elliott / ProPublica:
Whoops! Jared Kushner Made Even More Mistakes in His Federal Filings — It keeps happening. Jared Kushner filed the wrong information about two of his loans in Brooklyn. He has had to update his disclosure form at least 40 times. — Jared Kushner's ethics disclosure filing misstated …
Tamar Auber / Mediaite:
Neil Cavuto Calls Out Trump on His Pattern of False Statements: 'Mr. President, That's Your Swamp' — During a monologue on his Fox News show Thursday, Neil Cavuto called out President Donald Trump for railing against “fake news” while constantly giving them ammunition with his inconsistent and often contradictory statements.
Twitter:
Keeping your account secure — When you set a password for your Twitter account, we use technology that masks it so no one at the company can see it. We recently identified a bug that stored passwords unmasked in an internal log. We have fixed the bug, and our investigation shows no indication of breach or misuse by anyone.
Discussion:
Reuters, Politico, CNNMoney, twitchy.com, KTLA, France 24, East Bay Times, abc13.com, RedState, BuzzFeed, Mediaite, CBS Chicago, Vox, The Daily Caller, Gizmodo, WGN-TV, 9to5Mac, FOX31 Denver, WPIX 11 New York, NBC News, The Verge, The FADER, CBS Los Angeles, Joe.My.God., Breitbart, The Guardian, Engadget, New York Magazine, CBS Boston, The Week, Mashable, CBS Philly and Motherboard, more at Mediagazer »
Eric Holthaus / Grist:
Humans didn't exist the last time there was this much CO2 in the air — The last time atmospheric carbon dioxide levels were this high, millions of years ago, the planet was very different. For one, humans didn't exist. — On Wednesday, scientists at the University of California …
Discussion:
Earther
Daniel Marans / HuffPost:
Smear Campaign Against Michigan Candidate Shows How Hard It Is For Muslims To Run For Office — Democrat Abdul El-Sayed has no ties to the Muslim Brotherhood. But he's being asked about the foreign group anyway. — The Michigan gubernatorial race took an ugly turn last week …
Elisabeth Braw / Defense One:
We Need a NATO for Infowar — Western countries have pitifully few defenses against ever-more-powerful disinformation campaigns. Banding together can help. — It was Sweden that manufactured the nerve gas that nearly killed Russian double-agent Sergey Skripal in Salisbury in March. Or the Czechs.
Liz Crampton / Politico:
Sam Clovis is leaving USDA — Sam Clovis, the former Trump campaign aide who had been serving as USDA's liaison to the White House, is leaving the Agriculture Department and will return home to Iowa, a USDA official confirmed Thursday evening. — Clovis' last day is Friday.
Discussion:
CNN