EXCLUSIVE: Special counsel probing donations with foreign connections to Trump inauguration  —  Special counsel Robert Mueller's team has questioned several witnesses about millions of dollars in donations to President Donald Trump's inauguration committee last year, including questions …

Lawyer for 2 Women Who Say They Were Schneiderman Victims Talked to Michael Cohen  —  A lawyer who said he was working on behalf of two women who claimed that the former New York attorney general, Eric T. Schneiderman, had “sexually victimized” them, asserted on Friday that he had discussed …

FBI Warned Of Russian Intelligence Links To Oligarch In Cohen Payment Allegation  —  The FBI warned four years ago that a foundation controlled by the Russian oligarch who allegedly reimbursed Donald Trump's personal lawyer might have been acting on behalf of Russia's intelligence services.

Black activist jailed for his Facebook posts speaks out about secret FBI surveillance  —  Now he is believed to be the first prosecuted under a secretive US effort to track so-called ‘black identity extremists’  —  Rakem Balogun thought he was dreaming when armed agents in tactical gear stormed his apartment.

Transcript: White House Chief Of Staff John Kelly's Interview With NPR  —  Editor's note: This post contains language some may find offensive.  —  NPR's Southwest correspondent John Burnett speaks with White House chief of staff John Kelly.  Here's a partial transcript of their conversation, which has been edited for clarity.

The Democrats' new star is an Obama with bite  —  As Gina Haspel, the first female nominee for director of the Central Intelligence Agency, found out Wednesday, it doesn't bode well to face Senator Kamala Harris at a congressional hearing.  —  Attorney-General Jeff Sessions was once …

Dear Conservative Media: Do Some More Damn Reporting … The American political left has something that their counterparts on the right do not.  —  It's not a particular point of view, or a thing that is particular to a point of view.  It is more foundational than that.

Maggie Haberman and the Toxic Swamp  —  On this week's episode of my podcast, I Have to Ask, I spoke to Maggie Haberman, a White House correspondent for the New York Times and an analyst at CNN.  She previously worked at the New York Post and Politico, has been at the Times since 2015 …

Congressional F-bomb ad set to air Friday at noon  —  ALBUQUERQUE, NM (KRQE) - People see a lot of outrageous political ads, but it's not usually the language that's controversial.  —  Albuquerque City Councilor Pat Davis wants people to see his congressional campaign spot …

Top State Department Nuclear Expert Announces Resignation After Trump Iran Deal Exit  —  Officials warn of brain drain across government offices.  —  One of the State Department's top experts on nuclear proliferation resigned this week after President Donald Trump announced the U.S. withdrawal …

Why Did the US Ambassador to Germany Defend a Human Trafficker?  —  It's no secret that the Trump administration, in office for almost 16 months now, has a devilish time filling top positions.  An unprecedented number of plum jobs in our nation's capital, including senior ones of the kind …

They mock vegans and eat 4lb of steak a day: meet ‘carnivore dieters’  —  For the last 18 months, Shawn Baker has eaten around 4lb of steak every day.  —  “I've got two rib-eye steaks waiting for me when I get off this call,” said the trained orthopaedic surgeon from Orange County, California.

Pruitt's Dinner With Cardinal Accused of Abuse Was Kept Off Public Schedule  —  WASHINGTON — Scott Pruitt, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, dined last year in Rome with Cardinal George Pell, a prominent climate-science denialist and Vatican leader who was also facing sexual abuse allegations.

GOP has few takers for 2020 convention  —  Cities across the country are turning down the opportunity to host the 2020 Republican National Convention, where President Trump  —  is expected to be nominated for a second term.  —  The cities that have rejected hosting duties insist Trump …

How the Online Left Fuels the Right  —  I think I know what it feels like to be “red-pilled,” the alt-right's preferred metaphor for losing one's faith in received assumptions and turning toward ideas that once seemed dangerous.  —  For me, it happened over several visits to the West Bank.

Richard Overton, America's Oldest Veteran, Is Cooler Than You  —  Richard Overton, America's oldest veteran — and oldest person, period — is cooler than you.  That's because Overton is cooler than pretty much everyone.  The WWII veteran turned a stunning 112 years old today …

Mothers Day  —  This Mother's Day, talk to your child about the Republican Party. www.nextgenamerica.org/register

Kushner-backed health care project gets ‘devastating’ review  —  The first stage of a multibillion-dollar military digital health program championed by Jared Kushner has been riddled with problems so severe they could have led to patient deaths, according to a report obtained by POLITICO.

Fox & Friends' Hegseth Trashes NY Times For Not Covering ISIS Capture Story First Reported by NY Times  —  Fox & Friends host Pete Hegseth had some fun mocking his favorite punching bag on Friday morning: The New York Times, which he proudly calls the “Failing New York Times,” a genius witticism he borrowed from Trump.

Federal court wants to know who, if anyone, is spying on Guantánamo defense attorneys  —  In a sweeping order, a federal court has ordered the Justice Department to get them top-secret information about suspicions of eavesdropping on attorney-client meetings at Guantánamo …

A New Facebook Feature Shows Which Pro-Trump Facebook Pages Are Run From Overseas  —  The feature is called “Page History” but now it's gone.  —  Facebook temporarily turned on a new feature that enabled users to see previously hidden information about a page, such as when it was created …

Michigan's GOP has a plan to shield some people from Medicaid work requirements.  They're overwhelmingly white. … Michigan Republicans' plan to require some recipients of government health insurance to work would disproportionately affect black people, a Washington Post analysis of new data from state health officials reveals.

The smear that killed the ‘reset’  —  Putin needed an American enemy.  He picked me.  —  From the beginning of the Obama administration, we knew we wanted to reboot our relationship with Moscow.  I coordinated Russia policy from the National Security Council, and Russia …