Top Items:
Paul Wood / BBC:
Trump lawyer ‘paid by Ukraine’ to arrange White House talks — Donald Trump's personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, received a secret payment of at least $400,000 to fix talks between the Ukrainian president and President Trump, according to sources in Kiev close to those involved.
Jonathan Chait / New York Magazine:
Trump's FBI Spy Theory Is Completely Insane — In the face of widening evidence of Trump campaign culpability in the Russia investigation, Republicans have churned through a frequently mutating series of conspiracy theories to defend him. The latest, and possibly final, such theory …
Discussion:
Washington Post, Mother Jones, ThinkProgress and ABC News
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Josh Feldman / Mediaite:
Comey Rips Trump's ‘Attacks’ on the FBI: ‘How Will Republicans Explain This to Their Grandchildren?’ — Former FBI Director James Comey came to the agency's defense this morning as President Trump continues to attack it over the informant used during the election.
Discussion:
Politico, Axios, Washington Post and Talking Points Memo
New York Times:
5 Key Takeaways From Tuesday's Primaries — It was a night for upsets and breakthroughs: In Georgia, a black woman was nominated for governor by a major party for the first time in any state. In Kentucky, a math teacher defeated a Republican power broker.
Discussion:
Washington Post, ThinkProgress, NBC News, WFAA-TV, Shareblue Media, FiveThirtyEight and ABC News
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Navigator:
What Are They Hiding? — Americans Want Answers on Mueller Investigation, Cabinet Scandals, Congressional Oversight, and #MeToo — Welcome to NAVIGATOR — a project designed to better understand the American public's views on the issues of the day and help advocates, elected officials …
Discussion:
Vox
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Steven Shepard / Politico:
Poll: Trump reelection bid begins in a hole
Poll: Trump reelection bid begins in a hole
Discussion:
Vox, Axios, Political Wire and ABC News
New Yorker:
Philip Roth, the Seminal American Novelist, Has Died — Philip Roth, the seminal American novelist whose book “American Pastoral” won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, in 1998, has died, at the age of eighty-five. His great subjects, as Claudia Roth Pierpont wrote in this magazine, in 2006 …
Discussion:
NPR
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Charles McGrath / New York Times:
Philip Roth, Towering Novelist Who Explored Lust, Jewish Life and America, Dies at 85
Philip Roth, Towering Novelist Who Explored Lust, Jewish Life and America, Dies at 85
Discussion:
Vox, Outside the Beltway, New Republic, The Week and Front Page Magazine
Nancy Cook / Politico:
Trump demands housecleaning on White House communications team — Chief of staff John Kelly has signed off on a plan to dismiss mid-level and junior aides in an effort to limit leaks. — President Donald Trump has demanded changes to his communications team - long seen …
Discussion:
Talking Points Memo, The Daily Caller, New York Magazine and Mediaite
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Seung Min Kim / Washington Post:
Top Senate Republicans ask White House for entry into meeting on classified information
Top Senate Republicans ask White House for entry into meeting on classified information
Discussion:
Lawfare, Hullabaloo and NPR
New York Times:
Michael Cohen's Business Partner Agrees to Cooperate as Part of Plea Deal — A significant business partner of Michael D. Cohen, President Trump's personal lawyer, has quietly agreed to cooperate with the government as a potential witness, a development that could be used as leverage to pressure …
Discussion:
Talking Points Memo, National Review, NPR, Washington Post, Above the Law, Weekly Standard, CNBC, The Week, Lawyers, Guns & Money, Mediaite, The Daily Beast, Washington Press, Vox, Breitbart, Hit & Run, AOL, Axios, New York Magazine, CNN, The Gateway Pundit, Raw Story, Washington Monthly, The Mahablog, Daily Kos, Balloon Juice and Joe.My.God.
The Daily Beast:
Exclusive: U.S. Government Can't Get Controversial Kaspersky Lab Software Off Its Networks … Federal agencies are so far unable to comply with a law banning Kaspersky Lab software from U.S. government networks by October, The Daily Beast has learned. Multiple divisions of the U.S. government …
Discussion:
Political Wire and archive.fo
Emily Rauhala / Washington Post:
State Department warns U.S. citizens in China after employee suffers possible sonic attack — BEIJING — The U.S. State Department is warning U.S. citizens in China that a government employee reported unusual “sensations of sound and pressure” and was later diagnosed with a mild traumatic brain injury …
Discussion:
New York Times, Politico, Bloomberg, U.S. Embassy & Consulates …, infowars.com and Daily Caller News Foundation
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David Carnoy / CNET:
Would you wear this muzzle around the office for private calling? — A new accessory called Bloxvox muffles your phone conversations in an open office. Just don't share it. — Enlarge Image — Back in January of 2017 I discovered a product at CES called HushMe that I described as …
S.V. Date / HuffPost:
Giuliani's New Stance On Russian Collusion: So What? It's Not Illegal. — “It was sort of like a gift,” Giuliani said of the Clinton campaign material stolen by Russia. “And you're not involved in the illegality of getting it.” — WASHINGTON His client insists there was “NO COLLUSION” …
Discussion:
Splinter, MSNBC, Wall Street Journal and Mediaite
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Christopher Dickey / Washington Post:
Former intelligence chief's argument that Putin did indeed sway the 2016 vote
Mark Leibovich / New York Times:
The Risky Business of Speaking for President Trump — Flacks in this White House press office are getting enormous exposure — but potentially at a long-term cost to their credibility. — It was getting late on a Wednesday, and by 2018 standards the evening's news cycle felt almost serene.
Marwa Eltagouri / Washington Post:
A 30-year-old demanded notice for eviction from his parents' house. ‘Outrageous,’ a judge said. — Michael Rotondo refuses to move out of his parents' house. — So much so that the 30-year-old argued for a half-hour with a judge in Upstate New York on Tuesday, saying that while he knew …
Discussion:
CNN, ABC News, IJR and Outside the Beltway
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Lia Eustachewich / New York Post:
Parents win suit to kick 30-year-old deadbeat son out of their house
Parents win suit to kick 30-year-old deadbeat son out of their house
Aaron Katersky / ABC News:
Families of Sandy Hook victims, FBI agent file defamation lawsuit against right-wing radio host Alex Jones — Six families of victims killed in the Sandy Hook Elementary School mass shooting, as well as an FBI agent who responded to the scene, filed a defamation lawsuit today …
Natasha Korecki / Politico:
Prominent donor threatens GOP over DACA — CHICAGO — An influential, multi-millionaire GOP donor is threatening to choke off campaign resources to Republican congressmen who haven't engaged in the latest immigration battle in Congress. — Former Exelon chairman John Rowe …
Discussion:
RedState, ThinkProgress, The Hill, Daily Caller News Foundation, Shareblue Media, Splinter and New York Magazine
Will Oremus / Slate:
The Privacy Scandal That Should Be Bigger Than Cambridge Analytica — Wireless carriers are sharing your real-time location with shady third parties—and a bug lets anyone use that data to track you. — Stop me if you've heard this before: A giant company that relies on users to trust …
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Edward-Isaac Dovere / Politico:
The new AG itching to take on Trump — New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal has jurisdiction over 20 Trump properties and is ready to step into Eric Schneiderman's void. — The man aspiring to be the new face of the resistance is a practicing Sikh who likes to call attention to his turban …
Discussion:
Political Wire
New York Times:
How the Mueller Investigation Could Play Out for Trump — If Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel, finds evidence that Mr. Trump broke the law, he will have decisions to make about how to proceed. We explain them.
Lexington Herald-Leader:
Teacher narrowly upsets Kentucky House GOP leader. A sign of things to come? — As upset teachers across Kentucky Tuesday tried to flex their political muscle, Rockcastle County High School math teacher R. Travis Brenda narrowly defeated House Majority Floor Leader Jonathan Shell …
Discussion:
Vox, New York Magazine, The Daily Beast, Daily Kos, Hullabaloo, HuffPost, Splinter, Axios and Political Wire
Kerry Picket / The Daily Caller:
Sources: FBI Agents Want Congress To Issue Them Subpoenas So They Can Reveal The Bureau's Dirt — Sources tell The Daily Caller several FBI agents want congressional subpoenas to testify about the agency's problems. — The sources claim there is a demand within the agency to prosecute former Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe.
Discussion:
Townhall, CNBC, The Gateway Pundit, Raw Story and Joe.My.God.
David Ignatius / Washington Post:
Stefan Halper is just another middleman — By David Ignatius Opinion writer May 22 at 7:21 PM Email the author Follow @ignatiuspost — In the bizarre double helix that is the Russia investigation, one of the recurring themes is the role of would-be influencers.
Discussion:
National Review, Axios and Breitbart
Sam Levine / HuffPost:
The ACLU Is Suing To Strike Down Ohio's Congressional Map — The civil liberties group says Ohio's map is so heavily gerrymandered, it violates the Constitution. — The American Civil Liberties Union is suing Ohio to strike down the state's congressional map, saying it was intentionally drawn …
Philip Bump / Washington Post:
There is no evidence for ‘Spygate’ — but there is a reason that Trump invented it — In the grand tradition of Gretchen Wieners, President Trump has a new catchphrase that he is trying on for size. … “Spygate” made its debut on Wednesday morning during Trump's “executive time,” …
Discussion:
Fox News Insider, AOL and The Gateway Pundit
Emily Holden / Politico:
EPA bars reporters from toxic chemicals summit again — EPA staff Wednesday morning barred POLITICO and reporters from at least two other publications from entering a national summit on toxic chemicals. — The agency at the first day of the event on Tuesday allowed a select group of reporters …
Matthew Lee / Associated Press:
Pompeo: US will fight Russian interference in 2018 elections — WASHINGTON (AP) — Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says the Trump administration will not tolerate Russian interference in the 2018 congressional midterm elections. — Pompeo told the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Wednesday …
Gabriel Sherman / Vanity Fair:
“That Psychopath Is Going Down”: Inside Trumpworld, a Bizarre Counter-Narrative Takes Hold — People in Trump's orbit have become convinced that anti-Trump forces in the F.B.I. entrapped his advisers using informants to plant evidence about Russian collusion—and that former C.I.A. director John Brennan is somehow behind the plot.
Discussion:
PolitiFact, Shakesville, The Week and The Guardian
Max Fisher / New York Times:
Deep in the Desert, Iran Quietly Advances Missile Technology — When an explosion nearly razed Iran's long-range missile research facility in 2011 — and killed the military scientist who ran it — many Western intelligence analysts viewed it as devastating to Tehran's technological ambitions.
Q13 FOX News:
A week after controversial head tax passes, Seattle City Council members propose property tax increase … SEATTLE — People who own a home in King County are paying about 17% more in property taxes this year than last year to help pay for the state's funding of public education.
Discussion:
Hot Air, RedState and Daily Wire