North Korea Threatens to Call Off Summit, Calls Pence a ‘Political Dummy’  —  Trump-Kim Jong Un summit planned for June 12 in Singapore  —  North Korea's senior envoy for U.S. affairs renewed a threat to call off a planned summit with President Donald Trump and warned that Pyongyang could …

The NFL's New Anthem Policy Is Madness—But the Players Can Stop It … In its own, typically blinkered and inimitable fashion, the NFL decided to dig in its heels on Wednesday, wrapping itself in the flag, and requiring players who are on the field to stand during the national anthem or face a series of penalties.

Grassley rips Strzok-Page redactions amid mystery text: Obama ‘White House is running this’  —  A top Senate Republican is challenging the Justice Department over extensive redactions made in files showing text messages between anti-Trump FBI officials Peter Strzok and Lisa Page.

A yacht, cocaine, prostitutes: Winery partly owned by Nunes sued after fundraiser event  —  In 2015, Alene Anase was asked by her employer Alpha Omega Winery to serve guests as part of a charity cruise on the San Francisco Bay.  —  But what she expected to be a routine shift serving wine turned …

Security troops on US nuclear missile base took LSD  —  WASHINGTON (AP) — One airman said he felt paranoia.  Another marveled at the vibrant colors.  A third admitted, “I absolutely just loved altering my mind.”  —  Meet service members entrusted with guarding nuclear missiles that are among the most powerful in America's arsenal.

Mueller fights media access to secret court filings  —  The special prosecutor's portrayal of an active, ongoing investigation seems at odds with claims by Trump's lawyers.  —  Special counsel Robert Mueller is fighting a drive by media organizations to unseal secret court filings relating …

Exclusive: FBI Seizes Control of Russian Botnet … FBI agents armed with a court order have seized control of a key server in the Kremlin's global botnet of 500,000 hacked routers, The Daily Beast has learned.  The move positions the bureau to build a comprehensive list of victims of the attack …

The Conversations We Need to Have  —  With every dispiriting headline and each passing day, the full scale of the Trump administration's corruption and lawlessness is coming into a less forgiving view.  And yet it is now becoming obvious that many Americans have ceased to see what is going …

We Sat Down With the ‘Arrested Development’ Cast.  It Got Raw.  —  We Talked to the ‘Arrested Development’ Cast.  It Got Raw.  —  In a wide-ranging conversation about the new season, cast members got emotional as they discussed accusations of sexual misconduct against Jeffrey Tambor.

The Trump-Russia ties hiding in plain sight  —  Trump's in-plain-sight embrace of Russia gets obscured by the Trump news avalanche.  But long before running for president, Trump relied on Russian money.  Trump also consistently defends Russia and attacks U.S. officials investigating Russia.

Amazon demonetizes conservative website (us)  —  Our participation in Amazon Associates terminated without warning, with false and shifting explanations.  —  For as long as I can remember, Legal Insurrection has participated in Amazon Associates, a way for websites to earn fees when readers shop …

Stop Talking about ‘Norms’  —  I just finished listening to a CNN segment where “norms” figured heavily in the discussion.  It was a good segment.  I clipped a couple snippets of video because they were so good.  But we need to stop talking so much about “norms”.  And it's not just CNN.

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.

Blocked by Trump: Twitter Users Sound Off on Being Barred  —  By blocking users on Twitter, President Trump has violated the First Amendment, a federal judge ruled on Wednesday.  —  The lawsuit was brought by seven Twitter users — including a Texas police officer, a New York comedy writer …

George Conway's Tweets Raise West Wing Eyebrows  —  The spicy Twitter feed of Kellyanne Conway's husband has gotten noticed in the Oval Office.  But friends say the real target of his ire isn't Donald Trump.  —  George Conway's Manhattan law firm sits near the corner of Sixth Avenue and 52nd Street …

Jared Kushner Gets Security Clearance, Ending Swirl of Questions Over Delay  —  WASHINGTON — Jared Kushner, President Trump's son-in-law and adviser, has been granted his permanent security clearance, a person briefed on the matter said on Wednesday, ending a period of uncertainty …

Exclusive—Stephen Miller: Big Summer Fight Brewing over Open Borders  —  The White House is gearing up for a big fight this summer with the Democratic party's open borders lobby, says Stephen Miller, senior adviser to President Donald Trump.  —  In an exclusive, hour-long interview with Breitbart News …

Nicolle Wallace Warns Viewers About Lies And Smears Before Playing Trump Comments  —  FacebookTwitterSubscribeGooglePinterest PrintMailFlipboard  —  Nicolle Wallace issued a disclaimer to MSNBC viewers that Trump's comments contained lies and smears before she showed video of the president.

MH17 missile owned by Russian brigade, investigators say  —  The missile that downed a Malaysia Airlines flight over eastern Ukraine in 2014 belonged to a Russian brigade, international investigators say.  —  For the first time, the Dutch-led team said the missile had come from a unit based in western Russia.

Russia will try again this fall.  Congress doesn't seem to care.  —  By Karen Tumulty Columnist May 23 at 6:18 PM Email the author Follow @ktumulty  —  When top intelligence officials went to Capitol Hill one morning this week to give House members a classified briefing on the security …

The Elevation of Imprecision  —  There has been no shortage of analysis of Donald Trump's rhetorical tics, the way he overuses particular phrases, the way he falls back on others.  The way he lies.  The way he threatens, bullies and whines with language.  —  All of these observations …

Senator Jeff Flake to Harvard Law Grads: Trump ‘Debased’ Presidency … In highly charged and notably ominous terms, Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) on Wednesday laid bare his fears about the damage Donald Trump was inflicting on the office he holds, and called out his fellow Republicans for lacking the spine to fight to it.

Truth in a Post-Truth Era: Sandy Hook Families Sue Alex Jones, Conspiracy Theorist  —  WASHINGTON — After the body of Jesse Lewis, age 6, was recovered from his classroom at Sandy Hook Elementary School, his father, Neil Heslin, cradled him for a final time.  At the top of Jesse's forehead was the gunshot wound that ended his life.

America's Version of Capitalism Is Incompatible With Democracy  —  American democracy is unwell; on this much, President Trump's detractors can agree.  —  But when they turn to the tasks of identifying our republic's symptoms, naming its illness, and writing a prescription, different factions of …

Trump: 'There'll be no approvals from me' on House immigration moves without border wall, tougher security  —  President Donald Trump said Wednesday he will veto any immigration legislation that emerges from Congress that does not include funding for a border wall and improved border security measures …

Trump's Attacks on Law Enforcement Inflict Enduring Harm  —  If Donald Trump was elected with any mandate, it was to shake up the orthodoxy—to challenge the establishment and its established ways of operating.  To drain the swamp.  What he actually delivers, however, may be transformation …

A New History of Arabia, Written in Stone  —  How strange rocks—and an obscure language—are changing a decades-old academic consensus.  —  A few years ago, Ahmad Al-Jallad, a professor of Arabic and Semitic linguistics at Leiden University, in the Netherlands, opened his e-mail and was excited …

Garrett in turmoil, might quit Congress  —  Rep. Tom Garrett (R-Va.) has abruptly parted ways with his chief of staff and is considering not seeking reelection in November, according to three people familiar with the matter.  —  Garrett, a member of the conservative House Freedom Caucus …

Fifteen Unanswered Criminal-Law Questions About Trump  —  President Trump speculated on Tuesday that “if” the FBI placed a spy inside his campaign, that would be one of the greatest scandals in U.S. history.  On Wednesday morning on Twitter, the “if” dropped away—and Trump asserted yesterday's wild surmise as today's fact.

CEO of American investment firm believed Michael Cohen could bring in GOP donors for deals: report  —  The head of an American firm that made payments to President Trump  —  's personal attorney, Michael Cohen, believed that Cohen could bring major Republican donors to the company …