memeorandum: Report: Israel, Iran engage in indirect negotiations over Syria fighting (Yasser Okbi/Jerusalem Post)

5:40 AM ET, May 28, 2018

Top Items:

Jonathan Swan / Axios:

Stunning Oval Office leak: Aides fight in front of Trump — about leaks — Shortly after word leaked that Kelly Sadler had taken a nasty shot at John McCain, President Trump convened a meeting in the Oval Office for a tiny group of communications staffers, according to sources familiar with the gathering.

Discussion: The Resurgent, Splinter, Raw Story, Mediaite, Washington Press and IJR

Tom McCarthy / The Guardian:

Rudy Giuliani admits ‘Spygate’ is Trump PR tactic against Robert Mueller — Former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani said on Sunday that his repeated imputations of a supposed scandal at the heart of the Robert Mueller investigation - which Donald Trump calls “Spygate” - amounted to a tactic …

Discussion: New York Post, Conservative News Today and HuffPost

Kailani Koenig / NBC News:
Jeff Flake: GOP needs to stand up to Trump more forcefully

Discussion: Splinter, CNN, The Week and Washington Times

Brent D. Griffiths / Politico:
Trump: Lives have been ‘devastated and destroyed’ by Russia probe

Discussion: Breitbart, Joe.My.God. and The Hill

Connor O'Brien / Politico:
Giuliani slams Mueller probe as ‘illegitimate’

Discussion: Washington Press, Hullabaloo, Breitbart and Mother Jones

Connor O'Brien / Politico:
Flake won't rule out White House run against Trump

Discussion: Axios and Breitbart

Baltimore Sun:

Ellicott City awash in flood waters as heavy rain drenches the Baltimore region — Ellicott City was devastated by a massive storm on the Sunday before Memorial Day, just two years after a flash flood forced the historic city in Howard County to rebuild much of its Main Street.

Discussion: Breitbart

Greg P. / twitchy.com:

Jon Favreau, Shaun King, Linda Sarsour and other libs just committed the greatest self-own in the history of Twitter — Shot... Ex-Obama staffer Jon Favreau, in a now-deleted tweet, linked to an AZCentral.com article title, “First glimpse of immigrant children at holding facility” and said …

Discussion: The Daily Caller

Louis Lucero II / New York Times:

F.B.I.'s Urgent Request: Reboot Your Router to Stop Russia-Linked Malware — Hoping to thwart a sophisticated malware system linked to Russia that has infected hundreds of thousands of internet routers, the F.B.I. has made an urgent request to anybody with one of the devices: Turn it off, and then turn it back on.

Discussion: Mother Jones, more at Techmeme »

David Edwards / Raw Story:

Avenatti says Trump ‘participated’ in Cohen schemes: Their swamp ‘makes everglades look like a backyard plastic pool’ — Michael Avenatti, the attorney for adult film star Stormy Daniels, revealed on Sunday that evidence will show that President Donald Trump participated in his personal attorney's business …

Steve LeVine / Axios:

Forget about broad-based pay hikes, executives say — Very few Americans have enjoyed steadily rising pay beyond inflation over the last couple of decades, a shift from prior years in which the working and middle classes enjoyed broad-based wage gains as the economy expanded.

Discussion: The Daily Caller

Noah Berlatsky / NBC News:

Noah Berlatsky The Trump effect: New study connects white American intolerance and support for authoritarianism — Since the founding of the United States, politicians and pundits have warned that partisanship is a danger to democracy. George Washington, in his Farewell Address …

Thomas Lifson / American Thinker:

Louis Farrakhan: ‘Mr. Trump is destroying every enemy that was an enemy of our rise’ — Louis Farrakhan, leader of the Nation of Islam movement, appears to have changed his opinion of Donald Trump since two years ago, when he warned black Americans: “If Donald Trump becomes president, he will take America into the abyss of hell.”

Discussion: Mediaite, The Daily Caller and The Resurgent

Cheyenne Haslett / ABC News:

‘No evidence’ FBI spied on Trump campaign, Republican says, contrary to president's claims — Republican Sen. Marco Rubio said he sees “no evidence” to support President Trump's claims that the FBI used an informant to gather information on his campaign, but that instead the federal probe was focused on …

Discussion: HuffPost, The Gateway Pundit and Breitbart

Kyle Balluck / The Hill: Rubio defends FBI on Trump probe

Cheyenne Haslett / ABC News:
Trump's insisting his campaign was spied on is ‘part of the propaganda machine’: Top Democrat

Discussion: Politico

Yasser Okbi / Jerusalem Post:

Report: Israel, Iran engage in indirect negotiations over Syria fighting — The report said a Jordanian mediator carried messages between the sides. — Israel and Iran engaged over the weekend in indirect negotiations in Jordan regarding fighting in southwestern Syria, according to Elaph, a Saudi-owned website.

Politico:

Poland offers US up to $2B for permanent military base — Poland wants a permanent U.S. military presence — and is willing to pony up as much as $2 billion to get it, according to a defense ministry proposal obtained by Polish news portal Onet. — The Polish offer reflects a long-standing desire …

Discussion: Political Wire and Axios

Christina Caron / New York Times:

‘OMG This Is Wrong!’ Retired English Teacher Marks Up a White House Letter and Sends It Back — The notes were sprawled across a letter bearing President Trump's signature. — In the top left corner: “Have y'all tried grammar & style check?” — At the top right: “Federal is capitalized only when used as part of a proper noun.”

Laura Forsyth / Daily Mail:

Judge calls for 10in pointed kitchen knives to be ground down to a rounded end after hearing three serious stabbing cases in last three months — Ideas come from Judge Nic Madge, who jailed Jordon Worth, 22, for inflicting a catalogue of injuries on her boyfriend including stabbing him

Discussion: Front Page Magazine

Chuck Ross / The Daily Caller:

Alexander Downer Describes Barroom Meeting With Trump Adviser George Papadopoulos — In a little-noticed interview in April, former Australian diplomat Alexander Downer spoke publicly for the first time about his barroom conversation with President Donald Trump's campaign adviser that would serve …

Discussion: RedState and Conservative News Today