memeorandum: 92 million MyHeritage users had their data quietly swiped (Beth Mole/Ars Technica)

1:55 PM ET, June 6, 2018

Top Items:

Jonathan Swan / Axios:

Scoop: Trump has commuted Alice Johnson's life sentence — President Trump has signed a commutation for Alice Johnson, currently serving a life sentence for a nonviolent drug offense, according to a source with direct knowledge. CNN reported earlier today that the White House had prepped …

Discussion: VICE News, Politico, Talking Points Memo, CNBC, The Gateway Pundit, Public Pool, Raw Story, Refinery29, twitchy.com, The Week, Splinter, Mediaite, Washington Post, Vox and New Republic

Mic:

President Donald Trump grants clemency to Alice Johnson after Kim Kardashian West involvement — President Donald Trump has granted clemency on Wednesday to Alice Marie Johnson, a first-time nonviolent drug offender who was given a life sentence without parole, Mic has learned.

Kaitlan Collins / CNN:

Exclusive: Trump considers dozens of new pardons — Washington (CNN)The White House has assembled the paperwork to pardon dozens of people, two sources with knowledge of the developments tell CNN, signaling that President Donald Trump is poised to exert his constitutional power and intervene …

Discussion: Washington Post, Political Wire, KTLA, Joe.My.God., Talking Points Memo, Splinter and Raw Story

CNN:
Trump commutes sentence of Alice Marie Johnson

Discussion: The Root, Joe.My.God., Breitbart and Sean Hannity

BuzzFeed:

Ivanka Trump Was In Contact With A Russian Who Offered A Trump-Putin Meeting — Her contact, a Russian Olympic weightlifter, said a meeting between Trump and Putin could expedite a Trump tower in Moscow. — Amid intense scrutiny of contacts between Donald Trump's inner circle and representatives …

Discussion: New Republic, Daily Kos and Raw Story

Felicia Schwartz / Wall Street Journal:

Kim Jong Un Begged for Summit ‘on His Hands and Knees,’ Giuliani Says — With the summit plans back in place, the U.S. has the upper hand, President Trump's lawyer said — TEL AVIV—President Donald Trump's lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, said North Korean leader Kim Jong Un got …

Discussion: National Review, AOL, Political Wire, Washington Times and Daily Kos

Associated Press:

Giuliani says Mueller's team is trying to frame Trump — JERUSALEM (AP) — Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani says special counsel Robert Mueller's team is trying to frame President Trump. — Giuliani, who has been serving as Trump's lawyer amid the Russia scandal, says Wednesday in Israel …

Discussion: MSNBC, VICE News, Daily Kos and Mediaite

Jennifer Jacobs / Bloomberg:
Trump Wants Kim to Commit to Disarmament Timetable in Singapore

Discussion: Washington Post, New York Magazine, Talking Points Memo, The Capitolist, VICE News, Defense One, Washington Times, New York Post, The Week, The American Conservative, Reuters and CNN

John Wagner / Washington Post:
Giuliani: Mueller's team is ‘trying very, very hard to frame’ Trump

Discussion: Politico

Associated Press:

APNewsBreak: Secret Obama-era license let Iran tap dollars — WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration secretly sought to give Iran access — albeit briefly — to the U.S. financial system by sidestepping sanctions kept in place after the 2015 nuclear deal, despite repeatedly telling Congress and the public it had no plans to do so.

Discussion: Vox, Washington Free Beacon, National Review, Weekly Standard, twitchy.com, Axios, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Conservative Review, Front Page Magazine and Daily Wire

Conor Finnegan / ABC News:
Obama admin granted Iran secret license to access US dollars: GOP report

Discussion: One America News Network

Karen DeYoung / Washington Post:
Republican investigation finds that Obama administration misled Congress on possible Iranian access …

Discussion: National Review and RedState

Olivia Beavers / The Hill:
GOP Senate report says Obama officials gave Iran access to US financial system

Discussion: The Daily Caller, Fox News and Townhall

CNN:

Exclusive: Trump invokes War of 1812 in testy call with Trudeau over tariffs — Trudeau: No sign of US common sense prevailing — (CNN)President Donald Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had a testy phone call on May 25 over new tariffs imposed by the Trump administration targeting steel …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Washington Post, Joe.My.God. and Balloon Juice

Jonathan Allen / NBC News:

No, Democrats haven't shown they're going to win the House — WASHINGTON — The lesson of Tuesday night's primaries for Democrats: They still have a lot of work to do if they want to win control of the House in November. — They managed to avert the total disaster of getting “locked out” …

Discussion: NBC News and AOL

New York Times:

California Primary Election Results — At the top of the ballot in California is the race to replace Gov. Jerry Brown, a term-limited Democrat. The big question on Tuesday is not so much who will place first — that's almost certain to be Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, a former mayor of San Francisco — but who will place second.

Discussion: Vox, Washington Monthly, Sacramento Bee, CNN, Los Angeles Times, Right Wing Watch, Shareblue Media, The Daily Caller, Splinter, twitchy.com and Daily Kos

Nate Silver / FiveThirtyEight:
Sometimes The Parties Do Decide, After All

Discussion: Washington Monthly, CNN, Politico and Washington Post

Sam Baker / Axios:
Health care emerges as top midterm voting issue

Discussion: Politico

Christine Mai-Duc / Los Angeles Times:
Democrats look like they won't be shut out of critical California House races

Discussion: Los Angeles Times and Patterico's Pontifications

Nicholas Fandos / New York Times:

Speaker Ryan Dismisses Trump's Charges of a Spy in His Campaign — WASHINGTON — Speaker Paul D. Ryan agreed on Wednesday that the F.B.I. did nothing wrong by using a confidential informant to contact members of the Trump campaign as it investigated its ties to Russia, contradicting President …

Discussion: Political Wire

Kyle Cheney / Politico:
Ryan backs Gowdy on FBI's use of informant to contact Trump associates

Discussion: National Review, ABC News, ThinkProgress, Axios, Breitbart, Fox News, Daily Wire, BloombergQuint and New York Magazine

Associated Press:
Ryan contradicts Trump's claim that the FBI planted a ‘spy’

Discussion: New Republic

Karoun Demirjian / Washington Post:
Paul Ryan splits with Trump, says ‘no evidence’ FBI spied on president's campaign

Discussion: Mother Jones

Carole Cadwalladr / The Guardian:

Cambridge Analytica director ‘met Assange to discuss US election’ — Brittany Kaiser also claims to have channelled payments and donations to WikiLeaks — A Cambridge Analytica director apparently visited Julian Assange in February last year and told friends it was to discuss what happened during …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Shakesville, Political Wire and Financial Times

The Daily Beast:
Cambridge Analytica Director Met With Julian Assange to ‘Discuss’ U.S. Election

Discussion: The Guardian

Mike Levine / ABC News:

DOJ watchdog finds James Comey defied authority as FBI director, sources say — The Justice Department's internal watchdog has concluded that James Comey defied authority at times during his tenure as FBI director, according to sources familiar with a draft report on the matter.

Discussion: JustOneMinute, Breitbart, The Rush Limbaugh Show, Sean Hannity, Daily Kos, twitchy.com, Mediaite, Raw Story, The Gateway Pundit, Washington Times, Political Wire and The Daily Caller

Bob Egelko / San Francisco Chronicle:

Bid to recall Judge Aaron Persky appears successful in Santa Clara County — Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Aaron Persky was on his way to being voted out of office Tuesday, two years after he set off national outrage by sentencing a Stanford athlete to six months in jail …

Discussion: The Hill, Washington Post and Palo Alto Daily Post

Maggie Astor / New York Times:
California Voters Remove Aaron Persky, the Judge Who Gave a 6-Month Sentence for Sexual Assault

Discussion: New Republic, HuffPost, BuzzFeed, Hit & Run and Axios

Noreen Malone / New York Magazine:

The New Yorker Staff Has Unionized — The era of white-collar organized labor is fully upon us: the editorial staff of The New Yorker wants to unionize. This morning, organizers sent a letter to the magazine's editor, David Remnick, asking that the institution and its corporate owner …

more at Mediagazer »

David Von Drehle / Washington Post:

There will be no Trump collapse — I've tried everything to avoid thinking about the next election — family travel, yard work, crossword puzzles. But now it's only five months away, barely longer than the gestation period of a North American beaver, or the Stanley Cup playoffs.

Jennifer Bendery / HuffPost:

It Looks Like America Is Finally Going To Have A Native American Congresswoman — Deb Haaland won her Democratic primary in New Mexico's congressional race. She's likely to win in November, too. — Deb Haaland won the Democratic nomination for a New Mexico congressional seat on Tuesday …

Discussion: The Daily Beast, New Republic, ThinkProgress and Shakesville

Alexia Fernández Campbell / Vox:
Deb Haaland's primary win means she will likely be the first Native American woman in Congress

Discussion: Politico, HuffPost, Newsweek and NPR

Betsy Woodruff / The Daily Beast:

Trump Transition Team Goes to War Over Rogue FBI Agent … At the time, it was one of the more controversial moments of Robert Mueller's probe: Late last year, news broke that a federal agency turned over tens of thousands of private emails of Trump transition team officials to the special counsel's team …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo

Bryan Lowry / Kansas City Star:

Democrat Arthur wins Missouri special election days after Greitens resigns — Democratic Rep. Lauren Arthur prevailed by a double-digit margin over Republican Rep. Kevin Corlew in a special election for a state Senate seat Tuesday night. — Republicans won't risk losing control …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, HuffPost, The Daily Beast, Politico, Washington Post, KMBC, MSNBC, Associated Press, Raw Story, The Week, Vox, KCUR and Political Wire

Washington Post:

The Post has mapped more than 52,000 homicides in major American cities over the past decade and found that across the country, there are areas where murder is common but arrests are rare. — Christopher Dickson felt justice had been served. For weeks, he'd bragged around his neighborhood …

Eli Watkins / CNN:

State Department spokeswoman notes D-Day in answer on ‘strong relationship’ with Germany — Nauert invokes D-Day while praising US-Germany relations — Washington (CNN)State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert on Tuesday cited the D-Day invasion during an answer about the current state of US-German relations.

Discussion: New York Times, MSNBC, The Times of Israel, Task & Purpose, Jewish Telegraphic Agency and Common Dreams

Justin Glawe / The Daily Beast:

Steve Mnuchin Blacked Out Schedule on Days of Controversial Trips … Before stepping off a military jet in Kentucky last summer where he viewed a solar eclipse at Fort Knox, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin was doing something else in secret. — Mnuchin and his wife's trip on August 21 …

Peter Baker / New York Times:

Why Is Trump Mad at Sessions? A Tweet Provides the Answer — WASHINGTON — For nearly a year, President Trump has been relentlessly attacking his handpicked attorney general for recusing himself from the Russia investigation that has so nettled him. And so in that sense …

Discussion: Washington Post, ThinkProgress, RedState, Sara A. Carter, iPolitics, New York Magazine, Fox News, infowars.com and Mediaite

Ned Ryun / The Hill:

If Trump team had done wrong, it would have leaked long ago — A little over a week ago, Trump's attorney Rudy Guiliani said that the basis of special counsel Robert Mueller — 's investigation was illegitimate and he was absolutely correct. — Instead of discussing presidential pardons or subpoenas, President Trump

Washington Post:

Trump to sign veterans health bill as White House works against plan to fund it — President Trump is preparing to sign a sweeping new law Wednesday aimed at expanding veterans' access to private-sector health care. But behind the scenes his administration is fighting a bipartisan Senate effort to fund the legislation.

Discussion: TheBlaze and CNBC

Caroline Orr / Shareblue Media:

GOP elects white supremacist who rioted in Charlottesville — Emboldened by Trump's racism, a record number of white supremacists are making their way into mainstream Republican politics. — A participant in last summer's deadly white supremacist rally in Charlottesville has been elected …

Discussion: The Daily Beast, The Stranger, Blog, Inlander, HuffPost and The Mary Sue

Venessa Wong / BuzzFeed:

McDonald's Kiosks Are The New Cashiers — A few thousand more McDonald's restaurants will have self-order kiosks by the end of the year. — McDonald's will roll out self-order kiosks to 1,000 stores every quarter for the next two years, according to CEO Steve Easterbrook.

Discussion: TheBlaze, Betsy's Page, Fortune, The Daily Caller, Louder With Crowder, Daily Wire and twitchy.com

George Packer / New Yorker:

Witnessing the Obama Presidency, from Start to Finish — Ben Rhodes was the President's speechwriter, foreign-policy adviser, and confidant. His book records the Administration's struggle to shape its own narrative. — Barack Obama was a writer before he became a politician, and he saw his Presidency as a struggle over narrative.

CBS News:

Secret Service arrests White House contractor with outstanding attempted murder warrant — The Secret Service arrested a contractor outside the White House on Tuesday for an outstanding warrant that includes an attempted murder charge, CBS News Washington correspondent Paula Reid reports.