Ex-aide says she refused hush money, pens White House memoir calling Trump racist  —  Omarosa Manigault Newman was offered a $15,000-a-month contract from President Trump's campaign to stay silent after being fired from her job as a White House aide by Chief of Staff John F. Kelly last December …

GOP Operative Made “Suspicious” Cash Withdrawals During Pursuit Of Clinton Emails  —  In one of the most intriguing episodes of the 2016 presidential campaign, Republican activist Peter W. Smith launched an independent effort to obtain Hillary Clinton's emails to help defeat her and elect Donald Trump.

Witness in Mueller probe refuses to appear before grand jury  —  A witness in special counsel Robert S. Mueller III's investigation has refused to appear for scheduled grand jury testimony Friday, prompting a sealed hearing before a federal judge.  —  Andrew Miller, a former aide …

Sheriff Joe on Sacha Baron Cohen interview: ‘I made a bad mistake’  —  PHOENIX — Former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio admits that he made a “bad mistake” by allowing himself to be interviewed by Sacha Baron Cohen as part of an undercover television show.

Iran test-fires ballistic missile for first time in 2018, officials say  —  EXCLUSIVE - For the first time in more than a year, Iran test-fired a ballistic missile in a brazen display of defiance months after President Trump pulled the United States out of a landmark nuclear deal and days …

Kansas governor questions opponent's role in vote counting  —  TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas Gov. Jeff Colyer said Friday that he believes Secretary of State Kris Kobach has told counties as part of his job as the state's top elections official not to accept some legitimate ballots in their hotly contested Republican primary race.

Democratic National Committee Proposes Reversing Its Ban On Fossil Fuel Donations  —  The move comes just two months after the party adopted a resolution to prohibit oil, gas and coal company contributions.  —  The Democratic National Committee plans to vote on a resolution Friday afternoon …

‘I hate this county.  I prayed to God that he would curse it’: Footage shows DUI arrest of congressional candidate (with VIDEO)  —  Editor's note: Some of the language in this story may be offensive to some readers.  —  The Democratic congressional candidate who was found guilty this week …

Explain the Chinese spy, Sen. Feinstein  —  Imagine if it emerged that the Republican chairman of the House or Senate intelligence committee had a Russian spy working on their staff.  Think it would cause a political firestorm?  Well, this month we learned that Sen. Dianne Feinstein …

Trump Administration Seeks to Withhold Millions in Aid to Palestinians  —  Kushner hopes cuts will pressure Palestinians to accept a U.S. peace plan.  —  The White House is seeking to withhold up to $200 million in relief aid for Palestinian civilians in Gaza and the West Bank …

Republicans ask Trump to intervene in contentious Arizona primary  —  National Republicans are asking President Donald Trump to intervene in the Arizona Senate primary amid rising fears that the GOP will nominate an unelectable candidate and cede the seat to Democrats in November.

Flat Earthers Call Trump's Space Force Idea ‘Impossible’ … President Donald Trump wants a Space Force to expand U.S. military power beyond the globe.  That's a problem for flat earthers who incorrectly believe the world is a flat disc floating through space.

NPR interviewed the racist behind ‘Unite the Right 2’ and it was a disaster  —  Two days ahead of what is expected to be a small white supremacist rally in Washington, D.C., NPR gave rally organizer Jason Kessler a national platform to peddle junk “race science.”

In America, wage growth is getting wiped out entirely by inflation  —  U.S. workers' paychecks are worth less than they were a year ago, the labor department reported Friday, as modest wage gains have failed to keep pace with inflation.  —  Inflation rose 2.9 percent from July 2017 to July 2018 …

NEW: Daily Beast Working on Major NBC News Sexual Harassment and Misconduct Story  —  The Daily Beast is working on a major story about sexual harassment and misconduct at NBC News, sources tell Mediaite.  —  The story involves varying allegations against senior NBC News executives …

Twitter Suspends Proud Boys And Founder Gavin McInnes Accounts Ahead Of Unite The Right Rally  —  Twitter suspended several accounts associated with the Proud Boys, a right-wing group present at last year's Unite The Right rally in Charlottesville, ahead of a similar rally in Washington, DC this weekend.

Mulvaney Looks to Weaken Oversight of Military Lending  —  The Trump administration is planning to suspend routine examinations of lenders for violations of the Military Lending Act, which was devised to protect military service members and their families from financial fraud …

We Researched Hundreds Of Races.  Here's Who Democrats Are Nominating.  —  This story was produced in collaboration with ABC News and Ballotpedia.1 Research by Ballotpedia and Roey Hadar, Lee Harris, Adam Kelsey, Adia Robinson, Meena Venkataramanan and John Verhovek of ABC News.

The White Nationalists Are Winning  —  The year since the white-supremacist Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, has been difficult for the rogues gallery of Nazis and pseudo-Nazis who championed it.  —  Jason Kessler, one of the organizers, was practically run out of town …

Russian state TV warns Trump to ‘do what we say’ if you want ‘support in the elections’  —  One of Russia's state-run TV news programs this week expressed displeasure with newly announced sanctions being leveled against the Kremlin — and one guest said that it was time to put direct pressure …

N.J.'s Bob Menendez is top foreign relations Democrat in Senate.  His campaign chief is a lobbyist for Qatar.  —  Michael Soliman is a longtime aide and confidant to Sen. Bob Menendez.  Now the New Jersey Democrat's campaign chairman, he naturally wants his boss to win reelection this year.

Manafort trial Day 9: Witness suggests Trump role helped Manafort nab loans  —  The bank- and tax-fraud trial of former Donald Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort resumed Friday afternoon without any public explanation for an unusual delay in the proceedings, but quickly produced revealing …

Rod Rosenstein Defends Bad Forensic Science  —  U.S. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein defended several questionable forms of forensic evidence Tuesday.  —  “Most of you work on the front lines of the criminal justice system, where forensic science has been under attack in recent years …

Newspaper calls for war of words against Trump media attacks  —  BOSTON (AP) — A Boston newspaper is proposing a coordinated editorial response from publications across the U.S. to President Donald Trump's frequent attacks on the news media.  —  “We are not the enemy of the people,” …

Rubio Goes Nationalist  —  Meet the new Marco . . .  In June 2016, Marco Rubio changed his mind and announced that he would not be retiring from the Senate as he had planned.  A major reason he was seeking a second term, Rubio said, was to help the Senate exercise what …

Republicans and Trump Tower  —  “This was a meeting to get information on an opponent, totally legal and done all the time in politics—and it went nowhere.  I did not know about it!”  So tweeted President Donald Trump on August 5.  He was referring to members of his immediate family …

NASA package that fell from sky with note mentioning Trump sparks alarm in New Jersey  —  SOUTH BRUNSWICK, N.J. — A suspicious package that fell from the sky over New Jersey caused some alarm because it contained a note that mentioned President Donald Trump.

Axios Gives Up on Getting You to Pronounce Its Name Axi-US  —  It's Axi-OS now.  As it should be.  —  Jim VandeHei's dream is dead.  No, not the one about starting a new media organization: His Arlington-based Axios is doing just fine, and even has a deal for a limited-run HBO series.