Conservatives mount a whisper campaign smearing Khashoggi in defense of Trump  —  Hard-line Republicans and conservative commentators are mounting a dark whisper campaign against Jamal Khashoggi that is designed to protect President Trump from criticism of his handling of the dissident …

Justice Dept. charges Russian woman with interference in Midterm elections  —  The Justice Department on Friday charged a Russian woman for her role in a conspiracy to interfere with the 2018 U.S. election, marking the first criminal case prosecutors have brought against a foreign national for meddling in the upcoming Midterms.

GOP Rep. Jason Lewis once mocked women who felt traumatized by unwanted touching  —  GOP rep. defends prior comments on ‘slut’ women  —  (CNN)Republican Rep. Jason Lewis once mocked women who were traumatized by unwanted sexual advances, including those inappropriately kissed …

Georgia purged an estimated 107,000 people largely for not voting, an APM Reports investigation shows  —  A handful of states, most of them led by Republicans, are using someone's decision not to vote as the trigger for removing them from the rolls.  No state has been more aggressive …

Justice Dept. Rank-and-File Tell of Discontent Over Sessions's Approach  —  WASHINGTON — During his 20 months in office, Attorney General Jeff Sessions has swept in perhaps the most dramatic political shift in memory at the Justice Department, from the civil rights-centered agenda of the Obama era …

How Do You Solve a Problem Like Hillary?  —  She's not going away—and Democrats aren't sure what to do about it.  —  In recent months, some reporters who cover the Trump White House have received phone calls from the last person they would expect: Hillary Clinton.

Haley breaks with Trump: ‘In America, our political opponents are not evil’  —  Outgoing U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley insisted Thursday night that “in America, our political opponents are not evil,” a shark rhetorical break from her boss, President Donald Trump …

For U.S. Senate: Beto O'Rourke  —  United States Senator: Beto O'Rourke  —  Beto O'Rourke - Democratic Party: ★★★★ 1/2  —  The collective swoon that U.S. Senate candidate Beto O'Rourke has aroused among victory-starved Democrats nationwide recalls, even as it far exceeds …

Michael Cohen: Vote, or face more years of ‘craziness’  —  New York (CNN)Michael Cohen, Donald Trump's former lawyer, pleaded with the American public on Friday to head to the polls and vote against the President and the Republican Party, predicting that if they did not, there would be two or six more years of “craziness.”

I pulled a 1,500-year-old sword out of a lake  —  People are saying I am the queen of Sweden because of the legend of King Arthur  —  Every summer, my parents, my six-year-old brother and I go to stay in a cabin by a lake called Vidöstern in Tånnö in southern Sweden, not far from where we live.

Uh Oh: Woman Claims “Unwanted” Sexual Advance By Senate Dem In “Late 1980s”  —  Shall we go by the old rules or the new rules?  Rep. Jim Renacci's (R-OH) Senate campaign has highlighted a claim by an anonymous woman that incumbent Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) might have sexually harassed or assaulted her in the late 1980s.

Senate GOP confident they will increase their majority in November  —  But there are still more than two weeks until Election Day.  —  Senate Republicans are feeling increasingly bullish about expanding their majority next month.  —  Sen. Cory Gardner of Colorado, who chairs the GOP's campaign arm …

Mueller report PSA: Prepare for disappointment  —  And be forewarned that the special counsel's findings may never be made public.  —  President Donald Trump's critics have spent the past 17 months anticipating what some expect will be among the most thrilling events of their lives …

Apple CEO Tim Cook Is Calling For Bloomberg To Retract Its Chinese Spy Chip Story  —  “There is no truth in their story about Apple.  They need to do the right thing.”  —  Apple CEO Tim Cook, in an interview with BuzzFeed News, went on the record for the first time to deny allegations …

CNN's Acosta sends private message to former Melania Trump aide: ‘F— you’  —  CNN chief White House correspondent Jim Acosta sent a direct message to a Twitter follower that read “F— you” after being mocked on the social media platform on Thursday night.

South Carolina Is Lobbying to Allow Discrimination Against Jewish Parents  —  The Trump administration is considering whether to grant a South Carolina request that would effectively allow faith-based foster care agencies in the state the ability to deny Jewish parents from fostering children in its network.

AP-NORC Poll: Just 1 in 4 thinks Kavanaugh told entire truth  —  WASHINGTON (AP) — Just 1 in 4 people thinks Brett Kavanaugh was completely honest when as a Supreme Court nominee he gave sworn testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee last month, with Republicans and Democrats holding …

McCaskill's husband was accused of abuse by ex-wife  —  Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill's husband was accused of domestic violence by his ex-wife, and his company once victim-blamed a woman who sued for sexual misconduct, Fox News has learned.  —  A graphic protection order once filed …

Paul Manafort to be sentenced Feb. 8 in federal court in Virginia  —  UPDATE: A federal judge in Alexandria set a Feb. 8 sentencing date for Paul Manafort, President Trump's onetime campaign chairman.  —  Paul Manafort appeared Friday afternoon in Alexandria federal court for the first time since …

Detroit judge tosses ‘gardening while black’ case brought by three white women  —  Throughout 2017 and early 2018, three white women called police dozens of times, making increasingly serious allegations against Marc Peeples, a black man.  —  Peeples was building a community garden …

A President Who Believes He Is Entitled to His Own Facts  —  WASHINGTON — He accepts less-than-credible denials from autocratic heads of state about nefarious acts.  He disputes the existence of man-made climate change and insists that photographic evidence of the crowd at his inauguration is fake, part of a media plot to harm him.

Founder of Proud Boys Says He's Arranging Surrender of 8 in Brawl  —  The founder of the far-right group the Proud Boys said on Friday that he was arranging the surrender of eight members whom the police are seeking in connection with a brawl outside a Republican club in Manhattan last weekend.

Fentanyl smuggled from China is killing thousands of Americans  —  The Zheng drug trafficking organization was hardly clandestine.  The Shanghai-based network sold synthetic narcotics, including deadly fentanyl, on websites posted in 35 languages, from Arabic and English to Icelandic and Uzbek.

For a Change, Democrats Seem Set to Equal or Exceed Republicans in Turnout  —  Polls show enthusiasm surging in many mostly white suburban districts, but less so among young and nonwhite voters.  —  A wide range of evidence indicates that Democratic voters are poised to vote in numbers unseen …