Cohen believed Trump would pardon him, but then things changed  —  Washington (CNN)Michael Cohen, the former personal attorney for President Donald Trump who is now a key witness in special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation, was under the impression Trump would offer him a pardon …

Acting AG Appears to Have Misled FTC Over Actions at Miami Firm  — FTC emails show Whitaker denied communicating with customers  — Officials also expressed surprise at AG's hiring of Whitaker  —  New documents released by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission suggest …

The Latest: AP retracts call in North Carolina Congress race  —  RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — The Latest on a North Carolina congressional race that remains in dispute more than three weeks after election day (all times local):  —  The Associated Press is retracting its call of a winner for U.S. House …

Dodging Friends, Chased by Legal Troubles, Trump Navigates G-20  —  BUENOS AIRES — He didn't sit down with two of his favorite strongmen.  He downgraded a meeting with one ally and postponed one with another.  He exchanged icy smiles with the prime minister of Canada …

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke must resign.  His multiple scandals show he's unfit to serve.  —  Ryan Zinke needs to resign immediately as Secretary of the Interior.  —  I take no pleasure in calling for this step, and I have resisted it even as questions have grown about Mr. Zinke's ethical and managerial failings.

Trump defender Alan Dershowitz is deeply involved in the sordid Jeffrey Epstein scandal  —  Attorney Alan Dershowitz's name appears 19 times in an investigative report on the ways billionaire sex offender Jeffrey Epstein manipulated the legal system to torment his accusers and escape serious punishment.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Leads Opposition to Coal Puppet Joe Manchin for Top Senate Energy Slot  —  Incoming Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., is troubled by the prospect of West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, a staunch ally of the fossil fuel industry, becoming the top Democrat on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.

GOP seeks to limit Wisconsin early voting, strip powers from Tony Evers and Josh Kaul in lame-duck session  —  MADISON - Republican lawmakers are seeking to limit voter turnout and want to take away key powers from the incoming Democratic governor and attorney general before GOP Gov. Scott Walker leaves office in January.

Louisiana School Made Headlines for Sending Black Kids to Elite Colleges.  Here's the Reality.  —  T.M. Landry, a school in small-town Louisiana, has garnered national attention for vaulting its underprivileged black students to elite colleges.  But the school cut corners and doctored college applications.

KC Chiefs Cut Kareem Hunt Over Video of Him Brutalizing Woman  —  6:27 PM PT — Hunt just made a statement to ESPN about our video, saying, “I want to apologize for my actions.  I deeply regret what I did.  I hope to move on from this.”  —  5:50 PM PT — The Chiefs have cut Kareem Hunt …

Iowa Dem who lost state House race by 9 votes sues to have absentee ballots counted  —  A Democrat who lost her race for an Iowa state House seat by fewer than 10 votes filed a lawsuit Thursday seeking to get 33 absentee ballots counted.  —  Kayla Koether filed the emergency suit …

Dominatrix specializes in turning ‘white, right-wing men’ into socialists  —  A growing wave of sex-positive feminists are working to usher in what they describe as a “pleasure revolution” in which women's sexuality is embraced, rather than stigmatized, by both individuals and society at large.

Mia Love pans Trump and the GOP for failure to make women and minorities feel welcome  —  Having lost her reelection bid, Rep. Mia Love, R-Utah, is unloading on the Republican Party and its leader, chiding President Trump for making women and minorities feel unwelcome and warning …

Six White House officials reprimanded for violating the Hatch Act  —  Six White House officials violated a federal law that prohibits public employees from conducting political activity in their official roles when they used their official Twitter accounts to send or display political messages …

Scott suspends Broward's controversial election chief before she can quit early  —  MIAMI — Before she could retire early in January, Gov. Rick Scott decided Friday to suspend Brenda Snipes, Broward County's troubled election supervisor, from office following a series of voting …

Why Is Tucker Carlson Mad About Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer?  A Guide to the Content Cycle.  —  On Thursday night, Tucker Carlson, his brow furrowed in a perfect imitation of a human facial expression, devoted a segment to the beloved children's Christmas special Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer …

How one accountant links Whitaker's nonprofit to network of dark money groups  —  The offices of the Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust (FACT), the nonprofit once headed by acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker, are located at a shared workspace on K Street in Washington, D.C., a couple blocks from the White House.

McCaskill Blames Senate Defeat On Democratic ‘Failure’ With Rural America  —  Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., is about to head home after losing her bid for re-election, and in defeat she's blaming her own Democratic Party for abandoning moderates.  —  McCaskill has represented Missouri in the Senate since 2007.

Mueller could hit Manafort with retrial, new charges  —  Special counsel Robert Mueller's office is considering retrying former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort on a slew of federal charges that resulted in a hung jury over the summer.  —  At a hearing in federal court Friday morning …

Exclusive: Homeland Security chief issues unusual plea for help against ‘caravans’  —  Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen has requested the deployment of civilian law enforcement officers from several other Cabinet departments to the U.S.-Mexico border as early as next week, according to an internal memo obtained by POLITICO.

Trump's Secret Service May Have Just Set A Spending Record For Presidential Golf Carts  —  The Secret Service has allocated more than $90,000 for golf cart rentals in South Florida this winter, ostensibly to protect president Donald Trump while he hits the links.

Feds accuse Fugees founder and former DOJ official of ties to Malaysian financial conspiracy  —  A founding member of the Fugees music group and a former Justice Department official took part in a conspiracy to funnel tens of millions of dollars into the United States to help a Malaysian fugitive try …

Mike Pence Tweeted, Then Deleted, A Picture With A Florida Deputy Wearing A QAnon Conspiracy Patch  —  Vice President Mike Pence on Friday tweeted, and then quickly deleted, a picture of himself and a Florida sheriff's deputy wearing a QAnon conspiracy patch on his uniform.