Federal prosecutors broke law in Jeffrey Epstein case, judge rules  —  Federal prosecutors, under former Miami U.S. Attorney Alex Acosta, broke the law when they concealed a plea agreement from more than 30 underage victims who had been sexually abused by wealthy New York hedge fund manager Jeffrey Epstein …

‘He is not going to be the nominee’: Dems slam Sanders over Maduro stance  —  Florida Democrats are denouncing Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders for refusing to call Venezuelan strongman Nicolas Maduro a dictator — a politically explosive issue in the nation's biggest swing state.

An open letter to my Republican colleagues  —  Adam B. Schiff, a Democrat, represents California's 28th Congressional District in the House and is chairman of the Intelligence Committee.  —  This is a moment of great peril for our democracy.  Our country is deeply divided.

Mueller could tell all in last major court filing in Paul Manafort's case  —  Washington (CNN)Friday may be the day that special counsel Robert Mueller tells all in the long-running court saga of Paul Manafort's prosecution.  —  Mueller's sentencing memorandum is due to a federal judge in DC District Court before midnight Friday.

Early Poll of New Hampshire Voters Shows Potential Problems for Trump a Year Out from 2020 Presidential Primary Season  —  UMass Amherst Poll Finds GOP Voter Support for Primary Challenge  —  AMHERST, Mass. - With nearly 40 percent of likely Republican primary voters in New Hampshire saying …

Trump aides worry he'll get outfoxed in North Korea talks  —  President Donald Trump is eagerly anticipating his second summit with Kim Jong Un, touting his “really meaningful” relationship with the North Korean strongman and insisting he's ready to give up his nuclear arsenal.

Schiffting to Phase 2 of Collusion  —  Conspiracy theorists look for something new, anticipating a Mueller letdown.  —  There's been no more reliable regurgitator of fantastical Trump-Russia collusion theories than Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff.  So when the House Intelligence Committee chairman sits …

Jussie Smollett Apologizes to ‘Empire’ Cast and Crew, Maintains Innocence  —  Jussie Smollett is begging his “Empire” family to believe he's innocent and continue supporting him — even as the drama of his arrest postponed a scene Thursday in Chicago.  —  Sources on the “Empire” …

Netanyahu's Most Cynical Ploy Yet  —  By allying himself with one of Israel's most despicable parties, the prime minister is jeopardizing his legacy.  —  Most Americans have probably never heard of Yifat Ehrlich, or for that matter her former center-right political party in Israel, Bayit Yehudit.

Who is Nomiki Konst?  —  Nomiki Konst, the 35-year-old TV pundit casting herself as the Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of the New York public advocate's race, readily acknowledges that her background is politically unconventional.  —  She's wandered from Tucson to Buffalo to Florida to Los Angeles …

Ex-Fox News Quack Doctor Keith Ablow Accused of Sexually Exploiting Patients  —  The infamous TV huckster allegedly lured multiple female patients into sexual relationships, according to lawsuits, before engaging in physically abusive behavior.  —  A former member of Fox News' “Medical A-Team” …

Trump Won't Rule Out Using Stolen Data in 2020 Campaign  —  Democratic candidates have committed not to use hacked materials against one another.  The Trump campaign declined to make such a pledge.  —  Nearly three years after hacked materials upended the 2016 presidential campaign …

Facebook Grew Too Big to Care About Privacy  —  Once it became indispensable, it gained the power to reverse promises it had made not to gather certain data.  —  Two years ago, a Yale Law School student published what became an influential paper about how antitrust law should apply …

It's time to take John Wayne's name off the Orange County airport  —  Most people familiar with the life story of John Wayne are aware that the late movie star was a dyed-in-the-wool right-winger — after all, he was still making a movie glorifying America's conduct of the Vietnam War …

National Enquirer's biggest investors include California taxpayers and state workers  —  The National Enquirer has been one of President Trump's most controversial allies, delivering scathing coverage of his opponents to super market check-out lines and funneling $150,000 to one of his alleged mistresses to buy her silence.

Jim Risch tries to calm Republicans furious with Trump  —  Sen. Jim Risch was on the verge of facing down an insurgency from his GOP colleagues.  —  Top Senate Republicans were fuming at the Trump administration last week for ignoring congressional demands to further investigate the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Don't gut libel ruling that gave us brave civil rights, Vietnam and Watergate coverage  —  Journalists don't always win libel cases.  But they need the protections that President Trump and Justice Thomas want to ‘open up’ or let states handle.  —  CONNECT11  —  TWEET11  —  COMMENT11  —  EMAIL11

New Election Ordered in North Carolina Race at Center of Fraud Inquiry  —  RALEIGH, N.C. — The North Carolina Board of Elections on Thursday ordered a new contest in the Ninth Congressional District after the Republican candidate, confronted by evidence that his campaign had financed …

IRS analyst charged in leak of Michael Cohen's bank records  —  (CNN)An analyst with the Internal Revenue Service was charged with disclosing confidential reports about Michael Cohen's bank records that revealed the President's former lawyer sought to profit from his proximity to the White House.

Mueller Report Expected to Go to Justice Department Within Weeks  —  WASHINGTON — The new attorney general, William P. Barr, is preparing for the special counsel to deliver a report in coming weeks on the results of the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election …

Congress could block big chunk of Trump's emergency wall money  —  Full funds likely to be unavailable from the sources president has identified  —  A reporter's homage to government workers — unsung heroes of transparency Trump Ignites New Budget Fights by Targeting Pentagon Programs Inhofe open to ‘exaggerated’ war budget

Audience of One: Why Flattery Works in Trump's Foreign Policy  —  When the commander of U.S. forces in Europe, General Curtis Scaparrotti, met privately with members of Congress at the Munich Security Conference, last weekend, Senator Lindsey Graham finished the meeting with a blunt question.

Mark Zuckerberg Promised A Clear History Tool Almost A Year Ago.  Where Is It?  —  Facebook spent most of 2018 embroiled in one scandal or another.  But there was a point early on in the year when Mark Zuckerberg thought he could turn down the heat by offering a fix for the public's privacy concerns.

No great sense of panic as Trump team prepares for “imminent” Mueller report  —  President Trump's team believes Robert Mueller will submit his report “imminently,” but is unsure exactly what that means, two sources familiar with the situation tell Jonathan Swan.

Here's What Beto Could Unleash on Trump  —  AUSTIN, Texas—With rain hammering outside, Zack Malitz stood in a warehouse space lit by strands of bistro lights and began to reveal the campaign strategy of Beto O'Rourke in exacting detail.  Malitz, who was the field director of O'Rourke's Senate campaign …

The state of women in U.S. media in 2019: Still f'ing abysmal — especially at Reuters and the AP  —  The dismal factoids in a new report released Thursday by the Women's Media Center go on and on.  And on.  —  While women outnumber men in journalism programs and in colleges …

VIDEO: Conservative suffers blow to the face at Berkeley  — A conservative was punched in the face while helping students recruit for a conservative group at UC-Berkeley.  —  A conservative helping students recruit at the University of California-Berkeley was punched in the face this week.

Americans arrested in Haiti with arsenal of guns won't face U.S. charges  —  The five heavily armed Americans arrested in Haiti earlier this week are back on their home soil and won't be facing any criminal charges in the United States — a decision already causing outrage among some Haitian leaders.