Top Items:
New York Times:
Retiring as a Judge, Trump's Sister Ends Court Inquiry Into Her Role in Tax Dodges — President Trump's older sister, Maryanne Trump Barry, has retired as a federal appellate judge, ending an investigation into whether she violated judicial conduct rules by participating in fraudulent tax schemes with her siblings.
Discussion:
Axios, Bipartisan Report, Patterico's Pontifications and Political Wire
RELATED:
Matthew Chapman / Raw Story:
Trump's sister retires from the federal judiciary to avoid ethics investigation into her taxes — On Wednesday, The New York Times reported that Maryanne Trump Barry, President Donald Trump's older sister, is retiring as a federal judge. — Trump Barry, who sits on the Court of Appeals …
Lisa Mascaro / Associated Press:
AP Interview: Pelosi: 'I don't trust Barr; I trust Mueller' — WASHINGTON (AP) — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Wednesday she doesn't trust Attorney General William Barr and suggested his statements alleging President Donald Trump's campaign was spied on undermine Barr's independence as the nation's top law enforcement officer.
Discussion:
CNN, Axios, Washington Post, Washington Press, Vanity Fair, Politico, The Week, Daily Kos, twitchy.com and Bloomberg
RELATED:
Greg Sargent / Washington Post:
Adam Schiff just issued a stark warning about William Barr — As you've heard, on Wednesday morning, Attorney General William P. Barr made the remarkable claim that the Trump campaign might have been the target of “spying” by law enforcement during the 2016 campaign.
CNN:
Barr says spying on Trump campaign ‘did occur,’ but provides no evidence — (CNN)Attorney General William Barr told lawmakers Wednesday that he will be looking into the “genesis” of the FBI's counterintelligence investigation that began in 2016 of potential ties between members …
Discussion:
NBC News, Washington Post, NPR, Associated Press, USA Today, Spectator USA, Raw Story, Media Matters for America, The Root and The Week
Byron York / Washington Examiner:
Barr is right, spying on Trump campaign did occur — Democrats and some in the media expressed shock and outrage when Attorney General William Barr said Wednesday that “spying did occur” on the Trump campaign during the 2016 election. — Barr “must retract his statement immediately …
New York Times:
Barr Asserts Intelligence Agencies Spied on the Trump Campaign
Barr Asserts Intelligence Agencies Spied on the Trump Campaign
Discussion:
RedState, Rolling Stone, Washington Post and Lawfare
Jennifer Rubin / Washington Post:
William Barr, Trump toady
William Barr, Trump toady
Discussion:
Shareblue Media, RealClearPolitics, Test Feed Using Fields, New York Times, Washington Press and Raw Story
Zachary Basu / Axios:
Barr walks back claim that law enforcement spied on Trump campaign
Barr walks back claim that law enforcement spied on Trump campaign
Discussion:
Law & Crime, Mother Jones, Fox News, Herman Cain and The Daily Caller
Garrett M. Graff / Wired:
William Barr Sends Troubling Signals Ahead of Mueller Report Release
Timothy L. O'Brien / Bloomberg:
Bill Barr Is Trying Hard to Be President Trump's Roy Cohn
Bill Barr Is Trying Hard to Be President Trump's Roy Cohn
Discussion:
The Guardian, Talking Points Memo, Washington Monthly and Hullabaloo
Wall Street Journal:
Former Obama White House Counsel Expects to Be Indicted — Legal heavyweight Greg Craig anticipates charge of making false statements to Justice Department unit checking into activities of foreign agents. Former Obama White House counsel Greg Craig expects to be indicted in the coming days …
Discussion:
TheBlaze, The Daily Beast, The Gateway Pundit and Daily Wire
RELATED:
Washington Post:
Gregory Craig, ex-Obama White House counsel, expects to be charged in relation to Ukrainian work with Manafort, his lawyers say — The expected indictment — which his attorneys called “a misguided abuse of prosecutorial discretion” — stems from work Craig did with GOP lobbyist Paul Manafort …
Discussion:
Raw Story and Washington Times
Kenneth P. Vogel / New York Times:
Ex-Obama Counsel Expects to Be Charged Soon in Mueller-Related Case — WASHINGTON — Lawyers for Gregory B. Craig, a White House counsel in the Obama administration, expect him to be indicted in the coming days on charges related to his work for the Russia-aligned government of Ukraine.
Discussion:
Politico, Slate, Splinter and The Daily Caller
Washington Post:
National Enquirer expected to be sold imminently as parent company faces pressure — American Media Inc. is actively seeking to sell off the National Enquirer, according to three people familiar with the process who asked not to be named because they were not authorized to speak publicly.
Discussion:
The Week, PR Newswire, Raw Story, KTLA, Splinter, The Wrap, Mediaite and New York Post, more at Mediagazer »
RELATED:
Bloomberg:
Amazon Workers Are Listening to What You Tell Alexa — Tens of millions of people use smart speakers and their voice software to play games, find music or trawl for trivia. Millions more are reluctant to invite the devices and their powerful microphones into their homes out of concern that someone might be listening.
Discussion:
CNBC, Gizmodo, New York Times, The Sun and The Verge, more at Techmeme »
KATC-TV:
Multiple sources: One in custody in church fires — KATC has confirmed with multiple law enforcement sources that one person is in custody in the recent church fires in St. Landry Parish. — Sources confirm the suspect in the church arsons is Holden Matthews, 21. He is the son of a St. Landry Parish Deputy.
Discussion:
Raw Story, New York Post, CNN and Religion News Service
RELATED:
CNN:
Sources: Suspect taken into custody in connection with fires at three black churches in Louisiana — (CNN)A suspect has been taken into custody in connection with fires at three historically black Louisiana churches in 10 days, a law enforcement official familiar with the investigation …
Sarah Grossbart / E! Online:
Broken Friendships, Family Fights and Prison Sentence Anguish: How Lori Loughlin Is Coping With Her New Normal — Whatever happened to the woman who once declared her family wasn't interesting enough for prime time TV? — “We've been asked to do a reality show a couple times,” …
Discussion:
Hot Air, The Daily Caller, Page Six, Daily Wire and Vanity Fair
Washington Post:
Treasury denies Democrats' request to hand over Trump's tax returns by the end of Wednesday, says it will confer with Justice — Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin denied House Democrats' demand to release six years of President Trump's tax returns, saying the department could not complete …
RELATED:
Carol Morello / Washington Post:
Netanyahu win would complicate prognosis for peace plan, analysts say — The apparent victory of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party in Israeli elections clouds prospects for the Trump administration's yet-to-be-released peace plan and could further undermine bipartisan support for Israel in Congress, according to analysts.
Discussion:
Haaretz
RELATED:
Roger Cohen / New York Times:
Israel's Lesson for the Democrats in 2020
Israel's Lesson for the Democrats in 2020
Discussion:
Mother Jones and CNN
Shmuel Rosner / New York Times:
Why Israel Still Loves Netanyahu
Jeremy W. Peters / New York Times:
Pete Buttigieg, Gay and Christian, Challenges Religious Right on Their Own Turf — WASHINGTON — As a religious gay man who believes his party has ceded discussion of religion and spirituality to Republicans, Pete Buttigieg, a Democratic candidate for president, is talking about God and sexuality …
Discussion:
New Republic, The Daily Beast, The Atlantic and The Federalist
RELATED:
Tim Dickinson / Rolling Stone:
Is This the Dumbest Moment in Congressional History? — A Kentucky congressman's impossibly daft line of questioning left John Kerry flabbergasted — Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) may have studied robotics at MIT, but he is now responsible for one of the most asinine moments in congressional history.
Discussion:
Mediaite, Raw Story, Splinter, The Mahablog and CNN
Sean Gallagher / Ars Technica:
DHS, FBI say election systems in all 50 states were targeted in 2016 — Joint Intelligence Bulletin issued in March says Russian hacking efforts were wide-ranging. — A joint intelligence bulletin (JIB) has been issued by the Department of Homeland Security and Federal Bureau of Investigation …
New York Times:
The U.S. Immigration System May Have Reached a Breaking Point — For years, there have been warnings that America's immigration system was going to fail. That time may be now. … SAN YSIDRO, Calif. — It was never like this before. — The migrants come now in the middle of the night or in the bright light of day.
Discussion:
Breitbart
Shane Croucher / Newsweek:
Donald Trump Jr. Praises Candace Owens for Defending Her Hitler Comments After Ted Lieu Airs Clip in Congress — Donald Trump Jr. has praised right-wing activist Candace Owens for her appearance on Capitol Hill, during which she defended her comments about nationalism and Adolf Hitler.
Mediaite:
Kirsten Gillibrand's CNN Town Hall Pulls in Rock Bottom Ratings — CNN has hosted a series of 2020 Democratic presidential primary candidates for town halls. Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, California Sen. Kamala Harris, New Jersey Senator Corey Booker, Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard and Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar have all participated.
Discussion:
Big League Politics and RedState
Isaac Stanley-Becker / Washington Post:
A Texas bill would make it possible to put women to death for having abortions — Men and women, young and old, native Texans and immigrants, they rose to ask lawmakers to protect life, describing a “genocide” and foreseeing the arrival of “God's wrath.” — The act of public atonement …
Discussion:
Shareblue Media, WTTG-TV, USA Today, Faithwire, CNN, Raw Story, The Root, TheBlaze, Right Wing Watch, Balloon Juice, Common Dreams, Shakesville and LifeNews.com
Ali Soufan / Washington Post:
Mar-a-Lago is a counterintelligence nightmare — Ali Soufan, a former FBI counterterrorism agent, is a private security consultant and the author of “Anatomy of Terror.” — Imagine that the White House, instead of a fortress, were an opulent country club.
Andrew Restuccia / Politico:
White House eyeing former head of anti-immigration group for DHS job — The White House is considering nominating the former head of an anti-immigration group to lead U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, according to a White House official and three people briefed on the deliberations …
Discussion:
Vanity Fair, Washington Press, Breitbart, Raw Story, Splinter, The Daily Caller, Shareblue Media, Talking Points Memo, Daily Kos, VICE News and Booman Tribune
Yashar's Newsletter:
New: Biden and McAuliffe/What I'm Listening To/NYT List — Welcome to the sixth edition of my newsletter! Thank you for subscribing. Please bear with me as I perfect this process over the coming weeks. Some editions of the newsletter will be quite robust, while others may just include one or two bits of news.
Josie Duffy Rice / New Yorker:
Jussie Smollett and the Impulse to Punish — On April 1st, several hundred people gathered outside the Cook County Administration Building, in downtown Chicago, for a protest organized by the local Fraternal Order of Police. The protesters, mostly male and almost all of them white …
Discussion:
twitchy.com
Washington Post:
European leaders offer a long Brexit delay, avoiding chaotic exit on Friday — BREAKING NEWS: Although British Prime Minister Theresa May had asked for an extension until the end of June, E.U. leaders are tired of emergency Brexit summits and skeptical of what she can accomplish in less than three months.
Discussion:
The Guardian, NPR, Vanity Fair, New York Times and Political Wire
Jonathan Van Meter / Vogue:
The Awakening of Kim Kardashian West — WHEN I ENTER Kim Kardashian West's sprawling family home in Hidden Hills, California, on a warm afternoon in January, the first things I notice are boxes of Huggies sitting just inside the door. They are reminders, if I need one …
Discussion:
Slate, The Sun, Vox, Mercury News, Daily Wire, Page Six, The Week, TMZ.com, Law & Crime, Mediaite, CBS Pittsburgh, WGN-TV, The Root and Full Feed
Daniel Lippman / Politico:
Trump's ‘truly bizarre’ visit to Mt. Vernon — President Donald Trump had some advice for George Washington. — During a guided tour of Mount Vernon last April with French president Emmanuel Macron, Trump learned that Washington was one of the major real-estate speculators of his era.
Discussion:
Hullabaloo, Washington Post, Townhall, Raw Story, Rolling Stone, Vanity Fair, Fox News, alicublog, Shakesville, Shareblue Media, Washington Press, IJR, The Week, The Daily Caller, Bipartisan Report, Wall Street Journal, Political Wire, Washington Times, CNN, Splinter, New York Post, Althouse, Lawyers, Guns & Money, Mediaite and Talking Points Memo