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9:35 AM ET, April 11, 2019

Top Items:

WikiLeaks Founder Charged in Computer Hacking Conspiracy — ALEXANDRIA, Va. - Julian P. Assange, 47, the founder of WikiLeaks, was arrested today in the United Kingdom pursuant to the U.S./UK Extradition Treaty, in connection with a federal charge of conspiracy to commit computer intrusion …

Discussion: The Intercept, Lawfare, Raw Story, Mediaite and Engadget, more at Mediagazer »

Mynewsdesk:

Arrest of Julian Assange — UPDATE: Julian Assange arrest. — Julian Assange, 47, (03.07.71) has today, Thursday 11 April, been further arrested on behalf of the United States authorities, at 10:53hrs after his arrival at a central London police station. This is an extradition warrant under Section 73 of the Extradition Act.

Discussion: The Guardian, CNN, BuzzFeed, Mother Jones, Breitbart, Common Dreams, TechCrunch, ABC News, The Week and twitchy.com

Richard Pérez-Peña / New York Times:

Julian Assange Arrested on U.S. Extradition Warrant, London Police Say — LONDON — Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks founder who released reams of secret documents that embarrassed the United States government, was arrested by the British police on Thursday at the Ecuadorean Embassy in London …

Discussion: Townhall, Financial Times, Politico, UNILAD, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, NBC News, The Lid, Common Dreams, The Wrap, Daily Kos, VICE News, Al Jazeera and Lawyers, Guns & Money

Washington Post:

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange arrested by British police after being evicted from Ecuador's embassy in London — PARIS — Ecuador handed Julian Assange over to British authorities Thursday, ending a standoff that left the controversial WikiLeaks founder holed up in the Ecuadoran Embassy in London for nearly seven years.

Discussion: POLITICUSUSA

BBC:

Julian Assange: Wikileaks co-founder arrested in London — Wikileaks co-founder Julian Assange has been arrested at the Ecuadorian embassy in London. — Mr Assange took refuge in the embassy seven years ago to avoid extradition to Sweden over a sexual assault case that has since been dropped.

Discussion: Outside the Beltway, The Wrap, Law & Crime, Just Security, Big League Politics, The Daily Beast, The American Conservative, Boing Boing, The Daily Caller, Mashable and Lawyers, Guns & Money

Danica Kirka / Associated Press: UK arrests WikiLeaks' Assange at Ecuador embassy in London

Home Office in the media: Julian Assange statement and extradition factsheet

Politico:
POLITICO Playbook: Assange arrested in London as Mueller report looms

Discussion: Washington Post, Bloomberg and POLITICUSUSA

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.

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 …

Discussion: Fox News, Slate, Vox and New York Times

Lisa Mascaro / Associated Press:
AP Interview: Pelosi: 'I don't trust Barr; I trust Mueller'

Discussion: Vanity Fair, BBC, Spectator USA, Axios, CNN, The Week, Daily Kos, Washington Press, Politico, twitchy.com and Press Herald

New York Times:
Barr Asserts Intelligence Agencies Spied on the Trump Campaign

Discussion: Power Line, Liberty Unyielding, RedState, Washington Post, The Hill and The Federalist

Barbara McQuade / The Daily Beast:
Barr Sounds More and More Like Trump's Roy Cohn

Discussion: Raw Story and Daily Wire

Stephen Collinson / CNN:
Barr obliterates honest broker persona with ‘spying’ comment

Discussion: USA Today, Trending Home, PJ Media Home, Media Matters for America and TheBlaze

Benjamin Wittes / Lawfare:
Bill Barr's Low Moment

Discussion: Test Feed Using Fields, Rolling Stone and Washington Press

Charles Sykes / The Bulwark:
Seven Reasons Not to Trust William Barr

Discussion: Washington Monthly, The Week and Washington Post

Andrew McCarthy / Fox News:
Barr is right to review why Trump-Russia investigation began

Discussion: Conservative News Today

CNN:
Barr says spying on Trump campaign ‘did occur,’ but provides no evidence

Discussion: Media Matters for America, The Daily Caller, NBC News, PJ Media Home, NPR, Raw Story, USA Today, Spectator USA, The Root, Washington Post and The Week

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: Bipartisan Report, The Week, CNN, CANNONFIRE, Patterico's Pontifications and Axios

Matthew Chapman / Raw Story: Trump's sister retires from the federal judiciary to avoid ethics investigation into her taxes

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: Politico, Conservative News Today, Political Wire, TheBlaze, The Daily Beast, The Gateway Pundit and Daily Wire

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: RedState, Politico, Splinter, Slate and The Daily Caller

CNN:
Lawyers expect ex-Obama counsel to be indicted in case linked to Mueller probe

Discussion: NPR and WVSports.com

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 …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, KTLA and Splinter

The Daily Beast:
Holden Matthews Arrested in String of Louisiana Church Fires

Discussion: ABC News, Balloon Juice and New York Times

KATC-TV:
Multiple sources: One in custody in church fires

Discussion: Raw Story, New York Post and Fox News

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: Talking Points Memo, Poynter, FiveThirtyEight, Bloomberg, PR Newswire, The Moderate Voice, The Week, KTLA, Splinter, Press Herald, The Wrap, Raw Story, Mediaite and New York Post, more at Mediagazer »

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, RedState, Fortune, The Guardian, Engadget, The Sun, Gizmodo, New York Post, New York Times, Fox News, The Verge and fox8.com, more at Techmeme »

Tucker Higgins / CNBC:

Mike Pence, facing criticism from 2020 Democratic hopeful Pete Buttigieg over his record on gay rights, says South Bend mayor ‘knows better’ — Vice President Mike Pence said Wednesday that Democratic presidential hopeful Pete Buttigieg “knows better” days after the South Bend, Indiana …

Discussion: Shareblue Media, Raw Story, IJR, Faithwire, CNN and Axios

Isaac Stanley-Becker / Washington Post:
‘He knows better’: Pete Buttigieg has made Mike Pence his target, and the vice president isn't pleased

Discussion: Raw Story

Jeremy W. Peters / New York Times:
Pete Buttigieg, Gay and Christian, Challenges Religious Right on Their Own Turf

Discussion: New Republic, The Daily Beast, The Atlantic and The Federalist

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: Front Page Magazine and Breitbart

Washington Post: Neither Trump nor Democrats have advanced a solution for the border. Here's one.

Washington Post:

Far-left policies will drive a 2020 defeat, centrist Democrats fear. So they're floating alternatives. — After ceding the policy debate to the left for months, Democratic centrists have begun to fight back with new proposals and a stark warning: The latest wave of far-left ideas …

Alice Miranda Ollstein / Politico:
GOP eyes ‘Medicare for All’ vote to highlight Democratic splits

Discussion: Breitbart

Mark Penn / The Hill: Obama had it right — a circular firing squad is on the way

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, Page Six and The Daily Caller

Tom Kuntz / RealClearInvestigations:

Why Last Year's Trump-Russia Pulitzer Was No Prize — What a difference a year makes. With the announcement of the 2019 Pulitzer Prizes set for next Monday, last year's award to the New York Times and Washington Post for Trump-Russia coverage is already looking like a crumpled first draft …

Discussion: Real Clear Politics

Robert Satloff / Foreign Policy:

Trump Must Not Let Jared Kushner's Peace Plan See the Light of Day — Releasing a U.S. proposal that is bound to fail would legitimize Israeli annexation, give Saudi Arabia leverage, and strengthen Iran and its allies. — The final absentee ballots have not yet been counted in Israel's election …

Reuters:
Exclusive: Egypt withdraws from U.S.-led anti-Iran security initiative - sources

Discussion: middleeastmonitor.com, The American Conservative and Washington Post

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: American Greatness, Raw Story, Splinter, Mediaite and The Mahablog

Jim Riches / New York Post:

My FDNY son's death on 9/11 was more than just ‘something’ — What Congresswoman Ilhan Omar said about Sept. 11 was disgraceful. — She dismissed thousands of people being murdered like it was an everyday occurrence when she said “some people did something.”

Discussion: Daily Wire