In Push for 2020 Election Security, Top Official Was Warned: Don't Tell Trump  —  WASHINGTON — In the months before Kirstjen Nielsen was forced to resign, she tried to focus the White House on one of her highest priorities as homeland security secretary: preparing for new and different Russian forms …

Michael Cohen, in Recorded Phone Call, Walks Back Parts of Guilty Plea  —  Trump's former lawyer, set to go to prison in weeks, told actor Tom Arnold he wasn't guilty of some crimes he pleaded guilty to  —  Michael Cohen has disavowed responsibility for some of the crimes to which he has pleaded guilty …

Mueller documented a serious crime against all Americans.  Here's how to respond.  —  Hillary Clinton was the 2016 Democratic nominee for president.  —  Our election was corrupted, our democracy assaulted, our sovereignty and security violated.  This is the definitive conclusion of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III's report.

Top Justice Department Official Will Defy Congress  —  An attorney for John Gore, who heads the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, said to testify Gore must have an attorney present—a condition Democrats have rejected.  —  Betsy Woodruff  —  John Gore, who heads …

Deutsche Bank begins process of providing Trump financial records to New York's attorney general  —  Trump sues to block Dems from his financial records  —  (CNN)Deutsche Bank has begun the process of providing financial records to New York state's attorney general in response to a subpoena …

Trump Cannot Appeal an Impeachment Judgment to SCOTUS  —  This is an excerpt from our book, To End A Presidency: The Power of Impeachment.  Here, we explain why the Framers expressly decided against allowing the Supreme Court to play a role in adjudicating impeachments.

How Pete Buttigieg's Meaningless Erudition Made Him the ‘Smart’ Candidate  —  Late this March, a Norwegian news outlet sprang a surprise question on Pete Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Ind., and candidate for president.  The previous week, the writer Anand Giridharadas …

McCain family to support Biden in 2020 race in bid to defeat Trump  —  The late Sen. John McCain's family plans to support former Vice President Joe Biden's White House bid, backing the Democrat not only in his party's crowded primary race but also in a general election matchup with President Trump, the Washington Examiner has learned.

‘This is risky’: Trump's thirst for Mueller revenge could land him in trouble  —  Team Trump's bellicose tweets and public statements in the last few days could expose the president to fresh charges of witness intimidation and obstruction of justice.  —  Special counsel Robert Mueller may be done …

Sizing Up Twitter Users  —  U.S. adult Twitter users are younger and more likely to be Democrats than the general public.  Most users rarely tweet, but the most prolific 10% create 80% of tweets from adult U.S. users  —  Twitter is a modern public square where many voices discuss, debate and share their views.

Officers at scene of Beto O'Rourke's 1998 DWI crash say they believe he tried to flee  —  Until now, O'Rourke, who denies trying to flee the wreck, was the only person present at the scene of the collision to speak out publicly about what happened that night.

Trump Backed Libyan Strongman's Attack on Tripoli, U.S. Officials Say  — President spoke with Haftar before assault on capital  — White House stance marks dramatic turn from Pompeo position  —  President Donald Trump indicated in a phone call with Libyan strongman Khalifa Haftar …

A Giant Bird Killed Its Owner.  Now It Could Be Yours.  —  There will be colorful macaws, lithe lemurs and cackling Kookaburras for sale at an event billed by organizers as “the dispersal of the animal estate of Marvin Hajos.”  But the animal that is likely to get the most attention is the giant bird that killed Mr. Hajos this month.

Facebook expects $3B-$5B fine over Cambridge Analytica  —  Facebook believes that a Federal Trade Commission (FTC) probe into the company's handling of the Cambridge Analytica scandal could end up costing it between $3 billion and $5 billion.  —  The social network disclosed to investors …

Student slated to attend Western Michigan University beheaded in Saudi Arabia  —  A Saudi Arabian man who was arrested as a teenager as he was getting ready to fly to America to begin his studies at Western Michigan University was beheaded by the government Tuesday, according to a report from an official press agency.

Source: Feds Probe Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, First Lady For Property Tax Appeals On Gold Coast Mansion  —  Democratic Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, his wife and his brother-in-law are under federal criminal investigation for a dubious residential property tax appeal that dogged him during …

Mad About Bari Weiss: The New York Times Provocateur the Left Loves to Hate  —  The Times op-ed writer is a Trump-loathing theater nerd who studied at a feminist yeshiva and used to date Kate McKinnon.  She also led a controversial protest at Columbia, and popularized the “intellectual dark Web.”

NSA Recommends Dropping Phone-Surveillance Program  —  The program, created after 9/11, has encountered compliance challenges and questions about its efficacy in recent years  —  The National Security Agency has recommended that the White House abandon a U.S. surveillance program …

Democratic hashtag goes viral seeking GOP support for impeachment  —  The Democratic Twitter campaign #RepublicansForImpeachment has gone viral.  —  The hashtag has been tweeted an average of once every 3.8 seconds for a total of 14 million impressions in 24 hours.

Bill Weld calls on Trump to resign, calling him a ‘one-man crime wave’  —  GOP presidential candidate Bill Weld is calling on President Trump to resign from office in the wake of Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian election interference and obstruction of justice, calling him “a one-man crime wave.”

Mueller Report Reveals Trump's Fixation on Using Law Enforcement to Target a Rival  —  WASHINGTON — Attorney General Jeff Sessions had a tenuous hold on his job when President Trump called him at home in the middle of 2017.  The president had already blamed him for recusing himself …

Meet the Other Resistance: The Republican One  —  President Trump is overwhelmingly popular with his base, but a handful of dissident Republicans think they know how to defeat him in a primary contest.  Are they wrong?  —  William F. Weld is not likely to become our 46th president.

Bernie Sanders Scares a Lot of People, and Quite a Few of Them Are Democrats  —  What happens if he's the nominee in 2020?  —  Mr. Edsall contributes a weekly column from Washington, D.C. on politics, demographics and inequality.  —  In 34 national surveys conducted from October 2018 to early April …

Joni Ernst suggests federal government spied on President Donald Trump for political reasons  —  The redacted version of the Mueller report is now available from the attorney general.  Here are the key takeaways from it.  —  CONNECT  —  U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst on Wednesday suggested …

Trump camp descends on Pennsylvania as alarms grow over 2020  —  Senior Trump 2020 advisers are headed to Harrisburg on Wednesday to meet with Pennsylvania GOP officials amid mounting concerns about the president's prospects in the critical battleground state.

Realistically, Trump Could Win in 2020  —  Sabato Is Right.  It Is Easy to See How Trump Can Win in 2020.  —  Larry Sabato greets Washington Post readers with a headline that many of them probably didn't expect to see or want to see: “It's easy to see how Trump can win reelection.”  —  Sabato:

Amy Poehler's Coming-of-Rage Story: Comedy's Subversive Star Is Defining Her Own Feminism  —  The multihyphenate is building a Hollywood empire with female-fronted hits ('Broad City,' 'Russian Doll') and her feature directorial debut ('Wine Country') starring ‘SNL’ pals including Tina Fey and Maya Rudolph …

As Durst Murder Case Goes Forward, HBO's Film Will Also Be on Trial  —  To understand why Robert A. Durst, the peculiar real estate scion long suspected in several murders, is now charged with killing his close friend Susan Berman 19 years ago, look no further than the 2015 HBO documentary about his life.

Pipe bomb suspect Cesar Sayoc describes Trump rallies as ‘new found drug’  —  (CNN)The Florida man who pleaded guilty to mailing explosive devices said in a letter to a federal judge that attending a rally for President Donald Trump “became like a new found drug.”

How the Intercept Is Fueling the Democratic Civil War  —  Captain Mark Kelly, the former astronaut, has a picture-perfect political résumé: the Space Shuttle commander and veteran of the U.S. Navy became a gun control advocate after his wife, former Congresswoman Gabby Giffords, was shot and suffered a severe brain injury.

Census: Midterm turnout surge fueled by core Dem voters  —  The highest-turnout midterm election in more than a century was driven by a surge of voters who ordinarily sit out those contests, and who disproportionately favor Democratic candidates.  —  While turnout was up across the board …

Strengthening our approach to deliberate attempts to mislead voters  —  Voting is a fundamental human right and the public conversation occurring on Twitter is never more important than during elections.  Any attempts to undermine the process of registering to vote or engaging in the electoral process …