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 …

‘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 …

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 …

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.

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.

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 …

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 …

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 …

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.”

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.

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.

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.

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 …

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.”

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 …

What the Steele dossier said vs. what the Mueller report said  —  Fox News's Martha MacCallum: “So it doesn't bother you that the Clinton campaign paid for a dossier to be put together by someone who had all kinds of ties to intelligence and put together something that turned out to be not necessarily factual?”

Iran's Foreign Minister Proposes Prisoner Exchange With U.S.  —  Iran's foreign minister offered publicly on Wednesday to negotiate a prisoner exchange with the United States, saying he had been authorized to conduct such talks.  —  It appeared to be the first time that the foreign minister …

How Nest, designed to keep intruders out of people's homes, effectively allowed hackers to get in  —  Tara Thomas thought her daughter was just having nightmares.  “There's a monster in my room,” the almost-3-year-old would say, sometimes pointing to the green light on the Nest Cam installed on the wall above her bed.

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 …

William Barr decried ‘hatchet jobs’ on Ken Starr in 1998  —  (CNN)William Barr said in a 1998 interview that he was “disturbed” that Attorney General Janet Reno had not defended independent counsel Ken Starr from “spin control,” “hatchet jobs” and “ad hominem attacks.”

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.

Facebook Reports First Quarter 2019 Results  —  Facebook, Inc. (Nasdaq: FB) today reported financial results for the quarter ended March 31, 2019.  —  “We had a good quarter and our business and community continue to grow,” said Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook founder and CEO.

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.”

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 …

Trump's “run out the clock” legal strategy  —  Facing a multi-front war in the post-Mueller world, President Trump is turning to litigation strategies that he long used in business — resist, delay and sue.  —  What they're saying: “Trump can run out the clock by taking a hardline position …