White House Reviews Military Plans Against Iran, in Echoes of Iraq War  —  WASHINGTON — At a meeting of President Trump's top national security aides last Thursday, Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan presented an updated military plan that envisions sending as many as 120,000 troops …

Barr Assigns U.S. Attorney in Connecticut to Review Origins of Russia Inquiry  —  WASHINGTON — Attorney General William P. Barr has assigned the top federal prosecutor in Connecticut to examine the origins of the Russia investigation, according to two people familiar with the matter …

Trump Tower Is Now One of NYC's Least-Desirable Luxury Buildings  — Most condo owners who sold since 2016 have recorded a loss  — ‘No one wants in that building,’ says one former owner  —  Trump Tower, once the crown jewel in Donald Trump's property empire, now ranks …

Trump's long trade war  —  Senior administration officials tell Axios that a trade deal with China isn't close and that the U.S. could be in for a long trade war.  —  The state of play: A senior administration official said the differences between the two sides are so profound that …

Before Trump's purge at DHS, top officials challenged plan for mass family arrests  —  In the weeks before they were ousted last month, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen and top immigration enforcement official Ronald Vitiello challenged a secret White House plan to arrest thousands …

Don Jr.s high-publicity subpoena from Senate Republicans came after he backed out of TWO scheduled interviews behind closed doors - and wanted to give his answers in writing  — Republican Intel chair Sen. Richard Burr told colleagues Trump Jr. backed out twice before his panel issued the subpoena

‘A hate-for-profit racket’: Warren refuses Fox town hall invite  —  Elizabeth Warren turned down a Fox News invitation Tuesday for a televised town hall and denounced the cable network as a “hate-for-profit racket that gives a megaphone to racists and conspiracists.”

Rosenstein unloads on Comey, says he broke ‘bright lines that should never be crossed’  —  Rod Rosenstein unloaded on former FBI Director James Comey in remarks to the Greater Baltimore Committee (GBC) on Monday evening, slamming Comey's turn as a “partisan pundit,” reiterating that he deserved to be fired …

Fair Shot  —  About a hundred years ago, this was “the richest hill on earth.”  —  The men who owned it were called kings.  —  With their money, they bought politicians; attacked unions, exploited workers, and left us all with a toxic reminder of what happens when our democracy is put up for sale.

The Navy's probe into sky penis  —  It prompted viral guffaws from some and online outrage from others.  —  There are shot glasses commemorating the event and it birthed memes ahead of the annual Army-Navy game.  —  But the inside story of how an EA-18G Growler jet crew drew a penis across …

YouTube's Newest Far-Right, Foul-Mouthed, Red-Pilling Star Is A 14-Year-Old Girl  —  “Soph” has nearly a million followers on the giant video platform.  Its executives only have themselves to blame.  —  What does a 14-year-old girl dressed in a chador have to say on YouTube to amass more than 800,000 followers?

‘When Biden announced, everything changed’  —  First came the Cory Booker relaunch.  Then a pivot from Kamala Harris.  Now, Beto O'Rourke is hosting high-dollar fundraisers and courting national TV.  —  It's reset season in the presidential primary campaign.

NRA Legal Bills Raise ‘All Sorts of Red Flags’  —  Ollie North claims the NRA faces unfathomably high legal expenses.  Experts say his concerns are serious.  ‘The IRS would definitely be interested in it,’ one tells The Daily Beast.  —  Betsy Woodruff  —  “One hundred thousand dollars a day?

WhatsApp voice calls used to inject Israeli spyware on phones  —  A vulnerability in the messaging app WhatsApp has allowed attackers to inject commercial Israeli spyware on to phones, the company and a spyware technology dealer said.  —  WhatsApp, which is used by 1.5bn people worldwide …

An Open Memo: Comparison of Clinton Impeachment, Nixon Impeachment and Trump Pre-Impeachment  —  [Editor's note: Just Security will publish a series in conversation with Blumenthal's Open Memo including from John Dean, Ryan Goodman, Hon. Elizabeth Holtzman, Kevin Kruse and Julian Zelizer (co-authored), and Walter Pincus.]

Steve Bannon sought alliance with FBI in 2017 White House meeting  —  Bannon, then Trump's closest adviser, told FBI officials to put their past differences with the White House ‘behind them’  —  Steve Bannon urged two senior FBI officials to put their differences with the White House …

Judge grills Trump attorney in subpoena case  —  President Donald Trump's strategy of outright resistance to House subpoenas is facing its first test in federal court on Tuesday, setting up a ruling that could boost Democrats' efforts to investigate the president's business dealings.

Why did right-wing troll Charles C. Johnson want to meet with Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross?  —  The year 2018 was not an especially auspicious one for Charles C. Johnson,  —  the Boston Globe has deemed “one of the country's most notorious Internet trolls.”  —  In June, Johnson agreed to pay $25,000 to

The Damage That Harvard Has Done  —  Defense attorneys often arouse what John Adams called a “clamor of popular suspicions and prejudices” when representing reviled clients.  Just last week, the attorney Christopher Darden stopped representing a California man charged with killing …

Heidi Heitkamp and Joe Donnelly's Rural Voter Project Tied To “Medicare For All” Opponents  —  A dark money organization designed to help Democrats win rural votes in 2020 is getting support from anti-Medicare for All forces — and pushing their message with a pair of former Democratic senators.

Trump can't admit he enacted a new tax  —  President Trump cannot admit that the short-term effects of his tariff war hurt Americans.  He had to stop insisting China pays the tariffs when his economic adviser Larry Kudlow contradicted him on Fox News.  Trump then decided that we just buy stuff elsewhere …

Is there a Capitol jail where Democrats could lock up Trump aides who refuse to testify?  —  WASHINGTON - When House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was asked recently whether Congress will hold administration officials in contempt for refusing Democratic demands for documents and testimony, she dropped this nugget.

Joe Biden's early state polling looks more like those of past winners than losers  —  Biden bolts to the top of Democratic rankings  —  (CNN)Former vice president Joe Biden is enjoying a large lead in national primary polls.  Primaries, of course, aren't all conducted at once …

Saudi Arabia Says Drones Hit Oil Pipeline, After Reports of Tanker Attacks  —  BEIRUT, Lebanon — A Saudi oil pipeline was attacked by drones, causing “limited damage,” the Saudi energy minister said on Tuesday, a day after Saudi Arabia said two of its oil tankers had been damaged in an act of sabotage …

Why Trump's Iran Strategy Puts America on the Road to Nowhere Good  —  Trump has given up allied leverage over Iran, setting America on a collision course with chaos in the region.  —  THE DAILY DOSE  —  I am struggling to understand the Trump administration's policy toward Iran and hoping …

Democrats should be shouting Trump's trade failures from the rooftops  —  Markets crashing, farmers suffering, allies seething, manufacturing workers fretting about their job security.  —  These were all foreseeable consequences of President Trump's trade wars, which escalated in the past week …

Behind The Scenes, Trump Diligently Tries To Slash Social Programs  —  In the shadows of his constitutional crisis, the president is still doing a lot of regular Republican stuff — without help from Congress.  —  WASHINGTON ― President Donald Trump's administration is doing some wild …