William Barr is unfit to be attorney general  —  Eric H. Holder Jr., a Democrat, was U.S. attorney general from 2009 to 2015.  —  As a former U.S. attorney general, I am reluctant to publicly criticize my successors.  I respect the office and understand just how tough the job can be.

Republican lawmaker asks Lindsey Graham to ‘rethink’ Senate's impeachment strategy  —  “It is urgent we fight fire with fire,” said Rep. Jim Banks.  —  Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham.  J. Scott Applewhite/AP Photo  —  Rep. Jim Banks is calling on fellow Republican …

President Trump considering adding controversial lawyer Alan Dershowitz to impeachment legal team: Sources  —  Donald Trump is gearing up for his impeachment defense in the Senate.  —  Gearing up for an impeachment trial in the Senate, President Donald Trump and his top advisers …

House Democrats brace for some defections among moderates on impeachment of Trump  —  House Democratic leaders are bracing for some defections among a group of moderate Democrats in swing districts who are concerned a vote to impeach President Trump could cost them their seats in November.

Bevin pardons include convicted killer whose brother hosted campaign fundraiser for him  —  The family of a man pardoned by Gov. Matt Bevin for a homicide and other crimes in a fatal 2014 Knox County home invasion raised $21,500 at a political fundraiser last year to retire debt from Bevin's 2015 gubernatorial campaign.

Giuliani Ally Parnas Got $1 Million From Russia, U.S. Says  — Prosecutors ask judge to revoke Parnas' bail, send him to jail  — Russia payment raises questions about nature of Parnas' work  —  Rudy Giuliani's associate Lev Parnas got $1 million from an account in Russia in September …

2 GOP senators say McConnell will move to acquit Trump, not merely dismiss charges  —  (CNN)Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is expected to hold a final vote to acquit President Donald Trump should he be impeached, when a majority of senators believe his trial has run its course instead …

Can You Spot the Fake?  Hint: Look at the pundits.  —  The week before the last Democratic primary debate of 2019, a panel of pundits on MSNBC's Morning Joe gathered to make an explicit critique of one of the candidates.  Citing a “whiff of fraudulence,” political writer John Heilemann talked …

The Real Dangers to Jews  —  The past 24 hours provided a clear and painful picture of the momentous challenges American Jews face these days.  —  The day began with news that President Trump has issued an executive order designed, the White House said, to fight anti-Semitism.

Trump mocks 16-year-old Greta Thunberg a day after she is named Time's Person of the Year  —  President Trump on Thursday mocked Greta Thunberg, the Swedish 16-year-old climate activist, calling her distinction as Time magazine's Person of the Year “ridiculous” and suggesting she work …

Giuliani's Partnership With Fraud Guarantee Revealed in Letter  —  A 2018 investor letter offers new clues about the work Rudy Giuliani was hired to do for Fraud Guarantee, a company founded by his now-indicted associates Lev Parnas and David Correia.  The letter has been handed over to the U.S. attorney's office in Manhattan.

In new legal memo, White House budget office defends withholding aid to Ukraine  —  The White House budget office asserts in a new legal memo that it withheld military aid to Ukraine as a temporary move to study whether the spending complied with U.S. policy - and not as a political effort to block Congress's spending decisions.

Randall Schriver, Pentagon's Top Asia Official, Resigns Post  —  Assistant Secretary of Defense Randall Schriver, the top Asia hand at the Pentagon who has criticized China's Uyghur internment camps in Xinjiang, has resigned and will leave his post at the end of the month, RFA has learned.

Lachlan Murdoch Sets L.A. Record by Paying $150 Million for a Château-Style Mansion  —  Once listed for $350 million, the Bel-Air estate of late media tycoon A. Jerrold Perenchio is the second priciest home ever to have traded in the U.S.  —  Lachlan Murdoch, media executive and son …

Three die as marauding Pakistan lawyers rampage through cardiac hospital  —  Three heart patients died after a mob of lawyers rampaged through a Lahore hospital in a dispute with doctors.  —  Up to 200 lawyers wearing traditional black suits stormed the Punjab Institute of Cardiology (PIC) …

Pentagon watchdog plans to review award of $400M border wall contract to firm touted by Trump  —  Fisher Sand & Gravel has been publicly and privately endorsed to build the wall by members of the Trump administration, including the president himself.  —  WASHINGTON — The Defense Department's …

What if Trump weren't nuts?  —  A disrupter with a smidgeon of self-control would be remaking American politics and coasting to reelection.  —  President Donald Trump.  A moment when the president of the United States is on the verge of being impeached and also enacting a major bipartisan trade agreement …

It's Not Just Boris and Trump.  British Political Parties Are Starting to Look More American.  —  In Britain's uninspiring and relatively uneventful general election campaign, featuring two prospective prime ministers—Conservative incumbent Boris Johnson and Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn …

Today's climate wouldn't allow us to remove the Confederate flag in South Carolina  —  Nikki Haley, a Republican, was governor of South Carolina from 2011 to 2017 and served as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations from 2017 through 2018.  —  Four years ago, the removal of the Confederate battle flag …

In a Turnabout, Kentucky to Give Voting Rights to 100,000 Former Felons  —  The state's new Democratic governor has said he will restore rights to many former felons, easing one of the nation's strictest policies.  Iowa would be alone in barring voting by all felons.

The False Romance of Russia  —  Sherwood Eddy was a prominent American missionary as well as that now rare thing, a Christian socialist.  In the 1920s and '30s, he made more than a dozen trips to the Soviet Union.  He was not blind to the problems of the U.S.S.R., but he also found much to like.