Top Items:
New York Times:
Barr Installs Outside Prosecutor to Review Case Against Michael Flynn, Ex-Trump Adviser — Amid turmoil in the U.S. attorney's office in Washington, the attorney general has also sent outside prosecutors to review other politically sensitive cases. — WASHINGTON — Attorney General William P. Barr …
Discussion:
CNN, Talking Points Memo, National Review, ABC News, Balloon Juice, Joe.My.God., POLITICUSUSA, Law & Crime, Daily Kos and Vox
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Washington Post:
Justice Dept. won't charge Andrew McCabe, the former FBI official who authorized the investigation of President Trump — The Justice Department will not bring charges against former acting FBI director Andrew McCabe for lying to investigators about a media disclosure, according to people familiar …
Discussion:
Redstate, Talking Points Memo and Raw Story
Adam Goldman / New York Times:
Andrew McCabe, Ex-F.B.I. Official, Will Not Be Charged in Lying Case — The decision to decline charges appears to be a move to distance the Justice Department from President Trump, who has long attacked Mr. McCabe. — WASHINGTON — Andrew G. McCabe, the former deputy F.B.I. director …
Carol E. Lee / NBC News:
Justice Department opens inquiry into FBI interview at heart of Flynn's guilty plea — AG Barr has asked a U.S. attorney to lead the inquiry. Flynn pleaded guilty to making false statements during the interview, but wants to withdraw plea. — WASHINGTON — The Justice Department recently opened …
Lee Moran / HuffPost:
People Aren't Buying William Barr's Rebuke Of Donald Trump — Lawmakers, legal experts and cable news hosts highly doubt the attorney general's interview appearing to stand up to the president. — Attorney General William Barr on Thursday appeared to stand up to Donald Trump when he complained …
Discussion:
Raw Story, Fox News, New York Times, CNN and ABC News
Associated Press:
US closes case against ex-FBI boss McCabe with no charges — WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal prosecutors have declined to charge former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, closing an investigation into whether he lied to federal officials about his involvement in a news media disclosure, McCabe's legal team said Friday.
Discussion:
IJR
Washington Post:
Trump bucks Barr's request to stop tweeting about Justice Dept., declaring a ‘legal right’ to seek intervention in criminal cases — A day after Attorney General William P. Barr publicly warned President Trump not to tweet about the Justice Department, Trump did just that, declaring that he has the …
Discussion:
National Review, Power Line, ABC News, Bloomberg, The Daily Beast, One America News Network and Joe.My.God.
Associated Press:
Trump ignores AG Barr's request to stop tweeting about DOJ
Trump ignores AG Barr's request to stop tweeting about DOJ
Discussion:
Politico and Associated Press
Alexandra Petri / Washington Post:
Please stop tweeting, Mr. President. It's making it much more difficult for me to do your bidding!
Please stop tweeting, Mr. President. It's making it much more difficult for me to do your bidding!
Discussion:
Redstate, The Erin Endeavor and New York Times
Franklin Foer / The Atlantic:
Now We Know What Kind of Authoritarian Trump Aspires to Be
Now We Know What Kind of Authoritarian Trump Aspires to Be
Discussion:
Raw Story
Greg Sargent / Washington Post:
Barr's ABC News interview is deeply damning. Here's what must come next.
Barr's ABC News interview is deeply damning. Here's what must come next.
Discussion:
ABC News, The Guardian, Raw Story, BizPac Review and The Hill
Michelle Goldberg / New York Times:
The Right's Big Lie About Roger Stone
The Right's Big Lie About Roger Stone
Discussion:
Raw Story, The Hill, IJR, New York Post and Washington Post
Andrew C. McCarthy / The Hill:
Roger Stone's sentence: How the judge will really decide to ‘lock him up’
Roger Stone's sentence: How the judge will really decide to ‘lock him up’
Discussion:
Washington Post and Politico
Nihar Kabinittal / ABC News:
Barr blasts Trump's tweets on Stone case: ‘Impossible for me to do my job’: ABC News Exclusive
Barr blasts Trump's tweets on Stone case: ‘Impossible for me to do my job’: ABC News Exclusive
Discussion:
Redstate, Townhall, New York Times, The Bulwark, Washington Post, Talking Points Memo, The Hill, New York Post, Common Dreams, Raw Story, NBC News, NB Blog, VICE, Axios, IJR, Politico, Fox News, Vox, Slate, Mediaite, The Root, Columbia Journalism Review, The Guardian, The Week, Sputnik News, Spectator USA, Law & Crime, Press Watch, The Gateway Pundit, No More Mister Nice Blog, Patterico's Pontifications, Associated Press, CNN, The American Independent, emptywheel, The American Spectator, Mother Jones, The Last Refuge, Political Wire, Newsy, YouTube, Letters from an American, ABC7, HuffPost, National Review, The Daily Caller, Reuters, UPI, JustOneMinute, The Wrap, TheBlaze, Outside the Beltway, Twitchy, Roll Call, Breitbart, PJ Media Home, Balloon Juice, The French Press, Vanity Fair, Lawyers, Guns & Money, Rolling Stone and NPR, more at Mediagazer »
Elizabeth Vaughn / Redstate:
AG Barr Conducts Damage Control After Trump's Reckless Tweets Nearly Spark Impeachment 2.0
AG Barr Conducts Damage Control After Trump's Reckless Tweets Nearly Spark Impeachment 2.0
Discussion:
The Daily Caller, Raw Story and The Dispatch
Ross Ramsey / The Texas Tribune:
Bernie Sanders leaps to first among Texas Democrats in latest UT/TT Poll — Sanders now leads the Democratic presidential candidates among Texas voters, but Donald Trump maintains a slight lead over each of the top Democrats in the race, according to the latest University of Texas/Texas Tribune Poll.
Discussion:
JONATHAN TURLEY, The Hill, Joe.My.God., Common Dreams and Morning Consult
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Dylan Scott / Vox:
Bernie Sanders is leading the 2 most important states on Super Tuesday — Why Bernie Sanders's polling leads in California and Texas are so important. — Sen. Bernie Sanders now holds critical polling leads in the 2020 Democratic primary: New surveys show him ahead in California and Texas …
Discussion:
Politico, Associated Press and The Daily Beast
Andrew Romano / Yahoo News:
New Yahoo News/YouGov poll shows Sanders's strength going head-to-head with rivals
New Yahoo News/YouGov poll shows Sanders's strength going head-to-head with rivals
Discussion:
The Dispatch and Power Line
Jennifer Rubin / Washington Post:
There is another service to the country Biden may need to perform
There is another service to the country Biden may need to perform
Discussion:
The Daily Caller and The Hill
Washington Post:
She pushed Trump to exit the Paris climate agreement and roll back environmental rules. And she's returning to EPA as chief of staff. — One of EPA's first Trump appointees, Mandy Gunasekara has run a ‘pro-Trump nonprofit’ since leaving the agency a year ago.
Betsy Swan / The Daily Beast:
U.S. Readied Sanctions on Russian Oligarch's Associates—Then Mysteriously Backed Off — “Somebody overruled [Treasury], essentially,” one sanctions expert said. “That's the most likely scenario.” — Something strange happened in mid-December involving Oleg Deripaska, the Russian oligarch.
Discussion:
Raw Story
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Henry Foy / Financial Times:
US cites reports Oleg Deripaska helped Vladimir Putin launder cash — Oligarch reportedly helped Russian president hide money, Treasury agency says to justify sanctions — The US Treasury has justified sanctions against Oleg Deripaska by citing reports that the Russian tycoon helped President Vladimir Putin launder money.
Discussion:
РБК
Adam Bienkov / Business Insider:
Boris Johnson has cancelled his planned trip to the White House after Trump slammed the phone down on him in a moment of ‘apoplectic’ fury — UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has cancelled his planned trip to meet Donald Trump next month after a furious row between the two men.
Discussion:
Lawyers, Guns & Money and Raw Story
Rory Appleton / Las Vegas Review-Journal:
Sanders holds lead heading into Nevada's Democratic caucuses, poll finds — Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders leads the presidential field by a solid margin among likely Democratic caucusgoers heading into Nevada's four-day early voting period, but all six of the candidates actively campaigning …
Discussion:
The Hill and The Nevada Independent
Julia Ioffe / Washington Post:
Democrats are wasting time fighting over policies the Senate will never pass — It was a sight to behold: a former vice president, two senators and a former mayor on a stage in New Hampshire a week ago, arguing over the impossible. Would Sen. Bernie Sanders deliver Medicare-for-all immediately, as he promised to do?
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Ryan Goodman / Just Security:
White House ‘1264 Notice’ and Novel Legal Claims for Military Action Against Iran — To its credit, the Trump administration has submitted a newly released notice to Congress, describing the legal and policy basis for the Jan. 2 airstrike against Qassem Soleimani, Iran's top military commander.
Discussion:
CNBC, New York Times and Virginia Mercury
RELATED:
New York Times:
We Checked the Iowa Caucus Math. Here's Where It Didn't Add Up. — Caucus volunteers tally the final round votes. Then they divide the county delegates among the viable candidates based on their vote shares. — They must round down or up to the nearest whole number to award the delegates.
Megan Messerly / The Nevada Independent:
Culinary Union officials face profanity-laced attacks after scorecard says Sanders would ‘end’ their health care — Geoconda Arguello-Kline, left, secretary-treasurer for the Culinary Union announced that the culinary will not endorse a Democratic presidential candidate in the primary.
Discussion:
Raw Story, The Guardian, PBS NewsHour, Vox, Washington Post, The Daily Beast and BuzzFeed News
Jonathan Bernstein / Bloomberg:
An Unrestrained Trump May End Up Trapping Himself — The Senate pushes back on war powers and a Fed nominee, while a White House purge might undercut the president's clout. — I'm not sure what the conventional wisdom is about the current health of Donald Trump's presidency …
Discussion:
Raw Story and New York Times
Associated Press:
Facebook reverses on paid political messages that aren't ads — SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Facebook decided Friday to allow a type of paid political message that had sidestepped many of the social network's rules governing political ads, in a reversal that highlights difficulties tech companies …
ProPublica:
The Benefits of Being Joe Biden's Brother — Jim Biden has been at his brother's side at nearly every critical junction in Joe's life. He's also repeatedly tapped into Joe's political network for help with his finances, and used Joe's fame to promote his business ventures. … Jim Biden was in a bind.
Jo Craven McGinty / Wall Street Journal:
How Many People Might One Person With Coronavirus Infect? — Researchers in U.K. offer clues as to how contagious Covid-19 virus could be — When an infection erupts the way coronavirus has exploded in Wuhan, China, and elsewhere in the world, public-health experts try to gauge the potential …
Discussion:
Mediaite
Susan B. Glasser / New Yorker:
A President So Unhinged That Even Bill Barr Says He's Out of Control — Welcome to the post-acquittal Trump Presidency. — President Trump is not moving on. He is not getting over it. In the eight days since his acquittal by the Republican-controlled Senate, Trump has shown all too clearly …
Rick Wilson / The Daily Beast:
General John Kelly, Trump Stooge, Is No Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman, Patriot — Vindman saw something, and said something. Kelly saw plenty, and kept it to himself for more than two years. — BEAST INSIDE — John Kelly's half-assed, just-the-tip critique of Donald Trump …
Discussion:
Raw Story
Politico:
POLITICO Playbook: Exclusive: Republicans snooped on Democrats' House polls — DRIVING THE DAY — BEHIND THE SCENES ... CAMPAIGN COMMITTEES IN WASHINGTON pay lots of money to get an edge on their opponent. They have research teams, conduct detailed and pricey polls and dispatch trackers across …
Discussion:
The Daily Caller, Joe.My.God., Raw Story and The Week
John Daniel Davidson / The Federalist:
Media Will Never Understand The Country So Long As They Keep Hating Trump Voters — The mainstream media will spend a lot of effort this year reporting on Trump voters, but very little effort trying to understand or empathize with them. — I've spent much of the past two weeks in Iowa …
Discussion:
Washington Monthly