EXCLUSIVE: Jared Kushner helped create a Trump campaign shell company that secretly paid the president's family members and spent $617 million in reelection cash, a source tells Insider … - Jared Kushner approved the creation of a shell company that spent almost half of the Trump campaign's $1.26B war chest …

Scoop: Pentagon halts Biden transition briefings  —  Acting Defense Secretary Chris Miller ordered a Pentagon-wide halt to cooperation with the transition of President-elect Biden, shocking officials across the Defense Department, senior administration officials tell Axios.

‘New York Times’ Retracts Core Of Hit Podcast Series ‘Caliphate’ On ISIS  —  Toggle more options  —  The New York Times has retracted the core of its hit 2018 podcast series Caliphate after an internal review found the paper failed to heed red flags indicating that the man it relied upon …

The wealthy scramble for COVID-19 vaccines: ‘If I donate $25,000 ... would that help me?’  —  They're offering tens of thousands of dollars in cash, making their personal assistants pester doctors every day, and asking whether a five-figure donation to a hospital would help them jump the line.

Disarray consumes Capitol ahead of critical deadline  —  Congress is going right up to the midnight shutdown deadline as leaders desperately try to clinch a $900 billion coronavirus aid package and keep the government open during a debilitating pandemic.  —  After meeting with Senate Majority …

Interior shuts Washington Monument after interior secretary tests positive for the coronavirus  —  Park Service staff say they may have been exposed when David Bernhardt led a private, after-hours tour  —  Officials have taken the extraordinary step of closing the Washington Monument starting Friday …

William Barr: ‘One Standard of Justice’  —  The departing attorney general talks about John Durham, Robert Mueller, Hunter Biden, Mike Flynn and the flak he's taken from both parties.  —  The U.S. attorney general is meditating on one of his frustrations with the modern Justice Department …

Supreme Court tosses challenge to Trump's immigrant census plan  —  The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 on Friday to dismiss a challenge to the Trump administration's exclusion of undocumented immigrants from the U.S. census, the once-per-decade population count used to allocate House seats among the states.

MAGA leaders call for the troops to keep Trump in office  —  An 1807 law invoked only in the most violent circumstances is now a rallying cry for the MAGA-ites most committed to the fantasy that Donald Trump will never leave office.  —  The law, the Insurrection Act, allows the president …

Inside the Ivanka-Melania War  —  Melania Trump's one-time confidant takes us deep into one of the White House's nastiest battles.  —  They're the two most important women in Donald Trump's life.  And they absolutely loathe one another.  —  Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, the former Melania Trump confidant …

Was It Worth It?  —  People who work for President Donald Trump typically meet one of two fates.  They fail to show the unthinking loyalty he demands and get fired.  Or, maybe worse, they don't get fired—they endure the tantrums and turmoil and survive another day, binding themselves …

Democrats in Georgia: ‘Trump is helping our case.’  —  President Donald Trump has been waging war on Georgia Republicans the past month, spreading disinformation and conspiracy theories about the Senate runoffs — and Democrats are praying he keeps on talking.

GOP senator blocks bill to provide $1,200 stimulus checks  —  GOP Sen. Ron Johnson (Wis.) on Friday blocked an effort to pass a second round of stimulus checks, arguing coronavirus relief needs to be targeted and raising concerns about the country's debt.  —  Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) …

Trump expected to issue wave of pre-Christmas pardons today  —  President Trump plans to issue a wave of pardons today, moving to expedite acts of clemency before Christmas, according to a source with direct knowledge and advocates who have been briefed on the plans.

NYPD Excessive Force Heightened Tensions During Protests Over George Floyd's Death, DOI Report Finds  —  NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) - There's demand for wholesale change the NYPD after a damming report by the Department of Investigation finds the NYPD was unprepared to deal with protests …

AGENCY:  —  Food and Drug Administration, HHS.  —  ACTION:  —  Proposed rule.  —  SUMMARY:  —  The Food and Drug Administration (FDA or we) proposes to revoke the standard of identity and the standard of quality for frozen cherry pie.  This action, in part, responds to a citizen petition submitted …

The Establishment Strikes Back  —  Henry Cuellar and centrist Democrats mutiny against progressives in a key committee fight.  —  AOC in August during a House Oversight and Reform Committee hearing  —  Committee assignments are one of the least eye-catching parts of politics …

“Anti-Racist” Education Is Neither  —  Well-meaning Americans are being suckered into an illiberal political cabal.  —  Days before the Fourth of July, the famed KIPP charter schools announced they'd be abandoning their longtime slogan: “Work Hard, Be Nice.”

The Top 10 Worst Trump-Enabling Takes of 2020  —  As we bid a not-so-fond farewell to 2020, here's a look back at some of the political lowlights.  —  As we close out the year, it's tempting but futile to compile a list of President Trump's worst lies.  But reprinting all of his tweets …

The Next Tea Party Is Lurking Inside Trump's Election Results Denial  —  People actually believe Trump when he says he won the election.  What happens next isn't clear — but the president's increasingly radicalized supporters are already shaping the future of Republican politics.  —  Reporting From

If Trump pardons himself, Biden should un-pardon him  —  Ken Gormley is an expert on the Constitution, the presidency and the pardon power.  He is president of Duquesne University.  —  If President Trump makes the ill-advised decision to try to pardon himself before he leaves the White House in January …

The Washington Post asked readers to describe 2020 in one word or phrase.  Here's what they said.  —  See their responses  —  Shefali S. Kulkarni and By Shefali S. Kulkarni  —  Operations editor for the financial and tech section  —  Community editor, with a focus on comments, live chats and reader submissions.

Scoop: Democrats try to tuck Pentagon waiver into spending bill  —  Democrats are trying to tuck a waiver allowing retired Gen. Lloyd Austin to serve as President-elect Joe Biden's defense secretary into a year-end government funding bill that must pass by tonight to avoid a shutdown, three sources familiar with the push tell Axios.

Rupert Murdoch receives dose of Covid vaccine in UK  —  Exclusive: 89-year-old News Corp boss gives thanks to key workers, NHS staff and scientists  —  Rupert Murdoch has become the latest public figure to have the coronavirus vaccine, visiting his local GP's surgery late on Wednesday to receive his first dose.

Bill That Trump Is Vowing to Veto Strengthens Hacking Defenses, Lawmakers Say  —  Additional powers to actively hunt down hackers across federal agencies could have given the government more of a chance to detect the recent Russia hack more quickly, they said.

White House Advisor Peter Navarro Releases Dubious Voter Fraud Report  —  White House trade advisor Peter Navarro is the latest Trump administration staffer to publicly back up the president's baseless voter fraud claims, publishing a report Thursday that claims widespread irregularities …

Chinese Journalist Who Documented Communist History Is Detained in Beijing  —  Friends of Du Bin said that his detention might have been related to book projects critical of the history of Communism and China's Communist Party.  —  As China intensified its clampdown on independent reporting …