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.

Executive For US Video Conference Company Spied On Dissidents At Direction Of Chinese Intelligence, Feds Say  — A Chinese tech executive spied on users of a U.S. company's video conferencing platform on behalf of the Chinese Communist Party's intelligence services, according to federal prosecutors.

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.

Lou Dobbs Airs Stunning Fact-Check of His Own Election Conspiracies After Company Threatens Legal Action  —  Fox Business host Lou Dobbs has recently taken to raising questions about voting machine companies, which have been cast as complicit in the supposed grand conspiracy to steal the 2020 election from President Donald Trump.

‘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 …

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 …

Space Force troops to be called ‘guardians’  —  Service members in the year-old Space Force will be called “guardians,” Vice President Pence announced Friday.  —  “It is my honor, on behalf of the president of the United States, to announce that henceforth the men and women …

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 …

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 …

FDA Takes Additional Action in Fight Against COVID-19 By Issuing Emergency Use Authorization for Second COVID-19 Vaccine  —  Action Follows Thorough Evaluation of Available Safety, Effectiveness, and Manufacturing Quality Information by FDA Career Scientists, Input from Independent Experts

From BuzzFeed to Axios, Digital Media Players Prepare for Deal Frenzy  —  Big players explore acquiring rivals and going public through blank-check companies  —  Momentum is building toward consolidation in the digital media sector as big and small players alike look for potential combinations.

US senator blocks bill giving Hongkongers special refugee status  —  Cruz says China would exploit relaxed immigration standards to send spies to the US Under the bill, Hongkongers would be granted temporary protected status, joining citizens from 10 other countries including Syria …

McCarthy gets FBI briefing on Swalwell: ‘He should not be on Intel’ committee  —  GOP House Leader Kevin McCarthy emerged Friday from a closed-door FBI briefing on Rep. Eric Swalwell's contact with alleged Chinese spy saying the California Democrat should not have access to the nation's secrets.

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 …

Covid-Aid Talks Go Down to the Wire  —  Short-term bill would fund government through Dec. 20 as negotiations continue over coronavirus relief package  —  WASHINGTON—The House and Senate passed a two-day spending bill Friday evening, sending it over to the White House in a bid to prevent …

US says it is shuttering last 2 consulates in Russia  —  WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration has notified Congress that it intends to shutter the last two remaining U.S. consulates in Russia.  —  The State Department told lawmakers last week that it would permanently close the consulate …

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 …

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.

‘Latinx’ hasn't even caught on among Latinos.  It never will.  —  The term is an English-language contrivance, not a real gesture at gender inclusivity.  —  The term “Latinx,” modifying “Latino” and “Latina” to describe people in a gender-inclusive way, has become commonplace — in some quarters.

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 …

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 …

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.) …

Supreme Court Punts Census Case, Giving Trump An Iffy Chance To Alter Numbers  —  Toggle more options  —  The U.S. Supreme Court ducked a direct ruling Friday on whether President Trump can exclude undocumented immigrants from a key census count.  —  At issue in the case …

A viral 4chan hoax about Chief Justice John Roberts tricked a presidential elector and pro-Trump media  —  A hoax from a far-right message board about a rejected pro-Trump Supreme Court case went viral, drawing millions of views on social media and tricking a presidential elector in Texas …

Myon Burrell enjoys 1st days of freedom after prison release  —  MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — For nearly two decades, Myon Burrell had nothing but time.  —  Locked up for life at 16 for a high-profile murder he swore he had nothing to do with, he was stuck in a tiny cell without even a window to watch the seasons change.

The Couple Accused Of Trying To Kidnap A Mom Influencer's Kids Have Been Completely Cleared By Police  —  Police in the Northern California city of Petaluma said Thursday night that they found no evidence of a crime after investigating allegations by a mom influencer that a couple tried to kidnap her kids in a local craft store.

“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.”

Could Rudy Giuliani Face a Perjury Charge?  —  The president's lawyer swore to tell the truth, but...  Washington, DC, Bureau Chief  —  Let our journalists help you make sense of the noise: Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily newsletter and get a recap of news that matters.