Police did not clear Lafayette Park area so Trump could hold ‘Bible’ photo op: Watchdog  —  The inspector general's findings shed new light on a major controversy.  —  U.S. Park Police did not clear Lafayette Park and the nearby area of protesters on June 1, 2020, so President Donald Trump …

Trump administration pursued CNN reporter's records in months-long secret court battle  —  Washington (CNN)The Trump administration battled with CNN for half a year to obtain the email records of a reporter and insisted it all take place under an extraordinary order of secrecy, CNN's lead attorney revealed on Wednesday.

Carroll v Trump (an Update)  —  Why Is the DOJ Butting In?  —  Yup, that's me.  You can read all about it in New York Times , or The Washington Post, or The Wall Street Journal, or a thousand other places.  But would you like to know why the DOJ is really messing around in my little law suit?

Stephen Breyer's Apparent Retirement Plan Will Backfire  —  The New York Times reported last month that Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, age 82, has been resisting calls for his retirement from fellow progressives.  The reason?  Breyer apparently worries that retiring in the face …

Keystone XL Oil Project Abandoned by Developer  —  Decision ends a yearslong effort to pipe more Canadian crude to the U.S.  —  Canada's TC Energy Corp. and the Albertan provincial government said Wednesday they would scuttle the Keystone XL oil pipeline project, bringing to an end …

JBS Paid $11 Million to Resolve Ransomware Attack  —  Meat supplier's U.S. chief executive says firm paid cybercriminals in bitcoin to avoid more disruptions  —  JBS USA Holdings Inc. paid an $11 million ransom to cybercriminals who last week temporarily knocked out plants that process roughly …

State GOPs Can't Explain Millions In ‘Trump Victory’ Cash  —  “These joint fundraising practices amount to little more than legalized money laundering,” said Brendan Fischer, director of federal reform at the Campaign Legal Center.  —  Months after the Federal Election Commission notified …

AP Exclusive: State bar investigating Texas attorney general  —  DALLAS (AP) — The Texas bar association is investigating whether state Attorney General Ken Paxton's failed efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election based on bogus claims of fraud amounted to professional misconduct.

Jewish Democratic lawmakers consider condemning Ilhan Omar for likening Hamas to Israel and US  —  WASHINGTON (JTA) — Jewish Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives met Wednesday to discuss antisemitism.  The 25 members of the unofficial caucus ended up fulminating about a fellow Democrat …

The Curious Rise of Twitter Power Broker Yashar Ali  —  I'm extremely upset.  Yashar Ali delivers this news as he settles into a booth in the lobby of Santa Monica's Proper Hotel.  His eyes are red and puffy—he's clearly been crying—and his voice cracks with emotion when he speaks.

Biden administration to buy 500 million Pfizer coronavirus vaccine doses to donate to the world  —  The Biden administration is buying 500 million doses of Pfizer's coronavirus vaccine to donate to the world, as the United States dramatically increases its efforts to help vaccinate the global population …

Pipeline Investigation Upends Idea That Bitcoin Is Untraceable  —  The F.B.I.'s recovery of Bitcoins paid in the Colonial Pipeline ransomware attack showed cryptocurrencies are not as hard to track as it might seem.  —  When Bitcoin burst onto the scene in 2009, fans heralded the cryptocurrency as a secure …

A doctor falsely told lawmakers vaccines magnetize people: ‘They can put a key on their forehead.  It sticks.’  —  Sherri Tenpenny, a Cleveland-based doctor invited as an expert witness Tuesday to a hearing in the Ohio House, had a grave warning for legislators about coronavirus vaccines.

There's A Stark Red-Blue Divide When It Comes To States' Vaccination Rates  —  Loading...  It's less than a month until the Fourth of July, which was President Biden's goal for 70% of American adults to have gotten at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.  —  It looks like it's going to be a stretch to get there.

Five Former Treasury Secretaries: Fund the IRS  —  The authors are former U.S. Treasury secretaries.  Mr. Geithner and Mr. Lew served under President Barack Obama, Mr. Paulson under President George W. Bush, and Mr. Rubin and Mr. Summers under President Bill Clinton.

Bogus Social Media Outrage Is Making Authors Change Lines in Their Books Now  —  Elin Hilderbrand writes novels about people who summer in Nantucket and have lots of family secrets and complicated love lives.  The books—whose covers feature beach scenes with women in sun hats …

U.S. Weighs Possibility of Airstrikes if Afghan Forces Face Crisis  —  The Pentagon is considering whether to intervene with warplanes or drones in the event that Kabul is in danger of falling to the Taliban, though no decisions have been made.  —  WASHINGTON — The Pentagon …

Story retracted  —  Editor's note (6/8/21): Earlier today, Media Matters published a story stating that Texas state Sen. Bob Hall had “appeared on the program of a white nationalist, pro-Hitler outlet that denies the Holocaust.”  After publication, we were made aware that the program in question …

White House ‘Perplexed’ By Kamala Harris Performance on First Foreign Policy Trip: CNN  —  Unnamed White House “insiders” were left “perplexed” by the performance of Vice President Kamala Harris on her recent trip to Guatemala and Mexico to address the root causes of the immigration problems at the US Southern border.

The Russian Agent Who Escaped  —  Vadim Mayorov was an FSB operative sent to entrap an anti-Putin opposition movement and give false testimony at its trial.  He fled Russia and has shared his story for the first time in this Newlines exclusive  —  Michael Weiss is a senior editor at Newlines

House Judiciary Committee Releases Transcript of Interview with Former White House Counsel Don McGahn  —  Washington, D.C. - Today, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) released a transcript of the Committee's June 4 interview with Donald F. McGahn, former White House Counsel.

The case for prosecuting Donald Trump  —  Saving American democracy for the long run requires a clear condemnation of the Trump presidency.  That means making clear that no one is above the law.  —  Norms in a democracy are only as good as our willingness to enforce them.

In the U.S., hospitalizations are rising in areas with low vaccination rates.  —  Health officials worry that Covid-19 hospitalization rates could increase among the unvaccinated as variants of the virus spread.  —  The coronavirus might be receding in much of the United States …

LEGO gets nostalgic with 2,000-piece classic typewriter — complete with moving keys and carriage  —  Once found in virtually every office across the globe, the trusty typewriter is all but extinct.  —  But now LEGO has gone back in time, launching a 2,079-piece model of the gadget — complete with moving keys and carriage.

Dre(a)dfully fake outrage  —  The New Yorker's contribution to the “cancel culture” rage machine is embarrassing.  —  2 hr ago  —  Last month, I wrote an article about the expansion of Fox News' annual “War on Christmas” narrative into a year-long freakout, which was itself an expansion …

Critical Race Theory's Poisonous Roots Trace Back To Harvard University  —  Harvard bears a unique responsibility for disseminating the toxic ideology known as critical race theory into our national discourse.  —  In the past several months, multiple state legislatures have made moves …

Closed cold case murder tied to ousted Tennessee governor  —  CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (AP) — A former Tennessee governor's administration helped fund a contract murder of a key federal witness decades ago while embroiled in the state's largest political scandal, law enforcement officials announced Wednesday.

Trump is sabotaging the GOP's Senate prospects  —  The former president's growing involvement in primaries is jeopardizing Republican chances of winning back the majority.  —  Former President Trump could have been an important asset for the GOP, turning out voters as it seeks to regain control …

From the synagogue to the Senate: The busiest Democratic senator you've probably never heard of … Larry Rosen and Doug Emhoff bonded because of their powerful wives.  As two of the only men in the book club for spouses when their other halves served as senators, they became good friends.