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?

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 …

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 …

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 …

The Congressional Black Caucus Is Blocking A Black Republican From Joining The Group  —  The Congressional Black Caucus is blocking membership to Rep. Byron Donalds, a Republican from Florida who has tried to join the organization, a source familiar with the CBC's plans told BuzzFeed News.

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.

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.

EXPLAINER: The US investigation into COVID-19 origins  —  WASHINGTON (AP) — Once dismissed by most public health experts and government officials, the hypothesis that COVID-19 leaked accidentally from a Chinese lab is now receiving scrutiny under a new U.S. investigation.

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 …

Judge Finds Proud Boy's Pleas to Get Out of Jail ‘Without Merit,’ Highlighting Vulgar Threats He Made Against People Who ‘Ratted’ Him Out  —  Finding a Proud Boys member's complaints of inadequate medical care behind bars “without merit,” a federal judge issued a scathing ruling on Wednesday explaining …

The city that's home to Trump's South Florida resort just voted to ban casinos  —  Count Doral among the latest Miami-Dade cities to erect defenses against casino politics as the prospect of gambling — and a Trump-branded casino — creeps closer.  —  The Doral city council on Wednesday voted 4 …

Democratic establishment tightens its hold on the party as far-left candidates fall short  —  Democratic primary voters have been turning away this year from the anti-elite furies that continue to roil Republican politics, repeatedly choosing more moderate candidates promising steady leadership …

A U.S. solar company will build a new factory in Ohio, giving Biden a boost.  —  One of the nation's biggest solar-energy companies said on Wednesday that it would double production in the United States by opening a third plant in Ohio by the middle of 2023.

Polls show little evidence of difficulty voting in 2020 elections  —  The For The People Act appears doomed in the Senate, but congressional deliberations over securing the vote surely will continue.  Support for the legislation is based on the belief that many voters face impediments to voting and find voting difficult.

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 …

An Exposé Has Congress Rethinking How to Tax the Superrich  —  A report showing that the richest Americans, including Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk and Warren Buffett, pay almost no taxes has refocused attention on the tax code.  —  WASHINGTON — A jaw-dropping report by ProPublica detailing …

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.

Democratic senator says his party should move forward on infrastructure without GOP: ‘We cannot just sort of twiddle our thumbs’  —  (CNN)Democratic Sen. Chris Van Hollen said Wednesday that it's time for his party to move forward on infrastructure legislation without Republican agreement …

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.

With a Ban on Navalny's Group, Putin Sends Clear Message to Biden  —  The move, just a week before their summit, will likely push the Russian opposition further underground and was a signal that the country's domestic affairs are not up for discussion.  —  MOSCOW — A Russian court …

The Fundamental Question of the Pandemic Is Shifting  —  During a pandemic, no one's health is fully in their own hands.  No field should understand that more deeply than public health, a discipline distinct from medicine.  Whereas doctors and nurses treat sick individuals in front of them …

The world is not filled with monsters.  It's filled with normal, flawed human beings.  —  Don't be the person who demands to know who has and hasn't suffered.  —  7 hr ago  —  A few years ago I was at a party and people began to talk about whether it was OK for people in other countries …

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 …

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.

EU study finds incitement in Palestinian textbooks, kept from public  —  The 200-page report, commissioned by then EU foreign affairs representative Federica Mogherini, examined 156 textbooks and 16 teaching curriculums issued by the PA between 2017-2019.  —  Palestinian Authority textbooks …

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

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.