“I am announcing that the United States will withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal,” President Donald Trump announced to a room of reporters at the White House today. Read the rest

On Fox News tonight, Rudy Giuliani shared some jaw-dropping things. Read the rest

Four sources tell the Washington Post that special counsel Robert Mueller told Donald Trump's lawyers that he could issue a subpoena for the president to appear before a grand jury, if Trump didn't voluntarily come in for an interview to tell what he knows about Russia, collusion, obstruction, and whatever else investigators want to know. Read the rest

"He dictated that whole letter. I didn't write that letter," Bornstein told CNN on Tuesday. "I just made it up as I went along." Read the rest

Stormy Daniels has filed a lawsuit against US President Donald Trump for his defamatory comments on Twitter. Read the rest

In a White House press briefing with Nigeria's president Muhammadu Buhari at his side, U.S. President Donald Trump said he believes a summit with North Korean president Kim Jong-Un will happen, and that Singapore and the Korean DMZ are possible sites for the historic summit. Read the rest

The Democratic National Committee today filed a lawsuit against the Russian government, Donald Trump's presidential campaign, and WikiLeaks, alleging the Trump campaign 'gleefully welcomed Russia's help.' Court papers describe a far-reaching conspiracy to disrupt the 2016 presidential campaign, and throw the election for Donald Trump through a complex and well-funded global disinformation campaign. Read the rest

Yesterday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said he would block a vote on legislation to stop Trump from firing Special Counsel Robert Mueller. Now that Trump has McConnell's blessing, Pittsburgh is getting ready to deal with riots that could break out if Trump acts on his urge.

From The Week:

The Pittsburgh Bureau of Police has instructed detectives to begin wearing a full uniform and carrying riot gear with them in anticipation of massive protests if President Trump fires Special Counsel Robert Mueller. The email announcement, which was confirmed by Pittsburgh's WTAE-TV, warns that "we have received information of a potential large scale protest in the Central Business District" that would be "semi-spontaneous and more than likely happen on short notice."

SOURCE: This is the email sent to Pgh detectives this morning. I am working to get a response from the city as well as additional details on the potential protests. #WTAE pic.twitter.com/xtOuUc220p

— Marcie Cipriani (@MCipriani_WTAE) April 18, 2018

Image: Police in Riot Gear Holding the Line in Downtown Portland, Oregon during a Occupy Portland protest on the first anniversary of Occupy Wall Street November 17, 2011. By JPL Designs/Shutterstock. Read the rest

Trump's longtime strongman got benefits we're just beginning to learn about. Wonder why he needed legal representation? Read the rest

"Defendants plainly intended to prevent American voters from hearing Plaintiff [Clifford] speak about Mr. Trump," the suit says.

Stormy Daniels has amended her lawsuit against Donald Trump to say Trump attorney Michael Cohen defamed her, and also says the non-disclosure agreement she signed violates campaign finance law. Read the rest

Trump's White House spokesman 'strongly, clearly, and consistently' denied Stormy Daniels' affair claims the day after her interview with 60 Minutes aired. Read the rest

In an interview aired last night on CBS, Stormy Daniels described her affair with Donald Trump and the threats she received to stay quiet about it.

Watch the video and read the transcript at CBS News. (Embedded above are highlights from CNN; CBS offers an embed but it's broken in every browser I tested.)

A week and a half before the 2016 election, Donald Trump's personal attorney paid a porn star named Stormy Daniels to keep quiet about her alleged relationship with the Republican candidate for president. Today, that arrangement is well on its way to becoming the most talked-about "hush agreement" in history, with potential legal and political implications for the president. Through his spokesman, Mr. Trump has denied having an affair with Stormy Daniels, and his lawyers are now threatening her with financial ruin, saying she has to pay $1 million dollars every time she violates her agreement to stay silent. But that didn't stop her from coming on 60 Minutes.

“He was like, ‘wow, you are special. You remind me of my daughter.’” --Stormy Daniels says of her conversation with Mr. Trump the night they met. pic.twitter.com/Mj52gSoDbH

— 60 Minutes (@60Minutes) March 25, 2018

Read the rest

Hey, remember when that dangerous orange toddler that runs America retweeted the online blather of a bunch of English facists? Good times. Today, a company that's made some hilariously poor choices in the area of user privacy, curbing spam and stomping out hate speech proved that they've got more of their shit together than the – God help us – leader of the free world.

According to The Verge, Facebook has banned U.K.-based far-right racist shit heels Britain First from their social network for "inciting hatred against minorities."

In a statement made earlier today, Facebook explained that in the past, they've tried to find a balance between free speech and decency that would allow a variety of opinions to be voiced and considered on their social network. But their patience for hateful bullshit only goes so far:

There are times though when legitimate political speech crosses the line and becomes hate speech designed to stir up hatred against groups in our society. This is an important issue which we take very seriously and we have written about how we define hate speech and take action against it in our Hard Questions series. We have Community Standards that clearly state this sort of speech is not acceptable on Facebook and, when we become aware of it, we remove it as quickly as we can. Political parties, like individuals and all other organizations on Facebook, must abide by these standards and where a Page or person repeatedly breaks our Community Standards we remove them.

Donald Trump was so eager for Vladi­mir Putin to attend his 2013 Miss Universe pageant in Moscow, he personally wrote the Russian President a letter inviting him. Robert Mueller's investigative team somehow got a copy of the document. It is the first known communication that shows Trump trying to establish contact directly with Putin. Read the rest

George Nader, the international businessman of mystery who is now cooperating with special prosecutor Robert Mueller, was indicted in 1985 on obscenity charges involving child pornography.

Nader is a political operative who was seen frequently at the White House during the early days of the administration of President Donald Trump. Read the rest

News of Trump White House speech writer David Sorensen's resignation hit late Friday as the WaPo prepared a story on his ex-wife's allegations of violent domestic abuse. The White House said they learned of the accusations from her on Thursday. Read the rest

Why is this bad, even if you don't care about violence against women? Because blackmail risk.🤷 Read the rest