Jan 22, 2018

The FBI lost texts from agent removed from Mueller's team

Robert Mueller in 2010. Photo: Alex Wong / Getty Images

The Justice Department admitted that it had lost more than five months of text messages between an FBI counterintelligence agent dismissed from Robert Mueller’s team for his anti-Trump stance in prior messages and an FBI colleague, per the AP. That news came as DOJ turned over another batch of messages between the agent, Peter Strzok, and Lisa Page — who departed Mueller’s team before the messages came to light — to a Senate committee.

Why it matters: Many GOP lawmakers have used the conversations between Strzok and Page to claim that Mueller’s investigation is inherently biased against President Trump. According to the FBI, the missing messages, which run from December 2016 through May 2017, came about as the result of a technical glitch.

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Zach Dorfman of the Aspen Institute
23 mins ago - Politics & Policy

The national security risks hiding in Trump's debts

Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios

The blockbuster New York Times report on President Trump’s taxes reveals that the president is $421 million in debt, with more than $300 million coming due during Trump’s potential second term — and the identities of the president’s creditors remain unknown.

Why it matters: If some, or all, of this debt is held by foreign actors, it raises serious national security implications.

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Zachary Basu
25 mins ago - World

House report: U.S. intelligence agencies have failed to adapt to China threat

Xi Jinping and other Chinese politicians and delegates listen to the national anthem duirng the closing of the 19th Communist Party Congress in 2017. Photo: Lintao Zhang/Getty Images

The House Intelligence Committee on Wednesday released a report finding that the U.S. intelligence community has failed to adapt to the growing threat from China, arguing that it will struggle to compete on the global stage for decades to come if it does not implement major changes.

The big picture: The 200-page report, based on thousands of analytic assessments and hundreds of hours of interviews with intelligence officers, determined that the intelligence community's focus on counterterrorism after 9/11 allowed China "to transform itself into a nation potentially capable of supplanting the United States as the leading power in the world."

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Ursula Perano
Updated 28 mins ago - Politics & Policy

Tim Scott says Trump "misspoke" when he told Proud Boys to "stand by"

Photo: Bonnie Cash/Pool/AFP via Getty Images

Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) told reporters on Wednesday that he believes President Trump "misspoke" when he told the far-right "Proud Boys" group to "stand back and stand by" in response to a question about condemning white supremacy at the first presidential debate.

Catch up quick: Moderator Chris Wallace asked Trump on Tuesday, "Are you willing, tonight, to condemn white supremacists and militia groups and to say that they need to stand down?" Trump asked who specifically he should condemn, and then responded, "Proud Boys, stand back and stand by. But I'll tell you what, somebody's got to do something about antifa and the left."

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