Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats has hired Shelby Pierson, a career intelligence official, as the first U.S. "elections threats executive within the intelligence community," NPR reports.
Why it matters: FBI Director Christopher A. Wray warned Washington in April about Russia's "continued meddling in American elections" and called it a "significant counterintelligence threat," the NYT reports. In Friday's announcement, Coats said he is directing other agencies to appoint their own elections threat executives.
George Nader, who served as a go-between for President Trump's transition team and Russian and Middle East officials in 2016 and 2017, was charged in a Virginia federal court on Friday with sex trafficking, child pornography and obscenity, as first reported by The Daily Beast.
Why it matters: Today's indictment adds additional child pornography incidents to last month's charges, as well as new counts of sex trafficking and obscenity. From Axios' Zach Basu: Nader was a key witness in special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation and is known to have set up a now-infamous meeting in the Seychelles between Trump associate Erik Prince and a Russian official with close ties to the Kremlin. He has presented himself as close to the United Arab Emirates’ de-facto ruler, Abu Dhabi’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed, and was convicted of transporting child porn 28 years ago. Today's indictment adds additional child pornography to last month's charges, as well as new counts of sex trafficking and obscenity.
ESPN radio host Dan Le Batard denounced the scene at President Trump's latest rally during his Thursday show, calling the chants of "send her back" directed at Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) "un-American" and "deeply offensive."
The big picture: In doing so, Le Batard also blasted his own network's no-politics policy, which ESPN President Jimmy Pitaro doubled down on back in May, and called it "cowardly."
On July 9, John Delaney's senior team sat him down and told him to drop out of the presidential race by mid-August, according to three sources close to the campaign.
Why it matters: He's been running for president for 721 days. He's spent nearly $19 million as a 2020 candidate since 2017. He's loaned over $11 million of his own money to his campaign this year. He's visited all of Iowa's 99 counties already, including at least 14 stops in Carroll Country alone. And it's all been for nothing.
WARREN, Mich. — Some swing voters here told us that even though they hate President Trump's behavior, they'll place more importance on the state of the economy — and their personal financial situations — when deciding how to vote in 2020.
Search warrants made public Thursday show that the FBI believed then-candidate Donald Trump spoke with his attorney Michael Cohen and aide Hope Hicks during the 2016 campaign about silencing news stories related to his alleged affair with adult film actress Stormy Daniels.
Why it matters: The Southern District of New York's investigation into hush money payments, which has now concluded, resulted in Cohen being sentenced to prison for three years for campaign finance violations. Trump — who was previously referred to in court documents as "Individual 1" — has denied allegations of his involvement in the scheme.
President Trump has directed his administration to work to have rapper A$AP Rocky freed from custody in Sweden after Kim Kardashian West contacted White House adviser Jared Kushner about the issue, as first reported by TMZ.
The state of play: A person familiar with the situation told me the TMZ story is accurate and that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has taken the lead to work on Rocky's detention.
The single biggest threat to Republicans' long-term viability is demographics.
The big picture: The numbers simply do not lie. America, as a whole, and swing states, in particular, are growing more diverse, more quickly. There is no way Republicans can change birth rates or curb this trend — and there's not a single demographic megatrend that favors Republicans.
The Trump administration is sending more than 2,100 additional troops to the southern border, the Pentagon said in a statement Wednesday.
The big picture: 1,000 Texas National Guard and 1,100 active duty troops will be sent to the border, as President Trump's rule requiring immigrants to seek refuge in a 3rd country before applying for asylum in the U.S. comes into effect. The troops will join about 4,500 active duty and National Guard troops already at the border, per Reuters.
Trump supporters chanted "send her back" at a re-election rally on Wednesday, after President Trump listed his grievances with Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.)
The big picture: The House voted 240-187 yesterday to condemn Trump's racist tweets against the 4 Democratic congresswomen of color, all of whom are American citizens. In his tweets, Trump said the congresswomen should "go back" to where they came from.
The Democratic National Committee warned 2020 presidential campaigns that they should not use the viral facial-altering FaceApp because it was developed in Russia, CNN reports.
Our thought bubble, via Axios' Ina Fried: Lots of apps have access to your photos. However, since FaceApp is not based in the U.S., it could be harder to track what is eventually done with the images and harder to potentially sue later for misuse. And anything Russia-related raises additional alarm bells given that country’s efforts to interfere with U.S. elections.
Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) was hospitalized in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday night after fracturing 4 ribs in a fall in his apartment, his spokesperson said.
Details: Amanda Maddox said in a statement he was being treated in George Washington University Hospital. "He is in pain, but resting and doing well," she said. "Senator Isakson looks forward to fully recovering and getting back to work for Georgians."
