Sep 1, 2017

Report: Trump's first Comey letter blocked by White House lawyer

Special Prosecutor Rober Mueller has reportedly obtained a letter that President Trump and his top policy advisor, Stephen Miller, drafted in the days leading up to the firing of James Comey. It details why Trump was planning on dismissing his FBI director, per The New York Times' Michael Schmidt and Maggie Haberman.

White House counsel Donald McGahn stopped Trump from sending Comey the letter in May. Instead, a letter written by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, which discussed Comey's handling of the investigation into Hillary Clinton's personal emails, was sent to Comey on the day of his firing.

Why it matters: Trump's explanations for firing Comey have been shifting from the start, and this letter could provide a more solid basis for his original intent.

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Rebecca Falconer, Orion Rummler

Updated 32 mins ago - Politics & Policy

Updates: Cities move to end curfews for George Floyd protests

Text reading "Demilitarize the police" is projected on an army vehicle during a protest over the death of George Floyd in Washington, D.C.. early on Thursday. Photo: Yasin Ozturk/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

Several cities are ending curfews after the protests over the death of George Floyd and other police-related killings of black people led to fewer arrests and less violence Wednesday night.

The latest: Los Angeles and Washington D.C. are the latest to end nightly curfews. Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan tweeted Wednesday night that "peaceful protests can continue without a curfew, while San Francisco Mayor London Breed tweeted that the city's curfew would end at 5 a.m. Thursday.

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Fadel Allassan

37 mins ago - Politics & Policy

Murkowski calls Mattis' Trump criticism "true and honest and necessary and overdue"

Sen. Lisa Murkowski. Photo: Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) said Thursday that she agreed with former Defense Secretary James Mattis' criticism of President Trump, calling it "true and honest and necessary and overdue."

Why it matters: Murkowski, who has signaled her discomfort with the president in the past, also said that she's "struggling" with her support for him in November — a rare full-on rebuke of Trump from a Senate Republican.

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Sara Fischer

1 hour ago - Technology

Facebook to block ads from state-controlled media entities in the U.S.

Illustration: Rebecca Zisser/Axios

Facebook said Thursday it will begin blocking state-controlled media outlets from buying advertising in the U.S. this summer. It's also rolling out a new set of labels to provide users with transparency around ads and posts from state-controlled outlets. Outlets that feel wrongly labeled can appeal the process.

Why it matters: Nathaniel Gleicher, Facebook's head of security policy, says the company hasn't seen many examples yet of foreign governments using advertising to promote manipulative content to U.S. users, but that the platform is taking this action out of an abundance of caution ahead of the 2020 election.

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