Jun 2, 2019

Trump: Lawyer Emmet Flood, who handled Mueller inquiry, to leave post

Rebecca Falconer

White House lawyer Emmet Flood. Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

President Trump announced Saturday that White House lawyer Emmet Flood would leave his legal team, after overseeing the administration's response to the Mueller investigation into alleged Russian interference in the 2016 election campaign.

Why it matters: Flood — who helped former President Bill Clinton through impeachment proceedings — took an adversarial approach to the Mueller investigation after taking over from Ty Cobb.

  • In an April letter to Attorney General Bill Barr, Flood denounced former special counsel Robert Mueller's final report as "political" and urged the White House against cooperating in further Mueller report-related inquiries.

Go deeper: Explore a detailed view of the Mueller report

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Axios

Coronavirus kills 2 Diamond Princess passengers as South Korean cases surge

Data: The Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins, the CDC, and China's

Two elderly Diamond Princess passengers have been killed by the novel coronavirus — the first deaths confirmed among the more than 600 infected aboard the cruise ship.

The big picture: COVID-19 has now killed more than 2,100 people and infected over 75,000 others, mostly in mainland China, where the National Health Commission announced 114 new deaths since Wednesday.

Go deeperArrowUpdated 1 hour ago - Health
Rebecca Falconer

Massive MGM data breach: Guests' personal details posted on hacking site

The MGM Grand hotel in Las Vegas. Photo: Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images

An MGM Resorts security breach last summer resulted in the personal details of 10.6 million guests published on a hacking forum this week, ZDNet first reported Wednesday.

Why it matters: Federal government employees and high-profile guests were affected by the breach, according to analysis by data breach monitoring service Under the Bridge and ZDNet — including officials from the FBI, Department of Homeland Security and the Transportation Security Administration, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, Microsoft staffers and singer Justin Bieber.

Go deeperArrow2 hours ago - Technology
Rebecca Falconer

George Zimmerman sues Buttigieg and Warren for $265M

George Zimmerman in Sanford, Florida, in November 2013. Photo: Joe Burbank-Pool/Getty Images

George Zimmerman filed a lawsuit in Polk County, Fla., seeking $265 million in damages from Democratic presidential candidates Pete Buttigieg and Elizabeth Warren, accusing them of defaming him to "garner votes in the black community."

Context: Neither the Massachusetts senator nor the former Southbend mayor tweeted his name in the Feb. 5 posts on what would've been the 25th birthday of Trayvon Martin, the unarmed black teen Zimmerman fatally shot in 2012. But Zimmerman alleges they "acted with actual malice" to defame him.

Go deeperArrow4 hours ago - Politics & Policy