Grace Meng, the wife of the former Interpol president who suddenly resigned and was detained in China last fall, has applied for asylum in France, the New York Times reports.
Details: Meng told the newspaper Libération that she's afraid she'll be kidnapped if she goes back to China, where "such strange things happen" and "fundamental rights are not respected." According to the Times, Meng said she has not had contact with her husband since his arrest, which she believes was "for a political reason."
Buried in the explosive BuzzFeed News report(Update: later disputed by the Mueller team) is a line that could threaten legal exposure for Donald Trump Jr.:
"And even as Trump told the public he had no business deals with Russia, the sources said Trump and his children Ivanka and Donald Trump Jr. received regular, detailed updates about the real estate development from Cohen, whom they put in charge of the project."
A cluster of attempted digital robberies at West African financial institutions appear to have been imitating the North Korea-linked Lazarus Group's run of heists, according to Symantec.
Why it matters: Lazarus, internationally notorious for the Sony hack and the WannaCry malware, is currently very active stealing funds to support the Kim Jong-un regime. The Symantec finding is fascinating as an example of how attacks trickle down from nations to more common criminals.
In a rare move, the office of special counsel Robert Mueller has gone on the record to dispute the bombshell BuzzFeed report from Thursday night, which claimed that the special counsel has evidence that President Trump directed Michael Cohen to lie to Congress.
"BuzzFeed's description of specific statements to the Special Counsel’s Office, and characterization of documents and testimony obtained by this office, regarding Michael Cohen’s Congressional testimony are not accurate."
— Spokesperson Peter Carr
BuzzFeed News responded by saying: "We are continuing to report and determine what the special counsel is disputing. We remain confident in the accuracy of our report." BuzzFeed Editor-in-Chief Ben Smith wrote on Twitter: "We stand by our reporting and the sources who informed it, and we urge the Special Counsel to make clear what he's disputing."
