Written by Elaine Godfrey (@elainejgodfrey), Madeleine Carlisle (@maddiecarlisle2), and Olivia Paschal (@oliviacpaschal)
Today in 5 Lines
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Attorney General Jeff Sessions responded to attacks from President Trump in a statement, saying the Justice Department “will not be improperly influenced by political considerations.”
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Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani said Trump discussed pardoning his former campaign chair Paul Manafort with his lawyers several weeks ago, but they advised against it.
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Secretary of State Mike Pompeo named Stephen Biegun as the special envoy to North Korea. Pompeo and Biegun will visit Pyongyang next week.
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Reality Winner, a former contractor with the National Security Agency, was sentenced to five years and three months in prison for leaking information about Russian hacking attempts.
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Hawaiians are bracing for Hurricane Lane, a Category 4 storm expected to hit the main islands Thursday and Friday.
Today on The Atlantic
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More to Come: On Tuesday, Paul Manafort was convicted of fraud and Michael Cohen pleaded guilty to violating campaign-finance laws. The saga is only just beginning. (Adam Serwer)
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‘Trump’s Mafia Mind-Set’: Recent statements from President Trump sound like the conversations Jeffrey Goldberg used to have while covering organized crime in the 1990s.
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What Does It Mean?: Many Democratic candidates have recently pledged not to take money from corporate PACs. But that promise is mostly symbolic. (Elaine Godfrey)
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The New ‘I’m Not a Crook’: President Trump’s obsession with the phrase “witch hunt” could become as infamous as Nixon’s “I’m not a crook.” (Conor Friedersdorf)
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Rising Uncertainty for Dreamers: A DACA ruling from a federal district judge in Texas could conflict with previous orders that have allowed the program to proceed, and, as a result, fast-track the issue to the Supreme Court. (Priscilla Alvarez)