National News at a Glance

Trump Advisers See Inquiry Into Cohen as Greater Threat Than Mueller

President Donald Trump’s advisers have concluded that a wide-ranging corruption investigation into his personal lawyer poses a greater and more imminent threat to the president than even the special counsel’s investigation, according to several people close to Trump. As his lawyers went to court Friday to try to block prosecutors from reading files that were seized from Michael D. Cohen this week, Trump found himself increasingly isolated in mounting a response. He continued to struggle to hire a new criminal lawyer, and some of his own aides were reluctant to advise him about a response for fear of being dragged into a criminal investigation themselves.

Trump Pardons Scooter Libby in a Case That Mirrors His Own

For months, President Donald Trump has railed against investigators and presented himself as the target of an unfair prosecution. So when he was asked to pardon former Vice President Dick Cheney’s chief of staff, who likewise considered himself the target of an unfair prosecution, Trump may have seen a chance to make a statement. On Friday, he granted a full pardon to I. Lewis Libby Jr., known as Scooter, who was Cheney’s top adviser before he was convicted in 2007 of perjury and obstruction of justice. The pardon amounted to a coda to a politically charged case that once gripped Washington.

Trump Calls Comey ‘Untruthful Slime Ball’ as Book Details Released

James Comey’s tell-all book was met with an aggressive counterattack on his character by President Donald Trump and his allies Friday. In the book, Comey, whom Trump fired as FBI director in May, describes the president as “unethical, and untethered to truth,” and writes that he often wondered about Trump’s refusal to acknowledge Russia’s attempt to influence the election. The response from the president was personal and vicious, even by Trump’s standards. In two early-morning tweets, the president called the former FBI director an “untruthful slime ball” and a “proven LEAKER & LIAR.” Trump said that it was his “great honor to fire” Comey.

Former FBI Deputy Director Is Faulted in Scathing Inspector General Report

The Justice Department inspector general delivered to Congress on Friday a scathing report that accused former FBI Deputy Director Andrew G. McCabe of violating the federal law enforcement agency’s media policy and then repeatedly misleading investigators about his actions. The inspector general found that McCabe, 50, had lacked candor on four occasions when questioned by investigators and faulted his decision to authorize the disclosure of information to a Wall Street Journal reporter in October 2016 as self-serving. In a point-by-point rebuttal, McCabe said he had full authorization to share this information with the news media as deputy director and he did not intentionally mislead investigators.

RNC Official Who Agreed to Pay Playboy Model $1.6 Million Resigns

A major donor with ties to the White House resigned Friday as deputy finance chairman of the Republican National Committee after the revelation that he had agreed to pay $1.6 million to a former Playboy model who became pregnant during an affair. The deal was arranged in 2017 by President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, Michael D. Cohen. Under the terms of the deal, Elliott Broidy would pay the woman over the course of two years, and she would agree to stay silent about their relationship, two people with knowledge of the arrangement said. In a statement, Broidy acknowledged the affair with the woman, who has not been identified.

Flexing Their Support for Cuomo, Key Unions Leave Working Families Party

Faced with defections from liberal supporters, New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and his labor allies are striking back, threatening to sabotage a progressive third party for potentially giving its ballot line to his Democratic rival, Cynthia Nixon. Two powerful unions allied with Cuomo announced Friday that they were withdrawing from the Working Families Party, a small but influential alliance of labor unions and progressive activists. By day’s end Friday, the breakup seemed complete, with the governor’s campaign announcing that it “will not be seeking the endorsement” of the WFP at its convention next month.

He Died 21 Years After Being Abused. Prosecutors Are Calling it Murder.

When a 1-year-old boy was severely assaulted in 1997 in Brunswick County, North Carolina, his mother and her partner were charged with felony abuse. Both were convicted and sentenced to prison, and were eventually released. The child was unable to walk or talk. Last month, he died at age 22. And this week, the people convicted of abusing him — his biological mother, Robyn Noffsinger, 41, and her former partner David Tripp Jr., 45 — were arrested and charged again, this time with first-degree murder. The murder charges rest on the argument that the child died as a direct result of the abuse he suffered in 1997.