U.S. intelligence intercepted Saudi Arabian officials discussing a plan ordered by the crown prince to lure journalist Jamal Khashoggi from the United States back to Saudi Arabia, where he would be detained, U.S. officials told The Washington Post on Wednesday.
Khashoggi went missing last week after he went to the Saudi consulate in Istanbul to pick up a document he needed to get married. Turkish officials are adamant that Khashoggi, a columnist for the Post, was killed inside the consulate by a Saudi hit squad. Saudi Arabia has denied any wrongdoing and says he left the consulate on his own.
Khashoggi, who lived in Virginia as a U.S. resident applying for citizenship, was critical of his homeland, but friends say he did not oppose all of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's policies. Friends told the Post that several senior Saudi officials close to the crown prince contacted Khashoggi and told him they wanted him to take a job in the government. He was skeptical, and did not believe they'd offer him the protection they were promising.
Also on Wednesday, a bipartisan group of senators urged President Trump to impose sanctions on anyone found to be connected with Khashoggi's disappearance. Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, is close to the crown prince. Catherine Garcia
Marine Corps Gen. Robert Neller wrote in two internal memos that President Trump's "unplanned/unbudgeted" deployment of troops to the southern border has posed "unacceptable risk to Marine Corps combat readiness and solvency," the Los Angeles Times reports.
The memos obtained by the Times are dated Feb. 19 and March 18, and sent to Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan and Navy Secretary Richard Spencer. Neller wrote that because funds have been shifted to border security and recovery costs from Hurricanes Michael and Florence are high, he has had to postpone much-needed base repairs, and cancel or scale back military training in Indonesia, Scotland, Mongolia, Australia, and South Korea.
Neller added that Marines "rely on the hard, realistic training" of the exercises to "develop the individual and collective skills necessary to prepare for high-end combat." These memos, Sen. Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) said, show that the Pentagon should not be diverting funding due to the whims of Trump. "If the president won't listen to the American people or Congress, then listen to the commandant of the Marine Corps," he said in a statement. Catherine Garcia
European Union leaders on Thursday offered the United Kingdom additional time to leave the bloc, delaying Brexit until May 22 if British lawmakers agree to Prime Minister Theresa May's withdrawal deal.
If not, the EU will accept a delay until April 12. The UK was set to leave the bloc on March 29.
Britain's Parliament has twice shot down May's EU deal, with lawmakers split on how to leave the EU, and if they should do so at all. "I will make every effort to make sure we can leave with a deal and move our country forward," May said. Catherine Garcia
President Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner uses WhatsApp to communicate with foreign leaders in his official capacity, Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) said in a letter released Thursday.
Cummings, the chair of the House Oversight Committee, sent the letter to White House Counsel Pat Cipollone. Cummings wrote that in December, Kushner's attorney, Abbe Lowell, met with Cummings and then-House Oversight Committee Chair Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) and told them about his client's use of WhatsApp, an encrypted messaging service that uses the internet to make calls and send text, photos, and videos.
Kushner's wife, Ivanka Trump, is also a senior adviser to the president, and Cummings wrote that she is not preserving all of her official emails, as required by law. Lowell, he wrote, shared that she still receives business emails sent to her personal email, but doesn't forward messages to her official account unless she responds to it.
Lowell responded with his own letter to Cummings on Thursday, writing that he "never said [Kushner's] communications through any app was with foreign 'leaders' or 'officials.' I said he has used those communications with 'some people' and I did not specify who they were." He also said he never told Cummings or Gowdy that Ivanka Trump receives business emails to her personal account, but does not forward them. Catherine Garcia
The Florida man accused of sending bombs to CNN and opponents of President Trump pleaded guilty on Thursday.
Cesar Sayoc appeared before a federal judge in New York and was expected to plead guilty to mailing the 16 packages in October. In an earlier trial, Sayoc pleaded not guilty, but his original pretrial conference scheduled for today was changed to a plea hearing, hinting at a deal, per The Washington Post.
Sayoc was originally indicted on 30 charges, including making threats against former presidents, and the illegal mailing of explosives. It's unclear which of those charges he pleaded guilty to on Thursday.
The first of 16 devices was sent to Democratic megadonor George Soros last year, and more bombs were directed at Hillary Clinton, Robert De Niro, and others who had criticized Trump. They also went to the CNN newsroom in New York City. None of the devices detonated. Sayoc was found in Florida a few days after the panic, and was living in a van covered in pro-Trump stickers. Kathryn Krawczyk
Fox News isn't letting Jeanine Pirro back on the air just yet.
Pirro's show, Justice with Judge Jeanine, is once again not on the network's schedule for this Saturday, reports Variety and The Hollywood Reporter. Fox had pulled the show last week after Pirro questioned whether Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) is loyal to the United States because she wears a hijab, asking, "Is her adherence to this Islamic doctrine indicative of her adherence to Shariah law, which in itself is antithetical to the United States Constitution?”
This immediately prompted some advertisers to pull out of the show and drew a rare rebuke from Fox News, which said it "strongly" condemns her statements and that they "do not reflect those of the network." Pirro in response said her "intention was to ask a question and start a debate," per The Associated Press. She is currently suspended, The New York Times reports, although Fox has yet to confirm this or comment on the future of her show. A rerun of Fox's documentary series Scandalous is currently set to air in Pirro's usual Saturday time slot on March 23.
This will come as bad news to President Trump, who tweeted last week in support of Pirro, saying Fox should "fight hard" for her and "stop working soooo hard on being politically correct." Brendan Morrow
Ex-San Francisco 49ers player Colin Kaepernick was rumored to be landing $60-80 million from his settlement with the NFL. That may have been wishful thinking.
Last month, the NFL announced it reached a settlement with Kaepernick and Eric Reid, who sued the league after they were apparently blacklisted from playing due to their protests during the national anthem. The confidential settlement seemed like a big win for the players, but with the The Wall Street Journal reporting that they'll only receive less than $10 million, that may not be quite true.
Both the NFL and the players declined to discuss what was in the February settlement, but Bleacher Report's Mike Freeman said NFL team officials guessed the league paid Kaepernick around $60-80 million. This new number, which comes via people briefed on the deal, "is far less than the tens of millions of dollars" Kaepernick probably would've gotten if he'd won the lawsuit. It's unclear if the reported $10 million will be split between the two players, or how much of it would go to cover legal fees.
Kaepernick first opted to sit during the national anthem to protest racial injustice at 2016 game, sparking dozens of other players, including Reid, to take a similar stance. Kaepernick didn't get signed to a team the next year and sued the NFL, while Reid similarly sued but was signed to the Carolina Panthers during the 2018 season.
The NFL declined to comment, while an attorney for Kaepernick and Reid said they would keep the deal confidential. Read more at The Wall Street Journal. Kathryn Krawczyk