TV News LIES

President Trump's legal team has reportedly reached out to veteran Republican attorney Theodore B. Olson in the hopes of bringing him aboard as they deal with special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.

The Washington Post reported Tuesday that Olson is reviewing the offer, though he personally declined to comment. He has previously declined an offer to join Trump's legal team.

Olson, 77, served as solicitor general in George W. Bush's administration and as assistant attorney general in charge of the office of legal counsel in the Justice Department from 1981-1984.

The offer to Olson is the latest indication of a shift in how the president's legal team approaches the Mueller investigation.

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Former CIA chief John Brennan on Friday predicted "rough waters ahead," particularly on international issues, saying President Trump is "unstable, inept, inexperienced, and also unethical."

In an interview with MSNBC's "Deadline: White House," Brennan told host Nicolle Wallace that the president was "ill prepared" to take on the duties of commander in chief, particularly growing military aggression from Russia and North Korea.

A lawsuit by the attorneys general of Maryland and the District of Columbia accusing President Trump of accepting gifts from foreign governments will now challenge Trump as both a government official and a private businessman, The Associated Press reports.

Plaintiffs argue that the president is in violation of the Constitution's "emoluments" clause, which prohibits the president from accepting gifts from foreign governments, because he has failed to divest himself from his lucrative businesses.

The third most senior official at the Department of Veterans Affairs is stepping down amid findings she misled ethics officials to secure approval for VA Secretary David Shulkin’s wife to accompany him on taxpayer-funded trip to Europe.

Vivieca Wright Simpson, Shulkin’s chief of staff, told colleagues Friday morning that she is retiring after 32 years at the agency and more than two years as Shulkin's most senior aide.

The announcement came two days after the VA inspector general released recommendations that she be disciplined for doctoring an email to an ethics lawyer to show Shulkin was getting special recognition or an award during the trip to Denmark and London last year, the criteria for clearing his wife’s flights on the public’s dime.

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A Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist raised troubling question about President Donald Trump and his associations with Russia.

James Risen, a former New York Times and Los Angeles Times reporter now with The Intercept, wrote Friday that Americans can’t be sure “whether Trump has the best interests of the United States or those of Russia at heart.”

“One year after Trump took office, it is still unclear whether the president of the United States is an agent of a foreign power,” Risen wrote. “Just step back and think about that for a moment.”

A Russian who offered stolen National Security Agency cyberweapons and compromising information on President Donald Trump bilked U.S. spies out of $100,000 last year, The New York Times reported on Friday, citing U.S. and European security officials.

The money was delivered to a Berlin hotel room in September and was intended as the first installment of a $1 million reward, according to U.S. officials, the Russian and communications reviewed by the Times, the newspaper reported.

The theft of the secret hacking tools was very damaging to the NSA, which was trying to determine exactly what was missing, the Times said.

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