Top White House adviser Jared Kushner, President Trump's son-in-law, personally signed off on keeping salary payments to top campaign officials off the books, according to a person involved with the arrangements. Federal Election Commission records show that the Trump campaign has made no salary payments to chief strategist Jason Miller, who came on board in June, or to campaign manager Bill Stepien, who joined the campaign in late 2018 and took over the top job from Brad Parscale in July. Kushner agreed to both arrangements, and personally directed the payments to Miller, the person involved said. While the Trump campaign has reported $20,000 monthly salary payments to chief of staff Stephanie Alexander and senior adviser Katrina Pierson, it has not done the same for COO Jeff DeWit or senior advisers Bob Paduchik and Bill Shine. Deputy campaign manager Justin Clark has not taken a direct payment from the campaign since February 2019, according to federal records. Instead, the campaign has paid these top-tier advisers through intermediaries — some of which are still unknown. For instance, according to the source, after salary negotiations with Miller, Kushner directed the campaign to route the top strategist's $35,000 monthly payment through Jamestown Associates, a media and production firm where Miller once worked, and which the campaign contracts for video production. Miller, who is currently contesting child-support payments in court, requested the anonymous arrangement for the $420,000 annual rate, for unclear reasons. Communications, court documents and FEC filings reviewed by Salon make clear that the money was paid to by way of Jamestown. President Trump himself was aware of the deal, a person involved said. To this point, the campaign has not told government that it has paid Miller anything. Instead, it has stated that all payments to Jamestown are for "video production," without mentioning Miller's name or strategy work. Furthermore, Miller's official role means that he has often directed how and when the campaign uses Jamestown Associates, the company that technically pays him.

The Tree Twins are the city's Christmas superheroes

Several incoming House freshmen have inquired about carrying guns into the Capitol, leading a board overseeing congressional security to rethink a regulation banning members from packing heat under the dome, a House aide with direct knowledge of the board review told Axios. Some Democratic members say expanded gun carrying on Capitol Hill would be a "provocation" in light of the current political climate. Some Republicans consider it an expression of a citizen's Second Amendment rights. The matter will be reviewed by the Capitol Police Board, which consists of the sergeant-at-arms of the House, the sergeant-at-arms and doorkeeper of the Senate, and the Architect of the Capitol, said the House aide. The chief of the Capitol Police also serves on the board.

Erik Prince is perhaps the most dangerous private citizen in the country. He created Blackwater to launder mercenary activities around the world, and then changed the company's name after some of his hirelings murdered civilians in Iraq, which we will get to in a moment. He held clandestine meetings in out-of-the-way places on behalf of the president's campaign, and the president* named his sister, Betsy DeVos, to be Secretary of Education, a job for which she was as qualified as I would be to fly a 747, and a job in which she did very little, and all of it badly. These are people with too much power and too much influence. On Tuesday evening, the president* did Prince a solid.

You have probably not seen the Staten Island-based bitcoin apostle, conservative activist, and Newsmax TV studio host John Tabacco’s appearances on Joe Piscopo’s morning radio show, but they are exceedingly easy to imagine accurately. Close your eyes or open YouTube and you can see Tabacco sitting next to Piscopo’s co-host Frankie Five Boroughs, wearing a suit and tie and talking about whatever has Staten Island upset at that moment. For the last four years, that has generally been the people who insist on Being Unfair To Mr. Trump on television. Tabacco knows how to do this in the same way that dogs will shake hands or roll over if there’s a treat in the offing.

Blundering pro-Trump operatives Jacob Wohl and Jack Burkman’s legal team think the duo are on track for their case to be heard by the Supreme Court. Speaking in court on Monday morning, lawyer Scott Grabel and William Amadeo of Grabel & Associates told Third Judicial Circuit Judge Margaret M. Van Houten in Michigan they believe the robocall case might even make it to the nation's high court. "Depending on the court's ruling, it might rise to an interlocutory appeal —these are unique issues when there is little case law," Grabel began. "I have seen a few of these cases go up to the Supreme Court after a trial ensued." The hearing Monday involved the judge denying the duo's "bill of particulars" motion. The motion, presented by Wohl and Burkman’s legal counsel, argued for there to be additional information from the Michigan attorney general regarding their charges. But the argument fell flat with the judge. Wohl and Burkman face felony charges for a robocall scheme authorities say targeted Black voters. Grabel spoke to the Daily Dot after the hearing and doubled down on his Supreme Court hopes.

Conflicting internal memos created confusion inside the White House on Wednesday about when staffers in the Executive Office of the President should begin preparing to leave work ahead of the transition next month. In an email Wednesday morning from the White House Management Office, EOP staffers were instructed to “please disregard” an earlier memo that had been sent Tuesday informing them that they “will start departing” on the week of Jan. 4. Both messages were obtained by POLITICO.

The airline said it is carrying 80 tonnes of food from Frankfurt to Doncaster Sheffield Airport for grocers including Tesco and Sainsbury's. Almost 3,000 lorries remain stuck in Kent despite moves to re-start cross-Channel access from Dover. There are concerns that testing drivers for Covid could delay food supplies. France shut its border with the UK on Sunday for 48 hours to stop the spread of a new variant of the coronavirus found in the UK. "Lufthansa Cargo is currently examining whether additional special cargo flights can be offered during the next days. We are also checking if a regular flight might be possible," a spokeswoman told the BBC. "This could be with a freighter, but we are also examining if we could use passenger aircraft for freight flights only," she added. Lufthansa said the delivery, sent by freight firm Venus International Transport, was destined for Tesco, Sainbury's, the Co-op and Aldi.

White supremacists plotted to attack power stations in the southeastern U.S., and an Ohio teenager who allegedly shared the plan said he wanted the group to be “operational” on a fast-tracked timeline if President Donald Trump were to lose his re-election bid, the FBI alleges in an affidavit that was mistakenly unsealed. The teen was in a text group with more than a dozen people in the fall of 2019 when he introduced the idea of saving money to buy a ranch where they could participate in militant training, according to the affidavit, which was filed under seal along with a search warrant application in Wisconsin’s Eastern U.S. District Court in March. The documents were inadvertently unsealed last week before the mistake was discovered and they were quickly sealed again. The teenager wanted the group to be “operational” by the 2024 election because he believed it was likely a Democrat would win, but “the timeline for being operational would accelerate if President Trump lost the 2020 election,” according to the affidavit. An informant told investigators that the teen “definitely wanted to be operational for violence, but also activism.” The Ohio teen, who was 17 at the time, also shared plans with a smaller group about a plot to create a power outage by shooting rifle rounds into power stations in the southeastern U.S. The teen called the plot “Light's Out” and there were plans to carry it out in the summer of 2021, the affidavit states. One group member, a Texas native who was a Purdue University student at the time, allegedly sent the informant a text saying “leaving the power off would wake people up to the harsh reality of life by wreaking havoc across the nation.” The affidavit identifies three people by name and references others who were allegedly communicating with or part of the group. The Associated Press is not naming any of the individuals because charges have not been publicly filed. None of the three men immediately replied to emails, texts or voicemails left Tuesday seeking comment. The father of one of the men had no comment.

Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell are among those named in the suit by Eric Coomer, Dominion's product security director, who is in hiding over threats stemming from conspiracy theories about his work.

It was a sight not seen since 1623!

On a sultry summer night in July 2019, the MV Manukai was arriving at the port of Shanghai, near the mouth of the Huangpu River. This busy tributary of the Yangtze winds through the city and includes the Bund, a historic waterfront area and tourist hot spot. Shanghai would be the American container ship’s last…

NEW YORK -- A Delta flight out of New York City was halted after a Florida couple traveling with a Great Dane puppy fled the aircraft with the pet using an emergency slide, an airline spokesperson and authorities said Tuesday. The incident involving Antonio Murdock and Brianna Greco occurred on Monday as the jet was on a runway leaving for a flight from LaGuardia Airport to Atlanta, said the spokesperson, Morgan Durrant. Witnesses reported seeing a panicky Murdock force open a cabin door and jump out using the emergency chute leading to the runway. He was quickly followed by Greco with the puppy in tow.

Microplastic particles have been revealed in the placentas of unborn babies for the first time, which the researchers said was “a matter of great concern”. The health impact of microplastics in the body is as yet unknown. But the scientists said they could carry chemicals that could cause long-term damage or upset the foetus’s developing immune system. The particles are likely to have been consumed or breathed in by the mothers.

President Donald Trump on Tuesday pardoned 15 people, including Republicans who were strong and early supporters, a 2016 campaign official ensnared in the Russia probe and former government contractors convicted in a 2007 massacre in Baghdad. Trump also commuted the sentences of five others. While it is not unusual for presidents to grant clemency on their way out the door, Trump has made clear that he has no qualms about intervening in the cases of friends and allies whom he believes have been treated unfairly. Despite speculation, though, not on the list were members of Trump’s own family, his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani and the president himself. The pardons included former Republican Reps. Duncan Hunter of California and Chris Collins of New York. Trump also commuted the sentence of former Rep. Steve Stockman of Texas and pardoned a current state representative, Phil Lyman of Utah, who led an ATV protest through restricted native lands... In the group announced Tuesday night were four former government contractors convicted in a 2007 massacre in Baghdad that left more a dozen Iraqi civilians dead and caused an international uproar over the use of private security guards in a war zone. Supporters of Nicholas Slatten, Paul Slough, Evan Liberty and Dustin Heard, the former contractors at Blackwater Worldwide, had lobbied for pardons, arguing that the men had been excessively punished in an investigation and prosecution they said was tainted by problems and withheld exculpatory evidence. All four were serving lengthy prison sentences.

Section 230 has outlived its usefulness

Facebook and Google agreed to “cooperate and assist one another” if they ever faced an investigation into their pact to work together in online advertising, according to an unredacted version of a lawsuit filed by 10 states against Google last week. The suit, as filed, cites internal company documents that were heavily redacted. The Wall Street Journal reviewed part of a recent draft version of the suit without redactions, which elaborated on findings and allegations in the court documents. Ten Republican attorneys general, led by Texas, are alleging that the two companies cut a deal in September 2018 in which Facebook agreed not to compete with Google’s online advertising tools in return for special treatment when it used them. Google used language from “Star Wars” as a code name for the deal, according to the lawsuit, which redacted the actual name. The draft version of the suit says it was known as “Jedi Blue.” The lawsuit itself said Google and Facebook were aware that their agreement could trigger antitrust investigations and discussed how to deal with them, in a passage that is followed by significant redactions. The draft version spells out some of the contract’s provisions, which state that the companies will “cooperate and assist each other in responding to any Antitrust Action” and “promptly and fully inform the Other Party of any Governmental Communication Related to the Agreement.” In the companies’ contract, “the word [REDACTED] is mentioned no fewer than 20 times,” the lawsuit says. The unredacted draft fills in the word: Antitrust. A Google spokesperson said such agreements over antitrust threats are extremely common... According to the draft version, an internal Facebook document described the deal as “relatively cheap” when compared with direct competition, while a Google presentation said if the company couldn’t “avoid competing with” Facebook, it would collaborate to “build a moat.” The redacted lawsuit filed last week doesn’t include those quotes.

The New York Times tells us that the president-elect’s move to undercut progressives “gave Democrats confidence to pull back on their demands” and surrender to McConnell.

“I’m also asking Congress to immediately get rid of the wasteful and unnecessary items from this legislation, and to send me a suitable bill, or else the next administration will have to deliver a COVID relief package. And maybe that administration will be me,” he said.

Powell was at the White House as recently as Monday.