"Former Attorney General Loretta Lynch has flatly accused former FBI Director James Comey of mischaracterizing her statements by repeatedly alleging, under oath, that Lynch privately instructed him to call the Hillary Clinton email probe a 'matter' instead of an 'investigation.'

"Lynch, who testified that Comey's claim left her 'quite surprised,' made the dramatic remarks at a joint closed-door session of the House Oversight and Judiciary Committees last December. A transcript of her testimony was released on Monday by House Judiciary Committee ranking member Doug Collins, R-Ga.

"The episode marked the latest public dispute to break out among high-level ex-Obama administration officials, as multiple government reviews of potential FBI and Justice Department misconduct continue.

"In a June 2017 interview under oath with the House Intelligence Committee, Comey said Lynch had pressed him to downplay the significance of the Clinton email review in September 2015, just before a congressional hearing in which Comey was expected to be asked about the investigation. Comey said the moment led him to question her independence and contributed to his decision to unilaterally hold a press conference in July 2016 announcing the conclusions of the probe."

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"The U.S. Embassy in Baghdad was the target of a rocket attack late Sunday, days after the Trump White House ordered American diplomatic personnel to pull out of the country.

"Iraqi military officials confirmed Sunday a single Katyusha rocket landed near the parade grounds inside the heavily-fortified Green Zone in the Iraqi capital, which is home to the U.S. embassy as well as the main headquarters for the American-led coalition battling the Islamic State.

"But eyewitnesses claim a second rocket also landed inside the Green Zone, according to unconfirmed reports.

"No casualties were reported and no group has claimed responsibility for the attack, the first against a U.S. diplomatic post in Iraq since the American mission in the southern port city of Basra was hit last September."

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"Former Trump campaign aide George Papadopoulos said Thursday that the FBI tried to get his wife to wear a wire to 'entrap' him and that he thinks Congress 'probably has transcripts' of meetings he had that prove he was spied on by the FBI.

"'Besides the FBI trying to have my then-girlfriend, now wife, actually wear a wire to try to entrap me herself -- which was completely crazy -- she was an Italian citizen visiting me as a girlfriend. And they subpoenaed her and tried to flip her against me, which was incredibly bizarre,' Papadopoulos said on Fox News' 'The Ingraham Angle.'

"Papadopoulos said he believes his wife was targeted because she knew all about academic Joseph Mifsud's connection to Italian government.

"'But what we believed that they really targeted her for is, we believe she knew all about Joseph Mifsud's connections to the Italian government and his connections in Europe, which we just found out today that ... the prime minister ... just fired the heads of three intel agencies in Italy. And I think it has to do with the person, Joseph Mifsud, who the president and Devin Nunes and other people have been asking the government in Italy to examine a lot more because he's actually at the core of this entire scam,' Papadopoulos said.

"Mifsud, 59, a professor from Malta who helped ignite the Russia probe in 2016, has largely vanished from the public eye since his name began surfacing in news stories. Nunes, a California Republican, is ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee."

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"The Interior Department will publicly list attorneys' fees paid out, often to environmental activist groups, for legal settlements, according to a recent memo from Principal Deputy Solicitor Daniel Jorjani.

"Jorjani's memo states the Interior Department will develop a webpage within 30 days to publicly list details of legal settlements and cases, which the agency says is a big step in bringing sunshine to a non-transparent practice that the public is largely unaware is happening. ...

"Environmental groups have been particularly successful using 'citizen suits' to sue the federal government into taking an action, then getting taxpayers to pay their attorneys' fees. A 2016 Daily Caller News Foundation investigation found federal agencies paid out $49 million for 512 citizen suits filed under three major environmental laws during the Obama administration.

"Those laws -- the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act and Endangered Species Act (ESA) -- allow certain groups to recoup attorneys' fees, which can run into the hundreds of thousands of dollars per case."

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"Pointed divisions within the Supreme Court over capital punishment reemerged Monday, as the justices issued new opinions rehashing recent last-minute death penalty appeals.

"The Court has barely concealed its sharp internal disagreement over late-arriving death penalty cases in recent months.

"One such dispute arose in Alabama, where inmate Christopher Lee Price asked to be put to death with nitrogen hypoxia, as opposed to a lethal injection protocol. Price asked the high court to stop his execution on April 11. The Court denied Price's application, over a seething dissent from Justice Stephen Breyer.

"Thomas wrote a separate opinion to 'set the record straight' Monday, hitting notes frequently sounded by the conservative justices in recent death penalty cases.

"'[Price's] strategy is no secret, for it is the same strategy adopted by many death-row inmates with an impending execution: bring last-minute claims that will delay the execution, no matter how groundless,' Thomas wrote. 'The proper response to this maneuvering is to deny meritless requests expeditiously.'"

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"WASHINGTON -- Attorney General William P. Barr has assigned the top federal prosecutor in Connecticut to examine the origins of the Russia investigation, according to two people familiar with the matter, a move that President Trump has long called for but that could anger law enforcement officials who insist that scrutiny of the Trump campaign was lawful.

"John H. Durham, the United States attorney in Connecticut, has a history of serving as a special prosecutor investigating potential wrongdoing among national security officials, including the F.B.I.'s ties to a crime boss in Boston and accusations of C.I.A. abuses of detainees.

"His inquiry is the third known investigation focused on the opening of an F.B.I. counterintelligence investigation during the 2016 presidential campaign into possible ties between Russia's election interference and Trump associates.

"The department's inspector general, Michael E. Horowitz, is separately examining investigators' use of wiretap applications and informants and whether any political bias against Mr. Trump influenced investigative decisions. And John W. Huber, the United States attorney in Utah, has been reviewing aspects of the Russia investigation. His findings have not been announced."

"In recent weeks the Democrats have turned into a bizarre version of the caricature of Trump they regularly denounce. They lambaste Trump for indulging in conspiracy theories, but the Russia investigation has become their Benghazi, a scandal too complicated and not quite substantive enough to inflame the public imagination. They went after Trump for the 'lock her up' chants at his rallies but flirt with jailing both the attorney general and secretary of the Treasury, passed a New York state law directed at a single individual (forbidden in the Constitution as a bill of attainder), and speculate endlessly about how the president might one day end up behind bars. Pelosi says she worries Trump might not accept a loss in 2020 as Hillary Clinton says the election was stolen from her and the entire Democratic party indulges in the ludicrous fantasy that Stacey Abrams is the legitimate governor of a state she lost by more than 50,000 votes amid record minority turnout.

"This is not a serious party. It has abandoned policy for litigation, and common sense for fantasies of Medicare for All, Green New Deals, abortion after birth, and slavery reparations. The Democrats assume impeachment will be Trump's Watergate. It may well turn out to be their Waterloo."

"You don't have to like tariffs to like President Trump's strategy of imposing harsh ones on China. Those he imposed overnight are punishing, not only to China but to American consumers. The longer they last, the more they will cost. Yet serious trade sanctions are the only hope of getting Beijing to roll back its abusive economic practices and open its markets to U.S. exporters and investors.

"China won't act unless it feels real pain in its export sector, which is a powerful economic driver. And pain is what Trump means to inflict unless China provides much greater market access.

"Half measures and paper promises won't do. The U.S. wants a big deal, and it wants teeth in it to prevent cheating. To get it, Trump is willing to threaten a trade war. We don't know if it will work. ...

"No one doubts China's own protectionism. It uses tariffs, non-tariff barriers, and outright theft of intellectual property to support its industries and harm U.S. interests. It demands American companies share ownership, profits, and proprietary information with local partners, most with strong ties to Communist Party leaders. The U.S. market, by contrast, has been relatively open to Chinese goods and investments, which are protected by the rule of law. No such luck for Americans in China."

"Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) on Wednesday signed a bill that would arm teachers throughout the Sunshine State.

"In order for teachers to carry on school campuses, their district must opt into the 'Guardian program.' The program allows teachers to go through a screening process and training by their local sheriff's office before they're able to legally carry a firearm on school grounds. They're also required to obtain authorization from the school board, the Orlando Sentinel reported.

"The controversial bill, Senate Bill 7030, is an extension of an already existing piece of legislation that was enacted following the tragic shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. The original program allowed faculty and staff, but not classroom teachers, to receive firearms training and eventually the ability to carry on campus."

"It's hard to find too many First Amendment absolutists on either the left or the right these days.

"That's especially the case in academia, which seems to be most hostile to the idea of free thoughts and free expression. ...

"But here's the thing. If we cheer on Facebook and Twitter as they remove from their platforms people we find offensive, what happens when somebody finds something we say to be offensive?

"Are we going to have somebody monitoring all of our emails and call the authorities when your friend's uncle sends you a really bad joke? Where does this all end and who gets to decide?

"Who is the referee here? ...

"I for one would rather have a free market of ideas, to go along with the free practice of religion and the freedom to assemble and petition the government."

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