The New Year Rings In With 'Fire And Fury.' It Might Mean A Consequential 2018 : NPR
The week ended with a bombshell report from The New York Times about how Justice Department special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia probe may be targeting the president for obstruction of justice over his attempts to stop the attorney general from recusing himself from the investigation. The Times reported  Trump  dispatched White House counsel Don McGahn to stop Sessions from going through with it. It didn't work  and  Trump  was furious. The president believed  according to the Times  that the attorney general's job was to protect the president.
For his part   Trump  sees it all as politically motivated  tweeting Friday:
 Trump 's first tweet of the year threatens to cut off aid to Pakistan.
Sen. Orrin Hatch  R-Utah  announces his retirement  triggering speculation that Mitt Romney will run for the seat. ( Trump  had gone to Utah late last year to try to encourage Hatch to run for re-election.)
 Trump  tweets that  his  nuclear button is bigger than that of North Korea's Kim Jong Un.
 Trump  also touts in a tweet that there were zero commercial aviation deaths in 2017.  Trump  can hardly claim credit  AP fact checks. There haven't been any in the U.S. in four years.
 The co-founders of Fusion GPS  the firm that commissioned the Steele dossier of opposition research about Trump  speak out in an op-ed in The New York Times .  It 's headlined: "The Republicans' Fake Investigations."
Excerpts from Fire and Fury by Michael Wolff are released;  Trump  blasts former chief strategist Steve Bannon  who is quoted in the book. "When he was fired "  Trump  says in an official statement  "he not only lost his job  he lost his mind."
 Trump 's private lawyers issue a cease-and-desist letter to Bannon  saying he violated a nondisclosure agreement.
 Trump  dissolves  his  election integrity commission. The commission  which had been plagued by controversy  formed after  Trump  claimed  he  lost the popular vote to Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election — by some 3 million votes — because of fraud. No evidence has ever been found of voter fraud on that scale  and several states balked at the commission's requests. Commission Vice Chairman Kris Kobach vows to take the investigation inside the Department of Homeland Security.
 Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort  files a lawsuit against the Justice Department challenging the scope of the Mueller investigation.  Manafort  faces multiple criminal charges including conspiracy against the United States and has pleaded not guilty.
"The week ended with a bombshell report from The New York Times about how Justice Department special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia probe may be targeting the president for obstruction of justice over his attempts to stop the attorney general from recusing himself from the investigation. The Times reported  [TGT]dispatched White House counsel Don McGahn to stop Sessions from going through with it. It didn't work  and  [TGT]was furious. The president believed  according to the Times  that the attorney general's job was to protect the president.
For his part   [TGT]  sees it all as politically motivated  tweeting Friday:
[TGT] 's first tweet of the year threatens to cut off aid to Pakistan.
Sen. Orrin Hatch  R-Utah  announces his retirement  triggering speculation that Mitt Romney will run for the seat. ( [TGT]had gone to Utah late last year to try to encourage Hatch to run for re-election.)
 [TGT]tweets that  [TGT]  nuclear button is bigger than that of North Korea's Kim Jong Un.
 [TGT]also touts in a tweet that there were zero commercial aviation deaths in 2017.  [TGT]can hardly claim credit  AP fact checks. There haven't been any in the U.S. in four years.
 The co-founders of Fusion GPS  the firm that commissioned the Steele dossier of opposition research about [TGT]  speak out in an op-ed in The New York Times .  It 's headlined: "The Republicans' Fake Investigations."
Excerpts from Fire and Fury by Michael Wolff are released;  [TGT]blasts former chief strategist Steve Bannon  who is quoted in the book. "When he was fired [TGT]says in an official statement  "[TGT] not only lost [TGT] job  [TGT] lost [TGT] mind."
 Trump 's private lawyers issue a cease-and-desist letter to Bannon  saying he violated a nondisclosure agreement.
 [TGT]dissolves  [TGT]  election integrity commission. The commission  which had been plagued by controversy  formed after  [TGT]claimed  [TGT]  lost the popular vote to Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election — by some 3 million votes — because of fraud. No evidence has ever been found of voter fraud on that scale  and several states balked at the commission's requests. Commission Vice Chairman Kris Kobach vows to take the investigation inside the Department of Homeland Security.
 [TGT]files a lawsuit against the Justice Department challenging the scope of the Mueller investigation.  [TGT]faces multiple criminal charges including conspiracy against the United States and has pleaded not guilty."