Kathleen Kane

The president said it plainly in the Oval Office, describing his own planned action as a “ban on the free press.” The Constitution protects the freedom of the press from government interference. That protection does not depend on whether the president likes a news organization’s coverage, agrees with its reporting, or approves of the questions its journalists ask. This is about more than the rights of journalists. It is about the right of the American people to receive a full and independent account of the activities, policies and decisions of whoever occupies the nation’s highest office. The WHCA stands in defense of our colleagues at CNN, MSNOW, and Politico who are being singled out for doing their jobs. - Jacqui Heinrich, WHCA President

"But AOC can't win the nomination." Uh huh

News: Secret Service officials are furious that FBI Director Kash Patel prematurely announced on Tuesday morning the details of a sealed and ongoing criminal investigation into a plot to attack the UFC fight event this weekend with drones, according to three people familiar with the incident. Secret Service and FBI agents had been partnered on the investigation into a group of individuals discussing plans for a drone attack at the White House in the last week, and had discussed unsealing the case and making an announcement later that day. The problem with Patel’s social media announcement, the sources say, was the case had been sealed in court and roughly ten suspects had not yet been arrested and placed in custody at the time Patel made his public social media post. Secret Service and FBI officials had discussed seeking to make more arrests, unseal the case by late Tuesday afternoon and make a joint public statement, and were surprised by Patel “jumping the gun.” “We all woke up this morning to see this on Twitter,” said one administration official, who like others, asked to speak confidentially to discuss sensitive matters. The threat to the UFC event became known to the Secret Service and FBI in the last week when a relative of one of the suspects contacted local police in the Cincinnati area, according to two people briefed on the probe, and reporting that their relative was talking about engaging in some vague plot in DC. An advanced threat interdiction team at the Secret Service, with the help of the FBI, began seeking a subpoena for an encrypted Signal chat thread and then were able to identify the plot being planned and some of the people discussing using drones and possible snipers to attack the UFC fight event at the White House’s South lawn. Authorities then arrested one suspect on June 13 and moved immediately to seal the case so the FBI and Secret Service could continue investigating and identifying and arresting additional suspects. The Secret Service also dramatically increased its plans for security around the event as a precaution, and put out an alert to its law enforcement partners to be on the lookout for people with drones in downtown Washington and other identifying information. Matt Quinn, the Secret Service’s deputy director, called out Patel’s premature announcement in a Tuesday news conference but did not use his name and said the Secret Service made a conscious decision not to reveal the existence of the probe prematurely. “I’ll tell you a phrase I learned early in my career in the New York field office and that’s `Don’t choke on your own smoke,” he said. “I’ll tell you the Secret Service led that investigation from the beginning. I’ll tell you that case is ongoing. In order to maintain the integrity of the investigation and the security plan, we chose not to leak it.” He said he was choosing not to discuss extensive details of the case because it remained sealed and ongoing. With @CarolLeonnig @MarcSantiaNews @lawofruby