President Donald Trump said Friday that he spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday to thank him for comments he made about the President's efforts to grow the American economy. Trump, speaking with reporters at the White House before he left to address a graduation ceremony at the National FBI Academy, said the call was "great." He also once again denied any collusion between Trump's 2016 campaign and Russian operatives.

Robert Mueller and his team are focusing on the days after White House officials were told Michael Flynn was vulnerable to Russian blackmail, NBC News' Carol Lee and Julia Ainsley report, citing "two people familiar with Mueller's investigation". Why it matters: This means Mueller's team could be working to determine if Trump obstructed justice and is likely seeking out what President Trump knew about Flynn's conversations with former Russian Ambassador Sergei Kislyak, and subsequently, when Trump learned Flynn lied about them.

President Trump said Saturday he had to fire Michael Flynn as national security adviser because he lied to Vice President Pence and the FBI, an apparent shift from the reasons Trump stated at the time of Flynn's ouster. Trump’s changing rationale is a discrepancy that will catch the attention of prosecutors on Mueller’s team looking into whether the president tried to obstruct the investigation.

President Donald Trump may have convinced himself that the investigation into his campaign’s alleged links to Russia is winding down, but evidence suggests quite the opposite—and that it is inching ever closer to his door. Specifically, Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into possible obstruction of justice is ratcheting up, according to reports.

George Papadopoulos, the Trump foreign policy aide who pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI, initially misled agents out of what he claimed was loyalty to President Donald Trump, according to a person with direct knowledge of the investigation. Trump had publicly denied that there had been any contact between his campaign and Russian officials, and Papadopoulos did not want to contradict the official line, the source said.

The US government released Friday a major scientific report that says climate change is real, "extremely likely" to be caused by human activity, and affecting the daily lives of Americans. The findings of the federally mandated report are starkly at odds with the position of US President Donald Trump, who has labeled global warming a Chinese hoax and named fossil fuel ally Scott Pruitt to head the Environmental Protection Agency.

President Donald Trump is tweeting that the “biggest story” out of the charges announced Monday in the Russia investigation is the resignation of Democratic lobbyist Tony Podesta from his eponymous firm. Podesta, the elder brother of former Hillary Clinton aide John Podesta, announced that he would step aside from powerhouse Democratic firm ‘The Podesta Group’ after coming under investigation by Robert Mueller.

U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller, tasked with pursuing collusion between Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and Russia, just planted the first stake. Prosecutors on Mueller’s team revealed Monday that a foreign policy adviser on Trump’s campaign, George Papadopoulos, pursued Russia’s help in the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign and sought to open communication lines to the Kremlin.

Republicans with close links to the White House increasingly believe that special counsel Robert Mueller is “going for the kill” in his investigation into links between President Donald Trump and Russia, according to a report from Axios Tuesday. Members of the GOP are said to have come to that stark conclusion based on Mueller’s hiring of lawyers experienced in dealing with money laundering crimes and the Mafia, as well as the intensity of his pursuit of both witnesses and evidence.

President Donald Trump has made no secret of his desire to roll back environmental regulations and change the playing field for the fossil-fuel industry. His administration's actions over its first six months have followed that lead, including what many scientists say is a full-fledged battle against research and facts.

US Vice-President Mike Pence has reaffirmed Washington's commitment to the security of the Baltic states if they face any aggression from Russia. Speaking in Estonia, he called Russia their biggest security threat, telling the Nato allies: "An attack on one of us is an attack on us all." The remarks come amid growing tensions as Russia orders a cut in US diplomatic staff numbers.

The Fox News Channel and a wealthy supporter of President Trump worked in concert under the watchful eye of the White House to concoct a story about the death of a young Democratic National Committee aide, according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday. The explosive claim is part of the lawsuit filed against Fox News by Rod Wheeler, a longtime paid commentator for the news network. The suit was obtained exclusively by NPR.

White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci has been fired after fewer than 10 days in the post. The former Wall Street financier had drawn criticism after calling a reporter to give a profanity-laced tirade against his colleagues. Mr Trump's chief of staff Reince Priebus and spokesman Sean Spicer both left their posts with his appointment.

Six teenagers from a Burundi robotics team have been reported missing after an international competition in Washington and two of them were seen entering Canada, police said on Thursday.

Donald Trump once promised voters he wasn’t a politician. Now he’s defending his campaign by saying it acted like every other politician.

Russia is pressing demands that the US give it access to two diplomatic compounds seized in the US last year. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said it was unacceptable to set preconditions for returning the properties. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov described the move as "daylight robbery". In December the US expelled 35 Russian diplomats and shut the compounds over suspicions of meddling in US elections.

President Donald Trump only recently learned of the meeting between a Russian lawyer and three of his top campaign officials, including his son Donald Trump, Jr., a White House spokeswoman said Monday. Trump learned of the meeting "in the last couple of days," Sarah Huckabee Sanders said, describing the meeting Trump's son, Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner and then-campaign chairman Paul Manafort and Natalia Veselnitskaya, as "very short" with "absolutely no follow up."

The Trump administration asked a federal appeals court Friday to allow it to delay enforcement of an Obama administration rule to limit methane pollution from oil and natural gas drilling. Justice Department lawyers representing the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) objected to the Monday ruling from the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit that mandated that the EPA immediately enforce the methane regulation, which the Trump administration had tried to delay so that it could go through a full repeal process.

Donald Trump has claimed that Barack Obama 'colluded or obstructed' when he did not punish Russia for meddling in the US election, saying that the former president expected Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton to win. In a morning tweetstorm, Mr Trump asserted that "The reason that President Obama did NOTHING about Russia after being notified by the CIA of meddling is that he expected Clinton would win...and did not want to 'rock the boat.' He didn't 'choke,' he colluded or obstructed, and it did the Dems and Crooked Hillary no good."

The hacking of state and local election databases in 2016 was more extensive than previously reported, including at least one successful attempt to alter voter information, and the theft of thousands of voter records that contain private information like partial Social Security numbers, current and former officials tell TIME.