Monday, Feb. 17

· No news to report.

Tuesday, Feb. 18

· President Donald Trump granted clemency to 11 high-profile white collar criminals, among them “junk bond” financier Michael Milken, former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich, former New York City police commissioner Bernard Kerik and former owner of the San Francisco 49ers Edward DeBartolo Jr.

Wednesday, Feb. 19

· The White House named Richard Grenell, who has served as ambassador to Germany since 2018, as acting director of national intelligence to replace outgoing director Joseph Maguire. Grenell, who has little experience in the intelligence community but is a vocal Trump supporter, will oversee the United States’ 17 spy agencies.

Thursday, Feb. 20

· Democratic presidential primary candidates Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, Joe Biden, Amy Klobuchar, Pete Buttigieg and Mike Bloomberg contended in a debate in Las Vegas, in which, among general antagonism between candidates, most joined to criticize Bloomberg on the racism of stop-and-frisk policing, buying his way to the top of the candidate pool and the allegations of crude behavior toward women.

· Roger Stone, Trump’s longtime friend and 2016 campaign advisor, was given a 40 month prison sentence. Stone was convicted in November 2019 of seven felony charges including lying under oath and witness tampering. Attorney General William P. Barr threw the case into disarray last week when he overruled a sentencing recommendation of seven to nine years by four career prosecutors, who then quit in protest.

· Following Trump’s tweets alluding to clemency for Stone just hours after his sentencing, Barr implored Trump to stop commenting on decisions made by the Justice Department. Barr said in an interview with ABC News that these comments “make it impossible for me to do my job.”

· Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, speaking for the U.S. and key allies, accused Russian intelligence operatives of cyberattacks on the republic of Georgia in October that affected websites and television broadcasts.

Friday, Feb. 21

· Trump dismissed the disclosures by the U.S. intelligence community that Russia was meddling in the 2020 presidential election in his favor, claiming they form “another misinformation campaign… launched by Democrats in Congress […].”

· Greyhound Lines announced it would no longer allow Border Patrol agents to board its buses to perform immigration checks without warrants.

· A 5-4 Supreme Court ruling allowed the White House to move ahead with a rule designed the make it harder for people who rely on public assistance to be approved for green cards. In her dissenting opinion, Justice Sonia Sotomayor criticized the majority bias in the Supreme Court that favored the opinions of the president.

Saturday, Feb. 22

· The U.S. and the Taliban began the countdown on a plan to end the 18-year-long war in the Middle East. If both sides manage seven days of a partial truce to lower levels of violence in Afghanistan, the two sides will meet on Feb. 29 to establish peace talks and a U.S. withdrawal agreement.

· Bernie Sanders won the Democratic primary caucus in Nevada with nearly 50% of county delegates, earning him 14 electoral college delegates. Joe Biden earned a distant second place with about 20% of electoral college delegates. Trump won the Republican primary caucus with no measureable opposition.

Sunday, Feb. 23

· Facing pressure from European countries, the U.S. agreed to include the term “climate change” in a statement from the Group of 20—or G20, an international forum of finance ministers and bank governors from countries with the world’s largest economies—which the New York Times called “a notable, but subtle, acknowledgment by the United States that the threat from rising temperatures was a valid economic concern.”