In the wake of President Trump’s firing of FBI Director James Comey last year, then-Acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe launched an obstruction-of-justice investigation—even before special counsel Robert Mueller was appointed, CNN reports. Sources cited by CNN said the probe had been under consideration before Trump dismissed Comey last May, in part due to the president’s conversation with Comey in which he reportedly urged an end to the investigation into former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and FBI officials reportedly had major concerns about Trump’s behavior at the time, and they discussed various options before the obstruction case was launched. Both Rosenstein and McCabe have been frequent targets of Trump on Twitter, with the president retweeting an image of Rosenstein behind bars just last week. McCabe was fired by Attorney General Jeff Sessions this year. The new details about the origins of the obstruction case against Trump came just a day before Mueller’s team is expected to provide court filings Friday involving Trump’s former campaign chairman Paul Manafort and former lawyer Michael Cohen.

Former EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt received $50,000 from a Wisconsin billionaire and major Republican donor for a legal defense fund created to help battle federal investigations into his questionable business conduct, The Washington Post reports. Pruitt, who resigned this summer in the wake of ethics inquiries, received the contribution from businesswoman Diane Hendricks, according to the report. Hendricks is said to have given the money to the “Scott Pruitt Legal Expenses Trust” sometime this year, according to a financial-disclosure form released Thursday and cited by the Post. The document, which Pruitt was required to file upon leaving the agency, made clear that he never sought ethics advice prior to accepting the donation. “EPA ethics officials did not know of this contribution—believed to be in cash—until they received the termination report,” an agency comment noted. About a dozen investigations into his first-class travels, a condo rental from a lobbyist, and claims that he used aides to handle personal errands have cost him between $115,000 and $300,000 in legal fees, according to the report.  

French authorities are preparing to deploy 89,000 police across France this weekend to contain “yellow vest” protests. They began as demonstrations against now-abandoned fuel-tax hikes, but it is feared the movement has now broadened to become an expression of general discontent and an opportunity for looting. Around 8,000 cops will patrol the streets of Paris and 12 armored vehicles will also be on standby in the capital for “Act IV,” the name being given to activists for the proposed fourth weekend of protests. Authorities said the “exceptional means” were warranted due to the likely presence of “the extreme-right, who dream of a revolution, and the extreme-left, who advocate insurrection.” “Given what has happened, it is absolutely necessary to take all the possible measures to stop the rioters taking hold of this movement,” a police spokesman said.

State-run Chinese media have accused the U.S. of “hooliganism” over the arrest of Huawei Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou, the daughter of the telecom’s founder, saying that America is seeking to use the incident to hobble the company. “One thing that is undoubtedly true and proven is the U.S. is trying to do whatever it can to contain Huawei’s expansion in the world simply because the company is the point man for China’s competitive technology companies,” an editorial in China Daily said, while state-run tabloid Global Times said: “Obviously Washington is resorting to a despicable rogue’s approach as it cannot stop Huawei’s 5G advance in the market.” Washington is said to believe the company flouted sanctions on trade with Iran. The arrest also comes against a background of allegations that Huawei is exploiting its use in the infrastructure of national telecom systems to steal information. There are concerns that Huawei’s close alliance with the Chinese state may expose governments and other organizations using its gear to the risk of cyberattacks.

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A bomb threat at CNN headquarters in New York City on Thursday night forced the network to stop live programming so employees could evacuate the building, the network said. The NYPD, which reopened the area around Columbus Circle shortly after midnight, said officers responded to a call at 10:07 p.m. regarding a “bomb threat... into the Time Warner Center.” While many on social media suggested a late-night tweet sent out by President Trump blasting “fake media” as the “enemy of the people” might have spurred the threat, the president actually sent the tweet after police had been notified of the threat. Amid the panic over the threat, CNN Tonight host Don Lemon tweeted, “We were evacuated in the middle of my live show. Bomb threat. We’re running taped programming. NYPD is investigating. Stay tuned. #cnn #nypd.” Reliable Sources anchor Brian Stelter tweeted that he was alerted to the evacuation by “sirens upstairs” when he was shopping in the basement of the Time Warner Center complex.

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The real-life fund manager portrayed by Steve Carell in the movie The Big Short says he is betting that Britain will crash out of the EU next March and that Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn will become prime minister. Steve Eisman, who made more than $1 billion by correctly predicting the 2008 financial crash, aid he expected U.K. markets to fall as a result of Brexit, in an interview with the BBC, and had built short positions against three British U.K. banks. However, Eisman had words of comfort for the U.S. economy, saying, “The financial system in the United States is safe for the first time in the 30 years I’ve analyzed it.” He also said Donald Trump’s trade war with China, was “correct,” adding, “You’re not going to get China to change by asking.”

CBS News is paying off a woman who alleged she was sexually assaulted by former 60 Minutes Executive Producer Don Hewitt decades ago, The New York Times reports. Lawyers tasked with investigating CBS’ workplace culture are said to have written in a draft report that a woman was sexually assaulted “over a period of years” by Hewitt, the creator of the Sunday news program who died in 2009. The assaults reportedly “derailed the woman’s career,” and a $450,000 settlement was reached in the 1990s after CBS reportedly found her allegations to be credible. Since then, CBS has “renegotiated six amendments” to the settlement, agreeing to pay her more money for her silence each time. The Times reports the settlement is now over “$5 million in total,” along with “annual payments of $75,000 for the rest of her life.” Investigators also found that Jeff Fager, Hewitt’s successor, did not respond appropriately to allegations against former producer Michael Radutzky and current producer Ira Rosen. According to the newspaper, the report found that Radutzky was “abusive, screamed, and threw objects at other 60 Minutes staff,” and Rosen was said to have “occasionally made inappropriate sexual comments to his female subordinates.” Fager left the show after sending threatening messages to a CBS News reporter who was looking into allegations of his behavior.

Comedian Kevin Hart announced late Thursday that he would be “stepping down” from hosting this year’s Academy Awards to avoid being a “distraction on a night that should be celebrated by so many amazing talented artists.” The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' decision to tap Hart to host the awards ceremony this week sparked an uproar after old tweets surfaced in which the comedian made homophobic jokes. In separate videos posted to Instagram on Thursday, Hart first issued a non-apology over the tweets, saying “our world is becoming beyond crazy” for getting upset over the comments. He later said he’d received a call from the Academy in which he said he was given an ultimatum. “‘Kevin, apologize for your tweets of old or we’re going to have to move on and find another host,’” he quoted the Academy as telling him, saying he’d chosen to “pass” on the offer. In his announcement that he'd be stepping down, he apologized for his "insensitive words" in the past.

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Tennessee inmate David Earl Miller was put to death via electric chair Thursday evening, using his final moments to say electrocution “beats being on death row.” The 61-year-old, convicted of killing a 21-year-old Knoxville woman in 1981, was pronounced dead at 7:25 p.m. at a Nashville maximum-security prison. The AP reports two “jolts of electricity” were administered before Miller’s muscles started to “clench” and blinds were lowered. Miller was the second electric chair execution in the state in just over a month, and only the third Tennessee inmate to be executed by the electric chair since 1960. Fellow Tennessee inmate Edmund Zagorski opted for the electric chair over lethal injection in November. Inmates have argued in court that the state’s current lethal injection methods causes a “prolonged and torturous death,” citing the August death of Billy Ray Irick. Irick reportedly coughed, turned “dark purple,” and died 20 minutes after his injection.