The third most senior official at the Department of Veterans Affairs is stepping down amid findings she misled ethics officials to secure approval for VA Secretary David Shulkin’s wife to accompany him on taxpayer-funded trip to Europe.

Vivieca Wright Simpson, Shulkin’s chief of staff, told colleagues Friday morning that she is retiring after 32 years at the agency and more than two years as Shulkin's most senior aide.

The announcement came two days after the VA inspector general released recommendations that she be disciplined for doctoring an email to an ethics lawyer to show Shulkin was getting special recognition or an award during the trip to Denmark and London last year, the criteria for clearing his wife’s flights on the public’s dime.

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A Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist raised troubling question about President Donald Trump and his associations with Russia.

James Risen, a former New York Times and Los Angeles Times reporter now with The Intercept, wrote Friday that Americans can’t be sure “whether Trump has the best interests of the United States or those of Russia at heart.”

“One year after Trump took office, it is still unclear whether the president of the United States is an agent of a foreign power,” Risen wrote. “Just step back and think about that for a moment.”

A Russian who offered stolen National Security Agency cyberweapons and compromising information on President Donald Trump bilked U.S. spies out of $100,000 last year, The New York Times reported on Friday, citing U.S. and European security officials.

The money was delivered to a Berlin hotel room in September and was intended as the first installment of a $1 million reward, according to U.S. officials, the Russian and communications reviewed by the Times, the newspaper reported.

The theft of the secret hacking tools was very damaging to the NSA, which was trying to determine exactly what was missing, the Times said.

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White House speech writer David Sorensen has resigned amid allegations of domestic abuse, although he denies being violent and said he was actually the victim, according to The Washington Post.

Jessica Corbett, Sorensen’s ex-wife, claimed that he was violent and emotionally abusive during their two-and-a-half-year marriage, but Sorensen vehemently denies the allegations and said he was the victim of domestic violence in the marriage, the Post said.