Good Friday morning. Here are some of the stories making news in Washington and politics today.
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• Internal memos reveal that President Trump ordered his chief of staff to grant Jared Kushner, his son-in-law and senior adviser, a top-secret security clearance last year, overruling concerns from intelligence officials. The memos contradict statements made by the president, who told The Times in January that he had no role in Mr. Kushner’s clearance.
• Mr. Trump bet that his self-described skills as a master negotiator would be enough to persuade North Korea to renounce its nuclear weapons program. In failing, he laid bare the risks of one-to-one diplomacy.
• Under a new Pentagon plan being offered in peace talks with the Taliban, all American and foreign troops would leave Afghanistan in the next three to five years.
• Mr. Trump declared on Thursday that troops “took over 100 percent” of territory controlled by the Islamic State in Syria. “It’s 100 percent not true,” one senior official said.
• For many Americans, the testimony of Mr. Trump’s ex-fixer…
