President Donald Trump says he has answered a series of questions submitted to him by special prosecutor Robert Mueller.
Trump told reporters in the Oval Office Friday that he answered the questions "easily' this week about the special counsel's ongoing probe into 2016 election interference and possible ties between the president's campaign and Russia.
"My lawyers aren't working on it. I'm working on it. I write the answers. My lawyers don't write the answers, I write answers. I was asked a series of questions. I've answered them very easily -- very easily."
The president did not say when he would turn over the answers to Mueller. The special counsel had signaled a willingness to accept written answers on matters of collusion, but Trump's attorney, Rudy Giuliani, had said repeatedly that the president would not answer Mueller's questions on possible obstruction of justice.
The United States opposed on Friday for the first time an annual draft resolution at the United Nations that calls on Israel to rescind its authority in the occupied Golan Heights. That drew praise from Israeli officials.
The United States has abstained in previous years on the "Occupied Syrian Golan" resolution, which declares Israel's decision to impose its jurisdiction in the area "null and void." U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said on Thursday that Washington would vote against the resolution.
Despite the U.S. opposition, a U.N. General Assembly committee approved the draft resolution on Friday with 151 votes in favor and 14 abstentions. Only Israel joined the United States in voting no. The General Assembly is due to formally adopt the resolution next month.
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A federal judge on Friday ordered the Trump administration to restore the credentials that were revoked after reporter Jim Acosta and President Trump tangled during a news conference last week.
As AP's Sagar Meghani reports, Acosta says he just wants to get back to work.
The president says he is all for "total freedom of the press." "It's very important to me, it's more important to me than anybody would believe."
But reporters have to show something. "Decorum," saying the White House will set standards for how reporters should behave at news conferences. If the rules and regulations are violated, the president says, "we will end up back in court and we will win."
In the meantime, he's told staffers if they're mistreated at news conferences, "you have the right to just leave any time you want."
Sagar Meghani, Washington.
WikiLeaks on Friday accused the United States of an attack on democracy with confirmation that U.S. officials have filed charges under seal against its founder Julian Assange.
WikiLeaks posted on its Twitter account that the news of the charges was "accidentally" revealed in a "cut-and-paste error" in an unrelated case in Virginia.
WikiLeaks editor-in-chief Kristinn Hrafnsson says the revelations are a dark day for press freedom.
"It is a very serious matter for journalists and journalism that the Justice Department in the States takes this step against a publisher and an editor of a legitimate journalistic organization. This is extremely worrisome, a very black day for journalism, I would say."
Assange is responsible for releasing hundreds of thousands of classified documents and posting them on WikiLeaks, angering governments worldwide.
The U.S. Justice Department denied it was planning to extradite Turkish cleric Fethullah Gülen, following a media report that suggested Washington was looking into the extradition in exchange for Ankara's easing of its pressure on Saudi Arabia.
A Justice Department spokeswoman said Friday the department has not been involved in or is not aware of any discussions relating to the extradition of Fethullah Gülen to the death of Jamal Khashoggi.
Gülen lives in self-imposed exile in the state of Pennsylvania. He denies Ankara's accusation of involvement in a failed coup in Turkey in 2016.
Turkish media reported Friday that President Donald Trump spoke by phone with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. It said the two men "agreed to shed light on the Jamal Khashoggi murder in all its aspects and that any cover-up of the incident should not be allowed."
And Oscar-winning screenplay writer William Goldman has died. He wrote "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" and "All the president's Men." He was 87.
