Good Friday morning. Here are some of the stories making news in Washington and politics today:

• Paul Manafort, President Trump’s former campaign chairman, is close to a plea deal with federal prosecutors, people familiar with the case said. [Read the story]

• Mr. Trump denied that nearly 3,000 people had died in Hurricane Maria, claiming that Democrats had made up the number to make him look bad. [Read the story]



• Safiya Wazir, 27, who fled the Taliban in Afghanistan with her family in 1997, won an upset victory in a Democratic primary for New Hampshire state representative. [Read the story]

• Dianne Feinstein, the senior Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said she had referred an unspecified matter involving Judge Brett Kavanaugh to federal investigators. [Read the story]