memeorandum: Robert Mueller Is Just Beginning to Put the Pressure On (John Cassidy/New Yorker)

9:25 AM ET, October 31, 2017

Top Items:

Upstairs at home, with the TV on, Trump fumes over Russia indictments — President Trump woke before dawn on Monday and burrowed in at the White House residence to wait for the Russia bombshell he knew was coming. — Separated from most of his West Wing staff — who fretted …

Discussion: Politico, Business Insider, Splinter, bizpacreview.com, Washington Free Beacon, New York Magazine, Axios, Mashable, The Week, Raw Story, CNN, The Daily Caller, Politicus USA, New York Times, Eschaton and Talking Points Memo

The Daily Beast:

Steve Bannon Tells Trump To Bring In New Lawyers as He Looks For Ways to Kneecap Mueller … Steve Bannon spoke on the phone with his old boss, Donald Trump, on Monday and offered a message: get yourself some new lawyers. — The former White House chief strategist has grown increasingly concerned …

Discussion: Raw Story

Ezra Klein / Vox:

It sure looks like there was collusion between the Trump operation and Russia — Look at the whole story and tell me this isn't suspicious. — Two things are true about the indictments unsealed by special counsel Bob Mueller Monday: — They don't provide a “smoking gun” …

Discussion: National Review, CNN, New York Times, Fox News, The Root, The Daily Caller, Washington Free Beacon, Mashable, IJR, Media Matters for America, ABC News, Washington Post, The Guardian, ThinkProgress and Mediaite

John Cassidy / New Yorker:

Robert Mueller Is Just Beginning to Put the Pressure On — The White House talking points must have gone out early on Monday morning. Because, before the charges filed against Paul Manafort, Donald Trump's former campaign chairman, and Rick Gates, Manafort's longtime deputy, had been unsealed …

Discussion: Raw Story, Shareblue Media and New York Times

Marcy Wheeler / The Intercept:

Monday's Indictment is Very, Very Bad News For Attorney General Jeff Sessions — The biggest news of Mueller Monday — the roll out of a money laundering indictment against Trump's former campaign adviser, Paul Manafort and campaign aide Rick Gates, and the unsealing of a false statements plea deal …

Associated Press:

Trump fumes as Mueller probe enters new phase with charges — WASHINGTON (AP) — Special counsel Robert Muller's charges Monday against former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and two other aides marked a new phase in his sprawling investigation into Russia and President Donald Trump …

Discussion: CNN

Jordain Carney / The Hill:

Republican Judiciary chairman: Trump should let Mueller do his job — (R-Iowa) is urging President Trump to not interfere with special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation after Paul Manafort, Trump's former campaign chairman, was charged on Monday. — “The president should let the special counsel …

Discussion: Washington Post, The Week and Politicus USA

Lawfare:

Robert Mueller's Show of Strength: A Quick and Dirty Analysis — The first big takeaway from Monday morning's flurry of charging and plea documents with respect to Paul Manafort Jr., Richard Gates III and George Papadopoulos is this: The president of the United States had as his campaign chairman …

New York Times:

Is the White House Scared Yet? — You know it's a bad day for the White House when the president's former campaign chairman is charged with money laundering, tax fraud, making false statements and failing to register as a foreign agent — and that is only the second most damaging story of the morning.

Discussion: Politico, Just Security, Daily Kos, Media Matters for America, CBS Miami, Washington Post, The Guardian, The Atlantic, CNN, NPR, Raw Story, New York Magazine and ThinkProgress

Scott Shane / New York Times:

Trump Campaign Got Early Word Russia Had Democrats' Emails — WASHINGTON — The indictment of a 30-year-old campaign aide — so green that he listed Model United Nations in his qualifications — shifted the narrative on Monday of the Trump campaign's interactions with Russia …

Discussion: Washington Post, IJR, ThinkProgress, New York Magazine, Mediaite, Weekly Standard, RedState, The Atlantic, Axios, Talking Points Memo and The Gateway Pundit

Katelyn Polantz / CNN:

Special counsel's office: Papadopoulos ‘small part’ of ‘large scale investigation’ — Washington (CNN)Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos' guilty plea Monday appears to hint toward even more threads of the ongoing Russia collusion investigation than what the court revealed.

Discussion: The Daily Beast, The Hill, Raw Story, Just Security, Politico and Axios

Andrew C. McCarthy / National Review:

The Manafort Indictment: Not Much There, and a Boon for Trump — Do not be fooled by the “Conspiracy against the United States” heading. — The Paul Manafort indictment is much ado about nothing . . . except as a vehicle to squeeze Manafort, which is special counsel Robert Mueller's objective …

Discussion: Weekly Standard, bizpacreview.com, The Daily Caller, Fox News, The Gateway Pundit, Popehat, New York Times, RedState, Lawfare, ThinkProgress, Power Line, Althouse, JustOneMinute, Washington Post and Politico

Sam Thielman / Talking Points Memo: First Charges In Mueller's Russia Probe Stem From Trump Admin's Earliest Days

CNN:
Trump ‘seething’ as Mueller probe reaches former aides

NBC News:
Sources: Podesta Group, Mercury Are Companies ‘A’ and ‘B’ in Indictment

Discussion: The Daily Caller, The Gateway Pundit, Business Insider and Mediaite

J.J. Gallagher / ABC News:
Trump ex-adviser ‘probably’ discussed Russia with staffer charged in Mueller probe

Discussion: Associated Press and Axios

Jonathan Swan / Axios:
Inside the White House as the first Russia indictments came out

Discussion: Washington Post, Politico, ABC News and Business Insider

Eli Lake / Bloomberg:
Both Campaigns Sought Russian Dirt. Clinton's Way Was Legal.

Discussion: PolitiFact, CNN, Booman Tribune, Lawfare, Politico and The Daily Beast

Ken Meyer / Mediaite:
Pat Robertson Says Trump Should Issue ‘Blanket Pardon’ for Indictments: 'He's Got to Shut This Down'

Discussion: RedState, Raw Story and Right Wing Watch

Paul Waldman / Washington Post:
How bad will Mueller probe get for Trump? The Papadopoulos plea may be a big tell.

Anna Palmer / Politico:
Tony Podesta stepping down from lobbying giant amid Mueller probe

Peter Baker / New York Times:
Mueller's First Indictments Send a Message to Trump

Discussion: USA Today, Bloomberg and Weekly Standard

Ben Smith / BuzzFeed:
The Open Secrets Of The Russia Story

Discussion: The Atlantic, miamiherald, Bloomberg, Just Security, CNBC, ABC News and Hullabaloo

Kenneth P. Vogel / New York Times:
Paul Manafort's Ambition Set the Stage for His Downfall

Discussion: CNN

Kelly Weill / The Daily Beast:
'Putin's Niece' Catfished Trump Aide, Offered Kremlin Meeting

Discussion: emptywheel, Chicago Reader and Balloon Juice

Dave Lawler / Axios:

Kelly wants investigation into allegations surrounding Clinton — In a Fox News interview, John Kelly said he thought an investigation was needed into funding from Hillary Clinton's campaign and the DNC for the research behind the Trump/Russia dossier, and Clinton's involvement in the Uranium One deal.

Discussion: ABC News and Vanity Fair

Olivia Beavers / The Hill:
Kelly defends Confederate statues: 'History's history'

Discussion: Politico

Maggie Astor / New York Times:
John Kelly Pins Civil War on ‘Lack of Ability to Compromise’

Discussion: The Daily Caller and Splinter

Dylan Byers / CNNMoney:

Facebook estimates 126 million people were served content from Russia-linked pages — Facebook will inform lawmakers this week that roughly 126 million Americans may have been exposed to content generated on its platform by the Russian government-linked troll farm known as the Internet …

Discussion: CNN, The Week, Mediaite and Talking Points Memo

Natasha Bertrand / Business Insider:
Twitter will tell Congress that Russia's election meddling was worse than we first thought

Discussion: Reuters and IJR

Washington Post:
Russian content on Facebook may have reached 126 million users — far more than first disclosed, company testimony says

Discussion: Mother Jones

Maureen Callahan / New York Post:

Kevin Spacey is another ‘everyone knew’ — who else does Hollywood know about? — MORE FROM: … As with Harvey Weinstein, it seems plenty in Hollywood knew all about Kevin Spacey. — And even though they kept their mouths shut — ensuring nothing but more entitlement, more boldness …

Discussion: The Daily Caller, IJR, TMZ.com and Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion

Dominic Patten / Deadline:
Netflix Cancels ‘House Of Cards’, Says It's “Deeply Troubled” Over Kevin Spacey Claims

Discussion: Variety, Breitbart, Engadget, Hollywood Reporter, RedState, The Root, VICE, TVLine, Shot in the Dark, Mediaite, Instapundit, WRIC-TV, Washington Free Beacon, Associated Press and Patterico's Pontifications, more at Mediagazer »

Alice Paul Tapper / New York Times:

I'm 10. And I Want Girls to Raise Their Hands. — Last year on a fourth-grade field trip, I noticed that all the boys stood in the front and raised their hands while most of the girls politely stayed in the back and were quiet. It made me upset. — On the car ride home I told my mom about what happened.

Ian Mohr / Page Six:

Weinstein tells pals scandal happened so he could ‘change the world’ … Talk about a messiah complex. — Disgraced Harvey Weinstein's been telling what friends he has left that there's a bigger reason he's embroiled in his ever-widening sexual harassment scandal: to “change the world,” sources tell Page Six.