memeorandum: Trump is helping to undermine US democracy. That's just what Russia wants (Stephen Collinson/CNN)

12:15 PM ET, February 20, 2018

Top Items:

Jason Leopold / BuzzFeed:

Manafort Under Scrutiny For $40 Million In “Suspicious” Transactions — As the special counsel investigated President Donald Trump's former campaign manager Paul Manafort, authorities obtained details on “suspicious” banking activity that was first unearthed in 2014 and 2015.

Discussion: Raw Story, IJR, The Week, Political Wire, Daily Kos and Washington Times

David Brooks / New York Times:

Respect First, Then Gun Control — This has been an emotional week. We greet tragedies like the school shooting in Florida with shock, sadness, mourning and grief that turns into indignation and rage. The anger inevitably gets directed at the N.R.A., those who support gun rights …

Discussion: National Review, The Mahablog, twitchy.com, Media Matters for America, No More Mister Nice Blog, Mediaite and Splinter

Catherine Rampell / Washington Post:

Don't blame ‘Washington.’ Blame the GOP. — Dysfunctional Washington refuses to work out its differences to solve problems that matter to Americans. — So say pundits and policy activists, perhaps hoping that diffuse criticism, rather than finger-pointing, will yield a government willing to govern.

Discussion: Daily Kos and Shakesville

Washington Post:
Most Americans say Trump, Congress not doing enough to stop mass shootings, Post-ABC poll finds

Discussion: National Review, CNN, The Daily Caller, The Week, Politico, ABC News and Political Wire

David Voreacos / Bloomberg:

Mueller Charges Lawyer With Lying in Russia Probe — Van Der Zwaan helped prepare Ukraine report for Manafort — False statements case comes days after Russians charged — An attorney who worked for a prominent law firm was charged with making false statements to federal authorities …

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit and The Right Scoop

Alayna Treene / Axios:

Mueller probe's latest indictment: Alex Van Der Zwaan — Special Counsel Robert Mueller has charged Dutch lawyer Alex Van Der Zwaan with making false statements to FBI investigators. Van Der Zwaan, who was officially charged on Feb. 16 in a federal court in Washington, has a plea hearing scheduled for Tuesday at 2:30 p.m. EST.

Discussion: NRSC

Katelyn Polantz / CNN:

Mueller charges lawyer with lying about interaction with Rick Gates — (CNN)Special counsel Robert Mueller has filed a charge against a lawyer for lying to investigators about his interaction with former Trump campaign aide Rick Gates in September 2016. — Alex Van Der Zwaan is expected to plead guilty Tuesday afternoon.

Discussion: The Week and Balloon Juice

Kyle Cheney / Politico:
Mueller charges attorney with making false statements about Rick Gates communications

Discussion: Axios and Outside the Beltway

Media Matters for America:

Pro-Trump media launch attacks on student survivors of Florida school shooting — After any mass shooting, disinformation spreads online like wildfire. It happens immediately, created and disseminated on purpose, often in real time as the event is unfolding.

Discussion: Showbiz411, Washington Times and ABC News

James LaPorta / The Daily Beast:

U.S. Army Awards Medal of Heroism to Slain Parkland Students … PARKLAND, Florida — The U.S. Army has given medals to three Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps cadets killed in the Parkland school shooting last week, a spokesperson told The Daily Beast on Tuesday.

Discussion: Washington Post, Task & Purpose, The Daily Caller, CNN, Fox News, Breitbart, KDFW and KTLA

Asawin Suebsaeng / The Daily Beast:
Don Jr. Advises President Trump After School Shooting: Don't Go Wobbly on Guns

Discussion: Shareblue Media, ThinkProgress, Mediaite, New York Magazine, Raw Story, Washington Post and Mashable

Judd Legum / ThinkProgress:
The far-right smear campaign against students who survived the Parkland massacre

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit and Shareblue Media

Lucian Wintrich / The Gateway Pundit:
EXPOSED: School Shooting Survivor Turned Activist David Hogg's Father in FBI, Appears …

Discussion: Business Insider, Mediaite, RedState, CNN and Joe.My.God.

Judd Legum / ThinkProgress:
Former Congressman joins smear campaign against students who survived Parkland massacre

Discussion: Shareblue Media, Raw Story and Daily Kos

Nicholas Thompson / Wired:

A Facebook Executive Apologizes To His Company—And To Robert Mueller — ON FRIDAY MORNING, just before 10am on the West Coast, the office of special counsel Robert Mueller published his indictment of 13 Russian operatives for interfering in the US election. The document was 37 pages, and it mentioned Facebook 35 times.

Discussion: RedState, New York Times, The Hill, Wall Street Journal, Business Insider, East Bay Times, USA Today, The Stranger …, Washington Post, Deadline and TheBlaze, more at Mediagazer »

CNN:

Exclusive: Mueller's interest in Kushner grows to include foreign financing efforts — Washington (CNN)Special counsel Robert Mueller's interest in Jared Kushner has expanded beyond his contacts with Russia and now includes his efforts to secure financing for his company from foreign investors during …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, New York Magazine, Daily Kos, The Hill, Shareblue Media, The Gateway Pundit, Business Insider, The Daily Caller, Washington Times, The Week, Mediaite, Raw Story and Political Wire

Mike Allen / Axios:
5 clues to Mueller's roadmap

Discussion: Raw Story and Politico

Associated Press:

Man featured on ‘Trump Dating’ site has child sex conviction — GREENSBORO, N.C. (AP) - A North Carolina man with a felony conviction for indecent liberties with a child was one-half of the poster couple for a new “Trump Dating” website. — News outlets reported Monday that visitors …

Discussion: RedState and VICE News

Travis Fain / WRAL-TV:

NC couple pitching dating site for Trump supporters — RALEIGH, N.C. — A married couple from Guilford County have become the faces of a new Donald Trump-themed dating website. — Barrett and Jodi Riddleberger's smiles, beneath Trump campaign baseball caps, are the first thing greeting visitors at Trump.dating.

Discussion: ThinkProgress, The Guardian, PinkNews, Gizmodo, thecut, Woke Sloth, Joe.My.God., VICE and Mediaite

Sarah K. Burris / Raw Story: Man featured in ads for pro-Trump dating site was convicted of child sex crimes: report

Carolyn Van Houten / Washington Post:

Trump accuser keeps telling her story, hoping someone will finally listen — This Trump accuser keeps asking herself that. But she plans to keep talking about that day in 2006. — She believed her best chance to be heard was through sheer repetition, so Rachel Crooks took her seat …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Politico, Axios, Mother Jones, Roll Call, The Root, Althouse, Mediaite, The Right Scoop, AOL and The Daily Caller

Remy Smidt / BuzzFeed:

Here's What It's Like At The Headquarters Of The Teens Working To Stop Mass Shootings — Just days after surviving a mass shooting, a team of teens are trying to start a revolution from their parents' living rooms. — Reporting From Parkland, Florida — PARKLAND, Florida …

Discussion: Splinter

Andrew Ross Sorkin / New York Times:

How Banks Could Control Gun Sales if Washington Won't — For the past year, chief executives have often talked about the new sense of moral responsibility that corporations have to help their communities and confront social challenges even when Washington won't.

Discussion: JustOneMinute, Business Insider and Washington Free Beacon

Haley Britzky / Axios:

Trump's morning tweets perfectly align with Fox & Friends — President Trump had a busy Tuesday morning on Twitter, with seven tweets before 9am, touching on topics from the Russia investigation to Pennsylvania's new congressional district map. — Why it matters: His tweets perfectly aligned with Fox & Friends' morning lineup.

Discussion: Shareblue Media, RedState, National Review, Washington Post and Politico

Walter Shapiro / The Guardian: If Trump has nothing to hide, why is he so soft on Russia?

Stephen Collinson / CNN:
Trump is helping to undermine US democracy. That's just what Russia wants

Discussion: Vox, Reuters, The Daily Caller and Jamie Dupree - AJC

New York Times:

After Florida School Shooting, Russian ‘Bot’ Army Pounced — SAN FRANCISCO — One hour after news broke about the school shooting in Florida last week, Twitter accounts suspected of having links to Russia released hundreds of posts taking up the gun control debate.

Discussion: The Atlantic and The Week, more at Mediagazer »

Washington Post:

One of the bloodiest attacks of Syria's war kills more than 100 in a rebel-held Damascus suburb … BEIRUT — Attacks by forces loyal to the Syrian government have killed more than 100 people in a rebel-held Damascus suburb, aid agencies and monitoring groups said Tuesday …

Discussion: ThinkProgress, The Guardian, ReliefWeb and Defense One

Kareem Shaheen / The Guardian:
'It's not a war. It's a massacre': scores killed in Syrian enclave

Discussion: Al Jazeera English, Just Security and VICE News

FireEye / Threat Research Blog:

APT37 (Reaper): The Overlooked North Korean Actor — On Feb. 2, 2018, we published a blog detailing the use of an Adobe Flash zero-day vulnerability (CVE-2018-4878) by a suspected North Korean cyber espionage group that we now track as APT37 (Reaper). — Our analysis of APT37's recent activity reveals …

Discussion: Axios, Bloomberg, CNNMoney and The Daily Caller

Katie Rogers / New York Times:

Rob Porter's Charisma and Ambition Disguised Flare-ups of Anger — WASHINGTON — People who crossed paths with Rob Porter in Harvard classrooms or the hallways of Capitol Hill describe him in glowing terms: He was articulate enough to be secretary of state. Intelligent enough to be a Supreme Court justice.

Michael M. Grynbaum / New York Times:

Fox News Plans a Streaming Service for ‘Superfans’ — Thanks to a relentless news cycle — and a dedicated fan in the Oval Office — Fox News has defied the downward trends in the television business, notching its highest-rated year in 2017 even as audiences dwindled for many networks.

Discussion: TVNewser, Splinter, Mediaite, myfox8.com and AOL, more at Mediagazer »

Aamer Madhani / USA Today:

Baltimore is the nation's most dangerous city — The collective homicide toll for America's 50 biggest cities dipped slightly in 2017, a USA TODAY analysis of crime data found. — The FBI won't publish its annual comprehensive crime report until later this year, but an early review …

Discussion: Baltimore Sun and The Daily Caller

Lauren Trager / KMOV-TV:

Greitens adds former judge to his legal defense team — ST. LOUIS (KMOV.com) — Gov. Eric Greitens has added a new lawyer to his team amidst investigations surrounding allegations of blackmail during an extramarital affair. — A member of Greitens' current legal team confirms to News 4 that John …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Missourinet and Political Wire

Gregg Re / Fox News:

Michael Moore participated in anti-Trump rally allegedly organized by Russians — Michael Moore attends Russia-sponsored anti-Trump rally — Michael Moore, the polemical filmmaker who has long accused President Trump of colluding with Russians, posted videos and pictures of himself participating …