memeorandum: Woman arrested in West Virginia for cutting man's head off (Katy Andersen/WOWK-TV)

11:50 PM ET, April 9, 2018

Top Items:

F.B.I. Raids Office of Trump's Longtime Lawyer Michael Cohen — The F.B.I. on Monday raided the office of President Trump's longtime personal lawyer, Michael D. Cohen, seizing records related to several topics including payments to a pornographic-film actress.

New York Times:

Mueller Investigating Ukrainian's $150,000 Payment for a Trump Appearance — WASHINGTON — The special counsel is investigating a payment made to President Trump's foundation by a Ukrainian steel magnate for a talk during the campaign, according to three people briefed on the matter …

Discussion: Vox, Talking Points Memo, CNN, CNBC, HuffPost, Raw Story, The Daily Caller, Washington Press, The Week and Political Wire

Carol D. Leonnig / Washington Post:

Trump attorney Cohen is being investigated for possible bank fraud, campaign finance violations … Michael Cohen, the longtime attorney of President Trump, is under federal investigation for possible bank fraud, wire fraud and campaign finance violations, according to three people with knowledge of the case.

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Mediaite, Fox News Insider, Raw Story, emptywheel, The Gateway Pundit, The Week, Washington Press, Daily Wire, Vox and Daily Kos

Emily Jane Fox / Vanity Fair:

Searched and Seized: F.B.I. Agents Raid Michael Cohen's New York Hotel — Law-enforcement agents spent several hours at the Loews Regency hotel on Monday morning, as they executed a search warrant against the president's personal lawyer. Cohen's attorney said they were referred by Robert Mueller.

Discussion: Mother Jones, ThinkProgress, HuffPost, Politico, CNN, IJR, Hullabaloo, Shareblue Media, Common Dreams, BuzzFeed and Mediaite

The Daily Beast:

Feds Are Treating Michael Cohen Like a Mob Lawyer, Trump Allies Say … Federal prosecutors in Manhattan are treating Michael Cohen like he's a lawyer for the mob. That's how seasoned white collar defense attorneys describe the raid on Cohen's office, home, and hotel room conducted on April.

Ken White / Reason:

Feds Raid Office of Trump Lawyer Who Paid Off Stormy Daniels. This Is a Big Deal. — The search of Michael Cohen's office, explained. — The very big news of the day: FBI agents raided the law office of Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump's lawyer who was involved in payment of $130,000 …

Discussion: ThinkProgress, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, The Gateway Pundit, Washington Press, Washington Post, Lawyers, Guns & Money, RedState, Outside the Beltway, Mediaite, TheBlaze, Law & Crime and Daily Wire

Washington Post:

'A bomb on Trump's front porch': FBI's Cohen raids hit home for the president … President Trump has howled in all caps for nearly a year as the Justice Department has delved deeper and deeper into his orbit. Special counsel Robert S. Mueller III indicted his former campaign chairman.

Discussion: Political Wire

Wall Street Journal:

FBI Raids Trump Lawyer's Office — Investigators seize communications between President Donald Trump and longtime lawyer Michael Cohen — Federal investigators on Monday searched the office of President Donald Trump's longtime lawyer, Michael Cohen, seizing communications between the lawyer …

Discussion: CNN, The Root, Talking Points Memo, Front Page Magazine, Washington Post and KTLA

Bloomberg:

Trump Assails FBI Raid on His Lawyer's Office as ‘Disgraceful’ — Cohen paid $130,000 to Stormy Daniels in ‘hush agreement’ — Raid signals criminal probe by FBI, but its target is unclear — President Donald Trump condemned as “disgraceful” an FBI raid on the office and home …

Discussion: The Atlantic, Balloon Juice and The Week

Kate Sheehy / New York Post:
Trump slams FBI raid on lawyer's office, calls Mueller probe ‘an attack on our country’

Discussion: Mediaite

Ken White / Popehat:
The Search of Trump Lawyer Michael Cohen's Office: What We Can Infer Immediately

Discussion: Hot Air, HuffPost, The Gateway Pundit, NBC News and Raw Story

Rebecca Savransky / The Hill:
Mueller looking into $150K payment Ukrainian magnate made for Trump appearance: report

Discussion: Raw Story

Axios: Trump blasts FBI raid on Michael Cohen as “disgraceful situation”

John Hinderaker / Power Line: The FBI Escalates Its War on the Trump Administration

Jeremy Diamond / CNN:
Trump slams FBI for raid of his personal attorney's office

Discussion: KTLA and Mediaite

Eli Watkins / CNN:
FBI raids Trump lawyer Michael Cohen's office, seizes Stormy Daniels documents, bank records

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, New York Times, ThinkProgress, Shareblue Media, Politico, Above the Law, fox5sandiego.com, Washington Press, WPIX 11 New York, The Week and Mediaite

Cristiano Lima / Politico:
Trump on whether he'll fire Robert Mueller: 'We'll see what happens'

Discussion: Breitbart

Josh Gerstein / Politico:
Cohen raid strikes deep into Trump's inner circle

Discussion: New York Times and Mediaite

CNBC: Trump rips Cohen raid: 'It's a disgraceful situation, it's a total witch hunt'

CNN:
FBI raids Trump lawyer Michael Cohen's office

Discussion: Splinter

Eli Rosenberg / Washington Post:

Sinclair commentator resigns after crude tweet about Parkland survivor David Hogg … A conservative commentator at a Sinclair Broadcast Group-owned television station in St. Louis has resigned after a statement he made threatening to sexually assault David Hogg drew harsh criticism and sparked the beginnings of an advertiser boycott.

Discussion: News Blog, Riverfront Times, RedState, Raw Story, Washington Times, The Daily Beast and Daily Wire, more at Mediagazer »

Itay Hod / The Wrap:
Allstate Quietly Drops Laura Ingraham in Internal Memo to Employees (Exclusive)

Discussion: CNNMoney, TVNewser, Washington Press, Mediaite, Orange County Register, VICE News, TheBlaze and twitchy.com

Ken Meyer / Mediaite: Conservative TV Host's Show Canceled After Threatening to 'Ram a Hot Poker Up David Hogg's Ass'

Brandon Griggs / CNN:
David Hogg will take a gap year before college to work on the midterm elections

Discussion: Breitbart, Washington Press, TMZ.com and Washington Free Beacon

Janelle O'Dea / St. Louis Post-Dispatch:
Jamie Allman lands in hot water with tweet about hot poker

Discussion: No More Mister Nice Blog, AOL, Media Matters for America, ThinkProgress, Mediaite, Splinter and TheBlaze

Aidan McLaughlin / Mediaite:

Tucker Carlson Goes on Marathon Rant Questioning Whether Assad Is Behind Attack in Syria — Tucker Carlson embarked on a nearly 10-minute diatribe to kick off his Monday night show, railing against those condemning the Bashar al-Assad regime for its alleged chlorine attack on a town in Syria.

Peter Baker / New York Times:
Trump to Decide Soon Whether to Retaliate for ‘Barbaric Act’ in Syria

Discussion: Axios, Washington Post, Splinter, CNN, The Week, The Mahablog, Washington Free Beacon and HuffPost

Washington Post:
Regional tensions soar in Syria as Trump threatens to strike and Iranians die in an attack

Discussion: The Guardian, Breitbart, Chicago Tribune and Task & Purpose

Donie O'Sullivan / CNNMoney:

The biggest Black Lives Matter page on Facebook is fake — For at least a year, the biggest page on Facebook purporting to be part of the Black Lives Matter movement was a scam with ties to a middle-aged white man in Australia, a review of the page and associated accounts and websites conducted by CNN shows.

Discussion: New York Times, Townhall, The Guardian, Daily Wire, Engadget and The Daily Caller, more at Mediagazer »

Tom Boggioni / Raw Story:

‘Take that down!’: Watch Fox host Howard Kurtz panic after graphic shows Fox News is least trusted network — Fox News media analyst Howard Kurtz on Sunday implored his producer to take down a graphic that showed his own network was the least trusted of the big three cable networks.

Discussion: MediaBuzz, Associated Press, Mediaite, TheBlaze, NewsBusters, Boing Boing, Power Line and Balloon Juice

Herman Wong / Washington Post:
Fox News host slams incorrect reports saying graphic showed network is least trusted

Discussion: Mediaite, The Daily Caller and Washington Free Beacon

Betsy Woodruff / The Daily Beast:

A Second Paul Manafort Associate Has Turned on Him … Former Trump campaign chief Paul Manafort has trouble in his own house. According to court documents, one of Manafort's former employees led an FBI agent to a storage locker filled with paperwork on Manafort's businesses and finances.

Juan Zamorano / Associated Press:

Trump family hotel business asked Panama president for help — PANAMA CITY (AP) — Lawyers representing U.S. President Donald Trump's family hotel business appealed to Panama's president for help days before an emergency arbitrator declined to reinstate the Trump management team to a luxury waterfront hotel.

Discussion: Vox, Hullabaloo and The Week

Elaina Plott / The Atlantic:

An Internal Email Contradicts Scott Pruitt's Account of Controversial Raises — An email that suggests Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt personally signed off on a controversial pay raise for a favored aide last month is roiling the agency.

Discussion: CNN, Politico, Splinter, Toronto Star, HuffPost, Talking Points Memo, Washington Press, Mother Jones, Shareblue Media, Daily Kos, Washington Post, Mediaite, CNBC, Political Wire and Law & Crime

Eric Lipton / New York Times:
In Letter to E.P.A., Top Ethics Officer Questions Pruitt's Actions

Discussion: Politico, New York Magazine, Washington Monthly, VICE News, The Hill, The Daily Caller, HuffPost, BuzzFeed, NPR and Talking Points Memo

Lynn Sweet / Chicago Sun-Times:

Tammy Duckworth gives birth to girl: First senator to have baby while in office — WASHINGTON — Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., on Monday gave birth to a daughter, Maile Pearl Bowlsbey, becoming the first sitting senator to have a baby while in office. — Duckworth, who turned 50 on March 12 …

Discussion: New York Times, Politico, WCCO | CBS Minnesota, Washington Press, NBC News, NPR, Washington Free Beacon, Talking Points Memo, The Daily Caller, IJR, Mediaite and Refinery29

CNN:
Tammy Duckworth gives birth, first US senator to do so while in office

Discussion: WPIX 11 New York and The Root

Associated Press:

China's president promises to cut auto import tariff — BEIJING (AP) — President Xi Jinping has promised to cut China's auto import tariffs and ease restrictions on foreign ownership in its auto industry amid an escalating tariff spat with Washington. — In a speech Tuesday at a business conference …

Discussion: The Daily Caller

Sopan Deb / New York Times:

‘The Simpsons’ Responds to Criticism About Apu With a Dismissal — At the end of 2017, Hank Azaria, the voice behind Apu Nahasapeemapetilon, a convenience-store owner on “The Simpsons” with a thick Indian accent, responded to a recent groundswell of criticism that the character was racist.

Discussion: The Wrap, Louder With Crowder, USA Today, Mashable, East Bay Times, Daily Wire, Jezebel, The Outline, The Ringer, The Daily Beast, IndieWire, twitchy.com, The Daily Caller, Polygon, Mediaite and Associated Press

Linda Holmes / NPR:
‘The Simpsons’ To ‘The Problem With Apu’: Drop Dead

Discussion: Hot Air, Hit & Run and Vox

Rebecca Savransky / The Hill:

Arizona Supreme Court rules Arizona colleges can't give in-state tuition to DACA recipients — The Arizona Supreme Court ruled Monday that recipients of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program are not eligible to receive in-state tuition rates at Arizona colleges.

Discussion: Arizona Republic and Axios

Rachel Leingang / Arizona Republic:
DACA recipients fight for in-state tuition

Discussion: Townhall and The Daily Caller

Wall Street Journal:

Lawyer's Office Is Unusual Target for Federal Agents — Typically, attorney-client communications are protected from disclosure — The Manhattan law office of Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump's personal attorney, made for an unusual target for federal agents, who raided it Monday morning.

CBO's Publications:

The Budget and Economic Outlook: 2018 to 2028 — In CBO's projections, the economy grows relatively quickly this year and next and then more slowly in the following several years. The federal budget deficit rises substantially, boosting federal debt to nearly 100 percent of GDP by 2028.

Discussion: Bloomberg, New York Times, ThinkProgress, The Daily Caller and The Week

Ylan Mui / CNBC:
The GOP tax plan means short-term gains for the economy, but federal debt is primed to explode, CBO analysis says

Discussion: Washington Post and TheBlaze

Luis Sanchez / The Hill:

Trump: Farmers will understand if they get hurt in China trade spat — on Monday acknowledged that U.S. farmers could take a hit from trade disputes with China but said they will ultimately “understand” why the confrontation is necessary. — “But if we do a deal with China, if …

Discussion: RedState and Washington Press

David Wroe / Sydney Morning Herald:

China eyes Vanuatu military base in plan with global ramifications — China has approached Vanuatu about building a permanent military presence in the South Pacific in a globally significant move that could see the rising superpower sail warships on Australia's doorstep.

Discussion: Bloomberg and The Guardian

Amanda Erickson / Washington Post:

Organizers try to keep overweight people from joining a Dutch military parade … It is meant to be a somber event, an opportunity to celebrate incredible bravery in the face of evil. — But this time around, it has sparked a debate on fat-shaming. — Each year, people gather …

Discussion: The Guardian