memeorandum: Why Michael Cohen Agreed to Plead Guilty—And Implicate the President (Wall Street Journal)

9:00 AM ET, August 23, 2018

Top Items:

Why Michael Cohen Agreed to Plead Guilty—And Implicate the President — Prosecutors had reams of evidence and a long list of counts, which also could have included the lawyer's wife — Michael Cohen had many reasons to play ball last weekend when his legal team sat down to talk to federal prosecutors.

Discussion: Just Security, Politico, MSNBC, Patterico's Pontifications, electionlawblog.org, Common Dreams, Washington Free Beacon, The Week, Glamour and CNBC

New York Times:

‘How Did We End Up Here?’ Trump Wonders as the White House Soldiers On — In the hours after two of President Trump's former advisers delivered his administration potentially grave legal setbacks, the mood inside the White House was grim, a return to a trench-warfare mentality borne out of muscle memory.

Discussion: Business Insider, Washington Post, VICE News, AOL, The Week, Raw Story, KTLA, CNN and Mediaite

Jonathan Swan / Axios:

Exclusive: Michael Cohen told Congress he doesn't know if Trump knew about Russia meeting — Michael Cohen told lawmakers last year, in sworn testimony, that he didn't know whether then-candidate Donald Trump had foreknowledge of the 2016 Trump Tower meeting with Russians, three sources with knowledge of Cohen's testimony tell Axios.

Discussion: Political Wire and Raw Story

Christina Wilkie / CNBC:

Michael Cohen paid a mysterious tech company $50,000 ‘in connection with’ Trump's campaign — President Donald Trump's former lawyer, Michael Cohen, made a previously unreported payment of $50,000 to a tech company in connection with Trump's 2016 presidential campaign.

Discussion: USA Today, New York Post, Raw Story, Mediaite, Law & Crime and Talking Points Memo

Glenn Kessler / Washington Post:

Not just misleading. Not merely false. A lie. — The first denial that Donald Trump knew about hush-money payments to silence women came four days before he was elected president, when his spokeswoman Hope Hicks said, without hedging, “we have no knowledge of any of this.”

Discussion: CNNMoney, TheBlaze, The Ringer, Deadline, The Western Journal, The Week, HuffPost, The Daily Banter, CNN, The Daily Caller, Daily Kos, VICE News and CNBC, more at Mediagazer »

Chuck Ross / The Daily Caller:

Lanny Davis: Michael Cohen Never Went To Prague As Steele Dossier Claims — Michael Cohen's lawyer dropped a bombshell on Wednesday, saying that Cohen has not been to Prague — The Steele dossier alleges that Cohen traveled to Prague during the campaign to collude with Russians

Discussion: The Last Refuge, The Gateway Pundit, ABC News and Vox

Michael Kruse / Politico:

'He's Unraveling': Why Cohen's Betrayal Terrifies Trump — Perhaps for the first time, an insider has bitten back—hard. — For 16 or so hours after Tuesday's double-barreled bombshell news, President Trump couldn't even publicly say Michael Cohen's name.

Discussion: New York Times, Commentary Magazine, Wall Street Journal and Washington Post

Salena Zito / New York Post: Why Trump's supporters won't care about Cohen and Manafort's convictions

Politico:
‘It is what it is’: Republicans shrug off Trump's legal meltdown

Discussion: ABC News, The Daily Beast, Breitbart, USA Today, Toronto Star, Washington Free Beacon, ThinkProgress, Outside the Beltway and Axios

Jonathan Chait / New York Magazine:
Trump Tries to Deny His Crime With Cohen, Confesses by Mistake

Discussion: Fox News Insider, Shareblue Media and Joe.My.God.

Michael Burke / The Hill:
Cohen's lawyer on Trump Tower meeting: Cohen was ‘present at a discussion with’ Trump and Trump Jr.

Discussion: POLITICUSUSA and Washington Post

Sarah Ellison / Washington Post:
Trump campaign, tabloid publisher hatched plan to bury damaging stories, Cohen prosecutors allege

Discussion: POLITICUSUSA, CANNONFIRE, emptywheel and Reuters, more at Mediagazer »

Rick Klein / ABC News:
The Note: Words matter, even in the age of Trump

Discussion: Joe.My.God. and Politico

Rosalind S. Helderman / Washington Post:
After fast turn against Trump, Michael Cohen threatens to leverage secrets against the president

Discussion: Politico, Washington Free Beacon and The Hill

Gabriel Malor / Washington Examiner: Here's are the actual campaign finance crimes Cohen admitted to, and just what it means for Trump legally

David Klepper / Associated Press:
New York state subpoenas Cohen in Trump Foundation probe

Discussion: Conservative News Today, The Week, CNBC, TheBlaze, CBS Baltimore, CNN, Hill Reporter, Axios, France 24, The Daily Caller and Political Wire

Max Boot / Washington Post:
Trump is an illegitimate president whose election is tainted by fraud

Discussion: Vox, New York Times, The Week, Hot Air, Salon and Raw Story

Fox News:

Manafort juror reveals lone holdout prevented Mueller team from convicting on all counts — NORTHERN VIRGINIA - Special Counsel Robert Mueller's team was one holdout juror away from convicting Paul Manafort on all 18 counts of bank and tax fraud, juror Paula Duncan told Fox News in an exclusive interview Wednesday.

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Joe.My.God., NewsWars, Breitbart and The Week

Tal Axelrod / The Hill:

Manafort juror: One juror prevented jury from convicting Manafort on all 18 counts — A juror who sat on former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort — 's case said on Fox News Wednesday night that only one juror prevented a ruling on all 18 counts against Manafort

Discussion: Politico, Shareblue Media, New York Times, JONATHAN TURLEY and BloombergQuint

Matt Zapotosky / Washington Post:

Lone holdout on Manafort jury blocked conviction on all counts, juror says — A juror in the trial of Paul Manafort said Wednesday that all but one of the jurors wanted to convict President Trump's former campaign chairman on every charge he faced — though she criticized special counsel prosecutors …

Discussion: Political Wire, The Week and Fox News

Ken Dilanian / NBC News:

The nightmare is just beginning for Paul Manafort — Analysis: The next trial for Trump's former campaign chair will have more evidence, a longer possible sentence, and a less sympathetic judge. — WASHINGTON — Paul Manafort woke up Wednesday in a jail cell, just as he has each morning since …

Discussion: CNN, The National Memo, MSNBC, Daily Wire and Raw Story

Eric Beech / Reuters:
Trump says he's considering pardon for Manafort: Fox News reporter

Discussion: Political Wire

Caleb Howe / Mediaite: MSNBC Trounces Fox News in Ratings on Manafort-Cohen Day, Knocking Hannity to Third

Dana Blanton / Fox News:

Fox News Poll: Democrats maintain lead in race for House — Democrats are in a strong position for the midterms, according to the latest Fox News poll. — Several findings point to the potential for a blue map in November: — President Trump's job rating remains underwater.

Discussion: Political Wire and POLITICUSUSA

Carrie Dann / NBC News:
Poll: Democrat O'Rourke trails Ted Cruz by just 4 percentage points in Texas

Discussion: Hot Air, POLITICUSUSA, Splinter, Talking Points Memo, Axios and Political Wire

Politico:
With House majority at stake, Dems don't want to talk about impeaching Trump

Discussion: Talking Points Memo and Contemptor

Steven Shepard / Politico:
Poll: Trump trails several Democratic prospects in 2020 match-up

Discussion: Morning Consult, The Daily Caller, Common Dreams, twitchy.com, The Week, AOL and Political Wire

Erica L. Green / New York Times:

Betsy DeVos Is Said to Weigh Letting School Districts Use Federal Funds to Buy Guns — WASHINGTON — Betsy DeVos, the education secretary, is considering whether to allow states to use federal funding intended to increase academic and enrichment opportunities in the country's poorest schools …

Discussion: CNN, KTLA, Law & Crime, Raw Story, Joe.My.God., The Week, New Republic, Jezebel and Chalkbeat

Jason Clayworth / Des Moines Register:

Lawyer: Suspect in Mollie Tibbetts' slaying worked in Iowa legally. Not true, says employer — Defense lawyer accuses ‘sad and sorry Trump’ of poisoning potential jurors — A court document filed Wednesday morning states that the man accused of killing Mollie Tibbetts was working legally in Iowa …

Jalyn Souchek / KWWL-TV:
Aunt of Mollie Tibbetts makes statement

Discussion: CNN, Washington Post, The National Memo, Media Matters for America, Splinter, Law & Crime, Vox, New York Times and AOL

Katie Mettler / Washington Post:
Mollie Tibbetts's suspected killer, in the U.S. illegally, told investigators about her final moments

Discussion: Des Moines Register, LifeZette, New York Post, The Right Scoop, Breitbart, IJR, American Greatness, Law & Crime, Conservative Review, Fox News Insider and National Review

Aaron C. Davis / Washington Post:

Trump called this White House defender ‘wonderful.’ He was fired from his previous job for alleged sexual harassment. — A conservative commentator who was lauded by President Trump this week as “wonderful” and who has argued that past sexual indiscretions should have no bearing on Trump's presidency …

Discussion: CNNMoney, Joe.My.God., The Daily Beast, Raw Story, TVNewser, Daily Wire, Contemptor and Mediaite, more at Mediagazer »

RealClearInvestigations:

Despite Comey Assurances, Vast Bulk of Weiner Laptop Emails Were Never Examined — When then-FBI Director James Comey announced he was closing the Hillary Clinton email investigation for a second time just days before the 2016 election, he certified to Congress that his agency had …

Discussion: Real Clear Politics and Instapundit

Politico:

China slaps back at latest United States tariffs in trade war escalation — This story is being published for Pros as part of a content partnership with the South China Morning Post. It originally appeared on scmp.com on Aug. 23, 2018. — China slapped 25 percent tariffs …

Discussion: One America News Network

Reuters:
U.S.-China trade war escalates as new tariffs kick in

Discussion: Washington Post, New York Times and Bloomberg

Kinling Lo / Politico:
‘Thanks Mr Trump’: Chinese state media mocks the president

Discussion: Breitbart, One America News Network, SupChina, Japan Times, South China Morning Post and Raw Story

Politico:

‘A new cherry put on top’: Trump scandal fallout hangs over midterms — 'Payoffs and porn stars and affairs and indictments and all this stuff doesn't Make America Great Again in the suburbs,' said one Republican consultant. — As both parties seek to make sense of the fallout …

Discussion: Raw Story

John Sides / Washington Post:
A new poll shows 5 big challenges facing the Republicans in November

Discussion: Political Wire and FiveThirtyEight

Carl Hulse / New York Times:

As Bad News Piles Up, Republicans Hardly Flinch — WASHINGTON — For those wondering if the latest disclosures from the Trump legal file are finally weighty enough to cause top congressional Republicans to break from the president, the answer is no. — Twenty-four hours after President Trump …

Discussion: The Week and No More Mister Nice Blog

Isaac Stanley-Becker / Washington Post:

Trump tweets the word ‘Africa’ for first time as president — in defense of whites in South Africa — President Trump on Wednesday night said he was directing Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to “closely study the South Africa land and farm seizures,” as well as the “killing of farmers.”

Discussion: New York Times, Vox, ABC News, CNN, The Daily Banter and Althouse

Sara Fischer / Axios:

Teens are worried they're spending too much time on their phones — More than half (54%) of teens say they're worried that they're spending too much time with their devices, according to a new Pew Research Center report. — Why it matters: Americans, and young people in particular …