memeorandum: What Putin wants when he meets Trump at the G-20 (Patrick Reevell/ABC News)

12:15 PM ET, November 29, 2018

Top Items:

Michael Cohen to Plead Guilty to Charge in Mueller Investigation — Michael D. Cohen, President Trump's former lawyer, who pleaded guilty in August to breaking campaign finance laws, made a surprise appearance in a Manhattan courtroom on Thursday morning to plead guilty to a new criminal charge …

Discussion: Washington Monthly, CNN, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Law & Crime, POLITICUSUSA, Splinter, twitchy.com and Instapundit

George Stephanopoulos / ABC News:

Michael Cohen expected to plead guilty to lying to Congress in collusion probe; gave 70 hours of interviews to special counsel: Sources — Special counsel Robert Mueller has reached a tentative deal with Michael Cohen, the former personal attorney and long-time fixer for President Donald Trump, sources told ABC News.

Matthew Kahn / Lawfare:

Document: Michael Cohen Criminal Information in Mueller Probe — The Associate Press reports that on Thursday morning, former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen pleaded guilty in the Southern District of New York to making false statements to Congress related to his involvement in real estate deals in Russia on behalf of Donald Trump.

Discussion: Townhall, Mediaite, Talking Points Memo and The Daily Caller

Wall Street Journal:

Manafort Lied About Business Dealings, Mueller's Team Believes — Statements, which the former Trump aide describes as truthful, led the special counsel to end his plea agreement — Paul Manafort's alleged misstatements to special counsel Robert Mueller's investigators include comments …

NBC News:
Michael Cohen pleads guilty to lying about Trump Tower project in Moscow

Discussion: VICE News

Natasha Bertrand / The Atlantic: Is Manafort Angling for a Pardon?

Harry Litman / Washington Post:
The stunning implications of the Manafort-Trump pipeline

Discussion: The Atlantic, Salon and Politico

MSNBC:

Key Mueller witness: I lied and I'm ready to die in jail — In a blockbuster interview, key Mueller witness and Roger Stone associate Jerome Corsi admits to MSNBC's Ari Melber that he lied to Congress, that he tried to get stolen Clinton emails back to the Trump campaign in 2016, that he …

Discussion: New Republic

Washington Post:

Trump's night-owl calls to Roger Stone in 2016 draw scrutiny in Mueller probe — The calls almost always came deep into the night. — Caller ID labeled them “unknown,” but Roger Stone said he knew to pick up quickly during those harried months of the 2016 presidential campaign.

Discussion: Law & Crime, The Daily Beast, Talking Points Memo, POLITICUSUSA, Washington Times, Raw Story, Mediaite, Booman Tribune, HuffPost, Washington Monthly, Hullabaloo, Politico, National Review, Mother Jones and CNBC

Donald J. Trump / Popular Information:

The great unraveling — Welcome to a bonus edition of Popular Information, a newsletter with original research and fresh insight into the political news that matters most — written by me, Judd Legum. This is a bonus edition normally available only to paid subscribers.

Discussion: Just Security, Washington Post and Daily Kos

David A. Graham / The Atlantic:
The Emerging Russia-WikiLeaks-Trump Connection

Discussion: Axios, Washington Post and Power Line

Will Sommer / The Daily Beast:
Roger Stone and Jerome Corsi Pushed Seth Rich Lie After Privately Admitting Hackers Stole DNC Emails

Discussion: Business Insider, Mediaite, Boing Boing, Raw Story and Washington Times

Peter Kafka / Recode:

Mic has laid off the majority of its staff — The publisher is trying to sell the remainder of the company to Bustle Digital Group. — Mic is laying off the majority off its staff while the digital publisher works on a deal to sell the remainder of its assets to Bustle Digital Group.

Discussion: Gothamist and Splinter, more at Mediagazer »

New York Times:

Deutsche Bank Offices Are Searched in Money Laundering Investigation — One hundred seventy officers searched the headquarters of Deutsche Bank in Frankfurt and five other sites in the area early Thursday as part of a money-laundering investigation involving hundreds of millions of euros, prosecutors in Frankfurt said.

Discussion: Common Dreams and NPR

Bloomberg:

Deutsche Bank Raided by Police in Money-Laundering Probe — 170 German officials involved in searches of bank offices — Probe stems from Panama Papers, not role in Danske laundering — German authorities descended on Deutsche Bank AG, including its downtown Frankfurt headquarters …

Discussion: Washington Post and The Guardian

Washington Post:
Deutsche Bank headquarters raided in case connected to Panama Papers

Discussion: ThinkProgress

BBC: Deutsche Bank headquarters raided over money laundering

New York Post:

Trump slams special counsel after retweeting image of Rosenstein behind bars … WASHINGTON - It was no accident that President Trump Wednesday retweeted an image of Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein locked up. — When asked during an interview with The Post: “Why do you think he belongs behind bars?”

Discussion: Shareblue Media, IJR, Politico, Shakesville, Patterico's Pontifications, POLITICUSUSA, Raw Story, The Hill, Breitbart, CNN, Washington Post, ABC News, Political Wire, Talking Points Memo, The Daily Caller, The Gateway Pundit and Mediaite

New York Post:
Trump threatens to declassify ‘devastating’ docs about Democrats

Discussion: Defense One, CNN, Shareblue Media, Washington Times, TheBlaze, Axios, The Gateway Pundit, The Daily Caller, Talking Points Memo, Washington Post and Mediaite

Katie Rogers / New York Times:
Trump Administration Is Set to Ban Bump Stock Devices on Guns

Discussion: Vox, Hit & Run, Breitbart, CNN and IJR

Erin Banco / The Daily Beast:

Team Trump Had Many Ties to Israeli Intel Firm in Mueller's Crosshairs — The company promised to use social media manipulation to get Trump elected. And several members of Trump's inner circle were very, very interested. — At least three members of Donald Trump's 2016 campaign staff reached …

Discussion: Raw Story

The Daily Beast:
Stormy Daniels: Michael Avenatti Sued Trump For Defamation Against My Wishes

Jim Geraghty / National Review:
Jeffrey Epstein's Horrific History of Sex Crimes

Discussion: Washington Press, The American Conservative and Common Dreams

Lenny Bernstein / Washington Post:

U.S. life expectancy declines again, a dismal trend not seen since World War I — Life expectancy in the United States declined again in 2017, the government said Thursday in a bleak series of reports that showed a nation still in the grip of escalating drug and suicide crises.

New York Times:
‘The Numbers Are So Staggering.’ Overdose Deaths Set a Record Last Year.

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, The Daily Caller and Mother Jones

Patrick Reevell / ABC News:

What Putin wants when he meets Trump at the G-20 — President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin are due to have their first sitdown meeting since their world-spinning summit in Helsinki in July. — As of Thursday, it remained uncertain whether the planned encounter …

Discussion: Townhall, New York Post and Politico

Amie Ferris-Rotman / Washington Post:
Kremlin says Trump, Putin have agreed to meet at G-20 summit on Saturday

Discussion: The Daily Beast, Talking Points Memo, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Axios, NPR, VICE News and KyivPost

Natasha Bertrand / The Atlantic:
Papadopoulos's Russia Ties Continue to Intrigue

Discussion: Washington Press and Raw Story

Sonam Sheth / Business Insider:
Investigators are probing a letter that claims George Papadopoulos said he was pursuing …

Discussion: Hullabaloo and Boing Boing

Heather Caygle / Politico:

Pelosi shuts down critics in tense meeting — Nancy Pelosi was having none of it. — A trio of her fiercest Democratic critics — lawmakers trying to bar her from reclaiming the speaker's gavel — were trying to pin her down on exactly when she planned to relinquish power.

Discussion: New York Times, Outside the Beltway, Vox, The Hill, The Root, The Gateway Pundit and Daily Wire

Sheryl Gay Stolberg / New York Times:
Hakeem Jeffries Emerges as New Face of House Democrats

Discussion: The Root and Washington Monthly

Washington Post:

How Donald Trump appeals to men secretly insecure about their manhood — From boasting about the size of his penis on national television to releasing records of his high testosterone levels, President Trump's rhetoric and behavior exude machismo. His behavior also seems to have struck a chord with some male voters.

Discussion: Raw Story

Mark Joseph Stern / Slate:

Neil Gorsuch and Sonia Sotomayor Just Came Out Swinging Against Policing for Profit — Tyson Timbs just wants his car back. In 2015, Timbs was charged with selling heroin to undercover officers in Indiana to fund his opioid addiction. After he pleaded guilty, a private law firm filed …

Discussion: Hullabaloo, Hot Air, NPR, Washington Free Beacon and Reason

Phil McCausland / NBC News:

Veterans Affairs Dept. tells Capitol Hill it won't repay underpaid GI Bill benefits recipients — The news conflicts with a promise VA officials made to a House committee earlier this month that it would reimburse those veterans who received less than the full amount they were due.

Associated Press:

AP Exclusive: Mormons support GOP, but Trump approval lags — WASHINGTON (AP) — About two-thirds of Mormon voters nationwide favored Republicans in the midterm elections, but President Donald Trump's approval rating among members of the faith lagged behind, according to a nationwide survey of midterm voters.

Wes Parnell / New York Daily News:

Holocaust scholar at Teachers College, Columbia University finds swastikas spray-painted on her office wall — A Jewish professor and Holocaust scholar at Columbia Teacher's College said she found two swastikas and an anti-Semitic slur spray-painted on her office wall Wednesday.

Discussion: Splinter

Jason Schwartz / Politico:

Fox News will not tweet this story — The network hasn't tweeted since Nov. 8. — Tuesday was a red-letter day for Fox News: The launch of Fox Nation, its new subscription streaming service designed to appeal to the most obsessed Fox News fans. — And yet, armed with a Twitter feed capable …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Daily Kos and Media Matters for America, more at Mediagazer »

Matt Vespa / Townhall:

Sen. Jeff Flake's Nauseating Obstructionism Over Protect Mueller Bill Delayed 21 Trump Judicial Nominations — Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-MI) won her runoff election last night over Democrat Mike Espy in Mississippi, so Republicans have a solid 53-47 majority.

Discussion: Axios

Burgess Everett / Politico:
Senate Judiciary cancels nominee hearings over Flake's Mueller stand

Discussion: Salt Lake Tribune, The Resurgent, The Daily Caller, Breitbart, Raw Story, Axios, Washington Post and CNN

David Freedlander / New York Daily News:

Yes, Mike, run — as a Republican: If Bloomberg tries to become President as a Democrat, it'll backfire — Mike Bloomberg has called the President of the United States a grifter and a menace, his allies in Congress spineless sell-outs running roughshod over the Constitution.

Discussion: Althouse

Christina Cauterucci / Slate:

Democrats Blame Kirsten Gillibrand for Al Franken's Fall — They should be thanking her. — When seven women accused then-Minnesota Sen. Al Franken of sexual harassment or abuse last winter, Democrats were put in a tight spot. If they demanded Franken's resignation for alleged acts far less severe …

Discussion: Liberty Unyielding

Joe Williams / Washington Examiner:

Dick's Sporting Goods admits suffering gun policy backlash as sales slide — Sales at Dick's Sporting Goods dropped in the past three months amid backlash against tighter gun-sale restrictions following a mass killing early this year at a Florida high school.

Discussion: twitchy.com

U.S. Department of Justice:

Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein Delivers Remarks at the American Conference Institute's 35th International Conference on the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act — Thank you, Sandra [Moser]. I appreciate your exceptional work for the Department of Justice.