Top Items:
The Daily Beast:
Mueller Is Telling Us: He's Got Trump on Collusion — The special counsel is connecting the dots and it doesn't paint a pretty picture for Trump. — For nearly two years, since the U.S. intelligence community released its report on the Russian campaign to assist Donald Trump in the 2016 election …
Discussion:
Politico, POLITICUSUSA, One America News Network, The Guardian, Raw Story, Associated Press, Mother Jones, Algemeiner.com, ABC News and Observer
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New York Times:
Is This the Beginning of the End for Trump? — Sentencing memos reveal damning evidence about collusion and campaign finance violations. — Mr. Berke is a lawyer specializing in white-collar criminal defense. Mr. Bookbinder is a former federal corruption prosecutor.
Discussion:
Politico, ThinkProgress, Common Dreams, TheBlaze, Salon, ABC News, Lawyers, Guns & Money, Washington Monthly, AOL, The Guardian, Fox News Insider, NPR and Balloon Juice
Garrett M. Graff / Wired:
The Mueller Investigation Nears the Worst Case Scenario — WE ARE DEEP into the worst case scenarios. But as new sentencing memos for Trump associates Paul Manafort and Michael Cohen make all too clear, the only remaining question is how bad does the actual worst case scenario get?
Discussion:
The Week, Althouse and New York Times
Lawfare:
‘Totally Clears the President’? What Those Cohen and Manafort Filings Really Say — President Trump responded to today's filings from federal prosecutors in the cases of Michael Cohen and Paul Manafort with a Twitter cry of triumph: … Don't spend a lot of time looking through …
Discussion:
NPR, Townhall, The Gateway Pundit, Mediaite and CNBC
Paul Waldman / Washington Post:
The latest filings show that nobody can save Trump now — At the end of the day Friday, we learned what federal prosecutors in New York think of Michael Cohen: … This is bad news for Cohen, but there's something else interesting in the filing: Prosecutors explicitly state that Cohen coordinated …
Andrew C. McCarthy / National Review:
A Home Run by Trump — In nominating William Barr for AG, the president could not have done better — In 2007, the Justice Department was in disarray. Though it was largely exaggerated, a controversy over the firing of some United States attorneys, the intrusion of politics …
Discussion:
Variety, Washington Post and RealClearPolitics
Elie Honig / CNN:
Mueller is putting the puzzle pieces together on Trump — Elie Honig, a former federal and state prosecutor, is a CNN legal analyst and a Rutgers University scholar. The views expressed in this commentary are his own. View more opinion articles on CNN. — (CNN)President Trump …
Discussion:
KBZK
Just Security:
Mueller's Roadmap: Major Takeaways from Cohen and Manafort Filings — Federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York (SDNY) and from the Office of Special Counsel Robert Mueller filed significant documents in the criminal cases of President Donald Trump's former personal attorney …
David French / National Review:
The Special Counsel's Cohen Sentencing Brief Is Ominous for Trump — Friday evening, the Special Counsel's Office and the Southern District of New York filed three key documents: two sentencing memos for former Trump attorney Michael Cohen and a sentencing memo for former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort.
Discussion:
Associated Press, FOX6Now.com, Washington Press, Raw Story, Chicks On The Right and CNBC
Mike Allen / Axios:
When Russia approached, Trump officials gladly obliged — The flashing siren in the “known knowns” of the Russia probe is how often people close to Vladimir Putin approached people close to Donald J. Trump — and how often they gladly connected. And then lied about it.
Discussion:
Raw Story, Breitbart and Washington Post
The Daily Beast:
Michael Cohen Was Paid More Than $4 Million by Promising Access to Trump, Prosecutors Say
Michael Cohen Was Paid More Than $4 Million by Promising Access to Trump, Prosecutors Say
Discussion:
Sputnik International, Hit & Run and HuffPost
Adam Rawnsley / The Daily Beast:
Mueller: Manafort Lied About Contacts With Trump Officials
Mueller: Manafort Lied About Contacts With Trump Officials
Discussion:
Axios
Mikhaila Fogel / Lawfare:
Document: Special Counsel's Office Files Submission in Support of Breach Determination in Manafort Case
Document: Special Counsel's Office Files Submission in Support of Breach Determination in Manafort Case
Discussion:
Booman Tribune and Washington Monthly
Michael Balsamo / Associated Press:
Prosecutors: Illegal hush-money paid at Trump's ‘direction’
Jonathan Chait / New York Magazine:
The Department of Justice Calls Donald Trump a Felon
The Department of Justice Calls Donald Trump a Felon
Discussion:
Washington Press, The Guardian, Vox, Common Dreams, Splinter and The American Conservative
New York Times:
Michael Cohen, Trump's Ex-Fixer, Should Get Prison Term of About 4 Years, Prosecutors Say
Michael Cohen, Trump's Ex-Fixer, Should Get Prison Term of About 4 Years, Prosecutors Say
Discussion:
Outside the Beltway, Contemptor, The Root, The Week, Mediaite, Common Dreams, Mother Jones and New Republic
Washington Post:
Mueller says Manafort told ‘discernible lies,’ …
Mueller says Manafort told ‘discernible lies,’ …
Discussion:
Axios, Hullabaloo, emptywheel, The Daily Beast, Politico, Joe.My.God. and Vox
Washington Post:
New Mueller filing says Trump's ex-lawyer Michael Cohen was in touch with a Russian seeking …
New Mueller filing says Trump's ex-lawyer Michael Cohen was in touch with a Russian seeking …
Associated Press:
House GOP unhappy with Comey's answers behind closed doors
House GOP unhappy with Comey's answers behind closed doors
Discussion:
The Hill and Shareblue Media
Aidan McLaughlin / Mediaite:
Dershowitz Says Michael Cohen Sentencing Memo Sends Message: Don't Cooperate With Mueller
Dershowitz Says Michael Cohen Sentencing Memo Sends Message: Don't Cooperate With Mueller
Discussion:
Law & Crime
Anne-Elisabeth Moutet / New York Post:
In France, les deplorables strike back — PARIS — Glittering shops from Louis Vuitton to Dior are boarded up on both sides of the Champs-Élysées. The Eiffel Tower and the Louvre will be closed. Paris has hunkered down for the latest Yellow Saturday, the fourth in a row …
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Kim Willsher / The Guardian:
Gilets jaunes: police use teargas to clear Paris protesters
Gilets jaunes: police use teargas to clear Paris protesters
Discussion:
Politico, ThinkProgress, Townhall and Daily Wire
Annie Karni / New York Times:
Eric Trump Weighs In on Kellyanne Conway's Husband. He Doesn't Like Him. — WASHINGTON — George Conway, a prominent conservative lawyer, is married to Kellyanne Conway, a White House counselor well known to cable viewers as a passionate defender of President Trump.
New York Times:
Mattis Erupts Over Niger Inquiry and Army Revisits Who Is to Blame — WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Jim Mattis was livid last month when he summoned top military officials to a video conference at the Pentagon to press them about an investigation into a 2017 ambush in Niger that killed four Americans on a Green Beret team.
Discussion:
Task & Purpose
Christina Cauterucci / Slate:
I'm So Sorry to Report that Ted Cruz's New Beard Looks Great — I have no particular fondness for this subject and it brings me no pleasure to cover it. But as a truth-seeking journalist, I feel I must write what follows: Sen. Ted Cruz's new beard looks great.
Discussion:
Althouse
Daniel Strauss / Politico:
GOP power grabs pour gas on ‘resistance’ in key Midwest states — Republican efforts to weaken incoming Democratic governors in Michigan and Wisconsin have reignited the grass-roots fervor that flipped both states in November, turning the typically sleepy post-election period …
Wesley Morgan / Politico:
Trump announces Army chief Mark Milley as pick for next Joint Chiefs chairman — President Donald Trump on Saturday named Army Gen. Mark Milley as his nominee to be the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. — Milley is set to replace current chairman Gen. Joseph Dunford, who still has nearly 10 months left in his term.
Discussion:
Washington Post
CNN:
VA secretary praised Confederate president as a “martyr to ‘The Lost Cause’” in 1995 speech — (CNN)Secretary of Veterans Affairs Robert Wilkie praised Confederate States President Jefferson Davis effusively in a 1995 speech, calling him a “martyr to ‘The Lost Cause’” and an “exceptional man in an exceptional age.”
Discussion:
Lawyers, Guns & Money, HuffPost, Task & Purpose, Raw Story, Splinter, New Republic and Mediaite
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Washington Post:
Self-professed neo-Nazi James A. Fields Jr. convicted of first-degree murder in car-ramming that killed one, injured dozens — CHARLOTTESVILLE — An avowed supporter of neo-Nazi beliefs who took part in the violent and chaotic white supremacist “Unite the Right” rally in this city last year …
Discussion:
The Daily Beast, The Crime Report, NBC News, Common Dreams, HuffPost, KBZK, Daily Kos, Joe.My.God., The Root, The Week, Balloon Juice, Shareblue Media, Little Green Footballs, Splinter and Axios
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Denise Lavoie / Associated Press:
Man who drove into crowd convicted of first-degree murder
Man who drove into crowd convicted of first-degree murder
Discussion:
New York Times and New Republic
Nick Ochsner / Popular Information:
Vice Chair of Bladen County Board of Elections abruptly resigns — The election scandal engulfing North Carolina's 9th district, where Republican Mark Harris leads Democrat Dan McCready by 905 votes, took an unusual turn on Friday night. Jens Lutz, the Vice Chair of the Bladen County Board …
Discussion:
WRAL-TV
Mairead McArdle / National Review:
Virginia Teacher Fired after Refusing to Call Trans Student by Preferred Pronoun — A Virginia high-school teacher was fired on Thursday after refusing to address a transgender student by the student's preferred pronoun. — The school board of the West Point Consolidated School District …
Discussion:
The American Conservative
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Graham Moomaw / Richmond Times-Dispatch:
Virginia high school teacher fired for refusing to use transgender student's new pronouns
Virginia high school teacher fired for refusing to use transgender student's new pronouns
Discussion:
WTVR-TV, IJR, WWBT-TV, WRIC-TV, FRC, TheBlaze, ThinkProgress, Law & Crime and The Daily Signal