1/ Maria Butina pleaded guilty to conspiring to act as a foreign agent of the Kremlin and influence U.S. politics from 2015 until her arrest in July. Butina tried to establish “unofficial lines of communication� with influential Americans in the NRA and in the Republican Party “under direction of� a former Russian senator and deputy governor of Russia’s central bank, who matches the description of sanctioned Russian central banker Alexander Torshin. Butina is also expected to provide evidence against Paul Erickson, who helped her with what she called her “Diplomacy Project.� Butina faces up to five years in prison but is expected to only serve six months based on “the sentencing guidelines cited as part of the plea agreement.� (Washington Post / CNN / New York Times / Wall Street Journal / Politico) / NBC News)

2/ Trump claimed he “never directed Michael Cohen to break the law� and said he isn’t responsible for any crimes because he acted on the “advice of counsel� and his former lawyer is “supposed to know the law.� Trump also questioned whether any campaign finance violations even occurred, saying “Cohen was guilty on many charges unrelated to me […] which were not criminal and of which he probably was not guilty even on a civil basis.� Trump suggested that Cohen pleaded guilty to the charges in order to “embarrass� him and to get a reduced prison term. Cohen pleaded guilty in August to violating campaign finance law when he made hush money payments ahead of the 2016 election to Stormy Daniels and arranged a similar pay-off to Karen McDougal at the direction of then-candidate Trump, which were intended to sway the election. (New York Times / Washington Post / The Guardian / Politico / CNN / NBC News)

🚨 CONFIRMED: Trump was the “other member of the campaign� in the room when Cohen and National Enquirer publisher David Pecker discussed ways Pecker could “help deal with negative stories about that presidential candidate’s relationships with women.� In August 2015, Trump and Cohen met with Pecker in his Trump Tower office and asked how he could help the campaign. Pecker offered to use the National Enquirer to buy the silence of women if they tried to publicize alleged sexual encounters with Trump. (Wall Street Journal /