1/ Trump’s national security team said Russia is behind “pervasive� and “ongoing� attempts to interfere in upcoming U.S. elections. “The threat is real. It is continuing,� said Dan Coats, Director of National Intelligence. Hours later, Trump defended his “great meeting with Putin,� saying “the Russian hoax� is getting in the way of improved relations with the world’s second-ranked nuclear power. (Reuters / CNBC / CNN)

2/ The NRA is in financial jeopardy and may “be unable to exist … or pursue its advocacy mission.� Since May, the gun group has been suing New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the state’s financial regulators, claiming the state of New York subjected it to a “blacklisting campaign� that resulted in “tens of millions of dollars in damages� from the loss of insurance coverage it needs in order to “maintain its physical premises, convene off-site meetings and events, operate educational programs,� and “hold rallies, conventions, and assemblies.� The association overspent by almost $46 million in 2016. (Rolling Stone)

3/ China will impose retaliatory tariffs on $60 billion worth of U.S. imports if Trump goes ahead with his latest threat to increase tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods. The Trump administration imposed 25% duties on $34 billion of Chinese goods on July 6, which prompted Beijing to retaliate with similar charges on the same amount of U.S. products. A senior administration official said there was “zero� engagement between the Trump administration and China. Another official said there has been “one call in the past few days,� and that it resolved nothing. (Associated Press / Politico / Washington Post / CNBC)

4/ A Trump donor agreed to pay Michael Cohen $10 million if he could secure a $5 billion loan from the federal government for a nuclear power plant in Alabama. The loan application by Franklin Haney’s company is still pending at the Energy Department. The agreement, which is no longer in effect, was made shortly before Cohen’s home, office and hotel room were raided by federal agents on April 9. Haney donated $1 million to the Trump inaugural fund through a corporate entity. Nuclear Development...

1/ Robert Mueller offered to reduce the number of obstruction of justice-related questions his team would ask Trump during a sit-down interview. Mueller’s team would also allow some answers to be provided in written form. Negotiations over a potential presidential interview have been ongoing since March, and Mueller still plans to press Trump on topics related to obstruction, including questions about the firing of then-FBI Director James Comey. In response to the proposal Mueller sent Monday, Rudy Giuliani told reporters that it’s time for the special counsel to “put up or shut up.� (Washington Post / ABC News / CNN)

Robert Mueller has requested an interview with the Russian pop star who helped set up the 2016 Trump Tower meeting. Emin Agalarov’s lawyer said the “conversations are ongoing� but that it’s “unclear how this will play out.� Agalarov’s father, Aras Agalarov, is a billionaire with ties to Putin; he partnered with the Trump Organization to bring the 2013 Miss Universe pageant to Moscow. (NBC News)

A federal judge ruled that a former Roger Stone aide must testify before Robert Mueller’s grand jury. Andrew Miller tried to challenge the legitimacy of Mueller’s appointment in an effort to block subpoenas from the special counsel related to the ongoing investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. (Washington Post / Politico)

2/ Trump told his advisers in recent days that he is eager to meet with Mueller and has urged his lawyers to reach an agreement on a sit-down interview with the special counsel, despite their warnings that he should not answer the Mueller team’s questions. (New York Times)

3/ Hours after his lawyers updated him on the Mueller investigation, Trump called on Jeff Sessions to end the special counsel’s investigation into Russian election interference. On Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning, Trump’s lawyers updated him on the latest developments, including Mueller’s proposal to limit obstruction-related questions. Shortly thereafter, Trump tweeted that Sessions should end the Mueller investigation “right now,� calling it a “terrible situation� and a “disgrace to USA!� (CNN)

4/ The Trump administration plans to roll back Obama-era fuel efficiency and emissions standards on new cars. Under the Obama administration, the EPA and the Transportation Department set requirements for new cars to average at least 35 mpg by 2020 and to continue improving efficiency up to 50 mpg by 2025. The policy was i...

1/ Trump urged Jeff Sessions to end the Mueller investigation and “stop this Rigged Witch Hunt right now.� In a morning tweetstorm, Trump called Mueller’s probe “a terrible situation� that should be stopped “before it continues to stain our country any further.� Rod Rosenstein has been overseeing the probe since Sessions recused himself last March – before Mueller was appointed. Trump has said he would have never hired Sessions had he known he would recuse himself from the Russia investigation. Mueller, meanwhile, has been scrutinizing Trump’s tweets and statements about Sessions and James Comey as potential evidence in an obstruction of justice case. Sarah Huckabee Sanders and Trump’s lawyers claimed that the message was not a formal order, but rather just the President of United States expressing his opinion. (New York Times / CNBC / CNN / Washington Post)

..This is a terrible situation and Attorney General Jeff Sessions should stop this Rigged Witch Hunt right now, before it continues to stain our country any further. Bob Mueller is totally conflicted, and his 17 Angry Democrats that are doing his dirty work are a disgrace to USA!

Trump tweets that the prosecution of Paul Manafort is “a hoax.� Meanwhile, the federal jury in Virginia is hearing evidence in Manafort’s trial on tax evasion and fraud charges. (Washington Post)

Paul Manafort worked for Ronald Reagan, Bob Dole and many other highly prominent and respected political leaders. He worked for me for a very short time. Why didn’t government tell me that he was under investigation. These old charges have nothing to do with Collusion - a Hoax!

Russian Collusion with the Trump Campaign, one of the most successful in history, is a TOTAL HOAX. The Democrats paid for the phony and discredited Dossier which was, along with Comey, McCabe, Strzok and his lover, the lovely Lisa Page, used to begin the Witch Hunt. Disgraceful!

1/ Facebook identified a coordinated political influence campaign involving 32 “inauthentic� pages and profiles engaging in divisive messaging ahead of the midterm elections. While the social media company said it couldn’t directly link the activity to Russia, company officials told Capitol Hill that Russia was possibly involved. “It’s clear that whoever set up these accounts went to much greater lengths to obscure their true identities than the Russian-based Internet Research Agency (IRA) has in the past,� Facebook wrote. The company removed 32 pages and accounts. (New York Times / Washington Post / Politico / NBC News / Wall Street Journal)

2/ Trump repeated Rudy Giuliani’s defense that “Collusion is not a crime, but that doesn’t matter because there was No Collusion.� For months, Trump has repeatedly denied that there was collusion between his campaign and Russia. In December, Trump said that “collusion is not a crime,� but legal experts believe that anyone found collaborating with Russia could be charged with other crimes, such as conspiracy, fraud and computer hacking. (CNN / Politico)

Collusion is not a crime, but that doesn’t matter because there was No Collusion (except by Crooked Hillary and the Democrats)!

3/ [Developing] Paul Manafort’s tax and bank fraud trial started today. The trial is the first in connection with Robert Mueller’s ongoing investigation into possible collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign. Collusion and Russia, however, are not likely to come up during the trial. Mueller is expected to focus on Manafort’s business dealings and his lobbying work on behalf of the pro-Kremlin Ukrainian government. It is unclear whether Manafort will take the stand at any point during the trial. The jury was selected and sworn in. The prosecution’s opening statements began with “Paul Manafort lied.� (Politico / NPR / ABC News / Reuters)

Live blogs: Was...

1/ Rudy Giuliani: “Collusion is not a crime.� Trump’s lawyer told Fox and Friends “I don’t even know if that’s a crime, colluding about Russians,� and that he’s been “looking in the federal code trying to find collusion as a crime.� Giuliani asserted that “the hacking is the crime. The president didn’t hack. He didn’t pay them for hacking,� suggesting that Trump would have had to pay for Russia to interfere on his behalf. Trump has argued for more than a year that there was “no collusion� – not that collusion wasn’t a crime. On Sunday, Trump tweeted that “There is No Collusion!� and that “the Witch Hunt is an illegal Scam!� (The Hill / Washington Post / CNN)

WOW -- @RudyGiuliani begins @foxandfriends interview by downplaying the significance of collusion.

"I have been sitting here looking in the federal code trying to find collusion as a crime. Collusion is not a crime." 👀 pic.twitter.com/fD1MdS6T29

There is No Collusion! The Robert Mueller Rigged Witch Hunt, headed now by 17 (increased from 13, including an Obama White House lawyer) Angry Democrats, was started by a fraudulent Dossier, paid for by Crooked Hillary and the DNC. Therefore, the Witch Hunt is an illegal Scam!

2/ Trump claimed that Robert Mueller’s investigation has multiple “conflicts of interest,� including a “very nasty and contentious business relationship� between the two men. Giuliani said the dispute remains unresolved “even to this day,� but refused to detail the alleged conflict. Last year, White House advisers said Mueller had a dispute over membership fees at Trump National Golf Club in Northern Virginia in 2011. Trump tried to fire Mueller in June 2017 over alleged conflicts of interest. (The Hill / CNN / Washington Post)

Is Robert Mueller ever ...

1/ Michael Cohen says Trump knew in advance about Trump Jr.’s meeting at Trump Tower in June 2016 with a Russian lawyer promising dirt on Hillary Clinton. Cohen doesn’t have evidence to back up his claim, but he is reportedly willing to make the assertion as part of his testimony to Robert Mueller. Cohen claims that he, along with several others, were in the room when Trump Jr. told Trump about the Russian’s offer. According to Cohen, Trump approved the meeting with Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya. Cohen’s claim contradicts Trump, Trump Jr., their lawyers, and administration officials who have repeatedly said Trump didn’t know about the meeting until he was asked about it in July 2017. Trump’s response at the time was: “No. That I didn’t know. Until a couple of days ago, when I heard about this. No I didn’t know about that.� A few days later, Trump was again asked whether he knew about the meeting. His response: “No, I didn’t know anything about the meeting…. must have been a very unimportant meeting, because I never even heard about it … nobody told me.�(CNN / NBC News / Washington Post)

19 times Trump and his allies denied he knew of the 2016 Trump Tower meeting. If true, Cohen’s claim would contradict repeated denials from Trump, Donald Trump Jr., and lawyers for both, as well as other administration officials, who maintain that Trump learned about the meeting in 2017. (CNN)

Michael Cohen: “I’m not going to be a punching bag anymore.� Cohen’s actions appear to be driven by his outrage over Trump’s indifference, his feelings of betrayal, and the personal and financial weight of the criminal case being assembled by federal prosecutors. (Washington Post)

2/ Trump tweeted that he “did NOT know� in advance about Trump Jr.’s Trump Tower meeting, disputing Michael Cohen’s assertion that he did and accusing him of “trying to make up stories.� Cohen said he’s willing to testify that then-candidate Trump knew in advance about the 2016 meeting in Trump Tower. In July 2017, it was reported that Trump personally dictated Trump Jr.‘s statement about the latter’s meeting with the Russian lawyer, claiming they had “primarily discussed a program about the adoption of Russian children.� (Washington Post / CNN)

.....I did NOT know of the meeting with my son, Don jr. Sounds to me like someone is trying to m...

1/ House Freedom Caucus leaders Jim Jordan and Mark Meadows introduced articles of impeachment against Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. “The DOJ is keeping information from Congress. Enough is enough,� Jordan said in a statement. “It’s time to hold Mr. Rosenstein accountable for blocking Congress’s constitutional oversight role.� The resolution is unlikely to pass, as top GOP lawmakers have not signed on to the effort, but it represents the strongest step that conservative allies of Trump have taken so far in their feud with Rosenstein and the Justice Department. (Politico / CNN / Washington Post)

2/ Paul Ryan rejected the efforts by House conservatives to impeach Rosenstein, saying “I don’t think we should be cavalier with this process or with this term.� 11 of the 236 Republicans in the House accused Rosenstein of withholding documents and being insufficiently transparent in his handling of the Russia probe led by Robert Mueller. Ryan added that the House Republicans document request doesn’t rise to the level of “high crimes and misdemeanors� that warrant impeachment under the Constitution. (Associated Press / Vox / Washington Post / Politico)

3/ Robert Mueller is scrutinizing Trump’s tweets and negative statements about Jeff Sessions and James Comey as part of his obstruction of justice investigation. Mueller is trying to determine whether Trump’s statements and actions constitute attempts to obstruct the investigation via witness intimidation and pressuring senior law enforcement officials to impede the inquiry. Mueller also reportedly wants to question Trump about his tweets. (New York Times)

4/ A federal grand jury subpoenaed the CFO of the Trump Organization to testify as a witness in the ongoing probe into Michael Cohen’s business practices. Allen Weisselberg’s name was mentioned on the recently released audio recording of one of Cohen’s conversations with Trump f...

1/ A federal judge ruled for a second time that Trump must face a lawsuit accusing him of improperly profiting from his Washington hotel. U.S. District Judge Peter Messitte denied the dismissal request. The attorneys general of Maryland and the District of Columbia claim that Trump is violating the U.S. Constitution’s foreign emoluments clause by taking payments from foreign governments at the Trump International Hotel on Pennsylvania Avenue in downtown Washington. Trump faces a separate emoluments case in Washington, filed by about 200 Congressional Democrats. The administration argued last month that this case should also be dismissed. (Bloomberg / Washington Post)

2/ Michael Cohen’s lawyer leaked one of the recordings of his conversations with Trump. Trump is heard discussing how he and Cohen would buy the rights to former Playboy model Karen McDougal’s story about her alleged affair with Trump. The recording confirms that Trump had knowledge about the proposal to buy McDougal’s story and suppress it. On the tape, Cohen tells Trump “I need to open up a company for the transfer of all of that info regarding our friend David,� a reference to David Pecker, the head of American Media, which publishes the National Enquirer and had paid McDougal $150,000 for the rights to her story. Trump then asked, “What do we got to pay for this? One-fifty?� Cohen confirms the amount and says it’s for “all the stuff.� Trump muses that “maybe he gets hit by a truck.� (CNN / New York Times / Washington Post / Politico)

The Trump-Michael Cohen tape transcript, annotated. Trump and Michael Cohen reportedly discussed paying for the rights to Playboy Playmate Karen McDougal’s story of an alleged affair with Trump. The story at the time belonged to the publisher of the National Enquirer, American Media Inc., and the tape provides the first evidence that Trump spoke with Cohen about purchasing the rights to women’s stories – apparently to silence them – before the 2016 election. (Washington Post)

Cohen created a shell company in September 2016 to buy the rights to Karen McDougal’s story about having an affair with Trump. Cohen created Resolution Consultants on Sept. 30, 2016, and then dissolved it on Oct. 17, 2016 – the same day he created Essential Consultants LLC, which he used pay Stormy Daniels $130,000. (Wall Street Journal)

Federal investigators are scrutinizing Cohen’s relationship with David Pecker, head of American Media, which publishes the National Enquirer. The Justice Department is examining whether American Media acted more like an extension of Trump and his campaign in their coordination to keep Karen McDougal’s account of her affair with Trump under wraps ahead of the 2016 presidential election. (

1/ The Trump administration will provide over $12 billion in emergency aid to farmers hurt by retaliatory tariffs from China and other countries in Trump’s escalating trade war. The aid package, expected to go into effect by Labor Day, provides assistance to soybean farmers, dairy farmers, pork producers, and others. Hours before the announcement, Trump tweeted that “Tariffs are the greatest!� (Washington Post / Politico / Associated Press)

Tariffs are the greatest! Either a country which has treated the United States unfairly on Trade negotiates a fair deal, or it gets hit with Tariffs. It’s as simple as that - and everybody’s talking! Remember, we are the “piggy bank� that’s being robbed. All will be Great!

How to tell if the trade war starts to hurt the economy. Early indicators include executive surveys and futures markets. If you want a dashboard for evidence of economic damage from the trade war, here’s what should be on it. (New York Times)

Trump urged farmers to “be a little patient� with his trade policies, urging people not to believe the news, because “what you’re seeing and what you’re reading is not what’s happening.� (Washington Post)

2/ The Trump administration deported as many as 463 parents without their children, who were taken from them at the border. Those parents may not be eligible to be reunited with their children. The report to U.S. District Court Judge Dana Sabraw said the 463 cases do not represent the final tally of migrant parents who have been deported while their children remain inside U.S. detention centers. (Washington Post / NBC News)

3/ Trump claimed in a tweet that he is “concerned� Russia “will be pushing very hard for the Democrats� in the midterm elections, because “no President has been tougher on Russia than me.� Last week, Trump cast doubt on the U.S. intelligence community’s conclusion that Russia tried to help him get elected. Trump also told reporters “no,� he doesn’t believe Russia was still a threat. Trump capped his tweet off with “They definitely don’t want Trump!� He offered no evidence to support his claims. (

1/ The Justice Department released a previously classified application to wiretap Carter Page, which shows that “the FBI believes Page has been the subject of targeted recruitment by the Russian government� to “undermine and influence the outcome of the 2016 U.S. presidential election.� According to the October 2016 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act application, the FBI believed “the Russian government’s efforts are being coordinated with Page and perhaps other individuals associated� with the Trump campaign to establish “relationships with Russian government officials, including Russian intelligence officers.� The application says that Page “has been collaborating and conspiring with the Russian government.� (New York Times / Washington Post / ABC News)

Looking more & more like the Trump Campaign for President was illegally being spied upon (surveillance) for the political gain of Crooked Hillary Clinton and the DNC. Ask her how that worked out - she did better with Crazy Bernie. Republicans must get tough now. An illegal Scam!

2/ Trump – providing no evidence – claimed the released documents prove the Justice Department and FBI “misled the Court� as a “pretext to SPY on the Trump Team.� Trump, dismissing the claims in the FISA application, charged that it shows his campaign “was illegally being spied upon (surveillance) for the political gain of Crooked Hillary Clinton and the DNC.� (New York Times)

“It was classified to cover up misconduct by the FBI and the Justice Department in misleading the Court by using this Dossier in a dishonest way to gain a warrant to target the Trump Team. This is a Clinton Campaign document. It was a fraud and a hoax designed to target Trump....

....and the DOJ, FBI and Obama Gang need to be held to account. Source #1 was the major source. Avoided talking about it being the Clinton campaign behind it. Misled the Court to provide a pretext to SPY on the Trump Team. Not about Carter Page..was all about getting Trump.....

.....�Carter Page wasn’t a spy, wasn’t an agent of the Russians - he would have cooperated with the FBI. It was a fraud and a hoax designed to target Trump.� Tom Fitton @JudicialWatch A disgrace to America. They should drop the discredited Muel...