1/ Michael Cohen recorded a conversation with Trump two months before the presidential election in which they discussed payments to Karen McDougal, the former Playboy model who had an affair with Trump. In the September 2016 conversation at Trump Tower, Cohen told Trump that American Media Inc., the publisher of the National Enquirer, had bought the rights to McDougal’s story about her affair with Trump for for $150,000 in August 2016. Cohen suggested that they acquire the rights to McDougal’s story themselves and Trump asked how to proceed and whether he should write a check. The FBI seized the recording during the raid on Cohen’s office. Rudy Giuliani confirmed that Trump had discussed the payments with Cohen on the tape, but said the payment was ultimately never made. Prosecutors want to know if Cohen’s efforts to limit negative stories about Trump during the campaign violated federal campaign finance laws. When informed about the recording today, Trump responded: “I can’t believe Michael would do this to me.� (New York Times / Wall Street Journal / Washington Post / CNN)

� WTF REWIND:

Four days before the 2016 election, it was first reported that the company that owns the National Enquirer had paid McDougal $150,000 for her story about a Trump affair a decade ago, but then didn’t publish the story – effectively silencing McDougal for the remainder of the campaign. At the time, Hope Hicks said of the agreement, “We have no knowledge of any of this,� adding that McDougal’s claim that she had an affair with Trump was “totally untrue.� (Wall Street Journal)

In April 2018, the FBI raided Cohen’s office, seizing his computers and phones. Cohen was known to have sometimes recorded conversations and store them as digital files. (Washington Post)

2/ The FBI reopened the Hillary Clinton email investigation 11 days before the election because they were focused on investigating the Trump campaign’s connections to Russia, according to the report of the Justice Department’s inspector general. In late September 2016, FBI agents learned about a new batch of Clinton emails from the laptop of former congressman Anthony Weiner, who was under investigation for sexting a minor and was married at the time to Clinton aide Huma Abedin. The bureau was evidently overwhelmed with the urgency of the Trump-Russia investigation so that management lapses and communication breakdowns caused a monthlong delay in looking into the new Clinton emails. Nine days after announcing he was reopening the probe, James Comey said the FBI found nothing in the new emails to change the original July decision against bring...

1/ Two weeks before his inauguration, Trump was briefed that Putin had personally ordered the cyberattacks to influence the 2016 election. The intelligence briefing included texts and emails from Russian military officers, as well as evidence from a source close to Putin, who had described how the Kremlin executed the hacking and disinformation campaign. After flip-flopping on whether he believed Putin’s denial that Russia interfered in the election, Trump indirectly blamed Putin for meddling, “because he’s in charge of the country.� (New York Times)

2/ Trump now “disagrees� with Putin’s “incredible offer� to allow Moscow to interrogate 11 Americans in exchange for access to the 12 Russian military intelligence officers indicted for their role in trying to sabotage the 2016 election, according to Sarah Huckabee Sanders. Yesterday, the White House said Trump was entertaining Putin’s proposal to swap officials for questioning, calling it “an interesting idea,� which prompted a backlash from both Republicans and Democrats. It took Trump three days to come this conclusion. (Washington Post / New York Times / Reuters)

3/ Russia’s ambassador to the U.S. claimed Trump and Putin had reached several “important verbal agreements� on issues in the Middle East and nuclear proliferation. Senior U.S. military leaders, however, have little to no information about what the two leaders discussed or agreed to. (Washington Post / The Guardian)

4/ Trump invited Putin to visit the White House this fall for a second summit despite his advisers struggling to ascertain what Trump and Putin agreed to. Earlier in the day, Trump tweeted that he is already looking “forward to our

1/ Trump said “no,� he does not believe Russia is still targeting the U.S. with efforts to undermine American democracy, contradicting his director of national intelligence. Last week, Dan Coats said that “the digital infrastructure that serves this country is literally under attack.� And, in particular, Russia is the “most aggressive foreign actor, no question. And they continue their efforts to undermine our democracy.� Coats described Russia as one of the “worst offenders.� Sarah Sanders said the Russian “threat still exists� and that Trump was saying “no� to answering more questions. Intelligence officials in the U.S. and U.K. also believe Russia is planning to ramp up digital operations targeting western countries now that the World Cup and the Trump-Putin Helsinki summit have ended. (Reuters / CNN / New York Times / Los Angeles Times)

"No,� President Trump says when asked if Russia is targeting the US https://t.co/eszpyDpaDt

2/ Trump defended his summit with Putin, tweeting that “people at the higher ends of intelligence loved my press conference performance in Helsinki.� The claim comes less than 24 hours after Trump attempted to backtrack and spin his statements that he mispoke and meant to say “I don’t see any reason why it wouldn’t be Russia� that interfered in the election. Trump promised “big results� and “many positive things.� (Washington Post / New York Times)

So many people at the higher ends of intelligence loved my press conference performance in Helsinki. Putin and I discussed many important subjects at our earlier meeting. We got along well which truly bothered many haters who wanted to see a boxing match. Big results will come!

Trump crossed out a line about...

1/ Trump backtracked and tried to spin his Helsinki summit comments. Reading from prepared remarks, Trump claimed he misspoke yesterday and meant to say “I don’t see any reason why it wouldn’t be Russia� that interfered in the election. Trump also said “I accept� the intelligence community’s conclusion that Russia meddled in the 2016 election, but it “could be other people also.� Trump asserted that “Russia’s actions had no impact at all� on the election outcome. During yesterday’s news conference, Trump said he doesn’t “see any reason� why Russia would have meddled during the last election. Prior to that, Trump blamed the U.S. for acting with “foolishness and stupidity� toward Russia in the past. Trump also rejected the consensus of U.S. intelligence agencies that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election. Instead, Trump said he believed Putin’s denial. (Bloomberg / CNBC / Wall Street Journal / New York Times / Washington Post)

2/ Trump tweeted that his meeting with Putin was “even better� than his “great meeting with NATO� allies while blaming the media for being “rude� and “going Crazy!� (Washington Post / Bloomberg / Reuters)

I had a great meeting with NATO. They have paid $33 Billion more and will pay hundreds of Billions of Dollars more in the future, only because of me. NATO was weak, but now it is strong again (bad for Russia). The media only says I was rude to leaders, never mentions the money!

While I had a great meeting with NATO, raising vast amounts of money, I had an even better meeting with Vladimir Putin of Russia. Sadly, i...

1/ Trump rejected the consensus of U.S. intelligence agencies that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election, saying he doesn’t “see any reason why� Russia would have interfered, and that Putin “was extremely strong and powerful� in denying it during their summit in Helsinki. Trump’s refusal to condemn Moscow clashed with the conclusions of U.S. intelligence agencies, and comes days after the Justice Department indicted 12 Russian intelligence agents for hacking the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign in an attempt to help Trump. Putin confirmed the he wanted Trump to win the election. Prior to the summit, Trump blamed “U.S. foolishness and stupidity� for poor Russian relations. The Russian foreign ministry responded to Trump’s tweet with “We agree.� (New York Times / Washington Post / Reuters / Politico)

Our relationship with Russia has NEVER been worse thanks to many years of U.S. foolishness and stupidity and now, the Rigged Witch Hunt!

We agree https://t.co/7l087Qwmj3

Trump said he never thought of asking Putin to extradite the 12 Russian intelligence agents charged with hacking Democratic emails. Instead, he blamed blaming Democrats for “bad defenses� and for getting hacked during the 2016 campaign. (Washington Post)

Shortly before the summit with Putin began, Trump removed a senior official who is hawkish on Russia and supportive of NATO from his National Security Council. The circumstances surrounding retired Army Col. Richard Hooker’s departure from the NSC on June 29 remain in dispute. It’s not clear whether he was fired or whether his term was simply over. (Daily Beast)

Hannity will interview Trump following his summit with Putin, and their discussion will air Monday night of Fox News. Trump will also sit down with Tucker Carlson, which will air on his show Tuesday night. (The Hill / Fox News)

WTF Rewind:

1/ Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein announced that a grand jury returned indictments against 12 Russian intelligence officials on charges of hacking into the DNC, DCCC, and state election offices to steal and release documents in an attempt to influence the 2016 presidential election. The defendants worked for the Russian intelligence service known as the GRU. They used a tactic called “spearphishing� to trick users into revealing their account information. They used keystroke loggers and other malicious software to obtain account information and access sensitive U.S. computer systems and email accounts, which they later released to the public. (Washington Post / New York Times / Daily Beast / BuzzFeed News / USA Today / Law & Crime / ABC News / Politico)

Read the full, searchable text of the indictment. (DocumentCloud)

Pages 2-3: “Beginning in or around June 2016, the Conspirators staged and released tens of thousands of the stolen emails and documents. They did so using fictitious online personas, including ‘DCLeaks’ and ‘Guccifer 2.0.’�

Page 6: “The object of the conspiracy was to hack into the computers of U.S. persons and entities involved in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, steal documents from those computers, and stage releases of the stolen documents to interfere with the 2016 U.S. presidential election.�

Page 8: “Beginning in or around March 2016, the Conspirators, in addition to their spearphishing efforts, researched the DCCC and DNC computer networks to identify technical specifications and vulnerabilities.�

Page 16: “The Conspirators, posing as Guccifer 2.0, also communicated with U.S. persons about the release of stolen documents. On or about August 15, 2016, the Conspirators, posing as Guccifer 2.0, wrote to a person who was in regular contact with senior members of the presidential campaign of Donald J. Trump.�

Page 21: “Although the Conspirators caused transactions to be conducted in a variety of currencies, including U.S. dollars, they principally used bitcoin when purchasing servers, registering domains, and otherwise making payments in furtherance of hacking activity.�

Page 25: Two of the defendants “knowingly and intentionally� conspired to “hack into the computers of U.S. persons and entities responsible for the administration of 2016 U.S. elections, such as state boards of elections, secretaries of state, and U.S. companies that supplied software and other technology related to the administration of U.S. elections.�

Page 26: “In or around July 2016, KOVALEV and his co-c...

1/ FBI agent Peter Strzok rejected accusations that he let his personal political views bias his actions in the Hillary Clinton email and Russia investigations during a joint House Judiciary and Oversight Committee hearing. Strzok labeled the Republican attacks against him “another victory notch in Putin’s belt and another milestone in our enemies’ campaign to tear America apart.� Republicans threatened Strzok with contempt after the committee devolved into partisan, chaotic arguments about what questions he could answer about the ongoing Russia investigation. Strzok has come under scrutiny after the Justice Department’s inspector general discovered text messages critical of Trump that he exchanged during the 2016 campaign with Lisa Page, a senior FBI lawyer he was having an affair with. Republicans and Trump charge that Strzok’s text messages undermine the integrity of Robert Mueller’s investigation. Strzok was immediately removed from Mueller’s probe when the text messages came to light. Page declined to comply with a subpoena from Republican lawmakers to appear for an interview on July 11. (New York Times / Washington Post / CNN / NBC News / CNBC)

2/ Trump threatened NATO allies with “grave consequences� if they don’t boost their military spending by January, warning alliance members that otherwise the U.S. could “go our own way.� Trump arrived late, hijacked a meeting in progress, and delivered what one official called a “prolonged rant.� He then praised the alliance as a “fine-tuned machine.� (Politico)

3/ Trump reaffirmed his support for NATO, calling his threat to withdraw from the alliance “unnecessary� after he pressured members to increase their defense budgets “like they never have before.� He offered no specifics, and some leaders rejected his claim. Trump called himself a “very stable genius� and said he deserved “total credit� for pushing allies to increase their military spending by more than previously agreed to while also warning members that the U.S. “would go it alone� if countries did not meet the 2% target by January. In 2014, NATO members committed to each spend 2% of GDP on defense by 2024. French president Emmanuel Macron said that “Trump never at any moment, either in public or in private, threatened to withdraw from NATO.� (New York Times / Washington Post / Bloomberg / NBC News)

4/ NATO allies dispute Trump’s claim that they pledged to “substantially� raise their defense budgets, saying they simply...

1/ Trump accused Germany of being “totally controlled� and “a captive of Russia� because it pays “billions and billions of dollars a year� to Russia for energy. Germany doesn’t meet its NATO spending commitments, but has started construction on a second natural gas pipeline to Russia. Germany argues that it has increased its contributions to NATO and plans to spend even more on the alliance in the coming years. A few hours later, Trump told reporters that the United States has a “tremendous relationship� with Germany. (Washington Post / NBC News / Politico)

German Chancellor Angela Merkel rejected Trump’s accusation, saying “I have witnessed� Soviet occupation. (Politico / CNN)

This is the Russian pipeline to Germany that Trump is mad about: an 800-mile-long, planned pipeline beneath the Baltic Sea. The project would roughly double Russia’s gas export volume via the Baltic route. (Washington Post)

2/ Trump wants NATO allies to double their military-spending target to 4% of gross domestic product despite allies not meeting the current 2% target. The 29 members – including the U.S. – agreed to a joint summit declaration to move toward the 2% target by 2024. The U.S. contributes 3.5% of its GDP. (Wall Street Journal)

3/ The Senate approved a non-binding motion in support of NATO. The symbolic 97-2 vote expresses the Senate’s support for NATO and calls on negotiators to reaffirm the U.S. commitment to it. (The Hill / Axios)

4/ The Trump administration plans to hit China with roughly $200 billion in additional tariffs. Beijing’s Commerce Ministry said it was “shocked� by the U.S. action and that China “has no choice but to take necessary countermeasures.� Days ago the U.S. imposed 25% tariffs on Chinese goods worth $34 billion, which Beijing immediately responded to with its own tariffs on $34 billion in U.S. goods. The latest tariffs will undergo a two-month review process, with hearings on Aug. 20-23. (CNBC / New York Times / Wall Street Journal / CNN /

1/ Trump nominated federal appeals court judge Brett Kavanaugh to succeed Justice Anthony Kennedy on the Supreme Court. Kavanaugh served under Kenneth Starr, the independent counsel who investigated Bill Clinton. Kavanaugh also worked on the 2000 Florida recount litigation that ended in a Supreme Court decision that handed George W. Bush the presidency. “What matters is not a judge’s personal views,� Trump said, “but whether they can set aside those views to do what the law and the Constitution require. I am pleased to say I have found, without doubt, such a person.� Trump called Kavanaugh a judge with “impeccable credentials,� and said he is “considered a judge’s judge.� (New York Times / NBC News / Politico / Washington Post)

Brett Kavanaugh’s track record. A sampling of Kavanaugh’s most important decisions and past statements about policy issues. (Politico)

Where Brett Kavanaugh might fit on the Supreme Court. According to at least one measure, Kavanaugh may be less conservative than Neil Gorsuch. (New York Times)

Brett Kavanaugh, explained. He’s a veteran of every conservative fight from the Clinton impeachment to the fight against Obamacare. (Vox)

Who is Brett Kavanaugh? Bio, facts, background and political views. (Politico)

2/ Chuck Schumer: “I will oppose [Brett Kavanaugh] with everything I’ve got.� The Senate minority leader said Kavanaugh’s potential opposition to Roe v. Wade and the Affordable Care Act is “far against what the American people want. When they learn this, they’re going to oppose the nominee.� (Washington Post)

Republicans control a 51-49 majority in the Senate, and Democrats need at least two GOP lawmakers – plus every Democrat – in order to block Kavanaugh’s confirmation. With Sen. John McCain undergoing cancer treatment, the Republican majority is trimmed to 50-49. However, several Democratic senators are up for reelection in states where Trump won in 2016. Three Democratic senators (Joe Manchin, Heidi Heitkamp, and Joe Donnelly) broke with the party last year to confirm Justice Neil Gorsuch. (Politico)

If the Supreme Court reverses Roe v. Wade, 22 states will likely ban abortions. Reversing the case wouldn’t automatically make abortion illegal; instead, the decision about abortion legality would be returned to the states. Four states — Louisiana, Mississippi and North and South Dakota — have “trigger laws,� which would immediately make abortion illegal if and when the Supreme Court were to overturn Roe v. W...

1/ Trump says he is “very close to making a decision� on his Supreme Court nominee. Aides, however, have prepped rollouts for multiple Supreme Court nominees knowing that Trump could change his mind at the last minute. Trump has narrowed his list down to two potential nominees: Brett Kavanaugh and Thomas Hardiman. The White House expects to hit the ground running once Trump makes his 9 p.m. announcement – a time he selected for maximum TV exposure. “I have long heard that the most important decision a U.S. President can make is the selection of a Supreme Court Justice,� Trump tweeted. As he boarded Air Force One after a weekend of golfing at his private club in Bedminster, N.J., Trump said: “You can’t go wrong.� (New York Times / Washington Post / Politico)

I have long heard that the most important decision a U.S. President can make is the selection of a Supreme Court Justice - Will be announced tonight at 9:00 P.M.

Judge Amy Coney Barrett’s prospects are slipping over confirmation concerns. Trump said he would settle on a nominee by noon Monday, but aides said they were unsure as recently as Sunday night where he would land. (Wall Street Journal)

Trump has been lobbied in the final hours of his selection process by both supporters and opponents of the Supreme Court candidates. Trump has also been working the phones seeking input about Brett Kavanaugh and Thomas Hardiman. (New York Times)

Mitch McConnell told Trump that Judges Raymond Kethledge and Thomas Hardiman present the fewest obvious obstacles to being confirmed to replace Justice Anthony M. Kennedy on the Supreme Court. (New York Times)

2/ The Trump administration will miss a court-ordered deadline to reunite immigrant children under age 5 who were separated from their parents at the U.S. border. About half of the children under 5 years old will be reunited by Tuesday’s court-ordered deadline. The administration doesn’t know when the rest will be reunified. The federal judge who set the deadline said he was “very encouraged� by the administration’s progress. (Reuters / CNN / Los Angeles Times)

A one-year-old child who was separated from his father at the southern U.S. border appeared in immigration court. The child is one of several toddlers who have had to appear in court without their parents present. (