1/ Trump is informally preparing for a potential interview with Robert Mueller. The preparation efforts were described as “in its infancy� and include going over potential topics with Trump that Mueller would likely ask in an interview. Trump has not formally agreed to sit for an interview with Mueller. (CNN)

2/ Robert Mueller has evidence that questions Erik Prince’s congressional testimony about a chance meeting last year in the Seychelles with Kirill Dmitriev, the manager of a state-run Russian investment fund close to Putin. George Nader, a cooperating witness with limited immunity, told investigators that he facilitated and personally attended a meeting between Prince and Dmitriev days before Trump was inaugurated. The goal of the meeting was to discuss foreign policy and to establish a line of communication between the Russian government and the incoming Trump administration. Prince told the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence in November that “I didn’t fly there to meet any Russian guy,� and the meeting with Dmitriev was unexpected. Prince founded the private military contractor Blackwater USA and is the brother of Betsy DeVos, who serves as Trump’s secretary of education. As of late March, Mueller’s team has not asked Prince to appear before the grand jury. (ABC News)

3/ Mueller’s investigators questioned a Trump Organization associate about Michael Cohen’s involvement in business deals in Georgia, Kazakhstan, and Russia. The special counsel’s team showed up unannounced at the home of the business associate this week with a subpoena seeking information about the efforts by Trump’s personal attorney and a former Trump Organization employee to expand the Trump brand abroad. (McClatchy DC)

4/ A Trump foreign policy adviser asked the FBI, State Department and the Intelligence Community Inspector General to review materials from the dark web that he thought were Hillary Clinton’s deleted emails during the summer of 2016. Joseph Schmitz also took a memo outlining his claims to the House Intelligence Committee. The FBI interviewed him as a part of its ongoing criminal investigation into Clinton’s emails. Officials at the State Department and the Inspector General also interviewed Schmitz, but they declined to review or accept the information. The material was never verified. (CNN)

5/ The Trump administration imposed new sanctions on 17 Russian government officials, a state-owned weapons company, and seven oligarchs and 12 companies affiliated with them. “The Russian government operates for the disproportionate benefit of oligarchs and government elites,� Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said. “Russian oligarchs and elites who profit from this corrupt system will no longer be insulated from the consequences of their government’s destabilizing activities.� The sanctions were in response to the “totalit...

1/ Trump denied knowing about the $130,000 payment his lawyer made to Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election to buy her silence. Trump said he didn’t know where Michael Cohen got the money from and he declined to say if he ever set up a fund for Cohen to cover expenses like that. “You’ll have to ask Michael Cohen. Michael is my attorney. You’ll have to ask Michael,� Trump said. Daniels’ attorney, Michael Avenatti, tweeted: “We very much look forward to testing the truthfulness of Mr. Trump’s feigned lack of knowledge concerning the $130k payment as stated on Air Force One. As history teaches us, it is one thing to deceive the press and quite another to do so under oath.� (USA Today / Bloomberg / New York Times / Washington Post)

We very much look forward to testing the truthfulness of Mr. Trump's feigned lack of knowledge concerning the $130k payment as stated on Air Force One. As history teaches us, it is one thing to deceive the press and quite another to do so under oath. #searchforthetruth #basta

2/ Trump considered replacing Jeff Sessions with Scott Pruitt as recently as this week. “He was 100% still trying to protect Pruitt because Pruitt is his fill-in for Sessions,� a person familiar with Trump’s thinking said. Trump remains frustrated that Sessions recused himself from the Russia investigation more than a year ago. (CNN)

3/ The EPA’s top ethics official said he lacked key facts when he concluded that Scott Pruitt’s lease with a lobbyist last year didn’t violate federal gift rules. Kevin Minoli said Pruitt’s lease was predicated on the use of a single room, but Pruitt’s daughter stayed in the apartment’s second bedroom while she was a White House intern. (Washington Post / New York Times)

4/ At least five EPA officials were reassigned, demoted, or requested new jobs after raising concerns about Scott Pruitt’s spending and management of the agency. Officials were concerned about Pruitt’s unusually large spending on office furniture, first-class travel, as well as requests for a bulletproof vehicle and a 20-person security detail. (New York Times)

1/ Robert Mueller: Trump is not currently a criminal target in the Russia probe, but he remains under investigation. The special counsel also told Trump’s lawyers during negotiations in early March regarding a possible Trump interview that he is preparing a report about Trump’s actions and potential obstruction of justice. Mueller is required to report his conclusions confidentially to Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein, who has the authority to decide whether to release the information publicly. Mueller’s investigators plan to report on their findings in stages, starting with the obstruction issue. Trump has privately expressed relief at his legal status and has repeatedly told allies that he is not a target of the probe and believes an interview will help him put the matter behind him. (Washington Post)

Analysis: Mueller told Trump he’s not a criminal target in the Russia probe. That may not mean what you think. (Washington Post)

Analysis: Mueller’s assurances that Trump is not a “target� don’t mean much. (Politico)

2/ Mueller’s team has been questioning Russian oligarchs who travel to the US. Investigators want to know if wealthy Russians illegally funneled money directly or indirectly into Trump’s presidential campaign and inauguration. Foreign nationals are prohibited under campaign finance laws from donating to US political campaigns. Mueller’s team has stopped at least three Russian oligarchs for questioning in recent weeks. (CNN)

3/ H. R. McMaster denounced Russia and said “we have failed to impose sufficient costs� in his last public remarks as Trump’s national security adviser. “Russia has used old and new forms of aggression to undermine our open societies and the foundations of international peace and stability,� McMaster said. Hours earlier, Trump claimed that “nobody has been tougher on Russia than I have.� (Washington Post)

4/ Trump is expected this week to impose additional sanctions against Russia, which are designed to target oligarchs with ties to Putin. The United States is expected to target individuals on a list of influential Russian political and business leaders that the Treasury Department released in January. (Washington Post)

5/ Roger Stone predicted “devastating� leaks about the Clinton Foundation the same day he sent an email saying he dined with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. Stone’s comments came during an appearance on InfoWars on August 4, 2016. Stone sent an email to Sam Nunberg on August 4, 2016, about a dinner with Assange the night before. He also mentioned in the email that he spoke with then-Republican nominee Donald Trump on August 3. (CNN)

1/ Rod Rosenstein authorized Robert Mueller to investigate Paul Manafort for allegedly “colluding with Russian government officials� in a classified August 2017 memo. Mueller was also given authority to probe Manafort’s work for the Ukrainian government. The memo was disclosed in a court filing as Mueller’s prosecutors seek to counter arguments by Manafort’s lawyers that his indictment should be thrown out. (CNN / Wall Street Journal)

2/ Alex van der Zwaan is the first person sentenced in Robert Mueller’s investigation. The Dutch attorney, who admitted to lying to federal agents about his work in Ukraine with Paul Manafort and Rick Gates, was sent to prison for 30 days and will pay a $20,000 fine. (Politico / Bloomberg / ABC News)

3/ Mueller’s investigation is asking about a private consulting firm working with the United Arab Emirates. Mueller’s team is asking about Wikistrat’s business relationship with George Nader, a Lebanese-American who serves as a top adviser to U.A.E. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed and was also close to the Trump administration last year. Wikistrat was contracted by the U.A.E. beginning in 2015 to conduct war game scenarios on Islamist political movements in Yemen. (Wall Street Journal)

4/ The EPA will revoke an Obama-era standard requiring cars to average more than 50 mpg by 2025. “The Obama Administration’s determination was wrong,� Scott Pruitt said, adding that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration will establish a new standard that “allows auto manufacturers to make cars that people both want and can afford.� The EPA will also “reexamine� a waiver that allows California to set stricter standards than those mandated by the federal government. (New York Times / ABC News / Washington Post / Los Angeles Times)

5/ Scott Pruitt bypassed the White House in order to give substantial pay raises to two of his closest aides. After the Presidential Personnel Office rejected Pruitt’s raise request, the EPA administrator reappointed the aides using an obscure provision in the Safe Drinking Water Act. The move gave Pruitt total control over their contracts to grant the raises on his own. (The Atlantic)

6/ The EPA approved a pipeline-expansion project last year while Scott Pruitt was renting a $50-a-night condo linked to the company’s lobbying firm. The expansion of the Alberta Clipper pipeline, an Enbridge Inc. project, would allow for hundreds of thousands more barrels of oil a day to flow through this pipeline to the U.S. from Canada’s tar sands. At the time, Pruitt was living in the condo owned in part by Vicki Hart, the wife of J. Steven Hart,...

1/ Trump invited Putin to the White House, according to Kremlin foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov. “When our presidents spoke on the phone, Trump suggested having the meeting in Washington at the White House,� Ushakov said. “This is quite an interesting, positive idea.� During a March 20 phone call, Trump congratulated Putin for his reelection victory and discussed a possible meeting. Sarah Huckabee Sanders said that “a number of potential venues, including the White House,� were discussed during the phone call. (Washington Post / Bloomberg)

2/ Trump tweeted that “DACA is dead� and there would be no “NO MORE DACA DEAL� while pressing Congress to “immediately pass border legislation� because “our country is being stolen!� Trump claimed that “a lot of people are coming in because they want to take advantage of DACA,� even though the program is only available to people who have lived in the U.S. since 2007. Trump ended DACA in September. (Washington Post / New York Times / NBC News)

DACA is dead because the Democrats didn’t care or act, and now everyone wants to get onto the DACA bandwagon... No longer works. Must build Wall and secure our borders with proper Border legislation. Democrats want No Borders, hence drugs and crime!

...Congress must immediately pass Border Legislation, use Nuclear Option if necessary, to stop the massive inflow of Drugs and People. Border Patrol Agents (and ICE) are GREAT, but the weak Dem laws don’t allow them to do their job. Act now Congress, our country is being stolen!

3/ Local news stations owned by Sinclair Broadcasting were forced to recite the same script warning of “biased and false news� and “the troubling trend of irresponsible, one-sided news stories� that have been plaguing the country. Local news anchors have reportedly been uncomfortable with the “forced read.� Sinclair is the country’s largest broadcaster and owns or operates 193 TV stations. (New York Times / Deadspin)

How America's largest local TV owner turned its news anchors into soldiers in Trump's war on the media: https://t.co/iLVtKRQycL pic.twitter.com/dMdSGellH3

1/ Scott Pruitt’s lease of a D.C. apartment cost him $50 a night but only when he slept there. Vicki Hart, the healthcare lobbyist who co-owns the building the apartment is in, is the wife of J. Steven Hart, an energy industry lobbyist. The EPA administrator worked directly with Hart to set up the $50-a-night rental room in a prime Capitol Hill building. The arrangement required him to pay rent for just a single bedroom, even though the other bedrooms in the unit were unoccupied. Hart’s firm represents clients in the industries that are regulated by the EPA. (Bloomberg / ABC News)

2/ Pruitt’s 24-hour security in Washington extended to personal trips to Disneyland and the Rose Bowl game, as well as trips home to Tulsa, Oklahoma. House Oversight Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy recently made Pruitt turn over all of his travel records for his first year. The EPA’s inspector general is also investigating Pruitt’s 2017 travel. (CNN)

3/ The EPA is expected to roll back greenhouse gas emission and fuel economy standards for automobiles. Pruitt and the Trump administration plan to frame the initiative as eliminating a regulatory burden on automakers in order to make more affordable trucks, vans and SUVs available for buyers. (New York Times)

4/ The White House office responsible for recruiting and vetting political appointees is inexperienced and understaffed, with less than a third of the staffing than in previous administrations. The Presidential Personnel Office is led by a college dropout with arrests for drunken driving and bouncing checks, and a lance corporal in the Marine Corps reserves with arrests for assault, disorderly conduct, fleeing an officer and underage drinking. On the campaign trail, Trump pledged to surround himself with “only with the best and most serious people.� (Washington Post)

5/ A federal judge ruled that a lawsuit seeking to preserve DACA can continue, citing Trump’s “racially charged language.� The order, by Judge Nicholas G. Garaufis of Federal District Court in Brooklyn, rejected a motion to dismiss the case, saying that Trump’s “racial slurs� and “epithets� as a candidate and as president are enough to warrant a “plausible inference� that the decision to end DACA would be a violation of the equal protection clause of the U.S. Constitution. (New York Times)

6/ Trump told White House aides not to publicly discuss a plan to provide new U.S. weapons to Ukraine to help the country fight back against Russian-backed separatists. Officials said Trump was concerned that doing so might agitate Putin. “He doesn’t want us to bring it up,� said one White House official. “It ...

1/ Robert Mueller’s team pushed Rick Gates last year to help them connect the Trump campaign to the Russians. Mueller’s team plans to use information from Gates to tie Paul Manafort, the former Trump campaign chairman, directly to a Russian intelligence agency. As part of Gates’ agreement to cooperate with the special counsel last month, he earned a reduced potential sentence and had several charges against him dropped. (CNN)

2/ Mueller’s team has also been questioning witnesses about an event attended by both Jeff Sessions and Sergei Kislyak during the 2016 Republican National Convention. The team also has been asking if Sessions had private discussions with the now former Russian Ambassador to the United States on the sidelines of a Trump campaign speech at the Washington Mayflower Hotel in April 2016. (Reuters)

3/ Trump’s outside advisers told him he doesn’t need a chief of staff or a communications director. While John Kelly has tried to bring order to the policymaking process, Trump has grown frustrated by the long-established West Wing management structure, because it doesn’t fit his freewheeling style. As a result, Kelly has been absent from several key decisions lately. Since Hope Hicks’ departure, Trump has been open to rethinking the traditional communications director role. He’d like Kellyanne Conway to assume the role. (CNN / Bloomberg)

4/ EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt lived in a condo tied to an energy industry lobbyist. The townhouse near the U.S. Capitol is co-owned by J. Steven Hart, who wouldn’t say how much Pruitt paid to live there. Hart’s firm has lobbied on “issues related to the export of liquefied natural gas.� During a December 2017 trip to Morocco, Pruitt pitched “the potential benefit of liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports on Morocco’s economy.� (ABC News)

5/ Michael Cohen’s attorney denied that Trump knew about the $130,000 hush-money payment to Stormy Daniels, saying that “the president was not aware of the agreement.� David Schwartz added: “At least Michael Cohen never told him about the agreement. I can tell you that.� Experts suggest the denial could insulate Trump, but could also undermine the nondisclosure agreement that Daniels signed, which prevented her from disclosing her alleged affair with Trump. (Washington Post)

6/ David Shulkin said he was fired as the Secretary of Veterans Affairs because he was standing in the way of the Trump administration privatizing th...

1/ Rick Gates knowingly communicated with “a former Russian Intelligence Officer� during the 2016 presidential campaign, according to documents filed by Robert Mueller’s investigators. Gates was in frequent contact with “Person A� – who has been identified as Konstantin Kilimnik – during the time he worked for Trump’s campaign, including September and October 2016. The documents Mueller filed indicate that the communications between Gates and Kilimnik are “pertinent to the investigation.� Kilimnik worked with Paul Manafort for four years on behalf of a Kremlin-aligned Ukrainian political party. (New York Times / Washington Post)

Go Deeper:

Gates is a longtime business associate of Paul Manafort and served as Manafort’s deputy when Manafort was Trump’s campaign manager.

Gates pleaded guilty last month to conspiracy and lying to the FBI in a cooperation deal with Mueller.

2/ Gates told Alexander van der Zwaan that Kilimnik was a former intelligence officer with Russia’s foreign intelligence service. The London-based lawyer, who previously worked with Gates and Manafort, pleaded guilty last month to lying to special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigators about his interactions with Gates and Kilimnik. Gates communicated with Kilimnik and van der Zwaan in a “series of calls� in September and October 2016. (CNN / Politico / The Hill)

3/ Trump discussed the idea of pardoning both Paul Manafort and Michael Flynn with his lawyers last year as Robert Mueller was building cases against both men. John Dowd, who resigned last week, was hired last year to defend Trump during the Mueller inquiry. Dowd told Flynn’s lawyer last summer that Trump was prepared to pardon Flynn. Dowd also discussed a pardon with Manafort’s attorney before Manafort was indicted in October 2017 on charges of money laundering and other financial crimes. (New York Times)

4/ Paul Manafort expects Trump to pardon him. Manafort doesn’t plan to cooperate with Robert Mueller and will fight the charges of conspiracy, money laundering, tax and bank fraud, and making false statements to investigators. Manafort’s co-defendant, Rick Gates, has agreed to work with the special counsel. (CBS News)

1/ The 2020 census will ask respondents if they are United States citizens, despite concerns from the Census Bureau. Inclusion of a citizenship question could prompt immigrants who are in the country illegally not to respond, resulting in an undercount of the population, which would affect government agencies and groups that rely on the census data. The effects could also affect redistricting of the House and state legislatures over the next decade. It’s been 70 years since the government has included a question about citizenship on the census. (New York Times)

2/ California has sued the Trump administration, arguing that the question about citizenship in the 2020 Census violates the U.S. Constitution. The Constitution requires a census every 10 years to count the “number of free persons� in each state. California Attorney General Xavier Becerra alleges the change violates the constitutional requirement of “actual Enumeration� of every person in every state, every 10 years, and that “California simply has too much to lose for us to allow the Trump Administration to botch this important decennial obligation.� New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said he would lead a multi-state lawsuit, which Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey said she would join. (Washington Post / Politico)

3/ Trump has privately suggested that the US military could pay for the construction of his border wall. Trump told advisers and discussed the idea in a private meeting last week with House Speaker Paul Ryan, saying the Pentagon could fund his wall by citing a “national security� risk. The latest reports echo Trump’s tweet last week: “Build a WALL through M!� (Washington Post / CNN)

Because of the $700 & $716 Billion Dollars gotten to rebuild our Military, many jobs are created and our Military is again rich. Building a great Border Wall, with drugs (poison) and enemy combatants pouring into our Country, is all about National Defense. Build WALL through M!

4/ The White House is investigating whether two loans – totaling more than $500 million – to Jared Kushner’s family business violated federal ethics regulations. A letter from the Office of Government Ethics, made public Monday, revealed that White House attorneys are looking into whether a $184 million loan from Apollo Global and a $325 million loan from Citigroup Inc. violated rules and laws governing the conduct of federal employees. (Wall Street Journal)

1/ Trump won’t hire two attorneys who were supposed to join his legal team after all. The appointments were announced last week, but Trump’s personal attorney, Jay Sekulow, said in a statement that “conflicts prevent Joe diGenova and Victoria Toensing from joining the president’s special counsel legal team.� He added: “Those conflicts do not prevent them from assisting the president in other legal matters.� (New York Times)

2/ Trump’s personal legal team is down to one member as he struggles to find lawyers willing to represent him. Jay Sekulow is the only personal lawyer for Trump working full time on Robert Mueller’s investigation. He is assisted by Ty Cobb, a White House lawyer paid by taxpayers to represent the institution of the presidency rather than Trump personally. John Dowd, who had been leading the team handling the Russia inquiry, resigned last week after strategy disputes with Trump, while Marc Kasowitz’s role was reduced after a series of clashes with Trump over the summer. Emmet Flood, the lawyer who represented Bill Clinton during his impeachment process, said he will not represent Trump if Kasowitz has any role on the team, and another, Theodore Olson, declined to represent Trump. (New York Times / Washington Post)

3/ Trump expects to “make one or two major changes to his government very soon,� according to Trump’s friend Christopher Ruddy, CEO of Newsmax. “He told me he thinks the White House is operating like a smooth machine – his words,� said Ruddy, and that Trump is “perplexed by all these reports that there’s chaos at the White House or mass staff changes.� (ABC News)

4/ Stormy Daniels said she was threatened not to speak about her affair with Trump, Daniels told Anderson Cooper during her 60 Minutes interview. She also discussed statements and denials she previously made about the affair. After the interview aired, Trump’s personal lawyer Michael Cohen sent Daniels a “cease and desist� letter, demanding that she stop speaking out about her relationship with Trump. (CBS News / Reuters)

5/ Trump “does not� believe Stormy Daniels was threatened and that “there is nothing to corroborate her claim,� according to White House deputy press secretary Raj Shah. “The president doesn’t believe any of the claims Ms. Daniels made in the interview last night were accurate.� (Bloomberg / Politico)