It’s more murky and paper-laden than the porn star pay-offs he managed for President Trump. But for Michael Cohen, it’s the mountains of apparent bank fraud and more tied to his taxi business which is likely his biggest legal problem. The king of the New York taxi world Evgeny “Gene” Freidman got a very good deal from New York State prosecutors for unspecified and cooperation to be determined – explicitly for either state or federal prosecutors. Gene and Michael go way back. Gene and Michael shared an accountant. Allegra Kirkland probes this part of the Cohen story here.

Rep. Chris Collins has now suspended his reelection campaign in NY’s 27th district, probably an inevitability he just couldn’t get himself to accept earlier this week after his arrest. This is a very Republican district. But New York state law provides almost no credible way to get Collins off the ballot and replaced by another Republican. In other words, this may already be a Democratic pick up – at least for one cycle – by default.

I want to flag a point about the President’s current trade spat with Turkey. Read More

How about just no ads at all? The whole TPM website, on every platform, stripped totally down with only the news and not one ad. None of those annoying ads beneath the stories. Nothing. Well, we’re going to have that. Read More

Host for a fundraiser for Rep. Andy Barr (R-KY) attacks Democratic tracker after asking friends if he should shoot the tracker or sic dogs on him. Read More

I had a long chat with Marcy Wheeler about the Russia probe. Very interesting stuff. Also made me think – along with a few other conversations over recent days – that Trump knows that everything could come unspooled if Manafort doesn’t stay quiet. You can listen here.

Strong hint here in a new Mueller filing that the Special Counsel’s office is still working with Rick Gates on the collusion front.

Nice catch here by Friend of TPM Rick Hasen. In that bundle of emails from Trump’s defunct ‘election integrity’ commission released to Maine Secretary of State Matt Dunlap, we find this email from Commissioner Christy McCormick. In the email to then Pence Counsel Mark Paoletta, McCormick recommends DOJ lawyer Benjamin Overholt because their “numerous discussions” made her “pretty confident that he is a conservative (and Christian, too).” Read More

Voter Suppression Kingpin Kris Kobach’s primary lead just got cut to 91 votes.

Donald Trump is fundraising off creating a new branch of the US Armed Forces, his “Space Force.” He even lets you vote on (what he suggests) will be the official logo for Space Force gear the campaign will sell.  Read More