Backgrounder: The Plan to Fire Bob Mueller (sub req).

Cam Joseph talks to people close to Mitt Romney about what is animating his increasingly likely run for Senate, as Orrin Hatch leans toward retiring.

We know President Trump’s confidante Roger Stone is intemperate and aggressive. We also know he often blurts things out that end up being accurate or highly prescient. On August 21st, 2016, Stone tweeted: “Trust me, it will soon [be] Podesta’s time in the barrel.” A few weeks later (Oct. 7th, 2016), that’s just what happened. Wikileaks, with whom Stone had been in active and direct contact, began releasing thousands of Podesta’s stolen emails.

That’s not all we know. Read More

Stunned by the news of Mueller indictments coming as soon as Monday, Trump advisors get angry at Hillary, according to Politico.

The lack of information, on a case that could have major ramifications for the president, left many current and former Trump advisers livid, focusing their rage on how the information leaked and on a forever target: Hillary Clinton.

Damaged, infantile, dangerous people.

All but ten Houston Texans took a knee today for the national anthem after owners comment that “we can’t have the inmates running the prison.”

In advance of whatever awaits us tomorrow from the Mueller probe, I want to share a few thoughts about what might be coming. I will discuss them seriatim. Read More

Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s first charges are reportedly against Paul Manafort and Rick Gates, who were told to surrender Monday morning, according to the New York Times.

Late Update: Everything we know so far.

It was an extremely bad idea for Paul Manafort to get involved in a presidential campaign on the way to the nomination when he was sitting atop so much dirty laundry.

Unless of course, he had no choice. Read More

George Papadopoulos, another of those first five campaign advisors announced in March 2016 (Carter Page was another), pleaded guilty on Oct. 5, 2017, to making false statements to FBI. Unsealed this morning.

More soon.

Remember, days after being appointed, Papadopoulos went to work trying to set up meetings between the Trump campaign and “Russian Leadership – Including Putin.”

We’re reading through the Papadopoulos charges now. They are pretty bad and go directly to the Russia issue. More soon.

We can’t know these things for sure. But it certainly seems like Mueller was sending a message and sending a shock to the Trump White House by releasing the Papadopoulos charges mid-morning. The Manafort/Gates charges are very serious as crimes and bring heavy punishments. They’re a big deal. But they do not connect directly to the campaign’s ties with Russia or even the campaign itself. The White House can accurately say that these are crimes that do not relate to them, as they have. (Set aside for the moment that they are serious crimes undertaken by the campaign chairman while the campaign was underway and that they provide Mueller with immense leverage to extract more information from Manafort.) Read More