After Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) announced Monday that the first step in responding to sexual assault allegations against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh would be phone calls with committee staff, Democrats on the committee slammed Grassley for the move.

A spokesman for Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) told reporters on Monday that the senator spoke with Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh on Monday.

As the White House signaled Monday that the Senate should hear from Supreme Court nominee Bret Kavanaugh again now that Christine Blasey Ford has publicly accused him of sexual assault, Republicans in the Senate increasingly hopped on the bandwagon, echoing the White House’s call to hear from Ford.

Hello, TPM readers. Before Paul Manafort ultimately reached a plea deal with the special counsel’s office, we spent a lot of time and energy sussing out what the deal would entail, as news of plea negotiations slowly trickled out. And once the deal became public, we were able to highlight some interesting nuggets. Our trusty Prime editor John Light is off on a well-deserved vacation — and we managed to soldier on without him — but we’ll all be happy when he returns.

Here’s what happened in Prime this week:

Federal prosecutors are considering bringing charges against former Obama White House counsel Greg Craig and powerful D.C. law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom over their role in Paul Manafort’s Ukrainian lobbying scheme, CNN reported Friday afternoon, citing sources familiar with the matter.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) next week will test the Emergency Alert System, which allows the President to address Americans via text message in the event of a national emergency.

Special counsel Robert Mueller’s legal team on Friday afternoon notified Judge T.S. Ellis, the judge who oversaw Paul Manafort’s Virginia trial, that Manafort pleaded guilty to two counts in the D.C. case.

The plea agreement reached between Paul Manafort and the special counsel’s office requires Manafort to cooperate “fully, truthfully, completely, and forthrightly” with the government on “any and all matters” identified by the government.

The government filed the plea agreement reached between Paul Manafort and special counsel Robert Mueller’s legal team, which requires that Manafort cooperate with federal investigators.

Read below:

Paul Manafort’s guilty plea is the single biggest development in the investigation of Russian meddling in the 2016 election since Robert Mueller was named special counsel in May 2017. But after long days in a Virginia courtroom for Manafort’s trial, the proceeding in D.C. Friday during which the former Trump campaign chairman pleaded guilty to several charges brought by Mueller’s office felt somewhat anti-climactic.