Federal prosecutors in Manhattan are considering filing new charges against Lev Parnas, the business associate of Rudy Giuliani, CNN reported.

This is your weekly roundup of Trump, and his friends’, legal issues, and the investigations into them. Find more here. 

Trump unleashed: At the beginning of the week the Justice Department recommended that Trump confidante Roger Stone should receive between seven and nine years in prison for for his crimes, a recommendation that Trump was clearly bothered by. Trump tweeted condemning the recommendation. Less than 24 hours after the Justice Department issued its initial suggestion, it reversed course, instead issuing a watered down sentencing memo that declined to even give a recommendation.

None of us were operating under the illusion that President Trump would somehow stay quiet about the Ukraine scheme post acquittal or this latest effort to politically interfere in special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe.

In the past 24 hours, two ex officials — both ousted by the mercurial Trump — have spoken out against the administration for actions that prompted his impeachment– former White House chief of staff John Kelly and the ex-ambassador and impeachment witness Marie Yavonovitch.

The debate over whether President Trump pressured the attorney general to shorten his former associate Roger Stone’s sentencing recommendation or if the Justice Department acted on its own is missing the point. This is all bad.

When the former vice president left New Hampshire before polls even closed Tuesday evening, we had an early indication that things weren’t going to go well for Joe Biden tonight.

But in an outcome that would have been hard to predict even a few days ago, Biden found himself battling for fourth or fifth place with Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), reducing two of the leading contenders heading into the 2020 cycle to also-rans.

Over the weekend, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) made a rather sinister admission on live television, casually alluding that the dirt-digging campaign on the Biden family is far from over.

Hello TPM Members and welcome to the weekend.

We ended the week on a disheartening, but unsurprising, note. On Friday, Lt. Col. Vindman, arguably the most consequential witness in the House’s impeachment inquiry, was escorted out of the White House where he was working as the director for European affairs on the White House National Security Council.

It’s clear this is retaliation for his testimony before Congress and we don’t think the retribution will end with him. President Trump’s been on a tear post-acquittal and, if history has taught us anything, things don’t always end well for those who demonstrate a hint of disloyalty to the mob boss-in-chief.

As always, thanks for reading and thanks for being a member. It’s especially crucial in these bizarre, often dark times.

Here’s what happened in Prime this week.

• Josh Marshall revisits a Slate article by Will Saletan: The GOP is a failed state and Trump is its warlord.
• Missouri Republicans are trying yet again to dismantle the anti-gerrymandering constitutional amendment approved by voters in 2018.
• A positive take on the Iowa caucuses.
• Democrats’ reaction to Trump’s SOTU remarks on health care are indicative of what’s to come in 2020.
• How the Trump administration has built a new secrecy wall for border agents.
• After Trump’s bonkers post-acquittal speech, Nicole Lafond felt it was an appropriate time to resurface Bill Clinton’s apology.
• Trump unbound.
• Josh Marshall is not optimistic about Democratic unity after the primaries.

This week in impeachment

President Trump is aiming his “lock her up” ire at a new target: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA).