memeorandum: State Attorney General Mark Herring to run for Virginia governor in 2021 (Laura Vozzella/Washington Post)

10:40 AM ET, December 8, 2018

Top Items:

Mueller Is Telling Us: He's Got Trump on Collusion — The special counsel is connecting the dots and it doesn't paint a pretty picture for Trump. — For nearly two years, since the U.S. intelligence community released its report on the Russian campaign to assist Donald Trump in the 2016 election …

Discussion: Politico, One America News Network, POLITICUSUSA, The Guardian, Raw Story, Associated Press, Mother Jones, Algemeiner.com and ABC News

New York Times:

Is This the Beginning of the End for Trump? — Sentencing memos reveal damning evidence about collusion and campaign finance violations. — Mr. Berke is a lawyer specializing in white-collar criminal defense. Mr. Bookbinder is a former federal corruption prosecutor.

Discussion: Politico, The Atlantic, ThinkProgress, Common Dreams, Lawyers, Guns & Money, ABC News, Salon, Washington Monthly, AOL, The Guardian and Fox News Insider

Garrett M. Graff / Wired:

The Mueller Investigation Nears the Worst Case Scenario — WE ARE DEEP into the worst case scenarios. But as new sentencing memos for Trump associates Paul Manafort and Michael Cohen make all too clear, the only remaining question is how bad does the actual worst case scenario get?

Discussion: The Week and Althouse

Lawfare:

‘Totally Clears the President’? What Those Cohen and Manafort Filings Really Say — President Trump responded to today's filings from federal prosecutors in the cases of Michael Cohen and Paul Manafort with a Twitter cry of triumph: … Don't spend a lot of time looking through …

Discussion: NPR, Balloon Juice, Townhall, The Gateway Pundit and Mediaite

David French / National Review:

The Special Counsel's Cohen Sentencing Brief Is Ominous for Trump — Friday evening, the Special Counsel's Office and the Southern District of New York filed three key documents: two sentencing memos for former Trump attorney Michael Cohen and a sentencing memo for former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort.

Discussion: Associated Press, FOX6Now.com, Washington Press, Raw Story, Chicks On The Right and CNBC

Paul Waldman / Washington Post:

The latest filings show that nobody can save Trump now — At the end of the day Friday, we learned what federal prosecutors in New York think of Michael Cohen: … This is bad news for Cohen, but there's something else interesting in the filing: Prosecutors explicitly state that Cohen coordinated …

Discussion: The Week, Hot Air and Patterico's Pontifications

Just Security:

Mueller's Roadmap: Major Takeaways from Cohen and Manafort Filings — Federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York (SDNY) and from the Office of Special Counsel Robert Mueller filed significant documents in the criminal cases of President Donald Trump's former personal attorney …

Mikhaila Fogel / Lawfare:

Document: Special Counsel's Office Files Submission in Support of Breach Determination in Manafort Case — Today, the Special Counsel's Office filed a submission in support of its determination that Paul Manafort allegedly breached his plea agreement. The filing is available here and below:

Discussion: Booman Tribune and Washington Monthly

Andrew C. McCarthy / National Review:

A Home Run by Trump — In nominating William Barr for AG, the president could not have done better — In 2007, the Justice Department was in disarray. Though it was largely exaggerated, a controversy over the firing of some United States attorneys, the intrusion of politics …

Discussion: Variety, Washington Post and RealClearPolitics

Adam Rawnsley / The Daily Beast: Mueller: Manafort Lied About Contacts With Trump Officials

Elie Honig / CNN:
Mueller is putting the puzzle pieces together on Trump

Discussion: KBZK

Jonathan Chait / New York Magazine:
The Department of Justice Calls Donald Trump a Felon

Discussion: Washington Press, The Guardian, Common Dreams, Vox, Splinter and The American Conservative

The Daily Beast:
Michael Cohen Was Paid More Than $4 Million by Promising Access to Trump, Prosecutors Say

Discussion: NPR, Hit & Run and Sputnik International

Michael Balsamo / Associated Press: Prosecutors: Illegal hush-money paid at Trump's ‘direction’

Washington Post:
New Mueller filing says Trump's ex-lawyer Michael Cohen was in touch with a Russian seeking …

Discussion: The Week, HuffPost, Townhall, The Atlantic and CNN

Washington Post:
Mueller says Manafort told ‘discernible lies,’ …

Discussion: Hullabaloo, emptywheel, Politico, Joe.My.God., Vox, One America News Network and Axios

Timothy L. O'Brien / Bloomberg:
Mueller Weaves Trump, Manafort and Cohen Ever Closer

Discussion: NPR, CNN and Mediaite

New York Times:
Michael Cohen, Trump's Ex-Fixer, Should Get Prison Term of About 4 Years, Prosecutors Say

Discussion: Outside the Beltway, Contemptor, The Root, The Week, Mediaite, Common Dreams, Mother Jones and New Republic

CNN:
Ex-FBI Director James Comey exasperated after closed-door interview on Capitol Hill

Discussion: New York Times, RedState, The Atlantic, HuffPost, The Guardian, The Daily Signal, USA Today, American Prospect, Fox News, Mediaite and Daily Wire

Aidan McLaughlin / Mediaite:
Dershowitz Says Michael Cohen Sentencing Memo Sends Message: Don't Cooperate With Mueller

Discussion: Law & Crime

Adam Rawnsley / The Daily Beast:
Cohen: Russian Promised Trump ‘Political Synergy’ in 2015

Discussion: Axios, Breitbart and Raw Story

Associated Press:
House GOP unhappy with Comey's answers behind closed doors

Discussion: Shareblue Media

Dana Bash / CNN:
Giuliani says Mueller has accused Manafort of lying about Trump

Discussion: emptywheel, Raw Story, Law & Crime, Daily Caller News Foundation, Observer, Hot Air, Washington Times, Joe.My.God., Talking Points Memo and Daily Wire

Zachary Basu / Axios:
Read the two Michael Cohen sentencing memos

Discussion: Raw Story, Breitbart, The Daily Beast, Politico and Washington Post

Olivia Beavers / The Hill:
Nadler: I'm ending investigation into FBI, DOJ when I become chairman

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit and Breitbart

Rebecca Morin / Politico:
Comey: Trump's attacks on Justice Department ‘deeply troubling’

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit, Breitbart and twitchy.com

New York Times:

Mattis Erupts Over Niger Inquiry and Army Revisits Who Is to Blame — WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Jim Mattis was livid last month when he summoned top military officials to a video conference at the Pentagon to press them about an investigation into a 2017 ambush in Niger that killed four Americans on a Green Beret team.

Discussion: Task & Purpose

Politico:

Trump announces Army chief Mark Milley as pick for next Joint Chiefs chairman — President Donald Trump on Saturday named Army Gen. Mark Milley as his nominee to be the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. — Milley is set to replace current chairman Gen. Joseph Dunford, who still has nearly 10 months left in his term.

Discussion: Washington Post

Ryan Browne / CNN: Trump to name new Joint Chiefs chairman, sources say

Annie Karni / New York Times:

Eric Trump Weighs In on Kellyanne Conway's Husband. He Doesn't Like Him. — WASHINGTON — George Conway, a prominent conservative lawyer, is married to Kellyanne Conway, a White House counselor well known to cable viewers as a passionate defender of President Trump.

Nick Ochsner / Popular Information:

Vice Chair of Bladen County Board of Elections abruptly resigns — The election scandal engulfing North Carolina's 9th district, where Republican Mark Harris leads Democrat Dan McCready by 905 votes, took an unusual turn on Friday night. Jens Lutz, the Vice Chair of the Bladen County Board …

Discussion: WRAL-TV

Rich Lowry / National Review:
Yes, Voter Fraud Is Real

Discussion: Mother Jones, Slate and New Republic, more at Mediagazer »

Christina Cauterucci / Slate:

I'm So Sorry to Report that Ted Cruz's New Beard Looks Great — I have no particular fondness for this subject and it brings me no pleasure to cover it. But as a truth-seeking journalist, I feel I must write what follows: Sen. Ted Cruz's new beard looks great.

Discussion: Althouse

Anne-Elisabeth Moutet / New York Post:

In France, les deplorables strike back — PARIS — Glittering shops from Louis Vuitton to Dior are boarded up on both sides of the Champs-Élysées. The Eiffel Tower and the Louvre will be closed. Paris has hunkered down for the latest Yellow Saturday, the fourth in a row …

CNN:

VA secretary praised Confederate president as a “martyr to ‘The Lost Cause’” in 1995 speech — (CNN)Secretary of Veterans Affairs Robert Wilkie praised Confederate States President Jefferson Davis effusively in a 1995 speech, calling him a “martyr to ‘The Lost Cause’” and an “exceptional man in an exceptional age.”

Discussion: Washington Post, Lawyers, Guns & Money, HuffPost, Task & Purpose, Raw Story, Splinter, New Republic and Mediaite

Daniel Strauss / Politico:

GOP power grabs pour gas on ‘resistance’ in key Midwest states — Republican efforts to weaken incoming Democratic governors in Michigan and Wisconsin have reignited the grass-roots fervor that flipped both states in November, turning the typically sleepy post-election period …

Burgess Everett / Politico:

Trump leans on McConnell to vote on criminal justice reform — President Donald Trump pressured Senate Majority Leader Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Friday to pass criminal justice reform, hoping to push a reluctant McConnell to put it on the floor during a crowded lame duck session.

Discussion: Breitbart, Washington Post and United States Senate Committee …

Associated Press: McConnell blocks sentencing bill, upsetting Grassley, GOP

Eric Levitz / New York Magazine:

Ammon Bundy Quits Militia Movement in Solidarity With Migrant Caravan — Ammon Bundy is best known as a leading light of the American militia movement (a motley coalition of various different flavors of firearms enthusiasts who hate the federal government).

Salvador Hernandez / BuzzFeed News:
Ammon Bundy Is Quitting The Militia Movement After Breaking With Trump On Anti-Immigrant Rhetoric

Discussion: Washington Post and Balloon Juice

Mairead McArdle / National Review:

Virginia Teacher Fired after Refusing to Call Trans Student by Preferred Pronoun — A Virginia high-school teacher was fired on Thursday after refusing to address a transgender student by the student's preferred pronoun. — The school board of the West Point Consolidated School District …

Discussion: The American Conservative