Another mass shooting ends the week, this one being the fourth most deadly shooting in the U.S. and a real small-town tragedy. The shooter, who was discharged from the Air Force for bad conduct around a domestic dispute, entered a church in small Texas town and killed 26 people. On his way out, a local shot at him and he took off in his car. The brave local chased him, the shooter crashed his car, and he was later found dead. If the Air Force had correctly registered his domestic assault charge, the shooter might not have been able to get his hands on a gun.

Here’s what else happened in week 41…

Russia:

Mueller’s Charges and Legal Documents:

The first of the charges in Mueller’s investigation come out, along with evidentiary documents. Here’s what comes from all that:

1. Mueller unveils 12 counts against Paul Manafort and his associate Rick Gates, including conspiracy against the U.S., conspiracy to launder money, FARA violations, false statements, and failure to report financial information.
2. Trump tweets a response that this shows there was “no collusion,” which might have been a little premature, because an hour later George Papadopoulos, the Trump campaign’s former foreign policy advisor, pleads guilty to making a false statement to the FBI.
3. Documents show that Corey Lewandowski was also involved in discussions with Papadopoulos about Russia meetings.
4. Carter Page (also a foreign policy advisor to the campaign) says he spoke about Russia with Papadopoulos after originally denying it, and he also testifies that he told Sessions about a trip he took to Russia during the campaign. During this July 2016 trip, he met with Russian government officials. Remember, Sessions testified under oath to the Senate Intelligence Committee that he didn’t have any knowledge of Russian contact with the campaign.
5. Page emailed campaign staff about his findings from the trip, which were read at testimony
6. An email from Manafort to a campaign official says about the trips to Russia, “We need someone to communicate that DT is not doing these trips. It should be someone low level in the campaign so as not to send any signal.”
7. Manafort has a trial date in May of 2018.
8. Rick Gates was also being paid by the RNC for political strategy services.
9. Sam Clovis, who was about to go up for confirmation to the post of top scientist of the Department of Agriculture (even though he has no science background, but that’s another story), withdraws his nomination. It turns out he testified to the grand jury the previous week, which the White House didn’t find out until the media broke the news.
10. An email chain shows that Clovis discussed the potential Russia meetings with Papadopoulos, and Clovis is referenced in the court filing. And according to Papadopoulos’ plea agreement, Clovis impressed on him that relations with Russia were a primary focus of their foreign policy efforts.
11. Here’s a timeline of Russian contact to help you keep it all straight.
12. The Papadopoulos plea agreement and supporting documents reveal:

• • He met with a Russian agent (the Professor) in March of 2016 (after Papadopoulos knew he would be a foreign policy advisor for Trump’s campaign).
  • The Professor was only interested in him after finding out he was working with Trump’s campaign.
  • In April of 2016, the Professor told him that Russian agents have dirt on Clinton (a month after Papadopoulos joined Trump’s campaign).
  • The Professor then told him that the Russians had emails on Clinton, thousands of emails.
  • A person at the March 2016 meeting where Papadopoulos brought up meeting with the Putin says Trump didn’t dismiss the idea but Jeff Sessions did object.
  • In July 2016, Papadopoulos sent an email to his Russian contact the saying the meeting had been approved.
  • The above implies that the Trump campaign knew about the hacked emails long before they were released. And while both Trump and Jeff Sessions deny any knowledge of contacts between the Trump campaign and Russia, the latest court documents indicate otherwise.
  • Papadopoulos has been cooperating with the investigation since July 2017.

13. Jeff Sessions led the foreign policy group that Papadopoulos was part of.
14. Interesting note: It was Jared Kushner and Ivanka who pushed for Trump to hire Manafort to the campaign.
15. Also of note: Despite attempts by certain parties to draw the dossier into question, none of the charges revealed this week stemmed from the dossier.
16. Trump, conservative media, and some GOP politicians try to deflect attention off the charges by belittling Papadopoulos’ role in the campaign, by saying Manafort‘s crimes occurred long before Manafort was part of the campaign, and by focusing attention on Obamacare, Hillary Clinton, Democrats, the Fusion GPS dossier, tax cuts, the uranium deal, and Mueller’s (made up) conflict of interest.
17. Jared Kushner provides Mueller with documents related to his potential role in obstructing justice.
18. Representative Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) introduces a House resolution saying Mueller has a conflict of interest because he worked at the FBI with James Comey and he worked there when the Uranium One deal went through. A deal that had nothing to do with Mueller or the FBI. How did Mueller go from the perfect investigator for all sides to being compromised in the GOP’s view?
19. Tony Podesta steps down from his role at The Podesta Group. Even though the firm wasn’t named in the indictments and so far there are no accusations of wrong-doing, they worked with Manafort in the past to help improve the Ukrainian government’s image.

And The Rest of Russia Things:

1. I‘m compiling a list of the fake stories and ads pushed by Russian troll farms to interfere with our elections just to see how many I saw last year. Here’s the first few. Feel free to add more in the comments if you know of any I missed.
2. And since we’re on fake news, former FBI agent Clint Watts says Russia’s been using this strategy to manipulate us since 2014. He testifies again to the Senate this week.
3. A Russian troll farm created a persona named Jenna Abrams in 2014. She built a solid base and, once established, she began posting divisive propaganda. Russia created a fake “real American” who showed up in most major news outlets.
4. Members of the Trump campaign followed Russian accounts on Twitter and shared their posts.
5. Facebook, Twitter, and Google testify in three hearings to a Senate Judiciary sub-committee. Here’s what we learn there:

• • Russian trolls used Facebook accounts to instigate violence against social and political groups, including undocumented immigrants, Muslims, police officers, Black Lives Matter activists, and more.
  • Facebook exposed Russia-linked pages to 126 million Americans, slightly less than the number that actually voted.
  • The posts by Russian trolls focused on our divisions in order to spread discord—primarily around race, religion, gun rights, and LGBTQ issues.
  • The posts also targeted users based on where they live, race, religion, and political leanings.
  • Instagram exposed Russian ads to millions of their users also.

6. Russian interests hold large stakes in Twitter and Facebook. Documents show that Yuri Milner, a Russian tech leader, invested in Facebook and Twitter through a Kushner associate and he has a stake in a company co-owned by Kushner.
7. Russian hacking didn’t stop with U.S. Democrats. They targeted thousands of national and international government officials and defense contractors during a multi-year attempt to break into email accounts worldwide. They mostly targeted the U.S. and Ukraine.
8. The DOJ says they have enough evidence to charge six Russian government officials who were involved in the DNC email hack.
9. Billionaire and conservative funder Robert Mercer sells his stake in Breitbart to his daughter and steps down from his company in an effort to distance himself from Trump and the Russia probe. Mercer was also a big funder for Cambridge Analytica, which provided big data and demographic targeting services for the Trump campaign.
10. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross has a stake in a shipping venture with Putin’s son-in-law, which Ross didn’t disclose during his confirmation process.
11. It’s proven that Guccifer 2.0 modified some of the campaign emails leaked on Wikileaks.

Courts/Justice:

1. After the New York City terror attack, Trump calls our justice system a joke and a laughing stock. He then calls for the terrorist to be sent to Gitmo, but then recants when he learns that our justice system is actually faster and more efficient.
2. Trump interferes in two cases: one for the New York terrorist and one for Bowe Bergdahl.

• • Trump calls for the terrorist to be sentenced to death, which experts say will now likely not happen in order to avoid the perception of the president having undue influence.
  • The judge in the Bowe Bergdahl trial gave him a dishonorable discharge with no time served, which Trump criticized as light. But the judge was likely trying to prevent the appearance of undue influence after Trump made inflammatory comments about the case, which Bergdahl’s lawyers continually argued made it impossible to have a fair trial.

3. Trump’s influence over the DOJ is further questioned after he refuses to rule out firing Jeff Sessions if he won’t investigate the things Trump wants investigated. He wants Sessions to look into his adversaries (mostly Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, and Elizabeth Warren), setting up the DOJ for a breach of protocol if they follow through on it.
4. While Congress is trying to pass more restrictive abortion bills, a federal court just struck down two abortion restrictions passed in Alabama
5. A Cleveland court throws out all charges against 12 protestors at the 2016 Republican National Convention.

Healthcare:

1. Based on conflicting actions coming from the White House, there seems to be a battle going on over whether to save the ACA and if so, by how much:

• • The administration lets the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) send out notices with ACA enrollment reminders, man their call centers, and work to enroll the currently uninsured. They also made the plans publicly available a week in advance so consumers could preview them.
  • At the same time, the administration ended ACA enrollment partnerships across the country, ended insurance subsidies, discouraged Congress from passing a bill that would stabilize the markets, and cut the budget for outreach and assistance by 90%.

2. The IRS announces that it will continue to fully enforce the mandate that everyone have insurance.
3. The House and Senate agree to fund the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), but disagree on how to pay for it. The House version would be funded by 700,000 low-income people losing their insurance.

International:

1. U.S. forces capture one of the terrorists who attacked the Benghazi compound in 2012.
2. In defending the lack of staffing at the State Department, Trump says that the only who matters is him because he makes all the policy.
3. The U.S. pulls out of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), which is an effort to fight corruption in the energy market. The EITI requires countries to disclose fossil fuel and mining revenues.
4. Trump starts his trip to Asia with a few days in Hawaii, where he’s greeted by hundreds of protestors.
5. Saudi Arabia arrests several princes in what they call an anti-corruption crackdown, but what really appears to be a consolidation of power.
6. White House officials say that the Office of the Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan might be reinstated. Trump got rid of the office shortly after taking office himself.
7. Yet another set of confidential documents is leaked. The Paradise Papers include information about tax havens for the super rich and where they keep their money. The information touches on celebrities, government officials, Trump associates and cabinet members, businessmen, and corporations. Here’s a list, if you’re interested.

Legislation/Congress:

1. Trump signs a bill that repeals the Obama-era consumer protections that prevented financial institutions from forcing customers into arbitration clauses, preventing legal action in cases of wrongdoing against consumers.
2. Senators Mark Warner (D-Va.) and Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) propose a bill that would require more disclosure in social media ads, specifically around who’s funding them.
3. Here’s a little roundup of what Congress has been doing around women’s reproductive health. Do you see the problem here?

• • Making it harder to get birth control, and then…
  • Making it harder to get reproductive health and counseling services, and then…
  • Making it harder to get an abortion, and then…
  • Making it harder to adopt unwanted or orphaned children.

Travel Ban/Immigration/Discrimination:

1. A federal judge blocks Trump’s transgender ban in the military from being fully enforced.
2. Trump says Congress should end an immigration lottery program that the New York City terrorist used to come to the U.S., blaming the program on Chuck Schumer. Schumer was one of the Gang of 8 that worked on a bill to get rid of the program a few years ago. The Senate passed the bill, but it didn’t get through the GOP-led House.
3. Lawyers sue to have ICE release the 10-year-old undocumented immigrant with cerebral palsy who was detained when she came out of gall bladder surgery. She’s finally released later in the week.
4. After 62 venues refuse to host Milo Yiannopolous, he’s forced to cancel his public appearance.
5. New York City passes a series of “sanctuary” bills to protect undocumented immigrants and to limit how city employees can work with ICE.
6. Contractors that are building the wall prototypes south of San Diego are afraid they’ll lose business because of it (and they will). They want the DOJ to sue to prevent state and local governments from denying them contracts or divesting from their companies.
7. These same contractors also want to be reimbursed for any security they provide and they want local authorities to provide protection as well.
8. Mar-a-Lago gets permission to hire 70 foreign workers for the 2017-2018 season.

Climate/EPA:

1. The White House approves a report concluding that climate change is real and manmade. At odds with their current stance on the subject. According to the report:

“Every day we see more evidence that climate change is dramatically affecting our planet. This week, we found out the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere reached its highest level in 800,000 years in 2016. The majority of Americans understand the seriousness of climate change, and they demand action. We need to invest in clean energy alternatives to fossil fuels and work toward a 100 percent clean energy system—not continue to let the fossil fuel industry make billions in profits and buy out politicians while destroying our planet.”

2. The EPA bans scientists who receive grant money from serving on advisory panels, even though these advisors sign an agreement to not take any grant money during their time on the panel. It is expected that Scott Pruitt will replace these scientists with industry officials who have previously fought against EPA standards.
3. New Mexico defeats an effort to remove jaguars from their endangered species list.
4. The hole in the ozone layer shrinks to its smallest size since 1988, partly due to warmer weather and partly due to a united global effort to reduce ozone-depleting chemicals.
5. The Trump administration has so far failed three times to repeal Obama’s methane emissions rules, foiled once by the Senate and twice by the courts. This has the gas and oil industry working to fill the void by creating voluntary programs to address the problem of emissions.

Budget/Economy:

1. House Republicans release their tax package. I listed out a few details in a separate post because these recaps are getting long!
2. Small businesses come out against the plan. 60% of Americans don’t think businesses will spend their tax savings on employees. Only 12% of Americans approve of the plan.
3. Trump nominates Jerome Powell to head the Fed. He’s already on the board, so likely won’t change course much. He might be a little more business friendly.
4. Out-of-work coal miners have training for new jobs freely available to them, but they aren’t taking it because they think their coal jobs are coming back.
5. With monumental rebuilding efforts going on as a result of fires, floods, and hurricanes in the U.S., Trump slaps tariffs on imports of certain Canadian lumber, which will certainly cause an increase in costs. And it’s increasing tensions in already tense NAFTA negotiations.
6. Trump throws a little influence into the stock market by tweeting “Would very much appreciate Saudi Arabia doing their IPO of Aramco with the New York Stock Exchange. Important to the United States!”

Elections:

1. All eyes are on Virginia and New Jersey elections on the 7^th, though there are state elections around the country going on at the same time.
2. In what could be a case of the second worst timing ever (right behind the timing of Comey’s re-opening the Clinton email case last November), the week before the Virginia elections Donna Brazile releases an excerpt from her book where she implies that the DNC and Clinton campaigns colluded. It turns out she didn’t reveal anything we didn’t already know two years ago, and that both the Bernie and Hillary campaigns were made the same offer by the DNC. It probably wasn’t a fair deal, but the elections weren’t rigged. Her book comes out this week… on election day.

Miscellaneous:

1. Some Fox employees express embarrassment and frustration over their network’s (nonexistent) coverage of the Russia charges revealed this week, with many saying they want to quit.
2. An outgoing Twitter employee becomes a hero for a day when they briefly shut down Trump’s Twitter account.
3. Far right media manufacture an antifa uprising for the weekend calling it a planned civil war. When the Civil War doesn’t happen, that same media makes fun of antifa for failing.
4. Rand Paul‘s neighbor assaults him in his yard, breaking some ribs and bruising his lung. The reason for the attack isn’t yet known, though the neighbor is cooperating with police.
5. Over half of Trump’s nominees have close ties to the industries they’re supposed to regulate.
6. Bush Jr. and Sr. release a book in which Sr. calls Trump a blowhard and Jr. says Trump just fans anger and doesn’t understand the job.

Polls:

1. Trump’s approval rating in the Gallup poll hits an all-time low of 33%.
2. Almost 80% of Trump voters think he shouldn’t leave office even if the Russia allegations are proven. Even so, the number of Americans who think he should be impeached is greater than the number who think he shouldn’t be.
3. Nearly half of Americans think Trump committed a crime.
4. An ABC/WaPo poll says that 65% of Americans don’t think Trump has accomplished much.
5. Trump’s “enemy of the people” rhetoric is sticking with some. 63% of Republicans think the press is the enemy of the people, followed by 38% of independents, and 11% of Democrats.