G20/RUSSIA/RUSSIA INVESTIGATION/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “President Donald Trump announced on Thursday [11-29-18] that he is canceling a planned bilateral meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of the G-20 summit here, citing Russia’s recent confrontation with Ukrainian ships..Trump has been under increasing pressure to take a hard line on Russia’s decision to fire on Ukrainian ships in waters off the Crimean Peninsula and capture their crew. The decision to scuttle the meeting comes on the same day that Michael Cohen, Trump’s former lawyer, pleaded guilty to lying to Congress about, among other things, having conversations with Trump about a Russian real estate project during the 2016 presidential campaign. Trump asserted to reporters earlier Thursday that Cohen was lying to get a reduced sentence. Cohen struck his plea deal Thursday with special counsel Robert Mueller, marking the second time the special counsel’s office has made a major move in its probe just ahead of a planned Trump meeting with Putin. The special counsel previously indicted 12 Russian military officials just days before Trump met with Putin in Helsinki, Finland. The summit ended up mired in controversy after Trump publicly sided with Moscow over his own intelligence agencies and refused to condemn Russia for interfering in the 2016 election.”
–Andrew Restuccia and David Herszenhorn, “Trump cancels meeting with Putin at G-20 summit,” Politico, November 29, 2018 11:41 am