LEGAL/NEW YORK/ROBERT MUELLER/RUSSIA INVESTIGATION/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “President Donald J. Trump, protected from criminal charges while in office, is now facing the prospect of indictment when he becomes a private citizen. On Friday [12-7-18], federal prosecutors in New York accused Trump of a felony: violating campaign-finance laws with hush-money payments intended to skew the 2016 election. Specifically, they detailed how Trump’s lawyer and self-described fixer Michael Cohen bought the silence of two women who said they had sexual liaisons with Trump – and did so in order to help Trump win the presidency – with the president’s full knowledge. Special counsel Robert S. Mueller III also filed documents showing that Cohen has told them that Trump was working on a real estate deal in Moscow potentially worth hundreds of millions of dollars ‘well into the campaign’ – shortly before he secured the Republican nomination for president. Cohen was convicted of lying to Congress about these discussions with Trump.”
–Tim Weiner, “Commentary: Mueller just brought Trump closer to prosecution,” Reuters, December 10, 2018 8:34 am