Turkey’s currency plunged to new depths today amid a standoff that has Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accusing the U.S. of sabotaging an ally.
Why it matters: Turkey was already bracing for economic turbulence, but President Trump’s decision to apply sanctions over the detention of American pastor Andrew Brunson has accelerated the crisis, and provided Erdogan with a scapegoat. The dispute could also exacerbate another trend: Turkey’s drift away from the West.
Prosecutors working with Special Counsel Robert Mueller have rested their case against former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort on Monday after more than two weeks of presenting witnesses and evidence to illustrate how Manafort obtained millions of dollars offshore and avoided paying taxes.
The details: The special counsel had initially said the case would rest last Friday, and the court didn't say what caused the delay. However, this now means that the defense team will soon present its arguments. Manafort is facing the possibility of life in prison if convicted on 18 counts of tax evasion and back fraud. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
A June Supreme Court decision over how to give immigrants notice to appear in court for deportation proceedings has opened another big legal fight over how the Trump administration can enforce deportation orders, the AP's Amy Taxin reports.
Why it matters, per Axios' Stef Kight: Depending on how the Supreme Court's decision is interpreted, it could make it a lot harder for the government to deport undocumented immigrants who have been caught illegally in the country.
Three days after being fired from the FBI, "friends" of former agent Peter Strzok launched a GoFundMe account seeking $150,000 to offset "Pete’s hefty – and growing – legal costs and his lost income." The account raised more than $35,000 in the first five hours.
Flashback: This is reminiscent of similar moves made by supporters or friends of other high profile officials facing mounting legal bills after being fired from the Trump administration. The family of former national security advisor Michael Flynn's family set up a legal defense fund last year to help pay for his "enormous expenses," and a GoFundMe page was launched following Trump's firing of former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe in March.
Tom Steyer is going to spend $10 million — on top of his planned $110 million — to help Democrats win the House by turning out voters who support the idea of impeaching President Trump, Bloomberg reports.
Why it matters: Steyer is investing more money into helping Democrats ahead of the 2018 midterm elections than any other individual in Democratic politics.
Judge Dabney Friedrich, appointed by President Trump to the U.S. District Court of Washington, D.C., ruled Monday that Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into the Trump campaign's ties to Russia is constitutional, reports Politico.
Why it matters: This is the fourth federal judge to strike down efforts to invalidate Mueller's probe. The latest appeal was leveled by Russian company Concord Management, which was indicted for funding the social media "troll farm" known as the Internet Research Agency.
FBI agent Peter Strzok was fired from the bureau on Friday due to his anti-Trump texts between him and his then-colleague Lisa Page leading up to the 2016 presidential election even though, according to Strzok's lawyer, the FBI's disciplinary office only recommended a demotion and suspension, The Washington Post reports.
The big picture: Strzok worked briefly on Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation as well as the Hillary Clinton email server investigation. When his texts were originally unearthed, Strzok was kicked off of Mueller's team and demoted, but remained an FBI employee. The texts have given the president and his allies ammunition in their attacks against the credibility of the FBI.
The Space Force has caused its first collateral damage, exacerbating tensions between the White House and Trump’s re-election campaign.
What happened: Multiple sources tell me White House officials were surprised when, shortly after the vice president gave a sober speech announcing Trump administration plans to develop a Space Force, the campaign blasted out an email fundraising off the idea.
Former White House staffer Omarosa Manigault Newman released another alleged secret recording — that she claims took place one day after her firing by Chief of Staff John Kelly — of a phone call with President Trump, who seems unaware of her departure from the administration. She shared the clip exclusively Monday morning on NBC's "Today."
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