Other developments

Other developments

An August 2016 meeting between President Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman and an associate with ties to Russian intelligence goes to the “heart” of the Russia investigation, according to a court transcript unsealed Thursday. The transcript from a sealed hearing in Paul Manafort’s case provides further insight into what special counsel Robert Mueller considers significant in his wide-ranging probe of the Kremlin’s efforts to sway the 2016 presidential election and the ties between Trump associates and Russia. It makes clear that prosecutors have homed in on the repeated contacts between Manafort and his longtime associate, Konstantin Kilimnik, who the FBI says has ties to Russia’s military intelligence agency.

Trump appears to be taking a more positive view of Capitol Hill talks on border security, according to negotiators who struck a distinctly optimistic tone after a White House meeting with a top Republican on the broad parameters of a potential bipartisan agreement. Appropriations Committee Chairman Richard Shelby of Alabama said Thursday’s session in the Oval Office was “the most positive meeting I’ve had in a long time” and that the president was “very reasonable.”

A judge confirmed in a court filing Thursday that federal prosecutors in New York are still investigating campaign finance crimes committed when Trump’s former lawyer, Michael Cohen, paid two women to stay silent about alleged affairs with Trump. U.S. District Judge William H. Pauley III made the disclosure as he agreed to release in several weeks some court documents related to the search warrant that authorized last April’s FBI raids on Cohen’s home and office.

Source: Associated Press