Mueller closes in on Trump’s Russia ties: Weekend Edition

[Bloomberg]( [A Clear Link Between Trump and Russia Is Now Out in the Open]( – Noah Feldman The key revelation of Michael Cohen’s new guilty plea is this: Justice Department Special Counsel Robert Mueller is one step closer to showing links between Donald Trump’s business interests in Russia and his conduct as a candidate for president. The [criminal information filed]( by Mueller’s prosecutors in the Southern District of New York states that in a period that lasted until the middle of June 2016, Cohen asked the press secretary to Russian President Vladimir Putin for a meeting with Putin in Russia as part of a deal that would have led to a Trump Tower being built in Moscow. And according to the document, Cohen spoke to Trump about the deal more than three times during that period, and asked both Trump and other senior campaign officials about a Trump trip to Russia in connection with the deal. Cohen is pleading guilty to lying to Congress by saying these negotiations had ended by January 2016 and by denying that he spoke to Trump about them. The details that emerge in the document are fascinating and rich. But the main takeaway is that Cohen and others in the Trump organization were actively doing a Russia deal that linked Trump’s emerging presidential candidacy with his business interest in a Moscow Trump Tower. And Trump knew about it, to a degree yet to be revealed. Read the [whole thing](. [What If Democrats Have to Impeach the President?]( – Francis Wilkinson [Trump’s Insults Will Have Consequences]( – Jonathan Bernstein [America Is Poorer Than It Thinks]( – Noah Smith [Competition Is Dying, and Taking Capitalism With It]( – Jonathan Tepper [Deutsche Bank’s Troubles Are Donald Trump’s Troubles]( – Timothy L. O’Brien [India Is Missing the Wake-Up Call From Its Shadow-Bank Bust]( – Andy Mukherjee [Manafort and Mueller Are Rattling Trump]( – Timothy L. O’Brien [Trump Is Losing His Influence]( – Jonathan Bernstein [Ford Gets Left at the Lights By General Motors]( – Chris Bryant Saturday New Music Here are [eight new albums]( you can stream right now, including installments from Jeff Tweedy, Meek Mill and The 1975. This is the Weekend Edition of Bloomberg Opinion Today, a roundup of the 10 most popular stories Bloomberg Opinion published this week, based on web readership, with some other stuff thrown in. New subscribers to the newsletter can [sign up here](. [FOLLOW US [Facebook Share]]( [Twitter Share]( SEND TO A FRIEND [Share with a friend] You received this message because you are subscribed to Bloomberg's Bloomberg Opinion Today newsletter. [Unsubscribe]( | [Bloomberg.com]( | [Contact Us]( Bloomberg L.P. 731 Lexington, New York, NY, 10022