Thread by @voxdotcom

1/ Another week, another whirlwind of news surrounding Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Trump-Russia investigation.

If you’re just catching up, here’s a rundown of what happened:

2/ On Monday, President Trump sent some 👀 tweets that railed against one cooperating witness (his former lawyer, Michael Cohen), while praising the “guts” of another potential witness (Roger Stone) who hasn’t cooperated with the probe. bit.ly/2BYTbcc

3/ Some background: Stone has been complaining for awhile about Mueller coming after him, in search of information about emails that Russian intelligence officers allegedly hacked from top Dems.

In a recent video, Stone insisted he had nothing on Trump. bit.ly/2B0Hn7x

4/ Back to the tweets: They raised some questions about Trump tampering with witnesses. Legal experts say the situation is complicated. bit.ly/2BXFTwv

5/ On Tuesday, more than 400 former Justice Department officials released a statement objecting to the appointment of Matthew Whitaker as acting attorney general.

Prior to his appointment, Whitaker was a vocal, unabashed critic of the Russia probe. bit.ly/2C0d6HN

6/ On Wednesday, Mueller released an update on Michael Flynn, Trump’s ex-national security adviser who pleaded guilty in 2017 to lying to the FBI about his contacts with the Russian ambassador. bit.ly/2AZ2DKQ

7/ The memo was heavily redacted, so we don’t know the whole story — but it did say Flynn’s cooperation was “substantial” and recommended a sentence on the “low end.”

@awprokop summed up more takeaways here: bit.ly/2BXg9QU

8/ That brings us to Friday. That morning, Trump announced his nomination of William Barr as attorney general.

If confirmed, Barr would be in charge of overseeing the Russia investigation. (It would also help solve the Whitaker issue). bit.ly/2BYC36p

9/ Barr’s views on the probe and how he’ll handle pressure from Trump will likely come up in his confirmation hearings, especially given his past comments defending the firing of James Comey. bit.ly/2BYlOGl

10/ On Friday afternoon, Mueller and federal prosecutors released sentencing memos for Michael Cohen.

The Southern District of New York requested that Cohen get “a substantial term of imprisonment” for his various crimes.

11/ But the bigger story is that Mueller noted that Cohen has provided him “credible” and “useful” information about Trump, his company, and his White House. It’s an ominous situation for the president. bit.ly/2QKkKhy

12/ Mueller also filed another document on ex-Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort, whose plea deal recently fell apart.

It mentions lies related to Konstantin Kilimnik, a business associate of Manafort’s whom Mueller says has Russian intelligence ties. bit.ly/2E6e8mW

13/ With all of the developments in recent weeks, the looming question remains: How close is this getting to President Trump himself?

Here’s some of what we know and don’t know about that: bit.ly/2E991T4

14/ Trump responded to the recent filings in a pair of tweets this morning, claiming in all caps that no collusion had been found. bit.ly/2QFLbVz

15/15 Keep up with more Trump-Russia news here: bit.ly/2QLZhVO