https://twitter.com/DavidEggert00/status/1024441141490540550

(CNN)Special counsel Robert Mueller has referred a collection of cases to New York federal prosecutors concerning whether several high-profile American lobbyists and operatives failed to register their work as foreign agents, according to people familiar with the matter.

The transfer of the inquiries marks an escalation of Mueller's referrals to the US Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York in the period since he turned over a case involving President Donald Trump's former personal attorney, Michael Cohen.

Since the spring, Mueller has referred matters to SDNY involving longtime Democratic lobbyist Tony Podesta and his work for his former firm, the Podesta Group, and former Minnesota Republican Rep. Vin Weber and his work for Mercury Public Affairs, the sources said.

One source said that former Obama White House counsel Greg Craig, a former partner at law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP, is also part of the inquiry.
None of the entities involved have been charged with wrongdoing, and there is no indication the SDNY inquiry will result in criminal charges.

It's not clear whether they are considered one case or separate matters, these people said, though all involve inquiries into whether the men improperly performed work on behalf of groups associated with Ukraine without registering with the Justice Department as foreign agent


https://www.cnn.com/2018/07/31/politics/mueller-investigation-foreign-agent-referrals-new-york/index.html

The first day of Paul Manafort’s trial in Virginia ended Tuesday evening with testimony from Tad Devine, a Democratic political consultant who worked with Manafort on campaigns in Ukraine.

The opening day of trial took off like a shot, with jury selection done by early afternoon, opening statements over in an hour and the first witness called and cross examined, all before 6 p.m. ET.

U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis made a point to move the proceedings along as quickly as possible, appearing frustrated with the lawyers if it seemed that they were taking too long.

Throughout Devine’s testimony, Greg Andres, the lawyer arguing for special counsel Robert Mueller’s team, asked questions about Devine’s work in Ukraine with Manafort. Andres’ questions appeared aimed at establishing the political work Manafort was doing in Ukraine for the Party of Regions, and that Devine was being paid by Manafort.

During his testimony, Devine revealed that he earned $500,000 as part of a 2009 consulting agreement for his work on Viktor Yanukovych’s 2010 presidential run in Ukraine. Devine also revealed that he earned an additional $100,000 after Yanukovych won the election in 2010. Devine said that his firm was paid by Manafort’s company via wire transfer but that he was unsure whether it was from a foreign bank account.

Devine told Andres that he worked on media and speechwriting for campaigns in Ukraine, and he listed other American consultants who worked with him, including Daniel Rabin, another person listed as a potential witness, and Tony Fabrizio, a polling consultant who later went on to work for Donald Trump’s campaign. Devine also said that Manafort worked with Konstantin Kilimnik, Manafort’s business counterpart in Ukraine.


https://talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/tad-devine-first-witness-manafort-virginia-trial

https://twitter.com/TheDLCC/status/1024278758986055682

https://twitter.com/abdulelsayed/status/1024040687728250880?s=21

LANSING — Attorney General Bill Schuette asked more than a dozen state employees to join him on a 2015 weekday conference call to discuss “presidential politics,” and offered state employees financial incentives to secure endorsements for then presidential candidate Jeb Bush, according to emails obtained by the Free Press.

The emails were sent and received on personal email accounts — not state government ones — but one was sent by Schuette's state scheduler during office hours on a Monday morning. That email scheduled a conference call during state office hours for 3:30 that afternoon.

Two other emails were sent by Schuette after work hours, but urged state employees to meet political endorsement target deadlines by close of business on work weekdays. State offices close at 5 p.m.

The emails surfaced Tuesday amid several earlier allegations that Schuette used state employees to perform political or personal work on state time.



https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.freep.com/amp/869907002

https://twitter.com/joncprevo/status/1024118005905739783?s=21

July has not been good for MoviePass, the embattled all-you-can-watch movie ticket subscription service. The company ran out of money and shut down for a night last week. It’s compensated by shutting people out of popular movies like Mission: Impossible — Fallout. The company has claimed lately that technical difficulties are keeping users from getting movie tickets, though it’s unclear whether this is also a behind-the-scenes gambit to limit how much of its remaining money users can spend. The MoviePass stock has plummeted. And now, MoviePass has announced a slew of changes that aim to “compress its timeline to reach profitability” — by making the service much more restrictive.

According to a company press release, MoviePass will increase its price to $14.95 a month within the next 30 days. First-run movies will only be viewable on a limited basis during the first two weeks of release, unless the company has a promotional deal with a given film. This is in addition to the already-announced plan to implement surge pricing for popular movies, which users have noted in practice has meant virtually all movies, regardless of ticket demand.

MoviePass’ statement claims these changes are being made “to enhance discovery, and to drive attendance to smaller films and bolster the independent film community.” In a widely reported all-hands meeting at the company, MoviePass CEO Mitch Lowe cited the upcoming Christopher Robin and The Meg specifically as films that would not be available to subscribers.


https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.theverge.com/platform/amp/2018/7/31/17634508/moviepass-price-increase-limited-first-run-movie-access

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/docs/Georgia_July_30_2018.pdf

https://twitter.com/actoraaronbooth/status/1024315537738932227?s=21