Today’s edition of quick hits:
* Look for more on this near the top of tonight’s show: “A lawyer who is the son-in-law of a Ukranian-Russian oligarch named in the controversial Donald Trump dossier pleaded guilty on Tuesday to lying to investigators in special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia probe. It is not clear, however, if Alex van der Zwaan, 33, has signed a cooperation deal with Mueller.”
* SCOTUS: “The U.S. Supreme Court said Tuesday it will not take up an appeal to California’s 10-day waiting period for gun buyers, acting as the issue of gun control is once more in the national spotlight after last week’s school shooting in Florida.”
* Syria: “Attacks by forces loyal to the Syrian government have killed more than 100 people in a rebel-held Damascus suburb, aid agencies and monitoring groups said Tuesday, calling it one of the bloodiest 24-hour periods in Syria’s seven-year war.”
* Israel: “The mushrooming corruption scandal plaguing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel took a surprising new turn on Tuesday, with an allegation that one of his closest advisers had sought to bribe a judge into dropping a criminal investigation involving the prime minister’s wife.”
* A slow-moving, ongoing tragedy: “Exactly five months after Hurricane Maria, new figures show suicide rates in Puerto Rico reached a new high after years of steady drops.” * Manafort: “Federal law enforcement officials have identified more than $40 million in ‘suspicious’ financial transactions to and from companies controlled by President Donald Trump’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort — a much larger sum than was cited in his October indictment on money laundering charges.” * He hasn’t yet agreed to resign: “A grand jury indictment unsealed Monday accuses a Republican state senator of extorting sex from a page in the Senate’s page program. The indictment was unsealed as Senate Minority Whip Nicholas Kettle was arraigned on two counts of extortion in Providence Superior Court. Kettle, of Coventry, is accused of extorting a male page for sex multiple times. He pleaded not guilty and was released on $50,000 personal recognizance.” Anything to add? Consider this an open thread.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past." Recommended
