The smoking gun in the Mueller probe?; Nadler will subpoena Mueller and report; new Russian disinformation campaign, and more

directed Michael Cohen to lie to Congress provides a straightforwardly impeachable offense.

The smoking gun in the Mueller probe? (Eric Lutz, Vanity Fair)
If a new report that Trump directed Michael Cohen to lie to Congress about Russia is true, he could be impeached for obstruction of justice.

If Trump told Cohen to lie, impeachment is coming (Garrett M. Graff, Wired)
As the government shutdown neared the one-month mark, the political landscape shifted under Washington’s feet Thursday night, dramatically and perhaps permanently altering the path of our nation’s politics. BuzzFeed’s duo of Russia probe reporters posted a blockbuster report that President Trump directed Michael Cohen to lie to Congress about the Trump Tower Moscow Project.
The allegation, which Buzzfeed sourced to two federal law enforcement officials, simultaneously adds new information to both the “collusion” and “obstruction” sides of the Russia probe. The idea that the President of the United States directed his personal attorney to lie to Congress about his attempt to complete a multi-hundred-million-dollar deal with Vladimir Putin in the midst of the presidential campaign is, in short, as big as it gets.
As US senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-Rhode Island), a former prosecutor, laid out, the accusation at the core of the BuzzFeed report constitutes at least four potential felonies: “criminal obstruction of justice (18 U.S.C. 1505, 1512), subornation of perjury (18 U.S.C. 1622), conspiracy (18 U.S.C. 371) and likely aiding and abetting perjury (18 U.S.C. 2).” Those phrases also meant something specific to students of recent political history: Suborning perjury was part of the articles of impeachment that targeted both Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton.
While we’ll be unpacking the implications of the apparent revelation for days to come, there are six aspects of the new report which, if true, make clear the scale of the political peril facing the president as of Friday morning.

Does the BuzzFeed report show that Trump obstructed justice? I asked 9 legal experts. (Sean Illing, Vox)
They all said yes.

DNC: Target of Russia cyberattack after 2018 midterms (Rebecca Morin, Politico)
The Democratic National Committee filed a legal complaint Thursday night alleging that it was the target of a cyberattack by Russia one week after the 2018 midterm elections.
“In November