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On the heels of reaching a generous plea deal from Special Counsel Robert Mueller for vital testimony against his former business partner, Rick Gates confessed that Former Trump Campaign Manager Paul Manafort directed him to make payments through wire transfers with undisclosed and unreported funds. Gates also spoke of embezzling hundreds of thousands of dollars from Manafort and, also, failing to disclose personal funds. With his confession, Gates becomes the first member of Trump's inner circle to buckle under the weight of past crimes in exchange for a plea deal in a court setting. Paul Manafort's trial remains ongoing. Also making headlines, this morning: President Donald Trump's son, Donald Trump Jr., who remains under legal pressure from the latest developments on his Trump Tower meeting in 2016, maintains that the meeting was about adoption, and not about gathering information on a political opponent from a foreign nation. Reporting over the weekend from The Washington Post and The New Yorker revealed that President Trump, himself, had dictated the "lie" of speaking about adoption practices between Russia and the United States in order to cover-up the actual nature of the meeting. Speaking with Laura Ingraham, Trump Jr. called the latest reporting "just another distraction," and that speaking of opposition dirt was merely a "bait-and-switch" tactic to get the Russians in the door. It's Tuesday, August 7, 2018. Welcome to Morning Joe. |