World News: OnPolitics Today: It's just another Manafort Monday

with Jessica Estepa

OnPolitics Today: It's just another Manafort Monday

Manafort talks to reporters on the floor of the Republican

We're not quite sure how it's already Monday evening, OP friends, but it's probably because the news is non-stop.

Let's make like we're running out of time and get to it. (Subscribe here.)

And so it begins

After news broke on Friday night that a federal grand jury had approved the first charges in special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation, America waited to see what would happen next.

By Monday morning, we knew: former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort and his associate Rick Gates were charged with secretly working with pro-Russian factions in Ukraine and then laundering millions of dollars in profits through foreign bank accounts (and yes, antique rugs somehow played a role). Per the charges, the men allegedly tried to cover up their work while they were working for the Trump campaign.

Not that the president was going to acknowledge that.

"Sorry, but this is years ago, before Paul Manafort was part of the Trump campaign," he tweeted. "But why aren't Crooked Hillary & the Dems the focus?????"

Another Monday revelation: former Trump foreign policy adviser George Papadopolous has pleaded guilty to charges that he lied to FBI agents about contacts he believed would lead to "dirt" on Hillary Clinton.

There's a lot to keep track of, but know this: Don't expect these indictments to shift the congressional probes of Russia meddling.

So, that's a no-go for now, then?

A federal court on Monday blocked President Trump's ban on transgender service members. The court found that banning transgender troops from serving was a violating their rights to due process.

In particular, the judge noted the president's unusual way of announcing it - you know, through a tweet - and "the fact that the reasons given for them do not appears to be supported by any facts, and the recent rejection of those reasons by the military itself."

This is, of course, only the start of what will likely be a long legal road. The order is the first court challenge to the ban and can be appealed. The Justice Department said the lawsuit against the ban was premature since the Pentagon is studying the issue of transgender troops service.

#ComeyCommentary

And now, a word from former FBI director James Comey, who seems to have officially admitted that he is indeed @FormerBU on Twitter, if his avatar is any say on the matter.

He offered this quote from his favorite theologian Reinhold Niebuhr: "Man's capacity for justice makes democracy possible, but man's inclination to injustice makes democracy necessary."

We'll let you decide what he's talking about.

Elsewhere in politics

•	White House: Confident, but concerned about the unknown after legal action
•	Reagan tax officials skeptical Trump can recreate 'Morning in America' in 2017
•	Menendez verdict may depend on how judge instructs jury on the definition of bribery
•	Read Sarah Sanders' long-winded tax reform intro from Monday's White House press briefing
•	See what John Boehner had to say in f-bomb-laden, salty interview