World News: OnPolitics Today: 'The downloadable gun' gets blocked

Tuesday, July 31

Cody Wilson, the founder of Defense Distributed, shows a plastic handgun made on a 3D printer at his home in Austin, Texas.

Courts in three states halt 3D-printable gun plans

Also on Tuesday: Trump stresses that collusion's not a crime, while Facebook admits to new meddling and Trump's ex-campaign chair goes to trial.

Courts blocked the release of 3D-printable gun plans Tuesday night, hours before a deadline to let the homemade firearms guides go up online.

New York, New Jersey and Washington courts put out rulings barring Texas-based Defense Distributed from uploading its blueprints that put guns clicks away from anyone with the right machine and materials.

"Already spoke to NRA, doesn't seem to make much sense!" President Donald Trump tweeted about the guns earlier that day.

The initial OK to put the plans online? That came under a June settlement with Trump's administration.

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'Collusion is not a crime,' Trump says as his ex-campaign chief begins trial

Paul Manafort on Tuesday became the first to face prosecutors under special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russia and the 2016 election. The former Trump campaign chief is charged with fraud, tax evasion and conspiracy.

"What you really care about is what information Mr. Manafort could give you that would reflect on Mr. Trump or lead to his prosecution or impeachment," Judge T.S. Ellis III said.

Trump, meanwhile, denied any collusion. And even if, hypothetically, Trump did collude, he said, it wouldn't be illegal or anything. "Collusion is not a crime," Trump tweeted, "but that doesn't matter because there was No Collusion (except by Crooked Hillary and the Democrats)!"

"Collusion" isn't a illegal because it's not a legal term. It does cover a slew of specific laws that Trump's campaign may indeed have broken if it collaborated with Russia, the Associated Press explains.

Meanwhile, at Facebook: A plot to influence November's election is revealed

From our friends at Short List: Facebook pulled 32 fake pages and accounts on Tuesday, part of a covert campaign to influence November's midterm elections . Is it Russia? TBD. Facebook will leave the investigation to law enforcement. The Facebook pages sought to stir anger on divisive issues such as race and immigration, tactics strikingly similar to Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, Facebook said. Intelligence and law enforcement officials have warned that Russia would engage in election interference.

Elsewhere in politics

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•	Health official urged White House not to separate families
•	John Kelly will stay on as Trump's staff chief
•	Trump shutdown threat falls flat in Congress