1. Alex van der Zwaan is expected to be sentenced today after pleading guilty to lying about his work in Ukraine with Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort and deputy Rick Gates. van der Zwaan would be the first person sentenced in the special counsel's Russia investigation. (ABC News)

  2. Rod Rosenstein sent Mueller a classified memo in August 2017 authorizing him to investigate allegations that Paul Manafort was "colluding with Russian government officials." The memo not only confirms Mueller's authority to investigate Manafort's dealings, but also confirms the extent to which Rosenstein has supported the investigation's actions. (CNN)

  3. Mueller's investigation is also asking more questions about a private consulting firm that has contracts with the United Arab Emirates, suggesting that Mueller is more deeply interested in foreign influence on Washington. The firm in question is Wikistrat, along with two of its founders, Joel Zamel and Daniel Green. (Wall Street Journal)

  4. Scott Pruitt used an obscure provision of the Safe Drinking Water Act in early March to give substantial raises to two of his closest aides. The White House rejected Pruitt's initial request to raise the salaries of Sarah Greenwalt and Millan Hupp, who had been with Pruitt since before he became EPA administrator. (The Atlantic)

  5. Trump's lawyers have asked a federal judge to force the dispute over an alleged "hush agreement" with Stormy Daniels into arbitration. Requiring the two parties to resolve the dispute through arbitration would reduce the public exposure of the case. Daniels' attorney, Michael Avenatti, has argued that a judge should decide the issue instead of an arbiter because the validity of agreement itself is in dispute. (Politico)