1/ The Justice Department argued that Trump could continue to profit from foreign governments visiting his hotel in Washington, D.C., if he didn’t explicitly provide something in return. A federal judge criticized the argument that Trump’s financial interest in the Trump International Hotel in D.C. is constitutional. The lawsuit, brought by the District of Columbia and the state of Maryland, claims that Trump’s profits from the hotel violate the Emoluments Clause, which prohibits government employees from receiving financial benefits outside of their official salary. The judge promised to decide by the end of the July whether to allow the case to proceed to the next stage. (New York Times / BuzzFeed News / CNN)

2/ Michael Cohen told friends he believes he will soon be indicted and arrested as part of Robert Mueller’s investigation into possible collusion between the Trump’s campaign and Russia. Investigators are probing Cohen for bank fraud, wire fraud and campaign finance violations. (NY Daily News)

  • Michael Avenatti claimed that the Russian government is trying to plant false stories about him in the press. Avenatti said people in the Russian government claimed that he traveled to Moscow and had questionable encounters with women there, and that he previously represented Russian and Ukrainian legal interests before the U.S. government. “I’ve never been to Moscow in my life,” Avenatti said. “I’ve never traveled to Russia in my life.” (Daily Beast)

3/ Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump earned at least $82 million in outside income while serving as Trump’s advisers during 2017. Kushner reported more than $5 million in income from a Kushner Companies apartment complex in Plainsboro, N.J. (Washington Post)

4/ Ivanka Trump personally made $3.9 million last year from her stake in the Trump International Hotel. She made an additional $5 million from businesses connected to her personal brand, as well as roughly $2 million in 2017 in pay and severance from the Trump Payroll Corp. Her reported income in 2017 was up “substantially” from spring 2017, when she reported about $2.4 million in income from the hotel since it opened in September 2016. (Politico)

5/ Democrats on the Senate Intelligence Committee want to interview Ivanka Trump as part of the investigation into Russian election interference. The committee wants to interview Ivanka about “two separate national security questions.” Sen. Ron Wyden said investigators should ask about her role in connecting a Russian weightlifter, Dmitry Klokov, with Michael Cohen. Klokov offered to connect her father to Putin in order to facilitate building a Trump Tower in Moscow1. The other issue Wyden said investigators should ask about is China’s decision to grant Ivanka trademarks around the same time her father promised to help Chinese telecom manufacturer ZTE stay in business. (BuzzFeed News)

6/ The Senate blocked Trump’s deal with Chinese telecom giant ZTE. The Senate’s move comes less than a week after Trump struck a deal with ZTE that would keep the company in business with U.S. companies and markets2. The ZTE deal would have forced the company to pay $1 billion in penalties, reorganize itself, and insert U.S. compliance officers into the company in exchange for access to U.S. consumers. ZTE is considered by the U.S. intelligence community to be a mechanism for espionage by selling phones that can be tracked and enabled to steal intellectual property. (NBC News)

7/ Trumps said Justin Trudeau’s comment that Canada “will not be pushed around” will end up costing Canadians “a lot of money.” Trump added that Trudeau “probably didn’t know that Air Force One has about 20 televisions,” in reference to Trudeau’s comment after the G7 meeting that the aluminum and steel tariffs imposed by the U.S. on Canada on national security grounds were insulting. Trump added the Trudeau “learned” his lesson for criticizing him. (CNBC / Globe and Mail)

  • White House trade adviser Peter Navarro apologized for his “special place in hell” comments directed at Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau. (Reuters)

8/ A federal judge ordered Robert Mueller to identify all the key figures referred to but not named in an indictment accusing Paul Manafort of acting as an unregistered foreign agent of Ukraine and of laundering millions of dollars. Mueller’s team has until Friday to turn over the names to Manafort’s lawyers. (Politico / CNBC / Washington Post / Bloomberg)

  • Paul Manafort will be arraigned on Friday for witness tampering charges lodged by Robert Mueller. It’s the third superseding indictment by Mueller against Manafort and the arraignment coincides with Manafort’s previously scheduled hearing on whether his $10 million bail should be revoked due to witness tampering accusations. (Reuters)

🇰🇵🇺🇸 Dept. of USA vs DPRK.

  1. Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un signed a joint statement agreeing to pursue the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. In the agreement, Kim vows to give up his nuclear weapons program in exchange for U.S. security guarantees, but fell short of outlining concrete measures. (NBC News)

  2. Trump believes Kim Jong Un will give up his nuclear weapons because they have a “terrific relationship” and he’s “developed a very special bond” with the North Korean leader. Trump said Kim “reaffirmed” his commitment to the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and that “we’re ready to write a new chapter between our nations.” (Washington Post / New York Times)

  3. Trump agreed to suspend regular military exercises with South Korea as part of his concessions to Kim Jong Un, contradicting Defense Secretary Jim Mattis’s campaign to make U.S. troops more combat-ready. Trump described the decision as “very expensive” but also “very provocative.” Trump’s decision caused consternation among some military experts, who believe the troops provide security for South Korea and Japan. Trump used the term “war games,” a phrase preferred by Pyongyang, which characterizes them as rehearsals for an invasion. (New York Times / Politico / Associated Press)

  4. Trump claimed that Kim Jong Un “loves his people” and the imprisoned North Koreans are “going to be one of the great winners” of the denuclearization talks. Trump said life is “rough” in North Korea, but that “it’s rough in a lot of places, by the way, not just there.” Human Rights Watch describes North Korea as “one of the most repressive authoritarian states in the world.” (Washington Post / CBS News / CNN)

  5. Trump didn’t use notes for his meeting with Kim Jong Un because he has “one of the great memories of all time.” Trump characterized his meeting with Kim as a “great conversation.” (The Hill)

  6. Trump pitched Kim Jong Un that North Korea “could have the best hotels in the world.” Trump showed Kim a “tape that was done on the highest level of future development.” (ABC News)

  7. The White House restricted press access to parts of Trump’s summit with Kim Jong Un. The Associated Press, Reuters and Bloomberg were kept out of the pool, as were the representatives for radio and the foreign press corps. (Associated Press)

  8. The White House made a Hollywood-style movie trailer to depict a story about “two men, two leaders and one destiny.” The short video shows images of warplanes and artillery with a narrator suggesting that “a new world can begin today, one of friendship, respect and goodwill.” Some journalists assumed they were watching a propaganda films by Pyongyang. (Associated Press / Washington Post)

  9. Read the full text of the joint statement signed by Trump and Kim. (Politico)


✏️ Notables.

  1. Five states are holding primaries today: Nevada, Virginia, Maine, South Carolina and North Dakota. This is everything you need to know about key races in each state.

  2. Trump’s economic adviser suffered a heart attack. Larry Kudlow is currently being treated at Walter Reed Medical Center in Maryland. A White House spokesperson said Kudlow is “doing well” after suffering a “very mild heart attack.” (Politico / Bloomberg / CNBC)

  3. The Department of Justice will likely issue a public report next month on foreign efforts to interfere in U.S. elections and how to combat them. Jeff Sessions convened a cyber-digital task force in February, after facing criticism from Democrats that not enough was being done to address future foreign interference. (The Hill)

  4. A federal judge ruled that AT&T can move forward with its $85 billion acquisition of Time Warner. AT&T has agreed not to complete the acquisition for six days to allow time for an appeal from the Justice Department. (CNN)

  5. Ted Cruz defended the Trump administration’s policy of separating families at the border, saying it can be avoided if people stop crossing the border illegally. The separation happens regardless of whether a migrant is seeking asylum. (The Hill)

  6. The Trump administration is looking to build tent cities to shelter the growing number of migrant children being held in detention. The Department of Health and Human Services is considering building a tent city to hold between 1,000 and 5,000 children at Fort Bliss, an Army base near El Paso. (McClatchy DC)

  1. Day 503: Obsessed. Ivanka Trump connected Michael Cohen with a Russian who offered to introduce Trump to Putin during the campaign in 2015 in order to facilitate a 100-story Trump Tower in Moscow.

  2. Day 480: A fucked-up feedback loop. Trump instructed the Commerce Department to help ZTE – the world’s fourth-largest maker of cellphones – get “back into business” after the Chinese company was penalized for violating U.S. sanctions against North Korea and Iran.