The Russia Thing: As right wingers were still chanting “Lock her up! Lock her up!” about Hillary Clinton yesterday at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference, a third former Trump campaign associate pleaded guilty in the Special Counsel’s Russia investigation.

Rick Gates, who was indicted a second time for financial crimes only on Thursday, pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI in exchange for his cooperation. This puts a big target on the back of his former business associate and Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort, and possibly other people who worked for the campaign. Although Manafort was fired, Gates stayed with the campaign through election day.

Gates admitted to lying to the FBI as recently as this month while he was already under indictment and negotiating his plea deal. He misled the FBI about a 2013 meeting in which Manafort and California Rep. Dana Rohrabacher were present.

A third set of charges were filed against Manafort yesterday. Part of the evidence in the case is the result of Manafort’s inability to edit a PDF document. Prosecution documents say Manafort sent a PDF of a financial statement to Gates, who inserted fraudulent numbers and returned it to Manafort, creating an electronic paper trail.

In a letter to his family obtained by ABC News, Gates said, “The reality of how long this legal process will likely take, the cost, and the circus-like atmosphere of an anticipated trial are too much. I will better serve my family moving forward by exiting this process.”

But he’s not innocent. He pleaded guilty to a lesser crime in exchange for his testimony about bigger crimes committed by himself and others.

Manafort issued a statement saying, in part. “I had hoped and expected my business colleague would have had the strength to continue the battle to prove our innocence … This does not alter my commitment to defend myself against the untrue piled up charges contained in the indictments against me.”

Fighting the charges is a stretch with Gates cooperating against him. Manafort is accused of failing to report many millions of dollars in income to the IRS. He either did or didn’t.

Top, Top People: Midnight last night was the deadline for Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner to get a full security clearance or be cut off from viewing the most secret documents, according to a memo outlining new rules sent by White House Chief of Staff John Kelly. Trump said he leaves it up to Kelly to decide whether Kushner gets the security clearance he’s been unable to get after more than a year at his father-in-law’s side.

The Justice department notified the White House that there are still issues with Kushner’s security clearance, but what those are have not been publicly announced. With Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller indicting his way upwards, it’s possible Kushner is a target. But Trump has the authority to just give Kushner clearance regardless.

Turning Up the Heat: President Trump announced still tighter sanctions against North Korea, this time targeting shipping and shipping companies. The aim is to eliminate illicit shipments and raise the cost of doing business for North Korea.

“If the sanctions don’t work, we’ll have to go to phase two,” Trump said during a joint press conference with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull. “Phase two may be a very rough thing, maybe very unfortunate for the world.”

That statement deserves some kind of wiseass comment, but maybe it just speaks for itself.

The Gun Beat: Breaking with the NRA, Florida’s Republican Gov. Rick Scott said he favors raising the age to buy a gun to 21 and banning bump stocks on assault rifles. He also talked about tougher background checks, waiting periods, and keeping guns out of the hands of the mentally ill.

Scott is not the only one breaking with the NRA. Major corporations are abandoning their cooperative deals with the powerful gun lobby. So far, they include MetLife, Symantec, First National Bank of Omaha, and Enterprise Holdings, which owns and the car rental agencies Alamo, Enterprise, and National.

Follow the Bullet: Heather Sher, a radiologist experienced in bullet wounds who diagnosed some of the injuries in last week’s Florida school shooting, writes for The Atlantic’s website that the wounds created by an AR-15 are unusually severe. “The bullet from an AR-15 passes through the body like a cigarette boat travelling at maximum speed through a tiny canal. The tissue next to the bullet is elastic—moving away from the bullet like waves of water displaced by the boat—and then returns and settles back. This process is called cavitation; it leaves the displaced tissue damaged or killed. The high-velocity bullet causes a swath of tissue damage that extends several inches from its path.”

Sher says that in some students’ vital organs were “shredded” and rendered unrepairable by the power of the AR-15 bullets. She says, “Lower-velocity handgun bullets generally cause less damage and are much more survivable.” She writes, “An AR-15 bullet wound to the middle of the liver would cause so much bleeding that the patient would likely never make it to a trauma center to receive our care.”

Clean Sweep: The US curling team stunned top-ranked Sweden to win America’s first Olympic gold medal in the sport. Team members raised their brooms in a chant of U-S-A! U-S-A!

A little curling education here: the big stone puck is called a “rock” and each round is called an “end.” Curling dates back to Scotland in the early 1500s. It’s easy to make fun of the game, but it’s a much more traditional winter sport than “Big Air” snowboarding.

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