The Russia Thing: Special Counsel Robert Mueller has a list of 44 questions he’d like to ask President Trump to learn more about his ties to Russia and whether he has attempted to obstruct the Russian election-influencing investigation, The NY Times  reports.

The Times reports that the questions deal “chiefly with the president’s high-profile firings of the F.B.I. director and his first national security adviser, his treatment of Attorney General Jeff Sessions and a 2016 Trump Tower meeting between campaign officials and Russians offering dirt on Hillary Clinton.”

The paper says it has obtained a list of the questions submitted to Trump’s lawyers, including the following:

• Regarding the decision to fire (FBI Director) Comey: When was it made? Why? Who played a role?
• What did you mean when you told Russian diplomats on May 10, 2017, that firing Mr. Comey had taken the pressure off?
• What is the reason for your continued criticism of Mr. Comey and his former deputy, Andrew G. McCabe?
• Did you discuss whether Mr. Sessions would protect you, and reference past attorneys general?
• What discussions did you have regarding terminating the special counsel, and what did you do when that consideration was reported in January 2018?
• When did you become aware of the Trump Tower meeting?
• During the campaign, what did you know about Russian hacking, use of social media or other acts aimed at the campaign?
• What knowledge did you have of any outreach by your campaign, including by Paul Manafort, to Russia about potential assistance to the campaign?
• What did you know about communication between Roger Stone, his associates, Julian Assange or WikiLeaks?
• What did you know during the transition about an attempt to establish back-channel communication to Russia, and Jared Kushner’s efforts?

The questions in some ways seem open-ended and naïve,  but good prosecutors should know the true answers to questions before they ask, and that’s the trap.

Now This: President Trump tweeted, “The Fake News is going crazy making up false stories and using only unnamed sources (who don’t exist). They are totally unhinged, and the great success of this Administration is making them do and say things that even they can’t believe they are saying. Truly bad people!”

It bears repeating that President Trump has never offered evidence let alone proven that a story about him and his administration is made up or attributed to nonexistent sources.

Nuclear: With days to go before President Trump announces whether he will withdraw from the Iran nuclear  deal, Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu revealed a trove of stolen information from Iran’s nuclear program claiming, “Iran lied.”

The information shows Iran lied about developing nuclear weapons prior to the agreement but does not suggest they’ve continued since 2015.

He’s encouraging Trump to scrap the nuclear deal, although nothing he revealed yesterday is new or previously unknown to negotiators. Netanyahu made a presentation loaded with graphics and video clips, which would appeal to a certain audience of one in Washington.

Him Too: Former judge and Alabama senate candidate Roy Moore has sued four women who accused him of sexual assault, claiming they were part of a political conspiracy.

The Republican Moore was the easy favorite to win the Alabama senate seat replacing Jeff Sessions until women came forward describing how as a man then in his 30s he pursued them when they were teenagers.

“This was filed because the people of Alabama deserve to know the truth,” Moore’s lawyer Melissa Isaak said. “The accusations made against Judge Moore during the US Senate campaign arose from a political conspiracy to destroy his personal reputation and defeat him in the special Senate election for United States Senate.”

You Don’t Know: As a petition circulates at NBC News in support of Tom Brokaw, who’s been accused of sexual creepiness by two former employees, host Megyn Kelly cautioned that “you don’t know what you don’t know.”

Kelly said,  “I just came from Fox where we just went through this.” She went on, “And the truth is, you don’t know what you don’t know. And that’s not in any way to impugn Tom, who I love and who has been so good to me. I’m just saying, you don’t know what you don’t know.”

National Roundup: Porn actress Stormy Daniels filed a defamation lawsuit against President Trump for calling her claim that she was personally threatened “a con job.” — White House Chief of Staff  John Kelly denied that on a meeting absent the President he called Trump “an idiot.” Kelly previously denied calling Trump a “moron.” So which is it, idiot or moron? — Far right allies of President Trump in Congress drafted articles of impeachment to remove deputy FBI Director Rod Rosenstein, who oversees the Russia investigation. They claim the real conspirators are people in the FBI and Justice Department trying to destroy Trump. It won’t go anywhere. — Facing economic and political repercussions, President Trump announced he’s again delaying tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from Canada, Mexico and the European Union.

Endless Summer: Over the weekend Brazilian surfer Rodrigo Koxa was honored for having ridden the biggest wave ever surfed. He did it last November in Nazaré, Portugal, but it took until now to verify the size of the wave because in this competition, size matters. Judges use pictures to compare the known height of the surfer to the wave from trough to hip.

So how big do you think the it was? Forty feet? Fifty. Go big. How about 60? You’re thinking small. The wave Koxa rode was 80 feet tall. He was a tiny speck compared to that wave.

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