Grease Monk-eh!

Former President George W. Bush called for federal lawmakers to “put politics aside” and end the government shutdown in an Instagram post Friday that showed him giving pizza to his Secret Service detail. Source: CNN

Jason Leopold and Anthony Cormier, two reporters for BuzzFeed News, may have just scored the scoop that, if it is ultimately confirmed, irrevocably changes the course of the Trump presidency. If so, it will represent for Leopold the apex of a comeback from a troubled personal and professional past. Source: CNN

There are a handful of distinct areas where reporting from BuzzFeed’s bombshell lines up with court records, including the charging documents against Michael Cohen, sentencing memos and hearings. Source: CNN

For much of the past 20 months, President Donald Trump and his administration have insisted that, for all of the smoke surrounding his 2016 campaign, there was no fire. A lot of people in Trump’s orbit engaging in conversations and relationships with Russian officials, but no evidence of collusion and certainly nothing that linked Donald Trump to any wrongdoing. Source: …

CNN’s John Avlon has a timeline of two of President Trump’s meetings with Russian President Vladimir Putin. There are no detailed records of five personal meetings Trump has had with Putin, The Washington Post reports. Source: CNN

Buzzfeed reporter Anthony Cormier discusses his report that details that President Donald Trump personally directed his longtime former attorney Michael Cohen to lie to Congress about the Moscow Trump Tower project, two federal law enforcement officials involved in an investigation of the matter told BuzzFeed. Source: CNN

The House issued a symbolic rebuke Thursday to the Trump administration on Russia, overwhelmingly passing a resolution against lifting sanctions on companies tied to oligarch Oleg Deripaska, a Kremlin ally. Source: CNN

Speaking at her weekly press conference, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says President Trump has been unusually silent over the last 24 hours as the partial government shutdown drags on. Source: CNN

President Donald Trump’s former “fixer” Michael Cohen paid the head of a small technology company thousands in 2015 to rig online polls and elevate Cohen’s character to benefit Trump’s presidential campaign, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday. Source: CNN

President Donald Trump’s former attorney Michael Cohen remains on track to testify before Congress in February, but he is concerned for his family, two sources familiar with the matter told CNN. Source: CNN