The tabloid newspaper the National Enquirer sent drafts of stories about President Donald Trump for approval from his personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, both during his presidential campaign and into his presidency, The Washington Post reported.

According to three sources who spoke to The Post, the Enquirer would share both articles and covers written about Trump with Cohen, who also served as Trump's "fixer" and managed access to him.

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Investigators in New York have subpoenaed American Media Inc. for information related to it's $150,000 payment for the rights to a story about an alleged affair between Trump and Playboy model Karen McDougal, The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday.

The payment constituted a "catch-and-kill," which is when a paper pays for exclusive rights to a story without publishing it to ensure that it never gets released.

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http://www.businessinsider.com/michael-cohen-reviewed-and-approved-national-enquirer-stories-about-trump-2018-6

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So this hasn’t been an easy year for Mueller, but it’s certainly been productive. Since the first indictments came down in the investigation last fall, the special counsel has racked up five guilty pleas and 14 indictments of individuals.1 He also reportedly gave a referral to the U.S. attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York that led to a raid on the office, home and hotel room of presidential lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen, which has turned into its own separate investigation.

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We’ve taken a look at how Mueller’s first year measures up against the initial 12 months of other special counsel and independent counsel investigations. In terms of the number of charges he’s been able to file, Mueller is moving quickly. At one year after the formal appointment of a special or independent counsel, only the Watergate special prosecution force had obtained more indictments and guilty pleas.

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It remains possible that Trump or his close associates could be implicated in this investigation in ways that are unrelated to collusion with Russia, especially if Trump is forced to give a deposition in one of the civil lawsuits pending against him. But this scenario is probably the least likely of the three to transpire now, if only because Starr had much more flexibility and job security than Mueller does. He and Walsh were appointed under a law passed after Watergate that protected the independent counsel from being fired at the president’s behest, but that law expired in 1999. Under the terms of Mueller’s position as special counsel within the Department of Justice, straying from the issues he was charged with investigating could be grounds for dismissal. “Mueller has to be really careful and focused in a way that Ken Starr didn’t,” said Katy Harriger, a political science professor at Wake Forest University and an expert on independent counsel investigations. “So that reduces the likelihood of a Whitewater-style situation.”

As the Russia investigation enters its second year, the most important variable may be how long Mueller can keep his job. Watergate, Iran-Contra and Whitewater all had one thing in common: They lasted at least four years. Given the reports that Trump has already twice considered ordering Mueller’s removal, it’s not clear that the investigation can survive that long — at least, with Mueller at the helm.

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https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/how-muellers-first-year-compares-to-watergate-iran-contra-and-whitewater/