1/ Robert Mueller’s grand jury issued a subpoena requesting all communications involving Trump’s associates, including Carter Page, Corey Lewandowski, Hope Hicks, Paul Manafort, Rick Gates, Roger Stone, Steve Bannon, Keith Schiller, Michael Cohen, and Sam Nunberg. Investigators are asking for emails, texts, working papers, telephone records, and more from November 1st, 2015, to the present. (NBC News / Axios)

  • Mueller’s investigators are questioning witnesses for information about any attempts by the United Arab Emirates to buy political influence by funneling money to Trump during the 2016 presidential campaign. (New York Times)

2/ Sam Nunberg plans to defy a subpoena to appear in front of Mueller’s grand jury. The former Trump aide said he will not provide the testimony or documents requested and that he refuses to cooperate with the subpoena because he believes investigators will make him testify against his mentor Roger Stone. Nunberg then went on MSNBC and said he thought Trump “may have done something” illegal during the presidential campaign. Soon after, Nunberg appeared on CNN for a pair of interviews where he challenged Mueller to arrest him, saying “I’m not cooperating. Arrest me.” He added that Mueller has “something” on Trump. “Perhaps I’m wrong, but he did something.” (Washington Post / NBC News / CNN)

  • MORE:

  • Sarah Huckabee Sanders refuted Nunberg’s suggestion that the campaign colluded with Russia, saying “I definitely think he doesn’t know that for sure, because he’s incorrect. He hasn’t worked at the White House, so I can’t speak to him or the lack of knowledge he clearly has. As we’ve said many times before, there’s been no collusion.”

  • Nunberg then went on NY1, the New York cable news channel to respond: “If Sarah Huckabee wants to start debasing me, she’s a joke. Okay, fine, yeah, she’s unattractive. She’s a fat slob. Fine. But that’s not relevant. The person she works for has a 30% approval rating, okay?” (Mediaite)

  • Following the NY1 appearance, Nunberg went back to MSNBC, this time with Ari Melber, to say: “Sarah should shut up, frankly… she should shut her mouth.” As Melber tried to move on, Nunberg underscored his position: “I’m warning her to shut her mouth!” (Mediaite)

3/ A Belarusian escort claims to have more than 16 hours of audio recordings that prove Russia meddled in the U.S. elections. Anastasia Vashukevich, who is close to a Russian oligarch, said she would hand over the recordings if the U.S. granted her asylum. (New York Times)

4/ The author of the Trump dossier told Mueller’s team that Russia asked Trump not to hire Mitt Romney as secretary of state. Instead Russia advised Trump to pick someone who would ease sanctions against Moscow for its actions in Ukraine. Christopher Steele spoke with the special counsel’s investigators last September. In his 2012 presidential run, Romney called Russia “our No. 1 geopolitical foe.” (The New Yorker)

5/ 12 days before the election, Stormy Daniels threatened to cancel the nondisclosure agreement about her alleged affair with Trump after Trump’s attorney, Michael Cohen, missed the deadline to pay her $130,000. The payment arrived 10 days later on October 27th, 2016 – 13 days after the initial deadline – because First Republic Bank flagged the transaction as suspicious and reported it to the Treasury Department. (Washington Post / Wall Street Journal)

6/ Trump praised President Xi’s consolidation of power in China and said he wouldn’t mind doing the same for himself. “He’s now president for life,” Trump said at a fundraiser at Mar-a-Lago, adding: “I think it’s great. Maybe we’ll have to give that a shot some day.” China’s ruling Communist Party eliminated the presidential two-term limit, which paves the way for Xi to serve indefinitely. (CNN / Reuters / New York Times)

7/ The State Department has spent $0 of the $120 million it has been budgeted for combatting foreign interference in U.S. elections. None of the 23 analysts speak Russian at the Global Engagement Center, which is tasked with countering Moscow’s disinformation campaigns. A hiring freeze has prevented the department from recruiting the kind of computer experts needed to track foreign efforts to meddle in the U.S. election process. (New York Times)

  • Former White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough said Mitch McConnell “watered down” a warning about Russia’s attempts to interfere in the 2016 election. McDonough defended the Obama administration’s response to foreign meddling in the campaign. (NBC News)

Notables.

  1. Senate Republicans and more than a dozen Democrats are preparing to repeal major banking regulations put in place after the 2008 financial crisis. The new bill allows roughly two dozen financial firms with up to $250 billion in assets to avoid the highest levels of scrutiny from the Federal Reserve. (Washington Post)

  2. Paul Ryan urged the Trump administration not to move forward on new tariffs on steel and aluminum, arguing the move runs counter to the core of their economic agenda and could cause political problems heading into the 2018 midterms. Ryan said he is “extremely worried” about the tariffs. Trump replied, “We’re not backing down.” (Reuters / CNBC)

  3. Canada and Mexico pushed back against Trump’s suggestion that tariffs could be waived if they signed a new and “fair” NAFTA deal, threatening to retaliate unless they are exempted from the planned tariffs on steel and aluminum. Canada and Mexico export more than 75% of their goods to the United States. (Reuters)

  4. Jared Kushner has “got to go” if reports about his role in the Qatar blockade are true, said Senator Chris Murphy, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. “The situation is made much worse by the fact that we have family members in the White House,” Chris Christie added. (ABC News / NY Post)

  5. The Trump Organization ordered a set of Presidential Seal replicas for its golf course tee markers. Under federal law, the seal’s use is permitted only for official government business. (ProPublica)

Last year today: Day 45: Troubling.