CNN: “He toyed with, but wouldn’t commit to, ‘full cooperation’ with prosecutors, according to court filings. He refused to tell them about crimes for which he hadn’t been charged. He wouldn’t meet with them about ‘other areas of investigative interest.’ With officials in the state attorney general’s office, he provided only corroboration for what they already knew, and with the state tax department, only what investigators could have obtained with a subpoena or two.”

“But there is one probe in the Manhattan US Attorney’s office for which President Trump’s former personal attorney has proved helpful, according to court filings and people familiar with the matter: The investigation of the Trump Organization. That probe, and Cohen’s participation in it, poses one of the most significant threats to the President’s family business.”

A new CNN poll finds President Trump’s approval rating for handling the Russia investigation dips to 29%, matching a low previously hit in June of this year.

“But Robert Mueller’s approval rating is also down in the poll: 43% approve and 40% disapprove. That compares to a 48% approve to 36% disapprove split in early October. The dip in Mueller’s numbers comes almost entirely among independents, among whom approval has fallen 10 points to 36%.”

“Trump’s approval rating drop, however, comes among his own partisans as well as among independents. Among Republicans, 51% approve of Trump’s handling of the investigation, a new low by one point, while among independents, 26% approve, also a new low.”

President Trump’s “intensifying legal troubles are unnerving some of his fellow Republicans. Despite his brash stance, they believe the turmoil has left him increasingly vulnerable as he gears up for what is sure to be a nasty fight for re-election,” the AP reports.

“Trump, ever confident of his ability to bend story lines to his will, mocks the investigations into his conduct as candidate and president as a ‘witch hunt’ and insists he will survive the threats.”

“But a shift began to unfold over the weekend after prosecutors in New York for the first time linked Trump to a federal crime of illegal hush payments. That left some of his associates fearful that his customary bravado is unwarranted. For some Republicans, the implication that the president may have directed a campaign finance violation, which would be a felony, could foreshadow a true turning point in the Republican relationship with him when special counsel Robert Mueller releases his report on the Russia investigation.”

Mike Allen: “Last week’s stunning court filings detonated what one official calls a ‘reality tremor’ that has White House officials and key allies increasingly aware of President Trump’s rising legal and political vulnerability.”

New York Times: “A shortlist of last-ditch possibilities has emerged, including family-vetted officials like Steven Mnuchin, the Treasury secretary, and Robert Lighthizer, the United States trade representative, but only one possibility — Representative Mark Meadows, the hard-right Republican congressman from North Carolina who is so far not quite inside the Trump children’s circle of trust — has voiced interest.”

“Other options range from the possible — including Mick Mulvaney, the director of the Office of Management and Budget — to the unlikely, including Chris Christie, the former New Jersey governor and head of the Trump transition team, who angered Mr. Kushner for sending his father to jail while he was a federal prosecutor.”

USA Today says other candidates include Matthew Whitaker, the acting attorney general, and David Bossie, a deputy campaign manager for Trump’s 2016 campaign.

Rahm Emanuel: “Someone needs to get the White House under control—but the president won’t let it happen.”

Multiple sources familiar with President Trump’s mood told CNN he’s frustrated with how Nick Ayers declined his offer to be chief of staff.

One source described his mood as “super pissed.” A second added he feels humiliated, a position he doesn’t like to be in, because the President did not have a backup candidate prepared like he typically does when he’s fielding people for jobs.

One source said Ayers got the benefit of being seen as the next chief of staff “without any of the headaches.”

Greg Sargent comments on the Post‘s latest category of President Trump’s misleading statements: “The key point here is that Trump is not engaged in conventional lying. He’s engaged in spreading disinformation.”

From Sargent’s excellent book:

Trump isn’t trying to persuade anyone to believe his lies as much as he’s trying to render factual reality irrelevant — thus reducing the pursuit of agreement on it to just another part of the media circus in which he thrives…

There is a reason Trump regularly tells lies that are very easy to debunk: The whole point of them is to assert the power to say what the truth is, even when — or especially when — easily verifiable facts, ones that are right in front of our noses, dictate the contrary. The brazenness and shamelessness of his lying is not just a by-product of an effort to mislead voters that Trump is merely taking to new levels. Rather, the brazenness and shamelessness of the lying is central to his broader project of declaring for himself the power to say what reality is.

Jonathan Chait: “Reporters and commentators have begun saying Mueller’s probe is reaching its final stages. But given that Mueller’s operation is utterly airtight, this conclusion is almost certainly a matter of speculation, which has gained wide acceptance through repetition. Nobody actually knows if the probe is almost over.”

“There remains a vast chasm between what has been reported in the news media — hell, what has even transpired in plain sight — and what Mueller has been able to demonstrate in a court of law. We still don’t know how much of this chasm will ever be closed. It’s possible the trail of inquiry will stop at the refusal of people like Roger Stone and Paul Manafort to talk. But prosecuting even a single person, let alone a large conspiracy, can take a lot of time. It’s also possible there remains a long way to go. Trump’s lawyers were promising the inquiry would be over by Thanksgiving — of last year! Do we have any real reason to believe it won’t still be going by this time next year?”