Federal prosecutors in New York involved in the criminal investigation into Donald Trump’s social media company last year started examining whether it violated money laundering statutes in connection with the acceptance of $8m with suspected Russian ties, according to sources familiar with the matter.

The company – Trump Media, which owns Trump’s Truth Social platform – initially came under criminal investigation over its preparations for a potential merger with a blank check company called Digital World that was also the subject of an earlier probe by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Towards the end of last year, federal prosecutors started examining two loans totaling $8m wired to Trump Media, through the Caribbean, from two obscure entities that both appear to be controlled in part by the relation of an ally of Russian president Vladimir Putin, the sources said.

The expanded nature of the criminal investigation, which has not been previously reported, threatens to delay the completion of the merger between Trump Media and Digital World, which would provide the company and Truth Social with up to $1.3bn in capital, in addition to a stock market listing. Even if Trump Media and its officers face no criminal exposure for the transactions, the optics of borrowing money from potentially unsavory sources through opaque conduits could cloud Trump’s image as he seeks to recapture the White House in 2024.

Last week, we learned that after seven and a half decades escaping any and all responsibility for his shady, unethical, seemingly criminal behavior, Donald Trump might—might!—soon be held accountable. That accountability, according to The New York Times, appears likely to come in the form of an indictment from the Manhattan district attorney’s office, which, per the paper of record, has “signaled” to the ex-president’s lawyers that criminal charges for a 2016 hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels could be coming. (The signal was that prosecutors invited Trump to testify before a grand jury, an invite he reportedly declined in addition to insisting on Truth Social that he did “absolutely nothing wrong.“) Anyway, on Monday, an old pal of the former president’s showed up to talk to the grand jury from which the indictment would come—and we’re guessing the details he shared did not help make the case for innocence!

Speaking to reporters outside a Manhattan courthouse, former Trump attorney Michael Cohen said his goal was to “tell the truth” and that he is not seeking revenge against his former boss. “This is all about accountability,” Cohen said. “He needs to be held accountable for his dirty deeds.”

Cohen’s testimony is presumably of particular interest to prosecutors given his central role in the hush money case; Cohen was the one to pay Daniels, on the eve of the 2016 election, to stay quiet about the affair she alleged to have had with Trump, a detail which probably wouldn’t have gone over well with voters. The then Trump Organization attorney was subsequently reimbursed for the $130,000 while Trump was in office, with the leader of the free world, per the Times, “signing monthly checks.” Asked while testifying before Congress why his reimbursement was spread out over several months instead of being taken care of in one or two lump sums, Cohen said it was “in order to hide what the payment was,” explaining it was meant to “look like a retainer.” Asked in congressional testimony if Trump knew about the deal, Cohen answered, “Oh, he knew about everything, yes.” (In fact, the former Trump Organization lawyer has said he arranged the hush money payoff at Trump’s direction.)

As for the likelihood of charges, they appear to remain high, as The New York Times noted on Monday. In addition to inviting Trump to testify, the DA’s office has “already questioned at least seven other people before the grand jury this year,” and, according to people familiar with the matter who spoke with the Times, Cohen is expected to be one of the last witnesses; as the Times notes, “it would be rare for a prosecutor in a high-profile white-collar case to question nearly every relevant witness without intending to seek an indictment.” Also on Monday, one of Trump’s lawyers, Joseph Tacopina, told Good Morning America that the ex-president’s legal team recently met with prosecutors to argue against an indictment.

As for the actual why of the charges, meaning, “why can’t you just pay any porn star you want to keep quiet,” here’s the Times on that:

Republicans in Oklahoma this week rejected a piece of legislation that would have barred using corporal punishment on disabled children, with one GOP lawmaker saying that using physical violence against kids with disabilities was part of God's plan.

For nearly two years, Sen. Lisa Murkowski has played the long game on expanding drilling in Alaska: She has voted for many of President Joe Biden’s key nominees and legislative priorities while relentlessly bending the ears of top White House officials at every opportunity.

All that work paid has paid off in a big way.

On Monday, the Interior Department, at Biden’s direction, announced it would move forward with a scaled-back, but still expansive, plan for energy extraction in the Alaska Republican’s home state.

The massive ConocoPhillips endeavor, called the Willow project, will at its peak produce 180,000 barrels of oil a day across 68,000 acres inside the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska. Advocates say it will be an economic game changer for the state and even the nation, while environmentalists called it Biden’s single biggest climate betrayal since taking office.

Murkowski can take much of the credit for the result. In an interview with E&E News on Monday afternoon, the Republican said she was under no illusion that Biden was influenced, at least in part, by politics, where he weighed the backlash he knew he’d receive from green activists and members of his own party against voters concerned about rising energy costs and reliance on foreign oil.