Vox Sentences: All roads apparently do lead back to Michael Cohen

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A twist in the Michael Cohen investigation; a rare mass shooting in Australia.

Cohen and Trump knew of allegations against Eric Schneiderman

Spencer Platt/Getty Images

• This being 2018, maybe we should stop being surprised about anything — but the allegations of sexual violence against former New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman somehow came up in the federal investigation into Donald Trump’s personal lawyer Michael Cohen. [NBC / Tracy Connor]
• Peter Gleason, an attorney, said he was contacted by two women in 2012 and 2013 who described being “sexually victimized” by Schneiderman. He filed a request in federal court Friday to have the judge protect records Cohen might have about those allegations that might have been seized in an April FBI raid. [NYT / Alan Feuer]
• Why would Cohen have records about such allegations? It turns out Gleason told Cohen about the accusations in 2013. Gleason said he first disclosed the allegations to former New York Post columnist Stephen Dunleavy, who suggested discussing the matter with Cohen and Trump. Gleason apparently agreed, and Cohen contacted him for more information. [Vox / Andrew Prokop]
• Which means Cohen — and almost certainly Trump — knew of the serious allegations against Schneiderman well before the New Yorker broke its story this week. [Vox / Andrew Prokop]
• Gleason divulged the allegations to Dunleavy, and later to Cohen, soon after Schneiderman filed a fraud lawsuit against Trump University in 2013. Gleason said he thought Cohen “may want to use that information against his adversary.” [LA Times / Chris Megerian]
• This explains a cryptic Trump tweet in September 2013, where he said of Schneiderman: “Wait and see, worse than Spitzer or Weiner.” Gleason confirmed he’d spoken to Cohen just before Trump sent that tweet. [NYT / Alan Feuer]
• These Cohen-Schneiderman revelations also suggest at least two additional woman accused Schneiderman of misconduct. New Yorker journalist Jane Mayer, who, with Ronan Farrow, broke the story, said the four women they reported on had no connection to Cohen or Trump. [Vox / Laura McGann]

Australia’s deadliest mass shooting in 22 years

• Seven people were killed Friday, including a mom and her four children, in Australia’s worst mass shooting since 1996. [Sydney Morning Herald / Emma Young and Hamish Hastie]
• The seven victims were discovered with gunshot wounds in a rural area in the town of Margaret River in Western Australia. Two firearms were also found at the scene. [Guardian / Michael McGowan]
• The shooting appears to have been a murder-suicide, but police have not yet confirmed. Authorities are not currently pursuing a suspect. [NYT / Giovanni Torre]
• This was Australia’s deadliest mass shooting in 22 years. In 1996, a gunman opened fire at a cafe in Port Arthur, murdering 35 people. Australia responded by passing restrictions on legal gun ownership and initiating a mandatory gun buyback, collecting more than 650,000 firearms. The murder and suicide rates dropped in the years that followed. US advocates have touted Australia’s success as a sign that gun control works. [Vox / Zack Beachamp]
• So perhaps it’s no surprise both sides of the US gun debate seized on the tragedy in Margaret River. Here’s what the research shows: Gun control legislation can’t prevent every shooting, but it works. [Vox / German Lopez]

Miscellaneous

• A group of formerly incarcerated people are fighting in states across the country to ensure that former felons vote if they can — and push to have their voting rights restored if they can’t. [NYT / Farah Stockman]
• What, exactly, is “mom hair”? [Racked / Cheryl Wischhover]
• The conspiracy theory that won’t die: “White genocide” claims are cropping up in South Africa. [The Outline / Rosa Lyster]
• United Airlines caved to pressure from “a small-but-mighty group of fans” and restored tomato juice to its in-flight beverage offerings. No such luck for the Courvoisier. [Bloomberg / Justin Bachman]

Verbatim

“There’s no other way to say it — AT&T hiring Michael Cohen as a political consultant was a big mistake.” [AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson apologizing to all AT&T employees for hiring Cohen, Trump’s personal attorney, and paying him $600,000 to get “insights” into how the president thinks]

Watch this: Why America still uses Fahrenheit

Fahrenheit, explained to the rest of the world. [YouTube / Dion Lee and Zack Beauchamp]

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