Trump to meet with Democrats about border wall, shutdown

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump and Democratic congressional leaders are seeking to avert a partial government shutdown amid a sharp dispute over Trump’s border wall and a lengthy to-do list that includes a major farm bill and a formal rebuke of Saudi Arabia for the slaying of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Trump is set to confer Tuesday at the White House with House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer ahead of a Dec. 21 deadline to shut down a range of government agencies.

“Republicans still control the House, the Senate and the White House, and they have the power to keep government open,” Pelosi and Schumer said in a joint statement Monday.

“Our country cannot afford a Trump Shutdown,” the Democrats said, adding that Trump “knows full well that his wall proposal does not have the votes to pass the House and Senate and should not be an obstacle to a bipartisan agreement.”

Republican congressional leaders have repeatedly said it’s up to Trump to cut a deal with Democrats, an acknowledgment of their own inability to produce spending bills with Republican votes alone.

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Where Trump-related investigations stand

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is facing escalating criminal investigations in Washington and New York that are examining not only whether his campaign coordinated with the Kremlin but also whether he illegally bought the silence of two women who say they had sex with him.

A look at the nearly three dozen people charged by special counsel Robert Mueller and unanswered questions about what may lie ahead for the president — labeled “Individual-1” in court papers — and his administration:

WHAT’S THE LATEST?

Federal prosecutors in Manhattan for the first time connected the president to a federal crime, accusing him of orchestrating hush-money payments during the campaign by his longtime lawyer and fixer, Michael Cohen, to a porn star and a former Playboy model. Cohen is due to be sentenced this week.

Mueller’s office, meanwhile, detailed lies they say former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort told them even after he agreed to plead guilty and cooperate.

And prosecutors are preparing for the sentencing hearing next week of former national security adviser Michael Flynn, who lied to the FBI about his Russian contacts.

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