Good Tuesday morning. I'm Jake Sherman and welcome to your political playbook audio briefing, sponsored by Postmates.

And I'm Anna Palmer. Breaking overnight, CNN is reporting that special prosecutor Robert Mueller

was authorized by the Justice Department to investigate Paul Manafort for collusion with the Russian government.

The revelations are part of a memo in a broader court filing

from Mueller's prosecutors that offers a defense of their investigative powers and indictment

so far. In the memo, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein told Mueller he should investigate

allegations of Manafort colluding with Russian government officials to interfere in the 2016 election.

Meanwhile, new narrative in town. The New York Times is calling it the Trump slump. The standard

and poor's 500 stock index sunk 2.2% Monday, leaving stocks down more than 4% so far in 2018,

according to the Times. The S&P is down more than 10% from its peak in January.

Consider this. Since Gary Cohn quit and President Donald Trump announced his plan to institute

a new round of tariffs, the S&P 500 is down roughly 5%. Why are investors spooked? The FT says

traders' anxieties are up after the president tweeted against

Amazon and on trade policies. Amazon shares are down 5.2% after Trump's swipe. Trump bragged when

the market was sharply up. He hasn't really addressed it since the nosedive. In Washington,

the big question continues to be, how long will Scott Pruitt last? There are a bunch of stories this AM, including

one by the Atlantic on how Pruitt bypassed the White House to give big raises to favorite aides

after the White House declined to approve the raises. The Washington Post is up with a new story on how

the EPA explored leasing a private jet for

Pruitt's travels last year. And the New York Times has a piece up on how the lobbyists who rented

Pruitt, his $50 a day condo, got a project approved for one of their clients. Meanwhile,

Eliana Johnson, Alex Gien, and Andrew Astushia report that White House Chief of Staff John

...