Subject: POLITICO Huddle: SENATE VOTES TO RELEASE DOCS ON ALLEGED RUSSIAN AGENT -- Flake checks in from Zimbabwe -- GRAHAM-TRUMP RELATIONSHIP MAY BE TESTED AGAIN -- Pelosi and Trump dominate deadlocked Ohio special election
From: "POLITICO Huddle" <[email-masked]>
To: <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 02 Aug 2018 05:48:43 -0600
List-Id: <1376319.xt.local>

08/02/2018 07:47 AM EDT

By Kyle Cheney ([email-masked] or @kyledcheney)
 
With an assist from Burgess Everett
 
THE INVESTIGATIONS -- The Senate acted yesterday afternoon to release documents relevant to the federal prosecution of Maria Butina, who was charged last month for acting as a Russian agent. Burgess reports that moments before the Senate recessed for the week, members unanimously advanced a measure permitting the Senate Intelligence Committee to share the transcript of its closed-door Butina interview with the Justice Department and Butina's lawyer. Butina, who cultivated ties with political figures on the right and inside the NRA, was charged in connection with her efforts to set up a backchannel between prominent conservative figures and the Russian government. 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=bfcb4dba6121d7f9b7591e67ae06f22e4b9bc8181f1b2d1839df2b7c693b64613f7706f4da743974f42c2a155ce1303e
 
--Lawmakers muted on Russia threat: President Donald Trump crossed a rhetorical red line when he tweeted that his attorney general should shut down the Mueller investigation. His legal team and White House quickly portrayed the message as an "opinion" not an order, but he had already crossed into uncharted terrain. The response from Capitol Hill Republicans, though, was mostly a yawn. Senate Republicans - even Mueller defenders - described little new urgency to advance a bill protecting Mueller from a unilateral firing. And House Republicans, in the middle of a five-week recess, said almost nothing. The latest from Rebecca Morin, me and Elana: 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=bfcb4dba6121d7f941a9c77930dd0b95e2088cd764a2de71d584343e0a9315795ffa208049aa8e12dc29b5531c6f9e9e
 
--House GOP v. Rosenstein: Trump allies in the House left town with an explosive push to impeach Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. They quickly dialed it back and said they would be demanding another set of documents from the Justice Department during the August recess, or else seek to hold Rosenstein in contempt - a step short of pursuing impeachment - when they return. But as of late Wednesday, these lawmakers had yet to submit any official request for additional documents, according to DOJ officials.
 
TODAY: Sen. David Perdue (R-Ga.) meets with President Donald Trump at the White House before the president heads to Pennsylvania for a rally and then his Bedminster property.
 
HAPPY THURSDAY and thanks for reading POLITICO's Huddle, the play-by-play guide to all things Capitol Hill. I'm your substitute guide for the day and will pass the baton to Rachael Bade for your Friday fix.
 
'FLAKE NEWS': There's been a lot of chatter that Jeff Flake is screwing over the GOP by taking a lengthy trip to Africa while the Senate begins considering Brett Kavanaugh's nomination. But the Arizona senator, who serves on the Judiciary Committee, says that's way off. "I'm seeing on social media that I'm here to somehow thwart Kavanaugh's confirmation. That's Flake News. I chair the Africa subcommittee. I came to Zimbabwe as an election observer," he said on Wednesday by text. He wouldn't give an exact date, but Flake plans to return sometime the week of Aug. 13, after the recess, and Kavanaugh hearings seem likely to be pushed until September, said Sen. Chuck Grassley. In other words,
 Flake's absence hasn't really affected Senate business ... yet.
 
 --In other Kavanaugh developments: The Judicial Crisis Network is going on the air with two spots in support of Kavanaugh's nomination. One, set to air on MSNBC, will feature Kathryn Cherry, a former Kavanaugh clerk who is a registered Democrat. The other, which will be part of a TV and digital campaign, will feature J.D. Vance, author of "Hillbilly Elegy. The Cherry ad: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=bfcb4dba6121d7f9b4ceb509fe63b28ab7663a48aa51ca850369091ccf9a4b2f8e5144841dd71d4390e67a7df47f869d The Vance ad: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=bfcb4dba6121d7f98265f7e9bf76682bfffcabb21ea1ef443e0af1b681d2d52a1be81054b4e6c587b62f62d321711c04 
 
JUDICIARY CHAIRMAN GRAHAM? -- Sen. Lindsey Graham's hard-won alliance with President Donald Trump could be strained if he takes the gavel of the Judiciary Committee next year, Burgess and Elana report. That's because the panel drives immigration issues, on which Graham's more centrist views have divided him from the Trump administration and hardliners helping set his policies. "'On immigration, there's a deal to be had. We'll see if we get there,' Graham said in an interview ... 'He sure won't be boring,' said Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-Texas), who serves on the committee. "He may challenge us, our comfort zone, a little bit on some of these issues. But I think that's OK.'" 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=bfcb4dba6121d7f9c7b137a5f54f15806e3f14f98c8ee3c7ec207172e47717d9e7fc0e77399965470c0bae716cbf2a28
 
SHUTDOWN WATCH - President Donald Trump keeps shaking the shutdown tree despite assurances from Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell that they expect to delay a funding fight until after the midterm elections. Jennifer Scholtes and Kaitlyn Burton report that the Senate kept its head down Wednesday and advanced a package of spending bills to fund the departments of agriculture, transportation, interior, the treasury and housing, as well as the EPA and IRS. http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=bfcb4dba6121d7f982defabadc1f17ac89277eab1618cc72738476dc884d9b9c111b48c702ae872ef7d4a0b327db01e8
 
OHIO STATE SCANDAL -- NBC reports that Ohio State University's former wrestling coach nudged former wrestlers to walk back claims that Rep. Jim Jordan ignored evidence of sexual abuse when he was an assistant coach of the team. Text messages obtained by the network show that the former coach, Russ Hellickson, reached out to the wrestlers who had complained about Jordan and suggested they could "correct" their comments about the congressman. http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=bfcb4dba6121d7f980e98c57775a5e06f8c5a8d0ac2d488e1721fba35995d26be0571dff783744957f738b4cdaef5347
 
--Jordan, who is running to succeed Speaker Paul Ryan atop the House GOP, gave a 30-minute interview to Breitbart News late Wednesday, but he wasn't asked about the unfolding controversy. He did, though, give a lengthy answer about why he famously doesn't wear a jacket most of the time he's on the hill: "I don't know why I started doing it. When you're in these committee hearings you tend to get kind of fired up and you're just like -- it's just bulky and you get hot ... you don't feel right with a jacket on ... I wouldn't wear it on the House floor but it's a rule so you have to, so I wear the jacket on the House floor. I wear the jacket anytime I'm around the president because when you're
 around the president, that's the president of the United States and that's the office. So I always wear it when I'm around the president."
 
AROUND THE HILL -- The Senate's Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee holds a 10:15 a.m. business meeting on a slate of nominations to CFPB, the Ex-Im Bank, the SEC and the Government National Mortgage Association. The panel will also weigh the nomination of a HUD inspector general and director of the Treasury's Office of Financial Research.
 
-Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Rep. Ann Wagner (R-Mo.) discuss paid family leave legislation at 2:30 p.m. in the Capitol.
 
TODAY IN CONGRESS: The House and Senate are both out, the former until after Labor Day, the latter until Aug. 13.
 
IN THE FIELD:
 
-Today: Voters go to the polls in Tennessee primary. Rep. Diane Black is expected to be the GOP choice for governor, though her path has been complicated by businessmen Bill Lee and Randy Boyd -- and the lack of a Trump endorsement. Republican Rep. Marsha Blackburn and former Democratic Gov. Phil Bredesen are expected to win their parties' respective nods. CNN's preview of primary day: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=bfcb4dba6121d7f9674d5a224fd0e4bb122dff26b90e0ae3b534ae0516ac9a8a0801bc40eaf24a697de170575a387f40
 
-Poll: Cruz up 6 points over O'Rourke in Texas Senate race: Cruz had 49 percent of the vote compared to 43 percent for O'Rourke, with just 6 percent undecided, a Quinnipiac poll of registered voters shows. That's a slightly tighter race than May, when Quinnipiac showed Cruz with an 11 percent lead in the race. http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=bfcb4dba6121d7f94e8cdaf5a805bcd416b86283f044ab078c45c93cf5f9e54407047ad019ff9f978588d4ead483762e
 
-Obama endorses 81 Democrats ahead of midterms: Obama's wide-ranging list delivered his imprimatur to 81 Democrats in 14 states running for the House and Senate, governor, and down-ballot state legislative races, Stephanie Murray reports. http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=bfcb4dba6121d7f962d1979937c86e17d11277b92cd6782f4617c49bd64d2c54efb969430b1c7bca96673ff425c8f047
 
-Pelosi, Trump dominate the deadlocked Ohio special election: Elena Schneider reports on the outsize presence of the two leaders -- cast as bogeymen by the other party -- in the final messaging ahead of Tuesday's deadlocked contest. http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=bfcb4dba6121d7f9ff746459662784a52e92c14e62420ada77306d0a236f99242164c2a4eedaca0c9946a7c6df3733af
 
SPOTTED, courtesy of our Playook colleagues, at a meeting with Chinese Ambassador Cui Tiankai hosted by Sen. David Perdue (R-GA) at the Capitol: Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.), Jim Risch (R-Idaho), Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.), Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.), Mike Rounds (R-S.D.), Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), Deb Fischer (R-Neb.) and Ron Johnson (R-Wis.). The group discussed issues including access to markets, IP theft cases, sanctions enforcement, North Korea, tariffs, and more, according to a source familiar with the meeting.
 
TRANSITIONS - Samantha Slater has started at Columbia University in New York as communications director for a new initiative, Columbia World Projects. She previously was communications director for Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.).
 
 --Dallas Gerber, deputy chief of staff for Rep. Bob Gibbs (R-Ohio), was at Cap Lounge saying farewell to friends and colleagues before he and his wife Jackie move to Ohio. Gerber will continue on in the same role but will work out of Ashland, Ohio. Spotted: Hillary Gross, Alex Briggs, Ryan Dilworth, Katie Webster, Will Sroka, Kara Hauck.
 
 WEDNESDAY'S TRIVIA WINNER - Kirtan Mehta was first to guess that the Magnuson-Stevens Act, the fisheries law named after two senators who played a prominent role in its enactment, was also shepherded by two House lawmakers - Rep. Don Young and former Rep. Gerry Studds. Young used to joke the law should have been named after them, making it the Young-Studds Act.
 
TODAY'S TRIVIA - Kirtan with today's question: The Hatch Act, which prohibits most executive employees from using their official position to engage in many political activities, was signed on this day (Aug. 2) by which president in what year? Send me your answers: [email-masked]
 
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