Tipsheet: White House struggles to contain Ukraine fallout

View in your browser     White House struggles to contain Ukraine fallout BY BRETT SAMUELS AND MORGAN CHALFANT The White House is struggling to contain the fallout from President Trump’s calls for foreign governments to look into matters related to the 2016 election and one of his chief political rivals. Days after news reports of the initial story, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) had thrown her support behind an impeachment inquiry. Read the full story here     House Democrats subpoena White House for Ukraine documents BY CRISTINA MARCOS House Democrats have followed through on their threat to issue a subpoena to the White House for documents concerning President Trump's dealings with Ukraine. Read the full story here     Democrats claim new momentum from intelligence watchdog testimony BY CRISTINA MARCOS, MIKE LILLIS AND MAGGIE MILLER Democrats claimed to find new momentum Friday in their impeachment inquiry into President Trump after the top watchdog of the nation's intelligence community briefed lawmakers on his investigation into allegations that Trump sought foreign help to boost his 2020 campaign. Read the full story here     House panels seek Ukraine docs from Pence for Trump impeachment inquiry BY CRISTINA MARCOS Three House committees conducting an impeachment inquiry asked Vice President Pence on Friday to turn over documents concerning his involvement in President Trump's efforts to pressure Ukraine into launching investigations into a political rival. Read the full story here       McConnell vows to block Trump impeachment in fundraising pitch BY JORDAIN CARNEY   Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's (R-Ky.) reelection campaign is seizing on the fight over impeachment, pledging in Facebook ads that he will lead Republican efforts to stop President Trump from being removed from office. Read the full story here     The 7 most explosive exchanges in Trump's Ukraine envoy texts BY CRISTINA MARCOS Text messages provided by the former special envoy to Ukraine show administration officials indicating that a meeting between the Ukrainian leader and President Trump was contingent on investigations requested by the U.S. Read the full story here     Volker defended Biden in statement to congressional panels BY MORGAN CHALFANT Kurt Volker, the former State Department special envoy to Ukraine, testified to Congress that he was not involved in or aware of any effort to press Ukraine to investigate allegations against former Vice President Joe Biden, according to a copy of his opening statement obtained by The Hill.  Read the full story here     Treasury IG agrees to probe handling of Trump tax returns request BY NAOMI JAGODA The Treasury Department inspector general's (IG) office is investigating the department's handling and rejection of House Democrats' request for President Trump's tax returns. Read the full story here     Biden: Trump has 'indicted himself by his own statements' BY JULIA MANCHESTER Former Vice President Joe Biden said Friday that President Trump “indicted himself” after making public comments about Biden’s role in the firing of a Ukrainian prosecutor. Read the full story here     Trump says he keeps Biden issues 'separate' from trade talks with China BY MORGAN CHALFANT President Trump said Friday that he would keep issues related to former Vice President Joe Biden “separate” from trade discussions with China while defending his public urgings to have foreign countries investigate his political rival’s family for unsubstantiated corruption allegations.  Read the full story here     Trump's Ukraine call will complicate diplomacy for decades BY CHRISTOPHER R. HILL Opinion | In the annals of presidential telephone communications, President Trump’s call to his Ukrainian counterpart is one that is fast making its way into the history books. It lays bare the fact that under President Trump, personal fixations and pet conspiracy theories have reduced the country’s diplomacy to just another political battlefield, one that probably will complicate the work of U.S. diplomats for years to come.   Read the full story here     Trump plays political chess but Democrats stick with checkers BY SHERMICHAEL SINGLETON Opinion | Instead, Democrats are now focused on another Trump scandal and every hour of every day that they are focusing on this is time not spent focused on policies and showcasing how their plans differ from Republicans. Democratic candidates hoping to spend time talking about their policies are now forced to talk about impeachment, which does not benefit a pool of candidates still looking to one-up the other in hopes of becoming their presidential nominee. Read the full story here     The New York Times: 2nd official is weighing whether to blow the whistle on Trump's Ukraine dealings BY MICHAEL S. SCHMIDT AND ADAM GOLDMAN A second intelligence official who was alarmed by President Trump’s dealings with Ukraine is weighing whether to file his own formal whistle-blower complaint and testify to Congress, according to two people briefed on the matter. Read the full story here     The Washington Post: Trump’s calls with foreign leaders have long worried aides, leaving some ‘genuinely horrified’ BY CAROL D. LEONNIG, SHANE HARRIS AND JOSH DAWSEY In one of his first calls with a head of state, President Trump fawned over Russian President Vladimir Putin, telling the man who ordered interference in America’s 2016 election that he was a great leader and apologizing profusely for not calling him sooner. Read the full story here     Bloomberg: Trump orders cut to national security staff after whistle-blower  BY JENNIFER JACOBS AND JUSTIN SINK President Donald Trump has ordered a substantial reduction in the staff of the National Security Council, according to five people familiar with the plans, as the White House confronts an impeachment inquiry touched off by a whistle-blower complaint related to the agency’s work. Read the full story here     The Associated Press: Revelations in impeachment inquiry rattle State Department BY BEN FOX, MATTHEW LEE and LOLITA C. BALDOR The State Department has been deeply shaken by the rapidly escalating impeachment inquiry, as revelations that President Donald Trump enlisted diplomats to dig up dirt on a political rival threaten to tarnish its reputation as a nonpartisan arm of U.S. foreign policy, former senior officials said Friday. Read the full story here     The Wall Street Journal: How Tim Cook won Donald Trump’s ear BY TRIPP MICKLE With the threat of tariffs on iPhones approaching in August, Apple Inc. AAPL 2.80% stood to lose billions of dollars in profit. Chief Executive Tim Cook reached out to one of his most important contacts in Washington, Jared Kushner. Read the full story here   Did a friend forward you this email? Sign up for The Hill Tipsheet       Forward this Tipsheet     You might like         Privacy Policy  |  Manage Subscriptions  |  Unsubscribe  |  Email to a friend  |  Sign Up for Other Newsletters   The Hill 1625 K Street, NW 9th Floor, Washington DC 20006 ©2016 Capitol Hill Publishing Corp., a subsidiary of News Communications, Inc.