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02/20/2019 08:00 AM EDT

By MELANIE ZANONA (mzanona@politico.com; @MZanona)


DEMS SEIZE ON NYT REPORT -- President Donald Trump is facing a new round of "obstruction of justice" accusations following a bombshell new report from The New York Times. The article claims Trump asked acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker to put one of his allies in charge of an investigation into Trump's former lawyer Michael Cohen, who made hush money payments to women who allegedly had affairs with Trump. The president vehemently denies the allegations.

Democrats, who have long been concerned with how Trump treats the Justice Department, were quick to pounce on the report. Rep. David Cicilline (R.I.) called it "another data point of an ongoing effort by this president to impede this investigation and to obstruct justice," while Rep. Bill Pascrell (N.J.) said the president is "unfit to serve and must resign" if the claims are true.

Whitaker is also facing scrutiny for his recent congressional testimony, where he was pressed on his communications with Trump and whether he made any commitments regarding the Russia probe. Now, Democrats want to haul Whitaker back in to clarify his testimony about the Cohen case. "There's real concern about that," Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) told CNN's Wolf Blitzer. "The bottom line is: he wasn't transparent... He should at the very least correct his testimony."

NO OBJECTIONS -- Former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe says that the top congressional leaders from both parties were fully briefed on the bureau's counterintelligence investigation into Trump over his ties to Russia - and no one objected at the time. McCabe, who is on a media blitz to promote his new tell-all book, also beat back against criticism that the probe was part of a deep state conspiracy against the president. "I told Congress what we had done," McCabe said on NBC's "Today" show. "No one objected. Not on legal grounds, not on constitutional grounds, and not based on the facts." More from Caitlin Oprysko: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=d593d670e51e813887329c7508a8fb7d003e1b1800e4abb42d3fa3210ee8463aeaa4a77602ee62a6e7fed84a8879452c

Related read: "Inside Patrick Shanahan's clash with Congress in Munich over Syria," via Josh Rogin of The Washington Post: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=d593d670e51e813868b21b2bf6b35fb3bbd83dea80c46dcd354a9b4faa14da845eddaf20f7648edc643bc74dc7d87cfa

IT'S ALREADY WEDNESDAY! Welcome to Huddle, the play-by-play guide to all things Capitol Hill, on this snowy Feb. 20, where your host can totally relate to this lady who was "just trying to get some ranch" during a Kirsten Gillibrand event in Iowa. (Strongly considering making that phrase my new Twitter bio.)

TUESDAY'S MOST CLICKED: Tanya Snyder's report on the coordination between Mitch McConnell and Elaine Chao's offices was by far the winner.

**Join us for POLITICO's Ninth Annual State Solutions Conference. On the sidelines of the National Governors Association Winter Meeting, the program features a series of exclusive conversations with governors from across the country to share their innovative solutions to the states' complex challenges. RSVP here.**

DEMS CRANK UP THE OVERSIGHT -- House Democrats launched a new probe Tuesday into the administration's push to sell nuclear plants in Saudi Arabia. Whistleblowers raised objections to the plan in the early days of Trump's presidency over concerns it could violate federal laws, according to a new report released by the House Oversight Committee. National security advisers were also concerned about a potential conflict of interest, because then-national security adviser Michael Flynn was connected to a consulting firm that would stand to benefit from the move. The administration continued to work on the plan even after Flynn was fired, discussing the proposal in a White House meeting as
recently as last week. More from Zack Colman: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=d593d670e51e81382c6d0047a6f40d48f20fb2eb25cbdfa5ffaf2ac39ebfc3a8632a3081d93081b6b39ffc2aa851fd77

Meanwhile, Democrats are accusing the Trump administration of trying to interfere in an internal watchdog's investigation of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos. Lawmakers claim the administration tried to remove the acting inspector general last month after she rebuffed a request to "reconsider" a probe of DeVos' decision to restore a controversial accreditor of for-profit colleges. Much more from Michael Stratford: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=d593d670e51e8138f588c9dd228d974f2fe17cfe0ba1180d91e454090ba31932aa127c6ed676bf7cade53909d85a71bc

NADLER FEELS THE IMPEACHMENT HEAT -- Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler is being aggressively pressured by billionaire Tom Steyer to launch impeachment proceedings against Trump, but the New York Democrat is taking a cautious approach to the politically explosive issue. Steyer, who has been targeting a number of key Democrats, recently held a town hall in Nadler's district and is running a television ad designed to prod Nadler into action. But Democrats are rallying behind Nadler and dismissing Steyer's pressure campaign. "Tom who?" quipped fellow New York Democrat Hakeem Jeffries. Andrew with the dispatch: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=d593d670e51e8138ec5b8b16542533650cef133f8bc97e48312765ddeda66e3469b17f27a102113adb63f163f3e1f1e2

BERNIE BRINGS IN THE BIG BUCKS -- On his first day as a presidential candidate, Bernie Sanders raised an eye popping $4 million from over 150,000 individual donors, according to his campaign. The massive fundraising haul underscores a key strength for the independent Vermont senator as he embarks on his second presidential bid. But this time around, Sanders will be competing with a crowded field of fellow progressives, where he could find it more difficult to carve out a lane for himself. Holly Otterbein with the latest: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=d593d670e51e8138da0e7dc651cc0e47082b9f512aa39f5c42eef2c01e4a07dad8b58dbca48f0fe7e068dd2c6e835073

Related: "The 2020 liberal that bankers could stomach," by Zachary Warmbrodt and Daniel Strauss: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=d593d670e51e81383ab57b31affcbe8045fd6c4d7a9ef3491e6591f8636ddb1d7ed9f7425966470e5d4f86557be48d1a

EX-MEMBERS FLOCK TO K STREET -- Former Reps. Bill Shuster (R-Pa.) and Joe Crowley (D-N.Y.) have paired up and joined Squire Patton Boggs, one of the largest law and lobbying firms in Washington. But they are just the latest lawmakers to walk through the revolving door from Congress to K Street. Other former members who have joined lobbying firms include Reps. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.), Lamar Smith (R-Texas), Dave Reichert (R-Wash.), Luke Messer (R-Ind.), Kevin Yoder (R-Kan.), Tom Rooney (R-Fla.) and Barbara Comstock (R-Va.), although not all of them plan to register to lobby. And Former Reps. Frank LoBiondo (R-N.J.) and Lynn Jenkins (R-Kan.) have started their own consulting firms. More
from Theodoric Meyer and David Beavers: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=d593d670e51e81383974e04a5b632ff984d8b7d8ef6122fd01b295fc4b55ae34b2592d36c7321303629b78e8ee6c0f35

KING CONTINUES COMEBACK ATTEMPT -- Embattled Rep. Steve King thinks the controversy that led him to get kicked off his committee assignments and condemned on the House floor can all be solved with a single hyphen. The Iowa Republican was quoted in The New York Times last month asking, "White nationalist, white supremacist, Western civilization - how did that language become offensive?" But King claims he was misquoted, and is now calling on the congressional record to change the placement of the hyphen in his remarks to read: "White nationalist, white supremacist - Western civilization, how did that language become offensive?" The effort is just the latest attempt by King to get his
committee seats back (which GOP leaders have no intention of doing.) His letter to Pelosi: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=ec63d129b0566c89740922933a2eae9d5e89946257058bca420b18d634dd93def3755de27e3190c726fdc834fa6e5180
TRANSITIONS
Alexandra Weinroth is the new press secretary and speechwriter for the House Budget Committee. She joins the committee after serving as press secretary for the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee (DLCC).

Shelly Marc has started as deputy chief of staff to Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) Shelly previously served as a policy advisor for the Office of Public Engagement for President Barack Obama.
TODAY IN CONGRESS
The House and Senate are OUT until the week of Feb. 25.
AROUND THE HILL
Nada.
TRIVIA
TUESDAY'S WINNER -- Claude Marx was the first to correctly guess that Barack Obama, Warren Harding, JFK and James Garfield were all sitting members of Congress when they won the White House.

TODAY'S QUESTION -- From Claude: If Sen. Amy Klobuchar wins the Democratic nomination for president, she will follow in the footsteps of two other politicians from Minnesota. Who are they and when were they the nominees? First person to correctly guess gets a mention in the next edition of Huddle. Send your best guess my way: mzanona@politico.com.

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