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Today's POLITICO Playbook presented by ExxonMobil

By JAKE SHERMAN (sherman@politico.com; @JakeSherman), ANNA PALMER (anna@politico.com; @apalmerdc) and DANIEL LIPPMAN (daniel@politico.com; @dlippman)

Today's Audio Briefing
Driving the Day
DON'T TELL THE PRESIDENT! ... YA CAN'T MAKE IT UP ... The House Rules Committee -- which sets parameters for the debate of bills -- had to meet last night in emergency session around 10 p.m. because one of the immigration bills coming up for a vote today allocated $125 billion for PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP'S wall instead of $25 billion. The bill said $24.8 billion "for each of the fiscal years 2018 through 2022" instead of over five years. They say this was a drafting error, which will be corrected in a procedural vote this morning.

THEY'RE LUCKY no one told Trump! He probably would've wanted to keep the text as written!

REP. JIM MCGOVERN (D-MASS.), the top Democrat on the Rules Committee, said: "This is a heartless bill, and it is being brought up under a terrible process. The only good thing about this rule, is it takes $100 billion away from Trump's ridiculous wall - even if the Republicans gave it to him on accident because they didn't read their own bill."

Happy Thursday, and happy first day of summer. Today will be a wild day in the Capitol. A pair of immigration bills is coming up for a vote after PRESIDENT TRUMP came to the Capitol to corral support Tuesday. He then met with Republicans at the White House yesterday, after being convinced by the leadership he could flip a bunch of lawmakers.

AND ... THERE WAS DRAMA YESTERDAY IN THE HOUSE between two people who have outsized influence on Trump's agenda: HOUSE FREEDOM CAUCUS CHAIRMAN MARK MEADOWS got into a heated battle with SPEAKER PAUL RYAN in the middle of the House floor late Wednesday afternoon.

AT AROUND 4:15 P.M., Meadows approached Ryan on the House floor in what appeared to be something approaching a fit of rage. Meadows and Ryan had their hands and fingers pointing at each other. The North Carolina Republican said to Ryan, "I don't care anymore," waving his hands in the air. He told several people on the floor, "I'm done."

FOR CONTEXT: Meadows was involved in negotiations on bringing up a conservative and compromise immigration bill. These bills can't come up without his support.

FLORIDA REP. CARLOS CURBELO -- a GOP leader of the discharge petition who gave up on that to negotiate with conservatives -- got in the conversation. Meadows said to him, "I'll sign the dang discharge petition. I don't care anymore."

FROM OUR VANTAGE POINT, it was clear the pair had a significant disagreement about the immigration bill, but it wasn't clear what the disagreement was. FREEDOM CAUCUS WATCHER MATT FULLER of HuffPo heard that conservatives were angry about which bill the House leadership put up.

IT WAS CLEAR that Meadows thought someone was pulling a fast one on him.

GOP LEADERSHIP allies say Meadows was simply finding an excuse to sink the package of bills because, well, that's what they believe the Freedom Caucus always does.

MEADOWS gaggled after the fight ... Q: "You just yelled at the speaker on the floor." MEADOWS: "Oh, no. I was passionate. I was not yelling. ... I think at this particular point, the compromise bill is not ready for prime time. There are things that are supposed to be in the compromise bill that are not in the compromise bill that we had all agreed to." LIKE WHAT? "I'm not going to get into that. I'm just telling you there are a number of issues with the drafting of the compromise bill."

BUT HERE'S THE SIMPLE REALITY: MEADOWS can give Trump a W or L today.

THIS EPISODE SHOWS HOW the House is ungovernable. Leadership says the Freedom Caucus misleads them. And the Freedom Caucus says they are misled by leadership. And around and around we go.

WHY DON'T THEY PUSH THE VOTE UNTIL NEXT WEEK? HOUSE MAJORITY WHIP STEVE SCALISE has privately advocated for this, but found little backup in his leadership. The theory to keep the vote today: This whip count is not getting any better for Trump and the GOP.

WHAT WILL HAPPEN TODAY? This package of bills could easily go down. Meadows and his group control the House of Representatives on most days, and no matter what the leadership or Trump do, that's the reality. If these bills fail, GOP leadership will take solace in the fact that they killed the bipartisan effort to vote on the Dream Act -- a bad vote for many Republicans, they say -- and gave the vulnerable members an immigration vote they needed.

PRESIDENT TRUMP'S ability to sway lawmakers is up for a test on the House floor today. For reasons unclear to many in the White House and some in leadership, Trump got involved in the House's immigration process.

BUT SURE ... It would be embarrassing if the president is unable to corral his party around an immigration bill.

YOU'RE INVITED -- SENATE MAJORITY LEADER MITCH MCCONNELL (R-Ky.) is joining us for a PLAYBOOK INTERVIEW next Wednesday morning. We'll talk news of the day -- plenty of that -- the GOP's legislative agenda and, of course, the 2018 midterms. Doors open at 7:50 a.m. RSVP http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=114f16b635cc1382b2a271b5c44c3875ebdc3c7ed9af0d7a2cbd14e5c94875228de684af28e2c254b4dcd7c7b1b2de55

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ANNIE KARNI and ELIANA JOHNSON, "The president who never backs down finally caves: Intense pressure, including from Republicans, prompted Trump to undo his family separation policy": "It came as a rare combination of forces collided, ultimately moving the stubborn commander-in-chief: political pushback from Republicans in Congress, including typically staunch allies; private pressure from his family members, including his eldest daughter and his wife; and, most importantly, wall-to-wall media coverage broadcasting to the country images of frightened children and the sounds of their sobs from inside government-run facilities. ...

"[F]ormer associates said it's not unusual for Trump to flip the script to portray himself as the savior in an impossible situation. ...

"The president's defenders are already doing just that, immediately spinning the president as a liberator of the detained children - although even they were hesitant to speak on the record. 'This is the president doing the right thing,' said one former administration official who refused to be quoted on the record. 'It's also him realizing that he certainly can't rely on Congress. And so I think this is a big positive for him. He fixes yet another problem.'" http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=114f16b635cc1382333fe271ae89830d295f5407ad2b8f0dbd74db62de2ad4f7962b1c7f849b24cc170cef522cbb35c2

THE PRESIDENT'S RHETORIC -- "'A blowtorch to the tinder': Stoking racial tensions is a feature of Trump's presidency," by WaPo's Phil Rucker: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=114f16b635cc138259bfadd25b8067b8d26300c9eb83d1616950e401d348381eb9900078265515bfc4bcdf2de03c985a

ABOUT LAST NIGHT -- "Trump dodges family separations, but takes aim at illegal immigration," by Matt Nussbaum, Stephanie Murray, and Christopher Cadelago, with a Duluth, Minnesota dateline: "President Donald Trump largely avoided the controversial issue of separating immigrant families at a pair of events in Minnesota on Wednesday, but hours after he signed an order to mostly reverse his policy, Trump was back to warning about the perils of illegal border crossings.

"'The media never talks about the American victims of illegal immigration,' Trump told a raucous crowd of nearly 9,000 in Duluth, Minn. 'What's happened to their children, what's happened to their husbands, what's happened to their wives - the media doesn't talk about American families permanently separated from their loved ones.'

"The president, who made just one trip to the state before narrowly losing it in 2016, mocked a protester for his long hair and instructed another to 'go home to your mom, darling,' slammed 'Crooked Hillary,' Nancy Pelosi and the FBI, complained about the Russia investigation, pilloried 'fakers' in the media for not crediting his North Korean peace gambit and bragged that he is 'smarter,' 'richer' and has 'a much better apartment' than his critics, who, despite this, continue to be considered part of the upper crust, while he isn't. 'You ever notice they always call the other side 'the elite?' The elite! Why are they elite?' Trump asked, incredulously."
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=114f16b635cc13829a9b1bffbf7af1c2597755ece97c0ed7a2e6c8e7421e3bdfd600431742917f278fab575a05cfad27

-- TRUMP MUSES ON THE ELITE ... "I have a much better apartment than [the elites] do. I'm smarter than they are. I'm richer than they are. And I became president and they didn't."

TRUMP VS. MCCAIN, PART ONE ZILLION -- @jdawsey1: "Trump is telling the crowd about Sen. John McCain and re-enacting his thumbs down vote on Obamacare -- though not mentioning his name. 'Not nice!' Trump says. 'That was not nice!'"

BARACK OBAMA on Facebook: "If you've been fortunate enough to have been born in America, imagine for a moment if circumstance had placed you somewhere else. Imagine if you'd been born in a country where you grew up fearing for your life, and eventually the lives of your children.

"A place where you finally found yourself so desperate to flee persecution, violence, and suffering that you'd be willing to travel thousands of miles under cover of darkness, enduring dangerous conditions, propelled forward by that very human impulse to create for our kids a better life.

"That's the reality for so many of the families whose plights we see and heart-rending cries we hear. And to watch those families broken apart in real time puts to us a very simple question: are we a nation that accepts the cruelty of ripping children from their parents' arms, or are we a nation that values families, and works to keep them together? Do we look away, or do we choose to see something of ourselves and our children?" http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=114f16b635cc13822b018917ebd25ff778623c3dd045100be656c47b188ea08892f388fa0496b378d7517bc5ccbb3f39

IVANKA SPEAKS -- @IvankaTrump: "Thank you @POTUS for taking critical action ending family separation at our border. Congress must now act + find a lasting solution that is consistent with our shared values; the same values that so many come here seeking as they endeavor to create a better life for their families".

WHAT HAPPENS TO THE CHILDREN WHEN THEY'RE HERE ...

-- "Hundreds of Separated Children Have Quietly Been Sent to New York," by NYT's Liz Robbins: "Under cover of darkness and in the custody of the federal government, migrant children have been coming in waves to New York, taken from their parents after crossing the southern border. ...

"Speaking outside Cayuga Centers in Harlem, one of a group of social service agencies in the state that contract with the federal government to take in unaccompanied minors, Mayor Bill de Blasio on Wednesday afternoon said 350 children had come through the center and that 239 of them were currently in Cayuga's care; the agency is not residential, but places children in temporary foster care and runs day programs.

"The children included a 9-year-old boy from Honduras who had come alone on a bus from Texas, and a child as young as 9 months old, Mr. de Blasio said, as he issued a scathing rebuke of the Trump administration." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=114f16b635cc138281ab25317d79c10bff64e02aa8e626ed034d59c9e188c17aa6745684791f86329e38cf5fda316d43 ... New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo's NYT op-ed http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=114f16b635cc1382279e75b66c01bf07a7c4681f84039db3f9db9adeb36d7d15e5443217cc7bc4e13e92d07c35abdae0

-- DETROIT FREE PRESS' TRESA BALDAS: "Torn from immigrant parents, 8-month-old baby lands in Michigan": "Four days ago, a Homeland Security official proclaimed: 'We are not separating babies from parents.' Yet in the middle of the night, two baby boys arrived in Grand Rapids after being separated from their immigrant parents at the southern border weeks ago.

"One child is 8 months old; the other is 11 months old. Both children have become part of a bigger group of 50 immigrant children who have landed in foster care in western Michigan under the Trump administration's zero-tolerance border policy. ... Many have gone 30 days or more without talking to their parents because their parents can't be located." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=114f16b635cc1382f86de92c2dbabe254ade6138734d472bb85fc35b5aaa6c92973f434e447dc6710198270c71926c92

-- AP'S MICHAEL BIESECKER, JAKE PEARSON and GARANCE BURKE: "Young immigrants detained in Virginia center allege abuse": "Immigrant children as young as 14 housed at a juvenile detention center in Virginia say they were beaten while handcuffed and locked up for long periods in solitary confinement, left nude and shivering in concrete cells.

"The abuse claims against the Shenandoah Valley Juvenile Center near Staunton, Virginia, are detailed in federal court filings that include a half-dozen sworn statements from Latino teens jailed there for months or years. Multiple detainees say the guards stripped them of their clothes and strapped them to chairs with bags placed over their heads." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=114f16b635cc13826fc36e0446e09b30a5991598986a9d8b8d8002db86935b2e47e5cb624e785377c76c4c859e4b3a0d

MORE IMMIGRATION FALLOUT ...

-- "Airlines Ask Government Not to Use Their Flights to Carry Children Separated at the Border," by NYT's Richard Fausset: "American Airlines asked the federal government on Wednesday to stop using its commercial planes for 'transporting children who have been separated from their families due to the current immigration policy.' ... Several flight attendants for American, the world's largest airline, had posted testimony on public and private social media channels in recent days, describing how they had seen groups of Latino children on domestic flights, accompanied not by parents but by federal agents.

"In a tweet Wednesday, Frontier Airlines stated that it would 'not knowingly allow our flights to be used to transport migrant children away from their families.' United Airlines said it had told federal officials that they 'should not transport immigrant children' who had been separated from their parents. Southwest Airlines asked that 'anyone' involved in separating children from their parents not fly with them." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=114f16b635cc1382d84f763958cac5019f87558d8af9effce16ece7a4629219d1b1c4dab0ec4552e76d3875a9a21f956

-- NBC NEWS' BEN COLLINS and MEGHAN SULLIVAN: "Tech companies quietly work with ICE as border crisis continues": "Several high-profile data and tech companies have made millions of dollars from contracts with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency over the past several months - even as some of them publicly disavow the Trump administration's recent orders to separate immigrant children from their parents. Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Thomson Reuters, Microsoft, Motorola Solutions and Palantir all have active contracts with the agency, known as ICE, according to a public records search conducted by NBC News." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=114f16b635cc13827390a272432381e127dc068ac68f58f5f13c9741b03cffca4353b332abcd9b1a239a2f8911da7a8d

THE PRESIDENT, at 4:04 p.m.: "Had a great meeting with the House GOP last night at the Capitol. They applauded and laughed loudly when I mentioned my experience with Mark Sanford. I have never been a fan of his!"

-- THIS ISN'T how a bunch of people described it to us. From two people in the room: REP. JUSTIN AMASH (@justinamash): "House Republicans had front row seats to @POTUS's dazzling display of pettiness and insecurity. Nobody applauded or laughed. People were disgusted." ... REP. RYAN COSTELLO (@ryancostello): "Categorically false".

HMM -- "RNC chair, Labor secretary cancel on Latino conference," by Isaac Dovere: "The Republican National Committee chair and the secretary of Labor both abruptly canceled appearances in front of the country's largest non-partisan Latino political organization. The National Association of Latino Elected Officials' (NALEO) annual conference begins Thursday in Phoenix.

"Late Wednesday afternoon, organizers received word from the RNC that Ronna Romney McDaniel would not be attending to give a speech, scheduled for Friday afternoon in front of all the members. McDaniel's office provided no explanation for the cancellation, other than to express 'regrets,' according to Arturo Vargas, NALEO's executive director. He said the move was particularly troubling coming in the midst of the crisis over separating immigrant children from their families." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=114f16b635cc138229509ae0082d04a2bb4c502040d8b40620ac5203523b10ac013229ddcbd55d845bbe0615e358d1fa

TIME's new cover shows President Trump looking down at a child migrant http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=114f16b635cc1382242f2b4adee18fa21a55d24f95258a5437fc802e4df40933d5c162c14431ecffce4fb6ec8849ca28

AMAZING STORY ... ALEX ISENSTADT, "Giuliani's act of love sets off GOP furor: The bizarre tale of the ex-New York mayor's support for an obscure House candidate in Louisiana": "Rudy Giuliani's love life is causing trouble for the White House. In a move that blindsided the West Wing and sent Hill Republicans into a tizzy, the president's personal attorney is throwing his support behind an obscure House candidate in Louisiana trying to take out incumbent GOP Rep. Clay Higgins.

"But the bizarre tale of Giuliani's interest in an off-the-radar congressional race only begins there. It turns out the ex-New York mayor's new girlfriend, GOP fundraiser Jennifer LeBlanc, is working for the Republican challenger in the race, Josh Guillory. ... The former mayor's foray into the race has infuriated senior party officials, who are convinced Giuliani is acting at his girlfriend's behest." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=114f16b635cc1382d226e4b3c87f1459a29867f4057f9b27c445a77e5eed178e7b678a01845832a14962253f1837fb7a

THE JUICE ...

-- SPOTTED at a table in the lobby lounge at Trump Hotel: Don Trump Jr., Ambassadors Rick Grenell, Ed McMullen and Duke Buchan, Tommy Hicks, Cliff Sims, Charlie Kirk, Andy Surabian, Andrew Giuliani and Boris Epshteyn.

-- THE BAD NEWS BABES won 5-1 over women lawmakers in the 10th annual Congressional women's softball game last night. The game raised $320,000 for young women with breast cancer with the proceeds going to the Young Survival Coalition. BRIDGET BOWMAN of Roll Call was MVP for the press team with a homerun and four RBIs. AMY WALTERS of Cook Political Report and The Takeaway pitched a complete shutout. REP. MIA LOVE (R-UTAH) was the MVP for the members team.

-- DREW MALONEY is joining the American Investment Council as president. He previously ran legislative affairs at Treasury and before that was a VP for governmental affairs at Hess. The American Investment Council is a private equity trade group.

TRUMP'S THURSDAY -- The president is hosting a cabinet meeting. In the afternoon, he will hold a working lunch with governors. Trump will also meet separately with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis.


Playbook Reads


PHOTO DU JOUR: President Donald Trump holds up an executive order he signed Wednesday to end family separations, while Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen looks on. | Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP Photo

2018 WATCH -- "Conservative watchdog seeks Senate probe of McCaskill plane use," by Elana Schor: "A conservative watchdog group on Thursday will request that the Senate Ethics Committee investigate Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) over her reporting of income from the private plane owned by her husband.

"McCaskill's use of the aircraft is drawing heavy fire from Republicans as she battles her challenger, Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley, in one of the midterm election's most hotly contested races. ... The ethics investigation request, filed by the right-leaning Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust, or FACT, cites McCaskill's 2017 Senate financial disclosure, which reported between $0 and $201 of income from the plane owned by her husband's company." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=114f16b635cc138210d5176d0ce819486d37ac6a125d4382a6e8b0b90b3c81fabe811ad95f8494bc538e2aaa6e1c7f2e

FOR YOUR RADAR -- "Officials identify North Korean test site Kim committed to destroy at summit," by CBS News' Kylie Atwood: "North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has committed to the U.S. that North Korea will destroy the Ch'olsan County, North Pyongan province testing site, which sometimes is referred to as the Sohae Satellite Launching Ground, CBS News reports. This agreement was made when President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un met in Singapore earlier this month, administration officials confirmed. This is the missile test engine site that Trump had mentioned after their meeting, though at the time he did not name it." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=114f16b635cc13826aa21835da33a1fc19cdc7c3409a2e5c8145dd346fa31d61959ea4571917435234a656d51e416e7f

-- "Horrific Details on Syria Chemical Attacks Left Out, for Now, From U.N. Report," by NYT's Rick Gladstone and Maggie Haberman: "At least twice this year, the Syrian military fired Iranian-made artillery shells filled with a chlorine-like substance that oozed poison slowly, giving victims just a few minutes to escape. In another attack, Syrian forces dropped a chemical bomb on the top-floor balcony of an apartment building, killing 49 people, including 11 children. Their skin turned blue.

"These details and others blaming Syria for atrocities in eastern Ghouta, a suburb of Damascus, were uncovered by a United Nations commission investigating and documenting possible war crimes in the seven-year-old conflict. But when the commission issued a report on Wednesday, the details were omitted. Seven pages that had been in an earlier draft, provided to The New York Times, were summarized in two paragraphs in the final document." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=114f16b635cc1382cf71381a6d6940badef8869320708360615c52cb614663c97c1c1580008a29ec069d85123175f000

PRUITT FILES - "Scott Pruitt Has Spent a Total of $4.6 Million on Security, New Disclosures Show - Including $1,500 on 'Tactical Pants,'" by The Intercept's Lee Fang and Nick Surgey: "The amount represents a $1.1 million increase from Pruitt's total security costs as released in another disclosure just a month ago. ... Records released under the Freedom of Information Act list expenditures totaling $288,610 on a range of security-related items. The EPA, according to three expense line items for April, spent a total of $2,749.62 on 'tactical pants' and 'tactical polos.'" http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=114f16b635cc138246d926b71b2d42a6e23613139feb158a97b2d642b03ba770c65c9462777fc6a1198f0ab027beab91


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JULIA IOFFE in GQ, "The Real Story of Donald Trump Jr.": "'I think he regrets taking the [Russia] meeting,' a source close to Don told me. 'Does he regret it because he thinks he did something wrong? No. He regrets it because it ended up causing a situation that wasted a lot of time and money.' ... [One] source's impression of Don was that he, like seemingly everyone else in Trump's orbit, was uselessly trying to impress a man who can only be impressed by himself. 'He's hustling and trying to do what he can to contribute but without knowing where the lines are,' the source said of Don, adding ruefully, 'He's a sad and tragic figure.' ...

" Like Republican populists of the past decade, Don speaks of 'real Americans,' people he defines as 'the forgotten people between New York City and Malibu.' It's an improbable notion: that the billionaire's kid from 66 stories above Fifth Avenue is the one who speaks for the disaffected and the overlooked. But it's no less surprising than the faint rumors suggesting that he might someday run for office-a way to finally, perhaps, make a name for himself." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=114f16b635cc1382c1ba57a3615d35126e2a974b88cda57593e48cdce24a841b3641a7a13f18df79d8ec2974c740a0e3

THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION -- "Trump administration to seek merger of Education, Labor departments," by Caitlin Emma and Michael Stratford: "The Trump administration plans to advocate a merger of the Education and Labor departments as part of a sweeping government overhaul, according to two individuals familiar with the proposal who declined to be named because it's not yet public. The new combined agency, if approved by Congress, would be part of a broader government reorganization plan that could be announced as soon as Thursday ...

"Mick Mulvaney, director of the OMB, has been working on the reorganization plan since his confirmation more than a year ago. ... The plan, if undertaken by the administration, would pose a heavy political and legislative lift. Past attempts to eliminate the Education Department haven't proven popular in Congress." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=114f16b635cc1382c73a05133fcbd7d2d39f799e3abfd044a3b2bf05930f35e364d9416a5d37eb50278be26a278b2634

COHEN WATCH -- "Michael Cohen resigns from RNC committee post, sources say," by ABC News' Eliana Larramendia and Zunaira Zaki: "Michael Cohen, President Trump's longtime confidant and former personal attorney, has resigned from his post as deputy finance chair of the [RNC's] Finance Committee, sources close to the RNC told ABC News. In his resignation letter to Ronna McDaniel, the RNC chair, Cohen cited the ongoing special counsel investigation as one reason for his departure. ABC News has reviewed the email. ...

"Cohen also criticized the administration's policy of separating migrant children from their parents at the southern border, the first time he's distanced himself from the president. 'As the son of a Polish holocaust survivor, the images and sounds of this family separation policy is heart wrenching,' Cohen wrote. 'While I strongly support measures that will secure our porous borders, children should never be used as bargaining chips.'" http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=114f16b635cc1382613464587f7f6b968854841d456657e317272c452b630b9ae34483f1765f5b7a154f81eb499ee28e

-- "Publisher of National Enquirer Subpoenaed in Michael Cohen Probe," by WSJ's Nicole Hong, Joe Palazzolo, Michael Rothfeld and Rebecca Davis O'Brien: "Federal authorities have subpoenaed the publisher of the National Enquirer for records related to its $150,000 payment to a former Playboy model for the rights to her story alleging an affair with Donald Trump, according to people familiar with the matter. The subpoena from Manhattan federal prosecutors requesting information from the publisher, American Media Inc., about its August 2016 payment to Karen McDougal is part of a broader criminal investigation of Mr. Trump's former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen ...

"Investigators are probing any potential efforts by Mr. Cohen to suppress damaging information about Mr. Trump during the presidential campaign, including whether he coordinated with American Media to pay Ms. McDougal and then not publish her account, other people familiar with the matter said. Prosecutors are examining whether the payment violated campaign-finance or other laws." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=114f16b635cc1382ac928fcf64cc001de414ec0f2d57360059649946ce6b8de81b259f7c2ccf2430ede5932fd32c2f2c
Playbookers
SPOTTED: Rep. Ed Royce (R-Calif.) at Joe's last night ... former NJ Sen. and Gov. Jon Corzine in The Willard lobby.

OUT AND ABOUT -- SPOTTED at Adrienne Elrod's birthday dinner last night at Cafe Milano: Anne Schroeder, Parita Shah, Abbie Gibbs, Bruce Harris, Marsha Catron, Erin McPike, Irene Sherman, Talley Sergent, Mary Streett, Courtney Cardin, Adrienne Watson and Alex Hornbrook. The dinner was hosted by everyone's favorite patriarch with Superman tattoo to boot, John Elrod. SEN. JOE MANCHIN (D-W.VA.) and his wife Gayle greeted everyone after spotting Talley Sergent, the Democratic nominee for West Virginia's 2nd district House seat. Talley was celebrating West Virginia's birthday, as well.

-- RightNOW held its first "trailblazers" event Wednesday night at Clark Hill. Mercedes Schlapp and Michele Guida from the State Department participated in a panel moderated by The Federalist's Mollie Hemingway. SPOTTED: Lisa and Charlie Spies, Marlene Colucci, Shelley Hymes, Amy Hawkins, Sue Hensley, Bettina Inclan, Valerie Dowling, Karen Kerrigan, Neri Martínez, Ben Carson Jr., Kevin Curran, Sarah Curran, Andeliz Castillo, Lisa Gable, Adele Malpass, Emily Malpass, Sarah Nelson, Jaime Hjort, Carson Pinney, Christin Fernandez and Micah Yousefi.

WELCOME TO THE WORLD - DAN PFEIFFER, co-host of Pod Save America, a CNN contributor and author of the new book "Yes We (Still) Can: Politics in the Age of Obama, Twitter, and Trump," and HOWLI PFEIFFER, former Obama WH director of message planning, recently welcomed Kyla Adele Pfeiffer.

BIRTHDAY OF THE DAY: Elizabeth Williamson, feature writer in the NYT's D.C. bureau. How she got her start in journalism: "As a freelancer in Eastern Europe. The first story I ever sold was during the Balkan war in the mid-1990s. I visited Lojane, an ethnic Albanian village on Macedonia's border with Serbia where the main industry was sanctions busting. Townspeople were strapping jerry cans of gasoline onto donkeys, riding them across the border and selling the gas in Serbia, where it fueled efforts to kill Muslims like them. I was paid $100 for the story. Bet I'd get $120 today." Read her Playbook Plus Q&A: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=114f16b635cc1382ca1f4a993cbb2fa9b2c5f415dc74d2aa27f29a4fe9494e2c0f8d853882abe052fd6e16feb325090e

BIRTHDAYS: Charlie Glazer, former U.S. Ambassador to El Salvador and Trump campaign alum ... Peter Perl ... Jake Maccoby, DOJ and HFA alum ... Tanya Singer, former general manager of Bloomberg Politics ... John Rhoden ... Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.) is 71 ... Oregon Gov. Kate Brown is 58 ... WSJ's Laura Meckler ... Sam Nunberg, a public affairs consultant based in NYC, is 37 ... Mike Allen, celebrating in Nice at Cannes Lions (h/ts Jonathan Karl, Geoff Morrell and Blain Rethmeier) ... investigative reporter Dan Wagner ... Lloyd Green (h/ts Tim Burger) ... Kate Kochman ... Shara Mohtadi ... AP's George Jahn .. NYT's Elizabeth Dias ... Madeleine Morgenstern ... Jill Farquharson ...
former Rep. Marjorie Margolies (D-Pa.) is 76 ... Washington Institute's David Makovsky is 58 ... Caroline Weisser ... Susan Tomai ... Jackie Berkowitz, manager of Netflix Originals Documentary Publicity ...

... Chris Francescani, reporter at ABC News ... Politico's Marc Sames (h/t Peter Cherukuri) ... Politico's Valerie Miller ... Sara Gilliam ... Cody Uhing ... Scott Allen ... Mike Faulman, a Rahm alum now at Shinola ... Mollie Leavitt ... Wells Wallace ... Campbell Matthews, communications manager at Lyft (h/t Ryan Williams) ... FEMA's Brian Kamoie, celebrating by vacationing with his family in Italy ... Leslie Shockley Beyer, president of the Petroleum Equipment and Services Association (h/ts Ed Cash) ... former Rep. Dan Burton (R-Ind.) is 8-0 ... Delece Smith-Barrow ... Greg Hitt, VP of global corporate comms at Wal-Mart, is 56 ... former N.H. Gov. Stephen E. Merrill, now chair of Morgan
Lewis Consulting, is 71 ... Mason Reynolds ... SEC economist Max Clarke ... Cole Randle ... Jessica Straus ... Mary Meagher ... Katherine Riley ... Mary Beth Donahue ... Gordon Stott ... Ellen Golombek ... Dave Marcus ... Gary Maloney ... James Walton ... Laura Icardi ... DOE's Roger Jarrell ... Prince William is 36 (h/t AP)

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