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By Jake Sherman, Anna Palmer, Daniel Lippman, Akela Lacy and Eli Okun

Presented by

THE REAL BIG NEWS OF THE DAY ... WAPO'S CHELSEA JANES: "Nationals GM Mike Rizzo on trade rumors: Bryce Harper 'is not going anywhere'"

WSJ SCOOP -- REBECCA BALLHAUS, BYRON TAU and PETER NICHOLAS: "John Kelly Has Told White House Staff Trump Asked Him To Stay in Post Through 2020": "Mr. Kelly told staff he agreed to the president's request, one of the officials said." WSJ

-- FOR WHAT IT'S WORTH: There's still a decent amount of doubt in the White House that Kelly will last any more than a few months. But it's all a guessing game!

VP MIKE PENCE is flying to Hawaii today to receive the remains of fallen Korean War soldiers. Before heading west, he's speaking at the first ever DHS cyber summit in New York today. When in Hawaii, Pence will get briefed by the Indo-Pacific Command.

BREAKING -- NYT'S NICK FANDOS and KEVIN ROOSE: "Facebook Has Identified Ongoing Political Influence Campaign": "Facebook is preparing to announce that it has identified a coordinated political influence campaign, with dozens of inauthentic accounts and pages that are believed to be engaging in political activity ahead of November's midterm elections, according to three people briefed on the matter. ...

"The company has been working with the F.B.I. to investigate the activity. Like the Russian interference campaign in 2016, the recently detected campaign dealt with divisive social issues. Facebook discovered coordinated activity around issues like a sequel to last year's deadly 'Unite the Right' white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va. Coordinated activity was also detected around #AbolishICE." NYT

Good Tuesday afternoon. CONGRESSIONAL LEADERSHIP FUND enlisted OHIO GOV. JOHN KASICH to do an ad for Troy Balderson, the Republican running in a special election in the Buckeye State next week. 30-second spot

TED HESSON -- "Durbin calls on Nielsen to resign": "Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) demanded on Tuesday that Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen resign in the aftermath of thousands of family separations at the U.S.-Mexico border. 'Someone in this administration has to accept responsibility,' Durbin said during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on the issue.

"Durbin quoted U.S. District Judge Dana Sabraw, who in June ordered the Trump administration to reunite families split apart at the border. Sabraw called the separations 'a chaotic circumstance of the government's own making.' Several Democratic lawmakers have urged Nielsen to resign over the crisis, including House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, who tweeted about it in June." POLITICO

TRADE WARS -- "U.S., China Said to Aim to Restart Talks to Defuse Trade War," by Bloomberg's Jenny Leonard, Peter Martin and Saleha Mohsin: "Representatives of U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Chinese Vice Premier Liu He are having private conversations as they look for ways to reengage in negotiations ... They cautioned that a specific timetable, the issues to be discussed and the format for talks aren't finalized, but added there was agreement among the principals that more talks need to take place.." Bloomberg

-- "Chinese Economy Starts to Feel Tariff Impact," by WSJ's Liyan Qi and Grace Zhu in Beijing: "China's leadership pledged to ensure economic stability as its trade fight with the U.S. started to pinch growth, signaling that a bigger stimulus could be on the horizon. ...

"The [Politburo] meeting came as official data showed early Tuesday that China's business activities faltered in July-the first official data to reflect the impact of U.S. tariffs-adding to signs that trade tensions have started to dent economic growth." WSJ

-- "Trump suspends duty-free status for clothes imports from Rwanda," by Reuters' Clement Uwiringiyimana: "The move, initially threatened in March and confirmed on Monday, was seen by many in Washington and Africa as foreshadowing how the Trump administration planned to apply its 'America First' trade ideology on the continent." Reuters

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THE INVESTIGATIONS ...

MURRAY WAAS in THE NY REVIEW OF BOOKS: "Flynn, Comey, and Mueller: What Trump Knew and When He Knew It": "Previously undisclosed evidence in the possession of Special Counsel Robert Mueller-including highly confidential White House records and testimony by some of President Trump's own top aides-provides some of the strongest evidence to date implicating the president of the United States in an obstruction of justice.

"Several people who have reviewed a portion of this evidence say that, based on what they know, they believe it is now all but inevitable that the special counsel will complete a confidential report presenting evidence that President Trump violated the law. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who oversees the special counsel's work, would then decide on turning over that report to Congress for the House of Representatives to consider whether to instigate impeachment proceedings. ...

"I have learned that a confidential White House memorandum, which is in the special counsel's possession, explicitly states that when Trump pressured [James] Comey he had just been told by two of his top aides-his then chief of staff Reince Priebus and his White House counsel Don McGahn-that [Michael] Flynn was under criminal investigation." The New York Review of Books

WHAT'S ON THE PRESIDENT'S MIND -- @realDonaldTrump at 6:14 a.m.: "The globalist Koch Brothers, who have become a total joke in real Republican circles, are against Strong Borders and Powerful Trade. I never sought their support because I don't need their money or bad ideas. They love my Tax & Regulation Cuts, Judicial picks & more. I made....."

... at 6:23 a.m.: "....them richer. Their network is highly overrated, I have beaten them at every turn. They want to protect their companies outside the U.S. from being taxed, I'm for America First & the American Worker -- a puppet for no one. Two nice guys with bad ideas. Make America Great Again!"

... at 6:50 a.m.: "Rush Limbaugh is a great guy who truly gets it!"

... at 7:00 a.m.: "One of the reasons we need Great Border Security is that Mexico's murder rate in 2017 increased by 27% to 31,174 people killed, a record! The Democrats want Open Borders. I want Maximum Border Security and respect for ICE and our great Law Enforcement Professionals! @FoxNews".

... at 7:58 a.m.: "Collusion is not a crime, but that doesn't matter because there was No Collusion (except by Crooked Hillary and the Democrats)!" ... at 8:03 a.m.: "I am looking into 3-D Plastic Guns being sold to the public. Already spoke to NRA, doesn't seem to make much sense!"

... at 9:34 a.m.: "The Fake News Media is going CRAZY! They are totally unhinged and in many ways, after witnessing first hand the damage they do to so many innocent and decent people, I enjoy watching. In 7 years, when I am no longer in office, their ratings will dry up and they will be gone!"

COURT WATCH -- "Senate hits stalemate over release of Kavanaugh documents," by Elana Schor: "Democrats have vowed to keep pushing for records from Kavanaugh's time as Bush's staff secretary, and on Tuesday they expanded their request to seek even documents that referenced or passed through Kavanaugh's inbox during his five years in the Bush White House." POLITICO

-- "Trump Is Putting Indelible Conservative Stamp on Judiciary," by NYT's Tom Kaplan: "The expected appeals court confirmation on Tuesday of Britt C. Grant, 40, a Georgia Supreme Court justice who was once a clerk for Judge [Brett] Kavanaugh, would be Mr. Trump's 24th circuit court appointment - more than any other president had secured at this point in his presidency since the creation of the regional circuit court system in 1891 ...

"Of the 167 spots on those courts nationwide, Trump nominees already fill more than one of every eight, though the majority of those nominees replaced judges who were also appointed by Republican presidents." NYT

-- CNN'S KAITLAN COLLINS (@kaitlancollins): "Justice Anthony Kennedy formally retires today."

KNOWING JUSTIN AMASH -- "The new 'Dr. No': Rep. Justin Amash, marooned in Congress," by WaPo's Dave Weigel: "Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), the elder Paul's son and Amash's favored presidential candidate in 2016, has become one of Trump's defenders ... That has left Amash as the only consistent representative of a wing of libertarianism that remains alienated by Trump - advocates of a government shrunk down to a pre-New Deal size, and advocates of freer trade and immigration policies.

"'I was optimistic until about two or three years ago,' Amash said this week, in an interview at his congressional office. 'Things have really taken a turn for the worse, in terms of the growth of libertarianism in Congress.'" WaPo

THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION -- "We Found a New Batch of Trump Administration Appointees," by ProPublica's Nisa Khan: "Since April, 34 people have been appointed to political jobs within the Trump administration, and another 35 have transferred to other government agencies or taken on new jobs, according to the data we obtained." ProPublica

-- "DHS Forms New Cyber Hub to Protect Critical U.S. Infrastructure," by WSJ's Dustin Volz: WSJ

BORDER TALES -- "How One Agency Built a Multimillion-Dollar Business in Migrant Children," by NYT's Liz Robbins: "[A]n investigation into [Cayuga Centers'] history found that as the agency was shifting its focus to working for the federal government, problems were festering at its upstate campus. A spokesman for the Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the office charged with the care of unaccompanied minors, declined to say whether HHS knew about the issues upstate as it kept pouring money into contracts with Cayuga." NYT

-- "A Migrant Boy Rejoins His Mother, but He's Not the Same," by NYT's Miriam Jordan in Philadelphia: "Before they were separated at the southwest border, Ana Carolina Fernandes's 5-year-old son loved playing with the yellow, impish Minion characters from the 'Despicable Me' movies. Now his favorite game is patting down and shackling 'migrants' with plastic cuffs.

"After being separated from his mother for 50 days, Thiago isn't the same boy who was taken away from her by Border Patrol agents when they arrived in the United States from Brazil, Ms. Fernandes said last week. ... [M]any of the children released to their parents are exhibiting signs of anxiety, introversion, regression and other mental health issues." NYT

-- "Trump administration must stop giving psychotropic drugs to migrant children without consent, judge rules," by WaPo's Samantha Schmidt: WaPo

THE ATLANTIC'S ELAINA PLOTT in BESSEMER, ALABAMA: "Hope and Change in an Alabama Coal Mine": "It was hulking, it was orange, and its name was Trump. Randy Johnson looked on as his new 220-ton excavator carved up the ground, clearing the field of rocks to help unearth the coal underneath. ... The 71-year-old Alabama native and mining veteran had bowed out of the industry in 2014, when he says the Obama administration's 'war on coal' pummeled the market.

"But with Donald Trump's election came a wave of 'optimism,' he told me: optimism that the crush of regulations would ebb, that the 'dirty' caricatures of the industry, aggravated by Obama, would start to soften. So at the turn of the year, when he learned of an idle reserve in Bessemer, Johnson reopened his company, called one of his old foremen, and made the largest investment of his career." The Atlantic

MONICA CROWLEY, guest-hosting Brian Kilmeade's Fox News Radio show: "Lt. Col Allen West Will Run For Political Office Again - Announcement Coming Soon": Fox News Radio

MEDIAWATCH -- Lauren Gardner will be a reporter in Washington for POLITICO's new Pro Canada vertical. She is currently a Pro Transportation reporter.

SPOTTED: Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson and George Pataki at Polo Bar in New York ... Brad Parscale relaxing at Onyx Coffee Lab in Bentonville, Arkansas (pic)

ENGAGED -- Eleanor Anaclerio, a senior account manager for POLITICO Pro, got engaged to Kevin Cahalane, who is currently pursuing his MBA at Boston College. The couple met in 2013 while they were both working at the Advisory Board Company. Pic

WEEKEND WEDDING -- Danny Smith, counsel for Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) on the Senate Judiciary Committee, on Saturday married Elizabeth English, a policy analyst at the Council of State Governments Justice Center, in a ceremony at the Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church in D.C. with a reception at the Columbia Country Club in Chevy Chase, Md. The couple met at a criminal justice reform conference at AEI, where Elizabeth used to work. Pic

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