Axios

The Secret Service does not possess any tapes or transcripts of tapes recorded by President Trump, according to the agency's response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request from the Wall St Journal.

Why they asked the Secret Service: They maintained prior recording systems in the White House, perhaps most infamously the Oval Office equipment used by Richard Nixon.

Worth considering: Assuming the tapes exist, they'd likely fall under the Presidential Records Act. But the National Archives told the WSJ that presidential records of any current administration can't be obtained by a FOIA request while a president is still in office.

What's next: Trump has said he'll make an announcement soon about whether he taped conversations with James Comey, and Sean Spicer echoed that pledge in Monday's briefing.

Sean Spicer again said that President Trump will "have an announcement shortly" on whether he taped his conversations with James Comey. Spicer also reaffirmed Trump's willingness to testify under oath on the Russia probe to Special Counsel Robert Mueller, but said he hasn't spoken with the president about whether he would testify before Congress, and wouldn't speculate as to if and when Trump will follow through. Briefing highlights:

• What role did Sessions play in the firing of Comey? Spicer said he won't comment on conversations between the attorney general and the president.
• Is Trump on board with Sessions testifying publicly? "He's going to testify. We're aware of it," said Spicer. He also said that it would be "premature" to state whether the WH would invoke executive privilege to recuse Sessions from answering certain questions.
• On the 9th Circuit upholding the travel ban block: "We continue to be confident the [travel ban] is lawful...will be upheld by the Supreme Court."
• On DC/Maryland emoluments lawsuit against Trump: "It's not hard to conclude there are partisan motivations behind today's lawsuit," said Spicer.

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has affirmed the injunction on President Trump's travel ban.

"We conclude that the President, in issuing the Executive Order, exceeded the scope of the authority delegated to him by Congress."

Trump's tweets matter: The decision cites a Trump tweet as evidence that Trump understands it is "'countries' that are inherently dangerous, rather than the 180 million individual nationals of those countries who are barred from entry under the President's 'travel ban.'"

About vetting: "There is no finding that present vetting standards are inadequate, and no finding that absent the improved vetting procedures there likely will be harm to our national interests." Caveat: This ruling does allow the Trump administration to review vetting processes — the 9th circuit diverges from the district court in this regard.

The attorneys general of Washington, D.C. and Maryland are suing President Trump for allegedly accepting payments and gifts from foreign governments while working in the White House, which they argue is in violation of the Constitution's emoluments clause, per the Washington Post.

President Trump held his first full Cabinet meeting at the White House this morning, with each Cabinet member introducing themselves to the assembled media while heaping praise on Trump. Trump himself got in on the hyperbole in his prepared statement at the top of the meeting:

• "Never has there been a president — with a few exceptions, in the case of FDR, he had a major depression to handle — who's passed more legislation, who's done more things than we've done."
• "I think we've been just about as active as we can be at a just about record-setting pace."
• "If we had the greatest bill in the history of the world on health care, we wouldn't get one vote from the Democrats."

Qatar Finance Minister Ali Shareef Al Emadi told CNBC Monday that he thinks the countries that cut diplomatic ties with Qatar last week did so because they would "like to dictate our foreign policy."

• On accusations Qatar financially supports militant groups: "We know who's behind it," said Al Emadi. "We know that all these things are really to put the propaganda against Qatar." When asked if he was referring to Saudi Arabia, Al Emadi said he would leave it to the audience to interpret.
• Financial implications of diplomatic crisis: "We are business as usual and we are open for business... this is a country that's very resilient. We have the assets and the security we need... we know we can defend the currency or we can defend the economy."

Ivanka Trump said Monday that she felt "a little blindsided" by all of the voracity and distractions that have been plaguing the Trump administration:

"It is hard, and there's a level of viciousness that I wasn't expecting. I was not expecting the intensity of this experience, but this isn't supposed to be easy. My father and this administration intends to be transformative, and we want to do big, bold things, and we're looking to change the status quo. So I didn't expect it to be easy, I think some of the distractions and some of the voracity was, I was a little blindsided by on a personal level. But for me, I'm trying to keep my head down and not listen to the noise."

Preet Bharara, fired by Trump as U.S. attorney in Manhattan, came out swinging in his first televised interview since he left office, telling George Stephanopoulos on ABC's "This Week" that "there's absolutely evidence to begin a case" for obstruction of justice against the president.

Bharara has built a big Twitter following (255,000) quickly, and clearly is motivated: He has worked with Comey and Mueller, and was at Thursday's hearing.

So might he run for office? A New York expert emails us this dope:

"Melania Trump, son Barron move into the White House," by AP's Darlene Superville:

• "After nearly five months of living apart, President Donald Trump's wife, Melania, announced Sunday that she and the couple's young son have finally moved into the presidential mansion."
• "Mother and son broke with tradition by living at Trump Tower in New York since the inauguration so that Barron, now 11, could finish the school year uninterrupted."
• The first lady tweeted: "Looking forward to the memories we'll make in our new home! #Movingday."
• "Barron will enter the sixth grade at St. Andrew's Episcopal School in Potomac, Maryland, in the fall."