Axios

Senator Heidi Heitkamp has just become the first Democrat to get behind President Trump’s nomination of CIA Director Mike Pompeo for Secretary of State, her office announced in a statement Thursday.

Why it matters: This just about guarantees that the Senate will confirm Pompeo to the role. Some Republicans were worried that, with Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) voting no and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) absent for health reasons, his confirmation could be rejected. But Heitkamp’s flip now brings the yes-votes to a 50 — as long as all other senators vote along party lines.

President Trump’s leak of a secret meeting between CIA Director Mike Pompeo and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has the potential to overcome two looming obstacles: Democratic opposition to Pompeo's nomination as Secretary of State and growing international anxiety about weak American preparation for the North Korea negotiations.

Yes, but: Even if the leak helps to address those immediate challenges, it may turn out to have been an act of desperation that undermines the U.S.'s larger strategic objectives in North Korea.

Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein told President Trump last week at the White House that he "isn't a target of any part" of the Mueller probe, Bloomberg reports, citing two people familiar with the matter. CNN is reporting separately that Rosenstein told Trump "that he's not a target in the investigation of his personal lawyer, Michael Cohen," specifically.

But, but, but: Trump isn’t under investigation now, but that could change. "Trump may not officially be a target," an official told Bloomberg, "but Mueller hasn’t ruled out making him one at some point in the future."

Trump is threatening to retract funding that was approved for California's National Guard to support Customs and Border Patrol (CPB) missions on the border citing disagreements with Governor Jerry Brown over the troops' role.

Yes, but: The Trump administration is expected within the next few days to add additional missions that aren't border-specific to the National Guard's tasks in support of CBP, which could win over Governor Brown and indicate a more expansive, supportive relationship between the National Guard and CBP.

The Trump administration is blaming foreign governments for cyber attacks at more than 8 times the rate of its predecessors.

Why it matters: Attributions are accusations that a nation committed a destructive crime on foreign soil. They embarrass governments, cause businesses to be skeptical of international partners, and hang an albatross on international relations. Most important, they demand some form of response from leaders.

Senate Republican-backed groups have raised roughly $13.9 million in the first three months of 2018, Politico first reported, up from $7.4 million in the fourth quarter of 2017.

Driving the numbers: Steve Law, who runs the Mitch McConnell-aligned Senate Leadership Fund and One Nation, told Politico there is "a growing alarm among our donors about the widening fundraising disparity" between some Democratic Senate incumbents and their Republican counterparts.

President Trump is considering utilizing the Defense Production Act, a Truman-era national security law, in an effort to keep coal and nuclear power plants operating, Bloomberg reports.

Why it matters: Axios' Amy Harder says this move shows the extreme lengths the Trump administration is going to try to make good on the president's campaign promise to save coal and nuclear. It's also a sign that the government just doesn't have many reasonable policy levers at its disposal to stem the economic tide going against struggling coal and nuclear plants, hence the need to reference a 1950 law.

The Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) is suing U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services for not producing records on H-1B workers and employers, including wage information, requested through the Freedom of Information Act.

Why it matters: Critics of the H-1B program claim employers abuse the visa to get cheaper labor, which keeps qualified Americans out of work. "The H-1B visa program should not be exploited for business objectives while many qualified Americans are struggling to find employment," Dale Wilcox, executive director of the Immigration Reform Law Institute representing FAIR, said in a press release.

Trump lawyer Michael Cohen has withdrawn two libel lawsuits against BuzzFeed and private investigation firm Fusion GPS for the publishing of an alleged dossier detailing President Trump's dealings with Russia, Politico reports.

Why it matters: Dropping the libel cases allows him to avoid discovery and questioning from other attorneys, which could undermine the criminal case he's already in with files and documents already seized by the FBI.

Prominent U.S. tech companies obtained more H-1B visas in 2017 than in 2016, according to a new study by the National Foundation for American Policy using fresh data from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. At the same time, several of the largest India-based companies saw a decrease in approved petitions for the second year in a row.

The big picture: Total petitions for H-1B visas for the 2019 fiscal year fell by about 9,000, mostly due to a decreasing numbers of H-1B petitions from India-based firms. However, the study shows there is still a strong demand for H-1Bs in the U.S.

California Governor Jerry Brown has announced that 400 California National Guard troops will be mobilized to fight gangs, human traffickers and illegal firearm and drug smugglers in the state, on the coast and at the border.

Why it matters: The troops will not enforce immigration laws or help build new border barriers. California and the Trump administration have been at a standoff recently, with California demanding that DHS and DOD sign the governor’s agreement memo limiting what the National Guard can be used for before deploying troops. Neither agency has signed the memo with the governor adding that he believes it is no longer necessary.

In President Trump's meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the White House last May, Trump opened the meeting by saying that Vice President Mike Pence would like to say something, according to an administration official briefed on the meeting.

Pence took the opportunity to advocate for the release of Pastor Andrew Brunson, a Christian leader in the U.S. who is being persecuted in Turkey.

The Senate has approved a change to its long-standing rule that banned all children from being on the floor to allow Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) to bring her baby to the floor during voting sessions.

Why it matters: Earlier this month, Duckworth became the first senator in U.S. history to give birth while in office. She gathered bipartisan support for the rule change which applies to children under the age of one. The symbolic approval comes at a time when family friendly workplace policies are gaining in popularity and necessity.