Axios

CIA Director Mike Pompeo has lost his chance of receiving a favorable recommendation from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to become the next secretary of state, ABC News reports, after Democratic Sen. Chris Coons said he would not support Pompeo's nomination.

The big picture: Pompeo could still be confirmed by the full Senate. Per ABC, Democratic Sen. Heidi Heitkamp voiced support for him, and if all Republicans besides Rand Paul — who opposed the nomination — vote in his favor, Pompeo "will have just enough votes to be confirmed, including Vice President Mike Pence's tie-breaking vote."

Former Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe is looking to sue for defamation, wrongful termination and other possible civil claims, his lawyer told reporters Friday.

What to watch: McCabe’s lawyer, Michael Bromwich, also said his client told then-FBI Director James Comey that he was pushing back on stories about the Hillary Clinton investigation — which would mean he didn’t lack candor. They are seeking ways to release emails and phone call transcripts between McCabe and Comey to shed light on the issue.

Donald Trump claimed he owned most of his father's real estate empire in the 1980s and posed as an aide named 'John Barron' to ensure he earned a spot on the Forbes 400 list, former Forbes writer Jonathan Greenberg alleges in a Washington Post editorial.

Flashback: Trump used the alter-ego of Barron in the past when posing as a public relations representative, and it's not the first time Trump has been cited as inflating his wealth.

A gift from the journalistic gods ... Adding to our unprecedented real-time visibility into this presidency, Capitol Hill last night leaked 15 pages of memos that fired FBI Director James Comey had written in real time about his contacts with the White House.

What's new: President Trump had immediate doubts about his own national security adviser, Mike Flynn, who was later fired and is now cooperating with Mueller: "[T]he president pointed his fingers at his head and said 'the guy has serious judgment issues.'"

President Trump "hasn't cooled off on" Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein (who oversees the Mueller investigation) and could still fire him, according to a source close to Trump.

The source gave Axios a behind-the-scenes read on the latest thinking at the White House, which the source said is "in a defensive posture."

Oppressive measures such as the “one-child” policy — and Beijing’s refusal to take back most people who are deported from the U.S. — have left the U.S. with more asylum seekers from China than any other nation.

Why it matters: This has long been a point of tension between the two world powers. Beijing blames the U.S. for enticing Chinese nationals to leave by granting them asylum, but the U.S. blames China for what it perceives to be oppressive policies and for making it difficult to deport people back to China.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Director Francis Cissna indicated that there are still plans to end the H-4 work authorization in a letter he sent to 15 California lawmakers last month and obtained by Axios.

Big picture: Cissna was responding to a letter sent by the lawmakers earlier in March asking DHS to reconsider the proposal. Despite the postponement, Cissna said he is committed to the President's Buy American and Hire American executive order. The H-4 work authorization allows more than 100,000 spouses of H-1B holders with pending green cards to legally work in the U.S., and ending the program would have a disproportional impact on female workers.

Copies of former FBI Director James Comey's memos have been delivered to Congress, reports the Associated Press who has obtained and is reviewing 15 pages of the memo.

Why it matters: The memos are "believed to be central" to special counsel Robert Mueller's probe. Per Politico, Assistant Attorney General Stephen Boyd said Congress would get two versions of the memos: an "unclassified version with sensitive information redacted and a classified unredacted version that would be transmitted through a secure channel on Friday."

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.