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Capital Journal
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Good morning from the WSJ Washington Bureau.
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Trump's Day: President Trump delivers remarks at Sempra Energy's Cameron LNG export facility in Louisiana this afternoon.
Pompeo in Russia: Secretary of State Mike Pompeo meets with Russian President Vladimir Putin Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Sochi, their first face-to-face meeting since the Mueller report was released.
Campaign 2020: Montana Gov. Steve Bullock entered the crowded Democratic presidential contest this morning. He is the only Democratic hopeful elected to statewide office in a state Mr. Trump carried in 2016.
Markets: Stocks suffered their worst day in months yesterday after officials in Washington and Beijing exchanged fresh threats in the trade fight.
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Liu He, China's vice premier, left, spoke with, from right, Robert Lighthizer, U.S. trade representative, and Steven Mnuchin, U.S. Treasury secretary, after a meeting in Washington on Friday. PHOTO: ALEX EDELMAN/BLOOMBERG NEWS
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The U.S.-China trade dispute escalated sharply, as Beijing retaliated against higher U.S. tariffs with plans to increase levies on $60 billion in U.S. imports and Washington laid out nearly $300 billion of new Chinese imports that would face 25% levies as early as this summer, report Chao Deng, Josh Zumbrun and Vivian Salama. President Trump said he intends to meet with China's President Xi Jinping when he travels to Japan next month for the Group of 20 summit.
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These days, the biggest, baddest weapon in the American arsenal is America's economic clout. Tariffs are forcing China to consider significant changes in its predatory economic behavior, for example, and sanctions are buckling the Iranian economy. But does the U.S. risk undermining the very strength that makes it so powerful? Jerry Seib's full column
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An initial U.S. assessment indicated Iran likely was behind the attack on two Saudi Arabian oil tankers and two other vessels damaged over the weekend near the Strait of Hormuz, report Summer Said, Nancy A. Youssef and Benoit Faucon.
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If confirmed, the finding will further inflame military tensions in the Persian Gulf.
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The assessment was the first suggestion by any nation that Iran was responsible for the attack.
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It comes after a series of U.S. warnings against aggression by Iran or its allies and proxies against military or commercial vessels in the region.
President Trump praised Hungary’s controversial prime minister during the European leader’s first White House visit in more than 20 years, describing him as a highly respected figure who has done what he must to keep his country safe, reports Vivian Salama.
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Former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein kicked off post-government life by criticizing former FBI Director James Comey, calling him a “partisan pundit” whose firing was justified, reports Sadie Gurman.
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Speaking to a group of city officials in Baltimore on Monday, his second day as a private citizen, Mr. Rosenstein defended a memo he wrote in May 2017, which the White House initially cited as grounds for ousting Mr. Comey.
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He also said, “based on what I knew in May 2017, the investigation of Russian election interference was justified, and closing it was not an option.”
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Attorney General William Barr has tapped John Durham, the top federal prosecutor in Connecticut, to study the origins of a 2016 counterintelligence investigation that conducted what he has called “spying” on people affiliated with the Trump campaign, reports Sadie Gurman.
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PHOTO: STEPHEN MATUREN/GETTY IMAGES
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Sen. Bernie Sanders has drawn support from outside groups, which he has called corrupt, with few restrictions and undisclosed donors, reports Julie Bykowicz. His campaign today has the trappings of the very establishment he eschews, making it a challenge to set himself apart in a wide field of Democrats.
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The newly minted millionaire raised $18 million raised in the first six weeks of his campaign, so far outpacing his rivals.
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Mr. Sanders joins only former Vice President Joe Biden as having founded outside groups that now aid their presidential runs.
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Even if Democrats regain the Senate, the fate of environmental, health and tax policy will be constrained, report Richard Rubin and Kristina Peterson. Republicans and a handful of moderate Democrats have the power to determine the fate of liberal legislative proposals, a reminder that the Democratic Party as a whole isn't necessarily on board with some of the more liberal proposals of the party's presidential contenders.
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Court Hearing Over Trump's Accounting Firm Will Have Long-Lasting Consequences
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A federal court hearing on Tuesday could set the course for the legal conflict between the Trump administration and House Democrats.
The Trump Organization filed a lawsuit last month in an attempt to block a subpoena the House Oversight Committee issued to the accounting firm Mazars USA LLP for eight years of President Trump’s financial statements. A D.C. federal judge expedited the case, and he could rule from the bench on Tuesday on whether or not the committee can obtain the financial records.
At the center of the case is whether or not the House subpoena serves a “legislative purpose.” Lawyers for the Trump Organization have argued that Democrats are using the subpoena as a political weapon, while lawyers for the committee say the requests could relate to a number of pieces of potential legislation.
The question of whether or not the subpoena has a “legislative purpose” will bear on a number of other Democratic efforts. Mr. Trump and members of his administration have not complied with a number of congressional subpoenas, setting the stage for a series of court challenges between the legislative and executive branches.
Jonathan Turley, a law professor at George Washington University, said it would be difficult to show a president’s personal financial information serves a legislative purpose. A ruling in favor of the committee, he said, would license other House committees to make far-reaching requests.
“If the committee can prevail on this highly generalized claim it bodes well for the short term for these other committee demands,” he said.
A ruling against the committee, though, could endanger future Democratic oversight efforts and empower the Trump administration to continue to stonewall the House. The difficulty in obtaining information from the Trump administration has already rankled many House Democrats, and a key legal set back could cause unrest in the sometimes fractious caucus.
“If the court does not find an articulated legislative purpose, it could smack down the committee, that could be a tremendous loss for Congress,” Mr. Turley said.
Any ruling could be appealed, of course. But the ruling in this case will be an important indication of the battle of the branches to come.
Write to Andrew Duehren at andrew.duehren@wsj.com
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The Supreme Court ruled consumers can proceed with a suit challenging Apple’s control over the iPhone app marketplace, threatening the tech giant’s slice of billions of dollars in sales, report Brent Kendall and Tripp Mickle. Apps would be cheaper if developers could sell them directly and bypass Apple as a middleman, the lawsuit alleges.
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Apple typically takes a 30% cut of every app it sells, and a 15% cut of subscriptions sold through the app store after subscribers’ first year.
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The court’s simmering discord over issues surrounding criminal punishment boiled over into public view, as justices issued a half-dozen separate opinions criticizing one another and revealing divisions within the conservative majority as well as between right and left, reports Jess Bravin.
The court also ruled that state governments cannot be sued against their wishes in another state’s courts, overruling a 40-year-old precedent to end a Nevada multimillionaire’s lawsuit alleging abusive conduct by California tax authorities, reports Jess Bravin.
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The 5-4 ruling may be more significant if it signals that the court’s conservative majority is ready for a searching reassessment of constitutional law that could result in more precedents being overturned, including the landmark Roe v. Wade decision recognizing a right to abortion.
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President Trump's tough trade policies toward China ar splitting fellow Republicans. (Financial Times)
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Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban is far more complex than suggested by media portrayals of him as a "fascist." (American Conservative)
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The success of Joe Biden's campaign so far has shown that the Democratic Party hasn't moved left as quickly as some thought. (New York Magazine)
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This newsletter is a production of the WSJ Washington bureau. Our newsletter editors are Tim Hanrahan, Kate Milani, Troy McCullough and Daniel Nasaw. Send feedback to capitaljournal@wsj.com. You can follow politics coverage during the day on our Politics page and at @wsjpolitics on Twitter.
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