CAMPAIGNS & POLITICS: There is another important round of primary elections on Tuesday night as voters head to the polls in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Connecticut and Vermont. The Hill's Lisa Hagen has the races to watch (The Hill). A few highlights: - The expensive showdown between Wisconsin Republicans Kevin Nicholson and Leah Vukmir for the right to take on Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) in an important Senate race in a state Trump carried in 2016.
- Republicans and Democrats are angling to replace retiring Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.).
- There are two open House races in Minnesota that give Republicans perhaps their best opportunities to pick up seats in November. Minnesotans will also vote in the primary to replace former Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.), who resigned last year amid allegations of misconduct with women.
The Associated Press: 'Blue wave' to be tested in Midwestern primaries. > Republicans are scrambling to figure out how to replace Rep. Chris Collins (R-N.Y.), who is not seeking reelection after being indicted on charges of insider trading. The latest gambit to get around New York's strict laws on removing a name from the ballot: Nominating Collins for another political office. The GOP is increasingly worried the election mess could cost the party a seat in a deep-red district (The Associated Press). Democrats are seizing on the Collins arrest to suggest the GOP is home to corrupt, self-dealing candidates (The Hill). > Vice President Pence travels to Ohio on Tuesday, where he'll campaign for gubernatorial candidate Mike DeWine (R) and Senate candidate Jim Renacci (R), who will take on Sen. Sherrod Brown (D) in the fall. On Wednesday, the vice president heads to Des Moines, Iowa, to campaign for Rep. David Young (R), whose race is rated a toss-up by the nonpartisan Cook Political Report. More from the campaign trail … Republican women have been reluctant or unable to claim any advantage to being a woman this election cycle (The New York Times) … Democrats are embracing Michael Avenatti's call for the party to get more aggressive in attacking Trump (The Hill) … Donald Trump Jr. is a campaign star on the right. Is he also a future candidate? (The Washington Post) … Trump reaps the benefits of political spending at his properties (McClatchy) … Relatives are turning against GOP lawmakers and Trump administration officials (NPR) … Two former lawmakers are battling for their old seat in a Nevada House race that showcases the divide between urban and rural America (The Hill). **** INVESTIGATIONS: The FBI on Monday fired special agent Peter Strzok, the senior counterintelligence officer who exchanged dozens of anti-Trump text messages with former FBI lawyer Lisa Page, with whom he was having an affair, while leading separate investigations into Trump and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (The Washington Post). Strzok was removed from special counsel Robert Mueller's team after the texts were uncovered. Strzok's text messages, including one in which he said he'd do what he could to "stop" Trump from being elected, became the cornerstone of the conservative argument that the president has been the victim of political bias at the FBI and Department of Justice (DOJ). 
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In a report released earlier this year, DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz said Strzok's texts cast a cloud over the FBI. Horowitz determined that anti-Trump political bias did not play a role in the FBI's decision not to charge Clinton with a crime. However, a second report on the Trump investigation is in the works and Horowitz has indicated that Strzok may have exhibited political bias in prioritizing the Trump investigation over new developments in the Clinton investigation. From Horowitz's report: "[Strzok's texts are] not only indicative of a biased state of mind but, even more seriously, implies a willingness to take official action to impact the presidential candidate's electoral prospects." – Horowitz In a statement, Strzok's lawyer Aitan Goelman accused FBI Deputy Director David Bowdich of bowing to political pressure and breaking with precedent by overruling the FBI's Office of Professional Responsibility, which had placed Strzok on a 60-day suspension and had demoted him to the human resources department. "This decision should be deeply troubling to all Americans. A lengthy investigation and multiple rounds of Congressional testimony failed to produce a shred of evidence that Special Agent Strzok's personal views ever affected his work. In fact, in his decades of service, Special Agent Strzok has proved himself to be one of the country's top counterintelligence officers, leading to only one conclusion – the decision to terminate was taken in response to political pressure, and to punish Special Agent Strzok for political speech protected by the First Amendment, not on a fair and independent examination of the facts." – Goelman > Mueller's prosecutors rested their case against former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort on Monday, the 10th day of the trial. The defense will have the opportunity to call witnesses or rest their case on Tuesday. The trial could be sent to the jury as soon as today. Manafort faces 18 charges of tax and bank fraud stemming from allegations he hid millions of dollars from the government by routing funds through foreign bank accounts. The allegations pre-date Manafort's work for the campaign. Reuters: U.S. rests its case against Manafort. More from investigations … Mueller is zeroing in on longtime Trump confidant Roger Stone (The Hill) … Stone denies wrongdoing and says he'll never turn on Trump (The Hill) … Federal judge dismisses Russian company's bid to dismiss Mueller charges (The Hill). Alan Dershowitz: Dangers to the First Amendment if foreign campaign dirt is criminal. Chris Truax: America needs a Mueller-Trump confrontation over rule of law. | 
