1. The top Ukraine expert on the National Security Council registered internal objections on two separate occasions regarding Trump’s handling of Ukraine. Army Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman plans to tell impeachment investigators today that he heard Trump ask Ukrainian President Zelensky to investigate Joe Biden and his son and that he considered the request so damaging to American interests that he reported it to one of his superiors and to attorneys. Vindman will be the first White House official to testify who listened in on the July 25 telephone call between Trump and Zelensky. “I did not think it was proper to demand that a foreign government investigate a U.S. citizen,” Vinman’s opening statement reads, “and I was worried about the implications for the U.S. government’s support of Ukraine.” He added: “This would all undermine U.S. national security.” (New York Times / CNN / NPR / Associated Press)

  • READ: White House Ukraine expert’s opening statement says he reported concerns about Trump-Zelensky call. (CNN)

  • Who is Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman? A Ukrainian refugee who rose to the White House, he fled Ukraine at age 3 and became a soldier, scholar and official at the White House. That’s where, he plans to tell impeachment investigators, he witnessed alarming behavior by Trump. (New York Times)

  1. The White House still has not made a decision on whether to make the details of Mike Pence’s call with President Zelensky public, three weeks after Pence said he had “no objection” to releasing a reconstructed transcript of the call. White House officials have been debating whether releasing the call details will help or hurt their attempts to push back against accusations that Trump made U.S. military aid to Ukraine contingent upon that country launching investigation into Trump’s political opponents. “The media, Democrats are going to pick it apart,” said one source. Earlier this month, Pence said his office was discussing the release of his call “with White House counsel as we speak,” and an administration official says it “is still being reviewed by White House lawyers.” (NBC News)

  2. A top aide to Rep. Devin Nunez has been trying to unmask the anonymous whistleblower at the heart of the House’s impeachment inquiry by releasing information about him to conservative journalists and politicians. Derek Harvey has provided notes to House Republicans identifying the whistleblower’s name ahead of the depositions of Trump appointees and administration employees in the impeachment inquiry. His goal is to get the name of whistleblower into the records of the proceedings, which could then be made public. Harvey was also “passing notes [to GOP lawmakers] the entire time” during ex-NSC Russia staffer Fiona Hill’s testimony. (Daily Beast / Washington Post)

  3. General Motors, Fiat Chrysler, and Toyota have sided with the Trump administration in its escalating battle with California over fuel economy standards for automobiles. The decision to intervene on behalf of the Trump administration puts them at odds with their leading competitors, including Honda and Ford, who reached a deal this year to follow California’s stricter rules for emissions instead of the much weaker federal auto emissions standards set by the Trump administration. The auto industry has “historically taken the position that fuel economy is the sole purview of the federal government,” said the CEO of the automakers association. (New York Times)