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Good morning. I'm James Holman from the Washington Post and this is the Daily

202 for Wednesday October 31st. In today's news, Paul Ryan slams President Trump for trying to end birthright citizenship.

Trump's visit to Pittsburgh is met with protests.

And Republicans are still using Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation process as a rallying cry, but there's fresh signs the issues losing its potency.

First though, the big idea. It's another October surprise. The Interior

Department's Inspector General has referred one of its probes into the

conduct of Secretary Ryan Zinke to the Justice Department for further investigation.

Deputy I.G. Mary Kendall is conducting at least three separate investigations that involve

Zinke.

While in agency's Inspector General regularly issues reports on what it finds,

it only refers cases to the Justice Department when it has determined that there could be

criminal violations.

A senior White House official tells my colleague Josh Dossy that the White House understands

that the investigation is looking into whether Secretary Zinke, quote, used his office to help himself.

This helps explain why Zinke has been pushing in recent weeks to hire a loyal

political nominee who could be hired to replace Kendall, a career public servant who served in an

acting capacity since 2009. One of the allegations under investigation

regards the Secretary's role in a Montana land development deal backed by David Lesser,

the chairman of the Oil Services Giant Halliburton. The business in retail park is slated

to include several businesses and would be near multiple parcels of land

...