Good Tuesday morning, I'm Anna Palmer and welcome to your Politico Playbook Audio Briefing.

Stay tuned after the show for a message from the Association of American Railroads.

The New York Times is the story everyone is talking about.

President Donald Trump asked Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison during a recent phone call

to help Attorney General Bill Barr obtain information

that the President hopes would discredit the Mueller investigation, according to U.S.

officials with knowledge of the call.

Trump made the call at Barr's request, and the White House later limited access to a transcript

to a small number of AIDS the Times reports. This is another

example of the president using a diplomatic call to advance his personal political interests.

The Washington Post has also revealed the Attorney General Barr made inquiries with British

Intel officials and last week he traveled to Italy, where he met with

senior Italian officials seeking their help. This isn't the first time Barr has been to Italy to meet

with intel officials. We've got a flashback. Bar was spotted in Playbook PM on August 15th at an

upscale Marriott in Rome. Barr, who was dressed in a suit,

was accompanied by multiple staffers

and had a significant security detail presence

as he was whisked into the hotel.

The Wall Street Journal is also reporting

that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo

listened into Trump's July 25th phone call

with Ukraine's president.

...