Zuckerberg's D.C. charm tour

The big picture: This was Zuckerberg's first known visit to the capital since March 2018, when he defended Facebook in tense public testimony during the Cambridge Analytica data-sharing scandal. Zuckerberg cut a very different profile this time — less CEO in the hot seat than visiting potentate handling weighty matters.

Driving the news: The unannounced White House meeting, first reported by Axios' Mike Allen, was the first time Trump and Zuckerberg have met in person.

• Sheryl Sandberg attended Trump's first tech summit in December 2016, and Zuckerberg was supposed to join the next one in June 2017 but canceled.
• Trump adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner and White House social media director Dan Scavino were also in the room, per Bloomberg.
• A Facebook statement described the meeting as "constructive." Trump tweeted afterwards that it was "nice."

Zuckerberg's goal for the visit: Get across the points he'd made in a Washington Post op-ed earlier this year, arguing that the internet needs new rules covering "harmful content, election integrity, privacy and data portability."

Senators' goals varied:

• Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), who organized a Wednesday dinner, has been involved in the effort to craft new national online privacy rules.
• Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), also at the dinner, has been outspoken on antitrust issues.
• Zuckerberg undoubtedly heard from the GOP senators he met with about complaints that Facebook's content moderation is biased against conservatives.
• Iciest moment: Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Missouri), who sits on the Senate Judiciary Committee's antitrust subcommittee, urged Zuckerberg to sell off Instagram and WhatsApp, according to CNBC. Hawley: "He was not receptive."
• Per the Washington Post, Zuckerberg told lawmakers Wednesday that Libra, Facebook's plan to create its own cryptocurrency, will not launch anywhere around the globe until it wins approval from U.S. regulators.

What's next:

• Zuckerberg's D.C. meetings continue Friday.
• The company faces deadlines in coming weeks to produce documents for inquiries by the Department of Justice, the Federal Trade Commission, the House Judiciary Committee, and a coalition of 50 attorneys general for nearly every state.

Go deeper: The growing list of U.S. government inquiries into Big Tech

• "After nearly a month of stonewalling, it appears clear that the President has chosen the path of defiance, obstruction, and cover-up," the letter reads.

The state of play: Several White House officials have told Axios' Alayna Treene that the administration has no plans of complying with the committees' demands for interviews or documents without a full House vote formally approving an impeachment inquiry.

The big picture: The Trump administration's initial refusal to turn over the whistleblower complaint on the president's interactions with Ukraine is what led House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to finally support a formal impeachment inquiry.

Go deeper: Trump letter dares Pelosi to hold vote on impeachment inquiry

• Johnson asked the Justice Department earlier this week to look into links between Ukraine and Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign. His letter questioned the narrative that Biden's actions in Ukraine had nothing to do with his son's connection.
• However, it was also discovered that he signed onto a 2016 letter that mirrored Biden's work to reform Ukraine's prosecutor general and judiciary.
• There is no evidence that Biden's reform work in Ukraine was to protect his son's business dealings, as the president and some of his allies allege, or that he committed any form of corruption.

The state of play: Sondland, a Trump political appointee who donated $1 million to the president's inaugural committee, denied that there was a quid pro quo between the Trump administration and Ukraine's government in a series of text messages that former Ukraine special envoy Kurt Volker provided to a group of House committees investigating the Trump-Ukraine matter.

• "I think it’s crazy to withhold security assistance for help with a political campaign," Bill Taylor, the top U.S. diplomat to Ukraine, texted Sondland.
• Sondland texted back: "Bill, I believe you are incorrect about President Trump's intentions. The President has been crystal clear no quid pro quo's of any kind."
• The New York Times reported that Sondland's response came only after he spoke to the president.

Go deeper: House committees release texts from former Ukraine envoy Kurt Volker