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Former President Obamas White House political director is informally providing strategic advice to leaders at the Democratic National Committee (DNC).

David Simas, who is now CEO of the Obama Foundation, is close with DNC Chairman Tom Perez and has been in regular contact with Sam Cornale, a top adviser to Perez.

A source who has been involved in the transition said Simas has provided strategic advice on hiring decisions.

The talks with one of Obamas most prominent political aides underscore the delicate line walked by the DNC as it charts a way forward after a divisive presidential primary battle last year.

Any conversations between Perez and political figures who are viewed as being part of the establishment can be greeted with suspicion by liberal Democrats, who want to see the DNC stocked with progressives after the organization tilted the scales in favor of Hillary ClintonHillary Rodham ClintonIs Trumps presidency the patriarchys last gasp? The Hill's 12:30 Report Christie: Ex-Trump aide deserves presumption of innocence on Russia MORE and against Sen. Bernie SandersBernie SandersClinton campaign plagued by bickering Republican wins Kansas special election, fending off upset Obama fingerprints at DNC? MORE (I-Vt.) last year during the presidential campaign.

Perez, Obamas Labor secretary, was seen as the former presidents favored candidate in the race for the chairmanship earlier this year. Progressives were disappointed when he defeated Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), who ran with the support of Sanders.

A spokesperson for the DNC downplayed the conversations, saying Simas is not advising in any official capacity and that talks with Perez represent just a small part of the input the chairman is taking from Democrats across the country as he seeks a path forward for a party devastated by its loss of the White House in 2016.

Hundreds of people from across the country have given input, volunteered their time, or sat down with Tom and other DNC officers to help rebuild the party, DNC communications director Xochitl Hinojosa said in a statement.

Some liberals also say theyre not concerned about the conversations as long as the DNC changes its operation.

Tom Perez can talk to whoever he wants, said progressive activist Jonathan Tasini. The more critical measure is looking at whether he will clear the decks and purge the party of the whole class of consultants and self-promoters, from the sleazy David Brocks to the various people pocketing big bucks who shake down campaign committees and super PACs, all of whom have failed miserably over a decade if you look at the party's woeful state at every level.

Others argued that it makes sense that Perez, a former Obama administration official who has no formal electoral experience of his own, would seek advice from seasoned political hands.

Theyd be smart to listen to folks who have experience with this sort of stuff, said a former DNC official.

But other liberals expressed concern that former Obama officials could have too much influence over the DNCs direction.

Hopefully its just Perez taking advice from as many sources as possible, but it also looks like the DNC did not learn any lessons from 2016 that the party needs to be rebuilt by grassroots liberals, not from the top down, one progressive told The Hill.

Perez, Ellison and the DNC have gone to great lengths to signal the party is coming together after last years divisive primaries.

Perez tapped Ellison, a progressive favorite and rival DNC chairman candidate, to be his deputy chairman. Perez and Ellison have already hit the road together for campaign-style events seeking to capitalize on liberal energy ahead of the 2018 midterm elections.

Perez will venture out with Sanders later this month on a nine-state tour to push progressive policies that the former Democratic presidential candidate championed during his campaign.

Liberal groups have been happy to see Perez attend their resistance events, as he did last month when MoveOn rallied outside the White House against President Trumps ban on immigrants coming from Muslim-majority countries.

The Perez-Ellison team has been more real than I thought it would be, the former DNC official said. I think theyre serious about fully integrating the Democratic Party.

There have been stumbles along the way.

Last month, progressive groups aired their frustrations with the DNC after it announced a 30-member transition advisory committee, believing the roster needed more liberals.

But some Democrats believe the left was well-represented on a committee that included labor activist Ai-jen Poo, Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), union activist Brian Weeks, Black Lives Matter figure DeRay McKesson, former American Federation of Teachers aide LaToia Jones, and former DNC chairmancandidates Pete Buttigieg, Sally Boynton Brown and Jehmu Greene.

That has frustrated some mainstream Democrats, who believe no amount of concessions to the left will ever be enough.

I think theres some groups where the advocacy is not a means to an end; its a means in perpetuity, one well-connected Democrat told The Hill. Theyre just contrarian, and nothing you can ever do will be enough.

Perez has since met personally with representatives from Progressive Change Campaign Committee, as well as several other liberal groups, like MoveOn and the National Domestic Workers Alliance.

The lines of communication are open and weve had initial conversations with chairman Perez about what a win-win partnership with grassroots liberals might look like, as opposed to top-down outreach, said Kait Sweeney, the spokesperson for PCCC.

He is committed to rebuilding our state parties and we hope that process respects the millions of liberal activists taking action in the Trump era, she continued. Theyre engaged now and they dont wake up thinking about the DNC. These people have to be brought into the party and we hope the DNC will genuinely engage with progressives groups that have experience mobilizing millions because that would be a win for everybody.

-- This story was updated at 11:31 a.m.

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Obama fingerprints at DNC? - The Hill

A former Trump campaign adviser says he was targeted by the Obama administration because he was a "dissident."

New York business consultant Carter Page told ABC News that he was "so happy" to learn that The Washington Post reported on Tuesday night that the FBI obtained a secret FISA warrant to monitor his communication last summer as part of its ongoing investigation into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russian government because it confirms that he had been the victim of "human rights violations."

"There had been prior reports, but I was so happy to hear that further confirmation is now being revealed," Page said. "It shows how low the Clinton/Obama regime went to destroy our democracy and suppress dissidents who did not fully support their failed foreign policy. It will be interesting to see what comes out when the unjustified basis for those FISA requests are more fully disclosed over time, including potentially the Dodgy Dossier -- a document that clearly is false evidence, which could represent yet another potential crime."

The unverified dossier compiled by former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele claimed that Page, who has long advocated for a closer relationship between the U.S. and Russia, had ties to the Kremlin.

According to the Post, the FBI and the Justice Department convinced a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court judge that there was sufficient evidence suggesting that Page could be acting as a Russian agent to authorize electronic surveillance in the heat of the 2016 presidential race.

Page has repeatedly denied allegations that he colluded with the Russians, and the White House did not issue a response to the Post's report, though members of the Trump administration have recently tried to minimize Page's contributions to the campaign, characterizing his role as brief and informal.

The FBI and the Department of Justice also declined to comment.

Last week, ABC News reported that Page had been targeted for recruitment as an intelligence source in 2013 by Russian spies promising favors in return for business opportunities in Russia. Page acknowledged that he was the anonymous "Male-1" identified in an unsealed FBI complaint detailing the spies' attempts to gather "economic intelligence" from Page and others to send back to Moscow.

Page, who cooperated with the FBI's investigation of the spies (one of whom, Evgeny Buryakov, was arrested, imprisoned and recently deported) told ABC News that any information he passed to the Russians was "immaterial."

Any information I could give is, again, immaterial and all public information, he said during a break in a New York energy conference.

ABC News' Jack Date contributed to this report.

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Former Trump adviser Carter Page claims Obama targeted him as a 'dissident' - ABC News

New York Times

For Obama, Syria Chemical Attack Shows Risk of 'Deals With Dictators' New York Times After last week, even former Obama aides assume that he will have to rethink that passage in his memoir. More than 80 civilians were killed in what Western analysts called a sarin attack by Syrian forces a chilling demonstration that the agreement ... Susan Rice's claim that Obama got Syria to 'verifiably give up its chemical weapons stockpile'Washington Post Assad's chemical strike exposes the foolishness of Obama's Iran dealNew York Post Obama official: 'We always knew' Assad kept some chemical weaponsWashington Examiner TheBlaze.com -CNN -Fox News all 17,662 news articles »

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For Obama, Syria Chemical Attack Shows Risk of 'Deals With Dictators' - New York Times

Temperature 82 degrees with occasional clouds, and lagoon waters, clear as paradisethe Obamas are wrapping up their month-long vacation in French Polynesia.

On Sunday, Tahiti television station TNTV revealedphotos of Michelle Obama paddleboardingwhile theBarack swam in a Polynesian lagoon.

The pictures were takenon the island of Moorea by fellow vacationers,who spotted the laid-back couple using a small boat for a late morning excursion. They wereescorted by two other boats with their security detail, the station says.

Earlier last week, the former presidentwas seen snorkeling around the outer atoll of Fakarava.

True to his reputation, he was very relaxed, the report says. The former first couple posed for selfies with anyone who asked, though his entourage insisted the photographs beonly for private use, TNTV reports.

The couple have been staying out of the public eye at The Brando, the super-private luxury hotel on Tetiaroa, the South Pacific island bought in 1967 by Marlon Brando as a personal retreat.

Obamais working on his White House memoirs while relaxing at the ultra-private South Pacific resort which boasts white sand beaches, natural forest, and a sea tortoise reserve, the Washington Post reports.

Stressing Brandos desire for an eco-preserving environment, the resort is powered by solar energy and coconut oil. Each of its 35 villas is air conditioned by a sea water system and each has its own private beach and pool.

Voted Best Resort In The World by Cond Nast Traveler in 2016, rates at The Brandorun $2,750 to $13,000 per night. In November, Leonardo DiCaprio celebrated his birthday in the hotel.

Obama was invited to visit French Polynesia by the island nations president, Edouard Fritch, during a White House encounter in August 2016.

Following their post-White Housevacation with Richard Branson in the British Virgin Islands and a March stopover in Hawaii, the Obamas headed to French Polynesia on March 15.

Local authorities refused comment when the Obamas Gulfstream G550 jet touched down on Tahiti at Faaa Airport, March 15, and the former presidents visit to the capital island was brief, involving a quick transfer to much smaller aircraft.

The Brando, 35 miles from Tahiti, is reachable only by two-engined Air Tetiaroa planes or by boat.

Upon return, the former president is expected to resume a somewhat more active schedule. Plans have been announced for him to address a charity dinner in Scotlandon May 26, the British press had reported.

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Barack and Michelle Obama Leave Tahiti as They Continue Post-White House Tropical Tour - PEOPLE.com

Under a rarely used law, lawmakers have voted to repeal more than a dozen regulations enacted in the last six months of the Obama administration. denis_pc/Getty Images/iStockphoto hide caption

Under a rarely used law, lawmakers have voted to repeal more than a dozen regulations enacted in the last six months of the Obama administration.

President Trump and congressional Republicans are having some success with one of their oft-stated goals rolling back federal regulations approved during the Obama administration. But the clock is ticking.

The House and Senate have voted to repeal more than a dozen regulations approved in the final six months of Obama's presidency, among them:

In all, 11 regulations have been overturned using The Congressional Review Act, a heretofore obscure law passed by Congress in 1996. It allows lawmakers to overturn any regulation imposed during the final six months of the previous administration, with a simple majority vote in each chamber of Congress. It had only been used once previously, to overturn an ergonomics regulation by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration that had been approved during the Clinton administration.

The 2016 election brought with it a perfect recipe for use of the law in the early months of the Trump administration: single-party control of both Congress and the White House, and a pro-deregulation stance following an administration that put many regulations in place.

But there are some time limits. The deadline has already passed for Congress to introduce any new rollback proposals, and lawmakers have only a few weeks left to act on the ones now in the pipeline.

Two regulations, relating to women's health and state retirement savings plans, have been repealed by both the House and the Senate and are awaiting the president's signature.

And two more have been approved by the House but have not yet been acted on by the Senate.

The Congressional Review Act gives lawmakers 60 legislative days to repeal regulations approved in the last six months of the previous administration. So that comes out to May 9, according to one estimate. The problem for Congress is that lawmakers are now on a two-week recess, and when they return, major work lies ahead on agreeing to a spending bill for the remainder of the current fiscal year. So it's unclear how many more regulatory repeals they will be able to squeeze in.

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Congress Is Using A 1996 Law To Repeal Some Obama - NPR - NPR