Adam Smith
// 4/22/19 //
Daily Update
The fallout from Thursday’s release of the Mueller Report continues to spread, as do calls for the dissemination of an unredacted version of the report — and for the President’s impeachment. The Ninth Circuit dealt another blow to the Trump administration’s efforts to undercut the authority of sanctuary cities and states. A proposed OPM rule that would likely limit the access of graduates of pre-trial diversion programs to federal jobs is drawing criticism from criminal-justice reform advocates.
TRUMP: INVESTIGATIONS AND LITIGATION
The fallout continues to spread from the release of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report on Russian interference in the 2016 Presidential election, the involvement of members of the Trump campaign in it, and the President’s abortive attempts to thwart the investigation.
- On Friday, Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, issued a subpoena for unredacted copies of the report and its supporting evidence, and announced that the committee would seek further testimony from Attorney General William B. Barr and the Special Counsel (AP; NYT).
- In a letter sent later that afternoon, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and five leading congressional Democrats informed the Attorney General that they would not settle for a limited-access, “less-redacted” version of the report (Politico).
- And during a Sunday morning appearance on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Rudolph Giuliani, the President’s personal counsel, said that there was “nothing wrong with taking information from Russians” (NYT).
- The Justice Department’s image-only PDF can be difficult to navigate — but a word-searchable version of the report is available here.
Reactions from the fourth estate and legal commentators continue to pour in, too.
- The Special Counsel’s report leaves a number of questions frustratingly unanswered, especially those about the President’s own involvement and his potentially obstructive acts, writes Michael Dorf at Take Care.
- If anything, the Mueller report proves how unwilling the President was to respond to Russian aggression — and thus how unfit he is to serve as commander-in-chief, argue Walter Dellinger and Samantha Goldstein at The Washington Post.
- As the House of Representatives attempts to obtain an unredacted version of the report, it should remain wary of triggering a battle with the Trump administration over executive privilege, contends Andy Wright at Just Security.
IMMIGRATION
A three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit unanimously upheld California’s “sanctuary state” law on Thursday, dealing another blow to the Trump administration’s efforts to enlist states and localities in enforcing its immigration agenda (NPR).
JUSTICE & SAFETY
As the Trump administration continues to trumpet the recently enacted First Step Act, criminal-justice reform advocates are campaigning against a proposed Office of Personnel Management rule that would require federal job applicants to disclose their participation in pre-trial diversion programs (WaPo).