Daily Update | April 25, 2019
Deutsche Bank has begun providing documents to the New York State Attorney General in response to a subpoena for records related to loans made to President Trump and the Trump Organization. ICE detention facilities routinely violate the religious rights of non-Christian detainees. The Supreme Court appears poised to hand the Trump Administration a victory in the litigation challenging the administration’s attempt to add a citizenship question to the Census. The Trump Administration has worked to water down a United Nations Security Council resolution aimed at “highlighting the harm of sexual violence in war, the needs of survivors, and the validity of accountability for such harm.” The Mueller report shows President Trump repeatedly directing subordinates to open criminal investigations of political rivals.
TRUMP: INVESTIGATIONS AND LITIGATION
Deutsche Bank has begun providing documents to the New York State Attorney General in response to a subpoena for records related to loans made to President Trump and the Trump Organization, Cristina Alesci reports for CNN.
Donald Trump’s lawyers are playing to his base rather than making sounds legal arguments in resisting Congressional investigations into his taxes and business records, argues Mark A. Graber in ACSBlog.
Robert Mueller was right in construing his role as Special Counsel narrowly, Michael V. Hayden and David Priess argue in Lawfare.
Congressional Democrats should wait for the unredacted Mueller report before subpoenaing former White House Counsel Don McGahn, Renato Mariotti writes in Politico.
IMMIGRATION
ICE detention facilities routinely violate the religious rights of non-Christian detainees, Joseph (Yusuf) Saei writes in ACSBlog.
House Democrats moved for a preliminary injunction to block the Trump Administration’s plan to divert $6 billion in Defense Department funds for construction of a border wall, Tal Axelrod reports in the Hill.
DEMOCRACY
The FEC’s enforcement of campaign finance law is repeatedly both too little and too late to deter bad actors in U.S. elections, argue Michael D. Gilbert and Samir Sheth in Take Care.
U.S. officials should acknowledge that illicit enrichment laws are constitutional when they are prosecuted as tax evasion, Rick Messick argues in the Global Anticorruption Blog.
The Supreme Court appears poised to hand the Trump Administration a victory in the litigation challenging the administration’s attempt to add a citizenship question to the Census, writes Christian Farias in the New York Times.
- If the Court does side with the administration, it would be an acknowledgment that facts do not matter to the Court, writes Matt Ford in the New Republic.
- Secretary of Commerce Ross’s own stated rationale for adding the question demonstrates why the decision was arbitrary and capricious, Marty Lederman argues in Balkinization.
JUSTICE & SAFETY
The Trump Administration has worked to water down a United Nations Security Council resolution aimed at “highlighting the harm of sexual violence in war, the needs of survivors, and the validity of accountability for such harm,” Fionnuala Ní Aoláin writes in Just Security.
The U.S. Supreme Court this term has repeatedly articulated a full-throated defense of the death penalty, staking out a position that is increasingly out of the mainstream, Garrett Epps argues in the Atlantic.
CONFLICTS OF INTEREST
The Inspector General of the Interior Department is investigating whether six political appointees violated federal ethics rules by engaging with former clients or employes on department-related business, Dino Grandoni reports in the Washington Post.
The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee has opened an investigation into whether EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler violated federal law by omitting certain sources of income from his disclosure forms, reports Ellie Kaufman for CNN.
REGULATION
The Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service’s database of enforcement records is one of the relatively few examples of the Trump Administration successfully removing government data from the public square, Bernard Bell writes in Notice & Comment.
RULE OF LAW
The Mueller report reveals that some of President Trump’s lawyers may have violated lawyer ethics rules, Stephen Gillers writes in Just Security.
The Mueller report shows President Trump repeatedly directing subordinates to open criminal investigations of political rivals, writes Michael S. Schmidt in the New York Times.
CHECKS & BALANCES
The Justice Department refused to comply with a congressional subpoena as part of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee’s investigation of the Trump Administration effort to add a citizenship question to the census, Rachael Bade reports in the Washington Post.
The Mueller report highlights the need for scholars to pay more attention to intra-executive-branch checks on presidential power, Eric Posner argues in his eponymous blog.
FEDERALISM
Lawmakers in 18 states have introduced legislation that would require all presidential candidates and their running mates to release their personal tax returns in order to be eligible to appear on the ballot, writes Donna Borak for CNN.
REMOVAL FROM OFFICE
Despite President Trump’s tweets, he cannot appeal an impeachment to the Supreme Court, Joshua Matz and Laurence H. Tribe explain in Take Care.
- Keith Whittington makes the same point in Reason.
- President Trump tweeted that he would ask the Supreme Court to intervene in the event of an impeachment (WaPo).
Congressional Democrats should not shy away from impeachment, but should first conduct a series of hearings to fill in the gaps in the Mueller report, Hillary Clinton writes in the Washington Post.
RUSSIAN INTERFERENCE
The Mueller report left unresolved why Paul Manafort was sharing Trump campaign polling data with suspected Russian intelligence asset Konstantin Kilimnik, David Voreacos writes in Bloomberg.
Tags:
Immigration Rule of Law Conflicts Checks & Balances Federalism Regulation Democracy Justice & Safety Removal from Office Russian Interference