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Nicandro Iannacci  //  8/20/18  //  Daily Update

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The jury in the trial of Paul Manafort adjourned on Friday with no verdict and will resume deliberations on Monday. White House Counsel Donald McGahn has cooperated extensively with Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation. Earlier this month, the DOL quietly issued a directive expanding the right of businesses with a federal contract to raise a “religious exemption” if they’re accused of discrimination. The DOJ filed a statement of interest in support of housing groups that have accused Facebook of violating fair housing laws. The tax law championed by President Trump has lead to a cash windfall for Republican campaigns. President Trump plans to revoke the security clearances of more current and former government officials who have criticized him, including former DOJ official Bruce Ohr. The DOJ is investigating whether GOP fundraiser Elliott Broidy tried to sell his influence on the Trump administration to foreign officials.

 

TRUMP: INVESTIGATIONS & LITIGATION

White House Counsel Donald McGahn has cooperated extensively with Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation (NYT).

• President Trump said he allowed McGahn to cooperate and compared the investigation to McCarthyism. (NYT, WaPo, WSJ, LAT, Politico).
• Experts say it’s not likely that McGahn revealed independently incriminating information, but his cooperation may help the investigation. (Politico)
• The episode highlights the “irony” of the White House counsel: “the very proximity to the Oval Office that distinguishes the role and accounts for so much of its value, can also present grave risks for a president in legal trouble,” writes Bob Bauer at Lawfare.

“Truth isn’t truth,” said Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani about the risks of Special Counsel Mueller interviewing President Trump (WaPo, Politico).

The jury in the Virginia trial of Paul Manafort adjourned on Friday with no verdict and will resume deliberations on Monday (NYT, WaPo, WSJ, LAT, Politico, The Hill).

• The judge overseeing the trial refused to release the names of the jurors, alluding to threats they may have received (Politico).
• President Trump called the trial a “very sad day for our country” (Politico).
• In Manafort’s next trial in DC on foreign lobbying and money laundering charges, prosecutors will present nearly three times the amount of evidence (CNN).

Special Counsel Mueller recommended jail time for former Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos, saying he lied to federal investigators (NYT, WSJ, LAT, Politico, The Hill)

• The government’s sentencing memo illuminates Papadopoulos’ conduct and the state of the Mueller investigation, write Quinta Jurecic and Ben Wittes at Lawfare.  
• The full memo is here. 

Lanny Davis, attorney for former Trump attorney Michael Cohen, said he has been in regular contact with former Nixon White House Counsel John Dean over the last few months (Politico).

 

IMMIGRATION

A federal judge tentatively endorsed a government plan to reunify migrant families (WSJ, LAT).

Another federal judge ruled that the Trump administration does not need to accept new DACA applications right now, although it must continue to process renewals (AP).

• The fate of DACA could be determined by multiple ongoing federal court cases. (WaPo)

Attorney General Jeff Sessions intervened in a Board of Immigration Appeals case, ruling that judges should only issue continuances in immigrant removal proceedings when “good cause” is shown (Immigration Prof Blog).

• The ruling is here.

The real problem isn’t ICE. It’s CBP, writes Richard Parker at The Los Angeles Times.

 

CIVIL RIGHTS

Earlier this month, the DOL quietly issued a directive expanding the right of businesses with a federal contract to raise a “religious exemption” if they’re accused of discrimination (BuzzFeed, The Hill). 

• The Trump administration’s efforts to promote religious freedom abroad are undermined by its political agenda, writes the New York Times editorial board.

The DOJ filed a statement of interest in support of housing groups that have accused Facebook of violating fair housing laws (NYT).

Transgender students and their families have been largely ignored by the DOE (Politico).

Opponents of Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court may be underestimating the threat to reproductive freedom, writes Ron Klain in The Washington Post.

 

DEMOCRACY

In the ongoing litigation over the 2020 Census, a federal judge in New York ordered that Assistant Attorney General John Gore be available for deposition (Election Law Blog, The Hill).

• The order is here.

A federal judge in California denied a motion to dismiss a separate lawsuit challenging the inclusion of a citizenship question in the 2020 Census (Election Law Blog, The Hill).

• The order is here.

President Trump accused social media companies of censoring conservative voices (NYT, WaPo, WSJ).

The tax law championed by President Trump has lead to a cash windfall for Republican campaigns (NYT). 

After leaving the White House, former Trump administration officials are finding employment with outside pro-Trump organizations (Politico).

 

JUSTICE & SAFETY

President Trump canceled plans for a military parade on Veterans Day, citing costs and attempting to blame local D.C. officials (NYT, WaPo, WSJ, LAT, Politico).

President Trump proposed the creation of a “space force” after months of lobbying from current and former government officials with ties to the aerospace industry (LAT).

The FBI is investigating a cyber attack on the congressional campaign of Democratic candidate David Min in California (Reuters). 

President Trump is continuing his push for a criminal justice reform bill, but he is finding resistance from his usual Republican allies in Congress (Politico, The Hill).

The Trump administration is approaching its end-of-month deadline to conclude NAFTA negotiations with Mexico before it seeks Canada’s approval (NYT, The Hill).

The State Department plans to decrease its funding for Syrian rehabilitation efforts (NYT, WaPo).

The Treasury Department announced it had imposed sanctions on Burmese security forces for their role in “ethnic cleansing” of Rohingya Muslims and “widespread human rights abuses” against other minority groups (NYT, Politico).

 

CONFLICTS OF INTEREST

The DOJ asked a federal judge in Maryland to stay further proceedings in a lawsuit over President Trump’s private businesses, preventing discovery of the president’s financial records (WaPo, The Hill). 

• The DOJ motion is here.

 

REGULATION

President Trump has asked the SEC to reduce the frequency of required earnings reports from quarterly to biannually (The Hill).

Senate Democrats asked Acting CFPB Director Mick Mulvaney to reconsider his decision to end routine examinations of lenders for violations of the Military Lending Act (Consumer Finance Monitor). 

• The letter, signed by all 49 Democratic senators, is here.

The D.C. Circuit ruled that the Trump administration cannot delay the “Chemical Disaster Rule” promulgated by the Obama administration (The Volokh Conspiracy).

• This is only the latest in a series of legal setbacks for the Trump EPA (WaPo).
• Indeed, the Trump administration is on an environmental losing streak in the courts, writes Ann Carlson at Legal Planet.

The EPA also plans to roll back restrictions on coal-burning power plants (NYT, WaPo, WSJ).

• The head of the EPA’s clean air office is a former corporate lawyer who spent years fighting EPA regulations and is now overseeing their rollback (NYT).

 

RULE OF LAW 

President Trump plans to revoke the security clearances of more current and former government officials who have criticized him, including former DOJ official Bruce Ohr (NYT, WaPo, LAT).

• The weaponization of security clearances is unacceptable under any circumstances, writes Katherine Hawkins for the Project on Government Oversight.
• Playing politics with security clearances puts us all in danger, writes Heidi Gilchrist in The Washington Post.

Former Secretary of Defense Bob Gates added his name to a letter from former intelligence officials opposing the president’s decision to revoke former CIA Director John Brennan’s security clearance (WaPo, Politico).

The revocation may put the president in deeper trouble with Special Counsel Mueller (WaPo, The Hill).

• For his part, Brennan says he is considering legal action (WaPo, Politico).
• The letter sends a message to active-duty military and intelligence officials that the president is a threat to national security, writes Tim Weiner in The New York Times.
• The Brennan revocation spotlights the president’s “peculiar mixture of shameless truth-telling and bald-faced lying,” writes Michael Dorf at Dorf on Law.
• The revocation was also a violation of Brennan’s First Amendment rights, writes Jeffrey Smith in The New York Times.

The DOJ is investigating whether GOP fundraiser Elliott Broidy tried to sell his influence on the Trump administration to foreign officials (WaPo).

The DOJ is also suing Moshe Lax, a friend and former business partner of Ivanka Trump, for alleged tax fraud (Politico).

 

CHECKS & BALANCES 

The Senate must review any documents that may shed light on Brett Kavanaugh’s role in crafting, handling, or approving the extravagant claims of executive authority made by the Bush administration, writes Peter Shane at Slate. 

• Republicans are engaged in an unprecedented effort to stonewall Democratic efforts to review the Kavanaugh documents, writes the New York Times editorial board.

When has the Senate actually stood up to President Trump? The Washington Post investigates.

 

REMOVAL FROM OFFICE

President Trump has “broken faith” with the American people and called his own fitness for office into question, writes Bob Bauer at Lawfare.

 

RUSSIAN INTERFERENCE 

Alleged Russian agent Maria Butina was moved from a jail in D.C. to a jail in Virginia (WaPo).

 

Tags:

Immigration Rule of Law Conflicts Checks & Balances Regulation Democracy Civil Rights Justice & Safety Removal from Office Russian Interference

 

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