Daily Update | August 22, 2018
Donald Trump’s longtime personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, plead guilty to multiple charges of tax evasion, bank fraud, and campaign finance violations, including the arrangement of illegal payments to two women at the direction of Trump himself. Paul Manafort was found guilty on five counts of tax fraud, two counts of bank fraud, and one count of failure to disclose a foreign bank account. U.S. Rep. Duncan Hunter and his wife were indicted illegally using hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions for personal expenditures and filing false campaign finance reports. A federal judge heard arguments in a lawsuit brought by 19 states and the District of Columbia to block an agreement reached between DOJ and a private company that would allow it to post 3D-printed gun files online. The Trump Administration announced new sanctions against Russia for defying international sanctions against North Korea.
TRUMP: INVESTIGATIONS AND LITIGATION
Donald Trump’s former campaign manager, Paul Manafort, was found guilty on five counts of tax fraud, two counts of bank fraud, and one count of failure to disclose a foreign bank account (NYT, WaPo, WSJ).
- Manafort’s conviction is bad news for the president, write Noah Bookbinder, Barry Berke, and Norman L. Eisen in the New York Times.
Donald Trump’s longtime personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, plead guilty to multiple charges of tax evasion, bank fraud, and campaign finance violations, including the arrangement of illegal payments to two women at the direction of Trump himself (NYT, WaPo, WSJ).
- Even though Cohen’s plea does not include a cooperation agreement, Cohen may well end up cooperating with federal prosecutors, argue Andy Wright and Alex Whiting in Just Security.
- Read the plea agreement, criminal information, and waiver of indictment here.
A New York state court ruled that President Trump should remain a defendant in a lawsuit brought by protesters alleging they were assaulted by security at a 2015 Trump campaign rally (NY Daily News).
DEMOCRACY
U.S. Rep. Duncan Hunter and his wife were indicted illegally using hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions for personal expenditures and filing false campaign finance reports (CNN).
Felony disenfranchisement laws throughout the country have their roots in racist Jim Crow-era laws, argues Jennifer Rae Taylor in the Marshall Project.
JUSTICE & SAFETY
A federal judge heard arguments in a lawsuit brought by 19 states and the District of Columbia to block an agreement reached between DOJ and a private company that would allow it to post 3D-printed gun files online, writes Cyrus Farivar in Ars Technica.
The Trump Administration’s decision to withdraw the United States from the UN Human Rights Council was utterly duplicitous, Keith Harper argues in Just Security.
The Trump Administration announced new sanctions against Russia for defying international sanctions against North Korea (NYT).
REGULATION
The EPA announced new rules governing coal-burning power plants, replacing the Obama Administration’s Clean Power Plan, which it acknowledged would lead to increased carbon emissions and over 1,000 premature deaths (NYT).
- The EPA’s approach under the Trump Administration demonstrates hypocrisy when it comes to federalism, Meredith Hankins argues in Legal Planet.
- The new rule is neither clean nor affordable, writes Sean Hecht in Legal Planet.
The Volcker Rule should be strongly enforced in order to contain conflicts of interest inherently present in the current banking system, S. Burcu Avci, Cindy A. Schipani, and H. Nejat Seyhun argue in Notice & Comment.
The Trump Administration began holding several days of hearings to gather input from industry on plans to impose tariffs on a wide range of Chinese imports, writes Alan Rappeport in the New York Times.
RULE OF LAW
President Trump threatened via tweet to revoke the security clearance of a former U.S. intelligence official who criticized him on television, writes John Wagner in the Washington Post.
CHECKS & BALANCES
It’s unclear how the courts would rule if President Trump attempted to challenge the independence of the Fed by seeking to remove a sitting chairman, writes Peter Conti-Brown in Notice & Comment.
RUSSIAN INTERFERENCE
The Russian military intelligence unit that hacked Democratic emails during the 2016 presidential election has been found attempting to hack conservative think tanks that take a hawkish position on Russia, David E. Sanger and Sheera Frankel report in the New York Times.
A D.C. court dismissed with prejudice a defamation suit brought by the co-founders of Alfa Bank, Russia’s largest private bank, against Christopher Steele, the author of the infamous Trump dossier, writes Natasha Bertrand in the Atlantic.
Facebook announced it removed hundreds of fake accounts created as part of separate Russian and Iranian disinformation campaigns (WaPo).
Tags:
Rule of Law Checks & Balances Regulation Democracy Justice & Safety Russian Interference