Daily Update | August 23, 2018
In the wake of his convictions on multiple counts of bank and tax fraud, Paul Manafort must decide whether to cooperate with federal investigators ahead of his trial in the District of Columbia. Facing a barrage of court challenges, the Army reinstated dozens of immigrant reservists who sought citizenship through enlistment. The DNC detected an attempted hack into its voter database and alerted the FBI. The federal government under the Trump Administration has been using the Americans with Disabilities Act to shut down polling locations in locations with large minority populations. The Trump Administration is remaking the federal judiciary, thanks to years of preparation by conservative legal groups. Michael Cohen’s guilty plea has sparked new calls for impeachment, but is unlikely to lead to criminal charges being leveled against President Trump.
TRUMP: INVESTIGATIONS AND LITIGATION
Paul Manafort’s conviction and Michael Cohen’s guilty plea signal that the country is entering a dangerous period, write Mikhaila Fogel, Susan Hennessey, Quinta Jurecic, and Benjamin Wittes in Lawfare.
- Together, the guilty plea and conviction bely Trump’s attempts to discredit the Special Counsel’s investigation, Renato Mariotti writes in Politico.
Michael Cohen may someday be a witness in Donald Trump’s impeachment proceedings, Ken White writes in the New York Times.
- Cohen’s guilty plea directly implicates Donald Trump in a federal felony, Rick Hasen argues in Slate.
- After Cohen’s plea, the parallels between Donald Trump’s situation and Richard Nixon continue to grow, Bob Bauer writes in Lawfare.
In the wake of his convictions on multiple counts of bank and tax fraud, Paul Manafort must decide whether to cooperate with federal investigators ahead of his trial in the District of Columbia, writes Randall D. Eliason in the Washington Post.
- If Manafort has information relevant to federal prosecutors, now is the time to talk, Noah Feldman writes in Bloomberg.
New York State investigators issued Michael Cohen a subpoena as part of their investigation into the Trump Foundation, David Klepper reports in the Associated Press.
Special Counsel Robert Mueller sought to postpone a sentencing hearing for Michael Flynn, Caitlyn Oprysko reports in Politico.
IMMIGRATION
Facing a barrage of court challenges, the Army reinstated dozens of immigrant reservists who sought citizenship through enlistment, reversing an earlier decision that had halted a program offering expedited citizenship to certain immigrant enlistees with high-value skills, Alex Horton reports in the Washington Post.
DEMOCRACY
The DNC detected an attempted hack into its voter database and alerted the FBI (NYT, WaPo, CNN).
The federal government under the Trump Administration has been using the Americans with Disabilities Act to shut down polling locations in locations with large minority populations, Kira Lerner writes in Think Progress.
The Department of Commerce’s decision to add a citizenship status question to the Census is vulnerable under both APA “arbitrary and capricious” and Fifth Amendment equal protection grounds, argues Bernard Bell in Notice & Comment.
Although it is too late to prepare for the 2018 elections, federal and state authorities can take several steps to protect the 2020 elections from cyber-attacks, writes Alex Stamos in Lawfare.
Tech companies continue to move too slowly in disclosing attempts at election interference and efforts to control hate speech, Joshua Geltzer and Dipayan Ghosh argue in Just Security.
JUSTICE & SAFETY
The U.S. Supreme Court should grant certiorari in Lacaze v. Louisiana to make clear that the Due Process Clause does not require a showing of specific bias against a party to mandate judicial recusal, Lawrence J. Fox argues in Take Care.
Legislation currently under consideration on Capitol Hill may make some modest first steps at easing the unjust consequences of mandatory minimum sentences, Jeffrey Bellin writes in The Hill.
The U.S.-led coalition combating ISIS in Iraq and Syria acknowledged that civilian deaths resulting from its actions were higher than previously disclosed, writes Daphne Eviatar in Just Security.
REGULATION
The Trump Administration’s newly unveiled regulations for coal-fired power plants won’t be enough to save the coal industry, writes Brad Plumer in the New York Times.
- Jessica Wentz provides key takeaways from the new rule at the Climate Law Blog.
- The rule appears to rely heavily on the Chevron doctrine, which has otherwise seemed to fall out of favor with conservatives, Dan Farber writes in Legal Planet.
The broad, standard-less, and procedure-less power the Antiquities Act delegates to the president cuts both ways for liberals and conservatives, write Todd Gaziano and Jonathan Wood in Notice & Comment.
CHECKS & BALANCES
The Trump Administration is remaking the federal judiciary, thanks to years of preparation by conservative legal groups, writes Jason Zengerle in the New York Times.
- Emily Bazelon explores what happens when the Supreme Court is significantly more conservative than the nation in the New York Times.
Republican stonewalling in producing documents from Brett Kavanaugh’s past is indefensible, but Democratic senators already have sufficient reason to vote against confirmation, argues Mark Joseph Stern in Slate.
- Michael Dorf argues that Brett Kavanaugh’s lurid memos during the Starr investigation of Bill Clinton remain relevant to today’s circumstances in posts in Reasonand his eponymous blog.
- Jed Shugerman argues that Michael Cohen’s guilty plea taints Kavanaugh’s nomination beyond repair in Slate.
FEDERALISM
California should consider enacting legislation to incorporate pre-existing federal environmental standards as a matter of state law to hedge against future federal rollbacks, argues Eric Biber in Legal Planet.
REMOVAL FROM OFFICE
Michael Cohen’s guilty plea has sparked new calls for impeachment, but is unlikely to lead to criminal charges being leveled against President Trump, writes Rosalind D. Helderman, Matt Zapotosky, and Devlin Barrett in the Washington Post.
Tags:
Immigration Checks & Balances Federalism Regulation Democracy Justice & Safety Removal from Office