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Nicandro Iannacci  //  12/3/18  //  Daily Update

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Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort will be sentenced on March 5, but additional charges or a presidential pardon are still possible. Former FBI Director James Comey agreed to testify before the House Judiciary and Oversight Committees on Friday, ending a legal effort to quash a subpoena. Just a day after the ceremonial signing of a new trade deal with Canada and Mexico, President Trump said he would withdraw the U.S. from NAFTA. In a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the G20 summit, President Trump agreed to delay the imposition of new tariffs and President Xi agreed to increase Chinese purchases of American products. In the coming days, the Trump administration will push to finalize its “Remain in Mexico” plan, by which asylum seekers will have to wait outside the United States while their claims are processed. A federal judge in D.C. denied the Trump administration’s request for a stay on its preliminary injunction against the administration’s ban on transgender people serving in the military.

 

TRUMP: INVESTIGATIONS & LITIGATION

In a sentencing memo, former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen asked for no prison time, highlighting his damaged personal life and his cooperation with prosecutors (NYT, WaPo, Politico, The Hill).

• The sentencing memo is here. Lawfare explains what’s in it.
• Cohen’s plea deal suggests Russia has damaging information about President Trump, says incoming House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) (WaPo).
• The plea deal also suggests Special Counsel Robert Mueller wants to “lock in” Cohen as a key witness, says incoming House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) (Politico).

Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort will be sentenced on March 5, but additional charges or a presidential pardon are still possible (NYT, WaPo, WSJ, Politico, The Hill).

Former Trump adviser Roger Stone is under scrutiny from Special Counsel Mueller for his ties to Wikileaks (WSJ).

• Stone says he has never had contact with Wikileaks founder Julian Assange (WaPo).

Former FBI Director James Comey agreed to testify before the House Judiciary and Oversight Committees on Friday, ending a legal effort to quash a subpoena (WSJ, Politico, Bloomberg).

President Trump defended his pursuit of a business deal in Russia in 2016 as “very legal and very cool” (NYT, WaPo).

According to top Democrats, Acting AG Matt Whitaker has promised to follow all the “regulations, policies, and procedures” governing the Mueller investigation and to testify before the House Judiciary and Oversight Committees (Politico).

 

IMMIGRATION

DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen has requested the deployment of civilian law enforcement officers from several Cabinet departments to the border as early as this week (Politico). 

DHS has also asked the Pentagon to extend the deployment of active-duty military to the border until the end of January (NYT, WaPo).

A federal judge in New York blocked the Trump administration from withholding law-enforcement grants from “sanctuary cities” for not sharing information with federal immigration authorities (WSJ, The Hill, Reuters).

In the coming days, the Trump administration will push to finalize its “Remain in Mexico” plan, by which asylum seekers will have to wait outside the United States while their claims are processed (WaPo).

As the Trump administration has increased criminal prosecutions for immigration violations, the number of drug prosecutions along the border has decreased (NYT).

• Also, asylum decisions increased by 40 percent in the previous fiscal year, with denials of asylum increasing more than grants (ImmigrationProf Blog).

A proposal from DHS to revise the H-1B work visa program could result in a decrease in total entries, writes David Bier for Cato at Liberty.

The relatively short history of immigrant detention shows that there are more humane and cost-effective ways to deal with migrants, writes Ana Raquel Minian in The New York Times.

 

CIVIL RIGHTS

A federal judge in D.C. denied the Trump administration’s request for a stay on its preliminary injunction against the administration’s ban on transgender people serving in the military (The Hill).

 

DEMOCRACY

The Office of Special Counsel revised its previous guidelines to federal employees on discussions of impeachment and “resistance,” now permitting speech on both topics as long as it does not constitute political advocacy in violation of the Hatch Act (NYT, WaPo).

 

JUSTICE & SAFETY

Acting AG Matt Whitaker previously sat on the board of a patent company accused of defrauding thousands of customers and continued to defend the company even as he received complaints (NYT, WaPo).

A federal appeals court in D.C. upheld the Trump administration’s ban on software from Russian cybersecurity firm Kaspersky Lab (The Hill).

A rise in civilian casualties caused by U.S. airstrikes in Afghanistan is raising questions about U.S. policy governing the approval of strikes, write Jessica Purkiss and Abigail Fielding-Smith at Just Security.

 

REGULATION 

Just a day after the ceremonial signing of a new trade deal with Canada and Mexico, President Trump said he would withdraw the U.S. from NAFTA (NYT, WSJ, Politico).

In a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the G20 summit, President Trump agreed to delay the imposition of new tariffs and President Xi agreed to increase Chinese purchases of American products (NYT, WaPo, WSJ, LAT, Politico).

The Trump administration approved requests from oil and natural gas companies to conduct seismic surveys off the Atlantic shore that could severely harm wildlife (WaPo, Ars Technica).

 

RULE OF LAW 

Six White House officials were reprimanded by the Office of Special Counsel for using official social media accounts to conduct political activity in violation of the Hatch Act (WaPo).

 

REMOVAL FROM OFFICE 

Incoming House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) said talk of impeachment is “premature” and Democrats don’t have a case for it (NYT).

 

RUSSIAN INTERFERENCE 

Defense Secretary James Mattis said Russia attempted to interfere in the 2018 midterm elections (The Hill).

The Senate Intelligence Committee has referred cases of suspected lying from witnesses in its own Russia probe to Special Counsel Mueller (WaPo).

 

Tags:

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

 

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