Daily Update | July 9, 2018
Nicandro Iannacci, Jacqueline Sahlberg // 7/9/18 //
President Trump is expected to announce a nominee for the Supreme Court today. The Trump Administration has provided the ACLU with the names of children under age 5 who were separated from their parents at the US-Mexico border. Foreign-born recruits who joined the United States military through a program created to recruit immigrant troops are being terminated for failing background checks, and are not given the reason for the failure or a right of appeal. President Trump’s lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, has stated that Michael Cohen should cooperate with the Mueller Investigation. CFPB Deputy Director Leandra English has resigned and indicated that she will drop her lawsuit against President Trump and Acting Director Mick Mulvaney. The Trump administration curtailing hiring at prisons has led to a shortage of correctional officers, and teachers, nurses, secretaries, and other support staff are increasingly being asked to guard inmates.
TRUMP: INVESTIGATIONS AND LITIGATION
President Trump’s lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, has stated that Michael Cohen should cooperate with the Mueller Investigation (NPR).
- Giuliani is demanding a “factual basis” for the investigation before President Trump will agree to be interviewed (NYT, WSJ).
- Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein is starting to fight back against attacks from members of Congress. (WaPo)
- Congress needs to protect Mueller’s investigation, writes former U.S. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) in the Washington Post.
Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort has a requested a change in venue for his upcoming trial, citing concerns that media coverage may have biased the juror pool. (The Hill, NYT, Politico)
- Special Counsel Robert Mueller intends to present evidence that a banking executive, who sought a role in the Trump campaign, helped Manafort obtain $6 million in loans (The Hill).
- Manafort’s lawyers say they have new evidence supporting their claim that the Department of Justice improperly leaked information about the Manafort probe to the press (Politico).
IMMIGRATION
The Trump Administration has provided the American Civil Liberties Union with the names of children under age 5 who were separated from their parents at the US-Mexico border (CNN).
- Children as young as age one are appearing, without parents, in immigration court (NPR).
- President Trump’s “zero tolerance” policy led to an increased caseload for immigration courts in California, where federal judges will transition to holding mass trials (PBS).
Foreign-born recruits who joined the United States military through a program created to recruit immigrant troops are being terminated for failing background checks, and are not given the reason for the failure or a right of appeal (NYTimes).
- Following the release of 40 immigrant Army recruits, it is clear that President Trump is manipulating the military to serve a nativist agenda, writes Rob Cuthbert for the NYTimes.
Controversy over the role and existence of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement will soon hit Congress, which is weighing President Trump’s request for increased funding for the agency (Hill).
DEMOCRACY
Rudy Giuliani has advised President Trump not to grant a pardon to Michael Cohen, for now (WashPo).
JUSTICE & SAFETY
President Trump is expected to announce a nominee for the Supreme Court today (NYTimes).
The Trump administration curtailing hiring at prisons has led to a shortage of correctional officers, and teachers, nurses, secretaries, and other support staff are increasingly being asked to guard inmates (NYTimes).
CONFLICTS OF INTEREST
Fallout continues from the resignation of EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt.
- Over time, many of Pruitt’s aides left the agency and called him out for ethical missteps, helping to ensure his downfall. (NYT)
- Pruitt may be gone, but many policy battles lie ahead. (NYT, Politico)
- So, too, do many probes into Pruitt’s behavior in office. (Politico)
- Pruitt’s resignation letter says Trump is president because of “God’s providence” (Religion Clause).
- Pruitt turned the EPA into “an ethics and regulatory Superfund site that will take years to clean up,” write Norm Eisen and Noah Bookbinder at CREW.
- Pruitt was “the ultimate swamp creature who made laughable his boss’s claim that he would come to Washington and drain the swamp,” which is why he had to go, writes Ann Carlson at Legal Planet.
- The legacy of the Pruitt scandal “is a failure of oversight and the establishment of a low bar for government ethics,” writes Walter Shaub in the Washington Post.
President Trump’s businesses continue to benefit from partnerships involving the Chinese government, even as a trade war begins (WaPo).
- Ivanka Trump’s apparel and shoe business will likely emerge relatively unscathed from the trade war (Politico).
New York State’s lawsuit against the Trump Foundation raises the unique question of what happens when a plaintiff is a state, writes Katherine Cheasty Kornman at Just Security.
REGULATION
CFPB Deputy Director Leandra English has resigned and indicated that she will drop her lawsuit against President Trump and Acting Director Mick Mulvaney (NYT, Consumer Finance Monitor).
The Trump administration is suspending billions of dollars in payments to health insurers expected under the ACA, claiming it is necessary because of a federal judge’s ruling earlier this year (WSJ, NYT, WaPo).
- The move adds new uncertainty to insurance markets, just as companies are deciding next year’s rates (WSJ).
- Federal courts have repeatedly ruled against the Trump administration in health care-related cases, finding that the administration cuts corners to advance its agenda (NYT).
A federal district court in Pennsylvania issued a permanent injunction against applying the ACA’s contraceptive mandate rules to Geneva College (Religion Clause).
President Trump has said trade wars are “easy to win,” but it’s not at all clear that he has a plan for success (NYT).
- The relative strength of the U.S. economy may give the President some leeway (WSJ).
- But many companies and economists are worried about what will happen if the conflict escalates (WSJ).
In the final hours of Scott Pruitt’s tenure, the EPA announced that it will not enforce a cap on the manufacture of a high-emission diesel freight truck, a move that was opposed by public health and environmental groups (NYT).
Acting EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler has vowed to stick with President Trump’s priorities (WSJ).
- Wheeler once referred to President Trump as a “bully” (Politico).
- Wheeler is likely to be lower key but very effective, writes Patrick Michaels at the Cato Institute.
- Wheeler may be worse for the environment than his predecessor, writes former EPA Administrator Christine Todd Whitman in the Washington Post.
CHECKS & BALANCES
Court-packing continues to capture the imagination of the left (Texas Standard).
Control of Congress may depend on what happens in California (NYT, WaPo).
Congress should resist President Trump’s effort to reorganize the federal government, writes Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) at The Hill.
Justice Sotomayor is showing her liberal colleagues how to be a potent minority voice on the Court, writes David Fontana at Vox.
RUSSIAN INTERFERENCE
The nature of Russian aggression today differs from that of the past and of other U.S. adversaries in its use of semi-state security actors, writes Kimberly Marten at Lawfare.
Tags:
Immigration Conflicts Checks & Balances Regulation Democracy Justice & Safety Russian Interference