Jacob Miller, Caroline Cox  //  6/13/18  //  Daily Update

A federal court has ordered prosecutors to release to Paul Manafort the names of European politicians alleged have participated in his secret lobbying campaign for Ukraine. President Trump declared his meeting with Kim Jong Un, which resulted in promises of denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and an end of American military exercises in the area, as “honest, direct, and productive." Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner made at least $82 million in 2017 according to financial disclosure forms. Judge Richard J. Leon of the United States District Court in Washington, D.C. approved the merger between AT&T and Time Warner following attempts from the Justice Department to block it. The Department of Justice will likely issue a public report in July on foreign efforts to interfere with United States elections and what can be done about them.

TRUMP: INVESTIGATIONS & LITIGATION

A federal court has ordered prosecutors to release to Paul Manafort the names of European politicians alleged have participated in his secret lobbying campaign for Ukraine (WaPo).

IMMIGRATION

The Trump Administration’s policies have left many asylum seekers waiting for days in Mexico before they are even allowed to file an application (NYT).

A quarterly report from the Department of Justice on immigrant incarceration offers a likely misleading presentation of crime rates of immigrants, argues Alex Nowrasteh at Cato at Liberty.

Immigration Customs & Enforcement (ICE) raid tactics are significantly harming immigrant communities, writes Veronica Isabel Dahlberg at the ACLU blog.

• Separating children from their parents at the border is a strategy based on outdated notions of children as property, asserts Marci A. Hamilton at Verdict.

The extent to which federal courts can review decisions about the removal of undocumented immigrants in detention along the U.S.–Mexican border remains largely unaddressed, discusses Stephen I. Vladeck at the New York Times.

A letter from President Trump to FIFA officials deciding the location for the 2026 World Cup included specific guarantees that U.S. travel restrictions would not apply to the event (NYT).

CIVIL RIGHTS

The Trump Administration’s decision to prohibit facilities that receive funding under Title X from providing or counseling about abortion is a continuation of already harmful policies regarding such family-planning facilities, argue David S. Cohen and Carole Joffe at The Hill.

Together, Masterpiece Cakeshop and the Travel Ban case raise important questions about the enforcement of anti-animus norms with respect to conservative Christians and Muslims, writes Richard C. Schragger at Take Care.

JUSTICE & SAFETY

President Trump declared his meeting with Kim Jong Un, which resulted in promises of denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and an end of American military exercises in the area, as “honest, direct, and productive” (NYT; WaPo).  

• The joint statement from President Trump and Kim Jong Un is available here.
• The New York Times provides an overview of the meeting’s major moments.
• The Washington Post also reports that President Trump presented Kim Jong Un with a short film portraying to two leaders as heroes.
• The Military Times explores what will happen next with the order to end military exercises with South Korea.

The Pentagon and American allies appear nervous about President Trump’s decision to suspend joint American and South Korean military exercises (LA Times).

The White House has refused to back down from its critical comments about trade relations with Canada (WaPo).

The opening of a new embassy in Taiwan has angered China and is threatening the longstanding “one-China” diplomatic principle (CNN).

CONFLICTS OF INTEREST

Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner made at least $82 million in 2017 according to financial disclosure forms (NYT, WaPo).

REGULATION

Judge Richard J. Leon of the United States District Court in Washington, D.C. approved the merger between AT&T and Time Warner following attempts from the Justice Department to block it (NYT, WaPo, LATimes, WSJ).  

Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos denied the influence of the NRA on the White House school safety commission in response to questions from Senator Patty Murray of Washington (Politico).

Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar told the Senate HELP Committee that large cuts to drug prices would not take place immediately (Politico).

CHECKS AND BALANCES

The Senate annual defense bill will likely include a measure that would effectively block President Trump’s promise to lift some restrictions against Chinese company ZTE (WaPo, Politico).

The right “remedy” in the latest ACA lawsuit is to strike down the Trump Administration’s repeal of the individual mandate penalty, argue Jamie Durling and Garrett West at Take Care.

REMOVAL FROM OFFICE

The exception to the President’s pardon power for cases of impeachment may be more broad based on certain readings, ponders Neil Buchanan at Dorf on Law.

In the latest post in Take Care’s symposium on the new book, To End A Presidency: The Power of Impeachment, by Larry Tribe & Joshua Matz, Brianne Gorod considers the importance of discretion in Congress’s impeachment considerations.      

RUSSIAN INTERFERENCE

The Department of Justice will likely issue a public report in July on foreign efforts to interfere with United States elections and what can be done about them (The Hill).