Daily Update | March 20, 2018
Congressional negotiators are still negotiating the details of a $1.3 trillion omnibus spending bill that must pass to avert a government shutdown on Friday. Chris Liddell has been named the new White House deputy chief of staff for policy. The Kushner Companies confirmed that Charles Kushner, Jared Kushner’s father, met with the Qatari finance minister three months into the Trump Administration and discussed funding for a financially troubled real estate project. The Supreme Court required Arizona to continue issuing drivers licenses to recipients of DACA. President Trump’s legal team has “provided the special counsel’s office with written descriptions that chronicle key moments under investigation in hopes of curtailing the scope of a presidential interview.”
DEMOCRACY
British and American lawmakers demanded more information about Facebook’s data privacy policies after reports surfaced that Cambridge Analytica, a “political data firm with links to President Trump’s 2016 campaign was able to harvest private information from more than 50 million Facebook profiles without the social network’s alerting users.” (NYT).
The Supreme Court denied a request for a stay by Pennsylvania Republican legislators that would have blocked implementation of new congressional maps after the state supreme court struck down the previous map as an unconstitutional partisan gerrymander (NYT, WaPo).
- The ruling came hours after a three-judge federal district court panel dismissed the Pennsylvania GOP’s challenge to the new maps in a separate case, writes Lyle Denniston at his eponymous blog.
- Find the opinion of the three-judge panel here.
JUSTICE & SAFETY
In a New Hampshire speech, President Trump emphasized tougher punitive measures as the centerpiece of his administration’s effort to combat the opioid crisis, write John Wagner and Katie Zezima in the Washington Post.
The Trump Administration’s recently released “Report on the Legal and Policy Frameworks Guiding the United States’ Use of Military Force and Related National Security Operations” marks a “ troubling return to the bad old days in which the United States declines publicly to name which terrorist groups we consider ourselves at war with,” argues Deborah Pearlstein in Opinio Juris.
- Read the report here.
After months of delay, the Trump Administration filed a brief siding with the Palestine Liberation Organization, arguing that a lawsuit brought by American families of victims of terrorism seeking damages did not warrant judicial intervention, reports Adam Liptak in the New York Times.
- Read the Solicitor General’s brief here.
The Justice Department is “considering an unprecedented disclosure of parts of a controversial secret surveillance order that justified the monitoring of former Trump campaign aide Carter Page,” reports Kevin Johnson in USA Today.
CONFLICTS OF INTEREST
The Kushner Companies confirmed that Charles Kushner, Jared Kushner’s father, met with the Qatari finance minister three months into the Trump Administration and discussed funding for a financially troubled real estate project, report Michael Kranish and Karen DeYoung in the Washington Post.
A three-month investigation reveals that Michael Flynn had a slew of problematic entanglements that created multiple potential ethical conflicts, report David Kocieniewski and Lauren Etter in Bloomberg.
REGULATION
Congressional negotiators are still negotiating the details of a $1.3 trillion omnibus spending bill that must pass to avert a government shutdown on Friday, write Erica Werner and Mike DeBonis in the Washington Post.
The Trump Administration is preparing to unveil a package of $60 billion in annual tariffs against Chinese products (WaPo).
The FDA has surprisingly issued a proposal “that would cut nicotine levels in cigarettes so low as to make them them non-addictive,” writes Dan Farber at Legal Planet.
The FCC will not appeal a federal court ruling that struck down a 2015 anti-robocall rule (Ars Technica).
The NLRB is seeking to reach a settlement in order to “head off a court ruling in a case against McDonald’s that could redefine the accountability of companies for their franchisees’ employment practices” (NYT).
Chris Liddell has been named the new White House deputy chief of staff for policy, report Andrew Restuccia and Eliana Johnson in Politico.
The SEC issued the largest-ever award to a whistleblower under the Dodd-Frank Act, reports Sylvan Lane in The Hill.
RULE OF LAW
The Justice Department should promptly release the Inspector General report that provides the rationale for firing FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, argues Josh Campbell in the Washington Post.
- Sen. Chuck Grassley announced the Senate Judiciary Committee would hold hearings on the circumstances surrounding McCabe’s firing once the IG reports is released.
The appearance of self-dealing in the crafting of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act should prompt Congress to consider tougher ethical rules for legislators, argues Shanil Wijesina in the Global Anticorruption Blog.
Donald Trump’s decision to sue Stormy Daniels for violating a non-disclosure agreement reveals that the Trump Administration has been lying about President Trump’s interactions with Daniels, writes David Post at The Volokh Conspiracy.
Susan Pompeo’s “unusually active and prominent role” at the CIA has raised some concerns, reports Shane Harris in the Washington Post.
CHECKS & BALANCES
Congress should pass legislation protecting Special Counsel Robert Mueller from potentially being fired, argues Steve Vladeck in Lawfare.
Although several Republican lawmakers condemend President Trump’s tweets attacking Special Counsel Robert Mueller, there was little indication any legislative action would be taken (WaPo).
Gina Haspel’s confirmation as CIA Director would send the wrong message to U.S. government personnel and allies and adversaries abroad, writes Rob Berschinski in Just Security.
FEDERALISM
The Supreme Court required Arizona to continue issuing drivers licenses to recipients of DACA (Reuters).
RUSSIAN INTERFERENCE
President Trump’s legal team has “provided the special counsel’s office with written descriptions that chronicle key moments under investigation in hopes of curtailing the scope of a presidential interview,” reports Carol D. Leonnig in the Washington Post.
Alexander Nix, the head of Cambridge Analytica, was recorded “talking about using bribes, traps involving sex workers and other unethical tactics to swing elections around the world” (NYT, WaPo).
The Special Counsel’s decision to allow suspects to plead guilty to minor offenses is not a violation of Justice Department policy, writes Orin Kerr in Lawfare.
Aleksandr Kogan, the data scientist reponsible for providing Cambridge Analytica with data from tens of millions of Facebook users, says he has not been contaacted by FBI or congressional investigators (CNN).
President Trump and his lawyers’ statements over the weekend may presage a second “Saturday Night Massacre,” writes Bob Bauer in Lawfare.
President Trump expanded his legal team, hiring Joseph diGenova, a former U.S. Attorney (NYT).
Tags:
Rule of Law Conflicts Checks & Balances Federalism Regulation Democracy Justice & Safety Russian Interference