Daily Update | May 21, 2018
The Department of Housing and Urban Development announced that it would withdraw a computer assessment tool that provides local communities with data to help gauge and combat neighborhood segregation. Attorney General Jeff Sessions issued a directive limiting immigration judges’ use of administrative closure, which “could put hundreds of thousands of deportation cases that are essentially closed back on federal court dockets.” The Department of Health and Human Services proposed rules that would force organizations like Planned Parenthood to choose between ceasing abortion services or losing some government funding. Three months before the 2016 election, Donald Trump Jr. met secretly with Erik Prince, former head of the private security firm, Blackwater; George Nader, an emissary for the Saudi and Emirati governments; and Joel Zamel, an Israeli specialist in social media manipulation, in an encounter that has come under the scrutiny of Special Counsel Robert Mueller.
TRUMP: INVESTIGATIONS AND LITIGATION
The Senate Judiciary Committee’s release of thousands of pages of documents from their investigation into Russian election interference adds additional details to what has already been publicly reported, writes Quinta Jurecic in Lawfare.
Rudy Giuliani, President Trump’s lawyer, claimed that the special counsel would conclude the obstruction of justice portion of its investigation by September 1 of this year, report Michael S. Schmidt and Maggie Haberman in the New York Times.
Three months before the 2016 election, Donald Trump Jr. met secretly with Erik Prince, former head of the private security firm, Blackwater; George Nader, an emissary for the Saudi and Emirati governments; and Joel Zamel, an Israeli specialist in social media manipulation, in an encounter that has come under the scrutiny of Special Counsel Robert Mueller (NYT).
- The newly revealed meeting appears to contradict Erik Prince’s testimony before the House Intelligence Committee, writes Ben Schreckinger in Politico.
- The Special Counsel has expanded to include possible Middle Eastern involvement in the Trump campaign, Byron Tau and Rebecca Ballhaus report in the Wall Street Journal.
Lawyers for Michael Cohen moved to prevent Michael Avenatti, the attorney representing Stormy Daniels, from formally entering the criminal case against Cohen, Alan Feuer writes in the New York Times.
A $500,000 payment to Michael Cohen has put Columbus Nova, a New York-based investment management firm tied to Viktor Vekselberg, a Russian oligarch, under the spotlight of the Special Counsel’s investigation, write Rosalind S. Helderman, Michael Kranish, and Steven Mufson in the Washington Post.
The Special Counsel’s office has been questioning Andrii Artemenko, the Ukrainian politician who provided Michael Cohen with a backchannel peace plan in the early months of the Trump Administration, reports David Stern in Politico.
IMMIGRATION
Attorney General Jeff Sessions issued a directive limiting immigration judges’ use of administrative closure, which “could put hundreds of thousands of deportation cases that are essentially closed back on federal court dockets” (NYT).
CIVIL RIGHTS
The Department of Housing and Urban Development announced that it would withdraw a computer assessment tool that provides local communities with data to help gauge and combat neighborhood segregation, Tracy Jan writes in the Washington Post.
DEMOCRACY
Life tenure has resulted in the politicization of the federal judiciary, the opposite of the intended effect, argues Vikram David Amar in Verdict.
JUSTICE & SAFETY
The Supreme Court’s decision last term in Beckles v. United States left some significant questions unresolved regarding the application of the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines, argues Leah Litman in Take Care.
The confirmation of Gina Haspel as CIA Director presents an opportunty for the United States’ to reconcile with the legacy of the rendition, detention, and interrogation program in the years following September 11th, writes Matt Tait in Lawfare.
The Trump Administration and congressional Republicans’ politically motivated outing of an FBI source is profoundly dangerous, Quinta Jurecic and Benjamin Wittes write in Lawfare.
The director of the federal Bureau of Prisons resigned abruptly after less than a year in the role, for reasons that remain unclear (NYT).
CONFLICTS OF INTEREST
President Trump’s tweets announcing an easing of trade restrictions with ZTE, a Chinese telecommunications company, raise the troubling possibility that the policy change resulted from an indirect bribe from the Chinese government, writes Nicholas Weaver in Lawfare.
- Devlin Barrett in the Washington Post reports that families of terrorism victims are concerned that the Trump Administration will negotiate away $150 million ZTE was expected to pay towards a victim compensation fund for violating U.S. sanctions.
Matthew Freedman, a consultant and former lobbyist, played a key role in helping John Bolton staff up the National Security Council, Marianne Levine reports in Politico.
REGULATION
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin announced that “trade war” with China would be put “on hold” as the Trump Administration suspended plans to impose hundreds of billions of dollars in tariffs as they enter trade negotiations (NYT, WaPo).
The Department of Health and Human Services proposed rules that would force organizations like Planned Parenthood to choose between ceasing abortion services or losing some government funding, reports Julie Hirschfeld Davis in the New York Times.
President Trump announced he intends to nominate Robert Willkie, the current Acting Secretary of Veterans Affairs, to serve in the role full-time (NYT).
A coalition of utilities and electric vehicle manufacturers sued to try to force the EPA to reconsider its recently announced rollback of auto emissions standards, writes Megan Geuss in Ars Technica.
A coalition of Democratic state attorneys general filed a motion with the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals asking the court to reconsider its recent decision striking down an Obama-era Labor Department rule requiring investment advisors to put their clients’ interests ahead of their own, writes Alison Frankel in Reuters.
RULE OF LAW
The Justice Department asked the DOJ Inspector General to investigate claims made by President Trump on Twitter, that the FBI infiltrated or surveilled his campaign at the behest of the Obama Administration (NYT).
- The development comes after months of effort by the Trump Administration and its allies in Congress to undercut the validity of the special counsel investigation, report Philip Rucker, Robert Costa, Carol D. Leonnig and Josh Dawsey in the Washington Post.
The inspector general for the Treasury Department’s is expanding an investigation into leaks of confidential reports about suspicious banking activity by Michael Cohen, President Trump’s former attorney, to include an allegation by the anonymous leaker that some of those reports were mysteriously absent from a government database (WaPo).
CHECKS & BALANCES
The behavior of President Trump’s allies in Congress undermines the formalist legal arguments Trump allies are advancing simultaneously, write Asha Rangappa and Jed Shugerman in Just Security.
REMOVAL FROM OFFICE
An invocation of Section 4 of the Twenty-Fifth Amendment is not well-suited to the present situation, argues Brian C. Kalt in Just Security.
RUSSIAN INTERFERENCE
The FBI used an informant to talk to two Trump campaign advisors after receiving evidence both had engaged in suspicious contacts with Russians during the campaign, Adam Goldman, Mark Mazzetti, and Matthew Rosenberg report in the New York Times.
The documents released by the Senate Judiciary Committee still leave several remaining questions about the nature of the June 2016 meeting in Trump Tower, writes Kate Brannen in Just Security.
Lawyers for Roger Stone and plaintiffs associated with the Democratic National Committee battled in court in a hearing on a motion to dismiss a civil lawsuit brought to recover damages stemming from the publication of hacked and stolen emails (Lawfare).
Media coverage of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation reveals several commonly believed, but incorrect, myths about the investigation’s legal authorities, writes Ryan Goodman in Just Security.
Tags:
Immigration Rule of Law Conflicts Checks & Balances Regulation Democracy Civil Rights Justice & Safety Removal from Office Russian Interference