Daily Update | May 23, 2019
Adam Smith // 5/23/19 //
President Trump cut a meeting with the Democratic leadership short, as a growing Democratic chorus calls for his impeachment. The federal judiciary continues to rule against the President’s attempts to shield his affairs from public scrutiny. His former and now-imprisoned personal counsel Michael Cohen remains under investigation. Momentum builds behind an effort to abolish the Electoral College by interstate pact.
TRUMP: INVESTIGATIONS AND LITIGATION
President Trump stormed out of a meeting with Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer after only three minutes (NYT; WaPo).
- The President announced in an impromptu Rose Garden press conference that he would not work with the Democratic caucus while it investigates him.
A New York federal district court denied the President’s request to block a House subpoena of financial records from Deutsche Bank, his largest lender (WaPo).
- For President Trump to be held to account, the federal judiciary must continue to stymie his efforts to keep his finances and official activities under wraps, argues the editorial board of The Washington Post.
- In ruling Monday that Congress could subpoena the President’s accounting firm, Judge Amit Mehta drew a line that the Supreme Court must enforce, concludes Michael Dorf at Dorf on Law.
A few courtrooms away, an order by another New York federal judge indicates that prosecutors are still investigating Michael Cohen, the President’s former personal counsel, for additional campaign finance violations (AP).
- And search warrants from former special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Cohen were unsealed by a Washington, D.C., federal court (The Hill).
In Albany, the New York state legislature passed a bill that would allow Congress to obtain the President’s state tax records (AP).
DEMOCRACY
A growing coalition of states is attempting to abolish the electoral college through an interstate pact—and it may well succeed (NYT).