Daily Update | May 6, 2019
Adam Smith // 5/6/19 //
As Michael Cohen, his beleaguered former personal counsel, prepares to begin his three-year prison sentence on Monday, the President continued to fume over reports that Special Counsel Robert Mueller will soon testify before Congress. An Ohio federal district court struck down the state’s districting scheme as an unconstitutional partisan gerrymander.
TRUMP: INVESTIGATIONS AND LITIGATION
In a series of tweets early Sunday morning, President Trump fumed over reports that Robert Mueller will testify before the House Judiciary Committee later this month: “No redos for the Dems!” (NYT)
On Monday, Michael Cohen, the President’s former personal counsel and “fixer,” will begin serving a three-year sentence for campaign finance violations and fraud in New York federal prison (WSJ).
DEMOCRACY
A three-judge panel of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio unanimously struck down Ohio’s districting scheme as an unconstitutional partisan gerrymander (NPR; NYT).
- The full opinion is available at Election Law Blog.
- The Ohio decision is indicative of a growing consensus among the federal courts regarding the unconstitutionality of partisan gerrymandering, concludes Nick Stephanopoulos at Election Law Blog.
RUSSIAN INTERFERENCE
In failing to charge Russia-connected Trump campaign officials with campaign finance violations, Mueller may have enabled further cross-border collaboration in 2020, observes Bob Bauer at Just Security.