Derek Reinbold  //  5/7/18  //  Daily Update

The Solicitor General made an erroneous factual representation to the Supreme Court during travel ban oral argument. Gina Haspel, nominated to head the CIA, sought to withdraw her nomination over questions about her role in the agency’s torture program. President Trump, speaking to the NRA, suggested that civilians with guns would have stopped the 2015 terrorist attacks in Paris. The French government and survivors of the attacks condemned the remarks. President Trump’s legal team has taken a combative tone with special counsel prosecutors, which is likely to further delay the outcome of the probe. The rise of a permanent impeachment campaign over the past two decades has made it much harder to impeach a corrupt president, even when we may truly need to do so.

TRUMP: INVESTIGATIONS & LITIGATION 

President Trump could invoke the Fifth Amendment in a possible interview with special counsel Robert Mueller (WSJ, WaPo).

Rudy Giuliani said Sunday that President Trump would not have to comply with a subpoena if the special counsel issued one in its Russia investigation (NYTimes, WSJ).

• We should not be so quick to assume that Mueller could compel the president’s testimony, writes Keith Whittington at Lawfare.

It’s possible Michael Cohen paid off other women for President Trump, said Rudy Giuliani (WaPo).

President Trump’s legal team has taken a combative tone with special counsel prosecutors, which is likely to further delay the outcome of the probe (WSJ). 

Rudy Giuliani may have given investigators new leads in the investigations against President Trump and his associates (WaPo). 

President Trump is said to have known of the payment to Stormy Daniels for months before he denied it (NYTimes).

President Trump was the “King of Debt,” write reporters for the Washington Post, totalling the President’s vast outlay of cash for the first time.

President Trump is faced with unprecedented litigation (The Hill).

IMMIGRATION

The Solicitor General made an erroneous factual representation to the Supreme Court during travel ban oral argument; Amir Ali filed a response, doing an admirable job of correcting the record, writes Joshua Matz for Take Care.

50,000 Hondurans living in the United States since 1999 will have 20 months to leave the country or face deportation (WaPo).

President Trump told the NRA that the country’s current immigration laws were written by “people that truly could not love our country” (ImmigrationProf).

CIVIL RIGHTS

Scholars have data on millions of Facebook users.  This information is sometimes unsecured, posing a privacy risk (NYTimes).

DEMOCRACY

The Democratic National Committee’s lawsuit against Russia could be brought through a noncommercial tort exception of the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, suggests Grayson Clary at Lawfare.

JUSTICE & SAFETY

Gina Haspel, nominated to head the CIA, sought to withdraw her nomination over questions about her role in the agency’s torture program (WaPo, CNN).

• The American people deserve to know the specifics of Haspe’s prior role in one of the most shameful chapters in U.S. history, wrote Beth Van Schaack at Just Security.

President Trump, speaking to the NRA, suggested that civilians with guns would have stopped the 2015 terrorist attacks in Paris. The French government and survivors of the attacks condemned the remarks (The Hill).

As President Trump weighs opening nuclear disarmament negotiations with North Korea, he faces a situation in which verification will be incredibly difficult (NYTimes).

U.S. troops in South Korea have emerged as a potential bargaining chip ahead of the planned summit between President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un (WSJ).

The British Ambassador to the United States thinks President Trump will not gut the Iran deal (WaPo).

The Navy has reactivated a fleet responsible for overseeing the East Coast and North Atlantic, escalating the Pentagon’s focus on Russia (WaPo).

Two key FBI officials, once advisers to former director James Comey, left the bureau (NYTimes).

REGULATION

President Trump promised to “sign immediately” legislation expanding veterans’ access to private medical care at taxpayer expense (WaPo).

REMOVAL FROM OFFICE

The rise of a permanent impeachment campaign over the past two decades has made it much harder to impeach a corrupt president, even when we may truly need to do so, write Laurence Tribe and Joshua Matz in the Wall Street Journal.

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