Daily Update | May 7, 2019
Karen Kadish // 5/7/19 //
The House Judiciary Committee said it will vote Wednesday on whether to hold Attorney General William Barr in contempt of Congress for missing congress’s deadline to turn over an unredacted version of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has refused to release President Trump’s tax returns, stating that the House’s request for the tax returns “lacks a legitimate legislative purpose.” New guidelines issued by the Trump administration explicitly criminalize humanitarian aid at the border, leaving humanitarian workers in the Southern United States at risk for incarceration. The Trump administration deployed the USS Abraham Lincoln carrier to the Middle East in response to unusually specific intelligence reports indicating that Iran planned to target U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria.
TRUMP: INVESTIGATIONS AND LITIGATION
The House Judiciary Committee said it will vote Wednesday on whether to hold Attorney General William Barr in contempt of Congress for missing congress’s deadline to turn over an unredacted version of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report. (WSJ)
- The citation is available here.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has refused to release President Trump’s tax returns, stating that the House’s request for the tax returns “lacks a legitimate legislative purpose.” (Lawfare; NYT; WSJ)
- You can read the letter here.
Over 450 former federal prosecutors signed a statement asserting that the Mueller report would have resulted in obstruction charges against President Trump if he were not president.
- The statement is available here.
Senator Ron Johnson and Senator Chuck Grassley are pressing for investigation of “apparent leaks” from intelligence agencies during the investigation in Russia’s election interference in the 2016 presidential campaign. (Letter to Inspector General Office of the Intelligence Community)
Special Counsel Robert Mueller could not avoid Attorney General William Barr’s treatment of his report, and it would have been contrary to Mueller’s role as Special Counsel to be adversarial to the Attorney General, writes Joshua Geltzer at Just Security.
Bob Bauer at Just Security gives an analysis of campaign-finance issues that were not addressed by Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report on Russian interference into the 2016 election.
IMMIGRATION
New guidelines issued by the Trump administration explicitly criminalize humanitarian aid at the border, leaving humanitarian workers in the Southern United States at risk for incarceration, writes Ryan Devereaux at The Intercept.
President Trump nominated Mark Morgan, former head of the Border Patrol, as the head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). (NYT)
Newly acquired emails show that the Trump administration did not have the information necessary to reunite children and parents who were separated at the southern border. (ImmigrationProf Blog)
A Maryland District Court has allowed a suit challenging the Trump administration’s alleged Muslim travel ban to move forward to be heard on the merits of the Establishment Clause, due process, and equal protection challenges. (Religion Clause)
The Trump Administration’s decision to allow Customs and Border Protection officers to conduct credible fear interviews with asylum seekers undermines the legitimacy of immigration hearings and creates a conflict of interest, writes Julie Veroff at the ACLU.
- The memo describing this new policy is available here.
JUSTICE & SAFETY
The Trump Administration deployed the USS Abraham Lincoln carrier to the Middle East in response to unusually specific intelligence reports indicating that Iran planned to target U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria. (WSJ; WaPo)
The State Department is expanding military-style training facilities to support local forces battling terrorism as the Trump administration moves to cut back conventional diplomacy and development programs, writes Jessica Donati at The Wall Street Journal.
REGULATION
The Trump Administration’s efforts to streamline regulatory review for major infrastructure projects are misguided because they prioritize projects getting done quickly and cheaply without considering the complexity of different projects or their environmental, economic, or other collateral impacts, writes Alejandro E. Camacho at The Regulatory Review.
President Trump is threatening to continue and increase sanctions on China, following rocky negotiations over the past week, write Ana Swanson and Keith Bradsher at The New York Times.