Daily Update | October 22, 2018
Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team is aggressively investigating whether Roger Stone had advance knowledge that hacked and stolen emails would be published by WikiLeaks during the 2016 election. A federal judge ordered that former Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort be sentenced in February for financial crimes he was convicted of in August. The Trump Administration is considering redefining “sex” under Title IX as a biological, immutable condition determined by genitalia at birth. Georgia’s “exact match” law could disenfranchise nearly 1 million eligible voters. The Trump Administration is planning to announce the U.S. will withdraw from the the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, a thirty-year-old arms control measure with Russia. The Justice Department charged a Russian woman with helping lead an elaborate campaign of “information warfare” to interfere with the upcoming midterm elections.
TRUMP: INVESTIGATIONS AND LITIGATION
Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team is aggressively investigating whether Roger Stone had advance knowledge that hacked and stolen emails would be published by WikiLeaks during the 2016 election, Carol D. Leonnig, Manuel Roig-Franzia, and Rosalind S. Helderman report in the Washington Post.
A federal judge ordered that former Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort be sentenced in February for financial crimes he was convicted of in August, writes Sharon LaFraniere in the New York Times.
A federal judge’s dismissal of Stormy Daniels’s defamation suit against Donald Trump was probably based on an incorrect reading of the law, argues Michael C. Dorf in his eponymous blog.
- Read the order here.
CIVIL RIGHTS
The Trump Administration is considering redefining “sex” under Title IX as a biological, immutable condition determined by genitalia at birth, Erica L. Green, Katie Benner, and Robert Pear report in the New York Times.
DEMOCRACY
The Supreme Court’s decisions in Crawford v. Marion County and Shelby County v. Holder paved the way for a new era of voter suppression, argues Andrew Cohen in the Washington Spectator.
Georgia’s “exact match” law could disenfranchise nearly 1 million eligible voters, Ted Enamorado writes in the Washington Post.
JUSTICE & SAFETY
The United States and South Korea have suspended a military exercise as part of an effort to give the continuing nuclear negotiations with North Korea an opportunity to work, writes Helene Cooper in the New York Times.
The Trump Administration is planning to announce the U.S. will withdraw from the the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, a thirty-year-old arms control measure with Russia, David E. Sanger and William J. Broad report in the New York Times.
CONFLICTS OF INTEREST
Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke violated the department’s policy by having his wife travel with him in government vehicles, an inspector general report found (NYT).
- Read the report here.
A Trump Administration political appointee, days after being announced as the new leader of the Interior Department’s inspector general office, has resigned, Lisa Rein, Josh Dawsey, and Juliet Eilperin report in the Washington Post.
The Trump Organization’s business partner in Indonesia inked an agreement with a construction firm in which the Saudi government owns a large stake, just weeks before journalist Jamal Kashoggi was killed after entering a Saudi consulate, Walker Davis writes in the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington blog.
REGULATION
In oral argument, a Ninth Circuit panel signalled skepticism of a nationwide injunction that is currently preventing the Trump administration from broadly exempting nonprofit groups and others from the Affordable Care Act’s contraceptive mandate, Maura Dolan writes in the Los Angeles Times.
CHECKS & BALANCES
Jeff Sessions’s leadership of the Justice Department has ignored internal dissent and damaged morale, Katie Benner reports in the New York Times.
- Fred Barbash argues in the Washington Post that this has led to a remarkable losing streak for the administration in federal court.
FEDERALISM
California’s mandate that public companies include women on their boards of directors is probably unconstitutional, Vikram David Amar and Jason Mazzone argue in Verdict.
A coalition of broadband industry groups has sued Vermont to block a state law requiring internet service providers to follow net neutrality principles in order to qualify for government contracts, Jon Brodkin writes in Ars Technica.
- Read the complaint here.
RUSSIAN INTERFERENCE
The Justice Department charged a Russian woman with helping lead an elaborate campaign of “information warfare” to interfere with the upcoming midterm elections (NYT, WaPo).
- Read the complaint and supporting affidavit here.
- Read the government’s statement here.
- The team at Lawfare summarizes what we know about this conspiracy here.
- The information warfare campaign is part of a long Russian tradition of using wedge issues to divide Americans, Faiza Patel and Raya Koreh write in Just Security.
- Sharon LaFraniere analyzes the messages pushed by Russian trolls in the New York Times.
A lawsuit in the Southern District of New York alleges defamation by two Kremlin-controlled television stations concerning the infamous poisoning of Russian dissident Alexander Litvinenko in the U.K. 12 years ago, but the litigation has the potential to highlight the scope and danger of Russian propaganda today, Viola Gienger writes in Just Security.
Tags:
Conflicts Checks & Balances Federalism Regulation Democracy Civil Rights Justice & Safety Russian Interference