Jacob Miller, Ian Eppler  //  10/30/18  //  Daily Update

A lawsuit accused President Trump and his company of inducing people to invest in sham businesses. The Department of Defense will send at least 5,200 troops to the U.S.-Mexico border in response to a group of migrants moving through Central America. President Trump will travel to Pittsburgh following the mass shooting at a synogogue. Prosecutors will seek the death penalty for the alleged Pittsburgh shooter. Angela Merkel will not run again for party leader or chancellor of Germany. President Trump has interviewed Neomi Rao, director of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, to fill the DC Circuit vacancy left by Judge Brett Kavanaugh. U.S. government agencies are attempting to prevent Russian interference with the 2018 election on social media by identifying and aggressively confronting Russian agents.

TRUMP: INVESTIGATIONS AND LITIGATION

A lawsuit accused President Trump and his company of inducing people to invest in sham businesses (NYTimes, Politico).

• The complaint is available here.
• The plaintiffs moved to proceed under pseudonyms based on the record of intimidation and violence directed at critics of President Trump.

IMMIGRATION

The Department of Defense will send at least 5,200 troops to the U.S.-Mexico border in response to a group of migrants moving through Central America (NYTimes, WaPo, LATimes, WSJ, Politico).

President Trump has promoted conspiracies around the “migrant caravan” that have overlapped with the anti-semitism and fear of perceived left wing globalism that led to last week’s attacks within the United States, writes Jeremy W. Peters for the New York Times.

CIVIL RIGHTS

An American citizen has been released by the Trump administration after being imprisoned by the United States military without trial for over a year as a suspected member of ISIL (NYTimes).

The Supreme Court heard arguments in Lamps Plus v. Varela pertaining to whether or not California workers who signed an arbitration agreement stating “arbitration shall be in lieu of any and all lawsuits or other civil legal proceedings relating to my employment” could form a class for a class action (NYTimes).

The U.S. Agency for Global Media will investigate a Spanish-language program that aired calling George Soros a “multimillionaire Jew” and discussing conspiracy theories surrounding him (WaPo).

The Justice Department launched a website with new information on reporting hate crimes (Politico).

United States Congress should take the lead on combating white supremacist hate crimes and domestic terrorism as the President will not, writes Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn) for The Hill.

JUSTICE & SAFETY

The United States is attempting to block Fujian Jinhua Integrated Circuit, a Chinese state-owned technology company, from buying American components that it uses for semiconductors, citing it as a potential risk for national security (NYTimes).

President Trump will travel to Pittsburgh following the mass shooting at a synogogue (NYTimes, WaPo, Politico).

Prosecutors will seek the death penalty in the case of the alleged Pittsburgh shooter, who appeared in Court for the first time (NYTimes, WaPo, LATimes).

The bombing suspect arrested last week allegedly had a list of over 100 targets (LATimes).

An additional suspicious package that was set to be mailed to CNN was intercepted in Atlanta (Politico).

Angela Merkel will not run again for party leader or chancellor of Germany (WaPo, WSJ).

REGULATION

President Trump’s environmental deregulation carries both benefits and risks for his rural voter base, argues Dan Farber at Legal Planet.

The drug reimportation proposal announced by President Trump is unlikely to significantly reduce drug prices, contends Roger Pilon at Cato@Liberty.

CHECKS & BALANCES 

President Trump has interviewed Neomi Rao, director of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, to fill the DC Circuit vacancy left by Judge Brett Kavanaugh (Axios).

RUSSIAN INTERFERENCE

U.S. government agencies are attempting to prevent Russian interference with the 2018 election on social media by identifying and aggressively confronting Russian agents, writes Ben Nimmo at Just Security.

Maria Butina, who was charged with attempting to infiltrate the National Rifle Association on behalf of the Russian government, studied cybersecurity defenses of major U.S. nonprofits as part of a graduate program (AP).

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