Matthew Lunny Duffy, Ian Eppler  //  9/25/18  //  Daily Update

Rod Rosenstein will meet with President Trump on Thursday, with his job potentially hanging in the balance. The Special council is inquiring into relationships between the Trump family and the family of a well-known Russian oligarch. A federal immigration judge is criticizing new DOJ policies requiring the number of cases judge must hear per year. Two district courts have extended the ACA’s prohibition on sex discrimination to transgender individuals. North Dakota’s voter ID law will officially be in effect in this year’s mid-term elections, after a Federal Appeals Court put a hold on a lower court ruling enjoining the law. The CIA is refocusing its efforts on foreign powers and away from terrorism. Violent crime fell in the United States last year, according to the FBI, halting a two year rise. The Trump administration imposed new tariffs on China. The Department of Transportation rescinded an Obama era rule requiring trains carrying crude oil to use improved brake technology. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is expected to allow importation of a critically endangered black rhinoceros killed during a trophy hunt.

TRUMP: INVESTIGATIONS AND LITIGATION

Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein is scheduled to meet with President Trump on Thursday after rumors swirled that he would be fired Monday morning (Politico, WaPo, WSJ).

• Monday’s turmoil surrounding Rosenstein’s fate was the culmination of extensive weekend discussions after a New York Times report alleged that Rosenstein discussed wearing a wire in meetings with President Trump and invoking the 25th Amendment, report Michael D. Shear, Katie Benner, Maggie Haberman and Michael S. Schmidt in the New York Times.
• A complex legal regime limits President Trump’s ability to install an interim replacement if Rosenstein resigns or is fired, writes Jacob Gershman in the Wall Street Journal.
• Rosenstein’s departure would have implications for both the Special Counsel investigation and the New York investigation into campaign finance violations by the Trump Organization, notes Andy Wright at Just Security.
• Rosenstein’s departure would result in new constraints on the Mueller investigation, suggest Darren Samuelsohn and Josh Gerstein in Politico.

The Special Counsel asked witnesses about the relationship between the Trump family and the Agalarov family, members of which helped to organize the June 9, 2016 Trump Tower meeting between Trump campaign staff and Russian lawyers, reports Rebecca Ballhaus in the Wall Street Journal.  

Bob Woodward’s book on the ongoing investigations into the Trump administration fails to provide a coherent narrative of the Special Counsel investigation, contend Ryan Goodman and Norman L. Eisen at Just Security.

IMMIGRATION

A federalimmigration judge in California is calling a new DOJ policy requiring them complete 700 cases a year "indefensible and unreasonable," notes Tatiana Sanchez in the Mercury News.

CIVIL RIGHTS

Separate district courts in Wisconsin and Minnesota have concluded that insurance companies' categorical exclusions of trans women violates the ACA, extending the law’s prohibition on sex discrimination to transgender individuals, Zack Ford writes at ThinkProgress.

DEMOCRACY

The Eighth Circuit has put on hold a lower-court ruling enjoining North Dakoda's new voter ID law, which means state residents will need to show identification before they vote this November, Andrew M. Harris reports in Bloomberg.

JUSTICE & SAFETY

New CIA Director Gina Haspel has signaled that she is redirecting the agency to focus on foreign espionage and away from the anti-terrorism focus it has taken since the September 11th attacks, reports Shane Harris at the Washington Post.

The FBI reports that murders and other violent crimes fell in the United States in 2017, reversing a small increase that began in 2015, writes Devlin Barrett and Mark Berman in the Washington Post.

The companies granted waivers from President Trump’s latest round of tariff hikes may signal a strategic vulnerability for the U.S. economy, says Chuin-Wei Yap in the Wall Street Journal.

National Security Advisor John Bolton's attempt to undermine the effectiveness of the ICC by negotiating bi-lateral treaties prohibiting nations from surrendering U.S. nationals is unlikely to have a major impact, argues Ben Batros in Just Security.

REGULATION

The Trump administration imposed an extra $200 billion in tariffs on Chinese goods, and China responded by imposing $60 billion in tariffs on American goods (Politico, WaPo, WSJ).

• The Trump administration’s tariffs are taking their toll on companies that outsource to China, but few are planning to end operations there, reports Alexandra Stevenson in the New York Times.

The Department of Transportation rescinded an Obama-era regulation that required railroads to use improved brake technology on trains carrying crude oil (The Hill).

The Trump administration’s failure to consider “co-benefits” in evaluating environmental regulations of individual pollutants undervalues regulation and is incompatible with the Clean Air Act, argues Dan Farber at Legal Planet.

At a public Environmental Protection Agency hearing in California, state officials strongly objected to the Trump administration’s proposed regulation that would eliminate the state’s ability to set its own auto emissions standards (Legal Planet, The Hill).

The Trump administration’s mixed approach to regulating Internet platforms is unnerving large tech companies (Politico).

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is expected to approve a controversial permit request to import a critically endangered black rhinoceros killed during a trophy hunt in Namibia (The Hill).   

RULE OF LAW

President Trump declared that he was an opponent of Puerto Rico statehood because of his ongoing dispute with the mayor of San Juan (WaPo).

Protect Democracy filed an amicus brief in the criminal case of Sayfullo Saipov, the man responsible for the 2017 New York City truck attack, arguing that the President's call for the death penalty over Twitter may have been unlawful because they could violate constitutional prohibitions on presidential interference in individual charging decisions.

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