9/21/18  //  Daily Update

Dr. Christine Blasey Ford says she would agree to testify at a Senate hearing next week, but would not be prepared to do so on Monday. The Trump Administration plans to shift $260 million from program like cancer research and AIDS prevention to cover the cost of housing thousands of undocumented immigrant children in the custody of the Department of Health and Human Services. The Pentagon stopped announcing body counts of Taliban and Islamic State fighters killed in battle in Afghanistan, a practice which had begun in January. The Justice Department’s Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention has begun dismantling decades-old policies meant to improve racial disparities in youth incarceration. A number of Russian oligarchs close to Vladimir Putin managed to build relationships with elements of the Trump campaign in 2016.

9/14/18  //  Daily Update

Paul Manafort and Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s office are nearing a plea agreement. The federal government reached a settlement agreement that would allow approximately 1,000 asylum seekers whose families were separated under the Trump Administration’s “zero tolerance” policy to re-apply for asylum. Eighteen former counterterrorism officials called on the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security to retract or correct a report that misleadingly implied a link between terrorism and immigration. The U.S. government’s entire system for organizing and maintaining a record of its own activities is on the verge of collapse. The NLRB announced a proposed rule that would make it more difficult for employees of contractors and franchises to challenge abusive labor practices. A bipartisan group of 17 governors announced a new set of policies aimed at combating climate change while working around the Trump Administration.

8/23/18  //  Daily Update

In the wake of his convictions on multiple counts of bank and tax fraud, Paul Manafort must decide whether to cooperate with federal investigators ahead of his trial in the District of Columbia. Facing a barrage of court challenges, the Army reinstated dozens of immigrant reservists who sought citizenship through enlistment. The DNC detected an attempted hack into its voter database and alerted the FBI. The federal government under the Trump Administration has been using the Americans with Disabilities Act to shut down polling locations in locations with large minority populations. The Trump Administration is remaking the federal judiciary, thanks to years of preparation by conservative legal groups. Michael Cohen’s guilty plea has sparked new calls for impeachment, but is unlikely to lead to criminal charges being leveled against President Trump.

8/22/18  //  Daily Update

Donald Trump’s longtime personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, plead guilty to multiple charges of tax evasion, bank fraud, and campaign finance violations, including the arrangement of illegal payments to two women at the direction of Trump himself. Paul Manafort was found guilty on five counts of tax fraud, two counts of bank fraud, and one count of failure to disclose a foreign bank account. U.S. Rep. Duncan Hunter and his wife were indicted illegally using hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions for personal expenditures and filing false campaign finance reports. A federal judge heard arguments in a lawsuit brought by 19 states and the District of Columbia to block an agreement reached between DOJ and a private company that would allow it to post 3D-printed gun files online. The Trump Administration announced new sanctions against Russia for defying international sanctions against North Korea.

7/17/18  //  Daily Update

President Trump, in an extraordinary joint press conference, appeared to side with Russian president Vladimir Putin over the U.S. intelligence community on Russian responsibility for interfering in the 2016 presidential election. New York State announced the launch of an investigation into whether Jared Kushner's family real estate company harassed tenants at a Brooklyn waterfront property so that they would leave their rent-stabilized apartments. A federal judge temporarily blocked the Trump Administration from deporting reunited families that had been separated under the administration’s “zero tolerance” policy. The FCC announced serious concerns with the Sinclair Broadcast Group’s plan to acquire rival Tribune Media. Republican House members called on the Justice Department’s Inspector General to to investigate whether Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein threatened congressional aides in a January meeting.

7/16/18  //  Daily Update

The Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates sued the Department of Education for failing to ensure that students with disabilities receive appropriate services no matter their racial background. President Trump’s recent executive order modifying the way administrative law judges are hired risks politicizing the federal workforce. Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court may spell the end of strong civil rights enforcement in the United States when it comes to voting rights. The National Rifle Association may have violated federal campaign finance laws by using opaque consulting firms as conduits for illegally coordinating with candidates for office. Special Counsel Robert Mueller indicted 12 Russian military intelligence officers for hacking and stealing emails from the Democratic National Committee and Clinton presidential campaign. Mueller is pushing to wrap up a significant portion of his investigative work by the end of the summer.

6/25/18  //  Daily Update

Stormy Daniels is expected to meet with federal prosecutors in New York as part of the investigation into Michael Cohen. President Trump on Twitter advocated depriving undocumented immigrants of due process rights. The Trump Administration announced the establishment of a formal process to reunite the 2,053 children separated from parents at the border. President Trump’s call to establish a sixth military branch—a “space force”—has been met with a cool reception by the Pentagon. Newly released emails indicate that Environmental Protection Administration head Scott Pruitt sought to hire a friend of a lobbyist who rented Pruitt a Capitol Hill apartment at below market rate. Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) suggested he would use his position on the Senate Judiciary Committee to delay the confirmation of judges in order to extract concessions from the administration on trade and other issues.

6/18/18  //  Daily Update

Election law experts agree that the New York AG’s lawsuit also makes a compelling case that the Donald J. Trump Foundation committed numerous federal election law violations during the 2016 campaign. The Trump Administration announced that it separated 1,995 children from parents facing criminal prosecution for unlawfully crossing the border over a six-week period that ended last month. A Trump Organization-affiliated real estate project in Dubai awarded a $20 million contract to a state-controlled Chinese company. The Trump Administration implemented tariffs on $50 billion worth of Chinese goods, escalating a tit-for-tat trade war with Beijing.

6/14/18  //  Daily Update

Michael Cohen’s current attorneys are likely to end their representation of him in the investigation by the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York. The Trump Administration plans use fingerprint analyses on decades-old samples to determine immigrants who lied or falsified naturalization forms and then revoke citizenship from those individuals. The Department of Justice has begun supporting conservative college students claiming that their schools have violated their First Amendment rights. New lawsuits brought by the National Democratic Redistricting Committee allege that Alabama, Georgia, and Louisiana’s congressional maps violate the Voting Rights Act. President Trump is expected to approve the levying of tariffs on Chinese goods, a move that is expected to worsen relations and create a trade war between the countries. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein is expected to call on the House to investigate the conduct of Intelligence Committee staffers.

5/28/18  //  Daily Update

The news that HHS has lost track of thousands of migrant children in its custody casts a new light on a case, Azar v. Garza, concerning the Trump Administration’s authority over undocumented minors. President Trump’s constant tweets attacking the investigations into Russian interference in the 2016 election and his campaign’s possible collusion appear to have succeeded in shifting public opinion among Republicans. The Federal Election Commission deadlocked on proposals to consider new rules to address the role of foreign money in funding politically active entities that do not have to disclose their donors. The NFL’s decision to not allow players to kneel during the playing of the anthem is probably illegal for a variety of reasons. Republican lawmakers are pressing regulators to prevent banks from restricting financing for gun sellers.

5/21/18  //  Daily Update

The Department of Housing and Urban Development announced that it would withdraw a computer assessment tool that provides local communities with data to help gauge and combat neighborhood segregation. Attorney General Jeff Sessions issued a directive limiting immigration judges’ use of administrative closure, which “could put hundreds of thousands of deportation cases that are essentially closed back on federal court dockets.” The Department of Health and Human Services proposed rules that would force organizations like Planned Parenthood to choose between ceasing abortion services or losing some government funding. Three months before the 2016 election, Donald Trump Jr. met secretly with Erik Prince, former head of the private security firm, Blackwater; George Nader, an emissary for the Saudi and Emirati governments; and Joel Zamel, an Israeli specialist in social media manipulation, in an encounter that has come under the scrutiny of Special Counsel Robert Mueller.

4/24/18  //  Daily Update

As the Supreme Court prepares to hear oral argument in litigation challenging the Trump Administration’s “Muslim ban,” the Department of Homeland Security is moving ahead with plans to establish a National Vetting Center that is supposed to establish tighter restrictions on screening foreigners. The Department of Education has shut down dozens of investigations into complaints of racial discrimination in school discipline. Thousands of Puerto Rican families displaced by Hurricane Maria have had to repeatedly face deadlines that would cut off federal assistance in providing temporary housing. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee signaled its approval of Mike Pompeo’s nomination as Secretary of State, following a late intervention by President Trump.

4/9/18  //  Daily Update

Immigration authorities have detained 506 pregnant women since the Trump Administration ended a policy in December to release most pregnant women while their immigration cases are pending. The Justice Department called for Harvard College to disclose admissions information in a brief filed in a civil rights lawsuit accusing Harvard of discriminating against Asian-American applicants. Facebook announced that it will begin requiring purchasers of political or issue ads on its platform to first reveal and verify their identity. EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt has come under fire for spending extravagantly on office furniture and private jet travel. Paul Manafort is seeking to suppress evidence the Justice Department obtained from a storage locker.

3/20/18  //  Daily Update

Congressional negotiators are still negotiating the details of a $1.3 trillion omnibus spending bill that must pass to avert a government shutdown on Friday. Chris Liddell has been named the new White House deputy chief of staff for policy. The Kushner Companies confirmed that Charles Kushner, Jared Kushner’s father, met with the Qatari finance minister three months into the Trump Administration and discussed funding for a financially troubled real estate project. The Supreme Court required Arizona to continue issuing drivers licenses to recipients of DACA. President Trump’s legal team has “provided the special counsel’s office with written descriptions that chronicle key moments under investigation in hopes of curtailing the scope of a presidential interview.”

2/26/18  //  Daily Update

Immigration officers under the Trump Administration are increasingly arresting people with no criminal backgrounds. Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto cancelled a planned trip to Washington after a “testy call” with President Trump ended in an impasse over whether Mexico would pay for construction of a border wall. The Supreme Court is set to hear a case, United States v. Microsoft, that will determine whether an American company must comply with a court order to turn over data stored abroad under the Stored Communications Act. Rick Gates, formerly deputy campaign manager of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy against the United States and making false statements to the FBI.