11/9/18  //  Daily Update

After months of investigation, the Special Counsel’s team has begun writing its final report. Were he not to recuse himself, there are several things the acting Attorney General, Matt Whitaker, could legally do to slow down or stop the Special Counsel investigation. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court temporary order, blocking the Trump Administration from ending the DACA program. The Trump Administration has been using videoconferencing to conduct some of the immigration hearings for detained migrant children, which some argue obscures these hearings from the public and poses due process concerns. The HHS Department finalized a rule that will allow certain employers to deny contraception coverage to employees based on moral and religious grounds.

11/8/18  //  Daily Update

Attorney General Jeff Sessions resigned at President Trump’s request; Matthew Whitaker, Sessions’ Chief of Staff, was named Acting Attorney General. The ACLU called for the DOJ to investigate Border Patrol for voter intimidation. Government officials acknowledged the spread of Election Day misinformation on social media site. Motel 6 agreed to pay a $9 million settlement after it worked with ICE agents to arrest guests. In October, three new credible allegations of corruption were raised against the Trump Administration, involving Secretary Zinke’s property dealings, President Trump’s business dealings in Saudi Arabia, and intervention on behalf of Republican donor Sheldon Adelson in Japan.

11/7/18  //  Daily Update

The Department of Homeland Security announced that there have not yet been any attempts by foreign powers to breach American voting systems in the midterm elections. The Justice Department has switched its focus for voting-law enforcement from areas with many African-American voters to areas with many Latinx voters. This shift reflects racialized worries about voter fraud that have been expressed by President Trump. However, it could also allow for better protection of voting rights in these areas. The United States imposed a second round of sanctions against Iran on Monday amid turbulence in American relations with Saudi Arabia and Yemen.

11/6/18  //  Daily Update

Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced a plan for the deployment of federal personnel to polling sites on Election Day. The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court to step into the legal fights over its decision to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. DOJ official, John Gore, who drafted the controversial request for citizenship question on 2020 Census testified that adding the question is "not necessary" for enforcing the Voting Rights Act.

11/5/18  //  Daily Update

A federal judge in Maryland denied the Trump administration’s request to put discovery on hold in an Emoluments Clause lawsuit. The first trial regarding the inclusion of a citizenship question on the 2020 Census will begin in New York on Monday after the Supreme Court denied the Trump administration’s request for a stay. Economic sanctions will be re-imposed on Iran today. Cesay Sayoc, the man alleged to have sent pipe bombs to Democrats and other public figures across the country, will remain in custody until he is transferred to New York for trial. At the SEC and DOJ, there has been a sharp decline in financial penalties against banks and businesses accused of illegality. Federal and state officials are guarding against Russian interference in the midterm elections, with a wary eye to a greater threat in 2020.

11/2/18  //  Daily Update

At a Florida rally, President Trump calls constitutional citizenship protections a “crazy policy.” President Trump says the U.S. will stop releasing apprehended migrants prior to their hearings. Justice Department charges Chinese company with espionage. Democrats are preparing to try to obtain a copy of President Trump’s tax returns if they win control of the House or Senate. Senator Joe Manchin says social media accounts associated with his Senate office had been hacked. State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert is expected to be nominated as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

11/1/18  //  Daily Update

President Trump’s proposed birthright citizenship order is creating legal chaos now and will later, despite the order’s likely unconstitutionality. The proposal is dividing the Republican party, including President Trump and Speaker Ryan. Border Patrol is preparing for the arrival of both the migrant caravan and national troops. The Trump Administration called for a ceasefire in Yemen. The National Archives released the Watergate “Road Map.” The Commerce Department banned American companies from selling components to the Chinese chipmaker Fujian Jinhua. Democrats slammed the Director of National Intelligence for keeping a report about Chinese election interference confidential.

10/31/18  //  Daily Update

Special Counsel Robert Mueller has requested an FBI investigation after it was discovered that a company offered to pay women to make allegations against him. The DOJ has unsealed an indictment of Chinese intelligence officers for the hacking of aerospace information and technology from American companies. Advocacy groups urge President Trump to appoint a head for the Bureau of Prisons. The Interior Department’s oversight organization has referred an investigation into a possible conflict of interests by Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke to the Justice Department. Mr. Zinke is the subject of at least eighteen federal investigations into ethical or policy violations. President Trump has proposed an executive order that would end birthright citizenship.

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.

10/29/18  //  Daily Update

Over 700,000 immigrants face a backlog on applications to become U.S. citizens under the Trump administration, with the process that used to take six months now taking over two years. Harvard’s Institute of Politics Survey suggests Americans under 30 will vote in higher numbers in the 2018 election than they have in previous years. House Republicans' change of the rules in 2015 to allow them to issue subpoenas as the majority party without consulting the minority party may backfire in 2018 if Democrats use it to investigate President Trump. Far-right candidate Jair Bolsonaro has been elected the next President of Brazil. President Trump’s promotion of the idea of “America First” has left a number of world leaders less willing to work with the United States at the United Nations.

10/26/18  //  Daily Update

President Trump’s allies say FBI officials should be investigated over Russia probe. At the Supreme Court, the DOJ argues in favor of businesses being able to discriminate against transgender employees. President Trump to order 800 army troops to help secure the border with Mexico. CIA Director Gina Haspel has listened to audio of Jamal Khashoggi’s killing. Manhattan judge questions Trump Foundation over campaign ties. President Trump proposes to lower drug prices by basing them on other countries’ costs. A federal judge orders Georgia to give voters the chance to fix absentee ballots. Typhoon Yutu destroys U.S. territories in the Western Pacific.

10/25/18  //  Daily Update

Pipe bombs were sent to prominent Democratic politicians, including Hillary Clinton, former President Barack Obama, Eric Holder, and Maxine Waters, as well as CNN. The migrant caravan headed to the United States from Honduras is creating a political firestorm before the midterms. Amazon met with ICE officials to market its facial recognition software. The GAO has issued its report on the family separation policy. Officials are preparing for false claims of election interference that might affect the public’s confidence in the electoral process. Chinese and Russian spies are listening to President Trump’s phone calls. Two new reports demonstrate how black Americans are targeted by Russian disinformation.

10/24/18  //  Daily Update

The DOJ is planning to propose a change to immigration proceedings that would allow the Attorney General to rule on cases before they are heard by the Board of Immigration Appeals. TSA’s proposal to use facial recognition surveillance technology at airports “is not good news for privacy and civil liberties” as it could easily spread to other government agencies. Taking its first step to hold Saudi Arabia accountable for the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, announced that the US will revoke the visas of the men accused of the murder. The Administration’s new practice of asking the partisan affiliation of judicial candidates to the Board of Veterans’ Appeals has some concerned judges are being selected based on partisanship rather than qualifications. The US Cyber Command has begun its first cyber operation against Russian election interference by informing Russian operatives their activities have been identified and are being tracked.

10/23/18  //  Daily Update

The Special Counsel has acquired audio recordings related to Roger Stone’s contacts with Wikileaks and the Trump campaign. In an unusual move, Paul Manafort has allegedly retained a joint defense agreement with President Trump, despite pleading guilty cooperating with the Special Counsel investigation. The Department of Health and Human Services announced new regulations that would allow states to opt out of many Affordable Care Act insurance requirements. Brian Johnson, a longtime Republican political operative and critic of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, has played a leading role in reshaping the agency as acting deputy director.

10/22/18  //  Daily Update

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.