3/28/18  //  Daily Update

The National Rifle Association admits that it receives foreign donations, but it claims that it does not put them toward election work. Public documents show that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement uses Facebook data to identify and track suspects. The handling of Hurricanes Harvey and Maria show that the Trump Administration favored Texas over Puerto Rico in its relief efforts. A proposal to end Medicare funding for long-term opioid prescription receives blowback from patients with chronic pain. The FBI has assigned 54 staff members to assemble documents for the House Judiciary Committee regarding the McCabe firing and the Hillary Clinton email investigation among other high-profile matters.

3/27/18  //  Daily Update

The deportation of a U.S. Army veteran after his drug felony conviction highlights the challenges of the American immigration system. Stormy Daniels’s lawsuit highlights the need to reform NDAs that shield sexual harassers. The recently replaced chairman of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission is joining the Department of Homeland Security’s program to fight cyber threats to elections. In his toughest stance against the Kremlin yet, President Trump orders the expulsion of 60 Russians from the U.S. GOP fundraiser and defense contractor Elliott Broidy has offered clients—many of whom are foreign leaders—private access to President Trump in exchange for business.

3/26/18  //  Daily Update

The law firm Munger Tolles & Olson LLP is requiring its summer associates to sign an agreement to arbitrate a host of claims, including those related to sexual harassment and sex discrimination. President Trump moved ahead with a plan to ban most transgender people from serving in the military, with limited exceptions, following up on a proposal he called for last summer. The adult film star Stephanie Clifford told “60 Minutes” that she struck a $130,000 deal for her silence about an alleged affair with Donald J. Trump in the final days of the 2016 campaign because she was worried about her safety. Officials said that President Trump is close to expelling 20 or more Russian diplomats in response to the poisoning of a former Russian spy in Britain. Investigators have reportedly discovered that "Guccifer 2.0," the hacker who claimed credit for a breach of the Democratic National Committee during the 2016 presidential race, revealed himself as a Russian intelligence operative.

3/23/18  //  Daily Update

The House passed the $1.3 trillion omnibus spending bill on Thursday, which will head to the Senate before Friday’s shutdown deadline. Lt. Gen. H. R. McMaster will resign as National Security Adviser and be replaced by John Bolton. President Trump announced $60 billion of annual tariffs on Chinese imports as partial punishment for alleged unfair business practices, including co-opting American technology. The House Judiciary Committee reportedly will subpoena the Department of Justice to obtain documents related to the FBI’s investigation into Hillary Clinton’s email server. John Dowd, President Trump’s lawyer primarily responsible for responding to special counsel Mueller’s investigation, resigned on Thursday.

3/22/18  //  Daily Update

The federal Office of Women’s Health removes information about health for lesbian and bisexual women from its website. The Fed raises interest rates to their highest level in a decade. The Trump administration has only submitted 4 of the 13 national security reports required by the National Defense Authorization Act. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos is pushing ahead with a plan to “pause” an Obama rule intended to ensure children from certain minority backgrounds aren’t overrepresented in special education. The President congratulated Putin on his latest election win despite an explicit briefing telling him not to. Evidence already in the public record strongly suggests Cambridge Analytica “knowingly used Russian disinformation to help the Trump campaign win the 2016 election.”

3/21/18  //  Daily Update

The Supreme Court heard arguments in a case challenging a California law which requires “crisis pregnancy centers” to give information about abortion. The Koch network urged President Trump to accept an offer from congressional Democrats, which would give a pathway to citizenship for young immigrants and $25 billion for a border wall. A New York state judge denied a motion to dismiss filed by President Trump in a lawsuit by a woman who accused President Trump of sexually assaulting her, concluding that President Trump does not have immunity from suit in cases not involving official acts. Cambridge Analytica suspended its CEO after reports that the data analytics firm improperly accessed private Facebook user data during its work on behalf of the Trump campaign.

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.”

3/19/18  //  Daily Update

Attorney General Jeff Sessions fired Andrew McCabe, the deputy director of the FBI. McCabe kept contemporaneous memos on his interactions with President Trump; he has given those memos to Special Counsel Robert Mueller. North Korean, South Korean, and U.S. officials will hold unofficial talks in Finland ahead of an expected U.S.-North Korean summit by the end of May. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review—the highest of the surveillance review courts—held that outside groups have a right to argue for access to sealed information from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. President Trump made senior staff sign nondisclosure agreements meant to last beyond his presidency.

3/16/18  //  Daily Update

The ACLU and Human Rights First filed a class action lawsuit in the District Court for the District of Columbia, challenging indefinite detention of asylum seekers. The Trump Administration’s failure to convene multiple committees on disability issues raises concerns for lawmakers and the disabilities community. Many of President Trump’s executive and judicial appointees have connections to the Bush administration torture program and practices. The Special Counsel has subpoenaed documents from the Trump Organization regarding its business dealings in Russia, marking the first public indication that the investigation is expanding to President Trump’s businesses.

3/15/18  //  Daily Update

Students nationwide walked out of school to protest gun violence in an effort to pressure Congress to pass gun control legislation. The Fifth Circuit upheld most of SB4, the Texas ban on sanctuary cities. Alejandra Pablos, a nationally-recognized reproductive justice and immigrant rights leader, was the latest activist to be taken into custody by ICE. Attorney General Jeff Sessions is appointing interim U.S. attorneys who are loyalists to President Trump to districts in which the President may face litigation. Sessions is also reviewing a recommendation to fire Andrew McCabe, the former FBI Deputy Director, just days before McCabe's scheduled retirement.

3/13/18  //  Daily Update

President Trump backed away from his proposal to raise gun purchase age limits, claiming “not much political support.” A Department of Homeland Security proposal to implement continuous automated social media monitoring of visitors and immigrants to the United States is a “Muslim ban by algorithm.” 12 consolidated lawsuits challenging the Federal Communications Commission’s repeal of net neutrality rules will be heard by the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Stormy Daniels has offered to return a $130,000 payment from President Trump made as part of a non-disclosure agreement regarding an alleged affair.

3/12/18  //  Daily Update

The ACLU announced it has filed a national class-action lawsuit against multiple federal government agencies over the practice of separating asylum-seeking families. President Trump reportedly told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that he will withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal if Germany, France and the United Kingdom do not meet his demands. The Trump and Kushner families have developed increasingly close business relationships since President Trump was elected and Jared Kushner joined the White House. President Trump’s efforts to undermine the independence of federal law enforcement agencies mirror the approach of autocratic leaders.

3/9/18  //  Daily Update

President Trump says he will meet North Korea’s Kim Jong-un in the next two months. Eliminating the individual mandate, along with other changes to the ACA, will cause health insurance rates to rise 35 to 94 percent in the next three years, according to a new report. In EEOC challenge, the Sixth Circuit holds that discrimination on the basis of transgender and transitioning status is discrimination on the basis of sex. Paul Manafort pleaded not guilty on Thursday to fraud charges brought against him by Special Counsel Robert Mueller. British court finds anti-Muslim extremists, retweeted by President Trump in November, guilty of hate crimes.

3/7/18  //  Daily Update

The U.S. Office of Special Counsel recommended disciplinary action against Kellyanne Conway for violating the Hatch Act with consistent advocacy for Roy Moore in last year’s Alabama Senate election. Valerie Huber, an outspoken abstinence advocate, will now be the sole overseer of a $286 million Health and Human Services (HHS) program meant to fund family planning programs. Carl Ichan, former Trump adviser, raised ethical concerns when he sold off $30 million of stock just days before the President’s announcement of steel and aluminum import tariffs. This is not the first time Ichan has been accused of profiting from his access to the President. A Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) official accused HUD Secretary Ben Carson of creating an environment of harassment and intimidation after a whistleblower accused Carson of retaliating against her for refusing to violate legal spending limits to furnish his office.

3/6/18  //  Daily Update

ICE is separating children from parents at the border. To Mueller subpoena, former Trump aide Sam Nunberg says “screw that,” “let him arrest me.” Arkansas gets the go-ahead to impose work requirements on recipients of Medicaid. Unfavorable court decisions could deter would-be whistleblowers from exposing wrongdoing at America’s intelligence agencies. FCC Director Ajit Pai’s proposal to dramatically restructure an internet subsidy to impoverished people is drawing criticism from all sides.