Today's and yesterday's WTF Just Happened Today?
https://whatthefuckjusthappenedtoday.com/2019/07/08/day-900/
Day 900: Pathways.
1/ New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed a bill allowing congressional committees to access Trump's New York state tax returns. The bill requires state tax officials to release the state returns for any "specified and legitimate legislative purpose" on the request of the House Ways and Means Committee, the Senate Finance Committee, or the Joint Committee on Taxation. Trump's personal lawyer, Jay Sekulow, called the bill "more presidential harassment." The House Ways and Means Committee has unsuccessfully tried to access six years of Trump's personal and business tax returns. The House sued the Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service last week to try to force them to release the returns. (New York Times/ NBC News)
- Day 894: House Democrats sued for Trump's tax returns, challenging the administration's refusal to comply with a subpoena for the records. The Ways and Means Committee accused the Trump administration of "an extraordinary attack on the authority of Congress to obtain information needed to conduct oversight," naming the Treasury Department, IRS, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, and IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig in the suit. The Trump administration has argued that Congress's power to access the returns is limited to information that would serve "legitimate" legislative purposes. (Politico / Washington Post / New York Times / NBC News / ABC News)
- Day 809: New York lawmakers will introduce a bill this week to permit the Department of Taxation and Finance to release state tax returns requested by a congressional committee. Under the new proposal, the release of tax information would only happen after efforts to obtain federal tax information through the Treasury Department had failed. The move comes as the Trump administration has signaled that it will resist the House Ways and Means Committee request to turn over six years of Trump's federal business and personal tax returns by April 10th. Mick Mulvaney, meanwhile, promised that Democrats will "never" see Trump's tax returns. (New York Times / Washington Post / CNN / Politico)
- Day 804: House Democrats formally requested six years of Trump's personal and business tax returns from the IRS. In a letter to the IRS, the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee cited a little known provision in the IRS tax code that grants tax-writing committees in Congress the power to request tax information on any individual. Chairman Richard Neal requested Trump's personal tax returns from 2013 to 2018, giving the agency until April 10 to comply. Trump claimed his returns are being audited by the IRS and that he would "not be inclined to" turn anything over to Congress. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin previously told the Ways and Means committee that he would protect Trump's privacy if members of Congress requested his tax returns. (CNN / New York Times / NBC News / Bloomberg / Washington Post / Wall Street Journal)
2/ Congressional Democrats issued three-dozen subpoenas to the Trump Organization and other Trump businesses tied to a lawsuit accusing Trump of profiting from foreign governments in violation of the Constitution. The Justice Department is asking an appeals court to prevent the subpoenas from going forward. (CNN)
- Day 887: A federal judge ruled that the Democrats' emoluments lawsuit against Trump can proceed. District Judge Emmet Sullivan said discovery could begin Friday, and Democrats are expected seek financial information, interviews and other records from Trump and the Trump Organization. The Trump administration can still try to delay or block Democrats from issuing subpoenas by appealing directly to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to intervene. (Washington Post)
3/ Trump is "very seriously" considering an executive order to get the citizenship question on the 2020 census despite statements last week from both his Department of Justice and his secretary of commerce that the administration was printing the census without the question. The Justice Department also assigned a new team of attorneys to defend Trump's attempts to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census following the Supreme Court's ruling that effectively blocked the question. A statement released by the DOJ gave no clear reason for the change to the legal team, but experts say the team is likely to face questions on multiple fronts after the Trump administration spent the last 15 months giving conflicting explanations about why the question should be added. Trump also recently ordered officials to keep pursuing the addition of the question, even if it means delaying the constitutionally mandated decennial survey. (New York Times / Politico / Washington Post / CNN / ABC News / Axios)
- Previously: A day after pledging that the 2020 census would not ask respondents about their citizenship, Justice Department officials reversed course and said they were looking for a way to restore the question on orders from Trump. (New York Times / Washington Post)
- Previously: Government lawyers scrambled to find a legal path to add a controversial citizenship question to the 2020 Census, despite their conclusions in recent days that no such avenue exists. (Washington Post)
- Previously: The Trump administration confirmed that it will press forward with efforts to add a citizenship question to next year's census, with Trump saying he’s exploring the possibility of reviving the question via executive order and government lawyers telling a federal judge that they've "been asked to reevaluate all available options." (Politico)
4/ Attorney General William Barr believes there's a "pathway" to legally add a citizenship question to the 2020 census. Barr said he believed the Supreme Court's ruling against the administration was "wrong" and that there is "an opportunity potentially to cure the lack of clarity that was the problem and we might as well take a shot at doing that." Barr would not detail the administration's plans, but said the Trump administration will take action in the coming days that he believes will allow the government to ask the controversial question. (Post and Courier / Associated Press / Talking Points Memo)
5/ ICE officials used facial recognition software to analyze state driver's license photo databases without motorists' permission. ICE requested to comb through repositories of license photos in at least three states that offer licenses to undocumented immigrants. At least two of the states — Vermont and Utah — complied with the requests. In Washington state, agents authorized administrative subpoenas of the Department of Licensing to conduct a facial recognition scan of all photos of license applicants, but it's unclear whether state officials carried out the searches. (Washington Post / New York Times)
- U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services said immigration authorities are ready to identify, detain and deport approximately one million undocumented immigrants with pending removal orders. (CBS News)
- The Trump administration plans to replace in-court interpreters at initial immigration court hearings with videos informing asylum seekers and other immigrants facing deportation of their rights. (San Francisco Chronicle)
6/ Trump said he wants members of the press to "go in and see" inside the "beautifully run" migrant detention centers. "I'm going to start showing some of these detention centers … to the press," Trump said. "We're going to send people in. We're going to have some of the press go in." Trump's comments come days after several Democratic members of Congress toured two facilities in Texas, where they found migrants and their children are being forced to live in squalid conditions while detained near the southwestern border. (CNN / USA Today)
- Day 895: A report from the Department of Homeland Security's independent watchdog found the squalid conditions at migrant detention camps were more widespread than initially revealed. The report describes standing-room-only cells, children without access to showers or hot meals, and detainees desperately begging to be released. Inspectors visited five facilities in June, where they found many migrants are given only wet wipes to clean themselves and bologna sandwiches to eat, leading to additional health problems. Children at two of the camps were not given hot meals until inspectors arrived. Overcrowding was so severe that migrants were banging on cell walls and pressing notes up against the windows begging for help. (New York Times / Reuters)
7/ The White House correspondent for Breitbart has joined the Trump administration. Michelle Moons will work in the office of Domestic Policy Council. (CNN)
poll/ 44% of Americans approve of Trump's job performance – up 5 percentage points from April and the highest point of his presidency – while 53% disapprove. (ABC News / Washington Post)
https://whatthefuckjusthappenedtoday.com/2019/07/09/day-901/
Day 901: Radiating insecurity.
1/ A federal judge rejected a Trump administration request to assign a new legal team to a lawsuit that blocked the addition of the citizenship question to the 2020 census. U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman called the request "patently deficient" and that the U.S. had provided "no reasons, let alone 'satisfactory reasons,' for the substitution of counsel." The Justice Department had announced its intention earlier this week to swap out the legal team on the case, but didn't explain why. (Bloomberg / Washington Post)
- Day 900: Trump is "very seriously" considering an executive order to get the citizenship question on the 2020 census despite statements last week from both his Department of Justice and his secretary of commerce that the administration was printing the census without the question. The Justice Department also assigned a new team of attorneys to defend Trump's attempts to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census following the Supreme Court's ruling that effectively blocked the question. A statement released by the DOJ gave no clear reason for the change to the legal team, but experts say the team is likely to face questions on multiple fronts after the Trump administration spent the last 15 months giving conflicting explanations about why the question should be added. Trump also recently ordered officials to keep pursuing the addition of the question, even if it means delaying the constitutionally mandated decennial survey. (New York Times / Politico / Washington Post / CNN / ABC News / Axios)
2/ House Democrats plan to move forward with criminal contempt proceedings against Attorney General William Barr and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross for defying congressional subpoenas related to the addition of a citizenship question on the 2020 Census. The move is largely symbolic one, unlikely to lead to many tangible consequences. The DOJ will most likely refuse to charge Barr or any other cabinet secretary with a crime, and has even urged officials not to comply with the House Oversight and Reform Committee's subpoenas. (Politico)
3/ Democrats in Congress called on Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta to resign over a controversial plea deal he brokered as a U.S. attorney that gave a lenient sentence to Jeffrey Epstein, who served 13 months for sexually abusing dozens of young women and underage girls. Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer said Acosta "must step down" because "he engaged in an unconscionable agreement" with Epstein that was "known" by Trump at the time. Acosta defended his 2007 decision, tweeting that he supports the "horrific" new charges and was "pleased" that prosecutors in New York are "moving forward with a case based on new evidence." (New York Times / Politico / USA Today / CNBC / CNN / Washington Post)
- [BACKGROUND]: Federal prosecutors charged Epstein on Monday with sex trafficking, alleging that the billionaire financier had abused dozens of young girls at his Manhattan and Palm Beach, Fla., homes and enlisted his victims to bring him others. The indictment deals an implicit rebuke to the plea agreement, which was overseen by Acosta, then the U.S. attorney in Miami and now Trump's labor secretary. Lewd photos of girls were discovered in a safe inside the Epstein's Manhattan mansion the day he was arrested, deepening questions about why federal prosecutors in Miami had cut a deal that shielded him from federal prosecution in 2008. (Washington Post / New York Times / New York Times)
4/ Trump said he felt "very badly" for Acosta while praising him as "excellent" and "very good" at his job. Trump added that he would be looking "very closely" at the circumstances surrounding the plea deal, but has no immediate plan to force out or fire Acosta, two White House officials said. In 2002, Trump told New York Magazine that Epstein was "a terrific guy," who "likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side." Today, however, Trump told reporters that the two "had a falling out" about 15 years ago and that he "was not a fan of his, that I can tell you." (Washington Post / Associated Press / Miami Herald / CNN / Washington Post)
- Attorney General William Barr won't recuse himself from involvement in the new charges filed against alleged sex-trafficker Jeffrey Epstein by federal prosecutors. Epstein previously hired lawyers from the law firm Kirkland & Ellis LLP, where Barr served as counsel to the law firm before becoming attorney general. Barr, however, has recused himself from any review of the Justice Department's deal with Epstein more than a decade ago letting Epstein avoid prosecution on federal sex-trafficking offenses in Florida in exchange for pleading guilty to two charges of soliciting a prostitute. (Bloomberg)
5/ The House Judiciary Committee will vote on to authorize subpoenas for 12 of Robert Mueller's witnesses. The subpoena targets include Jared Kushner, Jeff Sessions, Rod Rosenstein, Michael Flynn, John Kelly and Corey Lewandowski, as well as Dylan Howard and David Pecker, two executives at American Media, Inc., and Keith Davidson, an attorney who previously represented Stormy Daniels. Republicans called the subpoenas as an effort to "relitigate" the Mueller investigation. (Politico)
- Michael Flynn will not testify against his former business partner, because prosecutors no longer believe his version of events. Flynn previously admitted that he lied on foreign lobbying disclosure forms, but now is blaming his former lawyers and accusing them of filing inaccurate forms without his knowledge. (Washington Post / New York Times)
- The White House blocked a witness in the Mueller investigation from answering 212 questions about potential obstruction of justice by Trump. Annie Donaldson is the former chief of staff to ex-White House counsel Donald McGahn, and her contemporaneous notes are cited 65 times in the Mueller report. Trump administration lawyers, however, blocked her from going into detail about her documented exchanges between Trump and McGahn. (Washington Post)
- The former British spy behind the Trump "dossier" was interviewed for 16 hours by the Justice Department's inspector general. During the 2016 election, Christopher Steele was hired by the opposition research firm Fusion GPS to research Trump's Russia ties. (Politico)
- Felix Sater testified before the House Intelligence Committee today. The former Trump business associate and chief negotiator for the defunct Trump Tower Moscow project has rescheduled his appearance several times since he was first slated to appear in March. (Politico)
6/ Trump said the U.S. will "no longer deal with" a British ambassador who called him "inept" and said his administration was "dysfunctional," in leaked cables. Trump attacked Sir Kim Darroch for the second day in a row, threatening to cut ties altogether over the leaked memos, which described Trump as "radiating insecurity." Trump tweeted that Darroch "is not liked or well thought of within the U.S. We will no longer deal with him." He then attacked Prime Minister Theresa May for making "mess" over Brexit. Weeks ago Trump praised for having done a "very good job." (The Guardian / Washington Post)
7/ Secretary of State Mike Pompeo unveiled a panel aimed at providing him with "an informed review of the role of human rights in American foreign policy." During remarks to the State Department, Pompeo said "words like 'rights' can be used by good or evil," and complained that some have "hijacked" the rhetoric of human rights and used it for "dubious or malignant purposes." While Pompeo offered little detail as to what the panel will actually do, emphasizing its focus on outlining principles instead of directing policy, he said he hoped the panel would facilitate "one of the most profound reexaminations of the unalienable rights in the world since the 1948 universal declaration." (Politico)
8/ Mitch McConnell's great-great-grandfathers owned at least 14 slaves in the 1800s. McConnell, meanwhile, recently said he opposed paying government reparations to the descendants of American slaves "for something that happened 150 years ago, when none of us currently living are responsible." McConnell added: "We've tried to deal with our original sin of slavery by fighting a civil war, by passing landmark civil rights legislation. We've elected an African American president." (NBC News)
- Amy McGrath, a retired Marine lieutenant colonel and combat pilot announced she would challenge McConnell for his seat in 2020. (New York Times)
9/ Trump violated the First Amendment by blocking people on Twitter who criticized or mocked him, a federal appeals court ruled. The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled unanimously that because Trump uses Twitter to conduct government business, he cannot exclude some Americans from reading his posts. The case was brought against Trump, Dan Scavino, and Sarah Huckabee Sanders by a group of Twitter users who say they were blocked by Trump. Public officials who use social media for official government business, the court said, are prohibited from excluding people "from an otherwise open online dialogue because they expressed views with which the official disagrees." (New York Times / Washington Post / Politico)