April 2, 2019

House Oversight Committee votes to subpoena testimony and documents related to citizenship question

Source: The Washington Post



By Tara Bahrampour April 2 at 4:03 PM

The House Committee on Oversight and Reform voted Tuesday to compel the Trump administration to provide more information on its decision to add a citizenship question to the 2020 Census.

The 23 to 14 vote authorizes committee chair Elijah Cummings (D-Md) to issue subpoenas for a deposition of principal deputy assistant attorney general John Gore and for documents from the Departments of Commerce and Justice, related to the decision. One Republican, Justin Amash (R-MI), voted with the Democrats.

It comes three weeks before the Supreme Court is set to consider whether the question will be allowed on the forms every household in the U.S. will be required to fill out next year. Two federal judges have struck it down, saying Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross’s actions in adding the question were in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act.

The committee met last month with Gore on the matter but said he refused to answer over 150 questions, citing ongoing litigation.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/social-issues/house-oversight-committee-votes-to-subpoena-testimony-and-documents-related-to-citizenship-question-on-2020-census/2019/04/02/c2885c1a-5571-11e9-814f-e2f46684196e_story.html

April 2, 2019

Woman with Chinese passports, malware arrested at Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort

Source: The Washington Post



By Devlin Barrett April 2 at 4:36 PM

Secret Service agents arrested a woman at President Trump’s Florida resort this past weekend after she was found carrying two Chinese passports and a thumb drive with malicious software on it, according to court documents.

Prosecutors allege the woman, Yujing Zhang, first told security officials at Mar-a-Lago that she was there to go to the swimming pool, and due to an apparent language barrier, staff at the club thought she was a relative of one of the club’s members.

Once inside the grounds, Zhang allegedly told a receptionist that she was there for a United Nations event scheduled for later in the day about Chinese-American relations. No such event was on the schedule, so the receptionist called the Secret Service, according to court papers.

After Zhang was stopped and questioned, a search of her belongings turned up four cell phones, a laptop, a hard drive, and a thumb drive which contained “malicious malware,” according to the criminal complaint. The document says she told Secret Service agents that a Chinese friend instructed her to travel from Shanghai to the president’s Florida resort and make contact with a member of Trump’s family.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/woman-with-chinese-passports-malware-arrested-at-trumps-mar-a-lago-resort/2019/04/02/3399e426-5583-11e9-814f-e2f46684196e_story.html

April 2, 2019

NCGOP Chairman, others indicted in federal corruption probe

By Nick Ochsner | April 2, 2019 at 11:46 AM EDT - Updated April 2 at 12:15 PM

CHARLOTTE, NC (WBTV) – A federal grand jury has indicted multiple people in connection with an ongoing investigation involving donations made to the North Carolina Republican Party.

NCGOP Chairman Robin Hayes, who spent a decade in Congress representing a district that stretched from the Charlotte area to Fayetteville, surrendered himself to authorities and made a first appearance at the US Courthouse in Charlotte on Tuesday.

The charges center around a wealthy Durham businessman named Greg Lindberg, who has been under the microscope of federal investigators for white collar crimes related to his business empire and, later, for contributions he made to politicians in North Carolina.

Hayes and Lindberg were both indicted Tuesday on charges related to honest services wire fraud for attempting to bribe NC Insurance Commissioner Mike Causey. Causey is not being charged.

https://twitter.com/NickOchsnerWBTV/status/1113105777114468353

more
http://www.wbtv.com/2019/04/02/ncgop-chairman-others-indicted-federal-corruption-probe/

April 2, 2019

Bolton Tests His Boundaries and Trump's Patience in Growing Role

By Margaret Talev and Jennifer Jacobs

April 2, 2019, 4:00 AM EDT

Trump and adviser split on North Korean sanctions last month

Relationships with powerful Republicans said to protect Bolton

White House National Security Adviser John Bolton is expanding his influence in increasingly visible ways, pursuing his own longstanding foreign policy priorities at the risk of tensions with top administration officials -- and even Donald Trump himself.

An example spilled into the public eye a week ago, when an irked Trump cryptically announced on Twitter he’d undo some North Korea-related sanctions blessed by Bolton. The president’s decision was quietly walked back and the sanctions remain in place.

Since joining Trump’s White House, Bolton has pursued an agenda that includes trying to break Iran financially, oust Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, shield Americans from the reach of the International Criminal Court and toughen the U.S. posture toward Russia. He coordinated with key lawmakers, U.S. diplomatic and defense officials and the Israelis to compel Trump to slow an abrupt withdrawal of American forces from Syria.

Bolton, 70, has meanwhile adopted an increasingly public profile on Twitter, Trump’s social media platform of choice. Through a spokesman, he declined to be interviewed for this article.

This story is based on interviews with lawmakers and several current and former White House and diplomatic officials, most of whom asked not to be identified in order to candidly discuss Trump’s third national security adviser.

more
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-04-02/bolton-tests-his-boundaries-and-trump-s-patience-in-growing-role

April 2, 2019

GOP Congressman Threatening to Bolt Party to Run Against Trump

On Monday, MLive reported that Rep. Justice Amash (R-MI), a libertarian-minded conservative increasingly at odds with President Donald Trump, said he “can’t rule out” abandoning the GOP — and running against Trump on the Libertarian Party ticket in 2020:

“I think my message does resonate with a lot of people,” said Amash, now in his fifth Congressional term. “There are people who are tired of the way it works and are coming to understand that the problem is this two-party duopoly and the partisan fighting that is nonstop. If people came to Washington with strong ideologies but less partisanship this would be a lot better.”

Amash, who was first elected as part of the Tea Party wave in 2010, had harsh words for many of the Republicans who were elected alongside him and preaching the same thing he was: “It turns out a lot of them were not in favor of limiting the size of government, they were just opposed to the president at the time … [the Tea Party] was replaced with nationalism and protectionism and the general philosophy of the party now under Trump.”

Amash, who calls himself the “the only libertarian in Congress,” agrees with the GOP on things like tax cuts for the wealthy and deregulating guns. But he has bucked the party on a number of other issues, from criticizing the Supreme Court appointment of Brett Kavanaugh to opposing the declaration of a national emergency to divert military funding to construct a border wall.

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https://www.thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/2019/04/gop-congressman-threatening-to-bolt-party-to-run-against-trump/

April 2, 2019

Hallie Jackson Calls Out WH Spox's Falsehoods About 'That Country' Puerto Rico

By Matt Shuham
April 2, 2019 11:23 am

NBC News’ Hallie Jackson fact-checked White House spokesperson Hogan Gidley in real time after Gidley repeated President Donald Trump’s falsehoods regarding Puerto Rico. Gidley also incorrectly called the U.S. territory “that country,” which he later said was “a slip of the tongue.”

In an interview Tuesday morning with Jackson, Gidley attempted to defend President Donald Trump’s tweeted attacks at Puerto Rico, where nearly 3,000 people died as a result of Hurricane Maria’s landfall in 2017, and where the Trump administration is widely blamed for bungling disaster response after the catastrophic storm.

-snip-

“They have received more money than any state or territory in history for rebuild,” Gidley asserted confidently, adding: “They have not come to $91 billion, with all we’ve done in that country, where they have had a systematic mismanagement of the goods and services we’ve sent to them.”

Jackson jumped in, correcting the White House spokesperson on three fronts. “These are things that are not true, just factually, from a factual basis,” she said.

First, the “$91 billion” Gidley and Trump cited doesn’t represent what’s been spent on recovery in Puerto Rico, but rather the Trump administration’s high-end estimate of what recovery on the island could cost in the long run, The Washington Post reported. The territory has only actually received about $11 billion in aide.

Second, even if Puerto Rico receives $91 billion in federal assistance over the lifetime of the Hurricane Maria recovery — which will take many more years — that still won’t come close to the estimated $120 billion federal bill for the recovery after Hurricane Katina.

Finally, Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens who live in a U.S. territory. Gidley said later in the interview that it was “a mistake” to refer to the island as “that country.”

“Do you think that’s a concern that there is that kind of slip of the tongue inside the White House?” Jackson asked.

“No,” Gidley replied. “A slip of the tongue is not on purpose, Hallie, that would by definition be a slip of the tongue.”

Commenting on Gidley’s reference to Puerto Rico as “that country,” Politico’s Jake Sherman said “I’ve heard variations of this from many people inside the White House.” The New York Times’ Maggie Haberman agreed.

https://twitter.com/mattshuham/status/1113096647825862656

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/hallie-jackson-calls-out-wh-spoxs-falsehoods-about-that-country-puerto-rico

April 2, 2019

Democrats demand Barr testify 'not in a month ... but now'

They want the attorney general to explain his decision to release a summary of Robert Mueller's conclusions without also unveiling the full report.

By DARREN SAMUELSOHN 04/02/2019 09:27 AM EDT

House Democratic leaders are calling for Attorney General William Barr to immediately appear for a hearing to explain his decision last month to release a top-line summary of Robert Mueller’s investigation without unveiling the full report.

It's a move that has given President Donald Trump a potent — and at times misleading — talking point about the conclusions of the nearly two-year Russia probe and left Democrats frustrated with Barr.

Barr's four-page memo said the special counsel did not find a criminal conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Moscow to sway the 2016 presidential election, but it also said that Mueller did not exonerate the president on obstruction of justice. However, Barr added that he would not charge the president with obstruction of justice. Trump has touted the letter as a complete vindication.

The chairmen of six committees, including Judiciary’s Jerry Nadler, said in their letter sent Monday to Barr that he should testify “as soon as possible — not in a month, as you have offered, but now” to discuss his rationale.

more
https://www.politico.com/story/2019/04/02/william-barr-testify-1247878

April 2, 2019

Pelosi: No vote on new NAFTA until Mexico changes labor laws

Source: Politico



By SABRINA RODRIGUEZ 04/02/2019 10:04 AM EDT

Speaker Nancy Pelosi indicated on Tuesday the House will not consider President Donald Trump’s new North American trade pact until after Mexico has passed and implemented its major labor law reforms.

In an interview with POLITICO Playbook, the California Democrat explained that Mexico must pass labor law reforms required under the replacement deal for NAFTA — and she wants to see the implementation before the House considers backing the new deal, a top Trump administration legislative priority.

“Unless you do this, we can’t even consider it. ... We have to see that [Mexico passes] the legislation, that they have the factors in place that will make sure it’s implemented and they demonstrate some commitments in sincerity, because it’s a big issue how workers are treated in Mexico,” she said.

Pelosi’s comments are her clearest indication yet the deal will not face a quick vote in Congress, despite the Trump administration’s desire to get it passed by summer. In recent months, the administration has been increasing its efforts to get the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement passed ahead of the 2020 elections.

Read more: https://www.politico.com/story/2019/04/02/pelosi-new-nafta-mexico-1311482

April 2, 2019

2 Republican AGs urge court to throw out Obamacare ruling

By PAUL DEMKO 04/01/2019 05:12 PM EDT Updated 04/01/2019 06:59 PM EDT

Republican attorneys general in Ohio and Montana are opposing a federal judge’s ruling that the entire Affordable Care Act should be thrown out, breaking with the Trump administration's recent decision to support the ruling.

In a brief filed in federal appeals court Monday, the attorneys general argue a federal judge erred in concluding that Obamacare must be struck down because law's individual mandate is unconstitutional and cannot be severed from the rest of the law. Though the two attorneys general oppose the requirement to purchase coverage, they say they rest of the law should be allowed to stand, and they warn there could be negative consequences for millions of their residents if the judge's decision is upheld.

“The fact that a ruling has negative consequences does not mean it is wrong,” write Dave Yost of Ohio and Timothy Fox of Montana. “Let justice be done, though the heavens may fall. But the District Court’s ruling is wrong, and its errors threaten harm to millions of people in the Buckeye and Treasure states.”

A federal judge in Texas ruled in December that all of Obamacare is unconstitutional. That decision has been put on hold as the lawsuit winds it way through the courts. The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals will hear an appeal filed by 17 Democratic-led states.

more
https://www.politico.com/story/2019/04/01/court-obamacare-ruling-1246915

April 2, 2019

White House Claims Trump Has 'Little Choice' But To Close The Border

By Kate Riga

April 2, 2019 10:47 am

White House Director of Strategic Communications Mercedes Schlapp took to CNN to defend President Donald Trump’s threat to shut down the border, which critics say is as inhumane as it is economically unwise.

“We’re being left with no choice, little choice at this point in terms of what we’re going to do with our resources,” Schlapp told CNN’s Jim Sciutto. “What has had to happen is we had to move our border patrol agents — about 750 of them — from the ports of entry into the other areas of the border where we’re seeing a huge surge coming from illegal aliens, family units, who are crossing the border. So in essence, there is a crisis.”

Per Politico, many in Trump’s own administration don’t want the border shut down and are hoping for a last-minute legislative fix that would satiate the President.

Here is a good rundown of what’s actually happening at the border. Crossings are not at anywhere near an all-time high, but more families are coming over than have before, creating a new subset of needs.

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https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/schlapp-claims-trumo-little-choice-but-to-close-border