Evening summary
- Missouri’s last abortion clinic is granted a temporary injunction to stay open.
- The House oversight committee is set to vote Wednesday on whether to hold attorney general William Barr and commerce secretary Wilbur Ross in contempt for failing to comply with subpoenas related to the 2020 Census.
- US Customs and Border Protection was hit by a “malicious cyber attack” that compromised photos of travelers. Read the Guardian’s full story below:
Missouri's last abortion clinic to stay open
A judge granted a preliminary injunction in favor of the state’s last abortion clinic, allowing the clinic to stay open and temporarily preventing the state from becoming the first in the country with no access to legal abortion.
Judge grants preliminary injunction in favor of Planned Parenthood in Missouri abortion clinic case; clinic will stay open until further order by the court, judge says.
— NBC News (@NBCNews) June 10, 2019
The Missouri department of health and senior services had declined to renew the St Louis Planned Parenthood clinic’s license to perform abortions, citing alleged concerns with “failed abortions”, compromised patient safety and legal violations at the clinic.
The refusal to renew the license came after Republican governor Mike Parson signed a restrictive bill prohibiting the procedure after eight weeks and criminalizing doctors who perform it - and is part of growing push against women’s reproductive rights in the US.
Updated
Richard Nixon’s former White House counsel John Dean testified before the House judiciary committee today, bringing the fire by stating that “Robert Mueller has provided this committee with a road map” to impeachment.
It appears Dean’s superfans were also there.
John Dean superfans asking him to sign Watergate paraphernalia is a very 2019 thing pic.twitter.com/3ZUDars4Lf
— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) June 10, 2019
Here’s something fun: Lissandra Villa, a Time magazine reporter, has the walk-out song playlist for the 2020 candidates at the Iowa Democrats Hall of Fame campaign event yesterday.
It’s a good list. We’ve got Dolly Parton for Elizabeth Warren, Lizzo for Kirsten Gillibrand, Marvin Gaye for Tulsi Gabbard, the Clash for Beto O’Rourke, John Lennon for Bernie Sanders, Mary J. Blige for Kamala Harris.
There’s a BuzzFeed quiz in here somewhere: Pick a 2020 Democratic Candidate Walk-Out Song, and We’ll Tell You Your Astrological Sign.
Here is the walk-out song playlist for the candidates at the Iowa Democrats Hall of Fame campaign yesterday. The songs were chosen by the campaigns. pic.twitter.com/Aphykxt322
— Lissandra Villa (@LissandraVilla) June 10, 2019
Updated
The House oversight committee will vote Wednesday on whether to hold attorney general William Barr and commerce secretary Wilbur Ross in contempt for failing to comply with subpoenas related to the 2020 Census and the question about citizenship.
Read committee chair Elijah Cummings’ full resolution here.
Oversight will vote on WEDNESDAY to hold Attorney General William Barr and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross in contempt of Congress for refusing to comply with subpoenas issued as part of the investigation into adding a citizenship question to the 2020 Census.
— Natalie Andrews (@nataliewsj) June 10, 2019
House Oversight Chairman Elijah Cummings' contempt resolution against AG William Barr and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross for stonewalling the committee's inquiry into their effort to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census. https://t.co/49AhaSlGn3
— Dan Friedman (@dfriedman33) June 10, 2019
US Customs and Border Protection compromised in 'malicious cyber-attack'
The Washington Post is reporting that photos of travelers were leaked in a recent data breach, but the federal agency would not go into detail about the number of images comprised or the nature of them.
The leak stemmed from a cyber attack on a federal subcontractor, according to the Post.
Why is this so alarming? Quick reminder that even though agency officials declined to say what images were compromised, US Customs and Border Protection maintains a database of passport and visa photos as part of an agency facial-recognition program. The Post also pointed out that the agency “makes extensive use of cameras and video recordings at the arrival halls of international airports as well as land border crossings, where vehicle license plates are also captured.”
Agency officials confirmed that some photos that had been compromised included photos of people’s license plates.
“This breach comes just as CBP seeks to expand its massive face recognition apparatus and collection of sensitive information from travelers, including license plate information and social media identifiers,” Neema Singh Guliani, senior legislative counsel at the American Civil Liberties Union, told the Post. “This incident further underscores the need to put the brakes on these efforts and for Congress to investigate the agency’s data practices. The best way to avoid breaches of sensitive personal data is not to collect and retain it in the first place.”
Hey all, Vivian Ho on the west coast taking over for Joanna Walters. Happy Monday.
Early evening summary
• The House judiciary committee hearing with former Nixon White House counsel John Dean and former US attorneys as witnesses, discussing the Mueller report and the issue of presidential obstruction of justice, is continuing. Dean has said the Mueller report should be the Watergate equivalent of a ‘road map’ for Congress to impeach Trump on grounds of obstruction of justice.
•Leading House Democrats outside of the 2020 presidential race are unlikely to successfully be able to oppose the Hyde Amendment that restricts abortion funding, because it would put much larger and wider spending legislation at risk.
• The president has been informed about the fatal helicopter crash on the top of a building in New York City, and has tweeted about it. City mayor Bill de Blasio, a 2020 candidate for the White House, has been speaking about the incident on TV.
Committee Dems and witnesses play whiffle ball
It’s not even softball at the House hearing at this hour. California Democrat Ted Lieu sends the softest, underarm delivery to John Dean.
Lieu just quoted Donald Trump, as quoted in the Mueller report, without beeps or asterisks. He quotes to the hearing the bit where the president apparently slumped back in his chair upon hearing about the appointment of the special counsel Robert Mueller to investigate him, in May 2017, and said it was the end of his presidency adding, Lieu then reads out from notes without wavering, “I’m fucked”.
Trump was furious that his then attorney general Jeff Sessions had recused himself from the Russia investigation and that deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein had appointed Mueller.
Lieu then leaps to current attorney general Bill Barr, who has been accused of acting like Trump’s defense lawyer.
Lieu to John Dean: “Is it the role of attorney general to protect the president?”
Dean: “That wasn’t the case in the Nixon White House. I know there is a proud and professional workforce at the Department of Justice that does not do anything other than represent the American people.”
He then goes on to list attorneys general who served under Richard Nixon, saying that he did not think they regarded it as “their job to represent Nixon”, and adding: “This is an unprecedented view from Trump as to the function of the attorney general [Barr].”
Lieu lobs it to witness Barb McQuade, who whacks a home run.
“He is not the personal attorney for the president,” she says. It’s starting to feel like 5PM on Capitol Hill.
Top Dems still support the Hyde Amendment on abortion
As the committee hearing continues on Capitol Hill, meanwhile, top Democrats in Washington are intent on preserving a four-decade ban on taxpayer-financed abortions despite calls from their party’s presidential candidates to abandon it, the AP reports.
Leading figures argue that attempts to undo the longstanding consensus will fail - and efforts won’t be worth scuttling a key education and health funding bill.
While 2020 presidential candidates such as Democratic front-runner Joe Biden hustle to rewrite their positions on the so-called Hyde Amendment, legislative veterans such as congresswoman Rosa DeLauro have worked behind the scenes to smooth the waters for the provision to continue.
It is a long-settled feature of the annual funding measure, which contains numerous programs dear to Democrats.
Pragmatism is at play. The GOP-controlled Senate won’t pass the funding measure unless the abortion restriction stays in and, even if the Senate did, Donald Trump would swiftly use his presidential power to veto it.
Most leading figures in the Democratic 2020 field already opposed the Hyde Amendment, though many of them have voted for it by default during their Senate or House careers as part of much larger appropriations bills.
Democratic efforts this week to repeal the Hyde Amendment appear designed to fail. Hyde first added the provision to the annual measure in 1976.
Representative Barbara Lee of California, is a leading voice on the Hill seeking to offer an anti-Hyde provision to the almost $1 trillion spending bill combining health and education spending with the budget for the Pentagon and a handful of other Cabinet departments.
But that approach wouldn’t just repeal the Hyde Amendment. It would also mandate new policy to require that the government “ensure coverage for abortion in public health insurance programs” and other steps.
Democratic leaders are not expected to allow Lee to offer the amendment as they announce the rules for floor debate later on Monday, aides said.
Updated
Nobody wants to hear much from John Malcolm, even Republicans
The Democratic-controlled House judiciary committee seemingly made the effort to have a (token) genuine, lasting conservative on the panel of witnesses testifying today in their Mueller report ‘splain session: the Heritage Foundation and Federalist Society’s John Malcolm.
But after more than two hours of this hearing, Malcolm has only been asked one (boring) question, and has even admitted “feeling lonesome here”.
The Democrats want to talk to Dean, Vance and McQuade to get them to say horrid things about Trump and the Republicans want to talk to Dean, Vance and McQuade to say horrid things about them, or just make them listen to plaudits for the president or brickbats for folks like James Comey.
We’re not learning much that’s non-partisan.
Updated
Witness Barbara McQuade on Trump: “This constitutes obstruction”
Former US attorney and now Michigan law professor Barb McQuade just had an interesting interaction with Florida Democrat and committee member Ted Deutch.
They talked about events detailed in Robert Mueller’s report that Donald Trump asked then White House counsel Don McGahn to call then deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein and order him to “get rid” of special counsel Mueller. And then the president asked McGahn to lie about that, despite multiple urgings from Trump that he “change his recollection” about their exchange.
McQuade tells the committee that Mueller’s report that Trump asked McGahn to create a false document about their exchange regarding Mueller is “the most serious allegation.”
“This constitutes obstruction of justice” by the president, McQuade says.
Photograph: Andrew Harnik/AP
Updated
Florida Republican Matt Gaetz, on the House judiciary committee just sparred with John Dean - but not about Mueller, his report, collusion or obstructio n.
Here’s the moment:
John Dean responds to Matt Gaetz's accusation that Dean accuses presidents of acting like Nixon to make money: "Not all presidents. Those who do act like him, I point it out."
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) June 10, 2019
Mexico tries to clear confusion on tariffs and immigration row with US, indicates Trump gave “ultimatum” over tariffs
Mexican foreign minister Marcelo Ebrard spent Monday trying to clear up confusion sown by a pair of Trump tweets, which implied that there were further elements to the deal between the US and Mexico on migrants transiting Mexico and crossing the US border - that have yet to be revealed, David Agren reports from Mexico City.
Trump threatened to impose tariffs on Mexican imports if the country didn’t make good on an unannounced, but “fully signed and documented” part of the deal struck last week to avoid Trump slapping tariffs on Mexican imports.
Ebrard responded on Monday that everything agreed to in the deal was outlined in a joint statement. Ebrard also told reporters both sides would evaluate whether the stream of migrants had slowed.
“In 45 days both sides have to sit down and say, ‘well, was it successful or unsuccessful?” Ebrard said of the arrangement. “If we don’t have results we would have to discuss an agreement which includes the return of asylum seekers under a regional perspective.”
The regional perspective, Ebrard said, included countries in the hemisphere such as Brazil, Panama and Guatemala.
Trump tweeted Monday that Mexico’s congress would have to ratify “an important part of the Immigration and Security deal with Mexico.”
But Ebrard said he told US negotiators that he would only have to go his country’s congress “if perhaps these measures don’t work” and they top to pursue a regional deal.
Mexican officials have often been forced to try and thread the needle with their responses: clarifying details from negotiations and providing facts on the bilateral relationship, but avoiding any antagonizing of Trump.
“Immigration is Trump’s top issue” Ebrard said, acknowledging the political landscape north of the US-Mexico border. “The entire tone of the relationship with Mexico depends on that.”
Ebrard has had the delicate task of correcting errors in Trumps tweets. On Monday, he contradicted Trump’s claim on Twitter on Saturday that Mexico would buy “large quantities of agricultural products from US farmers, saying on Monday: “We don’t have a specific agreement on products of this kind.”
Describing negotiations in Washington last week, Ebrard said: “It was very tough. Not tough in the sense that they were rude, rather very tough in the sense the tone was almost one of ultimatum”.
He quickly offered a qualification: “Actually, get rid of the ‘almost,’” he said.
John Dean: I think there is evidence of collusion in the report
Congressman Steve Chabot, Republican of Ohio, gives a fascinating preamble to his question to John Dean.
Chabot says he was 19 when, in 1972, he voted for Richard Nixon. In 1973 Chabot said he was on his honeymoon (TMI, Steve) when he watched on TV as John Dean testified to the Senate over the Watergate scandal cover-up.
He recalls that many of his friends said that the evidence of such appalling abuse of power by the president and all his men turned them off politics.
“But I thought the opposite. I thought we needed people to go into politics for the right reasons,” Chabot says.
He mentions that in 1976 he voted for Jimmy Carter, FYI. He entered local politics in Cincinnati, as a Republican, and eventually became a member of Congress. He sat on the judiciary committee and was closely involved in the impeachment of Bill Clinton.
“It’s now 20 years after that and it’s been alleged that another president has done something wrong.”
Chabot says Mueller found “no collusion” between Donald Trump or members of his election campaign and the Russian government or its operatives and on the obstruction of justice question, Mueller punted the topic to Congress. Then points out that attorney general William Barr declared there had been no obstruction.
Chabot finally gets to his sort-of question. Asks John Dean about a report that he alleged Donald Trump colluded with the Russians.
John Dean replies: I don’t think I quite said collusion. I think there is evidence of collusion in the report, by the way.”
Updated
Professor Joyce White Vance would prosecute Trump for obstruction
Witness Vance tells the House judiciary committee she believes so strongly that Donald Trump committed obstruction of justice in the way he interfered with and attempted to curtail special counsel Robert Mueller and his investigation that she would prosecute.
“I would be willing to personally indict the case...and win on appeal,” she said.
Vance is a former federal prosecutor from Alabama.
President informed of helicopter crash
A brief interruption to our committee hearing coverage to mention that Donald Trump has reportedly been informed about an incident in New York.
A helicopter has crashed on top of a building in midtown Manhattan this afternoon, with what looks like, at this early stage, a possible fatality.
You can follow the news developments as they unfold in our separate story, here.
Robert Mueller "has offered Congress a road map" on Donald Trump and obstruction - John Dean
Richard Nixon’s former White House counsel John Dean just began his testimony with a bang.
He first notes that he last appeared before the House judiciary committee on July 11, 1974, at the impeachment inquiry into president Nixon (who resigned in August, 1974).
Dean says: “I hope I can give a little historical perspective on the Mueller report. In many ways it is to Donald Trump what the ‘Watergate road map’ was to Nixon.”
He’s referring to the evidence Congress used to support its impeachment of Nixon, leading ultimately after the whole Watergate scandal, to the downfall of the president.
“Stated a little bit differently, Robert Mueller has provided this committee with a road map,” Dean said.
The Watergate ‘road map’ was the report that Watergate special prosecutor Leon Jaworski sent to Congress in 1974 and that informed its impeachment proceedings, which were already underway.
Dean is wearing a navy suit and sports thinned white hair and thin-rimmed spectacles.
Updated
Nadler predicts Don McGahn will testify before Congress “before long”
Even though the DoJ has agreed to start handing over crucial Mueller investigation material to the committee, Nadler says House Democrats will go ahead tomorrow with voting on the House floor over legal action to enforce subpoenas not only to obtain the full unredacted Mueller report and underlying documents, but also to compel former White House counsel Don McGahn to testify on the Hill.
McGahn, a key witness in Mueller’s Trump-Russia investigation, has so far declined to testify, as instructed by the White House, despite being subpoenaed.
McGahn refused to get rid of Mueller when Trump asked him to and declined to lie about it afterwards.
Nadler points out that he and GOP ranking member of the committee, Doug Collins, “agree on the seriousness” of Russian interference in the US election.
Nadler reminds us that the Russians interfered with our election
No ifs, no buts, judiciary chair Jerry Nadler reminds us that special counsel Robert Mueller found that the Russian government interfered in the 2016 US presidential election, in a direct attack on American democracy.
Nadler says: “There is no question that Congress must investigate this attack....without delay.”
He says Mueller found that there were 171 contacts between operatives of the Russian government and 16 Trump campaign officials.
House Judiciary Committee hearing about to get underway with John Dean as witness
The committee, witnesses and public are settling in, with the usual flurry of press photographers. Chairman Jerry Nadler has called the committee to come to order.
Watch live! Streaming now at top of this blog.
Updated
Trump superfan and anti-immigration hardliner to oversee USCIS
An outspoken supporter of Donald Trump’s hard-line immigration policies has been named acting director of the federal agency that manages legal immigration.
Ken Cuccinelli will oversee US Citizenship and Immigration Services.
Cuccinelli is a former Virginia attorney general and has advocated for denying citizenship to the American-born children of parents living in the US illegally and for limiting in-state tuition at public universities only to citizens or legal residents, the AP writes.
Cuccinelli’s name has been mentioned for months to become part of the Trump administration, including as possible Homeland Security secretary or as an immigration ‘czar’.
It’s unclear if Trump will nominate Cuccinelli for the permanent position. That would require Senate confirmation, which could be difficult, even with the Republicans in control of that chamber.
The position opened after Trump forced the resignation of Lee Francis Cissna. Trump believed he wasn’t doing enough. Cissna said he worked “passionately.”
Updated
Early afternoon summary
A busy Monday so far. The House judiciary committee begins its hearing with John Dean and others in half an hour. Meanwhile this morning:
- House judiciary committee chair Jerry Nadler announced that an agreement had been reached for the DoJ to start turning over “key” materials from the special counsel Robert Mueller (who stepped down as an employee of the DoJ last month) Trump-Russia investigation. This put his plans (whether real or not) to hold attorney general Bill Barr (top dog at the DoJ) in criminal contempt of Congress “in abeyance for now”.
- Shenanigans involving US-Mexico negotiations over immigration remain intense, despite Trump pulling back on Friday from his threat to impose tariffs on the United States’s southern neighbor from today. Confusion continues about what is and is not in the latest US-Mexico agreement on the subject, what’s new, what’s old, what’s secret and what isn’t. More to come on that from out correspondent in Mexico soon.
- The US Supreme Court has rejected an appeal against government restrictions on gun silencers and backed away from taking up an appeal for the release of a prisoner in Guantanamo Bay who has been held there without charge since 2001.
Updated
Senior Republican responds to developments over Mueller
House Republican Doug Collins, of Georgia, the ranking member of the judiciary committee, has released a statement regarding what he terms “further accommodations” from DoJ.
“The Justice Department has yet again offered accommodations to House Democrats, and I am glad Chairman Nadler — for the first time in months — has finally met them at the negotiating table,” Collins’s statement says.
He further points out that today’s “good faith provision” from the administration further “debunks claims” that the White House is stonewalling Congress, which intelligence committee chairman and California Democrat Adam Schiff’s successful negotiations with the Justice Department “already showed”.
Collins now asks: “Is the chairman [Nadler] prepared to rescind his baseless recommendation to hold the attorney general in contempt, or do House Democrats still plan to green light lawsuits against the attorney general and former White House counsel tomorrow?”
And Nadler’s news release also includes some handy background:
On April 19, the House judiciary committee issued a subpoena for the unredacted Mueller report and key underlying evidence. The Department of Justice refused to comply with the May 1 deadline for production of those materials.
Although the Committee made repeated attempts to negotiate for the materials responsive to the subpoena, the Department cut off negotiations on the evening of May 7.
On May 8, the committee voted to recommend that the House hold Attorney General [William] Barr in contempt of Congress.
On May 24, Chairman Nadler wrote to White House Counsel and the Attorney General to remind them that, “[n]otwithstanding the President’s stated intent to block all congressional subpoenas, the Committee also remains prepared to meet with the Department and the White House to ascertain if an acceptable accommodation can be reached.”
Here’s Nadler’s full news statement:
Today, House Judiciary Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) announced that he had reached an agreement with the Department of Justice (DOJ) over obtaining key evidence in the Mueller Report related to possible obstruction of justice by President Trump.
Chairman Nadler made the following statement:
“I am pleased to announce that the Department of Justice has agreed to begin complying with our committee’s subpoena by opening Robert Mueller’s most important files to us, providing us with key evidence that the Special Counsel used to assess whether the President and others obstructed justice or were engaged in other misconduct. The Department will share the first of these documents with us later today. All members of the Judiciary Committee—Democrats and Republicans alike—will be able to view them. These documents will allow us to perform our constitutional duties and decide how to respond to the allegations laid out against the President by the Special Counsel.
“Given our conversations with the Department, I will hold the criminal contempt process in abeyance for now. We have agreed to allow the Department time to demonstrate compliance with this agreement. If the Department proceeds in good faith and we are able to obtain everything that we need, then there will be no need to take further steps. If important information is held back, then we will have no choice but to enforce our subpoena in court and consider other remedies. It is critical that Congress is able to obtain the information we need to do our jobs, ensuring no one is above the law and bringing the American public the transparency they deserve.”
Barr escapes criminal contempt vote
Attorney general William Barr has avoided the risk of being held in criminal contempt for blocking congressional demands for key evidence from Robert Mueller’s Trump-Russia investigation.
Weeks spent threatening to hold Barr and former White House counsel Don McGahn in criminal contempt for defying subpoenas over the full Mueller report and underlying materials clearly coincided with intense negotiations behind the scenes.
This has now resulted in the beginning of greater cooperation between the DoJ and leading House Democrats, with previously-secret Mueller materials being handed over for House judiciary committee members to review in private, from this afternoon.
That coincides with an important hearing where former White House counsel under Richard Nixon, John Dean, and other former US attorneys of more recent vintage, will testify to explain how prosecutors go through the process or investigating and taking action over obstruction of justice and abuse of power.
In recent days, House Democrats had talked of going to court to enforce the subpoenas, rather than holding Barr in contempt anyway. But there is now discussion underway in the media about whether there will still be a vote on the floor tomorrow to hold Barr and McGahn in “civil contempt” - which would be more of a gesture at this stage.
Nadler said on Monday that the House is still expected to consider a resolution tomorrow authorizing the committee to enforce its subpoenas in federal court.
His statement added that some enforcement action may be necessary to obtain documents and testimony outside the scope of today’s agreement with DoJ, including testimony from McGahn.
Updated
DoJ agrees to hand over Mueller evidence to House judiciary committee
Jerry Nadler says the committee’s reached a deal with the department of justice to obtain “key evidence” from Mueller’s files on obstruction of justice, in relation to special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the US 2016 presidential election and Russian contacts with the Trump campaign.
House plans for holding attorney general William Barr in contempt "in abeyance"
House judiciary committee chairman Jerry Nadler has issued a statement about the small but important concession the DoJ has just made in acquiescing to Dems’ demands for more Mueller materials.
Here’s a useful tweet:
NEWS: House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler announces that he has reached an agreement with DOJ over obtaining "key evidence" in the Mueller Report related to possible obstruction. pic.twitter.com/1EVpINF3Jq
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) June 10, 2019
Updated
House investigation jumps forward
House judiciary chairman and New York Democrat Jerry Nadler just announced: “I am pleased to announce that the Department of Justice has agreed to begin complying with our committee’s subpoena by opening Robert Mueller’s most important files to us, providing us with key evidence that the Special Counsel used to assess” whether Trump obstructed.
This news just tweeted by the Washington Post’s Aaron Blake.
Mike Pence praises Donald Trump’s “strong stand” on Mexico
Potus just retweeted Veep (the Veep, not Veep, sadly) from yesterday, #ICYMI.
Mike Pence posted: “.@POTUS’ strong stand got Mexico to do things they have never done before: 6,000 National Guard at their southern border, immigration checkpoints throughout Mexico & allow ALL illegal immigrants from Central America to remain in Mexico pending their asylum claims..”
House Judiciary Committee hearing on the Mueller report
We’ll live stream the hearing on this blog when it gets underway at 2PM local time in Washington.
The star witness is former attorney, Nixon White House counsel and inmate, present day author and political pundit - John Dean, whom Donald Trump has decided is a “sleazebag”.
But there are also three other witnesses today.
Joyce White Vance is a former US attorney for the northern district of Alabama and a University of Alabama law professor and MSNBC contributor.
She explained on Twitter last night that her job today is to help people understand how DoJ prosecutors assess evidence and take action.
Just the facts Ma’am. Seriously,
— Joyce Alene (@JoyceWhiteVance) June 10, 2019
It’s an honor to have the chance to help people understand how DOJ prosecutors assess evidence & analyze the law & make charging decisions. We should all have access to 1st hand information about how government works. https://t.co/yPTjD0y5Wl
Leaning more to the right, there’ll be legal scholar John Malcolm, vice president for the institute for constitutional government, which is under the umbrella of conservative think tank the Heritage Foundation, in Washington, DC.
He’s also chairman of the criminal law practice group of the Federalist Society.
And, may the fourth (chair) be with her, the former US attorney for the eastern district of Michigan and professor at University of Michigan law school, Barbara McQuade.
Joyce White Vance tweeted what she called a “handy link” to the summary Mueller wrote for each volume of his report. But, appointed by the Obama administration, her pinned tweet says this:
The first time President Obama met with his US Attorneys, he told us, “I appointed you but you don’t serve me. You serve the American people. And I expect you to act with independence & integrity.” None of us ever forgot that.
— Joyce Alene (@JoyceWhiteVance) December 29, 2017
Updated
Jon Swaine’s on CNN now, folks, talking about his story today.
If you happen to have sight of CNN, on your phone, in your news room, veterinary’s waiting room, airport departure lounge or, you know, actual lounge (if the latter, congratulations on having the day off/working from home/being retired), keep an eye out for Guardian senior reporter Jon Swaine.
He’s going on air any moment (which we literally expect to be any moment, but, in CNN-speak, “any moment” could mean any time in the next hour...or more), to discuss his exclusive story today about: The company part-owned by Jared Kushner that received $90m from unknown offshore investors since 2017.
You can read the full version here.
And there’s a very lively debate going on about it on Twitter.
New: Company part-owned by Jared Kushner has received $90m from unknown foreign investors via an offshore vehicle since Kushner entered the White House https://t.co/475oBijfxP
— Jon Swaine (@jonswaine) June 10, 2019
US Supreme Court rejects challenge to gun silencer regulations
As the Supreme Court’s June decision flurry continues, the bench announced it’s rejecting a challenge to federal regulation of gun silencers.
It is just a matter of days since a gunman used one in the shooting rampage that killed 12 people, mostly local government workers, in their workplace in Virginia Beach, Virginia.
The justices did not comment on Monday in turning away appeals from two Kansas men who were convicted of violating federal law regulating silencers, the AP writes.
The men argued that the constitutional right under the second amendment “to keep and bear arms” includes silencers.
Kansas, Arkansas, Idaho, Louisiana, Montana, South Carolina, Texas and Utah urged in a filing that the justices hear the appeal, saying the court should affirm that the Second Amendment protects “silencers and other firearms accessories.”
The Trump administration asked the court to stay out of the case and leave the convictions in place.
The administration, meanwhile, has done next to nothing to advance greater gun control in the US.
Police are still trying to determine the motive for massacre in Virginia, after a worker who had just resigned opened fire in a municipal building on May 31, armed with two semi-automatic handguns, a silencer and extended ammunition magazines.
The gunman (whose identity we prefer not to remind you of here) was killed in a lengthy shoot-out with law enforcement.
Mexico’s border pact With US bought time
Mexican foreign minister Marcelo Ebrard said on Monday morning that the border agreement it struck to avert US tariffs bought Mexico time to show that it can reduce the flood of Central America migrants arriving at the US-Mexico border.
Ebrard said the immigration agreement delayed for now the Trump administration’s demand that Mexico accept becoming a safe third country, which would require that migrants setting foot in its territory request asylum there, instead of in the US, the Wall Street Journal reports this morning.
Mexico persuaded US officials to give the measures time, he said, and agreed that if they fail to reduce the flood of migrants heading north, the sides would meet again to discuss further US proposals.
Under the agreement reached late on Friday, the government of Mexican president Andrés Manuel López Obrador agreed to speed up the reception of migrants returned from the US to await their US asylum hearings in Mexico and to speed up the deployment of National Guard troops in border areas to support Mexican migration officials.
Updated
US Supreme Court rejects Guantanamo detainee's appeal seeking release
The Supreme Court on Monday declined to wade into the contentious question of to what extent detainees held by the US military at the American naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, can seek their release, turning away an appeal by a Yemeni-born man held since 2001.
The court refused to consider an appeal by Yemeni detainee Moath Hamza Ahmed al Alwi, who was captured in Pakistan in December 2001 and detained without charge ever since, Reuters reports this hour.
The government has said al Alwi was involved in fighting against US and allied forces in Afghanistan and was closely linked with the Islamic militant group al Qaeda.
After the September 11 2001 terrorist attacks on America, the US began a long-running military campaign in Afghanistan targeting al Qaeda, which carried out the attacks, and the Taliban-led government that sheltered the group.
Justice Stephen Breyer, one of the court’s four liberals, issued a statement saying that the court should weigh in on the issue at some point to decide “whether, in light of the duration and other aspects of the relevant conflict, Congress has authorized and the Constitution permits continued detention.”
Al Alwi “faces that real prospect that he will spend the rest of his life in detention based on his status as an enemy combatant a generation ago,” Breyer added.
Al Alwi, who was born in 1977 and is in his early 40s, has said he should be released, in part because the US conflict in Afghanistan has “effectively ended.” His lawyers have said that the authority of the United States to hold him has “unraveled” because of the length of the conflict.
In a 2018 decision, the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit rejected his claims.
Updated
Noticeable by his absence - Robert Mueller
Okay, John Dean’s interesting. His testimony this afternoon before the House judiciary committee may even be illuminating and important.
But there’s still an air of House Dems marking time until they can, hopefully, lasso Robert Mueller himself to appear on the Hill and answer questions about his report, published mid-April.
Mueller can say all he wants that “it’s all in the report” but that cry sounds less noble than plaintive when there are still so many unanswered questions, redactions, secret underlying material and puzzling perspectives out there.
If by “all in the report” he means “read between the lines”, which was kind of what his little press conference (no Q & A) was like last month, it shows all the more why he needs to submit to questioning by lawmakers.
House anti-trust sub-committee chairman David Cicilline, Democrat of Rhode Island, told CNN on Sunday, in explaining why Mueller hasn’t been dragged in yet:
“We want to make sure we’re doing this right....we want to be respectful of the special counsel....if that doesn’t work, obviously we’ll compel his attendance.”
Special counsel Robert Mueller leaves the podium after speaking about the Russia investigation at the Department of Justice. Photograph: Carolyn Kaster/AP
Watergate star witness John Dean says he’ll be providing a House panel “some context” and comparison between investigations during Nixon’s administration and that of Donald Trump, the AP writes.
He told CNN he’ll tell the House judiciary committee on Monday, in the hearing commencing in Washington at 2PM, “how strikingly like Watergate what we’re seeing now, as reported in the Mueller report, is.”
Dean says he’ll focus on the question of obstruction of justice in his testimony.
Special counsel Robert Mueller investigated Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election and contacts with Trump’s campaign.
Mueller did not reach a determination on whether Trump tried criminally to obstruct the probe by taking actions such as firing FBI Director James Comey.
Mueller said charging the president with a crime was “not an option” because of federal rules.
Dean tells CNN that Comey’s firing “was certainly not dissimilar from some of the actions Nixon took.”
In 1973, Nixon ordered attorney general Elliot Richardson to fire independent special prosecutor Archibald Cox, but Richardson refused and resigned.
Trump repeatedly called Mueller’s probe a “witch hunt.”
Top Democratic leaders may be in no rush to launch an impeachment inquiry but the hearing today is the first in a series on Mueller’s report.
John Wesley Dean III served as White House counsel to Nixon from July 1970 until he was fired in April 1973. He captivated the attention of Americans, though, with his televised testimony in June 1973 before the Senate Watergate Committee, the New York Times wrote in 2018.
Mr. Dean sat at a table — in a tan suit and signature horn rim glasses, his wife, Maureen, behind him — and told the senators that Nixon was directly involved in the Watergate cover-up. He was one of the first officials in the Nixon administration to speak out.
Mr. Dean was worried he was being set up by his former boss to take the blame for the June 1972 break-in by five men at the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate office complex in Washington.
Indeed, the White House called him the cover-up’s “mastermind,” the NYT reported in June 1973. For his part, Mr. Dean has long maintained his colleagues sought to make him a scapegoat.
He served a reduced sentence, in return for helping the FBI investigation into the scandal and cover-up, of four months in prison after pleading guilty to obstruction of justice. Dean was also disbarred.
Trump calls Nixon counsel John Dean “sleazebag attorney”
Is the president just rattled about the House judiciary committee hearing today or is he reasonably criticizing what could be quite the showboat event on Capitol Hill today?
White House counsel John Dean turned on his boss during the Watergate scandal that eventually led to Nixon’s downfall (and Dean’s imprisonment). He testified in devastating form before the Senate Watergate Committee in June 1973, having warned Nixon, amid presidential lying and abuse of power, that there was “a cancer growing on the presidency”.
Fast forward 46 years and Dean is a CNN commentator and is frequently critical of the current occupant of the White House. He’ll be testifying again this afternoon in the committee’s “explanation session” about the Mueller report.
On Sunday evening, Trump tweeted his rage that the Democrats continue to investigate him, saying, in part: “They are even bringing in @CNN sleazebag attorney John Dean. Sorry, no Do Overs - Go back to work!”
Here’s the tweet - and there are some choice responses:
....No Obstruction. The Dems were devastated - after all this time and money spent ($40,000,000), the Mueller Report was a disaster for them. But they want a Redo, or Do Over. They are even bringing in @CNN sleazebag attorney John Dean. Sorry, no Do Overs - Go back to work!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 9, 2019
Before we continue with coverage of the breathless anticipation (no less breathless from the White House) of John Dean on Capitol Hill this afternoon and the ongoing US-Mexico immigration mess, we must draw your attention to our scoop this morning.
The Guardian’s Jon Swaine reports today that a real estate company part-owned by Jared Kushner has received $90m in foreign funding from an opaque offshore vehicle since he entered the White House as a senior adviser to his father-in-law Donald Trump.
Investment has flowed from overseas to the company, Cadre, while Kushner works as an international envoy for the US, according to corporate filings and interviews. The money came through a vehicle run by Goldman Sachs in the Cayman Islands, a tax haven that guarantees corporate secrecy.
Kushner, who is married to Trump’s elder daughter Ivanka, kept a stake in Cadre after joining the administration, while selling other assets. His holding is now valued at up to $50m, according to his financial disclosure.
You can read his full report here.
The president is hopping mad with the New York Times over its coverage of his immigration agreement with Mexico.
Read more about it in our story today.
Our Oliver Milman reports that: Trump returned to the offensive...accusing the New York Times of “sick journalism” for a report, which said key components of the deal, announced on Friday, had been agreed for months.
The president is tweeting this morning about the mysterious Mexico ‘deal’ over tariffs and quashing migration flows into the United States, but it’s still as clear as mud and as tricky to navigate as a swamp.
“We have fully signed and documented another very important part of the Immigration and Security deal with Mexico, one that the U.S. has been asking about getting for many years. It will be revealed in the not too distant future and will need a vote by Mexico’s Legislative body!..” goes Tweet One.
We have fully signed and documented another very important part of the Immigration and Security deal with Mexico, one that the U.S. has been asking about getting for many years. It will be revealed in the not too distant future and will need a vote by Mexico’s Legislative body!..
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 10, 2019
Followed by this: “....We do not anticipate a problem with the vote but, if for any reason the approval is not forthcoming, Tariffs will be reinstated!”
Nixon White House counsel John Dean to testify today
Happy Monday morning, here we go with our daily US politics live blog. What’s on the agenda today in Washington and beyond?
- If you relish reading Nixon, Watergate, Trump and Mueller in the same sentence, it’s likely to be a good day for you. Former White House counsel John Dean, a key witness during the Watergate scandal that led to Richard Nixon’s resignation, testifies today before the House Judiciary Committee at a hearing entitled Lessons from the Mueller report: presidential obstruction and other crimes. It’s a ‘splain session. 2PM ET. Donald Trump has just referred to Dean as “sleazebag attorney”.
- There is a close watch on for any concrete details emerging from the White House, the State Department of the Department of Homeland Security about exactly what measures Mexico might be taking to stem the arrival of migrants from Central America at the US-Mexico border. This following the hiatus in Donald Trump’s threat to impose tariffs on Mexico from today over the issue. The threat has apparently not gone away and is just on hold.
- Most of the leading Democratic candidates for the 2020 nomination will continue their campaigns in Iowa today after they saturated the state at the weekend searching for early support to help them stand out in the early caucus state. Things got quite chaotic on Sunday with 19 candidates falling over each other in Cedar Rapids. Amy Klobuchar can enjoy splendid breathing room today in New Hampshire.
Updated
