WTF Just Happened Today

Thursday, August 15, 2019

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1/ The House Judiciary Committee subpoenaed former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski to testify publicly about potential obstruction of justice by Trump. The committee also issued a subpoena to former White House deputy chief of staff for policy Rick Dearborn. House Judiciary chair Jerrold Nadler said the two former Trump aides will testify publicly on Sept. 17th and expects their testimony "will help the Committee determine whether to recommend articles of impeachment against the President or other Article 1 remedies." The Mueller report said Trump asked Lewandowski to convince then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions to un-recuse himself from the investigation into Russian election interference, and publicly say Trump had not done anything wrong. (Politico / NBC News / New York Times / Axios)

2/ Trump thinks Lewandowski would be a "fantastic" senator if he ran in New Hampshire. Lewandowski has been reportedly considering a Senate run and is expected to make an appearance at a Trump rally in the state on Thursday. The House Judiciary Committee subpoena came hours after Trump told a local radio station that Lewandowski would make a "great senator," who would be "hard to beat" if he ran against Senator Jeanne Shaheen, a Democrat. (New York Times / Washington Post / NBC News / Politico)

3/ White House officials want to invoke executive privilege to limit or block Lewandowski's testimony despite Lewandowski never working in the administration. The White House previously invoked executive privilege to block Don McGahn, Hope Hicks, and Annie Donaldson – who all held titles in the West Wing – from complying with similar congressional subpoenas. Lewandowski, however, has only informally advised Trump since his work on the 2016 campaign ended. (CNN)

4/ A federal judge rejected the House Judiciary Committee's attempt to link Robert Mueller's grand jury evidence with compelling Don McGahn to testify. The committee contends that the two lawsuits will expedite its decision whether to recommend articles of impeachment against Trump. House General Counsel Douglas Letter argued that the two cases should be paired in front of the judge, because both seek evidence for a potential impeachment and are based on the same set of facts. D.C. federal District Court Chief Judge Beryl Howell ruled that connections between the two suits are "too superficial." (Politico)

5/ Trump retweeted a criminologist who argued that there is no evidence that the United States is experiencing an "epidemic" of mass shootings. At least four people have been killed in a mass shootin...

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