Week in Review

The Trump administration

  • U.S.-China talks on trade finished without a deal after President Donald Trump delivered on his threat to raise tariffs from 10 percent to 25 percent on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods, and no additional discussions have been scheduled. Trump put the onus on the Chinese to come up with a better offer, saying on Twitter that tariffs “may or may not be removed depending on what happens with respect to future negotiations.”
  • The Department of Justice released a new version of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report in response to a Freedom of Information Act request and a subsequent lawsuit. The new version further explains why certain details were redacted from the public report, clearly stating which information was withheld because it would interfere with ongoing law enforcement proceedings.
  • At the instruction of the White House, former White House counsel Don McGahn defied a House Judiciary Committee subpoena request for documents he provided Mueller as part of the special counsel’s probe into potential obstruction of justice. The committee has also asked McGahn to testify later this month, but Trump has signaled he will try to block him from appearing.
  • Since the redacted Mueller report’s release weeks ago, White House officials have asked McGahn at least twice to publicly say that he didn’t think Trump obstructed justice, according to two people familiar with the requests. McGahn reportedly declined, angering the president.
  • Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin formally rejected demands by House Democrats to turn over Trump’s tax returns, telling House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal (D-Mass.) that lawmakers do not have a “legitimate” reason for seeking the president’s filings. Democrats have said they expect the issue to be decided by the courts.
  • A review of Trump’s Internal Revenue Service tax transcripts found that from 1985 to 1994, he reported a total of $1.17 billion in losses — more than nearly any other American taxpayer during the time period. The findings give a clear picture of the president’s decade-long financial struggles and fluctuations in business strategy, threatening to undermine his 2016 campaign pitch as a wildly successful businessman.
  • The Trump administration issued new guidelines for U.S. asylum officers, directing them to take a more skeptical and confrontational approach during interviews with migrants seeking asylum, according to internal documents. The officers are being directed to question any gaps between what migrants tell border agents after they’re taken into custody and what they say during the interview process with a trained asylum officer.
  • White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said via a tweet that Trump will nominate acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan to officially fill the role. The former Boeing executive has led the Pentagon since its former head, Jim Mattis, abruptly resigned in December amid disagreements with Trump over U.S. policy in Syria.
  • Trump also tapped Mark Morgan, who served as the Border Patrol chief during the last three months of the Obama administration, as the head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
  • South Korean military officials said North Korea fired two short-range ballistic missiles, the second weapons launch in less than a week. The firing came as U.S. Special Representative for North Korea Stephen Biegun arrived in South Korea to discuss how to resume denuclearization talks with Kim Jong Un’s regime.
  • The Justice Department announced that the United States seized a North Korean freight ship caught carrying coal last year in Indonesia, a violation of U.N. sanctions. The vessel was on its way to American Samoa at the time of the seizure, which prosecutors say is the first time the United States has taken possession of a North Korean ship for violating international sanctions.
  • The administration deployed the USS Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group and a bomber task force to the U.S. Central Command region following “clear indications” that Iranian and Iranian proxy forces were preparing to possibly attack U.S. forces there, according to a source. The administration also deployed B-52 bombers as a response to the unspecified concerns about the possibility of an Iranian attack.
  • Iran said it will stop abiding by some of the tenets of the country’s nuclear deal with the United States and other countries, inching toward a total breakdown of the 2015 agreement. The decision, which comes one year after Trump pulled the United States out of the deal, appears to be an attempt to pressure European countries that have remained in the agreement to help curb the effects of oil and banking sanctions levied by the Trump administration.

Congress

  • The Senate Intelligence Committee subpoenaed Donald Trump Jr., requesting he answer questions about statements he previously made to investigators regarding their probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election. The president’s eldest son is expected to cite his Fifth Amendment right to avoid self-incrimination, congressional sources said.
  • The House Judiciary Committee voted 24-16 along party lines to hold Attorney General William Barr in contempt of Congress after Trump asserted executive privilege to block lawmakers from seeing special counsel Robert Mueller’s full report on Russian interference in the 2016 election.
  • House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said there “might be some other contempt of Congress issues that we want to deal with” when the House votes to censure Barr for refusing to provide the unredacted version of Mueller’s report. Those remarks came days after the speaker accused Trump of “goading” House Democrats into proceeding with impeachment.
  • The House Ways and Means Committee subpoenaed the Trump administration after Mnuchin rejected the panel’s request for six years of Trump’s personal and business tax returns.
  • The House passed a $19.1 billion aid package for victims of recent natural disasters, adding about $1.8 billion for damaged military facilities, highways and water infrastructure. The 257-150 vote came as Republicans and Democrats in the Senate continue negotiations on a separate aid package, the progress of which has remained stymied amid Trump’s opposition to more funding for Puerto Rico.
  • Democratic leaders pulled two bills concerning tribal rights from the House floor after Trump urged Republicans not to support one of the measures, which would reaffirm the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe reservation as trust land in Massachusetts and was backed by the state’s junior senator, Democrat Elizabeth Warren. Both bills were going to require a two-thirds majority for passage on the chamber’s suspension calendar and had been subject to heated debate within the House Republican Conference.

States

  • The New York state Senate passed a bill that would allow Trump’s state tax returns to be turned over to congressional committees, potentially providing House Democrats with an avenue to obtain the president’s financial records. The legislation is headed to the state Assembly, where Democrats are in the majority, before it would head to the desk of Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D), who has voiced support for it.

2020

  • North Carolina businessman Garland Tucker III launched a campaign to challenge Sen. Thom Tillis in next year’s Republican primary. Polling has shown Tillis lost credibility among North Carolina voters amid his spat with Trump over his national emergency declaration, which spurred talk of his vulnerability to a primary bid.
  • Former CIA operative Valerie Plame announced she’s running for Congress as a Democrat in New Mexico’s 3rd District, an open-seat race left vacant by Assistant Speaker Ben Ray Luján’s decision to run for Senate.
  • The presidential campaign for Beto O’Rourke hired Jeff Berman, America’s leading expert on the Democratic Party’s delegate process, who helped former President Barack Obama upset Hillary Clinton in the 2008 Democratic presidential primary.

What’s Ahead

  • The Senate will convene Monday and the House will convene Tuesday.
  • The Senate is set to vote Monday to end debate on the nomination of Michael Truncale to serve as a district judge in Texas. Later in the week, the Senate is set to consider nominations for two district judges, one circuit judge and a State Department under secretary.
  • President Donald Trump will host Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban for talks at the White House on Monday.
  • Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin and the country’s foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, in Sochi, Russia, on Tuesday.
  • The runoff for the Republican primary in North Carolina’s 9th District special election is on Tuesday.
  • It remains unclear if, or when, Mueller will testify before the House Judiciary Committee, with Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) casting doubt on a previously mooted Wednesday hearing, though he did say it could come “shortly thereafter.”

Events Calendar (All Times Local)

05/13/2019
Chamber of Commerce event on infrastructure with Rep. Hoyer 9:00 am
05/14/2019
Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on 5G: national security concerns and IP issues 10:00 am
Bipartisan Policy Center-Aspen Institute event on student loan debt with Rep. Shalala 12:00 pm
Former Sens. Kent Conrad, Judd Gregg appear at Senate Budget Committee hearing 2:30 pm
05/15/2019
Axios event on health care with Sens. Cassidy, Manchin 8:00 am
Politico event on energy infrastructure with Sen. Heinrich 8:00 am
House Judiciary Committee hearing on executive privilege and congressional oversight 10:00 am
House Oversight Committee hearing on DOD inspector general report on TransDigm Group’s excess profits 10:00 am
House Budget Committee hearing on retirement security in the 21st Century 10:00 am
Senate Commerce Committee considers FAA administrator nominee Stephen Dickson 10:00 am
05/16/2019
Axios event with Reps. McCarthy and Clyburn, Gov. Baker and Mayor Walsh 8:00 am
Sens. Blunt, Stabenow participate in Washington Post event on mental health with Glenn Close 8:30 am
WITA event on the Ex-Im Bank’s reauthorization 9:00 am
House Intelligence Committee hearing on China’s digital authoritarianism 9:00 am
House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing on U.S.-Africa policy 10:00 am
Brooking Institution event on preparation for the next U.S. recession 1:00 pm
05/17/2019
Heritage Foundation event with Rep. McCaul 12:00 pm
View full calendar
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