TODAY IN CONGRESS (TIC):
Your One Stop Shop For Learning What Our Congress Critters Are Up To!
Today’s Headlines:
Democrats Block Mitch’s Attempt To Bring The GOP’s Weak Police Reform Bill (i.e., List of Police Suggestions) To The Floor!
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House To Pass Their “Justice In Policing” Bill This TODAY!
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Whistleblowers Excoriate Barr In Testimony in Front of House Judiciary Committee!
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Three Judge Panel Rule Against Judge In Flynn Case, But It’s Not Over Yet!
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DAY 40 Since the House Passed the HEROES Bill and Not A Peep From Mitch!
AN UPFRONT APOLOGY — To the two fans of my TIC Posts, I am sorry for the very late post today. Sometimes real life gets in the way of the good Doctor (you know there are always hostile aliens to subdue). I will accept any punishment you choose to dish out.
Here’s today’s schedule with the events I think may be the most interesting in bold. You can watch C-Span HERE. NOTE: Sometimes C-Span posts additional Congressional events not on my list, later in the day.
Today’s Events:
House —
9:00 am — House Judiciary Hearing on Coronavirus Pandemic & Federal Courts (A House Judiciary subcommittee holds a hearing with current and former judges to examine the federal courts' response to the coronavirus pandemic.)
10:00 am — House Session (The House debated and voted on the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act (HR 7120), the Democrats' police reform bill. Proxy voting was allowed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Representative Francis Rooney (R-FL), who was unable to vote in person, designated his proxy vote to Representative Don Beyer (D-VA). )
10:40 am — House Hearing on Reopening Guidelines for Federal Government (House Oversight and Reform Subcommittee on Government Operations holds a virtual hearing on reopening guidelines for federal employees. The federal government is the largest employer in the U.S.)
12:00 pm — House Financial Services Committee Hearing on Capital Markets Amid COVID-19 Pandemic (Jay Clayton, the chair of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), testified before the House Financial Services Committee on emergency lending during the COVID-19 pandemic.)
Senate —
9:30 am — Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Hearing on Customs & Border Protection Oversight (Acting Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Commissioner Mark Morgan testified at a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs oversight hearing. Commissioner Morgan discussed the challenges the coronavirus pandemic posed to his agency, including passenger travel restrictions, counterfeit personal protective equipment entering the U.S. from China, and an expectation of increased migration due to rising coronavirus infections in South America. Mr. Morgan also praised the Title 42 law, which allows border agents to quickly deport migrants due to concerns of spreading the coronavirus. The acting commissioner also discussed construction of the wall along the southern border, an increase of illegal drugs coming into the U.S. from China and Mexico, as well as the role CBP personnel played in monitoring recent marches across America.)
10:00 am — Senate Session (The Senate begins consideration of the FY2021 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), the annual defense programs and policy bill.)
See Comments below regarding today’s C-Span TV schedule.
Wednesday Votes:
House — No votes
Senate —
1. Senate 3985 (S. 3985) JUSTICE Act: Vote o Cloture on the Motion to Proceed to begin debate on S.3985 — JUSTICE Act (Full text of S. 3985 can be read HERE.)
Democrats- 2 Yes 43 No 0 Present 0 Not Voting
Republicans- 52 Yes 1 No 0 Present 0 Not Voting
Independents- 1 Yes 1 No 0 Present 0 Not Voting
Totals- 55 Yes 45 No 0 Present 0 Voting
FAILED (60 Votes Needed)
Voting Details HERE.
Comments:
Today Topics/Events —
Police Reform Legislation — See “Wednesday’s Votes” below.
COVID-19 Legislation — Today is Day 39 since the House passed the HEROES Bill with still no response from #MoscowMitch or any Senate Republican. With cases ramping up in mainly Red States that mismanaged this crisis and the President continuing to bury his head in the sand hoping COVID will go away, millions of Americans are undergoing physical and/or economic harm from the virus. The GOP continues to fiddle as their own house burns.
Today’s C-Span TV Picks — Due to the late post on my part, a lot of the C-Span TV viewing has already happened. Sorry about that! For instance, the House vote of the “Justice In Policing” Bill has already happened. I will have results and comments on that vote in my next post.
Wednesday’s Votes —
As you all know by now, McConnell failed to get the 60 Cloture Votes needed to bring the highly watered down “JUSTICE” Bill to the Senate Floor. Besides the fact that the Senate Bill is a piece of crap containing mainly “suggestions” with regard to police reform and was opposed by the NAACP and other civil rights organizations, the primary reason Senate Democrats blocked the Bill was over McConnell’s decision to turn down Democrats offer to enter into negotiations over the Bill before the vote. So although MoscowMitch and the Senate GOP will make every attempt to blame Democrats for killing police reform legislation in the Senate, it was McConnell’s refusal to negotiate that caused Senate Democrats to block the Bill.
On the vote tallies, Manchin, Jones and King (I) voted “yes” which is understandable given their political situations and the fact that this was just a procedural vote to start a debate process, not an endorsement of the Bill. The rest of the Democrats and Sanders voted “no”. The lone Republican “no” vote was McConnell who voted no so that he could bring this Bill Motion up again for a second Cloture Vote. My guess is that he did it just to keep his options open, not that he will definitely try again.
With regard to the politics of this vote, I still think McConnell has made a huge miscalculation in thinking that a majority of voters in key Senate battleground states will blame the Democrats for killing police reform legislation. In the coming days/weeks, McConnell will either be forced into negotiations with Democrats over a Bill or face a significant voter backlash in the Fall.
COMMITTEE ACTIVITY:
Introduction:
NOTE #s1 — 4: To keep this diary as short as possible while still providing a means for new readers to obtain a chronological history on each Committee Activity topic/event below, I have squirreled away the Background information on these topics in other previously posted diaries. So each topic’s Background section below will include links to my September 26, 2019 Diary for Background prior to November 22, my November 22, 2019, 2019 Diary for Background between November 22, 2019 and January 30, 2020, and my January 30, 2020 Diary for Background from January 30, 2020 until today. This and other regular TIC diaries will only include Recent Developments (stuff that happened the day before) and New Developments on each Committee topic/event. Also, I will discontinue posting Committee topics/events that have been inactive for weeks, but their histories will remain in the Background Diaries. If something new happens on these discontinued topics/events, I will bring them back from the dead and post it in the regular TIC.
Now on with the show. (New and Important stuff in bold)
Senate Judiciary Committee — Police Reform Legislation —
Background — See my June 8, 18 & 23 TICs.
Recent Developments — None.
New Developments — None.
House Judiciary Committee Barr Subpoena for Mueller Grand Jury Materials —
Background — Pre-Nov. 22 CLICK HERE. Nov. 22 to Jan. 30 CLICK HERE. Post Jan 30 CLICK HERE. Also, see my May 11 , 19, 20 & June 5 TICs.
Recent Developments — None.
New Developments — None.
House Judiciary Committee McGahn Subpoena —
Background — Pre-Nov. 22 CLICK HERE. Nov. 22 to Jan. 30 CLICK HERE. Post Jan 30 CLICK HERE. Also, see my May 5 TIC for details on the April 28 DC Circuit Court (virtual) Hearing in this case.
Recent Developments — None.
New Developments — None, awaiting Court Ruling.
House Judiciary & Intelligence Committee News —
NOTE #1: This used to be the “House Intelligence Committee’s Whistleblower Investigation”. Then it was titled the “House Intelligence, & Judiciary Committees’ Impeachment Investigation”. Then it was titled the “House & Senate Impeachment Proceedings.” But since Trump’s first impeachment is over, I have changed the heading again.
Background — Pre-Nov. 22 CLICK HERE. Nov. 22 to Jan. 30 CLICK HERE. Post Jan 30 CLICK HERE. Also, see my May 11 TIC, June 5, 8, 11 & 15 TICs.
House Judiciary Committee Barr Whistleblowers (New) —
Background — See my June 24 TIC.
Recent Developments — Two former DoJ Prosecutors (formerly part of the Muellet Team) will honor subpoenas and blow the whistle on Barr. Based on advanced copies of the opening statements from these Whistleblowers, they will hit Barr with multiple allegations of judicial misconduct. According to this NPR Report:
Aaron Zelinsky, who has worked at the department since 2014, is scheduled to testify at a House Judiciary Committee hearing Wednesday as one of two "whistleblowers" set to describe politicization at the Justice Department, said Chairman Jerrold Nadler, D–N.Y.
In his written statement, Zelinsky said he heard that Stone received different treatment "because of his relationship to the president."
Zelinsky said the person in charge of the U.S. attorney's office at the time was "receiving heavy pressure from the highest levels of the Department of Justice to cut Stone a break."
And, he said: "I was also told that the acting U.S. Attorney was giving Stone such unprecedentedly favorable treatment because he was 'afraid of the President.' "
Zelinsky described "significant pressure ... to water down and in some cases outright distort the events that transpired in [Stone's] trial and the criminal conduct that gave rise to his conviction."
Eventually, higher-ups in the office overrode the original recommendation about how stiffly to punish Stone and filed a new memo "at odds with the record and contrary to Department of Justice policy."
Furthermore, as reported by Axios:
John Elias, one of two whistleblowers testifying in Wednesday's hearing about political interference at the Justice Department, says in prepared testimony that the since-abandoned probe into Ford, BMW, Honda and VW initiated on Aug. 22, 2019, did not follow the typical procedures.
- "Ordinarily, decisions of import — here, an investigation of a $630 billion automobile market — take time and care to evaluate, especially when the action would face defenses. Here, in its opening memorandum, staff acknowledged that it had not fully examined the public record," Elias states.
The details: His testimony says the initiating paperwork was generated by the division's policy staff and that enforcement staff "expressed concerns about the legal and factual basis for the investigation" once they received the matter.
- He adds that enforcement staff sought time to conduct their own analysis and "requested a delay in going overt with the investigation."
- But the investigation went ahead anyway, with Delrahim personally writing to the automakers to inform them that the DOJ was examining their arrangement with California, Elias said.
The big picture: Elias will also testify that at the direction of Attorney General Bill Barr, the antitrust division launched 10 full-scale reviews of merger activity taking place in the cannabis industry that did not meet "established criteria for antitrust investigations."
- "The rationale for doing so centered not on an antitrust analysis, but because [Barr] did not like the nature of their underlying business," Elias claims.
Besides these allegations, we have the Flynn case, the attempted Friday Night Massacre of the SDNY and an allegation that Barr ordered “trumped” up investigations of the legal marijuana industry because he dislikes pot. Hear is Elias’s Full Opening Statement. Here is Zelinsky’s Full Opening Statement.
New Developments — Wednesday’s Hearing with the Barr Whistleblowers was chuck full of Barr INjustices as expected. According to this Report from NPR:
Prosecutor Aaron Zelinsky, who has worked at the department since 2014, told the committee that top leadership of the Justice Department leaned on the U.S. Attorney's Office for Washington, D.C., to go easy on Trump's friend Roger Stone.
"What I saw was that Roger Stone was being treated differently from every other defendant. ... This leniency was happening because of Stone's relationship with the president," Zelinsky said.
The other witness was John W. Elias, who has been a career lawyer at the Justice Department for presidents of both political parties.
Elias described what he called alleged abuse of power by the department in service of the administration's political ends — acts serious enough to prompt him to report them to the inspector general and now, to Congress.
Former Attorney General Michael Mukasey and former Deputy Attorney General Donald Ayer also testified.
In the Category of Republicans behaving Badly (not surprised):
The hearing was often shrill. Members squabbled over the rules of the proceeding. When one witnesses' testimony ran over a 5-minute limit, Republican Rep. Louie Gohmert of Texas began making a tapping sound on his desk. Democrats complained they couldn't hear what was being said.
Democratic Rep. Hank Johnson of Georgia asked Nadler about ordering the sergeant-at-arms to remove Gohmert. The chairman didn't pursue that idea and recognized the next witness, but the acrimonious tone for the session continued.
IMO, Nadler should have tossed Gohmert out on his A$$. Not doing so only encourages more bad Republican behavior in the future as they perceive Nadler as being weak which, truthfully, may be the correct perception.
UPDATE: Per this Kerry Kubic Tweet:
The Attorney General has accepted an invitation to appear before the House Judiciary Committee for a general oversight hearing on July 28th.
Whether Barr will actually show or not is another question. He may have just accepted the invitation to get Nadler off his back. On the other hand, he may show since the scheduled date is just before Congress’s August recess, meaning that it is unlikely the House will be able to take any action against him or DoJ (e.g., defunding DoJ) until September if at all.
House Judiciary & Intelligence Committee Flynn Subpoena —
Background — Pre-Nov. 22 CLICK HERE. Nov. 22 to Jan. 30 CLICK HERE. Post Jan 30 CLICK HERE. Also, see my May 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 19, 20, 27, June 3, 5, 8, 11, 15, 18 & 23 TICs.
Recent Developments — None.
New Developments — In the Category of Bad News you already know about, we have this from CNN:
A divided federal appeals court on Wednesday ordered the dismissal of the case against former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn, likely concluding a long-running court fight that had taken on greater meaning in political debates about the Russia investigation into the 2016 Trump campaign and about the checks and balances the judiciary has on the executive branch.
Despite Flynn twice pleading guilty for lying to the FBI about his conversations with then-Russian Ambassador
Sergey Kislyak during the presidential transition, the Justice Department moved last month to dismiss the case against him. Trial judge Emmet Sullivan of the DC District did not immediately act, instead saying
he wanted to weigh the department's arguments into at least July.
If unchallenged with further appeals, the appeals court's ruling exonerates Flynn after he
sought to change his plea and claimed innocence.
However, in a possible encouraging news from our own Mark Sumner:
But no matter how many champagne corks popped on the right, the case is not over. Because on Wednesday evening, Judge Sullivan did not follow the order to dismiss the Flynn case. Instead, Sullivan issued a stay of the proceedings. It seems likely that now Sullivan will file a petition that the entire appeals court rehear the case en banc. The outcome of that hearing genuinely will decide whether or not Michael Flynn ever sees the consequences of his admitted crime—or for any of the crimes he committed but got out of in his original deal with the DOJ.
Stay Tuned! This is not over yet. Remember, Sullivan is the Judge who argued for Flynn to be charged with TREASON, so I don’t see him backing off in the face of this obvious politically motivated decision.
House Committees Subpoenas/Requests for Trump Banking/Financial Records & Taxes:
Background — Pre-Nov. 22 CLICK HERE. Nov. 22 to Jan. 30 CLICK HERE. Post Jan 30 CLICK HERE. Also, see my May 11 , 12 , 13 & 14 TICs.
NOTE: In previous TICs, there were 3 separate topic threads (1. Deutsche/Capital One Bank Subpoenas, 2. Mazars’ Subpoena, and 3. Trump Taxes) covering 5 different court cases. Since they are all dealing with the same general topic (Trump’s hidden financial history) and were starting to get intertwined in my brain, I have rolled them all under the single header above to hopefully make things less confusing.
Also, to further help keep things organized, below are the five (5) ongoing court cases dealing with Trump’s Banking/Financial Records and tax returns.
1. Trump vs. Deutsche Bank and Capital One — Case brought by Trump against the the two banks in an effort to block a subpoena from the House Financial Services and Intelligence Committees for the Trump Organization’s banking records, including tax returns.
2. Trump vs. Mazars (Congressional Case) — Congressional Mazar’s case brought by Trump against Mazars (the Trump Organization’s former Accounting Firm) in an effort to block a subpoena from the House Oversight and Reform Committee for the Trump Organization’s financial records, including tax returns.
3. Trump vs. Mazars (Criminal Case) — Case brought by Trump against against Mazars (the Trump Organization’s former Accounting Firm) in an effort to block a subpoena from the Manhattan DA for Trump’s tax returns. The DA has subpoenaed these takes returns in conjunction with his criminal investigation of Trump’s hush money pay off to Stormy Daniels.
4. Congress vs. the IRS & Treasury Department (Trump’s Federal Tax Returns) — This case is a lawsuit brought by the House Ways & Means Committee against the IRS and Treasury Department for their failure to turn over Trump’s tax returns upon the Committee’s request as required BY LAW.
5. Trump vs. NYS Tax Department (Trump’s State Tax Returns) — This case is a lawsuit brought by Trump to block NYS from turning over his State tax returns to Congress.
I will use these case #s below to help keep things organized.
Recent Developments — None.
New Developments — None, awaiting SCOTUS rulings.
THAT’S IT FOR TODAY! Stay Healthy All!