TODAY IN CONGRESS (TIC):
Your One Stop Shop For Learning What Our Congress Critters Are Up To!
Today’s Headlines:
House Committee Wants Explanation For Federal Attack on PEACEFUL Protesters
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House Judiciary Committee to Hear From Whistleblowers Before Putting Barr on the Hot Seat
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DAY 19 Since the House Passed the HEROES Bill and Not A Peep From Mitch!
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 — No Action
Senate —
9:00 am — Senate Homeland And Governmental Affairs Committee Hearing on Postal Service Nominations (The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee holds a confirmation hearing for U.S. Postal Service governors and other nominations.)
10:00 am — Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing on the FISA application process (Former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee on the FISA application process used during the FBI investigation into possible ties between the Trump campaign and Russian officials.)
10:00 am — Senate Session (Senators will consider several nominations this week including James Anderson to be Deputy Under Secretary of Defense For Policy,and Drew Tipton to be U.S. District Judge for the Southern District of Texas.)
2:30 pm — Senate Budget Committee holds a Confirmation Hearing (The Senate Budget Committee holds a confirmation hearing for Russell Vought to serve as director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).)
2:30 pm — Senate Commerce Committee Hearing on COVID-19 Impact on Transportation and Critical Infrastructure (The Senate Commerce Committee holds a hearing on the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on transportation and critical infrastructure.)
Tuesday’s Votes:
House — No Votes
Senate — No Significant Votes.
Comments:
Today Topics/Events — Well if you are in the mood for some FIREWORKS, I would suggest tuning into the Senate Hearing featuring Former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein (Remember Him?). While the hearing is supposed to be about the FISA warrant application process, I would suspect it will quickly turn into a rehash of Mueller’s Trump-Russia investigation’ with Democrats probing for yet undisclosed facts while Republicans try to once again paint the whole thing as a hoax. Should be interesting!
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)
House Homeland Security Committee Briefing on the President’s Stunt —
Background — None.
Recent Developments — None.
New Developments — The Chairman of the Homeland Security Committee calls for an immediate Briefing regarding the Federal governments attack on PEACEFUL Protesters in D.C. According to this Article from The Hill:
House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) is requesting an immediate briefing on the Secret Service’s involvement in clearing protesters from Lafayette Square.
In a Tuesday letter to Secret Service Director James Murray, Thompson said he wants a briefing by June 5 “to understand the role of the United States Secret Service in planning, coordinating, and executing” actions such as the ones taken Monday night outside the White House.
“I write to you stunned, disturbed, and furious at the sight of federal authorities tear-gassing peaceful protesters in Lafayette Park, outside the White House, last night, in order to clear the way for the President to walk over and hold a Bible in front of St. John’s Episcopal Church,” Thompson said.
“It is shameful that the President used the power of the federal government to attack Americans exercising their Constitutional right to protest just so he could stage a photo opportunity,” he continued.
Not sure what kind of response he will get from the Secret Service since it is being widely reported that Barr gave the order to attack the PEACEFUL protesters to provide a path for the Orange Turd to walk to the church and perform his Bible Stunt. But let me just point out the seriousness of this crime against the American people perpetrated by Barr or Trump or both. As Joe Biden said in his eloquent speech yesterday, the First Amendment to the Constitution says:
“...or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
Can there be any doubt that that is what the peaceful protesters were doing just outside the White House? Can there be any doubt that the person or persons who gave the order to attack these PEACEFUL protesters are responsible for taking away that Constitutionally guaranteed RIGHT to petition the Government for a redress of grievances? Can there be any doubt that in taking away this RIGHT, the person or persons giving the order blatantly and egregiously violated the Constitution and in doing so committed an Impeachable Offense?
No there are no doubts about any of it. The only doubt is whether they will be allowed to get away with it.
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 TICs.
Recent Developments — None.
New Developments — The DoJ has filed it’s request to SCOTUS to block Congress from obtaining the Mueller Grand Jury Documents. According to this story from The Hill:
The Department of Justice (DOJ) on Monday asked the Supreme Court to overturn a lower court decision granting House Democrats access to redacted grand jury materials from former special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia probe.
The Monday filing serves as the Trump administration’s formal appeal of a March order to hand over secret transcripts and exhibits that Democratic leaders of the House Judiciary Committee initially sought as part of the impeachment inquiry into President Trump.
The justices previously granted the administration’s request to halt the disclosure order, issued by a divided three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, from taking effect to allow time for an appeal.
In its filing, DOJ lawyers urged the justices to take up the case and to prevent an unwarranted breach of grand jury secrecy.
"In light of the national prominence of this grand-jury investigation, the separation-of-powers concerns raised by the decision below, and the potential damage that decision could inflict on 'the proper functioning of our grand jury system,' this Court’s review is warranted," they wrote.
Next step will probably be the filing of a response by the House Judiciary Committee.
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.
Recent Developments — None.
New Developments — Judiciary Committee is planning a DoJ Whistleblowers Hearing. According to POLITICO:
The House Judiciary Committee has lined up whistleblowers to testify about alleged political interference inside the Justice Department, committee aides told POLITICO on Tuesday, as Attorney General William Barr continues to rebuff efforts by the panel to reschedule testimony he committed to in March.The whistleblower hearing, which has yet to be formally scheduled, is part of a series of steps the panel intends to take in the coming weeks to push back against Barr, who they say has rejected renewed efforts to testify before the Democrat-led panel. The panel is also proposing to slash Barr's personal budget by $50 million, a response to the mounting frustration with the attorney general's resistance to scheduling his first appearance before the panel that oversees his Justice Department.
Smart move to get the Whistelblowers’ testimony on record before bringing in Barr. It could put Barr in a perjury trap IF he eventually testifies, and that’s a BIG IF.
House 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 TICs.
Recent Developments — Flynn call transcripts released! According to this TPM Article:
The transcripts from several phone calls between Michael Flynn and Russian officials became public Friday, including his December 2016 call with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak discussing sanctions the Obama administration imposed on Russia.
The transcripts show Kisylak trying to suss out from Flynn what the incoming Trump administration’s policy towards Russia would be, as Flynn tried to ensure that Moscow took a “reciprocal” response to sanctions issued by the Obama administration as a response to Russian meddling in the 2016 election in support of Trump.
At one point during a call on Dec. 29, Kislyak told Flynn that “now that U.S. policy might, uh, be changing or not, we want to understand what is going to be your policy when and if we are to implement things that we are working on.”
The transcripts quickly became public after John Ratcliffe, Trump’s new Director of National Intelligence, announced that they’d been declassified. Ratcliffe’s move came after his predecessor, Ric Grenell, released other documents from the Russia probe. Democrats have accused Grenell of selectively declassifying sensitive intelligence materials, however both they and Republicans together sought the release of the transcripts made public Friday.
I have to wonder if there is still some selective declassifying going on. If you only release the parts where Flynn and Kisyiak are having a seemingly innocent conversion, you bolster DoJ’s case for dropping charges against Flynn because his lies to the FBI did not involve a justifiably material foreign intelligence investigation. Anyway you can read the released transcripts at the end of the
TPM Article.
New Developments — As reported here yesterday in Kerry Eleveld's Post, The Justice Department filed it’s formal appeal urging a federal appeals court to force the federal Judge Emmett Sullivan to dismiss the case against Flynn. According to POLITICO:
District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan had declined to immediately toss the case against Flynn, despite the Justice Department's move to drop a charge that the Trump ally lied to the FBI about his 2016 contacts with Russia's ambassador to the United States. Flynn pleaded guilty to the offense in 2017 but reversed course and moved to withdraw his plea in recent months.
Sullivan instead sought outside input about whether he should abandon the case — and potentially charge Flynn with contempt of court for perjury during his guilty plea proceedings. On Monday, DOJ said Sullivan was wrong to take that step.
“Instead of inviting further proceedings, the court should have granted the government’s motion to dismiss,” top DOJ officials, including at least three career prosecutors, wrote in a 45-page filing to a three-judge appeals court panel.
In addition, the House Judiciary Committee announced it will imminently file a brief with the U.S. Court of Appeals opposing the call by the Justice Department to force the dismissal of the charges against former national security adviser Michael Flynn, who had previously pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI but had recently sought to withdraw that plea.
This appeal will be heard by a 3 Judge Panel made up of 2 Republicans and 1 Democrat. So I’m not optimistic.
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!