Obstruction

* “It’s very simple. There was no crime. I did nothing wrong.” President Trump continues to believe that former special counsel Robert Mueller absolved him of any crimes, so that’s special. [POLITICO]

* And as for the 1000+ former prosecutors who say that Trump would have been indicted for obstruction of justice were he not a sitting president, per Trump, “They’re politicians. … And these are all — many of ’em are Trump haters.“ [This Week / ABC]

* With just two weeks left, tensions are high as the legal community awaits the Supreme Court’s decisions in the 24 cases that remain on this term’s docket. What fresh hell will be unleashed upon society this week? [The Hill]

* The Justice Department claims that Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin didn’t break the law when he refused to turn over President Trump’s tax returns to Congress because he was just protecting their confidentiality. [Reuters]

* Trump intends to nominate a Biglaw partner to the board of directors for the Legal Services Corporation, the organization whose budget he keeps trying to cut. [Big Law Business]

* According to President Donald Trump, former White House counsel Don McGahn “had a much better chance of being fired” than special counsel Robert Mueller because Trump claims he was “[n]ever a big fan” — but that’s probably because McGahn refused to issue a public statement saying he didn’t believe the president obstructed justice. [Washington Post]

* President Trump wants to stop federal judges on lower courts from issuing nationwide injunctions that are screwing up his plans to make America gross again. Even VP Mike Pence hopes the Supreme Court will step in to put an end to the practice. [The Hill]

* Ronald S. Sullivan Jr., the Harvard Law professor who is representing accused rapist Harvey Weinstein, has lost his job as a faculty dean at an undergraduate house thanks to his controversial client. [Boston Globe]

* “ I know that when I walk into a room that I’ll be underestimated. I’m aware that I need to prove myself. It doesn’t bother me.” Hailyn Chen, a 43-year-old litigator of Chinese descent, is the new co-managing partner of Munger, Tolles & Olson. Congratulations! [American Lawyer]

* Professor Ian Samuel of Indiana Law has resigned from his job following the conclusion of the Title IX misconduct probe against him, which “probably had the side effect of saving [his] life” because he “was becoming an ugly man.” [Big Law Business]

* Now that its managing partner is taking his business to Blank Rome, Morris & McVeigh, one of New York City’s oldest law firms, will be closing its doors after about 157 years in business. [New York Law Journal]

* In case you somehow missed it, according to Attorney General Bill Barr’s summary of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation, there was no collusion with Russia and with regard to obstruction, “[w]hile this report does not conclude that the president committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him.” And that’s just fine, because AG Barr exonerated Trump himself. [New York Times]

* Speaking of AG Barr, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler says he wants to call Barr in to testify due to the “very concerning discrepancies and final decision making” at the DOJ when it came to the Mueller report. [The Hill]

* Rudy Giuliani wants apologies and he wants them now: From legislators to former CIA chiefs, Trump’s personal attorney is demanding apologies from all manner of people who said there was evidence of Russian collusion. [Business Insider]

* Want to see what the Mueller report actually said? Luckily, the Electronic Privacy Information Center filed a FOIA lawsuit in the D.C. Circuit to get the contents of the full report within an hour of it being submitted to AG Barr. [National Law Journal]

* Justice Brett Kavanaugh has been hired as a distinguished visiting professor at George Mason’s ASS Law Antonin Scalia Law School, where he’ll be teaching a study abroad class titled “Creation of the Constitution.” [Fourth Estate]

* I like dollars, I like diamonds, I like — paper cups? Okurr… When she’s not suing people for defamation, Cardi B is applying for a trademark for her catchphrase “Okurrr” to sell t-shirts, hoodies, and paper goods like cups and posters. [TMZ; BBC]

* Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearings will continue today, and we imagine that when his rulings are discussed, he’ll be pummeled on own “frozen trucker” case — but his involves a killer whale. [National Law Journal]

* Special counsel Robert Mueller says he’ll accept written answers from President Donald Trump on questions related to whether his campaign conspired with Russia to interfere in the 2016 election. As for the obstruction question, it seems like Mueller still wants an interview. [New York Times]

* The Securities and Exchange Commission has reached settlements totaling about $216,815 with the former leaders of failed firm Dewey & LeBoeuf. Of course, that’s nowhere near multimillion-dollar fraud that’s been alleged, but at this point, Dewey even care anymore? [American Lawyer]

* According to the American Bar Association, Florida Coastal Law, the last InfiLaw school left standing, is still out of compliance with accreditation standards. Coastal is already suing the ABA, so this latest decision is sure to inspire some additional filings from the school. [ABA Journal]

* North Dakota Law has welcomed more than two dozen students who fled from beleaguered Arizona Summit Law with open arms. Why have so many Summit students flocked to Roughrider Country? All of their credits will be accepted there, which is a pretty good reason. [Bismarck Tribune]

* Now that special counsel Robert Mueller has interviewed Attorney General Jeff Sessions for hours on end, he’s getting closer to interviewing the president himself, and it looks like the focus will be on the ouster of Michael Flynn and James Comey (i.e., obstruction of the Russia investigation). [Washington Post]

* After the federal government shutdown ended, Justice Neil Gorsuch dined with Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn and other Republican senators and Trump administration officials. Ethics violation? Nah. “Justices don’t take vows to be hermits. Nothing here remotely suggests ethical issue.” [National Law Journal]

* More than one million corporate email addresses from the United Kingdom’s top law firms were found on the dark web, and 80 percent were associated with passwords, which puts those firms at a very significant risk of being hacked. Be wary about cybersecurity breaches in the future thanks to this. [Infosecurity Magazine]

* The University of Windsor Faculty of Law in Ontario, Canada, suffered a major data breach earlier this month after a law school staff member accidentally posted confidential information — names, GPAs, LSAT scores, the works — about current applicants to a blackboard accessible by current students. Oops! [Lawyer’s Daily]

* If you’re thinking about applying to law school, make sure you keep in mind that anything you include (or neglect to include) in your application can and will be used against you during your character and fitness evaluation when you apply to take the bar exam after graduation. [Law Admissions Lowdown / U.S. News]

* This weekend was full of huge news in Trumpland. Following Michael Flynn’s guilty plea, President Trump tweeted that he fired Flynn because he lied to the FBI. If you recall, Trump originally said that he’d fired Flynn because his former NSA adviser had lied to Vice President Pence. [New York Times]

* Here’s why Trump’s shift is pretty important, according to Justice Department spokesman Matthew Miller: “Oh my god, he just admitted to obstruction of justice. If Trump knew Flynn lied to the FBI when he asked Comey to let it go, then there is your case.” [The Hill]

* Slow your roll, prosecutors. President Trump is now saying that he never asked former FBI director James Comey to stop investigating Flynn, even though Comey testified to that version of events before Congress. Per Trump, it’s “[j]ust more Fake News covering another Comey lie!” [CBS News]

* But wait, there’s even more! It seems that President Trump wasn’t the author of that tweet. Apparently it was written by one of his lawyers, John Dowd, who now says it was “[his] mistake” as he’s “out of the tweeting business” and “did not mean to break news.” [Washington Post; Axios]

* Finally, in case you missed it, the Senate passed its version of the tax bill in the dead of night as it was still being written, with a 20 percent tax rate for corporations. Now, President Trump — the client who will never be satisfied — says that rate might go up to 22 percent. [CNBC]

* Last, but not least, President Trump has endorsed accused child-toucher Roy Moore via tweet (obviously) for the Republican Senate seat that was left open by Attorney General Jeff Sessions. This has reached a whole new level of ridiculousness. [CNN]

* In other news, CVS is planning to buy Aetna for $69 billion. We’ve not yet seen which law firms are representing the companies on the deal, but this is a move that could seriously change the way our health care system looks. (And as an aside, it could seriously change the way your EOBs look, since CVS is a fan of those absurdly long receipts.) [DealBook / New York Times]

* Brock Turner, the former Stanford swimmer who served just three months in jail for sexually assaulting an unconscious woman, is now appealing, claiming that his trial was “fundamentally unfair.” Most would counter that raping an unconscious woman in the street is what’s really “fundamentally unfair,” but that’s neither here nor there. [NBC News]

* Maybe the news outside of the Supreme Court is a little more positive today? Oh, looks like the CBO scored the GOP healthcare bill and figured out that 22 more people will be… uninsured. Wait, that can’t be right. That’s not what Trump promised and we know that he never, ever lies. [CNN]

* Donald Trump is now accusing Barack Obama of colluding with the Russians to help Hillary Clinton. Lately, I’ve been really trying to think back to kindergarten to try to remember what precisely I said when a kid said “I’m rubber, you’re glue, whatever you say bounces off of me and sticks to you.” And I realize, I didn’t have a response. I didn’t have a strategy or polemic designed to blunt the effectiveness of that argument. Kids just, you know, grew up and stopped saying it. … I worry about our future. [NBC News]

* Note to self: challenging white people on white people television is dangerous for my career. Note from every black intellectual ever: Duh. [The Root]

* Middletown, Ohio councilman suggests that EMS should stop immediately responding to overdose emergencies to save money. I wish I could be there when the final cost of the wrongful death lawsuit is put into the Middletown budget. Like, it’d almost be worth one of his constituents dying just to see his crying, stupid face when the jury awards damages. [NY Daily News]

* But not actually worth it. Philando Castile’s family settled with the city for $3 million. And it just reminds me that the cities would rather pay millions of dollars every few times their police officers murder someone, instead of doing anything to stop the murderers and hold their officers accountable. [NPR]

* Martin Shkreli’s fraud trial started today, but everyone in the jury pool obviously knows the price-gouging douche-bro. So once again we’re in a situation where we’ll need to find jurors who don’t know Shkreli, because to know him is to loathe him. [Are Technica]