Senate Intelligence Committee
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Morning Docket
Morning Docket: 06.12.19
* Donald Trump Jr. is going to have a closed-door hearing on a limited number of topics for a limited amount of time before the Senate Intelligence Committee today. Should be an informative romp around the invocation of the Fifth Amendment. [POLITICO]
* The House Judiciary Committee will sue AG Bill Barr and former White House counsel Don McGahn for refusing to comply with subpoenas related to receiving an unredacted copy of the Mueller report on Russia’s efforts to influence the 2016 election and President Donald Trump’s possible obstruction of justice. [NBC News]
* “When it comes to corporate power, bigger is not always better.” In case you missed it, 10 states have filed suit to put an end to the Sprint-T-Mobile merger deal, claiming that consumers will be hurt price wise due to the lack of market competition. [Reuters]
* Alabama Law isn’t quite through with Hugh Culverhouse Jr. just yet. Professor Ronald Krotoszynski has some wise words to share over how untenable large class sizes would have been for a school that has tried to right-size since the recession severely impacted law graduate employment. [Washington Post]
* Ever since CKR Law started having trouble paying its partners, causing some to flee as a result, the firm has stopped growing at the speed it once was. Duh? [New York Law Journal]
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Morning Docket
Morning Docket: 05.15.19
* Donald Trump Jr. has reached an agreement for “limited” testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee, where he’ll discuss no more than a handful of topics for no longer than two-to-four hours. But will he plead the Fifth? [New York Times]
* Just when you thought Georgia’s fetal heartbeat law was too extreme, Alabama shows up with a near total abortion ban like it’s some race to see which state can get Roe v. Wade overturned the quickest at the Supreme Court. [NBC News]
* Can President Trump actually can block his accountants from complying with a congressional subpoena? Based on the way Judge Amit Mehta skeptically grilled Trump’s lawyer during yesterday’s hearing, we’re not too sure things will go the president’s way. [National Law Journal]
* Claire Murray, a former partner at Kirkland & Ellis, has been appointed by AG Bill Barr as principal deputy associate AG, the Justice Department’s third in command. The Biglaw firm seems to be taking over Main Justice. Congratulations! [Big Law Business]
* In case you missed it, this global law firm is reportedly facing a “cash flow crunch” that’s causing it to struggle to pay its partners and think about cutting ties with “substantially underperforming partners.” [American Lawyer]
* Professor Ron Sullivan of Harvard Law, the soon-to-be former faculty dean of an undergraduate house at Harvard, has stepped down as a member of Harvey Weinstein’s criminal defense team, claiming that the case will “conflict with his teaching responsibilities.” [CNN]
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Morning Docket
Morning Docket: 06.14.17
* Several people were reportedly shot this morning at a GOP baseball practice, including House Majority Whip Steve Scalise, who is now in stable condition. The gunman is in custody. We may have more on this later today. [The Hill]
* The Supreme Court has granted Acting Solicitor General Jeff Wall more time to file papers in order to respond to the recent Ninth Circuit decision upholding a lower court decision which blocked President Donald Trump’s travel ban. This means that any action taken by the high court on the administration’s emergency pleas for certiorari will be even further delayed. [Reuters]
* “I am protecting the right of the president to assert [executive privilege] if he chooses.” Attorney General Jeff Sessions seemed to have no desire to speak about his interactions or conversations with President Donald Trump regarding James Comey’s handling of the Russia probe during his Senate hearing yesterday, and didn’t feel the need to provide a real legal basis for his refusal to answer questions on the topic either. [New York Times; Washington Post]
* In the meantime, even though rumors have been swirling about President Donald Trump’s supposed desire to fire special counsel Robert Mueller, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein says he has no reason to fire Mueller at this time: “If there were good cause, I would consider it. If there were not good cause, it wouldn’t matter to me what anybody says.” [Law360 (sub. req.)]
* Marc Kasowitz may have taken a “career-defining” role representing the “predisent,” but one wonders what will happen to his law firm while he pursues this ambitious undertaking. Kasowitz Benson could suffer when it comes to recruiting new talent to the firm thanks to its leader’s choice of clientele, not to mention the fact that its revenue has been on the decline. [Am Law Daily]
* In an effort to fight the “historic drug epidemic” that in no way involves marijuana, AG Jeff Sessions has asked Congress to roll back the Rohrabacher-Farr amendment, which prohibits the DOJ from using federal funds to prosecute states that have instituted their own laws authorizing the “use, distribution, possession, or cultivation of medical marijuana.” [Washington Post]
* Herma Hill Kay, the first female dean of Berkeley Law, RIP. [The Recorder]
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Morning Docket
Morning Docket: 06.12.17
* President Donald Trump will reportedly visit the Supreme Court later this week for Justice Neil Gorsuch’s official investiture ceremony. Based on the president’s prior behavior, it may only be a matter of time before he refers to his appointee as an “absolute disaster” whose “mind is shot.” [USA Today]
* Former U.S. attorney Preet Bharara, who was fired by President Trump after he was asked to remain in his post, says phone calls he received from Trump made in an effort to “cultivate some kind of relationship” made him uncomfortable. In response, a spokesman for Marc Kasowitz called Bharara a “resistance Democrat,” and said “he deserved to be fired.” [Washington Post]
* In other news, Marc Kasowitz, who will likely be setting up an office on White House grounds where he can run President Trump’s defense, has reportedly told White House aides to hold off on hiring their own lawyers — a move that would only be in his client’s interest, and against their own. [New York Times]
* In defense to a lawsuit, the Justice Department has likened President Trump to George Washington (yup!), alleging that Trump isn’t violating the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution by accepting payments for goods and services like hotel bills and golf club fees from foreign governments. [Bloomberg]
* In the wake of former FBI director James Comey’s tell-all appearance before the Senate Intelligence Committee, Attorney General Jeff Sessions will now have to testify himself on the ongoing probe into Russian’s election interference. Hmm, what will the recused AG have to say for himself? [New York Times]
* “It was really disgusting and really scary.” Joseph Amico of Las Vegas was arrested after he allegedly called New York lawyer Douglas Wigdor a “n**ger lover” and threatened to blow up his firm. Wigdor is representing plaintiffs in a racial discrimination lawsuit against Fox News Channel. [New York Daily News]
* Miguel A. Méndez, Stanford Law’s first Latino professor, RIP. [Stanford News]