Tax reform

The proposed tax bill hurts partners and helps associates -- who'd have thunk it?

Companies need to be wary of whether the mechanisms ostensibly designed to repatriate foreign income and IP assets will actually have the desired effect.  

* 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]

* Justice Neil Gorsuch delivers a speech on civility in public life at a lunch held at the Trump International Hotel — and meets with protests. [How Appealing]

* Congratulations to Makan Delrahim, just confirmed as head of the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division. [Bloomberg via Big Law Business]

* MoloLamken adds another star federal prosecutor to its roster, bringing aboard Megan Cunniff Church in Chicago. [Law360]

* Speaking of stars, the Supreme Court clerks from October Term 2007: where are they now? [Excess of Democracy]

* Don’t say we didn’t warn you: the list of law schools with the highest loan default rates is dominated by staples of Above the Law’s pages. [ABA Journal]

* Harvard Law School graduate Tamara Wyche, who failed the bar exam twice and lost her job at Ropes & Gray, can proceed with parts of her federal lawsuit against the New York State Board of Law Examiners. [Law.com]

* Shocker: lobbyists go into high gear to try and save some cherished tax breaks from the scourge of tax reform. [New York Times]

* At a rally in front of Long Island police, Trump said that he was okay with police being “rougher” on arrested suspects. And the officers roared their approval. I grew up on Long Island. The first person to ever call me the N-word to my face was a Long Island police officer when I was a tween. I can’t explain to you guys how absolutely chilling and terrifying this moment was for me. I wish you MAGA people, you soft bigots who think that this is a game of your guy versus political correctness, could understand why people like me will never stop fighting people like you. [Lawyers Guns and Money]

* I’ve kind of moved passed the point where the courts tell Donald Trump that he cannot block people on Twitter, because I expect that will be a fairly obvious decision. I’m now wondering if the courts can order the specific performance of Trump unblocking those he doesn’t wish to hear. And, naturally, I’m wondering if people tweeting at him, day and night, things he can’t block, will make him cry. [Slate]

* This guy argues, more or less, that partisan gerrymandering is not the cause of our factionalized democracy, it’s merely one of the results. I think it’s more of a feedback loop: we’re factionalized, which leads to gerrymandering, which leads to more factionalization, and so on, until we get to the point where 60 million people can elect a crazy person to lord over a country of 320 million souls. That also probably explains why Dunkirk is going to win an Oscar. [Election Law Blog]

* I’d like to think of John Roberts vacationing in New Zealand like Gandalf visiting The Shire. I can picture him, smoking some pipe weed, setting off some fireworks, enjoying a moment untrammeled by thoughts of what’s happening back at home in Mordor. [Constitution Daily]

* I assume the GOP will now move onto tax reform, which is codenamed: “Operation Cannot Possibly Fail, Again.” Tax Prof blog has put together a fine collection of links on where we stand with that. [Tax Prof Blog]

* Checking in with white American news sources, it would appear that Fox News doesn’t recognize the defeat of the Republicans’ signature policy proposal for the past seven years as “headline” news. They’re much more interested in getting a special prosecutor to look into a couple of women who hold no public office, and the FBI director who handed them an election. But they’re not totally ignorant of what’s going on. “Couple jump to their deaths because they ‘can’t afford’ health care,” is a below-the-fold story. The Republican plan wouldn’t have reduced costs for this couple, nor made it easier for them to get the mental health services that could have saved their lives. But when you support a president whose stated policy goal is “implosion,” human tragedy furthers your aims. [Fox News]

* In case you missed last night’s dramatic moment:

https://twitter.com/bubbaprog/status/890815543258865664

* Paging Don McGahn. There’s a cleanup on aisle 1600. [Politico]

* Rod Rosenstein speaks. [Slate]

* Which SCOTUS briefs are the easiest to read? [Empirical SCOTUS]

* Paul Ryan may not be able to rally the necessary tax reform troops. [The Hill]

* Sally Yates thinks the Flynn controversy was a bigger deal than the White House does. No kidding. [New Yorker]

* You may be able to visit North Carolina with a clear conscience soon. [Huffington Post]

* Not everything is a competition. [Katz Justice]

* Dealing with the bad stuff. [Law and More]

Abandon hope all ye who enter here.