For now, the political fight over Mr. Trump’s national emergency declaration shifts to the courts, where a number of states and organizations have joined lawsuits challenging the legal merits of the order. Xavier Becerra, California’s attorney general, warned in a statement that the 20 states involved in legal action “are ready to fight long and hard to stop his fabricated emergency in its tracks.”

The judicial machinations will most likely prevent the president and Pentagon officials from immediately tapping military funds for border wall construction, and the Defense Department has yet to prepare a final list of what projects could have funding delays. It is unclear when the list will be available.

In the interim, the Pentagon has taken the first steps to begin diverting money from other Defense Department funds toward constructing fencing at the border. On Monday, Patrick M. Shanahan, the acting defense secretary, authorized the transfer of up to $1 billion from military personnel funding toward the construction of 57 miles of border fencing, improving roads and adding lighting in Yuma, Ariz., and El Paso, according to a letter sent to the Department of Homeland Security.

Military officials have said that they do not need congressional approval for such an action. But across Capitol Hill on Tuesday, lawmakers pressed Pentagon officials about the potential effect on military construction and the merits of a wall at the southwestern border.

“To look at the Pentagon as a piggy bank, slush fund, where you can grab money for something when you need it really undermines the credibility of the entire D.O.D. budget,” said Representative Adam Smith of Washington, the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee.

At a hearing on Tuesday, Mr. Smith warned Mr. Shanahan and General Joseph F. Dunford Jr., the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, that Congress would respond to the reallocation of funds without congressional approval by curtailing the privilege of such reallocations in the spending bills for the next fiscal year.

Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/26/us/politics/national-emergency-vote.html

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A Green New Deal proposal backed by numerous Democrats failed to advance in the Senate on Tuesday as Democrats protested what they called a political show vote orchestrated by majority Republicans.

The nonbinding resolution, which calls on the United States to make an ambitious effort to slash its use of fossil fuels to fight climate change, fell short in a procedural vote. The Senate did not proceed to debating the measure, as 57 senators voted against it and 43 Democrats and independents who caucus with them — nearly all of the Democratic caucus — voted “present.” Four senators who vote with Democrats — Joe Manchin of West Virginia, Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, Doug Jones of Alabama and independent Angus King of Maine — voted against the resolution.

By voting “present,” Democrats hoped not to go on the record on a bill that had no realistic chance of passing, even if they support the concept of a Green New Deal. The six Democratic senators running for president next year — who co-sponsored the original resolution introduced by Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass. — did not take a position on the measure Tuesday.

Democrats have pushed for drastic action to combat climate change as the planet warms and severe weather events such as recent Midwestern flooding have devastated U.S. communities. They say the U.S. has only a limited window to combat climate change and address an existential threat.

Republicans have gleefully criticized the Green New Deal, warning about Democratic efforts to take away anything from cars to hamburgers. They accuse Democrats of a drift toward socialism spurred in part by freshman Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., a champion of the measure in the House.

Ahead of the vote Tuesday, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer accused Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of using political theater to hide his lack of a plan to address a warming planet.

“Republicans want to force this political stunt to distract from the fact that they neither have a plan nor a sense of urgency to deal with the threat of climate change. With this exercise, the Republican majority has made a mockery of the legislative process,” the New York Democrat said Tuesday.

McConnell aimed to put Democrats on the record about whether they support the plan. He sees it as something that will fail to resonate with centrist or independent voters, who some senators will need to keep their seats — or win swing states in a presidential election next year.

The Kentucky Republican said Tuesday that he believes in climate change and wants to address it through unspecified “technology and innovation.”

“This is nonsense,” McConnell said of the Green New Deal. “And if you’re going to sign on to nonsense, you ought to have to vote for nonsense.”

President Donald Trump, meanwhile, plans to use the proposal against Democrats as he runs for re-election next year. Six Democratic senators — Cory Booker of New Jersey, Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, Kamala Harris of California, Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts — are running to challenge the president next year.

During a Senate Republican policy lunch Tuesday, Trump signaled he wants to use the Green New Deal as a cudgel in 2020, according to Sen. Lindsey Graham.

“He said make sure you don’t kill it too much, because I want to run against it,” the South Carolina Republican said, according to NBC News.

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Source Article from https://www.cnbc.com/2019/03/26/aocs-green-new-deal-dies-in-mcconnell-led-senate-vote.html

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(CNN)A Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft from the fleet that was grounded after two deadly crashes made an emergency landing in Florida on Tuesday.

    Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2019/03/26/us/boeing-737-max-emergency-landing/index.html

    A surprise move by the Trump administration aimed at striking down the Affordable Care Act thrust the partisan battle over health care into the middle of the 2020 campaign on Tuesday, handing Democrats a potential political gift on an issue that damaged Republicans badly in last year’s midterm elections.

    In a new court filing, the Justice Department argued that the ACA, also known as Obamacare, should be thrown out in its entirety, including provisions protecting millions of Americans with preexisting health conditions and allowing young adults to stay on their parents’ health-care plans.

    President Trump praised the move during a lunch with Senate Republicans, and suggested the GOP should embrace a new congressional battle over health-care policy ahead of the 2020 elections.

    “Let me tell you exactly what my message is: The Republican Party will soon be known as the party of health care,” he told reporters before the lunch. “You watch.”

    But neither the White House nor Republicans in Congress have offered a new plan to replace the comprehensive Obama-era law, which was passed nearly a decade ago and has grown in popularity since Trump was elected.

    Democrats immediately seized on the administration’s filing, calling it the latest attempt by Republicans to strip health insurance from Americans. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Tuesday also unveiled Democratic plans for further bolstering the ACA.

    “Trump and his administration are trying to take health care away from tens of millions of Americans — again,” Sen. Kamala D. Harris (D-Calif.) said on Twitter, one of several tweets by presidential candidates hitting Trump on health care. “We must fight back again with everything we’ve got. And in 2020, we need to elect a president who will make health care a right.”

    As recently as November, after Democrats won control of the House of Representatives in an election dominated by the health-care issue, Republican congressional leaders had suggested they planned to move on from their years-long efforts to repeal Obamacare.

    But Trump suggested he wants to revisit the issue, after two unsuccessful efforts in 2017 to undo former president Barack Obama’s signature legislative achievement. Trump has long fumed over those failures, and as recently as last week was attacking the late senator John McCain (R-Ariz.) for his pivotal role in quashing the effort.

    Trump spent much of his time at the Senate lunch talking about health care, according to several senators present.

    “If there’s a message to be learned from 2018 on policy, it’s health care,” Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) told reporters after the lunch Tuesday. “Let’s become the party of health care.”

    “He thinks that that’s the one area where we’ve fallen short and he wants to see us address it,” said Sen. John Neely Kennedy (R-La.). “He made that very clear.”

    But by resurfacing old battles about stripping away popular elements of the current health-care system, Trump is likely to embolden and unite Democrats who seek to make health care a top issue in 2020, said Amy Walter, national editor of the Cook Political Report. Democrats who have been divided in recent months over proposed Medicare-for-all legislation can now coalesce around the idea of protecting the ACA’s most popular provisions, she said.

    “If you’re a Republican thinking about 2020 right now, you want to be on offense on health care, not defense,” she said. “And the only way to do that is to make the focus on what Democrats want to do — on Medicare-for-all — rather than making it on what the president and the White House are suggesting.”

    The president’s comments at the Senate lunch came after the Justice Department backed invalidating Obamacare in a legal filing Monday with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit in New Orleans, where an appeal is pending in a case challenging the law’s constitutionality. A federal judge in Texas ruled in December that the law’s individual mandate “can no longer be sustained as an exercise of Congress’s tax power” and further found that the remaining portions of the law are void. He based his judgment on changes to the nation’s tax laws made by congressional Republicans in 2017.

    Republican senators offered differing responses to the administration’s new court filing, though none offered support for throwing out all of Obamacare without a ready replacement for its most popular elements.

    Sen. Susan Collins (Maine), a moderate Republican who has voted against multiple bills dismantling the ACA, said Tuesday she was “very disappointed” in the administration’s legal position.

    “It is highly unusual for the Department of Justice not to defend duly enacted laws, which the Affordable Care Act certainly was,” Collins said. “This decision to even go more broadly in failing to defend the law is very disappointing.”

    Some Republican senators downplayed the idea that the 2010 health-care law was immediately at risk and said they would work to make sure those with preexisting conditions would be protected no matter what.

    Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), who backed previous lawsuits seeking to deem the Affordable Care Act unconstitutional, said he still supported eliminating the law.

    “I think Obamacare should be gone,” he said. “We’ve got to cover people with preexisting conditions apart from Obamacare, which is what I talked about a lot.”

    The fate of Obamacare could — once again — hinge on the Supreme Court, which has installed two conservative justices since it voted to uphold the landmark health-care law in 2012.

    If the courts were to overturn the ACA, around 20 million Americans would lose their health coverage, according to an analysis by the Urban Institute, an economic and social policy think tank. The coverage gains were chiefly through the offer of private subsidized plans in state-based marketplaces and through the expansion of Medicaid in many states to people earning up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level.

    There would be ripple effects throughout the health-care industry and insurance landscape as well. Those with workplace plans could be affected, as employers would be allowed to scale back certain medical benefits, and people with preexisting conditions buying coverage on their own would no longer be guaranteed access to coverage at no extra cost.

    Democrats were eager to highlight the potential damage from a ruling to strike down Obamacare — and to change the subject after a summary of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s findings did not establish that Trump’s campaign colluded with Russia during the 2016 election. Some pointed out that relentless focus on health care helped Democrats win control of the House last year.

    “I just won my Senate race and I talked about health care, a lot,” said Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.).

    While many Democratic presidential candidates have embraced health-care proposals that go beyond the Affordable Care Act to offer universal coverage, defending the law against Republican efforts to dismantle it has proven to be a potent rallying cry and an effective unifying tool.

    Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) has frequently emphasized his support for Medicare-for-all in his presidential campaign, but Tuesday he sought to defend Obamacare from the Trump administration.

    “Our goal is to pass Medicare-for-all and make health care a right,” he wrote on Twitter. “Today our job is to defend the Affordable Care Act from relentless attacks by the Trump administration.”

    Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) is frequently asked during town hall meetings about health care, a topic that has come up about a dozen times at events across the country, according to a tally by her presidential campaign. Warren supports Medicare-for-all but has also spoken in favor of protecting Obamacare.

    “I’ll say it for the zillionth time: We will not let the Trump administration rip health care away from millions of Americans,” she said Tuesday on Twitter. “Not now. Not ever.”

    Sean Sullivan and Paige Winfield Cunningham contributed to this report.

    Source Article from https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-surprises-republicans–and-pleases-democrats–with-push-to-revive-health-care-battle/2019/03/26/068cc2c4-4fd3-11e9-a3f7-78b7525a8d5f_story.html

    In his first interview since being arrested on multiple extortion and fraud charges, Michael Avenatti told CBS News he is “scared” and “concerned” about facing a possible long prison term. Watch an excerpt above.

    “Of course I’m nervous,” he told correspondent Jericka Duncan in a sit-down that will air Wednesday on  CBS This Morning. “I am nervous. I’m concerned. I’m scared.  I feel terrible for my family. I feel bad for my friends. Most people are sticking by me. They know me, they know what I’m all about. So I’ve been very fortunate in that regard.”

    Avenatti, who gained notoriety for representing Stormy Daniels in her lawsuit against President Donald Trump, is more subdued in the clip that we’re used to seeing. That’s not surprising given that he faces potentially decades in prison after being arrested Monday on wire and bank fraud charges out of Los Angeles and counts of extortion against Nike brought by the Southern District of New York. All are federal felonies. He was released after posting $300,000 bond in Manhattan.

    “Sure I’m nervous, I’m scared — I’m all those things. And if I wasn’t, it wouldn’t make a lot of sense.”

    More clips from the interview will air tonight on CBS Evening News with Jeff Glor.

    Source Article from https://deadline.com/2019/03/michael-avenatti-cbs-interview-first-since-arrest-1202583220/

    Purdue Pharma, headquartered in Stamford, Conn., the Sackler family, which owns the company, settled a case brought by the Oklahoma attorney general.

    Jessica Hill/AP


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    Jessica Hill/AP

    Purdue Pharma, headquartered in Stamford, Conn., the Sackler family, which owns the company, settled a case brought by the Oklahoma attorney general.

    Jessica Hill/AP

    Updated at 3:20 p.m.

    The first of more than 1,600 lawsuits pending against Purdue Pharma, the maker of the opioid OxyContin, has been settled.

    The drugmaker has agreed to pay $270 million to fund addiction research and treatment in Oklahoma and pay legal fees.

    Oklahoma Attorney General Mike Hunter filed suit two years ago alleging Purdue helped ignite the opioid crisis with aggressive marketing of the blockbuster drug OxyContin and deceptive claims that downplayed the dangers of addiction.

    Hunter had sought $20 billion dollars in damages against Purdue and other pharmaceutical firms.

    The settlement comes one day after the Oklahoma Supreme Court denied Purdue’s appeal for a delay of the trial. It is expected to begin on May 28, with the remaining defendants, including Johnson & Johnson and Teva Pharmaceuticals.

    A judge has said the trial can be televised.

    “We see this agreement with Oklahoma as an extension of our commitment to help drive solutions to the opioid addiction crisis,” said Purdue Pharma CEO Dr. Craig Landau, in statement. “We pledge Purdue’s ongoing support to the National Center and the life-saving work it will do for generations to come.”

    Landau refers to a new National Center for Addiction Studies and Treatment to be housed a Oklahoma State University in Tulsa. It will be funded by $102.5 million from Purdue and $75 million from the Sackler family, which owns the drug company.

    “The agreement reached today will provide assistance to individuals nationwide who desperately need these services — rather than squandering resources on protracted litigation,” the Sackler family said in a statement. “We have profound compassion for those who are affected by addiction and are committed to playing a constructive role in the coordinated effort to save lives.”

    Members of the Sackler family, some of whom were expected to be called to testify at trial, are reportedly contributing to the settlement. Court documents filed in Massachusetts show the Sacklers made more than $4 billion on opioid sales between 2008 and 2016.

    The settlement also includes $20 million for medicines to be used by patients in the center, $12.5 million for counties and municipalities in Oklahoma and $60 million for legal fees.

    Some lawyers suggest the deal in Oklahoma is the beginning of many more in cases that stretch across the nation. Attorneys representing more than 1,600 lawsuits consolidated in a federal court in Northern Ohio say the resolution in Oklahoma reflects the strength of claims against Purdue.

    “We have long alleged that Purdue Pharma ignited today’s epidemic by starting the disturbing practice of deceptive opioid marketing, convincing both doctors and the American public to trust that these drugs were safe and virtually non-addictive,” said plaintiffs’ attorneys Paul J. Hanly Jr., Paul T. Farrell Jr. and Joe Rice, in a statement. “Purdue’s wrongdoing, however, does not stand alone.”

    There are nearly two dozen defendants named in the consolidated opioid lawsuits.

    The U.S. and individual states are beginning to tally health care, incarceration and law enforcement costs tied to epidemic. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says the burden based on prescription drug misuse alone, in 2013, was $78.5 billion. Oklahoma estimated the opioid crisis would cost the state nearly $9 billion, according to the Washington Post. In Massachusetts, the costs, along with lost productivity, were $15.2 billion in 2017.

    The CDC says a record 47,600 people died after an opioid overdose in 2017.

    Purdue’s CEO has said the company is exploring bankruptcy amid rising pressures. The U.S. House Oversight Committee has asked Purdue to produce a trove of documents by April 4 about the marketing and sales strategies for OxyContin.

    Members of some families that lost loved ones to an opioid overdose say they are disturbed by the settlement.

    Rhonda Lotti, of Watertown, Mass., had planned to attend the trial with other members of an opioid overdose grief group. Lotti’s daughter Mariah suffered a fatal overdose in 2011 at age 19.

    “I’m disgusted,” said Lotti in an email.”How many lives were worth $270 million?”

    This story is part of a reporting partnership between WBUR, NPR and Kaiser Health News.

    Source Article from https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2019/03/26/706848006/purdue-pharma-agrees-to-270-million-opioid-settlement-with-oklahoma

    Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel stood shoulder-to-shoulder with his city’s police force Tuesday afternoon, denouncing prosecutors for dropping charges against “Empire” star Jussie Smollett and slamming the episode as a “whitewash of justice.”

    Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson and Emanuel said they were not only furious with the outcome of Tuesday’s surprise hearing but also blindsided by the decision itself, with the officials only learning Smollett wouldn’t face charges for allegedly faking a hate crime at the same time the public found out.

    “Where is the accountability in the system? You cannot have – because of a person’s position – one set of rules applies to them and another set of rules apply to everyone else,” Emanuel said. “Our officers did hard work day in and day out, countless hours working to unwind what actually happened that night. The city saw its reputation dragged through the mud…It’s not just the officers’ work, but the work of the grand jury that made a decision based on only a sliver of the evidence [presented]. Because of the judge’s decision, none of that evidence will ever be made public.”

    Meantime, First Assistant State’s Attorney Joseph Magats told reporters he still believed Smollett filed a false police report. He said prosecutors “stand behind the investigation and the facts,” adding, “this was not an exoneration.”

    JUSSIE SMOLLETT’S ALLEGED HATE CRIME ATTACK: A TIMELINE OF EVENTS

    Emanuel also said: “[This case] sends a clear message that if you’re in a position of influence and power you’ll be treated one way and if you’re not you’ll be treated another way.”

    Johnson blasted the prosecution for not consulting with cops and hinted the episode could further strain the relationship between the department and prosecutors.

    “I don’t know what’s unusual for the state’s attorney but we found out about when you all did,” Johnson said. “Prosecutors have their discretion of course, we still have to work with the state’s attorneys office — We’ll have conversations after this.”

    But Johnson made sure to add, unequivocally: “At the end of the day it was Smollett who committed this hoax.”

    Magats later told WLS that Smollett faced accountability by doing community service and forfeiting his $10,000 bond payment. He called it a fair and just outcome.

    Earlier Tuesday, the Cook County State Attorney’s office announced that all 16 felony counts against Smollett, 36, were dropped and the record in the case was sealed. Smollett voluntarily forfeited his $10,000 bond and Smollett’s attorney, Patricia Brown-Holmes, said the funds would likely go to the city of Chicago.

    ‘EMPIRE’ STAR JUSSIE SMOLLETT’S SALARY, NET WORTH COMPARED TO CO-STARS

    Brown-Holmes also admonished Chicago cops for asserting at the conclusion of their investigation that Smollett’s tale of being attacked by two Trump supporters had been a hoax. She said police needed to “investigate claims” before presuming suspects’ guilt and trying them in the press.

    FOX ‘GRATIFIED’ BY DISMISSAL OF CHARGES AGAINST JUSSIE SMOLLETT

    Johnson told press in February of the case: “I’m left hanging my head and asking, ‘Why?’ Why would anyone, especially an African-American man, use the symbolism of a noose to make false accusations? How could someone look at the hatred and suffering associated with that symbol…how can an individual who has been embraced by the city of Chicago turn around and slap everyone in this city by making this false claim? Bogus police reports cause real harm.”

    Smollett has maintained his innocence and previously pleaded not guilty to all 16 counts against him.

    JUSSIE SMOLLETT ALLEGED ATTACK HOAX ‘WILL FOREVER DEFINE HIM,’ CRISIS EXEC SAYS

    Smollett told police he was attacked by two masked men as he was walking home from a Chicago Subway sandwich shop at around 2 a.m on Jan. 29. The actor, who is black and openly gay, said the masked men beat him, made derogatory comments and yelled “This is MAGA country” — an apparent reference to President Donald Trump’s campaign slogan, “Make America Great Again” — during an attack that lasted less than a minute.

    STARS REACT TO JUSSIE SMOLLETT’S CHARGES BEING DROPPED

    Police eventually determined the masked men were brothers Abel and Ola Osundairo, and the brothers were identified by cops as being the men seen on surveillance video buying the rope that was hung around Smollett’s neck during the alleged attack. Johnson told the press at the time that the Osundairo brothers were cooperating with authorities and the investigation was pivoting from a hate crime investigation into a case of false reporting.

    CHICAGO LEADERS SLAM JUSSIE SMOLLETT, DEMAND APOLOGIES FOR ALLEGED HOAX AND AFTERMATH

    Johnson later said on “Good Morning America” that the police department had evidence that hadn’t yet been made public that Smollett staged the attack. Johnson told anchor Robin Roberts that he worked “very closely” with the Osundairos’ attorney to investigate the matter and that Smollett was initially treated as a victim – not a suspect — in the case, which quickly gained sustained national attention.

    “It’s not the Chicago police saying [the attack was staged],” Johnson said at the time. “It’s the evidence, the facts and the witnesses that are saying it.”

    CHICAGO TURNS ON JUSSIE SMOLLETT, SAYS ALLEGED HOAX HURTS REAL HATE CRIME VICTIMS

    Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx, who recused herself from Smollett’s case, previously asked Johnson to let the FBI investigate Smollett’s alleged attack after the former chief of staff to former first lady Michelle Obama reportedly contacted Foxx to inform her that Smollett’s family had concerns about the probe.

    The Chicago Fraternal Order of Police President Kevin Graham then alleged that Foxx had illegally interfered with the investigation into Smollett’s alleged crime. Graham reportedly wrote to the Justice Department to investigate whether Foxx herself broke any laws related to the probe.

    CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

    Smollett’s attorneys previously blasted the Chicago P.D.’s conduct, telling Fox News they’ve “witnessed an organized law enforcement spectacle that has no place in the American legal system. The presumption of innocence, a bedrock in the search for justice, was trampled upon at the expense of Mr. Smollett and notably, on the eve of a Mayoral election. Mr. Smollett is a young man of impeccable character and integrity who fiercely and solemnly maintains his innocence betrayed by a system that apparently wants to skip due process and proceed directly to sentencing.”

    Fox News’ Mike Arroyo, Tyler McCarthy and Sasha Savitsky contributed to this report.

    Source Article from https://www.foxnews.com/us/chicago-police-superintendent-eddie-johnson-furious-at-jussie-smollett-charges-being-dropped-report

    House Democrats on Tuesday failed to override President Trump’s first veto as part of their battle over border security, representing a victory for the administration that allows the president’s declaration of a national emergency at the U.S.-Mexico border to stand.

    The president had vetoed a Democrat-backed measure to cancel that emergency. The House voted 248-181 on Tuesday in favor of overriding – but this fell 38 votes short of the two-thirds majority needed. Only 14 Republicans voted in favor of the veto override.

    The outcome of the vote, while not surprising, now enables Trump to move forward on an issue that was a hallmark of his 2016 presidential campaign and of his presidency. Yet the vote also gave Democrats a way to focus on policy differences with Trump, days after Attorney General William Barr gave the president a boost by saying Special Counsel Robert Mueller had found no evidence Trump’s campaign colluded with Russia to influence the 2016 election.

    TRUMP WILL SIGN BORDER SECURITY BILL, DECLARE NATIONAL EMERGENCY, WHITE HOUSE SAYS

    Trump had declared the border emergency under a law that lets him shift budget funds to address dire situations. His plan is to shift an additional $3.6 billion from military construction projects to work on border barriers. Congress voted this year to limit spending on such barriers to less than $1.4 billion, and Democrats accused Trump of ignoring lawmakers’ constitutional control over spending.

    Trump’s emergency declaration drew unanimous opposition from congressional Democrats and opposition from some Republicans, especially in the Senate, where critics objected that he was abusing presidential powers.

    “Both chambers of Congress – a Democratic House and a Republican Senate – resoundingly rejected the President’s sham emergency declaration by passing H.J.Res.46,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif, and Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-Texas, said shortly after the vote in a joint statement. “The President’s lawless emergency declaration clearly violates the Congress’s exclusive power of the purse, and Congress will work through the appropriations and defense authorization processes to terminate this dangerous action and restore our constitutional system of balance of powers.”

    Republicans argue that Trump has merely acted under a 1976 law that lets presidents declare national emergencies. Trump’s declaration was the 60th presidential emergency under that statute, but the first aimed at spending that Congress explicitly denied, according to New York University’s Brennan Center for Justice, which tracks the law.

    WHAT IS A ‘NATIONAL EMERGENCY’ AND HOW CAN TRUMP USE IT TO FUND THE BORDER WALL? 

    Rep. Tom McClintock, R-Calif., said Trump was acting against the “radical left in this House that would dissolve our borders entirely if given the chance” — a stance that no Democrat has taken — while Rep. Paul Mitchell, R-Mich., called the veto override effort “a partisan whack job” because of its certain defeat.

    Even with his veto remaining intact, Trump may not be able to spend the money for barriers quickly because of lawsuits that might take years to resolve.

    Democrats were hoping to use the border emergency battle in upcoming campaigns, both to symbolize Trump’s harsh immigration stance and claim he was hurting congressional districts around the country.

    The Pentagon sent lawmakers a list last week of hundreds of military construction projects that might be cut to pay for barrier work. Though the list was tentative, Democrats were asserting that GOP lawmakers were endangering local bases to pay for the wall.

    CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

    Congress, to which the Constitution assigned control over spending, voted weeks ago to provide less than $1.4 billion for barriers. Opponents warned that besides usurping Congress’ role in making spending decisions, Trump was inviting future Democratic presidents to circumvent lawmakers by declaring emergencies to finance their own favored initiatives.

    This month, the GOP-led Senate rebuked Trump with a 59-41 vote blocking his declaration after the failure of a Republican effort to reach a compromise with the White House. Republicans were hoping to avoid a confrontation with him for fear of alienating pro-Trump voters.

    With the House override vote failing, the Senate won’t attempt its own override and the veto will stand.

    Fox News Chad Pergram and the Associated Press contributed to this report.

    Source Article from https://www.foxnews.com/politics/house-fails-to-override-trumps-veto-of-measure-to-terminate-national-emergency-on-border

    The Justice Department sent a letter in support of repealing the entirety of the Affordable Care Act. Here, a sign in support of the ACA in April 2017 in New York City.

    Kevin Hagen/Getty Images


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    Kevin Hagen/Getty Images

    The Justice Department sent a letter in support of repealing the entirety of the Affordable Care Act. Here, a sign in support of the ACA in April 2017 in New York City.

    Kevin Hagen/Getty Images

    Updated at 1:30 p.m. ET

    In a significant shift, the Trump administration says the entirety of the Affordable Care Act should be struck down in the courts. Previously, the administration had pushed to remove the law’s protections for people with pre-existing conditions but had not argued in court that the whole law should be struck down.

    The change was announced in a two-sentence letter from the Department of Justice to the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, which said that the ruling made in December by a district court judge in Texas “should be affirmed.”

    In that case, District Judge Reed O’Connor declared the ACA unconstitutional. He ruled that a 2017 change in federal tax law eliminating the penalty on uninsured people invalidated the entire health care law.

    “The Department of Justice has determined that the district court’s comprehensive opinion came to the correct conclusion and will support it on appeal,” Justice Department spokeswoman Kerri Kupec said in a statement. The letter said the DOJ will further explain its position in a brief to be filed later.

    The Justice Department’s letter won’t change anything yet for the law, also known as Obamacare. Coverage for those who have insurance through the ACA — more than 10 million people through Medicaid expansion, and nearly 12 million more through ACA exchanges — stays the same for now. The case will continue to wind through the courts and is likely to end up before the Supreme Court.

    If the case does land at the Supreme Court, it would be the third time that the court would rule on a constitutional question related to the ACA. The court upheld the law in 2012 and rejected a challenge to it in 2015.

    Meanwhile, a group of Republican state attorneys general is fighting to have the law repealed, while a group of Democratic state attorneys general is arguing to keep the law in place.

    In addition to the law’s best-known aspects — the exchanges and the federal requirement to buy health insurance — the ACA touches every part of the health care system, from how Medicare pays doctors to the Medicaid expansion that has covered millions of low-income people to whether restaurants have to post nutrition information. Hospitals would have to develop new payment systems, and an entire section of the insurance industry would go away.

    The ACA’s popularity played a role in Democrats’ success in the 2018 elections, when they took back the House. Upending the law could prove politically dangerous for the Trump administration and Republicans who are backing the law’s repeal.

    Democrats were quick to criticize the move.

    “Last night, the Department of Justice declared the entire law and all of its vital health care protections must go,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat from New York, said in remarks on the Senate floor Tuesday. “Make no mistake about it, this is an escalation of the Trump administration and Republicans’ attacks on protections for people with pre-existing conditions.”

    NPR health policy correspondent Alison Kodjak contributed to this report.

    Source Article from https://www.npr.org/2019/03/26/706869835/trump-administration-now-says-entire-affordable-care-act-should-be-repealed

    CLOSE

    Michael Avenatti, who rose to fame as the lawyer for Stormy Daniels in her lawsuit against President Donald Trump, has been arrested and charged with extorting Nike, embezzlement and fraud.
    Wochit, USA TODAY

    Michael Avenatti promised to “disclose a major high school/college basketball scandal” that involves Nike at a news conference. The embattled attorney settled for dropping the names of Phoenix Suns rookie Deandre Ayton and University of Oregon standout Bol Bol via Twitter on Tuesday.

    “Nike’s attempt at diversion and cover-up will fail miserably once prosecutors realize they have been played by Nike and their lawyers at (the law firm) Boies (Schiller & Flexner),” Avenatti wrote in one tweet. “This reaches the highest levels of Nike.”

    Nike said in a statement Monday that the company “will not be extorted or hide information that is relevant to a government investigation” and it has “been cooperating with the government’s investigation into NCAA basketball for over a year.”

    Avenatti wrote on Twitter that Nike officials “have not been cooperating with investigators for over a year. Unless you count lying in response to subpoenas and withholding documents as ‘cooperating.’ “

    Nike did not have an immediate response to Avenatti’s latest claims when reached by USA TODAY on Tuesday. 

    Avenatti was indicted Monday on federal charges in two states, including over allegations he ran a scheme to extort up to $25 million from Nike. He was arraigned Monday evening and released on a $300,000 appearance bond. 

    Avenatti hinted that the mother of Ayton, the Suns’ top overall pick in last year’s draft, and others received “cash payments” from Nike.

    In another tweet, Avenatti wrote “Bol Bol and his handlers also received large sums from Nike.” Bol Bol, the son of late NBA player Manute Bol, has played nine games this season with the Ducks.  The 7-foot-2 center suffered a season-ending foot injury, but has been traveling with the team.

    Oregon made the Sweet 16 last weekend and will play Virginia on Thursday.

    A message left by USA TODAY with Oregon seeking comment on Avenatti’s allegations was not immediately returned Tuesday.

    A spokesperson for Boies, Schiller & Flexner declined to comment.

    Avenatti also claimed in one of his tweets “corruption at Nike was rampant with Merl Code,” a former Nike employee. Code was among those linked to Adidas and charged in 2017 as part of the FBI investigation into a corruption scheme in men’s college basketball that led to the downfall of Rick Pitino at Louisville. 

    Merl Code Jr., the former Clemson men’s basketball player who worked as an Adidas consultant, former Adidas executive James Gatto and business manager Christian Dawkins were convicted in October on conspiracy to commit wire fraud for their roles in funneling illegal payments to families of recruits to steer them to certain schools. 

    “At this point, we are not commenting on Michael Avenatti’s rantings,” Mark C. Moore, Code Jr.’s attorney, told USA TODAY. 

    Ayton taped over the Nike logos on his shoes during his one-and-done season at the University of Arizona last year. He signed a four-year deal with Puma last summer. 

    Ayton and the Suns did not immediately respond to requests for comment. 

    Suns coach Igor Kokoskov was asked about the allegation Tuesday but declined to comment specifically on Avenatti’s accusation.

    “We can talk about basketball,” Kokoskov said. “We can talk about basketball questions and I’m going to stay away from that because I think I have nothing, I have no information to share with you guys.”

    When pressed further if the Suns have talked to Ayton or if the rookie has spoken with the FBI, Kokoskov replied: “No comment. We had a basketball meeting. We talked about basketball today. We played a game last night.”

    Ayton has previously denied allegations of receiving payments while he was a high school athlete being recruited by universities. He was widely considered to be the No. 1 high school recruit while at Hillcrest Prep Academy in Phoenix.

    An ESPN report in February 2018 claimed the FBI intercepted telephone conversations in which Arizona basketball head coach Sean Miller talked about paying $100,000 to ensure that Ayton signed with the Wildcats. Miller has denied the report.

    Contributing: Anne Ryman, Arizona Republic

    Follow A.J. Perez on Twitter @byajperez

     

     

    Source Article from https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/2019/03/26/michael-avenatti-nike-deandre-ayton-bol-bol/3276960002/

    In a stunning reversal, Chicago prosecutors on Tuesday dropped all charges against “Empire” actor Jussie Smollett just weeks after he was indicted on 16 felony counts for allegedly filing a false police report.

    Smollett, 36, was seen arriving at a Chicago courtroom around 10:30 a.m. on Tuesday for an emergency hearing. Following his court appearance, his attorneys released a statement saying that the actor’s “record has been wiped clean of the filing of this tragic complaint against him.”

    “Jussie was attacked by two people he was unable to identify on January 29th. He was a victim who was vilified and made to appear as a perpetrator as a result of false and inappropriate remarks made to the public causing an inappropriate rush to judgement,” the statement read.

    “Jussie and many others were hurt by these unfair and unwarranted actions. This entire situation is a reminder that there should never be an attempt to prove a case in the court of public opinion. That is wrong. It is a reminder that a victim, in this case Jussie, deserves dignity and respect. Dismissal of charges against the victim in this case was the only just result.”

    Smollett was charged earlier this month by a grand jury of 16 felony counts of disorderly conduct for making a false report, according to a criminal complaint.

    In February, he was charged with felony disorderly conduct after Chicago officers said he orchestrated the alleged hate crime in January on himself because he was unhappy with his salary on the show “Empire.”

    His role on the Fox series, where he played Jamal Lyon, was cut from the final episodes of the fifth season “to avoid further disruption on set,” the show’s executive producers said in a joint statement on Feb. 22.

    Smollett had told police on January 29 that he was beaten up by two masked men while he was out getting food in Chicago’s Streeterville neighborhood. The actor, who is black and gay, said his attackers hurled racist and homophobic slurs before punching him, putting a noose around his neck and pouring what he said was bleach on him.

    Brothers Ola and Abel Osundairo were arrested in February as police investigated the alleged assault but were later released by police. They are not considered suspects. In a statement following the news of Smollett’s charges being dropped, the brothers legal team said they are “still reviewing all legal stuff.”

    Smollett was then labeled as a suspect in his own alleged assault and arrested in February. Prosecutors and police said Smollett allegedly paid the Osundairo brothers $3,500 via a check to attack him and also gave them money to buy the supplies they would need to carry out the hoax crime.

    He was released from jail after posting $10,000 of his $100,000 bond.

    The Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office said Tuesday that after reviewing the case, Smollett’s volunteer service and his willingness to turn his bond over to the city, “we believe this outcome is a just disposition and appropriate resolution to this case.”

    His family celebrated the decision, saying in a statement that “truth has prevailed and he has been vindicated.”

    “Our son and brother is an innocent man whose name and character has been unjustly smeared,” the family said. “Jussie is a son, a brother, a partner, a champion for human rights, and a genuine soul who would never be capable of what he was falsely accused of.”

    The actor and his attorneys have repeatedly denied the allegations against him. Mark Geragos, who represents Smollett, said in a statement to NBC News earlier this month that the indictment was “the prosecutorial overkill.”

    “This redundant and vindictive indictment is nothing more than a desperate attempt to make headlines in order to distract from the internal investigation launched to investigate the outrageous leaking of false information by the Chicago Police Department and the shameless and illegal invasion of Jussie’s privacy in tampering with his medical records,” Geragos said.

    Source Article from https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/all-charges-against-empire-actor-jussie-smollett-dropped-n987446

    After Robert Mueller’s investigation wrapped up without any indictments of President Trump or his inner circle for conspiring with Russia, and after Attorney General William Barr released his summary memo announcing Mueller had found no collusion, Democrats are holding out hope that the release of the full Mueller memo will be damaging to Trump. But they are likely to be disappointed.

    To be clear, last month, I argued that Barr should release the full Mueller report. It’s a position also adopted institutionally by Tuesday’s Washington Examiner editorial, which allows for a minimal number of absolutely necessary redactions. So, I’m all for getting it all out there, along with underlying documents and supporting evidence. Furthermore, I get the understandable skepticism about the Barr letter. Given that he was Trump’s appointed AG, there’s every reason to not want to take his summary at face value.

    All of that said, I’d be surprised if the full Mueller report substantially changes anybody’s conclusions about the Trump-Russia story.

    To start, Barr’s summary is also supported by the fact that we already know all of the people who have been indicted by Mueller, and none of them are being prosecuted for collusion. He also didn’t go after Donald Trump Jr. or son in law Jared Kushner. All of the coverage we’ve read in the past two years about the walls closing in on Trump have involved Mueller slowly building his case, with escalating indictments getting closer and closer to the president. That did not pan out.

    Then there’s the issue of obstruction, on which, according to Barr’s account, Mueller was more equivocal. Barr writes: “The report’s second part addresses a number of actions by the President — most of which have been the subject of public reporting — that the Special Counsel investigated as potentially raising obstruction-of-justice concerns. After making a ‘thorough factual investigation’ into these matters, the Special Counsel considered whether to evaluate the conduct under Department standards governing prosecution and declination decisions but ultimately determined not to make a traditional prosecutorial judgment. The Special Counsel therefore did not draw a conclusion — one way or the other — as to whether the examined conduct constituted obstruction. Instead, for each of the relevant actions investigated, the report sets out evidence on both sides of the question and leaves unresolved what the Special Counsel views as ‘difficult issues’ of law and fact concerning whether the President’s actions and intent could be viewed as obstruction. The Special Counsel states that ‘while this report does not conclude that the President committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him.'”

    Unless Barr is making this up out of whole cloth, the fact that most of this evidence concerns actions that have mostly been the subject of public reporting makes in likely that the Mueller report simply is laying out various Trump actions that we already know about, and then presenting the arguments as to why it may or may not constitute obstruction. This has essentially been the public debate for the past two years. For instance, when Trump fired former FBI director James Comey, some people argued it was obstruction, others argued that this was absurd, the president has total authority to fire the FBI director. I imagine that any sort of debate coming out of the Mueller report is going to be much of the same.

    Source Article from https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/why-democrats-are-likely-to-be-just-as-disappointed-by-full-mueller-report

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    (CNN)Just 24 hours removed from arguably his best day as President, Donald Trump picked a political fight he cannot win.

    a>*{vertical-align: top; display: inline-block;}
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      Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2019/03/26/politics/trump-obamacare-repeal/index.html

      Image copyright
      Peter Macdiarmid

      Image caption

      Web pioneer Sir Tim Berners-Lee has warned about the possible consequences of copyright changes

      The European Parliament has backed controversial copyright laws critics say could change the nature of the net.

      The new rules include holding technology companies responsible for material posted without proper copyright permission.

      Many musicians and creators say the new rules will compensate artists fairly – but others say they will destroy user-generated content.

      The Copyright Directive was backed by 348 MEPs, with 278 against.

      The laws on copyright were last amended in 2001.

      It has taken several revisions for the current legislation to reach its final form.

      It is now up to member states to approve the decision. If they do, they will have two years to implement it once it is officially published.

      The two clauses causing the most controversy are known as Article 11 and Article 13.

      Article 11 states that search engines and news aggregate platforms should pay to use links from news websites.

      Article 13 holds larger technology companies responsible for material posted without a copyright licence.

      It means they would need to apply filters to content before it is uploaded.

      Article 13 does not include cloud storage services and there are already existing exemptions, including parody.

      The European Parliament said that memes – short video clips that go viral – would be “specifically excluded” from the Directive, although it was unclear how tech firms would be able to enforce that rule with a blanket filter.

      ‘Step forward’ or ‘massive blow’?

      Robert Ashcroft, chief executive of PRS for Music, which collects royalties for music artists, welcomed the directive as “a massive step forward” for consumers and creatives.

      “It’s about making sure that ordinary people can upload videos and music to platforms like YouTube without being held liable for copyright – that responsibility will henceforth be transferred to the platforms,” he said.

      However the campaign group Open Knowledge International described it as “a massive blow” for the internet.

      “We now risk the creation of a more closed society at the very time we should be using digital advances to build a more open world where knowledge creates power for the many, not the few,” said chief executive Catherine Stihler.

      ‘Noble aims’

      Google said that while the latest version of the directive was improved, there remained “legal uncertainty”.

      “The details matter and we look forward to working with policy-makers, publishers, creators and rights holders, as EU member states move to implement these new rules,” it said.

      Kathy Berry, senior lawyer at Linklaters, said more detail was required about how Article 13 would be enforced.

      “While Article 13 may have noble aims, in its current form it functions as little more than a set of ideals, with very little guidance on exactly which service providers will be caught by it or what steps will be sufficient to comply,” she said.

      European Parliament Rapporteur Axel Voss said the legislation was designed to protect people’s livelihoods.

      “This directive is an important step towards correcting a situation which has allowed a few companies to earn huge sums of money without properly remunerating the thousands of creatives and journalists whose work they depend on,” he said.

      “It helps make the internet ready for the future, a space which benefits everyone, not only a powerful few.”

      Source Article from https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-47708144

      Source Article from https://www.cnbc.com/video/2019/03/26/purdue-pharma-settles-oklahoma-opioid-case-for-270-million.html


      Chief Justice John Roberts, who has emerged as more of consensus-builder in recent years, has been skeptical of judicial efforts to police gerrymandering. | Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images

      Elections

      The justices will hear two cases Tuesday challenging congressional maps drawn to limit one party’s political power.

      For the second straight year, the Supreme Court has an opportunity to establish limits on partisan gerrymandering — or go the other direction and send mapmakers an anything-goes message ahead of the 2020 census.

      Republicans used their power over redistricting in many states after the 2010 election to cement control of the House of Representatives and state governments for most of the next decade. Limiting that power has become a rallying cry on the left before the next round of political map-drawing in 2021.

      Story Continued Below

      On Tuesday, the Supreme Court will scrutinize political maps in two states where lawmakers have openly admitted they drew congressional lines earlier this decade to favor one party, a practice that the court has long considered reining in.

      In North Carolina, Republicans explicitly sought to ensure the GOP would control 10 of the state’s 13 House districts. In Maryland, Democrats openly targeted a long-time Republican congressman, altering the lines of his district to defeat him and give Democrats a 7-1 advantage in the state.

      But a year ago, the Supreme Court declined an earlier chance to strike down Maryland’s congressional map or dictate firm guidelines about how far is too far when it comes to partisan gerrymandering. And one pivotal figure will be missing from this year’s cases: retired Justice Anthony Kennedy, who had looked skeptically at districts drawn for partisan advantage but never assembled a majority to set standards policing partisan map-drawing.

      With Kennedy replaced on the bench by Justice Brett Kavanaugh, most experts agree new limits on gerrymandering are no more likely this time around.

      “There are many plausible ways that the court could create a test and police those partisan gerrymanders,” said Rick Hasen, a law professor at the University of California-Irvine who also runs the popular Election Law Blog. “The bigger question is whether there’s the will among five justices to do that.”

      Opponents of partisan gerrymandering believe the court — despite its new, more conservative lineup — might be willing to crack down because the Maryland and North Carolina cases present such blatant examples of mapmaking to benefit one party.

      “The cases that are teed up before the court now mark something of a new extreme of candor … in seeking partisan advantage,” said Loyola Law School professor Justin Levitt. “They don’t have to try to figure out what the legislature was doing here. The legislature said what it was doing.”

      In Maryland, a lower court ruled the day after the 2018 election that Maryland violated the First Amendment rights of GOP voters in the state’s 6th District when it redrew the lines to flip the seat away from then-Rep. Roscoe Bartlett (R-Md.), who had held it for two decades. “That was my hope,” former Gov. Martin O’Malley said in a 2017 deposition. “It was also my intent to create … a district where the people would be more likely to elect a Democrat than a Republican.”

      The seat has remained in Democratic hands since John Delaney, now running for the Democratic presidential nomination, defeated Bartlett in 2012.

      In North Carolina, federal judges had previously struck down congressional lines for unconstitutionally diluting the voting power of African-Americans by packing as many of them as possible into just two congressional districts. But when the state’s Republican legislators redrew the map in 2016, state Rep. David Lewis said the GOP should “draw the maps to give a partisan advantage to 10 Republicans and three Democrats” — one of the pieces of evidence that led federal judges to strike down the new map as a partisan gerrymander.

      “The case presents the most extreme, overt and brutal partisan gerrymander this court — or any other court — has ever seen,” said Emmet Bondurant, the attorney for Common Cause, which sued to have the North Carolina map thrown out.

      But Jason Torchinsky, an attorney with the National Republican Redistricting Trust, a GOP group, said the Supreme Court shouldn’t try to take politics out of the redistricting process, as long as legislators don’t draw complicated districts that split cities and counties or aren’t otherwise logical.

      “Is drawing for political success okay? As long as you’ve respected other districting principles, I think the answer is yes,” said Torchinsky.

      Ultimately, experts say there are four justices eager to crack down on partisan gerrymandering: the court’s liberal bloc of Stephen Breyer, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor.

      On the other side, Justices Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch have been skeptical of judicial efforts to police gerrymandering. So has Chief Justice John Roberts — who has emerged as more of consensus-builder in recent years but also voted in the majority in two key election cases as chief, striking down elements of the Voting Rights Act in a 2013 case and campaign-finance law in the Citizens United ruling.

      Kavanaugh, who was an appellate judge for the District of Columbia Circuit prior to his elevation to the Supreme Court, hasn’t ruled on a major redistricting case, making him something of a wild card.

      An expansive ruling striking down partisan gerrymanders “now seems much less likely given the change of the composition of the court,” said Hasen. “It’s really going to come down to Roberts and Kavanaugh.”

      The Maryland and North Carolina cases are Benisek v. Lamone (18-726) and Rucho v. Common Cause (18-422), respectively.

      While these cases have worked their way through the federal court system, a number of states have moved to limit the role of politics in redistricting. Just last year, voters in Colorado, Michigan, Missouri and Utah approved ballot initiatives reforming the redistricting process, while Ohio lawmakers enacted a law overhauling that state’s redistricting process.

      The political fight around the cases is bringing together reformers from both parties. Roy Cooper, the Democratic governor of North Carolina, and Larry Hogan, the Republican governor of Maryland, co-authored an op-ed in Monday’s Washington Post under the headline, “Politicians can’t be trusted to draw electoral maps.”

      But opponents of gerrymandering worry that a high court ruling this year that permits district maps drawn to maximize partisan advantage — or even another punt, like last year — will give both parties free rein to craft political lines in most states after the 2020 Census. The data and technology available giving politicians better tools than ever to choose their voters, they say, rather than the other way around.

      “If the court doesn’t step in here, then what you saw in North Carolina and what you saw in Maryland is the new normal. It becomes ‘Mad Max’ territory,” said Levitt. “It is abundantly clear that the legislators can’t police themselves.”

      Source Article from https://www.politico.com/story/2019/03/26/supreme-court-gerrymandering-1233319

      Rep. Rashida TlaibRashida Harbi TlaibTlaib asking colleagues to support impeachment investigation resolution Omar controversy looms over AIPAC conference Hoyer says AIPAC remarks were ‘misinterpreted’ MORE (D-Mich.) is asking colleagues to support a resolution to investigate President TrumpDonald John TrumpPapadopoulos claims he was pressured to sign plea deal Tlaib asking colleagues to support impeachment investigation resolution Trump rips ‘Mainstream Media’: ‘They truly are the Enemy of the People’ MORE for crimes worthy of impeachment following the release of a summary of the special counsel’s investigation.

      In a letter to House Democrats sent Monday, Tlaib called on lawmakers to support the formation of a commission that would “inquire whether President Trump committed impeachable offenses” surrounding his businesses while in office and other alleged improper behavior.

      “I, firmly, believe that the House Committee on Judiciary should seek out whether President Trump has committed ‘High crimes and Misdemeanors’ as designated by the U.S. Constitution and if the facts support those findings, that Congress begin impeachment proceedings,” Tlaib wrote.

      “Congress can provide an open and transparent process with the sole goal of ensuring we know the truth and make sure it does not continue, nor happen again,” she added.

      Beyond Trump’s ownership of businesses while in the White House, the resolution also calls on the House to investigate the president for obstruction of justice over his firing of former FBI Director James ComeyJames Brien ComeyTlaib asking colleagues to support impeachment investigation resolution Democrats face dilemma after Mueller probe ends Barr faces political storm over Mueller report MORE as well as hush money payments made through former Trump attorney Michael CohenMichael Dean CohenTlaib asking colleagues to support impeachment investigation resolution Democrats face dilemma after Mueller probe ends Feehery: The legitimacy of President Trump MORE to adult-film star Stormy Daniels and another woman who alleged past affairs.

      Attorney General William BarrWilliam Pelham BarrSchiff brushes off calls for resignation: ‘I am more than used to attacks by my GOP colleagues’ MORE‘s summary of special counsel Robert MuellerRobert Swan MuellerSasse: US should applaud choice of Mueller to lead Russia probe MORE‘s findings said investigators declined to take a position on whether the president obstructed justice and found no evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia in 2016.

      Barr announced this week that the Justice Department would not prosecute the president for obstruction of justice. Democrats, however, have called for a full release of the Mueller report, while the White House and Trump’s lawyers have echoed the sentiment.

      “Sure,” Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani told CNN when asked if the report should be released. “We would all like it to happen because if it doesn’t happen, somebody is going to say there is something in there.”

      “Let me say for the 400th time, the president did not do anything wrong,” he added.

      Rep. Al GreenAlexander (Al) N. GreenTlaib asking colleagues to support impeachment investigation resolution Winners and losers from Mueller’s initial findings The Hill’s Morning Report – Presented by Pass USMCA Coalition – Mueller report is huge win for President Trump MORE (D-Texas), meanwhile, said late Sunday that he’ll continue his push to impeach Trump.

      Green said Mueller’s findings were unrelated to that “bigotry.” 

      “#MuellersReport did NOT investigate bigotry emanating from the Presidency harming our country. The findings do NOT negate the President’s bigotry,” Green tweeted Sunday evening. “As long as bigotry influences the President’s policies, I will continue to seek his impeachment.”

      He included a second hashtag: #ImpeachmentIsNotDead.

      Source Article from https://thehill.com/homenews/house/435774-tlaib-asking-for-colleagues-to-support-impeachment-investigation-resolution

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      ‘);$vidEndSlate.removeClass(‘video__end-slate–inactive’).addClass(‘video__end-slate–active’);}};CNN.autoPlayVideoExist = (CNN.autoPlayVideoExist === true) ? true : false;var configObj = {thumb: ‘none’,video: ‘politics/2019/03/25/cliff-sims-trump-mueller-report-2020-election-sot-newday-vpx.cnn’,width: ‘100%’,height: ‘100%’,section: ‘domestic’,profile: ‘expansion’,network: ‘cnn’,markupId: ‘large-media_0’,adsection: ‘const-article-pagetop’,frameWidth: ‘100%’,frameHeight: ‘100%’,posterImageOverride: 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      (CNN)The results of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation, even in the brief summary released by Attorney General William Barr, vastly reduce the legal risks to President Donald Trump while raising the political stakes in the 2020 election.

        Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2019/03/26/politics/mueller-report-affect-on-2020-campaign-voters/index.html

        Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell will put the Green New Deal to a vote on Tuesday in a move that will force Democrats to take an official stand on the measure and thus pit the party’s moderates against its progressive wing.

        “I could not be more glad that the American people will have the opportunity to learn precisely where each one of their senators stand on the “Green New Deal,” McConnell tweeted. “A radical, top-down, socialist makeover of the entire U.S. economy.”

        The resolution, which amounts to an ambitious overhaul of the U.S. to combat climate change, undoubtedly will not pass in the GOP-controlled Senate. But Republicans say that the vote will allow them to better gauge Democrats’ commitment to its radical proposals.

        U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., has derided the planned vote as a political stunt and accused Republicans on Saturday of “wasting votes in Congress.”

        “Stop wasting the American peoples’ time + learn to govern,” the freshman lawmaker tweeted. “Our jobs aren’t for campaigning, & that’s exactly what these bluff-votes are for.”

        Republicans have resoundingly lambasted the Green New Deal for its socialist implications and hefty price tag. Sen. Charles E Grassley, R-Iowa, has liked the proposal to a “utopian manifesto,” while Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., called it a “socialist fantasy.”

        J. Scott Jennings, McConnell’s former campaign adviser, said the Green New Deal is dividing Democrats, but that moderates are afraid to speak out because the party’s base “is demanding this sort of extremely out-of-the-mainstream stuff.”

        AOC DEFENDS GREEN NEW DEAL, SAYS NARRATIVE BEING ‘MANIPULATED’ BY TRUMP, OTHER CRITICS

        By contrast, said Republican political consultant Joseph Pinion, the Green New Deal has united Republicans – both Trumpers and never-Trumpers alike – “in the idea that the policies of a Green New Deal would be disastrous for America.”

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        The New York Times reports that most Democrats will vote present on Tuesday because the terms of the resolution have not been fully flushed out or discussed among the party.

        Source Article from https://www.foxnews.com/politics/mcconnell-to-put-green-new-deal-to-vote

        “);var a = g[r.size_id].split(“x”).map((function(e) {return Number(e)})), s = u(a, 2);o.width = s[0],o.height = s[1]}o.rubiconTargeting = (Array.isArray(r.targeting) ? r.targeting : []).reduce((function(e, r) {return e[r.key] = r.values[0],e}), {rpfl_elemid: n.adUnitCode}),e.push(o)} else l.logError(“Rubicon bid adapter Error: bidRequest undefined at index position:” + t, c, d);return e}), []).sort((function(e, r) {return (r.cpm || 0) – (e.cpm || 0)}))},getUserSyncs: function(e, r, t) {if (!A && e.iframeEnabled) {var i = “”;return t && “string” == typeof t.consentString && (“boolean” == typeof t.gdprApplies ? i += “?gdpr=” + Number(t.gdprApplies) + “&gdpr_consent=” + t.consentString : i += “?gdpr_consent=” + t.consentString),A = !0,{type: “iframe”,url: n + i}}},transformBidParams: function(e, r) {return l.convertTypes({accountId: “number”,siteId: “number”,zoneId: “number”}, e)}};function m() {return [window.screen.width, window.screen.height].join(“x”)}function b(e, r) {var t = f.config.getConfig(“pageUrl”);return e.params.referrer ? t = e.params.referrer : t || (t = r.refererInfo.referer),e.params.secure ? t.replace(/^http:/i, “https:”) : t}function _(e, r) {var t = e.params;if (“video” === r) {var i = [];return t.video && t.video.playerWidth && t.video.playerHeight ? i = [t.video.playerWidth, t.video.playerHeight] : Array.isArray(l.deepAccess(e, “mediaTypes.video.playerSize”)) && 1 === e.mediaTypes.video.playerSize.length ? i = e.mediaTypes.video.playerSize[0] : Array.isArray(e.sizes) && 0

        (CNN)At this rate, even Donald Trump is going to get tired of so much winning.

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          Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2019/03/26/politics/donald-trump-robert-mueller-democrats-victory/index.html

          The Pentagon notified Congress late Monday that it authorized the transfer of up to $1 billion to erect 57 miles of “pedestrian fencing” along the U.S.-Mexico border in direct support of President Trump’s national emergency declaration from last month.

          The fencing, which will be 18 feet high, is to be erected in the Yuma and El Paso sectors, the statement read. The Pentagon’s announcement was notable. A reporter from the New York Times tweeted that it is the first time the funds will be transferred under section 284 for the border wall.

          Section 284 allows the Pentagon to “construct roads and fences and to install lighting to block drug-smuggling corridors across international boundaries of the United States in support of counter-narcotic activities of Federal law enforcement agencies,” the statement read.

          The Pentagon’s announcement was made as Trump nears a victory over Democrats as the House tries to override his first veto, a vote that seems certain to fail and allow his declaration to stand. The vote, which is set for Tuesday, would keep the border emergency intact, which for now, would allow the president to shift an additional $3.6 billion from military construction projects to work on a barrier along the southwest boundary.

          “The president will be fine in the House,” said Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., in a brief interview. “The veto will not be overridden.”

          Donald Trump Jr. tweeted, “Christmas came early this week,” in response to the announcement.  He was likely also referring to special counsel Robert Mueller’s report that said there was no evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia in the 2016 presidential election.

          Patrick M. Shanahan, the acting Secretary of Defense, announced that the funds will be used to support the Department of Homeland Security and Customs and Border Patrol. He authorized the Army Corps of Engineers to begin its planning and execution.

          A group of Democratic senators criticized the Pentagon’s move and called the maneuver a violation of congressional appropriations, Bloomberg reported. Democrats have called the national emergency declaration a crisis manufactured by Trump

          “The $1 billion reprogramming that the department is implementing without congressional approval constitutes a dollar-for-dollar theft from other readiness needs of our Armed Forces,” Sens. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and others wrote in a letter to Shanahan, according to the report.

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          Even with his veto remaining intact, Trump may not be able to spend the money for barriers quickly because of lawsuits that might take years to resolve.

          The Associated Press contributed to this report

          Source Article from https://www.foxnews.com/politics/pentagon-authorizes-up-to-1b-to-start-57-miles-of-border-wall-construction