[EL] ELB News and Commentary 5/2/19

[Rick Hasen]

Trump Pushing Barr to Investigate Biden?<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=104968>
Posted on May 1, 2019 9:31 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=104968> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Not out of the question, per the NYT<https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/01/us/politics/biden-son-ukraine.html>:

The Trump team’s efforts to draw attention to the Bidens’ work in Ukraine, which is already yielding coverage in conservative media<https://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/436816-joe-bidens-2020-ukrainian-nightmare-a-closed-probe-is-revived>, has been led partly by Rudolph W. Giuliani, who served as a lawyer for Mr. Trump in the investigation by the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III. Mr. Giuliani’s involvement raises questions about whether Mr. Trump is endorsing an effort to push a foreign government to proceed with a case that could hurt a political opponent at home.

Mr. Giuliani has discussed the Burisma investigation, and its intersection with the Bidens, with the ousted Ukrainian prosecutor general and the current prosecutor. He met with the current prosecutor multiple times in New York this year. The current prosecutor general later told associates that, during one of the meetings, Mr. Giuliani called Mr. Trump excitedly to brief him on his findings, according to people familiar with the conversations.

Mr. Giuliani declined to comment on any such phone call with Mr. Trump, but acknowledged that he has discussed the matter with the president on multiple occasions. Mr. Trump, in turn, recently suggested<https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-barr-will-look-at-incredible-possibility-of-ukraine-clinton-collusion> he would like Attorney General William P. Barr to look into the material gathered by the Ukrainian prosecutors — echoing repeated calls from Mr. Giuliani for the Justice Department to investigate<https://www.foxnews.com/transcript/giuliani-slams-mueller-leak> the Bidens’ Ukrainian work and other connections between Ukraine and the United States.

Mr. Giuliani said he got involved because he was seeking to counter the Mueller investigation with evidence that Democrats conspired with sympathetic Ukrainians<https://www.politico.com/story/2017/01/ukraine-sabotage-trump-backfire-233446> to help initiate what became the special counsel’s inquiry.
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Posted in chicanery<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=12>


“The great double standard of our election system”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=104966>
Posted on May 1, 2019 9:16 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=104966> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Jon Sherman Hill oped<https://thehill.com/opinion/campaign/441346-the-great-double-standard-of-our-election-system>.
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Posted in election administration<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>, The Voting Wars<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=60>


“A Lawsuit About Trump and the NRA Could Upend How the Government Polices Campaign Finance”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=104964>
Posted on May 1, 2019 9:09 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=104964> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Mother Jones:<https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2019/05/fec-lawsuit-about-donald-trump-the-nra-could-upend-campaign-finance/>

A gun safety group, Giffords, and a campaign finance watchdog, the Campaign Legal Center, are suing<https://campaignlegal.org/sites/default/files/2019-04/Giffords%20v.%20FEC%20File%20Stamped%20Complaint.pdf> the Federal Election Commission for failing to act on multiple complaints alleging that the National Rifle Association unlawfully coordinated with Donald Trump and other Republican candidates in recent elections. And the lawsuit is poised to act as a major test for the FEC chair’s new strategy to try and force the agency to take more aggressive action to police campaign finance.

Ellen Weintraub, the chair of the FEC, can’t discuss specific ongoing cases, but her recent statements make it clear that she doesn’t plan on voting to defend the agency in any cases involving delays in agency action. If she follows through on this promise, it would result in the first actual instance of her utilizing a new strategy, as Mother Jones first reported<https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2019/02/elections-commission-chief-uses-the-nuclear-option-to-rescue-the-agency-from-gridlock/>, to effectively sabotage her own agency in order to enforce campaign finance law, a move that one former FEC lawyer termed the “nuclear option.”
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Posted in campaign finance<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>, federal election commission<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=24>


“In pushing changes to the state’s election laws, is the Minnesota House rewriting one of the Capitol’s unwritten rules?”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=104962>
Posted on May 1, 2019 9:07 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=104962> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

MinnPost reports.<https://www.minnpost.com/state-government/2019/05/in-pushing-changes-to-the-states-election-laws-is-the-minnesota-house-rewriting-one-of-the-capitols-unwritten-rules/>
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Posted in election administration<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>, The Voting Wars<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=60>


“Feds look at risks of next Georgia voting machines”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=104960>
Posted on May 1, 2019 11:47 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=104960> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

AJC reports<https://www.ajc.com/news/state--regional-govt--politics/feds-look-risks-next-georgia-voting-machines/oTJSg41sSlbSEpnawIpTnM/>.
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Posted in election administration<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>


“Textualism for Realists:” Michigan Law Review Issue Includes Review of My Justice Scalia Book by Ian Samuel<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=104957>
Posted on May 1, 2019 11:10 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=104957> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

You can find the 23-page review of my book<https://www.amazon.com/Justice-Contradictions-Antonin-Politics-Disruption/dp/0300228643/ref=sr_1_1?crid=34NURD8DEY1QR&keywords=the+justice+of+contradictions&qid=1556734177&s=gateway&sprefix=the+justice+of+%2Caps%2C184&sr=8-1>, The Justice of Contradictions: Antonin Scalia and the Politics of Disruption, at this link<http://michiganlawreview.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/117MichLRev1085_Samuel.pdf>. Although Samuel has much to disagree with, the former Scalia clerk says this: “Hasen’s book ought to be read by everyone with a strong opinion about Justice Scalia, in either direction. Skeptics of Scalia, of course, will find much to nod at. But actually, my recommendation is especially true for the justice’s admirers—who will find much to disagree with in the book, but who nonetheless ought to read it to understand what is likely to be the party line of sophisticated Scalia skeptics in the years to come. And although neither virtue counts for much in the academic press, for what it is worth, the book is very readable and (a virtue Scalia himself would have appreciated) admirably free of filler—Hasen gets to the point.”
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Posted in Scalia<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=123>, statutory interpretation<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=21>, Supreme Court<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=29>


DOJ’s John Gore and Maureen Riordan Must Search Private Email Accounts for Emails Related to Trump’s Now-Defunct Voter Fraud Commission<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=104955>
Posted on May 1, 2019 7:44 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=104955> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Brennan Center FOIA lawsui<https://www.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.nysd.479378/gov.uscourts.nysd.479378.99.0.pdf>t (via Sam Levine<https://twitter.com/srl/status/1123365633842978816>).
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Posted in Department of Justice<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=26>, fraudulent fraud squad<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=8>


--
Rick Hasen
Chancellor's Professor of Law and Political Science
UC Irvine School of Law
401 E. Peltason Dr., Suite 1000
Irvine, CA 92697-8000
949.824.3072 - office
rhasen at law.uci.edu<mailto:rhasen at law.uci.edu>
http://www.law.uci.edu/faculty/full-time/hasen/
http://electionlawblog.org<http://electionlawblog.org/>
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