Federal judge: “If there was doubt about the scope of the order [against sanctuary cities], the President and Attorney General have erased it with their public comments.”


Developments on Day 96 of the Trump Administration:

See also Podcast: Comparing Le Pen’s France and Trump’s America

Judge Blocks Trump Defunding of Sanctuary Cities

A federal judge temporarily blocks the Trump Administration’s efforts to deny federal funds to “sanctuary cities” who protect undocumented immigrations from detention.

Judge William H. Orrick of the United States District Court in San Francisco ruled that Trump overstepped Presidential powers with a January executive order linking billions of dollars in federal funding to immigration enforcement. Orrick said only Congress could place such conditions on spending.

The ruling follows two judicial rejections of Trump’s “Muslim Ban” seeking to deny entry to the US by refugees and citizens of six mainly-Muslim countries.

In the sanctuary cities case, Justice Department lawyers argued that the Government did not intend to withhold significant amounts of money, but Orrick noted that Trump and Attorney General Jeff Sessions had suggested punishment could be far greater: “If there was doubt about the scope of the order, the President and Attorney General have erased it with their public comments.”

The Justice Department recently wrote seven cities — New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, Miami, New Orleans, Las Vegas, and Milwaukee — and the State of California that funding would be withheld if cooperation with federal immigration agencies was not forthcoming.

While the order is only a temporary injunction, Orrick indicated that the plaintiffs, San Francisco and Santa Clara County, are likely to win a permanent victory.

Late Tuesday night, the White House released a statement, “Once again, a single district judge — this time in San Francisco — has ignored federal immigration law to set a new immigration policy for the entire country.”

The city of San Francisco argued that the executive order violated the Constitution by trying to force state and local officials to enforce federal immigration law. It argued that public safety would be threatened by breaking trust between local authorities and immigrants, who would be less likely to report crimes or serve as witnesses.

San Francisco estimated that it stood to lose more than $1 billion in federal funding as a result of the executive order. Santa Clara County said about $1.7 billion, or more than a third of its revenue, was at risk.

TOP PHOTO: Protesters defend sanctuary cities outside the US District Court in San Francisco, April 2017 (Haven Daley/AP)


Canada PM Trudeau and Trump Discuss US Tariffs: 2 Different Versions of Same Phone Call

After the Trump Administration imposed its first tariffs on Monday, placing surcharges of 3% to 24% on Canadian lumber companies, Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Donald Trump spoke by phone.

The Prime Minister’s office and White House offered an illuminating contrast in their readouts of the call.

The Canadian version:

The Prime Minister and the President reaffirmed the importance of the mutually-beneficial Canada-US trade relationship. On the issue of softwood lumber, the Prime Minister refuted the baseless allegations by the U.S. Department of Commerce and the decision to impose unfair duties. The Prime Minister stressed that the Government of Canada will vigorously defend the interests of the Canadian softwood lumber industry, as we have successfully done in all past lumber disputes with the U.S. The two leaders agreed on the importance of reaching a negotiated agreement, recognizing the integrated nature of the industry between Canada and the United States.

The Prime Minister and the President also discussed Canada-US trade in dairy products, trade which heavily favours the US: Canada imports over $550 million of dairy products from the US, but exports just over $110 million to the US. The Prime Minister reaffirmed that Canada upholds its international trade obligations, including the North American Free Trade Agreement, under which the US continues to have duty-free and quota-free access for milk protein substances, including diafiltered milk, and that Canada would continue to defend its interests.

The Prime Minister and the President agreed to continue their dialogue on these important bilateral issues.

The White House version:

The two leaders discussed the dairy trade in Wisconsin, New York state and various other places. They also discussed lumber coming into the United States. It was a very amicable call.


House Committee: Flynn May Have Broken Law Over Payments from Russia & Turkey

The top two lawmakers on the House Oversight Committee say former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn may have broken the law by receiving money from Russia and Turkey as an undeclared foreign agent.

“As a former military officer, you simply cannot take money from Russia, Turkey or anybody else,” GOP Chairman Jason Chaffetz told reporters. “It appears as if he did take that money. It was inappropriate — and there are repercussions for the violation of law.”

Flynn, a controversial appointment who lasted only 24 days as National Security Advisor, was dismissed in mid-February over his phone calls with Russian Ambassador Sergei Kislyak.

It then emerged that Flynn had received more than $500,000 from Turkey and more than $50,000 from Russian firms, including State broadcaster RT, in 2015-2016. He only registered as a foreign agent after the disclosures.

The top Democrat on the Oversight Committee, Elijah Cummings, said, “[Flynn] was supposed to get permission, he was supposed to report it, and he didn’t.”

Chaffetz and Cummings said they were basing their statements on documents provided by the Defense Department.

Report: Flynn’s Turkish Lobbying Linked to Russia

Politico reported on Tuesday that the Turkish businessman who arranged the $530,000 lobbying contract with Flynn has ties to Russia and worked closely in Washington with a Russian executive linked to the Kremlin.

Ekim Alptekin, involved in a 2009 aviation financing deal negotiated with Russian leader Vladimir Putin, has coordinated Turkish lobbying in Washington with Dmitri “David” Zaikin, a former executive in Russian energy and mining companies who also dealt with Putin’s government.


Perry: US Should Stay in Climate Change Agreement

Energy Secretary Rick Perry expresses support for remaining in the Paris Accord on climate change, while wanting the US to renegotiate its terms.

The Trump Administration has divided over the agreement by almost 200 countries on carbon dioxide emissions. Chief strategist Steve Bannon and Environmental Protection Agency head Scott Pruitt want Trump to fulfil his campaign promise to leave, but Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Trump’s daughter Ivanka and her husband, senior advisor Jared Kushner, are opposed to departure.

On Tuesday morning, Perry said at a conference:

There’s a lot of cheerleading the Paris accord and keeping the United States involved in that. But the two countries that are making the real impact on emissions are the U.S. and China. So, I’m looking over at my friends in Germany and France going, “What are you all doing?”

However, the Energy Secretary summarized, “I’m not going to tell the president of the United States, ‘Let’s just walk away from the Paris accord,’ but we probably need to renegotiate it and they need to get serious about it.”


Trump Budget Guts Foreign Aid, Including Programs for Women, Health, Food Security, and Environment

The Trump Admnistration plans to sharply cut US foreign aid.

A 15-page State Department budget document details the reductions, amid a plan to merge the US Agency for International Development into the Department “to pursue greater efficiencies through reorganization and consolidation in order to enable effective diplomacy and development”.

The document estimates a 25% decrease in funding for health programs, a 68% drop for food security, and a 95% cut for the State Department’s environment and climate change initaitives. Programs and offices to be cut include the ambassador-at-large for global women’s issues, the Office of the Coordinator for Cyber Issues, and the Trans-Sahara Counterterrorism Partnership.


State Department Removes Its Webpages Promoting Trump’s Florida Resort

The State Department removes pages from its websites and Facebook promoting Donald Trump’s private club in Florida, Mar-a-Lago.

An April 4 post on the State Department Economic & Business Affairs’ Facebook page hailed Mar-a-Lago as the “winter White House”. It linked to an article on the State Department’s Share America site exulting that the club “has become well known as the president frequently travels there to work or host foreign leaders”.

The posts were also circulated by a number of US embassies, including the post in London.

None of the articles mentioned that Trump is profiting from his Presidency by doubling Mar-a-Lago membership fees to $200,000 per year, as he traveled to Mar-a-Lago on seven out of the first 12 full weekends after his inauguration.

Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon drew attention to the Facebook post on Monday:

By Tuesday afternoon, the pages had disappeared.