For battles with Congress, Trump reshapes legal defense team

The long-time leaders of Trump’s team - Jay Sekulow and Rudy Giuliani - remain in place. But other attorneys, known for their litigation skills, are taking on larger roles on the team: William Consovoy, Patrick Strawbridge, Marc Mukasey and Stefan Passantino.

The first legal offensive from Consovoy and Strawbridge has encountered early setbacks. Their law firm, Consovoy McCarthy, filed two lawsuits in April on behalf of Trump intended to block congressional subpoenas seeking the Republican president’s personal financial records, but both were rejected last week by federal judges. Trump is appealing those decisions, and House Democrats agreed not to enforce the subpoenas during that process. Some lawyers scoffed at Consovoy’s handling of the litigation, particularly a courtroom moment when he sought to cast doubt on the authority of Congress to investigate presidential corruption because it is not a “law enforcement” agency. “Kudos to the judge if he managed not to burst out laughing in open court at this,” George Conway, a prominent conservative lawyer and frequent Trump critic, wrote on Twitter. Conway is married to Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway. Others said Consovoy and Strawbridge are losing simply because the law is against them as they advocate for executive branch protection from congressional scrutiny. “They were hired to do an impossible job,” said Paul Rosenzweig, a Washington lawyer who worked on the independent counsel investigation into President Bill Clinton in the 1990s.

Trump is defying congressional investigations into his administration, his family, his business interests and his finances, calling them “presidential harassment.” His administration has ignored subpoenas, refused to let current and former aides testify and declined to hand over documents in the aftermath of the April release of a redacted version of Mueller’s report that detailed Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election to boost Trump’s candidacy. The Trump Organization, the president’s company, has its own lawyers in the subpoena fights. They include Mukasey, a criminal defense lawyer in Manhattan and former Giuliani law partner whose father Michael Mukasey served as U.S. attorney general from 2007 to 2009 under Republican President George W. Bush, and Passantino, a former lawyer in Trump’s White House who is now at a law firm.

Consovoy and Strawbridge both served as clerks in 2008 for Clarence Thomas, one of the most conservative U.S. Supreme Court justices. The firm Consovoy McCarthy, with offices in the Washington suburb of Arlington, Virginia, and in Boston, is known for arguing against affirmative action policies that benefit racial minority groups that have faced discrimination and for battling women’s healthcare and abortion provider Planned Parenthood. The firm also is defending Trump in a lawsuit by the Democratic attorneys general of Maryland and the District of Columbia accusing him of violating a U.S. Constitution anti-corruption provision, called the emoluments clause, barring U.S. officials from accepting gifts or payments from foreign governments. The suit cites Trump’s refusal to disentangle himself from his businesses including a Washington hotel blocks from the White House. Consovoy, Strawbridge, Mukasey and Passantino declined to provide comment for this story.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-attorneys/for-battles-with-congress-trump-reshapes-legal-defense-team-idUSKCN1SY0Y6

Supreme Court takes up Mexican border shooting dispute

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to decide whether the family of a Mexican teenager fatally shot while on Mexican soil by U.S. Border Patrol agent who fired from across the border in Texas can pursue a civil rights lawsuit in U.S. courts.

It marks the second time the Supreme Court will consider the legal dispute involving Sergio Adrian Hernandez Guereca, who was 15 when he was slain in 2010 along the U.S.-Mexico border - a case that now will be decided during heightened U.S. tensions with Mexico over President Donald Trump’s border policies. The justices will decide whether to allow the family’s civil lawsuit seeking monetary damages against Border Patrol agent Jesus Mesa to proceed.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-court-border/supreme-court-takes-up-mexican-border-shooting-dispute-idUSKCN1SY1JC?il=0

U.S. boycotts U.N. arms forum as Venezuela takes chair

GENEVA (Reuters) - The United States walked out of the Conference on Disarmament on Tuesday to protest against Venezuela assuming the rotating presidency of the U.N.-sponsored forum - as it did a year ago when Syria took the chair. The Trump administration, which has stepped up sanctions against the government of Nicolas Maduro, has not ruled out military action to remove what it and dozens of other nations consider an illegitimate government that rigged a 2018 election.

As Venezuela took up the one-month presidency of the Geneva talks, U.S. disarmament ambassador Robert Wood left the session and announced a “boycott” while Maduro ambassador Jorge Valero chairs it.

“We have to try to do what we can to prevent these types of states from presiding over international bodies,” Wood told reporters. “Clearly, when you have regimes like the (Bashar) Assad regime (of Syria) and the Maduro regime presiding over this body, there is something fundamentally wrong with how we are conducting our business. And we need to examine that,” he said. A representative of Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido, the “interim leader”, should assume the seat, Wood said. Latin American delegations including Argentina, Brazil and Chile who also recognize Guaido stayed away from the Conference. Syria and Russia denounced what they called its politicization. Valero condemned the move. “We regret that the representative of the United States and its docile allies continue to bring to this forum matters that are outside the mandate of the CD,” he told a news briefing. “It is not a forum for coup-mongering.”

More than $4.5 billion in Venezuelan assets have been frozen or confiscated under U.S.-led sanctions that are crippling vital imports of food and medicines, Valero added. Maduro maintains control over Venezuela’s state institutions, calls Guaido a puppet of Washington and blames U.S. sanctions for a hyperinflationary economic meltdown and humanitarian crisis.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-venezuela-usa/u-s-boycotts-u-n-arms-forum-as-venezuela-takes-chair-idUSKCN1SY0RW

Trump envoys Kushner, Greenblatt in Middle East to seek support for peace plan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Senior White House adviser Jared Kushner is leading a U.S. delegation on stops in the Middle East this week seeking support for a late June workshop aimed at helping the Palestinians, a White House official said on Tuesday. Kushner, Middle East envoy Jason Greenblatt and U.S. Special Representative for Iran and Kushner aide Avi Berkowitz began their trip in Rabat and were to travel to Amman and Jerusalem, arriving in Israel on Thursday. Kushner will then meet up with U.S. President Donald Trump in London when the president makes a state visit there next week.

The trip is similar to one that Kushner and Greenblatt took in February to Gulf states to drum up support for the economic portion of a Middle East peace plan that they have been developing on behalf of Trump. The official said one reason for this week’s trip is to bolster support for a June 25-26 conference in Manama, Bahrain, in which Kushner is to unveil the first part of Trump’s long-awaited Israeli-Palestinian peace plan. The plan, touted by Trump as the “deal of the century,” is to encourage investment in the West Bank and Gaza Strip by Arab donor countries before grappling with thorny political issues at the heart of the conflict.

Palestinian leaders have been sharply critical of the effort. Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have said they will participate, and a senior U.S. official said officials from Qatar have said privately their country was expected to attend as well. The participants in the conference in Manama are expected to include 300 to 400 representatives and business executives from Europe, the Middle East and Asia, and possibly some Palestinian business leaders. A source familiar with the planning said it appeared Egypt, Jordan and Oman, as well as the G7 countries, would be sending representatives to the conference.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-israel-palestinians-usa/trump-envoys-kushner-greenblatt-in-middle-east-to-seek-support-for-peace-plan-idUSKCN1SY1F2?il=0

Iran sees no prospect of negotiations with U.S.: foreign ministry

LONDON (Reuters) - Iran sees no prospect of negotiations with the United States, a foreign ministry spokesman said on Tuesday, a day after U.S. President Donald Trump said a deal with Tehran on its nuclear program was possible. Washington withdrew last year from a 2015 international nuclear deal with Tehran, and is ratcheting up sanctions in efforts to strangle Iran’s economy by ending its international sales of crude oil.

Trump said on Monday: “I really believe that Iran would like to make a deal, and I think that’s very smart of them, and I think that’s a possibility to happen.” Asked about Trump’s comments in a news conference in Tehran, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi was quoted as saying by the semi-official Fars news agency: “We currently see no prospect of negotiations with America.” “Iran pays no attention to words; What matters to us is a change of approach and behavior.” Trump also said that United States was not looking for regime change in Iran, adding that “we are looking for no nuclear weapons.”

Iranian Vice President Eshaq Jahangiri said on Tuesday the country was not allowed to pursue the development of nuclear weapon as this was banned by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s highest authority. Tensions have risen between Iran and the United States since Washington deployed a carrier strike group and bombers and announced plans to deploy 1,500 troops to the Middle East, prompting fears of a conflict.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-iran-nuclear/iran-sees-no-prospect-of-negotiations-with-u-s-foreign-ministry-idUSKCN1SY0JJ?il=0