The White House released new documents concerning the FBI’s opening of a criminal investigation into President Trump in May of 2017. The Council on American-Islamic Foreign Relations (CAIR) is fighting designations from Texas and Florida that it is a foreign terrorist organization. The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a Florida law that protects children from obscenity.
And we also cover suits against the Trump Administration for its efforts to combat welfare fraud and re-institute tariffs, as well as the progress on the nomination of Todd Blanche for Attorney General.
Source: Jennifer Jacobs
White House releases documents on “Oxferd Comma”
The White House released internal memos documenting the FBI’s opening of Oxferd Comma, the criminal investigation into President Trump that was opened on May 16, 2017. The FBI opened its full investigation based on an alleged “articulable factual basis” that President Trump had been involved in activities “for or on behalf of the Government of the Russian Federation.” The FBI also investigated whether President Trump’s firing of then-FBI Director James Comey was a criminal effort to obstruct the FBI’s Russia collusion investigation.
By May of 2017, however, the FBI had no evidence that the Trump campaign colluded with Russia. In fact, many of the factual allegations – such as those from the Steele Dossier – had already been disproven. Despite that, the opening of Oxferd Comma helped spur the appointment of Special Counsel Robert Mueller by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein the very next day – as if that was the purpose all along. Oxferd Comma would be effectively transferred to Special Counsel Mueller’s team and they would pursue Trump and his Administration for almost two years before issuing a tepid report that did not conclude that President Trump committed a crime.
Source: Richard Fausset
CAIR fights terrorism designations
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has filed lawsuits challenging orders from the governors of Texas and Florida that designated CAIR as a foreign terrorist organization. Both States recognized the concerning history of CAIR, which includes being named as an unindicted co-conspirator in one of the largest prosecutions of terrorism financing in U.S. history. The States also noted the organization’s ties to the Muslim Brotherhood and that members and leaders of CAIR have been convicted of supporting terrorism, advocated suicide bombings, and praised Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack against Israel.
The Florida Executive Order instructed the State to withhold government benefits from any person providing support or resources to CAIR. A federal district court has enjoined that declaration and ordered the State of Florida to not take any steps to enforce the Executive Order from Governor Ron DeSantis. The State of Florida has appealed that decision but has also agreed to not take any steps to enforce the Executive Order.
In Texas, after Governor Greg Abbott’s Executive Order was published, Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit against CAIR and its local chapters, seeking to “ban the terrorist organizations from operating in Texas and to stop their violent ideology from spreading across the state.” That lawsuit is pending. By that time, CAIR had already filed their own lawsuit in a Texas federal court that alleged the Governor’s declaration was illegal and unconstitutional. That case is ongoing.
Source: CBS Miami Team
Court of Appeals upholds Florida’s Protect Children Act
The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals, in an en banc opinion, has upheld the constitutionality of Florida’s Protect Children Act, which makes it a misdemeanor to “knowingly admit a child to an adult live performance.”
The law was challenged by Hamburger Mary’s, a restaurant that offered drag shows” – some of which children were invited to attend. Hamburger Mary’s “canceled its family drag shows and barred children from attending its other shows” after the Act was passed. The trial court granted a universal preliminary injunction in Hamburger Mary’s favor that “applied against anyone and everyone in Florida”, concluding it was likely to succeed on its constitutional claims.
The Eleventh Circuit vacated the injunction. It noted that “the district court lacked authority to impose a universal injunction against all enforcement of the Act” and that Hamburger Mary’s “claims are unlikely to succeed on the merits.” The Act “does not facially violate the First or Fourteenth Amendments.” Instead, states are permitted to protect minors from obscenity – especially where drag show performers conduct increasingly lewd shows in front of young children. As the Eleventh Circuit observed: “Preventing children from attending adult live performances obscene for them is rationally related to Florida’s interest in safeguarding the well-being of minors.”
In other news:
Todd Blanche Attorney General nomination proceeds: The confirmation of Todd Blanche as Attorney General passed one significant hurdle this week, as the Senate Judiciary Committee voted 12-10 along party lines in favor of advancing his nomination. The vote by the Senate Judiciary Committee was secured after Blanche made written assurances “that he would kill a proposed $1.8 billion compensation fund that could have been used to pay Jan. 6 rioters and limit the scope of a deal granting broad tax immunity to Mr. Trump and his family.”
Democrat States sue to prevent release of welfare data: A number of Democrat States, including New York and California, have filed suit against the Trump Administration for its efforts to oversee the States’ compliance with the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program. This oversight is part of President Trump’s Executive Order that seeks to end fraud in vast benefits system funded by American taxpayers.
States sue Trump Administration over latest tariffs: Twenty-five Democrat-led states have sued the Trump Administration over its recent efforts to impose tariffs on goods imported from 60 countries. The tariffs were instituted after an investigative determination was made that these countries failed to impose or enforce a “prohibition on the importation of goods produced wholly or in part with forced labor.” The states’ lawsuit contends the tariffs are contrary to federal law and that the tariff action is made without authority.
