Trump vetoes resolution to block his use of emergency powers to divert military funding for border wall

WASHINGTON — President Trump has vetoed legislation that attempted to overturn his use of emergency powers to divert military base construction funding to pay for his long-promised border fence.

Trump killed a similar measure in March. He said in his veto message Tuesday that the situation on the nation’s southern border with Mexico remains a national emergency and “our Armed Forces are still needed to help confront it.”

Congress is unlikely to have the votes to override the veto. In all, 127 military construction projects totaling $3.6 billion will lose funding.

View the complete October 15 article from the Associated Press on The Los Angeles Times website here.

Key House committees threaten subpoenas over Trump-Ukraine allegations

Axios logoThe Democratic chairs of the House Intelligence, Oversight and Foreign Affairs committees on Monday sent a letter to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo demanding that the State Department produce documents related to allegations that President Trump and his attorney Rudy Giuliani have pressured the Ukrainian government to investigate Joe Biden.

“Seeking to enlist a foreign actor to interfere with an American election undermines our sovereignty, democracy, and the Constitution, which the President is sworn to preserve, protect, and defend.  Yet the President and his personal attorney now appear to be openly engaging in precisely this type of abuse of power involving the Ukrainian government ahead of the 2020 election.”

— Chairs Adam Schiff, Elijah Cummings and Eliot Engel

Why it matters: With a majority in the House, Democrats have the power to subpoena Trump administration officials to cooperate in their investigations. The allegations over Trump and Ukraine have erupted into a source of massive controversy over the past week, with Democratic leaders such as House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) suggesting that they could pave a new path to impeachment.

View the complete September 23 article by Zachary Basu on the Axios website here.

Constitutional crisis? What happens if Trump decides to ignore a judge’s ruling.

The following article by Aaron Blake was posted on the Washington Post website February 5, 2017:

President Trump has spent the better part of the past 24 hours bashing a U.S. district judge’s decision to temporarily halt his travel ban executive order.

First came a White House statement calling the ruling “outrageous” (the word was later taken out). Then came Trump’s many tweets, which were scattered throughout the day Saturday and actually seemed to question the judge’s authority. And then, in its appeal, the Trump administration said the lower-court judge shouldn’t be “second-guessing” the president. Continue reading “Constitutional crisis? What happens if Trump decides to ignore a judge’s ruling.”