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Former FBI Director James Comey will be arraigned Wednesday at 10 a.m. He is expected to plead not guilty. (WaPo.)
President Trump on Wednesday morning called for Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker to be imprisoned. (WSJ.) Pritzker and other local leaders have strongly criticized Trump’s deployment of approximately 500 National Guard troops to the Chicago area. (WSJ.) See yesterday’s Roundup for additional background.
Attorney General Pam Bondi on Tuesday testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Democrats pressed her for details on the president’s deployment of National Guard troops as well as the Justice Department’s decision to drop its bribery investigation into Trump border czar Tom Homan. (NYT.) Republicans, meanwhile, focused their ire on former special counsel Jack Smith, who they argued was responsible for politicizing the Justice Department. (NYT.)
Union officials, budget experts, and legal scholars contend that Trump’s threats to fire thousands of civil servants during the federal government shutdown are illegal and unnecessary. (NYT.)
Jack Goldsmith and Bob Bauer on Tuesday discussed the temporary restraining order issued by Judge Karin J. Immergut (D. Or.) last weekend in Oregon, which enjoined the federal government’s deployment of National Guard troops to the state. (Executive Functions.) This morning Goldsmith wrote that the importance of the Oregon National Guard case has been overstated because the president possesses very broad authority under the Insurrection Act and the Article II protective power to deploy the military domestically. (Executive Functions.)
Professor Steve Vladeck wrote that the federal government is using “dubious factual claims about what’s true on the ground” to justify its deployment of National Guard troops. The legality of the Guard’s federalization, Vladeck argued, will depend on how much deference the president’s factual descriptions receive from the Supreme Court. (NYT.)
The New York Times provided an overview of the Justice Department’s criminal cases against Trump’s political adversaries. (NYT.) Molly Roberts goes deeper on the criminal investigation facing New York Attorney General Letitia James. (Lawfare.)
Executive Functions’ own Ema Rose Schumer wrote a primer on selective and vindictive prosecution, explaining the hurdles Comey would have to overcome to succeed on such claims. (Lawfare.)
Pending Interim Order Applications Involving the U.S. Government in the Supreme Court
Trump v. Orr: The government filed an emergency application on September 19 requesting the Supreme Court to stay an injunction issued by a district court that requires the State Department to allow transgender and nonbinary people to choose the sex designation on their passports. Justice Jackson formally set a deadline of October 4 for a response to the application. Orr submitted a response on October 6, and President Trump filed a reply on October 7.