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Judge Ana C. Reyes (D.D.C.) on Saturday indicated she will appoint former U.S. Attorney Jessie K. Liu as special master to investigate whether Department of Justice or Department of Interior lawyers committed ethical violations during ongoing litigation over the president’s plan to renovate the East Potomac Park golf course. Liu ran the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia from 2017 to 2020 under the first Trump administration. (Minute Order.) (NYT.)
The Department of Justice on Friday voluntarily dismissed its lawsuit to force California to sequester mail-in ballots cast by alleged noncitizen voters because “the relief the United States sought and needed is no longer available.” (Notice.) (NYT.) The government’s notice of appeal remains pending in its suit over the second Dan Sullivan in Alaska’s yet-undecided Senate race. (Docket.) (WaPo.)
President Trump on Saturday said he would order the Department of Justice to investigate “criminal act[s]” by Democratic members of Congress, who he said are “threatening a lot of people” with “impeachment and many other forms of punishment.” The president named as an example Sen. Elissa Slotkin “saying that she is going to go after all these young people that believe in Republican Values[.]” (Truth Social.) Attorney General Todd Blanche in a Sunday interview said that the “rhetoric the past couple days” goes beyond legitimate oversight duties and could be a crime, “depend[ing] on what’s said.” (CNN.)
The White House on Friday named Stephen Miller as the new chief of staff following Susie Wiles’ departure. (Announcement.) (NYT.) Bob Bauer highlighted similarities between Miller and President Trump’s long-time “fixer” Roy Cohn, arguing that a Miller-led “Roy Cohn presidency” “carries with it the high prospect of failure.” (Executive Functions.)
Bob Bauer and Jack Goldsmith discussed why the Trump election interference strategy failed. (Executive Functions.)
Josh Gerstein and Kyle Cheney discussed House Democrats’ potential strategies for overcoming the Trump administration’s assertions of executive privilege, arguing that how courts resolve these disputes “will shape . . . the future of Trump’s second term and even the future of the presidency.” (Politico.)
Andrew McCarthy surveyed “the ongoing shake-up” at the Department of Justice, suggesting that the departures of National Security Division chief John Eisenberg and U.S. Attorney Jason Reding Quiñones (S.D. Fla.) were at least partly precipitated by their unwillingness or inability to “successfully follow through” on the president’s demands. (National Review.)
Pending Interim Order Applications Involving the U.S. Government in the Supreme Court
Mullin v. Friends of the Ruidosa Church: The government on October 21 asked the Supreme Court to issue a stay pending appeal of a district court preliminary injunction halting government construction of barriers along a portion of the U.S.-Mexico border. The government asked the Court to construe its application as a petition for a writ of certiorari and grant the petition. (Application.) The respondents filed their opposition on October 29, and the government filed its reply on October 30.