Axios

The Washington Post reported today that Trump's former national security advisor Michael Flynn told the FBI last month that he hadn't discussed sanctions during a conversation with Russia's ambassador to the United States before Trump took office.

Why it matters: Flynn has essentially no chance of being prosecuted under the Logan Act, a 1799 statute that prevents citizens from engaging in unauthorized negotiations with foreign governments. (No one has ever been prosecuted under the Logan Act.) Lying to the FBI, however, potentially opens up Flynn to a whole new batch of legal trouble.

The D.C. Court of Appeals decided today it will hear the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's appeal en banc in May, per the ABA. Today's ruling vacated the divided three-judge court ruling from October 2016 in PHH Mortgage v. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau that the structure was unconstitutional.

The ruling made it so the president could remove the CFPB director at will: at any time and for any reason, which stripped the bureau of its independence.

Why this matters: Now Trump will be unable to remove CFPB director Richard Cordray before his term is up, allowing him to finish up the rest of his term through 2018. It is possible that Trump could remove the director for cause, but an expert on constitutional law and appellate procedure told Axios this is "unlikely to happen" since "there's not precedent on that."

What to expect: The legal expert also said it would be surprising if there was a decision by the end of the year and to expect a decision either early on next year or mid next year. In the meantime, the CFPB will operate as usual.

One caveat: If Congress amends the Dodd-Frank Act, it could render the case moot.

Trump announced at his press briefing today he will issue "a new executive action next week that will comprehensively protect our country," which will be "tailored to the decision" his legal team got from the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals that maintained the temporary restraining order on Trump's travel ban. He said it will be issued sometime next week.

New: DOJ tells Ninth Circuit the Trump administration will rescind travel ban order and issue a revised one pic.twitter.com/Albht3hPCx— Matt Ford (@fordm) February 16, 2017

Surprise! President Trump announced an impromptu press conference during a meeting with some of his biggest congressional supporters this morning. It was expected that he'd introduce his new pick for Secretary of Labor, Alexander Acosta, but it turned into a stream of consciousness speech: tearing into the "dishonest media" and "the mess" he inherited as president, denying his campaign had contacts with Russia, and announcing he'll issue a new executive order on the travel ban next week.

Former U.S. Attorney Alexander Acosta will be President Trump's new Labor Secretary nominee, according to multiple media reports. NBC News and Fox News were the first to report the news, which Trump is expected to formally announce during his 12:30p.m. press conference. If confirmed, Acosta would be the first Hispanic in Trump's cabinet.

Acosta clerked for Judge Samuel Alito on the Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in addition to a two-year term on the National Labor Relations Board. He was also appointed assistant attorney general for the Department of Justice's Civil Rights division by George W. Bush in 2003, making him the first Hispanic to serve in that position.

Other notable details:

• In 2011, Acosta testified before Congress about the importance of protecting the civil rights of Muslim Americans.
• He served as U.S. Attorney for Southern District of Florida.
• He is currently the Dean of Florida International University College of Law.
• According to Bloomberg's Jennifer Jacobs, Acosta met with Trump on Wednesday about replacing Andrew Puzder.

During a meeting with members of Congress Trump says he's going to announce a new pick for Labor secretary. White House says it'll happen at 12:30.

The NYT reports that President Trump is planning to bring Stephen Feinberg, a fellow New York billionaire and member of Trump's economic advisory council, to the White House to lead a review of the nation's intelligence agencies.

Feinberg's national security experience: His hedge fund has stakes in a private security company and two gun manufacturers.

A wrinkle: Trump's pick for director of national intelligence, former Indiana Senator Dan Coats, is still awaiting Senate confirmation. Coats, like CIA Director Mike Pompeo, is a GOP establishment favorite, so Trump's consideration of Feinberg for some new role is viewed as POTUS' way of asserting control over the intelligence community.

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas's wife, Ginni Thomas, has been looking at ways to rally Trump supporters on issues including the travel ban, according to an email sent Monday and obtained by The Daily Beast's Betsy Woodruff.

"What is the best way to, with minimal costs, set up a daily text capacity for a ground up-grassroots army for pro-Trump daily action items to push back against the left's resistance efforts who are trying to make America ungovernable?"

Why it's awkward: Justice Thomas will be trying to make an objective decision on the legality of Trump's immigration executive order soon. Meanwhile, his wife is stirring up activists who support Trump and his policies. Heidi Li Feldman, a professor at Georgetown Law School, told The Daily Beast that Ginni's email could be enough for lawyers to ask Justice Thomas to recuse himself from the executive order case.

Why it might not matter: Justice Thomas doesn't have to and probably won't recuse himself.

Career officials at the border agencies involved in the process of building Trump's wall are recommending that a fence should be built instead, according to CNN.

The network spoke with a series of border experts, some of whom are in top level discussions with Homeland Security. They said that a fence is a better choice, as a concrete wall stretching from coast-to-coast would be a vastly more expensive project, which sources have been calling "only fantasy."

Senior Border Patrol officials are also emphasizing the importance of having a transparent border rather than a solid one. "...You never want to have a barrier in place that will obstruct your vision, that prevents you from seeing the other side."

What's next? Experts will convince Trump the wall will not work — and ultimately it'll be a fence, said one official: "The White House will just have to figure out a way to spin it."

President Trump's morning tweets on the leaks pouring out of the national intelligence organizations were pretty aggressive:

Leaking, and even illegal classified leaking, has been a big problem in Washington for years. Failing @nytimes (and others) must apologize! The spotlight has finally been put on the low-life leakers! They will be caught!

The precedent: The George W. Bush presidency started the trend of targeting leakers, and former president Obama set a record for using the Espionage Act to prosecute whistleblowers who leaked to the press. NYT reporter James Risen was among the journalists swept up in that Obama record, and he warned in December that Obama was handing Trump the means to target leakers and journalists alike.

The "what about the campaign" thing: Trump loved to talk about WikiLeaks and encouraged leaks during the campaign. But using the Espionage Act against leakers of classified info is on a different level than leaking info obtained by email hacks.

Where it starts: The NYT story on Russia that came out Tuesday night cited 9 former and current officials.

The European Union is getting ready to hold a China summit to put President Trump on alert, reports Reuters from Brussels. The summit, which usually happens in July, will come as soon as April in the EU's capital. It's meant to put a shiny public face on globalism in contrast to the U.S.

• "The EU believes China wants to use the summit to press home President Xi Jinping's vigorous defense of open trade and global ties ... in Davos in January, in response to ... Trump."
• An official who helps formulate EU policy: "With an early summit, China wants to send a message to the United States that it has friends in Europe."