A federal judge ruled on Friday the Trump administration must start accepting new applications for DACA protection — fully reinstating the program — because the administration has failed to offer a better, legal justification for rescinding the program, CNN reports.
Why it matters: Due to earlier court actions, Homeland Security is accepting applications to renew protections from undocumented immigrants who came to the U.S. as children and were already enrolled in the Obama-era program. While the judge gave the government 20 days to appeal, if unsuccessful, DACA will be fully operational as if Attorney General Jeff Sessions had never rescinded it — unless the Supreme Court decides to intervene.
President Trump privately expressed openness Thursday to reforms of federal sentencing guidelines in order to help a prison reform bill move through the Senate, The Hill first reported.
Why it matters: The earlier momentum behind prison reform stopped abruptly in the Senate, with Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Democrats unwilling to support a bill that didn't address harsh sentencing laws. But this compromise could get most players on board — at the same time Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is looking for bipartisan wins.
Matthew Dunlap, Maine's Secretary of State who served on President Trump's voter fraud commission, says the statements by the vice chairman and the White House alleging wide-spread voter fraud "were, in fact, false."
The details: Dunlap, a Democrat, won a lawsuit to gain access to documents about the commission's activities. He explained in a letter released Friday, "my experience on the Commission quickly caused me concern that its purpose was not to pursue the truth but rather to provide an official imprimatur of legitimacy on President Trump's assertions that millions of illegal votes were cast during the 2016 election and to pave the way for policy changes designed to undermine the right to vote."
The Cook Political Report just moved the Texas Senate race from "likely" Republican to "lean" Republican — another sign that things are shifting blue ahead of November.
What's happening: President Trump's disapproval rating is at 52% in Texas, and a new poll from the left-leaning Public Policy Polling shows Democratic candidate Beto O'Rourke trailing RepublicanSen. Ted Cruz by just four points.
The United Nations Human Rights Office has announced its condemnation of President Trump's ongoing derogatory remarks toward the press with experts saying the attacks "run counter to the country’s obligations to respect press freedom and international human rights law."
"Russia, Immigration and Trade War Sticking to Trump" is the headline of a new polling memo for Priorities USA by Garin-Hart-Yang Research Group and Global Strategy Group.
Why it matters: "This translates into the worst ratings for Trump on his truthfulness, temperament, dealings with Russia, and immigration policies we have not seen in any of our eleven previous national tracking surveys on the Trump presidency."
Social media misinformation campaigns are now a permanent fight for candidates and officeholders, and will just get worse with the AI-driven deepfake technologies, which make it easy to phony up images, audio and video.
Why it matters: Check out the photo above. Rarely do you publicly see this many national-security officials in one place. And it's even rarer for it to be in the White House briefing room, where most of the daily jousting is over inches.
Republican Rep. Diane Black gave up her seat in Congress to run for governor and she got crushed by an underdog candidate.
Why it matters: It's getting harder to be an ambitious House Republican these days. So far in 2018, Black is the fifth House GOP member to run for statewide office and lose.
Charlie Kirk is the 24-year-old founder of Turning Point USA, a conservative nonprofit whose 130,000 members claim to be "culture warriors" in the fight "to save Western civilization" from liberals, writes Adam Rubenstein for The Weekly Standard.
Why it matters: With more than 650,000 Twitter followers and the sworn fealty of some of Washington's most prominent conservatives, Kirk is a provocative firebrand whose proclaimed goal of "owning the libs" all-too-perfectly captures the present state of Donald Trump's base. Kirk's messaging and networking in conservative circles has been so effective, in fact, that he claims TPUSA will have raised $15 million by the end of 2018.
"They asked my daughter Ivanka whether or not the media is the enemy of the people. She correctly said no. It is the FAKE NEWS, which is a large percentage of the media, that is the enemy of the people!"
Flashback... Trump in July: "Much of our news media is indeed the enemy of the people..."
Senate Republicans will not receive the more than 900,000 pages of documents requested on Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh until the end of October, the National Archives told Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) on Thursday, the Washington Post reports.
Why it matters: Although around 300,000 files will be ready by August 20th, October is cutting it close to the midterm elections to review all of the documents, which could make it difficult for the Senate to confirm Kavanaugh before then. But at this point, Republicans are expected to hold on to the majority in the Senate, and Kavanaugh remains likely to get confirmed.
The Senate Intel Committee and Maria Butina's counsel have both agreed to release documents surrounding the alleged Russian agent to the Department of Justice, reports Politico.
The details: The committee interviewed Butina during their investigation into Russian influence on the 2016 election. The records and transcripts of those interviews will be part of the materials turned over to the federal government.
The White House announced Wednesday they have instructed the Treasury Department to implement sanctions against Turkey’s Minister of Justice and Minister of Interior for their roles in the arrest and detention of American pastor Andrew Brunson.
The backstory: Brunson was detained after the 2016 failed coup against Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. He has been released from prison but remains under house arrest, facing terrorism and espionage charges, which he vehemently denies. His detention is a further point of contention with Erdoğan — with whom Trump had personally been friendly despite his increasingly authoritarian behavior.
