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Congress

Issa cold on impeaching judges

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A key Republican threw cold water Tuesday on calls by GOP colleagues to impeach federal judges, suggesting the proposals were politically symbolic but were unlikely to pass.

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) said some House Republicans may be introducing impeachment bills “because they were popular and felt strongly within their district, whether or not they were moving anywhere.”

Issa, the chair of a House Judiciary subcommittee on the courts, asked former Speaker Newt Gingrich if he agreed with that assessment. Gingrich, who was testifying as a former Congressional leader, concurred that impeachment proposals have little chance of passing.

“They’re political symbols, not legislative symbols,” Gingrich responded, grinning.

The exchange came during a hearing Tuesday, chaired by Issa, on what Republicans claim has been “judicial overreach” during the early weeks of the Trump administration. Despite calls by President Donald Trump, Elon Musk and a small band of allies in Congress — frustrated by dozens of court orders that have declared key Trump policies illegal or unconstitutional — there’s been little momentum among House GOP leaders, who have privately insisted such efforts are going nowhere in the closely divided Capitol.

Issa instead sought to rally support for his own legislation that would limit the ability of judges to impose nationwide blocks on presidential policies they deem improper. He emphasized that, despite Democrats’ remarks, impeachment was not the focus of the hearing.

Without the votes in the House for impeachment, GOP leadership has been looking for an outlet for the fervor within the party’s conservative flank to target specific judges who have drawn Trump’s fury. Issa argued during the hearing that district court judges have far exceeded their constitutional powers, calling their rulings “the new resistance to the Trump administration.”

“Time and time again, rogue judges have asserted as though they were five of the nine members of the Supreme Court,” Issa said. “The reality is, every judge is considering himself not to be an associate justice, not to even be the chief justice, but, in fact, to be a combination of the Justice and the President of the United States. This demands that we take a, make a change and make it quickly.”

Democrats, however, argued that the courts were functioning as a legitimate and necessary check on a president who has pushed the boundaries of the law and Constitution in unprecedented ways. It’s no accident, they argued, that Trump has faced more judicial resistance than his predecessors, who tailored policies to survive court scrutiny.

They repeatedly asked Republicans to speak to the calls from the right flank of the party for impeachments, as GOP lawmakers in the hearing shied away from the topic. Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, said Republicans’ calls for impeachment have devolved into threats against and intimidation of federal officials.

“I call on my colleagues right now to call off the campaign to impeach federal judges for doing their jobs,” he said.

There was some skepticism from at least one House Republican to GOP efforts to limit the power of lower courts to issue nationwide injunctions. Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) noted that Republicans cheered nationwide injunctions during the Biden administration, when judges blocked several of his most sweeping policy efforts.

“This is a double-edged sword. He did unlawful and unconstitutional things during covid that were stopped with nationwide injunctions,” Massie said. “I’m torn on this.”

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Congress

Democrats take aim at Trump’s latest tariffs

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After successfully engineering a rare rebuke of President Donald Trump, Senate Democrats want to do it again: They’re eyeing a new measure that could splinter Republicans and potentially undo the sweeping tariffs Trump rolled out Wednesday.

Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), who led the push to undo Trump’s Canada tariffs that won approval Wednesday, said it was “likely” that Democrats would move forward with legislation taking aim at the new, more sweeping levies. The vote, he said, wouldn’t occur until after the Senate returns from a two-week recess slated to start on April 11.

One of the laws Trump used to levy the latest tariffs, the National Emergencies Act, allows Congress to quickly debate and vote on a disapproval resolution that would effectively cancel the tariffs. But actually doing so faces major obstacles: Not only would the Senate have to act, but the GOP-controlled House would have to approve the same measure. Trump could then still veto it, forcing a two-thirds-majority override vote.

Democrats are still poring through Trump’s latest round of sweeping tariffs to determine which ones they could potentially target for cancellation. But Kaine said he believed support for rolling back the new tariffs will only grow with time. Four Republicans joined Democrats on Wednesday’s vote, and he predicted a “larger universe” of support for the forthcoming measure.

“I think people need to go home and hear what their constituents are telling them, so I think having it timed so that it comes up over recess is the right time,” Kaine said.

Separately, Rep. Gregory Meeks of New York — the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee — said Wednesday he would introduce a similar measure. Speaker Mike Johnson led an effort to block a vote on a Meeks-led disapproval resolution targeting the Canada tariffs last month and could do so again for the new round of tariffs.

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Congress

Top Johnson aide pleads not guilty to DUI charge

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Speaker Mike Johnson’s chief of staff pleaded not guilty Thursday to charges that he drove under the influence and operated a vehicle while impaired on the night of President Donald Trump’s address to a joint session of Congress.

Hayden Haynes appeared by videoconference for a hearing before D.C. Superior Court Magistrate Judge Heide Herrmann, accompanied by prominent white collar attorney Stuart Sears. Sears has previously represented Steele Dossier source Igor Danchenko (who was acquitted of charges brought by special counsel John Durham), Trump bodyguard Keith Schiller and Mueller investigation witness Sam Patten.

Sears did most of the talking Thursday, although Haynes identified himself to the judge at the beginning of the brief court session. According to the U.S. Capitol Police officer who arrested Haynes early on the morning of March 5, the Johnson aide could not complete a sobriety test after twice striking a black Chevy Suburban with his white Tesla sedan.

Herrmann permitted Haynes to remain on release while his charges are pending, but required him to submit to a drug test and drug/alcohol assessment and ordered him to refrain from driving after taking any drugs or drinking alcohol. His next court date is next month.

Haynes is being prosecuted by the office of D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb.

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Senate panel advances Trump’s picks for Wall Street and banking regulators

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The Senate Banking Committee on Thursday approved President Donald Trump’s pick for a new top Wall Street regulator and other key financial nominees who will help carry out his administration’s deregulatory agenda.

On a 13-11 vote, along party lines, the panel advanced the nomination of Paul Atkins to be chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission. Atkins is a former SEC commissioner who has worked as a consultant to many of the biggest financial firms over the last 16 years. He has indicated he would take a lighter-touch regulatory approach to cryptocurrency markets, enforcement, and the rules around how companies raise money in the U.S.

The committee similarly voted along party lines to approve the nomination of Jonathan Gould as the comptroller of the currency, a top regulator of national banks. Gould, currently a partner at the law firm Jones Day, was the agency’s chief counsel during the first Trump administration.

Republicans have cheered Trump’s picks as they seek to turn the page on Biden-era regulators that were loathed by many in the financial industry.

But Democrats on the committee, led by Sen. Elizabeth Warren, largely opposed Trump’s nominees, citing concerns they would weaken guardrails on Wall Street institutions and take a lax approach to policing financial institutions.

One of Trump’s picks for a senior Treasury Department role garnered bipartisan support, however. Six Democrats joined with the committee’s Republicans in supporting Luke Pettit’s nomination to be Treasury’s assistant secretary for financial institutions, a position focused on financial regulations and policy. Pettit is a former Senate Banking Committee staffer who previously worked at the investment firm Bridgewater Associates and as a senior policy analyst at the Federal Reserve.

Declan Harty and Katy O’Donnell contributed to this report.

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