Today's Headlines and Commentary

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit rejected President Trump’s effort to block a congressional subpoena for his financial documents and tax returns, reports the Washington Post. The 2-1 decision states that Trump’s accounting firm must submit the requested information to the House Committee on Oversight and Reform.

The Democratic chairmen of three House committees issued a subpoena to Energy Secretary Rick Perry as part of their impeachment inquiry, reports Politico. The subpoena requests a set of documents related to Perry’s alleged knowledge of President Trump’s July 25 call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Perry’s efforts to influence the management structure of a Ukrainian state-owned oil and gas company.

The former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch testified before Congress that her departure in May came as a direct result of pressure from President Trump on the State Department, according to the Washington Post.

U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland announced that he would comply with his subpoena and appear before the House Intelligence Committee next week, a move that defies State Department wishes, reports the Post.

Michael McKinley, who was a senior adviser to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, has resigned from his position, according to the Washington Post. While the Post claims that McKinley had no direct involvement with Ukraine policy, McKinley was reportedly disappointed with Pompeo’s lack of support for diplomats called to testify in the impeachment inquiry.

The New York Times reports that in a 2017 Oval Office meeting with President Trump and then Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Rudy Giuliani sought help from the Trump administration to release one of his jailed clients, an Iranian-Turkish gold trader. The proposal to release his client, Reza Zarrab, as part of a potential prisoner swap with Turkey was supposedly seen by Tillerson as highly inappropriate.

In Minnesota at his first campaign rally since the start of the impeachment inquiry, President Trump personally attacked the Biden family, Nancy Pelosi and Ilhan Omar, reports the Washington Post.

Iranian state media claimed that a missile struck an Iranian oil tanker in the Red Sea early Friday morning, reports the New York Times. No country or organization has claimed responsibility at this point.

Hundreds of migrants, many of whom had been denied entry to the United States, protested the deteriorating conditions at the border by shutting down a major international bridge between Texas and Mexico, according to the Times.

The Nobel Peace Prize for 2019 has been awarded to Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed for his contributions to ending Ethiopia’s decades-long war with Eritrea and for his mediation assistance in the recent Sudan power-sharing deal among other accomplishments, reports CNN.

ICYMI: Yesterday on Lawfare

Yuval Shany explored the inadequacies of Israel's legal regime governing interrogations and argued that a recent scandal involving alleged harm to a detainee during a Shin Bet interrogation offers an opportunity to re-evaluate interrogation policies.

Richard Altieri and Benjamin Della Roca considered how President Trump’s encouraging China to investigate the Biden family could impact U.S.-China trade talks.

Quinta Jurecic shared the indictment of Lev Parnas, Igor Fruman, David Correia and Andrey Kukushkin for campaign finance charges.

Gordon Ahl posted the subpoena from three House committees to Parnas and Fruman to produce documents related to their work in Ukraine with Rudy Giuliani as part of the impeachment inquiry into the President’s interactions with the Ukrainian government.

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