On Politics A.M.: House Democrats Explore Whether Trump Lied to Mueller

2019年11月19日星期二

November 19, 2019

Good Tuesday morning. Here are some of the stories making news in Washington and politics today.

Impeachment investigators are exploring whether President Trump lied in his written answers to the special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, a lawyer for the House told a federal appeals court on Monday, raising the prospect of an additional basis for an article of impeachment.

The Trump administration declared Monday that the United States does not consider Israeli settlements in the West Bank a violation of international law, officials said. The policy shift may doom any peace efforts.

Newly released emails show Mr. Trump’s chief immigration adviser, Stephen Miller, was a young Senate aide who promoted his anti-immigrant views by referring to white nationalist websites in his research.
Inside the National Security Council, officials expressed wonderment that Rudolph W. Giuliani, the president’s personal lawyer, was running his “irregular channel” of Ukraine diplomacy over open cell lines and communications apps in Ukraine that the Russians have deeply penetrated.

Chief Justice John G. Roberts temporarily blocked an appeals court ruling requiring Mr. Trump to release his financial records to a House committee, giving the president a reprieve while the Supreme Court considers how to proceed.

Senate Finance Committee staff members met this month with an Internal Revenue Service whistle-blower who has alleged that senior Treasury Department officials tried to exert influence over the mandatory audit of Mr. Trump’s tax returns.

Want to understand Iowa’s outsize role in selecting the Democratic presidential nominee? Just go to the West, where anyone in Nevada or California will tell you: We are the voters presidential candidates should be paying more attention to.

Mayor Pete Buttigieg’s presidential campaign, struggling to build support among black voters, removed from its website a photo of a Kenyan woman that was used earlier this year to illustrate his plan to dismantle racism in the United States.

Despite relatively modest support nationally, Representative Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii has delighted Republicans, independents and conservative Democrats who dislike the Clintons.

Several recent American airstrikes against Islamic State fighters in southern Libya have seriously disrupted the terrorist group’s efforts to reorganize and carry out strikes there.

Today’s On Politics briefing was compiled by Isabella Grullón Paz in New York.

Is there anything you think we’re missing? Anything you want to see more of? We’d love to hear from you. Email us at onpolitics@nytimes.com.