[guest post by JVW]

If you had Eric Swalwell in your office pool as the first announced Democrat candidate to drop out of the race, then congratulations, you appear to be on the verge of winning:

Eric Swalwell is reportedly dropping out of the presidential race Monday after his long-shot bid failed to gain traction among voters.

The East Bay congressman is expected to announce he’s running for re-election at a news conference at his Dublin campaign headquarters this afternoon, the Los Angeles Times and CNN reported. The decision comes as Swalwell cancelled Fourth of July campaign events in New Hampshire at the last minute and found himself likely to be excluded from the second Democratic presidential debate later this month.

Once Rep. Swalwell is officially out, the next man out will likely be a tight race among Massachusetts Representative Seth Moulton, who failed to qualify for the first round of debates, and four who managed to debate without making any memorable impact: Representatives Tim Ryan of Ohio and John Delaney of Maryland, and the two Coloradans, former governor John Hickenlooper and current senator Michael Bennett. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio probably has enough nutty leftist money to hold out a bit longer, at least until he is excluded from the fall debates for having failed to reach at least two-percent support in candidate polls.

But even with Rep. Swalwell’s departure, the number of candidates (and, happily, the number of entitled progressive white male candidates) may initially remain steady, with the strong potential of an imminent announcement (from same link as above):

Swalwell could almost immediately be replaced in the presidential race by another Democrat from the Bay Area. San Francisco megadonor and former hedge fund chief Tom Steyer has told political allies he’s reconsidering his decision not to run for president and could announce he’s getting back in the race as soon as Tuesday, according to multiple media reports Sunday night.

Because clearly what the American people are looking for is a candidate who combines Donald Trump’s wealth with Bernard Sanders’ righteous leftist rage, Elizabeth Warren’s gross hypocrisy, Kamala Harris’s penchant for grandstanding, and Robert O’Rourke’s yearning for the limelight. At least Mr. Steyer, who celebrated his sixty-second birthday last week, would I suppose bridge that crucial gap between the septuagenerians and the eager young pups. His entry into the race, especially if he vows to self-fund his campaign with his massive personal wealth, probably spells an end to the Jay Inslee candidacy too, as the California billionaire’s Tesla will run the Washington governor’s Prius right out of the hardcore green express lane. So in that regard, let’s add Gov. Inslee to the list above of the potential next candidates to bail out of the race.

Don’t be surprised if we don’t eventually see one or two more Democrat candidates emerge. Maybe even the long-rumored if fantastically implausible candidacy of a certain African-American woman with high name recognition who is broadly respected even if she has persistent critics who question if her attempts to appeal to mainstream America are sincere or if they are a front for a more radical and divisive agenda.

Of course, perhaps Serena Williams will just continue playing tennis and stay out of the world of politics.

UPDATE: Between the time I drafted this post and published it, Rep. Swalwell has apparently confirmed his departure from the race, at long last garnering some media attention.

Twitchy points out that just five months ago Rep. Swalwell promised not to run for reelection to Congress in 2020, declaring that he would focus exclusively on being elected President. He’s apparently back-tracking on that promise already. What a surprise. He will face a primary challenge from a young leftist inspired by our beloved nutty niece.

– JVW

[guest post by Dana]

Two weeks ago, President Trump announced that he would stay the deportation of illegal immigrants and give Democrats an opportunity to overhaul the nation’s immigration laws before taking any action:

“I want to give the Democrats every last chance to quickly negotiate simple changes to Asylum and Loopholes,” the president wrote on Twitter. “This will fix the Southern Border, together with the help that Mexico is now giving us. Probably won’t happen, but worth a try. Two weeks and big Deportation begins!”

On Friday, given the lack of progress by Democrats, the President warned that the process would “begin fairly soon”.

Now that the deadline is here, the head of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), Ken Cuccinelli followed up on President Trump’s warning, and said this weekend that ICE is ready to begin the deportation process involving an enormous number of individuals:

[I]mmigration authorities are ready to identify, detain and eventually deport approximately one million undocumented immigrants with pending removal orders.

“They’re ready to just perform their mission, which is to go and find and detain and then deport the approximately one million people who have final removal orders,” Acting USCIS Director Ken Cuccinelli said on “Face the Nation” on Sunday, referring to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) branch charged with removal operations.

Cuccinelli… said it is within ICE’s discretion to determine who among those with final orders of deportation will be targeted in operations, suggesting the full pool of approximately one million immigrants might not face deportation after all.

“They’ve been all the way through the due process and have final removal orders. Who among those will be targeted for this particular effort … is really just information kept within ICE at this point,” he added. “The pool of those with final removal orders is enormous.”

Note: Last year, ICE removed more than 250,000 people. The highest number of yearly deportations came during the Obama administration in 2012, when the agency removed approximately 410,000 undocumented immigrants.

(Cross-posted at The Jury Talks Back.)

–Dana

[Headline from DRJ]

Trump slams Fox News’ weekend coverage, says network ‘forgot the people who got them there’:

President Trump was so fired up about the state of weekend programming on Fox News that he devoted five tweets, posted over the course of several hours on Sunday evening, to the topic.

***

It’s probably not a coincidence that Trump’s diatribe came on the same day Fox News correspondent Greg Palkot, covering the World Cup, visited a sports bar in Lyon, France, where the crowd spontaneously erupted in a chant of “F—k Trump!” during the live broadcast.

His tweets are here.

— DRJ

[guest post by Dana]

From the New York Times:

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York signed a bill on Monday to allow congressional committees to access the president’s state tax returns.

The bill requires state tax officials to release the president’s state returns for any “specified and legitimate legislative purpose” on the request of the chair of one of three congressional committees: the House Ways and Means Committee, the Senate Finance Committee and the Joint Committee on Taxation.

It is effective immediately, though it is unclear whether it would be challenged by the Trump administration, or used by the congressional committees; the Ways and Means Committee, for instance, has said previously that it remains focused on pursuing Mr. Trump’s federal tax information.

Still, the state tax documents from New York — the president’s home state and business headquarters — would likely contain much of the same information as the contested federal returns, tax experts say.

Just last week, the President went after both Cuomo and NY attorney general, Letitia James:

Without mentioning Ms. James by name, the president said she was “harassing all of my New York businesses in search of anything at all they can find to make me look as bad as possible.”

Ms. James’s office is investigating the financing behind several major Trump Organization projects and a failed effort to buy the Buffalo Bills of the National Football League in 2014, and has issued subpoenas to Deutsche Bank and Investors Bank.

After Mr. Trump’s tirade, Mr. Cuomo responded, “If he is worried about law enforcement, he shouldn’t break the law.”

Responding to accusations made by Republicans that this is an invasion of privacy, Cuomo said in a statement:

Mr. Cuomo agreed that “tax secrecy is paramount,” with, however, “the exception being for bona fide investigative and law enforcement purposes.”

The White House has not publicly responded to this latest development, and President Trump hasn’t tweeted about it. Yet.

(Cross-posted at The Jury Talks Back.)

–Dana

[Headline from DRJ:]

Law & Crime: Jeffrey Epstein Child Sex Trafficking Indictment Unsealed — Here’s What We Know.

Link on Scribd:

Count One (sex Trafficking Conspiracy) alleges Epstein created and paid a “network of underage victims” that he sexually abused in Manhattan and Palm Beach from 2002-2005. Count Two (Sex Trafficking) alleges the same conduct and at least one victim who was “caused to engage in at least one commercial sex act in Manhattan.”

It appears the Indictment seeks forfeiture of Epstein’s NYC residence.

— DRJ

[Headline from DRJ:]

DOJ replaces legal team handling cases related to census:

The Justice Department has decided to shake things up for the 2020 census — appointing a new team of Civil Division lawyers to handle all census-related cases, including President Trump’s push to have a citizenship question added to next year’s survey.

Agency officials confirmed the move in a statement Sunday.

“As will be reflected in filings tomorrow in the census-related cases, the Department of Justice is shifting these matters to a new team of Civil Division lawyers going forward,” said DOJ spokesperson Kerri Kupec. “Since these cases began, the lawyers representing the United States in these cases have given countless hours to defending the Commerce Department and have consistently demonstrated the highest professionalism, integrity, and skill inside and outside the courtroom.”

The new team includes political appointees.

My thought — and it’s just a guess — is that the old team wouldn’t sign the pleadings, fearing sanctions if the government continues to change its position.

— DRJ

UPDATE FROM PATTERICO:

Here is the WaPo take:

The Justice Department is swapping out the lawyers who had been representing the administration in its legal battle to put a question about citizenship on the 2020 Census, possibly signaling career attorneys’ legal or ethical concerns over the maneuvering ordered by President Trump.

The department announced the move in a statement, which was issued after The Washington Post inquired about whether the career lawyers on the team planned to withdraw. A person familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations, said that at least some of the career attorneys harbored concerns about the administration’s handling of the case — although the nature of those concerns and how widespread they were could not immediately be learned.

This is not surprising. I’m not sure how lawyers can deal with representing the interests of an administration that does not keep them informed but changes its mind on a whim in a presidential tweet:

When Trump tweeted Wednesday that the case was “absolutely moving forward,” some lawyers on it were blindsided.

Appearing that day before a federal judge in Maryland, Justice Department attorney Joshua Gardner explained how he had always “endeavored to be as candid as possible with the Court” but that he did not know what was on Trump’s mind.

“The tweet this morning was the first I had heard of the President’s position on this issue, just like the plaintiffs and Your Honor,” Gardner said to the judge, a transcript shows. “I do not have a deeper understanding of what that means at this juncture other than what the President has tweeted. But, obviously, as you can imagine, I am doing my absolute best to figure out what’s going on.”

I could not continue to represent a client who acted like that.

UPDATE x2 FROM PATTERICO: Judge Hazel will be familiar to longtime followers of the Kimberlin saga as the long-suffering judge tasked with dealing with all of Kimberlin’s nonsense.

UPDATE 3 by DRJ: AG Barr sees a way for census to legally ask about citizenship

Attorney General William Barr said Monday that he sees a legal path to adding a citizenship question to the 2020 census, despite a Supreme Court ruling that blocked its inclusion, at least temporarily.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Barr said the Trump administration will take action in the coming days that he believes will allow the government to ask the controversial question. Barr would not detail the administration’s plans, though a senior official said President Donald Trump is expected to issue a presidential memorandum to the Commerce Department instructing it to include the question.

UPDATE 4 by DRJ– The new York Judge (not Judge Hazel) refused to allow a change in the DOJ lawyers:

A federal judge in New York on Tuesday blocked the Department of Justice (DOJ) from changing its entire legal team handling a case on the census citizenship question in federal court in the state.

U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman found that DOJ’s motion did not address a procedural rule requiring them to provide a reason for the attorneys’ withdrawal from the case.

Plaintiffs in the New York case had filed a motion late Monday opposing the withdrawal of the DOJ lawyers.

UPDATE 5 by DRJ — Judge Hazel in Maryland has joined NY Judge Furman in rejecting “a Department of Justice request to replace its legal team.”