10 things you need to know today: May 21, 2019

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1. Trump directs McGahn to defy House subpoena
2. Judge rules Trump accounting firm must provide his financial records
3. Cohen said Trump attorney told him to lie about Moscow project
4. 16-year-old migrant dies in Border Patrol custody
5. New Zealand authorities charge mosque attack suspect with terrorism
6. Watchdog: DeVos used personal email accounts for official business
7. Russian journalists quit en masse over censorship allegation
8. Ford says it will cut 7,000 jobs
9. Game of Thrones finale set HBO ratings record
10. Golden State Warriors sweep Portland, head to NBA Finals

published 21 May 2019

1. Trump directs McGahn to defy House subpoena

President Trump told former White House Counsel Don McGahn not to testify Tuesday to a congressional committee in defiance of a subpoena, White House Counsel Pat Cipollone said Monday. The Justice Department "has advised me that Mr. McGahn is absolutely immune from compelled congressional testimony with respect to matters occurring during his service as a senior adviser to the president," Cipollone wrote in a letter to House Judiciary Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.). Nadler's committee subpoenaed McGahn to answer questions about Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation of Russian election interference and possible attempts by Trump to obstruct justice. McGahn's lawyer said he wouldn't appear. Nadler said the committee would "have to hold McGahn in contempt."

A federal judge in Washington, D.C., ruled Monday that President Trump's accounting firm, Mazars USA, must hand over his financial documents to the House Oversight Committee, which has subpoenaed them. In a victory for the House panel's Democratic leadership, U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta also rejected a request from Trump's lawyers to stay his decision pending an appeal. Trump's legal team had argued that the subpoena "lacks a legitimate legislative purpose," and that Democrats are just trying to attack Trump in an "unconstitutional attempt to exercise 'the powers of law enforcement.'" Mehta dismissed the suggestion that the lawmakers were overstepping their authority, saying it was "simply not fathomable" that a Congress that can impeach a president would not have the power to investigate him.

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Michael Cohen, President Trump's former lawyer, told the House Intelligence Committee in closed-door hearings earlier this year that Trump's lawyer Jay Sekulow instructed him to lie to Congress in 2017 regarding negotiations to build a Trump Tower in Moscow, according to hearing transcripts released Monday. Cohen later admitted the Moscow tower talks continued into June, after it was clear that Trump would be the GOP presidential nominee. Cohen said he made the false statement to hide Trump's attempts to make money on the Russia project while he was running for president. Sekulow's lawyers said this was "more of the same" from Cohen, who is serving a three-year sentence for financial crimes, campaign finance violations, and lying to Congress.

A 16-year-old Guatemalan boy died Monday in Border Patrol custody. He was the fifth undocumented immigrant child detained at the border to die since December. The teen, identified as Carlos Gregorio Hernandez Vasquez, was apprehended while crossing the border in Texas last week, and was transferred to a border patrol station while officials worked to place him in a shelter for migrant youth. He is the fifth Guatemalan child since December to die after being detained at the U.S.-Mexico border. The cause of death is not known; the boy was found unresponsive during a welfare check on Monday morning. John Sanders, acting Customs and Border Protection commissioner, said the agency is "committed to the health" and safety of its detainees and "saddened by the tragic loss of this young man." The case is under review.

Authorities in New Zealand have charged Brenton Tarrant, the Australian man facing 50 murder charges over the March 15 massacre at two Christchurch mosques, with committing a terrorist act, police said Tuesday. A police spokesman said the decision to charge Tarrant under the Terrorism Suppression Act, which is rarely invoked, came after consultations between police officials and government lawyers. Both the murder and terrorism charges carry possible life sentences. Some legal experts warned that a terrorism trial could give Tarrant, a self-proclaimed white supremacist, a platform for his ideology. "He will say 'I'm not a terrorist, I'm a patriot,'" Bill Hodge, a University of Auckland law professor, told Newstalk ZB.

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos has used personal email accounts for government business and sometimes improperly deleted the messages, the department's Office of the Inspector General said in an internal investigation report released Monday. The internal watchdog investigated at the request of House Democrats and found "limited" messages, "fewer than 100," sent from or to DeVos' non-government accounts. Most of the messages were exchanged in the first half of 2017 when DeVos was new to the job. Most of the emails were from a single unidentified person writing to recommend people for jobs. Others were notes of congratulation to DeVos on her confirmation. The inspector general's office called on the department to improve training on proper email protocol and said it found no other evidence of problems.

A senior editor and 10 journalists quit their jobs at Russian daily newspaper Kommersant on Monday to protest the forcing out of two colleagues over an April article about a possible shakeup among President Vladimir Putin's inner circle. The two reporters, Ivan Safronov and Maxim Ivanov, said they were forced to quit after Kommersant's publishing company, which is owned by billionaire Alisher Usmanov, objected to the article. The departure of the newspaper's entire political staff underscored the pressures of covering Putin's government in a media industry dominated by pro-Kremlin state news outlets. An Usmanov representative said he "does not interfere in editorial policy let alone make decisions on dismissing or employing journalists."

Ford announced Monday that it would cut 7,000 white-collar jobs to reduce costs. The automaker said it would start notifying affected workers on Tuesday. The cuts amount to about 10 percent of Ford's global salaried staff. The company expects to save about $600 million a year. About 2,400 of the eliminated jobs will be in North America. The cuts, announced in a letter from CEO Jim Hackett to employees, came as Ford executes a massive restructuring and spends $11 billion to remake its business in a bid to increase international sales and modernize its vehicle models. General Motors in November announced that it was slashing 8,000 non-union jobs, or 15 percent of its salaried and contract employees.

The final episode of Game of Thrones, "The Iron Throne," drew 19.3 million viewers on Sunday. This includes 13.6 million people who tuned into the initial 9:00 p.m. ET airing, as well as those who tuned in for replays and streamed the episode online. This breaks Game of Thrones' previous ratings record — 18.4 million people tuned in last Sunday night to the season's fifth episode, "The Bells." It also sets a new record for HBO itself. The season 4 premiere of The Sopranos previously held the HBO record for biggest linear audience with 13.4 million viewers in 2002. When including viewers who watch after the episode's Sunday night premiere, the eighth season of Game of Thrones has been averaging 44.2 million viewers.

The Golden State Warriors beat the Portland Trail Blazers 119-117 in overtime on Monday, completing a 4-0 sweep of the Western Conference finals series to earn a spot in the June NBA Finals for the fifth straight year. The Blazers got a 25-point first-half boost from unsung center Meyers Leonard, who finished the game with 30 points overall. The Warriors, playing without offensive star Kevin Durant, benefited from strong performances from Stephen Curry and Draymond Green, who become the first teammates in NBA playoff history to post triple-doubles in the same basketball game. The Warriors have a week to rest before facing either the Toronto Raptors or the Milwaukee Bucks.

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Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.