The U.S. has acting secretaries of defense and interior, attorney general, White House chief of staff, and heads of the Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Management and Budget, National Park Service, Bureau of Land Management, and other major federal agencies. For President Trump, this is a feature not a bug, he told CBS's Margaret Brennan in his pre-Super Bowl interview. "It's easier to make moves when they're acting," he said. "Really, I like acting because I can move so quickly. It gives me more flexibility."
To maintain that flexibility, the Trump administration is resorting to legally dubious means, putting policies at risk of falling to legal challenges. The large number of vacancies and temporary agency heads is also starting to earn Trump some pushback from Senate Republicans, The Washington Post reports. "It's a lot, it's way too many," said Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.). "You want to have confirmed individuals there because they have a lot more authority to be able to make decisions and implement policy when you have a confirmed person in that spot."
In fact, according to a Congressional Research Service report published in July, "an action taken by any person" not complying with the Vacancies Act "in the performance of any function or duty of a vacant office ... shall have no force or effect." This hasn't been tested in court, yet, the Post notes, but legal experts say it's a plausible position. "Congress specifically sought to limit this sort of strategy," said Nina Mendelson, a law professor at the University of Michigan. "Legally binding actions taken by these officials would be subject to challenge."
Trump tends to blame Democrats for the numerous vacancies — 54 percent of his civilian executive branch nominations have been confirmed, according to the Partnership for Public Service — but Republicans have controlled the Senate for his entire presidency and Trump hasn't even nominated 150 of 705 Senate-confirmable posts. Peter Weber
Peter Tork, bassist and keyboardist for The Monkees, died on Thursday. He was 77.
In 2009, Tork was diagnosed with adenoid cystic carcinoma, a rare cancer affecting his head and neck. Known for their hits "Daydream Believer" and "I'm a Believer," The Monkees had four No. 1 albums and a television show that ran from 1966 to 1968. The group, comprised of Tork, Davy Jones, Micky Dolenz and Michael Nesmith, released the movie Head in 1968, and later that year, Tork left the band. He participated in several reunion tours, both before and after Jones died in 2012. Tork's last solo record, "Relax Your Mind," came out in 2018.
Dolenz tweeted on Thursday that his heart is "broken," and Nesmith said he is "clinging to the idea that we all continue," but the "pain that attends these passings has no cure." Catherine Garcia
North Carolina's elections board has called for a new congressional election to finally fill its 9th District seat.
Republican candidate Mark Harris narrowly beat Democrat Dan McCready in November's elections, but the board had refused to call the election amid widespread allegations of fraud committed by Harris' campaign. After a weeklong series of hearings on the issue — and after Harris called for a new election — the board decided Thursday to hold a do-over, per The Washington Post.
After November's elections, dozens of voters filed affidavits saying people came to their house and illegally asked for their absentee ballots, even if they weren't filled out, signed, or sealed. Witnesses have since testified to collecting those ballots after being paid by McCrae Dowless, a political operative who consulted for Harris.
The uncertainty prompted a series of hearings on the issue, during which state investigators and the board said they had "evidence" that proved "a coordinated, unlawful and substantially resourced absentee ballot scheme operated during the general election," per NBC News. Harris has long denied knowledge of any illegal activities, and repeated that claim Thursday. Still, he called for a new election because "the public's confidence... has been undermined." Less than an hour later, the board voted to hold a new election, the Post says. Kathryn Krawczyk
#RogerStoneDidNothingWrong will have to carry on without Roger Stone's help.
U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson issued a full gag order on Stone's case on Thursday, telling him she would revoke his bail and have him detained if he violated the order. Stone, President Trump's former adviser, appeared in court to apologize for sharing an inflammatory post about Jackson on Instagram.
He called the post "an egregious, stupid error" and blamed the decision on stress, but Jackson barred stone from publicly commenting on his case, "period."
"What concerns me is the fact that he chose to use his public platform and chose to express himself in a manner that can incite others that feel less constrained," said Jackson, per BuzzFeed News. She didn't buy his claim that he didn't realize the picture he shared contained a crosshairs next to her face, saying there was "nothing ambiguous" about the imagery. "Thank you, but the apology rings quite hollow," she said.
Jackson previously issued a partial gag order, telling Stone he couldn't comment on his case outside the Washington, D.C. courthouse but could gripe about his witness tampering and obstruction charges on InfoWars to his heart's content. On Thursday, she determined he needed a little more rigidity, condemning his quick "abuse" of the "liberty he was afforded."
He will be allowed to maintain his innocence, and can ask for donations to his legal fund, but that's it. "I'm not giving you another chance," Jackson told Stone. He'll remain out on bail, but as former U.S. Attorney Joyce White Vance pointed out, "if you're Roger Stone, being told you can't talk to the media is probably a worse punishment than being sent to jail." Summer Meza
The federal prosecutors who signed a plea agreement with Florida millionaire Jeffrey Epstein broke the law, a judge said Thursday, reports The Miami Herald.
U.S. District Judge Kenneth Marra ruled that the prosecutors involved in the sex-trafficking case, including then-Florida prosecutor and current Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta, violated the Crime Victims' Rights Act by not keeping Epstein's victims informed about the agreement, per Politico. After the deal, which resolved a case in which Epstein was accused of building a "cult-like network" of girls coerced into sexual acts, Epstein ultimately served 13 months in prison. The deal, which Acosta agreed to seal, was kept secret from dozens of women who alleged abuse.
“Particularly problematic was the government's decision to conceal the existence of the [agreement] and mislead the victims to believe that federal prosecution was still a possibility," the judge said. "When the government gives information to victims, it cannot be misleading. While the government spent untold hours negotiating the terms and implications of the [agreement] with Epstein's attorneys, scant information was shared with victims."
Marra also said he has reviewed evidence that Epstein violated sex trafficking laws and abused at least 30 girls between 1997 and 2007, per NBC News. "Epstein worked in concert with others to obtain minors not only for his own sexual gratification, but also for the sexual gratification of others," Marra said. The Labor Department did not comment on the ruling. Brendan Morrow
Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation is reportedly wrapping up. But that could just be the beginning.
Both CNN and The Washington Post reported on Wednesday that the Justice Department is preparing for Mueller to conclude the probe that began in 2017, although tons of questions remain unanswered, including how much of Mueller's report will actually be seen by the public.
But Wired's Garrett Graff points out the possibility that Mueller "closes up shop but refers numerous active cases to other prosecutors." He could do so, Graff writes, if he feels that he has "answered his main charge — Russia — even though he's uncovered much ancillary criminality." This would leave "big and worthy questions to be examined by prosecutors in D.C., New York, Virginia, New Jersey, and elsewhere," and could guarantee the "probe lives on for years to come."
Similarly, former Acting Solicitor General Neal Katyal observed on Twitter that Mueller issuing his report "doesn't mean the investigations are over." As he put it, "it means the end of the beginning, not the beginning of the end." And The New York Times echoes this sentiment, writing, "new prosecutors from outside the special counsel's operation could pick up cases that remain in progress."
Experts have also noted that the Southern District of New York's investigation won't end just because Mueller's does. That probe, which led to the conviction of President Trump's former lawyer Michael Cohen, doesn't appear to be nearing an end. In fact, the Post writes that it "has always been a more serious concern for Trump's inner circle" and that it "could go on for years." Brendan Morrow