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So… does Donald Trump, or anybody associated with his administration, have any actual legal strategy to fight the impeachment charges that are now surely coming his way?

Like, anyone? Bueller? Frye? Anyone?

So far, the Trump strategy to defend himself on charges of whether he abused his power to get a foreign government to investigate his political rivals has been to threaten to murder the whistle blower, threaten to start a civil war, call women of color “savages,” call allegations against him a coup d’etat, repeatedly insult the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, and suggest that everybody who is against him is committing treason.

All of that is, you know, extremely bad. But, critically I think, none of it amounts to ANY SEMBLANCE OF A LEGAL STRATEGY. The president released a document that showed him trying to extort the President of the Ukraine into investigating Joe Biden in exchange for WEAPONS. He released a document implicating his own attorney general in an international scheme to investigate the president’s personal rivals on the public’s time. A whistleblower, within his own administration, outlined MULTIPLE Trump administration officials who witnessed or had knowledge of these underhanded dealings. One such official already quit and will testify in front of Congress. Other officials have been called to testify. House Democrats just announced subpoenas for additional testimony and documents.

Tweeting out “Liddle’ Adam Schiff” does not count, to me, as a legal response to this situation. IT’S NOT A PLAN. An insult is not a legal strategy.

Clear as I can tell, the Trump administration only has three responses to the House investigation:

1. Claim executive privilege. Given how often this White House claims executive privilege, you’d think they’d eventually learn something about how it works. But, they never do. YOU CANNOT CLAIM EXECUTIVE PRIVILEGE OVER SOMETHING YOU’VE ALREADY RELEASED, YOU GODDAMNED IDIOTS. Jesus Christ. Privilege involves the presumption of privacy, and so once you make something public, you lose the privilege. NO TAKE BACKSIES!

2. Claim the whistleblower is “hearsay.” Like executive privilege, this legal term of art HAS NO BEARING on what is going on here. The whistleblower filed a complaint. His complaint is not being offered as evidence, it is being offered as grounds for an investigation. This, of course, is proper. Beyond that, Trump provided the actual evidence against him when he released the memo about his phone call. It’s not “hearsay” when the person who said the thing tells you what he said.

Witness: I heard the defendant threaten the Ukraine.
Defense Counsel: Objection, hearsay.
Defendant: That’s exactly what I said, but it was perfect.
Judge: ZOMG!
Defense Counsel: F**k me.
Judge: Uhh, OVERRULED. And to anticipate your next question, no, I’m not granting your motion to get off of this case.

3. Ignore everything. This, while not a normal legal strategy, does seem to be the only one that works for Trump. The House subpoenas documents, and the White House just ignores it. The House subpoenas witnesses, and the White House instructs them not to show up. Unless and until the House figures out how to put some handcuffs on these people, Trump will continue to act like the law does not exist.

The problem with that strategy here is that the House doesn’t really need any additional documents or testimony in order to bring impeachment charges against the president. Again, Trump admitted to doing the thing he was not supposed to do in a document he himself released. If Trump doesn’t want to comply with subpoenas for documents or testimony, that’s kind of the Senate’s problem during the trial.

If Republicans want to bring witnesses like Mike Pompeo to the Senate trial, they can. But that trial will be presided over by John Roberts. I have a very low opinion of Roberts, but I do not think the Lewandowski strategy of claiming privileges he doesn’t have is going to work with Roberts in the room. Anybody who speaks for the president at trial will be cross examined by Democrats, and that will make it hard to play the obfuscation game. Perhaps Republicans won’t call any witnesses, and put on no defense of the president before they vote to acquit him. That’s certainly possible. But that will be the Republicans’ choice to show the entire country that they are so enthralled to Trump they don’t even want to know more about what he did.

In fairness, that’s the only real Trump “strategy” here. Assume the Republicans are too terrified of him to ever turn on him. That might be the right strategy. But it’s not a legal one. I’ll keep waiting for Trump to have one, sound legal argument for why he refuses to comply with the laws of America.

‘We’re Not Fooling Around’: House Democrats Tell White House Subpoena Is Coming [New York Times]

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Elie Mystal is the Executive Editor of Above the Law and a contributor at The Nation. He can be reached @ElieNYC on Twitter, or at elie@abovethelaw.com. He will resist.

Most law students are so heavily indebted these days that they’ll try to find any way to pay off their law school loans. Some have even taken to competing on game shows to win enough money to give themselves a net worth of zero.

Meet our latest game show contestant, Kristan Burns. Kristan is a second-year student at the University of New Mexico School of Law, and she appeared on “Wheel of Fortune” last night where she tried to spin for the win.

KRQE News 13 has some additional informations:

The military spouse and mom of one says she’s been trying to get on the show for years. While she didn’t win, Burns says the experience was a dream come true.

“I got to meet Vanna and I got to meet Pat, and they were both incredibly, just wonderful, friendly people. It was an amazing day. Like one of the best days ever,” she said.

Kristan thought she might have hit the jackpot by hitting the million-dollar mark, but at the end of the day, she went bankrupt not once, but twice. Sounds like some sort of metaphor for the entire law school experience. She wound up walking away with $8,000 in winnings, that she says will “help with law school.”

Check out her episode below. Congratulations, Kristan!

UNM law student competes on ‘Wheel of Fortune’ [KRQE News 13]

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Staci Zaretsky is a senior editor at Above the Law, where she’s worked since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn.

The urgent call came on Tuesday during a high-level workshop organized by the African Union AU Commission, the ECA and the government of Zimbabwe to sensitize the southern African country’s private sector on the continental free trade deal.

Private sector is a key stakeholder in production and trade, Batanai Chikwene, an Economic Affairs officer at the ECA, said.

Chikwene also emphasized the imperative for Zimbabwe “to address supply-side constraints limiting the productive capacity of its industry to stimulate competitiveness and growth.”

“Ensuring coherence among fiscal, monetary policy, national industrial policies and trade promotion initiatives are critical,” the ECA official stressed, adding that the AfCFTA opens up new market opportunities in Africa beyond the Southern African Development Community and the Common Market for East and Southern Africa, which are traditional destinations and sources of exports and imports for Zimbabwe.

“It is time for the private sector to look beyond Zimbabwe’s neighboring countries and explore trade and investment opportunities in the rest of continent in both trade in goods and trade in services,” he said.

According to Chikwene, in order to fully realize the benefits of the AfCFTA, it has to be backed up by factors including increased productive capacity and enhanced regional value chains, so that Zimbabwean companies can compete well in the liberalized regional market.

“Key reforms are required to ensure that industrialization, trade and investment generate optimum benefits for Zimbabwe,” the ECA official said.

According to Chikwene, the key reforms that are required include in the areas of trade facilitation and infrastructure development.

Beatrice Claudia Chaytor, a senior trade expert at the AU Commission’s Trade and Industry Division, also urged the government of Zimbabwe to exert more efforts to embrace the opportunities presented by the AfCFTA.

Chaytor also emphasized that the Zimbabwe government would need to promote economic diversification through the development of policies that steer away from a focus on export of raw materials into value addition and manufacturing, and policies that facilitate entrepreneurial search and discovery in general.

Post published in: Business

Zimbabwe’s economy has been badly suffering for two decades but the last 12 months have been the worst decline in 10 years, characterised by shortages of basic goods such as fuel and electricity.

Even when such goods are available, they are often unaffordable for most Zimbabweans.

Annual inflation neared 300 percent in August, according to the International Monetary Fund.

The government has been introducing what economists have called “piecemeal” policies to raise revenue, fix currency distortions and increase cash liquidity.

But Mnangagwa was upbeat in an annual speech to parliament on Tuesday, saying that his government’s economic reforms “are beginning to bear fruit”.

“I am aware of the pain being experienced by the poor and the marginalised”, but “getting the economy working again will require time, patience, unity of purpose and perseverance”.

The local currency has fallen from parity against the American dollar to 16.5 Zimbabwean dollars (ZWL) since June, when the treasury introduced currency reforms in a bid to address the chronic monetary crisis.

The local unit briefly breached 20 against to the greenback last week before clawing back a little value.

“Last week’s events of exchange rate manipulation amounts to economic sabotage and should not be tolerated,” said Mnangagwa, referring the near crush of the currency which saw the central bank freeze bank accounts of a Zimbabwean company linked to global commodities trader Trafigura.

On Monday the central bank unexpectedly shut down the use of mobile phone banking for cash transactions, citing exorbitant commission fees.

Years of economic crisis have left the country short of bank notes and commercial banks have been rationing cash withdrawals to a maximum daily limit of 100 ZWL (US$10) per customer.

That limit has led many Zimbabweans to turn to electronic financial transactions as well as using mobile transfers to buy cash.

Mnangagwa said he was “fully aware of the challenges faced by the public in accessing cash, which has resulted in some unscrupulous traders selling cash in exchange for electronic money” and promised to fix the problem.

Nelson Chamisa, the leader of the main opposition party Movement for Democratic Change, said that a state-of-the-nation address “that does not address key issues facing the nation such as lack of electricity, water, fuel, non availability of cash, poor wages, human rights abuses, terror, abductions, illegitimacy and reforms is a waste of resources and an unprovoked insult”.

“This invites us all to act!” Chamisa said after his lawmakers walked out of parliament shortly before Mnangagwa stood up to deliver his speech.

A UN special rapporteur Clement Nyaletsossi Voule visited Zimbabwe last week and concluded that “there is a serious deterioration of the political, economic and social environment since August 2018”.

Mnangagwa won a July 30 election last year, taking over after 37 years of authoritarian rule under Zimbabwe’s founding president Robert Mugabe, who died in hospital last month.

Zimbabwe has been facing a myriad of challenges including 18-hour power outages. It is also experiencing a crippling cash crisis for both local and foreign currency, resulting in Zimbabweans having to buy cash from parallel markets at a huge premium.

In his State of the Nation Address (SONA) presented on Tuesday, Mnangagwa said he was aware of the challenges being faced by Zimbabweans but pleaded for patience.

“I’m aware of the pain being experienced by the poor and the marginalised.

“Getting the economy working again from being dead will require time, patience, unity of purpose and perseverance,” said Mnangagwa.

Cartels

He also expressed concern over what he called the emergence of cartels that are stifling competition and engaging in unjustified price hikes.

“While government will not revert to price controls, we are nonetheless, in the process of reviewing the Competition Act in order to introduce deterrent penalties to combat such business malpractices.”

On the cash crisis, Mnangagwa said the exchange rate is being manipulated by economic saboteurs.

“Last week’s events of exchange rate manipulation, amounts to economic sabotage and should not be tolerated.”

Power utility

On energy, Mnangagwa said power utility ZESA would be restructured, to enhance efficiency.

He added that “to address this state of affairs, we have now restored the cost reflective electricity tariff structure and increased power imports to provide the much needed short-term relief.”

Post published in: Business

Emmerson Mnangagwa

Hopes that the economy would quickly rebound under Mnangagwa, who took over after Mugabe was deposed in a coup in November 2017, have faded fast with Zimbabweans grappling with acute shortages of fuel and electricity and soaring prices.

In a state of the nation address in parliament, boycotted by the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) which disputes his election, Mnangagwa acknowledged the economic crisis as well as the need for reforms.

“I’m aware of the pain being experienced by the poor and the marginalized. Getting the economy working again from being dead will require time, patience, unity of purpose and perseverance,” Mnangagwa said.

Zimbabwe has suspended the publication of official annual inflation data since August 1. In its last official figures, inflation hit more than 175% in June, its highest level since hyperinflation under Mugabe wiped out the economy in 2009.

Mnangagwa’s opponents accuse him of lacking commitment to political reforms and using his predecessor’s heavy-handed tactics to stifle dissent.

The International Monetary Fund said last week that Zimbabwe needed to intensify reform efforts and meaningfully improve transparency to boost economic growth.

Mnangagwa and senior officials say they are doing their best to lay the foundations for future growth and blame Western sanctions for hampering recovery and deterring investment.

A United Nations human rights envoy said on Friday that Zimbabwe’s political and economic environment was deteriorating, causing anxiety as hopes fade for a long-awaited improvement in people’s living conditions.

In his address on Tuesday, Mnangagwa repeated his commitment to implement recommendations made by election observer missions to Zimbabwe’s 2018 election, as well as a commission of enquiry led by former South African President Kgalema Motlanthe.

The observers and the commission had called for broad security, political and electoral reforms.

Mnangagwa, whose election last year remains disputed by the MDC, once again invited the opposition party to dialogue.

The MDC, led by Nelson Chamisa, has refused to take part in a dialogue forum convened by Mnangagwa, insisting on talks led by a neutral mediator.

Post published in: Featured

People walk home in the dark due to power shortages in Harare, on Monday Sept. 30, 2019. Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa is set to present a State of the Nation address Tuesday, at a time the southern African nation is reeling from its worst economic crisis in more than a decade. Zimbabweans are enduring shortages of everything from medicines, fuel, cash and water- bringing a weariness and disgust that has often flared into streets protests. (AP Photo/Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi)

The Second Session of this Parliament Opened Today

Ceremonial Opening of Parliament

President Mnangagwa opened the Second Session of the Ninth Parliament of Zimbabwe at a joint sitting of both Houses of Parliament in the National Assembly today.  At 12 noon, after the customary preliminaries outside Parliament, the President went into the National Assembly chamber to deliver his State of the Nation Address [SONA] [link].  The address included the Government’s Legislative Agenda for the coming session.

Afterwards both Houses met briefly and then adjourned for three weeks.  They will meet again on Tuesday 22nd October…

Bills in Parliament Last Week

Education Amendment Bill stalled by National Assembly’s rejection of Senate Amendment

On Wednesday 25th September the Senate received a non-adverse report from the Parliamentary Legal Committee [PLC] on its single amendment to the Bill.  [Clause 14(k) of the Bill provided for the “appointment of sexual and reproductive health personnel” in schools, and Senators had objected strongly to and deleted the words “sexual and”.]  The Senate then finalised the Bill and returned it to the National Assembly.  In brief proceedings the following day the National Assembly rejected the Senate’s amendment.  This disagreement between the two Houses stopped the Bill’s further progress for the time being. The Bill, therefore, joins the other uncompleted Bills on the list of Bills lapsing at the end of the First Session.  As pointed out in Bill Watch 49/2019 [link], a Bill that lapses at the end of one session can be restored to the Order Paper by vote of the House in which the Bill was last discussed, in which case proceedings can continue from the stage previously reached

No progress on other Bills

No progress was made on the other Bills before the National Assembly: Zimbabwe Investment and Development Agency Bill, Money Laundering and Proceeds of Crime Amendment Bill and Coroner’s Office Bill, and the three Bills still under consideration by the PLC: Marriages Bill, Freedom of Information Bill and Zimbabwe Media Commission Bill.  All these Bills will also need to be restored to the Order Paper in the Second Session.

Constituency Development Fund [CDF] Increased

It was announced in both Houses that following the Supplementary Budget Review the CDF allocation had been revised upwards from $80 000 to $175 238.  Members were advised to submit projects for funding amounting to the revised figure.

Other Business in the National Assembly Last Week

Debates concluded and motions approved

Condolence motions  The National Assembly concluded debates on and adopted condolence motions following the deaths of the late MPs Hon Vimbai Tsvangirai, Hon Obedingwa Mguni and Hon Kaston Gumbwanda.  [Note: All three vacant seats have since been filled by by-elections in the constituencies concerned.]

Motion of Thanks for the President’s Speech opening the First Session  This debate was concluded and the motion approved on Wednesday 25th September.  In his response to the debate on behalf of Government the Minister of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs claimed progress on many of the issues raised during the debate.

Question Time

Question Time took place as usual on Wednesday.  The Minister of ICT and Courier Services assured MPs that his Ministry was pushing for abolition of customs duty on all ICT equipment and urged MPs to support the Ministry by lobbying the Minister of Finance and Economic Development.  The Deputy Minister of Primary and Secondary Education said the Ministry was prioritising the training of teachers to ensure that all little children are taught in their mother tongue, including Sotho, Kalanga, Tonga and Venda.  Other issues raised included water supply problems in Harare and the legality of subdividing agricultural land into residential plots; on the latter the Minister of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs advised MPs to await the report of the Uchena Commission of Inquiry into Disposal of State Land around urban areas.  

Other Business in the Senate Last Week

Debates concluded and motions approved

The Senate adopted Senator Timveos’ motion on the perennial shortages of clean and potable water in towns and growth points.  The motion specifically calls on Government to urgently allocate foreign exchange to local authorities for the development of water infrastructure in towns and growth centres and for the purchase of water treatment chemicals.

Question Time

On Thursday Question Time went ahead as scheduled.  The Minister of Energy and Power Development dealt with several questions about ZESA and power supply problems.  The Minister of Lands, Agriculture, Water, Climate and Rural Resettlement was faced with several questions about issues at the Grain Marketing Board.

International Standards Organisation Certification Hand-Over Ceremony

&

The Launch of Parliament’s Institutional Strategic Plan

On Friday 27th September a ceremony was held in the courtyard at Parliament at which:

•  the Standards Association of Zimbabwe handed over Parliament’s ISO 9001-2015 Certification; and
•   Parliament’s Institutional Strategic Plan for 2018-2023 was launched.

Veritas makes every effort to ensure reliable information, but cannot take legal responsibility for information supplied.

Post published in: Featured

1.10.2019 13:39

by Staff Reporter

Before I begin my address, I kindly request the August House to observe a minute of silence in honour of the late Founding Father of our country and Former President, His Excellency, Cde R. G. Mugabe who passed on, on the 6th of September 2019.

It’s not pleasant to begin the week on bad news, but Zimbabweans are getting accustomed to it.

For the past four or so months, new fuel prices are announced every Sunday evening. Sometimes the announcement comes as late as 11pm. Last week was no exception, as many Zimbabweans woke up on Monday to the news that they would be paying 11% more for fuel.

Zimbabweans have lost count of the number of times fuel has gone up this year. All they know is that they now pay roughly 775% more than they paid in January 2019. The year started with petrol at $1.31 (local bond notes) and diesel at $1.26.

Water runs dry

Zimbabwe is facing its worst drought in almost four decades, in addition to cyclone-induced floods and economic collapse, which have left Zimbabwe on the verge of its worst-ever famine, Bloomberg recently reported.

To add to the challenges faced by the southern African nation, a bailout was required to address water supply issues in the capital, Harare.

“Harare City Council has run out of key water treatment chemicals….and if no urgent bailout is given between today and Tuesday, management will be forced to shut down Morton Jaffray Water Treatment Plant,” the City of Harare tweeted last Monday. A million people were left without water when the plant was shut down.

The city council said it was “stretching the little available amounts to treat limited supplies of water”.

According to the municipality, it buys “foreign currency on the runaway interbank exchange market against a stagnant and inflexible budget”. Like water, local dollars to buy foreign currency had also “run dry”, it said.

Government recently released $37.4m (Zimbabwe dollars) plus an undisclosed amount of foreign currency towards interventions to improve water access and waste water treatment in Harare. Zimbabwe faced a severe cholera outbreak in 2018, and inadequate facilities to treat water increases the risk of another outbreak.

Spiralling data tariffs

As if this were not enough, the country’s biggest mobile network operator, Econet, was also a bearer of bad news last week, noting that it would be reviewing bundle prices for data and SMSes. Daily data bundles increased in a range of 20 – 38.5%, the third tariff increase this year.

“The argument is simple; all costs have gone up, primary currency has weakened but real tariffs have remained the same,” said a senior official with Econet, who requested anonymity as he is not allowed to speak to the press.

It previously hiked data tariffs twice in the space of a month.

Plummeting exchange rate

Despite the spiralling costs of daily living, Zimbabweans are not facing a corresponding increase in income. Despite government workers recently being offered a 76% pay hike, recent reports across Zimbabwe have indicated that in many important economic sectors, struggling employers are paying wages that fall below the total consumption poverty line (TCPL).

Most of Zimbabwe’s troubles are, however, coming from the plummeting exchange rate.

Officially, Zimbabwe’s local dollar has lost more than 80% of its value since February – but the black market rates show an even larger decline.

Earlier in the month, President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s government froze bank accounts belonging to the country’s biggest fuel supplier, as well as the largest car dealership.

Speaking at a meeting with a group of supporters in New York, where he was attending the United Nations General Assembly, Mnangagwa said his government had acted on “smart people” hurting the currency.

“We have people who find ways to fight that and undermine (the currency), but yesterday we also became smarter than their being smart, so we took some action,” Mnangagwa said.

“We have now arrested the galloping rate, which had gone up to about 20, 23, 24. By the time we left it had come down to about 15 and it’s still coming down, because we had put up some measures,” Mnangagwa told party supporters.

This was of little comfort to importers as they still had to pay 40 cents more on the following Monday than they had on the Friday.

Losing hope

In another demonstration of how desperate things are for Zimbabweans, the country’s statistics agency, Zimstat, last week released data saying a family of five needed to earn $1 827 in local currency in order not to be deemed poor. This compares unfavourably to the salaries of government workers, where the lowest paid earn $1 023.

All Zimbabweans want is better livelihoods, to put food on the table, to have running water, to have electricity, and medical care. But all these things remain elusive. The hope that many had when President Mnangagwa assumed office is fading fast.

And unless he deals decisively with corruption, improves the ease and cost of doing business, gets skilled farmers on the land and gives them tenure, then the misery of unemployment and hunger will continue unabated.

• Crecey Kuyedzwa is Fin24’s correspondent in Harare. Views expressed are her own.

Post published in: Featured