The Boston Globe - 20.09.2019

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2019 The Boston Globe The Nation A

By Michael D. Shear,
Thomas Fuller
and Peter Baker
NEW YORK TIMES
WASHINGTON — President
Trump said late Wednesday
that his administration would
issue a notice of environmental
violation against the city of San
Francisco because of what he
described as its homelessness
problem.
Traveling aboard Air Force
One as he returned to Washing-
ton from a three-day trip to Cal-
ifornia and New Mexico, Trump
told reporters that San Francis-
co was in “total violation” of en-
vironmental rules because of
used needles that were ending
up in the ocean.
“They’re in total violation —
we’re going to be giving them a
notice very soon,” the president
said, indicating that the city
could be put on notice by the
Environmental Protection
Agency within a week that its
homelessness problem was
causing environmental dam-
age.
He said tremendous pollu-
tion was flowing into the ocean
because of waste in storm sew-
ers, and he specifically cited
used needles.
“They’re in serious viola-
tion,” Trump said, adding“They
have to clean it up. We can’t
have our cities going to hell,”
Trump added.
San Francisco’s mayor, Lon-
don Breed, called Trump’s com-
ments “ridiculous.”
“To be clear, San Francisco
has a combined sewer system,
one of the best and most effec-
tive in the country, that ensures
that all debris that flow into
storm drains are filtered out at

the city’s wastewater treatment

plants,” Breed said in a state-

ment Wednesday night. “No de-

bris flow out into the bay or the

ocean.”

She also said that the city

would be adding 1,000 shelter

beds by next year and is seeking

topassa$600millionbondto

build additional affordable

housing and increase services

for people with mental illnesses

and drug addictions.

“In San Francisco,” Breed

said, “we are focused on ad-

vancing solutions to meet the

challenges on our streets, not

throwing off ridiculous asser-

tions as we board an airplane to

leave the state.”

The president has indicated

for weeks that he is angry and

frustrated by what he sees as an

out-of-control homelessness

problem in San Francisco and

Los Angeles — two heavily

Democratic cities run by politi-

cians who have been regularly

critical of Trump.

On Twitter in July, the presi-

dent lashed out at Speaker Nan-

cy Pelosi, whose district in-

cludes San Francisco, saying

that the city was “not even rec-

ognizeable lately.”

During an interview in July

with Tucker Carlson of Fox

News, Trump said that when

world leaders come to an Amer-

ican city, they should not see

homeless people. “They’re rid-

ing down a highway, they can’t

be looking at that,” he said. “I

really believe that it hurts our

country.”

Before the president’s trip

this week to California, the ad-

ministration signaled that the

federal government would be

looking for ways to address

homelessness.

But there had been no indi-

cation before Wednesday night

that the Trump administration

intended to use environmental

laws to do so.

It was also unclear what spe-

cific laws or regulations the

EPA would cite, or what actions

the agency would demand from

the city’s leaders in order to

avoid the citation.

Tens of thousands of hypo-

dermic needles are collected ev-

ery month from the streets of

San Francisco.

City officials have a long-

standing program of distribut-

ing clean needles in an effort to

reduce infectious diseases like

HIV.

But the police have reported

a sharp increase in heroin use

on the streets; in August 2018

alone, the city’s Public Health

Department, which has a nee-

dle-recovery program, retrieved

164,264 needles, both through

a disposal program and

through street cleanups.

Even before the president’s

remarks aboard Air Force One,

Democratic officials in Califor-

nia had been in the awkward

position of agreeing with

Trump about the need for a so-

lution to homelessness — al-

though they remained suspi-

cious of the president’s real mo-

tivations.

“Donald Trump is a slum-

lord who has spent his presi-

dency pushing people into

homelessness by taking away

healthcare,foodassistance,

and affordable housing funds,”

Scott Wiener, a Democratic

state senator from San Francis-

co, said Tuesday as the presi-

dent arrived in the state for a

series of fundraisers and a trip

to the border. “He has no credi-

bility on housing and homeless-

ness.”

In fact, Trump has repeated-

ly indicated that his frustration

with homeless people in some

of the country’s major cities has

more to do with making sure

that others do not have to see

them and less to do with con-

cern about the homeless.

Trump chides San Francisco

for homelessness problem

Floats notice of

environmental

violation for city

NEW YORK — Lawyers for
President Trump argued in a
lawsuit filed Thursday that he
cannot be
criminally in-
vestigated
while in office,
as they sought to block a sub-
poena from state prosecutors in
Manhattan demanding eight
years of his tax returns.
Taking a broad position that
the lawyers acknowledged had
not been tested, the president’s
legal team argued in the com-
plaint that the Constitution ef-
fectively makes sitting presi-
dents immune from all crimi-
nal inquiries until they leave
the White House.
The president “cannot be
subject to criminal process...
while he is serving as presi-
dent,” the lawyers wrote in the
complaint, filed in Manhattan
federal court.
While it is unclear how a
judge will view the argument,
the case is likely to delay the
latest attempt to secure
Trump’s financial records.
The lawsuit was filed in re-
sponse to a subpoena issued
late last month by the Manhat-
tan District Attorney’s Office to
Trump’s accounting firm. The
subpoena sought eight years of
the president’s personal and
corporate tax returns as the of-
fice investigates the role that
Trump and his family business
played in hush-money pay-
ments made in the run-up to
the 2016 presidential election.
Both Trump and the compa-
ny reimbursed Michael Cohen,
the president’s former lawyer
and fixer, for money Cohen
paid to buy the silence of
Stormy Daniels, an adult film
actress who said she had an af-
fair with Trump. The president
has denied the affair.
Federal prosecutors said in a
court filing in July that they
had “effectively concluded”
their investigation into possible
crimes committed by the presi-
dent’s company, the Trump Or-
ganization, or its executives.
Neither the company nor any of
its leaders were charged. How-
ever, the office of the Manhat-
tan district attorney, Cyrus R.
Vance Jr., is exploring whether
the reimbursements violated
any New York state laws.
The lawsuit filed Thursday
was the latest effort by the pres-

ident and his legal team to sty-

mie multiple attempts to obtain

copies of his tax returns, which

Trump initially said he would

make public during the 2016

campaign but has since refused

to disclose.

Trump’s lawyers have sued

to block attempts by congres-

sional Democrats and New

York state lawmakers to access

his tax returns and financial re-

cords. But their arguments in

those cases had been made on

narrower grounds.

It is an open question

whether sitting presidents are

immune from prosecution

while in office. The Constitu-

tion does not explicitly address

the issue.

Federal prosecutors are

barred from charging a sitting

president with a federal crime,

because the Justice Depart-

ment — in memos written dur-

ing the Nixon and Clinton ad-

ministrations — has interpret-

ed the Constitution to

implicitly grant presidents tem-

porary immunity while they are

in office. Those memos, howev-

er, do not bind the hands of

state prosecutors.

NEW YORK TIMES

White House adds many to

list not subject to subpoena

WASHINGTON — The letter

sent to the House Judiciary

Committee by the White House

on the subject of Corey Lewan-

dowski’s testimony makes for

startling reading.

It claims immunity from

congressional subpoena for the

following list of people and

classes of information:

RAides to President Trump,

of course, such as Kellyanne

Conway, who the White House

claims is ‘‘absolutely immune

from compelled congressional

testimony.’’

RPeople who aren’t aides

and have never been aides but

have advised the president,

such as Lewandowski.

RPeople who may not have

been aides or advised the presi-

dent but have provided infor-

mation to him ‘‘in connection

with the discharge of his du-

ties.’’

RCommunications, not just

between the president and his

advisers, but between his advis-

ers and anyone else, ‘‘relating

to information or advice that

will inform the discharge of the

President’s responsibilities.’’

Administration lawyers in-

sist that their claims are ‘‘well

settled.’’ Legal scholars ques-

tion that assertion.

‘‘There is no constitutional

basis’’fortheadministration’s

position on testimonial immu-

nity, said Mark Rozell, dean of

George Mason University’s

Schar School of Policy and Gov-

ernment and author of a study

of executive privilege.

It’s ‘‘nothing more than a

self-serving rationale by the ex-

ecutive to wall off Congress

from open testimony. This ad-

ministration, though, has taken

the argument to the next level

by maintaining it has the right

to immunize any and all per-

sons of interest from testifying

any time it wants to,’’ Rozell

said in an e-mail.

The president’s lawyers ar-

gue that they get to decide

whether Congress’s stated rea-

son for seeking information is

‘‘the real reason,’’ as the Office

of Legal Counsel said in its

opinion justifying noncompli-

ance with a law allowing the

chairman of the House Ways

and Means Committee to see

the president’s tax returns.

If the White House thinks

the Congress’s motives are pho-

ny, it can refuse its demands,

the office argued.

WASHINGTON POST

Lawyers argue presidential immunity

POLITICAL

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