Hi, and welcome back to Trump Watch! Yes it is Friday, if you're as confused about the days of the week as I have been post-holidays. I hope you all survived enjoyed the holidays with minimal griping from and about family and family-adjacent. Send me anecdotes about your family gatherings (e.g. my cousin put a bunch of my brother's mail into the White Elephant gift exchange, which resulted in my mom getting her son's bank statement for Christmas) at [email protected], and follow me on Twitter at @jacq_thomsen.

Douglas Letter, left, and Mark Freeman.

Meet The Players in the McGahn and Mueller Grand Jury Arguments

When the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit hears arguments today in a pair of lawsuits from the House Judiciary Committee, the courtroom will feature a number of faces familiar to those tracking the litigation between House Democrats and President Donald Trump.

House general counsel Douglas Letter has typically taken the lead in arguing the House's cases and will do so again Friday for the Mueller grand jury materials case. Former Justice Department lawyer Megan Barbero will step up to the plate for the arguments over whether former White House counsel Don McGahn can be compelled to testify.

Barbero joined the office in March 2019, weeks after Speaker Nancy Pelosi tapped Letter to lead the House's legal fights. She spent five years in DOJ's civil appellate team, where she was involved in defending Trump in a pair of emoluments lawsuits, and was previously at Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale.

She and Letter split time in arguing the McGahn testimony case last year at the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia before Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson. Barbero led arguments over standing issues in the case, a topic that is sure to face further scrutiny today.

Arguing for the Justice Department will be a pair of DOJ appellate heavyweights: Mark Freeman will again argue against Letter in the Mueller grand jury materials case, while Hashim Mooppan will represent the administration for the McGahn arguments.

Freeman took over Letter's old job, leading DOJ's civil appellate division. He and Letter have already argued over a stay in the case before the same D.C. Circuit panel they'll be in front of today.

Letter brought up the two lawyers' relationship during the November arguments, saying he recommended Freeman for his current job. "After this is all over, we will shake hands and hug," Letter, who spent 40 years at DOJ, told the panel of him and Freeman.

Mooppan, a deputy assistant attorney general at DOJ and former Jones Day partner, is a rising star in Trump's Justice Department. He has helped lead litigation in emoluments clause lawsuits against Trump, arguing on the president's behalf last month before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit as well as the D.C. Circuit.

Just as significant to Friday's arguments as the lawyers are the panels of judges who will rule in the cases. The panels are nearly identical with Judges Thomas Griffith and Judith Rogers on both.

Griffith, appointed to his seat by former President George W. Bush, previously served as the Senate legal counsel, a role he alluded to during oral arguments for a stay on the Mueller grand jury materials case.

Judge Karen Henderson, a President George H.W. Bush appointee, will sit on the panel hearing the McGahn arguments, and Judge Neomi Rao will take her spot for the Mueller grand jury materials case. Rao, a Trump appointee who was confirmed to the bench last year, previously worked at the White House Office of Management and Budget, meaning she might have interacted with McGahn and could have been recused from the case over the testimony.

Griffith and Rao both suggested during the past Mueller arguments that the courts might not be the appropriate forum to handle the case. But Rogers, appointed by former President Bill Clinton, questioned how else the House would be able to get the Mueller grand jury information without effectively having to redo the special counsel's probe.

A Look Ahead

The House and Senate will be back in Washington, D.C., next week, setting the stage for the Senate to get started on an impeachment trial—if Pelosi decides to send over the articles.

We may also get an idea of who the House's impeachment managers will be, aka the House Democrats chosen to serve as prosecutors during the trial. Former federal prosecutor and House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff is rumored to be on the list, as are other legal experts in the House like constitutional law scholar and Judiciary committee member Rep. Jamie Raskin.

Stay tuned to see whatever's next for impeachment!

What We're Reading

>> Big Law Chairmen and Prominent Trial Lawyers Help Drive Biden Fundraising: "Prominent trial lawyers, practice group leaders and the chairmen of several major U.S. law firms are among the more than 200 top volunteer fundraisers for Joe Biden's presidential campaign…. Biden's list of top volunteer fundraisers included Stephen Cozen, founder and chairman of Cozen O'Connor; Bradley Butwin, chairman of O'Melveny & Myers; Brad Karp, chairman of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison; Robert Brady, chairman of the Wilmington-based firm Young Conaway Stargatt & Taylor; Mitchell Berger, founder and co-chairman of Florida's Berger Singerman; and Ace Werner and Peter Shields, managing partner of Wiley Rein." [National Law Journal]

>> Chief Justice Roberts: Judges Are a Check Against 'False Information': "A 'strong and independent' judiciary plays a central role in civic education and in promoting 'national unity and stability,' Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. asserted in an annual year-end report that arrives as the U.S. Supreme Court prepares to confront the secrecy of President Donald Trump's tax returns and as Roberts is expected soon to preside over the president's impeachment trial in the U.S. Senate. 'In our age, when social media can instantly spread rumor and false information on a grand scale, the public's need to understand our government, and the protections it provides, is ever more vital,' Roberts said in his report." [National Law Journal]

>> Exclusive: Unredacted Ukraine Documents Reveal Extent of Pentagon's Legal Concerns: "This exchange, as well as the larger trove of unredacted emails, raises new questions about the Dec. 11 letter from OMB General Counsel [Mark] Paoletta to the General Accountability Office (GAO), a congressional investigative office. The unredacted emails show the Pentagon's repeated and clear warnings to OMB that by mid-August it could no longer guarantee that the funds could be fully executed within the fiscal year. But, Paoletta's letter stated, 'at no point during the pause in obligations did DOD [Office of General Counsel] indicate to OMB that, as a matter of law, the apportionments would prevent DOD from being able to obligate the funds before the end of the fiscal year.'" [Just Security]

>> What Happened When Trump Reshaped a Powerful Court: "The 5th Circuit today is a sneak peek of what more courts will look like once they have been fully captured by judges both Trump-appointed and Trump-aligned. The president has already flipped the 2nd, 3rd, and 11th Circuits, creating a majority of Republican appointees. As the president solidifies his grasp on these courts, we can expect them to issue more extreme decisions that drag the law to the right." [Slate]

Thanks for reading Trump Watch! We'll be back next week.