Background Briefing: May 20, 2021

On By gram

 

The Law is Finally Catching Up With Donald Trump

We begin with the law catching up with Donald Trump and the Trump Organization with the announcement by New York Attorney General Leticia James that “We have informed the Trump Organization that our investigation into the organization is no longer purely civil in nature. We are now actively investigating the Trump Organization in a criminal capacity, along with the Manhattan DA.” Joining us is Kimberly Wehle, an author, lawyer and Professor of Law at the University of Baltimore School of Law who was a former Assistant U.S. Attorney and an Associate Independent Counsel in the Whitewater Investigation whose forthcoming book is The Outsourced Constitution: How Government Power in Private Hands Erodes American Democracy. We discuss her article at The Atlantic, “The Country Is on the Cusp of a New Era: America is inching closer to a possibility it has never seen before: the indictment and trial of a former president.”

 

A Possible Thaw in the Frosty Relations Between Russia and the U.S.

Then we assess the extent of a possible thaw in the frosty relations between the U.S. and Russia following a meeting between the U.S. Secretary of State and the Russian Foreign Minister on the sideline of the Arctic Council meeting in Iceland where they worked on preparations for a Biden-Putin summit. William Pomeranz, the Deputy Director of the Kennan Institute for Advanced Russian Studies at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington D.C. joins us to discuss the waiving of U.S. sanctions on the Russian Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline which Germany has sought and Ukraine opposes.

 

The Law to Stop Asian American Hate 63 House Republicans Voted Against

Then finally we examine the signing today by President Biden of a law targeting hate crimes against Asian Americans and speak with one of the people responsible for bringing attention to the fact that over the last year, more than 6,600 anti-Asian hate incidents have been recorded nationwide by the nonprofit Stop AAPI Hate. Dr. Russell Jeung, a Professor of Asian American Studies at San Francisco State University who is the founder of Stop Asian American and Pacific Islander Hate joins us to discuss this bi-partisan bill now law that 63 Republican House members voted against.