| WSJ.com: World News: Germany's Schäuble: Greece Could Secure Bailout Deal in Late May |
| Fri, 12 May 2017 06:55:28 -0400 |
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| Full transcript: Acting FBI director McCabe and others testify before the Senate Intelligence Committee | ||
Acting FBI director Andrew McCabe, who replaced James Comey after he was fired by President Trump, testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee on the topic of worldwide threats. The committee is investigating Russias alleged meddling in the U.S. presidential election. Here is part of the testimony by McCabe and other top U.S. intelligence officials, including Director […] | ||
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 A part-owner of several New York City hotels and restaurants has joined a lawsuit alleging that President Trump has violated the Constitutions | ||
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| Iraq's Shi'ite paramilitaries squeeze Islamic State toward Syria border | ||
ERBIL, Iraq (Reuters) - Iraq's Shi'ite paramilitaries launched an offensive on Friday to drive Islamic State from a desert region near the border with Syria as security forces fought the militants in the city of Mosul.     | ||
| Russia's Putin says ready to help resolve North Korea nuclear issue: South Korea | ||
SEOUL (Reuters) - Russia's President Vladimir Putin told his newly elected South Korean counterpart, Moon Jae-in, in a phone call on Friday that he is ready to play a constructive role in resolving North Korea's nuclear threat, the South's presidential office said.    | ||
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| How Trumps N.S.A. Came to End a Disputed Type of Surveillance | ||
The move increased the risk of missing something important, but removed a privacy issue at a time when the law on which the program is based will expire unless Congress extends it.  | ||
| Trump Hasn't Diminished America's Faith In Elections, But He Has Polarized It - FiveThirtyEight | ||
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WASHINGTON (AP) -- The White House's explanation of President Donald Trump's decision to fire FBI Director James Comey has been a moving target.... | ||
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The questioning of Brazils former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva by an investigative judge over corruption allegations polarized this country between those who want to see him jailed and those who want him back in the presidency.  | ||
| Ex-Florida Congresswoman Convicted of Taking Money Meant for Charity | ||
After she was convicted on Thursday, Corrine Brown, a former United States representative from Florida, said she disagreed with the jurys decision and would seek a new trial.  | ||
| NPR News: 05-12-2017 8AM ET | ||
NPR News: 05-12-2017 8AM ET Download audio: https://play.podtrac.com/npr-500005/npr.mc.tritondigital.com/NPR_500005/media/anon.npr-mp3/npr/newscasts/2017/05/12/newscast080625.mp3?orgId=1&d=300&p=500005&story=528090675&t=podcast&e=528090675&ft=pod&f=500005 |
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Acting FBI director Andrew McCabe, who replaced James Comey after he was fired by President Trump, testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee on the topic of worldwide threats. The committee is investigating Russia’s alleged meddling in the U.S. presidential election. Here is part of the testimony by McCabe and other top U.S. intelligence officials, including Director […]
President Trump's decision to fire FBI Director James B. Comey this week raised many questions about the powers and limitations of the American presidency. Luckily, that's our specialty on "Can He Do That?," The Post's political podcast exploring that very subject weekly. Among the swirl of questions emerged this critical one: What powers, if any, […]
President Trump threatened Friday morning to end White House press briefings, arguing that “it is not possible” for his staff to speak with “perfect accuracy” to the American public. Trump's comments come after his description of his decision to fire FBI Director James B. Comey in an NBC News interview Thursday flatly contradicted the accounts provided […]
Pres. Trump tells Lester Holt that he was preparing to fire FBI Director Comey regardless of recommendations from the attorney general and deputy attorney general.
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President Donald Trump: James Comey Is 'A Showboat' (Excerpt) | NBC Nightly News
Voice of America: Comey: President Demanded 'Loyalty' Pledgeby webdesk@voanews.com (VOA News)
A report in a major U.S. newspaper late Thursday said President Donald Trump summoned Federal Bureau of Investigation Director James Comey to the White House in January where the president asked Comey to "pledge his loyalty to him." Comey was fired by Trump Tuesday, creating a political firestorm and raising concerns in some circles about a constitutional crisis. The New York Times said Comey refused to make the pledge, but instead told Trump that he would "always be honest with him." Trump pressed Comey several times for his loyalty, and finally Comey told the president he would have the FBI director's "honest loyalty," according to the newspaper account. Comey told associates about the dinner and asked them not to tell anyone while he was FBI director, but the associates feel free to talk about details of the dinner now that Comey is no longer at the FBI helm, the Times reported. In an interview with NBC News Thursday, Trump gave a different account of the dinner. The president said Comey requested the meeting because the FBI director wanted to keep his job. The president did not mention a loyalty pledge request. In the television interview, the president said he had asked the head of the nation’s prime law enforcement agency whether he was being investigated. Trump said he asked Comey “if it’s possible, would you let me know, am I under investigation? He said, ‘You are not under investigation.’” The president, in the television interview, repeated “I am not under investigation” when asked about Comey’s sworn testimony that there is an ongoing probe into his 2016 president campaign and possible collusion with the Russian government. 'Highly inappropriate' Legal analyst Bradley Moss, who specializes in national security issues, called such an exchange "highly inappropriate" at a minimum. “There is supposed to be a line that is not crossed, including asking the FBI if you yourself are the target of the investigation,” Moss told VOA. But Moss, deputy executive director of The James Madison Project, a Washington-based organization that promotes government accountability, added it is “difficult to say if it is actually illegal, since Comey allegedly responded that Trump was not under investigation.” Laurence Tribe, a Harvard professor specializing in constitutional law, wrote on Twitter it is “now totally clear that Trump’s firing of Comey was an obstruction of justice. That was the first article of impeachment against Nixon.” That is a reference to former President Richard Nixon, who resigned in 1974 less than a month after the House of Representatives began impeachment proceedings against him. Trump asserts in Thursday’s interview he would have fired Comey even if top Justice Department officials had not recommended it, calling former President Barack Obama's appointee “a showboat. He's a grandstander.” Comey was directing investigations into connections between the Trump campaign and Russian officials, along with possible meddling by Moscow in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Rosenstein memo The White House on Thursday continued to defend its dismissal of the FBI chief and denied it tried to put the responsibility on Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein's memo for the abrupt removal. “I don’t think there was ever an attempt to pin the decision on the deputy attorney general” for Comey’s firing, said Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House principal deputy press secretary. However, Sanders, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer and even Vice President Mike Pence earlier had asserted Trump’s firing decision was based on the deputy attorney general’s memo. At the center of the scrutiny is whether Rosenstein was instructed to draft a memo justifying Comey's dismissal or whether he decided to write the document without direction. Rosenstein was upset with suggestions made by the White House that his memo suggested he called for Comey’s firing Tuesday, according to The Washington Post and ABC News. Rosenstein’s memo mentioned Comey’s mishandling of last year’s investigation into Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server while she was secretary of state. Russian investigation However, news media reports quote sources who assert Comey was ousted because he wanted to intensify the Russia investigation. The firing has prompted Democrats to amplify their calls for an independent investigation of the Russia case. The attorneys general of 20 states are also calling for appointment of a special counsel. Comey was appointed by Obama in 2013. FBI directors serve 10-year terms, to insulate them from political interference, but can be removed by presidents. Until now the only other time an FBI director had been dismissed was in 1993 when President Bill Clinton removed William Sessions who refused to voluntarily leave amid ethical concerns.
Voice of America
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Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambaev has asked the Prosecutor-General's Office to drop the lawsuits it had filed on his behalf against RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service, known locally as Azattyk (Liberty).
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Commanders of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) say they will launch an assault to retake the Islamic State (IS) stronghold of Raqqa in early summer.
Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty
President Donald Trump called on Russia and Ukraine to make peace Thursday, presenting himself as something of a neutral peacemaker between the two nations, a day after meeting foreign ministers from both countries in Washington.
Friday's announcement follows a line of
several other significant departures
from Obama-era domestic policies at the Justice Department, but this decision crystalized Sessions' position in the criminal justice realm.
In a brief
one-and-a-half-page memo
, Sessions outlined his new instructions for charging decisions in federal cases, saying that his new first principle is "that prosecutors should charge and pursue the most serious, readily provable offense."
"The most serious offenses are those that carry the most substantial guidelines sentence, including mandatory minimum sentences," Sessions later adds.
While the federal sentencing guidelines are advisory -- and take into account everything from a defendant's criminal history to cooperation with authorities --
some judges have felt handcuffed
by mandatory minimums, which provide a statutory sentencing minimum of months below which the judge cannot depart.
Sessions also formally withdrew a signature part of Attorney General Eric Holder's "Smart on Crime" initiative, which sought to target the most serious crimes and reduce the number of defendants charged with non-violent drug offenses that would otherwise trigger mandatory minimum sentences.
"We must ensure that our most severe mandatory minimum penalties are reserved for serious, high-level, or violent drug traffickers," Holder wrote in a 2013 memo. "In some cases, mandatory minimum and recidivist enhancements statutes have resulted in unduly harsh sentences and perceived or actual disparities that do not reflect our Principles of Federal Prosecution."
As a result, during the Obama era, federal prosecutors were instructed not to charge someone for a drug crime that would trigger a mandatory minimum sentence if certain specific factors were met: (a) the relevant conduct didn't involve death, violence, a threat of violence or possession of a weapon; (b) the defendant wasn't an organizer, leader or manager of others within a criminal organization; (c) there were no ties to large-scale drug trafficking operations; and (d) the defendant didn't have a "significant" criminal history (i.e., prior convictions).
All of those charging factors are now gone under Sessions' reign and not surprising, as he has previously telegraphed his
desire to prosecute more
federal cases generally.
The effects of Friday's decision are likely to be felt most immediately in the narcotics context where federal mandatory minimums established by Congress can be harsh for even first-time offenders because the sentences are dictated based on drug type and quantity.
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Published on May 11, 2017
The firing of FBI Director James Comey has sparked accusations that President Trump is trying to derail the Russia investigation. Chief foreign affairs correspondent Margaret Warner offers background on the man leading the probe, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, and William Brangham talks with former Justice Department official Amy Jeffress and former FBI official Frank Montoya Jr.
To serve under Donald Trump is to be a disposable commodity whose value fluctuates with the master’s moods. This was true on “The Apprentice” and it’s true in the administration, where personnel matters have taken on a gameshow quality. Turnover has been especially rapid among those responsible for heading up the investigation into ties between Trump’s circle and the Russian government. This week, FBI Director James Comey joined Mary McCord, Sally Yates, and Preet Bharara as senior law enforcement officials who either resigned under Trump or were fired outright. As new officials are appointed to take their places, it’s getting hard to keep track of who is responsible for the Trump-Russia investigation. Two of these key officials (Dana Boente and Rod Rosenstein) are Trump appointees; the third (Andrew McCabe) will likely be replaced by a Trump pick soon.
Dana Boente
Dana Boente leaves federal court in Alexandria, Va., on Jan. 26, 2012.
Photo: Evan Vucci/AP
Current Jobs: U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia; acting assistant attorney general for the National Security Division, Department of Justice
Former Jobs: Acting attorney general (after the firing of Sally Yates in February 2017 and before the confirmation of Jeff Sessions as attorney general in April 2017); U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Louisiana
Why He Matters: Both of Boente’s current roles involve supervising the ongoing investigation into the Russian government’s ties to Trump’s campaign. As discussed by former FBI Director Comey in congressional testimony last week, and reported by CNN, a grand jury is now gathering evidence in the Eastern District of Virginia as part of its investigation of Michael Flynn, Trump’s former national security adviser, for his ties to the Russian government. Comey also described the broader Russia probe as a “counterintelligence investigation,” a category of inquiry overseen by the National Security Division, which Boente headed after the resignation of Mary McCord last month.
Age: 63
Bio: Boente is a career prosecutor who has been with the Department of Justice since 1984, serving under administrations from both parties. Boente oversaw the prosecution of former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell for corruption before the Supreme Court threw out the conviction in 2016, a decision that effectively narrowed the definition of political corruption. In 2015, Boente was nominated by President Obama to serve as the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia — a post that handles a lot of national security cases due to its proximity to the Beltway. After acting Attorney General Sally Yates was fired for refusing to defend Trump’s Muslim ban, Boente was appointed acting attorney general and promptly reversed course, unsuccessfully defending it in court. (The Department of Justice has appealed.) Former colleagues told the New York Times that Boente wasn’t playing politics — he probably believes that a ban is legal. In April, Boente was tapped by Jeff Sessions to lead the department’s National Security Division, which, along with the FBI, is responsible for the Russia investigation. In that role, Boente is also at the center of the Justice Department’s efforts to arrest and prosecute WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, a move that could set a precedent that severely restricts press freedom.
Rod J. Rosenstein
U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein gives testimony before the Senate Committee on the Judiciary in Washington on March 7, 2017.
Photo: Rex Features/AP
Current Job: Deputy attorney general, Department of Justice
Former Job: U.S. attorney for Maryland
Why He Matters: Sessions promised not to weigh in on the Trump-Russia investigation; nevertheless, he appears to have been instrumental in Trump’s decision to fire Comey, who was leading the FBI’s work on the investigation. If one can still take Sessions at his word, it is Rosenstein who is supposed to be supervising all Trump-Russia matters at the Department of Justice. Rosenstein also wrote the lengthy memo that comes the closest to providing a justification for Comey’s firing.
Age: 52
Bio: In his 12 years working as a prosecutor in Maryland, Rosenstein took on matters ranging from municipal corruption to white-collar crime to firearms and gangs. He investigated leaks relating to U.S. cyber efforts against Iran under President Obama and investigated Bill and Hillary Clinton’s real estate investments as a Justice Department lawyer working for Kenneth Starr, the independent counsel whose investigations led to the most recent impeachment of an American president. This profile by CNN suggests that Rosenstein is a careful and thorough professional. It records the surprise of colleagues that he would be the one to wind up providing Trump and Sessions with the basis for getting rid of Comey. In an earlier profile by the Washington Post, Philip Heymann, who served as deputy attorney general under Bill Clinton, praises Rosenstein’s trustworthiness and ethics. It notes that Rosenstein is rarely home in time for dinner and often picks up where he left off at home, working late into the night. During his confirmation hearings earlier this year, Rosenstein refused to say whether he would appoint a special counsel to investigate Trump’s Russia ties and promised to be independent. The Washington Post has reported that Rosenstein threatened to resign upon realizing that the White House was using his memo to justify Comey’s dismissal. “If the president has committed a crime and I believe the president is culpable, then I wouldn’t follow the president’s advice,” he said. On Thursday morning, the New York Times editorial board published an open letter to Rosenstein, charging Trump with “exploiting the integrity you have earned over nearly three decades in public service” and calling on Rosenstein to appoint a special counsel to “get to the bottom of whether and how Russia helped steal the presidency for Mr. Trump.”
Andrew G. McCabe
Acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe prepares to testify during the Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on “World Wide Threats” on May 11, 2017.
Photo: Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call/AP
Current Job: Acting director, FBI
Former Job: Deputy director, FBI
Why He Matters: Until Trump nominates a replacement for Comey and maneuvers him or her through Senate confirmation (there’s likely to be a fight no matter who the candidate is), McCabe will be in charge of the bureau’s end of the Trump-Russia investigation. He’s politically vulnerable. Unlike Rosenstein and Boente, he wasn’t picked by Trump for his current job and he could be next in line for firing. According to a source who spoke with ABC News, McCabe has talked by phone with FBI field offices around the country and asked them to carry on “business as usual.”
Bio: McCabe spent 20 years in the FBI’s New York field office before Comey promoted him to deputy director last year. He had significant responsibilities in the investigation of Hillary Clinton’s emails and is currently being investigated by the Department of Justice’s inspector general for not recusing himself from that matter: Republican senators and others have complained that McCabe should have taken himself out of investigation because his wife, Jill McCabe, made a run for the Virginia state Senate in 2015 and accepted nearly half a million dollars in contributions from a political action committee connected to Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe. McAuliffe chaired Clinton presidential campaigns in 1996 and 2008. McCabe also figures into a second controversy surrounding contacts between Comey and the Trump White House. The Atlantic and others have reported that the White House asked Comey and McCabe to dispute reports of contacts between the Trump campaign and Russian officials. If those reports are true, Comey and McCabe appear to have refused, but the contacts themselves could violate guidelines designed to shield the bureau from political pressure.
Top photo: From left to right: Rod J. Rosenstein, Andrew G. McCabe, and Dana Boente.
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The Latest on military exercises in Guam (all times local):
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Will Sending More US Troops to Afghanistan Turn Back Taliban? by webdesk@voanews.com (Noor Zahid)
As Washington considers sending more U.S. troops to Afghanistan, analysts are skeptical whether the move would help quell a resurgent Taliban or push the insurgent group to the negotiating table. U.S President Donald Trump is expected to announce his Afghan policy later this month and his advisers are reportedly recommending adding up to 5,000 additional American troops. Security analysts say a troop surge would not make a difference unless additional steps are taken including reforms...
Acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe seems to contradict the White House position that former FBI Director James Comey had lost the support of the bureau's agents, tensions between the U.S. and Russia over Syria and Katy Perry's latest single.
Download audio: https://av.voanews.com/clips/VEN/2017/05/11/20170511-170500-VEN060-program_hq.mp3
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