“It’s time to get to work to make sure everyone participates in the census,” says Yatziri Tovar, a spokesperson for Make the Road New York, an immigrant rights organization based in New York City that successfully sued to block Trump administration plans for a citizenship question.
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“It’s time to get to work to make sure everyone participates in the census,” says Yatziri Tovar, a spokesperson for Make the Road New York, an immigrant rights organization based in New York City that successfully sued to block Trump administration plans for a citizenship question.
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With the legal fight to block a citizenship question from the 2020 census behind them, immigrant rights groups and other advocates are now turning toward what they consider an even greater challenge — getting every person living in the U.S. counted.
Activists are trying to soften ground hardened by a more than yearlong legal battle by using community meetings and street outreach in these final months before the constitutionally mandated head count of U.S. residents begins. Thecensus is set to officially begin in January in remote Alaska before rolling out to the rest of the country by April.
“It’s time to get to work to make sure everyone participates in the census,” says Yatziri Tovar, a spokesperson for Make the Road New York — an immigrant rights organization based in New York City that was one of the dozens of groups that successfully sued the Trump administration.
Census Bureau researchers estimated that including a citizenship question likely would have deterred at least 9 million people, especially among Latinx communities, from taking part in the head count. Instead, the administration is relying on a way to get a detailed count of U.S. citizens and noncitizens that’s based on government records the Census Bureau was directed last year to start compiling from other federal agencies.
“It’s important that people know that we depend on the census for our resources, for our representation, for our voices to be heard and to be counted,” Tovar says.
The census results have implications on political representation and federal funding over the next decade. The new population numbers are set to determine how congressional seats and Electoral College votes are divided up among the states, as well as how voting districts are redrawn. The information also guides how an estimated $880 billion a year in federal tax dollars is distributed for schools, Medicaid and other public services.
Census Bureau partnership specialist Zakera Ahmed (left) and Jeff Behler, a regional director with the bureau, share information about the 2020 census at an elementary school in Corona, N.Y.
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Census Bureau partnership specialist Zakera Ahmed (left) and Jeff Behler, a regional director with the bureau, share information about the 2020 census at an elementary school in Corona, N.Y.
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But groups like Make the Road New York worry that the 2020 count could come up short. Stepped-up immigration enforcement and growing anti-immigrant rhetoric have raised the stakes for many families, including Tovar’s, who are trying to avoid even the possibility of interacting with immigration officials.
“It is hard when these possible raids are happening and then also we want our folks to open the door so that they can fill out the census,” says Tovar, who came to the U.S. from Mexico when she was 2 years old and, for now, is protected from deportation under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.
The Census Bureau hopes that most households will fill out the census online, on paper or by phone before the bureau starts sending out workers to knock on doors. Under federal law, the bureau cannot share census responses that identify individuals with the public or other federal agencies — including U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement — until 72 years after the information is collected.
But distrust of the government can undermine efforts to encourage households to participate in the census, the bureau’s own focus group research has found.
“Even when presented with the Census Bureau’s promise of confidentiality, participants were suspicious that the promise would not be kept,” researchers wrote about their findings from Spanish-speaking focus group from the U.S. mainland. “Participants believed that the government will use and share individual-level rather than aggregate-level data.”
During a hearing by the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee earlier this month, Census Bureau Director Steven Dillingham said the bureau is trying to address that public distrust with an advertising campaign designed to “resonate with diverse communities.”
Flyers and pamphlets about the 2020 census are displayed on a table.
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Flyers and pamphlets about the 2020 census are displayed on a table.
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Dillingham also tried to find a silver lining in the controversy over the now-blocked citizenship question.
“Some people would speculate that even the attention that may be considered attention of disagreements on the census could, in fact, become beneficial,” the bureau’s director told the committee’s senators, “because people know now that the census is very important and they will engage in helping us reach everyone.”
The public outreach plan relies heavily on more than 1,500 partnership specialists the bureau was planning to bring on board by the end of June. Stationed around the country, these outreach workers are tasked with working with local organizations to encourage census participation among immigrants, communities of color and other groups the bureau considers hard to count.
The Government Accountability Office has found, however, that the bureau is two months behind its hiring schedule because of delays in processing background checks. In an email, the Census Bureau tells NPR that as of late June, fewer than half of the more than 1,600 people who have accepted jobs as partnership specialists started working.
Some of the most effective outreach efforts for the census in the past have come directly from local community groups such as Make the Road New York. The organization’s deputy director, Theo Oshiro, says they’ll try their best to overcome the mistrust many immigrant communities have in the Trump administration.
“It’s definitely a tricky maneuver that we’ll have to pull off as supporters of immigrant communities,” Oshiro says. “While we will strive for 100% participation in our communities, we know that historically, it has been virtually impossible to get 100% participation.”
Marianne Williamson warned her fellow 2020 Democratic presidential candidates to stop focusing on the details of policies and put more effort into defeating the “dark psychic force” that is President Trump.
“This is part of the dark underbelly of American society, the racism, the bigotry, and the entire conversation that we’re having here tonight. If you think any of this wonkiness is going to deal with this dark psychic force of the collectivized hatred that this president is bringing up in this country, then I’m afraid that the Democrats are going to see some very dark days,” she said in the second Democratic debate Tuesday night.
Williamson’s remark came as she was commenting on the water crisis in Flint, Michigan.
Democratic presidential contenders clashed over the direction of the party as the second round of presidential debates opened in Detroit; reaction and analysis from ‘Special Report’ anchor Bret Baier.
Former Democratic governor and CNN commentator Jennifer Granholm listed several candidates who had stand-out moments at Tuesday night’s debate, including Williamson for her passionate stance on reparations.
“I thought it was really compelling and authentic,” Granholm explained. “And when she talked about living in Grosse Pointe and how- Grosse Pointe, for those who don’t know, is a very wealthy surburb here [in Michigan] that the Flint water situation would never happen in Grosse Pointe, was very resonant.
She continued, “She did herself some favor I’ll be interested to see what happens. I know that a lot of people like to mock her, but honestly, she brought it for that.”
In a heated exchange during Tuesday night’s Democratic presidential debate, Warren argued that the law criminalizing border crossings allowed Trump to separate families and jail children.
“We need to fix the crisis at the border, and a big part of how we do that is we do not play into Donald Trump’s hands, but he wants to stir up the crisis at the border, because that’s his overall message,” Warren said.
Bullock shot back: “But you are playing into Donald Trump’s hands. The challenge isn’t that it’s a criminal offense to cross the border. The challenge is that Donald Trump is president and using this to rip families apart.
“A sane immigration system needs a sane leader,” he said.
Warren responded that the law, not just the leader, was the problem.
“What you’re saying is ignore the law, and laws matter,” she said.
The exchange mirrored a similar face-off in the first Democratic debate last month between former Housing Secretary Julián Castro and former Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-Texas), in which Castro slammed O’Rourke for not supporting decriminalization.
FACT CHECK | Williamson: “The issue of gun safety is the NRA has us in a choke hold, but so do the pharmaceutical companies, so do the health insurance companies, so do the fossil fuel companies and so do the defense contractors and none of this will change until we either pass a constitutional amendment or pass legislation that establishes public funding for federal campaigns. But for politicians, including my fellow candidates who themselves have taken tens of thousands — and in some cases — hundreds of thousands of dollars from these same corporate donors to think that they now have the moral authority to say we’re going to take them on.”
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Democratic presidential hopeful author and writer Marianne Williamson gestures as she speaks during the first round of the second Democratic primary debate in Detroit, July 30, 2019.
Williamson may have been speaking generally about corporate donors, but when it comes to the specific industries she mentioned, some of the top-tier candidates have continued to accept contributions from industry executives and high-level officers. Despite a growing number of 2020 Democrats rejecting or returning money from the pharmaceutical and health insurance industries, a few — including Buttigieg and former Vice President Joe Biden have accepted the most amount of big and small donations from individuals in the pharmaceutical industry, each receiving more than $80,000 so far this year. Much of this was from small-dollar donations from lower-level employees of the companies but includes maxed out donations from executives of top pharma companies such as Eli Lilly, Merck & Co, and AmerisourceBergen.
Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., has also received several big donations from high-level officers of top pharmaceutical companies like Johnson & Johnson and Abbvie. Biden, Harris and Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., have also received donations from executives from top health insurance company Blue Cross and its subsidiaries.
Earlier this month, Booker and Sanders returned donations from pharma executives following ABC News’ reporting.
Despite a majority of the candidates pledging to reject fossil fuel money, several of the candidates have also accepted contributions from oil and gas industry executives. Buttigieg and Harris accepted several donations from executives and high-level employees of energy companies such as Atlas Energy, a subsidiary company under energy giant Chevron, CenterPoint Energy, EIG GlobalEnergy Partners. Biden, who had set a narrower definition of fossil fuel executive he would reject money from to only include those named under the Securities and Exchange Commission, has also received maxed out donations from a host of oil and gas executives, including a SEC-named executive.
Buttigieg and Biden have also accepted high-dollar donations from executives of top defense contractor Raytheon. Public funding, though capped, is available for qualifying presidential candidates for primary and general election campaigns. Candidates have increasingly rejected public financing because it limits the amount they can spend.
-Soorin Kim
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Democratic presidential hopefuls Sen. Bernie Sanders, Sen. Elizabeth Warren and former Rep. Beto O’Rourke participate in the first round of the second Democratic primary debate in Detroit, July 30, 2019.
FACT CHECK | Delaney: “Sen. Warren just issued a trade plan that would prevent the United States from trading with its allies.”
Warren released a trade policy on Monday that would represent a dramatic shift from previous Democratic administrations and raises new forms of economic protectionism by placing strict requirements on other countries in order to be eligible to trade with the United States.
The plan spells out nine stringent demands for potential trade partners regarding human rights, religious freedom and labor and environmental practices; some of which the United States itself does not currently meet, such as eliminating fossil fuel subsidies. One “precondition” for trade agreements is that the country must not appear on the Department of Treasury monitoring list of countries that merit attention for their currency practices.
That list includes Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam and China.
-Jeffrey Cook
FACT CHECK | Warren: “Call it out for what it is: domestic terrorism. We live in a country where the president is advancing environmental racism, criminal justice racism, economic racism, health care racism, the way we do better is to fight back and show something better.”
Paul Sancya/AP
PHOTO:Sen. Candidates participate in the first of two Democratic presidential primary debates, July 30, 2019, in Detroit.
CNN host Don Lemon questioned Warren on how she would combat the rise of white supremacy as recent stats show a rise in attacks across the U.S. motivated by white supremacy.
Senior law enforcement officials have similarly been pressed in recent months over their response to a rise in terror cases inspired by white supremacy, and why perpetrators of such violence aren’t prosecuted as domestic terrorists.
While then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions initially described the August 2017 Charlottesville, Virginia, car attack that killed Heather Heyer as “the definition of domestic terrorism,” the attacker James Fields Jr. was instead prosecuted on 29 counts of violating federal hate crime law.
Though they may sound the same, “domestic terrorism” is not the same as “homegrown terrorism.”
“Domestic terrorists” are defined by the FBI as those moved to violence by such “domestic” influences as racism, abortion, and anti-government sentiment.” Meanwhile, “homegrown terrorists” are extremists inspired by international terrorist groups such as the Islamic State or al-Qaeda.
In a hearing before the House Homeland Security Committee last June, FBI Assistant Director for Counterterrorism Michael McGarrity testified that prosecutors have been forced to rely either on hate crime laws or state charges in order to disrupt potential domestic terror attacks, while indicating he would personally welcome Congress passing a law that makes domestic terrorism a federal crime.
“I will say as a former prosecutor and as a former investigator, I want every tool in the tool box,” McGarrity said.
Warren’s message is one that is likely to be welcomed by a broad base of current law enforcement — the FBI Agents Association also supports making domestic terrorism a chargeable offense — but they have stated it is in the hands of Congress, and not just the president, to make that happen.
-Alexander Mallin and Mike Levine
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Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Bernie Sanders gestures as he speaks during the first round of the second Democratic primary debate in Detroit, July 30, 2019.
FACT CHECK | Sanders: “Let’s be clear what this debate is about. Nobody can defend the dysfunctionty of the current system. What we are taking on is the fact that over the last 20 years the drug companies and insurance companies have spent $4.5 billion of your health insurance money by lobbying and campaigning contributions.”
According to the Center for Responsive Politics analysis of lobbying and campaign contribution records, pharmaceutical and insurance companies have spent more than $7.6 billion on lobbying and campaign contributions since 1999, with more than $4.4 billion from pharmaceutical companies and $3.2 billion insurance companies. One caveat here is that the $3.2 billion from the insurance industry includes lobbying money from non-healthcare companies such as life insurance and property insurance companies. But top companies in the industry are health insurance companies including Blue Cross/Blue Shield, America’s Health Insurance Plans and Cigna Corp. Just those three companies spent nearly $514 million on lobbying in the last two decades.
Several of the 2020 Democrats have also accepted contributions from the executives and high-level officers from the pharmaceutical industry, including Buttigieg, former Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., who has returned at least one of the donations but has kept some others, according to ABC News’ analysis of campaign finance data. Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., and Sanders earlier this month also returned donations from pharma executives following ABC News’ reporting.
-Soorin Kim
FACT CHECK | Sanders: “87 million uninsured or under insured, 500,000 Americans every year going bankrupt because of medical bills. 30,000 people dying while the health care industry makes tens of billions of dollars in profit.”
Sanders rose to prominence during the 2016 campaign — bringing his health care agenda and plans for Medicare for all with him. On Tuesday, he said that 87 million people are uninsured or underinsured. A 2018 study by the health care group The Commonwealth Fund showed that, “Of the 194 million U.S. adults ages 19 to 64 in 2018, an estimated 87 million, or 45%, were inadequately insured.”
Sanders’ case for Medicare for all largely revolves around cost. Sanders said during the debate that 500,000 Americans are going bankrupt each year over medical bills. A 2019 report in the American Journal of Public Health estimated 530,000 families go bankrupt every year over medical-related costs. He also said that 30,000 people are “dying” because of the health care system in the United States. This is a statistic Sanders has raised in the past, however, according to a report by Kaiser Health News and PolitiFact, that number is nearly impossible to confirm.
-Sophie Tatum
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Democratic presidential candidates Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) (C) speaks while Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg (L) listen at the beginning of the Democratic Presidential Debate, July 30, 2019, in Detroit.
FACT CHECK | Warren: “So the problem is that right now the criminalization statute is what gives Donald Trump the ability to take children away from their parents. It’s what gives him the ability to lock up people at our borders. We need to continue to have border security and we can do that, but what we can’t do is not live our values. I’ve been down to the border. I have seen the mothers. I have seen the cages of babies.”
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Democratic presidential hopeful Senator Elizabeth Warren speaks during the first round of the second Democratic primary debate in Detroit, July 30, 2019.
U.S. border facilities have relied on chain-link fencing when housing migrants for processing, including in 2014 when the U.S. faced an influx of undocumented migrants during the Obama administration. In recent months, border crossings have reached unprecedented levels and immigration advocates and government investigators have sounded the alarms on massive overcrowding and unsanitary conditions.
On July 12, when Vice President Mike Pence toured facilities in Texas with news cameras, parents were seen cradling their children while others were lying on mats in a fenced-in pen that resembled a cage at the U.S.-Mexico border.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren was not there with Pence earlier this month. Her last visit to a border facility was in June 2018 in McAllen, Texas. At the time, she described cages where “children have little mats to lie on” on a concrete floor and “mamas are now held with the babies.” An Associated Press report from the same month described hundreds of children being held in cages at a warehouse in South Texas. Democratic lawmakers, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, toured a facility in Clint, Texas, earlier this month where they described similar conditions.
In June, ABC News was allowed inside a facility outside El Paso, Texas, where reporters saw children held in concrete cells who appeared to be toddlers, mingling with older female children in a crowded cell. The children appeared to have been issued thin foam mattresses and thin cotton blankets. The CBP prohibited ABC News and other news organizations from filming inside or speaking with any of the children at that time because of what the agency said were legal and privacy concerns.
-Jeffrey Cook
FACT CHECK | Klobuchar: “Everyone wants to get elected but my point is this, I think when we have a guy in the white house who has now told over 10,000 lies that we better be very straightforward with the American people, and no, do I think that we are going to end up voting for a plan that kicks half of America off of their current insurance in four years, no, I don’t think we’re going to do that.”
Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images
Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Amy Klobuchar speaks during the first round of the second Democratic primary debate in Detroit, July 30, 2019.
Klobuchar was asked who she was referring to in her opening remarks when she said that viewers would hear “a lot of promises” from the debate stage. She said that it’s important that the Democrats be “straightforward” given the current occupant of the White House.
Her claim that President Donald Trump has told more than 10,000 lies — while difficult to know for certain if this is true — is likely referring to the count by The Washington Post’s Fact Check Database, which continually looks at statements from the president to determine their truthfulness. By the Post’s count, President Donald Trump has made 10,796 false or misleading claims as of June 7th, 2019 — the last time their count was updated.
-Molly Nagle
FACT CHECK | Delaney: “His math is wrong. That’s all I’m saying. His math is wrong. It’s been well documented if all the bills were paid at Medicare rate, then many hospitals in this country would close. I’ve been going around rural America and ask rural hospital administrators one question, if all your bills were paid at the Medicare rate last year, what would happen? They all look at me and say we would close.”
One recent study by the free-market oriented Mercatus Center found that health care providers operating under Medicare for all would be reimbursed at rates more than 40% lower than those currently paid by private health insurance. Another from the Department of Health and Human Services estimated that “more than two-thirds of hospitals are losing money on Medicare inpatient services.”
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Democratic presidential hopeful former Rep. John Delaney participates in the first round of the second Democratic primary debate in Detroit, July 30, 2019.
However, proponents of Medicare for all argue that hospitals could see more patients under the bill, which would raise revenue, and that they could change the way they charge patients by, for example, lowering drug prices and reducing administrative costs — lowering prices — without sacrificing care.
“Under Medicare for all, the hospitals will save substantial sums of money because they not going to be spending a fortune doing billing and the other bureaucratic things they have to do today,” Sanders said in response to Delaney during the debate.
But because establishing a single-payer system would change health care for just about everyone, experts say the exact results are hard to predict. According to a Congressional Budget Office report, “Medicare for All” would effect “individuals, providers, insurers, employers, and manufacturers of drugs and medical devices — because a single-payer system would differ from the current system in many ways, including sources and extent of coverage, provider payment rates, and methods of financing,” the CBO report says.
Paul Sancya/AP
Democratic presidential candidates take the stage for the first of two primary debates hosted, July 30, 2019, at the Fox Theatre in Detroit.
According to Larry Levitt of the health policy research Kaiser Family Foundation, “hospitals would be affected very differently depending on who they serve.”
“Hospitals with many uninsured patients could end up doing better with universal coverage under Medicare for All. Hospitals with many privately insured patients would likely do worse as prices fall. Overall hospitals would have to lower their costs in order to stay financially sound,” Levitt said.
-Cheyenne Haslett and Ben Siegel
FACT CHECK | Sanders: 87 million Americans “are uninsured or under-insured” and 500,000 Americans “are sleeping on the street, and yet companies like Amazon that made billions in profits did not pay one nickel in federal income tax.”
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Democratic presidential candidates Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) (C) speaks while Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg (L) listen at the beginning of the Democratic Presidential Debate, July 30, 2019, in Detroit.
Both comments and his condemnation of corporations like Amazon have become a staple of Sanders’ stump speech. For the uninsured rate of Americans, the senator may be citing a Commonwealth Fund study which revealed that compared to 2010, when the Affordable Care Act became law, “fewer people today are uninsured, but more people are underinsured. Of the 194 million U.S. adults ages 19 to 61 in 2018, an estimated 87 million, or 45%, were inadequately insured.”
In regards to the rates of homeless people, he is likely citing a 2015 study from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development which reported that 500,000 people were homeless during the year 2015.
-Armando Garcia
FACT CHECK | Hickenlooper: “Last year Democrats flipped 40 Republican seats in the House and not one of those 40 Democrats supported the policies of our front runners at center stage. Now I share their progressive values, but I’m a little more pragmatic.”
Paul Sancya/AP
Former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper speaks during the first of two Democratic presidential primary debates, July 30, 2019, in the Fox Theatre in Detroit.
Hickenlooper was making an effort to raise questions about the policies pushed by the progressives at the center of the stage, but that’s not entirely accurate. At least four freshman House Democrats representing formerly Republican-held districts support Rep. Pramila Jayapal’s Medicare-for-all legislation as cosponsors: Reps. Katie Hill, Katie Porter, Mike Levin and Josh Harder, all from California.
-Benjamin Siegel
FACT CHECK | Buttegieg: “Science tells us we have 12 years before we reach the horizon of catastrophe when it comes to our climate.”
A U.N. report released late last year found that rising temperatures could reach a “tipping point” where the effects, such as melting polar ice, can’t be reversed by 2030 if carbon dioxide emissions aren’t dramatically reduced. That deadline has been cited frequently as a reason for the country to take urgent and transformative action like the ambitious goals laid out in the Green New Deal.
Paul Sancya/AP
South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg participates in the first of two Democratic presidential primary debates, July 30, 2019, at the Fox Theatre in Detroit.
But climate scientists like Michael Mann, a professor at Penn State University, have said benchmarks like that portray climate change as a cliff where Americans could start seeing impacts all of a sudden rather than a minefield where new consequences happen at various times. Climate models can’t give precise information about exactly what rising temperatures will trigger and when.
But the vast majority of climate experts agree that the consequences of rising temperatures will continue to get more severe if the U.S. and other countries don’t make drastic changes to reduce the use of fossil fuels and other sources of greenhouse gases. A recent climate report from the U.S. government found that many impacts of climate change are already affecting various parts of the country, including more severe rain events that contributed to recent flooding in the central U.S. and the East Coast, and heat waves that contribute to droughts in western states.
SAN DIEGO (AP) — More than 900 children have been separated from their families at the border since a judge ordered that the practice be sharply curtailed, the American Civil Liberties Union said Tuesday.
One parent was separated for property damage valued at $5, the ACLU said. Six parents were separated for convictions of marijuana possession. Eight were split up for fraud and forgery offenses.
A 2-year-old Guatemalan girl was separated from her father after authorities examined her for a fever and diaper rash and found she was malnourished and underdeveloped, the ACLU said. The father, who came from an “extraordinarily impoverished community” rife with malnutrition, was accused of neglect.
About 20% of the 911 children separated from June 28, 2018, to June 29 of this year were under 5 years old, including babies, the ACLU said. They include 678 whose parents faced allegations of criminal conduct. Other reasons include alleged gang affiliation, unfitness or child safety concerns, “unverified familial relationship” or parent illness.
In June 2018, U.S. District Judge Dana Sabraw ordered that the practice of splitting up families at the border be halted except in limited circumstances, like child-safety concerns. He told the administration to reunite the more than 2,700 children who were in government custody at the time, which has largely been accomplished.
The ACLU, which based its findings on reports that the administration provided, asked that the judge order the government to clarify its criteria for splitting families.
“It is shocking that the Trump administration continues to take babies from their parents,” ACLU attorney Lee Gelernt said. “The administration must not be allowed to circumvent the court order over infractions like minor traffic violations.”
The Justice Department didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
The 218-page court filing details separations that are sure to raise scrutiny of U.S. Customs and Border Protection. The ACLU said a 4-year-old boy was split from his family because his father’s speech impediment prevented him from answering questions, despite evidence that he was the parent.
A 2-year-old girl was split from her father after Customs and Border Protection questioned a birth certificate’s authenticity. The father, who speaks an indigenous language and didn’t have an interpreter, was reunited after a DNA test confirmed he was a parent.
The government also took children from women whom they believed had gang ties but who in fact had been gang targets, the ACLU said.
One woman from El Salvador said a gang member forced her to be his girlfriend until he was arrested in late 2018. She came to the U.S. in February and was separated from her 3-year-old son for three months while an attorney tracked down Salvadoran documents showing she had been a victim, not a criminal.
Another Salvadoran woman was separated from her 2-year-old daughter on the toddler’s birthday because of suspected gang ties. But the woman’s attorney says her client had been raped repeatedly by a gangster who forced her to deliver marijuana inside a prison. The woman refused and turned the pot into authorities, but she was arrested anyway.
In other cases, families were separated for minor crimes that, if committed by people living in the U.S., would never result in a child being taken away.
Attorneys say a 17-year-old girl spent four months in custody after being separated from her father. The father had served a six-day jail sentence for a charge of destruction of property valued at $5.
A 7-year-old girl has been in custody since June after being separated from her father because he had a conviction of driving without a license and had previously entered the country without authorization.
The ACLU said 14 parents were separated based on immigration convictions combined with driving under the influence or unspecified traffic offenses.
A federal judge dismissed a lawsuit brought by the Democratic Party against President Trump’s campaign, which alleged a conspiracy with Russia to disrupt the 2016 presidential campaign, because no one on the campaign was involved in stealing material from the Democratic National Committee.
In an 81-page opinion Tuesday, U.S. District Judge John Koeltl in New York said the actions by the Trump team, including specific individuals named in the lawsuit, were protected by the First Amendment.
WikiLeaks, which was also named in the lawsuit, was additionally determined to be protected by the First Amendment because the organization did not steal the documents and only disseminated material that was in the public interest. And while Koeltl said the Russian government was “undoubtedly” involved in the hacking of DNC servers, he noted federal law prohibits lawsuits against foreign governments with few exceptions that were not present in the case.
“In sum, the DNC does not allege any facts to show plausibly that any of the defendants, other than the Russian Federation, had any role in hacking the DNC’s computers or stealing its information — it attributes that conduct only to the Russian federation. And the DNC does not dispute that the documents were of public importance. Therefore, the First Amendment protects the publication of those stolen documents,” Koeltl wrote.
The decision comes after special counsel Robert Mueller completed his investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, which was unable to establish criminal conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russia. The U.S. intelligence community has determined that Russian intelligence used WikiLeaks to disseminate stolen material from Democrats, including the DNC and Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman John Podesta.
In court filings, the DNC said meetings between Trump officials and individuals alleged to be tied to Russian agents was “circumstantial evidence” of conspiracy to steal and release the documents. Individuals named in the complaint included Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, his son Donald Trump Jr., campaign manager Paul Manafort, GOP operative Roger Stone, and WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.
But this proved insufficient. “In short, the DNC raises a number of connections and communications between the defendants and with people loosely connected to the Russian Federation, but at no point does the DNC allege any facts … to show that any of the defendants other than the Russian Federation — participated in the theft of the DNC’s information,” Koeltl said. “Nor does the DNC allege that the defendants ever agreed to help the Russian Federation steal the DNC’s documents.”
Koeltl said that although the DNC had twice resubmitted its complaint since the lawsuit was filed in the spring of 2018, “fundamental defects” remain and they had no reason to believe a fourth attempt would turn up a different result.
DNC spokeswoman Adrienne Watson reacted to Koeltl’s decision, saying, “At first glance, this opinion raises serious concerns about our protections from foreign election interference and the theft of private property to advance the interests of our enemies.”
She added, “At a time when the Trump administration and Republican leaders in Congress are ignoring warnings from the president’s own intelligence officials about foreign interference in the 2020 election, this should be of concern to anyone who cares about our democracy and the sanctity of our elections.”
Trump celebrated the news on Twitter, emphasizing how Koeltl was a Bill Clinton appointee. He also erred in quoting Koeltl’s opinion. Trump tweeted, “The Judge said the DNC case was ‘entirely divorced’ from the facts,” but Koeltl’s statement was more narrow, referring only to the DNC’s argument that defendants other than Russia should be held liable for “aiding and abetting” the publication of the stolen documents.
….vindication & exoneration from the Russian, WikiLeaks and every other form of HOAX perpetrated by the DNC, Radical Democrats and others. This is really big “stuff” especially coming from a highly respected judge who was appointed by President Clinton. The Witch Hunt Ends!
In a statement reported by the Washington Post, WikiLeaks attorney Joshua Dratel said he was “very gratified with the result, which reaffirms First Amendment principles that apply to journalists across the board, whether they work for large institutions or small independent operations.”
Koeltl also denied the Trump campaign’s move for sanctions against the DNC and its attorneys.
Mr. Newsom sent mixed messages on whether he would sign the law, but finally did so on the last day before the bill would become law without his signature. The legislation does not explicitly cite Mr. Trump, but lawmakers made no secret that he was the target when they passed the bill along party lines.
The law, which goes into effect immediately, requires any presidential or gubernatorial candidate to submit copies of their tax returns from the last five years with the California Secretary of State, at least three months ahead of the state’s primary. That means Mr. Trump would have to provide his tax returns by the end of this year.
“These are extraordinary times and states have a legal and moral duty to do everything in their power to ensure leaders seeking the highest offices meet minimal standards, and to restore public confidence,” Mr. Newsom said in a statement as he signed the legislation. “The disclosure required by this bill will shed light on conflicts of interest, self-dealing, or influence from domestic and foreign business interest.”
The governor cited several legal scholars who signaled support for such a requirement, but it will probably be left to the courts to decide.
Tim Murtaugh, a spokesman for the Trump campaign, declined to comment on potential lawsuits, but called the legislation unconstitutional.
Two employees were dead when authorities arrived at a Walmart in Southaven on Tuesday morning.
The suspect, a former Walmart employee, was shot twice by an officer outside the building and was in surgery, Southaven Police Chief Macon Moore said during an 11 a.m. news conference. Both people killed were Walmart employees, according to the company. One of the victims has been identified by his family as store manager, Brandon Gales.
The other victim is Anthony Brown, according to the coroner’s office.
“These people were doing the same thing you and I do every day, showing up to work in an attempt to provide for their families, then became victims of a senseless violent act,” Moore said.
An officer was also shot, but was saved by his protective vest, Moore said.
Police first received calls about an active shooter at the Walmart, located at 6811 Southcrest Parkway, around 6:33 a.m. The first officers arrived on the scene about three minutes later, where they found the suspect in the west parking lot.
After the first officer was shot in the vest, other officers returned fire and shot the suspect, who was taken to Regional One Medical Center, Moore said.
The officer was taken to DeSoto Baptist Hospital, where he was recovering with family.
Ayoka Pond, a spokeswoman for the hospital, described the officer as uninjured.
“He was wearing a bullet proof vest. He was admitted as a precaution,” she said.
Moore said authorities were still working a very active scene. A suspicious package has prompted a bomb squad investigation.
Southaven Mayor Darren Musselwhite said he was proud of how law enforcement responded.
“This is someone who had a personal grievance with his employer,” Musselwhite said. “That’s sad enough, but its not something the city should be alarmed about as far as being on top of the event.”
Police blocked off every intersection surrounding the Walmart. There were dozens of emergency vehicles on scene, including police cruisers and ambulances.
Emergency vehicles with flashing lights were visible in the truck access lane behind Walmart.
Greg Foran, Walmart U.S. CEO, said in a statement, “The entire Walmart family is heartbroken by the loss of two valued members of our team. We feel tragedies like this personally, and our hearts go out to the families of our two associates and the officer who was injured.”
He also said, “We are relieved the suspect was apprehended, and we appreciate the quick response of the local authorities and our associates. We’ll continue to focus on assisting law enforcement in their investigation and on supporting our associates.”
Customers heard the shots
Walmart customer Phil Cox had just left the self checkout machine and walked out the front door. He said he heard a gunshot and then two more as he immediately headed for his Chevrolet pickup.
The time stamp on his receipt for Flo Nase is 6:30 a.m.
Cox, 70, of Forrest City Arkansas, said police arrived and he immediately heard six gunshots. He assumed police were firing. Cox said others gathered in the parking lot told him the shooter fired upon a manager of the Walmart, who was outside, and then fired at two other employees.
Cox said he, himself, never felt threatened.
“I think the guy was going after employees,” he said.
Carlos Odom said he was in Walmart when the shooting started.
“We was in Wal-Mart, walking out getting to car you heard a ‘pop, pop pop, pop … I never thought that I would be around some s***… That s*** was so loud. Praises go up to family of the person shot… One person dead I know.”
Walmart employees and others appear to have gathered in a Chili’s restaurant parking lot of a nearby shopping center, speaking with police.
At least one Walmart employee was walked from the Chilli’s to an ambulance about 8:50 a.m. Another came out on a stretcher about 9 a.m.
Several men and women in dark blue shirts bearing the Walmart logo milled behind yellow police tape stretched across the Office Depot parking lot next door.
Walmart employees were instructed to leave their store after the incident.
One employee said there was no indication when the store might reopen.
“There are no procedures for situations like this,” said the woman, who declined to be named.
Southaven Walmart location
Keep up-to-date with this developing story by downloading the Commercial Appeal app here.
The Commercial Appeal has reporters on the scene and will update this story when more information becomes available.
Whitmer: “People in Michigan don’t care about the president’s Twitter feed”
What are Michigan voters looking for at Detroit Democratic debate?
3:28 p.m.: In an interview with CBS News’ Caitlin Huey-Burns, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat, said that candidates onstage should try to focus on “dinner table issues” instead of reacting to the president.
“People have been calling me to see advice about what’s happening in Michigan and what Michiganders want to hear. It really is about the dinner table issues,” Whitmer said. “These are the fundamentals that Michiganders want to hear and I suspect that’s what lots of Americans are interested in, in this debate and this week and also as this election matures.”
After President Trump narrowly won Michigan by 11,000 votes in 2016, Whitmer won the governorship in 2018. She said “reaching out to everyone” was necessary to win a swing state like Michigan.
“As a candidate, I went into all 83 counties in Michigan, and this is a huge state. But I did it because I think it’s critical to show up. When you show up and you actually listen, you can’t stray from the things that actually matter because you’re listening and you’re learning every day. Stay focused on the things that really matter,” Whitmer said.
“People in Michigan don’t care about the president’s Twitter feed. We care about feeding our families,” Whitmer continued.
President Trump said Tuesday that a new trade deal with China might not come until after the 2020 elections, a significant departure from more than a year of trying to exert pressure on the world’s second-largest economy.
His comments were the latest in rapidly evolving, and sometimes contradictory, strategic shifts. Less than two months ago, he announced that a huge crackdown against China was imminent. On Tuesday, he suggested that further action could be more than a year away, and everything could change based on whether he is reelected.
In a series of Twitter posts, Trump accused China of delaying negotiations, which began in earnest last December. Even as Trump’s chief trade advisers resumed talks in Shanghai, the president’s tweets suggested a deal may be further away than it had seemed in recent months.
“My team is negotiating with them now, but they always change the deal in the end to their benefit,” Trump tweeted. “They should probably wait out our Election to see if we get one of the Democrat stiffs like Sleepy Joe,” he added, using a nickname he had tried to assign to presidential candidate Joe Biden.
“The problem with them waiting, however, is that if & when I win, the deal that they get will be much tougher than what we are negotiating now . . . or no deal at all,” he tweeted.
…to ripoff the USA, even bigger and better than ever before. The problem with them waiting, however, is that if & when I win, the deal that they get will be much tougher than what we are negotiating now…or no deal at all. We have all the cards, our past leaders never got it!
The Dow Jones industrial average fell more than 70 points in early trading before recovering somewhat to end the day 23 points lower. The Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index and Nasdaq also fell.
Some influential business leaders are growing worried at the lack of progress in the talks, which the administration in May said were on the verge of a historic deal before collapsing. Despite Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreeing last month to restart negotiations, the bargaining has been slow to resume.
“The two sides are still trying to figure out how to get back to the table,” said Myron Brilliant, executive vice president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. “We were close in May. Now the ground has gotten shakier.”
Several chamber executives were in Beijing this month for talks with Chinese officials, warning them against waiting for a better deal after the 2020 election. A prolonged delay risks the appearance of new issues that could complicate hopes for a comprehensive deal, Brilliant said.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and U.S. Trade Representative Robert E. Lighthizer are expected to meet with Xi before leaving Shanghai on Wednesday. Such a meeting would be seen as an indication that China is ready to bargain seriously, Brilliant said.
Trump is trying to simultaneously negotiate multiple complicated trade deals, stretching his team thin and raising fears among business executives that he doesn’t have the bandwidth to deliver on his many promises.
An effort to rework the North American Free Trade Agreement has bogged down in Congress. Trump has also threatened the leaders of the European Union and Japan with tariffs if concessions aren’t made. And he has said he is trying to speed along a trade deal with the United Kingdom to help them complete a withdrawal from the E.U. None of these initiatives has been completed, and none appear close to completion.
But the China talks has long been Trump’s primary focus. Trump first flagged the possibility of trade talks dragging beyond the 2020 elections on Friday, but his decision to repeat the claim Tuesday rattled investors because it seemed deliberate.
China is one of the U.S.’s largest trading partners, and U.S. companies import more than $500 billion in goods from China each year. Trump has alleged that China uses unfair trade practices, such as manipulating their currency, stealing U.S. intellectual property, and flooding global markets with cheap products, to gain an advantage over U.S. firms. He had tried to exert pressure on Chinese officials to agree to quick concessions, but that strategy has changed in recent days with his signal that talks might have to wait until 2021.
This is at least the second big part of Trump’s economic agenda that he has signaled is not likely to be accomplished in his first term. He has recently told advisers that he won’t be able to focus on spending cuts until after his reelection, and cutting the budget was one of his core campaign promises.
What began with tariffs on steel last summer has metastasized into a massive trade conflict that has affected two of the most powerful engines in the global economy. In tweets, Trump crowed about China’s economic slowdown, claiming the nation had lost millions of jobs because of his tariffs.
“China is doing very badly, worst year in 27,” Trump tweeted. “ … China has lost 5 million jobs and two million manufacturing jobs due to Trump tariffs. Trumps got China back on its heels, and the United States is doing great.”
China is doing very badly, worst year in 27 – was supposed to start buying our agricultural product now – no signs that they are doing so. That is the problem with China, they just don’t come through. Our Economy has become MUCH larger than the Chinese Economy is last 3 years….
Although Trump maintains the drawn-out conflict is mostly hurting China, experts say the trade war is damaging the U.S. economy and possibly fueling a global slowdown. Federal Reserve Board Chair Jerome H. Powell has pointed to head winds from the trade war as a primary reason the central bank could cut interest rates by the time its two-day meeting ends Wednesday.
In January, the World Economic Forum predicted the trade war could reduce global gross domestic product growth by 0.7 percentage points to 2.8 percent in 2019. And in a recent research note, Morgan Stanley’s chief economist warned that the trade war could spur a global recession within a year.
Trump and Xi met in Argentina last year and agreed to negotiate a broad trade deal. Trump wants China to purchase more U.S. products, impose strict intellectual property rules, halt subsidies for China-backed companies and open its markets to American companies.
He first set a March 1 deadline for the talks but repeatedly granted extensions while negotiations progressed. Then, in May, Trump more than doubled tariffs on $200 billion in Chinese goods after accusing China of reneging on its commitments.
The president also threatened to impose tariffs on a further $300 billion or so in Chinese goods.
At the Group of 20 leaders summit in Japan last month, Trump again met with Xi. Trump agreed to postpone new tariffs and claimed that China had agreed to purchase “almost immediately” a large amount of U.S. farm products. Those purchases have yet to occur.
Trump wrote Tuesday that China “was supposed to start buying our agricultural product now — no signs they are doing so. That is the problem with China, they just don’t come through.”
Chinese officials appear to be under less pressure to cut a deal than they were a few months ago. They also have sent signals that Trump’s repeated threats are not working.
Hu Xijin, editor in chief of the nationalist Global Times, a state-owned news organization in China, fired back at Trump on Tuesday.
“Whenever it’s time to negotiate, the U.S. side comes up with the trick of piling pressure. Really not a good habit,” he wrote. “Americans need to change their negotiating style, show more sincerity, not just wield stick. The past one and half years have proved big stick is useless to China.”
A migrant family walks toward an area where U.S. Border Patrol agents begin processing them by the Anzalduas Bridge in McAllen, Tex. on June 20. (Carolyn Van Houten/The Washington Post)
Lawyers for the American Civil Liberties Union told a federal judge Tuesday that the Trump administration has taken nearly 1,000 migrant children from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border since the judge ordered the United States government to curtail the practice more than a year ago.
In a lengthy court filing in U.S. District Court in San Diego, lawyers wrote that one migrant lost his daughter because a U.S. Border Patrol agent claimed that he had failed to change the girl’s diaper. Another migrant lost his child because of a conviction on a malicious destruction of property charge with alleged damage of $5. One father, who lawyers say has a speech impediment, was separated from his 4-year-old son because he could not clearly answer Customs and Border Proection agents’ questions.
Acting Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan has said that family separations remain “extraordinarily rare” and occur only when the adults pose a risk to the child because of their criminal record, a communicable disease, abuse or neglect. Of tens of thousands of children taken into custody at the border this year, 911 children were separated since the June 26, 2018 court order, as of June 29, according to the ACLU, citing statistics the organization received from the government as part of ongoing legal proceedings.
While the judge recognized that parents and children might still be separated when a parent is found to pose a risk to their child, the ACLU and others say federal immigration and border agents are splitting up families for minor alleged offenses — including traffic violations — and urged the judge Tuesday to clarify when such separations should be allowed to occur.
“They’re taking what was supposed to be a narrow exception for cases where the parent was genuinely a danger to the child and using it as a loophole to continue family separation,” ACLU lawyer Lee Gelernt said in an interview. “What everyone understands intuitively and what the medical evidence shows, this will have a devastating effect on the children and possibly cause permanent damage to these children, not to mention the toll on the parents.”
The rising tally of child separations adds to the approximately 2,700 children who were taken from their parents during a chaotic, six-week period from May to June 20 last year, when a Trump administration border crackdown triggered one of the worst crises of his presidency.
The policy sought to deter a crush of asylum seekers, who were surrendering as families at the U.S. southern border, by prosecuting parents for the crime of illegal entry and sending their children to federal shelters. Reports of traumatized, crying children led to widespread demands to reunite the families.
Venezuelan migrant mothers and their children turn themselves in to law enforcement officials to seek asylum after illegally crossing the Rio Grande near Mission, Tex., on July 25. (Loren Elliott/Reuters)
Trump ordered federal officials to stop separating families on June 20, 2018, and said it is the “policy of this Administration to maintain family unity” unless the parent poses “a risk” to the child.
Six days later, U.S. District Judge Dana M. Sabraw, a President George W. Bush appointee in San Diego, ordered the Trump administration to reunite the families, a process that dragged on for months because the government had failed to track the families after splitting them up. A still-unknown number of families were separated before the policy officially began.
McAleenan, who at the time signed off on the zero tolerance policy and carried it out as commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, told the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee in May that family separations are “extraordinarily rare” and make up a tiny portion of the approximately 400,000 families apprehended this year.
Central American migrants walk along train tracks as they head toward the United States in Saltillo, Mexico, on July 24. (Daniel Becerril/Reuters)
At that time, he testified, about one to three family separations occurred out of approximately 1,500 to 3,000 family members apprehended each day. He also said then that separations occur “under very controlled circumstances.”
Testifying before the U.S. House Oversight and Reform Committee on July 18, McAleenan emphasized that the separation process is “carefully governed by policy and by court order” to protect the children.
“This is in the interest of the child,” he said. “It’s overseen by a supervisor, and those decisions are made.”
But the ACLU and other nonprofit organizations serving immigrants estimated that a small fraction of the 911 children the Department of Homeland Security has taken from their parents since June 2018 have been at risk.
Jennifer Nagda, policy director of the Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights, a child advocate for unaccompanied and separated children, told the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Reform that the group represented 120 children and found that nearly all separations were “contrary to the best interests of the child” and “devastating” to families.
More than 40 percent of the separated children were five years old or younger. Children spent nearly four months in federal custody, on average, in part because it was difficult for lawyers and case workers to locate their parents and assess the reason they were separated.
“DHS officials with no child welfare expertise are making split-second decisions, and these decisions have traumatic, lifelong consequences for the children and their families,” Nagda said in her testimony.
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — President Donald Trump said Tuesday that black legislators planning to boycott his appearance at a Virginia event commemorating the 400th anniversary of the rise of American democracy are going “against their own people.”
Trump said African Americans “love the job” he’s doing and are “happy as hell” with his recent comments criticizing a majority black district in the Baltimore area and its congressman.
Trump spoke at the White House before heading to historic Jamestown in Virginia.
Black state lawmakers plan to stay away from Trump’s speech, in part over what they call Trump’s disparaging comments about minority leaders.
A last-minute announcement that the president would participate in the Jamestown commemoration Tuesday marking the first representative assembly in the Western Hemisphere injected tension into an event years in the making. Some other top Democrats have also pledged a boycott in protest.
President Donald Trump, right, listens to a reporter’s question during a bilateral meeting with Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro on the sidelines of the G-20 summit in Osaka, Japan, Friday, June 28, 2019. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, left, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, second from left, and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, third from left, listen. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
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Demonstrators gathered Tuesday morning near the site where Trump is to speak.
“The commemoration of the birth of this nation and its democracy will be tarnished unduly with the participation of the President, who continues to make degrading comments toward minority leaders, promulgate policies that harm marginalized communities, and use racist and xenophobic rhetoric,” the caucus said in a statement Monday.
The boycott comes after Trump’s weekend comments referring to U.S. Rep. Elijah Cummings’ majority-black Baltimore-area district as a “disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess.” A caucus statement didn’t specifically mention Cummings but said Trump’s “repeated attacks on Black legislators and comments about Black communities makes him ill-suited to honor and commemorate such a monumental period in history.”
Black Caucus chairman Del. Lamont Bagby told The Associated Press in an interview that the group reached a unanimous decision to boycott the event more than a week ago but that the president has “continued his attacks” since then, including with his remarks about Cummings’ district.
The anniversary comes at a time of heightened election-year partisanship in the aftermath of political scandals that rocked Virginia’s top state elected leadership.
In Washington, White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham said the caucus was pushing “a political agenda.”
“President Trump passed criminal justice reform, developed opportunity zones securing record-setting investment in distressed communities, and pushed policies that created the lowest unemployment rates ever for African Americans, so it’s a bit confusing and unfortunate that the VLBC would choose to push a political agenda instead of celebrate this milestone for our nation,” she said in a statement.
Caucus members also pledged to boycott the rest of a weeklong series of events marking the anniversary and have instead planned alternative commemorations Tuesday in Richmond, Virginia’s capital.
At an early-morning ceremony, Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam told a gathering of dignitaries that the ideals of freedom and representative government spread from Jamestown in 1619. But he also noted the first assembly was significant for those not included: women, enslaved Africans and Native Americans.
Northam called that the paradox of Virginia, America and its representative democracy.
Trump is scheduled to give remarks later Tuesday morning, joining with state and national leaders and others at a commemorative session of the Virginia General Assembly.
Today’s Virginia General Assembly, considered the oldest continuously operating legislative body in North America, grew out of the assembly that first gathered in 1619.
The anniversary comes as lawmakers in Virginia are grappling with the fallout from scandals that engulfed the state’s top three elected officials earlier this year.
A blackface photo scandal nearly destroyed Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam’s career. Then, as it looked like Democratic Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax might ascend to the governorship, two women accused him of sexual assault. Fairfax, who plans to attend Tuesday, has vehemently denied those allegations.
Attorney General Mark Herring, also a Democrat, has separately faced calls to resign after acknowledging he dressed in blackface decades ago.
Speaking on the Senate floor, Mitch McConnell vows not to be intimidated by liars and bullies.
A federal judge in frank terms Tuesday dismissed a lawsuit by the Democratic National Committee (DNC) against key members of the Trump campaign and WikiLeaks over hacked DNC documents, saying they “did not participate in any wrongdoing in obtaining the materials in the first place” and therefore bore no legal liability for disseminating the information.
The ruling came as Democrats increasingly have sought to tie the Trump team to illegal activity in Russia, in spite of former Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s findings that the campaign in fact refused multiple offers by Russians to involve them in hacking and disinformation efforts.
The DNC asserted in court filings that the Trump team’s meetings “with persons connected to the Russian government during the time that the Russian GRU agents were stealing the DNC’s information” were “circumstantial evidence” that they were conspiring with the Russians to “steal and disseminate the DNC’s materials.”
Thet suit did not allege that the stolen materials were false or defamatory but rather sought to hold the Trump team and other defendants liable for the theft of the DNC’s information under various Virginia and federal statutes, including laws protecting trade secrets.
However, Judge John Koeltl, a Bill Clinton appointee sitting in the Southern District of New York, wrote in his 81-pageopinion Tuesday that the DNC’s argument was “entirely divorced” from the facts.
The DNC first filed its suit in April 2018, and the defendants responded that the First Amendment legally protected the dissemination of stolen materials.
“In short, the DNC raises a number of connections and communications between the defendants and with people loosely connected to the Russian Federation, but at no point does the DNC allege any facts … to show that any of the defendants — other than the Russian Federation — participated in the theft of the DNC’s information,” Koeltl said.
“Nor does the DNC allege that the defendants ever agreed to help the Russian Federation steal the DNC’s documents,” he added.
The DNC claimed the defendants illegally compromised their trade secrets contained in some of the stolen documents — including donor lists and strategies. But, the judge said, any such claim to trade secrecy was lost when the documents became public in the first place, and in any event, the newsworthiness of the matter trumped the trade secrecy issue.
“If Wikileaks could be held liable for publishing documents concerning the DNC’s political financial and voter-engagement strategies simply because the DNC labels them ‘secret’ and trade secrets, then so could any newspaper or other media outlet,” the judge wrote. That, he said, would elevate a privacy interest impermissibly over the First Amendment rights of people and media outlets to disseminate matters of “the highest public concern.”
Koeltl went on to describe multiple hacking efforts directed by Russians at the DNC, in which Russians “hacked into the DNC’s computers, penetrated its phone systems, and stole tens of thousands of documents.”
Author of ‘The Russia Hoax’ Gregg Jarrett says the president’s lawyers flagged Mueller’s lack of understanding of the Russia report months ago.
But, even if the Russians had provided the hacked documents to the Trump team directly, the judge wrote, it would not be criminal for the campaign to then publish those documents, as long as they did not contribute to the hacking itself.
The suit also named the Russian government, but Koeltl noted that federal law prohibited suits against foreign governments except in highly specific circumstances. Koeltl nevertheless acknowledged that the Russian government “undoubtedly” was involved in the hacking.
Koeltl denied the Trump team’s motion for sanctions but dismissed the suit with prejudice — meaning it had a substantive legal defect and could not be refiled. An appeal remained possible.
In addition to the Trump campaign, WikiLeaks, and Russia, the DNC’s suit named Donald Trump Jr., Paul Manafort, Jared Kushner, George Papadopoulos, Richard Gates (whose connections with Russia were “threadbare,” the judge wrote), Roger Stone, Joseph Mifsud and Julian Assange.
The DNC in its complaint mentioned, among other contacts, Papadopoulos’ meeting with Mifsud in Italy in March 2016, as well as the claim Mifsud told Papadopoulos on April 26, 2016, that the Russians had “dirt” on Hillary Clinton in the form of thousands of emails.
Mifsud had ties to both western and Russian intelligence, and Papadopoulos relayed to his superiors on the Trump campaign that there were “interesting messages coming in from Moscow.” There has been no evidence Papadopoulos told the Trump team specifically about the stolen emails.
The DNC also focused on statements from Stone that may have suggested he had advance warning of pending email hacks or dissemination, as well as Trump Jr.’s statement that he would “love” to receive potentially damaging information on Clinton. Several other communications from Trump officials to Russians or people tied to Russia were mentioned throughout the DNC’s complaint.
None of these alleged episodes, the judge ruled, established a criminal conspiracy.
Republicans, meanwhile, have focused increasingly on the DNC’s own apparent role in the origins of the FBI’s probe into the Trump campaign, which began in the summer of 2016 — after British ex-spy Christopher Steele, a longtime FBI informant funded by the DNC and Hillary Clinton campaign, began work on his now-discredited dossier.
The dossier was used in secret surveillance warrants to monitor members of the Trump team, and later fueled media reports that kept the investigation going, despite many apparent problems with its reliability. Multiple DOJ reviews into the dossier’s use, and related matters, were ongoing.
And, Papadopoulos on Sunday told Fox News he was heading back to Greece to retrieve $10,000 that he suspected was dropped in his lap as part of an entrapment scheme by the CIA or FBI — and federal investigators wanted to see the marked bills, which he said were stored in a safe. The FBI probe also came after the bureau learned Papadopoulos allegedly told an Australian diplomat that the Russians had obtained pilfered documents.
Papadopoulos said on “Sunday Morning Futures” he was “very happy” to see House Intelligence Committee Ranking Member Devin Nunes, R-Calif., grill Mueller about the summer 2017 payment during last week’s hearings — even though Mueller maintained, without explanation, that the matter was outside the scope of his investigation.
“I was very happy to see that Devin Nunes brought that up,” Papadopoulos said. “A man named Charles Tawil gave me this money [in Israel] under very suspicious circumstances. A simple Google search about this individual will reveal he was a CIA or State Department asset in South Africa during the ’90s and 2000s. I think around the time when Bob Mueller was the director of the FBI.”
President Trump calls on The Washington Post to apologize after reporters inform him of a new op-ed calling the Senate majority leader a ‘Russian asset.’
President Trump said Tuesday he thinks “Sleepy Joe” Biden will be the 2020 Democratic presidential nominee, just hours ahead of the second round of Democratic primary debates.
“I think right now, I am watching, I think right now it will be Sleepy Joe, I think,” Trump said from the White House lawn on Tuesday. “I feel he’ll cross the line, so, what I think doesn’t mean anything, but I know the other people, I know him.”
He added: “I think he’s off his game by a lot, but I think personally it’s gonna be Sleepy Joe.”
Trump’s comments came as former Vice President Biden is enjoying an apparent rebound in the latest polls. Biden took a hit in the polls after the first round of debates in Miami, Fla. last month.
Trump has been hurling insults at Biden for months, calling him “weak mentally” and repeatedly saying he hopes he will be the nominee.
Trump has also taken aim at Biden’s age, saying he “looks different than he used to” and is “even slower than he used to be.”
Trump, 73, has said he would “easily” beat Biden in 2020. Biden is 76, but is not the oldest in the crowded Democratic primary field. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., is 77.
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