A Fort Worth police officer shot and killed a woman inside her own home early Saturday morning, CBS Dallas-Fort Worth reports. Just before 2:30 a.m., police responded to a welfare call in the Hillside Morningside neighborhood, where the front door to a residence was reported open.
When officers arrived, they searched the perimeter of the house and saw a person standing inside the residence, near a window.
In a statement released Saturday afternoon, the Fort Worth Police Department said an officer perceived a threat then drew his weapon. He fired one shot, striking and killing 28-year-old Atatiana Jefferson.
Lee Merritt /CBS DFW
Jefferson was pronounced dead at the scene.
The officer — a white male who has been with FWPD since April 2018 — has been placed on administrative leave pending an investigation. His name has not been released.
Fort Worth Mayor Betsy Price released a statement she said was “tragic” to write. “A young woman has lost her life, leaving her family in unbelievable grief. All of Fort Worth must surround Atatiana Jefferson’s family with prayers, love and support,” Price said.
Price promised a “complete and thorough investigation” to be conducted by Police Chief Ed Kraus, which will then be forwarded to the Tarrant County District Attorney Law Enforcement Incident Team.
Source Article from https://www.cbsnews.com/news/police-officer-shooting-white-fort-worth-police-officer-fatally-shoots-black-woman-in-her-own-home-today-2019-10-12/
A gunman opened fire during a wedding ceremony at a church in Pelham, New Hampshire, on Saturday, injuring at least two people before he was overpowered by guests.
Pelham police said they were called to an active shooter situation at the New England Pentecostal Church at around 10:12 a.m. local time, arriving within three minutes.
Police arrested the suspected shooter and rendered medical aid to the two people injured by gunshots, a man and a woman. They were then taken to local hospitals for further treatment.
Officials have not yet identified the suspect, nor those injured. However, police say it appears the wedding was specifically targeted.
“This does not seem to be a random event at this point,” Pelham Police Chief Joseph Roark told reporters at a briefing. “At least that’s what preliminary investigation is telling us.”
Source Article from https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/davidmack/wedding-church-shooting-pelham-nh-new-hampshire
Gov. Gavin Newsom stood in the nerve center of the state’s emergency operations center Thursday and delivered a blistering critique of Pacific Gas & Electric Co.’s decision to blanket Central and Northern California with blackouts, affecting hundreds of thousands of residents.
As screens behind him displayed television news footage of a building in flames, maps of outages and weather conditions across the state, Newsom said, “This can’t be the new normal.”
“What has occurred in the last 48 hours is unacceptable,” Newsom said, standing before the news cameras. “You’ve got people that can’t even access water, or medical supplies. We’re seeing a scale and scope of something that no state in the 21st century should experience.”
But Newsom’s well-staged excoriation of one of the nation’s largest utilities, now wallowing in bankruptcy, came more than 36 hours after the blackouts began and struck a different tone than the message he delivered just a day earlier. As public anger swelled in PG&E territory and in a state with a history of blaming its leader in a power crisis, Newsom’s political vulnerability became more clear and the Democratic governor changed course.
“I think the public reaction to this for a lot of people, including some who still don’t have power, was angry and frustrated and pretty vocal,” said Joseph Tuman, professor of political and legal communication at San Francisco State. “Even if you’re the governor and you’re trying to do the right thing, people want to take it out on someone. Angry people today can make angry voters in the next election cycle.”
Tuman called Newsom’s news conference a day late, “but better late than never.”
The morning after the lights in Northern California began to be shut off, Newsom was on the opposite end of the state holding news conferences trumpeting housing legislation and other bills that he was signing into law.
In San Diego, he said the outages were the result of PG&E neglecting its infrastructure and talked about how his own wine businesses were suffering in the midst of harvest season. Hours later in Crenshaw, Newsom said the situation was better than the alternative of deadly wildfires and that the state will continue to face greater threats from wildfires due to climate change.
“Everybody is prepared,” Newsom said. “Those winds are coming down here. Over the course of the next few days will be determinative in terms of our ability to get out of this. This is the new normal.”
At the same time, Newsom was taking heat for tweeting about capping rent and cracking down on robocalls while schoolchildren sat in dark classrooms and food spoiled in warm refrigerators. Some Twitter users were quick to remind Newsom that the state recalled one of his predecessors over blackouts.
Instead, Newsom should have put on a windbreaker and toured areas of California hardest hit by the blackouts, said Steven Maviglio, a veteran Democratic strategist in Sacramento.
“There were millions of dollars in economic losses, people being moved out of nursing homes. This is a real crisis for a lot of people. It needs to be treated that way,” Maviglio said.
Maviglio went through this almost two decades ago as the press secretary for Democratic Gov. Gray Davis.
Davis’ slow response to the 2000-2001 energy crisis in California, which triggered rolling blackouts across the state and near financial ruin for utilities, inflicted a political wound that never healed. Voter outrage led in large part to Davis’ recall in 2003 and the election of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
The crisis was triggered by the illegal market manipulation of Enron Corp. and other energy companies that took advantage of California’s decision, before Davis took office, to deregulate the utility industry.
To the outside world, California and Davis appeared too politically paralyzed and inept to manage and deliver an essential, basic service for millions of residents. Only later did evidence surface of wrongdoing by Enron and others.
Many agree that Newsom’s current challenge bears little resemblance to the state’s 2000-2001 energy debacle, but similar political perils remain.
“At the end of the day, Californians believe that when you flip the switch, the lights should come on,” Maviglio said. “They look to leaders to fix things.”
Newsom on Thursday laid out his administration’s efforts to address wildfires and power outages, which include $75 million in one-time budget funds to help communities prepare for shut-offs. But so far, none of that money has been awarded, according to the state Office of Emergency Services.
The governor also took PG&E to task for cutting power too broadly and in areas of the state that weren’t at risk. Newsom pledged to “hold PG&E’s feet to the fire” and ensure the company was meeting its safety requirements and obligations to cut back its trees around power lines.
But in the short term, Newsom can’t do much more than coordinate the state’s response over the next few months.
Unlike San Diego Gas & Electric Co., PG&E doesn’t have the technology to localize its shut-offs and limit the outages to areas facing serious wildfire threats, which is why some urban areas outside fire zones lost power this week.
State laws and regulations also give utilities the power to flip the lights off as they see fit to protect public safety. Though the California Public Utilities Commission requires the utilities to set thresholds for weather conditions to cut electricity, the utilities can ultimately exercise their own discretion. Several new state laws that tighten the rules around shut-offs and warnings take effect next year, but they leave utilities with the decision-making power.
Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) said the setup gives utilities sole discretion to make decisions that affect thousands of small businesses throughout the state, some of which can’t close for a few days without suffering detrimental losses.
“We have a bankrupt corporation owned by hedge funds deciding whether the Northern California economy can function,” Wiener said. “The Legislature and the governor have done a lot the last two years to try to address this horrific wildfire situation and a lot of good changes have been made, but the next step is going to be around how to deal with these blackouts.”
Newsom was asked Thursday whether California’s laws should be changed to give the state more control over outages.
“Then you own it and you own the decision not to do something,” Newsom said, suggesting the state would be responsible for the outcome.
The governor went on to point out that SDG&E, a smaller utility with more advanced technology, has done a much better job of managing its electrical system than PG&E and without the intervention of government.
One distinct advantage that Newsom has is a glaringly obvious “boogeyman” to blame for the blackouts: PG&E, said Garry South, who worked as a top political advisor to both Davis and Newsom.
The utility not only was responsible for California’s deadliest and most destructive wildfire, the 2018 blaze that destroyed the Northern California town of Paradise, but also was found criminally negligent for the natural gas pipeline explosion in 2010 that killed eight people in a San Bruno residential neighborhood.
“In Newsom’s case, he has the advantage of being able to say that this is not the state’s fault, this is not the [federal] government’s fault, this is not the customers’ fault. This is PG&E’s fault,” South said.
The underpinnings of the 2000-2001 energy crisis were too complex to easily explain to Californians, and the underhanded actions of Enron were not revealed until after the crisis subsided, South said.
For Davis, the political consequences were swift. After years of high marks in statewide opinion polls, California voters soured on Davis in just a few months, said Mark DiCamillo, director of polling at the UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies.
By May 2001, 55% of voters disapproved of Davis’ job as governor, according to a Field Poll. At the time, DiCamillo worked for that separate polling operation.
“It turned very quickly,” DiCamillo said. “Then things got messier beyond the energy crisis.”
What followed was a California economy flattened by the dot-com bust and Davis’ subsequent decision to rescind a law that lowered vehicle license fees, dubbed the “car tax,” which only added more fuel to the recall effort against him.
Newsom has yet to face anything like that confluence of political misfortune, but even he has warned that California’s economy could face a stormy future.
If the economy tanks and widespread blackouts continue, Newsom could see his approval ratings and political prospects spiral downward.
Davis, from his vantage point, is confident Newsom will be fine.
“His situation is considerably different. First of all, he is totally on top of this problem. He was working on wildfires during his campaign,” Davis said in a telephone interview. “By this time next year, we should be in a better position than we are now.”
Source Article from https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2019-10-12/california-electricity-shutoff-gavin-newsom-challenges
Turkish forces who launched multiple artillery rounds near a U.S. Special Operations outpost in northeastern Syria on Friday have known for months that Americans were there, according to four current and former U.S. officials, raising questions whether Turkey is trying to push American troops farther from the border.
The incident occurred on a hilltop base overlooking the town of Kobane as Turkey continues an operation launched Tuesday against Syrian Kurds, some of whom the United States has partnered with for years in its campaign against the Islamic State. The incursion has focused on an area 60 miles to the west of Kobane, but U.S. officials believe Turkey has long-term aspirations to control a much larger swath of Syria.
The rounds landed about 9 p.m. within a few hundred yards of the base on Mistenur Hill, U.S. officials said. Navy Capt. Brook DeWalt, a Pentagon spokesman, said in a statement that the U.S. troops “came under artillery fire” but were unharmed and that there was an explosion.
“The U.S. demands that Turkey avoid actions that could result in immediate defensive action,” DeWalt said.
In a statement issued Friday, Turkey’s Defense Ministry said its troops had not fired on the Americans and were acting “in self-defense” after one of their border posts was attacked.
But the situation, first reported by Newsweek, was more serious than characterized Friday, several officials said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.
One Army officer who has deployed to northeastern Syria and has knowledge of the situation said that multiple rounds of 155mm fire were launched from Turkey’s side of the border and that they had a “bracketing effect” in which shells landed on both sides of the U.S. outpost.
“That’s an area weapon,” the officer said, noting its explosive effects. “That’s not something we ever would have done to a partner force.”
The officer said Turkey knew there were Americans on the hill and that it had to be deliberate. The service members vacated the outpost after the incident but returned Saturday, according to a U.S. official and images circulating on social media.
“We had been there for months, and it is the most clearly defined position in that entire area,” the officer said.
Brett McGurk, a former special envoy for both the Obama and Trump administrations in the campaign against the Islamic State, raised concerns about the incident Friday, saying on Twitter that the United States had declared the position to Turkey.
“This was not a mistake,” he said.
McGurk, who often collaborated with the U.S. military in Syria before resigning his position in December, emphasized the increasing risks to Americans throughout Syria in an email Saturday.
“Turkey wants us off the entire border region to a depth of 30 kilometers,” or about 20 miles, he said. “Based on all the facts available, these were warning fires on a known location, not inadvertent rounds.”
Turkey launched its operation into Syria on Tuesday, two days after President Trump and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan discussed the issue in a phone call and the White House announced that the United States would not stand in Turkey’s way. Trump, explaining his decision, said Monday that he wants to end “endless wars” in the Middle East.
The move immediately raised concerns that the United States was abandoning Syrian Kurds, who have been the closest U.S. partner in counterterrorism operations against the Islamic State. The Kurdish militia known as the People’s Protection Units, or YPG, has formed the backbone of U.S. efforts in northeastern Syria and collaborated with U.S. troops, but Turkey considers the group to be part of a Kurdish movement, the PKK, that it deems a terrorist organization.
Turkey said in its statement that it opened fire after Kurdish forces launched rounds at them but stopped when the United States warned that the rounds were too close. U.S. officials confirmed Saturday that the firing ended after U.S. forces contacted the Turks, but some questioned whether the Kurdish were involved at all.
Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper and Army Gen. Mark A. Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters Friday they would not abandon the Kurds but acknowledged the Pentagon has withdrawn forces from Tal Abyad and Ras al-Ayn in response to Turkey’s incursion between the two border towns.
Turkey appears to have aspirations to push the United States away from Kobane, as well, several officials said. The Army officer with knowledge of Syria said Turkish forces previously have launched artillery over the border near U.S. forces.
Milley, speaking Friday at the Pentagon shortly before the incident outside Kobane, said the Turkish military “is fully aware, down to explicit grid coordinate detail,” of the location of U.S. troops in Syria. He said senior U.S. military officials are coordinating with the Turks “to make sure that they know exactly where American forces are.”
Another U.S. defense official, also speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, said the Pentagon “obviously” told Turkey where U.S. troops are and “they certainly [went] closer than we would have liked” in the incident outside Kobane.
“Whether that’s intentional or reckless, either way it’s troubling,” the official said.
Liz Sly contributed to this report.
Source Article from https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2019/10/12/us-forces-say-turkey-was-deliberately-bracketing-american-forces-with-artillery-fire-syria/
News outlets report construction workers ran to safety as the Hard Rock Hotel, which was under construction, came crashing down. Upper floors began to fall on top of each other before one side of the building fell to the ground below.
Source Article from https://www.huffpost.com/entry/hard-rock-hotel-new-orleans-collapse_n_5da20c9fe4b087efdbaf35aa
Officials have started reopening freeways after the Saddleridge Fire exploded in the San Fernando Valley on Thursday evening.
The following freeways are open as of Saturday morning, according to Caltrans:
The truck routes in the following freeways remain closed:
Caltrans said weather conditions could change and urged people to check quickmap.dot.ca.gov before they hit the road.
Source Article from https://ktla.com/2019/10/12/freeways-reopen-in-san-fernando-valley-after-saddleridge-fire-forced-closures/
Marie Yovanovitch, the former US ambassador to Ukraine, testified before a joint House of Representatives subcommittee for nearly ten hours on Friday, asserting that she was ousted from her post in response to her anti-corruption work in the region.
Yovanovitch is a key figure in the growing Trump administration Ukraine scandal that has led to an impeachment inquiry in the House. The White House attempted to stop her testimony, telling her she couldn’t testify if she did not utilize an administration lawyer, but she appeared after receiving a last-minute subpoena.
In doing so, she provided the House Democrats leading that inquiry with a second inside account about the Trump administration’s efforts to pressure Ukraine into launching investigations into the Democratic National Committee and former Vice President Joe Biden, a potential Trump presidential rival.
Yovanovitch was recalled from Ukraine in May, allegedly at the request of the president’s allies, including his personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani. The opening statement of her closed-door testimony was obtained by the press; in it, Yovanovitch echoed this claim, asserting that she had been removed from office because of a “concerted campaign against me,” which she said had been led by Giuliani and supported by Trump.
An outspoken critic of corruption in that country, Yovanovitch testified that she had learned from Ukrainian officials that Giuliani had been smearing her among her colleagues and associates, telling them that she had spoken ill of the president.
Yovanovitch denied these claims, but suggested that Giuliani may have taken on this campaign because he and his associates stood to benefit financially if the US halted its anti-corruption work in the region. Yovanovitch had worked to strengthen the country’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau, which launched in 2014. Two of Giuliani’s associates — Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman — were arrested Thursday for campaign finance violations; according to the Reuters, Parnas was linked to a Ukrainian businessman under investigation for bribery.
“I do not know Mr. Giuliani’s motives for attacking me,” she said. “But individuals who have been named in the press as contacts of Mr. Giuliani may well have believed that their personal financial ambitions were stymied by our anti-corruption policy in Ukraine.”
Beyond addressing questions about her removal and the administration’s role in pressuring Ukraine to investigate Biden, Yovanovitch also warned that current foreign policy in the region would harm the US globally.
“The harm will come when bad actors in countries beyond Ukraine see how easy it is to use fiction and innuendo to manipulate our system,” she said. “In such circumstances, the only interests that will be served are those of our strategic adversaries, like Russia, that spread chaos and attack the institutions and norms that the US helped create and which we have benefited from for the last 75 years.”
The contents of Yovanovitch’s testimony beyond her opening statement are not a matter of public record. However, Democratic lawmakers went into the session hoping to gather more evidence for their impeachment inquiry, and the comments of congresspeople following the session suggested that Democrats ended the day feeling encouraged.
“It was compelling, it was impactful, it was powerful, and I just feel grateful for the opportunity to have received that information,” Rep. Denny Heck of Washington said.
New York Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney shared that sentiment, saying, “It is clear to me that she was fired because she was a thorn in the side of those who sought to use the Ukrainian government for their own political and financial gain.”
Tuesday, the White House released a letter arguing that the impeachment inquiry — the design over which the House has full latitude — is unfair. This point was echoed by the Republicans present at Friday’s session, who argued that the testimony underscored what they view as an illegitimate inquiry process.
“For goodness sake, now we’ve got almost 20 hours of testimony from two ambassadors, and the American people don’t know what happened in those closed-door sessions, other than what the majority has selectively cherry-picked and leaked out,” said Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), the top Republican on the House Oversight and Reform Committee.
Despite these complaints, Democrats show no signs of changing the course of their inquiry — in fact, they hope to accelerate proceedings in the weeks to come.
Friday’s testimony was the second in a series of hearings from “relevant witnesses,” according to House Intelligence Chairman Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), who wrote a letter to colleagues on Friday saying that the impeachment inquiry was progressing “with a sense of urgency.”
Kurt Volker, the former US Special Envoy to Ukraine, testified last week, providing the committee text messages which featured an exchange between diplomats seemingly suggesting that the Trump administration hoped to trade US military aid for a Biden investigation.
Gordon Sondland, the US ambassador to the European Union and a key figure in those texts, has said that he will deliver testimony. Sondland had been scheduled to appear last week, but was blocked by the White House; lawmakers subsequently subpoenaed him, and he will testify in defiance of a State Department order not to appear. He has said, however, he will not turn over certain evidence to lawmakers unless the administration clears him to do so.
Two other witnesses — Fiona Hill, former senior director for Europe at the National Security Council and George Kent, a senior State Department official for Ukraine-related issues — are also expected next week.
In addition to these witnesses, the Giuliani associates, Parnas and Fruman, were served subpoenas this week. The men were arrested Wednesday and charged by federal prosecutors on campaign finance violations. Increasingly, they are becoming key figures in the Ukraine scandal: According to the indictment, Parnas and Fruman were hired to help get Yovanovitch removed from her office. Parnas has claimed to be the one who brought the idea of investigating Biden to Giuliani, who has long advocated for the investigation.
Giuliani has been caught up in the impeachment inquiry into Donald Trump for weeks now: the House committees on intelligence, oversight, and foreign affairs issued a subpoena on September 30 for documents tied to the call with Zelensky.
Whether these subpoenas are respected remains to be seen. In its letter responding to the impeachment inquiry, the White House said, “President Trump and his Administration cannot participate in your partisan and unconstitutional inquiry under these circumstances.” As Vox’s Andrew Prokop explained, the letter argued, essentially, that “officials shouldn’t turn over documents, and that they shouldn’t make government employees available for testimony.”
The State Department can attempt to block the testimony of its employees, as it did with Sondland and attempted to with Yovanovitch, but, as the former ambassador to Ukraine showed, not all of these officials — particularly those who, like Yovanovitch, are not Trump allies — will respect that directive. Some witnesses, like Volker and Hill, are now private citizens, meaning there is little the administration can do to compel them not to testify.
Democrats have also signaled that they are prepared to counter administration attempts to block testimony.
In a joint statement responding to Trump administration’s attempt to stop Yovanovitch from appearing before Congress, top Democrats and impeachment inquiry leaders Reps. Adam Schiff (CA), Elijah Cummings (MD), and Eliot Engel (NY) called the White House’s efforts “the latest example of the Administration’s efforts to conceal the facts from the American people and obstruct our lawful and constitutionally-authorized impeachment inquiry.”
Those lawmakers’ allegation that the administration is obstructing Congress could prove to be an important one; as 17 Watergate prosecutors noted in an op-ed Thursday, contempt of Congress was one of the articles of impeachment that Richard Nixon faced. And Democrats leading the inquiry into Trump have said attempts to block witness testimony could form an article of impeachment.
“Any efforts by Trump Administration officials to prevent witness cooperation with the Committees will be deemed obstruction of a co-equal branch of government,” the joint statement goes on to say, “And an adverse inference may be drawn against the President on the underlying allegations of corruption and coverup.”
Source Article from https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/10/12/20911151/impeachment-inquiry-ukraine-ambassador-marie-yovanovitch-testimony
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Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/12/us/new-hampshire-church-shooting/index.html
Turkish troops and their Syrian Arab allies have captured a cluster of villages around the two towns, which lie in the center of the Kurdish region. The troops have in one place established a front line five miles from the Turkish border, the Turkish vice president, Fuat Oktay, said on Friday evening, according to Turkish media.
Their presence has prompted 100,000 residents to flee south, according to United Nations estimates, and forced the evacuation of a major hospital in Tel Abyad that was run by Doctors Without Borders, an international medical charity.
A second hospital, in Ras al-Ain, was also evacuated, according to a separate report by the Rojava Information Center, an information service run by activists in the region.
Turkish mortar shells also landed close to United States troops near the city of Kobani on Friday, prompting a complaint from the American military, the Turkish Defense Ministry confirmed. No one was killed. Turkish officials said the Americans had not been targeted, though the Pentagon said Turkey had known that United States forces were in the area.
At least 54 Kurdish fighters have been killed since Wednesday, along with 42 from the Turkish-backed force, according to tolls compiled by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a conflict monitor based in Britain.
Turkish towns north of the border have also been affected, as Kurdish fighters have returned fire.
Since fighting began on Wednesday, at least 17 civilians, including four children, have been killed in Turkish border towns. At least four Turkish soldiers have died in the fighting, according to Turkish officials.
An entire Turkish border town — Ceylanpinar — was evacuated, after two girls were killed in a rocket strike Thursday and two people were seriously wounded Friday.
Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/11/world/middleeast/turkey-syria-kurds.html
President Trump defended his personal attorney Rudolph W. Giuliani on Saturday amid reports that federal prosecutors are investigating whether the former New York City mayor broke lobbying laws in his efforts to oust the former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yavonovitch.
“So now they are after the legendary ‘crime buster’ and greatest Mayor in the history of NYC, Rudy Giuliani,” Trump tweeted. “He may seem a little rough around the edges sometimes, but he is also a great guy and wonderful lawyer.”
In defending Giuliani, Trump revived one of his recurring conspiracy theories that a “Deep State” of entrenched bureaucrats and law enforcement officers are continuing to undermine him and his associates. “Such a one sided Witch Hunt going on in USA. Deep State. Shameful!” he said.
His vocal defense of the embattled attorney comes just a day after he seemed to put distance between himself and the former mayor when asked if Giuliani still worked for him. “I don’t know. I haven’t spoken to Rudy. . . . He has been my attorney,” the president said.
Following those remarks, Giuliani told The Washington Post that he was still Trump’s lawyer.
The president’s tweet follows a report in The New York Times that federal prosecutors in Manhattan are investigating Giuliani’s efforts to have Yavonovitch recalled in a broader effort to pressure Ukraine into investigating former vice president Joe Biden’s son, who sat on the board of a Ukrainian energy company.
Two of Giuliani’s associates, Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, were arrested on Wednesday on charges of campaign finance violations. According to an indictment that federal prosecutors unsealed Thursday, the men were working for Ukrainian officials to remove Yovanovitch from her job.
Giuliani has admitted to trying to oust Yovanovitch but denies violating foreign lobbying disclosure laws because he was acting on behalf of the president, not a former Ukrainian prosector whom he has worked with who opposed Yovanovitch, he told the Times.
Source Article from https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/trump-defends-giuliani-amid-reports-of-federal-investigation/2019/10/12/295b734b-d638-4565-aca0-6d4c2ba480e6_story.html
Democratic Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (N.Y.) said Friday that former ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch was a “very credible witness” who gave a “gripping and emotional account of presidential abuse of power” while testifying on Capitol Hill.
“I’m constrained about what I can tell you about the substance of her testimony, but what I want people to know is that Ambassador Yovanovitch gave a gripping and emotional account of presidential abuse of power,” Maloney told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer.
He added: “This is a good person who served for more than 30 years in the foreign service, who was thrown to the wolves by Mr. [Rudy] Giuliani, who was representing the financial interest of his now-indicted associates, and by President TrumpDonald John TrumpFederal prosecutors investigating Giuliani: report House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman and top Republican to introduce sanctions bill against Turkey Trump lashes out at 2020 Dems, impeachment inquiry MORE, who was advancing his political interests in trying to get an investigation started in Ukraine of the Bidens. She gave very compelling and very convincing testimony and we owe her a great debt of gratitude.”
When asked about concerns that Yovanovitch could face retribution for testifying after the State Department instructed her not to appear, Maloney said the administration should “leave her alone.”
“She is trying to do her job as she has always done and her duty as a patriotic person who served the country well,” he said. “She’s telling the truth, she’s credible and she should not be penalized for that.”
In her closed-door testimony as part of the House impeachment inquiry, Yovanovitch told Congress that she lost her job due to “unfounded and false claims by people with clearly questionable motives” after being dismissed as envoy to Ukraine in May.
In her opening statement, she said Trump pressured the State Department to remove her although her superiors believed she had “done nothing wrong.”
“Although I understand that I served at the pleasure of the President, I was nevertheless incredulous that the U.S. government chose to remove an Ambassador based, as best as I can tell, on unfounded and false claims by people with clearly questionable motives,” she said.
Yovanovitch added in her opening statement that she was told Trump had “lost confidence in me and no longer wished me to serve as his ambassador.”
Maloney said after her testimony that “it is clear to me that she was fired because she was a thorn in the side of those who sought to use the Ukrainian government for their own political and financial gain — and that includes President Trump.”
Source Article from https://thehill.com/homenews/house/465514-democratic-lawmaker-dismissed-ukraine-ambassador-gave-emotional-account-of
NEW ORLEANS —
One person was killed and three others were missing after a part of the Hard Rock Hotel collapsed without warning on Saturday morning.
At least 18 other people were treated for injuries, authorities said.
City leaders closed a large part of the area and were evacuating other buildings near Canal and North Rampart streets because of concerns that more of the Hard Rock, which was still under construction, could fall.
“It is still very unstable,” New Orleans Fire Department Superintendent Tim McConnell said of the building.
The collapse happened about 9:12 a.m.
Eyewitness video provided to WWL-TV shows the top floors begin to collapse on top of one another before the wall on the North Rampart Street side of the building crashed to the ground below. Workers could be seen in the video running to safety on Rampart as the collapse happened.
Two large cranes were being used to build the high rise. One swayed precariously after the building collapsed, and bits and pieces of debris continued to fall to the ground below.
“The crane is still in place, but it’s unsupported,” McConnell said.
Gov. John Bel Edwards was on the scene and said the 270-crane also worried him. “When you see the crane listing away from the building … this is very serious.”
The cause of the collapse was not immediately known.
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RELATED: Video: Hard Rock Hotel construction site collapses onto Canal Street
Rampart Street was littered with debris, including concrete and mangled steel. One man in a safety vest sat on the curb and appeared to hold the side of his head while wincing.
The Hard Rock Hotel was planned as an 18-story building with 350 rooms that would’ve also had 62 condominiums. It was initially set to open this spring.
The corner where it was under construction was for decades was home to a Woolworth’s.
The store, which was the site of lunch counter sit-ins during the civil rights movement, closed years ago, and the building remained vacant until it was demolished in 2014.
Plans to build a new structure on the site had been in the works since at least 2007, when developer Mohan Kailas bought the building for $3.6 million after plans for another redevelopment project fell through.
That project came to a halt in 2013 when Praveen Kailas pleaded guilty to fraudulently billing a state Katrina recovery program.
Praveen Kailas, the son of Mohan Kailas, had been the public face of the project before pleading guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit theft of government funds and one count of theft of government funds. The theft scheme was exposed by WWL-TV in 2012, leading directly to the federal criminal investigation.
Praveen Kailas served almost two years in federal prison.
Kailas Cos. remains a partner in the Hard Rock project. Crews recently began work at the corner.
Prior iterations of the project raised concerns that the building’s modern appearance would clash with the French Quarter, while others argued it would not pay enough respect to the site’s ties to the civil rights movement.
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Source Article from https://www.wwltv.com/article/news/local/orleans/hard-rock-hotel-collapses-on-canal-street/289-930d2437-69fa-4993-a41e-0bd480274f44
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., urged President Trump Friday to heed the advice of his legal team, especially its newest member, former Rep. Trey Gowdy.
Gowdy, a former Fox News contributor, joined the legal team this week as the House’s impeachment inquiry expands.
“He brings a lot. He understands the Congress. He’s a smart lawyer but it won’t matter if the president won’t listen to him,” Graham told Brian Kilmeade.
Gowdy, who formerly chaired the House Oversight Committee, decided not to seek reelection last year and joined the law firm Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough LLP after leaving office.
TRUMP ‘WENT OFF SCRIPT’ DURING CALL WITH ERDOGAN, SENIOR MILITARY SOURCE REVEALS
Graham said Trump should not be impeached on allegations from anonymous whistleblowers.
“You can’t get a parking ticket in America based on an anonymous allegation,” Graham said. “So, what’s wrong with the House proceeding is it shuts out the Republicans, it doesn’t allow the president to confront his accuser.
“It’s not legitimate. They need to vote,” he said, adding that a formal impeachment inquiry would allow the president’s team to subpoena and call witnesses.
He said the president is his “own best defender” in many cases but can also be “his own worst enemy”
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Earlier in the interview, Graham reiterated his strong opposition to the president’s decision to withdraw U.S. forces from Syria, but added that he will not support impeachment over the disagreement.
“I’m going to stand by him. I’m going to fight for him because I think what [Democrats] are doing is wrong,” he said.
Source Article from https://www.foxnews.com/media/graham-trey-gowdy-trump-impeachment
President Donald Trump said on Friday that acting Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan was stepping down and a new acting chief of the agency would be named next week.
McAleenan became the fourth person to lead the agency under Trump in April after the Republican president asked for the resignation of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen.
Before becoming acting secretary, McAleenan served as commissioner of Customs and Border Protection, one of the agencies operating under the Department of Homeland Security.
“Kevin now, after many years in Government, wants to spend more time with his family and go to the private sector,” Trump said on Twitter.
“I will be announcing the new Acting Secretary next week. Many wonderful candidates,” he said.
Trump, who has made cracking down on legal and illegal immigration a signature issue of his presidency and 2020 re-election effort, said he and McAleenan had “worked well together with Border Crossings being way down.”
Despite the praise, Trump never formally nominated McAleenan to run the agency.
In a statement, McAleenan said during his six-month tenure DHS had “made tremendous progress mitigating the border security and humanitarian crisis we faced this year.”
Customs and Border Protection said this week that arrests at the US-Mexico border fell in September for the fourth month in the row.
It said there were just over 52,000 migrants either apprehended or encountered at the southwest border in September, down almost 65% from a peak in May of 144,000.
The bulk of arriving migrants are from Central America, many of them families, fleeing situations of violence and poverty at home and often seeking asylum in the United States.
Source Article from https://nypost.com/2019/10/11/kevin-mcaleenan-resigns-as-acting-homeland-security-secretary/
Carl Cameron, a Fox News reporter who left the network in 2017 and has since become an outspoken critic, said he was “not the least bit surprised” by Mr. Smith’s decision.
“He’s a warrior and he stayed in the war longer than anybody should have,” Mr. Cameron said in an interview on Friday. “We both would reassure ourselves that authentic, factual news was a way to distinguish ourselves in what was becoming an increasingly more and more partisan network.”
“God help the journalists at Fox hang in there, because they’re doing the right thing,” Mr. Cameron added.
With Mr. Smith’s exit, Fox’s news coverage will be led by other star nonpartisan anchors, including Bret Baier, the “Fox News Sunday” moderator Chris Wallace and Martha MacCallum. At a recent panel discussion in New York with advertisers, Ms. MacCallum defended the network’s journalism, saying pointedly of Mr. Trump, “Contrary to the opinion of some people, he’s not our boss.”
Fox News released a poll this week that showed a majority of respondents in favor of Mr. Trump being impeached, prompting a presidential rebuke. On Twitter, Mr. Trump lamented that Fox News was “much different than it used to be in the good old days,” citing by name Mr. Smith and the former Democratic strategist Donna Brazile, now a paid Fox News analyst.
In March, the president lobbed another insult at Mr. Smith, saying that, along with a pair of Fox News weekend anchors, he should be working at CNN, a network the president often accuses of having a liberal bias.
Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/11/business/media/shepard-smith-fox-news.html
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) — One man has died and dozens of homes have been destroyed by the wind-driven Saddle Ridge Fire raging through the foothill communities of Sylmar, Porter Ranch and Granada Hills in Los Angeles.
Fire officials said the Saddle Ridge Fire had grown to 7,500 acres as of 1:50 p.m. Friday and was 13% contained. The fire was initially reported as a 1-acre blaze at 9 p.m. Thursday near the 210 Freeway at the Yarnell Street exit in Sylmar.
One man in his 50s died of a heart attack amid the wildfire, which damaged at least 25 homes, Los Angeles Fire Department Chief Ralph Terrazas said.
A firefighter was also injured, suffering a minor eye injury.
Gusty Santa Ana winds whipped up the blaze, which officials said was moving at a rate of 800 acres per hour toward the 5/14 Freeway interchange and the Santa Clarita area.
The cause of the fire was not immediately known, though some residents along Saddle Ridge Road in Sylmar said they were interviewed by investigators about a burning electrical transmission line tower they saw in the hills above their homes.
A red flag warning over the Los Angeles and Ventura County Mountains, the Santa Clarita and Ventura County valleys and the northern/western portions of the San Fernando Valley — where the Saddle Ridge Fire continued to burn — had been extended until 6 p.m. Saturday. Gusts overnight reached up to 60 mph in higher elevations, according to the National Weather Service.
RELATED: Sandalwood Fire Kills 1, Burns 800 Acres In Riverside County’s Calimesa
About 23,000 homes — 100,000 residents — remained under mandatory evacuation orders.
Six emergency shelters were opened to evacuated residents and their small pets, but Mason Park in Chatsworth, and the recreation centers in Sylmar and Granada Hills were all at capacity. Northridge Recreation Center is still accepting evacuees. Van Nuys Rec Center and the Balboa Rec Center were opened Friday afternoon. Shepherd Church, a megachurch in Porter Ranch, was not an official evacuation center, but has been providing food and shelter to residents.
A total of 1,000 firefighters have been deployed to battle the Saddle Ridge Fire, 500 from neighboring local agencies. The department also had 25 rescue ambulances assisting with the evacuations of the elderly and disabled.
With daybreak, Terrazas said that a more thorough damage assessment could be done and that super scoopers and a Sky Crane can be deployed to also battle the blaze.
“This is a very dynamic fire,” he said. “The public can help us by listening to police officers and firefighter directions, especially when we are talking about evacuations. Do not wait to leave. If we ask you to evacuate, please evacuate.”
A request for assistance from FEMA was granted Friday morning as Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency for Los Angeles and Riverside counties, even as eight other large fires burn uncontrolled within the state.
Sylmar’s Juvenile Courthouse will be closed and cases scheduled to be heard Friday will be continued. Los Angeles Superior Court officials said cases with statutory deadlines would be heard at Eastlake Juvenile Courthouse, 1601 Eastlake Ave., in Los Angeles. The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service’s offices in Chatsworth and San Fernando will also be closed.
SoCal Gas says its Aliso Canyon storage facility is safe and has been evacuated. Firefighters have taken up defense positions around the facility, and SoCal Gas says they don’t anticipate any damage to its storage wellheads from the fire.
The fire shut down a key freeway interchange between southern and central California and caused major backups well beyond the borders of the fire. The 118 Freeway between Balboa and DeSoto was shut down, along with both directions of the 210 Freeway between the 5 and 118 freeways.
UPDATE #SaddleridgeFire
Now Open:
SB 5 and NB 5
SB 14 at Newhall Ave
NB 405
EB 118 connector to NB 405Still Closed:
NB 5 & SB 5 truck routes
WB 210 at 118
EB 210 at 5
Connectors:
SB & NB 5 to NB 14
SB 5 to EB 210
EB 118 to WB 210 @CaltransDist6 @Caltrans8— Caltrans District 7 (@CaltransDist7) October 12, 2019
Residents who want to receive emergency alerts about the Saddle Ridge Fire can text READY to 888-777 or sign up at emergency.lacity.org/notifyla.
Source Article from https://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2019/10/11/saddle-ridge-fire-porter-ranch-sylmar/
A contingent of U.S. Special Forces was caught up in Turkish shelling against U.S.-backed Kurdish positions in northern Syria, days after President Donald Trump told his Turkish counterpart he would withdraw U.S. troops from certain positions in the area. A senior Pentagon official said shelling by the Turkish forces was so heavy that the U.S. personnel considered firing back in self-defense.
Newsweek has learned through both an Iraqi Kurdish intelligence official and the senior Pentagon official that Special Forces operating on Mashtenour hill in the majority-Kurdish city of Kobani fell under artillery fire from Turkish forces conducting their so-called “Operation Peace Spring” against Kurdish fighters backed by the U.S. but considered terrorist organizations by Turkey. No injuries have been reported.
Instead of returning fire, the Special Forces withdrew once the shelling had ceased. Newsweek previously reported Wednesday that the current rules of engagement for U.S. forces continue to be centered around self-defense and that no order has been issued by the Pentagon for a complete withdrawal from Syria.
The Pentagon official said that Turkish forces should be aware of U.S. positions “down to the grid.” The official could not specify the exact number of personnel present, but indicated they were “small numbers below company level,” so somewhere between 15 and 100 troops. Newsweek has reached out to the Pentagon for comment on the situation.
The Turkish Defense Ministry issued a statement in response to Newsweek’s report, denying that its military had targeted U.S. forces. The ministry affirmed that “Turkish border outposts south of Suruc came under Dochka and mortar fire from the hills located approximately 1,000 meters southwest of a U.S. observation post.”
“In self-defense, reciprocal fire was opened on the terrorist positions of the attack. Turkey did not open fire at the U.S. observation post in any way,” the statement added. “All precautions were taken prior to opening fire in order to prevent any harm to the U.S. base. As a precaution, we ceased fire upon receiving information from the U.S. We firmly reject the claim that U.S. or Coalition forces were fired upon.”
The Pentagon, however, later corroborated Newsweek’s report, with spokesperson Navy Captain Brook DeWalt saying “U.S. troops in the vicinity of Kobani came under artillery fire from Turkish positions at approximately 9 p.m. local Oct. 11.”
“The explosion occurred within a few hundred meters of a location outside the Security Mechanism zone and in an area known by the Turks to have U.S. forces present,” the statement added, noting that there were no U.S. injuries nor have U.S. personnel withdrawn from Kobani—with Newsweek’s source able to confirm the U.S. had multiple positions in the city.
“United States remains opposed to the Turkish military move into Syria and especially objects to Turkish operations outside the Security Mechanism zone and in areas where the Turks know U.S. forces are present,” the statement concluded. “The U.S. demands that Turkey avoid actions that could result in immediate defensive action.”
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had long warned he would storm the border to establish a so-called “safe zone” and, after the White House announced Sunday that U.S. troops would stand aside, he launched the operation earlier this week.
In its Sunday statement, the White House had said that U.S. troops “will no longer be in the immediate area” as Turkey and allied Syrian rebels commenced their assault. During Friday’s press conference, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Army General Mark Milley said that U.S. personnel were “still co-located” save for “two small outposts” near the border with Turkey. Defense Secretary Mark Esper said 50 Special Forces personnel had been repositioned ahead of the Turkish and allied Syrian rebel assault.
The U.S. first partnered with the largely Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces in 2015 to battle the Islamic State militant group (ISIS) as the country shifted its support away from an increasingly Islamist opposition seeking the overthrow of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. The group proved effective in beating back the jihadis, but the U.S.’ decision was opposed by Turkey, a NATO member that has faced off with a decades-long insurgency by Kurdish separatists.
Turkey remains the last major sponsor of the Syrian opposition, made up largely of members of the country’s Syrian Arab majority, and has mobilized up to a thousand fighters from these forces, along with hundreds of its own troops, in order to seize territory currently administered by a majority-Kurdish autonomous administration that spans the country’s north and east. This self-governing entity has not been recognized by Ankara nor the central government in Damascus, which has secured much of the rest of the country’s territory with the help of Russia, Iran and allied militias.
The Pentagon has repeatedly urged Turkey to halt its operations and, though he initially signaled support for Erdogan’s plans following their phone call Sunday, Trump has since threatened to sanction the Turkish economy if the country’s military action did anything “off limits.” While the president has repeatedly called for an end to the costly, “endless wars” launched by his predecessors in the Middle East and beyond, he also warned he may send more troops to Syria if the situation was not resolved.
On Thursday, Trump tweeted that he had “one of three choices: Send in thousands of troops and win Militarily, hit Turkey very hard Financially and with Sanctions, or mediate a deal between Turkey and the Kurds!”
Source: Statista
This story has been updated to include a statement from the Pentagon.
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Source Article from https://www.newsweek.com/us-troops-syria-turkey-1464727
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Talks over whether the whistleblower who sparked an impeachment inquiry into U.S. President Donald Trump will testify to Congressional committees are hung up on the question of whether the person can submit written testimony, two sources familiar with the discussions said.
Negotiators in the Democratic-led U.S. House of Representatives are open to the career intelligence officer making written testimony while negotiators in the Republican-majority Senate have resisted, said the sources.
The whistleblower’s representatives want to make sure the person remains anonymous. Discussions between Congressional investigators and representatives of the whistleblower have been suspended at least temporarily, though the sources indicated they were expected to resume when lawmakers return from a recess next week.
Representatives of the committees had no immediate comment.
Democrats began the impeachment inquiry of Republican Trump on Sept. 24 following the revelation that a whistleblower had lodged a complaint about a July 25 phone call in which Trump pressed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to investigate former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, a leading Democratic contender for the right to face Trump in the November 2020 election.
Democrats have accused Trump of pressuring a vulnerable foreign ally to dig up dirt on a domestic political opponent for his own political benefit. Trump has denied he did anything wrong on the call.
A source familiar with arguments the whistleblower’s representatives have been making to Congressional interlocutors said that the whistleblower’s view is that the three Democratic-led House committees – Intelligence, Oversight and Judiciary – and the Senate Intelligence Committee should treat any appearance by the person in identical fashion.
On Friday, the former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch, told the impeachment inquiry that Trump ousted her abruptly in May based on “unfounded and false claims” after she had come under attack by his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani.
Reporting By Mark Hosenball; Editing by Scott Malone and Grant McCool
Source Article from https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-whistleblower-congress/talks-over-whistleblowers-trump-impeachment-testimony-hung-up-sources-idUSKBN1WQ2SD
House lawmakers emerged Friday from a marathon hearing with the former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine with both sides digging in on their positions for what promises to be a frenzied month as the Democrats’ impeachment inquiry advances full steam.
Marie Yovanovitch, who was relieved of her post and recalled to Washington in May, delivered damning testimony in the nearly 10-hour closed-door meeting, accusing top Trump administration officials of staging “a concerted campaign” against her based on “unfounded and false claims by people with clearly questionable motives.”
The remarks, included in an opening statement that quickly became public, gave ammunition for Democrats who are investigating whistleblower allegations that Trump had leveraged U.S. military aid to Ukraine in return for political favors from the country’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky.
“It is clear to me that she was fired because she was a thorn in the side of those who sought to use the Ukrainian government for their own political and financial gain — and that includes President TrumpDonald John TrumpDemocratic 2020 hopefuls tout LGBTQ plans at town hall Trump defends Syria move at rally: ‘Bring our troops back home’ Pompeo adviser resigning: report MORE,” Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (D-N.Y.), a member of the Intelligence Committee, said afterwards.
“In other words, Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch was fired for being honest and doing her job,” Maloney added.
Maloney said that, on several occasions, Yovanovitch “became overcome with emotion and had to stop and leave the room.”
But Republicans said little of the substance of Yovanovitch’s testimony and instead expressed outrage that Speaker Nancy PelosiNancy Pelosi‘Off-script’ Trump rails against impeachment, Democrats at feisty rally Overnight Health Care — Presented by Coalition Against Surprise Medical Billing — Planned Parenthood charges into 2020 | PhRMA CEO warns against Pelosi drug pricing bill | Medicaid work requirements costing states millions On The Money: Trump to meet China’s vice premier during trade talks | Appeals court says Deutsche Bank doesn’t have Trump’s tax returns | House Appropriations Chair Nita Lowey to retire MORE (D-Calif.) and Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam SchiffAdam Bennett Schiff‘Off-script’ Trump rails against impeachment, Democrats at feisty rally Schiff should consider using RICO framework to organize impeachment Overnight Energy: Dems subpoena Perry in impeachment inquiry | EPA to overhaul rules on lead contamination tests | Commerce staff wrote statement rebuking weather service for contradicting Trump MORE (D-Calif.) have launched their impeachment inquiry without a formal vote — a step GOP leaders say is necessary to foster transparency and establish ground rules governing an otherwise anarchic process.
“You can’t read the opening statement of Ambassador Yovanovitch and say we now have the story,” said Rep. Lee ZeldinLee ZeldinGOP, Trump look to smother impeachment inquiry Former Ukraine envoy Volker to resign as head of McCain Institute Top US diplomat threatened to quit over Ukraine dealings MORE (R-N.Y.). “As a matter of fact, you should be scratching your heads wondering what happened in the 10 hours to follow that no one has told us about.”
Zeldin, along with other Republicans including Rep. Jim JordanJames (Jim) Daniel JordanGraham threatens to call Volker to testify if Democrats don’t release testimony The Memo: White House rolls the dice on impeachment GOP, Trump look to smother impeachment inquiry MORE (R-Ohio), argued that transcripts of the full depositions given by both Yovanovitch and former Special Envoy to Ukraine Kurt VolkerKurt VolkerGOP seeks to gain more control of impeachment narrative Making sense of the key players in the Trump-Ukraine controversy House Democrats subpoena Rick Perry in impeachment inquiry MORE last week should be made public by Schiff.
“We want the whole thing public, just like before,” Jordan, the top Republican on the Oversight Committee, told reporters afterwards.
Yovanovitch’s testimony came after the State Department attempted to block her testimony, which forced Democrats to issue a subpoena to compel her participation.
Yovanovitch said in her opening statement that Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan told her that she had “done nothing wrong and that this was not like other situations where he had recalled ambassadors for cause,” and added that Sullivan told her that Trump had “lost confidence in me and no longer wished me to serve as his ambassador.”
Yovanovitch denied allegations that she told embassy staff to ignore Trump’s orders due to the likelihood that he would be impeached.
The intelligence community whistleblower complaint alleged that the then-prosecutor general Yuri Lutsenko accused Yovanovitch of giving him a “do not prosecute” list. Lutsenko later retracted the charge.
She also said that she had “minimal contacts” with Rudy GiulianiRudy GiulianiPompeo adviser resigning: report ‘Off-script’ Trump rails against impeachment, Democrats at feisty rally Trump’s former Ukraine envoy was dismissed after she pushed Giuliani to go through official channels: report MORE, Trump’s personal lawyer who pushed for the Ukrainian government to investigate former Vice President Joe BidenJoe BidenDemocratic 2020 hopefuls tout LGBTQ plans at town hall Trump bashes Biden at Minnesota rally, asks ‘Where’s Hunter? ‘Off-script’ Trump rails against impeachment, Democrats at feisty rally MORE, a leading 2020 presidential contender, and his son.
Yovanovitch suggested that two Giuliani business associates who were arrested on campaign finance charges this week may have contributed to her eventual removal as ambassador.
“I do not know Mr. Giuliani’s motives for attacking me,” she said. “But individuals who have been named in the press as contacts of Mr. Giuliani may well have believed that their personal financial ambitions were stymied by our anti-corruption policy in Ukraine.”
Leaving the nearly 10-hour gathering, Yovanovitch declined to comment. Asked if she thought Trump had committed impeachable offenses, she stared straight ahead and glided by the cameras without a word.
Rep. Tom MalinowskiThomas (Tom) MalinowskiHillicon Valley: Zuckerberg to testify on Libra | Extremists find home on Telegram app | Warren blasts Facebook for not removing anti-Biden ad | California outlaws facial recognition in police body cameras | China rips US tech sanctions House Democrats introduce new legislation to combat foreign election interference GOP ratchets up 2020 attacks as impeachment storm grows MORE (D-N.J.), who served in the State Department under the Obama administration, declined to say if Yovanovitch had expressed concerns about potential career repercussions for testifying against the wishes of the administration. But he promised that Democrats would use every tool at their disposal to protect her from retaliation.
“I don’t want to characterize what she said, but we feel very strongly that that would be wrong and … we will do everything we can to protect any career employee who speaks to us pursuant to a legally binding subpoena,” said Malinowski.
Rep. Mike QuigleyMichael (Mike) Bruce QuigleyTax-return whistleblower in spotlight amid impeachment fight Democrats warn GOP, Trump putting whistleblower safety at risk Democratic lawmaker: Trump responsible for ‘greatest crime a president has committed in my lifetime’ MORE (D-Ill.) described Yovanovitch to reporters as “a brave woman” earlier in the day.
Yovanovitch’s testimony capped the end of a frenetic and unpredictable week on Capitol Hill, where Congress is technically on recess but a number of lawmakers from both parties were gathered in anticipation of a series of depositions scheduled by Democrats, who are wary of dragging their impeachment inquiry into next year once the 2020 campaign is fully underway.
They were only partly successful.
On Monday, Democrats had planned the deposition of Deputy Assistant Secretary George Kent, which did not take place. And on Tuesday, the State Department blocked the testimony of Gordon Sondland, U.S. ambassador to the European Union, just hours before he was scheduled to appear in the Capitol.
Later that same day, White House counsel Pat Cipollone informed Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and the three key committee chairmen that the Trump administration would not comply with the impeachment inquiry, citing the lack of a formal vote authorizing it.
Democratic leaders have dismissed the argument, saying that the committees already have subpoena powers due to rules changes made by the GOP when it held the House majority.
Democrats are hoping they have better success next week, when they’ve requested the testimony of five additional officials. The list includes Kent, Sondland and Fiona Hill, a former special assistant to the president on Russian affairs, who stepped down in August.
Schiff declined to comment on what was said during the testimony, but described Yovanovitch to reporters as a “model diplomat,” and called her a “courageous example for others.”
Schiff did not comment on whether he would make the proceedings on Friday public.
Others were more talkative. Rep. Denny HeckDennis (Denny) Lynn HeckExclusive: Guccifer 2.0 hacked memos expand on Pennsylvania House races Heck enjoys second political wind Incoming lawmaker feeling a bit overwhelmed MORE (D-Wash.) said he’s sat through many hearings that were a waste of time. This was not one. It went, he said, “like a New York second.”
Asked if Yovanovitch’s testimony helped boost the Democrats’ impeachment case, Heck was terse.
“The walls are closing in,” Heck said.
Source Article from https://thehill.com/homenews/house/465507-in-marathon-testimony-dems-see-an-ambassador-scorned-while-gop-defends-trump
WASHINGTON – The winners of the 2019 Little League World Series flew home from Washington D.C. to Louisiana in style – aboard Air Force One.
President Donald Trump met with the Eastbank All-Stars on Friday at the White House to honor their accomplishment. The players then met again with Trump at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland, where they boarded the presidential plane together.
Later Friday night, Trump took part in a rally in Lake Charles on the eve of Louisiana’s election for governor, where he was expected to encourage his supporters to vote for either of the Republican candidates over Democratic incumbent John Bel Edwards.
But Trump had another big moment in store for the young baseball players. He congratulated each player by name at his rally then invited them to join him on stage.
The Eastbank All-Stars, based in suburban New Orleans, shut out Curacao 8-0 to win Louisiana’s first Little League World Series title on Aug. 25.
Source Article from https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/2019/10/11/little-league-world-series-champions-fly-president-trump-louisiana/3948455002/
The unnamed Ukrainian official referenced in a federal indictment as directing a plot to oust the then-U.S. ambassador is Ukraine’s former chief prosecutor Yuriy Lutsenko, according to a U.S. official familiar with the events.
According to the source, Lutsenko is the Ukrainian official who prosecutors say urged two associates of Rudy Giuliani to push for the removal of Marie Yovanovitch, the former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine who was forced out in May.
The associates, Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, were arrested Wednesday night as they prepared to board a one-way flight out of the country at Dulles Airport in Washington, D.C.
“They sought political influence not only to advance their own financial interests, but to advance the political interests of at least one foreign official — a Ukrainian government official who sought the dismissal of the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine,” Geoffrey Berman, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, said at a Thursday news conference.
Tune in to “On Assignment with Richard Engel” this Sunday at 10:00 p.m. ET on MSNBC for more.
The indictment says the efforts by Parnas and Fruman to remove then-Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch, a respected diplomat with deep knowledge of Ukraine, were “conducted, at least in part, at the request of one or more Ukrainian government officials.”
Federal prosecutors didn’t detail in the indictment or at a press conference why the unnamed Ukrainian official or officials allegedly urged Parnas and Fruman to scheme to push out Yovanovitch.
But two former U.S. officials said Lutsenko had sharp disagreements with Yovanovitch over his handling of corruption cases, and was also seeking to curry favor with the Trump administration.
Yovanovitch’s ouster is now at the center of an impeachment inquiry by House Democrats, who accuse President Donald Trump of abusing his power by pressuring Ukraine to launch an investigation of Joe Biden, his political rival, and Biden’s son.
Yovanovitch told Congress on Friday that President Trump wanted her removed as ambassador because of “unfounded and false claims by people with clearly questionable motives.”
During the July 25 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy that is now at the center of the House impeachment inquiry, Trump referred to Yovanovitch as “bad news.”
Lutsenko was the country’s chief prosecutor under the previous Ukrainian government, serving from May 2016 to August 2019.
When approached by Giuliani and his associates, Parnas and Fruman, Lutsenko was facing an uncertain political future. The Giuliani team saw U.S. Ambassador Yovanovitch as an obstacle to their objectives — digging up derogatory information on former vice president Biden and smoothing the way for a possible natural gas deal in Ukraine, former officials said.
“[Lutsenko’s] incentive to help was to take out the ambassador,” said a former senior diplomat with experience in the region. “He was angry at criticism from the U.S. embassy over the slow pace of reform in the justice sector.”
“There was this personal payback dimension.”
Lutsenko could not be reached for comment.
Lutsenko’s name had surfaced in the impeachment inquiry against President Trump even before the indictment against Fruman and Parnas was unsealed. In his July call with Ukrainian President Zelenskiy, Trump praised Lutsenko and lamented that he was on his way out.
“I heard you had a prosecutor who was very good and he was shut down and that’s really unfair,” Trump said in the call. “A lot of people are talking about that.”
Lutsenko told NBC News last month that he’s known Giuliani for “many years” and met with him while vacationing in New York.
Lutsenko said he counted Giuliani as a friend and has spoken to him “maybe 10 times.”
Lutsenko said they discussed former Vice President Biden and his son, Hunter, and talked “about our system, about some of our law enforcement divisions and possibilities to cooperate.”
In the indictment unsealed Thursday, federal prosecutors accused Parnas and Fruman of funneling foreign money to U.S. politicians in violation of federal campaign finance laws.
The indictment said Parnas and Fruman enlisted the help of a congressman in their effort to force out Yovanovitch.
Multiple senior U.S. law enforcement officials told NBC News that the “Congressman-1” referenced in the indictment is former Rep. Pete Sessions, R-Texas. The two men committed to raising $20,000 for the then-lawmaker, the indictment alleged.
Sessions said Friday that he would return any campaign donations from Parnas and Fruman.
Dan De Luce reported from Washington.
Source Article from https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/justice-department/lutsenko-unnamed-ukrainian-who-led-plot-oust-yovanovitch-says-official-n1065246
