FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Roses brought to honor love on that Valentine’s Day in 2018 lay withered, their dried and cracked petals scattered across classroom floors still smeared with the blood of victims gunned down by a former student more than four years ago.
Bullet holes pocked walls, and shards of glass from windows shattered by gunfire crunched underfoot at Parkland’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, where shooter Nikolas Cruz killed 14 students and three staff members. Nothing had been changed, except for the removal of the victims’ bodies and some personal items.
Twelve jurors and 10 alternates who will decide whether Cruz gets the death penalty or life in prison made a rare visit to the massacre scene Thursday, retracing Cruz’s steps through the three-story freshman building, known as “Building 12.” After they left, a group of journalists was allowed in for a much quicker first public view.
The sight was deeply unsettling: Large pools of dried blood still stained classroom floors. A lock of dark hair rested on the floor where one of the victims’ bodies once lay. A single black rubber shoe was in a hallway. Browned rose petals were strewn across a hallway where six people died.
In classroom after classroom, open notebooks displayed uncompleted lessons. A blood-coated book called, “Tell Them We Remember” sat atop a bullet-riddled desk in the classroom where teacher Ivy Schamis taught students about the Holocaust. A sign attached to a bulletin board read: “We will never forget.” Two students died there.
In the classroom of English teacher Dara Hass, where the most students were gunned down, there were essays about Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani teenager shot by the Taliban for going to school, and who has since become a global advocate for educational access for women and girls.
“A bullet went straight to her head but not her brain,” one student wrote. “We go to school every day of the week and we take it all for granted,” wrote another. “We cry and complain without knowing how lucky we are to be able to learn.”
The door of Room 1255, teacher Stacey Lippel’s classroom, was pushed open — like others to signify that Cruz shot into it. Hanging on a wall inside was a sign reading, “No Bully Zone.” The creative writing assignment for the day was on the whiteboard: “How to write the perfect love letter.”
And still hanging on the wall of a second-floor hallway was a quote from James Dean: “Dream as if you’ll live forever, live as if you’ll die today.”
In slain teacher Scott Beigel’s geography classroom, a laptop was still open on his desk. Student assignments comparing the tenets of Christianity and Islam remained, some graded, some not. On his whiteboard, Beigel, the school’s cross-country coach, had been writing the gold, silver and bronze medalists in each event at the Winter Olympics, which had begun five days earlier.
Prosecutors, who rested their case following the jury’s tour, hope the visit will help prove that Cruz’s actions were cold, calculated, heinous and cruel; created a great risk of death to many people and “interfered with a government function” — all aggravating factors under Florida’s capital punishment law.
Under Florida court rules, neither the judge nor the attorneys were allowed to speak to the jurors — and the jurors weren’t allowed to converse with each other — when they retraced the path Cruz took on Feb. 14, 2018, as he moved from floor to floor, firing down hallways and into classrooms. Prior to the tour, the jurors had already seen surveillance video of the shooting and photographs of its aftermath.
The building has been sealed and was surrounded by a 15-foot (4.6-meter) chain-link fence wrapped in a privacy mesh screen fastened with zip ties. It looms ominously over the school and its teachers, staff and 3,300 students, and can be seen easily by anyone nearby. The Broward County school district plans to demolish it whenever prosecutors approve. For now, it is a court exhibit.
“When you are driving past, it’s there. When you are going to class, it’s there. It is just a colossal structure that you can’t miss,” said Kai Koerber, who was a Stoneman Douglas junior at the time of the shooting. He is now at the University of California, Berkeley, and the developer of a mental health phone app. “It is just a constant reminder … that is tremendously trying and horrible.”
Cruz, 23, pleaded guilty in October to 17 counts of first-degree murder; the trial is only to determine if he is sentenced to death or life without parole.
Miami defense attorney David S. Weinstein said prosecutors hope the visit will be “the final piece in erasing any doubt that any juror might have had that the death penalty is the only recommendation that can be made.”
Such crime site visits are rare. Weinstein, a former prosecutor, said in more than 150 jury trials dating back to the late 1980s, he has only had one.
In most trials, a crime scene visit wouldn’t even be considered because years later it’s not the same place as when the crime occurred and can give a false sense of what happened. But in this case, the building was sealed off so it could be done.
Cruz’s attorneys have argued that prosecutors have used what they assert is provocative evidence, including Thursday’s visit, not just to prove their case, but to inflame jurors’ passions.
After jurors returned to the courtroom Thursday, the mothers of two victims testified that the massacre permanently cast a pall over not only every Valentine’s Day but other important family celebrations.
Helena Ramsay, 17, died on her father’s birthday. “That day will never be a celebration and can never be the same for him,” her mother, Anne Ramsay, said.
Hui Wang, whose 15-year-old son Peter was killed, said the shooting occurred the day before Chinese New Year. A planned celebration was canceled that year and every year since then.
“This day of unity became a day that hurts the most,” she said.
The wife of athletic director, Chris Hixon, and their 26-year-old son, who has special needs, also spoke on the fourth and final day jurors heard from victims’ families. Hixon, a 49-year-old Navy veteran, died charging into the building trying to stop Cruz and protect the students.
Corey Hixon described a weekly ritual of getting donuts with his dad.
The Mall of America was briefly on lockdown Thursday after several gunshots were fired inside the Bloomington shopping destination.
Bloomington Police Chief Booker Hodges said the shooting was an “isolated incident” involving a dispute between two groups of people. He said police believe only one individual fired the shots and that there were no indications anyone was injured.
Hours after, police were still looking for the suspect, who fled on foot. Hodges said that officers believed for a time that he was holed up in a hotel near the mall, but that didn’t pan out.
The gunshots rang out just after 4 p.m. near or inside a Nike store in the northwest section of the three-level mall, frightening nearby shoppers and creating a chaotic scene captured on cellphone videos that quickly spread on social media. Mall security instituted a lockdown, and large groups of shoppers crowded into back rooms of stores.
“We cannot continue to have this disregard for human life,” Hodges said at a news conference Thursday night at the mall. To the suspect, he said: “Please turn yourself in.”
Kate Rutledge, who had driven from Des Moines, Iowa, to shop at the mall with her husband and four children Thursday morning, said she heard three or four shots.
She, her husband and two sons “ran like hell,” Rutledge said as they waited outside the Nordstrom department store. The lockdown had just lifted, and they were waiting for their two daughters, who had been elsewhere in the mall and were locked down inside another store.
Rutledge said she kept in touch with her daughters by text throughout the lockdown.
Hodges said investigators believe it all started with a dispute between two groups of people inside the Nike store. One of the groups left, he said, but then one of its members returned and fired several shots into the store.
“They decided to fire multiple rounds into a store with people in it,” Hodges said.
After the lockdown was lifted, the mall closed for the evening. Spokesman Dan Jasper said it would reopen to customers Friday with an increased security presence.
Hodges said he still considers the mall safe enough to bring his own children there.
A short video posted for a time on Twitter showed a man walking toward the Nike store, then shouts and the sound of three apparent gunshots can be heard. According to emergency dispatch audio, witnesses said the incident involved juvenile males. (The video was later removed.)
Danny Reinan, 22, a Minneapolis student, was at the mall with friends when the lockdown was announced about 4:20 p.m.
“We were at the Barnes and Noble, and suddenly there was an announcement over the loudspeaker that the mall is on lockdown and it’s not a drill,” Reinan said. “The staff rushed us into the back room, where we are waiting right now. Everybody’s trying to stay calm but you can really feel the tension and anxiety in the air.”
Reinan said about 75 people were in the small room. He said they did not hear any gunshots fired but saw people running away.
Star TribuneVideo (03:15): A TV news director from WFFT in Texas was inside the Mall of America while an ‘active incident’ caused the mall to lock down.
Nate Nelson of Bloomington said he rushed to the mall after hearing from his 18-year-old daughter that she had been locked down inside. He said she quickly indicated she was safe and kept him updated with constant texts.
“Thank goodness for smartphones,” Nelson said.
As the lockdown was being lifted, parents, relatives and friends waited outside the mall as people who’d been stuck inside began streaming out.
The mall marks the 30th anniversary of its opening Aug. 11. It was placed on lockdown on New Year’s Eve last year when two people were shot during a fight.
In a statement Thursday night, Gov. Tim Walz decried the violence at the popular destination. “These brazen incidents will not be tolerated,” he said.
Rutledge, whose family planned to stay in a hotel overnight and shop again at the mall Friday, said her 13-year-old son — who also heard the gunshots — had already announced he wanted to go return to buy an Anthony Edwards’ Timberwolves jersey.
“We’ll have to think on that,” Rutledge said. “I want to go home. But we’ll talk about it.”
Griner has been detained in Russia since Feb. 17, when Russian customs officials at an airport near Moscow said they found hashish oil in vape cartridges in her luggage. Her trial began on July 1 and the conviction had been widely expected. The U.S. State Department has said that Griner is being wrongfully detained and that it has been working to negotiate her release.
Griner’s family has sought help from Bill Richardson, the former New Mexico governor who is working to secure the release of Griner and of Paul Whelan, a former Marine who has been detained in Russia since 2018.
“Today’s sentencing of Brittney Griner was severe by Russian legal standards and goes to prove what we have known all along, that Brittney is being used as a political pawn,” Griner’s agent, Lindsay Kagawa Colas, said on Twitter. “We appreciate and continue to support the efforts of @POTUS and @SecBlinken to get a deal done swiftly to bring Brittney, Paul and all Americans home.”
Moments after the verdict, A’ja Wilson of the Las Vegas Aces tweeted “Free BG!” with an emoji of an orange heart. Dijonai Carrington of the Connecticut Sun tweeted “praying so hard for BG.”
The Phoenix Mercury released a statement calling Griner’s situation a nightmare.
“While we knew it was never the legal process that was going to bring our friend home, today’s verdict is a sobering milestone in the 168-day nightmare being endured by our sister, BG,” the Mercury’s statement said.
The W.N.B.A. players’ union posted a statement on Twitter from its executive director, Terri Carmichael Jackson, which called the verdict “unjust” and urged U.S. officials to do all they can to bring Griner home.
“Given her record of service on and off the court, BG deserves to come home,” the statement said.
It then called on the global sporting community to stand with Griner.
N.B.A. Commissioner Adam Silver and W.N.B.A. Commissioner Cathy Engelbert released a joint statement saying: “The W.N.B.A. and N.B.A.’s commitment to her safe return has not wavered, and it is our hope that we are near the end of this process of finally bringing BG home to the United States.”
Some N.B.A. players weighed in as well.
“Smh 9 Years…. Free BG,” Bam Adebayo of the Miami Heat said on Twitter.
Nets star Kyrie Irving tweeted: “What is truly happening with our Queen @brittneygriner @POTUS @VP? Please give us an Update.”
Representative Colin Allred, Democrat of Texas, has been working to secure Griner’s release since March.
“Folks must remember that this conviction is all part of a sham trial and Brittney was wrongfully detained,” Allred said on Twitter. “It is just another cynical way for Russia to try and gain leverage.”
Debbie Jackson, Griner’s high school basketball coach, held back tears after learning of Griner’s verdict. Jackson recruited Griner, then a volleyball player, to play basketball at Nimitz High School in Houston, setting her on a path toward stardom on the court.
“It makes me sick that that was the decision,” Jackson said. “I was trying to be optimistic, even fully aware that when you’re dealing with Russia, things don’t go the way you would hope they would.” She said she hoped Griner “can remain hopeful that our State Department will work on a prison swap for her and other Americans that are in prison over there.”
The declaration allows the federal government to amp up its response to the virus without the usual regulatory barriers.
“I want to make an announcement today that I will be declaring a public health emergency,” Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra said in a call with reporters Thursday about the monkeypox outbreak.
“We’re prepared to take our response to the next level in addressing this virus.”
“We urge every American to take monkeypox seriously and to take responsibility and help us tackle this virus,” he continued.
It spreads through drawn-out skin-to-skin contact, and the main demographic affected so far has been gay and bisexual men.
The country has reported more than 6,600 cases of the virus, which can cause fever, aches, and bumps or sores on the body. Mario Tama/Getty Images
Biden’s beleaguered chief medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci said Thursday that the administration will work with LGBTQ leaders to make sure it is educating and engaging with the community.
“Engagement of the community has always proven to be successful,” Fauci said.
Biden officials have been under scrutiny for a slow response to the growing outbreak, particularly because vaccines for the virus already exist.
The US has declared a state of emergency as monkeypox cases continue to rise.Mario Tama/Getty Images
“Importantly, this declaration will also help us continue to expand public health’s ability to expedite data sharing so that we can have comprehensive and timely data available to inform public health decisions,” CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said Thursday.
The president appointed Robert Fenton of FEMA as the White House national monkeypox response coordinator on Tuesday and named Dr. Demetre Daskalaki, the CDC director of HIV prevention, as his deputy.
The administration says it has made 1.1 million doses of the vaccine available, and 600,000 have been administered.
A new phase of the country’s fight against the virus will begin because of the declaration, which Lawrence Gostin, a public health law expert at Georgetown University, called belated. “It is a textbook case of a public health emergency,” Gostin said, adding that the order should have been issued sooner. “It’s not a red or a blue state issue. There is no political opposition to fighting monkeypox.”
The country currently only has the capacity for 80,000 monkeypox tests per week. Mario Tama/Getty Images
The World Health Organization declared the spreading monkeypox outbreak a global health emergency on July 23 after declining to declare one in late June. Some 150,000 additional vaccine doses are coming in September, federal officials said.
More than 25,800 cases of monkeypox have been recorded worldwide.
Saying “Breonna Taylor should be alive today,” Attorney General Merrick Garland announced Thursday that four current and former Louisville Metro Police officers have been federally charged in Taylor’s March 2020 slaying that touched off a firestorm of protest in the city and across the nation.
Former Louisville Metro Police detective Joshua Jaynes, 40, who was fired for lying on the search warrant that led to the deadly 2020 raid at Taylor’s apartment, was taken into custody Thursday morning by the FBI and booked in the Oldham County Detention Center, according to attorney Thomas Clay, who is representing Jaynes.
Sgt. Kyle Meany, 35; Officer Kelly Hanna Goodlett, 35; and former detective Brett Hankison, 46; also were charged in the federal investigation of the March 13, 2020, death of Taylor, a 26-year-old emergency room technician whose name became a rallying cry for protesters during demonstrations against police brutality and systemic racism.
The four face different charges related to violating Taylor’s civil rights, including lying on the search warrant, obstructing investigators and, in Hankison’s case, jeoparding Taylor’s neighbors with his reckless gunfire.
Garland announced the indictments during a news conference Thursday at the Department of Justice headquarters.
Hankison, Jaynes and Meany all made their first appearance Thursday before Magistrate Judge Regina Edwards and were ordered released on the condition they have no contact with other defendants or victims.
Edwards also ordered them to have no guns in their homes as a condition of their release and set unsecured bonds on all three of $50,000, which they must pay only if they violate the terms of their release.
She ordered Hankison to appear for further proceedings on Sep. 14 and set a trial date of Oct. 13.
LMPD fired Hankison in June 2020 for wantonly shooting into Taylor’s apartment the night she was killed, resulting in several bullets piercing the walls into a neighboring occupied apartment. He was indicted on state charges of wanton endangerment but acquitted by a jury.
Until now, no officers had faced charges for Taylor’s death.
Taylor’s mother, Tamika Palmer, praised the decision to charge the officers at a press conference Thursday morning, saying: “What we’ve been saying was the truth, that they shouldn’t have been there and that Breonna didn’t deserve that.
“Today’s overdue, but it still hurts.”
Goodlett was charged by information, according to the DOJ, which typically occurs when a defendant has agreed to plead guilty before facing formal charges. It was not immediately clear if Goodlett had an attorney to comment on her behalf, with Butler also appearing for Hankison but only for the initial court appearance.
Clay, representing Jaynes, told The Courier Journal he had no comment at this time.
LMPD said in a statement after the DOJ’s announcement that Chief Erika Shields began termination proceedings Thursday against Meany and Goodlett.
“While we must refer all questions about this federal investigation to the FBI, it is critical that any illegal or inappropriate actions by law enforcement be addressed comprehensively in order to continue our efforts to build police-community trust,” the department said in a statement.
Hankison had served with LMPD for about 17 years, Jaynes for about 15 years, Meany (the supervisor of the Place-Based Investigations Unit) since 2013 and Goodlett (a detective in the PBI Unit) for about a decade.
The charges alleging civil rights violations that the officers face, except for Goodlett, can carry a maximum sentence of life in prison, with no parole in the federal system.
What happened in Breonna Taylor’s apartment
One of the new indictments that the DOJ announced Thursday accuses Jaynes, Meany and Goodlett of engaging in “untruthful actions” to obtain the warrant to search Taylor’s apartment.
The LMPD officers had obtained five search warrants with “no-knock” clauses as part of a larger narcotics investigation. All the homes were in the West End except Taylor’s apartment. They went to Taylor’s home looking for cash or packages they suspected her former boyfriend, a convicted drug trafficker, had stashed in her apartment.
Police insist they didn’t use the “no-knock” clause, instead announcing their presence before forcing open the door of Taylor’s apartment. But neighbors and Taylor’s boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, who was in bed with her, said they never heard them announce they were police.
Walker said the two heard pounding on the door and got up to investigate when the door crashed open. Walker said he fired a single shot from his legally owned handgun, hitting one of the officers, Detective Jonathan Mattingly, in the thigh and severing an artery.
Officers fired back 32 times, hitting Taylor six times and killing her.
In a separate indictment, Hankison is charged with using “unconstitutionally excessive force during the raid on Ms. Taylor’s home” for blindly firing 10 shots into Taylor’s home during the raid, several of which went into an occupied, neighboring apartment “without a lawful objective justifying the use of deadly force,” Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke for the Civil Rights Division announced during a Thursday morning news conference alongside Garland in Washington, D.C.
Hankison was acquitted by a Jefferson County jury earlier this year on the state charges of wanton endangerment that related to the shots fired into the apartment, which came close to but did not injure any of Taylor’s neighbors. He was the sole officer indicted on state charges by a grand jury led by Attorney General Daniel Cameron’s office.
Cameron’s prosecutors never recommended charges against any other officers.
Nationally known civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who represented Taylor’s family along with local attorneys Lonita Baker and Sam Aguiar, said after Thursday’s announcement it was “a great day to arrest the killers of Breonna Taylor.”
“Thank God Attorney General Daniel Cameron did not get the last word in the death of Breonna Taylor,” Crump added during a news conference at Jefferson Square Park, the hub of protests in 2020 over Taylor’s killing.
“Today was a huge step toward justice,” Crump, Baker and Aguiar said in a joint statement. “We are grateful for the diligence and dedication of the FBI and the DOJ as they investigated what led to Breonna’s murder and what transpired afterwards. The justice that Breonna received today would not have been possible without the efforts of Attorney General Merrick Garland or Assistant AG for Civil Rights Kristen Clarke.
“We hope this announcement of a guilty plea sends a message to all other involved officers that it is time to stop covering up and time to accept responsibility for their roles in causing the death of an innocent, beautiful young Black woman.”
Gov. Andy Beshear, asked about the indictments during a Thursday afternoon update on the devastating flooding in Eastern Kentucky, said he had not yet had a chance to review the new charges and largely declined to comment.
Pressed on whether he was concerned that the DOJ indicted several officers while the prosecution from Cameron’s office did not ultimately earn a conviction against Hankison, Beshear noted there are differences between federal and state charges.
Steve Romines, who represented Walker in ongoing litigation against LMPD and the officers at Taylor’s apartment that night, criticized LMPD and Cameron in a tweet and later told The Courier Journal “we have said from the beginning that various LMPD officers repeatedly violated it’s own policies and Kenny Walker’s Constitutional rights in the investigation, raid and subsequent false arrest of Kenny as an attempt to cover up their own wrongdoings in the killing of Breonna Taylor.
“It appears a federal grand jury agreed,” Romines said. “We will continue to seek justice in the civil courts as well.
Cameron initially said the grand jury declined to indict any other officers. But several anonymous grand jurors said that wasn’t true, and that they were never presented with any additional charges.
Indictments allege a cover-up
During the Thursday announcement, Garland said the federal charges focus on the conduct of LMPD’s Place-Based Investigations Unit, which lawyers for Taylor’s family labeled in a 2020 lawsuit as a “rogue” group that targeted people and drugs in Louisville’s West End.
The since-disbanded PBI Unit issued five search warrants related to suspected drug trafficking in 2020, four of which were served at properties in the West End and one at Taylor’s apartment that was roughly 10 miles away from the others on Springfield Drive in the South End.
Jaynes, Meany, the supervisor of the PBI Unit, and Goodlett, a detective in the unit, were involved in the warrant for Taylor’s home, the DOJ officials said.
Garland said the DOJ alleges the members of the PBI Unit “falsified the affidavit to used to obtain the search warrant of Ms. Taylor’s home,” which violated federal civil rights law — including Taylor’s Fourth Amendment rights — and “resulted in Ms. Taylor’s death.”
Jaynes, Meany and Goodlett sought the warrant for Taylor’s home “knowing that the officers lacked probable cause for the search,” Garland said, and they knew the affidavit in support of the warrant “contained false and misleading information and that it omitted material information.”
Garland then outlined several details that had previously surfaced when Jaynes was fired last year, namely that in the affidavit, which he swore to before a judge, Jaynes wrote he’d verified through a U.S. Postal inspector that Taylor’s ex-boyfriend Jamarcus Glover, a suspected drug trafficker, was having packages delivered to her apartment.
Goodlett added a paragraph to the affidavit stating investigators verified, through databases, that Taylor’s address was Glover’s as of February 2020, which the indictment states was misleading.
But Jaynes had actually spoken to Mattingly, who had gotten information from Shively Police, not the postal inspector. According to those Shively officers, postal inspectors said there were no packages. Police found no drugs or cash in Taylor’s apartment after the fatal shooting.
New allegations that Garland shared Thursday include that Jaynes and Goodlett met in Jaynes’ garage in May 2020 and “conspired to knowingly falsify an investigative document” and “conspired to mislead federal, state and local authorities” who were investigating the shooting.
What are the federal charges each LMPD officer faces in the Breonna Taylor case?
According to the DOJ’s news release, the first indictment, which charges Jaynes and Meany in connection with the warrant, contains four counts:
Jaynes and Meany “willfully deprived Taylor of her constitutional rights by drafting and approving a false affidavit to obtain a search warrant for Taylor’s home”;
Jaynes committed “conspiracy, for agreeing with another detective to cover up the false warrant affidavit after Taylor’s death by drafting a false investigative letter and making false statements to criminal investigators”;
Jaynes falsified a report “with the intent to impede a criminal investigation into Taylor’s death”; and
Meany made “a false statement to federal investigators.”
The second indictment is against Hankison and includes two civil rights charges alleging he “willfully used unconstitutionally excessive force, while acting in his official capacity as an officer, when he fired his service weapon into Taylor’s apartment through a covered window and covered glass door.”
The DOJ alleges Hankison used a “dangerous weapon” and his conduct involved “an attempt to kill,” with the counts charging him with:
“depriving Taylor and a person staying with Taylor in her apartment of their constitutional rights by firing shots through a bedroom window that was covered with blinds and a blackout curtain”; and
“depriving three of Taylor’s neighbors of their constitutional rights by firing shots through a sliding glass door that was covered with blinds and a curtain.”
The information charging Goodlett with conspiracy contains one count of “conspiring with Jaynes to falsify the warrant affidavit for Taylor’s home, and file a false report to cover up the false affidavit,” the DOJ announced.
All of the civil rights violations that Jaynes, Meany and Hankison face are related to the federal statute on “deprivation of rights under color of law” and carry a maximum sentence of life imprisonment “where the violation results in death or involves an attempt to kill,” according to the DOJ.
The obstruction-related charges that Jaynes and Meany face carry a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison.
The false statements offense that Meany faces carries up to five years in prison, as do the conspiracy counts that Jaynes and Goodlett face, per the DOJ.
“Actual sentences, in case of conviction, are determined by a judge,” the DOJ noted in its news release.
As a result, she was reassigned in the department.
A year later, two other LMPD officers were convicted this past June of federal civil rights violations related to the investigation. Those two are scheduled to be sentenced in September. It is unclear if Goodlett will also face charges in that case.
2 officers who fired shots that hit Breonna Taylor not charged
No federal charges were filed against the officers whose rounds struck Taylor, since they didn’t know the information in the search warrant was wrong, Garland said.
The officers who broke down Taylor’s door fired 32 rounds, with Hankison firing another 10 rounds from the side through a patio door and window, both of which were covered.
Detective Myles Cosgrove, who fired the shot that killed Taylor, and Hankison were previously terminated by LMPD for their actions. Mattingly, who fired non-fatal rounds that struck Taylor after he was shot, was cleared but retired from the department.
“The officers who ultimately carried out the search at this Taylor’s department were not involved in the drafting of the warrant, and were unaware of the false and misleading statements they contained,” Garland noted Thursday.
Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer said in a statement Thursday the indictments “are a critical step forward in the process toward achieving justice for Breonna Taylor.”
“My thoughts are with Ms. Tamika Palmer, Breonna’s mother, and all those who loved and cared for Breonna,” Fischer said. “While we cannot reverse her tragic death, we can and must continue to pursue justice for her. I deeply appreciate the hard work of the federal government to tirelessly pursue this case. And, while I know some may feel that this process has taken too long, as I have said from the beginning there can be no shortcuts to due process, no shortcuts to justice.”
“Today is an important day in that process and in the journey toward justice,” Fischer, a Democrat, added. “And, I pledge to my city that my administration will continue to be unflagging in our work to pursue this justice, and create a more equitable, safe and compassionate city for all Louisvillians.”
Earlier this year, a jury found Hankison not guilty of wanton endangerment charges that related to bullets he fired into an occupied, neighboring apartment during the raid at Taylor’s apartment. He was the only officer charged at the state level in connection with the case.
The FBI has been investigating Taylor’s death since May 2020, when it opened its “color of law” case that focuses on allegations of police officers or other officials improperly using their authority, including excessive force, false arrest or obstruction of justice.
Justice Department investigation of LMPD still underway
Last year, the DOJ also opened a “patterns and practices” investigation into LMPD and Louisville Metro Government. Thursday’s announced charges against the four defendants are separate from the ongoing “patterns and practices” probe, according to the DOJ.
Garland said last year the probe would focus on several areas, including whether the department:
Used unreasonable force, including during peaceful protests;
Engaged in unconstitutional stops, searches and seizures, including unlawful search warrant executions on private residences;
Discriminated against people based on race; and
Failed to provide public services in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
The DOJ, as part of its probe, also has been completing a comprehensive review of LMPD’s policies and training, along with an assessment of the effectiveness of its supervision of officers and its system of accountability, including its misconduct investigations.
The investigation is continuing, and Garland gave no indication when it would conclude.
Read the indictments against the 4 current and former LMPD officers
This story has been updated.
Reporters Jonathan Bullington and Krista Johnson contributed to this report.
Aug 4 (Reuters) – A Texas judge denied Alex Jones’s motion for a mistrial on Thursday as jury deliberations resumed in a defamation case over the U.S. conspiracy theorist’s false claims about the Sandy Hook mass shooting.
The mistrial request followed the disclosure during the two-week-long trial that Jones’s lawyer accidentally sent two years of the U.S. conspiracy theorist’s text messages to the plaintiffs.
Federico Andino Reynal, an attorney for Jones, told Judge Maya Guerra Gamble that attorneys for the plaintiffs should have immediately destroyed the records. An attorney for the parents, Mark Bankston, used the texts to undercut Jones’ testimony during cross-examination on Wednesday.
Jones, founder of the Infowars radio show and webcast, is on trial to determine the amount of damages he owes for spreading falsehoods about the killing of 20 children and six staff at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, on Dec. 14, 2012.
Neil Heslin and Scarlett Lewis, the parents of slain six-year-old Jesse Lewis, are seeking as much as $150 million from Jones and his company, Free Speech Systems LLC, for what their lawyer has called a “vile campaign of defamation.”
Heslin told jurors on Tuesday that Jones’ falsehoods had made his life “hell” and led to a campaign of harassment and death threats against him by people who believed he lied about his son’s death.
Jones previously claimed that the mainstream media and gun-control activists conspired to fabricate the Sandy Hook tragedy and that the shooting was staged using crisis actors.
Jones, who later acknowledged that the shooting took place, told the Austin jury on Wednesday that it was “100% real.”
Gamble issued a rare default judgment against Jones in the case in 2021.
Free Speech Systems declared bankruptcy last week. Jones said during a Monday broadcast of Infowars that the filing will help the company stay on the air while it appeals.
Jones faces a similar defamation suit in Connecticut state court, where he has also been found liable in a default judgment.
The Sandy Hook gunman, Adam Lanza, 20, used a Remington Bushmaster rifle to carry out the massacre. It ended when Lanza killed himself with the approaching sound of police sirens.
Alie Utley and Joe Moyer react to their county voting against the proposed constitutional amendment during the Kansas for Constitutional Freedom primary election watch party in Overland Park, Kansas on August 2.
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Alie Utley and Joe Moyer react to their county voting against the proposed constitutional amendment during the Kansas for Constitutional Freedom primary election watch party in Overland Park, Kansas on August 2.
DAVE KAUP/AFP via Getty Images
On Tuesday, voters in Kansas overwhelmingly rejected a ballot initiative that would have opened the door to significant abortion restrictions in the state.
The decisive vote against curbing abortion rights in a deeply conservative state has political strategists in both parties recalibrating their views on the upcoming midterm elections.
“Well, [Tuesday] night was a slap in the face to me, personally, as a consultant who’s done this for 32 years,” said Chuck Rocha, a senior Democratic operative. “When this decision came down from the Supreme Court, I was one of those folks who said that if this is your issue, you’ve already picked a team — you’re already team red or you’re team blue, and this will have some effect, but not a major effect.”
But after seeing the staggering number of voters who turned out in a state that former President Trump won by 15 points in 2020, Rocha thinks abortion rights will end up playing a larger role in the November elections.
“This proved there is energy here around this issue, and I think [Tuesday] was historic,” he said.
Republican strategist John Feehery said the Kansas outcome should be a “wake-up call” for Republicans.
“Republicans in the pro-life movement need to get their act together on the abortion issue post-Dobbs, because they’re all over the place,” he said. “The problem is that you have people wanting to be the most conservative candidate in the primary, but they take positions that are not that popular with most voters. So they need to tread carefully, they need to calibrate, they need to understand where most voters are — and most voters are in the middle. They are not on either extreme.”
He said GOP candidates need to be explicit that their views on abortion have “nothing to do with same-sex marriage, and certainly not contraception,” two issues that Democrats have forced votes on in Congress to get their Republican colleagues on record for supporting or opposing, amid concerns that the Supreme Court’s ruling could jeopardize other rights. Last month, 195 House Republicans voted against legislation aimed at protecting access to birth control.
Feehery said although Tuesday’s outcome boosts enthusiasm among Democrats nationally, the “saving grace” for Republicans is that abortion is not the number one issue facing the country.
“Inflation and the economy are much more important for most voters, and I think that that’s what they’ll vote on,” Feehery said.
According to a recent NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll, inflation is the No. 1 issue for Republicans and Independent voters as they think about the midterm elections; registered Democrats rank abortion first.
Voter registration among women in Kansas post-Dobbs was huge
Although the result of Kansas’ vote came as a surprise, it was the scope of voters who turned out in droves that stunned Tom Bonier, CEO of TargetSmart, a Democratic data firm.
“When you you analyze data, you tend to get excited when you see movements from the norm, maybe five or six points — that’s telling you that something meaningful happened, something outside of the norm. And in this case, we saw something outside of the norm by 20 points,” he said. “I’ve never seen anything to that extent in terms of that intensity.”
Over 900,000 people in Kansas cast a ballot on Tuesday, a level of participation that blows past primary turnouts out of the water and approaches the high turnout rate in the state in the 2018 general election.
Republicans have a substantial voter registration advantage in the state.
“[The results] prove that Democrats can probably peel off some of these moderate Republican women, who take this issue very personally,” Rocha said.
Bonier analyzed voter registration numbers before and after June 24, when the Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to abortion.
“What we saw there was remarkable,” Bonier said. “Seventy percent of the new voter registrants in Kansas were women. If you look at the same period of time in the previous election cycle, new voter registrants were almost exactly evenly split between men and women.”
The Dobbs decision engaged women in Kansas to an unprecedented degree.
This chart shows the percent of new registrants in the state who were women (as a 7 day average). Note the spike after the Dobbs decision leaked, and huge jump after the Supreme Court handed it down. pic.twitter.com/pvi3WpuR86
Bonier also points to the number of young people that registered to vote in the wake of the Supreme Court decision — over half are under the age of 25.
“In the 2018 general election, much of that so-called blue wave was driven by just a massive, unprecedented increase in youth turnout. So the question we’re asking ourselves at this point is, is what we saw in Kansas this week the first indicator of something similar happening in in 2022, and will we see a huge increase in women participating in this election that could produce surprising results?”
Rocha points out that demographic shifts will play a role in November as well.
“For the first time in American political history, voters of color will have a bigger impact on who controls Congress. This particular issue of choice over-indexes and impacts people with less income, mainly young women of color,” he said, pointing to key Senate races in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Georgia, Arizona and Nevada.
“If [abortion] is a motivational factor, and that was proven on Tuesday, to motivate young Black and brown voters, especially young Black and brown women, it could be the sleeping giant of this year, and will be a story that will be told for a long time.”
A Democratic pollster sees what happened in Kansas as ‘a sea change’
This year, a record number of abortion measures are on state ballots and the issue will be a factor in other races in November up and down the ballot, including for governor, Senate, House, state supreme courts and state attorneys general.
Celinda Lake, a Democratic pollster, said in the wake of the Supreme Court decision, anti-abortion rights voters “think they’ve won, so they’re not as energized.”
“We’re seeing the pro-choice voters and women in particular, younger women and baby boomer women who remember what it was like before Roe v. Wade, getting very energized and being 10 to 20 points more energized than the anti-choice voters,” she said. “That is a sea change.”
She’s heard in focus groups from voters who are concerned about a “slippery slope” — the idea that curtailing abortion rights could lead to other rights being rolled back.
“They worry about marriage equality, they worry about voting rights protections, they worry about birth control, they worry about abortion,” Lake described. “Voters in our focus groups ask, ‘What’s next?'”
Mallory Carroll, vice president of communications of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, said the results from Kansas are a “devastating loss” to the anti-abortion rights movement.
“The question now is, what lesson will pro-life Republicans learn from this disappointing loss?”
She said Republican candidates should be “very explicit” about their stances, including whether there are instances in which they think abortion should be allowed, and not shy away from tackling the topic head on.
“Republicans need to quit what they’re doing right now, which in many cases is to pretend like this issue [of abortion] doesn’t exist and focus instead on inflation, gas prices, crime, etc., to carry them over the finish line,” she said. “There’s no doubt those are very salient issues that voters care about. But if pro-life Republicans fail to define themselves and what their policy positions are, then pro-abortion Democrats will do that for them.”
The White House responds — and credits ‘power of American women’
“The court practically dared women in this country to go to the ballot box and restore the right to choose,” President Biden said Wednesday as he met virtually with White House’s Task Force on Reproductive Health Care.
Republicans and the high court “don’t have a clue about the power of American women,” Biden said. “Last night in Kansas, they found out.”
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas listens as President Biden delivers remarks virtually during the first meeting of the interagency Task Force on Reproductive Healthcare Access on August 3.
Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images
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Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas listens as President Biden delivers remarks virtually during the first meeting of the interagency Task Force on Reproductive Healthcare Access on August 3.
Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images
During that meeting, Biden signed his second executive order aimed at preserving abortion access. The order directs the Department of Health and Human Services to “consider action to advance access to reproductive healthcare services, including through Medicaid for patients who travel out of state for reproductive healthcare services.”
The order directs HHS to “consider all appropriate actions” to ensure health care providers comply with non-discrimination laws in order for people to receive “medically necessary care without delay,” noting that providers may be “confused or unsure of their obligations in the aftermath of the Supreme Court decision.”
But Biden himself has acknowledged the limits of what he and his administration can to do fully protect abortion rights. He’s repeatedly issued the message of “vote, vote, vote” in November to boost Democrats’ numbers in Congress in order to codify abortion rights into federal law and bring the legislation to his desk for signature.
China encircled Taiwan with rocket and ballistic-missile fire while testing the democratic self-governing island’s defenses with navy ships and war planes, as Beijing protested a visit by U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
“The exercises have begun,” China’s navy said on its official social-media account shortly after noon local time Thursday.
Brittney Griner offered a glimpse of her personal story while testifying in a Russian court on Thursday in a case in which she faces a possible sentence of up to 10 years in prison. Her legal team has appealed for leniency in the case, arguing that she has contributed to Russian society and that she did not intend to break the law.
“I grew up in a normal house, a normal household in Houston, Texas, with my siblings and my mom and my dad,” Ms. Griner, 31, told the court. “My parents taught me two important things: One, take ownership for your responsibilities and two, work hard for everything that you get. That’s why I pleaded guilty to my charges.”
“I understand everything that has been said against me in the charges against me, but I had no intent to break Russian law,” added Ms. Griner, who was detained in mid-February in a Moscow airport while on her way to Yekaterinburg, a Russian city near the Ural Mountains where she had been playing for a local team during the W.N.B.A. off season.
Customs officials found two vape cartridges containing less than one gram of hashish oil in her luggage.
“I want the court to understand that it was an honest mistake that I made while rushing and in stress trying to recover post-Covid and just trying to get back to my team,” she told the court on Thursday.
Ms. Griner also spoke of her time playing for UMMC Yekaterinburg.
“That hard work that my parents instilled in me is what had brought me to play for the best Russian team,” she said. “I had no idea that the team, the city, the fans and my teammates would make such a great impression on me over the six and a half years that I spent in Yekaterinburg. It became my second home with my friends, my teammates and my fans that I would always interact with.”
The basketball star apologized to her teammates on the Russian squad and the city of Yekaterinburg, her family and her fellow W.N.B.A. players, including her Arizona team, the Phoenix Mercury.
Addressing the judge in the case, Anna S. Sotnikova, Ms. Griner said, “I made an honest mistake, and I hope that in your ruling that it doesn’t end my life here.”
She also alluded to the possibility of a prisoner swap that would allow her to return to the United States, an issue that has been the subject of talks between Moscow and Washington, with pressure on President Biden to help secure her release.
“I know that everybody keeps talking about political pawn and politics, but I hope that that is far from that courtroom,” Ms. Griner said.
After hearing seven days of evidence and a range of witnesses, jurors have begun deliberations to determine how much money InfoWars host Alex Jones must pay to the parents of 6-year-old Sandy Hook shooting victim Jesse Lewis for his campaign to portray the school attack as a hoax.
The matter was handed to jurors late Wednesday afternoon, and state District Judge Maya Guerra Gamble said she doubted they would get beyond selecting a foreperson and reading the jury charge before the courthouse closed at 5 p.m.
The real work begins today.
Neil Heslin and Scarlett Lewis have asked jurors for $150 million in compensation for actual damages, saying Jones portrayal of the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting as a hoax meant to justify a government crackdown on guns — and parents as liars or collaborators — inspired harassment and death threats from Jones followers and made it impossible to heal from the tragedy.
Jones’ lawyer, Andino Reynal, asked jurors to award a total of $8 — $1 for each of the eight harms the court has already found Jones and his main company, Free Speech Systems, to have inflicted on Jesse’s parents.
At least 10 of the 12 jurors must agree on a verdict. The four alternates, two more than typical due to the pandemic and the length of the two-week trial, were dismissed Thursday.
Before hearing closing arguments Thursday, jurors were informed that Jones and Free Speech Systems defamed Heslin in two 2017 InfoWars reports that questioned his claim that he held his dead son and saw the bullet wound to his head after the shooting. Heslin testified that he made the statement in an NBC interview in hopes of stopping Jones’ campaign and protect the legacy of his son, who died a hero by yelling “Run!” when the gunman paused. Nine students fled; Jesse did not.
Jurors are to determine the amount of money that would fairly compensate Heslin for past and future damage to his reputation and past and future mental anguish caused by the defamatory reports.
Jurors also were told that Jones and his company inflicted intentional emotional distress on Heslin and Lewis by repeatedly portraying the Sandy Hook shooting as a hoax from 2012 to 2018, when they filed suit. Each parent can be compensated for past and future mental anguish.
In his closing arguments, parents lawyer Kyle Farrar reminded jurors that they were asked during jury selection whether they could approve a damages award of $100 million or more. Those who could not were weeded out during the selection process, he said.
“This is your opportunity to hold Alex Jones accountable for the harm he did,” Farrar said.
Reynal said the parents, their expert witnesses and their lawyers failed to prove that they were actually and directly harmed by Jones’ words.
Once jurors make their decisions, they will be asked to award punitive damages that are intended as punishment. First, jurors will hear from the parents’ economic expert on the net worth of Jones and his company. Jones also will testify at that phase, Reynal said.
Jones, speaking to reporters outside the courthouse Thursday evening, was asked if he accepted responsibility for causing pain to Jesse’s family.
“I did not kill their son,” Jones said. “And certainly questioning this big public thing that happened probably did cause them some pain, but it wasn’t intentional. And you can’t differentiate their pain from their son being killed with me questioning things, and the idea that I’m the progenitor that first thought all these anomalies up is simply not true.”
According to InfoWars video played for jurors, on the day of the shooting, Jones questioned whether the attack was a “false flag” operation, saying it had the earmarks of a staged operation.
New York (CNN Business)The dishonesty of right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones was spotlighted in a Texas court on Wednesday as a lawyer for a pair of Sandy Hook parents cross-examined the Infowars founder and fact-checked his answers in real-time.
TAIPEI, Aug 4 (Reuters) – China fired multiple missiles near Taiwan on Thursday in its biggest ever military drills in the Taiwan Strait, a day after U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited the self-ruled island.
The exercises began at midday and included live-firing waters to the north, south and east of Taiwan, which Beijing claims as its own. They brought volatility in the area to its worst in a quarter century.
China’s military said at around 3:30 p.m. (0730 GMT) it had completed multiple firings of conventional missiles in waters off east Taiwan as part of planned exercises in six different zones set to run until noon on Sunday.
Taiwan’s defence ministry said 11 Chinese Dongfeng ballistic missiles had been fired in waters around the island. The last time that happened was in 1996. read more
Map showing the six locations where China will conduct military drills.
Taiwan officials said the drills violated United Nations rules, invaded its space and threatened free air and sea navigation. It has been self-ruled since 1949, when Mao Zedong’s communists took power in Beijing after defeating Chiang Kai-shek’s Kuomintang (KMT) nationalists in a civil war, prompting the KMT-led government to retreat to the island.
Pelosi’s unannounced visit defied warnings from China.
Before Thursday’s drills officially began, Chinese navy ships and military aircraft briefly crossed the Taiwan Strait median line several times in the morning, a Taiwanese source briefed on the matter told Reuters. read more
By midday, warships from both sides remained in the area and in close proximity. Taiwan scrambled jets and deployed missile systems to track multiple Chinese aircraft crossing the line.
“They flew in and then flew out, again and again. They continue to harass us,” the Taiwanese source said.
China, which has long said it reserves the right to take Taiwan by force, says its differences with the island are an internal affair. read more
“Our punishment of pro-Taiwan independence diehards, external forces is reasonable, lawful,” China’s Beijing-based Taiwan Affairs Office said.
In Taiwan, life was largely normal despite worries that Beijing mayeven fire a missile over the main island as North Korea did over Japan’s northern island of Hokkaido in 2017.
“When China says it wants to annex Taiwan by force, they have actually said that for quite a while,” said Chen Ming-cheng, a 38-year-old realtor. “From my personal understanding, they are trying to deflect public anger, the anger of their own people, and turn it onto Taiwan.”
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A TV screen shows that China’s People’s Liberation Army has begun military exercises including live firing on the waters and in the airspace surrounding the island of Taiwan, as reported by Chinese state television, in Hong Kong, China August 4, 2022. REUTERS/Tyrone Siu
Taiwan said that websites of its defence ministry, foreign ministry and the presidential office were attacked by hackers, and warned of coming “psychological warfare”.
‘COMRADE PELOSI’
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi called Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan a “manic, irresponsible and highly irrational” act, state broadcaster CCTV reported.
Wang, speaking at a meeting of Southeast Asian foreign ministers in Cambodia, said China had made the utmost diplomatic effort to avert crisis but would never let its core interests be hurt.
Unusually, the drills in six areas around Taiwan were announced with a locator map circulated by China’s official Xinhua news agency – a factor that for some analysts illustrates playing to both domestic and foreign audiences. read more
In Beijing, security in the area around the U.S. Embassy remained unusually tight though there were no signs of significant protests.
“I think this (Pelosi’s visit) is a good thing,” said a man surnamed Zhao. “It gives us an opportunity to surround Taiwan, then to use this opportunity to take Taiwan by force. I think we should thank Comrade Pelosi.”
Pelosi, the highest-level U.S. visitor to Taiwan in 25 years, praised its democracy and pledged American solidarity during her brief stopover. Chinese anger could not stop world leaders from travelling there, she said.
China summoned the U.S. ambassador in Beijing in protest and halted several agricultural imports from Taiwan.
“Our delegation came to Taiwan to make unequivocally clear that we will not abandon Taiwan,” Pelosi told Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen, whom Beijing suspects of pushing for formal independence – a red line for China. read more
The United States and the foreign ministers of the Group of Seven nations warned China against using Pelosi’s visit as a pretext for military action against Taiwan.
“From where have they received such a prerogative? … To shield the infringer of rights and to accuse their defenders – how inexplicable!” responded Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi.
The United States has no official diplomatic relations with Taiwan but is bound by U.S. law to provide it with the means to defend itself.
China views visits by U.S. officials to Taiwan as sending an encouraging signal to the pro-independence camp on the island. Taiwan rejects China’s sovereignty claims, saying only Taiwanese people can decide their future.
KHIMKI, Russia (AP) — Prosecutors asked a Russian court Thursday to convict American basketball star Brittney Griner and sentence her to 9 1/2 years in prison at closing arguments in her drug possession trial.
The trial neared its end nearly six months after Griner’s arrest at a Moscow airport in a case that has reached the highest levels of U.S.-Russia diplomacy, with Washington proposing a prisoner exchange. Under Russian law, the 31-year-old Griner faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted.
Although a conviction is all but certain, given that Russian courts rarely acquit defendants and Griner has admitted to having vape cartridges with cannabis oil in her luggage, judges have considerable latitude on sentencing.
Lawyers for the Phoenix Mercury center and two-time Olympic gold medalist have pursued strategies to bolster Griner’s contention that she had no criminal intent and that the canisters ended up in her luggage due to hasty packing. They have presented character witnesses from the Russian team that she plays for in the WNBA offseason and written testimony from a doctor who said he prescribed her cannabis for pain treatment.
Griner lawyer Maria Blagovolina argued that Griner brought the cartridges with her to Russia inadvertently and only used cannabis to treat her pain from injuries sustained in her career. She said she used it only in Arizona, where medical marijuana is legal.
She emphasized that Griner was packing in haste after a grueling flight and suffering from the consequences of COVID-19. Blagovolina also pointed out that the analysis of cannabis found in Griner’s possession was flawed and violated legal procedures.
Blagovolina asked the court to acquit Griner, noting that she had no past criminal record and hailing her role in “the development of Russian basketball.”
Another defense attorney, Alexander Boykov, also emphasized Griner’s role in taking her Yekaterinburg team to win multiple championships, noting that she was loved and admired by her teammates.
He told the judge that a conviction would undermine Russia’s efforts to develop national sports and make Moscow’s call to depoliticize sports sound shallow.
Boykov added that even after her arrest, Griner won the sympathy of both her guards and prison inmates, who supported her by shouting, “Brittney, everything will be OK!” when she went on walks at the jail.
Prosecutor Nikolai Vlasenko insisted that Griner packed the cannabis oil deliberately, and he asked the court to hand Briner a fine of 1 million rubles (about $16,700) in addition to the prison sentence.
It’s not clear when the verdict will be announced. If she does not go free, attention will turn to the high-stakes possibility of a prisoner swap.
Before her trial began in July, the State Department designated her as “wrongfully detained,” moving her case under the supervision of its special presidential envoy for hostage affairs, effectively the government’s chief hostage negotiator.
Then last week, in an extraordinary move, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke to his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, urging him to accept a deal under which Griner and Paul Whelan, an American imprisoned in Russia on an espionage conviction, would go free.
The Lavrov-Blinken call marked the highest-level known contact between Washington and Moscow since Russia sent troops into Ukraine more than five months ago. The direct outreach over Griner is at odds with U.S. efforts to isolate the Kremlin.
People familiar with the proposal say it envisions trading Griner and Whelan for the notorious arms trader Viktor Bout, who is serving a prison sentence in the United States. It underlines the public pressure that the White House has faced to get Griner released.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Monday that Russia has made a “bad faith” response to the U.S. government’s offer, a counteroffer that American officials don’t regard as serious. She declined to elaborate.
Russian officials have scoffed at U.S. statements about the case, saying they show a disrespect for Russian law. They remained poker-faced, urging Washington to discuss the issue through “quiet diplomacy without releases of speculative information.”
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., right, welcomes Paivi Nevala, minister counselor of the Finnish Embassy, left, and Karin Olofsdotter, Sweden’s ambassador to the U.S., on Wednesday, Aug. 3, 2022.
J. Scott Applewhite/AP
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J. Scott Applewhite/AP
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., right, welcomes Paivi Nevala, minister counselor of the Finnish Embassy, left, and Karin Olofsdotter, Sweden’s ambassador to the U.S., on Wednesday, Aug. 3, 2022.
J. Scott Applewhite/AP
WASHINGTON — U.S. Senators delivered overwhelming bipartisan approval to NATO membership for Finland and Sweden Wednesday, calling expansion of the Western defensive bloc a “slam-dunk” for U.S. national security and a day of reckoning for Russian President Vladimir Putin over his invasion of Ukraine.
Wednesday’s 95-1 vote — for the candidacy of two Western European nations that, until Russia’s war against Ukraine, had long avoided military alliances — took a crucial step toward expansion of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and its 73-year-old pact of mutual defense among the United States and democratic allies in Europe.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer invited ambassadors of the two nations to the chamber gallery to witness the vote.
President Joe Biden, who has been the principal player rallying global economic and material support for Ukraine, has sought quick entry for the two previously non-militarily aligned northern European nations.
“This historic vote sends an important signal of the sustained, bipartisan U.S. commitment to NATO, and to ensuring our Alliance is prepared to meet the challenges of today and tomorrow,” Biden said in a statement Wednesday evening.
“I look forward to signing the accession protocols and welcoming Sweden and Finland, two strong democracies with highly capable militaries, into the greatest defensive alliance in history,” the president added.
Approval from all member nations — currently, 30 — is required. The candidacies of the two prosperous Northern European nations have won ratification from more than half of the NATO member nations in the roughly three months since the two applied. It’s a purposely rapid pace meant to send a message to Russia over its six-month-old war against Ukraine’s West-looking government.
“It sends a warning shot to tyrants around the world who believe free democracies are just up for grabs,” Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., said in the Senate debate ahead of the vote.
“Russia’s unprovoked invasion has changed the way we think about world security,” she added.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who visited Kyiv earlier this year, urged unanimous approval. Speaking to the Senate, McConnell cited Finland’s and Sweden’s well-funded, modernizing militaries and their experience working with U.S. forces and weapons systems, calling it a “slam-dunk for national security” of the United States.
“Their accession will make NATO stronger and America more secure. If any senator is looking for a defensible excuse to vote no, I wish them good luck,” McConnell said.
Sen. Josh Hawley, a Missouri Republican who often aligns his positions with those of the most ardent supporters of former President Donald Trump, cast the only no vote. Hawley took the Senate floor to call European security alliances a distraction from what he called the United States’ chief rival — China, not Russia.
“We can do more in Europe … devote more resources, more firepower … or do what we need to do to deter Asia and China. We cannot do both,” Hawley said, calling his a “classic nationalist approach” to foreign policy.
Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas, like Hawley a potential 2024 presidential contender, rebutted his points without naming his potential Republican rival.
That included arguing against Hawley’s contention a bigger NATO would mean more obligations for the U.S. military, the world’s largest. Cotton was one of many citing the two nations’ military strengths — including Finland’s experience securing its hundreds of miles of border with Russia and its well-trained ground forces, and Sweden’s well-equipped navy and air force.
They’re “two of the strongest members of the alliance the minute they join,” Cotton said.
U.S. State and Defense officials consider the two countries net “security providers,” strengthening NATO’s defense posture in the Baltics in particular. Finland is expected to exceed NATO’s 2% GDP defense spending target in 2022, and Sweden has committed to meet the 2% goal.
That’s in contrast to many of NATO’s newcomers formerly from the orbit of the Soviet Union, many with smaller militaries and economies. North Macedonia, NATO’s most recent newcomer nation, brought an active military of just 8,000 personnel when it joined in 2020.
Senators’ votes approving NATO candidacies often are lopsided — the one for North Macedonia was 91-2. But Wednesday’s approval from nearly all senators present carried added foreign policy weight in light of Russia’s war.
Schumer, D-N.Y., said he and McConnell had committed to the country’s leaders that the Senate would approve the ratification resolution “as fast as we could” to bolster the alliance “in light of recent Russian aggression.”
Sweden and Finland applied in May, setting aside their longstanding stance of military nonalignment. It was a major shift of security arrangements for the two countries after neighboring Russia launched its war on Ukraine in late February. Biden encouraged their joining and welcomed the two countries’ government heads to the White House in May, standing side by side with them in a display of U.S. backing.
The U.S. and its European allies have rallied with newfound partnership in the face of Putin’s military invasion, as well as the Russian leader’s sweeping statements this year condemning NATO, issuing veiled reminders of Russia’s nuclear arsenal and asserting Russia’s historical claims to territory of many of its neighbors.
“Enlarging NATO is exactly the opposite of what Putin envisioned when he ordered his tanks to invade Ukraine,” Sen. Bob Menendez, a New Jersey Democrat and chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said Wednesday, adding that the West could not allow Russia to “launch invasions of countries.”
Wednesday’s vote by Republicans and Democrats stood out for the normally slow-moving and divided chamber. Senators voted down a proposed amendment by Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., intended to ensure that NATO’s guarantee to defend its members does not replace a formal role for Congress in authorizing the use of military force. Paul, a longtime advocate of keeping the U.S. out of most military action abroad, voted “present” on the ratification of Sweden and Finland’s membership bid.
Senators approved another amendment from Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, declaring that all NATO members should spend a minimum of 2% of their gross domestic product on defense and 20% of their defense budgets on major equipment, including research and development.
Each member government in NATO must give its approval for any new member to join. The process ran into unexpected trouble when Turkey raised concerns over adding Sweden and Finland, accusing the two of being soft on banned Turkish Kurdish exile groups. Turkey’s objections still threaten the two countries’ membership.
While the Kansas figures are still preliminary, it appears that registered Democrats were likelier to vote than registered Republicans.
Overall, 276,000 voters participated in the Democratic primary, which was held on Tuesday as well, compared with 451,000 who voted in the Republican primary. The Democratic tally amounted to 56 percent of the number of registered Democrats in the state, while the number of Republican primary voters was 53 percent of the number of registered Republicans. (Unaffiliated voters are the second-largest group in Kansas.)
In Johnson County, outside Kansas City, Mo., 67 percent of registered Democrats turned out, compared with 60 percent of registered Republicans.
This is a rare feat for Democrats in a high-turnout election. In nearby Iowa, where historical turnout data is easily accessible, turnout among registered Democrats in a general election has never eclipsed turnout among registered Republicans in at least 40 years.
The superior Democratic turnout helps explain why the result was less favorable for abortion opponents than expected. And it confirms that Democrats are now far more energized on the abortion issue, reversing a pattern from recent elections. It may even raise Democrats’ hopes that they could defy the longstanding tendency for the president’s party to have poor turnout in midterm elections.
For Republicans, the turnout figures may offer a modest silver lining. They might reasonably hope that turnout will be more favorable in the midterms in November, when abortion won’t be the only issue on the ballot and Republicans will have many more reasons to vote — including control of Congress.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has blamed Russia for delays in the return of a Nord Stream 1 turbine that has been serviced in Canada and returned to Germany, but has not yet been returned to working use in the pipeline in Russia.
“It [the turbine] can be transported and used at any time,” Scholz said during a factory visit to Siemens Energy in Mulheim an der Ruhr, Reuters reported.
“The non-fulfilment of the gas supply contracts has no technical reasons whatsoever,” Scholz said.
The German chancellor’s comments come after Gazprom, Russia’s state gas giant, again reduced gas flows through the Nord Stream gas pipeline, which it operates, to around 20% of the pipeline’s capacity, citing the need to repair equipment.
That came after a previous 10-day stoppage of gas flows for annual maintenance, including on the Siemens Energy turbine that was sent to Canada for repair work.
The repair was carried out, with Canada returning the turbine in mid-July, but it has since been stuck in Germany, and was visited by Chancellor Scholz today, as it waits to be taken back to the Russian Portovaya compressor station.
Germany has accused Russia of holding up the process. Russia, for its part, has repeatedly said sanctions relief would help resolve energy supply issues, and the repairing and transport of gas pipeline parts.
Gazprom’s gas supply curbs have provoked criticism and condemnation in Germany and the rest of the EU, which has been reliant on Russia for around 45% of its gas imports. The bloc is trying to dramatically reduce its consumption of Russian gas, and has brought in gas rationing this coming winter, but in the meantime remains reliant on the supply.
Experts said the killing of al-Zawahri doesn’t validate Biden’s pullout from Afghanistan.
The former al-Qaida leader played a role in the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
A number of potential successors could take his place.
Some of the most basic details have been disclosed about the U.S. drone strike that killed al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahri at sunrise Saturday in Kabul, the bustling capital of Afghanistan.
But as is always the case with major counterterrorism operations, it could be weeks, months or even years before we know the answers to some of the bigger questions involving the operation – including how much of an impact it will have in terms of making Americans safer.
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