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Donald Trump Won’t Apologize To Central Park Five: “They’ve Admitted Their Guilt” – Deadline
Donald Trump Won’t Apologize To Central Park Five: “They’ve Admitted Their Guilt” – Deadline

Don’t expect an apology from President Donald Trump to the so-called Central Park Five, the five men who are the subject of Ava DuVernay’s When They See Us Netflix miniseries, which has brought renewed attention to the case.

When asked today by White House correspondent April Ryan if he would apologize to the five men who were falsely accused of a brutal rape, but were later completely exonerated, Trump asked Ryan, “Why do you bring that question up now? It’s an interesting time to bring it up.”

Trump continued, “You have people on both sides of that. They admitted their guilt. If you look at Linda Fairstein, and you look at some of the prosecutors, they think that the city should never have settled that case. So we’ll leave it at that.”

Trump in 1989 bought full page ads in New York City newspapers calling for the reinstatement of the death penalty in New York following the arrest of the five then-teens ― four of whom were black and one Hispanic ― in connection with the rape of a white jogger in Central Park.

The five were completely exonerated when another suspect was identified through DNA evidence, and a court found that the confessions to which Trump referred were coerced.

Trump has said as recently as 2016 that the five men were guilty.

When They See Us, released May 31 on Netflix, begins in the spring of 1989 when the teenagers were first questioned about the incident, through their 2002 exoneration and 2014 settlement reached with the city of New York.

Source Article from https://deadline.com/2019/06/donald-trump-wont-apologize-central-park-five-when-they-see-us-1202634547/

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Yes, illegal immigrants who break our laws twice deserve Trump’s threatened deportation – Washington Examiner
Yes, illegal immigrants who break our laws twice deserve Trump’s threatened deportation – Washington Examiner

The media outrage is itself outrageous.

President Trump’s renewed pledge to deport huge numbers of illegal immigrants is inspiring anger, but it’s hardly righteous. If, as a Homeland Security adviser has explained, the targets of Trump’s deportation plans will be those illegal immigrants who have failed to show for their assigned court hearings, then Trump is morally, ethically, and legally justified in deporting them. The tut-tutting chorus might as well spare us their faux moral histrionics.

The immigrants Trump is targeting are people who have broken American law not once but twice. First, they entered the country illegally, without papers. Second, when given a court hearing (where they could, for example, make bids for asylum or otherwise make a case for being allowed to stay), they again thumbed their noses at the legitimate authority of their generous hosts. Such poor guests deserve no sympathy, no matter what circumstances they came from.

The United States bends over backwards in trying to afford due process of law to immigrants. It holds them to comparatively lenient standards for turning illegal entry into legal status (see, for example, chain migration). Still, a sovereign nation has every good reason to protect borders and to insist that it know who is crossing its border and why. No matter what status or poverty these immigrants claim to be escaping, simple respect for their new host nation demands that they pay heed to its legal procedures.

No American can skip court hearings with impunity. Why should immigrants, especially illegal ones, be allowed to do so?

It is not heartless to demand basic obedience to our laws — especially from people who claim they want to make this their home.

A mass deportation order does not preclude moderate immigration policies in other respects, nor does it preclude reforms that would improve the process for entering the U.S. in a legal fashion. Even if Trump’s promise quickly to deport “millions” of illegal immigrants may not be logistically feasible, the order to expedite their arrests and deportations is a necessary step.

One of the greatest strengths of this great nation is its strong rule of law. That strength depends upon laws enacted by delegates of the citizenry being enforced. If immigrants will not respect this rule of law, they have no business spending another day in this blessed land that the law protects.

Source Article from https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/yes-illegal-immigrants-who-break-our-laws-twice-deserve-trumps-threatened-deportation

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Pompeo warns Iran about trigger for U.S. military action as some in administration question aggressive policy – The Washington Post
Pompeo warns Iran about trigger for U.S. military action as some in administration question aggressive policy – The Washington Post

Missy Ryan

Greg Jaffe

John Hudson

June 18 at 7:35 PM

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has privately delivered warnings intended for Iranian leaders that any attack by Tehran or its proxies resulting in the death of even one American service member will generate a military counterattack, U.S. officials said.

The potential for a significant military response to even an isolated event has fueled a broader internal debate among top Trump officials about whether the administration’s policy exceeds President Trump’s specific goal of preventing Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon, the officials said.

One such message about retaliation was delivered during a hastily arranged visit to Baghdad by Pompeo in May after officials detected a spike in intelligence indicating that Iran’s militia proxies might resume assaults on U.S. forces operating in proximity to them across Iraq. While such attacks were common during the Iraq War, Pompeo told Iraqi leaders in a message he knew would be relayed to Tehran that a single American fatality would prompt the United States to hit back. That specific warning has not been previously reported.

“What happens if Americans are killed? That changes the whole thing,” said a senior administration official involved in Iran policy who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity to talk freely. “It changes everything.”

[Trump rails against Iran. But who’s listening?]

Speaking during a visit to U.S. Central Command headquarters in Tampa on Tuesday, Pompeo said Trump “does not want war” but stressed the United States would act if assaulted. “We are there to deter aggression,” he said. Trump himself has sent mixed messages about the seriousness of Iran’s actions and how he would respond to them.

The sudden departure Tuesday of Patrick Shanahan, who has served as acting defense secretary since January, could further sideline the Pentagon, which has campaigned to reduce the potential for hostilities. Shanahan’s withdrawal followed revelations of a complicated domestic dispute.

Concerns about an escalation are particularly pointed at the Pentagon, where the absence of a confirmed secretary has fueled worries that hawks in the White House and State Department could push the military beyond its specific mission of destroying the remnants of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, raising the potential for conflict with Iran.

Administration officials interviewed by The Washington Post said that national security adviser John Bolton has dominated Iran policy, keeping a tight rein on information that gets to the president and sharply reducing meetings in which top officials gather in the White House’s Situation Room to discuss the policy.

A spokesman for the Pentagon declined to comment, and a spokesman for the National Security Council did not provide a comment.

An attack last week on two oil tankers in waters off Iran, which the Trump administration has blamed on Tehran, and Iranian leaders’ threat to violate the 2015 international nuclear deal have added urgency to Pentagon worries that a miscalculation on the part of Iranian proxy forces could spark conflict.

On Monday, the Pentagon said it would send an additional 1,000 troops to the Middle East, another step to beef up the U.S. posture in the region.

The reinforcements come as the administration’s “maximum pressure campaign,” spearheaded by Bolton and Pompeo, undermines the Iranian economy. That campaign, initiated after Trump pulled out of the nuclear accord with Tehran, was recently expanded to include the designation of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist group and steps to starve Iran of oil revenue.

The intensification of that campaign has triggered internal debates over how best to execute the president’s orders. At the State Department this spring, an argument among officials over how hard to squeeze Iran with sanctions ended with those favoring the toughest possible approach prevailing. In particular, hard-liners at the White House squelched waivers that would have allowed Iran to keep selling oil after a May 1 deadline. White House aides also ended waivers that allowed Iran to swap its enriched uranium for natural uranium, an integral part of the nuclear deal.

While State Department officials sought to achieve a “sweet spot” that would weaken Iran through sanctions but not push so hard that Iran would withdraw from the nuclear deal, others have argued that Trump’s goal is to destroy the accord at any cost and pursue a more expansive policy that seeks to cripple Iran’s proxy forces throughout the region.

Pentagon and State Department officials have complained, however, about the difficulty of getting an adequate hearing for these debates under Bolton. As a result, arguments about policy frequently are not aired and do not reach the president. The process is “very exclusionary, and Bolton has very sharp elbows,” the senior administration official said.

U.S. allies in Europe have voiced concern about Iran’s activities but also urged both sides to avoid increasing tensions. A German official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said Berlin wants the situation to de-escalate and believes the U.S. pressure campaign sparked the Iranian response. The Americans “created this mess, and now they have to find a way to get out.”

While officials at the Pentagon have acted to support the administration’s pressure campaign, some have raised concerns that escalating action may inadvertently make the United States less, not more, safe in the Middle East and undermine the president’s goal of bringing troops home from the region.

At the Pentagon, officials have quietly voiced concerns for months that the current trajectory might make military conflict a self-fulfilling prophecy.

“The administration’s bellicose, go-for-broke tactics for dealing with Iran are fundamentally at odds with the president’s insistence on extricating the United States from costly and protracted military conflicts,” said Suzanne Maloney, an Iran scholar at the Brookings Institution. “Applying maximalist pressure, even if it is primarily economic rather than military, will tend to inspire proportional responses.”

In recent months, military leaders have sought to tread a careful line: securing military resources they believe are needed to properly defend American troops in the region and deter Iranian provocations without increasing the odds of a war — which they have said would be long and bloody.

One person familiar with the recent discussions said that Pentagon officials, including Shanahan, have been “the ones putting the brakes” on the State Department and the White House. “DOD is not beating the drums of war,” the person said.

While the White House has already approved requests for thousands of additional forces for U.S. Central Command, its commander, Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, may well make additional requests in coming weeks.

“Does the president want to send more troops? No. Will he be convinced to do it? Yes,” the senior administration official said.

Trump, in contrast to some of his advisers, has seemed to downplay the significance of Iran’s actions. In an interview published Tuesday by Time magazine, he said the recent oil tanker attacks were “very minor.”

On Capitol Hill, some lawmakers pushed back on that idea.

“He sure didn’t suggest that to me Sunday,” said Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.), referring to a Father’s Day golf game he played with the president. “He was very upset about where Iran’s going. You can’t have provocative acts by rogue regimes go unanswered.”

The biggest fear is that Iran could trigger a larger conflict if one of its proxies in Iraq or Syria fired a volley of mortar rounds or rockets at an American base and killed U.S. personnel. Such attacks were common only a few years ago. On Tuesday, Sky News Arabia reported that rockets had been fired at an area of Mosul, in northern Iraq, where U.S. military trainers are stationed. It was unclear who fired them.

In 2011, as U.S. troops were preparing to leave Iraq, Iranian-backed proxies launched rocket attacks on American forces. The top commander in the region at the time, Gen. Jim Mattis, pressed the Obama administration for a retaliatory strike against Iran.

One option was a dead-of-night attack on an Iranian power plant or oil refinery, according to officials familiar with the deliberations. The Obama administration never authorized a strike.

Karoun Demirjian and Souad Mekhennet contributed to this report.

Source Article from https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/pompeo-warns-iran-about-trigger-for-us-military-action-as-some-in-administration-question-aggressive-policy/2019/06/18/48bd3be0-9116-11e9-b570-6416efdc0803_story.html

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Patrick Shanahan said that son hit mother with baseball bat ‘in self-defense’ – Washington Examiner
Patrick Shanahan said that son hit mother with baseball bat ‘in self-defense’ – Washington Examiner

Outgoing Pentagon chief Patrick Shanahan’s son once beat his mother with a baseball bat so brutally it cracked her skull and left her unconscious in a pool of blood.

Details of the 2011 incident emerged after Shanahan, 56, a former Boeing executive, stepped down as acting Defense Secretary and deputy Pentagon chief, departing government service to, in the words of President Trump, “take some time off for family matters.”

Immediately after the 2011 incident, Shanahan defended the actions of his son William, then 17, something he now says he regrets. His account of what he described as “a tragedy, really,” was laid out in an excruciatingly detailed report by the Washington Post, with whom he had been outlining since January his family’s history of domestic violence.

The distressing events appear to have begun seven years before his three children, sitting in the U.S. Capitol, watched as their father was confirmed as deputy defense secretary.

By that point, all three, Caili, now 28, William, 25, and Jordan, 20, were estranged from their mother, Kimberley Jordinson. William had a felony conviction resulting from the 2011 incident. Shanahan and his wife had divorced.

After more than two decades of marriage, the couple’s relationship soured, according Shanahan and two of his children. One Thanksgiving, they said she threw the entire meal onto the floor and in another instance, she destroyed the cake her daughter had made for Shanahan’s birthday.

The culmination of Jordinson’s alleged erratic behavior came in August 2010, when she began beating her husband repeatedly in the face as he tried to fall asleep.

Shanahan states he did not respond, but the argument escalated to the point where, according to police records, Jordinson began throwing his clothes out the window and attempting to set them on fire. She called the police alleging that Shanahan hit her, but when police arrived Jordinson was arrested and charged with domestic violence.

The charges were dropped and Shanahan filed for divorce. His ex-wife Jordinson was granted custody of the children, taking them with her to Florida while Shanahan remained in Seattle, where they had lived.

It was November 2011 when the baseball bat incident occurred. William got into an argument with his mother over suspicion that he was romantically involved with a 36-year-old woman. The dispute escalated to the point where, according to police, William pinned his mother against a wall and grabbed his $400 Nike composite baseball bat and struck her in the head multiple times.

“I attempted to run away from Will, but as I reached the laundry room, he struck me with the bat in the back of my head,” Jordinson wrote in a court filing in the divorce case. “The last thing I remember from before I lost consciousness is the impact of the bat, and blood gushing everywhere.”

Police said in the report that William left his mother unconscious in a “pool of blood” and then “unplugged the landline phone cord depriving the victim and [the younger brother] the use of 911 to render aid.”

William allegedly tossed a bottle of rubbing alcohol at his younger brother and told him, “you clean her up.” The younger brother called 911 from the phone of a neighbor’s house.

William called his father, who immediately booked a flight to Florida. Jordinson required surgery. Her skull and elbow were fractured.

Police in Sarasota, where the Jordinson and the children lived, began to hunt for William. But Shanahan landed and arranged a hotel for William. “Mr. Shanahan’s response when he learned of the assault was to book Will a hotel room,” Jordinson wrote.

Shanahan told the Washington Post: “It was a hard time to see your son, hopefully you’ll never be in that spot some day. I wasn’t hiding. We got a hotel and talked to the attorney and we just camped out.”

In the aftermath of the beating, Shanahan assembled a legal defense team to support his son. William’s defense attorney, Derek Byrd, claimed that Shanahan didn’t know that police were searching for his son in the days after the beating.

Days after the assault, after discussions with his father, William turned himself in to police.

During William’s initial court appearance, also attended by Jordinson, Byrd argued that William should stay out of jail because he was a college baseball prospect and “has a future.” Byrd also told the judge that being in jail would “traumatize him” and he might get kicked off of the baseball team.

“He doesn’t believe in violence,” Shanahan told the judge that day, “I’ve never seen him act aggressively toward his brother or any other family members, so it’s a shock to me, what has happened.”

Despite the pleas by Byrd and Shanahan, the judge declined to release William, citing the “horrendous” photos from the crime scene. William was slapped with the felony charges of aggravated battery and tampering with a victim, although he ended up pleading guilty to one third-degree felony.

Shanahan wrote a memo to Jordinson’s brother defending his son. Submitted 10 days after Shanahan appeared in court with his son, he alleged that his wife turned her aggression from him to their children.

“Use of a baseball bat in self-defense will likely be viewed as an imbalance of force,” Shanahan wrote. “However, Will’s mother harassed him for nearly three hours before the incident.”

Jordinson disputed that claim, saying in a court filing that she has “always been a very loving and dedicated mom.”

Shanahan has since distanced himself from the memo, telling the Washington Post that there was no justification for the assault and that he wrote the document in the hours after the attack before understanding the severity of his ex-wife’s injuries.

“Quite frankly it’s difficult to relive that moment and the passage was difficult for me to read. I was wrong to write those three sentences,” Shanahan said. “I have never believed Will’s attack on his mother was an act of self-defense or justified. I don’t believe violence is appropriate ever, and certainly never any justification for attacking someone with a baseball bat.”

“I have never believed Will’s attack on his mother was an act of self-defense or justified. I don’t believe violence is appropriate ever, and certainly never any justification for attacking someone with a baseball bat,” he added.

In 2012, a Florida state prosecutor agreed to a “withhold of adjudication,” which shortened his sentence. William was sentenced to spend 18 months at a youth detention ranch and serve four years on probation. Both of those penalties were reduced.

William went on to attend the University of Washington, graduating last June. Jordinson lost custody of the youngest of the children in 2014. She is now estranged from all three of them.

“Bad things can happen to good families,” Shanahan said, adding that details of what happened “will ruin my son’s life.”

Source Article from https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/patrick-shanahan-said-that-son-hit-mother-with-baseball-bat-in-self-defense

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New poll shows Biden and other top Democrats beating Trump in Florida – CNN
New poll shows Biden and other top Democrats beating Trump in Florida – CNN

Chat with us in Facebook Messenger. Find out what’s happening in the world as it unfolds.

Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2019/06/18/politics/poll-biden-trump-quinnipiac-florida-june-2019/index.html

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Your questions about the Dominican Republic tourist deaths, answered – CNN
Your questions about the Dominican Republic tourist deaths, answered – CNN

Chat with us in Facebook Messenger. Find out what’s happening in the world as it unfolds.

Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2019/06/18/americas/dominican-republic-deaths-questions-trnd/index.html

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Feds seize more than 16 tons of cocaine at Philadelphia terminal – CNN
Feds seize more than 16 tons of cocaine at Philadelphia terminal – CNN

Chat with us in Facebook Messenger. Find out what’s happening in the world as it unfolds.

Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2019/06/18/us/philadelphia-cocaine-bust/index.html

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As U.S. and Iran Face Off, Europe Is Stuck in the Middle – The New York Times
As U.S. and Iran Face Off, Europe Is Stuck in the Middle – The New York Times

“I think Iran has made a response, and not a particularly radical or extreme response, to what it sees as U.S. escalation in the Gulf,” said Nathalie Tocci, an adviser to the European foreign-policy chief, Federica Mogherini. “The European role should be to attempt to reverse this vicious cycle and ensure that Iran sees an interest in living up to its side of the bargain even with the U.S. violating it.”

Now, with Iran’s new deadline threats, European officials say they are working to get at least one Instex deal done quickly, as an effort to get Iran to stay within agreed limits.

On Monday, after a meeting of European foreign and defense ministers, Ms. Mogherini made it clear that Europe was not eager to find Iran in breach of its obligations. Iran’s announcements were merely “policy dialectics,” she said, and Europe would wait for the International Atomic Energy Agency to declare if and when Iran is violating the deal. The last agency report, from the end of May, found Iran in compliance.

For Mr. Shapiro, Ms. Mogherini’s reaction was quintessentially European, legalistic and reluctant to judge.

Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/18/world/europe/iran-us-nuclear-europe.html

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Dallas courthouse shooter’s disturbing Facebook posts paint troubling picture as search for motive continues – Fox News
Dallas courthouse shooter’s disturbing Facebook posts paint troubling picture as search for motive continues – Fox News
Video

Masked gunman who opened fire outside Dallas courthouse identified as Army veteran

A masked gunman who traded gunfire with police outside a federal courthouse in Dallas is a 22-year-old recent college graduate who served 19 months in the U.S. Army; Casey Stegall reports.

A disturbing picture emerged Tuesday of 22-year-old Dallas shooter Brian Isaack Clyde, with the Army veteran’s social media posts providing a glimpse into the man who — for some reason — opened fire with a rifle outside of a federal courthouse yesterday before being shot dead by police.

Clyde, a Fort Worth resident who, authorities say, showed up at the Earle Cabell Federal Building around 8:40 a.m. Monday carrying more than 150 rounds of ammunition, had flaunted his arsenal on his Facebook profile in the weeks leading up to the attack.

“I don’t know how much longer I have, but – the f—— storm is coming,” he says in one video posted June 9. “However, I’m not without defense.”

Clyde then holds up a rifle in front of the camera as candlelight flickers off his face.

“Yeah. I’m f—— ready, let’s do it,” he says.

This undated photo provided by Del Mar College in Corpus Christi, Texas, shows Brian Isaack Clyde. Clyde, an Army veteran wearing a mask and carrying more than 150 rounds of ammunition for his high-powered rifle, opened fire outside a federal courthouse Monday in downtown Dallas. (AP/Del Mar College)

FBI SAYS IT’S ‘AGGRESSIVELY’ INVESTIGATING CLYDE’S SOCIAL MEDIA ACTIVITY

In another video, posted three days earlier, Clyde appears to drink an unknown red liquid before declaring: “I’ll show you whose power is greatest.”

“Prepare to be defeated,” he adds, although it is not clear what – or whom – he is referencing.

Other recent images Clyde posted included one of a knife and another, on Saturday, of numerous rifle magazines spread across a floor. The same magazines and knife appeared to be attached to his belt area on Monday as the shooting unfolded. No one – except Clyde, who later died at a local hospital – was hurt in the attack.

“It’s a lot of rounds — a lot of rounds at his disposal, a large powerful weapon at his disposal,” the Associated Press quoted FBI agent Matthew DeSarno as saying.

In late May, Clyde graduated from Del Mar College in Corpus Christi with an associate degree in applied science in nondestructive testing technology. The college told the AP that he was recognized as an outstanding student during a ceremony in April, in a field where professionals “examine vehicles and structures for flaws and defects using non-destructive techniques.”

Gunman taken into custody after firing rifle outside of Dallas courthouse

Raw video: Gunman taken into custody after firing rifle outside of a courthouse in downtown Dallas, Texas. The suspect is seen running in the Earle Cabell Federal Building parking lot.

Prior to his time in school there, he served as an infantryman in the U.S. Army from August 2015 to February 2017. But individuals who say they served with him in the 101st Airborne at Fort Campbell in Kentucky told WFAA that Clyde was discharged because he couldn’t pass physical training tests.

WITNESS SAYS DALLAS COURTHOUSE SHOOTER FIRED ROUNDS OFF FOR 45 SECONDS

One former Army colleague, Dennis Bielby, told the Dallas Morning News that Clyde had struggled with the rigors of military life, yet acted “kind and gentle.”

Another, Matthew Newell, described Clyde as a gun enthusiast who loved military history and medieval weapons.

Clyde grew up attending high school in the Dallas area and records showed he has had no previous run-ins with the law, KDFW reported. The station, citing federal agents, added that Clyde also was not on watch lists of any kind.

ATF officials are now working to determine where Clyde obtained the rifle used in Monday’s shooting, which happened just one block away from where five police officers were murdered in a 2016 ambush attack.

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On Monday, FBI agents also searched Clyde’s apartment in Fort Worth and removed a box of material, according to the Dallas Morning News. A neighbor who lived above Clyde told the newspaper that she would often see people entering and exiting his apartment and that it usually reeked of the smell of marijuana.

A motive for the shooting Monday has not yet been revealed.

Fox News’ Frank Miles contributed to this report.

Source Article from https://www.foxnews.com/us/dallas-shooters-troubling-facebook-posts

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William Barr’s Justice Department Is Now Openly Running Legal Interference for Paul Manafort – Slate
William Barr’s Justice Department Is Now Openly Running Legal Interference for Paul Manafort – Slate

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Source Article from https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/06/paul-manafort-william-barr-new-york-prison.html

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As Trump’s defense pick withdraws, he addresses violent domestic incidents – The Washington Post
As Trump’s defense pick withdraws, he addresses violent domestic incidents – The Washington Post

In the months that he has served as President Trump’s acting secretary of defense, Patrick Shanahan has worked to keep domestic violence incidents within his family private. His wife was arrested after punching him in the face, and his son was arrested after a separate incident in which he hit his mother with a baseball bat. Public disclosure of the nearly decade-old episodes would re-traumatize his young adult children, Shanahan said.

On Tuesday, Trump announced in a tweet that Shanahan would not be going through with the nomination process — which had been delayed by an unusually lengthy FBI background check — “so that he can devote more time to his family.”

Shanahan spoke publicly about the incidents in interviews with The Washington Post on Monday and Tuesday.

“Bad things can happen to good families . . . and this is a tragedy, really,” Shanahan said. Dredging up the episode publicly, he said, “will ruin my son’s life.”

In November 2011, Shanahan rushed to defend his then-17-year-old son, William Shanahan, in the days after the teenager brutally beat his mother. The attack had left Patrick Shanahan’s ex-wife unconscious in a pool of blood, her skull fractured and with internal injuries that required surgery, according to court and police records.

Two weeks later, Shanahan sent his ex-wife’s brother a memo arguing that his son had acted in self-defense.

“Use of a baseball bat in self-defense will likely be viewed as an imbalance of force,” Shanahan wrote. “However, Will’s mother harassed him for nearly three hours before the incident.”

Details of the incidents have started to emerge in media reports about his nomination, including a USA Today report Tuesday about the punching incident in 2010.

In an hour-long interview Monday night at his apartment in Virginia, Shanahan, who has been responding to questions from The Post about the incidents since January, said he wrote the memo in the hours after his son’s attack, before he knew the full extent of his ex-wife’s injuries. He said that it was to prepare for his son’s initial court appearance and that he never intended for anyone other than his son’s attorneys to read it.

“That document literally was, I sat down with [my son] right away, and being an engineer at an aerospace company, you write down what are all of the mitigating reasons something could have happened. You know, just what’s the list of things that could have happened?” he said.

As he wrote in the divorce case, Shanahan said Monday that he does not believe there can be any justification for an assault with a baseball bat, but he went further in the interview, saying he now regrets writing the passage.

“Quite frankly it’s difficult to relive that moment, and the passage was difficult for me to read. I was wrong to write those three sentences,” Shanahan said.

“I have never believed Will’s attack on his mother was an act of self-defense or justified. I don’t believe violence is appropriate ever, and certainly never any justification for attacking someone with a baseball bat,” he said.

Kimberley Shanahan, who has since changed her name to Kimberley Jordinson, has not responded to repeated efforts by reporters since January to contact her via email, text, phone and social media seeking comment about the incidents.

Patrick Shanahan’s response when his family was split by acts of domestic violence — including steps he took to manage his son’s surrender to police and attempt to keep him out of jail — is detailed in court filings that have not been previously reported. Court records also contain an earlier episode in which both Shanahan and his wife alleged they were assaulted by one another, and she was arrested.

The Defense Department has long struggled with its own responses to domestic violence, and it has faced a fresh wave of criticism since shortly after Shanahan became deputy secretary of defense in July 2017.

In November of that year, an airman who had been court-martialed for assaulting his wife and stepson killed 26 people and wounded 22 others in a Texas church. A Defense Department investigation later faulted the Air Force for repeatedly failing to submit the serviceman’s fingerprints to a civilian database, which it said should have prevented him from purchasing the firearms used in the mass shooting.

Last month, the Department of Defense Office of Inspector General admonished the Army, Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps, saying they failed for decades to consistently follow policies requiring military police to thoroughly process crime scenes and interview witnesses following allegations of nonsexual domestic abuse. The watchdog said that in 180 of 219 cases it reviewed, the branches failed to submit criminal histories and fingerprints of offending servicemen to civilian authorities.

Shanahan said his personal experience with domestic violence has taught him there are no simple policy prescriptions. He said domestic violence rates in the military will improve only if the services can change the way they talk about the stresses of serving in the armed forces in a more honest and natural way.

“There’s not one size that fits all — I mean, it’s a very complicated issue,” he said. “It’s not as simple as take this training class or apply these resources or, you know, look for these kinds of symptoms. I mean, it’s not that simple. There are all sorts of dimensions, whether it’s mental health or addiction or stress in the home. It’s a very toxic concoction.

“The thing that’s probably, like a lot of other issues . . . is having a buddy system of people who really care about you and can intervene,” he said. “What I’ve learned is extremely important.”

Patrick Shanahan, 56, climbed the ranks at Boeing over more than two decades, becoming vice president and general manager of the corporation’s commercial airplane program in 2008. An exacting, hard-charging executive who worked grueling hours, he earned the sobriquet “Mr. Fix It” for his ability to turn around sputtering projects worth billions of dollars, such as the aerospace giant’s delayed 787 Dreamliner program. 

By 2010, Shanahan was earning more than $935,000 annually in salary and bonuses, court records show. 

But there was turbulence in Shanahan’s personal life with his wife of 24 years. Shanahan and two of his children interviewed by The Post said Kimberley Shanahan was growing more erratic. One Thanksgiving, she threw the entire dinner on the floor, saying the family did not appreciate her efforts, they said. A birthday cake his daughter baked for Patrick Shanahan was similarly destroyed, they said.

Things culminated with a physical dispute in August 2010. According to Patrick Shanahan, the incident began when he was lying in bed, following an argument with his wife about their oldest child.

Shanahan said he had his eyes closed, trying to fall asleep, when his wife entered the bedroom and punched him in the face before landing blows to his torso.

“I was seeing stars,” Shanahan said, but he didn’t react, saying he believes that only further enraged his wife.

She then began throwing her husband’s clothes out of a window, according to police and court records, and tried to set them on fire with a propane tank she couldn’t dislodge from a barbecue grill, attempting again later by burning paper towels.

Another physical altercation ensued, with police records indicating that Kimberley Shanahan swung at Patrick Shanahan. She called the police and claimed he punched her in the stomach, an allegation he denies. 

When officers arrived, they found him with a bloody nose and scratches on his face, police records show. Authorities charged his wife with domestic violence.

Patrick Shanahan soon filed for divorce and dropped the charges. The file would grow to more than 1,500 pages.

Kimberley Shanahan won custody of the children and moved to Florida. Patrick Shanahan remained in Seattle, but the couple’s eldest daughter would soon rejoin him to attend college.

Shortly after midnight on Wednesday, Nov. 23, 2011, Kimberley Shanahan and William got into “a verbal dispute” over her suspicion that the 17-year-old was in a romantic relationship with a 36-year-old woman, according to a police report.

According to police, just after 1:30 a.m., William “shoved and pinned his mother against a bathroom wall” before grabbing a $400 Nike composite baseball bat “to swing at her head,” striking her multiple times. 

“I attempted to run away from Will, but as I reached the laundry room, he struck me with the bat in the back of my head,” Kimberley Shanahan wrote in a court filing in the divorce case. “The last thing I remember from before I lost consciousness is the impact of the bat, and blood gushing everywhere.”

William, Sarasota police wrote, struck several blows to his mother’s head and torso and left her “to lie in a pool of blood” and then “unplugged the landline phone cord depriving the victim and [the younger brother] the use of 911 to render aid.”

As William fled the home, situated in an exclusive barrier-island development called Bird Key just outside Sarasota, he “tossed a bottle of rubbing alcohol” to his younger brother and told him “you clean her up,” according to the police report.

The younger brother called 911 from a neighbor’s phone, according to police records.

Within hours, William contacted his father, who immediately booked a predawn flight to Florida, according to court records and documents provided by the Pentagon.

Kimberley Shanahan was hospitalized early that morning and later required surgery, she wrote in a divorce filing. Among her injuries were a fractured skull and elbow, according to the police report.

While she was in the hospital, authorities began to search for William, according to records released to The Post by Sarasota police. 

Police distributed a photo of William to patrol cars on Bird Key. They tried to track the young man’s cellphone, but it appeared to be turned off, police wrote. They canvassed a local park and bridges to the mainland. They searched a local yacht club. But there was no trace of him, according to records.

Patrick Shanahan landed in Florida just before 5 p.m. on Wednesday. He arranged to stay with William in a hotel. 

“Mr. Shanahan’s response when he learned of the assault was to book Will a hotel room,” Kimberley Shanahan wrote. 

Shanahan said it’s a bit of a blur.

“It was a hard time to see your son — hopefully you’ll never be in that spot someday,” he said. “I wasn’t hiding. We got a hotel and talked to the attorney, and we just camped out.”

Shanahan did not visit the hospital where Kimberley Shanahan was taken, she later wrote in a divorce filing. Instead, over four days that included Thanksgiving, he worked to assemble a defense team and enlist family members and friends to attend an initial hearing to try to persuade a judge to let his son stay out of jail while he fought the charges.

Derek Byrd, head of a well-known Sarasota defense firm hired by Patrick Shanahan to represent his son in the criminal case, said in an interview that the elder Shanahan acted appropriately by not contacting police until his son could consult a defense attorney, a process that was delayed by the Thanksgiving holiday.

Byrd also said that Patrick Shanahan was not aware that police were searching for his son in the days after the attack.

“I don’t think Pat handled that time frame inappropriately,” Byrd said in an interview. “I think he was just doing what a reasonable dad should probably do. I’m sure the timeline looks bad on paper, but he didn’t do anything that I consider out of the ordinary, and he wasn’t hiding Will.”

Byrd said Patrick Shanahan first contacted his firm within a day of arriving in Florida, either Wednesday night or Thursday, which was Thanksgiving. He said a lawyer from the firm could not meet with the Shanahans until Friday morning, after the holiday.

Later on Friday, another attorney from the firm contacted the detective handling the case, Kenneth Halpin.

According to the detective’s report, the attorney said he would arrange for the younger Shanahan to turn himself in — after two more days, on Sunday evening, Nov. 27. 

“Detective Halpin trusted us to do that,” Byrd told The Post. “He said, ‘Fine.’ ”

Halpin told The Post that he could not recall the conversation but probably would have cast it differently:

“If someone calls and says they’re going to turn in a suspect on a Sunday night, and he’s already lawyered up with someone who has a reputation like Byrd, for being on TV, what can you do? You can’t force an attorney to turn in his client,” Halpin said, adding: “I’m sure I would have also told him that there’s paper out for him, so they’re still going to snatch him up if he’s found.”

That Sunday night, Patrick Shanahan drove William to a police station to surrender, according to police records and a timeline of events prepared by the Pentagon.

His mother attended his court appearance the next morning. 

“My neighbor took me to the court hearing, and both of us were shocked to see Pat in the courtroom,” she wrote in the divorce filing, saying she had believed until then that he had been in Seattle.

Patrick Shanahan and Byrd came to the hearing prepared to plead for the younger Shanahan to remain out of custody, citing his baseball career at an exclusive youth sports academy and prep school attended by sons and daughters of major league athletes.

“He’s a college baseball prospect. He has dreams. He has a future. His father is an executive of Boeing,” Byrd said, according to an audio recording that the court released to The Post. “If he has to sit in jail for 21 days, not only is that going to traumatize him, he’s not going to finish the semester, probably get kicked off the baseball team . . . everything is going to be over for him.”

Patrick Shanahan also vouched for his son.

“He doesn’t believe in violence,” he told the judge. “I’ve never seen him act aggressively toward his brother or any other family members, so it’s a shock to me what has happened.”

The judge declined to release William Shanahan, calling pictures of the crime scene “horrendous.” 

He was initially charged with two felonies, aggravated battery and tampering with a victim, and faced up to 15 years in prison.

In the divorce filing is the four-page memo Patrick Shanahan wrote at the time.

It lists “mitigating circumstances” that should be considered in evaluating the alleged assault.

A Pentagon spokesman provided a copy of the email containing the memo retained by Shanahan’s brother-in-law, showing it had been sent on Dec. 8, 2011, two weeks after the attack, and 10 days after Patrick Shanahan was present at the court hearing with his injured ex-wife.

First, Patrick Shanahan wrote, his 17-year-old son had “acted in self-defense.”

“She fueled the situation by berating him repeatedly in his room in a manner that escalated emotionally and physically,” he wrote.

The memo continues, alleging a history of substance abuse, emotional abuse and violent tendencies by Kimberley Shanahan. “Over the last 7+ years I have worked as much as possible, partially out of a desire to avoid inevitable conflicts with Kim,” Shanahan wrote. It casts his ex-wife as the instigator in conflicts with him and their children. “It appears that when I was not around to yell at, she started becoming intensely focused on berating, terrorizing and beat them down emotionally.”

Kimberley Shanahan disputed those characterizations.

“I have always been a very loving and dedicated mom,” she wrote in a court filing responding to the memo, “and I have never emotionally abused any of my children for any period of time.”

Kevin Cameron, Kimberley Shanahan’s brother, said he was not bothered by Patrick Shanahan’s memo because he believed Shanahan wrote it before he had all of the facts about the assault.

“If anything, I believe Pat fully understands and is better equipped to deal with domestic violence than most people,” Cameron wrote in a letter to The Post. “He has seen it. He has lived it. He understands that domestic violence is real and prevalent. He understands that it can impact anyone of any age, gender, race and socioeconomic status.”

Kris Roberts, a police officer who assisted in the search for William Shanahan, recalled that after the arrest, his father was a “hindrance” in a follow-up matter, as police investigated whether there had been an inappropriate relationship between the adult woman and William. Under Florida law, William was too young at the time to have had a consenting sexual relationship with the woman. Roberts, a retired detective with the Longboat Key Police Department, said the father, whom she could not remember by name, would not turn over his son’s cellphone. 

After the surrender to police, “his father would not talk to me; he wasn’t helping,” Roberts said. “I remember he had a West Coast address, Seattle maybe, and when he left, the son’s cellphone was just gone.” Roberts said she believes Patrick Shanahan took his son’s cellphone back to Seattle with him.

Roberts said that without the cooperation of the father, the investigation fell apart. “We only had one love letter between them, but it didn’t speak to anything sexual,” Roberts said. The adult woman “soon lawyered up, too, and we moved on.”

Byrd, the attorney for William Shanahan; an attorney who represents Patrick Shanahan in Seattle; and a Shanahan spokesman said they were not aware of a formal request for the cellphone.

Prosecutors would go on to charge William as an adult with one felony: aggravated battery with a deadly weapon. He pleaded down to a third-degree felony, and in 2012, a state prosecutor agreed to a “withhold of adjudication,” curtailing the length of the sentence and probation. The post-sentencing maneuver is not recognized outside of Florida, and William’s record could not be sealed or expunged in the state because it involved a violent domestic assault.

William was ordered to spend 18 months at a Florida Sheriffs Youth Ranch and sentenced to four years’ probation. Both penalties were later reduced.

The following year, in 2013, William enrolled at the University of Washington, according to his LinkedIn page. His father had recently joined the university’s board of regents. The family had other ties to the school. Patrick’s father, Michael, had served as police chief for the university for more than two decades. 

William graduated last June with a degree in political science, a university spokesman said.

Kimberley Shanahan lost custody of the couple’s youngest child in 2014, when a judge wrote that she had “engaged in abusive use of conflict that is seriously detrimental” to the child. According to multiple accounts, she is now estranged from all three of her children. At his last confirmation hearing, to become deputy secretary of defense in June 2017, all three children were sitting behind Patrick Shanahan.

None of the senators asked him about domestic violence.

Ashley Nguyen contributed from Seattle.

Source Article from https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/trumps-defense-nominee-addresses-violent-incident-between-ex-wife-son-amid-fbi-vetting-process/2019/06/18/e46009de-190b-11e9-a804-c35766b9f234_story.html

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Why to expect a US-China trade deal by Labor Day – Washington Examiner
Why to expect a US-China trade deal by Labor Day – Washington Examiner

Chinese President Xi Jinping needs a trade deal to strengthen his weakening economy. President Trump needs a deal prior to the 2020 elections. That’s the context for Trump’s optimistic tweet on Tuesday morning.

That tweet sent the markets into a blaze of upward momentum. But Trump isn’t just posturing. We can expect to see the foundations for a U.S.-China trade deal firm up in Japan next week.

First off, China needs a deal.

While Xi has been blabbing about strategic patience in international trade dealings, his economy is in big trouble. As the Wall Street Journal’s Lev Borodovsky noted on Monday, China’s industrial and manufacturing production is declining on a steep curve. This sits alongside the structural weaknesses of the Chinese economy: Its inefficient state direction and its need for vast intellectual property theft to allow innovation in competition with the West. Sustainable low-cost export growth is a necessity for Xi’s ambitious domestic development program. But where, as now, that model rots under U.S. tariff pressure, the political implications of Xi’s economic failure prove concerning.

Xi knows that a large number of his rural citizens are very poor and increasingly frustrated. He also knows that the urban middle class revolt we’re seeing in Hong Kong could soon occur in mainland cities, such as Shanghai and Shenzhen. Would Xi love to wait out Trump in the hope that the next president is more malleable to his agenda? Yes. But he has reason to think Joe Biden might be just as difficult a partner. Moreover, Xi’s very present economic concerns provide motivation to reach a deal now.

Trump has his own good reasons to get a deal.

Though very early, current 2020 general election polling looks bad for Trump. But Trump has an electoral super-weapon: it’s the economy, stupid. Trump’s problem: Alongside growing security concerns with Iran and North Korea, and China’s own threats to American stability, market doubts are sustaining. Trump thus has reason to reach a deal now, a deal that ends some U.S. tariffs in return for Chinese enabling of slightly fairer U.S. business competition on its soil.

In short, the coalescing of Xi and Trump’s interests means we should expect a deal by Labor Day. But don’t expect a miracle. China and the U.S. are engaged in a new cold war. China’s intellectual property theft will continue, as will American efforts to restrain China’s aggression. This cold war has a good chance of one day going hot.

Source Article from https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/why-to-expect-a-us-china-trade-deal-by-labor-day

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US releases new images from suspected attacks on Gulf tankers – Aljazeera.com
US releases new images from suspected attacks on Gulf tankers – Aljazeera.com

The US military has released new images it said showed Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) removing an unexploded mine from a Japanese-owned tanker following suspected attacks on two vessels in the Gulf of Oman on June 13.

The images, released on Monday, also showed a hole on the side of the Japanese-owned Kokuka Courageous that officials say appeared to have been caused by another mine.

The new photos follow the earlier release last Thursday of a grainy video, which the US said showed the IRGC removing a suspected limpet mine from the Kokuka Courageous.  

Washington blames Tehran for the reported attacks in which two vessels near the strategically important Strait of Hormuz were damaged, leaving one ablaze and both adrift, forcing scores of crew to abandon their ships.



“Iran is responsible for the attack based on video evidence and the resources and proficiency needed to quickly remove the unexploded limpet mine,” the US military’s Central Command said in a statement accompanying the still images.

Washington has blamed Iran for a similar attack on May 12 off the coast of the United Arab Emirates. 

Iran has vehemently denied any involvement, hinting that the US may have carried out the latest suspected attack in order to apply extra pressure on Tehran on top of the crippling sanctions it re-imposed over the past year. 

Washington has tightened sanctions on Tehran and moved to cut its oil production to zero in the year since it exited a landmark multi-lateral accord between Iran and world powers. The deal offered Iran relief from global sanctions in exchange for curbs on its nuclear programme. 


Allies urge restraint

It is still not clear what caused the damage last Thursday, with the Japanese owner of the Kokuka Courageous saying crew members saw “flying objects” before a second blast on the ship. 

Speaking to Al Jazeera a day after the incident, Justin Bronk, a combat technology specialist at the Royal United Services Institute, said the patrol boat shown in the US military’s video was known to be the kind used by the IRGC.

However, Bronk added that if Iran had been responsible for the attack, removing the mine would “be a very, very brazen thing to do,” while under high scrutiny from the US.


“On the other hand, you could argue that they [the Iranians] were keen to pick up an exploded mine to avoid it linking back to them. Although, realistically, if this was the Iranians, there will be enough evidence to link back to them even without the unexploded mine,” he said. 


Regardless of the cause, the incident has added to sky-high tensions between the US and Iran, and in the Gulf region. 

Shortly after the new images were released, the US also announced it was sending 1,000 additional troops to the Middle East for “defensive purposes”.

Also on Monday, Iran said it was on track to breach the internationally agreed limit of its stockpile of low-enriched uranium within 10 days. 

The move “will be reversed” once the remaining signatories to the pact fulfilled promises to deliver on the deal’s economic benefits, an Iranian official said. 

The United Nations, European Union and several allies of the US and Iran have urged both sides to show restraint, with the UN warning that the world cannot afford a “major confrontation in the Gulf”.

Both US and Iran have said they do not seek war with each other. 

Source Article from https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/06/pentagon-releases-images-gulf-oman-attack-190618055528966.html

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Donald Trump immigration plan: Trump says millions in U.S. illegally to be deported starting next week – CBS News
Donald Trump immigration plan: Trump says millions in U.S. illegally to be deported starting next week – CBS News

President Trump says millions of people living in the country illegally will be deported, beginning next week. In a pair of tweets Monday night — the eve of formally announcing his re-election bid — Mr. Trump said U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement would next week “begin the process of removing the millions of illegal aliens who have illicitly found their way into the United States.”

“They will be removed as fast as they come in,” he wrote.

An administration official told The Associated Press the effort would focus on the more than 1 million people who have been issued final deportation orders by federal judges but remain at large in the country. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to explain the president’s tweets. The largest number of people deported by ICE was 409,824 in 2012.

It is unusual for law enforcement agencies to announce raids before they take place. ICE rarely announces operations in advance, especially large-scale ones like the one Mr. Trump addressed. The Washington Post reported in May that before the ouster of then Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, the White House pushed DHS — which oversees ICE — to conduct a sprawling operation targeting undocumented immigrants in major cities. That operation would have entailed the arrest of as many as 10,000 immigrants, not “millions.”

Any such massive deportation blitz would affect not only undocumented immigrants with pending removal orders, but millions of mixed-status families with members who are U.S. citizens, particularly children.

Some in Mr. Trump’s administration believe decisive shows of force — such as mass arrests — can serve as effective deterrents, sending a message to those considering making the journey to the U.S. that it’s not worth the effort.

Mr. Trump has threatened a series of increasingly drastic actions as he has tried to stem the flow of Central American migrants crossing the southern border, a flow that has risen dramatically on his watch. He recently dropped a threat to slap tariffs on Mexico after the country agreed to dispatch its national guard and step-up coordination and enforcement efforts.

A senior Mexican official said Monday that, three weeks ago, about 4,200 migrants were arriving at the U.S. border daily and that the number has dropped to about 2,600.

Also on Monday, the U.S. government officially announced it would cut millions of dollars in foreign aid to Central America, warning governments in the region that assistance will only resume when they do more to prevent their citizens from migrating.  

The move, which the president ordered in late March, disrupts a long-standing pillar of American foreign policy supported by most Democrats and Republicans in Congress. Lawmakers had been urging the administration to reverse course, fearing the end of American assistance will only exasperate the rampant poverty, deep-rooted political instability and widespread insecurity in El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala, collectively known as the “Northern Triangle.”

Immigration was a central theme of Mr. Trump’s 2016 campaign and he is expected to hammer it as he tries to fire up his base heading into the 2020 campaign.

Mr. Trump will formally launch his re-election bid Tuesday night at a rally in Orlando, Florida — a state that is crucial to his possible path back to the White House.

Source Article from https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-immigration-tweet-millions-in-us-illegally-removed-starting-next-week-mass-immigration-arrests-conversations/

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Air Force landlord falsified records to boost income: documents – Reuters
Air Force landlord falsified records to boost income: documents – Reuters

Whittington said he knew falsifying records left families in peril. A retired Air Force veteran, he said he was disgusted by his actions, and, after wrestling with his conscience and refusing further orders to alter records, resigned.

“It’s like they’re operating a bank robbery at a corporate level,” Whittington said. “I got to the point where I was waking up in the morning and wondering, ‘Well, how many people am I going to have to screw over today?’ ”

Whittington’s claims are supported by numerous internal memos to Balfour Beatty employees instructing them on how to engage in the deception. Reuters documented at least 65 instances in 2016 and 2017 in which Balfour Beatty employees backdated repair requests, filed paperwork claiming false exemptions from response-time requirements, or closed out unfinished maintenance requests.

Such problems were well known to some Air Force housing employees stationed at Tinker. For years, they told the Air Force of questionable record keeping and slum-like living conditions. Yet their attempts to hold Balfour Beatty accountable were blocked by the Air Force Civil Engineering Center, or AFCEC, a unit based in San Antonio, Texas, that is tasked with monitoring private landlords.

At least 18 times since 2015, Tinker-based Air Force housing officials warned that Balfour Beatty maintenance logs contained false information making it appear the company promptly responded to service requests, Air Force reports show. “We do not feel that emergency, urgent and routine work orders are accurately recorded,” said one periodic report on Balfour Beatty’s performance.

Quarter after quarter, the Air Force engineering center downplayed these concerns, giving the company high service marks and advising Tinker officials to drop their complaints. “It doesn’t matter if they were in compliance or not, they would still get paid,” a local housing official at Tinker wrote in a February 2018 email.

At the heart of the failure to hold the Tinker landlord accountable was a conflict within the Air Force. On one side was the on-site Air Force housing office, whose prime mission was assisting residents and conducting daily oversight of Balfour Beatty. On the other was AFCEC, responsible for developing and managing all of the Air Force’s privatized housing projects. While AFCEC, too, has an oversight role, it is also responsible for ensuring smooth long-term relations with the landlords with whom it does business. Over the years, AFCEC repeatedly sided with its partner, Balfour Beatty.

Presented with the evidence Reuters found of years of false reporting, slow repairs and hazardous conditions at its homes, Balfour Beatty said the company learned in 2016 that one employee at Tinker had acted “improperly,” without providing specifics. It described this as an isolated incident and said it worked with the Air Force to strengthen its maintenance system. The company did not comment on instances of false record-keeping, the internal memos and other irregularities Reuters documented before and after 2016 at Tinker and other bases.

Balfour Beatty said it has cooperated fully with inquiries by the Air Force and other government agencies into its business. “As an organization, BBC has not and does not condone the falsification of records in any way,” the company said in a statement.

In December, Reuters reported widespread instances of shoddy construction and safety hazards in new housing units private companies, including Balfour Beatty, built on U.S. bases. Since that report, the Air Force says, it has been withholding fees from the company at Tinker, pending a review of the matter.

In response to the new findings about the company, John Henderson, the Air Force assistant secretary for installations, said in March he had “real issues” with Balfour Beatty’s performance at Tinker. But he said he did not believe housing companies purposefully changed maintenance records to win incentive fees.

In June, after being shown further details of Reuters’ reporting, he said he will await the outcome of ongoing investigations to determine what happened. He said there were “discrepancies in the maintenance records” and that “allegations of fraud” involving Tinker and at least two other company bases were referred to the Air Force Office of Special Investigations and the Federal Bureau of Investigation in 2017.

“We trust our private sector partners to act in good faith,” Henderson said. “When this doesn’t happen, we must hold those responsible accountable for achieving better outcomes to ensure that we continue to be worthy of earning the trust of our Airmen and our Nation.”

The Air Force Office of Special Investigations does not discuss investigations, said Linda Card, chief of public affairs for the agency. But she added: “Conversations are still taking place” with the U.S. Department of Justice “about what avenues (criminal or civil) – if any – can be pursued against Balfour Beatty.”

“I was waking up in the morning and wondering, ‘Well, how many people am I going to have to screw over today?’ ”

Robert Whittington, former Balfour Beatty manager

Regardless of that inquiry’s outcome, the Air Force plans to boost transparency by creating an automated maintenance-request process allowing residents to view the status of a work order, Henderson said. It also plans to revamp the incentive fee system, with details still being worked out. He defended the work of the Air Force’s engineering center, saying it had taken the allegations against Balfour Beatty seriously and performed an on-site review of the company’s work at Tinker.

The news of accounting irregularities by a major contractor comes as U.S. lawmakers are overhauling the Pentagon’s family housing program. The defense spending bill for 2020 proposed by the Senate Armed Services Committee includes measures to prevent fraudulent work orders, committee staff told Reuters, in part due to concern that millions in fees have been paid based on falsified maintenance records.

“Our military families deserve high-quality housing throughout their service, and that includes ethical and fair treatment by housing providers,” said Oklahoma Republican Jim Inhofe, the committee chair.

Profit incentives

Beginning in 1996, the military launched the largest-ever corporate takeover of U.S. federal housing, shifting ownership of more than 200,000 family housing units on bases to private real estate developers and property managers under 50-year contracts.

These lucrative contracts include bonuses, or incentive fees, that private landlords can earn by meeting performance goals set with the military. To receive the fees, real estate companies must meet quarterly and annual goals, such as responding to resident maintenance requests within a specified time. The fees are payable each quarter, and are generally worth up to 2% of the total rent payments from service families living on base.

Balfour Beatty Communities, located in Malvern, Pennsylvania, runs the military housing unit of Balfour Beatty plc, a London-based infrastructure company with annual revenue of $10.7 billion. The company earns $33 million in annual profit on its military housing operations, Balfour Beatty Communities President Chris Williams told Congress in February. The incentive fees alone on those operations are worth about $800 million over the life of the 50-year contracts it holds for 43,000 homes on 55 Air Force, Navy and Army bases across the country, Reuters calculates.

Balfour Beatty took over housing operations at Tinker in 2008. Since then, Reuters estimates, it has earned up to $2 million in incentive fees there.

Signs of irregular reporting have surfaced at other Balfour Beatty bases. In 2016, Air Force housing officials stationed at California’s Travis Air Force Base alleged company employees were using a second set of maintenance logs, an Air Force statement confirmed. In 2017, the housing officials found the company was closing out maintenance requests before they were finished and classifying records incorrectly, the base’s quarterly housing performance records show. That same year, housing officials at Fairchild Air Force base in Washington State said Balfour Beatty submitted inaccurate maintenance data in its application to receive incentive fees.

The Air Force could not substantiate the allegations at Travis and Fairchild. But it stopped paying incentive fees to Balfour Beatty at the two bases late last year, pending a review, and referred the incidents to Air Force investigators and the FBI.

Still, the Air Force has never clawed back incentive fees paid to Balfour Beatty, an Air Force spokesperson said. Nor has AFCEC audited the maintenance records of any other base managed by the company.

CONGRESSIONAL HEARING: Balfour Beatty Communities President Christopher Williams testifies before a Senate Armed Services subcommittee in February. The company blamed a lone employee for maintenance errors and said the problem was not widespread. REUTERS/Erin Scott

Big leaks, two sets of books

At Tinker, Reuters last year found half of the nearly 400 new homes built by Balfour Beatty suffered from gushing leaks, raw sewage backups, rotten wood and severe mold.

Starting in late 2015, Balfour Beatty was overrun with maintenance requests in both old and new homes. Roofs leaked, plastic water lines burst and heating and air conditioning failed, former manager Whittington said. Yet that same year, the company recorded just 23 late work orders out of 6,000 jobs, internal work order data show.

In early 2016, Whittington said, executives cut the base’s maintenance staff from six to five, as corporate headquarters in London demanded larger profits from their military housing projects. That left about 132 homes for each worker to cover, he said. Still, Balfour Beatty told the Air Force it was responding promptly to maintenance requests.

Some Air Force housing personnel at Tinker considered the number of late responses suspiciously low, and the incentive fees the company was winning oddly high, Air Force emails show. “It’s funny that all properties are always 100%” handled on time, one Air Force housing employee noted in a 2016 email to colleagues.

Then, in July 2016, during a casual conversation, the Tinker housing personnel noticed a hand-written maintenance schedule on the desk of a Balfour Beatty work-order clerk named Tina Brown.

Brown was responsible for taking maintenance requests over the phone and scheduling technicians to resolve them. Since her first day, she told Reuters, she maintained an unofficial, hand-written set of maintenance logs in addition to the official computerized records shared with the Air Force.

The hand-written books allowed Brown and other employees to accomplish two ends, according to Brown and other people familiar with the operation. They could accurately track the work so they could eventually complete it, but do so without triggering the clock that started ticking once a work order was entered in the official electronic system. Facilities manager Tim Heath instructed her to enter work orders in this fashion, according to Brown and Whittington. Heath did not return calls and text messages seeking comment.

The requests were often logged into the official system by Brown the day they were completed, not the day they were called in. By doing so, the workers ensured that Balfour Beatty was appearing to meet the response-time goals set in its Air Force contract: 30 minutes to begin an emergency request, four hours for an urgent one and 24 hours for a routine matter. The ruse also allowed the company to meet job completion goals: 24 hours for an emergency and two business days for both urgent and routine items.

An example from 2016 shows how the set-up worked. A page from Brown’s unofficial handwritten records includes a work request from a family with a broken stove, dated July 7, 2016. The official electronic maintenance log, captured in a screenshot from Brown’s work station, shows the family’s request was not entered until July 12, 2016 – the day before the work was done. If the request had been accurately logged, it would have failed the incentive requirements.

After finding Brown’s shadow set of books, Air Force housing officials at Tinker interviewed residents in the summer of 2016 and confirmed that Balfour Beatty was not entering requests when residents called them in. “These findings are very disheartening,” one official wrote in a July 2016 email to colleagues.

Balfour Beatty later addressed the accusation in an application for an incentive fee payment. It told the Air Force it had discovered “discrepancies in the data entry process at Tinker” and quickly acted to ensure it didn’t recur, according to the fee request it filed.

About two weeks earlier, Balfour Beatty had fired Brown. As she was escorted out of the office, according to people who witnessed the scene, she shouted to co-workers that she had been axed for keeping a fake set of books at the direction of her boss, Heath.

“They threw me to the wolves,” Brown said. She filed a wrongful termination suit against the company that is still pending.

In its statement, Balfour Beatty did not name Brown, but said a single employee acted inappropriately.

Internal Balfour Beatty documents show the company issued broad instructions to employees to alter the books.

That was the message in a 2013 directive about work orders emailed to Balfour Beatty employees. “You will modify and ‘correct’ these work orders so that they comply with the Response Time of 30 minutes – 1 hours, and a Completion Goal of 24 working hours for Emergency work orders,” the memo states.

Another 2016 internal memo shared via emailed instructs clerks to place maintenance requests in a red folder if “workload excessive and can’t schedule right away.”

Whittington said Tinker never had enough maintenance staff to tend to the base’s 660 homes. All the while, Whittington said, corporate staff from Phoenix pushed him to close out maintenance requests so the company could obtain incentive fees.

“Work orders were closed when they weren’t actually completed,” Whittington said. “Again, that plays into the incentive bonus.”

Whittington said he pressured his staff to “fudge the numbers.” In an email dated September 1, 2016, he directed two employees to close 119 resident maintenance requests in four hours. “The objective is to get ALL open Work orders closed today!” he wrote.

Whittington said he was directed by his regional manager, Rebecka Bailey, and vice president Raul Martinez. Bailey is no longer with the company; both she and Martinez declined to comment.

Asbestos hazards

All those years, families lived with a range of hazards – raw sewage backups, vermin infestations and exposure to asbestos.

In the McNarney Manor neighborhood of Tinker, all but a handful of the 262 homes have flooring material containing asbestos, Whittington and two other former employees said. Balfour Beatty covered that material with floating floors or carpeting for aesthetic purposes and to seal away the asbestos tiling, a common and effective abatement strategy.

Much of the new flooring was cheap and poorly installed, however, according to Balfour Beatty work order records. From 2012 to February 2019, McNarney residents called in at least 350 maintenance requests complaining about flooring, including buckling, warping and, according to one work order, “black stuff coming thru flooring.”

In the Ippolitos’ case, Balfour Beatty’s maintenance records show the company moved the family into the home knowing the flooring was in “bad” condition, as one log put it, and that a risk of asbestos exposure existed.

The company should have hired a specialist to safely remove the asbestos or seal it off properly, said Nick Ippolito, who worked for 12 years as a residential construction supervisor before joining the Navy. “But I guess that took too much money for them,” he said. In 2018, the couple left the Navy.

Balfour Beatty declined to discuss the cases of specific families. It said it was not aware of widespread flooring problems in the McNarney homes.

The ‘exception’ policy

After Tina Brown was fired in mid-2016, Whittington said, company executives directed Balfour Beatty employees at Tinker to stop keeping a second set of hand-written maintenance logs.

The number of late work orders skyrocketed, from eight during the first half of 2016 to 377 during the second half, according to a Reuters analysis of Tinker work order data. The company completed 12% of its maintenance calls late, which would have been too many to receive its full incentive fees. The company didn’t report these numbers to the Air Force, however.

Instead, in its application for incentive fees for the third quarter of 2016, Balfour Beatty again reported stellar figures, saying it completed between 96% and 98% of maintenance calls on time. The company sought 100% of the incentive fees for which it was eligible that quarter, $41,536.

Air Force housing officials at Tinker expressed disbelief. “We have had many complaints from residents from each category stating work orders were not completed within specified timeframe,” the Tinker housing office wrote to another outside contractor, recommending against incentives that quarter.

DEPLORABLE: An air intake vent that is supposed to be regularly cleaned, in the home of flight engineer Derek Rouse. REUTERS/Nick Oxford

CHECKING MOLD: Jamie Marshall, with Marshall Environmental Management, labels a mold test at Tinker Air Force Base, where families have battled housing woes. REUTERS/Nick Oxford

INSPECTING VENTS: Marshall, hired by an attorney representing families, inspects a vent for mold at Tinker. Inspectors have found water and mold damage. REUTERS/Nick Oxford

CLOSE LOOK: Inspector Michael Berryman checks for water damage and mold at Tinker. REUTERS/Nick Oxford



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They were right to be suspicious, said Whittington. After Brown’s firing, he said, regional manager Bailey directed him to make sure the maintenance numbers met the incentive fee goals by massaging the records. The company began taking advantage of a technicality known as the “work order exception policy” to keep winning incentive fees, according to Whittington and documents.

Under the Pentagon’s housing contracts, when a maintenance request cannot be completed on time because of extenuating circumstances, landlords can file an “exception” so the work order doesn’t count against them. Examples include having to order special parts, jobs requiring multiple stages of labor, or residents requesting a repair slot after the mandated response deadline.

Whittington said he combed through late maintenance requests and edited the records to include exceptions to the response time policy.

“Shamefully, I complied,” Whittington said.

The next spring, April 17, 2017, eight residents called in maintenance requests and, the official records say, all eight requested the work be done later than required, on April 20, according to an email exchange with the Tinker housing office. Without those exceptions, all eight jobs would have been late, counting against Balfour’s incentive goals.

As recently as last year, Balfour Beatty was still relying on exceptions. Tinker had about 1,850 late work orders in 2018; more than 1,100 fell under a time policy exception, the records show.

The company says it did often use exceptions at Tinker starting in 2016. In 2018, Balfour Beatty says, it and the Air Force implemented a new process for recording work orders, including the use of exceptions.

The Air Force Civil Engineering Command, or AFCEC, said it is working with Balfour Beatty to correct “challenges.”

Melody Marsh, AFCEC’s regional manager, has defended the company. In May 2017, a resident invited a Tinker housing official into her home to witness a persistent leak. Marsh scolded the official for entering the home without a Balfour Beatty representative. “This isn’t showing a partnering approach,” she wrote.

In August 2017, after Tinker’s housing office provided AFCEC with evidence that Balfour Beatty was claiming fake exceptions, Tinker staffers urged a curtailing of fees. Marsh overruled the recommendation.

“AFCEC does not agree that your response validates a decrease in the award incentive,” Marsh wrote.

Marsh did not reply to a request for comment.

The warnings continued. In December 2017, AFCEC agreed to cut a small portion – 3.8% – of Balfour Beatty’s incentive fees for the second and third quarters of 2017.

Last November, the Tinker housing office asked Marsh and the Air Force engineering center to investigate Balfour Beatty, predicting dire consequences if action was not taken. “With continued inadequate maintenance, our property will not withstand a 50 year lifecycle,” it wrote.

Marsh declined, replying in correspondence that investigations were “ineffective and extremely unproductive.”

Some Tinker families continue battling the landlord. In May, neighbors gathered on Mundell Street to discuss those struggles with a Reuters reporter.

Derek Rouse, a Navy flight engineer, said he and wife Jennifer have asked Balfour Beatty for years to stop rainwater from penetrating their home. In April, Balfour Beatty marked a work order from the Rouses as finished on time, claiming to have fixed the couple’s back door by installing new weather stripping. The reporter examined the door. New weather stripping had not been installed.

“I get done flying at 4 a.m., and at 6 am I get a phone call from my wife saying the house is leaking again,” Derek said. “I put my life on the line, and I shouldn’t have to deal with this.”

MILITARY BASE: New homes built by Balfour Beatty at Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma. REUTERS/Nick Oxford

Additional reporting by Joshua Schneyer and Deborah Nelson

Ambushed at Home

By M.B. Pell

Photo editing: Steve McKinley

Design: Pete Hausler

Edited by Ronnie Greene 

Source Article from https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-military-maintenance/

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DOJ makes rare intervention to prevent Rikers Island transfer for Paul Manafort – ABC News
DOJ makes rare intervention to prevent Rikers Island transfer for Paul Manafort – ABC News

President Donald Trump‘s former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, has been spared from an expected transfer to Rikers Island jail in New York following a rare intervention by the Department of Justice, a DOJ official confirmed to ABC News.

Trump has previously complained about how Manafort was being treated and has suggested he might pardon him.

Manafort, 70, who is currently serving out a federal prison sentence in Pennsylvania, was expected to be transferred to the infamous Rikers complex as he waited to face mortgage fraud and other state charges brought by the Manhattan District Attorney’s office.

Alexandria (Va.) Sheriffs Office
Paul Manafort in a booking photo released by the Alexandria (Va.) Sheriff’s Office, July 12, 2018.

But in a statement to ABC News Monday evening, a senior DOJ official acknowledged that the department stepped in to prevent the move last week after Manafort’s attorneys raised concerns “related to his health and personal safety.” During his federal trial, Manafort’s physical condition appeared to be deteriorating and at times during hearings he had to use to a wheelchair or a cane.

The New York Times reported Monday that among the DOJ officials to get directly involved was Deputy Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen, who was confirmed to his position as the department’s number 2-ranked official last month.

“Mr. Manafort’s attorneys proposed that he remain in federal custody and be made available to the state when necessary,” the official said. “The Department requested the views of New York prosecutors, who did not object to Mr. Manafort’s proposal. In light of New York’s position, and Mr. Manafort’s unique health and safety needs, the Department decided to err on the side of caution by keeping Mr. Manafort in federal custody during the pendency of his state proceedings.”

Manafort has since been transferred to the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Lower Manhattan ahead of his expected arraignment on the state charges.

His attorneys did not immediately respond to a request for comment from ABC News.

Several former Obama-era federal prosecutors raised issue with the high-level DOJ intervention, noting it ran counter to typical rules governing detention for federal inmates facing state charges in New York.

President Trump has repeatedly expressed his objections to the treatment of Manafort by federal prosecutors in special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation.

After the Manhattan District Attorney announced separate state charges against Manafort in March of this year, Trump reacted telling reporters, “on a human basis, it’s a very sad thing.”

The White House did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment on the DOJ decision.

ABC’s Katherine Faulders and Aaron Katersky contributed to this report.

Source Article from https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/justice-department-acknowledges-rare-intervention-prevent-rikers-island/story?id=63785210

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As homeless are suffering, risk of hepatitis, typhus and other diseases is growing – USA TODAY
As homeless are suffering, risk of hepatitis, typhus and other diseases is growing – USA TODAY
CLOSE

The Los Angeles Industrial District BID is one of the few organizations working to maintain’s one of densest homeless districts in the country.
Harrison Hill, USA TODAY

LOS ANGELES – In big cities around the country, homeless people scrape by, often in deplorable, unsafe conditions. 

The health threat posed by living on the street may not be confined. 

From Los Angeles to Kentucky, across the USA, experts said, growing homeless populations are increasingly susceptible to outbreaks of contagious diseases, including typhus, Hepatitis A and Shigella.

“This is a good example of why homelessness is a public health issue,” said Elizabeth Bowen, an assistant professor in social work at the University of Buffalo in New York. “When people don’t have access to basic needs like food, shelter, clean water and sanitation, people suffer, and population health, on the whole, is worse off.”

‘Dangerous out there’

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Americans with typhoid fever are usually infected abroad. But in Los Angeles, a Police Department employee assigned to the city’s traditional homeless epicenter became infected by the bacteria that causes the potentially deadly illness last month, and two other employees showed symptoms.

The area, known for decades as Skid Row, is overrun by rats that feast on garbage left on the streets or in alleys. Rats were spotted a few blocks away inside City Hall. In one office, carpeting was removed as a precaution to protect from fleas, which spread typhus, or droppings they may have left behind.

“It’s a little dangerous out there right now,” said Gaga Turner, 21, who said she has lived on Skid Row for three years. The vermin “crawl up everywhere.”

Christopher Harris, 58, a homeless man who lives on Skid Row, said rats and other vermin are a concern, and drinking water and bathrooms are in short supply. When it’s hard to find an available toilet, especially at night, “you go where you feel like going.” He said hand sanitizer is one of the area’s biggest needs.

More: Los Angeles County seeks action from city on toilets, rats and trash to combat homeless crisis

Only blocks from billion-dollar skyscrapers and government offices, those living in tents or makeshift shelters use small plastic buckets as toilets. The waste is transferred into open 5-gallon pails left at street corners for crews to pick up.

For water, some fire hydrants are fitted with fountains that inhabitants line up to use.

Los Angeles County health officials swept through the district this month, issuing 85 violation citations, and they asked the city to provide an adequate number of toilets, hand-washing stations and trash cans.

The county, plagued by low apartment vacancy rates and rising rents, saw a 12% increase in its homeless population in its latest count for 2019. The city was up 16% to 58,936, three-quarters of whom live on the streets or in cars. 

In response to criticism after the report, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said he has more than doubled the number being housed to 21,000.  He said the city’s homeless budget is $460 million, which he said is 25 times higher than four years ago. 

Homelessness is not only a problem in Los Angeles.

Despite the strong economy, the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s annual count of the homeless put the population nationally at 552,830 last year, up 0.3% from the year before. The number of unsheltered grew to 194,467, up 2.3%.

Public health danger

A Hepatitis A outbreak occurred late last year in Los Angeles. The contagious illness can cause vomiting, nausea and jaundice. It has shown up on the West Coast and around the nation, including Kentucky, Utah and New Mexico, traced to the homeless and drug use.

After cases of Hepatitis A took off in Louisville in late 2017, theliver disease spread across Kentucky, sickening more than 4,000, about half of whom had to be hospitalized, and killing at least 43. 

Hepatitis A is spread primarily through fecal contact. Thorough, regular hand washing is the chief way to prevent it, said Neil Gupta, incident manager for the disease for the CDC. 

In Seattle, a single case of Hepatitis A in a homeless man sparked a mass inoculation campaign two months ago.

Last year, Seattle issued a public health warning for increased levels of Group A streptococcal infections, which cause skin irritation or strep throat and Shigella infections, which cause diarrhea and other gastrointestinal upset. Public health officials tied both to homelessness.

“People who view homeless encampments as something that’s happening to someone else and not affecting the community as a whole are incorrect,” said Steve Berg, a vice president for the Washington-based National Alliance to End Homelessness. “The whole community is at risk when you have these kinds of outbreaks.”

‘A human tragedy’

In downtown LA, the head of the business improvement district sobbed as she talked about the issue and the government inaction.

“It’s a disgrace. We are not doing anything to alleviate a human tragedy,” said Estela Lopez, executive director of the Central City East Association, which hires cleanup crews and private security for the businesses in the area struggling to stay afloat.

Every day, she said, the challenges stack up. “It is trash. It is rats. It is unchecked garbage … (and) people using buckets for bathrooms. It is a threat to public health,” Lopez said.

She said her crews pick up 5 to 7 tons of waste a day, including human excrement and used needles. The city’s Public Works Department said its 149 crew members and supervisors, equipped with face masks, glasses and protective clothing, haul away 1,200 tons of trash and debris a month. Sidewalks are steam-cleaned and sanitized but quickly can become dirty again.

It could get worse. The City Council approved the settlement of a lawsuit brought by homeless advocates that prevents the city from limiting possessions of those living in sidewalk tents on Skid Row. Opponents of the settlement fear that the piles conceal food waste that bolsters the rat population.

“I am afraid for my health and for those who are out there working,” Lopez said.

For homeless people, the risks are greater. Epidemiologic studies of homeless populations have found higher prevalence of HIV, hepatitis, tuberculosis and scabies. In France, doctors found it effective to provide homeless people with vaccinations against hepatitis A and B, influenza and diptheria, as well as providing syringes and condoms, according to a 2008 study. But no amount of health care can make up for a lack of housing, according to the National Health Care for the Homeless Council, which states that poor health is a major cause of homelessness and also exacerbated by it.

HOMELESS IN COLLEGE:Students sleep in cars, on couches when they have nowhere else to go

The conditions underscore the need to find housing for the homeless, advocates said.

“If folks are concerned about their fellow citizens at all, they will see it’s not appropriate for people to be living their lives outside,” said Julia Devanthery, staff attorney for the Dignity for All Project, part of the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California.

Source Article from https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2019/06/18/homeless-homelessness-disease-outbreaks-hepatitis-public-health/1437242001/

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Stewart fires back at McConnell for downplaying his impassioned efforts to help 9/11 victims – AOL
Stewart fires back at McConnell for downplaying his impassioned efforts to help 9/11 victims – AOL

Former “Daily Show” host and comedian Jon Stewart mocked Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, after the Senate Majority Leader downplayed Stewart’s efforts to advocate for a bipartisan bill that would provide compensation for 9/11 victims and first responders.

Stewart made his surprise appearance on CBS’s “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” to rebut McConnell’s comments made earlier on Monday.

Following Stewart’s emotional appeal to lawmakers on Capitol Hill last week, the comedian followed up with a Fox News interview to claim the proposed legislation “has never been dealt with compassionately” by McConnell.

McConnell appeared on Fox News on Monday morning and said Stewart was “all bent out of shape” and had been “looking for some way to take offense.”

“Many things in Congress have [come] at the last minute,” McConnell said. “We have never failed to address this issue, and we will address it again.”




During his visit to “The Late Show,” Stewart balked at McConnell’s suggestion that he was “bent out of shape” and delivered a scathing monologue at the expense of the senator.

“No, Mitch McConnell, I am not bent out of shape,” Stewart said, adding that he was “fine” but had been “bent out of shape” for the 9/11 victims.

The September 11th Victim Compensation Fund aims to provide compensation for those who “suffered physical harm or [were] killed” in the 9/11 attacks or its aftermath. Funding for the measure had been drying up since its inception and lawmakers listened to Stewart’s and the first responders’ testimony on the importance of reauthorizing the bill.

“These are the first heroes, and veterans, and victims of the great trillions-of-dollars war on terror,” Stewart said. “And they’re currently still suffering and dying and in terrible need. You would think that would be enough to get Congress’ attention, but apparently it’s not.”

Stewart went on a tirade against McConnell and other lawmakers, much like his signature comedic monologues from his 15 years hosting Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show.”

“I feel like an ass—-. Now I feel stupid. This is a huge misunderstanding,” Stewart said. “I didn’t know that they were busy. Now I don’t even know what to say. I didn’t mean to interrupt them with their jobs!”

“Listen senator, I know that your species isn’t known for moving quickly,” he added, in an apparent reference to his reoccurring joke about McConnell and turtles. “But damn senator. You’re not good at this argument thing. Basically, we’re saying you love the 9/11 community when they serve your political purposes. But when they’re in urgent need, you slow-walk, you dither, you use it as a political pawn to get other things you want.”

The bill’s extension cleared the House Judiciary Committee, but has yet to be voted on by the full House or Senate vote.

“You know what, if you’re busy, I get it,” Stewart said. “Just understand that the next time we have a war, or you’re being robbed, or your house is on fire, and you make that desperate call for help, don’t get bent out of shape if they show up at the last minute with fewer people than you thought.”

More from Business Insider:

Traders waiting for the Fed’s ‘moment of truth’ are sending global stocks higher

‘You’re not good at this argument thing’: Jon Stewart fires back at Mitch McConnell for downplaying his impassioned efforts to help 9/11 victims

The incredible life of Sally Ride, who became the first American woman in space after answering an ad in her school paper

Source Article from https://www.aol.com/article/entertainment/2019/06/18/youre-not-good-at-this-argument-thing-jon-stewart-fires-back-at-mitch-mcconnell-for-downplaying-his-impassioned-efforts-to-help-911-victims/23751857/

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Trump Has Brilliantly Cornered Himself Where He’s Now Demanding Iran Abide by a Deal He Already Reneged On – Slate
Trump Has Brilliantly Cornered Himself Where He’s Now Demanding Iran Abide by a Deal He Already Reneged On – Slate

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var r=n(24),i=n(138),o=n(69),a=n(49)(“IE_PROTO”),u=function(){},s=”prototype”,c=function(){var t,e=n(53)(“iframe”),r=o.length;for(e.style.display=”none”,n(141).appendChild(e),e.src=”javascript:”,(t=e.contentWindow.document).open(),t.write(“

Source Article from https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/06/trump-iran-deal-pulled-out-troops-middle-east-uranium-tehran.html

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Trump Threatens To Deport ‘Millions,’ As He Kicks Off Campaign For Reelection – NPR
Trump Threatens To Deport ‘Millions,’ As He Kicks Off Campaign For Reelection – NPR

President Trump pumps his fist after speaking at a campaign rally in Montoursville, Pa. He’s calling a rally in Orlando, Fla., Monday a campaign kickoff, as he is threatening to deport “millions.”

Evan Vucci/AP


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Evan Vucci/AP

President Trump pumps his fist after speaking at a campaign rally in Montoursville, Pa. He’s calling a rally in Orlando, Fla., Monday a campaign kickoff, as he is threatening to deport “millions.”

Evan Vucci/AP

Updated 10:40 a.m. ET

On the day of his self-declared presidential campaign kickoff, President Trump is threatening to deport “millions” of immigrants in the United States illegally beginning “next week.”

But what’s known is far less definitive.

The administration is predicting that with increased help from Mexico, it will have more bed space at detention centers, which it didn’t have before. So the administration is planning to prioritize going after recent arrivals who have not been showing up at court, according to an adviser to the Department of Homeland Security.

The enforcement action is not for people who have been in the country long term but is more focused on the people who just got to the country and skipped court dates.

Jessica Vaughan, director of policy studies for the Center for Immigration Studies, who is in regular discussions with the administration, said people have been led to believe that if they arrive with a child that they would be able to stay. She said that won’t be the case under this new plan.

“It’s not like the president just woke up and thought of this idea,” Vaughan said. “They’ve been laying the ground work for this already. What they’ve been doing has not been successful, so they’re going to be trying something new. And they’re going to be focused on people who already have a final order of removal. And they also want people to understand that family cases are on the table.”

There are more than a million immigrants in the U.S. with orders of deportation who have not been removed, according to an administration official who was not authorized to speak publicly about the policy, noting that “countless” numbers of people are skipping court hearings and “absconding from federal proceedings.”

Referring to them as “runaway aliens,” this official said that they “lodge phony asylum claims only to be no-shows at court and are ordered removed in absentia.”

The official added: “There are more than 1 million illegal aliens who have been issued final deportation orders by federal judges yet remain at large in the country. These judicial removal orders were secured at great time and expense, and yet illegal aliens not only refuse to appear in court, they often obtain fraudulent identities, collect federal welfare, and illegally work in the United States. Enforcing these final judicial orders is a top priority for Immigration and Customs Enforcement — willful defiance of our laws, and the defrauding of the American People with fraudulent asylum claims, will not be tolerated.”

Trump administration officials believe threats and potential action could serve as a deterrent. Others have doubts, especially as the numbers of border apprehensions have increased despite the administration’s hard-line family separation policy that has since been scaled back.

Immigration advocates warn that families could again be separated in the kind of broad, hard-line action the president seems to be promising.

ICE officials have been stretched dealing with increased border crossers, and the administration is hoping that the deal with Mexico to ramp up enforcement at its southern border will have a domino effect that will free up bed space in detention centers and could allow ICE agents to do more interior enforcement.

Trump is holding a rally Tuesday night in Orlando, Fla., a key state in his reelection hopes. The president used immigration as a key cultural touchstone during the 2016 election to fire up his base of supporters.

Source Article from https://www.npr.org/2019/06/18/733661860/trump-threatens-to-deport-millions-as-he-kicks-off-campaign-for-reelection

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Trump says he and China’s Xi spoke, will have ‘extended meeting next week’ at G-20 – CNBC
Trump says he and China’s Xi spoke, will have ‘extended meeting next week’ at G-20 – CNBC

President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he and Chinese President Xi Jinping “will be having an extended meeting next week at the G-20 in Japan.”

In a tweet, Trump said that he and Xi “had a very good telephone conversation,” and that “our respective teams will begin talks prior to our meeting.”

Chinese state media reported shortly following the announcement that Xi had agreed to meet with Trump at the summit, scheduled for June 28-29 in Osaka.

Xi said he hoped that the U.S. treats Chinese companies fairly, according to Chinese media — a possible reference to Huawei, the Chinese telecommunications giant that faces a ban because of what the U.S. calls national security issues.

China had kept mum about whether Xi would agree to a face-to-face meeting with the U.S. president at the summit while the two economic superpowers remain locked in a heated trade dispute.

Trump has said he expected that meeting to occur at the high-profile summit, but had recently downplayed the impact that it could have on forging a trade deal with Beijing. Trump told Fox News’ “Fox & Friends” last week that “it doesn’t matter ” if Xi attends the G-20 or not.

“If he shows up, good, if he doesn’t — in the meantime, we’re taking in billions of dollars a month [in tariffs] from China,” Trump told Fox.

The Chinese embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment on Trump’s tweet.

Trump and China have slapped punitive tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars of imports of each other’s goods. In May, Trump hiked up tariffs on $200 billion in Chinese imports, and threatened to slap duties on another $300 billion after talks stalled out that month.

Trump told CNBC last week that he would immediately impose the additional $300 billion in tariffs if Xi didn’t attend the G-20 summit.

Current and former Trump administration officials and trade advisors have cautioned that a potential meeting with Xi is not likely to yield a trade agreement on its own, but could help clear the path to a deal.

Trump’s tweet came shortly before U.S. Trade Representative was scheduled to testify before the Senate Finance Committee about the president’s 2019 trade policy agenda. Lighthizer was expected to focus mainly about the trilateral trade deal to replace NAFTA, called the U.S. Mexico Canada Agreement, or USMCA, which was agreed upon by the three allied nations but has yet to make it through Congress.

But Lighthizer is likely to face questions about how the Trump administration’s next steps on the negotiations with China, where Democrats and some Republicans have harshly criticized the president’s use of tariffs.

Trump met with Xi at the prior G-20 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, last December. The two leaders discussed the trade dispute and tariffs, as well as the U.S. opioid crisis.

While that summit was in full swing, Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou was arrested in Canada and charged in Vancouver over allegations that the company defrauded banks by concealing payments from sanctioned Iran.

–CNBC’s Tucker Higgins contributed to this report.

Source Article from https://www.cnbc.com/2019/06/18/trump-says-he-and-chinas-xi-spoke-will-have-extended-meeting-next-week-at-g-20.html

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