Rep. John Ratcliffe confirms his questions to former FBI general counsel James Baker uncovered the claims first reported by the New York Times; Catherine Herridge has the details.
The former top lawyer at the FBI has been under federal investigation for leaking to the media, a letter from House Republicans revealed Tuesday.
The letter from GOP Reps. Jim Jordan and Mark Meadows cited the transcript of a congressional interview with former General Counsel James Baker and his lawyer last fall, where the probe conducted by seasoned U.S. Attorney John Durham was confirmed.
“You may or may not know, [Baker has] been the subject of a leak investigation … a criminal leak investigation that’s still active at the Justice Department,” lawyer Daniel Levin told lawmakers, as he pushed back on questions about his client’s conversations with reporters.
Jordan and Meadows’ letter was sent to Durham, the U.S. attorney for Connecticut, and requested additional information about the probe later this month.
“As we continue our oversight and investigative work, we felt it prudent to write to you seeking an update. Without being apprised of the contours of your leak investigation and Baker’s role, we run the risk of inadvertently interfering with your prosecutorial plans,” they wrote.
James A. Baker, former general counsel for the FBI, was revealed to be the subject of a leak probe. (Michigan Law)
The transcript of the closed-door interview and the letter do not include details explaining why the investigation is being led out of the Connecticut office. The status of the investigation is not publicly known.
But the disclosure marks the latest confirmation of a leak investigation involving FBI figures who have since left the bureau.
Last year, former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe saw his leak case referred to the U.S. attorney in Washington, D.C. McCabe was fired for lying to federal investigators about his role in a media leak regarding the Clinton Foundation on the eve of the 2016 presidential election.
The letter from the GOP lawmakers cited other concerns that arose as part of their own investigation when Republicans controlled the House:
“The Committees learned that in some instances, high-ranking DOJ and FBI officials, including the FBI General Counsel James Baker and DOJ Associate Deputy Attorney General Bruce Ohr, took the self-described ‘unusual’ step of inserting themselves into the evidentiary chain of custody.”
Documents reviewed by Fox News indicate that Ohr became the back-channel between Christopher Steele, author of the controversial and unverified anti-Trump “dossier,” and the FBI after he was fired by the bureau for lying about his contact with the media. According to a January 2018 memo by House Intelligence Committee Republicans on government surveillance practices, “Steele was suspended and then terminated as an FBI source for what the FBI defines as the most serious of violations — an authorized disclosure of his relationship with the FBI in an October 30, Mother Jones article.”
According to the DOJ website, Durham is a seasoned prosecutor who has been tapped by Republicans and Democrats to handle high-profile, national controversies.
Durham has held various positions in the District of Connecticut for 35 years, prosecuting organized and violent crime, as well as public corruption. From 2008 to 2012, he also served as the acting U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, where he investigated the destruction of CIA interrogation tapes of senior Al Qaeda operatives and, prior to that, he reviewed alleged criminal wrongdoing by FBI personnel in Boston connected to the Whitey Bulger case.
Fox News is reaching out to FBI and Baker, as well as the U.S. Attorney’s office in Connecticut, for comment on the new letter.
NEW YORK (AP) — A federal judge in New York has barred the Trump administration from adding a question about citizenship to the 2020 census.
U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman said Tuesday that while such a question would be constitutional, U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross had added it arbitrarily and not followed proper procedure.
The ruling came in a case in which a dozen states or big cities and immigrants’ rights groups argued that adding the question might frighten immigrant households away from participating in the census.
The decision won’t be the final word on the matter.
A separate suit on the same issue, filed by the state of California, is underway in San Francisco.
The U.S. Supreme Court is also poised to address the issue in February.
(CNN)Kenyan security forces are battling to retake control of an upscale hotel and office complex in Nairobi after gunmen stormed the compound on Tuesday afternoon, in what officials say is a “suspected terror attack.”
CNN’s Gianluca Mezzofiore contributed to this report.
William Barr, President Trump’s attorney general nominee, pledged during Tuesday’s confirmation hearing to not interfere with Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation, while saying the country “needs a credible resolution of these issues.”
“I will follow the Special Counsel regulations scrupulously and in good faith, and on my watch, Bob will be allowed to complete his work,” Barr told the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Under questioning, Barr said he doesn’t believe “Mueller would be involved in a witch hunt.” The nominee said he has known Mueller “personally and professionally for 30 years,” having worked together at the Justice Department.
He also said former Attorney General Jeff Sessions was right to recuse himself from the Russia investigation because of his role in the 2016 campaign, something that infuriated the president and led to Sessions’ removal. He said believes Russia attempted to interfere with the election and said he support an investigation “to get to bottom of it.”
But Barr also said he would look into anti-Trump bias at the FBI during the 2016 campaign, saying he was “shocked” by the anti-Trump texts that were famously sent between FBI employees Peter Strzok and Lisa Page.
Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham kicked off Tuesday’s confirmation hearing for Barr by saying the Justice Department needs a new leader to “right the ship over there.”
“We’ve got a lot of problems at the Department of Justice,” Graham said. “Morale is low and we need to change that. I look forward to this hearing. You will be challenged. You should be challenged.”
Barr, 68, was nominated by the president to lead the Justice Department in December, after Sessions resigned at Trump’s request in November.
Barr previously served as attorney general from 1991 to 1993, and his confirmation hearings nearly 30 years ago went off largely without incident.
“I want to thank the president for nominating somebody who is worthy of the job and who will understand on day one what the job is about – who can right the ship over there,” Graham said.
During the hearing, Barr’s past comments about the Mueller investigation attracted scrutiny, including an unsolicited memo he sent the Justice Department last year criticizing the special counsel’s inquiry into whether Trump had sought to obstruct justice. Barr, as head of the Justice Department, would take over from acting attorney general Matthew Whitaker and oversee Mueller’s work.
“The memo, there will be a lot of talk about it, as there should be,” Graham said.
Ranking member Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said the memo raises questions about Barr’s approach to the Russia probe.
“Importantly, the attorney general must be willing to resist political pressure and be committed to protecting this investigation,” Feinstein said.
Barr sought to explain the memo, telling lawmakers he distributed it so “other lawyers would have the benefit of my views.”
“The memo did not address – or in any way question – the special counsel’s core investigation into Russian interfere in the 2016 election,” Barr said. “Nor did it address other potential obstruction-of-justice theories or argue, as some have erroneously suggested, that a president can never obstruct justice.”
Barr was introduced Tuesday by former Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch, a former longtime member of the committee who retired and was replaced by Sen. Mitt Romney this year.
It’s the first major Judiciary Committee hearing since the dramatic testimony last year during the confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
Several Democratic senators thought to be potential presidential contenders in 2020 — including Kamala Harris, Cory Booker, and Amy Klobuchar — are among those set to question Barr.
Barr on Tuesday must also convince Republicans he’s sufficiently supportive of Trump’s tough-on-crime and hardline immigration agenda, although there are no serious concerns he will have difficulty garnering the simple majority of votes necessary to win confirmation. Republicans currently hold 53 of the Senate’s 100 seats.
Democrats also grilled Barr on the expansive view of presidential power he’s displayed at the Justice Department and in the years since.
As deputy attorney general, Barr advised then-President George H.W. Bush that he did not need congressional approval to attack Iraq. Earlier, when he led the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel, he wrote opinions that allowed the U.S. government to invade Panama and arrest its dictator, Manuel Noriega, as well as to capture suspects without the consent of their host nations.
As attorney general in 1992, he endorsed Bush’s pardons of Reagan administration officials in the Iran-Contra scandal.
Fox News’ Gregg Re and The Associated Press contributed to this report
LONDON—The British Parliament looks set to reject a proposed Brexit deal by a huge margin Tuesday, a defeat that will likely trigger a no-confidence vote in British Prime Minister Theresa May’s government and force yet another round of frenetic negotiations with her European counterparts.
British lawmakers need to approve the Brexit agreement that Mrs. May crafted with the European Union following the June 2016 referendum vote to leave the bloc for it to go into effect. But many lawmakers have balked at the deal in particular…
This is the longest shutdown in the history of the federal government. Both sides have dug in, because both sides see political gain from continuing it. And they both fear reprisals from their respective bases if they “give in” and end it.
While the road seems impassable, there’s an obvious path out of this shutdown. It involves both sides accepting deals they’ve previously said they would reject, and it also involves something far more despised by our lawmakers: a real floor debate.
A deal is worthwhile because a protracted government shutdown is bad, and not only if you’re a liberal.
To be sure, shutdowns themselves are not disasters to be avoided at all costs. The current one is only a partial shutdown. And the media will always exaggerate the damage both in terms of real-world consequences and political consequences. Finally, government shutdowns should matter less than they do, because the government should be smaller.
All that said, when a sizable portion of the U.S. workforce is furloughed without pay, and when millions of Americans may lose access to benefits or tax refunds on which they’ve come to rely (for better and for worse), that hurts the economy and it hurts people. Ending this shutdown, even at a price, is a worthy undertaking.
Our path out starts with a deal:
Democrats stop blocking unrelated legislation in the Senate and Republicans allow each of the remaining individual appropriations bills to move one at a time. Let Pelosi pass a given appropriations bill, and then the Senate take it up. Repeat.
Meanwhile, Senate Democrats will stop blocking other legislation (Last week, they blocked a Syria sanctions bill). Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., may consider this a needless cave to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. McConnell sees that the public doesn’t blame Senate Republicans for the shutdown, and so he sees no downside to allowing it to continue.
We plead that McConnell, in a bout of public spiritedness, take the deal: consider individual appropriations bills in exchange for getting Congress back up and running. On all appropriations bills but one, action should be quick.
When we get to the Homeland Security spending bill, McConnell should take the real bold step: include $5 billion in wall funding, and allow Democrats to introduce an amendment to defund it. Then have a floor debate with a floor vote. If Democratic leaders were telling the truth in the Oval Office last month, the defund amendment would pass. We suspect Democrats are wrong, and the defund amendment will fail. Heck, maybe the debate will even persuade lawmakers one way or another. More radically, allow multiple floor amendments, and maybe a compromise on wall funding will organically emerge.
At this point, if we are correct, a DHS bill with majority support in the Senate would include significant wall funding. Democrats would be foolish to shut down Homeland Security to block one particular means of border security that the president had run on and won, and which won in a fair floor debate.
If needed to budge the House, offer one other immigration provision to the Democrats, such as some sort of DACA provision, providing relief to immigrants who entered illegally as minors.
We know nobody would be happy with this deal. But if our lawmakers have any public spirit, they’ll take it up.
Times staff writers Joe Mozingo, Alexa Diaz, Melissa Gomez, Suhauna Hussain, Corina Knoll, Jackeline Luna, Sam Omar-Hall, Dorany Pineda, Joel Rubin, Nicole Santa Cruz and Phil Willon contributed to this report.
America’s busiest airport has warned passengers to set aside three hours to clear security, as the government shutdown takes a deepening toll on everyday life in the US.
Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport tweeted on Monday evening that it was experiencing “longer than usual wait times during peak travel” and advised passengers to “give yourself 3 hours to clear security.”
Transportation Security Administration agents, who provide security at airports, are expected to work unpaid during the partial government shutdown, and many are not coming to work.
An airport spokesman told Business Insider on Tuesday morning that the airport’s advice was still to allow three hours for security.
Earlier Monday, the CNN reporter Omar Jimenez shared video footage of a security line at the airport, which he said was the “longest security line I have ever seen.”
The sped-up footage shows a long line of passengers snaking through the airport. “One passenger told me he’d been waiting over an hour and still had about 30 minutes to go,” Jimenez said.
As of 9.30 a.m. on Tuesday morning, the wait times were about 15 minutes, which is not unusual, according to the airport’s website.
But a photo from a journalist on the ground, shared on Twitter just after 7 a.m., showed screens at the airport alerting passengers to wait times of 15-30 minutes.
The airport said the three-hour warning stood despite the quiet start.
Passengers have been showing up hours before their flights to ensure they can take off.
Atlanta’s WSB-TV 2 said one woman had showed up at 2 a.m. to make sure she got a 7 a.m. flight.
Unusually high numbers of TSA agents across the US have been calling in sick.
On Monday morning, 7.6% of TSA agents had unscheduled absences, compared with 3.2% on the same day last year, the TSA spokesman Michael Bilello said. He said “security standards remain uncompromised at our nation’s airports.”
One federal air traffic controller in Atlanta told The Daily Beast on Monday: “Everything is a mess here. No one knows who is open, who is working, or what terminals are functioning.
“It’s a total s—show that won’t be solved until the shutdown is over.”
The Atlanta airport representative told Business Insider that passengers should check the airport’s website and app for estimates on security wait times.
The shutdown is now the longest in US history, leaving 800,000 government employees unsure when their next paycheck is coming. Even though those working unpaid are eligible to receive back pay once the shutdown is over, many live paycheck to paycheck.
The shutdown started December 22 after Democrats refused President Donald Trump’s demand that a spending bill to keep the government open includes billions of dollars in funding for a wall along the southern US border.
Bilello, the TSA spokesman, said agency directors were meeting with airport authorities and airlines across the US to “ensure resources are optimized, efforts to consolidate operations are actively managed, and that the screening and security of the traveling public are never compromised.”
He said Hartsfield-Jackson, as well as George Bush Intercontinental Airport and Washington Dulles International Airport, were “exercising their contingency plans to uphold aviation security standards.”
He also said the TSA would reallocate officers across the country “to meet staffing shortages that cannot be addressed locally.”
Some airports have been sharing their short security lines in response. Washington Dulles shared a photo of short lines and said it had “minimal wait times.”
But other airports have warned that conditions could worsen if the shutdown continues.
Josh Waggener, the president of Denver’s National Air Traffic Controllers Association, said on Monday that Denver International Airport could face longer lines and fewer flights, according to the local Reporter Herald.
A lack of air traffic controllers, who are also being unpaid during the shutdown, could also hold up flights.
“We were already at a 30-year low for air traffic controllers before the shutdown,” Waggener said.
Shutdown writing is tedious because it tends to follow a pattern: Nothing has happened for weeks and nothing is likely to happen for the next couple weeks. Updates to follow.
The wall isn’t even really the point anymore, as if $5 billion could ever do more than pay for a few hundred steel slats along the southern border anyway. Aside from the overflowing toilets at national parks and the army of inconvenienced furloughed federal employees then, the only question that actually matters is who the public will hold responsible when the government reopens.
Of course, President Trump blames Democrats for the shutdown he at first took credit for. (“I would be proud to shut down the government.”) For the last three weeks though, he has been inviting House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., to make a deal.
This strategy isn’t working, and this shutdown won’t stop anytime soon. Recent polling shows why.
The Washington Post and ABC News found that 53 percent of respondents blamed Trump and Republicans in Congress for the shutdown, 29 percent blamed Democrats, and 13 percent blamed both sides.
After first glancing at these numbers, one would assume the White House would realize they were losing the messaging war. But a closer look shows why the shutdown will continue: Trump is getting good scores on this shutdown with Republicans.
Trump promised his base a wall, and the GOP is increasingly getting on board even when construction seems impossible. As the Washington Post reports, support for the wall jumped 16 percent in the last year from 71 to 87 percent.
And this is why the shutdown won’t end anytime soon. Trump continues to get what he wants, namely giving the impression to his supporters that he still fights. He does this by not doing anything. Until something changes drastically, nothing will change at all.
Media captionTheresa May: “Give this deal a second look”
MPs are preparing to vote on whether to back Theresa May’s deal for leaving the European Union.
The so-called “meaningful vote” will take place later as five days of debate on Brexit come to an end.
Mrs May has called for politicians to back her deal or risk “letting the British people down”.
But with many of her own MPs expected to join opposition parties to vote against the deal, it is widely expected to be defeated.
Attorney General Geoffrey Cox will open the last day of debate at about 12:50 GMT, with Mrs May due to close the debate with a speech from about 18:30 GMT.
The prime minister is addressing her cabinet on Tuesday morning, after she attempted on Monday evening to win Tory MPs’ support for her deal – which includes both the withdrawal agreement on the terms on which the UK leaves the EU and a political declaration for the future relationship.
In the Commons, she said: “It is not perfect but when the history books are written, people will look at the decision of this House and ask, ‘Did we deliver on the country’s vote to leave the EU, did we safeguard our economy, security or union, or did we let the British people down?'”
Mrs May also tried to reassure MPs over the controversial Northern Irish “backstop” – the fallback plan to avoid any return to physical border checks between the country and Ireland.
She pointed to new written assurances from the EU that the contingency customs arrangement being proposed would be temporary and, if triggered, would last for “the shortest possible period”.
Media captionBrexit plan: Political declaration and withdrawal agreement
Environment Secretary Michael Gove told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that rejecting Mrs May’s deal would lead to a no-deal Brexit with short term economic damage “or worse, no Brexit at all”.
He said with this deal “we’ve picked a whole bowl of glistening cherries”, despite the fact the EU had said at the beginning of negotiations that there would be no “cherry picking”.
“If we don’t vote for this agreement then we risk playing into the hands of those who do not want Brexit to go ahead,” he said.
But many Tory MPs and the Democratic Unionists remain adamantly opposed to the deal.
About 100 Conservative MPs – and the Democratic Unionist Party’s 10 MPs – could join Labour and the other opposition parties to vote it down.
Former Brexit secretary Dominic Raab said that Brexiteers like him could back a deal if aspects such as the backstop were dealt with.
He told the Today programme the EU had played “a smart game of hard ball” and said it was time for the UK to do the same.
Media captionDUP’s Sammy Wilson: “The deal would remove us from the rest of the United Kingdom”
Democratic Unionist leader Arlene Foster called the backstop “toxic” and said her party’s 10 MPs would be voting against the deal.
“It’s time for a sensible deal which governs our exit from the EU and supports all parts of the UK,” she said on Twitter.
The deal suffered a heavy defeat in the House of Lords on Monday night, as peers backed a Labour motion by 321 votes to 152.
While the vote carries no real weight, as peers accepted MPs should have the final say, the motion – which also rejected a “no deal” scenario – expressed “regret” that Mrs May’s deal would “damage the future economic prosperity, internal security and global influence” of the UK.
However, five Conservative Brexiteer MPs who have been critics of the withdrawal agreement have now said they will support the government, along with three Labour backbenchers and independent Frank Field.
Brexit Secretary Steve Barclay said it showed there had been “progress” but admitted to the BBC’s Politics Live that gaining support was “challenging”.
A number of amendments to Mrs May’s deal have been put forward by MPs to try to make changes to it in Parliament.
Labour MP Hilary Benn had planned an amendment to reject the deal and prevent no deal – but has since told BBC assistant political editor Norman Smith that he has withdrawn his proposal.
Mr Benn told the Today programme that he wanted there to be a “clear, single vote” on Mrs May’s deal, so that there was “clarity” on why it was being rejected.
When asked what the margin of defeat could be for Mrs May, former Downing Street director of legislative affairs Nikki da Costa told Today she expected it to be within the “50 to 80 mark”.
The Commons Speaker, John Bercow, will decide which amendments can go forward to be voted on just before the vote on the deal itself.
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Your guide to Brexit jargon
Speaking to his own backbenchers last night, Mr Corbyn again condemned the deal and reiterated his call for a general election if it is voted down by Parliament. He also promised Labour would call a no-confidence vote in the government “soon”.
He said: “Theresa May has attempted to blackmail Labour MPs to vote for her botched deal by threatening the country with the chaos of no deal. I know from conversations with colleagues that this has failed. The Labour party will not be held to ransom.”
Towards the end of seven hours of Commons debate, shadow chancellor John McDonnell said if Labour could not force a change of government, ministers must cede power to allow MPs across Parliament to work together “to secure the best compromise to protect our country”.
Chancellor Philip Hammond wound up the fourth day of debate just after 02:00 GMT on Tuesday, by warning that no-one would get “exactly the Brexit they want”.
Leaving the EU without a deal would be “every bit as much a betrayal as no Brexit at all”, he argued, saying it would not deliver on the promise of greater prosperity.
What happens next?
If the deal is rejected by MPs, Mrs May has three sitting days to return to Parliament with a “Plan B”.
Some have suggested she would head to Brussels on Wednesday to try to get further concessions from the EU, before returning to the Commons to give a statement about her new proposal by Monday. This could then be put to a vote by MPs.
If this also fails, there is a proposal put forward by senior Conservative backbenchers Nick Boles, Sir Oliver Letwin and Nicky Morgan for a “European Union Withdrawal Number 2 Bill”. This would give ministers another three weeks to come up with another plan and get it through Parliament.
If this doesn’t work either, they propose giving the responsibility of coming up with a compromise deal to the Liaison Committee – which is made up of the chairmen and chairwomen of all the Commons select committees, drawn from opposition parties as well as the Conservatives.
This proposal in turn would have to be voted through by MPs.
In another development, a cross-party group of anti-Brexit politicians has published proposed legislation to bring about another referendum to ask the public whether they want to remain in the EU or leave under the prime minister’s deal.
Media captionLib Dems’ Layla Moran: “Brexit is a complete cluster shambles”
The MPs behind the draft legislation point out that Article 50 – the two-year process by which an EU member can leave the bloc – would have to be extended in order for another referendum to take place, meaning the UK would remain a member beyond 29 March.
But, unless new legislation is introduced, the default position will be that the UK leaves the EU on that date with no deal.
WASHINGTON, Jan 14 (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump’s attorney general nominee William Barr will pledge at his confirmation hearing to protect Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into whether Trump’s 2016 election campaign coordinated with Russia, according to prepared testimony released on Monday.
“On my watch, Bob will be allowed to complete his work,” Barr said in the prepared remarks ahead of two days of confirmation hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee starting on Tuesday morning.
Barr, a former attorney general under President George H.W. Bush, also will address his prior criticism of Mueller’s probe, telling members of the committee that a memo he sent last year that called the investigation “fatally misconceived” only outlined his concerns that Mueller might be misinterpreting one aspect of the law.
“The memo did not address – or in any way question – the Special Counsel’s core investigation,” Barr will tell the panel.
Mueller is investigating Russia’s interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, possible collusion between the Kremlin and the Trump campaign and potential obstruction of justice.
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Russia has denied U.S. intelligence agencies’ findings that it meddled in the election, running an interference operation to spread disinformation and hacking political party emails. Trump has denied any collusion with Moscow and called Mueller’s probe a “witch hunt.”
Barr has broad support from Republicans who control the Senate, but some Democrats have questioned whether he is the best choice to serve as the top law enforcement officer in the United States at a time when Trump is battling multiple legal investigations.
Barr will emphasize his independence, telling lawmakers that he did not seek out the job and has not given Trump any assurances of loyalty.
“As Attorney General, my allegiance will be to the rule of law, the Constitution, and the American people,” he will say.
Barr said he has known Mueller professionally for 30 years and has confidence in his abilities.
“If confirmed, I will not permit partisan politics, personal interests, or any other improper consideration to interfere with this or any other investigation,” Barr said in his written remarks.
Democrats have worried that Trump may try to quash Mueller’s findings when he concludes his work. Barr will tell lawmakers that he believes it is important that Congress and the public are informed of his results. “My goal will be to provide as much transparency as I can consistent with the law,” he said.
Mueller’s investigation and other inquiries have clouded Trump’s two years in office. Mueller has secured more than 30 indictments and guilty pleas and has spawned at least four federal investigations.
Government ethics forms released publicly on Monday show that if confirmed, Barr will within 90 days divest his financial interests in multiple bonds, private funds and stocks including AT&T Inc, Bristol Myers Squib Co, Dominion Energy Inc, J.P. Morgan Co, Bank of America Corp, Altria Group Inc, Merck & Co Inc, and Pfizer Inc , among others.
(Reporting by Sarah N. Lynch; editing by Grant McCool)
CORNELL, Wis. (KARE) Robert Naiberg’s home is decorated with photographs highlighting his special relationship with his granddaughter Jayme Closs.
Jayme Closs age 13, went missing after her parents were found dead at their Wisconsin home. She ran from her captor and is now back with family. Photo Date: Undated / Photo: FBI Milwaukee / (MGN)
“Just a miracle that she got away from him,” Naiberg said.
Robert was there to greet Jayme when she returned home.
“I was the first one to give her a hug,” he said.
She returned home to a new bedroom in her aunt’s house, put together for her in a matter of hours after her family learned she was alive.
“You know what they told me, it’s the first time they’ve seen a smile on my face in three months,” Naiberg said.
It was an 88-day ordeal that was extremely painful for Robert and his family, and unimaginable for the 13-year-old girl who endured it.
“I imagine she’s going to have problems, but she’ll be helped,” Naiberg said.
Robert said Jayme couldn’t be in better hands. His daughter Jennifer is stepping in to raise Jayme after the death of his daughter and son-in-law, Denise and Jim Closs.
“The way he brutally murdered my son-in-law and daughter and took her, just senseless,” Naiberg said. “Senseless killing.”
Robert says the family didn’t want to exhaust Jayme, so the homecoming party didn’t last long. And they didn’t ask questions about three months the sheriff says she likely spent imprisoned in a Wisconsin cabin 70 miles away.
“That’s what I understand, that’s where she was the whole time. And if anyone came there, he had her hid. Probably had her scared to death, you know?” Naiberg said.
But Robert is so happy that Jayme, who’s known to be shy, found the strength to escape.
“I’m really proud of her for that, very proud of her,” Naiberg said. “She just went the right direction at the right time. I’ll forever be thankful of the lady and her dog, and the people she took her to.”
He never gave up his mission to “bring Jayme home.”
Jake Patterson, the suspect in the case, is scheduled to make his first appearance in court Monday at 3:30 p.m.
More than 30,000 L.A. Unified School District teachers went on strike Monday, but schools remained open and class was in session. Substitute teachers and volunteers were in campus buildings conducting lessons and showing movies.
A Chinese court in northeastern Liaoning province announced Monday that it had sentenced Robert Lloyd Schellenberg to death, reversing an earlier 2016 ruling that sentenced him to 15 years in prison.(CCTV via AP)
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau strongly condemned the sentence handed down to Robert Lloyd Schellenberg and suggested that China was using its judicial system to pressure Canada to release Meng Wanzhou, chief financial officer of the Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei.
In his strongest comments yet, Trudeau said “all countries around the world” should be concerned that Beijing is acting arbitrarily with its justice system.
“It is of extreme concern to us as a government, as it should be to all our international friends and allies, that China has chosen to begin to arbitrarily apply a death penalty,” Trudeau said.
Schellenberg was detained more than four years ago and initially sentenced to 15 years in prison in 2016. But within weeks of Meng’s Dec. 1 arrest, an appeals court suddenly reversed that decision, saying the sentence was too lenient, and scheduled Monday’s retrial with just four days’ notice.
Schellenberg’s lawyer, Zhang Dongshuo, said prosecutors had not introduced new evidence to justify a heavier sentence during the one-day trial, during which Schellenberg again maintained his innocence. He said his client now has 10 days to appeal.
“This is a very unique case,” Zhang told The Associated Press. He said the swiftness of the proceedings was unusual but declined to comment on whether it was related to Meng’s arrest.
The court said it found that Schellenberg was involved in an international drug-smuggling operation and was recruited to help smuggle more than 485 pounds of methamphetamine from a warehouse in the Chinese city of Dalian to Australia. A Chinese man convicted of involvement in the same operation was earlier given a suspended death sentence.
Fifty people, including Canadian diplomats and foreign and domestic media, attended Monday’s trial, the court, in northeastern Liaoning province, said in an online statement.
The court gave no indication that the death penalty could be commuted, but observers said Schellenberg’s fate is likely to be drawn into diplomatic negotiations over China’s demand for the release of Meng.
Kenneth Roth, the executive director of Human Rights Watch, accused Beijing of playing “hostage politics,” tweeting that the revised sentence was “a fairly transparent attempt to pressure Canada to free the Huawei CFO.”
The Chinese media began publicizing Schellenberg’s case after Canadian authorities detained Meng, the daughter of Huawei’s founder, at the request of the United States, which wants her extradited to face charges that she committed fraud by misleading banks about the company’s business dealings in Iran.
After Trudeau’s statement, Canada updated its travel advisory for China, urging its citizens to “exercise a high degree of caution due to the risk of arbitrary enforcement of local laws.”
Further escalating the diplomatic rift between the two countries, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman that Michael Kovrig, a former Canadian diplomat taken into custody in apparent retaliation for Meng’s arrest, was not eligible for diplomatic immunity as Trudeau has maintained.
Kovrig, a Northeast Asia analyst for the International Crisis Group think tank, was on a leave of absence from the Canadian government at the time of his arrest last month. Hua Chunying told reporters that Kovrig is no longer a diplomat and entered China on an ordinary passport and business visa.
“According to the Vienna Convention of Diplomatic Relations and international law, he is not entitled to diplomatic immunity,” Hua said at a daily Foreign Ministry briefing. “I suggest that the relevant Canadian person carefully study the Vienna Convention … before commenting on the cases, or they would only expose themselves to ridicule with such specious remarks.”
A senior Canadian government official said Chinese officials have been questioning Kovrig about his diplomatic work in China, which is a major reason why Trudeau is asserting diplomatic immunity. The official, who was not authorized to comment publicly about the case, spoke on condition of anonymity.
A former Canadian ambassador to China, Guy Saint-Jacques, said interrogating Kovrig about his time as a diplomat in China would violate Vienna Convention protections of residual diplomatic immunity that mean a country is not allowed to question someone on the work they did when they were a diplomat.
“It’s difficult not to see a link” between the case and Canada’s arrest of Meng, Saint-Jacques said.
Hua said the allegation that China arbitrarily detained Canadian citizens is “totally groundless.”
Days after Meng’s arrest, Kovrig and Canadian businessman Michael Spavor were detained on vague national security allegations. Meng is out on bail in Canada awaiting extradition proceedings that begin next month.
Canada has embarked on a campaign with allies to win the release of Kovrig and Spavor. The United States, Britain, European Union and Australia have issued statements in support. Trudeau called President Trump about their case last week and the White House called the arrests “unlawful.”
Last week, Poland arrested a Huawei director and one of its own former cybersecurity experts and charged them with spying for China. The move came amid a U.S. campaign to exert pressure on its allies not to use Huawei, the world’s biggest maker of telecommunications network equipment, over data security concerns.
The arrests raised concerns over the safety of Poland’s nationals in China, although Hua brushed off such worries, emphasizing China’s desire for the “sound and steady” development of relations with Poland.
“As long as the foreign citizens in China abide by Chinese laws and regulations, they are welcomed and their safety and freedom are guaranteed,” Hua said.
At the time, Mr. Trump’s national security team, including Jim Mattis, then the defense secretary, and John R. Bolton, the national security adviser, scrambled to keep American strategy on track without mention of a withdrawal that would drastically reduce Washington’s influence in Europe and could embolden Russia for decades.
Now, the president’s repeatedly stated desire to withdraw from NATO is raising new worries among national security officials amid growing concern about Mr. Trump’s efforts to keep his meetings with Mr. Putin secret from even his own aides, and an F.B.I. investigation into the administration’s Russia ties.
A move to withdraw from the alliance, in place since 1949, “would be one of the most damaging things that any president could do to U.S. interests,” said Michèle A. Flournoy, an under secretary of defense under President Barack Obama.
“It would destroy 70-plus years of painstaking work across multiple administrations, Republican and Democratic, to create perhaps the most powerful and advantageous alliance in history,” Ms. Flournoy said in an interview. “And it would be the wildest success that Vladimir Putin could dream of.”
Retired Adm. James G. Stavridis, the former supreme allied commander of NATO, said an American withdrawal from the alliance would be “a geopolitical mistake of epic proportion.”
“The N.R.C.C. does not get involved in primaries and isn’t going to comment on a hypothetical general election two years away,” said Chris Pack, a spokesman for the House campaign arm.
Democrats are moving to censure or reprimand the Iowa congressman, a stinging penalty. Among them were Representative James Clyburn of South Carolina, the highest ranking African-American in Congress, who introduced a measure Monday night in the form of a resolution of disapproval of Mr. King’s comments and white nationalism.
Democratic leaders in the House have yet to say what they will do with the competing censure resolutions, but are inclined to allow a vote of some sort related to Mr. King’s remarks, according to one senior Democratic aide.
In the interview with The Times, Mr. King also reflected on the record number of minorities and women in the new Democratic-controlled House. “You could look over there and think the Democratic Party is no country for white men,” he said.
Mr. King’s hard-line immigration policies and demeaning comments about Hispanics foreshadowed Mr. Trump’s nativist rhetoric in his 2016 campaign, in his two years in the White House and during the government shutdown over a border wall. The president once boasted to Mr. King that he raised more money for him than anyone else, Mr. King recalled in the Times article, which traced how the Iowa congressman helped write the playbook for white identity politics that dominate the Republican Party under Mr. Trump.
He has already drawn one serious primary opponent, state senator Randy Feenstra, for the 2020 campaign and some high-profile Republicans have indicated they will not embrace his re-election.
“It does open the door for other individuals to take a look,” Gov. Kim Reynolds of Iowa said in a television interview last week of Mr. King’s closer-than-expected victory last year.
BARRON, Wis. (AP) – The Latest on the case of a kidnapped Wisconsin girl whose parents were fatally shot and the man accused of committing the crimes (all times local):
1:05 p.m. A criminal complaint says a Wisconsin man accused of kidnapping 13-year-old Jayme Closs spotted her getting on a school bus one day and made up his mind to take her.
Jake Thomas Patterson was charged Monday with kidnapping and with killing Jayme’s parents. The criminal complaint says Patterson told investigators he was driving to his job at a cheese factory one day near Almena, Wisconsin, when he stopped behind a school bus and watched Jayme get on.
The complaint quotes Patterson as saying when he saw Jayme, “He knew that was the girl he was going to take.”
The complaint says Patterson went to the Closs home twice with the intent of taking Jayme but was unable to do so because too many people were around before he was able to kidnap her. ___ 12:45 p.m. A Wisconsin man has been charged with kidnapping, two counts of first-degree intentional homicide and armed burglary in the abduction of 13-year-old Jayme Closs and the slaying of her parents.
Jake Thomas Patterson was arrested Thursday after Jayme apparently escaped from a remote northwestern Wisconsin cabin where she says she was held.
Patterson was charged on Monday.
Investigators say the 21-year-old man broke into James and Denise Closs’ home near Barron, Wisconsin on Oct. 15 by blowing the front door open with a shotgun. Jayme’s parents were shot to death and the teenager vanished the same day.
Investigators believe Patterson planned to abduct Jayme but say they don’t know what led him to target her. ___ 11:15 a.m. A Wisconsin sheriff says 13-year-old Jayme Closs had a smile on her face when he saw her Sunday, just days after she fled the remote cabin where she says she was held for three months.
Barron County Sheriff Chris Fitzgerald said it was the first time he had met Jayme since she apparently escaped from her captor on Thursday.
Fitzgerald called it “awesome” and a moment he’ll never forget. He says Jayme showed him the room where she is staying with an aunt in Barron, Wisconsin.
Jake Thomas Patterson, the man suspected of abducting Jayme and killing her parents, James and Denise Closs, was expected to be charged later Monday with kidnapping and homicide. ___ 10:30 a.m. Photos of the Wisconsin cabin where a man suspected of kidnapping Jayme Closs allegedly held the teenager show an unfinished ceiling, a three-car garage and an empty box of adult female diapers in the trash.
Investigators believe Jake Thomas Patterson broke into Jayme’s home in October, killed her parents and abducted her. She was missing for almost three months before a woman walking her dog near Gordon, Wisconsin, found her on the road. Jayme said she had escaped from Patterson’s cabin nearby.
Photos published by the New York Post show the cabin’s living area, complete with a refrigerator, white kitchen cabinets and an old television. The ceiling is not finished.
Exterior shots show a lean-to covering firewood, a three-car garage and an empty box of adult female diapers in a trash can. A sign over the front door reads “Pattersons Retreat.” ___ 9 a.m. Relatives of a 13-year-old Wisconsin girl who was kidnapped after her parents were fatally shot say they aren’t asking the girl to tell them what happened while she was held captive for three months. Her aunts say they’re surrounding Jayme Closs with love and attention.
Lynn Closs and Sue Allard told “CBS This Morning” that they’re telling their niece they’re proud of her for surviving and escaping. Lynn Closs says her niece’s strength is incredible and that she took the power away from her captor.
The suspect, Jake Patterson, is scheduled to make his first court appearance Monday.
Investigators believe Patterson broke into James and Denise Closs’ home near Barron on Oct. 15, killed the couple and abducted their daughter.
Jayme was missing for nearly three months before she escaped from a cabin in Gordon late last week. She told investigators Patterson had been holding her against her will. ___ 5:50 a.m. Defense lawyers for the man suspected of fatally shooting a Wisconsin couple and kidnapping their daughter say they believe he can get a fair trial, but they’re not sure where.
Jake Patterson is scheduled to make his first court appearance Monday.
Investigators believe he broke into James and Denise Closs’ home near Barron on Oct. 15, killed the couple and abducted their 13-year-old daughter, Jayme Closs. Jayme was missing for nearly three months before she escaped from a cabin in Gordon late last week. She told investigators Patterson had been holding her against her will.
Public defenders Charles Glynn and Richard Jones say it’s been an emotional time for the community of Barron, and they understand the pain the case has generated.
It’s unclear how Patterson became aware of Jayme, and authorities have found no evidence of any interactions between them. Charging documents released Monday could shed more light on the case. ___ 12 a.m. A man suspected of kidnapping a Wisconsin teenager and killing her parents is due to make his first court appearance.
Twenty-one-year-old Jake Thomas Patterson is expected to appear in Barron County Circuit Court on Monday afternoon, after prosecutors formally charge him with intentional homicide and kidnapping.
Investigators believe Patterson broke into James and Denise Closs’ home near Barron on Oct. 15, gunned the couple down and abducted 13-year-old Jayme Closs. She was missing for nearly three months before she escaped from the cabin in Gordon where she said Patterson had been holding her.
Charging documents could shed more light on the case. It’s unclear how Patterson became aware of Jayme, and authorities have found no evidence of any interactions between them. Her family says they don’t know Patterson.
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Shutdown writing is tedious because it tends to follow a pattern: Nothing has happened for weeks and nothing is likely to happen for the next couple weeks. Updates to follow.
The wall isn’t even really the point anymore, as if $5 billion could ever do more than pay for a few hundred steel slats along the southern border anyway. Aside from the overflowing toilets at national parks and the army of inconvenienced furloughed federal employees then, the only question that actually matters is who the public will hold responsible when the government reopens.
Of course, President Trump blames Democrats for the shutdown he at first took credit for. (“I would be proud to shut down the government.”) For the last three weeks though, he has been inviting House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., to make a deal.
This strategy isn’t working, and this shutdown won’t stop anytime soon. Recent polling shows why.
The Washington Post and ABC News found that 53 percent of respondents blamed Trump and Republicans in Congress for the shutdown, 29 percent blamed Democrats, and 13 percent blamed both sides.
After first glancing at these numbers, one would assume the White House would realize they were losing the messaging war. But a closer look shows why the shutdown will continue: Trump is getting good scores on this shutdown with Republicans.
Trump promised his base a wall, and the GOP is increasingly getting on board even when construction seems impossible. As the Washington Post reports, support for the wall jumped 16 percent in the last year from 71 to 87 percent.
And this is why the shutdown won’t end anytime soon. Trump continues to get what he wants, namely giving the impression to his supporters that he still fights. He does this by not doing anything. Until something changes drastically, nothing will change at all.
WASHINGTON, Jan 14 (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump’s attorney general nominee William Barr will pledge at his confirmation hearing to protect Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into whether Trump’s 2016 election campaign coordinated with Russia, according to prepared testimony released on Monday.
“On my watch, Bob will be allowed to complete his work,” Barr said in the prepared remarks ahead of two days of confirmation hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee starting on Tuesday morning.
Barr, a former attorney general under President George H.W. Bush, also will address his prior criticism of Mueller’s probe, telling members of the committee that a memo he sent last year that called the investigation “fatally misconceived” only outlined his concerns that Mueller might be misinterpreting one aspect of the law.
“The memo did not address – or in any way question – the Special Counsel’s core investigation,” Barr will tell the panel.
Mueller is investigating Russia’s interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, possible collusion between the Kremlin and the Trump campaign and potential obstruction of justice.
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Russia has denied U.S. intelligence agencies’ findings that it meddled in the election, running an interference operation to spread disinformation and hacking political party emails. Trump has denied any collusion with Moscow and called Mueller’s probe a “witch hunt.”
Barr has broad support from Republicans who control the Senate, but some Democrats have questioned whether he is the best choice to serve as the top law enforcement officer in the United States at a time when Trump is battling multiple legal investigations.
Barr will emphasize his independence, telling lawmakers that he did not seek out the job and has not given Trump any assurances of loyalty.
“As Attorney General, my allegiance will be to the rule of law, the Constitution, and the American people,” he will say.
Barr said he has known Mueller professionally for 30 years and has confidence in his abilities.
“If confirmed, I will not permit partisan politics, personal interests, or any other improper consideration to interfere with this or any other investigation,” Barr said in his written remarks.
Democrats have worried that Trump may try to quash Mueller’s findings when he concludes his work. Barr will tell lawmakers that he believes it is important that Congress and the public are informed of his results. “My goal will be to provide as much transparency as I can consistent with the law,” he said.
Mueller’s investigation and other inquiries have clouded Trump’s two years in office. Mueller has secured more than 30 indictments and guilty pleas and has spawned at least four federal investigations.
Government ethics forms released publicly on Monday show that if confirmed, Barr will within 90 days divest his financial interests in multiple bonds, private funds and stocks including AT&T Inc, Bristol Myers Squib Co, Dominion Energy Inc, J.P. Morgan Co, Bank of America Corp, Altria Group Inc, Merck & Co Inc, and Pfizer Inc , among others.
(Reporting by Sarah N. Lynch; editing by Grant McCool)
“And it’s pretty clear you won’t admit that the Russians have engaged in cyberattacks against the United States of America,” she continued. “That you encouraged espionage against our people, that you are willing to spout the Putin line, sign up for his wish list, break up NATO, do whatever he wants to do, and that you continue to get help from him because he has a very clear favorite in this race.”
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