Tag: official

Justice Department officials have had numerous conversations with White House lawyers about the conclusions made by Mr. Mueller, the special counsel, in recent days, according to people with knowledge of the discussions. Mr. Barr, who plans to hold a news conference at 9:30 a.m. Thursday to discuss the special counsel’s report, refused to answer questions from lawmakers last week about whether the department had given the White House a preview of Mr. Mueller’s findings. Much is at stake for Mr. Barr in Thursday’s expected release, especially if the report presents a far more damning portrayal of the president’s behavior — and of his campaign’s dealings with Russians — than the attorney general indicated in the four-page letter he wrote in March. Justice Department rules do not require Mr. Barr to make the special counsel’s report public, and the attorney general’s defenders say he will fulfill pledges of transparency he made during his confirmation hearings to make as much of the document public as possible. The information that Justice Department officials have provided to the White House could potentially be valuable for Mr. Trump’s legal team as it finalizes a rebuttal to the Mueller report — expected to be released not long after the department makes the special counsel’s findings public. Advisers to Mr. Trump insist that they still do not know many details about Mr. Mueller’s conclusions. The House Judiciary Committee has already authorized a subpoena for its chairman, Representative Jerrold Nadler of New York, to try to force Mr. Barr to hand that material over to Congress. “On the assumption that it’s heavily redacted, we will most certainly issue the subpoenas in very short order,” Mr. Nadler said Wednesday evening at a hastily called news conference in New York. Promising more transparency, the government said it would let a select group of lawmakers see some of the material related to the case against Roger J. in 2016 that prompted law enforcement officials to open the Russia investigation.

A 2015 measure that required officials to provide annual reviews of mental health care and suicide prevention programs has found that veterans often receive good mental health care at many Department of Veterans Affairs centers — but that has not decreased suicide rates. Since the department in 2017 began tracking suicides at Veterans Affairs facilities — among the most high-profile of veteran suicides — there have been more than 260 suicide attempts, 240 of which have been interrupted, department officials say. Although Veterans Affairs officials blamed miscommunication at the time, Keita Franklin, the department’s new executive director of suicide prevention, said that the program had been delayed to come up with a more targeted marketing campaign, called #BeThere. In comparison, breast cancer will receive about $709 million in research funding and $243 million is expected to be spent this year researching prostate cancer. “However, we have not had comparable research into suicide.” Guns are used in the majority of veteran suicides, in large part because gun ownership is high for that group. Last year, about 80 percent of suicides among veterans in Montana were by firearms, said Claire R. Oakley, the director of health promotion at RiverStone Health, a community provider attached to the Mayor’s Challenge in Billings, Mont., which has had among the highest rates of suicide in the nation. “By reducing access to firearms you see a drop right away,” said Jane Pearson, chairwoman of the Suicide Research Consortium at the National Institute of Mental Health. The Massachusetts Coalition for Suicide Prevention, for instance, works through 10 regional coalitions to provide veterans with mental health services as well as things like entrepreneurship training. and community providers; providers outside the system have varied forms of insurance coverage. “The issue is the challenge in our health care system with people jumping from one system to another.” The Mayor’s and Governor’s Challenges — which team governments with community health care providers to better reach and service veterans — show promise in connecting veterans to needed services inside and outside the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Last week, two local officials found themselves trying to explain statements -- or omissions -- made in their recent past. When FedEx Logistics announced that it was relocating its headquarters to downtown Memphis, city council member Berlin Boyd was given credit for helping to seal the deal, which involves millions of dollars in tax incentives. What Boyd didn't disclose until recently was that he is an employee of FedEx Logistics and also tied to the ownership of the former Gibson Guitar Factory where FedEx is moving. Boyd claims he has done nothing wrong, though he could face up a $10,000 penalty for failing to list this particular conflict of interest. On the other side of the Shelby County, a Commercial Appeal investigation found that Collierville's assistant town attorney Mike Cross was quoted in a legal matter that dates to the removal of the statue of Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest in 2017. On social media, Cross had called the white supremacists who converged on Charlottesville "good God-fearing patriots." The discovery of these posts prompted District Attorney Amy Weirich to strip his authority as a prosecutor. Cross preempted further controversy by resigning due to "health reasons." On this week's Tennessee Politics conversation, political analyst Otis Sanford examines these recent events and elaborates on how changing attitudes toward Confederate monuments may mean having to explain those social media comments made years ago.

Levesque is a state legislator in the New Hampshire House of Representatives, and Cole is a county commissioner in West Virginia. TC: What’s it like serving in these roles when your friends are probably off at college? CL: It’s definitely an interesting conversation because a lot of my friends are artists or they went to the University of New Hampshire at Manchester. So going from that, two totally different things, and they were very excited that I was running. GC: My first year of high school I got elected class president before I even knew it. Everybody just kind of fell in line, like “How can we help?” I registered so many young people my age to vote. TC: What was it like organizing a campaign so fresh out of high school? Everybody is going to talk about my age, so I’m not going to waste my time with it. CL: I do online school for political science, so that helps a lot. I enjoy the farm much more than I do politics, but if I feel led to run again or run for something else or I’m encouraged to do so, I’ll consider it.

Former top FBI lawyer James Baker, in closed-door testimony to Congress, detailed alleged discussions among senior officials at the Justice Department about invoking the 25th Amendment to remove President Trump from office, claiming he was told Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein said two Trump Cabinet officials were “ready to support” such an effort. “I was being told by some combination of Andy McCabe and Lisa Page, that, in a conversation with the Deputy Attorney General, he had stated that he -- this was what was related to me -- that he had at least two members of the president’s Cabinet who were ready to support, I guess you would call it, an action under the 25th Amendment,” Baker told the committees. One way that could happen is if a majority of the president’s Cabinet says the president is incapable of discharging his duties. Fox News requested further comment from the parties involved. “As the deputy attorney general previously has stated, based on his personal dealings with the president, there is no basis to invoke the 25th Amendment, nor was the DAG in a position to consider invoking the 25th Amendment.” During his testimony, Baker acknowledged he was not directly involved in the May 2017 discussions but testified over a two-day period in October that McCabe and Page came to him contemporaneously after meeting with Rosenstein for input in the days after Comey was fired by the president. “I had the impression that the deputy attorney general had already discussed this with two members in the president’s Cabinet and that they were…onboard with this concept already,” Baker said. During the closed-door hearing, the former FBI lawyer told lawmakers he could not say whether Rosenstein was taking the initiative to seek out Cabinet members: Question: “Do you know what direction that went? On Thursday, the top Republicans on the House and Senate Judiciary Committees called for McCabe and Rosenstein to testify before their respective panels, following McCabe's comments about these discussions. Also during the testimony, Moyer said the chances of securing a 2016 surveillance warrant for a Trump campaign aide were only “50/50” without the controversial anti-Trump “dossier,” according to transcripts confirmed by Fox News. Catherine Herridge is an award-winning Chief Intelligence correspondent for FOX News Channel (FNC) based in Washington, D.C. She covers intelligence, the Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security.

Immigration hawks slammed the border security compromise President Trump signed into law Friday for containing last-minute provisions that they argued give "amnesty" to many – but a Department of Homeland Security official insisted to Fox News that’s a misunderstanding of the bill. "This 'deal' provides de facto amnesty for anyone claiming to be even in the household of a potential sponsor of an unaccompanied alien minor," Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, wrote on Twitter Thursday. But a DHS official told Fox News that terms like "potential sponsor" have precise meanings in Department of Homeland Security regulations -- meanings that severely limit the number of people the budget keeps safe from deportation. Further, because the bill only applies to kids who are unaccompanied, it does not provide protection for those bringing kids into the US. That would significantly limit the number of people to whom the no-deportation provision applies. Chris Chmielenski, the deputy director of NumbersUSA, which fights for lower immigration levels and which urged President Trump to veto the budget, told Fox News that the provision is still problematic despite DHS’s clarifications. That’s not a precedent we should be setting.” He noted that, despite the paperwork DHS demands of someone to become a “potential sponsor,” some might still try to game the system and that it could still encourage “unaccompanied” kids to be sent over the border. If those blue municipalities don't agree with DHS, the fence can't get built.” But the DHS official told Fox News on background that the exact language in the budget -- "confer and seek to reach mutual agreement" – nowhere requires the federal government to actually reach an agreement before building fences. “I hope DHS is right, I just think it’s wishful thinking,” he told Fox News. Gorka says the claims of the sky falling are overblown, and also told Fox News that it was silly to call anything in the budget “amnesty” because it’s just an annual budget.

Wang Zhao/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images WASHINGTON — The Justice Department unveiled sweeping charges on Monday against the Chinese telecom firm Huawei and its chief financial officer, Meng Wanzhou, outlining a decade-long attempt by the company to steal trade secrets, obstruct a criminal investigation and evade economic sanctions on Iran. The pair of indictments, which were partly unsealed on Monday, come amid a broad and aggressive campaign by the United States to try to thwart China’s biggest telecom equipment maker. They also cite internal memos, obtained from Ms. Meng, that prosecutors said link her to an elaborate bank fraud that helped Huawei profit by evading Iran sanctions. Trump administration officials have insisted that Ms. Meng’s detention will not affect the trade talks, but the timing of the indictment coming so close to in-person discussions is likely to further strain relations between the two countries. The indictment now presents Canada with a politically charged decision: whether to extradite Ms. Meng to face the fraud charges, or make a legal or political determination to send her back to Beijing. No executives involved in the scheme were indicted, though six employees were fired. Mr. Whitaker fueled the speculation about an indictment of Mr. Ren when he told reporters on Monday that the criminal activity “goes all the way to the top of the company.” The Justice Department also accused Huawei of conspiring to steal trade secrets from a competitor, T-Mobile. The legal drama now shifts to Canada, where the government has warned that it will not extradite Ms. Meng if it appears that the request is being made for political reasons. The Trump administration is seeking significant changes to China’s trade practices, including what it says is a pattern of Beijing pressuring American companies to hand over valuable technology and outright theft of intellectual property. On Tuesday, American intelligence officials are expected to cite 5G investments by Chinese telecom companies, including Huawei, as a worldwide threat.

WASHINGTON — Jared Kushner's application for a top-secret clearance was rejected by two career White House security specialists after an FBI background check raised concerns about potential foreign influence on him — but their supervisor overruled the recommendation and approved the clearance, two sources familiar with the matter told NBC News. Kushner's was one of at least 30 cases in which Kline overruled career security experts and approved a top-secret clearance for incoming Trump officials despite unfavorable information, the two sources said. After Kline overruled the White House security specialists and recommended Kushner for a top-secret clearance, Kushner's file then went to the CIA for a ruling on SCI. The sources say the CIA has not granted Kushner clearance to review SCI material. "What you are reporting is what all of us feared," said Brad Moss, a lawyer who represents persons seeking security clearances. They say he overruled career bureaucrats at least 30 times, granting top-secret clearances to officials in the Executive Office of the President or the White House after adjudicators working for him recommended against doing so. Following the FBI investigation, the case went back to the White House office of personnel security, where a career adjudicator reviewed the FBI information, including questions about foreign influence and foreign business entanglements, the sources said. The Washington Post, citing current and former U.S. officials familiar with intelligence reports on the matter, reported last February that officials in at least four countries had privately discussed ways they could manipulate Kushner by taking advantage of his complex business arrangements, financial difficulties and lack of foreign policy experience. Sources also told NBC News career employees of the White House office disagreed with other steps Kline took, including ceasing credit checks on security clearance applicants. Newbold raised concerns about Kline's behavior with her second level supervisor regarding his "hostility and integrity," according to the EEOC complaint.

The Daily Caller, the scaffolding on which Tucker Carlson hung the entrails of his journalistic career, got some money quotes from an anonymous alleged employee of the administration*. But 80 percent feel no pressure to produce results. Senior officials can reprioritize during an extended shutdown, focus on valuable results and weed out the saboteurs. The superiority complex about how families "like mine" are scrapping to make ends meet is pure modern conservatism. I don't know where the people who work with Native Americans, and especially those who work in the various health clinics that service our indigenous peoples, rank on this person's sliding scale of essential employees. Maybe this person thinks the people who work those jobs are part of the 15 percent of federal employees worth their salaries. Native American tribes rely heavily on funding guaranteed by treaties with the U.S., acts of Congress and other agreements for public safety, social services, education and health care for their members. Because of the shutdown, tribal officials say some programs are on the brink of collapse and others are surviving with tribes filling funding gaps. About 9,000 Indian Health Service employees, or 60 percent, are working without pay and 35 percent are working with funding streams not affected by the shutdown, according to the Health and Human Services department's shutdown plan. The agency delivers health care to about 2.2 million Native Americans and Alaska Natives.