Chris Hedges's Blog, page 194

Jeffrey Epstein Found Injured in New York City Jail

NEW YORK—Wealthy financier Jeffrey Epstein was found on the floor of his jail cell with bruises on his neck early this week while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges, a person familiar with the matter said Thursday.

It was not clear whether the injuries were self-inflicted or from an assault, said the person, who was not authorized to discuss the case and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

Epstein, 66, was treated and remains in custody at the federal Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York City. Jail records obtained by the AP show no indication he was taken to a hospital.

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Labor Secretary Faces New Calls to Resign Amid Epstein Charges



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There was no immediate response Thursday from jail officials and one of Epstein’s lawyers.

It was not clear whether Epstein had any cellmates or was being held by himself. The jail is famous for its tight security and high-profile inmates, who have included terrorists, Wall Street schemers and, until recently, Mexican drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman.

A lawyer for inmate Nicholas Tartaglione denied local news reports on Thursday that his client was a suspect in a possible assault on Epstein. Tartaglione is a former suburban New York police officer awaiting trial on charges he was involved in the kidnapping and killing of four men in 2016.

The attorney, Bruce Barket, suggested that the allegations were leaked by someone “trying to embarrass Epstein and cast some shade on Nick.”

Epstein has been accused of sexually abusing dozens of underage girls in the early 2000s. A judge denied him bail last week, ruling that he might flee the country if released. The judge also said Epstein is a danger to the public because of his “uncontrollable” urges to engage in sexual conduct with underage girls.

Despite the high profile of the case, jail officials would have had no reason to place Epstein under heightened supervision unless he seemed suicidal when he arrived, said Cameron Lindsay, a retired warden who ran three federal lockups.

Epstein was indicted on federal charges in New York this month more than a decade after he secretly struck a deal with federal prosecutors in Florida to dispose of similar charges of large-scale sex trafficking. He pleaded guilty in 2008 to soliciting a minor for prostitution and served 13 months behind bars.

Federal prosecutors in New York reopened the probe after investigative reporting by The Miami Herald stirred outrage over the plea bargain.

Epstein’s lawyers said he hasn’t had any illicit contact with underage girls since serving his sentence in Florida. They said the current charges are improper because the government is reneging on the deal not to prosecute him.

U.S. Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta resigned this month after coming under fire for overseeing that deal when he was U.S. attorney in Miami.

___

Associated Press writers Jim Mustian and Michael R. Sisak contributed to this report.

Puerto Rico’s Governor Resigns in Face of Protests

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico—Anger turned to jubilation in the streets in a flash as Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rosselló announced his resignation overnight, ceding power after nearly two weeks of furious protests and political upheaval touched off by a leak of insulting chat messages.

A crowd of thousands outside the governor’s mansion in Old San Juan erupted in cheers and song over his announcement on Facebook, made just before midnight on Wednesday.

“Despite expecting to serve the term that the people democratically elected me to, today I feel that continuing in this position represents a threat to the success we have achieved,” a shaken-looking Rosselló said in an address in which he listed his accomplishments before making clear he will step down Aug. 2.

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Is Puerto Rico Being 'Ethnically Cleansed' for the Superrich?



by Harvey Wasserman

The 40-year-old Democrat and son of a governor, Rosselló became the first governor to resign in the modern history of Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory of more than 3 million American citizens. He is more than halfway through his four-year term.

He said Justice Secretary Wanda Vázquez will take over, becoming Puerto Rico’s second female governor.

“It’s historic, but we have to be cautious. What will happen beyond this? There are concerns, but there is also hope,” designer Jalil Serrano said. Gesturing to the young crowd outside the mansion, he said, “This belongs to them.”

Daniel López, a businessman also in the protest, wiped tears from his eyes as people leaped into the air, beat drums, waved flags, hugged and cried, “We did it!”

“This is for the future of my family,” López said. “It’s big, what’s happened.”

Rosselló’s announcement — made amid threats of impeachment from lawmakers — came after a bizarre standoff unfolded in Old San Juan. The governor pledged to deliver a message to the people of Puerto Rico, but hour after hour passed in unexplained silence while thousands of protesters chanted demands for his resignation. An announcement was first expected at 5 p.m., then finally came less than a half-hour before midnight.

Puerto Rico Rep. Gabriel Rodríguez, a member of Rosselló’s pro-statehood party, said legislators had agreed to set aside the impeachment process and give the governor until 5 p.m. to announce that he was going to resign.

At one point, dozens of officers in full riot gear marched out of the governor’s mansion toward protesters.

“We want peace, and they want war!” the crowd yelled.

The obscenity-laced online messages involving the governor and 11 other men infuriated Puerto Ricans already frustrated with corruption, mismanagement, economic crisis and the sluggish recovery from Hurricane Maria nearly two years ago.

In reaction, tens of thousands took to the streets to demand Rosselló’s resignation in Puerto Rico’s biggest demonstrations since the protests that put an end to U.S. Navy training on the island of Vieques more than 15 years ago.

The chat participants discussed the awarding of government contracts in ways that some observers called potentially illegal. They also insulted women and mocked constituents, including victims of Hurricane Maria. Rosselló called a female politician a “whore,” referred to another as a “daughter of a bitch,” and made fun of an obese man with whom he posed in a photo.

Earlier this week, a judge issued search warrants for the cellphones of government officials involved in the chat. One of the search warrants said officials in the conversation may have illegally divulged confidential government information.

More than a dozen government officials have resigned since the chat was leaked earlier this month, including Rosselló confidant and chief of staff Ricardo Llerandi, former Secretary of State Luis Rivera Marín and former chief financial officer Christian Sobrino, who also held five other positions.

Under Puerto Rico’s constitution, the secretary of state would normally assume the governorship, but since that post is vacant, Vazquez is in line to succeed Rosselló.

Over the weekend, Rosselló posted a video on Facebook in which he announced he would not seek re-election in 2020 or continue as head of his political party, but his refusal to resign further angered Puerto Ricans and led to a colossal demonstration Monday on one of the capital’s main highways.

The upheaval comes as the island tries to restructure part of $70 billion in debt and cope with a 13-year recession that has led to an exodus of nearly half a million people to the U.S. mainland in the past decade. Many Puerto Ricans are resentful over the resulting pension cuts, school closings and other austerity measures.

The economic crisis is in part a result of previous administrations — including that of Rosselló’s father, Pedro — that overspent, overestimated revenue and borrowed millions as the island sank deeper into debt. In 2017, Puerto Rico filed for the equivalent of bankruptcy. Congress approved a financial package, and a federal board is overseeing the island’s finances.

An MIT graduate with a doctorate in genetics, Rosselló spent much of his time as governor fighting austerity measures and seeking federal funds after Maria devastated the island in September 2017, causing thousands of deaths and more than $100 billion in damage.

Nearly two years later, some 30,000 homes still have tarp roofs, power outages remain common, and Puerto Rico has received less than a third of the roughly $40 billion pledged by the U.S. government. Rosselló complained earlier this year of unfair treatment and a hostile attitude from some U.S. officials.

The public’s confidence has also been rocked by a recent string of corruption arrests involving such figures as the island’s former education secretary and the one-time chief of health services.

___

Associated Press writers Mariela Santos in San Juan and Michael Weissenstein in Havana contributed to this report.

Justice Department Resuming Executions for Federal Inmates

WASHINGTON—The Justice Department said Thursday that it will carry out executions of federal death row inmates for the first time since 2003.

Five inmates who have been sentenced to death are scheduled to be executed starting in December.

In 2014, following a botched state execution in Oklahoma, then-President Barack Obama directed the department to conduct a broad review of capital punishment and issues surrounding lethal injection drugs. It remains unclear today what came of that review and whether it will change the way the federal government carries out executions.

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The Death Penalty Is Getting Even Crueler



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Death Penalty Debate Takes a Turn Toward Sanity



by Bill Blum

That review has been completed and the executions can continue, the department said.

Executions on the federal level have been rare. The government has put to death only three defendants since restoring the federal death penalty in 1988, the most recent of which occurred in 2003, when Louis Jones was executed for the 1995 kidnapping, rape and murder of a young female soldier.

“Congress has expressly authorized the death penalty through legislation adopted by the people’s representatives in both houses of Congress and signed by the President,” Attorney General William Barr said in a news release. “The Justice Department upholds the rule of law and we owe it to the victims and their families to carry forward the sentence imposed by our justice system.”

Capital punishment has emerged as a flashpoint in the Democratic presidential primary, with former Vice President Joe Biden this week shifting to call for the elimination of the federal death penalty after years of supporting it. Biden’s criminal justice plan also would encourage states to follow the federal government in ending the death penalty, 25 years after he helped pass a tough crime bill that expanded capital punishment for more potential offenses.

The lone Democratic White House hopeful who has publicly supported preserving capital punishment in certain circumstances is Montana Gov. Steve Bullock, who has said he would leave it open as an option for major crimes such as terrorism.

___

Associated Press writer Elana Schor contributed to this report.

The Crucial Congressional Hearing That No One Watched

As political observers focused on a pair of congressional hearings Wednesday featuring former special counsel Robert Mueller recanting the contents of his report on Russian interference in the 2016 election, another hearing involving the victims of the Trump administration’s immigration policies was going on down the hall.

The House Appropriations Committee’s Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies Subcommittee hearing, which didn’t earn the kind of media coverage Mueller’s hearing did, painted a dire picture of conditions for migrant children separated from their families and placed under the care of the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) and Health and Human Services (HHS) in facilities like Florida’s Homestead Temporary Shelter for Unaccompanied Children.

“A posted bulletin board had timelines for when staff would notify ICE about kids approaching their 18th birthdays,” said Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.). “These children had to be transferred out of Homestead and ORR care and we were told these young adults are arrested by ICE, handcuffed, and sent to an adult ICE prison.”

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The Largest Migrant Shelter Is a House of Horrors, Report Finds



by Ilana Novick

















As Immigrant Deaths Pile Up, We Need to Find Our Moral Compass



by Sonali Kolhatkar

“Children often dread this date,” Wasserman Schultz said. “Many become suicidal as the date nears.”

Wasserman Schultz, a critic of Homestead, described her concerns over Homestead, including that the company running the facility—Comprehensive Health Services, a subsidiary of Caliburn, where, Common Dreams reported in May, former Chief of Staff to President Donald Trump John Kelly sits on the board—appeared disinterested in education programs and proper care for the children housed there. The congresswoman, who visited the facility earlier in July, also said the shelters were not prepared to stand up to major storms.

“We’re in the middle of hurricane season, and many of the shelters for children are tents,” said Wasserman Schultz.

The hearing also featured testimony from Amnesty International’s executive director Margaret Huang and Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, the president and CEO of Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service.

Huang, in her prepared remarks, railed against the Trump administration’s treatment of immigrants and use of family separation as a deterrence tactic.

“Though domestic and international law require family unity to be preserved wherever possible, the government has adopted practices that do exactly the opposite,” said Huang, “jeopardizing family unity and needlessly prolonging child detention by separating caregivers from children and implementing an information-sharing agreement between DHS and ORR that places potential sponsors at risk of deportation.”

“These practices are not only antithetical to the principle of the best interests of the child,” Huang added, “they have also proliferated the use of ‘temporary emergency’ facilities when the only ’emergency’ is a crisis of the administration’s making.”

In her comments to the subcommittee, Vignarajah said that children experience mental and emotional strain from family separation.

“The harmful chaos created during the zero-tolerance policy that led to separating thousands of children from their families without any plan for reunification is anathema to this nation’s values and an abdication of modern-day child welfare protections,” said Vignarajah.

The problem continues, she added, despite government assurances.

“Although the zero-tolerance policy was officially rescinded on June 20, 2018, we are deeply troubled by the fact that we continue to encounter such cases,” Vignarajah said.

Watch the full hearing:

Mueller’s Testimony Exposes Trump for What He Is

This piece first appeared on Informed Comment. 

Donald Trump keeps trying to hypnotize people by saying “no collusion, no obstruction,” and saying that Robert Mueller exonerated him. Because so few Americans and so few in Congress will actually read the Mueller report, he thinks he can get away with the big lie.

Mueller explicitly denied yesterday that he had exonerated Trump. So that’s a Trump lie.

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What's in the Mueller Report?



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Five Critical Takeaways From the Mueller Report



by Bill Blum

The Mueller report contains ample evidence that Trump attempted to obstruct the Mueller investigation. In fact, we know that Trump tried as hard as he could to simply fire Mueller for the purpose of obstructing the Mueller report.

Although Rep. Ted Lieu, D-Calif., did not in fact elicit from Mueller, as Alex Ward at Vox showed, an admission that he had decided on Trump’s guilt but did not indict, Lieu carefully walked Mueller through the report to establish fairly conclusively that Trump committed what any reasonable person, knowledgeable of the law, would conclude was obstruction of justice:

Lieu demonstrated from the Mueller report that all three elements of obstruction of justice were committed by Trump when he told White House counsel Don McGahn to fire Mueller and then told McGahn to cover up the order (which was not implemented).

LIEU: Thank you, director Mueller, for you long history of service to our country including your service as a Marine where you earned a brown star with a V device.

I’d like to now turn to the elements of obstruction of justice as applied to the president’s attempts to curtail your investigation. The first element of obstruction of justice requites and obstructive act, correct?

MUELLER: Correct.

LIEU: OK. I’d like to direct you to page 97 of Volume 2 of your report, and you wrote there on page 97, quote, “Sessions was being instructed to tell the special counsel to end the existing investigation into the president and his campaign,” unquote. That’s in the report, correct?

MUELLER: Correct.

LIEU: That would be evidence of an obstructive act because it would naturally obstruct their investigation, correct?

MUELLER: Correct.

LIEU: OK. Let’s turn now to the second element of the crime of obstruction of justice which requires a nexus to an official proceeding. Again, I’m going to direct you to page 97, the same page of Volume 2. And you wrote, quote, “by the time of the president’s initial one-on-one meeting with Lewandowski on June 19, 2017, the existence of a grand jury investigation supervised by the special counsel was public knowledge.” That’s in the report, correct?

MUELLER: Correct.

LIEU: That would constitute evidence of a nexus to an official proceeding because a grand jury investigation is an official proceeding, correct?

MUELLER: Yes.

LIEU: OK. I’d like to now turn to the final element of the crime of obstruction to justice. On that same page, page 97, do you see where there is the intent section on that page?

MUELLER: I do see that.

LIEU: All right. Would you be willing to read the first sentence?

MUELLER: And that was starting with…

LIEU: Substantial evidence.

MUELLER: Indicates that the president…

LIEU: If you read that first sentence, would you be willing to do that?

MUELLER: I’m happy to have you read it.

LIEU: OK. I will read it. You wrote, quote, “substantial evidence indicates that the president’s effort to have Sessions limit the scope of the special counsel’s investigation be featuring (ph) election interference was intended to prevent further investigative scrutiny of the president and his campaign’s conduct,” unquote. That’s in the report, correct?

MUELLER: That is in the report, and I rely what’s in the report to indicate what’s happened in the paragraphs that we’ve been discussing.

LIEU: Thank you. So to recap what we’ve heard, we have heard today that the president ordered former White House Counsel, Don McGahn, to fire you. The president ordered Don McGahn to then cover that up and create a false paper trail. And now we’ve heard the president ordered Corey Lewandowski to tell Jeff Sessions to limit your investigation so that he — you stop investigating the president.

I believe any reasonable person looking at these facts could conclude that all three elements of the crime of obstruction of justice have been met. And I’d like to ask you the reason, again, that you did not indict Donald Trump is because of OLC opinion stating that you cannot indict a sitting president, correct?

MUELLER: That is correct.

LIEU: The fact that their orders by the president were not carried out, that is not a defense to obstruction of justice because a statute itself is quite dry. It says that as long as you endeavor or attempt to obstruct justice, that would also constitute a crime.

MUELLER: I’m not going to get into that at this juncture.

LIEU: OK. Thank you, and based on the evidence that we have heard today, I believe a reasonable person could conclude that at least three crimes of obstruction of justice by the president occurred. We’re going to hear about two additional crimes. That would be the witnessed hamperings of Michael Cohen and Paul Manafort, and I yield back.

MUELLER: Well, the only thing I want to add is that I’m going through the elements with you do not mean or does not mean that I subscribe to the — what you’re trying to prove through those elements.

Objections that McGahn did not follow through on the order are irrelevant, since obstruction is defined as attempting to obstruct, which Trump did. Objections that the obstruction was to stop an investigation into collusion between the Russians and the Trump campaign, which was not proved, are also irrelevant, because an accused person can attempt to obstruct an investigation even if the investigation’s premise is never proved.

Texas Rep. Sheila Jackson’s questioning underlined that obstruction can be committed even in noncriminal matters, for instance, to avoid personal embarrassment.

As for collusion, what Mueller found was that there was insufficient evidence of criminal conspiracy, which is a federal crime, to bring charges. He did not conclude that there was no criminal conspiracy, only that he could not prove one. Collusion is a much vaguer conception and is not a defined crime in the law. But Mueller did not rule out collusion, as The Washington Post’s Philip Bump points out.

In fact, since “collusion” is not a legal term, it seems obvious that there was collusion. As Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., elicited from Mueller, the Russians extensively interfered in the 2016 election, and the Trump campaign team actively welcomed this interference in the election.

That would be a form of collusion.

 

A Veterans’ Antiwar Movement Takes Root at Peacestock

Editor’s note: This article was originally published on Antiwar.com.

I was just about the youngest person in the room. I usually am when I address veterans’ peace organizations. Of course, when I speak at universities, it’s the exact opposite case. Being a 35-year old post 9/11 antiwar vet can be a bit lonely, a feeling of being stuck between two generational worlds. In this case, just this past weekend, I spoke, along with the great Ann Wright, at an amazing event titled Peacestock, in Red Wing, Minnesota. It was an annual gathering, several years running now, of the greater Minneapolis chapters of Veterans for Peace.

In a solemn, yet joyous, day of peace, camaraderie, and even group singing, various speakers discussed the state of the struggling antiwar movement, the importance of patriotic veterans’ dissent, and a plethora of intersectional foreign and domestic issues. We laughed, some cried, as many of our emotions leapt from frustration to excitement and back again. In addition to my genuine gratitude for the honor of attending and serving as a keynote speaker, there were, for me, two key takeaways from the daylong event.

First, as speakers discussed a range of policy issues and facets of activism, it occurred to me that the antiwar movement must avoid the pitfall of artificially separating foreign and domestic affairs. At the gathering, the audience of perhaps 150 vets and family members heard speeches on topics that ranged from Afghanistan to Palestine, Guantanamo to immigration, indigenous rights to drone warfare, and from the upcoming 2020 election to halting the march to war with Iran.

As I listened, hour after hour, it struck me that each of these vital problems ought not to be covered the way mainstream media and most other activists tend to do so. No serious antiwar movement can take root as long as “kitchen table” issues like healthcare and immigration are disjointed from “overseas” affairs such as war and human rights. These vets in little Red Wing, Minnesota, on the banks of the Mississippi, got that, and it was refreshing. See, empires, all empires, including the latest American manifestation, always come home to roost.

As such, there is a direct line between the military occupation of Baghdad and the police occupation of communities of color in Baltimore; between Guantanamo Bay and detention camps on the U.S. southern border; between Abu Ghraib and domestic mass incarceration; between drone assassinations abroad and warrantless surveillance at home. Citizen apathy about matters of foreign policy, as was so clearly demonstrated in the first serious of Democratic primary debates, won’t change unless a newly invigorated antiwar movement clearly connects military waste of lives and cash in perpetual war to the national debt and lack of domestic social programs back in the civilian world.

It matters not, for now, whether one would rather transfer the trillions of dollars saved to poverty reduction programs or tax cuts. Progressives and libertarians must forge an alliance to end forever war or there’ll be no hope of doing so. Until Rand Paul types and Bernie Sanders supporters truly find common cause in a broad sense, the militarist establishments of both political parties will feed the American people endless war.

The second major takeaway from Peacestock involved my relative youth. Nearly all in attendance were Vietnam-era veterans. Now these weren’t the stereotypical flaky hippies of the common imagination, but rather former troopers who’ve seen and done the serious business of war fighting, been-there and done-that types. That can never be taken away from them. Still, the fact that I, an invited speaker, was the only post 9/11 wars alumni, qualifies as more than a bit disconcerting.

Organizations like Veterans for Peace have to actively recruit Iraq and Afghanistan veterans. Conversely, my generation of former soldiers must put aside our frustration and nihilism (and our smartphones) and get involved. Social media activism has got to be replaced with holding signs, and standing in the rain; joining Facebook groups replaced by joining Veterans for Peace and About Face (both).

Look, the spirit is out there waiting to be harnessed and productively organized. Recent polls demonstrate that fully two-thirds of post-9/11 veterans now believe the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan weren’t “worth fighting.” And indeed they most certainly were not! Moreover, since other opinion polls have long (and disturbingly) shown that the military is the onlypublic institution which Americans now trust, it is from within the veterans’ community that a new and serious antiwar assault must be launched. When those of us who killed and sacrificed needlessly, those of us who are highly respected by most civilians, speak out en masse, Americans will (just maybe) listen!

So, whether you are a vet who’s sick of endless war and countless combat tours, or a like-minded civilian fellow traveler, be a citizen: check out Peacestock and join – or support – an antiwar veterans’ group. The future of this republic may depend on it.

Danny Sjursen is a retired US Army officer and regular contributor to Antiwar.com. His work has appeared in the LA Times, The Nation, Huff Post, The Hill, Salon, Truthdig, Tom Dispatch, among other publications. He served combat tours with reconnaissance units in Iraq and Afghanistan and later taught history at his alma mater, West Point. He is the author of a memoir and critical analysis of the Iraq War, Ghostriders of Baghdad: Soldiers, Civilians, and the Myth of the Surge. Follow him on Twitter at @SkepticalVet.

Judge Blocks Asylum Policy at U.S.-Mexico Border

WASHINGTON — The Latest on court rulings over the Trump administration’s new asylum restrictions (all times local):

7:30 p.m.

A federal judge in California has blocked the Trump administration from enforcing new asylum restrictions for people crossing the U.S.-Mexico border.

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Wednesday’s ruling by U.S. District Judge Jon Tigar in San Francisco came hours after a judge in Washington decided to let the rules stand while lawsuits played out in court.

The policy would prevent most migrants from seeking asylum in the U.S. if they passed through another country first.

It targets tens of thousands of Central Americans who cross Mexico every month to try to enter the U.S. It also would affect asylum seekers from Africa, Asia and South America who arrive regularly at the southern border.

Legal groups argued the proposal was barred by federal law establishing how people can seek asylum.

___

7:40 a.m.

A federal judge says the Trump administration can enforce its new restrictions on asylum  for people crossing the U.S.-Mexico border while lawsuits challenging the policy play out.

U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly in Washington has refused to grant a temporary restraining order. Another hearing on a similar suit is scheduled later Wednesday in California.

Kelly says the immigrant advocacy groups that sued didn’t prove that their work would be “irreparably harmed” if the policy went into effect.

The proposal prevents most migrants from seeking asylum in the U.S. if they passed through another country first.

It targets the tens of thousands of Central American adults and children who cross Mexico every month to try to enter the U.S. It also would affect asylum-seekers from Africa, Asia, and South America.

Facebook and FTC: Hammer or Slap on the Wrist?

SAN FRANCISCO — Did Facebook get a slap on the wrist?

The Federal Trade Commission’s record $5 billion fine and new oversight of Facebook is a serious attempt to rein in the world’s largest social media network after years of privacy mishaps.

But it doesn’t go as far as the company’s biggest critics would have liked and it may do little to impede Facebook’s massive advertising business or its ability to collect people’s data. It also raises a bigger question: Can the world’s governments actually rein in a transnational corporation that directly touches almost a third of the world’s population?

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'The Great Hack' Shows How Facebook Got Your Number



by Jordan Riefe

















Facebook's Authoritarian Money Grab



by Jacob Bacharach

The fine is by far the biggest the FTC has levied on a tech company, though it won’t make much of a dent for a company that had nearly $56 billion in revenue last year. And despite efforts by the FTC’s majority to get a unanimous vote, two of the five commissioners opposed the settlement and said they would have preferred litigation to seek tougher penalties.

“While the $5 billion fine is a record for the FTC, that speaks more to the lightness of the FTC’s traditional penalties than it does to the effect on Facebook. Facebook makes that much money in a couple of weeks,” said Siva Vaidhyanathan, professor and author of “Antisocial Media: How Facebook Disconnects Us and Undermines Democracy.” The other terms of the settlement, he added, fail “to crack down on the core misbehavior of Facebook.” Now that it’s over, the company can “get back to business as usual,” he said.

Wall Street seems to agree. Facebook’s stock price climbed higher Wednesday after the deal was announced and the company is worth much more than it was when the Cambridge Analytica scandal erupted back in March 2018. The company’s market value on Wednesday was hovering around $575 billion — roughly $40 billion above where it stood before the news of the Cambridge abuses broke.

Still, the headaches are far from over. While the FTC action was one of the biggest regulatory threats for Facebook — as a U.S. company whose primary operations are in the U.S. — it still faces probes around the world over privacy, security and other possible violations. Then there’s the broader antitrust probe by the U.S. Department of Justice, which the agency announced this week.

“There is a lot more to come on the regulatory front for Facebook,” said Debra Aho Williamson, analyst with the research firm eMarketer. To pre-empt this and do things on its own terms, Williamson said the company is “going to do whatever it can” to change its business model and change the way it gathers data.

Facebook has already signaled that this is coming. Earlier this year, CEO Mark Zuckerberg unveiled a new, “privacy focused” vision for the company that centers on private messaging and encrypted communications. The details are scant. But it shows that the company is thinking years into the future even as regulators are investigating and punishing it for years-past violations.

As part of the FTC’s settlement with Facebook, Zuckerberg will have to personally certify his company’s compliance with its privacy programs. The FTC said that false certifications could expose him to civil or criminal penalties. But the settlement did not hold Zuckerberg personally liable for the past violations, as some had expected.

In a Facebook post Wednesday, Zuckerberg said the company will “make some major structural changes to how we build products and run this company” as a result of the settlement. “We have a responsibility to protect people’s privacy. We already work hard to live up to this responsibility, but now we’re going to set a completely new standard for our industry.”

In a similar tone, FTC Chairman Joe Simons, speaking at a news conference, said the settlement is “unprecedented in the history of the FTC” and is designed “to change Facebook’s entire privacy culture to decrease the likelihood of continued violations.”

To Vaidhyanathan, this sort of agreement by Facebook is not a good sign.

“Anything that Facebook likes is a problem,” he said.

The FTC opened an investigation into Facebook last year after revelations that data mining firm Cambridge Analytica had gathered details on as many as 87 million Facebook users without their permission. The agency said Wednesday that following its yearlong investigation of the company, the Department of Justice will file a complaint alleging that Facebook “repeatedly used deceptive disclosures and settings to undermine users’ privacy preferences.”

Three Republican commissioners voted for the fine while two Democrats opposed it, a clear sign that the restrictions on Facebook don’t go as far as critics and privacy advocates had hoped. That wish list included specific punishment for Zuckerberg, strict limits on what data Facebook can collect and possibly even breaking off subsidiaries such as WhatsApp and Instagram.

Nonetheless, the regulators touted the agreement as imposing a “sea change” on how Facebook handles the privacy of people’s data. Simons called it “a belt-and-suspenders approach to compliance” — with five overlapping “channels” both inside and outside Facebook.

If one or more channels break down, another channel can identify the problem and fix it, the FTC chairman said.

One of the channels is the new, independent committee of Facebook’s board that will focus on privacy alone. As agreed, Zuckerberg and the new designated compliance officers must each, independently, certify to the FTC that Facebook is in compliance. Falsely certifying would subject Zuckerberg and the officers to personal liability, including civil and criminal penalties.

Commissioner Noah Phillips compared that to the regime imposed on corporate CEOs following the wave of accounting scandals in 2001-2002, that began with Enron. CEOs now are required by law to personally vouch for the accuracy of their financial reports.

Simons also highlighted the role of company watchdogs, the directors sitting on Facebook’s board. While Zuckerberg is the controlling shareholder in the company, the board members have a fiduciary duty as watchdogs “to be sure the company is obeying the law,” he told reporters after the news conference.

But Ashkan Soltani, a former FTC chief technologist, said the settlement “amounts to essentially a get-out-of-jail free card for Facebook.”

__

Associated Press Writer Marcy Gordon contributed to this story from Washington.

Democrats to Seek More Russia Probe Information

WASHINGTON — The Latest on former special counsel Robert Mueller’s congressional testimony on the Russia probe (all times local):

6:35 p.m.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler says his panel will file lawsuits this week to obtain more information about special counsel Robert Mueller’s report and to enforce a subpoena against former White House counsel Donald McGahn.

Democrats have been preparing the lawsuits for weeks and were waiting until after Mueller’s testimony on Wednesday. They will seek to obtain secret grand jury material from Mueller’s April report that has so far been withheld from Congress by the Justice Department and also force McGahn to provide documents and testimony.

As part of the suits, the House is expected to challenge the White House’s claim of “absolute immunity” for McGahn and others who worked in the White House.

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Five Critical Takeaways From the Mueller Report



by Bill Blum

















Robert Mueller Was Never Going to Save Us



by Juan Cole

Of those claims, Nadler said, “If we break that, we break the logjam.”

___

4:40 p.m.

President Donald Trump says the Russia probe created a “phony cloud” over his administration and says House committee hearings featuring testimony from special counsel Robert Mueller were “all nonsense.”

He says Mueller’s performance was “obviously not very good” and is accusing him of not knowing about certain details of his investigation. Trump is calling it a “devastating day” for the Democrats.

After the congressional hearings ended, Trump spoke to reporters at the White House before leaving for Wheeling, West Virginia, where he’s attending a private fundraiser for his re-election campaign.

The Trump campaign sent out a personal plea to donors Wednesday to tell Democrats to end the “WITCH HUNT” by raising $2 million in 24 hours.

__

3:30 p.m.

Former special counsel Robert Mueller has finished testifying before Congress.

Mueller testified before two committees on Wednesday for more than six hours on his 448-page report on Russian interference in the 2016 election.

Mueller said the interference was not a hoax, and it was not an isolated episode. He warned that there should be a more robust effort to guard against future interference.

House intelligence committee Chairman Adam Schiff said the Democratic investigations will continue.

Mueller answered most questions in short sentences, referring Congress members to his report and choosing not to read his report aloud.

Mueller had made clear in his report that he could not exonerate President Donald Trump on obstruction of justice in the probe. But investigators didn’t find sufficient evidence to establish charges of criminal conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russia.

___

2:50 p.m.

Former special counsel Robert Mueller says election interference by Russia in 2016 was not an isolated attempt.

He told a congressional committee: “They’re doing it as we sit here.”

Mueller is testifying Wednesday before the House intelligence committee on his 448-page report on Russian interference.

Mueller had made clear in his report that he could not exonerate President Donald Trump on obstruction of justice in the probe.

The report also said investigators didn’t find sufficient evidence to establish charges of criminal conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russia.

___

2:45 p.m.

Robert Mueller is refusing to say whether his team subpoenaed Donald Trump Jr.

The former special counsel is testifying Wednesday afternoon before the House intelligence committee about his investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and possible ties with the Trump campaign.

Rep. Eric Swalwell, a California Democrat, asked Mueller if he subpoenaed the president’s eldest son or if he wanted to interview him. Mueller responded: “I’m not going to discuss that.”

Mueller’s report on the Russia investigation, which was released in April, said Trump Jr. had “declined to be voluntarily interviewed” by the special counsel’s office.

There are two lines in the report, following that statement, that are redacted because they contain grand jury information.

Trump Jr. was a key figure in a 2016 campaign meeting with a Russian lawyer in Trump Tower in New York that captured Mueller’s attention.

___

2:15 p.m.

Former special counsel Robert Mueller is condemning President Donald Trump’s praise for WikiLeaks during the 2016 presidential campaign.

Testifying before the House intelligence committee, Mueller says calling it “problematic is an understatement.”

During that campaign, WikiLeaks released troves of hacked emails from the campaign of Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.

U.S. intelligence agencies and Mueller’s investigation determined Russian government entities were responsible for the hack and furnished the embarrassing correspondence to WikiLeaks in order to support Trump’s bid for the presidency.

___

2:10 p.m.

Former special counsel Robert Mueller says he hoped to send a message with his Russia probe report “to those who come after us.”

Mueller is testifying before the House intelligence committee Wednesday afternoon. He spent hours earlier Wednesday answering questions from the House Judiciary Committee.

Mueller said he wanted the report to be “a signal, a flag … don’t let this problem continue to linger.”

He also said that Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election was not a hoax. He said: “The indictments we returned against the Russians were substantial.”

Trump had said the allegations were a hoax perpetrated by Democrats.

___

1:45 p.m.

Former special counsel Robert Mueller has clarified that he did not consider bringing criminal charges against President Donald Trump as part of his Russia investigation.

Mueller in his congressional testimony Wednesday morning seemed to agree that he did not charge Trump with obstruction of justice because of Justice Department guidance saying a sitting president can’t be indicted.

Democrats seized on that answer, but when testimony resumed in the afternoon, Mueller clarified. He said “that is not the correct way to say it.”

Mueller said his team “did not reach a determination as to whether the president committed a crime.”

Mueller had made clear in his report that he could not exonerate Trump on obstruction of justice. His 448-page report also said investigators didn’t find sufficient evidence to establish charges of criminal conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russia.

___

1:25 p.m.

Former special counsel Robert Mueller says his investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election was “not a witch hunt.”

Mueller is testifying Wednesday afternoon before the House intelligence committee on his 448-page report. He spent hours testifying before the House Judiciary Committee.

President Donald Trump has repeatedly referred to the Russia investigation as a witch hunt, including Wednesday morning when he tweeted the hearings were part of the “Greatest Witch Hunt in U.S. history.”

Mueller was responding to a question from intelligence committee Chairman Adam Schiff, a California Democrat.

Mueller is not expected to go beyond the report during questioning. In the earlier hearing, he replied to questions with short phrases, often saying he will refer to the report.

Mueller stated Wednesday that his investigation did not “exonerate” Trump.

___

1:20 p.m.

The top Republican on the House intelligence committee says a hearing with former special counsel Robert Mueller is “political theater” and a “Hail Mary” attempt by Democrats to convince Americans that President Donald Trump conspired with Russia to win election.

California Rep. Devin Nunes said there were “red flags” as the Justice Department started investigating Russian contacts with Trump’s campaign in 2016. Republicans have argued that the department conspired against Trump as that probe began.

Mueller, who later took over the investigation, said in his report released in April that there was no evidence that Trump’s campaign conspired with Russia. But it detailed many contacts between the two.

Mueller is testifying in Congress for the first time on the findings of his investigation.

Nunes called the Mueller hearing the “last gasp of the Russia collusion conspiracy.”

___

1 p.m.

The White House is calling former special counsel Robert Mueller’s congressional testimony “an epic embarrassment for the Democrats.”

Press secretary Stephanie Grisham issued a statement as Mueller prepared for a second round of testimony on Capitol Hill about his investigation into Russian election interference and obstruction of justice by President Donald Trump.

Grisham’s statement says: “The last three hours have been an epic embarrassment for the Democrats. Expect more of the same in the second half.”

Mueller stated Wednesday that his investigation did not “exonerate” Trump. Mueller also faced repeated questions from Republicans seeking to undermine his credibility.

___

12:55 p.m.

The House intelligence committee chairman says the report by the office of former special counsel Robert Mueller is “methodical and devastating.”

Adam Schiff’s prepared remarks come at the start of a second congressional hearing Wednesday where Mueller is testifying about his investigation into Russian election interference and obstruction of justice by President Donald Trump.

Mueller spent more than three hours testifying before the House Judiciary Committee earlier Wednesday.

Schiff, a Democrat from California, says the report also tells the story of “disloyalty to country, about greed and about lies.”

Schiff says what is at stake is “our next election, and the one after that, for generations to come.”

Mueller is not expected go to beyond the report during questioning. In the earlier hearing, he replied to questions with short phrases, often saying he will refer to the report.

___

12:10 p.m.

Former special counsel Robert Mueller is pushing back on questions from Republicans about his prosecutors’ connections to Hillary Clinton, saying political affiliations played no part in his hiring decisions.

Mueller is testifying before Congress about his investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 election and possible ties to the Trump campaign.

North Dakota Republican Rep. Kelly Armstrong questioned Mueller about one of his prosecutors attending Clinton’s election night party, and another who represented Clinton in a lawsuit.

Mueller strongly defended his team. He said he found some of the best prosecutors in the country to work for him.

The former FBI director said in 25 years in law enforcement, he has never asked anyone who worked for him about their political affiliation. Mueller said he only cares about the “capability of the individual to do the job and do the job with integrity.”

___

11:35 a.m.

Former special counsel Robert Mueller told the House judiciary and intelligence committees that he would decline to quote from his report on the Trump-Russia investigation during his testimony before both panels on Wednesday.

That’s according to a person involved with the negotiations who spoke about the confidential talks only on condition of anonymity.

Mueller’s refusal to read his own words has proved somewhat challenging for Democrats, who called him in with the idea that he could explain his findings to the American people.

He is making his first major public appearance on the findings of his office’s probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election and President Donald Trump’s response to the investigation.

Mueller has replied to questions with short phrases, often saying he will refer to the report.

So Democrats are filling in the gaps by reading from the report themselves, methodically going through episodes that Mueller reviewed for obstruction of justice. The report said Trump couldn’t be exonerated on that point. It also said investigators did not find sufficient evidence to establish charges of criminal conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russia.

—By Mary Clare Jalonick.

___

11:15 a.m.

Robert Mueller is pushing back against Republican attacks with a forceful defense of his report on the Trump-Russia investigation.

Mueller testified Wednesday in Congress that he doesn’t think the lawmakers have reviewed “a report that is a thorough, as fair, as consistent as the report that we have in front of us.”

The former special counsel is making his first major public appearance on the findings of his office’s probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election and President Donald Trump’s response to the investigation.

The report says investigators could not exonerate Trump on obstruction of justice. It also said they did not find sufficient evidence to establish charges of criminal conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russia.

Mueller has been a reluctant witness before the House Judiciary Committee, delivering single-word answers to many questions. But in response to Republican Rep. Tom McClintock of California, he gave a full-sentence defense of his 448-page report.

___

11 a.m.

Former special counsel Robert Mueller is affirming that a president can be charged with crimes after leaving office.

He says Justice Department guidelines prevented him from considering charges against President Donald Trump while he is in office.

Because of the longtime Justice Department guidance that a sitting president cannot be indicted, Mueller says “one of the tools a prosecutor would use is not there.”

Mueller has said his investigators could not exonerate Trump on obstruction of justice. His report said they did not find sufficient evidence to establish charges of criminal conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russia.

Mueller is testifying Wednesday before the House Judiciary Committee about his Russia investigation.

___

10:45 a.m.

President Donald Trump’s sons and advisers are weighing in on former special counsel Robert Mueller’s congressional testimony with quips on Twitter targeting Democrats.

Donald Trump Jr. is calling the hearing a “disaster” for Democrats. He says Mueller claims he can’t understand the Republicans’ questions, but totally gets the ones from Democrats.

Eric Trump says GOP Rep. Jim Jordan’s comments at the hearing were “spot on.” Jordan says Democrats should be investigating what he says are “false accusations” that started the Russia probe.

Former White House press secretary Sarah Sanders says the hearing shows the Russia probe was run by Democrats wanting to destroy Trump.

Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway tweeted three words: “drop the mic.”

That’s a phrase people say after they think they’ve gotten the upper hand on something.

___

9:55 a.m.

Former special counsel Robert Mueller is disputing President Donald Trump’s claim that Mueller was rebuffed in a bid to fill the post of FBI director.

Facing questions from congressional lawmakers, Mueller said he spoke with Trump about the FBI job before he was named as special counsel, but “not as a candidate.”

Then-White House chief strategist Steve Bannon has said that while the White House invited Mueller to speak to the president about the FBI and thought about asking him to become director again, Mueller did not come in looking for a job.

Trump tweeted Wednesday that there are “numerous witnesses,” including Vice President Mike Pence, who could say that Mueller applied and interviewed for the job and was “turned down” for it.

Pence spokesperson Alyssa Farah told the Associated Press that the vice president “was present in the Oval Office when Robert Mueller interviewed for the job of FBI Director in May of 2017.”

Mueller is testifying before Congress for the first time on his Trump-Russia investigation.

___

9:20 a.m.

Robert Mueller is testifying before Congress that the Russians believed they would benefit from Donald Trump winning the 2016 presidential election.

The former special counsel was asked Wednesday if his investigation found the Russian government perceived a benefit if one of the candidates won.

“Yes,” he said.

And which candidate would that be? asked Rep. Zoe Lofgren, a California Democrat.

“It would be Trump,” Mueller said.

Mueller is testifying before Congress for the first time on his Trump-Russia investigation.

___

9 a.m.

Special counsel Robert Mueller is dismissing President Donald Trump’s claim of “total exoneration,” saying it’s not what his Russia report said.

Mueller told lawmakers on the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday that investigators did not exonerate Trump of obstruction of justice.

He made the statement in response to questions from the committee’s chairman, Rep. Jerrold Nadler, a New York Democrat.

Mueller’s report said the investigation did not find sufficient evidence to establish charges of a criminal conspiracy between the Trump presidential campaign and Russia. But it said investigators did not clear Trump of trying to obstruct the probe.

A redacted version of the 448-page report compiled by Mueller’s team was released by the Justice Department in April.

___

8:55 a.m.

Former special counsel Robert Mueller says he will be unable to answer questions he knows are of public interest.

That includes details of the origins of the FBI’s Russia investigation. Republicans have suggested that it was a political vendetta started by law enforcement officers who did not like President Donald Trump.

Mueller is testifying before Congress Wednesday for the first time on his Trump-Russia investigation.

Mueller also said he would not be able to discuss matters related to the so-called “Steele Dossier,” a once-confidential campaign memo written by a former British spy that had a detailed narrative of how the Russian government supposedly collaborated with the Trump campaign.

Mueller’s investigation did not establish that members of the Trump campaign conspired with the Russian government in its election interference efforts.

___

8:50 a.m.

Former special counsel Robert Mueller says Russia’s efforts to interfere in U.S. elections is “among the most serious” challenges to American democracy.

Mueller made the statement in his opening remarks before the House Judiciary Committee. He’ll appear before the intelligence committee later in the day.

Mueller has expressed his reluctance to testify and said he won’t go beyond what’s in his 448-page report released in April.

Mueller’s report said the investigation did not find sufficient evidence to establish charges of a criminal conspiracy between the Trump presidential campaign and Russia. But it said investigators did not clear President Donald Trump of trying to obstruct the probe.

___

8:45 a.m.

The top Republican on the House Judiciary Committee has defended President Donald Trump as the committee opened its hearing with former special counsel Robert Mueller.

Georgia Rep. Doug Collins says “the president knew he was innocent” and did not shut down Mueller’s probe, even though he had the authority to do so.

Mueller’s report released in April said that he could not exonerate the president on obstruction of justice. It also said there was not enough evidence to establish a criminal conspiracy between Trump’s campaign and Russia.

Collins said Russia meddled in the 2016 election but “the president did not conspire with Russians.” He said “nothing we hear today will change those facts.”

Collins said Republicans will also question the origins of Mueller’s investigation.

___

8:37 a.m.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler says his committee has “a responsibility to address” the evidence that former special counsel Robert Mueller has uncovered in his Trump-Russia investigation.

Opening a three-hour hearing with Mueller, Nadler said there are themes to the hearing: “responsibility, integrity, and accountability.”

Nadler laid out the examples from Mueller’s report that committee members intend to focus on while questioning the reluctant former special counsel.

Mueller wrote in the document that he could not exonerate President Donald Trump on obstruction of justice.

He noted Trump’s directions to then-White House counsel Donald McGahn to have Mueller removed and, once that was made public, orders from Trump to McGahn to deny it happened.

Nadler said “not even the president is above the law.”

___

12:05 a.m.

The former special counsel in the Trump-Russia probe, Robert Mueller, will finally face congressional interrogators on Wednesday, testifying in televised hearings.

Democrats hope Mueller’s testimony will weaken President Donald Trump’s reelection prospects in ways that Mueller’s book-length report did not. Republicans are ready to defend Trump and turn their fire on Mueller and his team instead.

The back-to-back Capitol Hill appearances in the morning and at noon are Mueller’s first since wrapping his two-year Russia probe last spring. The hearings carry the extraordinary spectacle of a prosecutor discussing in public a criminal investigation he conducted into a sitting U.S. president.

Mueller is known for his taciturn nature, and he has warned lawmakers that he will not stray beyond what’s already been revealed in his report.

Trump Sues House Panel, NY, to Protect State Tax Returns

NEW YORK — Opening up another legal front against the Democrats investigating him, President Donald Trump on Tuesday sued the House Ways and Means Committee and New York state officials to prevent his state tax returns from being turned over to the congressional committee.

The lawsuit seeks an injunction to block the application of a new New York state law that could allow the Democratic-controlled House and Ways Means Committee to obtain the returns. The lawsuit, filed in Washington, comes amid a furious White House attempt to prevent the president’s tax returns from winding up in Democratic hands.

“We have filed a lawsuit today in our ongoing efforts to end presidential harassment,” said Jay Sekulow, one of the president’s lawyers. “The targeting of the president by the House Ways and Means Committee, the New York Attorney General, and a New York tax official violates article 1 of the U.S. Constitution. The harassment tactics lack a legitimate legislative purpose. The actions taken by the House and New York officials are nothing more than political retribution.”

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The state’s attorney general, Letitia James, said the act “will shine a light on the president’s finances and finally offer transparency to millions of Americans yearning to know the truth.”

“President Trump has spent his career hiding behind lawsuits,” James said in a statement, “but, as New York’s chief law enforcement officer, I can assure him that no one is above the law — not even the president of the United States.”

Trump’s tax returns have been a source of mystery — and contention — ever since the celebrity businessman broke with tradition and did not release his returns during his 2016 presidential campaign.

The House Ways and Means Committee sued the Treasury Department and IRS officials this month in an attempt to enforce a law that allows its chairman to obtain any taxpayer’s returns. Its chairman, Rep. Richard Neal, D-Mass., hasn’t indicated whether he would use the New York law, focusing instead on the federal lawsuit.

The lawsuit echoes what has become the White House consistent argument: that the committee’s pursuit of the president’s tax returns, as well as most of the Democrats’ investigative efforts, lack a legitimate legislative purpose and thus is outside Congress’s authority.

The suit also argues that the committee can’t have a legislative purpose in getting state records because its jurisdiction is limited to federal taxes. However, New York officials have argued that the state returns would contain much of the same information found on the president’s federal returns.

Trump has cited repeated IRS audits as a reason not to disclose his returns, but he isn’t legally prevented from releasing returns while under audit.

“Ultimately, this issue was litigated in the 2016 election,” the lawsuit said. “Voters heard the criticisms from Secretary (Hillary) Clinton, and they elected President Trump anyway. Democrats in Congress and across the country, however, have only become more eager to disclose the president’s tax returns for political gain.”

Democrats have argued that they need to review the returns in their search for potential conflicts of interest or corruption.

The administration and the Trump’s business have repeatedly tried to stall Democrats’ investigations by filing lawsuits and not cooperating. The White House has blocked several current and former officials from testifying, has refused to comply with document requests and the president has considered invoking executive privilege to stifle a series of probes.