Violence, threats hang over Trump-Harris race after turbulent weekend

WASHINGTON -- Kamala Harris and Donald Trump on Monday head into a newly intense phase of the US presidential campaign, with tensions heightened after a second apparent assassination attempt against the Republican former president.

The Sunday arrest of a gunman on Donald Trump's golf course came the same day as more bomb threats poured into Springfield, Ohio, a small Midwestern city at the center of Republican-led conspiracies against immigrants.

But the dueling campaigns are set to march on with little interruption, a day after the Secret Service confirmed one or more of its agents "opened fire on a gunman" located near the boundary of Trump's Florida golf course, and that an "AK-47 style rifle" with a scope was recovered along with a GoPro video camera.

The FBI said it was "investigating what appears to be an attempted assassination of former President Trump."

US media named the suspect as Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, who had expressed support for Ukraine and had a lengthy arrest record.

Authorities said they had not identified a specific motive or political ideology for the shooter behind the previous bid on Trump's life, at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania.

Trump was wounded in the ear in the July 13 shooting.

Authorities on Sunday said it wasn't clear whether a gunman actually fired a weapon in the direction of the former president before the Secret Service engaged the shooter.

Harris and President Joe Biden both denounced the attack on Trump, with Biden saying "There is no place for political violence or for any violence ever in our country."

Vice President Harris, the Democratic nominee who will face ex-president Trump at the polls November 5, said in a statement Sunday she was "disturbed by the possible assassination attempt" and "thankful that former president Trump is safe."

The same day, Clark State College, in Springfield, announced it would hold classes virtually this week, after receiving bomb and shooting threats over the weekend.

- Bomb threats -

The move comes on the fourth consecutive day of threats of bombings and other violence that have targeted the local city hall, public schools and nearby college Wittenberg University, following racist rumors about local Haitian immigrants pushed by Republicans including Trump.

What started as municipal growing pains in a rapidly growing city have morphed into allegations of an "invasion" by "illegal" Haitian newcomers, baselessly accused of stealing and eating people's pets and causing a crime wave.

Threats have hit hospitals, schools and municipal buildings since Trump declared the immigrants were stealing and eating resident's pets at Tuesday's presidential debate.

Some Haitians living in the city have told AFP they are scared for their lives.

- 'Hate' for Taylor Swift -

Adding to the country's acrimonious political atmosphere, Trump posted on his Truth Social website that "I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT!"

Earlier this week, the superstar singer/songwriter posted a message on Instagram saying she would be voting for Harris, calling her a "steady-handed, gifted leader."

Celebrity endorsements rarely carry enormous weight, but the hugely popular Swift is seen as being in a class of her own, with more than 400 million followers on Instagram, TikTok and other social media platforms -- 10 million of whom "liked" her Instagram post.

It was not clear what Trump hoped to gain by attacking Swift, though he may calculate that any publicity is better than none.

He has been criticized, even by fellow Republicans, for his recent association with conspiracy-minded right-wing influencer Laura Loomer, who has at times joined him on his campaign plane.

The 31-year-old Loomer -- who has called the September 11 terror attacks an "inside job" and said some of the country's recent mass shootings were staged by Democrats -- recently suggested that Swift had entered an "arranged relationship" with football star Travis Kelce "to influence the 2024 election."

There is no evidence to support any of those claims.

The race between Trump and Harris remains tight across the battleground states that will decide the election.

Agence France-Presse

FBI warns of large 'scale' in US ransomware attack

NEW YORK - The FBI said Sunday the "scale" of a major ransomware attack against a US IT company could mean investigators won't be able to work with every victim individually. 

Hackers hit Kaseya, a firm that provides IT services to other companies, with a ransomware attack that could have targeted as many as 1,000 other businesses on Friday, just before the long holiday July 4 weekend in the United States. 

The FBI said it had opened an investigation along with the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and other US federal agencies "to understand the scope of the threat."

"If you believe your systems have been compromised, we encourage you to employ all recommended mitigations, follow Kaseya's guidance to shut down your VSA servers immediately and report to the FBI," the bureau said in a statement Sunday, referencing the signature networking software that was attacked. 

"Although the scale of this incident may make it so that we are unable to respond to each victim individually, all information we receive will be useful in countering this threat," the FBI statement said.

President Joe Biden said Saturday that he had ordered an investigation, in particular to find out whether the assault had come from Russia. 

"We're not sure yet," he said Saturday.

Russian-based hackers have been blamed for a string of ransomware attacks, and Biden recently raised the threat in talks with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.

Ransomware attacks typically involve locking away data in systems using encryption, making companies pay to regain access.

Kaseya describes itself as a leading provider of IT and security management services to small and medium-sized businesses. VSA is designed to let companies manage networks of computers and printers from a single point.

The company said in a new statement Sunday that they were working "around the clock in all geographies" to get their systems working again.

They said they hoped to get a restricted version of their platform running again within days. 

The disruption forced Swedish supermarket chain Coop Sweden to close on Saturday because their cash register system had been taken down in the attack.

Multiple US companies, including the computer group SolarWinds and the Colonial oil pipeline, have also recently been targeted by ransomware attacks.

Agence France-Presse

Video-conferencing app Zoom under scrutiny in US over privacy, porn hacks

NEW YORK - Video conferencing app Zoom, which has seen its popularity skyrocket in the coronavirus pandemic, is in hot water after users complained to the FBI of being startled by porn during meetings.

New York Attorney General Letitia James sent a letter to the in-vogue California enterprise "with a number of questions to ensure the company is taking appropriate steps to ensure users' privacy and security," a spokesman said.

He refused to give further information on the contents but added Tuesday that James's office was "trying to work with the company" to resolve any problems.

The investigation comes after the FBI's Boston office warned on Monday that it had "received multiple reports of conferences being disrupted by pornographic and/or hate images and threatening language."

The FBI listed two examples where hackers had "Zoom-bombed" schools which have closed because of the deadly virus and which are now teaching classes online.

A Massachusetts high school reported that an unidentified individual dialed into the virtual classroom and yelled a profanity at the teacher before shouting the teacher's home address.

Another school in the same state reported the appearance of an unknown person with swastika tattoos.

Using the hashtag "zoombombed," social media users have testified that they suddenly saw pornographic or racist images on their screens while using the app.

The FBI recommended that Zoom users make all meetings private and avoid screen sharing to combat would-be hackers.

Silicon Valley-based Zoom said it "takes its users' privacy, security, and trust extremely seriously.

"During the COVID-19 pandemic, we are working around-the-clock to ensure that hospitals, universities, schools, and other businesses across the world can stay connected and operational," a spokesperson told AFP.

"We appreciate the New York Attorney General's engagement on these issues and are happy to provide her with the requested information."

Zoom saw US downloads surge by 252 percent to 4.2 million during the week of March 16 -- when strict stay-at-home measures began being rolled out across America -- compared to the previous week, according to research firm Sensor Tower.

They increased by another 66 percent the following week to reach seven million downloads.

The app has seen similar growth in Europe, with downloads hitting 6.5 million at the end of March, according to Sensor Tower.

Agence France-Presse

Trump move to declassify Russia intel draws sharp criticism

WASHINGTON - US President Donald Trump is defending his unprecedented decision to give his Justice Department chief unfettered access to the country's deepest foreign intelligence secrets amid an outcry from the spy community and a veiled warning from the US intelligence czar.

The president said Attorney General Bill Barr needed unilateral power to declassify any top secret material to get to the roots of the 2016-2018 investigation into whether his election campaign colluded with Russia.

Barr "will be able to see how this hoax, how the hoax or witch hunt started, and why it started," Trump said.

"It was an attempted coup or an attempted takedown of the president of the United States. It should never ever happen to anybody else, so it's very important."

But politicians and former intelligence community leaders said Trump and Barr are threatening to expose the country's most protected sources of secrets on Russia to mount a political attack on a legitimate investigation that exposed a serious threat to the United States.

REOPENING THE RUSSIA MEDDLING INVESTIGATION

The brief order issued late Thursday tells the heads of each of the bodies of the intelligence community, including the CIA and National Security Agency, to support Barr in his review of what he has called suspected improper "spying" on Trump by the FBI and intelligence bodies.

It also gives Barr the power to access and declassify any information he views necessary, which could extend to the top-secret sources of information that intelligence chiefs used to conclude that Russian President Vladimir Putin presided over a concerted effort to sway the election on Trump's behalf in 2016.

The same information led to the investigation of Trump by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, whose final report in April detailed numerous acts of possible collusion, but concluded none amounted to criminal conspiracy.

Critics said Trump and Barr, who has become one of the president's staunchest defenders, were playing fast and loose with intelligence for political reasons.

"The president has granted sweeping declassification powers to an attorney general who has already shown that he has no problem selectively releasing information in order to mislead the American people," said Senator Mark Warner, the leading Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee.

"People risk their lives to gather the intelligence material that President Trump and Attorney General Barr are so eager to politicize."

'REALLY BAD IDEA'

Former CIA deputy director John McLaughlin called for Congress to thwart the move.

"Giving Barr declassification authority for this investigation is a really bad idea," he said on Twitter.

"The agencies can cooperate but must retain their legal responsibility for protecting sources."

Dan Coats, the Director of National Intelligence who oversees the various intelligence branches, stepped carefully, but also made clear that Barr should not play loose with the country's secrets.

"I am confident that the Attorney General will work with the intelligence community in accordance with the long-established standards to protect highly-sensitive classified information that, if publicly released, would put our national security at risk," he said.

'DANGEROUS ABUSE OF POWER'

Barr himself has stunned law enforcement and intelligence officials with his willingness to question whether there was a genuine foundation for the investigation into Russian election meddling and into the many suspect contacts between the Trump campaign and Moscow.

The investigation was launched in mid-2016 after campaign advisor George Papadopoulos told an Australian diplomat in London that Russians had offered dirt on Trump's Democratic rival Hillary Clinton. 

The subsequent investigation, which included authorized national security wiretaps, found a concerted effort by Russia to develop contacts, exchange information and negotiate deals, from a Trump real estate project in Moscow to the lifting of sanctions on Russia. 

Those acts and episodes have all been made public in detail in congressional testimony and Mueller's report. 

But Trump continues to insist that the investigation had no foundation and that the spying on his advisors was illegal, the product of a menacing "deep state."

Former CIA officer Evan McMullin warned that Trump's move "is truly a dangerous abuse of power."

"Barr will selectively release sensitive information, as he did with Mueller's report, to shape a favorable narrative for Trump and impede the intelligence community's ability to collect intel on foreign threats."

pmh/wd

source: news.abs-cbn.com

FBI arrests leader of US 'patriots' stopping migrants at border

The FBI on Saturday said it had arrested Larry Hopkins, the leader of an armed group who have been stopping migrants who illegally cross the US-Mexico border in New Mexico.

Hopkins, 69, also known as Johnny Horton, was arrested in Sunland Park, New Mexico, on a federal complaint charging him with being a felon in possession of firearms and ammunition, the Federal Bureau of Investigation said in a statement.

Hopkins represents himself as commander of the United Constitutional Patriots (UCP), a small volunteer group camped out near Sunland Park since late February.

The UCP describes itself as a "patriot group" helping over-stretched US Border Patrol agents deal with a surge in undocumented migrants.

The American Civil Liberties Union on Thursday accused it of being a "fascist militia organization" illegally detaining and kidnapping asylum seekers.

Jim Benvie, a spokesman for the UCP, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Hector Balderas, New Mexico's attorney general, described Hopkins as "a dangerous felon who should not have weapons around children and families."

"Today's arrest by the FBI indicates clearly that the rule of law should be in the hands of trained law enforcement officials, not armed vigilantes," Balderas said in a statement.

Horton was previously arrested in Oregon in 2006 on suspicion of impersonating a police officer and being a felon in possession of a firearm, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Mexico's government on Saturday said it had "deep concern" about armed groups that intimidate migrants.

US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) said it did not support citizens taking law enforcement into their own hands but encouraged the public to be its eyes and ears on the border.

"Border Patrol welcomes assistance from the community and encourages anyone who witnesses or suspects illegal activity to call 911, or the US Border Patrol," CBP said in a statement.

One UCP member, who declined to be named, said the group are US military veterans who carried weapons for self defense but that they never pointed guns at migrants, as has been reported.

"People misconceive what we are doing," the UCP member said. "All we're down there to do is back up Border Patrol. They're so thinned out with all these people coming in." 

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Former FBI chief Comey lashes out at Trump, Republicans

WASHINGTON - Former FBI director James Comey lashed out at Donald Trump on Monday for telling "lies" and undermining the rule of law, and urged Republicans to stand up to the president.

"The FBI's reputation has taken a big hit because the president of the United States, with his acolytes, has lied about it constantly. In the face of those lies, a whole lot of good people... believe that nonsense," Comey told reporters in the halls of the US Senate.

"People who know better, including Republican members of this body, have to have the courage to stand up and speak the truth."

Comey spoke after a spurt of anti-FBI tweets from the president over the past week alleged that the investigative body abused its powers in probing his former personal lawyer Michael Cohen and his former national security adviser Michael Flynn.

Cohen and Flynn have both been convicted for various crimes and have both offered evidence potentially damaging to their former boss.

With Cohen, Trump tweeted on Sunday: "The FBI did something which was absolutely unthinkable & unheard of until the Witch Hunt was illegally started. They BROKE INTO AN ATTORNEY'S OFFICE!"

In fact the FBI had a court order to search Cohen's office.

As for Flynn, Trump alleged that he had been tricked into lying in a January 2016 interview with the FBI that led to his arrest.

"So General Michael Flynn's life can be totally destroyed while Shadey James Comey can Leak and Lie," Trump tweeted earlier this month.

Comey said that politicians, and especially Republicans, have to stop remaining quiet when Trump makes false statements.

"Republicans used to understand that the actions of a president matter, the words of a president matter, the rule of law matters, and the truth matters. Where are those Republicans today?"

"At some point, someone has to stand up and in the face of fear of Fox News, fear of their base, fear of mean tweets, stand up for the values of this country, and not slink away into retirement, but stand up and speak the truth."

Comey spoke after his second closed-door testimony in a week during which he was quizzed on his oversight of an investigation into the mishandling of sensitive emails by Trump's 2016 rival Hillary Clinton during the election.

While the Justice Department has closed the issue after an internal review, Trump and Republicans seeking to protect him from the Russia collusion investigation of Special Counsel Robert Mueller want the Clinton probe reopened.

Trump fired Comey in May 2017 after the latter refused to swear his allegiance and roll back the nascent investigation into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. 

Mueller is now believed to be investigating whether that firing and other actions amount to obstruction of justice by the president.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Menacing Mueller probe beginning to rattle Trump

US President Donald Trump's intensifying attacks this week against the Russia collusion investigation underscore a growing nervousness over the how much evidence investigators may have accumulated on the 2016 Trump campaign's ties to Moscow.

In new charges unveiled Thursday by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, former top Trump aide Michael Cohen admitted direct communications with Russian President Vladimir Putin's office on behalf of Trump's business through the first half of 2016.

Trump, who earlier tweeted that the Mueller probe was an "illegal Joseph McCarthy style Witch Hunt," blasted Cohen as a "weak person" who lied to get a reduced sentence. 

But the most recent news from the investigation suggests that Mueller, a cagey former FBI director, is holding back and could have more shocks in store for the US leader as he nears the conclusion of the 18-month-old investigation.

Cohen talked to top Putin aide

Cohen, who was Trump's personal lawyer and a senior executive in the president's real estate business, the Trump Organization, admitted to having lied to Congress about trying to negotiate a deal for a Trump Tower in Moscow well into the middle of 2016, even when Trump had wrapped up the Republican nomination for president.

Trump in the past denied any ongoing contacts with Moscow. But the criminal complaint filed Thursday depicts Cohen in regular contact with Putin's top spokesman Dmitry Peskov during that period, seeking to arrange a trip by Trump to Russia to meet Putin.

The complaint also says that Cohen kept senior Trump campaign figures, including members of Trump's family, informed of these efforts -- suggesting Trump himself might have been in the loop. That could be trouble for a number of people if they have denied to Mueller or Congress knowledge of Russia contacts during that period. 

The WikiLeaks nexus

Mueller has already shown he has evidence that the Trump campaign and Trump's family entertained offers of dirt on Clinton from Russia.

He is expected to soon charge conservative activist Jerome Corsi and campaign advisor Roger Stone in relation to their alleged attempts to coordinate with WikiLeaks over July-October 2016 as the group published Democratic emails damaging to Trump's election rival Hillary Clinton. 

The US says the emails were hacked by Russian intelligence which supplied them to WikiLeaks, aiming to tilt the election in Trump's favor. Mueller has already indicted 25 Russians as part of a criminal "conspiracy" to influence the election.

The key question is, does Mueller have evidence that, in trying to contact WikiLeaks, Corsi and Stone were working on behalf of and with the knowledge of Trump or top Trump campaign officials? And would that mean they could be seen as conspiring with the Russians?

Manafort's broken cooperation deal

On Monday Mueller accused former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort of violating a cooperation deal by lying to investigators. What the lies were about remains a mystery, but it could underscore what most observers believe: that Mueller has far more evidence than his targets know.

Trump has held out the possibility of a pardon to Manafort, who he says was treated "cruelly" by the investigation. Now questions are being raised on whether Trump has obstructed justice by suggesting the pardon.

Mueller's questionnaire for Trump

The new Cohen and Manafort charges came just after Trump returned answers to a long list of questions submitted to him by Mueller that focus on Russia contacts.

The White House delayed answering the questions since the beginning of this year, worried that Trump could be trapped in a possible lie by making statements contrary to evidence presented Mueller by others. 

Trump's anger about the investigation raises the possibility that his answers might be contradicted by Cohen, Manafort and others.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Ex-Trump campaign chairman Manafort lied to FBI -special counsel

WASHINGTON - Donald Trump's former campaign chairman Paul Manafort lied to the FBI and special counsel investigators after pleading guilty to federal charges, breaching his plea agreement, according to a court filing on Monday.

Manafort said in the same filing he disagreed with Special Counsel Robert Mueller's assertion that he lied to investigators.

Both the special counsel and Manafort's attorneys agreed there was no reason to delay his sentencing and asked the court to set a date for that.

Mueller, who is probing Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and possible collusion between Moscow and the Trump campaign, said in the filing that after signing a plea agreement: "Manafort committed federal crimes by lying to the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Special Counsel’s Office on a variety of subject matters."

Mueller said in the filing that those lies breached Manafort's plea agreement.

Manafort's attorneys said in the same filing that Manafort had met with the government on several occasions and provided information "in an effort to live up to his cooperation obligations."

They said Manafort disagreed with the characterization that he had breached the agreement.

Manafort, a longtime Republican political consultant who made tens of millions of dollars working for pro-Kremlin politicians in Ukraine, ran the Trump campaign as it took off in mid-2016.

He attended a meeting at Trump Tower in June 2016 with a group of Russians offering damaging information on Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, who lost in an upset to Trump in the presidential vote that November.

Since September this year when he took a plea deal in return for reduced charges, Manafort has been cooperating with Mueller's inquiry.

Russia denies U.S. allegations it hacked Democratic Party emails and ran a disinformation campaign, largely on social media. Trump denies any campaign collusion and calls the investigation a political witch hunt.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Special counsel Mueller's team asks FBI to probe 'false claims' against him

Special Counsel Robert Mueller's team has asked the FBI to look into claims that women were offered money to fabricate sexual assault allegations against Mueller, who leads the probe into Russia's attempts to influence the U.S. election in 2016.

"When we learned last week of allegations that women were offered money to make false claims about the Special Counsel, we immediately referred the matter to the FBI for investigation," Peter Carr, a spokesman for Mueller, said on Tuesday.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation declined to comment.

Jack Burkman, a lawyer and Republican operative who has in the past promoted right-wing conspiracies on social media, told Reuters he was speaking to five women who claimed they were sexually assaulted by Mueller, and denied paying them for the information.

He said he would have a news conference close to Washington on Thursday with one of the women who claimed she was sexually assaulted by Mueller in 2010, and that the other four women still needed to be vetted.

Jennifer Taub, a professor at Vermont Law School, said she received an email on October 22 from an individual offering to compensate her if she would discuss her "past encounters" with Mueller, who she says she has never met.

Taub said she found the email, a copy of which was seen by Reuters, to be "creepy" and forwarded it to Mueller's office. The email was sent to her by a person who claimed to be a researcher at Surefire Intelligence, Ltd.

Reuters was unable to connect with anyone at phone numbers listed on Surefire Intelligence's website.

Burkman declined to say if he was working with Surefire.

Mueller is leading the politically sensitive investigation into Russian meddling and possible collusion between Republican Donald Trump's 2016 campaign team and Russian officials.

Burkman has been critical of the Mueller probe and sought to raise funds for Rick Gates and Michael Flynn, two former Trump aides who pleaded guilty to charges brought against them by Mueller's team.

Trump denies any collusion and has repeatedly described Mueller's probe as a partisan "witch hunt."

Russia denies the allegations that it interfered in the election.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

FBI report looms as senators slam Trump for mocking Kavanaugh accuser

WASHINGTON - With the FBI poised to report as soon as Wednesday night on sexual misconduct allegations against U.S. Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, President Donald Trump's mocking remarks about one of Kavanaugh's accusers raised concerns among three Republicans whose votes could decide the confirmation fight.

Several people with information related to allegations against Kavanaugh told Reuters they had not heard from the FBI, suggesting its report may be narrower than was desired by some of the lawmakers who demanded it just days ago.

Christine Blasey Ford, a college professor from California who accused Kavanaugh of assaulting her in 1982 when they were high school students, has not been contacted by the FBI, her attorneys said.

As Senate Republican leaders marched toward a final vote on Kavanaugh's nomination, perhaps over the weekend, the three Republicans who could be key to whether Kavanaugh is confirmed, criticized Trump for his remarks about Ford at a political rally in Mississippi on Tuesday night.

Senators Jeff Flake, Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski were among lawmakers who objected to Trump's comments about Ford's testimony on the alleged assault.

Ford, who testified last week at an extraordinary Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, said she could not remember the precise date or location of the alleged assault or how she got home later, but offered a detailed account of the incident. She said a drunken Kavanaugh pinned her down, tried to remove her clothing and covered her mouth when she screamed.

Imitating Ford's testimony, Trump, who was himself accused during the 2016 presidential race of sexual misconduct with numerous women, said: "What neighborhood was it in? I don't know. Where's the house? I don't know. Upstairs, downstairs, where was it? I don't know. But I had one beer. That's the only thing I remember."

"And a man's life is in tatters," Trump added.

Flake told NBC's "Today" show that "there's no time and no place for remarks like that, that discuss something this sensitive at a political rally ... It's kind of appalling."

Collins told reporters: "The president's comments were just plain wrong." She did not respond when asked if his comments would affect her vote on Kavanaugh's confirmation.

Asked whether Trump's comments would affect her vote, Murkowski told reporters: "I am taking everything into account. The president's comments yesterday mocking Dr. Ford were wholly inappropriate and, in my view, unacceptable."

A day after the hearing, Trump had called Ford "a very credible witness" who provided "very compelling" testimony.

Kavanaugh has denied Ford's accusation as well as allegations by two other women, all dating from the 1980s.

'CLEARLY A REASON'

Flake was instrumental last Friday in getting Trump to order an FBI investigation into the allegations against Kavanaugh, a conservative federal appeals court judge nominated by Trump for a lifetime job on the top U.S. court.

Trump limited the investigation to no more than a week.

Senator Dick Durbin, the No. 2 Senate Democrat, complained in an interview with Reuters that the White House had not responded to requests for documents detailing its instructions to the FBI about the scope of its investigation of Kavanaugh.

“There's clearly a reason for that and I assume the administration doesn't want members of Congress and the public to see it,” Durbin said.

It was not immediately clear whether the FBI report, which will be made available to senators, would be released to the public.

The No. 2 Senate Republican, John Cornyn, said the report could be given to senators as soon as Wednesday. Republican Senators John Kennedy and Roy Blunt said the FBI report should be made public.

Trump's fellow Republicans control the Senate by a 51-49 margin. If all the Democrats oppose Kavanaugh, Trump cannot afford to lose the support of more than one Republican for his nominee, with Vice President Mike Pence casting a tiebreaking vote. No Republicans have said they will vote against Kavanaugh.

Opposition among Americans to Kavanaugh has increased since last week's hearing, Reuters/Ipsos polling data showed on Wednesday.

In the latest seven-day average in a survey of 4,057 U.S. adults, 41 percent of respondents opposed Kavanaugh, 33 percent supported him and 26 percent said they did not know. Opposition to Kavanaugh grew 4 percentage points after the hearing, apparently driven by people who previously were undecided.

In a Twitter post on Wednesday, Trump did not back away from his rally comments, instead attacking Kavanaugh's Democratic critics. Trump said when he goes to political rallies, which are organized by Republicans, he sees that voters are angry at the "vicious and despicable" way Democrats are treating his nominee.

At a White House briefing, Trump's spokeswoman Sarah Sanders defended his remarks in Mississippi and said he was not concerned the comments may have jeopardized the votes of key senators. "The president was stating the facts" about the gaps in Ford's recollection of the alleged incident, Sanders said.

The FBI has interviewed Mark Judge, a high school friend of Kavanaugh who Ford said was in the bedroom where Kavanaugh allegedly assaulted her.

Judge has denied any memory of such an incident, as have at least three others with information about Ford's allegations and those of a second accuser, Deborah Ramirez, who has said Kavanaugh exposed himself to her when they were Yale University students.

A person familiar with the matter said the FBI questioned Ramirez for more than two hours on Sunday and that she provided the FBI with a list of more than 20 possible witnesses.

Two Yale classmates of Ramirez told Reuters on Tuesday that they had reached out to the FBI over the weekend but had not yet heard back.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Next battle in war over Kavanaugh: FBI probe

WASHINGTON - Democratic U.S. senators expressed concern on Sunday over reports the White House was working with Republicans to narrow the scope of an FBI investigation into sexual assault allegations against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.

President Donald Trump bowed to pressure from moderate members of his Republican Party on Friday and ordered the probe after Christine Blasey Ford, a university professor, detailed her allegations at a Senate hearing that Kavanaugh assaulted her in 1982, when the two were in high school.

The stunning reversal capped two weeks of allegations, followed by furious denials, that roiled prospects for Trump's nominee, a conservative federal appeals court judge once expected to easily become the second Trump nominee to win a lifetime appointment to the top U.S. court.

Kavanaugh has denied Ford's accusation, as well as those of two other women.



Republicans, who are trying to retain control of the U.S. Congress in November elections, are seeking to balance their desire for another conservative justice on the court with sensitivity about how they handle sexual misconduct allegations amid the reverberations of the #MeToo movement.

It did not take long, however, for the FBI probe to become an object of partisan divide.

A White House official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters the White House had defined the parameters of the probe for the FBI, and that the investigation would start off with interviews with only four people.

NBC News, the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal previously reported that the White House was constraining the investigation, prompting Senate Democrats on the Judiciary Committee to express concern.

Senator Dianne Feinstein, the panel's top Democrat, wrote to White House counsel Donald McGahn and FBI Director Christopher Wray and asked that the committee be provided with a copy of the written directive the White House sent to the FBI, as well as the names of any additional witnesses or evidence if the probe is expanded.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The administration denied it was trying to control the probe, which the Judiciary Committee said on Friday "would be limited to current credible allegations" and wrapped up within a week.

"We're staying out of the way" and letting the FBI do their job," White House press secretary Sarah Sanders told "Fox News Sunday."

But the administration made clear there would be limits. "It's not meant to be a fishing expedition," White House adviser Kellyanne Conway said on CNN's "State of the Union."

Trump vowed on Saturday that the FBI could interview "whoever they deem appropriate." On Sunday, he criticized Democrats for expressing concerns about the length and scope of the probe.

"For them, it will never be enough!" he wrote on Twitter.

FBI PROBE

The FBI will question Deborah Ramirez, who said Kavanaugh exposed himself to her at a party when both were students at Yale University, the White House official told Reuters.

It will also question Mark Judge, a friend of Kavanaugh who Ford said witnessed the assault, and Leland Keyser and P.J. Smyth, who she said were at the gathering.

A third accuser, Julie Swetnick, was not on the initial list of witnesses to be interviewed.

Senate Republicans compiled the list of four witnesses, and Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell shared it with the White House, the official and another source familiar with the matter told Reuters.

The New York Times, citing people familiar with the matter, reported that the White House asked the FBI to share its findings after the initial interviews and that Trump and his advisers would then decide whether the accusations should be investigated further.

Neither the FBI nor a Judiciary Committee representative would comment on the probe.

Asked on Friday which allegations would be investigated, Republican Senator Jeff Flake, who was instrumental in forcing the investigation, told reporters: "We'll leave that to the FBI." His office did not respond to a request for comment on the latest reports on Sunday.

Senator Susan Collins, among a handful of moderates who joined Flake, said in an email: "I am confident that the FBI will follow up on any leads that result from the interviews."

Carl Tobias, a law professor at the University of Richmond, said it would not be unlawful for the White House to restrict the investigation's scope since the FBI is under the executive branch.

But Tobias said FBI agents were usually allowed to act independently and it would be a "clear conflict of interest" for White House officials involved in Kavanaugh’s confirmation process to interfere with the FBI’s investigation.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

FBI agent Strzok, who criticized Trump in text messages, is fired

WASHINGTON - Peter Strzok, the FBI agent who came under fire from President Donald Trump and other Republicans for sending text messages that disparaged the candidate during the presidential campaign, was fired late on Friday, his attorney said on Monday.

Strzok is the third high-ranking person to be fired from the Federal Bureau of Investigation during the Trump administration, including former Director James Comey. During his FBI career, Strzok rose to deputy assistant director, focusing on counterintelligence.

After Justice Department internal investigators found the texts, Strzok was reassigned from Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into the Trump campaign. The firing came after a lengthy internal investigation.

Strzok's attorney, Aitan Goelman, said in a statement that FBI Deputy Director David Bowdich made the decision to terminate his client.

The decision, Goelman added, was at odds with a recommendation by the FBI's Office of Professional Responsibility, which had called for Strzok to face a 60-day suspension and demotion from his supervisory responsibilities.

He also said it went against promises that FBI Director Christopher Wray made in the past about adhering to proper processes on personnel matters.

The FBI said in a statement it had followed its standard review and disciplinary process after the inspector general referred the Strzok case to the FBI's Office of Professional Responsibility.

"OPR reviewed the investigative materials, as well as the written and oral responses of Mr. Strzok and his counsel, and issued OPR's decision. The deputy director, as the senior career FBI official, has the delegated authority to review and modify any disciplinary findings ... as deemed necessary," the statement said.

Strzok's attorney Goelman, however, said that normally FBI personnel can appeal such decisions to a five-person review board. Goelman said the appeals step was bypassed in Strzok's case and the FBI did not follow the normal course afforded to other FBI agents.

Trump took to Twitter not long after the news broke on Monday.

"Agent Peter Strzok was just fired from the FBI-finally," wrote Trump, who had called for Strzok's ouster before.

"The list of bad players in the FBI & DOJ gets longer & longer."


A post under a newly created Twitter account under Strzok's name said he was "deeply saddened" by the decision to fire him.

The post also linked to a GoFundMe page, which had raised more than $48,700 toward a $150,000 goal as of late Monday.

"All funds raised on this GoFundMe will be put into a trust dedicated to covering Pete’s hefty – and growing – legal costs and his lost income," the fundraising website says.

Goelman said that his client's firing was politically motivated and that his texts represented political speech protected by the First Amendment.

'RUSSIA THING'

In March, Attorney General Jeff Sessions fired FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe after a scathing report by the Justice Department's internal watchdog concluded he had leaked information to reporters and misled investigators about his actions.


Comey was fired by Trump in May 2017 after Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein helped write a memo that was critical of how Comey handled the FBI's probe into then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server for official business.

Later, however, Trump claimed he fired Comey over that "Russia thing," apparently referring to the FBI probe into whether his presidential campaign colluded with Russia. Trump has repeatedly denied any collusion and called the investigation a witch hunt.

Both Comey and McCabe said, however, they believe they were fired because they are key witnesses in Special Counsel Mueller's probe into whether Trump may have tried to obstruct the investigation.

Strzok was deeply involved in the FBI's Clinton email investigation and was temporarily assigned to Mueller's office. He was removed from that post after his texts came to light.

The texts were criticized by the Justice Department's inspector general in a recent report that examined the FBI's handling of the Clinton email probe. Republicans in Congress have repeatedly pointed to them as evidence the FBI is biased against Trump.


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FBI seeks motive after US airline worker steals plane, crashes it

Federal authorities on Saturday were seeking to learn what drove an airline worker to steal an empty airplane from Seattle's airport in a security scare that caused the scrambling of US fighter jets and ended when the plane crashed.

A Horizon Air ground service agent got into a Bombardier Q400 turboprop aircraft on Friday night in a maintenance area at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport and took off, Horizon sister carrier Alaska Airlines said.

He flew for about one hour, often erratically with attempts at aerial stunts, before crashing onto sparsely populated Ketron Island in Puget Sound, some 40 kilometers to the southwest.

The 29-year-old man, who has not been officially identified, was suicidal and appeared to have acted alone, according to authorities. He was believed to have been killed in the crash.

Relatives and co-workers identified the man as Richard Russell of Sumner, Wash., who also went by the name Beebo.

"He was a faithful husband, a loving son, and a good friend," the Russell family said in a statement.

"This is a complete shock to us. We are devastated by these events and Jesus is truly the only one holding this family together right now," the family said.

Russell was not known to have had a pilot's license, Horizon Air Chief Executive Gary Beck said at a news conference, and it was not clear how he was able to take off and fly as he did.

"There were some maneuvers that were done that were incredible maneuvers with the aircraft," Beck said. "Commercial aircraft are complex machines. They're not as easy to fly as, say, a Cessna 150, so I don't know how he achieved the experience that he did," Beck said.

The local sheriff's department said on Twitter that either doing stunts "or lack of flying skills" caused the crash.

In partial recordings of Russell's conversations with air traffic controllers that were published online by Broadcastify.com, he said he was sorry to disappoint people who cared about him and described himself as a "broken guy."

"Got a few screws loose, I guess," Russell is heard saying in the recording. "Never really knew it until now."

He also admired the sunset, complained of lightheadedness, and asked whether he would go to prison if he landed safely.

He had worked for Horizon Air for 3-1/2 years and had clearance to tow planes, Alaska Airlines Chief Executive Brad Tilden said at the news conference.

Tilden said airplanes of that type do not have doors that lock or ignition keys like cars.

"The setup in aviation in America is we secure the airfield and then we have the mindset that we have employees that are credentialed and authorized to be there," Tilden said, adding that the airline was working with authorities to investigate.

The FBI is leading the probe, which also includes the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board.

"We are going to be thorough, which means taking the time needed to scour the area, delve into the background of the individual believed responsible, and review every aspect of this incident with all appropriate public & private partners," the FBI said in a statement.

Two F-15 fighter jets took to the air from a base in Portland, Oregon, and were on the scene within minutes. The jets were armed but did not open fire, North American Aerospace Defense Command spokesman Cameron Hillier said by phone.

Instead, the F-15 pilots and air traffic controllers tried to guide the plane west, away from populated areas, said Hillier. No one was hurt on the ground, authorities said.

It was unclear how the employee was able to taxi the plane on a runway and take off without authorization.

The Bombardier Q400 turboprop is designed for short-distance flights and can seat 76 passengers, Alaska Air said.

(Reporting by Brendan O'Brien in Milwaukee and Alex Dobuzinskis in Los Angeles Additional reporting by Jon Herskovitz in Austin, Texas; Editing by Steve Orlofsky and Kim Coghill)

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U.S. investigating Cambridge Analytica: New York Times

WASHINGTON - The U.S. Justice Department and the FBI are investigating Cambridge Analytica, a now-defunct political data firm embroiled in a scandal over its handling of Facebook Inc user information, the New York Times reported on Tuesday.

Prosecutors have sought to question former Cambridge Analytica employees and banks that handled its business, the newspaper said, citing an American official and others familiar with the inquiry,

Cambridge Analytica said earlier this month it was shutting down after losing clients and facing mounting legal fees resulting from reports the company harvested personal data about millions of Facebook users beginning in 2014.

Allegations of the improper use of data for 87 million Facebook users by Cambridge Analytica, which was hired by President Donald Trump's 2016 U.S. election campaign, have prompted multiple investigations in the United States and Europe.

The investigation by the Justice Department and FBI appears to focus on the company's financial dealings and how it acquired and used personal data pulled from Facebook and other sources, the Times said.

Investigators have contacted Facebook, according to the newspaper.

The FBI, the Justice Department and Facebook declined to comment to Reuters. Former officials with Cambridge Analytica was not immediately available to comment.

Cambridge Analytica was created around 2013, initially with a focus on U.S. elections, with $15 million in backing from billionaire Republican donor Robert Mercer and a name chosen by future Trump White House adviser Steve Bannon, the New York Times has reported. Bannon left the White House on August 2017.

(Reporting by Eric Beech; Editing by Peter Cooney)

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Trump 'morally unfit' for office, fired FBI chief Comey says

Fired former FBI chief James Comey lashed out at Donald Trump in an interview with ABC broadcast Sunday, calling him "morally unfit" to be president and describing him as a serial liar who will "stain everyone around him."

Comey's remarks are the latest salvo in a war of words with Trump, who excoriated the former FBI director on Twitter earlier in the day, again calling him a "slimeball" and suggesting he should be jailed.

The wide-ranging interview with ABC News also came ahead of Tuesday's release of Comey's memoir, "A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies and Leadership," in which he details his interactions with the Republican president.

"I think he's morally unfit to be president," Comey said, in his first televised interview since being fired in May last year.

The former federal prosecutor pointed to how Trump "talks about and treats women like they're pieces of meat" and "lies constantly about matters big and small and insists the American people believe it."

"Values matter," Comey said. "This president does not reflect the values of this country."

Comey also said that serving in Trump's administration poses a serious ethical dilemma.

"The challenge of this president is that he will stain everyone around him," he told ABC, which aired an edited version of the interview but published a full transcript.

"And the question is, how much stain is too much stain and how much stain eventually makes you unable to accomplish your goal of protecting the country and serving the country?"

COMPROMISING MATERIAL? 

But while Comey sharply criticized Trump, he said he hopes the president is not impeached.

"I hope not because I think impeaching and removing Donald Trump from office would let the American people off the hook and have something happen indirectly that I believe they're duty bound to do directly."

In his book, Comey likens Trump to a dishonest, ego-driven mob boss and says he demanded the then FBI chief's personal pledge of loyalty -- a damning account that has infuriated the president at a moment of intensifying legal pressure on other fronts.

"I never asked Comey for Personal Loyalty. I hardly even knew this guy. Just another of his many lies. His 'memos' are self serving and FAKE!" Trump said in one of a series of tweets fired off Sunday before the interview.

The president said Comey "stupidly" handled a probe into Trump's 2016 election rival Hillary Clinton and how she used a private email server during her time as secretary of state.

In another tweet, Trump offered a mini-review of Comey's memoir.

"The big questions in Comey's badly reviewed book aren't answered like, how come he gave up Classified Information (jail), why did he lie to Congress (jail), why did the DNC refuse to give Server to the FBI (why didn't they TAKE it), why the phony memos, McCabe's $700,000 & more?"

The jumble of references appeared to allude to unsubstantiated accusations Trump has previously made claiming Comey lied in Senate testimony last May in denying he had served as an anonymous news source.

"Look, it's been very clear that James Comey is a self-admitted leaker. He lied to Congress," White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said Sunday on ABC's "This Week."

In the interview, Comey said he was unsure whether or not the Russians have compromising material that could be used to blackmail Trump -- either relating to his pre-election personal conduct, or his campaign's actions.

"I think it's possible. I don't know. These are more words I never thought I'd utter about a president of the United States, but it's possible," he said.

POSSIBLE OBSTRUCTION OF JUSTICE

And Comey said the president may have obstructed justice when he asked him to drop an investigation into former national security advisor Michael Flynn.

"Possibly. I mean, it's certainly some evidence of obstruction of justice," he said. "It would depend upon other things that reflected on his intent."

Trump and his aides have countered Comey's media blitz by attacking his handling of the probe into Clinton's emails.

Comey acknowledged in the ABC interview that his belief that Clinton would be elected president "was a factor" in his decision to reopen the email probe 11 days before the US election, a development that Clinton blames for her surprise defeat.

"I don't remember spelling it out, but it had to have been, that she's going to be elected president and if I hide this from the American people, she'll be illegitimate the moment she's elected, the moment this comes out," Comey said.

Trump attacked him on Twitter.

"Unbelievably, James Comey states that Polls, where Crooked Hillary was leading, were a factor in the handling (stupidly) of the Clinton Email probe," Trump said.

"In other words, he was making decisions based on the fact that he thought she was going to win, and he wanted a job. Slimeball!" he wrote.

bur-wd/ceb

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Former FBI director: Trump wanted FBI to disprove salacious dossier

WASHINGTON—Former FBI Director James Comey said he cautioned President Donald Trump against ordering an investigation into salacious allegations in an intelligence dossier about a Trump trip to Moscow in 2013, according to an ABC interview broadcast on Friday.

"I said to him, 'Sir that's up to you but you want to be careful about that because it might create a narrative that we're investigating you personally and, second, it's very difficult to prove something didn't happen," Comey said.

In the first excerpt of an interview with the fired Federal Bureau of Investigation director, broadcast on "Good Morning America," Comey talked about his initial encounters with the new president, whom he described as volatile, defensive and concerned more about how his own image than about Russian meddling in the 2016 election.

Comey, who was fired by Trump in May, is doing a series of media interviews that coincide with the release next week of his book, "A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies and Leadership."

Trump, who has criticized Comey repeatedly before and after he fired him, denounced him on Twitter on Friday: "James Comey is a proven LEAKER & LIAR," he said.

In the book, Comey wrote that Trump raised the dossier with him at least four times during meetings, according to the Washington Post, which obtained a copy. The dossier was compiled by former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele about Trump’s ties to Russia and included an allegation that involved prostitutes.

Comey told ABC that Trump denied the allegations and said he may want the FBI to investigate allegations in the dossier to prove they were not true.

Trump was worried there was a chance his wife, Melania Trump, would believe the allegations.

(Reporting by Doina Chiacu; Editing by Steve Orlofsky)

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FBI raids offices of Trump's personal lawyer

NEW YORK, United States - Federal agents on Monday raided the New York offices of Donald Trump's longtime personal lawyer Michael Cohen, who made a $130,000 payment to an adult film actress who says she had a tryst with the US president.

Cohen's own attorney Stephen Ryan said agents were working in part on the request of Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who is investigating links between Russia and the Trump campaign.

But US media said documents seized in the raid related to the surreptitious payment Cohen made to porn actress Stormy Daniels just ahead of the 2016 presidential election that, according to Daniels, aimed to keep her quiet about her earlier relationship with Trump.

Cohen has been Trump's personal lawyer and confidant for years, advising him on real estate and personal matters, as well as supporting him since he became president.

Ryan lashed out at prosecutors over the raid, which came as Mueller seeks to interview Trump for his sprawling investigation.

Mueller is examining possible collusion between Trump's campaign and Moscow, allegations of corrupt behavior by Trump campaign lieutenants, and of White House efforts to obstruct the investigation.

"The decision by the US attorney's office in New York to conduct their investigation using search warrants is completely inappropriate and unnecessary," Ryan said.

"It resulted in the unnecessary seizure of protected attorney-client communications between a lawyer and his clients."

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The New York District Attorney's office and Mueller's Office of the Special Counsel also declined comment.

ALLEGED AFFAIR WITH TRUMP

Cohen, who has worked with Trump for at least a decade, is known as the real estate magnate's "fixer" and "pit bull."

He told ABC News in 2011 that if Trump has a problem with someone, "I do everything in my power to resolve it to Mr. Trump's benefit."

"If you do something wrong, I'm going to come at you, grab you by the neck, and I'm not going to let you go until I'm finished," he said.

He does not represent Trump in dealing with Mueller. But his fight with Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, has become a political and legal minefield for him and the president.

Last month Daniels told 21 million TV watchers that she had unprotected sex with Trump after meeting with him at a celebrity golf tournament in Lake Tahoe, California in July 2006. That was shortly after Trump's wife Melania gave birth to their son.

After months of pressure, in February Cohen admitted making the $130,000 payment via a shell company to Daniels as part of a non-disclosure agreement.

He insisted that neither the Trump Organization, the president's real estate group, nor the Trump campaign was a party to the transaction with Clifford.

"Neither reimbursed me for the payment, either directly or indirectly," Cohen said in a statement.

Trump has not admitted an affair with Daniels. Last week, he broke his silence on the issue and denied knowing anything about the $130,000 payment to her.

Daniels, though, is seeking to break the nondisclosure agreement, to allow her to freely talk about her relationship with Trump.

Supported by high-powered lawyer Michael Avenatti, she filed a lawsuit in California in March to declare the pact invalid.

Cohen countersued saying Daniels is liable for at least $20 million for violating the hush agreement by publicly discussing the affair on multiple occasions.

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