WASHINGTON - Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has confirmed that US President Donald Trump asked him to help gather information for an inquiry into Robert Mueller's investigation of Russian meddling in the 2016 election.
The New York Times, citing two unidentified US officials, earlier reported the request to assist in the investigation -- which aims to discredit the Russia probe -- was made during a recent telephone call between Trump and Morrison.
An Australian government spokesman confirmed on Tuesday that the request was made, saying in a statement Australia "has always been ready to assist and cooperate with efforts that help shed further light on the matters under investigation".
"The PM confirmed this readiness once again in conversation with the President."
The Times said the White House had restricted access to the transcript of the call, in a similar way to its handling of Trump's recent call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
That call -- during which Trump asked Zelensky to investigate his potential 2020 Democratic presidential opponent Joe Biden -- has led to the opening of an impeachment inquiry in the Democratic-led House of Representatives.
The Washington Post reported separately that Attorney General Bill Barr has had multiple meetings overseas with foreign intelligence officials in an effort aimed at undermining US intelligence's conclusion that Russian interference helped Trump to victory in the 2016 presidential election.
In addition to contacting the Australian leader, Barr has met with British intelligence and last week was in Italy, together with US Attorney John Durham, asking for Rome's help in revisiting the 2016 Russia investigation, according to the newspaper.
The Post said Barr risked appearing to use his powers as head of the US Justice Department to help Trump politically when he is facing impeachment and, potentially, removal from office for abuse of power.
- DOJ probing 'political witch hunt' -
Former special counsel Robert Mueller's probe into Russian interference in the US election was completed in March with the identification of numerous acts of collusion or attempted collusion between the Trump campaign and Moscow.
But after Mueller ruled there was not enough material for criminal charges, Trump called for another investigation into what he called the Russia "political witch hunt" and "hoax."
The Justice Department chose Durham to examine the roots of the Mueller probe, including the evidence that led the CIA, FBI and other intelligence agencies to declare that Russia did in fact interfere in 2016 to boost Trump.
Australia and Britain were both important because the original FBI Russia meddling probe was launched in July 2016 after the bureau received a tip from an Australian diplomat in Britain about a meeting between people tied to Russian intelligence and a Trump campaign official.
But Barr's involvement in the Durham investigation has raised questions that it is a partisan political probe.
In a statement, the Justice Department defended the contacts abroad and said Trump's and Barr's role was to help Durham make contacts.
"Mr. Durham is gathering information from numerous sources, including a number of foreign countries," said Justice Department spokesperson Kerri Kupec.
"At Attorney General Barr's request, the president has contacted other countries to ask them to introduce the attorney general and Mr. Durham to appropriate officials," she said.
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source: news.abs-cbn.com
NEW YORK - Outrage and intrigue over the apparent suicide in prison of well-connected accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein soared Sunday as US lawmakers pushed for answers, including whether "criminal acts" played a role in his death.
Epstein, a convicted pedophile who hobnobbed with countless politicians and celebrities over the years, was found dead in his cell Saturday while awaiting trial on federal charges he trafficked underage girls for sex.
The discovery came a day after a court released documents in which one of Epstein's alleged victims claimed she was forced to have sex with well-known American political and business personalities. They have all denied the allegations.
Epstein's death in a high-security New York jail, an apparent suicide that came just weeks after an earlier possible attempt on his own life, meant he should have been under close watch and has fueled anger and a conspiracy theory frenzy.
"These survivors deserved a day in court. They deserved justice," Democratic Senator and 2020 presidential candidate Kirsten Gillibrand of New York said Sunday.
"It is a shame that he committed suicide," she told CBS's "Face the Nation."
New York's chief medical examiner Barbara Sampson said Sunday that an autopsy had been completed, but the determination of cause of death was "pending further information at this time."
The procedure was observed by an outside pathologist at the request of Epstein's representatives, she added.
CELLMATE REPORTEDLY MOVED
US Attorney General Bill Barr has instructed the Justice Department's inspector general to probe Epstein's death, saying it "raises serious questions that must be answered."
The FBI is also investigating.
The New York Times reported Sunday that guards were supposed to check Epstein every half hour but that procedure was not followed the night before he was found, citing an unnamed law enforcement official.
The jail had also transferred his cellmate, leaving him alone, the Times said, citing two officials.
Epstein, 66, had been charged with one count of sex trafficking of minors and one count of conspiracy to commit sex trafficking of minors.
Prosecutors said Epstein sexually exploited dozens of underage teens, some as young as 14, at his homes in Manhattan and Palm Beach, Florida, between 2002 and 2005.
The young women were paid hundreds of dollars in cash to massage him, perform sexual acts and to recruit other girls, prosecutors alleged.
Epstein denied the charges and faced up to 45 years in prison if convicted.
Last month, Epstein was found unconscious with marks on his neck after a possible suicide attempt.
He was put on suicide watch for six days before being returned to his cell in a high-security section of the prison, the Times has reported.
"Pedophiles facing federal criminal charges are at high risk for suicide," tweeted Rod Rosenstein, the former US deputy attorney general.
"Detained pedophiles require special attention. Stopping people from harming themselves is difficult."
'UNFOUNDED CONSPIRACY THEORIES'
Epstein -- whose friends included Donald Trump, former president Bill Clinton and Britain's Prince Andrew -- had been convicted in 2008 in a Florida state court of paying young girls for sexual massages at his Palm Beach mansion.
Those men have all denied knowing anything about Epstein's alleged crimes.
The two thousand pages of previously sealed court documents released Friday focused on testimony by a woman who claimed she was Epstein's "sex slave."
Virginia Giuffre detailed new allegations against Epstein and his high-profile acquaintances.
"Some of wealthiest people in the world committed a horrible crime. If they think for a second that they got away with it because Jeffrey Epstein is dead, they're dead WRONG," tweeted New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, as prosecutors pledged to pursue the indictment.
Trump weighed in on Saturday, retweeting a conspiracy theory alleging -- without any evidence whatsoever -- that Bill Clinton may be connected to Epstein's death.
"This is another example of our president using this position of public trust to attack his political enemies with unfounded conspiracy theories," Beto O'Rourke, another Democrat running for president, told CNN.
Senator Cory Booker, also in the 2020 race, described Trump's retweet as "more recklessness" and "dangerous."
Trump aide Kellyanne Conway, asked on "Fox News Sunday" about her boss's retweet, said that "the president just wants everything to be investigated."
Epstein avoided a lengthy jail sentence when facing the charges in Florida over a decade ago.
He served just 13 months under a secret plea deal struck with the then federal prosecutor in the state, Alex Acosta, who was forced to resign as US labor secretary last month over the issue.
Alleged victims were hoping for more justice this time around.
"I really wanted him to... be put in jail and have to sit there and think about what it is he exactly did to so many people," one accuser, Michelle Licata, told ABC's "This Week."
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source: news.abs-cbn.com
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."
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source: news.abs-cbn.com
WASHINGTON - Top congressional Democrats said Sunday it was "urgent" that the full report on Russian interference in the 2016 US election be publicly released, stressing it does not exonerate President Donald Trump.
"The fact that Special Counsel (Robert) Mueller's report does not exonerate the president on a charge as serious as obstruction of justice demonstrates how urgent it is that the full report and underlying documentation be made public without any further delay," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a joint statement.
They also said Attorney General Bill Barr, nominated just months ago by Trump, is "not a neutral observer" in the process and that his summary of the report, delivered to Congress earlier, is not an objective determination about Mueller's findings.
The two Democrats also said that Trump's declaration that the report is a complete exoneration of the president because it clears him of colluding with Russia "directly contradicts the words of Mr Mueller and is not to be taken with any degree of credibility."
source: news.abs-cbn.com
