Trump adviser Roger Stone, self-proclaimed 'dirty trickster,' guilty on all charges

WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump's longtime adviser Roger Stone was convicted on all charges on Friday by a federal court jury that found the veteran Republican operative and self-proclaimed "dirty trickster" guilty on seven counts of lying to the US Congress, obstruction, and witness tampering.

During the trial, prosecutors pressed their case that Stone lied to lawmakers about his outreach to WikiLeaks - the website that disclosed many hacked Democratic emails ahead of the 2016 US election that proved embarrassing to Trump's Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton - to protect Trump from looking bad.

The verdict, in a trial arising from former Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation that detailed extensive Russian interference in that election, is not only a blow to Stone but renews scrutiny on Trump's actions as a candidate even as he endures an impeachment inquiry that threatens his presidency.

Before the verdict was announced, Stone, 67, arrived at the courthouse clad in a pinstripe suit, blue tie with white dots, white handkerchief in his pocket, arm in arm with his wife, sunglasses in one hand, a small red copy of the Bible in the other and a smile on his face.

When the verdict was read, Stone faced the jury of nine women and three men, and showed no outward signs of emotion as he was pronounced guilty.

Trump fumed after the conviction of Stone, a friend of his for decades.

"So they now convict Roger Stone of lying and want to jail him for many years to come," Trump wrote on Twitter, asking why it was not his adversaries including Clinton and "even Mueller himself? Didn't they lie?"

"A double standard like never seen before in the history of our Country?" Trump added.

US District Judge Amy Berman Jackson set a sentencing date of Feb. 6. She rejected a prosecution bid to have Stone jailed until then. Six of the criminal counts each carry a maximum sentence of five years in prison and the seventh carries a maximum term of 20 years. Stone is likely to get far less time as a first-time non-violent offender.

Stone was one of several former Trump aides to have been charged in Mueller's investigation and one of only two not to plead guilty but rather go to trial.

The other was former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, Stone's one-time business partner in a lobbying firm who was convicted by a jury last year in Virginia of tax and bank fraud and is serving a prison sentence of 7-1/2 years.

Stone, who has labeled himself a "dirty trickster" and "agent provocateur" and famously has the face of former President Richard Nixon tattooed on his back, was charged with obstructing justice, witness tampering and lying to the U.S. House of Representatives Intelligence Committee during its investigation into Russian election interference.

That panel is now leading the impeachment inquiry.

'TIMELY MESSAGE'

Chuck Schumer, the top Senate Democrat, said Stone's conviction "sends a powerful and timely message to President Trump and all House and Senate witnesses - past, present, and future - that lying to Congress, witness tampering, and obstruction of Congress are crimes and those who commit crimes do so at their own peril."

Former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski mocked Stone after the verdict, writing on Twitter: "Reunited and it feels so go (sic). Stone and Manafort to re-open new 'consulting' firm behind bars."

Stone and his lawyers, who remain under a court-imposed gag order, had no immediate comment. Prosecutors also did not comment.

Opening statements in the colorful trial came on Nov. 6. The trial featured references to the film "The Godfather Part II," an impression of Senator Bernie Sanders by a prosecution witness, and testimony by political heavyweights including former Trump campaign CEO Steve Bannon and former Trump deputy campaign chairman Rick Gates. Those witnesses said they believed Stone had inside information about when WikiLeaks might release more damaging emails about Clinton.

Prosecutors accused Stone of telling lawmakers five different lies related to WikiLeaks and its founder Julian Assange.

Some of those lies related to the existence of texts or emails. Others pertained to Stone's conversations with Trump campaign officials and a supposed "intermediary" with WikiLeaks in August 2016 whom Stone identified to lawmakers as being comedian Randy Credico.

At that time, prosecutors said, Stone was actually dispatching a conservative author named Jerome Corsi to, as one email stated, "get to Assange!"

Stone was also accused of tampering with a witness, Credico, when Credico was summoned to testify before Congress and speak with the FBI. In emails and texts, Stone told Credico among other things: "Prepare to die," "You're a rat. A stoolie," and "Stonewall it."

Prosecutor Jonathan Kravis asked the judge to detain Stone pending sentencing, saying that the night before, Alex Jones from the conspiracy theory website Infowars claimed Stone had sent him a message. On the show, Jones said he was passing along a pardon request to Trump from Stone.

Stone's verdict coincided with the second public hearing in the House impeachment inquiry focusing on Trump's dealings with Ukraine.

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US senators call for security probe of TikTok

WASHINGTON - Two senior US senators called for the government to study national security risks possibly posed by Chinese-owned video app TikTok, saying it could leave American users vulnerable to Beijing's spying.

With 500 million users worldwide, TikTok has exploded in popularity in the past two years, offering a platform to produce and publish music-synced videos up to 60 seconds long.

In a letter to acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer and Republican Senator Tom Cotton suggested that TikTok's owner ByteDance could be forced to share user information with Chinese intelligence.

It could also conceivably offer Beijing's spies a backdoor into users' smartphones and computers, similar to allegations against Chinese telecoms giant Huawei.

"With over 110 million downloads in the US alone, TikTok is a potential counterintelligence threat we cannot ignore," they wrote, urging the intelligence community to "conduct an assessment of the national security risks" posed by the app.

Chinese laws could compel the company "to support and cooperate with intelligence work controlled by the Chinese Communist Party," the senators said.

They noted that TikTok collects substantial personal data from users, making it a security risk.

In a statement posted on its website, TikTok sought to distance itself from China, saying "we are not influenced by any foreign government, including the Chinese government."

The company's data centers are located outside China and "none of our data is subject to Chinese law," it said.

The social media firm denied that it removes content "based on sensitivities related to China."

"We have never been asked by the Chinese government to remove any content and we would not do so if asked. Period," it said, adding that it had no intention of operating in China.

The senators also warned that TikTok could potentially be used to influence voters in next year's election in the same way Russians manipulated US social media in the 2016 campaign.

"Questions have also been raised regarding the potential for censorship or manipulation of certain content," they said.

"TikTok reportedly censors materials deemed politically sensitive to the Chinese Communist Party, including content related to the recent Hong Kong protests, as well as references to Tiananmen Square, Tibetan and Taiwanese independence, and the treatment of Uighurs."

They acknowledged that the app does not operate in China, where ByteDance offers the similar but separate DouYin app, and that TikTok's user data is stored inside the United States.

However, they said, "ByteDance is still required to adhere to the laws of China."

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Democrats warn Trump ahead of planned immigration raids

WASHINGTON - Democrats in the US Congress demanded Thursday that President Donald Trump protect families and children ahead of expected immigration raids this weekend.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) will launch sweeping deportation operations on Sunday as the administration expands its crackdown on undocumented immigrants, the New York Times reported.

ICE has obtained court orders for the removal of about one million undocumented migrants, according to a senior administration official, but the initial raids will target some 2,000 across at least 10 cities, the Times said.

Democrats lashed out at the plans, saying they threaten people who have lived in the United States for many years and built families that include US citizens.

House leader Nancy Pelosi called the ICE plan "heartless" and said Sundays are when many Hispanic immigrant families are in church.

"These families are hardworking members of our communities and our country. This brutal action will terrorize children and tear families apart," she told reporters.

"Many of these families are mixed-status families," she added, referring to families who include members in the United States legally and illegally, such as migrants with children born inside the country.

Ken Cuccinelli, acting director of US Citizenship and Immigration Services, said Wednesday that ICE has nowhere near the resources needed to pursue the full one million cases.

"They are absolutely going to happen," he said of the raids, however.

MIGRANTS STILL ARRIVING AT HIGH RATE

The removal orders can be issued on the completion of court cases involving the migrants, whether for minor civil infractions or their own citizenship or asylum cases.

Fearing arrest and deportation, migrants often don't show up for cases and judges summarily rule against them.

Senior Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer warned the Trump administration that ICE should not split families with young children if it carries out the raids.

"Stop separating children from their families. Tell your agencies, do not separate a single child from their parents," he said.

ICE hasn't commented on the raids, which would come with Trump seeking to demonstrate toughness on immigration amid a still-strong influx of migrants across the border with Mexico.

On Wednesday, the Department of Homeland Security said 104,344 migrants were detained after crossing the border in June, down 28 percent from May's 13-year record high but still an extremely high figure, some 60,000 more than the same month last year.

While migrant flows usually ebb in the hot summer, DHS said initiatives with El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, where most of the migrants come from, and a joint crackdown with Mexico, whose territory most must transit, had contributed to the downturn.

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Pelosi: 'Urgent' to release full Mueller report, documents

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."

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Democrats say Trump 'plunging country into chaos'

Washington, United States -- US Democratic leaders charged Monday that President Donald Trump was "plunging the country into chaos" with multiple crisis and said he was offering no way to end a government shutdown.

Nancy Pelosi, who takes over next month as House speaker, and Chuck Schumer, the top Democrat in the Republican-led Senate, complained that White House aides were giving inconsistent messages on what Trump would accept to restart the government.

"It's Christmas Eve and President Trump is plunging the country into chaos," the two said in a joint statement.

"The stock market is tanking and the president is waging a personal war on the Federal Reserve -- after he just fired the secretary of defense," they said.

They warned that they saw little solution to the three-day-old shutdown so long as Trump aligns himself with hard-right Republicans in the House of Representatives.

"The president wanted the shutdown, but he seems not to know how to get himself out of it," they said.

Trump has refused to sign a bill to authorize spending to keep the government functioning as he demands funding for a $5 billion wall on the Mexican border, a top election promise as he railed against unauthorized immigrants.

Trump has put off vacation plans in Florida due to the shutdown and has been frequently posting his thoughts on Twitter.

On Monday he attacked the Federal Reserve, which is traditionally shielded from political pressure, over a sharp downturn on the stock market and defended his decision to pull all US troops from Syria, which led to the resignation last week of Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, often considered the most respected member of his cabinet.

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Trump 'tantrum' threatens US government shutdown

WASHINGTON - An angry Donald Trump told Democratic leaders at the White House on Tuesday that he will shut down the US government because they refuse to approve billions of dollars in funding for his controversial Mexico border wall.

The president and top opposition congressional leaders had been meant to hold a reassuring Oval Office photo-op. Instead, their blazing row in front of the world's media gave a preview of the stormy future facing Trump as legal scandals mount and his Republican party gives up its once total control of Congress.

Chuck Schumer, the senior Democrat in the still Republican-dominated Senate, and Nancy Pelosi, who is likely to become speaker in the newly Democrat-controlled House of Representatives in January, bluntly told Trump that he had no chance of getting the $5 billion he wants for the wall.

Exasperated, Trump doubled down on earlier threats to retaliate by refusing to sign a federal spending bill required by December 21 to avoid leaving swaths of the government without funding.

"Yes, if we don't get what we want one way or the other..., I will shut down the government," he said. "I am proud to shut down the government for border security."

Schumer objected, while Pelosi suggested that the debate shouldn't take place in front of journalists.

But Trump, whose US-Mexico wall idea was at the center of his surprise 2016 election victory, could not control his irritation.

Taking out two memo cards, he read off figures that he said showed a near end to illegal immigration at portions of the border already featuring high fences.

"It's been very effective," he said.

Pelosi parried that the statistics were incorrect.

"What the president is representing (with) his cards over there, are not facts. We have to have an evidence-based conversation about what does work and what money has been spent and how effective it is," Pelosi said.

Outside the White House afterwards, Schumer was even more scathing about Trump.

"This temper tantrum that he seems to throw will not get him his wall and it will hurt a lot of people," he said.

Pelosi was quoted by US media as telling fellow Democrats in Congress that Trump's wall push was "like a manhood thing for him, as if manhood could ever be associated with him."

But Trump later played down the scene, saying the meeting had been "very friendly" and that he "respects them both."

FIRST TO BLINK

Tweeting ahead of the White House meeting, Trump claimed that the wall was needed to prevent "large scale crime and disease" brought by illegal immigrants.

The issue is popular with his political base, which wants radically tighter controls at the southern border, a magnet for impoverished Central Americans fleeing gang violence and seeking work in the United States.

Opponents say the wall is not only a waste of money but has been used by the president to whip up xenophobia.

Trump, who leads chants of "build the wall" at campaign rallies, has been frustrated in the first two years of his administration. Now, as the government funding deadline approaches, both sides will have to decide whether to blink.

After the meeting with Pelosi and Schumer, Trump insisted that he'd hold firm.

"I don't mind owning that issue," he said. "If we have to close down the country over border security I actually like that."

Trump said earlier Tuesday that he could even order the military to do the work if Congress refused to fund construction -- although it was not clear that he had the authority.

Washington has been paralyzed by political gridlock for most of Trump's two years in office and the partisan divide is set to intensify in January when Democrats take over the House majority.

The power shift comes as Trump faces ever-growing peril from criminal investigations, with talk growing of possible impeachment proceedings against the president.

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Chinese state media: US government shutdown exposes 'chronic flaws'

BEIJING - China's official news agency said in a commentary on Sunday that the shutdown of the US government exposed "chronic flaws" in the US political system.

Funding for federal agencies ran out at midnight on Friday in Washington after lawmakers failed to agree on a stopgap funding bill.

"What's so ironic is that it came on the first anniversary of Donald Trump's presidency on Saturday, a slap in the face for the leadership in Washington," China's Xinhua News Agency said in a commentary by Xinhua writer Liu Chang.

The commentary said that the Trump administration had "backtracked" on policies supported by his predecessor, Barack Obama, including the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement and US participation in the Paris climate agreement.

"If there was any legacy that has survived the transfer of power, it was the spirit of non-cooperation across party lines," the Xinhua commentary said.

While Xinhua commentaries are not official statements, they offer a reflection of Beijing's thinking.

"The Western democratic system is hailed by the developed world as near perfect and the most superior political system to run a country," it said.

"However, what's happening in the United States today will make more people worldwide reflect on the viability and legitimacy of such a chaotic political system," it said.

At a twice-a-decade congress of China's ruling Communist Party in October, President Xi Jinping was anointed for a second term as party chief, strengthening his grip on power. (Reporting by Tony Munroe; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)

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US government in shutdown as midnight deadline passes

WASHINGTON - The United States government officially shut down on Saturday, the first anniversary of President Donald Trump's inauguration, after lawmakers failed to agree on a stop-gap spending deal.

Senators were still negotiating on the Senate floor as the clock turned midnight, but Trump's office issued a statement blaming opposition Democrats for the crisis.

Spokesperson Sarah Sanders said the Democrats' insistence that the interim measure include protection for undocumented immigrants who arrived as children killed the deal.

"Senate Democrats own the Schumer Shutdown," she declared, referring to the minority leader, New York Senator Chuck Schumer, who met with Trump earlier Friday.

"Tonight, they put politics above our national security, military families, vulnerable children, and our country's ability to serve all Americans.

"We will not negotiate the status of unlawful immigrants while Democrats hold our lawful citizens hostage over their reckless demands," she warned.

US federal services and military operations deemed essential will continue, but thousands of government workers will be sent home without pay until the crisis is resolved.

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New York escaped convict shot dead by police

NEW YORK, United States - A convicted killer who broke out of a maximum-security New York prison three weeks ago was shot dead by a law enforcement officer Friday, police said, as they continued to hunt for his fellow escapee.

Richard Matt, 49, was killed in the upstate town of Malone, less than 10 miles (16 kilometers) from the Canada border, New York state police said.

Officers were still hunting for 35-year-old David Sweat, Matt's accomplice in the spectacular, Hollywood-style prison break from Clinton Correctional Facility on June 6, about 40 miles from Malone.

"A member of law enforcement shot and killed a man believed to be Clinton Correctional Facility escapee Richard Matt," New York state police said.

"Law enforcement are still searching for escapee David Sweat."

One of New York's two senators, Democrat Chuck Schumer, told the local CBS affiliate that Matt had been shot and killed by a federal border patrol agent.

The inmates used power tools to cut their way out of their prison cells before dawn on June 6, triggering an intense weeks-long manhunt in the state.

The audacious escape sparked a huge search involving more than 1,100 personnel backed by sniffer dogs and helicopters to find the men, who had been spotted in several locations in recent days in upstate New York.

Reports emerged that a shotgun is missing from a remote cabin where DNA traces and a bloodied sock indicate the men were most likely holed up.

Authorities said earlier Friday the pair might have been heading toward Canada, and warned border guards to be on alert.

Two prison workers have been charged over the brazen breakout, and are accused of smuggling tools and contraband items to the pair in hamburger meat.

Matt and Sweat used power tools to cut through cell walls and crawled through pipes to emerge from a manhole in the village of Dannemora, home to the sprawling prison.

Matt, six feet (1.83 meters) tall with multiple tattoos, was serving a sentence of 25 years to life for the 1997 kidnapping and dismembering of his former boss in a 27-hour ordeal.

He fled to Mexico after the murder and killed another American there, before being sentenced to 20 years and extradited back to New York.

Sweat was serving a life sentence without parole for murdering a sheriff's deputy in New York state in 2002 when he was 22.

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