BEIJING- China's anti-graft watchdog announced Friday an investigation after the death of a whistleblowing doctor sparked anger over the government's handling of the coronavirus emergency.
The discipline inspection commission said a team would go to Wuhan, the virus-hit city where doctor Li Wenliang died, to "conduct a comprehensive investigation into issues involving Dr. Li Wenliang reported by the masses."
Li, 34, died early Friday, Wuhan Central Hospital said in a post on China's Twitter-like Weibo platform.
The death of the ophthalmologist sparked an outpouring of grief and anger over a worsening crisis that has now killed more than 630 people.
At least 31,000 people have now been infected by a virus in China and cases have been found in over two dozen countries, triggering an international health crisis.
Li was among eight physicians punished by Wuhan police for discussing the emergence of a SARS-like virus on social media in December.
China's supreme court in January criticized Wuhan police for punishing early "rumor-mongers," saying the outbreak may not have become so serious "if the public had believed these 'rumors' at the time."
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CALABASAS, California - Overcast skies and fog reported at the scene of the helicopter wreck that killed Los Angeles basketball great Kobe Bryant, his daughter and 7 others figured prominently on Monday in the first full day of federal aviation experts' crash investigation.
An 18-member National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) team, assisted by FBI forensic specialists, began mapping the wreckage site with drones and examining debris scattered across the hillside where the helicopter went down on Sunday.
Los Angeles County coroner's investigators, working alongside aviation NTSB inspectors, said they had recovered the first three bodies from the crash site and were searching for more remains.
In a sign that clouds, fog and limited visibility were of particular interest to investigators, NTSB board member Jennifer Homendy appealed to the public to come forward with any photographs that might help document local weather conditions at the time of the crash.
Homendy told reporters that weather was just one factor.
'DEVASTATING ACCIDENT SCENE'
"We take a broad look at everything in an investigation - man, machine and the environment. And weather is just a small portion of that," she said at a late-afternoon news conference in Calabasas, California, about mile from the crash site.
She described how bits of the aircraft - a section of the fuselage, a piece of the tail, a rotor and other debris - were strewn around an impact crater where the helicopter slammed into a tall grassy slope.
"It was a pretty devastating accident scene," she said.
The twin-engine Sikorsky S-76B took off from John Wayne Airport in the Orange County city of Santa Ana on a flight destined for a regional airport about 80 miles to the northwest in the coastal town of Camarillo, the NTSB said. It crashed in the Santa Monica foothills on the outskirts of Calabasas, about 40 miles northwest of downtown Los Angeles.
The pilot and all 8 passengers, including Bryant, 41, and his 13-year-old daughter, Gianna, perished in the fiery wreck. They were on their way to a girl's basketball tournament at a sports academy where Bryant was to have coached his daughter's team that day.
Bryant, an 18-time National Basketball Association all-star five NBA championships during his 20 years with the Los Angeles Lakers, was known since his playing days to travel frequently by helicopter to avoid the Los Angeles area's infamous traffic.
But questions immediately surfaced about the role that weather conditions played in Sunday's tragedy.
Forecasters reported low clouds and limited visibility at the time of the crash, and eyewitnesses recounted thick fog over the foothills where the helicopter went down.
'LOWER AND LOWER'
Fog and clouds were so bad that both the Los Angeles Police Department and Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department grounded their helicopter fleets, the Los Angeles Times reported, citing officials.
Public recordings of radio calls between Bryant's helicopter and air traffic control during the flight indicate the pilot tried to remain below clouds so he could see the ground and avoid having to fly on instruments, said Gary C. Robb, an aviation lawyer and author of the book "Helicopter Crash Litigation."
"The dialogue between the pilot and air traffic control leads me to believe ... he kept wanting to go lower and lower, beneath the fog and ceiling, as we call it, and that could have led him to fly so low that he flew into the mountain," Robb told Reuters.
The pilot, in his transmissions, "was calm and controlled the whole time," Robb added, calling the communications "extremely normal and routine."
A possible mechanical failure cannot be ruled out, especially in light of "ear-witness" accounts that the helicopter sounded like it was "sputtering" moments before the crash, Robb said.
He described the Sikorsky S-76, however, as a "reliable" and "generally safe" aircraft.
Both Robb and another prominent aviation disaster attorney, Bob Clifford, both noted that the pilot had requested "flight following," or constant tracking from controllers to help keep the Sikorsky clear of other aircraft in limited visibility, but was informed he was flying too low to be picked up by air traffic radar. It is unclear whether the pilot heard that admonition as it came near the end of the doomed flight.
NTSB's Homendy said the pilot was an experienced, commercially licensed aviator and certified flight instructor with at last 8,200 hours of flight time.
LAKERS GAME CANCELED
The crash devastated 3 other families linked to the Mamba Sports Academy in Calabasas - a husband and wife with their 13-year-old daughter; a mother and her 13-year-old daughter; and a basketball coach who was also a mother.
In honor of Bryant, the NBA announced it had canceled a game scheduled for Tuesday between the Lakers and their cross-town rivals, the Clippers.
After Lakers fans spontaneously built a shrine to Bryant near the Staples Center, his teams' home arena, fans also left flowers and Bryant jerseys at Lower Merion High School outside Philadelphia, where Bryant played before joining the NBA.
In Hollywood, movie celebrities, including Robert De Niro and Brad Pitt, took part in a moment of silence to honor Bryant at the start of the annual Academy Award nominees luncheon. Bryant, an Oscar-winner for the animated short film he wrote and produced, "Dear Basketball," attended the lunch two years ago.
In New York, morning commuters emerging from Penn Station stopped for a silent moment before an enormous electronic billboard lit up with Bryant's image outside Madison Square Garden.
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WASHINGTON - The US government on Friday urged tech giants to allow police to read encrypted messages, saying access was essential to prevent serious crime despite privacy concerns.
After Facebook rejected giving access to law enforcement agencies, US Attorney General William Barr upped the pressure by issuing an industry-wide call.
"Making our virtual world more secure should not come at the expense of making us more vulnerable in the real world," Barr said in a speech in Washington.
Barr dismissed accusations that the government was seeking a "backdoor" to everyone's private social media messages.
"We are seeking a front door. We would be happy if the companies providing the encryption keep the keys," he said.
Tech giants must abandon "the indefensible posture" that a technical solution was not possible and should develop products to balance cybersecurity with public safety, Barr said.
Facebook already encrypts WhatsApp messages from end-to-end -- meaning only the sender and recipient can read them -- and is working to extend the technology to other apps in its group, including Messenger and Instagram.
Facebook said it was intent on introducing the feature without granting oversight to law enforcement agencies.
"We hope that industry will be an ally, not an adversary," Barr said.
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WASHINGTON - US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced Tuesday the opening of a formal impeachment inquiry against President Donald Trump, saying he had violated the constitution in seeking help from Ukraine to hurt Democratic opponent Joe Biden.
"The actions of the Trump presidency revealed (the) dishonorable fact of the president's betrayal of his oath of office, betrayal of our national security and betrayal of the integrity of our elections," she said.
"Therefore, today I'm announcing the House of Representatives moving forward with an official impeachment inquiry."
Pelosi spoke after meeting fellow members of the Democratic House caucus, where impeachment calls are surging despite concerns by leadership that the move could hurt their chances in the 2020 election.
The announcement was sparked by a scandal over Trump's reported attempt to pressure the incoming president of Ukraine to open a corruption investigation into his main challenger for the White House, Joe Biden, and Biden's son Hunter.
Triggering the confrontation was an as yet secret whistleblower complaint centered on Trump's phone call July 25 with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
The White House has refused to release to Congress the secret complaint from an intelligence community whistleblower that reportedly depicts Trump seeking help from Ukraine to fight Biden, currently the Democratic Party's frontrunner for the presidential nomination.
Trump has admitted he spoke to Zelensky about Biden in the call, and said Tuesday he had halted aid to the country temporarily, before it was unfrozen last week.
But he rejected charges that the two were tied, saying the aid freeze was to prod European countries to increase their support for the Ukraine government.
Pelosi had been stiffly resisting impeachment, hoping to keep the focus on capturing the Senate and White House in 2020.
But after seven moderate Democrats declared themselves in support of a full-blown impeachment probe late Monday, analysts counted at least 170 of the party's 235 House members in support.
"I was there... in the '90s when we wrote the whistleblower laws and continued to write them to ensure the security of our intelligence and the safety of our whistleblowers," Pelosi said.
"I know what their purpose was. And we proceeded with balance and caution as we wrote the laws.
"I can say with authority, the Trump administration's actions undermine both -- our national security and our intelligence -- and our protections of the whistleblowers, more than both."
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SYDNEY - Australia's financial regulator on Tuesday ordered an investigation into global money transfer platform PayPal over concerns it is being misused by sex offenders to buy child abuse material from Asia.
The Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Center (AUSTRAC) will appoint an external auditor to examine what it calls "ongoing concerns" over PayPal's alleged breaches of the country's anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing laws.
Announcing the appointment in a statement Tuesday, AUSTRAC said it was working with its partners to "combat serious crimes such as child sex exploitation" using funds transfer information reported by the financial services sector.
"Online child abuse material can be ordered from Australia to areas such as the Philippines in quite often small amounts that are repeated often, and PayPal unfortunately is one of the areas that they can use to do that," AUSTRAC CEO Nicole Rose told the ABC.
"That's why we want to get the auditor in to really what sort of risks there have been and continue to be with PayPal systems or their reporting regime."
A PayPal Australia spokesperson said that following an internal review the company had "self-disclosed an issue" in its reporting system to AUSTRAC.
"We are working in full cooperation with AUSTRAC to remediate this reporting system issue and to undertake the audit as outlined by AUSTRAC in the time specified," they said in a statement.
An audit report must be compiled within 120 days and will be used to determine whether the regulator takes any further action against the digital payments platform.
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NEW YORK -- After dramatic appeals and testimony in Congress, Donald Trump's one-time personal lawyer Michael Cohen is due to report to jail Monday to serve a sentence he deems unjust because he was simply following his boss's orders.
The longtime Trump admirer who once said he was ready to "take a bullet" for Trump is awaited at the federal prison in Otisville, New York by 2:00 pm.
He was sentenced to 3 years in prison in December, after admitting to having paid hush money during the 2016 election to 2 women who said they had had affairs with Trump -- in violation of electoral laws -- having committed tax fraud, and having lied to Congress.
The father of 2 children in their twenties, Cohen had hoped until the last moment that his sentence would be reduced, offering information to investigators that could compromise Trump and his family, including over the Russia investigation.
But even if Special Counsel Robert Mueller referred to the ex-attorney more than a hundred times in his report on Russian meddling in the US elections, prosecutors have not budged on Cohen's sentence.
WHY COHEN?
The child of a Holocaust survivor and a nurse will become one of just 2 close aides of the president jailed for a lengthy period of time after Paul Manafort, Trump's ex-campaign manager who was sentenced to 7.5 years of prison.
Cohen worked for the Trump Organization for a decade and insists that all reprehensible acts took place at the behest of the president, who the ex-attorney claims would be ready to cling to power even if he loses his bid for a second term in 2020.
"How come I'm the only one?" Cohen asked in an interview with The New Yorker.
"I didn't work for the campaign. I worked for him. And how come I'm the one that's going to prison? I'm not the one that slept with the porn star," he added, referring to Stormy Daniels, one of the women who received hush money.
Cohen's lawyer Lanny Davis said Friday that the president's eldest son, Donald Trump Jr, should have gone to prison since he "signed hush money checks."
For the American president and his allies, Cohen's prison sentence has the taste of payback after the one-time attorney turned on his boss.
Trump called him "weak" and a "rat" ready to make up any lies necessary to avoid prison.
FINAL STATEMENTS
Cohen, who has been disbarred and is running out of cash, has not said his last word.
This weekend, he told reporters following him in Manhattan as he spent his last moments of freedom with his son Jake, a student in Miami, that he would make some final statements Monday before going behind bars.
When he spoke to lawmakers earlier this year, Cohen mentioned plans to write a book and have his experiences made into a film.
In doing so, he would be following the example of Richard Nixon's ex-lawyer John Dean, who pleaded guilty for having bought the silence of the Watergate scandal burglars, and then wrote a book about his experience.
The Otisville prison conditions should allow Cohen to spend at least some time on such projects.
He is due to be held in the detention center's low-security "camp," which holds detainees who are not considered to be dangerous, including many other white collar criminals.
Practicing Jews who are sentenced often request to be placed at Otisville because it provides kosher meals and detainees are allowed to follow the Shabbat day of rest.
The 120-some prisoners of this wing of the center can use libraries, as well as basketball and tennis courts while wearing their beige uniforms.
Can Cohen hope for an expedited release for good behavior?
"Because Congress eliminated parole in 1987, the best he can hope for is a 15 percent reduction off his sentence for 'good behavior,'" said criminal defense attorney Harlan Protass.
"He'll also likely spend the last 6 months of his sentence in a halfway house, like where former Congressman Anthony Weiner is now."
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WASHINGTON--The investigator hired to look into the release of intimate images of Jeff Bezos said Saturday he has concluded that Saudi Arabian authorities hacked the Amazon chief's phone to access his personal data.
Gavin de Becker linked the hack to extensive coverage by The Washington Post newspaper, which is owned by Bezos, of the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the kingdom's consulate in Istanbul last year.
"Our investigators and several experts concluded with high confidence that the Saudis had access to Bezos' phone, and gained private information," de Becker wrote on The Daily Beast website.
He said that while the brother of Bezos's mistress was paid by the National Enquirer scandal sheet for the release of the information, his role may have been a red herring, and the plot went far beyond one man seeking to cash in.
"It's clear that MBS considers The Washington Post to be a major enemy," de Becker wrote, referring to the oil-rich kingdom's powerful Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, whom the US Senate, after a closed-door briefing by the CIA, named as "responsible" for the murder.
But de Becker did not specify which part of the Saudi government he was blaming for the hack, and gave few details about the investigation that led him to the conclusion that the kingdom was responsible.
The results, he wrote, "have been turned over to federal officials."
Bezos hired Gavin de Becker & Associates to find out how his intimate text messages and photos made their way into the hands of the Enquirer, which reported on the Amazon chief's extramarital affair, leading to his divorce.
Bezos has accused Enquirer publisher American Media Inc, led by David Pecker, of "blackmail" for threatening to publish the intimate photos if he did not halt the investigation.
The Amazon chief declined to do so, instead publishing copies of emails from AMI.
Saudi Arabia has stressed that the crown prince was not involved in the killing of Khashoggi, a Post contributing columnist.
Riyadh initially said it had no knowledge of his fate, but later blamed the murder on rogue agents.
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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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Here is a timeline of significant developments in Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russia's role in the 2016 US presidential election and whether President Donald Trump's campaign conspired with Moscow.
2017
May 17 - US Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein appoints former FBI Director Mueller as a special counsel to investigate Russian meddling in the 2016 election and to look into any links and/or coordination between the Russian government and people associated with Republican Trump's campaign.
The appointment follows President Trump's firing of FBI Director James Comey on May 9 and days later Trump attributed the dismissal to "this Russia thing."
June 15 - Mueller is investigating Trump for possible obstruction of justice, the Washington Post reports.
Oct. 30 - Veteran Republican political operative and former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, who worked for the campaign for 5 pivotal months in 2016, is indicted on charges of conspiracy against the United States and money laundering as is his business partner Rick Gates, who also worked for Trump's campaign.
- Former Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos pleads guilty to a charge of lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russian officials.
Dec. 1 - Michael Flynn, Trump's national security adviser for less than a month who also had a prominent campaign role, pleads guilty to the charge of lying to the FBI about his discussions in 2016 with the Russian ambassador to Washington.
2018
Feb. 16 - Federal grand jury indicts 13 Russians and 3 firms, including a Russian government propaganda arm called the Internet Research Agency, accusing them of tampering to support Trump and disparage Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton. The accused "had a strategic goal to sow discord in the US political system, including the 2016 US presidential election" according to the court document filed by Mueller.
- An American, Richard Pinedo, pleads guilty to identity fraud for selling bank account numbers after being accused by prosecutors of helping Russians launder money, buy Facebook ads and pay for campaign rally supplies. Pinedo was not associated with the Trump campaign.
Feb. 22 - Manafort and Gates are charged with financial crimes, including bank fraud, in Virginia.
Feb. 23 - Gates pleads guilty to conspiracy against the United States and lying to investigators. He agrees to cooperate and testify against Manafort at trial.
April 3 - Alex van der Zwaan, the Dutch son-in-law of one of Russia's richest men, is sentenced to 30 days in prison and fined $20,000 for lying to Mueller's investigators, becoming the first person sentenced in the probe.
April 9 - FBI agents raid home, hotel room and office of Trump's personal lawyer and self-described "fixer" Michael Cohen.
April 12 - Rosenstein tells Trump that he is not a target in Mueller's probe.
April 19 - Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, a Trump supporter in the election campaign, joins Trump's personal legal team.
June 8 - Mueller charges a Russian-Ukrainian man, Konstantin Kilimnik, a Manafort business partner whom prosecutors say had ties to Russian intelligence, with witness tampering.
July 13 - Federal grand jury indicts 12 Russian military intelligence officers on charges of hacking Democratic Party computer networks in 2016 and staged releases of documents. Russia, which denies interfering in the election, says there is no evidence that the 12 are linked to spying or hacking.
July 16 - In Helsinki after the first summit between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, Trump publicly contradicts US intelligence agencies that concluded Moscow had interfered in the 2016 election with a campaign of hacking and propaganda. Trump touts Putin's "extremely strong and powerful" denial of meddling. He calls the Mueller inquiry a "rigged witch hunt" on Twitter.
Aug. 21 - A trial jury in Virginia finds Manafort guilty of 5 counts of tax fraud, 2 counts of bank fraud and 1 count of failure to disclose a foreign bank account.
- Cohen, in a case brought by US prosecutors in New York, pleads guilty to tax fraud and campaign finance law violations. Cohen is subsequently interviewed by Mueller's team.
Aug. 31 - Samuel Patten, an American business partner of Kilimnik, pleads guilty to unregistered lobbying for pro-Kremlin political party in Ukraine.
Sept. 14 - Manafort pleads guilty to 2 conspiracy counts and signs a cooperation agreement with Mueller's prosecutors.
Nov. 8 - US Attorney General Jeff Sessions resigns at Trump's request. He had recused himself from overseeing the Mueller inquiry because of his contacts with the Russian ambassador as a Trump campaign official. Trump appoints Sessions' chief of staff Matthew Whitaker, a critic of the Mueller probe, as acting attorney general.
Nov. 20 - Giuliani says Trump submitted written answers to questions from Mueller, as the president avoids a face-to-face interview with the special counsel.
Nov. 27-28 - Prosecutors say Manafort breached his plea deal by lying to investigators, which Manafort denies. Trump says he has not ruled out granting Manafort a presidential pardon.
Nov. 28 - Giuliani says Trump told investigators he was not aware ahead of time of a meeting in Trump Tower in New York between several campaign officials and Russians in June 2016.
Nov. 29 - Cohen pleads guilty in the Mueller investigation to lying to Congress about the length of discussions in 2016 on plans to build a Trump Tower in Moscow. "I made these misstatements to be consistent with individual 1's political messaging and out of loyalty to individual 1," says Cohen, who previously identified "individual 1" as Trump.
- The president criticizes Cohen as a liar and "weak person."
Dec. 12 - Two developments highlight growing political and legal risks for Trump: Cohen sentenced to 3 years in prison for crimes including orchestrating hush payments to women in violation of campaign laws before the election; American Media Inc, publisher of National Enquirer tabloid, strikes deal to avoid charges over its role in one of two hush payments. Publisher admits payment was aimed at influencing the 2016 election, contradicting Trump's statements.
2019
Jan. 25 - Longtime Trump associate and self-proclaimed political "dirty trickster" Roger Stone charged and arrested at his home in Florida. Stone is accused of lying to Congress about statements suggesting he may have had advance knowledge of plans by Wikileaks to release Democratic Party campaign emails that US officials say were stolen by Russia.
Feb. 21 - US judge tightens gag order on Stone, whose Instagram account posted a photo of the judge and the image of crosshairs next to it.
Feb. 22 - Manhattan district attorney's office is pursuing New York state criminal charges against Manafort whether or not he receives a pardon from Trump on federal crimes, a person familiar with the matter says. Trump cannot issue pardons for state convictions.
Feb. 24 - Senior Democratic US Representative Adam Schiff says Democrats will subpoena Mueller's final report on his investigation if it is not given to Congress by the Justice Department, and will sue the Trump administration and call on Mueller to testify to Congress if necessary.
Feb. 27 - Cohen tells US House Oversight Committee Trump is a "racist," a "con man" and a "cheat" who knew in advance about a release of emails by WikiLeaks in 2016 aimed at hurting rival Clinton. Trump directed negotiations for a real estate project in Moscow during the campaign even as he publicly said he had no business interests in Russia, Cohen testifies.
March 7 - Manafort is sentenced in the Virginia case to almost 4 years in prison. The judge also ordered Manafort to pay a fine of $50,000 and restitution of just over $24 million.
March 13 - Manafort is sentenced to about 3-1/2 more years in prison in the Washington case, bringing his total prison sentence in the 2 special counsel cases to 7-1/2 years.
- On the same day, the Manhattan district attorney announces a separate indictment charging Manafort with residential mortgage fraud and other New York state crimes, which unlike the federal charges cannot be erased by a presidential pardon.
March 22 - Mueller submits his confidential report on the findings of his investigation to US Attorney General William Barr.
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WASHINGTON -- US lawmakers will demand documents from Donald Trump's eldest son and a lifelong business associate as part of a wide-ranging investigation into alleged abuses of office by the president, a leading Democrat said Sunday.
US House Judiciary Committee chairman Jerry Nadler told ABC political show "This Week" that Donald Trump Jr. and Allen Weisselberg, the sole trustees of The Trump Organization, were among 60 people and entities being targeted by the probe.
The New York congressman said the requests would go out on Monday "to begin investigations to present the case to the American people about obstruction of justice, corruption and abuse of power" by the Republican president.
Trump's campaign is being investigated by Special Counsel Robert Mueller for alleged collusion with Russia to influence the 2016 election, and for possible obstruction of that probe.
Many observers believe, however, his biggest legal exposure will come with the various federal and state-level investigations into his finances and the running of his charity foundation and business.
Trump came out fighting, posting on Twitter that two years of "presidential Harassment" since he took office had proven nothing but Democratic lawbreaking.
"I am an innocent man being persecuted by some very bad, conflicted & corrupt people in a Witch Hunt that is illegal & should never have been allowed to start," he tweeted.
Trump's former personal attorney Michael Cohen testified on Capitol Hill Wednesday that authorities in New York were probing crimes allegedly involving the president beyond those that have been made public.
Nadler said it was "very clear" that Trump had obstructed justice, by repeatedly calling the Mueller probe a "witch hunt" and by trying to halt an investigation into his first national security adviser Mike Flynn, who subsequently admitted lying to the FBI over Russian contacts.
Trump set off a political firestorm by firing FBI chief James Comey on May 2017 -- and then admitting to NBC he had taken the decision after becoming frustrated with the Russia probe.
PROPER INVESTIGATIONS
Nadler, like Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, has been reticent about pushing for the president's impeachment, and told ABC such action would be "a long way down the road."
Trump was implicated by Cohen in numerous crimes as the president's former fixer gave evidence to the House Oversight Committee Wednesday, accusing his old boss of being "a racist," "conman" and "cheat."
Cohen, who has been convicted of lying to Congress, said Trump knew ahead of time that WikiLeaks would release material damaging to election rival Hillary Clinton, which turned out to be emails stolen by Russian spies.
He added that he believed Trump knew in advance about a June 9, 2016 meeting between campaign chiefs and a Russian lawyer touting dirt on Clinton.
Cohen pleaded guilty last year to violating campaign finance laws when he paid off adult film star Stormy Daniels to stay quiet before the 2016 election about an affair Cohen said she had with Trump.
Cohen said Trump ordered the hush payment. He also alleged that the Trump Organization regularly and illegally inflated the value of its assets to obtain bank loans, and accused his former boss of misusing charity funds.
"What we learned from the Cohen testimony is that he directly implicated the president in -- in various crimes, both while seeking the office of president and while in the White House," Nadler said on "This Week."
"We don't have the facts yet. But we're going to initiate proper investigations."
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WASHINGTON - Special Counsel Robert Mueller's office said in a sentencing memo released Saturday that President Donald Trump's former campaign director Paul Manafort was a "bold" criminal who "repeatedly and brazenly" broke the law.
Manafort, 69, who pleaded guilty to 2 conspiracy charges, faces sentencing on March 13. The memo addressed to the judge in charge of his case did not recommend a specific sentence -- but outlined the gravity of his crimes.
It said he violated the law for years and his sentence "must take into account the gravity of this conduct," to deter both Manafort and anyone who would commit similar crimes.
Manafort is one of 6 former Trump associates and senior aides who have been charged by Mueller's team, which is believed to be nearing the end of its investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and possible collusion with the Trump campaign.
"Manafort committed an array of felonies for over a decade, up through the fall of 2018," the memo said, naming crimes including tax fraud, money laundering, obstruction of justice, bank fraud and violating a law related to lobbying.
"His criminal actions were bold," it continued, pointing out that they continued after he was charged, including attempting to tamper with witnesses, and lying to the FBI, government agencies and even his own lawyer.
Mueller's office last week said it agreed with a Justice Department calculation that Manafort should face up to 24 years in prison, after he was found to have violated a plea deal which agreed to a maximum sentence of 10 years.
Earlier this month, District Judge Amy Berman Jackson agreed with prosecutors that Manafort had "intentionally" lied to investigators about his contacts with a suspected Russian operative, Konstantin Kilimnik, in 2016 and 2017 -- despite having pledged to cooperate as part of his September plea agreement.
Jackson also ruled that Manafort had lied about a secretive payment he made to a law firm, and lied on another occasion when investigators queried him about a separate, still secret investigation related to the Mueller probe.
Dated Friday, the memo was expected to be made public on Friday evening -- but was not released until Saturday, with several passages redacted.
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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.
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MANILA - The National Privacy Commission said Sunday it has begun probing the security breach reported by Facebook, which logged out millions of users last Friday.
Facebook had already posted a "security update" statement, explaining how a "security issue" affected around 50 million Facebook accounts.
But lawyer Kiko Acero from the commission's Complaints and Investigation Division said they still need a clearer explanation on what really happened.
"Kung ginamit siya ng isang taong may malicious intent, hinahanap namin sino yung naging pabaya sa problemang 'to… Lahat 'yan tinitignan namin," he said.
(If it was used by a person with malicious intent, we want to know who is liable for this problem. We are looking into all of this.)
In a statement, Facebook said they took immediate measures upon learning the security issue, which caused around 90 million Facebook users worldwide to be logged out of their accounts.
"Our investigation is still in its early stages. But it’s clear that attackers exploited a vulnerability in Facebook’s code that impacted 'View As' a feature," Facebook said.
"This allowed them to steal Facebook access tokens which they could then use to take over people’s accounts. Access tokens are the equivalent of digital keys that keep people logged in," it added.
Manila Bulletin technology news editor Art Samaniego said the Facebook users who were logged out of their accounts could be potential targets of hackers.
Samaniego said this may put all other social media sites and service applications connected to an account at risk because "token sessions" are involved.
"Ito yung digital signature natin na pag nag-log in sa Facebook, malalaman ng apps and services na ikaw 'yun. Pag nag-log in ka via Facebook makukuha 'yung mga details mo," he said.
(This is our digital signature when we log into Facebook, which lets apps and services know that it is you. When you log in via Facebook, your details will be known.)
"Ibig-sabihin pag nanakaw to (token sessions) ng mga hacker. Puwede niya ma-log in 'yun sa mga services na ginagamit mo halimbawa Instagram, WhatsApp, Tindr," he added.
(This means that if these tokens are stolen by hackers, they can log into the services you use like Instagram, WhatsApp, Tindr.)
Samaniego urged users to use two-factor authentication for their accounts. He also discouraged netizens from using the same passwords for different accounts.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
BEIJING - Chinese ridesharing giant Didi Chuxing said Saturday it bore "responsibility" for the rape and murder of a passenger by a driver who had been reported by another user just a day before the killing.
Police in the city of Wenzhou said Saturday they had arrested a 27-year-old man who worked as a driver on suspicion of raping and killing a female passenger who had used the app to hail a ride.
The killing has sparked criticism of the company -- known as the "Chinese Uber" due to its overwhelming popularity in the country -- and raised fresh concerns over the safety of its users.
In a statement released Saturday the company admitted it had failed to act after receiving a complaint about the same driver from another female passenger, who claimed he drove her to an isolated area and followed her in his vehicle after she left the car.
"Our customer service did not... investigate this report quickly enough, no matter the reason, we take on an undeniable responsibility", it said.
"We have a responsibility and we feel guilty. As a platform, we betrayed the trust of the public."
In May a 21-year-old air stewardess was killed by a Didi Chuxing driver, prompting criticism of the company's security measures and a tightening up of its rules of use.
The latest murder has prompted renewed and widespread anger online.
"How can a driver who has been reported still go on taking passengers?" asked one user of the Twitter-like Weibo social network.
"Get out of the market! I do not want to see your next apology," said another.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
WASHINGTON - US President Donald Trump admitted Sunday that his son met with a Russian lawyer in Trump Tower in 2016 "to get information on an opponent" but defended it as "totally legal."
It was Trump's most direct acknowledgement that the motive for the June 2016 meeting was to get dirt on Hillary Clinton, his Democratic rival for the presidency.
As he has in the past, Trump insisted in a tweet that he did not know at the time about the meeting between his son Donald Jr. and Natalia Veselnitskaya, a lawyer with links to the Kremlin.
"This was a meeting to get information on an opponent, totally legal and done all the time in politics - and it went nowhere. I did not know about it!"
The meeting has come under intense scrutiny from Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who is investigating whether members of the Trump campaign coordinated with a Russian effort to sway the 2016 election in the Republican's favor.
The president's tweet about the meeting was one in a thread in which he reiterated criticism of Mueller, calling his probe "the most one sided Witch Hunt in the history of our country" peppered with "lies and corruption."
The Washington Post reported Sunday that Trump has been brooding in private about whether his son unintentionally put himself in legal jeopardy by meeting with Veselnitskaya.
Trump called the Post report "a complete fabrication."
ILLEGAL MEETING?
The Trump Tower meeting was arranged by British music promoter, Rob Goldstone, who told Donald Jr that he had "information that would incriminate Hillary and her dealings with Russia and would be very useful to your father."
Young Trump responded "I love it" when first offered the "dirt" on Clinton, the Democratic nominee.
News of the meeting, which Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner and top campaign official Paul Manafort also attended, broke in July 2017.
Donald Jr initially said in a statement to The New York Times that the meeting was "primarily" about American adoptions of Russian children.
He later admitted he accepted the meeting with Veselnitskaya in hopes of obtaining damaging information on Clinton, but said nothing came of it.
The Post had reported that the statement to The Times was dictated by the president, though at the time Trump's lawyers denied his involvement.
They later reversed course in a memo to Mueller and said Trump was indeed behind the statement that omitted the prospect of collecting dirt on Clinton.
Lawyers described the statement as "short but accurate," according to The Post.
Asked on Sunday why he had denied the president's involvement, one of Trump's lawyers Jay Sekulow told ABC that "I had bad information at that point."
"I made a mistake in my statement," he said. "That happens when you have cases like this."
The president's lawyers argue that the meeting, in and of itself, violated no laws.
"The question is how will it be illegal?" Sekulow said Sunday.
"What law, statute, rule or regulation has been violated?"
source: news.abs-cbn.com
