Russia and China pose the biggest espionage and cyber attack threats to the United States and are more aligned than they have been in decades, the leader of the U.S. intelligence community told U.S. senators on Tuesday.

While the two countries seek to expand their global reach, Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats said, some American allies are pulling away from Washington in reaction to changing U.S. policies on security and trade.

“China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea increasingly use cyber operations to threaten both minds and machines in an expanding number of ways – to steal information, to influence our citizens, or to disrupt critical infrastructure,” Coats said.

“Moscow’s relationship with Beijing is closer than it’s been in many decades,” Coats told the Senate Intelligence Committee’s annual hearing on worldwide threats, where he testified with the director of the CIA, FBI and other top intelligence officials.

He also said some U.S. allies are seeking more independence, responding to their perceptions of changing policies on security and trade and “are becoming more open” to new partnerships. “The post-World War Two international system is coming under increasing strain amid continuing cyber and WMD proliferation threats, competition in space and regional conflicts,” Coats said, using the acronym for weapons of mass destruction.

Election security

Coats also said U.S. adversaries likely are already looking to interfere in the 2020 U.S. election, refining their capabilities and adding new tactics.

He said Russia’s social media efforts will continue to focus on aggravating social and racial tensions, undermining trust in authorities and criticizing politicians perceived to be anti-Russia.

Senator Mark Warner, the panel’s top Democrat, said in his opening statement that he was particularly concerned about Russia’s use of social media “to amplify divisions in our society and to influence our democratic processes” and the threat from China in the technology arena.

The United States on Monday announced criminal charges against China’s Huawei Technologies Co Ltd, escalating a fight with the world’s biggest telecommunications equipment maker and coming days before trade talks between Washington and Beijing.

“Especially concerning have been the efforts of big Chinese tech companies — which are beholden to the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) — to acquire sensitive technology, replicate it, and undermine the market share of U.S. firms with the help of the Chinese state,” Warner said.

The U.S. Justice Department on Monday charged Huawei and its chief financial officer, Meng Wanzhou, with conspiring to violate U.S. sanctions on Iran by doing business with Tehran through a subsidiary it tried to hide and that was reported on by Reuters in 2012.

“China is going to be a major competitor of ours in every way that there is,” said Republican Senator Jim Risch, an intelligence committee member who is also chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
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U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday accepted House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s invitation to deliver his State of the Union address in the House chamber on Feb. 5. The speech comes as Trump faces an uphill battle to secure funding for his border wall, as well as a special investigation on Russian election meddling, and lawsuits alleging that his businesses violate anti-bribery laws. White House correspondent Patsy Widakuswara has the story.
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U.S. President Donald Trump’s longtime ally Roger Stone pleaded not guilty Tuesday to seven charges linked to the release of damaging hacked emails about Trump’s 2016 Democratic opponent, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, in the midst of the presidential campaign.

The 66-year-old Stone, arrested last week at his Florida home in a pre-dawn FBI raid, was arraigned in a federal court in Washington on five counts of lying to Congress about his role in the WikiLeaks release of the emails, and single counts of witness tampering and obstructing a congressional investigation into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.

Stone has vocally asserted his innocence in recent days but said nothing as he left court.

Some onlookers outside court chanted, “Lock him up,” and carried signs calling him a “dirty traitor.” But supporters nearby said he did nothing wrong and held up photos of him.

Unlike most defendants in U.S. criminal cases, Stone since his arrest has made the rounds of television news shows, to belittle the investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election and special counsel Robert Mueller, who brought the charges against him.

On his Instagram account, Stone, a long-time self-proclaimed “dirty trickster” whose hero is Richard Nixon, the disgraced U.S. president from the early 1970s, depicted Mueller in a cartoonish-image as a butler holding a tray with a hamburger roll, but with no meat in between.

The charges against Stone do not allege that he coordinated with Russia or with WikiLeaks on the release of the hacked emails, which U.S. authorities say were stolen from Democrats by Russian agents.

Stone told ABC news on Sunday that all he “did was take publicly available information and try to hype it” to disparage Clinton in support of Trump’s campaign.

The charging documents against Stone say that at one point, a senior Trump campaign official “was directed to contact Stone about any additional releases and what other damaging information” WikiLeaks had about Clinton, but does not disclose who gave the order to find out information from Stone.

Mueller probe

Stone’s arraignment occurred a half day after Acting U.S. Attorney General Matthew Whitaker said on Monday that he thinks Mueller’s probe into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and possible collusion with Trump’s campaign will finish soon.

“The investigation is, I think, close to being completed, and I hope that we can get the report from Director Mueller as soon as possible,” Whitaker said at a news conference in Washington.

Whitaker has been the acting attorney general since November when Trump ousted Jeff Sessions from the position. Trump had repeatedly complained about Sessions removing himself from oversight of the Russia probe, and Whitaker declined to recuse himself, despite calls that he should, based on his past criticism of Mueller’s investigation.

William Barr, a former U.S. attorney general, is awaiting a confirmation vote on his nomination to again take over the Justice Department. During his confirmation hearings, he pledged, without citing specifics, that he would publicly release as much of Mueller’s eventual report as possible.

So far, Mueller’s investigation has resulted in guilty pleas or convictions of five key figures in Trump’s orbit, including former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, campaign aide Rick Gates, foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos, one-time national security adviser Michael Flynn and former personal attorney Michael Cohen.

Papadopoulos served a short jail term, while Cohen has been sentenced to three years in prison and ordered to surrender himself in early March.  Manafort, Gates and Flynn are awaiting sentencing.
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The White House says President Donald Trump wants to avert another partial U.S. government shutdown but remains committed to erecting new barriers along the U.S.-Mexico border, something most Democratic lawmakers still reject.

“The president doesn’t want to go through another shutdown — that’s not the goal,” White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said Monday at a press briefing, where she urged Democrats to “get serious about fixing the problem at the border, including funding for a border wall.”

Federal agencies have reopened after the longest shutdown in U.S. history. Late last week, Trump signed a stopgap three-week funding bill designed to give congressional negotiators a window to craft a package enhancing border security.

The bipartisan conference committee, comprised of appropriators from both legislative chambers, is to begin consultations later this week. But the partisan fault line over border wall funding that sparked the shutdown persists.

“Democrats sharply disagree with the president on the need for an expensive and ineffective border wall,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York said moments before Sanders spoke.

“What I believe is, at any given place along the border, we’ve got to have some combination of three elements: physical barriers, technology and personnel,” Texas Republican Sen. John Cornyn said. “So, we need a complement of each of those things in this border security bill that hopefully we’ll be voting on in the coming weeks.”

Earlier, Trump said he sees less than a 50 percent chance that congressional negotiators will put together a deal acceptable to him.

The president told The Wall Street Journal Sunday he doubts he would accept less than the $5.7 billion in wall funding he has been demanding. He also cast doubt on granting permanent legal status to immigrants brought illegally to America as children, calling it a “separate subject to be taken up at a separate time.”

Meanwhile, conference committee members declined to speculate on what negotiations might produce.

“We’re going to try to get something that works,” Missouri Republican Sen. Roy Blunt told VOA. “It’s going to have to be done somewhere other than in public. I’m of the view that we should make it as all-encompassing as we can.”

At the White House, Sanders echoed Trump’s threats to declare a national emergency and order wall construction if Congress fails to provide funding.

“If they don’t come back with a deal, it means Democrats get virtually nothing,” the press secretary said. “That will make the president — force him — to take executive action that does not give Democrats the things that they want.”

Such talk is counterproductive, according to Democrats.

“When the president injects maximalist partisan demands into the process, negotiations tend to fall apart,” Schumer said. “The president should allow the conference committee to proceed with good-faith negotiations. I genuinely hope it will produce something that is good for the country and acceptable to both sides.”

The Congressional Budget Office estimated the five-week partial shutdown caused a $3 billion loss to the U.S. economy. The funding lapse caused federal services to be curtailed or paused and created a financial hardship for 800,000 federal workers who were either furloughed or worked without pay.
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U.S. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi has re-invited President Donald Trump to address the nation Feb. 5 from the Capitol.

In a formal letter sent Monday, Pelosi issued the invitation, asking Trump to “deliver your State of the Union address before a Joint Session of Congress.”

The House and Senate must still pass a resolution to invite Trump.

His original 2019 address was scheduled for Tuesday, but Pelosi asked Trump to wait until after a partial government shutdown had ended or to submit the speech in writing.

In asking for a postponement, Pelosi cited security concerns due to the shutdown. Trump considered going ahead with the address at a different location, but then decided to wait.

The longest shutdown in U.S. history ended Friday when Trump and congressional leaders agreed to refund the government until Feb. 15.
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The probe of possible Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. election, led by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, is wrapping up, Acting U.S. Attorney General Matthew Whitaker told reporters on Monday.

“I’ve been fully briefed on the investigation and I look forward to Director Mueller delivering the final report,” he said at a press conference on U.S. charges against China’s Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. “Right now the investigation is I think close to being completed and I hope that we can get the report from Director Mueller as soon as possible.”

The investigation most recently ensnared a long-time confidant of President Donald Trump, political operative Roger Stone, and has led to the conviction of Trump’s former campaign manager, Paul Manafort.

Mueller has been tight-lipped about when the months of closed-door grand jury sessions and plea deals will conclude, leaving questions over how far into the White House his probe will reach and what will happen to his findings. Trump’s nominee to fill the attorney general post permanently, William Barr, recently pledged to make public as much of the report as possible, saying Mueller is required to file it confidentially.

Russia denies any wrongdoing in the 2016 election. Trump has repeatedly said he was not involved in any collusion with Russia and has often referred to the probe as a “witch hunt.”
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U.S. President Donald Trump says he sees less than a 50 percent chance congressional negotiators can put together deal to fund a southern border wall that he will accept.

Trump told The Wall Street Journal Sunday there are some “very good people” on the bipartisan negotiating team. But he said he doubts he will accept less than the $5.7 billion in wall funding he has been demanding, adding “I have to do it right.”

The president also said he doubts he would accept citizenship for the so-called “Dreamers” as part of an agreement. He said the futures of immigrants brought to the U.S. illegally as children is a “separate subject to be taken up at a separate time.”

Trump said another government shutdown is “certainly an option” if he does not get what he wants to build a wall. He also said he could declare a national emergency which would allow him to fund the wall without congressional approval — a tactic Democrats are sure to challenge in the courts.

Trump agreed Friday to reopen the shuttered federal government for three weeks with no wall funding. In the meantime, a panel of nine Democrats and eight Republicans will try to work out a border security agreement that both Congress and Trump would accept and keep the entire government operating at least through the rest of the fiscal year.

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The month-long partial shutdown created a financial hardship for 800,000 federal workers who were either furloughed or working without pay. They included homeland security and law enforcement officers and air traffic controllers.

Acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney told Fox News Sunday that the next thee weeks are “a chance for Democrats to see if they believe in border security” to thwart illegal immigration and stop the flow of illicit drugs. 

Mulvaney said the White House is “seeing Democrats starting to agree with the president” on the need for a wall along nearly 400 kilometers of the 3,200-kilometer U.S.-Mexico border.

Trump’s chief congressional Democratic opponents, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, have staunchly refused his demand for wall construction money. But Mulvaney said the negotiation period will give Democrats a chance to answer the question, “Are you telling people the truth” about favoring border security, “or doing something that’s politically expedient?”

Democrats insist they are interested in border security, but say a wall is impractical and a waste of money. They suggest such measures as more controls at ports of entry, more border agents, and more technology are more effective.

On the same Fox News show, Senator Joe Manchin, the only Democrat to vote last week for wall funding in a failed Republican-sponsored bill, said Democrats would “look at a wholistic approach” to determine border security needs. “We’ll let the experts tell us what’s needed, help us find the right path.”

After Trump and Congress agreed on the three-week hiatus to end the shutdown, some government operations started to open again Saturday and many federal workers will be back at work on Monday.

But federal contract workers may not ever recoup the money for the time they were out of work unless Congress enacts legislation to pay them.

The shutdown was having a cascading effect on the U.S. economy, with Standard & Poor’s Global Ratings saying the government closures cost the economy about $6 billion.
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Federal employees are going back to work after the longest government shutdown in U.S. history ended late last week. VOA’s Michael Bowman reports, President Donald Trump signed a bill funding the government for three weeks, meaning the threat of another shutdown persists with the president and congressional Democrats still at odds over funding for wall construction along the U.S.-Mexico border.
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Roger Stone, a long-time friend and adviser to U.S. President Donald Trump, said Sunday he would consider cooperating with special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election and discuss his conversations with the U.S. leader.

Stone, charged last week with lying, obstruction and witness tampering in connection with Trump’s campaign, told ABC’s “This Week” show, the extent of his cooperation with Mueller’s 20-month probe would be something he would “have to determine after my attorneys have some discussions.”

He added, “If there’s wrongdoing by other people in the campaign that I know about, which I know of none, but if there is, I would certainly testify honestly.”

The 66-year-old Stone, arrested in a pre-dawn FBI raid Friday on his Florida home, has denied wrongdoing, saying hours after his apprehension, “I will plead not guilty to these charges, I will defeat them in court. I believe this is a politically motivated investigation.”

As he left court Friday after posting a $250,000 bond to secure his freedom pending trial, Stone said, “I have made it clear that I will not testify against the president, because I would have to bear false witness against him.”

Stone told ABC that if he cooperates with Mueller, “I’d also testify honestly about any other matter, including any communications with the president. It’s true that we spoke on the phone, but those communications are political in nature, they’re benign, and there is certainly no conspiracy with Russia.”

Stone said he never discussed cooperation with Russia with Trump.

“Everything that I did… is constitutionally protected free speech. That is what I engaged in – it is called politics,” Stone said.

Stone is the sixth key figure in Trump’s orbit to be accused of criminal offenses as a result of the Mueller investigation. Five men – former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, campaign aide Rick Gates, foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos, one-time national security adviser Michael Flynn and former personal attorney Michael Cohen — have pled guilty or been convicted of various offenses.

Papadopoulos served a short jail term, while Cohen has been sentenced to three years in prison and ordered to turn himself in in early March. Manafort, Gates and Flynn are awaiting sentencing.

After Stone’s arrest, Trump sought to distance himself from his one-time aide, saying on Twitter, “Roger Stone didn’t even work for me anywhere near the Election!”

 
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U.S. government agencies closed during the 35-day partial shutdown began reopening Saturday, two days before the Internal Revenue Service will begin processing 2018 tax filings.

The shutdown ended Friday night, after President Donald Trump signed a three-week spending bill passed by Congress to end the longest government shutdown in U.S. history.

The U.S. Office of Management and Budget sent a memo late Friday to closed federal government departments and agencies to inform them that their divisions were now open and that their employees could return to work. The memo also called on the agencies to “reopen offices in a prompt and orderly manner.”

A note “to all IRS employees” on the department’s website said employees were expected to report to work “no later than four hours after this announcement is posted on Friday, January 25, 2019, at 9:30 p.m. ET.” Beyond that, the post advised employees to “report to work at the beginning of your next scheduled workday.”

​Other agencies

Some websites of other departments that had been affected by the shutdown — State, Transportation, Agriculture, Justice and Interior — had notices that the departments would be back up and running as soon as possible. The Interior Department, however, still had a video titled “Seasons Greetings from Interior.”

Many parks — from the Virgin Islands National Park to the Mississippi National River and Recreation Area in Minnesota — reopened Saturday, but a statement from Grand Canyon officials said the park, in the southwest U.S. state of Arizona, would not be entirely operational until the end of next week.

In Washington, D.C., the Smithsonian museums and the National Zoo are to reopen Tuesday.

Roughly 800,000 federal employees missed their second consecutive paychecks on Friday. Earlier this week, Congress passed and Trump signed legislation ordering federal agencies to issue back pay to workers “at the earliest date possible.” But officials cautioned that it could take several days for federal employees to receive back pay.

VOA parent

On Saturday, the U.S. Agency for Global Media, which oversees VOA, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and other organizations, sent employees two emails regarding “Return to Work and Back Pay Processing Instructions,” which included information that the agency’s payroll office would offer several informational sessions on the processing of back pay claims.

The bill funding the government through Feb. 15 does not include money for the construction of Trump’s proposed U.S.-Mexico border wall. The president said that a bipartisan committee would be formed to evaluate border security, but, contrary to previous claims, he was not asking for a concrete wall along the entire U.S.-Mexico border.

On Saturday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California named the Democratic House members who will serve on the bipartisan committee to evaluate border security. They are Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Nita Lowey of New York, Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security Chairwoman Lucille Roybal-Allard of California, David Price of North Carolina, Barbara Lee of California, Henry Cuellar of Texas and Pete Aguilar of California. House Republicans had yet to name members to the committee by late Saturday.

In the Senate, those who will serve on the bipartisan committee are Democrats Jon Tester of Montana, ranking member of the Senate Appropriations subcommittee on homeland security, Patrick Leahy of Vermont and Dick Durbin of Illinois, and Republicans Richard Shelby of Alabama, John Hoeven of North Dakota, Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia and Roy Blunt of Missouri.

Trump tweets

The president issued a series of tweets Saturday morning about the shutdown and the wall, saying that after two previous caravans of thousands of migrants had been turned away at the southern U.S. border, a new caravan with at least 8,000 people had formed in Mexico and was headed for the U.S.

Trump then noted, “21 days goes very quickly. Negotiations with Democrats will start immediately. Will not be easy to make a deal, both parties very dug in. The case for National Security has been greatly enhanced by what has been happening at the Border & through dialogue. We will build the Wall!”

The date for Trump’s delivery of his State of the Union address to Congress was still unknown. It was originally scheduled for Jan. 29, but Pelosi delayed the address, citing the shutdown.
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A dozen immigrant workers at one of President Donald Trump’s golf clubs in New York who are in the U.S. illegally were fired this month, even though managers knew about their legal status for years, a lawyer for the workers said Saturday. 

As the president railed against immigrants coming into the country illegally during the government shutdown, a manager at the Trump National Golf Club in Westchester County called a dozen immigrant workers into a room one by one Jan. 18 and fired them, said lawyer Anibal Romero. 

Many of them had worked at the club for a dozen or more years, he said, and managers knew they had submitted phony documents but looked the other way. 

The firings came after workers at another Trump club in New Jersey came forward last month to say managers there had hired them knowing they were in the country illegally, and had even helped one obtain phony documents.  

The crackdown at the New York club was first reported by The Washington Post. 

A message seeking comment was left with the Trump Organization.  
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