The upcoming departure of Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein is raising questions about the future of a special counsel investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Rosenstein is seen as the protector of the probe, which has been vilified by U.S. President Donald Trump, whose nominee as attorney general, William Barr, has criticized the probe but said he has a high opinion of Mueller. VOA’s Zlatica Hoke reports Barr could be confirmed next month.
…

Efforts to end a 19-day partial government shutdown stalled Wednesday when President Trump walked out of White House talks with congressional Democrats. Trump’s request for nearly $6 billion in funding for a U.S.-Mexico border wall triggered what is now the second longest government shutdown in U.S. history. VOA’s congressional correspondent Katherine Gypson reports on what’s next on Capitol Hill.
…

U.S. airport security workers and air traffic controllers working without pay warned that security and safety could be compromised if a government shutdown continues beyond Friday, when some workers will miss their first paychecks.

On the 19th day of a partial government shutdown caused by a dispute over funding President Donald Trump wants for a border wall, the president stormed out of talks with Democratic congressional leaders, complaining the meeting was “a total waste of time.”

As the effects of the shutdown began to ripple out, the Trump administration insisted that air travel staffing was adequate and travelers had not faced unusual delays.

TSA workers quitting

But union officials said some Transport Security Administration (TSA) officers, who carry out security screening in airports, had quit because of the shutdown and others were considering quitting.

“The loss of (TSA) officers, while we’re already shorthanded, will create a massive security risk for American travelers since we don’t have enough trainees in the pipeline or the ability to process new hires,” American Federation of Government Employees TSA Council President Hydrick Thomas said.

“If this keeps up there are problems that will arise — least of which would be increased wait times for travelers.”

Aviation unions, airport and airline officials and lawmakers will hold a rally Thursday outside Congress urging an end to the shutdown.

TSA says delays within reason

TSA spokesman Michael Bilello said the organization was hiring officers and working on contingency plans in case the shutdown lasted beyond Friday, when officers would miss their first paycheck since the shutdown began Dec. 22.

“There has been no degradation in security effectiveness and average wait times are well within TSA standards,” he said.

He added that there had been no spike in employees quitting and that Tuesday 5 percent of officers took unscheduled leave, up just slightly from 3.9 percent the same day last year.

It screened 1.73 million passengers and 99.9 percent of passengers waited less than 30 minutes, the TSA said.

But U.S. Representative Bennie Thompson, chairman of the House Homeland Security committee, questioned how long adequate staffing at airports could continue.

“TSA officers are among the lowest paid federal employees, with many living paycheck-to-paycheck,” Thompson wrote. “It is only reasonable to expect officer call outs and resignations to increase the longer the shutdown lasts, since no employee can be expected to work indefinitely without pay.”

​Airports urge end to shutdown

Airports Council International-North America, which represents U.S. airports, urged Trump and congressional leaders in a letter to quickly reopen the government.

“TSA staffing shortages brought on by this shutdown are likely to further increase checkpoint wait times and may even lead to the complete closure of some checkpoints,” the group said.

The National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA) noted that the number of controllers was already at a 30-year low, with 18 percent of controllers eligible to retire.

If a significant number of controllers missed work, the Federal Aviation Administration could be forced to extend the amount of time between takeoffs and landings, which could delay travel, it said.

NATCA President Paul Rinaldi said controllers often must work overtime and six-day weeks at short-staffed locations.

“If the staffing shortage gets worse, we will see reduced capacity in the National Airspace System, meaning more flight delays,” Rinaldi said.
…

Deputy U.S. Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who has overseen the Russian election meddling probe, is set to leave the U.S. Department of Justice in coming weeks as President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the department

is set to take over, several U.S. media outlets reported on Wednesday.

Rosenstein has had oversight of the U.S. Special Counsel’s probe into alleged Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and possible connections to Trump’s campaign.

Then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions, an early Trump supporter during the presidential campaign, had recused himself.

William Barr, Trump’s pick to replace Sessions who was fired soon after the November midterm congressional elections, is set to appear for a confirmation hearing next week before the Senate Judiciary Committee, which must weigh his nomination before the full Senate considers his approval.

ABC News, citing multiple sources familiar with Rosenstein’s plans, reported that he intended to leave in the coming weeks as Barr transitioned into the job. Fox News, citing unnamed Justice Department officials, also reported the planned departure in weeks. CNN also reported the move, citing an unnamed source.

Reuters was unable to immediately verify the reports and representatives for the Justice Department could not be immediately reached for comment.

If confirmed, Barr, who was U.S. Attorney General under the late President George H.W. Bush from 1991 to 1993, would oversee the investigation led by U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller, a fellow Republican chosen by Rosenstein.

Barr’s nomination is likely to meet heavy scrutiny regarding the ongoing investigation, particularly from Democrats, following reports he had written a memo in June questioning the probe. Rosenstein has said the memo had no impact on the department’s work.

Officials told ABC and Fox that Rosenstein had planned to serve as deputy for two years – a milestone that was approaching.

He also wanted to help ensure Barr, if confirmed by the Senate, had a smooth transition, ABC said, citing sources.

Rosenstein has stayed on under Acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker, whose controversial appointment has sparked numerous legal challenges and raised questions about what role he would play regarding the investigation.

Rosenstein has been frequently criticized by Trump, who calls the Russia investigation a “witch hunt” and denies any collusion with Moscow. Russia has also denied any election interference.

U.S. intelligence agencies have found that Russia sought to sway the 2016 presidential vote to Trump over Democratic challenger Hillary Clinton.

 
…

President Donald Trump and Democratic leaders in Congress made clear Tuesday in nationally televised remarks that while each side supports border security efforts, they remain far apart on the scale and cost of what those measures should be.

The standoff has closed one quarter of the federal government since December 22.  

Watch President Trump’s address:

​

Trump said in his address from the White House Oval Office it is up to Democrats to “pass a spending bill that defends our borders and reopens the government.”  He suggested the issue could be resolved in a quick meeting, and that he has invited leaders in Congress to talks Wednesday.

In their joint response to Trump’s speech, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer pointed to a number of spending bills lawmakers have already passed that would reopen the government and provide money for border security.  They say the shutdown continues only because Trump refuses to drop his demand for $5.7 billion in funding for a wall at the U.S.-Mexico border that they say would be expensive and ineffective.

Watch the Democratic response:

​

Trump in his speech sought to make a case that not having a wall is putting Americans at risk of being victims of violence at the hands of people who enter the country illegally, and endangering them by allowing large amounts of illegal drugs to cross the border.

“Over the years, thousands of Americans have been brutally killed by those who illegally entered our country and thousands more lives will be lost if we don’t act right now,” Trump said.  “This is a humanitarian crisis, a crisis of the heart and a crisis of the soul.”

He said hundreds more people are killed each year by drugs, particularly heroin, most of which, he said, comes into the United States through the southwestern border.

An October 2018 report by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency detailed the prevalence and source of a number of drugs, including those Trump mentioned Tuesday — heroin, fentanyl, methamphetamine and cocaine.  In each case, the report said the vast majority of the drugs comes in through existing points of entry, most commonly in cars, which would not be stopped by a border wall.

Trump accused Democrats of not acknowledging what he calls the “crisis” at the border and says they refuse to support funding for border security and what he calls the “common sense” wall.

He said his administration’s proposal also includes technology upgrades to detect drugs and weapons, money to hire more border agents and to increase the number of beds available to house those detained trying to cross the border.

Democrats largely agree with those types of measures, and in their bills have backed spending $1.3 billion for scanning equipment and adding more border personnel.  Pelosi on Tuesday called those proposals “smart, effective border security solutions.”

WATCH: Trump demands a wall

But she said it is “just plain wrong” for Trump to keep the government shut down because of the wall funding dispute.

“The fact is, the women and children at the border are not a security threat, they are a humanitarian challenge — a challenge that President Trump’s own cruel and counterproductive policies have only deepened,” Pelosi said.  “And the fact is, President Trump must stop holding the American people hostage, must stop manufacturing a crisis, and must reopen the government.”

While the standoff continues, some 800,000 federal employees are furloughed or working without pay.
…

With a prime-time speech from the Oval Office Tuesday night, U.S. President Donald Trump made his case to build a wall at the U.S. border with Mexico, and addressed growing anxiety over the partial government shutdown resulting from his wall-funding fight with lawmakers. Democrats responded by urging the president to stop holding the American people hostage, and re-open the government. VOA White House Correspondent Patsy Widakuswara reports.
…

As President Donald Trump prepares to pressure Democrats on border wall funding with a nationally televised address Tuesday night, Senate Democrats are pushing back by pledging a blockade of legislation until the Republican-controlled chamber votes on a spending bill to reopen shuttered U.S. government agencies.

Minnesota Democrat Amy Klobuchar urged her colleagues in a tweet Tuesday to focus efforts on ending the shutdown.

Klobuchar joined a chorus of Senate Democrats pressuring Republican Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky to allow votes on bills the Democratically-led House of Representatives passed last week to fund government agencies that saw their spending authority expire in December.

Virginia Democrat Mark Warner echoed the sentiment on Twitter.

With rare exception, Senate rules mandate three-fifths backing to advance any bill that fails to garner unanimous support. Republicans have a 53-47 majority in the chamber, well short of 60 votes that would be required to advance legislation on their own.

McConnell, who has broad authority to determine which bills come to the floor for a vote, repeatedly has stated that he will not allow the Senate to consider any funding bill Trump opposes.

“Democrats will have to get serious about border security so that a government funding agreement can pass the House, earn 60 votes in the Senate, and receive a presidential signature. All three of these things are needed,” the majority leader tweeted last week.

Trump is demanding billions of taxpayer dollars for wall construction along the U.S.-Mexico border. The House-passed spending bills would extend overall border security operations but set aside no money for a wall.

If Senate Democrats follow through on their legislative blockade pledge, the first casualty would be a bill covering security assistance for Israel, U.S.-Jordanian defense cooperation, and efforts to aid and protect Syrian civilians.
…

A federal grand jury has indicted a Kremlin-linked lawyer, who met U.S. President Donald Trump’s eldest son and other members of his campaign in 2016, on charges of obstruction of justice in a case that highlights her ties to the Russian government, despite her repeated denial.  

Natalia Veselnitskaya, who is believed to be in Russia, is accused of secretly working with a Russian government prosecutor to draft a false declaration in the course of her legal representation of a Russian firm that was sued by the U.S. government for money laundering, according to an indictment unsealed on Tuesday.

The 43-year-old Russian lawyer entered the spotlight in 2017 after it was disclosed that she had held a secret meeting with Donald Trump Jr., President Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and former campaign chairman Paul Manafort at Trump Tower in June of 2016.  

The president’s eldest son later released emails showing he agreed to the meeting after he was told by an intermediary that Veselnitskaya represented the Russian government and had damaging information about Trump’s rival, Democrat Hillary Clinton.

Donald Trump Jr. later said that the meeting instead focused on the repeal of the Magnitsky Act, a U.S. accountability law named after Sergei Magnitsky, a Russian lawyer who was allegedly beaten to death in prison in 2009 after accusing Russian officials of tax fraud.

The firm Veselnitskaya represented in New York, Prevezon Holdings, was at the heart of the $230 million tax fraud scheme uncovered by Magnitsky. In the case, U.S. prosecutors sought to prove that the company had laundered the proceeds of the scheme involving corrupt Russian officials.

Veselnitskaya’s 2015 declaration in the Prevezon case “presented supposed investigative findings by the Russian government” where in fact she had drafted those findings in secret cooperation with a senior Russian prosecutor, U.S. prosecutors said.

“Fabricating evidence  submitting false and deceptive declarations to a federal judge in an attempt to affect the outcome of pending litigation not only undermines the integrity of the judicial process, but it threatens the ability of our courts and our Government to ensure that justice is done,” U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman said in a statement.

Special Counsel Robert Mueller is investigating the circumstances leading up to the 2016 Trump Tower meeting and subsequent statements made by Trump and his son about the meeting.

The special counsel’s office declined to comment on the latest indictment,  

Trump has defended the meeting, tweeting last year it was “totally legal and done all the time in politics.”    

Veselnitskaya told CNN on Tuesday that she will “defend her professional honor.”

The Prevezon case was settled in 2017.
…

As she nears a decision on whether to seek the presidency, Sen. Kamala Harris is taking on what could be a hurdle in a Democratic primary: her past as a prosecutor.

In her memoir published Tuesday, the California Democrat describes herself as a “progressive prosecutor” and says it’s a “false choice” to decide between supporting the police and advocating for greater scrutiny of law enforcement. The argument is aimed at liberal critics of her record who argue she was sometimes too quick to side with the police and too slow to adopt sentencing reforms.

“I know that most police officers deserve to be proud of their public service and commended for the way they do their jobs,” Harris writes in “The Truths We Hold.” “I know how difficult and dangerous the job is, day in and day out, and I know how hard it is for the officers’ families, who have to wonder if the person they love will be coming home at the end of each shift.”

But, she continues, “I also know this: it is a false choice to suggest you must either be for the police or for police accountability. I am for both. Most people I know are for both. Let’s speak some truth about that, too.”

After high-profile fatal shootings involving police officers and unarmed people of color, the criminal justice system’s treatment of minorities is a top issue among Democratic voters. The passage suggests Harris is aware that her seven years as the district attorney in San Francisco, followed by six years as California’s attorney general, is something she will have to explain and signals how she may frame her law enforcement career if she decides to run for the White House.

“It’s a presidential campaign, and every aspect of a candidate’s record is going to be scrutinized and they’re going to have to answer for it,” said Mo Elleithee, a longtime Democratic operative who leads Georgetown University’s Institute of Politics and Public Service. “She knows that this is something that’s heading her way and a good candidate is one who doesn’t wait for it to hit them. A good candidate is someone who addresses it proactively, and she appears to be doing that.”

Beyond the book, Harris recently supported legislation that passed the Senate late last year and overhauls the criminal justice system, especially when it comes to sentencing rules.

In the book, Harris recounts an instance when she was an intern at the Alameda County district attorney’s office and an innocent bystander was one of many people arrested during a drug raid. Harris said she “begged” and “pleaded” on a late Friday afternoon for a judge to hear the case so the woman could avoid spending the weekend in jail.

Kate Chatfield, the policy director of the California-based criminal justice reform group Re:store Justice, said that Harris did do “some good” when she was in law enforcement but that it was “incumbent on the public to hold her accountable for the ways in which she either didn’t do enough or actually did some harm.”

“When the conversation shifts, one should be expected to be questioned about those choices,” Chatfield said, noting among other issues Harris’s advocacy for tougher truancy laws.

By addressing policing in the book, Harris is taking on an issue that confronted Democrats and some Republicans in 2016. Democrat Hillary Clinton was criticized for her husband’s role in passing the 1994 Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act, which created stricter penalties for drug offenders and funneled billions of dollars toward more police and new prisons.

The issue is likely to be the subject of fierce debate in 2020 as well and could expose divisions among the wide field of candidates — presenting hurdles for some and opportunity for others.

Former Vice President Joe Biden was the head of the Senate’s Judiciary Committee when the 1994 crime bill — which is now criticized as having helped create an era of mass incarceration — was passed and signed into law, which could be an obstacle for him. New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker was central to the passage of the Senate’s criminal justice overhaul package and is certain to tout it if he decides to launch a presidential campaign. Meanwhile, Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar, who is also considering a 2020 bid, often refers to her own prosecutorial past.

The memoir — and the publicity surrounding it — will shift the 2020 campaign spotlight to Harris this week after much of the focus has been on her Senate colleague, Elizabeth Warren. Last week, the Massachusetts Democrat became the most prominent person yet to take steps toward a presidential run by launching an exploratory committee. Her weekend trip to the leadoff caucus state of Iowa also generated largely flattering headlines.

Some criminal justice advocates said they were happy the issue would get more attention in 2020.

“When we had the 2016 elections, it was at the height of Ferguson and Baltimore, and we still didn’t have serious engagement with criminal justice reform,” said Phillip Goff, the director of the Center for Policing Equity, referring to the protests that followed the deaths of black men by police officers in Missouri and Maryland. “My hope is that we require candidates to demonstrate that they know more than the catchphrases of the activists in their bases.”

Surveys underscore the potency of criminal justice issues among Democrats. A February 2018 poll conducted by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that majorities of Democrats — but far fewer Republicans — think there’s been little progress for African-Americans on criminal justice or policing issues over the past 50 years. The poll showed that 45 percent of Americans, including 62 percent of Democrats and 19 percent of Republicans, thought there had been little to no progress on fair treatment for black Americans by the criminal justice system. Similarly, 46 percent of Americans, including 63 percent of Democrats and 23 percent of Republicans, said there’s been little to no progress for African-Americans on fair treatment by police.

While it’s not yet clear how Harris’ prosecutorial background could affect her primary bid, it could help her if she faces President Donald Trump in the 2020 general election.

“He ran as the law-and-order president,” Elleithee said of Trump. “Being able to go toe-to-toe with him on law and order in a smarter way, I think, is going to be important. Should she win the nomination and does it by navigating this topic well, then I think she would be a strong voice and a force to be reckoned with when it comes to issues of law and order, criminal justice and civil rights as they collide in a general election.”
…