A sweeping overhaul of the U.S. federal tax code is on its way to becoming law. When it does it will be President Donald Trump’s first major legislative victory. VOA’s Congressional reporter Katherine Gypson has more from Capitol Hill on the deeply divided partisan vote that will have a far-reaching impact on the U.S. and world economies.
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Laura Lopez is a Mexican immigrant living in Florida who has been racing against time to avoid deportation.

Lopez said she arrived at the post office just after the cutoff time and missed the deadline set by President Donald Trump to renew her paperwork for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program that helps young immigrants brought into the country illegally.

Lopez, 30, blamed the chaos of Hurricane Irma while juggling a move from Miami to Daytona Beach as reasons why she missed the cutoff.

As a result, her status as a recipient of DACA ends Friday. Her driver’s license, car insurance and housing lease are all in jeopardy once the program goes away for her.

“Everywhere I go, everything and everyone reminds me I have an expiration date” said Lopez, who is still trying to show proof that she attempted to send her renewal package the day before the October 5 deadline. “The government is playing with the lives of families.”

Lopez is one of thousands of immigrants who are losing their protection from deportation under the administrative program established by President Barack Obama in 2012, including many who missed the deadline or saw their applications lost in the mail. The immigrants also are being provided a glimpse of what will happen if Congress is unable to come up with a permanent replacement. Thousands more will start seeing their protections end in March.

Here are some questions and answers about the process:

Why the rush?

In theory, DACA recipients should be protected until March.

Under the program, immigrants get two-year permits that let them work and remain in the country. Trump rescinded the program this year, but he let immigrants renew their papers if they were set to expire between September and March. Immigrants had to reapply by October 5 and pay a $495 fee.

The government said 132,000 of the 154,000 people eligible for DACA renewals applied in time, leaving more than 20,000 without protection from deportation.

There have been other problems.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) said 900 requests were mistakenly rejected for being late, despite having arrived at the filing sites on time. Those applicants were told to reapply by December 2.

The agency said it was still working to determine how many requests were affected by U.S. Postal Service delays, following reports of late deliveries of documents from immigrants who sent their papers well in advance. These applicants are now waiting for instructions on how to resubmit their renewal requests.

Can these immigrants be deported?

Advocacy groups are highlighting the detention in Pennsylvania last week of a Guatemalan immigrant whose DACA renewal was reportedly among the ones delayed by the Postal Service. After Osman Aroche Enriquez, 26, was pulled over by police for what advocates said was an expired vehicle registration, he was transferred to Immigration and Customs Enforcement and detained for three days.

The agency released him based on what ICE called an “exercise of discretion.”

“His case calls into question how many ‘Dreamers’ in similar situations are languishing in detention, and how many are living in fear of deportation due to expired status or post office delays,” Church World Service said in a statement. 

(“Dreamers” is a term commonly used to refer to DACA recipients. It comes from the DREAM Act — Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors — which offered protections similar to those in DACA but was never approved by Congress.)

The government does not turn over information about DACA recipients to deportation agents unless they are targeted for a criminal investigation. That means immigrants with expiring paperwork won’t be automatically deported, but they can be if they get stopped by police or arrested on criminal charges.

Officials say there are no plans to change how the government handles personal information of applicants.

However, Francis Cissna, USCIS director, said “the guidance has always said that that policy could change. It has always said that; it still says that.”

Where does Congress stand?

On Capitol Hill, the most promising avenue for legislation seems to be with a bipartisan group in the Senate, led by Senators Dick Durbin, an Illinois Democrat, and Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican.

They claim good progress on negotiations to give young immigrants protections through legislation that would be added to a sweeping spending package next month.

But the White House is adamant that other issues, including Trump’s long-promised U.S.-Mexico border wall and increased funding for immigration enforcement inside the country, be addressed in the package. The Trump administration is also planning to move to a merit-based immigration structure.

The path forward is assuredly tricky, but there is widespread bipartisan support for the young immigrants among lawmakers.

What could a solution look like?

Legislation would put the immigrants on a path to U.S. citizenship by granting permanent legal status to more than 1 million people who arrived before they turned 18 and pass background checks, among other criteria.

The bill proposes legalizing the status of those who were admitted to the DACA program. 

 

The head of the agency that runs the program rescinded by Trump says any legislative fix will require money and time to implement, depending on how many people end up benefiting from the solution.
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Congress will vote mostly along party lines this week to give President Donald Trump his first major legislative victory – a tax reform bill. Republican lawmakers say it will give the US economy a much needed kickstart. The bill raises standard deductions for most families and individuals, reducing the amount of the taxable income they would have to pay. But as Mil Arcega reports, the tax reform package carries a big price tag.
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The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Monday issued a notice that it wants public input for a possible replacement of Obama-era regulations on carbon dioxide emissions from power plants that the agency is repealing.

The agency’s advance notice kicks off a 60-day comment period on “specific topics for the Agency to consider in developing any subsequent proposed rule,” according to an EPA release.

The move comes after the agency proposed in October to repeal the Obama administration’s Clean Power Plan, a collection of emissions standards for U.S. states intended to reduce pollution from power plants – the largest emitters of greenhouse gases – by 32 percent below 2005 levels by 2030.

“The EPA sets out and requests comment on the roles, responsibilities, and limitations of the federal government, state governments, and regulated entities in developing and implementing such a rule, and the EPA solicits information regarding the appropriate scope of such a rule and associated technologies and approaches,” the notice says.

When EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt first announced he planned to repeal the Clean Power Plan, it was not clear whether the agency intended to replace it. At his first congressional hearing earlier this month, Pruitt said he planned to replace it.

The notice specifically asks for comment on measures to reduce carbon emissions directly at a power plant.

Obama’s Clean Power Plan allowed states to reduce power plant emissions by using a series of different measures across their plant fleets, which some industry groups said went beyond the scope of the federal Clean Air Act.

The EPA is also asking for comment on the role and responsibility of states in regulating power plants for greenhouse gas emissions.

The notice said EPA also wants to hear from states including California and New York, which already have programs to reduce emissions from power plants, to see how their programs could interact with a replacement rule.

Environmental groups, who plan to continue challenging the agency’s moves against the CPP in court, said on Monday the agency is not serious about offering a valid replacement to the Obama-era regulation.

“A weaker replacement of the Clean Power Plan is a non-starter. Americans – who depend on EPA to protect their health and climate – deserve real solutions, not scams,” said David Doniger, director of climate and clean air at the Natural Resources Defense Council.
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Hawaii Attorney General Douglas Chin, who has been fighting President Donald Trump’s travel ban and other policies over the past year, has announced he will run for U.S. Congress.

 

Chin, a Democrat, seeks to replace Hawaii U.S. Rep. Colleen Hanabusa, who is running for governor. Hanabusa is also a Democrat.

 

Chin made the announcement Monday saying that the last year of legal battles over White House actions sparked him to run for the U.S. House seat.

 

Chin has been a vocal opponent to decisions by Trump’s administration.

 

Before Trump was sworn in, Chin and five other attorneys general asked the Senate Judiciary Committee to reject the nomination of Sen. Jeff Sessions for attorney general.

 

Chin told The Associated Press in a telephone interview Sunday that he first considered running for office while listening to a Sessions speech.

 

“He actually made some speech to all 50 state AGs where he announced falsely that crime was at an all-time high in the United States and that the reason why it was at an all-time high was due to illegal immigrants being in the country,” Chin said. “I found that statement to be so troubling that it really woke me up in terms of the actions I think all of us need to take responsibility for in order to make a difference.”

 

A week after taking office, Trump issued an executive order aimed at temporarily banning travel from seven Muslim-majority countries.

 

On Feb. 3, the state of Hawaii sued to stop the ban.

 

Trump’s executive order keeps Hawaii families apart and keeps residents from traveling, Chin said.

 

“I think we live in very extraordinary times, I think Hawaii’s progressive values that it fought for the past decades has been under attack in a lot of different ways, and I’ve experienced it first hand, starting with the travel ban and then extending to attacks on transgender people in the military or the children of immigrants,” Chin said.

 

Chin has sued over every version of the travel ban, calling the measure discriminatory toward Muslims.

 

“I’ve ended up being in court over and over again to stop some of the different actions that have been taken by the Trump administration,” he said.

 

Hawaii argued that the ban discriminates on the basis of nationality and would prevent Hawaii residents from receiving visits from relatives in the mostly Muslim countries covered by the ban.

 

Chin said the state’s strategic military importance would also be a major issue for him in Congress.

 

“Words and tweets that have come from this administration have been exceptionally troublesome and has raised a lot of fear here in Hawaii,” Chin said of the tensions between North Korea and Washington. “I think that’s all the more reason to advocate for a strong military presence but also strong diplomatic relationships with all foreign countries.”

 

Chin is the son of Chinese immigrants who came to the U.S. in the 1950s. His father was an interpreter for the U.S. during the Korean War, he said. Chin is married with two children.

 

He was appointed Hawaii’s attorney general in 2015.

 

Several Democratic lawmakers have also announced they would run for the seat, including state Sen. Donna Mercado Kim and Rep. Kaniela Ing.

 

Ing told the AP on Monday that he is concerned about corporate funding of other candidates, including Chin, and said that his campaign is the only one in the state not accepting any corporate money.

 

“The biggest problem in Hawaii isn’t homelessness or housing, I know those are big problems, but the biggest problem is there is too much power in too few hands,” Ing said.

 

Ing is also an opponent of Chin’s views on the military in Hawaii, saying that the military presence in the islands not only makes the state a target from threats like North Korea, but also hurts housing affordability for locals.

 

Sen. Kim, who represents Kalihi and Moanalua, touted her 35 years of experience in state and city government.

 

“Someone with the tenacity to be able to make sure Hawaii’s agenda is first and foremost,” said Kim, a former state Senate president.

 

Her priorities in Congress would be health care, caring for the elderly, making higher education affordable, veterans’ care and women’s issues including access to contraception, she said.
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U.S. President Donald Trump offered some revisionist election recollections on Monday, while predicting that Republicans “will do well” in 2018 when all seats in the House of Representatives are at stake and a third of those in the Senate.

In a Twitter comment, Trump claimed that Republicans had gone 5-0 in congressional races this year and that “the media refuses to mention this.” Actually, Republicans won five of six House races in 2017 and lost a Senate seat. 

Trump claimed to have predicted that Virginia gubernatorial candidate Ed Gillespie and Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore “would lose (for very different reasons) and they did.” Trump supported both candidates with numerous Twitter remarks through their respective election days, but after they lost, he said he knew they would.

“I also predicted ‘I’ would win” the 2016 presidential election, Trump said. “Republicans will do well in 2018, very well!”

Republicans, with Trump in the White House and majorities in both the Senate and House, control the U.S. government. But with Trump’s approval rating mired in the 30 to 40 percent range and Democrats winning two gubernatorial races and a Senate seat in the last six weeks, Republican control of Congress could be in play.

With the election of Democrat Doug Jones in last week’s Alabama race, the Republican majority in the Senate will shrink to 51-49 when Jones is sworn in in early January, leaving control of the chamber up for grabs in next November’s mid-presidential-term elections.

Democrats also are contending to take control of the House, where Republicans currently hold a 239-193 edge, with three vacancies. Democrats would need to win 25 more seats to control the chamber.
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U.S. President Donald Trump’s new national security strategy will provide the country with a “clear and actionable playbook” to counter the most dangerous and persistent threats, according to senior administration officials.

 

The White House unveiled the strategic document Monday, almost 11 months after his administration began work on it.

President Trump explained how much of the strategy is already impacting U.S. policy during a speech Monday in Washington.

 

Senior administration officials say unlike recent, past strategies, it takes a “clear-eyed view” of the dangers and challenges facing the country, while prioritizing U.S. interests in line with the president’s calls to put “America First.”

 

“The global balance of power has shifted in unfavorable manners to American interests,” a senior administration official said Sunday. “This new strategy presents a plan of how America can regain momentum to reverse many of these trends.”

 

“[It] that will really serve as a foundation for subsequent strategies,” the official added, alluding to soon to be released defense and counterterrorism documents.

 

Administration officials say despite their concerns, the new national security strategy is not meant as a repudiation of the strategies laid out by former President Barack Obama or even former President George W. Bush.

 

Instead, they say the document is an “encapsulation” of the strategy President Trump has advocated, both while campaigning for the presidency and once in office.

 

“We do live in a global competition and how we advance our goals is more critical than ever,” the senior administration official said. “We must compete.”

 

To better compete on the global stage, Trump administration officials are focusing on what they describe as four, vital national interests: protecting the homeland, promoting American prosperity, preserving peace through strength, and advancing American influence.

 

“We have to work together harder than ever to ensure that nations uphold the rule of law, respect the sovereignty of their neighbors and support the post-World War II, post-Cold War order of peace, stability and collective security,” White House National Security Adviser Gen. H.R. McMaster said while previewing the new strategy last week in Washington.

 

The strategy identifies three groups of challengers to that order, officials say.

 

The first group includes nations like Russia and China, which are seeking to create a new global order, both militarily and economically, that officials believe will hurt or hamper U.S. interests.

 

The second group of challengers are rogue regimes, like North Korea and Iran, which are pursuing weapons of mass destruction while also supporting terrorism and other destabilizing activities.

 

The final group includes transnational terrorist groups and crime syndicates.

 

Administration officials say the new national security strategy will confront these different challengers on the global stage.

 

“We vacated a lot of competitive space in recent years and created opportunities,” McMaster said. “You’ll see a big emphasis on competitive engagement.”

 

But exactly how the U.S. will do that remains a bit of a question.

 

“This document is more high-level and over-arching,” said a second senior administration official. “It doesn’t move country-by-country.”

Still, some officials and analysts say elements of the new national security strategy are already evident in Washington’s approach to countries from Russia and China to North Korea, Iran and South Asia.

U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis “I think, is going to take a different approach to military conflict,” said Bryan Clark, a senior fellow at The Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments and a former Naval military strategist.

At the same time, the new strategy seeks to push back against the notion that President Trump’s campaign rallying cry of “America first,” should be interpreted as “American alone.”

Yet some see this as an area in which the Trump administration could struggle, especially given the way the new strategy priorities and emphasizes U.S. economic interests.

“Focusing on protection of American economic interests in a global marketplace painted with rivals, rather than partners, will discourage the use of multilateral trade agreements in a global economy marked by partnership,” said Nicholas Glavin, formerly a researcher at the U.S. Naval War College’s Center on Irregular Warfare and Armed Groups.

Glavin, who is currently studying at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, says  that could actually weaken U.S. attempt to compete against key rivals on the word stage.

“Where Washington won’t lead, others will, most notably Beijing,” he said. “In the long term, this hurts the U.S. much more than multilateralism in the global economy would.

 

But administration officials insist the strategy will reaffirm the United States’ commitment to its allies. They also say it affirms the U.S. commitment to NATO and the United Nations, though they are clear that Trump believes reforms at both organizations are long overdue.

 

Nor will the U.S. rule out working with countries like China and Russia.

 

“The nature of competition doesn’t mean you don’t also cooperate,” said another senior administration official. “We talk about cooperation, about cooperation with reciprocity.”

 

For example, officials said the U.S. sees China as a key partner in the effort to rein-in North Korea’s aggression and nuclear ambitions, despite what they described as Beijing’s economic aggression toward the U.S.

Already, there are some who doubt China will respond well.

“Trump’s words are always illogical,” said Shi Yinhong, the director of the U.S. Center at China People’s University in Beijing. “China doesn’t care much about what he says but what he does.”

“His flattering China visit is pleasing to Beijing, but what concerns Beijing the most is the U.S. doesn’t touch Taiwan,” Shi said.

Officials pointed to Sunday’s phone call between Russian President Vladimir Putin and President Trump, when Putin thanked the U.S. and the CIA for sharing intelligence to thwart a terror plot, as a “great example where there’s a shared interest.”

 

“We’ve seen some of that also this year in Syria against ISIS in deconfliction in trying to set up safe zones,” the official said.

 

“We’re certainly better off right now than we were several months ago when both the secretary of state and the president remarked that the [U.S.-Russia] relationship seemed to be at a low point,” the official added.  “But we still see a lot of areas where our interests just don’t align or directly conflict.”

 

A prime area of conflict with Russia is over what McMaster, the president’s national security adviser, has called “sophisticated campaigns of subversion and disinformation.”

 

And an unclassified U.S. intelligence report released last January concluded Russian President Vladimir Putin waged what it described as an unprecedented “influence campaign” in an effort to sway the 2016 U.S. presidential election in favor of then-candidate Donald Trump.

 

Yet when asked, other senior administration officials would not say how the new National Security Strategy will address such concerns, saying other actors, including China and terror groups have also increasingly used such techniques.

 

There are also areas where the new national security strategy departs dramatically from the previous administration’s policies.

 

President Barack Obama’s 2015 National Security Strategy placed an emphasis on promoting and defending democracy and human rights.

 

The new Trump doctrine takes a different tact.

 

“We mention all the components of making a democracy: tolerance, liberty, freedom of religion,” said one of the senior administration officials. “But building on what local partners want so we’re not imposing our way of life, so we’re not imposing democracy.”

 

Obama’s 2105 strategy also called on the U.S. to confront “the urgent crisis of climate change.”

 

The Trump national security strategy does not.

 

“Climate change is not identified as national security threat,” said one of the officials. “The importance of the environment and environmental stewardship are discussed.”

 

The new national security strategy has already gotten the approval of key officials, including Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, as well as Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats and CIA Director Mike Pompeo.

 
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Democrat Doug Jones, who won election to the Senate from staunchly Republican Alabama, insisted to both parties in politically divided Washington Sunday that he’ll leave “all the options on the table” when it comes to his votes next year on issues from immigration to infrastructure.

“I’m going to consider anything,” said Jones, explaining that he doesn’t plan on labeling himself a progressive or a conservative Democrat but a “Doug Jones Democrat.”

In an early sign, Jones reiterated that he would oppose spending money to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border, as President Donald Trump insists upon, and expressed concern that a sweeping GOP tax cut proposal that was on track for approval this week was being “plopped into a vote too quickly.” At the same time, Jones said people should not “expect me to vote solidly for Republicans or Democrats.”

The 63-year-old former U.S. attorney made clear he’s ready to move forward even though his Republican opponent in last Tuesday’s special election, Roy Moore, has yet to concede the race. “Alabama has spoken,” Jones said. “I will be ready to go regardless of whether he concedes or not.”

Jones’ election will cut the Republicans’ Senate majority to 51-49, when he takes office in early January.

White House legislative director Marc Short said the administration was eager to see whether Jones will “actually work to represent the people of Alabama” in a bipartisan way or side with liberal Democrats. Trump has also urged Moore to concede the race.

“We hope that frankly Doug Jones will help us change the climate here in Washington,” Short said. During the campaign, Trump chastised Jones as a liberal who would be “terrible” on crime and border security, and a “puppet” for Senate congressional leaders.

But on Sunday, Jones downplayed Trump’s earlier criticism as statements made “in the heat of a campaign,” and described the president’s congratulatory call after the election as “very gracious.”

“I’m going to be looking at issues on both sides,” he said.

Jones defeated Moore, by 20,000 votes, or 1.5 percent, to become the first Democrat elected to represent Alabama in the Senate in a quarter-century. He was lifted by African-American voters, independents and moderate Republicans who turned out to reject Moore, who faced newly raised allegations of sexual misconduct involving teenage girls decades ago.

Making his first Sunday talk show appearances since his win, Jones said he looked forward to meeting with Trump and believed his own mandate was to avoid rigid partisan positions in favor of compromise and “getting things done,” even if meant coming across as “pure pie-in-the-sky” and sometimes disappointing some of his core constituents.

On the one hand, Jones said that he doesn’t think Trump should resign over sexual misconduct claims, as some Democrats are calling for.

But siding with congressional Democrats, Jones made clear he wants to help devise safeguards for immigrants brought to the country illegally as children, but without funding for a border wall. The Obama administration program which provided those protections, the Deferred Action on Childhood Arrivals program is set to expire in March.

“I have said before that I opposed the building of a wall. I think that’s an expense that the taxpayers just don’t have to incur because I do think you can increase border security without having to go to the incredible expense of building that wall,” Jones said. Referring to a broader immigration overhaul that would likely involve questions of a pathway to citizenship for immigrants living here illegally, he said: “I think it’s going to be very complicated. …I’m not as sure it’s as important as health care and some other things right now.”

He pointed to fixing roads and bridges, a priority of Trump’s, as a bipartisan issue that could benefit Alabama. “Let’s get on with the real issues that are facing people of this country right now,” Jones said.

Jones appeared on “Fox News Sunday” and CNN’s “State of the Union.” Short was on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
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Near the end of his first year in office, President Donald Trump could be on the verge of his first major legislative victory: an overhaul of America’s tax code and a partial repeal of former President Barack Obama’s signature health care law.

“As a candidate, I promised we would pass a massive tax cut for the everyday working American families who are the backbone and the heartbeat of our country,” Trump tweeted Sunday. “Now, we are just days away.”

Congressional Republicans appear to have the votes to permanently slash corporate taxes, temporarily cut taxes paid by wage and salary earners, and increase America’s national debt by up to $1.5 trillion. The thousand-page bill was revealed Friday after days of bicameral negotiations yielded a final version of the legislation that gained the support of several Republican holdouts.

“I have decided to support the tax reform package,” Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee announced in a statement. “This bill is far from perfect … but after great thought and consideration, I believe that this is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to make U.S. businesses domestically more productive and internationally more competitive and is one we should not miss.”

 

Republicans are betting that eight consecutive years of U.S. economic growth can be extended and accelerated with a major dose of stimulus in the form of tax cuts.

Democrats argued the tax package is unfair and unwise.

“The bill is written to give massive, permanent tax breaks to the rich and corporate interests, many of which ship U.S. jobs overseas,” said California Congressman Mike Thompson, delivering the Democratic weekly address. “It does give a handful of temporary tax cuts to some middle-class taxpayers but actually raises taxes on millions of middle and working-class families.”

“It’s the height of hypocrisy for Republicans to vote for a tax cut that would add at least $1 trillion to the deficit after spending eight years railing against the national debt,” Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California wrote on Twitter.

History provides a less-than-clear picture of the impact of tax cuts. The U.S. economy expanded briskly after tax cuts in the 1980s, but had even higher growth rates after a tax hike in the 1990s. Tax cuts in 2001 and 2003 were followed by several years of moderately robust growth, then a major recession.

Republicans insisted Americans will be better off with a reduced tax burden.

“Everybody is going to benefit, but I think the greatest benefit is going to be for jobs and for the middle class,” Trump told reporters on Saturday. “Our economy is doing fantastically well.  But it has another big step to go, and it cannot take that step unless we do the tax bill.”

Democrats contended the bill’s benefits are heavily skewed to the wealthy and that America’s poor and elderly will pay a heavy price under the Republican agenda.

“Now they [Republicans] have blown a big hole in the debt,” Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen said on ABC’s “This Week” program. “And if you look at their budget, it is right there — their plan for dealing with that is to cut Medicare by $500 billion and Medicaid by over $1 trillion.”

Barring last-minute defections or absences among Republicans, Congress could send the tax bill to the White House for Trump’s signature as early as Wednesday.  Minority Democrats cannot block the bill on their own, but have pledged to make it a major campaign issue in next year’s midterm elections.   
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Special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian contacts with President Donald Trump’s campaign has gained access to thousands of emails sent and received by Trump officials before the start of his administration, according to several people familiar with Trump’s transition organization.

But the investigators did not directly request the records from Trump’s still-existing transition group, Trump for America, and instead obtained them from a separate federal agency that stored the material, according to those familiar with the Trump transition organization.

Transition attorney complains

On Saturday, Kory Langhofer, general counsel for the transition group, sent a letter to two congressional committees arguing that the GSA had improperly provided the transition records to Mueller’s investigators.

In the letter to the Republican chairmen of the House Oversight and the Senate Homeland Security committees, Langhofer contends that the disclosure by GSA was unauthorized, and it considers the documents private and privileged and not government property. 

 

Langhofer also said that a GSA official appointed by Trump in May had assured the transition in June that any request for records from Mueller’s office would be referred to the transition’s attorneys. According to Langhofer, the assurance was made by then-GSA General Counsel Richard Beckler, who was hospitalized in August and has since died. A copy of the letter was viewed by the AP.

 

But late Saturday, another GSA official present for the conversation told Buzzfeed News that there was nothing improper about the disclosure of the emails to Mueller’s team. The GSA has provided office space and other aid to presidential transitions in recent years and typically houses electronic transition records in its computer system. 

GSA responds

 

GSA Deputy Counsel Lenny Loewentritt told Buzzfeed that Beckler didn’t make a commitment to the transition team that requests from law enforcement for materials would be routed through transition lawyers. 

 

Loewentritt said the transition was informed that by using government devices, the agency wouldn’t hold back records from law enforcement. Transition officials signed agreements that warn them that materials kept on the government servers are subject to monitoring and auditing, he told Buzzfeed, and there’s no expectation of privacy.

 

The documents were provided to Mueller’s team by the GSA in September in response to requests from the FBI, but the transition wasn’t informed at the time, according to people familiar with the transition organization. Officials with Trump for America learned last Wednesday that GSA officials had turned over the cache of emails to Mueller’s team. 

 

Among the officials who used transition email accounts was former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, who pleaded guilty to a count of making false statements to FBI agents in January and is now cooperating with Mueller’s investigation. Flynn was fired by Trump in February for misleading senior administration officials about his contacts with Russia’s ambassador to the U.S.​

Emails’ value unclear

It’s unclear how revelatory the email accounts maintained by the GSA will be for Mueller. Several high-level Trump advisers sometimes used other email accounts to communicate about transition issues between Election Day and the inauguration.

Mueller’s spokesman, Peter Carr, declined to comment. Jay Sekulow, an attorney on Trump’s personal legal team, referred questions to the transition group. Neither GSA representatives nor Flynn attorney Robert Kelner were immediately available to respond to AP’s emailed requests for comment.

Officials with Trump for America learned last Wednesday that GSA officials had turned over the massive cache of emails to Mueller’s team. The transition group’s top officials were alarmed because many of the emails that Mueller’s investigators now have are sensitive records ranging from national security discussions about possible Trump international aims to candid assessments of candidates for top government posts, said those familiar with the transition.

Officials with Trump for America had been bracing for months for the prospect that Mueller’s team would demand its emails, but they had been assured that any requests to the GSA would be routed to the transition organization, which claims legal ownership of the records. According to those familiar with the transition group, a top GSA official informed Trump for America last June that any request from Mueller’s office would be referred to the transition.

On Sept. 1, after requests in late August from Mueller’s office, the GSA turned over a flash drive containing tens of thousands of records without informing Trump for America of its move, those familiar with the transition said.

Those records included emails sent and received by 13 senior Trump transition officials.

The media site Axios first reported on the transfer of the emails to Mueller’s team.
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First-term U.S. Representative Ruben Kihuen, a Nevada Democrat who is at the center of sexual harassment allegations, announced Saturday he would not seek re-election.

Kihuen’s announcement came a day after the House Ethics Committee opened an investigation into whether Kihuen “may have engaged in sexual harassment” with a campaign aide and a lobbyist.

“I want to state clearly again that I deny the allegations in question,” Kihuen said. “I am committed to fully cooperating with the House Ethics Committee and I look forward to clearing my name.”

The freshman congressman said the accusations would be a distraction during a re-election campaign.

“Therefore, it is in the best interests of my family and my constituents to complete my term in Congress and not seek re-election,” Kihuen said.

Former aide’s allegations

A former campaign aide said Kihuen propositioned her for dates and sex despite her repeated rejections during his 2016 campaign. A lobbyist told the Nevada Independent that he touched her thighs and buttocks and made unwanted sexual advances while he was a state senator.

Ethics Committee leaders said Friday that the fact the committee was investigating the allegations did not indicate any violation had occurred and that the committee would make no further public statements pending completion of its initial review.

Kihuen’s decision may not be enough for some of his colleagues. The top House Democrat, Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of California, has called on Kihuen to resign, a request that he has resisted. Kihuen also apologized after the first allegation was made public, but said he didn’t remember the events the way the former campaign aide had described.

A native of Mexico and the first Latino to represent Nevada in Congress, Kihuen represents the state’s 4th Congressional District, which stretches north from the Las Vegas metro area into sparsely populated central Nevada.

Kihuen is among a growing number of lawmakers whose political careers have been thrust into uncertainty or ended altogether by allegations of sexual misconduct. On Thursday, Representative Blake Farenthold, a Texas Republican, said he would not seek re-election amid sexual harassment allegations that he has denied.

Representative Trent Franks, an Arizona Republican, abruptly resigned last week over revelations that he’d asked two staff members to act as surrogates to have his child, offering one $5 million.

Also, Representative John Conyers, a Michigan Democrat, retired weeks after former aides shared allegations of habitual sexual harassment. Senator Al Franken, a Minnesota Democrat, announced he would step down after he was accused of improper behavior by at least eight women and his support from fellow Democrats collapsed.
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