Committee Votes to Release Democratic Rebuttal to GOP Russia Memo
February 6, 2018 by admin
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Democrats were clearly nervous about what might happen during the White House review period. Representative Adam B. Schiff of California, the Intelligence Committee’s top Democrat, said the Democrats had already shared their memo with the F.B.I. and Justice Department and would seek specific explanations from the department and the White House for any changes they might request.
“I think it’s going to be very hard for the White House, like it was hard for the Republicans on the committee, to block the release of this. I am more concerned that they would make political redactions,” Mr. Schiff told reporters after the vote.
A White House official said on Monday that it was prepared to review the memo.
“We will consider it along the same terms that we considered the Nunes memo — which is to allow for a legal review — national security review — led by the White House Counsel’s Office,” a White House spokesman, Raj Shah, told reporters aboard Air Force One.
But the memo’s fate is uncertain. Mr. Trump signaled earlier on Monday that he had little good will toward the committee’s Democrats, launching a broadside at Mr. Schiff. Mr. Trump accused Mr. Schiff on Twitter of illegally leaking confidential information from the committee, called the congressman “Little Adam Schiff” and ominously said that he “must be stopped.”
Little Adam Schiff, who is desperate to run for higher office, is one of the biggest liars and leakers in Washington, right up there with Comey, Warner, Brennan and Clapper! Adam leaves closed committee hearings to illegally leak confidential information. Must be stopped!
—
Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump)
Feb. 5, 2018
In a separate tweet later in the morning, Mr. Trump praised Representative Devin Nunes of California, who spearheaded the Republican memo as the committee chairman, calling him a “Great American Hero for what he has exposed and what he has had to endure.”
Representative Devin Nunes, a man of tremendous courage and grit, may someday be recognized as a Great American Hero for what he has exposed and what he has had to endure!
—
Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump)
Feb. 5, 2018
Automated Twitter accounts, called bots, then appeared to push the “Little Adam Schiff” hashtag on the social media platform.
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Republicans framed the committee’s vote on Monday night as a matter of transparency.
“Obviously the Dems want to tell a side of the of the story that was different from the side we told,” said Representative K. Michael Conaway of Texas, a senior Republican on the committee. “And I think that’s fair to let them have their say in the public arena.”
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Mr. Nunes’s three-and-a-half-page memo centered on the F.B.I.’s use of material from a former British spy, Christopher Steele, in the warrant application to spy on Mr. Page. Mr. Steele was researching possible connections between Russia’s election interference and Trump associates, but the memo said that the F.B.I. had not disclosed to a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court judge that he was being paid by the Democratic National Committee and lawyers for Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign.
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Democrats have denounced the document as a tactic to undermine the investigation and to protect Mr. Trump, and they have said it is riddled with errors and omissions.
Specifically, the Democratic memo is said to contend that the F.B.I. was more forthcoming with the surveillance court than Republicans had claimed. People familiar with the Democratic document said that it reveals that while the F.B.I. did not name the Democratic National Committee or Mrs. Clinton’s campaign, the bureau disclosed to the court that the information it had received from Mr. Steele was politically motivated.
The document is also said to contest Republican claims that Andrew G. McCabe, the deputy director of the F.B.I. at the time, had testified before the Intelligence Committee late last year that the agency would not have sought a wiretap of Mr. Page without Mr. Steele’s dossier of information.
The F.B.I. suspected that Mr. Page, a former Moscow-based investment banker who was under investigation once before, was acting as a Russian agent.
The New York Times filed a motion on Monday asking the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to unseal all materials related to the wiretap of Mr. Page, including the F.B.I.’s application for the warrant and other court documents. Since Congress enacted the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act in 1978, no such wiretapping application materials have been made public.
Read the Nunes Memo, Annotated
A previously secret memo released on Friday claims that F.B.I. officials abused their authority and favored Democrats in the early stages of the Russia investigation. Read our reporters’ annotations.
Monday’s vote was an about-face for the Intelligence Committee. Republicans on the committee voted against releasing the Democratic rebuttal last Monday during the same meeting they chose to initiate the release of their own. They argued then that the memo should first be shared with all members of the House — as the Republican memo had been — before being reconsidered for public release.
In initiating the release of the Democratic memo, the committee is relying on the same obscure House rule it invoked last week. The rule allows the Intelligence Committee to sidestep the usual back-and-forth between lawmakers and the executive branch over the government’s most closely held secrets if the committee deems release to be in the public interest.
Mr. Nunes, meanwhile, has continued to push forward in secret with what he referred to on Friday as “Phase Two” of the majority’s investigation. He has said he is focused on the Obama State Department and its role in the early stages of the Russia investigation, but offered few additional details.
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Larry Nassar sentenced to 40 to 125 years in Eaton County
February 6, 2018 by admin
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CHARLOTTE, Mich. — There were silent hugs and quiet tears in the gallery of an Eaton County courtroom Monday morning as convicted sexual predator Larry Nassar spent what will likely be his final seconds in a public setting with his head down and hands folded in his lap. Minutes earlier, Nassar told a room full of some of the women he manipulated and abused that their words would stay with him in prison for the rest of his life.
Lawyer doubts number of Nassar assaults
Shannon Smith, the defense attorney for Larry Nassar, told WWJ Newsradio on Thursday that she doesn’t believe her client is capable of sexually assaulting all of the women who have accused him of doing so.
Judge Janice Cunningham sentenced Nassar to a minimum of 40 years and a maximum of 125 years for his crimes in Eaton County. Her sentence was the third and final punishment Nassar will receive in criminal court. The former Michigan State and USA Gymnastics team doctor spent the last several weeks in Michigan courtrooms listening to some of the hundreds of women who say he used his notoriety and authority as a famous physician to sexually abuse them over the last 25 years.
“The words expressed by everyone that has spoken including the parents have impacted me to my innermost soul,” Nassar said, reading from a slip of paper that he kept tucked in a breast pocket of his orange prison jumpsuit. “With that being said, I understand and acknowledge that it pales in comparison to the pain, trauma and emotions you all feel.”
Cunningham said that her sentence was meant to protect society from Nassar in the future and also serve as a deterrent to any others who would think to use their positions of power to gain and exploit trust for their own personal pleasure. She told the former doctor that the pain he caused to his victims and their families spanned the world and was “incomprehensible.” She thanked the women and girls who provided impact statements in court and told them that while their emotional and physical pain might continue, their words helped put an end to Nassar’s criminal proceedings and were heard around the world.
“Their stories are not redundant even though many descriptions of the grooming by the defendant are eerily similar,” Cunningham said. “… Each voice and each story does make a difference.”
Nassar pleaded guilty to 10 counts of criminal sexual conduct in November. Seven of those counts came from crimes in Ingham County, where Michigan State and Nassar’s former clinic are located. The other three came in Eaton County, where Nassar lived and frequently treated young gymnasts at the youth club Twistars.
Judge Rosemarie Aquilina sentenced him to up to 175 years in state prison during a hearing in Ingham County two weeks ago. A federal judge sentenced Nassar to 60 years in federal prison on child pornography charges in December. The clock on his state prison time begins when his federal sentence expires, and the Ingham and Eaton County sentences run concurrently. Nassar, 54, would not be eligible for parole until the year 2117.
Monday’s hearing was the 10th combined day in court for Nassar on his state charges in the past three weeks. During that time, 204 different individual provided impact statements to Cunningham and Aquilina.
While Nassar’s federal sentence was already likely to keep him behind bars for the remainder of his natural life, prosecutors said providing a forum for the women who say Nassar abused them to confront him and tell their stories in court was an important part of the plea deal they negotiated with the disgraced doctor’s attorneys.
“I truly believe we have seen the worst of humanity in these past few weeks. And we’ve also seen the best. We have seen how one voice can start a movement, how a reckoning can become justice,” assistant attorney general Angela Povilaitis said.
The one voice Povilaitis referenced was that of Rachael Denhollander, the first woman to publicly accused Nassar of sexual abuse in a 2016 article in the Indianapolis Star. Denhollander’s story, and her ensuing complaint to police, were the catalyst for Nassar’s downfall. She was the final woman to provide an impact statement on Friday. Denhollander asked the judge: “How much is a little girl worth?” She told Judge Cunningham that Monday would be her opportunity to answer that question by using the full weight of the law against Nassar.
“Tell them they are worth everything. Tell them they are seen. Tell them they are heard. Tell them they matter,” Denhollander said. “May the rest of the world begin to live out that answer as well.”
Many of the speakers in court during the past several weeks used their time to demand accountability from the people and institutions they say could have stopped Nassar sooner. Michigan State, USA Gymnastics and the U.S. Olympic Committee are among the co-defendants in civil lawsuits that more than 200 women have filed regarding Nassar’s abuse.
More than a dozen girls and women say they told an authority figure about Nassar’s inappropriate behavior at some point before his arrest in September 2016. Larissa Boyce, a former youth gymnast, says she told Michigan State coach Kathie Klages in 1997 that Nassar had touched her inappropriately.
Boyce was one of the final women to address the court in a statement made Friday afternoon. She asked anyone who enabled Nassar to prey on young women for as long as he did to come forward and explain how that happened.
“You have a second chance to do the right thing,” Boyce said. “I hope and pray you can be transparent and willing to admit you missed this. Teach our country and the world how you missed this. Own up to your mistakes. I believe there is an opportunity for you to stand up and redeem these mistakes by doing the right thing now.”
The Michigan attorney general’s office is also conducting a broad, sweeping investigation into the handling of sexual assault on Michigan State’s campus to find out if and when others at the university could have done more to stop Nassar. Attorney general Bill Schuette assigned special counsel Bill Forsythe to lead the investigation.
“No department and no individual at Michigan State is off-limits,” Schuette said.
Denhollander and Boyce both said Monday’s proceedings came as a relief after a few long weeks in court and much longer years waiting to see Nassar brought to justice.
“I felt like a weight was lifted off of me,” Boyce said. “Finally I don’t have to face him in court anymore. It’s almost like this chapter is coming to a close in a way.”