Trump, a Week After Porter Resigned, Says He’s ‘Totally Opposed’ to Spousal Abuse
February 15, 2018 by admin
Filed under Lingerie Events
Comments Off
The F.B.I. learned about the allegations from the two women soon after Mr. Trump was inaugurated. But spokesmen and spokeswomen for the White House have insisted that no senior White House officials knew of the spousal abuse allegations against Mr. Porter until last week. They have said the career government employees at the White House personnel security office who processed the clearances did not tell them about the allegations uncovered by the F.B.I.
Representative Trey Gowdy, Republican of South Carolina and the chairman of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said on Wednesday that he was beginning an investigation into the circumstances surrounding Mr. Porter’s security clearance, while six Democratic senators said they were concerned about whether there had been “any mishandling of classified information” because of them. They asked Christopher A. Wray, the F.B.I. director, for the names of other employees at the White House who were working “without being able to obtain a permanent security clearance.”
Mr. Gowdy, who sent letters to the F.B.I. and Mr. Kelly seeking information on Wednesday, said in an interview that he would examine the executive branch process of granting of interim security clearances generally and Mr. Porter’s case specifically.
“I am interested in how someone with credible allegations of domestic abuse, plural, can be hired,” he said. Mr. Gowdy, a former federal prosecutor, called domestic abuse “a particularly insidious crime” that bears serious consideration in both the hiring and clearance process. He also said he had questions about an interim clearance process that “necessarily is not and almost by definition cannot be as fulsome as a full background check.”
He added that he was also interested “in what the F.B.I. learned and, perhaps connected with that but also perhaps separately from that, who at the White House knew what, when did they know it and what, if anything, was done about it.”
Even as Mr. Kelly’s past efforts to deal with security clearance issues at the White House were becoming clearer, his shifting public responses to the revelations of Mr. Porter’s past were coming under further scrutiny.
Newsletter Sign Up
Continue reading the main story
Thank you for subscribing.
An error has occurred. Please try again later.
You are already subscribed to this email.
Three people briefed on the situation said that when Mr. Kelly learned that the accusations would be published in The Daily Mail last Tuesday, he was returning from a visit to Capitol Hill and spoke by phone to White House aides. Everyone on the call agreed that Mr. Porter would have to resign, the people briefed on the situation said, and a statement from Mr. Kelly was drafted to provide to The Daily Mail.
But Mr. Porter continued to deny the statements from his ex-wives. One aide in the discussions pushed back on the belief that Mr. Porter should resign, saying that these were mere allegations, and that if Mr. Porter had to resign over an allegation, other people could be forced from their posts any time an allegation was made. Other aides agreed, and argued for waiting for the story to play out.
Advertisement
Continue reading the main story
At that point, they reached Mr. Kelly again, the people said, and he expressed agreement, telling them to make his statement about Mr. Porter more supportive. That night, The Daily Mail published Mr. Kelly’s statement calling Mr. Porter “a man of true integrity and honor,” and someone with whom he was “proud to serve.”
Soon after the story appeared, Mr. Kelly heard from someone with more detailed knowledge of the claims about Mr. Porter that more damning information was about to come out, and that the chief of staff should not put himself in the middle of the allegations. The people briefed on the discussions would not identify that person.
The conversation prompted Mr. Kelly to go back to Mr. Porter, this time telling him that he “knows what he has to do,” according to those briefed on the discussion.
Mr. Porter agreed to resign, and then told his staff that he was stepping down. But the next morning, on Wednesday, he told White House aides he wanted to leave on his own terms and help with the transition. Mr. Kelly agreed to the plan, those briefed said.
The scandal has placed Mr. Kelly’s job in jeopardy, leading Mr. Trump to complain privately about him and sound out confidants about potential replacements, including Gary D. Cohn, the director of his National Economic Council, and Representative Kevin McCarthy, Republican of California and the majority leader.
Mr. Trump is said to seem more favorable toward Mr. McCarthy in some of his discussions, seeing him as someone who would be a more willing subordinate than Mr. Cohn might be, according to a person with direct knowledge of the discussions. Yet in other conversations, Mr. Trump has indicated that Mr. Cohn is his pick.
Several of Mr. Trump’s advisers believe the president, who has a long history of quizzing aides about one another behind their backs without taking action, might just be venting. And his interactions with Mr. Kelly have remained mostly positive, according to two West Wing advisers who have witnessed them together.
Continue reading the main story
Share and Enjoy
Number of fatalities’ in shooting at HS in Parkland, Florida, senator says
February 15, 2018 by admin
Filed under Lingerie Events
Comments Off
A teenage gunman opened fire at a South Florida high school on Wednesday afternoon, killing at least one person and wounding several others, officials said.
The suspect, believed to be about 18 years old, is a former student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, where there were at least 20 victims, Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel said.
It wasn’t immediately clear how many of the victims were injured and how many had been killed. Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., citing Broward County officials, told NBC News that there were “a number of fatalities.”
autoplay
autoplay
“This is a really bad day,” the senator said.
What we know so far:
- “At least 20 victims,” according to officials, with at least one death
- The shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland started around 2:30 p.m. ET on Wednesday
- A suspect is in custody and is believed to be a former Douglas High student about 18 years old
Law enforcement sources later said there was “at least one fatality.”
The suspect “was taken into custody about an hour after he left Stoneman Douglas after he committed this horrific, detestable act,” Israel said. Federal and local authorities told NBC News there was no indication that the gunman had an accomplice or accomplices.
Parkland, in north Broward County, is about 30 miles northwest of Fort Lauderdale. The shooting on the sprawling campus happened despite the presence of police officers at the school.
Broward County schools Superintendent Robert Runcie said at last two police cars were typically on campus “on a daily basis.”
While students filed out of the school with their hands up, heavily armed SWAT team members were doing a class-by-class search to make sure there were “no other shooters” — and to retrieve any bodies, he said.
Israel, who said his triplets once attended that school, urged worried parents to head to a nearby Marriott hotel to collect their children.
“This is a terrible day for Broward County, the state of Florida, the United States,” he said. “There really are no words.”
autoplay
autoplay
The first sign that something awful was happening came around 2:30 p.m., not long before classes were supposed to have been dismissed, when authorities were called to respond to an active shooter.
For more than an hour, the school was at the mercy of a gunman on the loose.
“He was outside and inside the school,” Israel said.
Just after 4 p.m., the Broward County Sheriff’s Office announced on Twitter that the suspect had been apprehended.
Not long after, stunned survivors began sharing their accounts of what happened.
“I was on the first floor of the building where the shots happened first,” freshman Jason Snytte told NBC News. “I was in the classroom right next to the outside, the closest classroom to it. It started there. I heard six or seven shots. Our door was open. I ran and closed it, and everybody ran into a corner.”
Jason, who said the shots were deafening, said they listened to their teacher and stayed put until police arrived and told them to evacuate.
“We were all freaking out. Our hearts were racing,” he said. “We didn’t know what was happening.”
Several students told NBC News that the school had gone through a fire drill earlier in the day. They said the fire alarm sounded again just before the shots were heard.
Relieved parents like Lisette Rozenblet, whose daughter attends the school, also said she was told that a fire alarm was pulled about the time the shots began. But her daughter’s teacher, sensing that it might be a trap, told the students to stay in the classroom, she said.
“Her biggest fear is a school shooting,” Rozenblet said of her daughter. “She is always begging me to be home-schooled because she was scared of this.”
Parkland Mayor Christine Hunschofsky told NBC Miami that the school went into immediate lockdown.
“It’s sad that these tragedies happen in our country,” she said. “Many of the students have been in touch with their parents. We have many, many parents out here.”
autoplay
autoplay
Joel Leffler, whose son and daughter attend the school, said both of his kids were safe — but in shock.
“My son called me as it was unfolding, running. He had to jump a fence,” Leffler said. “My son heard around eight gun shots as he was running out.”
When he reached his daughter by phone, she was whispering, he said.
“My daughter, who was there in the freshman hall where the shooting took place — she’s in shock right now, and she’s being taken out by SWAT,” Leffler said. “She saw multiple dead bodies.”
Agents from the FBI’s Miami Division were on the scene, along with agents from the Miami Division of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
President Donald Trump was briefed on the incident and was monitoring the situation, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said.
My prayers and condolences to the families of the victims of the terrible Florida shooting. No child, teacher or anyone else should ever feel unsafe in an American school.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 14, 2018
Florida Gov. Rick Scott, who was traveling to Broward County to be briefed by emergency management officials and law enforcement, has been in touch with Trump and the Department of Homeland Security, his office said.
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., called it “that terrible day you pray never comes.”
Just spoke to Broward School Superintendent. Today is that terrible day you pray never comes.
— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) February 14, 2018
