Trump's Battle With 'Obamacare' Moves to Courts

WASHINGTON — 

After losing in Congress, President Donald Trump is counting on the courts to kill off "Obamacare.'' But some cases are going against him, and time is not on his side as he tries to score a big win for his re-election campaign.

Two federal judges in Washington, D.C., this past week blocked parts of Trump's health care agenda: work requirements for some low-income people on Medicaid, and new small business health plans that don't have to provide full benefits required by the Affordable Care Act.

But in the biggest case, a federal judge in Texas ruled last December that the ACA is unconstitutional and should be struck down in its entirety. That ruling is now on appeal. At the urging of the White House, the Justice Department said this past week it will support the Texas judge's position and argue that all of "Obamacare'' must go.

A problem for Trump is that the litigation could take months to resolve -- or longer -- and there's no guarantee he'll get the outcomes he wants before the 2020 election.

"Was this a good week for the Trump administration? No,'' said economist Gail Wilensky, who headed up Medicare under former Republican President George H.W. Bush. "But this is the beginning of a series of judicial challenges.''

It's early innings in the court cases, and "the clock is going to run out,'' said Timothy Jost, a retired law professor who has followed the Obama health law since its inception.

"By the time these cases get through the courts there simply isn't going to be time for the administration to straighten out any messes that get created, much less get a comprehensive plan through Congress,'' added Jost, who supports the ACA.

In the Texas case, Trump could lose by winning.

If former President Barack Obama's health law is struck down entirely, Congress would face an impossible task: pass a comprehensive health overhaul to replace it that both Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Trump can agree to. The failed attempt to repeal "Obamacare'' in 2017 proved to be toxic for congressional Republicans in last year's midterm elections and they are in no mood to repeat it.

"The ACA now is nine years old and it would be incredibly disruptive to uproot the whole thing,'' said Thomas Barker, an attorney with the law firm Foley Hoag, who served as a top lawyer at the federal Health and Human Services department under former Republican President George W. Bush. "It seems to me that you can resolve this issue more narrowly than by striking down the ACA.''

Trump seems unfazed by the potential risks.

"Right now, it's losing in court,'' he asserted Friday, referring to the Texas case against "Obamacare.''

The case "probably ends up in the Supreme Court,'' Trump continued. "But we're doing something that is going to be much less expensive than Obamacare for the people ... and we're going to have (protections for) pre-existing conditions and will have a much lower deductible. So, and I've been saying that, the Republicans are going to end up being the party of health care.''

There's no sign that his administration has a comprehensive health care plan, and there doesn't seem to be a consensus among Republicans in Congress.

A common thread in the various health care cases is that they involve lower-court rulings for now, and there's no telling how they may ultimately be decided. Here's a status check on major lawsuits:

'Obamacare' repeal

U.S. District Court Judge Reed O'Connor in Fort Worth, Texas, ruled that when Congress repealed the ACA's fines for being uninsured, it knocked the constitutional foundation out from under the entire law. His ruling is being appealed by attorneys general from Democratic-led states to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans.

The challenge to the ACA was filed by officials from Texas and other GOP-led states. It's now fully supported by the Trump administration, which earlier had argued that only the law's protections for people with pre-existing conditions and its limits on how much insurers could charge older, sicker customers were constitutionally tainted. All sides expect the case to go to the Supreme Court, which has twice before upheld the ACA.

Medicaid work requirements

U.S. District Court Judge James E. Boasberg in Washington, D.C., last week blocked Medicaid work requirements in Kentucky and Arkansas approved by the Trump administration. The judge questioned whether the requirements were compatible with Medicaid's central purpose of providing "medical assistance'' to low-income people. He found that administration officials failed to account for coverage losses and other potential harm, and sent the Health and Human Services Department back to the drawing board.

The Trump administration says it will continue to approve state requests for work requirements, but has not indicated if it will appeal.

Small-business health plans

U.S. District Court Judge John D. Bates last week struck down the administration's health plans for small business and sole proprietors, which allowed less generous benefits than required by the ACA. Bates found that administration regulations creating the plans were "clearly an end-run'' around the Obama health law and also ran afoul of other federal laws governing employee benefits.

The administration said it disagrees but hasn't formally announced an appeal.

Also facing challenges in courts around the country are an administration regulation that bars federally funded family planning clinics from referring women for abortions and a rule that allows employers with religious and moral objections to opt out of offering free birth control to women workers as a preventive care service.

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White House Not Backing Down on Trump's Threat to Close US-Mexico Border

Washington is focused yet again on immigration and border security after President Donald Trump threatened to close America's southern border with Mexico and declared he wants U.S. aid terminated to three Central American nations. VOA's Michael Bowman reports, Trump's moves come amid a continuing surge of undocumented migrant arrivals that have strained federal resources and personnel along the U.S.-Mexico border.

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Biden Denies He 'Acted Inappropriately' Toward Female Candidate

Former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, a possible Democratic challenger to President Donald Trump in the 2020 election, denied Sunday that he "acted inappropriately" in the face of allegations from a Nevada lawmaker that he unexpectedly touched her shoulders and kissed her hair at a 2014 political rally.

Lucy Flores, a former Democratic candidate for lieutenant governor in the western state of Nevada, recalled the incident on CNN, saying that "very unexpectedly and out of nowhere, I feel Joe Biden put his hands on my shoulders, get up very close to me from behind, lean in, smell my hair and then plant a slow kiss on the top of my head."

She called the moment "shocking," adding, "You don't expect that kind of intimacy from someone so powerful and someone who you just have no relationship (with) whatsoever to touch you and to feel you and to be so close to you in that way."

Biden said: "In my many years on the campaign trail and in public life, I have offered countless handshakes, hugs, expressions of affection, support and comfort. And not once - never - did I believe I acted inappropriately. If it is suggested I did so, I will listen respectfully. But it was never my intention."

Political surveys show the 76-year-old Biden leading a long list of Democrats seeking the party's nomination to oust Trump from the White House, but he has not yet formally declared his candidacy even as he has made frequent speeches at campaign-style rallies in recent weeks.

He has twice unsuccessfully sought the party's presidential nomination, before serving for eight years as vice president under former President Barack Obama, ending in early 2017.

In the lead-up to his presumed candidacy, Biden has faced new questions about his public hands-on attention to women in public settings over the years and notably his 1991 treatment of Anita Hill when Biden, as a U.S. senator, chaired the confirmation hearing for Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas.

Hill is a college law professor who accused Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment when they worked together at a U.S. government agency, but the all-male panel headed by Biden largely dismissed her allegations, with Thomas winning narrow confirmation to the country's highest court, where he still sits.

Biden in recent days has said he regretted that he "couldn't come up with a way to get her the kind of hearing she deserved," even though he led the committee.

Biden is not believed to have apologized personally to Hill in the nearly three decades since the hearing. But as he seemingly moves toward another presidential candidacy in an era of new accountability for men in powerful positions of their treatment of women in years past, Biden is facing new calls for further explanation of his role in the Thomas confirmation hearings.

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White House Demands Mexico, 3 Central American Countries Curb Migrant Surge

WASHINGTON — 

The Trump administration on Sunday demanded that Mexico and three Central American countries curb the surge of thousands of undocumented migrants heading to the United States, noting that the homeland security chief for former President Barack Obama agrees there is an immigration crisis at the southern U.S. border.

"We need your help," acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney told Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador in an interview on ABC News. He said Mexico needs to solidify its southern border with Guatemala to prevent the caravans from heading north through Mexico to the U.S. and that the three Central American counties need to curb migrants from leaving their countries.

He left open the distinct possibility that President Donald Trump would close the U.S. border with Mexico in the coming days, even as he says he intends to cut off about $500 million in U.S. aid to the three Northern Triangle countries.

"Jeh Johnson admits we were right" about a crisis on the southern U.S. border, Mulvaney said, referring to the Obama homeland security secretary. "We hate to say we told you so, but we told you so."

On Saturday, Johnson told Fox News, “By anyone's definition, by any measure, right now we have a crisis at our southern border."

There were 4,000 apprehensions of migrants at the border one day last week and the U.S. is on pace for 100,000 for all of March.

"That is by far a greater number than anything I saw on my watch in my three years as secretary of Homeland Security,” Johnson said.

Mulvaney said if the three Central American countries do not curb migration to the U.S., "there's little reason to continue sending them money."

Current Homeland Security chief Kirstjen Nielsen last week signed a regional border security compact with Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador to curb the illegal migrant surge and interdict the flow of drugs into the U.S.

But Mulvaney said the three countries' "actions will speak louder than words."

Blaming Democrats

The White House official said, "Congress can fix this" with tougher immigration controls along the U.S., but that "it's clear the Democrats are not going to help us. So we're looking to cutting off aid and closing the border."

Trump said on Twitter Saturday, "It would be so easy to fix our weak and very stupid Democrat inspired immigration laws. In less than one hour, and then a vote, the problem would be solved. But the Dems don’t care about the crime, they don’t want any victory for Trump and the Republicans, even if good for USA!"

He added, "Mexico must use its very strong immigration laws to stop the many thousands of people trying to get into the USA. Our detention areas are maxed out & we will take no more illegals. Next step is to close the Border! This will also help us with stopping the Drug flow from Mexico!"

After Congress earlier this year refused to fund Trump's request for money to build a border wall, he declared a national emergency to tap money allocated for other programs to build the wall. Both houses of Congress passed legislation to overturn Trump's national emergency declaration, but he vetoed it and the House of Representatives last week failed to override the veto.

'Reckless' policy?

Congressional action would be needed to cut off aid to the three countries. New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, called Trump's order a "reckless announcement" and urged Democrats and Republicans alike to reject it.

Rep. Joaquin Castro, a Texas Democrat and chairman of the Hispanic Caucus, warned in a statement released Saturday that cutting off aid will further destabilize the Northern Triangle countries.

"By cutting off desperately needed aid, the administration will deprive El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras of critical funds that help stabilize these countries by curbing migration push factors such as violence, gangs, poverty and insecurity. Ultimately, this short-sighted and flawed decision lays the groundwork for the humanitarian crisis at our border to escalate further,” he said.

Michael Clemens, a senior fellow at The Center for Global Development, says the administration’s strategy to shape migration through aid needs to be done right.

“If what the United States wants to do is prevent irregular child migration in a way that works and is cost-effective, it should not do what it has traditionally done — spend 10 times as much on border enforcement trying to keep child migrants out as it spends on security assistance to the region," he said. "In fact, smartly packaged security assistance" is the only thing that has been "shown to reduce violence effectively and cost effectively.”

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Some Conservative States Easing Access to Birth Control

US Ending Aid to El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras Over Migrants

WASHINGTON — 

The United States is cutting off aid to the Central American countries of El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, known collectively as the Northern Triangle, the State Department said Saturday, the day after President Donald Trump alleged that the countries had sent migrants to the United States.

"We are carrying out the president's direction and ending FY 2017 and FY 2018 foreign assistance programs for the Northern Triangle," a State Department spokesperson said in a statement. The State Department declined to provide further details or clarify the time periods involved.

The State Department said that it would "engage Congress in the process," an apparent acknowledgement that it will need lawmakers' approval to end the funding.

New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, called Trump's order a "reckless announcement" and urged Democrats and Republicans alike to reject it.

"U.S. foreign assistance is not charity; it advances our strategic interests and funds initiatives that protect American citizens," Menendez said in a statement.

Trump claimed Friday during a trip to Florida that the countries had "set up" caravans of migrants in order to export them into the United States. A surge of asylum seekers from the three countries have sought to enter the United States across its southern border in recent days.

"We were giving them $500 million. We were paying them tremendous amounts of money, and we're not paying them anymore because they haven't done a thing for us," Trump said.

Trump also threatened Friday to close the U.S. border with Mexico next week if Mexico does not stop immigrants from reaching the United States, a move that could disrupt millions of legal border crossings and billions of dollars in trade.

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Judge Scraps Trump Order on Oil Leasing in Arctic, Atlantic

US Again Calls for China to Stop Crackdown on Uighurs, Religious Groups

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The United States is calling on China to stop what it calls its growing oppression of people of faith, noting the detention of a million ethnic Uighur Muslims. VOA's Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine has the story from the State Department. Read More US Again Calls for China to Stop Crackdown on Uighurs, Religious Groups : https://ift.tt/2U7DQAM

Chinese-American Businesswoman Accused of Selling Access to Trump

Somali-American Lawmaker Ignites Controversy in Diverse Minneapolis

US Uses Obscure Agency to Target Chinese Foreign Investments

Barr to Release Redacted Copy of Mueller Report in Mid-April

U.S. Attorney General William Barr plans to issue a redacted copy of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's nearly 400-page investigative report into
Russian interference in the 2016 election by mid-April, he said in a letter to lawmakers on Friday.

"Everyone will soon be able to read it on their own," Barr wrote in the letter to the top Democrats and Republicans on the Senate and House Judiciary committees.

He said he is willing to appear before both committees to testify about Mueller's report on May 1 and May 2.

Mueller completed his 22-month investigation probe into whether President Donald Trump's campaign colluded with Russia on March 22. On Sunday, Barr sent a four-page letter to Congress summarizing Mueller's findings.

Barr told lawmakers that Mueller's investigation did not establish that members of the Trump campaign conspired with Russia in its election interference activities.

Mueller left unresolved the question of whether Trump obstructed justice during the investigation. Barr said that based on the evidence presented, he concluded it was not sufficient to charge the president with obstruction.

Lawmakers have since been clamoring for more details, with Democrats calling for a full release of the report. At a rally on Thursday in Michigan celebrated the end of the investigation and what he called "lies and smears and slander."

Barr said in his letter on Friday that certain information must be redacted before the report is release, including secret grand jury information, intelligence sources and methods and information that by law cannot be public or might infringe on privacy.

He said that while Trump has the right to assert executive privilege on some materials, that "Trump has stated publicly that he intends to defer to me." Because of that, he said, there are no plans for the Justice Department to submit the report to the White House for a privilege review.

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2020 Presidential Candidate Jay Inslee Releases Tax Returns

Washington Governor Jay Inslee on Friday became the latest Democratic presidential candidate to release his tax returns, while bashing President Donald Trump for refusing such a disclosure.

"It's time for him to come clean with the American people," Inslee said on Fox News' Fox & Friends, adding that he was issuing his challenge on the Republican president's "favorite show," a nod to Trump's habit of watching the network's morning show and often tweeting in response.

Trump first refused such disclosure as a candidate ahead of his 2016 election, saying he was under audit. Trump's business dealings and his now-shuttered foundation have been the subject of various investigations and Democratic attacks. Still, Inslee, who announced his campaign at the beginning of this month, is just the third announced Democratic White House contender to release his personal returns, joining Senators Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Kirsten Gillibrand of New York.

As he appeared on Fox, Inslee's last 12 personal tax returns were posted on his campaign website. The span is from 2007 to 2018, covering his last three terms in Congress and his first six years as governor.

The returns for Inslee, 68, and his wife, Trudi, show relatively consistent income and taxes paid over that period, with essentially all of their income stemming from his public salaries and congressional pensions.

2018 income, deductions

In 2018, the Inslees paid $29,906 in federal taxes on an adjusted gross income of $202,912 and taxable income of $172,915. That gross income — $162,870 of it from Washington state and $44,028 from a congressional pension — puts the couple in about the 94th percentile of U.S. households.

Among their deductions, the couple noted $8,295 in charitable contributions (about 4 percent of their total income), $12,422 in home mortgage interest and $3,000 in capital gains losses, the maximum amount the IRS allows for routine capital-loss deductions.

Inslee claimed no foreign holdings, a point of contention for Democrats who question whether Trump's real-estate entanglements across the globe compromise his job as president.

During Inslee's congressional tenure, he did report paying a small amount in foreign taxes. An Inslee aide said it was for payments he received for a small part in a movie, The Deal, filmed in Canada with lead actor Christian Slater and released in 2005. Inslee played a senator.

2017 comparisons

Inslee's returns show he was a beneficiary of the Republican tax bill that he has hammered as a presidential candidate and previously as Democratic Governors Association chairman during the 2018 midterm campaign. His 2018 tax bill was $2,791 less than his $32,697 tax bill the prior year on essentially the same income. That's about an 8.5 percent tax cut from 2017 to 2018.

The Inslees were among the high earners and property owners affected by new caps on the state and local tax bills that a filer can deduct when figuring federal taxable income.

In one of the more controversial provisions of the tax law — and one that hurt Republicans in affluent suburban House districts in 2018 — households can deduct a maximum of $10,000 for state and local taxes. Previously there was no cap, allowing wealthier households with hefty state income tax bills and property tax bills on more expensive real estate to deduct those costs.

The Inslees reported paying $14,280 in state and local taxes, meaning the new provision cost them $4,280 in deductions.

Trump broke with decades of tradition by not releasing his tax filings during his 2016 campaign. He argued that he couldn't release his taxes because he was under an audit by the IRS, but being under audit is no legal bar to a candidate from releasing tax returns.

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Democrats Intensify Demand for Mueller's Full Report

Trump Runs Victory Lap on Michigan Stage

U.S. President Donald Trump is on the offensive now that the two-year investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. national election and possible collusion with the Trump campaign ended with no immediate backlash for him. VOA's Michael Brown reports, Trump is paying special attention to Democrats who seem not ready to accept he has been cleared of any wrongdoing.

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Trump Looks for Political Boost After Mueller Report

Trump Looks for Political Boost After Mueller Report

President Donald Trump has been celebrating the report by special counsel Robert Mueller on the Russia investigation. Mueller cleared the president and his 2016 campaign of conspiring with Russia, but he did not make a judgment on whether Trump sought to obstruct justice. That decision was made by Attorney General William Barr. The political fallout from the Mueller report could reach well into the 2020 presidential campaign, as we hear from VOA National Correspondent Jim Malone in Washington.

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Trump Runs Victory Lap on Michigan Stage

US Bills Would Let State Prisons Jam Cellphone Signals

COLUMBIA, S.C. — 

Federal legislation proposed Thursday would give state prison officials the ability they have long sought to jam the signals of cellphones smuggled to inmates within their walls.

U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas and U.S. Rep. David Kustoff of Tennessee introduced companion bills in both chambers, The Associated Press learned.

The legislation could help solve a problem prison officials have said represents the top security threat to their institutions. Corrections chiefs across the country have long argued for the ability to jam the signals, saying the phones — smuggled into their institutions by the thousands, by visitors, errant employees and even delivered by drone — are dangerous because inmates use them to carry out crimes and plot violence both inside and outside prison.

But the Federal Communications Commission, which regulates the nation's airwaves, has said a decades-old prohibition on interrupting signals at state-level institutions prevents the agency from permitting jamming on that level. Wireless industry groups have said they worry signal-blocking technologies could thwart legal calls.

Prison officials, including South Carolina Corrections Director Bryan Stirling, have pushed for the ability to jam signals, saying it's the best way to combat the dangerous devices. In 2017, Stirling testified at an FCC hearing in Washington alongside Robert Johnson, a former South Carolina corrections officer nearly killed in 2010 in a hit orchestrated by an inmate using an illegal phone.

Phone aided escape

Also that year, an inmate escaped from a maximum-security prison in South Carolina, thanks in part to a smuggled cellphone. In 2018, seven inmates at a maximum-security South Carolina prison were killed in what officials have said was a gang fight over territory and contraband including cellphones.

The FCC has shown willingness to work on the issue, holding a field hearing in South Carolina at the invitation of then-Gov. Nikki Haley. Last year, making good on a pledge to do so, Chairman Ajit Pai hosted a meeting with members of Congress, prisons officials and stakeholders from the wireless industry.

After last year's meeting, Kustoff told the AP he was encouraged by the FCC's action on the issue. Officials from wireless trade group CTIA, who also attended the meeting, thanked Pai for organizing the gathering and said its members ``recognize the very real threat that contraband devices pose in correctional facilities across the nation, and we appreciate the commitment of all stakeholders to identify and implement lawful solutions to this problem.''

Jamming is legal in federal facilities, although it hasn't been used. Last year, federal officials tested micro-jamming technology at a federal prison in Cumberland, Md., saying they were able to shut down phone signals inside a prison cell, while devices about 20 feet (6 meters) away worked normally.

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Trump: Special Olympics Will Be Funded

President Donald Trump says he has overruled his education secretary and others and will fund the Special Olympics.

"I've been to the Special Olympics. I think it's incredible," Trump told reporters on the White House lawn Thursday.

The Special Olympics give physically and mentally challenged athletes in the United States and elsewhere the chance to compete in Olympic-style sports and other games.

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, whose agency funds the games, created a national firestorm this week when she announced she was cutting nearly $18 million from the games as part of the Trump administration's 2020 budget proposal.

DeVos defended the cuts, saying although she supports and loves the Special Olympics, the games are not a federal program and receive millions in private and corporate donations.

She said the federal government cannot give grants to every worthy program.

DeVos issued a statement Thursday saying she is pleased the games will be funded, and said she had privately fought for the grants to continue.

Lawmakers from both parties said cuts for the games would not have gotten through Congress.

The Trump administration had proposed eliminating federal grants for the Special Olympics in the 2019 budget, but Congress rejected the idea.

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US Senate Heats Up on Climate Change

Democratic 2020 Hopeful Klobuchar Touts $1 Trillion Infrastructure Plan

Democratic presidential candidate Amy Klobuchar is pitching an infrastructure plan she says will provide $1 trillion to fix roads and bridges, protect against flooding and rebuild schools, airports and other projects.

The plan announced Thursday is the first policy proposal from the Minnesota senator since she joined the 2020 race with a snowy rally not far from where the Interstate 35W bridge collapsed into the Mississippi River in 2007.

Klobuchar speaks often on the campaign trail about the collapse, which killed 13 people, telling voters "a bridge just shouldn't fall down in the middle of America." She also talks about how she worked with Republican colleagues to get funding to rebuild the bridge within 13 months.

"America needs someone who will deliver on their promises and get things done for this country," Klobuchar said in a statement Thursday announcing her plan.

She said it will be her top budget priority and pledged to pass it during her first year as president.

The plan calls for leveraging $650 billion in federal funding through public-private partnerships, bond programs and clean-energy tax incentives. It would restart the Build America Bonds program President Barack Obama's administration created to help stimulate the economy during the recession.

About $400 billion of the $650 billion federal spending would come from raising the corporate tax rate from 21 percent to 25 percent. The rate was cut from 35 percent to 21 percent in President Donald Trump's 2017 tax bill. Klobuchar also calls for closing tax loopholes and imposing a "financial risk fee" on large banks.

Klobuchar has criticized Trump for pledging to pass a "significant" infrastructure plan but not doing so.

Her campaign says her plan provides a "concrete, common-sense" way to fund infrastructure investments. Those include connecting every U.S. household to the internet by 2022, modernizing public transportation and investing in renewable-energy development and drinking and wastewater systems.

Klobuchar plans to discuss the proposal during stops Friday and Saturday in Iowa and Nebraska, where she will visit communities struggling with major flooding and other infrastructure needs.

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Justice Official: Mueller's Russia Report More Than 300 Pages Long

Special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation report is more than 300 pages long.

That's according to a Justice Department official and another person familiar with the report.

The Justice Department official said Attorney General William Barr discussed the length of the report during a phone call Wednesday with House Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. Jerrold Nadler.

Both people spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the confidential report.

Barr released a four-page summary of the report on Sunday and is expected to release a public version of the document in the coming weeks.

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DeVos Defends Plan to Eliminate Special Olympics Funding

US Lawmakers Criticize Proposed Cuts to US Foreign Aid, Diplomacy

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo defended President Donald Trump's proposed budget cuts to diplomacy and foreign aid from strong criticism from both Republican and Democratic lawmakers in hearings Wednesday. The chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee Elliot Engel told Pompeo the president's budget was "dead" as soon as it arrived on Capitol Hill. VOA's Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine has more from the State Department.

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US Republicans Intensify Counter-Attack After Mueller Investigation

WASHINGTON — 

A second U.S. Senate committee on Wednesday sought to examine the motives of federal agents and investigators who launched the Trump-Russia probe as a Republican effort gathered momentum to seek retribution on behalf of President Donald Trump.

Homeland Security Chairman Ron Johnson told Reuters he planned to join Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham, a fellow Republican, in a review of what motivated an investigation that led to U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller's 22-month probe of Russian meddling in the 2016 election and possible collusion with the Trump campaign.

"How was this pushed by members of the FBI, Department of Justice and the intelligence community? We're fully aware of the bias that existed in those agencies under the Obama administration," Johnson said, referring to Democratic President Barack Obama, who preceded Trump.

"I've been talking to Senator Graham. I want to work hand-in-glove, our two committees, to try and get that information and make it public for the American people," he said.

Trump, who, along with fellow Republicans, has seized on the disclosure that Mueller did not find his campaign conspired with Russia to meddle in the election, has been calling for investigations into how the probe got started.

"He is on fire. Anybody who thinks this is going to go by the wayside does not understand the issue of retribution," said a Trump confidant who speaks to the president regularly. “Hell hath no fury like a president scorned.”

Trump advisers predict Trump will make much of the matter at a rally for supporters in Grand Rapids, Michigan, on Thursday, his first major appearance since the Mueller investigation concluded.

A Trump ally, Graham laid out plans for his own investigation this week and urged U.S. Attorney General William Barr to name a special counsel to look into the matter separately.

U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler told reporters he was very concerned that Barr would not submit Mueller's report to Congress by next Tuesday as Democrats had requested. Nadler said he had a 10-minute phone conversation with Barr on Wednesday.

"I asked whether he could commit that the full report, an unredacted full report with the underlying documents evidence would be provided to Congress and to the American people. And he wouldn’t make a commitment to that. I am very concerned about that," Nadler said.

Mueller’s report was submitted on Friday to Barr, who issued a summary. Trump said he had been completely exonerated, even though the report did not clear him on the question of obstructing justice.

Trump still faces congressional investigations into his personal and business affairs. But Republicans are hoping Mueller's findings will help Trump's 2020 re-election prospects and rebound against his Democratic accusers.

A focus of Republican inquiries is a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrant for former Trump adviser Carter Page, based in part on information in a dossier compiled by Christopher Steele, a former British intelligence officer who co-founded a private intelligence firm.

Page, a foreign policy adviser during Trump's campaign, drew scrutiny from the FBI, which said in legal filings in 2016 that it believed he had been "collaborating and conspiring" with the Kremlin. Page met with several Russian government officials during a trip to Moscow in July 2016. He was not charged. Johnson also hopes to unearth facts about alleged discussions at the Justice Department both to surreptitiously record conversations with Trump and to approach Cabinet members about replacing him under the U.S. Constitution's 25th Amendment.

Johnson said federal law enforcement officials would have done better to approach Trump quietly about concerns they had involving members of his campaign.

During his investigation, Mueller brought charges against 34 people, including Russian agents and former Trump aides. Asked about the Republican push to investigate the investigators, Democrat Jamie Raskin of the House Judiciary Committee said: There is a scramble to obscure the reality that nobody has seen the Mueller report yet.

"So, it was perfectly predictable," he added, "that once they declared the president completely and totally exonerated by a report no one has read, they would turn in vindictive fashion to try to go after the people whoever raised questions about the president's conduct."

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Lawmakers Hammer Trump's Proposed State Department Cuts

WASHINGTON — 

Top lawmakers are blasting the Trump administration's proposal to slash funding for the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo testified Wednesday on Capitol Hill about the plan to cut his agency's budget by 23 percent. He says difficult choices were made when crafting the 2020 proposal but argues the funding is enough to achieve the administration's foreign policy goals.

Lawmakers don't see it that way. Democratic Appropriations Chairwoman Nita Lowey of New York described the request as “insufficient” and said she intends to work with her colleagues to reject it.

“If the President's budget were enacted it would undermine U.S. leadership and stymie worldwide efforts to counter violent extremism, terrorism and disinformation,” Lowey said.

A Republican on the panel, Hal Rogers of Kentucky, said the plan seemed “detached from reality” and warned “if we were to accept cuts of the magnitude proposed it would make our nation less safe, make it harder to achieve the effectiveness we all seek.”

The Trump administration has called for steep cuts to diplomacy three years in a row. Each time, lawmakers have ignored the requests. House Foreign Affairs Chairman Eliot Engel, Democrat-New York, has already pronounced the 2020 proposal “dead on arrival.”

While the 2020 budget request would reduce spending in areas such as refugee resettlement and global health care programs, it would allocate $3.3 billion in foreign aid to Israel. Trump has made strong relations with Israel central to his administration's foreign policy and has promised a landmark plan to achieve peace between the Israelis and Palestinians.

Pompeo told lawmakers Wednesday the peace plan was forthcoming and would be made up of “new and fresh and different” ideas. When asked if the plan supports a state for Palestinians as well as the state of Israel, Pompeo said, “ultimately it will be the peoples of those two lands that resolve this and make that decision about how it is they'll come together, what the contours of that resolution will look like.”

The 2020 budget request also seeks $5.4 billion to improve security for U.S. diplomats, an issue that has received more attention since the deadly 2012 attack on a U.S. compound in Benghazi, Libya.

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Barbara Bush Blamed Trump for 'Angst,' New Book Reveals

Barbara Bush says Donald Trump caused her "angst" during the 2016 election and led her to question whether she was still a Republican in the months before she died.

The late former first lady's thoughts about Trump were revealed in excerpts published Wednesday in USA Today of an upcoming biography, The Matriarch.

In a February 2018 interview, Bush was asked if she still considered herself a Republican. She replied, "I'd probably say 'no' today."

She died in April at age 92.

Bush recalls drafting a funny letter to mail after the election congratulating Bill Clinton on becoming a presidential spouse. But Bush said when she woke up, she realized "to my horror that Trump had won."

A friend gave Bush a clock that counted down the time remaining in Trump's first term that she kept at her bedside.

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Trump Assembling an Army of Operatives for re-Election Fight

Republicans, Democrats Back to Battle Over US Health Care Law

Democrats Push for Public Release of Mueller Report

Congressional Democrats called for the release of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's report Tuesday, saying the American public deserves to know the details of the investigation that found no collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia during the 2016 campaign. Full disclosure could help answer why Mueller could not rule out an obstruction of justice charge against President Trump. VOA's Congressional correspondent Katherine Gypson reports from Capitol Hill.

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Republican-led US Senate Rejects Green New Deal

The Republican-led Senate Tuesday night voted against consideration of the Democratically-supported New Green Deal -- the outline of an ambitious plan to get the U.S. off climate-changing fossil fuels.

The vote was 57 to zero against the green proposal. Forty-three Democrats only said "present" when their names were called, refusing to participate in what they say was a Republican sham vote and stunt.

The Green New Deal is a non-binding proposal to shift the United States away from oil, natural gas, and coal to renewable energy sources, including wind and solar power.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell called it a "radical, top-down, socialist makeover of the entire U.S. economy," noting it would cost millions of jobs and sharply drive up energy prices.

Other Republicans called it "ridiculous." Senator Mike Lee used drawings of dinosaurs and the cartoon character Aquaman riding a seahorse to treat the Green New Deal with what he mockingly called "the seriousness it deserves."

Fuming Democrats accused the Republicans of turning the issue of the very survival of the planet into a joke. They say Republicans who turn debate over global warming into a game will pay a political price.

New York Senator and presidential candidate Kirsten Gillibrand compared ridding the United States of its dependence on fossil fuels in the 21st century to America's ambitious plan nearly 60 years ago to put a man on the moon by the end of the 1960s – a goal that was reached.

Scientists overwhelmingly agree that burning fossil fuels is causing the globe to get unnaturally warmer and polls indicate many American voters are also worried about the consequences of climate change.

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Biden Rips 'White Man's Culture,' Regrets Anita Hill Hearing

NEW YORK — 

Former Vice President Joe Biden condemned "a white man's culture" Tuesday night as he lashed out against violence against women and, more specifically, lamented his role in the Supreme Court confirmation hearings that undermined Anita Hill's credibility nearly three decades ago.

Biden, a Democratic presidential prospect who often highlights his white working-class roots, said Hill, who is African-American, should not have been forced to face a panel of "a bunch of white guys."

"To this day I regret I couldn't come up with a way to give her the kind of hearing she deserved," he said, echoing comments he delivered last fall as the nation debated sexual misconduct allegations against Brett Kavanaugh amid his Supreme Court confirmation hearing.

Later in his Tuesday remarks, Biden called on Americans to "change the culture" that dates back centuries and allows pervasive violence against women. "It's an English jurisprudential culture, a white man's culture. It's got to change," Biden said.

The 76-year-old Democrat delivered the remarks at a New York City event honoring young people who helped combat sexual assault on college campuses. The event, held at a venue called the Russian Tea Room, was hosted by the Biden Foundation and the nonprofit group It's on Us, which Biden founded with former President Barack Obama in 2014.

Biden is perhaps the last high-profile Democrat who has yet to announce his or her 2020 intentions. He has a small team of political operatives laying the groundwork for a run, but he has acknowledged publicly in recent weeks that his entrance in the presidential race is no sure thing.

Biden's role in the 1991 Clarence Thomas confirmation hearings are among his many political challenges as he weighs his place in today's Democratic Party. Should he run, he would be among a handful of white men in a Democratic presidential field that features several women and minorities.

In remarks that were rambling at times and spanned more than a half hour, Biden repeatedly denounced violence against women. It's a topic Biden knows well. As a senator, he introduced the Violence Against Women's Act in 1990.

"No man has a right to lay a hand on a woman no matter what she's wearing, she does, who she is, unless it's in self-defense. Never," he said Tuesday.

He then shared a conversation he had with a member of a college fraternity.

"If you see a brother taking an inebriated co-ed up the stairs at a fraternity house and you don't go and stop it, you're a damn coward," Biden said. "You don't deserve to be called a man."

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Ex-Trump Campaign Aide Papadopoulos Says He's Applied for Pardon

NEW YORK — 

Former Trump campaign aide George Papadopoulos, the first person charged in Special Counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation, said on Tuesday his lawyers have applied for a pardon and that he may withdraw his guilty plea.

"My lawyers have applied for a pardon from the president for me," Papadopoulos said in an interview with Reuters, adding that the request was made a few days ago. "If I'm offered one I would love to accept it, of course."

Papadopoulos, who was plucked out of obscurity to work as a foreign policy adviser for Donald Trump during the 2016 election campaign, has become an increasingly vocal critic of Mueller's Russia probe since completing a 12-day prison term in December.

Papadopoulos pleaded guilty in October 2017 to lying to FBI agents about the timing and nature of his communications with two Russian nationals and a Maltese professor with ties to Russian officials while working on the Trump campaign.

Book details deal

His comments about a pardon came on the same day that he released a book in which he disavowed his guilty plea, claiming he did not lie to the FBI and was unfairly pressured by Mueller's prosecutors into cutting a deal.

Papadopoulos says Mueller's team threatened that if he did not agree to the plea deal, he would be charged for not registering as a foreign agent for his Israel-related work.

"I was faced with a choice: accept the charges that I lied or face FARA charges," he wrote in the book. "I made a deal. A deal forced on me."

FARA refers to the Foreign Agents Registration Act.

His claims could gather traction after Attorney General William Barr said on Sunday that Mueller's team of investigators did not find evidence that Trump or his campaign conspired with Russian efforts to interfere in the 2016 election.

"My story is part of a larger story. The story of Trump and the story of stopping Trump, or trying to," the 31-year-old Papadopoulos wrote in his book. "The Trump presidency was the primary target of all this insanity."

A spokesman for Mueller declined to comment.

Maltese professor

Under his plea deal, Papadopoulos acknowledged that Joseph Mifsud, the Maltese professor, told him in April 2016 that Russia had "dirt" on then-Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton in the form of "thousands of emails."

In July 2016, WikiLeaks published a trove of emails hacked from the Democratic National Committee, one in a series of operations that U.S. intelligence agencies say were carried out by Russia and which roiled Clinton's campaign.

Papadopoulos admitted he lied when he told the FBI that Mifsud had shared the information on the emails with him before he became an adviser to the Trump campaign.

Mifsud has denied discussing the emails with Papadopoulos.

Papadopoulos also helped trigger an FBI counterintelligence probe of the Trump campaign by telling an Australian diplomat, Alexander Downer, in May 2016 that Russia had "dirt" on Clinton.

Unintentional lies

Australian officials passed that information to their U.S. counterparts two months later when the leaked Democratic emails appeared online.

In his book, Papadopoulos said his alleged lies to the FBI were unintentional, contradicting his plea agreement and his final statement to the judge, in which he apologized for not being honest and for possibly hindering Mueller's probe.

"Without consulting my calendar or my emails, I did not accurately remember the timeline of events," he wrote in the book.

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Barr's Finding of No Obstruction by Trump Triggers Firestorm of Democratic Criticism

House Democrats to Unveil Affordable Care Act Rescue Package

WASHINGTON — 

Leading House Democrats, backed by Speaker Nancy Pelosi, are unveiling broad legislation to shore up the Affordable Care Act. It’s an attempt to deliver on campaign promises about health care and to — just maybe— change the conversation.

In a capital city consumed with the political storm over special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia report , Democrats are trying to show they also care about policy by falling back on an issue that worked well for them in last year’s midterm elections.

According to Pelosi’s office, the bill being unveiled Tuesday would make more middle-class people eligible for subsidized health insurance through former President Barack Obama’s health law, often called “Obamacare,” while increasing aid for those with lower incomes who already qualify. And it would fix a longstanding affordability problem for some consumers, known as the “family glitch.”

The legislation would provide money to help insurers pay the bills of their costliest patients and restore advertising and outreach budgets slashed by President Donald Trump’s administration, helping to stabilize health insurance markets.

It also would block the Trump administration from loosening “Obamacare” rules through waivers that allow states to undermine protections for people with pre-existing medical conditions or to scale back so-called “essential” benefits like coverage for mental health and addiction treatment.

The bill will get a vote in the House, but as a package it has no chance of passing the Republican-controlled Senate. However, some elements have bipartisan support and may make it into law.

Trump swept into office promising to “repeal and replace” the Obama health law but was unable to do so, even with a Congress fully under Republican control.

Trump remains committed to overturning the ACA, but with the House in Democratic hands his last hope seems to be a court challenge to the law by Texas and other Republican-led states, now before a federal appeals panel.

The Trump administration said in its most recent appellate court filing in the case that the entire law should be struck down as unconstitutional, a bolder position than it previously held. It’s rare for the Justice Department to decline to defend a federal law.

Meanwhile, millions of people continue to benefit from the ACA’s taxpayer-subsidized private insurance plans, but enrollment is slowly declining and experts fear stagnation.

The government said Monday that 11.4 million people have signed up for coverage this year, just a slight dip from 2018. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services found remarkably steady enrollment, down only about 300,000 consumers. Premiums stabilized, and more insurers came into the market.

Still, the number of new customers fell by more than 500,000. That’s a worrisome sign for backers of the ACA, who say the Trump administration’s cuts to the ad budget and congressional repeal of a requirement that people get insured will gradually eat away at program enrollment. Unless younger, healthier people sign up, already-high premiums will march upward again.

Since Trump took office, the federal health insurance market, HealthCare.gov, has lost more than 1 million customers. State-run markets are holding their own.

The House Democrats’ legislation is being introduced by three major committee leaders: Ways and Means Chairman Richard Neal, D-Mass., Energy and Commerce Chairman Frank Pallone, D-N.J., and Education and Labor Chairman Bobby Scott, D-Va.

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Trump Looks for Political Boost in Wake of Mueller Report

President Donald Trump and his political allies took a victory lap Monday after the report prepared by special counsel Robert Mueller found no evidence of collusion between Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and Russia. But it was also clear that the president remains angry about the Russia probe and those who supported it. VOA National correspondent Jim Malone has more from Washington.

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US Expands Ban on Foreign Aid to Overseas Abortion Providers

Trump Attacks News Media for Russia Probe Stories

Trump Administration Wants All of 'Obamacare' Struck Down

WASHINGTON — 

The Trump administration says it wants the entire Affordable Care Act, known as ‘Obamacare,’ struck down.

In a filing Monday with a federal appeals court in New Orleans, the administration said the entire law should be struck as unconstitutional. It's rare for the Justice Department to decline to defend a federal law.

Previously, President Donald Trump's administration had called only for parts of the law to go.

Millions of people benefit from the ACA's taxpayer-subsidized private insurance plans, but enrollment is declining.

The Justice Department is expected to elaborate on its position in a brief. In a letter, it said the appeals court should affirm a December decision by a federal judge in Texas. The judge ruled that Congress' elimination of penalties for not buying health insurance rendered the law unconstitutional.

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Unlikely Candidate Gaining Traction in US 2020 Race

COLUMBIA, SOUTH CAROLINA — 

Democratic presidential hopeful Pete Buttigieg is riding in the back of a rented minivan to his last event of the day in South Carolina, munching on cold french fries and critiquing his stage performance so far.

The enthusiastic crowds of hundreds who've packed his first two stops have been much larger than the 37-year-old mayor of South Bend, Indiana, and his team expected. It's “wonderful,” he says, but the cheering and prolonged applause are messing with his delivery. Sometimes he neglects to pause, and his next words are drowned out. Other times people start clapping when he doesn't expect it.

“I need to relearn the timing of my stump speech,” Buttigieg says. “I've been used to a format where I go in, there's 50 people, I do my little spiel and then we have some Q&A and hopefully they walk away impressed. Now every one of these things we put on the calendar as a meet and greet is turning out to be a rally.”

Buttigieg, a veteran and Rhodes scholar, was the longest of long shots when he announced a presidential exploratory committee in January. No mayor has ever been elected president, much less one from a community of roughly 100,000 people in the middle of America, and Buttigieg is barely old enough to be eligible for the job.

But his underdog bid is gaining momentum, and the clean-cut guy known to most people as “Mayor Pete” can feel it. Now he has to figure out how to turn one of the first surprises of the nascent race for the Democratic nomination into a full-fledged presidential campaign — and one that isn't remembered as a mere quirk.

“The buzz helps,” Buttigieg says. “But you want to make sure that you have enough substance and enough organization that any kind of flavor-of-the-month period is something you can outlive.”

Besides the crowds and the cheering, Buttigieg has seen increasing national media attention, from Fox News to MSNBC and his second appearance on ABC's “The View.” After a breakout performance in a CNN town hall earlier this month, Buttigieg's team says he raised roughly $600,000 from 22,000 donors in just over 24 hours. He has now received enough individual contributions to qualify for a spot on the Democratic debate stage this summer.

But there's still plenty of work to do, starting with raising money and hiring staff. Buttigieg said his goal early on was to raise $1 million by the end of the first quarter on March 31, adding, “We're definitely there.” He's fairly confident they'll have the funds needed for a healthy operation, at least in the early stages. But he also wants to “show well” when all candidates' first-quarter totals become public — the first time this cycle that campaigns are required to file campaign finance reports.

“I think we benefit from the fact that it's graded on a curve,” Buttigieg said. “No one is expecting us to raise as though I were a senator from Florida or from a big city. But we've got to show that we can compete at this level.”

Buttigieg also plans to double the size of his roughly 20-person team in the new few weeks, in preparation for an official campaign launch. He doesn't have an advance team - those campaign staffers who coordinate events on-site before the candidate arrives, hang campaign signs and ensure someone is capturing emails and phone numbers for every person who walks in the door.

Volunteers and local Democratic officials handled most of those duties during Buttigieg's swing Saturday through South Carolina, site of the South's first primary. Instead of professionally printed banners, someone hung poster boards with messages handwritten in black marker urging attendees to tweet photos and video using several different hashtags and Twitter handles. When Buttigieg took questions from the crowd in Rock Hill, there were no microphones for people in the audience, forcing him to ask a woman at the back of the gymnasium to shout her question — twice — so he could hear.

None of that seemed to bother voters. After his event in Columbia, Christina Goodwin, 32, called Buttigieg “exciting” and said he'd moved into her top three list, along with Sens. Kamala Harris and Kirsten Gillibrand, despite her misgivings about supporting another white man for president in 2020.

Goodwin, like other voters, said she's been picking up bits of intriguing information about Buttigieg through social media that have piqued her interest. That he learned to speak Norwegian, for instance, so he could read more books by a Norwegian author, Erlend Loe. Buttigieg, who speaks seven languages, demonstrated some of his language skills when a Norwegian media crew showed up to ask questions after the Columbia event. (He also speaks French, Italian, Spanish, Arabic, Dari and Maltese, the language of his father's home country.)

Buttigieg also plays piano and has been known to join local performers on stage in South Bend — video of which sometimes pops up on social media. When he was applying to his alma mater, Harvard, he won the Profiles in Courage essay contest with a piece about an independent then-congressman from Vermont whom he admired: Bernie Sanders. They would speak years later, when the senator called in 2017 to encourage him to drop out of the race for Democratic National Committee chairman, which Buttigieg later did.

Buttigieg believes he's gaining support because people are looking for something different and a more hopeful message to combat President Donald Trump.

The openly gay former lieutenant in the Navy Reserve uses his stump speech to talk about how political decisions have shaped his life, and how much is at stake in 2020.

He recalls writing a letter to his family before he deployed to Afghanistan in 2014 so they could read it if he didn't return. He also talks about his marriage to his husband, which “exists by the grace of a single vote on the U.S. Supreme Court” - a line that generated some of his biggest applause during his trip through South Carolina.

Friends Catherine Paquin, 36, and Jonah Burrell, 37, attended Buttigieg's stop in Greenville wearing “Mayor Pete 2020” T-shirts they bought off Amazon.com.

Burrell, who is gay, said it's “really cool” to have an openly gay man in the race, but it's not the main reason he's supporting Buttigieg.

“That calm demeanor, the way he speaks is smart,” Burrell said. “You can tell he thinks about all his answers. He's done his research.”

And those doubters who say Buttigieg doesn't stand a chance?

“I think they underestimate him,” Paquin said.

Wrapping up his remarks in Greenville, Buttigieg noted that's happening less these days than it did a few months ago, when hardly anyone knew his name.

“I don't know whether we can pull this off, but I'm feeling pretty good about it,” he said.

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Trump Looks for Political Boost in Wake of Mueller Report

President Donald Trump and his political allies took a victory lap Monday after the report prepared by special counsel Robert Mueller found no evidence of collusion between Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and Russia. But it was also clear that the president remains angry about the Russia probe and those who supported it. VOA National correspondent Jim Malone has more from Washington.

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Beto O'Rourke's Casual Style to be Tested by National Campaign

First Somali-American Congresswoman Ignites Controversy in Diverse Minneapolis

Trump Praises Mueller as Democrats Fume

Mueller Vindicates Trump Claim of 'No Collusion'

AG Barr Reports Mueller Found No Collusion by Trump or His Campaign

Analysis: A cloud lifts over Trump, but at a cost

WASHINGTON — 

The cloud that has hung over President Donald Trump since the day he walked into the White House has been lifted.

Yes, special counsel Robert Mueller left open the question of whether Trump tried to obstruct the investigation. Yes, separate federal probes still put Trump and his associates in legal jeopardy. And yes, Democrats will spend the coming months pushing for more details from Mueller, all while launching new probes into Trump’s administration and businesses.

But at its core, Mueller’s investigation gave the president what he wanted: public affirmation that he and his campaign did not coordinate with Russia to win the 2016 election. After spending months tweeting “No collusion,” Trump had been proven right.

The findings, summarized Sunday by the Justice Department , are sure to embolden Trump as he plunges into his re-election campaign, armed now with new fodder to claim the investigation was little more than a politically motivated effort to undermine his presidency.

“It’s a shame that our country had to go through this,” Trump said. “To be honest, it’s a shame that your president has had to go through this.”

Mueller’s investigation stretched on for nearly two years, enveloping Trump’s presidency in a cloud of uncertainty and sending him into frequent fits of rage. The scope of the probe was sweeping: Mueller issued more than 2,800 subpoenas, obtained nearly 500 search warrants and interviewed 500 witnesses, including some of the president’s closest advisers.

And Trump’s ultimate vindication on the question of collusion with Russia came at a steep cost.

The investigation took down his campaign chairman, his White House national security adviser and his longtime lawyer. It revealed the extent of Moscow’s desire to swing the 2016 contest toward Trump, as well as Trump’s pursuit of business deals in Russia deep into the campaign. And the Justice Department didn’t explain why so many Trump associates lied throughout the investigation.

But in the end, Mueller concluded that those lies were not an effort to obscure a criminal conspiracy by Trump and his advisers to work with Russia. There was smoke, and plenty of it — including an eyebrow-raising meeting between Trump’s son and a Russian lawyer — but ultimately, no fire.

“Good day for the rule of law. Great day for President Trump and his team,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. “Bad day for those hoping the Mueller investigation would take President Trump down.”

Democrats quickly sought to puncture Trump and fellow Republicans’ jubilation, vowing to subpoena Mueller’s full report, which remains a secret. After spending years questioning Trump’s ties to Moscow, the Democrats’ focus is shifting to the question Mueller pointedly left unanswered: whether Trump obstructed the investigation by firing FBI Director James Comey and dictating a misleading statement about his son’s meeting with the Russian lawyer.

“The fact that special counsel Mueller’s report does not exonerate the president on a charge as serious as obstruction of justice demonstrates how urgent it is that the full report and underlying documentation be made public without any further delay,” House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a joint statement.

The fight for those documents will be lengthy and contentious, particularly against the backdrop of the 2020 presidential election. It will involve complex debates over the rules that govern special counsel investigations, which put a member of Trump’s Cabinet in charge of summarizing Mueller’s findings for the public, and a president’s right to keep his private discussions out of the public eye.

Previewing the case Democrats will make to get more details about Trump’s actions, House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., declared: “Executive privilege cannot be used to shield or hide wrongdoing.”

For Trump and his associates, the argument will be far simpler: Democrats already tried to go after the president once and failed.

“Just as important a victory as this is for President Trump, this is a crushing defeat for Democrats and members of the media who have pushed the collusion delusion myth for the past two years. That officially ends today,” said Jason Miller, a former Trump campaign official.

Trump’s legal troubles are far from over. Federal prosecutors in Manhattan are pursuing at least two criminal inquiries involving the president or people in his orbit, one involving his inaugural committee and another focused on the hush-money scandal that led his former lawyer, Michael Cohen, to plead guilty last year to campaign finance violations. New York Attorney General Letitia James is also looking into whether Trump exaggerated his wealth when seeking loans for real estate projects and a failed bid to buy the NFL’s Buffalo Bills.

But in the hours after Mueller’s findings were released, those investigations appeared to be a world away for Trump. As he walked into the White House Sunday night, he pumped his fist to a group of supporters and declared, “America is the greatest place on earth, the greatest place on earth.”

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AG Barr's Letter Summarizing Special Counsel's Report

The text of Attorney General William Barr's letter to congressional lawmakers outlining the principal conclusions reached by the special counsel in the Russia probe (with footnotes below):

March 24, 2019

Dear Chairman Graham, Chairman Nadler, Ranking Member Feinstein, and Ranking Member Collins:

As a supplement to the notification provided on Friday, March 22, 2019, I am writing today to advise you of the principal conclusions reached by Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller III and to inform you about the status of my initial review of the report he has prepared.

THE SPECIAL COUNSEL'S REPORT

On Friday, the Special Counsel submitted to me a ``confidential report explaining the prosecution or declination decisions'' he has reached, as required by 28 C.F.R. § 600.8(c). This report is entitled ``Report on the Investigation into Russian Interference in the 2016 Presidential Election.'' Although my review is ongoing, I believe that it is in the public interest to describe the report and to summarize the principal conclusions reached by the Special Counsel and the results of his investigation.

The report explains that the Special Counsel and his staff thoroughly investigated allegations that members of the presidential campaign of Donald J. Trump, and others associated with it, conspired with the Russian government in its efforts to interfere in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, or sought to obstruct the related federal investigations. In the report, the Special Counsel noted that, in completing his investigation, he employed 19 lawyers who were assisted by a team of approximately 40 FBI agents, intelligence analysts, forensic accountants, and other professional staff. The Special Counsel issued more than 2,800 subpoenas, executed nearly 500 search warrants, obtained more than 230 orders for communication records, issued almost 50 orders authorizing use of pen registers, made 13 requests to foreign governments for evidence, and interviewed approximately 500 witnesses.

The Special Counsel obtained a number of indictments and convictions of individuals and entities in connection with his investigation, all of which have been publicly disclosed. During the course of his investigation, the Special Counsel also referred several matters to other offices for further action. The report does not recommend any further indictments, nor did the Special Counsel obtain any sealed indictments that have yet to be made public. Below, I summarize the principal conclusions set out in the Special Counsel's report.

Russian Interference in the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election. The Special Counsel's report is divided into two parts. The first describes the results of the Special Counsel's investigation into Russia's interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. The report outlines the Russian effort to influence the election and documents crimes committed by persons associated with the Russian government in connection with those efforts. The report further explains that a primary consideration for the Special Counsel's investigation was whether any Americans - including individuals associated with the Trump campaign - joined the Russian conspiracies to influence the election, which would be a federal crime. The Special Counsel's investigation did not find that the Trump campaign or anyone associated with it conspired or coordinated with Russia in its efforts to influence the 2016 U.S. presidential election. As the report states: ``(T)he investigation did not establish that members of the Trump Campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities.'' (1)

The Special Counsel's investigation determined that there were two main Russian efforts to influence the 2016 election. The first involved attempts by a Russian organization, the Internet Research Agency (IRA), to conduct disinformation and social media operations in the United States designed to sow social discord, eventually with the aim of interfering with the election. As noted above, the Special Counsel did not find that any U.S. person or Trump campaign official or associate conspired or knowingly coordinated with the IRA in its efforts, although the Special Counsel brought criminal charges against a number of Russian nationals and entities in connection with these activities.

The second element involved the Russian government's efforts to conduct computer hacking operations designed to gather and disseminate information to influence the election. The Special Counsel found that Russian government actors successfully hacked into computers and obtained emails from persons affiliated with the Clinton campaign and Democratic Party organizations, and publicly disseminated those materials through various intermediaries, including WikiLeaks. Based on these activities, the Special Counsel brought criminal charges against a number of Russian military officers for conspiring to hack into computers in the United States for purposes of influencing the election. But as noted above, the Special Counsel did not find that the Trump campaign, or anyone associated with it, conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in these efforts, despite multiple offers from Russian-affiliated individuals to assist the Trump campaign.

Obstruction of Justice. The report's second part addresses a number of actions by the President - most of which have been the subject of public reporting - that the Special Counsel investigated as potentially raising obstruction-of-justice concerns. After making a ``thorough factual investigation'' into these matters, the Special Counsel considered whether to evaluate the conduct under Department standards governing prosecution and declination decisions but ultimately determined not to make a traditional prosecutorial judgment. The Special Counsel therefore did not draw a conclusion - one way or the other - as to whether the examined conduct constituted obstruction. Instead, for each of the relevant actions investigated, the report sets out evidence on both sides of the question and leaves unresolved what the Special Counsel views as ``difficult issues'' of law and fact concerning whether the President's actions and intent could be viewed as obstruction. The Special Counsel states that ``while this report does not conclude that the President committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him.''

The Special Counsel's decision to describe the facts of his obstruction investigation without reaching any legal conclusions leaves it to the Attorney General to determine whether the conduct described in the report constitutes a crime. Over the course of the investigation, the Special Counsel's office engaged in discussions with certain Department officials regarding many of the legal and factual matters at issue in the Special Counsel's obstruction investigation. After reviewing the Special Counsel's final report on these issues; consulting with Department officials, including the Office of Legal Counsel; and applying the principles of federal prosecution that guide our charging decisions, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and I have concluded that the evidence developed during the Special Counsel's investigation is not sufficient to establish that the President committed an obstruction-of-justice offense. Our determination was made without regard to, and is not based on, the constitutional considerations that surround the indictment and criminal prosecution of a sitting president. (2)

In making this determination, we noted that the Special Counsel recognized that ``the evidence does not establish that the President was involved in an underlying crime related to Russian election interference,'' and that, while not determinative, the absence of such evidence bears upon the President's intent with respect to obstruction. Generally speaking, to obtain and sustain an obstruction conviction, the government would need to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that a person, acting with corrupt intent, engaged in obstructive conduct with a sufficient nexus to a pending or contemplated proceeding. In cataloguing the President's actions, many of which took place in public view, the report identifies no actions that, in our judgment, constitute obstructive conduct, had a nexus to a pending or contemplated proceeding, and were done with corrupt intent, each of which, under the Department's principles of federal prosecution guiding charging decisions, would need to be proven beyond a reasonable doubt to establish an obstruction-of- justice offense.

STATUS OF THE DEPARTMENT'S REVIEW

The relevant regulations contemplate that the Special Counsel's report will be a ``confidential report'' to the Attorney General. See Office of Special Counsel, 64 Fed. Reg. 37,038,37,040-41 (July 9,1999). As I have previously stated, however, I am mindful of the public interest in this matter. For that reason, my goal and intent is to release as much of the Special Counsel's report as I can consistent with applicable law, regulations, and Departmental policies.

Based on my discussions with the Special Counsel and my initial review, it is apparent that the report contains material that is or could be subject to Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 6(e), which imposes restrictions on the use and disclosure of information relating to ``matter(s) occurring before (a) grand jury.'' Fed. R. Crim. P. 6(e)(2)(B). Rule 6(e) generally limits disclosure of certain grand jury information in a criminal investigation and prosecution. Id. Disclosure of 6(e) material beyond the strict limits set forth in the rule is a crime in certain circumstances. See, e.g., 18 U.S.C. § 401(3). This restriction protects the integrity of grand jury proceedings and ensures that the unique and invaluable investigative powers of a grand jury are used strictly for their intended criminal justice function.

Given these restrictions, the schedule for processing the report depends in part on how quickly the Department can identify the 6(e) material that by law cannot be made public. I have requested the assistance of the Special Counsel in identifying all 6(e) information contained in the report as quickly as possible. Separately, I also must identify any information that could impact other ongoing matters, including those that the Special Counsel has referred to other offices. As soon as that process is complete, I will be in a position to move forward expeditiously in determining what can be released in light of applicable law, regulations, and Departmental policies.

(asterisk) (asterisk) (asterisk)

As I observed in my initial notification, the Special Counsel regulations provide that ``the Attorney General may determine that public release of' notifications to your respective Committees ``would be in the public interest.'' 28 C.F.R. § 600.9(c). I have so determined, and I will disclose this letter to the public after delivering it to you.

Sincerely,

William P. Barr

Attorney General

(1) In assessing potential conspiracy charges, the Special Counsel also considered whether members of the Trump campaign ``coordinated'' with Russian election interference activities. The Special Counsel defined ``coordination'' as an ``agreement_tacit or express_between the Trump Campaign and the Russian government on election interference.''

(2) See A Sitting President's Amenability to Indictment and Criminal Prosecution, 24 Op. O.L.C. 222 (2000).

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Key Findings of the Mueller Report

U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr released a summary Sunday of special counsel Robert Mueller's long-awaited report into allegations that Donald Trump's campaign colluded with Russia in the 2016 presidential election.

Here are the main findings of the two-year investigation the president regularly denounced as a witch hunt, before claiming vindication upon its completion.

Collusion

Mueller found that there was conclusive evidence that Russia did interfere in the election, both through a coordinated campaign of disinformation and by hacking emails from Hillary Clinton's election team.

In a letter to lawmakers, Barr said that Mueller found that there had been "multiple offers from Russian-affiliated individuals to assist the Trump campaign."

But quoting directly from Mueller's report, Barr said that the special counsel's investigation "did not establish that members of the Trump campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities."

Obstruction

Many observers had predicted the biggest danger to Trump came from a possible accusation of obstruction of justice, particularly over his decision to sack the FBI Director James Comey, who headed the investigation before Mueller.

But Barr said that the evidence outlined in Mueller's report "is not sufficient to establish that the President committed an obstruction-of-justice offense."

"In cataloguing the President's actions, many of which took place in public view, the report identifies no actions that, in our judgement, constitute obstructive conduct," Barr added in his letter.

But while Barr -- who was appointed by Trump -- concluded that the president had not obstructed justice, he acknowledged that Mueller himself was inconclusive on the question of obstruction.

"The Special Counsel therefore did not draw a conclusion -- one way or another -- as to whether the examined conduct constituted obstruction," he said.

"The Special Counsel states that 'while this report does not condluce that the president committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him.'"

No more indictments

Trump's former national security advisor Mike Flynn, his former personal lawyer Michael Cohen and his campaign chairman Paul Manafort are among the 34 individuals already indicted by Mueller but they will be the last, according to Barr.

"The report does not recommend any further indictments nor did the special counsel obtain any sealed indictments that have yet to be made public," Barr said in his letter to the heads of the Senate and House judiciary committees.

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Mueller Report Brings Moment of Reckoning to US Politics

WASHINGTON — 

For many Democrats, Robert Mueller’s investigation has long stood as their best, last chance to take down President Donald Trump before the next election. But what if the big reveal doesn’t reveal much new?

The imminent release of the special counsel’s report marks a moment of reckoning that may deflate Trump critics’ sky-high expectations.

On Capitol Hill at least, Democratic leaders in recent weeks have worked to convince restless liberals across the country that Mueller’s probe of Russian interference into the 2016 campaign was the beginning, rather than the end, of the inquiries. They are mounting far-reaching congressional investigations into Trump’s White House and business dealings, threatening to subpoena Mueller’s testimony and promising an onslaught of high-drama hearings.

It’s unclear whether that’s enough to satisfy the base of the Democratic Party, which has already waited two years for an explosive report, which they’re now told is unlikely to include any more criminal indictments. Liberal activists are already preparing for nationwide protests should the Trump administration not release the full report or appear to be hiding key evidence.

“There is an enormous amount of energy behind this,” said Democratic strategist Zac Petkanas. “And I think people should not underestimate what a White House cover up will unleash if they decide to hide one word of the report or underlying evidence. We are at the beginning of a long fight to ensure that there’s not a cover up.”

Despite the intense scrutiny on the report, polling suggests that most voters’ have hardened views of Trump and allegations of corruption, which won’t change regardless of what Mueller has uncovered. The bigger question becomes, politically at least, how each side will use the investigation to mobilize its voters heading into the 2020 election.

Democrats dominated elections for Congress and statehouses across the country last year, but there’s no guarantee that the anti-Trump energy that fueled their success won’t fade in the coming months. In the Democratic presidential campaign over the weekend, Mueller’s report didn’t surface much as the candidates trying to unseat Trump talked instead about health care, climate change, the economy, gay marriage and slavery reparations.

For Democrats in Congress, pursuing the investigations on their own now is a risky strategy.

In Mueller they had a truth-teller beyond reproach, whose credentials and bipartisan backing gave the questions swirling around Trump more than an air of credibility. Democrats put him “right next to Jesus,” cracked Republican Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio on Sunday. Republicans, for the most part, backed Mueller’s work. As Democrats go it alone, they lose that stamp of impartiality, and expose themselves to Trump’s constant cries of “presidential harassment” or “witch hunt.”

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told Democrats over the weekend Americans “deserve the truth.”

But Republicans, feeling vindicated that Mueller’s report will show no further indictments, are ready to turn. Sen. John Cornyn of Texas tweeted that while the special counsel conducted a criminal investigation, “what will now follow is mainly political harassment leading to, perhaps, a futile impeachment exercise.”

Billionaire liberal activist Tom Steyer, who has been running ads calling for Trump’s impeachment, noted that many Republicans are already suggesting that Mueller’s report clears Trump, even before the details are known. Even if there’s not a new smoking gun involving collusion with the Russians, Steyer said, there’s already more than enough evidence of wrongdoing in other areas to justify removing Trump from office.

“We’ve never agreed with the Democrats who said, ‘Wait for Mueller report, everything else doesn’t matter,’” Steyer said. “We’ve always said this is a broad web of criminality that has been going on before Mr. Trump became president, during his inauguration, and after he became president.”

So far, the Democratic Party’s 2020 presidential field has largely avoided talking about the Mueller report, sidestepping questions about impeachment and calling simply for the report’s full release when asked. Former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke had been the only presidential contender to have called openly for impeachment, but he, too, backed off in recent days, saying instead the matter was up to Congress and the public.

Calls for openness, instead of impeachment, are likely to intensify should the Trump administration release a summary of key findings instead of the full report.

Two years ago, when Mueller first set up shop, his arrival provided a semblance of order after Trump’s surprise election night victory and the questions raised by the intelligence community’s January 2017 findings that Russia interfered with the election in hopes of tilting the outcome to Trump.

Over and over again, when Democrats — and Republicans — were asked about potential wrongdoing or collusion by Trump, they could stand behind Mueller’s eventual report.

Democratic officials, in particular, relied on the special counsel’s work to tamp down their left flank’s calls for impeachment as they waited to learn more about the Trump campaign’s possible collusion with Russia. While the months passed, lawmakers could avoid making tough decisions. Now that shield is being stripped away, without much certainty over what they’ve actually found out and what comes next.

“For many members of Congress the Mueller report has been a way to bid time before taking action,” said Alexandra Flores-Quilty, a spokeswoman for the activist group By the People, which favors impeachment.

“The Mueller investigation has shown us what the American people already know and that’s that Trump and his inner circle are corrupt,” she said. “Our group and many people in the public believe we already have enough information without the Mueller investigation and the Mueller report that we should pursue impeachment now.”

Pelosi has drawn criticism from some in the party for her reluctance to pursue impeachment, but she’s been here before. The speaker views impeachment as politically fraught unless Democrats have the groundswell of public opinion behind them. Front of mind is her experience during the Republican drive to impeach President Bill Clinton, which voters saw as overly partisan, especially once the independent counsel’s report was released, and contributed to GOP electoral losses.

Instead, Pelosi frames the investigations ahead as Congress exerting its constitutional duty to the necessary checks and balances on the executive that voters want. Democrats are sweeping beyond the Russia probe into the president’s potential conflicts — his tax returns, financial dealings, Trump Hotel — in the tangled intersection of business and politics.

Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wa., a member of the Judiciary Committee and co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, said this is perhaps an “unparalleled” moment in the country’s history and Mueller’s work is just the start.

“I don’t think there’s a risk of overreach when you talk about criminal acts — multiple criminal acts — conducted by the top people around the president of the United States,” she said. “We have to lay it out for ourselves and lay it for the people and see where it leads us.”

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Mueller Says No Collusion by Trump or His Campaign, AG Barr Concludes

End of Russia Probe Leaves Washington in Suspense

Washington is in deep suspense over the findings of the Russia probe now that special counsel Robert Mueller has concluded a two-year investigation of Moscow's meddling in the 2016 U.S. election and contacts between President Donald Trump's inner circle and Russia. VOA's Michael Bowman reports, a new battle is brewing over whether and how much of Mueller's report will be made public.

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