Reports: Manafort, Associate to Surrender to US Authorities

U.S. media reports say Paul Manafort, who was President Donald Trump's campaign manager for a brief period, has been instructed to turn himself in to authorities on Monday, as part of a special counsel investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

A federal grand jury on Friday approved charges in the probe led by special counsel Robert Mueller, according to several major news outlets that reported the indictment could be made public as soon as Monday.

Both CNN and the New York Times says Manafort, who had wide lobbying interests in Ukraine and links to Russia, has been asked to surrender to authorities. The Times says Manafort's former business associate Rick Gates would also be turning himself in.

Manafort served as Trump's campaign manager from June to August in 2016.

In addition to Mueller's investigation, there are separate congressional probes into Russian meddling and possible links between Trump's campaign and Russia.

The U.S. intelligence community concluded in early 2017 that Russian President Vladimir Putin personally directed a campaign to undermine U.S. democracy and help Trump win

Trump has insisted there was no collusion, including in a series of tweets Sunday in which he said Democrats and his election opponent Hillary Clinton are the ones who are guilty.

"The Dems are using this terrible (and bad for our country) Witch Hunt for evil politics, but the R's [Republicans] are now fighting back like never before," Trump wrote. "There is so much GUILT by Democrats/Clinton, and now the facts are pouring out. DO SOMETHING!"

He further blamed the Russia investigations for taking attention away from Republican efforts on tax reform.

"Is this coincidental? NOT!" Trump said.

Ty Cobb, a member of Trump's legal team, said in a statement that Trump's comments were not related to the developments in Mueller's investigation.

"Contrary to what many have suggested, the President’s comments today are unrelated to the activities of the Special Counsel, with whom he continues to cooperate," Cobb said.

Mueller was believed to be examining activities of Manafort as well as former national security adviser Michael Flynn, who was fired by Trump less than a month after he took office for lying to Vice President Mike Pence and other officials about his contacts with Russia's ambassador to Washington.

Let's block ads! (Why?)

Read More Reports: Manafort, Associate to Surrender to US Authorities : http://ift.tt/2xygKny

Washington Waits for Criminal Charges in Probe of Russia Links to US Election

Washington braced Monday for the potential unsealing of the first criminal charges linked to Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, as President Donald Trump reiterated his stance that the underlying investigations are a "witch hunt."

A federal grand jury on Friday approved charges in the probe led by special counsel Robert Mueller, according to several major news outlets that reported the indictment could be made public as soon as Monday.

There was no public indication of who is facing charges or what crimes are being alleged. Legal experts say the first charges could be against a peripheral figure in the case, with prosecutors using a common strategy to first build their case against lower level officials before focusing on more prominent people.

In addition to Mueller's investigation, there are separate congressional probes into Russian meddling and possible links between Trump's campaign and Russia.

The U.S. intelligence community concluded in early 2017 that Russian President Vladimir Putin personally directed a campaign to undermine U.S. democracy and help Trump win

Trump has insisted there was no collusion, including in a series of tweets Sunday in which he said Democrats and his election opponent Hillary Clinton are the ones who are guilty.

"The Dems are using this terrible (and bad for our country) Witch Hunt for evil politics, but the R's [Republicans] are now fighting back like never before," Trump wrote. "There is so much GUILT by Democrats/Clinton, and now the facts are pouring out. DO SOMETHING!"

He further blamed the Russia investigations for taking attention away from Republican efforts on tax reform.

"Is this coincidental? NOT!" Trump said.

Ty Cobb, a member of Trump's legal team, said in a statement that Trump's comments were not related to the developments in Mueller's investigation.

"Contrary to what many have suggested, the President’s comments today are unrelated to the activities of the Special Counsel, with whom he continues to cooperate," Cobb said.

Mueller is believed to be examining activities of two key Trump campaign officials, former national security adviser Michael Flynn, who was fired by Trump less than a month after he took office for lying to Vice President Mike Pence and other officials about his contacts with Russia's ambassador to Washington, and Paul Manafort, who for a short time last year was Trump's campaign manager and also had wide lobbying interests in Ukraine and links to Russia.

Let's block ads! (Why?)

Read More Washington Waits for Criminal Charges in Probe of Russia Links to US Election : http://ift.tt/2hofX2J

Trump Tax Overhaul Under Intensifying Fire as Congress Readies Bill

WASHINGTON — 

President Donald Trump's plan for overhauling the U.S. tax system faced growing opposition from interest groups on Sunday, as Republicans prepare to unveil sweeping legislation that could eliminate some of the most popular tax breaks to help pay for lower taxes.

Republicans who control the U.S. House of Representatives will not reveal their bill until Wednesday. But the National Association of Home Builders, a powerful housing industry trade group, is already vowing to defeat it over a change for home mortgage deductions, while Republican leaders try to head off opposition to possible changes to individual retirement savings and state and local tax payments.

Trump and Republicans have vowed to enact tax reform this year for the first time since 1986. But the plan to deliver up to $6 trillion in tax cuts for businesses and individuals faces challenges even from rank-and-file House Republicans.

House and Senate Republicans are on a fast-track to pass separate tax bills before the Nov. 23 U.S. Thanksgiving holiday, iron out differences in December, send a final version to Trump's desk before January and ultimately hand the president his first major legislative victory. Analysts say there is a good chance the tax overhaul will be delayed until next year.

The NAHB, which boasts 130,000 member firms employing 9 million workers, says the bill would harm U.S. home prices by marginalizing the value of mortgage interest deductions as an incentive for buying homes. The trade group wants legislation to offer a $5,500 tax credit but says it was rebuffed by House Republican leaders.

"We're opposed to the tax bill without the tax credit in there, and we'll be working very aggressively to see it defeated," NAHB chief executive Jerry Howard told Reuters.

Republicans warned that the Trump tax plan is entering a new and difficult phase as lobbyists ramp up pressure on lawmakers to spare their pet tax breaks.

"When groups start rallying against things and they succeed, everything starts unraveling," Senator Bob Corker, a leading Republican fiscal hawk, told CBS' Face the Nation.

Anxiety in high-tax states

One of the biggest challenges involves a proposal to eliminate the federal deduction for state and local taxes (SALT), which analysts say would hit upper middle-class families in high income tax states such as New York, New Jersey and California. The states are home to enough House Republicans to stymie legislation.

The top House Republican on tax policy gave ground over the weekend, saying he would allow a deduction for some local taxes to remain.

"We are restoring an itemized property tax deduction to help taxpayers with local tax burdens," House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady said in a statement.

But the gesture appeared to do little to turn the tide of opposition to SALT's elimination.

"I'm not going to sign onto anything until the full package is fully analyzed by economists," Representative Peter King of New York told the Fox News program Sunday Morning Futures. "The fact that we're getting it at the eleventh hour raises real issues with me," he added.

A lobby coalition representing state and local governments, realtors and public unions rejected Brady's statement outright, saying the move would "unfairly penalize taxpayers in states that rely significantly on income taxes."

House Republicans have also faced opposition from Trump and others after proposing to sharply curtail tax-free contributions to 401(k) programs and move retirement savings to a style of account that allows tax-free withdrawals, rather than the tax-exempt contributions that are popular with 401(k) investors.

House Republicans now say they could permit higher 401(k) contribution limits but continue to talk about tax-free withdrawals. "We will expand the amount that you can invest. But we'll also give you an option to actually not be taxed later in life," House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy told Fox News.
The current cap on annual 401(k) tax-free contributions is $18,000.

Corker said congressional tax committees seem to be falling short of their goal to eliminate $4 trillion in tax breaks to prevent the Trump plan from adding to the federal deficit.

"They're having great difficulty just getting to $3.6 trillion," said the Tennessee Republican, who has vowed to vote against tax reform if it increases a federal debt load that stands at more than $20 trillion.

Ohio's Republican governor, John Kasich, told Fox News Sunday that spending on entitlement programs such as Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security should also be reviewed as part of the effort to pay for tax cuts.

"It may be separate from the tax bill, but it needs to happen," Kasich said.

Let's block ads! (Why?)

Read More Trump Tax Overhaul Under Intensifying Fire as Congress Readies Bill : http://ift.tt/2zgdwd0

Washington Abuzz Over Reported Charges in Russia Probe

Washington is abuzz over news reports a grand jury has approved the first charges stemming from the special counsel’s probe of Russian meddling in last year’s U.S. election. VOA’s Michael Bowman reports, the exact charges and who stands accused of wrongdoing could be revealed at any moment.

Let's block ads! (Why?)

Read More Washington Abuzz Over Reported Charges in Russia Probe : http://ift.tt/2zhyrfV

Puerto Rico Governor Calls for Cancellation of Power Grid Repair Contract

The governor of Puerto Rico, the U.S. territory that was devastated by a hurricane a month ago, called Sunday for the immediate cancellation of a contract to restore electrical power to the Caribbean island as questions grow about the small company that was awarded the work.

Governor Ricardo Rossello said the board of the island's power company should rescind the $300 million pact with Whitefish Energy Holdings, an upstart repair company in Montana, a western U.S. state, even though just days ago he defended the contract. The island awarded the contract without a normal public bidding process that would have allowed other companies to compete for the work.

He said the contract with Whitefish Energy had become a distraction after critics in the electric power industry, Congress and the Federal Emergency Management Agency raised questions.

Rossello said that at least $8 million has been paid to Whitefish so far, but "there cannot be any kind of distraction that alters the commitment to restore electrical power as soon as possible in Puerto Rico."

He asked that power crews from New York and Florida be dispatched to help restore power.

Some Democratic lawmakers in Washington questioned what influence the administration of President Donald Trump might have played in the awarding of the contract. Whitefish is based in the Montana town of the same name, which also is the hometown of Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke.

Democratic Congressman Raul Grijalva of Arizona said, "Congress needs to understand why the Whitefish contract was awarded and whether other, more cost-effective options were available." Some critics of the deal with the for-profit company say the island should have opted to use a mutual-aid network of public utilities that usually are called on for massive repair work after natural disasters.

The Department of Homeland Security says its has started an investigation of the awarding of the contract and will look for any "inappropriate relationships."

The Associated Press obtained Whitefish's contract, which called for payments of $20,277 an hour for a heavy lift Chinook helicopter, $650 an hour for a large crane truck, $322 an hour for a foreman of a power line crew, $319 an hour for a journeyman lineman and $286 an hour for a mechanic. Each worker also gets a daily allowance of $80 for food, $332 for a hotel room and $1,000 for each flight to or from the U.S. mainland.

Whitefish, which had just two employees when it won the contract, but since hired more than 300, had started work on restoring electrical power to the island, where only about 30 percent of the island's 3.7 million residents have had power since Hurricane Maria ravaged the territory and decimated its electrical grid system.

Rossello has said he hopes the island will have most of its power grid back in operation by the end of the year, but if bidding is opened for the repairs that could push back restoration of power.

Let's block ads! (Why?)

Read More Puerto Rico Governor Calls for Cancellation of Power Grid Repair Contract : http://ift.tt/2gTw3V0

Washington Braces for First Charges in Probe of Russia Links to US Election

WASHINGTON — 

Washington is bracing for the first criminal charges linked to Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, even as President Donald Trump continued to claim Sunday the investigations are a "Witch Hunt for evil politics."

A federal grand jury on Friday approved charges in the investigation led by special counsel Robert Mueller, according to several major news outlets, and the allegations could be disclosed Monday, with a suspect taken into custody.

It was not immediately known who is being targeted or the nature of the charges. They are under seal, by order of a federal judge.

But the allegations would mark a significant milestone in Trump's nine-month White House tenure. He has often disparaged the investigations, Mueller's and three congressional probes, into links between his campaign and Russia, arguing they are attempts by Democrats to explain his stunning upset of his challenger, former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

In a Twitter comment last week, Trump contended, "It is now commonly agreed, after many months of COSTLY looking, that there was NO collusion between Russia and Trump. Was collusion with HC!," referring to Clinton.

On Sunday, he said he had "never seen such Republican ANGER & UNITY as I have concerning the lack of investigation on Clinton" into her campaign's funding of research into Trump's links to Russia, which was started by a conservative news outlet, the Washington Free Beacon, and later continued by the Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee at what he suggested was a cost of $12 million.

A former British intelligence officer was hired for the investigation and produced what Trump said was a "Fake dossier" about his business ties to Russia, as well as making unsubstantiated claims linking him to Moscow prostitutes.

Trump said Republicans are also angry at the lack of probes into a 2013 uranium deal in which Russia took control of 20 percent of the U.S. production and purported links to funding of Clinton's charitable foundation, the involvement of former Federal Bureau of Investigation director James Comey in probing Clinton's handling of classified material on her private e-mail server when she was the country's top diplomat from 2009 to 2013, "and so much more.

"Instead they look at phony Trump/Russia 'collusion,' which doesn't exist," Trump said. "The Dems are using this terrible [and bad for our country] Witch Hunt for evil politics, but the R's are now fighting back like never before. There is so much GUILT by Democrats/Clinton, and now the facts are pouring out. DO SOMETHING!"

The U.S. intelligence community concluded in early 2017 that Russian President Vladimir Putin personally directed a campaign to undermine U.S. democracy and help Trump win. But none of the months-long probes has been completed yet or reached conclusions, contrary to Trump's contention.

In addition to examining the Russian involvement, Mueller is probing whether Trump obstructed justice when he fired Comey, who was heading the agency's Russia investigation before Mueller, a former FBI director, was named to take over.

Trump has said he was thinking of "this Russia thing" when he decided to dismiss Comey last May and a day later boasted to Russian officials in a White House meeting that he had removed "great pressure" from his presidency by ousting Comey. He described Comey as "crazy, a real nut job."

But days later, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein named Mueller to lead the investigation after Attorney General Jeff Sessions had recused himself, much to Trump's chagrin, from handling any aspect of the Russia investigation.

Legal experts say the first charges could be against a peripheral figure in the case, with prosecutors using a common strategy to first build their case against lower level officials before focusing on more prominent people.

CNN reported lawyers working on Mueller's team were seen entering the federal courtroom in Washington, D.C., on Friday, where the grand jury meets to hear testimony.

Mueller is believed to be examining activities of two key Trump campaign officials, former national security adviser Michael Flynn, who was fired by Trump less than a month after he assumed power for lying to Vice President Mike Pence and other officials about his contacts with Russia's ambassador to Washington, and Michael Manafort, who for a short time last year was Trump's campaign manager and also had wide lobbying interests in Ukraine and links to Russia.

Some Republicans have begun to call for an end to the investigations, but one key Republican lawmaker, Congressman Trey Gowdy, told Fox News Sunday he would encourage members of his party to give Mueller "a chance to do his job. He hasn't done anything to cause a lack of confidence in him... he is a pretty apolitical guy." Gowdy said he opposes cutting Mueller's funding for the investigation.

Gowdy, as chairman of the House of Representatives government oversight panel, last week opened an investigation into Comey's and the FBI's handling of its probe into Clinton's use of the private email server.

Let's block ads! (Why?)

Read More Washington Braces for First Charges in Probe of Russia Links to US Election : http://ift.tt/2yZMOUZ

Report: DeVos Considers Only Partial Debt Relief for Defrauded Students

WASHINGTON — 

The Education Department is considering only partially forgiving federal loans for students defrauded by for-profit colleges, The Associated Press has learned, abandoning the Obama administration’s policy of fully erasing that debt.

Under President Barack Obama, tens of thousands of students deceived by now-defunct for-profit schools had more than $550 million in such loans canceled completely.

But President Donald Trump’s education secretary, Betsy DeVos, is working on a plan that could grant such students only partial relief, according to department officials who were not authorized to publicly comment on the issue and spoke on condition of anonymity. The department may look at the average earnings of students in similar programs and schools to determine how much debt to wipe away.

Hints of new approach

If DeVos goes ahead, the change could leave many students scrambling after expecting full loan forgiveness, based on the previous administration’s track record. It was not immediately clear how many students might be affected.

A department spokeswoman did not immediately respond to a request for comment Saturday.

But the Trump team has given hints of a new approach.

In August, the department extended its contract with a staffing agency to speed up the processing of a backlog of loan forgiveness claims. In the procurement notice, the department said that “policy changes may necessitate certain claims already processed be revisited to assess other attributes.” The department would not further clarify the meaning of that notice.

Advocates: unjustified, unfair

DeVos’ review prompted an outcry from student loan advocates, who said the idea of giving defrauded students only partial loan relief was unjustified and unfair because many of their classmates had already gotten full loan cancellation. Critics say the Trump administration, which has ties to the for-profit sector, is looking out for industry interests.

Earlier this year, Trump paid $25 million to settle charges his Trump University misled students.

“Anything other than full cancellation is not a valid outcome,” said Eileen Connor, a litigator at Harvard University’s Project on Predatory Student Lending, which has represented hundreds of defrauded students of the now-shuttered Corinthian Colleges. “The nature of the wrong that was done to them, the harm is even bigger than the loans that they have.”

“Even more importantly, it is completely unfair that a happenstance of timing is going to mean that one student who’s been defrauded is going to have full cancellation and the next is not,” Connor said.

1990s regulation

A federal regulation known as borrower defense allows students at for-profit colleges and other vocational programs to have their loans forgiven if it is determined that the students were defrauded by the schools. That rule dates to the early 1990s. But it was little used until the demise of Corinthian and ITT for-profit chains in recent years caused tens of thousands of students to request that the government cancel their loans.

In the last few months of the Obama administration, the Education Department updated the rule to add protections for students, shift more financial responsibility onto the schools and prevent schools from having students sign away their right to sue a school.

That change was set to take effect in July, but DeVos has frozen it and is working on a new version. She argued that the Obama regulation was too broad and could cancel the loans of some students without a sound basis.

65,000 claims waiting

DeVos has come under criticism for delaying consideration of more than 65,000 applications for loan forgiveness under the borrower defense rule. The agency hasn’t approved a single claim since DeVos took office in February.

Jennifer Wang, an expert with the Institute of College Access and Success, said the Obama administration was providing full loan cancellations to students.

“It would be totally different from what was happening under the last administration,” Wang said. “It’s not equitable; it’s not fair for students. If she provides partial relief, it’s that she only cares what’s fair for schools and not students.”

Abby Shafroth, an attorney at the National Consumer Law Center, said the agency could be faced with lawsuits, especially from Corinthian students, whose classmates had received full forgiveness.

Let's block ads! (Why?)

Read More Report: DeVos Considers Only Partial Debt Relief for Defrauded Students : http://ift.tt/2iKMenR