NATION
Saturday, March 11, 2017
East Oregonian
Page 13A
Jobs report no longer phony,
Trump says, now that it’s his
Associated Press
AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File
In this Feb. 13 file photo, Mike Flynn arrives for a news
conference in the East Room of the White House in
Washington.
Trump transition knew
Flynn might register
as a foreign agent
WASHINGTON (AP) —
President Donald Trump’s
transition team learned
before the inauguration
that incoming National
Security Adviser Michael
Flynn might register with
the government as a foreign
agent, White House officials
acknowledged Friday.
The disclosure suggests
that
Trump
transition
lawyers did not view Flynn’s
lobbying work for a Turkish
businessman as a liability for
an official who serves as the
president’s closest adviser
on security and international
affairs. It also raises new
questions about whether
Trump’s transition team,
and later his White House
lawyers, fully vetted Flynn.
Flynn’s
registration
this week with the Justice
Department
disclosed
lobbying by him and his firm
that may have benefited the
government of Turkey.
Trump fired Flynn last
month on other grounds
— that he misled Vice
President Mike Pence and
other White House officials
about his conversations with
Russia’s ambassador to the
U.S. Flynn’s registration
comes amid intense scrutiny
over his and other Trump
associates’ potential contacts
with Russia. The FBI is
investigating, as are House
and Senate intelligence
committees.
Flynn registered with
the Justice Department on
Tuesday, citing $530,000
worth of lobbying. His work
on behalf of a company
owned by Turkish busi-
nessman Ekim Alptekin
occurred at the same time
he was advising Trump’s
presidential campaign.
White House spokesman
Sean Spicer said Trump had
not been aware Flynn might
register as a foreign agent.
He said Flynn’s lawyer had
raised the possible filing
with the transition team, but
Trump’s attorneys responded
that it was a personal matter
and not something they
would consult on.
“It’s a business matter, it’s
not something that would be
appropriate for a government
entity to give someone guid-
ance on when they should
file as an individual,” Spicer
said. He dismissed questions
about whether Flynn’s work
should have raised red flags
for the new administration,
saying the retired Army
lieutenant
general
had
“impeccable credentials.”
Among those told of
Flynn’s lobbying work
during the transition was
Don McGahn, a campaign
lawyer who has gone on
to become White House
counsel, according to a
person with direct knowledge
of the conversations between
Flynn’s representatives and
the transition team.
A White House official
said McGahn and others
were not aware of the details
of Flynn’s work. It’s not clear
why the Trump advisers did
not seek additional informa-
tion once Flynn’s lawyers
raised the potential filing.
According to the person
with knowledge of the discus-
sions, Flynn’s representatives
had a second conversation
with Trump lawyers after the
inauguration and made clear
the national security adviser
would indeed be registering
with the Justice Department.
The White House official
said the counsel’s office had
no recollection of that second
discussion.
Both the White House
official and person with
knowledge of the discussions
insisted on anonymity in
“It’s not something
that would be
appropriate for a
government agency
to give someone
guidance on.”
— Sean Spicer,
White House
Press Secretary
order to disclose the private
conversations.
In the filings with the
Justice Department’s Foreign
Agent Registration Unit,
Flynn and his firm, Flynn
Intel Group, Inc., acknowl-
edged that his work for
Alptekin’s company “could
be construed to have princi-
pally benefited the Republic
of Turkey.” The lobbying on
behalf of Inovo BV, a Dutch-
based company owned by
Alptekin, occurred from
August through November.
Flynn’s filing said that
he and his firm were not
certain whether Turkey’s
government was involved
in Inovo’s hiring of them
as lobbyists. The firm said
it was aware, however, that
Alptekin “consulted with
officials of the Republic of
Turkey regarding potential
work by Flynn Intel Group.”
The firm also acknowl-
edged
that
Alptekin
introduced Flynn to two
senior Turkish government
officials in September, but
it identified them only by
their titles. The officials
included in the meeting were
Turkey’s minister of foreign
affairs, Mevlut Cavusoglu,
and Turkish Energy Minister
Berat Albayrak, who is Presi-
dent Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s
son-in-law.
In an interview with the
AP, Alptekin said Flynn
and his firm filed the regis-
tration under pressure from
Justice Department officials.
Alptekin said he disagreed
with the decision to register.
He also said he had asked for
some of his money back.
In an interview Thursday
with Fox News, Vice Pres-
ident Pence said he was
unaware of Flynn’s foreign
agent work until this week,
but called the disclosure “an
affirmation of the president’s
decision to ask Gen. Flynn to
resign.”
In November, Maryland
Rep. Elijah Cummings, the
top Democrat on the House
Oversight Committee, sent
Pence a letter warning about
conflicts created by Flynn’s
lobbying work.
“If the vice president
had heeded my warnings,
it’s clear now he could have
prevented the problems
that occurred with Lt. Gen.
Flynn,” Cummings said
Friday.
After Flynn joined the
administration, he agreed
not to lobby for five years
after leaving government
service and never to repre-
sent foreign governments.
It appears that his work
wouldn’t violate the pledge
because it occurred before
he joined the administration.
The pledge bars Flynn from
ever doing the same type of
work again in his lifetime.
Under the Foreign Agents
Registration Act, U.S. citi-
zens who lobby on behalf
of foreign governments
or political entities must
disclose their work to the
Justice Department. Willfully
failing to register is a felony,
though the department rarely
files criminal charges in such
cases. It routinely works with
lobbying firms to help them
by registering and disclosing
their work.
WASHINGTON — President
Donald Trump is embracing govern-
ment numbers he once maligned as
“phony” as he tries to take credit for
the latest U.S. jobs report.
The new administration on Friday
promoted Labor Department statistics
that show U.S. employers added
235,000 jobs in February. The unem-
ployment rate dipped to 4.7 percent
from 4.8 percent.
“Great news for American workers:
economy added 235,000 new jobs,
unemployment rate drops to 4.7%
in first report for @POTUS Trump,”
tweeted White House Press Secretary
Sean Spicer. “Not a bad way to start
day 50 of this administration,” he later
said.
What a difference from last year’s
presidential campaign, when Trump
repeatedly assailed the report’s legiti-
macy.
Back then, candidate Trump
denounced “phony unemployment
numbers” he claimed had been
invented to make the Democrats look
good.
“Don’t believe those phony
numbers when you hear 4.9 and 5
percent unemployment. The number’s
probably 28, 29, as high as 35,” he said
last February, on the day of the New
Hampshire presidential primary.
“The 5 percent figure is one of the
biggest hoaxes in modern politics,” he
said.
That’s last year’s 5 percent, not the
new numbers reported on his watch.
Asked about the apparent discon-
nect, Spicer offered a smile and a quip:
“I talked to the president prior to this,
and he said to quote him very clearly:
‘They may have been phony in the
past, but it’s very real now.’”
During a speech at the Detroit
Economic club last year, Trump pointed
to figures that show one in five Amer-
ican households do not have a single
member in the labor force. He failed
to mention the one in five includes
children, young people in school and
senior citizens who are retired.
Though the jobless report has been
AP Photo/Andrew Harnik
White House press secretary Sean Spicer holds up a Trump Administra-
tion document to “repeal and replace Obamacare” as he talks to the
media at the White House in Washington, Friday.
criticized by others for omitting people
who aren’t actively searching for work,
it provides a benchmark that is similar
to most other nations.
While business and consumer confi-
dence have risen since the presidential
election, economists also say it’s too
soon for Trump to be taking credit for
jobs.
“No new economic policies have
yet been enacted,” said Scott Anderson,
chief economist at Bank of the West.
Instead, he pointed to an unusually
mild winter that likely boosted hiring
by construction firms.
Cold weather in February typically
shuts down work sites across much of
the country. But last month was the
second-warmest February since 1895,
helping construction firms add the
most new jobs in a decade.
A survey of small businesses shows
that their optimism is up since the
election, reaching the highest level in
12 years in January, according to the
National Federation of Independent
Business. Other measures also show
greater business confidence.
But many of the corporate
announcements of new jobs that Trump
has promoted — by ExxonMobil,
Intel and Ford, for example — will
take place over many years and were
already planned before the election.
Trump and Republicans have been
quick to claim credit nonetheless.
“The February jobs report exceeded
expectations by 50,000 jobs,” said the
Republican National Committee in an
email, “another sign President Donald
Trump’s pro-growth agenda is spurring
businesses to hire ‘aggressively.’”
Spicer, meanwhile, may have
jumped the gun with his tweets. A
1985 rule bars executive branch offi-
cials from commenting publicly on
economic data until at least an hour
after its release. Jason Furman, Pres-
ident Barack Obama’s top economic
adviser, said on Twitter that the rule
was intended to prevent White House
officials, some of whom see the report
a day early, from immediately spinning
the data.
Spicer downplayed that mini-
controversy, saying he didn’t think
happily touting news that had been
widely reported was “exactly a market
disruption.”
“I apologize if we were a little
excited and we’re so glad to see so
many fellow Americans back to work.”
Judge not ready to rule on new travel ban
By LISA BAUMANN
Associated Press
SEATTLE — A federal
judge in Seattle who issued
the order temporarily halting
nationwide implementation
of President Donald Trump’s
initial travel ban said Friday
that because of procedural
reasons he won’t immedi-
ately rule on whether his
restraining order applies to
the new travel ban.
U.S. District Judge James
Robart said in an order that
motions or a complaint over
the revised ban need to be
filed before he can make
a decision. The states of
Washington and Minnesota,
as well as the Justice Depart-
ment, have only so far filed
notices.
The U.S. Justice Depart-
ment said in a filing this week
that the original order had
been revoked and that the
court’s restraining order does
not limit the government’s
ability to immediately begin
enforcing the new order.
AP Photo/Elaine Thompson
Washington State Attorney General Bob Fergu-
son speaks at a news conference about the state’s
response to President Trump’s revised travel ban
Thursday in Seattle.
The states of Washington
and Minnesota in a response
notice argue that sections of
the new order have the same
effect as the original one and
that the federal government
can’t unilaterally decide to
change a court’s previous
ruling.
Trump’s revised ban
blocks new visas for people
from six predominantly
Muslim countries including
Somalia, Iran, Syria, Sudan,
Libya and Yemen.
It also temporarily shuts
down the U.S. refugee
program. Unlike the original
order, the new one says
current visa holders won’t
be affected, and it removes
language that would give
priority to religious minori-
ties.
Washington was the
first state to sue over the
original ban, which resulted
in Robart stopping its
implementation around the
country. The lawsuit says
the initial travel ban was
unconstitutional and hurt
the state’s businesses and
universities.
Washington
state
Attorney General Bob
Ferguson said earlier this
week that the revised
travel ban has “the same
illegal motivations as the
original.”
White House spokesman
Sean Spicer said Thursday
the administration believed
the revised travel ban will
stand up to legal scrutiny.
On Twitter Friday, the
Washington state Attorney
General’s Office said
Ferguson is reviewing
Robart’s Friday’s order
with his legal team to deter-
mine next steps.
The revised travel ban is
scheduled to go into effect
Thursday.
BRIEFLY
Attorney general
seeks resignations of
46 U.S. attorneys
WASHINGTON (AP) — Attorney
General Jeff Sessions is seeking
the resignations of 46 United States
attorneys who were holdovers from
the Obama administration, the Justice
Department said Friday.
Many of the federal prosecutors
who were nominated by former
President Barack Obama have already
left their positions, but the nearly
four dozen who stayed on in the first
weeks of the Trump administration
have been asked to leave “in order to
ensure a uniform transition,” Justice
Department spokeswoman Sarah
Isgur Flores said.
“Until the new U.S. attorneys
are confirmed, the dedicated career
prosecutors in our U.S. attorney’s
offices will continue the great work
of the department in investigating,
prosecuting and deterring the most
violent offenders,” she said in a
statement.
By Friday evening, U.S. attorneys
around the country — including in
New Jersey, Rhode Island, Minnesota
and Arkansas — had publicly
announced their resignations.
It’s fairly customary for the 93 U.S.
attorneys to leave their positions after
a new president is in office, but the
departures are not automatic and don’t
necessarily happen all at once.
The action Friday was similar to
one taken in 1993 by then-Attorney
General Janet Reno, who soon after
taking office sought the resignations
of the U.S. attorneys appointed by
President George H.W. Bush. At the
time, Sessions was the U.S. attorney
in Alabama.
Conservatives want
health bill changes,
House leaders resist
WASHINGTON (AP) —
Conservative Republicans demanded
tougher changes Friday in insurance
requirements and Medicaid than the
House GOP health care bill proposes
and warned they’d oppose the
legislation if it isn’t reshaped. The
White House signaled an openness
to negotiate, but there was resistance
from House leaders.
Less than two weeks before the
GOP’s showpiece legislation is slated
to hit the House floor, the discord
underscored the challenge facing top
Republicans trying to garner votes for
legislation scrapping former President
Barack Obama’s health care overhaul.
It also raised questions about
whether congressional leaders
reluctant to make changes were
lagging behind a White House more
willing to cut deals. And it illustrated
anew the strained relationship between
GOP leaders and some conservatives,
even as the party tries to deliver one of
its highest profile goals.
“If that’s the best that they can do,
then perhaps they have a different
whip count than I have,” said Rep.
Mark Meadows, R-N.C., head of the
conservative House Freedom Caucus,
suggesting the legislation lacked
enough votes to pass.
One conservative priority is
quickly halting the extra money
Obama’s law gives states to expand
the federal-state Medicaid program
for 70 million low-income people.
The GOP bill would end that
additional funding in 2020 except for
recipients already in the program, but
conservatives want to accelerate that
to 2018 to save money.
At the White House, spokesman
Sean Spicer suggested President
Donald Trump was flexible.
“If someone’s got an idea that can
make this legislation more accessible,
give more choice to the American
people, drive down costs, make it
more patient-centered, he wants to
listen,” Spicer said, noting Trump
is “willing to listen to different
individuals.”
about the Medicaid date but added,
“Right now the date that’s in the bill is
what the president supports.”