Page 8A
NATION/WORLD
East Oregonian
Friday, May 12, 2017
Report paints harrowing
picture of Central
America migration
AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin
Acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe listens on Capitol
Hill in Washington, Thursday, while testifying before
a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on major
threats facing the U.S.
Trump: I was going
to fire that ‘showboat’
no matter what
WASHINGTON (AP) —
Contradicting previous White
House explanations, President
Donald Trump declared
Thursday he had planned
to fire FBI Director James
Comey all along, regardless
of whether top Justice
Department officials recom-
mended the stunning step. His
assertions came as Comey’s
temporary
replacement
joined in, contradicting other
administration statements on
the snowballing controversy.
In an interview with NBC
News, Trump also said he’d
asked Comey point-blank if
he was under investigation
and was assured three times
he was not. Trump showed no
concern that the request might
be viewed as interference in
an active FBI probe into his
2016 campaign’s possible ties
to Russia’s election meddling.
“I said, ‘If it’s possible,
would you let me know am I
under investigation?’ He said
you are not under investiga-
tion,” Trump told NBC. He
said the discussions happened
in two phone calls and at a
dinner in which Comey was
asking to keep his job.
The White House initially
cited a Justice Department
memo criticizing Comey’s
handling of last year’s inves-
tigation into Hillary Clinton’s
emails as the impetus for
Trump’s decision. But Trump
on Thursday acknowledged
for the first time that the
Russia investigation — which
he dismissed as a “made up
story” — was also on his
mind as he ousted the man
overseeing the probe.
The shifting accounts of
the decision to fire Comey,
whom Trump derided as
a “showboat” and “grand-
stander,” added to a mounting
sense of uncertainty and chaos
in the West Wing, as aides
scrambled to get their stories
straight and appease an angry
president. Not even Vice
President Mike Pence was
spared the embarrassment of
having told a version of events
that was later discredited by
Trump.
The White House’s expla-
nations continued to crumble
throughout the day Thursday.
On Capitol Hill, acting FBI
Director Andrew McCabe
strongly disputed the White
House’s assertion that Comey
had been fired in part because
he had lost the confidence of
the FBI’s rank-and-file.
“That is not accurate,”
McCabe said. “Director
Comey enjoyed broad support
within the FBI and still does
to this day.”
Unfazed, White House
spokeswoman Sarah Huck-
abee Sanders insisted she
had heard from “countless”
members of the FBI who
welcomed the decision.
McCabe also pointed
out the remarkable nature of
Trump’s version of his conver-
sations with Comey. McCabe
told a Senate panel it was not
“standard practice” to tell an
individual whether they are or
are not under investigation.
Previous presidents have
made a public show of staying
out of legal matters, so as
not to appear to be injecting
politics. Trump’s comments
demonstrated his striking
deviation from that practice.
The
ousted
director
himself is said to be confident
that his own version of events
will come out, possibly in an
appearance before Congress,
according to an associate who
has been in touch with him
since his firing Tuesday.
The president was not kind
to Comey Thursday, calling
him names and saying he’d left
the FBI in “virtual turmoil.”
He said that while he received
a scathing assessment of
Comey’s performance from
Deputy Attorney General Rod
Rosenstein on Monday, that
memo was not a catalyst for
his dramatic decision as the
White House had said earlier.
“I was going to fire Comey,”
Trump said. “Regardless of
recommendation I was going
to fire Comey.”
That’s far different from the
White House’s initial account
in the hours after Comey’s
firing. Multiple officials,
including Pence, said the pres-
ident was acting at the behest
of Rosenstein and Attorney
General Jeff Sessions.
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MEXICO CITY (AP) — Migrants
from Central America’s violence-
plagued Northern Triangle region
endure harrowing abuses while trying
to make their way through Mexico
toward the United States, a report from
an international medical group said
Thursday.
Doctors Without Borders, or
MSF for its initials in French,
called the situation a “humanitarian
crisis” that demands the U.S. and
Mexican governments do more to
process applications for asylum and
humanitarian visas.
It said the study was based on
surveys and medical data from the last
two years and documents “a pattern
of violent displacement, persecution,
sexual violence and forced
repatriation akin to the conditions
found in the deadliest armed conflicts
in the world today.”
Among its findings:
• Almost 40 percent of those
interviewed said they left home due to
attacks, threats, extortion or attempts at
forced recruitment by gangs in Central
America. About 44 percent of the
migrants had a relative who had died in
the last two years due to violence, and
that rose to 56 percent for those from El
Salvador.
• Nearly 70 percent of those entering
Mexico reported suffering violence
during transit toward the United States,
and nearly a third of women reported
being sexually abused.
• Of the 166 female migrants treated
by MSF for sexual violence, 60 percent
had been raped and the rest were
subjected to other kinds of assault such
as forced nudity. Among 1,817 people
treated for mental health issues, about
47 percent had experienced physical
violence during transit.
Trump launches
commission to
investigate voter fraud
WASHINGTON (AP) — President
Donald Trump signed an executive
order Thursday launching a commission
to review alleged voter fraud and
voter suppression, building upon his
unsubstantiated claims that millions
of people voted illegally in the 2016
election.
The White House said the president’s
“Advisory Commission on Election
Integrity” would examine allegations
of improper voting and fraudulent voter
registration in states and across the
nation. Vice President Mike Pence will
chair the panel and Kansas Secretary of
State Kris Kobach will be vice chair of
the commission, which will report back
to Trump by 2018.
AP Photo/Fernando Llano
In this May 10 photo, Bolivarian National Guards shield themselves
from a jar of fecal matter thrown at them by anti-government protesters
in Caracas, Venezuela. Opponents of President Nicolas Maduro threw
glass jars filled with fecal matter at security forces blocking them
from marching to the Supreme Court to protest its decision to gut the
opposition-controlled congress of its powers — a ruling that was
quickly rescinded under a barrage of international criticism but that set
off weeks of political unrest that have left some three dozens killed.
Trump has alleged, without
evidence, that 3 million to 5 million
people voted illegally in his 2016
election against Democrat Hillary
Clinton. He has vowed since the start
of his administration to investigate
voter fraud, a process that has been
delayed for months.
Last November, Kobach said he
supported Trump’s assertions that
he would have won the popular vote
if “millions” of people hadn’t voted
illegally.
Al-Qaida member who
flipped and helped U.S.
gets time served
NEW YORK (AP) — A federal
judge decided to spare an admitted
homegrown terrorist known as Bashir
the American a long prison term on
Thursday, agreeing he should instead
receive a sentence of time served —
about eight years in mostly solitary
confinement — as credit for becoming a
prized U.S. government cooperator.
Bryant Neal Vinas, 34, grew up
in obscurity on Long Island before
becoming a militant Muslim convert,
relocating to an outlaw region of
Pakistan and scheming with senior
al-Qaida members on how best to attack
the Long Island Rail Road.
“To say I’m remorseful would be an
understatement,” Vinas, his face pale,
said in a flat voice in federal court in
Brooklyn before hearing his sentence.
Outside court, his lawyers said he
was relieved and grateful.
Vinas, of Patchogue, had pleaded
guilty in 2009 to charges he tried to kill
American soldiers and provide support
to al-Qaida before Pakistani authorities
captured him in 2008 and turned him
over to the United States.
U.S. District Judge Nicholas
Garaufis ordered Vinas to remain jailed
another 90 days while authorities assess
his security needs as someone in likely
danger for betraying the terror group
and put him on probation for life. The
judge also agreed with prosecutors that
mental health treatment, vocational
training and continued cooperation
should be mandatory.
More price hikes
likely for government
insurance markets
NEW YORK (AP) Early moves
by insurers suggest that another
round of price hikes and limited
choices will greet insurance shoppers
around the country when they start
searching for next year’s coverage on
the public markets established by the
Affordable Care Act.
Insurance companies are still
making decisions about whether to
offer coverage for individuals next year
on these markets, and price increase
requests are only just starting to be
revealed by state regulators. But in
recent weeks big insurers like Aetna
and Humana have been dropping out of
markets or saying that they aren’t ready
to commit. And regulators in Virginia
and Maryland have reported early price
hike requests ranging from just under 10
percent to more than 50 percent.
Increases like that will probably be
seen in other states, too, as insurers set
prices to account for uncertain support
from a federal government led by a
new president who wants to scrap and
replace the law.
