NATION/WORLD
Wednesday, August 2, 2017
East Oregonian
year’s presidential election.
The vote was 92-5 for Wray, a former
high-ranking official in President George
W. Bush’s Justice Department who oversaw
investigations into corporate fraud. Wray,
50, inherits the FBI at a particularly
challenging time given Trump’s ousting of
Comey, who was admired within the bureau.
“This is a tough time to take this tough
job,” Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., said
during a relatively low-key Senate debate of
the nomination. “The previous FBI director,
as we know, was fired because of the Russia
investigation. The former acting attorney
general was fired. And we’ve had a slew
of other firings throughout the government
over the last few months.”
Wray won unanimous support from the
Senate Judiciary Committee last month,
with Republicans and Democrats praising
his promise never to let politics get in the
way of the bureau’s mission.
Tillerson concedes Russia ties
are sour, but holds out hope
WASHINGTON (AP) — The top
American diplomat put the onus on Russia
Tuesday to take steps to repair flagging
relations with the United States, even as
he conceded that congressional sanctions
would pose a new obstacle. Holding out
hope for warmer ties, Secretary of State Rex
Tillerson said he’d meet with his Russian
counterpart within days.
In a wide-ranging assessment of his first
six months in office, Tillerson also:
• Revealed the U.S. is looking at options
to entice Venezuelan President Nicolas
Maduro to leave power peacefully.
• Insisted the U.S. doesn’t blame China
for North Korea’s nuclear behavior despite
the American pressure on Beijing. He said
the U.S. is open to talks with Pyongyang.
• Argued that Iran’s military must leave
Syria for the U.S. to cooperate with Russia
on ending the Syrian civil war.
• Named retired Gen. Anthony Zinni as
special representative to try to resolve the
Persian Gulf diplomatic crisis over Qatar.
But on Russia, Tillerson strained hardest
to point to progress.
He was unable to show that the U.S. has
fulfilled President Donald Trump’s objective
of a new, more cooperative relationship
between the former Cold War foes, noting
only modest efforts in Syria as a sign the
nations share some common goals. While
he said frustrated Americans want the U.S.
to get along with the nuclear-armed power,
he did not address the deep suspicions
at home about the president’s intentions.
U.S. intelligence agencies have formally
accused Moscow of meddling in the 2016
presidential election to help Trump.
Venezuelan opposition leaders
jailed as crisis escalates
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Teams of
heavily armed security agents seized two of
Venezuela’s top opposition leaders from their
homes in the middle of the night Tuesday,
dragging one into the street in his pajamas as
President Nicolas Maduro’s government defied
U.S. sanctions and international condemnation
of a plan to assume nearly unlimited powers.
Page 7A
AP Photo/Eraldo Peres
An activist protests, dressed with a mask of Brazil’s President Michel Temer,
as he holds fake 100 Brazilian real notes and a sign that reads in Portuguese
“I buy votes,” at the arrivals area of the airport in Brasilia, Brazil, Tuesday.
Temer faces a congressional vote on his future Wednesday, a showdown com-
ing in a month dreaded by leaders of Latin America’s largest nation.
Leopoldo Lopez and Antonio Ledezma
were being held at the Ramo Verde military
prison south of the capital, accused by
the government-allied Supreme Court of
violating the terms of their house arrest
by plotting to escape and releasing video
statements criticizing Maduro.
Both men’s allies denied the charges
and vowed to continue to try to push the
ruling party from power. But they gave little
indication of how they planned to do that,
and the capital was unusually quiet after
months of sometimes violent protests. While
the United States and some Latin American
allies condemned the arrests, many other
nations and international organizations were
silent or limited themselves to expressions of
concern.
Lopez’s supporters released a video
he taped last week saying he expected to
be imprisoned again soon, and calling on
Venezuelans to be firm in resisting Maduro.
“If you are looking at this video now, it’s
precisely because that occurred, because
they came and they illegally imprisoned me
again unjustly, a prisoner of consciousness, a
prisoner for my ideas, a prisoner for wanting a
better Venezuela,” the 46-year-old Lopez said.
Maduro appeared undeterred in his plans
to seat a special assembly this week with
powers to rewrite the country’s constitution
and override any other branch of the
Venezuelan government. He has threatened
to use those powers to go after his opponents
and the arrests Tuesday appeared to show he
was willing to proceed with full force.
Senate confirms Christopher
Wray, Trump’s FBI choice
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate
on Tuesday overwhelmingly confirmed
Christopher Wray to lead the FBI, replacing
James Comey, who was abruptly fired
by President Donald Trump amid the
investigation into Russian meddling in last
Lawsuit: Fox coordinated with
White House on false story
NEW YORK (AP) — A lawsuit filed
Tuesday lays out an explosive tale of Trump
allies, the White House and Fox News
Channel conspiring to push a false story
about Democratic leaks and an unsolved
killing in order to distract attention from the
Russia investigation that has been swirling
around the president
The lawsuit was filed against Fox by an
investigator who had been looking into the
killing of Seth Rich, a former Democratic
National Committee staff member killed
in 2016 in what police say was a botched
robbery. The investigator alleges that Fox
quoted him as saying things he never said
and was willing to show President Donald
Trump its story before it was posted online.
It’s the second time in two days that
Trump has been accused of being actively
involved in pushing a public narrative to
lower the heat of the Russia story. The
Washington Post reported that the president
had written a misleading statement for his
son to give to The New York Times about
Donald Trump Jr.’s meeting last summer
with a Russian who promised dirt on
Democrat Hillary Clinton’s presidential
campaign.
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