NATION/WORLD
Tuesday, June 5, 2018
East Oregonian
Page 9A
BRIEFLY
Trump, lawyers lay out
expansive presidential
powers view
AP Photo/Oliver de Ros
A firefighter carries the body of a child recovered near the Volcan de Fuego, which means
Volcano of Fire in Spanish, in Escuintla, Guatemala, Monday. A fiery volcanic eruption in
south-central Guatemala sent lava flowing into rural communities, killing dozens.
65 killed in Guatemalan eruption
By SONIA PEREZ D.
Associated Press
EL RODEO, Guatemala —
Rescuers pulled survivors and
bodies from the charred after-
math of the powerful eruption
of Guatemala’s Volcano of Fire,
as the death toll rose to 65 on
Monday and was expected to go
higher from a disaster that caught
residents of remote mountain
hamlets off guard, with little or
no time to flee to safety.
Using shovels and back-
hoes, emergency workers dug
through the debris and mud,
perilous labor on smoldering
terrain still hot enough to melt
shoe soles a day after the vol-
cano exploded in a hail of ash,
smoke and molten rock.
Bodies were so thickly
coated with ash that they
looked like statues, and rescu-
ers were forced to use sledge-
hammers to break through
the roofs of houses buried in
debris up to their rooflines
to try to see if anyone was
trapped inside.
In the afternoon, Fanuel
Garcia, director of the National
Institute of Forensic Sciences,
said 62 bodies had been recov-
ered and 13 of those had
been identified. Guatemala’s
national disaster agency later
raised the toll to 65.
“It is very difficult for us
to identify them because some
of the dead lost their features
or their fingerprints” from the
red-hot flows, Garcia said.
“We are going to have to resort
to other methods ... and if pos-
sible take DNA samples to
identify them.”
Hilda Lopez said her
mother and sister were still
missing after the slurry of hot
gas, ash and rock roared into
her village of San Miguel Los
Lotes, just below the moun-
tain’s flanks.
“We were at a party, cel-
ebrating the birth of a baby,
when one of the neighbors
shouted at us to come out and
see the lava that was com-
ing,” the distraught woman
said. “We didn’t believe it, and
when we went out the hot mud
was already coming down the
street.”
“My mother was stuck
there, she couldn’t get out,”
said Lopez, weeping and hold-
ing her face in her hands.
Her husband, Joel Gonza-
lez, said his father had also
been unable to escape and was
believed to be “buried back
there, at the house.”
Guatemalan authorities say
they had been closely monitor-
ing the Volcano of Fire, one of
Central America’s most active,
after activity picked up around
6 a.m. Sunday.
The volcano has registered
a number of minor eruptions
over the years, and no evacu-
ations were ordered as scien-
tific experts reported the activ-
ity was decreasing.
Guatemala’s
disaster
agency, Conred, issued a num-
ber of standard precautions,
advising people to wear pro-
tective face masks, clean their
rooftops of ash once the erup-
tion was over and cover any
food and water intended for
human consumption. It also
said to heed any recommen-
dations from authorities. Gua-
temala City’s international
airport was closed due to the
danger to planes.
Conred spokesman David
de Leon said that around
2 p.m. the volcano regis-
tered a new, more powerful
explosion.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President
Donald Trump claimed Monday he
has an “absolute right” to pardon him-
self, part of an extraordinarily expan-
sive vision of executive authority that is
mostly untested in court and could por-
tend a drawn-out fight with the prosecu-
tors now investigating him.
No need of a pardon anyway, Trump
tweeted, because “I have done nothing
wrong.” In fact, his lawyers assert in a
memo to special counsel Robert Muel-
ler, it’s impossible for him to have done
anything wrong in the area of obstruct-
ing justice, an issue Mueller has been
investigating. That’s because, as the
country’s chief law enforcement offi-
cer, Trump himself has ultimate control
of the Justice Department and executive
branch.
Beyond that, his lawyers have repeat-
edly insisted that it’s beyond dispute
that a sitting president cannot be crim-
inally prosecuted.
Trump also tweeted Monday that
the Justice Department’s “appoint-
ment of the Special Counsel is totally
UNCONSTITUTIONAL.”
Mueller’s investigation moves for-
ward nonetheless, and as it does courts
may have to confront questions with
minimal if any historical precedent.
Those include whether a president can
be forced to answer questions from
prosecutors, whether it’s possible for a
commander in chief to criminally inter-
fere in investigations and whether a
president’s broad pardon power can be
deployed for corrupt purposes.
Bill Clinton bristles at
questions on Lewinsky,
#MeToo
WASHINGTON (AP) — Former
President Bill Clinton says the #MeToo
movement is overdue. Just don’t ask
him about Monica Lewinsky.
In an interview with NBC’s “Today
Show” released Monday, Clinton bris-
tled at questions over whether he should
have resigned 20 years ago over his sex-
ual relationship with the White House
intern and whether the #MeToo move-
ment has changed his perspective.
At the same time, the former Dem-
ocratic president claimed credit for
empowering women in his orbit and dis-
puted that he might owe Lewinsky a pri-
vate apology, insisting his public tele-
vised apology was adequate.
Lewinsky wrote in March that their
relationship “was not sexual assault” but
“constituted a gross abuse of power.”
“I dealt with it 20 years ago, plus,”
said Clinton. “And the American peo-
ple, two-thirds of them stayed with me.
And I’ve tried to do a good job since
then, and with my life and with my
work. That’s all I have to say.”
Clinton is promoting his new fic-
tional thriller, “The President Is Miss-
ing,” with best-selling author James
Patterson.
In clips released from the interview,
Clinton was at times both vague and
combative in his answers, repeatedly
blaming his critics and even the NBC
interviewer for “omitting facts” by try-
ing to lump him in with other men who
have abused their positions of power to
leverage sexual relationships.
Clinton said he was right not to
resign. And while he said he supports
the #MeToo movement, “I still have
questions about some of the decisions
which have been made.”
After 24 days out of sight,
Melania Trump makes an
appearance
WASHINGTON (AP) — Finally,
Melania Trump has reappeared.
After more than three weeks out of
the public eye, the first lady strolled into
a White House event Monday for mil-
itary families and swept away the wild
speculation that she was incapacitated
or had otherwise vanished.
The White House did not allow jour-
nalists to cover the Gold Star event out
of respect for the families, which meant
Mrs. Trump was seen in person only by
the 40 or so families and administration
officials who attended. Others had to
keep an eye on social media.
Video posted on Twitter showed the
first lady, who wore a black sleeveless
dress and her trademark stilettos, stroll-
ing into the East Room accompanied by
President Donald Trump. He showed
her to a front-row seat across the aisle
from Vice President Mike Pence before
heading to the microphone.
“She looked beautiful,” said retired
Sgt. 1st Class Diana Pike. Pike’s son,
Chief Petty Officer Christian Pike, of
Peoria, Arizona, died in 2013 from inju-
ries suffered in Afghanistan. “She just
looked so beautiful.”
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