A6
NATION
East Oregonian
Wednesday, February 20, 2019
Sanders running for president in 2020
Vermont senator
says he will seek
nomination in crowded
Democratic field
By JUANA SUMMERS
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Vermont
Sen. Bernie Sanders said Tuesday
that he will seek the Democratic
presidential nomination again, a
decision that will test whether he
can still generate the progressive
energy that fueled his insurgent
2016 campaign.
“Our campaign is not only
about defeating Donald Trump,”
the self-described democratic
socialist said in an email to sup-
porters. “Our campaign is about
transforming our country and cre-
ating a government based on the
principles of economic, social,
racial and environmental justice.”
An enthusiastic progressive
who embraces proposals such as
“Medicare-for-all” and free col-
lege tuition, Sanders, 77, stunned
the Democratic establishment in
2016 with his spirited challenge
to Hillary Clinton. While she ulti-
mately became the party’s nomi-
nee, his campaign helped lay the
AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File
In this Jan. 30, 2019, file photo, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., speaks at a
news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington.
groundwork for the leftward lurch
that has dominated Democratic
politics in the Trump era.
The question now for Sand-
ers is whether he can stand out
in a crowded field of Democratic
presidential candidates who also
embrace many of his policy ideas
and who are newer to the national
political stage. That’s far different
from 2016, when he was Clinton’s
lone progressive adversary.
Still, there is no question that
Sanders will be a formidable con-
tender for the Democratic nomina-
tion. He won more than 13 million
votes in 2016 and dozens of pri-
maries and caucuses. He opens his
campaign with a nationwide orga-
nization and a proven small-dollar
fundraising effort.
“We’re gonna win,” Sanders
told CBS.
He said he was going to launch
“what I think is unprecedented
in modern American history”: a
grassroots movement “to lay the
groundwork for transforming the
economic and political life of this
country.”
Sanders described his new
White House bid as a “continua-
tion of what we did in 2016,” not-
ing that policies he advocated for
then are now embraced by the
Democratic Party.
Trump told reporters that Sand-
ers ran a great campaign in 2016
but that he believes the senator
“missed his time.”
“I like Bernie,” Trump said,
noting Sanders’ criticism of free
trade. “The problem is he doesn’t
know what to do about it. We’re
doing something very spectacular
on trade.”
Sanders goes into the campaign
with several advantages, including
the name recognition he earned
from his last run. In a sign of the
enthusiasm surrounding his cam-
paign, Sanders raised $3.3 million
on Tuesday from 120,000 individ-
ual donors, according to a person
familiar with the campaign who
wasn’t authorized to publicly dis-
close the early numbers and spoke
on condition of anonymity.
That’s more than double the
$1.5 million haul Sen. Kamala
Harris raised in the first 24 hours
of her campaign. The California
Democrat was the biggest fund-
raiser in the race so far.
Sanders could also be well-po-
sitioned to compete in the nation’s
first primary in neighboring New
Hampshire, which he won by 22
points in 2016. But he won’t have
the state to himself.
Harris was in New Hampshire
on Monday and said she’d compete
for the state. She also appeared to
take a dig at Sanders.
“The people of New Hamp-
shire will tell me what’s required
to compete in New Hampshire,”
she told shoppers at a bookstore in
Concord. “But I will tell you I’m
not a democratic socialist.”
Sen. Elizabeth Warren of
nearby Massachusetts will be in
New Hampshire on Friday.
One of the biggest questions
surrounding Sanders’ candidacy is
how he’ll compete against some-
one like Warren, who shares many
of his policy goals. Warren has
already launched her campaign
and has planned an aggressive
swing through the early primary
states.
Shortly after announcing her
exploratory committee, Warren
hired Brendan Summers, who
managed Sanders’ 2016 Iowa cam-
paign. Other staffers from Sand-
ers’ first bid also have said they
would consider working for other
candidates in 2020.
Feds share watchlist with 1,400 private groups
By MATTHEW BARAKAT
Associated Press
FALLS CHURCH, Va. — The
federal government has acknowl-
edged that it shares its terrorist
watchlist with more than 1,400
private entities, including hospi-
tals and universities, prompting
concerns from civil libertarians
that those mistakenly placed on
the list could face a wide variety of
hassles in their daily lives.
The government’s admission
that it shares the list so broadly
comes after years of insistence that
the list is generally not shared with
the private sector.
Gadeir Abbas, a lawyer with
the Council on American-Islamic
Relations, which has filed a con-
stitutional challenge to the gov-
ernment’s use of the watchlist,
called the government’s admission
shocking.
“We’ve always suspected there
was private-sector dissemination
of the terror watchlist, but we had
no idea the breadth of the dissem-
ination would be so large,” Abbas
said.
The watchlist is supposed to
include only those who are known
or suspected terrorists but contains
hundreds of thousands of names.
The government’s no-fly list is
culled from a small subset of the
watchlist.
Critics say that the watchlist
is overbroad and mismanaged,
and that large numbers of people
wrongly included on the list suffer
routine difficulties and indignities
because of their inclusion.
The government’s admission
comes in a class-action lawsuit
filed in federal court in Alexan-
dria by Muslims who say they reg-
ularly experience difficulties in
travel, financial transactions and
interactions with law enforcement
because they have been wrongly
added to the list. The Associated
Press is the first to report on the
disclosure after reviewing the case
documents.
Abbas said now that the gov-
ernment has disclosed how many
private entities receive access to
the Terrorist Screening Database,
the official name of the watchlist,
it now needs to explain exactly
which private entities are receiv-
ing it and what they’re doing with
it. He’s asked a judge to require the
government to be more specific. A
hearing is scheduled for Friday.
“Are universities taking TSDB
status into account in making
admission or disciplinary deci-
sions? Are Inova Alexandria Hos-
pital’s building security person-
nel screening visitors against the
TSDB and denying entry to list-
ees? Is Motorola screening its soft-
ware engineers who work on cel-
lular infrastructure equipment
against the TSDB and firing list-
ees? Plaintiffs have no idea,”
Abbas and co-counsels Lena
Masri and Carolyn Homer wrote
in a brief submitted on Feb. 15.
In depositions and in court
hearings, government officials
had denied until very recently
that the watchlist compiled by the
FBI’s Terrorist Screening Center is
shared with private entities.
At a pretrial hearing in Septem-
ber, government lawyer Dena Roth
told U.S. District Judge Anthony
Trenga that the Terrorist Screening
Center “does not work with private
partners, and that watchlist status
itself ... is considered law enforce-
ment sensitive information and is
AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File
In this Jan. 30, 2017, file photo, attorney Gadeir Abbas speaks during a
news conference at the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) in
Washington.
not shared with the public.”
Despite that assurance, the
judge ordered the government to
be more specific about how it dis-
seminates the watchlist. Trenga
said the plaintiffs are entitled to
the information to try to prove
their case that inclusion on the list
causes them to suffer “real world
consequences.”
In response to Trenga’s order,
TSC Deputy Director of Opera-
tions Timothy Groh filed a writ-
ten statement earlier this month
acknowledging that 1,441 private
entities have received permission
to access the watchlist. Groh says
those private entities must be in
some way connected to the crim-
inal justice system.
Judge orders Stone to court over Instagram post
By MICHAEL BALSAMO
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — A federal
judge on Tuesday ordered Roger
Stone to appear in court to con-
sider whether to revoke his bail
after the longtime Donald Trump
confidant posted a photo on Ins-
tagram of the judge with what
appeared to be crosshairs of a
gun.
U.S. District Judge Amy Ber-
man Jackson said Stone must show
for a hearing Thursday afternoon
and prove why she shouldn’t mod-
ify or revoke his bail or implement
a full gag order in his case.
On Monday, Stone posted
a photo of Jackson with what
appeared to be crosshairs near her
head. Later in the day, Stone and
his attorneys filed a notice with
the court that they recognized the
“photograph and comment today
was improper and should not have
been posted.”
Stone said that the photo was
AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, File
In this Feb. 1, 2019, file photo, Roger Stone, former campaign adviser for
President Donald Trump, leaves federal court in Washington.
“misinterpreted” and that it was “a
random photo taken from the Inter-
net.” He dismissed any suggestion
that he was trying to threaten the
judge as “categorically false.”
The political operative and
self-described dirty trickster has
pleaded not guilty to charges he
lied to Congress, engaged in wit-
ness tampering and obstructed a
congressional investigation into
possible coordination between
Russia and Trump’s 2016 presiden-
tial campaign.
The charges stem from con-
versations he had during the 2016
election about WikiLeaks, the
anti-secrecy group that released
material stolen from Democratic
groups, including Hillary Clin-
ton’s campaign.
Stone was arrested last month
and is the sixth Trump aide or
adviser charged in special counsel
Robert Mueller’s investigation.
He’s currently free on a
$250,000 personal recognizance
bond.
Last week, Jackson issued a
limited gag order, which prevents
Stone from discussing his case
near the courthouse and gener-
ally bars his lawyers, prosecutors
and witnesses from making pub-
lic comments that could “pose a
substantial likelihood” of preju-
dicing potential jurors. But the
order did not constrain Stone from
making other public comments
about the prosecution or his case.
Stone’s lawyers argued that plac-
ing any limits on his public com-
ments would infringe on his con-
stitutionally protected right to free
speech.
In implementing the limited gag
order on Friday, Jackson said it was
necessary to “maintain the dignity
and seriousness of the courthouse
and these proceedings.”
Stone has maintained his inno-
cence and blasted the special
counsel’s investigation as politi-
cally motivated. He has also crit-
icized his case as involving only
“process crimes.”
On Tuesday, Stone posted a
photo of a book he received from
a supporter, writing in an Insta-
gram post that he was praying that
it “protects me from the fake news
media who are smearing me and
purposely misinterpreting every-
thing I say.”
Justice Thomas calls for re-examining landmark libel case
By MARK SHERMAN
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Justice
Clarence Thomas says the Supreme
Court should consider overturning
a 55-year-old landmark ruling that
makes it hard for public figures to
win libel suits, writing in a case
involving a woman who says Bill
Cosby raped her.
Thomas took aim at New York
Times v. Sullivan and similar cases
that followed it, calling them “poli-
cy-driven decisions masquerading
as constitutional law.”
“We should not continue to
reflexively apply this policy-driven
AP Photo/Matt Slocum, File
This April 18, 2018, file photo,
shows Bill Cosby arriving for his
sexual assault trial at the Mont-
gomery County Courthouse in Nor-
ristown.
approach to the Constitution,”
Thomas wrote in a 14-page opin-
ion that no other justice joined.
The opinion comes against
the backdrop of President Donald
Trump’s repeated calls to make it
easier to sue for libel. Last week-
end, Trump reacted to a Satur-
day Night Live skit by asking on
Twitter, “How do the Networks get
away with these total Republican
hit jobs without retribution? Like-
wise for many other shows? Very
unfair and should be looked into.”
On Tuesday, the high court
rejected an appeal from actress
Kathrine McKee, who said Cosby
raped her in 1974. McKee sued
Cosby for damaging her reputation
after a lawyer for the comedian
allegedly leaked a letter attacking
McKee. Two lower courts ruled
against her and dismissed the case,
based largely on McKee’s role as a
public figure.
The Sullivan case set a very
high bar for public officials to
win a libel suit and hefty money
awards over published false state-
ments that damaged their repu-
tations. The high court extended
the 1964 decision in the ensuing
decades to make it tough for celeb-
rities, politicians and other public
figures to win defamation cases.
Thomas is the justice who most
often calls for jettisoning Supreme
Court rulings that he says do not
comport with the meaning of the
Constitution at the time it was
adopted.
“The states are perfectly capa-
ble of striking an acceptable bal-
ance between encouraging robust
public discourse and providing a
meaningful remedy for reputa-
tional harm,” he wrote.
He is not the first justice to
criticize the 1964 case, though
he appears to be the first to issue
a call for its reconsideration in a
Supreme Court opinion. The late
Justice Antonin Scalia took a sim-
ilarly dim view of the Sullivan
ruling, once saying in a televised
interview that he abhorred it.