NATION
East Oregonian
A2
Wednesday, March 20, 2019
FBI tracked former Trump lawyer’s
phones with controversial device
By MICHAEL R. SISAK
Associated Press
NEW YORK — Michael
Cohen, meet the Triggerfish.
Search warrant documents
made public Tuesday show the
FBI used highly secretive and
controversial cellphone sweep-
ing technology to zero in on
President Donald Trump’s for-
mer personal lawyer when agents
raided his New York City home,
hotel room and office last year.
Agents using a Triggerfish
cell-site simulator tracked the
whereabouts of Cohen’s two
iPhones to a pair of rooms a floor
apart at the Manhattan hotel
where he and his family had
taken up residence while their
apartment was being renovated,
the documents said. The raid
happened the next day.
The FBI said in its warrant
application that it was only using
the device to locate Cohen’s
phones, not to intercept his calls
or text messages.
Separately,
the
agency
obtained logs of the numbers
Cohen was calling and texting,
and reams of location data —
including for the time period
just before the 2016 presiden-
tial election, when he negoti-
ated hush-money payments for
women alleging they had sex
with Trump. They also got per-
mission to press Cohen’s thumb
AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File
In this Feb. 28, 2019, file photo, Michael Cohen, President Donald
Trump’s former lawyer, leaves a closed-door interview before the
House Intelligence Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington.
to the phones or hold them up to
his face to unlock them.
But it was the agency’s use of
cell-site technology that stood
out amid nearly 900 pages of
documents from the Cohen raids.
Civil liberties and privacy
groups have been objecting to
the suitcase-sized devices, some-
times known as StingRays or
Hailstorms, which act like a cell
tower and often connect to cell-
phones other than those of the
person being tracked. Police
departments and federal agencies
have been using them in secrecy
for nearly three decades. .
The technology, originally
developed for the military, can
pull data from a target’s devices
— but also from unwitting peo-
ple whose phones connect to the
phony cell tower because it’s
often closest and shows the stron-
gest signal. Police can determine
the location of a phone without
the user even making a call or
sending a text message. Some
even allow law enforcement to
listen in on conversations or see
text messages as they’re being
sent and received.
“They’re very dangerous
devices in that they intercept all
cellular communications in the
area,” said Adam Scott Wandt, a
lawyer and professor at the John
Jay College of Criminal Justice
in New York City.
The government said it did
not want Cohen notified of its
high-tech efforts to track his
communications because it had
reason to believe that would
lead to evidence tampering or
destruction, witness intimida-
tion or other actions that would
“seriously jeopardize an ongoing
investigation.”
In New York, use of the tech-
nology was virtually unknown
to the public until last year
when the New York Civil Liber-
ties Union forced the disclosure
of records showing the NYPD
used the devices more than 1,000
times since 2008.
That included cases in which
the technology helped catch sus-
pects in kidnappings, rapes, rob-
beries, assaults and murders. It
has even helped find missing
people. But defense lawyers
have also fought to limit the use
of evidence collected with the
devices.
“Any time law enforcement
gets to operate in complete
secrecy and there’s little to no
oversight and with no ability for
defense attorneys to challenge
it in a court of law, you run into
significant problems,” said Legal
Aid lawyer Jerome Greco.
Forecast for Pendleton Area
THURSDAY
FRIDAY
SATURDAY
SUNDAY
Partly sunny
Mostly sunny
Intervals of clouds
and sunshine
Cloudy, rain
possible; cooler
Mostly cloudy
PENDLETON TEMPERATURE FORECAST
56° 41°
64° 44°
55° 35°
55° 38°
HERMISTON TEMPERATURE FORECAST
61° 38°
62° 43°
65° 46°
60° 37°
61° 39°
OREGON FORECAST
ALMANAC
Shown is today’s weather. Temperatures are today’s highs and tonight’s lows.
PENDLETON
through 3 p.m. yest.
HIGH
LOW
TEMP.
Seattle
Olympia
71/45
55/33
62/34
Longview
Kennewick Walla Walla
59/40
Lewiston
71/43
58/36
Astoria
65/42
Pullman
Yakima 63/34
73/38
61/38
Portland
Hermiston
70/47
The Dalles 61/38
Salem
Corvallis
66/45
Yesterday
Normals
Records
La Grande
60/32
PRECIPITATION
John Day
Eugene
Bend
66/45
52/35
60/35
Ontario
67/37
Caldwell
Burns
59°
25°
59°
35°
80° (1934) 13° (1965)
24 hours ending 3 p.m.
Month to date
Normal month to date
Year to date
Last year to date
Normal year to date
Albany
66/46
0.00"
0.10"
0.58"
3.49"
2.06"
2.82"
WINDS (in mph)
68/35
57/36
0.00"
0.39"
0.81"
5.24"
3.27"
3.32"
through 3 p.m. yest.
HIGH
LOW
TEMP.
Pendleton 59/31
69/46
24 hours ending 3 p.m.
Month to date
Normal month to date
Year to date
Last year to date
Normal year to date
HERMISTON
Enterprise
59/36
58/40
53°
29°
56°
36°
80° (1934) 18° (1965)
PRECIPITATION
Moses
Lake
74/39
Aberdeen
58/33
57/37
Tacoma
Yesterday
Normals
Records
Spokane
Wenatchee
75/48
WASHINGTON (AP) — Presi-
dent Donald Trump has tapped a for-
mer Delta Air Lines executive to lead
the Federal Aviation Administration
as the regulator deals with questions
about its approval of a Boeing airliner
involved in two deadly crashes within
five months.
The White House said Tuesday that
Trump will nominate Stephen Dickson
to head the FAA. The agency has been
led by an acting administrator since
January 2018.
Separately, the Transportation
Department confirmed that its watch-
dog agency will examine how the FAA
certified the Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft,
the now-grounded plane involved in
two fatal accidents within five months.
The FAA had stood by the safety
of the plane up until last Wednesday,
despite other countries grounding it.
Transportation Secretary Elaine
Chao formally requested the audit in a
letter sent to Inspector General Calvin
Scovel III on Tuesday.
Chao, whose agency oversees the
FAA, said the audit will improve the
department’s decision-making. Her let-
ter confirmed that she had previously
requested an audit. It did not mention
that the inspector general and federal
prosecutors have already started look-
ing into the development and regula-
tory approval of the jet, as reported by
news outlets, including The Associated
Press.
NORTHWEST
TODAY
59° 36°
Nominee to lead
FAA will face
challenge on
Boeing oversight
Today
Medford
67/42
Thu.
NNE 4-8
NE 4-8
Boardman
Pendleton
W 3-6
WNW 4-8
SUN AND MOON
Klamath Falls
54/33
Forecasts and graphics provided by AccuWeather, Inc. ©2019
Sunrise today
Sunset tonight
Moonrise today
Moonset today
6:59 a.m.
7:07 p.m.
6:56 p.m.
7:12 a.m.
Full
Last
New
First
Mar 20
Mar 27
Apr 5
Apr 12
NATIONAL EXTREMES
Yesterday’s National Extremes: (for the 48 contiguous states)
High 89° in Thermal, Calif. Low -8° in Boulder, Wyo.
NATIONAL WEATHER TODAY
Permanent
offshore oil drilling
ban OK’d by
lawmakers
SALEM (AP) — Oregon
state lawmakers on Tuesday
overwhelmingly approved a
permanent offshore oil drill-
ing ban as the Trump admin-
istration forges ahead with a
plan that could open up the
Pacific coast for petroleum
exploration and extraction.
The House voted 47-8 to
prohibit drilling and explo-
ration in the state’s marine
waters, extending a tempo-
rary 10-year ban that was
set to expire next year. The
measure already passed the
Senate and will be sent next
to Gov. Kate Brown. Brown,
a Democrat, has previously
spoken out against offshore
oil drilling and has pushed
for strong climate protec-
tions in the state.
“For generations, Ore-
gonians have defended the
environment,” said Sen.
Arnie Roblan, a Democrat
who sponsored the initia-
tive, in a statement. “Any
oil drilling off the Ore-
gon Coast could destroy
the things we love in the
state of Oregon — our pris-
tine public beaches, and the
local industries like fishing
and tourism that drive our
coastal economy.”
U.S. states can ban drill-
ing up to 3 miles offshore
but the bill seeks to limit
drilling in federal waters
farther out by prohibiting
state agencies from assisting
with offshore oil extraction.
Brown previously enacted
an executive order banning
that activity.
The move comes as the
federal government final-
izes a plan to open up nearly
all federal waters for oil
exploration and drilling.
An initial draft released in
October identified dozens of
potential oil leasing sites off
the Pacific coast, including
one off the coast of Oregon
and Washington state.
California,
Delaware,
Florida, Maryland and
New Jersey have bans sim-
ilar to the Oregon legisla-
tion, according to Oceana,
an ocean conservation
advocacy group. At least
eight other coastal states
are considering similar
prohibitions.
The U.S. Department of
the Interior plans to release
an update to its offshore
drilling proposal in the
coming weeks, and it could
remove previously identified
areas of sale.
The oil industry has not
identified much commercial
potential for oil and gas in
the coastal waters near Ore-
gon and Washington. The
Western States Petroleum
Association, which rep-
resents oil interests in the
West, has said there is cur-
rently “no oil production or
refinement in Oregon, on or
offshore.”
Jury convicts
Oregon man in
hate-crime killing
of black teen
PORTLAND (AP) — A
jury on Tuesday convicted
an Oregon man of murder,
a hate crime and hit-and-run
in the death of a black teen-
ager, who was run down in
suburban Portland after an
altercation in a convenience
store parking lot.
Prosecutors argued Rus-
sell Courtier was motivated
by white supremacist beliefs
in killing 19-year-old Lar-
nell Bruce Jr.
The jury deliberated for
a little more than a day fol-
lowing an eight-day trial.
As family members left
the courthouse after Mult-
nomah County Circuit
Judge Jerry Hodson read
the verdict, a few said they
thought justice had been
served, The Oregonian/Ore-
gonLive reported.
Christina Miles, Bruce’s
mother, was overcome with
tears. “I’m so happy,” she
said.
Defense attorneys Kevin
Sali and John Robb con-
tended that Bruce suddenly
started punching and beat-
ing Courtier unprovoked on
the night of Aug. 10, 2016,
after Courtier drove up to a
7-Eleven in Gresham with
his fiancée.
The defense said Court-
ier, 40, has had Attention
Deficit Hyperactivity Disor-
der since childhood and suf-
fered a concussion or brain
injury during the beating,
causing him to react impul-
sively and without thinking
clearly by getting in his Jeep
and fatally striking Bruce.
Prosecutor David Han-
non said there was no evi-
dence that Bruce started the
fight. Video shows Bruce
peacefully standing out-
side the store when Court-
ier drove up and parked,
then suddenly a fight began,
the prosecutor said. Bruce
was leaving the area when
Courtier got into a Jeep and
started driving toward him
and onto a sidewalk, strik-
ing him while Bruce tried
to get away, Hannon said.
Bruce died three days later.
Hannon said he couldn’t
say what the fight at the con-
venience store was about,
but noted that Bruce was
black and Courtier is white.
He also noted that Courtier
joined a racist white prison
gang, European Kindred, in
2003 or 2004 and had the
gang’s initials and shield
logo tattooed onto his leg.
Hannon played a video
for jurors in which Court-
ier said the N-word while in
a police interview room. He
also said there was no evi-
dence in medical records
that Courtier suffered a
concussion or brain injury
during the fight.
Courtier’s
girlfriend,
Colleen Hunt, pleaded
guilty to manslaughter last
week.
Shown are noon positions of weather systems and precipitation. Temperature bands are highs for the day.
-10s
-0s
0s
showers t-storms
10s
rain
20s
flurries
30s
snow
40s
50s
ice
60s
cold front
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