NATION/WORLD
Friday, March 22, 2019
East Oregonian
A7
Cummings concerned about Jared,
Ivanka private emails and texts
By CHAD DAY
and JILL COLVIN
Associated Press
WASHINGTON
—
Ivanka Trump, the presi-
dent’s daughter and a pow-
erful White House aide, did
not preserve all of her offi-
cial emails as required by
federal law, and her hus-
band, Jared Kushner, used
a messaging application to
conduct U.S. business out-
side government channels,
the chairman of the House
Oversight and Reform Com-
mittee said on Thursday.
Rep. Elijah Cummings,
D-Md., said in a letter to the
White House that the use of
private email accounts and
the messaging application
WhatsApp by senior admin-
istration officials raises
“security and federal records
concerns.”
Cummings said that
Trump’s lawyer, Abbe Low-
ell, told the committee that
Trump doesn’t preserve offi-
cial emails she receives in
her personal account if she
doesn’t respond to them.
Cummings says that appears
to violate the Presidential
Records Act.
But just hours later, Low-
ell issued a letter of his own
disputing Cummings’ char-
acterization. Lowell said he
was referring to Trump’s
email use before September
2017 and that he told com-
mittee staff that now “she
always forwards official
business to her White House
account.”
The dispute arose as
Cummings also released
information about Kushner’s
use of WhatsApp and raised
questions about personal
email accounts used by other
former senior White House
aides to discuss a proposal to
transfer U.S. nuclear power
technology to Saudi Arabia.
Cummings’ letter says
Lowell told his staff that
Kushner uses WhatsApp to
conduct official U.S. gov-
ernment business includ-
ing by communicating with
“people outside the United
States.”
When asked whether
Kushner had ever used
WhatsApp to discuss classi-
fied information, Cummings
said Lowell responded,
“That’s above my pay
grade,” and referred ques-
tions to the White House and
the National Security Coun-
ActionAid via AP/Tendai Chiwanza
In this photo provided by ActionAid and taken on Sunday,
locals look at a damaged bridge after Cyclone Idai hit in
Chimanimani, Zimbabwe.
Cyclone’s death
toll surpasses 500
in southern Africa
AP Photo/Alex Brandon
In this Sept. 25, 2017, file photo, Ivanka Trump stands before President Donald Trump signs a
memorandum to expand access to STEM, science technology engineering and math, educa-
tion, in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington.
cil, according to Cummings’
letter.
Lowell said Kushner
archives the messages he
sends by taking screenshots
of them and forwarding that
record to his official White
House email account or the
National Security Council.
In his response letter
Thursday, Lowell stressed
that he didn’t say whether
Kushner used WhatsApp
to communicate with for-
eign leaders or officials.
He said he also informed
the committee that Kush-
ner complies with all pro-
tocols involving classified
information.
CNN reported last year
that Kushner was commu-
nicating with Saudi Crown
Prince Mohammed bin Sal-
man using WhatsApp.
In a statement on Thurs-
day, White House dep-
uty press secretary Ste-
ven Groves said the White
House will review Cum-
mings’ letter and “provide a
reasonable response in due
course.”
The House committee’s
investigation comes after
Ivanka Trump last year dis-
missed any comparison to
the use of private email by
former Secretary of State
Hillary Clinton, which
prompted an FBI investiga-
tion and inspired the “Lock
Her Up” chant at then-pres-
idential candidate Donald
Trump’s campaign rallies.
While the top U.S. diplo-
mat, Clinton sent thousands
of emails using a private
server set up at her home in
Chappaqua, New York. The
FBI found classified infor-
mation in some of the emails
that were sent or received
on the nongovernment sys-
tem, but federal authorities
declined to pursue charges
against Clinton.
Last year, The Wash-
ington Post reported that
Ivanka Trump sent hun-
dreds of emails about gov-
ernment business from a
personal email account to
White House aides, Cabinet
members and her assistant.
The newspaper said many
of those communications,
during the early months of
the administration, violated
federal public records rules.
In a previous written
statement, Lowell spokes-
man Peter Mirijanian has
acknowledged that Ivanka
Trump used private email
while transitioning to a posi-
tion in the White House but
said that the emails were
retained “in conformity with
records preservation laws
and rules.”
He also noted that “there
was never classified infor-
mation transmitted” using
her private email account.
In an interview with
ABC News last year, Ivanka
Trump defended her use of a
private email account, say-
ing: “All of my emails are
stored and preserved. There
were no deletions.”
In his letter, Cummings
also singled out former
White House chief strate-
gist Steve Bannon and for-
mer deputy national secu-
rity adviser K.T. McFarland,
questioning whether they
preserved documents related
to a proposal to transfer
nuclear power technology
to Saudi Arabia. That pro-
posal is under investigation
by Cummings’ committee,
which is looking into infor-
mation from whistleblow-
ers who have said they wit-
nessed “abnormal acts”
within the Trump National
Security Council involving
senior White House officials
who were pushing the plan.
The committee found
that McFarland used an AOL
account to discuss the effort
pushed by Trump friend Tom
Barrack. It cites a Feb. 6,
2017, email between McFar-
land and former national
security adviser Michael
Flynn.
Bannon also received a
Jan. 29, 2017, email from
Barrack that Cummings said
was a pitch of the plan sent
to inform “Bannon’s offi-
cial work relating to devel-
oping ‘broader Middle East
policy.’”
Cummings is asking the
White House whether these
communications were prop-
erly preserved.
Robert Giuffra, a law-
yer for McFarland, declined
comment.
A representative for Ban-
non did not immediately
respond to a request for
comment.
By CARA ANNA
and FARAI MUTSAKA
Associated Press
BEIRA, Mozambique
— A week after Cyclone
Idai lashed southern Africa,
flooding still raged as tor-
rential rains caused a dam
to overflow in Zimbabwe,
threatening riverside pop-
ulations. The confirmed
death toll in Zimbabwe,
neighboring Mozambique
and Malawi surpassed 500
on Thursday, with hundreds
more feared dead in towns
and villages that were com-
pletely submerged.
Aid agencies and sev-
eral governments contin-
ued to step up their deploy-
ments, with helicopters in
short supply for hundreds
of thousands of people dis-
placed by the cyclone.
Spokesman Herve Ver-
hoosel of the World Food
Program told reporters
in Geneva of the “alarm-
ing news” that the Marow-
anyati dam in Zimbabwe
was hit by heavy rains
overnight, putting popula-
tions in the region at risk.
Zimbabwe’s
defense
minister said more than 120
bodies had been washed
into neighboring Mozam-
bique, where residents there
buried them, and more
bodies were still being
recovered in rivers, raising
the official death toll in the
country to at least 259.
“Most of the bodies
were washed into Mozam-
bique and because they
were in a really bad state,
they could not keep the
bodies,” Defense Minister
Oppah Muchinguri said,
speaking in the eastern city
of Mutare. “So they ended
up burying them.”
Mozambique’s environ-
ment minister, Celso Cor-
reia, who is heading up the
government response team,
said in Beira Thursday eve-
ning that the confirmed
death toll in his country
was 242, with at least 142
injured and an untold num-
ber still missing.
“Don’t create panic,”
Correia urged other gov-
ernment officials as more
updates on the devastation
trickled in. He said some
65,000 people had been
saved by rescue workers
who plucked them from
rooftops and trees, and
182,000 had been affected
by the flooding.
“Obviously all numbers
are preliminary. ... They are
changing every day, every
moment,” Correia said,
adding that the most wor-
rying issue now was health,
with cholera a major con-
cern. He said a much bigger
rescue and recovery mis-
sion must be launched in
the region of some 350,000
people, where many remain
marooned on islands cre-
ated by the floodwaters.
It will be days before
Mozambique’s inundated
plains drain toward the
Indian Ocean and even
longer before the full scale
of the disaster is known.
Mozambican
President
Filipe Nyusi has said as
many as 1,000 people could
have died in his country
alone, but even that huge
number is likely to pale in
comparison to reality, aid
workers said.
Florida man pleads guilty to mailing bombs to Trump foes
By LARRY NEUMEISTER
Associated Press
Sayoc
NEW YORK — A Florida
man pleaded guilty Thursday
to sending pipe bombs to CNN
and prominent critics of Presi-
dent Donald Trump in a wave of
attacks that harmed no one but
spread fear of political violence
across the U.S. for days leading
up to last fall’s midterm elections.
Cesar Sayoc, 57, shackled at
the ankles, briefly sobbed as he
entered the plea before a New
York federal judge.
“I’m extremely sorry,” he
said, speaking so softly that
sometimes he was told to repeat
himself. Though he said he never
meant for the devices to explode,
he conceded he knew they could.
He could get life in prison at
sentencing Sept. 12 on 65 counts,
including 16 counts of using a
weapon of mass destruction and
mailing explosives with intent to
Attorneys: 5 charged in terror
case because they are Muslims
kill. In exchange for his guilty
plea, prosecutors dropped a
charge that carried a mandatory
life sentence.
One charge carries a man-
datory 10-year prison term that
must be served in addition to his
sentence on 64 other counts.
Sayoc sent 16 rudimentary
St. Anthony Provider Spotligh t
Michael J. Brunsman, M.D.
is now accepting new
patients.
By MARY HUDETZ
Associated Press
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.
— Attorneys for five people
facing federal terrorism-re-
lated charges following their
arrests last summer in a New
Mexico compound raid said
Thursday their clients are
being prosecuted because
they are Muslims.
“This case is about free-
dom of religion, freedom
of association and the right
to bear arms,” said Billy
Blackburn, an attorney for
Subhanah Wahhaj, one of
those charged. He and other
defense attorneys said their
clients are innocent of the
charges.
The five pleaded not
guilty in federal court on
Thursday to new charges that
include conspiring to support
planned attacks on U.S. law
enforcement officers, mili-
tary members and govern-
ment employees.
They have been in federal
bombs — none of which deto-
nated — to targets including Hil-
lary Clinton, former Vice Presi-
dent Joe Biden, several members
of Congress, former President
Barack Obama and actor Rob-
ert De Niro. Devices were also
mailed to CNN offices in New
York and Atlanta.
Obstetrics and Gynecology
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American Board of Obstetrics
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Insurance Accepted: Most major
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The Albuquerque Journal via AP, Pool/Roberto E. Rosales, File
This Aug. 13, 2018, pool file photo shows defendants, from
left, Jany Leveille, Lucas Morton, Siraj Ibn Wahhaj and Sub-
bannah Wahhaj entering district court in Taos, N.M., for a
detention hearing.
custody since August on fire-
arms charges, which accuse
them of conspiring to provide
weapons and ammunition to
Jany Leveille, one of the five
and a leader of the group who
is from Haiti and had been
living in the country illegally.
The group traveled in late
2017 from Georgia to New
Mexico, where they built
their compound in Amalia,
which is just south of the Col-
orado border. The area is dot-
ted with some of the region’s
signature “earthship” self-
built homes.
A raid and a subsequent
search of the compound in
August led to the discov-
ery of 11 malnourished chil-
dren, guns, ammunition, a
firing range, and the remains
of a 3-year-old boy who was
the son of one of the suspects
and had suffered from med-
ical disabilities that authori-
ties said went untreated.
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