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OFF PAGE ONE
East Oregonian
Thursday, October 3, 2019
Standoff: Trump sees hoax, Dems see stonewalling
By LISA MASCARO,
MARY CLARE
JALONICK AND
JONATHAN LEMIRE
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Agi-
tated and angry, President
Donald Trump squared
off against House Demo-
crats on Wednesday, pack-
ing his increasingly aggres-
sive impeachment defense
with name-calling and
expletives. Quietly but
just as resolutely, lawmak-
ers expanded their inquiry,
promising a broad new sub-
poena for documents and
witnesses.
Democratic leaders put
the White House on notice
that the wide-ranging sub-
poena would be coming for
information about Trump’s
actions in the Ukraine con-
troversy, the latest move in
an impeachment probe that’s
testing the Constitution’s
system of checks and bal-
ances. They said they’d be
going to court if necessary.
Amid the legal skirmish-
ing, it was a day of verbal
fireworks.
The president com-
plained that House Speaker
Nancy Pelosi was handing
out subpoenas “like cook-
ies,” railed against a gov-
ernment whistleblower as
“vicious” and assailed the
news media as corrupt and
the “enemy.” All that along-
side a presidential tweet-
storm punctuated with an
accusation that congressio-
AP Photo/Evan Vucci
President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with Finnish President Sauli Niinisto in the
Oval Office of the White House on Wednesday in Washington.
nal Democrats waste time
and money on “BULL----.”
Pelosi said Democrats
had no choice but to take on
the most “solemn” of con-
stitutional responsibilities
to put a check on execu-
tive power after the national
security
whistleblower’s
complaint that recently
came to light. The adminis-
tration and Congress are on
a collision course unseen in
a generation after the whis-
tleblower exposed a July
phone call the president had
with Ukrainian President
Volodymyr Zelenskiy in
which Trump pressed for an
investigation of Democratic
political rival Joe Biden and
his family.
“We take this to be a very
sad time” for the Ameri-
can people and the country,
Pelosi said. “Impeaching the
president isn’t anything to
be joyful about.”
Standing beside her,
intelligence
committee
Chairman Adam Schiff
accused Trump of “an
incitement to violence” with
his attacks on the unnamed
whistleblower, who is pro-
vided anonymity and other
protections under federal
law. He said the investiga-
tion is proceeding “deliber-
ately” but also with a sense
of “urgency.”
Unlike Trump, Schiff
never raised his voice but
said firmly: “We’re not fool-
ing around here.”
Pelosi, in a “Good Morn-
ing America” interview said
Trump is “scared” of the
impeachment inquiry and
the arguments that can be
made against him.
Democrats are now
talking of basing an
impeachment charge of
obstruction on the White
House’s slow-walking of
documents and testimony —
administration actions that
echo the months of resisting
Congress in its other investi-
gations into special counsel
Robert Mueller’s report and
Trump’s business dealings.
Ahead of the new sub-
poena, the chairmen of three
House committees accused
the administration of “fla-
grant disregard” of previ-
ous requests for documents
and witnesses and said that
refusal could be considered
an impeachable offense.
The standoff took on a
defiant tone this week when
Secretary of State Mike
Pompeo said he would not
stand for Democrats “bul-
lying” his employees into
appearing before the con-
gressional committees, even
as he acknowledged that he,
too, had been among those
U.S. officials listening on
the line during the Trump’s
phone call with the Ukraine
leader.
Pompeo’s admission is
complicating his situation,
and House leaders now con-
sider him a “witness” to
Trump’s interaction with
Ukraine.
One former State Depart-
ment official, Kurt Volker,
a former special envoy to
Ukraine, was scheduled
to appear Thursday for a
closed-door interview with
House investigators. He
was said to be eager to tell
his side of the story. That’s
ahead of next week’s depo-
sition of ousted U.S. Ambas-
sador to Ukraine Maria
“Masha” Yovanovitch.
The circumstances of
Yovanovitch’s sudden recall
from Ukraine are the subject
of conspiracy speculation,
and the State Department’s
Inspector General Michael
Steve Linick sought an
“urgent” meeting Wednes-
day to brief staff of several
committees.
During that private ses-
sion, Linick told them he
received a packet of mate-
rials from the State Depart-
ment’s Counsel T. Ulrich
Brechbuhl, according to one
person granted anonymity
to discuss the closed-door
session.
Rep. Jamie Raskin,
D-Md., said the package
contained information from
debunked conspiracy theo-
ries about Ukraine’s role in
the 2016 election. Trump has
long pursued those theories,
a topic he discussed with
Zelenskiy in the phone call
that sparked the impeach-
ment inquiry.
It was unclear where the
package originated, but it
was in a White House enve-
lope and included folders
from Trump hotels, accord-
ing to another person famil-
iar with the briefing, a Dem-
ocrat. That person said the
White House sent the enve-
lope to Pompeo and it con-
tained notes from inter-
views that took place in the
New York City office of
Trump’s personal lawyer,
Rudy Giuliani, with vari-
ous Ukrainians about the
debunked conspiracies.
“It raises more ques-
tions than it answers,” said
Raskin. Brechbuhl has also
been called to give a deposi-
tion to the House.
Billionaire, friend get no-jail plea deal in Vegas drug case
By KEN RITTER
Associated Press
LAS VEGAS — A bil-
lionaire California tech-
nology firm founder and
his friend took no-jail plea
deals Wednesday that had
them donate $1 million to
charities while not admit-
ting guilt in a Las Vegas
Strip hotel room drug
investigation.
Henry Thompson Nich-
olas III and co-defendant
Ashley Christine Fargo
stood with their attorneys in
court and entered so-called
“Alford pleas” to two felony
drug possession charges.
Their pleas acknowledged
that prosecutors could have
presented evidence of guilt
if the case had gone to trial.
Nicholas’ and Fargo’s
criminal cases can be dis-
missed in one year if they
do not commit crimes, ful-
fill 250 hours of commu-
nity service and undergo
twice-monthly
personal
drug counseling, according
to the plea agreement their
attorneys negotiated with
prosecutors.
Defense attorney David
Chesnoff said Nicholas
and Fargo together donated
$400,000 to drug preven-
tion and treatment pro-
grams at both the Boys &
Girls Clubs of Southern
Nevada and the Foundation
for Recovery in Las Vegas.
Another $200,000 went to
the PACT Coalition for Safe
& Drug Free Communities
in Las Vegas, Chesnoff said.
“The defendants main-
tain their innocence,” Ches-
noff told Clark County Dis-
trict Court Judge Jacqueline
Bluth.
Chesnoff said police had
no fingerprint or forensic
evidence linking Nicholas
and Fargo directly to the
heroin, methamphetamine,
cocaine and several psyche-
delic substances that police
reported finding in travel
cases in the couple’s hotel
room in August 2018.
Clark County District
Attorney Steve Wolfson
dropped five more serious
drug trafficking charges as
part of the agreement.
Nevada state lawmakers
this year passed laws reduc-
ing penalties for personal
drug use and the charges
against Nicholas and Fargo
would have resulted in no
more than probation if they
had been brought next year,
Wolfson said. That factored
into his decision to offer the
plea deals, he said.
“On top of that, they
offered to contribute $1 mil-
lion to drug facilities and
programs from which hun-
dreds and hundreds of Clark
County residents are going
to benefit,” Wolfson said.
Prosecutor Brad Turner
told Bluth there was no evi-
dence that Nicholas or Fargo
intended to sell or distribute
drugs.
“The only evidence we
have, the way it was pack-
aged and where it was,
it was for personal use,”
Turner said.
Nicholas is 59. Fargo
said she’s 38. Their attor-
neys filed documents in
July denying they owned
the cases with drugs, and
Turner said Wednesday that
possession could have been
hard to prove to a jury.
Nicholas
co-founded
Broadcom in 1991 in a
Southern California con-
dominium, earned a Ph.D.
in electrical engineering
from UCLA in 1998 and
retired in 2003 from the
publicly traded computer
software,
semiconductor
and infrastructure com-
pany. Forbes estimates his
current net worth at almost
$4 billion.
Chesnoff and attorney
Richard Schonfeld, rep-
resenting Nicholas, have
emphasized their client’s
philanthropy and financial
backing for the crime vic-
tim advocacy law known in
California as Marsy’s Law.
Attorney David Brown rep-
resented Fargo. Both defen-
dants live in the Newport
Beach, California, area.
Marsy’s Law is named for
Nicholas’ sister, Marsalee
“Marsy” Nicholas, who was
stalked and killed by an
ex-boyfriend in the 1980s.
Nevada is among several
U.S. states with a version of
the law, which aims to cod-
ify rights for crime victims
and their families to confer
with prosecutors and attend
court proceedings. Wolfson
was among elected officials
who endorsed the measure
in Nevada.
Director: Christopher was compensated for work performed
Continued from Page A1
Daron Hill responded that
she was “compensated for
work performed.”
Reached by phone Mon-
day, Christopher declined
to comment.
“I’m not interested in
talking with you, thanks,”
she said, before hanging up
on a reporter.
Hill provided Christo-
pher’s weekly work sched-
ules to the Oregon Capital
Bureau through a public
records request.
She worked about 1,400
hours on various projects
for the state, according to
records provided by Legis-
lative Administration.
But there was no record
disclosed by the Legisla-
ture about what Christo-
pher did in her first three
months. Her schedules
begin April 5.
For the five months she
documented, her sched-
ule included 109 hours on
phone calls and 98 review-
ing and responding to
emails. The schedule typ-
ically showed up to two
hours a day dealing with
email.
Christopher
also
reported
working
on
research for the Oregon
Department of Justice, the
nature of which has been
redacted from public view,
and on attending legislative
hearings and dealing with
information
technology
problems.
A spokeswoman for the
justice department said that
agency didn’t compensate
Christopher for any work
and that any questions
should be directed to the
Legislature.
Christopher also spent
some time organizing
and doing an inventory of
documents, the nature of
which were also redacted.
Several other entries state
Community: Nobody else wanted the
job of watering the city’s plant baskets
Continued from Page A1
Following the water
cart came a trailer with a
gasoline generator to run
a pump, while this was
effective, Hart says that
neighbors were not par-
ticularly fond of the loud
generator first thing in the
morning. Hart now uses
a quiet electric pump that
hooks into his truck and is
the best of both worlds for
him.
In addition to maintain-
ing the trailer, Hart makes
his own watering devices
out of PVC pipe in order to
reach the baskets several
feet above his head. Addi-
tionnaly, he will use the
bed of his pickup truck as
a place to stand whenever
possible. Hart says that he
rarely runs into problems,
however, he often has to
work around parked cars
or other obstacles.
”When
they
first
installed the crosswalks I
went over one and lost the
full trailer off the hitch,”
said Hart. “That one took
awhile to figure out how
to fix and get the full
209-gallon trailer back on
the truck.”
While Hart doesn’t
encounter many people on
weekday mornings he says
that occasionally some-
one will join him and walk
along the route with him or
he’ll bring his dogs along
for the ride.
“People always wonder
how the plants are watered
and what keeps them look-
ing so good,”Hart said.
“Outside of a little dead-
heading, some fertilizer
once a week and water
daily there’s not too much
that goes into it.”
Hart says that he esti-
mates they use about 100
gallons of water each day,
but that the amount varies
depending on the time of
year and the weather. The
baskets are watered daily
from mid-May through
the first freeze, usually in
October.
Despite the early hours
and time commitmnet, Hart
says that he doesn’t foresee
stopping anytime soon.
“Research for” or “Work
on” but the rest has been
redacted.
Hill said that Christo-
pher satisfied her contract
requirements to complete a
salary survey of legislative
positions, a hiring analysis,
and several other tasks.
Christopher inked the
retirement deal after a
period of widespread criti-
cism of the workplace cul-
ture at the Capitol.
In early 2018, Jeff Kruse,
a Republican state senator
from Roseburg, resigned
after he was investigated
for inappropriately touch-
ing colleagues and interns
at the statehouse.
In March, the Legisla-
ture agreed to pay about
$1.1 million to settle with
nine people who had expe-
rienced harassment work-
ing at the Capitol.
As human resources
director, Christopher was
a key contact for people
reporting harassment or
other workplace problems
at the Oregon Legislature.
She was identified in
a state investigation of
harassment at the Capi-
tol as one of the officials
who failed to react fully to
complaints.
Christopher,
a
for-
mer mayor of Keizer, had
worked since 1997 as direc-
tor of Employee Services
— the Legislature’s human
resources office.
She was the interim
director until March, when
Jessica Knieling took over
the post. Knieling is paid
about $13,600 a month.
“The work assigned to
Ms. Christopher was part
of her separation agree-
ment signed in Septem-
ber and was anticipated to
be in addition to the work
of the Employee Services
director,” Hill wrote in an
email to the Oregon Capital
Bureau this week.
Drones: Farmers, cops and other
locals talk drones at trade conference
Continued from Page A1
subject who dived into a
river while trying to escape.
Deputies tried to use
their drone to contain the
suspect while they tracked
him, but without the aid of
observing the drone’s live
camera feed through gog-
gles, the suspect was able
to wade by the UAS unde-
tected before being found
elsewhere.
Roberts said he often
feels hamstrung by the cur-
rent laws that govern drone
usage, which cut down on
the department’s ability to
deploy them.
“The law and the indus-
try aren’t really married up
yet,” he said.
On the farming panel,
UAS adopters said their
limitations were more tech-
nical, often involving the
need for more battery life or
improved software.
Waggoner said the drone
he uses to track underwa-
ter weeds is fine for ponds
and stillwater bodies, but
it doesn’t work well with a
flowing river. He said the
future for that task is with
submersible
unmanned
vehicles.
During an audience ques-
tion period, one attendee
asked how law enforcement
planned to counteract peo-
ple using drones for crimi-
nal activities.
Johnson said the conver-
sation has come up in his
office, but he didn’t have an
answer yet.
Patrick Sherman, a
UAS official who works
with a nonprofit that pro-
motes drones used for pub-
lic safety, offered a few
answers of his own.
Sherman said some
countries use radio jam-
mers to disrupt crimi-
nal drone operators, but
the U.S. doesn’t allow for
jammers because it dis-
rupts other technology like
cellphones.
He also said law enforce-
ment could physically inter-
cept these drones, either
with a falcon or eagle, or
with another drone that
grounds the illicit UAS with
a net.