STATE & NATION
BAKER CITY HERALD • SATuRDAY, AuguST 13, 2022 A5
Judge unseals
Trump home
search warrant
HAIL STORM POUNDS WALLOWA COUNTY
BY MICHAEL BALSAMO, ZEKE MILLER
AND ERIC TUCKER
Associated Press
Nicole Bellows/Contributed Photo
This photo, submitted by Nicole Bellows, of Lostine, shows unique storm clouds rolling through Wallowa County on Thursday, Aug. 11, 2022. “I had never seen anything
like it. My husband is from Kansas and his remark was, ‘If I was in Kansas I would say it’s a tornado. It was moving fast and headed northeast,’” Bellows said.
Storm leaves trail of damage, injuries
BY ANDREW CUTLER
AND PHIL WRIGHT
Wallowa County Chieftain
WALLOWA — Bruce Eien said
he remembers feeling a sense of
deja vu Thursday, Aug. 11, in the
aftermath of the severe weather
storm that rolled through Wallowa
County.
“It looked like how people were
walking around after 9/11 — in a
daze,” he said. “That’s exactly what
it was.”
The Enterprise resident, who has
family that lives in Wallowa, where
much of the damage from large
hail was centered, was touring the
county to look at the damage in the
aftermath of the storm.
“We were driving around, check-
ing on all of the people we knew,” he
said, “making sure they were OK.”
Earlier in the day, the National
Weather Service in Pendleton is-
sued a severe thunderstorm warn-
ing for much of Wallowa County
until 5 p.m. Aug. 11.
The warning included 2-inch
sized hail and winds up to 50 mph.
Camden Plunkett, a meteorologist
for the weather service, said there
were reports of baseball-sized hail
in the county.
“For the hail that was received
in Wallowa County, we are leaning
toward tennis-ball sized hail up to
2½ inches,” he said. “We did also
have some reports of ping pong
ball-sized hail about 1.5 inches in La
Grande as well.”
Plunkett said his office did hear
about multiple injuries as a result
of the hail, something Eien said he’s
heard while he was in Wallowa as
well.
“We are hoping everyone is all
right,” he said, adding the county
Bruce Eien/Contributed Photo
Left: Large hail wrecked this sign Thursday, Aug. 11, 2022, at Wallowa Food City,
302 E. First St., Wallowa. Right: A Wallowa home sustained significant damage to
its exterior following a severe storm that rolled through Wallowa County on Thurs-
day, Aug. 11, 2022. The storm produced tennis-ball sized hail, according to the Na-
tional Weather Service office in Pendleton.
also received “frequent lightning
strikes.”
Staff at Wallowa Memorial Hos-
pital, Enterprise, confirmed the hos-
pital treated “multiple” patients for
injuries from the hailstones. Staff
also reported how unusual this was,
with one commenting she has lived
in Eastern Oregon more than 40
years and this was a first for her.
Eien said around 4 p.m. the
power went out in Enterprise and
about the same time, his wife re-
ceived a text from her parents in
Wallowa.
“We lost everything,” he recalled
the text saying. “We immediately
got in the car. We didn’t know what
that meant.”
Eien said as they reached Wal-
lowa, the damage sharpened into
focus — cars with shattered wind-
shields, downed trees and homes
with severe damage.
“There was a tree that hit a
house, some trees in front of the
high school went over,” he said.
“Telephone lines, power lines went
down.”
According to the Pacific Power
website, 887 customers were with-
out power following the storm.
The outage was first reported
shortly before 4 p.m.
“We have crews working around
the clock to restore services to all
those affected,” the Pacific Power
website says. “We estimate power
will be restored by 5 a.m.”
Power also is out to about 13 cus-
tomer in the Minam area. The out-
age was also reported shortly before
4 p.m. and is expected to be restored
around 5 a.m.
Power was out in other parts of
the county, according to Pacific
Power’s Twitter feed.
More than 5,300 customers in
Enterprise and Wallowa were with-
out power late in the afternoon.
The cause of the outage was severe
storm damage, according to the
utility’s Twitter feed. Power was re-
stored in Enterprise and Joseph be-
fore 8 p.m. on Wednesday.
Plunkett said the storm was a
perfect chain of events to cause the
large hailstones.
“We had really strong updrafts
and then we had really strong wind
shear that allowed an organized su-
percell thunderstorm to develop,”
he said.
The storm took about 90 minutes
to pass through the county, Plunkett
said, and once it crossed into Idaho,
the storm weakened significantly.
Plunkett said the expected 50
mph wind gusts did not materialize.
There were reports of 60 mph gusts
at the La Grande/Union County
Airport.
“We did not have any confirmed
wind gusts in Wallowa County,” he
said.
Severe weather is not expected
in the county over the next several
days, but Wallowa County could see
some isolated thunderstorms in the
afternoon on Aug. 12.
Plunkett also said there is not a
lot of data available on supercells in
Wallowa County. The last recorded
event was a tornado with a rating
of EF2 that hit June 11, 1968. EF
means “enhanced Fujita scale,” and
a 2 on the scale means gusts of three
seconds of 111-135 mph. The West-
ern Regional Climate Center, he
said, reports that tornado came with
golf-ball sized hail.
Drazan: Declare state of emergency for homeless crisis
overturning Roe v. Wade. A major-
ity of Oregon voters favor abortion
PORTLAND — The Republi-
rights and Drazan is pro-life.
can candidate for governor, Chris-
Drazan is among three gubernato-
tine Drazan, on Monday,
rial candidates on Oregon’s
Aug. 8, called for declaring
November ballot. She is run-
a state of emergency on
ning against the Democrat
homelessness in Oregon
Tina Kotek, a former state
as she seeks to distinguish
House speaker, and the un-
herself in a three-way race.
affiliated candidate Betsy
Drazan’s unveiling of
Johnson. Johnson served as
her state of emergency
a Democratic lawmaker in
Drazan
proposal was included in
the state house and senate
a campaign issue road-
from 2000 to 2021 before re-
map. Much of the plan re-
signing and leaving the party
leased Aug. 8 contains points the
to run as an independent.
former Oregon state representative
and House minority leader has dis- Wrestling with homelessness
cussed before, like repealing Mea-
Grappling with intersecting
sure 110, the 2020 ballot measure
housing and homelessness crises,
that decriminalized possession of
Oregon lawmakers earlier this year
small amounts of hard drugs in-
approved a budget that includes
cluding methamphetamine and
$400 million to address both issues
heroin.
amidst a growing number of people
Drazan named homelessness as
without housing across the state.
a top priority in her campaign and
Portland declared a state of
said declaring a state of emergency
emergency on homelessness in
would allow for bureaucratic “bar-
2015 and has extended it five times
riers to be broken down so that
since then. The measure, now set to
people can begin to work together
expire in 2025, reduces the bureau-
more effectively.”
cratic red tape surrounding the cre-
“We have the opportunity right
ation of homeless shelters.
now with a lot of different stake-
Despite the city’s years-long
holders who are throwing a lot of
emergency measure, the estimated
money at this problem,” Drazan
number of people experiencing
told The Associated Press. “But
homelessness spiked 25% in the
what we’re missing is really a cen-
Portland area between 2020 and
tral point of focus and leadership
2022, according to point-in-time
that can coalesce all those efforts.”
counts reported to The Department
Drazan’s campaign said the
of Housing and Urban Develop-
ment. Further south on the Califor-
emergency declaration would “ac-
celerate the rollout of addiction and nia state line, largely rural Jackson
behavioral health supports and pro- County reported an increase of
vide additional funding as needed.” 72% during the same period.
Oregon’s homelessness crisis has
Drazan’s release makes no men-
been fueled by a housing shortage,
tion of abortion. The issue has be-
the coronavirus pandemic and the
come a potential liability for GOP
highest drug addiction rate of any
candidates following the Supreme
state in the nation. Federal data
Court’s decision to remove consti-
tutional abortion protections by
from the latest National Survey on
BY CLAIRE RUSH
The Associated Press/Report for America
Drug Use and Health found that
9% of teens and adults in Oregon
had illicit drug use disorders in
2020.
The state has wrestled with a
debate over the best way to re-
duce homelessness. Some busi-
ness groups have called for more
encampment sweeps and stricter
enforcement of anti-camping or-
dinances, while others want more
investment in social services and
affordable housing.
“We have to provide flexibility
in shelter space, we have to pro-
vide the right kinds of shelter space
based on the populations we have
out there,” Drazan said. “We can’t
give up on anybody and we cannot
allow this to continue.”
Homelessness and housing are
also top issues for the two other
candidates in Oregon’s gubernato-
rial race.
Candidates’ stance
Kotek, the Democratic candidate,
has said she would form a special
emergency management team to
work on the issues, in addition to
issuing an executive order on her
first day in office to create a 10-year
plan to build more homes in urban,
suburban and rural areas.
In 2020, while serving as speaker
in the Oregon House, Kotek also
called for a statewide emergency
declaration for homelessness. Dra-
zan was the House Republican mi-
nority leader at the time during a
short session that was adjourned
early and marred by political ten-
sions after Republicans in the
House and Senate staged a walkout
to protest a climate change mea-
sure.
Kotek’s campaign described Dra-
zan’s state of emergency proposal as
a “stunning reversal.”
“Instead of helping find solutions
to the housing and homelessness
crisis, she pushed her caucus to flee
the state and kill nearly every bill
that was introduced, including bills
on homelessness,” said Katie Wert-
heimer, communications director
for Kotek’s campaign.
Johnson, the independent can-
didate, has called for creating more
designated camping areas and emer-
gency shelters. Like Drazan, John-
son supports repealing Measure 110,
which decriminalized possession of
small amounts of hard drugs.
“I will end the tent cities,” John-
son said in an email in response to
Drazan’s proposals. “We don’t need
more plans. We need action from
a new governor who’s going to get
stuff done.”
Oregon is a blue state largely
known for the liberal city of Port-
land. But vast swaths of it are rural
and conservative, and registered
unaffiliated voters outnumber both
Democratic and Republican voters,
according to the latest data from
the Oregon Secretary of State.
Drazan is hoping to become Or-
egon’s first Republican governor
since 1987, as the GOP seeks to cap-
italize on soaring inflation and dis-
satisfaction with the party in power.
But abortion could complicate
GOP efforts to win statewide races,
as the hot-button issue has ener-
gized Democratic voters following
the overturning of Roe v. Wade.
In the first major test of public
sentiment after the Supreme Court
decision, voters in conservative
Kansas last week rejected a ballot
measure that would have curbed
abortion rights. While abortion
remains legal in Oregon, the issue
could potentially draw more Dem-
ocratic voters to the polls in mid-
term elections that historically re-
sult in the president’s party losing
seats.
WASHINGTON — The FBI re-
covered documents that were la-
beled “top secret” from former
President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-
Lago estate in Florida, according to
court papers released Friday, Aug.
12 after a federal judge unsealed the
warrant that authorized the unprec-
edented search this week.
A property receipt unsealed by
the court shows FBI agents took
11 sets of classified records from
the estate during a search on Mon-
day, Aug. 8. The property receipt
is a document prepared by federal
agents to specify what was taken
during a search.
The seized records include some
that were marked as classified and
top secret. The court records did
not provide specific details about
the documents or what information
they might contain.
In a statement Friday, Trump
claimed that the documents seized
by agents at his Florida club were
“all declassified,” and argued that
he would have turned over the
documents to the Justice Depart-
ment if asked.
While incumbent presidents have
the power to declassify informa-
tion, that authority lapses as soon
as they leave office and it was not
clear if the documents in question
have ever been declassified. Trump
also kept possession of the doc-
uments despite multiple requests
from agencies, including the Na-
tional Archives, to turn over presi-
dential records in accordance with
federal law.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Bruce Re-
inhart, the same judge who signed
off on the search warrant unsealed
the warrant and property receipt
Friday at the request of the Justice
Department after Attorney General
Merrick Garland declared there
was “substantial public interest in
this matter,” and Trump backed the
warrant’s “immediate” release. The
Justice Department told the judge
Friday afternoon that Trump’s law-
yers did not object to the proposal
to make it public.
In messages posted on his Truth
Social platform, Trump wrote, “Not
only will I not oppose the release of
documents ... I am going a step fur-
ther by ENCOURAGING the imme-
diate release of those documents.”
Trump himself has been given at
least some of the records the gov-
ernment was seeking to unseal, but
he and his lawyers have declined, so
far, to make them public.
The Justice Department’s request
is striking because such documents
traditionally remain sealed during
a pending investigation. But the de-
partment appeared to recognize that
its silence since the search had cre-
ated a vacuum for bitter verbal attacks
by Trump and his allies, and that the
public was entitled to the FBI’s side
about what prompted Monday’s ac-
tion at the former president’s home.
“The public’s clear and powerful
interest in understanding what oc-
curred under these circumstances
weighs heavily in favor of unseal-
ing,” said a motion filed in federal
court in Florida on Thursday.
The documents could disclose un-
flattering information about Trump
and about FBI scrutiny of his han-
dling of sensitive government docu-
ments right as he prepares for another
run for the White House. During his
successful 2016 campaign, he pointed
frequently to an FBI investigation into
his Democratic opponent, Hillary
Clinton, over whether she mishan-
dled classified information.
Several news organizations sepa-
rately petitioned Reinhart to release all
of the documents relating to the search
given the high level of public interest.
To obtain a search warrant, fed-
eral authorities must prove to a judge
that probable cause exists to believe
that a crime was committed. Gar-
land said he personally approved the
warrant, a decision he said the de-
partment did not take lightly given
that standard practice where possible
is to select less intrusive tactics than
a search of one’s home.
In this case, according to a per-
son familiar with the matter, there
was substantial engagement with
Trump and his representatives prior
to the search warrant, including a
subpoena for records and a visit to
Mar-a-Lago a couple of months ago
by FBI and Justice Department of-
ficials to assess how the documents
were stored. The person was not
authorized to discuss the matter by
name and spoke on condition of an-
onymity.
Neither Trump nor the FBI has
said anything about what docu-
ments the FBI might have recov-
ered, or what precisely agents were
looking for.
FBI and Justice Department pol-
icy cautions against discussing on-
going investigations, both to protect
the integrity of the inquiries and to
avoid unfairly maligning someone
who is being scrutinized but winds
up ultimately not being charged.