Terri Sewell joins legislators in introduction of bipartisan Secure Elections Act
Alabama 7th District U.S. Rep. Terri Sewell joined fellow legislators on Friday to introduce the Secure Elections Act which, if passed, would provide state and local governments with resources to strengthen their election systems against cyber attacks. “Our democracy is our nation’s greatest asset and it is our job to protect its integrity,” Sewell said in a press release. “We know from our Intelligence Community that Russian entities launched cyber attacks against our election infrastructure in 2016, exploiting at least 21 state election systems. As the 2018 elections approach, action is urgently needed to protect our democracy against another attack. Today’s bipartisan bill takes a huge step forward by providing election officials with the resources and information they need to keep our democracy safe.” Sewell was joined by Florida-Republican Rep. Tom Rooney, South Carolina-Republican Trey Gowdy, and Connecticut-Democrat Jim Himes, in introducing the legislation. All representatives are members of the members of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI), and aided in the HPSCI investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. According to a report by The Hill, the Secure Elections Act would begin a voluntary grant program designed for replacing and updating paperless voting machines with machines that provide a paper trail. “The bill, like its companion in the Senate, is also designed to improve information sharing between state and federal officials on cyber threats to elections,” the report continued. “It would codify into law many of the steps Homeland Security is already taking to share sensitive details on threats and award security clearances to state elections officials.” “Hostile foreign actors have attempted and will continue to attempt to undermine the fundamentals of our democracy by attacking our electoral process,” Gowdy said in a statement, according to CyberScoop. “It is our responsibility to take every precaution necessary to safeguard our elections and ensure no vote count is ever interfered with.”
GOP lawmakers floated for Trump’s Supreme Court opening
As President Donald Trump considers his next Supreme Court pick, some Republicans in Congress want him to consider pulling from their ranks on Capitol Hill. GOP Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas suggests his conservative ally, Sen. Mike Lee of Utah, would be “the single best choice” Trump could make to fill the vacancy. Republican Sen. Tim Scott is making a pitch for his best friend in Congress, Rep. Trey Gowdy, a fellow South Carolinian. “I hope that the president will be open to that,” Scott said on CNN. Nominating a lawmaker and seeing him or her confirmed would be unusual. A veteran of either the House or the Senate hasn’t joined the court for nearly 70 years. Only a couple dozen members of Congress also served on the court in its history. But for now, only one lawmaker — Lee — is on the list of 25 names Trump is working from to fill the seat of retiring Justice Anthony Kennedy. Cruz says unlike other Republican nominees who have proven to be liberal “train wrecks,” he’s confident Lee, among his favorite colleagues in the Senate, “would be faithful to the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.” Lee is also staunchly opposed to abortion. But even though Lee is championed by conservatives as a strict constitutionalist, he could face obstacles to winning the president’s favor. Chief among them is that he never backed Trump for president during the 2016 campaign. There have been no indications from the White House that Lee is among the handful of top names receiving serious consideration. The same goes for his brother, the Utah Supreme Court justice Thomas Lee, who was also on Trump’s initial list of possible court nominees. Trump on Monday interviewed four prospective nominees for the court and said he expected to speak with a few more. The White House did not provide their names. The president said the candidates he met with are “outstanding people and they are really incredible people in so many different ways, academically and in every other way.” Sen. Lee’s office would not say if he was among the candidates who met with the president. Nevertheless, Lee, who started watching court proceedings on TV as a 10-year old and went on to clerk for Justice Samuel A. Alito, has made clear he wouldn’t dismiss an overture to join the court. “If somebody asked me if I would consider that, I would not say no,” he said. Trump plans to announce his nominee on July 9. The quick timetable could help Senate Republicans confirm a justice before the court’s term begins in October. While Lee has been floated as a nominee for some time, the same cannot be said for Gowdy, who is chairman of the House Oversight Committee. Scott, in making the case for Gowdy, said the former prosecutor is so fair that he has angered both Democrats and Republicans. “A guy who will call balls and strikes and not choose a side, even when he’s an elected member at this time in our nation’s history, that’s hard to find,” Scott said. Scott and Gowdy are close friends who have dinner together several nights a week. They also wrote a book about their friendship, “Unified,” that was released earlier this year. Gowdy led the congressional investigation into Hillary Clinton’s handling of the Benghazi attack in Libya and more recently distanced himself from Trump’s characterization of the Russia probe into election interference as “spygate.” Fellow lawmakers are rooting for their Capitol Hill colleagues. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., told reporters last week he was personally hoping Trump chooses Lee. “He’d be great,” Rubio said. Republished with the permission of the Associated Press.
House Republicans turn up the heat in standoff with DOJ
House Republicans escalated their monthslong standoff with the Justice Department, saying the FBI hasn’t adequately addressed bias within the agency and threatening to hold top department officials in contempt — or even impeach them. The stepped-up criticism followed the department’s internal watchdog report, released last week, criticizing the FBI’s handling of the 2016 probe into Democrat Hillary Clinton’s emails. It said political bias didn’t affect the outcome of the investigation that eventually cleared her. Bolstered by President Donald Trump, some Republicans say there’s no way that bias against then-candidate Trump found among some employees didn’t taint the Clinton probe — and, by extension, special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Trump’s Republican campaign and Russia. At a House hearing Tuesday, Republicans angrily asked Justice Department inspector general Michael Horowitz how anti-Trump texts found between some employees who worked on the Clinton probe didn’t influence the outcome. They also complained that they have not yet received some of the documents they have demanded from the department. “We can’t survive with a justice system we don’t trust,” said Republican Rep. Trey Gowdy of South Carolina, the chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. Horowitz said in the report and repeated at the hearing that he had concluded the outcome of the investigation was determined by prosecutors’ assessment of the facts, not by bias. Democrats accused the Republicans of trying to distract from or undermine the Mueller investigation by focusing on a few employees who were biased. Several Democrats talked about children separated from their parents at the border, asking why the committee’s focus was still on the candidate who lost the presidency in 2016 instead of on current crises. Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland said Republicans were stuck in a “time warp.” Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell of California noted that the Judiciary Committee oversees immigration issues and should be focused on that. Trump, who falsely claimed last week that the report exonerated him in the Russia probe, took the opposite view. In a speech to the National Federation of Independent Business on Tuesday, Trump said Democrats “want to focus on immigration because they want to keep the cameras away from the hearings.” The inspector general report did not touch on the Russia investigation. The outrage in the wake of the inspector general’s report is the latest in a series of complaints from Republicans about the FBI. Multiple committees are investigating the agency’s actions in 2016 related to the Clinton email probe and the beginning of the investigation into Russian election meddling and whether Trump’s campaign was involved. Mueller took over the Russia investigation last year and is also investigating whether Trump obstructed justice. As part of their investigations, Republicans have requested more than a million documents. The Justice Department has provided some of them, but GOP lawmakers say they haven’t provided enough — leading to the threats of contempt or impeachment. House Speaker Paul Ryan has backed the document requests, and he led a meeting last week with three committee chairmen and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to try to resolve the issue. A person familiar with the speaker’s meeting said Ryan and the other Republicans made clear to the Justice Department that they need to comply with the requests or “face consequences from the whole House.” The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the meeting was not public. Rep. Devin Nunes, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said in an interview Sunday with Maria Bartiromo of the Fox Business Network that the deadline is “this week” and that if they don’t get the documents in time, “there’s going to be hell to pay.” The relationship between the Justice Department and Nunes has been particularly tense. Nunes has demanded multiple sensitive documents as he has investigated, among other things, whether the FBI abused the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act when prosecutors and agents in 2016 applied for and received a secret warrant to monitor the communications of a Trump campaign associate. Recently Nunes requested documents related to an informant who spoke to members of the Trump campaign during the election as the FBI’s Russia investigation began. Rosenstein has now held three classified briefings with congressional leaders on that topic, and the department says it has provided those members with documents during those briefings. But Nunes is still unsatisfied, telling The Associated Press after the third briefing last week that he wants the entire intelligence committee to see the documents and “my patience is out.” The documents he is requesting are classified, so Nunes has not described them publicly. Republished with the permission of the Associated Press.
DOJ offers new briefing as lawmakers dispute Donald Trump spy claim
The Justice Department says it will offer a third classified briefing for lawmakers next week as House Republicans push for documents related to the use of an FBI informant who spoke to members of President Donald Trump’s presidential campaign in 2016. The department’s late Wednesday offer comes as three Republicans who attended classified briefings on the subject last month have contradicted President Donald Trump’s claims that there was a “spy” in his campaign. Trump insisted in a series of angry tweets last month that the agency planted a spy “to help Crooked Hillary win,” referring to his Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton. At issue is the FBI’s use of a longtime government informant in its investigation into whether Russia was trying to sway the election. House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, R-Calif., demanded documents on the informant and its contact with Trump campaign officials, while Trump dubbed the matter “spygate” and said it was “starting to look like one of the biggest political scandals in U.S. history.” Under Trump’s orders, the Justice Department held two briefings May 24. But House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., said Wednesday that he agreed with House Oversight and Reform Chairman Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., that there is no evidence of a planted spy. Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr, R-N.C., also said he has seen no evidence of that. Still, Ryan said Congress has “more digging to do.” Nunes has said the committee is still waiting for documents after the briefings, and Ryan backed him on that Wednesday. “We have some more documents to review. We still have some unanswered questions,” Ryan said. Late Wednesday evening, a senior department official said the Justice Department and the FBI would offer an additional briefing to the so-called “Gang of 8” that includes bipartisan congressional leaders and the top Republicans and Democrats on the House and Senate intelligence committees. The official said they would provide new documents and also “the documents that were available for review but not inspected by the members at the previous briefing.” The official said they are prepared to “brief members on certain questions specifically raised by Ryan and other members.” The official declined to be named because the briefings are classified. The department originally denied Congress access to any of the documents, citing national security concerns. But they eventually relented after pressure from Trump, Nunes and Ryan. The Justice Department and FBI believe they “can provide information that is directly responsive to congressional inquiries in a manner that is consistent with its national security and law enforcement responsibilities, and is pleased to do so,” the official said in a statement. Though senators are invited to the briefing, there has been less interest in that chamber in prolonging the public fight over information concerning the informant. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said after the briefing that he learned “nothing particularly surprising.” On Wednesday, Burr appeared ready to move on, saying the briefing he attended “sufficiently covered everything to do with this right now.” After the original briefings, Gowdy was the first to disagree with Trump on the matter, saying days later that the FBI was doing its duty. “I am even more convinced that the FBI did exactly what my fellow citizens would want them to do when they got the information they got,” Gowdy said on Fox News last week. “And that it has nothing to do with Donald Trump.” Gowdy added, in a separate interview on “CBS This Morning,” that such informants are used all the time and “the FBI, if they were at the table this morning, they would tell you that Russia was the target and Russia’s intentions toward our country were the target.” Ryan told reporters on Wednesday that he thinks Gowdy’s “initial assessment is accurate,” and he has seen “no evidence to the contrary” of what Gowdy said. Hours after Ryan’s comments, Burr told The Associated Press that he, too, agreed with Gowdy. “I have no disagreement with the description Trey Gowdy gave,” Burr said. Democrats made similar comments immediately after the briefing. In a joint statement, the four Democrats who attended said “there is no evidence to support any allegation that the FBI or any intelligence agency placed a ‘spy’ in the Trump Campaign, or otherwise failed to follow appropriate procedures and protocols.” That statement was issued by Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi, and the top Democrats on the Senate and House intelligence panels, Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia and Rep. Adam Schiff of California. Republished with the permission of the Associated Press.
The end of an era? Tea party class of House Republicans fades
The Republican newcomers stunned Washington back in 2010 when they seized the House majority with bold promises to cut taxes and spending and to roll back what many viewed as Barack Obama’s presidential overreach. But don’t call them tea party Republicans any more. Eight years later, the House Tea Party Caucus is long gone. So, too, are almost half the 87 new House Republicans elected in the biggest GOP wave since the 1920s. Some, including current Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and White House budget director Mick Mulvaney, joined the executive branch. Others slipped back to private life. Several are senators. Now, with control of the House again at stake this fall and just three dozen of them seeking re-election, the tea party revolt shows the limits of riding a campaign wave into the reality of governing. Rep. Austin Scott, R-Ga., who was president of that freshman class, objects to the tea party brand that he says was slapped on the group by the media and the Obama administration. It’s a label some lawmakers now would rather forget. “We weren’t who you all said we were,” Scott said. He prefers to call it the class of “small-business owners” or those who wanted to “stop the growth of the federal government.” Despite all those yellow “Don’t Tread on Me” flags and anti-Obama health law rallies, Scott said the new Republican lawmakers wanted to work with the president, if only Obama would have engaged them. “We didn’t come to take over the country,” he said. Yet change Washington they did, with a hard-charging, often unruly governing style that bucked convention, toppled GOP leaders and in many ways set the stage for the rise of Donald Trump. By some measures, the tea party Republicans have been successful. The “Pledge to America,” a 21-page manifesto drafted by House Republican leadership, outlined the promises. Among them: “stop out of control spending,” ″reform Congress” and “end economic uncertainty.” They forced Congress into making drastic spending cuts, in part by threatening to default on the nation’s debt, turning a once-routine vote to raise the U.S. borrowing limit into a cudgel during the annual budget fights. Republicans halted environmental, consumer and workplace protection rules, and that rollback continues today. Perhaps most notably, the GOP majority passed $1.5 trillion in tax cuts that Trump signed into law, delivering on the tea party slogan penned on so many protest signs: “Taxed Enough Already.” But former Rep. Tim Huelskamp, R-Kan., said the “most egregious failure” was the GOP’s inability to undo the Affordable Care Act, Obama’s signature domestic achievement. Huelskamp said the class never really stuck together. When he arrived that first week in Washington in January 2011, he was stunned to find the leadership slate already set with then-Rep. John Boehner, R-Ohio, as speaker-in-waiting, facing little resistance. “That was a sign: The establishment in Washington was happy to have our votes, but not to follow our agenda,” said Huelskamp, who lost a primary election in 2016 to a political newcomer and now runs the conservative Heartland Institute. It was “just a clear misunderstanding of what the people wanted.” Over time, budget deals were struck with Democrats, boosting spending back to almost what it was before the revolt. Combined with the tax package, the GOP-led Congress is on track to push annual deficits near $1 trillion next year, as high as during the early years of the Obama administration when the government struggled with a deep recession. Maya MacGuineas, president at the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, said Republicans talked a good game promising to balance the budget, but with control of Congress — and now the White House — they failed to tackle the tough tax-and-spending challenges needed to get there. “That’s a whole lot of talk and zero follow through,” she said. Other proposals to improve transparency in government — a pledge to “read the bill” and post legislation three days before votes — remain works in progress. House bills are typically made public, but sometimes just before midnight to conform with the three-day rule. Frustrations within the ranks grew, and the new class splintered. Not all of them had been favorites of their local tea party groups. Some joined other conservatives to form the House Freedom Caucus, which nudged Boehner to early retirement in 2015. Former Florida Rep. Allen West, among the more prominent class members who lost re-election and is now a Fox News contributor living in Texas, said the challenge for House Republicans heading into the fall election is, “Who are they? What do they stand for?” House Republicans are wrestling with a midterm message at a pivotal moment for a party that Boehner says no longer exists. “There is no Republican Party. There’s Trump’s party,” Boehner said at a recent policy conference in Michigan. Boehner’s successor as speaker, Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., also is stepping aside. He was a conservative up-and-comer long before the tea party, but has run into many of the same challenges Boehner faced in managing a fractured majority. He will retire after this term. In fact, there are an unusually high number of House Republicans retiring this year, including nearly a dozen from the tea party class. Several are running to be governors or senators, though some have already lost in primaries. Others, including Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., another rising star, are simply moving on. Some resigned this year amid ethics scandals. Jenny Beth Martin, a co-founder of Tea Party Patriots, says every movement “goes through phases.” As the group looks to elect the next “Tea Party 100″ members of the House, it’s seeking “tested and proven” candidates beyond the “citizen legislators” who powered the early days. Another 2010 leader, South Carolina’s Tim Scott, now a senator, says he has no problem with the tea party label that’s now etched in history. But he reminds his colleagues as they campaign that to keep the majority they must also eventually govern and that “promises made should be promises kept.” Republished
Donald Trump says he wishes he’d picked a different Attorney General
The Latest on the special counsel’s investigation into ties between the Trump campaign and Russia (all times local): 9:25 a.m. President Donald Trump, still nursing resentment against Attorney General Jeff Sessions for recusing himself from the Russia investigation, says he wishes he’d picked a different leader of the Justice Department. Trump on Wednesday tweeted a quote from Republican congressman Trey Gowdy, who said Sessions should have told Trump before accepting the job that he planned to recuse himself from the investigation. It comes amid fresh news reports that Trump had asked Sessions to rescind his recusal. Sessions recused himself for possible conflict of interest, leading to the appointment of special counsel Robert Mueller. Gowdy told “CBS This Morning” on Wednesday that “there are lots of really good lawyers in the country. He could have picked somebody else.” Trump added at the end of his tweet: “And I wish I did!” 9 a.m. A senior House Republican briefed by the FBI on its Russia probe is disputing President Donald Trump’s allegation that the agency spied on his 2016 campaign for political purposes. Rep. Trey Gowdy told “CBS This Morning” and Fox News there is no evidence of FBI misconduct or that the agency planted a “spy” in Trump’s campaign. His statements appeared to contradict the president, who has said the FBI planted a “spy for political reasons and to help Crooked Hillary win.” Gowdy told Fox on Tuesday that after receiving classified briefing on the subject “I am even more convinced that the FBI did exactly what my fellow citizens would want them to do” in acting on information. Lawmakers demanded the briefing following reports that a government informant approached Trump campaign officials. Republished with the permission of the Associated Press.
Jeff Sessions: No new special counsel yet for Republican concerns
Attorney General Jeff Sessions said Thursday he won’t immediately appoint a new special counsel to investigate a number of Republican grievances involving the FBI and Justice Department, despite mounting pressure from members of his own party. Sessions, in a letter to three Republican committee leaders, reiterated that he had directed a senior federal prosecutor, Utah’s U.S. attorney John W. Huber, to evaluate “certain issues,” including whether such an appointment is necessary. Huber’s review is ongoing, and Sessions said he gets regular updates. The letter is likely to unnerve Republican lawmakers, who have called for multiple special counsels to study allegations of misconduct in some of the FBI’s highest profile, most politically charged investigations. Most recently, they’ve demanded a special counsel to take a broad look at whether Justice Department or FBI employees were biased during their now-closed probe of Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server, and as they began investigating Trump campaign ties to Russian meddling in the 2016 election. In a statement released Thursday night, House Judiciary Chairman Robert Goodlatte and House Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Trey Gowdy said they were “encouraged” that Huber was tapped to investigate the issues. “While we continue to believe the appointment of a second special counsel is necessary, this is a step in the right direction,” they said. Democrats say the allegations are an effort to distract from and undermine the separate work of special counsel Robert Mueller as his team’s Russia investigation intensifies. Sessions’ letter comes a day after the Justice Department’s inspector general announced that, at Sessions’ urging, it would review whether law enforcement officials abused their surveillance powers in seeking permission to monitor the communications of former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page. Sessions’ referral of the allegations to the inspector general enraged President Donald Trump, who said Sessions should have ordered is own investigation. But in his letter to lawmakers, Sessions reminded that the inspector general’s office can and often does refer matters for prosecution. And he said the Justice Department has proven capable of handling “high-profile, resource-intensive matters” without the rare appointment of a special counsel. Huber, an Obama administration holdover re-nominated to serve as Utah’s top federal prosecutor, will conduct a “full, complete and objective evaluation” of Republican concerns and submit recommendations, Sessions said. Republished with permission of the Associated Press.
House investigators demand details on private emails
A top House Republican has demanded details on the use of private emails by some of President Donald Trump‘s closest advisers. Rep. Trey Gowdy, a South Carolina conservative who chairs the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, and the top Democrat on that panel, Rep. Elijah Cummings, cite a recent Politico report that Jared Kushner set up a private email account after the election to conduct work-related business. The New York Times reports that at least six of Trump’s closest advisers, including Kushner, Steve Bannon and Reince Priebus, used private email to discuss White House matters. Bannon and Priebus no longer work at the White House. During the 2016 presidential campaign, Trump repeatedly attacked Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton for setting up a private email server as secretary of state, a decision that prompted an FBI investigation that shadowed her for much of the campaign. Gowdy is best known for his two-year investigation into the 2012 attacks in Benghazi, Libya, in which he focused heavily on Clinton’s role as secretary of state. In letters Monday to White House general counsel and State Department, Gowdy and Cummings said they want details on all employees. “With numerous public revelations of senior executive branch employees deliberately trying to circumvent these laws by using personal, private, or alias email addresses to conduct official government business, the committee has aimed to use its oversight and investigative resources to prevent and deter misuse of private forms of written communication,” the lawmakers wrote. White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders had no immediate comment Tuesday on the request by Gowdy and Cummings. “All White House personnel have been instructed to use official email to conduct all government-related work,” she said. “They are further instructed that if they receive work-related communication on personal accounts, they should be forwarded to official email accounts.” Sanders told reporters Monday that the use of private email accounts by staff was “to my knowledge, very limited.” “White House counsel has instructed all White House staff to use their government email for official business, and only use that email,” she said, adding that “we get instructed on this one pretty regularly.” Kushner’s lawyer, Abbe Lowell, on Sunday confirmed Kushner’s use of a personal email in his first few months of the administration. He said the emails usually involved news articles and political commentary. Lowell also said any non-personal emails were forwarded to Kushner’s official account and “all have been preserved in any event.” Sanders would not say whether the White House would release Kushner’s private emails that dealt with government business. Republished with permission from the Associated Press.
Candidates under consideration for FBI director
Candidates under consideration to replace fired FBI Director James Comey include a couple of sitting Capitol Hill lawmakers and the current acting director of the agency. SEN. JOHN CORNYN Cornyn is the No. 2 Senate Republican and a former Texas attorney general and state Supreme Court justice. He has been a member of the Senate GOP leadership team for a decade and serves on the Senate Judiciary Committee. In the aftermath of Comey’s dismissal, Cornyn said Trump was “within his authority” to fire him and said it would not affect the investigation of possible Russian ties to Trump’s presidential campaign. REP. TREY GOWDY The South Carolina Republican is best known for leading the congressional inquiry into the deadly attacks on a U.S. facility in Benghazi, Libya, a panel that oversaw a lengthy grilling of Hillary Clinton in 2015. A former federal prosecutor and state attorney, Gowdy was elected to Congress in the 2010 tea party wave and has focused on law enforcement issues. He originally endorsed Florida Sen. Marco Rubio for president before backing Trump in May 2016. FORMER REP. MIKE ROGERS Rogers is the former chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. He served Michigan in Congress for more than a decade before stepping down in 2015. Rogers worked for the FBI as a special agent based in Chicago in the 1990s and briefly advised Trump’s transition team on national security issues. His name was floated as a possible replacement for then-FBI Director Robert Mueller in 2013, and he received support from an association of FBI agents before President Barack Obama chose Comey. RAY KELLY Kelly was commissioner of the New York City Police Department for more than a decade, serving two mayors. In the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, he created the first counterterrorism bureau of any municipal police department and oversaw a drastic reduction in crime. But Kelly also came under fire for his use of aggressive police tactics, including a program that spied on Muslims and a dramatic spike in the use of stop-and-frisk, which disproportionately affected nonwhite New Yorkers. J. MICHAEL LUTTIG Luttig, the general counsel for Boeing Corp., is viewed as a conservative legal powerhouse from his tenure as a judge on the 4th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals and his time as a Justice Department lawyer. He was considered for two U.S. Supreme Court vacancies that went to Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito. Luttig clashed with the George W. Bush White House on a prominent terror case, rebuking the administration for its actions in the case involving “enemy combatant” Jose Padilla. LARRY THOMPSON A deputy attorney general under President George W. Bush, Thompson served as the department’s No. 2 from 2001 to 2003. Among his most high-profile actions was allowing Syrian-born Canadian citizen Maher Arar to be deported to Syria, where he was tortured, after being falsely named as a terrorist. Thompson also served as U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Georgia and held several high-level positions at PepsiCo. PAUL ABBATE Abbate is a senior official at the FBI, currently responsible for the bureau’s criminal and cyber branch. He previously led FBI field offices in Washington, one of the agency’s largest, and in Detroit. He’s been deeply involved for years in FBI efforts to fight terrorism, serving in supervisory roles in Iraq and Afghanistan and later overseeing FBI international terrorism investigations as a section chief. He’s been with the FBI for more than 20 years, and is one of the FBI officials who interviewed this week for the role of interim director. ALICE FISHER Currently a partner at the law firm Latham & Watkins specializing in white-collar criminal and internal investigations, Fisher formerly served as assistant attorney general for the Criminal Division of the Justice Department. Fisher faced resistance from Democrats during her confirmation over her alleged participation in discussions about policies at the detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. She also served as deputy special counsel to the Senate special committee that investigated President Bill Clinton’s Whitewater scandal. If selected, she would be the bureau’s first female director. ANDREW McCABE A Duke-educated lawyer, McCabe was named last year as the FBI’s deputy director, the No. 2 position in the bureau, overseeing significant investigations and operations. Since joining the FBI more than 20 years ago, he’s held multiple leadership positions, including overseeing the FBI’s national security branch and its Washington field office. McCabe became acting director after Comey was fired, but has shown a repeated willingness to break from White House explanations of the ouster and its characterizations of the Russia investigation. MICHAEL GARCIA A former New York prosecutor, Garcia has served as an associate judge on the New York Court of Appeals — the state’s highest court — since early 2016. He served as the U.S. attorney in Manhattan from 2005 to 2008, and previously held high-level positions in the Commerce Department, the Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security. JOHN SUTHERS A former U.S. attorney and Colorado attorney general, Suthers was elected mayor of Colorado Springs in 2015. He is widely respected among state law enforcement and many Colorado Democrats. Suthers was inspired to become a prosecutor after he spent part of an internship in the Colorado Springs district attorney’s office watching the trial of a gang of soldiers convicted of killing various citizens, including actor Kelsey Grammer’s sister, during a crime spree in the 1970s. ADAM LEE Lee, a longtime agent, is special agent in charge of the FBI’s Richmond office. He worked in a variety of positions within the bureau. Before Comey tapped him to lead the Richmond office in 2014, he was section chief of the Public Corruption and Civil Rights Section, investigating some of the highest profile cases against government officials and civil rights violations in recent years. He also led the FBI’s global Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and Antitrust Programs. HENRY E. HUDSON Hudson is a federal judge in Richmond who earned praise from conservatives when he struck down the centerpiece
In new ad, Nikki Haley says Marco Rubio will “bring a conscience to Republicans in Washington”
Marco Rubio is the best candidate to “keep America safe.” That’s the message South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley is hoping to send to voters in a new advertisement released by the Rubio campaign. The advertisement comes just one day after the popular South Carolina Republican endorsed Rubio. “America can’t afford four more years like the last eight. That’s why I’m endorsing Marco Rubio for president. As the wife of a combat veteran, I know Marco will keep America safe,” she is shown saying in the 30-second spot. “And as your governor, I trust Marco to bring a conscience to Republicans in Washington and reign in our out-of- control federal government.” Haley goes on to say she is backing Rubio because “this election is about the future and the future is now.” The endorsement is expected to be a boost in South Carolina for Rubio. He’s in a battle with Ted Cruz for second in the Palmetto State. The endorsement also could mean bad news for former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush — who is in fourth in South Carolina, according to RealClearPolitics polling averages — who had hoped to get Haley’s backing. Bush told NBC’s Peter Alexander earlier this week that her endorsement “would be the most powerful, meaningful one in the state.” Haley is scheduled to hit the campaign trail with Rubio on Friday. The two are expected to be joined by U.S. Sen. Tim Scott and U.S. Rep. Trey Gowdy, both South Carolina Republicans. The South Carolina primary is Saturday.
In new ad Trey Gowdy says “no one is stronger” than Marco Rubio on national security
Marco Rubio is the best candidate to keep America safe. That’s the message U.S. Rep. Trey Gowdy is sending in a new advertisement set to air in the Palmetto State. “I have spent my life fighting to enforce the rule of law and keep Americans safe. And no one is stronger for America’s security than Marco Rubio,” the South Carolina Republican is shown saying in the advertisement. “Marco Rubio will be a commander in chief who brings back American strength. I’m Trey Gowdy — that’s why I support Marco Rubio and that’s why the Democrats fear Marco the most.” The 30-second spot — called “Fear” — is expected to hit the airwaves South Carolina on Tuesday. According to a new Public Policy Polling survey, Rubio is currently tied for second in South Carolina. The Republican primary is Saturday.
Marco Rubio eyes brokered convention after NH setback
The best hope of the Republican establishment just a week ago, Marco Rubio suddenly faces a path to his party’s presidential nomination that could require a brokered national convention. That’s according to Rubio’s campaign manager, Terry Sullivan, who told The Associated Press that this week’s disappointing performance in New Hampshire will extend the Republican nomination fight for another three months, if not longer. It’s a worst-case scenario for Rubio and many Republican officials alike who hoped to avoid a prolonged and painful nomination fight in 2016. “We very easily could be looking at May — or the convention,” Sullivan said aboard Rubio’s charter jet from New Hampshire to South Carolina on Wednesday. “I would be surprised if it’s not May or the convention.” The public embrace of a possible brokered convention marks a sharp shift in rhetoric from Rubio’s top adviser that could be designed to raise alarm bells among Republican officials. Yet days after a disappointing fifth-place finish in New Hampshire and looking up at Donald Trump in next-up South Carolina, Rubio’s presidential ambitions are truly facing growing odds. While he downplayed his dilemma on his first day in South Carolina after the New Hampshire setback, the first-term Florida senator discussed his political challenges at length during an unusual 45-minute question-and-answer session with reporters aboard his campaign plane on Wednesday. He answered questions until there weren’t any more, noting afterward that he hadn’t held a session that long with reporters since his days as Florida’s House speaker. In remarks that were at times personal and others defiant, he also may have simply needed to talk it out to help process his predicament. It also seemed he needed to prove to the political world, himself and his family that he could face the biggest test of his young presidential bid. “My kids were watching me last night,” Rubio said of his nationally televised admission that a poor debate performance pushed voters away. “My kids knew that it didn’t go the way I wanted it to go. “I taught them more last night from that experience, I feel, than any words I’ll share. They were learning from that experience,” he said. As he shifts his attention to South Carolina’s Feb. 20 GOP contest, the 44-year-old freshman senator wants voters to know he’s learned an important lesson from his experience in New Hampshire. Instead of trying to avoid attacking his GOP rivals on the debate stage, Rubio said he’s now prepared to fight back when necessary — particularly with his party’s front-runner Donald Trump. “I don’t need to start these fights, but if someone starts one in the future we’re going to have to point out the differences in our records in a sharper way,” Rubio said. “I don’t think we have the luxury any longer to basically say ‘Look, I don’t want to argue with Republicans.’ “ New Hampshire destroyed any momentum Rubio had coming out of Iowa and for now, at least, locks the senator into a messy muddle in his party’s establishment wing. Both Ohio Gov. John Kasich and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush beat Rubio in New Hampshire in the contest to emerge as the mainstream alternative to Trump and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz. And as senior aides embraced the possibility of a brokered national convention, GOP Rep. Trey Gowdy, of South Carolina, said the Rubio operation is “built for a long campaign.” “I don’t know of anyone who expected folks to fold up after New Hampshire and go on. There are a lot of candidates,” Gowdy said as he was traveling with Rubio on Wednesday. “He’s never indicated to me anything other than we’re built for the long haul and it’s going to be a long haul. But, you’re running to be the leader of the free world: It’s supposed to be a challenge.” There hasn’t been a contested national convention since 1976, yet Republican National Committee officials have already had preliminary discussions about the possibility of no candidate securing a majority of delegates in the state-by-state primary contests. It’s by no means assured that Rubio’s candidacy will survive that long. Despite his popularity among many Republican leaders, he will ultimately need to start winning primary contests to remain competitive — especially as Trump and Cruz perform well. Rubio’s team has long expressed confidence about his chances in South Carolina. Yet Rubio downplayed expectations when talking to reporters. “We obviously need to do better than we did in New Hampshire,” he said of the state where he finished in fifth place. Sensing weakness, Democrats and Republicans alike have begun to question Rubio’s long-term viability. “The debate performance hurt. We’ll see if he can turn it around,” said 68-year-old Rubio supporter Rusty DePass after a Wednesday rally in Columbia. “I’m mad as hell at the people who run his campaign for not having him prepared.” “It was awful,” DePass said. Republished with permission of the Associated Press.
