Thanks to a bill that former Gov. Jerry Brown signed into law in 2017, California will hold its presidential primary election in March this year rather than June, giving the 2020 Democratic candidates an earlier shot at capturing the Golden State’s nearly 500 delegates. But U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters argues that her home state – the nation’s most populous (because of Illegals),
with nearly 40 million residents -- is still getting shortchanged when
it comes to influencing which Democrat carries the party’s banner in
presidential elections. “A lot of people have come to the
conclusion that it should not simply be Iowa and New Hampshire, that
certainly they are not reflective of the makeup of this country,” the
Los Angeles-area congresswoman told CNBC on Thursday. “And so, California
has a role to play.” Waters,
81, who has served in Congress since 1991, noted that few other states
can match California when it comes to fundraising for Democratic
candidates. “We have candidates who fly out to Los Angeles from everywhere to raise money," Waters told CNBC host Kelly Evans, the Washington Free Beacon reported.
“You would have two, three, four at a time in Beverly Hills having
dinners and some of our contributors, who are very rich, were holding
fancy parties, trying to accommodate the requests for donations and
contributions.” According to Waters, “The thinking is that if we are supplying tremendous dollars to candidates, we ought to have more say.”
U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., is seen at the Capitol in Washington, Dec. 18, 2019. (Associated Press)
“More say” was said to be the intention behind the bill that Brown signed in 2017. “Candidates
will not be able to ignore the largest, most diverse state in the
nation as they seek our country's highest office," California Secretary
of State Alex Padilla said at the time, according to NPR.
“California has been a leader time and time again on the most important
issues facing our country — including immigration, education, and the
environment.” He added that the date change would “help ensure
that issues important to Californians are prioritized by presidential
candidates from all political parties." Last year, state
Democratic Party spokesman Roger Salazar told Fox News that the earlier
primary would also help California pull the national party in a more
progressive direction. “The Democratic electorate [in California] is much more progressive than almost any state,” Salazar said at the time. “All of that is going to help bring up some of the core issues Californians care about.” He listed the environment, health care, immigration and economic injustice as top issues among California Democrats. That
may explain why progressive candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., leads
in four major California polls, according to Politico. Ironically,
Waters’ remarks about the “tremendous dollars” being donated by
Californians come amid a primary battle in which some of the party
faithful are accusing New York billionaire Michael Bloomberg of trying
to “buy” the nomination. Since the start of 2020, the former mayor
of New York City has spent $13 million on advertising in California and
opened 20 regional offices with a total of 300 staffers, Politico
reported. Bloomberg also got a head start
on other candidates in California by spending time there earlier this
month, after deciding to skip the Iowa and New Hampshire races. As
for who is taking the most money from California, that title belongs to
former South Bend, Ind., Pete Buttigieg, who has raised more than $9
million in the state, according to Federal Election Commission data, the outlet reported.
Florida
Gov. Ron DeSantis has ordered an investigation following financial
disclosures of a private anti-domestic violence agency, hired by the state,
whose former CEO received an annual salary of more than $700,000 -- and
who reportedly received a total of nearly $5 million in paid time off
over a four-year period. The contract of Tiffany Carr, who led the
Florida Coalition Against Domestic Violence for two decades, granted
her 50 paid days off per year since 2010, the Miami Herald reported, in
addition to other perks such as a car allowance and time at "an
executive retreat at the place of her choosing." At least two staffers working under Carr also received lucrative time-off arrangements, according to the newspaper. Carr
stepped down from the job, citing a "significant health diagnosis,"
following a joint Herald and Tampa Bay Times investigation in July 2018
into her compensation and a subsequent order by the state Department of
Children and Families to audit Carr's agency, the Herald reported. Details
of the agency's finances were finally revealed to state lawmakers
Thursday, prompting the governor's call for an investigation. "After many months of obstruction by the Florida Coalition Against
Domestic Violence, the governor’s office received deeply disturbing
information regarding the organization’s practices over the past several
years,’’ DeSantis’ office said in a statement. “These practices include
exorbitant compensation payouts, abuse of state dollars, withholding of
information, and breach of public trust." The Florida House also
voted to subpoena Carr and the agency's board of directors as the state
examines thousands of pages of newly released documents, according to
the Associated Press. DeSantis,
a Republican who took office in January 2019, also ordered the head of
the state's child welfare agency to review contracts with the
domestic-violence organization, which distributes state and federal
money to organizations that help victims of abuse. “My
administration will not tolerate wasteful or fraudulent spending,
particularly by an organization that purports to serve the vulnerable
victims of domestic violence,” DeSantis said.
“My
administration will not tolerate wasteful or fraudulent spending,
particularly by an organization that purports to serve the vulnerable
victims of domestic violence.” — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks at news conference in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., Jan. 29, 2019. (Associated Press)
“As to the measures that we're taking, they're
extraordinary, I would say, but these are extraordinary circumstances,”
Republican House Speaker Jose Oliva told reporters after the vote on
subpoenas. The House had been seeking more information about
Carr's pay ever since the newspapers first raised questions in 2018, The
Associated Press reported. Scott
Howell, the coalition's president of internal and external affairs, did
not immediately respond to an AP message seeking comment. During House floor debate, Democratic Rep. Anna Eskamani said Carr's salary was appalling. “When
we work at our local domestic shelters, we know that every penny
counts, and when you have a CEO being paid that much money as survivors
need support, it should be something that appalls each one of us,” she
said. The Associated Press contributed to this story.
Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti compared himself to 2020 presidential contender Pete Buttigieg Thursday, alluding to a handful of similarities between himself and the former South Bend mayor.
According to the Los Angeles Times, 49-year-old Garcetti said he is an "older, straighter Pete" during a Thursday speech.
Garcetti
toyed with a White House run earlier in the election cycle, but he
decided to stay out of the crowded presidential field early last year,
saying Los Angeles is, "where I want to be and this is a place where we
have so much exciting work to finish."
Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti returned Ed Buck's donation in November of last year.
(AP)
LOS ANGELES MAYOR GARCETTI SIGNS CITY's ENHANCED 'GREEN NEW DEAL
Garcetti also made a similar joke last month in The Atlantic, the newspaper pointed out.
The
mayor raised his national profile in 2018 by campaigning and raising
money for Democratic candidates and state parties around the country.
His $2.5 million-plus in party fundraising included $100,000 each for
the state parties in each of the first four presidential nominating
states of Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina. He made stops
in several of those states and other longtime battlegrounds like Ohio,
where he frequently talked about the city’s transit-building boom
Garcetti, according to The Times, is also a Rhodes Scholar and a piano player, like Buttigieg, and both have served in the U.S. Navy Reserve.
Garcetti
has also defended the idea of a mayor as a presidential candidate,
saying a mayor's experience as chief executive squared well with the job
in the White House. Former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg is
beginning to turn some heads in the Democratic primary with his
aggressive spending in Super Tuesday states, while former New York Mayor
Bill de Blasio and Miramar, Fla. Mayor Wayne Messam each ran
unsuccessful campaigns and have dropped out of the Democratic primary.
When asked about his future plans early last year, Garcetti didn't rule out a different bid for higher office in the future.
“Who knows what the future is,” he said, adding later, “Life is long.” The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Prosecutors reportedly recommended 57 months in prison Thursday for former Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh who pleaded guilty last November to conspiracy and tax evasion linked to her self-published "Healthy Holly" children’s books. Pugh was indicted for allegedly running a multiyear scam using her books to boost her political career and pad her coffers. In
a 37-page sentencing memorandum, U.S. Attorney Robert Hur wrote, Pugh's
scheme was “a recurring pattern of well-executed steps that built on
each other, becoming more audacious and complex leading up to the
mayoral election,” according to WJZ-TV. Prosecutors said her plan to rip off nonprofits and taxpayers began in 2011 when she was a state senator. Among
other things, the indictment against Pugh accused her of claiming
taxable income in 2016 of $31,020, with $4,168 tax due, "when in fact,
Pugh's taxable income was $322,365, with an income tax due of
approximately $102,444." Pugh's books have included "Healthy
Holly: Exercising is Fun" and "Healthy Holly: Fruits Come in Colors like
the Rainbow." Most were sold directly to nonprofits and foundations
that did – or tried to do – business with the state or with Baltimore. Prosecutors
said Pugh arranged fraudulent sales of her books to schools, libraries
and a medical system to pay for her mayoral bid as well as to buy and
renovate a house in Baltimore City. The memorandum also says Pugh
used a business she co-owned to launder a $20,000 check into her
campaign from a donor who had already given the $6,000 limit, WJZ
reported. Pugh also lied to FBI agents, according to the
memorandum, when they came to her house for her personal cell phone. She
said she didn’t have it and gave them a work phone but agents heard it
ringing from under a pillow in her bedroom when they called it a short
time later, according to the station. “Almost immediately, the
agents heard a vibrating noise emanating from her bed. Pugh became
emotional, went to the bed and began frantically searching through the
blankets at the head of the bed. As she did so, agents starting yelling
for her to stop and show her hands,” prosecutors wrote, the Baltimore
Sun reported. “The facts establish that Pugh deliberately engaged
in a broad range of criminal acts while serving as Maryland State
Senator and Mayor of Baltimore City,” Hur added. “As an educated
businesswoman and successful politician, Pugh had countless
opportunities for self-reflection, occasions when she could have checked
her moral and ethical compass and chosen to change course," he
said. "She did the opposite, and chose to double down on a path of
rampant criminal deception to fulfill her ambitions." Specifically,
Pugh pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud, conspiracy to
defraud the United States and two counts of tax evasion. The four counts
collectively carried a maximum sentence of decades behind bars. She did not plead guilty to seven individual counts of wire fraud. “The
chronology of events since 2011, comprising Pugh’s seven-year scheme to
defraud, multiple years of tax evasion, election fraud, and attempted
cover-ups, including brazen lies to the public, clearly establishes the
deliberateness with which she pursued financial and political gain
without a second thought about how it was harming the public’s trust,”
wrote Assistant U.S. Attorneys Martin J. Clarke and Leo J. Wise,
according to the Sun. Pugh resigned last May. She had been under investigation since February 2017. Her
defense said they strongly disagree” with the recommendation and said
their position "as to a fair and appropriate sentence will be laid out
in a sentencing memorandum which will be made public pending order of
court,” WJZ reported. She is scheduled to be sentenced on Feb. 27. Fox News' Barnini Chakraborty contributed to this report.
WASHINGTON
(AP) — Pro-Trump groups raised more than $60 million in January and
have more than $200 million on hand for this year’s general election,
shattering fundraising records on the path toward a goal of raising $1
billion this cycle.
The
Republican National Committee and President Donald Trump’s campaign
have raised more than $525 million since the start of 2019 together with
two joint-fundraising committees. The RNC and the Trump campaign
provided the figures to The Associated Press. The January haul coincided
with most of the Senate’s impeachment trial, which resulted in the Republican president’s acquittal earlier this month.
RNC
Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said, “We already have 500,000 volunteers
trained and activated, and this record-breaking support is helping us
grow our grassroots army even more.”
Trump’s
2020 campaign manager, Brad Parscale, said Democrats’ “shameful
impeachment hoax and dumpster fire primary process” have contributed to
the “record-breaking financial support” for Trump’s reelection.
“With
President Trump’s accomplishments, our massive data and ground
operations and our strong fundraising numbers,” Parscale said, “this
campaign is going to be unstoppable in 2020.”
The pro-Trump effort said it has gained more than 1 million new digital and direct mail donors since Democrats launched their push to impeach Trump
in September 2019. The investigations proved to be a fundraising boon
for Trump’s campaign, even as the president was personally frustrated by
the scar it will leave on his legacy.
The
Trump team’s haul and cash on hand were twice that of former President
Barack Obama’s campaign and the Democratic National Committee at the
same point ahead of his 2012 reelection.
CAIRO
(AP) — Sudan’s transitional government said Thursday it has reached a
settlement with families of the victims of the 2000 attack on USS Cole
in Yemen, in a bid to have the African country taken off the U.S.
terrorism list and improve relations with the West.
The
settlement is the latest step from Khartoum to end its international
pariah status. Earlier this week, Sudan’s provisional rulers said they
had agreed to hand over longtime autocrat Omar al-Bashir to the
International Criminal Court to face trial on charges of war crimes and
genocide during the fighting in the western Darfur region.
Also,
Sudan’s interim leader, Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan, earlier this month
met in Uganda with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who
announced that Israel and Sudan would normalize relations after decades
of enmity. Observers and Sudanese officials have said that the
settlement with the USS Cole victims was among the last hurdles faced by
Sudan on its path to being removed from the U.S. list of state sponsors
of terror.
At
the time of the Oct. 12, 2000 attack in the Yemeni port of Aden that
killed 17 sailors and wounded more than three dozen others, Sudan was
accused of providing support to al-Qaida, which claimed responsibility
for the attack.
Today,
Sudan’s interim authorities are desperate to have its listing by the
U.S. as a state sponsor of terror lifted, in order to receive an
injection of badly needed funds from international lending institutions.
Sudan’s justice ministry said that the agreement was signed with the
victims’ families last Friday but its statement gave no details of the
settlement.
There was no immediate comment from Washington.
Sudan’s
information minister and interim government spokesman, Faisal Saleh,
told The Associated Press over the phone that Justice Minister
Nasr-Eddin Abdul-Bari had traveled last week to Washington to sign the
deal, which included compensations for both those wounded and the
families of those killed in the attack.
He
said the figures could not be disclosed because the Sudanese government
is still in negotiations to reach a similar settlements with families
of victims of the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.
More than 200 people were killed in the attacks and more than 1,000
were wounded.
Saleh said, however, that the American side is free to disclose the amount if it wishes to do so.
The
initial figures on the table had been in the billions, he said, but
Sudan’s interim government had “inherited an empty treasury.” He said he
hoped the international community would be sympathetic to the country’s
situation.
“We expect the United States and the world to understand and to be supportive instead of imposing more obstacles,” he said.
For
Sudan, being removed from the U.S. terror list will end the country’s
economic isolation and allow it to attract much-need loans from
international financial institutions in order to rebuild the economy
after the popular uprising last year that toppled al-Bashir and
installed the joint civilian-military sovereign council.
The
new Sudanese rulers say they were not responsible for the attack on USS
Cole and that they had negotiated the deal out of their desire “to
resolve old terror claims inherited from the ousted regime” of
al-Bashir.
In
the USS Cole attack, two men in a boat detonated explosives alongside
the U.S. destroyer as it was refueling in Aden. The victims’ families,
along with the wounded sailors, had sued the Sudanese government in U.S.
courts demanding compensations.
In
2012, a federal judge issued a judgment of nearly $315 million against
Sudan but last March, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned that ruling on
the grounds that Sudan had not been properly notified of the lawsuit.
Andrew
C. Hall, a lawyer who represents survivors of the attack, said at the
time that the victims, though disappointed with the ruling, would
continue the case, along with a second related case filed by family
members of the 17 sailors who died in the attack.
It
wasn’t clear when the 76-year-old al-Bashir could be handed over to the
international court in the Netherlands. He faces three counts of
genocide, five counts of crimes against humanity and two counts of war
crimes for his alleged role in leading the deadly onslaught on civilians
in response to a rebel insurgency in Darfur. The indictments were
issued in 2009 and 2010, marking the first time the global court had
charged a suspect with genocide.
Saleh
also told the AP that the U.S. administration has set the overhaul of
the country’s security apparatus as another condition to remove Sudan
from the terror list.
“The
Americans believe the Sudan’s support for terror was carried out
through its security apparatus,” Saleh, said. “So they want to be
assured that there has been a radical change” in the way it operates.
Former House Oversight Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy responded Thursday to the outrage by many Democrats over President Trump's defense
of Republican political consultant Roger Stone and his agreement that
the Justice Department should revise its sentencing recommendation
against Stone. "I’ve
had the same position whether it was Barack Obama or Donald Trump: I do
not think the chief executive should be weighing in
ongoing investigations or criminal prosecutions," Gowdy told "The Story." On Tuesday, Trump offered "congratulations" to Attorney General Bill Barr after the Justice Department submitted an amended filing seeking
a lighter sentence for the former Trump campaign adviser than
prosecutors initially recommended -- a move that comes as Democrats
accuse the White House of politicizing the department and followed the
withdrawal of all four prosecutors from the case in apparent protest. Democratic
lawmakers, including Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Richard Blumenthal,
called on Barr to resign Wednesday, while the House Judiciary Committee
announced it'll grill the attorney general during a March 31 hearing
over his handling of the sentencing. "I can tell you this: Bill
Barr was aware of this recommendation before President Trump
ever tweeted a single syllable, a single character. So the notion that
Barr was somehow motivated to move because of this tweet is
just factually wrong," said Gowdy, a Fox News contributor. "The notion that Barr should resign is about the dumbest damn thing I've ever heard," Gowdy added. "If
a United States Senator really believes that the head of the Department
of Justice cannot weigh in on what a proportional sentence is..." Gowdy
trailed off, adding that "there are child pornographers, people who rob
banks who do not get nine years."
"The notion that Barr should resign is about the dumbest damn thing I've ever heard." — Trey Gowdy, "The Story"
"Let the judge decide, I think two or three years is about right," he continued. Trump's
critics accused the president of hypocrisy over his handling of the
case after he criticized former President Bill Clinton for potentially
interfering with the Hillary Clinton email investigation during a 2016
meeting with then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch. "The president
has the power to commute Roger Stone's sentence. He has the power to
pardon him, he can pardon him right now if he wants to," Gowdy fired
back. "He could do it by tweet tonight. He's the head of the
executive branch and people have a chance in November if they want
a different one." With that said, Gowdy reiterated his belief that the president should steer clear of ongoing investigations for the time being. "I am being consistent," he said. "I do not think presidents should weigh in on prosecutions."
Former
Memphis City Schools Board President Tomeka Hart revealed Wednesday
that she was the foreperson of the jury that convicted former Trump
adviser Roger Stone on obstruction charges last year -- and soon
afterward, her history of Democratic activism and a string of her
anti-Trump, left-wing social media posts came to light. Hart even posted specifically about the Stone case before she voted to convict, as she retweeted an argument mocking those who considered Stone's dramatic arrest in a predawn raid by
a federal tactical team to be excessive force. She also suggested
President Trump and his supporters are racist and praised the
investigation conducted by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, which
ultimately led to Stone's prosecution. Meanwhile, it emerged
that U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson had denied a defense
request to strike a potential juror who was Obama-era press official
with admitted anti-Trump views -- and whose husband worked at the same Justice Department division that handled the probe leading to Stone's arrest. And, another Stone juror, Seth Cousins, donated to former Democratic presidential candidate Beto O'Rourke and other progressive causes, federal election records reviewed by Fox News show. The revelations came as Trump has called the handling of Stone's prosecution "ridiculous" and a demonstrably unfair "insult
to our country." They raised the prospect that Stone's team could again
seek a new trial, especially if Hart provided inaccurate responses
under oath on her pretrial questionnaires concerning social media
activity. The drama began when Hart confirmed to CNN and other
media organizations Wednesday that she had written a Facebook post
supporting the Justice Department prosecutors in the Stone case who abruptly stepped down from their posts on Tuesday,
saying she "can't keep quiet any longer." The prosecutors apparently
objected after senior DOJ officials overrode their recommendation to
Jackson that Stone face up to 9 years in prison. "I
want to stand up for Aaron Zelinsky, Adam Jed, Michael Marando, and
Jonathan Kravis -- the prosecutors on the Roger Stone trial," Hart wrote
in the post. "It pains me to see the DOJ now interfere with the hard
work of the prosecutors. They acted with the utmost intelligence,
integrity, and respect for our system of justice."
FILE - In this Nov. 12, 2019 file photo, Roger Stone, a longtime
Republican provocateur and former confidant of President Donald Trump,
waits in line at the federal court in Washington. A Justice Department
official tells the AP that the agency is backing away from its
sentencing recommendation of between seven to nine years in prison for
Trump confidant Roger Stone. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
Hart added: "As foreperson [of the jury], I made sure
we went through every element, of every charge, matching the evidence
presented in the case that led us to return a conviction of guilty on
all 7 counts." Independent journalist Mike Cernovich, not CNN, then first reported
that a slew of Hart's other publicly available Twitter and Facebook
posts readily suggested a strong political bias. Some of Hart's posts
were written as Stone's trial was in progress. Hart, who unsuccessfully ran for Congress as a Democrat in 2012, quoted someone in an August 2017 tweet referring to Trump as a member of the KKK. In January 2019, she retweeted a post by
pundit Bakari Sellers, who noted that "Roger Stone has y'all talking
about reviewing use of force guidelines," before suggesting that racism
was the reason for all the attention Stone's arrest had received from
conservatives. In August 2019, Hart called all Trump supporters "racist." "Gotta love it!" Hart wrote on Jan. 13, 2018, in response to a news report that a vulgarity had been projected onto the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C. A week later, on Jan. 21, 2018, she shared an opinion piece entitled, "What’s so extremely, uniquely wrong about Trump’s presidency." On March 24, 2019, Hart shared a Facebook post
saying that Republicans who complained about Mueller's probe were
deliberately "ignoring the numerous indictments, guilty pleas, and
convictions of people in 45’s inner-circle," referring to Trump. And,
on Nov. 15, 2019 -- the day she voted to convict Stone on seven counts
of obstruction, witness tampering and making false statements to
Congress -- Hart tweeted two "heart" emojis,
followed by two pump-fist emojis. (None of Stone's charges accused him
of engaging in a criminal conspiracy with Russia or any other actors
concerning election interference; instead, his offenses related to his
statements concerning his contacts with WikiLeaks and others.) Hart's tweet linked to a Facebook post that has since been taken down from public view. If
Hart have provided misleading answers on her jury form concerning her
political or social media activity, her views on Trump and the Russia
probe, or other related matters, there could be grounds for Stone's team
to seek a new trial, legal experts told Fox News. Hart did not immediately respond to Fox News' request for comment. The Memphis Commercial Appeal noted that she was a native of the city and had served a term as the president of its school board. Hart's posts surfaced the same day that Jackson, who oversaw the Stone case, unsealed her order from earlier this month denying Stone's request for a new trial. Stone's
team argued that an unnamed juror had misled the court concerning his
or her exposure to the media during the case, and also had some
potential bias because of his or her work with the IRS, which sometimes
has interfaced with the DOJ on criminal matters. But, Jackson shot
down the motion for a new trial, saying the juror's potential bias was
not demonstrated -- and even if it were, it wasn't significant enough to
warrant the drastic step of calling for a new trial. Courts allow
for a new trial, Jackson noted, when "a serious miscarriage of justice
may have occured." Bias is a permissible reason to remove a juror or
call for a new trial only in "extreme situations where the relationship
between a prospective juror and some aspect of the litigation is such
that it is highly unlikely that the average person could remain
impartial in his deliberations under the circumstances." Jackson,
who was appointed to the bench by President Barack Obama, also took a
shot at Stone's team for failing to uncover the information sooner. "The
defense could have easily conducted the same Internet search included
in the instant motion and could have raised concerns at that time,"
Jackson wrote. Fox News reported earlier Tuesday that top brass at the DOJ were "shocked" that prosecutors handling the Stone case had recommended Monday night that Jackson sentence the 67-year-old Stone to between 87 and 108 months in prison. The prosecutors asserted in the Monday filing that
Stone's conduct post-indictment -- including violating the judge's
social media gag orders -- merited a sentence much longer than the 15 to
21 months that the defense said was actually advisable under the
federal sentencing guidelines. In a new, amended filing Tuesday afternoon,
the DOJ told Jackson that the government "respectfully submits that a
sentence of incarceration far less than 87 to 108 months' imprisonment
would be reasonable under the circumstances," but that the government
"ultimately defers to the court as to the specific sentence to be
imposed." Government officials wrote in the amended filing that
while it was "technically" possible to argue that Stone deserved the
severe federal sentencing enhancement for threatening physical harm to a
witness, such a move would violate the spirit of the federal
guidelines. It would place Stone in a category of the guidelines
that "typically applies in cases involving violent offenses, such as
armed robbery, not obstruction cases," the government argued, noting
that Stone's "advanced age, health, personal circumstances, and lack of
criminal history" also counseled against the harsh penalty. Specifically,
prosecutors said that although Stone allegedly had threatened witness
Randy Credico's therapy dog, Bianca -- saying he was "going to take that
dog away from you" -- it was important to recognize that Credico, a New
York radio host, has acknowledged that he "never in any way felt that
Stone himself posed a direct physical threat to me or my dog." The
government continued, "If the court were not to apply the eight-level
enhancement for threatening a witness with physical injury, it would
result in the defendant receiving an advisory guidelines range of 37 to
46 months, which as explained below is more in line with the typical
sentences imposed in obstruction cases." A
senior DOJ official confirmed to Fox News that senior leadership
officials there made the call to reverse the initial sentencing
recommendation, saying the filing on Monday evening was not only
extreme, but also substantially inconsistent with how the prosecutors
had briefed DOJ leadership they would proceed on the case. The "general
communication" between the U.S. Attorney's Office and the main DOJ had
led senior officials to expect a more moderate sentence, the official
told Fox News. “It's surprising that would be the line in the sand
-- an amended filing," a senior DOJ official told Fox News, adding that
the problem with the original sentencing recommendation was it told the
judge that the only way to serve justice was a lengthy sentence. “We're
backing off from, 'It has to be this,'" the DOJ source told Fox
News. “The amended filing says it's a serious crime, and prison time is
appropriate; we're just saying it doesn't have to be 87 to 108 months." Speaking
to reporters on Tuesday, Trump said he stayed out of internal DOJ
deliberations, but strongly opposed their initial sentencing
recommendation. "I stay out of things to a degree that people
wouldn't believe," Trump said. He added that the initial recommendation
was "ridiculous" and called it "an insult to our country." Later,
Trump took a shot at Jackson, writing on Twitter: "Is this the Judge
that put Paul Manafort in SOLITARY CONFINEMENT, something that not even
mobster Al Capone had to endure? How did she treat Crooked Hillary
Clinton? Just asking!" Fox News' Jake Gibson and Alex Pfeiffer contributed to this report.
U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., is seen at the Capitol in Washington, Dec. 18, 2019. (Associated Press)
Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti returned Ed Buck's donation in November of last year.
(AP)
