Three FBI officials to answer House panel's questions about Clinton emails

U.S. Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., questions then-FBI Director James Comey and National Security Agency Director Mike Rogers during a hearing into alleged collusion between Russian and the Trump campaign, March 20, 2017.  (Reuters)

House Republicans in June plan to interview three FBI officials linked to the agency’s controversial handling of the Hillary Clinton email probe, part of an ongoing joint investigation by the House Judiciary and Oversight and Government Reform committees.
The panels will interview Bill Priestap, assistant director of the FBI’s counterintelligence division; Michael Steinbach, formerly head of the agency’s national security division; and Steinbach’s predecessor, John Giacalone, the Hill reported.
Priestap played a prominent role in the FBI during the Clinton and Russia probes, including the agency’s decision, led by former Director James Comey, to call Clinton’s email debacle, “extremely careless.”
He also oversaw counterintelligence agent Peter Strzok, who’s anti-Trump text messages provided fodder for Republicans and conservatives alike, as evidence of possible political bias in the bureau.

In this July 26, 2017 photo, Bill Priestap, assistant director of the FBI's Counterintelligence Division, testifies during a Judiciary Committee hearing into alleged collusion between Russian and the Trump campaign.  (Reuters)

According to the Hill, Strzok will not testify before the panels.
Meanwhile, Democrats have derided the Republicans' probe as a partisan effort to stagnate Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into possible ties between the Trump presidential campaign and Russia.
But U.S. Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., who leads the joint Judiciary-Oversight review, has insisted that the investigation is an impartial probe into the FBI’s handling of the Hillary Clinton email probe, and not a Republican effort to bring charges against her.
The three hearings with the FBI personnel, scheduled for successive weeks, will be the panel’s first interviews since October.

Rachel Dolezal hit with felony theft charge in welfare fraud case

Rachel Dolezal, pictured here in 2009, changed her name to Nkechi Diallo in 2016.  (AP Photo/Nicholas K. Geranios, File)

Rachel Dolezal, the former NAACP chapter leader who resigned after her parents revealed she's not African-American, is facing a felony theft charge in Washington state after she allegedly made false statements to secure nearly $9,000 in food and childcare assistance.
The charges against Dolezal, who changed her name to Nkechi Diallo in October 2016, were first reported by KHQ-TV.
According to court documents, investigators with Washington state's Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS) started looking into Dolezal's finances in March 2017 after the publication of her autobiography, "In Full Color: Finding My Place in a Black and White World."
DSHS investigator Kyle Bunge said Dolezal had claimed that "her only source of income was $300.00 per month in gifts from friends." However, the department found that she had deposited nearly $84,000 in her bank account between August 2015 and September 2017 without reporting it.
According to the investigation, the money came from sales of Dolezal's autobiography as well as "the sale of her art, soaps, and handmade dolls."
Authorities say Dolezal illegally received $8,747 in food assistance and $100 in child care assistance from August 2015 through November 2017.
Dolezal did report a "change of circumstance" to the state agency, saying she did a one-time job in October 2017 worth $20,000, court documents said. The DSHS report says Dolezal told investigators in April that she had "fully disclosed her information" and declined to answer further questions.
Dolezal is also charged with perjury and making false verification for public assistance.
Dolezal resigned as head of the Spokane NAACP chapter in June 2015 after her parents told local media that she had been born white and was merely posing as a black activist. She also was fired from a police ombudsman commission and lost her job teaching African studies at Eastern Washington University.
In 2017, Dolezal told The Associated Press that she still identifies as black, despite being "Caucasian biologically."
"People didn't seem able to consider that maybe both were true," she said at the time. "OK, I was born to white parents, but maybe I had an authentic black identity."
In addition to her autobiography, Dolezal was the subject of a Netflix documentary, "The Rachel Divide," that premiered at New York's Tribeca Film Festival last month. Fox News recently reported that Dolezal has taken to Instagram to show the apparent success of her in-house hair salon business.

How a weakened ESPN became consumed by politics

Tucker blasts sports network for not sticking to sports and entertainment and now becoming more known for political controversies, like the latest involving a commentator's Twitter rant where he calls Pres. Trump a white supremacist
John Skipper was furious.
One of his star anchors, Jemele Hill, had sent a tweet calling President Donald Trump a “white supremacist.” Mr. Trump’s supporters called for her to be fired. Prominent black athletes defended the anchor, who is African-American.
Sitting in his office last September, Mr. Skipper, then ESPN’s president, lit into Ms. Hill, according to people familiar with the meeting. If I punish you, he told her, I’d open us up to protests and come off as racist. If I do nothing, that will fuel a narrative among conservatives — and a faction within ESPN — that the network had become too liberal.
Mr. Skipper chose to spare Ms. Hill. Mr. Trump weighed in on Twitter : “ESPN is paying a really big price for its politics (and bad programming). People are dumping it in RECORD numbers.”
The president’s tweet was hyperbolic, but it tapped into real anxiety at ESPN. What was the way forward for a company shaken to its foundations by the cord-cutting revolution?
Executives at the sports-media giant wanted to seek out new audiences by spicing up shows with opinionated analysis and debate, including on SportsCenter, its struggling news and highlights franchise.
But the amount and intensity of political expression generated sharp internal disagreements over whether ESPN was appropriately taking part in the broader national conversation, or whether top executives were encouraging a divisive company culture and giving too much leeway to hosts to promote left-leaning views, both on air and on social media.

The amount and intensity of political expression generated sharp internal disagreements over whether ESPN was appropriately taking part in the broader national conversation, or ... giving too much leeway to hosts to promote left-leaning views.

Well before Ms. Hill’s tweet controversy, network icon Bob Ley had approached Mr. Skipper to say “there was a problem with balance internally,” people familiar with the matter said. Reached for comment, Mr. Ley said Mr. Skipper “was always extremely receptive.”
Linda Cohn, one of ESPN’s most prominent female anchors, in April 2017 gave a radio interview opining that ESPN’s politics were pushing away viewers and the network had overpaid for NBA rights. Mr. Skipper called to berate her on both counts, people familiar with the call said.
Why ESPN found itself torn up by the nation’s partisan politics traces back to its fundamental business challenge. Its status as cable TV’s most expensive channel had become a liability. As consumers grew fed up with their monthly cable prices, big cable distributors began offering discounted packages that didn’t include the network. Many consumers opted for those offers, while others cut the cord entirely, leading ESPN to shed 16 million subscribers over seven years.
At the same time, costs have ballooned, especially for vital live sports rights. Average annual payments tied to ESPN’s four biggest, long-term rights deals have more than doubled since 2013 to $4.7 billion. After years of growth, ESPN’s profit declined in the fiscal year that ended in September 2017, people familiar with its finances said. Declines have continued for the two ensuing quarters. ESPN has laid off some 600 employees over the past several years, including well-known hosts, though it has hired in areas such as technology and data.

ESPN has laid off some 600 employees over the past several years, including well-known hosts.

ESPN’s relationship with majority-owner Walt Disney Co. DIS -0.76% grew tense as the once reliable profit engine turned into a public headache, people close to the situation said. A recent management shake-up gave Disney a chance to exert more control. Mr. Skipper departed suddenly in December, citing a substance-abuse issue. He later said someone from whom he bought cocaine had tried to extort him.
Disney Chief Executive Bob Iger installed as his replacement James Pitaro, Disney’s former consumer products and digital chief. Mr. Pitaro has promised to expand ESPN’s audience by targeting younger and casual fans, including with a new streaming service launched last month. He believes ESPN leaned too much into politics and that has influenced how the company was perceived, a person close to ESPN said. He has encouraged its programs to return to news and highlights and move away from opinionated commentary.
Mr. Pitaro has said that despite the political debates roiling the network last year, total day ratings were up 1% in 2017 from the previous year, in a largely bleak cable-TV landscape.
ESPN has struck new deals with some cable companies ensuring it gets a share of the monthly bills paid by at least 85% of their subscribers, regardless of how many sign up for packages that include ESPN, people familiar with the terms said. And it has added back 2.4 million subscribers thanks to growth in the past few years from new streaming cable TV services such as Hulu and Sling TV.
An ESPN spokesperson said the company’s momentum is strong.
Several network employees said the company has turned a corner. “When you know that there are dark days coming, it wears on folks collectively,” said ESPN’s late-night SportsCenter anchor Scott Van Pelt, about morale in the past during rounds of layoffs. But more recently, under Mr. Pitaro, “there is a sense that those days are in the rearview,” he said.
Others are jaded after budget cuts and job losses, according to interviews with current and former staffers. “I think the morale there is probably as bad as I’ve seen it in my 22-year tenure,” said Jeannine Edwards, a longtime on-air reporter who retired in December.

“I think the morale there is probably as bad as I’ve seen it in my 22-year tenure.”

Other workplace culture issues have surfaced. Some female staffers were aghast when the network launched a show last fall with Barstool Sports, even after some prominent hosts privately expressed concerns to executives that the outlet’s content was sexist and offensive, according to people familiar with the conversations. ESPN canceled the program after the outcry became public.
More recently, a producer filed a human resources complaint that ESPN wasn’t doing enough to promote women and minorities in production, and the network has interviewed several people who work on SportsCenter, according to people familiar with the situation. ESPN declined to comment on the investigation.
'Flat-earthers'
Turmoil in the sports powerhouse’s business traces back to a spring day in 2014. Disney had invited about 100 analysts and investors to ESPN’s headquarters in Bristol, Conn., to hobnob with talent including tennis legend John McEnroe and show off ESPN’s new, $150-million-plus production facility.
In an unusual move, Disney gave long-term financial guidance for its cable networks division, largely powered by ESPN. It was rosy. ESPN’s research department presented data arguing cord-cutting was unlikely to become widespread, according to attendees.
“They were flat-earthers,” said one former ESPN executive.
At the same time, ESPN was spending aggressively. The company agreed to triple the fees it would pay the NBA, which it believes is growing in popularity. On the talent side, Mr. Skipper closely managed negotiations, desiring to beat back rivals like Fox Sports 1 and NBC Sports. Agents, former ESPN executives and hosts said that led him to overpay for several on-air personalities.
By 2015, it became clear the research staff was off base, as ESPN’s subscriber losses accelerated beyond internal projections. That August, Mr. Iger lowered the company’s earlier financial guidance, causing a stock selloff that lopped more than $20 billion off Disney’s market value that week.
Mr. Iger expressed reservations to Mr. Skipper about ESPN’s programming. SportsCenter was flooding the airwaves with many editions and he said it wasn’t distinguishing itself, a person familiar with the conversation said.

Former Disney boss Bob Iger expressed concern about ESPN's programming.

ESPN and Disney’s finance teams began to quarrel over budgets as the network was told to find cuts, people familiar with the matter said.
ESPN shaved spending, including by producing games remotely without announcers on site, but changing the culture was challenging. In 2015 the network spent lavishly to beef up its “SportsCenter on the Road” segments, including by pouring over $2 million into programming surrounding the Floyd Mayweather-Manny Pacquiao boxing match, well above initial projections internally, people familiar with the situation said.
For some staffers that became a symbol of excess. Rob King, the executive in charge of SportsCenter at the time, appointed a senior producer to monitor budgets closely after the episode, the people said. A person close to ESPN disputed that spending on the fight overshot internal projections.
Some current and former employees said bloated contracts for talent weighed the company down and led to layoffs. ESPN is still paying many hosts, including former NFL reporter Ed Werder, who were on multiyear contracts when they were laid off more than a year ago.
A new morning talk show that launched last month, “Get Up,” costs far more than its predecessor, a SportsCenter morning edition, and is underperforming it in ratings. Payments to the show’s talent total some $15 million a year, with co-host Mike Greenberg making $6.5 million, people familiar with the costs said. Midlevel SportsCenter hosts tend to earn less than $500,000, one agent said, with better-known ones making up to $1 million and stars landing multimillion-dollar deals.
Mr. Pitaro told reporters in May that ESPN is monitoring the show daily, “trying to identify what’s working and what’s not.” He said the show’s ratings are up since its launch.
#BoycottESPN
There is broad agreement within ESPN that covering sports news means sometimes tackling hot topics like politics and race. The internal debate centered on the tonnage of such coverage, conduct on social media and whether ESPN as a company should take political stances.
Mr. Skipper sought to promote progressive social values, but often his moves came off as overtly political, staffers said. Under Mr. Skipper, ESPN awarded a prestigious “ESPY” award for courage to Michael Sam, the first openly gay athlete drafted into the NFL, and another to Caitlyn Jenner for coming out as a transgender woman.

An ESPY award for Caitlyn Jenner came across to some as being overtly political.

When Mr. Trump disparaged Mexican immigrants during his candidacy, ESPN shifted a charity golf tournament from Trump National Golf Club to a different venue, a move ESPN’s public editor at the time said seemed “political.”
Conservative ESPN staffers grew frustrated by increased political commentary, including from ESPN executives during the presidential election, and worried about #BoycottESPN hashtags cropping up on Twitter. “Our viewers turned to us for sports,” said Jay Crawford, a longtime SportsCenter host who was laid off a year ago. “Realizing there’s never been a time in my lifetime where our country has been more divided, I saw no value in adding to that division.”

Conservative ESPN staffers grew frustrated by increased political commentary, including from ESPN executives during the presidential election, and worried about #BoycottESPN hashtags cropping up on Twitter.

Mark Shapiro, who helped pioneer debate shows at ESPN and is now co-president of media conglomerate WME-IMG, said, “there was too much emphasis on talking heads and fiery opinions and less on breaking news and analysis.”
Tensions boiled over with the controversy over Ms. Hill in September. At their meeting, Mr. Skipper asked pointedly if Ms. Hill thought it fair to paint colleagues who voted for Donald Trump with a broad brush as white supremacists.
“No, but I do think that they have the benefit of privilege,” Ms. Hill responded.
Several ESPN employees later told Mr. Skipper that Ms. Hill should have been suspended for her Trump tweet because she violated the company’s social-media policy.

Several ESPN employees later told Mr. Skipper that Ms. Hill should have been suspended for her Trump tweet because she violated the company’s social-media policy.

“To me it was clear-cut that these are areas to stay away from regarding racial topics, religion, sex orientation, politics,” said Tim Legler, an ESPN basketball analyst and 17-year company veteran.
Weeks later, Mr. Skipper suspended Ms. Hill when she used Twitter to urge a boycott of Dallas Cowboys advertisers after the team’s owner had suggested benching NFL players who staged social-justice protests during the national anthem. ESPN determined that was detrimental to the company, as ESPN shared some sponsors with the Cowboys, people familiar with the situation said. In February, Ms. Hill left SportsCenter to write for ESPN’s “The Undefeated” website.
Ms. Hill’s supporters said critics often conflated “politics” with hearing diverse viewpoints from women and people of color that Mr. Skipper promoted on air. “More minorities at ESPN with strong voices” has “evidently made some people bothered,” said on-air host Dan Le Batard on his show a year ago.
On Wednesday, the NFL said it would require players to stand during the national anthem and would fine teams if they don’t comply. The decision was debated on ESPN shows like “First Take” and “SportsCenter,” including with references to President Trump’s distaste for such protests. Ms. Hill tweeted, “Me, trying to find any NFL owners with common sense.”

Soros spends big in California's DA races in bid to reshape criminal justice system

New York billionaire George Soros is leading a campaign to reshape the nation’s criminal justice system -- and targeting with cash four of the 56 district attorney positions in California up for grabs June 5.
In fact, he and other wealthy liberal donors are pouring millions of dollars and liberal groups are offering support to would-be prosecutors who favor lower incarceration rates, crackdowns on police misconduct and changes in a bail system that they argue discriminates against the poor, the Los Angeles Times reported.
"These people who want to create their own social policy are not worthy of the office," former Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley told the newspaper. "If they win in San Diego or Sacramento, L.A. is next."
In San Diego County, a deputy public defender is being financially backed after fighting to keep the accused out of jail. In Sacramento and Alameda counties, candidates are challenging the incumbents. In Contra Costa County, a district attorney earned the support of the consortium of wealthy donors and liberal groups.
Five more candidates in Marin, Riverside, San Bernardino, Stanislaus and Yolo counties are also getting donations, albeit much smaller ones, from some liberal donors.
Noah Phillips, who’s running in Sacramento County, attacked his opponent, who happens to be his boss as well, for failing to ever charge a police officer who shot a civilian. He admitted Soros’ team scripted and paid for his ad on television, while his fundraising efforts were improved following the help from Cari Tuna, senior adviser to Bernie Sanders' presidential campaign.
Soros reportedly spent over $1.5 million on a political action committee to prop up the San Diego County candidacy of Geneviéve Jones-Wright, who attacked policies “criminalizing poverty” and pledged to form a police misconduct unity.
In total, Soros’ spending reached nearly $3 million this week on races for district attorney positions. Such large cash infusions and support for liberal groups are crucial for contenders as most elections are limited by the $800 individual contribution limit, leaving most campaigns scrambling for cash and relying on unpaid volunteers.
The flows of money remain unclear as federal laws allow nonprofit advocacy groups hide the source of their funding and are required to provide only a summary of their spending.
Jones-Wright's opponent, career prosecutor Summer Stephan, has yet to match the money donors spent against her campaign. Her $1.1 million support came mostly from police unions and other prosecutors, the Times reported.
Stephan slammed Soros’ backing for her opponent, declaring it a public safety threat. But Jones-Wright dismissed the alarmist tone, saying the funding merely gives voice to minorities and poor people who are left behind in prosecutor races.
"I love it!" she said at a recent fundraiser, according to the Times. "If he didn't take an interest in this campaign, it would be an even more uneven playing field."
Alameda County District Attorney Nancy O'Malley, who’s up for re-election, was surprised to see on Soros’ target list to oust her as she’s a registered Democrat and earned endorsements from U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., and other organized labor and Democratic groups.
Yet, she’s being attacked from the left, with Soros PAC accusing her of implementing “racist” stop-and-frisk policies. Her opponent, civil rights lawyer Pamela Price, promises to end such policies and blasted O’Malley for being supported by law enforcement groups.
The wealthy liberal donors are also getting behind Diana Becton in Contra Costa County. She was appointed district attorney of the county after her predecessor was forced to resign amid a political corruption scandal.
Her challenger, a veteran prosecutor, slammed the support from the wealthy, saying “billionaires who apparently think Contra Costa's public safety is for sale.”

Fake Media Cartoons

Media say Paul Ryan's job in jeopardy as Republican warfare rages

No wonder Paul Ryan decided to bail.
Here he is in his final stretch as House speaker, hoping to go out in a spirit of unity, and the press is filled with stories about whether his party will dump him prematurely.
Managing the Republican caucus increasingly looks like Mission Impossible. It was the constant in-fighting between warring factions that prompted John Boehner to quit in 2015, and Ryan was drafted despite the fact that he didn't really want the job. Two and a half years later, he announced that he'd had enough.
And the Wisconsin congressman is still getting grief.
The Washington Post says Ryan "is losing his grip on the feuding House Republican conference just months before pivotal midterm elections, caught between dueling factions vying for power inside the party and facing scattered calls for his departure ahead of a planned year-end retirement."
The New York Times says that "with Republicans in revolt on both his right and his left, Mr. Ryan is increasingly facing questions about whether he can manage to stumble across the finish line."
And Politico says Ryan is embattled "as his Republican Conference spirals into an all-out war that could put his speakership on the line."
Doesn't sound like a whole lotta fun.
The first flashing neon light came when House Republicans couldn't even pass a farm bill, which ought to be a piece of cake. The legislation was derailed by a battle over immigration.
And immigration reared its head when a group of Republican moderates signed a discharge petition to force a floor vote on DACA and related border matters. They don't have the votes yet, but are acting in open defiance of the speaker, who once favored an immigration compromise but has no interest in a bloody battle in a midterm election year. House conservatives want Ryan to pressure the moderates into backing down.
Ryan's backing seemed to be eroding when the Weekly Standard reported that White House budget chief Mick Mulvaney said he'd privately talked to Kevin McCarthy about orchestrating a leadership vote to force Democrats in dicey districts to support Nancy Pelosi. Mulvaney quickly backed away from the idea. McCarthy, as House majority leader, is Ryan's presumed successor but has made no move to try to take over this year.
There was grumbling after Ryan's retirement announcement in April that the GOP couldn't go eight months with a lame-duck speaker and with Democrats a credible threat to take over the House.
Ryan, who's had his difficulties with President Trump, has had a frustrating tenure, with the big tax cut bill his only major accomplishment. He and the Republicans fell short on immigration and repealing ObamaCare, among other things. And the cupboard is pretty bare, as everyone knows Congress doesn't get much done in the second half of an election year.
As the Post says from talking to Hill sources, "there is not a viable alternative to Ryan who can win enough support within the GOP for a clean transition before November — and there is little stomach at the moment for the messy battle that would ensue when Ryan departs."
So for all the negative stories, the great likelihood is that Ryan, who says he's not going anywhere, probably can't be forced out. But given the heartburn level right now, he probably can't wait to get back to his home town of Janesville.
Howard Kurtz is a Fox News analyst and the host of "MediaBuzz" (Sundays 11 a.m.). He is the author "Media Madness: Donald Trump, The Press and the War Over the Truth." Follow him at @HowardKurtz. Click here for more information on Howard Kurtz.

'Mexican Mafia' crackdown results in charges against 83, authorities say

More than 80 members of the "cold-blooded" Mexican Mafia have been charged with running a drug operation inside Los Angeles County jails and in the Pomona, Calif., area, authorities said Wednesday.
Their crimes included ordering acts of violence, authorities added.
In an operation that the FBI dubbed "Operation Dirty Thirds," a total of 83 defendants were charged by a federal grand jury under two federal racketeering indictments that were unsealed Wednesday, U.S. Attorney Nicola Hanna's office announced.
More than 500 law enforcement officers conducted a "major operation" Wednesday morning that resulted in 32 arrests. Thirty-five others were previously in custody and another 16 people remained fugitives who were believed to be "armed and dangerous."
Hanna, the U.S. attorney for the Central District of California, who was appointed by President Donald Trump, said at a news conference Wednesday that the operation "dealt a major blow to a violent and notorious prison gang in our country."

U.S. Attorney Nicola T. Hanna, Central District of California

Leaders of the "gang of gangs," from behind bars, controlled drug dealing and violence both inside jail and on the streets, an indictment claimed. A lawyer and several women referred to as secretaries also reportedly helped facilitate activities outside of jails.
"These Mexican Mafia members and associates, working together to control criminal activity within (LA County jails), have become their own entity or enterprise and effectively function as an illegal government," an indictment said.
The gang is an organization of "vicious" imprisoned street-level leaders who control drug trafficking operations and order retaliatory violence both inside and outside California prisons and jails.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signals support for two gun control measures after Houston-area school shooting

Following last week's deadly shooting at a high school near Houston that left 10 people dead, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said Wednesday that he could support some gun control measures.
The move is something of a change of heart for Abbott, a Republican who has worked to expand gun rights in Texas.
Earlier this year, Abbott had backed President Donald Trump's proposal to arm more teachers in lieu of sweeping gun control measures, saying that almost 20 percent of Texas schools already have trained and armed educators.
“When a shooting takes place, people want to rush to simple solutions,” Abbott said in February, after a mass shooting at a Florida high school that killed 17. “It’s time to tackle the tough solutions, and that’s mental health.”
On Wednesday, Abbott said he could back stronger regulations for gun storage and quicker reporting to law enforcement when a court has determined someone is mentally ill -- in order to keep that person from having weapons.
The Texas governor said those were top considerations to emerge after meeting representatives of a gun control group and gun owners as well as mental health and education experts in discussions on school safety.

"This conversation is a long time in coming."

"We have one goal ... making sure we're going to keep to our students, our schools, our communities safer," without limiting the right to bear arms, Abbott said.
Abbott called for the meetings as he weighs ideas for possible legislative action or executive orders. Tuesday focused on mental health issues.
Thursday's meeting will include students and families from the shooting at Santa Fe High School and the November 2017 attack on a rural church in Sutherland Springs, as well as Stephen Willeford, the armed "good Samaritan" who shot back at the church shooter.
The governor has said he wants to keep guns away from people "who would try to murder our children." But critics have said Texas isn't serious about changing its gun-loving culture.
A group of student activists wrote the governor a letter Wednesday, criticizing his support of the National Rifle Association and calling for expanded background checks on gun purchases and other gun-control measures.
"We are dying on your watch. What will you do about it?" said the letter signed by students who identified themselves as organizers of Texas student gun-control marches held after the February shooting at a high school in Parkland, Fla.

 Two children look at a memorial for the Santa Fe High School shooting victims outside the school Wednesday, May 23, 2018, in Santa Fe, Texas.  (AP)

Wednesday's three-hour discussion included representatives of Texas Gun Sense, which has pressed for tougher background checks for gun sales and "red flag" laws that keep guns away from people deemed a danger to themselves or others.
Ed Scruggs, vice chairman of Texas Gun Sense, said he was glad to get a seat at the table.
"This conversation is a long time in coming. We needed it and it kind of releases the tension a little bit," said Ed Scruggs, vice chairman of Texas Gun Sense. "You get a sense everyone does care."
Police have said the 17-year-old suspect in the Santa Fe shooting used his father's shotgun and .38-caliber handgun. Abbott said he and lawmakers need to look at how to address gun storage laws that might have prevented the shooter from getting the weapons.
Texas allows authorities to deny handgun licenses based on a person's mental health history and to seize weapons from people determined to be in a mental crisis in some circumstances. But mental health history information is up to the applicant to provide and is not related to the purchase of a gun.
Texas courts are supposed to tell law enforcement if a person taken in for a mental health evaluation has been ordered into a mental hospital. Weapons seized could be returned to that person's family. Abbott said that reporting could take up to 30 days and he'd like to see that window closed to within 48 hours or less.
"That is incomprehensible, especially given technology today," Abbott said.
Federal law prohibits an individual "adjudicated as a mental defective" or involuntarily committed to a psychiatric facility from owning or purchasing a firearm.