In the News
- WH knew of possible tie to Cartagena prostitute
- Lead investigator felt “pressure”
- Investigators and bosses fought heatedly
- WH lawyer: “insane” to send team to investigate
- Did Napolitano order report changes?
- St Louis police shooting: Tense crowd overnight
- “He had a sandwich” / Cop fired 17 times
- Airports: New Ebola screenings start Saturday
- #SalvemosAExcalibur = “Let’s save Excalibur!”
- Pentagon: “Kobane may fall”
- Gay marriage: Yes – no – yes – wait
- SCOTUS: Should Amazon pay workers for waiting in line?
- AT&T owes $105 million for scammy texts
- Healthcare.gov unveiled! Yes – again
WH Knew of Possible Tie to Cartagena
• In-depth piece in WaPo by Carol Leonnig and David Nakamura. As nearly two dozen Secret Service agents and members of the military were punished or fired following a 2012 prostitution scandal in Colombia, Obama admin officials repeatedly denied that anyone from the WH was involved
• But new details drawn from govt docs and interviews show that senior WH aides were given info at the time suggesting that a prostitute was an overnight guest in the hotel room of a presidential advance-team member – yet that info was never thoroughly investigated or publicly acknowledged
• Secret Service shared its findings twice in the weeks after the scandal with top WH officials, including then-WH counsel Kathryn Ruemmler. Each time, she and other presidential aides conducted an interview with the advance-team member and concluded that he’d done nothing wrong
• Meanwhile, the new details also show that a separate set of investigators in the IG’s office of the Dept of Homeland Security – tasked by a Senate committee with digging more deeply into misconduct on the trip – found additional evidence
Lead Investigator Felt “Pressure”
• On 23 April 2012, then WH spox Jay Carney (must be glad to be out), citing an internal review, said “there’s no indication that any member of the WH advance team engaged in any improper conduct or behavior” in Cartagena, Colombia
• The lead investigator, David Nieland, later told Senate staffers that he felt pressure from his superiors in the office of Charles Edwards, who was then the acting IG, to withhold evidence – and that, in the heat of an election year, decisions were being made with political considerations in mind
• Nieland said that his superiors told him “to withhold and alter certain information in the report of investigation because it was potentially embarrassing to the administration.” Edwards told Senate staffers that any changes were part of the normal editing process and that he sought to keep the focus of his investigation on DHS employees
• WH spox Eric Schultz said Wednesday that “of course there was no WH interference with an IG investigation.” He cited a Senate report on the IG’s office and said it found “changes made to the IG report were ‘part of the ordinary process of editing the report’ and found that allegations that changes were made because they were embarrassing could not be substantiated.”
Investigators and Bosses Fought Heatedly
• Whether the WH volunteer, Jonathan Dach, was involved in wrongdoing in Cartagena, remains unclear. Dach, then a 25-year-old Yale University law student, declined to be interviewed (I’ll bet), but through his lawyer denied hiring a prostitute or bringing anyone to his room
• Dach this year started working full time in the Obama admin on a federal contract as a policy adviser in the Office on Global Women’s Issues at the State Dept (!!! – certainly seems like he may have done his undercover research on global women). His father is a prominent Democratic donor who also joined the admin this year
• Within the IG’s office, investigators and their bosses fought heatedly with each other over whether to pursue WH team members’ possible involvement. Office staffers who raised questions about a WH role said they were put on admin leave as a punishment for doing so. Later, Edwards resigned amid allegations of misconduct stemming in part from the dispute
• Rep Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) wrote to WH chief of staff Denis McDonough last week voicing concerns that “steps were taken by the admin to cover up or deflect” WH involvement in the scandal. He wants records of Ruemmler’s review
WH Lawyer: “Insane” to Send Team to Investigate
• Dach’s role in Cartagena was far different from that of Secret Service agents who were responsible for the president’s safety. He was a volunteer who helped coordinate drivers for the WH travel office. He was paid a per diem, not a salary, and was reimbursed for expenses
• One senior admin official, anonymous, said Ruemmler believed it would be a “real scandal” if she had sent “a team to Colombia to investigate a volunteer over something that’s not a criminal act … That would be insane.” Ruemmler didn’t respond to requests for comment
• Nieland’s team collected research showing the name of the woman in Hilton Hotel, Cartagena, records under Dach’s room matched that of a woman advertising herself on the internet as a prostitute. She had posted pictures of herself in undergarments in front of “Summit of the Americas” signs in Cartagena at the time of the trip ( a good business woman, anyway)
• Nieland later told Senate staffers that his superiors demanded that he remove from an official report references to the evidence pointing to the WH team member
Did Napolitano Order Report Changes?
• Nieland said the instructions came less than 24 hours after his superiors said Edwards had briefed then-DHS Sec Janet Napolitano about the potential involvement of the WH team member, according to docs reviewed by the Post. A spox for Napolitano said she never “ordered that anything be deleted in the IG’s report or asked for a delay.”
• Nieland and two other team members of the office fought or questioned alterations to the report. All three were later put on admin leave for what they believed was their questioning of the changes. Their superiors, including Edwards, said the discipline was unrelated
• Nieland said to Senate investigators that he told his bosses that they were “sitting on information that could influence an election.” (not sure it could, actually). Edwards, who later stepped down, disputed Nieland’s claims as part of the inquiry, telling Senate investigators the alterations were part of the ordinary editing process
• The Senate report said committee staffers couldn’t determine whether politics or outside pressure were factors in the changes Edwards’s deputies ordered in the report. The Senate report did conclude that Edwards had altered investigations at the behest of admin officials
• SCOTUS Wednesday night allowed North Carolina to implement for the coming election restrictive changes in the state’s voting laws that an appeals court had blocked. State can eliminate same-day registration and not count ballots cast by voters who show up at the wrong precinct (WaPo)
St Louis Police Shooting: Tense Crowd Gathers
• A young black man was shot to death by an off-duty white police officer in St Louis on Wednesday night, and a tense crowd gathered at the scene nearly two months to the day after a white policeman shot an unarmed black man to death in the nearby suburb of Ferguson (St Louis Post Dispatch, TPM, LAT, me)
• This time, police say, the man, Vonderrit (sp not confirmed) Myers, 18, was armed and shot at the officer when the cop attempted a “pedestrian check.” Police didn’t elaborate on what that is or why it’s done. A police spox said the officer was wearing his uniform
• Spox Schron Jackson said, “The male suspect fled on foot. The officer pursued the suspect. The suspect turned and fired a gun at the officer. Fearing for his safety, the officer returned fire, striking the suspect, fatally wounding him. The officer was not injured.” The officer is 32 and has been placed on admin leave. Has been on the force six years
“He Had a Sandwich” / Cop Fired 17 Times
• Teyonna Meyes, 23, who said she was Myers’s cousin, said, “He was unarmed. He had a sandwich in his hand and they thought it was a gun. It’s like Michael Brown all over again.”
• At a presser early today, St Louis Police Chief Sam Dotson told reporters that the officer fired 17 times after the suspect had fired three shots at him. Dotson didn’t know how many times Myers had been hit. He said that a 9mm Ruger had been recovered and that the dead man “was no stranger to law enforcement.” (death penalty offense?)
• Witnesses and bystanders close on the events – hearsay – say that Myers happened on a chase already in progress as he walked out of a corner store. The Post-Dispatch says the officer encountered three pedestrians while he was patrolling the neighborhood in a car for a private security firm and stopped to talk with them
• The three fled and the officer chased one. The man jumped from some bushes, struggled with the officer, pulled a gun and fired at the officer, the officer returned fire and fatally shot the man. Some witnesses say Myers was tased before being shot – (he either was or wasn’t – all very fluid and developing)
• Where in the world is Kim Jong Un? He’s been out of sight for over a month and if he doesn’t appear at a key anniversary event early Friday, speculation will intensify over his health and grip on power in the secretive country. So watch closely… (Reuters, me)
Ebola: Update
• President Obama urged 1,500 state health leaders on Wednesday to do their part to prevent the spread of Ebola. “As we saw in Dallas, we don’t have a lot of margin of error. If we don’t follow protocols and procedures that are put in place, then we’re putting folks in our communities at risk.”
• Sen David Vitter (R-LA) wrote Wednesday to the Senate Appropriations Committee and Senate Armed Services Committee, urging them to block $1 billion in additional funding to combat Ebola until the Obama admin more clearly details its plans to stop the deadly outbreak (Hill, CNN, NYT, TRNS, WaPo, Fox, Politico, me)
• There’s “no risk of Ebola” for Dallas deputy Sgt Michael Monnig who was hospitalized with possible symptoms of the virus, a Texas health official said Wednesday. Monnig didn’t have direct contact with Thomas Eric Duncan, who died of Ebola Wednesday morning. Great care must be taken with Duncan’s body
• After a nurse’s assistant in Spain became the first person to contract Ebola in the current outbreak, six people related to the case were admitted to a Madrid hospital as of late Wednesday. An unnamed Norwegian national, a staffer with Doctors Without Borders, has contracted the virus while working in Sierra Leone. The staffer will be moved to Europe
• A 57-year-old woman who returned to Australia after treating Ebola patients in Sierra Leona has been isolated at a hospital and is undergoing tests, including one for the deadly virus
Airports: New Ebola Screenings Start Saturday
• Coming to an airport – maybe – near you. Enhanced Ebola-related screening for about 150 passengers entering the U.S. daily from West Africa will start Saturday at JFK International Airport in NY and begin next week at Washington Dulles International, Chicago O’Hare International, Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson International and Newark Liberty International
• The extra steps are “really just belt-and-suspenders,” President Obama said Wednesday in a conference call with state and local officials. “It’s an added layer of protection on top of the procedures already in place at several airports.” (what procedures?) (Politico, NYT, CNN, TRNS, Hill, me)
• Even without these steps, the risks of an Ebola outbreak in the U.S. were “extremely low,” Obama said. “In recent months, thousands of travelers arrived here from West Africa, and so far, only one case of Ebola has been diagnosed in the United States.”
• The CDC said Wednesday that travelers coming from Ebola hotspots would have their temperatures taken with a gun-like, non-contact thermometer that uses an infrared beam to take the temperature. If they have a fever or other symptoms, they will be evaluated by a CDC health officer
• If they don’t have a fever or other symptoms, they fill out a health questionnaire and will be asked to take daily temperature checks (really?) and provide their contact info. Some 94% of people coming from Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea come through the five airports. About 9,000 people have come to the U.S. from there in the past two months
#SalvemosAExcalibur = “Let’s Save Excalibur!”
• Responding to an appeal from Javier Limon, the husband of nurse Theresa Romero, who has Ebola, a small crowd of animal rights activists gathered late Tuesday for an all-night vigil outside the couple’s apt complex, trying to safeguard their pet dog, Excalibur, from court-ordered death (WSJ, me)
• Madrid’s regional govt had obtained a court order hours earlier, citing a risk the 12-year-old mixed-breed rescue dog might be infected with Ebola (absolutely no evidence) and could pass the virus to humans. Protesters demanded that the dog be given the benefit of the doubt and quarantined for testing
• Wednesday, as the crowd doubled in size and police kept them at bay (with dogs?), a white van sped away with the dog. Some protesters chanted “Assassin! Assassin!” or burst into tears. A regional govt official said the dog had been put down (just say killed, alright?)
• The dog’s fate had captured the nation’s attention as much as the threat of Ebola to humans has. An online petition to save Excalibur drew more than 375,000 signatures over the past 24 hours (govt non-responsive). On Twitter, Excalibur supporters rallied around the hashtags #SalvemosAExcalibur and #CuarentenaSiMuerteNo – “Quarantine Yes, Death No”
• President Obama will seek today to rally millennials to the ballot box at an event in Santa Monica CA and will highlight admin initiatives on student loan debt, tech investment and health care that have helped young voters crucial to the Dem base (Hill)
Pentagon: “Kobane May Fall”
• Pentagon spox Rear Adm John Kirby urged patience in the U.S.-led campaign against ISIS (cold comfort to the residents of Kobane). “This group’s not going away tomorrow. And Kobane may fall. We can’t predict whether it will or it won’t.” (probably can) (BBC, NYT, TRNS, WaPo, ABC, Reuters, me)
• A Kurdish leader in Kobane said that ISIS militants had entered parts of the city amid heavy fighting. Seizing the town would give ISIS jihadists a long stretch of the Syrian-Turkish border
• The U.S. also appeared to be at odds with allies over a Turkish idea to create a buffer zone or safe haven along the border. Three weeks of fighting have cost the lives of at least 400 people and forced more than 160,000 Syrians to flee across the border to Turkey. A massacre is expected if ISIS takes the town
• Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Gen Martin Dempsey, said ISIS was becoming “more savvy.” “We have been striking when we can. They don’t fly flags and move around in large convoys the way they did. They don’t establish headquarters that are visible or identifiable.” (they’re not bloody idiots)
• President Obama’s envoys to the coalition against ISIS and NATO SecGen Jens Stoltenberg are in Ankara for talks with President Erdogan on possible Turkish action. Kurds are angry that Turkey has prevented Kurdish fighters crossing the border to fight ISIS in Kobane and some protesters want it to take military action against ISIS
• Investigators believe that the hackers who broke into JPMorgan Chase targeted at least 12 other financial services companies, including Fidelity Investments, Citigroup, HSBC Holdings PLC, E*Trade Financial, Regions Financial and Automatic Data Processing. But murky if all related to JPMorgan. Thinking is that hackers were testing defenses (WSJ, me)
Gay Marriage: Yes – No – Yes – Wait
• Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy on Wednesday allowed same-sex marriage to begin in Nevada, clarifying that an earlier order temporarily blocking gay unions applies only to Idaho (AP, TRNS, me)
• Kennedy said his order would continue to block gay marriage in Idaho, where state officials have asked for the delay. Nevada officials didn’t make a similar request. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco declared gay marriage legal in Idaho and Nevada on Tuesday
• A day earlier, SCOTUS let similar rulings from three other appeals courts become final and effectively raised to 30 the number of states where same-sex couple can marry, or soon will be able to do so. The five states directly impacted by the ruling were Indiana, Oklahoma, Utah, Virginia and Wisconsin
• In response to the 9th Circuit decision, Idaho officials filed an emergency request with the court about 90 minutes before they said that state and county officials would otherwise have been required to begin issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples
• The delay in Idaho could last just a few days. Kennedy’s order requested a response from the plaintiffs involved in Idaho’s gay marriage lawsuit by the end of day today. The full court would almost certainly weigh in to extend the delay much beyond the weekend. Given Monday’s ruling, it would be surprising if the justices put the 9th Circuit ruling on hold for any length of time
• Graphic: Newspapers prefer lesbians. Tuesday, newspapers in the five states affected by the SCOTUS ruling on Monday showed pics of newly wed gay couples. Twenty-nine showed women. Three showed men. Three split the difference (Bloomberg)
SCOTUS: Should Amazon Pay Workers for Waiting in Line?
• The Supreme Court on Wednesday heard arguments over whether workers at an Amazon warehouse in Las Vegas must be paid for the time they spend waiting to go through a security screening at the end of the day. The workers say the process, meant to prevent theft, can take as long as 25 minutes (NYT, Hill, TRNS, Reuters, me)
• Justices peppered lawyers with lots of tasks some employees go through to see whether they should also be compensated – a law clerk coming in early to cut a judge’s grapefruit (whose grapefruit?), a casino employee cashing out the register at the end of the shift or an employee going through drug testing
• The case hinges on the meaning of a 1947 law which says that companies need not pay for “preliminary” or “postliminary” activities, meaning ones that take place before and after the workday proper. In 1956, SCOTUS said that meant paying only for tasks that are an “integral and indispensable part of the principal activities for which covered workmen are employed.”
• Justice Elena Kagan was skeptical. “I mean, what makes it Amazon? It’s a system of inventory control that betters everybody else in the business.” (stock in it?) “And what’s really important to Amazon is that it knows where every toothbrush in the warehouse is.”
• However, Chief Justice Roberts said the screening can be a “requirement of the job,” without being a principle activity. / “You would not pay anyone just to go through security,” Justice Samuel Alito said. Justice Stephen Breyer said he’d probably go with the Labor Dept which enforces the laws. “And they are saying you lose.”
• Listen: Kentucky Sports Radio host Matt Jones calls Sen Mitch McConnell (R-KY) “needlessly angry” after a phone interview on his radio show – really contentious interview! (TPM, me)
AT&T Owes $105 Million for Scammy Texts
