Starbucks has issued an apology after an incident that led to the arrest of two men at a Philadelphia location earlier this week.
The company released the following statement Saturday:
“We apologize to the two individuals and our customers and are disappointed this led to an arrest. We take these matters seriously and clearly have more work to do when it comes to how we handle incidents in our stores. We are reviewing our policies and will continue to engage with the community and the police department to try to ensure these types of situations never happen in any of our stores.”
Video of the arrest, which took place on Thursday, was posted to Twitter. It now has more than 3.4 million views and has prompted an internal investigation by the Philadelphia Police Department.
The video’s caption reads: “The police were called because these men hadn’t ordered anything. They were waiting for a friend to show up, who did as they were taken out in handcuffs for doing nothing. All the other white ppl are wondering why it’s never happened to us when we do the same thing.”
In the video, the friend who was meeting them is heard asking officers what’s going on.
“What did they get called for?” he asks. “Because there are two black guys sitting here meeting me? Tell me, what did they do?”
WATCH: Philadelphia police commissioner’s statement on Starbucks arrests
Other customers then chime in.
“They didn’t do anything, I saw the entire thing,” a person off-camera says.
The Philadelphia Inquirer reports another clip posted on YouTube shows police talking to the men for several minutes before handcuffing them and escorting them out of the Center City establishment.
Starbucks responded to the videos, saying “we’re reviewing the incident with our partners, law enforcement and customers to determine what took place and led to this unfortunate result.”
Philadelphia police also tweeted that they were aware of the incident at the location at Spruce and South 18th streets and they were conducting an internal investigation.
Saturday afternoon Philadelphia Police Commissioner Richard Ross delivered a statement, which was streamed live on the department’s Facebook page.
Ross said the department’s internal investigation revealed the officers who responded to the scene acted appropriately, and in accordance with police guidelines.
“On three different occasions the officers asked the males to leave, politely,” Ross said, “because they were being asked to leave by employees, because they were trespassing. Instead, the males continued to refuse…. They told the officers they were not leaving.”
At that point the men were arrested. After they arrived at the police station to be processed, Ross said, authorities were informed that Starbucks did not want to press charges against the men, and so they were released.
Ross added, “As an African-American male, I am very aware of implicit bias. We are committed to fair and unbiased policing, and anything less than that will not be tolerated in this department.”
According to the district attorney’s office, charges were declined due to a lack of evidence and the men were released from police custody.
James Comey said his decision to announce that the FBI was going to look back into the Hillary Clinton email investigation just days before the election was influenced by his belief that she would beat Donald Trump and his desire to make sure that the election results were viewed as legitimate.
“I don’t remember consciously thinking about that, but it must have been because I was operating in a world where Hillary Clinton was going to beat Donald Trump, and so I’m sure that it was a factor,” Comey told ABC News’ chief anchor George Stephanopoulos in an exclusive interview ahead of the April 17 release of his book, “A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies, and Leadership.”
“I don’t remember spelling it out, but it had to have been, that she’s going to be elected president and if I hide this from the American people, she’ll be illegitimate the moment she’s elected, the moment this comes out,” he added.
Flatiron BooksA Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies, and Leadership by James Comey
This comment goes further than what Comey wrote in his book, in which he says, “Like many others, I was surprised when Donald Trump was elected president. I had assumed from media polling that Hillary Clinton was going to win. I have asked myself many times since if I was influenced by that assumption. I don’t know. Certainly not consciously, but I would be a fool to say it couldn’t have had an impact on me.”
Clinton previously has said that she thinks the letter Comey sent to Congress on Oct. 28, 2016, announcing that the FBI would be looking back at the email investigation, just 11 days before the election, killed her chances of winning. When asked about if the letter had done so, Comey said “I hope not. I don’t know. I honestly don’t know. I sure hope not.”
Comey said that part of the reason he chose to write a book about his experiences was to share his perspective, and he hopes readers “try to realize that I’m not trying to help a candidate or hurt a candidate; I’m trying to do the right thing.”
When asked if he would still release the letter if he knew that doing so would help elect Donald Trump, Comey said, “I would. I would.”
He said that on the morning that they were going to release the letter, a colleague asked him if he should consider how the letter could help Trump.
“I paused, and then I said, ‘Thank you for asking that question. That’s a great question. But the answer is not for a moment because down that path lies the death of the FBI as an independent force in American life. If I ever start considering whose political fortunes will be affected by a decision, we’re done,’” Comey said.
Stephanopoulos pressed Comey on the decision, saying, “there’s no precedent for putting out information like this at the end of a campaign.”
“I think I did it the way that it should have been done,” Comey said. “I’m not certain of that. Other people might have had a different view. I pray to God no future FBI director ever has to find out.”
Watch the exclusive interview in a special edition of “20/20” on Sunday, April 15 at 10 p.m. ET on ABC.
Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin (R) lashed out against teachers participating in a statewide protest Friday, saying educators exposed some of the “hundreds of thousands” of children to sexual assault and drug use by walking out of class.
“I guarantee you somewhere in Kentucky today, a child was sexually assaulted that was left at home because there was nobody there to watch them,” Bevin told reporters Friday evening after teachers swarmed the Capitol by the thousands over a battle to raise education funding in the state. “I guarantee you somewhere today, a child was physically harmed or ingested poison because they were left alone because a single parent didn’t have any money to take care of them.”
“Children were harmed — some physically, some sexually, some were introduced to drugs for the first time — because they were vulnerable and left alone,” he added.
Bevin, whose veto of a two-year spending bill with a nearly half-billion-dollar tax increase was overridden by fellow Republicans in the legislature, has recently sparred with teachers groups amid educator protests across the country fueled by claims of low pay and underfunded school systems.
His office could not be reached for comment. Bevin’s remarks did not appear to explain how or why teachers could be held accountable for what occurs among students outside the classroom, and he did not provide evidence of any crimes that were committed. Bevin has been Kentucky’s governor since 2015.
Jefferson County Teachers Association President Brent McKim pushed back on Bevin’s remarks, noting that the protest amounted to just Friday and that more than 30 school districts participating in the demonstrations tried to give parents advanced notice about closures.
“The bottom line is that’s one day. He was cutting hundreds of millions of dollars from kids that would impact every day, and that’s what we were in Frankfort to stop,” McKim said, according to the Courier-Journal. “We were there with the overwhelming support and encouragement of our parents who know that we care about every student in our classes.”
Kentucky Education Association President Stephanie Winkler said she was “appalled” by Bevin’s comment. “There is no rational comment I could make to that,” Winkler said, the Courier-Journal reported.
Kentucky has become the latest flash point over the battle of school funding and higher pay that have led to recent teacher victories. West Virginia teachers walked out for nine days, forcing a 5 percent pay increase in March. In Arizona, protests and walkouts triggered Republican Gov. Doug Ducey’s promise of a 20 percent raise by 2020. And in Oklahoma, Gov. Mary Fallin (R) raised teacher salaries by $6,100 and boosted funding by millions. But those figures fell well below teacher demands of $10,000 raises for teachers, $6,000 for support staff and $200 million for statewide funding.
The teachers in Kentucky have also protested against changes to the state pension system, among the worst-funded in the nation, the Associated Press reported. Education groups argue that less generous retirement funds may dissuade younger people from becoming teachers.
The teachers say it is important that they address the issues facing them, but inside and outside the classroom.
“I don’t want to be out of my classroom. I want to be in my classroom instructing future citizens, but I’m afraid that spending at the state level is getting worse and worse, and we need those dollars for a 21st-century education,” said Stephanie Ikanovic, a teacher of 21 years who participated in the demonstrations, the Associated Press reported.
Bevin decried the latest spending bill, which raises cigarette sales tax by half and increases sales tax on some consumer services, as “sloppy” and “non-transparent” in a Friday tweet, and believes the bill underestimates the cost of school funding needed. He vowed to call a special session “to pass a transparent and properly balanced budget” in a separate tweet.
The governor may face an uphill battle with lawmakers, even within his party, if the pressure campaign from teachers maintains its momentum.
“You can stand here all day and act like you are all for [education] until it comes time to pay for it. Well, that’s a coward,” said Kentucky state Rep. Regina Huff (R), a middle school special-education teacher, the Courier-Journal reported. “We have to have this revenue to fund our schools.”
“Our president has not yet made a decision about possible action in Syria,” Ms. Haley told the council. “But should the United States and our allies decide to act in Syria, it will be in defense of a principle on which we all agree.”
The Russian ambassador, Vasily A. Nebenzya, accused the United States and its allies of reckless Middle East warmongering by threatening Syria with military force.
Mr. Nebenzya also said there was no confirmed evidence that chemical weapons had been used in the April 7 Douma attack, and that the United States and its allies had “demonstrated they have no interest in an investigation,” although international chemical weapons inspectors have been sent to Syria to conduct an inquiry.
The Russian envoy also asserted that Russia, Mr. Assad’s biggest ally, had done far more than the West to achieve peace in the Syria conflict. He accused Washington of having adopted “a categorical policy to unleash military force against Syria” and contain Russia.
Mr. Trump’s threats of a strike on Mr. Assad’s forces, the Russian envoy said, were “unworthy of a permanent member of the Security Council.”
Ms. Haley said she was incredulous at Mr. Nebenzya’s defense of the Syrian government and his overall portrayal of events. “I’m in awe of how you say what you say with a straight face,” she told the Russian ambassador.
Ms. Haley called the use of chemical weapons in Syria “a violation of all standards of morality.”
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Referring to the Douma assault, Ms. Haley said: “We know who did this. Our allies know who did this. Russia can complain all it wants about fake news, but no one is buying its lies and its cover-ups.”
Her criticism of Russia and Syria was echoed by the envoys of Britain and France, who collectively form the brunt of the Western diplomatic response.
Ambassador Karen Pierce of Britain said her government believed Mr. Assad’s forces had used chemical weapons “consistently, persistently, over the past five years.”
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“The use of chemical weapons cannot be allowed to go unchallenged,” Ms. Pierce said. “We will not sacrifice the international order we have collectively built to the Russian desire to protect its ally at all costs.”
Ambassador François Delattre of France, which has asserted it has proof of chemical weapons use by Syrian military forces, said Mr. Assad’s government had “reached a point of no return” and that the world must provide a “robust, united and steadfast response.”
The number of confirmed chemical weapons assaults in the Syria conflict — and who was responsible for them — is one of the most contentious issues.
In 2015 the Security Council established a panel, the Joint Investigative Mechanism, to determine who was carrying out such attacks. It found that Mr. Assad’s forces had conducted at least four, in April 2014, March 2015, March 2016 and April 2017, and that the Islamic State had conducted two, in August 2015 and September 2016.
PhotoVasily A. Nebenzya, the Russian ambassador to the United Nations, exchanged harsh words with the American ambassador at a Security Council meeting on Friday. Credit
Justin Lane/EPA, via Shutterstock
The panel was disbanded last November after Russia disputed its findings of Syrian government responsibility. The council has been unable to agree on a replacement.
Another panel, the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic, established by the United Nations Human Rights Council, has asserted that at least 34 chemical weapons assaults had been committed, by various sides in the conflict, as of January. Human Rights Watch, based on information from seven sources, has put the number at 85 between 2013 and February of this year.
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Mr. Assad and his allies, Russia and Iran, have denied that Syrian government forces carried out any chemical weapons attacks, including the reported assault in Douma.
Political analysts said that regardless of the number of attacks, Ms. Haley’s assertions appeared to be part of a broader Western effort to create the basis for a military strike on Mr. Assad’s forces.
“All of this points to an established pattern by the Syrian regime in the conflict,” said Andrew J. Tabler, a Syria scholar at the Washington Institute For Near East Policy. “The justification for a strike is going to be based on this pattern, not just this incident.”
Trump administration officials worked on Friday to come up with a strategy for what to do in the event that an American-led military strike against the Syrian government’s suspected chemical weapons facilities and its airfields sparks a retaliation from Russia and Iran.
The White House scheduled another meeting Friday afternoon of the president’s top national security advisers, as American officials and their allies in Britain and France, who are expected to join any strike, grappled with how to handle concerns expressed by Defense Secretary Jim Mattis about having a Day 2 strategy ready.
American military officials expressed concern during a video conference call about Moscow’s possible reaction to a strike on Syrian facilities — particularly in light of Russian threats to shoot down incoming cruise missiles. During the call, officials also said that it was imperative to take steps to protect American naval destroyers from Russian counterattacks.
One destroyer, the Donald Cook, is in the Mediterranean and another, the Porter, has been heading to region. Both could take part in a strike, as a launch for Tomahawk cruise missiles.
In addition to preparing for a military counterattack, Mr. Mattis has also said that it is important to prepare for a post-strike propaganda campaign by Syria, Russia and Iran. In particular, Defense Department officials want to be able to present convincing evidence that Mr. Assad’s forces indeed used chemical arms in the Douma assault.
Speaker Paul Ryan’s endorsement may not matter much in the long run; House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s (left) bigger problem is at the far-right end of the conference. | Mark Wilson/Getty Images
Speaker Paul Ryan endorsed House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy to succeed him as speaker in an interview set to run Sunday on “Meet the Press.”
The Wisconsin Republican told NBC’s Chuck Todd that “we all think that Kevin is the right person” and predicted a “seamless transition.” He said McCarthy, who failed to garner the votes in his 2015 speaker bid, would be able to muster the needed support this time because he’s been instrumental in passing GOP priorities over the past year.
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“What’s changed is we have gotten a lot done. What’s changed is we came together as a team in 2015. We put together an agenda. We ran on that agenda. We won the election. We are executing that agenda. We are getting it done,” Ryan said. “So what’s changed is this leadership team has come together and gelled, this conference has been unified, and we’ve actually moved the ball and gotten things done.”
Ryan’s endorsement may not matter much in the long run; McCarthy’s bigger problem is at the far-right end of the conference. Conservatives blocked McCarthy from the post last time around and are already signaling that they’ll be willing to do the same unless he cuts a deal and empowers the group.
House Freedom Caucus founder Jim Jordan declared that he was considering his own speakership bid on Friday morning, all but ensuring that McCarthy would not have the votes if the election were held today.
Ryan also said he still intended to serve out his term as speaker, arguing that a leadership race now would be a “needless distraction” from trying to keep the House GOP majority.
Ryan emphasized that his entire leadership team would endorse McCarthy, even though House Majority Whip Steve Scalise has not done so yet. The Louisiana Republican is interested in the post but has said he would not run against his more senior colleague.
“So Steve Scalise — it’s your understanding that he believes that Kevin McCarthy should be the heir apparent, whether it’s leader or speaker?” Todd asked.
“That’s right,” Ryan responded. “That’s right.
Asked on Thursday whether he would endorse McCarthy, Scalise said it was too early to discuss endorsements.
(CNN)Jennifer and Sarah Hart’s 6-year-old daughter told a Minnesota public school teacher in 2010 that she had “owies” on her tummy and back after her mother hit her with her fist, leaving bruises.
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CNN’s Keith Allen and Chris Boyette contributed to this report.
The Mark Zuckerberg that showed up in a suit in Washington this week is mature. He’s sweat-resistant. But he’s still hiding something.
Some 45 times — I was counting — the Facebook CEO told members of Congress that we’re in control of our data, when it’s plainly impossible for most people to figure out how to do so. That makes it hard to buy what he’s selling, even if it’s free.
Zuckerberg’s testimony on Capitol Hill was as much about personal technology as it was political theater. Members of Congress spent many hours attempting to figure out just how Facebook works. You can poke fun at their octogenarian ignorance, but they were just as confused as many Americans. Zuckerberg has never really explained just how much data Facebook collects and what it does with it. As Sen. John Neely Kennedy put it, Zuckerberg’s user agreement “sucks.”
This week was Zuckerberg’s chance to reintroduce himself as the face of Facebook and introduce changes that make Facebook less creepy. There wasn’t any Steve Jobs-style unveiling, but I reviewed his performance just like any tech launch. Whatever action lawmakers might (or might not) take next, each of us still needs to decide how much Facebook belongs in our lives.
Zuckerberg 2.0 is an upgrade from the hoodie-clad hacker many Americans met in the movie “The Social Network.” When the man put on a suit and let politicians grill him for 10 hours, Facebook too became a grown-up enterprise. Facebook’s onetime motto “move fast and break things,” has been replaced by the snoozer “move fast with stable infrastructure,” Zuckerberg said with a smile.
Zuckerberg told Congress he’s idealistic and promised he wants to fix many of the problems in his product, even if it costs a lot of money, and was willing to embrace some new regulation. That’s not something we hear from most CEOs.
But he wasn’t nearly as thoughtful on the problem that cuts closest to the business that’s made him a billionaire. On questions about data privacy, Zuckerberg gave generic assurances. “We never sell your data,” he said repeatedly, even though that’s not really the issue.
Whenever he was questioned why Facebook collects so much data, he wheeled out: “You have control over your information.”
That’s like saying anyone can control a 747 because it has buttons and a dials. Many pilots even opt for autopilot.
Yes, when you publish a photo or post on Facebook, you can set an audience — just friends or public. (There’s a drop-down menu that says “Who should see this?”) But Zuckerberg acts like keeping your cousin from seeing photos of your escapades in Cancun is the end of the data challenge. It’s not.
Facebook is hiding behind bad product design. Rather than minimizing the amount of data it collects or setting defaults that truly prioritize privacy, Facebook presents a theater of controls and settings that few people use.
The issue is how much data Facebook is collecting about us on its own. Well beyond what we choose to post, Facebook can track the location of your phone, what apps you’re using and even what websites you visit using its well-known “Like” button and an invisible tool called the Facebook Pixel. Facebook’s data-mining operation can tap real-world activity such as when you use a store loyalty card. It generates biometric data from your photos.
Beyond the information you volunteer like age and employer, Facebook draws inferences about your ethnicity, politics and more — information that’s useful for regular advertisers and darker forces alike. (The Russia-linked Internet Research Agency bought more than $100,000 worth of ads from Facebook as part of its efforts to manipulate the 2016 U.S. elections.)
“I think that may be what this is all about,” Durbin said. “Your right to privacy. The limits of your right to privacy and how much you give away in modern America in the name of quote, ‘connecting people around the world.’ ”
Many websites, including The Washington Post, use tracking and ad-targeting technologies, but Facebook has used the sheer volume of its data to dominate the online ad business along with its equally data-hungry rival Google.
Facebook does allow you to adjust how some off-Facebook and third-party data is used to target ads, and I wish anyone the very best of luck at figuring out how. As a tech columnist, I’ve spent days studying the many places you have to tap and make adjustments. I wish Congress had asked Zuckerberg to get out his phone and show the world exactly how we’re in control.
In March, Facebook announced it would be streamlining its privacy controls in coming months. Zuckerberg didn’t show off these new designs to Congress, but the company says there will be easier-to-comprehend features that explain how Facebook is using a person’s data. Bringing settings currently in 20 places into one is a good start, but privacy experts have said the changes are ultimately “lipstick on a pig” because they don’t address needs for better defaults and for deleting data.
Moreover, there’s a giant gap between what most people think Facebook is doing with our data and what’s really going on. We signed up for Facebook to stalk our family and friends, not to be stalked by a corporation.
It’s all there, Facebook counters, in its nearly 6,000 words of data policy and terms of service — 16 pages, if you print it out, single-spaced. Asked how long the average Facebook user spends studying that document, Zuckerberg said he didn’t know and admitted most people probably don’t read the whole thing. (Hey Congress, how about requiring Facebook and others publicly report how long users look at their terms before clicking through?)
That gap in understanding is part of the reason Zuckerberg got hauled in front of Congress for the Cambridge Analytica flap. Facebook allowed our friends to hand over troves of our data to third-party apps without asking us first. (After that data left Facebook, the company did little to ensure that it was handled properly, and now can’t totally account for it. Asked Rep. Frank Pallone Jr. “How can consumers have control over their data when Facebook doesn’t have control over the data itself?”) Facebook has closed that particular loophole, but the point is millions of us technically agreed to that happening in the first place. It was buried somewhere in user agreements.
As Rep. Bobby L. Rush asked, “Why is the onus on the user to opt in to privacy and security settings?”
If Facebook wanted us to be in control of our data, it could put at the top of its home page a button that says “stop tracking me everywhere.” (I’d even pay a subscription fee for it.) There would be another one that says “reset my data.” But the reality is, if we all used those tools, it would probably be a disaster for Facebook’s business, which is based on having the largest pile of data to target its ads. Zuckerberg doesn’t want to talk about how his business is inseparable from its surveillance.
During one exchange, Rep. Anna G. Eshoo asked a question that cut to the core of the matter: “Are you willing to change your business model in the interest of protecting individual privacy?”
Zuckerberg replied, “I’m not sure what that means.”
From real-life political thrillers, juicy memoirs and the life of our American Princess, here’s a sneak peek at the some of the most anticipated books of 2018. USA TODAY
WASHINGTON – The last time an FBI director penned a memoir, the American public got a personal account of a director’s fraught relationship with a U.S. president.
In that book, Louis Freeh devoted a chapter to his icy association with Bill Clinton, titled “Bill and Me.”
That was 2005, when Freeh and Clinton were long gone from their respective offices.
Thirteen years later, James Comey is set to drop a tome about his own extraordinary tenure — cut short by the commander in chief.
Comey’s book arrives less than a year after his dismissal by President Trump. Trump said he fired Comey for his handling of the inquiry into Russia’s alleged interference in the 2016 election.
The Justice Department’s inspector general is poised to release an assessment of how the FBI — under Comey’s leadership — handled the politically charged investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server when she was secretary of State.
The timing could be a marketing bonanza for booksellers, while Comey’s supporters and detractors brace for the likely firestorm to follow.
Last week, Trump taunted Comey on Twitter for closing what the president described as “a rigged investigation” into Clinton’s private email use. He accused the former FBI director and other former Justice officials of abusing surveillance authority in tracking Trump campaign adviser Carter Page.
“BAD!” Trump tweeted Saturday afternoon.
The critique was mild compared with Trump’s prior characterizations of Comey as “a liar” and “a leaker.”
Trump used the disparaging language to describe the former director’s congressional testimony last summer in which he acknowledged documenting his personal encounters with the president, in part because he believed Trump could not be trusted.
The president’s comments, analysts said, may preview what is to come when Comey’s book — A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies, and Leadership — is released next week.
Ron Hosko, a former FBI assistant director who served briefly under Comey and supports him, said he doesn’t expect the book to change the minds of many who witnessed the turbulent months after the director’s firing.
“In this hyper-contentious environment, the book may only deepen the political divide between those who support Comey and those who believe that Trump was right to dismiss him,” Hosko said.
“I enjoyed working for Jim Comey. He is personable, likable, smart and engaged. I think he was very good for the bureau. But I’m troubled by the timing of this,” he said, referring to the Russia investigation and the pending inspector general inquiry. “That said, I think he’s got something to say, and I’m still going to put down my 25 bucks.”
Chris Swecker, a former assistant FBI director who said Comey invited criticism for his handling of the Clinton inquiry, fears that Comey’s reappearance on the national stage risks drawing the bureau by extension further into Trump’s crosshairs.
“I respect him, and I think he believes what he’s doing and what he has to say,” Swecker said. “But he’s wading right into the middle of a political firestorm. He’s putting the FBI in the political arena again just as (new FBI Director) Chris Wray tries to extricate the bureau from it.”
Except for occasional comments on Twitter, Comey’s most recent turn on the public stage was an appearance June 8 before the Senate Intelligence Committee.
He described his decision to keep records of several troubling encounters with the president, in person and on the telephone, when the president asked for a pledge of “loyalty” and pressured him to “lift the cloud” of the Russia investigation.
The memos detailing his interactions have been turned over to Justice special counsel Robert Mueller who manages the Russia inquiry. Mueller is reviewing whether Trump attempted to obstruct the investigation in his encounters with Comey and through his ultimate decision to fire him last May.
“It was the subject matter and the person I was interacting with,” Comey told the Senate panel last year, explaining the decision to maintain the notes. “It was the nature of the person. I was honestly concerned that he would lie about the nature of our meeting. I felt I’ve got to write it down and I’ve got to write it down in a detailed way. I knew there might come a day when I would need a written record to defend me and the FBI.’’
A major focus of the hearing in June was Comey’s account of a meeting at the White House on Feb. 14, 2017. The former director said Trump urged him to drop the FBI’s investigation of Michael Flynn, Trump’s former national security adviser.
Flynn had been fired the day before for lying to Vice President Pence about his communication with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak. (Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his communication with the ambassador and is cooperating with the Russia inquiry.)
Comey told the senators he was “stunned by the conversation,” which he interpreted as “a direction to drop the investigation.”
“I didn’t obey that,” Comey told the panel. “But that’s what I thought.”
It is unclear how much of the book will be devoted to a recounting of that testimony. The book’s subtitle — “Truth, Lies, and Leadership” — suggests it will not be left in the hearing room.
William Bratton, former New York police commissioner and friend of the former director, said Comey’s story could bring clarity to “a very confusing time” in the country’s political life.
“Quite honestly, I think he believes he has a story to tell and wants to tell it in his own words,” Bratton said. “I think it could be helpful for him to explain how he approached the difficult decisions he made.”
Bratton referred to Comey’s hotly disputed role in the Clinton investigation, which included a decision to bypass the attorney general and publicly recommend the closure of the investigation, only to reopen it days before the election in November.
Clinton said the late action cost her the election.
“I believe he was trying to do the right thing,” Bratton said. “It’s not easy to pit both sides against you in the way that it happened. Maybe he can shed new light on this that could be helpful.”
Tim Weiner, an author who has written extensively about the FBI and Comey, said the former director’s story may be more important now than ever.
Referring to a hospital room scene in 2004, when Comey and then-FBI director Mueller opposed President George W. Bush’s administration’s plan to renew a controversial warrantless surveillance while Attorney General John Ashcroft lay critically ill, Weiner said Comey established himself as an unlikely “oppositional figure” who finds himself an “important witness” against Trump.
“For such a buttoned-down guy, he’s got a streak of the rebel,” Weiner said. “It must be the Irish in him. I think he’s going to point where the lies are. You’re looking at somebody who can bear witness like nobody else can do right now. It’s a great story, and he knows it.”
EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt had requested his aide, the head of EPA’s Office of Policy, join him in first class on a return flight from Morocco in December. | Saul Loeb/Getty Images
A former top EPA staffer has told Democratic lawmakers that the agency fired him after he refused to retroactively approve the first-class travel of one of Administrator Scott Pruitt’s closest aides, according to letters made public Thursday.
The dismissed political appointee, Kevin Chmielewski, also alleged that Pruitt flouted price limits on hotel stays and office decor, put an aide to work house-hunting for him, arranged taxpayer-funded trips to his native Oklahoma and other destinations just because he wanted to travel there and lied last week when he denied knowing about backdoor raises the agency had granted to two of his top aides, the lawmakers said Thursday in a letter to the agency.
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In addition, Chmielewski detailed allegations of lavish spending on Pruitt’s personal security and a possible conflict of interest involving his top bodyguard, as well a $100,000-per-month private jet rental that he says EPA looked into at Pruitt’s direction. He also said, as POLITICO reported last week, that Pruitt was frequently late in paying the $50-a-night rent on his lobbyist-owned Capitol Hill condo last year.
The lawmakers, including Sens. Tom Carper (D-Del.) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), separately wrote to President Donald Trump and urged him to rethink his public support for the embattled EPA chief.
“… [I]t appears you may not have received all the facts surrounding Administrator Pruitt’s spending, security arrangements, travel, living arrangements, and personnel actions, among other things,” they wrote.
Carper and Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) separately asked EPA’s inspector general on Thursday to look into Pruitt’s alleged use of four different email accounts at EPA, and whether federal record-keeping laws were followed.
EPA spokesman Jahan Wilcox declined to specifically dispute the allegations from Chmielewski outlined in the letter, saying the agency would respond to the lawmakers “through the proper channel.” When Chmielewski’s dismissal was first reported last week, Wilcox called him one of “a group of disgruntled employees who have either been dismissed or reassigned.”
Chmielewski, a former Trump campaign staffer, was EPA’s deputy chief of staff for operations and handled many of Pruitt’s travel and logistics coordination. He has emerged as the best-known internal agency critic of Pruitt’s lavish spending and other practices, which have led lawmakers of both parties — and key White House aides — to push for the administrator’s firing.
Among his specific charges, Chmielewski told the lawmakers this week that Pruitt had requested that his aide Samantha Dravis, the head of EPA’s Office of Policy, join him in first class on a return flight from Morocco in December, where Pruitt had gone to promote U.S. natural gas.
Chmielewski told the lawmakers he refused to sign paperwork justifying Dravis’ first-class travel “because it violated federal travel regulations,” the Democrats wrote. He said another EPA staffer eventually signed off on the travel retroactively.
Chmielewski said his refusal to bless Dravis’ upgraded travel “appears to him to have been the final straw that caused you to remove him,” the lawmakers wrote to Pruitt. Ryan Jackson, Pruitt’s chief of staff, subsequently informed Chmielewski that Pruitt “wished to fire or reassign him,” they wrote.
Dravis disputed Chmielewski’s allegations, telling POLITICO that she never spoke with him about the upgrade approval, that she did not request the upgrade and that it was not approved retroactively. Dravis said she flew coach for three of the four legs of the trip, and was upgraded to business class for one of them in keeping with federal regulations about travel exceeding 14 hours.
Democrats and environmental groups have questioned the entire purpose of the Morocco trip, noting that EPA’s mission doesn’t include promoting U.S. natural gas exports. Energy Secretary Rick Perry declined to weigh in on that issue at a House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing Thursday, saying it would be “a little inappropriate for me to be making a public or private observation” about whether Pruitt’s trip was justified.
Chmielewski also disputed Pruitt’s statement last week to Fox News that he did not know about raises that two of his aides, who had accompanied him to EPA from Oklahoma, received despite the White House’s disapproval. Pruitt told Fox that the raises were entirely carried out by unidentified staffers, and that he was correcting the matter after learning of it.
But Chmielewski said the raises were “100% Pruitt himself,” according to a quote included in the Democrats’ letter.
Chmielewski told the lawmakers that his dismissal came in Februarywhen the head of Pruitt’s security detail, Nino Perrotta, asked himto give up his government credentials when he returned to the agency after an unrelated overseas trip with Vice President Mike Pence.
According to the letter, Jackson toldChmielewski that Pruitt wanted him removed and one of the Oklahoma aides, Millan Hupp, promoted to his job and pay scale. Chmielewski said the White House would not approve of that arrangement, but that he later was removed and Hupp received the promotion and pay raise via special hiring authority in the Safe Drinking Water Act.
Other allegations made by Chmielewski, according to the letters, include:
— Pruitt’s security detail has purchased bulletproof vests, weapons and biometric locks and new SUVs to transport Pruitt, as opposed to getting vehicles via the General Services Administration. Chmielewski also alleges EPA has awarded security contracts to at least one person who works at the private security firm run by Perrotta.
— Pruitt had Hupp search for housing during work hours.
— Pruitt spent more than the $5,000 legal limit to redecorate his office.
— EPA staff, at Pruitt’s direction, considered a $100,000-per month private jet rental for the administrator. Chmielewski “claimed he successfully prevented this from occurring, as it would have been far in excess of the total travel budget of the office,” the Democrats wrote.
— Pruitt allegedly sought to travel to certain destinations and would ask EPA staff to find official business there to justify the taxpayer-funded trips. Chmielewski also says Pruitt told staff to find official reasons for him to be in or near Oklahoma to spend long weekends at home there.
— Pruitt “frequently” stayed in pricey hotels that exceeded allowable per diem spending, and that while Pruitt was reimbursed even when costs went over a 300 percent cap for exceptional circumstances, his bodyguards sometimes were not.
— Pruitt declined to plan to stay at hotels recommended by U.S. embassies during two planned international trips, choosing instead “more expensive hotels with fewer standard security resources.”
“The new information provided by Mr. Chmielewski, if accurate, leaves us certain that your leadership at EPA has been fraught with numerous and repeated unethical and potentially illegal actions on a wide range of consequential matters that you and some members of your staff directed,” the lawmakers wrote to Pruitt in asking for more documents.
Besides Carper and Whitehouse, the letters were signed by Reps. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) and Don Beyer (D-Va.).
John A. Boehner, the former Republican speaker of the House who once said he was “unalterably opposed” to decriminalizing marijuana laws, has joined a board of directors for a cannabis company with an eye on rolling back federal regulations.
The former Ohio congressman, who led a party that was historically opposed to legalizing marijuana, has been appointed to the board of advisers of Acreage Holdings, Boehner said in a statement Wednesday. The company grows and sells legal weed and operates in 11 states.
“I have concluded descheduling the drug is needed so that we can do research and allow [the Department of Veterans Affairs] to offer it as a treatment option in the fight against the opioid epidemic that is ravaging our communities,” he said.
The move is a stark reversal for the former speaker, who in 2011 wrote a constituent that he was against “legalization of marijuana or any other FDA Schedule I drug,” adding that “I remain concerned that legalization will result in increased abuse of all varieties of drugs, including alcohol.”
Currently, nine states plus Washington, D.C. have legalized recreational use of the drug, while many others allow some sort of medical use. The Justice Department has been prohibited from using federal funds to target state-legal medical marijuana businesses since 2014.
Erik Altieri, executive director for the Washington-based marijuana advocacy group NORML, told The Washington Post that Boehner’s acceptance of marijuana tracks with rising American and even Republican lawmaker evolving beliefs about the drug and its uses.
Boehner is joined on the board of advisers by former Massachusetts governor Bill Weld, a Republican who left office in 1997 and was former New Mexico governor Gary Johnson’s running mate in 2016 on the libertarian party ticket. As governor, Weld advocated for medical marijuana legalization since 1992.
It is unknown if Boehner or Weld hold paid positions on the board. Acreage Holdings spokesman Lewis Goldberg declined to discuss salary or benefits of its executives. Weld told Bloomberg he was considering an investment in the company.
Weld, a former federal prosecutor, said the conventional wisdom about marijuana during the Reagan administration was that it acted as a “gateway drug” to more harmful substances.
“Now there’s some evidence that it can become an exit drug” and an alternative to opioid addiction, which has become the primary public health concern in Massachusetts, he said in an interview with The Post.
Weld said his advocacy will likely find appeal among conservatives who champion state laws to regulate issues without federal interference.
In a joint statement, Boehner and Weld focused on a long-standing concern among veterans and advocacy groups — federal law classifies marijuana as a Schedule I drug, the same as heroin and ecstasy.
Current prohibitions have stymied research at Veterans Affairs to evaluate the drug’s efficacy in treating post-traumatic stress and physical pain as the result of military service, then-VA Secretary David Shulkin said earlier this year. Critics of restrictions say a tangle of federal laws that regulate research and funding have confused VA and lawmakers on what it can evaluate.
Veterans advocating for decriminalizing marijuana have spoken with Boehner in the past, he said. “It was an argument he heard as a member, considered and never dismissed,” Schnittger said.
Descheduling cannabis would not legalize it nationally, but it would end federal marijuana enforcement and allow states to set their own marijuana policies without federal interference.
Polls show that over 60 percent of Americans favor legalizing marijuana completely, with well over 90 percent in favor of legal medical use. Democrats eyeing a 2020 presidential run have grown increasingly vocal about the shortcomings of current federal law.
Acreage Holdings, a main player in the increasingly white-collar marijuana trade, will expand its research initiatives among universities as it seeks to “demystify” cannabis, chief executive Kevin Murphy told The Post. The company cultivates, processes and distributes marijuana in the growing, billion-dollar industry, according to its site.
The company focused on veterans in its messaging because they are “passionate” about broadening marijuana options available to former troops, Murphy said.
The American Legion, the largest veterans group in the country, found in a 2017 survey that veterans overwhelmingly support marijuana use for medical reasons. About 22 percent of veteran households said they use weed for medical reasons.
Altieri, of NORML, said he hopes Boehner will use his influence within the GOP to extend acceptance of marijuana, which may lead to legalization laws for veterans and nonveterans alike.
But, he said, Boehner probably would have been more influential had he been a proponent of marijuana use for veterans while he was speaker. Altieri said an earlier intervention “could’ve reduced veteran suicide,” which VA estimates to claim the lives of 20 veterans a day.
“It would’ve been more helpful for him advocating for this 10 years ago,” he said.
