by tyler | Aug 4, 2023 | CNN, politics
Democratic Rep. Kathy Manning of North Carolina and a member of her staff were involved a “serious car accident” Thursday morning in Greensboro on their way to a district event, according to a statement issued by the congresswoman’s office.
Both the representative and staffer were taken to a local hospital with non-life threatening injuries, and have since been discharged, the statement said.
Manning was released from the hospital with a broken sternum and a broken bone in her foot and is now “recuperating well at home and will continue to work from home as she recovers,” her office said Friday.
“Many thanks to the first responders and the Cone Health team for their timely response and assistance,” her office added. “Rep. Manning is extremely grateful to the outstanding first responders and the extremely professional and kind staff at the Moses H. Cone Memorial Hospital. She is very grateful for all the kind words, prayers, and well wishes she has received.”
CNN has reached out to the Greensboro Police Department for additional information.
Congress is in the middle of its August recess and not in session until September.
by tyler | Aug 4, 2023 | CNN, politics
Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin has issued guidance to the military workforce for the first time about how Pentagon leadership roles will likely need to be reshuffled as a result of Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville’s hold on military confirmations.
In a memo dated August 2 and obtained by CNN, Austin wrote that the “unprecedented, across-the-board hold is having a cascading effect, increasingly hindering the normal operations of this Department and undermining both our military readiness and our national security.”
As a result, Austin recommended a series of steps to try to mitigate the impact of the blockade that includes, “in extraordinary cases,” assigning lower-level officers in a grade of 0-8 or below to lead organizations in an acting capacity, Austin wrote. Commission officers are ranked from 0-1 to 0-10, with 10 being the four-star general or admiral level.
The memo comes as chief of staff of the Army, Gen. James McConville, retired without an official replacement on Friday, marking the second branch of the military without a confirmed leader. The last official commandant of the Marine Corps retired late last month.
The last time there was an acting chief of staff of the Army was in 2003 for two months, a Defense official told CNN. The Defense official added that the Missile Defense Agency, the entity responsible for developing the US’ layered defense against ballistic missiles, currently has a 1-star serving in an acting capacity for a 3-star general who has been nominated for the post. The agency is without a Senate-confirmed director for the first time since it was established in 2002, the official said.
Austin and Tuberville have spoken directly about the block at least twice, but no progress has been made yet in reaching a solution. Tuberville issued a blanket hold on the confirmations in protest of the Pentagon’s reproductive health policies.
Austin also wrote that because of the hold, three- and four-star officers will not be allowed to leave their current positions as they wait for confirmation for their next assignment. But they can stay in their current spot while performing the duties of another senior officer position if they are in the line of succession for that job.
Incumbent heads of organizations, moreover, “may be asked to remain in place until their successor has been nominated, confirmed, and appointed.” And officers currently in a deputy or vice position may assume the head role in an acting or temporary capacity, he added.
“I understand that these steps will not end or offset the risk to our readiness or our global leadership position,” Austin wrote. “Nor will they resolve the uncertainty and stress inflicted upon our general and flag officers and their families, or alleviate the worries rippling further down our ranks.”
by tyler | Aug 3, 2023 | CNN, politics
Two US Navy sailors have been indicted and arrested for allegedly sending sensitive US military information to Chinese intelligence officers.
One of the sailors, Jinchao Wei, was arrested Wednesday as he arrived for work at Naval Base San Diego, according to a statement released Thursday by the US Attorney for the Southern District of California. The base is one of the largest Navy installations in the Pacific.
The other sailor who has been arrested, Petty Officer Wenheng Zhao, worked at Naval Base Ventura County in Port Hueneme in California.
The indictment against Wei was unsealed Thursday and is separate from the charges against Zhao.
“The charges demonstrate the (People’s Republic of China’s) determination to obtain information that is critical to our national defense by any means, so it can be used to their advantage,” Matt Olson, the Justice Department’s assistant attorney general for national security, said at a news conference Thursday.
Prosecutors say that Wei, who served as a machinist’s mate on the USS Essex, allegedly entered into a “handler/asset” relationship with a Chinese intelligence officer beginning in February 2022. Machinist’s mates are a class of engineers, and are responsible for operating, maintaining and repairing ship equipment.
As part of that alleged arrangement, Wei sent photos and videos of the Essex and other Navy ships to the Chinese officer, the indictment says, as well as dozens of technical and mechanical manuals relating to the ships’ layouts and weapons systems. In return, Wei allegedly received thousands of dollars.
The indictment indicates that Wei received US citizenship during this period, with the Chinese intelligence officer allegedly congratulating Wei on receiving citizenship on May 18, 2022.
Much of the information Wei allegedly sent to the Chinese officer was stored on restricted-access Navy computer systems that Wei was able to access because he had a security clearance.
The indictment against Zhao, meanwhile, alleges that between August 2021 and May 2023, Zhao provided sensitive US military information – including operational plans for a major military exercise in the Indo-Pacific – to a person posing as a maritime economic researcher. That person was actually a Chinese intelligence officer, the indictment says.
Zhao, who was responsible for installing, repairing and servicing electrical equipment on US military installations, also had a security clearance, prosecutors say, and allegedly took photos of computer screens that displayed “operational orders of military training exercises” and provided them to the officer.
He also allegedly transmitted photos of blueprints and diagrams of a US radar system stationed on a military base in Okinawa, Japan, prosecutors say. Those documents were marked unclassified/for official use only, but prosecutors say that as part of his official duties Zhao “was required to protect controlled unclassified information, and information related to the Navy’s operational security.” He was also required to report suspicious incidents, the court filing states.
In exchange, Zhao received approximately $15,000 from the officer, prosecutors allege.
“The case against Mr. Zhao is part of a larger national strategy to combat criminal efforts from nation state actors to steal our nation’s sensitive military information,” Martin Estrada, the US attorney for the Central District of California, said during Thursday’s news conference. “The scheme alleged here is just one more example of the People’s Republic of China’s ongoing and brazen campaign to target US officials with access to sensitive military secrets.”
Taken together, the arrests mark at least the third time this year that US service members have been arrested and charged with espionage. Another US service member with a security clearance and access to classified national defense information, Jack Teixeira, was indicted for allegedly leaking classified intelligence that he obtained as part of his job in the Massachusetts Air National Guard to the social media platform Discord.
The arrests also come amid growing concerns by the US military that China is making strategic strides against the US – particularly the Chinese navy, which has now surpassed the US Navy’s fleet size, CNN has reported.
“We have entrusted members of our military with tremendous responsibility and great faith,” said U.S. Attorney Randy Grossman of the Southern District of California. “Our nation’s safety and security are in their hands. When a soldier or sailor chooses cash over country, and hands over national defense information in an ultimate act of betrayal, the United States will aggressively investigate and prosecute.”
Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder declined to respond to the news during a briefing on Thursday, telling reporters, “I think we have clear policies and procedures in place when it comes to safeguarding and protecting sensitive information.”
“The broader issue of espionage or the lack of proper handling of classified information is something as old as warfare itself,” Ryder said. “That said, again, we have a robust set of policies and procedures going through the situation that you’re referencing in terms of the airman, as you know, we have done a very thorough analysis on steps that can be taken to further tighten controls and we’re working through that process now.”
by tyler | Aug 3, 2023 | CNN, politics
A pro-Trump lawyer who allegedly took part in a conspiracy to seize and access voting machines in Michigan after the 2020 election is now facing four state-level criminal charges, according to court documents reviewed by CNN.
Stefanie Lambert Junttila is the third – and expected to be the final – individual charged in the investigation that revolves around attempts by Donald Trump supporters to breach voting machines throughout Michigan, as part of their ham-handed attempts to prove the former president had actually carried the state in 2020.
Earlier this week, CNN reported that two prominent republicans in Michigan – a Trump-backed candidate who lost his state attorney general bid and a former state lawmaker – are facing criminal charges in connection with the voting machine plot.
The special prosecutor overseeing the case, D.J. Hilson, said in a statement Thursday that other individuals previously named in the investigation – including “computer experts” who requested to analyze the voting machines, will not be charged as they were “deceived” by defendants into thinking their actions were legal.
Hilson told CNN that includes Cyber Ninjas CEO Doug Logan and analyst Jeffrey Lenberg, both of whom were also involved in the voting system breach in Coffee County, Georgia.
Lambert is among a loose collection of Trump supporters across the country who tried to get access to voting machines while hunting for fraud in Michigan, Georgia and other key battleground states. They took action after some of their allies unsuccessfully urged Trump in December 2020 to sign an executive order directing the military to seize voting machines.
Trump and other prominent Michigan Republican figures repeatedly peddled baseless conspiracy theories about massive fraud in Detroit and supposedly rigged voting machines that manipulated the results in rural Michigan counties.
Lambert also was involved in meritless lawsuits seeking to overturn the 2020 election, including an unsuccessful lawsuit alleging “massive” voter fraud. She has close ties to former Trump lawyer Sidney Powell. CNN has identified Powell as one of the six unnamed co-conspirators described – but not charged – in special counsel Jack Smith’s separate, federal indictment of Trump over efforts to overturn the election.
Lambert was arraigned Thursday afternoon on the state charges, according to a statement from the special prosecutor overseeing the case. She faces multiple charges related to unlawful possession of voting machines and conspiracy to access voting machines, court documents show.
In a statement to CNN, Lambert’s attorney Michael Smith accused D.J. Hilson, the special prosecutor in Muskegon County, of ignoring “applicable law” and said he was pursuing a “malicious prosecution.”
“My client was a zealous advocate for her clients, and she did not violate the law,” Smith said in the statement.
Matthew DePerno, the failed GOP candidate for Michigan attorney general, and former GOP state Rep. Daire Rendon were both arraigned Tuesday on multiple charges related to unlawful possession of voting machines and conspiracy to access voting machines in the state. Both pleaded not guilty.
The inquiry was originally led by Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, an elected Democrat who has strongly and publicly condemned the GOP efforts to overturn the 2020 election results in the Wolverine State. Nessel handed off the investigation last year to a special prosecutor because of a potential conflict of interest regarding one of the targets of the probe.
This story has been updated with additional developments.
by tyler | Aug 3, 2023 | CNN, politics
While the Supreme Court struck down President Joe Biden’s student loan forgiveness program in late June, a separate and significant change to the federal student loan system is moving ahead.
Eligible borrowers can now enroll in a new income-driven repayment plan that could lower their monthly bills and reduce the amount they pay back over the lifetime of their loans.
If borrowers apply this summer, the changes to their bills would take effect before payments resume in October after the yearslong pandemic pause.
Once the plan, which Biden is calling SAVE (Saving on a Valuable Education), is fully phased in next year, some people will see their monthly bills cut in half and remaining debt canceled after making at least 10 years of payments.
Unlike Biden’s blocked one-time forgiveness program, the new repayment plan will provide benefits for both current and future borrowers who sign up for it.
But the benefits will come at a cost to the government. Estimates vary, depending on how many borrowers end up enrolling in the plan, ranging from $138 billion to $475 billion over 10 years. As a comparison, Biden’s student loan forgiveness program was expected to cost about $400 billion.
The SAVE repayment plan has gone through a formal rulemaking process at the Department of Education. The agency has previously created several other income-driven repayment plans in the same manner without facing a successful legal challenge.
Some parts of the SAVE plan will be implemented this summer and others will take effect in July 2024. Here’s what borrowers need to know.
Currently, there are several different kinds of income-driven repayment plans for borrowers with federal student loans. The new SAVE plan will essentially replace one of those, known as REPAYE (Revised Pay As You Earn), while the others are phased out for new borrowers.
Under these plans, payments are based on a borrower’s income and family size, regardless of how much outstanding student debt is owed.
There is also a forgiveness component. After making at least 10 years of payments, a borrower’s remaining balance is wiped away.
Borrowers must have federally held student loans to qualify for the SAVE repayment plan. These include Direct subsidized, unsubsidized and consolidated loans, as well as PLUS loans made to graduate students.
Parents who took out a federal PLUS loan to help their child pay for college are not eligible for the new repayment plan.
Borrowers with Federal Family Education Loans, known as FFEL, or Perkins Loans that are held by a commercial lender rather than the government will need to consolidate into a Direct loan in order to qualify.
Private student loans do not qualify for the new SAVE repayment plan or any other federal repayment plan.
Borrowers can apply for the SAVE plan by submitting a recently updated application for income-driven repayment plans found here.
The application may be available intermittently during an initial beta testing period, according to the Department of Education. If the application is not available, try again later.
Applications submitted during the beta period will not need to be resubmitted once a full website launches later this summer.
Borrowers can expect to receive an email confirmation after applying.
People who are already enrolled in the REPAYE repayment plan will be automatically switched to the SAVE plan.
Borrowers can log in to StudentAid.gov and go to their My Aid page to see what repayment plan they are enrolled in.
The Department of Education says that it will process applications submitted this summer before payments resume in October.
“It may take your servicer a few weeks to process your request, because they will need to obtain documentation of your income and family size,” according to the department’s website.
Under the SAVE plan, monthly payments can be as small as $0.
Other income-driven repayment plans already offer a $0 monthly payment for some borrowers. But the new SAVE plan lowers the qualifying threshold.
A single borrower earning $32,800 or less or a borrower with a family of four earning $67,500 or less will see their payments set at $0 if enrolled in SAVE.
Increase in protected income threshold: Like in existing income-driven repayment plans, a borrower’s discretionary income, generally what’s left after paying for necessities like housing, food and clothing, will be shielded from student loan payments.
The new SAVE plan recalculates discretionary income so that it’s equal to the difference between a borrower’s adjusted gross income and 225% of the poverty level. Existing income-driven plans calculate discretionary income as the difference between income and 150% of the poverty level.
This change will result in lower payments for borrowers.
Interest limit: Under the new payment plan, unpaid interest will not accrue if a borrower makes a full monthly payment.
That means that a borrower’s balance won’t increase even if the monthly payment doesn’t cover the monthly interest. For example: If $50 in interest accumulates each month and a borrower has a $30 payment, the remaining $20 would not be charged.
Lower payments for married borrowers: Married borrowers who file their taxes separately will no longer be required to include their spouse’s income in their payment calculation for SAVE. This could lower monthly payments for two-income households.
Automatic recertification: Borrowers will now be able to allow the Department of Education to access their latest tax return. This will make the application process easier because borrowers won’t have to manually provide income or family size information. It will also allow the department to automatically recertify borrowers for the payment plan on an annual basis.
Cut payments in half: Payments on loans borrowed for undergraduate school will be reduced from 10% to 5% of discretionary income.
Borrowers who have loans from both undergraduate and graduate school will pay a weighted average of between 5% and 10% of their income based upon the original principal balances of their loans.
For example, a borrower with $20,000 from their undergraduate education and $60,000 from graduate school will pay 8.75% of their income, according to a fact sheet provided by the Biden administration.
Shorter time to forgiveness: Currently, borrowers who pay for 20 or 25 years under an income-driven repayment plan will see their remaining balance wiped away.
Under the new SAVE plan, those who borrowed $12,000 or less will see their debt forgiven after paying for just 10 years. Every additional $1,000 borrowed above that amount would add one year of monthly payments to the required time a borrower must pay.
Borrowers who consolidate their loans will receive partial credit for their previous payments toward forgiveness.
Borrowers will also automatically receive credit toward forgiveness for certain periods of deferment and forbearance, as well be given the option to make additional “catch-up” payments to get credit for all other periods of deferment or forbearance.
Automatically enroll struggling borrowers: Borrowers who are 75 days late on their payments will be automatically enrolled in the best income-driven plan for them, as long as they have agreed to allow the Department of Education to securely access their tax information.
This story has been updated with additional information.
by tyler | Aug 3, 2023 | CNN, politics
It’s hard not to view these two data points as symptoms of a democracy that is sick and in need of immediate attention:
The criminal case could well hinge on whether Trump can be proven to have known he lost the election, as his official advisers all told him.
Whatever he knew in his mind, Trump continues to focus on creating more than a shadow of doubt about US elections, especially when they feature him.
This has helped lead a solid majority of Republican and Republican-leaning independents to doubt that President Joe Biden’s defeat of Trump in 2020 was legitimate. The number of doubters in the GOP has been as high as 72% in CNN’s polling in 2021. Today, the figure is solidly at 69%. Among registered voters who voted for Trump in 2020, 75% say they have doubts about Biden’s legitimacy.
There is a scale of doubt, for sure. A smaller portion of Republican and Republican-leaning voters, 39%, both doubt the election was legitimate and think there is solid evidence to prove it. No evidence of widespread voter fraud has ever been uncovered despite exhaustive reviews and court challenges.
Overall, 61% of Americans say Biden did legitimately win enough votes to win the presidency, and 38% believe that he did not. Read more about the new poll from CNN’s Jennifer Agiesta and Ariel Edwards-Levy.
When people don’t believe the system is creating a valid winner, it raises very real questions about whether the system is showing cracks.
With that, consider a remarkable interview Wednesday night with one of the minority of Republicans who completely believes the overwhelming evidence that the election was legitimate.
Bill Barr was the attorney general under Trump and says the former president should not be anywhere near the Oval Office. A frequent target of Trump’s insults, Barr praised elements of the indictment against him and said he believes Trump knew he lost the election even as he was trying to overturn it.
Despite all of that, Barr told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins he has not ruled out voting for Trump. Read the entire interview here, or read some key excerpts below. I’ve paraphrased the questions by Collins in order to condense the length.
Barr said he has concerns about the indictment of Trump related to his efforts to overturn the 2020 election: It’s complicated, it requires proving things that may be difficult to prove, it does nothing to counter the perception on the political right that there is a double standard at the Justice Department, it’s going to be a distraction from the 2024 election, the outcome could affect that election, etc.
BARR: “But as a legal matter, I don’t see a problem with the indictment. I think that it’s not an abuse. The Department of Justice is not acting to weaponize the department by proceeding against the president for a conspiracy, to subvert the electoral process.”
BARR: “No, I really don’t think that’s a valid argument, because, as the indictment says, they’re not attacking his First Amendment right.
“He can say whatever he wants. He can even lie. He can even tell people that the election was stolen, when he knew better.
“But that does not protect you from entering into a conspiracy. All conspiracies involve speech. And all fraud involves speech. So, free speech doesn’t give you the right to engage in a fraudulent conspiracy.”
BARR: “Do I personally believe that? Yes, at first, I wasn’t sure. But I have come to believe that he knew well, that he had lost the election.
“And now, what I think is important is the government has assumed the burden of proving that. The government, in their indictment, takes the position that he had actual knowledge that he had lost the election, and the election wasn’t stolen through fraud. And they’re going to have to prove that beyond a reasonable doubt.”
BARR: “Oh, yes, I would believe (special counsel Jack Smith) has a lot more. And that’s one of the things that impressed me about the indictment. It was very spare. And there are a lot of things he could have said in there. And I think there’s a lot more to come. And I think they have a lot more evidence, as to President Trump’s state of mind.”
BARR: “No. 1, comments from people, like (Steve) Bannon, and (Roger) Stone, before the election, saying that he was going to – he was going to claim it was stolen, if he was falling behind, on election night, and that that was the plan of action.
“I find those statements very troubling. And then, you see that he does that on election night.
“And then, the evidence that has come out since then, the press reports, and the indictment, and his lack of curiosity, as to what the actual facts were, just leave – that’s my personal opinion. That’s my personal opinion. And we’ll see if the government can prove it beyond a reasonable doubt.”
BARR: “Well, the paramount question has to be fairness to the defendants, the fairness of the process.
“And I think it goes – I think there are arguments to be made, both ways, as to whether it should be first, or whether it should come afterwards. Of course, if he’s elected president, then coming afterwards would be meaningless.”
BARR: “Yes, I find that sort of nauseating. I mean, this guy claims to be a multibillionaire. And he goes out and raises money from hard-working class, hard-working people, small donors, and tells them, ‘This is to defend America, and to take care of the elect’ – he didn’t provide any significant support during the 2022 elections. And a lot of this money seems to be going to his legal fees.”
BARR: “I think that the department tends to go far more aggressively after Republican or allegations of Republican wrongdoing, than Democrat. And I’ve seen it myself. I’ve lived through it. I’ve seen it.
“Now, it’s not as pervasive as is represented. And it’s not automatic. And I think there’s still many, many great prosecutors in the department who can check their politics and be fair to whoever it is, regardless of their politics.
“But I do think that there’s some political actors in the department.”
BARR: “Absolutely. And that’s why I think it’s so ironic all these people are getting huffy about weaponization, which they should, because we can’t go tit for tat.
“But Trump, as you say, I mean, he’s very clear about it. I think there’s no question that he believes these institutions should be used to go after his enemies.”
BARR: “To me, it’s amazing that you read through the indictment and his behavior in that indictment. And it’s nauseating, it’s despicable behavior.
“Whether it’s criminal or not, someone who engaged in that kind of bullying about a process that is fundamental to our system and to our self-government shouldn’t be anywhere near the Oval Office. And for him to be attacking a prosecutor who is investigating that with all the epithets, and so forth, which he has no basis for, as far as I can tell, is ridiculous.
“Now, he’s an aggressive prosecutor. He’s the kind of prosecutor, in my view, that if he thinks someone has committed a crime, he hones in on it, and really goes to try to make that case. There’s no question he’s aggressive. But I do not think that he’s a partisan actor.”
BARR: “My view is that if you feel that one of two people is going to be president, in other words, there’s no third option, one of two people are going to be president – then, at that point, you have to do your soul searching as to which one you think would do least harm to the country. And that’s the analysis that I would do.”
BARR: “Look, there are Democrats that I think are honorable people, and whose policies I don’t think are extreme and so forth.
“But I think Biden has turned the keys of the kingdom over to radical progressives. And in terms of his personal ethics, I think there’s some red flags there that I think people should be paying attention to. I don’t think he’s morally superior, necessarily, to Trump.”
BARR: “Yes, I mean – yes. Because I think the Republican Party has a great opportunity. When you look at our states, like Florida, Georgia, Virginia, we have conservative governors who are winning substantial victories, broadening the party, bringing people in.
“And I think that can be done, on the national level, by any of our candidates, but Trump. Trump has already shown that he cannot forge that kind of decisive victory at the national level. He’s a three-time loser. And I think he will clearly lose again on the national level.”
