by tyler | Oct 25, 2023 | CNN, politics
An estimated 305,000 people initially received federal student loan bills with the wrong amount – many with charges higher than they should be – when payments resumed this month after a three-plus year pause.
The Department of Education identified the errors and directed student loan servicing companies to place the impacted borrowers in an administrative forbearance during which they are not required to make payments.
“Because of the Department’s stringent oversight efforts and ability to quickly catch these errors, servicers are being held accountable and borrowers will not have payments due until these mistakes are fixed,” the Department of Education said in a statement sent to CNN.
“While we regret any error, the Department is working closely with student loan servicers to ensure that they are providing borrowers the information they need and holding servicers accountable when they do not,” it added.
The bill errors were first reported by CBS.
The mistakes impact roughly 1% of the 28 million borrowers entering repayment for the first time since the pandemic pause was put into place in March 2020.
But for those affected, the mistakes add to the stress some borrowers already feel as they try to fit their monthly student loan bills back into their budgets.
“It causes a lot of anxiety. They’re not going to relax until they actually see the lower payment they expect,” said Betsy Mayotte, president of The Institute of Student Loan Advisors, a nonprofit that provides free student loan advice.
The student loan bill mistakes do not appear to be specific to a certain type of borrower.
It’s unclear exactly what’s causing the problems, according to Mayotte.
Mayotte has encountered some borrowers whose bills had outright math errors. She’s also seen some people who were placed in a standard, 10-year plan – with a higher monthly payment – despite having previously been enrolled in an income-driven plan, which calculates payments based on income and family size.
Other borrowers whose loans were recently transferred from one servicer to another have found that some of their information has not transferred correctly. Millions of people have different loan servicers now than the last time they made a payment because several companies ended their contracts during the past three years.
Complicating matters further is the launch of a new income-driven plan called SAVE (Saving on a Valuable Education). The new repayment plan offers the most generous terms and will likely offer the smallest monthly payment for the lowest-income borrowers – but it went into effect this summer, and some borrowers who applied in August or September are still waiting for their applications to be processed.
Borrowers who believe their monthly payment amount is wrong should first double check with StudentAid.gov’s simulator, which helps people calculate what their monthly payment should be and what repayment plan is best for them.
If the amount looks off, Mayotte recommends that the borrower call the loan servicer – and continue to call until someone on the phone gets the bill corrected.
Some borrowers have had to wait hours on hold to connect with a customer service representative, and student loan servicer websites have been sporadically down since interest resumed accruing on federal student loans on September 1.
Mayotte also warned about scammers that mislead borrowers with offers to lower their student loan payment for a fee.
Borrowers whose bill is correct but who miss a payment right now will not face the normal financial consequences, thanks to a temporary on-ramp period created by the Department of Education.
Until September 30, 2024, a borrower won’t be reported as being in default to the national credit rating agencies, which can damage a person’s credit score. But because interest will still accrue, borrowers aren’t off the hook entirely.
by tyler | Oct 25, 2023 | CNN, politics
The Senate on Tuesday confirmed Michael Whitaker to a five-year term running the Federal Aviation Administration.
Whitaker is a former Obama-era deputy FAA administrator, and said at his confirmation hearing earlier this month that his past “time at FAA gives me some real advantage” taking the top job. Most recently he was an executive at a company developing electric air taxis, and he previously served in senior roles at several airlines, including United Airlines.
Now, Whitaker takes the reins at the FAA as the agency, in his words, “faces big challenges.”
Among his first priorities, industry officials say, is providing a steady, consistent hand atop FAA, which oversees aviation safety, air traffic control and aircraft certification. The FAA has come under scrutiny after a series of airliner close calls on US runways, flight disruptions linked to air traffic control understaffing and the killing of 346 people in Boeing 737 MAX crashes after the FAA certified the plane as safe.
Whitaker has also said he would prioritize technological and other improvements for “the aviation system of the future.”
“When I was at the FAA just a few years ago drones were new, commercial space launches were rare and flying taxis were still only in cartoons,” Whitaker said at his confirmation hearing. “All of this has changed and it requires that the agency look forward, adapt quickly and execute a plan for the future.”
He has support from a variety of aviation industry groups, including those representing airlines, pilots and airline passengers.
He is the Biden administration’s second FAA chief nominee. The first, Denver airport CEO Phil Washington, withdrew his name over criticism of his limited aviation experience and link to a political corruption investigation.
The post was vacated in March 2022 when Steve Dickson, who was nominated by President Donald Trump, stepped down midway through his five-year term. The agency has been run by a series of interim administrators, most recently the deputy transportation secretary.
by tyler | Oct 25, 2023 | CNN, politics
Donald Trump’s former chief of staff, Mark Meadows, was granted immunity by special counsel Jack Smith and has met with federal prosecutors multiple times in their investigation into the efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election, according to a report from ABC News.
Meadows told investigators he did not believe the election was stolen and that Trump was being “dishonest” in claiming victory shortly after polls closed in 2020, according to ABC.
Meadows met with Smith’s team at least three times this year, ABC reported, and prosecutors were focused on his conversations with Trump following the election defeat.
The agreement is the first publicly known in the special counsel’s investigation into the events around January 6.
While the exact terms of Meadows’ deal with prosecutors are not clear, similar deals traditionally allow a person with knowledge about an ongoing investigation immunity from prosecution if they cooperate fully with investigators, including by giving testimony under oath.
CNN has reached out to Meadows’ attorney for comment.
During his testimony before a federal grand jury, Meadows was also asked about efforts to overturn the election as well as Trump’s handling of classified documents, CNN previously reported.
Trump has been charged with several counts related to alleged efforts to overturn the election results and has pleaded not guilty.
The special counsel has separately charged Trump with unlawfully keeping classified documents at his residence after leaving the White House. Meadows was also asked about Trump’s handling of classified information in front of the grand jury, though it is not clear whether his deal with prosecutors extends into the classified documents investigation.
Meadows was also asked about Trump’s reaction to the January 6, 2021, riot at the US Capitol, ABC reported. In his testimony, Meadows corroborated accounts that Trump was hesitant to call on his supporters to stop acting violently, at one point even telling then-House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, “I guess these people are more upset than you are.”
This story has been updated with additional details.
by tyler | Oct 25, 2023 | CNN, politics
American military officials are trying to steer Israel away from the type of brutal, urban combat the US engaged in against insurgents during the Iraq War, in an effort to keep the Israelis from getting bogged down in bloody, house-by-house fighting as they prepare for an assault on Gaza, multiple sources familiar with the matter told CNN.
In helping the Israel Defense Forces game out a number of different strategies to defeat Hamas, US military advisers on the ground in Israel are invoking lessons learned specifically from Fallujah in 2004, one of the bloodiest battles of the Iraq War.
Instead of launching a full-scale ground assault on Gaza, which could endanger hostages, civilians, and further inflame tensions in the region, US military advisers are urging Israelis to use a combination of precision airstrikes and targeted special operations raids.
They are also drawing on strategies developed during the battle by US-led coalition forces to retake the Iraqi city of Mosul from ISIS, which relied more heavily on special operations forces. Like Hamas, ISIS built tunnels throughout Mosul and used civilians as human shields, and the fight to retake the city was harder and more drawn-out than anticipated.
To help deliver this message, the Biden administration has sent a three-star Marine Corps general to counsel the IDF on planning its tactical assault. Gen. James Glynn, the former commander of Marine Forces Special Operations Command, has significant experience with urban warfare in Iraq, particularly in Fallujah, where he commanded troops during some of the bloodiest fighting there between US forces and insurgents, officials said.
Since the Hamas terror attack on Israel on October 7, the US has grown increasingly concerned that Israel’s strategy to move into Gaza with a large number of ground troops is only half-baked and could lead to a bloody and indefinite occupation by Israeli forces in the Gaza strip, officials said.
The US has also urged Israel to think about how a full-scale ground invasion could endanger the more than 200 hostages still being held by Hamas in Gaza, the civilians who have no way out, and what comes after an invasion in terms of governance of the millions of Palestinians in the Gaza strip.
“I don’t think Israel has a strategy for what they do next” in terms of executing a full-blown ground invasion, one source familiar with concerns within the Biden administration said.
Israel’s objectives and strategy have been a central point of discussion between American and European officials over the course of the past week, people familiar with the matter said, as the allies work to coordinate an approach to Israel.
President Joe Biden spoke Sunday with the leaders of France, Germany, Italy, Canada and the United Kingdom about the crisis, hoping to align on the key issue of supporting Israel while also gaining clarity on its path forward.
CIA director Bill Burns has been on back-to-back phone calls with partners and allies in the region, including the Israeli intelligence service Mossad, the US’ Arab partners and its NATO allies, in an effort to keep the conflict from spiraling into a regional conflagration and to work to ensure the safe release of hostages still held by Hamas.
Biden has encouraged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in their recent conversations to think through how such an invasion would unfold, and what the exit strategy would be, officials said. Biden and Netanyahu spoke on Sunday and again on Monday, and in those conversations, the president sought to try to “get [Netanyahu] to use his head, not his heart,” a source familiar said.
Still, the sentiment across much of the US government is that Israel is almost certain to proceed with a full scale ground invasion, in large part because domestic sentiment inside Israel is so enflamed that Netanyahu may feel he has no other choice.
“We stand before the next stage, it is coming,” Netanyahu told the Israel Defence Forces’ Yahalom unit on Tuesday, according to a press release from Netanyahu’s office. “You know it and you are part of it; you are part of the vanguard.”
“We have only one mission – to smash Hamas,” he added. “We will not stop until we complete it, with your help.”
In 2014, Netanyahu set out to debilitate Hamas with the last ground invasion into Gaza. While that war dealt Hamas a significant blow, it was a huge challenge and failed to dislodge the militant organization from the coastal enclave. Despite numerous rounds of escalation and conflict with Gaza, Israel hasn’t attempted another incursion since.
A senior Israeli official said that the US is not telling the Israelis to deescalate or refrain from crossing any “red lines.”
“They are saying while you fight the war – pay attention to all of these dimensions,” the official said. “The US has its own experience for fighting wars in urban areas, Fallujah, in Mosul and so on. … And so you [the United States] also have some experience in such a situation. And it’s always good to share experiences, among friends.”
“In all of our conversations, we continue to talk to them about the importance of having meaningful goals, meaningful objectives and a plan to achieve those objectives,” State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said Monday. “We’ve been engaged in a number of levels. The Pentagon has been engaging in military-to-military channels about what their operations might look like.”
Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin speaks to Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant daily about Israel’s military needs and strategy, an official said, and one frequent point of discussion is how the extensive network of tunnels Hamas has built inside Gaza will complicate a ground invasion, an official said.
“The message is, have you really thought this through?” a Western diplomat said. “Coming from friends who have in recent years gotten themselves embroiled in counterinsurgency scenarios in hostile territory, we can tell you need an exit plan and it gets ugly quickly.”
Gallant on Tuesday told an elite commando unit of the Israeli army that Israel must destroy Hamas and warned that the war is still in its early stages.
“Prepare for the tasks to come, the war is just starting. And unfortunately, we’ll have to pay a price,” Gallant said. “Prepare well, be ready – physically and mentally, with equipment and means. We’ll get to the field and will destroy Hamas. Literally. Otherwise, we couldn’t exist here,” he added.
Another key US and allied message to Israel has been that any invasion must abide by international humanitarian law.
A Western source told CNN that Israel is being cautious in its planning for a ground incursion because it realizes if it gets it wrong it will lose the moral high ground. They acknowledged that “the battle for the moral high ground” is already difficult for Israel, pointing to the quick condemnation directed at the Israeli government over the hospital blast, which Israel said was a Palestinian Islamic Jihad misfire.
On Tuesday, French President Emmanuel Macron visited Israel and offered support for Netanyahu, but warned: “This fight must be without mercy, but not without rules.”
Macron also suggested forming an international coalition to counter Hamas, akin to the US-led coalition meant to defeat ISIS formed during the Obama administration.
“The idea is to draw on the experience of the International Coalition against [ISIS] and see what aspects can be replicated against Hamas,” a French official told CNN. “As a reminder, the International Coalition against [ISIS] is not limited to operations on the ground, but also involves training Iraqi forces, sharing information between partners, and combating the financing of terrorism.”
But a Western official familiar with the matter said forming any international coalition would depend, in large part, on gaining more clarity from Israel on the goals of its ground invasion.
Israel’s ambassador to the UN, Gilad Erdan, told CNN last week that Israel has “no interest” in occupying Gaza, although Israeli officials have warned the operation there will be lengthy.
“Our advice to them isn’t ‘Don’t do it,’ because we completely respect their right to go after Hamas and that means going after them wherever they are,” a NATO defense minister previously told CNN. “So it’s not ‘Don’t do it,’ but it is ‘Think about what happens and have a strategy, not just a tactical maneuver.’ We expect Israel to act within international humanitarian law, but we understand that they’re dealing with an enemy here.”
by tyler | Oct 25, 2023 | CNN, politics
House Republicans are once again scrambling for a path forward after Minnesota Rep. Tom Emmer dropped his bid for speaker just hours after winning his party’s nomination.
The swift exit from the race is the latest sign that Republicans are still no closer to electing a new speaker three weeks after Kevin McCarthy’s historic ouster.
Republicans quickly pivoted to attempting to find a new nominee following Emmer’s abrupt withdrawal from the race and held another candidate forum Tuesday evening. There are now five candidates in the running: Reps. Byron Donalds of Florida, Chuck Fleischmann of Tennessee, Mark Green also of Tennessee, Mike Johnson of Louisiana and Roger Williams of Texas. The conference is expected to vote later in the evening to select a new nominee.
Republicans are under intensifying pressure to find a new leader as the House remains in a state of paralysis, and the GOP remains unable to govern without a speaker. The conference has repeatedly failed to coalesce around a successor to McCarthy amid deep division within its ranks.
The politically precarious situation has plunged the House into uncharted territory as it looks increasingly unclear whether any Republican can get the 217 votes needed to win the gavel.
Emmer is now the third Republican to win the nomination of the GOP conference only to then exit the race after failing to lock up the necessary votes to win the gavel.
After winning the party nomination in a secret ballot election on Tuesday, Emmer faced swift opposition from the right flank of his conference as well as a significant rebuke from former President Donald Trump. In a post on Truth Social, Trump called Emmer a “Globalist RINO,” and said that voting for him “would be a tragic mistake.” Trump later said he had a “big impact” after Emmer dropped out.
Emmer voted to certify the 2020 election, voted to keep the government open for 47 days, voted for the bipartisan law to avoid a debt default and voted to codify same-sex marriage – all issues that members of the hard-right had cited as issues for his candidacy.
Members of Trump’s team also called GOP members and urged them to oppose Emmer for speaker, two sources told CNN.
Despite a cordial phone call with the former president over the weekend, Trump reposted attacks against the House GOP whip on Truth Social Monday night and then followed up with his own attack after Emmer was nominated.
Leaving a GOP conference meeting Monday night, Emmer told CNN, “We have a good relationship,” when asked about Trump.
Following Emmer’s withdrawal from the race, Republican Rep. Steve Womack of Arkansas warned that the GOP is at an “impasse” and said he doesn’t know if they’ll be able to resolve their internal differences and find a speaker.
“Right now, I think it is apparent to the American people that the GOP conference is hopelessly divided. Can it be overcome? Never say never,” he said. “But the signs are right now that this conference is at some kind of an impasse.”
This story and headline have been updated with additional developments.
by tyler | Oct 25, 2023 | CNN, politics
Michael Cohen said he had a “heck of a reunion” Tuesday with his former boss Donald Trump when he testified against the former president at his New York civil fraud trial.
With Trump sitting feet away, Trump’s one-time lawyer and fixer described how he manipulated Trump’s financial statements – “reverse-engineering” them to hit an arbitrary net worth. Cohen explained how he would inflate the value of Trump’s properties along with the Trump Organization’s chief financial officer.
Once Trump’s lawyer began questioning Cohen, things quickly got heated, as he sneered at the questions and loudly objected to one line of questioning.
Cohen and Trump didn’t have any direct interactions on Tuesday, but both are expected to be back in court again Wednesday, when Trump’s lawyers will continue to cross-examine Cohen.
Here’s what to know about the dramatic day in court:
Trump and Cohen meet for the first time in 5 years
When Cohen walked into the Manhattan courtroom Tuesday morning, it was the first time he and Trump had been in the same room in five years.
Cohen once said he’d “take a bullet” for Trump, but turned against him after pleading guilty to federal crimes in 2018. Quickly he became one of Trump’s chief antagonists even as he prepared to go to prison, testifying against him before Congress and writing books critical of the former president.
Trump didn’t react to Cohen’s entrance, though he watched intently while Cohen began testifying, staring directly ahead with his arms folded at his former attorney.
The two didn’t make eye contact when Cohen left the courtroom at breaks. Outside the courtroom, however, Trump attacked Cohen, saying he “has a horrible record.”
“It’s not going to end up very good for him. We’re not worried at all about his testimony,” Trump said during a lunch break.
When he left the courtroom, Cohen only briefly commented on his former boss: “Heck of a reunion.”
Cohen’s testimony directly implicated Trump, saying that he was directed by his former boss to inflate Trump’s net worth on financial statements to hit an arbitrary number.
Cohen said that he and former Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg would manipulate Trump’s financial statements, the documents at the center of the civil fraud trial, based on what Trump wanted his net worth to reflect.
“I was tasked by Mr. Trump to increase the total assets based upon a number that he arbitrarily elected and my responsibility along with Allen Weisselberg predominantly was to reverse engineer the various different assets classes, increase those assets in order to achieve the number that Mr. Trump had tasked us.”
Asked what numbers they would hit, Cohen said, “Whatever number Mr. Trump told us to.”
Cohen explained that when Trump would look at the financial statements, he would “look at the total assets and he would say ‘I’m actually not worth 4.5 billion, I’m really worth more like six.’ He would then direct Allen and I to go back to Allen’s office and return after we achieved the desired goal.”
Looking at Trump’s 2012 statement of financial condition, Cohen said he recalled inflating assets including Trump Tower, Trump Park Ave., Trump World Tower at United Nations Plaza, the commercial side of 100 Central Park South, the Mansion at Seven Springs, the Miss Universe Pageants and “possibly others.”
Cohen said that they would look at numbers “being achieved elsewhere” in New York and recalculate valuations using real estate as “comparables” that were achieving the highest prices per square foot in the city, even though those properties had different amenities from Trump’s assets. Those other properties would have different ceiling heights, unobstructed views, and were not inhibited by rent control, for instance.
“You could call them comparable, but comparable would imply that they are similar,” Cohen said.
Trump attorney Alina Habba questioned Cohen for the final 25 minutes of Tuesday’s court session, but she needed little time to elicit a reaction from Cohen, showing the tension that had built up during the afternoon.
Cohen’s demeanor changed from the first question, and Cohen loudly objected and raised his voice at Habba when she asked, “Did you ever tell your wife that you were committing tax evasion?”
The outburst prompted lawyers from both sides to argue over one another, with Trump lawyer Chris Kise objecting to Cohen’s response and the New York attorney general’s office objecting to the question, saying it covered spousal privilege.
Habba continued asking Cohen about the criminal charges he pleaded guilty to, including that it led to the loss of his law license.
“Asked and answered,” Cohen sneered in response to a question about losing his law license.
“You have lied under oath numerous times, Mr. Cohen?” Habba asked.
“That’s correct,” Cohen said.
The Trump team is trying to undercut Cohen’s credibility as a witness. There’s plenty of material to work with, given Cohen pleaded guilty in 2018 for lying to Congress.
“This witness is completely out of control,” Kise said after Cohen’s outburst, prompting a laugh from the gallery.
The tense questioning is going to continue into Wednesday, as Habba hadn’t even started on the substance of Cohen’s testimony in the civil fraud trial.
“Mr. Cohen, this is how this is going to work, you’re not on ‘Mea Culpa,’ you’re not on your podcast and you’re not on CNN,” she told Cohen at one point, saying Cohen’s job was to answer yes or no to questions.
Judge Arthur Engoron said trial testimony and financial documents about Trump’s $1 billion bid to buy the Buffalo Bills in 2014 could be included as evidence because they support the attorney general’s claims that Trump had a fraudulent pattern and practice when reporting his worth.
In the July 2014 letter submitting a bid to buy the Bills, Trump claimed his net worth was $8 billion.
The financial documents with claims in them that Trump had an $8 billion net worth at the time “arguably tends to show pattern and practice of fraud, to use a loaded term,” Engoron said, overruling an objection from Trump’s attorneys who said the document is not relevant to the case.
Before Engoron’s ruling, the state attorneys and Trump’s lawyers clashed over Michael Cohen’s testimony about the letter. Kise objected to the line of questioning regarding internal preparations for Trump to bid on the Bills, arguing there was no transaction to buy the team, and it wasn’t the basis for any claims in the complaint.
During a break in the trial, Trump said there was “absolutely nothing wrong” with his failed bid to buy the Bills.
“I was a bidder on the team. I had it all financed and everything else that you needed,” Trump said. “There was absolutely nothing wrong and we didn’t even make the deal. It was many years ago.”
Trump spent the entire day in the courtroom, both for Cohen’s testimony and the appearance of Mazars general counsel Bill Kelly.
But he also spent the day helping to scuttle the short-lived House speakership candidacy of Minnesota GOP Rep. Tom Emmer.
Emmer was selected among eight candidates midday Tuesday to be his party’s nominee for speaker. Minutes before court in New York wrapped for the day, Emmer had already dropped out in the face of opposition from Trump’s congressional allies – and Trump himself.
During a break in the trial, Trump whacked Emmer on his social media site, Truth Social. “I have many wonderful friends wanting to be Speaker of the House, and some are truly great Warriors. RINO Tom Emmer, who I do not know well, is not one of them,” Trump wrote.
Trump listened intently during much of Cohen’s testimony, but he was also looking down at his phone for stretches, typing on it while Cohen was speaking.
When Trump walked out of court at the last break of the day, the former president noted what was transpiring in Washington, DC. “It looks like he’s finished. Looks like he’s finished,” Trump said of Emmer.
The whole episode was another reminder that Trump’s trials are all taking place as he’s the leading GOP candidate for president, and that he can help sway his political base even while sitting in a courtroom.
