July 21, 2018

Judge Kavanaugh Returns Senate Judiciary Questionnaire

WASHINGTON – Last evening, Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh returned the bipartisan Judiciary Committee questionnaire Chairman Chuck Grassley and Ranking Member Dianne Feinstein sent to him on July 13. The questionnaire can be found HERE. Related materials and appendices can be found HERE.

“I appreciate Judge Kavanaugh’s diligent and timely response to the broadest and most comprehensive questionnaire ever sent by this Committee. In his 12-plus years on the D.C. Circuit, Judge Kavanaugh has authored more than 300 opinions and joined hundreds of others, all of which are publicly available. Additionally, Judge Kavanaugh’s public record includes dozens of speeches and writings. These voluminous materials will provide us a very good understanding of Judge Kavanaugh’s qualifications and legal thinking – including how Judge Kavanaugh goes about finding, interpreting, and applying the law. I look forward to reviewing this and other materials, along with hearing from Judge Kavanaugh and the other hearing witnesses, as a part of the Committee’s fair, thorough and efficient vetting process,” Grassley said.

https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/press/rep/releases/judge-kavanaugh-returns-senate-judiciary-questionnaire

Canada shooter identified as Faisal Hussain, 29, of Toronto

Police in Ontario, Canada, have identified the perpetrator of Sunday’s shooting attack in Toronto, in which two people were killed, as Faisal Hussain, 29. His family said Hussain was struggling with mental illness.

The Special Investigation Unit (SIU) identified the shooter on Monday afternoon, citing “exceptional circumstances of this tragic incident and the public interest.” Hussain is “of Toronto,” the statement said, without going into details.

Due to the exceptional circumstances of the tragic incident last night on Danforth Avenue and the public interest in knowing the identity of the man who was involved in the exchange of gunfire with police, the SIU has identified him. https://t.co/bJZfS0jQFv

— SIU (@SIUOntario) July 23, 2018

The attack took place in Toronto’s Greektown neighborhood on Sunday night, when a man dressed in black opened fire, killing two people and injuring 13 more. One of the fatalities was identified as Reese Fallon, 18, a recent high school graduate. The other one was a 10-year-old girl who was not named.

Police reported they had engaged in a firefight with the perpetrator and that he was deceased, although they did not specify whether the officers killed him or he took his own life. Initially, they only reported the suspect’s age, withholding the name pending an investigation.

Shortly after the authorities named Hussain, his family released a statement expressing condolences to the families of the victims and the horror they felt after learning of his actions.

“Our son had severe mental health challenges, struggling with psychosis and depression his entire life,” the statement said. “Medications and therapy were unable to treat him. While we did our best to seek help for him throughout his life of struggle and pain, we could never imagine that this would be his devastating and destructive end.”

#BREAKING: Shooter identified as 29-year-old Faisal Hussain. His family sent out the below statement: @CityNewspic.twitter.com/WHigrHUGpE

— Amanda Ferguson (@CityNewsAmanda) July 23, 2018

The police would not immediately identify the motive behind the shooting.

“We do not know why this happened,” Toronto Police Chief Mark Saunders told reporters on Monday. “It’s way too early to rule out anything.”

Reacting to the attack, Toronto Mayor John Tory argued that the city has a gun problem.

“Why does anyone in this city need to have a gun at all?” he asked city councilors on Monday morning.

Despite relatively restrictive firearms ownership laws, Canadian authorities do not require a medical opinion before someone that is diagnosed with a mental illness is issued a license. Toronto has seen 23 gun-related homicides so far this year, compared to 16 in the first half of 2017.

https://www.rt.com/news/434059-canada-danforth-shooter-identified-/

John Bolton backs Trump's Iran threat: 'They will pay a price'

National security adviser doubled down on the tweet, upping pressure on Iran, while Trump’s tone was criticised in Europe

Donald Trump plans to make Iran pay a price few countries have ever paid before, according to the US national security adviser, John Bolton, who doubled down on a late-night tweet in which the US president threatened Tehran.

Bolton’s statement was designed to show that Trump’s unexpectedly belligerent tweet was not a random act, or empty bluster but part of a considered move by the US administration to step up the economic, political and psychological pressure on Iran.

Iran dismissed the US president’s threats as psychological warfare designed to appeal to his electoral base ahead of the midterm elections.

But Bolton, a well-known hawk on Iran, told reporters in Washington: “I spoke to the president over the last several days, and President Trump told me that if Iran does anything at all to the negative, they will pay a price few countries have ever paid.”

The hostile rhetoric between Washington and Tehran escalated after the Iranian president, Hassan Rouhani, told the US that it shouldn’t “play with the lion’s tail”.

Late on Sunday, Trump posted a tweet in capital letters warning Rouhani of “unprecedented consequences”.

To Iranian President Rouhani: NEVER, EVER THREATEN THE UNITED STATES AGAIN OR YOU WILL SUFFER CONSEQUENCES THE LIKES OF WHICH FEW THROUGHOUT HISTORY HAVE EVER SUFFERED BEFORE. WE ARE NO LONGER A COUNTRY THAT WILL STAND FOR YOUR DEMENTED WORDS OF VIOLENCE & DEATH. BE CAUTIOUS!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 23, 2018

His attack sent the Iranian national currency into a tailspin when trading opened on Monday, exacerbating months-old fluctuations that have prompted protests in Tehran’s Grand Bazaar.

The rial, which has been rapidly depreciating against the dollar after Trump pulled the US out of the nuclear deal in May, hit a fresh all-time low. On Monday, $1 bought 92,000 rials on the black market, though many exchange bureaux had stopped trading.

The Iranian foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif responded with a scathing tweet of his own, mimicking Trump’s caps-lock message and warning the US president to “BE CAUTIOUS!”

More:

https://www.yahoo.com/news/john-bolton-backs-trump-apos-163732627.html

Former Senior UAW Official Pleads Guilty to Conspiracy with Fiat Chrysler Executives

The former second highest official in the UAW’s Chrysler Department pleaded guilty today to conspiring with other UAW officials and Fiat Chrysler executives to make illegal payments to union officials, announced U.S. Attorney Matthew Schneider.

Joining in the announcement were James Vanderberg, Special Agent in Charge of the U.S. Department of Labor – Office of Inspector General, Timothy R. Slater, Special Agent in Charge of the Detroit, Michigan office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Manny Muriel, Special Agent in Charge of the Detroit, Michigan office of the Internal Revenue Service – Criminal Investigations, and Thomas Murray, Acting District Director, U.S. Department of Labor – Office of Labor-Management Standards.

Nancy A. Johnson, 57, of Macomb, Michigan pleaded guilty to conspiring to violate the Labor Management Relations Act by accepting and arranging for illegal payments from Fiat Chrysler executives to high-level UAW officials from 2014 through 2016. After the now-deceased UAW Vice President General Holiefield retired in 2014, Johnson and other UAW officials began running the UAW’s Chrysler Department, responsible for dealing with executives at Fiat Chrysler. During the plea hearing, Johnson admitted to participating in a conspiracy that had existed at least from 2009 through 2016 whereby Fiat Chrysler executives conspired with one another, with Fiat Chrysler, with UAW officials, and with the UAW to funnel money and things of value worth tens of thousands of dollars from Fiat Chrysler to UAW officials and the UAW. The things of value funneled to UAW officials from Fiat Chrysler included personal travel, golf resort fees, lavish meals and parties, limousine services, designer clothing, designer shoes, golf equipment, electronics, and an Italian shotgun.

Johnson’s guilty plea indicated that a high-level UAW official directed other UAW officials to use money supplied from automobile manufacturing companies through joint UAW training centers to pay for travel, including travel solely for purported union business, as well as lavish meal and other entertainment costs of senior UAW officials and their friends, family, and allies. This directive was issued in order to reduce costs to the UAW budget from such expenditures because the UAW’s budget was under pressure.

Johnson’s plea also stated that In 2014, 2015, and 2016, in Palm Springs, California, high-level UAW officials used UAW funds to pay for extravagant meals, premium liquor, multi-month stays at condominiums, and multiple rounds of golf for little, if any, legitimate union-business or labor-management purposes. These expenditures were in addition to other expenses paid for by Fiat Chrysler by way of the training center.

As another part of the conspiracy, Johnson’s plea indicated that during the period 2014 through 2016, 100% of the UAW salaries of a large number of UAW officials and employees, nominally assigned to the NTC, was paid for by FCA through the NTC. FCA paid these salaries for the UAW even though senior UAW officials and FCA executives both knew that these UAW officials and employees “assigned” to the NTC spent most of their work time performing tasks for the UAW, reported to the UAW, and enforced FCA’s compliance with the collective bargaining agreement on behalf of the union and not for the benefit of FCA or the NTC.

Johnson is the seventh defendant to plead guilty in connection with the ongoing criminal investigation into illegal payoffs involving UAW officials and FCA executives. The following individuals have already pleaded guilty to their participation in the scheme: former FCA Vice President for Employee Relations Alphons Iacobelli, former FCA Financial Analyst Jerome Durden, former Director of FCA’s Employee Relations Department Michael Brown, former senior UAW officials Virdell King and Keith Mickens, and Monica Morgan, the widow of UAW Vice President General Holiefield.

More:

https://www.justice.gov/usao-edmi/pr/former-senior-uaw-official-pleads-guilty-conspiracy-fiat-chrysler-executives