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A Google linked exec and a former US politician have dropped out of a Saudi project after journalist's disappearance

Rob Price

Members of an advisory board for a $500 billion Saudi megacity project are distancing themselves from the organisation after the reported murder of a dissident Saudi journalist.

Google-linked executive Dan Doctoroff and ex-US secretary of energy Ernest Moriz have now dropped out of the project.

Apple's Jony Ive was initially on the list, but Apple says his inclusion was a mistake and he has nothing to do with the project.

The other 16 members of the board did not respond to Business Insider's multiple requests for comment.

A senior executive who works for Google's parent company and a former US secretary of energy have dropped out of a Saudi Arabia tech and business advisory board following international outcry over the disappearance and alleged murder of a dissident Saudi journalist.

On Tuesday, the Saudi news outlet Argaam reported that Neom — a $500 billion megacity project being built by the country — had formed a new advisory board.

Members mentioned in the announcement included famed tech industry investor Marc Andreessen; Dan Doctoroff, CEO of Google parent company Alphabet's urban planning unit Sidewalk Labs; Travis Kalanick, ex-CEO of Uber; former European Commission vice president Neelie Kroes; ex-Dow Chemical Company CEO Andrew Liveris, and Silicon Valley investor Sam Altman.

But following inquiries from journalists, members have started distancing themselves from the project.

First was Apple's chief design officer Jony Ive: The initial list published by Argaam said that he was a member, but Apple subsequently said his inclusion was a mistake and that he should never have been on the list in the first place. (Argaam and Neom did not respond to Business Insider's requests for comment.)

Then on Wednesday, Ernest Moriz, the former US secretary of energy, said he was "suspending" his involvement until more is known about Khashoggi's disappearance.

https://www.businessinsider.com/dan-doctoroff-ernest-moriz-drop-out-saudi-arabia-neom-board-2018-10

Rosenstein-McCabe feud dates to standoff in front of Mueller

Matt Zapotosky and Devlin Barrett, The Washington Post Published 5:59 pm CDT, Wednesday, October 10, 2018

WASHINGTON - Shortly after Robert Mueller III was appointed to investigate possible coordination between President Donald Trump's campaign and the Kremlin, he was drawn into a tense standoff in which Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and then-acting FBI director Andrew McCabe each urged the other to step aside from the case, according to people familiar with the matter.

At the time of the confrontation in mid-May 2017, tensions were running high at the FBI and Justice Department, and between Rosenstein and McCabe. Trump had just fired James Comey as the bureau's director, and almost immediately afterward, FBI officials had opened a case into whether the president had obstructed justice.

Some in the bureau eyed Rosenstein warily, because he had authored a memo that was used by the administration to justify Comey's termination. If the president had obstructed justice, they reasoned, Rosenstein may have played a role in that. Justice Department officials, meanwhile, were concerned that the FBI - and McCabe in particular - may have acted too hastily to open an investigative file on the president after Comey was fired, and that the move could be painted as an act of anger or revenge.

The previously unreported episode involving Mueller, Rosenstein and McCabe - which occurred within days of Mueller's becoming special counsel - underscores the deep suspicion between senior law enforcement officials who were about to embark on a historic, criminal investigation of the president. That mistrust has continued to this day, with defenders of each offering conflicting accounts of exactly what was said and meant in the days surrounding Mueller's appointment.

The people familiar with the meeting spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal Justice Department deliberations.

The meeting came just days after a gathering of senior Justice Department officials - including McCabe and his key deputy - in which Rosenstein, according to McCabe, suggested secretly recording the president's conversations to gather evidence against him.

According to a memo McCabe wrote after that meeting, Rosenstein had also suggested trying to muster support among Cabinet members to invoke the 25th amendment to remove the president from office. Rosenstein's defenders have denied that he tried to support a constitutional move against Trump and say his comment about recording the president was not meant seriously and wasn't pursued.

Days later, there was another meeting, smaller and more tense.

McCabe was summoned to meet with Rosenstein and Mueller to talk about his possible recusal, these people said. While the accounts of current and former officials familiar with the confrontation differ in some key respects, they agree on the basic terms of the discussion - Rosenstein wanted McCabe out of the Russia probe, and McCabe felt differently, arguing that it was the deputy attorney general, not the head of the FBI, who should step away from the case.

One person said part of Rosenstein's argument was that, because McCabe had years earlier worn a T-shirt supporting his wife's campaign for a state Senate seat in Virginia, he could not be considered objective in a political probe. A photo of McCabe wearing the shirt had been posted on social media during the campaign, leading some to later question whether he had violated rules that limit government employees' advocacy for political candidates.

McCabe's wife had run unsuccessfully as a Democrat in 2015, with major financial support from a key ally of Hillary Clinton - an issue that prompted Trump to publicly and privately attack McCabe when he learned of it in late 2016.

Two people familiar with the meeting said McCabe brought with him to the meeting a document from FBI ethics officials that said McCabe had abided by ethics rules.

One person familiar with the confrontation denied that the T-shirt or his wife's campaign was part of Rosenstein's rationale, saying the proposed recusal had to do with McCabe's recent public and private statements expressing deep loyalty to Comey and unhappiness over his firing.

McCabe argued that Rosenstein's authoring of a memo - which criticized Comey's handling of the earlier investigation of Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server when she was secretary of state - meant that the deputy attorney general was the one who should step away from the case.

"Andy was angry," said one person familiar with the matter, adding that McCabe slapped the document down in front of Rosenstein at one point in the discussion.

Representatives for all three of the meeting's participants declined to comment for this story

https://www.lmtonline.com/news/article/Rosenstein-McCabe-feud-dates-to-standoff-in-front-13297588.php