GOP, Dem senators will try again to protect Robert Mueller from being fired

A bipartisan group of senators this week will renew its effort to protect special counsel Robert Mueller from being fired by President Trump. Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.; Chris Coons, D-Del.; Thom Tillis, R-N.C.; and Cory Booker, D-N.J., will soon reintroduce the Special Counsel Independence and Integrity Act, which was passed out of the Senate Judiciary Committee last April. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has said the legislation is unnecessary and never brought it to the floor for a full vote, letting it expire at the end of the last Congress. But McConnell may face new pressure to bring the legislation to the floor this year since Democrats control the House and House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., introduced a companion bill in the House last week.

Graham, an ally of Trump, said in a statement that the legislation will “serve the country well.” “I have every confidence Mr. Mueller will be allowed to finish the job. However, there needs to be institutional protections for special counsels both now and in the future,” Graham said.

Trump has kept up his criticism of Mueller and his investigation into Russian election interference, an inquiry he took over in May 2017. Tillis has also said he doesn’t believe that Trump will fire Mueller, but he said the bill would still be useful. "I still believe that is true," Tillis said in the statement. "However, I also believe this bipartisan legislation is good government policy with enduring value across the current and future administrations."

The bill holds that Mueller can only be fired for good cause by a Senate-confirmed Justice Department official, and it would create a 10-day review process that would let Mueller seek expedited judicial review if Trump tries to get rid of him. The bill would block a decision to fire Mueller if that move were found to be in violation of the good-cause condition. “This is a time when Republicans and Democrats need to stand up and protect the rule of law in this country,” Coons said in a statement.

There has been widespread speculation that Mueller is winding down his investigation and that his final report will be released soon. However, last week, the grand jury that Mueller uses in Washington was extended by a federal judge for up to six months. In December, Trump said his lawyers are preparing a “major counter report” in response to Mueller’s expected findings. “We will be doing a major Counter Report to the Mueller Report,” Trump said on Twitter. “This should never again be allowed to happen to a future President of the United States!”

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/gop-dem-senators-will-try-again-to-protect-robert-mueller-from-being-fired

Exclusive: New documents link Huawei to suspected front companies in Iran, Syria

LONDON/HONG KONG (Reuters) - The U.S. case against the chief financial officer of China’s Huawei Technologies, who was arrested in Canada last month, centers on the company’s suspected ties to two obscure companies. One is a telecom equipment seller that operated in Tehran; the other is that firm’s owner, a holding company registered in Mauritius. U.S. authorities allege CFO Meng Wanzhou deceived international banks into clearing transactions with Iran by claiming the two companies were independent of Huawei, when in fact Huawei controlled them. Huawei has maintained the two are independent: equipment seller Skycom Tech Co Ltd and shell company Canicula Holdings Ltd. But corporate filings and other documents found by Reuters in Iran and Syria show that Huawei, the world’s largest supplier of telecommunications network equipment, is more closely linked to both firms than previously known.

The documents reveal that a high-level Huawei executive appears to have been appointed Skycom’s Iran manager. They also show that at least three Chinese-named individuals had signing rights for both Huawei and Skycom bank accounts in Iran. Reuters also discovered that a Middle Eastern lawyer said Huawei conducted operations in Syria through Canicula. The previously unreported ties between Huawei and the two companies could bear on the U.S. case against Meng, who is the daughter of Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei, by further undermining Huawei’s claims that Skycom was merely an arms-length business partner.

Huawei, U.S. authorities assert, retained control of Skycom, using it to sell telecom equipment to Iran and move money out via the international banking system. As a result of the deception, U.S. authorities say, banks unwittingly cleared hundreds of millions of dollars of transactions that potentially violated economic sanctions Washington had in place at the time against doing business with Iran. Meng did not respond to a request for comment by Reuters, and Huawei declined to answer questions for this story. Canicula’s offices could not be reached. A Justice Department spokesman in Washington declined to comment.

Meng was released on C$10 million ($7.5 million) bail on Dec. 11 and remains in Vancouver while Washington tries to extradite her. In the United States, Meng would face charges in connection with an alleged conspiracy to defraud multiple financial institutions, with a maximum sentence of 30 years for each charge. The exact charges have not been made public. Huawei said last month it has been given little information about the U.S. allegations “and is not aware of any wrongdoing by Ms. Meng.” The company has described its relationship with Skycom as “a normal business partnership.” It has said it has fully complied with all laws and regulations and required Skycom to do the same. Meng’s arrest on a U.S. warrant has caused an uproar in China. It comes at a time of growing trade and military tensions between Washington and Beijing, and amid worries by U.S. intelligence that Huawei’s telecommunications equipment could contain “backdoors” for Chinese espionage. The firm has repeatedly denied such claims. Nevertheless, Australia and New Zealand recently banned Huawei from building their next generation of mobile phone networks, and British authorities have also expressed concerns.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-huawei-iran-exclusive/exclusive-new-documents-link-huawei-to-suspected-front-companies-in-iran-syria-idUSKCN1P21MH

U.S. says it sanctions Venezuelans in currency scheme

WASHINGTON/CARACAS (Reuters) - The United States imposed sanctions on Tuesday that target a Venezuelan currency exchange network scheme that siphoned billions of dollars to corrupt insiders of the Venezuelan government, the U.S. Treasury Department said.

Seven individuals involved include a former Venezuelan treasurer, Claudia Diaz, and television mogul Raul Antonio Gorrin, who bribed the Venezuelan Treasury in order to conduct illegal foreign exchange operations, according to the U.S. Treasury. “Venezuelan regime insiders have plundered billions of dollars from Venezuela while the Venezuelan people suffer. Treasury is targeting this currency exchange network which was another illicit scheme that the Venezuelan regime had long used to steal from its people,” Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin said in a statement. The U.S. Treasury said the former Venezuelan officials and other individuals used favorable foreign exchange transactions through brokerage firms controlled by Gorrin and among very few that were approved by the South American country’s treasury. The individuals concealed their profits in U.S. and European bank accounts and investments, it said. Venezuela’s Information Ministry did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

The sanctions are Washington’s latest move against the government of President Nicolas Maduro, which is widely criticized for economic collapse and undermining democracy. The United States imposed sanctions on Maduro’s wife in September as President Donald Trump urged members of the United Nations to support a “restoration of democracy” in the once-booming country, a member of OPEC. The sanctions imposed on Tuesday apply to people involved in the corrupt system within Venezuela’s treasury since 2008, the U.S. Treasury said.

The country’s treasurer before Diaz, Alejandro Andrade, was sentenced by a U.S. District Court in Florida in November to 10 years in prison for accepting more than $1 billion in bribes as part of the scheme. Andrade, who ran the treasury for four years under late socialist leader Hugo Chavez, received properties, platinum and gold Rolex watches and Mercedes Benz vehicles thanks to the scheme, according to documents from the Southern District of Florida court. He was helped by Gorrin, owner of television station Globovision, who has been charged with paying bribes to Andrade and others as well as helping to launder the payments, according to the documents unsealed in November.

The cases are part of a broad effort by U.S. federal prosecutors to crack down on the use of the U.S. financial system to launder proceeds from corruption in the crisis-stricken country that is suffering from hyperinflation. The U.S. Treasury statement cited 23 groups as being part of the scheme, including Globovision Tele in Caracas and Miami, Magus Holdings in Miami, Tindaya Properties in New York, Planet 2 Reaching Inc and Posh 8 Dynamic Inc, both of Delaware. Maduro has said little about criminal proceedings against former Venezuelan officials, but says the United States is seeking to undermine his government through financial sanctions. He is due to be inaugurated for his second term on Thursday.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-venezuela-sanctions/u-s-says-it-sanctions-venezuelans-in-currency-scheme-idUSKCN1P21LU?il=0