Navy battling growing COVID-19 outbreak on hospital ship Mercy as 7 test positive

Naval health officials are fighting an outbreak of COVID-19 among the crew of the hospital ship Mercy where four more sailors tested positive for the virus over the weekend, bringing the total cases among the crew to seven, a Navy official told The San Diego Union-Tribune on Monday. The affected sailors, as well as those with whom they had close contact, have left the ship and are either isolated or quarantined off the ship, according to Cmdr. John Fage, a 3rd Fleet spokesman. “Seven Medical Treatment Facility crewmembers on board USNS Mercy have tested positive for COVID-19 and are currently isolated off the ship,” Fage said in an email. “The ship is following protocols and taking every precaution to ensure the health and safety of all crewmembers and patients on board.” The outbreak has not affected Mercy’s ability to receive patients, Fage said. The Mercy is pier-side at the Port of Los Angeles. Its first case of COVID-19 among its crew was reported by the Union-Tribune on Wednesday. On Friday, two more cases on board were confirmed by the Navy.

The Mercy left San Diego March 23 and arrived in Los Angeles four days later. Its mission is to relieve Los Angeles hospitals by treating patients who do not have COVID-19. All incoming patients are tested before coming aboard. The sailors came aboard after serving at various Navy medical installations, including Naval Medical Center San Diego. The hospital is one of two military medical facilities in San Diego County seeing service members who seek treatment and testing for COVID-19. The other is Naval Hospital Camp Pendleton. Because some medical staff rotated through the COVID-19 screening area prior to deploying on the Mercy, one sailor told the Union-Tribune, there is concern on board that the crew brought the virus with them when they left San Diego.

The Mercy has a medical crew of more than 1,000 personnel and a smaller civilian crew that maintains the vessel’s shipboard systems. The Navy has struggled to contain an outbreak of the virus on board another San Diego-based ship, the aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt. That ship has been sidelined in Guam since late March when several sailors tested positive for COVID-19. As of Monday, 585 sailors on the Theodore Roosevelt have tested positive. One died Monday of complications from the virus, the Navy said. He has not been identified.

https://americanmilitarynews.com/2020/04/navy-battling-growing-covid-19-outbreak-on-hospital-ship-mercy-as-7-test-positive/

FBI analyst fired for alleged possession of child pornography after watchdog investigation

The FBI has fired a supervisory intelligence analyst (SIA) after an internal watchdog investigation concluded that the official had knowingly possessed and viewed child pornography, the Justice Department Office of the Inspector General (OIG) announced Tuesday. The watchdog in a press release said it began its investigation after receiving information from the FBI that the analyst had revealed during a "routine FBI security inquiry" that the person had viewed and downloaded child pornography from the internet several years earlier. "Based on the SIA’s statements during the security interview, the OIG investigation concluded that the SIA had knowingly possessed child pornography, in violation of federal law and FBI policy," the press release reads.

The analyst, whose name and gender were omitted in the press release, denied ever receiving or sending child pornography, the watchdog said. As part of the investigation, both the analyst's personal and FBI-issued devices were forensically examined, during which pornographic images were discovered on the individual's personal devices, according to the release. These images were then sent to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, which was among one of the steps the inspector general took to establish whether such images represented child pornography.

The watchdog office, which is led by Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz, did not determine that any of the images were "evidence of child pornography" but the analyst's comments during their security review led them to conclude the person had been in possession of such content, the release says. As the investigation was underway, the FBI fired the analyst and the DOJ has declined to prosecute the official. "The SIA was summarily dismissed by the FBI while the OIG investigation was pending," the release says. "Prosecution of the SIA was declined. The OIG has completed its investigation and provided its report to the FBI," it continues.

https://thehill.com/policy/national-security/492695-fbi-analyst-fired-for-alleged-possession-of-child-pornography-after

https://oig.justice.gov/reports/2020/f200414.pdf

Senator Richard Burr Sold D.C. Townhouse to Donor at a Rich Price

In a private transaction, Richard Burr, Republican of North Carolina, sold the townhouse to lobbyists who had business before his committees.

The chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Richard Burr, has come under fire in recent weeks for unloading stock holdings right before the market crashed on fears of coronavirus and for a timely sale of shares in an obscure Dutch fertilizer company. Now the North Carolina Republican’s 2017 sale of his Washington, D.C., home to a group led by a donor and powerful lobbyist who had business before Burr’s committee is raising additional ethical questions.

Burr sold the small townhouse, in the Capitol Hill neighborhood, for what, by some estimates, was an above market price — $900,000 — to a team led by lobbyist John Green. That is tens of thousands of dollars above some estimates of the property’s value by tax assessors, a real estate website and a local real estate agent. The sale was done off-market, without the home being listed for sale publicly. Green is a longtime donor to Burr’s political campaigns and has co-hosted at least one fundraiser for him. In 2017, the year of the sale, Green lobbied on behalf of a stream of clients with business before Burr’s committees. Ethics experts are generally troubled when politicians enter into business transactions with donors or lobbyists with matters before them. The legality of this sale hinges on whether the home was purchased for fair market value. If it was purchased for more than that, it would be considered a gift. Gifts of significant value from lobbyists are generally banned by Senate ethics rules, and those that aren’t are typically required to be publicly disclosed. Neither Burr nor Green disclosed any such gifts. Gifts that are intended to influence official actions are illegal. “This appears to be extremely problematic,” said Kedric Payne, general counsel for the Campaign Legal Center and former deputy chief counsel of the Office of Congressional Ethics. Other ethics experts agreed. “This has every appearance of being a violation of the gift ban,” said Craig Holman, a lobbyist for the watchdog group Public Citizen. “The gift ban is one of the most basic legal frameworks for preventing corruption. Lobbyist gifts to lawmakers is akin to a bribe.”

Holman, however, said proving such transactions went for above market value is difficult. He compared the scenario to former EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt renting a Capitol Hill condo for a discounted rate from the wife of a lobbyist who sought to influence the agency’s decisions. EPA officials initially defended the rent as market rate, and the case did not result in any sanction or prosecution against Pruitt.

In a statement, a Burr spokesperson said the price was the fair market value, “directly in line with comparable properties recently sold in the area.” “The sale was finalized in February 2017 after a months-long process, which included an independent appraisal confirming the building’s market value and legal review of the title and contract,” the spokesperson said. “The Senate Ethics Committee was notified before the sale and the Committee’s guidance was followed on all relevant public financial disclosures.” The ethics committee is not known for its aggressive scrutiny of members. “The Senate Ethics Committee is an insider’s club — it is members overseeing each other,” Holman said. “The committee is more widely known for providing cover to colleagues, and it would appear that is what happened in this case.” In a short statement, Green said, “I have not lobbied the Senator or worked on an issue with his office personally since 2016.”

https://www.propublica.org/article/senator-richard-burr-sold-d-c-townhouse-to-donor-at-a-rich-price

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